PRESS NOTICES OF MR. MAURICE EVANS' -BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTH-EAST AFRICA" (NOW OUT OF PRINT). SOUTH AFRICA.— "This is a thought-compelling book, and should be in every South African library." CAPE ARGUS.— "One of the most thoughtful and suggestive studies of a much-debated question that we have yet seen." NATAL WITNESS.— "The book as a whole is undoubtedly one which may be read with profit by all interested in this great social problem." NATAL MERCURY.— "Mr. Maurice S. Evans has laid the people of South Africa under a deep debt of gratitude for the time, the care, and the thought he has devoted to the book which he has just published. We welcome the book most cordially, and we heartily con- gratulate the author on a very valuable addition to the literature of South Africa and to that of the science of Sociology." SUNDAY TIMES, JOHANNESBURG.— "Sound common-sense evolved from more first-hand knowledge than usually falls to the lot of nomadic man. The book is one that must be read by every South African, and by all interested in South Africa's future." RAND DAILY MAIL.— "Mr. Evans has contributed much to the ephemeral literature of the time, but his matured convictions are recorded in the handsome volume which has now reached this country. The volume is worthy of a place in every South African library." DIAMOND FIELDS ADVERTISER.—" An earnest, thoughtful, and sympathetic effort to grapple with a tremendously difficult and complex problem. Sir Matthew Nathan contributes a preface in which he bears personal testimony to the author's keenness and sympathy, and shows that in large measure he shares the views expressed." TRANSVAAL LEADER.— "Anyone who reads 'Black and White in South-East Africa ' intelligently should not only have an appreciation of the extent and importance of the native question, but a useful work- ing grasp of its details. Mr. Evans does not stop at abstract discussion, but carries matters boldly into the realms of constructive suggestion." NATAL ADVERTISER.— "So true, exhaustive, kindly, yet shrewd a picture of a native race has surely never been drawn yet, and the average Natalian reading Mr. Evans' pages will be forced to ac- knowledge the correctness of the picture and to acknowledge also that it brings out many a characteristic and feature that had escaped the reader's notice but which he is none the less compelled to recognize a& correct also." CONTEMPORARY REVIEW.— "To all who are really interested in this immense and very difficult subject we commend a study of this, book with its mass of information and its consideration of the actual facts that arise out of the contact of black and white in South-East Africa." ATHENAEUM. — "Mr. Evans' long and earnest study of native questions entitles him to a respectful hearing. His book is temperate,, thoughtful, and fair-minded. It is well worth the attention of everyone interested in the peculiar and difficult problems with which it deals." THE TIMES. — "The present volume is particularly welcome. It is an important contribution to the many works already published dealing with Sociology on the African continent. ... Sir Matthew Nathan writes an instructive preface to the book, which should be widely read as a wise and considered contribution to our literature on the subject." BLACK AND WHITE IN THE SOUTHERN STATES A STUDY OF THE RACE PROBLEM IN THE UNITED STATES FROM A SOUTH AFRICAN POINT OF VIEW MAURICE S. EVANS, C.M.G. AUTHOR OF "BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTH-EAST AFRICA WITH MAP LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO. 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON FOURTH AVENUE & 30th STREET, NEW YORK BOMBAY, CALCUTTA, AND MADRAS 1915 etf t* To my Wife ELIZABETH F. EVANS INTRODUCTION. I make no apology for adding another to the mass of books already written on this subject. Before it loses its intense burning interest for students of mankind, long before the black man and the white man live together in harmony on a basis mutually acceptable, many more books will be written. The keen intellect and tender conscience of the Twentieth Century both imperatively demand that the illogical and unethical attitude in which the races face each other in the Southern States and in South Africa shall be changed for one that we can justify, and with which the black man shall be satisfied. Our question is one phase of the greater problem of race and colour which touches all the European nations, and nearly every backward race and tribe throughout the wide world. The problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the colour line. So far as I know only two men intimately acquainted by personal experience and residence in other countries in which black and white come together, have visited the Southern States and written their experiences thereon. One of these is Sir H. H. Johnston, who knows many parts of Africa with a knowledge that is in some respects unique. The other is Mr. W. P. Livingstone, author of II Black Jamaica," who writes on the North American Negro in "The Race Conflict," and who has a practical acquaintance with the race in Jamaica. The Union of South Africa is the country in which the problem is most nearly like what it is in the Southern 328275 vi INTRODUCTION States. As far as my knowledge goes no South African has gone through the South with a view to study the question, certainly no South African has written upon it. These facts should warrant me, even in view of the many scores of volumes already in print. They will, however, only justify me if the question is approached in a right spirit, and with a full sense of the responsibility which attaches to all who attempt to guide public opinion on a question so closely touching the lives and happiness of millions. The partisan spirit, partial to one race or the other, permeates most of the writings on the subject. Probably much bitterness, as well as false views, have been due to this. With any power of mind and will I possess I will strive to avoid this pitfall. The issues are too great, the results for good or evil may be so immense, that no preconceived ideas or partiality should be allowed to cloud clarity of view : . or warp the judgment. The method must be scientific, facts observed and noted with scrupulous care, and no conclusion drawn until the body of data fully warrants it. Willingness to cast aside, as well as to gather up, must be a ruling principle of such an inquiry. Yet with the clear eye and balanced mind must be an impressionable openness, a waiting spirit, through which shall freely flow the genius of the people and the land. In this spirit I endeavour to unravel some of the knots in this tangled skein of human endeavour and error. I have not written an itinerary of my journey ings. It will be sufficient to say that I went by ordinary trains from New York to New Orleans by one route and returned by another, making many side journeys from the railway to the more remote country districts. I never once travelled by night, daylight was too valuable. I talked with the men I met on the trains, the roads, the farms, and at the hotels, and I stayed at the homes of both black and white. I visited quays, markets, courts, INTRODUCTION vii factories, churches, schools, institutions of all kinds, wherever men did most congregate, and wherever their activities were being carried on. Before leaving New York, among other friends, I met Mr. Edgar Gardner Murphy, author of "The Basis of Ascendancy," "The Present South," and other works, and an authority on the racial situation in America. From him I received advice which struck the right note. Often I had seen well-intentioned visitors to South Africa, who, anxious to receive true impressions, got but a blurred, one-sided, distorted picture of men and things in our country. Mr. Murphy in effect said : Remember there is a white South as well as a black one ; too many in their desire for startling effect and the unusual, only see the unaccustomed black man, and are blind to the white man, who is as much a factor in the problem as the other. Also beware of being personally conducted by those holding one-sided views, for, he said, I have seen students come to this country and leave it having only seen one side of the shield, and not knowing there was another. You will hear the most contradictory statements, each purporting to be statements of facts and the most diverse opinions based upon them ; listen to all, check all by your own observations, try to hold the balance level, and draw your own conclusions. I found my South African experience of value here in keeping me clear of pitfalls into which I had seen others fall. I find myself now in the position of those who have so often excited the ire and contempt of my fellow-colonists in South Africa, those who, after a few short months of travel, presume to write a book and give opinions and advice on subjects on which they, the long experienced, feel diffident to express an opinion. Always recognizing that these impressionist writings vary much in value, and that many are inaccurate and hasty, I never endorsed the opinion that nothing of value could come from those who visited our land. Rather I was always keenly viii INTRODUCTION desirous to learn the impressions of those who came with open eye and fresh mind to view us, and I have often found much of value in what they said and wrote. I know how often the first fresh and bright impressions become dim and cloudy from familiarity. I know how the angle becomes fixed, and how we see only what we saw ; how often the old resident cannot see the wood for trees. Admitting that the studies of the man who knows every detail, and yet can keep his detachment and hold the balance level, are the most valuable, I do not lightly estimate the contributions of the qualified visitor who can take the big view. I feel that the man with the open mind, concentrating on the subject, who is qualified by previous study, and knowledge of conditions in other lands, may often grasp the broad outlines of a situation hidden from the local man by a mass of detail. Such a one can also supply the enlightenment that comes from comparison. I cannot in this effort pretend to be more than an impressionist, and if error has crept into my pages will be only too glad to have it pointed out, and retract as far as possible. Before leaving for America I spent some months in reading the literature of the subject, and I think I may say, saturated myself with it. I found much that was of value, much that was inaccurate and prejudiced. I trust that, though I read with avidity, I exercised some discretion. Owing in part to our remoteness, and to the fact that we are not yet a literary people, most of this intensely interesting literature is quite unknown to South Africans. In what I write I shall freely draw upon this source of information, giving as far as possible the authority when doing so. I also append a Bibliography of the subject. I do not pretend that this is complete, but it includes those books which for different reasons I found of most value, and I INTRODUCTION ix give briefly my impressions on each, in the hope that what I found of such intense interest may also be read by my fellow-colonists. For if we are ever to justify our presence here in South Africa, the present indifference on the one hand, and hasty conclusions on the other, must give place to close study, accurate thinking, and just and statesmanlike action. It may be that some Southerners will do me the honour of reading this book. Knowing their own people and locality intimately, they will probably find that what I say does not altogether apply to their conditions, and that they can point to many exceptions. I am fully aware that I am dealing with a big country, singularly alike in its general social conditions, yet necessarily with many local variations. Richmond Virginia, and Charleston South Carolina, are like and unlike, and both are unlike New Orleans. The position in Georgia is not the same as in Louisiana, and Tennessee is unlike both. Local investigators have made detailed study of particular cities and sections, and as far as possible I have availed myself of these to check my general statements and conclusions. I am giving a general impression, true of the whole, but perhaps not wholly true of any one part. Without much kind help I could not have seen, heard, and experienced all I did. For this help, and for candid expressions of opinion freely given, I owe many Americans, both white and black, a deep debt of gratitude. It is impossible for me to thank all by name. Should any Southerner, feeling the similarity of the problems which demand an answer in both lands, visit South Africa on a similar quest to mine, I hope to be able to reciprocate the kindly advice, help and hospitality so freely given to me. The first result of all these facilities of reading and observation was to overpower, almost smother me with a mass of detail, often apparently contradictory, which it seemed impossible to classify. By degrees the chaotic x INTRODUCTION mass resolved itself, and the facts arranged themselves in something like order. Before I left America I formed certain definite opinions. I feel that it is in large part due to my long South African experience, and much pondering on that experience, that I was at all able to do so. The application of certain principles outlined in the earlier chapters of the book guided me to the results I give in the later chapters. Upon these conclusions I would very much appreciate the criticism of my American friends, whether such be favourable or adverse. I approach and handle it from a somewhat different point of view to theirs; open free discussion from all stand- points is desirable if South Africans and Americans are to understand, and make that understanding the basis of action, which will result in the establishment of better race relations in both lands. In this spirit I publish my contribution. MAURICE S. EVANS. HlLLCREST, BEREA RlDGE, CONTENTS. Introduction v/ I. The Question of the Century II. Free Discussion . \A III. Some Thoughts on Race J IV. Race Prejudice V. The South Land ." -jVvi. The Past, Slavery . " . -\'VII. The Past, Reconstruction 'VVIII. The White Factor {%-^IX. The Black Man, with whom is the Part White \/X. What the Negro has Achieved - XI. Negro Organization — Church and Lodge -OCII. Education, Principally that of the Black Child \ XIII. Education Linked to Life — Hampton and Tuskegee XIV. Grievances. The Jim Crow Car ~, — XV. Political Rights and Wrongs .... 1/ XVI. Separation in Schools and Places of Public Resort vy XVII. The Negro before the Court . * XVIII. Personal Injustice -XIX. Blood Guiltiness XX. Blood Admixture— The Sin of the White Man ^XXI. The Basis of Race Hostility .- PAGE V I 6 10 17 35 44 49 55 83 97 114 123 140 i47 155 158 161 166 183 192 xii CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE XXII. The Two Schools . . . . . . 195 XXIII. The North — A Voter without a Livelihood . .210 XXIV. The South — A Livelihood without a Vote . .224 XXV. City and Country . . . . Y^ . .233 XXVI. Living Examples . . . . . . -237 XXVII. The Great Opportunity . . . . . -247 XXVIII. Comparisons . . . . . . .260 XXIX. Opinions of Others and their Application . .265 XXX. The Future . . . . . . . .271 XXXI. For South Africa 280 XXXII. Bibliography 284 Index 2 8 9 MAP. The United States .... To fold out at end. The country chiefly dealt with in this book is that lying to the South and East of the red line. CHAPTER I. THE QUESTION OF THE CENTURY. Many signs and portents are in the air showing that among the many questions calling for solution, which are brought to the front by the rapidly changing con- dition of the world, that of the relations of the races hitherto regarded as civilized with those we have been accustomed to consider backward, will be the world-wide and important one. Rapid intercommunication, the increase of travel and expansion of commerce, with the tremendous material interests involved, make it impossible for the civilized, industrial, and manufacturing nations to regard it lightly. The responsibilities they have assumed in distant parts of the world will yearly more and more force upon their attention the problem of what their attitude should be towards those for whom they have taken the responsi- bility of government, or to whom they are bound by political and economic ties. Those who have assumed overlordship might be tempted to temporize, and will in fact probably do so, and only consider the question under pressure, but that pressure is not likely to be withheld for long. For all the world over the coloured races are begin- ning to realize themselves and to press for answers to ques- tions that have hitherto been evaded. The Japanese are knocking at the Western gates of the New World, and the leaders of the millions of India are asking for admittance to lands which have been so far closed to them. The development of the West African peoples goes on apace, and their increasing agricultural production is giving i 2 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES them a status in the modern world higher than that hitherto reached by any purely African people. And in South Africa there are uneasy movements betokening awakening consciousness. All these are but the begin- nings of the stirrings of the peoples. Of the many striking changes that impress an oversea visitor to the centres of Europe, not the least is the ever- increasing number of members of alien and coloured races he sees, and this especially holds good of London. I have lately had the privilege of living there for over a year, with ample leisure to wander and study social con- ditions. My experience must be that of many visitors from the Colonies. In my early years, before leaving for South Africa, a black face in the streets was an object of interest and curiosity. Now no one is surprised to meet dozens during one afternoon. The majority are well dressed, and appear very much at home in their new environment, and are often accompanied by, and evidently very familiar with, men and women of English race. Inquiries need not be profound to discover that the family type of boarding-house, where they enter into the social life of the occupants, is much frequented by them. If any distinction is drawn it is not to their disadvantage. The average Colonist shudders at this social inter- mixture, and often plainly shows disapproval, and it may be that this, combined with more intimate personal knowledge, will modify the present position and attitude in Britain. Meantime Hindoos, Chinese, Japanese and other Eastern peoples, as well as a large number of Africans, are rapidly learning the intimacies of English social life, and apparently enjoying its amenities. I found that a large number of these visitors are students at the higher seats of learning. What may be seen in London is the outward and visible sign of race movement and race aspiration in those who have long been stationary and silent. The awaken- ing of India, the enlightenment and uprising of Japan, the revolution in China, and the coming to consciousness THE QUESTION OF THE CENTURY 3 of the Africans of West and South, are phenomena which will more and more demand attention from Western civilization. The issues thus raised may be divided into three classes. 1. The relations between Europeans and (principally) Asiatics as independent States. 2. The government of tropical dependencies in which the white man cannot make a permanent home, such as the West Indies and the greater part of Africa. 3. Countries with a climate and surroundings suitable to European family life, but with a large population of a backward race, as South Africa, the Highlands of East Africa, and portions of Northern Rhodesia. I have not a personal knowledge of conditions in the first and second classes, and there the problem differs greatly from what it is in the third class, with which I have an intimate acquaintance. The most important countries which fall into the third class are the southern portions of the United States of America, the Union of South Africa, and probably the high plateau of British East Africa. In the two former the problem is insistent, in the last named it is gradually surging to the front. In the Union of South Africa, and in the Southern States, it has been proved by the experience of nearly three centuries that the climate and conditions are favourable to European family life. The original settlers have increased in numbers by natural reproduction, and their descendants are a vigorous race, mentally and physically. They have the temperamental leaning of the race towards a democratic form of government, and nowhere does the democratic theory of government find stronger supporters. In both cases the theory stops at members of the dominant race. By Federal law in the United States all men are de- clared free and equal, with equal rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and to all conveniences of 4 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES civilized life. The Constitution explicitly states that the franchise shall be the privilege of all, notwithstanding race, colour or previous condition of servitude. In practice and by State law, one-third of the population in the South is denied social and political equality. In the Union of South Africa one province of the four, the Cape Colony, recognizes political equality by law ; two, the Transvaal and Orange Free State, explicitly by law deny it ; and in one, Natal, there is a separate code of law for black and white. Both South Africa and the United States are in reality not democracies, but oligarchies, and the prac- tical discrepancy between theory and practice is one of the intricacies of the problem. Notwithstanding the markedly different experiences through which each coun- try has gone since European settlement first began, the visitor from South Africa to the Southern States sees much that is familiar. Every now and then some experience brings vividly to his mind the country he has left. He finds that the human elements being the same, the results are often strikingly similar. It was one of the pleasures of my visit to find, so far away, how often the very conditions I had left were reproduced before my eyes, the thousands of miles melted away, and Africa was before me. Almost as great a pleasure was noting and trying to explain the differences I saw. These were, however, less than the resemblances. In essence the problem is the same for both of us. The question the Fates have set both countries is this — How to ensure that two races so different, yet living in the same land, shall each have opportunity for its full development, without clashing and without fusion. The international relations of East and West will possibly be arranged on a mutually satisfactory basis. The genius of the European peoples concerned will probably enable them to govern their tropical depen- dencies with justice and consideration, and adjust their THE QUESTION OF THE CENTURY 5 methods to suit the development and changing needs of the governed. Where white and black have each their permanent homes and live intermixed, as in South Africa and the United States, the problem is much more complex and difficult. The events of the nineteenth century have accentuated and increased these difficulties. It is the problem of the twentieth century to discover a basis of adjustment. CHAPTER II. FREE DISCUSSION. To those who do not know South Africa, this short chapter will seem quite unnecessary, as in it I wish to consider the statement previously made that open frank discussion is essential if we are to arrive at the truth on this question, and get guidance for the future. To those who live elsewhere, where every subject under heaven is made matter of inquiry and debate, such a proposition is self-evident. And it would be accepted in theory by the majority of South Africans. There is, at the same time, a feeling, often implied rather than expressed, that questions affect- ing the native population should be treated differently. The idea has, since Union, been expressed by one highly placed, that talking and writing on the native question only did harm. This attitude is, I think, due to the position adopted by the ruling race, a position hitherto assented to without demur by the native people, that their status and circumstances should be decided for them, and not by them. While recognizing that justice must be the ruling principle, it is felt by many in South Africa that justice must be dispensed in the spirit of the benevolent despot. It is essential to this view that those thus governed should not 'be encouraged to think over and debate the position assigned to them. Those holding this view have been familiar with the native as a tribesman, subject to the autocratic rule of a chief. Under this rule they saw the native contented and law-abiding. The white man and his government FREE DISCUSSION 7 taking the place of the chief, they demand the same acquiescence to the acts of government as was given to the dictates of the tribal head. They do not fully realize that the tribal system was one evolved by, and understood and loved by, the native people. Nor do they see that while submissive to the commands, even the whims, of the chief, they felt in the marrow of their being, that the chief was of themselves, and stood, not apart, but as one representing and identical with themselves. Judged by the ideas of freedom held by the white man, the native was often sorely oppressed by the head of his tribe. The native, conversely, felt that these acts were the prerogative of his tribal superior, and were not to be resented. Often also the white man loses sight of the fact that autocratic power was limited by the influence and advice of those councillors who knew and repre- sented the desires of the people. At the back of the submission to tribal authority was the feeling that the ruling power is of them and by them, and their interests are identical. This feeling was at first transferred to the white ruler, and for a time the inherited tendency held sway, but all in South Africa know how rapidly it is becoming attenuated and dying away. The circumstances have changed, and with it the attitude. Those Europeans who have known it in the past, and cling to it as the proper relation between white and black, will under the changed conditions have to modify the tradition. The rule of full and free discussion must needs apply here as in all other affairs of life. It is true that it may tend to unrest of the native mind. To some extent this cannot be avoided. It is equally true that all who take part in such dis- cussion should do so with a full sense of responsibility, and recognize the possibility of unsettlement that lies in it. The greatest tact and judgment are necessary, and more restraint than is usually used in political dis- cussion. We must not obscure the truth or give a false 8 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES impression, but try to put ourselves in the other man's place, remembering that what is obvious to us may not be clear to him, and do all possible to prevent misunder- standing. If this is the spirit that guides the discussion, not harm but good will be the result. The Union of South Africa is ruled by the white electorate, they are responsible for the government of a people five times as numerous as they are. The majority of the governing group do not understand the question in all its bearings, nor have they time or inclination to study it. Their chief concern is with the economic de- velopment of the country, the part they are to play in it, and the reward they are to get for these activities. The native is of interest to them only so far as he assists to this end. Yet to any general line of native policy they must, as electors and members of the governing race, give their assent. It is the first essential that they should be educated to and for this responsibility, and how can it be done without discussion ? If that discussion is to be limited and hampered by considerations of its effect on the na- tive mind, what is the education likely to be worth ? In the best interests of the native people, perhaps a benevolent despotism would be the ideal form of govern- ment, then discussion might be limited to the Chamber of the Executive. Instead of this we have the rule of a nominal democracy, in reality an oligarchy masked as a democracy. We must take the position with its limitations and drawbacks. One of these is full and free debate of the subject, ever conducted, we hope, with judgment and restraint, but open, impartial, non-partisan, without obscuration of the truth wherever it may lead. However much it might be desired to limit discussion, the interests and relations of the races are so intimately interwoven, that they crop up at all times and on all subjects. I write this in March, 191 3. The Parliament of the Union of South Africa met last month at Capetown. FREE DISCUSSION 9 Internal dissension in the Government party gave un- usual opportunity to private members. Notices of motion were given and the questions raised were those nearest to the hearts of the representatives. It was significant how the question of race relations came ever to the front. It entered into almost every subject intro- duced. Labour, immigration, the purchase of land, the sale of firearms, education, all inevitably brought in the native. And so it must and will be. It may be considered that I am fighting a shadow, and that few in South Africa would openly favour a policy of limited discussion or discreet silence. This is probably true, but there is an undercurrent of doubt as to the desirability or wisdom of openly talking of the subject in all its bearings. Many would disavow the feeling, yet in subtle fashion it is part of their mental equipment, born of familiarity with the old idea of rule by the wise minority. Under present conditions it must go, and it is without hesitation or reservation that I add my contribution to the study of a question bearing so closely on our great South African problem, and which I would probably never have undertaken but for the be- lief that such an inquiry would be of value to us in our task in South Africa. CHAPTER III. SOME THOUGHTS ON RACE. During a recent visit to Europe I had an opportunity of attending a memorable gathering — the _first Universal Races Congress. Delegates were present from all the nations of Europe, from the greater part of Asia, from Africa, and America. They varied in type, colour, and appearance, from the Scandinavian to the Negro. The object of this notable meeting of such diverse people was laid down in the prospectus issued by the Council as " the discussion in the light of science and the modern conscience, of the general relations subsisting between the peoples of the West and those of the East, between so-called white and so-called coloured peoples, with a view to encouraging between them a fuller understanding, the most friendly feelings, and a heartier co-operation ". The papers which formed the basis of discussion were wisely printed and circulated among the members before the meeting, thus giving all an opportunity of reading and familiarizing themselves with the broad outlines of the question under debate. Men of high standing and acquirements contributed these essays, and altogether they form a volume of great and permanent value to all students of race questions. Eight sessions were held and the following are the divisions of the question for purposes of discussion, which will indicate the scope of the inquiry undertaken : — ist Session. Fundamental considerations. 2nd „ Conditions of progress. General problems. IO SOME THOUGHTS ON RACE u 3rd Session. Conditions of progress. Special problems. 4th „ I. Special problems in inter-racial economics. II. Peaceful contact between civiliza- tions. 5th „ The modern conscience in relation to racial questions generally. 6th ,, The modern conscience in relation to the Negro and American Indian. 7th „ Positive suggestions for promoting inter-racial friendliness. 8th „ The same subject continued. In addition to other preliminary circulars issued there was one containing a long list of questions, submitted presumably to authorities who could not personally attend the Congress. No indication is given of the nature of the answers received, which if published should be of more than ordinary interest. Although the Congress did not adopt any platform beyond stating their general object, which I have quoted, a perusal of some of the questions submitted in the circular referred to indicates preconceived opinions on the question of race hardly in keeping with a strict scientific inquiry into the whole question. What I mean is shown in Question 5 which runs thus : (a) Is perhaps the deepest cause of race misunderstandings the tacit assumption that the present characteristics of a race are the expression of fixed and permanent race characteristics ? (b) If so, could not anthropologists, sociologists, and scientific thinkers as a class powerfully assist the move- ment for a juster appreciation of the races by persistently pointing out the fundamental fallacy involved in taking a static instead of a dynamic, a momentary instead of a historic, a local instead of a general, point of view of race characteristics ? I attended and listened with the greatest possible interest to the discussions, which lasted several days. 12 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES It seemed to me, that while charging those who differed from them with making an assumption, the note of the majority of the speakers was that of assumption. They took for granted that the evident palpable differences between the varied races of mankind were not deep seated, much less fundamental. They argued that given the same geographical, economic, and cultural conditions, races apparently different would respond in the same way. That environment rather than heredity is and has been the great force in causing difference, and is and will be the power which will bring the peoples of the earth together with like aims and aspirations. Implied in this is the idea that the civilization of Western Europe is the standard of excellence, and to achieve this the nations of the world will gladly strive, successful as they attain in greater or less degree. I have thus briefly given my experience at, and con- clusions on, this distinguished gathering, because I feel the spirit of those present, and often the opinions voiced, are present-day expressions of a school with which I, and many others of actual practical experience with backward and alien races, join issue. I admire and would support the effort they make for a better understanding, for the extinction of unreasoning prejudice, for mutual respect in place of estrangement and hostility. I believe in the brotherhood of man, and I believe that, widely as the races differ, the resemblances are far greater than the differences, that human nature is much the same all the world over. If we could trace our descent far enough into the distant past we should probably find that Euro- pean and Negro, Chinaman and Papuan, had a common origin. Experience also shows that even people so diverse as these respond in much the same fashion to the same stimuli, and under given provocation, love and hate, desire and accumulate, in much the same way. This does not blind me to the fact that these re- semblances vary enormously with different races, and be- come very much attenuated when we compare the Bush- SOME THOUGHTS ON RACE 13 man, the Veddah, or the Andaman Islander with the Englishman or the German. Probably these resemblances become less or more in proportion to the length of time which has elapsed since they diverged from a common stock. Under the same circumstances the Englishman, German, and Scandinavian will act and react much in the same way, the Spaniard and Greek and Italian with some differences, the Persian and Hindoo will vary still more, while the Negro and the Papuan will respond in different measure and probably in different quality. How many hundreds of centuries it may be since the Negro and the Englishman diverged no one knows, but it has resulted in a difference of colour, feature, and physique that is obvious to all, and many who know the races best believe that the physical differences are signs of difference in mentality and spirit that it were fatuous to overlook. To assume that the results of geologic time can be swept away, or permanently modified, by a few years' special training, is to place the ephemeral before the fundamental. Only a few of those who have lived their lives among a backward people, even one with so many admirable qualities as the Bantu of South Africa, are inclined to minimize the deep-seated nature of race difference. To know a race one must live with them, and even then many of those whose whole life has been spent among a primitive people, and who thought they under- stood, will find, as many South Africans have done, that there are depths they never plumbed, and at some supreme moment deep-seated, hidden race tendencies become apparent, that make them wonder whether, after all, their knowledge is only of the surface, and wonder whether any white man will ever be able to understand the workings of the black man's mind and spirit. The enthusiastic and altruistic supporters of the theory of the all-sufficing power of education and environment, are not usually those who have had this practical experience. i 4 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES They have met members of an imitative race temporarily divorced from their natural surroundings, away from their fellows, under conditions tending to re- press their inborn race character, and stimulate the artificial, acquired habits, and they have discovered that the shibboleths of the white man could be accurately pronounced by them. These isolated ones had been usually prepared for the test by formal and conventional education, often by practical divorce from those of their own blood. To the believer in the all-sufficient power of education and environment the case is proved by this evidence, knowing not that beneath the absorbent surface is the adamant of their race genius, formed by gradual accretion from thousands of long-forgotten ancestors. The rapidity with which many members of a primitive race can, under favourable stimuli, absorb and imitate, is indeed marvellous, and it is not surprising that those who know only such aberrant members of a race, should judge all by these exceptional ones. I do not mean exceptional in their capacity but in their circumstances, for probably, given the opportunity, a considerable proportion of the backward race would similarly imitate the example of those who had acquired an outward and surface resemblance in manner, tongue, and carriage, to those of a more forceful and persistent group among whom they dwelt for a time. The indwelling spirit it is that matters, and no amount of veneer will even in generations materially change it. Education may give it direction and oppor- tunity, the final result will be the effect of the spirit moulded through the long past. Pressure from without, if long continued, may modify it, must have modified it in the past, but the recipient must fight hereditary im- pulse and desire at every step, and beyond a certain limited depth, outside influence will not penetrate. How deep this may be our present experience cannot tell us, but indications are not wanting ; and these point to the conclusion that we cannot predict how the inner nature, which has taken so long to mould, will react to alien outside SOME THOUGHTS ON RACE 15 influence and pressure, but we may be certain that no change of environment will materially change the spiritof a race in the short time many anticipate, and which is so dis- proportionate to the ages during which it has taken shape. To see the free play of heredity and of environment in a given case on a large scale would be of the highest in- terest. For such an experiment a race should be given opportunity to imitate the arts, culture, and social life of a more complex group, and then left to work out its own salvation. I do not wish to dogmatize, but I feel that the result after some generations would be altogether different from the development of the race which had evolved the culture, and given them the opportunity. All through individual and group life opportunities occur, temptations arise, choice is presented. On the choice at the fateful moment may depend progress, stag- nation, or retrogression. Let us not forget that the ac- quired habits and characters are not transmissible ; each generation must begin at the beginning, the ancient ger- minal characteristics are all that the child inherits. A race may copy what is acquired, that is easy, but the Will which is the force behind the culture it is impossible to copy. In everyday life we are far too prone to judge by the super- ficial, though instinctively aware that there is a greater force beneath, and it is character after all that matters. Race is deeper than culture. And so I would wish it. To mould all the diverse peoples of this wonderful varied world into one type does not seem to me to be desirable. We have our different gifts, and I would allow all such free play. In our estimate races have risen and declined, and given in the process something essential and of value to the world. From some it may have been little, as the folksong contribution of the Negro of the Southern States. Who can say what it may be in the future ? This view has been voiced by one of the foremost of the Negro race, Dr. E. W. Blyden, who, though born in America, lived and worked among his own people in West Africa. At a dinner given to him in London in 16 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES August, 1903, speaking to the educated black men present, he said : "Now, gentlemen, you who have done me the honour to ask me to come here to-night are certainly among the leaders of your people. You have had access to European culture. You should be the leaders of thought, the leaders of action among them. My message to you to-night therefore is to school yourselves to look upon life from the standpoint of your own nationality. With your study of English history and institutions unite the study of the institutions and customs of your own country. I pray that you may be gifted with the moral and mental grace to see clearly, and pursue consistently, the path of duty, of preservation of prosperity, of dignity, and of genuine respectability for your people without any reference to alien theories, especially those which we are now too clearly discovering do not for us make for growth and usefulness, but are beset with perils and attended with weakness. We must all enter earnestly and intelli- gently upon the study of alien customs brought among us, comparing them with the customs of our fathers, with the view of resisting the one so far as they do not con- duce to our permanent welfare, always keeping that one great truth in mind that the life is more than meat and the body than raiment." The doctrine of race growth thus voiced was accepted by others of the race of the speaker, and there is a dis- tinct movement among West Africans to strive to retain their national character and customs, and resist the tend- ency to follow and copy the civilization of the white man. Our social system and civilization is not so perfect that I would impose it on all. The extremes of poverty and wealth, hardship and soul-destroying luxury, prosti- tution, physical degeneration, group war, social unrest, and nervous prostration from suicidal competition and emulation, are unknown to our simpler and often happier brethren. It may be that from them we may learn the lost virtue of content in the simpler things of life ; and a physical and mental balance making for happiness. CHAPTER IV. RACE PREJUDICE. I think it well, in this early chapter, to inquire into, and analyse as far as possible, the feeling which goes by the name of race prejudice, which enters so largely into all questions of race, and is in particular so potent a factor in the question in the Southern States and South Africa. The terms race animosity, race hostility, or even race hatred, are often used loosely as synonymous with race prejudice. It is not however necessarily any of these, they are simple phenomena, while the feeling I want to try to understand is much more subtle and complex. It is necessary to a clear understanding of the attitude of white and black to each other, and of the practical results that follow from such attitude, that we take some pains to discover what this factor, which plays such an im- portant part in the problem, really is and on what it is founded. If we find that, wholly or in part, it seems part of our racial human nature, our conclusions will be fundament- ally different from what they will be if it proves to be based entirely on economic grounds, or on selfishness or jeal- ousy, or if again it is simply a dislike for what is unknown or unfamiliar. To the majority of those whose lives have been passed in a country with a homogeneous population such as England, the matter seems simple enough. To them this feeling is what is implied in the term prejudice, an un- reasoning and unreasonable dislike to those differing from ourselves, akin to that which is felt for some individual, and which is overcome, or changed to liking by further 17 2 1 8 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES association and knowledge. It is by them condemned as unworthy in those accepting the Christian doctrine, or even in a broad-minded man of the world, and it should be fought against and overcome. The average man, accepting the democratic political creed of Western Europe, which knows not race, nor colour, is strongly opposed to any political discrimination, and generally also to any social differentiation between those of different blood and ancestry. He would give equality of treatment and opportunity to all alike, whether white, yellow, or black. The followers of the Churches go farther. To them all men are brethren, equally fallen from grace, equally entitled to salvation through the same Mediator. To emphasize differences, and advocate different treatment for those made of one blood, and for whom Christ died, is sinful and to be utterly condemned. The freedom of social intercourse, even to intermar- riage, between East and West, European and African, to be witnessed in England, is evidence that this dis- position is common. It is not however universal even there. I know Europeans, men and women alike, who have never lived outside Europe, who have a strong dis- taste for any kind of intercourse with those of a widely different race, and who find it requires a strong effort of will to come into close contact with them. These are, however, probably in a minority, and the feeling of repul- sion varies with different individuals. This is strikingly different from what obtains in all countries in which white and black live together in large numbers, although there prejudice varies in intensity, and differs in detail very considerably. These variations seem to me to be due to — first, the amount of difference between the races ; second, the relative numbers of each ; and third, the relations subsisting between them. In New Zealand, where about one million Europeans live in the same country as forty-five thousand brown- skinned, intelligent, exceedingly capable people of Poly- RACE PREJUDICE 19 nesian race, prejudice is at a minimum. The Maories are not dispersed among the whites as are the natives in South Africa, but are more or less segregated in certain portions of the North Island ; there are thousands of white New Zealanders who have never seen a Maori. This fact, together with their meagre numbers, their high standard of capacity, their general abstention from industrial competition with the whites, and possibly their light colour, are factors which must be taken into account when considering the tolerance with which they are treated. Prejudice, especially in the districts in which they are comparatively numerous, is not altogether absent, but the visitor from South Africa is struck by the practical equality of treatment that is meted out to them. It goes beyond this in some cases, for I have met European New Zealanders, who, when questioned, told me that they regard the Maories as their equals in every respect, and some, though I fancied there was an effort here, said they did not object to miscegenation. From my observations, however, it seemed to me that if the Maories were more numerous, and more intermixed with the whites, the good-natured tolerance which I observed as the general note, would not stand the strain. In countries like India where the ruling race is West- ern European with but comparatively few who are not in the upper places, and where the higher caste of na- tives may be wealthy and intelligent, race feeling takes a different phase. The line is not drawn as in the Southern States and South Africa. There must be in- tercommunication, often ceremoniously elaborate social intercourse, between the highly placed of both races, and this often obscures what is really felt. Many of the factors which go to make race prejudice obvious and bitter elsewhere, and which I will mention later, are absent. But though there are exceptions the unwritten law makes the line of cleavage clear, and social intercourse of the kind that leads to intermarriage is never permitted. In the Southern States and South Africa race prejudice 20 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES perhaps reaches its maximum. In the former no person with the slightest trace of Negro blood may associate with whites, or be classed as a white man. I will not here enter into the practical, often harsh, manner in which this operates, much of what I say later will deal with this phase of the question. In South Africa the distinctions drawn, as shown in my book " Black and White in South-East Africa," areas clear and unmistak- able as the colour of the races. Much of this treatment may be regarded as due, not to a considered policy, but to what is usually termed race prejudice. The anomalies to be observed are many, and may be, and are, legiti- mately used as arguments by those who minimize the real force of the feeling and urge that it is ridiculous and inhuman, not based on any fact in Nature, and should be overcome. I give some of these. While the strongest resentment would be felt and expressed at a native travelling as a passenger in a public conveyance — a post cart or the like — especially with lady fellow-passengers, no exception is taken to his presence as a driver, and indeed ladies will manoeuvre to get the box-seat at his left hand rather than take an inside place. To eat at the same table as a native would be the depth of indignity, but to eat food cooked by him, and often actually handled in the uncleanest manner by him, is taken as a matter of course. We shrink at personal contact, and would shudder to take the hand of a black man, yet to his care, or that of his sister, we entrust our most precious living treasures in their tenderest years, to be washed, clothed, tended, often caressed. The presence of the cleanest native alive in the same rail- way carriage as whites is an offence which demands the immediate attention of the Government, the dirtiest may make our beds. A single case of marriage between white and black by Christian rites will fill the newspapers with columns of indignant protest, but illicit intercourse, even permanent concubinage, will pass unnoticed. RACE PREJUDICE 21 It is these anomalies which provide the ridicule in which the arrows are dipped which are drawn on this human feeling. They show how much of our fallen human nature goes to its composition, and yet indicate how complex a thing it is. They show that it is not contact, per se, that the white man resents, although the unthinking ones contend that it is, and allege dirt, odour, and general beastliness as the reason for their action. While this is a factor in cases, the underlying reason is their resentment at anything that savours of equality. So long as the black man is performing menial duties, and there is no attempt at, or suggestion of equality, contact often of the closest, is tolerated. A suspicion of equality and the choler of the white man rises and overcomes him. He does not consider the psychological basis for his resentment, nor does he care whether it is reasonable or not, he simply will not tolerate the assumption, and often any attempt at reasoned argument only fans the flame of his indignation. Consciously or unconsciously, rightly or wrongly, he conceives that once he grants equal social treatment of any kind, the logical end will be the demand for social equality of all kinds, including what he will never grant, the right of equal marriage. To the man who advocates a greater leniency and toleration he puts what he thinks and what really is the clinching argu- ment : Would you permit marriage between your daugh- ter and this man ? I know, and in some cases he knows, the argument that equal treatment in public conveyances, houses of accom- modation and entertainment does not imply equal social treatmentinallthe intimacies of life. Sometimeshe knows, but generally does not, the statement that if a race is not lowered in self-respect by unnecessary differentiation and unequal treatment, it will feel a racial solidarity that will make its members too proud to force themselves where they are not desired. These arguments are of no avail — he will not allow the thin end of the wedge ; in all social affairs implying equality they must be kept apart. 