I've got a book written in the 1920s by a man who was from my hometown. He was the state attorney general and it was a autobiography and stories from his youth.
Anyway, he grew up in the 1870s and 1880s and they were fairly well-to-do with both black and white hired hands. He said that as a boy white bums would come through from time to time asking for handouts and the like but that there never were any black bums who would wander through. He related that one day when they were out working and all taking a break, he asked the black hands why they never saw any black bums. He said one of them responded, "Well, sir, when a black man gets down on his luck, he jes goes to preachin."
