Manuscript, Archives,
and Rare book Library
Woodson Collection
EMORY UNIVERSITY
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SOME NOTED EDUCATORS OF THE COLORED RACE.
THE
STORY OF A RISING
RACE
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION, IN HISTORY
AND IN CITIZENSHIP
WHAT THE RACE HAS DONE AND IS DOING
IN
ARMS, ARTS, LETTERS, THE PULPIT, THE FORUM, THE SCHOOL
THE MARTS OF TRADE
AND
WITH THOSE MIGHTY WEAPONS IN THE BATTLE OF LIFE
THE SHOVEL AND THE HOE
A MESSAGE TO ALL MEN THAT HE IS IN THE WAV TO
SOLVE THE RACE PROBLEM FOR HIMSELF
BY
REV. J. J. PIPKIN
WITH INTRODUCTION BY
GEN. JOHN B. GORDON
Former Major-General Confederate Array, United States Senator from Georgia,
Ex-Commander United Confederate Veterans,
Author " War Reminiscences," Etc,
Copyright, 1902, by N. D. Thompson Publishing Company
NOT A TERM OF REPROACH.
Supposing that this term (negro) was originally used as a
phrase of contempt, is it not with us to elevate it? How often
has it not happened that names originally given hi reproach
have been afterward adopted as a title of honor by those against
whom they were used, as Methodists, Quakers, etc. ? But as a
proof that no unfavorable signification attached to the word
when first employed, I may mention that long before the slave
trade began travelers found the blacks on the coast of Africa
preferring to be called Negroes. . . . And in all the pre-
slave trade literature the word was spelled with a capital N.
It was the slavery of the blacks that brought the term into dis¬
repute and now that slavery is abolished, it should be restored
to its original place and legitimate use.
—Dr. Edward W. Blyden.
It is not wise, to say the least, for intelligent Negroes in
America to seek to drop the word "NegroIt is a good, strong
and healthy word, and ought to live. It should be covered with
glory: let Negroes do it. —George IV. Williams.
PREFACE.
IN RECENT years much lias been written about the Negro
* —some of it fanciful, some ill-considered, some malicious,
and some utterly fallacious, misleading, and dangerous.
It is a deplorable fact that notwithstanding community of
interests and daily association, the white people of to-day do
not fully understand the negro, and are, therefore, too ready
to adopt opinions and entertain feelings that are dangerous
to his peace and prejudicial to his prosperity; and we have
sought to present a fund of information which will lead to a
better understanding and make for the lasting good of both
races. To the fair-minded white man and woman the facts
set forth in ^his volume will be a revelation, and induce more
liberal views as to the Negro's capabilities, his honorable
ambition to improve, his enterprise, and his remarkable
progress.
What the Negro needs is encouragement in every line of
lawful endeavor, all the aid that can be extended to him by
generous whites without inducing idleness, an open recogni¬
tion of whatever manhood he evinces in the inevitable strug¬
gles of the poor and lowly, and the arousing of renewed
determination to do his part in the uplifting of his people.
If we can show him what the men and women of .his race
have achieved in the past, what they are achieving in the
present under circumstances less favorable than those en¬
joyed by the dominant race, we awaken the feeling that he
too ought to be up and doing, with the definite and noble
aim of meeting the obligations that rest upon even the
humblest citizen.
The author is a Southern man, born and bred, and he has
been subjected to all the influences that are supposed to
breed race prejudice; he is a Democrat of the old school; but
PREFACE.
in the name of white men North, South, Bast and West, he
protests against everything that tends to degrade the Negro,
and either rob him of self-respect or excite his animosity.
We write as a follower of the Great Master who taught good¬
will to all men, as a minister of the gospel, as a patriotic
American citizen. We endeavor to show:
That in the past the Negro has achieved much, in divers
fields, to vindicate his claim to character and ability and
mark him as a man;
That, considering the circumstances in which he found
himself when freedom came to him, and the obstacles he has
had to overcome, his progress has been remarkable;
That there are mighty agencies at work—the school, the
church, and promising fields of labor—still further to pro¬
mote his advancement; and
That for him also there is the possibility of a great future.
Our material has been gathered from many sources, and
we are under obligations to so many who have aided and
encouraged us that we forbear to mention names, lest we
inadvertently omit some and so seem to do injustice. To all
we tender acknowledgments and sincere thanks.
Mart, Texas. J • J • PlPKIN.
INTRODUCTION.
N ORDER that we may know what the Negro can
do and become, it is well to consider what he has
done and is doing, and what he has become and is
becoming. He has been free in the Southern States
now more than the third of a century. For two hun¬
dred and fifty years he worked under the limitations of slav¬
ery and became under humane white tutelage the most obe¬
dient, patient and useful servant ever known. But for forty
years he has found himself outside the walls of bondage. He
has been hemmed in by no barriers other than such as are
placed about every man by the conditions of life. During
nearly half a century he has been the master of his own fate.
By a decision, fixed forever through the clash of contending
armies as brave as ever met on a field of battle, his destiny
was taken from the hands of his former master and placed
in his own. Through a generation of the most eventful
time in the history of the world, he has been under the
necessity of making his own way in the presence of a strong,
conquering race, which won its freedom and achieved its
civilization in the struggle and conquest of thousands of
years.
We are at a sufficient distance from the war to pause and
take stock of the colored man's achievements. What use
has he made of the liberty which came to him as an incident
of the great struggle? What progress has he made in solving
the problem of himself and his future? What data has he
furnished, as to what he has done and learned and become,
upon which a reliable opinion can be based concerning his
future career? Has he moved forward or gone backward?
Has he furnished grounds for hope, or reasons to despair of
vii
viii
INTRODUCTION.
him? Where does he stand at the beginning of the Twenti¬
eth Century?
This book, to which I am asked to write the introduction,
is a record of the Negro's doings. It is not a work of fine¬
spun theories on the race question, but it is a summary of
the actual accomplishments and attainments of the colored
man. We have a representation of what the Negro has
wrought with his hand and thought with his brain and
aspired to in his heart. We have brought to our atten¬
tion what the Negro has done as a farmer, as a mechanic,
as a doctor, as a lawyer, as a teacher, as a literary
man, as a poet, as a preacher and as a president and
organizer of great industrial colleges. No such an all-
round survey of the Negro's work, has, according to my
knowledge, been so successfully made before. The circula¬
tion of the book, both among the colored people and the
white people, will do good. The doctrine here taught, by
the undoubted testimony of facts', is, that the Negro, in
common with members of every other race, must work out
his own destiny. All that the white man can do for him is
to give him an opportunity and a fair chance-. The so-
called Negro problem has loomed so prominently in public
attention, largely because other than colored people have,
since the close of the war, been trying to work it out. Those
who have religiously taken upon themselves the self-ap-
pointed task of working out the Negro problem, have seem¬
ingly proceeded on the assumption that the Negro had
neither head nor hands nor individual initiative. If that
were the case, all the doctrinaires on earth could never work
out his problem. There are thousands of Negroes all over
this country, but mostly in the South, who are neither prob¬
lems to themselves, nor to their white neighbors. They are
such as save their earnings, buy homes for their families,
and make themselves useful and upright citizens.
There are farmers whose only problem is that of seeing
how many bales of cotton they can make each acre of land
INTRODUCTION.
ix
they cultivate produce. Their problem is with the weeds
and the grass, which, by honest toil, they seek to keep from
choking to death their young plants. Theorists have been
trying to solve the colored problem at the points of their
pens. This is the ink solution. The Negroes themselves
have gone about solving it at the points of their scooter
plows, which they are sticking deep down in their fields
for bread and the comforts of life. This is the practical solu¬
tion. There are blacksmiths who are helping to solve the
Negro problem between the hammer and the anvil by turn¬
ing iron into horseshoes so as to enable them to buy com¬
fortable homes for their families, and besides lay up good-
sized bank accounts. There are teachers who are aiding to
solve the problem in the school-room by communicating
knowledge to children so completely that most Negro boys
and girls in the entire country can read and write. There
are presidents of colleges, like Booker T. Washington, who
have done so much toward the solution of the problem that
the institutions over which they preside are regarded by all
the people, white and black, as unmixed blessings to the
country. The difficulties of the colored problem grow less
and less by all the corn the Negro produces, by all the wag¬
ons he makes, by all the schools he teaches, and by every for¬
ward step he takes in becoming an industrious, productive
and useful worker in the community. This book, which is a
kind of cloth and paper edition of a Negro World's Expo¬
sition, comes at an opportune time. While we cannot see
•all that the colored man has produced brought together here
in one place, as at the Columbian Dream City in Chicago
in 1893, and at the great Exposition in Atlanta, we do have
what he has done, described and set forth in such a way as
to convince us that he has made remarkable progress since
the close of the Civil War.
Between the eruption of Vesuvius, which destroyed Pom¬
peii, and the awful fires of Mt. Pelee, which blotted the life
out of. St. Pierre, there are, as measured by time, 1,823
X
INTROD UCTION.
years; but, measured by the progress of the human race
between the two awful events, the distance is infinitely
greater. When death and silence came to Pompeii the sen¬
sation was local. It was days, perhaps weeks, before the
news traveled even to Rome. But the flame that flashed
thirty thousand souls into eternity in St. Pierre instanta¬
neously lit up the world. The furious blast which in a
moment consumed a city in a tropical sea was felt in every
country on the planet. This illustrates the difference be¬
tween the world as it is in our day and the world as it was
in the beginning of the Christian era. Then the earth was
large. The race was divided by mountains and seas and
continents of distance, and still more widely divided by
mountains of indifference and seas of ignorance and conti¬
nents of indolence. Now the world is small. The race is
united from St. Petersburg to Pekin and from Melbourne to
Venice by a common commerce and by the invisible ties of
a common sympathy. When the cry of distress is heard in
the island of Martinique, shiploads of provisions and medi¬
cines start from every neighboring port to relieve it. Separate
threads of peoples, not yet woven into that universal texture we
call humanity, are destined, in the coming century, to be
caught up by the great loom of Providence and drawn into
the palpitating fabric. Africa has been called the *' Dark Con¬
tinent," because it is least known. Here is a country more
than four thousand miles in length and four thousand in
breadth, with an area of twelve million square miles and a
population of nearly two hundred million, which, until 1884,
when the so-called ''scramble for Africa" began, has in the
main been lying outside the current of human history. The
work of incorporating Africa into the trend of the world's
events has been slow. Da Gama doubled the Cape of Good
Hope in the fifteenth century, but most of the work of ex¬
ploration was done in the nineteenth century. Large areas
of land in Africa are now coming under the control of the
European powers. The English, the Germans, the Belgians,
IN TROD UCTION.
xi
the Italians and the French are extending their spheres of
influence, and it is only a question of a few generations when
the whole continent will be covered and embraced by the
general network of railroads and telegraph systems which
bind into one neighborhood the other grand divisions of the
globe.
It is a remarkable historical fact that Africa should become
accessible to the movements of civilization just at this partic¬
ular-period in the march of events. The explorers have, in
a general way, accomplished their work. Through, their
labors the wonders and wealth and area of the "Dark Conti¬
nent" have been made known. He^e are mountains filled
with coal, and iron, and lead, and gold, and silver. Here is
a soil rich and abundant enough to produce food sufficient to
feed the teeming millions of the globe. Is it not wonderful
that knowledge of the untold resources of Africa should come
to the world just at a time when billion-dollar trusts are be¬
ing formed—at a time when the captains of industry are
learning to unite their uncounted millions to build railroads,
bridges, electric light plants, iron foundries and cities, with¬
out respect to state or national boundaries—at a time when
great capitalists of the West are negotiating with the gov¬
ernments of the East for all kinds of concessions? Is it not
still more wonderful, that, just at this time, when Africa
is opened up to civilization, and capital has been accumu¬
lated sufficient to develop it, there should be found in the
United States 8,840,789 Negroes many of whom are already
trained in the language, arts, institutions and laws of the
most universally educated and enlightened country in the
world? It is more like romance than cold historical truth.
Africa is the natural home of the Negro. He can endure its
climate and the trials incidental to changing it from a wilder¬
ness into a cultivated continent better than individuals of any
other race. In America, where he has been living and ad¬
vancing for two hundred and fifty years in slavery and forty
years in freedom, he has acquired education and property
xii
IN TROD UCTION.
and is acquiring self-control. Think of the call that is soon
to come from Africa, not only for missionaries and preach¬
ers, but for teachers, farmers, mechanics, carpenters, civil
engineers, locomotive engineers, railway conductors, mer¬
chants, doctors, lawyers and workers in every other trade
useful and ornamental under heaven. Teachers, lawyers,
judges and merchants are now going from the ranks of
our white population to the Philippines, but the climate
is hard on them and it is only by the strictest attention
to the rules of health that even the. robust can live there
at all. But in Africa the colored man is on his native
heath, and there he is destined to play an important part
in the development of the country. The Negroes resent
the idea of wholesale deportation to Africa, and they are
right. They have helped to clear the forests and produce
the wealth of this country, and they have the right won by
three hundred years of service to live here. But under
the leadership of such men as Bishop Turner they will
migrate in constantly increasing numbers and become im¬
portant factors in the redemption and development of the
1 'Dark Continent." The men who make history are the
men who become great. No one can attain to breadth
and height and weight who is occupied in thought and
heart with trifles. Blihu Burritt was a blacksmith, but
he was at the same time a student, and while his arm wielded
the hammer his mind was with Plato and Aristotle. Carey
was a shoemaker, but, while he pulled thread through leather
with his hands, his brain was busy with great schemes for
the elevation of the Hindoos. The opening in Africa pre¬
sents to the Negro a great opportunity to make history.
Europe, the natural home of the Anglo-Saxons, is already
made, and they have no natural new world to conquer.
Africa is virgin territory. There, with few exceptions,
things are as fresh as when the world was first turned over
to Adam when he took up his abode in the Garden of Kden.
In the process of making Africa the Negro should make him¬
self, as the Dutch made themselves by changing Holland
INTRODUCTION.
xiii
from a sea of water into a land of beauty. Through the
conflicts of Marengo, Austerlitz, Jena and Auerstadt, a poor
Corsican boy was turned into the great Napoleon. So the
Negro race must find itself and its place in the world
through what it accomplishes.
Atlanta, Ga.
MAP SHOWING THE DISTRIBUTION OF NEGRO POPULATION IN THE UNITED STATES .
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
page.
INTRODUCTION. By Gen. J. B. Gordon vii
CHAPTER I.
The Negro in Revelation 33
CHAPTER II.
The; Negro as a Soldier.
I. Some in Foreign Countries—II. In the United States—Capt. P. J. Bowen
—P. L. Carmouche—William Blackwell 39
CHAPTER III.
The Negro in Politics, Journalism and the Lecture Field.
The Bruces—Edmund H. Deas—Alohzo J. Rausier—James T. Rapier—Nick
Chiles—Rev. C. P. T. White—Colored Newspapers—Sojourner Truth—
Frederick Douglass 69
CHAPTER IV.
The Negro in Law, Medicine and Divinity.
Narcissa West—The African Zion Methodist Episcopal Church—Rev. John
Jasper—Bishops Francis Burns and John Wright Roberts—Rev. W. J.
Howard—John A. Whitted, D. D.—J. W. Kirby, D. D.—Henry M. Turner—
S. N. Vass, D. D.—Rev. E. P. Johnson—The African Methodist Episcopal
Church—Bishop Benjamin T. Tanner-Joseph E. Jones, D. D.—Miss Emma
B. Delaney—Bishop W. J. Gaines—Bishop Abraham Grant—The Colored
Methodist Episcopal Church—Rev. Garnett Russell Waller—A. R. Griggs,
U. D.—Rev. H. N. Bouey 81
CHAPTER V.
The Negro in Literature and the Fine Arts.
Phillis Wheatley—Paul Laurence Dunbar—James D. Corrothers—Charles W.
Chesnutt—Miss Inez C. Parker—Miss Effie Waller 115
CHAPTER VI.
The Negro in Business.
I. Opening Address of the Hon. Allen D. Candler, Governor of Georgia—II.
The Meaning of Business—III. The Need of Negro Merchants—IV. Ne¬
gro Business Men of Columbia, South Carolina—V. The Negro Grocer
—VI. A Negro Co-operative Foundry—Other Business Enterprises 133
xv
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VII.
The Negro in Business—(Continued). page.
Negro Business Men by States—Negro Business Men by Occupation—Invest¬
ments in Business * 163
CHAPTER VIII.
Thomas Jefferson and the Negro Julius Melbourn: A Remarkable Incident 201
CHAPTER IX.
Among the Southern People the Negro Finds His Best Friends.
Letter from President Cleveland—Letter from Clark Howell, Editor of the
Atlanta Constitution, to the New York World—Booker T. Washington's
Address at the Atlanta Exposition—Henry W. Grady on the Relations of
the Southern People and the Negro—Grady Discusses the Race Problem
and the Duty of North and South—Condition of the Negro, Past and
Present—The Negro's Needs—The Negro and the Signs of Civilization—
The Negro's Part in the South's Upbuilding—The Negro and His Relation
to the South—The "Ancient Governor" 207
CHAPTER X.
Industrial Training and Negro Development.
I. Address by Booker T. Washington—II. Speech by Prof. W. H. Councill ...265
CHAPTER XI.
Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute.
I. Character of the School and What It Seeks to Do—Summary of Work
Done—Booker T. Washington Explains to a Northern Audience His Con¬
nection with the School and Notices the Relations of the Races in the
South 291
CHAPTER XII.
The College-Bred Negro.
Scope of the Inquiry—Colleges by Groups—First Negro Graduate; Number
of Negro Graduates, Etc.—Individual Experiences 317
CHAPTER XIII.
The College-Bred Negro—(Continued).
Occupations, Ownerships Property, Etc.—Assessed Valuation of Real Estate
Some Opinions on the Higher Education of the Negro 349
CHAPTER XIV.
History of Some Negro Universities.
Shaw University—N. F. Roberts, D. D.—Albert W. Pegues, Ph. D.—Grace J.
Thompson—Roger Williams University—National Baptist Publishing Board
—Meharry Medical College—Charles Spencer Dinkins, D. D. Mrs.
Daisy Miller Harvey—John Hope—Joseph A. Booker, D. D.—Mrs. Maria
T. Kenney—Howard University 387
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XV. page.
Some Notable Educators and the Schools With Which They Have
Been Connected.
John Wesley Hoffman—J. D. Coleman—C. S. Brown, D. D.—Enos L. Scruggs,
D. D.—Mrs. Rachel E. Reeves Robinson—Miss Judith I,. Chambers—
Joshua B. Simpson—John H. Jackson—Mrs. Hannah Howell Reddick—
M. W. Reddick, A. M.—James R. L. Diggs—James Shelton Hathaway—
Miss Mary Kimble—Charles L. Puree, D. D.—Eckstein Norton University
—Edward h. Blackshear, B. A.—B. F. Allen, A. B., A. M.—W. H. Coun-
cill—William S. Scarborough—Prof. H. E. Archer 413
CHAPTER XVI.
Miscellaneous Matters.
Booker T. Washington on the Negro and His Economic Value—Address of
Booker T. Washington on Receiving the Honorary Degree of Master of Arts
from Harvard University—Women Who Labor for the Social Advancement
of the Race—Inventive Genius and Mechanical Skill—How Melbourn and
Others Regarded Colonization in Liberia arid What Time Has Disclosed as
to That Scheme—High Tributes to the Manhood of Some Negro Slaves—
Rev. Moses Dickson 447
page.
Some Noted Educators of the Col¬
ored Race Frontispiece
Alexander Dumas 32
Toussaint L'Ouverture 40
Col. James Hunter Young 46
Capt. P. J. Bowen....: 53
Lieut. P. L. Carmouche 56
William Blackwell 57
Edmond H. Deas 61
Joseph E. Lee 64
Nick Chiles 67
Rev. C. P. T. White 69
Frederick Douglass 78
Dr. William T. Penn 84
McCants Stewart, A. M 85
Narcissa West 86
Rev. John Jasper 88
Rev. Joseph J. Clinton 89
Bishop Francis Burns ! 95
Bishop John Wright Roberts 95
Rev. W.J. Howard 96
John A. Whitted, D. D 97
J. W. Kirby, D. D 98
S. N. Vass, D. D 100
Rev. E. P.Johnson 101
Bishop Richard Allen 102
Bishop Morris Brown 102
Bishop Edward Waters 102
Bishop William Paul Quinn 102
Bishop Willis Nazery 102
Bishop D. Alexander Payne 102
Bishop Alexander W. Wayman 102
Bishop Jabez Pitt Campbell 102
Bishop James A. Shorter 102
Bishop Thomas M. D. Ward 102
Bishop John M. Brown 102
page;.
Bishop Henry M. Turner 102
Bishop William F. Dickerson 102
Bishop Richard H. Cain 102
Bishop Richard R. Disney 102
Bishop Wesley J. Gaines 102
Bishop B. W. Arnett 102
Bishop B. T. Tanner 102
Bishop Abraham Grant 102
J. E. Jones, D. D 105
Miss Emma B. Delaney 106
Bishop L. H. Holsey 109
Bishop Isaac Lane 109
Bishop J. A. Beebe 109
Bishop E. Cottrell - 109
Bishop R. S. Williams 109
Rev. Garnett Russell Waller Ill
A. R. Griggs, D. D 113
Rev. H. N. Bouey 114
Paul Laurence Dunbar 120
James D. Corrothers 121
Charles W. Chesnutt 123
Miss Inez C. Parker 125
Miss Effie Waller 131
William H. Moss 135
Capt. J. W. Warnisley 139
Theo. W. Jones 155
Prof. R. T. Greener 161
E. H. Norris 173
Prof. I. Garland Penn 181
Rev. W. W. Brown.. 185
Rev. E. W. Lampton 191
Mahlon Van Horn 197
E. M. Hewlett 209
J. C. Dancy ...213
H. P. Cheatham 217
Bishop C. H. Phillips 221
ILL USTRA TIONS.
xix
PAC,E.
Gen. Robert Small9 225
Mrs. Mary Church Terrell 229
Prof. Robert H. Terrell 235-*
John E. Bruce 251 ••
Col. James H. Deveaux 259
John P. Green 273*-
John S. Durham 281
Phelps Hall, Tuskegee Institute ...290
The Faculty, Tuskegee Institute ...292
Dairy Class, Tuskegee Institute .. 293
Class in Chemistry, Tuskegee In¬
stitute 295
Chapel, Tuskegee Institute . 297
Nurse Training Class, Tuskegee
Institute 299
Booker T. Washington 303
Dean's Residence, Virginia Union
University 315
PickAord Hall, Virginia Union Uni¬
versity 316
Athletic Field, Roger Williams
University 321
Library, Roger Williams Univer¬
sity 326
Owen L. Smith 335
E. E. Cooper 341
Judson W. Lyons 345 *~
Dining Hall, Roger Williams Uni¬
versity 354
Bishop George W. Clinton 361
Virginia Union University 381
M. W. Gibbs 386
John R. Lynch 387
N. F. Roberts, D. D 392
A. W. Pegues, Ph. D 393
Grace J. Thompson 394
President's House, Roger Williams
University 396
Main Building, Roger Williams
University 397
Hayward Hall, Roger Williams
University 398
Mrs. Daisy Miller Harvey 401
John Hope 402
Joseph A. Booker, D. D 403
PAGE.
Mrs. Maria T. Kenney 404
Howard University 406
Wm. H. H. Hart 408
John Wesley Hoffman 412
C. S. Brown, D.D 418
Enos L. Scruggs, B. D 419
Mrs. Rachel E. R. Robinson 421
Miss Judith L. Chambers 421
Joshua B. Simpson 422
Mrs. Hannah Howell Reddick .. . 421
M. W. Reddick 425
James R. L. Diggs .: 426
James S. Hathaway 427
Miss Mary Kimble 429
Charles L» Puree, D. D 430
Rev. C. H. Parrish 433
Edward L. Blackshear 434
Prairie View, Texas, State Normal
and Industrial College 435
Prof. B. F. Allen 437
Prof. W. H. Councill 441
Prof. H. E. Archer 444
S. W. Bennett 446
Rev. N. B. Sterrett, D D 416
W. J. Parker 446
William Ingliss 446
Thos. J. Jackson 446
Dr. Thos. E. Miller 446
Rev. J. L. Dart 446
W. D. Crum, M. D 446
E. A. Lawrence 446
J. B. Parker 449
A. M. Custis, A. M. M. D 453
W. F. Powell 457
George W. Williams 461
Class in Domestic Science, Sum¬
ner High School, St. Louis, Mo..465
N. W. Cuner 469
Sumner High School, St. Louis,
Mo 471
John M. Langston 473
H. A. Rucker 477c
Blanche K. Bruce 479
Rev. Moses Dickson 481
ALEXANDRE DUMAS,
The World-Famous Novelist,
CHAPTER I.
The Negro in Revelation.
O TREAT of the Negro in revelation specifically, in a
work of this kind, the inquiry concerning his origin
and the part of the globe to which he was assigned in the
distribution of the nations, need not extend beyond what the
sacred writings teach us.
Tracing the families of man from the first pair, as noticed
in Genesis, we find that before the flood they were not divided
into races or separate nationalities. Even after that event,
and when Noah and his sons went forth with the blessing of
God to multiply and replenish the earth, the Lord said: ''Be¬
hold, the people is one, and they all have one language."
Ham, one of the sons of Noah, is regarded by both Bible
critics and historians as being the father of the black race—
one of the three great races that peopled the earth; and we
find in the 10th chapter of Genesis, verses 6 to 20, inclusive,
the names of Ham's sons and some, of their descendants and
of the lands they occupied after "the people were scattered
abroad upon the face of all the earth," as follows:
"And the sons of Ham: Cush, and Mizraim, and Phut,
and Canaan; and the sons of Cush: Seba, and Havilah, and
Sabtah, and Raamah, and Sabtechah; and the sons of Raa-
mah: Sheba and Dedan. And Cush begat Nimrod; he began
to be a mighty one in the earth. He was a mighty hunter
before the Lord: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the
mighty hunter before the Lord. And the beginning of his
kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in
the land of Shinar. Out of that land went forth Asshur,
and builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah, and
Resen between Nineveh and Calah: the same is a great
3
33
34
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
city. And Mizraim begat Ludim, and Anamim, and Le-
habim, and Naphtuhim, and Patlirusim, and Casluhim (out
of whom came Philistim), and Caphtorim. And Canaan
begat Sidon bis first-born, and Hetb, and tbe Jebusite, and
tbe Amorite, and tbe Girgasite, and tbe Hivite, and tbe
Arkite, and tbe Sinite, and tbe Arvadite, and tbe Zemarite,
and tbe Hamatbite: and afterward were tbe families of tbe
Canaanites spread abroad. And tbe border of tbe Canaanites
was from Sidon, as tbou comest to Gerar, unto Gaza; as tbou
goest, unto Sodom and Gomorrah, and Admab, and Zeboim,
even unto Lasba. Tbese are tbe sons of Ham, after tbeir
families, after tbeir tongues, in tbeir countries, and in tbeir
nations."
Josepbus' account of tbe distribution of tbe Hamitic fam¬
ilies is as follows:
"Tbe children of Ham possessed tbe land from Syria and
Amanus, and tbe mountains of Libanus; seizing upon all
tbat was on its sea-coasts, and as far as tbe ocean, and keep¬
ing it as tbeir'own. Some, indeed, of its names are utterly
vanished away; others of tbem being changed, and another
sound given them, are hardly to be discovered, yet a few
there are which have kept their denominations entire. For
of tbe four sons of Ham, time has not at all hurt the name
of Chus; for the Ethiopians, over whom he reigned, are even at
this day, both by themselves and by all men in Asia, called
Chusites. The memory also of the Mesraites is preserved
in their name; for all we who inhabit this country [of Judea]
call Egypt Mestre, and the Egyptians Mestreans. Phut
also was the founder of Libya, and called the inhabitants
Phuthites, from himself; there is also a river in the country
of the Moors which bears that name; whence it is that we
may see the greatest part of the Grecian historiographers
mention that river, and the adjoining country, by the appel¬
lation of Phut; but tbe name it has now has been by change
given it from one of the sons of Mestraim, who was called
Lzbzos. We will inform you presently what has been the
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
35
occasion why it has been called Africa also. Canaan, the
fonrth son of Ham, inhabited the country now called Judea,
and called from his own name Canaan. The children of
these [four] were these; Sabas, who founded the Sabeans;
Kvilas, who founded the Evileans, who are called Getuli;
Sabathes founded the Sabathens; they are now called by the
Greeks Astaborans; Sabactas settled the Sabactans; and
Ragmas the Ragmeans; and he had two sons, the one of
which, Judadas, settled the Judadeans, a nation of the western
Ethiopians, and left them his name; as did Sabas the Sa¬
beans. But Nimrod, the son of Chus, stayed and tyrannized
at Babylon. . . . Now all the children of Mesraim,
being eight in number, possessed the country from Gaza to
Egypt, though it retained the name of one only, the Phil-
istim, for the Greeks called part of that country Palestine.
As for the rest, Ludiem, and Enemim, and Labim, who
alone inhabited in Libya, and called the country from him¬
self; Nedim and Pethrosim, and Chesloim, and Cephthorim,
we know nothing of them besides their names; for the Ethiopic
war, which we shall describe hereafter, was the cause that
those cities were overthrown. The sons of Canaan were
these: Sidonius, who also built a city of the same name; it
is called by the Greeks Sidon; Amathus inhabited in Ama-
thine, which is even now called Amathe by the inhabitants,
although the Macedonians named it Epiphamia, from one of
his posterity; Arudeus possessed the island Aradus; Arucas
possessed Acre which is in Libanus."
Albert Leighton Rawson, in his Pronouncing Bible Dic¬
tionary, makes the matter of location more definite by giving
the modern names of the various countries over which "they
spread abroad.'' He says: "The sons and grandsons of
Ham located in Egypt, Abyssinia, on the southwest coast of
the Red Sea, in Arabia, Persia, Ethiopia, Shinar, Chaldea,
West Africa, Marcotis, Libya, Memphis, Thebes, Pathros,
Arabia Petraea, Damietta, Sidon and Tyre, Judea, Schechem,
Arke, Sinnas, Island of Arvad, Sumrah, and Hamath."
36
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
And again: "Ham's descendants settled in Africa and sent
many branches into Asia also. The locality of what we know
specifically as the Negro race was the valleys of the Senegal,
the Gambia, and the Niger, and the intermediate rivers of
the coast, parts of Sudamia, and parts of Sennaar, Kordofan,
and Darfur.
"There is no other ancient name so well preserved and
located as that of Ham. It is identified with Jupiter Ammon,
and also Zeus, because both words are derived from a root
meaning hot, fervent, or sunburnt. For the last three
thousand years the world has been mainly indebted for its
advancement to the Semitic races; but before this period the
descendants of Ham, in Egypt and Babylon, led the way as
the pioneers in art, literature, and science. Mankind at the
present day lies under infinite obligations to the genius and
industry of those early ages, more especially for alphabetic
writing, weaving cloth, architecture, astronomy, plastic art,
sculpture, navigation and agriculture. The art of painting
is also represented, and music indirectly, by drawings of in¬
struments."
It has been held by some that Ethiopia, the country ex¬
tending from the neighborhood of Khartoum northward to
Egypt, or perhaps the somewhat more extended region indi¬
cated by Rawson, was the original seat of the distinctively
Negro race; but careful investigators conclude that he was
confined to no particular locality during those ages when, as
Rawson tells us, the Hamitic race was laying mankind
* 'under infinite obligations," and was to be found in East
Africa, West Africa, North Africa, in the plains of India—
perhaps in the whole southern portion of Asia and elsewhere
on that continent and neighboring islands.
It is not our purpose to inquire minutely into this matter
of the negro's location, and we notice the wide diffusion of
this particular type of Ham's descendants simply to show
their connection with the achievements in art, science, and
literature which distinguished those countries long before
IN HISTORY; AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
37
modern civilization had its dawn, and incidentally to show
that the Negro proved himself ages ago to be lacking in none
of the qualities of mind and spirit which have characterized
the great- and progressive peoples. The Negro played his
part in those early ages in the work of human progress; and
it cannot be maintained with any show of reason that lapse
of time, unfavorable conditions in the lands where they were
once supreme, and hundreds of years of subjection to another
race, have so enervated mind and darkened soul as to leave
them without hope for the future.
Dr. Livingstone, writing of the Africans of modern days,
as he saw them in their native land, says:
"In reference to the status of the Africans among the
nations of the earth, we have seen nothing to justify the
notion that they are of a different1 breed' or 'species' from the
most civilized. The African is a man with every attribute
of human kind. Centuries of barbarism have had the same
deteriorating effects on Africans as Prichard describes them
to have had on certain of the Irish who were driven, some
generations back, to the hills of Ulster and Connaught; and
these depressing influences have had such moral and physical
effects on some tribes that ages probably will be required to
undo what ages have done. Ethnologists reckon the African
as by no means the lowest of the human family. He is
nearly as strong physically as the European; and, as a race,
is wonderfully persistent among the nations of the earth.
Neither the diseases nor the ardent spirits which proved so
fatal to North American Indians, South Sea Islanders, and
Australians seem capable of annihilating the Negroes. Even
when subjected to that system so destructive to human life,
by which they are torn from their native soil, they spring up
irrepressibly, and darken half the new continent."
Seventy years ago a writer for a popular encyclopaedia
wrote of the tribes in 1 'Darkest Africa" as follows:
"The African tribes of this variety (the Negro or Ethi-
opic race) have in general elevated themselves so far above
38
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
the simple state of nature as to have reduced the lower ani¬
mals to subjection, constructed settled habitations, practiced
a rude agriculture, and manufactured some articles of cloth¬
ing or ornament. In political institutions they have made
no advance, their governments being simple despotisms,
without any regular organization. Their religion is merely
the expression of the religious feeling in its lowest form of
fetichism. Their languages are described as extremely rude
and imperfect; almost destitute of construction, and incapa¬
ble of expressing abstractions. They have no art of convey¬
ing thoughts or wants by writing, not even by the simplest
symbolical characters.
"The Negro character, if inferior in intellectual vigor, is
marked by a warmth of social affections, and a kindness and
tenderness of feeling, which even the atrocities of foreign
oppression have not been able to stifle. All travelers con¬
cur in describing the Negro as mild, amiable, simple, hos¬
pitable, unsuspecting and faithful. They are passionately
fond of music, and they express their hopes and fears in ex¬
temporary effusions of song."
Compare the status of the Negroes in the United States
today with that of these wild tribes, in matters of orderly
society, business, learning and religion, and say whether the
Negro has not the innate power to rise, under favorable con¬
ditions, to a high plane of civilization.
But the better argument for the sweeping away of false
assumptions, and the refutation of specious reasoning, is the
presentation of facts that directly and unequivocally contra¬
dict them. To those that follow, we could add a multitude
of others, but each chapter will be found to contain enough
to illustrate that feature of the general subject of which it
treats. To cite all the instances that have a bearing, and
name all the persons who are worthy of mention, would ex¬
tend this work beyond all reasonable limits.
CHAPTER II.
The Negro as a Soldier.
i. some in foreign countries.
HAT there were able and eminent military leaders among
tlie Negroes of tlie earlier ages, as well as brave, disci¬
plined and efficient soldiers, is borne ont by the history of
their wars of conquest and their struggles against invasion,
as* the race was enlarging its borders and making good its
claim to the regions occupied; but it is sufficient for our pur¬
pose to notice particularly only some of whom modern his¬
tory takes cognizance.
Illustrious among colored men abroad who have greatly
distinguished themselves in arms is Gen. Alexandre de la
Pailleterie Dumas, the Afro-French soldier. He was the
son of a rich French colonist residing in Santo Domingo and
a Negro woman of that country. He attained to eminence
in the wars of the French Revolution and under Bonaparte,
who called him "the Horatius Codes of the Tyrol." In the
Egyptian expedition he commanded Napoleon's cavalry.
A more modern example is Gen. Alfred Dodds, a mulatto,
who is one of the most distinguished officers in the French
army. He was recently (if he is not now) in command of
the French forces in Tonquin, Farther India.
One of the most prominent of Negro slaves who have
achieved distinction in spite of adverse fortune was Domi¬
nique Francois Toussaint L'Ouverture. He was born near
Cape Frangais, Haiti, in 1743. Though in bondage, he
won the esteem and confidence of his master by his intelli¬
gence and upright conduct, and received at the hands of this
master, it is said, such instruction in reading, writing and
arithmetic as fitted him for the ordinary business of life.
3
39
40
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
He was about forty-eight years old before anything"
occurred to bring him into prominence, but the remainder of
his life (about twelve years) was crowded with remarkable
incidents, during which he proved himself a general, a
statesman, and a man of honor.
The space to which we are limited forbids going into de¬
tails, but an abstract of events will serve to place him before
the reader as a representative of high qualities which attract
the attention of mankind,
whether exhibited by
white men or black, slave
or free.
When, in 1791, an in¬
surrection against the
French authorities broke
out, he was asked to join
the insurgents, but he re¬
fused to take any part un¬
til he had protected his
master and his family in
their flight and seen them
safe on board a vessel
bound for the United
States. Afterwards, find¬
ing that the Spanish and
English had combined
against the French royal¬
ists, he joined the slave leader Francois, and the allied
forces of the enemy were defeated and the French governor,
Blauchelande, was reinstated in office. Toussaint and his
associates now made a reasonable request of Blauche¬
lande, that in return for the great services rendered him, he
should grant them a measure of freedom; but this was
spurned, and the blacks refused to disband. During the
attempts to negotiate terms by which their bondage would
be less galling, their general, Frauds, had been maltreated
TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE.
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
41
by the French, and they became so inflamed that they fell
upon the royalists, and, besides killing many, captured a
large number, whom they were about to massacre, when
Toussaint interfered and magnanimously saved their lives.
He soon afterward became commander-in-chief, and the force
which had formerly fought the French republicans was now
allied with them, and during the next seven years Toussaint
won numerous victories, and eventually the British general,
Maitland, abandoned the island, having surrendered such
posts as he held to Toussaint, whom he regarded as the real
ruler, though his authority was not acknowledged till the last
of the French commissioners claiming authority under Bona¬
parte was either driven from the island or compelled to yield.
In 1799 he was undisputed master of the western part of the
island; in 1801 he occupied the eastern part; and finally he
threw off all pretense of allegiance to France, and promul¬
gated a constitution which made him president for life, with
power to name his successor. Bonaparte thereupon sent his
brother-in-law, Leclerc, with a powerful army to subdue the
island. A series of bloody conflicts ensued, in which Tous¬
saint displayed heroic valor and generalship of a high order;
but he was finally compelled to yield to the superior num¬
bers, resources and skill of the French. He surrendered
and was ostensibly pardoned (May 1, 1802), but a short
time afterward he was arrested on a charge of conspiracy and
sent to France. Here he was kept in prison and treated
with such neglect and active cruelty as virtually made his
death, which occurred next year, an assassination.
Greater than his genius as an organizer and a soldier was
his magnanimous treatment of prisoners and his generous
and statesmanlike exercise of the almost autocratic power
that came into his hands. His treatment of his master and
his family in the day- when the prospect of liberty and power
was opened up to him, and calamity threatened the master
and his household, was worthy of the most enlightened mind
of any race; and his efforts to have his soldiers return to the
42
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
cultivation of their fields and devote their lives henceforth to
honest industry in the pursuits of peace, mark him as having
possessed some of the civic virtues of General Washington.
History has crowned L'Ouverture as one of earth's ablest
soldiers and most enlightened statesmen. In concluding his
sketch of Toussaint's career, Wendell Phillips used the
following language:
''Now, blue-eyed Saxon, proud of your race, go back with
me to the commencement of the century and select what
statesman you please. Let him be either American or Euro¬
pean, let him have a brain the result of six generations of
culture, let him have the richest training of university rou¬
tine, let him add to it the better education of practical life;
crown his temples with the silver of seventy years, and show
me the man of Saxon linkage for whom his most sanguine
admirers will wreathe a laurel such as embittered foes have
placed on the brow of the Negro, Toussaint L'Ouverture."
II. IN THE UNITED STATES.
George W. Williams, the colored historian, estimates that
not less than three thousand Negro soldiers did service in the
American army duringthe Revolution, including those from
every northern colony enrolled in white regiments. Rhode
Island first made her slaves freemen and then called on them
to fight. A black regiment was raised there, of which Col.
Christopher Green was made commander. Connecticut sent
a black battalion into the field under command of Col. David
Humphrey.
Two Virginia Negroes, Israel Titus and Samuel Jenkins,
fought under Braddock and Washington in the French and
Indian War.
Crispus Attucks led an attack on the British soldiers on
the day of the Boston massacre, March 5, 1770, and was
killed.
It has been said that one of the men killed when Maj.
Pitcairn, commanding the British advance on Concord and
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
43
Lexington, April 19, 1775, ordered his troops to fire on the
Americans, was a Negro bearing arms.
Peter Salem, a Negro, did service during the Revolution,
and is said to have killed Maj. Pitcairn, at Bunker Hill.
Other black men besides Salem fought there, of whom we
have the names of Salem Poor, Titus Coburn, Alexander
Ames, Barzillai Lew, and Cato Howe. After the war these
men were pensioned.
Prince, a Negro soldier, was Col. Barton's chief assistant
in capturing the British officer, Major-Gen. Prescott, at New¬
port, Rhode Island, during the Revolution.
Primus Babcock had, as late as 1818, an honorable dis¬
charge from the American army signed by Gen. Wash¬
ington.
Lambo Latham and Jordan Freeman fell with Ledyard at
the storming of Fort Griswold. Freeman is said to have
killed Maj. Montgomery, a British officer, who was leading
an attack on Americans in a previous fight.
Hamet, one of Gen. Washington's Negroes, was drawing a
pension as a Revolutionary soldier in 1839.
Oliver Cromwell served six years and nine months in
Col. Israel Shreve's regiment of New Jersey troops under
Washington's immediate command.
Charles Bowles became an American soldier when but six¬
teen years old, and served to the end of the Revolution.
Seymour Burr and Jeremy Jonah were Negro soldiers in a
Connecticut regiment.
Deborah Gannett, a Negro woman, enlisted in the Fourth
Massachusetts Infantry in disguise, under the name of Robert
Shurtliff, 1782, and served a year and a half, for which the
General Court paid her £34 inl791-2.
Prince Richards, of Bast Bridgewater, Connecticut, was a
pensioned Revolutionary soldier.
A Negro whose name is not known obtained the counter¬
sign by which Mad Anthony Wayne was enabled to take
Stony Point, and guided and helped him to do so.
44 THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
Jack Grove was a Negro steward on board an American ves¬
sel which, the British captured. He insisted on retaking it,
and at length prevailed upon the captain to make the at¬
tempt, which was successful.
There was in Massachusetts during those Revolutionary
days one company of Negro men bearing a special designa¬
tion, ' 'The Bucks," which seems to have been a notable body
of soldiers, as at the close of the war its services and stand¬
ing were recognized by John Hancock presenting to it a
beautiful banner.
In the settling of Kentucky some Negro men brought
thither by their masters distinguished themselves as Indian
fighters. The following incidents are fou-nd recorded in
Thompson's "Young People's History of Kentucky:"
' 'Ben Stockton was a slave in the family of Major
George Stockton, of Fleming county. He was a regular
Negro, and though a slave, he was devoted to his master. He
hated an Indian and loved to moralize over a dead one; getting
into a towering rage and swearing magnificently when a horse
was stolen; handled his rifle well, though somewhat foppishly,
and hopped, danced, and showed his teeth when a prospect
offered to chase 'the yaller varmints.' His master had
confidence in his resolution and prudence, while he was a
great favorite with all the hunters, and added much to their
fun on dull expeditions. On one occasion, when a party of
white men in pursuit of Indians who had stolen their horses
called at Stockton's Station for reinforcements, Ben, among
others, volunteered. They overtook the savages at Kirk's
Springs, in Lewis county, and dismounted to fight; but as
they advanced, they could see only eight or ten, who quickly
disappeared over the mountain. Pressing on, they discovered
on descending the mountain such indications as convinced
them that the few they had seen were but decoys to lead
them into an ambuscade at the base, and a retreat was
ordered. Ben was told of it by a man near him; but he was
so intent on getting a shot that he did not hear, and the order
In history, and in citizenship.
45
was repeated in a louder tone, whereupon lie turned upon his
monitor a reproving look, grimaced and gesticulated ludi¬
crously, and motioned to the man to be silent. He then set
off rapidly down the mountain. His white comrade, unwill¬
ing to leave him, ran after him, and reached his side just as
he leveled his gun at a big Indian standing tiptoe on a log
and peering into the thick woods. At the crack of Ben's
rifle the savage bounded into the air and fell. The others
set up a fierce yell, and, as the fearless Negro said, 'skipped
from tree to tree like grasshoppers.' He bawled out: 'Take
dat to 'member Ben—de black white man!' and the two
then beat a hasty retreat."
"In the family of Capt. James Bstill, who established a
station about fifteen miles south of Boonesborough, was a
Negro slave, Monk, who was intelligent, bold as a lion, and
as faithful to his pioneer friends as though he were a free
white settler defending his own rights. About daylight,
March 20, 1782, when all the men of the fort except four
were absent on an Indian trail, a body of the savages came
upon Miss Jennie Glass, who was outside, but near the sta¬
tion, milking—Monk being with her. They killed and
scalped Miss Glass and captured Monk. When questioned
as to the force inside the walls, the shrewd and self-possessed
Negro represented it as much greater than it was and told
of preparation for defense. The Indians were deceived, and
after killing the cattle, they retreated across the river.
When the battle of Little Mountain opened, two days after¬
ward, Monk, who was still a prisoner with the Indians,
cried out: 'Don't give way, Mas' Jim! There's only about
twenty-five redskins, and you can whip 'em!' This was
valuable and encouraging information to the whites. When
the Indians began to advance on Lieutenant Miller, when
he was sent to prevent a flank movement and guard the
horse-holders, Monk called also to him to hold his ground
and the white men would win. Instead of being instantly
killed, as was to be apprehended, even though the savages
COL JAMES HUNTER YOUNG.
Third North Carolina Volunteers.
IN HISTORY; AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
47
might not understand his English, lie made his escape be¬
fore the fight closed and got back to his friends. On their
return to the station, twenty-five miles, without sufficient
horses for the wounded, he carried on his back, most of the
way, James Berry, whose thigh was broken. He had learned
to make gunpowder, and, obtaining saltpetre from Peyton's
Cave, in Madison county, he frequently furnished this in¬
dispensable article to Estill's Station and Boonesborough.
He has been described as being five feet five inches high and
weighing two hundred pounds. He was a respected member
of the Baptist Church, when whites and blacks worshiped
together. He was held in high esteem by the settlers, and
his young master, Wallace Kstill, gave him his freedom and
clothed and fed him as long as he lived thereafter—till about
1835.
11A year or two after the close of the Revolutionary War,
a Mr. Woods was living near Crab Orchard, Kentucky,
with his wife, one daughter (said to be ten years old), and
a lame Negro man. Early one morning, her husband being
away from home, Mrs. Woods, when a short distance from
the house, discovered seven or eight Indians in ambush.
She ran back into the house, so closely pursued that before
she could fasten the door one of the savages forced his way
in. The Negro instantly seized him. In the scuffle the
Indian threw him, falling on top. The Negro held him in
a strong grasp and called to the girl to take an axe which
was in the room and kill him. This she did by two well-
aimed blows; and the Negro then asked Mrs. Woods to let
in another that he with the axe might dispatch him as he
came, and so, one by one, kill them all. By this time,
however, some men from the station near by, having discov¬
ered that the house was attacked, had come up and opened
fire on the savages, by which one was killed and the others
put to flight."
In the navy, especially, during the War of 1812, Negroes
were engaged as fighting men. Commodore Chauncey said
48
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
in 1813 that he had nearly fifty blacks on board his ship and
that many of them were among his best men. Commodore
Perry spoke highly of their good conduct and of their
bravery in his battles on the lakes. The following extract
from a letter written by Commodore Nathaniel Shaler, of the
private armed schooner "Governor Tompkins," January 1,
1813, is of much interest. Speaking of the result of a fight
with a British frigate, he said:
"The name of one of the two of my poor fellows who was
killed ought to be registered in the book of fame and remem¬
bered with reverence as long as bravery is considered a virtue.
He was a black man, by the name of John Johnson.
A twenty-four-pound shot struck him in the hip and tore
away all the lower part of his body. In this state the poor
brave fellow lay on the deck and several times exclaimed to
his shipmates: 'Fire away, my boys; no haul a color down!'
The other was also a black man, by the name of John Davis,
and he was struck in much the same way. He fell near me
and several times requested to be thrown overboard, saying
he was only in the way of others."
General Andrew Jackson, when preparing for the defense
of New Orleans, called upon the colored inhabitants of
Louisiana to participate in the struggle with the British.
His proclamation was dated September 21, 1814, and by the
eighteenth of December a force was organized and equipped
and an eloquent and commendatory address was read "To
the men of color.''
In the "Life and Opinions of Julius Melbourn," from
which we have made copious extracts elsewhere, he has
something to say in reply to an assertion that "the Negro
is mild and yielding in his nature and destitute of the per¬
sonal courage necessary for a soldier." Referring to the
black regiments who served during the Revolutionary War,
he says: "Neither their skill, bravery, nor fidelity was ever
questioned." And then, alluding to the War of 1812, he
remarks: "It will be conceded that almost the only martial
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
49
glory acquired by Americans, excepting always the battle of
New Orleans, was acquired by the American navy; and it
will be conceded also that a great proportion of the fighting
men of that navy were Negroes. The managers of the Park
Theatre in New York, in testimony of the bravery of the
lamented Captain Lawrence and his crew, manifested in the
brilliant action with the British sloop-of-war 'Peacock,' invited
him and them to a play in honor of the victory achieved on
that occasion. The crew marched together into the pit, and
nearly one-half of them were Negroes."
During the Civil War about 200,000 colored soldiers were
regularly enlisted for service in the Federal army and navy,
and President Lincoln commissioned eight colored surgeons
for duty in field and hospital. Bven a cursory glance at the
history of that time shows that the black troops repeatedly
received from officers high in command warm commendation
for their general conduct and their bearing in battle, and that
a number of individuals particularly distinguished them¬
selves. Charles E. Nash, afterward a member of Congress,
had received some education in New Orleans schools. In 1863
he enlisted in the Bighty-third Regiment United States
Chasseurs d' Afrique, and became acting sergeant-major of
that command; at the storming of Fort Blakeley he lost a leg
and was honorably discharged.
William Hannibal Thomas, the author of ' 'The American
Negro: What he was, what he is, and what he may become,"
was a soldier during the Civil War, and lost an arm dur¬
ing that service. He may properly be classed among those
who have borne arms for their country, though he was after¬
ward author, teacher, lawyer and legislator. At one time
he was active and efficient in promoting the building of
churches and establishing schools throughout the South,
laboring for the moral and intellectual as well as for the
material advancement of the freedmen.
Robert Smalls was born a slave at Beaufort, South Carolina,
but educated himself to some extent; having been employed
4
50
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
as a rigger of water-craft, and having led a sea-faring life
for awhile, he was connected in 1861 with a transport
steamer, "The Planter," and this he took over the Charles¬
ton bar and delivered to the commander of the United
States blockading squadron, May, 1862; was appointed a
pilot in the United States Navy, and served as such on the
monitor "Keokuk" in the attack on Fort Sumter; was pro¬
moted to captain for gallant and meritorious conduct, De¬
cember 1, 1863, and placed in command of "The Planter,"
which he held until the vessel was put out of com¬
mission, 1866. He was a member of the South Carolina
Constitutional Convention, 1868; elected same year to the
Legislature; to the State Senate, 1870 and 1872, and was a
member of the Forty-fourth and Forty-fifth Congresses.
When the Spanish War broke out (1898), the colored
men North and South were not only willing but eager to vol¬
unteer; but as there were no colored organizations they were
not at first accepted. When Congress authorized the raising
of ten immune colored regiments, the plan to put whites
in command above the grade of second-lieutenant prevented
colored men from enlisting as they would otherwise have
done. But four immune regiments were organized—the
Seventh, Eighth, Ninth and Tenth, and so officered.
There are four regiments of colored regulars in the United
States Army, the Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth Infantry,
and the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry. These were first mus¬
tered into the regular service in 1866, having fought during
the last years of the Civil War. These regiments composed
part of Shafter's force in the Santiago campaign.
The following colored volunteer troops were raised by the
states named: Third Alabama Infantry; Sixth Virginia In¬
fantry; Eighth Illinois Infantry; Companies A and B,
Indiana Infantry; Thirty-third Kansas Infantry; Ninth
Ohio Infantry (a battalion). The Eighth Illinois was
officered by colored men throughout, J. R. Marshall com¬
manding. This regiment did garrison duty in Santiago
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
51
province for some time after the war, and Marshall was for
awhile military governor of San Luis. The Ninth Ohio Bat¬
talion was commanded by Brevet-Major Charles B. Young, a
graduate of West Point. Lieut. John H. Alexander, who
did service in Cuba, was also a West Point graduate.
Gov. Russell, of North Carolina, called out a colored regi¬
ment, the Third Infantry, officered by colored men through¬
out, Col. James H. Young commanding, but it was not
mustered into the service.
Company L, Sixth Massachusetts Infantry, was a colored
company, the only one serving in a white regiment.
John L. Waller, a Negro man who had been United
States Consul to Madagascar, was a captain in the Kansas
regiment.
About one hundred Negro second-lieutenants were com¬
missioned in the volunteer force during the Spanish-Ameri¬
can War. There were two Negro paymasters, John R.
Lynch, of Mississippi, fourth auditor of the United States
Treasury, and Richard R. Wright, of Georgia, president of
the State Agricultural and Mechanical College for Colored
Persons. Two Negro chaplains were commissioned, the Rev.
C. T. Walker, of Georgia, and the Rev. Richard Carroll, of
South Carolina.
The fighting of the black troops in Cuba won the confi¬
dence of the white soldiers and their officers, and was highly
commended. Col. Roosevelt said that: the conduct of the
Ninth and Tenth Cavalry reflected honor on the whole
American people, especially on their own race. Several
colored non-commissioned officers were promoted for gallant
conduct in Cuba.
It will be noticed in the history of Shaw University, given
elsewhere in this work, that some of the alumni of that
institution became military officers.
Cuba, in her struggles for freedom, had among her own
people two splendid leaders who were mulattoes, Antonio and
Jose Maceo.
52
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
Five Southern States, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina,
South Carolina and Virginia, comprehend colored troops in
their militia.
The following colored troops have done service in the Phil¬
ippines: Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth Regular Infantry,
parts of the Ninth and Tenth Regular Cavalry, and the
Forty-eighth and Forty-ninth Volunteer Infantry—all offi¬
cered by colored men.
Apropos of the conduct of the colored soldiers in Cuba, a
Red Cross nurse in the hospital at Siboney, during the bat¬
tle at Santiago, says, in the course of some reminiscences of
that time, after speaking in detail of the work of surgeons
and nurses:
"And so it went on through the long night—the patient
suffering of the sick men, the heroism of the wounded—all
fearing to give any trouble, desiring not to do so, and grate¬
ful for the smallest attention. The courage that faces death
on the battlefield, or calmly waits for it in the hospital, is
not a courage of race or color. Two of the bravest men I
ever saw were here, almost side by side, on the little porch,
Capt. Mills and Private Clark, one white the other black.
They were wounded almost at the same time and in the same
way. The patient suffering and heroism of the black soldier
was fully equal to the Anglo-Saxon's. It was quite the
same—the gentleness and appreciation. They were a study
—these men so wide apart in life, but here so strangely close
and alike on the common ground of duty and sacrifice.
They received precisely the same care. Kach was fed like a
child, for with their bandaged eyes they were as helpless as
blind men. When the ice-pads were renewed on Capt.
Mills' eyes the same change was made on Private Clark's
eyes. There was no difference in the food or beds. Neither
ever uttered a word of complaint. . . . When told who his
nearest neighbor was, Capt. Mills expressed great sympathy
for Private Clark, and paid a high tribute to the bravery of
the colored troops and their faithful performance of duty,"
IN HISTORYi AND IN CITIZENSHIP. 53
CAPT. P. J. BOWEN.
The subject of the accompanying sketch is well known
among the citizens of Providence, Rhode Island, having been
prominently connected there, both as a military officer and
as a business man, for more than twenty years. When but
a youth he engaged as an apprentice in a printing office
located in the old Union Depot. He continued in his chosen
CAPT. P. J. BOWEN.
Soldier, Author, a Successful Business Man.
profession, being employed in some of the largest establish¬
ments in the city. Later he engaged in business for him¬
self, under the style and name of the Excelsior Print Com¬
pany.
In 1894, after having risen from private to lieutenant in
the First Separate Company, R. I. M., he was chosen cap¬
tain of the Second Separate Company, and held that office
54
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
until the latter consolidated with the First Separate Com¬
pany, in 1895.
Captain Bowen has also the distinction of being the author
of a military drama, entitled "Fort Wagner," which was
first produced in 1897.
P. L. CARMOUCHE.
Pierre Lacroix Carmouche was the first Afro-American to
offer his services to President McKinley for the Spanish
War, with those of two hundred and fifty other colored men
whom he had induced to join him.
He went to Cuba as first lieutenant of Company L,
Ninth United States Volunteer Infantry, and took an hon¬
orable part in the Santiago campaign.
He was born in the town of Donaldson, Ascension Parish,
Louisiana, November 20, 1862. His father, Pierre Car¬
mouche, was a man of marked integrity, whose word was
regarded by his neighbors, black and white, as good as a
bond. His mother, still living in 1902, was active and
intelligent, notwithstanding advanced age.
In early boyhood, Pierre, the son, was sent to school, and
it was not long before he acquired familiarity with the Eng¬
lish tongue, which was not spoken in his father's family
before he began to attend school. He learned fast, and his
ambition to be well informed helped him to obtain a common
school education under very adverse circumstances, for when
he was just about fitted to enter a normal school, preparatory
to continuing his studies in college, as has been the mis¬
fortune of many an ambitious boy before, his beloved father
took sick, became an invalid, lingered for months and
months, and then died, leaving four small children and their
mother to care for themselves. The loss of his father caused
young Carmouche to leave school. He became apprentice
to a barber, learned the trade easily, worked at it for
awhile, and then having an offer, accepted an apprentice¬
ship in a dental office, where he was becoming very useful
IN HISTORY; AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
55
co his preceptor as an assistant, when the death of his em¬
ployer put an end to the pursuit in which he was rapidly
achieving proficiency.
Undaunted by these discouragements, young Carmouche,
now only about seventeen years of age, sought and obtained
apprenticeship in a wheelwright, blacksmith and farrier's
shop. At this trade he worked faithfully, until he became
master of it. He finally owned and operated the very shop
in which he learned the trade, commanding the trade patron¬
age of most of the livery stables, planters and business men
of Donaldsonville and vicinity. In the municipal election of
1886, he was elected assessor for the town of Donaldsonville,
and succeeded himself in 1887. About this time the Knights
of Labor sentiment was spreading over the country, and he
took a leading part in organizing a local branch of the order
in Donaldsonville. The membership of this branch was
over twelve hundred strong, and the organization in 1888
nominated him as its candidate for election as representative
to the State Legislature for Ascension Parish. He has been
reared a Roman Catholic, but is friendly to all denomina¬
tions. He was repeatedly elected secretary of the Board of
Trustees of St. Peter's Methodist-Episcopal Church at Don¬
aldsonville, and the present beautiful edifice now replacing
the old St. Peter building, in that lovely little city on the
Mississippi river, eighty-two miles above New Orleans, is
in part a monument to the energy and interest he displayed
in assisting the Methodists of his place in their noble
Christian efforts. If there was ever any doubt of the patri¬
otism of Pierre L. Carmouche in the Parish of Ascension,
Louisiana, there is certainly no such doubt there now. In
a state where colored military organizations are not allowed,
much less encouraged, this young man went about the
parish at his own expense, after the blowing up of the Maine
in the harbor of Havana on the 15th of February, 1898, and
appealed to the colored people to prepare to defend the
dignity of the flag of the United States. He did not rest until
4
50
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
he was able to make to the President of the United States,
through the Secretary of War, the following patriotic offer:
UEut. p. h. carmouche;.
Donaldsonville, Louisiana, February 26, 1898.
R. G. Alger, Secretary of War, Washington, D. C.
Dear Sir:—After carefully considering the condition of
the United States and the possibility of a declaration of war
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
57
between the United States and Spain, I deem it advisable to
offer my services and that of two hundred and fifty colored
Americans, on short notice, in the defense of our country,
at home or abroad. Yours loyally,
P. L. Carmouche.
WILLIAM BLACKWELL.
Henry W. Grady, of Georgia, and others, quoted elsewhere
in this work, have alluded to the singular fidelity of the Negro
wiluam blackweli,.
during the Civil War, when fathers, sons and brothers were
iu the tented field and powerless to protect the women and
children at home. The same spirit of devotion and loyalty
was manifested in many instances by Negro men who fol-
58
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
lowed the fortunes of the Confederate Army, in the service of
their masters. One instance may be recorded:
William, a young Negro belonging to the Black well family
in Union county, Kentucky, accompanied Lieut. Thomas C.
Blackwell, Company C, Fourth Kentucky Infantry, when he
entered the Confederate service in 1861, and stayed with him
and his company through all the vicissitudes of war—never
manifesting any disposition to escape northward, though
there were repeated opportunities to do so, or to become a
free man by abandoning his Confederate friends and going
over to the Federal troops. Bven after emancipation was
proclaimed he seemed to feel that it would be an act of deser¬
tion if he should abandon his young master and the com¬
pany of which he was in effect a member.
He enjoyed the confidence and respect of all who knew
him; and when the war closed he came back to Kentucky
with Lieutenant Blackwell and those of his men who had
survived, and in 1865 began life on his own responsibility
among the people who had known him as a slave.
The portrait accompanying this sketch was made from a
photograph taken in Uniontown soon after he got home, and
preserved by one who knew him during his four years' serv¬
ice in the Confederate Army.
CHAPTER III.
The; Negro in Politics, Journalism, and the
Lecture Field.
THE BRVCES.
MONG the first of his race in America to hold high
official position, State and National, was Blanche
K. Bruce. He was born a slave in Prince Edward county,
Virginia, March 1, 1841, and remained in slavery until freed
by the war, though he had the unusual experience of being
taught in his master's house. After the war he taught in
Hannibal, Missouri; studied at Oberlin College and pri¬
vately; removed to Mississippi in 1869 and became a planter;
served as sheriff of Bolivar county in that State, 1871-74;
was, meanwhile, 1872-73, superintendent of education for
his county; was United States senator, 1875-1881, and reg¬
ister of the United States Treasury, 1881-85. Beginning
with 1868 he was a member of every National Republican
Convention that met in many years.
At Harvard University's senior class election on the 16th
of December, 1901, the contestants for the position of orator
were R. E. Fitzpatrick, of Boston, an Irishman, one of the
brightest and most promising young speakers in Harvard,
and Roscoe Conkling Bruce, son of the late Senator Bruce.
The young Negro man won the oratorical honor by a vote of
269 to 100. Bruce debated against Yale in 1899 and 1901,
and was one of the most popular young men of his class.
Perhaps there is no one of his race better known or more
highly respected in South Carolina than the subject of this
sketch, of late resident in Washington, D. C., and in 1901
EDMUND H. DEAS.
59
60
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
elected chairman of the Republican State Committee of his
native State.
Like most men of note, he came of humble parentage, and
after freedom came to his people he had a hard struggle
against poverty; but this circumstance contributed no little
in the way of preparing him to be the Moses of his people.
We do not claim that he was born a politician; nevertheless,
it is true that all the characteristics of a successful politician
and statesman were found in him well developed by the time
he reached his teens. He may be called a master along this
particular line, having served a regular apprenticeship in
politics. Beginning in the year 1874 as precinct chairman,
in 1878 he was elected chairman of his congressional district,
which position he held eight years, with credit to himself and
satisfaction to 'his party. Twenty-two years ago he was
made a member of the State Executive Committee, and is
still serving his party with signal ability in that capacity,
being now (1901) its honored head. In 1880 he was elected
county chairman, which position he still holds by the unani¬
mous suffrage of his constituents. During all these years
he has been the most active and aggressive Republican in
the State.
His labors have not been confined to these honorary posi¬
tions, but he has filled several offices of trust and remuner¬
ation, such as supervisor, deputy marshal, deputy treasurer
of his county, examiner in pension office, Washington,
D. C., and deputy collector of internal revenue, which posi¬
tion he has held from 1881 to the present time, with an in¬
terruption of two years during Cleveland's administration.
He has been voted for several times for presidential elector
and for Congress; has been a member of five national conven¬
tions and three times a member of the notification committee.
Though he first saw the light of day in Georgetown, South
Carolina, June 10, 1855, no county or State can claim him:
he belongs to and lives for the the uplifting of the Negro
everywhere.
EDMUND H. DEAS,
62
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
In addition to those noticed more at length under the head
of Politics, Journalism, etc., we mention briefly the following
persons who have distinguished themselves in some one of
these lines:
The Rev. N. B. Wood is a historian, newspaper writer
and lecturer, as well as a preacher.
John G. Mitchell is the editor of the Richmond Planet.
H. T. Keating, A. M., an educator, is editor of the A. M. E.
Review, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
E. E. Cooper is the editor of The Colored American, Wash¬
ington, D. C.
Dr. I. B. Scott is the editor of the Southwestern Christian
Advocate, in New Orleans, Louisiana.
W. L. Martin, a graduate of Oberlin, has been a member
of the Illinois Legislature.
H. A. Rucker is collector of internal revenue in one of
the Georgia districts.
Mississippi has had one Negro lieutenant-governor—
Alexander Davis; South Carolina, two—Alonzo J. Rausier
and Richard H. Gleaves; and Louisiana, three—Oscar J.
Dunn, P. B. S. Pinchback, and C. C. Antoine.
J. Milton Turner, of Missouri, John H. Smith, of North
Carolina, and Henry W. Garnett, of New York, have been
ministers resident and consuls-general to Liberia.
B. D. Bassett, of Pennsylvania, and John M. Langston,
of the District of Columbia, have been ministers resident
and consuls-general to Hayti.
Hiram R. Revels, preacher, teacher, lecturer, church offi¬
cer, active in organizing colored troops during the war, was
afterward United States senator from Mississippi, beginning
his service in that body February 25, 1870.
Richard H. Cain was a missionary from Brooklyn to the
freedmen of South Carolina; member of the South Carolina
Constitutional Convention; member of the State Senate;
editor of a newspaper; and member of Forty-third and Forty-
fifth Congresses.
IN HISTORY; AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
63
Robert C. De Large was an agent of the Freedman's
Bnreau in South Carolina; member of the Constitutional
Convention; member of the Legislature for three terms;
sinking fund commissioner; state land commissioner; and
member of the Forty-second Congress.
Jere Haralson was born a slave in Georgia; when the war
closed he was nineteen years old and wholly uneducated,
but by industry and application he acquired the rudiments
of learning; was a member of the Alabama Legislature in
1870; member of the State Senate, 1872; and member of the
Forty-fourth and Forty-fifth Congresses.
John T. Walls, of Virginia, who had received a common
school education, was a member of the State Constitutional
Convention, 1868; member*of the House of Representatives,
same year; of the State Senate, 1869-1872; and was twice a
member of Congress.
John R. Lynch was born a slave in Louisiana in 1847;
had night-school instruction in Natchez during Federal occu¬
pation, and afterward by personal effort became a fair English
scholar; was justice of the peace under Governor Ames;
member of the Mississippi Legislature two terms, the last of
which he was Speaker of the House; and was a member of
the Forty-third and Forty-fourth Congresses.
Benjamin S. Turner was born a slave in North Carolina
in 1825; was carried to Alabama in 1830; had no teaching,
but became a fair scholar by diligent application to study
during business hours; was elected tax-collector of Dallas
county in 1867; councilman of the city of Selma, 1869; and
was a member of the Forty-second Congress.
Robert B. Elliott was a graduate of Eton College, Eng¬
land. He studied law and became a practitioner in South
Carolina; was a member of the Constitutional Convention of
that State, 1868; member of the Legislature; assistant
adjutant-general of South Carolina; member of the Forty-
second and Forty-third Congresses; and afterward sheriff of
his county.
64
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
Joseph H. Rainey was born of slave parents, but became a
fair scholar by unaided application; escaped from service in
building fortifications at Charleston and went to the West
Indies; after the war he returned and was a member of the
Constitutional Convention of South Carolina, 1868; a mem-
HON, JOSEPH E. XEE.
Collector Internal Revenue, Jacksonville, Florida.
ber of the State Senate, 1870; and a member of the Forty-
first, Forty-second, Forty-third, Forty-fourth and Forty-fifth
Congresses.
At the Cathedral in Baltimore, June 21, 1902, the Rev.
J. Harry Dorsey was ordained to the Roman Catholic priest-
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
65
hood by Cardinal Gibbons. He was the second colored man
ever so ordained in this country; and to receive holy orders
at his age (twenty-eight) indicates superior character, abil¬
ity, and scholarship. The first one of his race ordained to the
Catholic priesthood was the Rev. C. R. Uncles, a member of
the Josephite Order, who received holy orders December 13,
1891. Father Totten, a colored priest who died in Chicago
a few years ago, was ordained abroad.
The Hon. Judson W. Lyons, register of the United States
Treasury, is a native of the State of Georgia, where he was
bora in Burke county about forty years ago.
He received his education in the common schools, which
was supplemented and enlarged by the higher training at the
Augusta Institute, now the Baptist College of Atlanta.
He taught country schools during the summers in South
Carolina and Georgia, while studying at the institute.
In 1880 he was actively engaged in politics and in that
year was sent as a delegate to the Republican National Con¬
vention, which met at Chicago, where he enjoyed the unique
distinction of being its youngest member, being only twenty
years of age. He was subsequently appointed gauger for
Augusta and Savannah, and later served in the deputy col¬
lector's department.
He entered the Howard University Law School at Wash¬
ington, and was graduated in the class of '81. In November
of the same year he was admitted to the Augusta bar, where
he continued the practice of his profession until 1898, when
President McKinley appointed him register of the United
States Treasury Department.
Mr. Lyons' career at the bar has been highly honorable
and creditable. He has appeared before all the courts of
Georgia, from the inferior to the highest courts. He has a
wide and intimate knowledge of the common law of the coun¬
try, and enjoys the respect and confidence of some of the
leading lawyers of his State.
In 1896 he was elected national committeeman for Georgia,
66
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
and re-elected at the Philadelphia Convention in 1900. On
the rostrnm his quality of oratory is didactic rather than
imaginative. He prefers the statement of facts to that of
meaningless rhetoric, and is very effective as a public
speaker.
His addresses are frequently quoted in the debates of Con¬
gress. He has administered the affairs of the great office
of register of the United States Treasury which he has held for
the last four years with great ability, and to the entire satis¬
faction of the Secretary of the Treasury and the business
men of the country generally.
ALONZO J. RAVSIER.
Alonzo J. Rausier, a self-educated man, was a member of
the Constitutional Convention of South Carolina, 1868; a
member of the House of Representatives, 1869; was for
some years chairman of the Republican Central Committee
of South Carolina; elector of the Grant and Colfax ticket,
1868; elected lieutenant-governor, 1870; was president of
the Southern States Convention at Columbia, 1871; was a
vice-president of the National Republican Convention at
Philadelphia, 1872; and was a member of the Forty-third
Congress.
JAMES T. RAPIER.
James T. Rapier, born in Alabama, was educated in Can¬
ada; being a citizen of Alabama after the war, he was
appointed a notary public in 1866; was a member of the first
Republican convention held in Alabama, and one of the
committee to draft the party platform; was a member of the
Constitutional Convention of 1867; was nominated for sec¬
retary of state in 1870; was made collector of internal
revenue, second Alabama district, 1871; was appointed by
the governor to be state commissioner to the Vienna Ex¬
position of 1873; and was a member of the Forty-third
Congress.
IN HISTORYi AND IN CITIZENSHIP. 67
NICK CHILES.
Nick Chiles, the business manager and owner of the
Topeka Plaindealer, was born in Abbeville county, South
NICK CHILES.
Business Manager of The Topeka Plaindealer, who went to the relief of Mrs. Nation when
deserted by the law and order people.
Carolina, of slave parents. He went to Kansas in 1886, with
only five dollars in his pocket. He, however, had an abund-
68 THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
ance of self-confidence and energy, with, a meager education
and an inherent ability to make money; he applied himself
diligently to everything that came to hand, and has suc¬
ceeded, in the face of the usual difficulties, in acquiring a rea¬
sonable amount of wealth. He is at present the owner of
three large buildings on East Seventh street in Topeka,
and also has interest in several pieces of farm land scat¬
tered over the State. He began in 1899 the publication of
the Topeka Plaindealer, devoted to the interest of the col¬
ored people. This paper has steadily grown in favor with
the public and now ranks as one of the strongest papers pub¬
lished by colored men in the United States. It has among
its readers people of both races. He gives employment to a
number of colored girls and boys, who are learning the print¬
ing and binding business at his office. In this office is
printed the official business for the colored Masons, Odd Fel¬
lows, Knights of Pythias, and several of the church minutes
are printed here. The plant of the Plaindealer is valued at
$2,000, and is one of the best equipped Negro offices in the
West. Mr. Chiles also owns and operates one of the best
equipped hotels in the West. In spite of intense opposition
he has successfully operated all his various business enter¬
prises and is gradually forging to the front. When Mrs. Na¬
tion began her crusade against the joints of Topeka and the so-
called Law and Order people organized under the influence of
an aroused public sentiment, Mr. Chiles manifested a deep in¬
terest in her work. As a result of the crusade, Mrs. Nation
was arrested for destroying private property and placed in the
county jail, and there she was deserted by her so-called
friends. She called upon Nick Chiles to come forward and
furnish her bond, which he did. Mrs. Nation being a
Christian woman and desiring to promote the best interest
of the community, and also to manifest her appreciation
of the kindly interest of Mr. Chiles, invited him to asso¬
ciate himself with her in the publication of The Smasher's
Mail.
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP. 69
REV. C. P. T. WHITE.
In the State of South Carolina alone more than thirty col¬
ored newspapers are published. One of the strongest forces
REV. C P. T. WHITE.
Editor of The Messenger, kock Hill, South Carolina.
in this galaxy of opinion-moulders is Mr. C. P. T. White,
editor of the Rock Hill Messenger, published at Rock Hill,
70
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
South Carolina. Mr. White is well known, not only as an
editor, but as a minister of the gospel, as a politician of no
mean ability, and as an orator of eloquence and power. To
read his history is to read that of thousands of young men
who have grown up since emancipation. He was born in
Chester county, South Carolina, June 20, 1866, the fifth son
of Mr. and Mrs. David White.
He received his primary training in the country school
and entered Brainard Institute, Chester, South Carolina, in
the fall of 1883. He received his higher training at Shaw
University, Raleigh, North Carolina. Before graduation
he accepted a professorship in the Friendship Institute,
Rock Hill, South Carolina, in the fall of 1892, but he re¬
signed in 1894 to accept the principalship of the Fort Mill
Graded School. He began the publication of the Messenger
January 10, 1896, which has continued ever since. In 1898
he was appointed notary public by Governor Kllerbee. He
was elected secretary of the fifth congressional district of
South Carolina in 1900, which position he now holds.
Fire destroyed the Messenger plant in April, 1898, com¬
pletely, which was a total loss. He married Miss Lizzie
Moore, of Charlotte, North Carolina, June 6, 1894, and one
little boy has come to bring sunshine and happiness to the
family.
The success of Mr. White is an example of what brain
and pluck can accomplish. While still a young man, he has
the respect and confidence of all who know him.
It was reported at one of the Annual Conferences held to
discuss the various important questions touching the race in
this country, as previously alluded to, that there are now in
the United States one hundred and fifty-three periodicals, pub¬
lished by Negroes in the interest of their people, as follows:
Magazines.—A. M. E. Church Review, quarterly, Phil¬
adelphia, Pennsylvania; A. M. E. Zion Church Review,
quarterly, Charlotte, North Carolina; Howard's American
Magazine, monthly, Harrisburgh, Pennsylvania.
/to hi story, And in citizenship. ? i
Daily Papers.—The Daily Recorder, Norfolk, Virginia;
American Citizen, Kansas City, Missouri; The Daily
Record, Washington, D. C.
Weekly Papers.—Alabama.—Baptist Leader, Mont¬
gomery; Mobile Weekly Press, Mobile; Christian Hope, Mo¬
bile; National Association Notes, Tuskegee; Southern Watch¬
man, Mobile; Christian Age, Mobile; Educator, Huntsville.
California.— Western Outlook, San Francisco.
Colorado.— Statesman, Denver; Colorado Springs;
Western Enterprise, Colorado Springs.
District op Columbia.—Washington, Colored
American, Washington.
Florida.—Sentinel, Pensacola; Evangelist, Jackson;
Coast Banner, Interlaken; Forum, Ocala; Recorder,
Orlando; Samaritan Ledger, Sanford; Herald, Live Oak.
Georgia.—Appeal, Atlanta; Baptist Truth, Savannah;
Tribune, Savannah; Georgia Baptist, Augusta; Progress,
Athens; Dispatch, Albany; Southern Christian Recorder,
Atlanta; Southern Georgia Baptist, Waycross; Aurora,
Atlanta; ^4^?, Atlanta; Weekly News, Savannah; Union,
Augusta; Clipper, Athens; Herald, Brunswick; Enterprise,
La Grange; Guide, La Grange; of Missions, Atlanta;
Iconoclast, Albany; Spectator, Darien; Sentinel, Macon;
Monitor, Columbus; Investigator, Americus; Index, Car¬
penters ville.
Illinois.—Conservator, Chicago.
.Indiana.— World, Indianapolis; Freeman, Indianapolis;
Recorder, Indianapolis.
Kansas.—Plaindealer, Topeka.
Kentucky.—Lexington Standard, Lexington; American
Baptist, Louisville; Bluegrass Bugle, Frankfort; Major,
Hopkinsville.
Louisiana.—/^. Christian Advocate, New Orleans;
Republican Courier, New Orleans.
Massachusetts.—Courant, Boston.
Maryland.— Weekly Guide, Baltimore; Messenger, Balti-
5
72
THE NEGRO IN RE VELA TION,
more; Baptist Voice, Baltimore; Crusade, Baltimore; Re¬
publican Guide, Baltimore; Ledger, Baltimore; Afro-Amer¬
ican, Baltimore; Signal, Cumberland.
Michigan.—Informer, Detroit.
Mississippi.—New Light, Columbus.
