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- 
 
 </ self politically. We regard each assertion as an unfriendly 
 
 J encroachment upon our native superior rights and a dare- 
 devil menace to our control of the affairs of the State." 
 Governor Hoke Smith, of Georgia, in a speech says : 
 f " The Negroes who are contented to occupy the natural 
 status of their race, the position of inferiority, all com- 
 petition being eliminated between black and white, will 
 be treated with greater kindness". 
 
 Thomas Dixon, junior, in the " Saturday Evening 
 Post " in 1907 : " Does any sane man believe that when the 
 Negro ceases to work under the direction of the Southern 
 white man, this arrogant, ' rapacious,' and 'intolerant " 
 race will allow the Negro to master his industrial position, 
 take the bread from his mouth, crowd him to the wall, 
 
70 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES 
 
 and take a mortgage over his house ? Competition is war, 
 the most fierce and brutal of all its forms. Could fatuity 
 reach a sublimer height than the idea that the white 
 man will stand by and see this performance ? What will 
 he do when put to the test? He will do exactly what 
 his white neighbour in the North does when the Negro 
 threatens his bread — kill him." 
 
 A correspondent to a Georgia paper writes : " Let me 
 tell you one thing, every time you people in the North 
 countenance in any way, shape or form any form of social 
 equality, you lay up trouble, not for yourselves nor so 
 much for us as for the Negro. Right or wrong the South- 
 ern white man will never tolerate it, and will go through 
 the horrors of another Reconstruction period before they 
 will permit it. Before we will submit we will kill every 
 Negro in the South. This is not idle Roasting or fire- 
 eating, but the cold hard facts stated in all calmness." 
 
 John Ambrose Price in " The Negro Past, Present and 
 Future," written in 1907, writes: "The elevation of the 
 Negro by education is one of the greatest humbugs ever 
 held up to the American people. Not for a moment do I 
 think education can thwart God's purposes for the Negro 
 in subjecting him to the service of the white man, but I 
 do think it a waste of money to educate him contrary to 
 his destined capacity or by a method that makes him less 
 worthy. It is a great injustice to his race. The only 
 permanent position open to the Negro is that of labourer 
 in the Industrial South." 
 
 I read a book, "The Caucasian and Negro in the 
 United States," by W. P. Calhoun. Space does not 
 permit me to do more than give in a few words the im- 
 pression it made upon me at the time, and I copy the 
 following from my notes : " W. P. Calhoun is a Southerner 
 and gives I think a true idea of the feeling of the average 
 Southern white man. It is apparently not written by a 
 maker of books, has no literary style, but bears evidence 
 of first-hand knowledge of the subject, and also that the 
 writer takes the popular view. In this it seems to me 
 
THE WHITE FACTOR 71 
 
 to have a value beyond that of many more pretentious 
 volumes on the subject. He will not allow that the 
 Negro is other than unutterably inferior to the white, 
 and always will be. He writes crudely, without passion, 
 but there is an inexorable force in it for that very reason. 
 Nothing can alter the relative positions of the races, 
 nothing is likely to soften the enmity and bitterness. It 
 is Fate." 
 
 Hitherto I have been trying to convey the impression 
 left on my mind as to the attitude of the mass of the 
 Southern people towards the Negro, and I have cited 
 some who have put into writing what I conceive that 
 attitude to be. 
 
 Almost all I conversed with, whatever the particular 
 shade of their opinion, admitted the gravity of the situa- 
 tion, and the strained relations between the races. The 
 actual happenings day by day in the South, and every 
 daily paper I read, evidenced this. We must admit a 
 vast reservoir of prejudice, suspicion, and hostility, and 
 the great question in my mind was : Is this prejudice and 
 tension increasing or decreasing ? 
 
 The majority of those with whom I talked were of 
 opinion that it was growing, and nearly all stated that it 
 had changed during the last few years. Many attributed 
 this to the passing away of the older generation, who 
 came into closer contact with the Negro at a time when 
 his position was more clearly defined, and who often had 
 friendly relations with individual Negroes, and knew many 
 personally. That the attitude is now a different one I 
 fully believe, and it appears to be one of greater suspicion 
 and less knowledge. I attribute this to several reasons : 
 (1) the greater complexity of life due to the invasion of 
 modern mercantile conditions demanding commercial 
 results in the relation of employer and employed ; (2) 
 the decay of personal and often friendly relations present 
 in slavery days, and which continued for some time after 
 slavery ceased; (3) the advance of the Negro to a 
 standard of living more nearly like that of the white man ; 
 
72 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES 
 
 (4) occasional assaults on white women which cause 
 intense exasperation, continuing after the immediate 
 cause is removed ; (5) the probability of industrial 
 competition, which was not so apparent in the earlier 
 times. 
 
 The matter is of such vital importance to our inquiry 
 that I append the opinions of several writers and public 
 men, premising that I am now dealing with the attitude 
 of the mass of the Southern people ; of certain opposite 
 tendencies I will speak later, and also in a chapter to 
 come of the position in the North. 
 
 Dr. A. B. Hart, writing in 19 10, says : " Here is the most 
 difficult part of the whole matter, the two races so 
 closely associated are nevertheless drifting away from 
 each other. Time was when men like Wade Hampton, 
 of South Carolina, and Senator Lamar, of Mississippi, 
 expected that whites and Negroes would co-operate in 
 political parties; time was when former slave-holders 
 joined with former slaves in a confident attempt to bring 
 the Negroes higher. The voices of encouragement are 
 still heard, but there is in them a note of weariness." 
 
 A. F. Thomas, of Lynchburg, Virginia, in a booklet 
 issued to the Constitutional Convention of Virginia says : 
 "The Negro has progressed wonderfully, his relative 
 position is nearer the white man's standard of civilization 
 now than thirty years ago, yet the fact is apparent that 
 the races are farther apart than they were the day the 
 Negro was emancipated. The nearer the Negro ap- 
 proaches the white man's standard of civilization the less 
 love there is between them." 
 
 Edgar Gardner Murphy cannot be deemed a pessimist, 
 but in his book, "The South and the Negro," he makes it 
 clear that in his opinion the relations of the races in the 
 South have become increasingly difficult of late years. 
 He attributes this to several causes, among others to in- 
 dustrial development, which has brought poor whites 
 from their farms in the mountains to work in the factories, 
 thus bringing the races into contact, and in some fields 
 
THE WHITE FACTOR 73 
 
 of labour into competition. He does not therefore despair, 
 but thinks and hopes that this is a phase which will pass, 
 and that the better thought and feeling of the South will 
 ultimately prevail. 
 
 Governor N. B. Broward, of Florida, in his message to 
 the Legislature in 1907, says : " Though no question has 
 arisen to cause any disturbance, yet it is apparent, even 
 to the casual observer, that the relations between the 
 races is becoming more strained and acute. The 
 Negroes to-day have less friendship for the white people, 
 and the white people have less tolerance and sympathy 
 for the Negro. It is my opinion that the two races will 
 not for any great length of time occupy the same territory 
 without friction and outbreaks between the two." He 
 goes on to say that the education of the Negro will not 
 postpone or prevent it, and he can only see any solution 
 of the difficulty in sending away the Negro population to 
 another territory. 
 
 Senator John J. Ingalls, in the " Chicago Tribune," over 
 the title "Always a Problem," writes : "The great gulf 
 between the races has widened and deepened since eman- 
 cipation. If possible the barriers are more insuperable in 
 the North than in the South, and the prescription more 
 contemptuous and intolerant." This after a very kindly 
 appreciation of Frederick Douglass, the gifted mulatto, 
 who is spoken of by him as an eloquent, accomplished, 
 and dignified gentleman. 
 
 From an address by John Temple Graves before 
 Convocation of the University of Chicago the following 
 is taken : " The races are wider apart, more antagonistic 
 than in 1865. There is less of sympathy and more of 
 tension than the races have known since the terrible days 
 of Reconstruction made havoc in the South. Four de- 
 cades after emancipation the Negro in point of fact is less 
 a freeman and infinitely less a citizen than in 1868." 
 
 Thus John Sharp Williams of Mississippi : "More and 
 more every year the Negro's life, moral, intellectual, 
 and industrial, is isolated from the white man's life, and 
 
74 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES 
 
 therefore from his influence. There was a kindlier and 
 more confidential relationship when I was a boy than 
 between my children and the present generation of 
 Negroes." 
 
 Many well-meaning Southerners are hopeless, and this 
 is the note struck in the following letter cited by Dr. A. 
 B. Hart and written by a prominent citizen of Birming- 
 ham, Ala. : "If my heart did not go out to the Negro as 
 a human being, or I cared less for my God, and an earnest 
 wish to walk in His ways, I would kill the Negro or die 
 trying. God must indeed intend that Time shall work 
 out His ways and not the men of this generation, for, after 
 a longer life than most, and all of it spent with and 
 among the Negroes, — I give it up." 
 
 J. A. Price, writing in 1907 on the possibilities of Race 
 War, says : "We have several reasons on which to base 
 the liability of such an approaching danger. One is the 
 growing race hatred between the young generations of 
 white and black, another is the increased efforts of the 
 Negro race to follow the instruction of their leaders, who 
 tell them to arm themselves and assert their rights. If 
 no remedy is found for this condition race riots will in- 
 crease and become general, and thereby bring matters to 
 a final understanding, which may be a surprise to the 
 Negroes' supposed friends." 
 
 George W. Cable, in 1885, in "The Freedman's Case 
 in Equity" and "The Silent South," speaks rather hope- 
 fully of the prospect of the Negro receiving his civil 
 rights in the South ; the right to vote, the right to an 
 equal use of all accommodations ; that in time there will be 
 no civil discrimination on account of race or colour. 
 Speaking of those days Cable says : " In Virginia they may 
 ride exactly as white people do and in the same cars. In 
 South Carolina respectable coloured people who buy 
 first-class tickets on any railroad ride first class as a right, 
 and their presence excites no comment on the part of 
 their white fellow-passengers." 
 
 He finishes "The Silent South" with this passage: 
 
THE WHITE FACTOR 75 
 
 11 Nationalization by fusion of blood is the maxim of 
 barbarous times and peoples. Nationalization without 
 race confusion is ours to profess and procure. It is not 
 a task of our own choosing. But our fathers unawares 
 entailed it upon us, and we cannot but perform it. We 
 cannot hold American principles in perfect faith and not do 
 it. The good doctrine of liberty to all and licence to none 
 thrusts itself inevitably into our hands. To make national 
 unity without hybridity — the World has never seen it done 
 and we have to do it. . . . We have got to build up a 
 nationality free from all civil estrangements as from 
 social confusion, yet wider than the greatest divergence of 
 the human race. That is the meaning of the great re- 
 volution on us to-day." These words were written over 
 a quarter of a century ago. To-day no coloured person 
 dare ride in any public conveyance in Virginia, South 
 Carolina, nor, indeed, anywhere else in the South, in the 
 manner Cable describes as being usual in 1885. The 
 building of a nationality without hybridity has gone on 
 very, very slowly since those days, if indeed it has made 
 any progress at all. The whole question of race admix- 
 ture I will deal with in a subsequent chapter, I just now 
 cite one witness whose evidence deals expressly with this 
 point, and deals with it at an appropriate time. Dr. 
 Shufeldt says: "In 1882 I watched some hundreds of 
 children at noon as they poured out of one of the large 
 public schools in Washington, D.C. The other day, 1890, 
 the same sight was presented to my eyes at exactly the 
 same place, but a most marked change was perceptible. 
 In the first case the vast majority of the children were 
 black, the mulatto being the exception. In the latter 
 more than fifty per cent were mulatto." 
 
 The opinions hitherto cited have been those of South- 
 ern white men, I will now add those of some Negroes as 
 an indication of how they interpret the present trend of 
 white feeling towards them. 
 
 Professor R. S. Lovegood, of Wiley University, says: 
 " The prejudice against the Negro is more severe than 
 
76 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES 
 
 that against any other people and it grows stronger, even 
 the Christian Churches are yielding to it." 
 
 Bishop Turner, of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
 (Coloured), says bluntly : " I see no future for the manhood 
 of the Negro in this country, and the man who is notable 
 to discover that fact from existing conditions must be void 
 of common sense. Our civil, political, and social status 
 is degrading, and as degradation begets degradation the 
 Negro must go from bad to worse ad infinitum. Neither 
 wealth nor education can elevate us to the level of respec- 
 tability." 
 
