Southern History Series: DeBow’s Review on African-Americans (1860)

July 10, 2019 Hunter Wallace Alt-South, American South, Culture, Dixie, History, Negroes, Race Realism, Race Relations, Racism, Secession, Slavery, southern heritage, Southern History Series, Southern Nationalism, White Supremacy, Whiteness 12

Editor’s Note: This is straight from the horse’s mouth. Don’t take my word for it. Click through the links to the archives. Read these articles yourself.

In this series of articles, we will start exploring what the Confederates really believed about race by taking a look at the discourse on the subject in the Old South’s leading secessionist journals. There is a mountain of disinformation about this subject floating around the internet that has been spread by Baby Boomer conservatives who are morally crippled by White guilt. Look at the obese Boomer in the photo above festooned with medals and listening attentively to H.K. Edgerton.

Please ignore those people. Just as their “Judeo-Christianity” is a unique product of their own generation, these people had nothing to do with the historical Confederacy and have wildly misrepresented it. It wasn’t their faith that inspired Notre Dame Cathedral or the Reformation. It certainly wasn’t their beliefs that inspired the historical Confederacy either.

W.W. Wright, Free Negro Rule, DeBow’s Review, 1860

“We are in search of a moral, happy, and voluntarily industrious community of free negroes. We prosecute the search with some labor and pains, because the results should, with reasonable and philanthropical men, have much influence on their opinions respecting the nation of blacks in our midst. We suppose no such community exists upon the face of the earth. We have not found it in Hayti; it is not in Jamaica, and we search for it in vain for throughout the British West Indies. . . .”

W.W. Wright, Free Negroes In The Northern States, DeBow’s Review, 1860

“The fact is, the negroes in the North display their inherent characteristics of laziness, determined ignorance, sensuality, vice, filth, and improvidence – traits which disgust all virtuous and industrious citizens; and to charge these traits upon Southern slavery, shows a total misconception of the African character, which has been improved and elevated, as we have shown, by slavery in the South.

We will produce abundant proof in support of our statement, in respect of the viciousness of the blacks, and also facts to show that in all parts of the North the mortality among free negroes is more than double that of southern slaves, or even of the whites.

And first as to the viciousness of these people. Mr. Everett stated in a speech before the Colonization Society, in 1833, that while the free blacks of Massachusetts formed only about one seventy-fifth part of the population, yet one sixth of the convicts in the prisons of that State were of that class.

In a memorial presented to the Legislature of Connecticut in 1834, it was stated, that “from the licentiousness of their (the negroes) general habits, they have invariably depreciated the value of the property by their location in its neighborhood; and that from their notorious uncleanliness and filth, they have become common nuisances to the community.”

From the report of the Warden of the Connecticut State prison for 1838, it appears “that the number of blacks in confinement, compared with the whites, is ten or twelve times greater than is the proportion of black to the white population in that State.”

“In 1832, a colony of free blacks was expelled from Ohio, on account of their dissoluteness, and dishonesty, and misery, being considered in the light of vagabonds and nuisances. A college for free negroes was projected in New Haven about the same time, and the respectable citizens opposed and suppressed it, because the increase of that class of population was considered an evil.”

W.W. Wright, Free Negroes In Hayti, DeBow’s Review, 1859

“And, indeed, such were the expectations of the friends of the negro race. Let them be but once free, remove the depressing shackles of slavery, unbind their arms, said they, and soon we will see a race fully equal to the whites; agriculture will progress, commerce be fostered, and the cause of education and religion be advanced; Euclids were to spring from the mountains, Aesops and Dumas’ were to write verses and romances in the valleys, and the golden shores of the Artibonite were to witness a pastoral peace and happiness, unequaled in the happy valley of Amhara, or in the future Utopia of the Jesuits, on the banks of the Panara!

How have these expectations been fulfilled? What has been the results of this fifty years’ trial under circumstances the most favorable could be imagined? …”

W.W. Wright, Amalgamation, DeBow’s Review, 1860

“But opinions from such sources, so gravely expressed, require equally grave consideration, and we therefore seriously propound these questions: Shall the white and black races in America abandon all distinctions of color, and unite, socially and politically as one people? Shall the warp of Anglo-Saxon civilization, now thrown across the great North American continent, be crossed by the woof of Ethiopian barbarism? Shall the interests of the two races, once so diverse, but now so identical, be fused through a process of socialism into one element, or shall they exist upon the fundamental principles governing the States themselves, viz, as one, and yet several – united, and yet distinct – seeking a common goal by separate pasts? …

We shall endeavor to show, so far as we are capable of doing in our limited space, that all these questions should be answered in the negative; that prejudice of color as it is would require additional force and asperity; that the danger to the Union, nay to the very existence of the nation in any form, would be increased tenfold; and that cruelty and the decline of morality, and civilization would be the certain consequences of such a step …”

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10 Comments

  1. The actual facts are a ringing rebuke to the clowns of today who whine about “the blaaaacks were soooo nice and honest and law-abiding up until the Democrats put them back on the plantation with welfare!”