Missouri.—American Citizen, St. Louis.
Minnesota.—Appeal, St. Paul.
Nebraska.—Enterprise, Omaha; Afro-American Senti¬
nel, Omaha; Progress, Omaha.
New Jersey.—Public Record, Newark; Union, Orange;
J'F. 7". Pattersons Weekly, Asbury Park; Public Record,
Atlantic City.
New York.—Spectator, Albany; ^4^, New York; Pres¬
byterian Herald, New York; Methodist Herald, New York.
North Carolina.—Defender, Raleigh; Blade, Raleigh;
Gazette, Raleigh; Baptist Sentinel, Raleigh; vStor of Zion,
Charlotte; Afro-American Presbyterian, Charlotte; Eastern
Herald, Kdenton; Neuse River Herald, Waldron; Re¬
former, Littleton; Cotton Boll, Concord.
Ohio.—Gazette, Cleveland; Observer, Xenia; Rostrum,
Cincinnati.
Oklahoma Territory.—Constitution, Oklahoma; Guide,
Oklahoma.
Pennsylvania.—Christian Recorder, Philadelphia; Trib¬
une, Philadelphia; Christian Banner, Philadelphia; Odd
Fellows Journal, Philadelphia; Symposium, Philadelphia.
South Carolina.—Peedee Educator, Bennettsville; Pied¬
mont IndicatorSpartanburg; Peopled Record, Columbia;
Standard, Columbia; Christian Soldier, Columbia; Observer,
Charleston.
Texas.— Weekly Express, Dallas; Rising Sun, Rockdale;
City Times, Galveston; Star, Fort Worth; Elevator, Whar¬
ton; Guide, Victoria; Helping Hand, Oakland; Gazette,
Galveston; Advance, San Antonio; Item, Dallas; Herald,
Austin; Searchlight, Austin; Reporter, Marshall; Teacher,
Caldwell; New Idea, Galveston; X-Ray, San Antonio;
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
73
•,Spectator, Yoakum; Southern Herald, Waco; Paul Quinn
Weekly, Waco; Sequin, Navasota; Bugle, Navasota; Enter¬
prise, Bellville; Monitor, Marshall.
Tennessee.—Ship, Bristol; Christian Index, Jackson.
Virginia.—Richmond Planet, Richmond; Virginia Bap¬
tist, Richmond; Reformer, Richmond; National Pilot, Peters¬
burg; Leader, Alexandria; Colored Churchman, Bedford
City.
West Virginia.—Pioneer Press, Martinsburg.
School and College Papers.—College Reporter,
Jackson, Tennessee; Argus, Biddle University, Charlotte,
North Carolina; Aurora, Morris Brown College, Atlanta,
Georgia; Scroll, Atlanta University, Atlanta, Georgia;
Tuskegee Student, Tuskegee, Alabama; College Arms,
Tallahassee, Florida; College Record, Talledega, Alabama;
Courier, Clark University, Atlanta, Georgia; News, Brick
Institute, Bnfield, North Carolina; Fisk Herald, Nashville,
Tennessee; University Herald, Howard University, Wash¬
ington, D. C.
Summary.—Magazines, 3; daily papers, 3; school papers,
11; weekly papers, 136. Total, 153.
The sixty-six leading newspapers were established as
follows:
1839 Christian Recorder Philadelphia, Pa.
1865 Southwestern Christian Advo-
1881 .Afeze; York Age.
1882 Washington Bee
1877 Conservator ...
1880 Georgia Baptist
cate
1870 Christian Index
1876 of Zion
Pioneer Press
Indianapolis World
Leader
American Baptist
New Orleans, La.
Jackson, Tenn.
Charlotte, N. C.
Chicago, 111.
Augusta, Ga.
Alexandria, Va.
• Louisville, Ky.
New York, N. Y.
Washington, D. C„
Martinsburg, W. Va.
Indianapolis, Ind.
74
1883
1884
1885
1886
1887
1888
1889
1890
1891
1892
1893
1894
1895
1896
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
Gazette Cleveland, O.
Richmond Planet Richmond, Va.
Philadelphia Tribune Philadelphia, Pa.
A. M. E. Church Review Philadelphia, Pa.
Tribune Savannah, Ga.
Elevator San Francisco, Cal.
The Brotherhood Natchez, Miss.
Florida Sentinel Pensacola, Fla.
National Pilot Petersburg, Va.
Southern Christian Recorder. .Atlanta, Ga.
Augusta Union Augusta, Ga.
American Citizen Kansas City, Kans.
Statesman Denver, Col.
Christian Banner Philadelphia, Pa.
Southern Watchman Mobile, Ala.
Raleigh Blade Raleigh, N. C.
Constitution Guthrie, Oklahoma,
Afro-American Sentinel Omaha, Neb.
Afro-American Baltimore, Md.
Lexington Standard .. .Lexington, Ky.
Colored American Washington, D. C.
People^s Recorder .. .Columbia, S. C.
Defender Raleigh, N. C.
Guide Guthrie, Oklahoma.
Weekly Express Dallas, Texas.
Western Outlook San Francisco, Cal.
Weekly Press . .Mobile, Ala.
The Ship Bristol, Tenn.
Enterprise La Grange, Ga.
Baptist Sentinel Raleigh, N. C.
Spectator Albany, N. Y.
Kentucky Standard Louisville, Ky.
Forum .Ocala, Fla.
South Geoigia Baptist Waycross, Ga.
Association Notes Tuskegee, Ala.
Public Record Atlantic City, N. J.
IN. HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
75
1896 Guide Baltimore, Md.
Monitor Jacksonville, Fla.
1897 Evangelist Jacksonville, Fla.
Informer Detroit, Mich.
Herald Brunswick, Ga.
Elevator Wharton, Tex.
Advance San Antonio, Tex.
Helping Hand Oakland, Tex.
American Eagle St. Louis, Mo.
1898 Atlanta Age Atlanta, Ga.
Enterprise Omaha, Neb.
Appeal Atlanta, Ga.
Union Orange, N. J.
Symposium Germantown, Pa.
Observer Macon, Miss.
Republican Guide Baltimore, Md.
Baptist Voice Baltimore, Md.
Gazette . Galveston, Tex.
The following papers, among others, own their own
buildings:
• Star of Zion, Charlotte, North Carolina, Pioneer Press.
Martinsburg, West Virginia, Planet, Richmond, Virginia,
Christian Recorder and A. M. E. Church Review, Philadel¬
phia, Pennsylvania, Florida Sentinel, Pensacola, Florida,
Forum, Ocala, Florida, The Ship, Bristol, Tennessee, Pub¬
lic Record, Atlantic City, New Jersey, Symposium, German-
town, Pennsylvania, Bee, Washington, D. C., Christian In¬
dex, Jackson, Tennessee.
The buildings are valued as follows: $700, $900, $1,500,
$1,700, $3,500, $5,500, $8,000, $10,000, $12,000, $17,500;
total valuation, $61,300.
Forty-four papers own printing plants: Six less than
$500, fourteen, from $500 to $1,000; twelve, from $1,000 to
$2,500; nine, irom $2,500 to $5,000; three, $5,000 and
over. Total actual valuation, $89,450.
These papers are published by the following agencies:
76
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
Single individuals, thirty-nine; firms, eighteen; religious
societies, ten; secret or other societies, three.
The Negro newspaper has not yet gained an assured foot¬
ing, but it is rapidly becoming a social force. Nearly all
Negro families read them, and while the papers are not yet
strong enough to mould opinion, they are beginning to play
a peculiar part in reflecting it.
There exists today no better means of forming, directing,
and crystallizing Negro public opinion than by means of the
press. A strong, fearless, national newspaper or magazine
which the Negroes could feel was their own, with sane views
as to work, wealth and culture, could become, in years, a
vast power among Negroes. Here is a chance for a peculiar
sort of philanthropic work, and one hitherto little tried—the
endowed periodical. Fifty thousand dollars might, with
care and foresight, launch a social force in the American
world which would be of vast weight in guiding us toward
the proper settlement of many vexed Negro problems.
SOJOURNER. TRUTH.
An act of the legislature of New York, in 1811, liberated
at once all slaves that were forty years of age, and provided
that certain others should go free in 1828, while the children
were to be free on reaching twenty-one. Among those en¬
titled to freedom in 1828 was a Negro girl named Isabella,
who had formerly belonged to the family of a Colonel Ardin-
burgh, of Hurley, Ulster county. She was subsequently
twice sold. Her last master promised to set her free in
1827, a year before the time provided by law, but he refused
to keep his promise, and she left him without his consent—
the matter being finally settled by another man paying for
the year's time.
Sjie now took for herself the singular name of Sojourner
Truth—given her, she said, by the Lord, because she was
to take up the work of traveling and speaking to the people
She was wholly untaught, and had to rely upon the reading
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
77
of others for such knowledge as she required from books;
but having a quick mind and a retentive memory, she soon
had much of the Bible and a number of hymns at her
tongue's end, and became a rough but eloquent and thrill¬
ing speaker—devoting her time to public meetings and
private ministrations, seeking in every way in her power to
work reforms in individual lives and public policies. During
the Civil War she was active in behalf of colored soldiers.
She has been described as having had a ready and pungent
wit, the power of presence and movement which magnetizes
and sways people, and the rare faculty of condensing an
argument into a single convincing remark or question.
She conceived a plan to colonize the freedmen in the West,
and traveled extensively obtaining signatures to a petition
to Congress to provide for carrying out the scheme. Con¬
gress took no action, but thousands of the former slaves
were influenced by her work and her representations to seek
homes where they could be more independent than they
could be as mere tenants of the great land-holders of the
South.
A short time before her death in 1883 she claimed to be
more than a hundred years old; but at that time she seemed
to be renewing her youth, as some of the failing senses grew
strong again, and her power as a speaker was not abated.
Regarded as somewhat of a prophetess, an oracle stirred
by unaccountable impulses, she has been called the Libyan
Sibyl—with what propriety we leave the reader to judge.
She was, at any rate, a remarkable instance of the innate
strength, profound feelings and lofty purpose that sometimes
characterize individuals who have come up from the lowest
depths and been denied even the rudiments of education.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS.
The name of Fred Douglass is a household word among
the colored people of the United States. He was born in
Tuckahoe, Maryland—date not certainly known, but he be¬
lieved it to be in February, 1817. The name by which he
78
:lHE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
is now known was assumed by him after his escape from
slavery, which took place some time between 1836 and 1841
—probably when he was about twenty-one years old. Pre¬
viously he was known to his little world as Frederick
Augustus Washington Bailey.
His autobiography shows that as a slave he was for the
most part treated with a brutality somewhat unusual, coming,
FREDERICK DOUGLASS.
by hire, under the control of different men, and meeting
with little kindness throughout except from a daughter of his
master, who was gentle and considerate, and would have
taught him to read had her husband not forbidden it. The
latter circumstance seems to have awakened in him a de¬
termination to learn; and with very little help from others,
either in the way of instruction or the furnishing of books.
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
79
lie became a fair Knglisli scholar. Before lie was twenty
years old and while still a slave, lie taught a Sunday-
school and began his career as a public speaker by preaching.
In 1841 he addressed a white audience for the first time, and
with such effect that he was soon afterward employed by the
Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society to lecture, in which
work he continued for four years, and soon came to be recog¬
nized as a great orator—a man of that true eloquence which
holds an audience and makes profound and lasting impres¬
sions.
He published his autobiography in 1845, which dealt in
such severe terms with those who had held him in bondage,
and still claimed ownership, that it enraged them and made
his stay, even in a free State, so precarious that he was glad
to accept an invitation to lecture in Great Britain. While
he was there a Mrs. Richardson collected money and bought
his freedom, and he soon afterward returned to the United
States.
In London he was not only kindly but flatteringly re¬
ceived, and his demeanor and his power as an orator won the
admiration of even the statesmen and nobility—some of
whon\ treated him with marked consideration.
Thenceforth he was one of the most active and aggressive
of those who advocated the freedom of the slaves. As an
editor, a contributor to newspapers and magazines, a public
speaker—a worker in whatever line promised the success of
abolition schemes, he was one of the most notable and ef¬
ficient among. many who gave their time and talents and
means to the cause. When the war came on, he was im¬
patient with the action of President Lincoln and Congress,
and urgent to have the government adopt a line of policy
which the far-seeing and prudent Lincoln regarded as dan¬
gerous to the perpetuity of the Union, if not at the time
impracticable; but he had the satisfaction before the war
closed of having his dearest wishes realized.
In 1871 he was appointed secretary to the Santo Domingo
80
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
Commission; in 1872 lie was chosen one of the presidential
electors for the State of New York; President Hayes ap¬
pointed him marshal of the District of Columbia; President
Garfield appointed him recorder of deeds for the District of
Columbia; and President Harrison made him minister to
Hayti. At the great World's Fair at Chicago he had charge
of Hayti's exhibit.
He has been described as "a tall, dark mulatto, a bold,
vigorous, earnest and fluent speaker, and an able debater."
His character and career vindicate the claim of the opti¬
mistic of his race and of thoughtful white men that the Negro
has in him the elements from which may be evolved the
orator, the statesman, the true philanthropist, and the man of
honor.
He died in 1895, being then, as was believed, seventy-
eight years old.
CHAPTER IV.
The Negro in Law, Medicine and Divinity.
CROM the reports of the Annual Conferences held in At-
1 lanta, Georgia, to inquire into the condition of the col¬
ored people in the United States, and from other sources of
information, we learn that many of the graduates of the great
schools have entered the legal and medical professions, and
that there are many able and successful practitioners, and
some who have filled and are filling places of honor and pub¬
lic trust.
We give the names of a few as an indication that colored
people are making their way in the learned professions in
widely diverse localities.
About twenty years ago, Miss Charlotte E. Ray, whom a
friendly lady writer described as "a dusky mulatto," a grad¬
uate of the Law College of Howard University, was admitted
to practice at the bar of the Supreme Court of the District of
Columbia—the first woman lawyer ever recognized in Wash¬
ington City.
It is said that a Negro who was born in Georgia is one of
the best lawyers in Paris, France.
Louis B. Anderson has been assistant county attorney for
Cook county, Illinois.
Ferdinand L. Barnett is assistant state's attorney of Illi¬
nois.
Before the war some Negroes were prominent practitioners
before the Boston bar, as Robert Morris, B. G. Walker, and
others.
S. Laing Williams, a graduate of the University of Mich¬
igan and of the Columbia Law School, is a practicing lawyer
in Chicago.
81
82
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
MissLutie A. Lytle is a teacher in the Law Department of
the Central Tennessee College, Nashville, Tennessee.
James Derham, born a slave in Philadelphia, in 1762,
belonged to a physician who had him taught to read and
write, and then employed him in compounding medicine and
in other work in connection with the profession. He ulti¬
mately became so skillful in medicine as to be employed as
assistant to a new master (also a physician) to whom he had
been sold; soon afterward he purchased his freedom, and
then built up a lucrative practice; he added to his professional
knowledge an acquaintance with the French and Spanish
languages; and at twenty-six years of age he was one of the
most eminent physicians in New Orleans. The celebrated
Doctor Rush, of Philadelphia, published in The American
Museum an account of him in which he spoke of his attain¬
ments and skill in the highest terms.
John R. Rock and John V. DeGrasse were able and suc¬
cessful physicians in Boston, between 1850 and 1860. On
the 24th of August, 1854, De Grasse was admitted to mem¬
bership in the Massachusetts Medical Society.
Edward Wilson, a graduate of Williams College, is a prac¬
ticing lawyer in Chicago.
J. Frank Wheaton, a lawyer, was the first colored man to
be elected to the legislature in Minnesota.
Dr. J. Frank McKinley, a graduate of the Medical Depart¬
ment of the University of Michigan, is a noted practicing
physician and surgeon.
Another graduate of the Medical Department of the Uni¬
versity of Michigan, Dr. John R. Francis, is one of the best
known physicians in Washington, D. C.
Dr. Daniel H. Williams, of Chicago, was the founder of
Provident Hospital and Training School. He was appointed
by President Cleveland to be surgeon-in-chief of the great
Freedmen's Hospital, Washington, D. C.
Belle Garnet, a student of medicine, is a graduate nurse
pf Provident Hospital and Training School, Chicago.
IN History; And in citizenship.
Dentistry is so allied to medicine and surgery that we
may mention in this connection Ida Gray Nelson, D.
D. S., a graduate of Ann Arbor University, Michigan,
who is said to be the only colored woman dentist in the
United States.
As noticed in another chapter, at least eight colored men
were commissioned by President Lincoln surgeons for hos¬
pital and field duty during the Civil War.
We give here portraits and brief sketches of two persons
who have distinguished themselves in this field.
There was never a time in our history when the race had
so many examples of substantial and permanent progress as
it has to-day. In every city and hamlet there is the teacher,
the artisan, the lawyer, the doctor and the business man,
emphasizing in their great progress the upward movement
of the Negro throughout the country.
Dr. William F. Penn, of Atlanta, Georgia, who is one of the
leading colored physicians of that city, was born in Amherst
county, Virginia, in 1870. His parents took him to Lynch¬
burg early in life and there entered him in the schools. From
the Lynchburg schools he went to the Hampton Normal and
Agricultural Institute, and from there to the Virginia Normal
and Collegiate Institute, from which he graduated in 1891.
After graduating he taught in the city schools of Lynchburg,
Virginia, resigning to pursue a medical course in the Leonard
Medical School, at Raleigh, North Carolina, from which he
went in 1893 to Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut,
and graduated from the medical department of that world-
famed institution in 1897, taking high rank in all of his
classes until the day of graduation.
His standing in his class may be seen by the fact that he
was the first Negro ever chosen in the medical school as one
of the editors of the "Class Book," which goes down in his¬
tory as a record of graduates, etc.
For awhile he was one of the internes at Freedmen's Hos¬
pital, Washington, D. C., under Doctor Williams, then
84
THE NEGRO IN RE VELA T10N,
surgeon-in-chief, and was regarded as one, of the best in¬
formed and most skillful men on the staff.
Doctor Penn went to Atlanta in 1897 to practice medicine,
and from the start took front rank among his people. Ten
days after he began practice there he was selected by the
DR. WII^IAM F. PRNN, ATLANTA, GEORGIA.
city as one of the two colored physicians to vaccinate the
colored population of the city.
By official preferment he is the physician to the following
institutions of learning in Atlanta: Atlanta University,
Clark University, Gammon Theological Seminary. He has
been called from Atlanta into other sections of Georgia sev¬
eral times to perform difficult surgical operations, which he
IN H/STORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
85
has done with great success. As a physician he is regarded
highly, as the steady growth of his practice attests.
The first colored person to finish any graduate course in
the University of Minnesota, is McCants Stewart, son of
T. McCants Stewart, now an attorney of Honolulu, Hawaii.
Mr. Stewart received the Master's degree in law in 1900.
McCANTS STEWART, A. M.
He began the study of law in New York City. In 1896-7
he attended the New York University, taking special work
and beginning the law course. He went to Minnesota and
entered the law school iu the fall of 1897, finishing with the
class of '99. He was secretary of his class in his senior
year, and was an active member of the Kent Literary Society,
representing the society in the '98-'99 oratorical contest.
NAUCISSA WEST.
Narcissa West was born in Edgefield county, South Caro¬
lina, May 15, 1867. She entered Spelman Seminary, Janu¬
ary 1, 1886. She was graduated from the nurse training de-
86
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
partment with honor in May, 1889, but feeling the need of
a more thorough general education, she continued her studies
in Spelman till May, 1892, when she finished her-academic
course and received her diploma. Since that time she has
pursued the profession of a trained nurse, in Atlanta, with
marked success. She is continually in demand, and is held
in high esteem, both by the physicians and the patients with
whom she labors. There is always a note of satisfaction
when she can be secured for a serious case. She has been
^ able, also, to demonstrate that
the profession of a trained
/ nurse is a paying one.
/ The list of men and women
/ K mSmBBtm who have attained to distinc-
/ Br
/ MSSI- WMlBlll tion as church officers, minis-
ters, missionaries and other
religious teachers is long and
imposing. We give in the fol¬
lowing pages portraits and bio-
. v WSI graphical sketches of church
11 jW^j/ people in sufficient number and
variety to show how the race
V ^H9S ¥ has asserted itself in this great
department of the world's duty
and endeavor. It is perhaps
narcissa west. not irrelevant to instance here
two persons whom we have not * mentioned elsewhere. It
is said that one of the eminent divines in London, En¬
gland, is a full-blooded Negro who was born in Alabama; and
in "TheTriumphs of the Cross," K. P. Tenney, the author,
says that "a former slave of the late Confederate President,
Jefferson Davis, translated the Bible into the Sweetsa tongue,
spoken by 300,000 Africans."
The Rev. Duke W. Anderson, a mulatto born in Illinois
in 1812, led a busy and consecrated life as a minister of
the gospel, a teacher and an anti-slavery worker. A man
IN HISTORY; AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
87
of commanding presence, great natural ability, profound
earnestness and remarkable conciliatory as well as aggressive
powers, lie deserves to rank, in some respects, with Fred
Douglass as a representative of the race.
Most of the colored Christians of the United States have
allied themselves with the Methodists and Baptists, though
there are many Presbyterians, Protestant Episcopalians, Dis¬
ciples of Christ and Roman Catholics. From the 1' Illustrated
History of Methodism" we get material which enables us to
sketch briefly the rise of various separate Methodist societies
in America, and an examination of the following illustra¬
tions and accompanying life-sketches, with some figures we
give here, will indicate that the colored Baptists are a mighty
organization. According to latest reliable statistics, there
were in the United States 1,584,920 Regular (colored)
Baptists, with 9,663 ministers and 14,863 churches; African
Methodist Episcopal members, 641,727, with 5,245 ministers
and 5,671 churches; African Union Methodist Protestant
members, 3,437, with 102 ministers and 86 churches; African
Methodist Episcopal Zion members, 528,461, with 2,902
ministers and 1,808 churches; Congregational Methodist
members, 319, with 5 ministers and 5 churches; Colored
Methodist Episcopal members, 204,317, with 2,039 ministers
and 1,427 churches. There are about 40,000 Cumberland
Presbyterians, with 450 ministers and 400 churches. As in¬
timated above, these figures do not give the full strength of
the colored religious bodies, as there are several organiza¬
tions concerning whose membership and church holdings we
have no statistics.
It is interesting to note in this connection that colored
Methodists in the United States began to move for separate
existence more than a hundred years ago, and that long be¬
fore the Civil War there were separate organizations well
administered by bishops, elders and pastors.
6
REV. JOHN JASPER.
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
89
THE AFRICAN ZION METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.
In 1821 a considerable secession from the Methodist
Church took place in New York, led by the Rev. W. M.
Still well, who took umbrage
at certain legislation de¬
signed for the better secur¬
ity of church property,
which he viewed as usurpa¬
tion of the rights of congre¬
gations. Several hundred
local preachers and members
in good standing were in¬
duced to secede with him;
and he also prevailed on a
congregation of African
Methodists to leave the
Methodist Episcopal Church
—which was the nucleus of
the present African Zion f»,KVifJ°SEP?J" • i
* Bishop of the African Zion Methodist Episcopal
Methodist Episcopal Church Church; born ^shopfn 18^; elected
THE R.EV.JOHN JASPER.
The career of this man—a full-blooded African—was ex¬
traordinary. Born a slave, never educated in the schools,
toiling as slaves were required to toil until freedom came to
him when he was past the noonday of life, he rose to dis¬
tinction that was wide as the continent—impressing himself
upon the times as only the earnest and intellectually strong
man can do.
The youngest of twenty-four children, he was born in
Fluvanna county, Virginia, July 4, 1812. He professed
Christianity when he was twenty-seven years old, and soon
afterward began to preach. By some means he had learned
to read, and thenceforth the Bible seems to have been his one
book. As a preacher he attracted attention almost from the
start, and soon came to be in great demand for funeral ser-
90
- THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
mons. He preached to Baptist congregations in Richmond
and Petersburg!! — chiefly in Richmond—for about forty
years; and though devoted to his calling rather than to the
accumulation of property, he acquired considerable wealth.
He traveled a good deal during this time, visiting most of
the leading cities in the Union, lecturing and preaching.
In the Religious Herald, of Richmond, Virginia, April
11, 1901, William B. Hatcher published the following
sketch:
"When John Jasper passed away from the earth, he
left no successor. He is the last of his race, and we
shall not see his like again. He lacked a fraction of being
four-score and ten, and had been a preacher for sixty-two
years. The pulpit was his throne, and he and the peerless
queen of Kngland reigned in their respective spheres about
the same length of time.
''Freedom did little for Jasper. It came too late to touch
him with its moulding hand. It never dazzled him nor
crooked him with prejudices against the white people. He
clung far more to the traditions and sentiments of his bond¬
age days than to the new things which freedom brought.
He never took up with the gaudy displays which marked
his race in the early days of emancipation. He held on to
the old ways. He intoned in his preaching, spurned the
accomplishments of the schools, sang the weird songs of his
early days, and thought himself set to smash all the new¬
fangled notions which possessed his race.
" Personally Jasper was above all reproach. There was no
whisper against his moral character. He loved justice and
not only practiced it, but he demanded it at the hands of
others. Those who treated him ill he would scourge with
knotted whips. Not a few of the "educated fools," as he
scornfully styled some who sneered at his ignorance, felt the
power of his blows, as he sometimes denounced them for
their criticisms of him. The fact is he was a born fighter.
Fear never shook his frame. He would have attacked a
IN HISTORY; AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
91
regiment, if lie had felt that it was his duty to do so. Much
of his preaching was denunciatory. Friends would report
to him ill things said of him during the week, and he would
return the fire in his sermon the next Sunday afternoon.
But there was a charm in his resentments. He always iden¬
tified himself with the Lord, and the assaults made upon
him he treated as wrongs offered to heaven. There was in
him a lofty, almost sublime, contempt for opposition, and
yet he rarely seemed angered by the blows struck at him.
He mingled such odd hits and telling jests at the expense
of his opponents that he never showed much hostility
against them. His chief weapon was ridicule, and that he
used with crushing skill. He may have despised his ene¬
mies, but he did not hate them.
"His speech was execrably ungrammatical, though his
later reading and study probably rooted out some of the
lingual excrescences of his early days. But his power to
express an idea was unsurpassed, and it often occurred that,
when his dictionary gave out, he could use the wrong word,
and yet, by his manner and tone, make it convey his mean¬
ing. For my part, I had the impression that when he was
at his happy elevations of feeling he did not need words very
much; he could flash the thought out of his eye, wave it out
by the sweep of his hand, or cast it forth by some queer
movement of his body. Often his greatest achievements
were not by word, but by long pauses or by little confiden¬
tial laughs, as if no one was present except him and him¬
self, and the two were having the joiliest time together.
1 'Brother Jasper was great on argument. He could not con- .
struct a perfect syllogism, but he had a way of his own,
vigorous and cpnfident, which showed that he stood ready to
prove all that he said. Indeed, he had the habit of chal¬
lenging all comers to answer him, and he insisted that, if
what he said was not according to the Bible, those who dis¬
covered it should take the road and proclaim far and wide
that John Jasper was a liar. By the way, I heard him say
92
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
one time, with affecting simplicity: 'Bruthr'n,. God Al¬
mighty never lies; lie can't lie. I'm sorry to say it, but I
lies sometimes. I oughtn't to lie, an' I'm tryin' to quit it;
but God never lies.' This he said in a tone so honest and
candid that I am sure the people loved him and believed in
him more than ever. A hypocrite would never have said
such a thing.
''Many good people were out of patience with John Jas¬
per because of his sermon on the 'Sun Do Move.' For
my own part, I deplored his mistake, as it seemed to me
to be wasting his strength in dealing with a question which
he did not understand. I heard the sermon on one occa¬
sion, without really intending to do so, and I felt that,
taken altogether, it was the weakest thing that I ever
heard from him. It presented him to the public in a light
which seemed to me most unfortunate. At the same time,
his position was exceedingly simple. It was characteristic
of the honesty and devoutness of the man. The Bible
spoke of the sun as a moving body. That was plain as
daylight to hirfl. Here came the science men asserting that
the sun did not rise and set. Now, Jasper's general infor¬
mation did not enable him to reconcile the two things. To
him they were flat contradictions, and he had to choose be¬
tween the two. He stood by the Bible.
"Outside of the Bible, Jasper knew very little. He did
not know books, and largely held himself aloof from people.
He did not lack very much of being a hermit in his daily
life. He had a cultivated reserve, and was busy with the
Bible. That he conned with unflagging industry. With
its historical portions he was well acquainted, especially
with those portions that were picturesque, and furnished full
play for his imagination. He was also deeply versed in the
doctrines of grace, and had had glorious experiences of
their truth in his own checkered and rugged life.
"I never asked him how he prepared his sermons; but they
bore marks of care and patience in their making. He had
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
93
special sermons—I should say a great many of them—and
lie did not Hesitate to preacli them over and over again.
They did not suffer by repetition, for the occasion always
imparted sufficient coloring to each delivery of a sermon to
give it freshness. There were few ruts into which he ever
ran, and even his old sayings would glow with the heat of
his soul. Old sermons are as good as new, provided the
preacher puts as much life in them as he did when they were
new. He carried no paper into the pulpit, and his mind was
wonderfully active when he spoke. He always swung loose,
and, while he seemed restrained and almost tedious in his
exordium, he never failed to climb the hills of celestial glory
before he finished. If his theme was of the historic order,
he would paint pictures that would burn into your soul and
remain there to the end. If he was on some cardinal doc¬
trine, like regeneration or victory over sin, his soul would
catch fire, and there would invariably be a congregational
conflagration. I remember more of the things that I have
heard Jasper say than I could recall of all the things that
I ever heard other preachers say in all my life. This may
be too strongly put, but I do not really think so.
"It took a funeral to put Jasper at his best. It always
brought him in sight of death and eternity, and kindled the
fires of his imagination. But he was terribly conscien¬
tious in speaking of the dead. If they brought great sinners
to his church and asked him to hold the funeral services, he
would do it, but he would throw no mantle over the sins of
his subject. If he really believed the man had died without a
well-grounded Christian hope, he would unceremoniously
and without apology preach him straight to the bottomless
pit. I could give startling illustrations of this remark.
UI have indicated the predominant characteristic of this
unique and godly minister. It was his brilliant, magnetic,
courageous imagination. It covered all his defects, disarmed
criticism, lifted people to the skies, and made that ill-shapen,
odd-voiced, ungrammatical old preacher glow with a luster
94
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
and grandeur which transfigured him. Several times, I
confess, he cut all my moorings and wafted me to the gates
of the spirit world. It was irresistibly affecting to hear him
speak of heaven. It seemed to overmaster him, and it
made him the master of others. Of course, his views of
heaven were very simple. Oh, how deeply he believed in it!
Rapturous visions of the Lamb on the throne and of the
redeemed in their mansions possessed him, and it was an
experience not to be forgotten to feel the spell of his eloquence
at such a time.
"Nor did his heart sink when the final crisis came. In
his own bright way, he declared that his trunk was packed
and he was waiting for orders to move up. As for death, he
said that the approach of death bothered him no more than
the'crawling of a summer fly. I think of his stern life, so
marked by battle and defiance, so filled with sorrows, and
recall with emotion how he used to solace himself with the
assurances of coming rest, and I doubt not that he was glad
when it came. Peaceful be the brave old warrior's sleep !
"I send this paper at the Herald?s request. It has been
dashed off in a day when duties new and old are striving for
a place, and is unworthy, I well know, of my rare and royal
theme. Few knew John Jasper as I did, none loved or be¬
lieved in him more than I did, and I now lament him as a
friend. He did me good while he lived, and I honor him in
his death, as I did sincerely honor him in his life. This
article only gives glimpses. It has no place for the story of
his life, nor for the record of his ministerial labors, nor yet
for that rich fund of humor, satire and illustration in which
his life abounded. Many of these things, with extracts
from his sermons, piquant sayings, and descriptions of his
characteristic actions, I committed to paper a while ago, but
I must omit them from an article already too long."
The-author of a book of sketches published several years
ago, referring to Jasper's theory of the sun, says: "He was
always of an astronomical turn of mind, and if he had had the
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
95
advantage of education, lie would doubtless have made one
of the foremost scientists of his time." He was married
three times, and, as indicated above, seemed to prefer home
life rather than that of a keeper of promiscuous company.
The writer above alluded to says that "from the humblest
surroundings in early life he rose to influence, and is a
striking illustration of what can be accomplished by industry
and perseverance."
BISHOPS FR.ANCIS BURNS AND JOHN WR.IGHT ROBERTS.
Bishop Levi Scott, of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
who was raised to the episcopate by the Seventeenth Annual
Conference of that church,
at Boston, Massachusetts,
began his episcopal work
by visiting Africa, where
he presided at the Liberia
Conference, founded by
Americans The
report he brought back of
his work and impressions
in that colony formed a not¬
able item in the address of
the bishops in 1856 . . . .
As a result of Bishop
Scott's recommendations,
permission was granted to
the Liberia Conference to
elect an elder in good stand¬
ing to the office of bishop.
This was followed in Janu- 1. Francis Burns, Missionary Bishop of the
-jnf-Q U +•! 1 4-" Methodist Episcopal Church in Western Africa,
ary, by the election
1858-1863. 2. John Wright Roberts, Missionary-
ill Liberia of Francis Bishop for Africa, i^ists.
Burns, the first colored bishop in the church. Burns was a
native of Albany, New York, and had early shown signs of
character and ability. In 1831 he was sent to Liberia, where
96
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
he did excellent work as an evangelist and as a teacher in
Monrovia Seminary, and later as presiding elder. Returning
to his native land to be consecrated, lie was duly ordained at
the Genesee Conference by Bishops Jaynes and Baker. His
career as bishop in Liberia lasted for barely five years. With
the view of regaining health he sailed for Baltimore in the
spring of 1863, but died a few days after disembarking. His
character was a high and consistent one. He was succeeded
in office by John Wright Roberts, who was ordained three
years afterward. Roberts vigorously carried forward the
work wisely begun by his predecessor, and at his death, in
1875, the Methodist Episcopal Church in Africa numbered
more than two hundred thousand members.
R.EV. W. J. HOWARD.
Rev. W. J. Howard, pastor of Zion Baptist Church, was
born near Fredericksburg, Virginia, of slave parents, June
15, 1854. His father, a man of unusual intelligence and
business capacity, died in 1858. The lad spent most of his
time on the farm until 1869, when, at fifteen years of age,
he went to Washington,
where for seven years he
worked in barber shops and
hotels, meanwhile attending
night and Sunday-school.
In 1877 he embarked in
business for himself; but in
1881, under the influence of
President G. M. P. King,
he entered Wayland Semi-
nary, graduating in May,
1886. Soon after gradua¬
tion he became pastor of the
Zion Baptist Church, which
honorable position he has
now (1902) held for fifteen
REV. W. J. HOWARD.
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
97
years. During this time more than two thousand have been
added to the church, twelve hundred are enrolled in its
Sunday-school, and five hundred in Endeavor Societies. His
church has always stood for staunch Baptist loyalty, and for
co-operation with the American Baptist Home Mission Soci¬
ety.
JOHN A. WHITTED, D. D.
John A. Whitted, D. D., was born near Hillsboro, North
Carolina, March 10, 1860. He spent the first sixteen years
of his life upon the
farm. At seven years
of age he began attend¬
ing the Freedmen Aid
Society's School at
Hillsboro, four months
in the year. At sixteen
he began to teach in
the public schools. For
the next five years he
spent about five months
out of each year in
study at Shaw Univer¬
sity. He was converted
at nineteen, and united
with the Blunt Street
Baptist Church, Ra¬
leigh.- At twenty-one JOHN a* ™tted. d. d.
he entered Lincoln University, and graduated in 1885. For
twelve years he held the position of principal of Shiloh Insti¬
tute, and pastor of the church at Warrenton. In 1895 he be¬
came district missionary, and then general missionary, for
the State of North Carolina, under the plan of co-operation.
He has served as editor of the Baptist Sentinel, and is a
member of the Executive Board of the Lott Carey Baptist
Foreign Mission Convention.
98
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
J. W. KIR BY, D. D.
J. W. Kirby, D. D., was born of slave parents in Hamp¬
ton, Virginia, during the Civil War. At tlie age of five
years lie was sent to a private school; a little later lie
entered "The Butler School," and afterward Hampton
Institute, from which he
graduated in 1880. He
was converted in 1881;
baptized into the fellow¬
ship of the first Baptist
Church, Hampton, and
became at once superin¬
tendent of its Sunday-
school. In 1883 he en¬
tered the Richmond The¬
ological Seminary, grad¬
uating with honor in
1885. For six years he
was principal of the
graded school at Bowers
Hill, Virginia. He has
served as pastor at Piney
Grove and at Ports-
mouth, where he built a beautiful and substantial church
edifice.
For seven years he served as corresponding secretary of
the Virginia Baptist State Convention; about the same
length of time as trustee of Virginia Seminary. In 1896
he accepted the position of educational secretary, and as¬
sisted in securing funds from the Negro Baptists of Virginia
for Virginia Union University. He is now pastor at Farm-
ville, Virginia.
HENRY M. TURNER..
Henry McNeal Turner, son of Hardy and Sarah (Greer)
Turner, was born at Newberry Court-house, South Carolina,
February 1, 1831. He learned to read and write without
J. W. KIRBY, D. D.
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP. 09
teachers; when fifteen years of age he was employed in a law
office at Abbeville Court-house, where the young lawyers as¬
sisted him with his studies, and he continued to apply him¬
self till he had learned geography, arithmetic, history, as¬
tronomy, physiology and hygiene. In 1848 he united with
the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and in 1853 he was
licensed to preach among the colored people in South Caro¬
lina, Georgia, Alabama and other Southern States. In
1858 he transferred his membership to the A. M. E. Church;
joined the Missouri Annual Conference soon afterward, and
became an itinerant minister; was afterward transferred by
Bishop D. A. Payne to the Baltimore Annual Conference,
where he remained four years, meanwhile studying Latin,
Greek, Hebrew and divinity at Trinity College, University
of Pennsylvania, receiving from that institution the degree
of LL.D., and from Wilberforce University that of D. D.
He was pastor of Israel Church, in Washington, D. C., 1863;
was commissioned chaplain of the United States colored
troops by President Lincoln (first colored chaplain ever com¬
missioned); was mustered out in September, 1865; was com¬
missioned chaplain in the regular army by President John¬
son; was detailed as officer of Freedman's Bureau in Georgia;
resigned commission and resumed his ministry; organized
schools for colored children; was elected member of the
Georgia Constitutional Convention in 1867; member of the
Georgia Legislature, 1868 and 1870; was afterward post¬
master at Macon, Georgia; inspector of customs, and after¬
ward detective in the United States Secret Service. In
1876 he was elected by the General Conference of the A. M. E.
Church manager of its publications at Philadelphia; was
elected bishop by the General Conference at St. Louis, Mis¬
souri, in 1880. He has been one of the principal agitators
of the return of his race to Africa, and has organized four
Annual Conferences in Africa—one in Sierra Leone, one in
Liberia, one in Pretoria, and one in Queenstown. He is the
author of uMethodist Polity," of a catechism, various pub-
100
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
listed sermons and lectures, and has compiled a hymn-book
for the A. M. K. Church. He married, in Baltimore,
August 16,1900, Mrs. Harriet B. Wayman, widow of the
late Bishop A. W. Wayman.
S. N. VASS, D. D.
S. N. Vass, D. D., district secretary of the American
Baptist Publication Society, was born at Raleigh, North
Carolina, May 22, 1866. After having attended primary
schools, he entered St. Au-
gustine's Normal and Colle-
/r.K-§ y- ■ X snate Institute, at ten years
\ of age* Havm§" graduated,
/ "ISt \ he became a .teacher in the
/ |fgj| \ pU"blic schools. At eighteen
years of age he became a
teacher at Shaw University,
where he remained for nine
years. He received from the
university the degrees of B.
I CJfiBBWl A*in 1885'A- M-in 1888,
and D. D. in 1901. He re-
«| ^m/Smsigned his position in the uni-
versity to enter the service
^ of the American Baptist Pub¬
lication Society, first as local
S. N. VASS, D. D. . . '' nnn\
missionary and then (1890)
district secretary for the South. In this position he has the
general oversight of the work of the society among the col¬
ored people. He served for one year as president of Howe
Biblical Institute, at Memphis, Tennessee. He was licensed
to preach at nineteen years of age, ordained at twenty-one,
has been solicited by a number of churches to become pastor,
but has served in that capacity only one year, while teaching
in Shaw University.
IN HISTORYAND IN CITIZENSHIP.
101
REV. E. P. JOHNSON.
Rev. E. P. Johnson was born of slave parents at Colum¬
bus, Georgia, where he spent the first sixteen years of his
life in slavery. Aiter spending some time at the carpenter
trade, he found employment on a farm, where, after working
during the day, he walked a mile and a half to attend night
school. Having saved out of his scanty wages $150, he en¬
tered Atlanta Univer¬
sity in 1873, and gradu¬
ated in 1879. With
some help from North¬
ern friends, he sup¬
ported himself during
his period of study by
doing odd jobs and by
teaching during vaca¬
tion. After a valuable
experience as pastor,
teacher and missionary,
he became the general
educational missionary
of Georgia in 1899, un¬
der the plan of co-opera¬
tion , and still holds that
important office.
As early as 1787 the
colored people of the rb;v. u p. johnson.
Methodist Society in
Philadelphia, feeling no longer comfortable in immediate
religious association with white folks, organized themselves
into a separate congregation and began building a church of
their own. This secession met with great opposition from
the Methodist elder; but they persisted in carrying out their
plans. The result was expulsion from the society. Hap¬
pily some large-minded citizens helped them out in their
monetary difficulties, and Bishop White, of the Protestant
BISHOPS OF THE AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
103
THE AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.
tabulated facts as to its bishops.
PLACE OF BIRTH
WHERE ELECTED
1 Richard Allen
2 Morris Brown
3 Edward Waters
4 William Paul Quitin
5 Willis Nazery
6 D. Alexander Payne
7 Alexander W. Wayman
8 Jabez Pitt Campbell
9 James A. Shorter
10 Thomas M. D. Ward
11 John M. Brown
12 Henry M. Turner
13 William F. Dickerson
14 Richard H. Cain
15 Richard R. Disney
l(j Wesley J. Gaines
17 B. W. Arnett
18 B. T. Tanner
19 Abraham Grant
1760
1770
1795
1808
1811
1821
1815
1817
1823
1817
1833
1845
1825
1833
1840
1838
1835
1848
Philadelphia, Pa.
Charleston, S. C.
West River, Md.
Calcutta, India
Isle of Wight Co., Va.
Charleston, S. C.
Caroline Co., Md.
State o Delaware
Washington, D. C.
Hanover, Pa.
Odessa, Del.
Newberry, S. C.
Woodbury, N. J.
Greenbrier Co., W. Va.
North East, Md.
Wilkes Co., Ga.
Brownsville, Pa.
Pittsburgh, Pa.
I,ake City, Fla.
Philadelphia, Pa.
Philadelpnia, Pa.
Philadelphia, Pa.
New York City
New York City
Philadelphia, Pa.
Philadelphia, Pa.
Washington, D. C.
Washington, D. C.
Washington, D. C.
St. I,ouis, Mo.
St. I,ouis, Mo.
St. L<ouis, Mo.
Chatham, Ont.
Indianapolis, Ind.
Indianapolis, Ind.
Indianapolis, Ind.
Indianapolis, Ind.
Episcopal Church, consented to ordain one of their number
as pastor. The holding of the church property led to con¬
siderable legal difficulties; and many meanwhile became
Episcopalians. Four years later Richard Allen, who had
been a Southern slave, and later became a bishop, converted
a blacksmith-shop in his yard into a meeting-house, and
this was dedicated in June, 1794, by Bishop Asbury. The
church was named Bethel, and was placed under the control
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, but not according to the
prescribed form. Richard Allen, when he received ordina¬
tion as pastor in 1799,' was the first colored preacher in the
United States. Sixteen years later difficulties arose with
those in control of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Phila¬
delphia. A contribution of $600 to the central fund was de¬
manded in return for a regular preaching supply; but the price
was deemed too dear, considering the quality of the preach¬
ing, and finally the Bethel people refused to contribute more
than $100. This sum was declined, as inadequate, and the
people were declared contumacious. The resident elder,
Robert R. Roberts, afterward bishop, entering the church on
an ensuing Sabbath, to take possession of the pulpit, was not
7
104
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
allowed to proceed more than half way, and had to retire.
A law-suit which grew out of the dispute ended in favor of
the Bethel people.
In April, 1816, a convention, invitations to attend which
had been sent to colored people in various districts through¬
out the Republic, met in Philadelphia. There were seventeen
delegates—five from Philadelphia, seven from Baltimore,
three from Attleborough, Massachusetts; one from Salem,
New Jersey; and one from Wilmington, Delaware. Daniel
Coker, having been elected bishop, resigned in favor of
Richard Allen, who was consecrated bishop by the Rev. Ab¬
salom Jones, a priest of the Protestant Episcopal Church.
The name chosen for the organization was the African Meth¬
odist Episcopal Church, and it adopted the Book of Dis¬
cipline of the Methodist Church, with its Articles of Religion
and its General Rules, as drafted by the two Wesleys, entire
and complete with the sole omission of the presiding elder.
Probably 3,000 persons joined the organization at its inception;
and ten years later the membership had more than doubled.
Bishop Allen served as bishop for fifteen years, dying in
1831. A man of but little education, he yet possessed re¬
markable judgment and energy and won general respect. A
monument to his memory stands in Philadelphia Park.
BISHOP BENJAMIN T. TANNER.
Benj. Tucker Tanner was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsyl¬
vania, December 25, 1835. He was educated in the schools
of Pittsburgh, in Avery College, Allegheny, and in the West¬
ern Theological Seminary. Avery conferred on him in 1870
the degree of A. M., and Wilberforce subsequently those of
D. D. and LL.D. He was married August 19, 1858, to
Sarah E. Miller.
He was for sixteen years editor of the Christian Recorder,
the organ of the A. M. E. Church; was the founder and for
four years the editor of the A. M. E. Church Review. He
was elected bishop in 1888. He is a member of the Negro-
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
105
American Academy, and is the author of a number of books,
of which we may name,1 'Is the Negro Accursed?'' ' 'Apology
for African Methodism;" "Outlines of A. M. K. Church
History;" "The Dispensations in the History of the
Church;" "The Negro in Holy Writ;" "A Hint to Minis¬
ters, Kspecially of the A. M. B. Church;" and "The Color
of Solomon—What?''
JOSEPH E. JONES, D. D.
Doctor Jones was born of slave parents at Lynchburg, Vir¬
ginia, October, 1852. At six years of age he began work in
a tobacco factory. By the
indefatigable efforts of his
mother he had educational
advantages while the war
was in progress, and at its
close was put into school,
where he remained three
years. After spending
three years in the Rich¬
mond Theological Insti¬
tute, he entered the pre¬
paratory department of Col¬
gate University, 1871, and
graduated in 1876. After
graduation he was ap¬
pointed instructor in the
Richmond Theological
Seminary, and for twenty-
J . J JOSEPH E. JONES, D. D.
five years has discharged
his duties with marked fidelity. He served as corresponding
secretary of the Baptist Foreign Mission Convention for
twelve years; president of the State Sunday-school Conven¬
tion for six years; and has been a member of the Educa¬
tional Board for about eighteen years. He is editor of the
JVirginia Baptist.
106 THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
MISS EMMA B. DELANEY.
Miss Emma B. Delaney, missionary to Africa, was born
Florida. Her father,
Daniel S. Delaney, was
for thirty years in gov¬
ernment service as pilot
on the revenue cutter,
1' Boutwell'' being the
only colored pilot in the
service. Her mother,
Annie L. Delaney, is an
influential Christian.
When eight years old
Emma was sent to the
Convent School of Fer-
nandina. Having fin¬
ished the course there,
she entered Spelman
Seminary in 1889. In
1892 she was graduated
from the Nurse Train¬
ing Department, receiving a gold medal for proficiency. In
1891 she finished the academic course, and in 1896 the mis¬
sionary training course. During the summer months, while
pursuing the missionary course, she labored successfully in
Gainesville, Macon and Athens, Georgia. For two terms
she was matron at Florida Institute, Live Oak. Wherever
she has been she has done faithful, efficient mission work.
For years she felt herself called to the foreign field, and has
anxiously awaited the word to go forward.
BISHOP W. J. GAINES.
Wesley J. Gaines, sixteenth bishop of the A. M. E.
Church, was born a slave, in Wilkes county, Georgia, Oc¬
tober 4, 1840. He received theological instruction from a
Protestant Episcopal clergyman at Athens, Georgia; became
January 18, 1871, at Fernandina,
MISS EMMA B. DELANEY.
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP. 107
a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in
1860; was married to Miss Julia A. Camper, August 20,
1863; united with the African Methodist Episcopal Church
in 1865; was consecutively pastor, presiding elder, mission
secretary and bishop.
Through his exertions and influence Bethel Church, in
Atlanta, the largest colored church in the South, was built;
he founded Morris Brown College, in Atlanta; is a trustee
of Wilberforce University, in Ohio; is vice-president of
Payne Theological Seminary; is president of the Board of
Trustees of Waters College, Jacksonville, Florida; president
of the Financial Board of the African Methodist Church;
author of "African Methodism in the South," and of "The
Negro and the White Man." He has strenuously opposed
all schemes for the removal of the Negro from the United
vStates.
BISHOP ABR.AHAN GR.ANT.
The subject of this sketch was born a slave in Lake City,
Florida, August 25, 1848. During the Civil War he was
sold at Columbus, Georgia, for $6,000 in Confederate money.
After the close of the war he returned to Florida and clerked
in a grocery store for his former owner—taking lessons
meanwhile for a short time daily in a missionary school. Sub¬
sequently he was steward in hotels at Lake City and Jack¬
sonville, Florida, and for a short time attended night school
at Cookman Institute. In October, 1868, he was converted
at a camp-meeting and joined the A. M. E. Church in
Jacksonville, Florida; served as class-leader and steward till
April 7, 1873, when he was licensed to preach; was ordained
deacon in December, 1873; elder, March 4, 1876. While in
Jacksonville he was inspector of customs, and was also ap¬
pointed county commissioner of Duvall county. In 1878
he was transferred to Texas; was pastor at San Antonio and
Austin; became presiding elder and vice-president of Paul
Quinn College, at Waco; was elected bishop May 24, 1888;
was bishop of the Ninth district, subsequently of the Sixth
108
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
district, then of Florida, Georgia and Alabama; afterward
in charge of Fourth Episcopal District, and president of the
Board of Trustees of Wilberforce University. Was for
four years president of Board of Publication of the A. M. E.
Church, at Philadelphia; and for eight years president of the
Church Extension Board, A. M. E. Church. Was member
of the Ecumenical Methodist Conference at Washington,
D. C., 1891; has traveled in Europe; presided over confer¬
ences in Liberia; and was a member of the Ecumenical
Missionary Conference at New York, April, 1900; and of the
Ecumenical Methodist Conference in London, England, Sep¬
tember, 1900.
THE COLORED METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.
Between the years 1866 and 1870 the bishops of the Meth¬
odist Episcopal Church, South, formed several Annual Con¬
ferences composed of colored ministers. The preachers of
these colored conferences requested the General Conference
of 1870 to appoint a commission of five to consider, in con¬
nection with delegates of their own, the propriety of organiz¬
ing the colored members into a distinct ecclesiastical body.
The General Conference of 1866 had directed the bishops to
organize the colored members into an independent body if
the time should come "when, in their godly judgment, it
would be better for them." So in December, 1870, a conven¬
tional General Conference, composed of representatives of
eight Annual Conferences of colored preachers, was held in
Jackson, Tennessee. Bishops Payne and McTyeire pre¬
sided, and the colored conferences were organized into a sep¬
arate ecclesiastical body. Two colored ministers were or¬
dained bishops—the Rev. W. H. Miles and the Rev. R. H.
Vanderhorst. The name chosen for the church was 1 'The
Colored Methodist Episcopal Church." All property held
by the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, for the use of
their colored members, was turned over to the new church.
The value of this property was estimated at between a mill-
IN HIS TOR} AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
109
ion and a million and a half of dollars. Two schools were
established by the southern church for the education of
teachers and preachers of the colored church. One, known
as Paine Institute, named in honor of Moses U. Paine, who
gave to the endowment $25,000, is located at Augusta,
BISHOPS OF THE! COLORED METHODIST EPISCOPAL, CHURCH.
Georgia. The other, known by the name of the Normal and
Theological Institute of the Colored Methodist Episcopal
Church, is located at Jackson, Tennessee. An assessment is
every year placed upon each of the Annual Conferences of
the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, for the support of
these schools.
110
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
J. H. HO KB, D. D.
J. H. Hoke, D. D*, was born of slave parents in the State
of Alabama. His mistress taught him to read and write, and
predicted that he would become an Episcopalian preacher.
In 1867 he united with the Baptist Church in Jacksonville,
Alabama. After spending three years as a student in Talla¬
dega College, Alabama, he taught in the public schools of
the State for ten years. In 1875 he moved to Arkansas,
serving as pastor in Augusta, Searcy and Hot Springs,
meanwhile teaching in the public schools. In 1888 he was
chosen general missionary for the State of Arkansas, and
has filled that position to the present time. He has
been president of the State Convention.two years and secre¬
tary five years; also president of the State Educational Asso¬
ciation. He was one of the founders, and has always been an
ardent supporter of the Arkansas Baptist College at Little
Rock. Few men have wielded a larger influence or have
done a more desirable work than Doctor Hoke.
R.EV. GARNETT R.VSSELL WALLER.
The subject of this sketch was born at Bastville, North¬
ampton county, Virginia, in 1858—the second of seven sons
of Bllen and John Waller. The latter died, leaving the
mother the burden of eight small children. In 1872 she
moved to Baltimore, Maryland, where each boy was given a
common school training, and a trade; after which she en¬
couraged them to follow the bent of their minds as to their
life's work. One took up the law, three followed their
trades, one took up medicine, and Garnett R. Waller was
one of the two who felt called to the gospel ministry.
After spending three years in successful business, as a
first-class shoe-maker, he entered the Lincoln University,
Pennsylvania, and graduated in 1884. He graduated from the
Newton (Massachusetts) Theological Institution with high
honors in Hebrew and cognate studies, in 1887. During his
course at Newton, Mr. Waller engaged extensively in evan-
REV. GARNETT RUSSELL WALLER.
112
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION%
gelistic work in Boston, New Bedford, and Syracuse, New
York, founding in the last named city tlie First Baptist
Church, which has had a prosperous history.
After graduation he accepted a call to the State of Mary¬
land as general evangelist of the Southern Baptist Conven¬
tion.
His work was a marked success from the beginning. His
present charge is one of the many churches, Sunday-schools,
and missions organized by him during his evangelistic la¬
bors in the State, over twelve years ago, in a small building
on Aisquith street, with eleven members. In 1892 the
property on Aisquith street was sold, and the congregation
erected an edifice on Oak street, in a more advantageous
section. Owing, however, to an ever-increasing member¬
ship, it was soon deemed necessary to purchase the present
dignified and commodious structure, known as the Trinity
Baptist Temple, seating seven hundred in the main audito¬
rium, with sixteen other apartments for institutional work,
such as a fitting school for young men in preparation for col¬
lege and professional work. One hundred and twenty-five
have received instruction in this department, the majority of
whom are now successful in their respective callings. The
church maintains three mission stations, all doing good
work. Mothers' meetings and sewing schools, training
school for kindergarten teachers, music and missionary train¬
ing schools, social science association, composed of leading
rare thinkers-^these are some of the agencies for good em¬
ployed by this progressive church.
Mr. Waller is an instructive and forceful preacher, an in¬
defatigable worker, and an uncompromising advocate of
temperance. He is a man of almost ascetic habits, having
never used tobacco in any form.
As president of the Maryland Baptist Orphanage, president
of the North Baltimore Stock and Loan Association for four
years, secretary and treasurer of the Ministers' Conference
(composed of thirty white and ten colored ministers), and
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
113
corresponding secretary of General State Association, Mr.
Waller has wielded an influence and power for good in His
State chat will prove a lasting benefit to his race.
He has high ideals as to church work, and so persistent
has he been to develop them, that he has uniformly refused
any inducement to leave his present charge.
His paper before the Hampton Negro Conference, on the
"Relation of the Pastor to the Community," received the
highest praise.
A. R. GRIGGS, D. D.
Allan Ralph Griggs was born of slave parents in Han¬
cock county, Georgia, about 1850. His father's name was
Sutton; his mother, Brazilia,
belonged to a family by the / - M fe|
name of Griggs. He remem- / jpkPjjfo.
bers seeing his mother but / jk \
twice, the last time after he / ^ \
had been sold at auction. He /. ELoTIHT \
was taken to Grimes county,
Texas, where he labored on a
farm till 1867. He was con¬
verted in 1869, licensed and
ordained in 1874. In 1875 he
became pastor of the Baptist Vjf 3 . ^ jf !
church in Dallas; while here ^ f
he attended Ministers' Insti-
tutes, under the auspices of the
Home Mission Society. In
1881 he aided in the founding A' R- GRIGGS>D-D-
of Bishop College, and became one of its trustees. In 1886
he entered Richmond Theological Seminary, where he re¬
mained two sessions. He has been president of the National
Baptist Convention, and is now superintendent of missions
and educational agent in Texas. He is editor and publisher
of the National Baptist Bulletin.
114
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
REV. H. N. BOVEY.
Rev. H. N. Bouey was born of slave parents, August 4,
1849, near Augusta, Columbia county, Georgia. At twenty-
one lie entered the Home Mission School at Augusta,
where he remained two years. In 1875 and 1876 he served
as probate judge in Bdgefield county, South Carolina.
Having labored as a missionary in South Carolina for one
year, he went as a missionary to Liberia, Africa. In 1882-6
he served as Sunday School missionary in Alabama. In
REV. H. N. BOUEY.
1887-8 was pastor in Columbia, South Carolina; in 1889 he
became general missionary for Missouri, a position which he
has recently resigned to return as a missionary to Liberia.
During the twelve years that he has been general mission¬
ary in Missouri, the Baptist cause among the Negroes has
beeu unified and strengthened, the college has been founded,
and the most harmonious relationship has been established
and maintained between the white and Negro Baptists.
CHAPTER V.
The Negro in Literature and the Fine Arts.
UNDER the heads of "The College-Bred Negro," "Law,,
Medicine and Divinity," and "Politics, Journalism
and the Lecture Field," may be found the names of some
who are well-known as authors; but we include in this
chapter a few prominent names of those only whose chief
distinction is that of art or authorship.
In the world of art, in this and other countries, the colored
race has furnished eminent names, among whom we may
mention Guillaume Guillon Lethierre, a famous French
artist of the classical school, who was once president of the
School of Fine Arts at Rome, and some of whose paintings
now adorn the walls of the Louvre Museum in Paris.
Edmonia Lewis began her career as a sculptress before the
war, and persevered under the discouragements of poverty
and the lack of liberal education, until she became famous.
She finally had a studio in Rome, and while there, and before
taking up her residence there, she produced a number of
admirable works.
Henry Ossawa Tanner, though a comparatively young
man, has taken high rank as an artist. He is a son of Bishop
B. T. Tanner, noticed elsewhere, and was born in Pitts¬
burgh , Pennsylvania, June 21,1859. Having taken his ordi¬
nary school course, he studied in the Pennsylvania Academy
of Fine Arts under Thomas Eakins, and was afterward a
pupil of Jean Paul Laurens and Benjamin Constant, in Paris,
France. Had honorable mention in 1896; took third-class
medal in 1897; was awarded the Walter Lippincott prize in
Philadelphia, in 1900; took second medal at the Paris Exposi¬
tion in 1900; and is represented in the Luxemburg, the Wil-
stach Collection, Carnegie Institute, and in the Pennsylva-
115
116
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
nia Academy of Fine Arts. He was married in London
December 14, 1899, to Jessie Macaulay Olsson.
Samnel Coleridge Taylor, an English, mulatto married to
an American woman of color, lias become famous as a com¬
poser of classical music—his compositions being exceedingly
popular in England as well as in the United States.
Blind Tom, a Negro and the slave of General Bethune, of
Columbus, Georgia, gathering his first inspiration from listen¬
ing to his young mistress play the piano, was one of the most
remarkable musical prodigies of the nineteenth century.
Of authors whom, for lack of material, we have not been
able to notice at greater length, we may mention:
John Stephen Durham, of Philadelphia, a former United
States minister to Santo Domingo, is an author of note, as
well as a politician, and has published, in LippincoW s Mag¬
azine a novel dealing with life in Hayti.
Mrs. Fannie Barrier Williams, a prominent member of the
Chicago Woman's Club, is distinguished as an authoress and
a newspaper correspondent.
Alexander Poushkin, who belonged to an ancient family
of Coyars, was the most celebrated Russian poet produced in
the nineteenth century. He was of the Negro race, having
the curly hair of that people and a darker complexion than
ordinary Russians. He has been called uthe Russian By¬
ron. " A strange ancestor, his maternal great-grandfather,
was so great a favorite with Peter the Great that he conferred
upon him a title of nobility. Poushkin was a man of varied
talents, being a writer of prose fiction and history as well as
of poetry, and having an ambition to figure in public affairs.
He was exiled for some years, 1820-1824, for revolutionary
sentiments; but in 1829 he was in the administrative service
cf the government in the Caucasus. He died in his thirty-
eighth year from a wound received in a duel.
Jose Maria Heredia, regarded by some as the greatest of
Spanish-American poets, is said to have been a mulatto; and
the poet Placidio was a quadroon.
IN HISTORY; AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
117
Paul Granier de Cassagnac, of France, editor, author,
Bonapartist in French politics, is of mixed blood—is. in the
language of one, 1 'quite palpably colored."
Alexandre Davy de la Pailleterie Dumas, known as Dumas
pere, son of the famous French General Dumas, noticed else¬
where, was, of course, the grandson of the St. Domingo Negro
woman spoken of in connection with General Dumas. He
was a noted dramatic author and novelist. He was for
awhile in the government service at Paris (1823 and sub¬
sequently), and took an active part in the revolution of 1830.
He was a voluminous writer, of somewhat varied powers, his
plays, novels and historical studies numbering many vol¬
umes, his literary labors extending over forty-three years.
Alexandre Dumas, known as Dumas fils, son of the preced¬
ing, was also a most prolific and popular author, his writings
embracing poems, plays, novels and essays. He began the
publication of his productions when he was but eighteen years
old. He was elected a member of the French Academy,
January 30, 1874.
Notable among the writers who have shown the power of
the men and women of the race to " wreak themselves upon
expression," is George W. Williams, of New York, the
author of a u History of the Negro Race in America from
1619 to 1880"—an exhaustive work (in two volumes of
about eleven hundred pages). It is ably written, and gives
evidence of not only a capable mind, but of conscientious
and painstaking investigation and a will not to yield to dis¬
couragements and be thwarted from a worthy purpose by the
obstacles that present themselves to the inquirer in a new
historic field. He was the first colored man ever elected to
the Ohio Legislature, and was at one time judge advocate of
the G. A. R. of Ohio.
In the report of the Fifth Annual Conference in Atlanta,
much of which is printed in another part of this work, will be'
found a list of more than thirty authors not mentioned above,
118
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
besides an astonishing number of college-bred Negroes who
liave entered other fields of intellectual activity.
PHILLIS WHEATLEY.
In 1761 a Negro girl was brought on a slave ship to Boston,
and sold to Mrs. John Wheatley. Her mistress gave her
the name Phillis, and she was afterward known as Phillis
Wheatley. She was eight years old at the time she was sold
into slavery, but her appearance, after being properly dressed
and set to household work, and her evident sprightliness, so
impressed her mistress that she concluded to teach her to
read. This once begun eventuated in her becoming a good
English scholar and so proficient in Latin that she translated
Ovid's 1 'Metamorphoses"—doing it so well that after it was
published in Boston, it was republished in England and
favorably received by the literary critics of that day.
At the age of sixteen she embraced the Christian religion
and took membership at the " Old South Meeting House." At
the age of twenty she was set free. Her health now began
to fail, and her former mistress sent her on a voyage to Eng¬
land. She had already published a small volume of poems,
and the fame of the "African poetess" had preceded her to
England. These poems, with probably some additions, were
republished in London, 1773. Her talents, her modest de¬
meanor, and conversational powers that were held to be ex¬
ceptional, made her a favorite with people of rank as well as
with those of letters.
Mrs. Wheatley, her former mistress, was so attached to
her that she shortened her stay in London by an earnest re¬
quest that she return home, which she did only to find the
affectionate lady ill unto death. Not long after the death of
Mrs. Wheatley her husband and daughter died, leaving of
the family one son, who went to live in England, and Phillis,
left alone, shortly afterward married a colored man named
John Peters. The husband proved to be utterly incapa¬
ble of appreciating so fine a nature, and her married life was
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
119
^appy. She died in 1784, before she was thirty-one years
old.
Brought, an almost naked savage child, from the wilds of
Africa, a slave for about twelve years, meanwhile becoming
a scholar and a poetess of distinction, as a freedwoman the
associate of people of culture and refinement in Boston and
London,—her case is a remarkable one. It is rare, cer¬
tainly; but it ought to serve as an incentive to the young
men and women of the race to improve their talents, refine
their manners, live uprightly and achieve the very best of
which they are capable.
PAUL LAV HENCE DUNBAR..
Paul Laurence Dunbar, poet, novelist and newspaper
writer, was born in Dayton, Ohio, June 27, 1872, son of
Joshua and Matilda (Burton) Dunbar. His father had been
a slave in Kentucky, but fled to Canada by underground
railroad before the war. After the war ended he came back
and made his home in Ohio.
Paul was educated in the common and high schools of his
town. After graduating from the high school be began busi¬
ness to support his mother, then widowed. At this early
age he contributed to newspapers, and was encouraged by
Doctor Tobey, of Toledo, to continue his literary efforts.
He wrote, for some time, for eastern magazines before the
editors knew him to be a Negro.
In 1893 (at twenty-one years of age) he published his first
book, "Oak and Ivy." His second one, ''Majors and
Minors," was reviewed by William Dean Howells in so
kindly and discriminating a manner as to attract to the young
author greatly increased attention. Howells pronounced
Dunbar "the first black man to feel the life of the Negro
aesthetically and express it lyrically."
In 1896 two volumes were republished as one, entitled
"Lyrics of Lowly Life." This was followed by "Folks from
Dixie" (1898); "Lyrics of the Hearthstone" appeared in
8
120
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
1899, as did also "Poems of Cabin and Field." "The Un¬
called," a story which first appeared in Lippincotf s Maga¬
zine, lias been described as "strong in motive and delineation,
a story of the soul's struggle against environment—the story
of a waif forced into the ministerial life by an adopted mother.
The intensity is relieved by many humorous episodes and not
a little quaint philosophy.'' One reviewer says: "The evolu¬
tion of the hero in 'Uncalled' is a strong character study, and
the action of the minor characters and the construction of the
story generally, prove that Dunbar is master of the difficult
art of writing a long novel of sustained interest. He demon¬
strates three things: first, the Negro's gift of telling a story,
illustrated in the humorous and dialect pieces; second, the
Negro's serious revelation of his passion of love; and third,
of far greater importance just now, the Negro's sense of verbal
melody. Of the last, the entire collection of his poems is a
triumphant and well-nigh unerring demonstration."
PAUJ„ I.AIRKNCK DUNBAR.
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
121
JAMES D. CORROTHER.S.
This man, who has for some years been known as a poet
and prose writer, has recently achieved nnnsnal distinction
by the publication of "The Black Cat Club," a collection of
humorous stories and folk-lore. Of this work the Literary
Digest says: "The date of publication of 'The Black Cat
Club' should be commemorated by cultivated people of color
as a second 'Emancipation Day.'
"Small and unpretentious as the book is, it marks the
beginning of the independence of the literature pertaining
to the American Negro. The humor of the black race has,
in particular, been too much under the domination of white
men. The early 'Jim Crow' idea of Negro fun held sway
for many years in this country, and is
still supreme in England. And the later
'Uncle Remus' conception, while it
takes a true and somewhat typical speci¬
men for subject, nevertheless views him
through an atmosphere of kindly, yet
obscuring, sentimentality. In short, it
is unconsciously patronizing.
"Even writers with colored blood in
their veins have had the white man's
view imposed upon them. The Negro
is by nature imitative. james d. corrothers.
... "The Negro does not plot. His humor is 'touch-
and-go.' His stories are pointless in form, though so in¬
sinuating in quality that they can never after be crowded out
of the mind. Certain phrases, such as 'Ole Massa's Gone to
Phillimoyo'k' (the title of a folk-tale in the present book),
are overflowing with such natural, spontaneous humor that
any number of varying stories could be built around each.
In fact, 'protean' is the adjective that exactly applies to
Negro folk-lore—so elusive is the secret of its informing
principle.
"There is 110 logic, and only the semblance of literary
122
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
'form,' about Mr. Corrothers's book. The club, whose
proceedings it records, is an organization with an utterly-
fantastic purpose, the worship of The Black Cat. The place
selected is Chicago, where every type of Negro and Negro
dialect is to be found. These types are presented as they are,
without exaggeration or extenuation. As the author says,
'a window is let into Negro life so that the reader may see
for himself.' Negro expressions, sayings and peculiar by¬
words are, to continue quotation from the author, 'set down
at just such times and places as a Negro would naturally
make use of them.'
"The original verse of the book is of all sorts, simple
doggerel and pure lyric, yet equally filled with Negro humor
and sentiment. ' 'Way in de Woods, an' Nobody Dah,' is
a gem of flawless verse, with a depth of awe and mystery
that is more than primitive; it is elemental. In one instance
Mr. Corrothers has taken a genial revenge on behalf of his
race. Negroes have borne the jokes as well as the burdens
of the white men from the days of Homer. It is now the
turn of the 'blameless Ethiopian.' The Rev. Dark Loud¬
mouth recounts to the Black Cat Club the way in which
James Whitcomb Riley really received the bump on the head
which the papers reported was the result of an attempted
robbery. There is an air of realism about the narrative of
this watermelon raid which would convince Mr. Riley him¬
self that it had actually happened, though 'I 'speck you's
lied on 'at white man,' is the judgment of a less susceptible
Negro auditor."
CHARLES W. CHESNUTT.
Charles W. Chesnutt was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in
1858, of free-born colored parents who had emigrated to Ohio
from North Carolina several years before his birth. When
he was eight or nine years old his parents returned to North
Carolina, where he was reared. He began to teach in the
public schools of that State at sixteen, and early in the
CHARLES W. CHESNUTT,
124
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
eighties became first assistant teacher, and afterwards princi¬
pal, of the State Colored Normal School at Fayetteville, North
Carolina, the town which, under the name of " Pates ville," is
the scene of many of his stories. In 1883 he left the South,
and after a short sojourn in New York, during which he was
engaged in newspaper work, returned to Cleveland, where he
has since resided. He was for a while employed as a stenog¬
rapher in the law department of the New York, Chicago and
St. Louis Railway Company. He was admitted to practice
at the Ohio bar in 1887.
Mr. Chesnutt's literary work began early, but was en¬
tirely desultory until within recent years. He contributed
short stories and essays to the periodical press at various
times, and in 1887 began to publish in the Atlantic Monthly
the series of dialect stories of North Carolina folk-lore and
superstition subsequently published under the title, "The
Conjure Woman." In August, 1888, his story, "The Wife
of His Youth," appeared in the. Atlantic Monthly, and at¬
tracted wide attention. This was followed, early in 1899,
by "The Conjure Woman," and later in the same year by
a "Life of Frederick Douglass," in the Beacon Series of
American Biographies, and "The Wife of His Youth and
Other Stories of the Color Line," "The House Behind
the Cedars," a novel, published in 1900, and "The Marrow
of Tradition," 1901, a novel on the race problem in the South.
The favorable reception with which his publications met,
North and South, shows that almost from the beginning of
his serious and sustained literary labors he took high rank
as an author. Of "The House Behind the Cedars" the
Boston Herald said: "One of the most vitally interesting
books touching upon racial distinctions in the South that we
have ever read. As a story it is a brilliant performance—
clear, to the point, keen in its interest, penetrating in its
presentation of character."
And the Cleveland Plain Dealer: "It cannot fail to win
for Mr. Chesnutt an honorable place among those novelists
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
125
whose works are read for tlieir absorbing interest and remem¬
bered because they have a deeper purpose than the mere
amusement of an idle hour."
The Living Church (Milwaukee): "It has delicacy of
manner, strength, and imagination, is full of robust Eng¬
lish, and is possessed of unusual literary merit."
The Richmond (Va.) Times: "The author's treatment of
the difficult subject is strong, delicate, artistic, and gives his
novel a unique place in American literature."
MISS INEZ C. PARKER.
There is now living in Rolla, Missouri, a young woman
who is a remarkable instance of the fact that even in the
higher realms of thought and
feeling which are regarded as
peculiar to the most gifted of
all races—the poets—the Ne¬
gro may be at home.
Miss Inez C. Parker, the
person alluded to, is less not¬
able in one particular than
Phillis Wheatley—and only a
little less, even in that. Miss
Wheatley was born a savage,
in the wilds of Africa; brought
a captive to Americau shores,
utterly ignorant of the lan¬
guage which she was afterward
to employ to make her famous;
but she fell in the hands of
generous and humane people
who taught her carefully, in-
& J 7 MISS INE)Z C. PARKER.
stilled refined and ennobling
principles, and inspired her to write her message—the first
given out by a Negro woman—to assure the English-speak¬
ing world, in its own tongu£, that the Muses company with
126
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
her lowly race. Miss Parker, it is true, was bom free, and
in the land of light and liberty and ambitions endeavor; but
she was born of parents who were once slaves, and are still
poor and humble workers for their daily bread—the father a
native Georgian, the mother a native Missourian. They
were without the means to give her enlarged opportunities
for education; but she attended the public schools, afterward
having the advantage of some instruction by private teach¬
ers, and at length graduated from the high school department
of the public school of her native town. She had instruction
in music, but is disposed to place but a too light estimate on
her proficiency; and one authority* says that unaided she
learned French so as to both speak and write it, and that she
is a fair Latin scholar, and has such skill as an artist that
some paintings of hers have "received favorable notice from
capable critics. She is said to be an omnivorous reader, and
in this way" has acquired large information, liberal views,
and a lively interest in all that concerns mankind, especially
the people of her own race.
It will be noted that the beginnings of her career, though
not specially auspicious, were somewhat more so than those
of Miss Wheatley. She has widened .the contrast between
them by the superiority of her work. Miss Parker's attain¬
ments as a scholar are probably not so considerable, but she
is the finer genius and is more distinctly the true poetess.
Those who know her personally speak of her in the highest
terms, declaring that she is modest and amiable, and that
her character is above reproach. This is confirmed by the
fact that the former slave-holding families now residing in
Rolla have her interests at heart and show her marked
kindness—some of them employing her to teach elocution
and music in their families.
Living with her parents in the house in which she was
born, she devotes her time to study, literary work, and
occasional teaching. The simplicity of her life evidently
0 '
* Dr. J. W. MeClure, of Sedalia.
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP. 127
has its influence in giving that tone to her poetical produc¬
tions which appeals to the human heart and challenges
admiration by its fidelity to nature.
She has written a great deal for one of her age, and much
of this has appeared from time to time in prominent journals
and magazines. Of the three poems that follow this sketch,
two of them dialect, it maybe remarked that the lines on
1 'Hope" won the prize offered by a Chicago magazine in
which it was afterward published, and that of from thirty to
forty contestants all but her were white. The "Honey
Chile" was published in a St. Louis paper and created a stir
in literary circles. A cultured gentleman was so struck
with it that he wrote and published a kind of answer or
companion piece. "When Daddy Plays de Banjo" was
published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and it was noticed
editorially in a most complimentary manner.
Having space for only these, they are submitted to the
candid judgment of the reader. The writer of this sketch
is informed that Miss Parker has taken several prizes for
poems and short stories.
If she has the good fortune to be able to make the most
of her powers, she is destined to attain to rare distinction in
the literary world.,.
HOPE.
The morn was dreary and gray with mist,
By faintest glimmer of gold unkissed;
But Hope looked forth with a vision bright,
And whispered low, with a smile of light:
"Oh, heart, dear heart, be of good cheer;
The noon will be fairer—never fear!"
Wind-swept the noon came, wet with rain,
All sighs and shadows, all tears and pain;
But Hope looked forth with a steadfast eye.
And whispered low as the wind shrieked by:
"Oh, heart, faint heart, be of good cheer;
At eve 'twill be fairer—never fear!"
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
The shrouded sun found a cloudy tomb,
And without a star came a night of gloom;
But Hope looked forth with a vision bright,
And whispered low, with a smile of light:
"Oh, heart, sad heart, be of good cheer;
The morn will be fairer—never fear!"
HONEY CHILE.
Passin' 'long you's prob'ly seed 'im—
He wa'n't very big;
But wuz jes as smaht as howdy 'n'
Fatteh dan a pig!
He'd sof' brown cheeks wid two big dimples
In 'em when 'e'd smile,
An' big black eyes as bright as dollahs—
Dat wuz Honey Chile.
Spect you's seed 'im lots o' times
A-settin' in de do',
Wid 'is playthings all around 'im
Scattehed on de flo'—
He'd toys o' mos' all soht an' 'scription.
Foh I spent a pile
Gittin ev'ything I could to
'Muse my Honey Chile.
Use to have to go an' leave 'im
Soon as it wuz dawn,
An' when he'd wake 'e'd fin' 'is mammy'd
Done got up an' gone;
I did n' know my wuhk wuz hahd
An' heavy all de'while;
I jes made it light by thinkin'
'Bout my Honey Chile.
In de evenin's when de sun wuz
Sinkin' in de wes',
I'd come back—ole mammy-bird—
Back to de li'l' home-nest;
Ivis'nin' to dat baby chirp
My haht wid joy 'u'd bile,
An' I'd sing an' be so happy
Rockin' Honey Chile.
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
Wukkin in de white folks' kitchen
I 'u'd plot an' plan,
How I'd raise dat boy to be
De fines' kind uv man;
Lots o' times about de fewchah
I'd jes have to smile,
Think'n' how I wuz goin' to 'range it
Foh my Honey Chile.
But a day come when my hopes
Dey vanish lak de snow—
Honey Chile he went to sleep
To neveh wake no mo'!
While his mammy's haht wuz broke
He jes lay still'an' smile—
Looked jes lak a li'l' glad angel—
Oh, my Honey Chile!