 Bishop Holsey of the same Church thus : " There is 
 not now, and there never has been, the smallest possibility 
 for the Negro race in these Southern States en masse to 
 rise to the dignities and possibilities of his manhood. The 
 more the Negro is raised in the scale of social and civil ac- 
 complishments, and the nearer he approaches the Anglo- 
 Saxon standard of civilization, the greater will be the 
 strain between the two peoples, and will produce explo- 
 sions and intervening strife that must prove fatal to the 
 weaker race." 
 
 So much for Southern evidence, both black and white, 
 as to the tendencies now in force. I would still like to 
 quote two Englishmen, one who writes of conditions 
 twenty years ago, and the other the last word of to-day. 
 
 First from W. Laird Clowes' book, " In Black America," 
 published in 1885, I cu ^ the following opinion which 
 would I feel sure be endorsed by many, possibly by a 
 majority in the South : "My own impression as derived 
 from a somewhat wide observation is that since Emanci- 
 pation the distance between the races has really, as well 
 as apparently, increased, and that it is still increasing. 
 Whites and blacks have less in common than of yore, 
 there is less chance than there ever was of them working 
 together peacefully for good, and racial antagonism grows 
 daily. And education by no means tends to lessen the 
 friction. On the contrary it adds to it." 
 
 Although H. G. Wells has not so far as I know made 
 
THE WHITE FACTOR 77 
 
 a special study of the coloured question in the South, the 
 impressions of such an acute observer should be of value. 
 In the chapter on "The Tragedy of Colour," forming 
 part of his volume, " The Future in America," he sums up 
 on the point we are now discussing : " If there is any trend 
 of opinion at present on the matter it lies in the direction 
 of a generous decision on the part of the North and West 
 to leave the black more and more to the judgment and 
 mercy of the white people with whom they are locally 
 associated. This judgment and mercy points on the 
 whole to an accentuation of the coloured man's natural 
 inferiority, to the cessation of any other educational 
 attempts than those that increase his industrial usefulness 
 (it is already illegal in Louisiana to educate him beyond 
 a contemptible level), to his industrial exploitation 
 through usury and legal chicanery, and to a systematic 
 strengthening of the social barriers between coloured 
 people of whatever shade and whites." 
 
 To-day as I write several new attempts at differentia- 
 tion, on lines suggested by new conditions, are being 
 made. While I was in the South the first ordinances 
 were being passed to prevent the races occupying the 
 same sections in Southern cities — Baltimore taking the 
 lead. Hitherto the Negro has been practically segregated 
 in the lowest quarters, now the comparatively well-to-do 
 naturally want better surroundings and have bought or 
 rented houses in white neighbourhoods, and caused much 
 resentment, and undoubtedly in some cases depreciation 
 in the value of the adjacent property held and occupied by 
 the whites. This is a condition of things bound to come as 
 increasing numbers of Negroes desire a better environ- 
 ment, and it is responded to on the part of the whites by 
 Segregation Ordinances. The example of Baltimore has 
 been followed by many other cities, and legislation to effect 
 this purpose has been introduced in several Southern 
 States, backed apparently by a popular determination to 
 bring the matter to an issue. 
 
 There are quite a number of coloured male and 
 
78 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES 
 
 female clerks employed in the public service. In pro- 
 portion to the total Negro population the percentage so 
 employed is very small, but in Washington, D.C., there are 
 quite a respectable number employed in the various 
 offices. There has recently been a deliberate and sus- 
 tained effort to draw distinctions, devised to separate the 
 white and black clerks beyond anything hitherto at- 
 tempted. This has been controversially dealt with in 
 some of the newspapers, and organized efforts have been 
 made by the coloured people and their friends to defeat 
 it. They may or may not succeed. The significant fact 
 for us is that such attempts are possible, and are con- 
 stantly being made to-day in many directions, entailing 
 constant vigilance on the part of those whom they affect. 
 
 Serious attempts have been made of late to limit the 
 State appropriations to Negro education. There seems to 
 have been a recrudescence of opposition to the literary 
 education of the black man, as unfitting him for his proper 
 sphere. I met the principal of a State Normal Coloured 
 School in the South who told me he had only just secured 
 his annual appropriation by the most persistent and 
 energetic lobbying, and others informed me that it would 
 never have been obtained but for this special effort, and 
 the personal respect of the Legislature for the principal. 
 There have of course been times of violent opposition to 
 Negro education in the past ; it is nothing new. It is a 
 burning question and sometimes the opposition blazes 
 forth, again smoulders, or is quiescent. I cannot pretend 
 to determine whether the present hostility is simply a 
 temporary set-back, marking a passing phase, or not. 
 It has, however, been causing some present anxiety to 
 those who are friendly to better education, and seems to 
 signify, with other tendencies, a disposition in some 
 quarters towards renewed criticism of the value of, at 
 least, higher literary education for the Negro. 
 
 Concurrently with this disposition to curtail oppor- 
 tunity, there has been a movement to introduce legislation 
 to prevent any white person from teaching in a coloured 
 
THE WHITE FACTOR 79 
 
 school. This is a distinct innovation, for hitherto much 
 of the higher Negro education in the South has been in 
 the hands of white organizers and teachers from the 
 North. It is true that such teachers have been viewed 
 with disfavour by the whole South, and social ostracism 
 has often been their portion, but there has hitherto been 
 no law to prevent it. 
 
 Now I must state a paradox, but one which will be 
 understood by South Africans. Many Southerners told me 
 that the Negro was an incubus on the South, that he held 
 back the true progress of the country, and that his presence 
 had demoralized their people: and yet — they could not 
 do without him. 
 
 The most virulent nigger haters would often be the 
 first to resent bitterly any attempt to remove him. 
 Through his labour and by reason of his submissive dis- 
 position, their lives are made easy for them, and while 
 acutely jealous of any attempt on his part to advance, they 
 will not let him go. 
 
 One Southern writer says: "I know of several 
 counties, not a hundred miles from Atlanta, where it is 
 more than a man's life is worth to go in and get Negroes 
 to move to another State. There are farmers who would 
 not hesitate to shoot their own brother were he to come 
 in from Mississippi to get ' his niggers ' as he calls them, 
 even if he had no contract with them." Ray S. Baker in 
 "Following the Colour Line," says: "One of the most 
 significant things I saw in the South, and I saw it every- 
 where, was the way in which white people were torn 
 between the feeling of race prejudice and their downright 
 economic needs. Hating and fearing the Negro (though 
 often loving individual Negroes) they want him to work 
 for them, they can't get along without him." 
 
 I was told by a very intelligent mulatto I met in 
 Alabama that in the neighbourhood in which he lived a 
 Negro had been done to death by a white mob for preach- 
 ing colonization to Africa. 
 
 Summing up the general position in the most con- 
 
80 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES 
 
 servative way, I would say that in the South, while race 
 prejudice generally, and repression and differentiation in 
 particular, may not be actually growing in intensity, it is 
 in some respects changing, and it is certainly not decreas- 
 ing. Among the mass of the people it is intensely bitter, 
 and liable at any moment, and for causes that seem 
 entirely inadequate, to break out in active hostility, race 
 riots, shooting, and lynching. At best it is a banked 
 fire, a sweep of suspicion and flame breaks out. 
 
 I have tried to give my impressions of the feelings of 
 the average Southerner towards the Negro, without bias. 
 It is essential that it should be understood. It is painful 
 to have to record that a people of our own race should 
 be so saturated with hostility to a weaker one, which is 
 unable to defend itself, either at law, or by force of arms. 
 
 We have race prejudice and to spare in South Africa. 
 It is very difficult for anyone, however experienced and 
 impartial, to correctly assess the comparative depth and 
 intensity of this feeling in the two countries. My im- 
 pression is, however, that we are more tolerant and 
 well disposed towards the native, as we are certainly 
 more law respecting in our relations to him, than are the 
 people of the South. What is happening there of sub- 
 version of right: and justice with its maleficent reflex 
 action on character should, I think, act as a warning to 
 us to keep a close watch and firm hand on any tendency 
 to exaggerated prejudice. 
 
 The Negro people of the South are but one-third of 
 the total population. Ours in South Africa is overwhelm- 
 ingly preponderant. Increase of our white population 
 has been urged as a possible solution of the native pro- 
 blem. In the light of the experience of the United States 
 it does not appear probable that any possible readjust- 
 ment of the relative numbers of the two races in South 
 Africa would necessarily have this result. We must still 
 patiently study, we must still watch and wait ; the problem 
 will still be with us. 
 
 This chapter would sound hopeless enough if this was 
 
THE WHITE FACTOR Si 
 
 all. Thank God it is not. Even in the old, bad slave 
 days there were Southerners who could think straight, 
 and act justly. Some such, convinced of the unrighteous- 
 ness of holding their fellow-man in bonds, set free their 
 slaves and reduced themselves to penury, and their deeds 
 do follow them. I had the privilege of meeting Southern 
 men and women of tender conscience and high ideals who 
 deplored the common attitude, and who I know dealt 
 justly and kindly in all their relations with the weaker 
 race. And such are not altogether isolated. They have 
 begun to band themselves together to work for improved 
 conditions, and to strive for the betterment of the Negro 
 people. Great courage and infinite tact and judgment 
 are required, and these are in evidence. 
 
 At the first Southern Sociological Congress held at 
 Nashville, Tenn., at which I was present, there was a 
 special section to study and discuss Negro questions, and 
 the opinion of the better South was there reflected. Ne- 
 groes were present at the discussions and freely joined 
 in them. Reports were given of social work done among 
 the Negro population by Southern organizations. Among 
 others was an association of men from the various 
 Southern Universities, formed with the special object of 
 accurately studying the social relations of the races and 
 working for betterment. It was also announced, to the 
 surprise of some at a distance to whom I told it, that co- 
 operation between the white girl students of the High 
 School and the coloured girl students of Fisk University 
 was in contemplation, to work to improve the position 
 and life of Negro women and children in the city. 
 
 L attended this Congress as I was going North, and 
 after an experience of the Black Belt, and an almost un- 
 diluted diet of the ordinary Southern talk on the nigger, 
 his weaknesses and inordinate pretensions, and the 
 necessity for keeping him in check, the sane and liberal 
 tone in these discussions came as a hopeful and welcome 
 change. 
 
 I might mention many names of those Americans who 
 
 6 
 
82 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES 
 
 have thought clearly, and felt deeply on this problem, but 
 such mention would be invidious, as any list would be in- 
 complete. I would, however, mention one name, that of 
 Edgar Gardner Murphy, who in his notable books, " The 
 Basis of Ascendancy" and "The Present South," which 
 are read far beyond the limits of the United States, has 
 lifted the question to a high plane, and I believe truly re- 
 presents a minority in the South, whose influence is far 
 greater than their numbers. I have cited the opinions 
 of many Southerners whom I regard as expressing the 
 opinions of the majority. As representing the others 
 let me quote Mr. J. L. M. Curry, an ex-slaveholder, who 
 at Montgomery, Ala., in May, 1900, thus spoke : "We have 
 heard much and will hear more before we adjourn of 
 slavery. It was an economic curse, a legacy of ignorance. 
 It cursed the South with stupid, ignorant, uninventive 
 labour. The curse in large degree remains. The policy 
 of some would perpetuate it, and give a system of serfdom, 
 degrading to the Negro and corrupting to the employer. 
 The Negro is a valuable labourer, let us improve him and 
 make his labour more intelligent, more skilled, more pro- 
 ductive. Shall the Caucasian race in timid fearfulness, 
 in cowardly injustice, wrong an inferior race and put ob- 
 stacles in its progress ? Left to itself, away from all 
 elevating influence of contact and tuition there will be 
 retrogression. Shall we have two races, side by side, 
 equal in political privilege, one educated, the other 
 ignorant? Unless the white people, the superior and 
 cultivated race, lift up the lower both will inevitably be 
 dragged down." 
 
 So much for the white man, now for the black man. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE BLACK MAN, WITH WHOM IS THE PART WHITE. 
 
 In this chapter I want to try and convey a picture of the 
 man whose presence makes the problem, to make an 
 attempt to fill in his race character, and endeavour, as we 
 did in the case of the white man, to discover how he re- 
 gards those among whom his lot is cast. 
 
 What he does, how he lives, works and worships, and 
 what his probable future will be is dealt with later on. 
 But first we want an idea of the man in himself. 
 
 Since my visit to the United States I have often been 
 asked, both by English and South African friends, how 
 the Negro compares with our native Bantu people. My 
 answer usually began with a long explanation. I had 
 to make it clear that the term Negro is strictly speaking 
 a misnomer. The name is applied to all those who have 
 any, even the smallest drop of African blood. Some of 
 these are actually lighter in complexion than white men 
 who have never left England or Massachusetts, and who, 
 back to distant ancestors, could prove freedom from any 
 alien strain. 
 