    No. The nigger is a nigger is a nigger. They’ve always been stupid, violent, impulsive, destructive, and ruinous.

    They can be kept in check to a degree with force and fear, vigorously applied, but beyond that, will revert to the type of tribal warfare and destruction of their immediate surroundings.

    There is no place for these subhuman jigaboos in a country inhabited by Whites. Return them all to Africa, where they can live (and die) as they want, and we will be free of their insufferable burden.

    • Ironsides>>>No. The nigger is a nigger is a nigger. They’ve always been stupid, violent, impulsive, destructive, and ruinous<<<

      You don’t read much, do you? Those ‘niggers’ and their green thumbs made antebellum Dixie rich. They also gave her much of her cuisine and music, her sauntering dialect and sauntering attitude. Millions of southern whites have way more than one drop of African blood flowing thru their veins.

      Are you going to send all those people away too?
      Wouldn’t want them to spoil your wankers’ paradise!

      • I read plenty, and I can tell you how full of it you are. Negroes with green thumbs? That’s a fanciful notion. Millions of starving Africans clearly demonstrate otherwise. In fact, hi-tech farms in Rhodesia and South Africa were capable of producing sufficient amounts of food for their populaces until the land was confiscated and redistributed to Negroes who have let these once bountiful enterprises lapse.

        Most traditional Southern Music was derived from Scotch-Irish folk music. You are thinking of Rock-N-Roll, which itself was a blend of forms ranging from Country and Folk, to Gospel and African Beats, to Jazz and Rhythm & Blues. As for the instruments, none were African in origin. Have you ever seen what qualifies as a Banjo in Africa? It is certainly a far cry from what is played here. An African Banjo consists of a gourd attached to a stick, with a piece of sinew stretched from the gourd to the end of the stick. Other than that, and drums, Africans had no musical instruments.

        Genuine Southern attitude is derived from the Cavalier, or Knight. It is gentlemanly, courteous, mannerly, virtuous, brave and chivalrous, in short, everything the Negro is not. If anything, the Negro has corrupted Southern culture, not created it.

        The Negro has butchered the English language, not refined it. Traditional Southern speech patterns are products of the Scotch-Irish ancestry. The slang spoken by Southern White youth today may have devolved from the Negro… My Bad, It’s all Good, Yo, Ho, Dzamn, Beotch, etc…

        Cuisine? With only a small percentage of the Southern people owning slaves, who did the cooking for all of the other poor White folks in the South? What did they eat? How did they know how to prepare it? You are grasping at straws.

        There are fifty shades of Negro in Africa too, it doesn’t mean that they have a single drop of White blood, it’s simply variations in melanin levels. I do not believe millions of White people have Black genes, at least not dating back to the Antebellum period. Some do, most do not. The recent wave of miscegenation contributes to the number that do, and that needs to be addressed. If it is in evidence, then they should be classified as Mulatto, Quadroon, Octaroon, etc…

        • Cowtown,

          I think you’re owed a response in light of your extensive treatment of my comment.

          (Missouri Ruffian, I’m afraid your comment was not very well thought out so I’m afraid you’ll just have to read this one. Although I will gratify you by noting that ranting against Catholics used to only be a Yankee thing and was absent from both Antebellum Dixie and the leaders of the Confederacy. Of course that doesn’t rule out modern day posers such as yourself from picking it up. Go for it, Yankee Boy!!!)

          Back to Cowtown….
          I have asked other contributors here to back up their claims to no avail so hopefully you can be the first. For what it’s worth, you’ll be my hero.

          But before I get contentious let me say You don’t seem to disagree w me much with regards to African influence on Southern music, cuisine, or language. I don’t claim that the influence is overwhelming, but it is there. Just take for example the blues. If you agree it is an African invention, then I’d follow up with a question like….how well would Hank be known if he hadn’t sung any blues? I rest my case.

          With regards to chivalry’s role in the South, I totally agree, but have to take your claim to its conclusion. Chivalry was a CHRISTIAN invention. Knights would spend a vigil adoring the Blessed Sacrament before being knighted and swear to defend the Church against heretics. People like Richard Spencer are atheists….so I guess if they want to pretend to be knights, then they would have to start becoming Christians. Next, Knights were to defend weak. This is where the whole identitarian movement loses any semblance to chivalry. Our Lord has commanded us to teach all nations. Where does sending people up chimneys fit in to that? Where does deporting natives from their fatherland fit in to that? I really want to know!

