Early Experience.
About one mile from the Coleman plantation lived Mrs. Covington, commonly known as “the Widow Covington.” She owned about 300 acres of cultivated and uncultivated land, left to her by her deceased husband. The land being valued at from one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre to ten dollars per acre, as most southern “sage” ground, placed her in poor circumstances. Her surroundings put her in the estimation of her colored neighbors nothing more than “poor white trash.” On account of her declining condition, my father, who was extremely liberal, sent me to the Widow Covington to assist her in gardening. It was a source of happiness to be away from home, and more especially to visit a white person’s house for the first time. Just as I left my father’s arms with a kiss and “good bye,” he exclaimed, “Be a good boy!” As I walked along the rocky pathway, ascending and descending the lofty hills, a constant voice, so tender and penetrating, seemed to re-echo the words of my beloved father, “Be a good boy.” Appearing at the widow’s gate, the customary salutation, “Hello,” was yelled out. Being told to come in, I briskly attempted to step in at the front door, when I was abruptly told, “Go around the back way.” This I readily did, thinking that preparations were being made to entertain the guest in the front room. I was given a seat in the kitchen, which was both kitchen and dining room, being tosted over toward the north, leaving several spaces large enough for the cook to have chicken visitors during meal hours. When dinner was prepared, the little colored guest was left to partake of the fragments on a separate table. This action being so inhuman, I asked the widow why did she not ask me to the front room, and before going to dinner send me to the toilet room, and let all sit at one table, as there was so much vacancy at her table. The widow displayed no small degree of madness in her response. “I want you to know that you are a nigger, and you must stay in a nigger’s place.”
It is to be seen from this that a black man is thought to be inferior to a white man, and should for this reason be treated as such. The widow’s conception of a “nigger’s place” is a mouthpiece for the entire South. You might ask, Why is it that Mr. A. is on board of train No. 3, en route for New Orleans, occupying a car with all the modern accommodations; and Mr. B. on the same train, en route for the same place, having paid the same fare, and occupying a car with split bottomed seats? Tobacco juice and smoke have given it a new coat of painting and deathly odor. Mr. A. puts his valise in Mr. B.’s car; smoke, whistle, dance, drink intoxicants, and then return to his pleasant, modernly furnished car. The answer would be, Mr. A. is white and Mr. B. is black, for this reason the employees have assigned Mr. B. to an inferior car, in order that Mr. B. may remain in a “nigger’s place.”
Thirty-three years have passed since the gloomy clouds of slavery banished, and made way for the negro to see his place—In the school room; in the Legislature, Senate, Congress, Ministers to Republics, Registry of Deeds, Registry of the Treasury, Law, Doctors, Ministers of the Gospel, Bishopric, U. S. Chaplaincy, Editors, Authors, Merchants, and Industry. Now let us see why is it that a dungeon is dug for a “nigger’s place.” Certainly the negro has harmed no one. Not any more so than the horse stolen from his master. The reason why the white man is at enmity against the black man is, that the white man once owned the black man. Millions of dollars were expended on the purchase of slaves when the war of 1860-’65 began. The purchasers, it is claimed, had not then received one-half expended on slavery. For this very cause the negro is regarded as worthless property. The white boy has the example of thievishness and slothfulness established by his parents. He is taught that swindling his colored brother is the way his parents came in possession of their wealth, and to work is taking the “nigger’s place.”
CHAPTER II.
DISCRIMINATION.
The Jim Crow Car, as the negro’s first grievance relative to the Southern railroad system, is obviously seen in the foregoing observation. There we see that the matter of being separated from the white passenger “cuts no figure,” but the very fact that colored passenger is robbed out of the worth of his well earned money, is the direct reason why the victimized colored passenger appeals to the conscience of those who have power and influence to abolish his present outraged condition.
To get the proper understanding of the cause of discrimination on Southern railroad cars, let us read the following clippings from that great Southern hero, statesman, and renowned Bishop H. M. Turner, D.D., LL.D., D.C.L. From this, we hope to reach a definite conclusion as to whether the fundamental course of discrimination can be suppressed by the enactment of “law.” First of all the Civil Rights Bill is before us for consideration. It has blinded the most studious and philanthropic men and women within the British Empire, and the civilized world. Those who meditate on the negro’s condition, and sympathize with his environment, and who would attempt to assist him, are led to doubt some of the current reports against the race, believing that the Civil Rights Bill has imparted privileges to all men alike, and therefore the black man has a right to make use of equal enjoyment of citizenship.