Viewing page 62 of 237

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

Speeches, they said nothing that I could hear to incite the colored people or offend the whites. Still there was enough drunken white men who were very anxious to get up a fight and I am sure they would have succeeded were it not for the prompt interference of Mr James. M. McCarge one of the County Magistrates. I wish this political speaking would be stopped as it does no good at the present time, I see no necessity for it, but I do see that it is likely to bring on a desperate fight between the races, and that is just what a great many white men want. The colored people generally speaking, work and strive hard to make a living by their labor, but owing to small wages and dishonest treatment they are hard set to make enough to support themselves and their families, wages range from eight to fifteen dollars per month by the year, day laborers get fifty cents per day, and in busy times they get more according to the demand some work for shares of the crops, and when the time for settlement comes, they find their share very small, and a great many are brought in debt to the employer or owner of the land. I must say in regard to temperance, that I have rarely seen so many drunken men both white and colored as I saw last Court day at this (Charlotte) Court House. I am not aware of any temperance organization in either of the counties in this division

Respectfully Submitted