Rev. M. W. Thornton, B. D.
The White Negro
oh
A SERIES OK LECTURES
on the
RACE PROBLEM.
by
Rev. M. W. Thornton, B. D.,
Author, Lecturer, Orator, Minister, Composer of
Poetic Gems, Eec.
COPYRIGHTED, 1894,
BY REV. M. W. THORNTON, B. D.
BURLINGTON, IOWA:
CONRAD LUTZ PRINTING AND PUBLISHING CO.
1804.
To the memory of my Loving Parents, tuo
Brothers and two Sisters, this volume is affection¬
ately inscribed, by
THE AUTHOR.
CONTENTS.
I. The White Negro.
II. Is Barbarous Africa the Original Home of the
Negro ?
III. Are the Intellectual Faculties of the Negro
Essentially Inferior to those of the White ?
IY. Will the Negro Become Amalgamated with the
White?
V. A Demagogue's.Sentiment.
VI. Negro Justice in Blood.
VII. A Freeman, and Yet a Slave.
VIII. Position of the Press and Pulpit Towards the
Negro.
IX. Progress of the Negro.
X. An Honest Plea for the Negro.
PREFACE.
In sending forth this little volume of essays it is with
a faith that it will prove a blessing to many, because of the
truths which it proclaims in behalf of a wronged race. I do
not solicit or expect any human commendation, but hope
the following collection of facts may be accepted in behalf
of the Afro-American citizen.
To many sources does the writer feel himself under the
greatest obligation, for references received.
Convinced of my duty to present the truth in this little
volume, regardless of partisan issues, I have selected facts
from all sources possible, that justice, and nothing but
justice, shall be given.
Hence, in pursuing the following remarks, I pray and
trust you may read from an unprejudiced stand point, and
that your sentiment, with that of others, may ring out in the
chorus of "An Honest Plea for the White Negro."
BIOGRAPHY.
The author of this sketch, M. W. Thornton, known as the
boy orator and preacher, is a son of Joseph and Mirah Thorn¬
ton, both having been slaves.
He was born Feb. 3, 1873, in the city of Mt. Pleasant, Iowa.
His minor life, until he arrived at the age of fifteen years, was
spent in school, when, by the removal of his parents to Des
Moines, Iowa, he -was also compelled to remove just in the
prime of his school days, at which time he had entered high
schoo 1.
By this move he was deprived of completing a high school
course; yet with the ambition of a statesman, and the often
expressed desire of becoming educated and a true leader of his
people, the position to labor to which he was forced for some
time was his making; at the end of which time, with renewed
zeal and energy, and by the providence of God, the position
was opened for him at a commercial school, where for six
months he had taken the Amanuensis course, then being but
sixteen years old. With matured ideas for a boy of this age,
and being a member of the A. M. E. Church for eleven years,
being converted when but eight years of age, the impressions
of his early Christian days, with the forebodings of the Gospel
commands, persuaded and led him to enter Drake University
to qualify himself for the ministry. June 16, 1S92, he com¬
pleted the theological course, then only nineteen years old.
From the fifteenth to the eighteenth year of his life, is a
period of marked interest, and as he trusts, is a prophecy of
better days in the future. When but sixteen years of age, he
was met in a debate on the race problem, bv an opponent who
was Democratic in principle, and who fought bravely for his
biased and prejudiced opinions, but at last was defeated.
On September 30, 1890, he delivered an oration in behalf
of Home and Foreign Missions, at an assembly of the A. M.
E. Missionary Society, which occupied thirtv minutes, and
BIOGRAPHY.
greatly distinguished him as an orator in the minds of those
who heard him.
On May 14, 1891, he was sent as a delegate to represent
St. Paul A. M. E. Sunday School at the annual convention,
held at Ottumwa, Iowa, and received first place on thought
and composition, as is recorded in the minutes.
On November 10, 1891, while in attendance at a political
meeting, he was called upon to make an opening speech for
the occasion. Being unprepared, and having never made a
political speech before, he made the attempt at all hazards, and
the following is the comments of one of the leading papers of
the city:
"The first speaker introduced was Mr. M. W. Thornton, a
bright looking young man, who spoke on the future of his race
in America. He advocated close organization, union of effort
and the selection of competent leaders as the method by which
the race could reach the place of influence to which it is right¬
fully entitled. Mr. Thornton, although a young man and a
political speaker of little experience, left a pleasing impression
with the audience. His manner was modest, his use of lan¬
guage was good, and his arguments clear and sound."
On December 29, 1892, he took the honor of being the
champion Afro-American orator in the state of Iowa, being
awarded a gold medal, and contesting with opponents from
five to seven years older in age and experience, he being but
eighteen years old at the time.
On January 1, 1892, he was elected Superintendent of St.
Paul A. M. E. Sunday School, being a candidate against ex-
Superintendents .and men of wide influence. His inaugural
address for the occasion was of such a character that his great¬
est opponents called for a copy of the same to be published.
Mr. Thornton is a promising young man in the ministry,
and has held some of the largest churches among his people.
As a gospel speaker he is quite powerful and touching, and
always commands a ready hearing from those who once hear
him.
And last, but not least, when he began the composition of
this little volume which you now read, he was but eighteen
years old.
C. C. CURLESS, A. M.
The White Negro.
I.
IS A title seldom applied, and the only published
effort known of to the author for proving the
^ Negroes relation to this term.
That this description is a right one, or that the
writers idea of the subject be understood, we would
therefore invite you to a farther consideration of the
question under discussion.
The idea that I would wish to convey of this sub¬
ject, may not be that which the reader thus far, and at
the first sight will glean; but after tracing the author's
line of argument very carefully I am in hopes that you
may arrive at the same conclusion as I have.
All races are not white, and neither is the Negro
"the only dark race. Color is only skin deep at the
best, and is no manifestation of inward principles.
Virtue is the symbol of purity, and is likened not unto
colors, but the whole human race. White is also a
term of purity, and where ever such like purities exist,
in reality they are as white as the fleecy flakes of the
falling snow or the downy breast of the harmless dove.
10
THE WHITE NEGRO.
The idea then that to be pure one must be white,
is only a mistaken idea based upon a missinformed
judgment. The true patriots of purity are just as
numerous in the ranks of one race, according to their
numbers and opportunities, as there are in the one
race alone who is possessed with the supposed white
skin and their superior advantages.
I say supposed white, because in reality there is
no race that can be truthfully called white, and if I am
to be challenged upon this assertion, I affirm that it
must first be proven to me that there is such a human
being that is as white as the brightest paper or the
flakes of snow and secondly, is the brightest race of
people the whitest object known to man?
Now when these questions have been properly
aired I am satisfied that you with myself will say the
race of people who say, they are white, are either mis¬
taken or the linguists and artists are wrong in their
understanding of this term.
Yet, which ever way you would have it, the truth
is, that any people may become as white as the snow
or fair as the sun if they will only apply themselves to
the means. Now with all fairness, I ask you to show
me any race that is more pure, or whiter than the
scorned Negro, because of his color. There is none I
can authoritively say. Our numbers posessed with
corrupt principles are many it is true; but where oh I
THE WHITE NEGRO.
11
where is his brother man ? lieing in the same road of
corruption is the faint, but truthful reply.
The martyr for his country, the statesman for the
people, or the saint for his religion, may be found
among the supposed white in the persons of Abraham
Lincoln, Summer or Wyckliff.
But, we too can proudly hold up before your gaze
representatives black in color, yet, white at heart, as
Crispus Attucks, Fred. Douglass and Bishop Allen.
Show me the women of virtue on the one side and
I will produce you the women of purity on the other.
Oh no! Mr. Prejudice, beauty alone does not lie in
the skins of the white races; for when it comes to color
nothing is so beautiful as the coal black hotentot of
Africa with his straight hair and flattened features or
anything more charming to the eye than the loving
Creoles of Florida, or the bewiching colored people of
America.
Of the latter I can say that their charms of beauty
are far surpassing to many of the others, and when
we recall a few cases in which their beauty has played
a conspicuous part, you with many others will then
verify this as a fact.
But a few months ago, to my surprise, and yet it
should not have been such to me, I read in one of our
leading papers of a young Miss from one of the leading
families in St. Paul, Minn., who as the result of her
12
THE WHITE NEGRO.
choice for life voluntarily eloped with her father's ele¬
vator man. Here was a young lady whose future in
her own color bid fair, whose father was rich in money,
houses and land, and whose hand would have been
readily accepted by any number of her color, yet amid
&11 this she refused, and accepted in their places, not
wealth nor Caucasian, but the object of her love, which
was all centered in her father's poor, but beautiful
Negro.
Thus while we find that beauty is not found in the
white race alone, I can say truthfully that it is found
.wherever purity may reign.
Is it not a fact, that all objects of adoration are
not beautiful? yet such objects maybe ever so white
or pure. One person admires another regardless of
color and calls them white or pure; another admires
another race and they are called loveable sometimes,
while in looks they are every thing but that, and if you
know not the reason of this I can tell you, it is because
hidden in their heart and beaming eyes, and touching
in every word they utter there is purity, there is the
whiteness, there is the hidden beauty though hid by its
rougher covering of wasting humanity.
Its a new addage to some of you, but it will ever
hold true, "that the whitest person or thing on earth
is the ones that has purity of the soul."
That a special races condition should be presented
THE WHITE NEGRO.
IB
under the title of "The White Negro," is the farther
object of this book, and under the idea that white is
the true significance of purity I present you for further
consideration " The White Negro," as will be discussed
under the following heads in ten chapters:
I—The White Negro.
II—Is barbarous Africa the original home of the
Negro?
III—Are the intellectual faculties of the Negro
essentially inferior to those of the White?
IV—Will the Negro become amalgamated with,
the White?
V—Demagogue's sentiment.
VI—Negro justice in blood.
VII—A Freeman, and yet a slave.
VIII—Position of the Press and Pulpit toward
the Negro.
IX—Progress of the Negro.
X—An honest plea for the Negro.
Barbarous Africa not the Original Home of the
Negro; hut he is the descendant of
Civilization and Intelligence.
II.
J|p|GYPT is a country which is remarkable by charac-
f|l/| teristics entirely peculiar; rich in the wonders of
^ nature and art, and the mother county of knowl¬
edge and civilization in the western world.
The population and civilization of Egypt are almost
as ancient as the Deluge. When Abraham journeyed
to this land, he found there already a well regulated
state and a luxurious court. Lower Egypt, which is
younger in its existence than the valley of the Nile, was
thickly populated, which could only come about by the
works of centuries, the mass of this population being
the descendants of Ham, as Herodotus' description of
their corporeal structure proves, corresponds with that
of the Negro.
That the sons and daughters of Africa were barbar¬
ians from the beginning of time, is a mistake. They
were not such, or all history is false in what it records
of the human race. Speculation as to the correctness
THE WHITE NEGRO.
]5
of the biblical version of the confusion of tongues and
the separation of races, in the earliest ages of which we
have any published account, would be in vain. That
the Negro race inhabited the continent of Africa is a
question beyond dispute, but that they have always
been ignorant, barbarous and brutal is not sustained by
any competent authority extant.
Whatever may have been the blood of Cleopatra,
whose arts led captive Mark Antony and defied the
authority of the Caesars, it cannot be questioned that
she followed in the foot-steps of the ancient Africa
princess of Egypt. Although the black races of North¬
ern Africa were driven across the desert and despoiled
of their possessions, so did the power of the White race
decline in Southern Europe; and the whole world was
involved in darkness for many generations.
The Negro lost his power in Egypt from civil strife,
fomented and encouraged by the grasping avarice of
foreign powers; and yet, through this defeat, in their
retreat they carried with them a knowledge ofmechanical
arts and processes, which have gradually been lost as
the cloud of ignorance and superstition settled over the
people. They built cities the ruins of which are yet to
be found; they had great and elaborate works of art,
and were successful as agriculturists. There are yet to
be found evidences of ancient religious training, show¬
ing that the races sprang from a parentage which
believed in a Supreme Being.
16
the white negro.
But as contact with the warld was forgotten,
barbarism became the role; and in the place of an
abode of learning and usefal arts, the " Dark Continent"
has supplied the world with the most lamentable
examples of human misery and the most hideous
instances of crime. As a strong community preyed
upon a weak, and men and women were constantly
made captives in war, even the savage heart became
sated with rapine and butchery, and their reduction of
captives to a condition of slavery followed just as
naturally as the darkness of night follows the light of
day.
Civilization has reigned in barbarous Africa, though
it is silenced to-day, for in the fourteenth century, when
Vasco de Gama made a vo}*age resulting in the dis¬
covery of Natal, Mozambique and a number of small
islands on the coast of Africa, he found a people who
enjoyed a high state of commercial advancement, and
very many of the evidences of civilization which had
come to them from the reign of Cleopatra and the time
wherein the Caesars ruled Egypt. With their banish¬
ment they had not degenerated into a savage state, but
had maintained a fair degree of the eminent civilization
which pervaded Northern Africa in the palmy days of
the splendor and refinement of their forefathers.