          With regards to black slaves being the power that made Dixie boom and bloom, you are being willfully ignorant. Many plantations not only had black slave drivers, they had black overseers. That means everything having to do with growing things was being orchestrated by slaves. When ‘freedom’ came and many blacks left the plantations and ended up doing ‘freedom’ things like being unemployed and going to jail ., well, …the South has yet to recover her former status as the richest region in the country. My argument was not about blacks in Timboktu. I’m sorry I did not make that clear for you. If you want to refute me…just prove that Dixie was not productive and rich. (or maybe that there were white slaves with green thumbs working the plantations?)

          With regards to southern white’s DNA, please look over some of the articles published, like this (https://www.vox.com/2014/12/22/7431391/guess-where-white-americans-have-the-most-african-ancestry) ‘
          Saying you don’t believe it because it hurts your feelings is not an argument. I believe it because the researchers were not trying prove what they discovered. Now they have to make the argument :’White southerners are so racist that they are part black’. That just doesn’t pack as much punch.

          I also believe it because it makes sense. The DNA indicates miscegenation occuring hundreds of years ago…like when many single white indentured servants were in need of wives and there were fewer white women than white men in VA and the Carolinas. The idea of ‘whiteness’ and all the polygenecist nonsense didn’t get cooked up (by enlightenment types) until the mid 17th century….by the time the colonists got that memo…enough mixing had taken place to still be detected hundreds of years later, The South was greatly affected by the whiteness theory…(who doesn’t want to be enlightened? or whitened?).and eventually cracked down on interracial marriages. end of story.

          • >>>Missouri Ruffian, I’m afraid your comment was not very well thought out so I’m afraid you’ll just have to read this one. Although I will gratify you by noting that ranting against Catholics used to only be a Yankee thing and was absent from both Antebellum Dixie and the leaders of the Confederacy. Of course that doesn’t rule out modern day posers such as yourself from picking it up. Go for it, Yankee Boy!!!<<<

            You insult the Southern people saying that they have negro ancestry and then demand a "well thought out" response?

            You are also deliberately obtuse to the fact that the Yankee states are the most Catholic states in the country and that those states also promote every sort of degenerate filth with the blessings of Poope Francis himself. Popish churches and bishops in the North encourage anti-southron bigotry in the name of condemning white supremacy. You should know that it was a great Southron Thomas E. Watson who exposed the crimes of your priests in this country.

            What is your motive? why are you promoting race mixing in the South here and elsewhere? who pays you to do this?

      • >>>Those ‘niggers’ and their green thumbs made antebellum Dixie rich. They also gave her much of her cuisine and music, her sauntering dialect and sauntering attitude. Millions of southern whites have way more than one drop of African blood flowing thru their veins.<<<

        If you had told a Southron from old Dixie that he had the blood of niggers in his veins, he'd have hanged you from the nearest oak tree and left your carcass for the vultures.

        Unfortunately, some modern Southrons are emasculated and pusillanimous but that doesn't mean you can go around and spread your Popish lie that Southrons are a race of mongrels.

        Away with you and your Popish tricks. They won't work in the South. Leave the South alone and go to Hell with your child-molesting and nun-raping priests.

  2. For most of my life, I was fed the CivNat kumbayah nonsense. I wanted to believe it, too. But a lifetime of seeing that there are marked differences between racial groups — not only in statistical studies about levels of intelligence or propensity for committing crimes, but IRL in behavior — have shown me the obvious conclusion that we don’t belong together. Oddly, every other racial group but our own knows this. I’ve never seen Hispanics hanging out with Asians, who really don’t like the blacks. Blacks want nothing to do with the Somalis, who no one seems to like. We need to stop pretending human nature is malleable, and acknowledge basic truths about ourselves.

  3. “1Look at the obese Boomer in the photo above festooned with medals and listening attentively to H.K. Edgerton.”

    Medals he didn’t earn on any real battlefield.

  5. This is part of what ultimately led to my expulsion from the S.C.V. I called out Edgerton over a decade ago by drawing attention to the fact that he expects to be monetarily compensated for what every one else does for The Cause free of charge. He is a novelty act, a Black man in a Confederate Uniform, who sells T-Shirts adorned with his own picture complete with a caption identifying him as a modern day Southern hero.

