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AN ESTIMATE OF NEGRO LIFE
AND CHARACTER.
BY
PROF. T. S. INBORDEN.
JOSEPH K. BRICK NORMAL AND INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL, ENFIELD, N C.
CONGREGATIONAL ROOMS
Fourth Avenue and Twenty-Second Street,
NEW YORK.
AN ESTIMATE OF NEGRO LIFE AND CHARACTER.
BY
PROF. T. S. INBORDEN,
Joseph K. Brick Normal and Industrial School, Enfield, N. C.
ENVIRONMENT.
One element to take into account in our estimate of Negro life and
character is environment. There are certain animals that do well in
the polar regions and others that thrive best at the equator. Oranges
which grow to perfection in Florida and California, in other states are
sour and imperfect. Animals as well as plants have their habitat, and
in that they thrive best. I am interested in botany, and I am always
surprised to find the great differences in the same species when I find
them in the various states. The difference is in the size or color, or
in some other development.
You will not find whiter people anywhere than in the northern
countries, nor blacker people anywhere than under the equator. Be¬
tween these points may be found all the other colors. The features
of the Irish peasantry are rough because they live a rugged life. The
American Indians have projecting cheekbones because their food is
game and largely raw. The Indian is a marksman because upon that
depends his living. The lips of the African are large because of the
difficulties for centuries in pronouncing the words of their language;
their nostrils are large because they live in a hot climate and they
are necessary to supply an abundance of fresh air for the lungs.
You know the man from Boston or New York as soon as he arrives;
AN ESTIMATE OF NEGRO LIFE AND CHARACTER.
he walks vigorously, and is full of life and action. If you wish to
confer with him you must prepare your address before you get to
him. He may give you a few minutes if you have some money to
spend with him ; if you stay too long this may soon become apparent.
In this region if one wishes to hire a man it may take several days
to find the man, another day to make a bargain—and it may be
several days to collect the money when the work is done. Here, every¬
where one sees idleness. These are the general impressions that come
to one as he tries to take in the situation. One cause of all this dif¬
ference is in the environment. In the North the climatic condition
requires men to be active all the time. The summers are short and
the winters are long and cold. Men must work and not wait. In
other words, the conditions do not encourage idleness. Improved
machinery, transportation facilities, a desire to excel, business meth¬
ods, freedom of opinion and of utterance, freedom of the press, good
laws, public and private education and general public sentiment all
make conditions. These conditions have made for earnestness and
industry until these have become marked characteristics of the
people.
On the other hand, in the South there is every temptation to
languor and idleness. Many servants, little pay, small demand for
the best labor and the best products, cheap living, long summers,
mild winters, little competition with the outside world, lack of educa¬
tional interest and a general depreciation of values and time all have
influenced southern life and character. Life here is not "strenuous."
To say "the Negro was born to idleness," therefore, is not stating the
whole truth. The Negro was born in the midst of these environments
and was a factor in this environment. The present upheaval all over
the country with respect to the Negro is simply a movement towards
a normal adjustment of abnormal conditions. The conditions are
changing and men are beginning to get adjusted to them.
Facts do not sustain the accusation that the Negro is a hindrance
to southern society and southern progress. He has tilled the soil of
tne southland, cleared the swamps and woods, ditched the low
grounds and river bottoms, laid all the railroad beds, nursed, waited
on the largest part of the southern population and put up nearly all the
houses before the war. The fact that the Negro is paying taxes at this
time on over four hundred million dollars of property, that over fifty per
cent, of the Negro people can read and write, that several hundred thou¬
sand have been educated in excellent schools, show that the environ¬
ment is changing for the better. There are yet many things for the
Negro people to do; but now they are buying land, are building them-
AN ESTIMATE OF NEGRO LIFE AND CHARACTER.
selves homes and churches, are going into business for themselves
and are educating their children. Most who have had any chances
to better themselves are trying to create a healthy public sentiment
for honesty, industry, regard for labor and for good environment. If
I read history aright these are the things that count in the progress of
any society. The Negro to-day assuredly is one of the greatest in¬
dustrial factors south, and he is to be such. Absolutely no one has
been found to take his place on southern soil nor will be. He can
live luxuriously enough when his means allow, or as poorly as a her¬
mit when necessary.
As a people we have gained much since freedom found us with
nothing and living unlettered and poorly clad, with no home, no
land, no conception of the value of money or business, nor with any
conception of the value of the virtues necessary to true manhood.
Since the best life and character result from living under the light
and in the light of the best truth, a people must be surrounded with
the best influences if the best results are to be expected. Bad in¬
fluences, contaminating and destructive conditions are to be changed
if you would change the moral tone of the people.