 In conversing with such light-coloured people I felt a 
 natural reluctance to refer to them and their like as 
 Negroes, and hesitated or apologized when I used the 
 term. I was told they accepted the name, and did not 
 want it altered or modified. I have been rebuked by 
 them for using the milder and truer term, coloured per- 
 son, when speaking of the group. 
 
 May I interpolate here to say that this matter of 
 nomenclature is not unimportant. I feel that whenever 
 there is a choice of names, and especially when one con- 
 
 83 6* 
 
84 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES 
 
 notes inferiority, or something unworthy, one should 
 always consult the feelings of those concerned. It is a 
 little matter to say Negro rather than nigger or darkie, 
 or native rather than Kafir or nigger, but the courtesy 
 expressed, and good feeling implied, would be a healing 
 solvent and not an irritant. 
 
 The exact number having visible signs of white blood 
 is variously estimated, and indeed it is very difficult to get 
 satisfactory statistical returns. Some years ago the 
 census officials made an attempt, and returned fifteen 
 per cent as of mixed blood. Then for a time all were 
 counted as Negroes in the census returns. Then once 
 again discrimination was made and twenty per cent were 
 counted as of mixed ancestry. My own observations 
 lead me to think that this is not above the mark. Dr. 
 W. E. B. du Bois told me that in his opinion thirty per 
 cent of the total number bore visible traces of their white 
 ancestry. 
 
 A few days after landing in the United States I at- 
 tended a very large meeting of Negroes, probably one 
 thousand were present, the majority almost or quite black. 
 Here and there, standing out almost livid from the dark 
 mass, was a white face, one that would not have been 
 noted as peculiar in a white assembly. It gave me a queer 
 feeling of incongruity at the time, which recurred on similar 
 occasions later. So before making the comparison be- 
 tween the African in America and the African in Africa 
 as desired by my friends, I had to explain that a Negro 
 is often not a Negro and yet that these are Negroes. 
 
 Then came another explanation, or rather statement 
 of fact, which though, of course, known to all educated 
 persons, is not often fully realized, and it must be re- 
 alized and kept in mind if we are to understand the 
 position. 
 
 Our native people in South Africa have their own 
 language, customs, and traditions, still for the most part 
 unbroken by the white man. The land they live in is 
 their own native land. River and mountain, plain and 
 
THE BLACK MAN WITH THE PART WHITE 85 
 
 valley, bear the names given to them by their fathers, and 
 are associated with the past of their race. The black man in 
 America is bereft of all these racial supports. For nearly 
 three hundred years he has been sundered from all that 
 his race built up of social order, custom, and tradition, 
 and has been forced to accept what he could adapt from 
 the white man. Comparison under such diverse circum- 
 stances becomes very difficult. 
 
 I may say, however, that the undiluted black people 
 of the South struck me as being more typically Negro 
 than our Bantu. We have many who are a dull, soot} 7 
 black, but also many of a bronze shade, a living colour 
 in which the red blood seems to diffuse itself through 
 the dark skin with a warm, healthy, soft glow, and which 
 is always in my mind associated with the beautiful grassy 
 hills and wooded valleys of the Natal Coast, with the 
 little brown huts, and the wattled kraals full of cattle. 
 
 This Zulu colour I did not see in America. 
 
 In feature and expression too our people are more 
 comely, and I should think have more native ability, as 
 they certainly have more dignity. There is, of course, 
 much in common both in appearance and character, both 
 are Africans, but these distinctions were definitely im- 
 pressed upon me. 
 
 In general physique, too, I think the South African 
 native is superior. As a general rule the American 
 Negro did not stand to me for physical strength. There 
 are many notable exceptions ; one sees extraordinarily 
 powerful-looking, almost gorilla-like men, the sight of 
 whom enables one to understand the despair of the 
 pugilistic world to discover a " White hope," but the 
 proportion of these is small. 
 
 It has been stated that the long residence of the Negro 
 in America under different climatic and other conditions 
 has modified the type, and even those of pure African 
 lineage approach in appearance the features of the white 
 man. 
 
 M. Jean Finot, for instance, states that the colour and 
 
86 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES 
 
 appearance of the Negro have changed in the United States 
 with his milieu. I carefully watched for any evidence of 
 this, but could find none, nor did I meet any responsible 
 person with long experience of the race who believed it 
 to be the case. The consensus of opinion was all in the 
 other direction, that, apart from admixture of blood, the 
 Negro in all essentials remained the same. 
 
 I do not wish it to be inferred that I think this would 
 continue indefinitely through the ages. Gradually, but 
 very gradually, the race would alter in response to its 
 changed environment. Those who profess they already 
 see actual visible results are I think anticipating what 
 will take a vastly longer time to effect. 
 
 In our half-castes in South-East Africa — the result of 
 union between a white father and Zulu mother — it is not 
 uncommon to see a red and yellow complexion, the yellow 
 clear, and the red suffusing it, that gives the impression 
 of health and is distinctly attractive. Among those of 
 the Negro people whom I must call mulattoes for want of 
 a better word, the colour was invariably a dull yellow of 
 varying depth sometimes approaching a sallow white, 
 which was often sickly looking. A bright expression, 
 especially in the children, was not uncommon among 
 those of mixed descent, but good looks were not conspicu- 
 ous, and the physique was, if anything, inferior to that 
 of the all-blacks. 
 
 If race characteristics are deep-seated, as I believe, 
 then in such a variety of blending as is present in the 
 United States, varying from an unmitigated black man, 
 quite indistinguishable from a present-day West African 
 Negro, to a man who would pass without comment in a 
 London club, there must be innumerable exceptions to 
 any generalizations as to character and capacity. The 
 non-recognition of this most important fact makes many 
 of the attempts to portray Negro character of but little 
 value, and if I attempt it I do so conscious of the diffi- 
 culty of the task and recognizing that there are many 
 exceptions. 
 
THE BLACK MAX WITH THE PART WHITE 87 
 
 The two streams of mankind which in different degrees 
 have gone to make up the modern American Negro, are 
 so different, that I think it may be accepted as a general 
 proposition that the predominant mental and moral 
 characteristics of any single Negro vary with his colour; 
 if entirely black they will be those of the African, and 
 this will be altered and modified according to the propor- 
 tion of European blood in his veins — in the extreme 
 cases he will think, feel, and act as a black man, or as a 
 white man. 
 
 The bulk are of course black ; of these we may say 
 that they are, under ordinary conditions, happy and con- 
 tented, indolent, vain, long-suffering, kindly, intensely 
 social, lacking foresight, unthrifty, imitative rather than 
 constructive, with strong sexual and religious emotions, 
 unre vengeful, with a distinct capacity for fidelity to those 
 they trust. I may add a disposition to accept authority, 
 and to submit to discipline, obedient to their recognized 
 superiors, and evincing an esprit de corps when associated 
 in a mass. 
 
 Some of these traits are indicated in their present 
 position and past history. I have said they are unre- 
 vengeful and have a capacity for fidelity. Nothing shows 
 this more clearly than their faithfulness as slaves to their 
 masters during the Civil War. The whole white man- 
 hood of the South left their homes in charge of the des- 
 pised black man, and in these words a great Southerner, 
 Henry Grady, tells of it : " History has no parallel to the 
 faith kept by the Negro during the war. Often five 
 hundred Negroes to a single white man, and yet through 
 those dusky throngs the women and children walked in 
 safety, and the unprotected homes rested in peace. Un- 
 marshalled, the black battalions moved patiently to the 
 fields in the morning, to feed the armies their idleness 
 would have starved, and at night gathered anxiously at 
 the big house to hear the news from Marster, though 
 conscious that his victory made their chains enduring. 
 Everyone humble and kindly. The body-guard of the 
 
88 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES 
 
 helpless. The rough companion of the little ones. The 
 observant friend. The silent sentry in his lonely cabin. 
 The shrewd counsellor. And when the dead came home 
 a mourner by the lonely grave. A thousand torches 
 would have disbanded every Southern Army, but not one 
 was lighted." 
 
 One of the strongest characteristics of the Western 
 European, whether in his old home or oversea, is his 
 foresight, which has been one of the greatest factors in his 
 material advancement, and which, so often exaggerated 
 and allowed to predominate, becomes the bane of indi- 
 vidual life, destroying joy in the present for a future that 
 may never come. Not so the Negro : his lot must indeed 
 be an unhappy one if he cannot enjoy the sunshine as it 
 streams upon it, and only pressure from his strongest 
 animal needs will force him to forecast the future, and 
 sacrifice the present to make provision for it. 
 
 Many individual instances can be given of Negroes 
 who, alone and unaided, have apparently planned out 
 a life's work and consistently striven to achieve it, and 
 many who, by example and help, have raised the tone and 
 character of the community in which they lived. The case 
 of Dr. Booker T. Washington will occur to all. In propor- 
 tion to the total number, and it must be remembered we 
 are dealing with over ten million souls, such cases are 
 rare. 
 
 Closely connected with a lack of foresight is the 
 economic extravagance of the Negro. Thrift is not one 
 of his virtues. On several of the many occasions on 
 which I addressed gatherings of students, I emphasized 
 the necessity of thrift, taking as my text, out of debt out 
 of danger. Once or twice I made an apology to the 
 principal for dealing with such a trite and material 
 subject, but excusing myself by saying that my observa- 
 tions led me to the belief that unthrift and extravagance 
 were great failings of the race, and were directly 
 responsible for many moral lapses. 
 
 I said I tried to suit my subject to the needs of m}' 
 
THE BLACK MAN WITH THE PART WHITE 89 
 
 audience, and would never have dwelt on this subject to, 
 say, the last generation of Scottish youth. They quite 
 agreed with this view, and one said: "If the Negro had 
 been as a race as thrifty as the old Scottish crofters, ere now 
 they would have owned the Southland ". I saw abundant 
 evidence of reckless, wasteful expenditure. The dress of 
 the city Negro congregations was more fashionable, with 
 apparently more spent on gewgaws and frippery, than that 
 of a middle class English congregation probably ten times 
 as wealthy. The youth of both sexes were often adorned 
 in ultra fashionable attire, often looking ridiculously 
 bedizened, and obviously conscious of their finery. I 
 have seen such emerging from a pitifully poor-looking 
 home, leaving a mother dressed in rags. The drummer 
 selling gramophones, harmoniums, buggies, and other 
 luxuries on the deferred payment system, can always 
 find customers or victims in the Negro cabins. 
 
 Thousands of tenants who by the exercise of self- 
 denial could pay their way year by year, are hopelessly 
 in debt to their landlords, who often unscrupulously take 
 advantage of this trait to make unholy profits out of them. 
 Shopping seems a mania with them. On market days 
 and shopping nights they throng the stores, not to bu}' 
 necessaries and depart, but to lounge about, feel important, 
 and finally succumb to the temptation to buy some useless 
 article they cannot afford. The same weakness may be 
 seen in their homes. The guest chamber or public room 
 is fitted up with conventional rubbish, the back rooms 
 empty, untidy, and neglected. Miserliness is a great vice, 
 but no one need be afraid that it is likely to become a 
 besetting sin of the Negro, and those who know him best 
 are unanimous in preaching thrift. The author of a mono- 
 graph on the Philadelphia Negro and who is himself one 
 of their own race thus writes : " Probably few poor nations 
 waste more money by thoughtless and unreasonable ex- 
 penditure than the American Negro, and especially those 
 living in large cities like Philadelphia. First they waste 
 much money on poor food and unhealthful methods of cook- 
 
90 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES 
 
 ing. The crowds that line Lombard Street on Sundays are 
 dressed far beyond their means, much money is wasted 
 in extravagantly furnished parlours, dining-rooms, guest 
 chambers, and other visible parts of the house. Thousands 
 of dollars are annually wasted in excessive rents, doubtful 
 societies, amusements, gewgaws, and frivolity." Alfred 
 Holt Stone, a Southern writer, in a study which clearly 
 shows much personal acquaintance with the Negro and 
 some sympathy for him, says : " In the Yazoo delta, which 
 is most fertile, the Negroes are extravagant and unthrifty. 
 They could in a few years, if they were industrious, 
 thrifty, and far-seeing, own the Delta. They are much 
 addicted to gambling (crap), homicide, and loose living. 
 They are unreliable and constantly moving. They spend 
 large sums in aimless railway travelling. There are few 
 drunkards, but there are few, men or women, who do not 
 drink." 
 
