Page:The rising son, or, The antecedents and advancement of the colored race (IA risingsonthe00browrich).pdf/400

 black locks, which but yesterday were as white as the driven snow! Not only this, but even those with light or red whiskers run to the dye-kettle, steal a color which Nature has refused them, and an hour after curse the negro for a complexion that is not stolen. If black is so hateful, why do not gentlemen have their boots whitewashed? If the slaves of the South had been white, the same prejudice would have existed against them. Look at the "poor white trash," as the lower class of whites in the Southern States are termed.

The general good conduct of the blacks during the Rebellion, and especially the aid rendered to our Northern men escaping from Southern prisons, has done much to dispel the prejudice so rampant in the free states. The following, from the pen of Junius Henri Browne, the accomplished war correspondent of "The Tribune," is but a fair sample of what was said for the negro during the great conflict. In his very interesting work, "Four Years in Secessia," he says:—

"The negro who had guided us to the railway had told us of another of his color to whom we could apply for shelter and food at the terminus of our second stage. We could not find him until nearly dawn; and when we did, he directed us to a large barn filled with corn-husks. Into that we crept with our dripping garments, and lay there for fifteen hours, until we could again venture forth. Floundering about in the husks, we lost our haversacks, pipes, and a hat.

"About nine o'clock we procured a hearty supper from the generous negro, who even gave me his hat,—an appropriate presentation, as one of my companions