With the discoveries made by different nations
and especially those of the British, there has been no
THE WHITE NEGRO.
17
fact brought to light which will gainsay the theory that
the Negro races of Africa, however barbarized or unlet¬
tered, have been participants in civilized condition of
society at some distant era.
Those tribes which have been most oppressed, and
made the subjects of incursions by more powerful hands
in the interests of slave traders, have sunk deepest in
degradation. Those that have been able to maintain a
well regulated system of defense, and to keep at bay
predatory incursionists, present to the strangers who
have visited them the evidences of natural superiority
and the unmistakable indications of having known a
better day.
It would be manifestly unjust to the Negro people
of America for this discussion of what Africa has been
in the past to be closed without calling attention to a
criticism which has been often indulged, even by men
holding high places in the Government. The objection
has been raised against the Negro (as a distinctive feature
of the human race), that his subjugation and reduction to
a condition of slavery constituted an unanswerable
argument against his capacity for maintaing a high
standard of excellence after having arrived at such an
eminence.
Surely this view has not been well taken, and facts
certainly will not support it; because Africa has been
the seat of learning, and has been peopled by a race
18
THE WHITE NEGRO.
who builded cities and towns, and monuments of great¬
ness, and after the lapse of ages her population became
dispersed, her knowledge of learning destroyed and the
genius of her great inventors brought to naught, it can
not be said that other people of various races have not
suffered the same degeneration and humiliation.
The researches which have been made upon
American soil teach the unmistakable lesson that in
this land there once existed a nation, or nations, very
highly cultured. The buried cities which have been
brought to light tell the story of lost greatness in terms
that cannot be misunderstood, which the researches of
the past and present will clearly show when investi¬
gated.
Therefore, this line of thought and deduction has
been pursued by the writer with a view of convincing
doubtful minds who may take time to peruse this little
volume that the Negro is capable of the highest degree
of civilization, and that the dusky people of African
abstraction can maintain a place with honor alongside
of the most famous nations of the globe, as they have
done.
All that is required to prove the force and truth of
such a theory is to give the Negro a fair opportunity in
life with those men that reign in power.
Are the Intellectual Faculties of the Negro
Essentially Inferior to those
of the Whites ?
III.
AY I ask, are the intellectual faculties of the
different nations inhabiting the globe, inferior
to those of the Caucasian, who in a great many
instances have claimed their superiority? It is a
question of great doubt in the minds of many, and, in
short, it is a very consoling fact to know that this state
of unequal capacities now attributed to the several
classes of mankind was not originally their first state.
If there is an all-wise and just God, who called
into existence the universe and replenished it according
to His desires, and in placing man thereon would
endow him with different degrees of intellect to be dis¬
tributed in each succeeding generation, making some
competent to accomplish all things that they may be
disposed to apply their hands to, and with this pre¬
destined power enabling them to take advantage of
their fellow-men, making such the slaves or vices of
this specially favored race, making their brother oppo-
20
THE WHITE NEGRO.
nents, literally speaking, idiots, and the contestants of
an already superior race; I say if this could he true,
the atonement instituted by the Savior, and intended
for all mankind alike, has most assuredly come short
of its intention, and the doctrine of predestination on
the part of God could from this theory be established.
So, even in accordance with Divine Providence, we
observe that this theory is of little established rank.
That the Anglo-Saxon race have always been
civilized, and the most progressive race on the globe,
and this is to be determined by their present superi¬
ority, is a statement wanting of careful consideration.
All nations, to a greater or less extent, have emerged
from the wanton exiles of barbarism; even the Saxon
himself is not an exception to this rule. For just at the
beginning of the third century we find them emerging
into existence of civilization, and reforming from their
worship of images and Paganism to the true religion,
Christianity.
I hope we may not affirm from this brief history
of the Anglo-Saxons that this was their first existence,
though it is the last from which they have grown to
their present state to-day. Nor must we conclude that
the Negro had no previous existence, but originated
and continues in growth from barbarous Africa, leaning
as a support and guide on the intellectual faculties of
his Caucasian brother, for this is a wide mistake.
THE WHITE NEGRO.
21
Surely this is not so, for just before the reign of Caesars
began at Rome, the seat of civilization and learning
was in upper Africa. There philosophy was taught,
temples were built, monuments were raised and wonders
performed which have excited the admiration of the
world during subsequent times.
Who built the pyramids? What knowledge of
mechanics did they possess by means of which solid
stones of the dimensions of forty thousand, nine
hundred and sixty cubic feet, weighing four million,
five hundred and eighty thousand, five hundred and
twenty pounds, or nearty two thousand three hundred
tons, were elevated one hundred feet above the earth
and placed in a solid wall? Great men did this thing,
and if we may believe the instruction of clearly con¬
vincing circumstances, these men were Negroes.
The Afro-American of the present day is quite like
his Anglo-American brother, for in the veins of the
Negro is running blood which has flown for centuries,
though uncultivated, through the veins of some of the
greatest thinkers of the earth, though his intellectual
faculties have been somewhat confused from want of
cultivation coming down through the mutation of
centuries.
All those who may be acquainted with the Negro
are familiar with his oppressed and exiled state of the
past, and are aware of the fact that he requires special
22
THE WHITE NEGRO.
cultivation of his intellectual faculties, which, I am
glad to say, is in progress, and is being improved by
him every day of his existence. Education and culti¬
vation have made the advancement and progress of all
nations who have ever reached their zenith.
This is the true key to Egyptian, Grecian and
Roman monumental learning, and must be of nations
to come; this has been the example and method pur¬
sued for centuries by the Anglos, and so far as meted
out to the Negroes, considering the untold difficulties of
the past, he is compared to-day almost on an equality
with his Caucasian brother.
It is an absurdity to the intelligence of enlightened
people, to accept the prejudiced theories presented in
these ways against the race, before they have fully given
the condemned the just opportunity to redeem that
which he is rightly inherited to, but of which he has
been deprived.
The great scientists, Melle and Barth, in their dis¬
coveries have made us sufficiently acquainted with this
subject to prove that the most strongly characterized
Negro, the typical Negro, has the power of raising him¬
self to a considerable advanced condition, though it has
been said by others that, without being a savage, he has
remained a barbarian, as was the case with our German
or Gallish ancestors. This view is not at all a just one,
for the Negro has risen much higher. The annals of
THE "WHITE NEGRO.
23
Amed Baba show that in the Middle Ages the basin of
the Niger contained empires very little inferior, in
many respects, to European kingdoms of the same
epoch.
And yet, has not the Negro, during his twenty-five
years of freedom, climbed the ladder of fame side by
side with, and made the same advancement as his
Caucasian brother? Shall the great deeds recorded of
the brilliant lives of such men as Crispus Attucks
Frederic Douglass, Toussaint L'Overture and others of
equal standing, be ignored ? Nay, never, for the lives
of such men are pure, brave, noble, and worthy of the
highest praise, never to be forgotten in the annels of
their race, which should follow in their foot-prints.
You may cite your Tennyson, Webster or Clay, but
remember that each is the standard of only one in the
history of this great world; such men have never been
repeated, even in the fairer race itself. But the Negro,
with the same opportunity and his natural genius, is
bound not only to be recognized as an intellectual equal,
but superiority he is sure to gain.
AVill the Negro Race become Amalgamated
with the White Race!
IV.
JIT IS with timidity, and from an unbiased position,
|| that the author takes up this subject, which has
^ been shunned, apparently, by so many writers.
First, let us accept as an established fact that all
the different classes of mankind inhabiting the earth
are the descendants of one parentage, having the power
to cross and intermix; therefore being of the same
species. This course of intermixture has been in pro¬
gress ever since the beginning of time, and seems to be
one of the traits of nature; in fact, has not this been
the custom of all ancient nations, especially in the case
of the Israelites while in the land of Canaan, as well as
Rome, Greece and Pompeii ? Wherever the different
classes or races have been permitted to commingle,
amalgamation of the weaker one into the superior has
always been the result. For illustration let us take
the different races of America to-day, and compare its
present inhabitants with those of about two centuries
ago, who were then, aside from the Indians, wholly of
THE WHITE NEGRO.
25
European descent. Do we find that to be the case at the
present time? No, far different. Other nationalities
have out grown these, and they have recrossed until it
is impossible to find a descendant of the pure English
blood of but one century ago.
And is not this also true in the case of the. Negro?
Though, as a whole, he has never in one instance that
is recorded of him, attempted to mix his race with the
Caucasian or any other. Yet we must submit and bear
the blame. Let us go back to the time of the first land¬
ing of the Negro as a slave, bound in chains, and im¬
ported to this country; what were then his character¬
istics? Simply a coal black and burly Negro, the
original species of his brother in Africa. Here he was
placed in a pen by himself, absolutely surrounded by
a white populace; to depend for his wants upon the
mercy of his oppressors, and to suffer at their cruel
hands. By force and by advantage taken of him by
his Anglo-American brother, he was stolen from the
home of his birth and joy, placed in a land of fair skins,
in a heathenish and degrading state, and deprived of all
his rights without his voice or consent. And in this
self-damnable state, a curse before God and man, for
over two centuries have seduction, rape and adultery,
by force and without his consent, been practiced upon
the Negro race in this civilized, enlightened and pro¬
gressive America.
26
THE WHITE NEGRO.
Hence, year by year, with this state of affairs,
there has been bleached out a lighter and fairer octo¬
roon American. Now such could not come about from
the Black race alone. Then where do these mixed
breeds all the way from Negro to the White originate?
I leave this momentous question to be answered by my
readers, drawing your conclusions from the preceding
remarks.
In the year 1861, California, observing this state of
things, not only with the Negro, but with other races
as well, became alarmed and passed a bill in their
Legislature declaring that any white person convicted
of having cohabited with or married a Negro, Chinese,
or Indian had forfeited all his rights and become subject
to all the Constitutional incapacities imposed upon
men of color. The local press announced very plainly
that the object of this measure was the prevention of
the fusion and amalgamation of the races.
Now, it is a fact that there are not over a dozen
original Africans, if that many, in the United States
to-day. Then what has become of about three hundred
and thirty thousands of the Blacks who were imported
to this country in the last two hundred years? If there
are, according to statistics, over eight millions in the
United States to-day, it well accounts for the contrast
of color in comparison with their great growth.
Again let me present to your notice the fact that if
three hundred and thirty thousand were originally
THE WHITE NEGRO.
27
brought to this country, and there are at the presen
time over eight million Negroes here, two-thirds of these
being of mixed blood, the progress of growth has been
very rapid. This being the case, what will prevent
them, in course of time, from complete amalgamation,
especially as there is no more African immigration to
this country?
The White race has enslaved the Negro and taken
him with him to all parts of the globe, and where the
local races have consented to intermix with the enslaved
race, in every case they have produced races of the
two-third species. Iri America the mulatto is born
beside the octoroon, and in South America where
Blacks, Whites and natives have long been in contact
and have intermingled more freely, there are whole
states in which half breeds are in the majority, and
where it is extremely difficult to find a native of pure
blood.
Have subterfuges or precautions been necessary to
form these unions to insure the fertility and protection
of the .offspring? Quite the contrary. The tyranny of
the Whites and the crimes of slavery afford sufficient
proof that in this case fertility was not dependent upon
circumstances, but simply upon the physical con¬
nection between all men, from the lowest of the Negroes
to the first of the Whites. Mr. Hombron, the great
scientist, says, from his observation during four years
28
THE WHITE NEGRO.
spent in Peru, Brazil and Chili, that unions of Whites
with native American women have given the highest
average of births, next come the Negro and Negress,
and thirdly, the Negro and the native American woman.
Unions between native Americans give the lowest
average.
Hence, what is there to prevent, in course of time,
the bleaching of our race into another, when the two
are penned together, without the importation of any of
the weaker race ? Nothing whatever.
The Caucasian race have been the instigators of
this as well as other monstrosities of which they have
been guilty ; and according to the provisions laid down
by a free and democratic republic, and sustained by
the Constitution, and as God, who knows all things, has
created all men alike, in his own image, the conclusion
is that any human being, be he Negro or Caucasian.
Italian or German, Swede or Indian, whenever he has
formed mixed breeds, this class forming a race by
themselves, have the right, according to an honest
judgement, to amalgamate with any race, regardless of
color, state or position. This question is rapidly
approaching a crisis in the United States at the present
time. So long as the Negro retains his colors, and is
•distinguished by it, there will always be strife between
him and his Caucasian brother. Hence, the sooner
the race becomes one, the sooner will the race problem
be solved.
