CROOM, William - Putnam

The Testimony of the Refugees.  As an answer to the falsehoods that are being so industriously circulated in Democratic newspapers regarding the condition of the colored immigrant who have recently arrived here from North Carolina, we have interviewed a number who have called at this office during the past week and give the results below.  It will be seen that they all speak in the very highest terms of praise of Indiana and their treatment since coming here.  

I came from Wilson County, North Carolina.  Have been here several weeks.  I came because I had heard that colored men could do better here than in North Carolina and I find that it was a true statement.  There is as much difference between there and here as there is between chalk and cheese.  It is altogether different.  Here we are men just like the whites, get good wages, have good homes and there are good schools for our children. The climate is no worse for us here than there. I have not yet seen as cold weather in Indiana as I have seen as cold weather in Indiana as I have seen in NC.  And then the people are so different.  They are just as kind to us as they can be.  It seems as though they can’t do enough for us. I live with Mr. Evans near Russellville and have a good brick house to live in.  It is all nicely plastered inside and is a good, comfortable house.  I have done had meat enough given me to last a fortnight and now have it in my smoke house. Mr. Evans also furnishes me three bedsteads and a cookstove free of charge and I am to have a cow when my family comes. And he furnished me all the fruit that I want to eat, and bed covers for two beds until mine comes. I am to have as good a garden as there is in the country when spring opens. My fire wood don’t cost me anything; it is hauled free of charge. Mr. Evans also furnished me money to send back after my family and I am now expecting them on every train. All my people who have come are doing well and are well-satisfied.  I want to say to all the colored people still left in the South –“Come on, come all for Indiana is the place, for here they are free and have the same chance in everything that white men have.”