Not long since I met a planter who was lamenting because there
were so many empty houses and so much cotton in the fields to be
picked and all the Negroes gone. I explained to him the cause of
their leaving: " You have several sons and daughters. Your house
has a kitchen, dining room, sitting-room, and a sufficient number of
bedrooms for all. Now, many of these colored men whose services
you desire and whom you wish to retain on your plantation have
families as large as yours. You give them only a one or two-room
cabin. Their families need privacy as well as yours. Give them
a fraction of the home facilities you have and they will not leave
you." This man thought there might be truth in this; and many of
the large planters are realizing that it is necessary to furnish better
houses for their renters. This is not only a good thing for the plan¬
ter, but it means a better day for the Negroes who live in these im¬
proved conditions
These are some of the environments from which the Negroes are
emerging. If he is not progressing as fast as he should, then the
conditions should be made more helpful. Those who can do most to
change the conditions are those who own the land, who build the
houses, who teach in the schools and colleges, who make and enforce
the laws, and those who set the pace for public sentiment—the
editors of the newspapers.
Reference to our own methods may not be out of place. The
AN ESTIMATE OF NEGRO LIFE AND CHARACTER.
Recitation
Joseph Keasbey Brick Agricultural, Industrial and Normal School,
located at Enfield, N. C., has 1,429 acres of land. Every foot of this
land is used strictly for educational purposes. That part which the
students cannot cultivate is rented out to colored families. We have
eight of these families on the farm. Every renter who comes signs a
printed contract pledging himself that he will abstain from all forms
of intoxicants. He also signs that he will engage in 110 immoralities,
nor in any conduct out of harmony with the spirit and work of the
school. The results after seven years are most gratifying. The
renters pay as much rent as they did under the old conditions. They
came in debt, and now they own from one to three horses, their
wagons and buggies, plows and hoes, grow most of their own pro¬
visions, and can get credit anywhere they want it. They have nearly
thirty children in our school, for whom they promptly pay tuition,
and they buy books. These children are wearing good clothes; they
attend preaching services, Sunday-school and prayer-meetings regu¬
larly. The school provides for these renters three and four-room
cottages. You will find their rooms decorated with flowers and pic¬
tures, and not with whiskey and cigarette advertisements. They also
have flowers in the yards. The houses are whitewashed and the yards
are kept clean. In the summer time they live largely from their own
gardens. They raise corn, peas, cotton, poultry and hogs. It was a
sacrifice for them not to "grow tobacco,"—which we do not allow—
AN ESTIMATE OF NEGRO LIFE AND CHARACTER.
but they were willing to give this up for the sake of the educa¬
tional advantages for their children. The school "advances" nothing
but the ground, and a little advice when necessary. I have seen the
children who attend school all the day working in the field at nine
o'clock at night by the light of the moon, and I have seen the
mothers at the washtub at three and four o'clock-in the morning in
order to keep these children in the school. There is mutual help and
sympathy on the part of us all. There is no trouble at the end of
the year at ''settling time." We start right at the beginning of the
year "with the contract," of which each party has a copy, which ac¬
counts for our ending right at the close of the year. Thus the
people who own the laud and rent the houses have as much respon-
BREAKING UP THE GROUND.
sibility in solving this problem as anybody; I am not sure but that
they have more.
Those who teach have their part also to perform. There are
teachers of high rank in this southland who are teaching that the
Negroes are anything from a monkey up. This sort of teaching en¬
genders a bad spirit. Nothing but the kindliest feelings should be in¬
culcated in the youth of each race for the other. To allow race
prejudice to intercept our view is to make us incapable of correct ob¬
servation. We must learn to overlook the little faults in each other.
We must look for the higher, the beautiful in the life of every man
AN ESTIMATE OF NEGRO LIFE AND CHARACTER.
and every race. In this we are not pulled down but our lives and
characters are made better.
If we are not pleased with our inheritance and our environment
we should not be discouraged. God is just and He is still on the
throne. He holds the reins of governments and thwarts the plans of
men. He cannot be dethroned. Every race has " problems," as well
as every community and every family. We gain strength by struggle.
Every difficulty overcome makes the next one easier to be overcome.
The harder the problem the better disciplined will be those who suc¬
ceed in working it out.
Education must be considered in our estimate of Negro life and
character. The great missionary societies of the country, the educa¬
tional boards which have recently organized, and the philanthropic
spirit of rich men have a meaning and a mission beyond our present
comprehension. Injustice and ignorance cannot live very long under
the searchlight of intelligence and education.
There are some who are working on this problem who see in it a
solution chiefly in the acquisition of money. Money certainly means
power, but money is not the greatest thing in the world. Note the
" problems" of our large cities and some of the states like Delaware,
and observe how money in the hands of unscrupulous men has
thwarted good government and blocked the channels of progress.
Money alone will not solve the "problem." We are often told in the
South that the " new Negro " needs " more manners" and more self-
respect. It is true. Manners and self-respect are very important, but
these alone will not solve the " problem."
I know of nothing that will add to the solution of this problem
more or quicker than a Christian education. By Christian education I
mean that form of education in which Christ is a teacher and his
truth fundamental in the life and work of the teacher, in which the
Christ-life is magnified in the subject taught, whether it be geology,
botany, Greek, Latin, English, blacksmithing, carpentry or farming.