A DEMAGOGUE'S SENTIMENT.
V.
NE OF the most important articles which I have
recently read, and which is worthy the careful
consideration of not only the black man against
whom it is written, but of every human soul possessing
the first principles of benevolence, is as follows:
Atlanta Constitution, (Dem.) April 25, 1892,
"The President's action in making himself ex-
officio chairman of a New York Negro committee en¬
gaged in the compilation of campaign material intended
to array Northern public opinion against the South, is
about the meanest thing that a Republican partisan
has ever been guilty of, as the Chicago Times puts it."
"The Southern outrage factory has been stock:
campaign material for the Republican party ever since
the period of reconstruction, but never has there been
so cool-blooded a proposition as that which the Presi¬
dent makes to the Negroes. It is, in substance, that
they shall become, without expense to him, the com¬
pilers of campaign material, which shall fire the
Northern heart at the proper time in the Presidential
30
THE WHITE NEGRO.
canvass. It is a cool-blooded outrage perpetrated by a
small politician to serve his purely selfish aims. The
President of the American people" (the Negro, I sup¬
pose, is not included?) "deliberately promises a party
of Negro politicians that when they furnish him with
their one-sided story of alleged1' (not actual) ''South¬
ern outrages upon their race, he will insist in creating
a public sentiment that will make such outrages inr
possible." (Would that be more than right?)
" There has never been anything like this in our
history before." (That is, since the days of the rebel¬
lion.) " When General Grant was President, he heard
of an alleged outrage upon the Blacks in Louisiana.
The Republican leaders raised a howl, and asked him
what he was going to do about it." (Undoubtedly you
mean by this that the Republicans are the Negroe's
friends, and you, the Democrats, are his oppressor.) "He
looked into the matter, and talked with some of his
old soldiers, truthful, many fellows, and satisfied him¬
self that the Whites were clearly justified. That was
enough for him, and he refused to do anything. More¬
over, he expressed his admiring approval of the pluck
of the Louisianans, and said that they had done just
exactly right." (Now, if he did sanction this unlawful
act of mob law, my opinion is that his was a more per¬
verted mind than the unblemished and spotless one of
President Benjamin Harrison, whom you try to criti¬
cise and advise.)
THE WHITE NEGRO.
31
" Gen'l Grant understood the situation, and he was
very human, with no cold and flabby nonsence about
him. A brave and true man, though a stalwart Repub¬
lican, ought to be able to sympathize with his fellow
countryman in the South, when they suffer such irre¬
parable and horrible wrongs at the hands of the black
brutes that they are almost nameless and cannot be
narrated in print. The average Southerner is a good
citizen," (I wonder where they got their ideal) " but
when he returns to his plantation or village home, after
a day's work, to find that his wife or little girl has
fallen a victim to some prowling Negro outlaw, noth¬
ing but swift and terrible justice will satisfy him. His
neighbors share his feeling, and make his cause their
own."
"Human nature, Mr. President, cannot stand
everything; the husbands, fathers and brothers of the
South, sir, have the same affection for their loved ones
that you and your Republican friends of the North feel
toward the female members of your families. They
are satisfied—they know—that you would do just what
they do, if you were similarly situated; some crimes
must be punished, or the result will be anarchy. The
punishment must be swift and certain; the law's delay,
the chances of defective indictments, escape from jail,
the absence or death of an important witness, must
not be risked."
32
THE WHITE NEGRO.
" When the perpetrator of the foulest and most
demonical of all crimes is captured and identified, we
pity the mistaken judgment that would interfere with
the noble private vengence which serves the public,
serves virtue, and serves justice better than any other
human agency could. Think this over, Mr. President,
and embrace the first opportunity of saying to your
Negro followers: ' When you cease to be midnight
assassins and ravishers you will have no more outrages
to complain of. If you are determined to maintain a
secret crusade of murder against your white neighbors,
your benefactors who give you work,'" (and thereby
encourage the Southern white man's laziness) " and
who are taxed for your education and support;" (for¬
getting that the Negro pays over one hundred and
sixty-five million dollars taxes on his real estate, to say
nothing of public schools and other public buildings,)
u if you despoil their homes, then you will be left to
your fate, and all races, all parties and all good men
will applaud the terrible punishment visited upon you
for your revolting crimes."
" When your heart prompts you to say that, you
will, indeed, be a man, and a leader of men.'''
Quite graphically, indeed, is the Negro repre¬
sented by his white assailants of the South, and if the
people of this great commonwealth were ignorant of the
true state of affairs in the Southern districts, such ap-
THE WHITE NEGRO.
33
peals might receive a place of sympathy in the heart or
every law abiding citizen. It is not bad enough for
such outrages as this vituperative scratcher speaks of to
be committed without any interference, but these ideas
must be forced upon the minds of every American
citizen who has raised his right arm under the oath,
for protection of equal rights to all men alike, as pre¬
scribed in the Constitution to protect, which the life-
blood of so many was spilt.
The inconsistent writer of the Atlanta Constitution
has the audacity to quote the actions of Gen'l Grant,
when he was President, by saying that when he heard
of an alleged outrage upon the Blacks of Louisiana
he gave the matter an investigation, and finding the
Whites clearly justified, he refused to do anything ;
moreover he expressed his admiring approval of the
pluck of the Louisianians, and said they had done-
exactly right. Other people remember the same oc¬
curences, and know it to be untrue.
How easy it is to write a few lies behind a dead
man's back, for you that made this assertion well know
that you had not the manhood to stand up before the
valor of that grand old veteran, Ulysses S. Grant, and
even breathe such assertions, much less quote them.
Yet, suppose we admit this to be true, the Negro well
remembers that this same Grant did give them pro¬
tection in the outlawing South by establishing standing
armies in their behalf.
34
THE WHITE NEGRO.
I wonder what idea he is trying to convey when
he is so egotistic as to say that the average Southerner
is a good citizen. If a man openly rebels against the
true principles of his government; if he will enslave his
brother and treat him inhumanly; if he places no value
upon human life; if he has the audacity to veto the
support for the protectors and saviors of this united
country, can you, in the broadest sense of the term, call
such a man an average good citizen? At least, we
know one thing, that this is only the Southerner's
biased view of the ideal citizen.
Yes, it is a horrible thing for a white woman or
little girl to be outraged by a Negro. But will such
sympathizers as this writer seeks'please r< fleet back to
days of bondage and darkness, when the mothers and
daughters of African extraction, helpless in the clutches
'of those unmerciful and brutal curs of the South, were
robbed of their virtue? Follow me to our public
schools, and I assure you that we will find Negroes
there—at least so classed—from the various shades of
black to shades so nearly white that the distinction is
unobservable; pray, what may be the true cauese of all
this ? It certainly could not have come about by the
Negroes alone; and hence we can but force our ungodly
masters to acknowledge^ their responsibility in the
matter.
THE "WHITE NIGKO.
35
Now, when the same state of affairs is presented
to you, you say: " Nothing but swift and terrible venge¬
ance will satisfy you." Human nature, Mr. President,
cannot stand everything. The husbands, fathers and
brothers have the same affection for their loved ones
that you and your republican friends of the North feel
toward the female members of your families.
This is true, and I assure you.all that the Negroes,
as a whole, sympathize with you ; but can you not
apply this same principle back about thirty years ago,
when we were imposed upon in the same manner, and
yet worse? How many mothers, daughters, fathers, sons
and brothers were snatched from the hearts of their
beloved, and sold into regions unknown ? And many
of these poor souls have never met or been united
around their family hearths since.
Now, if your human nature cannot stand so much,
and some crimes must be unlawfully punished; if this
must be swift and certain, as the law's delay, the
chances of defective indictments, escapes from jail, and
the absence or death of an important witness must not
be risked ; and as you pity the mistaken judgment that
would interfere with the noble private vengeance which
serves the public, serves virtue and serves justice better
than any other human agency could, I can only proph¬
esy, in accordance with the statements made by the
veteran father of our race, Hon. Frederic Douglass,
30
THE "WHITE NEGRO.
that a few more years of this continued oppression
which human nature cannot endure, will result in turn¬
ing out Negro anarchists and bomb throwers, which
will be another annoyance for your weak and frail
natures to endure. Your exhortation to the President
may be warrantable; I have no refutation to offer;
neither do I offer any apology for these wrongs com¬
mitted by the Negroes; whose tendencies have been
justly inherited, for every Negro believes in the law of
heredity; but the sooner the Chief Executive acts in
regard to the race problem, especially in the South, the
better.
And as one identified with this brutal race, I expect
ever to stand for their rights, and, if necessary, die for
them, as thousands of others are willing, yea, anxious
to lay down their lives for the same cause. And
although the would-be-Senator of Colorado, named
Teller, says in regard to the Lodge Bill, that a more
infamous bill never passed the thresholds of the Senate,,
he must not forget that some one—even himself, if he
were able to do so—may be glad to pass a bill more
just and radical than the infamous Force Bill,—so-
called—before another National Congress.
NEGRO JUSTICE IN BLOOD.
VI.
F THE majority must rule, is there any justice for
f the minority in the United States? This, of course
^ depends largely from the scource in which the latter
is found. Every honest American will admit that there
is a partisan strife between the two original inhabitants
of this country, which has existed ever since the days
of slavery, and the Negro was granted freedom, not
equal rights, and it now appears to the minds of many
that such strife the government has encouraged by its
laxness to act on either side.
The Constitution declares that all men are born
equal, endowed with certain inalienable rights. Hence,
this is the standard by which all men alike should sub¬
mit, but do not, because there has never been an effort
put forth to demand the same. Therefore, if this be a
wrong standard under which man must submit without
justice, it is high time that this government should
ratify the same in such a manner as to give equal pro¬
tection to her subjects according to what the majority
say, and not for the sympathies, feelings or fears of the
minority.
38
THE WHITE NEGRO.
In giving the Negro his freedom he was not given
an existence so long as he is di-empowered with the
voice to protect that freedom. This he does not receive
and the fault lies not on his part, for where he is largely
in the majority and should have an active voice, here
it is that his greatest oppression in the form of lawless¬
ness, outrages and many other crimes come; wherein if
he was once given that which this government has prom¬
ised him, freedom he then would have. I now in
plain emphasis speak of the South. Oh, but, says one,
such a reform is too soon, and never will be accepted
by the people of the South. Bosh! Both of these
theories, as well as many others presented, to my mind
are quite erroneous. Must a wrong of any kind be
upheld, because biased hearted and prejudiced people
will not see the truth, and obey the laws made by the
majority under which they live? Was not the defeat
of the late rebellion sufficient to impress their wrongs,
with also the advancement of the Nineteenth Century
announcing the same with all the firmness as did the
colonists of the revolution in 1776? The constitution
says freedom and protection for all her subjects. Now
if this they do not obtain, the fault yet lies with a
cowardly government for failing to demand by force, if
110 other way, that which it has recorded in black and
white upon her statutes. Pray do not make such
writings a curse to American institutions. How easy
THE WHITE NEGRO.
39
it is to siir the pity of every human heart to realize the
condition of the starving Russians, and many other
human sympathies abroad, of which I condemn none,
but for the many outrages committed in your doors of
a more horrible character, you fail to raise your voice
in the proper way for to check them. Within four
years over 2,000 Negroes have been lynched and riddled
with the contents of Winchester rifles, and not a word
on the part of the government for the violation of her
statutes or sorrow for these deeds has ever been expressed.
Quite a wholesale murder indeed, and all American
subjects, too, living under the protection of the red,
white and blue, and which I fear has more meaning
than merely the color designates. Here are three cases
in particular of recent date, and within three months
in which I wish to present to the minds of those Ameri¬
cans who say they believe in justice, a freedom loving
people, and whose hearts appear to be so overflown
with sympathies that they have to express them uni¬
versally abroad. In Omaha, Neb., but two months ago,
a burly Negro, so stated, who was accused of commit¬
ting rape on a girl, was taken from a county jail and
hung dead, to a lamp post in the prominent part of the
city. Again, but a few weeks later, another burly
Negro fell a victim to an outrageous mob in Arkansas,
so charged with only attempting to commit adultery on
a white woman. This Negro's fate is quite different
40
THE "WHITE NEGRO.
from any other on record, for, after strangling him with
a rope, he was fettered hand and foot to a stump, satur¬
ated with petroleum, and then this statute of modesty
and refinement, the victim of his outrage, steps forward
from that hellish crowd, and, striking the flames from
a parlor match, attaches it to two parts of that human
being, though he may have been as guilty as any wretch.
In the face of this I can only ask, where has the modesty
of womankind gone? for she appears to be advancing
beyond the limits of Jesse James, and I can- but pray
that the deeds of that wretched female will haunt her
to the brink of the grave.
