A Word As To The Charge Itself In Considering The Third Reas

A Word As To The Charge Itself In Considering The Third Reason Assign

A word as to the charge itself. In considering the third reason assigned by the Southern white people for the butchery of blacks, the question must be asked, what the white man means when he charges the black man with rape. Does he mean the crime which the statutes of the states describe as such? Not by any means. With the Southern white man, any misalliance existing between a white woman and a colored man is a sufficient foundation for the charge of rape.

The southern white man says that it is impossible for a voluntary alliance to exist between a white woman and a colored man, and therefore, the fact of an alliance is a proof of force. In numerous instances where colored men have been lynched on the charge of rape, it was positively known at the time of lynching, and indisputably proven after the victim’s death, that the relationship sustained between the man and the woman was voluntary and clandestine, and that in no court of law could even the charge of assault have been successfully maintained. It was for the assertion of this fact, in the defense of her own race, that the writer hereof became an exile; her property destroyed and her return to her home forbidden under penalty of death, for writing the following editorial which was printed in her paper, the Memphis Flyer, in Memphis, Tenn., May 21, 1892: “Eight Negroes lynched since last issue of the one at Little Rock, Ark., last Saturday morning where the citizens broke (?) into the penitentiary and got their man; three near Anniston, Ala., one near New Orleans; and three at Clarksville, Ga.; the last three for killing a white man, and five on the same old racket-the new alarm about raping white women.

The same programme of hanging, then shooting bullets into the lifeless bodies was carried out to the letter. Nobody in this section of the country believes in the old threadbare lie that Negro men rape white women. If Southern white men are not careful, they will overreach themselves and public sentiment will have a reaction; a conclusion will then be reached which will be very damaging to the moral reputation of their women. But threats cannot suppress the truth, and while the Negro suffers the soul deformity, resultant from two and a half centuries of slavery, he is no more guilty of this vilest of all vile charges than the white man who would blacken his name. During all the years of slavery, no such charge was ever made, not even during the dark days of the rebellion.

While the master was away fighting to forge the fetters upon the slave, he left his wife and children with no protectors save the Negroes themselves. Likewise during the period of alleged “insurrection,” and alarming “race riots,” it never occurred to the white man that his wife and children were in danger of assault. Nor in the Reconstruction era, when the hue and cry was against “Negro Domination,” was there ever a thought that the domination would ever contaminate a fireside or strike toward the virtue of womanhood. It is not the purpose of this defense to say one word against the white women of the South. Such need not be said, but it is their misfortune that the white men of that section to justify their own barbarism assume a chivalry which they do not possess.

True chivalry respects all womanhood, and no one who reads the record, as it is written in the faces of the million mulattos in the South, will for a minute conceive that the southern white man had a very chivalrous regard for the honor due the women of his race, or respect for the womanhood which circumstances placed in his power. Virtue knows no color line, and the chivalry which depends on complexion of skin and texture of hair can command no honest respect. When emancipation came to the Negroes from every nook and corner of the North, brave young white women left their cultured homes, their happy associations and their lives of ease, and with heroic determination went to the South to carry light and truth to the benighted blacks.

They became the social outlaws in the South. The peculiar sensibility of the southern white men for women, never shed its protecting influence about them. No friendly word from their own race cheered them in their work; no hospitable doors gave them the companionship like that from which they had come. No chivalrous white man doffed his hat in honor or respect. They were “Nigger teachers”—unpardonable offenders in the social ethics of the South, and were insulted, persecuted and ostracized, not by Negroes, but by the white manhood which boasts of its chivalry toward women.

And yet these northern women worked on, year after year. Threading their way through dense forests, working in schoolhouses, in the cabin and in the church, thrown at all times and in all places among the unfortunate and lowly Negroes, whom they had come to find and to serve, these northern women, thousands and thousands of them, have spent more than a quarter of a century in giving the colored people their splendid lessons for home and heart and soul. Without protection, save that which innocence gives to every good woman, they went about their work, fearing no assault and suffering none. Their chivalrous protectors were hundreds of miles away in their northern homes, and yet they never feared any “great dark-faced mobs.”

They never complained of assaults, and no mob was ever called into existence to avenge crimes against them. Before the world adjudges the Negro a moral monster, a vicious assailant of womanhood and a menace to the sacred precincts of home, the colored people ask the consideration of the silent record of gratitude, respect, protection and devotion of the millions of the race in the South, to the thousands of northern white women who have served as teachers and missionaries since the war. These pages are written in no spirit of vindictiveness. We plead not for the colored people alone, but for all victims of the terrible injustice which puts men and women to death without form of law.

