Negro Common Sense

"Negroes" cannot make decisions on their own without the leadership from men like Wilson, Wells, or Hunnicutt.

Negro Common Sense. "When negroes are left to themselves, and are not under the phrensy excited by the hypocritical orations of the Wilsons, Wellses, and Hunnicutts, they readily perceive the true nature of their condition, and the influences by which adventurers and scalawags are endeavoring to use them for selfish purposes. As specimens of the honest and straightforward views of sagacious negroes who had watched the course of these unprincipled and selfish whites, we publish this morning two capital speeches delivered by negro speakers in New Orleans. They will be found most truthful. They track the carpet-baggers to their very holes ; and from the preparations that are going on, we imagine that the next process will be to "twist them out." This is the fashion of boys and negroes in the South. When a hare is run into a hollow tree, a hickory pole is cut, and one end split and splintered. This end is passed in until it reaches the hare, and being entangled in the fur, and twisted at the same time, a hold is gotten upon him so strong that he is drawn out by it ! This is the way that the negro will draw out the carpet-bagger : a rascal who has so used and abused him that revenge for his hypocrisy and perfidy will be sweet to the African. The negro is fit for everything but the office the carpetbagger wants, Look at Dr. Bayne - so often beaten by carpet-baggers and negroes, and his life so often saved by the intervention of southern people - and all for the offence of becoming a candidate for Congress ! The speeches we allude to have some very happy and homely allusions to former plenty and present want, and possess some exquisite touches at the penuriousness of carpet-baggers compared with the generosity of southern gentlemen, who, the orators say, truly, are the only true friends of the black man. These are sentiments daily growing in force and sincerity amongst the colored people, who have been grossly deceived.

“Negro Common Sense,” Reconstructing Virginia, accessed May 28, 2023, https://reconstructingvirginia.richmond.edu/items/show/1094.