On the 8th of March the telegraph reported the
death of three more burly Negros. Dragged from the
county jail of Memphis, Tenn , and through the streets
of that cursed city until the limbs were severed from
their bodies and eyeballs wrenched from their sockets,
they were hanged, and then receiving their usual dose
of Winchester exterminator, wrere left completely
mutilated.
Now here are several facts of importance to be
taken in consideration, first, that the attempt by the
burly Negro (as he is called and is becoming quite a
chestnut) to commit rape; he never accomplished it,
but only attempts, yet for this must meet an unlawful
death. Then, again, when one stops to give these
attempts common sense judgment, it is not very queer
TIIE WHITE NEOJRO.
41
that this monstrous beast of a burly Negro never
accomplishes his deed ; though his victim is but a deli¬
cate and weakly woman all alone with this large beast,
all of which he is made by the press and others. Hence
after all, this may account for why the mob law is
meted out to him, rather than give him the justice of
the civil Courts; for remember there are two sides to all
questions, be they ever so wrong.
Again when men who are vested writh the power
and responsibility to execute the laws of the govern¬
ment, become so currupt and mean as to lead these
mob bands, while others give their consent by non¬
interference, I think it is about time that the wronged,
themselves, shall call a halt to such actions. Now I do
not attempt to say, that every Negro that has unjustly
met his death, was not guilty of the crime for which he
was charged; but, I do say, that if this government is
to be ruled by a system of laws, and these laws are vested
that in the hands of men chosen to execute them,
law should be permitted to meet its cause, or else' do
away with the same, and every man being put under
the law for his own protection, may then die bravely
under his own efforts for defense and the protection of
his alwise creator.
Hence so long as you keep the inferior in some
respects coward down by fear of an unjust law, and
permit others to interpret and execute this law to suit
42
THE WHITE NEORO.
themselves, I can justly say, is the reason that so little
trouble so far from the Negro has been experienced.
May I then ask why it is that the people of the United
States expect the Negro to be so loyal, submissive and
obedient to the laws which the Caucasian makes, and
cannot live up to himself, after the principles of law
and government are bred into the very marrow of their
bones for centuries ?
While the Negro from over 250 years of oppression,
ignorance and barbarism, thus released, must be more
subserviant to these laws than the white man who
makes them, and this I think that all cannot help but
admit. Now is there any justice in this? I say no, for
out of the 8,000,000 Negroes if one violates any law of a
criminal character death is the immediate result. But
for the 53,000,000 white population, with thousands
committing the same crimes every day, yet for him
there is some of their kind of justice. Though the
Negro has always been true to his own master and now
to the government, do you think he is always going to
remain so when those who should give him justice are his
greatest oppressors? No, and the crisis of the past and
present depredations are close at hand, for the Negro
has already concluded that the end, whatever it may
be, can be no worse than his present condition.
In fact, without a proper head to a government, as
well as all other institutions, with the welfare for the
THE "WHITE NEGRO.
43
good of all his subjects at heart, the Negro may never
expect either justice or protection from that source.
It has not been in the past except in but two in¬
stances, our grand emancipator and statesman, Abraham
Lincoln, and General Grant. In the present case this is
clearly seen by the non-expression of the President of
the United States in regard to the wrongs imposed upon
the Negro. Now, my brethren, as the national cam¬
paign is very near at hand, I can safely say that these
evils may be partially remied by electing a chief
executive of this nation who has the welfare of our
race at heart. This issue is of more importance to us
than, any other in the platforms. Then let us keep our
eyes on the man that advocates tnis principle and be
sure that he is the star to lead us, not out of Egypt,
but from the present oppressions and wrongs inflicted
upon us to-day, not only in the sunny South, but in
the rugged North as well.
A FREEMAN, AND YET A SLATE.
VII.
|||!ij|HAT DO I mean by liberty and freedom? Let
me explain. If a men is prevented from going
where he desires by a high mountain or rushing
river or wild beasts, he is not enslaved; but if a man
stands on the opposite shore of a stream and says that
the other shall not cross, that is slavery. And this is
the exact position of the Negro in America to-day. It
is true that by law, 01* rather, by the Constitution, he
has been set free from the outward form of bondage,
and is said to have the equal freedom of all liberated
men.
The former may be true, but I doubt the latter.
Freedom, in reality, means more than a name or some
writing; an assembly may draw up any kind of a docu¬
ment to grant certain privileges, but without the proper
power and enforcement of the same, will justice or the
liberty to exercise the prerogatives granted be enforced
by the oppressor in favor of the one who is deprived of
this freedom ? No, quite the contrary. For instance,
you have delivered the Negro from his bondage in
THE WHITE NEGRO.
45
slavery, investing him with the rights of all men in a
free and protective republic; yet this government does
not protect him in exercising the liberty of this so-called
freedom. To substantiate the above assertion, within
twenty-seven years over three thousand Negro lives have
been unlawfully taken, and the publicly known assassins,
under covering of law abiding citizens, have never been
called into question or punished for such crimes by the
Government, when the means lay in their power, and
the voices of eight millions of the surviving wronged
have constantly petitioned to the benevolent hearts of
that government for protection, but have thus far failed
in all their efforts to obtain it.
Follow me to the rugged South, and what do we
find? As soon as the Mason and Dixon line has been
crossed, the black man, regardless of his rightful posi¬
tion, standing or influence, is forced to humble himself
to the lowest depths possible for a human creature. If
on a journey, he is forced by the laws of this free
government to take a smoking saloon, or some other
apartment arranged for him, leaving the comfortable
coach in which he may have traveled for miles, paying
the same as any other passenger; his wife or daughters,
be they ever so refined, must also make abode with low
white men of all grades and habits, and if it be a
hundred miles they have to journey, it alters not the
case with them, they must put up with this indecency
or not go at all.
46
THE WHITE NEGRO.
Follow me a little further, and what will you see?
Going to a tavern or hotel for a repast, be the Negro's
looks and dress ever so respectable and clean, he is
forced to eat in the kitchen, take his lunch in his hands
and go out doors to eat it, or some other way equally
as bad or worse. But please remember that he is
obliged to pay the same for his accommodations as his
white brother, be he what he may, who will be escorted
to a handsome dining hall, with the ample occommoda-
tions of finely finished parlors, and comfortable rooms in
which to retire. For sleeping accommodations, the
Negro must repose in the streets, or per chance find a
friend of his own color in the community, or be taken
up for a vagabond, compelled to pay a fine, or perhaps,
worked out such fine in jail.
If he seeks conveyance to some distant part of the
city, the street car or cab is hailed; if a white man is
with him the conveyance stops, but only the white man
is admitted; the black man is left to resume his journey
on foot. This act is publicly practiced every day in
the states of Alabama and Kentucky, by laws entered
upon the statute books of those states by the minority,
not the majority, consent of the people.
No wonder that the white rascals of that district
do not wish to give the Negro power where he is in the
majority, for if their own course of actions were once
forced upon them probably they would learn to appre¬
ciate the rights which they steal from others.
THE WHITE NEGRO.
47
If, while en route through the streets of the city,
the Negro meets a white man he is obliged to step off
the walk and give him the full course of action, and if
acquainted must politely tip his hat. If he refuses to
do so he is insulted, and if he resents such treatment
he is arrested, fined and sent to jail, and if his resent¬
ment can be construed as a criminal offense he is
fettered and bound out on some plantation to suffer the
cruel treatment of a cowardly overseer, which is the
same as slavery, and in many instances worse, for the
time of this confinement is much longer than a just law
and an honest judge would permit for such a crime.
Election day arrives, and if he attempts to vote in
accordance with the party of his choice, if the same be
opposed by the majority of his oppressors, (as it always
is), he is either shot at the polls as the result of a riot,
or sought by an armed posse in the lonely hours of the
night, strung up by the neck and riddled with the con¬
tents of Winchester rifles.
The cry from many is that these things all happen
in the South; but the writer thinks this quite a false
statement. Let us examine their condition in the
North; is the appearance of things changed any? Only
in a very few respects. How many hotels, restaurants,
and other resorts open to the public, will give him
accommodation? Go to the Capital city itself, and you
will find such places very scarce and far between.
48
THE WHITE NEGKO.
Having seen these things, you ask breathlessly: " How
can this be? Have not the fourteenth and fifteenth
amendments pronounced equal rights and protection
to all mankind alike, regardless of race, color or past
conditions? "
Oh. yes, the Constitution has so pronounced it, it
is true, but its provisions have been in only a very few
instances enforced. Hence, under the consideration of
the same, and according to the fourteenth and fifteenth
amendments, which state as follows: " No state shall
deprive any person of life, liberty or property, without
due process of law, nor deny any person in its jurisdic¬
tion the equal protection of the laws," if no state accord¬
ing to the federal statutes, has the right to deny protec¬
tion to any person in any jurisdiction, why is it that
during the year of 1880, one hundred and eighteen
Negroes met their death by foul means, without the
interference of the governors of the states where these
outrages were committed, and in the year 1892, up to
the present writing, one hundred and twenty-three
more of these unfortunate Negros have publicly met
their death by mob violence? Yet when the colored
delegates from New York City went to Washington to
memoralize the President regarding the outrages in the
South, the President said in reply, " that the Federal
Government could not interfere with the jurisdiction of
state courts in the punishment of crimes committed
THE WHITE NEGRO.
49
within the limits of a state, and for that reason he had
no power to act."
Then, does not this anul the fourteenth amendment
as previously stated? Can any reasonable, thinking
person see any justice in such a law giving any state
the right to murder two hundred and sixty of her sub¬
jects within twenty-four months, and allowing no inter¬
ference on the part of the Federal Government?
Will you now attempt to refute my argument that
the Negro is "A Freeman, and yet a Slave;" by present¬
ing this last plea against it, that in the days of slavery
Negroes were sold, but now they are not? Pray, what
may be the meaning of this?
Fayette, Mo., March 28.
"A sale under the vagrant act took place in Fayette
this afternoon, when three Negroes were sold on the
block to the highest bidder. One brought twenty-five
dollars, another five dollars, and the third one dollar.
The Negro element is highly indignant, and threaten
to have revenge on the " po white trash," as they term
them. The city officials have resolved to do away with
the lazy Negroes."
This is a fair statement of the situation in the solid
South, where the native white born element are all lazy,
but none of them are sold on the block. This is the
spirit that established slavery, and ought to be a suffi¬
cient warning to all Negroes as to the present feeling
toward them. As I have previously stated, the Negro
50
THE WHITE NEGKO.
has a certain degree of freedom, but not the liberty to
enjoy it. It is true that the southern states were made
to retreat from certain measures about twenty-seven
years ago, but I believe they are not conquered suffi¬
ciently yet, for they hold the power, and use it in
carying out any measure they may so please to do.
This government makes so much noise over a few
lives lost in a foreign country, or over the lives of a few
seals, but has she ever as a whole, called into question
the three thousand and more lives of her own subjects
who have suffered unlawful deaths? Quite the con¬
trary, though I suppose because it was done by their
own hands it is all right. The German, Irish, Swede,
or any other nationality except the Negro and China¬
man, may have all the rights the United States afford;
but why these exceptions ? On the part of the Negro,
it is his color and past condition only, which is now
becoming to mean, '' My once inferiors are my equals,
and will, if given the proper or equal opportunities, be
my superiors." Cross the waters to where our European
brothers live, and this feeling is just the reverse; every
man is recognized by his influence, position or financial
circumstances.
Hence, there is but one principle of true freedom,
which is this :
"True freedom is to share,
All the chains our brothers wear;
And with heart and hand to be
Anxious to make others free."
Position of the Press and Pulpit towards
the Colored Americans.
VIII.
0 THOSE living since the issue of the Emanci¬
pation Proclamation, or whose experience has
been closely associated with the public's senti¬
ment since the year sixty-three, such persons will be
more able to sympathize with the subjects of this
chapter than some others, as it is further developed.
This subject now under consideration shall be dis¬
cussed under two divisions, viz: "The Press,'"' and
u The Pulpit."
Ever since civilization has been known among
men, there has always been some prime motor which
has wielded the greater portion of public sentiment.
In times when writing had not received its birth, signs
and words were forcibly used to bring about the same
results as the writing of this present day.
In this latter age—at about the dawning of the
twentieth century, that period which shall supercede
all other ages of the past in her developments—men
are blessed with the invention of printing; and with
THE WHITE NEGRO.
cultivated minds that are imported from the colleges
of our land every year, filled with sciences, history,
and wit, and freshened with a spirit of eagerness as
they launch out into the fields of life, they are over
riding the multitudes of the ignorant until the station
of honor and influence by them has been gained. And
with the uniting of these two—brain and the art of
printing—they are a mighty power in moulding public
sentiments as well as human destinies.
Without the press the general world would be in
ignorance, as one-half would not know what the other
half was doing, and every happening would be a new
experience to each community; while as things are
now arranged, the thoughts of one people may be
readily communicated to another within the limits of
twenty-four hours.
