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S L A V E R Y
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Copyrighted 1923
BY ALFRED H. BENNERS
Published by
THE J. W. BURKE COMPANY
MACON, GEORGIA
1923
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• Author's ‘Preface
THIS LItt LE Book gives the personal recol-
!ections of the author, for seventy-four years
in his native state, Alabama.
It deals with the Civil War and its causes,
the slaves, the slave owners, the treatment of
the slaves, plantation life. A story of the
master and slave, the poor whites, race
caste, the three classes in the war, develop-
ment of initiative of the negro, the present
and probable future habitat of the negro,
Liberia, negroes in the cities, and climatic
influences.
It is frankly admitted that while it is in
part, a brief by the author in defence of his
ancestry and of the South, it is also an effort
to trace through personal recollections and
historical and statistical data, the orderly
development, through the medium of slavery,
of the negro from a condition of savagery to
one of citizenship.
ALF RED H. BENNERs
Birmingham, Ala.
T O T H E M E M O R Y
O F M Y G R A N D F A T H E R
A L F R E D H A T C H

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Slavery and Its ‘Results
THERE has always been an inclination among
mankind, as the activities of life draw to a
close, to leave some record of what has been
seen or done. Primitive man etched upon
stone his pictured story of battle or the chase:
and William Hohenzollern and Lloyd George
have been telling each his story of the World
War. These things are not history, but they
are the material of which history will be made.
The transitions through which the South
has passed during the last seventy years have
been stupendous, and all those who saw their
beginning will soon have passed away.
My main purpose is to set down facts as I
remember them, concerning the institution of
Slavery, and the people of the South as they
8 SLAVERY AND ITS RESULTS
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were and are, together with my hopes and
beliefs as to their future. I shall try to be fair,
though I am conscious that my youth had an
environment of happiness and prosperity
founded upon the existence of Slavery.

The South, fully aware that its wealth was
produced by and founded on Slavery, threat-
ened secession, seeing the growing hostility to
slavery among the people of the free states,
manifested by laws for its restraint that
threatened its very existence. Hence arose
Z conflicting claims as to the cause of the Civil
War. The free states claimed that it was
fought to preserve the Union; the South, that
it was to preserve the Constitutional rights of
the states. History will say that the institu-
tion of Slavery was the fundamental cause.
In 1837 Abraham Lincoln said that the
right of property in slaves was sacred to the
slave-owning states, under the Federal Con-
SLAVERY AND ITS RESULTS 9
i stitution, and expressed the belief that the
institution of Slavery was founded both on in-
justice and on bad policy, but that the pro-
mulgation of abolition doctrines tended rather
to increase than to abate the evil. He after-

-- - - -- *
--~~~~~ *
wards contended strongly fº.the settlement
of the Slavery question in the Union; but the
tempest of intolerance of the Abolitionists of
the North, and the fire-eaters of the South
\ fanned the sparks of passion into flame, and
Secession and the Civil War were the results.
Even during the war Mr. Lincoln offered
compensation for the slaves if the Southern
States would resume their places in the Union,
but the South insisted upon the retention of
Slavery. The Emancipation Proclamation
followed, which Lincoln held to be a war
measure rather than one founded upon the
Federal Constitution. e
While extremists on both sides hotly con-
IO SLAVERY AND ITS RESULTS
tended for more than was just, there were
fair-minded and enlightened thinkers on both
sides, free from fanaticism and blind preju-
dice, who contended for a gradual emancipa-
tion of slaves with recompense to their owners
for the loss of lawful property; these were
overwhelmed by prejudice which, on the one
hand, denied the right to any compensation,
and on the other, rejected all plans for future
emancipation, which an enlightened civiliza-
tion had begun to demand.
Washington, Hamilton, Jefferson, Patrick
Henry and Madison all condemned Slavery
and labored without avail to plan some
scheme for its extinction. Washington said
that he wished from his soul that Virginia
could be persuaded to abolish Slavery; that
it might prevent future mischief; and he freed
his slaves by his will.
While Slavery caused the war, the bitter
SLAVERY AND ITS RESULTS II.
and brave struggle made by the South after it
began was founded upon invasion and the
dangers of subjugation and utter ruin. That
such dangers passed away and that the em-
bers of resentment grew cold and we became
in less than two decades a reunited people,
proud of our common country, proves the
worth of our ancestors, North and South.
It is now more than half a century since the
slaves were freed, and great changes have
been wrought in their former owners and their
descendants, in the non-slave-owning whites
of the South and their descendants, and in the
negro race. Any light that can be thrown
upon their relations in the past may make
clearer their paths in the future.
I 2 SLAVERY AND ITS RESULTS
The Slave and His Treatment
THE importation of slaves was stopped by law
before I was born. Except a few old ones, who
were brought from Africa in slave ships, all
whom I have known were descendants of the
first comers. These were of small stature and
low intelligence compared with the later gen-
eration. They learned a few words with dif-
ficulty and their mumbled speech was largely
a jargon of their own. Some were larger than
others, belonging evidently to different tribes;
and their descendants whom I saw and knew
differed widely in size, color, and intelligence.
