The Tupelo journal., 1906-12-07
PEN.PICTURES OF THE OLDEN TIME
Just what was heaped upon
BY COT w L. CLAYTON.

| u 49,
Just what was heaped upon a
proud and noble people here in
the South after the war, none
will ever know after this gener-
alton passes off the stage of ac-
| ton. We cannot write so sue
ceeding generations can appreci-
ate what we endured. The truth
lis that the South was settled by
the chevaliers of England and
their descendants, a proud and
loyal people. In addition to this,
they raised up what their ene-
mics called a slave aristocracy,
but which we thought of as ag-
ricultural kings, who lived on
their plantations, surrounded by
their slaves, managed generally
by overseers, and dispensed hos
pitality like princes. Then we
had the smaller shareholders,
nestled here and there amid these
greater slave owners, and hop
ing to be larger owners of both
slaves and land in the future,
the most of those who did not
own slaves hoped to do so some
time in the future. There were
really few of them of the rent
ing class who aspired to no bet
ter situation in the financial
world. The master owned his
slaves, and when he said to one,
go" he went, and when he
said to another, do this" he did
it. No questions were asked, but
unquestioning obedience was the
rule of the master. Not only
this, but even those who did not
own slaves, felt no hesitancy in
commanding them when about
them as if they did own them.
But when the reconstruction
measures were enforced, all
these ex-slaves were allowed to
vote and hold Office, while all the
whites who had held any Office,
civil or military, in the United
States, or in the different states,
were disfranchised. AS a gener-
al thing it was the custom to ell
evate to Office our most intelli-
gent and accomplished men; and
so take the number who had held
office, from the old men of eighty
and the young men of twenty
one and all the way between, and
there was a mighty host of our
best men who could neither vote
nor hold office under these infa-
nous measures. Consequently,
the negroes, just from the plow
and the hoe, and having no learn
ing, and in most instances no in
telligence, took the. Offices and
went to the capitals, to make
laws for us. If a man is in bond
age and has no desire for free
dom and liberty of action and no
aspirations for higher and loftier
things, he may not suffer much
from his condition, and especial
ly when he has a kind and con-
siderate master. But a proud,
noble and intelligent people, like
those of the South, to be subjec-
ted to such treatment as We re-
ceived just after the war, was
enough to cause more suffering
and did cause more suffering
than our slaves ever endured,
mental suffering being so much
worse than bodily suffering.
l myself was at Jackson, Miss,
when the legislature was in ses-
sion during the seventies, and
while there were not as many
negroes then in the legislature as
there had been, they very large
ly predominated. The Legisla-
tive Hall looked like great dark
cloud with a small white rift at
the edge of it. You know | sug-
gested some time back that it
was quiet probable that the ne,
groes, just after the war, and
before they were actually told
by their owners that they might
go free, had many whispered
talks as to what the war would
bring to them, being still under
fear of their old owners.
The people of the South had
seen much Of sorrow and death
during the war, and had been
beaten and overpowered by num-
bers and forced to submit. Her
brave and chivalrous sons were
resting beneath the soil of the
many battle fields on which they
had sustained her honor, or their
bones were bleaching her plains,
where no friendly eye ever saw