Jes peahs lak I couldn't stay heah
'Cept I wants to save
'Nough to buy a pretty mon'ment
Foh dat baby's grave;
An' I wants to have dis on it,
Writ in propeh style:
"Tell we meets beyon' de riveh,
Good-bye, Honey Chile."
WHEN DADDY PLAYS DE BANJO-
When daddy plays de banjo
'E smiles jes kinder gay,
An' 'is foot jes taps de flo' right sof'
An' 'is eyes look fah away;
An' up an' down an' 'cross de strings
'Is han' behgins to walk,
An' us chillen lis'en stiller'n mice
To hear dat banjo talk.
'E don' have time to play it much
Except'n' in de night,
Afteh suppeh when de dishes
Am all washed an' out o' sight;
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
Den daddy goes right to de wall
An' lif's dat banjo down,
An' behgins to choon it up an' make
Hit make a funny soun'.
But when he do behgin to play
Jes lis'en an' be still!
Kaze you's goin' to hear de mockin'-bird
Behgin to chirp an' trill,
An' de sky'11 be blue and sunny,
An' you'll hear de hum uv bees,
An' you'll feel de souf win' blowin'
Thoo de blossoms on de trees.
You'll hear de brook a-tinkle-tinklmf
'Cross de pebbles white,
An' a-dimplin' an' a-dancin'
In de shaddeh an' de light;
Den you'll hear de bell a-ringin',
An' de folks a-singin' choons,
At de chu'ch what we all goes to
Uv a Sunday aftehnoons.
Den daddy stracks anudder choon
An' you behgins to think
About de "swing yo' pardners all,"
An' Lizy dresst in pink,
Wid roses in 'er hair, an' slim
White slippers on her feet,
An' how, when she am goin' to dancek
She look so mighty neat.
A-lis'nin' to de music den
Peahs lak de sun shine clare,
Den suddent, 'fo' you knows it,
Dah am twilight in de air,
An' great big twinkly stars come outs
All hazy, soft an' slow,
An' 'mongs' de pines a night-bird sings
Right trembly-lak an' low.
An' den you jis kin shet yo' eyes
An' see de purply sky
Wid de new moon hangin' in it
Lak a sickle 'way up high,
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP. 131
An' den you thinks about dat star—
Hit's bigger dan de rest—
Dat shines right 'bove li'l' buddy's grave
Out yander in de west.
You feels de dew a-fallin'
An' hears mammy sorter sigh,
An' you jes keeps on a-grinnin,
Yet you'd somehow lak to cry;
An' you's stiller dan befo' to hear
Dem tones so sof' an' deep,
When all to oncet de music stops
An' daddy am asleep!
MISS EFFIE WALLER.
Pike, the extreme east¬
ern part of Kentucky, in
a piountainous region ,
'"where the colored popula¬
tion has always been so
small as to make it diffi¬
cult for the State to main¬
tain schools into which
the scattered children
could be gathered, is to
be credited with a poetess,
the daughter of parents
who before the war were
Negro slaves.
Effie Waller was born
in Pikeville—the young¬
est of the four children of
Frank and Sibbie Waller.
During her earlier school
years her parents lived at
a distance of more than
four miles from the near¬
est school. They were
MISS effie; WAITER.
132
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
unable to provide for private tuition, and as slie was of delicate
health she was able to attend school very little; but by dint
of personal application she attained to such scholarship by
the time she was eighteen that- she secured a certificate of
proficiency to teach in the common schools of the State,
since which time she has had fair success in that way when
not attending the State Normal School at Frankfort, which
she did during the years 1900 and 1901,
She began to practice "the rhyming art" at a very early
age, contributing poems to the newspapers of Pikeville,
Kentucky, and Williamson, West Virginia. Lately she has
made a collection of her productions, to be brought out in
book form, entitled "Songs of the Months and Other Poems.''
CHAPTER VI.
The Negro in Business.
HE following seven papers are among those submitted to
the Fourth Annual Conference held in Atlanta, Georgia,
to consider various questions as to the condition, prospects
and needs of the Negroes, as planned by the Atlanta Univer¬
sity, some years ago. All except the address of Governor
Candler were written by Negroes who have special knowl¬
edge of their subjects. Prof. John Hope is a teacher in one
of the Atlanta institutions and a graduate of Brown Univer¬
sity. Miss Hattie G. Kscridge is a graduate of Atlanta
University, and is book-keeper in her father's grocery store.
Mr. H. B. Lindsay is a very successful Negro merchant, and
Mr. W. O. Murphy, also a graduate of Atlanta University,
is junior partner in one of the oldest Negro firms in that
city. Mr. C. W. Fearnis the manager of a very interesting
co-operative venture among Negro mechanics of Chattanooga.
Messrs. Porter and Seabrooke, from whose thesis paper No.
VII. is compiled, were seniors "*in Atlanta University in
1899. The latter has, since graduation, gone into the shoe
business in Charleston, South Carolina.
i. opening address of the hon. allan d. candler,
Mi. President, Ladies and Gentlemen of the Conference:—
I have come before you tonight with no prepared oration or
speech. My duties are so exacting, that I have no time
really to prepare such an address as this occasion merits. I
have come because I am a friend to this old institution, and
because I want you to know that the State of Georgia, through
its chief executive, recognizes the usefulness of this institu-
governor of georgia.
133
134
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
tion to the State. (Applause.) And first, I want to endorse
as my sentiments, and the sentiments of all good men in this
commonwealth, the remarks which have been made by your
distinguished president. All good men, fair men, philan¬
thropic men, in this State endorse every one of those remarks.
"The Negro in Business:" It is a theme worthy of the at¬
tention of every patriot in this and every other State in the
greatest Republic of all the ages.
Unfortunately, in our portion of the great Republic, there
have been too few avenues to successful effort open even to
the white race, and much fewer avenues to successful effort
open to the colored race. A generation ago we emerged from
one of the most cruel, and I would be pardoned to say, that
in my judgment, one of the most unnecessary wars that ever
devastated the face of the earth. The result of this war was
the freeing of the colored race; and like the young child
which has not long had an opportunity to be taught, a new
world was opened to this race. The position that the}'- oc¬
cupied prior to that time was entirely changed. They be-,
came in the eyes of the law the equals of the other races that
inhabit this Republic. They were clothed not only with all
the privileges,, but all the responsibilities of citizenship. The
scenes that surrounded them were new scenes; they had
never been accustomed to them. They were like a child that
is transported in a day from the scenes of his birth to other
scenes, entirely different, if you please, on another continent.
Necessarily, those things which attracted their attention at
that time being novel, not only attracted, but riveted their
attention. Yet the things which they saw, the conditions that
existed were abnormal conditions. The people of the entire
South were in a state of turmoil, in an abnormal state. In
other words, everybody talked about the war, and about the
results of the war, and especially did everybody talk about
politics.
The young men of my own race at that time saw things
that I had never seen; saw things that the men who had
IN HISTORY, 'AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
135
controlled the destinies of this State prior to that time, had
never seen. They saw a riot at the polls, they saw methods
employed by political parties, and I exempt none—all were
guilty—they saw methods emplo}^ed by political parties, in
party elections, which were perfectly abhorrent to the men
who had controlled the destinies of this State prior to that
WIUJAM H. MOSS.
An enterprising Afro-American of Boston, Massachusetts,
time; and these young men of my race, and the colored men,
seeing these things, concluded that that was politics, legit¬
imate politics, and hearing nobody talk about anything but
politics, they concluded that politics was the chief end of life;
but in this conference to-day, in the discussion of the prob¬
lems, we are realizing the fact that there are other things
9
136
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
besides politics. Those men, as a rule, no matter in what
class or race they belong, who regard politics as the chief end
of life, are always unsatisfactory citizens of the country, no
matter to what race they belong.
But it is not astonishing that the young men of thirty
years ago — the young men of both races, who had aspira¬
tions, who desired to make for themselves a name in the
world—concluded and looked upon politics as the only
avenue to distinction, because that is all they discussed.
Nobody talked anything else. Upon the farms you would
hear the old colored men and the white men talk about their
cotton crops; you would hear that, but there was no dis¬
tinction in that. Those that desired to make for themselves
a name, saw no avenue except through politics. Now other
avenues are open, and in the future still other avenues will
be opened. It is more honorable to be a successful merchant,
or to be a useful, intelligent mechanic, than it is to be a
third-rate member of the American Congress. A man serves
his God better, because congressmen, when I was in Con¬
gress, didn't serve God much; they served the other fellow.
He can serve his fellow-citizens better, and he will serve his
God better than any man who stands in the arena of partisan
politics.
Now it has been demonstrated in this old institution.
Thirty years ago I was a teacher. I took an interest in
educational matters. I came here when they were founding
the Atlanta University for the training of the youth of the
Negro race for usefulness and good citizenship, because I had
an interest in it. From that time to this I have not been on
this ground. During that thirty years I know that this
institution has done more (and I do not desire to disparage
other institutions; I do not intend to disparage them), so far
as my information has gone, to elevate the colored race than
any other institution in the bounds of this State. (Applause.)
You have done a good work; you have been a conservative
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
137
people; and there is a great work ahead of you yet — a great
work especially for all the teachers of this country, of both
races..
I do believe that education properly so called, training in
arts and science and literature, and morality, and especially
in morality, is the most potent, indeed the only, education
that can make us citizens worthy of the great Republic in
which we live; and thus believing, I came here tonight to
lend whatever encouragement I can to this institution which,
I repeat, is doing more, in my judgment, and has done more,
for the elevation of the race for which it is intended than any
other institution in Georgia.
I want you to know that I am in full sympathy with you.
I want you to know that I represent ninety per cent of the
people of my race in this State. I want you to know that
while there are men in Georgia who do not feel as I do about
this matter—who do not feel that institutions like this,
intended for the colored race, should receive the encourage¬
ment of every white man in Georgia—the percentage of
those is very small.
I want to say tonight, in all sincerity, that the only con¬
soling feature and reflection in connection with some of the
horrid scenes that have been enacted in this State in the
past — the only consoling reflection is, that those men who
have engaged in these things constitute a very small per¬
centage of both races. The man who would denounce the
entire colored race for the act of one member of that race, or
a few members of that race, is unjust. The man who would
denounce the entire white race of this State because of the
lawless acts of a few, is unjust. The people of Georgia are
made of the same flesh and bones as their brethren in New
England. Georgia was one of the old Thirteen. Massachu¬
setts was one, and so was Connecticut, and so was New York.
We were one people, with one common cause, and established
the greatest Republic that has ever existed in the annals of
the world; and we are now one people, and if crimes are
138
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
committed here in Georgia now by my race, don't blame me.
Don't blame tlie teachers, and the law-abiding people of this
State; they are not responsible for them. If crimes are com¬
mitted by the colored race, don't blame the entire colored
race for it, for I tell you before God tonight that I believe
that ninety per cent of the colored race of Georgia desire to
be law-abiding citizens. They are as patriotic as I am, and
there is a very small proportion of the races that are respon¬
sible for these troubles. I was reared among the colored
race. I have lived with them all my life, and I know that
there are good white people, and I know that there are good
colored people, and I know that there are bad white people,
and I know that there are bad colored people. I would advise
all of my fellow-citizens of both races to draw a line, separat¬
ing the virtuous and intelligent on the one side, from the
vicious and ignorant on the other; and when we have drawn
that line, and arrayed ourselves on both sides of it, let those
who love order, and who love justice, and who love equity,
fair play, let's be careful that those who are allied on one
side, on the side of ignorance and vice, let's be careful that
they do not pull us over on their side. We will reach our
hands to them, good white men and colored men — we will
stretch out our hands to those fellows on the other side, and
pull them over to us, if we can; but let's not allow them to
pull us over on their side.
I know that the colored man is as loyal to his friends as
I am. I know that he loves law and order. I know this,
that it has taken my race six hundred years to get up to the
point where we are. I know it is unreasonable to suppose
that a race emerging from a state of servitude should accom¬
plish in one generation what it has taken our race six hun¬
dred years to accomplish. But at the same time I know that
these same colored men and women in Georgia are just as loyal
to their convictions, and to their duties, and as God-serving,
and as God-loving as my race are; and we want to teach one
thing, not the law of hate, but the law of love. Hate never
CAPT, J. W. WARMSLEY.
Now in the Philippine Islands.
140
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
benefited anybody; love benefits everybody. Because, I
repeat, I believe the only real Happiness ever enjoyed in this
world is in an effort to make other people happy.
But I have spoken to you longer than I intended. I would
not have gone anywhere else tonight but to the Atlanta
University. I have some visitors at my house that I have
not seen for forty years, and I excused myself, telling them
that I felt it my duty to come over to Atlanta University and
lend my assistance in the effort to elevate and benefit the race
among whom I have been born and reared, and for whom I
have nothing but the kindest feeling and regard, and for
whose elevation I have the most earnest desire; and besides,
one of my guests told me to come, and I have come. I have
delivered my little message. I have spoken sincerely, and
I wish you God-speed in this work, and I believe that useful as
the Atlanta University has been in the past, that on the line
of this discussion, that the colored race will be crowned with
abundant success. God grant that it may be. (Applause.)
ii. the meaning of business.
(Paper submitted by Professor John Hope, of the Atlanta Baptist College.)
The Negro status has changed considerably since the
Civil War, but he is today to a great extent what he has
always been in this country—the laborer, the day hand, the
man who works for wages. The great hiring class is the
white people. The Negro develops the resources, the white
man pays him for his services. To be sure, some few Negroes
have accumulated a little capital. But the rule has been as
I have stated: the white man has converted and reconverted
the Negro's labor and the Negro's money into capital until
we find an immense section of developed country owned by
whites and worked by colored.
However, the Negroes multiply, and the succeeding gen¬
erations, though wiser, show no alarming signs of physical
weakness. Therefore, if we still have a demand for our
services as laborer, the wolf can be kept from the door. We
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP. 141
can still eat, drink and be merry, with, no thought of tomor¬
row's death. But in that contingency we perceive a portent.
To say "if we still have a demand for our services" implies
a doubt. Already the Negro has no monopoly of the labor
market. The white man is his competitor in many fields;
and in some of the humbler walks, here in the South where
honest toil has been held in reproach, white men are crowding
Negroes out of places which in my childhood belonged to
the Negro by right of his birth. For in the matter of inherit¬
ing work the Negro has been a prince. But we are already
opening our eyes to the fact that we are not employed South
because we are loved, but because we are a necessity, and
that as soon as white capital can secure competent white
labor for the same money with which it secures Negro labor,
white capital is seized with a violent attack of race sympathy,
and refuses to hire Negroes where white men are obtainable.
To say nothing of high-grade artisans like brickmasons and
carpenters, who are crowding Negroes, you see white porters,
ditchers, newsboys, elevator boys, and the like, getting posi¬
tions once the exclusive property of our people.
Let me say here, that while ignorance and incompetency
may in some sense explain the mysterious departure of the
Negro whitewasher, carpenter, newsboy and washer-woman
in many quarters, I have seen too many competent Negroes
superseded by whites—at times incompetent whites—to lay
much, stress on ignorance and incompetency as a total expla¬
nation. This change of affairs in the labor market South is
due to competition between the races in new fields. The
labor prince finds himself losing some of his old estate.
Industrial education and labor unions for Negroes will not
change his condition. They may modify it, but the condi¬
tion will not be very materially changed. The white man
will meet the Negro on the same ground and work for the
same wages. That much we may as well take for granted,
calculate the consequences of it, and strive by every means
co overcome this falling off in our old-time advantages.
142
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
We must take in some, if not all, of the wages, turn it
into capital, hold it, increase it. This must be done as a
means of employment for the thousands who cannot get
work from old sources. Employment must be had, and this
employment will have to come to Negroes from Negro
sources.
This phase of the Negro's condition is so easily seen
that it needs no further consideration. Negro capital will
have to give an opportunity to Negro workmen who will be
crowded out by white competition; and when I say Negro
workmen I would include both sexes. Twenty-five years
from today it will be a less marvelous phenomenon for col¬
ored girls and women to see white girls and women pushing
baby carriages and carrying clothes-baskets than it is today
for white women to see colored women performing on the
piano. Employment for colored men and women, colored
boys and girls, must be supplied by colored people.
But supposing there should remain our old-time monopoly
of labor; suppose we should do all the tearing down and
building up and draw our wages, man by man, and there
should be no press for bread, no fear of the winter's blast,
from the winter's poverty; could we as a race afford to re¬
main the great labor class, subject to the great capitalist
class? The wage-earner, the man on a salary, may, by
rigid self-denial, secure for himself a home, he may besides
husband his earnings so carefully as to have a small income,
but the wage-earner and man of salary seldom save a com¬
petence. It is exceedingly rare that they can retire from
labor and spend an old age of leisure with dignity. It is
usually the case that their last and feeblest days mark their
most desperate struggle for sustenance. At that time of life
when men ought to be most able to provide for themselves
and others, these men are least able. There is little or no in¬
dependence in the wage-earner, because there is no practical
security. Bread is a great arbiter in this world. Say what
you will of liberty and religion, back of the shrillest, most
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP. 143
heart-rending cries this hard old world has ever heard has
been the need of bread. The name of the cry may have
been liberty, it may have been taxation without representa¬
tion, it may have been vested rights, but much of the truth
is that men have wanted the bread conditions to.be easier.
Millions of empty stomachs made the French Revolution
possible. There is not much race independence for the race
that cannot speak its mind through men whose capital can
help or harm those who would bring oppression. We need
capital to dictate terms. This notion is old enough but
bears repetition.
However, suppose the wolf is kept from the door, and sup¬
pose the Negro has such independence as the law now grants
white men. Suppose he can go and come as other men do;
suppose he is molested in no political or civil rights, and
suppose he gets a fair trial under the most unfavorable cir¬
cumstances, is all this the summum bonum, is this the end
of life—that it brings man to the point where he has his
bread and his rights? It seems to me that the highest priv¬
ilege, the greatest blessing, and the highest point of
development which any man could seek, is that of being an
interested and controlling member in the foremost matters
of his own country, and through this interest and control
becoming a partner in the world's activity. We are taught in
Holy Writ that we cannot live by bread alone, and that life
is more than raiment. Nor has man gained all that appeals
to him as worth possession when he has his rights. Rights
every man ought to have equal with every other man. But
we are infinitely better off when we not only have the rights
but comprehend their significance, the cause and the use of
them. To attain to this position of dignity and manhood
we must get into the world current. We cannot stem it by
standing on the shore, nor can we ever know its power until
we have leaped into the rushing stream.
This partnership in the world's business, to be sure, is
fostered by the guarantee of fair enforcement of equal laws.
144
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
But the desire for partnership, and the ability to be partner,
must be in the man himself. The law and public sentiment
may protect a business man, but they cannot make him.
The making is largely with the man himself. Now the age
in which we are living is an economic one; manufacturing
and merchandising claim the world's attention. No doubt
this remark in a modified form has been made time and time
again, ever since Jacob of old carried on his little business
transactions. But as we scan history, it does appear that,
through combinations and inventions, we are now under the
immediate sway of business more than humanity has ever
been before. Life and progress are most perceptible today
in business activities. To be sure there are religious, moral
and educational movements, glorious, noble and far-reaching.
But the greatest, at least in its immediate consequences on
the world, is the business movement; and nobody can tell
to what extent even the moral, religious and educational
efforts are influenced by business motives. Education and
philanthropy often find their explanation in terms of busi¬
ness. Whenever an enterprise is proposed, the question
arises, not is it right, is it best, but does it pay, how much
will it bring? Empires have their reason for being, not
through abstract formulae of political principles, not through
religious creeds, but through their value to the world's busi¬
ness. It is not thirst for Christianity that is joining Russia
with the Chinese sea, and the historic shores of northern
Africa, with the diamond fields of the south. The struggle
for business, buying and selling and owning are actually to¬
day the most daring and gigantic undertakings that have
marred and made this world. I am not here to defend these
motives, but to point out their existence, and to say, that
our temporal, I say nothing of spiritual, salvation depends
on our aptitude for conceiving the significance of present-
day movements, and becoming a conscious, positive, ag¬
gressive party to them.
This idea of business is a large one, I admit. And many
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
145
a man accumulates thousands of dollars without realizing
his relations to the rest of the world, his dependence on the
world, and his independence of it as a result of his accumu¬
lations. But it is this idea that ought to be promoted among
us in order that men of education and power may know that
outside of the learned professions there is a vast field for per¬
sonal honor and emolument, and for doing a great public good.
In fact, we can have very few really learned professional
men until we do have some capital, for a professional man
must have time and facilities for increasing his knowledge.
These cannot be obtained without money. This money
must come from Negroes. Wage-earners alone cannot sup¬
ply enough money. I therefore regard it as a menace to the
progress and utility of professional men that business enter¬
prise among us increases so slowly. We have not enough of
teachers, preachers and physicians. In fact, there is still
room, even under present conditions, for a few more lawyers.
But none of these make sufficient money to supply them ad¬
vantages necessary to their highest development and
usefulness. More money diffused among the masses through
Negro capital will alter this unfavorable state of things. No
field calls for trained minds and creative genius to a greater
extent than does business. To calculate prices months
hence, to see what will be the result with such and such a
factor removed or introduced, calls for men of large parts and
superior knowledge, no matter where gained. I know of
no men who as a class go so far for the good of others as do
Negro men for the good of the race. There is a big lump
of public spirit among us. All we need is to be shown how
to use this public spirit. From now on, for many years, it
must be employed in business channels, if it would do most
and immediate service.
I do not believe that the ultimate contribution of the
Negro to the world will be his development of natural forces.
It is to be more than that. There are in him emotional,
spiritual elements that presage gifts from the Negro more en-
10
146
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
nobling and enduring than factories and railroads and banks.
But without these factories, railroads and banks he cannot
accomplish his highest aim. We are living among the so-
called Anglo-Saxons and dealing with them. They are a
conquering people who turn their conquests into their pock¬
ets. The vanquished may not always recognize this as true,
but the fact remains. Now our end as a race most likely
will not be of the same nature as that of the Anglo-Saxon.
In the long run each will play a very different part; but, for
the present, for the sake of self-preservation and for the sake
of grasping the meaning of the civilization in which we live,
we must to a large extent adopt the life and use the methods
of this people with whom we are associated. Business seems
to be not simply the raw material of Anglo-Saxon civiliza¬
tion—and by business I mean those efforts, directly or indi¬
rectly concerned with a purposive tendency to material
development and progress, with the point in view of the
effort bringing material profit or advantage to the one mak¬
ing the effort; and I would include all such efforts, whether
made in peace or war. I was saying, business seems to be
not simply the raw material of the Anglo-Saxon civilization,
but almost the civilization itself. It is at least its main¬
spring to action. Living among such a people is it not
obvious that we cannot escape its most powerful motive and
survive? To the finite vision, to say the least, the policy
of avoiding entrance in the world's business would be suicide
to the Negro. Yet as a matter of great account, we ought
to note that as good a showing as we have made, that show¬
ing is but as pebbles on the shore of business enterprise.
Ladies and gentlemen, I have talked on for some minutes
without giving you the name of the talk. I once heard a
scholarly Massachusetts congressman lecture, and he said
the subject of his lecture was "Whence and Whither," but
that the subject had nothing to do with the lecture. In
refusing to christen my remaks I may escape the charge of
irrelevance. Yet, if you force me to a confession, I dare say
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
147
I had in mind "The business man's contribution to the de¬
velopment of our race."
All of us know that material wealth is not the test of highest
development and manhood. Yet, inasmuch as this highest
development is dependent on the material foundation, the
man who lays that foundation is as great a benefactor to the
race as that man or generation that will in the end present
that final gift, which shall yield the rich, ripe fruit of the
emotions and the soul—the consummation of those aspira¬
tions that look beyond material things to the things that are
abiding and eternal. In some such noble form as this the
vocation of the business man presents itself to me; and were
I a vender of peanuts or an owner of a mill, I should feel
that I, along with preachers and teachers and the rest of the
saints, was doing God's service in the cause of the elevation
of my people.
III. THE NEED OF NEGRO MERCHANTS.
(Abstract of paper submitted by Miss Hattie G. IJscridge, N, '98.)
One way, I think, toward the solution of the much-talked-
of Negro problem is for us to enter into business. Let us
keep our money among ourselves. Let us spend our money
with each other. Let us protect each other as the other
races do.
Every Negro who successfully carries on a business of his
own, helps the race as well as himself, for no Negro can rise
without reflecting honor upon other Negroes. By Negroes
sticking together and spending whatever they have to spend
with their own race, soon they would be able to unite and
open large, up-to-date, dry goods, millinery, hardware and
all other establishments as run by their white brothers,
thereby giving employment to hundreds who otherwise have
nothing to do. All the young people who are graduating
from our schools to-day, cannot be school teachers andpreachers.
Of course, education is used in^all avocations of life, but
it looks like a loss of time to spend a number of years in
148
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
school, to do just what any common laborer has to do. The
Negro has helped to make rich every race on earth but his
own. They will walk three blocks or more to trade with a
white man, when there is a Negro store next to their door.
They say the Negro does not have as good material as the
white man. In all cases that is not true, for they have both
bought from the same wholesale grocer and have the same
material. If there is any difference, give the advantage to
the Negro, for he is doing no more than the white merchant
has done before. If there are weak points in the race, we
should help to make them strong. It will be only by our
coming together that we shall ever succeed. The different
commodities that are brought into market by the Negro could
be disposed of with the Negro merchants and by bartering as
they do with the white merchants, benefit themselves and
aid the Negro merchant, and thereby the farmer and the
grocer would be building each other up and giving strength
financially to both.
IV. NEGRO BUSINESS MEN OF COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA.
(Paper submitted by Mr. H. I,indsay.)
Columbia has a population of over twenty thousand people,
half of these being colored. The Negroes here, as in most
Southern cities and towns, are well represented in the vari¬
ous mechanical trades. As to what they are doing in busi¬
ness can best be understood from the following:
We have about twenty-five grocery, dry goods and cloth¬
ing stores in the city, varying in size from the little subur¬
ban shop, with its assortment of wood and shelf goods, to the
well-stocked and neatly kept store, whose only difference
from other stores is the color of its clerks.
Possibly the business that represents the largest outlay of
capital is conducted by Mr. I. J. Miller, the clothier. His
store is located in the heart of the business center of the city.
Besides giving his business his strict personal attention, he
is aided by three clerks.
IN HISTORY, AND IX CITIZENSHIP.
149
During last fall his estimated stock was $10,000 at one
time. Mr. Miller, about fifteen years ago, commenced this
enterprise with scarcely a shelf of goods; through toil and
perseverance he has succeeded in establishing a business
that not only reflects credit upon himself and the race, but
stands comparison with the most favored enterprise of its kind
in the city.
The next I shall mention is the well-known merchant
tailor, Mr. R. J. Palmer. Mr. Palmer, on account of his
thorough knowledge of his business, has for many years been
the recognized leader in his line. He occupies his own build¬
ing, valued at eight thousand dollars; it is located in one of
the best business blocks in the city.
He carries in connection with his tailoring business a
complete line of clothing and gents' furnishings—his stock
representing some thousands of dollars. He visits the north¬
ern markets as often as twice a year to select his stock.
The enterprise of which I have the honor to be head is
younger than the two mentioned above, and much the junior
of many other enterprises of the race here, and we feel in¬
deed gratified at occupying even third place.
Our enterprise is a grocery and provision store, with one
branch business at its old stand, near the western suburbs.
I was placed in charge of the business before reaching my
maturity, and since completing a normal course at Allen
University in 1892, I have devoted my entire attention to its
management.
Our beginning was certainly humble. We opened up with
a few dozen canned goods, wood, etc.; our stock valued at
about forty dollars. In five years' time we made three addi¬
tions to our building, and out of a little shop had grown a
general merchandise store, where we sold from a paper of
pins to a suit of clothes, from a pound of bacon to a barrel of
flour. We conduct our business with five clerks and a de¬
livery with each store.
Some of the other enterprises worthy of mention are Mr.
150
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
J. P. Kvans, grocer, Mrs. Caroline Alston, dry goods, Mr.
Richard Bell, grocer.
Mr. Evans lias been conducting his business at the same
old stand for over twenty years. His patrons are about
equally divided between the two races.
Mrs. Caroline Alston, a lady who conducts a dry goods
store, has met with much success in her more than twenty
years' experience in business, and enjoys the esteem and
confidence of the white race as well as her own.
Mr. Richard Bell, a comparatively young man, has suc¬
ceeded well in his business; and in point of neatness and
cleanliness his store is a model after which any one might
pattern.
We have one drug store, Dr. James J. Leggett, a graduate
of Howard University, in charge; two harness and saddlery
shops; five confectioners; no saloons; seventeen boot and
shoe repair shops; six blacksmith and wheelwright shops; two
butchers; three newspapers, with two job printing offices.
The Peoples Recorder, a paper published and edited by
Holmes and Nix, has a creditable circulation throughout the
State, and is the most influential paper of the three. They
have a creditable job department, in which are employed
several printers.
The next is the South Carolina Standard. J. R. Wilson
is one of its editors. The Standard is a neatly printed
paper; their job department is second to none in the city, as
their work will testify.
The Christian Soldier is a bright little paper edited by
Rev. Richard Carrol, founder of the new orphan home.
We have twenty barber shops; the leading shops are all
colored. We have three lawyers and three physicians: Dr.
C. C. Johnson, Dr. C. L. Walton, and Dr. Matilda
Kvans.
Doctor Evans is an example to all women of our race who
are standing aside and allowing the men to monopolize all
the professions. She has won many friends since her com-
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP. 151
ing to our city, less than two years ago, and has met with
constant success.
We have two undertaking establishments, two mattress
manufactories, three tailoring establishments. Among the
carpenters and brickmasons we have fully a dozen contract¬
ors, many of whom are worthy of mention, being honest
and reliable, and have accumulated wealth. Ninety per cent,
of the carpenters and brickmasons are colored.
Rev. M. G. Johnson represents a building association that
does a majority of the business among colored people. The
above is but a partial list of the many enterprises among the
Negroes of Columbia.
V. THE NEGRO GROCER.
(Paper submitted by W. O. Murphy, '91.)
Were the questions asked, What is at this moment the
strongest power in operation for controlling, regulating and
inciting the actions of men? What has most at its disposal
the conditions and destinies of the world? we must answer
at once, BUSINESS, in its various ranks and departments,
of which commerce, foreign and domestic, is the most appro¬
priate representation. In all prosperous and advancing
communities—advancing in arts, knowledge, literature and
social refinement—BUSINESS IS KING.
N Other influences in society may be equally indispensable,
and some may think far more dignified, but, nevertheless,
BUSINESS IS KING.
The statesman and the scholar, the nobleman and the
prince, equally with the manufacturer, the mechanic and
the laborer, pursue their several objects only by leave
granted and means furnished by this potentate.
These facts were true a hundred years ago, and they are
true to-day; and we as progressive, up-to-date citizens must
push our way in and share the fruits of commercial effort.
Well has it been said that "man is the only animal that
buys and sells or exchanges commodities with his fellows.
10
152
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
Other animals make an attempt, at least, to do every other
thing that men can do except trade; and among them are
types of every profession except the merchant. The beaver,
the bee and the bird can build as well as some of our me¬
chanics; the fox surpasses some lawyers in cunning; musi¬
cians are content to be called nightingales of song; the tiger
is an uneducated warrior; lions are the lords of the forest—but
the merchant who buys from one people to sell to another
has no representative in the animal creation."
Civilization depends upon the activity of the merchant,
who by his zeal and acumen not only supplies the wants of
the trade, but seeks out new products of other climes and
furnishes a new market for commodities more or less unmar¬
ketable in regions where they are indigenous.
So we see that a business man is at once a leader, a servant,
and a benefactor to the community, if he is a thorough busi¬
ness man.
This brings me to my subject, "The Negro Grocer." I
do not know that I can be considered as authority on this
subject, as I am only twenty-eight years old, yet twenty-
seven of these years have I spent in this business; so when
I look backward in the dim past it seems, sometimes, that
I now know less about "The Negro Grocer" in particular,
and business in general, than when I was born a Negro in
business.
There are in the city of Atlanta about six hundred licensed
grocers, of whom forty-nine are Negroes. It has been esti¬
mated that the grocery trade of Atlanta amounts to approx¬
imately $1,000,000 per month, or $250,000 per week.
The population of Atlanta is placed at one hundred thou¬
sand, of whom forty thousand are Negroes; allowing five per¬
sons to each family gives us eight thousand Negro families.
If each family expends three dollars per week for groceries,
and I think such is a fair estimate, we have twenty-four
thousand dollars spent each week by Negroes for Negro con¬
sumption.
IN IHSTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
153
It the forty-nine Negro grocers of Atlanta furnished the
forty thousand Negroes this $24,000 worth of groceries each
week, every one of these faithful forty-nine would have the
pleasure of receiving over his counters nearly five hundred
dollars each week.
You need not ask me, Are they doing it?
In addition to the $24,000 spent each week by Negroes for
Negro consumption, a large sum is spent daily by servants
who in a great measure are able to carry this trade whither
they. will. You need not inquire, Do they take it to the
Negro grocer?
So much for the reality. We all know that the Negro
eats, and eats, not always sumptuously, but certainly, at
times, to his utmost capacity.
We know that these goods are paid for—i. e., most of
them; we also know that these forty-nine Negro grocers do not
sell one-half of the goods purchased and consumed by Negroes
in Atlanta.
Now for "the why."
That is the problem that confronts the Negro grocers of
Atlanta, some of whom, years ago, embarked in business
with no capital save a few dollars, their honest hearts and
their necessities; no established credit; ignorant of most of the
ordinary rules of business—many of them at the start would
not have known an invoice from a bill of lading; with noth¬
ing to guide them but their native shrewdness, and nothing
to save them from disaster save what they might accumu¬
late by the strictest economy.
Yet in spite of all these drawbacks some of the forty-nine
have managed to establish a fair credit and accumulate a few
dollars and a little property.
The need is not so much for more grocers, but for younger
and more intelligent ones; and we are looking to our schools
for suitable material, so as to at least capture the $24,000
spent weekly by Negroes for groceries in Atlanta.
It was this idea that induced me to accept the invitation
154
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
to speak to you on this occasion. I thought I might drop a
word which would be the means of inducing some young man
to make an earnest attempt to engage in some kind of busi¬
ness in Atlanta and help these poor, struggling, hopeful
forty-nine Negro grocers capture that $24,000 spent here
each week by Negroes.
With the same ambition that sustained you in scholastic
efforts; with the same energy and push that prompted you
jn your athletic contests; with the same pride that makes
you prize your degree; with the same love that makes you
boast of your alma mater; with the same economy and fidel¬
ity that actuated your forefathers, and with the same persist¬
ence that controls the forty-nine now struggling in the
grocery business in Atlanta, we can capture our share, not
only of the $24,000 spent by Negroes, but we can have a
fighting chance for the $250,000 spent by Atlanta citizens,
regardless of their race.
VI. A NEGRO CO-OPERATIVE FOUNDRY.
(Paper submitted by Mr. C. H. Fearn, Manager.)
The Southern Stove, Hollow-ware and Foundry Company
was temporarily organized on the 15th day of February,
1897, and was permanently organized and incorporated at
Chattanooga, under the laws of the State of Tennessee, on
August 15, 1897. Our charter provides for a capital stock
of five thousand dollars, to be divided into shares of twenty-
live dollars each, which are sold only to colored people,
either for cash or upon monthly payments, but in no case is
a certificate of stock issued until fully paid for.
The foundry was built and began operations on a small
scale on or about October 27, 1897, and has now increased
and been perfected, until we manufacture stoves, hollow-ware
of all kinds, fire grates complete, boiler grate bars, refrigerator
cups, shoe lasts and stands, and other kinds of castings gen¬
erally made in foundries. We also do a repair business
HON. THEO. W. JONES.
Ex-Member of Illinois Legislature. Successful Business Man, Chicago, Illinois.
156
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
which has now grown nntil it has become a business that
pays well and is one of our chief sources of revenue.
The land, buildings, machinery, and all patterns are fully
paid for except part of the stove patterns, and these we are
paying for in products of our foundry; and we can say that
we are virtually free from debt. Of the capital stock author¬
ized we have sold $1,466 worth, and this has all been used
strictly in equipping the plant; but this sum does not repre¬
sent now the worth of our plant, as all our profits have been
allowed to accumulate and have been used in the business.
By a unanimous vote at the various meetings of the direct¬
ors of the company, it has been decided to draw no dividends
until we shall have a fully perfected plant, and one upon a
paying basis.
Our stockholders, or the majority of them, are active mem¬
bers of the company, and are men who are masters of differ¬
ent trades which are needed to successfully operate a
foundry. We have men who have in the past been the main¬
stays of other foundries—men who for years have followed
the business of pattern makers, moulders, cupola tenders, en¬
gineers, repair workers, stove mounters and blacksmiths.
And we boast that to-day we are fully able to do work that
any other men can do.
The objects in forming and operating the Southern Stove,
Hollow-ware and Foundry Company are many. First, we
believe if we can now invest our capital, together with our
labor, that we will build up a business that will in years to
come furnish us our means of support—a business that we
can increase and build up until we shall look on it with pride
and have the satisfaction to know that we are the owners- and
masters of the same.
We believe that to solve the great problems that confront
us there is no better way for our race to attain the position
it deserves than to become masters of the art of manufact¬
uring. If we as colored men aire able to run and operate the
foundries that are built with the white man's capital, why
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
157
can't we do the same with ours? When other races see that
we are able to become the masters of the different trades and
to employ onr own capital, direct and control our own indus¬
tries, then the time will come that we will cease to be the
serfs, but we will be the brother laborers in the great strug¬
gle of life.
We believe that by establishing foundries and work-shops
by the older men of our race, and the successful operation of
the same, that it will be to the betterment of the young men
of our race. They will follow our example, and, being able
to have a place to learn the higher trades and- to invest the
savings of their labor, it will stop the roving disposition of
our race and make them better citizens. It is our duty to
watch, protect and guide our young men. It is our duty to
establish places where they can learn to be masters of all
trades.
We believe it is our duty to our race to produce as well as
to buy. No race or people can be prosperous who always
buy and never produce. We must make if we expect to own,
and what we make must be for ourselves instead of for
others.
There is no doubt but what the South will be the work¬
shop of the world; and as the South is the home of the
colored man, why can't he own and control the shops?
Gentlemen, I tell you the Southern Stove, Hollow-ware and
Foundry Company is a young plant, but I say it is a suc¬
cess. It today stands out to the world as an evidence that
the colored man can manufacture. Today we are offered
orders that will take us months to complete. We need more
capital, we need more men, and we can say to you that if we
had the necessary capital to operate our plant as it should
be, that we could do the rest and we would show to the world
that the Southern Stove, Hollow-ware and Foundry Cojnpany
was an industry that is not only a pride to our race, but an
honor to the people of the country in which we operate.
We would be pleased to have any one come and inspect
158
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
our plant. It is a worthy enterprise and deserves support.
We believe the time is not far distant when the name of the
Southern Stove, Hollow-ware and Foundry Company will
adorn the lists of the best and most prosperous manufactur¬
ing plants of the United States of America, and then, and
not until then, will the object of this institution be attained.
VII. NEGRO BUSINESS VENTURES IN ATLANTA, GEORGIA.
According to the United States census of 1890 there were
in Atlanta, Georgia, 28,117 Negroes. At present there are
probably from thirty-five to forty thousand. Among this
population the class in sociology of Atlanta University
counted sixty-one business enterprises of sufficient size to be
noticed. These were as follows:
Grocery stores 22 Undertakers 2
General merchandise stores 5 Saloons 2
Wood yards 6 Tailor, with stock
Barber shops, with hired employes Drug store
and over $300 invested 6 Creamery
Meat markets 7 Pool and billiard parlor
Restaurants 2 Loan and investment company
Blacksmiths and wheelwrights, with Carriage and wagon builder
stock 2 Real estate dealer
Total - 61
There are some of the above that combine several busi¬
nesses—e. g., one of the grocery stores has a meat market,
in connection; two others have wood yards; one a coal and
wood yard; and one combines a grocery, restaurant, wood
and coal yard and a meat market. In one of the above men¬
tioned wood yards, coal is also sold; in another there is a
restaurant.
The capital invested in these enterprises is as follows:
GROCERY STORES.
CAPITAL. NUMBER OF STORKS. CAPITA^. NUMBER OF STORES.
$100 1 #500 6
150 1 600 1
200 2 800 4
250 2 1,000 2
300 1 1,275 1
400 1 —
Total 22
Total capital invested - $11,925
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
OTHER ENTERPRISES.
159
, business.
amounts invested.
total.
General merchandise-
Wood yard
Barber shop
Meat market
Restaurant
Undertaker
Blacksmith
Saloon
Tailor
Drug store
Creamery
Pool room
Investment company.
Carriage builder
Real estate
$3,800
500
3,000
500
500
7,000
800
1,500
200
1,900
300
$2,000
500
2,500
200
125
6,000
600
1,200
$1,000
400
2,000
150
$ 500
200
1,800
80
$ 500
150
400
75
$
50
300
75
$
30
.. .
$ 7,800
1,800
10,000
1,110
625
13,000
1,400
2,700
200
1,900
300
1,600
4,000
900
5,000
Total $52,335
This makes a total investment of $64,260 in all busi¬
nesses.
At present three firms have an investment of $5,000 and
oVer; four between $2,500 and $5,000; eleven from $1,000 to
$2,500; twenty from $500 to $1,000; and twenty-three under
$500.
The number of years in business is as follows:
YEARS IN BUSINESS.
business.
UNDER
1 yr.
1-3
yrs.
3-5
yrs.
5-7
yrs.
7-10
yrs.
10-12
yrs.
12-15
yrs.
15-18
yrs.
20-25
yrs.
25 30
yrs.
Grocery,
Gen'l md'se,
Wood yard,
Barber shop,
Meat market,
Restaurant,
Undertaker,
Blacksmith,
Saloon
Tailor,
Drug store,
Creamery,
Pool room,
Inves'nt co.,
Car'ge bldr.,
Real estate,
1
1
2
2
2
3
2
5
3
1
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
2
1
1
1
1
1
2
1
1
1
1
. 2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
Total,
2
8
8 | 7
7
10
8
2
4
2
160 THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
The oldest business is a general merchandise establish¬
ment, twenty-nine years old; next comes a grocery, twenty-
five years old, and two groceries and a barber shop, each
twenty years old.
A comparison of the years in business and the invested
capital is of interest:
under $500.
$500-1,000.
$1,000-2,500.
$2,500-5,000.
$5,000-over.
Under
3 Years.
6
2
2
3-5
3
4
2
5-10
5
8
1
10-15
3
5
5
3
15-20
1
2
20-30
2
1
2
1
The general merchandise store, which is twenty-nine years
old, has $1,000 invested; the grocery store, which is twenty-
five years old, has the same amount invested; contrasting
with these is a grocery with the same investment, three
years old. The two twenty-year-old groceries have, respect¬
ively, $400 and $500 invested; the general merchandise
store, which has the largest investment, $3,800, is fifteen
years old. The undertaking firm, with $7,000 invested, has
been in operation fourteen years, while the $6,000 firm has
been running ten years. Thus we can see that in the main
there has been a growth in capital, due to the saving of profits;
at the same time there are a number of old shops which show
no growth, but continue to live, and there is also evidence
of ability to begin new businesses with some considerable
capital.
Nearly all these investments have grown from very
small beginnings, as, for instance:
capital at start. capita^ at present.
Drug store, $900 $1,900
Restaurant, 50 500
Grocer, 150 600
Tailor, 76 200
Undertaker, 0 7,000
PROF. R. T. GREENER.
Consul to Vladivostok, Russia.
162
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION.
The next question is as to the manner in which these
establishments are conducted, and their special advantages
and disadvantages. Most of them must, of course, depend
primarily on Negro patronage. Of twenty-five firms espe¬
cially studied in 1898, none depended wholly on white trade;
nine had considerable white patronage, and two some white
trade; the rest depended wholly on Negro trade. Much de¬
pends naturally on the character of the business; a drug
store would get white trade only by chance or in an emer¬
gency; a grocery store might get a little transient white pat¬
ronage now and then; wood yard might get trade of both races;
restaurants and barber shops must draw the color-line without
exception and either serve all whites or all Negroes; under¬
takers can serve Negroes only. All these considerations
make, of course, a vast difference between white and Negro
business men. A Negro undertaker in Atlanta is in a city
of 35,000 people, chiefly of the laboring class; a white under¬
taker has a constituency of, perhaps, 80,000, largely well-to-
do merchants and artisans. The white grocer has not only
the advantage of training and capital, but also of a constit¬
uency three times as large and ten times as* rich as his
Negro competitor. Moreover, seventy-five per cent of the
Negro firms are compelled by custom to do business largely
on a credit basis, and, too, have fewer means of compelling
payment. Finally, the Negro merchants, as a class, are
poorly trained for the work. The twenty-five studied in 1898
were educated as follows:
College training 1
Common school education 9
Read and write only 12
No education 3
CHAPTER VII.
The Negro in Business.
(continued.)
IT IS hardly possible to place too great stress on the deep
* significance of business ventures among American Ne¬
groes. Physical emancipation came in 1863, but economic
emancipation is still a long way off. The great majority of
Negroes are still serfs bound to the soil, or house-servants.
Emancipation, in striking off their shackles, set them adrift
penniless. It would not have been wonderful or unprece¬
dented if the Freedman had sunk into sluggish laziness,
ignorance and crime after the war. That he did not
wholly, is due to his own vigor and ambition and the cru¬
sade of education from the North. What have these efforts,
seconded by the common school and, to a limited extent, the
college, been able to accomplish in the line of making the
Freedman a factor in the economic re-birth of the South?
Of the various answers that might be made to this question,
none is more interesting than that which shows the extent to
which the Negro is engaging in the various branches of bus¬
iness. Naturally business, of all vocations, was furthest
removed from slavery. Kven the ante-bellum plantation
owner was hardly a good business man, and his slaves were
at best careless sharers in a monarchical communism, and, at
worst, dumb-driven cattle.
For a Negro then to go into business means a great deal.
It is, indeed, a step in social progress worth measuring. It
means hard labor, thrift in saving, a comprehension of social
movements and ability to learn a new vocation—all this tak¬
ing place, not by concerted guided action, but spontaneously
here and there, in hamlet and city, North and South. To
163
164
THE NEGRO IN RE VELA TfO.V,
measure such a movement is difficult, and yet worth the
trial. We need to know accurately the different kinds of
business ventures that appear, the order of their appearance,
their measure of success and the capital invested in them.
We need to know what sort of men go into business, how
long they have been engaged, and how they managed-to get
a start. Finally, we should know where this economic
advance is being most strongly felt, and what the present
tendencies are.
In the census of 1890, the following Negro business men
are returned :*
Hotel keepers 420 Grocers 1,829
Saloonkeepers 932 Retail merchants unspecified 4,490
Livery stable keepers 390 Publishers 20
Druggists 135
Total 8,216
There are many obvious errors in these returns; the first
three items are greatly exaggerated, without doubt, contain¬
ing many lodging houses misnamed "hotels;" employes in
saloons erroneously returned as "saloon keepers;" and host¬
lers returned as "livery stable keepers." The unspecified
retail merchants also probably include some clerks, hucksters
and restaurant keepers. With some allowances for these'
errors, it is probable that there are in the United States at
least 5,000 Negro business men. Of these the following
study has returns from something less than one-half, living
in thirty different States and Territories, as follows:
TABLE No. 1. NEGRO BUSINESS MEN BY STATES.
Alabama 136 Illinois 23
Arkansas - 94 Kansas 30
California 43 Kentucky 72
Colorado 8 Louisiana 11
Delaware 16 Massachusetts 14
District of Columbia 50 Maryland 49
Florida 78 Mississippi 78
Georgia 324 Missouri 49
Indiana 4 New Jersey 36
Indian Territory 7 New York 80
* Eleventh Census, Population, Vol. II, pp. 355, ff.
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
165
TABLE No. 1. N^GRO BUSINESS MEN BY STATES—Continued.
North Carolina 98 Tennessee 131
Ohio 14. Texas 159
Oklahoma 7 Virginia 105
Pennsylvania 47 Washington 10
South Carolina 123 West Virginia 9
Total 1,906
Condensing this table we have reported from
The North, east of the Mississippi 218 West of the Mississippi 407
The South, east of the Mississippi 1,281
Total _1,906
The valne of this comparison is somewhat spoiled by the
fact that the Negroes in the States of Georgia and Alabama
and the middle Sonth were more thoroughly canvassed than
those in other parts of the country, since the Conference had
more correspondents there. Nevertheless, it is clear that it
is density of Negro population in the main that gives the
Negro business man his best chance.
There were, of course, wide gaps and large omissions in
such an inquiry. Small towns in considerable numbers, and
country stores, were not returned, and many minor enter¬
prises in larger towns. Of the large cities, the most import¬
ant omission was the city of New Orleans. With the latter
exception it would seem, after careful inquiry, that the re¬
turns represent fully seventy-five per cent, of the more import¬
ant business enterprises among Negroes, and consequently
give a fair picture of their economic advance in this line.
The term "business man" in this study has been inter¬
preted to include all with stocks of goods to sell, and also all
other persons who have at least $500 of capital invested; for
instance, while the ordinary barber should be classed as an
artisan, a man with $500 or more invested in a shop, with
several hired assistants, is a capitalist rather than an artisan,
and one hundred and sixty-two such men have been classed
as business men. So, too, it seemed best to include thirty-
one blacksmiths and wheelwrights who had considerable
capital invested and kept stocks of wagons or other goods on
166
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
sale. In several other cases there was some difficulty in
drawing a line between artisans and business men, and the
decision had to be more or less arbitrary, although the invest¬
ment of considerable capital directly in the business was the
usual criterion.
The different kinds of business reported were as follows:
TABLE No. 2. NEGRO BUSINESS MEN, ACCORDING TO OCCUPATION.
Grocers 432
General merchandise dealers 166
Barbers with $500 or more in¬
vested.. 162
Publishers and job printers... 89
Undertakers 80
Saloon keepers 68
Druggists 64
Restaurant, keepers 61
Hackmen and expressmen, own¬
ing outfits 53
Builders and contractors 48
Dealers in meat 47
Merchant tailors 40
Dealers in fuel 27
Dealers in real estate 36
Wagon makers and blacksmiths.. 32
Hotels 30
Green grocers, dairymen, etc 30
Livery stable keepers 26
Confectioners 25
Caterers 24
Plumbing, tinware and hardware
shops 17
Shoe dealers and repairers 17
Fish dealers 15
Furniture dealers 13
Building and loan associations.... 13
Jewelers 11
Market gardeners and planters.... 11
Clothing dealers 10
Wall paper and paint shops 10
Bakers, with shops 10
Dry goods dealers 9
Cotton gin proprietors 9
Steam laundries 8
Proprietors of machine shcps 8
Miscellaneous, undesignated
Cigar manufacturers
Photographers
Brokers and money lenders.
Dealers in feed
Dealers in fruit
Milliners
Banks
Second-hand stores
7
6
5
4
4
Harness shops 4
Employment agencies 4
Florists 4
Crockery stores 4
Carpet cleaning works 4
Upholstering shops 3
Hair goods stores 3
Lumber mills 3
Cleaning and dyeing shops 3
Brick contractors. 3
Dealers in cotton 3
Ice-cream depots 2
Wire goods manufacturers 2
Dressmaking shops 2
Private cemeteries 2
Bicycle stores 2
Mechanics with shops 2
Shirt factory
Toilet supply shop
Broom manufactory
Cotton mill
Assembly hall
Naval stores dealer
School of music
Fan manufactory
Carpet manufactory
Handle factory
Rubber goods shop
Book store
82
Total 1,906
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
167
It must be remembered in scanning these figures, that on
most lines of business here reported, only establishments of
considerable size and success have been reported. There are,
for instance, large numbers of ice-cream dealers, pool rooms,
cleaning and dyeing shops, employment agencies, and the
like among Negroes; most of these, however, are small and
short-lived, and only a few well-established businesses in these
lines have been reported. Again, under the method em¬
ployed in gathering these facts, it is hardly possible that the
real proportion between the different kinds of business is
correctly pictured, and there are doubtless large omissions
here and there.
Perhaps the most instructive way of studying these busi¬
nesses would be in the light of their historic evolution from
the past economic condition of the Negro. For example, it
is easy to see how the barber, the caterer and the restaurant
keeper were the direct economic progeny of the house-serv¬
ant, just as the market gardener, the saw-mill proprietor and
the florist were descended from the field-hand. We may, in¬
deed, divide the business men in the above table as follows:
(<2) House-Servant Class.—Barbers, restaurant keep¬
ers, expressmen, butchers, caterers, liverymen, bakers, milli¬
ners, etc.—162.
(b) Field-Hand Class.—Market gardeners, green gro¬
cers, dairymen, cotton-gin owners, florists, lumber-mill
owners, etc.—61.
(c) Plantation Mechanic Class.—Builders and con¬
tractors, blacksmiths, brickmakers, jewelers, shoe dealers
and repairers, machinists, cigar manufacturers, tinners, paper
hangers and painters, harness dealers, upholsterers, etc.—
176.
(</) The Traders.—Grocers, general merchants and
dealers in fuel, fish, clothing, furniture, feed, dry goods,
second-hand dealers—695.
(*?) The Capitalists.—Bankers, real estate dealers,
money lenders, building and loan associations, etc —67.
n
168
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
(/) The Manufacturers.—Makers of shirts, brooms,
fans, carpets, handles, rubber goods and the cotton mill—9.
(g) Co-Operative Efforts.—Undertakers, druggists,
publishers, cemeteries, printers, etc.—189.
([h) Efforts for Amusement.—Saloons, pool rooms,
photographers, bicycle dealers, etc.—101.
No economic development is altogether accidental—pre¬
vious occupation, enforced co-operation, the natural instinct
to barter, and the efforts for recreation, explain among Amer¬
ican Negroes, as among other people, their present occupa¬
tions. Let us take up the classes in order as indicated above.
It is a well-known fact that the aristocracy of the planta¬
tion slaves were the house-servants—those who, for appear¬
ance, ability and intelligence, were selected from the mass
of the slaves to perform household duties at the master's
house. Often such servants were educated and skillful, and
at all times they were the class which, when emancipation
came, made the first steps toward independent livelihood.
The master's valet set up his barber shop in town, and soon
had a lucrative trade; the cook became proprietor of a small
eating stand or restaurant, or, if he was exceptionally effi¬
cient and noted for certain dishes, he became a caterer. It
was in this way that the famous guild of black caterers arose
in Philadelphia. In similar ways, but more slowly, a little
saving of capital transformed the driver into the express¬
man, the coachman into the livery stable keeper, the laundress
into the proprietress of a public laundry. The most suc¬
cessful of these ventures hitherto have been those of the
barber, the restaurant-keeper, the caterer and the express¬
man. There were in 1890 some 17,480 Negro barbers
reported. Most of these were journeymen working for
wages; the rest were largely proprietors of small shops,
either entirely without assistants, or with one helper on Sat¬
urday nights. Neither of these classes would come under
consideration here. There are, however, a number of bar¬
bers, one hundred and sixty-two of whom are reported here,
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
169
and whose actual number may be three hundred or more,
who are really business men. They own large, elegant
shops with costly furniture, hire from three to eight assist¬
ants and do a lucrative business. The one hundred and
sixty-two reported have nearly $200,000 capital invested, as
follows:
Having investment of $ 500 to $1,000 60
1,000 to 2,500 63
" " 2,500 to 5,000 12
" " 5,000 to 10,000 3
Others, over $500 24
Of the restaurant keepers nineteen had from $1,000 to
$2,500 invested, and twelve from $2,500 to $5,000; fourteen
had from $500 to $1,000. The caterers, as a class, are well-
to-do men of intelligence. It is difficult to discriminate in
these cases between their capital and their accumulated
wealth. Their reported capital is:
Having investment of $ 100 to $ 500 L
" " 500 to 1,000 1
" " 1,000 to 2,500 5
" " 2,500 to 5,000 5
" " 5,000 to 10,000 4
" " 10,000 to 50,000 2
Unknown 6
The expressmen and hackmen have considerable business
in several southern cities. The fifty reported had capital as
follows:
Having investment of $ 500 to $ 1,000 8
" " 1,000 to 2,500 16
" " 2,500 to 5,000 20
" " 5,000 to 10,000 9
This whole class represented directly after the war, and up
to about ten or fifteen years ago, the most prosperous class of
Negroes. The caterers, barbers and stewards were leaders
in all social movements among Negroes, and held the major
part of the accumulated wealth. Lately, however, the class
has lost ground. The palatial hotel and large restaurant
have displaced the individual caterer in business, both white
and black; the cab and transfer lines are crowding the single
170
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
hackmen, and in many other lines of work the influence of
aggregated capital has proven disastrous to the emancipated
house-servant. The barbering business has fallen into dis¬
like among Negroes, partly because it had so long the
stigma of race attached and nearly all barbers were Negroes,
and especially because the Negro barber was compelled to
draw the color-line.
The great mass of the slaves were field-hands driven to
the most unskilled kinds of agriculture. This, today,
forms the great unrisen horde of freedmen who swarm in
the country districts of the South, and whose social develop¬
ment and economic emancipation has scarcely begun. In a
few cases some of them own large plantations and have
money invested in cotton gins, plantation stores, market
gardening and shipping to northern markets. Possibly they
might be called business men. Eleven such are so denomi¬
nated in this study, and have capital invested as follows:
Having investment of $ 500 to $ 1,000 1
" " 1,000 to 2,500 2
" " 2,500 to 5,000 2
44 44 5,000 to 10,000 4
«' 41 50,000 and over 1
Unknown 1
Of course this does not take account of those who are
simply large land owners and farmers. These eleven, and
scores of others like them, not reported in this query, repre¬
sent a sort of border class—the first turning of the field-
hand from pure agriculture to something like merchandising.
The green grocers, dairymen, and the like, have gone a
step further and established market stalls or stores for the
sale of the products of their farms. Thirty of these are
reported, which does not include the numerous small huck¬
sters:
Having investment of $ 100 to # 500 7
" 44 500 to 1,000 .. 6
«« 44 1,000 to 2,500 12
" 44 2,500 to 5,000 3
« " 5,000 to 10,000 2
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
171
The other callings which have developed logically from
this class are few in number, and of importance chiefly as in¬
dicating tendencies. The three lumber mills have an aggre¬
gate capital of $10,000, and the four florists, $6,200. Much
future interest attaches to the economic development of the
former field-hand and present metayer. There is, as yet, no
trace of house industries or domestic manufactures of any
sort, although it would seem that, theoretically, the eco¬
nomic hope of the black South lies there.
The elite of the field-hands were the slave mechanics—a
class which, in some respects, rivaled the house-servants in
importance. During slavery they were the artisans of the
South, and although emancipation brought the severe com¬
petition of better trained mechanics, and complicated the sit¬
uation by drawing the color-line, still Negro mechanics
continue to do a large amount of work in the South. More¬
over, some, by saving money, have become capitalists on a
considerable scale; especially is this true of carpenters and
builders. It is difficult to estimate the invested capital of a
contractor, as it varies so from job to job and from season to
season. Forty-one contractors are reported, as follows:
Having investment of $ 500 to $ 1,000 10
" " 1,000 to 2,500 14
" " 2,500 to 5,000 4
" « 5,000 to 10,000 8
" " 10,000 to 50,000 6
One large brickmaker has $10,000 invested. The tin
shops usually have small investments, under $2,500. Three
have over $5,000. The eleven jewelers are watch and clock
repairers with small stocks of goods. They have sums vary¬
ing from $100 to $5,000 invested. Nearly all the other voca¬
tions mentioned as belonging to this class have small capital,
and are but a step removed from the journeyman mechanic.
The shoemaking business some years ago had a consider¬
able number of large enterprises making shoes to order.
The ready-made machine shoe has driven all but a few of
these shops out of business, leaving only the small repair
172
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
shops. A few of the older shops, of which six are reported,
still do a large custom business, and to these are now being
added regular shoe stores, of which eleven are here reported.
The great industrial schools are trying to make these enter¬
prises, and the mechanical industries whence they sprung,
their especial field of work and, eventually, their efforts will
undoubtedly bear fruit. As yet there is, however, little
trace of this movement.
So far we have considered three great classes of business
venture, the logical origin of which is plainly seen in the
house-servant, the field-hand and the slave mechanic. Of
course this does not say that every individual green grocer
was a field-hand before the war, or every barber a house-
servant. It merely serves as a rough • indication of a social
evolution, and is true when applied to the great mass of the
Negroes.
We now come to the traders—the merchants proper. The
African Negro is a born trader, and despite the communism
of the slave plantation, considerable barter went on among
the slaves, and between them and the whites. The Negroes,
under the better class of masters, enjoyed apeculium earned
by working overtime, and expended as they wished. In
some cases they owned quite a little property and were
able to buy their freedom. In most cases they merely kept
themselves in a little pocket money.
While trade and property were not unknown to slaves,
yet the Negro merchant is distinctly a post-bellum institu¬
tion. The Negro grocery and general merchandise store is
the direct descendant of the "store-house" on the old plan¬
tation, where the "rations" were distributed every Saturday
to the assembled slaves. After emancipation these "rations"
became "supplies" advanced to. the black tenant, and the
"store-house" developed into a store with a variety of goods.
Finally, merchants outside the plantations began to furnish
supplies for the various plantations round about. In this
development the Negro who had saved a little capital was
HON. E. H. MORRIS.
Grand Master Colored Odd Fellows in United States. Richest Colored Man
in Chicago, Illinois.
174
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
easily attracted into the grocery and general merchandise
business; if lie had tenants on his own farm, he set tip a
little store to ufurnish" them. If not, he set up a little
store in town and caught the transient trade of farmers and
laborers. In this way the business has spread until there is
scarcely a town or hamlet in the South which has not its Ne¬
gro grocer. The five hundred and ninety-eight grocers and
general merchants reported here form, therefore, only a
small part of the total merchants thus engaged. The cen¬
sus of 1890, reporting six thousand three hundred and nine¬
teen retail merchants, perhaps approximates the truth.
Combining the grocers and general merchants, we find
that those reported represent a total investment of $1,828,-
243, in sums as follows:
Investment under $ 500 174 32 per cent.
" of 500 to 1,000 164 30 per cent.
" 1,000 to 2,500 171 31 per cent.
2,500 to 5,000 231 7 uer cent
" 5,000 and over 15 j "" " ^
A little less than a third of these stores are small shops
with a few hundred dollars worth of shelf goods bought on
credit. Another third are stores worth $1,000 to $2,500, in¬
vested in a considerable variety of goods. They have Negro
clerks and usually make a good appearance. Seven per
cent, are large ventures. It is a question as to what, under
present conditions, is to be the future of such stores. Cer¬
tainly it would seem that they may form a very important
field of enterprise in the future, especially when the black
peasant becomes emancipated, and the present cry of "Negro
money for Negro merchants" continues to grow louder.
The other merchants deal principally in wood and coal,
fish, new and second-hand furniture and clothing, dry goods,
feed and fruit. Taking the dealers in these eight articles,
we find they have $251,991 invested, as follows:
Investment under $ 500 15
of 500 to 1,000 17
« 1,000 to 2,500 32
« 2 500 to 5,000 13
" 5,000 and over 14
*' unknown 8
IN HISTORY; AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
175
It would seein probable that we miglit expect a consid¬
erable increase in these minor businesses among Negroes in
the future. The great drawback is the little knowledge of
business methods among Negroes. Their whole training,
their idealistic temperament, is against them. Moreover, it
is difficult to overcome these defects, because it is so hard to
get openings for Negro youth to learn business methods.
Bven in the North how many firms stand ready to allow a
bright black boy to come into their counting rooms and learn
the difficult technique of modern commercial life?
It is a difficult thing for those unused to the notion of
property to learn to save. Moreover, the national crime per¬
petrated in the mismanagement of the Freedman's Bank had
wide-spread influence in discouraging the saving habit. As
it is today, there is not among all these millions any far-
reaching movement to encourage or facilitate saving except
such local efforts as have arisen among themselves. While
their extravagance and carelessness in the expenditure of
their incomes is characteristic of the race, and will be for
some time, yet there is some considerable saving even now,
and much money is invested. Land and houses are natur¬
ally favorite investments, and there are a number of real
estate agents. It is difficult to separate capital from accu¬
mulated wealth in the case of many who live on the income
from rents or buy and sell real estate for a profit. Thirty-six
such capitalists have been reported, with about $750,000 in¬
vested. There are four banks—in Washington, D. C.;
Richmond, Virginia; and Birmingham, Alabama; and sev¬
eral large insurance companies which insure against sickness
and death, and collect weekly premiums. There are a num¬
ber of brokers and money lenders springing up here and
there, especially in cities like Washington, where there is a
large salaried class.
The most gratifying phenomenon is the spread of building
and loan associations, of which there are thirteen reported:
176
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-
Washington, D. C
Hampton, Virginia
Ocala, Florida
Sacramento, California ....
Wilmington, North Carolina.
Augusta, Georgia
Little Rock, Arkansas
Portsmouth, Virginia
Anderson, South Carolina
3
1
1
1
1
2
1
1
1
1
There are probably several more of these associations not
reported. The crying need of the future is more agencies to
encourage saving among Negroes. Penny savings banks
with branches in the country districts, building and loan asso¬
ciations and the like would form a promising field for philan¬
thropic effort. The Negroes, themselves, have as yet too
few persons trained in handling and investing money. They
would, however, co-operate with others, and such movements
well-started would spread.
If the general training of the Negro was unfavorable to
general business enterprise, it was even more ill-suited to
imparting the technical knowledge which the manufacturer
needs. It will, therefore, be many years before the Negro
will enter this field. Still, there are even now some inter¬
esting ventures which must be regarded as experiments.
There is the Coleman Cotton Mill, spoken of in the Atlanta
University Publications, No. 4. During the past year ma¬
chinery has been installed, but the mill has not yet started.
The foundry described among the contributed papers is small
but successful, and looks as though it might survive. There
are several broom factories, one of which is reported here,
and a number of minor manufactures which partake some¬
thing of the nature of handicrafts. As yet there is little or
no trace of house industries. Here is another field for phi¬
lanthropic effort. If, throughout the South, the Negro
peasant proprietor could eke out the scanty earnings of the
farm by home manufactures, it would solve many vexed prob¬
lems: it would establish the country home, elevate the Ne~
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
177
gro womanhood from the rough work of the field, lessen
the temptation to migrate to cities and decrease idleness
and crime. Lack of profitable congenial occupation for
the rising middle class of Negroes is the central economic
problem of the South to-day, and house industries would, in
a measure, solve it.
Under co-operative effort have been grouped a number of
business ventures whose existence is due primarily to the
peculiar environment of the Negro in this land. Segregated
as a social group, there are many semi-social functions in
which the prevailing prejudice makes it pleasanter that he
should serve himself if posssble. Undertakers, for instance,
must come in close and sympathetic relations with the family.
This has led to Negroes taking up this branch of business,
and in no line have they had greater success. Twenty-three
of those reported had over $5,000 capital invested, and there
are, in fact, many more than this. Probably $500,000 is in¬
vested by Negroes in this business. Then, too, the demand
for pomp and display at funerals has compelled these under¬
takers to equip their establishments unusually well. In
Philadelphia, Baltimore, Atlanta and other cities there are
Negro undertaking establishments equal in most of their ap¬
pointments to the best white establishments. The advent of
the Negro physician and undertaker naturally called for the
drug store. Sixty-four drug stores are reported; forty-seven
of which have over $1,000 invested. They are especially
popular in the South for the social feature of the soda fount¬
ain and for their business partnership with sick benefit soci¬
eties. They are usually neat and well conducted, and are a
favorite venture for young Negro physicians. There are
many private cemeteries owned by companies and societies,
only two of which are reported here. They arose from the
color-line in burial and the poor condition of the public
burial grounds for colored people. Finally, a demand for
news and books among themselves has led to the establishment
of many hundred newspapers, of which over a hundred still
178
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
survive, and to three or four publishing houses. The more
successful publishing houses are connected with the large
Negro church organizations, as the African Methodist at
Philadelphia and Nashville; the Methodist Zion at Charlotte,
North Carolina; and the Baptist at Nashville. These pub¬
lish denominational literature, papers and books. They own
four buildings in all, and the largest has a plant valued at
$45,000. There are some other small publishing establish¬
ments of no great importance. The newspapers are dealt
with in another place.
These enterprises are peculiar instances of the "advantage
of the disadvantage"—of the way in which a hostile envi¬
ronment has forced the Negro to do for himself. On the
whole he has begun to supply well some of the needs thus
created.
Efforts to supply the large social demand for recreation
and amusement are a large part of the co-operative efforts
noted above. The Negro church has, until recently, been the
chief purveyor of amusement to the mass of Negroes, and even
now it supplies by far the larger part of social intercourse
and entertainment for the masses. At the same time there
is a large unsatisfied demand for recreation natural to a
light-hearted people who work hard. The saloon and the
pool room supply a part of this demand, and of the sixty-
eight saloons reported, fifty-four have over $1,000 invested.
The abuse of alcoholic liquors is not one of the especial
offenses of the Negro, and yet he spends considerable in this
way, especially during the Christmas holidays. The saloon
among these people, even more than among the Irish and
other city groups, is a distinct social center. In the country
towns of the black belt, the field-hands gather there to
gossip, loaf and joke. In the cities a crowd of jolly fellows
can be met there and in the adjacent pool rooms. Conse¬
quently, the business has attracted Negroes with capital, in
spite of the fact that the Negro church distinctly frowns on
the vocation, which means some social ostracism for the
IN HISWRY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
179
liquor dealer. Next to saloons in importance come the
traveling Negro vaudeville shows. None of these are re¬
ported here, for having no permanent headquarters they
were difficult to reach; but there are known to be some three
or four successful companies of this sort traveling about the
country. Most of them are compelled to have white man¬
agers in order to get entree into the theaters, but they are
largely under Negro control, and represent a considerable
investment of Negro capital. Other caterers to amusements
are the bicycle dealers, photographers and the like.
There is a large field for development here, and for con¬
siderable education and social uplifting. Few people, for
instance, have stronger dramatic instincts than Negroes,
and yet the theater is almost unknown among them. Much
could be done to elevate and enlighten the masses by a
judicious catering to their unsatisfied demand for amuse¬
ment. *Here is a chance for philanthropy and five per cent,
for black and white capitalists.
Compared with the immense sums of money invested in
American business enterprises, the showing of the Negro
race seems very meager; but when one considers that Negro
business has all grown up since emancipation, and the
poverty and lack of training of the freedmen—they had
nothing when they received their freedom—the saving and
investment by Negroes of six or eight millions in business
enterprises, managed by themselves, is a very creditable
accomplishment. Seventy-nine per cent, of this investment
is in sums less than $2,500, which shows the popular char¬
acter of the business movement. It is a significant fact that
of the twelve enterprises having an investment of $50,000
or over, more than half are in the South.
The figures here given deal with those enterprises only
that are managed wholly by Negroes. Wealthy Negroes,
North and South, invest largely in enterprises conducted by
whites, as, of course, Negro business ventures have not yet
reached a point where they attract the capitalist.
180
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
The next question of interest is how long the different
enterprises reported have been in existence, and what the
average age of each business venture is.
Of all the businesses reported, 32 per cent, have been
established one year or less; 16 per cent, from one to three
years; 14.7 per cent, from three to five years; 24.9 per cent,
from five to ten years; 25.9 per cent, from ten to twenty
years; 11.8 per cent, from twenty to thirty years; 3.5 per
cent, for thirty years or more.
Those enterprises that show the longest average estab¬
lishment (over fifteen years) are those kinds of business to¬
ward which the freedmen most naturally turned, viz., barbers,
caterers, building contractors, market gardeners and flor¬
ists.
Next comes those established more than ten and less than
fifteen years: Real estate dealers, grocers, undertakers,
building and loan associations, fuel dealers, expressmen,
hardware, green grocers, butchers, clothiers, bakers, jewelers
and dealers in hair goods.
These represent most of the successful businesses which
are enterprises of the freedmen's sons rather than the ex-
slaves themselves. Those businesses toward which capital
has but recently turned are, among others: General mer¬
chandise, saloons, banks and insurance societies, publishing
houses, newspapers, drug stores, hotels, dry goods stores,
shoe stores, confectionery stores, photograph galleries, etc.
Businesses like the grocery business, conducting restaur¬
ants, fish dealing, tailoring, second-hand stores and the
like, have a large number of both old and new ventures.
On the whole, then, it may be said that the tendency is to
venture more and more boldly into the purely commercial
lines where capital and experience are the determining fac¬
tors, and where a severe test of the Negro's ability to enter
modern competitive business life will be made.
A closer study of the geographical distribution of Negro
business is instructive.
PROF. I. GARLAND PENN.
182
THE NEGRO IN RE VELA T10N,
Cities having twenty or more Negro riiercliants are as
follows:
Birmingham, Alabama, thirty-two; Mobile, Alabama,
twenty-five; Montgomery, Alabama, twenty; Little Rock,
Arkansas, forty-two; Washington, District of Columbia,
forty-nine; Atlanta, Georgia, fifty; Savannah, Georgia,
thirty; Macon, Georgia, twenty-seven; Louisville, Kentucky,
thirty-five; Baltimore, Maryland, thirty-one; Vicksburg,
Mississippi, twenty-one; New York City, New York, sixty-
three; Wilmington, North Carolina, twenty; Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, forty-five; Charleston, South Carolina, fifty-
eight; Nashville, Tennessee, forty-five; San Antonio, Texas,
twenty-four; Houston, Texas, thirty-seven; Richmond, Vir¬
ginia, twenty-eight.
Washington, District of Columbia, is the capital of Negro
population of America, even more than of the whites, and
here in most directions one can see the Negro's best develop¬
ment. At the same time, sharp competition and lack of
capital have made development in business enterprise here
slow. The forty-nine business houses have an investment
of $146,200. There are two having $15,000 each invested,
four having $10,000 each and ten having $5,000 or over.
An eleven-year-old confectionery store is a large and com¬
plete establishment. A book store makes a specialty of rare
editions and bindings. One newspaper has fifteen persons
on its pay-roll, and the largest hotel has eighteen well-fur¬
nished bed-rooms, dining and reception-rooms and steam
heat.
With this one may compare the situation in Houston,
Texas, in the far Southwest, where there are thirty-seven
merchants, with an invested capital of $309,250. Here
one business, a real estate broker, has a capital of
$75,000, another real estate dealer, $50,000 and a third,
$40,000. One business has a capital of $15,000, one with
$14,000, one with $12,000, two with $10,000 and ten with
from $5,000 to $8,000.
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
183
In Richmond, Virginia, there are two insurance and bank¬
ing houses, one having a capital of $135,000; the other,
$75,000.
In Kansas City, Kansas, the coal and wood dealers do a
business of $2,000 a month, and the drug store of $500 a
month. A hall rents for $50 a month, and there is a daily
paper.
At Griffin, Georgia, a barber has $2,700 of assessed
property; a liveryman, $18,000 and a dairy, $6,000. The
last business is co-operative, and is managed by a society.
It has been very successful so far.
From a border state comes this report for one of the smaller
cities:
At Lexington, Kentucky, there is a well-conducted drug
store which keeps the proprietor and one clerk busy. A
contractor employs thirty or forty men, and has handled
some large contracts, among others, the new county court¬
house, which cost $20,000. An agricultural society holds
annual fairs, which are largely attended. One of the under¬
takers is very successful and does a large business.
The following report has especial interest, as the town is
composed entirely of Negroes, and is governed by them from
the mayor down:
NEGRO MERCHANTS OF MOUND BAYOU, MISSISSIPPI.
KINDS OP BUSINESS.
Years in
Business.
Capital
Invested.
Assessed
Real IJstate.
General merchandise
Merchandise and ginning
General merchandise
General merchandise
10
8
2
8
3
7
10
$5,000
1,000
300
150
750
150
1,000
$ 3.000
2000
500
800
Merchandise and blacksmith
Merchandise and saw mill
800
10.000
It has been said that the southern Negro has made little
or no progress since the war. The following facts contradict
this statement:
At Wilmington, North Carolina, Negroes hold $500,000
in real and personal property; own fifteen churches, five of
12
184
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
which are worth $90,000; own two public halls worth $20,000,
and have four physicians and four lawyers.
The Negro merchants of Mobile, Alabama, have a capital
invested of $49,500.
Charleston, the metropolis of South Carolina, has more
Negro business men than any other city, and the capital in¬
vested is $203,500, including one $100,000 truck farm, and
several other establishments with more than $20,000 capital.
For a small place, Americus, Georgia, has a good repre¬
sentation of business men.
At Montgomery, the capital of Alabama, are a number of
merchants with large investments. A dry goods store, with
a capital of $8,000, did a business of $35,000 last year—"a
fine store."
Jacksonville, Florida, has a dry goods store that did a
business of $15,000 last year. It employs five women clerks.
The commission merchants do $25,000 worth of business
annually and employ fifteen clerks. The capacity of the
lumber mill is 20,000 feet a day; it sells to northern and
southern markets.
The few Negro merchants who live in the far West make
an unusually good showing. At San Francisco there are
three well-established newspapers. One real estate dealer
has $100,000 invested. There is a fine hair-dressing estab¬
lishment, an expert electrician and a restaurant employing
fifteen persons. The total capital invested is $140,000.
The colored merchants of Seattle, Washington, have
$25,000 invested; Cleveland, Ohio, $35,000; Norfolk, Vir¬
ginia, $30,000; Portsmouth, Virginia, $35,000; Athens,
Georgia, only $2,500 invested, which, however, brings an
average daily income of $100.
The extreme Northeast has its quota of business enter¬
prises. In New Bedford, Massachusetts, which was a center
for fugitive slaves and refugees, the negro tailor employs eleven
men and women. He does the largest business in the city
in refitting men's and women's garments, and makes ladies'
REV. W. W. BROWN.
Founder of G. U. 0. of T. R.
186
THE *NEGKO JN REVELATION,
tailoring a specialty. The majority of lady patrons are of
the best class of people. The largest Negro drug store is
one of the best appointed in the city, and is patronized largely
by the wealthy. It is prominently located. The photog¬
rapher commenced as errand boy, and eventually bought out
the leading photographer in southeastern Massachusetts.
The shoe dealer sell shoes and does a large repair business.
The hair store is the largest in the city. The proprietor of
the second largest drug store is also a large real estate holder.
Beside these merchants there are several conducting business
on a small scale: grocers, newsdealers, restaurant keepers,
clothes cleaners, tailors, expressmen, ice-cream dealers, etc.
