CONFEDERATE BIOGRAPHY:  A Negro Speech - J. G. Harris

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Submitted by Mary Love Berryman - marylove@tyler.net
11 April 2002 
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TEXANS WHO WORE THE GRAY by Sid S. Johnson - Page 323

A NEGRO SPEECH. 

The history of events that transpired during the reconstruction days 
of the South should be preserved. This speech of a negro in answer to 
a white man who claimed to be born in in a Southern State should not be 
lost. Hence, this departure is made, because the negro's speech has 
the ring of the loyal negro slave during the war between the States. 

In the Mississippi Legislature J. G. Harris, a negro, speaking on the 
erection of a Confederate monument, said: 

"Mr. Speaker, I have risen here in my place to offer a few words on the 
bill. I have come from a sick bed, and was forced to struggle up here 
leaning on the arm of a friend. I stand here in considerable pain. 
Perhaps it was not prudent for me to come. But, sir, I could not rest 
quietly in my room, sick though I am, and allow this. discussion to 
pass without contributing to it a few remarks of my own. I was sorry to 
hear the speech of the young gentleman from Marshall County. I, am sorry 
that any son of a soldier should go on record as opposed to the erection 
of a monument in honor of the brave dead. And, sir, I am convinced that 
had he seen what I saw at Seven Pines and in the seven days' fighting 
round Richmond, the battlefields covered with the mangled forms of those 
who fought for their country and their country's honor, he would not 
have made that speech. When the news came that the South was to be 
invaded, those men went forth to fight for what they believed, and they 
made no requests for monuments to commemorate their brave deeds and holy 
sacrifices. But they died, and their virtues should be remembered. Sir, 
I went with them. I, too, wore the gray, the same color that my master 
wore. We stayed four long years, and if that sad war had gone on till 
now I would have been there yet. I knew what it all meant, and under-
stand the meaning of my words when I say that I would have been with 
my countrymen still, had the war continued to this good day. I want to
honor those brave men who died for their convictions. When my mother 
died I was a boy. Who, sir, then acted the part of a mother to the 
orphaned slave boy, but my 'old missus?' Were she living now, or could
she speak to me from those high realms where are gathered the sainted 
dead, she would tell me to vote for this bill. And, sir, I shall vote 
for it. I want it known to, all the world that my vote is given in 
favor of the bill to erect a monument in honor of the Confederate dead."