Fought to the Death

The Planet notes “that colored people are more like sheep than they are like lions and that this to a great extent accounted for their increasing slaughter”.

Fought to the Death.
We have more than once noted the fact that colored people are more like sheep than they are like lions and that this to a great extent accounted for their increasing slaughter. The following extract from the daily telegraphic columns tells its own story:
“Chattanooga, Tenn., Dec. 20-- News has been received here of a double killing at Whiteside, Tenn., last night, in which a white man and a Negro lost their lives. The two were gambling, when a dispute arouse. The Negro grabbed a poker and rushed at his companion, who fired into the Negro’s breast. Fatally wounded, the Negro struck the white man over the head, killing him. The names of the parties cannot be learned.”
That Negro had the right kind of “horse sense.” he died, but he carried his slayer with him. This is the spirit that must animate the breast of the colored man in the Southland. It will tend to bring respect to even those colored men who survive him.
The unfortunate part of the affair is the association and disreputable nature of the transaction. Still, when on is bound to go, die like men and fight to the “water’s edge.” Cowardice has never won respect. It invites contempt. Truly, “brave men die but once, but cowards many times before their death.”

“Fought to the Death,” Black Virginia: The Richmond Planet, 1894-1909, accessed January 20, 2026, https://blackvirginia.richmond.edu/items/show/1465.