This section can best close with one of the curious coinci¬
dences which the rise of the Negro often involves. Not far
from Jamestown, where, in 1619, the first slaves were landed,
is Williamsburg, the quaint old capital of Virginia, one of the
most picturesque of the older American towns. In this place
the largest and in every way the chief general store is a
Negro's, situated on the main broad thoroughfare—the Duke
of Gloucester street—and it commands the patronage of
white and black for miles around. The capital invested in
this store is $40,000.
A few typical cases selected from a list of some two hun¬
dred business men will illustrate the success and difficulties
of this class of merchants. Says one:
UI was born a slave at Petersburg, Virginia, in the year
1845. My early surroundings were the same that nearly all
the race at the South in those days had to face.
After the outbreak of the Civil War the old home lost its
attraction for me. During part of '64 and '65 I was em¬
ployed along with the Thirteenth Ohio Cavalry. In '68 I
came to Baltimore. For eighteen years I was engaged in
the furniture moving business, in which I had some success.
My next venture was to open an upholstering establishment
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
187
ill the fall of '84. Desiring a permanent location I purchased
property, which, with the improvements since added, is now
worth five thousand dollars. Besides my shop, I operate a
storage warehouse in the rear of my premises. I was mar¬
ried in '74. Have one son, who is working at the trade with
me. I regret to say that I am not an educated man. All
the time spent at school would not exceed a week. The
small learning obtained was picked up here and there at odd
times and ways. I learned my trade by first watching me¬
chanics hired to work for me. I have made it a rule to profit
by observation.
"I had but little capital to begin with. I thought it expe¬
dient to proceed cautiously. I had some appreciation of the
importance of building up a reputation, which requires time
as well as work. I made it my aim not simply to get a
customer, bjit to hold him as long as possible. I employed
competent workmen and gave strict attention to all the details.
I planned to deal on a cash basis. Work was paid for
promptly and bills were not allowed to go beyond the time.
I have adhered to this course ever since.
"Considering everything, I think I have had fair success.
I have been able to save some money, and, besides, I can
boast of having obtained creditable footing among men of
business. My shop is never idle. I do not regard quick and
large profits as always indicative of success in business.
The gain that has not integrity and merit to justify it may
be looked upon with suspicion. I have received considerate
treatment at the hands of the white people. The larger part
of my patronage comes from that source. They confide in
my skill and honesty. They visit my store and I am fre¬
quently called to their houses. The contact is friendly, both
parties understanding that it is of a business and not of a
social character.
"Negro business men are situated pretty much as are bus¬
iness men of the other race. What helps or hinders in the
one case has like effect in the other case. We must study
188
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
tlie laws of business. We must demonstrate that we can be
trusted for integrity of conduct and efficiency of Service.
Absolute trustworthiness will go farther than color. Instead
of making our shops and stores a rendezvous for loafers, it
must be understood that business only is in order during
business hours. We must not make the mistake of trying
to give attention to business one-half the day and spending
the remainder in looking after political matters. Negro
business men must have one aim."
A colored jeweler writes as follows:
"I was born on the island of Barbadoes, British West In¬
dies, in the town of Bridgetown. My father was a man in
fair circumstances and was enabled to give his children some
education and provide well for them. Most West Indian
parents have their boys learn some trade after leaving school,
even though in some cases they take a profession afterwards,
the object being to provide them with a means of earning a
living with their hands if they fail to succeed otherwise. So
to follow the bent of my mind—mechanics—I was put ap¬
prentice to a watchmaker, where I spent five years at the
bench, until I had a fair knowledge of the trade. I then
came to this country in the spring of '85, where I have re¬
mained since.
"The popular system of education in the West Indies in my
time was private tuition, especially for primary instruction.
And so I went to several pay schools, and last to a public
school, receiving what would be called here a good grammar
course. Some reading in later life has been of much benefit
to me.
"My first venture was in Kansas City. About four months
after iny arrival in this country I applied for work at some
of the leading jewelry stores of the above city and found out
for the first time that the roads to success in this country for
the black man were not so free and open as those of his
brother in white. So I worked as porter for two years, and
then encouraged by the success of pleasing my friends with
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
189
private work done for them during my leisure hours at my
room, I bought a small frame building, opened a watch re¬
pairing shop and became Kansas City's first Negro jew¬
eler.
1 'With close attention to business, by observing frugality,
and by manifesting a disposition to please my patrons with
courteous treatment and efficient work, I have succeeded, so
;my critics say, 1 well.' I had the misfortune to lose $500
in a bank failure, and the good fortune to have saved enough
to be notated in four figures. The white people I deal with
treat me well. Those whom I do not deal with do not molest
me. I don't know how they regard me.
4'Negro business men are helped by competing with infe¬
rior white businesses and by the prejudice which some white
businesses have to Negro patronage. The average Negro
business man is hindered by his neglect to keep his business
in such a manner as to invite the patronage of the better
class of white and black patrons, and the inability to find
efficient and trustworthy partners in a good business. In
fine, the envy, distrust and lack of patronage of his own race
greatly hinders the progress and success of the Negro bus¬
iness man."
One member of a firm of merchant tailors writes:
"I was born in Huntsville, Alabama, in 1876. My
parents were in comfortable circumstances, and I led a typ¬
ical village boy's life. My father was a brick contractor.
In 189i I left Huntsville, Alabama, and came to this city
and was employed by Mr. Rotholz (white), of the People's
Tailoring Company, and remained in his employ until I
went in business for myself. My partner was born in
Huntsville, Alabama, in 1877. His father was a mattress
maker, and being quite successful was then, and now is, in
comfortable circumstances. He came to Birmingham one
year later than I did and was employed by the same firm,
but resigned to go into business with me.
"I was educated at the city school and the A. and M. Col-
190
7HE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
lege, from which I graduated, at Normal, Alabama. My
partner also attended the same school.
''Having received excellent training from my employer, I
determined to go in business for myself, and after a consul¬
tation with my partner we started our business September
1, 1897. We estimate our business to be worth $3,500.
"Our success is shown by the steady increase of our bus¬
iness. Our motto: Never to promise that which we cannot
fulfill, has made itself felt, and by sticking to it we have won
hundreds of customers. While we have competition in the
form of two more colored and fourteen white establishments
I think we have no cause to complain. Competition notwith¬
standing, we have a fair share of the white patronage. We
are regarded by the whites as respectable, law abiding citi¬
zens and first-class tailors, having been called into court as
expert witnesses on cloth.
"The helps and hindrances of Negro business men are two
extremes; while we have little or no help we have hindrances
ten-fold. The business tact and integrity of a Negro in
business is doubted to such an extent that from his creditors
he gets little or no consideration on his bills, while the
white competitors have their own time. I find there is no
outside help for the Negro in business; it is only his un¬
tiring energy and push, together with the class of work
which he turns out, that speaks for him."
A florist writes:
"I was born in Anne Arundel county, Maryland, ten miles
from Annapolis. I was raised on a farm; my grandfather
and grandmother served as father and mother. When I was
twenty-one years old I came to Annapolis and was employed
by a doctor to drive for him and to serve as waiter-boy.
I married when I became twenty-two years old. I left the
doctor when I was about twenty-four years old and went to
work on the railroad. I soon stopped working there and
went to work at gardening. Soon after I went to work at
flowering.
REV. E. W. LAMPTON.
Financial Secretary A. M. E. Church.
192
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
"I went a little while to night school, but on account of not
being able to hear well and speak plainly, I stopped without
securing an education.
"I was working for a white woman pruning trees and look¬
ing after the garden. One day I picked up a bouquet of
flowers that had been thrown out on an ash-pile. I untied
the seemingly dead flowers and found a rose-geranium which
seemed to have a little life in' it by its smell, and I carried it
home and planted it. It lived and I have been growing
flowers ever since. I have had good success notwithstanding
I have had many drawbacks. I am living off my flowers.
The whites visit my place, buy flowers from me and speak
kindly of me."
A co-operative grocery store gives the following account:
"Four men were the prime movers in the organization of
our company. Only two of these men could be called edu¬
cated. One was educated at Selma University, the other in
a northern college. They were helped some by their parents,
but depended mostly on themselves for their education.
"We started with about one hundred dollars in a grocery
business. We were moved to organize the company, which
is chartered, by talking over the duty of the fathers to open
business for their children as well as to educate them.
"We have good success. The whites regard us as a worthy
business organization. The wholesale men honor our orders
right along.
"The idea is now becoming general that the Negro must
unite and rise, or remain down. This is a great help to
Negro business. The crop lien system is a great hindrance
to Negro business. Exclusion from the commercial clubs is
another; imperfection in the knowledge of keeping a first-
class set of books is also a great hindrance. The lack of
confidence in each other is the greatest hindrance."
A dry goods merchant writes:
"I was born in Lowndes county, Alabama, June 15, 1867.
I left there in 1880 and have beeu a citizen of Montgomery
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP. 193
ever since. I Have worked 011 a farm, in a saw mill and on
a railroad previous to engaging in my present business.
"I was educated in the common schools of Lowndes and at
a private night school since settling in Montgomery.
" After working for several years in the dry goods business
I felt that there was a good opening for colored men along that
line; so I left my employer and rented a small store on one of
the principal streets. After paying the first month's rent in
advance and giving notes for the balance I found that I had
spent one-third of my capital. The balance went for goods.
"My success has been all that could be expected. The
whites regard me just as they do any other business man, as
far as I am able to judge.
"The Negro business man having once gained the confi¬
dence of the people will obtain patronage in direct proportion
to his business ability."
A successful lumber merchant writes:
"I was born in Monmouth county, New Jersey, in 1862.
of parents in extremely humble circumstances. I attended
public school about twelve months of my life. I could read
and write when I left school, iu 1874. I had to work for a
livelihood and not attend school. My father was a white man
and died in the Civil War a few months before I was born.
I was reared on a farm. I came to Florida thirteen years
ago. I did not have three dollars in cash when I arrived
here. I did not have a friend or acquaintance in this state.
I hewed cross-ties for ten cents apiece. I have laid up no
money. I have spent all I have made in my business.
I own a saw mill and planing mill, grist mill and novelty
works, cost about $6,000 (I have added $1,000 this year).
I own over one thousand acres of land, some improved. I own
eight mules and three horses. The gross earnings of my
business are about $25,000 per year. I had $125 in cash
and had no experience when I began.
"I do not consider myself educated, only practically; I am
jny own shipping clerk, chief engineer, blacksmith, book-
13
194
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
keeper, solicitor of work and collector. I do all the best sort
of work. I learned all this in Florida.
uI had $125 in cash and mortgaged my home for $850,
which I paid before it was due. I worked for another com¬
pany as foreman in the woods and hired my work done; at
night I repaired anything that was broken during the day.
"I have more friends among the whites than the colored.
I sell most of my products to whites. They treat me well in
business. I attend strictly to my business. I am plain and
straightforward in my manners and treat all alike, both white
and colored. In my mill both white and colored are em¬
ployed.
"The lack of capital has been my greatest trouble. There
is no discrimination in my business. I aim to equal and
excel in quality of work and material; I furnish good mate¬
rial, well manufactured. I have a splendid trade—at present
I am building two miles of iron track."
An undertaker writes:
"I was born in the city of Galveston, Texas, in 1862.
I followed various occupations. I came to New York at the
age of twenty years and married when I was twenty-two
years old. I now have a large family. I worked in club
houses for many years in New York.
"I had only a common school education. I would advise
every young man to seek, for knowledge, as I find that very
essential in any or every vocation of life.
'' I accumulated a little money with the intention of being
my own master. I was somewhat puzzled as to what busi¬
ness I should select, but finally made up my mind to become
an undertaker. I went to an embalming school and learned
the art of embalming. I am now a licensed undertaker of
New York City.
'' I have been pretty successful. I do very little white work.
I depend entirely on the Negro support. I am the official
undertaker for seven societies. I have been in business one
year and seven months.
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
195
k'I have gained the confidence and respect of the majority
of the Negroes in New York City. Therefore they and self-
respect are the most helpful to me as a business man. The
hindrances are lack of capital and education."
A publisher writes that he was born in Maybinton, South
Carolina, in 1859, and was a slave. At a very early age he
worked his mother's farm, and being the oldest boy he was
obliged to help support her.
In 1870 his family moved to Columbia, South Carolina,
where he entered the public school. He occupied his time
when not in school by doing jobs of work; his uncle being a
member of the South Carolina Legislature, in 1871-2, suc¬
ceeded in getting him the position of page in the legislature.
Afterward he worked for a while in a dry goods store as por¬
ter and in the Columbia Central National Bank as messen¬
ger.
His opportunities for education were few and meager, he
did not enter school until he was eleven years old. Through
many difficulties he pursued with zeal the school training
which he received. He had a great desire to obtain a thor¬
ough education, but was not able.
His intense convictions led him to support all movements
designed to elevate or ameliorate the condition of his peo¬
ple; so he decided in 1894 to go to work with pen and tongue
and arouse the people to action. With a partner therefore
he started the paper known as The Peopled Recorder. He
is also proprietor of a large grocery store known as '' Our
Store," which filled a long-felt want in the City of Columbia.
This store was open for three years when it was moved to
Orangeburg, South Carolina.
The firm is doing a great work in the newspaper business.
The paper is strictly a race paper. It is received in the
homes of the people as a welcome visitor, and there are many
white families who are subscribers.
The Negro in business has many disadvantages to con¬
tend against, especially from the intelligent class of people
if)6
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION.
who regard themselves as the "best class" of Negroes. Ex¬
perience teaches that the poorer class, or what is commonly
called the "common people," are more inclined to support
race enterprises and professional men than the first class
named. The Negro business man scarcely receives any help
outside of his race.
The education of 185 Negro business men was obtained as
follows:
From institutions of higher training 41
From public schools in towns or cities 35
From public schools in the country 32
From grammar schools 15
From normal schools 1 14
From night schools 13
From private instruction 9
From instruction at home 3
With litM? or no education 23
Total 185
This would seem to be a fair sample of the training these
merchants received.
It is of interest to know at what sort of work these mer¬
chants were engaged when they saved enough to enter busi¬
ness, or how else their capital was obtained. To questions
on these points men answered as follows:
Borrowed their capital, 30.
Saved money from work as follows:
Keeping boarders 4 Drayman.. 2 Barber 2 Steward 3
Railroad hand 1 Messenger 1 Miner 1 Teacher 5
Lunch counter 2 Blacksmith .... 1 Bartender 1 Farmer 5
Working at a trade 11 Seamstress 1 Laborer 6 Clerk 4
Government service 2 Fruit stand 1 Porter 5 Peddlers, etc... 6
The following sketch of Col. John McKee shows what an
intelligent and determined Negro can do if he makes the
most of himself and his opportunities.
Col. John McKee was one of the richest colored men in
the United States. He was a Virginia Negro, born free, we
believe, but without even a wooden spoon in his mouth. He
was apprenticed to a brickmaker, ran away to work in a
MAHLON VAN HORN.
U. S. Consul in Danish West Indies.
198
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION.
Baltimore confectioner's, a job much more attractive to a
boy, but was caught by the sheriff and sent back to the brick¬
yard. When he came of age he emigrated to Philadelphia,
and worked in a livery stable, whence he graduated ill to the
employ of a restaurant keeper. As became an industrious
apprentice, he married his employer's daughter, and carried
on the business after his father-in-law retired. He began to
dabble in real estate when still a young man, and made the
bulk of his fortune out of it after giving up the restaurant
business in 1866.
It is said that Colonel McKee owned more than 1,000,000
acres of land at one time.- At the time of his death he owned
from three hundred to four hundred Philadelphia houses,
free and clear, and the value of his estate is estimated at be¬
tween $1,500,000, and $2,000,000. He was the founder and
owner of McKee City in New Jersey. He owned coal and
oil territory in West Virginia and Kentucky and a great
tract of land, more than 20,000 acres, in Steuben county,
New York. In short, he was a real estate operator of wide
interests and striking success. He started with nothing and
died a millionaire, a lesson to colored men.
The number of well-to-do Negroes is increasing visibly.
When a colored man once gets a start and saves enough to
get interested in the game, he is likely to succeed. In spite
of many exclusions and prohibitions there is field enough for
him. It cannot be expected, however, that many men, white
or black, will have the shrewdness and business judgment
that Col. McKee had.
Another colored man who was successful and achieved dis¬
tinction in the line of industrial effort was Alexander Miles,
who was one of the founders of the city of Duluth, and was
afterward at the head of that great fraternal organization
The United Brotherhood.
Before the Civil War there were several Negro men in
northern cities who were prominent because of enterprise and
success in business, of whom we may cite in the single city
In history, and in citizenship.
199
of Cincinnati, Henry Boyd, builder and manufacturer;
Samuel T. Wilcox, grocer; and A. S. Thomas and J. P.
Ball, daguerreotype artists.
The most advanced thinkers and workers among the Ne¬
groes have been giving much thought to the problems con¬
fronting the race.
The following resolutions were adopted by a recent confer¬
ence:
1. Negroes ought to enter into business life in increasing
numbers. The present disproportion in the distribution of
Negroes in the various occupations is unfortunate. It gives
the race a* one-sided development, unnecessarily increases
competition in certain lines of industry, and puts the mass
of the negro people out of sympathy and touch with the in¬
dustrial and mercantile spirit of the age. Moreover the
growth of a class of merchants among us would be a far-
sighted measure of self-defense, and would make for wealth
and mutual co-operation.
2. We need as merchants the best trained young men we
can find. A college training ought to be one of the best
preparations for a broad business life; and thorough English
and high school training is indispensable.
3. Negroes going into business should remember that their
customers demand courtesy, honesty and careful methods,
and they should not expect patronage when their manner of
conducting business does not justify it.
4. The mass of the Negroes must learn to patronize busi¬
ness enterprises conducted by their own race when it is pos¬
sible to do so. We must co-operate or we are lost. Ten
million people who join in intelligent self-help can never be
long ignored or mistreated.
5. The business men reported to the conference are to
be congratulated. They are pioneers in a great move¬
ment, and some of them have made a creditable record. We
earnestly ask Negroes—and especially the better class of
thinking Negroes1—to patronize these establishments and
encourage them in every way.
13
200
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
6. The most advisable work for the immediate future
would seem to be:
(a) Continued agitation in churches, schools and news¬
papers, and by all other avenues, of the necessity of business
careers for young people.
(b) Increased effort to encourage saving and habits of
thrift among the young that we may have more capital at
our disposal.
(c) The organization in every town and hamlet where col¬
ored people dwell, of Negro Business Men's Leagues, and
the gradual federation from these to state and national or-
ganizations.
CHAPTER VIII.
Thomas Jefferson and the Negro Julius Melbourn;
A Remarkable Incident.
IT IS well known that the great Father of Democracy was
* opposed to having African slavery perpetuated in the
United States, and that he was hopeful of its early extinction,
even after it was recognized by the constitution of 1787. We
get a more particular view of his position in this matter,
however, and of his opinion of the Negro, from Julius Mel-
bourn's account of a conversation among several eminent gen¬
tlemen whom he met at Jefferson's table in the summer of
1815—and of a private talk he had with Mr. Jefferson a few
days before.
The following statements are taken from a work pub¬
lished fifty-five years ago, entitled "Life and Opinions of
Julius Melbourn, with Sketches of the Lives and Characters
of Thomas Jefferson, John Quincy Adams, John Randolph
and several other Eminent Statesmen." The work was
edited and prepared for the press by a member of congress—
Melbourn and his family being then resident in England,.
where they had been for about twelve years.
This man Julius was born a slave in North Carolina, July
4, 1790, and was owned by a Major Johnson until he was
five years old, when he was bought by Mrs. Melbourn, a
widow living in Raleigh, who educated him, meanwhile
(in 1806), giving him his freedom. After leaving the John¬
son family he came to be known as Julius Melbourn.
Describing his appearance he says : "My hair is curly,
201
202
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
or rather woolly, and my nose is more flattened than is gen¬
erally the case with pure-blooded Europeans." In another
place he said that indeed "his hair was kinky."
In July, 1815, he set out on a tour northward, meaning to
visit Mr. Jefferson on the way, and having a letter of intro¬
duction to him from a lawyer friend, a Mr. Pendleton. "I
had heard Mr. Jefferson so much talked of," he says, "had
read so much about him in the newspapers and so much of
his own writings, of which I was a great admirer, that my
curiosity to see that great man and converse with him was
intense."
When he arrived at Monticello, he was conducted to Jeffer¬
son's study, where he found him sitting at a table covered
with books and papers. "He rose," says Melbourn, "when
I entered and received me with great politeness and apparent
cordiality. I instantly found myself at perfect ease in his
presence. Though he was not, and I presume never had
been, a handsome man, there was such strong evidence of
great intellectual power in his high forehead and the form of
his face and head that I could not fail of admiring him. A
philosophical calmness and a glow of benevolence were so
visibly expressed in his countenance and so distinctly marked
every feature that while he was reading Mr. Pendleton's
letter, and before he had uttered a word, I was charmed with
him and loved him as an old and familiar friend. I suppose
that part of the letter which stated that I was born a slave
and was of African descent excited his curiosity, for he im¬
mediately began a conversation, evidently with a view to as¬
certain the strength of my mind and to what degree it had
been cultivated. He inquired whether I had seen the build¬
ing then lately erected for the University of Virginia, and
said he intended it should be free for the instruction of all.
He expressed his deep anxiety for the improvement of the
minds and the elevation of the characters of 'our colored
brethren,' as he was pleased to call them."
A long conversation then ensued, in which they touched
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
203
upon English and American literature, and discussed Hume,
Montesquieu and John Adams, in connection with govern¬
ment and human rights, in which Jefferson expressed the
opinion that Hume ''finally settled down in the professed be¬
lief that the fitness of things required that an immense ma¬
jority of men should be slaves to a pitiable minority of their
brethren."
Continuing the narrative, Melbourn says: "I remained in
the neighborhood of Monticello nearly a week, and spent a
portion of every day in Mr. Jefferson's library, at his press¬
ing invitation. On Tuesday before I left those quiet and
philosophical shades I received a card from Mr. Jefferson,
inviting me to dine with him in company with a few friends
the next day at 4 o'clock. I went to his house and found
there Chief-Justice Marshall, William Wirt, Samuel Dexter,
of Boston, and Dr. Samuel L. Mitchell, of New York. There
was also there another remarkable man from the North. It
was Elder John Leland, who sent Mr. Jefferson the great
cheese. He was a Baptist minister, who then lived in the
western part of Massachusetts. He was very zealous, both .
as a politician and a sectarian. . . . The Chief-Justice
had come into the neighborhood on some business pertain¬
ing to the university, Mr. Wirt was on his annual visit to
Mr. Jefferson, and Mr. Dexter and Doctor Mitchell, being
on a tour to South Carolina, had so arranged their journey
as on their way to call on the old sage at Monticello. I was
announced as a young gentleman from North Carolina who
had been introduced by Mr. Pendleton, well-known to most
of the persons present."
The author then occupies several pages in describing the
gentlemen present and giving the substance of their remarks
on the appointment of Judge Story to the Supreme Bench,
on law in general, on the conduct of the New England States
during the war then recently ended, and on the relative
powers of the State and Federal governments, at length
touching upon the danger of disunion. When this point was.
204
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
reached, Melbourn says that "Mr. Dexter remarked that he
did not apprehend any danger of a separation of the States
because of any difference of opinion as to the ordinary meas¬
ures of government. The people of every State are strongly
attached to the Union, and to prevent a division both parties
will always yield a little. Public opinion will force leading
politicians into a compromise. But there is one evil from
which I apprehend that dreadful result—I mean slavery in
the Southern States and the slave representation."
"Oh!" said Mr. Jefferson, "dismiss your fears on that
subject. Slavery will soon be abolished in all the States."
"Never," said Judge Marshall; "never by the voluntary
consent of the slave-holding States."
"I regret," replied Mr. Jefferson, "that so attentive an
observer as you are, Chief-Justice, should entertain such an
opinion. I well know that at the time American independ¬
ence was declared no member, either North or South, expected
that slavery would continue as long as it has."
"I can well believe that," said Mr. Wirt, "for they must
have felt that the continuance of slavery was directly adverse
to their declaration that all men are born free and equal," etc.
"But,'' said Doctor Mitchell, "I very much doubt whether,
according to the laws of nature, the Africans are not formed
to be subject to the Caucasian race. From my own observations
I am satisfied that nature has formed an essential difference
between the two races, and much to the disadvantage of the
Negro race." '
Mitchell then described the brain and nervous system, and
pointed out differences in development, size and quality in
the brains of Negroes and whites, and intimated that intel¬
lectual inferiority unfitted the Negro for freedom.
"As regards personal rights," said Mr. Jefferson, "it
seems to me palpably absurd that the individual rights of
volition and motion should depend on the degree of intel¬
lectual power possessed by the individual. I should hardly
be willing to subscribe to the doctrine that, because the
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
205
Chief-Justice has a stronger mind or a more capacious and
better-formed brain than I, he has a right to make me his
slave." He then suggested that different diet, exercise,
climate, occupation and other circumstances might result in
making an immense difference between even two white
brothers, and more marked difference between the offspring
of the two. Then Judge Marshall spoke again. "I do not
mean to advocate slavery," he said. "I wish, from my soul
I wish it was abolished; but when we count on political results
we must look at society as it is. I do not found my opinion
on the perpetuity of slavery upon the natural inferiority of
the Negro." He then adverted to the fact that nearly every
man at the South who had any influence in the elections was
a slave-holder, and argued that our legislators would be
slave-holders or under the influence of slave-holders, and
insisted that the pecuniary influence which would have to
be contended with in an effort to free the slaves could not be
overcome except by force. After arguing on this proposition
for awhile he remarked to Mr. Jefferson:
"You, Mr. President, ascribe too much virtue and benev¬
olence to our people if you suppose the disposition to eman¬
cipate the Negroes is increasing. You must recollect that at
the beginning of the Revolution, Chancellor Wythe and
yourself were deterred from introducing a bill in the legis¬
lature for the abolition of slavery because you became satisfied
that the time had not then come when the public mind was
prepared for the adoption of that measure; but you then
anticipated that it would soon be viewed more favorably
by the community. Your expectations, however, have not
been realized. At this moment I venture to affirm that a
bill for Negro emancipation would meet with prompt and
indignant condemnation. I repeat that interest, pecuniary
interest, will forever prevent the emancipation of the slave
at the South. I do not say that the slave ought not to be
emancipated—I say he will not be emancipated.''
"And I," said Mr. Leland, "say he ought not to be eman-
206
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
cipated. I do not predicate my opinion on the anatomical
discoveries of Doctor Mitchell; but I think the Negroes are
the children of Ham, and, according to the Bible, they are
doomed to be the servants of servants." He then spoke of
his observations, from which he drew extreme conclusions as
to their inferiority and evil propensities. Thereupon Mr.
Jefferson said to him: "I am happy to have it in my power
at this moment to prove to you and Doctor Mitchell, by
ocular demonstration, that the experience of one of you and
the theory of the other have led you to erroneous conclusions.
Look at the young gentleman who sits opposite to you. Mr.
Melbourn was born a slave and is of African descent. He
was emancipated by a pious and benevolent lady, and is now
a man of wealth. He has by his own efforts and industry
cultivated and well-improved his mind—a mind which I
religiously believe, your missionary observations, friend
Leland, and Doctor Mitchell's dissections to the contrary
notwithstanding, is of the first order of human intellects.'7
I was much embarrassed, says Melbourn, at this compli¬
ment from so great a man as Mr. Jefferson, and I presume I
appeared quite awkward. The whole company gazed on me
with astonishment. The piercing eye of the Chief-Justice
in particular was fixed most intently upon me. Mr. Jefferson
then related some part of my history (for I had previously
told him my story), and he animadverted with great severity
on the treatment I had received at Natchez and upon the
laws which legalized that treatment. While he was talking
I perceived Mr. Wirt's countenance several times redden
with apparent indignation. It was now late and I took my
leave; but as I was retiring Mr. Wirt followed me into the
hall, and, taking me by the hand, expressed a desire to
continue his acquaintance with me.
CHAPTER IX.
Among the Southern People the Negro Finds
His Best Friends.
ITHOUT entering into argument to show that the
South is the home of the Negro, and that among
those who understand him best he will find the best field in
which to work out his destiny, we present the series of papers
which constitute this chapter. They are submitted as cor¬
roborative of the remark of Hon. Clark Howell, in his com¬
ment on the character of Booker T. Washington's speech
before the Atlanta Exposition: "It is to the South that the
Negro must turn for his best friends," etc.
In recognition of the American Negro as a factor in the
industrial progress of the South, the Board of Directors of
the great Atlanta Exposition of 1895 invited Washington to
participate in the opening exercises, which he did in an ad¬
dress that received the warmest commendation of thoughtful
men, North and South. As an indication of this we intro¬
duce the address with two letters—one written to the
speaker, the other to a leading New York paper.
i. letter from ex-president cleveland.
Gray Gables, Buzzard's Bay,. Mass. , October 6, 1895.
Booker T. Washington, Esq.
My Dear Sir:—I thank you for sending me a copy of your address,
delivered at the Atlanta Exposition, September 18, 1895.
I thank you with much enthusiasm for making the address. I
have read it with intense interest, and I think the exposition would be
fully justified if it did not do more than furnish the opportunity for its
delivery. Your words cannot fail to delight and encourage all who
wish well for your race; and if our colored fellow-citizens do not from
your utterances gather new hope and form new determinations to gain
every valuable advantage offered them by their citizenship, it will be
strange indeed. Yours very truly,
Grover clyevei,and.
207
208
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION.
II. HON. CLARK HOWELL, EDITOR OF THE "ATLANTA
CONSTITUTION," TO THE "NEW YORK WORLD."
Atlanta, Georgia, September 19, 1895.
To the Editor of the World:—I do not exaggerate when I say that
Prof. Booker T. Washington's address yesterday was one of the most
notable speeches, both as to character and the warmth of its reception,
ever delivered to a Southern audience. It was an epoch-making talk,
and marks distinctly a turning point in the progress of the Negro race,
and its effect in bringing about a perfect understanding between the
whites and blacks of the South will be immediate. The address was
a revelation. It was the first time that a Negro orator had appeared
on a similar occasion before a Southern audience.
The propriety of inviting a representative of the Negro race to par¬
ticipate in the opening exercises was fully discussed a month ago, when
the opening program was being arranged. Some opposition was mani¬
fested on account of the fear that public sentiment was not prepared
for such an advanced step. The invitation, however, was extended
by a vote of the Board of Directors, and the cordial greeting which the
audience gave Washington's address shows that the board made
no mistake. There was not a line in the address which would
have been changed even by the most sensitive of those who thought
the invitation to be imprudent. The whole speech is a platform on
which the whites and blacks can stand with full justice to each race.
The speech is a full vindication from the mouth of a representative
Negro of the doctrine so eloquently advanced by Grady and those who
have agreed with him, that it is to the South that the Negro must turn
for his best friends, and that his welfare is so closely identified with
the progress of the white people of the South that each race is mutu¬
ally dependent upon the other, and that the so-called "race-problem"
must be solved in the development of the natural relations growing
out of the association between the whites and blacks of the South.
The question of social equality is eliminated as a factor in the de¬
velopment of the problem, and the situation is aptly expressed by
Washington in the statement that "in all things that are purely social
we can be as separate as fingers, yet one as the hand in all things
essential to mutual progress.''
The speech will do good, and the unanimous approval with which
it has been received demonstrates the fact that it has already done good.
CLARK Howexl.
E. M. HEWLETT.
Graduate. U. S. Magistrate D.
210
THE NEGRO IN RE VELA TION,
III. MR. WASHINGTON'S ADDRESS.
Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Board of Directors and
Citizens:
One-tliird of the population of the South is of the Negro
race. No enterprise seeking the material, civil or moral
welfare of this section can disregard this element of our pop¬
ulation and reach the highest success. I but convey to you,
Mr. President and Directors, the sentiment of the masses of
my race when I say that in no way have the value and
manhood of the American Negro been more fittingly and
generously recognized than by the managers of this magnif¬
icent exposition at every stage of its progress. It is a
recognition that will do more to cement the friendship of the
two races than any occurrence since the dawn of our freedom.
Not only this, but the opportunity here afforded will
awaken among us a new era of industrial progress. Ignorant
and inexperienced, it is not strange that in the first years of
our new life we began at the top instead of at the bottom;
that a seat in Congress or the State Legislature was sought
more than real estate or industrial skill; that the political
convention or stump speaking had more attraction than
starting a dairy farm or truck garden.
A ship lost at sea for many days suddenly sighted a friendly
vessel. From the mast of the unfprtunate vessel was seen a
signal: (1 Water, water; we die of thirst!" The answer from
the friendly vessel at once came back: "Cast down your
bucket where you are." A second time the signal, "Water,
water; send us water!" ran up from the distressed vessel, and
was answered: "Cast down your bucket where you are."
And a third and fourth signal for water was answered: "Cast
down your bucket where you are." The captain of the dis¬
tressed vessel, at last heeding the injunction, cast down his
bucket, and it came up full of fresh, sparkling water from
the mouth of the Amazon river. To those of my race who
depend on bettering their condition in a foreign land, or who
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
211
underestimate the importance of cultivating friendly rela¬
tions with the Southern white man, who is their next-door
neighbor, I would say: "Cast down your bucket where you
are''—cast it down in making friends in every manly way of
the people of all races by whom we are surrounded.
Cast it down in agriculture, mechanics, in commerce, in
domestic service, and in the professions. And in this con¬
nection it is well to bear in mind that whatever other sins
the South may be called to bear, when it comes to business,
pure and simple, it is in the South that the Negro is given
a man's chance in the commercial world, and in nothing is
this exposition more eloquent than in emphasizing this
chance. Our greatest danger is, that in the great leap from
slavery to freedom we may overlook the fact that the masses
of us are to live by the productions of our hands, and fail to
keep in mind that we shall prosper in proportion as we learn
to dignify and glorify common labor, and put brains and
skill into the common occupations of life; shall prosper
in proportion as we learn to draw the line between the su¬
perficial and the substantial, the ornamental gewgaws of
life and the useful. No race can prosper until it learns that
there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a
poem. It is at the bottom of life we must begin, and not at
the top. Nor should we permit our grievances to overshadow
our opportunities.
To those of the white race who look to the incoming of
those of foreign birth and strange tongue and habits for the
prosperity of the South, were I permitted, I would repeat
what I say to my own race, ''Cast down your bucket where
you are." Cast it down among the eight million Negroes'
whose habits you know, whose fidelity and love you have
tested in days when to have proved treacherous meant the
ruin of your firesides. Cast down your bucket among these,
people who have, without strikes and labor wars, tilled your
fields, cleared your forests, builded your railroads and cities,
and brought forth treasures from the bowels of the earth, and
212
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION.
helped make possible this magnificent representation of the
progress of the South. Casting down your bucket among
my people, helping and encouraging them as you are doing
on these grounds, and to education of head, hand and heart,
you will find that they will buy your surplus land, make
blossom the waste places in your fields, and run your facto¬
ries. While doing this, you can be sure in the future, as in
the past, that you and your families will be surrounded by the
most patient, faithful, law-abiding and unresentful people
that the world has seen. As we have proved our loyalty
to you in the past, in nursing your children, watching by
the sick bed of your mothers and fathers, and often following
them with tear-dimmed eyes to their graves, so in the future,
in our humble way, we shall stand by you with a devotion
that no foreigner can approach, ready to lay down our lives,
if need be, in defense of yours, interlacing our industrial,
commercial, civil and religious life with yours in a way that
shall make the interests of both races one. In all things that
are purely social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet
one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress.
There is no defense or security for any of us except in the
highest intelligence and development of all. If anywhere
there are efforts tending to curtail the fullest growth of the
Negro, let these efforts be turned into stimulating, encour¬
aging and making him a most useful and intelligent citizen.
Efforts or means so invested will pay a thousand per cent,
interest. These efforts will be twice blessed—"blessing him
that gives and him that takes."
There is no escape through law of God or man from the
inevitable:
"The laws of changeless justice bind
Oppressor with oppressed;
And close as sin and suffering joined,
We march to fate abreast.''
Nearly sixteen millions of hands will aid you in pulling
the load upwards, or they will pull against you the load
DANCY, OF NORTH CAROLINA.
Recorder of Deeds, D. C.
214
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
downwards. We shall constitute one-third and more of tlie
ignorance and crime of the South, or one-third its intelligence
and progress; we shall contribute one-third to the business
and industrial prosperity of the South, or we shall prove a
veritable body of death, stagnating, depressing, retarding
every effort to advance the body politic.
Gentlemen of the exposition, as we present to you our
humble effort as an exhibition of our progress, you must not
expect overmuch. Starting thirty years ago with ownership
here and there in a few quilts and pumpkins and chickens,
remember the path that has led from these to the invention
and production of agricultural implements, buggies, steam
engines, newspapers, books, statuary, carving, painting, the
management of drug stores and banks, has not been trodden
without contact with thorns and thistles.
The wisest among my race understand that the agitation
of questions of social equality is the extremest folly, and
that progress in the enjoyment of all the privileges that will
come to us must be the result of severe and constant struggle,
rather than of artificial forcing. No race that has anything
to contribute to the markets of the world is long in any
degree ostracized. It is important and right that all privi¬
leges of the law be ours, but it is vastly more important that
we be prepared for the exercise of these privileges. The
opportunity to earn a dollar in a factory just now is worth
infinitely more than the opportunity to spend a dollar in an
opera house.
In conclusion, .... I pledge that in your effort to work
out the great and intricate problem which God has laid at
the doors of the South, you shall have at all times the pa¬
tient, sympathetic help of my race; only let this be constantly
in mind, that, while from representations in these buildings
of the product of field, of forest, of mine, of factory, letters
and art, much good will come, yet far above and beyond
material benefits will be that higher good that, let us pray
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP. 215
God, will come in a blotting out of sectional differences and
racial animosities and suspicions, in a determination to ad¬
minister absolute justice, and in a willing obedience among
all classes to the mandates of law. This, coupled with our
material prosperity, will bring into our blessed South a new
heaven and a new earth.
IV. HENRY W. GRADY ON THE RELATIONS OE THE
SOUTHERN PEOPLE AND THE NEGRO.
In New York City, on the night of December 22, 1886,
that brilliant and broad-minded young Georgian, Henry W.
Grady, spoke before the New England Society, at its an¬
nual banquet, as follows:
"The relations of the Southern people with the Negro are
close and cordial. We remember with what fidelity for four
years he guarded onr defenseless women and children, whose
husbands and fathers were fighting against his freedom.
To his credit be it said that whenever he struck a blow for
his own liberty, he fought in open battle, and when at last
he raised his black and humble hands that the shackles
might be struck off, those hands were innocent of wrong
against his helpless charges, and worthy to be taken in lov¬
ing grasp by every man who honors loyalty and devotion.
"Ruffians have maltreated him, rascals have misled him,
philanthropists established a bank for him; but the South
with the North protests against injustice to this simple and
sincere people. To liberty and enfranchisement is as far as
law can carry the Negro. The rest may be left to conscience
and common sense. It should be left to those among whom
his lot is cast; with whom he is indissolubly connected and
whose prosperity depends npon their possessing his intelli¬
gent sympathy and confidence. Faith has been kept with
him in spite of calumnious assertions to the contrary by those
who assume to speak for us, or by frank opponents. Faith
will be kept with him in future if the South holds her reason
and integrity. . . . The South found her jewel in the
14
216
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION.
toad's head of defeat [in the Civil War]. The shackles that
held her in narrow limitations fell forever when the shackles
of the Negro slave were broken.
"Under the old regime the Negroes were slaves of the
South, the South was a slave to the system. The old planta¬
tion, with its simple police regulation and its feudal habit,
was the only type possible under slavery. Thus was gathered
in the hands of a splendid and chivalric oligarchy the sub¬
stance that should have been diffused among the people.
. The old South rested everything on slavery and
agriculture, unconscious that these could neither give nor
maintain healthy growth. The new South presents a per¬
fect Democracy, the oligarchs leading in the popular move¬
ment—a social system compact and close-knitted, less splen¬
did on the surface, but stronger at the core; a hundred farms
for every plantation, fifty homes for every palace, and a
diversified industry that meets the complex needs of this
complex age*"
V. GRADY DISCUSSES THE RACE PROBLEM AND THE DUTY
OE NORTH AND SOUTH.
A short time before he died Henry W. Grady was invited
by the Merchants' Association of Boston to join them in a
banquet and discuss the race problem. He delivered on that
occasion a speech so remarkable that it attracted the atten¬
tion of the whole country, and was published in full by
nearly every high-class daily newspaper. When he came in
the course of his address, to notice specifically the race ques¬
tion, he said:
"In 1880 the South had fewer Northern-born citizens than
she had in 1870—fewer in 1870 than in 1860. Why is this?
Why is it, though the sectional line be now but a mist that
the breath may dispel, fewer men of the North have crossed
it over to the South than when it was crimson with the best
blood of the republic, or even when the slave-holder stood
guard every inch of its way?
H. P. CHEATHAM,
218
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
u There can be but one answer. It is the very problem we
are now to consider. The key that opens that problem will
unlock to the world the fairest half of this republic, and free
the halted feet of thousands whose eyes are already kindling
with its beauty. Better than this, it will open the hearts of
brothers for thirty years estranged, and clasp in lasting
comradeship a million hands now withheld in doubt. Noth¬
ing but this problem and the suspicions it breeds hinders a
clear understanding and a perfect union. Nothing else
stands between us and such love as bound Georgia and Massa¬
chusetts at Valley Forge and Yorktown, chastened by the
sacrifices at Manassas and Gettysburgh, and illumined with
the coming of better work and a nobler destiny than was
ever wrought with the sword or sought at the cannon's
mouth.
"If this does not invite your patient hearing tonight—
hear one thing more. My people, your brothers in the
South—brothers in blood, in destiny, in all that is best in
our past and future—are so beset with this problem that their
very existence depends on its right solution. Nor are they
wholly to blame for its presence. The slave-ships of there-
public sailed from your ports—the slaves worked in our fields.
You will not defend the traffic nor I the institution. But I
do hereby declare that in its wise and humane administration,
in lifting the slave to heights of which he had not dreamed
in his savage home, and giving him a happiness he has not
found in freedom—our fathers left their sons a saving and
excellent heritage. In the storm of war this institution was
lost. I thank God as heartily as you do that human slavery
is gone forever from American soil. But the freedman re¬
mains. With him a problem without precedent or parallel.
Note its complicated conditions. Two utterly dissimilar races
on the same soil—with equal political and civil rights—
almost equal in numbers but terribly unequal in intelligence
and responsibility—the experiment sought by neither but
approached by both with doubt—these are the conditions.
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
219
Under these, adverse at every point, we are required to carry
these two races in peace and honor to the end.
* 'I bespeak your patience while, with vigorous plainness of
speech, seeking your judgment rather than your applause,
I proceed step by step. We give to the world this year a
crop of 7,500,000 bales of cotton, worth $450,000,000, and
its cash equivalent in grain, grasses and fruits. This enor¬
mous crop could not have come from the hands of sullen and
discontented labor. It comes from peaceful fields, in which
laughter and gossip rise above the hum of industry, and
contentment runs with the singing plow.
"It is claimed that this ignorant labor is defrauded of its
just hire. I present the tax-books of Georgia, which show
that the Negro, twenty-five years ago a slave, has in Geor¬
gia alone $10,000,000 of.assessed property, worth twice that
much. Does not that record honor him and vindicate his
neighbors? What people, penniless, illiterate, has done so
well? For every Afro-American agitator, stirring the strife
in which alone he prospers, I can show you a thousand Ne¬
groes, happy in their cabin homes, tilling their own land by
day, and at night taking from the lips of their children the
helpful message their State sends them from the school-
house door. And the school-house itself bears testimony.
In Georgia we added last year $250,000 to the school fund,
making a total of more than $1,000,000; and this in the face
of a prejudice not yet conquered, of the facts that the whites
are assessed for $368,000,000, the blacks for $10,000,000,
and yet 49 per cent of the beneficiaries are black children;
and in the doubt of many wise men whether education helps,
or can help, our problem. Charleston, with her taxes cut
half in'two since 1860, pays more in proportion for public
schools than Boston. Although it is easier to give much
out of much than little out of little, the South, with one-
seventh of the taxable property of the country, with rela¬
tively larger debt, having received only one-twelfth as much
220
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION.
of public land, and having back of its tax-books none of the
half billion of bonds that enrich the North, and though it
pays annually $26,000,000 to your section as pensions, yet
gives nearly one-sixth of the public school fund. The South,
since 1865, has spent $122,000,000 in education, and this
year is pledged to $37,000,000 for state and city schools,
although the blacks, paying but one-thirtieth of the taxes,
get nearly one-half of the fund.
"'Go into our fields and see whites and blacks working side
by side; on our buildings in the same squad; in our shops
at the same forge. Often the blacks crowd the whites from
work, or lower wages by the greater need or the simpler
habits, and yet- are permitted because we want to bar them
from no avenue in which their feet are permitted to tread.
They could not there be elected orators of the white univer¬
sities, as they have been here; but they do enter there a hun¬
dred useful trades that are closed to them here. We hold it
better and wiser to tend the vegetables in the garden than to
water the exotics in the window. In the South there are
Negro lawyers, teachers, editors, dentists, doctors, preachers,
multiplying with the increasing ability of their race to sup¬
port them. In villages and towns they have their military
companies equipped from the armories of the State, their
churches and societies, built and supported largely by their
neighbors. What is the testimony of the courts? In penal
legislation we have steadily reduced felonies to misde¬
meanors, and have led the world in mitigating punishment
for crime, that we might save, as far as possible, this depend¬
ent race from its own weakness. In our penitentiary
record sixty per cent, of the prosecutors are Negroes, and in
every court the Negro criminal strikes the colored juror,
that white men may judge his case. ... In the North
the percentage of Negro prisoners is six times as great as of
native whites; in the South only four times as great. If
prejudice wrongs him in Southern courts, the record shows
it to be deeper in Northern courts.
RT. REV, C. H. PHILLIPS.
New Bishop in C. M. C.
222
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
1 'I assert Here, and a bar as intelligent and upright as the
bar of Massachusetts will solemnly indorse my assertion,
that in the Southern courts, from highest to lowest, plead¬
ing for life, liberty, or property, the Negro has distinct ad¬
vantages, because he is a Negro, apt to be overreached, op¬
pressed—and that this advantage reaches from the juror in
making his verdict to the judge in measuring his sentence.
Now, can it be seriously maintained that we are terrorizing
the people from whose willing hands come every year
$1,000,000,000 of farm crops? Or have robbed a people who
twenty-five years from unrewarded slavery have amassed in
one State alone $20,000,000 of property? Or that we intend
to oppress the people we are arming every day? Or deceive
them when we are educating them to the utmost limit of
our ability? Or outlaw them when we work side by side
with them? Or re-enslave them under legal forms, when
for their benefit we have even imprudently narrowed the
limit of felonies and mitigated the severity of law? My
fellow-countryman, as you yourself may sometimes have to
appeal to the bar of human judgment for justice and for
right, give to my people tonight the fair and unanswerable
conclusion of these incontestable facts.
''But it is claimed that under this fair seeming there is
disorder and violence. This I admit. And there will be
until there is one ideal community on earth after which we
may pattern. But how widely it is misjudged! It is hard
to measure with exactness whatever touches the Negro. His
helplessness, his isolation, his centuries of servitude—these
dispose us to emphasize and magnify his wrongs. This
disposition, inflamed by prejudice and partisanry, has led to
injustice and delusion. Lawless men may ravage a county
in Iowa and it is accepted as an incident—in the South a
drunken row is declared to be the fixed habit of the com¬
munity.
" Regulators may whip vagabonds in Indiana by platoons
and it scarcely arrests attention—a chance collision in the
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
223
South among relatively the same classes is accepted as evi¬
dence that one race is destroying the other. We might as
well claim that the Union was ungrateful to the colored sol¬
diers who followed its flag because a Grand Army post in
Connecticut closed its doors to a Negro veteran, as for you to
give racial significance to every incident in the South, or to
accept exceptional grounds as the rule of our society. I am
not of those who becloud American honor with the parade of
outrages of either section, and belie American character by
declaring them to be significant and representative. I prefer
to maintain that they are neither and stand for nothing but
the passion and the sin of our poor fallen humanity. If
society, like a machine, were no stronger than its weakest
part, I should despair of both sections. But, knowing that
society, sentient and responsible in every fiber, can mend and
repair until the whole has the strength of the best, I despair
of neither. The gentlemen who come with me here, knit
into Georgia's busy life as they are, never saw, I dare assert,
an outrage committed on a Negro! And if they did, not one
of you would be swifter to prevent or punish. It is through
them, and the men who think with them—making nine-
tenths of every Southern community—that these two races
have been carried thus far with less of violence than would
have been possible anywhere else on earth. And in their
fairness and courage and steadfastness—more than in all the
laws that can be passed or all the bayonets that can be
mustered—is the hope of our future.
' 'When will the black cast a free ballot? When ignorance
anywhere is not dominated by the will of the intelligent.
When the laborer anywhere casts a vote unhindered by his
boss. When the vote of the poor anywhere is not influenced
by the power of the rich. When the strong and the stead¬
fast do not everywhere control the suffrage of the weak and
shiftless—then and not till then "will the ballot of the Negro
be free. The white people of the South are banded, not in
prejudice against the blacks^ not in sectional estrangement,
224
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION.
not in the hope of political dominion, but in a deep and
abiding necessity. Here is this vast, ignorant and pur¬
chasable vote, clannish, credulous, impulsive and passionate,
tempting every art of the demagogue, but insensible to the
appeal of the statesman. Wrongly started in that it was
led into alienation from its neighbor and taught to rely pn
the protection of an outside force, it cannot be merged and
lost in the two great parties through logical currents for it
lacks political conviction and even that information on which
conviction is based. It must remain a faction, strong enough
in every community to control on the slightest division of
the whites. Under that division it becomes the prey of the
cunning and unscrupulous of both parties. Its credulity is
imposed on, its patience inflamed, its cupidity tempted, its
impulses misdirected, and its superstition made to play its
part in a campaign in which every interest of society is
jeopardized and every approach to the ballot-box debauched.
It is against such campaigns as this, the folly and the bitter¬
ness and the danger of which every Southern community
has drunk deeply, that the white people of the South are
banded together.
"We are challenged with the smallness of our vote. This
has long been charged flippantly to be evidence, and has
now been solemnly and officially declared to be proof of polit¬
ical turpitude and baseness on our part.
• •••• ••••••
"It is deplorable that in both sections a larger percentage
of the vote is not regularly cast, but more inexplicable that
this should be so in New England than in the South. What
invites the Negro to the ballot-box? He knows that of all
men it has promised him most and yielded him least. His first
appeal to suffrage was the promise of forty acres and a mule.
His second, the threat that Democratic success meant his re-
enslavement. Both have been proved false in his experi¬
ence. He looked for a home and he got the Freedman's
GENERAL ROBT. SMALLS, BEAUFORT, SOUTH CAROLINA.
Collector of Customs. A Noted Record.
226
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
Bank. He fought under the promise of the loaf and in vic¬
tory was denied the crumbs. Discouraged and deceived, he
has realized at last that his best friends are his neighbors
with whom his lot is cast, and whose prosperity is bound up
in his; and that he has gained nothing in politics to com¬
pensate the loss of their confidence and sympathy that is at
last his best and his enduring hope. And so, without lead¬
ers 01 organization—and lacking the resolute heroism of my
party friends in Vermont that makes their hopeless march
over the hills a high and inspiring pilgrimage—he shrewdly
measures the occasional agitator, balances his little account
with politics, touches up his mule, and jogs down the fur¬
row, letting the mad world wag as it will!
1 'If the problem be solved at all—and I firmly believe it
will, though nowhere else has it been—it will be solved
by the people most deeply bound in interest, most deeply
pledged in honor to its solution. I would rather see my
people render back this question rightly solved than to see
them gather all the spoils over which faction has cbntended
since Cataline conspired and Caesar fought. Meantime we treat
the Negro fairly, measuring to him justice in the fullness
the strong should give to the weak, and leading him in the
steadfast ways of citizenship that he may no longer be the
prey of the unscrupulous and the sport of the thoughtless.
We open to him every pursuit in which he can prosper and
seek to broaden his training and capacity. We seek to hold
his confidence and friendship, and to pin him to the soil with
ownership, that he may catch in the fire of his own hearth¬
stone that sense of responsibility the shiftless can never
know. And we gather him into that alliance of intelli¬
gence and responsibility that, though it now runs close to
racial lines, welcomes the responsible and intelligent of any
race. By this course, confirmed in our judgment and jus¬
tified in the progress already made, we hope to progress
slowly but surely to the end.
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
227
"The love we feel for that race you cannot measure nor
comprehend. As I attest it here, the spirit of my old black
mammy from her home up there looks down to bless, and
through the tumult of this night steals the sweet music of
her croonings as thirty years ago she held me in her black
arms and led me smiling into sleep. This scene vanishes as
I speak and I catch a vision of an old Southern home, with
its lofty pillars, and its white pigeons fluttering down through
the golden air. I see white women with strained and anxious
faces and children alert, yet helpless. I see night come
down with its dangers and its apprehensions, and in a big,
homely room I feel on my tired head the touch of whtie
white hands—now worn and wrinkled, but fairer to me yet
than the hands of any other mortal woman, and stronger yet
to lead me than the hands of mortal man—as they lay my
mother's blessing there while at her knees—the truest altar
I have yet found—I thank God that she is safe in her
sanctuary, because her slaves, sentinel in the silent cabin
or guard at her chamber door, put a black man's loyalty be¬
tween her and danger.
i'I catch another vision. The crisis of battle—a soldier
struck, staggering, fallen. I see a slave, scuffling through
the smoke, winding his black arms about the fallen form,
reckless of the hurtling death, bending his trusty face to
catch the words that tremble on the stricken lips, so wrestling
meantime with agony that he would lay down his life in his
master's stead. I see him by the weary bedside, ministering
with uncomplaining patience, praying with all his humble
heart that God will lift his master up, until death comes in
mercy and in honor to still the soldier's agony and seal the
soldier's life. I see him by the open grave, mute, motion¬
less, uncovered, suffering for the death of him who in life
fought against his freedom. I see him when the mound is
heaped and the great drama of his life is closed, turn away with
downcast eyes and with uncertain step start out into new and
strange fields, faltering, struggling, but moving on, until
228
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION.
his shambling figure is lost in the light of this better and
brighter day. And from the grave comes a voice saying:
'Follow him! Put your arms about him in his need, even
as he put his arms about me. Be his friend, as he was mine.'
And out into this new world—strange to me as to him, daz¬
zling, bewildering both—I follow! And may God forget my
people when they forget these!
"Whatever the future may hold for them—whether they
plod along in the servitude from which they have never been
lifted since the Cyrenian was laid hold upon by the Roman
soldiers and made to bear the cross of the fainting Christ—
whether they find homes again in Africa, and thus hasten
the prophecy of the psalmist, who said, 'And suddenly
Ethiopia shall hold out her hands unto God'—whether for¬
ever dislocated and separated they remain a weak people
beset by stronger, and exist, as the Turk, who lives in the
jealousy rather than in the conscience of Europe—or whether,
in this miraculous republic, they break through the caste
of twenty centuries, and, belying universal history, reach the
full stature of citizenship, and in peace maintain it—we shall
give them the uttermost justice and abiding friendship.
And whatever we do, into whatever seeming estrangement
we may be driven, nothing shall disturb the love we bear
this republic, or mitigate our consecration to its service.
When General Lee, whose heart was the temple of our hopes
and whose arm was clothed with our strength, renewed his
allegiance to this government at Appomattox, he spoke from
a heart too great to be false, and he spoke for every#honest
man from Maryland to Texas. From that day to this,
Hamilcar has nowhere in the South sworn young Hannibal
to hatred and vengeance—but everywhere to loyalty and love.
VI. CONDITION OF THE NEGRO, PAST AND PRESENT.
At a meeting of the "Current Topics Club'' of Pilgrim Con¬
gregational Church in St. Louis, on the night of December
5, 1901, Dr. James W. Lee, pastor of St. John's Methodist
MRS. MARY CHURCH TERRELL.
Graduate of Oberlin College. Eloquent Speaker and Linguist of Note.
230
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
Episcopal Church, Soutli, and formerly a presiding elder of
the St. Louis Conference, a humane and thoughtful man and
a thorough Southerner, made a frank statement of the status
of the Negro race as seen during life in the South, as follows:
"There are at this time in the United States 8,840,789 of
the best fed, best clothed, best housed and best educated
Negroes to be found on the face of the earth. They have
reached the place they occupy to-day, so high above that of
the race to which they belong in Africa, through two hun¬
dred and forty years of discipline gained in slavery, and
through thirty-seven years of experience gained in freedom.
The slavery into which the Negroes were sold in America
was the most glorious freedom, however, in comparison with
the slavery from which they were bought, or stolen, in Africa.
It is well that American slavery ended when it did. But
that it did last until the Negro could learn the first lessons
in civilization is the best thing that has happened to him in
his long and awful existence. The African slave trade, which
John Wesley called 'the sum of all villainies,' and David Liv¬
ingstone, 'the open sore of the world,' was, in so far as it con¬
cerned the Negroes sold into slavery in America, providential;
and the institution of slavery in this country was providen¬
tial, and yet a merciful God does not sanction either the
traffic or the institution. But we are taught in the script¬
ures that God often makes the wrath of man to praise Him.
Joseph was sold by his own brethren to traveling merchants,
and carried as a slave into Egypt. When these same breth¬
ren returned from the burial of their father, Joseph said to
them: 'As for you, ye thought evil against me, but God
meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to
save much people alive.'
"So far as the slave-traders were concerned, they thought
evil against the Negro. They thought only of the money they
could make, through buying him and selling him, but God
meant it unto good, to save to civilization millions of human
beings, and through them carry civilization to a continent of
IN HISTORY; AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
231
savage human beings in Africa. Nevertheless, Jacob's sons
were guilty of a great sin for selling their brother Joseph,
and the people of this country were guilty of a great sin for
buying the Negro and for enslaving him. For the wrongs
of slavery the northern and southern sections of the Union
are alike responsible. The North mainly for the traffic, and
the South mainly for the institution. But both sections have
atoned for their wrong-doing. The South civilized the Negro
and the North set him free.
"More attention has been devoted to the people of African
descent since 1865 than to those among us of any other
nationality. They have, in themselves, given us, and are
giving us, our great national problem. The Negro problem
is everybody's problem, and will not down, or suffer itself, as
yet, to be solved. This question is up in one form or an¬
other in all our conventions, political, commercial and re¬
ligious. It divided the Methodist Church, separated the
States into warring armies, and continues to produce divis¬
ion in all kinds of meetings, from labor unions to women's
clubs. The -poor Indians have been here from the begin¬
ning, and were here, perhaps, a thousand years before the
Pilgrim Fathers landed on the coast of Cape Cod, but no one
seems to think the red man of sufficient importance to make
a problem of. He has been outrageously treated, robbed of
his land, driven from his valleys and his rivers, but no one
seems to take his sorrows to heart. By tacit but universal
consent the black man is our national problem.
"Pharaoh in the government of Egypt was never more per¬
plexed at the presence of the Israelite in his country than
we, as a people, are to-day at the presence of the Negro
among Us. We may comfort ourselves, however, with the
thought that the American people are accustomed to suc¬
ceed in whatever they undertake with all their hearts and
strength to do. And it does seem as though every serious-
minded man and woman in these United States was at
this time set and determined on finding some rational,
15
232
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
humane and Christian way to settle the Negro question; his
place, his capacity and his future. One thing we all know
beyond any doubt, the Negro is here; and another, it is time
for us all to know that he is here to stay. We cannot
deport him and work his problem out in Africa; we can¬
not concentrate him into some single State or group of States,
and work it out there. We must take him just where he is
and scattered as he is, mainly over the States which once
united to form the Southern Confederacy, and work it out
there.
"The South is a better place for the Negro than Africa itself.
The Negro finds under the soft skies and in the warm sun¬
shine of the South the very conditions he needs to grow in and
to come to the best he finds within himself. Then the South¬
ern people are the best friends he has ever found. They
understand his weaknesses and the points of strength in his
character. They civilized him and have given to him all the
practical knowledge he possesses. They have received the
rewards of his labor. They know better how to work out his
future than any other people. It is evident to all who have
studied the history of the Negro that his development and
progress is only possible in relation with a superior race.
Not only is it necessary that he be in connection with the
white people in order to reach a higher state of civilization,
but he can only maintain civilization in relation with them.
"In despair of seeing any solution to the Negro problem
certain colored leaders, and not a few white people, have
proposed the scheme of wholesale deportation to Africa.
This is impossible, but were it feasible, it is wrong. It is a
short-cut and wholesale method of ridding the country of a
great duty and a great responsibility. If the Negroes have
not maintained civilization in Hayti, as is well known they
have not, after having been trained and taught in the prin¬
ciples of orderly life, how can we expect they would main¬
tain it in wild and lawless and barbarous Africa? The forests
there have never been cleared—it is a wilderness in which
in history, and in citizenship. £33
the Negroes would lapse into barbarism in less than a Hun¬
dred years.
"The Hebrews were in training in Egypt four hundred
and thirty years before they were ready to go up to the
promised land. There, because of the traditional hatred the
Egyptians had for shepherds, and because of the Egyptian
caste prejudice for all foreigners, the races were kept apart,
so that the Hebrews gradually grew into a homogeneous and
unmixed people. If there had been free intermarriage and
social equality, the Hebrew race would have been absorbed,
and there would have been no Moses to write the world's
moral law; and no David to sing away the world's doubt and
sorrow. Our own Anglo-Saxon race has become capable of
self-government only after more than a thousand years of
civil and spiritual authority.
"Had there been any free intermarriage and social equal¬
ity between the Hebrews and the Egyptians, if there had
been such a man as Moses at all, he never would have refused
to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, he never would
have chosen the reproach of Christ rather than the pleasures
of Egypt, he never would have fled into Midian to be in
training with God for forty years, he would never have had
any respect for the recompense of reward stored up for him
in the future of the human -race, he would have remained an
Egyptian prince to the end of his life, and after death he
would have been embalmed and placed in a royal tomb, as was
old Rameses II., his king, and now, perhaps, after three
thousand three hundred years he would have been found, as
old Rameses II. has been found, as dry and parched and
brown as more than three thousand years of silence in mum¬
mied confinement could make him. He would be lying
among the other curiosities beside his ugly old king in the
Gizeh museum at Cairo, or else he would have been bought
for $250 by some tourists from England or America to lend
interest to a museum in London or New York. Instead of a
miserable parched and powdered and $250 end like this,
234
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION.
lie lias come to the recompense of the reward for which he
had respect. He is the world's acknowledged leader in the
kingdom of moral law. His ethics furnish underpinning for
civilized government and protection for civilized life. The
instinctive and constitutional and fundamental race antip¬
athy the white man feels for the black man is notice served
by the Almighty in the very structure of the white man's
being that He intends for the colored man to come to himself
and to his estate as a separate, distinct and homogeneous
race; that there may go from this people law-givers, prophets,
leaders and preachers to redeem the Negro race in Africa.
What God seems to write in the fiber of subjective mind and
spirit can be changed by no objective act of parliament, or
objective amendments to constitutions. , When an instinct is
found flowing into the blood of a people, it may be accepted
as coming from heaven. The caste feeling, therefore, which
so many decry and seek to eradicate, is not wrong, but right,
because structural. To spend our time and money in bat¬
tling against this is waste. The thing to do is to recognize
it and give sympathy and support in line with it. The rea¬
son why we have not made greater headway since the war in
lifting up the Negro- than we have is because we have ex¬
pended so much of our energy in tearing down fences which
God built, and which He puts up again as soon as we think
they are down. Had there been no caste feeling in Egypt
against the children of Israel there would have been no
chosen people and no Holy Scriptures. Caste does not mean
hate and enmity. Between peoples of different caste there
may be and there should be mutual respect and trust and love
and sympathy.
"The Negro must remain in training with the white race
here steadily until his natural tendencies are superseded by
a higher nature, that when the days of his probation are
ended he may go forth as teacher, as preacher, as mechanic,
and as a capable and God-fearing man to do the work in
,y
!
PROF. ROBT. H. TERRELL.
Graduate of Harvard. U. S. Magistrate, D. C.
236
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
Africa for which God has seemingly so marvelously raised
him up and so strangely kept him and trained him.
"The people of the North and the people of the South
must learn to be patient with one another, and especially
must both learn to be patient with the Negro. We have all
gained much knowledge since 1865, but if we are patient
and sweet and tender and kind, God will teach us a great
deal more. That the South is the place where the Negro's
future is to be worked out, is coming to be more and more
the conviction of all who have his interests at heart. The
people of the South are more kindly disposed toward him
than the people of other sections of the country. There has
been talk in regions where the Negroes are few in numbers
about social equality. Equality of this sort is not the kind
the Negro needs. What the Negro needs is industrial
equality, and he finds more of that in the South than any¬
where else on earth. There are those who think the Negro
should be admitted to the same railway coaches, the same
hotels, the same schools and to the same churches as
the white people. Those who live in the South do not
think so, but they believe he should be permitted to work
upon the same building, to plow in the same field, to ham¬
mer iron in the same shop, to spin cotton in the same fac¬
tory, and to make syrup at the same sugar-cane mill along
with the white people. It is clear to those who know the
facts that the Negro enjoys more equality in the realm of
carpentry, and mechanics, and engineering, and agriculture,
and milling in the South than he is permitted to enjoy in the
North. While a pastor in Rome, Georgia, I built a church.
The foreman in its construction was a Negro, and he had
many white men at work under him. I am building a church
in St. Louis now, a semi-Southern city, but Northern senti¬
ment is so strong here against Negro industrial equality,
that if I were to go out to the corner of King's highway and
Washington avenue, where the church is going up, to¬
morrow, and tell the workmen there that I had concluded to
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP. 237
put a Negro foreman in charge, there is not a stone-mason,
or carpenter, or hod-carrier connected with the building but
would lay down his tools. I could employ a Negro foreman
to build a church in Rome, Georgia, but I cannot do it in
St. Louis, Missouri.
1 'I read in the Globe-Democrat last spring an account of a
scene at the Liggett & Meyers tobacco factory that would
have been impossible in the South. It seems that the man¬
agers needed about one hundred and fifty additional children,
from ten to fifteen years of age, to stem tobacco. As they
had already about all the white children they could find,
they employed young Negroes to do the work; but these
little darkies had no sooner appeared in the factory to take
up their task than they were caught bodily by the white
children and pitched out of the windows. This would have
happened, perhaps, in almost any tobacco factory in the
Northern States, but it would never have happened in the
Southern States. And yet the same children who pitch
young Negroes out of the windows when they come to work
with them would not object to sitting down in the school, or
in the railway car, or in the church with them. What is
the use to offer the Negro equality in the church, or theater,
or school, or railway coach, if he has no equality in the shop
or the factory? The South offers him equality where his
rations are involved. They do believe in feeding him or
giving him a chance to feed himself. The equality the
doctrinaires offer the Negro would do him no good. It is
not the side of himself upon which he needs equality. The
equality he needs touches him in the regions of his practical
life, and not in the realms of the drama or the upholstered
railway palace.
1 'During the time when the civil rights bill was being
agitated, one Negro down South met another on the street
and undertook to explain to his sable brother the provisions
of the bill. 'Why,' said the first speaker, 'by the provisions
of this bill you can go to the first-class theater, just the same
238
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
as the white folks. You can go to the four-dollar-a-day
hotels and sit down at the first table along with them; you
can pay your two dollars and get your sleeping car and sleep
under the white sheets just the same as the white folks, and
then, when you die, you can be buried in a metallic coffin,
just like the white folks. Why, sir, by the provisions of
this bill '
" 'Look here, nigger, stop rite dar,' interposed the son of
Ham addressed. 'Did you say there was provisions in that
bill? If dey is, den I want 'em. I don't care anything
about your four-dollar-a-day hotel or your Pullman palace
car, or sleeping under white sheets, or getting buried in an
italic coffin; but if dere is provisions in de bill I am for dem.
I want a ham and a sack of flour jist as quick as I can git
'em.'
"This story illustrates the difference between the Northern
and Southern attitude in regard to the Negro. Our friends
in the North have been anxious about his civil rights, while
the Southern people have been concerned about his right to
work for bread and meat. One .section does not seem to care
whether he eats or not, just so he votes; the other section is
not exceedingly anxious as to whether he votes or not, just
so he eats. As it is necessary for him to eat 1,095 times a
year and to vote only once, it seems to me that those who
are mainly concerned about giving him the right to eat, with
no emphasis on voting, are better friends to him than those
concerned mainly about giving him the right to vote, with
no emphasis on eating.
"The future of the Negro is not to be worked out along
political lines, but along the lines of industry, morality
and religion. The side of his nature upon which he is
richest is the religious. He is born, seemingly, with more
religion than human beings of any other race. Those
who are to help him work out his future must take knowl¬
edge of this fact. If we are to lift him up we must
take hold of him on his tropical, fertile side. Naturally
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
239
he is endowed with the most lively sense of the tinseen.
Because of this, he is in danger of being led into all sorts of
extravagance. Religion with him is a luxury, in which he
revels. If ever the divine and rational and perfect life of
Jesus Christ is thoroughly reproduced in the religious side of
the Negro race, that people will rise up as a strong man
armed and go forth to redeem the continent of Africa. I
believe it would be wise if all our people would concentrate
their efforts for awhile now upon cultivating the religious
side of our brother in black. Let his political side alone.
There is more religious raw material in him than material
of any other sort.
u In this way the learning and morality and Christian
character of our noblest and best people would touch and in¬
fluence and build up those colored young men and women
looking for their life-work in preaching the gospel to their
people, or instructing them in the common schools. The
Southern Methodist Church has a negro college in Augusta,
Georgia, presided over by one of our most cultivated minis¬
ters, who is himself a member of one of the old aristocratic
South Carolina families. This institution is devoted to pre¬
paring colored young men for the ministry among their own
people, and to preparing teachers for work in the common
colored schools. It is doing more good than any institution
of the same grade in the whole Southern States. The teach¬
ers in it are consecrated Southern white people. There is a
perfect understanding between the professors and the stu¬
dents—the professors know their place, and the colored stu¬
dents know their place. There is no friction, but mutual re¬
spect and trust, as was felt before the war between the Chris¬
tian master and the faithful servant..
"Another leading line along which the Negro's future is
to be worked out is industrial. He should be helped, as many
are helping him, in this direction. Kverybody rejoices in the
success of Booker T. Washington with his industrial school
at Tuskegee, Alabama. Booker T. Washington himself
240
THE NEGRO IN RE VELA TION,
is the greatest thing the Negro race has produced in this
generation. Prof. Huxley was at dinner with a company of
gentlemen some years ago in London, when France and the
French were being discussed. The party, being Knglish,
were almost united in the opinion that the French were a
light, shallow, unpromising people. 'Yes,' said Mr. Hux¬
ley, * but there is one thing we must all remember, France
has Pasteur.' So, while many people today are ready to
think there is no hopeful future for the Negro race, we should
all remember that it has Booker T. Washington. In the
opinion of Prof. Huxley, Pasteur was, himself, reason suffi¬
cient for the existence of the French people; and Booker T.
Washington is, himself, sufficient reason to give us hope for
the future of the Negro. He has been raised up to show
what the Negro can do with his hands, and to illustrate, in
himself, what the Negro can become, as a man.
"If all who want to help the Negro work out his future
will turn their attention toward helping him along industrial,
moral and religious lines for the next generation, and for
the time being let his political fortunes take care of them¬
selves, we will find in thirty years that he is not such a diffi¬
cult proposition as the whole country seems united in agree¬
ing that he is today."
VII. THE NEGRO'S NEEDS.
Doctor Lee's address before the "Current Topics Club" was
followed by one at a meeting of the St. Louis Evangelical
Alliance, December 30, 1901, in which he discussed the
Negro's needs, after giving a succinct history of the intro¬
duction of African slavery into this country. His remarks
were as follows:
"As a general thing the relation of the slave to his owner
was one of sympathy and good-will. Some of the most at¬
tractive and saintly and beautiful characters who have ever
lived in the world, grew up among the Negroes in the South
under the institution of slavery. From among those old
IN HISTORY; AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
241
Negro saints, loving their cabins, their kinsfolk and the
scenes in the midst of which they grew up, artists have found
about the only types of character among us who have any
promise of living in the popular songs of the people. There
is a charm and a winsomeness about the character of 'Old
Black Joe' that takes hold of the imagination completely. I
knew 'Old Black Joe,' and there are others here, if they
ever lived in the South, who knew him. Stephen Collins
Foster has given us his portrait without exaggeration.
There he sits, back yonder in the days before 1860, in front
of his cabin, under the shade of a peach tree, too old to
work, talking to himself and saying substantially:
"Gone are the days when my heart was young and gay,
Gone are my friends from the cotton fields away,
Gone from this earth to a better land I know,
I hear their gentle voices calling, 'Old Black Joe.'
"Where are the hearts once so happy and so free?
The children so dear that I held upon my knee?
Gone to the shore where my soul has longed to go,
I hear their gentle voices calling, 'Old Black Joe.'
"I'm coming, I'm coming,
For my head is bending low,
I hear those gentle voices calling, 'Old Black Joe.' "
" 'Old Black Joe' grew up and grew old at home, loving
his master and his missus, holding in the evening of his
life their children or their grandchildren upon his knee,
giving them quaint and interesting information about Br'er
Rabbit and Br'er Fox. One who never knew him can never
know what a lovely and tender-hearted old man he was.
Such a specimen of generous, fragrant, responsive, confiding
and simple manhood never could have been produced in the
midst of a cruel and hard and harsh environment. Among
many other types which have been given immortality in
music, there is the Negro brought up on a plantation in the
far South. He was sold to a master in another State.
16
242
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
Still, with change of master and change of location, he re¬
tains his simplicity of character, his love for the old place
and the old people. He has wandered far, but has never left
the native and genuine and beautiful instincts of the human
soul. Now in his old age, he sits down and gives himself
up to memories of the past. He is thinking of the old plan¬
tation of his younger days, and to himself he meditates
and says:
'All 'round the little farm I wandered,
when I was young,
Den many happy days I squandered,
many de songs I sung.
When I was playing with my brudder,
happy was I,
Oh take me to my kind old mudder,
dere let me live and die.
'One little hut among the bushes,
one dat I love,
Still sadly to my mem'ry rushes,
no matter where I rove,
When will I see the bees a'humming,
all round de comb?
When will I hear the banjo tumming,
down in my good old home?
'All de world am sad and dreary,
ebrywhere I roam,
Oh darkies how my heart grows weary,
far from the old folks at home.'
((This old Suwanee Negro has gone into all the world. He
has been idealized and made immortal in the most popular
song, perhaps, ever written in this country. The great
singers always strike chords in the common heart, not only
in New York, but also in St. Petersburg and Vienna and
Paris and London, when they respond to encores from the
great audiences with 'Old Folks at Home.' It is well
worth considering. Just why should others have been passed
by—revolutionary heroes, early settlers, lonely Indians,
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
243
hunters on the plains, exiles of Erin, and this good humble,
simple, pure-hearted, old Suwanee Negro selected to live for¬
ever in America's most universal and popular song? The
main reason, I believe, is found in the element of homesick¬
ness, which makes up one of the permanent and essential
qualities of the true Negro's life. There is a far away look
on his-face, and a longing deep in his nature, for things be¬
yond him and above him. By this sigh for the distant, by
this yearning for the years of youth and the time of gladness
with which he somehow feels himself in correspondence
through love for his God, the source of all spring-time and
youth, he is transfigured. His nature glows; his face be¬
comes luminous with an inner light; his heart swells with
unutterable hopes. Having no intellectual entanglements
with doubt and unbelief, he receives the impressions made
by the impact of the unseen upon the surface of his religious
nature as literal truth. He is so perfectly unsophisticated,
so genuine and thoroughly himself, so completely artless
and guileless, that all artists, as well as everybody else, falls
in love with him. The poor exile of Krin who has been
standing on the beach, with the dew on his thin robe so long,
is rather a touching figure. He makes a very good theme
for poetry, as he stands looking from his sad foreign shore
across the waters to the sweetest sea-beaten isle of the ocean,
but one cannot resist the impression that he knows too well
how to take care of himself in an election, to be really as
deeply sad and lonely as he looks. Hence the world does not
take him seriously enough to sing with any enthusiasm about
his short-lived loneliness and grief. The old Suwanee Negro,
on the other hand, has no opportunity to mend his earthly fort¬
unes. His homesickness is permanent and organic. Noth¬
ing is left him but his loved ones and his home in heaven.
To these he turns with all the ardor and strength of a re¬
newed, radiant nature. He has not a single earthly hope.
Hence the artist passes by the Irishman and the successful
American and enshrines in everlasting song this heavenly-
244
the negro in revelation,
minded old darky, and the world gladly gives him the hom¬
age due to perfect simplicity and beauty of character. The
barriers imposed upon the Negro by the institution of slavery
he did not resent, but accepted in obedience and good-will.
He gave his nights to innocent and refreshing sleep, and not
to intrigues and conspiracies. Slavery as a barrier served
as a controller and generator of religious energy. When the
river which has been spreading itself over a shallow expanse
is shut within narrow rock walls, or when an expanded body
of steam is confined in a cylinder, the limitation in each case
is a direct creator of power. Because of the limitation placed
about the Negro by the institution of slavery, there was but
one side of himself through which he had untrammeled
opportunity to flower, and that was his religious side, which
covers about three-fourths of the surface of the Negro's life.
Because of this the Negro was contented and happy in
slavery, and because he did, through large expression of
himself on the side of his religious nature, become obedient,
polite, humble and tender-hearted, his master loved him with
great tenderness. The Southern people therefore like the
Negroes. They have seen them at their best estate. They
know when they grow up under the nurture and admonition
of the Lord, genuinely pious and true, that they are charm¬
ing and attractive human beings. Hence we find under the
institution of slavery imitations of the highest types of char¬
acter that we are to find among them under the conditions of
freedom. While the barrier of slavery has been taken away,
still the Negro is under limitations just as great, and these
are in reality the conditions of his advancement. It is now
the barriers of poverty, of meager attainment, which he is to
force, and which he must learn will yield only to the steady
push of industry and unrelaxed training. These barriers
are the provisions of providence for keeping him at his top¬
most level and for getting out of him all there is in him.