Some were large, black and mentally dull;
some were of smaller size, but also dull;
some were of lighter color and more active
mentally and physically, being however, of
SLAVERY AND ITS RESULTS I3
unmixed negro blood. There were also some
mulattoes, and a few quadroons.
The slaves were property, the masters hav–
ing complete control of them and their labor.
Their value increased from about $500 each
in 1850 to about $10oo in 1860. The labor re-
quired of them was as much as they could do
without impairment of their efficiency and,
consequently, of their value. Their hardships
were ameliorated in many instances by the
attachments growing out of the pride of
ownership of the master and of loyalty and
faithfulness on the part of the slave. There
were some cruel masters and some brutal
overseers; but slaves were treated cruelly by \,,
their masters or their agents as rarely as a
good horse, worth $500, would be maimed by
its owner. However, the lash was used for, ºf
discipline, as had been the usage with under-
lings since the days of Moses. Their clothing,

I4 SLAVERY AND ITS RESULTS
food, and housing were rough but adequate;
their physical and mental development
showed slow but visible improvement, and
their birth-rate steadily increased. Their privi-
leges were few, but some they had; gardens,
fowls, and some fish and game taken at night
or on holidays. They were not permitted to
leave the plantations without written passes,
which, however, were freely granted upon
proper occasions. *
Their recent rise from savagery, and the
restraints of slavery, were hindrances to am-
bition; but some felt its promptings and were
promoted to the practice of certain crafts,
as carpenters, bricklayers, blacksmiths, etc.,
—for which they showed more or less apti-
tude. Their social and emotional natures
were primitive and strong, as shown by their
singing and dancing and religious exercises,
the latter being colored by quaint supersti-
SLAVE RY AND ITS RESU LTS I 5
tions and folklore. Free of care and respon-
sibility, they sang at their work and took joy
in their existence, though a few, of special
intelligence and ambition, resented their ser-
vitude and longed for freedom. But while
Slavery existed, the gift of freedom was rarely
the boon contemplated by the master, or ex-
pected by the slave. If the freedman re-
mained in the South, he was an object of
suspicion to the whites and of envy to the
blacks, and in Alabama he was required by
law to leave the state within six months. This
law was not always enforced. His intercourse
with slaves was restricted, and with the whites
was impossible. If he went to a free state, as
most of them did, he found a more rigorous
climate, and social and business conditions
very different from those he had known. How
he fared, or was treated, I do not know; but
I do know that many of the descendants of
I6 SLAVERY AND ITS RESULTS
freed slaves who went North have come back
to the South since emancipation. N
In Alabama, by statute, the master was \
required to treat his slave with humanity, and )
forbidden to inflict upon him any cruel pun- |
ishment; he was required to provide him with y
a sufficiency of healthy food and necessary
clothing, to cause him to be properly attended
during sickness and to provide for his neces-
sary wants in old age. (Code of 1852, Section A
2O43.)
Any person causing the death of a slave,
with malice aforethought, by cruel treatment,
was deemed guilty of murder in the first de-
gree; and if the death was caused by cruel
treatment without malice he was deemed
guilty of murder in the second degree, al-
though in the latter case, this crime might be
held to be in the first degree. (Code of 1852,
Sections 3295 and 3296.)
|
SLAVERY AND ITS RESULTS 17
Slavery existed in all the American Colo-
nies, from their beginning until the Revolu-
tionary War. Of the Northern States, Vermont
was the first to abolish it in 1777, and New
Jersey the last, in 1804. The climate of New
England was too rigorous for the negroes and
its people were employed mainly in commerce
and manufactures, for which the negroes had
little aptitude; so that the owners of slaves
with their proverbial thrift, sold them to the
tobacco and cotton planters of the South,
where they found a profitable market.
Negro immigration to the South has been
slight since emancipation, but such as there
has been has come mainly from the free states.
These immigrants have, in the main, been bet-
ter educated than southern negroes. They are
largely professional men and teachers, some
have brought money and bought land and some
have become useful and prosperous citizens.
I8 SLAVERY AND ITS RESULTS
The S/ave Owners
THE Atlantic seaboard of the South was set-
tled chiefly by the Cavaliers, a class noted for
their gentle blood and high mettle, with all
the faults and virtues that go with aristoc-
racy. They were mostly younger brothers and
venturesome spirits, impelled by fortune and
by thirst for adventure to hazard the perils and
hardships of the New World, hoping to build
up estates and establish a society and govern-
ment of their own in new fields, based upon
the traditions of their ancestry. No trait of
character was stronger in them than their
contempt for manual labor and menial em-
ployment. The soil and climate of their new
homes, and their remoteness from other
sources of supply of their needs, made agri-
culture a necessity; and the peculiar fitness
SLAVERY AND ITS RESULTS I9
of the negro for the cultivation of corn, tobac-
co, and cotton made natural the early intro-
duction of negro slaves. The source of supply
was Africa, and the slave ships of New Eng-
land found profit in the traffic—this in the
“good old Colony times.”
