A POPULAR IDEA DEVOID OF FOUNDATION. 209 CHAPTER IV. THE EMANCIPATED NEGRO WILL MAKE THE SOUTH HIS HOME. THERE is another popular idea, in regard to the effect of Emancipation, which has been used for political effect. This idea is based on an imaginary state of things which happens to be the very reverse of the truth. It is alleged that so soon as the negroes are freed they will swarm to the North in search of work, and thus become the competitors of the laboring whites. Beyond all doubt they have a right to do this; and, if they did, no just man would complain of it. But, in point of fact, no such thing will happen, unless Emancipation be denied. Of this the commission collected abundant proof: for example, in visiting the freedmen of South Carolina. General Saxton, who had there eighteen thousand emancipated slaves under his care, offered them papers to go North, but not one availed himself of the offer. They are equally averse to the idea of emigrating to Africa.* Colonization, except by force (and that would be an outrage), is utterly impracticable. These feelings are universal among them. The local attachments of the negro are eminently strong, and the Southern climate suits him far better than ours. * The following testimony was taken by the commission in Louisville:Colonel Hodges, who had lived all his life among slaves, deposed, "The State of Kentucky has appropriated five thousand dollars a year for several years to aid the Colonization Society in sending off the free blacks, but they have never been able to get more than two to apply."-Testimony taken in Kentucky, p. 104. 210 A FREE SOUTH FULL OF ATTRACTION. If we could suppose slavery re-established in the insurrectionary States, the North would indeed be flooded with fugitives fleeing from bondage, and the fears of competition in labor sought to be excited in the minds. of Northern working-men might then have some plausible foundation. But, if Emancipation be carried out, the stream of negro emigration will be from the North to the South, not from the South to the Northern States. The only attraction which the North, with its winters of snow and ice, offers to the negro, is that it is free soil. Let the South once offer the same attraction, and the temptation of its genial climate, coupled with the fact that there the blacks almost equal the whites in number, will be irresistible. A few years will probably see more than half the free negro population now residing among us crossing Mason and Dixon's line, to join the emancipated freedmen of the South. A primary law governing the voluntary movements of peoples is that of thermal lines. The commission found overwhelming evidence, as to the truth of the above opinion, in Canada West. Among the refugees there, there is not a single feeling so strong or so nearly universal as their longing to return to the Southern land of their birth, at the earliest moment when they shall be assured that it is purged from slavery. One of the commission thus states the result of his observations: "If slavery is utterly abolished in the United States, no more colored people will emigrate to Canada, and most of those now there will soon leave it. There can be no doubt about this. Among the hundreds who spoke about it, only one dissented from the strong expression of desire to go home.' In their belief, too, they agreed with the Rev. Mr. Kinnard, one of their clergy, who said to us, 'If freedom is established in the United States, there will be one great black streak reaching from here to the uttermost parts of the South.'"'* Even those who, by years of toil, have obtained comfortable, well-stocked farms worth ten or twenty thou sand dollars, avowed their determination to abandon all-to sell out and depart-as soon as they could do so without imperilling their personal freedom. Emancipation will directly tend to denude the North of its negro population. One circumstance that will materially hasten this result is that the personal prejudice against negroes, as a race, is stronger in the Northern than in the Southern States, and at least as strong in Canada as in any portion of the Union. Of this our commission had sufficient proof. Mr. George Brown, a member of the Canadian Parliament, deposed, before the commission, "I think the prejudice against the colored people is stronger here than in the States."+ Mr. Sinclair, of Chatham (Canada West), said, "Many of the colored people, even in this town, say that, if they could have the same privileges in the States that they have here, they would not remain here a moment. * * * In this county there is one township (that of Orford) where no colored man is allowed to settle."‡ The colored people of Canada themselves testified to the same effect. Mrs. Brown, of St. Catherine's, deposed, "I find more prejudice here than I did in York State. When I was at home, I could go anywhere; but here,my goodness! you get an insult on every side."§ Mrs. Susan Boggs (colored), also of St. Catherine's, said, "If it was not for the queen's law, we would be * Supplemental Report (A) on Refugees in Canada West, p. 28. † Ibid. p. 43. + Ibid. p. 43. ? Ibid. p. 44. 212 ISOLATION OF RACES TO BE AVOIDED. mobbed here, and could not stay in this house. The prejudice is a great deal worse here than it is in the States."* A colored woman living in a cabin near Colchester said "she was from Virginia, and the prejudice was a 'heap' stronger in Canada than at home." "The people," she added, "seemed to think the blacks weren't folks, anyway." She was anxious to go back.† The home of the American negro is in the Southern States. Let it be made a free home, and he will seek -he will desire-no other. Whether, as a freedman in a Southern home, the negro will live down the cruel prejudice which has followed him, increasing in virulence, to a British province, some, with De Tocqueville, will continue to doubt. But powerful agencies are at work in his favor,-some of terrible character. Such were the New York riots. Such, more recently, were the atrocities committed at Fort Pillow. We have found ourselves called upon to interpose in favor of the outraged and the unprotected. But such interposition tends to create, even in minds of ordinary sensibility, good will and sympathy towards the sufferers whom one interposes to protect. It will have a tendency to increase harmony between the two races, if the colored people, whether in the North or the South, refrain from settling in colonies or suburbs by themselves; for such separation tends to keep up alienation of feeling and to nourish the prejudices of race. They will do well, therefore, to mingle their dwellings or farms with those of the whites; for the effect of this will be to take off the edge of national prejudice and weaken the feeling which regards them as a separate and alien race. *Supplemental Report (A), p. 45. † Ibid. p. 68. EVIDENCE FROM CANADA. 213 CHAPTER V. AMALGAMATION. SOME may be of opinion that the effect of such commingling will be to introduce amalgamation between the races; others, that such amalgamation is the natural and proper solution of the problem. I believe neither the one nor the other. In the first place, such evidence in this matter as our commission has obtained goes to show that, at least in a Northern climate, the mixed race is inferior, in physical power and in health, to the pure race, black or white. A member of our commission carefully investigated the condition of the refugees of mixed blood in Canada, and took evidence as to their health, physical stamina, and power of increase. He found them mostly of lymphatic temperament, with marks of scrofulous or strumous disposition, as shown in the pulpy appearance of portions of the face and neck, in the spongy gums and glistering teeth. There is a general prevalence of phthisical diseases.* Dr. Mack, of St. Catherine's, testified, "The mixed race are the most unhealthy, and the pure blacks the least so. The disease they suffer most from is pulmonary. Where there is not real tubercular affection of the lungs, there are bronchitis and pulmonary affections. I have the idea that they die out when mixed, and that this climate will completely efface them. I think the pure blacks will live."+ * Supplemental Report (A), p. 21. † Ibid. p. 23. |