Augusta Colored Convention
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Title
Augusta Colored Convention
Source
From Gale. 19th Century U.S. Newspapers. ©2008 Gale, a part of Cengage Learning, Inc. Reproduced by permission. www.cengage.com/permissions
Publisher
Georgia Weekly Telegraph and Georgia Journal & Messenger
Date
1875-10-12
Scripto
Transcription
[PAGE 01]
Augusta Colored Convention.
A Convention of seventy-five colored people has been held in Augusta the past week on the call of Jeff Long, of this county, to vindicate the colored race against the "charge of insurrection," which in the call is denounced as a "scurrilous misrepresentation and slander;" ;" and in the published proceedings of the Convention is alleged by H. M. Turner, Deveaux, Long and others, to have been gotten up as a pretext for the wholesale murder of the negroes by the whites of Georgia.
Those who bring such a charge as this do not believe it themselves, but are only seeking to impose on the credulity of the more ignorant of their own color, and to inflame a groundless animosity against the whites. The whites of Georgia are every where inspired by sentiments of justice, liberality and toleration for the black race within our borders. We are sincerely desirous of their welfare, and are manifesting these feelings by the impartial administration of public justice -- by meeting their appeals for aid in a liberal spirit, and my most by a most generous appropriation of money for the education of their children.
[PAGE 02]
Not all of the speakers, however, were alike reckless of truth and the public welfare. Edwin Belcher, former postmaster of Macon, was the champion of better sentiments as well as the ablest speaker in the convention, and did much to keep the incendiaries in check. Belcher thought it was quite possible for the whites and negroes in Georgia to live together amicably, and that the relations of the two races were visibly harmonizing from year to year.
Turner, on the contrary, said the breach was widening from year to year and the government too weak to give protection to the negroes. He should go to Africa. A landless people had no chance. In Africa he expected to acquire land by conquest (robbing some other negro). Belcher discoursed with some effect upon the improbability of improving their condition by emigration either to Africa, , or any of the negro majority States, and the convention must have taken Belcher's view of the case when it raised a committee of inquiry into the feasibility of moving the negroes out of the late " in "insurrectionary counties" into other counties " "in Georgia." Yes! they knew very well, , after all their railing accusations of Georgia, that the old State is to be depended on for comfort, secu-
[PAGE 03]
rity and protection to all the well-behaved people. And in what other counties of Georgia does any man in the convention suppose the blacks can agitate schemes for the general robbery and murder--can drum and drill and rampage about all all night with all sorts of dark threats and menaces, and come off with greater impunity than the conspirators did in Washington, Johnson and Laurens counties? There the evidence in court and the subsequent disclosures by peaceably disposed negroes leave not a doubt that they were concocting a most diabolical plot, and yet no man suffered for it.
Can they find better luck in any other county? Should they not stay there, and by subsequent orderly conduct redeem their reputation, and, if not possible, re-establish the confidence of the people? If they emigrate, a bad name will follow them wherever they go; ; and they may rest assured that there is but one course alike for whites and blacks. Neither can enrich themselves by fraud, robbery and murder. If they want land or other property they can't "conquer" it as Turner proposes to do; ; but must earn it by quiet and steady industry. They must first secure steady employment and good wages by winning the good opinion of employees, and then accumulate by saving. The demagogues who delude the negroes with the hope of gifts from Government or plunder from the whites must be hissed out of the hearing by the blacks themselves.
Augusta Colored Convention.
A Convention of seventy-five colored people has been held in Augusta the past week on the call of Jeff Long, of this county, to vindicate the colored race against the "charge of insurrection," which in the call is denounced as a "scurrilous misrepresentation and slander;" ;" and in the published proceedings of the Convention is alleged by H. M. Turner, Deveaux, Long and others, to have been gotten up as a pretext for the wholesale murder of the negroes by the whites of Georgia.
Those who bring such a charge as this do not believe it themselves, but are only seeking to impose on the credulity of the more ignorant of their own color, and to inflame a groundless animosity against the whites. The whites of Georgia are every where inspired by sentiments of justice, liberality and toleration for the black race within our borders. We are sincerely desirous of their welfare, and are manifesting these feelings by the impartial administration of public justice -- by meeting their appeals for aid in a liberal spirit, and my most by a most generous appropriation of money for the education of their children.
[PAGE 02]
Not all of the speakers, however, were alike reckless of truth and the public welfare. Edwin Belcher, former postmaster of Macon, was the champion of better sentiments as well as the ablest speaker in the convention, and did much to keep the incendiaries in check. Belcher thought it was quite possible for the whites and negroes in Georgia to live together amicably, and that the relations of the two races were visibly harmonizing from year to year.
Turner, on the contrary, said the breach was widening from year to year and the government too weak to give protection to the negroes. He should go to Africa. A landless people had no chance. In Africa he expected to acquire land by conquest (robbing some other negro). Belcher discoursed with some effect upon the improbability of improving their condition by emigration either to Africa, , or any of the negro majority States, and the convention must have taken Belcher's view of the case when it raised a committee of inquiry into the feasibility of moving the negroes out of the late " in "insurrectionary counties" into other counties " "in Georgia." Yes! they knew very well, , after all their railing accusations of Georgia, that the old State is to be depended on for comfort, secu-
[PAGE 03]
rity and protection to all the well-behaved people. And in what other counties of Georgia does any man in the convention suppose the blacks can agitate schemes for the general robbery and murder--can drum and drill and rampage about all all night with all sorts of dark threats and menaces, and come off with greater impunity than the conspirators did in Washington, Johnson and Laurens counties? There the evidence in court and the subsequent disclosures by peaceably disposed negroes leave not a doubt that they were concocting a most diabolical plot, and yet no man suffered for it.
Can they find better luck in any other county? Should they not stay there, and by subsequent orderly conduct redeem their reputation, and, if not possible, re-establish the confidence of the people? If they emigrate, a bad name will follow them wherever they go; ; and they may rest assured that there is but one course alike for whites and blacks. Neither can enrich themselves by fraud, robbery and murder. If they want land or other property they can't "conquer" it as Turner proposes to do; ; but must earn it by quiet and steady industry. They must first secure steady employment and good wages by winning the good opinion of employees, and then accumulate by saving. The demagogues who delude the negroes with the hope of gifts from Government or plunder from the whites must be hissed out of the hearing by the blacks themselves.
Convention Minutes Item Type Metadata
Convention Type
State Convention
City
Augusta
State
GA
Country
USA
Start Date
1875-10-07
End Date
1875-10
Event ID
1875.GA-10.07.AUGU
Citation
Turner, H. M., “Augusta Colored Convention,” Colored Conventions Project Digital Records, accessed October 22, 2026, https://omeka.coloredconventions.org/items/show/2561.