The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-04-11

Jeannette HoplnSOn Murphy' HI SaSH
 sonville Times-Union, December
 4, '04.
 By loving and kind treatment the majority of worthy old slaves were devoted to their good masters, and no power on earth could wean them away from their masters side.
 This being true, 1t would seem tnat We of the present generation have not been wise in allowing the young ne groes of today to become so utterly estranged from us. No one who knows the conditions at the South doubts the existence of the sad alienation. IT we Southerners are at all the innerltors of the wisdom and the graces Of our forefathers, we will set about trying to find the real cause of this lamentaple estrangement, and, having once founo it, lose no time in applying the quich- est and most soothing remedy.
 After the declaration of negro in- dependence let us see what atlleuue the South assumed toward the emanci- pated negro children.
 Did she continue to give to them the necessary personal interestY Did she continue the religious and industriai training which she had so persevering- ly given to their parents and their grandparents? In short, did. she. so
 
 her duties toward them?
 When, she saw that there were for eien influences at work, which were Succeeding in alienating the love Of the entire young race from their old and vouns masters, did she make any ef- fort to love her enemies? Did she go out of her way to make the lives or the Northern missionaries happy? Dlo she, by courtesy and hospitality seek
 k0 la xyfn thus prevent them from putting false notions into the heads of the young negroes?
 No. it would seem that she did not take one single loving step to meet them even half way in their desire to uplift the negroes, but she very rool- ishly let the prejudical North come In with it's unkind, unjust suggestions and sentimental sympathy, and take the initiative. Indeed, she allowed the North to take virtually their en- tire training out of her rightful hands, while she looked on and beautifully held a1oof!
 No matter how poor he was, 1t never theless lay in the power of every true Southerner to win the love of every Northerner who came South to teach the negro and make him and her ever so sorry that they whipped so delight full and courteous a people.
 Why could not our fathers see that these same children, at this Juncture' needed the precious Bible more than their mothers and fathers had. and that they needed the watchful care of the South then, if ever, to counteract the cruel hatred of those unconverted Oo the Southern views) Northern leaders?
 When they saw that tn eblack child was being educated along wrong lines, could they not have poured in the good till they eliminated the bad? Could they not have been wise enough to put their pride in their pockets and have returned to their personal teaching or the blacks?
 If they were compelled to see the negro child receive an education, and were not wise enough to love their Northern enemies to the point of set- ting themselves to work to win them and to reconstruct them, why then could they not have firmly said to Nogthern teachers:
 You have come down here to re- prove us and to teach our negroes. we know that your instructions will be their ruin. If any teaching must be done we much prefer to do 1t ourselves, In the proper way. We are too wary ana too proud to teach them with you DyS Dul II yOu "AAA OAAAJ w so kind as to go home and watch us from a safe distance we will surprise you by the way in which we will give them all the education that Is good for them, and if we find that they are capable of higher culture, we will see that they obtain it. We have taught hundreds of them to read and write and some of them Greek and Latin. If you will only stay up North, where there will not be so much danger or your putting pernicious ideas into the minds of our negroes, we shall build schools as fast as we can and educate them judiclously. We do not need any outside help, for though our money and hope are all gone, still we have left to us our pride, our honor, our learn- ing and our love for our own negroes, and with this equipment we shall be able to educate them. With very poor material to work upon, you must ack- nowledge that we have turned out in these men and women good artisans, perfectly trainad domestics and a truly religious people,"
 The damage Is done and there Is nothing to be gained now by bewail- ing our neglected opportunities.
 What we Southerners must do now, and quickly, is to win the love Of every one of these young negroes. We must see to it that the colored children coming on now find in>us the embodi- ment of all that Is good and protecting. We must from now on own their hearts as our parents did those of their faith full slave-parents. With the help of the remaining old slaves we can con- vince these young ones that our fath- CTS and mothers were their best friends and not their enemies.
 The South sees so many inherent ten dencies which the religious training of slavery days had almost eliminated ob- taining the ascendency in the negro