22 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES It may be appropriate here to cite what William Archer, an Englishman, whose book " In Afro- America " shows sympathy and good feeling towards the Negro race, says. Speaking of a visit to the Mississippi delta he writes : " What I think about the colour question must be superficial and may be foolish, but there is a certain evidential value about what I feel. The whole question is intimately one of feeling, and the instinctive sensations of an observer, with the prejudices of his race no doubt, but without local Southern prejudices, are, so far as they go, worth taking into account. Well, that day in the black belt of the Mississippi brought home to me the necessity of the Jim Crow car. The name, the insulting contemptuous name, is an outrage. There are some Negroes — so called — with whom I should esteem it a privilege to travel, and many others whose companion- ship would be in no way unwelcome to me ; but frankly — I do not want to spend a whole day in the Mississippi Valley cheek by jowl with a miscellaneous multitude of the Negro race. The permanent difficulty underlying the unpermanent ones that time, education, Christian charity and soap and water may remove, is that of un- likeness." Of a somewhat different nature, but with links binding it to this form of the prejudice, is the economic factor. This is usually connoted with the skilled forms of labour, in South Africa, at present at all events, the prerogative of the white artisan, and some critics who pride themselves on their liberality of outlook blame the white artisan for his narrow-minded selfishness in that he will not allow the black man, however skilled and efficient, to have an equal opportunity with himself. Let no one make a mistake here. The farmer will not object to the industrial train- ing of natives which will fit them to relieve him of the labour of putting up a fence, or of doing rough carpentry on his farm, he will encourage it, and pride himself that he is not as these town artisans. Once, however, let it be ap- parent that the native is going to adopt improved meth- RACE PREJUDICE 23 ods of agriculture, and become a competitor, and not a labourer, and his broad-minded sympathy will vanish. So with the learned professions. It needed only the admis- sion of one or two natives, who had unquestionable qualifications, acquired abroad, to be admitted to the Bar of South Africa, to make the legal profession pass resolu- tions discriminating against all those not of pure European descent. All this seems selfish enough. If remonstrance is urged against it, the answer is, Self-preservation is the first law of Nature. And there is much force in this, for if economic com- petition between the races in all walks of life is to be the rule, a struggle for existence would ensue in which race prejudice would be fanned into race hatred, and although the result would be doubtful, the existence of the white man might be imperilled. It may not be clearly seen by the threatened ones, but I believe there is an instinctive feeling, akin to the one I have previously mentioned, that if the white man and the black struggle together for economic life, the weaker of the now dominant race would have to take their place with the higher strata of the black race, and they or their children would lose rank, become intermixed, and lose their race purity. These are the more earthly and material component parts of this widely spread feeling, and if they were all it might seem that the contention of those who condemn it as unworthy, selfish, and base, of no value, but rather a hindrance to the race, to be thrust from us by the higher altruism, would be worthy our serious considera- tion. But is this all? I cannot think so. A distinguished American writer, Professor Josiah Royce, of Harvard University, takes this view, and says this feeling is simply a variation of the unreasoning fear and pre- judice we have against mice and snakes. Most people have a fear and loathing of the latter, and if possible kill them at sight. It may be argued that they are God's creatures and form a part of the wonderful scheme of creation, and 24 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES have their uses in the plan of the whole. It may, however, well be that the instinctive feeling of dread which appears to be almost universal is one that has developed through countless generations, and has been and is of protective value to those having it. The simile does not seem to be a happy one, nor one that should carry much weight. It may be worth while to consider in what races this prejudice exists in its greatest intensity, and against whom it is usually directed. It is commonly accepted that it is strongest in the nations of Northern and Western Europe, and it is directed with the greatest force against those of Negro and Negroid descent. With perhaps certain excep- tions, which may be disregarded, these groups are the farthest apart, physically, mentally, and spiritually of any of the existing races of mankind. As races converge the pre- judice, though often present, is less intense, is often due to temporary causes, and is not so deep seated as that between more divergent groups. The races usually termed Latin, darker in hue, and possibly with some strands of kinship with the darker races, have not this feeling in the same intensity as the more Northern races, though it is un- doubtedly present in them also. Miscegenation is more frequent in French and Portuguese colonies than in those whose overlords are of Teutonic, Anglo-Saxon or Celtic stock, and although it generally takes the form of concu- binage, legal marriage is not uncommon. Nominally also in these colonies the coloured man has the right to vote. Still this does not mean that colour prejudice is non-existent. Indeed it sometimes takes a virulent and dangerous form, as in the case of the riots of a few years ago in Mauritius. I am told by residents in the island that this very serious disturbance was the immediate result of race prejudice, race jealousy, and race hatred, and that it was essentially Noir versus Blanc. It is difficult to account for all the phenomena connected with it on the ground of economic jealousy, or desire for dominance, though these are in- dubitably factors of importance. It is notorious that persons born and brought up in RACE PREJUDICE 25 England, in the traditions of race equality, are often more prejudiced when they come to live in a bi-racial country, than those brought up amongst a backward people. It is the rule and not the exception, that those from Britain, who have been associated with Church activities, who have been supporters of missions, and hold orthodox views on religious matters, who land in South Africa with these ideas undimmed, soon absorb the racial opinions current in the country of their adoption. Those who have nothing to risk or lose often hold most tenaciously to the popular doctrine. Cultured women, sympathetic and kindly in all their dealings with natives, who treat their coloured servants with the greatest possible consideration, have a shrinking from personal contact. Is it not possible, even probable, that besides the easily understood elements, there is a deeper instinc- tive and protective one, akin to that which preserves species in the lower animals, which is of value to the races and prevents race admixture and possible degeneration ? Only on this assumption can I account for all the facts. If this is so, the airy yet dogmatic manner in which some writers treat it is likely to lead us sadly astray. I know of no book on this subject by one who has actually lived among a primitive people in contact with a highly cultured race, and who has known from actual practical experience the atmosphere engendered under such circumstances. There is, however, one book by a well-known and distinguished author whose qualifications to deal with this subject I can only judge by his produc- tion, on which I would like to make a few remarks. When I first saw it announced I obtained and read it with eager- ness, for this question of Race prejudice has been one that I have long thought deserved much more attention than it had hitherto received. The work to which I refer is " Race Prejudice," by M. Jean Finot. The whole of his argument is that there are no deep- seated or essential differences between the so-called races 26 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES of mankind, and he caustically criticizes the findings of anthropology, and is particularly severe on the conclusions drawn from anthropometry or distinctions which are based on skull measurements. Here he has a good case, for although size and shape of head is often a marked and persistent race feature, far too much has been built upon it. That this is the case, and that the exaggerations of the anthropologists give an opening for the satirist, does not prove the case of M. Finot, though it gives him an excellent opportunity for sarcasm which is somewhat amusing to those whose practical knowledge enables them to check some of the statements he himself makes, and to analyse the evidence he often accepts in so simple and naive a manner. I give the following cases for the information of my South African readers, whose comments would prob- ably be more incisive than mine. M. Finot says: "The Griquas, mixed products of Hottentots and Dutch, or the Cafusos, are quite equal to pure whites, just as the cross breeds of Indian and Spanish are at least as good as the Spaniards themselves ". I have met many South Americans of mixed ancestry, but have never lived or even visited the countries in which these people live, and knowing how dangerous a little knowledge is, I (unlike M. Finot) refrain from dogmatizing. On the other hand, the Griquas I do know, and am familiar with many Europeans who live among them, and have daily dealings wi th them. It is utterly contrary to fact to say they are equal to Europeans; either physically, mentally, morally, as a whole, neither are they equal in any single character of value. A more unfortunate example for M. Finot's argu- ment he could not possibly have found, for the Griquas are a degenerate, dissolute, demoralized people, weak and unstable, lazy and thriftless. They appear to be constitu- tionally immoral, far more so than either the European or Bantu people among whom they live. The branch of these people with whom I am best acquainted live in Griqualand East, just south of the Natal border. They RACE PREJUDICE 27 came to this land, then unoccupied owing to native wars and thus called No Man's Land, under Adam Kok their chief, some half century ago. It is one of the best parts of South Africa, well grassed and well watered, with fertile arable land, a glorious climate, with good rainfall, and healthy for all kinds of live-stock. This goodly land was parcelled out to the Griqua families in farms of from 2000 to 3000 acres. Never had a people a better start in life. To-day the land has passed from them and they live miserably as squatters, as herds for Europeans, or without definite employment, and the farms they once held are owned and occupied by Europeans, who are prosperous and thriving, and constantly advancing in the amenities of life. The Griquas were not dispossessed by force ; excepting for one short-lived outbreak the country has been in peace. They were simply constitutionally unable to hold ; gin, immorality, laziness, debt, the lack of foresight and inability to forego present gratification for future well- being, are the reasons for their race failure. The methods of the incoming European were sometimes not justifiable, but the hopeless weakness of the Griqua was his undoing. I have gone into this case somewhat in detail, because I feel that if the other instances given by M. Finot have no more foundation in fact than this one, which I am able to check from my own personal knowledge, his conclusions are not of much value. But I cannot refrain from one or two other instances which will arouse amuse- ment or indignation in my South African readers according to their temperament ; — thus again M. Finot says : " It is ordinarily admitted that the Bushmen are descended from the Hottentots, as indeed their language shows. But the difference that separates them is considerable. The Bushmen are in the first place much darker than the Hottentots, and remind us of Guinean Negroes. But whereas the first live in the woods, the Hottentots are nomadic shepherds and live in the Steppes. . . . People have wished to see in the Bushmen a race quite apart, 28 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES the most monstrous and almost intermediary link between men and monkeys. Their excessive thinness and the remarkable smallness of their height, involve no ineluct- able fatality. It is all explained by hunger. It is enough to observe the rare specimens of Bushmen at the Cape, who are well nourished, and are changed in aspect and stature to see what a single element, viz., nourishment, can afford in the appearance of man." I cannot spare the time to adequately analyse this tissue of truth and falsehood. M. Finot desires to demonstrate the powerful and im- mediate effects of environment on race characters, and in this case assumes extreme thinness and, correctly, short stature, due he says to starvation, and removable by nourishment ; and extreme dark colour owing to living in the woods, reminding him of Guinean Negroes. I never heard of extreme thinness being specially characteristic of Bushmen, and certainly their colour could not remind one, with any knowledge of the subject, of Guinean Negroes. They varied in colour, but a light yellow tending towards brown was the usual one, and all South Africans and all ethnologists know they did not live in the woods, but as Dr. Theal says, " on the arid plains and the bare mountain sides of South Africa ". I cannot imagine any authority believing that the cha- racteristics of the Bushmen, short stature, kinky hair in tufts, triangular face, yellow colour, small extremities, along with certain peculiarities in the females, together with his extremely wild untameable nature, could be materi- ally altered by any change of food and habits within any reasonable time, and although the races have probably in- termixed to some extent, I have yet to discover the au- thority, unless trying to bolster up a preconceived theory, who believes these people were descended from the Hot- tentots. M. Finot is an advocate of race admixture. His panegyric cirTthe Griquas indicates his views on this subject. He cites Le Vailliant (an authority of doubtful value) to prove that race admixture promotes fertility. Le Vailliant states "that Hottentots, who generally give RACE PREJUDICE 29 birth to three or four children, have as many as twelve when united to white men or Negroes, the crossing of Negroes with white men and women produces similar results ". One would have thought that a scientific in- vestigator would have wanted far more evidence on this intricate and difficult subject of intercrossing and its effects, before drawing conclusions. My African ex- perience of fully forty years does not enable me to say more than that I know no facts to warrant such a deduc- tion. I do not think many Southerners would endorse the following : " The Negroes before the War of Secession, and those of our day, who have received a superior instruc- tion, form a marked contrast in character and aspirations. With the dignity of man which has been inculcated, the vices which are considered as instinctive in them have almost completely disappeared." If it was all as simple as this the race problem would soon be solved. Again, speaking of the United States, and apparently the South in particular, he says "the number of coloured men and women mixed with the whites and participat- ing in their ordinary life is incalculable. If ever the white portion could fall from the face of those who have no right to it in the Southern States, their social life would be singularly revoluti6nized." I made special in- quiry about this alleged passing over to the whites when in the United States, both North and South, and from both white and coloured. The consensus of opinion was that it was very small indeed, quite negligible. One authority, himself a coloured man of high culture, who has published most valuable monographs, said that in his life-long experience he only knew of twelve or fifteen such cases. I have dealt at some length with M. Finot's work, first because it is accepted as authoritative by many, second because it is the only book I know purporting to deal exhaustively and scientifically with this question, and thirdly because he takes a view that is diametrically 30 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES opposed to what I believe to be true. He thinks race prejudice is a simple matter, and is what the name implies, a prejudice discreditable to those holding it, to be rooted out as altogether unworthy. To strengthen this conclu- sion he professes the belief that races are the result of their milieu, and may be modified rapidly and permanently by a change in their surroundings. I think that such races as we are dealing with are the result of long ages of separation, and no change of milieu will, in any reason- able time, permanently change the essential features which have been ingrained into the very nature through probably thousands of generations. I also hold that race prejudice is not a simple, but a complex phenomenon, probably in part instinctive and protective and not to be utterly condemned, partly selfish and based at the desire to remain paramount, yet even here not altogether personal but strengthened by a desire for the welfare of future generations of their race. As against the academic yet loose and inaccurate state- ments of opinion I have given, let me quote one who has actually lived among a backward people, who knows and loves them, and writes with sympathy, insight, and discre- tion. Edgar Gardner Murphy says : " The South has insisted, and insisted wisely, in maintaining the absolute distinctness of racial life. The wisdom of this insistence, the deep sociological value of what has been called race prejudice, despite its sometimes brutal and excuseless manifestations in every section, will have, I believe, an ever-widening recognition. But if human society is to establish its distinctions of racial life, it will find it can base these distinctions more securely upon intelligence than upon ignorance." I have said that race prejudice is not the same thing as race animosity or race hatred. If I read the annals of my native country aright, it was considered the duty of an Elizabethan Englishman to hate a Spaniard, and at the beginning of last century an Englishman who did not RACE PREJUDICE 31 hate a Frenchman as he did the devil was unworthy of his birthright. Race prejudice as it exists in South Africa and Amer- ica is a different thing to this. Individual Spaniards or Frenchmen of those earlier times, on parole in England, would not be made conscious of the wide social gulf which separates white and black to-day. Many of those who would not dream of permitting the first advance to a common social life, and who would fight against political equality to the last ditch, in practical life as we have it to- day are among the best friends of the black man, and have a sincere regard for the race. Many white women who are kindly and considerate, and would sacrifice them- selves rather than hurt the feelings of their native servants, would shudder at anything approaching the familiarity implied in social contact. But unquestionably in the majority the gap between prejudice and hostility is neither wide nor deep, and untoward events will quickly fan the flames and cause the fire to leap the gulf, and here is a real danger and a very sufficient reason why the feeling should be carefully watched and kept in check both by individuals and Governments. What in its milder manifestations may be a salutary protection can easily become a cause of lamentable and un- justifiable oppression. Negrophilists (I use the term with all respect), and those engaged in philanthropic work among the natives, often express the hope — it can hardly be a belief with many — that as the backward race becomes educated and adopts the mode of living of the dominant group, the latter will open its ranks and accept the Negro as one of themselves, only requiring what they would demand in one of their own, and disregarding physical differences. If this hope were justified by the facts our course would be comparatively clear, we should have only to educate and develop character, and teach and enjoin a high standard of living, to bridge gradually the difference between us. I have long felt the importance of clear light 32 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES on this point, and watched attitudes, and listened to opinions, with the view of getting at the mind of the aver- age man. That some few individuals of exceptional tem- perament would accept the advanced black man is not the crux of the question, it is rather what the mass would do It is to me one of the saddest features of this apparently insoluble question that the prejudice of the white man is quickened, and becomes more alert and even bitter, as the Negro or native approaches his standard of life. In the Southern States a " nigger in his place " is tolerated, even liked ; in South Africa a raw Kaffir is in many cases preferred, and receives kindly consideration, that is not forthcoming when he becomes dressed, educated, and speaks English. It will be apparent in what I have said so far in this chapter, that I regard this feeling as one chiefly ani- mating the white man, and have dealt almost exclusively with it from his side. We want, however, to know how the black man stands. Many are trying hard to get at the back of the black man's mind, but not I fear very successfully. This very difficulty, admitted by those who know him best, those who speak his language, and have lived with him all their lives, is an indication of the fundamental difference in which I believe. It is almost impossible to analyse, weigh, and balance the emotions in one so far removed. So far as I can do so I find there is little of permanent deep-seated prejudice in the mind of Negro or native towards Europeans. In times of active warfare he may be filled with a fierce hatred, and willingly cast away his life to quench it. When his life is made intolerable by constant interference and oppres- sion, a similar but less active resentment takes possession of him, which may be fanned into revolt ; but it is not in his nature to dwell constantly on his position in the scheme of things, and if his few wants are satisfied, and he is let alone, he will take things as they come with perfect equanimity. It is due to his foresight and anxiety for his future RACE PREJUDICE 33 and that of his children, which helps to make the white man cherish the desire for solidarity and domination which enters into this feeling. This anxiety is unknown to the native, and he in the past has been quite willing and honoured that the white man should enter into mar- riage relations with his women. Their seduction and subsequent abandonment is another matter ; this is a grievance to him as it would be to any race on earth ; but honourable sexual relations are not objected to by him nor by those most interested. If secure in her posi- tion, I do not think the average native woman has any aversion to alliance with the dominant race. This feeling is, I believe, quickened in the case of mulatto women, many of whom desire white offspring. In the United States those of mixed descent have been forced back among their mother's kin, and perforce must accept it, and then they wisely disclaim any desire for white society and connexion. I do not think, however, there is any re- pugnance to it comparable to the race prejudice of the whites. On the other hand there is a distinct disinclin- ation to unite with the darker side of their ancestry. Judged by this test, which is, I think, the ultimate one, we must acquit the black man of race prejudice, or if it exists it is in a much attenuated form. His temperament is not congenial to such a growth. When not excited by fear, drink, or hatred, he is kindly, long-suffering, dis- posed to sociability, not peering into the future, but con- tent with the present and his position in it, and such a character is not the one to harbour permanent prejudice, though he may easily be awakened to active hostility. It may seem to some that this portion of our inquiry may be academic and out of place in a practical exposi- tion. This is not the case. The fact of the existence of this feeling accounts in large part for the present position of affairs in large tracts of the earth's surface, and affects the happiness of many millions. The statesman must ever bear it in mind ; in many of its manifestations it is a rock of offence to the conscientious, it may, if allowed or 3 34 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES encouraged to expand, mean oppression, or even war and desolation. To attempt to get an accurate estimate of its component parts, and how far it must be considered a permanent factor in the world, should have a real value for the man of affairs. At present, and as far as I can see into the future, the statesman cannot ignore it, he must always remember and at times reckon with it. He must not allow it full sway, his attitude should be one of watchful control, for it is of its nature to change under slight provocation into unjustifiable repression and hatred. Realizing this, we may yet feel that it is in part based upon instincts that are fundamental, and which may tend to preserve to both races their essential nature. CHAPTER V. THE SOUTH LAND. I visited the South land in spring and early summer, travel- ling from Washington, D.C, through Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee and so back again into North Carolina and Virginia. I purposely never travelled by night, and chose by preference the slow trains from which I could see the country, and in which I had opportunity of meeting and conversing with the local people. These South-Eastern States formed the backbone of the old Confederacy, the land so fondly spoken of by its in- habitants as Dixie. It is bounded on the west by the forest-covered and rugged Appalachian chain of mountains, in which are peaks 6000 feet above tide-water, and with considerable areas over 2000 feet. Eastward of these mountains is a high and rolling country called the Piedmont section, and from this eastward again to the sea a broad stretch of plain. Coming from the open grass-covered lands of South- East Africa, it was the absence of grass and open country that first struck me. Day after day the train rolled through a tree-covered landscape, but it was not the forest primeval. Here and there the trees were of such a size as to warrant the term forest, but generally they were small and insignificant, with shrubs and scrub grow- ing between them, not at all an impressive scene. It seemed to me to be a second growth, and I learned that this was the case. Often this scrub vegetation was in- 35 3* 36 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES sufficient to protect the earth from the elements, and the effect of weathering could be seen in soil exposure, in ugly dongas, and in full streams charged with the surface soil. Much of it struck me as a land that had been ravaged, denuded of its natural covering, forced to yield till it could yield no more, and then left to be swept by wind and rain until it could protect itself to some extent by the thin woods it now bore. Notwithstanding this, the general impression I got was that of a pleasant land. The fresh green foliage and flowering shrubs, the white flowers of the dogwood, con- spicuous in the greenery, seen in the clear bright air and spring sunshine, was homelike and satisfied one, and when on some height of land the prospect of rolling wooded hills spread far and wide, I felt I could understand the affection of those whose homeland it was. My estimate of its present condition was, I found, shared by many of the practical men I met. They ad- mitted and deplored the mishandling and ravishment of the past. This was due, it appeared, first to concentra- tion on one or two profitable crops, principally cotton and tobacco, then to the fact that there was virgin land in abundance, which led to overcropping and abandonment, and lastly to the system of slavery and big plantations. If this was all that could be said the outlook would not be an inspiring one. I discovered, however, that those who regretted the past were often full of hope for the future. It has been demonstrated that with proper culture, rotation of crops, keeping live-stock and soiling with leguminous plants, the weary earth may be restored to beyond its pristine fertility. In all parts of the South this building-up process is in operation. Not perhaps on a large scale, little can be seen from the railway line, but when one gets into the country, the process can be seen in actual operation here and there, and examples of wonderful achievement are sufficiently frequent to stimulate the process of regenera- tion. THE SOUTH LAND 37 South Africans will gather from this general descrip- tion of the land that it is not a stock country as we under- stand the term. I saw comparatively few cattle, and fewer sheep. The principal domestic animal is the hog, which often runs wild in town as well as country. Artificial grasses, lucerne, and other leguminous plants, however, can be grown, and undoubtedly there is a future for cattle raising. A far larger proportion of the land is arable than is the case in South Africa. It is a varied land, with mountain, plateau and plain, but nothing like so varied as South Africa. There are no such striking contrasts as between the sun-baked, shimmering, arid Karroo, and the green humid Natal Coast. In South Africa we have huge stretches of country in which the rainfall is less than 10 inches annually, while I have known in other parts 28 inches fall in half a week, and a total precipitation for the year of 70 to 80 inches. In the South land the rainfall is ample and far more regular. There are no droughts, and over vast tracts the precipitation averages 45 to 55 inches, well distributed throughout the year. The blizzards that devastate the plains of the West are unknown. I noticed that in one State the maximum force of the wind in a long series of years was only 48 miles an hour. Between the Mississippi delta and the mountain dis- tricts of Eastern Tennessee, Western Virginia, and North Carolina, there are great differences, but nothing like so great as between the hot humid sugar belt of Zululand, the temperate well-watered grass lands of the high pla- teau of the Eastern Transvaal, and the desiccated areas in the North- West of the Cape Colony. Before speaking of rural conditions I should briefly mention town life. The South is not a country of large cities. None are in the same schedule as the larger cities of the North or of Europe. The capitals of most States are country towns, and even the industrial centres, such as Birmingham and Atlanta, do not compare in size with those elsewhere. A decade or two ago, the contrast 38 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES was still more striking, but gradually there has been an awakening to modern conditions. Northern capital, energy, and experience are taking up the opportunities. At not infrequent intervals along the railroads are small cotton-mill towns. These usually centre round one or two large factories of the familiar type, excepting that in many cases the power used is electricity, transmitted from waterfalls many miles away. The workpeople live in wooden cottages of cheap construction, detached or semi-detached, in the immediate neighbourhood of the factory. The labour employed is exclusively white, and is largely drawn from the country, and much of it from the mountain districts. Those employed were small farmers and their families, and though their wages as operatives came as a welcome addition to their incomes, their life and conditions in the factories have led to de- terioration in health and physique in many cases. The average town in the South — apart from the indus- trial centres — has reason for its existence in the rural in- dustry of the surrounding country. As a rule these towns are, to the visitor, even more conducive to melancholy than the ordinary up-country dorp of South Africa. The houses are built of wood, and the yards, which should be gardens, are waste spaces littered with rubbish. The streets are quagmires rootled up by hogs, or dusty beyond descrip- tion. The display at the ramshackle stores seems to be confined to huge posters of Northern manufacturers, and these centres of commerce serve as lounging places for loafers. Mention should, however, be made of the case of some towns which stand out as conspicuous exceptions, and demonstrate by shady parks and avenues, by homes with gardens full of loveliness, how much Nature would contribute if man only made the effort. The chief crop to-day, as it has been for scores of years, is cotton. It is the staple and the standard of value of the country. Both white and black grow it, each race raising perhaps one-half of the total crop. To the lint the farmer looks for the cash to pay for his out-goings, THE SOUTH LAND 39 and the seed and seed-meal furnish valuable food for such stock as he possesses. After cotton comes corn, the mealie of the South African, which furnishes much of the food of the Negro, and is a staple in the bill of fare of the white man, especially in rural districts. Cornbread and bacon are still, as in slavery days, the food of the South. In Virginia and North Carolina tobacco takes the place of cotton, and in Louisiana and Mississippi the sugar crop is of the first importance. Travelling slowly through the country, and always with an eye open to discover how man was dealing with it, I was not favourably impressed with the methods of cultivation. It was the early spring, and the ploughing season was on, yet for hundreds of miles I did not see any mechanical agricultural contrivance more modern or specialized than a one-horse plough. Commercial fertil- isers were used everywhere, the smell of them pervaded the land, but in most cases I found they were just used in sufficient quantity to ensure the annual crop. It appeared to me to be a country that needed building up, and my attention was directed to the question of the possibility of doing so, for in this lay the possibility of emergence from the present rather unsatisfactory rural condition. I found enough in my personal observations and in re- corded cases, to prove not only the possibility, but the certainty of this growth to better things. I found that cotton, corn, tobacco, and sugar, by no means exhausted the possibilities of this broad well-watered sunny region. It was claimed that climatic conditions were so favour- able that two crops of many plants could be grown, and that by proper cultivation and manuring, the land might be in almost constant yield. All along the coast-belt con- tinuous crops of various vegetables — in America truck — could be grown, and the crops and profits were high, in some cases enormous, and the cities of the North formed accessible and profitable markets. Every kind of veget- able grown in the Northern States or Western Europe grew kindly, and others, such as sweet potatoes, requiring 4 o BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES sub-tropical conditions, could be added to the list. In the warmer regions oranges, lemons, grape-fruit ; in the cooler sections apples, pears, peaches, apricots, cherries, grapes, and all temperate fruits, with nuts such as pecan, walnut and others. Corn is not the only cereal which may be grown, wheat, oats, and rye, with proper cultiva- tion and treatment, have proved quite successful. While with the ordinary cultivation, yields are not high, even of the well-known staples, there are plenty of instances proving that proper treatment and building up will in- crease them largely, and at the same time permanently improve the soil. I cannot even give a summary of all I saw and heard with regard to this improved productivity ; as showing, however, the variety of produce and the large yields possible, with proper conditions, I will mention a fifty- acre farm in South Georgia which gave in one year : — 8 bales of cotton each 500 lb. from 4 acres. 7 bales of cotton each 500 lb. from 5 acres. And of course the valuable cotton seed in addition. 470 bushels corn from 10 acres. 280 bushels oats from 7 acres ; after the oats were cleared these 7 acres gave 700 bushels of sweet potatoes. 300 dollars worth of sugar cane from 1 acre ; and in addition 700 dollars worth of vegetables during the season. The general impression I got in travelling was that by far the greater portion was uncultivated, and that the cultivated areas were small as compared with those under forest or semi-forest conditions. This impression I had to a certain extent to correct, for as it was spring, and a rather late spring, the crops did not show up as they would later in the season. Still I find that in Virginia one-half of the land is uncleared and unculti- vated. Only 35 per cent, of the area of North Carolina could be called improved. Out of 37,000,000 acres in Georgia, 11,000,000 only was in occupied and improved THE SOUTH LAND 41 farms, and it is claimed there is still room for 100,000 families on the cleared lands, and for an enormous number on the larger area still unoccupied. In all these States facilities for marketing produce are good, especially as compared with a country like South Africa, if it is taken as a whole. I find that North Carolina with an area of 48,580 square miles has 5300 miles of railroad, that South Carolina with an area of 30,495 square miles has 3000 miles of railway, and Georgia with an area of 57,500 square miles has 7000 miles of railroad. Just a few statistics as to climate : — Virginia, yS° F. mean summer heat ; 33° to 40° F. winter ; rainfall 38 to 49 inches. North Florida and South Georgia, mean annual temperature 66° to 70 F. ; rainfall 50 to 55 inches. South Carolina, mean annual temperature 63° F. ; rainfall 48 inches. Georgia, mean annual temperature 63 F. ; rainfall 51 inches. I give the annual rainfall for Alabama by months. January February March April May June July August 5*02 4*63 6'6o 4*84 2*90 5 '86 5*22 2*82 September October November December 2*30 2*8i 278 4*46 This is a precipitation and distribution that many countries would like to experience. Now as to land values. I do not include the most fertile and well-improved lands, but those which in my judgment are susceptible of improvement with proper treatment. In Virginia with 4609 miles of railway, lands suitable for vegetable growing may be had from $ 1 5 to $20 an acre, and land suitable for apple and other fruits at the same price. In Southern Georgia uncleared land may be bought at from $5 to $20 an acre, and cleared but unimproved land from $10 to $30 an acre. 42 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES In Northern Georgia fruit and grazing land runs as low as $5 an acre. In Mississippi unimproved land suitable for trucking is purchasable at from $5 to $10 an acre. According to the United States Census of 1900 land values for all rural lands in these South-Eastern States averaged out at $7780 an acre, in 19 10 it had gone up to $16*82 per acre. This points a moral and has an applica- tion to my theme which will be seen later on. In the whole South-Eastern States we have an area of 83,000,000 acres under some sort of cultivation or im- proved in some measure, 86,000,000 acres unimproved, and 120,000,000 acres in forest. This forest land is valuable, in many cases very valuable, providing a source of wealth and a field for labour from the harvesting of forest products. Notwithstanding the past ravages of man, these States may fairly claim the following not inconsiderable advan- tages. Ample and well-distributed rainfall ; plenty of sunshine, and genial and generally healthy climate ; fire- wood and timber for building everywhere ; plenty of land, which though often impoverished, may be built up, while at the same time yielding a living. An immense variety of products both of the temperate and sub-tropical zones, fibres, cereals, fruits, nuts, and grasses ; accessibility to profitable markets, railroad, river or ocean transport available for all sections. It has been in the past a land of big plantations, of a caste system, of aristocratic and wealthy planters who monopolized the fertile lands, and a class of poverty- stricken, ignorant, and indolent whites who did nothing to add to the productivity of the country, the whole based on the slave system ; the aftermath is visible to-day in the ravaged land and backward agricultural position. Yet in all essentials it is a country fitted for mixed farming, farming which will improve the land, and where middle-class prosperous homes may be built up just as they have been in New Zealand. THE SOUTH LAND 43 The hindrances in the past have not been due to Nature, but to an artificial and maleficent social system, and though conditions have altered to-day, it is social conditions, and not the land nor the climate that stand in the way of the best development of the rural South. I have thought it well to endeavour to convey a picture, sketchy but perhaps sufficient, of this South land, its present economic rural condition and its possibilities, for on these I base conclusions on the great social problem that faces the country. CHAPTER VI. THE PAST, SLAVERY. If we are to appraise justly present race relations in the South, the progress the Negro has made, the trend of present tendencies, and the possibilities that lie in the future, a short chapter must be devoted to the social con- dition of the country at the time of emancipation, and we must consider certain political movements which immediately followed the close of the Civil War. Many years ago, in my early days in Natal, I came across several books which I found of engrossing interest. They were written by Frederick Law Olmsted and were entitled "A Journey through the Cotton Kingdom," "A Texas Journey," and "Journeys through the Seaboard Slave States ". In these were described his travels and experiences in these countries just before the War of Secession. He travelled when practicable by rail, but railroads were not frequent in the fifties of last century, and most of his journeyings were by coach and on horseback. He valued comfort, and has much to say of the lack of decent accommodation, but this did not deter him from visiting the heart of the country, and associating, under rude and primitive conditions, with men of all classes and callings. He was a practical farmer, his home being in New York State, and he has much to say on land and cultivation. He seems to have been a Sociologist before the term was used, intensely interested in all social and economic subjects. His temperament appears to have been singularly equable, and he was certainly gifted with clear sight and judgment. His pictures of the country and 44 THE PAST, SLAVERY 45 people, and the incidents he encountered, impress the reader as being as truthful as they are vivid. No formal history of the Southern States could be so illuminating, nor convey such clear pictures of the lives and surroundings of the people, both white and black, as the pages which describe the travels of this New York farmer. Since that day I have re-read these books, and I find my early impressions fully confirmed. With a knowledge of what has happened and is happening in Africa, where the races meet under milder but not dissimilar condi- tions, one can visualize the pictures drawn by the author. It is evident that the simple conclusion drawn by the ordinary man, generally from books written with a pur- pose, of the slave cowering beneath the whip of the haughty aristocratic owner, who lives in luxury on the debasement of the slave, is not the whole story. Conditions varied very much, with climate, crops, local customs, the personality of the owners, and the particular work the slaves were called upon to perform. In very many cases, as I should have expected, the Negro set the pace, and although task work was common, the standard set was not arduous, and as is so common in Africa, especially when the native has no incentive to effort, the strain of keeping him up to a high pitch of endeavour was too great a task for the master, and was abandoned for an easy-going routine. Olmsted gives instances of white owners whose tem- perament was such, that without driving, they got what they considered satisfactory results from their labour, and who never had recourse to punishment. We find similarly gifted individuals in Africa. Nevertheless, it is indubitable, that in cases the most abominable and hellish cruelty was practised, and this necessarily happens when despotic power is in the hands of a class. Direct wastage of implements and material was enor- mous, and it was impossible to teach labourers, rendered 46 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES brutish and inefficient under such a system, to exercise initiative or economy. New and improved methods were forbidden by the ignorance and inertia of the slaves ; be- yond a certain dull routine they could not be moved. The social results which are directly attributable to the system were: A small number of rich planters, who when resident on their estates, lived in a sumptuous patriarchal style, and often treated their servants with consideration, but wlio, when non-resident, demanded re- turns which led to slave-driving in its worst forms. A larger number of slave-holders whose methods varied considerably, and the bulk of the white population, il- literate, poverty-stricken, passionate, and lawless, often living by illegal trafficking with the slaves. Then the Negro slaves of whom a few were skilled and highly valued, who lived in some measure of material comfort, the house servants, often pampered and consequential, with little of discomfort in their lives, and the mass, living like the working farm animals, sufficiently fed, and clothed in the coarsest manner, without initiative or hope, driven to their tasks under fear of the lash, giving as little labour as possible, adepts at shirking and malingering. The economic results as compared with free labour, a subject into which Olmsted made special investigation, were miserably poor. Estimates and comparisons were made by many of those he met, it seemed to be a common topic of conversation. By some the result was considered to be not more than half what was achieved by free labour, and this even at work the Negroes were accustomed to do regularly. Some of those questioned considered four Negroes were only equal to one white labourer in the North. The training in initiative, resourcefulness, and fore- thought, and the stimulus furnished by the willing labour of a free worker were entirely absent, and the Negro was forbidden the knowledge and elevation which come from education. His family life was that of the beasts, he was mated for purposes of reproduction, and his children THE PAST, SLAVERY 47 were not his own. It was in 16 19 that the first cargo of African slaves was landed in the United States, and although the traffic was forbidden by law, the last cargoes to arrive did not long antedate the Civil War, so that during this long period there were constant accessions of barbarism to the ranks of the Negroes. It is impossible to conceive any life or training less' calculated to fit them for the exercise of the privileges of citizens of a country like the United States. Yet by Federal edict at the close of the Civil War, every Negro was given the same political rights as his late master, or the most cultured citizen of Boston. The effect of the slave system was at least as malefi- cent on the whites as on the Negroes. The aristo- cratic planter looms large in pictures of the period. He is described as haughty, passionate, yet chivalrous, with a high code of honour, and of great intellectual gifts. Such could only have formed a mere fraction of the whole population, for out of a total white population of eight millions, owning four million Negroes, there were only three hundred and fifty thousand actual slave-owners. The mass of the whites had little cause to love either planter, Negro, or the system under which they lived. The best lands were taken up and monopolized by the large planters, and cultivated by their slaves. Such skilled work as was necessary under the plantation sys- tem was undertaken by trained Negroes, the poor white was denied the opportunity to learn or profit by skilled callings. It is apparent, too, that, as to-day, much of the commerce, especially the retail distribution, was in the hands of Jews. Thus debarred, the majority of the whites sank into lethargy and poverty, living shiftless lives, de- spised even by the slaves they were too poor to possess. It has often been matter of wonderment to me that this class ever took up arms in a quarrel in which they had so little direct interest, and fought so long with such valour and determination. When we attempt to gauge the present position of the two races in the South, we must 48 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES ever bear in mind their condition during the long years of slavery, and, in particular, when trying to assess the present state of the Negro, must retain a picture of what he was when a new horizon opened out to him with Emancipation. A few words must first, however, be given to an in- termediate period, the years of Reconstruction. CHAPTER VII. THE PAST, RECONSTRUCTION. When the war closed it left the South in chaos. The old planter families who had so long ruled the South, and to a large extent the Union also, were ruined, and many of the younger men fell fighting. Their wealth, which had consisted of land and slaves, was as regards the former ravished, and the latter lost to them for ever. They came back to devastated homes, with little immediate prospect of rebuilding them. The mass of the Confeder- ate soldiery had neither homes nor work. The Negroes were a dark mass, bewildered and irresponsible, scattered over the land, or controlled in some measure by the Freedman's Bureau. The position was not unlike what it was in South Africa after the last Boer War, and those of us who, from actual experience, know the condition of our country at that time, and the tremendous and patient struggle it took to set civil life on a sound footing, will have some conception of the state of the South. Yet not fully, for with us the question of the black man and his status did not increase our difficulties, but here it meant the entire reversal of the economic, social, and political position of 5 one-third of the population of the South, and establishing , the civic structure on a new and entirely different basis. . Not as with us a rebuilding of the old, but literally a reconstruction. Provisional State governments were soon established, and as such were recognized by the Federal authorities. Conventions were called which enacted new Constitu- tions, and under them new Legislatures were elected. 