Goethe well says: 'Everything that frees our spirit without
giving us the mastery of our spirit is pernicious.' The fact
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP. 245
that the Negro is about four thousand years behind the white
man in the career of civilization, is a limitation he must
recognize about him. But this should be a source of inspira¬
tion. All the accumulations of history which have been
made through the battles and strife of the ages he finds him¬
self in touch with without a fight. That these vast stores
of accumulated human gain are above him, and have been
stored up without his aid or co-operation, furnishes him an
altitude up which he has the pleasure of climbing. A poor
man rescued from slow death should not, upon coming to
consciousness and life, be unhappy because he finds himself
poor in comparison with those who rescued him. He should
be delighted at the opportunity of breathing and acting. The
Negro just rescued from slavery worse than death in Africa,
and from slavery better for him, while it lasted, than freedom
in America, should not sympathize with himself and com¬
miserate himself because of the respects in which he is not
2qual to those who have been wrestling with the problems of
civilized existence for thousands of years before he was born
to civilization. He should rejoice at the privilege of just
living and breathing and having his being in an enlightened
Christian country. The Negro has not made quite enough
of the fact that he is alive in the midst of the greatest gov¬
ernment the world ever saw. He has been looking at himself
too much from the standpoint of the white man in America
and not enough from the standpoint of the black man in
Africa. There is not a poor white man among us, measur¬
ing all things from the purely worldly standpoint, but can
work himself to the boiling point of misery by looking at
himself from the standpoint of privilege enjoyed by an Astor
with his millions, his yachts and his mansions.
"The Negroes have been too much inclined to gird at their
limitations of position and gifts, and have placed too much
hope in outside amendments to the constitution and civil
rights bills to redress their inequalities. The stoic Epictetus,
though a slave, did not cry out against his limitations, but
246
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION
got even with his master and everybody else by writing his
discourses, and afterwards had emperors for his disciples.
'Against the superiority of another,' says Goethe, 'there is no
remedy but love.' Against the superiority of the white man
under slavery, the Negro found a remedy in loving him. This
gave him a simplicity and beauty of character; and now un¬
der freedom, he will find the only remedy against any supe¬
riority with which he meets, to be love; this will insure sim¬
plicity and beauty of character again. While the Negro is to
work out his own destiny, it is the solemn duty of the white
man who brought him by force to this country, to help him.
And first of all he must have the sympathy and love of the
white man. These are not to be exhausted in words and theo¬
ries . There have been enough theories, kindly and Christian,
about the Negro since the war, had they been practical, not
only to have given to every one of them in the South, forty
acres of land and a mule, but a life of the most rosy com¬
pleteness. It has taken the colored man a third of a century
to learn that fine theories do not help him. What the Negro
needs more than anything else today is fair treatment by the
great industrial classes of the country.
' 'There are forty thousand Negroes in St. Louis, and among
them many first-class carpenters and brick-masons, yet be¬
cause of their color, they are excluded from work on all the
great buildings, in all the great machine shops, and from all
the main trunk lines of legitimate industry. They are still
permitted to break rock in the streets, to dig ditches, to clean
out sewers, to drive drays, hacks aiid coal wagons, but from
all higher grades of work, which call for skill, and which
command better wages, they are as absolutely shut out as
though they were not human beings. Laboring men have a
perfect right to organize themselves into brotherhoods and
unions for their protection, and for the advancement of their
interests. There is not any doubt but that they have lifted
themselves and their labor to a higher plane through organ¬
ization. But it is not right to exclude men from the unions
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
247
on account of color. The right of the Negro to live is cer¬
tainly inalienable, but how can-he live and support his fam¬
ily if he is not given a fair opportunity along with other
men, to work anywhere and in any line of industry for which
he qualifies himself? The Negro is entitled to absolute in¬
dustrial equality. It must be remembered that he did not
just arrive on the shores of America yesterday, and were he
a new-comer, the right to work anywhere would still be his.
But the Negro has been here ever since 1620—two hundred
and eighty-one years. He cleared most of the forests in the
Southern States. He produced the cotton by the sale and
manufacture of which has come much of the wealth of this
country. He produced the cane from which the laboring
men have been sweetening their coffee for two hundred years.
He produced the syrup which has been doubling and quad¬
rupling the value of waffles and pan-cakes which the labor¬
ing men have been enjoying at breakfast for a couple of
centuries. He should not be treated as an alien and a
foreigner by labor unions, for he is less a foreigner than al¬
most any other class of people. If anybody is native and to
the manor born, he is. We owe it not only to the Negro, but
to ourselves to give him the same opportunity to work that is
enjoyed by the white man. I am a Southerner, and have all
the feelings common to Southern people with reference to
Negro social equality. But Southern people have no op¬
position to Negro industrial equality. They believe in it.
After an address delivered at the (Current Topics Club' of the
Pilgrim Congregational Church, some weeks ago, on the sub¬
ject of the Negro's future, a committee of Negroes represent¬
ing the leading colored interests of the city called at my house
to express the thanks of the colored people of St. Louis to
me for the address I delivered. As they were intelligent
Negroes, I embraced the opportunity to get all the informa¬
tion I could about the present conditions of the Negro in this
city. I was simply amazed at what I learned. No one who
has not paid attention to the question, can have any proper
iti
248
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
conception of the difficulties with which Negroes right here in
our midst are confronted today. The most pathetic aspect
of the whole Negro problem is found in the gradual closing
against him of all the leading industries. This takes from
him the stimulus of qualifying himself for work. He is
thrown back into a life of idleness, or else is shut up for the
means of subsistence to odd jobs, or such small tasks here
and there as he may find to do. He has no way of bringing
his wrongs to the consideration of the public. We can hardly
bring ourselves to realize how pitiable his condition is, in
view of the industrial inequalities which have been gathering
against him during the last quarter of a century. He is the
nation's ward. The most bloody war ever waged between
civilized States was continued for four long years to give him
his freedom. Billions of dollars were spent in his behalf.
Billions more have been spent since the war in paying pen¬
sions to old soldiers who fought to give him his freedom.
The Grand Army of the Republic holds its great annual
reunion every year, and the most thrilling and inspiring
thought that comes to them on these great occasions is that
they knocked the shackles from the limbs of four millions of
slaves. And yet this man who has cost the country more
lives and more money than any other man ever cost any
country in all history, stands among us in the pitiable plight
of being debarred from every great line of handicraft.
There is not a Pole or Scandinavian just landed in America
yesterday, however full his head may be of anarchy, and his
heart of enmity to the government, but enjoys opportunities
we deny to our Negroes, who naturally love the government,
and who have been here nearly three hundred years, and who
have never produced an anarchist in all history. The glory
of freeing the slaves will depart from the Grand Army of the
Republic, and from the States which remained true to the
"Union if they permit them, because of want of fair opportu¬
nities to work enjoyed by others, to enslave themselves again
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP. 249
by vices cradled in idleness into which they have been un¬
justly driven.
"One other interesting fact about the Negro needs to be
carefully weighed and considered by those who desire to assist
him in working out his destiny, and that is the vast stores
of religious raw material that are lying in the depths of his
nature. There are deposits here which run back over thou¬
sands of years, covering much of his lonely, fear-beset life in
the midst of the deep, dark, lion-and-tiger-haunted forests
of Africa. This is the most wonderful and immense asset
of the Negro's life. Through this side of himself he is to
find his power and his mission in the world. He as little
understands himself here as others understand him. But all
who have seen the Negroes in their great meetings have
recognized the religious element as the deepest and most
important in their nature. It is mysterious and impene¬
trable and beyond analysis, but its weird presence no one
can doubt. Great congregations come under its spell and
are held as one palpitating mass as if clasped together by an
unseen power. The music through which they seek to give
expression to their religious feelings is the most wonderful
ever heard and touches the soul. There are intimations
of vast storms, of wide-spreading plains, of mountains of the
moon, of struggles with wild beasts in the dark woods, long
rivers like the Nile, of the gold coast with its awful idolatry.
The influence of this music is felt as much by the cultivated
as the uncultivated. Rev. Dr. Henry M. Field telephoned
me one morning in Atlanta to meet him at the hotel and
accompany him to Spellman's Seminary. This is a school
built by John D. Rockefeller for the education of colored
girls. There were eight hundred students in the institution
at the time. Announcing ourselves, the principal brought
the whole school into the chapel. Doctor Field wanted to
hear them sing. They began with regulation Sunday-
school songs, and Doctor Field was not much impressed,
though they sang as well as others. I asked the principal
250
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION.
to have them give us some regular Negro music. They did
not like this, for it has been the effort of the educated
Negroes to get' as far from what is native and peculiar to
themselves as possible. But some one in the audience
moaned or intoned all alone a line of 'Swing low, sweet
chariot.' She was joined by another, then they fell in by
fours and eights, until the whole eight hundred were giving
us the most weird and affecting music to which one ever
listened. 'I looked up the road and what did I see a-coming
for to carry me home; a band of angels a-coming after me,
coming for to carry me home; swing low, sweet chariot,
coming for to carry me home.' The great organist at Luzerne,
Switzerland, never had more success in seemingly pulling
down out of the clouds, through his instrument, real storms
with thunder and lightning and hail and wind and rain than
these singers, with their voices, had in seeming to fill the air
with real chariots—swinging low, down from the sky, and
with real hands of angels coming down every road leading
to the chapel.
"The effect on the distinguished traveler and editor, Doctor
Field, was remarkable. The fountains of the great deep of
his emotions were broken up, and he was weeping like a
child. In a short address after the service of song, he told
the students that they made a great mistake in seeking,
through vain and shallow imitation of the white folks, to get
themselves educated away from the real sources of power
which belonged to them as a race.
" Through the explorations of Livingstone and Stanley a
map of the vast objective continent of Africa has been made
approximately correct. Its rivers, lakes, mountains and
plains have been partially surveyed and named. Now a
Livingstone is needed to explore and give to the world a map
of the immense subjective continent of religious and emo¬
tional Africa. In this interior, and as yet untraveled, un¬
known of himself, the Negro is to find the wealth and glory
of his nature, and the reason of his existence in the world.
Noted Newspaper Correspondent.
252
THE NEGRO 'IN REVELATION,
When tlie explorer returns to civilization from the long and
difficult journey into the interior continent of religious and
emotional Africa, he will be able to give to the Negro a geog¬
raphy of himself, from which he can see his place and his
mission in the world. From this he will doubtless learn
that he has been in training for nearly three hundred years
in America, in order that he may be ready at the call of God
to go forth to redeem his race from barbarism, worse than
death, in Africa."
VIII. THE NEGRO AND THE SIGNS OF CIVILIZATION.
BY BOOKER T. WASHINGTON.
There are certain visible signs of civilization and strength
which the world demands that each individual or race ex¬
hibit before it is taken seriously into consideration in the
affairs of the world. Unless these visible evidences of ability
and strength are forthcoming, mere abstract talking and
mere claiming of "rights" amount to little. This is a prin¬
ciple that is as broad and old as the world and is not confined
to the conditions that exist between the white man and the
black man in the South. We may be inclined to exalt intel¬
lectual acquirements over the material, but all will acknowl¬
edge that the possession of the material has an influence that
is lasting and unmistakable. As one goes through our west¬
ern States and sees the Scandinavians in Minnesota, for ex¬
ample, owning and operating nearly one-third of the farms
in the State, and then as he goes through one of the cities of
Minnesota and sees block after block of brick stores owned
by these Scandinavians, as he sees factories and street rail¬
ways owned and operated by these same people, and as he
notes that as a rule these people live in neat, well-kept cot¬
tages, that have been paid for, where there is refinement
and culture, on nice streets, he can't help but have confi¬
dence in and respect for such people, no matter how he has
been educated to feel regarding tliem. The material, visible
and tangible elements in this case teach a lesson that al-
IN HISTORY; AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
253
most nothing else can. It may be said in opposition to tliis
view that this is exalting too high the material side of life.
I do not take this view. Let us see what is back of this nia^
terial possession. In the first place, the possession of prop¬
erty is an evidence of mental discipline, mental grasp and
control? It is an evidence of self-sacrifice. It is an evi¬
dence of economy. It is an evidence of thrift and industry.
It is an evidence of fixedness of character and purpose. It
is an evidence of interest in pure and intelligent government,
for no man can possess property without having the deepest
interest in all that pertains to local and national government.
The black man who owns $50,000 worth of property in a
town is going to think a good many times before he votes for
the officer who will have the liberty of taxing his property.
If he thinks that a colored law-maker will use his taxing
power wrongfully, he is not likely to vote for him merely for
the sentimental reason that he is a black man. The black man
who owns $50,000 worth of property in a town is not likely to
continue to vote for a republican law-maker if he knows that a
democratic one will bring lower taxes and better protection
to his property. Say or think what we will there is but one
way for the Negro to get up, and that is for him to pay the
cost, and when he has paid the cost—paid the price of his
freedom—it will appear in the beautiful, well-kept home, in
the increasing bank account, in the farm and crops that are
free from debt, in the ownership of railroad and municipal
stocks and bonds, in the well-kept store, in the well-fitted
laundry, in the absence of mere superficial display. These
are a few of the universal and indisputable signs of the high¬
est civilization, and the Negro must possess them or be de¬
barred. All mere abstract talk about the possibility of pos¬
sessing them or his intention to possess them counts for lit¬
tle. He must actually possess them, and the only way to
possess them is to possess them. From every standpoint of
interest it is the duty of the Negro himself, and the duty of
the Southern white man as well aS the white man in the
254
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
North, to see that the Negro be helped forward as fast as
possible towards the possession of these evidences of civiliza¬
tion. How can it best be done? Where is the beginning to
be made? It can be done by the Negro beginning right now
and where he finds himself. What I am anxious for is for
the Negro to be in actual possession of all the elements of
the highest civilization, and when he is so possessed the bur¬
den of his future treatment by the white man must rest upon
the white man.
I repeat, let the Negro begin right where he is, by putting
the greatest amount of intelligence in skill and dignity into
the occupations by which he is surrounded. Let him learn
to do common things in an uncommon manner. Whenever
in the South, for example, the Negro is the carpenter, let
him realize that he cannot remain the carpenter unless peo¬
ple are sure that no one can excel him as a carpenter. This
black carpenter should strive in every way possible to keep
himself abreast of the best woodwork done in the world. He
should be constantly studying the best journals and books
bearing on carpentry. He should watch for every improve¬
ment in his line. When this carpenter's son is educated in
college or elsewhere, he should see that his son studies me¬
chanical and architectural drawing. He should not only
have his son taught practical carpentry, but should see that
in addition to his literary education, he is a first-class archi¬
tect as well—that, if possible, he has an idea of landscape
gardening and house furnishing. In a word, he should see
that his son knows so much about woodwork, house con¬
struction, and everything that pertains to making a house
all that it should be, that his services are in constant de¬
mand. One such Negro in each community will give char¬
acter to a hundred other Negroes. It is the kind of effort
that will put the Negro on his feet. What I have said of
carpentry is equally true of dozens of occupations now within
the Negro's hands. The second or third generation of
this black man need not be carpenters, but can aspire sue-
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
255
cessfully to something higher because the foundation has
been laid.
It is not only the duty of the Negro to thus put himself .
in possession of the signs of civilization, but it is also the
plainest duty of the white man, North and South, to help the
Negro to do so in a more generous manner than ever before.
One-third of the population of the South is colored. Igno¬
rance in any country or among any people is the sign of pov¬
erty, crime and incompetency. No State can have the high¬
est civilization and prosperity with one-third of its population
down. This one-third will prove a constant millstone about
the neck of the other two-thirds. Bvery one-room Negro
cabin in the South, where there is ignorance, poverty and
stupidity, is an adverse advertisement of the State, the bad
effects of which no white man in the next generation can es¬
cape.
IX. THE NEGRO'S PART IN THE SOUTH'S UPBUILDING.
I have read a little pamphlet, written by a well-educated
colored man, Mr. George W. Carver, giving the result of
some Of his experiments in raising sweet potatoes this year.
In this pamphlet, this colored man has shown in plain,
simple language, based on scientific principles, how he has
raised two hundred and sixty-six bushels of sweet potatoes
on a single acre of common land, and made a net profit of
$121. The average yield of sweet potatoes in the South,
where this experiment was tried, is thirty-seven bushels
per acre. This same colored man is now preparing to
make the same land produce five hundred bushels of po¬
tatoes. I have watched this experiment with a good deal of
interest. The thing that has interested me most regarding
this experiment has been the deep interest which the neigh¬
boring white farmers took in it. I do not believe that a
single one of the dozens of white farmers who visited the
field to see the unusual yield of potatoes ever thought of
having any prejudice or feeling against this colored man
256
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
because his education had enabled him to make an unusual
success in the raising of potatoes. On the other hand, there
•were many evidences of the deepest respect for this colored
man and gratitude for the information which he had furnished.
If I were to write a volume, I do not think I could state
the case of the Negro more strongly than this illustration
puts it.
" I am fully aware of all the disadvantages to which the
Negro is subjected. Notwithstanding all this, I believe I
do not overestimate matters when I say that it seldom ever
happens in history that a race has such an opportunity to
make itself felt in the upbuilding of a country as is now true
of the Negro race, especially in the South. I feel equally
confident in saying that no individual or race that makes
itself permanently felt in the building of a country is long
left without proper reward and recognition.
The most important problem that is now confronting the
Negro and the Negro's friends, is the turning of the force of
the Negro's education in that direction that will contribute
most effectually toward the betterment of the condition of the
country and the Negro himself.
Recurring again to the instance of the colored man who
made his education felt in the production of sweet pota¬
toes, I would say that if we had a hundred such men in each
county in the South there would be no race problem to
discuss. But how are we to get such men? In the first
place, those interested in the education of the Negro must
begin to look facts and conditions in the face. Too great a
gap has been left between the Negro's real condition and the
position which we have tried to fit him for through the medium
of our text-books. We overlook in many cases the long
years of schooling in experience and discipline that any race
must have before it can get the greatest amount of good out
of the text-book matter that has been given the black man
Much that the Negro has studied presupposes conditions
that do not as yet exist in his case. I do not want to be
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
257
misunderstood. I favor the highest and most thorough de¬
velopment of the Negro's mind. No race can accomplish
anything till its mind is awakened. But the weak point
has been in the past, in too many cases, between the Negro's
educated brains and his opportunity or manner of earning
his daily living. There has been almost no thought of con¬
necting the educated brain with the educated hand. The ed¬
ucation of the Negro, in too many cases, has presumed that he
had years of wealth, culture and even luxury behind him, just
as'is true of New England. Even Mr. Cornelius Vanderbilt,
with his millions behind him, finds it necessary to put his
son into a machine shop, and thus connect his brain-training
with something that is vital and practical. If this is true
of the Vanderbilts, should it not be a thousandfold more
true of the Negro in his present condition? Education
of the head increases wants. Unless the hands are educated
at the same time, so as to supply these increased wants, in too
many cases you will have an individual who is of little benefit
to society.
But, to return more directly to my subject, I would say
without hesitation that, judging by what I have experienced
and observed, the best way for the Negro to contribute toward
the building up of the South and his own welfare, is for him
to turn the force of his education, during the next fifty years,
very largely in the direction of scientific and industrial
training, in connection with moral and religious training.
It is almost a crime, in many cases, to take young men from
the farm, or from a farming district, and educate them, as is
often done, in every other subject except agriculture—the
one subject that they should know the most about. The
result is that the young man, instead of being educated to
love agriculture, is educated out of sympathy with it; and
instead of returning to his old father's farm, after leaving
college, and showing him how to raise more produce with
less labor, the young man is often tempted to go into the
city or town to live by his wits.
258
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION.
In most parts of the South, the Negro has the labor in his
possession, but he will not hold it unless he is taught to put
brains and skill into the common occupations that are about
him, and at the same time to dignify common labor.
In most of the cities of the South the Negro can be an
architect, a contractor, a builder and a brickmaker; and what
is true of these callings is true of any number of other occu¬
pations—for women as well as men.
Whenever a black man makes himself of real service to
a community or State, that service will not remain un¬
recognized, as is the case of the man who raised the sweet
potatoes. If our people enter heartily, in a whole-souled
manner, into all the industrial walks of life, by prepar¬
ing to do some conscientious work, by doing something
better than some one else can do it, they will not only make
a great contribution to the wealth of the South, but they
will earn the gratitude of the white citizens to the extent
that every black man will find a secure place in the hearts of
the. white people of the section.
Not only this, but it is only through industrial develop¬
ment that the Negro can promote his own development. I
know how strong the temptation is to say that what the
Negro wants to have emphasized is the languages, fine arts
and the various professions. These are very well for a few,
but for the great mass of our people this is not what we want
in this generation. The best way to promote what is called
"higher education" for the black man is for us in this gen¬
eration to throw aside all nonsense, all non-essentials, and
begin at the bottom and work up through agriculture, the
trades, domestic science and household economy. In this
way we lay a material foundation for our children and grand¬
children to get the greatest benefit out of abstract education.
COL JAS. H. DEVEAUX.
Collector of Customs, Savannah, Georg
200
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
X. THE NEGRO AND HIS RELATION TO THE SOUTH.
[Booker T. Washington's Address Before the Southern Industrial Convention
at Huntsville, Alabama, October 12, 1899.]
"In all discussion and legislation bearing upon the presence
of the Negro in America, it should be borne in mind that we
are dealing with a people who were forced to come here with¬
out their consent and in the face of a most earnest protest.
This gives the Negro a claim upon your sympathy and gen¬
erosity that no other race can possess. Besides, though
forced from his native land into residence in a country that
was not of his choosing, he has earned his right to the title
of American citizen by obedience to the law, by patriotism
and fidelity, and by the millions which his brawny arms
and willing hands have added to the wealth of this country.
"In saying what I have today, although a Negro and an
ex-slave myself, there is no white man whose heart is more
wrapped up in every interest*of the South and loves it more
dearly than is true of myself. She can have no sorrow that
I do not share; she can have no prosperity that I do not
rejoice in; she can commit no error that I do not deplore;
she can take no step forward that I do not approve.
"Different in race, in color, in history, we can teach the
world that, although thus differing, it is possible for us to
dwell side by side in love, in peace and in material prosperity.
We can be one, as I believe we will be in a larger degree in
the future, in sympathy, purpose, forbearance and mutual
helpfulness. Let him who would embitter, who would bring
strife.between your race and mine, 'be accursed in his basket
and his store, accursed in the fruit of his body and in the
fruit of his land.' No man can plan the degradation of
another race without being himself degraded. The highest
test of the civilization of any race is its willingness to extend
a helping hand to the less fortunate.
"The South extends a protecting arm and a welcome voice
to the foreigner, all nationalities, languages and conditions;
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
261
but in this I pray that you will not forget the black man at
your door, whose habits you know, whose fidelity you have
tested. You may make of others larger gatherers of wealth,
but you cannot make of them more law-abiding, useful and
God-fearing people than the Negroes, who have been by your
side for three centuries, and whose toil in forest, field and
mine has helped to make the South the land of promise and
glorious possibility.
"If the South is to go forward and not stand still, if she is
to reach the highest reward from her wonderful resources and
keep abreast of the progress of the world, she must reach
that point, without needless delay, where she will not be
continually advertising to the world that she has a race ques¬
tion to settle. We must reach that point where at every
election, from the choice of a magistrate to that of a governor,
the decision will not hinge upon a discussion or a revival of
the race question. We must arrive at the period where the
great fundamental questions of good roads, education of
farmers, agricultural and mineral development, manufactur¬
ing and industrial and public school education will be, in a
large degree, the absorbing topics in our political campaigns.
But that we may get this question from among us, the white
man has a duty to perform; the black man has a duty to
perform. No question is ever permanently settled until it is
settled in the principles of highest justice. Capital and law¬
lessness will not dwell together. The white man who learns
to disregard the law when a Negro is concerned, will soon
disregard it when a white man is concerned.
"For years all acknowledge that the South has suffered
from the low price of cotton because of over-production.
The economic history of the world teaches that an igno¬
rant farming class means a single crop, and that a single
crop means, too often, low prices from over-production or
famine from under-production. The Negro constitutes the
262
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
principal farming class of the South. So long as the Negro
is ignorant in head, unskilled in hatld, unacquainted with
labor-saving machinery, so long will he confine himself to a
single crop, and over-production of cotton will result. So
long as this is true you will be bound in economic fetters;
you will be hugging the bear while crying for some one to
help you let go. Bvery man, black and white, in the South,
with his crop mortgaged, in debt at the end of the year,
buying his meat from Iowa, his corn from Illinois, his shoes
from New York, his clothing from Pennsylvania, his wagon
from Indiana, his plow from Massachusetts, his mule from
Missouri, his coffin from Ohio, every one who is thus situated
is a citizen who is not producing the highest results for his
State. It is argued that the South is too poor to educate
such an individual so as to make him an intelligent producer.
I reply that the South is too poor not to educate such an in¬
dividual.
''Ignorance is manyfold more costly to tax-payers than
intelligence. Bvery black youth that is given this training
of hand and strength of mind, so that he is able to grasp
the full meaning and responsibility of the meaning of life,
so that he can go into some forest and turn the raw material
into wagons and buggies, becomes a citizen who is able to
add to the wealth of the State and to bear his share of the
expenses of educational government. Do you suggest that
this cannot be done? I answer that it is being done every
day at Tuskegee, and should be duplicated in a hundred
places in every Southern State. This I take to be the 'White
Man's Burden' just now—no, no, not his burden, but his
privilege, his opportunity to give the black man sight, to
give him strength, skill of hand, light of mind and honesty
of heart. Do this, my white friends, and I will paint you
a picture that shall represent the future, partly as the out¬
come of this industrial convention, and will represent the
land where your race and mine must dwell.
"Fourteen slaves brought into the South a few centuries
w history; /ar citizenship. 263
ago, in ignorance, superstition and weakness, are now a free
people, multiplied into eight millions. They are surrounded,
protected, encouraged, educated in hand, heart and head,
given the full protection of the law, the highest justice meted
out to them through courts and legislative enactments. They
are stimulated and not oppressed, made citizens and not
aliens, made to understand by word and act that, in propor¬
tion as they show themselves worthy to bear responsibilities,
the greater opportunities will be given them. I see them
loving you, trusting you, adding to the wealth, the intelli¬
gence, the renown of each Southern Commonwealth. In
turn, I see you confiding in them, ennobling them, beckoning
them on to the highest success, and- we have all been made
to appreciate in full that—
'The slave's chain and the master's alike are broken,
The one curse of the race held both in tether;
They are rising, all are rising,
The black and white together.'''
XI. "THE ANCIENT GOVERNOR."
An illustration of the respect and consideration with which
worthy Negroes are treated by Kentuckians is furnished by
the story of Daniel Clark, as related in Thompson's 1 'Young
People's History of .Kentucky." When Gov. James Clark
came to Frankfort (1836) to assume the duties of his office
he had with him as a body-servant a Negro man, Daniel,
who, many years before, had been brought by slave-dealers
from Africa to Charleston, South Carolina, and afterward
came into the possession of the Clark family in Kentucky.
He was old enough when bought or captured in his native
country to note the incidents of the ocean voyage, which he
remembered distinctly during his long life. On coming to
Frankfort he was employed about the governor's mansion
and the executive office, and for thirty-six years, through all
the changes of administration, he continued in this service,
and came to be known as the " Ancient Governor." On the
17
264
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION.
27 th of January, 1872, the Senate of Kentucky passed a bill
by a majority of thirty out of thirty-four votes cast, giving
him a pension of $12.50 per month for life, on the ground
that he was then, in the language of the bill, "a very old and
infirm man, not able to work or to perform the full duties of
said office any longer, and as an evidence of the appreciation
in which Kentucky holds his faithfulness and honesty,
and of her unwillingness that he shall want for a support."
Pending the consideration of the bill by the House he died;
and the legislature passed a joint resolution, February 17th,
commending him as 11 a notable example to all men, white
or black, of industry, sobriety, courtesy according to his
station, and integrity in office."
CHAPTER X.
Industrial Training and Negro Development.
i. address by booker t. washington.
"OINCE the war no one subject lias been more misunder-
^ stood than that of the object and value of industrial edu-
cationfor the Negro. To begin with, it must be borne in mind
that the condition that existed in the South immediately
after the war, and that now exists, is a peculiar one, without
a parallel in history. This being true, it seems to me that
the wise and honest thing is to make a study of the actual
condition and environment of the Negro, and do that which
is best for him, regardless of whether the same thing has
been done for another race in exactly the same way. There
are those among our friends of the white race, and those
among my own race, who assert with a good deal of earnest¬
ness, that there is no difference between the white man and
the black man in this country. This sounds very pleasant
and tickles the fancy, but when we apply the test of hard,
cold logic to it, we must acknowledge that there is a differ¬
ence; not an inherent one, not a racial one, but a difference
growing out of unequal opportunities in the past.
"If I might be permitted to even seem to criticise some of
the educational work that has been done in the South, I
would say that the weak point has been in a failure to recog¬
nize this difference.
"Negro education, immediately after the war, in most cases,
was begun too nearly at the point where New England educa¬
tion had ended. Let me illustrate: One of the saddest
sights I ever saw was the placing of a $300 rosewood piano
in a country school in the South that was located in the
midst of the 'Black Belt.' Am I arguing against the
265
266
THE NEGRO IN RE VELA TI ON,
teaching of instrumental music to the Negroes in that com¬
munity? Not at all; only I should have deferred those
music lessons about twenty-five years. There are such
pianos in thousands of New England homes, but behind
the piano in the New Bngland home there were one hun¬
dred years of toil, sacrifice and economy; there was the
small manufacturing industry, started several years ago by
hand-power, now grown into a great business; there was the
ownership in land, a comfortable home free from debt, a bank
account. In this 'Black Belt' community where this piano
went, four-fifths of the people owned no land, many lived in
rented one-room cabins, many were in debt for food supplies,
many mortgaged their crops for the food on which to live and
not one had a bank account. In this case how much wiser
it would have been to have taught the girls in this commu¬
nity how to do their own sewing, how to cook intelligently
and economically, housekeeping, something of dairying and
horticulture; the boys something of farming in connection
with their common school education, instead of awakening in
these people a desire for a musical instrument, which re¬
sulted in their parents going in debt for a third-rate piano or
organ before a home was purchased. These industrial les¬
sons would have awakened in this community a desire for
homes and would have given the people the ability to free
themselves from industrial slavery, to the extent that most
of them would have soon purchased homes. After the home
and the necessaries of life were supplied, could come the piano;
one piano lesson in a home is worth twenty in a rented log
cabin.
"Only a few days ago I saw a colored minister preparing his
Sunday sermon just as the New Bngland minister prepares
his sermon. But this colored minister was in a broken-down,
leaky, rented log cabin, with weeds in the yard, surrounded
by evidences of poverty, filth and want of thrift. This min¬
ister had spent some time in school studying theology.
How much better would it have been to have had this min-
IN HISTORY; AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
267
ister taught the dignity of labor, theoretical and practical
farming in connection with his theology, so that he could
have added to his meager salary and set an example to his
people in the matter of living in a decent house and correct
farming—in a word, this minister should have been taught
that his condition, and that of his people, was not that of a
New England community, and he should have been so trained
as to meet the actual needs and conditions of the colored peo¬
ple in this community.
1 'God, for two hundred and fifty years, was preparing the
way for the redemption of the Negro through industrial de¬
velopment. First, He made the "Southern white man do bus¬
iness with the Negro for two hundred and fifty years in a way
that no one else has done business with him. If a Southern
white man wanted a house or a bridge built, he consulted a
Negro mechanic about the plan, about the building of the
house or the bridge. If he wanted a suit of clothes or a pair
of shoes made, it was the Negro tailor or shoemaker that he
talked to. Secondly, every large slave plantation in the
South was, in a limited sense, an industrial school. On
these plantations there were scores of young colored men and
women who were constantly being trained, not alone as com¬
mon farmers, but as carpenters, blacksmiths, wheelwrights,
plasterers, brick-masons, engineers, bridge-builders, cooks,
dressmakers, housekeepers, etc. I would be the last to
apologize for the curse of slavery, but I am simply stating
facts. This training was crude and was given for selfish
purposes and did not answer the highest purpose, because
there was an absence of literary training in connection with
that of the hand. Nevertheless, this business contact with
the Southern white man and the industrial training received
on these plantations, put us at the close of the war into pos¬
session of all the common and skilled labor in the South.
For nearly twenty years after the war, except in one or two
cases, the value of the industrial training given by the Ne¬
groes' former masters on the plantations and elsewhere was
268
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
overlooked. Negro men and women were educated in liter¬
ature, mathematics and the sciences, with no thought of
what had taken place on these plantations for two and a half
centuries. After twenty years, those who were trained as
mechanics, etc., during slavery, began to disappear by death,
and gradually we awoke to the fact that we had no one to
take their places. We had trained scores of young men in
Greek, but few in carpentry, or mechanical or architectural
drawing; we had trained many in Latin, but almost none as
engineers, bridge-builders and machinists. Numbers were
taken from the farnl and educated, but were educated in
everything,except agriculture; hence they had no sympathy
with farm life and did not return to it.
"The place made vacant by old Uncle Jim, who was trained
as a carpenter during slavery, and who, since the war, had
been the leading contractor and builder in the Southern town,
had to be filled. No young colored carpenter capable of
filling Uncle Jim's place could be found. The result was
that his place was filled by a white mechanic from the North,
or from Burope or from elsewhere. . What is true of car¬
pentry and housebuilding in this case is true, in a degree, of
every line of skilled labor, and is becoming true of common
labor. I do not mean to say that all of the skilled labor has
been taken out of the Negro's hands, but I do mean to say
that in no part of the South is he so strong in the matter
of skilled labor as he was twenty years ago, except, possibly,
in the country districts and the smaller towns. In the more
Northern of Southern cities, such as Richmond and Balti¬
more, the change is most apparent, and it is being felt in
every Southern city. Wherever the Negro has lost ground
industrially in the South, it is not because there is a prej¬
udice against him as a skilled laborer on the part of the
native Southern white man, for the Southern white man
generally prefers to do business with the Negro mechanic,
rather than with the white one; for he is accustomed to doing
business with the Negro in this respect. There is almost no
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP. 269
prejudice against the Negro in the'South in matters of bus¬
iness, so far as the native whites are concerned, and here is
the entering wedge for the solution of the race problem.
Where the white mechanic or factory operative gets a hold,
the trades union soon follows and the Negro is crowded to
the wall.
1 'But what is the remedy for this condition? First, it is
most important that the Negro and our white friends honestly
face the facts as they are, otherwise the time will not be far
distant when the Negro in the South will be crowded to the
ragged edge of industrial life, as he is in the North. There
is still time to repair the damage and to reclaim what we
have lost.
"I stated in the beginning that the industrial education for
the Negro has been misunderstood. This has been chiefly
because some have gotten the idea that industrial develop¬
ment was opposed to the Negro's higher mental development.
This has little or nothing to do with the subject under dis¬
cussion; and we should no longer permit such an idea to aid
in depriving the Negro of the legacy in the form of skilled
labor, that was purchased by his forefathers at the price of
two hundred and fifty years in slavery. I would say to the
black boy what I would say to the white boy: get all the
mental development that your time and pocket-book will
afford—the more the better, but the time has come when a
larger proportion, not all (for we need professional men and
women), of the educated colored men and women, should give
themselves to industrial or business life. The professional
class will be helped in proportion as the rank and file have an
industrial foundation so that they can pay for professional
services. Whether they receive the training of the hand
while pursuing their academic training or after their academic
training is finished, or whether they will get their literary
training in an industrial school or college, is a question which
each individual must decide for himself; but, no matter how
or where educated, the educated men and women must come
270
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
to the rescue of the race in the effort to get and hold its in¬
dustrial footing. I would not have the standard of mental
development lowered one whit, for with the Negro, as with all
races, mental strength is the basis of all progress; but I would
have a larger proportion of this mental strength reach the
Negro's actual needs through the medium of the hand. Just
now the need is not so much for common carpenters, brick-
masons, farmers and laundry-women as for industrial leaders;
men who, in addition to their practical knowledge, can draw
plans, make estimates, take contracts; those who understand
the latest methods of truck gardening and the science under¬
lying practical agriculture; those who understand machinery
to the extent that they can operate steam and electric laun¬
dries, so that our women can hold onto the laundry work in
the South that is so fast drifting into the hands of others in
the large cities and towns.
"It is possible for a race or an individual to have mental
development and yet be so handicapped by custom, prejudice
and lack of employment as to dwarf and discourage the whole
life, and this is the condition that prevails among my race
in most of the large cities of the North, and it is to prevent
this same condition in the South that I plead with all the
earnestness of my heart. Mental development alone will not
give us what we want; but mental development, tied to hand
and heart training, will be the salvation of the Negro.
"In many respects the next twenty years are going to be
the most serious in the history of the race. Within this
period it will be largely decided whether the Negro is going
to be able to retain the hold which he now has upon the in¬
dustries of the South, or whether his place will be filled by
white people from a distance. The only way that we can
prevent the industries slipping from the Negro in all parts
of the South, as they have already in certain parts of the
South, is for all the educators, ministers and friends of the
Negro to unite to push forward, in a whole-souled manner,
the industrial or business development of the Negro, either
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP. 271
in school or out of school, or both. Four times as many
young men and women of my race should be receiving in¬
dustrial training. Just now the Negro is in a position to feel
and appreciate the need of this in a way that no one else can.
No one can fully appreciate what I am saying who has not
walked the streets of a Northern city day after day, seeking
employment, only to find every door closed against him on
account of his color, except along certain lines of menial
service. It is to prevent the same thing taking place in the
South that I plead. We may argue that mental development
will take care of all this. Mental development is a good
thing. Gold is also a good thing; but gold is worthless with¬
out opportunity to make it touch the world of trade. Education
increases an individual's wants many fold. It is cruel in many
cases to increase the wants of the black youth by mental de¬
velopment alone, without at the same time increasing his
ability to supply these increased wants along the lines at
which he can find employment.
"I repeat that the value and object of industrial education
has been misunderstood by many. Many have had the
thought that industrial training was meant to make the
Negro work much as he worked during the days of slavery.
This is far from my idea of it. If this training has any value
for the Negro, as it has for the white man, it consists in
teaching the Negro how rather not to work, but how to make
the' forces of nature—air, water, horse power, steam and
electric power—work for him; how to lift labor up out of toil
and drudgery into that which is dignified and beautiful. The
Negro in the South works, and he works hard; but his lack
of skill, coupled with ignorance, causes him to do his work
in the most costly and shiftless manner, and this keeps him
near the bottom of the ladder in the business world. I repeat
that industrial education teaches the Negro how not to work.
Let him who doubts this contrast the Negro in the South,
toiling through a field of oats with an old-fashioned reaper,
with a white man on a modern farm in the West, sitting upon
272
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION.
a modern 'Harvester,' behind two spirited horses, with an
nmbrella over him, using a machine "that cuts and binds the
oats at the same time—doing four times as much work as the
black man with one-half the labor. Let us give the black man
so much skill and brains that he can cut oats like the white
man; then he can compete with him. The Negro works in
cotton, and has no trouble so long as his labor is confined to
the lower forms of work—the planting, the picking and the
ginning. But when the Negro attempts to follow the bale
of cotton up through the higher stages, through the mill
where it is made into the finer fabrics, where the larger profit
appears, he is told that he is not wanted. The Negro can
work in wood and iron, and no one objects so long as he con¬
fines his work to the felling of trees and the sawing of boards,
to the digging of iron ore and the making of pig iron; but
when the Negro attempts to follow his tree into the factory,
where it is made into chairs and desks and railway coaches,
or when he attempts to follow the pig iron into the factory,
where it is made into knife-blades and watch-springs, the
Negro's trouble begins. And what is the objection? Simply
that the Negro lacks skill, coupled with brains, to the extent
that he can compete with the white man, or that when white
men refuse to work- with colored men, enough skilled and
educated colored men cannot be found able to superintend
and man every part of any large industry, and hence, for
these reasons, we are constantly being barred out. The
Negro must become in a larger measure an intelligent pro¬
ducer as well as consumer. There should be more vital
connection between the Negro's educated brain and his op¬
portunity of earning his daily living. Without more atten¬
tion being given to industrial development, we are likely to
have an over-production of educated politicians—men who
are bent on living by their wits. As we get farther away
from the war period, the Negro will not find himself held to
the Republican party by feelings of gratitude. He will feel
himself free to vote for any party, and we are in danger of
JOHN P. GREEN.
Ex-Member Ohio Senate, now U. S. Stamp Agent, D. C.
274
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION\
having the vote or 'influence' of a large proportion of the
educated black men in the market for the highest bidder,
unless attention is given to the education of the hand, or to
industrial developments
"A very weak argument often used against pushing indus¬
trial training for the Negro is that the Southern white man
favors it, and, therefore, it is not best for the Negro. Although
I was born a slave, I am thankful that I am able to so far
rid myself of prejudice as to be able to accept a good thing,
whether it comes from a black man or from a white man, a
Southern man or a Northern man. Industrial education will
not only help the Negro directly in the matter of industrial
development, but it will help in bringing about more satis¬
factory relations between him and the Southern white man.
For the sake of the Negro and the Southern white man,
there are many things in the relations of the two races that
must soon be changed. We cannot depend wholly upon
abuse or condemnation of the Southern white man to bring
about these changes. Each race must be educated to see
matters in a broad, high, generous, Christian spirit; we
must bring the two races together, not estrange them. The
Negro must live for all time by the side of the Southern
white man. The man is unwise who does not cultivate in
every manly way the friendship and good-will of his next-
door neighbor, whether he is black or white. I repeat that
industrial training will help cement the friendship of the two
races. The history of the world proves that trade, commerce,
is the forerunner of peace and civilization as between races
and nations. We are interested in the political welfare of
Cuba and the Sandwich Islands because we have business
interests with these islands. The Jew that was once in
about the same position that the Negro is today, has now
complete recognition, because he has entwined himself about
America in a business or industrial sense. Say or think
what we will, it is the tangible or visible element that is go¬
ing to tell largely during the next twenty years in the solu-
IN HISTORY; AND IN CITIZENSHIP. 275
tion of the race problem. Every white man will respect the
Negro who owns a two-story brick business block in the cen¬
ter of town and has $5,000 in the bank.
UI know that what I have said will likely suggest the idea
that I have put stress upon the lower things of life—the ma¬
terial; that I have overlooked the higher side—the ethical
and religious. I do not overlook or undervalue the higher.
All that I advocate in this article is not as an end, but as a
means. I know as a race we have got to be patient in the
laying of a firm foundation, that our tendency is too often
to get the shadow instead of the substance, the appearance
rather than the reality < I believe further that in a large
measure he who would make the statesmen, the men of let¬
ters, the men for the professions for the Negro race of the
future, must today, in a large measure, make the intelligent
artisans, the manufacturers, the contractors, the real estate
dealers, the land-owners, the successful farmers, the mer¬
chants, those skilled in domestic economy. Further, I know
that it is not an easy thing to make a good Christian of a
hungry man. I mean that just in proportion as the race
gets a proper industrial foundation—gets habits of industry,
thrift, economy, land, homes, profitable work—in the same
proportion will its moral and religious life be improved. I
have written with a heart full of gratitude to all religious
organizations and individuals for what they have done for us
as a race, and I speak as plainly as I do because I feel that
I have had opportunity in a measure to come face to face
with the enormous amount of work that must still be done
by the generous men and women of this country before there
will be in reality, as well as in name, high Christian civil¬
ization among both races in the ' South.
"To accomplish this, every agency now at work in the
South needs reinforcement."
276
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
II. SPEECH BY PROF. W. H. COUNCILS.
The following address on Negro development and the im¬
portance of training, good conduct and the use of opportuni¬
ties, was delivered by Professor Councill at the Southern In¬
dustrial Convention in Philadelphia, June 13,1901:
" Forty years ago North and South crossed swords over
the prostate form of the Negro slave. Today North and
South, singing songs of peace and union, welcome the free
Negro to participate in the industrial, commercial and edu¬
cational development of our country. Forty years ago I
was a slave boy responsible to my master. Today I yam a
free man, responsible to my country and to my God for what
I do with my freedom. Forty years ago I could have brought
to you only the prayers of a few Negroes who could read,
scattered here and there over the nation; but today I bring
to you the greetings of thousands of educated, refined, cul¬
tured Negroes, engaged in all the professions and callings of
life, and three millions who can read and write. Forty
years ago I could have brought to you only a few thousands
of dollars owned by my race in the entire country. Today,
I thank God, I bring to you in the name of my people
270,000 homes and farms, which, together with other prop¬
erty, reach in value a billion dollars. Forty years ago I
could have brought to you not a single Negro school in the
entire South * Today I bring you 20,000 Negro school-
houses, 30,000 Negro teachers and 3,000,000 Negro pupils
treading beneath the Stars and Stripes, singing freedom's
song, while the earth quakes beneath their industrious tread
and the heavens answer back in showers of blessings.
"Whom shall I thank for my redemption from the black¬
ness of savage night—an hour as dark as the brow of mid¬
night, as black as the hinges of hell? By the ordering of
some mysterious power, the South poured into 4,000,000
savages industry and Christianity and prepared them for the
blessed day of freedom. Then, by the ordering of a still
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
277
more ir^sterious Providence, both North and South were
called upon to sacrifi.ce their best blood and spend billions of
treasure for the freedom of those 4,000,000 Christians brought
up from barbarism through the school of slavery. God does
not pay a great price for small things, and in His own good
time He will make it plain. I thank the entire Anglo-Saxon
race for my contact with it. If at some points it was cruel
and hard, at many more points it has been helpful and up¬
lifting to my people. I have no bitterness in my heart
toward your race. I have only blessings for you and yours.
I turn back only a few years to view the resting-place of two
noble men. Under yon wide-spreading elm rest the bones
of my father, and by his side rest the bones of your father.
The ivy creeps around and clings to the little marble slabs
which mark their graves. The violet and wild rose fill the
air with the aroma of peace, while the birds sing in subdued
and mellow notes. Peace reigns there. Cursed be the man
who would disturb the quietness of their sacred abode by
rattling the bones of hatred and contention: cursed be the,
man who would scatter the seeds of malice and strife among
the descendants of those peaceful slumberers. I have noth¬
ing but blessings for North and South. Tread'softly, speak
gently, whisper love, for a kind ^Confederate master slumbers
here; tread lightly, murmur gently, whisper peace, for a
noble Union soldier sleeps there. Wake them not. Let
them dream on—dream away their differences; dream out
strife; dream in peace and joy; dream in union; dream" in a
united land dedicated to freedom.
"I came through the Richmond slave pen to this platform
upon which I stand. I do not regret the hard struggles of
my life and the bitter experiences necessary to my growth,
for, after all, adversity tests and develops man. It should
sweeten his nature and make him sympathize with his
fellow-men. God sometimes heaves men up from the bot¬
tom of the unfortunate masses as gold is thrown up and
diamonds brought forth by volcanic eruptions. Let us all
fh£ Negro in k£ vela tion,
who toil and struggle take heart and labor on. Be con¬
cerned about only one thing, and that is how to be a useful
and helpful man in the world. When hungry and weary,
darkness all around me, naked and bare, in the midst of
these trials, when a small boy, I walked forth one night, my
eyes turned toward the stars in heaven, my only witnesses.
With tears flowing down my black cheeks, my little hand
upraised, I promised God that if He would help me to be a
man I would try to make conditions more favorable for all
other little boys and girls and young people in the world.
It was a great promise, but I have tried to keep it without
regard to race or color. I know no better way to show my
love to God than to render this service to my fellow-man.
"No ten millions of people have ever enjoyed better
chances for material progress than the ten millions of Ne¬
groes in the South today. Bvery avenue in which we are
capable of walking is open to us. Now and then there are
exceptions, but every Negro of the ten millions in the South
can get work, can make money, and can save it. The three
great civilizing, refining agencies—the work-shop, the school¬
room, and the church—are open to us. Ten millions of peo¬
ple in the childhood of development never before in all the
history of the world stood face to face with so great opportu¬
nities and possibilities and so few oppositions as confront us
in the South today. Our few troubles are only the pressures
which have been found among all people necessary in all
ages to crystallize racial tendencies into sturdy character.
"The statement that the Negro is not a tax-payer is gen¬
erally accepted as truth, without a challenge from his best
friends; but is it a fact? The Negro pays taxes, both di¬
rectly and indirectly. To say that people who do such a
large per cent, of the agricultural labor of a country, paying
rent on the lands, do not pay taxes, must be proven by some
system of mathematics not yet invented.
"In the whole country (census of 1890) the Negro occu¬
pied 1,500,000 farms and homes. He owns 270,000 of
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
279
them. It will be a bold man who will assert that the renters
of 1,230,000 homes and farms do not only pay the tax, but
the insurance and all other charges upon such property.
The Negro pays without a murmur his proportion of the
pension tax for ex-Confederates—those grand men who,
leaving their footprints in blood on the snow-covered hills of
Virginia, followed Lee's tattered banners down to Appomat¬
tox. It is not only unjust but cruel to try to take from this
young race those honors which have been so grandly achieved
by honest toil. The Negro asks the races in superior condi¬
tion not to stand in his sunshine, not to misrepresent him,
but give him a chance to use his good right arm in striking
for higher civilization—only a chance to stand or fall like
other men.
4'It is charged that the nearly two hundred colleges, acad¬
emies, seminaries, normal and industrial schools'scattered
over the South since the war have not made the Negro bet¬
ter. If that is so, it is unwise to dedicate another building
to the education of the Negro; but the charge is not true.
Crime is not committed because of education, but because of
the lack of the proper kind of education. Negro criminals
are of the most illiterate, stupid and besotted element. They
come from among that class which has not yet been reached
by the process of education and true civilization. The white
South has acted admirably, the North has given grandly, the
Negro has done well for himself; yet there still hovers over
us a black cloud of ignorance which cannot be removed by
disfranchising the Negro nor by any injustice or oppression.
This nation must soon or late adopt measures to lift up its
ignorant masses.
"I am now collecting statistics by which it is shown that
the larger per cent, of the 270,000 farms and homes owned
by Negroes are the property of Negroes who can read and
write.
"Let us examine Negro crime as shown by the eleventh
census:
18
280
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION.
Whites. Negroes.
In all prisons in the United States..
Rate per cent, neither read nor write
Rate of literacy, read and write
Per cent, with trades
Per cent, without trades
57,310 24,272
70.68 54.13
86.58 39.11
14.70 2.50
67.65 90.41
"It will be observed that the Negro criminal element is
about thirty-three to 10,000 of the Negro population, or
24,272 for the whole race in the United States. It is admit¬
ted by all that 40 per cent, of Negro illiteracy has been
wiped out since freedom, or 2,800,000 Negroes out of
7,000,000 have learned to read and write. Of the 24,272
Negro criminals, 54.13 per cent., or 13,138, can neither
read nor write; so in 2,800,000 Negroes who can read and
write there are 11,134 criminals, according to government
statistics, kept by the men who make, construe and execute
all laws in this country. Do these statistics justify the
assertion, born of ignorance, that education is injuring the
Negro and ruining the South?
"The compiler of the eleventh census says: 'Of juvenile
criminals, the smallest ratio is found among Negroes under
twenty years of age.' He further says that from twenty to
twenty-nine years of age the smallest ratio is among Negroes.
"I am indebted to Hon. Judson W. Lyons, register of the
United States Treasury, for the following statistics, showing
the wonderful influence of Negro labor in the commercial
industries of the world: More cotton is exported from the
United States than any other one article. In the last ten
/ears 30,000,000,000 pounds of cotton, valued at $2,250,-
000,000, have been exported. The United States produces
more cotton than all the balance of the world. The cotton
manufacturers of Great Britain, Germany, France, Belgium
and Italy depend upon our cotton exports. Ten years ago
$254,000,000 were invested in cotton manufactories, employ¬
ing 221,585 operatives, who received for wages $67,489,000
per annum. The South produced from 1880 to 1890 620,-
JNO. S DURHAM.
Ex-Minister to Port-au Prince,
282
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
000,000 bushels of corn, 73,000,000 bushels of wheat and
97,000,000 bushels of oats. Negroes perform four-fifths of
the labor of the South. Therefore their share of the average
annual production of corn, wheat, oats and cotton was
$431,320,000 per annum. The entire cotton acreage of the
South would form an area of 40,000 square miles. Negro
labor cultivates 32,000 square miles of this space.
"Gentlemen, is it wise for the American nation to under¬
value this great wealth-producing element of its population?
Should not the law-making powers of the country encourage
and seek to settle and make contented this vast wealth-pro¬
ducing people of our land?
"The few disturbances and outbreaks in the South show
the wonderful organic forces in the South. We have here
10,000,000 of Negroes and 15,000,000 whites, and yet we
have probably in the whole South only one Negro and white
man in 10,000 who clash. The other 9,999 rub against
one another every hour of the day, in every walk of life,
transact their business and go on their way in perfect friend¬
ship. These peaceful relations of the 9,999 give a bolder
prominence to the one exception which is held up by enemies
as a general rule. The love and attachment between the
races of the South are more than wonderful, when we con¬
sider the untiring efforts of busy and meddlesome enemies
seeking to scatter seeds of discord and break up our peace.
We 9,999 will stand firmly for good-will and happiness of
both races in the South. No enemy shall take- that one
sinner in 10,000 and disrupt and tear us asunder. We have
labored side by side for centuries, and have never harmed
each other. The Negro is too often badly misrepresented.
It often seems hard for another people to do him justice. Bach
race must write its own history; each race must interpret its
own aspirations.
"It is a weak and mistaken policy which advocates meager
provisions and facilities for the training and education of the
Negro. It is the educated mind and the trained hand which
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
283
must make valuable our natural resources—mind and muscle
to the river, mind and muscle to the soil, mind and muscle
to raw materials, mind and muscle to the forest, mind and
muscle to the waste places. Mind alone gives life to all,
gives value to all, makes all blossom into fruitage. The
nation must treat the Negro fairly, must educate his head,
heart and hand, or buy Gatling guns and drive him into the
Gulf of Mexico, as the Indian is being driven into his
grave toward the setting sun. Since the Negro is a recog¬
nized part of the productive element of this nation, it will
be well for the nation to remember that no government can
rise higher or run faster than the weakest element in it.
It would be a sin for the strong white man, in whose hands
we are as Lilliputians in the hands of Brobdingnags, to
do one thing or say one thing or insinuate one thing to
cripple Negro education. Let the South be proud of what
the North has done for Negro education. If it were in my
power I would select the highest place in the blackest South,
and there I would erect a monument of the most imperishable
marble, with its head far in the azure depths above, to the
sacred memory of the teachers from the North, who, forsaking
the comforts and civilization of their homes, have sacrificed
all for the redemption of the South from its long night of
ignorance and industrial stagnation. Let the South be proud
of what its fathers did to raise four millions of savages to ten
millions of Christians. What we are we owe it all to the South.
Our ambition, our inspiration, the directing energies of our
destiny, are all Southern, breathed into us by Southern men.
"There can be no doubt that the South has the most loyal
and docile labor in the world. Nowhere on the globe is such
loyalty to employer to be found. The Negro is true to his
master under all circumstances. His obligation is more
sacred than racial ties. Would Irish waiters serve all the
world except Irishmen? Would a German barber shave every
man except a German? Would the American Indian dis¬
criminate against himself? Do you say it is cowardice in
284
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
the Negro? It is not so. It is Negro religion which rises
above every worldly consideration to tlie purely ideal, spir¬
itual world, wliere there are no races, parties or clans. This
element in Negro nature, so much slandered by his white
brother, is the noblest quality in mankind.
"We teach every Negro boy and girl to work; we ask
nothing but a chance to work and to be paid for our work;
we envy no man; take nothing from any man. We teach that
every honest Negro drayman, servant-girl, washer-woman,
mechanic, hotel-boy, barber who does his duty in an intelli¬
gent, competent and trustworthy manner is a queen or a
prince among men; no honest labor is dishonorable. It is
more blessed to serve than to be served in any walk of life.
The servant-girl's hood and apron above an honest heart and
educated brain are as honorable as the college cap and gown.
Let the Negro race carry the pick in one hand and the olive
branch of peace in the other.
"The Negro leaders must go forth as saviors of the masses
of our people, to pour into them hope, industry, true Chris¬
tianity, enlightenment of mind and conscience, and, above all,
contentment. I regret that there is an element of white men
in this country who continually nag the Negro; they wrill do
no real harm, but render the uneducated Negro unhappy,
discontented, suspicious, and interfere with his efficiency as
a laborer. It unsettles Negro labor, and produces a kind of
stagnation in the community. Gentlemen of the convention,
you can stop this unwise and unjust treatment of your labor¬
ing class. We all regret this condition of affairs and we
must labor with the good element of white men, which has
constantly increased, both North and South, for the eleva¬
tion of the Negro and the true happiness of all the people of
our American republic.
"Any coward can oppress a people—can be unfair—but it
takes a brave man to treat all meii, of whatever race and con¬
dition, fairly and justly. Any other ideal, any other treat¬
ment of men, transmits to posterity a race of moral weaklings
IN HISTORY, yAND IN CITIZENSHIP. 285
and cowards. Teach every Negro boy and girl that the
salvation of life, the salvation of everything in the world, is
the glorious end of education and duty. Then there could
be no race conflict. I would rather see every Negro of the
ten millions in this country driven into the Gulf of Mexico
and sink beneath its waters with spotless souls, than to live
with the blood of human beings, with the blood of another
race, dripping from victorious daggers in Negro hands.
"It is no exaggeration to say that not one white man in a
hundred has studied the better side of Negro life. Ninety-
nine out of every hundred notices that appear in the public
press deal with the evil side of Negro life. The American
white man has little conception of the real progress made by
the Negro in the last forty years. He sees the shiftless
dudes and criminal Negro, but rarely stops to note that in¬
telligent, industrious, sober, earnest, law-abiding and God¬
fearing army of Negroes, 3,000,000 strong, who are forging
their way, step by step, onward, in the face of slander and
attempted detraction, to respectable citizenship and recogni¬
tion in the world. The men who know the Negro and who
have studied him from contact with his better life are the
solid, substantial business men of the country, who are always
willing to testify to the worth of my people. The politician,
whose stock in trade is in proportion to his loud and bitter
abuse of the Negro, is ignorant of the true character and
progress of the race. There would be no Negro problem
were it not for these politicians, who cry aloud to arouse the
ignorant masses and thereby ride into power on popular prej¬
udice. Notwithstanding all this, there is a large class of
white men throughout the South and throughout the nation,
who, in public and private life, by word and deed, are labor¬
ing to hold in check baneful influences and generate health¬
ful energies for the betterment of the Negro and the peace
and salvation of the government. They are not ashamed to
put their strong arms around their black brother, help him
to his feet, and fight back the mob to give him a chance to
286
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
stand. To these men, in the humble and business walk of
life, the Negro must look for help and the nation for salva¬
tion.
"Whatever views we may hold in regard to the civilization
and development of Africa, however fondly we may wish the
repatriation of the Negro element in our population, it still
remains a fact that the Negro is a permanent fixture in the
American body politic. He will not go out. He cannot be
killed out. Ten millions of people can neither be removed
nor destroyed in a day by the snap of a finger, nor the belch¬
ing forth of deadly guns. We are down to hard work, try¬
ing to make the best of ourselves that we can. The masses of
the Negro race are working hard, accumulating property and
character, enriching the nation by their industrious arms,
obeying the laws, fighting for the Stars and Stripes, and
serving God, and that God will shape for them a grand and
noble destiny. God has always taken care of these ques¬
tions, and I believe He will continue to do so.
'Truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne,
Yet that scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim unknown
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above His own.'
1 'Violence is the argument of cowards and unwise people.
Shotguns correct nothing; swords conquer nothing. Those
who use the sword must perish by it. The Negro has the
most powerful weapon known to men. It is the only con¬
vincing argument; it is the only weapon which brings last¬
ing conquest; it is the sword of the spirit; it is faith in God.
The Negro cannot hope to succeed with carnal weapons, but
with spirit forces there is no ocean which he cannot cross;
no Alps which he cannot scale. Persecutions in time turn on
the persecutor with a thousandfold more destructive malig¬
nity than was visited upon the persecuted. Wrongs are
like the boomerang, and return to those who hurl them with
more deadly results than they inflict upon the intended vic¬
tim. No people were ever persecuted down; they were al-
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
287
ways persecuted up. If we have been persecuted in this
country, such, persecution has more than doubled our popu¬
lation in thirty-eight years and has increased our material
wealth by $1,000,000,000 in the same time.
'Let us call tyrants tyra?its, and maintain
That only freedom comes by the grace of God,
And all that comes not by His grace must fail.'
"Discarding politics and considering the relations of the
two races in the South, their mutual helpfulness in all the
essential elements of civilization, the results are marvelous
beyond anything in history. The contribution to Negro edu¬
cation and religion in proportion to the ability of the South
exceeds that of any other section of our country. The North
and West, with limitless resources, have had a hundred
years of unbroken prosperity. The South has been the scene
of conflicts. Vast armies have thundered over her and wasted
her life; her whole social and commercial fabric has been de¬
stroyed. Yet out of this wreck she has crawled, and with
the new order of things promises more excellent develop¬
ment. In my lifetime I have seen in this change of South¬
ern affairs a grander miracle than was enacted when Christ
called Lazarus from the grave. Old slave plantations have
been turned into industrial schools for the old slaves; mas¬
ters' old mansions turned into colleges for the slaves, and old
slaves now presidents of these colleges. Normal, which I
have the honor to represent, was once a famous inn and race¬
track. There stood the distillery; there stood the grog-shop;
there stood the auction-block whereon the Negro was sold.
Today it is one of the largest Negro collegiate and industrial
schools in the world, and every man on its board of trustees
was a commissioned officer in the Confederate army.
"The prophet has said: 'The people that walked in dark¬
ness have seen a great light. They that dwell in the land of
the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.' All
this has taken place in my day in the South.
288
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
"Whatever lifts up the white race in the South must lift
up the Negro race. Breathe into the white boys and girls of
the South intelligence, justice, truth, mercy and industry
and the Negro will be benefited. Nothing has ever been in
my way but ignorance, either on my own part or the part of
the other man. There is but one superiority, and that is
the superiority of virtue. That man is superior who does
the superior thing to lift mankind to superior conditions.
The Atlanta News, in combating a proposition to divide the
school fund between the races in proportion to the taxes paid
by each, exclaims: 'What an attitude would we occupy be¬
fore the world if we should disfranchise the illiterate and
abolish their schools!' The Nashville American, comment¬
ing on the position taken by the supporters of the move¬
ment, says: 'A very indefensible attitude. The caring for
the Negro rests with the Southern white people. They
must school them and give them employment.
4'When by persecution Galileo was forced to deny his doc¬
trine of the movement of the heavenly bodies, he followed his
recantation with these remarkable words: 'It moves, for all
that.' So, notwithstanding the unfair discussion of the Ne¬
gro question, notwithstanding the foundationless charges of
criminality among the educated Negro, the race moves just
the same. Notwithstanding the doctrine of the inferiority of
race, instead of inferiority of condition, the Negro race
moves onward. The aggregate Negro is viewed, while the
individual Negro is ignored, in making up the popular ver¬
dict against the race. Let our critics view the units of the
race, and they will have a better opinion of us. Let every
white man judge the Negro by his best experience with him,
and not by the worst which he hears of him. Let the ques¬
tion of inferiority and superiority rest. If we do good work
and show ourselves worthy, no amount of injustice or de¬
traction can keep us down in the end.
"The solution of the race problem does not depend upon
whether the Negro votes or not. Colleges cannot solve it;
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP. 289
houses and lands cannot solve it; wealth and all the power,
ease and comfort which it brings may aggravate it. If the
Negro remains in this country, the race question can be set¬
tled only by each race understanding its relation to the other
and each knowing its place and each keeping its place. The
solution of the race problem does not mean social equality
between the races, but it does mean that the American public
must do justice to the Negro of merit. The solution of the
race problem does not mean the triumph of one race over
another. It does not necessarily mean the measuring of
industrial and literary capacities. It does not mean com¬
parison of racial endurance and racial possibilities, but it
does mean peace and mutual helpfulness between the races.
If this is not to be the result of discussion and present edu¬
cational effort, then our civilization is a failure and our
Christianity a farce. If every white man in the land would
say all the good things he can about every black man in the
land and do all the good things he can for every black man
in the land, and every black man in the land would say all
the good things he can about every white man in the land
and do all the good things he can for every white man in the
land, the race question with all its concomitant evils would
disappear before God's sunshine of peace, good-will and
prosperity forever."
19
PHELPS HALL, BIBLE AND TRAINING SCHOCL, TUSKEGEE INSTITUTE.
CHAPTER XI.
Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute,
i. character of the school and what it seeks to do.
This institution for tlie instruction and training of colored
youth has become famous among the great schools of the
United States. The influence that emanates from it is wide¬
spread, and it is beneficent in its effects not only upon the
colored population, but upon the whites in that great degree
in which the interests of the two races are common. This is
true alike of the public teachings of the distinguished prin¬
cipal, Booker T. Washington, and of the attainments and
conduct of the little army of students who annually go from
its recitation rooms, its laboratories, its shops and its fields,
to carry into their life work the principles and purposes with
which they have been imbued, and the intellectual strength
and manual skill that fit them for usefulness and for rising
to positions of honor and independence.
A succinct statement of the general character of the school
and what it seeks to accomplish and is accomplishing may
very appropriately find a place in this book, and we here
present extracts from the nineteenth annual report of the
principal, that for the year ended May 31, 1900, as embody¬
ing such statement:
"There has not been a year since freedom came to
the Negro that has witnessed such wide-spread discus¬
sion, both North and South, of all phases of his condition,
as the present one. I cannot rid myself of the feeling that
much, if not all, of this discussion is going to prove most
helpful to the Negro's education and general development.
"I am of the opinion that there is more thoughtful interest
in the Negro at the present time than has ever before existed.
291
292
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION.
The mere spasmodic and sentimental interest in him has
been, in a large degree, replaced by the more substantial,
thoughtful kind, based upon a comprehension of the facts.
"One is often surprised at the misleading and unfounded
statements made regarding the progress of the Negro, but
these very exaggerations serve a good purpose in causing
individuals to seek facts for themselves.
"For example, I have recently seen a statement going the
rounds of the press, to the effect that, out of 1,200 students
THIS FACULTY, TUSKKGF.K, INSTITUTE.
educated at industrial schools only twelve were farming, and
three working at the trades for which they were educated.
Whether the Tuskegee Institute was included in this list,
I do not know.
"It is to be regretted that those who presume to speak with
authority on the advancement of the Negro do not in more
cases actually visit him, where they can see his better life.
Few of the people who make discouraging statements regard¬
ing him have ever taken the trouble to inspect his home life,
DAIRY CLASS, TUSKEGEE INSTITUTE.
294
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION.
his school life, his church life, or his business or industrial
life. It is always misleading to judge any race or commu¬
nity by its worst. The Negro race should, like other races,
be judged by its best types rather than by its worst.
"Any one who judges of the value of industrial education
by the mere number who actually follow the industry or
trade learned at a school makes a mistake. One might as
well judge of the value of arithmetic by the number of people
who spend their time after leaving school in working out
problems in arithmetic.
4'The chief value of industrial education is to give to the
students habits of industry, thrift, economy, and an idea of
the dignity of labor. But, in addition to this, in the present
economic condition of the colored people, it is most important
that a very large proportion of those trained in such institu¬
tions as this actually spend their time at industrial occupa¬
tions. Let us value the work of Tuskegee by this test: On
January 10th of this school year we dedicated the Slater-
Armstrong Memorial Trades' Building. This building is in
the form of a double Greek cross, and in its main dimensions
is 283x315 feet, and is two stories high. The plans of this
building were drawn by our instructor in mechanical drawing,
a colored man. 800,000 bricks were required to construct it,
and every one of them was manufactured by our students
while learning the trade of brickmaking. All the bricks
were laid into the building by students who were being
taught the trade of brickmasonry. The plastering, carpentry
work, painting and tin-roofing were done by students while
learning those trades. The whole number of students who
received training on this building alone was about 196. It is
to be lighted by electricity, and all the electric fixtures are
being put in by students who are learning electrical en¬
gineering. The power to operate the machinery in this
building comes from a 125 horse-power engine and a 75 horse¬
power boiler. All this machinery is not only operated by
students who are learning the trade of steam engineering,
CLASS IN CHEMISTRY, TUSKEGEE INSTITUTE.
296
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
but was installed by students under the guidance of their
instructor.
''Let us take another example, that of agriculture. Our
students actually cultivate every day 700 acres of land while
studying agriculture. The students studying dairying
actually milk and care for 75 milch cows daily. Besides,
they of course take care of the dairy products. All of this is
done while learning the industry of dairying. The whole
number of students receiving instruction in the divisions of
agriculture and dairying the past year is 142.
"The students who are receiving training in farming have
cared for 619 head of hogs this year; and so I could go on
and give not theory, nor hearsay, but actual facts, gleaned
from all the departments of the school.
"It does not look reasonable that, of all the large number
of students engaged upon the farms and in the dairy, that
only about one per cent, should make any practical use of
their knowledge after leaving Tuskegee. But this is not the
fact. The best place to get a true estimate of an individual
is at his home. The same is true of an institution. Let us
take, for example, Macon county, Alabama, in which the
Tuskegee Institute is located. By a careful investigation it
is found that there are not less than 35 graduates and former
students in Macon county and the town of Tuskegee alone
who are working at trades or industries which they learned
at this institution. At the present time a large two-story
brick building is going up in the town of Tuskegee that is
to be used as a store. In the first place, the store is owned
by a graduate of this institution. From the making of the
brick to the completion of all the details of this building, the
work is being done by graduates or former students of this
school; and so the examples could be multiplied. Following
the graduates and former students into the outer world, the
record is as follows: A careful examination shows that at
least three-fourths of them are actually using during the
whole time, or a part of the time, the industrial knowledge
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
297
which they gained here. Even those who do not use this
knowledge in making a living use it as housekeepers in their
private homes; and those who teach in the public schools,
either directly or indirectly, use it in helping their pupils.
"Aside from all that I have said, it must be kept in mind
that the whole subject of industrial training on any large and
systematic scale is new, and besides is confined to a very few
institutions in the South. Industrial training could not be
expected to revolutionize the progress of a race within ten or
k >
chape;Iy, TUSKRCKK institute;.
fifteen years. At the present time the call for graduates
from this institution to take positions as instructors of indus¬
tries in other smaller institutions, as well as in city schools,
is so urgent and constant that many of our graduates who
would work independently at their trades are not permitted
to do so. In fact, one of the most regrettable things in con¬
nection with our whole work is that the calls for our gradu¬
ates are so many more than we can supply. As the demand
for instructors in industrial branches of various schools be-
298 THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
comes supplied, a still larger precentage of graduates will
use their knowledge of tlie trades in independent occupations.
"The average attendance for the school year has been
1,083—321 young women and 762 young men. The total
enrollment has been 1,231—359 young women and 872 young
men. Nine-tenths of the number have boarded and slept on
the "school grounds. In all the departments, including offi¬
cers, clerks and instructors, 103 persons are in the employ
of the school. Counting students, officers and teachers, to¬
gether with their families, the total number of persons con¬
stantly upon the school grounds is about 1,200. Students
have come to us from twenty-seven States and Territories,
from Africa, Porto Rico, Cuba, Jamaica and Barbadoes.
There are twelve students from Cuba alone.
''During the present school year students have been trained
in the following twenty-eight industries, in addition to the
religious and academic training: Agriculture, dairying,
horticulture, stock-raising, blacksmithing, brick-masonry,
carpentry, carriage trimming, cooking, architectural, free¬
hand and mechanical drawing, plain sewing, plastering,
plumbing, printing, saw-milling, foundrying, housekeeping,
harness-making, electrical engineering, laundering, machin¬
ery, mattress-making, millinery, nurse training, painting,
shoe-making, tailoring, tinning and wheelwrighting.
"We have made progress in the matter of training young
women in outdoor occupations. Beginning with this school
year, we are now giving a number of girls training in
poultry-raising, bee culture, dairying, gardening, fruit¬
growing, etc. A larg'e hennery is now being built, and it
will be almost wholly under the supervision of our girls.
"Notwithstanding the stress put upon industrial training,
we are not in any degree neglecting normal training for
those who are to teach in the public schools. The number
of graduates this year from all the departments is fifty-one.
In addition to religious and academic training, each one of
these graduates has had training at some trade or industry.
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
299
In considering the number that go out each year, account
should be taken of those who are well trained, but who are
unable to remain long enough to graduate. Our graduates
and former students are now scattered all over the South;
and, wherever they can, they not only help the colored peo¬
ple, but use their influence in cultivating friendly relations
between the races.
'' While our work is not sectarian, it is thoroughly Christian;
and the growth in the religious tone of the school is most
nurse-training class, tuskegee institute;.
gratifying. We have had more visits this year than ever
from Southern white people, who are more and more showing
their interest in our effort.
"In closing this report I would say that my feeling grows
stronger each year that the main thing that we want to be
sure of is that the Negro is making progress day by day.
With constant, tangible, visible, indisputable progress being
made evident, all the minor details regarding the adjustment
of our position in the body politic will, in a natural way,
settle themselves."
300
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
II. SUMMARY OF THE WORK DONE.
The following account of what has been accomplished by
the Tuskegee School and of the character of Booker T. Wash¬
ington is from the pen of Maj. W. W. Screws, editor of the
Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser:
i 'In the early part of the year 1881 there came to Tuskegee
a very quiet, unassuming colored man, for the purpose of es¬
tablishing an institution for the education of colored boys
and girls. From the day of his arrival, when he had only
modest surroundings, until the present, when his name and
that of the institution over which he presides is known over
the entire continent, Booker T. Washington has had the ab¬
solute confidence of the white people of that community.
There is never a word of harsh criticism of him or his meth¬
ods. He has been singularly imbued with a desire to culti¬
vate good relations between the two races, and to be of lasting
benefit to his own people. He is succeeding in both under¬
takings. There is nothing of the agitator about him. His
ways are those of pleasantness and peace, and as far as his
voice and example prevail, there will always be the best of
feeling between the white and black people of this country.
Fred Douglass and some other colored men have figured as
orators and office-holders, but it is no exaggeration to say
that Booker T. Washington far surpasses any of them who
have at all figured in a public way. He does something for
his people and his country, while the others have done mostly
for themselves. The modest colored man of Tuskegee de¬
serves to be classed as the foremost man of his race in the
world. Evidence of his earnestness and sincerity of purpose
is furnished by an incident that occurred not long ago. His
salary is fixed by the Board of Trustees, several of whom are
prominent citizens of Tuskegee. In view of the immense
amount of work he was doing, it was thought proper to in¬
crease his salary. When informed of this action he promptly
declined it, saying that the amount he was receiving was
ample compensation, and that he did not'desire any more.
IN HISTORY; AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
301
"The people of the late slave States Have to contend with
the race question, and whoever pursues a course and policy
calculated to remove difficulties, and to establish kind rela¬
tions, is a public benefactor. No free people will remain in
ignorance, and it has long since been demonstrated that the
Negroes will receive such education as opportunity offers.
Alabama makes no discrimination in the distribution of school
money, for it is paid out per capita, and every school child,
whether white or black, gets the benefit of the sum to which it
is entitled. It is a blessing for the control of the colored schools
to fall into the hands of such men as Booker T. Washington.
It can be said to his credit that colored teachers are found all
over Alabama who were educated at his institution, and, in
every instance, the white people commend them for instilling
correct notions into their pupils and for impressing upon
them the fact that they cannot prosper unless their white
neighbors prosper, and unless a proper understanding exists
between them. It is infinitely better to have teachers who
have such notions than those who would seek to create prej¬
udice, which would inevitably lead to trouble.
"As stated at the outset, this institution began operations in
1881, and with only one small frame building. The Adver¬
tiser has published a great deal about it in the last few years,
and its readers are fairly well acquainted with its object and
scope. In a brief way, a presentation is here made of what
is now being done at this institution.
"The Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute has, up to
date, enrolled 987 students. . This does not include the Pri¬
mary Department, known as the Model School, which has an
enrollment of 235. The work carried on at the institution is a
high Bnglish course, combined with the industrial training,
so arranged and correlated that one department does not in¬
terfere with the other, but aims to assist the other in every
feature. The institution now has eighty-six officers and
teachers in the various academic and industrial departments.
302
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION.
There are over 800 boarders in the institution, about three-
fifths males and two-fifths females.
"The property consists of 2,300 acres of land and forty-five
buildings, large and small. The large buildings are Phelps
Hall, the Bible Training Department, Porter Hall, Science
Hall, Cassedy Hall, Alabama Hall, the Seniors' Home,
Willow Cottage, the Annex and Agricultural Hall. All of
the largest buildings are built of brick manufactured by the
students on the school grounds, and all the work done in
constructiug buildings on the grounds—both large and
small—is done by the students, under their different in¬
structors.
''From the beginning, the industrial work has been empha¬
sized, to prepare tradesmen, who have been elevated to a very
high point among their different trades. The government
of the institution has felt that in.order to put the Negro
race on its proper footing in the South, and in order that
they may hold their own, that they must be well edu¬
cated in industrial pursuits, and that they should be carried
as fast as their ability would allow them, in order that they
might become leaders in the various sections of the South.
The industries taught at the institution for the male pupils
are as follows:
"Tailoring,- where all the uniforms are made for the stu¬
dents, citizens' suits for teachers and a great number of the
people in the town of Tuskegee.
"Harness-making in all of its branches, from the common
farm harness to the highest grade of coach and express
harness.
"The shoe-making department receives more orders than
it can fill, from teachers, students and citizens.
' 'The tinning department is where all of the tinware for the
institution is made; also there is a great demand from both
the people in the town and the surrounding country for tin¬
ware manufactured in it. This department also does all the
tin roofing for the institution.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON.
304
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
"The painting department is kept busy painting buggies
and carriages manufactured at the institution for sale, keeps
up all the repair work and paints all of the new buildings as
fast as they are constructed on the grounds. There is a
great demand on it from the citizens of the town to paint
buggies, carriages, etc.
"The wheelwright department turns out a large number of
wagons, buggies, phaetons, dump-carts, wheelbarrows, hand¬
carts and other work in that line, besides doing a great deal
of repairing for the country people.
"The blacksmith department is where all of the car¬
riages, buggies, wagons, wheelbarrows and other new work
from the wheelwright department is ironed off. It also does
extensive horseshoeing for people in town. In fact, it is
the only shop in this locality where first-class horseshoeing
is done. The students are not only taught the principles of
how to make and put on a shoe, but are taught the anatomy
of a horse's foot.
"The foundry makes all of the small castings used in the
institution, such as andirons, window-weights, etc. Cast¬
ings for six small three-horse-power engines and two pumps
have been made in this department.
"The machine shop has a good outfit for turning out ma¬
chinery, such as engines, pumps, etc., and does a great deal
of repair work on engines, pumps and other kinds of ma¬
chines for the surrounding country.
