The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1905-02-24
The Passing Of a Negro TYPE.

The Passing of "a Negro Type.
Thomas Nelson Page contributes an
article in Scrlbners Magazine on the
old time negro. 1t is an interesting
study of n social institution the like of
which the world will doubtless never
again witness. The African slave and
his master lived on terms of peculiar
intimacy and interdependence.
On the great majority of the planta-
tons the negroes were members Of the
"family" OF their owner. They were
more like the clansmen of Il feudal
chief than like serfs. No servants or
retainers of any race, says Mr.. Page,
ever identified themselves more fully
with their masters. This relation be.
gan in the infancy of both master and
servant, grew with their growth and
continued through life. In fact, the
ties of family pride were such that it
was often remarked that the affection
of the slaves was stronger toward their
masters than toward their own off
spring.
On the great plantations, where the
slaves numbered hundreds, such abuses
as spring from absenteeism were Of
ten seen. but the great lords were few
compared with the total white popula-
tion of the south. The bulk OF the
slaveholdlng class was made up OF
those who owned from one to twenty
FIVE colored servants. while nine-tenths
of the whites owned no slaves ut all.
1t was on the small plantations that
the typical southern negro was found.
Mr.. Page says:
Tho nanny was perhaps the most i'm
nortant Of the servants as she was also
| the closest intimate Of the family. she
| was. indeed. an actual member of the
household She was usually selected In
| her youth to be the companion Of the
children by reason Of her being the child
! of sornc favored servent and as such
: likely to possess sense. amiability judg-
ment and the qualities which have prom
Use OF character and efficiency. So she
grew up in intercourse with the girls oil
the family, and when she married she
became in turn the nurse and assistant
to the NANNY, and then the NANNY OF
her young mistress children, and, after,
Of her children's children.
! Next to the nanny In point OF dignity
was, of right, the butler. lie had much
the same position that Is held In EngllSh
houses. He was a person in authority,
and he Looked that every inch. He had
his IDEAS and they usually prevailed.
He was the governor Of the young chill
dren and the mentor of the young men
end their counselor even after they had
grown up.
1 have known buffers to take upon
themselves the responsibility of saying
what young gentlemen should be admit
ted and to whom the ladies should be de-
MED In fact. every wise young man
used to be at pains to make friends with
the old servants, for they were q sa-
/ gacious class, and their influence in the
household was not inconsiderable, They
had an intutive knowledge which
amounted to an instinct for "winnowlng
the grain from the chaff," and they knew
a "gent'man'' at sight Their acute and
| caustc comments have wrecked the
chances of many an aspiring sutton,
1t is to the eternal credit at once Of
the whites and the negroes, says Mr..
Page, that during four years of civil
war, when the white men of the south
were absent in the field, they could in
trust their wives, their children, all
that they possessed to the guardian
ship and care of their slaves with per-
feet confidence in their fidelity