As the generations passed, those Colonial
estates become ancestral homes; wealth and
slaves increased and another migration of
younger sons began, who brought to the new-
found blue-grass fields of Kentucky, the rice
and sugar lands of Louisiana, and the cotton-
bottom-lands of Georgia, Alabama and Mis-
sissippi the customs and traditions of their
fathers. These new lands were soon partly de-
veloped; but their extent was such that the
demand for more slaves was urgent; as their
numbers in Maryland, Virginia, and North
Carolina increased beyond the possibility of
profitable employment they began to be sent
2O SLAVERY AND ITS RESULTS
to the new fields farther south, there to be
sold, and the slave-trader became an institu-
tion—and a reproach. The traffic in slaves
was a blot upon our record, softened, but not
removed, by humane but inadequate laws
forbidding the separation of young children
from their mothers, and by the unwritten
social law which placed a stigma upon the
reputation of any master who sold a slave
unless compelled to do so by adversity. Yet
the division of property among heirs, and
forced sales for the payment of debts often
resulted in the separation of families. While
there were tragedies here and there, too har-
rowing for description, the outward aspects
of this traffic were not altogether repulsive.
I well remember seeing the files of slaves
strung along the sidewalk on the sunny side
of Main Street, in Greensboro, my birth-
place. As a rule traders brought south for
SLAVERY AND ITS RESULTS 2I
sale slaves between sixteen and twenty-five
years old. The excitement and novelty of
travel, the expectation of a pleasanter life in
a warmer climate, and the enchantment that
distance lends to the view, made them cheer—
ful and hopeful. They were well dressed in
new clothes and well fed, and often boasted of
their abilities to a prospective buyer whose
appearance was attractive. Many a bright,
young man or woman assisted in a sale of him-
self or herself to a buyer whose bearing
pleased them; and pride of ownership and
pride of service soon made new ties.
The psychology of the masters and mis-
tresses concerning their slaves was composite:
in part, somewhat akin to that of an owner of
fine stock, and somewhat to that of a guard-
ian of one of weaker mentality, but always
there was but one will—that of the owner.
In the main they were kind aristocrats and

22 SLAVERY AND ITS RESULTS
benevolent despots. Most of them were edu-
cated and well read; but they handed down
from father to son the fixed belief that the
sons of Ham were made by their Creator the
slaves of the sons of Japheth, and that all
attempts to abolish slavery were assaults
upon a divine decree. Affection for their,
slaves was general among the masters; but it
was always subordinate to the doctrine that
they were their property, destined to en-
forced servitude and with no capacity for |
\
higher station.
e Arco/a \
My grandfather, Alfred Hatch, was a type of
the “old marster” of ante-bellum times. His
Arcola plantation, of three thousand acres,
was on the Warrior River, six miles above
Demopolis. On it was the handsome pillared
mansion, in a grove on a bluff overlooking the
SLAVERY AND ITS RESULTS 23
river. Nearby were the barns, mill, gin-house,
overseer's house and the long rows of white-
washed cabins, the homes of several hundred
slaves. Their labor provided their food, the
upkeep of the place, and several hundred
bales of cotton every year, which brought
wealth and luxury to the master and his fami-
ly. A large bell by the overseer's house called
the laborers to work at sunrise, and bade
them keep to their cabins after bedtime.
A hospital building, called the “sick
house,” was in charge of old Aunt Marthy
Ann, skilled in the simple remedies of the
fields and forest. There were open sheds in
the fields where the hands gathered for their
dinner, or for shelter from rain. There was a
roomy cook-house and bake-ovens where
their dinner was prepared. The dinner usual-
ly consisted of several vegetables, salt pork,
and corn-bread baked in thick, round loaves
(
24 SLAVERY AND ITS RESULTS
and cut into half-pound slices. At noon old
Hester, with the cart and gray mule, carried
out the tubs of warm food and made the
round of the fields where the hands were
waiting at the sheds. She issued to each
laborer in his tin bucket, a ladlefull of vegeta-
bles, a slice of pork and two slices of bread.
One of the joys of my childhood was to ride
in the cart with Adam, my negro boy, and eat
dinner from the tubs, and gather plums and
berries from the fence-corners during stops.
Sheltered from the sun, the laborers lolled and
slept during their noonday rest; a few of the
livelier ones patted and danced Juba for my
entertainment, simple joys, now only a dis-
tant memory. -
The dairy, in charge of old Aunt Sophy,
stood just inside of the side gate to the Big
House. There each day she made the golden
butter from the milk of twenty cows, and the
SLAVERY AND ITS RESULTS 25
buttermilk, fresh from the barrel-churn, was
issued to the negro children in their buckets.