The Press has also been the agitator as well as the
benefactor of some of the most important questions of
the land, a few of which are independance, war, tariff,
temperance, slavery, and equal rights. The three latter
ones being the most repulsive to public acceptation,
innumerable means and plans have been exhausted on
both sides of these questions, and still the agitation
continues.
Societies have been organized, and their doctrines
have been exponded to a generous public in the most
forcible manner, and still the object for which they
THE WHITE NEGRO.
53
most earnestly seek has not as yet been attained; yet
during this great struggle for right the press, the noiseless
but powerful spokesman of the world has been con¬
stantly at work presenting its phase of the question
regardless of its right or wrong.
And this is the greatest difficulty with the press
that I can find, for like all other human agencies it is not
infallible, and like many other societies who have been
striving to help the cause money has been their greatest
temptation, self honor their highest ambition, and
injustice for those whom they have pretended to help
is their all.
If there really could be found men of but one
principle possessed with benevolent hearts and philan¬
thropic spirits, and these could be induced to take hold
of the workings of the press, then, might all men glory
in the cause which they should espouse, for justice to
all, and malice for none would be given regardless of
circumstances, color, state or condition.
The question now is, what position has the press
taken towards the colored people of America? But
before we can fully answer this question, it will be
necessary for us to understand its classification, and we
find that the press may be classified under three divi¬
sions, viz: Political, which is its self divided into two
branches, viz : Republican and Democratic. The other
main branch of press work is that known as Religious,
54
THE WHITE NEGRO.
and taking their sentiments as a whole, we find they
remain now as they always have in the past, one third
for, and two thirds opposed to the colored races pros¬
perity. Now this has come about from different causes,
part of which may well be attributed to prejudice,
popularity and personal gain. These three may,
authoratively be called the main root of it all, for it is
a well demonstrated fact that men will stoop to do most
anything, be it ever so low or mean, in order that they
may gain that one thing honor, which has been the
mortifyer of many, and obtain that other idol of this
world, money, which has been the destruction of many
Thus the press of this country being arrayed on
either side of this question, one as the Democratic,
Cecessionists, or anti-equal rights men; the other
Republican, Protectionists and equal rights men, have
in but a few exceptions done all they possibly could for
the dethronement of the colored race in the affections
of the American people.
Vituperation and abuse are constantly hurled at
them, and in times when they are oppressed, when law¬
less hangmen by the thousands run loose throughout
the land, making the colored people the prey of their
vengence; yes, when tortures, barbarians, and heathen
are permitted to take human creatures, often innocent
ones, and repeatedly cremate them alive, without mercy
and without law, surpassing by far the inquisition
THE WHITE NEGRO.
55
cruelties, and the dark chamber practices of ancient
days, and the Press that powerful and influetial organ
of public sentiment remains mum and silent; in the
face of all this, I can but say that the press is not doing
justice to the down trodden colored people of America,
and in the spirit of the hopeful my fellow comrades
remember that if this source to which we have to look
for help fail us, there is yet hope. For the good and
gracious God who rules, and created us for some future
purpose is still holding us in reserve for the accomplish¬
ment of that end. And with all these obstacles before
us let us again be consolved in the language of the poet:
" That God moves in a mysterous way
His wonders to perform,
He plants his foot-steps in the sea,
And rides upon the storms."
The proof of these truthful sayings have been so
forcibly illustrated in the past, that I would dare but
say, it is impossible for any one to deny the validity of
the same.
From the gloom of bondage to the birth of freedom,
from the threshold of freedom to almost the plains of
equality have we come. Hence the thought may arise
from this perplexing situtation, and ask: What is it
that is performing this silent development? We turn
to observe our earthy benefactors, and find that the leven
of progression comes not from this source; but again
recalling those sublime thoughts of the poet:
56
THE WHITE NEGRO.
" God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform,
He plants his foot-steps in the sea.
And rides upon the storms."
We cannot help but attribute this all to God, and
if he has performed such wonders for us in the past,
with patient and determined hope let me say, he will
do much more for us in the near future. Thus we find
the press numerically could help and should help the
colored race out of their present difficulties; but yet
they have not and apparently will not help us.
Hence, go on unsympathizing editors
With the senseless quill in your hands;
Cry down, or leave undone by silence
That at which human hearts do rend.
And in the end if your conscience
Now fails to make amends,
Just remember that the righteous
Bar of God cannot help but heap
Coals of eternal burning
Upon your wearied heads.
—(Original by Author.)
We now direct our attention to the second division
of this chapter which shall be devoted to the pulpit and
its attitude towards the Colored American. And here
I am compelled to pause once more, for the proper con¬
sideration of this subject before pronouncing my con¬
demnation or commendation.
You have carefully followed my course of logic in
the discussion of the press, and you have now stored
away in your minds the gist of it all, and while I feel
THE WHITE NEGRO.
57
the full scope of the power that can be wielded by the
press, I too can more fully realize the power of the
pulpit when wielded in behalf of the down trodden and
fallen children of God.
To me there is all the difference in the world
between the press and the pulpit, for their basis of
operation are built upon different grounds. The one
is of a human call, the other a Godly call. The one a
bias mission, the other the Nazarene mission.
With the press self says: Go ye therefor into all
nations baptizing them in your wit for money and
honor, but with the pulpit God says: "Go ye therefore
and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."
And again the bible says: " God has made of one blood
all nations that dwell upon the face of the earth," also,
uGo ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to
every creature." From these passages of Scripture we
may understand that beyond conscience the press as
moral teachers have not that devine command to fulfill
which the pulpit has, and while we can in many
instances excuse the press for their neglect of duty, yet
for the pulpit there is no neutral grounds, as is taught
by the bible, and hence there should be none encouraged
by men.
I know there will be many excuses presented by
those who do not perform the will of God, but to whom
58
THE WHITE NEGRO.
the above words may apply, and some will say, our
commission is to preach for the salvation of souls, and
not the abuses of the age.
This may be the understanding of some clergymen
who misinterpret the bible, like many of those who
lived during the dark days of barbarous slavery, and
taught the poor ignorant slaves, " that servants should
obey their (earthly) masters,'1 and although they teach
such doctrine of a simular nature at this late day, one
cannot help but say that they are only heaping coals of
damnation on their own souls. For there are few theo¬
logians of this century that would encourage such
spurious doctrines, and when men are blessed with all
facilities for enlightment upon the book of God, and do
not apply themselves to it, such men or ministers are
base demons, hypocrites, and false teachers, preaching
only those doctrines which pleases the ears of those to
whom they are called, and is instilling those false ideas
into those who are more ignorant than themselves, that
they may be practiced out upon the humble and help¬
less colored man.
Is it possible that if St. Paul, Peter or John the
Baptist should come back to this world and behold the
practices of men that they would direct their attention
towards tariff, science, society, liquor, and many other
things of the same nature denouncing the evil practices
of these, when day after day, and week after week,
THE WHITE NEGRO.
59
month after month, and year after year, there are thous¬
ands of the most inhuman and unchristlike depreda¬
tions performed on humanity that a world full of reli¬
gion has ever known, and in the face of all this, men
of this century who claim they are called of God to
preach his word, to extoll the words of balm, and com¬
fort to the distressed, wretched and wicked, will from
one Lord's day to the dawn of another select their texts
from the bible, and if there is some great political
happening that has stirred the world with enthusiasm,
they will apply this text to the same and preach such
sermons two times a day.
Some of these orations, which they may be properly
called, are of such a popular nature that on the Monday
following, every leading news paper of any note in the
land will be spreading these elaborate thoughts of some
Divine known as a D. D., B. D., A. M., or L. L. D.,
throughout the whole world.
While on the other hand, if a human being of color
be hung to a lamp post, shot down in prison, or repeat¬
edly be burnt at the stake by mobs, and it matters not
how cruel or immoral the act may be, I have for the
first time yet to read or hear one of our leading devines
denounce in the language of the gospel such ungodly
practices. Those who even make the attempt to speak
of these things handle them so timidly and fearfully
with kid gloves, that two hours after the words have
•60
THE WHITE NEGRO.
fallen from their lips their effect is no more than the
chaff cast to the winds.
Again I say, would the apostle Paul be found so
cowardly and inactive ? No, for with more fire and
power of the Holy Ghost, and eloquence that of old,
would he, as he sat in the seat of the acropolis denounc¬
ing the Athenians with their idolitrous [worshiping,
climb to the highest pinicle of this world and in the
most eloquent language proclaim a risen Savior, and
denounce the evil practices of this demon world.
Thus in like manner it should be with the Christian
pulpits of the present day. God has sent his servants
into the world to better and elevate it, instead of
encouraging and identifying themselves with it.
Our ministry well know the fact that the mode in
which the churches are conducted to-day is not the
example of Christ's model when he assembled together
both Jew and Gentile, and worshiped with them
together; but how different is this with our christian
•churches. For instance, how many white churches
to-day will extend the hospitality and especially the
fellowship of their services to the colored races, and
from a heart of welcome show to them by their actions
that this is God's house, souls are the objects of our
labors, and all who will may come and drink of the
water of life freely.
Oh I fear! that there is not one to be found in the
THE "WHITE NEGRO.
61
United States, and when I say this, I well realize the
fact that I have said a big mouth full; but experience
has proven this to me as well as the many testimonials
of others, and it would only be necessary for me at this
writing to go to the city of Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, a distance
of only one hundred and seventy miles, and there I
could produce you an example of a colored man who
wished to identify himself with the First M. E. Church
of that city, and on the account of color the minister
as well as the majority of his flock refused to extend
him their right hand of fellowship, and thus this
precious soul was excluded from the house of God.
Nor is this the only instance of a similar nature,,
for we do not find this alone in the Negro hating south,
as the example of which I am now speaking are all
happenings of the free North. It was during a large-
revival held in one of our leading cities that a poor, old,
colored woman was observed to be under the influence-
of conviction in the rear part of the chapel where the
meetings were carried on, and the news of this soul's
condition was shortly communicated to the minister
who with the advice of the officers of the church
requested that a special bench be reserved in one part
of the house separate from the other mourners for this
helpless soul who had fallen under conviction of the
higher powers. The idea of men making the mourner's
bench a place of racial distinctions for the indwelling
of the Holy Ghost.
63
THE WHITE NEGKO.
Will you then tell me that the encouragement of
such by the pulpit is right, or Christlike, when their
conscience if no more tell them otherwise? I say no,
no, no, and all who are guilty of such charges are like
those spoken of in the bible: " Their judgment is going
on before hand."
Nearly everyone is acquainted with the division of
the M. E. Church North, and the M. E. Church South.
This division was not the outgrowth of some biblical
theme, but simply the acceptation of the slavery plat¬
form, and so sated in these abominable practices of
human slavery were the Southern clergy, that they
withdrew their filial relations from their brothers of the
same creeds in the North.;
Going back farther than this, we find in the history
of this same church, that they excluded by force the
colored people from their services, even in the silent
hours of prayer were they dejected, and from these
actions have sprung that church which has grown
among the colored people somewhat like the stone
hewn from the mountain without hands, and is now
known as the A. M. E's. with a thousand four hundred
and thirty-two of her own ministry, and two hundred
and sixty-six thousand, four hundred and nineteen
communicants.
Now if the above facts be true then the Christian
Religion of the present day is carried out on sectarian
THE WHITE NEGRO.
63-
basis, and instead of our love being supreme towards
God, and our neighbors as ouselves; it is for the classes
either of color, or wealth, and no such persons accord¬
ing to the bible can see God, nor even taste the
wasting winds that may protrude from the portals of
heaven. For how can we ever love or receive into our
eternal fellowship in heaven those persons whom our
earthly affections always disdained here on earth. Did
not God send Philip in the spirit of the Hoty Ghost to
the eunuch of Persia to preach to him the risen Savior
as well as his other apostles to the Jews and Gentiles?
Yes it is a truth, and he has sent the Caucasian to
preach and help the poor fallen weaklings of Ham your
brother, that "as Christ was lifted up," so may they
also be drawn up to him. For the bible makes promi¬
nent the father-hood of God, and the brother-hood of
man. All middle walls of partition are broken down,
all distinctions of class, condition, sex, color or nation¬
ality are obliterated; whether Jew or Greek, Barbarian
or Seythian, all are one in Christ. The gospel adapted
to all, is to be preached to all, prayers are offered for
all, and the whole church are taught to pray for the
coming of God's kingdom, and that his will may be
done on earth as it is done in heaven. And if God's
will is to be obeyed on earth by his ministers, then
they will unite themselves regardless of color or sect,
and put forth those efforts both in word and action for
64
THE WHITE NEGRO.
the abolishing of the evil practices of men and the con-
sumation of Christ's kingdom. By them alone can the
greatest influence be wielded for the ameliorating of the
prejudices, and wrongs heaped up on the colored
people. Of course we cannot expect any great result to
be obtained by the adoption of this principle by one or
two pulpits of the land, for if their actions were not
favorably received by the people, I am well aware of
the fact that it would only end in the impeachment of
that minister, and the derision of every newspaper in
the land,
But in order to the success of such a project, let
there be called a general convention of the ministers in
America, and all resolve to adopt the same method for
the crushing of racial oppression, and I'll assure you it
will then be a successful accomplishment, and in the
end all men of all nations, with the angels of glory
before the white throne of righteousness will proclaim:
" Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth, and good
will to men."
