The Journal of Negro History, Volume 4, 1919Various
History
The Journal of Negro History, Volume 4, 1919
Various
African Americans -- Periodicals
In one of these pictures, "Old Auntie" sits on the veranda
knitting stockings while she gazes on herds of buffalo and
antelope, which are feeding on the prairies beyond the wheat
fields. Approaching the gate a handsome colored man is seen
coming in from the hunt, with a dead buck and a string of wild
turkeys slung over his shoulders. These agricultural cartoons, in
vivid coloring, the writer reports are doing much to influence
the minds of the more ignorant Negroes.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] This appeared in _The Vicksburg Commercial Daily Advertiser_, May
6, 1879.
REMARKS ON THIS EXODUS BY FREDERICK DOUGLASS[1]
WASHINGTON, May 6.
Fred. Douglass, marshal of the District, is out in a very strong
letter, published in the _National View_, the new Greenback organ
here, vigorously opposing the emigration of Negroes from the
South. He earnestly advises the colored men to remain at home.
The letter has caused a good deal of annoyance among the leading
Republicans, who have been vigorously working up this movement,
believing that it was a godsend to them and would be a strong
issue in future campaigns.
Fred. Douglass winds up his letter as follows:
"I am opposed to this exodus, because it is an untimely
concession to the idea that white people and colored people
cannot live together in peace and prosperity unless the whites
are a majority and control the legislation and hold the offices
of the State. I am opposed to this exodus, because it will pour
upon the people of Kansas and other Northern States a multitude
of deluded, hungry, homeless people to be supported in a large
measure by alms. I am opposed to this exodus, because it will
enable our political adversaries to make successful appeals to
popular prejudice (as in the case of the Chinese) on the ground
that these people, so ignorant and helpless, have been imported
for the purpose of making the North solid by outvoting
intelligent white Northern citizens. I am opposed to this exodus,
because 'rolling stones gather no moss;' and I agree with Emerson
that the men who made Rome or any other locality worth going to
see stayed there. There is, in my judgment, no part of the United
States where an industrious and intelligent man can serve his
race more wisely and efficiently than upon the soil where he was
born and reared and is known. I am opposed to this exodus because
I see in it a tendency to convert colored laboring men into
traveling tramps, first going North because they are persecuted,
and then returning South because they have been deceived in their
expectations, which will excite against themselves and against
our whole race an increasing measure of popular contempt and
scorn. I am opposed to this exodus because I believe that the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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