Transcriber's Note:
Obvious typographic errors have been corrected.
A Mississippi View
of Race Relations
in the South.
By DUNBAR ROWLAND.
Read before the Alumni Association of the University
of Mississippi,June 3rd, 1802.
JACKSON, MISS:
HARMON PUB. CO. PRINTERS,
——————
1903.
A MISSISSIPPI VIEW OF RACE RELATIONS
IN THE SOUTH.
By DUNBAR ROWLAND.
Director of Department of Archives and History.
Read before the Alumni Association of the University of Mississippi,
June 3rd 1902.
The purpose of all investigation should be to elicit truth. It istherefore the object of this discussion to give a truthful, accurateand unprejudiced statement of facts about the political, social andindustrial relations of the white man and the negro in the South. It isto be desired that not even an allusion shall be made that may raise afeeling of sectional prejudice in the breasts of any.
There are few men not of the South who can appreciate the sad trials ofthe past, or realize the dangerous problems of the future. Some may seethe true nobility, calm dignity and Spartan fortitude which the Southhas shown in meeting her responsibilities, few know what they reallymean. The wrongs and mistakes of the past would have driven a lessproud and noble race into anarchy.
When the perilous problems of the South are better understood, whenthe clouds which political passion create are swept away by a sinceresympathy and a desire to lend a helping hand, when a friendly interesttakes the place of unfriendly criticism, when what is right is the aimof all then and not until then can pressing problems be intelligentlysolved.
The great body of the people of this Republic want to do right. Theywant to deal justly. The Southern people know the negro and understandhim, let them work out and solve the serious problems surrounding themin a way which shall be of advantage to both races.
The social, political and industrial conditions which now exist in theSouth can only be properly appreciated by taking a brief backward viewof what has gone before.
From early colonial times to 1860 the South was a garden for thecultivation of all that was grand in oratory, true in science, sublimeand beautiful in poetry and sentiment, and enlightened and profound inlaw and statesmanship. That period produced a roll too long to read ofnoble spirits, bright wits and great scholars, whose names and deedsare preserved in the archives of the nation's glory. From the Potomacto the Rio Grande the Southern gentleman held sway. The South waslooked upon by its lordly owners as the most favored spot on earth. Itwas called the Fair Land by those who owned it and loved it. Ruin anddesolation came upon this fair land and its people.
The boom of batteries in the harbor of Charleston on a beautiful Aprilday in 1861 was the beginning of a bloody fraternal strife which laiddesolate the happy homes of the people everywhere, brought about thesacrifice of a half million l