I think I am safe in saying that for many years
after the civil war there were sharp and antagonistic views between the
North and the South, as well as between the white South and the black
South. At practically every point where there was a political question
to be decided in the South the blacks would array themselves on one side
and the whites on the other. I remember that very soon after I began
teaching school in Alabama an old colored man came to me just prior to
an election. He said: "You can read de newspapers and most of us can't,
but dar is one thing dat we knows dat you don't, and dat is how to vote
down here; and we wants you to vote as we does." He added: "I tell you
how we does. We watches de white man; we keeps watching de white man;
de nearer it gits to election time de more we watches de white man. We
watches him till we finds out which way he gwine to vote. After we finds
out which way he gwine to vote, den we votes exactly de other way; den
we knows we 's right."

Stories on the other side might be given showing that a certain class of
white people, both at the polls and in the Legislatures, voted just as
unreasonably in opposing politically what they thought the Negro or the
North wanted, no matter how much benefit might ensue from a contrary
action. Unfortunately such antagonism did not end with matters
political, but in many cases affected the relation of the races in
nearly every walk of life. Aside from political strife, there was
naturally deep feeling between the North and the South on account of the
war. On nearly every question growing out of the war, which was debated
in Congress, or in political campaigns, there was the keenest difference
and often the deepest feeling. There was almost no question of even a
semi-political nature, or having a remote connection with the Negro,
upon which there was not sharp and often bitter division between the
North and South. It is needless to say that in many cases the Negro
was the sufferer. He was being ground between the upper and nether
millstones. Even to this day it is well-nigh impossible, largely by
reason of the force of habit, in certain states to prevent state and
even local campaigns from being centred in some form upon the black man.
In states like Mississippi, for example, where the Negro ceased nearly
a score of years ago, by operation of law, to be a determining factor
in politics, he forms in some way the principal fuel for campaign
discus