Each boy and girl was clad in a long, white
cotton shirt, fastened at the top with one big
white button, and split at the bottom a foot
on each side, showing their twinkling black
shanks as they capered. Seen from the side
porch of the Big House, their long winding
file looked like a flock of white sea-gulls.
“Old Marster” from that porch often
watched them with pride in their healthy
looks, thinking no doubt of their early entry
into the trash-gang of cotton pickers. He
was the busiest worker on the place, and from
the overseer to the smallest water-carrier, he
was the driving power.
Hospitality ruled supreme at the Big
House, and kin, friends and strangers found
constant welcome and lavish entertainment.
At night Jim Pritchett with his fiddle, Mingo
26 SLAVERY AND ITS RESULTS
with his triangle, and Mose with his banjo,
came up from the quarters and made music
for the happy belles and beaux. They danced
cotillions and the Lancers, winding up with
the Virginia Reel. Sundry drams livened old
Jim's fiddle, as the “Forked Deer”, “Ark-
ansas Traveler” and other old tunes of a like
lilt and swing, quickened their flying feet.
Jim was a noted mimic, as well as fiddler, and
usually wound up with an improvisation of
his own, which he called “The Dying Coon,”
in which his voice added to the witchery of
his bow the shouts of the hunters, the baying
of the dogs and the snarls and dying wail of
the fighting coon.
Misery and suffering were unknown among
these Arcadian scenes; but the clouds of civil
war were gathering; and when the tempest
broke “Old Marster” and his domain were
swept into oblivion, even as Babylon and
Carthage.
SLAVERY AND ITS RESULTS 27
In Newberne, North Carolina, his birth-
place, my grandfather knew a negro named
John Stanley, who for his faithfulness and
good character, was freed by his owner. He
moved to Ohio where he died, leaving a young
son named Abner, a carpenter. In 1859
Abner was kidnaped and carried across the
Ohio River into the interior of Kentucky,
where he was sold as a slave. He was help-
less; but as he remembered having heard his
father say that Mr. Alfred Hatch, of Arcola,
Alabama, was a wealthy planter who had
been kind to him in his youth, he secretly
wrote to him, telling his story, and begging
for help. My grandfather immediately went
to Kentucky, employed an able lawyer, and
procured witnesses and documentary evi-
dence from Ohio, and Abner was freed by a
Kentucky court. He gladly returned with
my grandfather to Arcola, where he remained
28 SLAVERY AND ITS RESULTS
as a hired carpenter until 1867, when he re-
turned to Ohio.
About 1845 my grandfather bought a plan-
tation of twelve hundred acres about fifteen
miles from Arcola, near Newberne, Alabama.
He placed on it, for its cultivation, a hundred
negroes, and put in charge of it, as manager
or overseer, a negro slave named Henry
Fenderson, who had full control. He had
energy and administrative ability and the
place under his management produced larger
crops of cotton than adjoining places, man-
aged by white overseers, by whom Henry
was envied and heartily disliked.
In 1856, the Alabama legislature passed an
act forbidding the keeping of more than six
slaves on any plantation unless the owner or
a white agent lived on it, or within a mile.
To comply with this law Mr. West, a white
overseer, was employed and moved onto the
SLAVERY AND ITS RESULTS 29
place. If he ever did anything more than
draw his salary and exercise his horse in visit-
ing the neighbors, I never knew it. Henry’s
work and supervision continued unchanged,
even after emancipation, and he died on the
place in 1867.
• Another Story of Master
and S/ave
AMong my father's negro playmates in the
home of his childhood, Newberne, North
Carolina, was a sturdy boy named Kit. He
became a carpenter and was brought to Ala-
bama and sold to a Dr. Reynolds, whose
plantation adjoined one of my father's.
Whether Kit was unruly, or his master un-
kind, I never knew, but Kit became a persist-
ent runaway, and runaway slaves were un-
profitable property and demoralizing factors
3O SLAVERY AND ITS RESULTS
because of their influence on the more docile
slaves. Dr. Reynolds offered to sell Kit in
the woods to my father, and put a low price
on him. My father bought him and told
Virgil, his carriage driver, to get word to Kit
that he had done it.
Kit soon came in and said to his new owner:
“Marse Gus, now that I belong to you, my
runaway days are over.”
He was sent to the plantation and when-
ever threatened with a whipping for disobe-
dience he would slip off and come to town to
my father, and beg his master to give him the
whipping and give him a note to the over-
seer saying that it had been done. He was as
loyal to his master as Gurth to Ivanhoe, and
when freed, refused to leave him. He was
cared for by him when he became old and
helpless and when he died, was buried and
mourned by Marse Gus.
