History of Negro Soldiers in the Spanish-American War, and Other Items of InterestJohnson, Edward A. (Edward Austin)
History
History of Negro Soldiers in the Spanish-American War, and Other Items of Interest
Johnson, Edward A. (Edward Austin)
Spanish-American War, 1898 -- Participation, African American
THAT MOBOCRACY IS SUPREME in many parts of the Union is no longer
a mooted question. It is a fact; and one that forebodes serious
consequences, not only to the Negro but to any class of citizens who
may happen to come into disfavor with some other class.
[Illustration: CHURCH OF SAN SEBASTIANO, MANILLA.]
WHAT THE NEGRO SHOULD do under such circumstances must be left to the
discretion of the individuals concerned. Some advise emigration, but
that is impracticable, en masse, unless some suitable place could be
found where any considerable number might go, and not fare worse.
The colored people will eventually leave those places where they are
maltreated, but "whether it is better to suffer the ills we now bear
than flee to those we know not of," is the question. The prevailing
sentiment among the masses seems to be to remain for the present,
where they are, and through wise action, and appeals to the Court of
Enlightened Christian Sentiment, try to disarm the mob. There is no
doubt a class of white citizens who regret such occurrences, and from
their natural horror of bloodshed, and looking to the welfare and
reputation of the communities in which such outrages occur, and
feeling that withal the Negro makes a good domestic and farm hand,
will, and do counsel against mob violence. In many places where mobs
have occurred such white citizens have been invaluable aids in saving
the lives of Negroes from mob violence; and trusting that these
friends will increase and keep up their good work the Negro has seldom
ever left the scene of mob violence in any considerable numbers, the
home ties being strong, and he instinctively loves the scene of his
birth. He loves the white men who were boys with him, whose faces
he has smiled in from infancy, and he would rather not sever those
friendly ties. A touching incident is related in reference to a
colored man in a certain town where a mob was murdering Negroes right
and left, who came to the door of his place of business, and seeing
the face of a young white man whom he had known from his youth, asked
protection home to his wife and five children; the reply came with an
oath, "Get back into that house or I will put a bullet into you." The
day before this these two men had been "good friends," had "exchanged
cigars"-but the orders of the mob were stronger in this instance than
the ties of long years of close friendship. Another instance, though,
will show how the mob could not control the ties of friendship of
the white for the black. It was the case of a colored man who was
blacklisted by a mob in a certain city, and fled to the home of a
neighboring white friend who kept him in his own house for several
days until escape was possible, and in the meantime, summoned his
white neighbors to guard the black man's family-threatening to shoot
down the first member of the mob who should enter the gate, because,
as he said, "you have no right to frighten that woman and her children
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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