During the year 1894, there were 132 persons executed in the United States by due form of law, while in the same year, 197 persons were put to death by mobs, who gave the victims no opportunity to make a lawful defense. No comment need be made upon a condition of public sentiment responsible for such alarming results. Ignorant and inexperienced, it is not strange that in the first years of our new life we began at the top instead of at the bottom; that a seat in Congress or the state legislature was more sought than real estate or industrial skill; that the political convention or stump speaking had more attractions than starting a dairy farm or truck garden. A ship lost at sea for many days suddenly sighted a friendly vessel. From the mast of the unfortunate vessel was seen a signal, “Water, water; we die of thirst!” The answer from the friendly vessel at once came back, “Cast down your bucket where you are.” The captain of the distressed vessel, at last heeding the injunction, cast down his bucket, and it came up full of fresh, sparkling water.

To those of my race who underestimate the importance of cultivating friendly relations with the southern white man, who is their next-door neighbor, I would say: “Cast down your bucket where you are”—cast it down in making friends in every manly way of the people of all races by whom we are surrounded. Cast it down in agriculture, mechanics, in commerce, in domestic service, and in the professions. Our greatest danger is that in the great leap from slavery to freedom we may overlook the fact that the masses of us are to live by the productions of our hands, and fail to keep in mind that we shall prosper in proportion as we learn to dignify and glorify common labour, and put brains and skill into the common occupations of life. No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem. It is at the bottom of life we must begin, and not at the top. To those of the white race who look to the incoming of those of foreign birth and strange tongue and habits for the prosperity of the South, were I permitted I would repeat what I say to my own race, “Cast down your bucket where you are.”

Cast it down among the eight millions of Negroes whose habits you know, whose fidelity and love you have tested in days when to have proved treacherous meant the ruin of your firesides. Cast down your bucket among these people who have, without strikes and labour wars, tilled your fields, cleared your forests, built your railroads and cities, and brought forth treasures from the bowels of the earth. While doing this, you can be sure in the future, as in the past, that you and your families will be surrounded by the most patient, faithful, law-abiding, and unresentful people that the world has seen. In all things that are purely social we can be as separate as the finders, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress.

The wisest among my race understand that the agitation of questions of social equality is the extremest folly, and that progress in the enjoyment of all the privileges that will come to us must be the result of severe and constant struggle rather than of artificial forcing. No race that has anything to contribute to the markets of the world is long in any degree ostracized. It is important and right that all privileges of the law be ours, but it is vastly more important that we be prepared for the exercise of these privileges. The opportunity to earn a dollar in a factory just now is worth infinitely more than the opportunity to spend a dollar in an opera-house. The Civil Rights of Freedmen in Mississippi Section 1.

Paper For Above instruction

The above text is a profound exploration of racial tensions, justice, and societal progress in the post-Civil War American South. It critically examines the pervasive injustices faced by Black Americans, especially in the context of false accusations of crimes such as rape, and highlights the racial violence inflicted upon them under false pretenses. The discourse scrutinizes the myth of Black male criminality and emphasizes the stark contrast between the treatment of Black and white women and men during slavery, Reconstruction, and subsequent eras. This paper aims to analyze the historical context, social implications, and the broader message conveyed about racial justice, equality, and the importance of fostering mutual respect and understanding among different racial groups.

The speaker condemns the widespread lynching and extrajudicial killings driven by racial prejudice, pointing out that many accusations of assault were baseless and propelled by racial hysteria and injustice. The narrative draws attention to the valor and sacrifices of Northern white women and their work with Black communities, contrasting their moral integrity with the perceived hypocrisy of Southern white men who profess chivalry but act barbarically. It underscores the importance of genuine respect for womanhood and criticizes the superficial racial distinctions that undermine true virtue and dignity.

Further, the text advocates for racial harmony and strategic cooperation, emphasizing the significance of building positive, neighborly relations instead of fostering divisions based on racial superiority or social supremacy. It points out that economic progress and mutual prosperity hinge on acknowledging the dignity of labor and the value of skills, regardless of race. Particularly, it stresses that Black Americans should focus on industry, agriculture, and education as means to uplift themselves and foster community development, rather than futile pursuits of social equality through agitation or artificial reforms.

This comprehensive critique culminates in urging White Americans, especially in the South, to trust in the resilience and loyalty of Black communities, to foster genuine cooperation, and to recognize the importance of diligent work and moral progress. The overall message advocates patience, perseverance, and pragmatic unity as pathways to true progress. The historical and social insights presented serve as a call for justice, humility, and mutual respect, ensuring societal advancement that benefits all racial groups equally.

References

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• Foner, E. (1988). Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863–1877. Harper & Row.
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