    I could go on and on about this charlatan, but I will just share this quote that I circulated around when H. K. Edgerton was invited to be the Guest Speaker at the Texas Division S.C.V. Convention that was held in Fort Worth in 2017: “Whomsoever, high or low, that upholds or encourages social equality between the Negro and the White Man is an enemy to his race.” – Governor Samuel Willis Tucker Lanham – United Confederate Veterans Reunion, Fort Worth Texas, September 9, 1903.

    I found the quote while researching through the old Star Telegram newspapers on microfilm It has been used by several columnists since I made it public, but I think that I can take credit for resurrecting it from the archives. It was perfect because, not only was the S.C.V. reunion being held in Fort Worth (the same city where Lanham had made his speech) but the reunion was being hosted by the notoriously Negrophilic S.W.T. Lanham Camp, which is likely the most Politically Correct camp in the State. They consistently promote the kind of garbage that Hunter’s article describes, they often partner with the Sons of Union Veterans for ceremonies and dedications, reciting Bellamy’s Pledge, and proudly, damnably hoisting the U. S. Flag over Confederate Graves.

    The following is from the Lanham Camp’s newsletter following the Reunion. The “nutcase” that is referred to, I am honored to say, is Yours Truly…

    I have a lot on my mind after the Reunion, and which from what feedback I’ve had
    from members of other Camps, was a success.
    One local nutcase showed up Thursday afternoon and left after making his presence
    known. He had his two minutes of notoriety. Then on Saturday morning BLM made
    a brief appearance and were asked to leave. I figure our good “friend” at the Fort
    Worth Startlegram or the nutcase alerted them to our gathering. Minor “glitches”,
    the party went on.
    As a Camp we came together to pull this thing off! I’m sure countless hours were
    put in by our Movers and Shakers. I felt like I was on the fringe of things but tried to
    help out where I could. Hats off to Commander Larry Martin for sure. God only
    knows why any Camp would want to sponsor one of these! It’s not for the money or
    glory it seems. Duty perhaps?
    I have a friend who knows about my association with the SCV. He somewhat understands our mission
    but one day he told me that we, the SCV, seemed like a bunch of angry old white guys.
    That remark came to mind at our business meeting on Saturday when our usual Pompous Pontificator
    got up and had his two minutes of “fame”. As one Camp member commented, he probably had a valid
    point but why does he always have to seem to be so angry? Oh well, he threw a monkey wrench into the
    meeting but we survived. Apparently his “memory” is selective however in how our Constitution works
    at times, but that’s a story for a different time.
    Abraham Lincoln was the greatest President ever!! Not really……..just seeing if anyone is reading this.
    Sometimes I wonder! Lack of feedback is the bane of all newsletter editors it seems.
    Personally, and this is MY opinion, I found Mr. H.K. Edgerton entertaining and Mr. Al Arnold informative.
    In fact I’m reading his book, “Robert E. Lee’s Orderly”. Well written from a little different perspective.
    Not to take anything away from H.K., he has a message and a great way of presenting it, and I doubt
    many, if any could repeat his past deeds, just different approaches. Like I said, these are MY opinions and
    you know what they say about those and certain parts of the body!
    I just saw on the news where the city of Orlando, Florida is moving a Confederate Monument from the
    courthouse square I believe. At least they are moving it to the Confederate section of a cemetery. What
    struck me as odd was the honorable (?) mayor (lower case on purpose) took them upon him/herself without
    a vote from the City Council to do this.. Apparently mayors in Florida have more power than I realized.

    Back to the Reunion. As usual I got to see some old friends, had the opportunity to be nice to those I
    know that don’t like me and God I LOVE doing that. You have NO idea!! What I really enjoyed the most
    was getting to know more of our newer Camp Members. Seeing I don’t get to meetings like I used to I
    really liked this. Our Camp is growing and the quality of our newer members gives me hope.

    Humbly Yours,
    Jerry Puckett
    Editor, Cook, and Chief Bottle Washer
    The Bugler
    Gov. W.T. Lanham Camp #586

    That Puckett guy was rumored to live an “alternative” lifestyle, but I never found any confirmation of that. He never made much of an impact or had anything original to say and seems to have since, like so many other revolving door members, disappeared from the scene. I thought it was telling that H. K., who usually types up a lengthy after action report on his Heritage 411 website, said nothing of the Texas Reunion after it had concluded. I’m pretty sure that I had more than just two minutes of notoriety. And, even if that was all that I’ve been allotted, it was certainly more than Mr. Puckett ever achieved. (Actually, I’ve been in several newspaper articles, and I’ve been interviewed on television a few times, for what that’s worth). And, unlike the Vanishing Mr. Puckett, I’m still in circulation.

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