"The carpentry department, which is, perhaps, the largest
department connected with the institution, gives instruction
in the line of house-building and making furniture of differ¬
ent kinds. It furnishes all the furniture for the students'
dormitories, and tables and seats for the various recitation
rooms. All of the wood-work done on the different build¬
ings, from the beginning of the institution, has been done
by this department.
"The institution owns a well-equipped saw mill. It cuts
its own timber and hauls it to the mill to be sawed up and
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP. 305
used in the construction of the various buildings and furni¬
ture for the institution.
"At the brickyard, all of the brick used in the various
buildings on the grounds are made, and on an average ten
thousand are sold to the people every month in various sec¬
tions of the county. The machinery at the brickyard is
of the latest improved, and has the capacity of making
twenty-five thousand bricks daily. It is said by competent
judges that visit the institution, that they have never seen
better brick anywhere than those made in this department.
All of the bricks are made and burned by the students.
"In the brickmason department the students lay all of the
bricks put in the different buildings, build all the chimneys
and do all the plastering, etc., of the various buildings. It
is safe to say that no department on the place does better
work than this department.
"The institution's dairy herd furnishes the institution and
the people who live in this immediate section with all the
milk and butter they use. It has three separators of different
makes, and a large number of churns of different varie¬
ties. The dairy is run on scientific principles, both as to
feeding and caring for the stock, and separating the milk
and making the butter and cheese. Its aim is to turn out
persons who are able to go out and take charge of a first-class
dairy.
"Truck gardening is taught very extensively, also horti¬
culture. The institution aims, as near as possible, to supply
itself with vegetables, fruits, etc., raised on its own farm.
From two to three crops are raised on all of its land. Be¬
sides the plats that are used for truck gardening, the insti¬
tution owns an eight-hundred-acre farm about three miles
from the school site, where large grain for feeding stock,
sweet potatoes, peas and sugar-cane are raised on a very large
scale. In fact, nearly all the syrup used in the institution
this year was raised on this farm. Hog-raising is made a
specialty, and is very successfully done.
20
306
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
"The agricultural building, which was given by the John
F. Slater fund, and opened on the 30th of last November,
makes a new feature in the institution in the line of teaching
agriculture, dairying, horticulture and other branches of in¬
dustry along that line. This building has been well equipped
and good work is being done in it.
"All of the pupils who enter the institution are compelled
to take some line of industry in some of the different trades:
agriculture, office-work, or something that will put them in
a position to earn an honest living after leaving the institu¬
tion. All of the industries for both men and women are so
arranged that they do not interfere with their literary course
of study. On an average, they are instructed four days out
of the week in the literary line of class-room work, and one
half day in the shop or whatever industry they may pursue.
"The work for young women is laundering, domestic
science in the line of housekeeping, cooking, nurse-training,
dressmaking, plain sewing in all its forms and millinery.
"The object of all the industries is to make them educa¬
tional in every feature, and to add dignity to labor.
' 'The institution has a very large, well-fitted printing office.
Some of the machinery in this office is one large newspaper
cylinder press, one large and three smaller job presses, wire
stitching machine, paper cutter, perforating machine, and
the necessary type to turn out work of a very high class
very quickly. The presses are run by two small upright
engines, made by the students in the machine shop.
"For eight years the institution has had on hand a small
canning outfit. The amount of fruit and vegetables put up
in this department has increased every year. The outfit is
not a costly one, and could be attached to any steam boiler and
operated by a man and a few small boys and girls. The in¬
stitution has put out within the last few years, on an average,
one thousand peach and other fruit trees every year, which
are beginning to yield fruit to a greater extent than the
present outfit can put up. All of the cans used in this de-
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
307
partment are made by the students, and the work of cooking
the fruit and filling the cans is done by them. The institu¬
tion has quite a number of young men and women who have
served an apprenticeship in this department, and can go out
in any section of the country and can fruit on a large or
small scale, or give instructions in this line.
i'It might be supposed that with so large a collection of
colored people, about twelve hundred, in a town of this
size, there would be trouble between the races. There has
never been an instance of this kind, and there is not likely
to be as long as the influence of President Washington pre¬
vails. The white citizens, without exception, say that you
would scarcely know of so many colored pupils being here,
as they are under the very best of discipline, and good be¬
havior is the rule with all the students. It is really a
pleasure to the citizens of Tuskegee to bear testimony to the
excellence of this institution and its management."
III. BOOKER T. WASHINGTON EXPLAINS TO A NORTHERN
AUDIENCE HIS CONNECTION WITH THE SCHOOL, AND
NOTICES THE RELATIONS OF THE RACES
IN THE SOUTH.'54'
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen :
1 'My words to you tonight will be based upon an humble
effort during the last fourteen years to better the condition of
my people in the 'Black Belt' of the South. It was my
privilege to start life at the point now occupied by most of
my people—in a small, one-room log cabin on a slave planta¬
tion in Virginia. After slavery, while working in the coal
mines of West Virginia for the support of my mother, I
heard in some way of the Hampton Institute, General Arm¬
strong's school in Virginia; heard that it was an institution
where a poor boy could enter and have the privilege of work¬
ing for a portion of his expenses. Almost without money
or friends, by walking and begging rides, I reached Rich-
* Speech in Carnegie Hall, New York,
m
THE NEGkO IN RE VELA TION,
niond, Virginia, without a penny; and there, by sleeping
under the sidewalk by night and working on a vessel by day,
I earned money enough to enable me to reach the Hampton
Institute. At Hampton I found the opportunity, in the way
of buildings, teachers and industries, for me to remain there
and get training in the class-room; and by practical touch
with industrial life, thrift, economy, push, to be surrounded
by an atmosphere of business, Christian influences, and a
spirit of self-help that seemed to have awakened every fac¬
ulty in me, and caused me for the first time to realize what
it meant to be a man instead of a piece of property.
" While at Hampton I resolved that I would go into the
far South and give my life to providing this same kind of
opportunity for self-awakening and self-help that I found
provided for me at the Hampton Institute; and so starting
at Tuskegee, Alabama, in 1881, in a small shanty with one
teacher and thirty students, without a dollar's worth of
property, this spirit of self-help and industrial thrift, coupled
with aid from the State and generosity from the North, has
resulted in our building, at Tuskegee, an institution of 800
students, gathered from nineteen States; seventy instructors,
1,400 acres of land and thirty-eight buildings, twenty-three
industries, in all, property valued at $225,000, all carried on
at a cost of $75,000 a year.
"This is kept uppermost: To train men and women in
head, heart and hand; to meet conditions that exist right
about them rather than conditions that existed centuries ago,
or that exist in communities a thousand miles away. And
so, in connection with our literary and religious training, we
have students cultivate, by the improved methods in farming,
650 acres of land, then we teach them dairying, horticulture,
cooking, sewing, millinery, and have them make the brick,
do the brickmasonry, plastering, sawing of the lumber and
do the carpenter work, and have them help draw the plans in
connection with thirty buildings. We are not saying that
education in the classics, of ministers, lawyers and doctors,
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP. 309
is not necessary and important, but we are saying, with
every atom of our being, that since 90 per cent, of the black
race depend at present upon the common occupations, and
that since 85 per cent, of our people live by agriculture and
are in the country districts of the South, it is of the utmost
importance that we supply them as fast as possible with edu¬
cated leaders with the highest training in agriculture, dairy¬
ing, horticulture and the mechanical arts. With us as a race
this is a question of growth or decay, life or death. Within
the next two decades it will be decided whether the Negro, by
discarding ante-bellum ideas and methods of labor, by putting
brains and skill into the common occupations that lie at his
door, will be able to lift up labor out of toil, drudgery and
degradation into that which is dignified, beautiful and glori¬
fied. Further, it will be decided within this time whether
he is to be replaced, crushed out as a helpful industrial factor
by the fast-spreading trades unions and thousands of foreign
skilled laborers that even now tread fast and hard upon his
heels and begin to press him unto death. This question is
for your Christian Church to help decide. And in deciding
remember that you are deciding not alone for the Negro, but
whether you will have 8,000,000 of our people in this country,
or a race nearly as large as the population of Mexico, a nation
within a nation, that will be a burden, a menace to your civil¬
ization; that will be continually threatening and degrading
your institutions, or whether you will make him a potent,
emphatic factor in your civilization and commercial life.
"What was three hundred years in doing cannot be undone
in thirty years. You cannot graft a fifteenth century civili¬
zation into a twentieth century civilization by the mere per¬
formance of mental gymnastics. An educated man on the
streets with his hands in his pockets is not one whit more
benefit to society than an ignorant man on the streets with
his hands in his pockets.
"What are some of the conditions in the South that need
your urgent help and attention? Eighty-five per cent of my
310
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
people in tlie Gulf States are on tlie plantations in tlie coun¬
try districts, where a large majority are still in ignorance,
without habits of thrift or economy; are in debt, mortgag¬
ing their crops to secure food; paying, or attempting to pay, a
rate of interest that ranges between twenty and forty per cent.;
living in one-room cabins on rented lands, where schools are
in session (in these country districts) from three to four
months in the year; taught in places, as a rule, that have little
resemblance to school-houses. What state of morality or
practical Christianity you may expect when as many as six,
eight and even ten, cook, eat, sleep, get sick and die in one
room, I need not explain. During slavery my people reasoned
thus: my body belongs to my master, and taking master's
chickens to feed master's body is not stealing; or, as one old
colored man said whose master got too close to him: 'Now,
massa, while youse got a few less chickens, youse got a good
deal more nigger.' You must not be surprised if our people
use something of this kind of logic in reference to the present
mortgage system.
"If in the providence of God the Negro got any good
out of slavery he got the habit of work. As is true
of any race, we have a class about bar-rooms and street
corners, but the rank and file of the Negro race works from
year to year. Whether the call for labor comes from the
cotton fields of Mississippi, the rice swamps of the Carolinas,
or the sugar bottoms of Louisiana, the Negro answers that
call. Yes, toil is the badge of all his tribe, but the trouble
centers here: by reason of his ignorance and want of training
he does not know how to utilize the results of his labor. His
earnings go for high rents, in mortgages, whiskey, snuff,
cheap jewelry; clocks are often bought on the installment
plan for twelve and fourteen dollars, when everything else in
the cabin is not worth that much money, and in five cases
out of ten not a single member of the family can tell nine
o'clock from twelve o'clock.
"Ten years ago there went out from one of the institutions
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP. 3ll
in tlie South, fostered and helped by your generosity, a young
man into one of these plantation districts, where he found
conditions such as I have described. He took three months'
public school course as a nucleus for his work. Then he
organized the older people into a club that came together
every week. In these meetings, in a plain, common-sense
manner, he taught the people thrift, how to economize, how
to stop mortgaging their crops, how to live on bread and
potatoes, if need be, till they could get out of debt; showed
them how to take the money that they had hitherto scattered
to the wind and concentrate it in the direction of their in¬
dustrial, educational and religious uplifting. Go with me
to that community today and I will show you a people full
of hope and delight. I will show you a people almost wholly
free from debt, living on well-cultivated farms of their own,
in cottages with two and three rooms, schools lasting eight
months, taught in a nice, comfortable, frame school-house.
Go with me into their church and Sunday-school, through
the model farm and house of this teacher, and I will show
you a community that has been redeemed, revolutionized in
industry, education and religion by reason of the fact that
they had this leader, this guide, this object-lesson to show
them how to direct their own efforts.
"It is to this kind of work we must look for the solution of
the race problem. My people do not need charity, neither
do they ask that charity be scattered among them; very
seldom in any part of this country you see a black hand
reached out for charity; but they do ask that, through Lin¬
coln and Biddle and Scotia and Hampton and Tuskegeeyou
send them leaders to guide and stimulate them till they are
able to walk. Such institutions need reinforcement and
strengthening many fold.
v 1'The greatest injury that my people suffered in slavery was
to be deprived of the exercise of that executive power, that
sense of self-dependence, which are the glory and the dis¬
tinction of the Anglo-Saxon race. For three centuries we
20
312
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
were taught to depend upon some one else for food, clothing,
shelter, and for every move in life, and you cannot expect a
race to renounce at once the teaching of centuries without
guidance and leadership.
'1 Coupled with literary and religious training must go a
force that will result in the improvement of the material
and industrial condition. In Alabama we find it a pretty
hard thing to make a good Christian of a hungry man. It
is only as the Negro is taught to mix in with his religious
fervor and emotion habits of industry, economy, land, houses
with two or three rooms, and a little bank account, just as
the white man does, that he will have a Christianity that
will be worthy of the name.
"What of your white brethren in the South? Those who
suffered and are still suffering the consequences of American
slavery for which you and they were responsible, what is
the task you ask them to perform? You of the great and
prosperous North still owe to your less fortunate Caucasian
brethren of the South, not less than to yourselves, a serious and
uncompleted duty. Returning to their destitute homes after
years of war, to face blasted hopes, devastation, a shattered
industrial system, you asked them to add to their burdens that
of preparing in education, politics and economics, in a few short
years, for citizenship, four or five millions of former slaves.
That the South, staggering under the burden, made blun¬
ders; that in some measure there has been disappointment,
no one need be surprised.
"The American church has never yet comprehended its
duty to the millions of poor whites in the South who were
buffeted for two hundred years between slavery and freedom,
between civilization and degradation, who were disregarded
by both the master and the slave. It needs no prophet to
tell the character of our future civilization when the poor
white boy in the country districts of the South is in school
tliree months, and your boy in school ten months; when the
poor white boy receives one dollar's worth of education, and
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
313
your boy twenty dollars' worth; when one never enters a
library or reading-room, and the other has libraries and
reading-rooms in every ward and town; when one hears lect¬
ures or sermons once in two months, and the other can.hear
a lecture or sermon every day. My friends, there is no
escape; you must help us raise our civilization or yours will
be lowered. When the South is poor, you are poor; when
the South is ignorant, you are ignorant; when the South
commits crime, you commit crime. When you help the
South, you help yourselves. Mere abuse will not bring the
remedy. The time has come, it seems to me, when in this
matter we should rise above party, or race, or color, or sec¬
tionalism, into the region of duty of man to man, citizen to
citizen, Christian to' Christian; and if the Negro can help
you, North and South, to rise, can be the medium of your
rising into the atmosphere of generous Christian broth¬
erhood and self-forgetfulness, he will see in it a recompense
for all that he has suffered in the past. When you help the
poor whites, you help the Negro.
"In considering the relation of the races in the South, I
thank God that I have grown to the point where I can sym¬
pathize with a white man as much as I can with a black man;
where I can sympathize with a Southern white man as much
as I can with a Northern white man. To me a man is but
a man 'for a' that and a' that.' I propose that no man shall
drag me down by making me hate him. No race can hate
another race without itself being narrowed and hated. The
race problem will work itself out in proportion as the black
man, by reason of his skill, intelligence and character, can
produce something that the white man wants or respects.
One race respects another in proportion as it contributes to the
markets of the world, hence the value of industrial training.
The black man that has mortgages on a dozen white men's
houses will have no trouble in voting. The black man that
spends ten thousand dollars a year in freight charges can
select his own seat in a railroad car, else a Pullman palace
314
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
car will be put on for him. When the black man, by reason
of his knowledge of the chemistry of the soil and improved
methods of agriculture, can produce forty bushels of corn on
an acre of land, while his white brother produces only twenty
bushels, the white man will come to the black man to learn,
and they will be good friends. The black man that has fifty
thousand dollars to lend will never want for friends and cus¬
tomers among his white neighbors. It is right and important
that all the privileges granted to us by the constitution be
ours; but it is vastly more important to us that we be pre¬
pared for the exercise of those privileges.
"Those who died and suffered on the battlefield performed
their duty heroically and well; but a duty remains for you
and me. The mere fiat of law could not make a dependent
man an independent man; could not make an ignorant voter
an intelligent voter; could not make one man respect another.
These results come to the Negro, as to all races, by begin¬
ning at the bottom and gradually working toward the highest
civilization and accomplishments. Unfortunately, for lack
of leadership and guidance, my race, on the threshold of
freedom, began at the top instead of the bottom; we have
spent time and money attending political conventions, in
attempting to go to Congress, that could have better been
spent in becoming a real estate dealer or carpenter, or in
starting a-dairy farm, and thus having laid the foundation of
the highest citizenship.
"In conclusion, my countrymen, I make no selfish plea;
it is a plea to save yourselves. Let us do our duty and the
keeper of us all will perform His. The Negro can afford
to be wronged; the white man cannot afford to wrong "him.
"Never since the day that we left Africa's shores have we
lost faith in you or in God. We are a patient, humble peo¬
ple; there is plenty in this country for us to do. We can
afford to work and wait. The workers up in the atmosphere
of goodness, long suffering, and forbearance and forgiveness
are not many or overcrowded. If others choose to be mean,
CHAPTER XII.
The College-Bred Negro.
l scope of the inquiry, colleges by groups, etc.
TLANTA UNIVERSITY is an institution for the higher
education of Negro youth. It seeks, by maintaining
a high standard of scholarship and deportment, to sift out
and train thoroughly talented members of this race to be
leaders of thought and missionaries of culture among the
Furthermore, it recognizes that it is its duty as a seat of
learning to throw as much light as possible upon the intri¬
cate social problems affecting these masses, for the enlight¬
enment of its graduates and of the general public. It has,
therefore, for the last five years (1896-1900) sought to unite
its own graduates, the graduates of similar institutions, and
educated Negroes in general throughout the South, in an
effort to study carefully and thoroughly certain definite
aspects of the Negro problem.
Graduates of Fisk University, Berea College, Lincoln
University, Spelman Seminary, Clark University, Wilber-
force University, Howard University, the Maharry Medical
College, Hampton and Tuskegee Institutes, and several
other institutions have joined in this movement and added
their efforts to those of the graduates of Atlanta, and have,
in the last five years, helped to conduct five investiga¬
tions: One in 1896 into the ''Mortality of Negroes in
Cities;" another in 1897 into the ''General Social and Phys¬
ical Condition" of 5,000 Negroes living in selected parts of
certain Southern cities; a third in 1898 on "Some Efforts of
American Negroes For Their Own Social Betterment;" a
fourth in 1899 into the number of Negroes in business and
masses
317
318
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
their success« Finally in 1900 inquiry lias been made into
the number, distribution, occupations and success of col¬
lege-bred Negroes.
The results of this last investigation are presented in the
following pages, as taken from the published reports and
adapted to this work.
The general idea of the Atlanta Conference is to select
among the various and intricate questions arising from the
presence of the Negro in the South, certain lines of investi¬
gation which will be at once simple enough to be pursued by
voluntary effort, and valuable enough to add to our scientific
knowledge. At the same time the different subjects studied
each year have had a logical connection, and will in time
form a comprehensive whole. The starting-point was the
large death-rate of the Negroes; this led to a study of their
condition of life, and the efforts they were making to better
that condition. These efforts, when studied, brought clearly
to light the hard economic struggle through which the eman¬
cipated slave is today passing, and the Conference, therefore,
took tip one phase of this last year. This year the relation
of educated Negroes to these problems and especially to the
economic crisis was studied.
The general method of making these inquiries is to dis¬
tribute among a number of selected persons throughout the
South, carefully prepared schedules. Care is taken to make
the questions few in number, simple and direct, and so far as
possible, incapable of misapprehension. The investigators
to whom these blanks are sent are usually well-educated
Negroes, long resident in the communities; by calling on the
same persons for aid year after year, a body of experienced
correspondents has been gradually formed, numbering now
about fifty.
In the investigation of 1900 the first task was to collect a
reliable list of the Negro graduates of the colleges of the land,
with their present whereabouts. There were many prelim¬
inary difficulties in this work, the chief of which were, first,
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP. 319
wliat was to be considered a college, and next, how were the
Negro graduates of mixed institutions to be distinguished?
It was finally decided to call any institution a college which
had a course amounting to at least one year in addition to
the course of the ordinary New England high school; and to
count the graduates of all such courses and longer courses as
college graduates, provided they received the degree of
Bachelor of Arts or of Science at graduation. Having se¬
lected the institutions, the Conference then sent to them for
lists and addresses of their graduates, which were for the
most part printed in their catalogues > In the case of other
colleges, letters were sent asking if the college had ever had
any Negro graduates. Most of these letters brought prompt
and courteous replies. In some cases the replies were de¬
layed. The returns thus collected represent probably over
ninety per cent, of the truth. In some few cases, no records
of color being kept, the authorities were not sure as to the
exact number of Negro graduates. Usually, however, the
presence of Negroes is so exceptional that they were remem¬
bered.
In this way the names of nearly 2,500 persons were col¬
lected. The matter of getting the exact addresses of these
graduates was of course much more difficult and in many
cases impossible. Returns were gathered from a little over
half (1252) of those named, and not all these were complete.
The following twenty-six questions were asked all whose
addresses were obtained:
1. Name. 2. Address. 8. Sex. 4. Graduate of. 5. Class
of. 6. Single, married, widowed or separated. 7. Birthplace.
8. Year of birth. 9. Year of your wife's (or husband's)
birth. 10. Year of marriage. 11. Children. 12. Some
account of your early life. 13. Occupation since graduation,
with dates. 14. Present occupation (with length of service).
15. If you have taught school at any time, kindly estimate
carefully: The total number of pupils you have instructed in
primary grades; in secondary and preparatory grades; in col-
820
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
lege studies. How many of these have taught school?
How many pupils do you suppose they have taught? What
careers have your pupils followed mostly? Give any indi¬
vidual instances of success among them. 16. What bound
books have you published? 17. What other literary work
have you done? 18. What philanthropic, commercial or
other useful work, not already mentioned, have you en¬
gaged in? 19. What public offices have you held and where?
20. Do you usually vote? 21. Do you belong to any learned
societies? 22. From what institutions have you received
academic degrees since graduation? 23. What is the assessed
value of the real estate which you own? 24. Has your
college training benefited you? Would some other kind of
training have been of more service? 25. Will you not add
here any additional facts which illustrate the kind of work
you are doing, and the degree of success you have had?
26. Are you hopeful for the future of the Negro in this
country? Have you any suggestions?
These questions were framed with the view of obtaining
the largest possible number of actual facts. The chief defect
of the method is of course that the persons are giving infor¬
mation about themselves; still there is little chance for uncon¬
scious exaggeration or bias, and the number of willful mis¬
representations among such a class is small enough to ignore.
Some correspondence was also had with the presidents of
colleges and others on the general aspects of the question.
Omitting all institutions which have not actually grad¬
uated students from a college course, there are today in the
United States thirty-four institutions giving collegiate train¬
ing to Negroes and designed especially for this race.* These
institutions fall into five main groups:
Group I. Ante-Bellum Schools, 3.—Lincoln University,
Chester county, Pennsylvania; Wilberforce University,
Greene county, Ohio; (Berea College, Berea, Kentucky).
* This includes Berea, where the majority of students are white, but which was
designed for Negroes as well, and still has Colored students.
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
321
Group II. Frecdman^s Bureau Schools, 13. — Howard
University, Washington, D. C.; Fisk University, Nashville,
Tennessee; Atlanta University, Atlanta", Georgia; Biddle
University, Charlotte, North Carolina; Southland College,
Helena, Arkansas; Central Tennessee College, Nashville,
Tennessee; Rust University, Holly Springs, Mississippi;
Straight University, New Orleans, Louisiana; Claflin Uni¬
versity, Orangeburg, South Carolina; Talladega College,
athletic firi/d, roger \viij,iams university, nashviljye, tennessee.
Talladega, Alabama; Lincoln Iustitute, Jefferson City, Mis¬
souri; Atlanta Baptist College, Atlanta, Georgia; Roger
Williams University, Nashville, Tennessee.
Group III. Church Schools, 9.—Leland University, New
Orleans, Louisiana; New Orleans University, New Orleans,
Louisiana; Shaw University, Raleigh, North Carolina;
Knoxville College, Knoxville, Tennessee; Clark University,
Atlanta, Georgia; Wiley University, Marshall, Texas; Paine
Institute, Augusta, Georgia: Philander Smith College, Little
21
322
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
Rock, Arkansas; Benedict College, Columbia, South Caro¬
lina.
Group IV. Schools of Negro Church Bodies, 5.—Allen
University, Columbia, South Carolina; Livingstone College,
Salisbury, North Carolina; Morris Brown College, Atlanta,
Georgia; Arkansas Baptist College, Little Rock, Arkansas;
Paul Quinn College, Waco, Texas.
Group V. State Colleges, 4.—Branch Normal College,
etc., Pine Bluff, Arkansas; Virginia N. & C. Institute,
Petersburg, Virginia; Georgia State Industrial College,
Savannah, Georgia; Delaware State College, etc., Dover,
Delaware.
The number of graduates from the foregoing list of colleges
is as follows:
Lincoln University, 615; Wilberforce University, 130;
Howard University, 96; (Berea College, 29;) Leland Uni¬
versity, 16; Benedict College, 3; Fisk University, 180;
Atlanta University, 85; Biddle University, 140; Southland
College, 19; Roger Williams University, 76; Central Ten¬
nessee College, 46; New Orleans University, 30; Shaw Uni¬
versity, 101; Rust University, 30; Straight University, 11;
Branch College, Arkansas, 9; Claflin University, 46; Knox-
ville College, 44; Clark University, 21; Alcorn Universityf
98, Wiley University, 9; Paine Institute, 11; Allen Uni¬
versity, 24; Livingstone College, 38; Philander Smith Col¬
lege, 29; Talladega College, 5; Virginia Normal and
Collegiate Institute, 27; Paul Quinn College, 18; Lincoln
Institute, 6; Morris Brown College, 6; Atlanta Baptist Col¬
lege, 7; Georgia State Industrial College, 1; Delaware State
College, 2.
In most cases the college departments of these institutions
are but adjuncts, and sometimes unimportant adjuncts, to
other departments devoted to secondary and primary work.
A comparison of colleges for this purpose will be of interest.
t This State institution confers the degree of B. S., but is rather an agricul¬
tural high school than a college.
IN HISTORYi AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
323
In the single school year 1898-1899 we find 726 Negro col¬
legians in the colleges specially designed for them; or adding
the few others not counted here, we have possibly 750 such
students. If these students are of college grade according
to a fair standard, we have here apparently work for per¬
haps ten Negro colleges, now being done by thirty or more
institutions. It is not, however, by any means certain that
all these students are really of college grade. A study of
the curricula will throw some light on this question.
Curricula in Negro Colleges.—If, for convenience, we
take only those colleges that have twenty or more students
and consider them as representative, we find that for admis¬
sion to the Freshman class the course of study they require
ranges from one to three years behind the smaller New Eng¬
land colleges, while a large proportion are but little in ad¬
vance of the ordinary New England high school. So that of
the 750 students, probably not more than 350 are of college
rank according to New England standards.
After admission the course of study as laid down in the
catalogues of eleven colleges is about as follows:
Freshman Year.—English, Latin, Greek, Mathematics,
the Bible. *
Sophomore Year.—English, Latin, Greek, Mathematics,
the Bible, History, Physical Geography, Physics, Philos¬
ophy, f
Junior Year.—English, Latin, Greek, Mathematics, the
Bible, Physics, Chemistry, Physiology, Philosophy.
Senior Year.—English, Latin, Greek, Mathematics, the
Bible, Geology, History, Modern Languages.
Of course, the studies vary somewhat in the different insti¬
tutions, but the above is a fair average.
If we combine these studies and assume that fifteen to sev¬
enteen hours per week of recitations represent the work of
an average student, "we get the following average hours of
recitation per week for the year for each study:
* Some colleges add a course in Rhetoric.
f Some colleges add Botany and Modern Languages.
324
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
Freshmen.—Latin, 4i; Greek, 4£; mathematics, 4f; Kng-
lish, If; other studies, 2.
Sophomores.—Latin, 4; Greek, 4; mathematics, 3f; Eng¬
lish, 1; history, 2; natural science, 3; civics, 1£; modern
languages, 4i; other studies, 1J.
Juniors .*—Latin, 3i; Greek, 3f; mathematics, 3; Bnglish,
2J; history, 2; natural science, 4f; political science, 4; mod¬
ern languages, 4; psychology and philosophy, 2; other stud¬
ies, If.
Seniors.*—Latin, 3; Greek, 2£; mathematics, 3; Knglish,
2; history, 2; natural science, 4; political science, 2£; mod¬
ern languages, 2i; psychology, etc., 4f; other studies, If.
In the case of schools which do not publish the exact pro¬
portion in which their time is divided among the subjects
catalogued, the most probable division according to school
customs has been assumed by the editor, so that the above is
only approximately correct. The errors, however, are prob¬
ably small and unimportant.
Of the equipment of these colleges there are few data for
comparison. Some, like Howard, Fisk, Atlanta and Lin¬
coln, are very well housed, and nearly all have fairly com¬
fortable quarters. Few, if any, have teachers who devote
themselves to college work exclusively; some have laborato¬
ries for natural science work. The library facilities are
reported as follows: Lincoln, 15,750 volumes; Howard, 13,000
volumes; Atlanta, 11,000 volumes; Biddle, 10,500 volumes;
Fisk, 6,632 volumes; Wilberforce, 5,500 volumes; Paul
Quinn, 1,000 volumes.
Negroes have attended Northern colleges for many years.
As early as 1826 one was graduated from Bowdoin College,
and from that time till today nearly every year has seen
other such graduates. Oberlin has more Negro graduates
by far than any other Northern college. The colleges in
the order of the number of Negroes graduated are as follows:
Among the Larger Universities.—Harvard, 11; Yale, 10;
* The average is given for those taking the studies named, only.
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
325
University of Michigan, 10; Cornell, 8; Columbia, 4; Uni¬
versity of Pennsylvania, 4; Catholic University, 3; Univer¬
sity of Chicago, 2; Leland Stanford, 2. Total, 54.
Among Colleges of Second Rank—Oberlin, 128; University
of Kansas, 16; Bates College, 15; Colgate University, 9;
Brown, 8; Dartmouth, 7; Amherst, 7; Ohio State University,
7; Bucknell University, 7; Williams, 4; Boston University,
3; University of Minnesota, 3; Indiana University, 3; Adel-
bert College, 3; Beloit College, 3; Colby University, 3;
State University of Iowa, 2; University of Nebraska, 2;
Wesleyan University (Connecticut), 2; Radcliffe College, 2;
Wellesley College, 2; Northwestern University, 1; Rutgers
College, 1; Bowdoin College, 1; Hamilton College, 1; New
York University, 1; University of Rochester, 1; University
of Denver, 1; De Pauw University, 1; Mount Holyoke Col¬
lege, 1; Vassar College, 1. Total, 246.
Among Other Colleges.—University of South Carolina,
10; Geneva College, 9; Hillsdale College, 7; X,aFayette
College, 6; Iowa Wesleyan, 4; Dennison University, 4;
Baldwin University, 4; Western University of Pennsylvania,
3; Hiram College, 3; Wittenberg College, 3; Butler's Col¬
lege, 3; Westminster College, 3; St. Stephen's College, 3;
Antioch College, 3; Tabor College, 2; Knox College, 2;
Washburn College, 2; Adrian College, 2; Washington and
Jefferson College, 2; Ohio Wesleyan University, 2; Lombard
College, 1; Otterbein College, 1; S. W. Kansas College, 1;
Alleghany College, 1; Olivet College, 1; Albion College, 1;
University of Idaho, 1; Iowa College, 1; Upper Iowa Uni¬
versity, 1; University of Omaha, 1; McKendree College, 1;
Illinois College, 1; Ohio University, 1. Total, 90. Grand
Total, 390.
If we divide these graduates among the sections of the
country, we have: Middle West, 250; New England, 78;
Middle Atlantic States, 44; South, 10; Border States, 3; Pa¬
cific States, 5.
Most of the colleges addressed confined themselves in
326
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
answering to a simple list of graduates; some, however, added
information as to tlie character of black students which is of
considerable value, being unsolicited. From the University
of Kansas we learn (January, 1900):
"I am pleased to state that this year we have twice as
many colored students in attendance at the university as
ever before. In all, twenty-eight. The rule is that no stu¬
dent shall be allowed to take more than three studies. If
LIBRARY, ROGER WHUAMS UNIVERSITY, NASHVIIXE, TENNESSEE.
he fails in one of the three, it is a 'single failure;' in two
of the three, a 'double failure.' The latter severs the
student's connection with the university. There are one
thousand and ninety students in attendance at the present
time. The semi-annual examination was held last week,
and as a result there are two hundred 'single failures' and
eighty 'double failures.' The gratifying part of it is that
not o?ie of the twenty-eight colored students is in either
number."
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP. 327
From Bates College, Scran ton, Maine, President Chase
writes (February, 1900): "We have had about a dozen col¬
ored people who have taken the full course for the degree of
A. B. at Bates College, one of them a young woman. They
have all of them been students of good character and worthy
purpose." One was a "remarkably fine scholar, excelling
in mathematics and philosophy;" he was "one of the editors
of the Bates Student while in college." Another was "an
honest, industrious man of good ability, but of slight intel¬
lectual ambition." A third "was a good scholar, especially
in mathematics." A fourth graduated "with excellent
standing. He was a good, all-round scholar, but excellent
in the classics." A fifth "acquired knowledge with diffi¬
culty." A sixth did work "of a very high order," etc.
The secretary of Oberlin writes (February, 1900), in sending
his list: "It is a list containing men and women of whom we
are proud." Colgate University, New York, writes of a
graduate of '74 as "a very brilliant student who was
graduated second best in his class. It was believed by
many that he was actually the leader." A graduate of
Colby College, Maine, is said by the librarian to have been
"universally respected as a student, being chosen class
orator." Wittenberg College, Ohio, has two colored gradu¬
ates; "they were both bright girls and stood well up in their
respective classes." A Negro graduate of Washburn Col¬
lege, Kansas, is said by the chairman of the faculty to be
1 ione of the graduates of the college in whom we take pride.''
The dean of the faculty of Knox College, Illinois, writes of
two Negro students, Senator Bruce, of Mississippi, and an¬
other, who graduated and was remembered because of "his
distinguished scholarship." A black student of Adrian
College, Michigan, "was one of the best mathematicians I
ever had in class," writes a professor. Adelbert College, of
the Western Reserve University, Ohio, has a Negro graduate
as acting librarian, who is characterized as "one of the most
able men we know;" while of another it is said, "we expect
21
328
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
the best." Lombard University, Illinois, lias "heard favor¬
able reports" of its single Negro graduate. The dean of the
State University of Iowa writes (December, 1899) of a
graduate of '98: "He distinguished himself for good scholar¬
ship; and on that ground was admitted to membership in the
Phi Beta Kappa Society. He is a man of most excellent
character and good sense, and I expect for him a very hon¬
orable future. He won the respect of all his classmates and
of the faculty. As president of the Phi Beta Kappa Society,
I received him into membership with very great pleasure as
in every way worthy of this honor. We have three colored
people in the university at present, two in the college de¬
partment, and one in law. You are aware that we have but
a small colored population in Iowa."
II. FIRST NEGRO GRADUATE; NUMBER OF NEGRO
GRADUATES, ETC.
The first American Negro to graduate from an American
college, as far as we have been able to learn, was John
Brown Russwurm, of Bowdoin Colleget Maine, class of
1826. His career is so interesting that we present his whole
life here, as found in the History of Bowdoin College, pp.
352-354:
"He was born in 1799, at Port Antonio, in the Island of
Jamaica, of a Creole mother. When eight years old he was
put to school in Quebec. His father, meanwhile, came to
the United States, and married in the District of Maine.
Mrs. Russwurm, true wife that she was, on learning the re¬
lationship, insisted that John Brown (as hitherto he had
been called), should be sent for and should thenceforth be
one of the family. The father soon died, but his widow
proved herself a faithful mother to the tawny youth. She
sent him to school, though in consequence of existing preju¬
dice it was not always easy to do so. She procured friends
for hirtu
Marrying again, she was careful to stipulate that John
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP. 329
should not lose his home. Through his own exertions, with
some help from others, he was at length enabled to enter
college and to complete the usual course. From college
he went to New York and edited "an abolition paper.
This did not last long. He soon became interested in the
colonization cause and engaged in the service of the
society. In 1829 he went to Africa as superintendent of
public schools in Liberia, and engaged in mercantile
pursuits at Monrovia. From 1830 to 1834 he acted as
colonial secretary, superintending at the same time and
editing with decided ability the Liberia Herald. In 1836
he was appointed governor of the Maryland colony at Cape
Palmas, and so continued until his death in 1851. With
what fidelity and ability he discharged the duties of this re¬
sponsible post may be gathered from the following remarks
of Mr. Latrobe, at the time president of the Maryland Col¬
onization Society. He was addressing the board of man¬
agers: "None knew better," he said, "or so well as the
board under what daily responsibilities Gov. Russwurni's
life in Africa was passed, and how conscientiously he dis¬
charged them; how, at periods when the very existence of
the then infant colony depended upon its relations with sur¬
rounding tribes of excited natives, his coolness and admir¬
able judgment obviated or averted impending perils; how,
when the authority and dignity of the colonial government
were at stake in lamentable controversies with civilized and
angry white men, the calm decorum of his conduct brought
even his opponents over to his side; how, when popular
clamor among the colonists called upon him as a judge to
disregard the forms of law and sacrifice an offending individ¬
ual in the absence of legal proof, he rebuked the angry mul¬
titude by the stern integrity of his conduct; and how, when
on his visit to Baltimore in 1818 he was thanked personally
by the members of the board, he deprecated the praise be¬
stowed upon him for the performance of his duty, and im¬
pressed all who saw him with the modest manliness of his
330
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
character and liis most excellent and courteous bearing,"
Resolutions expressing similar sentiments, and the highest
approval of his administration were passed by the board.
Dr. James Hall, a graduate of the Bowdoin Medical School,
the friend of Russwurm, and his predecessor in the chief
magistracy of African Maryland, has delineated him with
apparent candor. A man of erect and more than ordinary
stature, with a good head and face and large, keen eye. In
deportment always gentlemanly. Of sound intellect, a great
reader, with a special fondness for history and politics. Nat¬
urally sagacious in regard to men and things, and though
somewhat indolent himself, exceedingly skillful in making
others work. A man of strict integrity, a good husband,
father, master and friend, and in later life a devoted member
of the Protestant Episcopal Church. He married a daughter
of Lieut.-Gov. McGill, of Monrovia, and was succeeded in his
office at Cape Palmas by his brother-in-law, Dr. McGill. He
left three sons and a daughter."
Boston University writes of one graduate as u a fine fellow.''
He is now doing post-graduate work at Yale, and the agent
of the Capon Springs Negro Conference writes (November,
1900) that "I continually hear him mentioned in a compli¬
mentary way. On the other hand, two Negro boys were in
the Freshman class not long ago and were both conspicu¬
ously poor scholars." Otterbein University, Ohio, has a
graduate who "was a most faithful and capable student."
The dean of Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, writes (De¬
cember, 1899) of their graduates: "The last two or three are
hardly established in business yet, but the others are doing
remarkably well. These men have been in each case fully
equal to if not above the average of their class. We have beeu
very much pleased with the work of the colored men who have
come to us. They have been a credit to themselves and
their race while here and to the college since graduation. 1
wish we had more such." The president of Tabor College,
Ohio, says of two colored graduates: "They are brainy fel-
IN HISTORY; AND IN CITIZENSHIP. 331
lows who have done very much good in the world." A
graduate of Southwest Kansas College "was one of the
truest, most faithful and hard-working students that we
have ever had." One of the most prominent Methodist
ministers in Philadelphia said to the president of Alleghany
College, Pennsylvania, speaking of a colored graduate:
"Any college may be proud to have graduated a man like
him." The university of Idaho graduated in '98 a young
colored woman of "exceptional ability." Westminster
College, Pennsylvania, has graduated two Negroes; "both
were excellent students and ranked high in the estimation
of all who knew them." Of a graduate of Hamilton Col¬
lege, New York, the secretary says: "He was one of the
finest young men we have ever had in our institution. He
was an earnest and consistent Christian, and had great influ¬
ence for good with his fellow-students. On leaving college,
he spent three years in Auburn Theological Seminary—was
licensed to preach by one of our Northern Presbyteries, and
then went to Virginia—near Norfolk, where he built a
church and gave promise of great usefulness, when, about
two years ago, he suddenly sickened and died. He had
many friends in Clinton outside of the college. He pre¬
pared for college in the Clinton Grammar School. On leav¬
ing the school for college the wife of the principal of the
school made to me the remark, that it seemed as if the Spirit
of the Lord had departed from the school. I received him
into the church and was his pastor for a number of years.
Everybody was his friend. Members of the Presbyterian
Church of Clinton contributed to the erection of his church
in Virginia, and the Sunday-school has educated his sister."
At the larger colleges the record of Negro students has,
on the whole, been good; at Harvard several have held
scholarships, and one a fellowship; there has been one Phi
Beta Kappa man, one class orator, two commencement
speakers, three masters of arts and one doctor in philosophy.
In scholarship the eleven graduates have stood: Four good;
332
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
three fair; two ordinary, and two poor. At Brown one of
the most brilliant students of recent years was a Negro; he
was among the junior eight elected to the Phi Beta Kappa.
At Amherst the record of colored men has been very good,
both in scholarship and athletics. A colored man captained
the Amherst football team one year and he is now one of the
chief Harvard football coaches. At Yale and Cornell col¬
ored men have held scholarships, and some have made good
records.
Among the women's colleges the color prejudice is much
stronger and more unyielding.
They have one Negro graduate from Smith College, we
learn: "Our first colored student graduated last year with
the degree of A. B. . . . We also have two students
of Negro descent in our present senior class."
Wellesley has had quite a number of colored students, of
whom two graduated. "Both these young women had more
than average ability and one did brilliant work." Radcliffe
College, the Harvard "annex," has two colored graduates
who are well spoken of.
Beside the Negroes who have graduated from these col¬
leges there have been a large number who have pursued a
partial course but taken no degree. They have dropped out
for lack of funds, poor scholarship and various reasons. Then,
too, many institutions having no graduates have promising
candidates at present. The registrar of the University of
Illinois informs us "that so far no Negro has ever been
graduated from the University of Illinois. One member of
our present senior class is a Negro, and he will doubtless be
graduated next June. He is a good scholar and is very much
respected in the university. He is this year the editor of
the students' paper."
Wabash College, Indiana, "has had frequently colored
students enrolled in her classes, but none have completed
their course. We have at present two colored students in
attendance at college."
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP
833
Dickinson College, Pennsylvania, "has never conferred a
degree upon a Negro. We have two, at the present time, in
attendance at the college: one a member of the freshmen
class, and the other a member of the junior class and one
of the brightest scholars and most highly esteemed gentlemen
in attendance at our institution."
The universities of Wyoming, Montana and California
have all had at one time or another colored students. Syra¬
cuse University has three Negro students now, 11 especially
bright and promising;" the University of Vermont dropped
two colored members of the class of '97 "on account of
inability to do the work." Wheaton College, Illinois, has
"had many colored students and some good ones, but no one
of them has gained the degree of A. B."
To sum up then: Negroes have graduated from Northern
institutions. In most of the larger universities they have
on the whole made good records. In the Western colleges
they have done well in some cases, and poorly in others.
The summer schools at Harvard, Clark and the University
of Chicago have several Negro students.
According to the best information the Conference has been
able to gather, the total number of Negro graduates has been
as follows:
negro college graduates:
1826—1
1855—1
1864— 2
1873-29
1882—
39
1891— 99
1828—1
1856—5
1865— 5
1874—27
1883—
74
1892— 70
1844—1
1857—1
1866— 1
1875—25
1884—
64
1893—137
1845—1
1858 -1
1867— 4
1876-37
1885—:
100
1894—130
1847—1
1859—1
1868— 9
1877—43
1886—
94
1895—130
1849—1
1860—6
1869—11
1878—37
1887—
90
1896—104
1850—1
1861—3
1870—26
1879—48
1888—
87
1897—128
1851—1
1862-3
1871-15
1880—50
1889—
85
1898—144
1853—3
1863—1
1872—26
1881—54
1890—
95
1899—*57
Total, 2,209
Class not given, .... 122
Grand Total, ... 2,331
♦Partial report.
One hundred graduates of colleges of doubtful rank are
not included here; these and unknown omissions may bring
the true total up to 2,500.
334
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION.
It is plain that there is a steady increase of college-bred
Negroes from decade to decade, but not a large increase.
There is today about one college-trained person in every 3,600
Negroes. Since 1876, 1,941 Negroes have been graduated
from Negro colleges and 390 from white colleges.
We now come to consider the personnel of this group of
persons with regard to birthplace, age, sex, etc. The returns
for these particulars are only partial, and fuller for later years
than for earlier. They seem, however, to be fairly typical.
First as to birthplace of 650 college-bred Negroes: South
Carolina, 95; North Carolina, 80; Tennessee, 73; Virginia,
60; Georgia, 55; Mississippi, 48; Alabama, 34; Ohio, 34;
Kentucky, 25; Maryland, 17; Indiana, 4; Massachusetts, 3;
West Virginia, 3; Iowa, 3; New Jersey, 2; Michigan, 2;
Rhode Island, 1; Connecticut, 1; Vermont, 1; Colorado, 1;
Pennsylvania, 17; Missouri, 12; Louisiana, 12; Illinois, 11;
District of Columbia, 10; Texas, 9; Kansas, 9; New York,
5; Arkansas, 4; Florida, 4; Delaware, 1. In foreign lands:
Hayti, 4; West Indies, 3; West Africa, 2; Ontario, 1. 542
out of 650 having been born south of Mason and Dixon's
line.
The most interesting question connected with birthplace is
that of the migration of colored graduates—that is, where
these men finally settle and work. If we arrange these 650
graduates according to sections where they were born and
where they now live, it appears that of 254 college-bred Ne¬
groes born in the border states (z. £., Delaware, Maryland,
Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Missouri
and District of Columbia), 148, or 58 per cent., stayed and
worked there; 39, or 15 per cent., went further south; 26,
or 10 per cent., went southwest; 12, or 5 per cent., went to
the middle west, etc. Or, again:
Of 73 college graduates born north, 35 stayed there and
38 went south „
Of 507 college graduates born south, 443 stayed there and
62 went north.
OWEN W. L. SMITH
U. S. Minister to the Republic of
336
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
These statistics cover only about one-fourth of the total
number of graduates, but they represent pretty accurately
the general tendencies, so far as our observation has gone.
It is therefore probably quite within the truth to say that 50
per cent, of northern-born college men come south to work
among the masses of their people, at a personal sacrifice
which few people realize; that nearly 90 per cent, of the
southern-born graduates, instead of seeking that personal
freedom and broader intellectual atmosphere which their
training has led them in some degree to conceive, stay and
labor in the midst of their black neighbors and relatives.
There is little in the matter of early training that lends
itself to statistical statement, but there is much of human
interest. A number of typical lives are therefore appended,
which show in a general way the sort of childhood and youth
through which these college-bred Negroes have passed. First
as to the men:
MEN.
"I attended the public schools in Augusta, Georgia, and
sold papers, brushed boots and worked in tobacco facto¬
ries. While in college I taught school in summer time."
"Born in Springfield, Massachusetts, where I attended the
public schools and acted as driver and hotel waiter. I at¬
tended Fisk University, and during vacations taught school,
worked in a saw mill, waited on table and acted as Pullman
porter.''
"My parents were old and poor, and I worked my way
through school and helped to support them by manual labor.''
UI came to Texas with my parents about 1876, and at¬
tended the Galveston public schools. I then went to college,
assisted in part by my parents and in part by my own efforts.
The expenses of the last two years were paid by a scholar¬
ship which I won by examination.'1
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
337
UI spent most of my youth with my uncle, a merchant in
Florence, South Carolina, where I attended the public school,
which was poor. I afterwards worked five years on my
father's farm, and finally went to college."
"I attended public schools in Virginia, working in white
families morning and night for my board. I then worked
my way through a normal course, and finally through Hills¬
dale College."
"I was a farmer before going to school. My church con¬
ference sent me to school. My parents were poor, and my
mother died when I was but four years old."
"I came to Kansas when nine years old and lived on a
farm until I was twenty, neither seeing nor hearing from any
of my relations during that time. In 18711 went to Oberlin
and began work in Ray's Third Part Arithmetic."
"I was born a slave in Prince Bdward county, Virginia. I
worked as a farmer and waiter, and then went to Hampton
Institute. After leaving Hampton I helped my parents a
few years and then entered Shaw."
"I sold papers and went to school when a boy; I learned
the brickmason trade of my father. After graduating from
the high school I worked in the printing office of a colored
paper, thus earning enough to go to college."
1 'I was born in Calvert county, Maryland, being one of
seven children. We lived at first in the log cabin which my
father had built in slavery times. Soon we moved away
from there and settled on a farm which my father commenced
buying on shares. I went to school, worked on the farm
and taught school until I was twenty-two, when I entered
Lincoln."
22
338
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
UI went to a private school at Thibodaux, Louisiana, about
a year, and also to the Freedmen's school under the United
States government in 1864-5. Finally I entered New Or¬
leans University."
"I was born in Crawford county, Georgia. My father
moved to Macon, then to Jones county, then back to Craw¬
ford county, then to the town of Forsyth, and finally to the
State of Mississippi. I.finally left home at the age of sixteen
and roamed about for two and a half years. I saved some
money by work on a railroad and started to school."
' 'I was born in Tennessee and lived there on a farm until I
was thirteen. Then we went to Kansas, and finally to Ar¬
kansas, where I went to Philander Smith College."
"My parents, having been slaves, were poor. I was the
fifth of ten children, and the task of educating all of us was
a serious one for the family. My parents made every sacri¬
fice, and at nine years of age I was helping by selling papers
on the streets of Pittsburg, and colored papers among the
Negroes on Saturday. After completing the common schools
I worked as elevator boy and bootblack, and finally at the age
of fifteen was enabled to enter the engineering course of the
Western University of Pennsylvania."
"I was born in Greene county, Georgia, and lived on the
farm until I was seventeen. My parents were poor and there
were nine other children. I worked hard, saved my money,
went to school, and finally entered Atlanta University."
UI was born in a stable; my father died when I was two
years old. I blacked boots and sold sulphur water to educate
myself until I was eighteen."
"My mother and father took me from Alabama to Missis¬
sippi, where my father joined the Union army at Corinth,
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP 339
leaving me with my mother, brother and sister. We went
to Cairo, Illinois, and then to Island No. 10. There mother
and brother died and my sister sent me to Helena, Arkansas,
in charge of an aunt. My father died during the siege of
- Vicksburg, and I was sent to the orphanage in Helena, which
afterward became Southland College."
"My father died when I was five, and my mother when I
was twelve, leaving me an orphan in the West Indies. At
fourteen I left home with a white man from Massachusetts.
I went to school one year in Massachusetts, then shipped as
a sailor and stayed on the sea ten years, and finally return¬
ing started to school again."
"I was one of the two sons of a Methodist preacher, and
had to struggle pretty hard to get an education; I left school
at the age of thirteen and could not return again until I was
nineteen."
uMy father was a lumber dealer, and when he died I went
into partnership with my uncle in the same business in Car¬
roll county, Maryland. Later I left home, worked five years
on a farm in Michigan, and finally entered Baldwin Uni¬
versity."
"I was born in Alton, Illinois, in 1864, In 1871 we
moved to Mississippi, and happening to visit my grandfather
at Wilberforce, Ohio, I begged him to let me stay there and
enter school. He consented; and by housework, taking care
of horses and his help I got through school."
"I was born of slave parents who could neither read nor
write. I had but five months' regular schooling until I was
seventeen years of age. Then I worked my way through a
normal school in South Carolina, and thus gained a certifi¬
cate to teach and helped myself on further in school."
340
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION.
"I was the son of a slave mother and her master. After
emancipation a maternal uncle started me to school in Salis¬
bury, North Carolina, which an army officer had organized.
Afterward I entered Biddle and supported myself by teach¬
ing."
"Father died about my ninth birthday, so I attended the
public schools and worked on the farm to assist mother earn
a livelihood for herself and the four children. Late in my
'teens, after three months' day labor upon the farm, railroad,
wood-chopping, etc., I entered Alcorn, with the sum of
$20.50. By working there I was enabled to remain in school
six years, during the last five of which I secured work as a
teacher in Wilkerson county. The money I obtained was
used by myself, my two brothers and a sister in common,
as from time to time each joined me in college. Mother
would accept very little of our earnings for herself, lest we
might be deprived of an education."
"I was born and reared on my aged mother's farm near
Thomastown, Mississippi. I began going to a country
school at twelve years of age, having learned my A B C's
under Uncle York Moss, at his Sunday-school, where we
used Webster's 'Blue-back.' My chances for attending
even a country school were meager, for I had to help on the
farm. Attending two and four months in the year, I got far
enough advanced by the time I was sixteen to teach a little
and use my earnings in entering, first, Tougaloo, and then
Alcorn."
"I was reared on a farm and was sixteen before I knew my
letters, and twenty-one before I spent a month in school."
"In early life I lived with my parents, who were ex-slaves
and took great pride in working hard to educate their chil¬
dren. I attended the first Yankee schools established in Sa-
E. E. COOPER.
Editor "The Colored American." Founder of First Illustrated Negro
Newspaper.
342
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
vannah. As soon as I could read, write and figure a little, I
started a private afternoon school at my home which I
taught."
1 'I was born a slave. Soon after the fall of Port Royal,
South Carolina, in 1861, three of us escaped from Charles¬
ton to Beaufort, and joined the Union forces. We were
taken on the U. S. gunboat Unadilla. There I was attached
to a lieutenant in the Forty-eighth New York Regiment of
Volunteers, and remained with him until he was wounded
before Fort Wagner. I then went north, attended night
school in Portland, Maine, and finally entered Howard Uni¬
versity."
UI was the fifth child in a family of eleven. My father
was a poor farmer and did not believe in education, so my
training was neglected until I was able to work and help
myself."
UI was born a slave and taken north to an orphanage by
Quakers after the war, both my parents being dead. After¬
ward I was sent to New Jersey, and then worked on a Penn¬
sylvania, farm until I went to Lincoln."
"My father was set free prior to the war and purchased
my mother. He died when I was eight, leaving a little
home and $300 in gold. My mother was an invalid and I
had to work at whatever came to hand, going to school from
three to five months a year. At the age of fifteen I stopped
school and labored and taught a three months' school at
$25 a month. Finally I entered Roger Williams University,
working my way through and helping mother.''
* 'Twelve years of my life were spent as a slave. I worked
at driving cows, carrying dinner to the field-hands and run¬
ning rabbits. My master owned three hundred Negroes, so
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP. 343
that boys were not put in the field until they were eighteen.
When I was freed I did not know a letter, but I worked my
way through Webster's 'Blue-back' speller."
"I was born the slave of Jefferson Davis' brother and
attended contraband schools before the close of the war.''
WOMEN.
4'I was born on a farm in Ohio and lived there until I was
sixteen. My father died when I was twelve and I had to
provide for myself. At the age of sixteen I taught a country
school and saved one hundred dollars. With this I went to
Oberlin and went through by teaching and working."
"Was born and schooled in Philadelphia during the dark
days of slavery. Was intimately associated with the work
of the Underground Railroad and the Anti-Slavery Society.
I was sent to Oberlin in 1864."
'My early life was spent at my home at Shoreham, Ver¬
mont, where I attended Newton Academy. In the fall of '91
I entered Mr. Moody's school at Northfield, Massachusetts,
graduating as president of my class. I then entered Middle-
bury College, Vermont."
"At a very early age I assumed the responsibility of house¬
keeper, as my mother died and I was the oldest of a family
of five; hence I labored under many disadvantages in attend¬
ing school, but nevertheless I performed my household du¬
ties, persevered with my studies, and now I feel that I have
been rewarded."
"My mother and I 'took in' washing for our support and
to enable me to get an education. After finishing the public
schools of Jacksonville, Illinois, I was supported four years
in college by a scholarship.''
22
344
THE NEGkO IN RE VELA TION.
"My .early life was spent in Darlington, South Carolina;
I did not attend the public school until I was a large girl,
but was taught at home, first by my mother, then by a
private teacher. When the public school was graded, in
1889, I entered the high school course."
''While a school-girl I taught persons living out in service,
going into the premises of some of the most prominent white
people in New Orleans. I always kept a large class of night
pupils at the same time. I paid my tuition out of these
earnings."
"I was born in the State of Ohio, near the town of Dela¬
ware, on a picturesque farm purchased by my grandparents
in 1836. My parents on both sides were Virginians.' At this
quiet homestead, sandwiched between the Scioto river on the
east and maple groves on the west, I lived the life of a
dreamy, yet restless child—one of a very large family with
an angelically-disposed mother and an extremely eccentric
and well-educated father. Our father early told us of Dante,
Milton and similar literature, simplifying to suit our youth-
fulness. Mother repeated the story of 'Pilgrim's Progress,'
and she also delighted in the book of Job, which her life so
beautifully represented—patience personified. Our home
being so near the Ohio White Sulphur Springs, where the
wealthy leisure class spent much time, I saw much of cul¬
tured people, old and young, especially the latter. Indeed,
when quite young I saw little else, for during the remainder
of the year my brothers, sisters, birds, trees and nature in
general were my only companions."
From the first the institutions of higher training founded
in the South were, with few exceptions, open to girls as well
as boys. Naturally fewer girls entered, but nevertheless a
considerable number—over 250—throughout the country
have finished a college course. Of the larger Negro colleges
JUDSON W. LYONS.
Register United States Treasury, Washington, D. C.
34 G
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
only Lincoln and Biddle do not admit girls. The women
graduates are as follows:
Women Graduates from Colleges.—Oberlin, 55; Shaw, 21;
PaulQuinn, 13; Atlanta, 8; Southland, 8; Rust, 7; Claflin,
6; Philander Smith, 5; Iowa Wesley an, 4; University of
Kansas, 3; Cornell, 3; Geneva, 2; Leland, 1; University of
Iowa, 1; Idaho, 1; Bates, 1; Clarke, 1; Straight, 1; Branch,
Arkansas, 1; Mt. Holyoke, 1; Fisk, 31; Wilberforce, 19;
Knoxville, 10; Howard, 8; Central Tennessee, 7; Living¬
stone, 6; New Orleans, 5; Roger Williams, 5; Berea, 4;
University of Michigan, 3; Wittenberg, 2; Wellesley, 2;
Butler 1; Adrian, 1; McKendree, 1; Virginia Normal and
Collegiate, 1; Allen, 1; Paine Institute, 1; Vassar, 1.
Total women, 252. Total men, 2,272.
If we arrange them according to years of graduation, we
have from 1861 to 1869, 36; from 1880 to 1889, 76; 1890 to
1898, 119.
The rapid increase of college-bred women in later years is
noticeable, and the present tendency is toward a still larger
proportion of women. Twenty-three per cent, of the college
students of Howard, Atlanta, Fisk and Shaw Universities
were women in the school year of 1898-'99. The economic
stress will probably force more of the young men into work
before they get through college and leave a larger chance for
the training of daughters. A tendency in this direction is
noticeable in all the colleges, and if it results in more highly
trained mothers it will result in great good. Of one hundred
college-bred women reporting their conjugal condition, one-
half had been married, against nearly seventy per cent, of
the men.
The family is the latest of the social institutions developed
by the Negro on American soil and as yet the weakest. He
learned to labor, he organized for reljgious purposes, he
started germs of other social organizations before the system
of slavery allowed the independent monogamic Negro home.
Consequently we look most anxiously to the establishment
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP. 347
and strengthening of the home among members of the race,
because it is the surest indication of real progress.
The Negro was brought originally from a polygamic home-
life in Africa where women and children were strongly
guarded, although subject to the practically unrestrained
tyranny of the husband. On the West Indian plantations
all the law and custom of marriage was'rudely broken up and
polygamy, polyandry and promiscuity were practiced. On
the plantations of the United States some regularity was es¬
tablished, which, on the Virginia plantations, approached as
near the monogamic ideal as the slave trade and concubin¬
age would allow. With emancipation came the independent
Negro home. Naturally the poor training of Negro women,
the lack of respect or chivalry toward them, and the fact
that the field-hand never had the responsibility of family life,
all tended to make pure homes difficult to establish and main¬
tain. Without doubt the greatest social problem of the
American Negro at present is sexual purity, and the solving
of this problem lies peculiarly upon the homes established
among them. Great and marked progress has been made in
thirty years, but there is still great work ahead.
Among a picked class of leaders like these we are study¬
ing, statistics of marriage and family life are consequently of
peculiar interest. First, then, let us consider the age at
which college-bred persons marry, compared with the age of
graduation:
Of College-bred Men there Marry: Under 20 years of
age, 1.4 per cent.; 20 to 24 years of age, 15.1 per cent.;
25 to 29 years of age, 39.3 per cent.; 30 to 34 years of age,
30.2 per cent.; 35 to 39 years of age, 8.6 per cent.; 40
years of age or over, 5.4 per cent.
The bulk of college men, it would seem, marry between
the ages of twenty-five and thirty-five, a period nearly ten
years later than was the case with their fathers and mothers.
This indicates a great social revolution. The average age of
jnarriage, compared with age of graduation is as follows;
348
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION.
men:
Graduating Average age Graduating Average age Graduating Average age
at age of of marriage at age of of marriage at age of of marriage
16 25 23 28 30 32
17 29 24 29 31 32
18 24 ■ 25 27 32 33
19 26 26 29 33 33
20 28 27 30 34 31
21 26 28 30 35 30
22 29 29 32 36 and over....35
The meager returns received made it very difficult to de¬
termine the truth as to the marriages of women graduates;
the average age of marriage of those women reported was
62.8 years; compared with age of graduates it was:
women:
Graduating Married at Graduating Married at Graduating Married at
at age of age of at age of age of at age of age of
18 20 21 27 25 28
19 ! 22 22. 24 27 28
20 22 23 25 31 43
Out of 665 male graduates, 68 per cent, have married, and
out of 99 female graduates, 51 per cent, have married. Of
19 graduates previous to 1870, 18 have married; of 97 from
1870 to 1879, 85 have married; of 251 from 1880 to 1889,
219 have married; of 393 from 1890 to 1899, 180 have mar¬
ried. Out of this total there has been but one divorce.
CHAPTER XIII.
The College-Bred Negro.
(Continued.)
iii. OCCUPATIONS, OWNERSHIP OF PROPERTY, ETC.
HB most interesting question, and in many respects the
crucial question, to be asked concerning college-bred Ne¬
groes is: Do they earn a living? It lias been intimated more
than once that the higher training of Negroes has resulted
in sending into the world of work men who can find nothing
to do suitable to their talents. Now and then there comes
a rumor of a colored college man working at menial service,
etc. Fortunately the returns as to occupations of college-
bred Negroes are quite full—nearly 60 per cent, of the total
number of graduates.
This enables us to reach fairly probable conclusions as to
the occupations of college-bred Negroes. Of 1,312 persons
reporting there were: Teachers, 53.4 per cent.; clergymen,
16.8 per cent.; physicians, etc., 6.3 per cent.; students, 5.6,
per cent.; lawyers, 4.7 percent.; in government service, 4
percent.; in business, 3.6 per cent.; farmers and artisans,
2.7 per cent.; editors, secretaries and clerks, 2.4 per cent.;
miscellaneous, 5 per cent.
Over half are teachers, a sixth are preachers, another sixth
are students and professional men; over 6 percent, are farm¬
ers, artisans and merchants, and 4 per cent, are in govern¬
ment service. In detail, the occupations are as follows:
Occupations of College-Bred Men.—Presidents and deans,
19; teachers of music, 7; professors, principals and teachers,
675. Total, 701. Bishop, 1; chaplains United States army,
2; missionaries, 9; presiding elders, 12; preachers, 197. To¬
tal, 221. Doctors of medicine, 76; druggists, 4; dentists,
349
350
7HE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
3. Total, 83. Students, 74; lawyers, 62. United States
minister plenipotentiary, 1; United States consul, 1; United
States deputy collector, 1; United States gauger, 1; United
States postmasters, 2; United States clerks, 44; State civil
service, 2; city civil service, 1. Total, 53. Merchants, etc.,
30; managers, 13; real estate dealers, 4. Total, 47. Farm¬
ers, 26. Secretaries of national societies, 7; clerks, etc., 15.
Total, 22. Artisans, 9; editors, 9; miscellaneous, 5.
These figures illustrate vividly the function of the college-
bred Negro. He is, as he ought to be, the group leader, the
man who sets the ideals of the community where he lives,
directs its thought and heads its social movements. It need
hardly be argued that the Negro people need social leadership
more than most groups; they have no traditions to fall back
upon, no long-established customs, no strong family ties, no
well-defined social classes. All these things must be slowly
and painfully evolved. The preacher was even before the war
the group leader of the Negroes, and the church their great¬
est social institution. Naturally, this preacher was ignorant
and often immoral, and the problem of replacing the older
type by better educated men has been a difficult one. Both
by direct work and by indirect influence on other preachers
and on congregations, the college-bred preacher has an op¬
portunity for reformatory work and moral inspiration, the
value of which cannot be overestimated.
It has, however, been in the furnishing of teachers that
the Negro college has found its peculiar function. Few per¬
sons realize how vast a work, how mighty a revolution has
thus been accomplished. To furnish five millions and more
of ignorant people with teachers of their own race and blood,
in one generation, was not only a very difficult undertaking,
but a very important one, in that it placed before the eyes of
almost every Negro child an attainable ideal. It brought the
masses of the blacks in contact with modern civilization,
made black men the leaders of their communities and train¬
ers of the new generation. In this work college-bred Negroes
IN HISTORY; AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
351
were first teachers and then teachers of teachers. And here
it is that the broad culture of college work has been of pe¬
culiar value. Knowledge of life and its wider meaning has
been the point of the Negro's deepest ignorance, and the
sending out of teachers whose training has not been merely
for bread-winning, but also for human culture, has been of
inestimable value in the training of these men.
In earlier years the two occupations of preacher and teacher
were practically the only ones open to the black college
graduate. Of later years a larger diversity of life among
his people has opened new avenues of employment.
We find that the profession of teaching is a stepping-stone
to other work. Bighty-seven persons were at first teachers,
and then changed, eleven becoming lawyers, seven going
into business, twenty-six entering the ministry, twelve en¬
tering the United States civil service, etc. Seven have at
various times engaged in menial work, usually as porters,
waiters and the like, but all but one man working in a hotel
have done this only temporarily. It is quite possible that
others who are engaged in such work have on this account
sent in no reports. We see in this way that of seven hun¬
dred college-bred men over five hundred have immediately
on graduation found work at which they are still employed.
Less than two hundred have turned from a first occupation
to a second before finding apparently permanent employment.
There are still others who have tried two and three em¬
ployments. The reports of these are naturally not as full
as the others, through forgetfulness and the nataral desire
not to advertise past failures. One college man is known to
have tried nine different occupations in ten years—but this
is very exceptional.
It seems fair to conclude that the majority of college-bred
men find work quickly, make few changes, and stick to their
undertakings. That there are many exceptions to this rule
is probable, but the testimony of observers together with
these figures makes the above statement approximately true,
352 THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
It might be well here to turn from the more general figures
to the graduates of a single representative institution. A
graduate of Dartmouth College who has been in the work of
educating Negro youth for over thirty years writes as follows
in a small publication which gives the record of Atlanta
University graduates, including the class of 1899:
"This leaflet covers an experience of about a quarter of a
century of graduating classes. It will tell of the work of
only th<t graduates of Atlanta University, all of whom have
been kept under the watchful eye of their alma mater. It
would be difficult to trace the careers of the thousands of
others who did not graduate but who have attended the in¬
stitution for a longer or shorter period, although many of
them are known to have made good use of their meager
attainments and some are occupying prominent positions.
If it were asked why no larger percentage of the students
have obtained diplomas or certificates of graduation, a suffi¬
cient answer would be found in the one word, poverty.
Their parents have been too poor to spare them from home
or to pay their expenses at school, and they themselves have
been utterly unable to find any employment sufficiently
remunerative to permit them to keep on and graduate within
a reasonable limit in time. Probably the world cannot show
instances of greater sacrifices by parents or greater pluck,
persistency and self-denial of students than are to be found
among the patrons and pupils of Atlanta University.
"While the ninety-four graduates from the college depart¬
ment represent only a small portion of the work done by the
university, they represent a very important part of that
work, as will be evident from a statement of the positions
they occupy and the work they are doing.
"Of these ninety-four graduates, twelve have died. . . .
Of the eighty-two now living, eleven are ministers, four are
physicians, two are lawyers, one is a dentist, forty-three are
teachers, one is a theological student, one is studying at
Harvard University and another at the University of Penn-
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
353
sylvania, ten are in the service of the United States, six in
other kinds of business, and two are unemployed.
"One of these graduates has rendered a most conspicuous
service to the Negro farmers of his State through the organi¬
zation of a farmers' improvement society, with many
branches, whose members are pledged to become land own¬
ers, to diversify their crops, to improve and beautify their
homes, to fight the credit system by buying only for cash
on a co-operative plan, and to raise their own supplies so far
as possible. The fact that he can report today eighty-six
branches of his society scattered over the State of Texas
with 2,840 members who have bought and largely paid for
46,000 acres of land, worth nearly half a million dollars, is a
valuable illustration of what one Negro with high ideals and
an earnest purpose can accomplish for the economic and
material advancement of his race.
"Several graduates have done considerable newspaper work
and many sermons and addresses delivered by them have
been published. At least two publications have been highly
commended by the press. Of President Richard R. Wright's
'Historical Sketch of Negro Education in Georgia,' the
Journal of Education says: 'And it is just this that makes
his story so valuable and forces one to read it straight through
from beginning to end, which is not the way books and
pamphlets are usually read in newspaper offices.' And of
Professor William H. Crogman's 'Talks for the Times,' the
New York Independent says: 'The author speaks for his
race and speaks in strong, polished English, full of nerve and
rich in the music of good English prose.'
"And these graduates are not fickle and unstable, but re¬
tain their positions year after year, doing faithful, earnest
and patient service. The length of the pastorates of the
ministers has been far above the average, and one of the
teachers is completing his twenty-fourth year in the same
institution.
"Do not these simple statements impress their own les-
23
354
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
sons? Could less than a college course have fitted most of
these men and women so well for the responsible positions
they are occupying, and the work they are doing as pastors,
professors, principals, physicians, editors, teachers, Sunday-
school superintendents, home-builders and leaders of their
people? If half of them had failed to fill the place for which
their education ought to have prepared them, even then their
teachers and friends would not have been disheartened. But
DINING HALL, ROGER WILLIAMS UNIVERSITY, NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE-
almost none have failed to meet reasonable expectations.
This record of the college graduates is full of encouragement
and inspiration."
A glance at the work done by Negro college graduates in
different fields can be but casual and yet of some value. The
teachers we asked to estimate roughly the pupils they had
taught. Some answered frankly that they could not, while
others made a statement which they said was simply a careful
guess. From these estimates we find that 550 teachers
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.' 355
reporting think they have taught about 300,000 children in
primary grades and 200,000 in secondary grades. From
this we get some faint idea of the enormous influence of these
700 teachers and the many other college men who have
taught for longer or shorter periods. Some of the teachers
reported briefly the success in after life of some of the pupils
they had taught:
"They farm mostly—a multitude preach, some act as men
of commerce, and they are engaged in every pursuit. One
is a successful practitioner of medicine."
"Several are successful as mail clerks, several are doctors,
some are successful farmers."
"Eleven became doctors. The most of these are living
and they are succeeding finely. Four are practicing law,
and they are making passably good headway. Two are col¬
lege presidents, four professors, one cashier of a bank."
"One taught successfully in the Louisville High School,
one in an Alabama high school, one is a minister and one a
grocer."
"Three are principals of large schools, five are clerks in
United States service, several are lawyers, three are doctors."
"Several are successful physicians, lawyers, teachers and
preachers, and one a bishop in the A. M. K. Z. church.
Three are presidents of institutions of learning and two are
successful pharmacists."
"Several of my pupils have been and are now successful
ministers. One is quite an eminent physician, and one a
lawyer, now an assistant in the district attorney's office of
New York City."
356
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
" Several have secured first-grade licenses and are making
successful teachers. Some are buying their own farms and
not a few are owning their own lots."
1 'One is now professor of agriculture at the A. & M. Col¬
lege, West Virginia. Another has charge of the machine
shops at High Point Normal and Industrial School, High
Point, North Carolina; another is practicing law at some
point in Florida. Quite a number are doing well."
"One is a first-class sign painter at Wilmington, North
Carolina, another is one of the leading colored physicians of
Atlanta."
1 'Two are successful teachers and one is principal of the
largest public school in Birmingham, Alabama."
"One of the most notable and one over whom I may have
exercised considerable influence, before and since his gradua¬
tion, is the principal of Snow Hill Industrial School, at Snow
Hill, Alabama."
"There were no individual instances of success among
them so far as I know. Several of the young men went to
farming, some of the young ladies married farmers. One
young man became a miner for a while."
"I mention the following instances of success with which I
am best acquainted at present in this State: A dentist at
Houston, Texas; a practicing physician and surgeon at
Washington, Texas; the deputy United States Revenue Col¬
lector at the port of Galveston; and the superintendent of the
Deaf and Dumb Asylum, Austin, Texas."
"Several students of my tuition have made excellent
teachers; all, with few exceptions, have made good citizens
IN HISTORYi AND IN CITIZENSHIP\ 357
and proved worthy examples of Honesty, trustworthiness
and Christianity.''
"Among those graduated under me are four clerks in the
civil service, three principals of schools, two chaplains in the
United States army, one captain and two lieutenants in the
United States volunteer service, eleven teachers in high
schools and one postmaster."
"Among my graduates are two high school teachers, one
professor of agriculture, one principal of city schools, one
founder of an industrial school and village."
"Some have purchased farms, others are teaching, while
i goodly number, young women and young men, are pur¬
suing college education."
"One is a graduate from medicine and one from law, and
a large number have taken higher courses in other schools
and are holding important positions as principals of schools."
"There are many bright and promising ones among them,
but as yet they have not fully shouldered the responsibilities
of life, and therefore cannot be termed successful individuals,
but rather promising."
"Two of our last year graduates (a class of seven) are
teaching music; one teaches in the schools of Crawford
county, Arkansas; one is clerk and book-keeper in a store;
the.others are farming and housekeeping in their hoines.
Several of the undergraduates are or have been teaching.
General satisfaction with their work is reported."
"One young man won a prize at the University of Chicago;
several have won prizes in other schools of the North. Two
or three are now physicians; several are successful business
men and farmers."
358 THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
"One of my pupils in the year 1867 is today the head of
one of the leading Negro colleges in the Southwest. One
of my pupils from this institution, a person of physical de¬
formity, who worked his way through by means derived from
labor, is vice-president of the largest colored public school
in this State. In about eighteen months after leaving school
he saved sufficient means from his limited salary as a teacher
to purchase a lot, plan a house and help to construct it; the
property is worth about one thousand dollars. The majority
of graduates of the institution have either their own homes
or improved property."
Some of the pupils referred to have afterward graduated
from college and are included elsewhere in this study. Most
teachers have picked out the cases of success and said noth¬
ing of the failures, of which there must have been many.
Still, the record is interesting and shows something of the
work of the college-bred teacher:
Outside the work of teachers, the chief professions followed
are the ministry, law and medicine. In most cases a regular
professional course is pursued after the college course is
finished, in order to prepare for the profession. The chief
theological schools are Biddle, at Charlotte, North Carolina;
Howard, at Washington, District of Columbia; Gammon, at
Atlanta, Georgia; Straight, at New Orleans, Louisiana;
Payne, at Wilberforce, Ohio; Lincoln, in Pennsylvania, and
Union, at Richmond, Virginia. These institutions, and
others, have turned out large numbers of ministers, until the
supply today is rather more than the demand,'and the num¬
ber of students is falling off. The work of replacing.the
ordinary Negro preachers by college-bred men will go on
slowly, but it will require many years and much advance in
other lines before this work is finished. Some colored men
have gone to Northern theological schools, usually to.the
Hartford Theological School, Newton Seminary and_ Yale
University. The leading Negro ministers today are not
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
359
usually college-bred men; still a large number of the rising
ministers are such, and the influence of the younger set is
wide-spread.
There are comparatively few Negro law schools, those at
Shaw University and Howard being practically the only ones.
There has been a good deal of contempt thrown on the Ne¬
gro lawyer, and he has been regarded as superfluous. With¬
out doubt, today lawyers are not demanded as much as
merchants and artisans, and they have often degenerated
into ward politicians of the most annoying type. At the
same time there has been a demand for Negro lawyers of the
better type. The Negroes are ignorant of the forms of law,
careless of little matters of procedure, and have lost thou¬
sands of dollars of hard-earned property by not consulting
lawyers. There is, therefore, a distinct place for the black
lawyer, but one hard to fill, with small and uncertain income
in most cases. Here and there are exceptions, especially in
the North. In Boston, for instance, there are four or five
colored lawyers who make fair incomes, largely from white
practice—foreigners, Jews, Italians and some few Americans.
In Chicago there are two or three colored lawyers with large
incomes and a host who make a living. Kven in a city like
Minneapolis, with only a handful of black folks, the Journal,
in a review of the more prominent members of the bench
and bar, February 10, 1898, speaks of a black man as:
11 One of the few members of the Negro race who have suc¬
ceeded in the practice of law. He was born near Flemings-
burg, Kentucky, on February 22, 1859. His father died
wheii he was two years old, and after the war his mother
moved to Ohio, where he attended the public schools of New
Richmond and Cincinnati. Later he went to school in Chi¬
cago, and afterwards entered the Fisk University at Nash¬
ville, Tennessee. In 1887 he received the degree of M. A.
from Fisk University, and in the same year was admitted to
the bar in Illinois, being one of a class of twenty-seven and
one out of three who received the highest markings. He
23
860
THE NEGRO IN REVELATON.
was admitted to practice in Tennessee, and practiced to some
extent at Nashville and Chicago. In 1889 he resigned his
position at Fisk University and came to Minneapolis, where
he was the first Afro-American lawyer to appear before the
courts of Hennepin county. In the course of his practice
here he has handled a number of important cases. One of
his notable cases was that of the defense of Thomas Lyons
in the famous Harris murder trial. Lyons was discharged.
In addition to his activity in his profession, Mr. Morris has
been identified prominently with all the affairs of his race in
the city and State. He has also been prominent in politics.''
Some of the reports from other lawyers are of interest. A
Memphis lawyer who has practiced for twenty-five years says:
1 'I cannot complain of the treatment I have received at the
hands of both bench and bar." A lawyer of Vicksburg,
Mississippi, says: "There are two colored lawyers here in bar
of about fifty. I do not enjoy any considerable white prac¬
tice, but get my share from my race." A Kentucky lawyer
writes: 1 'In my profession I am succeeding fairly well."
A Nashville lawyer writes: "I know of no special success
attending my practice. I am making a living out of it."