49 4 t ) 50 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES All this was the work of the white man, the Negro had not yet realized where he stood, but bewildered and gasping, he wandered or waited. He was not allowed to remain thus for long, the I newly appointed State legislatures rapidly set to work to formulate his position, and it became quickly apparent that the white man was not going to permit the Negro to choose his position in the State for himself. Laws were passed which could have but one interpre- tation ; they were devised to place the Negro again in a position of servitude, as nearly like that of slavery as it was possible under the Thirteenth Amendment of the Constitution, which had been accepted by the States as they re-entered the Union. In South Carolina an ordinance was passed at this time, making the provision that " no person of colour shall pursue the practice, art, or business of an artisan, mechanic, or shopkeeper or any other trade or employ- ment beside that of husbandry, or that of a servant under contract for labour, until he shall have obtained a licence from the judge of the County Court, which licence shall be good for one year only ". The law went on to say that for a licence as pedler or shopkeeper a fee of £100 must be paid, while for the rudest mechanical calling it was £10. These licence fees were applicable only to Negroes and were not demanded from white men. The object was obvious. A Bill was introduced into the Legislature of Louisiana under which every freed man or woman shall furnish themselves with a comfortable home and visible means of subsistence within twenty days of the passing of the Act, and any coloured person failing so to do shall be arrested by any sheriff or constable, and by him hired out to the highest bidder for the remainder of the year. Similar laws were passed in other Southern States, and the North became alarmed, fearing that what had been won at the cost of a four years' bloody war would THE PAST, RECONSTRUCTION 51 in this way be lost, and the individual States would still defeat the intent of the Federal authorities. When Congress met therefore to consider the question of the permanent reorganization of the South, it was with suspicion as to the intentions of the late Confederacy, and resentment at some of their actions since peace was declared. The Federal Government gave a fresh lease of life and more ample powers to the Freedman's Bureau for the control, guidance, support, and protection of the coloured people, independently of State action. In June, 1866, the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution was passed which conferred the franchise, both State and Federal, on all persons born, or naturalized in the United States, irrespective of race, colour, or previous condition of servitude. The provisional govern- ments of the Southern States, with the exception of Tennessee, rejected this amendment, which prompted Congress to pass in March, 1867, a Reconstruction Act, designed to provide for efficient governments for the insurrectionary States, and of course dispossessing the governments already set up by the white inhabitants. The South was divided into military districts, each ruled by a General of the Federal Army. State Conventions were elected under the supervision and control of these officers, and as the bulk of the whites were disenfranchised as rebels, those persons elected to the Conventions were sent thither by the Negro vote, the few whites who had remained faithful to the Union, and Federal office-bearers. The result was that Constitutions were adopted in all the States grant- ing equal suffrage to all, black and white alike, but mean- time barring all the leading whites on account of their participation in the War of Secession. Thus the State Governments were given into the hands of the Negroes and those whites who were able and willing to co-operate with them. Few Southern whites would accept, or attempt to profit by, such a 4* 52 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES position, but there were many from the North who saw the opportunity for power and plunder, and flocked into the South land, and for some years battened on the ignorance and venality of the Negro for their own profit. These political adventurers were contemptuously called carpet baggers, a term which, originating with this class, and specially applicable to their condition, has since been given a wider application. For some years they exploited the opportunity and the Negro to the full. They robbed to their heart's content. In all the States the public debt increased enormously, and yet there was nothing to show for these vast in- creases, which went to the politicians and in a smaller degree to the venal voters. A favourite method of plunder was to issue railroad bonds which were given to nominal contractors who shared them with the members of the Legislature, and never even started the work. In North Carolina alone fourteen million dollars worth of these fraudulent bonds were issued, and no railway was constructed. Enormous salaries were paid to place- seekers, often utterly unfit for the posts for which they drew these emoluments. Public contracts at extravagant rates were the perquisite of supporters, and the profits were again shared with those in power. The Courts of Law were suborned, and although the robberies and robbers were known to all, redress or punishment was impossible to obtain. The enormous increases in the public debts of the several States are some indication of the corruption prevalent. During this time the State debt of Alabama rose from eight and a quarter million dollars to twenty-five and a half million dollars, that of South Carolina from five and a half to eighteen and a half million dollars, and in Louisiana in the short space of one year it increased four- fold. The prerogative of the State Governors to pardon criminals was in some cases sold for cash. THE PAST, RECONSTRUCTION 53 This was all intensely exasperating to the educated and property-owning whites, who were for the time helpless, as the majority had been disenfranchised. But what made this period hateful beyond words to all Southerners was the sense that their former slaves, and their unprincipled and loathed parasites, were thus lording it over them. They might have submitted with some grace to the Federal officials responsible for the administration of the Freedman's Bureau, or those in command of the military organization, and there is no reason to think that these did not act with consideration and discretion, but to see low-born Northern reprobates in the seats of the mighty, and those who had been their servants members of the Legislature, was more than they could bear. It was impossible that such corruption could last, it was inconceivable that the whites of the South should allow their illiterate ex-slaves, and those prompted only by the desire for plunder, to rule them. Gradually they banded together, and by force of character and intelli- gence, backed often indeed by physical force, took pos- session of the ballot and of the government. Much was done that even the circumstances could not justify. If the Negro did not yield easily he was terrorized into submission. The end came in the early seventies, by which time all political power was in the hands of the Southern whites, the carpet-bagger had fled, and the Negro had entirely ceased to be a political factor. Later, as I will show in the chapter on the present political position of the Negro, the power which was taken by force was legalized by enactment in all the Southern States, and though at variance with the Constitution of the United States, the position of the Negro now is that he cannot under State law attain to a voice in the management of public affairs. In considering the present racial position in later chapters we must always bear in mind what I have tried to convey in this and the preceding chapter, 54 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES The new era in the South, begun in the late sixties or early seventies, counted about four million Negroes, utterly uneducated, without property of any kind, im- moral, without any training in individual self-help or co-operation, helpless and childish ; and eight million whites, also ruined as far as material things went, but resolute to rebuild society, if not on the old lines, on a basis that meant that under no circumstance would they admit to equality those who had been their slaves, and who for a few short years had been their rulers. CHAPTER VIII. THE WHITE FACTOR. The Southern white man is proud of his descent. He boasts that the South is the most truly American portion of the Union. Before the war the planter families traced back their descent to their British ancestors, and while inordinately proud of being Southerners, had an equal pride in being of undiluted British stock. To-day they call attention to the vast stream of immi- grants pouring into the North and West from South and South-Eastern Europe, and question whether these aliens can be absorbed and assimilated into the American people without grave danger of degeneration of character, morals, and ideals. Some predict a time when the American people and American ideals may be in danger of being swamped by the incoming waves, and the truly American South will be the bulwark of National salvation. It is true that from the first the tide of immigration never flowed south of Mason and Dixie's line. The Union has absorbed millions, first the Irishman, then the German, followed by the Scandinavian, and now come the Italian, Croatian, Ruthenian, Galician with the dwellers in Mesopotamia, all generically classed by the true American as Dagos. New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia are no longer American but cosmopolitan cities. I visited Bronx Park, New York, on a holiday, Commemoration Day, and heard far more of foreign tongues spoken than I did of English speech. The zoological collections in the cages were 55 56 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES most interesting, but far more interesting was the ethno- logical collection swarming all over that vast park. Sections of these and other large cities of the North and West are inhabited solely by these aliens; their speech is all-pervasive, and their appearance and manners are un-American. For miles on end the names over the shops are those of the immigrant, not one of British sound or origin. And although the present-day immi- grant does not take up land in the country to the same extent as his predecessors, large tracts are still exclusively held by folk whose ancestors never saw Britain, and who still talk in a foreign tongue. Not so in the South. I travelled many miles along country roads where the small farm-houses stood back a little in the woods, and noticed the surnames at the post boxes. All were English, Scotch, or Irish, the first-named predominating in most sections. The same does not apply exclusively in the towns; here the signs indicate that the ubiquitous Jewish race has seen and seized the trading opportunities of the South. I found here one of the many parallels be- tween the South and South Africa. In South Africa, the proportion of Jewish immigrants to any of other non- British peoples is very large indeed, the boat train at Waterloo Station on any Saturday morning in the year will prove that. They come, not to do any manual labour, they neither do that nor engage in agriculture, but to exploit those, who by reason of their environment or race, have proved such a lucrative field, the Dutch- speaking country population — the Boer — and the native. A similar condition of things has attracted them to the South, and I had many opportunities of seeing what a firm hold they have on the Negro people and their trade. Apart from these, and the population of a limited area near the mouth of the Mississippi, where much French and some Spanish blood is still in evidence, the Southern people are of one race. The indisposition of the immigrant to go South is not THE WHITE FACTOR 57 due to any natural drawbacks. As I have shown, the South has a genial climate, abundant rains, a soil fitted to grow many valuable crops, abundance of wood and minerals, and good communication by river and rail. Above all, land is cheap and may be easily procured. If I considered natural conditions and advantages alone, there are many parts of the South-Eastern States in which I would far rather make my home than in New England or the Middle West. Yet the immigrant shuns them. The reason is a social one. The average immigrant comes to America prepared to make a living by manual toil, in the sweat of his brow, and willing to undertake menial tasks. By course of reasoning, or instinctively, he avoids a country in which social conditions are entirely new and strange, and not simply a development of what he has been accustomed to. Especially does he refuse to enter one in which he will have to compete with the black man, who is able and willing to work for a low wage, and is accustomed to a standard of living which, though perhaps not lower in some respects than that of the immigrant in his native land, is not the one he hopes for in America. At times certain communities in the South, emulous of the rapid material advance of the North, due in part to abundant immigrant labour, made an effort to turn the stream in their direction. In 1906, 450 Belgians, Austrians and Galicians were landed at Charleston, S.C. They were feted by the city authorities and distributed through the State of South Carolina. They did not appear satisfied with their lot or prospects, and gradually drifted away. A commissioner, Mr. Gadsden, was sent by the State authorities to Europe to investigate conditions in the countries from whence these immigrants came, in order to get some light on the subject. He reports: "Our efforts have been almost entirely expended in inducing immigrants to come to the South, and we have thought little or nothing of how they were to be treated after they came into our midst. It 58 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES seems to me that we have entirely overlooked our in- dustrial conditions, viz., that the wages scale of the South is based upon Negro labour ; our attitude through the South will have to be materially altered before we can expect the immigrant to be satisfied." Probably the greater number of the Southern people do not want the immigrant. Dr. A. B. Hart says there are two reasons why he does not go to the South, one is that the South does not like the immigrant, and the other is that the immigrant does not like the South. Perhaps the nail was hit squarely on the head by a correspondent of the " Richmond Times Gazette," who writes, "they will prevent the establishment of the labour conditions that existed before the war, and will interfere with the plantation system," and he especially deprecates any attempt " to try any of the races that have become inoculated with Union notions ". Professor Kelly Miller, himself a Negro, writes : " The white man avoids competition with the black workman and will hardly condescend to compete with him on equal terms. Wherever white men and women have to work for their living they arrogantly avoid those sections where they are placed on a par with Negro competitors, and if indigenous to such localities, they often migrate to regions where the black man and rival is less numerous. For this reason European immigration avoids the black belt as an infected region." Among South African politicians there are those who constantly compare the streams of home seekers who enter the other great self-governing Colonies, with the almost imperceptible trickle entering the Union of South Africa. They point to our vast open spaces, and sunlit skies, and ask why we cannot also attract them ; why crowded steamers call at frequent intervals and pass on with all this bone and sinew to lands six thousand miles farther from the homes they have broken up and left. They blame the Government for apathy, or worse, a deliberate attempt to discourage any increase of our THE WHITE FACTOR 59 population from the surplus populations of Europe. They fail to see that sun and space are not all the immigrant asks ; the vast majority hope to live at first by manual toil, and grow on from that, and they consciously or semi-consciously pass by any country in which they must compete with a backward race and live as they do. I have met intelligent and educated Southern men who held that the American Union owed a debt of gratitude to the Negro, who by his presence had pre- served to the American people a large section of the country, and in that section kept the original race free from admixture with immigrants. Whether this is de- sirable or not may be matter of opinion, certainly it is a fact that the immigrant avoids the South where the Negro is, and goes North where the Negro is not, and I think this fact and the parallel we see in our own country are worth thinking over by some of the South African politicians I have mentioned, who assume that immi- grants may be had if only the Government will advertise widely enough, and paint the country in sufficiently gaudy colours. I must return from the people who are not in the South to the people who are there. As would be ex- pected after three hundred years of separate existence, with little renewal of blood, and under special social con- ditions, the type differs from the original stock, and in such a large country varies somewhat in different parts. In no section did I find common the accepted conventional type of Englishman, with his bright colour and vigorous fullness, though occasionally I came across an individual who in appearance would have seemed quite in place in an English shire. A sallow skin, and deliberate, even languid attitude, became more apparent and common as the far South was approached. In the country people a slack lounging movement was common ; this was seen in the general store, the social centre where much deliberate whittling, chewing, and spitting were in evidence. The women and children were often pale, even anaemic. 60 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES I was told that the hookworm disease, which is very prevalent, accounts in large part for this apparent lack of vigour. I was informed that fully half of the em- ployees in the cotton mills, who are all whites, suffer from this complaint. A high colour and fleshy redundancy are not, how- ever, sure indications of strength, or even health, and notwithstanding their slack gait many of the Southern men showed signs of physical power. I was struck with a certain hardness of physiognomy in many, an expression in the eye and the cut of the jaw and chin, that would deter the stranger from taking liberties. At times I was reminded in the physiognomy of some, of the theory that the modern American ap- proximates in appearance to the aboriginal so-called American Indian, and wondered whether the lawlessness and cruelties to be mentioned later were connected with an actual strain of this blood. I did actually meet several who claimed partial descent from the red man. Few had the vacant expressionless look of many English rustics. A quiet watchfulness was a prevailing note. With the exception of habits resulting from an abuse of tobacco, which were all-prevalent and often disgusting, manners were generally good, and far more restrained than I had been led to expect. The inordinate curiosity and boast- fulness which may have been characteristic of past generations of Americans, and which is to-day often attri- buted to them, I found conspicuously absent. Willing- ness to talk and exchange opinions were usual. Interest in and knowledge of their immediate surroundings were, however, joined to a dense ignorance of anything outside America. Sitting one day on a barrel in a country store, having been introduced by a local man as an African, I was asked by one of those present whether the Negroes they had in the South were real Negroes or not. He said he had been told by one who claimed special know- ledge on the subject, that the real African Negro had a THE WHITE FACTOR 61 tail about four inches long and did not possess a soul. Was this so ? Another guessed that they had a powerful lot of Negroes in North Carolina ; more niggers he reckoned than there were in all Africa. The portrait of a certain British Royal personage was figured on a packet of tobacco I opened one day in the train, and my fellow-passenger volunteered the informa- tion that the personage portrayed received a cent for every package sold, for the use of his picture. It was generally recognized that I did not belong to the South, and conversation naturally turned on places and affairs extra American, and the weirdest geographical information was unfolded. Ideas about Canada and China were given by one man I met casually in the train which made me gasp. General education is in a backward state, though the South is rapidly mending matters both as to quantity and quality, and State appropriations are being aug- mented, and especially is this the case for agricultural education. Primary education is not compulsory in the South, the fact that it is not so is due to the presence of the Negro ; the white man might be willing to apply compulsion to his own race, but will not do so if the Negro is to participate. How far universal and compulsory education has ful- filled the anticipations of its early advocates in Britain is a moot point ; one thing is certain, that reading of a kind is much more common than in the past. One can see evidence of this in book-stalls, book-shops, on the trams and in the trains, and in all places of public resort. Little of the kind is seen in the South. Book-stalls are few and ill supplied. In many considerable towns I never saw a book-shop. Excepting for the daily papers, which are not of a high class and which are much devoted to local and personal news, no literature was seen in the hands of the travelling public. From those to whom I carried letters of introduction 62 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES I expected hospitality, and I received it in abundant measure. But I got more. On several occasions people I met on the cars, with whom I casually entered into conversation, asked me to their homes in the kindest and most spontaneous manner. Judging from appearances it would in some cases have been a tax on their resources. I could not but be touched with these offers of kindly entertainment. Perhaps the most distinctive group of the Southern people are those living in the mountain section, princi- pally the Western part of the State of Virginia, Western North Carolina, and Eastern Tennessee. Both country and people are poor, the mountains are covered with forest, often second growth, the inhabitants thinly scattered. They are generally of English, Scotch, and Scoto-Irish descent, and are notoriously addicted to shooting, blood feuds, and the illicit distilling of spirits. I had an oppor- tunity of seeing them in their homes, and of staying at some of the institutions provided by Northern philan- thropists for their education and uplift. From observa- tion and information received I gathered they were a people having many fine qualities, and that the younger ones readily responded to educative influences. The physiognomy and physique of those I saw in the schools, and their general appearance, manner and carriage, in- dicated this. I met several teachers in these institutions who had also had experience in Negro schools, and they made a comparison thus. Here we have a fine basis of race character to build upon. If there is reversion they re- vert to something good, in the Negro we have constantly to guard against reversion to something worse. Many of these people have migrated to the small towns of the lower country to work in the cotton mills, some selling their farms, others retaining them and hoping to return. It seems a pity that this close, monotonous and unhealthy employment should be substituted for farm life. Attempts are being made to so improve their surroundings and prospects in their present homes as to lessen the drift THE WHITE FACTOR 63 towards the less healthy factory employment. I regard this as a sound philanthropic movement. These people must not be confused with the class usually called poor whites mentioned in a previous chapter. The latter were more directly the result of the presence of the Negro, were prevented by his presence and the system of slavery from engaging in manual la- bour, and had their economic outlook and social envir- onment changed thereby. They touched him at the lower levels of social contact, and their debasement was a direct result. The mountaineer, on the other hand, hardly knew the Negro then, and to-day in many parts hardly sees one. Their poverty is largely due to the sterile nature of the country in which they live, though their presence there is partly the result of the institution of slavery. The occupation of the fertile lands by large plantations worked by slave labour, forced a proportion of the whites into the mountain regions who otherwise might have found a better livelihood as small farmers in the richer lowlands. Whether it is a consciousness of this or not, it is a fact that, notwithstanding the Negro has little part in their present lives, they love him not, and I was told that if the route of a Negro teamster took him past their houses, he took care not to delay, but passed on quickly lest harm befall him. The rise of the cotton mill is part of a general indus- trial awakening in the South. The traveller by train passes many of these large plain buildings, both isolated in the country and situated in the towns. As a rule the buildings and surroundings are nothing like so ugly and sordid as the cotton factories of South Lancashire or West Scotland. Many of the modern ones are provided with electric power, and the tall chimney-stack belching forth dark smoke, is fortunately absent. The workers are housed by the employers in wooden cottages, usually detached, forming a scattered township, and in some places, in the open country, there is opportunity for gardening or keeping a little stock. Hours of labour are 64 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES long, and child labour is often employed under extremely unsatisfactory conditions. Organisation among the cot- ton-mill employees is still in the future. The black man, however, is rigorously debarred from working in these factories. On this point the employees would unite to resent his presence, and one or two attempts to run mills entirely by black labour do not ap- pear to have been successful. The Negro is at liberty to grow cotton but not to manufacture it. It seems to me he has been forced to take the better part. In many other directions the natural resources of the South are being developed, largely by Northern energy and capital. Although Southern money and brains are also thus employed, the industrial sense, with all it connotes, and which permeates the North, is not yet fully awakened in the South. Though doubtless it is much attenuated, the visitor still senses the feeling born of slavery, and continued through the presence of the Negro, that the high-class Southerner is or should be a planter, lawyer, soldier, or legislator rather than a merchant or manufacturer, and that manual toil is for the Negro. Economic pressure, modern conditions, and patriotic emulation are rapidly changing this view, but a tradition born so long ago, and for long assiduously cultivated, takes time to break down entirely. In the South the Negroes form only about thirty per cent of the total population, and this fact, and the ever- growing demand for labour, make it more difficult to follow the tradition in its entirety. Indeed, I was surprised, with my African eyes and experience, to see so much laborious work done by whites. About half the cotton grown in the cotton belt is raised by white labour alone. Although the number of whites engaged in toil- some jobs was small as compared with England, it was in marked contrast to South Africa, where, excepting in certain relief work, no white man is seen handling a spade, pick, or barrow. Custom in the South seems to vary somewhat in THE WHITE FACTOR 65 different places. For instance, at the Port of Baltimore I found gangs of Negroes discharging and loading cargoes under a white boss as in South Africa, while at New Orleans it is as common to see a mixed white and black gang handling the same cargo. Speaking broadly, this is quite exceptional, as a rule the black and white labourers doing similar work are kept separate. In some cities I observed the white men employed at road repairing, and in different streets of the same town a black gang laying down asphalt paving. Skilled work is done by members of both races, and it is not uncommon to see both working side by side in the same workshop, or on the same building. To this point, and the probable future of the skilled Negro artisan, I will refer later. Judged by the standard of Britain and the British Colonies, the Southern white man cannot be regarded as a law-abiding person. Homicide is a weakness peculiar to him. Few newspapers are issued without a report of shooting, wounding, and killing. And this seems to be lightly regarded. Although I never actually saw shooting going on, once or twice I was in the neighbourhood of gun- play, and heard the current remarks thereon. It was in each case between white men. The facts were stated by witnesses in an indifferent way, as casually as if they were speaking of an unavoidable accident. This in- difference would have been still more marked had the victim been a Negro. Had it, however, been a case of black shooting white, I saw and heard sufficient to make me feel that the attitude would have been quite different. Then one might expect race riot and lynching, and the actual perpetrator would not be the only one to suffer. In the case of white shooters, whether the victim be white or black, adequate punishment, according to our ideas, is seldom inflicted. Juries seem to regard the crime lightly, and even when punishment is incurred, the friends of the criminal often bring pressure to bear on the authorities and he is released. I have heard several theories given 5 66 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES to account for this phenomenon, but none seems to me to fully account for it. The presence of a subservient race who may be imposed upon with comparative impunity, does certainly lead to an arrogant and masterful attitude on the part of the stronger race. The popular election of those who administer the law, and the absence of rural police must also be taken into account. The common practice of carrying weapons in many sections is alleged as a cause, and ol course no shooting could happen if there were no guns. But we in South Africa are ac- customed to firearms, have during the past forty years used them in legitimate warfare far oftener than the Southern people, and yet homicide is not a favourite pastime with either Dutch or English. And if murder does happen, we are content to let the law take its course, we do not desire personally to kill the offender. I leave it at that, sure however of the facts stated, which whether satisfactorily explained or not, have a bearing on our inquiry. All through the South one sees evidence of religious observance. Wm. Archer in " Afro-America " goes so far as to say it is the most simply and sincerely religious community he ever was in. In the towns churches are numerous, and often large and well built in proportion to the population. In the country one passes little frame churches at frequent intervals. Several times I met on the trains bands of young people wearing badges and rosettes, who belonged to religious organizations, Sunday School Unions and the like, who had been attending Conferences. I attended many Church services, mostly of those belonging to denominations holding Evangelical views, which form the majority in the South. In England and the Colonies at the present day one seldom hears sermons and addresses which denote an absolute accept- ance of the Evangelical doctrine of our fathers, preached in its entirety, with full stress laid on punishment as on reward. Modern criticism and latter day tolerance have modified it, and even if the creed or catechism be nomin- THE WHITE FACTOR 67 ally accepted, the emphasis is not where it was when I was a boy. I found the South had not departed so far from the pure doctrine, and heard sermons there such as I remember long ago, pressing home future punishment in materialistic detail; the wrath to come, and the danger of delay. The attendance was generally good, with a great proportion of women, but with a larger number of men than one usually sees in England and the Colonies in these days. Once when attending such a service and looking round at the staid and devout worshippers, I re- membered the facts of a lynching that had taken place in the neighbourhood, and could not help wondering whether any of those I saw with bowed heads had been present, and what their views on such an occurrence would be. I felt the discords and antagonisms that everywhere go to make up our human nature. But the contrast is not often so forcibly brought home to one. I never saw a Negro in these churches, they have their separate or- ganizations, managed entirely by themselves, to which I will give attention in a later chapter. Before Emancipation the white churches in the South supported the institution of slavery, and numerous cleri- cal writers could be cited who attempted to prove from Scripture that it was of Divine origin and had the Divine sanction. To-day there are their descendants, Christian ministers who condone if they do not approve lynching, and who turn to the Scripture to prove that the Negro is, and always will be, an inferior, and attempt thus to justify discrimination and repression. To the Negro- philist and humanitarian of Western Europe this sounds the rankest hypocrisy. But the Southerner is not the only man who clips his religion to suit his peculiar sins and environment. Just as in South Africa no general conversation touching on public affairs can be long continued without bringing in the native, so in the South the Negro is never far below the surface in the minds and conversation of all one meets. Should the topic of conversation be agriculture, Negro 5* 68 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES labour and Negro tenants crop up ; if it is skilled labour and its organization, the question of the admittance of the Negro comes forward ; should it be social betterment in cities, then the problem of the Negro dives and tender- loin districts is included; if it is the prohibition question, again the Negro and how he affects it. Direct questions on the part of the investigator are not necessary to bring up this topic, it is near to the top in the minds of all, and a little tact will elicit opinion and attitude. I found a firmly fixed, inexorable belief in the racial inferiority of the Negro possessed the minds of most, and opinion varied from a contemptuous tolerance to an out-spoken hostility. A nigger must be kept in his place, and that place was a subordinate one, industrially, politically, and especially socially. A watchful suspicion on all attempts which could be interpreted as claiming equality was al- most universal. It was expressed most strongly on two phases, a fear that the Negro would impinge on their source of livelihood, and a dread that he would attempt to claim social equality, which implied to them the destruc- tion of race integrity. On these two foundations was based the great mass of animosity, and it expressed itself in many practical ways, some similar to those we observe in South Africa, others somewhat different and curiously different. For instance, in South Africa the average white man never shakes hands with a native, excepting perhaps on occasion when he has something to gain, and then with a qualm, or it may be in the native territories and with a chief. In the South there does not seem to be the same objection to this act of courtesy, though it is not common. There seems, however, to be the strongest distaste to prefix Mr. or Mrs. to the name of a Negro or Negress. One Negro writer, in speaking of the con- temptuous attitude of Southern men to coloured women, states he has never known a white man to use this polite- ness to a coloured woman. Many of those I spoke to when asked as to the condition of the Negroes in their section would reply they were in good shape now, but THE WHITE FACTOR 69 some little time ago they got " bigotty " ; shooting had however occurred, they had received a lesson, and all was well now. Several on different occasions expressed the opinion that at intervals, more or less frequent, it was necessary to give the niggers a lesson. Reference was often made to some outstanding occasion, such as the Atlanta race riots, which had been conspicuously success- ful in putting the nigger in his place, and men present at these scenes of violence often volunteered the informa- tion that on such occasions the casualties were greater than reported. I often wondered what would happen to a negrophilist who used the usual arguments about race equality if he began talking in a public place to these quiet, watchful, determined-looking men. I never ven- tured the experiment myself. I simply listened and questioned. Quotations to illustrate what I believe to be the popu- lar attitude could be given in hundreds, one or two must suffice. Ray S. Baker in his book " Following the Colour /''Line " cites C. P. Lain who writes thus in the " Atlanta Constitution ": "We the Southern people entertain no' \ prejudice towards the ignorant inoffensive Negro. It is \ because we know him, and for him entertain a compassion. But our blood boils when the educated Negro asserts him- United States. Those called upon, if of African de- scent, found some difficulty in satisfying the examiners. In many States before a voter can be registered he must have paid his poll tax, which is not collected with any great regularity. Few Negroes would pay a tax which would remain uncollected if they did not register, and this no doubt is the motive for making this proviso. We must remember also that behind all these elabor- ate legal provisions is the gun. Before the South had begun to legalize the position, the Negro had practically relinquished the rights conferred on him by the Federal Government. He had been made to see quite clearly that if he persisted in claiming and exercising the right, he would be killed, and at the present time if he cannot be kept out by legal enactments he will be kept out by force, which would not, if necessary, stop short of murder. W. P. Calhoun gives an instance of a Southern white 152 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES man in South Carolina who " injudiciously attempted to push a Negro forward and make him vote ". He was waited upon by a mob with guns, and shooting happened. He fled, leaving home and family. In order to be able to return he made an abject apology, promising not to offend again, and if necessary he would change his politics ! The Negroes know all this, and are forced to accept the position. Some few are on the register, and are allowed to vote, but if the issue became such as to really matter to the white man the Negro would never be al- lowed to decide it. I spoke to several registered Negro voters, and they said they did not trouble to cast their votes, it was no good, they did not count. W. Laird Clowes wrote his book "Black America" in 1 89 1. Over twenty years have elapsed and this book is of value as the record of what a clear-sighted and impartial Englishman noted at that time, and specially is it of value for purposes of comparison with the present. Then most of the State legislation, designed to consolidate and define the position secured by force, had not been passed, though of course the Negro had practically ceased to be a factor in politics. Mr. Clowes gives the number of registered white and coloured voters in the three States : — Louisiana Mississippi . South Carolina and yet at that time, in all these States, the white man ruled indisputably. Writing of the franchise position in that year, so much closer to the times of the Ku-Ku-Klan than now, he says : " Indeed there is no conceivable scoundrelism that is not or has not been practised in the South to neutralize the Negro vote ". And yet the Negro, voteless and voiceless in political affairs, is the one force that makes Southern politics what they are. There is only one issue in the South, and White Coloured 108,810 107,977 108,254 130,278 86,900 118,889 POLITICAL RIGHTS AND WRONGS 153 that one is the nigger, who, apparently, does not count. The man who is unsound on the race question is politi- cally dead in the South, if such a one voices his opinions too freely, he may be, in very rapid fashion, physically dead. A visitor of course finds it difficult to judge in ordinary times of the political spirit of a country, but I was told by some who spoke mournfully, that this attitude meant the extinction of political thought in the South. There is no clash of opinion as in the North and in Britain, and on questions which should awaken keen interest and discussion, there was only a torpid indiffer- ence. The Southerner boasts of the Solid South. This Solid South is politically a block of ice, inert, immovable, without thought or life. What the South wants is not political solidarity, but thought, discussion, the clash of different opinions, the warmth, yet the light which comes from free expression on any subject under the sun. It is the Negro who has made politics in the South what they are ; speechless and voteless he yet prevails. This political apathy on all subjects but the one, means that the South is all of one political colour, all belong to the Democratic party, and the result is that the control is in the hands of the party bosses. This indifference is shown in the proportion who take the trouble to record their votes. In Mississippi, in 1906, one vote out of fifteen was recorded, in Georgia only 33,341 polled out of a registered total of over 500,000. The Negro for many long years regarded the Re- publican party as his friend, and pathetically looked to it for assistance. I gathered from conversations with Negroes that this long held faith was being at last shaken, and some told me the Negro should make the best bar- gain he could, either with his traditional friends or foes. Certainly any hope he had of help from his old time friends has become hope deferred, and it is not surpris- ing that he feels hopeless. Every now and then when it seems desirable to the political manipulators, a show of affection is made, and the 1 54 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES parties string out platitudes and pass them off to the Negro in return for such voting power as he possesses. Both parties in their declarations insert paragraphs of fine-sounding phrases intended to placate the Negro, but the politicians know perfectly well it all amounts to nothing. Alfred Holt Stone is quite right when he says : " A glance at the record shows that not one platform has ever been framed by that party which has been almost unbrokenly in power since the Negro was emancipated that has not contained its Negro plank. Almost invari- ably the other great party has answered in kind. And in each case it was mere brutum fulmen, an opera-bouffe affair with the Negro occupying the centre of the serio- comic stage." On occasions the white man does let the Negro have a run when the issues are confined to the party or are non-important, and then, politically uneducated, he is at the mercy of the political machine, as shown in the follow- ing extract from the "New York Times" of 17 August, 1903: " Baltimore, August 16, 1903. In the Republican faction fight between Senator McComas and the Anti- Organization Combine at the primary election in the Counties yesterday there was wholesale bartering of votes. About $25,000 was spent in one county alone in buying Negro votes. At Upper Marlborough all kinds of ruses were worked by Negroes to obtain funds from both sections, and they were mostly successful. At least two dollars each were paid for the black votes, but as a rule they brought from five to twenty-five. One Negro got fifty dollars for voting twelve members of his family. As soon as the polling window was raised a rush was made for it, but they refrained from voting un- til supplied with the long run. The men with the cash stood opposite the window and offered the money. The scene has probably never been equalled in Maryland politics," CHAPTER XVI. SEPARATION IN SCHOOLS AND PLACES OF PUBLIC RESORT. One of the grievances voiced is the inferior education given to the Negro. This question I have dealt with elsewhere, and have shown that though the appropria- tions towards Negro education are small as compared with those received by the whites, the opportunities for primary education for the Negro child are greater than in many other civilized countries, and the number of institu- tions for higher learning are surprising to one who had imagined that the opportunity of the Negro ended with a poor elementary education. The separation of the youth of the races in the schools is of course absolute. To the great mass of the Negroes proper, this is not regarded as a grievance, but to the man of mixed descent, who holds the doctrine of equal rights, irrespective of colour, such differentiation is regarded as a wrong inflicted on the race. In some mixed communities outside the United States, in which race differentiation is not so marked, in which the backward race may exercise the franchise, and in which there is no discrimination in public conveyances, as for ex- ample in the Western province of the Cape Colony, the separation of the youth of the races in schools is yet in- sisted upon. We may regard as narrow-minded, supercilious, and unjust the demand for separation in places of amusement, public conveyances, and even hotels ; but many who would grant an equal place to the coloured man here, de- cline to allow their children to mix with those of his race, and they approve legislation to secure separation. Even when the sexes are kept apart, and the children are physically clean, these argue that the moral atmosphere 155 156 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES in which the majority of the coloured children live is so different, that the close association in school life at an im- pressionable age, may weaken the moral fibre of their children, and lower their standard. Their objection is much stronger when both sexes attend the same school. In the present temper of the South it is unthinkable that in any section the common schools will be open to both races alike. Even the liberal and thoughtful South accept the doctrine of separation in school life as one that should not be questioned, and if pressed would probably in all cases stand for it equally with the average man. Edgar G. Murphy, who is an educationist by profes- sion, in his essay on "The Schools of the People " thus states his view : " But the social and educational separa- tion of these peoples has created the opportunity and the vocation of the Negro teacher, the Negro physician, the Negro lawyer, the Negro leader of whatever sort. It has not only preserved the Negro leader to the Negro masses by preventing the absorption of the best Negro life into the life of the stronger race, it has actually created within thirty years a representation of Negro leadership which is worthy of signal honour and sincere and generous applause. The segregation of the race has thrown the members on their own powers and has developed the qualities of resourcefulness. The very process which may have seemed to some like a policy of oppression, has in fact resulted in a process of development." If two races of different traits and in a different stage of culture must live together, then I feel that the stronger should be animated by a sense of race dignity which will not only be apparent in a righteous scorn to take unfair advantage of their strength, but on all occasions prompt them to act with sympathy and tolerance. To stand on a false dignity and demand exceptional treatment for our- selves and servility from the weaker, is much more likely to breed irritation and aggravate race hostility, than a considered apartness in certain spheres in which grave moral issues are raised. If by some spiritual change the SEPARATION IN SCHOOLS 157 whole white South could act with uniform courtesy and kindliness it would do far more to smooth the asperities of present race relations and make for peace than the re- moval of the present colour distinctions in schools. No people on earth are more susceptible to kindly treatment, to a gentle, courteous, yet dignified manner than the African, no people will submit with less resentment to distinctions that are not insulting. If the South as a whole could follow the lead of the awakening best South, take an interest in the Negro school and make effort to uplift it, I feel that the cry of the militant section against a separation that makes for race sufficiency and race pride, would fall for the most part on unheeding ears. What is true of the schools also applies to all other educative agencies, even those of a religious character. The Negro cannot enter those organized by whites, though he is at liberty to form his own. I was much struck with the wide organization and beautiful and complete buildings of the Young Men's Christian Associa- tion in the South. I went through some of their branches and saw and admired the manifold arrangements for the physical, mental, moral, social, and spiritual needs of the members. But no coloured man, however near white, could attain membership. W. P. Livingstone says : tl The Y.M.C.A. is an important organization in every town of the United States, but the coloured element is never ad- mitted to it. This is as true of the North as of the South. Were a Negro allowed to register in any associa- tion all the white members would immediately resign." Equally with the whites the Negroes are municipal tax-payers. The amenities provided by these taxes are not for them. Neither municipal libraries, gymnasia, swimming baths, nor newsrooms are open to them. They may be seen in the public parks, and visiting such open-air places as zoological gardens. I found, however, that on holidays, when the parks were crowded and picnic parties much in evidence, the Negroes resorted to a part not frequented by whites. CHAPTER XVII. THE NEGRO BEFORE THE COURT. If there is a happy country in the world in which rich and poor, illiterate and learned, influential and obscure may feel certain of getting absolutely equal consideration and justice before the law, I do not know it. At the best we do but approximate to it, and though the approxima- tion may be close, it is never perfect. If to the illiteracy, poverty, and obscurity be added the further handicap of race, a race practically without a voice in the government of the country, then, without any deep search into the Annals of the Courts, we may be certain that absolute impartial justice is far to seek. We must remember also, that in the United States the administration of justice is not, as in Britain and the British colonies, in the hands of impartial officials chosen for their probity and ability by the Government; but these are elected directly by the people. And in this choice the Negro has no voice. Too often sordid political motives are what actuate the Electors, and the adminis- trator of the law is absolutely unworthy. Let us still remember, as we must always do, that the Negro is devoid of political power and is largely inarticulate, and we can see that the primary conditions of absolute justice in the Courts can hardly be said to be present. Many specific cases were related to me of cruelly heavy sentences passed upon Negroes, and comparisons were made with extremely light punishment meted out to the white man for the same class of offence ; of abrupt treatment that prejudiced the accused, and, more particu- 158 THE NEGRO BEFORE THE COURT 159 larly, of the impossibility of a Negro getting proper satisfaction when he brought a charge against a white man. Many of my Negro informants also told me that men of their race suffered violence and injustice and never dreamt of bringing the cases into Court, feeling that they would not obtain redress, and would probably direct popular resentment against themselves. Judge W. H. Thomas of Montgomery, Ala., says: "I have observed that juries have not hesitated to acquit the Negro when the evidence showed his innocence. Yet honesty demands that I say that justice too often miscarries in the attempt to enforce the criminal law against the white man. It is not that the Negro fails to get justice before the Courts in the trial of the specific indictment against him, but too often it is that the native white man escapes it." I attended the Courts, but could not in the time at my disposal follow the full hearing of a sufficient number of cases to come to a conclusion on my own actual observations. I may say, though, there was a marked difference in the attitude and behaviour of the Court officials to white men and to Negroes — the latter were certainly not treated with any marked deference. It is stated by Negroes that they are arrested for minor offences and irregularities for which the white man goes free, and this is likely to be the case. On the other hand, I have heard whites say that as no one ex- pected high standards of conduct or behaviour from Negroes, breaches of such are condoned and arrests are not made, when, if the offender was a white man, he would be treated more severely, in that he had fallen below his natural standard. From a careful reading of cases appearing in the news- papers, from talks with whites, and many conversations with Negroes ; after hearing the recital of many special cases, and bearing in mind the social and racial conditions in the South, and making comparison with what I know 160 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES occurs under similar conditions in South Africa, I would say : — That in the higher Courts the Negro indicted gets justice. That in the lower Courts his punishment is often ex- cessive. That the same may be said when the case is one between Negroes. That when the case is between white and black the latter does not get impartial justice. Finally, my judgment is that the Negro does not get equal treatment before the Courts and that here he has ground for legitimate complaint. CHAPTER XVIII. PERSONAL INJUSTICE. If a race is socially weak, politically powerless, discrimin- ated against each day, unable to obtain equal justice be- fore the Courts, and is faced by another race, strong, effective, grasping, and with all the machinery of govern- ment in its hands, it must be clear that it places in the power of the baser members of the governing race op- portunities which, if they are not to be abused, must come to the heel of a tender conscience. We know that the majority of men are governed, not by conscience, but by greed and desire. In the very nature of things there must be many cases of individual oppression in the South. Whilst I met many Southerners who I know would scorn to cheat or oppress a Negro, the tone of many others indicated that such methods were not condemned, but rather rested lightly upon them. As a rule the industrial field is open to the Negro in the South, but many instances could be cited to show that he has often to walk warily, and is sometimes tripped up by the way. A coloured doctor of medicine in New Orleans told me the case of a friend of his born in a town on the banks of the Mississippi. He left home for College, graduated, and returned a qualified medical man. He opened practice in his native town, his clients being those of his own race, as custom would not allow him to treat white patients, although the white practitioners had no scruple in treating Negroes. He heard rumours of trouble which culminated in him receiving notice to quit 161 II 1 62 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES from the practising medical men of the town. He was given to understand he would leave the town without a stain on his character — they had nothing against him personally, but they would not have a Negro doctor in the place. He had no alternative but to go, and seek to make a living elsewhere. Another medical man practising in a large town, told me that he began his career in a country district, and would have been glad to have remained there, it was his home, but it had been made clear to him that it was not safe for him to remain, and he abandoned his practice and came into the city. An instance is given of a progressive Negro who saw an opening to hawk meat through the country-side. He built up a good business and was prospering. The white butchers became jealous, and told him he must stop, and he had no alternative but to do so. He then opened an ice-cream business in the summer months, and again re- ceived notice to relinquish it, and finally had to leave the section. This is, I think, true ; my informant was a trust- worthy person who spoke from first-hand knowledge, but I think it must be an extreme case ; had such been frequent I feel sure more would have been brought to my notice. It is possible that this particular Negro may have been in some way, apart from business, an objec- tionable person, but it is extremely unlikely that, how- ever objectionable, the same treatment would have been meted out to a white man. There are many authentic cases of bodies of Negroes getting peremptory notice to leave a town or district within such a short space of time that they have to abandon or sacrifice their homes and belongings, and make a fresh beginning elsewhere. Sometimes this is os- tensibly because the Negroes are a menace to public health, but generally simply because they are Negroes. The former would probably be given as the reason for the clear- ing out without any notice at all, of all the Negroes, men, women, and children, in Lake Charles, Louisiana. This PERSONAL INJUSTICE 163 is reported to have taken place one night in 1906 when several hundred armed white men invaded a low district in the town called locally " Holeinthewall," and rounded up all the Negroes and, "without giving them time even to dress, took them under guard to the train and sent them out of the city and section ". This seems to us a summary way of cleaning up the slums, and a method that must have meant grave hardship to many of the evicted. As I have pointed out, the distribution of the races varies greatly in different parts of the South, and those in which whites greatly predominate are often extremely jealous of the intrusion of Negroes, and force is often employed to eject them. The following I quote from W. P. Calhoun : " A despatch from Birmingham, Alabama, says : ' The white farmers residing in the vicinity of Cordova, Walker County, where is located the million dollar cotton mill of the Indian Land Co. of Boston, Mass., and some of the mill operatives have rid themselves of the few Negroes who ventured to settle and work at the mills and on the railroad. The farmers formed a band of fifty and went from Negro cabin to cabin and ordered the head of each family to vamoose the ranch on pain of death, saying that Walker County had always been a white man's county and it was going to remain so.' " From the " New Orleans Times Democrat " of 20 March, 1907, the following is taken: "Lawton, Oklahoma, 20 March. Negroes beware coppers. We, the sixty sons of Waurika demand the Negroes to leave here at once. We mean Go, leave in twenty-four hours or your life is uncer- tain. These were the words on placards which the eighty Negroes of Waurika, forty miles south of Lawton, saw posted conspicuously in a number of public places this morning. Dispatches from here to-night stated that the white men were in earnest, and that the Negroes will be killed if they remain." Although the Negro people form 1 1 per cent of the total population of the United States and nearly one-third of 11 * 1 64 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES the population of the South, although they have con- sistently supported the Republican party since emancipa- tion, since which time the party has had almost uninter- rupted control, although both great political parties have declared for equality, the Negro has never been permitted to hold any office of emolument under Government, ex- cepting in a few isolated cases, invariably minor and poorly paid posts. These few exceptions go to prove the rule, that Negroes are never considered when the legiti- mate spoils of office are distributed. A Negro constable or postmaster is never seen. Promises have been made in plenty during election times by the party who had their support, but they have been forgotten — or rather they were intended to be forgotten — when the votes were cast. It is stated that this determination to exclude the Negro from office is more marked of late years than it was in the past. Whether this is the case or not the hostility to Negro office seekers or office holders now amounts almost to fanaticism. Thus W. P. Livingstone, speaking on this question in his book "The Race Conflict," says : "Notwithstanding President Roosevelt's statements, he appointed fewer coloured people to positions in the South than any other President " ; and again : " It is not the official treatment of the black man that has changed, but the state of public feeling in the South. The right to aspire to Federal office, unquestioned a few years ago, is now challenged and opposed with a vehemence and bitterness impossible for one to realize unless he has lived in the South, or come into touch with its people and newspapers." J. Ambrose Price, a Southern writer, voices this senti- ment thus : "We can never really claim to be one of the greatest Governments on earth while the Negro holds positions in the different departments of the Government. This is a disgrace to white intelligence and the claim of an honest Government. The United States Government was founded on intelligence, virtue, and natural distinc- tion, and it must stand upon these principles, or it will PERSONAL INJUSTICE 165 suffer the disgrace which comes from Government posi- tions being filled by Negroes." Not a very sound argument, but it serves to show the temper of some. It certainly requires courage of the highest for a Negro to accept a public position of honour and emolument in the South. W. P. Calhoun says: "No white man, especially in the rural districts, will submit to any Negro holding office of trust, honour, or profit. In the large Southern cities this is submitted to, but the assertion is ventured, that if any national administration should make too many appointments of Negroes to office in any of these large cities, the repetition of Lake City, South Carolina, lynching may be looked for. It is con- sidered a crime even for a Negro to apply for a Govern- ment position in the South. He seldom gets it in the North. In the city of Atlanta, Georgia, a Negro, H. A. Rucker, is in charge of the Customs. He has not been molested, but much grumbling was indulged in at the time of his appointment, and the grumbling is still going on, and not because he does not properly attend to his duties, but because he is a Negro. The Caucasian will never permit the Negro to take too much part in politics ; as the years pass the feeling will be more intense, and the feeling between the races will grow apace till the climax is reached." Wm. A. Sinclair, in "The Aftermath of Slavery," pub- lished in 1905, gives an instance which fully bears out the opinion of W. P. Livingstone. He says: "The house of postmaster Baker of South Carolina was surrounded at night, oil was poured into the house, and it was set on fire. When the family attempted to escape the mob fired at them. Baker was shot carrying his young baby, which was also killed ; his wife, two daughters, and a son were shot. His offence was holding a Federal office as postmaster." CHAPTER XIX. BLOOD GUILTINESS. No reader of Southern newspapers can go far through their columns without rinding many records of shooting and killing between white and black. Sometimes it may be a case of quarrel between individuals and may only involve those immediately concerned. Always, however, when open hostilities commence between white and Negro there is a serious danger, that for purely racial reasons, others join in who are in no way connected with the original cause of dispute, and general shooting takes place, which may spread until it becomes a race riot, in which many lives are lost, and much cruelty inflicted. Once the ever-present, but it may be latent, race animosity is fanned into flame and takes possession of the mob, fiendish atrocities are often committed, and the lives of hundreds may be sacrificed, as in the notorious Atlanta riots. And the Negro invariably comes out the worsted party. Though in the great majority of cases the white man is the aggressor, on occasions the Negro, to resent what he conceives to be insult and injury, bathes himself in blood. This was the case in Brownsville, Texas. Here a number of Negro soldiers of the 25th Infantry Battalion left barracks at night, and went through the town shooting right and left, in revenge for alleged slights put upon them by the inhabitants. In consequence the regiment was disbanded, causing much ill-feeling among the Negroes. It may be truthfully said that, in very few cases of homicide when the victim is a Negro, and a white man is the culprit, is adequate punishment, according to British or British Colonial ideas, inflicted by the Courts. If the 166 BLOOD GUILTINESS 167 contrary is the case, the white man killed, and the Negro arrested, it must be a stronger jail and a more determined Sheriff than most in the South, if the Courts have any opportunity to decide the case, for the mob take the matter into their own hands and the accused is lynched without form of trial. If I am to make the position of the races in the South clear, if what I say is to have anything of value or warn- ing for my South African readers, I feel I must go into this phase of the question, mob murder, without glossing over any of its revolting details. I would also premise that, horrible and nauseating as are the cases I recite, I so far consider the susceptibilities of my readers that I only quote a few. Many more could be cited. There are no exact or official statistics showing the actual number of cases of lynching which have occurred in the United States, and before the year 1830 we have no record at all. From 1830 to 1840, according to records kept by the " Liberator," an anti-slavery paper, it appears the law was generally allowed to take its course. From 1850-60 there appears a greater tendency for the people to take the law into their own hands. Out of forty-six Negroes put to death for murder, twenty were legally ex- ecuted, and twenty- six summarily executed by the mob. Of these twenty-six, nine were burned at the stake. For the crime of rape upon white women, three Negroes were legally executed and twelve lynched, of whom four were burned to death. For the years 1871-73 there were seventy-five lynch- ings. In the next decade the numbers rose rapidly. In 1882 one hundred and fourteen persons were lynched, in 1883 one hundred and thirty-four, and in 1884 no less than two hundred and eleven. From this point the " Chicago Tribune " takes up the tale of infamy, and from 1885 until the present day has kept a record which is probably ap- proximately correct. From this and other calculations we may, I think, conclude that there have been nearly 4000 cases of lynching in the United States. 