being hearsay, the opinions of witnesses, &c., but we received it with a view to ascertaining, if possible, the real state of facts in regard to the condition of the Southern colored people, their opinions and feelings, and the feelings and opinions of their white neighbors. We think it clearly established from the testimony that the following may be said to be the causes which have induced this migration of the colored people from various portions of the South to Northern States, chiefly to Kansas, and Indiana: That from North Carolina, the State to which we first directed our attention, was undoubtedly induced in a great degree by Northern politicians, and by Negro leaders in their employ, and in the employ of railroad lines.
Examining particularly into the condition of the colored men in that State, it was disclosed by the testimony of whites and blacks, Republicans and Democrats, that the causes of discontent among those people could not have arisen from any deprivation of their political rights or any hardship in their condition. A minute examination into their situation shows that the average rate of wages, according to the age and strength of the hand for field labor, was from eight to fifteen dollars per month, including board and house to live in, garden and truck patches, around the house, fire-wood, and certain other privileges, all rent free.
These, added to the extra labor which could be earned by hands during the season of gathering turpentine and resin, or of picking cotton made the general average of compensation for labor in that State quite equal to if not better than in any Northern State to which these people were going, to say nothing of the climate of North Carolina, which was infinitely better adapted to them.
The closest scrutiny could detect no outrage or violence inflicted upon their political rights in North Carolina for many years past. They all testified that they voted freely; that their votes were counted fairly; that no improper influence whatsoever was exerted over them; and many were acquiring real estate, and were enjoying the same privileges of education for their children, precisely, that the whites were enjoying.
It was also disclosed by the testimony that there existed aid societies in the city of Washington, in the city of Topeka, Kans., Indianapolis, and elsewhere throughout the West, whose avowed object was to furnish aid to colored men migrating to the West and North; and notwithstanding that the agents and members of these societies generally disclaimed that it was their intention to induce any colored men to leave their homes, but only to aid in taking care of them after they had arrived, yet it was established undeniably, not only that the effect of these societies and of the aid extended by them operated to cause the exodus originally, but that they stimulated it directly by publishing and distributing among the colored men circulars artfully designed and calculated to stir up discontent. Every single member, agent, friend, or sympathizer with these societies and their purposes were ascertained to belong to the Republican party, and generally to be active members thereof. Some of the circulars contained the grossest misrepresentation of facts, and in almost all cases the immigrants expected large aid from the government of clothes, or land, or money or free transportation, or something of that kind. Hundreds of them, on given days at various points in the South, crowded to the depots or to the steamboat landings upon a rumor that free transportation was to be furnished to all who would go. It was also disclosed by the testimony on the part of some very candid and intelligent witnesses that their object in promoting this exodus of the colored people was purely political. They thought it would be well to remove a sufficient number of blacks from the South, where their votes could not be made to tell, into close States in the North, and thus turn the scale in favor of the Republican party.
Wages, rents, method of cropping on shares, &c., were inquired into in all of the Southern States mentioned, and the fact ascertained that the aggregate was about the same as in North Carolina. In most of the Southern States, where wages were higher than in North Carolina, expenses were also higher, so that the aggregate, as before stated, was about the same.
One cause of complaint alleged as a reason for this exodus of the colored people from the South was their mistreatment in the courts of justice. Directing our attention to this the committee have ascertained that in many of the districts of the South the courts were under entire Republican control—judges, prosecuting attorneys, sheriffs, &c., and that there were generally as many complaints from districts thus controlled as there were from districts which were under the control of the Democratic officials; and that the whole of the complaints taken together might be said to be such as are generally made by the ignorant who fail to receive in courts what they think is justice.
Your committee found no State or county in the South, into which this investigation extended, where colored men were excluded from juries either in theory or in practice; they found no county or district in the South where they were excluded, either in theory or practice, from their share in the management of county affairs and of the control of county government. On the contrary, whenever their votes were in a majority we found that the officers were most generally divided among the black people, or among white people of their choice. Frequently we found the schools to be controlled by them, especially that portion of the school fund which was allotted to their race, and the complaints which had been so often made of excessive punishment of the blacks by the courts as compared with the whites upon investigation in nearly all cases, proved to be either unfounded in fact or that if there was an apparent excess of punishment of a black man the cause was ascertained to be in the nature of the crime with which he was charged, or the attendant circumstances.
The educational advantages in the South, the committee regret to say, were found to be insufficient, and far inferior to those of most of the States of the North, but such as they were we found in every case that the blacks had precisely the same advantages that the whites enjoyed; that the school fund was divided among them according to numbers; that their teachers were quite as good, and chosen with as much care; that their schools existed as many months in the year; in short, the same facilities were afforded to the blacks as were to the whites in this respect; and that these schools were generally supported by the voluntary taxation imposed by the legislatures composed of white men, levied upon their own property for the common benefit.
With regard to political outrages which have formed the staple of complaint for many years against the people of the South, your committee diligently inquired, and have to report that they found nothing or almost nothing new. Many old stories were revived and dwelt upon by zealous witnesses, but very few indeed ventured to say that any considerable violence or outrage had been exhibited toward the colored people of the South within the last few years, and still fewer of all those who testified upon this subject, and who were evidently anxious to make the most of it, testified to anything as within their own knowledge. It was all hearsay, and nothing but hearsay, with rare exceptions.
Many of the witnesses before us were colored politicians, men who make their living by politics, and whose business it was to stir up feeling between the whites and blacks; keep alive the embers of political hatred; and were men of considerable intelligence, so that what they failed to set forth of outrages perpetrated against their race may be safely assumed not to exist. Many, on the contrary, were intelligent, sober, industrious, and respectable men, who testified to their own condition, the amount of property that they had accumulated since their emancipation, the comfort in which they lived, the respect with which they were regarded by their white neighbors. These universally expressed the opinion that all colored men who would practice equal industry and sobriety could have fared equally well; and in fact their own condition was ample proof of the treatment of the colored people by the whites of the South, and of their opportunities to thrive, if they were so determined. Some of these men owned so much as a thousand acres of real estate in the best portions of the South; many of them had tenants of their own, white men, occupying their premises and paying them rent; and your committee naturally arrived at the conclusion that if one black man could attain to this degree of prosperity and respectable citizenship, others could, having the same capacity for business and practicing the same sobriety and industry.
Your committee also directed their attention to the complaints frequently made with regard to the laws passed in various States of the South relating to landlord and tenant, and to the system adopted by many planters for furnishing their