A North Carolina practitioner says: "I handle real estate
for both white and colored. I have a paying practice in all
State courts. My clients are all colored."
From the North the character of the replies differs some¬
what: "My practice is largely amongst the whites," says a
Minnesota lawyer. From Chicago come several reports:
"As a lawyer of six years' practice here I have no reason to
complain. My clients are about evenly divided between the
two races." "In my practice as a lawyer for the past seven
years, I have done general law practice; nine-tenths of my
patronage, from point of emolument, has been and is from
white clientage. I do considerable business for Irish people,
a few Germans, many Poles and Bohemians, and many of
Knglish descent." From Buffalo, New York, alawyer writes:
"My practice has not yet assumed proportions sufficiently ex-
RT. REV. GEO. W. CLINTON.
Bishop A. M, E. Zion Church.
362
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
tensive or varied to warrant me in making deductions upon
present success.' I can see no reason, however, why a col¬
ored, man of high character and the requisite qualifications,
should not succeed in the practice of law." Another writes:
"My experience as a lawyer in Buffalo has been pleasant,
and in my intercourse with the lawyers, almost exclusively
white, I have had no cause for complaint, being apparently
respected by bench and bar." A Minnesota lawyer gradu¬
ated in law in 1894, 1 'was appointed clerk of criminal court,
and resigned December 21, 1898, to serve as a member of
the Minnesota House of Representatives; am still a member
and have been practicing law. The district I represent, the
forty-second, is an entirely white district. I led the Repub¬
lican ticket by six hundred and ninety votes." A Cleve¬
land, Ohio, lawyer says: "My practice is increasing." An
Omaha, Nebraska, lawyer says: "My practice has been mixed
both as to kind of cases and classes of people.'' A Boston law¬
yer who is common councilman of Cambridge, from a white
ward, reports "fair success." Another Boston lawyer has
been alderman of Cambridge for several years. A Philadel¬
phia lawyer says: "My practice is largely confined to Jews.
The better class of Negroes is not so likely to patronize me
as the whites are."
The chief Negro medical schools are Meharry, at Nash¬
ville, Tennessee; Leonard, at Raleigh, North Carolina;
Howard, at Washington, District of Columbia; Knoxville,
at Knoxville, Tennessee, and New Orleans, at New Orleans,
Louisiana. These institutions have done remarkable work
in sending out colored physicians. Their standard is lower
than the great Northern schools, but in most cases the work
seems honestly done and the graduates successful. Negroes
have also graduated at the Harvard Medical School, the
Medical School of the University of Pennsylvania and other
Northern institutions. The rise of the Negro physician has
been sudden and significant. Ten years ago few Negro
families thought of employing a Negro as a physician.
IN HISTORY, AND- IN CITIZENSHIP. 363
Today few employ any other kind. By pluck and desert
black men have cleared here a large field of usefulness.
Moreover, in this profession far more than in the ministry
and the law, the professional standard has been kept high.
The college-bred physician has had quacks and root doctors
to contend with, but to no such extent did they hold and
dominate the field as was the case in the churches and
criminal courts. The result is today that there is scarcely a
city of any size in the United States where it is not possible to
secure the services of a well-trained Negro physician of skill
and experience. The Freedmen's Hospital, of Washington,
has made an extremely good record in the difficult opera¬
tions performed, general efficiency and training of nurses.
Hospitals have grown up in various cities under colored
medical men, notably in Chicago, Charleston and Phila¬
delphia. There are State medical associations in Georgia,
South Carolina, Tennessee and several other States.
The testimony of physicians themselves is usually hope¬
ful. From the North, a report from Newark, New Jersey,
says: UI am and have been medical representative on our
grand jury. Two-thirds of my practice is among whites.
I run a drug store in connection with my practice." From
New York City: "At first I found the whites very backward
in dealing with me, but success in several emergency cases
gave me some reputation. Now my practice is about equally
divided among black and white." Another from New York
City says his practice amounts to about $10,000 a year, and
he actually collects about half of that. About a third of his
patients are white. From Philadelphia one reports a large
practice, chiefly among blacks and the colored hospital.
One colored physician is connected with a large white hos¬
pital. A lady physician from the same city reports "marked
courtesy and respect on the part of all." From the West a
Chicago physician says: "I have been quite successful in
the short time I have been practicing. About one-half of
my patients are white." Another Chicago physician repre-
3G4
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
sented the State of Illinois at the Association of Military
Surgeons of the United States. From Minnesota, one
writes: UI am succeeding in the practice of medicine in a
city whose Negro population is very small." From Denver
it is reported that a Negro was the first chief medical in¬
spector of the Denver health office, and he was also State
sanitary officer. He has a large practice. From the border
States a Tennessee doctor reports; "I have succeeded in
building up a good practice here among my own people. No
missionary ever had a better field for useful labor.'' A man
who ranked his class at the Harvard Medical School reports a
practice between $3,000 and $4,000 a year and says: "I am
fully successful as a practitioner and surgeon, and I believe
I enjoy the confidence of a large number of people." From
Missouri a report says: "I meet with most of the best white
physicians in consultation and they treat me with courtesy."
From Kentucky a young physician reports: "I am located
in a town of twelve thousand inhabitants, one-third of whom
are colored, and am thoroughly convinced that there is a
great field here in the South for the educated young colored
man. As a physician I am well received by my white pro-
professional brother." A report from Baltimore, Mary¬
land, reads: "As a physician I find my practice a pay¬
ing one." From the heart of the South come many in¬
teresting reports. A North Carolina man says: "I have
a fair practice for the length of time I have been at work.
My intercourse with the white members of my profession
is cordial along professional lines. I seek no others."
Another North Carolina physician "has treated more than
forty thousand patients with reasonable success." He is
now conducting a sanitarium for consumptives. A colored
man of Savannah, Georgia, has been one of the city physi¬
cians for more than five years. "I have treated no less than
twenty-five thousand patients, including several hundred
whites." A Columbia, South Carolina, practitioner is often
"called upon by white physicians to consult with them in
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
365
medical cases and assist in surgical cases in their practice.
I have an extensive and paying practice among my own
people, and a considerable practice among the poorer classes
of the white people." An Arkansas man reports that he
1 'has had a half-interest in some of the important surgical
operations done in this city. I have a large field and am
often called to see patients at a distance of twenty and thirty
miles." In Macon Mississippi, an unusually successful
doctor says: "My practice here is very large and among
both colored and white. Before I settled here no one had
heard of a 'colored doctor.' The history of my parents, who
had always lived here, helped to establish me. I have had
white people come here from a distance and board here to get
my treatment."
No thoughtful man can deny that the work of Negro pro¬
fessional men, as thus indicated, has been and still is of im¬
mense advantage in the social uplift of the Negro. There
have of course been numerous failures, and there has been
a tendency to oversupply the demand for ministers and
lawyers. This is natural and is not a racial peculiarity, nor
indeed is it chargeable to the higher education of the Negro.
It was the natural and inevitable rebound of a race of menials
granted now for the first time some freedom of economic
choice. In the ministry this natural attraction was made
doubly strong by the social prominence of the Negro church
and by the undue ease with which theological students can
get their training all over the land. Nevertheless, granting
all the evils arising from some overcrowding of the profes^
sions, the good accomplished by well-trained ministers, busi¬
ness-like lawyers and skilled physicians, has far outbal¬
anced it.
Beside the regular occupations indicated above, college-
bred Negroes have been active in literary and philanthropic
work of various kinds. The following cases are especially
reported:
Active work in religious societies, 101; investing in
366
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
business enterprises conducted by Negroes, 48; contributing
to Negro and other newspapers, 105; editing and publishing
newspapers, 40; lecturers, 21; college and student aid, 20;
benevolent club work, 9; farming and truck gardening, 10;
nurseries, orphanages and homes, 12; slum, prison and
temperance work, 16; organized charity, 15; kindergartens
and mothers' meetings, 7; building associations, 7; hospit¬
als, 10; savings banks, 4; contributing to magazines, 11;
papers before learned societies, 9.
The above represent the principal activities of 450 per¬
sons in philanthropic and social lines outside of their regular
occupations. Much of the work thus done has been of great
benefit, especially in the establishment of refuges and hos¬
pitals and business enterprises of various sorts. The char¬
acter of the work done may be gained from some of the fol¬
lowing reports of social and benevolent activities:
"One of the founders of the Provident Hospital, Chicago."
" Member of the advisory board of'the St. Louis Orphans'
Home."
" Member of the board of managers of the Home for Aged
and Infirm Colored Persons, Philadelphia."
"Member of the board of managers of the Educational and
Charitable Association of Baltimore, Maryland."
"One of the founders of McKane Hospital, Savannah,
Georgia."
"Organizer of the S. C. Association of Colored Physi¬
cians."
"Helping out in a joint stock grocery company."
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP. 367
'1 Assisting in the movement to secure a Home for Colored
Orphans and also to establish a Day Nursery for Poor Chil¬
dren in St. Louis."
"Helped establish the St. Louis Colored Orphans' Home."
"Was chief commissioner for the State of Georgia for Ne¬
groes at the time of the Cotton States Exposition."
"Have charge of a Sunday-school, night school and choir,
besides instrumental and vocal music in my church."
"We have organized a savings society to loan small
amounts to members on personal security."
"I am superintendent of the Anti-Saloon League work
among the colored people of Arkansas."
"I have assisted in establishing a drug store, a grocery
and a cigar factory in Durham, North Carolina."
"Beside my teaching, I am president and manager of the
Orangeburg, South Carolina, Mercantile Association."
"Am a director of the Capitol Savings Bank and former
president of the Industrial Building and Loan Association,
Washington, D. C."
"I established and, under the management of a partner,
ran the first store in Brownsville, Tennessee."
"I am a director of the Home for Orphans and Aged Col¬
ored People in San Antonio, Texas."
"For the last eight years I have taught gratuitously chil¬
dren of the neighboring farms, in Arkansas, in my house in
winter, and under the trees in summer."
368 the negro in revelation,
"I was one of the chief promoters of the Colored Orphan
Asylum at Oxford, North Carolina, to which the State now
contributes $5,000 annually."
"For fifteen years I have been president of the lady man¬
agers of the Colored Orphan Asylum of Cincinnati, Ohio."
"I am interested in relief societies and the Capitol Savings
Bank."
"I am president of the McDonough Memorial Hospital of
New York City, and have invested in mercantile ventures."
"I am one of the editors of African Methodist Sunday-
school literature."
"I have raised in all $3,800 toward purchasing school prop¬
erty and building school-houses."
"I have aided forty-three students through college."
"Iam manager of a teachers' summer home and normal
school Chautauqua in Alabama."
"I was instrumental in establishing-a savings bank at
Birmingham, Alabama."
UI have organized a citizens union in South Atlanta,
Georgia, for the purpose of caring for the streets and sani¬
tary condition of said place."
"I have helped conduct mothers' meetings and helped in
charitable work of various kinds."
Important Public Offices Held at Various Times by Col¬
lege-Bred Negroes.—United States minister to Hayti; six
members of the legislature—North Carolina, Illinois, Geor¬
gia, Tennessee, Mississippi, Minnesota; engrossing clerk,
general assembly; four tax assessors—Illinois, Arkansas,
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
869
Mississippi, North Carolina; deputy collector of customs—
Louisiana; seven members city council—Kentucky, North
Carolina, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts; eight members
board of education—North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Dis¬
trict of Columbia, Georgia, Kansas; five officials in custom
houses—Louisiana, Tennessee, Georgia, Virginia; two State
superintendents of public instruction—Louisiana, Alabama;
two assistant district attorneys—New York; two district
county clerks—Kansas; deputy circuit clerk—Arkansas;
prosecuting attorney—Illinois; secretary of Haytian lega¬
tion; tax collector—Pennsylvania; mayor—South Carolina;
chaplain house of representatives—South Carolina; two
medical inspectors—Pennsylvania, Colorado; registrar of
births and deaths—West Indies; registrar of deposits, United
States mint—Louisiana; warden of town—South Carolina.
It is very difficult to collect reliable statistics of property
which are not based on actual records. It was not advisable,
therefore, to ask those to whom reports were sent the amount
of property they were worth, for with the best of motives on
the part of those answering, the resulting figures would be
largely estimates and personal opinion. One kind of prop¬
erty, however, is least of all liable to be unknown to per¬
sons, or to be exaggerated in honest reports, and that is real
estate. Bach college-bred Negro was asked, therefore, to
state the assessed value of the real estate owned by him;
the following table was the result of five hundred and fifty-
seven answers:
ASSESSED VALUATION OE REAL ESTATE.
Number. Actual Amt. Number. Actual Atnt.
Under $100
... 3...
$ 150.50
$ 5,000-6,000
36...
1182,275.
$ 100-200
... 3...
410.
6,000-7,000
13...
75,540.
200-300
... 15...
2,035.
7,000-8,000
7....
56,500.
300-400
... 10....
4,810.
8,000-10,000
9...
79,375.
400-500
... 5...
1,625.
10,000-15,000 ■
17...
161,000.
500-750
... 58....
31,400.
15,000-20,000
5...
71,550.
750-1,000
... 28...
23,375.
20,000-25,000
1....
21,700.
1,000-2,000
... 129...
162,230.
Own no real estate
85...
2,000-3,000
... 73...
158,400.
3,000-4,000
... 42....
239,887.
557
#1,342,862.50
4,000-5,000
... 18....
82,600.
Average per individual,
2,411.00
24
370
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
There is no way of knowing, of course, how far these five
hundred and fifty-seven persons are representative of the 2,331
Negro graduates. All things considered, however, this is prob¬
ably an understatement of the property held, for while many
of those not reporting held no property, yet most of those who
did report represent the more recent graduates who have just
begun to accumulate, while numbers of the other graduates
with considerable property could not be reached. Some who
are known to own property did not report it. It is therefore
a conservative statement to say that college-bred Negroes in
the United States own on an average $2,400 worth of real
estate, assessed value. If the assessed value is two-thirds of
the real value in most cases, this represents $3,600 worth of
property, market value. To this must be added the worth
of all personal property, so that the average accumulations
of this class may average $5,000 each, or $10,000,000 for
the group. Such figures are, of course, mere estimates, but
in the light of the testimony they are plausible.
Among the most interesting of the answers received were
those given to the questions: "Are you hopeful for the
future of the Negro in this country?" "Have you any
suggestions.
Following are some of the answers received:
"The Negro must know that he must rid himself of ob¬
noxious characteristics, save money, acquire property, learn
trades and become moral. The leading men among us must
have sense enough to denounce the rapist as well as the
lynchers."
"Guard well the sanctity of the home. Make a home,
beautify it, make it pure, protect it, defend it, die by it. If
the youths of our race were sent out from pure, happy, well-
regulated homes, half the battle would be fought to begin
with."
"In spite of conditions, apparently inauspicious, I am
sufficiently optimistic to be hopeful of the future of the
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP; 371
American Negro. I consider the ostracism, political, social,
industrial, etc., to which he is subjected, to be a training
school out of which he will emerge a united race, and, as a
necessary concomitant, invincible. The key to the situation
is the fostering of the spirit of race pride and the formation
of ideals, necessary to be realized and possible of realization."
"I think the strong caste prejudice in certain sections will
lessen as those sections become less provincial and more cos¬
mopolitan."
"I suggest that one-tenth of. his religious energy be ap¬
plied to the accumulation of homes and desirable lands."
"The future of the Negro depends upon him making him¬
self felt as a race. Not by force, but by intelligence and
wealth."
"The Negro shonld engage in business, have his own
stores, dry goods, drugs, groceries, banks, his own profes¬
sional men; and make morality and education the basis of
worth."
"I would suggest that we accumulate more property, get
homes, and that those who have homes invest their money
in Negro enterprises."
"I am indeed hopeful for our future. Daily I ride through
thousands of acres of land owned by Negroes in Mississippi.
Thev are happy and prospering. Let ns fear God, treat our
white neighbor with courtesy, save money and educate our
children, and the close of the twentieth century will find us
a great and prosperous people."
"I have an abiding faith in the triumph of the right, based
on merit, virtue and capacity."
372
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
"I am hopeful of the Negro in this country, and, more¬
over, hopeful of him in Africa. 'Behold, He that keepeth
Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.' "
1 'Education, refinement, character and money will settle
the Negro problem everywhere."
"I am hopeful of the future of the race. As we become
better educated, we shall then be better prepared for our pro¬
tection.' '
"I believe that the success of the Negro is assured if he
pursues and is allowed to pursue the different employments
that have led to the success of other citizens in this country.
We must have intelligent laborers, farmers and mechanics
among colored men. We must have also men learned in
law, medicine and theology; in time, men eminent in science
and literature."
"For a long time it will be the task of the intelligent
Negro kindly to point out deficiencies of the race and make
helpful suggestions. Our country demands a better Negro.
To produce him will require better homes, better schools and
better churches.''
uGet everything that the white man gets, and that he
wants. Protect the virtue of deserving females of any race.
Have principle and dare defend it. These done and clouds
will clear away."
"I would suggest that our leading men do less talking on
the Negro question as such. Much talking means much
concession, and much concession means less opportunity."
"More should turn their attention to business and fewer
enter the professions of teaching or preaching.''
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP. 373
"Those of us who are getting out of the wilderness and
mire of ignorance and degradation must help those who will
not or cannot help themselves."
"Why should I not be hopeful? The abandonment of the
priesthood of a race has always been attended with disasters.
Let the Negro stick to his church in the service of God. Be
honest, honorable, peaceable, make and save money, educate
his children as highly as he can afford to."
"I suggest that religious and educational work should be
done on the missionary plan in the lanes and quarters where
the lowest and most vicious Negroes live. Negro churches
aire not practical enough in their work. Religion is too often
mistaken for piety. Our educated young people are too
high above the masses to help them. Let them personally
help in the moral uplift of the criminal classes and especially
their children. Industrial training should be advocated for
the masses, but higher education should not be discouraged
when the means and ability are sufficient."
UI am optimistic in spite of the lowering clouds. We
have but recently burst from the storm and are not far
enough away from it to become settled. I believe this to be
the Sturm und Drang period of the Negro's existence. I
am aware of the strong arguments against such a position,
but in the light of the teaching of history there must be,
there is, a turning-point down near the gates of despair,
where once the opposing currents are mastered, brighter
and better conditions must arise. A better understanding
and the practical application of the laws of chastity, morality,
Christianity; an ever-increasing acquisition of wealth and
practical intelligence; the adoption of principles of courageous
manhood; the wholesale banishment of buffoonery and insta¬
bility; a closer study of those elements that have made the
Anglo-Saxon great, and a strong pull, a long pull and
374
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
a pull individually and collectively towards tlie acquisition
of the same.traits, seem to me to be a few of the essential
things that may possibly level our barriers."
"As the conditions of American life demand that the Negro
shall take an active part in bringing about a change for the
better in his situation, there are some things which should
engage his most earnest endeavor. I venture to suggest
those that now occur to me:
ul. To try and make himself a necessity. Whatsoever his
hands find to do, he must do it so well that his services will
be indispensable. And he should strive to be a producer as
well as a consumer. In order to gain this position let him
follow the example of his prosperous Anglo-Saxon brother,
namely, of cultivating and applying the resources of his in¬
tellect. To this end an opportunity could be afforded by
means of the University Extension system, adapted to the
peculiar needs and circumstances of the race. The plan
should provide for night schools, in which professional men
and women can, in their own communities, give their services
freely or for a small remuneration.
"2. The practice of thrift and frugality.
u3. The establishing of real unity and co-operation of the
race.
u4. The making the best use of the opportunities which
are at hand.''
The literary activity of the college-bred Negro has not
been great, but some of it has had considerable importance.
Nearly all the larger magazines and reviews have published
articles by them, as, for instance, the Atlantic, the Forum,
the North American Review, the Century and others. They
have published a large number of pamphlets, notably those
issued by the American Negro Academy, and many religious
publications. The African M. E\ Church Review, a quar¬
terly, has usually been under the management of college
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
375
men, and is now. Of the larger publications in book form
these may be noted:
Matthew Anderson: "Presbyterianism and Its Relation
to the Negro."
J. W. B. Bowen: "Africa and the American Negro."
A. O. Coffin: "A Land Without Chimneys."
A. J. Cooper: "A Voice from the South."
W. B. B. Du Bois: " Suppression of Slave Trade." "The
Philadelphia Negro."
F.J. Grimke: "The Negro, His Rights and Wrongs."
A. Grimke: "William L. Garrison" (American Reform¬
ers Series). "Charles Sumner" (American Reformers
Series).
J. M. Gregory: "Frederick Douglass."
W. H. Lewis: "A Primer of College Football."
G. W. McClellan: "Poems."
C, W. Mossell: "Toussaint L'Ouverture."
B. F. Ousley: "Gospels and Acts Translated Into Afri¬
can Tongues."
J. H. Paynter: "Joining the Navy."
W. H. Crogman: "Talks for the Times."
A. Wr. Pegues: "Our Baptist Ministers and Schools."
W. S. Scarborough: "First Greek Lessons." "Birds
of Aristophanes.''
L. A. Scruggs: ' 'Afro-American Women of Distinction.''
Alexander Crummell: "Africa and America."
J. M. Langston: "From the Virginia Plantation."
D. A. Payne: "History of the A. M. B. Church."
Let us now gather up the scattered threads of this social
study and seek the lesson which the accumulated facts have
to teach. We have learned that there are in the United
States thirty-four institutions designed especially for Ne¬
groes, which give collegiate instruction leading to the
bachelor's degree. Besides these, seventy-three other col¬
leges of the land have Negro graduates, so that in all we
have a record of 2,331 Negro graduates of college courses.
24
376
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
We have studied these graduates carefully so far as the re¬
ports submitted have enabled us to. They are mostly
freedmen's sons and grandsons who have gained this train¬
ing by self-denial and striving. They usually marry be¬
tween the ages of twenty-five and thirty-five, go to work in
the South at teaching, preaching, practicing the professions,
or in the civil service or business life. They have accumu¬
lated property and usually made good citizens and leaders.
Several questions may now be asked: First—Is the college
training of Negroes necessary? Second—If so, how large
a proportion of the total expenditure for education ought to
be devoted to this training? Third—What curriculum of
studies is best suited to young Negroes?
A. Is the college training of Negroes necessary? A few
opinions of prominent men in answer to this query are sub¬
joined. They ate partly in answer to a circular letter sent
to a few college presidents:
I believe not only in common school and industrial edu¬
cation for the Negroes of the South, but also in their higher
education. The higher education is necessary to maintain
the standards of the lower. Yours truly,
George E. MacI^ean,
President of the State University of Iowa.
December 11, 1900.
I believe fully in the higher education of every man and
woman whose character and ability is such as to make such
training possible. There are relatively fewer of such per¬
sons among the Negroes than among Anglo-Saxons, but for
all*of these the higher training is just as necessary and just
as effective as for anyone else.
For the great body of the Negroes the industrial and
moral training already so well given in certain schools seems
to me to offer the greatest hope for the future.
Very truly yours, David S. Jordan, '
President of Iceland Stanford Junior University.
December 14, 1900.
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
377
Your circular of December 8th comes duly to hand. In
response I would say that in my judgment no race or color
is entitled to monopolize the benefits of the higher education.
If any race is entitled to be specially favored in this respect,
I should say it is the one that has by the agency of others
been longest deprived thereof.
Yours cordially, Wm. F. Warren,
December 13, 1900. President of Boston University.
In reply to your request of December 5th, I would say
that it seems to me that the collegiate or higher education is
not a special favor to be granted to men on the ground of
race, family, or any such minor consideration. The only
condition for the receiving of a college education should be
the ability to appreciate and to use it. Human nature is
substantially the same everywhere. It should be the glory
of our country to afford to all her young men and women
who crave the broadest culture and who have the spirit and
ability to acquire it, the amplest opportunity for develop¬
ment. Looking at it more specifically, I can see that the
general uplifting of our Negro population requires a proper
percentage of college-bred Negro leaders.
Yours sincerely, George C. Chase,
December 17, 1900 President of Bates College.
You ask for my opinion in regard to the desirableness of
higher training for the Negroes. Let me begin my state¬
ment by saying that I have the utmost faith in the manage¬
ment of the Atlanta University and several other institu¬
tions for the training of Negroes in the South. I will,
however, candidly say that in my judgment there are a great
many of the Negroes whom it is not worth while to guide
through a course of university training. I think that is
true also of the white race, but in the present condition it is
peculiarly true with regard to colored people. My idea
would be that all the training that the colored man is capa-
378
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
ble of thoroughly mastering should be given him, but that
in the higher departments of learning, like political economy
and history, the ancient classics and the natural sciences,
only selected men should be given the fullest opportunities.
I have the strongest confidence that such training as is given
at Hampton and at Tuskegee, largely manual and indus¬
trial, is of the greatest importance for the Negroes, and is to
be the means of fitting the race a generation or two hence,
to enter more fully into the more abstract and philosophical
studies. I do not know that I have made myself perfectly
clear, but in a general way I should say the multiplication of
universities of the higher sort is not desirable in comparison
with the multiplication of training schools for all the trades
and manual activities.
With best wishes, very sincerely yours,
Franklin Carter,
December 12, 1900. President of Williams College.
I believe in the Southern Negro college and the higher
education of Negroes.
Very truly yours, Joseph Swain,
President University of Indiana.
December 10, 1900.
I am, like many others, greatly interested in the question
of education of the Negroes. There seems to me to be a
place for the college properly so-called which shall teach a
certain number, who may be leaders of their race in the
South, as preachers and advanced teachers. At the same
time I have much sympathy with Mr. Booker T. Wash¬
ington's idea, that a large proportion of them should be ed¬
ucated for industrial pursuits. Yours truly,
James B. Angeix,
December 10,. 1900. President University of Michigan.
President Charles W. Eliot, of Harvard College, in an ad¬
dress at Trinity Church, Boston, said:
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
379
"How, then, are the teachers, the preachers, the physi¬
cians for the colored race of the South to be provided, unless
the South has institutions of the higher education, serving
the Negro, fitting him for these higher positions? We know
very well that the Negro, as he rises in the social scale, will
live in better houses and follow better trades, and, in general,
be industrially and financially elevated.
uBut there is another essential thing—namely, that the
teachers, preachers, physicians, lawyers, engineers, and
superior mechanics, the leaders of industry, throughout the
Negro communities of the South, should be trained in su¬
perior institutions. If any expect that the Negro teachers
of the South can be adequately educated in primary schools
or grammar schools or industrial schools pure and simple, I
can only say in reply that that is more than we can do at the
North with the white race. The only way to have good pri¬
mary schools and grammar schools in Massachusetts is to
have high and normal schools and colleges, in which the
higher teachers are trained. It must be so throughout the
South: the Negro race needs absolutely these higher facilities
of education."
President William D. Hyde, of Bowdoin College, in an
address at Trinity Church, Boston, said:
"The higher education is the last thing that the individ¬
ual pupil reaches; it is what he looks toward as the end.
But from the point of view of the teachers, from the point of
view of the educational system, the higher education is the
very source and center and beginning of it all; and if this
is wanting the whole must collapse. Take away the higher
education and you cannot maintain the level of the lower; it
degenerates, it becomes corrupt, and you get nothing but
pretentiousness and superficiary as the residuum. In order
to maintain the lower education which must be given to the
South, you must have a few well-equipped institutions of
higher learning.''
380
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION.
William T. Harris, United States Commissioner of Edu¬
cation in an address to tlie students of Atlanta University,
said:
"It gives me great pleasure to meet you. I have heard of
tlie great work that this school has done in the higher edu¬
cation of the colored people. I am glad to see you, and con¬
gratulate you on the fact of getting higher education. It is
good for you to get lower education, and then still better to
get higher education. Your people have lived for two or
three hundred years in this country, and have learned the
methods of white people, and, as I said in Washington, while
speaking on this subject, you have the same mind that the
white people have. Now, as it is very necessary for white
people to study Latin and Greek, so it is very necessary for
you. If you lived in Kgypt, Abyssinia, or Arabia, it would
not be so necessary to study Latin and Greek, but people
who live in the United States, France, England, Italy, or
Germany, are greatly helped by these studies.
"There are a great many people who think colored people
should not have the higher education. Now, I would not
discourage the study of mechanics and industrial education,
but it is very important to study Greek and Latin. Some
people say it is better to know how to work than to study
Greek and Latin, because work is practical; but nothing is
more practical than getting an insight into the civilization of
which we form a part, and into the motives of the people
among whom we live.
"Now, it is a very necessary thing that the higher educa¬
tion should be opened to every part of the whole community.
For the colored people to be self-directing, they must have
higher education. They will be appreciated for the good
they can do, and will be respected because they are helping
the common civilization. We should understand also the
art of invention. That is what this Atlanta Exposition is
showing. The colored man is not always going to be the
DINING HAUv. CHAPE)I/.
PRESIDENT'S RESIDENCE. DORMITORY.
VIRGINIA UNION UNIVERSITY, RICHMOND, VIRGINIA.
382
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
person who draws water and cuts wood; lie is going to help
on with civilization. He is going to be up on all the diffi¬
cult questions. He is going to study mathematics, sciences
and the-languages.
"And you must not be misled by the opposition to the
higher education. But you should uphold it in your homes
and among your people until many more are seeking it."
It seems fair to assume, from these and other letters, that
the conservative public opinion of the best classes in America
believe that there is a distinct place for the Negro college
designed to give higher training to the more gifted members
of the race; that leaders thus trained are a great necessity in
any community and in any group. On the other hand, there
is considerable difference of opinion probably as to how large
this "Talented Tenth" is—some speaking as though it were
a negligible quantity, others as though it might be a very
large and important body.
The opinions of some other persons ought perhaps be
added to the above. First, there is the almost unbroken line
of testimony of the heads of Negro colleges; this is, of course,
interested testimony, and yet it is of some value as evidence.
A man who left a chair in the University of Michigan to go
South and teach Negroes before the war ended, wrote after
twenty-five years' experience in college work:
"By this experiment certainly one thing has been settled:
the ability of a goodly number of those of the colored race
to receive what is called a liberal education.
"The entire work of instruction in the colored public schools
of the South is done by colored teachers. These teachers
cannot be prepared in the white schools and colleges of the
South. Where, then, shall they be prepared, if not in special
higher institutions of learning open to them? What is to
become of the millions of colored people in the United States?
Who are to be their leaders? Doubtless persons of their own
race. Do they need less preparation for their calling than
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
383
do members of the white race for theirs? Is not their task
even more difficult? Have they not questions of greater in¬
tricacy to solve? Did not Moses, when leading ex-slaves out
of Bgypt, need special wisdom? Are not the colored people
of today 'perishing for lack of knowledge?'
"But the objector will say, Why have these long courses,
these colleges for colored people? Would not shorter courses
be as well, or even better? The following is my belief on
this point, after twenty-five years of thought and experience:
If the Negro is equal to the white man in heredity and envi¬
ronment, he needs an equal chance in education; if he is
superior, he can get on with less; if he is inferior, he needs
more. The education required is not simply that of books,
but of life in Christian homes, such as are supplied in nearly
all our missionary schools for that people, and of religion
through the Christian Church and its influences."
The president of another Negro college said:
"To imagine that the Negro can safely do without any of
the institutions or instrumentalities which were essential to
our own advancement, is to assume that the Negro is superior
to the white man in mental capacity. To deprive him of any
of these advantages, which he is capable of using, would be
to defraud ourselves, as a nation and a Christian Church, of
all the added power which his developed manhood should
bring to us. It does not seem to be necessary in this audience
to discuss the proposition that intelligence is power, and that
the only road to intelligence is through mental discipline
conducted under moral influences."
These two extracts sufficiently represent the almost unani¬
mous opinion of the presidents and teachers in Negro colleges,
that this training is a success and necessity.
From a careful consideration of the facts, and of such tes¬
timony as has been given, the following propositions seem
clear:
1. The great mass of the Negroes needs common school
and manual training.
384
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
2. There is a large and growing demand for industrial and
technical training, and trade schools.
3. There is a distinct demand for the higher training of
persons selected for talent and character to be leaders of
thought and missionaries of culture among the masses.
4. To supply this demand for a higher training there ought
to be maintained several Negro colleges in the South.
5. The aim of these colleges should be to supply thor¬
oughly trained teachers, preachers, professional men and
captains of industry.
Finally we come to the query:
What curriculum of college studies is best suited to young
Negroes?
Little careful work has been done in the direction of ascer¬
taining what, improvements in the Negro college course are
needed. Nor is this strange; so much time and energy is
consumed in collecting funds and defending principles that
there is little leisure left presidents for internal adjustment
and development. The exposition and comparison of college
courses made elsewhere in this book, show obvious faults.
The older New England college curriculum of forty years
ago still holds in the Southern institutions with little change.
This should be remedied. A large place should be made for
English, history and natural science in most curricula at the
expense of some other studies. Various other changes might
obviously be made. All this work can easily be done when
the existence problem of these struggling institutions is nearer
solution.
The central truth which this study teaches to the candid
mind is the success of higher education under the limitations
and difficulties of the past. To be sure, that training can
be criticised justly on many points. Its curriculum was not
the best; many persons of slight ability were urged to study
algebra before they had mastered arithmetic, or German before
they knew English; quantity rather than quality was in some
cases sought in the graduates, and, above all, there was a
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP. 385
tendency to urge men into the professions, particularly the
ministry, and to overlook business and the mechanical trades.
All these charges brought against the higher training of Ne¬
groes in the past, have much of truth in them. The defects
lay in the application of the principle, not in the principle;
in poor teaching and studying rather than in lack of need
for college-trained men. Courses need to be changed and
improved, teachers need to be better equipped, students need
more careful sifting. With such reform there can be no rea¬
sonable doubt of the continued and growing need for a training
of Negro youth, the chief aim of which is culture rather than
bread-winning. Nor does this plain demand have anything
in it of opposition or antagonism to industrial training—to
those schools which aim directly at teaching the Negro to
work with his own hands. Quite the contrary is the case,
and it is indeed unfortunate that the often intemperate and
exaggerated utterances of some advocates of Negro education
have led the public mind to conceive of the two kinds of
education as opposed to each other. They are rather supple¬
mentary and mutually helpful in the great end of solving
the Negro problem. We need thrift and skill among the
masses, we need thought and culture among the leaders. As
the editor has had occasion to say before:
"In a scheme such as I have outlined, providing the rudi¬
ments of an education for all, industrial training for the
many and a college course for the talented few, I fail to see
anything contradictory or antagonistic. I yield to no one in
advocacy of the recently popularized notion of Negro indus¬
trial training, nor in admiration for the earnest men who
emphasize it. At the same time, I insist that its widest
realization will but increase the demand for college-bred men
—for thinkers to guide the workers. Indeed, all who are
working for the uplifting of the American Negro have little"
need of disagreement if they but remember this fundamental
and unchangeable truth: The object of all true education is not
to make men carpenters—it is to make carpenters men"
as
M. W. GIBBS.
Ex-United States Consul to Tamatave, Madagascar
CHAPTER XIV.
History of Some Negro Universities.
HERE are now in the United States nearly forty institu¬
tions designed especially for the higher education of the
Negro race—giving them college and university training.
We give the history of three old and prominent ones, to in¬
dicate how promptly the country acted after the close of the
war to provide facilities for the thorough education of a gen¬
eration of colored people who were now to take upon them¬
selves, for the first time in the history of their race, the duties
and responsibilities of citizenship. How promptly they
availed themselves of the opportunities offered them may be
gathered by a study of the book of which this chapter forms
President Charles F. Meserve gives the following account
of the rise, progress and work of this school:
Shaw University—named in honor of the late Elijah Shaw,
of Wales, Massachusetts, is situated in Raleigh, the capital
city of North Carolina. It has a beautiful location, within
the city limits, and is only a few minutes' walk from the
Union Station, the Capitol, and the United States Govern¬
ment Building.
Although within the city limits, it has an entire square to
itself, and is as quiet and secluded as if it were situated miles
away in the country. This quiet and seclusion, together
with a bountiful supply of pure water, perfect sanitation and
sewerage and other city advantages, make Shaw well-nigh
an ideal place for study. Its grounds are spacious and well
kept, and its principal buildings large, imposing brick struct¬
ures. Its buildings (eleven in number) and grounds are the
most attractive feature in the southern part of the city.
a part
i. shaw university.
387
888
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION.
This institution was started in a very humble way in a
Negro cabin on the outskirts of the city in the year 1865, by
Rev. Henry Martin Tupper, an ex-Union soldier and a native
of Monson, Massachusetts. The enterprise grew on his
hands, and a larger building became necessary, but there was
little money either for carrying on or extending the work.
Accordingly, with a few faithful helpers, day after day, he
shouldered his axe and went out of the city into the woods,
and together they felled huge yellow pines and hewed the
vlogs into timber. After many weeks of struggling, and after
receiving a little help from the North, the actual work of
building began. A large two-story structure, to be used both
for a church and a school, was finally erected on Blount
street, a block north of the present location of the university.
The work continued to grow, and again larger quarters
were required. At this juncture the mansion and grounds
of the late General Barringer, ex-minister to Spain, were for
sale. This property, comprising several buildings and twelve
acres of land, and occupying an entire square, was purchased,
and then began the great expansion that has made the insti¬
tution what it is today. Shaw was incorporated in 1875.
At that time the work was more elementary than now, but
such as was adapted to the needs of ;the people. The man¬
agement, however, has kept pace constantly with the prog¬
ress of the race and the demands of the times, until there are
today, in addition to normal, college, missionary training,
and industrial departments, schools of law, medicine and
pharmacy.
The blessing that Shaw has been to the colored race can
hardly be estimated. Thousands of young men and women
have gone forth from her walls into positions of usefulness
and influence. They are found in nearly every State and
Territory of the Union, though naturally the largest numbers
are found in the South. They are making their way in
every walk in life, and the majority of them are the sub¬
stantial, influential leaders of the race. In the teaching pro-
JOHN R. LYNCH.
Paymaster in United States Army.
390
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
fession they have made themselves particularly felt. At one
time five of the seven colored normal schools of the State were
presided over by principals who received their education at
Shaw University. Dr. J. O. Crosby, for some years presi¬
dent of the State Agricultural and Mechanical College for
Colored Young Men and Women; Dr. B. B. Smith, ex-
minister to Liberia; Hon. H. P. Cheatham, for several years
a member of Congress, and at present recorder of deeds of
the District of Columbia, as well as several of the professors
at Shaw, are Shaw men.
The Third North Carolina Regiment of United States In¬
fantry is composed of colored men, and Shaw figures promi¬
nently in this regiment. Col. James H. Young, Adjutant
B. B. Smith, Chief Surgeon J. B„ Dellinger, Assistant Sur¬
geons M. T. Pope and M. W. Alston, Captains J. J. Hood
and J. T. York, and other officers and many in the ranks are
graduates or former students of Shaw. The chief surgeon
and his assistants and Captain Hood are graduates of the
medical department.
Graduates of the law department go into court and plead
their cases with the same courteous treatment from judge and
jury as is accorded to white members of the bar.
Success has also been won by the graduates in medicine
and pharmacy, and they are found very generally throughout
the Southland. A graduate in pharmacy, A. W. Benson,
of Atlanta, class of '95, was the first colored man to obtain a
license from the Virginia Board of Bxaminers. His stand¬
ing in examination was slightly in excess of 95 per cent.
The first man of any race to receive 100 per cent, in an ex¬
amination before the Virginia Board of Medical Bxaminers
was C. R. Alexander, of Lynchburg, class of 1891, who
practiced medicine for several years in Petersburg, Virginia,
and had the respect and confidence of the community. He
is at present chief surgeon of the Sixth Regiment of United
States Infantry from Virginia.
A goodly number of our young men, as has been the case
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP. 391
from the founding of the institution, are studying for the
ministry. Shaw has furnished nearly all of the denomina¬
tional leaders in North Carolina and many in other States.
In tlie gospel ministry her greatest influence has been ex¬
erted, for her theological department has always been well
attended, and the minister is still the influential factor in di¬
recting the life of the great masses of colored people in every
community.
Many of her former students are thrifty farmers, success¬
ful business men, and occupy positions of honor and trust in
their respective counties. The aim of the institution, from
the very beginning, has been to turn out well-equipped
Christian men and women who shall be leaders in the best
sense of the term, and thus, indirectly, but effectually, reach
the masses of the people. This has been done with signal
and gratifying success.
Shaw believes in co-education. Men and women meet in
the class-room, in the chapel and around the family board,
on terms of equality. The women's department is known as
Bstey Seminary. Bstey Hall, the gift of the late Deacon
Bstey, of Brattleboro, Vermont, is said to be the first building
ever erected for the education of colored women. It was pre¬
dicted that co-education would be a dismal and disgusting
failure, but it should be said to the great credit of the race
that there never has been a scandal connected with the insti¬
tution.
The influence exerted by Shaw is well-nigh world-wide.
At the present time she has students from the West Indies
and Africa, and has enrolled them from Central and South
America. Although a Home Mission School, her spirit
reaches out to other lands. Missionary Hayes, the well-
known African missionary, was a Shaw student. Dr. Lulu
C. Fleming and four others from Shaw are in missionary
work on the Congo.
It is worthy of note that Shaw men and women do not be¬
come criminals, and seldom, if ever, do educated colored
25
392
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
young men and women belong to tlie criminal or lawless
classes. Rather are they conservators of law and order and
preservers of the peace. Our students and graduates are, as
a rule, Christian men and women of clean lives, and some of
them are earnest workers in the cause of temperance and social
purity.
N. F. R.OBER.TS, D. D.
N. F. Roberts, D. D., was born in Seaboard, North Caro¬
lina, October 13, 1849. He spent his early years upon a
N. F. ROBERTS, D. D.
Vice-President Shaw University.
farm. He evinced very early an eager desire for knowledge,
and showed especial liking for mathematics, being considered
a genius in his neighborhood. In October, 1871, he entered
Shaw University, graduating in 1878. On graduation he
was made professor of mathematics in the university, a posi¬
tion which he still holds. He is also vice-president of the
institution. He has served as pastor of different churches;
for many years has been president of the Baptist State
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP. 393
Sunday-school Convention; has been corresponding secretary
and the president of the Baptist State Convention, and has
done considerable editorial work. He is business manager
of the Baptist Sentinel
A. W. PEGUES, PH. D.
A. W. Pegues, Ph. D., was born of slave parents in 1859,
near Cheraw, South Carolina. During the winter of 1866-7,
he spent a few months in the school-room, but on the death
A. W. PKGUES, PH. D.
of his father was obliged to return to work on the farm. At
the age of eleven years he was thrown upon his own resources.
For four months in each of the years of 1871-2-3 he walked
three miles to attend night school. In 1876 he entered
Benedict Institute at Columbia, South Carolina. In 1879
he entered Richmond Theological Seminary, from which he
graduated as class valedictorian in 1882. He then spent
two years in Bucknell University, meanwhile supplying the
church at Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Three years later
394
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
he received from the university the degree of Ph. D. In
189-i and 1895 he was Sunday-school missionary for North
Carolina; he then served for three years as supervisor of the
Colored Institution for the Deaf, Dumb and Blind. In 1897
he accepted the position of dean of the theological department
of Shaw University.
GRACE: J. THOMPSON
Grace J. Thompson says of herself: "I was born in Dar¬
lington, South Carolina, January 25, 1875. My parents
were not educated, and lived in an humble way all through
GRACE J. THOMPSON.
my early years; my mother, assisted by the smaller children,
gave her time to sewing and laundry work as means of sup¬
port, and my three older brothers, who took the responsibili¬
ties of a father, devoted theirs to trades. My father died in
my twelfth year. Because of these things, and because of
the poor school system of Darlington, the educational ad¬
vantages offered were poor until 1889, at which time the
system was revised.
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
395
"From the Mayo graded school I graduated in 1894.
Having finished from this school, I attempted to teach; but
as I lacked the training which I did not get from the public
school, my attempt was a complete failure. The following
fall I went to Shaw University, where I remained four years,
graduating in 1897. In September, 1898, I came to Little
Rock, Arkansas, as a teacher in the Arkansas Baptist
College."
II. ROGER WILLIAMS UNIVERSITY.
Roger Williams University was founded in the city of
Nashville, in 1864, by Rev. D. W. Phillips, D. D., a Bap¬
tist minister who came here from New England. Its begin¬
ning was small. At first Doctor Phillips taught a class of
colored men at his own home. Later he secured a room in
the basement of the Spruce Street Colored Baptist Church.
In 1865 he had formulated his plan for a school, so he went
north and raised money enough among the philanthropic
white people to purchase a site and erect a wooden building.
This building is now the Thirteenth District Colored School,
of Nashville. In it Dr. Phillips maintained the school until
1873, when, by the munificent bequest of Nathan Bishop, of
New York, the Baptist Home Missionary Society was en¬
abled to purchase the present beautiful plot of thirty acres of
land on the Hillsboro pike, opposite Garland avenue, and
*erect a building costing fifty thousand dollars, now used for
dormitory, recitation rooms and chapel. When the property
was bought there was a residence on it. This has been en¬
larged and is the dormitory for young ladies. Since the
purchase of the present site two more buildings have been
added—Hayward Hall and the president's mansion. All
these buildings are of brick. The property is valued at
$150,000. The faculty numbers fourteen persons—eleven
white and three colored.
The purpose of this institution of learning at first was to
train colored people in the rudiments of an education and to
fit them to become teachers and ministers of the gospel.
396
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION.
This purpose has not been departed from, but along with
that have'developed normal, academic and collegiate courses,
and a large number of students have been graduated with
the degree of B. S. and A. B. The courses are being broad¬
ened and strengthened each year. The English branches
are being taught with as much care and skill as formerly,
and the Bible has the same place of importance, but collegi¬
ate training and instruction in music are receiving increased
emphasis. In addition to this instruction, special care is
PRESIDENT'S HOUSE, ROGER WILLIAMS UNIVERSITY, NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE-
given to teaching the young ladies to improve along domes¬
tic lines. To this end, dressmaking is taught by.a profes¬
sional dressmaker, and constant instruction in deportment,
hygiene and general household economy is given.
Although this institution is under the control of the Bap¬
tist Home Missionary Society, and is, therefore, classed
among sectarian institutions of learning, the most liberal
spirit prevails, and nothing is said or done to alter the de¬
nominational views of any student. With this in view, it
MAIN BUILDING ROGER WILLIAMS UNIVERSITY, NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE.
398
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
lias been the policy of the school to have no college church,
but to allow and urge every student to attend a city church
of his or her own denomination.
The general policy of the institution may be gathered
from the following extract:
"In supplying educated men for the pulpits and trained
teachers for the public schools, this institution claims to be
contributing in the largest possible way to the general up-
HAYWARD HALL, ROGER WILLIAMS UNIVERSITY, NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE.
lifting of the people; and in sending into the various com¬
munities of this and adjoining States educated lawyers, doc¬
tors, farmers and business men, and into the homes of such
communities intelligent and consecrated wives and mothers,
it claims to be inspiring in the young and the less fortunate
portions of the community that respect for education and
that desire to possess it without which even the common
school cannot be largely influential or successful."
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
399
NATIONAL, BAPTIST PUBLISHING BOARD.
Probably the most complete publishing plant carried on and
controlled by Negroes in the United States is the National
Baptist Publishing Board. This institution was created by
a resolution passed by the National Baptist Convention in
1896. Its growth has been phenomenal and has increased
each succeeding year, as the following figures will show: The
grand total of periodicals published in 1897 was 746,500; in
1899, 4,695,950. In 1897 total orders filled were 5,764; in
1899, 22,245. In 1897 the total amount of money collected
was^$5,864.29; in 1899, $31,683.22. This house publishes
not only Sunday-school magazines and pamphlets, but car¬
ries on regular book making, such as Bibles, song books and
other hard cloth and morocco bindings, and besides does
regular book and job printing.
Seventy skilled laborers are kept regularly employed in
this institution. The machinery, appliances,etc., are of the
best.
The institution is under the control of the National Bap¬
tist Convention.
Nine grades of periodicals and eleven books are published
regularly as denominational literature for the benefit of Bap¬
tist Sunday-schools.
NEHARRY MEDICAL COLLEGE.
The Meharry Medical College was organized in 1876 as
the medical department of Central Tennessee College, Nash¬
ville, Tennessee, and was the first medical school opened in
the Southern States for the education of colored physicians.
It takes its name from the generous and philanthropic family
who so liberally contributed toward its establishment and
support.
. Since its organization in 1876, several hundred students
have completed their medical course of study and received
the degree of M. D. The greater portion of this number
are now practicing their profession in the Southern and
400 the negro in revelation,
Southwestern States. They have uniformly been treated
with kindness and consideration by the white physicians of
the South, who have consulted with them in dangerous cases
and assisted in difficult operations in surgery.
Nearly 90 per cent, of the graduates have been members
of some Christian Church, and over 10 per cent, had re¬
ceived a collegiate education before taking the study of
medicine. They have made a good record in passing the
required county, district and State examining boards, and
very few failures have occurred.
Five of the alumni have served on the United States pen¬
sion examining boards. A large proportion of the alumni
have purchased homes of their own, and their professional
income is probably greater than that of any other class of
colored citizens.
CHARLES SPENCER DINKINS, D. D.
Charles Spencer Dinkins, D. D., was born September 15,
1856, at Canton, Mississippi. He was converted in 1868.
In June, 1870, he entered Roger Williams University at
Nashville, Tennessee, graduating therefrom in 1877 as
valedictorian of his class. His pastor, Rev. Jordan Williams,
and the church at Canton gave him financial aid. During
his period of study he taught public school during vacations.
After pursuing a post-graduate course of one year at Roger
Williams he entered Newton Theological Institution in 1878,
and graduated in 1881. He received the degree of D. D.
from the State University at Louisville, Kentucky, in 1890.
After serving as pastor and teacher in Alabama for about fif¬
teen years, he became (1893) president of the Alabama Bap¬
tist Colored University at Selma
MRS. DAISY MILLER HARVEY.
Mrs. Harvey was born in Mississippi, but reared in Mem¬
phis, Tennessee, where she attended the public schools and
later Le Mayne Institute. In September, 1877, she entered
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP. 401
the Roger Williams University, and was graduated from the
normal course in 1879. She began at once to teach, and,
with the exception of one year, has been engaged in educa¬
tional work continuously for the past nineteen years. In
1885, she was appointed by the Women's Baptist Educa¬
tional Society as their missionary. She says: "I traveled
throughout the State of Kentucky from east to west and
from north to south, visiting churches, organizing mission-
MRS. DAISY MIU.KR HARVEY.
ary bands, making special talks to the young people, visit¬
ing the homes, and helping when I could to encourage the
women to live pure, clean lives, and to make their homes all
they ought to be—types of the heavenly home." In 1884,
Mrs. Harvey began a movement which has resulted in the
establishment of the Colored Orphans' and Old Ladies'
Home. Since 1896 Mrs. Harvey has been matron in Bishop
College, Marshall, Texas.
20
402
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
JOHN HOPE.
John Hope was born in Augusta, Georgia, June, 1868.
Losing his father at the early age of eight years he was thrown
chiefly upon his own resources. After leaving the public
schools of Augusta at thirteen years of age, he spent five or
six years in work. After his conversion at eighteen, in 1886,
he entered the Academy of Worcester, Massachusetts, where
he spent four years, graduating in 1890—the last two years
JOHN HOPE.
supporting himself entirely by his own labor. While at the
academy he had valuable experience as business manager,
associate editor and editor-in-chief of the school paper. He
was the historian of his class.
In 1890 he entered Brown University, graduating with
the honor of class orator in 1894. He supported himself
while in college by doing chores and by newspaper work,
being the university correspondent for the New York
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP. 403
Tribune. After teaching four years in Roger Williams
University lie was transferred to Atlanta Baptist College.
Since graduating at Brown he has spent two summer seasons
in post-graduate study in the University of Chicago.
JOSEPH A. BOOKER. D. D.
President Booker was born in Ashley county, Arkansas,
December 26, 1859. His parents having died while he was
JOSEPH A. BOOKER, D. D.
President of Arkansas Baptist College.
yet a child, his guardian gave him the opportunity of irreg¬
ularly attending country schools for a number of years;
after having spent three years in the Normal School at Pine
Bluff, he entered Roger Williams University in 1881 and
graduated in 1886. Having served as State missionary, in
association with Rev. Harry Woodsmall, he became, in 1887,
principal of the Negro school at Little Rock. He says: "I
am a firm believer in the self-exertion of the Negro, for it is
404
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
to tliis end that he is being educated. But I am just as firm
a believer in co-operation between the Negroes and the white
people."
MR.S. MAMA T. KENNEY.
Mrs. Maria Talley Kenney was born in Shelbyville, Ten¬
nessee. Her parents, though not "educated," were indus¬
trious, ambitious Christian people, who took the keenest in¬
terest in the education and general advancement of their
children. Maria entered Roger Williams University at a
MRS. MARIA T. KKNN^Y.
somewhat early age, and graduated from the college depart-
ment in 1887. She taught school during vacations. When
teaching near her home she very often did the family wash¬
ing and sewing, taught music and sewed at night for friends
to make "extra" money. While teaching she boarded with
a woman who took in washing, and Maria ironed evenings,
and thus secured money enough to buy all her clothing.
The money she received for teaching went to make the first
payment on the little farm her father had bought.
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP. 405
Since her graduation Mrs. Kenneyhas taught in the pub¬
lic schools of Tennessee; on the faculty of Natchez College,
Natchez, Mississippi; Roger Williams University, Nash¬
ville, Tennessee; Howe Institute, Memphis, and Arkansas
Baptist College, Little Rock, Arkansas.
III. HOWARD UNIVERSITY.
Howard University was established at Washington, Dis¬
trict of Columbia, just after the close of the war, when the
interest excited in philanthropists and statesmen by the abo¬
lition of slavery was at its height.
During and immediately after the war many thousands of
freedmen made their way to Washington. Since that time
the Negro has composed one-third of the population of that
city. This influx of Negro population made it necessary that
steps be immediately taken to provide for the education of
both children and adults. Day schools were promptly pro¬
vided by the aid of the various freedmen's organizations.
After this was done, and it was reasonably certain that pri¬
mary education would be provided, thoughtful men began to
look toward measures for securing also a higher education for
a portion of the colored people. The First Congregational
church in Washington had been recently organized, and on
November 20, 1866, Mr.' Henry A. Brewster, one of the
members of that church, gathered eight or ten friends at his
house to take steps in this direction. The enterprise rapidly
took shape, a board of trustees was elected, and on January
18, 1867, the title of Howard University was given to the
new institution in honor of Major-General Oliver O. How¬
ard, who was at that time commissioner of the Freedmen's
Bureau.
Application was made to Congress for a charter under which
to organize the university, which was promptly granted.
This act of incorporation expressly provided that the imiver-
sity should make no distinction between whites and blacks as
it was not intended to make it a distinctively colored institu-
40G
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
tion. The university was, therefore, formed on broad lines,
the promoters believing that the idea of color should not enter
at all into the question of education.
The charter did not contain the word4'Negro," or "black,"
or '' colored," or " African, "but simply provided for the estab¬
lishment of a university for the education of youth in the lib¬
eral arts and sciences. While, however, the direct intention
was to make provision for the higher education of the Negro
race, it was not intended to shut out any race or color. As
a matter of fact, the institution has had, besides Negro stu¬
dents, Indians, Chinese, Japanese, various European nation¬
alities, and white stu¬
dents from both the
Northern and Southern
States. These students
have been found in all
departments of the uni¬
versity, but especially in
the medical school.
Among these there was a
white student who had
carried off the valedictory
honors at Harvard, and
afterward entered the theological department at Howard.
The university is open to students from all parts of the
United States or the world, and to all races of men; also to
both sexes.
In religion the university is undenominational and no dis¬
crimination has been made in the interest of any of the great
religious bodies. The men who first started the work were,
for the most part, Congregationalists and Presbyterians, but
the board of trustees has embraced Methodists, Baptists,
Episcopalians and Unitarians, and all of these denominations
have had representatives among the teachers and professors,
as have also the Lutherans, Roman Catholics and the Re¬
formed Church.
HOWARD UNIVERSITY.
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP. 407
The university is located in a commanding position on the
line of hills in the northern part of the city of Washington,
overlooking the city and much of the surrounding country,
with a splendid view of the two branches of the Potomac, as
well as the main river. The site originally contained one
hundred and fifty acres of what was known as "Effingham."
The purchase price was $140,500 and the money was obtained
mainly from the Freedmen's Bureau, and later repaid by the
university from the proceeds of the sales of land not needed
for university purposes.
After the site had been selected it became a serious ques¬
tion as to how the necessary buildings were to be secured.
The founders were mostly poor men, but they were enthusi¬
astic and had faith in the accomplishment of the objects for
which they were working. The way was opened as follows:
General Howard as the head of the Bureau of Refugees,
Freedmen and Abandoned Lands had disbursed in various
ways large sums of money for the establishment and mainte¬
nance of all grades of schools throughout the Southern
States, and had offered to erect buildings for a certain denom¬
inational colored institution in the District of Columbia, on
condition that it should become undenominational, but the
offer was declined. The trustees of Howard University,
learning of this fact, made application, as an undenomina¬
tional institution, to receive this aid. In this way there was
secured something more than $500,000, which went princi¬
pally into lands and buildings. With this money there were
erected, according to plans drawn up by Henry R. Searle,
architect, four large edifices, viz.: the main University Build¬
ing, Miner Hall, Clark Hall, and the Medical College, also
several houses for the professors.
For three or four years all seemed to go well. Grounds
and buildings had been furnished and leading philanthropists
had contributed liberally to the maintenance of the institu¬
tion. Such men as Hon. Gerritt Smith, of New York; John
Taylor, of London and David Clarke, of Hartford, Connect-
26
408
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
icut, made liberal donations; the British Freedmen's Aid
Commission also contributed; and the generous public, when
appealed to, responded favorably.
Encouraged by the success of their plans the trustees
began to open the numerous departments in rapid succession,
paid high salaries, and made lavish expenditures in every
WJI. H. H. HART.
Instructor in Agriculture, Howard University.
direction. In the early seventies, however, it was found
necessary to retrench, and the efforts in this direction were
so successful that while the expenses in 1872 amounted to
$87,000, iu 1877 they amounted to only $16,000. This re¬
duction in expenses was not accomplished, however, without
considerable loss to the institution in the way of professors,
/.V HISTORY, A.YD AV CITIZENSHIP.
409
students and prestige. Since 1877 the condition of tlie insti¬
tution has steadily improved. In 1879 Congress appropri¬
ated $10,000 for current expenses, and since that time an
annual appropriation has been made, which has increased to
more than double that for 1879. At the present time the
university holds improved real estate from which rents are
derived, and various unimproved land which can be made
to produce revenue. The present holdings of the university
are upwards of $1,000,000.
Among the various departments of the university are the
Normal and Preparatory departments, College department,
Theological department, Medical department, Law depart¬
ment, Musical department and the Industrial department.
Of these the Medical department deserves especial notice. It
has three divisions, namely, Medicine, Pharmacy and Den¬
tistry, with an able faculty in each. This department is al¬
ways full, and white and Negro students are about equally
divided.
The Industrial department has a shop 75x40 feet in
which there is a Carpenter shop, Printing office, and
Shoemaking and Tailoring rooms, and an Iron and Tin
shop in the basement. There are also sewing rooms for the
girls in Miner Hall, and type-writing is taught in the main
building. All students in the Normal and Preparatory de¬
partments are required to attend, at certain hours, in the In¬
dustrial department for three years, and all other students
are encouraged to attend. In this department the carpenters
work from plans drawn in the school, and the University
Record is set up and printed on the premises. The carpenter
shop is equipped with the most modern appliances, the
printing office with a good outfit of newspaper and job type
and one Gordon press. The tin shop is also well fitted with
machinery and tools. The sewing class is taught plain sew¬
ing both by hand and by machine, also dress cutting and
fitting. There is a cooking class and a book-bindery.
The professors have usually been white, although quite a
410
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
large number of colored instructors have been employed from
time to time. The first dean of the theological department
was a Negro, and there is also a Negro in the faculty of that
department at the present time. There are also Negro in¬
structors in the law and medical departments, and in the
college and normal courses the majority of instructors are
colored.
The university has also a well-furnished chemical labora¬
tory, and also a laboratory for work in biology, botany and
every branch of natural science, which is connected with the
museum, and contains a valuable mineralogical cabinet and
botanical collection.
About three thousand students have been graduated from
the various departments. While some of them have proved
failures, as could only be expected, most of them have done
creditable work and stand high among their people. Among
the graduates has been a United States minister to Liberia,
a district attorney of Norfolk, Virginia, and a member of
Congress.
It is, of course, impossible in the space at our disposal to
give a review of the work of the university. The work done
has been in the direction of training Negro youths in the
ways in which they most need training. While some people
have contended that higher education of the Negro is a mis¬
take, it is quite evident that in the case of the Negro, as in
the case of other races, the lower education of the masses
depends upon the higher.
The race needs preachers and teachers—leaders who can
show them the way to better methods of living and lead their
thoughts in the way of modern ideas, elevate their ideals and
improve them morally, intellectually and industrially. The
leaders of the past have been ignorant, and often immoral.
They have gained a hold on their people and left their im¬
pressions upon them; but in many cases their influence has
not been altogether good. Even men like the Rev. John
Jasper, who were morally above reproach, led the thoughts
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP. 411
of those who followed them towards the prejudices of igno¬
rance rather than that broad-minded view of life which is
the best thing in our modern civilization. It is important
that these old leaders should be replaced by a new class—
preachers who practice as well as preach, and teachers who
can instill into their pupils, not only the ordinary informa¬
tion usually imparted in primary and grammar schools, but
also those ideals and ambitions for a better life which the race
must have in order to make the most of itself. The impor¬
tance of replacing the old-time leaders with the new will be
readily appreciated, and it has been the aim of Howard Uni¬
versity to supply such leaders.
J. WESLEY HOFFMAN.
George R. Smith College, Sedalia, Missouri,
CHAPTER XV.
Some Notable Educators Other Than Those Al¬
ready Named, With Notice of the Schools
With Which They Have Been
Connected.
JOHN WESLEY HOFFMAN.
AMONG the many colored men of America who have won a
prominent place in the field of science, no one has
achieved greater fame than the subject of this sketch—-John
Wesley Hoffman, Ph. D. An honor to himself and to his
race, it is with special pride that the Afro-Americans of the
United States can point to him as one of their own race, and
pay homage to him in recognition of the honors that have been
given him. Formerly professor of agriculture in the State
College of Florida, he now occupies the chair of chemistry,
biology and agriculture in the Geo. R. Smith College, Se-
dalia, Missouri.
His special work along the line of chemistry and agricul¬
tural biology has placed him in the very front rank of sci¬
ence, and today he is the leading Negro scientist of the
world.
He was born iti Charleston, South Carolina, receiving his
early education in his native city. He went north and pur¬
sued his studies at Howard University, Washington, Dis¬
trict of Columbia; Michigan Agricultural College, Lansing,
Michigan and Albion College, Albion, Michigan. He has also
pursued special studies at Harvard University and Sumner Sci¬
entific School in organic chemistry; Cornell University sum¬
mer course in biology and nature study; Marine School of
Biology at Wood's Hole, Massachusetts, in embryology and
bacteriology. At the Agassiz Scientific Institute at Cottage,
413
414
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
Massachusetts, a few years ago, lie attracted the attention of
the most noted men of science in America and-Europe, by
his thorough knowledge of the marine plants known as the
Algas. He has made a special study of butter and cheese-
making and dairy bacteriology at the well-known Ontario
Agricultural College at Guelph, Ontario, Canada.
He has occupied chairs in some of the leading colored col¬
leges of the country—State University, of Louisville, Ken¬
tucky; Tuskegee Institute, of Alabama; State Colored College
of South Carolina, and Florida State Industrial College. In
all these institutions he has won fame for himself. As an
instructor, he imparts his knowledge to his pupils with
enthusiasm and ease. He is blessed with a kind, magnetic,
sympathetic and charming disposition, a most striking and
pleasing personality, that endears him to his pupils and
renders him a most admirable companion and friend and
popular instructor. Quiet and unassuming in manners,
chaste and cautious in speech, he at once becomes much
admired by all with whom he comes in contact. He is highly
respected for his counsel, and is popular with his associates
in the faculty.
Since coming to Geo. R. Smith College, Professor Hoff¬
man has awakened a new and lively interest in the depart¬
ment of science, has organized a scientific club (The Pas¬
teur), of which he is the president. The students are mani¬
festing a decided interest in the department, which is indeed
gratifying to him, and is another proof that even his begin¬
nings are brilliant and his success limitless. He is by no
means a mere recluse, but is eminently practical in his work,
and uses his great scientific information to effect immediate
results in ameliorating the condition of his people. Among
some of his many achievements may be mentioned the fact
that he was the first Negro to introduce the science of dairy¬
ing and the latest scientific butter making among his people
in the South. He travels extensively, visiting dairy facto¬
ries and scientific schools in the United States, Canada and
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
415
Europe; is constantly on the lookout for new and improved
methods, tlius opening up a new industry to the colored
youths and assisting them in a practical way to better their
condition. Among the young people of the South he has
been an inspiration, and has caused them to take a new
interest in dairying and agriculture.
The "Hoffman improved seedling strawberry" is the
name of a new variety of strawberry that he contributed to
the science of agriculture a few years ago. The St. Louis
Journal of Agriculture mentions it as "one of the finest in
the South." It is cultivated from New Jersey to Florida
and oh the Pacific Coast.
He is a member of the Massachusetts Horticultural Soci¬
ety, having been elected a member of that body in recogni¬
tion of the great work he is doing for the practical scientific
culture of the Negro race, and for being the producer of the
new variety of strawberry. He was appointed by the United
States Department of Agriculture to make a dietary study of
the kind, quality and quantity of food used by the Negroes of
the "Black Belt" of Alabama, while a professor at Tuskegee
Institute. Much scientific labor was expended in performing
this arduous task, but the work was accomplished in such a
very creditable manner that his investigations were published
by the Department of Agriculture, and are considered invalu¬
able in the dietetic study of the different races of the "world.
It is very gratifyiug to know that physiologists have the use
of that report, as it has been translated into many languages.
Professor Hoffman has had occasion to deliver addresses
before many scientific societies both in the United States and
Canada. He is honored by membership in more scientific
associations than any other living Negro. Among them, in
this country and abroad, the following may be mentioned:
American Society of Naturalists, Boston Society of Natural
History, Torrey Botanical Club of Columbia University,
New York City, American Association for the Advancement
of Science, Boston Mycological Society, American Geo-
416
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
graphical Society, Royal Society of Biology of Berlin, Soci-
ete Royale de Zoologique of Antwerp, Fellow of the Royal
Agricultural Society of England.
He is a member of the New York Zoological Society, of
which Hon. Levi P. Morton is president, and such men as
Andrew Carnegie, Morris K. Jessup, the railroad magnate,
and Hon. Seth Low are members. He is also a member.of
the New York Botanical Garden at Bronx Park, New York
City, of which Hon. J. Pierpont Morgan is the honored
president. A few years ago the presidency of the Monrovia
College, West Coast of Africa, was offered to him.
It is very evident that his work is being more appreciated
by his own people, for continually he receives many fine in¬
ducements to accept a chair in the faculty of the leading Ne¬
gro colleges of the South. He has chosen the South for his
field of labor because of the magnificent opportunity to de¬
velop the agricultural resources of that section, if the science
of agriculture is properly taught to those whose life-work it
will be to make that country what it is possible to make it.
He conies in direct touch with the farmers of the South, for
a part of each vacation is spent in holding farmers' insti¬
tutes in different parts of the South, giving them such prac¬
tical and helpful advice that he has inspired them to do bet¬
ter work.
Farmers' clubs have been organized; they subscribe to
agricultural journals; they are buying their lands, doing
more extensive and diversified farming, and they are putting
forth greater efforts for their improvement, due to his labors.
Appreciation of the work that Professor Hoffman is doing
among his people is not confined to his own race, but North
and South he has been favorably commended by the Ameri¬
can press for the efforts he has made and is still making for
the elevation of his people. His talks on practical agri¬
culture are published in the leading daily papers of the
South, and the white and colored people alike read his sound
advice. Among others in late years he has conducted a very in*
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP. 417
teresting experiment in Florida. He has grown at Talla¬
hassee, Florida, from tea seed imported from Japan and In¬
dia, a very excellent plant. He has therefore demonstrated
that tea can be grown in the Sonth, and especially in Florida.
He is anxious to get his people interested in this new ag¬
ricultural industry. A grade of tea could be grown in the
South that would be superior in every way to the tea im¬
ported from China and Japan, and a better price would be
obtained for it. He is anxious to have every farmer's wife
and daughter grow a little plat of tea in which event a small
curing house could be established for drying and curing the
tea at some central point in each county, just as cotton gins
are established in the South for cleaning the cotton. By
this plan tea growers could pay the curing houses so much
for curing the tea or could sell them the tea leaves in bulk.
Appreciation of Professor Hoffman's great work will grow
with the enlightenment of the race and with the growth of
liberal sentiment am6ng the people of other races. He has
proved himself equal to the most exacting demands upon his
intellectual resources, and has demonstrated that he is no
dreamer. No opportunity for advancement will pass him
unnoticed.
The youth who falters by the wayside to complain of 11 no
chance" will look to this brilliant young scientist and find
a light and an inspiration that cannot but restore his courage
and bring to his soul the conquering power of Professor Hoff¬
man's practical philosophy. The place that the professor
occupies in the educational and scientific world plainly
proves that color is 110 bar to success. His life should be an
incentive to every young Negro, who by emulating his ex¬
ample may lift himself and his race to better things.
J. D. COLEMAN.
J. D. Coleman was born in Halifax county, Virginia,
April 24, 1863. He spent the first fourteen years of his life
upon the farm, attending school meanwhile for the period of
a7
418
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
seven months. At twenty-one years of age, liaving enjoyed
ten months' schooling, and with a few dollars saved from
labor at $10 a month, he entered Wayland Seminary, and
completed the normal conrse. After teaching in the public
schools of Virginia two years, he was appointed to his pres¬
ent position as teacher in Wayland College.
C. S. BROWN, D. D.
C. S. Brown was born of slave parents, March 23, 1859,
in Salisbury, North Carolina. For a number of years he at-
C. S. BROWN, D. D.
tended the Freedmen's School in his native town, but at six¬
teen years of age, on the death of his father, he was forced
to work on the farm and in the brick-yard to assist his
mother in the support of the family. In 1880 he entered
Shaw University, completing the course in 1886, as valedic¬
torian of his class.
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP. 419
Mr. Brown has served for several years as president of the
North Carolina Baptist State Convention, and also as secre¬
tary of the convention; was the first general missionary for
the State under the plan of co-operation; has been president
of the Lott Carey Foreign Mission Convention. Since 1890
he has been principal of the Waters Institute at Winton,
North Carolina, which he administers with rare intelligence
and vigor.
E N O S L. S C R V G G S, B. D.
Enos L. Scruggs was born of slave parents in Cole county,
Missouri, February 23, 1858. His father became a soldier
3NOS I*. SCRUGGS, B. D.
in the Union army. He spent his boyhood days on a farm
near Jefferson City, attending the public school as opportu¬
nity permitted. At fourteen he became an orphan, and there¬
after had to depend upon his own efforts for a livelihood.
After serving as a porter in a store in St. Louis for five years,
he entered Lincoln Institute in 1880, from which he gradu¬
ated in 1885. In 1886 he entered the Theological Depart-
420
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
ment of the University of Chicago, graduating in 1890.
After serving as pastor of the Second Baptist Church of Ann
Arbor, Michigan, for twentjr-eight months, he became prin¬
cipal of the Western College, at Macon, Missouri, a position
which he still occupies. In addition to his duties as admin¬
istrator of the college, he is the chief editor of the Missouri
Messenger
MR.S, RACHEL E. REEVES ROBINSON.
Mrs. Robinson was born in Anderson, South Carolina,
December 1, 1866—one of nine children. At the age of five
she entered the public schools and continued eleven years.
She entered Benedict College when sixteen years of age.
After four years of study she was compelled, for lack of
means, to be absent from school one year, teaching. In 1888
she returned to the college, and graduated in 1889. After
leaving the college she taught until her marriage, in
1890, to Rev. A. R. Robinson, one of the best and most
influential pastors of the State. For two years she and her
husband taught in the Piedmont High School of Greenville.
Afterward she was elected principal of the graded school at
Pendleton. Here she labored until 1896, when she and her
husband returned to Greenville, South Carolina, to live in
the beautiful house which they purchased. She was at once
elected president of the Woman's Missionary Society.
MISS JUDITH L. CHAMBERS.
Miss Judith L. Chambers was born March 15^ 1876, the
fourth child of James and Terriza Chambers, formerly slaves,
of Spartanburg county, South Carolina. Her childhood was
spent on a farm, with but one or two months of country
school per year until fifteen years of age. She began attend¬
ing school when but four years of age, having already learned
the alphabet. In her public school days she aspired to be a
poetess and wrote considerable'school-girl poetry. She taught
her first school when but fifteen. In 1892 she entered
Benedict College and remained two years, paying nearly all
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
421
MISS JUDITH L. CHAMBERS.
MRS. RACHEL E- R. ROBINSON.
her expenses by work. The next year she served as assist¬
ant in a private colored school in Spartanburg. The follow¬
ing year she served as clerk in a store. In 1897 she re¬
turned to college and graduated in 1898, working her way
through college. Since graduation she has been teaching in
the public schools. She is a great power for good in church,
school and society, and in inciting and helping others to
intellectual and moral culture.
JOSHUA B. SIMPSON.
Joshua B. Simpson was born July 23, 1861, in Washing¬
ton, Mason county, Kentucky. After preliminary instruc¬
tion at home and in the inferior schools of his native village,
he attended public school in Maysville, walking more than
six miles a day for that purpose. In September, 1882, he
entered Wayland Seminary, Washington, D. C., and grad¬
uated in May, 1886. He largely supported himself by labor
during his period of study. Applying for entrance to Colby
College, Waterville, Maine, he received from the president
422 the negro in revelation,
this encouragement: "If you have the three Ps—Push,
Pluck and Perseverance—you need not hesitate to come on
account of lack of money." He entered in 1886, and grad¬
uated in 1890, supporting himself by his labor. He was
JOSHUA B. SIMPSON.
absent from but two recitations during the four years. He
thus proved his possession of the president's three Ps. After
pursuing a partial course in Newton Theological Institution
he received an appointment as teacher in Wayland College,
which he still holds.
JOHN H. JACKSON.
John H. Jackson was born at Lexington, Kentucky, Oc¬
tober 31, 1850; graduated at Berea College, Kentucky, June,
1874; first colored man to graduate in Kentucky; was elected
as delegate-at-large to the Republican National Convention of
1880, being the first colored man so elected from Kentucky;
was one of the "30(5'' who cast their votes for thirty-six ballots
for U. S. Grant at Chicago; moved to Kansas in 1881; became
principal of Lincoln High School, Kansas City, Missouri;
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
423
also clerk of the Jury Commission, and also clerk of the Po¬
lice Board of Kansas City, Kansas, receiving both appoint¬
ments from the governor; was a member of the Board of Ex¬
aminers for Kansas City, Kansas, being the first colored man
in Kansas to be so honored; was prominently mentioned for
auditor of State to succeed Hon. K. P. McCabe; returned to
Kentucky in 1887 and took charge as president of the State
Normal School for Colored Persons, at Frankfort, which po¬
sition he held until 1896, when he was elected president of
the Lincoln Institute in Jefferson City, Missouri.
He was the first man to raise his voice against the separate
coach bill when it was known that it would be brought up
in the Kentucky legislature of 1891-2-3. This he did at a
public gathering in the Corinthian Baptist Church at Frank¬
fort; and thenceforth he was persistent in his efforts to
arouse a sentiment that would defeat the measure. He was
the first man to speak before the railroad committee, urging
the passage of a law based upon condition rather than upon
color. Until very recently he devoted his life to the educa¬
tion of his race. At present he is engaged in business at
Colorado Springs, Colorado. Wherever he goes, or however
occupied, he has the confidence of both races and of all polit¬
ical parties in Kentucky.
MRS. HANNAH HOWELL REDDICK.
Hannah A. Howell was born in 1872, near Midville, Burke
county, Georgia, of slave parents, the seventh daughter of a
large family. Before she was large enough to attend school
her older sisters taught her to read. She attended the district
school three months each year until twelve years old, when
she entered Haven Normal School at Waynesboro, Georgia.
In her fifteenth year she began teaching. She entered Spel-
man Seminary in 1887. Her parents were greatly pleased
with her progress, but were unable to pay her expenses. By
teaching and going to school alternately she continued her
studies till she graduated from the academic department in
27
m
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
1892. Iii 1891 she returned and completed the teachers'
professional course, and was appointed teacher at Spelman
Seminary. In the same year she was appointed by the State
School Commissioner to assist in conducting Peabody Insti-
MRS. HANNAH HOWELI, RODDICK.
tute, in Georgia. In May, 1899, she resigned her position
to become the wife of Mr. M. W. Reddick, principal of the
institute, Americus, Georgia. Since her marriage she has
been a member of the faculty of that institution.
M. W. REDDICK, A. M.
M. W. Reddick was born in Randolph county, Georgia,
March 2, 1868. The first twenty years of his life were spent
in the country, working as a farm laborer from eight to sev¬
enteen, and then for four years he was engaged in cutting
cross-ties for the railroad. During these years he spent, in
all, about five months in school. On becoming of age, , in 1888,
and having been converted, he entered the Baptist Seminary,
Atlanta, Georgia, and graduated from that institution in
IN HISTORY, AND IX CITIZENSHIP.
425
1897. He had a liard struggle to maintain himself in the
institution. On graduation he became principal of a new
M. W. REDDICK, A. M.
school called Americus Institute, which has steadily grown
under his skillful administration.
JAMES R_. L. DIGGS.
James R. L. Diggs was born in 1865, at Upper Marlboro,
Maryland, of Roman Catholic parents. He was confirmed
by Cardinal Gibbons at ten years of age, and retained his
membership in the Catholic Church for five years. In 1883
he entered Wayland Seminary, graduating in 1886. He was
converted in 1885, and united with the Nineteenth Street
Baptist Church, Washington, District of Columbia. After
teaching four years, 1886-90, in the public schools of Mary¬
land, he returned to Wayland Seminary, where he taught
four classes, and prepared himself for college, entering Buck-
nell University in 1894, and graduating in 1898 with the
426
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION.
degree of B. A. In 1899, after an examination on a year's
extra work, lie received from his Alma Mater the degree of
JAMES R. t,. DIGGS.
M. A. After graduation he became a teacher in Wayland
College, which position he still holds.
JAMES SHELTON HATHAWAY.