1 68 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES In the sixteen years from 1 884-1 900 there were 2516 cases recorded; of these 2465 were men and 51 women, 2080 occurred in the South and 436 in the North. It will be noted that the victims are not only men but women, and incredible as it will seem to some, and quite contrary to the accepted ideas, twenty-three of the female victims were white women. The alleged crimes of these white females are thus scheduled : — 9 for murder or complicity therein. 1 ,, being disreputable. 1 because of mob indignation. 1 ,, ,, race prejudice. 1 for miscegenation. 1 ,, arson. 2 „ theft. 7 ,, unknown crimes. It does not appear that any burning desire for race integrity was responsible for this particular group of lynching atrocities. Fortunately it seems pretty certain that of late years the number of cases is not increasing, indeed from the statistics of the " Chicago Tribune " it would appear they are becoming less frequent, but even so, the list is a saddening one. I give the numbers as published for twenty-seven consecutive years : these are apart from deaths in race conflicts : — White. Negro White. Negro White. Negro 1885 106 78 1895 59 112 1905 5 61 1886 67 71 1896 51 80 1906 8 64 1887 42 80 1897 44 122 1907 3 60 1888 47 95 1898 25 102 1908 7 93 1889 81 95 1899 23 84 1909 14 73 1890 37 90 1900 8 I07 1910 9 65 1891 7i 121 1901 28 84 1911 8 63 1892 100 155 1902 10 86 1893 46 154 1903 18 86 1894 56 134 1904 4 83 BLOOD GUILTINESS 169 I wish I could truthfully say that, concurrently with the slight decrease in numbers, the atrocities accompany- ing the deaths were diminishing in cruelty. Recent revolting cases, and the consensus of informed opinion, lead me to the conclusion that the contrary is the case, and the fierce savagery that is so often the most painful feature of these orgies of blood is not diminishing in intensity. Cutler says : " If the cases of burning alive form a list that is at all complete, there is ground for believing that, as the practice of lynching continues, the punishments inflicted tend to increase in severity, and the victims are tortured more and more until death comes to their relief". The figures given by the " Chicago Tribune " indicate the race of the sufferers. It will come as a surprise to many of my readers, as it did to me, to find so many white men on the list. The number of whites has, how- ever, greatly decreased of late years, very much more so than in the case of Negroes. In 1885 there were no less than 106 cases of lynching white men ; these had fallen to 3 in 1907 but the number rose again slightly in the subsequent years. The climax as regards the Negro seems to have been reached in 1893, but a comparison of the years 1885-8 with 1908-11 does not show any great cause for congratulation that these lawless acts against Negroes are in process of dying out. In the figures given, probably all reported cases are included, but I am told by those who know the South, that all do not appear in the public press. The country is large and nights are dark, and Sheriffs are not over- anxious to push themselves forward when at best they will only earn intense unpopularity, and at worst may get a bullet lodged in a vital spot. I find among ordinarily well-informed people, who do not know the United States, and who have not made a special study of the subject, an impression that lynching is confined to the South, and that the reason or justifica- tion for it is the brutal and lecherous assaults on white 170 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES women by Negroes. It is a fact, however, that this particular and abominable crime is not even alleged to be the cause in the majority of cases : those in which it is claimed to be the reason for lynching do not amount to more than about 25 per cent of the total number. And this particular crime has not come in with lynching; it was not unknown among the Negroes in slavery days. Cutler in his "History of Lynching" says: "Strictly speaking this crime has not come into existence since the Civil War as is stated by some. It is not a new crime to the Negro. It has merely increased and become more common along with the general increase in crimin- ality manifest in the Negro since emancipation." As one who has lived for the greater part of his life in the closest touch with an African people, and shares the feeling of horror with which an attempt at the viola- tion of a white woman by a member of this race is felt — felt to the innermost fibres of being — I can sympathize with the detestation felt, and the exasperation raised, by this crime in the South. I can even imagine myself, under the goad of some such diabolical instances of violation as have actually happened in the South, temporarily losing my reason, and killing the perpetrator at sight. There are rights of manhood and of race, and there are feelings so deep and strong, that to restrain and delay the leaping natural impulse is impossible. Such cases, however, do not happen in the lives of most men, even in the South. This justification, if justi- fication it is, cannot be allowed to have force in the vast majority of cases of lynching in the South. The pleas are often paltry in the extreme, and indicate a loss of self- control that is unworthy of reasoning humanity. Sadly too often a cruel deliberate vindictiveness is the note, which is out of all proportion to the offence, and which expresses itself in deeds that shame the cruellest tortures inflicted by the aboriginal Red Indian, or the Spanish Inquisition. And this in the 20th century— to-day. BLOOD GUILTINESS 171 It would be grossly unfair to charge all the mob licence and ferocity to the South. It is stated that in sixteen years there were 2080 recorded cases in the South, and 436 in the North. The proportion of Negroes in the North during this time, as compared with those in the South, would certainly not be more than 1 to 8, pro- bably less than this figure. This would indicate that, taking this as the basis of computation, the Negro is in greater danger of mob violence in the cultured North than in the backward South. It is also stated, and probably with truth, that the greater efficiency of the police in the North prevents many riots and attempts at lynching from culminating in the tragic finale. No less than twenty attempted rynchings were frustrated by the activity of the constabulary within the limits of the city of New York in one year. Nor can the North plead that they are innocent of the premeditated and revolting cruelties by which the victim is too often put to death in the South. It lies as a stigma on the Quaker State that at Coatesville, a few miles from the city founded by William Penn, quite recently a wounded Negro was dragged from hospital by an infuriated mob, bound to his stretcher, and thrust into the fire. When in his agony he burst his bonds, he was thrown back again, and died in unutterable torture. Still, when all possible extenuating circumstances are granted, this crime remains a black blot on the South. I know it is felt deeply and keenly by many Southern men and women, who would give their most precious possessions if they could wipe out this disgrace which blackens the character of their people. When one reads of the offences for which men and women are done to death by mobs of their own people, it seems incredible that for such apparently trivial causes such dreadful punishment should be exacted. It seems to me to throw a lurid light on the hearts of many in the South, which must be filled with corrosive race hatred, 172 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES to be guilty of such diabolical acts even when moved by the electric influence of a crowd of like passions. I give a few of the offences alleged : gambling, conspiracy, voodooism, cutting levees, drunkenness, strike rioting, poisoning cattle, writing insulting letters, and for these the utmost penalty was paid. To many the idea of lynching is associated with a hempen rope, a short shrift, and a comparatively painless death. Such must revise their conceptions. I give a few instances. From the report of the case of George White (coloured) who was lynched for the murder of Helen Bishop, a white woman in Delaware, only four hours from New York, the following may be cited: "After the man was dead by burning, throngs of women surrounded the smouldering embers. Some hurled on more wood to keep the fire going so as to reduce to dust the remnants of the body of the Negro. White boys and girls snatched pieces of fuel from the fire as souvenirs of the mob's violence." To show the intensity of feeling roused, and how it is aggravated, even by some whose position and calling are associated with peace and forgiveness, I quote : " Between the date of the above murder and the lynching, the Rev. Robert A. Ellwood, pastor of the Mount Olivet Presbyterian Church, preached a Sunday morning sermon which is thus reported : ' He advocated moderation and then drew an agonizing picture of the murder of Miss Bishop. He counselled patience, and then denounced the Supreme Court, declaring that by refusing to depart from the regular procedure to try White, it was setting an example in patience for the people. He drew a fore- cast of precisely what happened, and sternly laid the blame at the feet of the Judges of the Court, and added a final appeal to the passions of his audience by dramatic- ally waving over his head blood-stained leaves from the thicket in which Helen Bishop had been killed, and which had been specially obtained for the purpose by one of his elders. The people went from the church BLOOD GUILTINESS 173 livid with passion, and early this morning the deed was done.'" At Paris, Texas, the Negro, Henry Smith, was lynched for an outrage on a young girl which resulted in her death. The circumstances were horrible. He was taken by a mob, and before burning was tortured, red-hot irons being thrust into his eyes, down his throat, and on his abdomen. Photographs of the scene were taken and published. It is alleged that gramophone records were taken of his screams. The crowd numbered thousands, and included many women and children. It is thus re- ported in a local paper : " A mob of angry men and women numbering thousands wreaked the most frightful vengeance on the body of the Negro, Henry Smith. They took the prisoner from the guards bringing him here, dragged him with a rope round his neck to the scene of the crime, subjected him to every conceivable torture, and then burnt the pitiable wretch at the stake. When the news came last night that he had been caught the people seemed crazy with joy, and thirsted for his life. By trains and wagons, on horses and afoot, the people piled into the city." Jefferson parish, New Orleans, was the scene of a lynching, and the preparations are thus described: "An iron stake was driven into the ground to which he will be tied. Fat, fuel, and resinous material to surround this. Long irons like branding irons are in readiness, and when red-hot the man will be tortured with them while the fire below him burns. A rude gallows tree above the pyre has been built from which the murderer will be suspended over the fire by his arms." Commenting on the lynching of one Sam Hose, a Negro, the " Washington Star " says : " The stories of the Inquisition, of the African cannibals, of the Roman Emperors, of the fanatical Aztecs, of all the savage and barbarous peoples who have left records for blood lust in the pages of history, warrant the expectation that even this abomination may soon be exceeded by another, more 174 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES sickening in its methods, more revolting in the spectacle of presumably civilized men and women in the torture of a fellow-being ". This case and the others so far mentioned were in revenge for the outrage of a woman of their own race, and this, as stirring the deepest feelings in our nature, may be held as condonation by some. No such excuse can be offered for the following. A Negro man in Mississippi became involved in a quarrel with a white man who was on the point of shoot- ing him when the Negro fired and fatally wounded him. He fled into the woods along with his wife. Blood- hounds were put on the trail, and after a long chase they were captured. According to an eye-witness they were tied to trees and forced to hold out their hands while one finger after another was severed. Their ears were then cut off, and both fingers and ears were distributed as souvenirs. A large corkscrew was next bored into their arms, legs, and body, the spiral tearing out large pieces of quivering flesh. Neither man nor woman begged for mercy nor uttered a cry. They were finally roasted alive. Reported in the " New York Times " of 8 February, 1903: "A coloured man, Luther Herbert, and his wife were burnt at the stake at Memphis, Tennessee, for murdering a white man. Before the mob separated seven Negroes had been done to death. The sixteen- year-old son of the coloured couple was forced to attend and witness the burning." It was not my experience to see either a race shooting or a lynching. I met, however, a young Englishman who had been an eye-witness to a Negro hunt, and who described it to me with visible signs of emotion. He saw the Negro, little more than a boy, racing panic-stricken, the mob pursuing him and firing as they ran. He ap- peared to be wounded and took refuge in a drain. Shots were fired into the drain, and he was dragged forth bleeding, and hurried to his death, which my informant BLOOD GUILTINESS 175 did not see. He was so sickened and horror-struck at the tragic nature of what he beheld that he hurried away from the scene. As long as he lived he said the burning memory of it would remain. When suspected persons are rushed along to their death without inquiry or form of trial, by an infuriated mob seeing blood and panting for revenge, it is not likely that the victim is invariably the guilty person. There are many sections of the country in which race relations are tolerable, and whites and blacks live in amity. It is probable that before blood is shed, there is generally a period of strained relations between the races, and then a small matter may cause an outburst. The tense in- flammable race feeling only needs a whiff of suspicion to make it leap into flame, and there is little disposition to inquire too closely into the actual guilt of the suspected one. In any case, say the baser sort, it is a lesson to the nigger. Frederick Law Olmsted was in Knoxville, Tennessee, just after the burning of a Negro. A citizen to whom he spoke admitted there was no proof of the guilt of the Negro beyond his own confession. Olmsted suggested he might have been mad. "What if he was," replied the citizen, "the thousands of Negroes who were rounded up to see him burnt were not, and they had been taught a lesson." Judging from conversations of my own I fear this spirit is present at many such scenes. An incident which gave some insight into the common Southern feeling with regard to lynching came into my experience. I was staying a few days at a coloured institution, run by a coloured man and his wife with financial assistance from the North. A musical enter- tainment was given, and somewhat to my surprise, several white men, living and working in the immediate neigh- bourhood, attended. Among them was the son of a highly respected citizen from the county town. In con- versation this young fellow spoke of his father's long friendship with the father of my host, whom he described 176 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES as an excellent character. To prove the estimation in which his father held this coloured man, he said that on one occasion a lynching took place in the neighbourhood, and the white people were intensely excited and exasper- ated. Rumour went that the coloured man had expressed disapproval of the action of the mob, who were preparing to visit their disapprobation upon him, when my inform- ant's father intervened saying, " he knew this nigger and he was a good one," and the allegation was a damned lie. A committee was formed to make further inquiry, and the question was directly put to the coloured man. The answer was : " Bring me the man who heard me say it ". This somewhat inconclusive answer seemed to settle the matter, probably by this time the anger of the mob had cooled down. This was very interesting to me. My informant did not appear to think for a moment that a nigger had the slightest right to resent, or even question, the illegal killing of one of his race, and apparently both his father and himself would have been prepared to sup- port the due punishment of any Negro who so offended. The sole question was whether the offence had been committed, and the defence was that the Negro was a good one, and not likely to commit such a breach of the good manners expected from such a one ! Singular ! Although between three or four thousand lynchings are admitted to have taken place in the United States and although one happens in this very year of our Lord every few days in some section of the country, I never heard of any one instance in which adequate punishment was meted out to the perpetrators. Inquests are some- times held, sometimes even mock trials. In many cases those actively participating are known and openly boast of it, but they are not arrested. Public opinion would resent the execution of any white man for doing what is often regarded as a public service. The verdicts of some juries reflect the popular opinion, and some may be cited. One runs thus: " The deceased came to his death by swinging in the air ". Another : "We BLOOD GUILTINESS iff do not know who killed deceased, but we congratulate the parties on their work ". Again : " The deceased came to his death by taking too great a bit of hemp rope " ; and more seriously : " The men who participated in the burning were among the best citizens of the country, and nothing but a desire to protect those who were nearest and dearest would have moved them to undertake such measures ". We have seen that the ostensible reason given for lynching is the prevalence of what is called in the South "the usual crime," when as a matter of fact only about twenty-five per cent of these mob murders are even alleged to punish the crime of rape. But I do not wish to speak lightly of this atrocious offence, nor attempt to defend on any ground those who are guilty of it. I believe it is a real danger in the South, and that the dread of it takes the happiness out of the lives of some sensitive white women, and makes the white man feel uneasy if his women folk are left alone and unguarded. I remember visiting the home of a clergyman situated by itself in the country. My friend came from the North, but had long resided in the South, and all the time had been engaged in religious and educational work among the Negroes. I noticed that the windows of his house were barred, and the verandahs were especially protected. I asked the reason, and was told that such precautions were necessary, the danger was a real one, and the dread of it ever present. He never left his wife alone. In the South as in South Africa, the crime has become more frequent since the races mixed together in everyday life on the same plane, and since the black man was freed from control. In the Southern States the control was the hard hand of the slave master, in South Africa the control was exercised by the chief and tribal system. The release has in both cases led to licence. It has been argued that the crime is committed in retaliation for the cruelties in- flicted by whites — is, in fact, race revenge. W. P. Livingstone says : " The crime is primarily one of race 12 178 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES reprisals, because of the miseries and wrongs they have suffered. In the case of criminal assault, they know that such a form of retaliation touches the whites to the quick." This theory supposes malice aforethought, a brooding over race injuries and reasoned plans for vengeance. It does not accord with my conception of the character of the Negro, and I do not agree with this explanation. I think Alfred Holt Stone is nearer the mark. In a paper read before the American Economic Association he says relations in the Yazoo delta of the Mississippi are amicable, and attributes this to the fact that the whites are a class apart, large employers of labour, and there is no white labouring class, particularly of field labourers. He gives the following case : A young mulatto came to work for him who had been sentenced for assault on a white girl. I gather he came as one of a chain gang of convicts hired from the State Government. Stone asked him about the crime, which at first he was unwilling to discuss, but then said: "You don't understand, things are so different here. I was hired to an old man over there by the year. He had only 40 acres, and he and his folks did all their own work, cooking, washing, and everything. His daughter worked right alongside me in the field every day for three or four months. Finally a day came when no one else was around, hell got into me, and I tried to rape her. But you folks over here can't understand, things are so different. Over here a nigger is a nigger, and a white man is a white man, and it's the same with the woman." Stone goes on to say that there was no fault on the part of the white girl — no hint of collusion. At the same time, in his section, i.e. the Yazoo delta, Negro rapes on Negro women were not uncommon. I would like to cite a case given by Dr. W. D. Weatherford in his book "Negro Life in the South," which throws a light on the possibility of blackmailing. I do not think such cases are common : still it shows the power put into the hands of unprincipled white persons : BLOOD GUILTINESS 179 " William McArthur has been for many years the coloured janitor of a white church in a former Slave State. He owns a farm and city house, has a bank ac- count, and could loan money more easily than most of the church members he serves. His reputation for character is as good as theirs. When therefore a dis- reputable white woman attempted to blackmail him by threatening to charge him with assault on a child, he naturally went to the church officers for advice. They believed in him as they did in each other, but put him on a midnight train for California. To his Northern pastor it was incredible that a man of his reputation should have to flee like a thief. The answer was : this community is likely to lynch first and investigate afterwards. So McArthur went — he could afford to — saying with pathetic humour, I always wanted to travel West anyhow. After six months he felt safe to come back and take up his work. Not long after the community did lynch three Negroes on an Easter morning. The grand jury, investigating after- wards, found that two of them were certainly innocent. Only bayonets saved the Negro quarter from burning. Then McArthur came to his pastor to know where, under the Stars and Stripes, a self-respecting and re- spected black man could buy his own vine and fig tree and go and sit down under them in the ordinary security of Christian civilization. Now McArthur's character is fixed in adversity, while it seams his brow and weights his steps, does not make a social rebel of him, but his boy, when last I saw him, was behind the bars. Now I charge that America did not give McArthur's boy a square deal. Of course he has a responsible soul, will, and conscience enough to make some impression on his own moral destiny. Let him bear his full share of the blame, but let us weigh this ; he had felt the helpless- ness of the property owning Negro before the blackmailer, had seen his father a fugitive at midnight, his life hanging upon an idle word : had heard just men confess their inability to protect one in whom they had all confidence : 12 * 1 80 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES had vainly longed for a fatherland which could guarantee somewhere a peaceful death to one who had lived in honour : had smelled the burning flesh of innocent men of his own race. Besides all this, his own weakness had been trafficked in by a venal police power. Such things are not calculated to make a young Negro into a model citizen. You tell me that, after all, the cord and torch are rare, that statistically one is more likely to die from falling off a step ladder at home than a Negro is to be lynched. I reply that when one has come under the shadow of such a tragedy he can never forget it. It stamps his imagination for all time and sears his soul against the social order in which it is tolerated." A Commission of Inquiry was appointed by the Union Government of South Africa to inquire into this crime, and they found that there were many contributory causes, some of which might be debited to the black man, and others for which the whites were to blame. No one outstanding reason could be given. Propinquity, and the close intermixing in the relations of life of low- class whites and natives predisposed to it, and this, as we have seen, is also responsible in part in the United States. The Commission found that indiscreet action by some white women was in part responsible, particularly in households in which native males were the domestic servants. I will show later that the Southern white man cannot be acquitted of race depravity. No such charge can be brought against the Southern white woman. Professor A. B. Hart says : " The male half of the South have all their life been exposed to a peculiarly facile temptation. Heaven has somehow shielded the white woman of the South from the noxious influence of a ser- vile race. In slavery times and now there is not a fairer flower that blooms than the white Southern girl." Those who commit this crime are usually those be- longing to the more degraded and nomadic class. The educated Negroes claim that, as a class, they are innocent, and Hampton and Tuskegee, Fisk and Howard point out BLOOD GUILTINESS 181 that their graduates are entirely free from this stigma. Although white women from the North have taught in the South since emancipation they have not been molested, though often living in communities almost entirely black. The unutterably vile physical and moral conditions in which some Negroes live, especially in the towns, and their vicious nature and hopeless lives, seem in part responsible. Better homes, a cleaner environment, religious and moral teaching, would probably reduce the evil. And it must be insisted upon, continence on the part of the white man, who is only too prone to debauch the coloured woman. Meantime this open sore suppurates, exasperating the white man and giving him occasion for mob violence and cruelty. These reprisals, however savage, will not eliminate it. The opinions of thoughtful men who have studied the question on the spot bear this out. Professor W. C. Wilcox, the statistician, in a close analysis of a series of lawless acts in Georgia says : " But the point of view I would urge is that the illegal execution of Negroes, even when torture is added, has an inciting rather than a deterring influence upon a large number of potential criminals ". The Governor of Georgia in a message says : " Lynch law does not stop murder or arson or robbery or rape". Thus the " Atlanta Constitu- tion" rather despairingly says: "The punishment of criminals who are overtaken, no matter how swift or bloody, seems to have no effect whatever upon the criminal class of the Negroes. They seem to go as cheerfully about their crimes as if they were candidates for a martyr's crown ; they murder, ravish, and rob with the zeal and fervour of religious fanatics." If the South would take a greater interest in the Negro, in his material and moral welfare, give him better and more suitable education and greater opportunity, cleanse the plague spots in their cities, they would do far more to exorcise this evil than by taking illegal and savage vengeance on guilty and guiltless alike. 1 82 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES In such mob vengeance the sin against the Negro is great, but the sin against the whites is greater. For every black criminal slain by mob violence, a thousand white criminals are made. Purge the South of this offence and the path is straightened to better race rela- tions. I cannot do better than quote Edgar Gardner Murphy whosays : " The mob which abandons theprocesses of self- control weakens the personal self-control which slays and conquers crime, and increases by its ferocities the very animalism it has attempted to destroy. Its instruc- tion in horror touches the minds of tens of thousands, its barbarities burn to-day the guilty and to-morrow burn the innocent." CHAPTER XX. BLOOD ADMIXTURE— THE SIN OF THE WHITE MAN. The Negro in the United States is sometimes so little a Negro that he would pass unchallenged as a white man in any all-white community. I have seen children who are classed as Negroes with blue eyes, freckled faces, and red hair. I have seen people who, when they travelled in the coloured car, have been told by the conductor to go into the white car, " where they belong," and who had to explain that they were Negroes. A man visited a Southern town and mixed socially with the inhabitants. He became quite popular in local society. One day a lady saw him and denounced him as a Negro. A Committee was formed, and they ran him out of the town, threatening the direst vengeance if he dared to come back. He went to his home in South Carolina, and gathering documentary evidence he returned, accompanied by friends and relatives, to prove that he was unquestionably a white man, belonging to one of the most reputable families of his native State. The Committee again investigated the case, and the man was received as white by and into the society which had ejected him as a Negro ! Probably from two and a half to three million Negroes have visible signs of white blood. The race gains every drop of white blood that is poured into its veins. The Negro who said, "Not a drop of our blood is lost to us, the white man takes care of that; if you haven't got but one-sixteenth part of black blood you are a Negro all right," stated but the fact. That the prejudice against those having any drop of African blood, as well as the all-black Negro, is present 183 1 84 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES in the North as well as in the South can be amply demonstrated. The Rev. John Snyder gave a case in the " Forum " thus : " There was in a certain school in Pittsburg a very beautiful and intelligent young lady. In scholarship and deportment she stood for a year at the head of the school. At the end of that time some one told the principal that his favourite had a few undiscoverable and unsuspected drops of African blood. She was turned out of doors as ignominiously as if she was guilty of inchastity, or was affected with some infectious disease." It may be that in the North a few of the near whites whom I have described go over into the white camp, and are lost to the Negro race, but they must be few indeed. I was told by a well-known author of African descent that more went over than was generally believed. I asked how many he had known in his own experience, and he replied probably twelve or fifteen. Such a number makes, of course, no practical difference even in the North. In the South I never heard of such a thing, nor do I think it ever happens. The gulf between the races is so deep and wide, the risk of being found out is so great, and the punishment if discovered so severe, that however much the near white may desire it, he remains in the black camp — a Negro. In his native area he would of course never attempt it ; his ancestry is known, and he must remain in the place to which he was born. It seems strange that such do not remove to a distance from their birthplace, and then attempt to enter a society for which, in appearance, culture, manners, and ideals, they are more suited than many already in its ranks. The plain truth is they dare not. If a person such as I have described did so cross the line his life would not be worth living, it would be a long-drawn-out dread. At any time an old acquaintance, black or white, might recognize and betray him. If then he had become intimate with the white society of the place, and especially had he married n white woman, a cruel death would probably be his fate, BLOOD ADMIXTURE 185 Little wonder that they remain on the black side, although they may have as little of the African in their nature as they have in their appearance. The sins of the fathers are indeed being visited upon the children. It is this element in the race problem that makes it so difficult, that creates such acrid bitter feel- ing, and for it the white man is responsible. The Southern white woman is free from complicity. I said the white man, for although the South bears the full blame, I am told by unprejudiced and competent authorities that the Northern white man cannot be altogether exculpated. During the four years of civil war, fought on Southern soil, with Negro refugees crowding into the camps, the Northern soldiery were not always continent. So much must be said injustice to the South, but since those days the full weight of responsibility and blame must rest upon the South. Mitigation of sentence may be pleaded, and I want to give due weight to all that can be possibly urged of ex- planation and defence. The passion for race integrity does not burn with that fierce glow in the breasts of black as it does in white bosoms. Both the coloured woman and the white man are placed in circumstances full of facile temptation. Complaisance and weakness meet opportunity and power. There is too seldom a bul- wark of high moral principle against the power and temptations of status and wealth. Public opinion among their own does not adequately safeguard the weaker race. Edgar Gardner Murphy says: "The possibility of race fusion is not now repugnant to the instinct of the average Negro as it is to the instinct of the average white man, and this fact, the fact that the instinct of the black man is usually ready to abandon the individuality of his race, puts the white population upon its guard, and leads it to perceive a sinister significance in some of the most harmless occasions of racial contact ". There is much evidence to indicate that temporary illicit unions are a source of pride to some of the weaker 1 86 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES race and sex, and that a yearning for recognition and contact with the race that stands to them for the highest they can conceive, leads many to yield. Wm. Archer recognizes this when he says: "The ultimate forces at war in the South are the instinctive, half-conscious desire of the black race to engraft itself on the white stock, and the no less instinctive horror of the white stock at such a surrender of its race integrity. The horror is all the more acute, morbid if you will, because the white race is conscious of its own frailty, and knows it is in a sense fighting against perfidious Nature." And again : "The essence is simply this — the youth and man- hood of the white South is subjected to an altogether unfair and unwholesome ordeal by the constant pressure of a multitude of physically well-developed women, among whom, at the lower levels, there is no strong tradition of chastity, and to whom the penalties of incontinence are slight". But he justly goes on to say : "In a country where such terrible humiliations await those in whom there is the slightest trace of black blood, it is surely manifest, that the people who impose these humiliations and scout the idea of legal marriage, ought to visit with the severest penalties any relation (necessary illicit) be- tween a white man and a coloured woman, any augmentation by the white man of that half-breed caste on whom the colour disabilities press with such peculiar cruelty ". It is said by one writer, speaking of race amalgama- tion : "The intense, the yearning desire of large bodies of Negroes is for social recognition among the whites, more especially for intermarriage with their haughty, old-time despisers. Who does not know this, simply does not understand the dominant facts of Southern life." I quote this last statement to indicate a very prevalent opinion held in the South, an opinion which explains much of the race antagonism, and which has a basis of truth, on which, however, I think the writer cited has laid undue emphasis, BLOOD ADMIXTURE 187 Still the fact remains that opportunity and temptation are ever present, and the tragic fact is that the white man yields, and the race that demands race integrity is chiefly guilty of race betrayal. Ray Stannard Baker gives the case of one who is re- presentative of far too many : " In one town I visited I heard a white man expressing with great bitterness his feeling against the Negro, arguing that the Negro must be kept down, else it would lead to the mongrelization of the white race. The next morning, as chance would have it, another white man pointed out to me a neat cottage, the home of the white man who talked with me the previous evening. And I saw this man's coloured chil- dren in the yard." A naive letter appeared in " The Times Democrat " of New Orleans, dated 2 1 June, 1907, expressing in unconven- tional style what is the opinion of many: "Will you kindly publish the following without attaching my signature or divulging it in any way ? I have several brothers who are old-maidish enough to have nervous prostration if they should see my name attached to such an unmaidenly, immodest letter, but I do my thinking without any assistance from them, and hope for the sake of peace in my family they will not recognize me in print. I am a resident in a large town in the Yazoo-Mississippi delta, where miscegenation is common, where if a man isolate himself from feminine society, the first and only conclusion reached is, he has a woman of his own in saddle of a duskier shade. The conclusion is without exception true. If some daring woman, not afraid of being dubbed a Carrie Nation, were to canvass the delta counties of Mississippi, taking the census, she would find so many cases of miscegenation and their resultant mongrel families, that she would bow her head in shame for the flower of Southern chivalry gone to seed." Marriage between the races is forbidden in all the Southern States, and also in many of the Northern ones, but although attempts have been made to pass legislation 1 88 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES making concubinage and casual connexion penal offences, they have not been successful, and the only tribunal is public opinion. For a community priding itself on race purity, for one revelling in deeds of blood to punish offenders of a weaker race, for one in which the children of their own loins born to the mother's kin are doomed for ever to a position of degrading inferiority, public opinion has little of the true ring. " The Times Democrat " of 15 February, 1906, points this out : " It is a public scandal that there should be no law against miscegenation on the Statute book of Louisiana, and that it should be left to mobs to break up couples who offend. The failure to pass a law of this kind is attributed to the white degenerates, men who denounce social equality yet practise it, men who are more dangerous to their own race than the most inflammatory Negro orator or social equality preacher, and who have succeeded by some sort of legislative trickery in pigeon- holeing or killing the Bill intended to protect Louisiana from a possible danger. Such men should be exposed before the people of the State in their true colours." And again in the Court at Meridiana, Miss., District Attorney J. H. Currie thus spoke : "The accursed shadow of miscegenation hangs over the South to-day like a pall of hell. We talk much of the Negro question and of all its possible ramifications and consequences, but the trouble is not far afield. Our own people, our white men with their black concubines, are destroying the integrity of the Negro race, and raising up a menace to the white race, lowering the standard of both races and preparing the way for riot, criminal assaults, and finally a death- struggle for race supremacy. The trouble is at our own door. We have tolerated this crime long enough, and if this country is to be run by policy and not by law then it is time to rise up and denounce this sin of the earth." As I write a case is reported from the town of Wagner, Ok., that throws a lurid light on these baser race re- lations. A number of young white men had invaded the BLOOD ADMIXTURE 189 Negro section of the town and apparently had a hilarious time. Two of them separated and went into a Negro house, and as they left a woman came out, sprang upon one, and stabbed him to the heart. A mob got together, broke into the jail where the woman was incarcerated, and lynched her. The local references make it clear what the object of the men was. The deceased man had been married only a few months. Some years ago in South Africa, I had a talk with a born Southerner who was visiting Natal at a time when the oft-recurring question of the employment of male natives as domestic servants was being discussed, and when, as usual, many advocated on various grounds their displacement by native women and girls. He admitted the evils of our present system, but very gravely pointed out what was happening in his own country, where Negro women worked in the households. He was a fervidly patriotic Southerner of old family, and jealous for the re- putation of his own people, but sorrowfully said that to the demoralization of these women, often by the men of the household, much of the evil was due. He deplored it, and frankly said that too often the men took advantage of their status and position to press attentions that other- wise might have been rejected. I found these views were shared by many in the South, and it made me feel that, before attempting to alter our present system, we should see that conditions for the protection and safety of female native domestics, and for the preservation of racial integrity, were much better than they are at present in South Africa. Whether the evil is in process of diminution or not is a matter on which I found much difference of opinion. It is impossible for a visitor to get accurate particulars of such an unsavoury subject, which is kept secret by those immediately concerned, and often unknown in its details to others living on the spot. The varying opinions I heard were based on local experience, which, judging from what happens elsewhere, is not everywhere alike igo BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES even in the same country and under similar local con- ditions. In one place the influence of a number of high living men and women, and the establishment of a sensitive public opinion, will keep the locality clean. In another, baser influences may predominate, and the evil may grow. In accordance with these varying experiences one heard, on the one hand, that miscegenation was increasing, on the other that it was less prevalent than in past times. No one Southerner knows the facts as they are throughout the South, the country is too large and condi- tions too various ; many do not know or only guess in a general way, at what is happening near their homes. The consensus of opinion is, however, that whether miscegenation is actually increasing or not it is far too prevalent everywhere in the South, and that public opinion does not condemn it as it ought. It is stated by Southern men that the offence is often condoned by white society, and those known to be guilty are accepted by and marry white women. W. P. Calhoun says : " Go into any town, city, or community of the South, and you are confronted by mulatto children of all degrees of colour. These children often bear the surnames of their male parents. The Negro woman living in this State is not lowered in the estimation of her race, but is envied and considered a fortunate being. This state of things is known to old and young. The white man is condemned by his race and loses that position in society he ought to have. It is against the chances of his marrying, and yet by one of those unwritten laws of society for which there is no accounting, to a certain extent the matter is winked at, and the white man, though known to be guilty, passes as respectable, and in numbers of cases finally marries some pure and virtuous girl of his own race. These same white men should be more seriously condemned for their conduct to the Negro who is so much inferior to them." To preach sex morality is everywhere a thankless task ; to preach it in an atmosphere charged with racial pre- Blood admixture 191 judice is doubly difficult, though infinitely more essential. Northern men and women have suffered for spreading the doctrine of social equality, but what can their influ- ence be as compared with the actual practice of Southern men themselves, when they prove to Negro women that they are desired and may enter into the closest of all relations with the race calling itself superior. With the South I believe in race separation, but if that separation is to break down before the lusts of the stronger, and result in the demoralization of the weaker, in bringing into life those who, while sharing their blood, shall be doomed for ever to stand below them, and if it is to foster such scenes of bloodshed as I have described, then better destroy the barriers of race. Whatever may be the opinion about the Jim Crow car, the denial to places of public entertainment, and separa- tion of the races in school and church, it is essential *that if the South is to escape the condemnation of the civilized world, it must see to it that the Negro receives equal justice in the courts, that lynching be made impossible, and that the standard of honour be so raised that the chastity of the Negro woman is safeguarded as that of her white sister. CHAPTER XXI. THE BASIS OF RACE HOSTILITY. Fear is the mother of hatred. I have shown in a previous chapter that the white man in the South is saturated with race hostility to the Negro, and that though the Negro responds in kind, his animosity is not nearly so virulent, nor does it take on such violent forms of expression. If the average white man in the South were asked his reason for this feeling he would probably answer that this emotion, and its expression in repressive and hostile acts, is to prevent any possibility of race equality. He fears that if he does not make it evident that he will not tolerate any action which indicates equality, that equality will be demanded, and he would probably sub-divide the claims into social, political, and industrial equality. If social equality is granted it is equivalent in his eyes to intermixture of the races, and the loss of what he pro- fesses above all to cling to — his race integrity. I have shown in the last chapter that, however vehemently he may voice his doctrine, his acts are in strange contrast to it. Race admixture has gone a long way, and for this the stronger race is responsible. Does nursing race hostility prevent it ? Is it likely that with the advance of the Negro in wealth, education, and social status such admixture will become more prevalent ? The answer lies with the white man. Prone before him lies the weaker race, all that they value is in the hands of the white man. It does not ap- pear that in the past race degradation has prevented race amalgamation. 