So frightened were we in the North that by statutes and constitutions we made it a crime for a colored person to conie into tire State. In Indiana we declared all contracts made with colored persons so coming into the State void. and punished our citizens with lines and imprisonment if they gave these ostracised. men and women employment. The people of Indiana voted by over one hundred thousand majority for putting an article into the constitution prohibiting negro Mucn 22. immigration. Other States did the same thing. It was done to save white labor from the dangers of an influx of African laborers. How eloquent our statesmen grew when they talked about alien colored people coming into the State to rob our wives and children of their bread. One of these gentlemensince then governor of the State. a Senator. and a candidate for the VicePresidencyon the 8th of August. 1866. spoke as follows: I thought it a wise and just policy when. by a vote of nearly one hundred thou. sand m jority. the people of this State. in their constitution. provided that negroes should not immigrate within our borders. * * * Our policy was that our population should not be mixed. and that iegroes should not come here to cheapen and degrade labor. I tell you there will be hot blood when they are found here in such large numbers as to press hard on white labor. When the white moohanic or laborer goes home to his wife and children at the close of his days work to tell them that a negro from Kentucky or Tennessee is seeking his place. and that a selfish em. ployor is taking advantage of this competition to reduce the wages upon which he relics to feed and clothe thom. the words will not be spoken with compos ore.
Identified stereotypes
Black people are described as degrading labor.