The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-06-09
THE NEW SLAVERY"
A Card in New York Paper From
 an Alabama Postmsster


 The following card appeared in The NeW Iork Evening Post some days ago, oyer the signature of J. c. Manning of Alexander City:
 To the Editor of The Evening Post:
 Slr-There is now, and has been for years, system of practical peonage in the black belt counties of Alabama. but 1t has been only in recent years that the hearts of men In the mountain counties of Alabama have come to be hardened to depriving men of liberty and justice through the forms of law
 A Montgomery correspondent to Mem phls newspaper recently told of the case or Joe Patterson, colored who became the prey of the authorities at Goodwater, Coosa County. Ala. an adjoining county to the one in which lives the writer of this article. The Montgomery correspondent says:
 Patterson borrowed s1 on Saturday. promising to pay It the following Tues day mornig. PatterscS did not get to towr at the appointed time, when, 1t Is said he was arrested and carried before guilty of obtaining money under false pretences without giving the negro an Op- portunity of getting witnesses or a law yer A small fine was assessed The negro had no money, nor was he given an opportunity to get any with which to pay the fine and costs. He was at once sold to O man named Hardy for $25. who work ed the negro for about one year, when Hardy sold the negro to Pace for $40 1t is claimed.
 ''The negro worked a while for Pace, and in trying to escape cut a boat loose from its moorings. Upon his recapture he was tried and given six months more for this offence The negro then entered pay a doctors bill. Tn short for the $1 originally borrowed the negro would not have gotten out until the year 1906. The negro was originally arrested in Coosa County, and kidnapped into TallApoosa County. where he was sold. according to the report"
 The above recital by Democratic cor respondent of a Democratic newspaper Is no clap trap" It Is not political buncombe.' There are few men of the bama who do not know the depravity to which this bourbon regime, the progeny of the slave-holding Democracy has come. It is today under the law In Alabama crime for a farm laborer (black) to quit his employer. He may be denied his pay, he may be half fed, he may be beaten with a buggy trace. put if he fails to keep his contract" then he Is crimi- nal There are black belt planters who do starve mistreat abuse, and beat men, and force them to break their contract in order to get them araigned before some demon in white skin. but with heart as blac% as he'll itself; and another year of servitude is attached by chain more galling than that of Chattel slavery to the ankle of the black man. The case of Patterson Is only one in thou sand; yes, in ten thousand. It has conn to light as one of the several outrages recently sprung in Goodwater only be- cause COosl County has not vet come to be accustomed to the ways of the black belt. The practice of peonage only thing of recent years in CoOsa County.
 The writer of this article Is familiar with the ruling spirit. the Mayor of this town of Goodwater, and this Mayor would be compimented In his own estimation no higher than to have it written that any negro Is no more worthy of human sym pathy or political consideration than is any mule. and of less kind Urea tment than a good dog. The brother of this Mayor is a registrar and party leader in the adjoining county of Clay, and his sen timants as to right and justice may be summed up by his assertion that were Booker T. Washington a resident of Clay County he could not register or vote.
 Here is given a snapshot at the stand lrd of political morals in this State to which Northern 'doughtaces" would vominit the destinies and liberties of men. Here Is the trouth about he South that some men of the North would "Iet alone" Here is inc South that should be permitted to adopt It's own course in settling the race nroblem! God forbid that men shall So forget God and humanity in these United States in this land of liberty, as to des- cend to acuuiescence in such course of infamy and shame.
 Alowondar Citv Ala May 26