The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1906-12-12
EDUCATION OF THE NEGRO
THE NEW YORK sun MAKES AN
ADMISSION.
Says the Negro Slave Had More
Freedom Than the Negro
of Today Has.
From the New York Sun.


1t will perhaps astonish great
many complacent and unsuspecting
persons in this part of the country to
hear it said that very considerable
number, if not a majority, of the old
time great southern slave holders
were heartily opposed to "the insti-
tuition" Such is the truth, neverthe-
less, as every one familiar with the
inner history of that section knows
full well. There is no room for ar
gument. When we enter the domain
of imperishable fact we shake from
our heels the dust of controversy.
But a still more novel and disturb
ing truth is that long before the civil
war certain Louisiana land owners
of the magnificent, patriarchal type
conceived a plan for educating
their slaves so wise, so enlightened
and, as it proved, so substantially
beneficient that modern paternal-
ism could advantageously bark back
to it at least in some particular re-
spects
To put it briefly, we may say that
long before Uncle Toms Cabin" saw
the light, and while as yet the great
slave holding magnates of the south
regarded slavery as an establishment
beyond the reach of social agitation
or political vicissitude, wise and
kindly members of the ruling class
had conceived and set in operation
system whereby slavery could be
robbed of all it's most repulsive as
poets and transformed into an agen-
cy of exaltation. They were not doc
trinaires, these we'll meaning men,
but they loved their slaves and they
felt it their duty, as it already was
their earnest wish, to lift them out
of the mire of degradation and sub
lection, if such a thing were posi-
BILE Thus it came about that schools
were established on hundreds of
plantations; nothing like our modern
schools, of course, but just plain,
simple agencies of experiment and
observation. The idea was to en-
courage and disclose any special tai
ent and proclivity in the individual.
The young were subjected to be-
Inevolent and enlightened inquisitiOn.
There was no cut and dried formula
of appraisement. The born artisan
was not drilled to death in botany
or ethics; the appointed cooper, ma
son or blacksmith was not required
to qualify as pianist or mathe-
matician Special gifts and tenden-
cies were ascertained, developed, per-
fected. And so it followed that
thousands of slaves became brick
layers, carpenters, blacksmiths, tail
ors, engineers, sugar boilers, arti-
sans of every kind, even musicians,
and were permitted to pursue their
vocations in perfect freedom, mere
ly paying to their masters a small
percentage on the assessed value Of
the individual In all respects they
were at liberty. They lived where
they pleased, acquired their own
properties, and in all these respects
were protected by the law 1t is
fact that the negro who dwelt I'M
der this d1SpenSatlon, SeVenty-uVe
years ago, enjoyed more actual free
dom and received more substantial
consideration than do his descend
ants of today, who strut about, in
tlated and misled by the worthless
education" of the latter-day public
schools.
A detailed record of the fruits of
this system would astound the phi
lanthropists of the present genera
ton. 1t is a fact, Notwithstanding
that the slave holders of the last
century did more to uplift and help
the negro than all the dOctrinaires
and societies and governments of our
day are doing, or are likely to do;
! and that, considering the results in
view, is a very inadequate an pallid
statement of the case.