THE FUTURE OF THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH. 43 



Much has been written of late years concerning the condition of 

 morality among the emancipated people, but little in extenuation 

 thereof. During the existence of slavery, the status of married life 

 among the blacks, especially among those of the rural districts, was 

 much higher and more respectable than it is now. Slave-owners for 

 sanitary and police reasons required a certain amount of conjugal fidel- 

 ity. In all cases masters were consulted as to marriage alliances, and 

 in most cases insisted that the ceremony should be performed in a pub- 

 lic manner either by a magistrate or a minister of the gospel with all 

 the formality that obtained among the whites. Conjugal fidelity was 

 insisted on and enforced, if need be, by punishment. Man and wife 

 finding themselves bound together by an indissoluble tie, did as the 

 more intelligent of other races do, made the best of their bonds and 

 lived harmoniously. This is all changed. After the war, the highest 

 courts of the country decided that as matrimony is a civil contract 

 and as slaves could not make legal contracts, ergo, no marriage entered 

 into in a state of bondage was valid or could be enforced. The result 

 of this correct but unfortunate decision was, that every former slave 

 who lusted after a new and younger wife put aside the old one. The 

 young married negroes, seeing this free-and-easy way of upsetting do- 

 mestic arrangements, and without caring for the reason thereof, availed 

 themselves of the first domestic quarrel to separate and select new 

 partners. The newly separated, if continuing in the same neighbor- 

 hood, did not of course marry other wives, but lived in concubinage ; 

 but, if they removed to other States, they did not hesitate to marry 

 again. If the crime of bigamy were followed by sure punishment, 

 there would not be j)enitentiaries enough in the South to hold the 

 guilty of a single State. The colored people do not appear to see 

 the viciousness of this condition of affairs ; and the white people, 

 grand juries included, do not care to take the matter up, and so it 

 continues. 



A great fault of the negro is a lack of veracity. It may be 

 safely ventured that there is not a magistrate, judge, or lawyer in the 

 South who will assert that the statements of negroes, especially of those 

 out of cities, are to be relied upon. To be sure, there are many hon- 

 orable exceptions, but it is a race characteristic. Many hesitate to 

 tell a direct falsehood, but there are but few who will not lie construct- 

 ively in concealing the truth. It is hard to condemn them. In times 

 of slavery their only safety from deserved punishment was conceal- 

 ment and by lying out of the difficulty, assisted by the concurrent tes- 

 timony of friends. The habit descends from father to child. The 

 first lesson taught a colored child as soon as it is able to comprehend 

 the lesson is, "If the white folks ask you anything, always answer, 'I 

 don't know.'" Absolute ignorance, even if assumed, is safer than a 

 manufactured lie. Often I have known a colored parent to chastise 

 her child unmercifully for answering truthfully some simple question 