192 THE BASIS OF RACE HOSTILITY 193 Long ago G. W. Cable wrote : "Is it not wonderful ? A hundred years we have been fearing to do entirely right, lest something wrong should come of it, fearing to give the black man an equal chance with us in the race for life, lest we might have to grapple with the vast vague Afrite of amalgamation, and in all these hundred years with the enemies of slavery getting from us such names as Negro worshippers, Negrophiles, and Miscegena- tionists, and while we were holding ourselves rigidly separate from the lower race in obedience to a natal instinct which excommunicated them socially and civilly, just in proportion to the rigour, fierceness, and injustice with which this excommunication has fallen on the darker race — the amalgamation has taken place." Concurrently with the rise of the Negro a hope will enter into his life and will engender race pride, a feeling of race solidarity, and a desire to be sufficient to himself, but if all he can hope for, if all he values in life, is in the possession of the stronger race, the pride that suffices will never be evolved. Edgar Gardner Murphy says : " The true and perman- ent way to lead the Negro race to keep wisely to itself is to make it sufficient within itself. The race which is for ever forced to go outside itself to touch the broadest and richest life of the generation, will never be consciously and finally anchored in the doctrine of race integrity. The true basis of race integrity is not in race degenera- tion but in race sufficiency." There is no evidence that with justice at the polls the Negro race would dominate the political situation. His freedom would indeed free the South from political thraldom. E. G. Murphy again says : " Every possibility of Negro domination vanishes to a more shadowy and more distant point with every year. Among all the absurdities of conjecture and among all the misgivings of theoretic horror, there is just now no phantom so spectral in its substance or so pitiably trivial in its proportions as this peril of Negro domination. The 13 194 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES soldier of old who bound his captive to his wrist, bound more than his wretched captive. If we are so morbidly afraid of the spectral possibilities of the Negro's freedom that we must keep him for ever in prison, then let us remember that on both sides the prison door there is a man in duress ; he who keeps a jail is hardly freer than his prisoner. This is the domination we have to fear." In a later chapter I deal fully with industrial com- petition. Whatever may be the case in South Africa with its overwhelming virile black population, and with all Africa and its teeming millions behind, it is clear to me that the question in the South is not the industrial survival of the white man, but the possibility of a field of work, with hope in the future, for the black man. En- couragement and help for him along this line will not supersede the white man but give increased opportunity to both. If the white man is but true to himself he need never fear that his children will be ousted by the black in the South. As I show later there is a danger of conflict in the industrial field and I do not wish to ignore it ; this should be foreseen and provided against, and it can certainly be minimized along the lines I suggest in a later chapter. There is ample room in the South for both. The real danger, and what the white man should fear, is his race demoralization from contact with the members of a race steeped in misery and vice. He should dread the sapping of his energies likely to happen if he can shirk the discipline of hard work, and place the burden on another. He should fear the effect on his children of autocratic power over those who may be treated unjustly without fear of retaliation. Contact with a race which may be inferior but which has a race pride, and which disdains to stoop to baseness is innocuous. Contact with one de- prived of hope, with debased standards insinuating them into his life, may lead to the moral degeneration of the stronger. This both South Africa and the South should fear. CHAPTER XXII. THE TWO SCHOOLS. Until late years it could hardly be said that there was any public opinion among the Negro people with regard to their position in the land. As a mass they accepted without demur what the white man offered, and what he taught. It has, however, now become apparent that those who think and feel are divided into two camps, and each of these is commanding a larger measure of attention and support from the people. Both these camps aim at the uplifting of the race, but they lay stress on different aspects of the question, and their practical efforts to attain their ends are widely different. The one has its centres of influence in the North, the other in the South. Associated with both are many white men and women, and among the most prominent leaders of both are men of mixed blood. I have often referred to those belonging to the militant section of the Negroes, and have given their opinions on many matters, and these I would first describe. They belong to the school having its headquarters in the North, which it is stated was made possible by the pioneer work of W. A. Trotter, and expounded in the pages of the " Guardian ". At the present day the movement is led by Dr. W. E. B. Du Bois, who was formerly a professor in Atlanta University (coloured), and who is now living in New York, and entirely devoted to the work of organizing an association for the advance- ment of the coloured people, and issuing on their behalf a monthly paper called " The Crisis ". To make the distinction clear I ought here to say that 195 13 * 196 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES the other school is that which preaches the doctrine of personal self-development and social service, which I have shown to be so admirably taught and practised at Hampton and Tuskegee. Many white philanthropists are associated with these and similar efforts, but the most conspicuous and well-known of the exponents of this school and doctrine is Dr. Booker T. Washington. Before opinions and methods crystallized into what may now fairly be termed two schools there were men and women who held to the doctrine now being preached from New York, and there were those who were putting into practice what is now being done on a larger scale at Hampton and Tuskegee. In those days both were content to work for better- ment along their chosen lines without clashing ; it seems now, however, as if on one side, that of the militant school, there is a marked disposition to criticize and even belittle the policy of the other, and to ascribe a certain tendency to increased severity in the South to the mistaken ideas and alleged lack of principle in their policy. I had opportunities of talking with Dr. du Bois and some of his Northern friends. I had ample opportunity of thrashing out the question with many of his supporters in the South. I have carefully read many of the publi- cations issued under the auspices of the organization which advocates his policy, and have kept in touch with the views of the party on current racial topics. Their watchword is Thorough or No Compromise. They take their stand on the Federal law of the United States, which explicitly forbids any distinction in political affairs or public social life, and which declares that all men are free and equal, and shall have equal opportunities and privileges. They fasten upon all distinctions made between white and black, and denounce them with acumen and with bitterness. Constant opportunities are pre- sented in the actual operations of social differentiation to give openings for sarcasm and ridicule, and they fully THE TWO SCHOOLS 197 avail themselves of such. The pages of the magazines and pamphlets they issue give full particulars of all cases of injustice and discrimination against the coloured race, and give them with the fullest emphasis. Any attempts at compromise, even reasonable compromise on matters of principle, they treat with scorn, and lash the weak- kneed with stinging bitterness. They demand the utter extinction of the colour bar, and claim that every man and woman shall be judged, and take their position in the land, on their character and attainments, irrespective of race or colour. I believe I am rightly interpreting their creed when I say that this shall not be limited in any way, and that they favour — they certainly do not denounce — miscegenation. However they may feel in their heart of hearts, a lofty optimism is the ruling note of their writings, speeches, and conversation ; they not only declare that right and justice must prevail, but they say the coloured man throughout the Union has at last awakened, and has the will and the power to enforce his rights, and will not be denied. Whenever and wherever I met the disciples of this school I knew what to expect, a list of grievances, in- justices, and insults, and I got to expect exaggeration. As my personal experience widened with my travels and observation, I was able to cite what I had seen, some- times in extenuation, sometimes in explanation, but this was seldom favourably received. It seemed to me, that rather than accept palliatives, even when tending to establish permanently better relations, they would reject them, and unless any change went to the root of the matter, would prefer to hear that the bonds were tightened rather than relaxed, thus giving them addi- tional cause for complaint. I have before me a copy of a letter couched in the most courteous terms, written by a white sympathizer, and remonstrating at the tone of certain articles which criticize recent racial occurrences, and counselling that a 198 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES more moderate tone be adopted. The reply, which may be said to represent officially the opinions and temper of this school, is full of stinging bitterness, with caustic and biting references to such careful and cushioned friends, who will not follow them all the way. There is a conspicuous absence of anything like a constructive side to their policy. In scathing terms they refer to the industrial movement among the Negroes, and deride the efforts to make a carpenter out of that which they contend is not yet a man. First they say let the Negro be made a man with a man's rights, and then set to work to make him what else you will. Records are certainly given in their publications of success in practical life achieved by Negroes, but with the principal aim, as it seems to me, to prove him the equal of the white man in any walk of life. This party or school do not, however, seem to have made any organized attempt practically to assist the Negro to improve his material condition by education or otherwise. There is ample scope among the Negroes for warn- ing and reproof; the cause of many of their troubles lies on their own heads, but unless for their submissiveness, and this receives severe castigation, there is little of blame for all the shortcomings of the Negro people. Their practical work takes the shape of legal pro- ceedings against those who have made illegal discrimina- tion, and they have moved the courts in many instances, and have many times succeeded in establishing their cases. Travelling agents have been sent through the Northern and Western States, and many meetings held in furtherance of their ideas. I have not heard of such attempts in the real South. I can imagine that, unless the language used and ideas promulgated were very much modified, it would be an exceedingly dangerous mission, and probably they do not at present seek martyrdom. I heard white men and women who were engaged in educational, social, and religious work among the Negroes in the South speak warmly against this movement. It THE TWO SCHOOLS 199 struck them as somewhat cowardly to fulminate against abuses in the comparative safety of the North, and create bitter disaffection among those in the South who might have to suffer grievous wrong as the result of imbibing such teaching. How far they are gaining adherents among the mass of the Negro population, especially in the South, is, I think, indeterminate. Their publications indicate ever- increasing circulation, and an increasing membership in the North. The impression I got was that it was essentially a Mulatto movement. The leaders I met were mostly men of mixed blood, and whatever may be the composition of the rank and file, it may be taken as true that those who inaugurated the movement, and those who give it force and direction, are in the main whites and part whites. This is what I should have expected. Very soon after landing in America I made the ac- quaintance of some of those who hold these tenets, and who take a leading part in spreading them. Coming as my first introduction to the Afro- American race question on the spot, it was exciting, even inspiring. I heard of insult and injustice growing more and more in both North and South, until the Negro, his long-suffering dormant soul at last awakened, was going to rise in the might of his right, and at whatever sacrifice, demand and force equal treatment. I was told that I should find in the course of my inquiries that the Negro was in deadly earnest, determined to combine, and to make that com- bination effective. He had found out that silent submis- sion to injustice only provoked it, and that the record of the last decade proved it. The bonds had been tightened, the discrimination had invaded one sphere of activity after another, and at last the too patient black man had learned his lesson, and no longer would he turn the other cheek, but resist, and if necessary strike back. I was not prepared for such a root and branch doctrine, but I felt it was a phase of the question that I must in- vestigate. The first opportunity came quickly. 1 was 200 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES informed that the last injustice of the white South was to separate in the cities the sections in which white and black might respectively live. In many Southern cities segregation ordinances had been introduced with this object, the nearest of which was Baltimore, and here, as elsewhere, intense indignation had been aroused among the Negroes. They and their white friends were going to protest to the uttermost, and one of the indignation meetings was to be held in Baltimore in a few days. I imagined this occasion would throw a light on the attitude of the Negro people, and I made up my mind to attend. I may say here that this movement towards segrega- tion was what my friends described. I was informed by both Negroes and whites living in the cities referred to, that some years ago a coloured person could buy a block anywhere if he had the purchase price. Gradually white neighbours objected, and in some cases prevented a sale, in others they bid a higher price. Until lately there had been no organized attempt to do this. Now however public feeling was aroused, and pressure was brought to bear on Negroes, estate agents, and the legislature. Hence this projected ordinance. It was pointed out that it was largely based on economic reasons, it being held that the presence of Negro residents caused a deprecia- tion in the value of property. On the other hand I found that the rent charged to Negroes was higher than that paid by white occupiers for the same accommodation, and also that it was not uncommon for white men to acquire and monopolize for their own advantage all the valuable business sites in an area in which Negroes are the only residents. I may say also that the active spirits who lead this militant movement have by strenuous opposition succeeded in delaying the movement in many cities. What chiefly interested me, however, was to discover, if possible, how far the mass of the Negroes were actuated by this new spirit of revolt, how far they were prepared to make sacrifices to stem aggression, and I hoped that THE TWO SCHOOLS 201 this gathering of protestors would furnish some indication of the extent to which they were roused. On my arrival in Baltimore notice of the meeting was sent to me, and I found it was to be held at eight o'clock in the evening in a very large and handsome Negro church on a thoroughfare I easily found. I arrived at the spot some minutes before the hour, and seeing no one near the church, strolled about until the time of starting, when the door was opened and a few people were inside the building, probably fifty or sixty in all, mostly women and children. A benevolent-looking old coloured gentleman came for- ward and showed me into a front pew. Very slowly the numbers increased, and one or two Negroes, apparently ministers, fussed about the platform. In my notes written the same evening I say : " The little movements behind the scenes, the coming forward of the benevolent one to count the chairs on the platform, the chirping content of all with the delay, all struck me as very childish and irresponsible ". At last, forty-five minutes late, the proceedings began with the church three parts filled. Local men took only the minor parts, two occupied the chair, one giving place to the other after an interval, but neither took an active part. A Negro minister opened with prayer. Three excellent speeches were delivered, two by whites, and one by a near white, dealing with the dis- abilities and the prospects of the race, the necessity for organization, and particularly with the injustice of the proposed segregation ordinance. The attitude of the audience, the Baltimore Negroes who were to suffer the injustice, was my chief concern, and I watched them closely. As no local speaker dealt with the subject I had only the semi-articulate ejaculations and remarks, and the attitude, attention, and applause of the audience to guide me. I have attended and taken part in many indignation meetings, and it has been my duty as an elected legislator to gauge public feeling. At some of these gatherings the veriest amateur could feel the hot temper of those present : it vented itself unmistakably, at others the feeling was 202 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES lukewarm and needed much whipping up. But never have I been present at such a mild exhibition as the one I am recording. There was ejaculation and applause, plenty of it, generally at the humorous hits, which were highly appreciated, otherwise the applause was often wrongly placed. Before the principal speakers had finished the large building was quite full. The atmosphere of the crowd was certainly not one of indignant protest, there rather breathed a warm social feeling of human beings met together for pleasant communion. There were a few who riveted their attention on the speakers, and who appeared appropriately moved, but the majority gazed on their friends, whispered and nudged, and were certainly not moved to desperate earnestness by the threatened viola- tion of their rights. The business of the meeting was not over till 11.15 p.m., and then with a movement of relief the gathering resolved into a social conversazione, the people moved about, chatted, joked, and when I left at 11.30 p.m. they showed no signs of dispersing. I quote from my fresh impressions, noted down im- mediately I left the meeting : " I was much interested. The whole tone was irresponsibility, the late start, the childish coming and going, the tentative applause often given at the wrong time, were to me indicative of a people glad to come together on any pretext, intensely social, but lacking in purpose and resolution." When I thought of the swarms of hard-faced, white Americans in the streets and hotels, who were doing things, and determined to do things in their own way, and when the time came to stand no nonsense, I felt indeed sorry for this people, so easy and ineffective. What can they do ? And I felt that these black people were out of place, simple copyists ; this big church is the Evangelical with a little flamboyant colour, the whole proceedings, prayer, tone of voice, dresses, attitude, all copied. I felt they were a people defrauded, poor and simple compared to our Zulus, who have at least retained their language and customs and something of the manliness of the savage. Are they also to go THE TWO SCHOOLS 203 this way and become Niggers, or if you like them, darkies ? I think I have given a fair statement of the doctrines, attitude, and aspirations of this school of Negro thought. I hope I have not in any particular been unjust to them. I have a great respect for their earnestness, and the strenuous, often self-sacrificing work of their leaders. I have the deepest sympathy for the Negro in his legitimate grievances, and detestation for the unjust manner in which he is treated, but what I write will be of little value if 1 do not record exactly what I saw and the exact impressions I received. The spirit and trend of the other or constructive school is best seen in the great training institutions of Hampton and Tuskegee. As I have said, I visited both these places, and also many smaller institutions founded on their model in many parts of the South. My visit to Tuskegee coincided with a Congress on the Negro called by Dr. Booker T. Washington. Those attending were for the most part of African race. I induced many to speak privately, yet without reserve, of the disabilities of their people in the South, and learned much from them. But the public speeches and addresses were in a different key. They dealt with what had been achieved, and breathed encouragement, and urged to further effort. Experiences were exchanged, and the best methods of setting the Negro on the path of spiritual, moral, and material pro- gress were discussed. The atmosphere of Tuskegee is not favourable to pessimism ; it fosters hope, a hope that does not seem misplaced when one sees sixteen hundred bright alert youths of both sexes being so admirably trained to carry the gospel of practical work and social betterment to their people. The life-history of the princi- pal is itself an inspiration. From the lowest depths of poverty and ignorance, in spite of difficulties which seemed insurmountable, he has risen to his present posi- tion of leadership, and built up, in the midst of the hostile South, an institution that commands the admiration of 204 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES all, even of those who judge it by the standards of Europe and the North. Here it stands, a concrete ex- ample of the doctrine of the constructive school. The leaders and apostles of this school see in the South a people ignorant, illiterate, indolent, without foresight or much natural aptitude to enable them to make a place for themselves in the society in which their lot is cast. They see their people neglect the opportunities to advance which are open to them, and instead of living independent and manly lives, they are too often the victims of the stronger race, or live as parasites in the towns. These leaders feel that the task of uplifting this people is one of such magnitude, that to be successful they must concentrate every thought and effort upon it. They clearly see that until the Negro can be clean, moral, self- respecting, free from debt, living in wholesome sur- roundings and bringing up his family in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, he will remain a byword and a scoffing, contemptuously pushed aside, or exploited by the stronger race. Consistently, therefore, is preached the saving doctrine of clean homes free from debt, and to make such homes, in which the coming generation may have wholesome surroundings, is one of their main objects. To earn honestly a better livelihood, to practise self-restraint and judgment in spending their earnings, is insisted upon. The doctrine is not one of personal self-seeking or aggrandisement. While there is a strong individualistic note, the duty of each to the race is ever raised on high, and individual development goes hand in hand with social service. With a clear view of the dangers of city life to the race, it is urged that the people shall conserve and foster their natural aptitude for country life, fasten their roots in the soil, and acquire land ; and help and oppor- tunity have been given to them to become thus indepen- dent. The Negro is ever too prone to bewail his fate and place the blame for his misfortunes on others ; the luxury THE TWO SCHOOLS 205 of self-compassion is one he is too ready to indulge, and his nature, infested by this parasite, becomes soured and cannot nourish the sturdy plant of self-help. It is from a shrewd knowledge of this failing, and not because they are satisfied with his politico-social position in the South, that they discourage repining at disabilities, and rather point to the heights which may be scaled by industry, knowledge, and self-restraint. This is an inspiring and constructive policy which can be understood by the lowliest, and which bears in it the germ, not only of material, but of spiritual progress, and to which the Negro is certainly responding with an enthusiasm which is a bright hope for the future. At the Tuskegee Conference on the Negro to which I have referred I gave an address on race relations in South Africa, and while advocating for our Bantu people education suited to their needs, pointed out the pos- sibilities of race jealousy and conflict. Dr. Washington congratulated me on my effort, and when I attempted to discuss the possibilities of race conflict in the South due to jealousy of the increasing efficiency of the Negro, he declined to follow. His people, he said, like any other, would get the place and the social recognition they de- served : let them prove themselves worthy of respect and they would obtain it. A high note, and one which in the circumstances of the South showed a practical wisdom and sagacity I could not deny. His attitude may best be expressed in his own words : " My own observation has convinced me that in those States where the leaders of the Negro have been encour- aged to turn their attention to politics, the masses of the people have not made the same progress that they have in those States where the leaders, because of racial prejudice or for other reasons, have been compelled to seek their own salvation in education and building up, in moral and material directions, the more lowly members of their own people. I do not wish to make comparisons, but I think I may safely say that in no other part of the United States 206 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES have the masses of the Negroes been more completely deprived of political privileges than in the State of Mississippi, and yet there is at the same time scarcely any part of the country in which the masses of the people have built more schools and churches, or where they have gained more solid foothold on the soil and in the industries of the State." But the prophet and his doctrine are denied and de- nounced by some among his own people. His detractors take a high stand. Man does not live by bread alone, they say, and if his spirit is starved that his body may be clothed, he does not live. The policy of Hampton and Tuskegee is looked upon coldly, and sometimes even condemned as worldly and material, and lacking the true nourishment of the bread of life. The first essential to raise a people, they say, is to efface the stigma of inferiority, to give them the freedom that will enable them to walk erect, men in the sight of men. While injustice stalks through the land it is fatuous and cowardly to appear to ignore it ; and to place material ends before a race who should be fighting for justice, is to condone unworthily. Such critics point out that since Dr. Booker Washing- ton first arrested public attention by his celebrated speech at Atlanta, when he foreshadowed the possibility of racial co-operation and peace, race conditions have, on the con- trary, become increasingly acute, and they point to many circumstances which indicate this. Thus William Archer, in speaking of the years which have elapsed since this famous declaration, says: " Since Mr. Washington uttered this aspiration the years have brought its fulfilment no nearer. Both Negro education and white education have advanced in the interim, the respectable and well-to-do class of Negro has consider- ably increased, but the feeling between the races is worse rather than better. The old time kindliness of feeling between the ex-owner and ex-slave is rapidly becoming a mere tradition. No common memories or sentiments hold together the new generations of the two races, they THE TWO SCHOOLS 207 are growing up in unmitigated animosity. In the North too, while the dislike of the individual has greatly in- creased, the theoretic fondness for the Negro has very perceptibly cooled." Prof. Kelly Miller, in his essay on Race Adjustment, deals with this charge and says very justly : " Dr. Booker Washington's critics assert that his leadership has been barren of good results to the Negro race, unmindful of the magnitude of the contract he has promised the American people that he would solve the race problem. Under his regnancy it is claimed that the last vestige of political power has been swept away ; civil privileges have been restricted ; educational opportunities, in some States at least, have been curtailed ; the industrial situation, the keystone of the policy, has become more ominous and uncertain, while the feeling between the races is con- stantly growing more acute and threatening. In answer to this it is averred that no human power could stay the wave of race hatred now sweeping over the country, but that the Tuskegeeans' pacific policy will serve to relieve the severity of the blow. All the leaders before him essayed the task in vain and gave up in despair." It must not be thought that these two schools divide the Negro race. It is only after all a small minority who think or even feel. These few on both sides are attempt- ing to leaven the mass with their doctrine, but it is only the fringe they reach, the vast majority are content to slide through life. Both will, however, have an increasing influence on the people, both are deeply in earnest, and are bound to make an ever-widening impression. And under present conditions there is room for both. While race discrimina- tion, culminating in lynching, continues, it is well in the interests of white as well as black that there should be a vigilant eye kept on all the possible sources of injustice, and that protest should be made. The history of the last few years shows that there is, among a section of the whites, a constant disposition to encroach upon, and still 208 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES further limit, the liberties and opportunities of the Negro, and vigorous protest, and at times a fight to a finish, are inevitable and unavoidable. Common manliness de- mands it. When this is frankly admitted, it still leaves us free to criticize the present methods of this militant school, and it may be pointed out in the friendliest spirit that the bitter tone adopted in some of the publications issued by them is only likely to embitter in turn. I met many friends of the Negro in the South who were not only fair-weather friends, but were among those whose every- day lives were made more difficult by reason of their well-known friendship, who deplored this, and pointed out how much more arduous their task was made by the unbalanced, exaggerated, and acrid writings of this section. Too often, however, this class of friend is not only not considered by the extremists but is openly derided. And the same derision is often poured upon those of the constructive school. Yet while I feel there is a place and a duty for the protestors and fighters, how much bigger and more hopeful is the field of work of the constructors. When one surveys the millions of backward Negroes living from hand to mouth, who unless roused will find themselves mere flotsam and jetsam on the complicated civilized conditions that are on them, and when one considers the opportunities for an ample and satisfactory life if only they will seize them, it is difficult to see that anything is of any importance except the rousing, before it is too late. I have admitted the importance of watchfulness and protest against injustice, but how unimportant it seems when one realizes what a great uplifting and constructive work lies to the hand of those who are fired with the enthusiasm of Dr. Washington. I can quite understand that those who fully grasp this have no time for fulmin- ating against grievances ; they cannot spare a moment from the building of the great edifice whose towers and THE TWO SCHOOLS 209 turrets they see in their visions, and cannot be diverted to answer the criticism of the other party. I feel I am with them. The possibilities for good in their constructive work are immense, the time during which it may become fully effective is limited ; let them press forward and do all the rescue work they can before the time of opportunity passes. When I first landed in the United States I felt much sympathy with the protestors, at many tales of injustice I felt hot, and still burn with indignation. Gradually it came to me that the ignorance and futility of the race were responsible in part for these, and the great work was to make them fit to live and work in their present difficult and complicated environment. And this is the task of Dr. Washington and those who work with him. No lover of humanity but must wish them God-speed in the task of raising a race. 14 CHAPTER XXIII. THE NORTH— A VOTER WITHOUT A LIVELIHOOD. Long before the Civil War the enslaved Negro looked to the North as the land of freedom and opportunity, and many thousands, through the help of white friends and their organizations, escaped thither and there made their homes. This tendency continued, and up to a certain point became accelerated. In one decade the Negro population of Philadelphia increased 56 per cent, that of New York 66 per cent, and that of Chicago 1 1 1 per cent. This was largely due to immigration from the South ; the effective natural increase was small indeed : in New York in one year, 1908, there were 2212 deaths and only 1973 births. After emancipation the Negroes regarded the North, and especially the Republican party, as their friends, and have until late years touchingly stuck to this tradition, not- withstanding many rebuffs and disappointments. This is told in feeling terms by a Negro who has made his home in New York and who tells of the simple test by which he learned he had reached the city of freedom. Born in South Carolina, as he attained manhood he desired larger self-expression, broader human relations; he de- sired, as he again and again expressed it, "to be free ". So leaving the cotton fields he started one day to walk to New York. After a number of days he entered a city, and uncertain of his geography decided that this was his journey's end. " I'll be free there," he thought, and opening the door of a brightly lit restaurant started to walk in. The white men at the table looked up in astonishment, and the proprietor, laying his hand on the 210 A VOTER WITHOUT A LIVELIHOOD 211 young man's shoulder, invited him, in strong Southern accent, to get into the kitchen. " I reckon I'm not North yet," the Negro said, smiling a bright boyish smile. Interested in his visitor's appearance the proprietor took him into another room, and talked with him far into the night, urging the advantage of staying in the South. But the youth shook his head and next morning trudged on. At length he reached a rushing city, tumult- uous with humanity. He tasted the freedom of passing unnoticed and acting as a white man. The inference from this story is that he had found freedom, freedom to do as he willed without any discrimination. But it is doubtful whether, if he entered New York to-day, he would con- sider he had found freedom. This post-war exodus to the North was to the Northern cities, comparatively few settled in the country or followed country pursuits. They took whatever call- ings were open to them, and few being skilled, they had perforce to accept menial or manual labour, and compete with the immigrant. Long before emancipation and for some time after it, the freedmen in the North occupied many positions of trust, and apparently had much the same chance to earn a living as had the white man. In the " Philadelphia Negro," a valuable monograph edited by Dr. W. E. B. Du Bois, it is stated: "In 1810 the Negro formed one- tenth of the population of the City. It is probable that between 1790 and 1820 a very large proportion, and perhaps most of the artisans of Philadelphia, were Negroes. About this time the whole of the catering was in their hands, and they were autocratic in this line, setting the fashion and serving the best families and clubs. The names of Boyle Augustin, Prosser Dorsey, Jones and Minton were well known. Of these Dorsey was the most unique character ; with little education but great refinement of manner, he became a factor of real weight in the community. Both artisans and caterers went under to foreign competition." 14 * 212 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES In making a comparison of the past and present in the North it would be a mistake to consider that, because the North entered into a sanguinary and costly war, straining their resources to the uttermost, the result of which was the emancipation of the slave, that therefore the general public of the North regarded the Negro as a man and a brother, and were prepared to grant absolute political and industrial, much less social equality. Many facts can be cited to show that this was not the case. Still there was a great wave of sympathetic feeling, and abolition and the principles and doctrines associated with it were a great power in the land. As a South African I felt it would be of the greatest interest to try to discover, after nearly half a century, the present feeling and tendencies in the North. Here, of course, I had to be guided by those of wider experience, and first I will give the opinions of some of these. I was told by several well-to-do and educated mulattoes resident in Northern cities, that there was more freedom for them in past years than there is now. They had now to watch their footsteps ; they might venture and receive courtesy, they never knew when they might meet insulting rebuffs. Speaking of the present as compared with the past the editor of the " Philadelphia Negro " says : " It is a paradox of the times that young men and women from some of the best Negro families in the city have actually had to go South to get work if they wished to be aught but chambermaids and bootblacks ". I remember an eminent mulatto speaking in London on this subject just before I embarked for America, and saying in effect that whereas some years ago all accom- modations and conveniencies in the North were open to him, just as to a white man, to-day he had to be careful where he went. I found the general consensus of opinion confirmatory of this tendency. Some Northern Negroes with whom I conversed attributed it to more frequentfcommunica- A VOTER WITHOUT A LIVELIHOOD 213 tion with the South, saying that Southern men and women came North and spoke out on the Negro, and their sentiments and prejudices had too often been ac- cepted by their Northern acquaintances. This is prob- ably a factor. The increase of Negroes in the cities, and a more intimate personal knowledge of the characteristics of the race has been another. The ideal of the Northern city man is hustle and efficiency, he cannot tolerate slack- ness, procrastination, dawdling, and indolence. His time is too precious to be wasted on those who fail to make good, and the character and traits of the average Negro are antipathetic. He cannot exploit him as he can the hard-working and often thrifty immigrant, and he has no use for him, and contemptuously pushes him aside. There are still the spiritual descendants of the abolition- ists, but even among many friendly to the Negro, and often among those engaged in philanthropic work, there is a note of discrimination that has, I am told, grown perceptibly. They no longer accept the doctrine of equality without qualification, and few, for instance, are prepared now to support the policy and action taken by the Federal Government in enfranchising the Negro at the close of the Civil War. This change is reflected in the attitude of the average citizen, and especially the employer and working man, in the gradual closing of many branches of labour to the Negro, in which, as I have shown, he had an opportunity, and sometimes almost a monopoly, in past years. Many authorities could be cited to show this change of opinion, and I find none who claim that the position of the Negro in the North is becoming more satisfactory. Dr. William N. D. Berry, pastor of a coloured congre- gation in Springfield, Mass., is thus reported : "Eighty- six per cent of the coloured labour of our city is confined to servile employment by pure race prejudice, which has closed the door of industrial employment against them. The situation in Springfield is fairly typical of the condi- 2i 4 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES tion in this respect of the black man throughout the North." President Eliot of Harvard University says: 11 The uneducated Northern white is less tolerant of the Negro than the Southern whites. More trades and oc- cupations are actually open to Negroes in Southern than in Northern States." Mr. Dooley, who so often hits the bull's-eye in his Irish-American humour, says : " He'll ayther have to go North and be a subjeck race or South and be an objeck lesson. 'Tis a harrd time he'll have of it anyhow. I'm not so much troubled about the Naygur when he lives among his oppressors as I am when he falls into the hands of his liberators. When he is in the South he can make up his mind to be lynched soon or late, and give his attention to his other pleasures, in composin' ragtime music on a banjo, and wurrkin' for the man that used to own him and now only owes him his wages. But it's the devil's own hardship to be pur- sood by a mob of abolitionists till he's dhriven to seek police protection." W. P. Livingstone arrives at the same conclusion : " In New York twenty years ago he had the practical monopoly of many employments he is no longer permitted to enter. Wherever there has been an increase of the coloured community the avenues in which they make a living have been steadily closed. It is true they are often inferior in skill and capacity, but this is not the reason, because educated Negroes find still greater difficulty in obtaining positions. It is the colour that forms an in- superable bar to appointment." In her valuable and critical, yet deeply sympathetic book, " Half a Man," Miss Mary Ovington has the follow- ing which I think bears out my general conclusion : " A prominent New York coloured man once said to me : 1 1 cannot conceive what it would mean not to be a Negro. The white people think and feel so little, their life lacks an absorbing interest '. This is the character- istic fact of the life of the well-to-do Negro in New York. He is not permitted to go through the streets in easy A VOTER WITHOUT A LIVELIHOOD 215 comfort of body and mind. Some personal rebuff, some harsh word in newspaper and magazine, quickens his pulse and rouses him from the lethargy that often over- takes his white neighbour. Looking into the past of slavery, watching the coming generation, the most care- less heart is forced into serious questioning. A comfort- able income and the intelligence to enjoy the culture of a great city do not bring to the Negro any smug self- satisfaction, only a greater responsibility towards the problem that moves through the world with his dark face." Both on the occasion of this visit to the United States and on a previous leisurely journey across the continent from California to the Atlantic I visited places of public resort in the Northern cities to find out for myself the attitude and bearing of white towards black. The public conveyances were free to all. If Negroes were travelling in company they were often hilarious, and sometimes unduly so, and though I never heard a rebuke from whites, I felt sometimes the atmosphere was charged with disapproval. Solitary Negroes travelling often took seats, especially in a crowded conveyance, with hesitation, sometimes with humility. I often entered the middle-class restaurants which are such a feature of American city life, but I cannot re- call seeing a face that distinctly belonged to a coloured person. My observations were confirmed by residents, though opinion differed as to what would happen if an unmistakable Negro entered and demanded refreshment. Much would depend on the temperament and opinion of the proprietor and his clients. In any case the experi- ment would demand more moral and physical courage than is possessed by the average man. Unquestionably the status of the Negro in the North is one of dubiety. He may be passed in silence, he may receive contumely, assuredly he is never welcomed. Although there are no segregation ordinances prohi- 2i6 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES biting white and black from living in the same areas in the Northern cities, as a rule the Negroes occupy certain defined areas. I visited some of these sections, which were invariably in a low part of the town, and the state of the road and pathways indicated but scant attention on the part of the municipal authorities. There seemed but little attempt at order and cleanliness on the part of the residents ; dirty houses, unclean yards or alleys, crowding ragged children, disorderly women, and hulking, loafing men were numerous. This is, of course, partly an effect and partly a cause. Criminals among the city Negroes form a higher per- centage than in any other class of the community ; this is proved by statistics and admitted by the Negroes and their friends, though naturally the latter debit it to poverty and unclean environment. The percentage of criminals varies of course in different cities and dis- tricts, and statistics must be accepted with caution, still they certainly confirm the generally accepted statement that the Negro in the North is peculiarly addicted to crime. In the district of Columbia the Negroes are under one-third of the total population. Washington City has 86,702 Negroes out of a total population of 278,718, yet they furnish seventy-four per cent of the criminals, and out of 125 persons committed for serious crime in 1904 no less than ninety-four were Negroes. Taking the whole of the Northern States together, from Nebraska to Maine, the proportion of the Negroes is but o'99 per cent, but the percentage of crime committed by them is 1074 per cent. The learned editor of the " Philadelphia Negro " admits this predisposition to crime and laments it. It is from the pages of this study that I give the following table. Criminality of various races in Chicago : — A VOTER WITHOUT A LIVELIHOOD 217 Percentage Percentage to total of population. criminals. Irish .... 6-4 I0'3 Germans 14*6 11*1 Norwegians 2'0 i*3 Swedes .... 3 '9 r$ Russians. 07 o-8 Bohemians 2 '3 1*2 Poles .... 2*2 17 Italians .... 0-5 1*2 Negroes .... i*3 9-8 Summary of above : — Principal foreign nations 32*6 3o'i Negroes .... 1 '3 9*8 All others . 66-i 6o'i In the whole North, according to Professor W. C. Wilcox, there were twelve white criminals to each 10,000 of the population, but the proportion of Negroes was sixty-nine. It would also appear that this tendency is not decreasing although I have not the latest figures. Professor Wilcox states that while in 1880 there were seventy-seven Negro criminals in each 10,000 this had risen in 1890 to 100. He says the primary causes are immorality and defective family life, while an important one is the increasing industrial competition with the whites, which makes life harder for the Negro, under which he succumbs to crime. It is not alleged that in the Northern Courts (and we are dealing with the North now) the Negro does not re- ceive even-handed justice, though of course he probably suffers by reason of his poverty and ignorance. It is also said, and truthfully, that he is often committed to prison when the richer white man is able to pay a fine. In the figures given, however, these figures are eliminated. One exceedingly unsatisfactory feature of Negro life in the cities, and this applies to the South as well as to the North, is the preponderance of women, which 2i8 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES in nine of the larger cities ranges from 1 16 to 143 women for each 100 men. An analysis has been made of the occupations of 23,448 Negro women in the city of Washington, D.C., which shows: — 21,018 in domestic and personal service. 1617 „ dressmaking. 519 ,, professional (teachers). 