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1889.] Document No. 20
—
Appendix. 115
rules of strict personal government, conld be commanded to do for his
well-being, while the emancipated negro considered that a home apart
from the whites was the essence of personal and political freedom—to
live in squalor, packed in small windowless rooms, to a degree that
would nauseate a white man, and drive sleep away effectually, in a con-dition
of perfect comfort; in sickness, trusting to any chance remedy
brought to him, regarding his disease as matter of little concern to him-self,
but as a matter demanding service from the former white master
or his present white employer—so firmly had this taken possession of his
being while a slave. Personal cleanliness was utterly neglected, except as
to the face and hands, and change of raiment; confined, in most cases,
to the putting on of fine cast-ofi: toggery for Sunday; rushing into con-tageous
diseases with stolid indifference, and herding with each other
during epidemics with heli)less fatality. Small-pox is a disease which
vaccination causes, in their belief, because they know that the white
people vaccinate during the prevalence of small-pox, their blind deduc-
^tion being that it was the cause. Syphilis, which was rare among
negroes as slaves, became the most common of diseases. Promiscuous
herding of the sexes sjireads the disease with fearful rapidity. A negro
man, applying for ti'eatment for chancre, only desires (and he has not
improved any to this day) to be relieved of the tliscomfort and inconven-ience
of the local sore, regarding it only as a barrier to further indul-gence.
In all essential respects, therefore, the negroes were, and are, a
foreign population, below the people of any nation in decent instincts,
and elevated from the condition of native Africans by the contact with
the whites, entirely at the expense of the latter, and as burdensome, in
many respects, as the old man of the sea was to Sinbad ; the most pa-tient
and valuable of all laborers in a hot climate; the most tractable and
easily influenced for good when segregated among the whites, but when
herding among themselves, witli no light but that of their own leaders,
drifting always aAvay from the good. A town, therefore, which has
twenty thousand inhabitants, more than half of which are negroes,
represents a lack of thrift and a lack of hygienic surroundings that
really discounts tlie while population. In speaking of a town of this
sort, as compared with one wholly of whites, numerical estimates are
entirely misleading. These observations are preliminary to what we
have to say of the prevalence of diseases by sections.
In general terms, we can say that malarial fever—that is, the paludal,
or swamp fevers—abound in the Eastern sections, or region of the long-leaf
pine—that is, less abundant in tlie Middle sections, finding its greatest
intensity along the river and creek bottoms to the foot of the mountains,
and that in the mountains malarial fever is not common. Almost the
reverse of this applies to ty]>lioid fever. Taking into account the differ-ence
in the density of the 'population—it being sparse in the mountain
region, leaving out such centres as Asheville, and denser in the East,
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| Title | Page 1423 |
| Full Text | 1889.] Document No. 20 — Appendix. 115 rules of strict personal government, conld be commanded to do for his well-being, while the emancipated negro considered that a home apart from the whites was the essence of personal and political freedom—to live in squalor, packed in small windowless rooms, to a degree that would nauseate a white man, and drive sleep away effectually, in a con-dition of perfect comfort; in sickness, trusting to any chance remedy brought to him, regarding his disease as matter of little concern to him-self, but as a matter demanding service from the former white master or his present white employer—so firmly had this taken possession of his being while a slave. Personal cleanliness was utterly neglected, except as to the face and hands, and change of raiment; confined, in most cases, to the putting on of fine cast-ofi: toggery for Sunday; rushing into con-tageous diseases with stolid indifference, and herding with each other during epidemics with heli)less fatality. Small-pox is a disease which vaccination causes, in their belief, because they know that the white people vaccinate during the prevalence of small-pox, their blind deduc- ^tion being that it was the cause. Syphilis, which was rare among negroes as slaves, became the most common of diseases. Promiscuous herding of the sexes sjireads the disease with fearful rapidity. A negro man, applying for ti'eatment for chancre, only desires (and he has not improved any to this day) to be relieved of the tliscomfort and inconven-ience of the local sore, regarding it only as a barrier to further indul-gence. In all essential respects, therefore, the negroes were, and are, a foreign population, below the people of any nation in decent instincts, and elevated from the condition of native Africans by the contact with the whites, entirely at the expense of the latter, and as burdensome, in many respects, as the old man of the sea was to Sinbad ; the most pa-tient and valuable of all laborers in a hot climate; the most tractable and easily influenced for good when segregated among the whites, but when herding among themselves, witli no light but that of their own leaders, drifting always aAvay from the good. A town, therefore, which has twenty thousand inhabitants, more than half of which are negroes, represents a lack of thrift and a lack of hygienic surroundings that really discounts tlie while population. In speaking of a town of this sort, as compared with one wholly of whites, numerical estimates are entirely misleading. These observations are preliminary to what we have to say of the prevalence of diseases by sections. In general terms, we can say that malarial fever—that is, the paludal, or swamp fevers—abound in the Eastern sections, or region of the long-leaf pine—that is, less abundant in tlie Middle sections, finding its greatest intensity along the river and creek bottoms to the foot of the mountains, and that in the mountains malarial fever is not common. Almost the reverse of this applies to ty]>lioid fever. Taking into account the differ-ence in the density of the 'population—it being sparse in the mountain region, leaving out such centres as Asheville, and denser in the East, |
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