PROGRESS OF^Hli NEGRO.
XX.
^I^IKE all other rac^s the Negro is still in the line of
jI P1"0^88- Not at the foot nor at the middle,
^ but so closely to the top round of the ladder of
advancement, that he may well be considered one of
the first in rank.
The Negro like all other races has had his ups and
downs; yet, in many respects his case presents a
different aspect to the world than that of his now
present competitors. For, to my mind there has never
been a race of people who have made the same un¬
limited progress, under the same conditions, and in
the same length of time, as the burly and hated
Negro. Even his worst enemies will not attempt to
deny this fact. And now, stretching before us under
the great canopy of advancement; in legislative halls,
in our school houses, at the mechanic's bench, in the
field of produce, behind the plow, Yea! in every con¬
ceivable glen of industry, your vision can not but help
behold not the crisis of the Negroe's progress; but only
the faint beginning.
66
THE WHITE NEGRO.
The question now may be asked, why is it that I
commend one race and not another ? Is this because
of a special point of gain I wish to reap? Or is it because
of the prejudice stirred up in me? My reply, dear
friends, is neither. It is only from a heart enthralled
with the gratitude of justice. It is from a motive pure
and true as the qualities of tried gold. I might pause,
it is true, and flatter the Caucasian, who would claim
naturally to be first in the line of progress. Or, per¬
haps exalt the Mongolian to heights which he has
never attained. Yet through the omniscient eye of the
Almighty my wrong acts would be found out; while
beneath the loathing of a guilty conscience, as an out¬
cast I would feel condemned. So, as the Romans of
old I will say, " Let justice to whom justice is due be
given, for Caesar and his edicts must be obeyed.
Hence, once more taking up the narative, from
which I have somewhat deviated, I am forced to a
great pause, when I contemplate the Negroe's past or
beginning. For here lies a germ planted, whose future
was considered by the tillers only as an instrument to
be used in the hands of others ; but if only those pro¬
ducers were living at this present day, they would now
behold this worthless germ, so supposed, yielding the
largest crop of any other seed in the world, and accord¬
ing to their number have superseded all classes in prog¬
ress regardless of its size, color or principles.
THE WHITE NEGRO.
67
Yes, from the exiles of barbarism have they come,
out of the most ignorant haunts and darkest jungles
of Africa by myriads were they brought, without
sympathy, friends or money. By innumerable hosts
did they continue to pour in upon our shores, until
this fair America, the home of the brave, and the land
of the free, was glouting in the brutish practice of
human slavery, that which has stained her bright name
and laid low the higher virtues, which could only
crown her to be the pier in freedom of all nations.
Yet, while a biased minded people were still revel¬
ing in that atmosphere of God given freedom, (for which
they through many sacrifices waded) did in the face of
all this enslave and deprive of others that which they
had just gained. But through all this, the just God
who sees and rules all things still kept his omniscient
eye upon the wicked doings of man, and inasmuch as
they meted it out to others now should the same be
meted out to them. For " Independence" among the
colonists could now be heard as the cry rising up from
all sources, and " that taxation without representation
was tyranny."
In the midst of all this providence brought forth
Crispus Attucks, a Negro slave, to challenge even Great
Britan herself for the cause of Independence, and for
this principle of right he bravely met his death as the
first martyr of Independence, (not his own) but that of
68
THE WHITE NEGRO.
his Anglo-Saxon brothers, who, because he was endowed
with the more supreme powers held his brother as a
slave with the Revolutionists as conquerors in the great
struggle, and not without the Negroe's aid either.
Again, was the Negro forged in chains of slavery,
more debasing and cruel than had ever been known in
the annals of civilized history neither before nor since.
I would also have you to know that during the two
hundred years or more in which the Negro was enslaved,
he was not standing still, nor returning back to his mis-
fortunate traits of the past; but instead was rapidly
taking those strides, which were destined to make him a
great and stable future. In the place of barbarism he
partook the elements of civilization, and with this he
adapted himself to the surrounding situations in propor¬
tion to the bounds allowed him.
On, On, did the conflict go, the Negro making
higher strides of progress, until the question in all its
fullness presented itself to an abased world; enquiring
in the language of justice. Can there be both master
and slave existing with individuals of the same right,
durating under the same material and spiritual laws ?
This question was a monster, a weight of conscientious
conviction on the one side, and a load too large for
digestion on the other. Providence was now rapidly,
but silently opening the way to which the Negro
though ignorant was developing. God himself with his
THE WHITE NEGRO.
60
mighty host had set in operation those instruments
which would soon burst forth the clouds of gospel truth.
The church and its ministry were the first causes put
in action, and a mighty one she was too, with her
martyrs of christlike zeal, and her saints of devotion,
did she pour forth her denunciation of human servitude
that " None shall be called master save God," and with
the more powerful agencies of prayer the strong holds
of mammon slavery were soon seen to shake, the press
too began to cry aloud and when her ballasts were all
turned loose, with full force the fortress of slavery was
again seen to quake.
From every pulpit and rostrum the voices of
Garrison, Wendell Phillips, Summer, and others could
be heard thundering in words of logic their abhorence
of the most diabolical criminal practices by men of
intelligence that the world has ever known, and so
powerful were their appeals that the whole world was
stirred to the greatest depths of sympathy for the
oppressed. The crisis had come. Legislative enactments
had been propounded and enforced, the legions could
lay under it no longer, secession was declared, Fort
Sumpter had been fired, and a Jeff. Davis had been
crowned, and the devil with all his host now perched
himself on high defying God and his host of conquerors.
But where was Alexander before Egypt fell?
Where was Cromwell before Charles I, died, and his
70
THE "WHITE NEGRO.
position to rule was attained? Where was Napoleon
before France was subdued ? They were being reserved
until their time of needfulness should come, and thus
it was with old America and the Secessionists. God was
holding in reserve Abraham Lincoln, Sherman, Grant
and Seward who should dawn on their field of duty, and
force to subjection the rebellions' sons Davis and Lee
with their children, and to liberate those bondsmen
who had served their untimely end as inferiors, and not
equals, that they might pursue the line of progress equal
to that of their Anglo-Saxon brother.
Thus with the fall of Richmond, and principally
the year sixty-three Africa and her children have been
marching on, on, on, migrating to the different state
wtihout money, friends, or shelter, but with all prejudice
conceivable heaped upon his shoulders, he has from that
time to the present age striven to keep pace with all
other races who have even had the advantage of him,
and as I have said I will repeat again with all frank¬
ness, that through all his past the Negro stands to-day
second to no other race in the strides of progress.
His Real Estate taxes has accumulated to the sum
of $130,000,000. The facilities of schooling in their own
number seventeen schools and academies. In the profes¬
sions they have Doctors, Lawyers, Professors and many
others of other trades which I do not mention, and
who are second to no other throughout the wide world
and of whom any race may well be proud.
THE WHITE NEGRO.
71
They are editing over two hundred newspapers in
the United States alone, and in politics he makes no less
a prominent figure. Many of them hold some of the
most prominent positions in the Government, and as to
their religious progress, I am pleased to say they are no
more in the rear in this respect than other races, they
have their own churches with their thous'ands of com¬
municants, and some of the most able Devines in the
world. Our business men, and farmers, and mechanics
are increasing every year in proportion as the opportu¬
nities present themselves, and in many other ways
which I have not stated we find the Negros are taking
a great interest.
Remember all this has been accomplished within
the last twenty-seven years, and if you will pardon me
for the presumption, I will say that in the next twenty-
seven years the world will be more greatly astonished at
his achievements than they are now at this present
census. Thus I hope at the expiration of that time, that
all prejudice against the darker races of man will have
been wiped out, and happy may they then be the equals
of all men still making their progression on to God.
AN HONEST PLEA FOR THE NEGRO.
X.
HE NEGRO differs from the Anglo-Saxon in
color only; he has been educated by his sur¬
roundings, out of barbarism into the highest type
of enlightenment, having had twenty-seven years of
freedom in which to develop his faculties and obtain
a fair recognition of his natural ability. It is now time
that he should be given an opportunity.
He is of sanguine temperament, and he naturally
looks upon the bright side of everything; he believes
that his future is bright, and is willing, yea, anxious, to
work out his own destiny. His position in America
to-day is far from being a desirable one; if the Caucasian
were regarded as an inferior by a ruling race, his
instinct of liberty and his pride cultivated by a taste of
freedom, would resist. The Negro after years of slavery,
has all the more deeply inculcated into his tempera¬
ment that love of freedom and that spirit of liberty of
which Americans are so proud; he was once a bonds¬
man, but now he is free. A reflection on the fact that
if events had not transpired as they have, he would to-
THE WHITE NEGRO.
73
day, instead of breathing freedom's air, wear shackles
of slavery, imbues him with that love of liberty. His
ability would have no peer had he the years of cultiva¬
tion and development of the white man.
Raised from the depths of barbarism, he is capable,
in one century, of standing in the Congressional halls
of the mightiest nations of the earth, capable of repre¬
senting his country in foreign fields of diplomacy, of
writing deep and interesting articles for our great maga¬
zines, and of filling the loftiest pulpits of the land.
He has no desire to associate with his white
neighbor further than for his own development; it is
not social equality he is seeking, it is a chance to
develop, caused by a desire to push forward. When he
asks for a berth in a Pullman sleeper or a stateroom in
one of the great steamers, it is not from a desire to
associate with the white people, but because he wants
comfort, because he believes he is worthy of it.
When he asks for a position as bank cashier or
railroad conductor, it is because of an aspiration to rise
to heights as yet-unattained; when he asks for a
matriculation card at a college or university, it is not
because he wants to become a social equal of whites, but
because he has a desire for moral and intellectual culti¬
vation.*
He is beginning to realize that to subject himself
to the rule of others is not the highest ideal of liberty;
74
THE WHITE NEGBO.
he has no desire to make laws for others, but to help to
make them for himself, though here his wants are con¬
stantly ignored.
The plea of the white race, that of the inferior
ability of the Negro in his intellectual and social
respects, is one that deserves very little consideration,
and it should be obnoxious to the intelligence of civilized
people.
What other race on the globe, who have grown from
ignorance and superstition, without friends, money or
homes to shelter them from the storms of this world,
have, in twenty-five years, succeeded in gaining partial
control of the reins which for centuries were used to
lead them by?
What inducements has the Caucasian ever offered
the Negro, to make him more than he is? Has he not
availed himself of everything within his grasp? Yea;
and much more; by education, which is the root of culti¬
vation and civilization, he has risen from the more
humble positions in life to be the Representatives of
both the race and nation on the highest plains of diplo¬
macy. Yet this plea goes on.
The real question is, have the white race done their
duty? What better mission could be wished than this?
How can the followers of such martyrs as Attucks,
Abraham Lincoln, John Brown, and others whose cause
and intentions were honest and true to the last, be so
ignominiously ignored now ?
THE WHITE NEGRO.
75
Have you, with all the advancement of the nine¬
teenth century, forgotten the dear records of the past
and of the silent dead? Most assuredly it must be so;
if not what has become of the measures involved in the
Declaration of Independence? I pray you, do not, if
you have not already, place yourselves upon the side
from which came the oppression which you once
resented. Give the Negro a fair show, and your plea
will soon be answered.
To the people of the South, whose numbers are
equaled by the Negroes, this colored population of law
abiding citizens is especially obnoxious; what is the
cause of this ? Simply the fact that their once inferiors
have risen to be their political and social equals, and
that they are, as a class, from the nature of their make-,
up, energetic, industrious, and willing at all times to
make their homes happy, comfortable and pleasant, as
they were taught to make those of their masters, and as
the ones that he sees grouping around him every day.
Can you, from an honest heart, condemn him ?
It is also true, and this fact being so important,
must not be overlooked, that the Negroes as a whole,
must depend upon daily labor for their livelihood,
hence they yet have all the odds to contend with. Why
do you not open to our intelligence your offices, and
allow us positions which we are fully able to fill? You
will not do so; you will even draw back with disgust,
yet you are unable to tell why.
76
THE WHITE NEGRO.