294 ,, all others. The men are chiefly employed in low paid and menial callings. Out of 8000 in Kansas City over 5000 were returned as labourers and over 1 100 as porters. None were in clerical or commercial employment, and only 30 were returned as teachers, the balance were employed as janitors, teamsters, waiters, and in other similar callings which demanded little skill, and led to little advancement. It is true there are a few professional men, doctors, lawyers, and dentists, but they are few as compared with the labouring and unskilled. In Texas there was one Negro doctor to 9000 Negroes and one lawyer to 40,000. In South Carolina one doctor to 22,000 and one lawyer to 29,000. In Atlanta City, Ala., one doctor to 24,000 and one lawyer to 52,000. I have no reason to think the proportions are greater in the North. Under these circumstances it is not surprising that marital conditions are extremely unsatisfactory, and sexual immorality prevalent. Some of the figures given are appalling and seem to point to a general state of promiscuity. Professor Kelly Miller, himself a Negro, and a strenuous defender of his race, goes so far as to say : " The criminal and moral status of the Negro race is threatening its physical continuance. After we have made all possible allowance for historic causes and pled all possible exculpatory excuses, the plain, unpleasant, unvarnished fact remains — the American Negro must conquer his vices or be destroyed by them." A. H. Shannon, M.A., B.D., in his book on "The Racial Question " says : " I am satisfied that every instance A VOTER WITHOUT A LIVELIHOOD 219 of degradation in any European city at the beginning of last century may be more than matched in horror by examples of degradation to be found among the Negroes in our American cities ". I give the following table of illegitimacy for the City of Washington, D.C., premising that improvement in re- gistration accounts in some measure for the increase in later years, as this would conceivably tend to raise the Negro figures and not appreciably affect the white. Still, when making all possible allowance, it is a sad contrast. Year. White Coloured Year. White Coloured per cent. per cent. per cent. per cent. 1879 2*32 17*60 1888 3 '49 22*l8 1880 2 '43 19*02 1889 3*59 23*45 1881 2*33 19-42 1890 3*34 26*50 1882 2 '09 1973 1891 2 '90 25*12 1883 3'I4 20*95 1892 2*53 26*40 1884 3'6o 19-02 1893 2*82 27*00 1885 3-00 22-88 1894 2-56 26*46 1886 3*28 22*86 1887 3 '34 21*27 Under such a state of things clean home life is almost impossible, and it is tremendously to the credit of some that they do preserve it. But the majority of the children brought up in the cities are doomed to a vicious if not a criminal life. I have no figures at hand to denote the juvenile criminality of the Northern cities, but in Atlanta, Ga., in 1906 the following numbers of Negro children of tender years were before the Court on various charges : — Years of age 67 8 9 10 11 12 Number charged 1 7 33 69 107 142 219 It is appalling! The vital statistics of Negroes in the larger Northern cities, and the same is true in large measure of those in the South, are extremely unsatisfactory. After analysing the Census returns Professor Kelly Miller reaches the following conclusions : — 220 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES (i) The Negro death-rate is nearly double that of the whites in all the large cities. (2) This rate is mainly due to excess of infant mortality. (3) Consumption and allied pulmonary complaints carry ofT proportionately three Negroes to one white person. (4) Negro death- rate seems to be slightly decreasing. (5) The mortality of the city Negro seems to be about double that of his country brother. It would appear that the statement about infant mortality is not exaggerated, in all the cities it is ex- tremely high. In New York in 1908 the rate among Negroes was 290 per 1000 ! It is only fair to say that there are many who, while admitting the criminality, immorality, and disease among the city Negroes of the North, point out that this is due to their shocking environment, and particularly point out that those Negroes living in clean and sanitary areas are no more predisposed to disease than the whites in the same sections. This may be the case, but these are isolated instances on which it is impossible to base general conclusions. It is, however, undeniably true to say that up to the present the Afro-Americans have as a race shown little power to resist pernicious city conditions and little ability to rise to the industrial opportunities they offer. It is also correct to say that general race condi- tions in Northern urban areas are extremely unsatis- factory, and what is more, they do not show signs of any considerable measure of improvement. Professor Kelly Miller says: "The status of the city Negro seems to furnish a contradiction to the prevalent belief that education will solve the race problems. Ex- perience seems to show that the problems grow in difficulty as general intelligence increases. In the city of Washington, and in a corresponding degree the same may be said of other cities, the educational facilities for coloured children are practically as good as any offered the most favoured class of children anywhere on the face A VOTER WITHOUT A LIVELIHOOD 221 of the earth. These schools have been crowded for a quarter of a century and have now more than fifteen thousand in attendance, and yet the race problem at the national capital is not solved." In 1896 J. P. Hoffmann, a professional statistician, published a book entitled, " Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro " In a very detailed manner in- quiry is made into the physical condition of the Negro, and comparison is made with what he was in slavery days. The conclusion of this statistical study is that the Negro is not holding his own against the white. The figures and facts are almost entirely taken from the Negro in city life, and mostly from the cities of the North. The pessimistic conclusions of the author are not, I think, true of the whole race in the United States, certainly not true of the rural Negro, though they are probably correct if only stated of the race in the cities of the North. The significant thing in this inquiry is that for the ad- mitted demoralization and low vitality Hoffmann blames race characteristics and distinctly says : " It is not in the conditions of life, but in the race traits and tendencies that we find the cause of excessive mortality ". This is, of course, a direct contradiction to those I have cited who blame the vile environment and poverty of the Negro for his demoralization. I think myself both are factors and act and react on each other. If, however, this poverty-stricken environment is to be improved the city Negro must earn more, and herein lies the difficulty. He is prone to indolence, easily satisfied, and easily depressed at the best ; at his worst, he would rather steal than work, and rather live on the proceeds of prostitution than either. But let him be ever so in- dustrious, ever so willing to put his neck under the yoke, he must fight the bar of colour ; he is judged, not by his own character and achievements, but by the low character attributed to his race, He is living under modern conditions in which those who would succeed must co-operate with those having 222 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES like aims, to watch and defend their interests. The white working man has done this in all the skilled and in many unskilled callings. But usually the Negro is ruled out. If he happens, as is unusual, to be in such numbers that he must be regarded, if he is a potential strike breaker, then the self-interest of the white worker de- mands his recognition. As he is generally a unit and unable to influence the situation he is not counted. It is difficult to see how his status can be improved. In the well-paid trades an apprenticeship or its equivalent is necessary, and if the Negro is unwelcome as a capable journeyman, he is less likely to be taken on either as an apprentice or as an improver, especially under Trades Union conditions, when his work would not be eco- nomically remunerative to the employer. Trades Unions are often prepared to order a strike if non-Union men are employed, and yet often enough these Unions will not allow a fully competent Negro within their ranks simply on account of his colour. It appeared to me that the statement of Edgar Gardner Murphy is true of the Northern cities in which I made inquiry. He says : " The large and imperious developments of Trade Unionism in the North are already eliminating the Negro as an in- dustrial factor. Nothing could be more searchingly relentless than the slow, silent, pitiless operation of the social and economic forces that are destroying the Negro, body and soul, in the Northern cities. None know it so well as the Negroes themselves. The race prejudice, which Professor Shaler of Harvard University has re- cently told us is as intense in the North as anywhere in the world, first forbids the Negro the membership of the Labour Unions, and then forbids to the employer the services of the non-Union labourer. If the employer turn wholly to the non-Union men he finds that, rather than work beside the Negro they throw down their tools and walk to the door. And so the dreary tale pro- ceeds." The Negro may vote in the North. The white man A VOTER WITHOUT A LIVELIHOOD 223 there has not seen fit, nor found it necessary to introduce grandfather clauses, nor to demand an intelligent under- standing of the Constitution of the United States, and thus shut out the Negro. He is on the register. But before any section of the voters can make their influence felt and get assured recognition of their wants, they must co-operate, vote intelligently, and bring pressure to bear on their representatives. Easily cajoled by astute politicians, easily bribed by them, the Negro, lacking in numbers and combination, throws away this oppor- tunity of betterment. His friends speak sadly of his turpitude. Miss Mary Ovington says : "With the great majority of coloured voters the choice of a municipal candidate is based on the argument of a two dollar bill, or the promise of a job, combined with the sentiment, declining every year, for the Republican party, the party that once helped the Negro and may help him again. The public standing of the mayoralty candidate, his ability to choose wise heads of departments, the building of new subways, the ownership of public utilities, these are unimportant issues. The matter of immediate moment is what the vote is going to mean to the black man himself." To sum up the position in the North, it would appear that while the coloured man may ride in the public con- veyances, get the poor man's justice before the Courts, and exercise the vote, he is always subject to contumely and restrictions. He may not have to face the open active bitterness of the South, but he must reckon on an increasing contemptuous prejudice. He is being worsted in industrial competition, and only retains the right to work in ill-paid callings undesired by the whites, and consequently has to live in surroundings that tend to drag him down. He has the vote — but without a livelihood. CHAPTER XXIV. THE SOUTH— A LIVELIHOOD WITHOUT A VOTE. My object in the present chapter is not to make a close study of the economic position of the Negro in the South, with details of his earnings, necessary expenditure, possible savings, and the channels in which he may pro- fitably utilize them — all this I will deal with later. I want here to make a comparison of his general economic posi- tion and opportunities in the South with those in the North, which I have pictured in the last chapter. I have elsewhere expressed the surprise I felt on find- ing so much of the manual labour of the South done by white men. Coming with a long South African experi- ence, from a country in which all manual toil is done by black men, it was a novelty to see white men in large numbers engaged in work we are accustomed to call "Kaffirs' work". Being familiar with the tenacity with which the South African white skilled artisan clings to his monopoly of highly paid labour, and the demand he makes that colour and not competence shall be the test of a skilled man, it was another surprise to find, comparatively speaking, so little of this feeling in the South. It became clear to me afterwards that I had not realized the comparative numerical inferiority of the Negro in America as compared with our natives, which compels the white man in the South to undertake some of the necessary manual labour ; nor had I understood the tradition of slavery times, when slave artisans did the building and the blacksmithing for the plantations 224 A LIVELIHOOD WITHOUT A VOTE 225 and for the plantation towns. For I found that not only did white men undertake manual labour, and black men work at skilled trades, but in many cases they work side by side, as in loading and discharging cargo, and in laying bricks on the same building. There may have been times when employment was hard to get in the South, but certainly at the time of my visit, neither white nor black, if willing to work, need be idle. Unemployment as we understand the term in Britain was non-existent. I was told by Negro and by white man alike over and over again, and in all sections of the country, that there was work for all. One Negro in Georgia said, no one need go hungry in this country. Another, every man in Alabama can have at least one meat meal a day. Another, all can get work, and if a labouring man sticks to his work he can save money, but they don't all stick. All the students learning trades at the various indus- trial establishments I visited assured me that they could get work at journeyman's wages when they left, some said they would work for white employers, some for Negroes, and some said relatives would employ them, or they would start business on their own account. A working blacksmith I talked with gave me to understand that at times the white employer preferred the Negro to men of his own colour. In his trade, in that section, there were no effective Trade Unions. He could easily get work in any part of the South at $75 a month or even more. He said he remembered waiting along with a white man on a white employer who had a vacancy, and though the employer did not choose there and then — with a meaning smile — he got word next day to take up the job. "Perhaps," he said, "the master thought the coloured man would give less trouble than the white man." It is true that in agricultural and other unskilled labour wages are low, but the necessaries of life are cheap, and the climate does not demand the heavy expenditure 15 226 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES in warm clothing and fuel that is necessary in Britain and the North. It is equally true that the unskilled married man, when his family is young, may find himself with nothing left when their expenses are met, indeed in this case it is common to run into debt. But I found that young people in their teens could obtain work at wages which were high as compared with those paid to adults, and in many cases in which the head of the house earned only a meagre wage, the total amount brought into the family was large, quite sufficient to secure considerable sav- ings, if the family was united and thrifty. One youth I spoke to told me he got work when only twelve years of age in a store in a small country town at Si 5 a month, and later got $20 a month. Another had two brothers, 14 and 15 years of age, who got a dollar a day each, working in a fertilizer factory. Another told me he knew many youths in their early teens receiving from $2% to S4 a week. The girls in such a family can always obtain situations as domestic helps at say $2| a week and their keep. I do not wish it to be inferred that all avenues are equally open to black as well as white in the South. I notice that Alfred Holt Stone, in contrasting the eco- nomic opportunities of the Negro in the South with his limitations in the North, says : " He is permitted to work in the South at any occupation under the sun, because he is still the labourer to which we are most accustomed, and as yet the white man does not want his job ". The reservation in the last sentence is significant, but apart from this my observations did not lead me to the con- clusion that, ample as his opportunities in the South are, all occupations under the sun are his to choose. I question much whether an educated Negro would be welcome as an ordinary store assistant or clerk, or whether he could find employment as draughtsman or accountant in an office, or other similar employment; Still it is true that as compared with the North his A LIVELIHOOD WITHOUT A VOTE 227 choice of occupation is much greater, and more well-paid callings demanding skill are open to him. The industrial situation to-day is that all kinds of labour is in demand ; the skilled artisan can get a high wage, far above his subsistence outlay in the case of a single man, and ample for the needs of his family if married, even if they are all non-earners. The semi- skilled single man has also a considerable margin, the semi-skilled married man with a young family can come out, and those with an earning family are in a comfort- able position. The manual labourer, if single, can, if he choose, save money, the married man with a young family will often be pinched, but as the family grows up will regain a fairly comfortable position. I am assured that this has been the situation for some years past and I found it to be the position to-day, but I do not wish it to be inferred that it is to be so in the indefinite future, and that no anxiety need be felt as to the industrial out- look of the Negro. In re-reading William Laird Clowes' book, " Black America," written over twenty years ago, I was struck by his forecast as to the probable trend of industrial race life. He says : "The white man cannot compete as labourer or even artisan on equal terms with the black. He needs higher pay and better food. In black centres therefore the poor white man finds himself daily more out of his element." I felt that if this was true the years that had passed would show some practical proof of this tendency. Later on I will give the results of my own observations, and cite the testimony of more recent observers. I will anticipate the verdict so far by saying here that this pre- diction of Mr. Clowes has not so far been confirmed, nor does it appear likely to be sustained in the future. Any competent observer must see in the South, as in South Africa, a gathering storm, which means ultimately not only industrial war, but industrial plus racial conflict. In South Africa it has not yet come, nor in the South has it yet arrived, although with us it is a constant theme i 5 * 228 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES of discussion, and many white workers speak as if we were already in the throes. This is not so, we are not yet even on the edge, it may be delayed or minimized, but it is difficult to see any force or combination of forces that will permanently prevent it. Opinions differ widely as to the eventual outcome, though such opinions are often held dogmatically as if the issue was clearly ap- parent. One man says the white man will always retain the highly paid work, and the native will always remain a manual labourer and servant ; that he has no capacity for anything higher. Another sees in the increasing adaptability and education of the native the death-knell to white industrial supremacy. I frankly confess I do not know, the only thing I can clearly see is conflict. On the one side will be better education, political power, labour organization, higher wages, and comparatively small numbers; handicapped by the sinister fact that the members of this race are relieved of much strenuous labour that makes for effi- ciency. On the other, great numbers with little co-opera- tion or organization, at present at all events, but willing to work for low wages, with a natural fitness to the climate and surroundings, with gradually improving efficiency, and with the training that manual labour gives. It is not the man who thinks below the surface who would venture to dogmatically predict the issue. But there will be an industrial and racial drama played out in South Africa, and so in the South. Already many in America feel the change coming and predict still greater changes. Dr. Booker T. Washington says the next twenty years are going to be, in many respects, the most serious in the history of the race. Within that period will be largely determined whether the Negro is going to be able to retain the hold which he has now upon the industries of the South, or whether his place will be filled by white people from a distance. Alfred Holt Stone says : " To-day the most portentous figure on the economic horizon of the Negro is his white A LIVELIHOOD WITHOUT A VOTE 229 competitor ". Professor Kelly Miller writes thus : " The number of Negroes following mechanical pursuits is quite considerable in the South, but fades away to vanishing point as we proceed North. Even in the South the Negro mechanic is fast giving way to the conquering European workman. If we may read the shadow that coming events cast before them, it seems clear that within half a century Negro workmen along the lines of higher mechanical skill will be as rare in Atlanta and Richmond as they are in Boston and Philadelphia." W. P. Livingstone, in "The Race Conflict," thus ex- presses his opinion: "Indications exist that the white working man is now beginning to crowd out the coloured working man, while any attempt to substitute coloured for white labour is always keenly resented and usually results in failure ". And again the same authority says : " The general conclusion one draws from a general survey of the situation is that the Negro as an economic unit is being quietly but resolutely boycotted by the white population, and is gradually ceasing to have any industrial relation to it. He is steadily being forced into a separate industrial existence. The position is full of menace and danger. The struggle is one for existence, for life itself, and life is of more value than civil and political rights." P. A. Bruce, in "The Rise of the New South," pub- lished in 1905, says: "The development of the South along industrial lines is going to make life harder for the black man. The day will come in the South, just as it came long ago in the North, when for lack of skill, lack of sobriety, and lack of persistency, the Negro will find it more difficult to stand up as a rival to the white work- ing man. Already it is the ultimate fate of the Negro that is in the balance, not the ultimate fate of the Southern States. The darkest day for the Southern whites is passed, the darkest days for the Southern blacks have only just begun." Ray Stannard Baker, on page 85 of " Following the Colour Line," quotes a remarkable and brutally frank letter from a white workman, the gist of 2 3 o BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES which is: "I only want niggers to do the dirty and un- pleasant work ; if they get trained and try to do my work, I kill them". If I read the conclusions of this last-named writer aright, he does not take quite the same view as the other authors I have cited, but seems to think the industrial awakening of the South will give increased opportunity and scope for the Negro. I confess I find it difficult to follow him to this conclusion. The Southern States have been, and still are to a large extent, in a backward industrial condition. Their natural resources are enormous, land is plentiful and cheap, and the manual labourers, as well as the skilled artisans necessary to such a state of society, have been in demand. Life has been comparatively easy, food plentiful, and competition has not been keen. Notwith- standing social disadvantages and drawbacks, it is im- possible that any part of the United States can long re- main in this state. The last decade has shown long strides towards modern industrial conditions. With these will probably come a great demand for manual labour, but a demand for greater adaptability ; competi- tion will be keener, the whole industrial fabric will speed up. Experience in the North seems to show that under such conditions the Negro gets left behind. Suited in many respects to a society of which unscientific agri- culture is the mainstay, he has not yet proved himself capable of taking a satisfactory place in the more complex industrialism of modern times. It is significant that in the greatest manufacturing industry of the South, the cotton mill, the Negro has been entirely barred. Is this going to be the case as others are established ? Closely knit and completely organized Trades Unions are not yet conspicuous in the South, but the movement has begun. The industrial future of the Negro will depend to a considerable degree on whether or not he will be admitted to white Unions, or conversely, will have the ability to co-operate and organize on his own A LIVELIHOOD WITHOUT A VOTE 231 account. The tendencies in this direction are not at present uniform or clear. I did not hear of any purely Negro trade organizations entirely distinct from white Unions. In some callings however, such as miners and iron workers, which are concentrated in small areas, and in which large numbers of both white and black are employed, the white Labour Unions have been forced to recognize their black fellow-workers. Previous to recognition the employers had taken ad- vantage of the Negro as a strike breaker, and when attempts had been made by white and black to co-operate, they had raised the cry of Nigger equality, and thus gained an industrial victory by raising a social bogey. The stratagem was, however, so obvious that the white workers encouraged the Negroes to form separate Unions but linked with their own under joint leader- ship, thus making it impossible in the future to set race against race. Such corporate action for common ends should tend to attenuate race feeling. I am unable to say from my own experience what the results in this direction have been, but a close study of local conditions in the iron and coal area, say at Birmingham, Ala., should give interesting data. Notwithstanding this experience in the coal and iron districts I do not think it likely that, until industrial forces have been more closely marshalled, the white Unionists will welcome Negro members or even tolerate allied Negro Unions. Race feeling must be reckoned with. In trades scattered over a wide area, or those in which Negro workers are few, the tendency will probably be to ignore them, or refuse membership to them when they make application. This is the case at present in many trades. Other Labour Unions specifically, by their rules, deny membership to Negroes. The following list of Unions, which is probably not complete, refuse under their rules to admit the Negro : engineers, firemen, telegraphers, carmen, switchmen, electric workers, boiler- makers, and wire weavers. 232 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES As more technical and complex training is required with the incoming of modern methods and machinery, such as the substitution of electric power for steam, so the Negro becomes less in his element, and it is difficult to see how under present conditions in the South he is to get the necessary knowledge and skill. This handicap will be a factor in keeping him to manual labour, or at best to the old time trades, and prevent him joining the army of recruits to the modern callings. Broadly speak- ing, the outlook in this direction does not seem too hopeful. If this was all, and the future of the Negro depended on his keeping pace with the industrial developments that are bound to come, I should be inclined to share the some- what pessimistic ideas of some of the writers I have quoted. But it is not all. The present situation gives the Negro a present opportunity. There is work for him, and bread for him, and more, he can by industry, thrift, and foresight gain a surplus. He may not be able to find a place and compete in the complex industrial organization that is being gradually woven, but those who are engaged in it must have food and raw material. The man provid- ing these, the worker on the land, will have an honourable and remunerative place in any industrial system. In this field, as I have hinted and will demonstrate, the Negro is to an encouraging extent making good. Here is a future for him. His leaders are urging him to strenuous, intelligent, and sustained effort in order to secure this place, and he is responding. Edgar Gardner Murphy says : " The South has some- times abridged the Negro's right to vote, but the South has not yet abridged his right in any direction of human interest, or of honest effort to earn his bread. And the right to earn his bread is at present of much more importance to him than the right to vote." In the South a livelihood — without a vote. CHAPTER XXV. CITY AND COUNTRY. This will be but a short chapter. In drawing the pictures I have done of conditions in the North and those in the South, it has been, in the main, a comparison of the condition and prospects of the Negro in city life and in the country. But the point needs emphasizing, especially for my South African friends. Whatever may be the genius of certain West African peoples of more or less mixed blood for living in densely crowded cities and evolving a city civilization, it is not the life natural to the Negro of the South, nor to the Bantu people of South Africa. Our native people of South Africa are a race whose whole tradition is that of a pastoral and agricultural life, who, if uninfluenced by the white man, and freed from the economic pressure due to his presence, would ask nothing better than a life on the land. Forced by circumstances to leave their homes and go to centres of industrialism to earn a livelihood, they yet yearn with a great yearning for the old life and return to it as soon as possible. It is unhappily too true that the pleasures of city life are ensnaring some of the young people, and they find the life led by their fathers tame and insipid, and in some cases never return to it I feel that this tendency, if allowed to develop, will lead to the de- moralization of both races, and will engender race con- flict, and I have written and spoken in favour of a policy that will mean the strengthening, and not the weakening, of the love of the Bantu for the life on the land. Even if it means the postponement of industrial 233 234 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES development it will mean a saner, more wholesome life for both races, and will be much more likely to result in the happiness, safe development, and true prosperity of both. I foresee that if the South African native people of both sexes and all ages are tempted to live permanently in our cities and densely populated centres, they will fail to make a satisfactory place for themselves. They are not fitted to withstand the temptations which will beset them, their place will be the lowest with little chance of rising, and in addition, their presence and competition will rouse the jealousy and hostility of the white man. We may safely predict their demoralization, and in their fall they will drag down the white man, and at the same time both races will be increasingly embittered by contact and competition. The hope of the Bantu and the safety of the white man lie in giving the former a healthy, hopeful life in wholesome surroundings, with opportunity for develop- ment therein. In the interests of posterity, we should see to it that the Bantu people have sufficient land on which they may live their natural life. If from land hunger, greed of gain, apathy, or all combined we neglect this, our children will have heavy toll to pay. Long ago I saw this, and the longer I live in South Africa the clearer it seems to me. One of the most interesting points I desired to eluci- date on coming to America was how far a people akin to our Bantu had prospered or otherwise in the complex life of cities, and how far, like our own people, they de- sired and seemed suited for country life. In this partic- ular branch of my inquiry, as indeed throughout it all, I had to remember that I was not considering a purely African people but one having probably twenty-five per cent of the blood of the race who built the cities, and whose genius originated and controlled all the complex activities of American civilization. I found that though the proportion was small, there were many thousands of coloured people who had " made good " in all the large CITY AND COUNTRY 235 cities North and South. I visited many of these and found clean orderly homes, often in surroundings which made one marvel that they had not succumbed to the baseness which everywhere surrounded them. But the proportion was small after all, and although I have only my general impressions, based upon many visits to these homes, to rely upon, my conclusion was that the majority of those who had thus established themselves were of mixed race. The rest seemed hopeless, there seemed no realization of their degradation, and no desire to rise out of it. They fell prone before the temptations that surrounded them, and too often wallowed in vice and crime. Healthy child life was impossible, the home was the street. Even the best of them could not rise to the opportunities the city gives to other races, the majority barely held their own at their miserably low level. They were a constant menace and source of demoraliza- tion to the whites by whom they were surrounded. Infinitely better for both races, at whatever cost of money, or of ease to the whites, if they could be entirely removed. The city is a veritable sewer and death-trap for the Negro ; the gain to the race in numbers, character, and efficiency, achieved in more wholesome surround- ings, is lost amid infinite misery and degradation in the cities. The prophets and seers of the race can preach no doctrine more urgently needed than resistance to the uttermost of the lure of the city. The present life of the average Negro in the wide spaces of the South is not ideal. It lacks much to make it whole, and to fill all the demands of his nature. But all the necessaries for a wholesome simple life are present, and within him, if he likes to call upon them, are powers to make it fuller and finer. Neither man nor Nature can prevent his steady advancement if he so wills. Indeed Nature, with genial skies, abundant rainfall, and a soil that will readily respond to intelligent labour, smiles with 236 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES promise. Every advance makes further progress easier. And in following the plough, the Negro does no violence to his nature and natural gifts. The bewilderment and helplessness he displays in centres of population, and which condemns him to the contempt of the stronger race, is here replaced by a familiarity with his surround- ings which, joined to industry and thrift, will earn for him their respect. The success already achieved by many of his race in this field is full of promise, and will be a beacon light to those who are still struggling. The wisest leaders of his race, and the wisest of his white friends, are constantly urging him to this. I speak perhaps dogmatically, but I can prove my words — on the land is the salvation of the Negro. CHAPTER XXVI. LIVING EXAMPLES. Scattered throughout the South are individual Negroes who have built up homes, often from nothing, which demonstrate what is possible when the will to do is present. For several days I stayed at such a home and found the experience one of the most illuminating I had during the course of my journey. To reach the place I had to drive some 16 miles from a small country town which was the rail terminus. The weather had been wet, and the journey reminded me of many I had taken in South Africa. After the first mile or two the road was extremely bad, in places knee-deep in heavy mud, and full of dangerous holes. We had to cross several streams (branches as they call them in the South) running swift and deep, and at one or two a number of wagons and buggies were collected waiting for the water to go down. At some little risk we crossed, and finally got to the home of my host. I found an excellent double-storied house, standing in a large yard planted with Bermuda grass, with many rose trees, and notably a magnificent Marshal Neil with hundreds of fragrant flowers growing over the wide verandah. There were outbuildings, stables, cowsheds, and barns, all built of wood, and though untidy as com- pared with an English standard, infinitely better in con- struction, and far cleaner than many belonging to white farmers I had seen in the South. I found splendid mules, good cattle and pigs, and 237 238 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES innumerable fowls and turkeys, and far around the house was cultivated ground. Standing in the yard were about twenty-five bales of cotton which I learned subsequently was held back from sale, because my host was unwilling to sell at present prices, and was keeping back for an advance. Water was laid on to the house ; it was fitted with the telephone, and in a garage was a motor-car. I found my host was not at home. The late rains had prevented work at a watermill he owned, and he was away there taking advantage of the present fine weather to make up lost time. His wife, a very pleasant and exceedingly well- spoken mulatto woman, meanwhile showed me my bed- room. It was upstairs and was, I think, the largest apart- ment I had hitherto slept in during my present American visit. There were five windows commanding extensive views, a stove, easy-chairs, and a most comfortable and scrupulously clean double bed. My supper was served in an ample dining-room, and everything on the table, milk, cream, eggs, butter, fruit, preserves and most excellent corn bread, was of the best. Here I may say that both my host and hostess at first, and for some time afterwards, declined to eat with me ; it was not the custom, but towards the end of my stay they were prevailed upon to take their places at the table. It was getting dusk when the master of the house arrived from the mill, dusty and tired, and no wonder, for he had left the house between one and two in the morning, and had been working continuously ever since. He was a mulatto, probably fifty-five years of age, intelligent and well spoken, direct and lucid, one who inspired you with the confidence that his statements were correct, and his conclusions arrived at after due consideration. He did not hesitate to express his views, and to correct you if he thought you were in the wrong. When talking of his own personal experiences, he was natural and modest ; the long talks we had on the char- acter and prospects of his race were truthful and open, LIVING EXAMPLES 239 but not, as will be seen, very hopeful. After his supper, and over a wood fire, for the nights were still a little chilly, we had a talk, which, with those he favoured me with on other occasions, gave me an insight into actual conditions and personal experience for which I feel most grateful. He began his working life as a labourer, working on a farm for a wage of ten dollars a month and his food. Till he married he never bought a suit of clothes, his ap- parel was of cotton grown by his parents or himself, and spun and woven and made into garments by his mother. As a labourer he stinted and saved till he accumulated $100, and from that time he had never worked for a master. With the $100 he leased some land, bought a working horse for $50, and began ploughing on his own account. He then bought land and gradually added to it, obtained cattle, and with the manure improved the land he bought. Bit by bit he worked up, until now he was owner of the place I was in with all that appertained to it, and 2400 acres of freehold land without incumbrance. The land was not naturally rich, but manuring and cultivation had so improved it, that much of it now yielded a bale of cotton to the acre, and it was getting still better. He rented out one part of his estate, and had sixteen coloured tenants working on shares, and two white men also rented portions. Having so much land, his neighbours, other than tenants, were at a distance, his estate was a self-centred community. He got on well with his white neighbours, and had personally no com- plaint against them ; their relations were amicable. I asked about his tenants, and more particularly whether any of them were acquiring property, and becom- ing financially independent. He answered emphatically, but I thought rather sorrowfully, " No Sir, not one. They are," he said, " all thriftless, and are in debt and will remain in debt." They are most of them good workers, they grow good crops, quite as good as most of the white men in 2 4 o BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES the section ; it is not indolence that prevents them rising, but extravagance, unthrift, and desiring a good time in the present. They cannot resist the temptation to spend, and even here, away from the railway, the travelling agent puts the temptation before them, and they incur debt to obtain luxuries. They will buy tailor-made suits costing $16 to $20 or even more, shoes costing $5 and then plough in them, buggies, sewing-machines, organs, and gramophones they must have if their neighbour has such. Beguiled into buying on the instalment system, they often fail to meet the instalments when due, and then borrow elsewhere at high rates of interest to keep them up, and thus become further involved. One of his tenants, a hard worker, with a wife and two children, who had been on the land for several years, had an average crop of from twelve to sixteen bales of cotton, and last year raised in addition 230 bushels of corn, and yet at the present moment was in debt between $400 and $500. When a new tenant applied for land he almost invari- ably wanted a loan to begin with, generally to settle up his indebtedness elsewhere. Just lately one came and asked for $100 to pay off a white man, professing this man was his only creditor. Immediately this amount was settled other claims were put in, and $200 more had to be provided. It was quite a common thing for the tenants to sell all the corn they raised, knowing full well they would need it later, and then travel to town and make occasion for a holiday and buy at higher prices. My host employed farm labourers, they got from $12 to $15 a month and their board and lodging, their food being the same as the farmer eats. Yet he never engaged one without having to advance $10 or $15, and before the labourer has been at work a week he invariably borrows more, often to purchase some trashy luxury. The same thing, he said, happens in the towns. Ex- travagance and thriftlessness are conspicuous there. The LIVING EXAMPLES 241 Negro can get work in the towns easily enough, but my informant told me he had noticed that in many callings he is giving place to white men. Since he remem- bered, the coloured man had been supplanted in many branches of work which had been exclusively his own. When he visited the county town he found that even the barbers and shoeblacks are sometimes white, though at one time all were Negroes. Skilled Negro artisans can also get plenty of work ; there is, he said, a good demand for them, and they work alongside white men, but he does not think they are in- creasing in numbers as he would like. Thereare professional men of Negro race. The doctors, who are most numerous, are not, he thinks, making much headway. So many of our people, he said, work for whites that they feel if anything is wrong they must send for a white doctor. Being often in debt they are not their own masters, and cannot choose whom they would. In commerce and mercantile life he thought there was not much advance. Our people, he said, do not support their own : there is no union among them. They go and spend their cash at the white store and then come to the black store when they want credit. Much might be done if the Negroes stuck together, but they won't, and I have no hope that they will do so in the future. He was despondent about the attitude of whites and blacks generally ; things were worse, he said, than twenty years ago : the white man was harder on the black, he crowds him more, is not so kindly, but takes advantage and exploits him. By his weakness the black man plays into his hands. He himself was on the register ; if he chose he could cast his vote, but he did not take the trouble. It was no use, the white man would not let it count for anything of use to the black. A few others he knew were on the voters' roll, the white man put them there in order to be able to say they were not excluded, but like him, they did not go to the poll, and for the same reason. 16 242 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES Speaking of race antagonism, he said he had just re- ceived a letter from a married daughter living in Arkan- sas, near the scene of the present great Mississippi flood. The Negroes there are tenants or workers for the large white landowners, and the latter are afraid if the Negroes left the estate on account of the rising river, they would get scattered, and they would never recover them, so they forced them to remain on the estates, and in conse- quence over one hundred were drowned. His daughter told him that one planter or landowner met in town some of those who had left the land, and he shot three at sight. Asked what would be done to him, he answered probably nothing, but in any case, if there was an inquiry, he would plead self-defence, and he would walk out. I asked whether education would help matters and he said yes, it would. Like so many uneducated men of character, ability, and efficiency, he seemed to have an almost pathetic belief in the value of what he had never received, and the lack of which he had personally ex- perienced. He said both white and black were ignorant and prejudiced. Many whites would not bother to send their children to school, though fair schools were pro- vided for them, and the position of Negro education was, he thought, worse than it was years ago. The State ap- propriation for his section was miserably small. Tuskegee and similar institutions were doing good, but it was nothing among the shiftless, careless people scattered over the land. I took walks in the neighbourhood and visited the fields and the cabins. The latter were of a rather better class than usual, but all might very easily have been made much better. Passing one in the early morning, I heard an organ wailing out hymn tunes, the fence was all broken down, the yard and wood pile wanted atten- tion. The vegetable gardens were small and poor, and although rose-bushes grew wildly and wantonly in many of the yards, it was due to climate and not to culture. I passed one cabin with the yard littered with broken LIVING EXAMPLES 243 buggies : wheels, bodies, shafts, and axles were lying about in confusion. I guessed these must have been the broken remains of eight or ten vehicles, and yet there was no appearance of a workshop. Later I asked my host about it, and he said the occupier of the cabin had bought them one after another, some new, some second-hand, and as one got broken had somehow obtained another, mostly on credit. He reckoned there were the remains of a dozen buggies in the yard, and no attempt was made to utilize the parts or repair the broken ones. While I attached great value to the opinion of my friend, both in local and general matters, I could not help thinking that he was too pessimistic, especially for one whose career in the practical affairs of life had been a signal success. I may say I had similar conversations with several other coloured men living in the same neighbourhood, a building contractor of long experience, a blacksmith, a mattressmaker, several teachers, male and female, and others, and though they did not strike quite such a pessimistic note as my host, they generally corroborated his facts and conclusions. My readers will find that I do not accept this view in its entirety, but balance it by observations and experience gathered else- where. Still it is of value to get the unbiassed, matured opinion of such a man as my friend. My hostess showed me one day her stock of canned fruits, preserves, and hams and bacon. I could attest the quality from actual experience, and the quantity and get- up would have been a pardonable source of pride to an English farmer's wife. Pears, apples, peaches, and grapes grow easily and in abundance, and as there is little local demand she preserves them. Early potatoes and peas they expect to eat on Easter Sunday, and the first straw- berries about the same time. This is followed by a second crop. Corn she said can be grown by all ; if bought it cost about a dollar a bushel at present. All vegetables can easily be grown. Onions of very large size and mammoth pumpkins will keep through the 16* 244 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES winter. Sweet potatoes are a big crop, and sugar-cane will ripen in the season, and from it they make their molasses. Eggs are plentiful at this time, and the price is twelve cents a dozen, at the highest they reach twenty- five cents. Chickens are cheap in proportion. They could not market all this small produce at high prices, but they could live extremely cheaply and well. No one, she said, need go hungry, and no one with land properly utilized need buy any article of food ; they could live well all the year round on what the land produced. On the table in abundance might be fowls, eggs, pork, bacon, vegetables of all kinds, corn and all its grand products, molasses, milk, butter, and fruit in plenty. My friends had sent into the world sons and daughters, some scattered far, others living near. The latter seemed to be following in the footsteps of their parents, their houses were good, and their surroundings clean and pleasant. One or two were engaged in teaching their race the way their father had trod in life and work. I am thus stating the case of an individual because it shows what is possible to a man of Negro race in the South land, and also because here I had an opportunity in quiet over a fire and pipe to get the opinions of a shrewd observer on the conditions and prospects of his race. It will be illustrative of his feelings if I tell, as told to me, the story of a visit to the North, some incidents in which had touched my friend deeply. He decided, with his wife, to pay a visit to the World's Fair at St. Louis. Holidays did not come frequently into their life, they could afford it easily, and they wanted to experience something of the bigger world. When they boarded the train the local white conductor, who knew them well, offered to put them into a sleeper, otherwise they had to sit up all night. This kindly offer was evidently much appreciated by them, but they declined it, fearing such a breach of Southern custom. They had been told by a travelled daughter to go to a coloured hotel in St. Louis, LIVING EXAMPLES 245 but the white hackman there who asked their patronage, said it was not a fit place for them, and recommended a white boarding-house, and took them there. In per- turbation of mind they entered a very nice house with white folks sitting about. Fearing greatly, they were moving to depart, when the proprietress came forward, and probably understanding, asked if they were French as she was. They replied, of French descent but born in America. A bedroom and a bath attached was given to them, and they spoke with a depth of feeling that touched me of the kindness shown to them. They said they were treated just like the other boarders, and when they went out to the Fair for the day, a lunch was pre- pared for them, their every want was anticipated. The only drawback was the ever-present dread that some one from Alabama might recognize and denounce them. They left this place of happy memory and went North to the great lakes, where they spent a day or two at a holiday resort. They came back to St. Louis, but not to the French boarding-house, but to the one their daughter had recommended. The contrast was nauseous, dirt, discomfort, disorder, bad food, unclean beds, no light, no water. The price was the same, but it was evident that the marked and unpleasant contrast was felt to be a reproach to their colour. The other was as evidently a memory to be cherished. It was not the World's Fair, not Chicago nor the great lakes that was of prime importance : these were hardly mentioned ; it was the kindly consideration of the railroad conductor, and their reception and treatment at the French boarding- house that made the holiday the happy event it had evidently been to both of them. Throughout the South may be found men of Negro race who have similarly " made good ". And not individ- uals alone, there are communities of freeholders who are permeated by the same spirit of self-help, and who, out of individual success, have built up a corporate life rich in effort for the common good. There are counties 246 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES in the South, with a preponderating Negro population, in which the bulk of the coloured farmers own the land they till, free of all incumbrance. In one instance at least these freeholders form ninety per cent of the total number of coloured cultivators. In some instances these communities owe their exist- ence to some self-helpful yet self-sacrificing individual, often to the presence of one who has been trained at Hampton or Tuskegee, and is giving of that he has been taught. In comparison with the millions who live for the day, and are bond slaves to the future, they may not be many, but the ringing notes of purposeful work are being heard and heeded by more and more, and I cannot doubt, but that following on the attainment of the material, will come a desire for a higher and deeper culture. CHAPTER XXVII. THE GREAT OPPORTUNITY. I once heard an eloquent and distinguished Negro leader, whose blood and characteristics were predominantly white, deliver a moving speech on the prime importance of cherishing those of the race who were gifted with ex- ceptional talent or genius, and seeing to it that they got every advantage, and were not neglected nor discouraged. The speech was addressed to a large audience of Negroes. I was the only white man present. I looked for an in- telligent response, but felt the message fell on stony ground. While understanding, I dissented. Looking at the people it seemed to me the theme should be discipline and duty for the mass, and the practical way to secure the one and instil a sense of the other, was to show them the way to hope and independence, to urge them to take the op- portunity they have, and make the necessary effort and sacrifice to build up healthy homes on the land. Professor W. C. Wilcox says: "Where such a lower people has disappeared, the causes of their death have been mainly disease, vice, and profound discouragement. It seems to me clear that each one of these causes is affecting the Negro race far more deeply and unfavour- ably at the present time than it was at the date of their emancipation. I have not found one expression in the South of dissent from the opinion that the joyous buoy- ancy of the race is passing away, that they feel upon them a burden of responsibility to which they are unequal, that the lower classes of the Negroes are resentful, and the better classes are not certain or sanguine of the out- 247 248 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES come. If this judgment be true, I can only say it is the most fatal scourge of national decay and death." Is there justification for this sense of discouragement ? Is there no hope for the race ? Dr. Booker T. Washington added to the piled up debt his people owe to him by undertaking a journey through the South and East of Europe, and there investi- gating the actual conditions of life of the proletariat, and especially the life and opportunities of the peasantry. His published optimistic conclusions in the book describ- ing his experiences, "The man furthest down," should put hope into the hearts of the Southern Negro. He found life for him in the Southern States far more toler- able, and opportunity far greater, than for the peasantry of the old European countries he visited. Later on I venture to make similar comparisons in regard to many of the great things of life, with classes and communities with which I am familiar, and I emphatically say, that when the fullest weight is given to the many reasons for discouragement, there is a bright hope for the Negro in the future, if he is man enough to seize it. The great question of the immediate future seems to me to be: Has the race the insight to see the great opportunity and the concentrated force of purpose to seize it ? For there is a great opportunity open to the mass of the Negro people, such as is offered to few of the backward races of the world. To prove this I must bring forward in marshalled order some facts and figures which I have been leading up to in previous chapters. In travelling over the South land the impression the visitor gets is one of ample space for development. Even in the older States not one-third of the total area could be called improved, and more than one-half is uncleared and uncultivated. A much greater proportion of the land than in South Africa can be put under the plough, and the rainfall is abundant and well distributed. It is true that much of the land has been distressingly abused and THE GREAT OPPORTUNITY 249 gone out of cultivation, but by modern methods of manur- ing, rotation of crops, and green soiling, it can be gradually built up again, possibly even beyond its original fertility. The climate and soil are suitable for a great variety of crops, both those of the temperate and those of the sub-tropical zones. Timber for fuel and ordinary building is everywhere plentiful, and the country is well watered by many streams. When I compared it with the sun-stricken karroo of the Cape Colony, without fuel, water, or shelter, and the arid wastes of large extent in the interior of Australia lacking in all these, it seemed to me a land to which Nature has given, as com- pared with many others, all that man requires to build up prosperous and happy homes. The terrible, often life and soul destroying isolation of these other lands need not be endured, and the economic loss due to lack of communication with the outer world need not be experienced. The water-ways are noble, and railways intersect the land. Judging by the standard of the producing British Colonies land is cheap ; judged by its possibilities it is very cheap. I made inquiries in all sections as to price, possibilities, and market rates for produce. I found that ordinary farm land, without improvements, could be bought at from $5 to $25 an acre according to fertility and proximity to rail. There are sections suited to special cultures which are correspondingly low in price. In the tide water areas, land suitable for growing early vegetables, which bring high prices in the Northern cities, may be bought at prices which allow of handsome profits in this branch of agriculture. Flat pine lands were pointed out to me which would yield a profit of $35 an acre on lumber and turpentine, and which when cut over and well cultivated are very fertile. This land could be bought at from $10 to $35 an acre according to facili- ties for transport. As I have already dwelt on this question of land values in a previous chapter, I will not now go into more 250 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES detail. I have made it clear, I think, that there is cheap land in abundance to be bought, and there is no bar to the Negro buying it. Is he in a position to do so ? I made many inquiries and give the results below. South- erners familiar with their own section may probably find these figures do not fit in. I had to take the country as a whole, and I think they are fairly correct. I placed them before many experienced men, both white and black, and they were approved by the majority as being a fair reflection of conditions in the South as a -^whole. I first take the lowest class of worker, the wage-earner on the land. The agricultural labourer, who is generally a single man, gets from $12 to Si 5 a month with food and lodging. He has only clothes to buy, and there is no reason why he should not save from $100 to $120 yearly. In four or five years he could certainly save a sum of S500, probably more. With this could be bought outright 25 acres at $10 the acre, a working mule at say $125, and the balance for plough, implements, and food till the crop was realized. I am well aware that this would be cutting it fine, and judgment and economy would have to be exercised, but I know it can be done. The probable result would be a gratifying reward for the exertion and self-denial. It is possible to get from such an area 20 bales of cotton each weighing 500 lb. which at 12 cents per lb., and with seed worth $10 to the acre, means $800 gross. From this must be deducted fertilizer at $5 the acre, say Si 25, and extra labour in the picking season, say S75, sundries another Sioo, or a net return of S500. I am aware that a bale to the acre, even on such well-fertilized land as this would be, is beyond the average at present grown, but even if only 10 bales were I obtained there is a comfortable balance to the good. Once the first struggle is over, the position of such a man should gradually improve. His land would be getting heart, and he could accelerate the improvement by in- creasing his livestock. Fair cows can be bought from S20 THE GREAT OPPORTUNITY 251 to $30, and really good ones from $40 to $50. Ordinary work horses may be bought from $80 to $120, and good trained mules from