Postwar opponents of Black aid argued the race was naturally going extinct

Evidence

As the smallpox epidemic persisted, and the death toll continued to rise, those who opposed providing any assistance to freed people developed a new and darker argument: Black people were so ill-suited to freedom that the entire race was going extinct, and the best lawmakers could do was let nature take its course. “No charitable black scheme can wash out the color of the Negro, change his inferior nature or save him from his inevitable fate,” Ohio Democratic congressman Samuel Cox said in 1865 on the floor of the House of Representatives. Several newspapers agreed, including The New York Times, which wrote that the “mortality of the negroes” continued to be very great and that “dirt, debauchery, idleness are the cases of this inordinate mortality.” — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 1167

Categorization

• SHARE: The New York Times blaming freed people’s high mortality on ‘dirt, debauchery, idleness’ is a striking primary quote for someone studying postwar racial ideology.