SLAVERY AND ITS RESULTS 3I
The Poor 70%izes
The classification of the South’s ante-bellum
population as slave-owners and poor whites
leaves a small portion unclassed. There were
some well-to-do farmers who tilled their own
lands, some mechanics and tradesmen.
These last have been but little changed as the
result of emancipation, and make no part of
my story.
The poor whites form, and still form, an
important part of the population of the South.
Prosperity, adversity and intermarriage have
caused and continue to cause interchanges
between this class and the former slave-
owners and their descendants, but not in
numbers sufficient to modify either mate-
rially.
The habitat of the poor whites was in the
32 SLAVERY AND ITS RESULTS
barren lands—the mountains, hills and infer-
tile pine lands of the coast; and whether
mountaineers, hill-billies of the foot-hills, or
crackers of South Georgia and Florida, the
type was the same in character, habits and
appearance with slight modifications caused
by climate and environment.
Scant food and hard living had been their
lot for generations. They were disinclined to
farm-labor, except on small patches of corn
and sweet potatoes. They were contented
with rude log-cabins with stick-and-dirt
chimneys, for homes. Supplying their simple
wants by the sale of the products of the for-
est and their small fields, they led lives of a
primitive simplicity. They held aloof from the
busy world and resented any intrusion upon
their solitude. For the negroes they had a
strong antipathy; and for the rich owners of
the broad plantations they had mistrust, but
SLAVERY AND ITS RESULTS 33
not fear. This mistrust was often lessened by
better acquaintance, but their ways were dif-
ferent and between the two classes cordial re-
lations were exceptional.
The negro slaves returned their antipathy.
The refrain of one of their songs was, “I’d
rather be a nigger, than a poor white man.”
This feeling was increased by the fact that
most of the overseers came from the ranks of
the poor whites. -
In politics they usually sided against the
slave owners, and they were opposed to se–
cession, but when the South was invaded they
resolutely sided with the slave-owners in de-
fense of their homes and common country.
They made brave and efficient soldiers and
never flinched when the owners of twenty or
more slaves were exempted by law from
military service, though they then called it a
“rich man's war and a poor man’s fight.”
34 SLAVERY AND ITS RESULTS
Those who served in the war returned home
after it ended strengthened in mind and body
by a closer contact with men, with a clearer
vision of the ways of the busy world, and
better prepared for the upbuilding of the New
South, to which they have contributed by
large and successful efforts. In fact, they
have been and are developing wonderfully
in intelligence, thrift, and good citizenship,
retaining, however, and prizing the best of
their inherited characteristics—their love of
liberty and self-government. Abraham Lin-
coln came from this stock. -
Many think that these mountain people
are mostly moonshiners. This does them
great injustice. While there are moonshiners
among them their number is comparatively
small—less in proportion than that of the boot-
leggers of the cities. Like all mountaineers,
they have a jealous love of individual liberty,
SLAVERY AND ITS RESULTS 35
which resents the intrusion of revenue agents;
but the percentage of drunkards among them
is as small as among the people of the cities.
Their bitter hereditary feuds are historic, and
while they are mainly personal, and often
begin from trivial causes, they are not found-
ed upon political differences and are no more
bitter or lasting than were those of the houses
of Lancaster and York.
They hold aloof from strangers but when
their confidence is won their hospitality is
freely extended, and their friendships, when
once formed, are deep and abiding. A rugged
and primitive people they are, but with a
manhood as brave and a womanhood as pure,
as any people on earth.
36 SLAVERY AND ITS RESULTS
‘Race Caste
IN the upbuilding of civilization no single
cause has been more helpful than the preser–
vation of racial separation by caste. Under
its operation, the power and dominion of the
stronger and worthier races has been stimu-
lated and maintained. With mankind, as
with the lower forms of life, hybridism is pe-
nalized by nature and mongrels breed back on
the weaker side. In half-breeds, the qualities
of the inferior race usually predominate.
Some modern writers have cited the records
of Fred Douglas, Senator Bruce, and Booker
Washington as proving the advancement of
the negro race. They were mulattoes, and
being so few compared with the thousands
who have made no records, are the exceptions
that prove the rule.
SLAVERY AND ITS RESULTS 37
That Anglo-Saxon colonization has been
more potent in the advancement of civiliza-
tion than that of the Latin races is largely due
to the fact that the former classed half-breeds,
soc ally, with the inferior race; the latter
made no such distinction.
Some evidences of the development of
race-caste among the negroes of the South are
discernible; in their ancestors it was non-
existent. Clannishness and race-grouping in-
crease with them and these are the rudiments
of caste.
The immutable decrees of caste have
barred and will in the future bar, in the South,
social intercourse between the races as equals.