The subject of this sketch was born at Mt. Sterling, Mont¬
gomery county, Kentucky, March 29, 1859.
His early education was received in the schools of that
place. At the age of seventeen he went to Berea College,
Kentucky, where he remained until he graduated from the
classical course in the year 1881, receiving the degree of
Bachelor of Arts.
The day after his graduation he was elected tutor in Latin
and mathematics in his Alma Mater by its trustees. Three
years later he married Miss Celia Anderson, of Clyde, Ohio,
who was then a teacher in the schools of Kentucky.
He remained with Berea College nine years, during which
JAMES S. HATHAWAY.
President Kentucky State Normal and Industrial School, Frankfort, Kentucky.
428
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
time lie received the honorary degree of Master of Arts; and
when in 1893 he resigned, to accept a professorship at the
Kentucky State Normal School, the faculty notified him that
they had appointed a committee to express to him in fitting
terms their appreciation of him and of his work in that college.
For four years he served as professor in the State Normal
School, when, failing of a re-election, he accepted the prin-
cipalship 6f the Maysville High School. After a service in
this capacity of nearly three years he was called to the pres¬
idency of the Kentucky State Normal School, where he had
previously labored.
As president of the institution his administration is marked
by energy and development. Although only in the second
year of his administration, the driveways have been put in
good condition; the buildings have been remodeled and im¬
proved; the course of study broadened; new industries added;
attendance largely increased; additional grounds and build¬
ings have been purchased and the legislature has been in¬
duced to increase the State's annual appropriation by
$5,000, besides giving $15,000 for a new dormitory for girls.
His administration has been highly satisfactory and the fol¬
lowing editorial mention from a newspaper which knows
whereof it speaks will sufficiently indicate the satisfactory
manner in which he has presided over the institution pro¬
vided by the commonwealth of Kentucky for the education
of its colored citizens:
"The re-election of Prof. James S. Hathaway as president
of the State Normal School, by its board of trustees, meets
with general and hearty approval. It is a merited compli¬
ment to this able educator. It is an emphatic endorsement
of his worth and work during the school year now rapidly
approaching its close. The enrollment of the school at the
present time is far in excess of that of any previous year of
its existence, being nearly, if not quite, two hundred. The
work of the present year has been of a high standard, and
such as to give general satisfaction to both students and
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
429
patrons. President Hathaway's administration of affairs
has been up to date, efficient, praiseworthy, above and beyond
criticism.
"We congratulate President Hathaway on his re-election,
the board on its good judgment, and the school on its good
fortune."
MISS MAR.Y KIMBLE.
Miss Mary Kimble was born in Austin, Texas, 1876.
Her parents had been slaves and lived in Austin at the time
of their emancipation. Mary attended the Austin public
schools. She graduated from the normal course in Bishop
MISS MARY KIMBLE).
Assistant Principal at Houston.
College, at Marshall, Texas, 1894. She has taught school
several years since graduation, and is at present teacher of
mathematics in Houston Academy. She is first assistant
to the principal of the academy. She has the reputation of
being an earnest student, a successful teacher and a faithful
Christian worker.
430
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
CHARLES L. PVRCE, D. D.
Charles L. Puree, D. D., was born July 4, 1856, in Charles¬
ton, South Carolina. He received his early education in
private and public schools of his native city. After a course
of study at Benedict College, Columbia, South Carolina, he
entered the Richmond Theological Seminary, whence he
graduated with honor in 1883. After graduation lie pursued
a correspondence course in Greek and Hebrew under Doctor
Harper, of the University of Chicago. After serving as
CHARLES t,. PURCE, D D.
President of State University, Louisville, Kentucky.
pastor for one year of a church of eleven hundred members,
at Society Hill, South Carolina, he became (1881) teacher
of Latin and Greek in Selma University. From 1886 to
1893 he served as president of the institution. He received
from Shaw University the degree of A. B., and from the
State University at Louisville, of which he is now president,
the degree of D. D. During his seventeen years of service
as teacher, he has instructed about five thousand different
students.
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
431
ECKSTEIN NORTON UNIVERSITY.
The Courier-Tonrnal of May 18, 1902, noticed the above-
named institution as follows:
"Kentucky has not been behind other Southern States in
noble efforts to give colored students the benefit of a most
thorough industrial training One notable example of this
is in the well-known Berea College, where colored and white
students are equally welcome and where both sexes have
equal chances.
4'There is, however, an institution for the aid of colored
youth by industrial training much nearer Louisville, and
one which deserves the heartiest encouragement and interest
of all well-wishers of the colored race. This institution is
located at Cane Spring, Bullitt county, Kentucky, only
twenty-nine miles from Louisville and on the line of the
Louisville and Nashville railroad. It is ambitiously called
the Eckstein Norton University, and its history shows that
indomitable pluck and never-failing courage have been be¬
hind it thus far.
"Eleven years ago a great industrial school for the colored
race was proposed by the Rev. William J. Simmons and
the Rev. C. H. Parrish, who is now the president of the
university. The plans were feasible and practical, but these
men had no money with which to carry out their plans.
They applied to Messrs. Eckstein Norton and Milton H.
Smith for aid, and were cordially received by them. These
gentlemen said that they had long desired to do something
for the education of the colored people, and were ready to
act. A few days later $3,050 was deposited in the Fidelity
Trust and Safety Vault Company for the construction of a
main building. This splendid gift enabled Dr. Simmons and
the Rev. Mr. Parrish to open the doors of the school in
October, 1890.
' 'The most unique railway station building between Bards-
town Junction and Springfield was built at Cane Spring, the
site of the university.
432
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION.
"In January, 1892, the main building was destroyed by
fire. Appeals through the daily papers and through Mr.
Smith resulted in a sum of $1,700. Another start was made,
and, in the years since, upwards of 1200 students from six¬
teen States and foreign countries have received instruction.
One hundred and thirty-one have graduated from the differ¬
ent departments, the majority of whom are doing creditable
work among the people.
"The main building is a substantial brick structure with
twenty-five rooms. There are also five frame buildings with
twenty rooms for dormitories and assembly halls, the print¬
ing office, laundry and blacksmith shop. The accommoda¬
tions are not adequate to the demands upon them.
"The principle of the school is that all must work. Stu¬
dents must do as well as know. It is designed to give here
a Christian education, a trade and college advantages to
those who show any special fitness for the highest training.
Classes are conducted in laundry work, cooking, sewing,
shoemaking, farming, carpentering, waiting on table, print¬
ing and blacksmithing.
"The school is undenominational, and is, of course, with¬
out denominational aid. Nor does it have State or general
government assistance, but is simply a brave effort depend¬
ent entirely upon voluntary aid. Here is, indeed, an en¬
deavor to better the condition of the Negro race along lines
which, in the case of Tuskegee and other similar institu¬
tions, are receiving substantial support and much praise
from Northern philanthropists."
EDWARD L. BLACKSHEAR, B. A.
Bdward L. Blackshear is a native of the State of Alabama.
He was born in Montgomery, September 28, 1862, of slave
parents. His father, Abrain Blackshear, and his mother,
Adeline Pollard, instilled into their son at an early age the
principles of honesty, perseverance and self-reliance, which
have developed into the now useful and honorable educator
REV. C, H. PARRISH.
President Eckstein Norton University.
434
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION.
of his people. He is one of the leading characters in shap¬
ing the destiny of the Negro race in the Lone Star State, and
directing them to a higher life of usefulness and prosperity.
Professor Blackshear was one of a large family of children,
of whom only three reached maturity and are still living;
one graduated in medicine and pharmacy, and is now in the
government employ at Washington; another graduated at
Roger Williams University, is an ordained Baptist minister
and teacher of theology at Guadalupe College, Seguin,
Texas.
The education of the sub¬
ject of this sketch was be¬
gun in the common school,
where he made rapid pro¬
gress and won distinction
in all his classes, until he
completed all the curriculum
of Swayne's College of his
native city. It was now
manifest that he was a boy
of unusual intellect, and a
Northern man became inter¬
ested in him and made it
possible for him to enter a
college in Iowa, where he
completed with credit a class¬
ical course, and received the
degree of B. A. in June,
EDWARD I,. BLACKSHEAR. 1881. While here, being
President Prairie View, Texas, State Normal and 111 ,1 r\ 1 • . •
industrial college. surrounded by the Christian
influences of the home of the professor (McPherron), he
became a Christian, and began—to use his own words—"to
realize the possibilities of Christian manhood."
Later he returned to the old home in Alabama, and entered
upon a life of active usefulness to his own people of the
South. From Alabama he came to Texas in 1882, located
PRAIRIE VIEW, TEXAS, STATE NORMAL AND INDUSTRIAL COLLEGE.
436 the negro in revelation.
first in Bllis and then in Bastrop county, in both, of which
counties he taught school.
In a competitive examination at Austin he made the high¬
est average, and was elected principal of one of the city
schools (colored), from which he was promoted several times
without his solicitation. He taught school in Austin for
thirteen years, where his faithful and effective service gained
for him the confidence and esteem of the leading educators
of the State to such an extent that he was appointed to the
principalship of the Prairie View State Normal Institute,
where his present occupancy is the very best evidence of his
executive ability and pre-eminent worth as an educator.
He has a true and noble wife, who has contributed largely
to the unprecedented usefulness of her husband and shared
his honors.
B. F. ALLEN, A. B., A. M.
Prof. B. F. Allen, vice-president of the Lincoln Insti¬
tute, was born in Savannah, Georgia, and received his early
education in the public schools of his native city. He com¬
pleted the course of study at the University of Atlanta, grad¬
uating with high honors. In languages he became very pro¬
ficient, and served as a student teacher—an honor much
envied. He was afterward elected principal of the Monticello
High School, which position he filled most creditably, and
later as principal of RisleyHigh School of Brunswick, Geor¬
gia. Soon afterward he was elected principal of the Florida
Baptist College at Jacksonville, Florida, but before accepting
the offer'he was notified of his election to' the chair of natural
and physical science in the State University at Louisville,
Kentucky. While both these were under consideration he
received a telegram from Prof. I. B. Page, president of Lin¬
coln Institute, asking him to accept the chair of Latin and
Greek in that school, which he accepted, with little time to
notify the other institutions of his inability to accept their
offers, and has filled the position with honor to the institu¬
tion. He is professor of modern languages, history and
B. F. ALLEN,
Vice-President Lincoln Institute.
438
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
pedagogy, and has been prominently connected with all
movements of the work for the past five years, and specially
interested in the collegiate department, which department
he has done more to build up than any one else connected
with the school.
Few men so young have been so useful in life and can
accomplish so much with apparent ease. He is a fearless
speaker, a born teacher, and those who have been under his
instructions say they cannot fail to get the essence of the
subject he is teaching. He has a reading knowledge of four
of the modern languages, which, together with his well-
stored mind, makes his work especially advantageous to the
students under his instruction. Very few men of the Negro
race have been so favored by nature or enjoyed such educa¬
tional advantages as he.
W. H. COUNCILL.
The Normal and Industrial School at Normal, Alabama,
is one of the South's great schools for the education of the
Negro. Not that its endowment fund has been sufficient to
develop it into a much-embracing, well-appointed university,
but that under the presidency of Professor Councill it has
been doing admirable work, and has won the confidence and
the warm, good wishes of all thoughtful white people, who
insist that the young people of the former slave race .must
be not merely educated but rightly educated. If, as one has
affirmed, the process of true education is "nine parts inspira¬
tion, one part drill," the Normal is peculiarly fortunate in its
presiding officer. Occupying a high plane of thought and
aspiration, and having just views of the relation of the races
and of the Negro's power to achieve, his example, his daily
walk and conversation, and his public addresses awaken
laudable ambition, arouse to exertion and lead in the direc¬
tion of all that is best in the life of any race.
Instead of a labored sketch of his life and works we can
give the reader a just and sufficient view of him by present-
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP. 439
ing in brief what some have said of him, what he says of
himself, and what he urges in vindication of his people's
claim to the generous consideration of mankind.
Referring in one of his speeches to his origin and his early
life, he said: "I came through the Richmond slave-pen to
this platform. I do not regret the hard struggles of my life
and the bitter experiences necessary to my growth, for, after
all, adversity tests and develops man. Let all who toil and
struggletake heart and labor on. Let us be concerned about
only one thing—that is, how to be a useful and helpful man
in the world."
Ben P. Hunt, of Huntsville, Alabama, wrote of him:
"Councill came up from slavery, and his history is as thrill¬
ing and interesting as the Arabian Nights. . . . He
has traveled much and received many large honors, but his
heart is still true to the South and devoted to his white peo¬
ple. He has never on either side of the Ohio, or on either
side of the ocean, said one unkind word about the South.
. He has had the courage and the manhood to defend
the white people of the South at home and abroad, before
foes as well as friends. He seems to have bent all his ener¬
gies in the South to establish peace and good-will among the
races, and to have all the outside world recognize the mutual
helpfulness between the races in the South. He has held
up these ideas everywhere. . . . He has also claimed
that the Negro got more out of slavery than the white man
did. . . . He never presents his work to an audience
except in an incidental way; but Normal has quietly and
steadily grown from one teacher, one school-room cabin and
nineteen local pupils, to two hundred acres of land, a score
of buildings (some stately and spacious), forty teachers, five
hundred students, more than a score of well-equipped indus¬
tries, sending out trained teachers, domestics and mechanics
to fifteen States of the Union, to Africa and to the West
Indies. . . . The young people from this school are a
28
440
THE NECIW IN REVELATION.
credit to the country. They are polite and competent. The
domestics from Normal honor any home."
The Clarinda (Iowa) Herald, noticing Councill's speech
before the Chautauqua there, in 1891, said: "His speech was
a clean, dispassionate statement of conditions, and an earnest,
eloquent, plea for sympathy, not charity; for justice, not
assistance; for equality before the law, not social recognition.
He asks only that his race be given a chance to prove itself;
he petitions that his race be set free from the shackles of
prejudice and discrimination that bind its development in
tighter and more galling chains than ever fettered the limbs
of a slave; he pleads that the lash of ignorant censure, which
is more brutal than was the whip of the overseer, may be
suspended till the actual facts as to his race are known."
In a speech before the Southern Industrial Association at
Huntsville, Alabama, October 12, 1899, he said: * 'The
Negro is true to his trust. Has he ever deceived you? As
badly as he wanted freedom he would today be in slavery
had his freedom depended on his betraying your confidence
in those dark days when you could not protect your wives and
children. That Negro character is still here. Cultivate it."
We close the sketch with the eloquent peroration of his
address before the Carlisle Indian School:
"It is said we have no history. Take Bgypt from us, if
3^0u please. We give up Hannibal. We will not remember
noble Attucks. Wipe from history's page great Toussaint
L'Ouverture and grand Douglass, and still the Negro has
done enough in the last forty year's to give him creditable
standing in the society of races, and to place his name in
letters of gold across the azure blue above. Although we
may be considered the baby-race in civilization, we have an¬
swered every test which your highest civilization has applied.
In science, in art, in literature, your best critics give us
good standing. In invention your own records give us
credit. In music and song you say we lead the world. In
oratory you place us with your best. In industrial walks we
PROF. W. H. COUNCILL.
President State Normal and Industrial School, Normal, Alabama
442
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
have piled up a billion dollars for ourselves and billions for
you in thirty-nine years. In the military your government
records place us first. In Christian fervor and generosity
we have taught the world lessons of self-denial, patience and
love transcendently beautiful and glorious. And it doth not
yet appear what we shall be. We will light up our wonder¬
ful imagination and emotion by the lamp of culture, turn
our imagination into mechanical and philosophical invention,
turn our deep emotion into music and poetry, turn our con¬
stant stream of feeling into painting and sculptuary. We
will send wonder and amazement through the scientific and
literary world. There are more inventions to be thought
out, higher classes of forces yet undiscovered to be harnessed
to appliances; more worlds to be discovered and dissected—
more of God to be brought down to man. If the Negro is
true to himself he may be God's instrument to bring it all
about. God does not pay large prices for small things.
Four millions of men did not meet forty years ago upon the
battlefield, bankrupt the nation and redden the earth with
their blood for nothing. God is helping the Negro to rise in
the world."
WILLIAM S. SCARBOROUGH.
William S. Scarborough, now vice-president of Wilberforce
University (Wilberforce, Ohio) and professor of Greek and
Latin in the same, was born in Macon, Georgia, February
16, 1852. He received his early education in his native city
before and during the war. In 1869 he entered Atlanta Uni¬
versity, where he remained two years in preparation for Yale
University, but instead entered Oberlin College, Oberlin,
Ohio, in 1871, and was graduated from the department of
Philosophy and the Arts with the degree of A. B. in 1875.
He spent a part of the following year in Oberlin Theological
Seminary in special study of the Semitic languages and
Hellenistic Greek.
In 1877 Professor Scarborough was elected as head of the
Classical Department in Wilberforce University. In 1881
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP. 443
he published, through A. S. Barnes & Co., a Greek text¬
book—"First Lessons in Greek"—the first and only Greek
book ever written by a Negro. This book was widely used
in both the white and colored schools of the country, especially
in the North. Professor Scarborough has also written a
treatise entitled, "The Birds of Aristophanes: a Theory of
Interpretation," besides numerous tracts and pamphlets,
covering a variety of subjects—classical, archaeological, soci¬
ological and racial. He has written many papers for the
various societies to which he belongs. In 1891 he was trans¬
ferred to the chair of Hellenistic Greek in Payne Theological
Seminary, Wilberforce, Ohio. He has been one of the editors
of the A. M. E. Sunday-school publications since 1893, and
its exegetical editor since 1895. He again accepted the chair
of Greek and Latin in 1896, and still holds this position.
Professor Scarborough is a member of various associations:
American Philological, American Dialect, American Social
Science, Archaeological Institute of America, American Spell¬
ing Reform, American Folk-Lore, American Modern Lan¬
guage, American Negro Academy, of which he is first vice-
president, American Academy of Political and Social Science
and the Egyptian Exploration Fund.
Aside from the degrees of A. B. and A. M. received from
Oberlin, his Alma Mater, he has also been honored with those*
of LL. D. and Ph. D. He has written many papers for the
societies to which he belongs, and is also a frequent contrib¬
utor to the magazines and periodicals of the day. He has
several times been chosen one of the orators of the Lincoln
League Banquet of the State of Ohio. At a conference of
the leaders of the race held in the city of Columbus, Ohio,
he was elected president of the Afro-American State League,
designed to further the interests of the Negro throughout the
country. As a delegate to the Methodist Ecumenical Con¬
ference he met that body in London, England, September,
1901. He has traveled extensively on the continent of
Europe and in Great Britain.
444
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
H. E. AR.CHER,
Prof. H. B. Archer is a young colored man who has
worked his way up in the world, and has succeeded through
perseverance and study, having worked his way through
Olivet College, Olivet, Michi¬
gan, and took the degree of B. S.
with honors. He later took post¬
graduate work at his Alma Mater
and received the degree of M. S.
Not satisfied, he then took a
special course at the University
of Chicago.
He is one of the promising
young Negroes in the scientific
field, and is to be praised espe¬
cially because so few of the race
enter this field.
He is in charge of the science
department at the A. and M.
College, Normal, Alabama, and
assistant to the principal of the school.
Though not noticed at length elsewhere in this volume, the
following men and women are distinguished in their several
departments of educational work:
One of the best known of those men of the race who stand
prominently at the head of State educational institutions is
Richard R. Wright, president of the State Normal College,
at College, Georgia.
Miss Anna Jones, a graduate of the University of Michi¬
gan, is a brilliant linguist and a successful teacher in the
Kansas City High School for colored persons.
Miss Sarah A. Blocker is principal of the Normal Depart¬
ment of Florida Baptist College, Jacksonville, Florida.
Miss Lulu Love is a prominent teacher of physical culture
in the public schools of Washington, District of Columbia.
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP\
445
Mary C. Jackson is assistant principal in Haines' Normal
and Industrial School in Augusta, Georgia.
Mrs. Henrietta M. Archer is principal of the Department
of Latin and Music in the Agricultural and Mechanical Col¬
lege at Normal, Alabama, and is connected with the National
Colored Woman's Association.
Mrs. John R. Francis is a member of the Board of Trus¬
tees of Public Schools, Washington, District of Columbia.
Mrs. Haydee Campbell is kindergarten directress in St.
Louis, Missouri.
Miss Helen Abbott is a noted kindergarten teacher in St.
Louis, Missouri.
Mrs. Anna J. Cooper, author of "The Voice from the
South," is a teacher of Latin in Washington High School.
Mrs. Booker T. Washington is, of course, closely identified
with her husband in his great work.
William H. Mayo is distinguished for long and continuous
service as principal of a city school for colored persons,
which, of course, implies character, scholarship, execu¬
tive ability and efficiency. He has had charge of the
Frankfort (Kentucky) public school twenty years, and
has been elected for the twenty-first time. In 1885 he
was chairman of the State convention of colored persons
to discuss educational needs and to memorialize the legis¬
lature to provide for the present State Normal and Industrial
School. After the passage of the act to establish this, he
was chairman of a delegation of colored citizens who peti¬
tioned the city council to donate such a site for the institution
as would insure its location at Frankfort—in which they were
successful. He and Professor Jackson (alluded to elsewhere)
were the first men in the State to agitate the question of a
training school for colored teachers.
S. W. BENNETT.
REV. N. B. STERRETT, D. D.
W. J. PARKER.
WILLIAM INGlylSS. THOS. J. JACKSON. Dr. THOS. E. MILLER.
EXECUTIVE OFFICERS OF THE NEGRO DEPARTMENT OF SOUTH
CAROLINA INTERSTATE AND WEST INDIAN EXPOSITION,
CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA, 1901-1902.
[Note—Booker T. Washington was also a member of the Board, but his portrait appears
elsewhere iu this book.]
CHAPTER XVI.
Miscellaneous Matters.
i. booker t. washington on the negro and his
economic value.
| HAVE Had letters from the Sandwich Islands, Cuba and
* South America, all asking that the American Negro be
induced to go to those places as laborers. In each case there
would seem to be abundant labor already in the places named.
It is there, but it seems not to be of the quality and value
of that of the Negro in the United States.
These letters have led me to think a good deal about the
Negro as an industrial factor in our country.
To begin with, we must bear in mind that when the first
twenty slaves were landed at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619,
it was this economic value which caused them to be brought
to this country. At the same time that these slaves were
being brought to the shores of Virginia from their native land,
Africa, the woods of Virginia were swarming with thousands of
another dark-skinned race. The question naturally arises:
Why did the importers of Negro slaves go to the trouble and
expense to go thousands of miles for a dark-skinned people
to hew wood and draw water for the whites, when they had
right about them a people of another race who could have
answered this purpose? The answer is, that the Indian was
tried and found wanting in the commercial qualities which
the Negro seemed to possess. The Indian would not submit
to slavery as a race, and in those instances where he was
tried as a slave, his labor was not profitable and he was found
unable to stand the physical strain of slavery. As slaves
the Indians died in large numbers. This was true in San
Domingo and in other parts of the American continent.
447
448
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION.
The two races, the Indian and the Negro, have been often
compared, to the disadvantage of the Negro. It has been
more than once stated that the Indian proved himself the
superior race in not submitting to slavery. We shall see
about this. In this respect it may be that the Indian secured
a temporary advantage in so far as race feeling or prejudice
is concerned; I mean by this that he escaped the badge of
servitude which has fastened itself upon the Negro, and not
only upon the Negro in America, for the known commercial
value of the Negro has made him a subject of traffic in other
portions of the globe during many centuries. Even to this
day portions of Africa continue to be the stamping-ground of
the slave-trader.
The Indian refused to submit to bondage and to learn the
white man's ways. The result is that the greater portion
of the American Indians have disappeared, aud the greater
portion of those who remain are not civilized.
• The Negro, wiser and more enduring than the Indian,
patiently endured slavery; and the Contact with the white
man has "given the Negro in America a civilization vastly
superior to that of the Indian.
The Indian aud the Negro met on the American continent
for the first time at Jamestown, in 1619. Both were in the
darkest barbarism. There were twenty Negroes and thou¬
sands of Indians. At the present time there are between
nine aud ten millions of Negroes and fifty-eight thousand
eight hundred and six Indians. Not only has the Indian
decreased in numbers, but he is an annual tax upon the
government for food and clothing to the extent of $12,784,676
(1899), to say nothing of the large amount that is annually
spent in policing him. The one in this case not only de¬
creased in numbers aud failed to add anything to the eco¬
nomic value of his country, but has actually proven a charge
upon the State.
Let us see how it is with the other. For a long time our
national laws bearing upon immigration have been framed
J. B. PARKER.
The Colored Man Who Captured Czolgosz, the Assassin of President McKinley.
450
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
so as to prevent the influx into this country of any classes
or races that might prove a burden upon the tax-payers, be¬
cause of their poverty and inability to sustain themselves, as
well as their low standard of life which would enable them to
underbid the American laborer. The effect has been, then,
to keep out certain races and classes. For two centuries and
more it was the policy of the United States to bring in the
Negro at great cost. All others who have come to this
country have paid their own passage. The Negro was of
such tremendous economic value that his passage was paid
for him. Not only was his passage paid, but agents were
sent to force him to come. This country had two hundred
and fifty years in which to judge of the economic value of the
black man, and the verdict at the end was that he was con¬
stantly increasing in value, especially in the southern part
of the United States.
Would any individuals, or a country, have gone to the
expense during so many years to import a race of people that
had no economic value?
The Negro seems to be about the only race that has been
able to look the white man in the face during the long period
of years and live—not only live, but multiply. The Negro
has not only done this, but he has had the good sense to get
something from the white man at every point he has touched
him; something that has made him a stronger and a better
race.
As compared with the Malay race, the Negro has proven
his superiority as an economic factor in civilization. Take
for example the Malays in the Sandwich Islands. Before
the Sandwich Islanders came into contact with the white race,
they had a civilization that was about equal to that of the
twenty Negroes who came to Jamestown in 1619. Since
their contact with the white man they have constantly de¬
creased in numbers, and have so utterly failed to prove of
economic value that practically the industries of the islands
are now kept in motion by other races, and a strong effort
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
451
has recently been made to induce a large number of black
Americans to go to these islands as laborers.
The industries that gave the South its power, prominence
and wealth prior to the Civil War, were mainly cotton, sugar¬
cane, rice and tobacco. Before the way could be prepared for
the proper growing and marketing of these crops, forests had
to be cleared, houses built and public roads and railroads
constructed. In all of this no one will deny that the Negro
was the chief dependence.
The Negro was not only valuable as a common workman,
but reached a degree of skill and intelligence in mechanics
that added a large per cent, to his money value. Indeed,
many of the most complicated structures of the South today
stand as monuments to the skill and ability of the Negro me¬
chanic of ante-bellum days.
In the planting, cultivation and marketing of the cotton,
rice, sugar-cane and tobacco, the black man was about the
sole dependence, especially in the lower tier of the Southern
States. In the manufacture of tobacco, he became a skilled
and proficient workman, and at the present time, in the
South, holds the lead in this respect in the large tobacco
manufactories.
Not only did the black American prove his worth in the
way of skilled and common labor, but there were thousands
of Negroes who demonstrated that they possessed executive
ability of a high order. Many of the large plantations had
Negro overseers, to whom the whole financial interests of
the masters were very largely intrusted. To be able to plan
months ahead for planting and harvesting of the crop, to
reckon upon the influence of weather conditions, and to map
out profitable work for scores of men, women and children,
required an executive ability of no mean order. In very few
instances did the black manager prove false to his trust.
Without the part which the Negro played in the physical
development of the South, it is safe to say that it would be as
undeveloped as much of the territory in the Far West.
4.52
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION.
The most valuable testimony that I have seen upon the
subject that this article covers is from the pen of Prof.
N. S. Shaler, dean of the Scientific School of Harvard
University. My readers, I am sure, will forgive me for
using a rather long quotation from Professor Shaler's
article. I do it for the reason that Professor Shaler is not
only a recognized scientist, but for the further reason that he
is a Southern man and has had abundant -opportunity to se¬
cure valuable testimony. Professor Shaler says:
"The Negroes who came to North America had to undergo
as complete a transition as ever fell to the lot of man, with¬
out the least chance to undergo an acclimatizing process.
They were brought from the hottest part of the earth to the
region where the winter's cold is of almost arctic severity;
from an exceedingly humid to a very dry air. They came
to service under alien taskmasters, strange to them in speech
and in purpose. They had to betake themselves to unaccus¬
tomed food and to clothing such as they had never worn
before. Rarely could one of the creatures find about him a
familiar face, or friend, parent, or child, or an object that re¬
called his past life to him. It was an appalling change.
Only those who know how the Negro cleaves to all the dear,
familiar things of life, how fond he is of warmth and friend¬
liness, can conceive the physical and mental shock that this
introduction to new conditions meant to him. To people of
our own race it would have meant death. But these wonder¬
ful folk appear to have withstood the trials of their deporta¬
tion in a marvelous way. They showed no peculiar liability
for disease. Their longevity or period of usefulness was not
diminished, or their fecundity obviously impaired. So far as
I have been able to learn, nostalgia was not a source of mor¬
tality, as it would have been with any Aryan population.
The price they brought in the market, and the satisfaction
of their purchasers with their qualities, show that they were
from the first almost ideal laborers.
"If we compare the Algonquin Indian, in appearance a
A. M. CUSTIS, A. M., M. D.
Surgeon-in-Chief Freedmen's Hospital.
454
THE NEGRO TN REVELATION,
sturdy fellow, with, tliese Negroes, we see of what stuff the
blacks are made. A touch of housework and of honest toil
took the breath of the aborigines away, but these tropical ex¬
otics fell to their tasks and trials far better than the men of
our own kind could have done Moreover, the
production of good tobacco requires much care, which extends
over about a year from the time the seed is planted. Some
parts of the work demand a measure of judgment such as in¬
telligent Negroes readily acquire. They are, indeed, better
fitted for the task than white men, for they are commonly
more interested in their task than whites of the laboring
class. The result was that before the period of the Revolu¬
tionary War slavery was firmly established in the tobacco
planting colonies of Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina;
it was already the foundation of their only considerable in¬
dustry This industry (cotton), even more
than that of raising tobacco, called for abundant labor, which
could be absolutely commanded and severely tasked in the
season of extreme heat. For this work the Negro proved
to be the only fit man, for while the whites can do this work,
they prefer other employment. Thus it came about that the
power of slavery in the country became rooted in its soil.
The facts show that, based on an ample foundation of expe¬
rience, the judgment of the Southern people was to the effect
that this creature of the tropics was a better laborer in their
fields than the men of their own race.
"Much has been said about the dislike of the white man
for work in association with Negroes. The failure of the
whites to have a larger share in the agriculture of the South
has been attributed to this cause. This seems to be clearly
an error. The dislike to the association of races in labor is,
in the slave-holding States, less than in the North. There
can be no question that if the Southern folk could have made
white laborers profitable, they would have preferred to employ
them, for the reason that they would have required less fixed
capital for their operation. The fact was and is that the
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
455
Negro is there a better laboring man in the field than the
white. Under the conditions he is more enduring, more con¬
tented and more trustworthy than the men of our own race."
So much for the Negro as a financial factor in American life
before the Civil War. What about his value as a free man?
There were not a few who predicted that as soon as the
Negro became a free man he would not only cease to support
himself and others, but he would become a tax upon the
community.
Few people in any part of our country have ever seen a
black hand reached out from a street corner asking for char¬
ity. In our Northern communities a large amount of money
is spent by individuals and municipalities in caring for the
sick, the poor, and other classes of unfortunates. In the
South, with very few exceptions, the Negro takes care of
himself and of the unfortunate members of his race. This
is usually done by a combination of individual members of
the race, or through the churches or fraternal organizations.
Not only is this true, but I want to make a story illustrate
the condition that prevails in some parts of the South. The
white people in a certain "Black Belt" county in the South
had been holding a convention, the object of which was to en¬
courage white people to emigrate into the county. After the
adjournment of the convention, an old colored man met the
president of the meeting on the street and asked the object of
the convention. When told, the old colored man replied:
u 'Fore God, boss, don't you know that we Niggers got just
as many white people now in this county as we can support?''
The fact is often referred to that the Negro pays a very
small proportion of the taxes that support his own schools.
As to whether or not this is true depends a good deal on the
theory of political economy that we follow. Some of the
highest authorities on political economy contend that it is the
man who rents the house that pays the taxes on it, rather
than the man who simply holds the title to it. Certain it is
that without the Negro to produce the raw material in the
29
456
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION.
South, from which a large proportion of taxes are paid, there
would not be a very large tax paid by any one.
Reliable statistics concerning the economic progress of the
Negro are difficult to obtain, owing to the fact that few
of the States keep a record separating the property owned by
Negroes from that owned by white people. The State of
Virginia and one or two other Southern States do keep such
a record. Taking the matter of taxes as a basis for indicat¬
ing the Negro's value, Professor J. W. Cromwell, of Wash¬
ington, District of Columbia, gave the following statistics
bearing upon the colored people of the State of Virginia, at
a recent conference at the Hampton Institute:
"The colored people contributed in 1898 directly to the
expenses of the State government the sum of $9,576.76, and
for schools $3,239.41, from their personal property, a total
of $12,816.17; while from their real estate for the purposes
of the commonwealth there was paid by them $34,303.53,
and for schools $11,357*.22, or a total of $45,760.75; a grand
total of $58,576.92.
"The report for the same year shows them to own 978,118
acres of land, valued at $3,800,459, improved by buildings
valued at $2,056,490, a total of $5,856,949. In the towns
and cities they own lots assessed at $2,154,331, improved by
buildings valued at $3,400,636, a total of $5,554,967 for town
property, and a grand total of $11,411,916 of their property
of all kinds in the commonwealth. A comparative statement
for different years would doubtless show a general upward
tendency.
"The counties of Accomac, Essex, King and Queen, Mid¬
dlesex, Mathews, Northampton, Northumberland, Richmond,
Westmoreland, Gloucester, Princess Anne and Lancaster, all
agricultural, show an aggregate of 114,197 acres held by Ne¬
groes in 1897, the last year accounted for in official reports,
against 108,824 acres held the previous year, an increase of
5,379, or nearly five per cent. The total valuation of lands
owned by Negroes in the same counties for 1897 is $547,800,
W. F. POWELL,
Minister to Hayti.
458
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
against $496,385 for the year next preceding, a gain of
$51,150, or more than ten per cent. Their personal property,
as assessed in 1897, was $517,560; in 1896, $527,688, a loss
of $10,128. Combining the real and personal property for
1897, we have $1,409,059, against $1,320,504 for 1896, a net
gain of $88,555, an increase of six and a half per cent."
The greatest excitement and anxiety has been recently
created among the white people in two counties of Georgia,
because of the fact that a large proportion of the colored
people decided to leave. No stone has been left unturned to
induce the colored people to remain in the counties and pre¬
vent financial ruin to many white farmers.
Any one who has followed the testimony given recently
before the United States Industrial Commission, will see that
several, white men from the South have stated, in the most
emphatic language, that the Negro is the best laborer that
the South has ever had, and is the best that the South is
likely to get in the future. Not the least part of the Negro's
worth at the present time (and this is going to be more appar¬
ent in the future than now) is that he presents a conservative,
reliable factor in relation to "strikes" and "lockouts." The
Negro is not given to "strikes." His policy is to leave each
individual free to work when, where and for whom he pleases.
The cotton crop of the South has increased many fold since
the beginning of freedom. Of course the Negro is not the
only labor element to be considered in the production of cot¬
ton, but all will agree that the black man is the chief depend¬
ence in this country for that purpose. In order to be more
specific, I give some figures that will indicate the difference
between the number of bales of cotton produced by slave and
free labor:
Slave Labor. Free L,abor.
year. bales. year. bales.
1845 2,394,503 1890 8,652,597
1850 2,233,781 1899 8,900,000
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
459
While there are several factors, among them increase in
population, entering into these figures, still I think they
show clearly that freedom has not destroyed the economic
value of the Negro.
What I have thus far stated relates mainly to the common
Negro laborer before and since the war. But what about the
educated Negro?
Reference is often made to the large proportion of criminal
and idle colored men in the large cities: I admit that this
class is much larger than it should be, and in some cities it
is beginning to present a rather serious problem. Two
things, however, should be kept in mind when considering
the younger generation of colored people: First, that the
transition from slavery to freedom was a tremendous one;
that the Negro's idea of freedom for generations had been
that it meant freedom from restraint and work; that the
Negro mother and father had little opportunity during
slavery to learn how to train children; and that family
life was practically unknown to the Negro until about thirty
years ago. Secondly, the figures relating to criminality
among all races in all countries show that it is the younger
people, those between the ages of sixteen and thirty-five, that
are given to crime and idleness.
Notwithstanding these facts, I want to present some testi¬
mony showing that the young, educated Negro is not failing
to prove his worth.
Some time ago I sent letters to about four hundred white
men, scattered throughout the Southern states, in which
these three questions were asked:
1. Has education made the Negro a more useful citizen?
2. Has it made him more economical and more inclined
to acquire wealth?
3. Has it made him a more valuable workman, especially
where thought and skill are required?
Answers came from three hundred of my correspondents,
and nine-tenths of them answered the three questions em-
400
THE NEGRO IN RE VEL A TON.
phatically in the affirmative. A few expressed doubts, but
only one answered the questions with an unmodified "No."
In each case I was careful to ask my correspondents to
base their replies upon the conditions existing in their own
neighborhood.
The Negro is branching out into nearly all lines of busi¬
ness. For an illustration of this remark the reader is referred
to Chapter VII, of this work, where he will find the results
of the inquiries as to many cities.
From all the foregoing facts I think we may safely find
ground for the greatest hopefulness, not only for the Negro
himself, but for the white man in his treatment of the Negro.
In the South, especially, the prosperity of the one race en¬
riches the other.
The greatest thing that can be done for the Negro at the
present time is to make him the most useful and indispensable
man in his community. This can be done by thorough
education of the hand, head and heart, and especially by con¬
stantly distilling into every fiber of his being the thought
that labor is ennobling and that idleness is a disgrace.
II. ADDRESS OF BOOKER T. WASHINGTON ON RECEIVING THE
HONORARY DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS
FROM HARVARD UNIVERSITY.
This speech was made at the alumni dinner of the uni¬
versity. Respecting the conferring of the degree by this
eminent institution, Thomas J. Calloway wrote, in the Wash¬
ington Colored American, as follows:
"First in the history of America, a leading American
university confers an honorary degree upon a colored man.
Harvard has been always to the front in ideas of liberty, free¬
dom and political equality. When other colleges of the
North were accepting the Negro as a tolerance, Harvard had
been awarding him honors, as in the case of Clement G.
Morgan of recent date. Her present action, therefore, in
placing an honorary crown upon the worthy head of Mr.
GEO. W. WILLIAMS.
The Colored Historian.
4G2
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
Washington, is but a step further in her magnanimity in
recognizing merit under whatever color of skin.
"The mere announcement of this event is a great testi¬
mony to the standing of Mr. Washington, but to any black
person who, as I did, saw and heard the enthusiasm and ap¬
plause with which the audience cheered the announcement
by President Kliot, the degree itself was insignificant. The
Boston Lancers had conducted Governor Wolcott to Cam¬
bridge, and five hundred Harvard graduates had double filed
the march to Sander's Theater. It was a great day. Latin
orations, disquisitions, dissertations and essays in English
were delivered by selected graduates, clad in stately and classic
cap and gown. Bishops, generals, commodores, statesmen,
authors, poets, explorers, millionaires and noted men of every
calling sat as earnest listeners. President Kliot had issued five
hundred diplomas by handing them to the representatives of
the graduates in bundles of twenty to twenty-five. Then
came the awarding of honorary degrees. Thirteen were is¬
sued. Bishop Vincent and General Nelson A. Miles, com¬
mander of the United States Army, being among the recipi¬
ents. When the name of Booker T. Washington was called,
and he arose to acknowledge and accept, there was such
an outburst of applause as greeted no other name, except that
of the popular soldier patriot, General Miles. The applause
was not studied and stiff, sympathetic and condoling; it was
enthusiasm and admiration. Kvery part of the audience from
pit to gallery joined in, and- a glow covered the cheeks of
those around me, proving that it proceeded from sincere ap¬
preciation of the rising struggle of an ex-slave and the
work he has accomplished for his race.
"But the event of the day was the alumni dinner, when
speeches formed the most enjoyable bill of fare. Two hun¬
dred Harvard alumni and their invited guests partook of
their annual dinner. Four or five speeches were made,
among them one from Mr. Washington.
1 'At the close of the speaking, notwithstanding Senator
TV HISTORY, WiV/7 /iV CITIZENSHIP.
463
Henry Cabot Lodge, Dr. Minot J. Savage and others had
spoken, President Kliot warmly grasped Mr. Washington by
the hand, and told him that his was the best speech of the
day.
"Anent the conferring of the degree and the toasts, the
papers have been unusnal in favorable comment. Says the
Boston Post:
i ' 'In conferring the honorary degree of master of arts upon
the principal of Tuskegee Institute, Harvard University has
honored itself, as well as the object of this distinction. The
work which Prof. Booker T. Washington has accomplished
for the education, good citizenship and popular enlighten¬
ment in his chosen field of labor in the South, entitles him
to rank with our national benefactors. The university which
can claim him on its list of sons, whether in regular course
or honoris causa, may be proud.
" 'It has been mentioned that Mr. Washington is the first
of his race to receive an honorary degree from a New Eng¬
land university. This, in itself, is a distinction. But the
degree was not conferred because Mr. Washington is a col¬
ored man, or because he was born in slavery, but because he
has shown, by his work for the elevation of the people of the
'Black Belt' of the South, a genius and a broad humanity
which count for greatness in any man, whether his skin be
white or black.'
' 'The Boston Globe adds: 'It is Harvard, which, first among
New England colleges, confers an honorary degree upon a
black man. No one who has followed the history of Tuskegee
and its work, can fail to admire the courage, persistence and
splendid common sense of Booker T. Washington. Well
may Harvard honor the ex-slave, the value of whose services,
alike to his race and country, only the future can esti¬
mate.'
"The correspondent of the New York Times kindly re¬
marks: 4 All the speeches were enthusiastically received, but
the colored man carried off the oratorical honors and the
464
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION.
applause which, broke out when he had finished was vocifer¬
ous and long-continued.'
4'Most of the papers have printed his portrait, and con¬
gratulations have come from every source.
"The grandest feature of the whole thing is that the fame
and honor that are coming thus to Mr. Washington do not
spoil him. Twelve months in the year, night and day, he
works for Tuskegee—his heart and love. No vacation, no
rest; his life is one unceasing struggle for his school. This
is the secret of his power. Here is the lesson to be learned."
MR. WASHINGTON'S ADDRESS.
Mr, President and Gentlemen:
"It would in some measure relieve my embarrassment if I
could, even in a slight degree, feel myself worthy of the
great honor which you do me today. Why you have
called me from the 'Black Belt' of the South, from among my
humble people, to share in the honors of this occasion, is not
for me to explain; and yet it may not be inappropriate for
me to suggest that it seems to me that one of the most vital
questions that touch our American life is how to bring the
strong, wealthy and learned into helpful touch with the
poorest, most ignoraut and humble and at the same time
make the one appreciate the vitalizing, strengthening influ¬
ence of the other. How shall we make the mansions on yon
Beacon street feel and see the need of the spirits in the low¬
liest cabin in Alabama cotton fields or Louisiana sugar bot¬
toms? This problem Harvard University is solving, not by
bringing itself down, but by bringing the masses up.
"If through me, an humble representative, seven millions
of my people in the South might be permitted to send a
message to Harvard—Harvard that offered up on death's
altar young Shaw, and Russell, and Lowell and scores of
others, that we might have a free and united country, that
message would be: 'Tell them that the sacrifice was not in
vain. Tell them that by the way of the shop, the field, the
CLASS IN DOMESTIC SCIENCE, SUMNER HIGH SCHOOL, ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI.
466
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
skilled hand, habits of thrift and economy, by way of indus¬
trial school and college, we are coming. We are crawling
up, working up—yea, bursting up; often through op¬
pression, unjust discrimination and prejudice, but through
them all we are coming up; and with proper habits, intelli¬
gence and property there is no power on earth that can per¬
manently stay our progress.'
"If my life in the past has meant anything in the lifting
up of my people and the bringing about of better relations
between your race and mine, I assure you from this day it
will mean doubly more. In the economy of God there is but
one standard by which an individual can succeed—there is
but one for a race. This country demands that every race
measure itself by the American standard. By it a race must
rise or fall, succeed or fail; and in the last analysis mere
sentiment counts for little. During the next half century
and more my race must continue passing through the severe
American crucible. We are to be tested in our patience, our
forbearance, our perseverance, our power to endure wrong,
to withstand temptations, to economize, to acquire and use
skill; our ability to compete, to succeed in commerce, to
disregard the superficial for the real, the appearance for the
substance, to be great and yet small, learned and yet simple,
high and yet the servant of all. This, this is the passport
to all that is best in the life of our republic, and the Negro
must possess it or be debarred.
"While we are thus being tested, I beg of you to remember
that wherever our life touches yours, we help or hinder;
wherever your life touches ours, you make us stronger or
weaker. No member of your race in any part of our country
can harm the meanest member of mine without the proudest
and bluest blood in Massachusetts being degraded. When
Mississippi commits crime, New England commits crime,
and in so much lowers the standard of your civilization.
There is no escape. Man drags man down or man lifts
man up.
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP. 467
"In working ont our destiny, while the main burden and
center of activity must be with us, we shall need, in a large
measure in the years that are to come/as we have in the
past, the help, the encouragement, the guidance that the
strong can give the weak. Thus helped, we of both races in
the South soon shall throw off the shackles of racial and
sectional prejudice and rise, as Harvard University has risen
and as we all should rise, above the clouds of ignorance, nar¬
rowness and selfishness, into that atmosphere, that pure
sunshine, where it will be our highest ambition to serve
man, our brother, regardless of race or previous condition."
\
iii. women who labor for the social advancement
of the race.
Mrs. Fannie Barrier Williams, a member of the Chicago
Woman's Club, and prominent among those who are seek¬
ing to organize for more effective work in promoting social
advancement, says that: "Among colored women the club
is the effort of the few competent in behalf of the many in¬
competent. The club is one of many means for the social
uplift of the race The emancipation of the mind and
spirit of the race could not be accomplished by legislation.
More time, more patience, more suffering and more charity
are needed to complete the work of emancipation."
The first national conference of colored women to consider
the work of organization was held in Boston, July, 1895, but
there were clubs previously, in certain of the larger cities.
Since the movement to nationalize took shape in the organi¬
zation of the National Association of Colored Women, the
interest has increased annually, and local clubs have multi¬
plied till there are at least three hundred of such bodies in
the United States. The object of these club^ is not merely
social and sisterly intercourse, but they have well-defined
aims which they seek to attain by thoughtful discussion and
active work for the improvement of individual and home life.
Mrs. Williams says of them: i'These club women are stu-
468
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION.
dents of their own social condition, and the clubs themselves
are schools in which are taught and learned, more or less
thoroughly, the near lessons of living. All these clubs
have a programme for study. In some of the more ambi¬
tious ones literature, music and art are studied, .... and
in all of them race problems and sociological questions
directly related to the condition of the Negro race in Amer¬
ica are the principal subjects for study and discussion. . . .
The lessons learned in the organizations all have a direct
bearing on the social conditions of the Negro race. They
are such lessons as are not taught in the schools or preached
from the pulpits. Home-making has been new business to
the great majority of the women whom the women's clubs
aim to reach and influence. For this reason the principal
object of club studies is to teach that homes are something
better and dearer than rooms, furniture, comforts and food.
How to make the homes of the race the shrines of all the
domestic virtues rather than mere shelters, is the important
thing that colored women are trying to learn and teach
through their club organizations."
To attempt such work is an emphatic declaration to man¬
kind that a host of the colored women of America have
worthy ambitions and lofty ideals, and as representatives of
the women of their race they make manifest the fact that
there are possibilities open to all that are higher and better
than mere menial service and that state of poverty which is
known as "living from hand-to-mouth." The degree of
success attained in extending the organization to cover such
a wide field, and awakening an interest that is finding its
way to a class of women that have been sadly in need of
some regenerating, quickening and elevating influence,
is proof that the longings and strivings of these club
women are by no means disproportioned to their powers of
achievement.
Among the women of the race who are prominent in club
work and are otherwise actively engaged in something de-
N. W. CUNER|
470
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
signed to promote the honor and welfare of their people, we
have the names of the following:
Mrs. Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, of Boston, leader of the
club movement among the colored women.
Miss Mattie B. Davis, president of the Woman's Club,
Athens, Georgia.
Mrs. C. S. Smith, of Nashville, Tennessee, late secretary
of the National Association of Colored Women.
Mrs. Mary L. Davenport, president of the Chicago Wom¬
an's Conference.
Mrs. Mary Church Terrell, president of the National As¬
sociation of Colored Women.
Mrs. Helen Clark, president of the Washington (D. C.)
Woman's League.
Mrs. Hart, of Jacksonville, Florida, promoter of a move¬
ment to erect monuments to commemorate the deeds of the
black soldiers in the Spanish War.
S. J. Bvans is the chief stenographer in one of the largest
mercantile houses in Chicago, and furnishes a striking
example to the young of what may be achieved by applica¬
tion and good conduct.
IV. INVENTIVE GENIUS, MECHANICAL SKILL, ETC.
The constructive genius of the race cannot as yet number
many illustrative names, but there have been occasional not¬
able manifestations. In March, 1902, the Woodford (Ken¬
tucky) Sun published the following account:
"Lewis Harvey, an uneducated eighteen-year-old Negro
boy, living on Mr. Kmelius Morancy's farm near the river,
has shown remarkable mechanical genius by constructing,
without assistance, and with the crudest material, a minia¬
ture stationary steam engine that runs perfectly. A piece
of old pipe, which he inclosed in Babbitt metal, forms the
cylinder; the boiler is a large tin can and the governor
is made of a brass link cuff button. He built the engine
after seeing several engines in operation. It is certainly a
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP.
471
wonderful machine. He is now preparing to build a larger
engine, that will have power enough to operate a. sewing
machine.
"He also possesses remarkable talent as a wood carver,
and recently completed a very interesting walking stick,
which is a mass of portraits of public men, animals, snakes
and lizards carved in bold relief.
'Lewis Harvey's younger brother, Will Harvey, aged
SUMNUR HIGH SCHOOL, ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI.
fifteen, is gifted with his pencil and can sketch crayon por¬
traits and landscape views with rare fidelity. There are two
other brothers, and all four of them are talented musicians,
performing upon a variety of instruments. They are sons of
James Harvey. Their mother is a Mexican/"
James Harvey, the father, was for a long time the engineer
in a large distillery near Frankfort, and was regarded as a
natural mechanic. He was accustomed to making neces-
30
472
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION.
sary repairs on any machinery which, he might have in
charge.
Benjamin Danneker, born in Maryland in 1831, was
another man of his race—he was the son of a native African—
who was remarkable for diversified talent. He was a math¬
ematical and mechanical genius, and had a wide acquaint¬
ance with general literature. With imperfect tools and a
watch for a model he constructed a clock; amused himself by
stating mathematical problems and their solution in rhyme;
devoted himself to astronomical studies till he could calculate
an eclipse; and for ten or twelve years he prepared and pub¬
lished annually an almanac; accompanied the commissioners
to run the lines of the District of Columbia, on their invitation;
kept himself acquainted with everything of importance that
was passing in the United States, and was a pleasing conver¬
sationalist. He lived a somewhat retired life, and was
always modest in deportment, but so striking were his talents
and in general so usefully employed that he came to be
known in Europe, as well.as in America, as a most intel¬
lectual and distinguished man.
One of the prodigies of the eighteenth century was a native
African, Thomas Fuller, brought to Virginia and sold into
slavery—an untaught mathematician of the most extraordi¬
nary powers. A Boston paper, noticing his death in De¬
cember, 1790j said of him: "Had his opportunities of im¬
provement been equal to those of thousands of his fellow-
men, neither the Royal Society of London, the Academy of
Science at Paris, nor even a Newton himself need have been
ashamed to acknowledge him a brother in science."
V. HOW MELBOURN AND OTHERS REGARDED COLONIZATION
IN LIBERIA, AND WHAT TIME HAS DISCLOSED
AS TO THAT SCHEME.
Discussing the question as to the difficulties then in the
way of freeing the slaves (about eighty years ago), Melbourn
says: "It is worthy of remark that neither Thornton nor
• JOHN M. LANGSTON.
Ex-Minister to Hayti.
474
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
Lundy (two scholarly and philanthropic gentlemen who were
his friends), noticed the Colonization Society as a scheme
which promised any benefit to the black man of America.
Hence I inferred that they did not anticipate any good from
that project, and I afterward ascertained that that inference
was correct; in which opinion I now entirely concur. That
the society can ever effect the emancipation of the Negro
race is so obviously absurd that no man who has any brains
can fail of perceiving it. As a means of extending Chris¬
tianity and the arts of civilization in Western Africa it may
be beneficial; but in my judgment it will retard, as by many
it was intended to retard, the liberation of the slaves in the
United States. . . . The project is universally unpop¬
ular with the colored people of America. They regard
transportation to Africa as a banishment from their native
land to an unhealthy, savage country. The idea is to many
more terrible than death itself.
"In. the year 1816, a few days after the Colonization So¬
ciety was organized in Washington, I went in the stage from
that city to Richmond, Virginia. The weather was pleasant,
and for the sake of viewing the country I rode a part of the
way on the box with the driver, who was a Negro.
Though a very sensible man this driver was a slave, but he
had heard of the Colonization Society and its objects. He
soon began to make some inquiries of me about it. In turn,
I asked him what he thought of the plan. He said he did not
like it. I expressed surprise at his answer, for at that time
I really thought favorably of the project. I suggested to my
companion that if all the colored people in this country were
set free, such was the prejudice against color that they could
never acquire equal standing with the whites; that in all the
free States they were treated as an inferior race of beings;
that they were excluded from all offices of honor and profit;
and that the most worthy colored man was not permitted to
come to the table and eat with the meanest white man; that
in Liberia it would be entirely different; that competition for
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP. 475
wealth, promotion and honor would be as open to the black
man as to the white man.
uHe answered that he had reason to believe Africa was a
barren country—that he knew it was a savage country, with
a most unhealthy climate, entirely unsuited to the constitu¬
tion of Americans; . . . and that the Negro loved the
soil on which he was born as well as the white man, and that
he could not endure the idea of banishment for life from his
native country."
Helpless as the prospect of liberation seemed to all men
then, it was but little more than forty years till the slaves
were freed, and the American people were confronted with a
great problem—that of adjusting the relations of two distinct
and diverse races of freemen intermingled, and involved in
some antagonisms created by the great war and the legisla¬
tion which followed it. Various schemes for settling the
race problem by separating the races have been suggested:—
one of which is the removal of the colored people to another
clime, there to form them into a distinct and homogeneous
commonwealth. One great and sufficient objection to this
project, though it has been advocated by good and able men,
is found in the words quoted above: "The Negro loves the
soil on which he was born as well as the white man, and he
could not endure the idea of banishment for life from his
native country. The thought would be to many more terri¬
ble than death itself."
All schemes looking to removal and the formation of dis¬
tinct colored communities, whether in a foreign land or in
any particular State or Territory of the Union, have come to
be regarded as impracticable, if not utterly chimerical. The
race, as it exists among us, has risen from barbarism through
contact with the whites, which thoughtful Negroes them¬
selves regard as some compensation for two hundred and
forty years of slavery; and those who have given existing
conditions the most careful study, conclude that if the race is
to continue to advance it must maintain its present relations
476
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION.
with the ever-dominant Anglo-Saxon. That wholesale emi¬
gration and a separate and independent existence as a people
would be a serious interruption to their progress, intellectual,
moral and material, seems to be borne out by the result
made in Liberia.
Without entering into the details of the history of that
commonwealth, we may note some facts from which the intel¬
ligent reader will reach the conclusion that American Negroes
have a better future 011 American soil than would be possible
to them as a separate race on the west coast of Africa—or,
indeed, anywhere else. The government of Liberia is
modeled on that of the United States. Its executive head
is a president elected by the people; its Congress consists of
a Senate and a Lower House—eight senators elected for four
years and thirteen representatives elected for three years; it
has a Supreme Court, and the president has a cabinet of the
American type.
It was founded in 1822, the territory allotted to the freed-
men of America being in extent about the size of the two
states New Hampshire and New Jersey, and twenty-five
years afterward it was declared an independent republic.
Fifty-eight years after its founding the population of civilized
Negroes was about 18,000, with about 1,000,000 half-wild
natives. Some of the latter were adopting a settled life and
conforming to the habits of their civilized countrymen. One
writer (who is in the main corroborated by various others)
says that "socially and politically the State cannot be pro¬
nounced a marked success. The Negroes of America display
little desire to throw in their fortunes with it, now they are
free to go whither they list, nor do the barbarous tribes on
the border of the republic seem to admire this imitation of a
white man's government which for eighty years has been
presented to them. There is now and again a small immi¬
gration from the United States, but Liberian civilization, cut
off from the benefit of intercourse with a higher and broader
culture, is apt to deteriorate, while neither the climate nor
H. A. RUCKER.
Collector Internal Revenue, Atlanta, Georgia.
478
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION,
the laws and social surroundings are ever likely to attract
many white men to its shores. Its finances are badly man¬
aged, so that it is hardly able to meet the interest on a public
debt contracted long ago, to say nothing of lessening the
principal; and internal disorder is too often the rule. It shows
an appreciation, however, of education and religion, and a
keen desire to stand well in the opinion of the powers with
which it has relations by accredited representatives."
VI. HIGH TRIBUTES TO THE MANHOOD OF SOME
NEGRO SLAVES.
When Henry Clay, December 9, 1844, freed one of his
Negro men he said in the article of manumission: 1 'For and
in consideration of the fidelity, attachment and services of
Charles Dupey, and my esteem and regard for him, I do
hereby liberate," etc.
The Hon. Abel P. Upshur, of Virginia, for a while Secre¬
tary of the Navy, and afterward Secretary of State under
President Tyler (1841-5), left., in an article of manumission,
a remarkable tribute to the intelligence and character of the
Negro slave whom he freed. "I emancipate and set free,"
says the document, "my servant, David Rich, and direct
my executors to give him one hundred dollars. I recommend
him in the strongest manner to the respect, esteem and con¬
fidence of any community in which he may happen to live.
He has been my slave for twenty-four years, during all of
which time he has been trusted to every extent and in every
respect. My confidence in him has been unbounded. His
relation to myself and family has been such as to afford him
daily opportunities to deceive and injure us, and yet he has
never been detected in any serious fault, nor even in an in¬
tentional breach of the decorums of his station. His intel¬
ligence is of a high order, his integrity above all suspicion,
and his sense of right and propriety correct and even refined.
I feel that he is justly entitled to carry this certificate from
me in the new relations which he must now form. It is due
BLANCHE K. BRUCE.
Ex-United States Senator from Mississippi.
480
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION
to his long and faithful services, and to the sincere and steady
friendship which I bear him. In the uninterrupted and con¬
fidential intercourse of twenty-four years I have never given
him, nor had occasion to give him, an unpleasant word. I
know no man who has fewer faults or more excellences than
he."
REV. MOSES DICKSON.
Rev. Moses Dickson was born in the city of Cincinnati,
Ohio, April 5, 1824. He was the son of Robert and Han-'
nah Dickson, natives of Virginia. His father died in 1832,
and his mother in 1838. He learned the barber's trade
while he was a young man and at the same time attended
school and mastered all the branches of study that were
taught at that early day. At the age of sixteen he secured
employment on a steamboat and for three years traveled in
various boats upon the different Southern rivers and bayous.
In these travels through the South he saw slavery in all its
aspects, and what he saw in these three years of travel made
a lasting impression on him and determined him to devote
his best efforts to secure freedom for his race. He had made
the acquaintance of a few true and trusty young men, who
were ready to join with him in any plan that seemed feasible
and likely to assure freedom to the slaves. Eleven of these
young men met with him and agreed to form an organization
for that purpose. Knowing that the work was one of great
magnitude and would require time, courage and patience,
they took two years to study over it and planned to meet
again in St. Louis on the 12th of August, 1846.
Mr. Dickson embarked on the steamer Oronoco at New
Orleans in May, 1844, and made a trip to St. Louis, where
he remained during the summer. He then traveled for two
years through Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin and other Northern
States, and in August, 1846, was in St. Louis prepared to
meet his friends with an outline of the plan to be submitted
to them. The twelve met on the second Tuesday in August
and Mr. Dickson unfolded to them his plan which was
REV. MOSES DICKSON.
Founder of the International Order of Twelve.
482 the negro in revelation;
adopted. This meeting resulted in the formation of the
"Knights of Liberty." The twelve organizers went actively
to work and formed local organizations in every slave State ex¬
cept Missouri and Texas. Mr. Dickson remained the head of
the Order with headquarters at St. Louis. The Knights of
Liberty were not to commence active operation for ten years
from the time of organization, the intervening time to be
used in making preparations. When the ten years were
ended, in 1856, the trend of events was such that it was not
thought advisable to carry out the plans of the_organization,
inasmuch as it seemed probable at that time that freedom
would come in the natural course of events.
During the ten years of preparation and up to the break¬
ing out of the war, the Knights of Liberty, in connection
with their other work, were actively interested in the ''Under
Ground Railroad," and in ten years transported more than
70,000 slaves from bondage to freedom. The organization
was so compact and its affairs so secretly conducted that
for years nobody knew the names of the original twelve
organizers, or that such an organization existed. The
methods by which the Knights of Liberty expected to ac¬
complish their object will probably never be known, but the
extent of the movement and the secrecy maintained proves
Mr. Dickson to have been a past master in the art of organ¬
ization.
Mr. Dickson was actively engaged in the field during the
war, and was in thirteen hard-fought battles, returning home
in 1864 without a scratch from the enemy's bullets.
After the war he turned his energies and efforts to the
education of the freedmen and their children. He led a
powerful lobby to Jefferson City, Missouri, and worked hard
for the establishment of schools for colored children. His
efforts were successful, and, under the administration.of
Governor McClurg, the present school laws of Missouri were
adopted. This being achieved, the next movement was to
IN HISTORY, AND IN CITIZENSHIP. 483
procure colored teachers for colored schools, and after a hard
fight he was successful in that also.
He took an active part in the founding of Lincoln Insti¬
tute, at Jefferson City, Missouri, and was trustee and vice-
president of the board for several years until the success of
the institution was assured. He has given his time largely
since the war to educational movements for the benefit of the
colored race.
In 1878 he became president of the Refugee Relief Board
in St. Louis, and the board under his management cared for
about sixteen thousand people. These refugees were com¬
fortably clothed, given provisions to last them several months,
and forwarded to Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado and other
Northern States, where they settled and became good citi¬
zens. More than ten thousand of these refugees settled in
Kansas.
Mr. Dickson was prominent in politics in his State.
He was a delegate to every Republican State Convention of
Missouri from 1864 to 1878, and during several campaigns
stumped the State in the interest of his party. He was
elector at large on the Grant ticket in 1872.
He was converted and joined the A. M. B. Church in
1866, and in 1867 was licensed to preach. He has held a
number of large and small charges, and was well known as a
successful manager of churches, and particularly as a church
builder, a debt payer and a revivalist. During his several
pastorates about fourteen hundred persons have been con¬
verted by him.
After the war, when the work of the "Knights of Liberty"
was ended, he decided to institute a beneficial order in
memory of the twelve original organizers of that society.
After three years of preparation he organized, in 1871, the
first Temple and Tabernacle of the "Order of Twelve of the
Knights and Daughters of Tabor," which has for its object
the encouragement of Christianity, education, morality and
temperance among the colored people. Its object is to teach
484
THE NEGRO IN REVELATION.
the art of governing, self-reliance and true manhood and
womanhood. Part of its work is to encourage home-building
and the acquiring of wealth. The Order, in twenty-seven
years, has taken its place with the greatest organizations of
the world. It now has more than sixty thousand members,
and wields a powerful influence for good among the colored
people.
Mr. Dickson was married on the 5th of October, 1848, to
Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Peters. She died in 1891. The couple
had one child, Mrs. Mamie Augusta Robinson, and one
grand-child, who was adopted by the Knights of Tabor, and
bears the title of ''Princess of the Knights and Daughters
of Tabor."
After a long life spent in the service of his race, Mr.
Dickson died in the early part of 1902.
INDEX.
PAGE.
Abbott, Miss Helen, 445
African Zion Methodist Episcopal Cliurch, ....... 89
Alexander, Iyieut. John H., .......... 51
Allen, Bishop Richard, ... ...... 103
Allen, B. F., Sketch of, 436
Ames, Alexander, 43
Anderson, Duke W., ............ 86
Anderson, Louis B., . 81
Answers to Question: "Has Your College Training Benefited You?" . . 376
Antoine, C. C., 62
Archer, Hiram E-, 444
Archer, Mrs. Henrietta M., 445
Arnett, Bishop B. W., 103
Asbury, Bishop, 103
Assessed Value of Real Estate Held by 557 College-bred Negroes, . . 369
Attucks, Crispus, . 42
Babcock, Primus, 43
Ball, J. P 199
Barnett, Ferdinand L., • ■ • • • • • . . .81
Bassett, E. D., .62
Birthplace of 650 College-bred Negroes 334
Blackshear, Edward L., Sketch of, 432
Blackwell, William, ............ 57
Blind Tom, 116
Blocker, Mrs. Sarah A., . . . . . . • . . . 444
Booker, Rev. Dr. Joseph A., Sketch of, ........ 403
Bouey, Rev. H. N., Sketch of, ......... 114
Bowen, Capt. P. J., Sketch of . . . .53
Bowles, Charles, 43
Boyd, Henry 199
Brown, Bishop Morris 103
Brown, Bishop John M., . ......... 103
Brown, Rev. Dr. C. S., Sketch of, ......... 418
Bruce, Blanche K 59
Bruce, Roscoe Conkling 59
Burns, Bishop Francis, Notice of, . .95
Burr, Seymour, . 43
Business, Kinds of, According to Capital, 159
Business, Kinds of, According to Number of Yi-:irs Engaged, . . .159
4cS5
486 INDEX.
PAGE.
Cain, Richard H., i 62,103
Calloway, Thomas J., on the Bestowing of a Harvard Degree on Booker
Washington, 460
Campbell, Bishop Jabez Pitt 103
Campbell, Mrs. Haydee, ........... 445
Camper, Miss Julia A 107
Candler, Gov. Allan D., Speech of, ... . . . . . . 133
Carmouche, Lieut. P. I*., . . . . . .' . . . .54
Carroll, Rev. Richard* 51
Cassagnac de, Paul Granier, . . . 117
Chambers, Missjudith I,., Sketch of, . . . . . ... 420
Chesnutt, Charles W., Sketch of, 122
Chiles, Nick, Sketch of, . . . . . . . ... . .67
Clark, Mrs. Helen, 470
Clark, Private, 52
Clark, Daniel, Act to Pension, .......... 263
Cleveland, President, Letter from, 207
Coburn, Titus, 43
Coker, Rev. Daniel, 104
Coleman, J. D., Sketch of, ......... 417
College-bred Negroes, Important Offices Held by, ..... 317
College-bred Negroes, Literary Activity of, ....... 375
College Graduates, Migration of, ........ 334
College Graduates, Age at which Married, ....... 347
College-bred Women Graduates 346
Colored Women, National Conference of, 467
Colored Militia, States in which Organized, ....... 50
Colored Methodist Episcopal Church, The ....... 108
Conjugal Condition of College-bred Negroes, ...... 348
Cooper, E. E-, " 62
Cooper, Mrs. Anna J., 445
Corrothers, James D., 121
Cotton, Increased Production Under Free Labor, ...... 458
Councill, Prof. W. H., Speech in Philadelphia, ...... 276
Councill, Prof. W. H., mentioned, 438
Crime and Illiteracy, Whites and Blacks Compared, ..... 280
Cromwell, Oliver 43
Curricula of Various Negro Colleges and Universities, ..... 323
Danneker, Benjamin, 472
Davenport, Mrs. Mary L., .......... 470
Davis, John 48
Davis, Alexander, . ^ . . . . . . . . . . .62
Davis, Miss Mattie B., 470
Deas, Edmund H., Sketch of, ......... 59
Declarations Adopted at Tuskegee Conference, . + 199
De Grasse, John V., ............ 82
Delaney, Miss Emma B., Sketch of, . .' 106
De Large, Robert C., ............ 63
Derham, James, 82
Dickerson, Bishop Wm. F 103
INDEX. 487
PAGE.
Dickson, Rev. Moses, 480
Diggs, James R. L-, ' . . . . .425
Dinkins, Rev. Dr. C. S., Sketch of, . . 400
Disney, Bishop Richard R., 103
Dorsey, Rev. J. Harry, 64
Douglass, Frederick, 77
Dumas, Gen. Alexandre de la Pailleterie, 39
Dumas, Alexandre Davy de la Pailleterie, pere, ....*. 117
Dumas, Alexandre, fils, 117
Dunbar, Paul Laurence, Sketch of, 119
Dunn, Oscar J., 62
Dupey, Charles, Henry Clay's Tribute to 478
Durham, John Stephens, 116
Eckstein Norton University, 431
Elliott, Robert B., .63
Escridge, Miss Hattie G., on the Need of Negro Merchants, . . . 147
Estill, Monk, 45
Evans, L.J., 470
Farms Owned by Negroes, in 1890, 278
Fearn, C. H., on Negro Co-operative Foundry, 154
Francis, Dr. John R., 82
Francis, Mrs. John R 445
Freeman, Jordan, . 43
Fuller, Thomas, 472
Future of the Negro, Suggestions and Answers to Questions, . . . 370
Gaines, Bishop Wesley J., Sketch of, . 106
Gannett, Deborah, 43
Garnet, Belle, 82
Garnett, Henry W., ®2
Gleaves, Richard H., ........... 62
Grady, Henry W., Speech in New York, Extracts from, .... 215
Grady, Henry W., Speech in Boston, Extracts from, 216
Grant, Bishop Abraham, Sketch of, 106
Green, Col. Christopher • 42
Griggs, Rev. Dr. A., Sketch of, 113
Grove, Jack, 44
Ham, Descendants of, 33
Hamet, Revolutionary Pensioner, . 43
Haralson, Jere, 63
Hart, Mrs., 470
Harvey, Mrs. Daisy Miller, Sketch of, ........ 400
Harvey , James 471
Harvey, Lewis, ....••••••••• 470
Harvey, Will 471
Hathaway, James Shelton, Sketch of. 426
Heredia, Jose Maria 116
Hoffman, John Wesley, Sketch of 413
31
488 INDEX.
?AGE.
Hoke, Rev. Dr. J. H., Sketch of, ... 110
"Honey Chile," a Poem by Miss Inez C. Parker, ...... 128
"Hope," a Poem by Miss Inez C. Parker, 127
Hope, John, on the Meaning of Business 140
Hope, John, Sketch of, . . . . . . . . . . . 403
Howard, Rev. W. J., Sketch of, ......... 96
Howard University, 405
Howe, Cato, 43
Howell, Hon. Clark, Letter to New York World, ...... 208
Humphrey, Col. David, 42
Jackson, Mary C., 445
Jackson, John H., ............ 422
Jasper, Rev. John, Sketch of, 89
Jefferson, Thomas, and Julius Melbourn, 201
Jenkins, Samuel, 42
Johnson, John, 48
Johnson, Rev. E. P., Sketch of 101
Jonah, Jeremy, 43
Jones, Rev. Absalom, 104
Jones, Rev. Dr. Joseph E., Sketch of, 105
Jones, Miss Anna, 444
Kealing, H. T., 62
Kenney, Mrs. Maria T., Sketch of, . . 404
Kentucky State Normal and Industrial School, 428
Kimble, Miss Mary C., Sketch of, 429
Kirby, Rev. Dr. J. W 98
Langston, John M., 62
Latham, Lambo, 43
Lee, Rev. Dr. James W., Speech Before Current Topics Club, . . . 228
Lee, Rev. Dr. James W., Speech Before St. Louis Evangelical Alliance, . 240
Lethierre, Guillaume Guillen, 115
Lew, Barzillai 43
Lewis, Edmonia, 115
Liberia, Melbourn's Views of, .......... 474
Lindsay, H. E., on Negro Business Men in Columbia, South Carolina, . 148
L'Ouverture, Dominique Francois Toussaint, 39
Love, Miss Lulu 444
Lynch, John R., 51,63
Lyons, Judson W., 65,280
Lytle, Miss Lutie A., 82
McKee, Col. John, 196
McKinley, Dr. J. Frank, 82
Maceo, Antonio, ^. 51
Maceo, Jose, 51
Marshall, Col. J. R. 51
Martin, W. L 62
Mayo, Wm. H., 445
Meharry Medical College, 399
INDEX. 489
PAGE.
Melbourn, Julius, 48-201-472
Miles, Rev. W. H., 108
Miles, Alexander 198
Mitchell, John G., 62
Morris, Robert 81
Murphy, W. O., on the Negro Grocer, ........ 151
Nash, Charles E., . . .49
National Baptist Publishing Board 399
Nazery, Bishop Willis, 103
Nelson, Ida Gray, 83
Negroes in Northern and Other Colleges, 327
Negro Soldiers, Number of, During Revolutionary War, .... 42
" " Number of, in Civil War, ; 49
" " Enlistments and Service in Spanish War, .... 50
" I^awyer in Paris, France, 81
" Divine in London, England, 87
" Churches, Church Membership, etc., 87
" Business Men in Atlanta, Georgia 158
" Business Men by States, 164
" Business Men According to Occupations, 166
" Merchants, Twenty Cities Having Twenty or More, .... 182
" Merchants, Class of Business of, in Twenty-four Cities, . . . 182
" Beneficiaries of Schools in Georgia, 288.
" Population and Wealth, Increase of, ...... 299
" Problems, Annual Conferences Provided to Consider, . . . 317
" College Graduates, Number of, 328
" " " According to Years and Institutions, . . . 333
" Graduates from White Colleges • . . 330
" College Graduates, Childhood and Youth of, 336
" " " Occupations of 349
Olsson, Jessie Macaulay, 116
Paine, Moses U 109
Parker, Miss Inez C., Sketch of, 125
Parrish, Rev. C. H., 433
Payne, Bishop D. Alexander, 101
Pegues, Albert W,, Sketch of, ......... 393
Penn, Dr. Wm. F-, Sketch of, 83
Periodicals Published by Negroes 70
Philippines, Negro Troops Serving in, 53
Phillips, Rev. D. W., 395
Pinchback, P. B. S., 62
Placidio,
Poor, Salem, ^
Poushkin, Alexander, 116
Prince, a Soldier, 43
Pierce, Rev. Dr. Charles L, , 430
Quinn, Bishop Wm. Paul, . . .103
490 INDEX.
PAGE
Rainey, Joseph. H., .64
Rausier, Alonzo J., 62,66
Rapier, James T., 66
Ray, Miss Charlotte E 81
Reddick, Mrs. Hannah Howell, Sketch of, 423
Reddick, M. W . 424
Revels, Hiram R., 62
Rich, David, Upshur's Tribute to, 478
Richards, Prince ' . 43
Richardson, Mrs., . ■ 79
Roberts, Bishop John Wright, . . • .95
Roberts, Robert R., . . . . 103
Roberts, Rev. Dr. N. F., Sketch of, 392
Robinson, Mrs. Rachel E. R. Sketch of, ....... 420
Rock, John R., 82
Roger Williams University, 395
Rucker, H. A. 62
Ruffin, Mrs. Josephine St. Pierre 470
Russwurm, John Brown, 328
Salem, Peter, 43
Scarborough, W. S., . 442
Scott, I. B., . 62
Scott, Bishop Levi, 95
Screws, Maj. W. W., on Work Done by the Tuskegee School, . . . 300
Scruggs, Enos L., Sketch of, 419
Shaw University, • . 387
Shorter, Bishop James A., 103
Shurtliff, Robert, ............ 43
Siboney, Reminiscence of, 52
Simpson, Joshua B., Sketch of, 421
Smalls, Robert 49
Smith, John H., 62
Smith, Mrs. C. S. 470
Stewart, McCants, Sketch of, 85
Stillwell, Rev. W. M 89
Stockton, Ben, . . . . . . • • • .44
Sweetsa Language, Bible Translated Into, ....... 86
Tanner, Bishop Benjamin T., Sketch of, 104
Tanner, Henry Ossawa, 115
Taylor, Samuel Coleridge, 116
Tenney, E. P., Quoted, 86
Terrell, Mrs. Mary Church, ... 470
"The Bucks," .44
Thomas, Wm. Hannibal, . .49
Thomas, A. S., . . . • • • • • • • • 19®
Thompson, Grace J., Sketch of, 394
Titus, Israel 42
Totten, Rev. Father, 65
Truth, Sojourner, 76
INDEX. 491
PAGE.
Turner, Bishop Henry M., Sketch of, 98
Turner, J. Milton, 62
Turner, Benjamin S., 63
Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute 291
Uncles, Rev. C. R., 65
Vanderhorst, R. H., 108
Vass, Rev. Dr. S. N., Sketch of, ........ 100
Walker, E. G., 81
Walker, ReV. C. T., 51
Waller, Capt. John L., . 51
Waller, Miss Effie, Sketch of, 131
Waller, Rev. Garnett Russell, Sketch of, 110
Walls, John T 63
Ward, Bishop Thomas M. D., 103
Washington, Booker T., 210
" " on the Negro and Signs of Civilization, . . 252
" " on the Negro's Part in the South's Upbuilding, . 255
" " on the Negro and His Relation to the South, . 260
" " on Industrial Training, 265
" " on Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, . 291
" " Address in Carnegie Hall, New York, . . . 307
" " on the Negro's Economic Value, , 447
<< " Address on Receiving Harvard Diploma, . . 464
Washington, Mrs. Booker T., ' 445
Waters, Bishop Edward, . , • • 103
Wayman, Bishop Alexander W., 103
West, Narcissa, Sketch of, 85
Wheatley, Phillis, ............ 118
Wheaton, J. Frank, 82
"When Daddy Plays de Banjo," Dialect Poem, Miss Parker, . . .129
White, Rev. C. P. T 69
Whitted, Rev. Dr. John A., Sketch of, 97
Wilcox, Samuel T., *99
Williams, George W., Quoted, 42,117
Williams, S. Laing, 81
Williams, Dr. DanielH. 82
Williams, Mrs. Fannie Barrier, 116,467
Wilson, Edward 82
Wood, Rev. N. 62
Wright, Richard R., 51,444
Young, Col. James H., 61
Young, Maj. Charles E-, * • -51