The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-04-14
RELATIONS OF WHITES AND BLACKS
Today There is Practically no Socialslnter-
course Between the Two Races,
DR.. WINSION'S PICTURE Of SLAVE DAYS

ters but to show their personal interest
in and regard for the negroes themselves,
not as slaves, nor workers, but as in
diyiduals, as human beings, and some
times as dear friends. In short, a social
visit was made; not upon terms of social
equality, but still social visit, during
which the news of the plantation or neigh
borhood and occasionally of the larger
world was exchanged and discussed. This
custom existed to some extent even on
large plantations where the slaves were
more isolated and herded together in lar
ger numbers. On small farms where tho
races were about equal numerically, and
in all households there was constant and
very familiar contact between white and
black. The white women in Southern
households usually aided and directed the
work of the negroes. The mistress seWed
or cut garments in the same room with
the slave seamstresses. The lady's maid
slept upon a couch or pallet in her lady's
chamber, or the one adjoining. The
cooks, dining room servants, nurses,
laundresses coachmen, house boys, gar
deners, shoe makers, carpenters, black
smiths and mechanics generally were in
daily enjoyment of a very considerable
degree of social intercourse with the
white race They entered into the ira
ditions and spirit of the family to which
they belonged, defended it's name and its
honor, accepted in rude way its IDEAS
| of courtesy, morality and religion, ana
| thus became to a considerable degree in
heritors of the civilization of the white
race. 1t was this semi-social intercourse
| between the two races, without any ap-
proach to social equality, this daily and
| 4
| est. friendship and affection, added to the
| industrial training of slavery that trans
formed the negro so quickly from a saw
| age to a civilized man.
| The one great evil connected with race
| familiarity the evil of licentiousness and
| miscegenation, while degrading to the
/ men of the white race and constant
| source Of sorrow and anguish to the wo-
/ men of that race, was not entirely harm
/ full to the negro. Nearly all the leaders
| of the negro race both during slavery
! and since, have been mulatoes: and the
! two really great men credited to the ne
| gro race in the United States have been
| the sons of white fathers, and strongly
! marked by the mental and moral quail
ties of the white race. The mulatto is
| quicker. and brighter, and more easily
/ refined than the negro. There is gem
| eral opinion among Southern people that
| he is inferior morally, but | believe that
his only inferiority is physical and vital
1t cannot be denied that the negro race
has been very greatly elevated by its
| mulatto members. Indeed, If you strike
from its records all that mulattoes have
said and done, little would be left. Where
ever work requiring refinement, extra in
teliigence and executive ability is per-
formed, you will find it usually directed
by mulattoes.
| But the social intercourse between the
races in the South, which was so help
| full to the blacks, has now practically
| ceased The children of this generation
no longer play and frolic together, white
ladies no longer visit negro cabins. The
| familiar salutation of Uncle or
"Auntie" is no longer heard The lady S
| maid sleeps no more by the bedside OF
her mistress. The Southern woman with
her helpless little children in solitary
farm house no longer sleeps secure in the
absence of her husband with doors un-
locked but safely guarded by black men
whose lives would be freely given in her
defense But now, when knock is heard
at the door she shudders with nameless
horror The black brute is lurking in the
dark. a monstrous beast, craZed with lust
His ferocity is almost demoniacal. A mad
bull or a tiger could scarcely be more
brutal A whole community is now fren-
Zied with horror, with blind and furious
rage for vengeance. A stake is driven
the wretched brute, covered with oil
bruised and gashed beaten and hacked
and manned amid the jeers and shouts
and curses, the tears of anger and o
ioy. the prayers and the maledictions o
thousands of civilized people in the sigh
of school houses, court houses an'
churches is burned to death. Since th'
abolition of slavery and the growing VI
, of a new generation Of negroes, crimes
. that are too hideous to describe hav'
) been committed every month, every week
frequently every day against the help
less women and children of the whit
race. crimes that were unknown in slay
ery. And in turn, cruelties have beel
inflicted upon negroes by whole communl
!, ties of whites, which, If attempted durin
:. slavery, would have been prevented a
any sacrifice. ! dc not hesitate to sa
! that more horrible crimes have been com
mitted by the generation Of negroes tha
; has grown up in the South since SLAYER
than by the six preceding generation
in slavery And also that the Wors
|. | crueltieS or slavery ali Conpllicu lol y"
! : centuries were not equal to the savag
: barbarities inflicted in retaliation upo
y the negroes by the whites during tn
!, last twenty years. This condition {
things is too horrible to last. 1t mus
grow better: or else grow worse, an
: by its own fury destroy itself.
4 Between the older generations in tn
O South there is still warm aHection. Wher
q ever | visit my old home, all the negFoe
@ that are able, come to see me, man
: travelling considerable distances. tn
10 last time | was there my nurse and play
% mate, a woman of fifty years, about 81
IS years my elder, threw her arms aroun
) me and wcpt like child, completed
% overcome with emotion. She was hoE
se est. virtuous, Industrious, intelligent
t. fectionate and faithful She had bee