While to the negroes of full blood this means
but little, upon the sensibilities of mulattoes
and quadroons of education and Fefinement
(a small but increasing class), this bar inflicted
a wound, deep and incurable. The bar sinis-

38 SILAVERY AHD ITS RESULTS
ter has never been borne patiently by those
upon whom it has been branded nor can they
accept as just the decree that visits the sins of
the fathers upon the children. But in time
they may win their place in the sun as a class,
and fill it worthily, as Booker Washington and
others have done as individuals.
The whites of the South heartily support
and are proud of the achievements of the
negroes as fellow citizens, but with a fixed de-
termination to preserve unbroken racial sep-
aration. As expressed by Booker Washington
himself, “In all things that are purely social
we can be as separate as the fingers; yet one
as the hand in all things necessary to mutual
progress.”
The barriers of suffrage restriction will no
doubt be gradually removed, as the average
qualification for its exercise may justify.
General laws of necessity often work individ-
SLAVERY AND ITS RESULTS 39
ual hardships. Poets and orators have done
much mischeif picturing individual sufferings
as class wrongs or racial wrongs.
For a clearer understanding of the relations
of the negro race to the white, it must be
borne in mind that the form
or more years younger in development.
Whether, as a race, they are capable of reach-
ing the heights, is on the knees of the gods;
but they have made, are making, progress
upward.
Distant friends, in mistaken kindness,
have sought to measure them by standards
that apply to whites. The southerner, wheth-
er native-born or migrated Yankee, makes
no such mistake. To him the negro is not a
white man with a black skin. As Bob Taylor
expresses it, “It’s the nigger in a nigger that
makes a nigger a nigger.”

4O SLAVERY AND ITS RESULTS
The Three C/asses. In the Øar
WHEN the war began, in 1861, voluntary en-
listment for military service was large, and
the army afterwards increased by conscrip-
tion. The necessity for the production of
food, clothing, and, in short, everything re-
quired, fell upon the slaves, under the direc-
tion and control of such of their owners and
their agents as were not in the army. The
South had almost no manufactures, produced
chiefly cotton, corn, sugar, and tobacco, and
relied mainly upon importation for supplying
all its other needs. A rigid blockade cut off
its sources of supply. Its rapid development
of manufactures under the spur of necessity,
was marvellous, when even the very tools had
to be fashioned. History has few parallels to
this production of bricks without straw.
SLAVERY AND ITS RESULTS 4 I
There was much apprehension of an insur-
rection of slaves, but this proved groundless,
and with rare exceptions, they were docile and
faithful. As time passed, they slowly learned
that the success of the Union armies would
bring to them freedom and while no trouble
between them and their owners arose, as the
war drew to a close they were led to look to
the carpet-baggers and the Freedman's But
reau for guidance and control, rather than to
their late owners; and the latter, embittered
by defeat and the wreck of their fortunes,
developed a rancor for the carpet-baggers and
adventurers, who took control of the negroes; \,
and this feeling entended for a time to the ||
negroes themselves. Reconstruction, the Ku
Klux, and the fierce and finally successful
fight for political white supremacy followed.
The latter welded together the aristocrats and
the poor whites as nothing else could have

42 SLAVERY AND ITS RESULTs
done, and these classifications are now merely
historical. Wealth and poverty, immigration
and industrial development, have obliterated
the lines of separation between the two
classes, and only scattered individuals remain
true to type, as do domesticated reindeer and
buffalo. The writer himself may be one of
those individuals. -
Immediately after the war ended, and
during the darkest days of Reconstruction,
the negroes and their former owners, in the
main, stayed on the lands where they were
born; and, strange though it may seem, they
established and maintained the relations of
landlord and tenant, with little friction, in the
face of political discord. While the novelty
of freedom and thirst for change caused some
migrations of the negroes, they simply shifted
from one plantation to another not far away.
Since the industrial development of the
SLAVERY AND ITS RESULTS 43
South has largely expanded, tempted by
higher wages and the allurements of travel,
they have flocked to the mines, furnaces, and
cities, retaining always the intention of re-
turning from time to time to the farm. Per- …'
sistent labor agents are now drawing many
away to the large northern and western cities,
but the sunny South suits the negro better
than the colder climates, and will probably
be the permanent abiding-place of the race.
Domestic service is a special field of the
negro. His cheerful nature and special apti-
tude for such employment open the way for
him as cook, barber, porter, or chauffeur.
Initiative and leadership are of slow develop-
ment, but have been and are noticeable in
them; and instances of success are seen which
fifty years ago would have been thought im-
possible. They have accumulated property
and acquired homes of their own to an extent

|
aſſ
44 SLAVERY AND ITS RESU LTS

that proves their racial development. As a
race they made no visible progress for cen-
turies, in an environment and under condi-
tions no more unfavorable than those under
which white colonists have moved steadil
upward and forward. The evidence, howevel,
is all against the view that they have, und
more favorable conditions here, already
reached their maximum development.