 I have said that the Negro is long-suffering and kindly. 
 Could any proposition be more abundantly proved ? 
 His history in the United States since 1619, during and 
 after slavery, demonstrates it. What other race would 
 ever have submitted to be enslaved, to live at the whim 
 of a master of another race, subjected to indignities, 
 even to the continual debauchment of their women, 
 and not have risen and died rather than submit ? To-day 
 lynchings by white mobs, often accompanied by hideous 
 bloody torture, and often of the innocent, happen every 
 few days and not a single retaliatory lynching by 
 Negroes has happened in the South. To a white man 
 death would be preferable to submission, but though 
 often affrighted, and sometimes defending himself in 
 blind fear and fury, the Negro soon forgets, and is happy 
 until the next time. 
 
 The strong emotionalism of the Negro is evidenced in 
 his religious services which I will describe later on, and 
 in which feeling and the social instinct play the principal 
 part. He seems to be easily excited to sex emotions 
 and this, together with a lack of will power and self- 
 
THE BLACK MAN WITH THE PART WHITE 91 
 
 control, make for looseness of living and a disregard 
 of marital and parental responsibilities which is regarded 
 by many as the greatest danger to the race. 
 
 His personal vanity is often inordinate. If I saw a 
 man dressed in clothes cut just beyond the current 
 fashion, the coat a little longer, the waist cut in a little 
 deeper, the trousers more deeply creased, and the ends 
 turned up a little higher, I found he was coloured. 
 American newspapers and periodicals are in many cases 
 intimately personal, but the Negro journals excel in this 
 respect, and are full of photographs with eulogistic per- 
 sonal articles, pandering to the vanity of those portrayed. 
 
 The chief characteristics of the Negro as I have out- 
 lined them will, I am sure, be regarded by South Africans 
 as in the main very like those of our native people. 
 There are differences in degree ; our people, though a long- 
 suffering race, would not submit without protest and 
 struggle to the conditions of life which have been borne 
 by the Negro. And though imitative, the innate con- 
 servatism of the Bantu of South Africa makes them cling 
 to their ancient customs. But on the whole a truthful 
 picture of the characteristics of one would apply in large 
 part to the other. 
 
 It would be possible from the writings of Southerners, 
 Whites and Negroes alike, to cite opinions on each of 
 the individual characteristics I have mentioned, and 
 especially on the weaknesses, throwing them into a 
 deeper shade than I have done. Out of the mouths of 
 their own people a far harsher judgment might have been 
 passed. In the "American Negro" by W. Hannibal 
 Thomas, himself a Negro, a picture of the moral weak- 
 nesses and criminality of the Negro people is drawn, 
 which, if true, would make one utterly despair of the 
 future of such a race. But it is no more true than are 
 the views of those who represent the Negro as being 
 entirely the victim of his environment, and only needing 
 equal opportunity to become exactly as a white man, 
 acting and reacting in precisely the same way. 
 
92 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES 
 
 To an extent which in a general way represents the 
 infiltration of white blood, the man of mixed origin shares 
 these characteristics. Many of those classed as Negroes, 
 who have successfully followed the example of the white 
 man in his various activities, and particularly in those 
 demanding practical efficiency, and who are cited as 
 examples of Negro success, have been more white than 
 black. I have spoken to white educationists, whose lives 
 have been spent among Negroes, and who have not been 
 able to note any great difference in capacit}^ between the 
 children of pure Negro descent and those of mixed origin. 
 Others again claim greater ability for the latter, while I 
 did not meet one who stated that the students of all- 
 black descent were superior. Probably there is not a 
 great difference shown during school age. 
 
 When the actual work of life begins, however, I think 
 it is the case that a greater adaptability to the conditions 
 of modern civilization, and greater power to secure a 
 satisfactory place therein, is shown by the mixed blood. 
 The higher general capacity and status of the mulatto 
 parent also gives a better chance to his children. I 
 visited many of the Higher Schools and Universities of 
 the coloured people, and in nearly all cases saw the 
 students gathered together. Those who know America 
 will understand that 1 did not escape the usual penalty — 
 an address to the students. Many times I have carefully 
 scanned my audience, and am confident that the propor- 
 tion of those of mixed origin present was far higher than 
 that shown by the census. I met many Negroes who 
 had prospered in material things, and many who were in 
 the higher walks of life, professional men and others. 
 Here again I am certain that the proportion of part whites 
 was in excess of what it is in the general population. 
 Anyone interested can easily procure Negro publications 
 full of photographs of prominent members of the race, 
 those present at notable gatherings, congresses, and the 
 like. He will not, I am sure, be struck by the preponder- 
 ance of black faces and negroid features : on the contrary 
 
THE BLACK MAN WITH THE PART WHITE 93 
 
 he will probably be surprised that many of those pictured 
 are classed as Negroes at all. 
 
 I was told by an intelligent light-coloured woman 
 whom I met in Alabama, who was married to a well-to- 
 do mulatto there, and who came from Charleston, S.C., 
 that in her early days in that city she had no black as- 
 sociates, and that between the light coloured and black 
 there was a gulf fixed similar to that separating the 
 former from the whites. Later in life when she moved 
 into Alabama she found there no such class distinctions 
 between black and coloured. Her ancestors on both 
 sides had been freed men for two generations, the family 
 owned property, and had a recognized position in Charle- 
 ston. 
 
 A gentleman responsible for the administration of an 
 influential Society engaged in educational and philan- 
 thropic work among the Negroes, read me a letter received 
 from an agent in North Carolina stating that the lighter 
 coloured members of a congregation there had been 
 causing anxiety by refusing to recognize their darker 
 brethren as equals. These light-coloured ones called 
 themselves Croatians, which is the local name given to a 
 small community in the neighbourhood of mixed descent, 
 probably partly Indian. 
 
 I have also been credibly informed that in parts of 
 South Carolina the mulattoes have kept apart from the 
 blacks, desiring to form a separate community calling 
 themselves the Brown Brotherhood. 
 
 Cases such as these are, however, rare. As a rule all 
 who share, in however small degree, in African lineage, 
 consider themselves Negroes. It is clear to me that 
 the action of the whites in refusing to recognize those 
 of any shade of colour has consolidated all of African 
 descent into one camp, and that the undoubted tendency 
 of the lighter coloured to consider themselves superior 
 and withdraw, has received a check, and is much at- 
 tenuated by this attitude of the whites towards all those 
 of colour. 
 
94 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES 
 
 I do not think that this superior adaptability of the 
 man of mixed descent to his American environment need 
 surprise us, nor need it raise any partisan feeling. I do 
 not claim that the white man is in all things superior to 
 the black : both have their gifts, but certainly the former 
 is the stronger in practical efficiency, and he it is who 
 has built up the civilization in which he and the Negro 
 live together. It would be singular indeed if the mulatto, 
 sharing in the blood, and presumably in the spirit and 
 efficiency of his father's race, did not fit into it more 
 easily and fully than one differing in essentials, and who 
 had never, either in Africa or elsewhere, shown any genius 
 in achieving a similar civilization. In the character of 
 the black man there is much that is admirable, much 
 that, if we possessed it in larger measure, would make 
 us more lovable if less efficient, but it is folly to deny 
 the difference. 
 
 I have tried in the last chapter to tell what the white 
 man thinks of his black fellow-citizen. What the black 
 man thinks of the white must now be essayed. I have 
 spoken of the ever-present acrid hostility, the watchful 
 suspicion towards the Negro, noticeable in many white 
 Southerners. I never sensed exactly the same feeling 
 towardsthe whites in the black man proper. He no doubt 
 feels the disabilities under which he suffers, and when 
 they are pressed home has a feeling of resentment, but 
 I do not think this feeling remains when the immediate 
 occasion is past. If his surroundings are tolerable he en- 
 joys himself with his fellows and does not let his position 
 in Society, nor the possible future of his race, disturb him. 
 I heard many expressions of dissatisfaction with present 
 conditions and a desire to have them righted, but they 
 did not imply a hatred of the white man who made the 
 conditions. 
 
 The same cannot be said of the mixed population. I 
 felt that the iron had entered their soul, and hatred akin 
 to that which the white man feels for them, was ever pre- 
 sent in the minds of many. I met many whose sole topic 
 
THE BLACK MAN WITH THE PART WHITE 95 
 
 of conversation when with me was the degrading position 
 of their race, and this often among those who had been 
 successful in their callings. One can well understand 
 their bitterness. Many of them are only nominally 
 Negroes ; their main line of descent and their appearance 
 are that of a white man, and they have the white man's feel- 
 ings and ideals. Yet they must not attempt any inter- 
 course with the people of the race to which they really 
 belong, and whose achievements are those on which they 
 would naturally set their ambitions. 
 
 The white man is responsible for them, and yet the 
 white man disowns them. It is a cruel position, and 
 though they may have achieved a measure of success in 
 material things, the contemptuous limitations placed on 
 them must ever chafe their souls. Speaking to them I 
 often found that they disclaimed any desire to mix socially 
 with the white man ; they were, they said, proud of their 
 own people, proud to be Negroes. But they did resent 
 all the injustice and differentiation heaped upon them, 
 they resented being branded as inferior. They claimed 
 equal opportunity and equal treatment as provided for 
 them in the Constitution of the United States, and yet 
 denied them both North and South. 
 
 A man, they said, should be treated according to his 
 conduct and ability, and judged by no other standard. 
 We are not even distinguishable by the colour of our 
 skin, and yet, because an ancestor sinned, the men of his 
 race deny us the common rights of citizenship. We can- 
 not walk with head erect, but must always go warily, 
 looking to right and left, lest we give cause for offence, 
 and insult, contumely, or death be our portion. 
 
 No man with a sense of justice could hear all this 
 without the saddest feelings. In one respect, however, I 
 felt they expressed themselves as they did not really feel. 
 The line of cleavage drawn by the South, thrusting all 
 those with one drop of African blood among the Negroes, 
 has made for race solidarity. Had the gulf not been 
 fixed so wide, so deep, I feel that those whose blood and 
 
96 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES 
 
 mentality are mainly white would never have remained 
 in the Negro camp. A black man may be proud of his 
 race, but it is unnatural to expect a white man, forced 
 among blacks, to remain there unless the force is inexor- 
 able. I feel that if the gulf was bridged, those who now 
 express themselves as proud to remain where they are, 
 would crowd into the white ranks, even though they 
 stepped with the lowest there. The tragedy of the South 
 is not the black man whom God made black, but the 
 coloured man, begotten by the lust of his white father. 
 
 It is not difficult to understand that such a people as 
 are the American Negroes in the mass, could in a primi- 
 tive state of Society, fulfil themselves, and weave a social 
 state sufficient for their needs. One can conceive that, 
 even when ruled by a stronger race under conditions 
 approximating to their native state, matters might go 
 tolerably for them. It is much more difficult to imagine 
 them forming an integral and valuable part of a State in 
 the van of modern capitalistic progress, and adapting 
 themselves to the rapid march of events therein. The 
 qualities which have made and carry on the modern 
 state, and make for success therein have in large measure 
 been denied to them. Under present conditions of 
 change and competition, that man, be he white or black, 
 who lacks the qualities required for success therein is 
 trampled underfoot. Millions of our own race in Western 
 Europe and America are the victims of twentieth-century 
 conditions of life. I was told, by some of his more 
 sanguine well-wishers, that the Negro only needed a fair 
 chance to prove himself fitted to take a permanent and 
 honourable place in modern life. The South has hitherto 
 been in a backwater. Life there is rapidly approximating 
 to that of communities in the van of industrial progress. 
 The Negro has to prove himself therein. Can he do so ? 
 
 Haifa century has elapsed since he had freedom thrust 
 upon him. In the next chapter I propose to examine 
 how far in this period he has justified himself in the 
 modern sense, and wherein he has failed. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 WHAT THE NEGRO HAS ACHIEVED. 
 
 At the close of the Civil War in 1865 the Negro had all 
 his way to make. It is true a few were skilled artisans, 
 a few who had been freed had acquired a little property, 
 but the vast mass had nothing, neither land, house, nor 
 implements. 
 
 No people on earth ever had a harder task set to them. 
 The children of Israel despoiled the Egyptians before 
 they set out for the promised land, the white man of the 
 South took care the Negro did not despoil him. Illiterate, 
 without self-reliance or self-control, accustomed to obey 
 and not to think, weak and timid and without material 
 resources, they had to find a place in a civilization built 
 up by a stronger race ; they had to fight a fight unarmed, 
 and not understanding the terms of the conflict. 
 
 It is claimed by their advocates that no such progress 
 as they have made has ever been achieved before by any 
 people in the like short period of time. When we re- 
 member their hopeless position, and the fact that, though 
 they had many influential friends and well-wishers both 
 North and South, the mass of those they lived among 
 were coldly critical or openly hostile, one feels inclined 
 to agree with this finding, notwithstanding their com- 
 parative failure along many lines of civilized endeavour. 
 
