In 1925 the racial war between whites and blacks continued unabated, and would Peace in Sight. have still been in force in 1999 if the only one possible relief had not come at last to the rescue. In the year last mentioned the bulk of the black population disappeared from the North American States. The accession of the Central and South American Republics into the great American Union afforded the only possible solution to the vexed problem. In 1960, just one hundred years after the Sumpter episode, another important movement was inaugurated in behalf of the blacks. People commenced to realize that the negro was an utterly alien race; that when they landed here America gained nothing, while Africa must have lost heavily through their transfer into the new world. The proposition to transfer the negro population to the Central and Southern American States was agitated in that year. The transfer of Washington as the seat of our national government from the District of Columbia to the City of Mexico had the effect of drawing a strong tide of American emigration into the State of Mexico, and into the Southern States of Brazil and Venezuela as well. In 1999 Americans spoke of Colombia and Bolivar merely as Southern States of the Union. The vast and fertile lands in those States did not escape the attention of settlers. The idea of transferring the entire negro population from the Northern States of Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Alabama, Louisiana, Virginia and the Carolinas to the Southern States of Brazil and Venezuela was regarded as being a good one. The proposed measure proved a very popular one, particularly among the Gulf States. They were ready to make any sacrifice to be rid of their black neighbors.
In 1975 a bill passed through Congress appropriating a sum of $58,000,000 for the purchase of three northern provinces in the State of Venezuela, namely, Zarmora, No Snowstorms out That Way. Bermudez and Miranda, bounded on the north by the Atlantic Ocean and on the south by the Orinoco River. It was generally conceded that the negro would feel more at home in a tropical climate. The three provinces named lie between the eighth and tenth degrees of north latitude, and there was no possible danger that these emigrants would ever get caught in a snowstorm on the plains of Venezuela. The northern States of the Union were determined to get rid of the entire race, if money ever could effect that purpose.
The negroes readily assented to the proposition and were heartily in favor of Were Pleased with the Change. leaving a section of the American Republic which has been the scene of so much suffering to them, as well as their ancestors. They were elated over the prospect of emigrating to the State of Venezuela, where such a fine reservation had been purchased for them by enactment of Congress. They realized that in the State of Venezuela they would no longer be harassed by their white neighbors and the old slave-owning element, and upon the vast pastoral plains of the Zarmora and Miranda provinces they would till their own soil, own the land and enjoy each other’s exclusive society. Even Boston, in 1975, applauded the movement as being a philanthropic one, calculated to increase the well being of the negro. The brainy men of Boston argued that reservations had been frequently purchased for the use of Indians, and there was no good reason why one should not be purchased for the use of the American negro.
In this manner the vexed negro question was finally settled. The States south of Mason and Dixon’s line became more contented. The negro reservation in Venezuela thrived well. The broad pastoral plains, well watered by branches of the Orinoco, abounding in rich tropical grasses, were admirably adapted to the raising of cattle, sheep and goats. Horses were raised in 1975 for food supplies alone. The negro farmer invested in sugar cane, cotton, indigo and banana farms. The tropical forests yielded much wealth, such as India rubber, tonka beans, copaiba and vanilla, while the mineral products of Venezuela proved rich and varied.
CHAPTER XXVII.
Conclusion.
In setting forth at length the glorious achievements of the twentieth century, the Author has no desire to rob our now closing nineteenth century of one iota of its brilliantly earned laurels. The achievements of the nineteenth century will grow to the last syllable of recorded time. Their imprint upon the history of man is indelible and shall be linked in the chains of eternity.
In the field of scientific discovery the nineteenth century has no peer in all the preceding ages. It stands forth a giant whose achievements in the cause of science, liberty, education and humanity outweigh the combined products of all eras from the birth of Christ.
Newton’s discovery of gravitation must ever memorize the seventeenth century in the annals of men, but the genius of the nineteenth century has produced its equal in the correlation and conservation of forces, the widest generalization that the human mind has yet attained.