‘Development of Initiative
by the Wegro
MANY, who lay stress upon the superiority of
the white race over the black, fail to consider
the history of the latter. Like other inferior
races, the negro has looked to the white man
for supervision and direction; during the sev-
eral hundred years of slavery this was com-
pulsory. Having little aptitude, and less op-
S LAVERY AND ITS RESU LTS 45
portunity, to look out for himself making pro-
vision for his future needs was no part of his
duty. His master did the necessary thinking
and made his plans; and the work of carrying
them out filled the life of the slave. When
freed, he assumed the task of self-direction
and of providing for his own wants with a
feebleness due to his racial incapacity and re-
cent servitude. For the successful prosecution
of his labors the white “boss” has succeeded
the old master, and is still necessary, but to an
extent that is slowly but visibly diminishing.
Even in slavery times there were negroes of
intelligence, will-power and energy, superior
to their fellows; and they were made foremen
and squad leaders. Since they were freed this
class has increased, and they have become
land-owners and managers of industries and
business enterprises of their own. Even the
masses have become customers of the savings
46 SLAVERY AND ITS RESULTS
banks, which are often owned and managed
by members of their own race. It is rare that
a negro is found now who has not a little ready
money hidden away, or carried upon his per-
son, as a squirrel stores nuts or a dog buries
a bone. The development of initiative and
self-direction has been slow and is not recog-
nized by the impatient or prejudiced ob-
server; but if the record of even a decade be (
fairly considered, the fact that they have |
made visible progress cannot be denied. |
Imitative by nature their habits, dress,
speech and aspirations are patterned as close-
ly as possible after those of the whites, though
they have begun to develop a cult and idioms,
of their own—slowly it is true, but discernibly.
i
schools and industries is more and more inſ,
evidence. They are building up a press º
v
3.
i
Pride in the growth and progress of their
literature of their own, founded more and
SLAVERY AND ITS RESULTS 47
more upon their racial development, and less
and less upon the burden of white supremacy.
‘Domestic ‘Relations ando 7/ſora/s
of the Wegro
WHEN slavery existed, the children of slaves
were clothed and fed by their owners and pa-
rental duties were few. While parental affec-
tion existed, particularly in childhood, it was
less strong as the children grew older, though
it was never entirely wanting; and so with the
ſ
W
f
affection of children for parents. Since they
were freed there has been a visible increase in
both.
Marriage of slaves was little more than co-
habitation, begun and changed at will; and
many children were born without even that
relation, for which accidents little shame was
visited upon their mothers. This laxity had
48 SLAVERY AND ITS RESULTS
its foundation partly in their recent rise from
savagery, and partly in their condition of ser-
vitude; and while their observance of the
decencies of the marital relation has much
increased since they were freed, laxity in
morals is more prevalent among them than
among whites. There are fewer births out of
wedlock than formerly; and such now involve
disgrace, and some loss of social standing;
and divorce and remarriage are replacing the
old changing of mates at will.
The law is no doubt one cause of this; but
the beginning of the development of social
standing and conventionalities is another con-
tributing cause.
SLAVERY AND ITS RESULTS 49
The Present and Probable Future
Habit of the Wegro
I THINK that the record of the last fifty years
clearly demonstrates that the South is and
will be the abiding-place of the negro. The
number of negroes in the United States in
I920 was Io,463,131, being about Io per cent
of the entire population. The increase in ten
years was 635,763, and in the South I62,804.
A little less than 90 per cent of the entire
negro population lives in the South, and a lit-
tle more than Io per cent in all the other
states. The number in New England was 79,-
oš I and in Kansas 57,925. In Kentucky,
Alabama, Tennessee, and Mississippi there
was a decrease of 138,880, and in the South
Atlantic states an increase of 212,632. The
negro knows the South and likes it. The
5O SLAVERY AND ITS RESULTS
South knows the negro, and likes him. A
tourist asked the negro bell-boy who took his
suit case to his room, where he was from. He
grinned and answered, “Boss, I ain’t from—
I was born here.”
(ió eria
NEGRO slaves in the South hung no harps on
the willows by the rivers of Babylon, and
wept not over a remembered Zion. Those
who were brought here had no memories of
happier days in their native jungles, and to
their descendants they handed down no tra-
ditions of their native land. -
British and American philanthropists, for
more than a century, have dreamed of and
planned for the negroes a republic of their own,
in their native land. The Republic of Liberia
was by them established more than a hundred
SLAVERY AND ITS RESULTS 5 I
years ago. They have labored unceasingly
upon their Utopia; and time and again the
colonization of negroes from the United States
has been attempted; and today in the list of
Republics Haiti stands lowest, and Liberia
next. Liberia has minerals, forests, harbors,
a variety of soils and altitudes. It has a
native population of about two millions,
mostly savages, and some cannibles. The
civilized population has never pushed back
far from the seaboard, and includes only
about twenty-five thousand negroes from the
United States.
