The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1907-1917, 1911-10-26
TIE JEFFERSONKAN

more" When the days work was done on the
farm, there was nothing liked better than to
60 to the negro quarters, sit by the blazing
fire, and listen to the marvellous yarns and lies
of the superstitious, credulous slave AS
playmate In those days, as a companion on the
hunt for coons and 'possums, who gave great
er satisfaction than the negro? Who so con-
genial when it came to fishing the creek or
lagoon, night or day? And why? He was
take orders from the ''little boss" he would
tote the torch, cut the tree where the possum
chung, would pull the seine through the Ia
coon, would "wait on" the white boy-who so
dearly loved to be waited on" Thus ] came
to know the negro nature we'll in slavery days,
and it certainly never occurred to ne then that
the black race was menace to the white.
Having known them from the standpoint
of a slave-owner / came to know them after
wards from the point Of view Of man as
poor as the poorest negro--a wanderer in
search Of work, without home money, or any
thing else save the clothes on nv back and the
hopes in my heart And here again knew
the negro and found him very, very human
sometimes good, sometimes bed, sometimes In
different. Even then, he had not impressed
me as a storm-cloud hanging over the South.
True, there had been the horrible orgy Of
Reconstruction, but that had passed. 1t had
seemed but an episode-a frightful episode
whites had expelled the carpet-bag marplot
and incendiary, control of all public affairs
had been taken again by Southern men, the
blacks had dropped back to their old places;
ndrroes as q rule, never attempted to vote
and, as a rule, took no interest in politics.
They were not expected at mass meetings, and
did not appear. They were not looked for at
the polls, and were not seen. When they did
come up to the window and put in ballot for
a rational candidate, they did it with hui
miity which seemed to realize that such bal.
lots would not essentially vary the result.
am speaking now Of the con,st7y; what
was done in the cities [ do not know. But
as to the country lat least Of this State) no
well-informed man will deny my statement
that in the revolt Of the whites against carpet
bag rule, in Georgia, the negro was swept
into political nothingre3s along with his in
cendiary ally from the North.
The negro was flat on his back, politically
He did not even dare to kick He fell back
into his position as laborer; his 'gee-haw"
encouraged the sturdy mule in every cotton
field; you could hire his wife Or daughter to
COOK you could get his boy to curry your
horse, hoe the garden, and do general 1ot-Worll
about the house. The negro Of the secret So
ciety had not been evolved. The eighteen year
old strumpet was not trapesing to school; and
the sixteen year old buck was not doing in a
back street by day as preparation for ma
rauding expedition by night. Every town in
Georgia did not then have, in miniature what
Atlanta sees on Decatur street in full life size
The negro boys, girls and men who just 'front.'
work, and yet live and grow fat. were not in
existence. The negro politician who has moth
ing on earth to do except to hunt for an Office,