Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1902-04-01
PLANTATION NEGROES.

ford Laws has presented an interest,"
| ing report of negro life on the south
ern Louisiana plantations. The plan
| tations and factories selected as rep
resentative of southern life among the
| rural negroes are Cinclare central
factory at West Baton Rouge parish,
five miles below Baton Rouge, and the
Calument plantation on the Bayou
| Teche.
Each of the negroes on these planta-
tons was questioned and from the re-
plies the statistics in the report were
compiled. A more hopeless condition
than this official report presents could
scarcely be conceived. Less than 90
per cent of those who reported that
/ thew were married had ever been legal
" married. Even when they are
legally married." says the report, they
soon forget their VOWS and, ii the I'M
pulse strikes them, they separate and
live with someone more to their Tx
: ing. Numerous cases are seen or Two
persons legally married and yet living
with a different person, and reporting
as being married to the second A le-
gal divorce is practically unknown
among plantation negroes"
The statistics show the literates and
: illiterates by age periods. Those who
$ are classified as being able to read
and write "a little" it is explained, are
= the negroes "who can read well known
Z signs. advertisements, ETC., and can
u write their own names.
An altogether surprising feature OF
the investigation regarding the Hit
/ eracy of the negroes is that 1T is on
the increase. 49, =,
eff, as in the case OF Farmvllle.
= says the report, "the population is oil
= vided into five classes according to
;, the circumstances under winch tnes
we're reared instead of decreasing, the
e onnosite result is shown, an increase
3 of illiteracy from war times (4O to 81
g years), when it was 615 per cent,
e through the next decade where 1T was
y CTS per cent to the present youth
8 whose rate is 69.3 per cent"
y The negroes both at Calumet and
!, Cinclare still live in the quarters" as
II in the times of slavery. THE econ
~ omic family changes continually, both
ie by the shifting of the negroes OF thell
~ own accord and also by the overseers
- who assign the negroes to the homes
"A Even the size of the real family viii
~ apply only to the time that the repor
was taken, an account of the constant
swapping of women and children
=. among the men. The extent to which
~ this is carried on by the plantation
A. negroes is not realized anywhere bu
on the spot. 1t is safe to say that b.
: far a large majority of them are mar
ried (mated) several times in thei
lifetime, and of those marriages Whicl
are contracted early in life few las
more than TWO years. FROM tms !
will be seen how difficult it is to judg
even Dy the real family, for sometime
they take their children by previou
marriage with them and sometime
they do not.
Gas a rule the negroes never say
any money. They do not know wha
economy is and will buy anything tina
anyone will sell them on credit The
never think of the morrow and wi
spend their money foolishly. The me
buy liquor and delicacies and the WI
- men gay garments and trinkets."
But the negroes, according to M
Laws, are great churchgoers. Th
| church, he says, is much more than
4 religious organization. 1t is the Chit
organ of social and intellectual int
course.
In concluding his report, Mr.. Law
says: CATER what has been said,
will be seen in what terrible state tt
plantation negroes are and what
problem they present for this count1
to deal with, for the conditions ha,
improved little, if any, since freedo
was given them. The light hearte
hopefulness or the absence of ca
L which so agreeably characterized tt
race couple of generations ago seen
to be disappearing. The struggle fl
existence in the midst Of economical
competitive and socially antagonist
surroundings has had it's saddening
perhaps it's hardening-effect upt
these people The younger gener
lions are not on as good terms wi
| the whites as their elders, and tn
know it and show it, They very mu
dislike the gang system of labor al
roam all over the country seeking j
work, when they can work as tn
please.
"The negro character, aside frc
purely racial traits, differs between '
rious individuals as widely, proportio
ed to intellectual and moral capaci
as among the whites. Every extrer