| Chambersburg Valley Spirit, "How Our Negroes Live," March 30, 1859 Summary
Democratic editors considered black residents of Franklin to be hopeless citizens. The editors reported to their readers
on a tour through the black section of town and focused exclusively on drunkenness and crime, as well as filthy living conditions.
EXCERPT:
"Some twelve years ago we indited [sic] the following description of how our negroes then lived. It would appear by the columns
of one of our local contemporaries that their morals and their manner of living have not much improved since that day. So
long as miserable huts of the character we have described are erected, 'filthy, theiving, whisky drinking negroes' will seek
our community to inhabit them. If there were no such 'local habitations' provided for them they would take up their abode
in other quarters and this neighborhood would get rid of their troublesome presence. Strike at the root of the crib!"
Full-text web version of newspaper  Points of Analysis to this Data:
 "Franklin County's papers spent more ink--almost all of it negative--on its nearly two thousand free blacks than Augusta did
on its five thousand enslaved people."
Citation: Key = E057
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