The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1901-12-13

A recent communication in the New
York Evening Post we found unusually
pleasant reading from that section. 1t
is by a we'll known northern man. Mr..
George r. Stetson. 1t is calm, convinc-
ing, well selected as 10 proof and inn
pressive in it's fertility Of illustration.
1t is headed Racial Prejudice in New
England and Throughout the North"
Appearing in a great newspaper with
such bearings towards the negro it
rather surprised us, and especially so
when we saw it was the contribution of
a northern born writer. Mr.. Stetson
overwhelmns with his citations from
distinguished authors Harriet Marti-
neau, one of the greatest intellectual:
women of the nineteenth century, and
English; De Toqueville, the eminent
French author who wrote in the ~forties,
his great work On this country; Sir
Charles Lyell, the very distinguished
English geologist, and others. The en-
tire paper is important. The proof
that the north, from 1882, and up 10 now,
has had great prejudice against the
negro race is beyond dispute. His cita-
lions begin with 1882, when an abolition
paper in Boston, called the Liberator,
said that the dark skin was denied
civil, social, and educational equality
everywhere in the north, and that Bos-
ton forbade any merchant or reputable
mechanic to take a colored clerk or
apprentice In 1885, says Harriet Mar
tineau. the public opinion Of Boston
was opposed to The abolition Of sfav-
cry" Mr.. SteLsen states that houses
a been sacked-travellers lyncned in
the market-places as we'll as in the
Even the Society Of Friends, who gave
Even the Society of Friends, who gave
the first impulse Of encouragement to
the abolition movement in Massachu-
sets, separated the races in their
schools" That was about 1924. In
1886, the anti-siavery convention met in
Taunton, Mass. and among other
things it a that 1.-THE prejudice at the
north. against our colored brethren is
deep-seated and wicked" AT Canaan
happy Canaan"-in New Hampshire a
colored school was broken UP by indig-
nank citizens In Connecticut 1t was a
penal offence to instruct negroes not
citizens of the state or to "haFbor"
such. Mr.. Saetson writes r~. -
AS late in the century as 1s4S sepa-
rate schools for white ard BLACK were
maintained in Boston. There are many
now living who can distinctly remember
tina in 1910: and for some years after,
Massachusetts, had her negro pews,"
her negro cars" and her negro
stages"
In 1912. there were three railroads
running in Massachusetts, hat made
| odious distinctions because of color"
A negro was ever elected from d Jim
| Grow car after paying the fare. Charles
MacKay, correspondent Of the London
News, wrote in 1858, that the north will
not tolerate the negro" and refuses etc
tolerate the social equality Of the n e
gro" So did England and so do the
north and Great Britain refuse to this
day. There are other examples gfver
just before the great war that prove
all that has been said. Mr.. Stetson
turning to the New England churche.
says the pew" was strongly in evi
dence. n a negro in any white church
was resented as an offence and {
breach of good ceremonies" The ne
groes were put in the galleries. Mr.
Stetson says that both d Toquevill
and Sir Charles Lyell comment on tn
prejudices against h negro existing a
the north. Thus. though the negro
free says De T~oquevflle. in speaking