From time to time, some syndicate or pro-
moter spreads among the negroes of the South
the propaganda of some Liberian colonization
scheme, painting it in bright colors as a Gar-
den of Eden, where the negro will come into
his own. But they are hat-passers, and not
leaders or pioneers; they reap a harvest of
52 SLAVERY AND ITS RESULTS
dollars from their dupes, and then the scheme
fades away like a summer cloud.
AWegroes in the Cities
SOCIAL nature and gregarious inclination are
growing stronger with the negroes of the
South, and they are massing in the cities in
crowded and unsanitary settlements, to the
injury of their health, morals and efficiency;
and if their progress upward as a race is re-
tarded, this will be one of the causes. Racial-
ly, they have not reached the degree of ad-
vancement that fits them to resist the cor-
rupting influences that prevail in the lower
walks of city life.
Every city has its slums where the hope-
less poor, the derelicts and the down-and-outs
gather, as trash and wreckage accumulate in
the eddies of a river. There are such negro
slums in every southern city, known by such
SLAVERY AND ITS RESULTS 53
names as “Scratch-Ankle” and “Buzzard's
Roost.”
Other settlements, of a better kind, in
which only negroes live, are grouped about
the industries in which they are employed, or
in the suburbs; the latter being occupied
by negro tenants, engaged in domestic service
or city employment.
Beyond Red Mountain, two miles from
Birmingham, is Rosedale, a negro village
where only negroes live. They own their own
homes, have gardens, fruit and flowers, and
their own churches, schools, and stores.
Crime is infrequent there and there are no
slums or low resorts.
In Birmingham there is a neighborhood of
more pretentious negro homes of a modern
type, where the negro bankers, doctors, and
merchants reside. º
The visitor who sees Scratch-Ankle and
54 SLAVERY AND ITS RESULTS
thinks he has seen how negroes live in south-
ern cities, is as much mistaken as the tourist
who explores Greenwich Village and carries
home the idea that he has seen the artistic
side of New York life. In the Southern city
he has seen the largest settlements and the
worst; but the better are slowly but visibly
growing.
Climatic Influences
A LAw of nature compels adjustments, in
every form of life, to local climatic conditions;
and this law operates profoundly in the for-
mation and modification of the habits,
customs, and character of mankind. Of all
races the Caucasian has the greatest power of
adjustment to any habitat on earth. They
have been the cosmopolites, conquerors, and
colonizers; but neither their will-power nor
SLAVERY AND ITS RESULTS 5S
their heredity has made them immune to the
inexorable law of climatic influence.
A careful consideration of the climate of
the South is necessary to a correct under-
standing of its people. From Kentucky,
where streams are frozen in winter, to South
Florida, which is frostless, there is a steady
approach to semi-tropical conditions. In a
general way, in the middle and lower South,
the winter is short and mild, the spring early,
autumn late, and summer long and hot. The
average annual rainfall is from forty to fifty
inches. The higher elevation of tilled land is
about two thousand feet, and the average
about four hundred, above sea-level. In the
severest cold, the ground is frozen only an inch
or two, and quickly thaws. There is rarely
any snow, and when it falls it melts in a few
days. No skates are sold south of Nashville.
Foodstuffs can be planted from February
56 SLAVERY AND ITS RESULTS
until August and with thrift and intelligent
cultivation, two and sometimes three crops
can be raised in succession. Adequate hous-
ing for persons and shelter for live-stock are
simple, and cheaper than in colder climates.
The short winters make smaller stores of
food and fuel necessary. The longer planting
season relieves from the necessity of early and
constant toil; and the heat of summer com-
pels more moderate labor and more rest than
are permissible in the colder North. The
white swampers of the Mississippi Bottoms
become immune to the humid air, the insects,
and malaria, and negroes can be seen on the
levee in New Orleans enjoying sleep on the
cotton-bales, in the noonday sun. This would
kill a white man.
Crops have been ample and the develop-
ment of the resources of the South has been
constant and great, because of the adjust-
SLAVERY AND ITS RESULTS 57
ment of the methods and habits of the people
to its climate.
The immigration to the South from the
colder states North has been constant and is
increasing; and the new-comers usually try,
at first, to work in Yankee fashion, thinking
that the natives are unthrifty and improv-
ident. Their example is stimulating, but
they soon come under the effect of climatic
conditions, and take on a resemblance to the
natives in methods, and even in character and
speech, to an extent that they would have
thought impossible. Even the rapidly in-
creasing throngs of winter tourists feel more
and more the lure of the sunny South, and
carry home an impression of its ideals and an
appreciation of its ways of doing things.
-º-º-º-
Now as I close my story, many fond memo-
ries of my beloved country, and an assurance
58 SLAVERY AND ITS RESULTS
i
;
:
of my faith in its people and its future, seek
expression; but age has its limitations, and I
know that much that I have written, or would
write has been, and will be, better told by
others; but by none with more pride in the
past and hope for the future than mine.
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