With this condition of affairs we find that the
Southern white man hates the Negro, and the Northern
Negro has no love for the white man. What, but trouble
can be the result of all this ? Being constantly urged on
in his animosity and rancor by political fanatics of the
North, who are actuated by a desire to further party
interests at any cost, this condition of things will
undoubtedly sooner or later come to crisis, and now is
the time to prevent the great calamity. If, this question
is such a barrier on both sides, the one fearing equal
justice and supremacy, and the other fearing unjustness
and inequality, there must be concessions from both
sides, which I think should be on equal conditions.
Little did the colonists think that their oppression
would be settled by means of the Revolutionary War
but that the minute men were equal to the demands of
the hour.
This being true why do we not avoid the errors of
the past and act before the dreadful climax is reached ?
This idea of evolution, will never come to any peaceful
solulion, and I am sure that a great many of my col¬
leagues who advocate this theory will soon be convinced
of their present error in advocating such a solution of
the race problem, and will change their course of action,
and will discover measures to solve this touching
question in a peaceful but honest and reasonable man¬
ner. The Negro has been down, and probably is down
now, but he will not stay so.
THE WHITE NEGRO.
77
Oh ! I fear the day, left to itself that shall determine
this question will be one of cries, of terror and helpless¬
ness, a day in which the swarth knife and sword will sup¬
plant the cannon, and homes will be drenched in atoning
blood; when liberty will be no more, then, and not till
then, will this question, left to itself, come to an end.
The Negro is an American the same as those of
English and German descent; God has sent him here
to stay, and He has a work for him to do here; here
will his destiny be wrought out. He is devoted to his
country; he is intensely patriotic, for there were no
braver men in the army of the Union than the one
hundred and seventy-five thousand Negro soldiers, and
we to-day feel grateful toward the nation, notwithstand¬
ing the long years of bitter and debasing slavery, a
gratitude that has no place in the hearts of the immi¬
grants who c6me to us from foreign shores.
The Negro will never be an anarchist; history
affords no other example of a people who have endured
such shameless and inexcusable wrongs manifesting
such devotion and affection for the nation at whose
hands they have endured these wrongs. The Negro
will suffer neglect at the hands of his country, but I do
not believe he will ever betray it or rise up against it.
When I remember the Haymarket riot of Chicago, and
think to what deeds oppression and ignorance, despera¬
tion and godlessness may yet drive the great hordes of'
78
THE WHITE NEGRO.
wretched workmen who have been brought from Europe
to America to revolution, I can not but feel that Provi¬
dence is holding in reserve the Negro, once the slave, to
be the redeemer of our country in the vast and sad
crisis that I fear will be rendered inevitable by the
stupid moral ignorance of our politians and the blind
selfishness of the Church.
I have long believed in the hour of trial, which is
to try America and her institutions, in which class shall
be arrayed against class; when this time comes, the
Negro will acquit himself as a man and as an American
who is worthy of his citizenship, and brave the tide.
It is therefore, the part of sound political wisdom
and the foresight of Christian statesmanship, to believe
that the safety of American institutions depends in
more senses than one, upon the destiny of the Negroes
who are struggling to disenthrall themselves from
ignorance and escape the vice and moral wretchedness
of the slavery into which the Caucasians have placed
them.
If there should ever come a time when law and
order shall have to measure their strength with anarchy
and violence in burning cities and on trampled fields,
the Negro race will be found, almost to a man, standing
for law and order and for the defense of our civil and
religious institutions.
THE WHITE NEGRO.
79
Hence, by a study of our prosperous growth and
abundant gains, does not our future appear brighter
than it ever seemed to you before? Why should it not
be as encouraging as that of any of our brother races?
Then let us be encouraged to press forward, for out
of Ethiopia will arise some day a second Toussaint
L'Overture, who will lead his loyal and patriotic
brethren to be the saviors of their country.
THE FUTURE OF THE NEGRO.
XI.
HE PRESENT situation of the Negro race to-day
presents both a bright and dark side. It is most
encouraging with regard to the race itself, when
judging from the past, for within less than a querter of
a century the Negro has made wonderful progress, and
his present condition as contrasted with his past exhibits
an astonishing evolution, mentally, morally, physically
and financially; even his worst enemies will not attempt
a denial of this fact.
The questions to be considered are, what has the
Negro done, what is he doing, and what will he do or be?
What has the Negro done? Well, what is it he has
not accomplished that lay within his grasp? From the
exile of barbarism and oppression for over two hundred
and fifty years he has been the object of imposition and
vengence which has been meted out to him by his
oppressors, and as a martyr, often sacrificing his life to
obtain his rights, the prejudice against him being so
powerful at times that it swarms in the air like a pesti¬
lence of flies, from the mouths and hearts of men; yet
this he is living to overcome.
THE WHITE NEGRO.
81
To the traveler who visits the South, here the con¬
dition of the Negro presents itself in a forcible manner,
not only in the presence of the Negro, but in years of
irksome toil for which this Government owes him, but
for which no compensation was ever given, and for
which he receives no thanks or credit.
This condition of affairs has been a great barrier
for the Negro to confront, considering his past condition
from which he has been set free. Yet with all this
upon him he has never raised his voice against these
wrongs, but still survives, striving through his zealous
efforts to gain a better future.
Hence, the evidence of the following remarks will
go to prove the Negroe's struggling condition,his ascend¬
ency over his once superiors who are now compelled to
become his equals, and in many respects his inferiors,
not because it is the Negroes desire, but because it is
not in his power to prevent it.
Said a prominent Northern lawyer, a Republican,
to me recently: " I confess that I am disappointed in
the Negro; he has had twenty-five years of freedom
now, and what has he done with them?" "Mr. C—," I
replied: "Your own Northern Emerson has said that
to reform a man you must begin with his grandmother.
We are just now dealing with the grandmothers." " I
see," said he thoughtfully. But continuing the same
insinuation, he said that "we are lascivious," why
82
THE WHITE NEGRO.
should we not be when our marital rights were ignored
and invaded for centuries? "He said that we steal,"
why should we not when we ourselves were stolen?
" He said that we lie,'" why should we not, when for
two hundred and forty years our word was not taken
under oath? " He said we shirk," why should we not
when for generations our only incentive to industry
was the lash of the overseer?
Do you believe in heredity, or is that another one
of the many things monopolized by the white man? I
am ready to admit that the Negro is not so white as he
has been painted by some of his sentimental friends;
often he is dilatory, wasteful, slovenly, given to petty
pilfering, disposed to live from hand to mouth, and is
capable of obliterating an obligation as easily as a
school-boy wipes a sum from a slate with a sponge; but
if you do not know white men of the same kind, your
experience has been an exceptionally happy one.
This is only one side of the shield; now let us see
the other. Were it not as old a story to you as it is to
me, I could tell you by the hour of Negroes who stayed
by their mistresses and the children during that terrible
five years when their masters were away; of Negroes
that charged side by side with their masters in a fight
which was none of theirs ; of Negroes who shared their
masters' imprisonment; of Negroes, one at least, who
voluntarily, and in the face of many inducements and
THE "WHITE NEGRO,
83
much opposition, walked back from Pennsylvania and
freedom to South Carolina and servitude, because of a
promise to a dead master to go "back to Miss Mary,"
of another who has related to me how, that on the night
before the fatal fight, he "kivered up de Cunnel as
wa'm as de thinness of de blankets would allow." Is
there a more pathetic sentence in all history?
Who shall measure the depths of the love, or the
height of the manhood of that black man as he handled
those threadbare blankets, worn to holes in places, and
then, regardless of himself, '"kivered up de Cunnel as
wa'm as de thinness of the blankets would allow?"
One of the whitest pages in all history is that which
records the loyalty of the black man to his master and
his master's wife and little ones during that long
struggle, one object of which was to keep that black
man a slave.
One of the blackest pages in all history, and almost
a blank, is that which fails to record the championship
of the black man's cause by a single representative
Southern politician.
It is worse than idle to contend for the rights and
citizenship of a people who constitute about one seventh
of the whole population, and who were, almost to a man
born in this country, some of them of a native ancestry
of seven generations; people who pay taxes on a
hundred and sixty millions of dollars, and who own in
84
THE WHITE NEGRO.
their own right thirteen colleges and academies of a
respectable grade; who number among their ranks
thousands of educated professional men, whom the
leading institutions of learning have been delighted to
honor; who raise about all the rice and cane, three
fifths of the cotton and a fair share of the corn, to say-
nothing of the melons, potatoes, peanuts, and other
crops; who capably pursue every mechanical occupa¬
tion, and who are as essential to the South's existence
as legs are to a pedestrian or arms to a blacksmith.
On my last trip through the South, only a few
weeks before the present writing, I was told everywhere
that the "nigger" wouldn't work. " Then," said I, "you
have the most phenomenal crop in the world; a crop
that plants itself, plows itself, bales itself and totes
itself to the market.
To say nothing of all other crops and all other
vocations, the Negroes of the South have raised this
year (?) more than one bale of cotton per head, valued
at about forty dollars, A very idle population this ?
The fact is that the whites of the sunny South have the
most valuable working people on the face of the earth ;
they are docile, fairly industrious, cheap, and above all
peaceful. An old saying has it: "You'll never miss
the water till the well runs dry." The people of the
South may realize this yet. I hope not, however, but it
may come true.
THE WHITE NEGRO.
85
But suppose we admit that the colored people of
the South are all that is alleged against them; the
question still remains, shall they be serfs or citizens ?
The answer is that this is America, and that her
serfdom has no place for the sole of its foot. I say this
is true too, and I am forced to record this honest con¬
viction in the form of a statement in favor of the Negro.
Of course we must admit that this is the universal
faith of the white men, and they all admit it, only in
different forms. Follow the thinking brain of our
nation to the Senate Chamber, and what is the senti¬
ment there in regard to our race ? Regardless, my dear
readers, of political parties, just observe for a moment
the last bill in our favor entitled the Lodge Document,
which was so vehemently defeated. It is a disgrace not
only to this so-called free America, but to be the trans¬
action of mortal men. The defeat of that bill means
more than human words can express, and only goes to
strengthen the cowardly and uncalled-for assertion
made by Judge Taney in his decision in the Dred Scott
case, in the State of Ohio. " That a Negro has no rights
which a white man is bound to respect." Is this true?
Did you ever stop to interpret the meaning of this bold
assertion ? Well, it means simply this, that the time has
never come when a white man will be forced or obliged
to respect them.
86
THE WHITE NEGBO.
These difficulties mentioned in the statements
which I have just made have all been encountered by
the Negro in the past, and have been partially over¬
come; hence, are here brought to view that the Nation
may see and correct its wrong. Indeed, the past con¬
tains horrors enough of its own, without speaking of
the present or future: but as the wrongs inflicted upon
an innocent and helpless one are bound, according to
the just laws of the all wise Creator, to return to the
ones who inflict them, I say to those who have always
been free, that some day they will be called upon to
repent for these wrongs.
You ask me then, what have the Government and
the people at l^rge not done of that which has been in
their power to do ? As I have already stated in a
previous chapter, they have robbed them of over two
generations' strength, and life with all its bliss and
righteousness; you have turned him loose from bondage
friendless, homeless, penniless, this woeful world to
roam; you have cremated, butchered and slaughtered our
promising and hopeful youth, and with all the obstacles
of invention you have blocked his way. The spirit of
the Caucasian in some respects, takes the likeness of
the Pharisee, who prayed in a high place and bosted of
all the good things he had done, imagining that it was
building honor and glory to his name, and adding to
his temporal gain. I say their spirit, from all outward
THE WHITE NEGRO.
87
appearances, is to missionize and lend a helping hand
to those unfortunates who have not been blessed as
they have; please tell me then why they have failed to
observe home, and those around them, and why their
attention is directed miles and miles beyond?
Let me tell you that their ultimate destiny will
also be in that lake of brimstone and crimson, far, far
beyond the place called heaven. When they loosed the
shackles from the bondsman and told the slave to go
free, why did they not provide schools for the Negro
that he might become educated, that he might have the
opportunity to learn the duties of a civilized man
under a free government, if no more?
In what the Negro has, in many respects done,
aside from his natural genius, he has been obliged to
pattern after the Caucasian; then can or should he be
condemned for the wrongs which he commits? Has
there ever been a race of people who have made such
progress in the same length of time as the burly and
hated Negro? Nay, not one.
This is but a brief outline of the Afro-American's
past; and yet the half has never been told. You ask
me, then, what is the Negro doing? Trying to do the
same as his other oppressed brethren, trying to over¬
throw the prejudices of the past; making a man of him¬
self by gaining an education at his own expense, culti¬
vating his morals by accepting the blessed gospel of
88
THE WHITE NEGRO.