 For to-day there is not a calling in which the Negro is 
 not represented by more or fewer members of his race, 
 and in some he has been very successful, but not uniformly 
 so. In certain spheres he has fallen back in comparison 
 to his numbers and the increased extent of his opportuni- 
 
 97 7 
 
98 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES 
 
 ties as compared with the early years of freedom. I 
 want in this chapter to assess these achievements, and 
 try to account for some at least of his successes and 
 failures. 
 
 The great bulk of the Southern Negroes live on the 
 land and are primarily producers. Cotton is still king in 
 the South, and of this staple it is computed that one-half 
 is grown by the Negro. His agricultural activities are 
 exercised as wage-earning labourer, as tenant, paying 
 his rent in cash or in a share of the crop, and as free- 
 holder. 
 
 The price of land in the South has been low, and to- 
 day it is cheap, and the Negro has had opportunity, and 
 still has opportunity, to become a landowner. No obstacle 
 has hitherto been put in his way to purchase as much 
 land as he could pay for. The right to acquire land, 
 without which no people is economically free, and the 
 economic ability to do so, have been the privilege of the 
 Negro since he came out of slavery. He has been shorn 
 of his rights in many directions, but here, in the right to 
 make a home on his own freehold, perhaps the greatest 
 right of all, he has had as full liberty as the most aristo- 
 cratic Southerner in the land. 
 
 Fortunately indeed for the race he has taken advant- 
 age of it, and the figures in the last Census show that 
 he is acquiring in a higher ratio than ever in the past. 
 To a great extent in the immediate past, and still to-day, 
 though his friends hope in decreasing measure, like all 
 peoples under modern influences, the Negro has felt the 
 lure of city life, and more than most he has yielded to it 
 and suffered grievously therefrom. His best friends 
 have warned him of the dangers of this course, urged 
 him to remain in the wholesome healthy country, and 
 there build his home, and build it under the best condi- 
 tions. It almost seemed as if these voices were raised in 
 vain, and that the drift into the city was going to continue 
 to the undoing of the race. Now there has been a pause 
 and a reaction, to the great delight of those who, like 
 
WHAT THE NEGRO HAS ACHIEVED 99 
 
 Dr. Booker Washington, have consistently preached the 
 doctrine that the hope of the Negro was on the land. 
 
 This gratifying change is reflected in the last Census 
 returns. Comparing 1900 with 19 10 the Negro population 
 has increased barely 10 per cent, but those engaged 
 directly in agriculture have increased 20 per cent. In 
 every Southern State east of the Mississippi, the Negro 
 is a dwindling ratio to the whole population, but he is an 
 increasing ratio on the farms, with the one exception of 
 the State of Louisiana. These rural Negroes total 
 2\ millions, and with their families represent more than 
 four-fifths of the total Negro population of the South, 
 and they cultivate in all approximately one hundred 
 million acres. Of these 2 J million people, no less than 
 890,141 are either farm owners, or rent the farms they 
 till. 
 
 In Mississippi, Alabama, and North Carolina, the 
 farms cultivated by white owners increased during the 
 decade by 12 per cent, those cultivated by Negro owners 
 increased by 17 per cent. In Georgia the white farmers 
 owning their own land increased by 7 per cent, the 
 Negro owners increased by 38 per cent. In the 
 country as a whole the Negro farmers increased much 
 more rapidly than those of the white race, the respective 
 percentages being 19*6 and 9*5. In the South alone, the 
 number of coloured farmers increased by 20*2 per cent 
 during the decade, as compared with an increase of 17*4 
 per cent in the number of white farmers. 
 
 The acreage of land in farms operated by white 
 farmers decreased somewhat in each geographic division 
 of the South, while the acreage of farms operated by 
 coloured farmers increased in all divisions, the percent- 
 ages ranging from 77 to 13 per cent. 
 
 In the South as a whole the value of farm land and 
 buildings operated by white farmers increased 122*6 per 
 cent during the decade, as compared with an increase of 
 137*6 per cent for farms cultivated by Negro farmers. 
 
 Taking the South throughout, the average size of 
 
 7* 
 
ioo BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES 
 
 white farms was in 19 10 one hundred and forty-one acres, 
 and was nearly three times the size of those owned by 
 coloured farmers, which was 479 acres. The average 
 value of land and buildings per farm was for whites $2923, 
 and for coloured $1011, but the percentage of increase 
 in the decade was somewhat greater in the case of 
 farms owned by coloured farmers than on those of white 
 farmers. 
 
 The total value of farm property owned by coloured 
 farmers in the South increased from $177,404,688 in 1900 
 to $492,898,218 in 1910. 
 
 It may be said that in all probability the Negro farms 
 were heavily mortgaged, and this should be taken into 
 account. This was in fact urged by some Southerners 
 with whom I discussed this question. In the abstract 
 of the Census dealing with mortgages the owners of the 
 mortgaged properties are not distinguished by race. I 
 notice, however, that the percentage of farms mortgaged 
 in the South-Eastern States is low as compared with the 
 whole country, which seems to point to a general freedom 
 from indebtedness in this section. In a detailed study of 
 the position of Negro farmers in certain counties in the 
 South freedom from mortgage is specially noticed. 
 
 During the years now under review the value of 
 domestic animals owned by Negroes has increased from 
 85^ million dollars worth to 177J million dollars worth 
 or at the rate of 107 per cent ; and the value of land and 
 buildings from 6gi million dollars worth to 273-$- million 
 dollars worth or 293 per cent. 
 
 It will not be necessary to labour this point further. 
 The Negro in the South as a farmer is, in American 
 phrase, "making good ". 
 
 The great bulk of the Negro people are, fortunately, 
 thus engaged in agriculture ; domestic and personal service 
 claim the next largest number. 
 
 The main classes of occupation are thus given ; — 
 
WHAT THE NEGRO HAS ACHIEYED : ; / ici 
 
 In agricultural pursuits . 
 
 „ domestic and personal service 
 
 „ manufacturing and mechanical 
 
 ,, trade and transport 
 
 ,, professional callings 
 
 Persons 
 Employed. 
 
 2,143,176 
 1,324,160 
 
 275,149 
 209,154 
 
 47,324 
 
 Domestic and personal service is regarded in the 
 South as the sphere proper to the Negro. There is 
 little desire on the part of the whites to supersede him, 
 and his or her position therein remains much as it was. 
 Nearly all the household work for which wages are paid 
 is done by coloured women. Waiters, bootblacks, ele- 
 vator attendants, porters are in the main Negroes. Wages 
 are low, general conditions of service inferior, and there 
 is little progress among this class. 
 
 The number of those engaged in mechanical and 
 manufacturing pursuits is, in proportion to the total 
 Negro population, but small. The demand for really 
 skilful and trustworthy men is greater than the supply, 
 and wages are high. Skilled coloured workers can 
 command a wage but little lower than that of the white 
 man. There is little colour preference, and a Negro will 
 be engaged to work alongside a white man. It is doubt- 
 ful, however, whether he is holding his own in these 
 skilled callings. There is an increasing demand for a 
 higher class of workmanship, and the average Negro 
 artisan has not had the requisite training to undertake 
 it. In a later chapter I will deal with the Negro artisan 
 in more detail. 
 
 In the numerous semi-skilled occupations which come 
 under this head, and bearing in mind the general in- 
 dustrial advance of the South, it seems doubtful whether 
 he is holding his own. I am informed by a Negro pub- 
 lication that in the following occupations Negroes have 
 made substantial gains in the decade 1 890-1900. 
 
ID2 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES 
 
 
 1890. 
 
 1900. 
 
 Per cent gain. 
 
 Miners 
 
 15,809 
 
 36,568 
 
 132 
 
 Masons 
 
 9,647 
 
 H,387 
 
 49 
 
 Dressmakers 
 
 7,479 
 
 12,592 
 
 65*3 
 
 Iron and steel workers 
 
 5,790 
 
 12,327 
 
 1 127 
 
 Stationary engineers 
 
 6,326 
 
 10,277 
 
 62*4 
 
 In the following fifteen trades they have lost 
 ground : carpentry, plastering, brick and tile making, 
 marble and stone cutters, blacksmithing, wheelwrights, 
 boot and shoe making, harness and saddle making, 
 leather tanning, trunk and case making, engraving, 
 hosiery knitting and woollen mills. 
 
 It should be noted that the largest increases are in 
 mining and iron working, both of which have made great 
 strides in the South. Both are very laborious callings, 
 to which probably the white man does not cling as to 
 some of those demanding more skill and less muscular 
 effort. 
 
 Professor Walter C. Wilcox, the statistician, thus sums 
 up the position for the decade ending 1900 in skilled and 
 partially skilled work : "The Negro has lost ground in 
 the South in the following skilled occupations : carpenter, 
 barber, tobacco and cigar factory operative, fisherman, 
 engineer, fireman. He has also lost ground in the fol- 
 lowing occupations : laundry-work, hackman or teamster, 
 railroad employee, housekeeper or steward. The balance 
 seems not favourable, and suggests that in the competi- 
 tion with white labour to which the Negro is being 
 subjected he has not quite held his own." 
 
 In the issue of the "North American Review" for 
 December, 1904, Professor W. G. Brown inquires into the 
 industrial position of the Negro, and is inclined to think 
 he is losing ground, and that his position would become 
 precarious if there was a large influx of labouring whites. 
 
 In the schedule I have quoted on the previous page 
 manufacturing is linked to mechanical occupations. Few 
 indeed of the Negroes included in this column can be manu- 
 
WHAT THE NEGRO HAS ACHIEVED 103 
 
 facturing anything on their own account. They may be em- 
 ployed in some capacity in manufacturing establishments 
 belonging to white men or companies, but I saw no evi- 
 dence of their owning, or holding controlling positions in, 
 such concerns. Even as a skilled operative he has little 
 part in what may strictly be called manufacturing. I do 
 not think he has any genius for it. Modern manufacturing, 
 and all it implies, demands abilities for which the Negro 
 is not conspicuous. It requires inventive powers, organiz- 
 ing ability and commercial aptitude. Of the last named I 
 will speak presently. Of invention or in the adaptation of 
 improvements to his work there has been little sign given 
 by the Negro. He has been content to follow precedent 
 and run in a groove. Patents for inventions have been 
 registered by Negroes, but they are few and unimportant 
 as compared with the enormous number scheduled by 
 whites. Much has been said of those due to Negro in- 
 genuity, but a comparison and summary will show little 
 evidence that he is likely to excel either in invention, 
 organization or on the commercial side of manufacturing. 
 
 In Negro papers I often noted a long list of business 
 and financial undertakings in which the people were en- 
 gaged, often with a computation of the capital invested, 
 and the total turnover. It sounded impressive when thus 
 given in the total. When I came actually to see these 
 commercial concerns the contrast between the description 
 and the real thing impressed me once again with the 
 fondness of the race for high-sounding phrases, and their 
 inability to judge accurately of proportions. 
 
 Banking has been specially mentioned as one of the 
 commercial activities which has been successfully man- 
 aged, and which is cited to show the aptitude of the Negro 
 for such pursuits. I find, however, that there are about 
 sixty-four such Negro institutions in the United States 
 with a total capital of Si, 600,000 or ,£320,000, giving an 
 average capital in each of $20,000 or ^5000. When we 
 consider that there are over ten million Negroes in the 
 United States this seems pitifully small. A single 
 
104 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES 
 
 financial institution with the capital of all these put 
 together would hardly aspire to the name of Bank in 
 Britain or the British Colonies. 
 
 The ordinary grocery, drapery, drug, or general store 
 owned by a Negro I found to be usually of the poorest 
 type, and hopelessly out of date. Often necessarily in a 
 poor district, it was also small, badly and insufficiently 
 stocked, dirty, and unattractive, yet all these are classed 
 and numbered as Negro commercial concerns. The 
 amount of capital invested in the majority must be 
 miserably small. Occasionally one saw a comparatively 
 up-to-date establishment, but they were few, and were 
 always pointed out as something phenomenal. Compared 
 with the stores owned and run by Europeans they were 
 pathetically poor. In the higher walks of commerce, im- 
 porting, exporting and wholesale business, the Negro ap- 
 peared to me to be entirely out of it. Indeed the wholesale 
 trade seemed to be altogether in the hands of Americans 
 and aliens. In commenting on this I have been met by 
 arguments which became very familiar to me. They run 
 thus /The Negro is only fifty years removed from slavery, 
 he has had no education, he has no opportunities to learn 
 business methods, he has no capital and cannot command 
 it, and so on. I know something of commerce and com- 
 mercial men, and know that some of the largest and most 
 successful concerns in all parts of the world have been 
 built up by men with little book education, no original 
 capital, and no special advantages beyond native ability, 
 energy, and integrity. 
 
