Iowa state bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1894-1916, 1913-08-01

The real black belt of the United
States is not In Mississippi nor Soutl
Carolina, but in the great farming
districts OF Delaware and the eastern
shore Of Maryland, writer in The
New York Sun asserts. There are
not so many colored people in thi.
region, but they are good deal near
err pure black. Yellow folk never were
numerous, but they are getting fewer
and there is a distinct reversion to
ward the pure African type. This /.
attributed to reinforcement of caste
lines even more rigid than in slavery
days. A single drop of African blood
condemns its owner to classification
with the colored people. Such per
sons of mixed blood as remain In the
rural parts OF the border states fine
that they are not socially advanced by
their Caucasian Inheritance, and they
often marry with the blacklist of theil
neighbors. Such marriages are has
tening the reversion to type.
A skilled enthnologist could assign
many Of these people to their proper
African tribes. Yet, with this rever
sion to African type is going on an
other thing that marks progress with
in type limits Many of the very
blacklist men and women show 8
touch Of refinement in features ant
expression. and the gentleness and in
telligence evident in many men Is fal
removed from the, type of savage ma
tive African %..
The colored folk, whatever their de
gree OF blackness. are isolated in
dustrfally and socially. On the farms
where they are almost the only hired
laborers, they have their tiny cabins
usually set by the roadside, because
they prefer the cheerfulness of the
highway to 'the privacy of the fields
Each farm has its masters house sci
from one hundred to five hundred
yards from the highway behind a
dense screen Of trees and shrubbery
In town.. as In country, the colored
people are segregated from the
whites. u
Native whites incline to deny that
the negro is advancing. but any one
who revisits this black belt after an
absence Of rs or 80 years can easily
measure roughly for himself the ad
vance. Comparatively few Negroes
over ten and under sixty are un'
able to read and write. and the vii
lage homes, though poor and unsani.
tary, are better than they were some
thirty years ago.
Negro farm laborers hire for nine
months for $40 to s25 a month with
keep, which usually means lodging
and plenty of coarse, but wholesome
food. In the best farming regions
many Of the Negroes. some estimate
two or three out of five own horse
and carriage, and on Sundays the
roads leading to picnic places Of
country churches show procession
of Negroes in their buggies. The far
mer usually agrees to feed the horse
and house the carriage, deducting
perhaps, 81 or So a month for this
favor. One laborer, with no horse
brought along. To one OF the finest
farms in Delaware two pigs, which
the farmer fattened for him. The
horse Is. often sold to the Negro by
his employer on the installment plan
and kept for him all winter if he is
not able to pay for it in a single sea
son. The winter season of enforced
unemployment of most of the men
tends to create irregular habits of in
dustry. Wives and grown daughters
are usually able to find work in white
families for. the winter. but many OF
them stubbornly decline to remain
employed in the summer because their
husband or brothers are then earning
good wages. -.
Unfortunately the ambition OF the
Negro is not greatly stirred by his
environments; and valuable opportu.