Jesus Christ, collecting around him a great amount of
this world's goods, in finance and other forms, and
feeling that his constitution, ambition and zeal are
equal to those of his Caucasian brother in enabling him
to press forward. In short, the Negro is tired of ignor¬
ance, and is' sensitive about being called ignorant.
He is tired of being called foggy and superstitious. For
where the opportunity is offered, he is more'scrupulous
as to the regular attendance of his children at the
public schools than are the whites in many instances,
which shows that they are in the line of progress with
the rest of mankind.
The intelligent Negro realizes his past disadvan¬
tages, and is ready to take hold of whatever he can be
made to see will conduce to the progress of his people,
At the present time the better class of colored people
are looking for just what the Caucasian has and what
every race needs, the elevation of his position as a
people. The Negro is neither better nor worse, morally,
than any other race; he obeys bad and good impulses,
as do others; he is one of the greatest scholars as well
as one of the poorest; he is one of the most industrious
and thrifty, as well as one of the most indolent; the
calor of his skin and the texture of his hair have
nothing to do with his qualifications.
In spite of the great progress made by the Negro,
there are some white people who have not yet come to
THE WHITE NEGRO.
89
understand these facts, although they are being brought
face to face with them. The Negro's intelligence is
blindly ignored, as are his rights, save when it serves
some selfish purpose or ulterior design to admit their
existence, and if he were not possessed of a steadfast¬
ness of purpose worthy of a higher recognition and
encouragement than he receives, he would give up the
struggle as useless; for in the face of his unquestioned
advance, it is a fact to be noted that never before has
his presence as a factor in great political questions been
so apprehensively looked upon, or so generally regarded
by the South as a serious disturbing factor in critical
complications threatening dire results.
We may well stop to ask, how is this? Judging
between the two great extremes of the country, the
North refers the question to the South, whose people
answer that it is due to their fear of Negro supremacy.
Is there any basis for this fear? None at all. That
which the South declares it will not have Negro
supremacy, has no part in the Negroes plans for his
future, nor is it desired by him ; he simply seeks to
exercise and enjoy, undeterred, the freedom and rights
guaranteed him as citizen by the Constitution; he leaves
all else to the future evolution of just public sentiment
and to private choice. As for ruling over the whites,
the idea has never entered the minds of intelligent,
thinking Negroes.
90
THE WHITE NEGRO.
The Negro's future has also been presented in the
form of emigration, but to the writer it is a very
impracticable and foolish notion; for here you are
again confronted by untold difficulties and obstacles,
even if it was possible. If yon will go back with me to
the proceedings of the fifty-first Congress, we will find
that an attempt was made by Senator Morgan, of Ala¬
bama, to introduce a bill to this effect, and it was con¬
sidered by the majority of the thinking men of the
country as an utter impossibility. If the eight million
Negroes of the United States would all peaceably con¬
sent to these terms, it was found to be a fact that
vessels for their shipment could not be procured in our
docks, that the cost would exceed that of any previous
war, and the risks would be unlimited. Colored
citizens of the United States, Africa is not our home
any more than America is the home of the Indian alone;
Africa is a garden of treasures and riches, it is true, but
it will never do the American Negro, as a whole, any
good.
Did not the Puritans kill off and exterminate the
Indians when they came to this continent? Hence,
observe the condition of the latter at the present day.
If the white man thinks that the Negro should go
back to Africa because he was brought from there, why
does he not go back to Europe, where he originally
came from ? For the Indians objected to his coming
THE WHITE NEGRO.
91
and to his residence here just the same, and upon as
plausible grounds as the whites object to the presence
of the Negroes of the present day.
We must remember that Africa does not belong to
the United States, for colonies from different nations,
have about settled the land on the coast. Discoverers,
explorers and treasure seekers are searching for all that
is to be found; the climate is a peculiar one to which to
become acclimated, and these colonies, living under the
flags of different nations, will not give up their claims
and rights to settle an established wrong fomented by-
certain sects of the populace in the United States.
Again, we must remember the great loss to our
individual selves in such an undertaking; our posses¬
sions must be gotten rid of which would incur large
expenses to the government; for if it would act fairly >
these would have to be rightly disposed of.
As to crossing the great Atlantic, have you ever
thought of how many bodies to-day lie sleeping in
watery graves, in the briny and unfathomable recesses
of the mighty deep? It is indeed, a fearful thing to
think of, for in such an attempt parents and children,
brothers and sisters, husband and wives will be separa¬
ted forever. Have we not, as a people, been separated
enough? Yes, and may a just God forbid the success
of these evil projects and thoughts which are permitted
to control the human minds.
92
THE WHITE NEGRO.
One great fault lies with our people as a class; we
have never shown the principles of our manhood
enough, for we allowed ourselves to be enslaved, which
is forbidden by nature; and to-day, with the position
and standing we hold, we trust our welfare too largely
to the Caucasian, who will not in the majority of cases,
do that which is absolutely just and due to all mankind.
We, in many instances, try to defend ourselves from
criticisms of our past by the plea of our ignorance; that
may do, but how is it with the American Indian?
"No," says the Indian, "I will starve and die brave
rather than be the white man's slave, or be otherwisely
imposed upon." The Indians may be heathens, as they
are generally called, but nevertheless they are possessed
of that kind of material which teaches them to uphold
and protect their God-given rights.
My brethren of color, I appeal to you to think
twice before taking this wrong step of emigration, and
that at the preaching of a few fanatics, your enemies,
who are undoubtedly well sallaried for their meager
services put forth. Remember that there are more than
one Judas Ischariot in this world, and as one betrayed
the blessed Saviour, be careful that one does not betray
you.
As I have previously stated, I still maintain,
your future is in America and not in Africa. We are
just getting a footing in this grand old Republic, for
THE WHITE NEGRO.
9a
which our fathers and mothers died the deaths of
martyrs ; will you now, when staring prosperity in the
face, give up that which rightly belongs to you, because
it is a sacrifice to retain it? No! never, I hope.
In nearly every city of the Union in which the
Negroes are located, you find them with homes or try¬
ing to procure them,^ou find them conducting business
for themselves; you find among them doctors, lawyers,
musicians and farmers second to none in the world, and
last, but not least, they competently occupy some of
the most prominent positions in the land, editing over
two hundred newspapers in the United States alone,
and holding governmental positions at home and abroad.
Remember, this has all come about within the last
twenty-five years; before that time your state was one
of ignorance and wretchedness, and now, because you
are refused a great many rights here that belong to you,
and which are guaranteed to you by the Constitution,
if you emigrate, imagining that there rests your future,
you will make a sad mistake.
Then let us make true men of ourselves, and by
having closer organizations, union of effort and com¬
petent men selected as leaders, our race may reach the
place of influence to which it is entitled, and may do
much to put down these wrongs perpetrated against us.
One thing yet we are lacking; we need more educa¬
tion, less politicians and office-seekers, more farmers
94
the white negko.
and mechanics. Then, with that power of natural
genius endowed in our hearts by the Creator, with that
human pathos, that native eloquence and our power of
fancy and imagination, all these of which our Anglo-
American brother is not possessed, I do not hesitate to
say that our possibilities in the future are as great as
those of the white man. If it is still true that time's
noblest offspring is to be the last, we must look to the
descendants of Father Ham's sons in America, instead
of those of Japheth, for the last great act of the human
drama, for, says a passage of Scripture: " Let but the
angels of [Bethlehem brood over the children of the
DARK CONTINENT, singing their songs of peace and
good will to men; let the cross be uplifted to them; let
the heralds of salvation go with their feet of beauty
through the land, and the God who made of one blood
all men to dwell on all the face of the earth.''
He only knows what their ultimate zenith will be;
at any rate, it does not belong to the descendants of a
people in whose veins may be flowing the blood of men
who at the opening of the Christian era were offering
human sacrifices.
One good characteristic of the Negro is meekness,
and one beauty in one of our Lord's sayings: " Blessed
are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." Many
of you may not believe it, but the great inheriting races
have been people whose progress has been with garments
THE WHITE NEGRO.
95
rolled in blood; and it may yet be that the greatest
race of the earth will yet rise under the banner of the
"Prince of Peace." To some it seems impossible, but it
may be true.
Thus the blessed poet, Longfellow, though no pro¬
phet, spake these truths that he knew would come true,
(as they did before he died, in his poem entitled) "The
Slave Singing at Midnight."
"Loud he sang the Psalm of David,
He, a negro and enslaved ;
Sang of Israel's victory,
Sang of Zion, bright and free.
In that hour, when night is calmest,
Sang he from the Hebrew Psalmist,
In a voice so sweet and clear
That I could not choose but hear.
Paul and Silas, in their prison,
Sang of Christ the Lord arisen;
And an earthquake's arm of might.
Broke the dungeon's gate at night.
But, alas! what holy angel
Brings the slave this glad evangel ?
And what earthquake's arm of might
Breaks his dungeon's gate at night ?"
And alas! did the angel loose those prisoner's
hands, and slavery was no more.
Thus, as the reform of slavery has come and
passed, let me say, though myself no prophet, that the
96
THE WHITE NEGRO.
oppression of the Negro at the present day, like the
condition of slavery, will soon ignite and burst; the
oppression is at its crisis. We have been, once, unpro¬
tected chattel property; we have been disfranchised in
a republican government of forty-four states, fourteen
of which we have made by the sweat of our brows; but
have been deprived of the right to enjoy the results of
our labors, and last but not least, we are murdered to¬
day by wholesale slaughter.
What more, now, can we expect? What more can
be done? All are ready to admit that we are human
beings, and as such, let me say that our natures, no
more than those of the Caucasian race, cannot endure
everything, and will, if the past practices are kept up
rise in revolt. I hope that this will not be necessary,
but it may be so. There is but one thing for us, as a
people to do, and that is to organize, not in words but
in activity. This can be effected, and if every Judas
Iscariot we find in the ranks will not hang himself, let
us delegate men from our number to do it. By making
examples of a few traitors like this, I think a proper
organization may be properly effected. All races have
these organization, from the Caucasian down to the
Chinamen, It is a fact that in certain parts of the
South they are effecting organizations for the extermin¬
ation of the Negroes, as is shown by the following:
THE WHITE NEGRO.
97
CAN THIS BE TRUE?
An Organization said to be formed to exterminate
the Negro.
Birmingham, Ala., July 2.
An organization has been formed here known as
the "Knights of the White Shield." About 250 men
have been initiated into the order. The constitution
narates the troubles with the Negroes and proposes to
form alliances for the preservation of white supremacy.
Nothing will be done in violation of United States and
State Laws, but steps are to be taken to spread the
order and rid the country of the Negro race. Some of
the prominent men of the city are members of the
order.—(Times, Buffalo, N, Y.)
Then why should we not prepare for this great
conflict which is to confront us? It is true that all
odds are against us; the Negro is so mingled with
different bloods and dispositions that we can hardly
blame his non-unity; we are thus in many respects, a
drawback to ourselves, we find some wishing to be
Spaniards, Creoles, Octoroons and Blue-veins, and
sometimes I thank God that so many Negroes are
being lynched; for it is teaching this peculiarly mixed
race some sense, and is not uniting these Blue-veins, as
they are called, to the Caucasian people, but dust to
dust with the mobers' rope around their necks pulled
by white men's hands.
98
THE WHITE NEGRO.
Then again, I sympathize with these Blue-veins,
for the Negro race seems to be cursed, and their species
is not one to seek after or to be proud of. He is, it is
true, burly, as the papers picture him, black, flat-nosed,
with big thick lips, coarse features, large feet, wooly
hair, etc., surely these are not to be desired, when
placed in contrast to the physical characteristics of the
Caucasian.
I know not why this is placed upon us, except it is
to fulfiill the prophecy of Noah to his sons: "That the
sons of Ham should dwell in the tents and be the
servant of his brothers," or to be a siege of trials set
before us, as was with the children of Israel. I believe
in prayer, and think if all churches and our people all
over the world would accept Christ and labor for him,
he will protect and deliver us. Hence, there is but one
course left for us to pursue and that is this, let it be
remembered that whether we be white, black, brown,
red or yellow, the one-eighth drop of Negro blood will
spoil a hogshead of white, as the Hon. Fred Douglas
has said, and the white man also calls and classes us in
this sense as Negroes just the same, and hence as
Negroes, let us all work and co-operate with one another
for our own good and welfare. Let us establish places
of business, patronize these, and keep out of politics at
the present. Institute night schools and educate our
fathers to read and write, who have been disfranchised
THE WHITE NEGRO.
99
for the lack of these qualifications, and hence in time
they may have the power of speech by the free casting
of their ballot, and thus teach the white man of this
country that we can outscheme all his legislation against
us, and that too in the positions which rightly belong
to us. Then with a united body let our motto be, not
" United we stand as divided we fall," but, United we
stand and United we fall in faith, hope and love, and
thus we will lay the butresses for our coming prosperity
to build a noble and grand future.