 There are ten million Negroes in the United States, 
 and they are reputed to own wealth totalling $700,000,000, 
 a vast field for the commercial activities of men of the 
 race if the ability and aptitude were present. 
 
 To show how little they seem to appreciate or force 
 the business opportunities undoubtedly present, and 
 which are so apparent to one with an eye to see, I quote 
 Professor Kelly Miller, a Negro, who says : " In commun- 
 ities in which the Negroes constitute one-half, one-third, 
 
WHAT THE NEGRO HAS ACHIEVED 105 
 
 or one-quarter of the population, and where their educa- 
 tional facilities are practically as good as those of the 
 whites, we find they do not conduct one per cent of the 
 business ". 
 
 I could not help contrasting the meagre results of the 
 Negro business man with what has been achieved by the 
 Jew in this field. There are only about two millions of the 
 Hebrew race in the United States, and many of them are 
 poor indeed. The majority probably came as immigrant 
 aliens to the United States without a penny, illiter- 
 ate, and unable to speak the language of the country. 
 The Jew in the United States has also, like the Negro, 
 though not to the same extent, to contend with race 
 prejudice. Yet I found him everywhere controlling huge 
 financial and commercial interests. It appeared to me 
 that the whole of lower Broadway, New York, was mon- 
 opolized by firms whose names ended in 'ski or 'vitch. 
 In the South they have a large share in the retail trade, 
 and their customers are Negroes. I often strolled 
 about the streets of Southern towns on shopping nights. 
 The white (and Jewish) stores were crammed with 
 Negroes, full of importance, pricing and buying. The 
 Negro stores were empty of customers. Their purchases 
 were not limited to the necessaries of life, they were 
 spending their hard-won money on luxuries and frip- 
 pery, and making the fortunes of Americans and aliens — 
 principally aliens. 
 
 In my book on " Black and White in South-East Africa w 
 I point out, that though our native trade is large, and 
 most lucrative, both wholesale and retail, and though the 
 natives know their own requirements best, and often 
 have actual knowledge and experience of costs and 
 profits as paid salesmen in retail stores doing a native 
 trade, and though this has been going on for over sixty 
 years, they never open businesses, but the whole trade 
 and its profits are in the hands of Europeans and Asiatics. 
 It seemed to me that the same racial incapacity for 
 commerce is shown by the American Negro, and the 
 
106 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES 
 
 same lack of racial solidarity in backing up their own, as 
 against the alien trader. 
 
 There is in existence an American Negro business 
 league, which is intended to encourage the Negro in 
 business pursuits. This is good, and I trust it will 
 succeed in inducing Negroes of capacity to take ad- 
 vantage of their opportunities, and at the same time 
 help the race. The Southern white insists on racial 
 distinctions, and a measure of racial separation. I think 
 this is wise, but such separation should carry with it the 
 advantages as well as the disadvantages which appertain 
 to it. At the same time, I confess I am doubtful whether 
 any great measure of success will result from this organ- 
 ization. Racial aptitudes differ, and I do not think 
 along the line of commerce the Negro will become great. 
 His salvation lies in what is natural to him, the cultiva- 
 tion of the soil he owns. 
 
 According to the figures given, the number of pro- 
 fessional men and women of Negro race is 47,324. 
 Again a small number for ten million people. The great 
 majority of these too are preachers and teachers. I met 
 Negro doctors and dentists in good practice, who told 
 me they were not supported by their own people to the 
 extent they should be. 
 
 1 want to see the Negro people sufficient unto them- 
 selves, as far as their natural aptitudes and their ac- 
 quirements will carry them. The white man is 
 determined that the black man shall never be accepted 
 as a full equal. Even among the friends who are 
 striving to obtain justice for the Negro, there are many 
 who are set against race admixture, who want him to 
 value and preserve his race integrity, and who counsel a 
 measure of race separation. Racially speaking this has 
 been a great gain to the Negro people, hardly a single 
 drop of their blood has gone over to the white side, 
 while every single drop of white blood entering Negro 
 veins is retained by the Negro race. Discrimination 
 makes for — nay forces — solidarity, a solidarity that a 
 
WHAT THE NEGRO HAS ACHIEVED 107 
 
 weak race would never have achieved by its own efforts. 
 But as I have shown, even with this constant pressure 
 on the part of the white man, Negro solidarity in the 
 practical affairs of life, where it should be strong, is 
 weak. I believe, however, it is growing, and I hope it is. 
 It is no menace to the white men if they band together 
 to help each other, and there is a great field of prospec- 
 tive wealth and advance open to the Negro when he 
 realizes it. Whether he can effectively seize it I do not 
 know. It is perhaps the best plan to wait and see. 
 
 The total advance of the Negro people in material 
 things since Emancipation has been indubitably very 
 great. Any inquiry into it, if it is to be of value, should 
 be directed not only to the sum total, but to its distribu- 
 tion among the members of the race. Here monographs 
 dealing with special communities have a high value. 
 From such a one, compiled by Professor W. W. Elwang, 
 and entitled " The Negroes of Columbia, Missouri," I glean 
 the following economic data. In this town the Negroes 
 form 33 '90 per cent of the total population, and hold 
 4*48 per cent of the real, and 3*42 per cent of the personal 
 property. Nearly one-half of this property is in the 
 hands of thirty-one persons. Of this half, valued at 
 $37,265, nearly three-fifths, or $22,315, belong to eight 
 persons. Still further, of this $22,315, no less than 
 $10,500 is the property of one man and his wife. It 
 seems rather a hopeless case for the majority. My impres- 
 sion is, that if Negro holdings were carefully analysed, a 
 similar state of things would be found in many commu- 
 nities. Even to a greater extent than among whites, the 
 few exercise foresight and thrift, the great bulk live from 
 hand to mouth, careless of the morrow. 
 
 The nett result of what I have said of the economic 
 position of the Negro may be thus summarized : — 
 
 In agriculture, great progress has been made and 
 there are immense possibilities. 
 
 In domestic and personal service, little progress and 
 no great prospect. 
 
io8 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES 
 
 In manufacturing and mechanical pursuits, progress 
 in certain directions, less in others. 
 
 In trade and transport, little fitness has been shown, 
 and it is doubtful whether much progress will be made in 
 the immediate future. 
 
 In professional pursuits, progress is being made, and 
 more is possible. 
 
 I do not think those friends of the Negro who claim 
 that he has shown ability to fill all the many activities of 
 American civilized life as well as the white man, and who 
 often exaggerate what he has accomplished, are doing 
 the Negro a service. I have tried to analyse these 
 statements, and I find, as might have been reasonably 
 predicted, that his advance has been much greater and 
 more solid in some directions than in others. Races, 
 like individuals, have their limitations, and it would be 
 unreasonable to ask a backward race, like the Negro, to 
 prove itself fit and able to compete in a civilization so 
 complex as that of the United States in the nineteenth 
 and twentieth centuries. He has done much in certain 
 directions, and I hope I have given him full credit for 
 his successes : to do more, and praise indiscriminately 
 when comparative failure is apparent, is to pander to his 
 vanity, and feed a complacency to which he is too prone. 
 
 I have shown by figures the hope that lies in agri- 
 culture and the progress that has been made. I am such 
 an enthusiastic believer in the opportunity for the Negro 
 on the land, and his fitness for this first of callings, that 
 on this subject I shall probably often repeat myself. It 
 is of the first and most vital importance that the race 
 should find what it can do of value to the State, should 
 find an opening in which it shall have opportunity to 
 develop its latent powers, that those who believe that on 
 the land this will be found need not apologize for constant 
 reiteration of this doctrine. A further reason for press- 
 ing home the value of this opportunity is that it will not 
 remain open, and one of the tests of the race will be how 
 far they are able to see and take advantage of it. 
 
 A visitor travelling slowly through the South as I did 
 
WHAT THE NEGRO HAS ACHIEVED 109 
 
 gets ample opportunity to see how the rural Negro 
 lives. I understand he has improved of recent years, 
 vastly improved in many sections, but there is plenty of 
 room for further improvement. His dwelling is usually ■ 
 a log cabin of small size, consisting of one or two rooms 
 without verandah, and the outbuildings, if any are present, 
 are of the very poorest. As a rule there is no attempt 
 at beautifying the house or making it hygienic, and I very 
 seldom saw a flower garden attached to the Negro cabin. 
 There may be a vegetable plot, but the assortment of 
 produce growing in it is meagre. The cultivation of the 
 fields is usually primitive, although on much the same 
 lines as that of his white neighbour of similar means. I 
 was travelling in the ploughing season, and for hundreds 
 of miles I saw no more modern implement than a single 
 furrow one-horse plough. We could show a larger 
 variety of modern implements on many farms in benighted^/ 
 Africa. The cultivation was shallow, the ploughing 
 following the contour of the field to prevent soil wash. 
 Both Negro and white farmers seemed to follow the same 
 methods. It may be that for their main crop — cotton — 
 this apparently slip-shod method is suitable, but it is 
 not good cultivation. I am convinced that modern sci- 
 entific methods would result in great improvement. Too 
 much time and attention was given to cotton, which is 
 still king in the South, still the crop that brings in the 
 cash and pays the rent. Too often it monopolizes 
 everything, and land that should be growing varied crops, 
 food for man and beast, is occupied by cotton. The 
 land is impoverished, and those tilling it have to buy the 
 food they should raise themselves. It may be that the 
 invention of a cotton-picking machine, which I was told 
 is likely to prove a practical success, will reduce the 
 disproportionate time now given to this crop, which is 
 at present stated to be three-fourths of the whole year. 
 This would to my mind benefit both the Negro and the 
 community, and give time for attention to other matters 
 of the first importance in the rural economy of the South. 
 
r 
 
 i io BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES 
 
 Attention should be given to scientific manuring, the 
 rotation of crops, green soiling, the care of live-stock, and 
 the utilization of their manure, which would work 
 wonders in the South. This land should be covered with 
 smiling homes. Too long the plantation system, with its 
 economic and social evils, has reigned. The country is 
 adapted to mixed farming and comparatively close settle- 
 ment, with co-operation and all the social and material ad- 
 vantages it brings. This applies not only to the Negro 
 but to the white man. Some far-sighted enthusiasts and 
 philanthropists are working to this end, not the least Dr. 
 Booker Washington, and all well-wishers of the South 
 must hope their efforts will be crowned with success. 
 
 Meantime, though Nature holds out ample promise, 
 the aspects of the Negro rural home and its surroundings 
 are poor and sordid, and to those who can only see the 
 present may seem hopeless. It gives material for the 
 sentimental writers of novels and essays, who picture the 
 dull dark cabin in the noisome swamp, with the poor 
 impoverished cotton fields, the inmates living in the direst 
 poverty, deeply in debt, dreading the fatal day of reckon- 
 ing, but with souls above their sordid surroundings, with 
 deep longings for communion with other souls in brighter 
 spheres, and so on and on. 
 
 After seeing the Negro in his actual surroundings, in 
 his log cabin in the South, after assessing his real position 
 and his possibilities, I felt little patience with this senti- 
 mentality. 
 
 The surroundings of the rural Negro are not ideal, 
 they are often dirty, untidy, and unhygienic; his food, 
 though abundant, is coarse and often monotonous, but 
 there is nothing in it all to shed tears over, whole classes 
 of white rural workers elsewhere in the world are in in- 
 finitely worse circumstances, and with far less to hope 
 for in the future. 
 
 I say it emphatically, and will say it again and again, 
 that if there is dirt, if there is overcrowding, if there is 
 debt, if there is exploitation on the part of the white man, 
 
WHAT THE NEGRO HAS ACHIEVED in 
 
 it is largely the fault of the Negro himself, and that man 
 or that woman who weeps in sympathy with him, be- 
 wailing his condition, is not his friend but his enemy. 
 That man is his friend who tells him plainly that dirt, 
 disorder, unthrift, and laziness, are his besetting sins, and 
 that if he does not overcome them he deserves all he gets 
 both from Nature and the white man. 
 
