THE exodus of the Negroes from Southern States forms one of the most interesting pages of the almost romantic history of the race. It required more than ordinary causes to drive the Negro from his home in the sunny South to a different climate and strange country. It was no caprice of his nature, nor even a nomadic feeling. During the entire period of the existence of the Republican governments at the South the Negroes remained there in a state of blissful contentment. And even after the fall of those governments they continued in a state of quiet industry. But there followed the decline of those governments a policy as hurtful to the South as it was cruel to the Negroes.
During the early years of reconstruction quite a number of Negroes began to invest in real estate and secure for themselves pleasant homes. Their possessions increased yearly, as can be seen by a reference to statistical reports. Some of the estates and homesteads of the oldest and most reputable white families, who had put every thing info the scales of Confederate rebellion, fell into the possession of ex-slaves. Such a spectacle was not only unpleasant, it was exasperating, to the whites. But so long as the Republican governments gave promise of success there was but little or no manifestation of displeasure on the part of the whites. Just as soon, however, as they became the masters of the situation, the property of many Negroes was seized, and sold upon the specious plea—"for delinquent taxes"; and the Negroes were driven from eligible places to the outskirts of the larger towns and cities. No Negro was allowed to live in the vicinity of white persons as tenants; and it became a social crime to sell property to Negroes in close proximity to the whites. In the rural districts, where Negroes had begun to secure small farms, this same cruel spirit was "the lion in their way." The spirit that sought to keep the Negro ignorant as a slave, now that he was at least nominally free, endeavored to deprive him of one of the necessary conditions of happy and useful citizenship: the possession of property, the aggregations of the results of honest labor. Nothing could have been more fatal to the growth of the Negro toward the perfect stature of free, intelligent, independent, and self-sustaining manhood and citizenship. The object and result of such a system can easily be judged. It was intended to keep the Negroes the laboring element after as well as before the war. The accomplishment of such a result would have been an argument in favor of the assertion of the South that the normal condition of the Negro was that of a serf; and that he, did not possess the elements necessary to the life of a freeman. Thus would have perished the hopes, prayers, arguments and claims of the friends of the cause of universal, manhood suffrage.
Among the masses of laboring men the iniquitous, outrageous, thieving "Plantation Credit System" was a plague and a crime. Deprived of homes and property the Negroes were compelled to "work the crops on the shares." A plantation store was kept where the Negroes' credit was good for any article it contained. He got salt meat, corn meal, sugar, coffee, molasses, vinegar, tobacco, and coarse clothing for himself and family. An account was kept by "a young white man," and at the end of the season "a reckoning" was had. Unable to read or cipher, the poor, credulous, unsuspecting Negroes always found themselves in debt from $50 to $200! This necessitated another year's engagement; and so on for an indefinite period. There was nothing to encourage the Negroes; nothing to inspire them with hope for the future; nothing for their families but a languid, dead-eyed expectation that somehow a change might come. But the crime went on unrebuked by the men who were growing rich from this system of petty robbery of the poor. For the cheapest qualities of brown sugar, for which the laboring classes of the North pay 8 cents, the Negroes on the plantations were charged 11 and 13 cents a pound. Corn meal purchased at the North for 4 cents a quart, brought 9 and 10 cents at the plantation store. And thus for every article the Negroes purchased they were charged the most exorbitant prices.
There were two results which flowed from this system, viz.: robbing the families of these Negroes of the barest comforts of life, and destroying the confidence of the Negro in the blessings and benefits of freedom. No man—no race of men—could endure such blighting influences for any length of time.
Moreover the experiences of the Negroes in voting had not been extensive, and a sudden curtailing and abridgment of their rights was a shock to their confidence in the government under which they lived, and in the people by which they were surrounded. It was thought expedient to intimidate or destroy the more intelligent and determined Negroes; while the farm laborers were directed to refrain from voting the Republican ticket, or commanded to vote the Democratic ticket, or starve. There never was a more cruel system of slavery than this.
Writing under date of January 10, 1875, General P. H. Sheridan, then in command at New Orleans, says:
"Since the year 1866 nearly thirty-five hundred persons, a great majority of whom were colored men, have been killed and wounded in this State. In 1868 the official record shows that eighteen hundred and eighty-four were killed and wounded. From 1868 to the present time no official investigation had been made, and the civil authorities in all but a few cases have been unable to arrest, convict, or punish the perpetrators. Consequently there are no correct records to be consulted for information. There is ample evidence, however, to show that more than twelve hundred persons have been killed and wounded during this time on account of their political sentiments. Frightful massacres have occurred in the parishes of Bossier, Caddo, Catahoula, Saint Bernard, Grant, and Orleans."
He then proceeded to enumerate the political murders of Colored men in various parishes, and says:
"Human life in this State is held so cheaply that when men are killed on account of political opinions, the murderers are regarded rather as heroes than as criminals in the localities where they reside."