THE SOUTH CAROLINA EXODUS:

FIVE THOUSAND NEGROES SAID TO HAVE
LEFT THEIR HOMES FOR ARKANSAS-
EMIGRATION OF WHITES THREATENED

Correspondence of the Charlestong (S.C.) News.

TRENTON, S.C., Dec. 31. - There is no dis-
guising the fact that a most alarming condition of
things exists in Edgefield County in consequence of
the exodus of negroes to Arkansas, which be-
gan more than a week since and has continued
almost without intermission up to the present
time.  It is estimated that already about one-fifth
of the entire negro population of the county, or
more than 5,000 persons, has gone and the fever
is still spreading.  There has been nothing like
it since the days of Pharaoh, and the situa-
tion may well occasion the deepest anxiety for
the future.  In the Ridge section of the county,
extending from the Lexington boundary to this
place along the line of the harlotte, Columbia
and Augusta Railroad, and east of this road  to the
Aiken County line, embracing a stretch of territory
24 miles long and 4 to 5 miles wide, it is estimated
that at least fourth-fifths of the negroes have joined 
the exodus.  The townships most affected by the
movement are Shaw, Ward, Norris, and portions of
Mobley and Pickens.  Some of the most extensive
plantations in this section, on which large numbers
of negroes were formerly employed, are now with-
out one colored laborer, and the outlook is gloomy
enough to cause wide-spread dismay.  The reports
heretofore published in the newspapers have not
exaggerated a single feature of this unparalleled
movement; entire settlements have been depopu-
lated, and the public roads leading to Augusta have
resounded day and night for the past week with
the shuffling tread of a picturesque and motley
caravan.
To add to the complications of the situation a
number of white people talk of leaving the county
on account of the passage of the Stock law and the
lack of labor.  There is also a heavy movement of
colored people to Beaufort, Colleton, Charleston,
and Hampton Counties.  Tow or three wagon-
trains, carrying several hundred people, have
passed through this section during the past
few weeks seaward bound.  It is a significant
fact that the preachers have been urging this
movement on the ground that in the counties
named the colored people would be able to enjoy
their political rights and assist in carrying the next
election.  Agents are also at work inducing labor-
ers to go to South-west Georgia to engage in farm-
ing and in the lumber business at large wages; and
along the line of the Columbia and the Greenville Road
emigrants are being secured for Kansas.

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