SELLING US OUT

SELLING US OUT IN DISGUISE I have gained some insight into why African Americans lost so much, so soon, after winning their freedom in the Civil War and in Reconstruction. It seems that the answer is found in money and influence for its leaders. I draw these personal conclusions from reading a biography of one of the most successful and important of such leaders, LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF MARTIN R. DELANY by Frank A. Rollin (1883). Recruiters of black troops in the Civil War were paid expenses and bounties for the fulfillment of various state numerical quotas. A rich prospect was the payment for recruitment of blacks with little or no guidance. Guidelines. Oversight. Rollin writes: "Orders at this time were sent to him concerning a change about to be made in relation to the pay and recruiting of the men, which, while it would have resulted in increasing his own pay, would have greatly reduced the bounty--twenty-two dollars a man. To this proposed injustice he instantly refused to lend his influence. And he soon received a telegram to the effect that he was relieved...with a loss of about three thousand dollars to himself. "He immediately went west, and opened an independent recruiting station, witnessing , he says, 'with unutterable disgust, the hateful mercenary recruiting trade of selling men in the highest market, and denounced them, whether black or white.' "The legitimate quotas in a few country districts of Western Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio , he aided in filling, 'persistently refusing ', he says, 'the offers made for men, by a class who prowled the country under various names and pretended military titles, with a shudder and a scout, despising the man who would sell his brethren for a price.' So great were his fears lest imposition or intrigue be practiced on the men , and his promise be made void, that he invariably accompanied them to their destination . ... "He writes of it, 'Great was the consternation produced among 'government agents' there ;[Tennessee, Mississippi , Georgia] and such were the offers made to me by parties for 'partnership, division of profits and the like' , that I was constrained to have on one hand but the one answer for all . Gentlemen, I have an honorable appointment. I cannot and will not sell my brethren for a price, nor my birthright for a mess of pottage." P. 86-88. This propensity to "sell out" under the guise of helping us out as been a bane of our 'black' existence for a very long time by black and white!