 Dr. Booker Washington is right, emphasize the op- 
 portunities, and what opportunities ! Would to God the 
 rural labourer of my own race in my native land had 
 such a chance. Imagine it — a land of sunshine, not too 
 hot nor too cold, abundant rainfall distributed through 
 the year, timber for all purposes, firewood at the door, 
 and streams of clear water running through the land. 
 I shall show elsewhere how the Negro may get a home 
 of his own in this land, meantime I ask my readers to 
 take my word for it that any able-bodied, intelligent, 
 industrious, thrifty Negro may have a home of his own 
 in these surroundings, and what a home he could make ! 
 Seeing the opportunity standing out so clearly — even I, 
 just a visitor, felt my fingers itch to grasp axe and spade 
 and make a beginning. 
 
 The log cabin, despised by the sentimental and morbid 
 novelist, now dirty and unhealthy, might with little effort 
 and no expense be made a bower of beauty. The novelist 
 and essayist dealing in the tragic, shudderingly point to 
 overcrowding, and the disease and immorality attending 
 it. Why on earth should there be any overcrowding, 
 why any disease ? If there is any chance of it let the 
 overcrowded come out and sleep under God's stars. I 
 said these cabins had no verandahs. The first thing they 
 should have, with timber in abundance all round, is a wide 
 deep verandah which could be put round each cabin, and 
 every male occupant, at least, sleep in the open, sweet air 
 all the year round. Overcrowding is the Negro's own 
 fault, and if he will hermetically seal up all access to the 
 fresh air, and the family sleep like pigs, of course he will 
 have to bear the consequences. 
 
ii2 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES 
 
 And as to dirt. Why dirt ? Soap, which is cheap, 
 and water, which is everywhere, are necessary, and so 
 is elbow-grease, which the human element should supply. 
 Pathetic laments have been made over mud floors. I 
 have lived in houses with mud floors which were perfectly 
 clean and hygienic. No native kraal in Africa has any- 
 thing else, and the inmates are splendidly healthy. If 
 the superstructure is allowed to rot, and the floor to be- 
 come uneven, and rain enter and mud-pools form, of 
 course they become deplorable, but the cause for this is 
 one and removable — laziness. Eliminate the laziness, 
 and the floor will soon be all right. 
 
 Now for food. If it is monotonous, again it is the 
 fault of the Negro. This generous earth and glorious 
 climate will grow variety and abundance. Vegetables, 
 fruit of all kinds, only need ordinary attention. Pigs 
 and fowls thrive and are within the reach of all. Cattle 
 do well, and most Negro cabins could have a cow or two. 
 I have gone into the financial side of the matter, and 
 I will take my reader into my confidence on this aspect 
 of the question later on, but I say now that industry, fore- 
 sight, and thrift, will enable the Negro in the log cabin 
 to sit at a table amply provided with varied food, with 
 cereal, dairy, vegetable and fruit products in abundance. 
 
 And for the ugliness of the log cabin of which so 
 much has been made ? After seeing the possibilities I 
 feel sick of much of the stuff I have read, pouring pity on 
 the poor Negro who has to live in a log cabin ! I say it 
 again, weighing my words, that every log cabin in the 
 South could easily be made beautiful, surrounded by 
 beauty. I saw an untended Marshal Neil rose climbing 
 over the porch of a cabin, which was carrying hundreds 
 of lovely blooms that ravished the sight. I know the 
 profusion of flowers, and flowering and climbing shrubs, 
 that can be grown in Natal, and all that is possible in 
 Natal is possible in the South. I have seen enough to 
 make me certain of it. Even in a despised log cabin, 
 with wide creeper-covered verandahs, vegetables and fruit 
 
WHAT THE NEGRO HAS ACHIEVED 113 
 
 in plenty, a cow, pigs, and chickens, firewood for the 
 collecting, and sunshine over all, I cannot feel the material 
 elements for a wholesome, healthy, hopeful life are lack- 
 ing. But effort is required. The Negro has not arrived 
 at it yet. I believe he has advanced and is on the way 
 to better things. Many helpful agencies have been es- 
 tablished as I will relate, and the Negro is responding. 
 Stimulus and sympathy he may require, but stimulus 
 comes first, and the sympathy that finds expression in 
 wails over his present economic short-comings by pictur- 
 ing the misery of his surroundings is of the kind that the 
 Negro should not get, and those who proffer it are not 
 his true friends. He is all too ready to sit down on his 
 mud floor and pour out wail for wail. The true sym- 
 pathy is to pick him up, and, roughly if necessary, set 
 him to putting things straight. And I say this because 
 I know it can be done, and I know that along this line is 
 the true path for the Negro. Booker Washington is^ 
 perfectly right. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 NEGRO ORGANIZATION—CHURCH AND LODGE. 
 
 In somewhat singular contrast to the lack of effective 
 business organization and cohesion among the Negroes for 
 purely commercial ends, are the results achieved in Church 
 matters, and more recently in the building up of friendly 
 and secret societies. The strong religious and emotional 
 nature of the African has in America found in the Church 
 its satisfaction. 
 
 Around the Church as a centre are aggregated all that 
 goes to make up the social life of the Negro, and social 
 life means more to him than it does to the more self- 
 centred white man. 
 
 Until quite recently all the Negro people, men and 
 women alike, were Church members, and the great 
 majority took an active part in religious observance. Even 
 those who were not regular in their attendance, or who 
 were backsliders, were not antagonistic, and might always 
 be won back to an ideal they had never abandoned. 
 
 To-day I heard from the older Negroes who had grown 
 up in the faith, and whose lives were closely knit to 
 Church associations, many laments that the younger ones 
 were lax, indifferent and fond of pleasure, and too often 
 put pleasure first, and religious observances second. This 
 note of disappointment is not of course peculiar to this 
 generation, it was no doubt the plaint of the elders in the 
 days of the Ark of the Covenant, but it is probably truer 
 to-day than ever before. With the decay of old custom, 
 with the invasion of the South by modern ideas and 
 practices which is bound to come, will also come indiffer- 
 
 ii 4 
 
NEGRO ORGANIZATION 115 
 
 entism, love of pleasure, and the chafing at control, which 
 are so peculiarly characteristic of the present day. 
 
 Anything of the nature of philosophic doubt seems 
 foreign to the Negro character. I asked an intelligent mu- 
 latto who dwelt on the tendency to forsake religion whether 
 it is due in part to this cause, and his reply was in the 
 negative. They did not, he said, think enough to become 
 atheists or agnostics in the usual acceptance of the term. 
 It is reported that a similar question was put to an old- 
 time Negro and he answered: "Golly no, it takes some 
 sense to be an atheist and niggers hasn't enough sense ". 
 
 The common charge against Negro manifestations of 
 religious feeling is that it begins and ends in emotion, and 
 that this emotion is of a sensuous kind begotten of his love 
 of rhythmic, musical sound, and worked up to fervour by 
 the contagion of the crowd. His nervous force being thus 
 drawn upon, it exhausts itself, and there is little left for the 
 works that should go with the faith. It is charged against 
 him, that even among the elect, a high standard of moral- 
 ity does not accompany emotional fervour, and that even 
 gross immorality is frequent, and too frequently condoned. 
 
 Notwithstanding many theological colleges, the stand- 
 ard of learning and conduct demanded by the congrega- 
 tions from their ministers is not high, and lapses in one 
 who may be otherwise acceptable, are looked upon lightly. 
 It is not difficult to find in the writings of Negroes them- 
 selves these weaknesses emphasized much more strongly 
 than I have done, indeed some charge the admittedly low 
 standard of morality among the people as a whole, to the 
 absence of high moral ideals among those holding the 
 most influential positions in Negro religious life. 
 
 Granting all this, I have no doubt but that the Negro 
 Church has been an enormous power for good among the 
 people, and has probably been the one force that has kept 
 the race from utter stupefaction and degradation. Unable 
 to find their satisfactions in the usual secular channels, 
 finding little but hardship and restriction in their everyday 
 life, and yet bursting with emotionalism, they grasped at 
 
 8 * 
 
1 16 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES 
 
 the compensations of a life to come, when all toil and sor- 
 row should be done away with, and everlasting joy, of a 
 kind they could understand, would be the portion of all be- 
 lievers. No wonder the songs that dwelt on the golden 
 streets, the harp and crown, and eternal rest, appealed to 
 them, and that their prayers are full of yearning for this 
 glorious hereafter. 
 
 Not only for his religious emotions, but for his social 
 satisfactions has the Church been the solace of the Negro. 
 I attended many services, and found in Sunday school 
 and church, as well as the many other activities which 
 clustered round them, an obvious satisfaction at the mere 
 pleasure of being together; chatting conversations, a 
 purring satisfaction in moving among their fellows, a 
 personal importance in occupying recognized official 
 positions, were obviously very pleasant to them. I found 
 that debating societies, tea-parties, guilds, class-meetings, 
 benevolent societies, and similar activities, filled up the 
 week, while almost the whole of Sunday was taken up 
 with services, the necessary intervals being largely 
 occupied with sociability, — in meeting, walking, and talk- 
 ing. 
 
 Poor and naked indeed would the Negro have been 
 had he not had his Church to fill in his life. While as 
 compared with the nervous force he puts into his praise, 
 prayer, and exhortations, the moral side is weak and often 
 stumbling, still the Church does stand for morality, and 
 the doctrine is preached that works should accompany 
 faith. It cannot be doubted but that the Church has 
 been in all respects a force for the uplifting of the Afro- 
 American people. Unsatisfactory as are the results in 
 many ways, still the imagination is shocked, when one 
 thinks what this people might have been and become, 
 had they not known, or been bereft of, this force of better- 
 ment and satisfaction. 
 
 The principal denominations favoured by the Negroes 
 are of the Protestant Evangelical type, Baptists and 
 Methodists of various kinds being in the ascendant. 
 
NEGRO ORGANIZATION 117 
 
 Some of these are nominally the same as the Northern 
 bodies of the same name, Congregationalists, Wesleyan- 
 Methodists, Presbyterians and others. These, however, 
 include only a small portion of the total Negro wor- 
 shippers ; the majority belong to independent organiza- 
 tions, of which the principal are the Baptists, with about 
 two and three-quarter million communicants, and the Afri- 
 can Methodist Episcopal Church with over half a million 
 members. 
 
 It is noteworthy that neither the Episcopal Church, as 
 we understand it in England, nor the Roman Catholic 
 communion has attracted the Negro. One would have 
 thought that the more elaborate ritual, especially that of 
 the latter, would have specially appealed to him, but such 
 is not the case, In 1906 there were only 38,235 Negro 
 Roman Catholics in the United States. In that year 
 there were 3,685,067 Christian communicants of all sects, 
 and the value of Church property owned by all the Negro 
 Churches was $56,636,159. 
 
 Practically the whole of this vast organization is in the 
 hands of the Negro people, and is altogether managed 
 by them, the whites evincing no interest in it. Probably 
 the Negroes would resent interference with the manage- 
 ment, although they would doubtless accept monetary 
 assistance. This yielding to the black man in the 
 domain of religion, is in marked contrast to the demand 
 for white supremacy in all spheres of secular activity. A 
 Negro says : " In politics, education, business, the white 
 man manages and controls the Negroes' interests, it is 
 only in the Church that the field is undisputed ". It seems 
 to me this is an illustration of the practical and material 
 nature of the white temperament, the white man takes all 
 that leads to power and wealth, and leaves to the black 
 man the culture and control of his materially unfruitful 
 emotions. 
 
 I could not learn, nor do I believe, that any of the 
 various Church activities have a political trend. If they 
 have they are singularly barren in results. 
 
 This utter indifference of the white man in the South 
 
u8 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES 
 
 as to what takes place in these organizations into which 
 he never enters, contrasts with the somewhat nervous 
 attitude of South African politicians and people with 
 regard to the independent religious movement among the 
 Bantu people, which is usually called Ethiopianism. Our 
 people, like the Negro, seem to feel a measure of re- 
 straint in religious matters if controlled and supervised 
 by whites. It may be they are consciously or sub-con- 
 sciously aware that their emotions and aspirations, while 
 in part met by the white man's religion, are not fully 
 satisfied by his presentation of it At all events a move- 
 ment towards independence has received considerable 
 support among the natives of South Africa, and it is likely 
 that it will increase, and possibly take form and force by 
 the uprising of some leading personality. 
 
 The suspicion with which Europeans in South Africa, 
 laymen and missionaries alike, have viewed this move- 
 ment is to some extent due to the allegation that it has, at 
 least in part, a political colour, and that the doctrine of 
 Africa for the Africans is held and preached. In view of 
 the position in America and the evident desire of the 
 Negro to control his own religious activities, may we not 
 have been needlessly suspicious and nervous about this 
 movement, which, taking the character of the African 
 into account, seems not unnatural. 
 
