The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1910-04-05

| hat .the cost of coming at the Drancn
minis has been tWenty-eight cents n
three mills for each dollar. Anoeher
states that there were 10000 persons
engaged in gold-mining in this state
in March, 1912. The amount OF North
| Carolina gold coined at the Phlladei-
phia Mint up to 1888 was $2,64S,5Oo;
at Charlotte there was coined IN 1850
sSO,565, and in 1899, S162,12I.
There were no large towns IN n
| State. The population Of the four
largest ones was:
1890. 1910.
Nau, parp 1895 1896
Fayetteville ..... 1855 4zoo
Wilmington ..... 1888 182O 4744
Raleigh ........ 1foO l1ff
At the opening Of the decade there
was no cheap and easy access to a
good market" The profits of agr1-
culture were absorbed in the cost OF
marketing it's products. There was no
employment outside of agriculture.
and even Mr.. Macon doubted the ca
pacity of North Carolina to become
a great Commercial State. Under
these circumstances Emigration be
came very active. A Legislative Com
mittee in 1888 spoke Of the tide OF
emigration which Gibbs The
same report declares that the lands
Of nine-tenths of the farmers of the
State are actually in the market on
this account. Governor Swain alludes
to it as '"The continually increasing
current of emigration, which is de-
priving us of many of our most intel
ligent and e~nterprising citizens"
h movement was generally cred
tied to the depressed agricultural In
terests incident to deficient transpor-
tation. but Governor Speight thought
the sales of public lands was the cause
and called attention to a like exDer
iannn in South rorNtip0 Tho fact
that Virginia, North Carolina and
South Carolina each increased in pop
ulation only about two and n third
per cent from 1880 to 1910, gives
color to Governor Spaight's theory,
n is conclusive that more than
result.
was serious and it is pleasing to our
State pride to recall that the public
men of that day proved equal to the
task of dealing with it.
Slavery.
Slavery had played an important
part in the industrial and social life
of the State. Only Virginia and South
Carolina had a larger number of
slaves. Their respective holdings in
1910, were, Virginia 469,757: South
Carolina, 315,4O1; North Carolina,
245,601. Those in our State with e.
1872 f~ree-negroes, constituted one-
third of the total population with a
clear majority in some eastern coun-
ties.
The Nat Turner insurrection in
Southampton, Virginia, August, 1881,
hardened the condition OF slaves and
fr~ee-negrOeS at the beginning OF the
decade. 1T was believed in North
Carolina that the instruction COM
menced with and a arranged by
four negro preachers. who had been
permitted to hold their meetings by
day and by night and who used these
opportunities to poison the minds of
the slaves. OF these preachers the
principal was Nat Turner who claimed
to be commissioned by Jesus Christ"
This bloody affair produced intense
excitement in North Carolina. Laws
were passed greatly abridging the
privileges Of the slaves and free-ne-
groes, these latter being supposed to
exercise a dangerous influence upon
the slaves. They were forbidden to
preach or exhort in public or in any
manner to oficiate as preacher or
teacher where there were slaves of
different families. F~ree-negroes were
not to hawk or peddle without license
from the Court of Pleas,
with seven justices present. None
were permitted to teach amy other
slaves to read or write" These and
OtheF restraints upon tne IlDerty OF
employment, travel and residence |
were some of the new aspects of slav-
cry introduced at the beginning of
our decade, which tended to inter
rupt the kindly relations between the
races and increased the burden and
difficulty Of both. The amended con-
stitution of 1885 deprived f~ree-negroes
Of the right to vote.
The sentiment in North Carolina
was by no means unanimous in ia
Vor Of slavery. and had not been. The
legislature Of North Carolina, in 1904,
appears to have been the first to pro.
pose an amendment to the constitu-
ton of the United States prohibiting
the slave trade. A manumission So
ciety existed as late as 1884 princi-
paliy in Guilford and Randolph coun-
ties. Many prominent men, like 10
Gales, of the Raleigh Register, wished
ar end to slavery, to be brought