Si 25 to $200. Pigs and poultry are cheap. Now for the opportunities of other classes along the same lines. Labourers other than farm hands often earn more than the figures we have been dealing with. Railway labourers, platelayers, etc., may receive from $ii to $3 a day. Teamsters from 75 cents to $i|, dock- side labourers can earn much more, though here the work is not continuous. The remuneration of unskilled work varies of course considerably, but the main point is that there is no unemployment, and certainly at the wages I have mentioned the single man can save if he will. I inquired about the cost of board and lodging for men of this class, and again got answers that varied, but I think it is quite possible, if a man likes to rent a room and provide for himself, he can live, not only sufficiently, but well, on $2 -J to $3 a week. This means the possibility of saving, but it is only possible to the man who can deny himself the pleasures of the moment for the greater end in the future. It is probable that, notwithstanding the higher money wages of the town labourer, he cannot save much more than his brother in the country, but that, for the single man, is sufficient to enable him, after a few years' saving, to make an independent start on the land. When we come to the case of the single man who is a skilled artisan there can be no question but that he has a big margin for saving. His wages vary in different sections, but $3 a day may be taken as an average rate, and $4 is not uncommon. He may earn by the hour from 35 to 45 cents; in one section I visited it was driven up to 65 cents for a time. In some country districts wages are paid by the month, and $75 was mentioned as an average wage. Here living expenses would be corres- pondingly low. Even taking this lower remuneration, and deducting $20 a month for board and lodging, and $10 a month for clothes, the artisan would have a balance of 252 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES $45 to the good in the month or no less than $500 in the year. I am satisfied that industry and thrift will enable the competent, industrious single Negro artisan to save this sum in an average year. One hundred pounds sterling saved every year ; how many millions in Britain never even dream of it, or if they did, their dreams would never be realized. Yet here it is quite possible to these Negro artisans of the South. In five years the savings of such a man, invested at a moderate and safe rate of interest, should amount to $3000. This means that if he liked to take to agriculture he could at once purchase and stock a small improved farm, or a larger unimproved one, and raise enough in a very few years to return the purchase price. Such a man need never be in debt. He could buy his requirements and sell his produce on the very best terms, as well as any white man, and yearly improve his holding and add to his possessions. All this it may be said appears to be possible for the single man in regular employment, but what of the married man. I have already pointed out that the un- skilled married Negro labourer with a young family has a very hard time to make ends meet whether in town or country. And so the unskilled married labourer has in every country. In the South such a man has an ad- vantage in the comparatively high wages often earned by young people, and if the family pull together there is no reason why, here again, an independence on the land may not be achieved with the help of the young people. A family of six, father, mother, with say two boys and two girls in their teens, although all unskilled, might ex- pect to earn a total income of $20 a week. Father and eldest son say $1 a day each, the second son $4 a week, and the two girls say $2-} each a week with board. On combined earnings such as these a sum might soon be saved sufficient to buy a farm on such terms as I have mentioned, and once on the land every member of the THE GREAT OPPORTUNITY 253 family is valuable. A single man on the land must con- centrate on the paying crop, which here in the South is cotton, but with a family it only requires common sense and industry to arrange a division of labour by which not only could the cotton crop be grown, but the greater part of the food required by the family also. I know it will be said of this proposition, as I have heard it said of other schemes that involve hard work to ensure success, that no allowance has been made for re- creation and amusement, nor for doctors' bills, accident, death, or a dozen other contingencies. Quite right, we all have to face these things, and it is impossible to say what these contingencies may be. But with regard to relaxation and amusement, I would say I offer hope in life and work which will make it of little account The underfed, stunted, anaemic city dweller, whose life consists in performing one monotonous mechanical task all the hours of daylight, and without hope of doing anything else for the term of his natural life, craves the artificial light, the glare and romance of picture palace or music hall. But the man who feels that every spade struck into his soil, and every load of fertilizer applied, is to bring him its natural return, and who sees in field and barn and on his table the fruits of his labour, who knows that each year's toil brings him nearer independence, has no time or money to waste on such gaudy misrepresentations of life. He has work in the present, and hope for the future, and what better gifts come to any of us ? I have spoken thus far as if this great opportunity was to be taken by each individual without the co-opera- tion and help of his fellows, and have shown that it is possible to the individual. But the benefits of co-opera- tion and mutual help are being taught to and learned by the Negro in the South. It is written large in the teachings of Hampton and Tuskegee, and may be seen in actual work in many sections of the rural South. It will be said that the Negro is at a disadvantage in buying his land, implements, and necessaries, and in marketing 254 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES his produce. So he is to a certain extent : all isolated small producers are, all over the world. But if he com- bines with his fellows there is no reason why he should not be as favourably circumstanced as the best. If twenty young Negroes met together and decided to work and save to this end, and while retaining their individuality, co-operated together to invest and buy and sell, all that was possible to them as individuals becomes certain as co-operators, and the stimulus of mutual help and the strength that comes of united effort is theirs. Even without such direct economic co-operation, communities of Negro farmers as they became larger would become self-contained. There would be room and work for the Negro carpenter and blacksmith, for the Negro storekeeper, for the Negro teacher and preacher, for the Negro physician and business man. Nor need it be said that the life of such communities must be narrow, and that human nature needs a broader, richer life, linked with the culture of the past, and reaching forward to a higher culture in the future. There has been too much of this kind of talk proferred to the unbalanced Negro mind in the past, and I cannot see that it has tended to set him firmly on the true path to a broader, richer life. I would be the last to depreciate the value of a true culture in life, and I would agree with those who say that the highest thing in life is to learn to live. But the path is long and steep, and what the Negro wants at present, and before everything else, is a clean home life, a hope in his work, and freedom from the harassing dread of race antagonism. The two first named he may have if he seizes the great opportunity. Banded together in rural communities, he may be largely free from race antagonism. The white man will still make the laws to which the Negro must submit, but the daily dread of exploitation and injustice he may leave behind, and live with his own folk, free to mould his life as he will. Nor need that life be circumscribed to things material. Thousands of his own race are being trained to help him THE GREAT OPPORTUNITY 255 in his practical efforts and to add to them knowledge of deeper things, intellectual, moral, and spiritual. Friends, both white and black, would rejoice to help those who seriously set out to help themselves in all that made for a higher life based on material well-being. There is no desire on the part of such friends to con- demn all to the life of a peasant, immersed in water and soil, but rather to give to the race opportunity through hopeful work to the best of which it is capable. But they rightly want to put first things first, and rightly realize that for such a people, weak in purpose, and prone to flutter after shadows, the rural home is the true be- ginning. Cherish the gifted of the race say some. Lift the mass say I, and in doing so is the true opportunity for the gifted, for the trained educated leaders ; not in following will-o'-the-wisps and wailing that they are shut " Behind the veil," but in leading a people into God's sunlight, and making hopeless lives full of hope. The Negro has many friends in the North who have given, and are giving, largely of brain and heart and substance to help him. I can think of no more practical way to help him at the present time, than to buy up large areas of unimproved land, establish communication, and subdivide and sell in suitable farms to those willing to make the effort and sacrifice to obtain them. It would need judgment and local knowledge and supervision} but it need not mean any pecuniary loss. It would not mean giving or pauperizing, but helping with capital and business experience. At Hampton, Tuskegee, and else- where money from this philanthropic source has been wisely expended in training men and women of Negro race capable of leading in this movement. It now re- quires that the Negro masses should have the opportunity of taking full benefit of those who have been so liberally provided with the training necessary to enable them to help their own people. And the South should help. Far too many in the 256 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES South lean upon the Negro to their own undoing. The existing modifications of the old plantation system, under which white landowners rent their lands on the share crop system to Negro tenants is bad for all. It makes good farming and permanent improvement impossible, and drives out all hope from the hearts of the tenants. It frees the landowners from their proper responsibility, and encourages them to wring the uttermost out of those who in turn ravish the soil, without regard to the future. If the rural South is to be socially and industrially healthy there must be a chance in life for those who till the soil, both white and black. The first need of the South is homes, and the white South will be blind indeed if they place obstacles in the way of the black man making his home on the soil. No one suffers more than the white Southerner, man and woman alike, from the im- moral and criminal Negro population of the towns and cities, and they would be the greatest gainers if these cesspools could be cleansed. I do not hope that the great opportunity will draw from the cities the present Negro population. They, like the submerged tenth of the great cities of Europe, have been so deeply inoculated with the virus, that they can never be reclaimed. The preaching of the gospel of rural regeneration, and the experiences of those who have accepted it may, however, stem the present drift. It has, indeed, already lessened the flow in that direction. It is likely that as the opportunity is seized by more and more, one effect will be to increase the rewards of labour, both to those who remain in the cities, and to those who are tenants and labourers on the land. The employers of such labour in the South, like many in South Africa, take the mistaken view that this will be an economic disaster. With us in South Africa there is an increasing minority of employers who, from insight and experience, take a wiser view, and who recognize that higher wages paid for manual labour does not necessarily mean in- THE GREAT OPPORTUNITY 257 creased cost of production. They have begun to ask how it is that countries in which the wages of farm labour are far higher than with us in South Africa, can yet export to our market all kinds of farm produce and beat our own in quality and price. They are beginning to find that even a native farm servant who values his job because he is satisfied with the conditions, is a more satisfactory, and even cheaper labourer, than one who is unwillingly working out an accumulated debt at per- haps half the current wage. It is a hard lesson to learn ; the other course of paying the minimum seems obviously so much more in the interest of the employer that it is little wonder that the doctrine has fallen, for the most part, on deaf ears. But the South must learn it too, and the only way is through experience, and if Negro labour becomes scarcer and higher in price the first step towards economic efficiency has been taken. It will not only make the employer increasingly anxious to get the best results from his labour, but as it has done with us in some measure, it will prompt him to use labour-saving machinery. Though situated in the land in which agri- cultural machinery has been brought to its highest per- fection, and in which it is used far more than in any other country, the South is woefully behind in this respect. Once machinery is used, intelligent labour is required to take full advantage of it, and proportionately higher wages can and must be paid to the more skilled operator. If the Negro can do it he will have the chance : if he cannot or will not, he will gradually be supplanted by those who can and will. Meantime, if through the Negro acquiring freehold land and becoming an inde- pendent farmer, the large landowner finds he must give more consideration to his tenants, and the employer that he must give higher wages to his hands, the South as a whole will gain immensely — economically, socially, and morally. Scared by the greater hold the Negro is getting on the land, a movement has been started among the whites 17 258 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES to prevent him acquiring in areas that are at present mainly in the hands of the whites, and legislation is de- manded to attain this end, and thus legally secure segregation or separation in the rural areas, such as is being attempted in the cities. In South Africa this doctrine of the separation of the races is held by a majority of the Europeans to be the true policy, and the principle has been accepted by the Legislature. In 191 3 a Land Bill providing for territorial separation was passed through Parliament, and a Commission was ap- pointed under the Act. It is now engaged in provision- ally demarcating the areas which it is intended shall eventually be white and black respectively, and mean- time the leasing and sale of land between the races is prohibited. With this policy in South Africa I am in accord. I think the principle is one which, if wisely carried out, will be for the ultimate benefit of both races. I only approve, however, if the requirements of the native people are conceived in a generous spirit, that the present and future needs of the people are properly provided for, and the white man is willing to make the sacrifices which such a policy entails upon him. I am not, however, in favour of such a legal territorial separation in the South land. Land and people, history and custom, are different there to what obtains in South Africa. Any such legislation would be bitterly resented by the Negro people, who would regard it as an attempt to deprive them of their last hope. It would be exceed- ingly difficult to put it into operation, would cause much hardship, and rouse the strongest race animosities. The wise course is to place no obstacles in the way of the Negroes acquiring land, indeed to help them to do so, particularly when, as the wisest of the race desire, they shall acquire it in communities, and thus practically segregate themselves. If such segregation led to the formation of Negro communities entirely apart from the life of the State and THE GREAT OPPORTUNITY 259 the current of civilized life around them, with the pros- pect of personal and communal deterioration, I would be against it. But I can see no reason why it should be so. The best of the race would join the movement, the educated and trained would be available to keep the com- munity life at a high standard, while the highest volun- tary assistance and advice of the philanthropic whites would be willingly given. And I have little doubt but that, as the South began to realize that here was a movement making for racial amelioration, and the weakening of racial animosities, State assistance would be given, and given with increasing generosity. What- ever the temporary drawbacks and difficulties, the white South will take a very short-sighted view of the situation if it puts any bars in the way of the Negro getting on the land on terms which will enable him to advance and become economically independent. The marital and family life of the Negro is at present deplorable ; all the friends of the race feel it keenly, and its effects do not stop at the Negro ; in this better life the tendencies would make for a strengthening and purifying of family life, for unity and co-operation where now they tend to disintegration. The friends of the race, and the friends of the whole South, should impress on the Negro that now he has a chance, but that the chance is one, if not taken now, will pass never to be repeated. Individuals and races have their opportunity which if neglected never comes again. If the Negro race cannot see and seize this one, the increasing competition of urban life, the ever-augmenting complexity of our civilization, will find him unprepared, and the outlook for him is dark indeed. He will remain a helot, not bound by the material shackles that bound his limbs in slavery times, but as much a slave as though those fetters remained. 17 CHAPTER XXVIII. COMPARISONS. The American Negro knows no other land. The majority have no knowledge of history. After listening to the tales of woe they recited to me, I sometimes told them of the past and actual condition of other peoples who have passed or are passing through trial and tribula- tion — I felt that if they could make comparisons they would find they were not, as so many of them suppose, the only race which had been unjustly treated. I have shown in previous chapters that I do not dis- regard or lightly regard some of the disabilities placed upon, and the injustice suffered by, the Negro people in America. But over and over again as I listened and saw I made comparisons. The most natural one was the people of similar race in the Union of South Africa. When I was told of the educational disadvantages of the Negroes in the South, I contrasted it with what is offered to our natives. In- stead of the numerous public State schools for Negro education which, though poor and ill-equipped, are every- where available, there are not in the Union of South Africa any Government schools for native education at all. Grants in aid are given to missionary bodies which provide schools and comply with the Government re- quirements, but the appropriations in the South are munificent as compared with those in South Africa. The Orange Free State with a native population of about 360,000 contributes the miserly sum of £4,000 annually, or say $20,000 in all, towards native education, and in the other provinces the appropriations are not on a 260 COMPARISONS 261 much higher scale. As for higher education there is not a single State institution either for higher literary, voca- tional, or other training, in the Union of South Africa. Only one voluntary institution in the whole Union — that of Lovedale, supported by the Presbyterians of Scotland — is in any way comparable with the many in the South. When this state of things is compared with the Uni- versities, Normal Colleges, Medical and Dental Colleges and industrial institutions provided by the States, and by philanthropic bodies for the higher intellectual and voca- tional training of the Negro, it makes a South African wonder at the complaints of the Southern Negro at his lack of educational facilities. Even when compared with those provided for many white children in South Africa these stand out as being liberal. I remember well when in my own province of Natal, the European residents in the country districts had to provide for the education of their children them- selves; there was no State aid. The children were generally taught by their parents, or contiguous families clubbed together and engaged a tutor or governess. It is only within the last four years that there has been in Natal a College affiliated to the South African University ; before that time the highest education a youth of European descent could get, in the colony of his birth, was that given in two schools with a higher grade than that of the primary school. When I saw in the South Negroes engaged in varied skilled work, and often working alongside white artisans, and when I found that the wages of both were approxi- mately the same, I could not help contrasting it with the position in the Transvaal and Natal, where such a thing would be impossible. No employer in either of these States dare ask a white artisan to work alongside a native, however good a workman or however respect- able the latter might be. In the Transvaal a native or coloured man is prevented by law from doing any work on the mines excepting manual labour ; all the highly 262 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES paid and skilled callings are, by law, kept exclusively for whites. Again I could not help drawing comparisons. In three out of the four Provinces forming the Union of South Africa, no black man has the right to vote, no matter how highly educated or civilized he may be, and it is extremely unlikely that this privilege will be granted to any natives as far as we can see ahead in either the Transvaal, Natal, or the Orange Free State. The Negro in the South has a far better chance of making his voice heard in the Legislature than has the black man of South Africa in his native land. The separation of the races in all social matters is as distinct in South Africa as in the Southern States. There are separate railway cars, separation is also the rule in all other public conveyances, and no black man enters hotel, theatre, public library or art gallery. In South Africa the children of black and white are separated in the Schools, indeed in Natal there are dis- tinct schools for natives, Indians, Natal half-castes, Mauritians, and natives of St. Helena, and it is quite understood that there would be serious trouble if the light coloured were asked to attend a school provided for full blacks. These distinctions are accepted by the native and he not only does not ask for their removal, but would probably prefer to keep distinct and not mix with whites. It was when I heard the position of the American Negro so frequently described as unique, that I recalled and contrasted it with what was happening to an African people in a land they rightly called their own. It happens that I am not only familiar with the life conditions of the Bantu people of South Africa, but I know something of the life of the labouring class of Britain both as it is to-day, and as it was when I was a youth before leaving my English home for South Africa. Forty years ago I knew conditions in the manufacturing districts of South Lancashire and West Yorkshire from actual personal experience. I remember well a man COMPARISONS 263 working as a porter in a large warehouse, whose wages were 14s. a week, who on this had to keep a wife and three children and walk four miles to and from his work. This is less than three and a half dollars a week ! I heard of no such miserably paid labour to full-grown men in the South. The position of the agricultural labourer in those days — the days before Joseph Arch — was economic- ally worse than that of the Southern Negro on the land. Wages in many counties did not average more than 12s. a week, less than three dollars, and the cost of the neces- saries of life was higher than in the South. Socially, the agricultural labourer of those days in England was al- most as much in a class apart as the Negro is to-day in the South. It is true he might travel first-class on the rail- way if he paid first-class fare, but this was not, nor was it ever likely to be, a matter of supreme importance to him. It did matter that his food was insufficient to keep up his strength ; it did matter that his work was so hard and incessant that he became prematurely aged ; it did matter that his children could not be properly fed, indeed often went hungry ; it did matter that in his old age he had no alternative but the workhouse. His opportunities for education were grotesquely meagre as compared with the Negro of to-day. A denominational school, with a curriculum arranged so as to keep him in his place, and no possible chance of the High School and University training which the Negro may have. The political liberty practically denied to the Negro was equally denied to him, and his interests were ignored or over- ridden by the master class just as those of the Negro are ignored by the white man. In all the material things of life the Negro, as I saw him in the South, is far better off than the unskilled labourer of England as I remember him forty years ago. And is the English labourer much better off to-day ? In millions of cases he is not While the average wage of the agricultural labourer in Ireland is 9s. nd. per week, and the average over large areas in England not much 264 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES higher, while the conditions of unskilled labour in the cities are as depicted by Mr. Charles Booth, the Negro may have the cool satisfaction of knowing there are lower economic depths than the black man has plumbed. The starved white man is now allowed, by those who deny him a living, to exercise his judgment in deciding who shall starve him, and he is not liable to be lynched, but when a man and those belonging to him are being slowly ground to death by economic forces, it is understandable that he might be willing to allow someone else to go through the farce of voting, and be willing even to run the risk of a lynching, if he could be sure of three meals a day like the Negro of the Southern States. And the Negro has a hope and opportunity denied to the agricultural labourer and the unskilled and casual worker of the cities of Britain. No rural labourer in Britain has the chance of getting his own land, be- coming independent, and gradually moving upward, which I have shown is possible to all of the Negro race. If the Briton remains on the land he does so as the worker for another; if he leaves for the city it is to compete with millions. CHAPTER XXIX. OPINIONS OF OTHERS AND THEIR APPLICATION. Years ago, as to-day, thoughtful Americans, viewing the distraction of the South due to the race problem, and seeing little hope of amelioration, much less a solution of the question, fearing indeed that it would become in- creasingly difficult with the passing years, looked round for some National policy which would solve it once and for all. Despairing of any such within the United States, they cast their eyes abroad, and naturally first looked to the Continent from which the Negro came. At a time when the exploration of Africa had only revealed to Europeans one or two thin tracks into the interior, and even the coast was imperfectly known, it seemed to them that there must be ample space in which to settle the 4,000,000 Africans who were in America at the close of the Civil War. Even later than this writers may be cited who saw in deportation to Africa the only solution of the question. Eminent men were quoted as being favourable to this scheme : Thomas Jefferson, De Tocqueville, and Abraham Lincoln were called in evidence. But time passed, and what might then have been conceivably possible, became a lost opportunity. The Negro in- creased in the land, and Africa became partitioned out among the European powers, and the door was for ever closed. Then came the advocates of complete segregation within the Union, those who proposed gathering together the Negro race and placing them in the South-West in separate States, which were to be wholly black, but yet 265 266 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES within the Union. The rapid settling by whites of all the newer territories soon placed this among the once possible, but now impracticable schemes. To-day it seems beyond the wit of man to devise any proposal that shall solve the question by removal, the two races must work out their destiny on American soil together. Four Englishmen have studied the question on the spot and written on it : Sir H. H. Johnston, W. P. Living- stone, W. Archer, and W. L. Clowes. The two first-named had knowledge of African peoples under other conditions. Sir H. H. Johnston's experience of the native races of Africa, their affinities and languages, is probably unique. W. P. Livingstone has an intimate acquaintance with the race position in Jamaica. So far as I know both W. Archer and W. L. Clowes had no special knowledge of backward peoples. W. L. Clowes' book, " Black America," was written over twenty years ago, and his conclusion was that only by emigration of the Negro race back to Africa would peace be obtained. Much more recently W. Archer, in "Afro-America," sees four possibilities: (i) worry along till probably the Negro dies out, (2) education of both races, and living together in mutual toleration without clashing, (3) miscegenation, and (4) de- portation or segregation. Each of these is discussed by him, but the only one he thinks practicable is the fourth, and this he limits by saying deportation overseas is now impossible, and finally favours the segregation of the Negro by forming a black state or states within the Union. Sir H. H. Johnston either did not see, or was not impressed by, the tragedy of the races, and did not suggest any definite policy of betterment. W. P. Living- stone's writings are to me very suggestive. Before visiting the United States he had written an instructive book on the colour question in the West Indies, entitled "Black Jamaica". In this volume the note was one of sympathy with the Negro, and a qualified hope was ex- pressed that he would finally attain to a higher status. On the whole the book was optimistic in tone. While OPINIONS OF OTHERS 267 not blind to the shortcomings of the race, he believed that in Jamaica the Negro would develop and not de- teriorate, and that conditions there were favourable to such advancement. After reading this book, I was much interested in reading his experiences and conclusions after travelling through the Southern States, as contained in his later publication entitled "The Race Conflict". The difference in tone between the two books I find marked and significant. His conclusion with regard to the present position in the United States is that, " if nothing is done to alleviate existing conditions one can foresee the inevitable end as clearly as if it were visible to the eye. The struggle will go on increasing in in- tensity as the Negroes advance in material capacity and material resource ; the passions of both races, now fit- fully venting themselves in lawless action, will rise be- yond control, and a catastrophe will ensue which will startle the world." He discusses the various suggestions made for solution and discards them all. With regard to race fusion, which has by some been seriously advocated, he says : " The only effect which the suggestion has on the whites is to rouse their fiercest passions, and to make the proposal seriously would be to doom the Negro to destruction. Those who discuss it cannot know what they are talking about." He then makes suggestions of his own which seem to me to be based on his knowledge of British methods of dealing with backward races, which would be less likely to occur to one accustomed only to the formula of the United States Constitution, and the methods adopted and possible under it. He would frankly recognize race differences and the present race inferiority on the side of the Negro, and be willing to surrender the nominal posi- tion of equality conferred by the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments of the Constitution. He would regard the Negroes as the wards of the Government and provide a Bureau for their protection and advancement. He also suggests a council of investigation to study the race and 268 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES their relations to the community. Social as well as political equality should be denied, but absolute justice should be given. He realizes the stupendous difficulty of the problem, but thinks that by openly facing it and dealing with it in the way suggested, peace may be secured, and the white man — freed from the dread, explicit or implied, of Negro equality — would assist to bring it about. This suggestion was specially significant to me, and I think will be so to my South African readers, and de- serves some consideration. The position in the South is that, with a coloured population only equalling 29 per cent of the total, after fifty years of legal freedom and legal equality of oppor- tunity, with considerable opportunity for education, and little bar to industrial opportunity, the position is so acute that a disinterested observer, sympathetic to the Negro race, sees only catastrophe ahead, unless the legal status of the Negro is reconsidered, and instead of leaving him to fight his race battle alone the Federal Government takes him under its guardianship. In short, he would revert approximately to what is the present method of government of natives in South Africa. We must remember that the Negro in America has been in intimate contact with the white race for nearly three hundred years, speaks the language of the country, and in customs, religion, and aims has, perforce, adopted those of the white man. There are those in South Africa who would take the contrary course to that advocated in Mr. Livingstone's book, and who, in a country in which the black popula- tion outnumbers the white by five to one, and with the whole of black Africa behind them, would encourage them by industrial pressure and other means to distribute themselves among the white population, and by example and precept accelerate the disposition to drop their language, customs, and race identity, and to form an in- tegral part of the population. OPINIONS OF OTHERS 269 The conclusions in the book we are discussing should serve as a warning to those leaders of the native people in South Africa, who profess to think that, with education and equality of opportunity, racial peace will be assured. It should also serve to make those think, who, for the sake of economic advancement, would not hesitate to bring the native people into surroundings in which they would be brought into industrial competition with the whites, and which would inevitably tend to race conflict and race hatred. Such contact in America has neither led to the true advance of the black, nor the advance of the white, nor to racial peace. The wisest friends of the American Negro, both white and black, after all these years of contact, would welcome a separation of the races such as is still possible to us in South Africa, and would make heavy sacrifices to ensure it. We still have black States. We still have Basutoland, Bechuanaland, Swaziland, the Transkei, the large reserves in Zululand and the locations in Natal and the Transvaal, and yet short-sighted ones would break them up, and force the landless inhabitants to become vagabonds or industrial serfs, scattered throughout the length and breadth of the land. To such the experience of the South should act as a warning. We have our difficulties and dangers ; there are some inherent in the present position, but a reckless breaking-up will raise others infinitely more dangerous, while a wise conservatism may give us time for study and experiment. My theory of the native policy for South Africa is in striking harmony with what is suggested in W. P. Livingstone's book as the right policy in the South. I frankly recognize the differences in the races and believe that we must accept this in our practice. I advocate territorial separation, the conservation of what is good in native life and custom, and the gradual teaching of what they can assimilate from our civiliza- tion, and to this teaching and uplifting work I would 270 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES encourage the leaders of the native people to devote them- selves, and show them that the true field for their train- ing and ability is to help their own people. I deprecate hasty legislation and changes in administra- tion, and would govern them largely by personal sym- pathetic rule. At the same time in their own affairs I would grant them a measure of self-government under wise white counsel, but not to the extent of never allowing them to learn by their own mistakes. Education suited to their needs should be given and moral instruction should accompany it, and religious belief and observance should be encouraged. Especially would I give them better means of livelihood and a clean home life, by instruction in agriculture and the handicrafts that follow it, and a hope in life in their greater economic opportunities. All this should not be at the whim and changeability of Parliamentary representatives chosen by the white people to serve their own interests, but as the studied and considered policy, thought out and laid down by a competent, permanent council of Europeans, whose life's work it should be. Native opinion should be heard by means of native councils, this opinion should be con- sidered and co-ordinated by the permanent European council, and voiced in Parliament by a limited number of members specially elected to represent the natives. Too late it may be for the South, but I feel that if some of her best men, who are at present filled with doubts as to the future, and with their tragic experience ever before them, could counsel us, they would say that on such lines, and not in the way that was forced upon them by the conquering North, lies our hope for the future in South Africa. CHAPTER XXX. THE FUTURE. If I take a more hopeful view of the future than is gener- ally expressed, it is not because I do not fully realize the serious, almost menacing position of the present. I know the white man in the South is filled with race prejudice, often amounting to race hatred. I know this actually does break out in frequent race riots and murderings, culminating in burnings and indescribable torturings. 1 know the black man is often hopeless and sometimes filled with bitterness at the white man, and at the lot the white man prescribes to him. I know the majority of the Negroes are shiftless, often immoral, and not sel- dom criminal. I know that in the cities the Negro race is at the bottom, and that there shows little sign of rising. I know that while the white man shouts for race integrity, he is covertly belying this by his acts, and taking advan- tage of his wealth and position to debauch the coloured woman, and raise up a race of bastards with bitterness in their blood. I know that injustice in the Courts, and individual injustice and exploitation are common, and that the Federal law, giving freedom and equality to all, is set at naught by State law and custom. I know that in the North race prejudice has grown stronger of late years, and that the Negro, in proportion to the rest of the population, is poorer and in worse condition than at any previous time. I know that in the South there is no diminution of race prejudice, and although the attitude of the average white man has somewhat changed, it cannot be said that the mass are any more 271 272 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES inclined to tolerate the Negro now than they have been in the past. All this is true, and it seems to justify fully the pessimistic verdict of the great majority of those who have investigated and written on this subject. And yet there are substantial grounds for hope. I returned to New York from my Southern travels, my head seething with the problem of the Negro, his disabilities, his weaknesses, his opportunities. I am usually a sound sleeper, but one night my subject drove sleep far away, and I arose, and with the heavy still air full of the clanging and hooting of tramcars, automobiles, and elevated railway cars, I put down pithily the conclu- sions at which I had then arrived. I reproduce them here as they came hot from my brain immediately after my experiences. It should be put frankly that while one may not be superior to the other, the races have special powers and special limitations, and are essentially different. The idea that the Negro has only to get similar education to do as the white man has done in all his varied activities is absurd, though this opinion is strongly held by those of mixed descent. The Negro has had half a century of the very best help, the best brains, the kindest hearts and the heaviest purses of the North and he has shown ; — A value as a worker in gangs in heavy work, as in tar asphalting, and the like, and in mines and foundries ; this is the big black man. A value as tiller of the soil, especially as a progressive peasant proprietor. An incapacity for commerce and finance. Weakness in foresight and thrift. An unfitness for city life ; he has never shown any of the Jew's capacity to benefit by the labour and necessities of others. He is unselfish. Some power of organization which shows itself in Church life and in Friendly Societies. THE FUTURE 273 A power of assimilating a spirit, and getting know- ledge under guidance, and of being disciplined and true to uniform, as at Hampton and Tuskegee. Wise guidance and foresight should give him his oppor- tunity of building up country homes in communities. For this life he is fitted. Black men and white men pepper-casted through a section, leads to exploitation and white irritation, and no adequate advantage is gained because, in my opinion, under such circumstances the black man is not encouraged by example. Negro communities are certainly in some danger of becoming little Haytis if unassisted, but here Hampton and Tuskegee can and will help by giving their graduates as guides. Communities should be co-operative and would act as bulwarks against the white aggressor and exploiter. Such separation would lead to gradual dissolution of the plantation share system, and this would be a good thing for both white and black to help to put king cotton in his right place. The South is essentially a country for rural homes for white and black, for intensive farming with the fullest aid of science and labour-saving appliances, for that mixed and progressive farming in which all the family may have a share. If these lines are right, then the educated and trained of the race have a great field before them, and the South should encourage and subsidize Hampton, Tuskegee, and the other centres which are providing teachers and leaders. If the Negro cannot take this chance now offering he probably remains a serf. If as some of his friends wail, subtle influences are working against him and fifty years of freedom are not enough and he can't do any better, then the statement of the average man that he must not and will not count in the community is about correct. If I am right, and the Negro is not going to compete 18 274 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES seriously with the white man, and Negro domination is a myth, the white man should free himself from race dread and be more generous, and not listen to the politician who cries "Nigger" — but help; still keep the races separate, but give the Negroes a chance of which they can avail themselves. Heavy as is the loading against the Negro the factors that make for hope in my opinion outweigh it. First every Negro can get work, and it is possible for them not only to subsist but to save. They can buy land and become economically and socially independent. The best South is wakening up and is going to help them in their struggle. It is probably due to the fact that, while I was in the country, the South was organizing for social study, social service, and social sacrifice as never before, that makes me think, unlike my predecessors, that there is hope for the Negro, and that possibly the worst point in race relations has been reached. Thoughtful and wise Southerners there have always been, who have been centres of local enlightenment, and who have kept race relations tolerable around them. This is the day of organization and co-operation, and these scattered ones are now coming together for mutual help and strength. The Southern University men are carrying on investiga- tions in order that action may be soundly based, philan- thropic organizations are meeting together and uniting their strength. At the great meetings of the Southern Sociological Congress at Nashville, Tennessee, at which I was present, it was announced that white and black students of their respective Colleges were to unite in Social study and work, and that the girls of the High School were to co-operate with the coloured girl students of the Negro College. When I told this to Southerners at a distance they could hardly believe it, but it is true that the best of the thoughtful South is seriously putting forth its best to help the Negro to a better and cleaner life. THE FUTURE 275 So far there has been no movement of a political nature in the South to call attention to and remove some of the disabilities under which the Negro suffers, nor do I think it likely that any concerted political action in this direction will be taken. The leaven of the new attitude will work, and will, I think, gradually soften the present harsh conditions. As a preliminary the South must get rid of its present dread of political and industrial Negro domina- tion, and the mistake of thinking that racial admixture is prevented by preventing the Negro from rising. It surely should not be difficult to see that the Negro is never going to dominate, either in politics or in in- dustry. From the first few hours I was in the South I felt, and I am as sure now as I was then, that the white man will ever rule and lead in the South. As for race integrity, it is entirely in the power of the white man. Let him but act as he talks, and race integrity is secured. And every step which leads the Negro to respect him- self, and makes for race consciousness and race pride, is an additional safeguard. These fears removed, it is surely possible for the South to take steps that, while keeping the races separate, will make for an understanding and practice that will re- move the present friction and tension, and tend to mutual tolerance. The steps necessary to this end do not in- volve any surrender of those principles so strongly held in the South, and with which we in South Africa agree, viz., that the races are different, that a measure of separation is best for both, and that race admixture will not be tolerated. The principal sins of the white South against the Negro and which must be purged before racial peace can come to the land are: (1) Miscegenation, (2) Lynching, (3) Injustice in the Courts, (4) Unfair discrimination in travelling, etc. The first and greatest of these is illicit miscegenation, and the greatest safeguard against it is a true and not 18 * 276 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES a spurious desire for race integrity. The theory is uni- versally granted, the contrary practice too often con- doned. A sterner expression of public opinion on the one hand, aided to some degree by higher and better education, should make for the elimination of this fertile source of race contempt and race hatred. Could the Negro only see that the stronger race disdained to take advantage of the easy opportunity to lower themselves and their too facile victims, it would be proof of the earnestness of their desire for race purity for both, and go far to attenuate race despair. Is it too much to hope that a crusade against this race sin should be undertaken by the best of both sexes in the South ? The second great sin is one in which public opinion should be aided by the law. A greater respect for law is one of the crying needs among all sections in the United States. This will surely come with the move- ment now being inaugurated both North and South, for a stronger, purer civic and public life. A few drastic examples of the leaders of these criminal mobs, who torture to death their fellow-citizens, would go far to make them hesitate to break the law again. It would perhaps be a counsel of perfection to urge a root and branch reform in the method of appointing the judiciary and legal executive, but a strengthening of the local police, especially in rural districts, might often nip possible lynchings in the bud. It is hardly conceivable that in the twentieth century, with a public spirit making for general civic betterment aroused throughout the land, that this system of private vengeance should be long allowed to continue. With this would go another fertile source of race hostility. The third evil, the difficulty of the black man getting even-handed justice in the Courts, does not involve any relinquishment of the race doctrines held in the South. It is only common justice that is asked. If the South demands that those who administer justice shall be high- minded and just judges, the grave indictment that must THE FUTURE 277 now be made against the Courts in the South would disappear. Distinctions made in travelling are legal by State law, and as I have shown, I think a separation of the races is here desirable, but the law distinctly provides for equal conveniences and cleanliness for the same rate. I think the Negro often exaggerates the differences, but a scrupulous care that the law be enforced, would again remove a cause of offence. Practical reforms such as these are possible, and if made would help the situation greatly, and the South need not, in putting such into effect, relax by one jot or tittle its claims to protect itself against race admixture and social equality. Of all the more drastic remedies suggested in the many books I have read on the subject, that of W. P. Livingstone, which I outlined in the last chapter, is the one which appeals to me most strongly. This probably because it is the British and British Colonial system with which I am familiar, and because I see in the strengthening and wise adjustment of this policy of separation, guardianship, and wise control, the greatest hope for the races in South Africa. Had this policy been adopted in the United States at the time of eman- cipation, when it was practicable, some at least of the present tension might have been avoided. I cannot think, however, it is wise or politic to attempt it after fifty years. It is in the first place foreign to American ideas and institutions, and would probably be rejected by both races. The leaders of the Negro people would undoubtedly regard it as a retrograde step. Nominally at all events they have equal rights, nominally secured to them by the Constitution of the United States. However far it might make the position clear, and however much the mass of the people might benefit by Government guardianship, they would regard it as a degradation. And we must never forget that we are not dealing with a homogeneous people like the Bantu of 278 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES South Africa. Among the Negroes are many who are practically white, and to place them under tutelage would destroy the present hope that in time they might attain to actual and not merely nominal freedom. Eco- nomically the Negroes are inextricably mixed up with the whites, and any effective control exercised by a Federal Bureau would conflict with present economic conditions, which would be strongly resented by the individualistic white man. Jealousy of State rights would also be roused, and it is not to be unduly pessimistic to foresee conflict between individual States and the Central Government. The day is past for this remedy, and unless we can see in the working of present forces an amelioration of present conditions, the outlook appears hopeless. Neither by colonization, nor segregation, the hope of the earlier inquirers ; nor fusion, nor by Negro submersion nor annihilation, can we hope for solution. Only if we see hope by working on present and possible conditions is there any light in the future. My hope for the South therefore lies first in the great opportunity for the Negro to acquire land, live in self- contained but advancing communities thereon, and thus remove the dangers of race conflict coming through race contact ; and second, in the belief that the best South has awakened to the danger of a demoralized and hopeless Negro people in their midst, and are going to work for better conditions of life. Also that with better educa- tional facilities the Southern people as a whole will become more law-abiding, and have a juster sense of their re- sponsibilities, and that miscegenation, lynching, and in- justice will gradually become less frequent. Respect begets respect, and if the Negro people show a changed spirit by following the advice of their wisest leaders, they will gain the respect of the white South, and once the tendency has changed in direction, results will follow in all directions in which the races touch. And in no way could the Negro better command that respect than by beginning seriously and soberly to take advantage of THE FUTURE 279 the great racial opportunity, and fit himself for the task of making the highest and best use of it. The present situa- tion and its issue lies not so much, as heretofore, in the hands of the white, as in the hands of the Negro himself. The great question seems to me to be : Can he rise to his opportunity ? Even should he do so to the extent his most ardent well-wishers would desire, I freely recognize that this is no final solution of the race problem in the South. There is no final solution possible, and the Negro will remain a problem for generations to come. But tenden- cies may change, and the present trend towards increased hostility be gradually altered to one moving in the direction of greater hope for the Negro, and greater help from the white race. Concurrently with this may come a less contemptuous and hostile attitude on the part of the whites, a greater belief in and respect for law and justice. While socially the races may remain separate, each follow- ing its own course of development, they may unite for common and national ends, the strong no longer dragged down by the weak, nor the weak oppressed by the strong. It is such a trial as comes to but few races, but a wise appreciation of the difficulties, and a strenuous effort to overcome them, may make for the highest development of both groups. To the white South may be told the words of an English writer which, though written of somewhat differ- ent conditions, are still applicable: "The running of a tropical Colony is of all tests the most searching as to the development of a nation that attempts it ; to see help- less people and not oppress them, to see great wealth and not confiscate it, to have absolute power and not abuse it, to raise the natives and not sink yourself — these are the supreme tests of a nation's spirit ". And for the Negro — to toil towards development in spite of contumely and injustice, to respect yourself when others despise you, to fight temptation towards sloth and pleasure, and subordinate self for the good of the race. ■I' ( t CHAPTER XXXI. FOR SOUTH AFRICA. I know that my South African readers, who for the most part will be practical men of affairs, will ask what definite and specific lessons of value to us in South Africa I learned from my visit to the Southern States. I will put my conclusions under this head as tersely as possible : — (i) That the gift of self-government to a people un- fitted for it may not be a boon but a bane, and we cannot in South Africa solve the native question by simply giving the franchise to the Native, and telling him to protect himself. It has been tried in America as I have shown, and failed. (2) That if the vote is denied, the responsibility for protecting and developing the backward race lies on the stronger ; a heavier responsibility than they would face if they gave the franchise. The American people did not shoulder this responsibility, hence much of the trouble of to-day. (3) It is said and truly, that, as the Negro advances in education and copies the white man's mode of living, race hostility increases ; when he is in a different sphere and accepts it he is tolerated. When he impinges on the life of the white man he is disliked. This is evi- denced in the United States, both North and South. (4) One of the most difficult phases of the question is the matter of the educated black man. To educate, and then debar and crush, is cruelty indeed. Whatever policy we adopt in South Africa must include hope and a sphere for the educated native. The natural and true 280 FOR SOUTH AFRICA 281 line of life for him seems to me to be to help to uplift his own people. (5) The position in America is made extraordinarily difficult by the man of mixed ancestry being classed and treated as a Negro. We must face the consequences of our own actions and admit these in South Africa to our opportunities and responsibilities. (6) It is clearly shown that the Negro is not fitted for city life. His home life should be in the country, and it is as peasant farmers that the majority will find the sphere for which they are best fitted. I think the same may be said of the Bantu people of South Africa. (7) The races are so different that to reduce antagon- ism and give each its full opportunity for race develop- ment, a conscious and reasoned attempt at race separation should be made. On lines I have already indicated it is the hope of the Negro race in America. (8) Such separate communities should be under white guidance, assisted by the more advanced of the black race. Thus separated from the whites to a degree not hitherto attempted, scientific study should be given to the educational requirements of the black man, and every facility given for race development. The value of this I have shown in my sketch of Hampton and Tuskegee. (9) Religion and morals should be given a high place in any educational system. The emotional side of the native mind should not be suppressed but guided. The history of the Negro in America proves this to be true. (10) The great sin of the white man against the black lay not in slavery, nor in economic exploitation, but in the debauchment of the race by illicit sexual intercourse. This is the saddest page in the history of the Negro in America. At all costs we must preserve racial purity. , To these categorical lessons I would add a few words as to what practical steps we should take in South Africa to ensure better race relations : — (1) We want a frank recognition that the races are different and that different treatment is necessary. 