In this light and truth the student gets a greater vision of the ideal
life and catches an inspiration that sees God himself full of his glory,
beauty and power, and in every thing. It may be called common
education, primary education, secondary education, higher education,
or industrial education, but if it is not Christian education, it is with¬
out the guarantees of power to meet the problems before us.
Christianity without education lacks moving, living, active and intel¬
ligent permanent efficiency. The missionary societies of the North
realized the importance of Christian education when they sent the
Yankee schoolteachers into the South with the speller in one hand
AN ESTIMATE OF NEGRO LIFE AND CHARACTER.
and the Bible in the other. It would be difficult to conceive what the
conditions of the South would have been had it not been for these
two regenerating influences of education and Christianity backed by
the lives of those early teachers. They set the standards of life for
us. With the surety of Christian education the money problem, the
industrial problem, the franchise problem, the morals and manners
problem, the self-respect problem and all the other problems will be
rightly met and equitably "solved."
A great deal is being said as to some particular kind of education
which the Negro should have. Some hold that he should have an in-
FORGING AND IRON WORK.
dustrial education first, that he should do the ordinary things well
before he begins with books. When the first settlers landed on
American soil the first thing they did was to clear the woods as a
matter of necessity, but, at the same time, they built a college. They
have planted New England with colleges. They have scattered them
all through the West and South. They will continue to do this.
They honor labor and they honor learning. I think in this New
England spirit we have our model. Let us labor and learn. We can
do both, and since many Negroes from the southern plantations have
AN ESTIMATE OF NEGRO LIFE AND CHARACTER.
gone to the northern colleges and carried off many prizes the asser¬
tion that he cannot use the higher education has gone to the winds.
We have men among us who magnify industrial education, and
those also who plead for a higher education. The serious aspect
of the discussion between them is that these are often made
antagonistic to each other. This antagonistic spirit has divided
educators, invaded the homes of the givers and even influenced
legislation. What is needed is all kinds of education. The Negro
certainly needs the higher because he needs educated leaders;
needs lawyers who have the education and the manhood to rightly
interpret the laws arid to protect the oppressed; needs doctors, not
CLASS IN Sh-WING.
quacks, but full-fledged men. The Negro needs educated preach¬
ers and educated teachers also. One or two comparatively small col¬
leges can not turn out these leaders for eight or ten millions of people.
The Negro needs the education of the best schools in the country.
Nothing, absolutely nothing should be done to discourage progress
along these lines. This should not be ridiculed as it sometimes has
been.
We certainly need industrial education also. We need to know
how to do things, how to build houses, make brick, to work in metals,
to make all sorts of furniture, to do any kind of planning, to put up
AN ESTIMATE OF NEGRO LIFE AND CHARACTER.
every kind of machinery; and we should know how to make that
machinery, We need to know how to do anything any one else does, and
to do it well. The marts are full of ordinary men. The colleges
should train leaders and exceptional men. To be a leader in any
kind of industrial work one must be a draftsman. To be a first-class
draftsman one must know how to draw lines and make finer distinc¬
tions and calculations than those made in arithmetic. This requires
a knowledge of higher mathematics and often a knowledge of an¬
other language. These two branches that are absolutely necessary
even for a very first-class mechanic are a part of what constitutes a
higher education in most of our colleges. If one is to be an educated
agriculturist he will be lost without chemistry, and here again he
must have mathematics. The education to make one a first-class
MANUAL TRAINING SHOP.
chemist in the line of agriculture will class him in the best colleges.
My contention is this, if we are to be educated in any line we should
seek the best there is in that particular line, not because we are Ne¬
groes but because we are men.
American conditions have made the Negro in America what he is. He
is here, by no choice of his own, but he is a native, to live and to work
out his destiny on American soil. His life must co-ordinate with
that of the community. His moral and mental instruction must be
along the same lines. It is against reason and against the teachings
of history to suppose that all the Negroes are to be only caterers,
and that forever. They will accept no teaching and no theory of life
that will separate them from the rest of men and decree them as a
class to a life of drudgery. They have the common rights of man
AN ESTIMATE OF NEGRO LIFE AND CHARACTER.
which all good people will finally acknowledge, and it is right that
the Negro should stand for these rights. If, e. g., the college has
made my white brother what he is, it will make my black brother
what he should be. If the various technical schools of the country
will give the hand of my white brother dexterity they will do the
same for his black brother. I think it incompatible with God's
thought of the brotherhood of man that there should be a differen¬
tiation in the occupations based oil color. No, give each an equal
chance, whether in school or out, in the work of life. Let us aspire
for the best that can be secured. If the Negro boy is a real student
and wants to go to college encourage him to get ready, help him on
and send him on. If he has mechanical skill and the mind to master
the intricacies of mechanics, encourage him, help him on and send
him to the best technical school you can, for the race needs leaders in
every kind of work. The higher the education of every kind, and
the better the training, the better will be the leadership.