Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1921-04-09
THE AMERICAN CONGO
THE BURNING OF
HENRY LOWRY
(ByWilliam PickenB.)

The valley OF the Missiesippl RlVer
frex Memphis to the great delta may
properly be termed the Congo" OF
America. 1t includes the States OF
: Arkansas, louisiana, Mississippi.
western TennesBae, and eastern Texas
Tho quest of this Congo Is not for
rubber and ivory but for cotton and
sugar. Hero labor is forced, and tho
laborer ID d Slave. The slavery ID Gun
hinaly oontrived debt-slavery, to give
tho appearance of civilization and tho
sanction Of law. A debt OF few hun
dred dollars may tie n black man and
bis family Of ten as securely In bond
ago to a great white planter as TX no
Had purchased thier bodies. II tho
Thirteenth Amendment, which hns
never been enforced In this region,
nleans anything, 1t H. that a MANS
body cannot be held for an honestly
contracted debt; that only his proper
~ can be held; and TINT II contract
iiig debtor has no property, the credl
tor takes the risk in advancing credit.
Otherwise law abolishing slavery
could be easily evaded, for the veal
thy enslavcr could get, tire poor vic
tim into debt and then hpld his hody
In default Of payment. Wages could
then be so adjus'ed TO expenses and
the costs OF Keep" that the slavery
b would beIunending The only way for
fs debt ss%Tyc to get free%afHasaissacla-
"a mast er Is to get some ono else 10
pay this debt; that is. to sell himself
to another, with added charges, eX.
penses f moving and bonuses. BY
this method the euslaver gets his
Nondmen he enslavCtr gets his
slave system, for in the dehtsystem
he does not have 10 pay the full mar
ket price oC :. man. The effect Is to
allow the Ignorant and the poor UNI
Willingly and unwi'ingly to sell them
selves for much less than an old
Shareholder would have sold them The
debtmaster has other advantages, in
that he Is free from liabilities on &C.
count Of the debtors ill-henlth or the
Railure Of hic crons. The debtor takes
all the risk; and in case of misfortune
81 Drop failure, gets deeper into debt
more securely tiei in bondage.
This Is the system that obtains in
the great Mississippi Valley, and it
has not been modified for thirty years
or more. TIL" evil Of this system is
responsible for all OF the horrible
tynchfngs and burnings of individual
Negroes that have lately taken place
In this region. :: recent most bar
baroun Of all hurnirgs OF n human he
Ing. that Of Henry Lowry, ut Nodena.
Arkansas, near Memphis Tennessee,
Is directly and Immediately traceable
TO this debt.slave system. The newspa-
+ pero Of that section which described
IN great detail the Negro "murderer'e"
deed of killing white planter ana
the savage torture which the farm
ers inflicted upon the slayer either
pretend not to know the cause of all
this or Deliberately ignore It. Some
Of the newspapers. whose representa-
tives saw members OF the white plant
er's family nnd fonnd out everything
else. said that mo reason could be
aScertnined" as to why the Negro shot
the white mon. And other papers in
vented or accented 4 beautiful little
fiction that lowry had chased n col
Ored woman for mile or more trying
to kill her: that this colored woman
finally ran into the homo of o. II.
Craig, the planter. for protection;
that the planter stepped out TO rem
onstrate' with Lowry, when the lat
ter shot him dead, incidentally kill
NAb MO N''hSiiIfit, a. MIS-. Willla1nSOn,
who stood near him and wounding his
sons Hugh Crn'" thirtv-five vcnrs
cid and Richard Craig. twentyseyen
ytsrs old. AS we know the South, we
! * ould have to be very simple-minded
to elieve this even If we had no;
gone Immediately to the section and
found the facts otherwise. For a Ne
gro In Arkansas TO do what the papers
OF Memphfs say Lowry did, that Me-
! gre would have to be q maniac; and
so the papers tried to be consistent
by asserting that he was drunk"
one even going so far ns to report
that a still had heen found Mt his
heuse.
Let us look at the facts We should
aaiways bear in mind when there Is
trouble across tho color line that we
aever read the aide of the colored
people in these papers, and also that
amaRy white people say over their
2$dtnner tables and to few OF their
scelered servants what they will not
IsaJ In public. About two years ago
Henry Lowry the Negro, came from
Fhe State Of Mississippi to work on
abe farms Of or. Craig, a largeplan.
ter in Mississippi County, Arkansas.
witch him came his wife and a six
fyear old daughter. He was we'll be.
aa*oa and Industrious. aAd kn.w