282 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES (2) While recognizing that white ideals and white rule must prevail, we must feel the solemnity of the responsi- bility thus resting upon us. We must not rule the land solely in our own interests, but in the best interests of both races, and this demands a measure of generosity and self-sacrifice never hitherto attempted by us. But this end will not be achieved by good intentions only. We have to examine our methods, and find out how far our present system of government will enable us to carry out our intentions, however good they may be. To me this lies at the root of the native problem in South Africa. At present we are like voyagers without chart or compass on an unknown sea. As questions affecting the native people arise we deal with them on the spur of the moment, governed by the exigencies of a system of representative party government which we have imported ready-made from oversea, and in which the huge native population is unrepresented. We follow no plan, we have no principles to guide us. We have adopted as final a system of government gradually evolved by homogeneous peoples of Western Europe to suit their needs, and fatuously hope this will meet the totally differ- ent conditions of South Africa, with its many problems of race and colour, and where the outstanding fact is that a minority of civilized whites form an oligarchy, and rule over five times the number of a weaker people hardly emerging from barbarism. To continue in this course is to court disaster, and we have to realize that this system, conceived under such different conditions, must be so far modified as to suit the peculiar conditions of our country. The urgent need of the times is to devise machinery, within and subject to the present parliamentary system, which shall provide for the steady, continuous study of the ever-changing relations of the races, and enable the results of that study to be brought before the notice of Government and Parliament with an emphasis that can- not be denied. FOR SOUTH AFRICA 283 I have frequently in previous writings referred to this and suggested as a first step : — The appointment of a permanent non-political Council established under Statute law to study continuously the question of race relations in all its bearings. And the election of a limited number of European representatives in Parliament to speak for the Council and to voice native opinion. The present is full of menace. The United States r fifty years ago tried the experiment of giving to Africans the full franchise, and the result has been disastrous. / The same course is impossible in South Africa. But it I is the first duty of South Africa to find a better way. CHAPTER XXXII. BIBLIOGRAPHY. Dr. Booker T. Washington, " Up from Slavery," " The Story of the Negro," "Working with ' Hands," "The Negro in Business, " "Character Building," "The Ameri- can Negro," " The Man Furthest Down ". These books are all so well known that little comment is needed. Generally they dwell on the achievements and prospects of the Negro, and do not emphasize his failures and dis- abilities. Alfred Holt Stone, " Studies in the American Race Pro- blem ". Written by a planter on the Yazoo delta of the Mississippi, who knows the Negro intimately. He is not hopeful as to the future of the race. He carried on practical experiments on his estate with Negroes and Italians as workers, and found the former distinctly in- ferior. This book reflects the attitude of a large number of the better class in the South. Mr. Stone sees no solu- tion but separation or absorption. Cleland Boyd MacAfree (coloured) writes a review of this book in the " Journal of the African Society of Lon- don," Vol. VIII, from the point of view of an educated coloured man. Ray Stannard Baker, " Following the Colour Line ". A valuable book full of information actually gathered while travelling in the South. He seems to think that the industrial awakening of the South may give the Negro his opportunity. He makes no definite proposals, but hopes that time may bring amelioration and mutual toleration. 284 BIBLIOGRAPHY 285 Professor Kelly Miller of Harvard University, "Race Adjustment ". A book of essays written by a coloured educationist. He shows much discrimination and fair- ness. Among them is a lively open letter to Thomas Dixon, the author of the " Leopard's Spots". Professor Miller sees something of hope in the voluntary separa- tion of the races, which he favours. A. H. Shannon, M. A., B. D., " Racial Integrity ". The author gives the darker side of the problem, and says in a general way that the hope of the Negro race lies in it being able to avoid conflict and competition with the white race. Distinctly pessimistic. W. P. Pickett, "The Negro Problem". A temperate book ; the author arrives at the conclusion that coloniza- tion is the only remedy. Dr. Shufeldt, " The Negro ". This book is hostile to the Negro. His only remedy is segregation. H. E. Montgomery, "Vital American Problems". A book of generalities ; the author thinks that literary and industrial education may solve the problem. Dr. A. B. Hart, "The Southern South". A book that must be read ; full of facts and shrewd conclusions. I cannot gather that he has any definite solution to offer, though he favours race separation. John A. Price, " The Negro, Past, Present, and Future ". Written from the point of view of the Southern planter, and though published in 1907 does not reflect the opinion of a majority. Full of class prejudice. Quotes from Scripture to prove Negroes are predestined to inferiority. "^ G. W. Cable, "The Freedman's Case in Equity," and " The Silent South ". Written in the eighties of last century and very valuable as showing the position then. The spirit of the books is hopeful. It is a call to the better South, to which the response has hitherto been disappointing. Edgar Gardner Murphy, "The Basis of Ascendancy," and " Problems of the Present South ". Two books which must be read. Scholarly, eloquent, and convincing, 286 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES they voice the feelings of the best new South by one who has lived in and loves the Southland. He raises the question to a high level, is sympathetic yet practical. He favours recognition of race differences, but desires every opportunity for the Negro race. J. E. Cutler, " History of Lynching". The authority on lynching which should be read. Dr. E. W. Blyden, " Christianity, Islam, and the Negro Race". Written by an educated American Negro long resident in West Africa. It does not deal directly with our subject, but gives the point of view of a Negro who desires to stimulate race solidarity and race consciousness in his people. W. P. Calhoun, " The Caucasian and Negro in the United States". Written by a Southerner and bears evidence that the author knows his subject. Probably reflects opinion between the extremes, though tending towards repression. Honest but hopeless. Favours separate state for Negroes. Professor Josiah Royce of Harvard University, " Race Questions ". The distinguished author is much impressed with the better way in British Colonies and quotes experience in the West Indies. I do not think he fully realizes the different conditions. Did he visit South Africa he would hardly be so optimistic as regards the future of British administration. W. P. Livingstone, "The Race Conflict". A short book giving an epitome of the position. Should be read along with the same author's " Black Jamaica ". He advo- cates as the only solution in the United States the guardianship of the Negro by the Federal Government. " Cyclopaedia of Thought by One Hundred of Ameri- ca's Greatest Negroes." Gives the Negro point of view but is not very illuminating. Many of the essays are wordy. One cannot gather much from them. Photos are given of the writers and it is significant that the great majority are partly white, some apparently quite white. W. Laird Clowes, " Black America ". This book BIBLIOGRAPHY 287 was published in 1891 and valuable as a standard of comparison. He sees no remedy but colonization ; the absolute removal of the black man from the United States. T. Nelson Page, " The Southern Problem". Hostile to the Negro ; gives the extreme view. C. Carrol, "The Negro a Beast". This reaches the climax of hostility ; the author argues that the Negro is actually non-human. William Archer, " In Afro-America ". A recent work by an English writer. Discusses four possible courses and favours a separate State for Negroes within the Union. Is deeply impressed with the seriousness of the problem. W. B. Smith of Tulane University, "The Colour Line ". Is unfavourable to the Negro. Sees signs of race discouragement and thinks the race may die out. Atlanta University publications. Among these are many dealing with phases of the subject : " The Negro Artisan," "Social Condition of Negroes in Cities," "The Negro Church," and others which should be read. P. A. Bruce, "The Plantation Negro as Freedman " is a local study of the condition of rural Negroes in South Virginia. P. A. Bruce, " Rise of the New South ". Sees a time of trial for the Negro in the new industrial conditions, and doubts whether he can meet them. Miss Mary Ovington, " Half a Man ". A valuable monograph on the New York Negro. Full of sympathy and yet discriminating. Wm. A. Sinclair, "The Aftermath of Slavery". Written by a Negro who gives many cases of hardship and discrimination. W. W. Elwang, "The Negroes of Columbia, Mis- souri ". An exhaustive monograph on the Negroes living in a small town in Missouri. Agrees with W. P. Living- stone in thinking that Negroes should be placed under protection of the Federal Government. A. W. Tourgee, "An Appeal to Pharoah ". Written from a Southern point of view and desponding. 288 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES Frederick Law Olmsted, "Journey in the Cotton Kingdom," "Journey in the Seaboard Slave States," "The Texas Journey," "The Back Country". I have already in the text given my opinion of these most valu- able and interesting works which give living pictures of the country and society in the later slave times by one who was specially qualified. W. H. Fleming, "Slavery". A thoughtful contribu- tion to the subject. J. P. Hoffmann, " Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro ". Written by a professional statistician in much detail. He finds cause for thinking that the Negro has deteriorated since Emancipation. It seems to me that his case is built upon the city Negro, and he does not fully investigate the position of those living under rural conditions. Dr. W. E. B. Du Bois, "The Philadelphia Negro". A valuable monograph, sympathetic to the Negro but fair. Dr. W. E. B. Du Bois, " The Souls of Black Folk ". An eloquent and touching appeal for justice. Sir H. H. Johnston, " The Negro in the New World ". A work dealing with both North and South America, and giving the history of the race on the West- ern continent. He travelled through the South and his conclusions are more optimistic than any of the other Englishmen who studied the question on the spot. W. Hannibal Thomas, "The American Negro". Though a Negro himself this writer brings an indictment against his race so sweeping and scathing that it can only be equalled in this respect by the most extreme of white writers. W. D. Weatherford, Ph.D., " Negro Life in the South ". Gives the present position from the point of view of the best South. The author is himself a Southerner and one who has done work for the uplifting of the Negro. Rt. Hon. James Bryce, " The Relation of the Advanced and the Backward Races of Mankind ". A wide survey of the world position which should be read. INDEX. Africa, deportation of Negroes to, as a solution of the American race pro- blem, 265, 266. African Methodist Episcopal Church, 117. Agricultural labourer, 225-6 ; oppor- tunities on the land for, 250-1; in Britain, condition of, compared with Negro, 263. — machinery, backwardness of the South in, 257. — pursuits : number of Negroes en- gaged in, 101. — training in Virginia, 128, 129 ; im- proved results in crops due to, 129. Agriculture in the Southern States, gg- 100, log, no, 24g; Negro progress in, 107, Alabama, relations of the black and coloured people in, g3 ; Census re- turns as to progress in agriculture in, gg ; rainfall in, 41. — State debt, increase of, during the Reconstruction period, 52. Alien immigration : into the United States ; views of the Southern Whites as to, 55 ; character of the immigrants, 56 ; indisposition of immigrants to go South, 56-7 ; social reason for avoidance of the Southern States, 57, 5g ; reason for comparative fewness of immi- grants into the South African Union, 58-g. American Civil War : Reconstruction period in the Southern States after the, 4g, 51, 70, 73, 147, i 4 g ; faithfulness of the Negro during, — Economic Association, 178. — Negro business league, 106. Amusement, places of, separation cus- tomary in, 145, 155. Archer, William, " In Afro-America," 22, 266, 287 ; cited and quoted, 22, 66, 186, 206. Armstrong, General Samuel Chapman, founder of Hampton Normal and Industrial Institute, 128, 131. Artisan (Negro), 65, 101, 241. Assaults on women, see Criminal as- sault. " Atlanta Constitution," quoted, 181. Atlanta, Ga., Negro Customs officer at, 165 ; juvenile criminality in, 2ig. — race riots, 6g, 166. — University publications, 287. Author's journey, vi ; direction of, 35. Baker, R. S., " Following the Colour Line," 284 ; on the industrial situ- ation in the South, 22g-30, 284 ; quoted, 6g, 7g, 187. — , Negro postmaster of South Carolina, shot with his family for holding office under Federal Government, 165. Baltimore : segregation ordinances in, 77, 200 ; political manipulation of the Negro in, 154. — Port, mixed labour at, 65. Bantu people, number of, in Natal, 126 ; independent religious movement among, 118; a pastoral people, 233 ; life in cities unsuitable to, 233-4 > comparison of, with Ne- groes, 83, 84 et seq., gi ; racial incapacity of, for commerce, 105 ; mentioned, 122, 205, 277. Baptists, principal religious denomina- tion among the Negroes, 117. Berry, Dr. W. N. D., quoted, 213. Betterment of the Negro : work for, 81, no, 274, 278; the two schools working for, ig5 et seq. ; a prac- tical suggestion for, 255. Bibliography, 284 et seq. Birmingham, Ala., 163. Black and white compared, superiority of white in practical efficiency, g4. Blackmail of Negroes, possibility of, 178.9. Blood admixture, see Miscegenation. Boer War, condition of South Africa after, 4g. 289 19 290 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES Booth, Mr. Charles, cited, 264. Bravard, Governor N. B., quoted on the relations between the races, 73. Brown, Professor W. G., cited on the industrial position of the Negro, 102. — Brotherhood, the (Mulattoes), 93. Brownsville, Texas, riot of Negro In- fantry at, 166. Bruce, P. A., " The Rise of the New South," on the effect on the Negro of the industrial development of the South, 22g, 287. Bushmen, the, 27-8. Business league, American Negro, 106. — sites in Negro quarters not uncom- monly monopolized by white men, Cable, G. W., " The Freedman's Case in Equity," " The Silent South," 285 ; quoted, 74-5, 141, 193. Cafusos, the, 26. Calhoun, W. P., " The Caucasian and Negro in the United States," 70-1, 286; quoted, 151, 163, 165, 190. Cape Colony (Western Province), race separation not insisted upon in, 155. Carpet-baggers, the, 52-3, 147, 149; methods of, 52. Census returns : as to land values, 42 ; Negro population, 99 ; acquisition of land by Negroes, 98, gg; culti- vation and ownership of land by Negroes, gg-ioo; employments of Negroes, 100-1. Charleston (South Carolina), alien im- migrants at, 57 ; relations of the Mulatto and the pure Negro in, 93- Chicago, 55 ; population of, increased by immigrants from the South, 210 ; criminality of various races in, 216-7. " Chicago Tribune," 167, 168, i6g. Christian Churches and prejudice against the Negro, 67, 76. Church, the, and social life of the Negro, 114, 115, 272 ; power of, for good among the people, 115, 116 ; affairs of, managed wholly by the Negroes, 67, 117; activities in, have no political trend, 117; principal de- nominations favoured by the Negro, 116-7; number of Negro Christian communicants, 117; value of church property owned by the Negroes, 117 ; organization and attendance, ng; worship, ng, 120 ; generosity in offerings in, 120 ; white indifference to Negro Church organizations, 117-8. Churches (white) in the South, 66 ; pre- valence of the Evangelical type of teaching, 66; a characteristic ser- vice, 67. City life not suited to Negro and Bantu, 220, 233 et seq., 256, 271, 272, 281 ; a small proportion of mixed race have made good in cities, 234-5 ; environment and status of Negro in cities, 220-3. Civil privileges, deprivation of, 145. — Rights Bill, 145. — War, faithfulness of the Negro during, 87. Class distinctions between black and light coloured, g3 ; effect of the attitude of the whites on, g3. Clerks, male and female, in the public service, 78 ; efforts to separate white and black, 78. Climate of the Southern States : stat- istics as to, 41. Climatic and other conditions, effect of, in modifying Negro type, 85-6. Clowes, W. Laird, " In Black America," 266, 286-7 ; quoted, 76, 152, 227. Coatesville, Penna., lynching at, 171. Columbia (Missouri), economic data re- specting Negroes in, 107. — district, population of, 216. Commercial aptitude of the Negro, 103, 104, 105, 272. — concerns of Negroes, 103-4, 241. Competition, economic, as a factor in race prejudice in S. Africa, 22, 23. Compulsory education in Great Britain, 61. Conference on the Negro at Tuskegee, 134, 203, 205. Constitution of the U.S. 15th Amend- ment, 147, 149, 150, 277. Constructive school of Negro public opinion, 196, 203 et seq. ; character- istics of doctrine of, 203-6, 208 ; detractors, 206 ; possibilities in the work, 208-g. Consumption and pulmonary com- plaints : deaths among Negroes from, 220. Co-operation in farming : benefits of, being taught to the Negro, 253, 254 ; possibilities of, 254, 273. Cotton : percentage grown by the white and the Negro in the South, 64, g8 ; method of cultivation of, iog ; yield and value per acre of land, 250 ; the paying crop in the South, 253 ; typical yield on a farm in South Georgia, 40. INDEX 291 Cotton mill in the South, the, 63 ; con- ditions of labour in, 63 child labour, 64 ; organization among employees, 64 ; Negro objected to as an employee in, 64 ; hookworm disease amongst employees in, 60. Courtesy : by whites to the black man in Southern States and in South Africa contrasted, 68 ; in dealing with coloured people, 83-4, 245. Courts of justice and the Negro, 158 et seq., 271, 276 ; attitude of officials, 159 5 general conclusions, 160 ; position in the North, 217, 223. Criminal assault by Negroes, on Negro women, 178 ; on white women, 72, 167, 169-70, 177 ; danger of, in the South, 177 ; theory of, as a crime of race revenge, 177-8 ; com- parison with South Africa, 177 ; findings of South African Govern- ment Commission of Inquiry into, 180. Criminality : general increase of, in the Negro since emancipation, 170 ; Negro predisposition to, 216-7, 218, 271 ; among the city Negroes, 216, 256 ; in the North, 216 ; of juveniles, 219. Croatians, the local name given to a small community in North Carolina, 93- Cultivation in the Southern States, 109, no, 243, 249. Curry, I. L. M., 82 ; quoted on slavery and the present white attitude to the Negro, 82. Cutler, J. E., " History of Lynching," 169, 170, 286. Dagoes, 55. Daily papers in the Southern States, 61. Death-rate of Negroes in large cities, 220, 221. Democratic party in the South, 153. — State platform of North Carolina, quoted, 150. Deportation to Africa considered as a solution of the American problem, 265, 266. De Tocqueville cited, 265. Discouragement, sense of, amongst Negroes, 247-8. Discrimination against the Negro race, 145, 149, 150; compensations of, 145. Dixie, 35 ; landscape and natural feat- ures, 35. Dixon, Thomas, junior, quoted, 69. Doctors (Negro), 106, 218, 241. Domestic animals owned by Negroes : Census returns as to, 100. — and personal service, Negroes em- ployed in, 100- 1, 107. — servants (Negro) : dangers of em- ploying female, 189. Dooley, Mr., quoted on the present position of the Negro, 214. Douglass, Frederick (Mulatto), 73. Dress, Negro extravagance in, 89, 90, 91, 119. Drink habits of Negroes, 90. Du Bois, Dr. W. E. B., 89, 195, 196 ; cited on percentage of Negroes with traces of white ancestry, 84 ; monograph on " The Philadelphia Negro," 288 ; quoted, 211, 212, 216 ; " The Souls of Black Folk," 288. Economic conditions of the Negro com- pared with those of the agricul- tural and unskilled labourer in Britain, 263-4. — co-operation for Negro farmers, 254. — position and opportunities of the Negro in the South, 224 et seq. Education : elevation of the Negro by, white views on, 70, 272 ; does not lessen racial antagonism, 31-2, 73, 76, 206, 269, 280. — (of the Negro) : complaints as to curtailment of educational oppor- tunities, 77, 124 ; efforts to limit State appropriations to, 78, 124 ; opposition to literary educa- tion, 78 ; legislation to restrict whites from teaching in coloured schools, 78-9 ; progress in, since 1865, 123, 242 ; number of chil- dren enrolled in the public schools, igo8-9, 123 ; primary coloured schools, 123 ; primary school within the reach of the majority of Negro children, 124, 127, 155 ; facilities for higher education, 123, 127 ; col- leges and universities, 125 ; public expenditure on, 1910-n, 123, 125 ; comparative value of pro- perty owned by white and coloured educational institutions, 125 ; en- dowments of colleges and universi- ties, 125 ; direct contribution of Negro people towards, 125 ; the disproportion between the amounts spent on white and coloured educa- tion, 126, 155 ; comparison with South Africa, 126, 260 et seq. ; in- stitutions for higher and vocational 19 292 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES training within reach of the poor, 127, 155 ; character of the education, 77, 127, 155 ; meagre results from the educational facili- ties, 128 ; movement to provide industrial and scientific training, 128. Education of whites in the Southern States, 61, 126, 155, 242. Ejection of Negroes from towns and districts, 162-3. Electoral privileges as guaranteed under the 15th Amendment to the Constitution of the U.S., 147 ; see under Franchise. Eliot, President, of Harvard University, quoted, 214. Elwang, Professor W. W., "The Negroes of Columbia, Missouri," 107, 287. Entertainment, places of, separation customary in, 145, 155. Environment : effect of, on the Negro type, 86. Ethiopianism among the Bantu, 118. European immigrants and economic re- lations with the Negro, 58-9 ; and see under Immigration. Evangelical teaching : in the Southern States, 66 ; modern views as to, in England and the Colonies, 66-7. Evans' " Black and White in South East Africa," cited, 20, 105. Eviction of Negroes from towns and districts, 162-3. Family life of the Negro, 259. Farm land, Farmers, Farms, black and white, in the Southern States, 99- 100, 109, 237 et seq. passim. Farmers' conferences, 129, 133. Farming, co-operation in, for the Negro, 253. 254. Female native domestics and danger of miscegenation, i8g. Finot, M. Jean, " Race Prejudice" cited and quoted, 25-30 ; on the effect of environment on the Negro, 85-6. Fisk University : work with white girl students for social betterment of Negroes, 81 ; mentioned, 180. Food of the Negro, no, 112; wasteful- ness in cooking, 89. Foresight in the Western European, 88 ; absent in the Negro, 88, 272. 11 Forum," the, cited, 118, 184. Franchise, the, 4, 51, 147 et seq. ; elec- toral rights conferred under the 14th Amendment to the Constitu- tion, 51 ; rejected by the provisional governments of the Southern States, 51 ; constitutions granting equal suffrage to all adopted, 51 ; the 15th Amendment, 147-8, 149, 150 ; pres- ent-day attitude of the Northerners to, 148 ; discrimination against the Negro, 149 ; violent opposition in the South, 149 et seq.; tests es- tablished in Southern States, 150 ; property test, 150, 151 ; grand- father clause, 151 ; interpretation of Constitution test, 150, 151 ; poll tax, 151 ; the resort to force, 151, 152; attitude of the Negro, 151, I 5 2 » 153 ; number of registered white and coloured voters in three states, 152 ; franchise position in, 1891, 152; political apathy in the South, 152-3 ; political manipula- tion of the Negro, 153-4, 241 ; posi- tion in the North, 223 ; comparison of conditions in Southern States and South Africa, 262; not a solution of the native question, 280, 283. Freedman's Bureau, the, 49, 51, 53, J 49- French colonies, race prejudice in, 24. Friendly societies amongst the Negroes, 121-2, 272 ; benefits of, 122 ; views as to similar organizations amongst the Bantu in South Africa, 122. Frissell, Dr. Hollis, 131. Gadsden, Mr., quoted on European immigrants to the Southern States, 57-8. Georgia, 40, 41-2, 99, 181 ; electoral discrimination in, 150 ; political apathy in, 153. Government guardianship for the Negro as a remedy, 267-70 passim, 277-8. — office, Negro excluded from, 164-5. Grady, Henry, quoted on the faithful- ness of the Negro during the Civil War, 87. Grandfather clause, the, 151; not introduced into the North, 223. Graves, John Temple, quoted, 73. Grievances of Negroes, 140 et seq. Griquas, the, 26-7. Griqualand East, 26-7. Gymnasia, municipal : not open to Negroes, 157. Hampton, Wade, of South Carolina, cited, 72. — Normal and Industrial Institute, Virginia, 128, 130, 131 et seq.., 180, 196, 203, 206, 246, 253, 255, 273. Hart, Dr. A. B., " The Southern South," INDEX 293 285 ; cited and quoted, 58, 72, 74, 146, 180. Hoffmann, I. P., " Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro," 221, 288. Holsey, Bishop, quoted, 76. Homicide in the Southern States, 65 ; contrast with South Africa, 66 ; punishment of whites for, not ade- quate, 166-7 5 lynching of Negroes for, 167 ; see also Lynchings. Hookworm disease : effect of, on white people, 60. Hotels, separation in, 145, 155. Hottentots, the, 27, 28, 29. Howard University, Washington, D.C., 180. Illegitimacy, table of, 219. Immigrants into the South African Union : reason for comparative fewness of, 58-9. Immigration of aliens into the United States : views of the Southern Whites as to, 55 ; character of the immigrants, 56 ; indisposition of immigrants to go South, 56-7 ; ef- forts to divert, into direction of the Southern States, 57 ; social reason for avoidance of the Southern States, 57-9 ; competi- tion with black workers avoided by the white immigrant, 58 ; South- ern States' attitude to European immigrants, 58. — of Negroes from South to North, 210. Immorality, 115, 218-g. India : race prejudice in, 19. Individual oppression, 161-2. Industrial competition, 58, 72, 73, 102, 194, 227 et seq. ; as a cause of crime, 217 ; tends to race conflict, 269 ; see also Labour. — position of the Negro, 102, 161, 214, 222, 226 et seq., 230-2, 241. — situation, in the South, 64, 226 et seq.; and in South Africa, 194, 227-8. — training of Negroes, provision for, 124, 125, 127. Infant mortality in cities, 220. Ingalls, Senator John J., quoted, 73. Injustice to Negroes, ignorance and futility of the race partly respon- sible for, 209 ; importance of watchfulness and protest against, 207, 208 ; to individual Negroes, 161-2. Inventions : little ability shown for, by Negroes, 103. Iron- working : increase of Negro la- bourers in, 102. Jamaica, the Negro in, 267. Jefferson, Thomas, 265. Jewish immigrants into the United States, 56, 105 ; a parallel with South Africa, 56. Jim Crow car, the, 140 et seq., igi. Johnston, Sir H. H.,v; "The Negro in the New World," 266, 288. Journals (Negro), 91, 92, 103. Justice, administration of, in the United States in the hands of elected offi- cers, 158 ; see also under Courts. Juvenile criminality of Negroes, 219. Kansas City, analysis of occupations of Negroes in, 218. Kok, Adam, Griqua chief, 27. Ku-Ku-Klan, the, 149, 152. Labour : demand for, in the Southern States, 64, 101-2, 225, 227, 230 ; separation of black and white, customary, 65 ; efforts to separ- ate white and black clerks, 78 ; labour in South done by whites : contrast with South Africa, 64, 224, 227, 261 ; competition be- tween black and white, 58, 72, 73, 102, 194, 227; Negro, sometimes preferred by white employer, 225 ; employment of Negro as strike breaker, 231 ; wages and condi- tions of employment, 101, 225 etseq., 240, 250-2, 256-7, 261; see also under Industrial. — Unions: list of, refusing admission to Negro, 231 ; recognition of Negroes by, in the coal and iron districts, 231. Lain, C. P., quoted, 69. Lake Choiles, Louisiana, eviction of Negroes at, 162-3. Lamar, Senator, 72. Land, the : and the Negro in the South, 98, 99 ; increase in value of, owned by Negroes, 100 ; as the salvation of the Bantu and the Negro, 233 et seq., 281 ; work on, as the great opportunity for the Negro, 248 et seq., 255-7, 2 74» 2 78. — values in the Southern States, 41-2, 249- Legal proceedings against illegal dis- crimination, 198. Le Vailliant, cited, 28-g. " Liberator," records of lynchings quoted, 167. Libraries, municipal, not open to Ne- groes, 157. Light-coloured people ; see Mulattoes. Lincoln, Abraham, 265. 294 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES Living, cost of, for labourers in the Southern States, 251. Livingstone,W.P., v; "Black Jamaica," " The Race Conflict," 266 et seq., 277, 286; on the black and white in- dustrial struggle, 214, 229 ; quoted, 157, i 6 4, 165, 177. Log cabin, the, 109 et seq., 242. Louisiana : law in, as to freed Negroes after the Civil War, 50 ; education of Negroes in, 77 ; Negroes on farms in, 99 ; number of registered voters in, 152. — , State debt in, 52. Lovedale, 261. Lovegood, Professor R. S., quoted, 75-6. Lynchings, 65 etseq., 80, 90, 166 et seq. ; white attitude to, 65, 67 ; condoned by some Christian ministers, 67 ; decrease in number of, 169 ; in- crease in severity of punishments inflicted in, 169 ; punishment of whites for, not adequate, 166-7, x 76- 7, 242 ; reflection of popular opinion as to, in juries' verdicts, 176-7 ; re- cords of, 167-8, 169, 171 ; unre- ported cases, 169 ; not confined to the South, 169, 170, 171 ; greater danger of, to Negroes in the North, 171 ; number of, frustrated by police in the North, 171 ; mistaken impressions as to, 169, 172 ; in- stances of, 172 et seq., 189 ; white men, 168, 169 ; women victims, 168, 189 ; white women, 168 ; common Southern feeling with re- gard to, 175 ; not a deterrent to the criminal classes, 181 ; assaults on white women the ostensible reason for, 169-70, 177 ; for preaching colonization to Africa, 7g ; as a deterrent to exercise of electoral privileges, 149, 151-2; for holding office under Government, 165 ; no case of, by Negroes in the South, go ; suggestions towards elimina- tion of, 181, 276, 278. Manufactures : little ability shown by Negro in, 102-3. Maories, attitude of whites to, ig. Marital conditions and family life of Negroes, 218, 25g. Marriage between the races forbidden in all Southern States and many Northern ones, 187 ; see also Miscegenation. Mauritius, black v. white riots in, 24. Mechanical and Manufacturing pursuits, Negroes engaged in, 101-2, 108, 22g. Methodist Episcopal Church (coloured), Bishop Turner of, quoted, 76. Militant section of the Negroes, ig5 et seq. ; characteristics of policy and doctrine of, ig6, ig7-8, igg ; utter extinction of the colour bar de- manded, ig7 ; absence of a con- structive side to policy, ig8 ; prac- tical work of, ig8, 200 ; sphere of work confined to Northern and Western States, ig8 ; danger of such work in the South, ig8-g ; es- sentially a Mulatto movement, igg ; indications as to growth of the movement, igg, 200-1 ; criti- cism of the methods of, 208. Miller, Prof. Kelly, "Race Adjustment," 285 ; quoted on European immi- grants and Negro competition, 58 ; on Negro incapacity for business, 104-5 ; on the meagre results of Negro education, 128; on Negro progress under Dr. Washington's leadership, 207; on immorality, 218 ; on vital statistics, 2ig-20 ; on the decreasing number of Negro mechanics due to white competi- tion, 22g. Mining : increase of Negro labourers in, 102. Miscegenation : prejudice against pre- valent in North and South, 183, 184 ; legislation against, 187-8 ; the complicity of the white man, 185-7, l8 8, 191, 271, 275-6, 281 ; the Southern white woman free from complicity, 180, 185 ; public opinion does not safeguard the weaker race, 185-6, 188, igi, 276 ; consideration of the circum- stances, 185, 186, i8g-go; danger of, through employment of female native servants, i8g ; the offence often condoned by white society, igo; negro attitude to, 33, 185, 186-7, I 9°, *97 ; suggestions to- wards elimination of, 275-6, 278 ; varying intensity of prejudice against, in other lands, ig, 24. Mississippi, the Negro in, 22, 178, 206 ; character of the population near the river mouth, 56 ; increase of farms in, gg ; test for voters in, 151; number of voters in, 152 ; political apathy in, 153. Missouri, 121, 140. Mob murder ; see Lynchings. Mortality among Negroes in large cities, 220, 221. Mortgage on farms in the Southern States, 100. INDEX 295 Mulatto, the, 83 etseq., 183 et seq., 281 ; statistical returns as to, 84, 183 ; appearance of, 86 ; physically in- ferior to the pure Negro, 86 ; charac- teristics of, compared with those of the pure Negro, 92 ; comparison of ability, 92 ; relations of, with the Negro, 33, 93 ; attitude of, to the white man, 33, 94; resentment against discrimination, 145; atti- tude to separation in schools, 155 ; number going over to the white camp, 29, 184 ; increasing number of children, 75 ; superior to his en- vironment, 94 ; a recommendation as to, for South Africa, 281. Municipal taxes : Negroes not allowed the amenities provided by, 157. Murphy, Edgar Gardner, vii ; " The Basis of Ascendancy," "The Prob- lems of the Present South," 82, 285 ; quoted on racial distinctions and separation, 30, 145, 156, 193 ; on the relations of the races in the South, 72 ; on the Negro's educa- tion, 127-8, 156 ; on mob venge- ance, 182 ; on the Negro attitude to race fusion, 193 ; the Negro and developments of Trades Unionism, 222. Natal coast native, colour of the, 85. — expenditure on native education in, 126-7; white education in, 261; white and coloured labour in, 261 ; the native and the Franchise in, 4, 262. Nationalization without race confusion, 75- Native policy for South Africa : Author's theory, 269 et seq. Near whites, number going over to the white camp, 29, 184. Negro — Characteristics of, 33, 62, 85, 94, 103, 107, 108, in, 112, 115, 116, 202, 204-5, 242, 271 ; vary with colour, 87. Business capacity, lack of, 105, 272. Childish, 201-2. Emotional, 90, 115. Extravagant, 88, 89, 240. Faithful, 87-8. Foresight, lack of, 88, 107, 272. Imitative, 202. Irresponsible, 201-2. Kindly, 33, 90. Lazy, 112. Long-suffering, 33, 90. Morals, go-i, 115, 218-9, 271. Ostentatious, 119. Submissive, 7g, ig8. Thriftless, 88-9, 105, 107, 239-40, 243, 272. Unreflecting, 115, 207. Vain, gi. Wasteful, 89. Negro, the term a misnomer, 83, 84, 86 ; comparison with the Bantu people, 83, 84 et seq., 91; different from the Bantu in language, customs, and traditions, 84-5 ; physical differ- ences, 85 ; comparison with Zulus, 85, 202 ; the Zulu colour not ob- served in the American Negro, 85- — the : condition of, after the Ameri- can Civil War, 4g^ seq., gj; ceases to be a political factor in the Southern States, 53, 158 ; present position of, under State law, 53 ; desire of, for a better environment, 77 ; as an incubus yet a neces- sity in the South, 7g ; progress and advance of, in material things since emancipation, g7 et seq., 107, 272 et seq.; agricultural ac- tivities of, g8 et seq. ; right to ac- quire land, g8 ; the lure of city life, g8; industrial position of, 102, 161, 214, 222, 226 et seq., 230; salva- tion of, is on the land, 106, 108. — attitude to the Whites, 73, g4, ig2 ; resentment of discrimination, 145; views as to the present trend of white feeling, 75-6. — domination, morbid fears as to peril of, ig3- 4 , 274, 275. — rural labourer, condition of life of, iog et seq. ; the log cabin, iog et seq. ; primitive cultivation by, iog, no. Negroes of mixed ancestry, see Mulatto. New Orleans, 65. " Times Democrat," 163, 187, 188. New York as a cosmopolitan city, 55-6 ; number of attempted lynchings in, frustrated by police, 171 ; increase in population due to immigration, 210 ; infant mortality among Negroes in, 220. " New York Times," 154. New Zealand, race prejudice in, 18. News rooms, municipal : not open to Negroes, 157. Nomenclature and courtesy in dealing with coloured people, 83-4. " North American Review," cited, 102. North Carolina : political adventurers in after the war of Secession, 52-3 ; class distinctions between 296 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES black and coloured people in, 93 ; increase of farms in, 99. North Carolina, Western : poor whites in, 62. — and South : attitude to Negro in, contrasted, 73. — the : attitude of the Negro to, 1 210, 211 ; immigration from the ! South into, 210, 211; past and) present attitude to the Negro in, 212 ct seq., 271 ; effect of more frequent communication with the South, 213 ; factors in the present attitude to the Negro, 213 ; freedom in the public conveyances, 215, 223 ; restaurants, 215 ; no segrega- tion ordinances in Northern cities, 215 ; character of Negro quarters in, 216 ; criminals among the city Negroes, 216-7 ; treatment of the Negro in the Courts, 217 ; pre- ponderance of women in the cities, 217-8 ; marital conditions unsatis- factory, 218 ; sexual immorality prevalent, 218-9 ; juvenile crimi- nals, 219 ; vital statistics, 219-20. Occupations of Negroes, 100-2, 107-8, 218. Oklahoma, 140, 163. Olmsted, F. L., works by, 44 et seq., 288 ; quoted, 140-1, 175. Opportunities on the land for the Negro, I 248 et seq. ; for the single labourer, j 250 et seq. ; for the married labourer, j 252 et seq. Orange Free State : contribution to j native education, 260; the native! and the Franchise in, 4, 262. Overcrowding in Negro dwellings, in. Ovington, Miss Mary, " Half a Man," quoted, 214-5, 223, 287. Papers (Negro), 91, 92, 103. Parks and open air places, separation customary in, 157. Personal injustice. 161 et seq. Philadelphia, 55, 210. — Negro, monograph on, 89, 288 ; quoted, ail, 212, 216. Physical strength of American Negro in comparison with the Bantu, 85. Plantation system, economic and social evils of, no, 256, 273. Planter families : pride of descent in, 55- Police : absent in rural districts of Southern States, 66. Political adventurers (carpet-baggers), 52-3, 147, 149. — manipulation of the Negro, 153-4. Politics in the South : the all-import- ance of the race question, 152-3 ; the morbid fear of Negro domina- tion in, 193-4, 274, 275- — and Negro progress, Dr. Washing- ton's views, 205-6. Poll tax, 151. Polynesians and race prejudice, 18-g. Poor whites, the, 47 ; the result of the presence of the Negro, 63 ; con- trasted with the mountaineer, 63 ; effect of industrial development on, ? 2 \ Population (Negro), 80, 163 ; percentage of, in the South, 64, 126, 164, 268 ; Census returns as to, 99 ; percen- tage of children among, 123. — increase of white, as a solution of native problem in South Africa considered, 80. Portuguese colonies, race prejudice in, 24. Preachers, Negro, low standard of morality due to bad educational system, 127. Price, John Ambrose, u The Negro : Past, Present, and Future," 285 ; quoted, 70, 74, 164. Professional men and women of Negro race, numbers of, 106, 218. — pursuits, Negro progress in, 108, 241. Property holdings of Negroes in Col- umbia, Missouri, 107. — depreciation of, due to presence of Negroes, 77, 200. Public conveyances, separation in, 74, 75, 140 etseq., 277; in the North, 223. Public debts, increases in, due to cor- ruption during the Reconstruction period, 52. Public opinion among the Negro people, 195 ; the two schools of, 195 et seq. Race admixture, 28-9, 75, 275 ; the re- sponsibility with the white man, 192 ; degradation not a preventive of, 192-3, 275 ; and see under Miscegenation. — animosity, 17, 30, 68, 166; increase of, 206-7. — depravity, 180, 185, 192. — equality, fear of Negro claims to, as a factor in race prejudice, 21, 31, 32, 68, 186, ig2. — fusion, 267 ; and see Miscegenation. — hatred, 17, 23, 30, 74, 271. — hostility, 17 ; basis of, 68, 192 ; growth of, 206-7 ; the future, 279. — integrity, 106, 192, 275 ; true basis INDEX 297 of, found in race sufficiency, 17 et seq., 193, 275. Race prejudice, 17 et seq. ; not the same as race animosity or race hatred, 17, 30 ; attitude of Churchmen to, 18, 25 ; variations in intensity of, 18 et seq., 24, 31, 32; in New Zealand, 18-9 ; in India, 19; in the Southern States and in South Africa, 19 et seq., 80, 271 et seq. ; anomalies of, 20-1 ; the social factor as the underlying reason for, 21, 31, 32, 186, 192 ; economic and other factors, 22-3, 30, 32-3 ; races showing the greatest intensity of prejudice, 24-5 ; the instinctive and protective element in, 25, 30, 31, 34; a complex phenomenon, 30; sociological value of, 30, 31 ; not lessened by education, 31-2, 73, 76, 206, 269, 280 ; comparison of the feeling in white and black people, 32-3, 192 ; as a factor in the world, 33-4 ; growth of, in the Southern States, 71, 76,80; reasons for growth of, 71-2, 76; and the economic needs of the whites, 79 ; M. Finot's work on, 25-9. — relations in South Africa, Mr. Evans' address on, 205. — riots, 69, 74, 80, 166 et seq. — solidarity of Negroes, due to dis- crimination and the strict line of cleavage, 95-6, 106 ; race suffi- ciency the factor in, 106, 193 ; weak in the practical affairs of life, 107, 241. — violence, due largely to contact with the lower class whites, 146. — war, possibilities of, 74. Railroad travelling, separation and dis- abilities in, 74, 75, 140 et seq., 223, 275. 277. Rape, see Criminal assault. Reconstruction in the Southern States after the American Civil War, 49, 5 1 . 7°> 73» J 47» I 49 ; Reconstruc- tion Act, 51. Religion : the white man's presentation of, not fully satisfying to the black, 118; place of, in the educational system, 281. Religious feeling, characteristics of, in the Negro, go, 115. — observance : by whites in the Southern States, 66 ; by Negroes, 114; and present-day character- istics, 1 14-5. — revivals, 118-9, 120. Rents charged to Negroes higher than those paid by white occupiers, 200. Republican party, and Negro suffrage elections, 149 ; as friend of the Ne- groes, 153, 164, 210. Restaurants, separation in, 145. " Richmond Times Gazette," quoted, 58. Roman Catholics (Negro), number of, in United States, 117. Roosevelt, President, cited, 164. Royce, Professor Josiah, " Race Ques- tions," 286 ; cited on race prejudice, 23- Rucker, H. A., Negro in charge of Customs at Atlanta, Ga., 165. Rural areas, separation in the, 258-9. — regeneration as the great opportunity for the Negro, 255 et seq., 273. " Saturday Evening Post," quoted, 69. Schools, separation of the races in, 155-6, 262. Secret societies among the Negroes, 121, 122 ; white indifference to, 122. Segregation, 73, 77, 146, 265, 278 ; the benefits of, to the Negro race, 156 ; in the rural areas, 258-9 ; the policy in South Africa, 258, and see Separation. — ordinances : in Southern cities, 77, 200 ; not usual in Northern cities, 216 ; a Negro meeting of protest against, described, 201-2. Separation of the races in public con- veyances, 74, 75, 140 et seq., 155, 277 ; in hotels and places of amuse- ment, 145, 155 ; in schools, 155-6 ; in educative and religious agencies, 118, 157; benefits of separation to the Negro race, 157 ; amenities provided by municipal taxes not available to the Negroes, 157 ; com- parison of the Southern States and South Africa, 262, 277 ; opinions and suggestions as to, 268, 273, 274, 275, 277; for South Africa, 281 ; dangers of the contrary view, 268-9, 273. Sexual immorality, 218-g. Shaler, Professor, cited, 222. Shannon, A. H., on degradation among the Negroes, 218-9, 285. Shufeldt, Dr., " The Negro," 285 ; on race admixture, quoted, 75. Sinclair, Wm. A., " The Aftermath of Slavery," 165, 287. Skull measurements as a race feature, 26. Slavery : conditions of, in the past, 45 et seq., 82 ; economic results of, as compared with free labour, 46. 298 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES Smith, Governor Hoke, quoted, 69. Snyder, Rev. J., quoted, on separation of the races in Southern religious life, 118; on white prejudice against blood admixture, 184. Social equality and the Negro, white attitude, 69 et seq. — work among the Negroes by South- ern organizations, 81. South Africa : condition of, after the Boer War, 49. South Africa — Education (Native), 126-7, 260; (White), 261. Immigration into, reason for scarcity of immigrants, 58-9. Industrial situation in, 227-8. Jewish immigrant into, 56. Labour, skilled, the prerogative of the white man, 22, 64, 224, 261 ; wages and conditions of employment, 256-7. Natives of, and Negroes compared, 83, 84 et seq. Race prejudice in : anomalies of, 20 et seq. ; the economic factor, 22. Race problem in, considered in the light of American experience, 268, et seq., 280 et seq. ; recommenda- tions as to, 269, 270. Religion and modern life amongst natives in, 118-9 ; natives' inde- pendence in religious matters, 118. Separation, 262 ; in rural areas, 258 ; considered in the light of American experience, 269, 281. South Carolina : ordinance affecting Negroes passed in, after the Civil War, 50 ; Negroes and travel in, 74, 141 ; class distinctions between the black and coloured people in, g3 ; efforts to divert alien immi- gration into direction of, 57. South Carolina State debt : increase of, during the Reconstruction period, 52. South-East Africa half-caste, appear- ance of, 86. Southern Sociological Congress, Nash- ville, Tenn., cited, 81, 274. South-Eastern States of America : natural conditions and advantages °f> 57. 230, 249; development of natural resources of, 64 ; industrial and economic condition of, 230 ; question of the black man in, after the American Civil War, 49 ; laws affecting the Negro, passed after the Civil War, 50 ; division of, into military districts, 51, 53 ; con- stitutions granting equal suffrage to all adopted in, 51 ; corruption in, after the War of Secession, 52; disenfranchisement of the Whites in. 5*> 53. *47 \ the Reconstruction period, 49, 51,70,73,147,149; ballot and Government taken possession of by the Whites in, 53 ; political apathy in, 153. State Conventions elected during the Reconstruction, 51. — Governors, prerogative of, sold for cash, 52. Status of the Negro : need for recon- sideration of, 268. Stock, owned by Negroes, 100 ; prices of, in the Southern States, 250-1. Stone, Alfred Holt, " Studies in the American Race Problem," 284 ; quoted on Negro character, 90 ; on discrimination against the Negro, 149 ; on political manipulation of the Negro, 154 ; on criminal as- sault, 178 ; on the economic op- portunities of the Negro in North and South, 226 ; on industrial com- petition between the races, 228-g. Swimming baths, municipal, not open to Negroes, 157. Tax-payers, Negro, not allowed the amenities provided by taxes, 157. Tennessee, 51, 62, 140. Theal, Dr., cited, 28. Theatres, separation customary in, 145. Thomas, A. F., of Lynchburg, Va., quoted, 72. — W. Hannibal, " The American Negro," 91, 288. — Judge W. H., quoted, 159. Thrift, possibilities of, for the labouring Negro in the Southern States, 252. Trade and transport : progress by Negroes in, 108. Trade-unionism and the Negro as an industrial factor, 222, 230. Trades Union movement in the South, 230 ; present tendencies with re- gard to the Negro, 231 ; the Negro recognized by the Labour Unions in some callings, 231 ; no purely Negro trade organizations, 231. Transvaal, expenditurdon native educa- tion in, 127 ; white and coloured labour in, 261 ; the native and the Franchise in, 4, 262. Trotter, W. A., cited, 195. Turner, Bishop, quoted, 76. Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Insti- tute, 128, 130, 134 et seq., 180, 196, 242, 246, 253, 255, 273 ; differ- INDEX 299 ent views as to policy of, 206, 207 ; Annual Conference of Farmers held at, 129 ; Congress on the Negro at, 134, 203, 205. Unemployment absent in the Southern States, 225, 251. Virginia, 40, 41, 62; Negroes and travel in, 74, 141 ; efforts for im- provement of Negro education in, 129. Vital statistics (Negro), 219. Wages and conditions of employment, 101, 225 et seq., 240, 250-2, 256-7, 261. Walker County, ejection of Negroes from, 163. Washington, Dr. Booker T., 88, 128, 134, 203 ; work of, no, 196, 208, 209; on the land as the hope of the Negro, 99, in, 113; attitude to the race question in the South, 205-6 ; speech at Atlanta, 206 ; views of critics of his doctrine, 206, 207 ; prediction as to the coming industrial struggle in the South, 228 ; journey of, through South and East Europe, 248 ; works on the Negro by, 248, 284. Washington, D.C., occupations of Negro women in, 78, 218 ; Negro clerks in public service in, 78 ; educational facilities in, 128 ; Negro population and percentage of criminals, 216; table of illegitimacy for, 219. Waurika, ejection of Negroes from, 163. Wealth owned by Negroes, computation of, 104. Weatherford, W. D., "Negro Life in the South," 178-9, 288. Wells, H. G,, quoted, 76-7, 144. White attitude and views as to the Negro, 63, 67 et seq., 94, 163, 241, 271 ; inexorable belief in the racial inferiority of the Negro, 68 ; varies from contemptuous tolerance to outspoken hostility, 68 ; contemptu- ous attitude to coloured women in the Southern States, 68 ; the basis of animosity, 68, 192 ; reasons for change in, 71-3 ; views as to the hopelessness of the problem, 74 et seq., 241, 278 ; evidence as to present tendencies, 74-6 ; indiffer- ence to Negro Church organiza- tions, 1 17-8 ; the future, 271 et seq. White Negroes, 183, and see under Mu- latto. Whites of the Southern States : pride of ancestry in, 55 ; comparative purity of race among, 56 ; view of, that the Negro has preserved the purity of the American race, 59 ; char- acteristics of, 59-60 ; facial appear- ance approximating to that of the aboriginal American Indian, 60; hospitable, 62 ; not law-abiding, 65 ; defective education of, 61 ; pre- vailing ignorance of matters out- side America, 60-1 ; characteristics of the distinctive group living in the mountain section, 62, 63 ; dis- enfranchisement of, for participa- tion in the Civil War, 51, 53, 147. Wilcox, Professor Walter C, quoted, 102, 181, 217, 248. Williams, John Sharp, quoted, 73. Women (Negro), preponderance of, in the cities North and South, 217-8 ; occupations of, in the city of Washington, D.C., 218. Yazoo, delta of the Mississippi : rela- tions of Whites and Negroes in, 178, 187. Young Men's Christian Association, 157. Zulu colour, the, not observed in the American Negro, 85. 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