 The absolute separation of white and black in religious 
 life in the South is illustrated by the following incident re- 
 lated by the Rev. J. Snyder in the Forum : "Some years 
 ago there was a great revival in one of the churches of 
 my own city. The Evangelist was fervently inviting all 
 kinds of people to come to the ' anxious seat '. Tramps, 
 drunkards and beggars were among the number. At 
 last it was announced to the church officials that a Negro 
 upon one of the back seats was under conviction. Here 
 was a problem of serious import. The officials held an 
 anxious consultation, and it was finally decided that the 
 Negro might receive salvation in an inconspicuous pew." 
 Revivals like this one are quite out of fashion in South 
 
NEGRO ORGANIZATION 119 
 
 Africa, our English-speaking people are in intimate con- 
 tact with the modern currents of life, consequently such 
 an embarrassing incident could not happen. If it did, I 
 think the black man with us would also have to seek sal- 
 vation in a separate and inconspicuous pew. 
 
 My experience of Negro churches was chiefly in the 
 towns, though I did visit religious gatherings in the 
 country. Many of the churches in the cities are very 
 large and well-built edifices. They are, naturally enough, 
 copies of those belonging to similar denominations among 
 the whites. I found that architecture, furniture, order of 
 service, and all that went to make up the church organi- 
 zation were copies. I noticed that the preponderance of 
 women over men, which is so apparent in English and 
 Colonial churches to-day, was not so marked in the Negro 
 churches. Considering their positions in life, the con- 
 gregations were remarkably well dressed, both men and 
 women often attired in the extreme fashion. I have little 
 doubt but that the love of display enters largely into the 
 attractiveness of church attendance. 
 
 In these large Negro city churches the emotional 
 displays, common in smaller and less conventional gather- 
 ings, were subdued, though interjections were much 
 more frequent than in white churches. The singing was 
 a special feature, and when the congregation warmed up 
 to it, was distinguished by power and rhythm. In one 
 church the choir wore surplices and college caps. 
 
 Most of the discourses I heard were conventional, 
 and did not bear the impress of deep thought, or even 
 feeling ; personal feeling, and in one case personal griev- 
 ance at an alleged slight at Convocation, were introduced. 
 One sermon, however, stands out as an exception. It 
 was a powerful, restrained address on the duty of the 
 race. It contained rebuke of apathy, and a plea for 
 higher morality, and especially denounced prevalent 
 drinking habits, and the supine toleration by the coloured 
 people of the evils inflicted on them by the whisky 
 dealers, and the lack of public spirit when an attempt 
 
120 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES 
 
 was made to obtain prohibition. It was delivered by a 
 striking personality, a light-coloured mulatto, and was 
 admirable in matter, delivery and earnestness. 
 
 In smaller communities, untouched by the reticence or 
 indifference in religious matters which is the spirit of the 
 times, there is much more freedom of expression, especi- 
 ally in revival services. Here emotion has full play, and 
 sways the congregations. It is easy to level criticism at 
 such, they offer targets to ridicule, but there can be little 
 doubt that, taking the nature of the Negro and his racial 
 wants into account, they are of value to the race. 
 
 The Negro gives generously of his substance to build 
 up and support his Church. The spirit of personal 
 emulation is brought into play, and offerings are made in 
 public. Members of the congregation come forward 
 bearing their gifts, and as the warmth and emulation 
 waxes, they often repeat or increase their donations. 
 I met a man, a Southerner engaged in Evangelical work 
 and the distribution of religious books, who contrasted 
 their openhandedness with the niggardliness of the whites 
 among whom he travelled. In one small town I find that, 
 although the real and personal property of the Negroes 
 only amounted to some $80,000, the Church property be- 
 longing to them cost nearly $28,000 ! I should think that 
 of all people on earth professing the Christian religion 
 they give more of their substance to Church work than 
 any other, not even excluding the Roman Catholic popu- 
 lation of Ireland. It is in marked contrast to what obtains 
 in Britain and South Africa. If the white Christians of 
 the Union of South Africa, especially those of British 
 descent, gave the same proportion of their wealth to their 
 Churches, we should have cathedrals fit to compare with 
 Cologne and Milan instead of the present-day poor dingy 
 edifices which are in such marked contrast to our palatial 
 governmental and municipal buildings. Other days, 
 other aspirations. 
 
 At times when they were lamenting the comparative 
 indifference to Church matters, I found some Negroes 
 
NEGRO ORGANIZATION 121 
 
 who considered it due in part to the remarkable develop- 
 ment of friendly and secret societies. These are generally 
 local societies, formed ostensibly for benevolent purposes, 
 to ensure relief in sickness or unemployment, and burial 
 at death. They have increased in number of late years, 
 and not only provide for distress and unfortunate contin- 
 gencies, but meet certain wants of Negro nature, his 
 desire for personal importance and social gathering to- 
 gether. They generally have high-sounding names, 
 provision for numerous officials with bombastic titles, a 
 formal ritual and regalia, and they hold frequent social 
 meetings. I doubt very much whether any society would 
 succeed, however solvent and well established, which 
 made economic advantages the sole claim to the support 
 of the Negro population. 
 
 Even in small towns there may be several societies 
 which in a sense are hardly rivals, for I was told that 
 individual Negroes often belonged to different associa- 
 tions and held office in each. It is quite common for 
 members to fall behind with their payments, in which 
 case they forfeit their privileges, and the moneys previ- 
 ously paid in go to swell the capital of the society, or 
 they pay heavy fines to retain full membership. 
 
 In a small city in Missouri the position of the members 
 of one society is thus given by the Secretary : " Of the 
 whole number admitted during the past six years 38 per 
 cent never made a second payment, 72 per cent lapsed 
 during the first year, and 5 per cent more after paying 
 through the first year". It seems certain that a very 
 considerable proportion of the members fail to meet their 
 obligations, and the societies and officials benefit thereby. 
 The cost of administration must be very heavy in pro- 
 portion to the capital, and charges of peculation on the 
 part of officials are not uncommon. 
 
 Their phenomenal increase seems due to the fact that 
 they fill a want in Negro life, though at an extravagant 
 cost in time and money. Excepting from the view of 
 social satisfactions, the time consumed in the demands of 
 
122 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES 
 
 ritual, the numerous gatherings for trivial ends, and the 
 putting on and off of regalia is largely wasted. On the 
 other hand, if the Negroes were not present at lodge 
 meetings, they would probably be on the streets or in 
 low dives, and gatherings for mutual help are far prefer- 
 able to these. Individual thrift would probably result 
 in more substantial financial results and save much un- 
 necessary expenditure, but the Negro needs the support 
 of his fellows, and the glamour of personal importance as 
 inducements, before he can make the sacrifices which 
 foresight and thrift demand. Take it all in all, I think 
 the societies are a distinct benefit to the Negro people. 
 
 Many of the societies are secret, and it is possible 
 that in some of them the benevolent side is not the most 
 prominent. It is said that political and race issues are 
 discussed under this cloak of secrecy. It may be so, but 
 no practical results can be observed by outsiders. Few 
 white men know or care what is done or said in these 
 secret lodges, but many would be ready enough to take 
 action if they thought that race assertiveness was the out- 
 come of these meetings. 
 
 There has been some protest against the Negro 
 societies taking the same names as white organizations, 
 but, speaking generally, the white man ignores this move- 
 ment, or if friendly, regards it as a good thing that 
 niggers should make provision against misfortune. 
 
 I think it likely, if similar societies were formed among 
 the Bantu people in South Africa, there would be a great 
 deal of suspicion directed against them, and possibly 
 efforts would be made to suppress them. Favouring as 
 I do a measure of separation between the races for the 
 good of both, I feel that organizations such as these, un- 
 less of a clearly seditious character, make for race soli- 
 darity and a proper race consciousness, and give an outlet 
 for feelings and aspirations that are natural and should 
 not be discouraged, though under present conditions in 
 South Africa they should be watched, and perhaps un- 
 ostentatiously and quietly guided, by the authorities. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 EDUCATION, PRINCIPALLY THAT OF THE BLACK CHILD. 
 
 One of the surprises of my visit was the extent to which 
 the Negro has responded to the opportunities for educa- 
 tion he has had. Another was the facilities for education 
 provided for him, from primary school to College and 
 University, both by State appropriations and by the phil- 
 anthropy of Northern friends. These efforts have con- 
 verted the Negro race from an entirely unlettered people 
 in 1865, when it is estimated that 5 per cent only could 
 read and write, to one in which only 30*5 per cent are 
 illiterate. 
 
 During the administrative year 1908-9 in the sixteen 
 former Slave States and the District of Columbia, 1 ,7 1 2, 1 37 
 Negro children were enrolled in the public schools, and 
 these formed 56*34 per centof the total coloured childpopu- 
 lation. In the same area, during the financial year 19 10-1 1 , 
 the total public expenditure on Negro education was 
 $13,061,700. This large sum seems small however when 
 compared with the amount spent on common schools 
 for the whites in the same area, which amounted to 
 $75,863,93 1. The primary coloured schools of the South, 
 particularly in the rural districts, are often in an unsatis- 
 factory condition. I visited several typical ones, and 
 found the buildings poor in construction, lacking in equip- 
 ment, and as far as I could judge the teaching left much 
 to be desired. The length of the school term is often 
 not more than a few months in the year. Negro apolo- 
 gists urge that the Boards which handle the State appro- 
 priations, being invariably white, favour the white schools 
 
 123 
 
124 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES 
 
 to the detriment of the Negro schools, and I think this is 
 often the case. With the Negro a negligible quantity in 
 politics and State management, one would expect this to 
 be the case, and undoubtedly the South has in many in- 
 stances withheld or curtailed the reasonable educational 
 opportunities of the Negro. 
 
 This is one of the complaints which I heard every- 
 where voiced by the militant section of the Negroes. 
 White public opinion on the question seems to vary with 
 the years, sometimes there is a wave of dissatisfaction 
 leading to curtailment, and again a period of greater 
 liberality. Of late the former feeling seems to have 
 been predominant in some sections and States, and I 
 heard of great difficulty in obtaining appropriations, 
 especially those for higher literary education. In the 
 case of some Colleges the grant for purely academic sub- 
 jects had been reduced, and an attempt been made to 
 foster a more practical, and generally an industrial train- 
 ing. Again the title of some of these institutions had 
 been changed to denote this alteration. This may be, 
 probably is, a desirable reform, but by one section of the 
 Negro people, who are jealous and tenacious of their 
 rights, it is regarded as another attempt to deprive them 
 of benefits they now enjoy. This section views all that 
 makes for distinction of the races with suspicion and dis- 
 favour, and is not disposed, even for practical benefits, 
 to condone action which savours of further relegation 
 to an inferior status. 
 
 In support of the contention that Negro education 
 was often starved for want of funds, a well-to-do mulatto, 
 living in a country district, told me that while he was 
 assessed at $40 a year for school rate, the amount voted 
 for his district was only $60 in all. At the same time it 
 must be only in very remote and backward districts that 
 the Negro child is denied the opportunity to obtain a 
 common school education. 
 
 It was, however, the facilities for higher education 
 that most surprised me. There were in 1910, 141 public 
 
EDUCATION OF THE BLACK CHILD 125 
 
 High Schools for coloured persons in the South, with 
 a total of 10,935 students. In addition to these there 
 are 540 institutions engaged in the secondary and higher 
 education of the Negro. Many of these are devoted to 
 the ordinary literary curriculum, but there are others 
 giving special industrial and vocational training. There 
 are Colleges and Universities which grant degrees in all 
 the ordinary subjects, and also schools for medicine, 
 dentistry, and law. Between 1900 and 1909, 1613 Negro 
 College graduates passed through these Universities, be- 
 sides a very large number who did not take a degree. 
 These higher seats of learning vary much in size, from 
 Howard University, Washington, D.C., with an annual 
 income of $134,000, to those which have a precarious 
 revenue of only some $5000. Some are entirely State 
 supported, others receive a grant in aid, while others 
 again derive their funds from Northern sources. During 
 1910-n the expenditures for Negro higher and secondary 
 education in the United States were, by States and Muni- 
 cipalities $756,972, by the Federal Government $299,267, 
 and from other sources, largely of course philanthropic, 
 $3,5i9,6i5, or a total of $4,415,854. 
 
 The vast bulk of this was of course expended in the 
 Southern States. It is estimated that the total value of 
 the property owned by coloured educational institutions 
 amounts to about $16,000,000. As compared with 
 this the value of property owned by all such institutions 
 in the United States for secondary, higher, and industrial 
 training, amounts to $740,000,000. Endowments to Negro 
 Colleges and Universities amount to $2,062,966, and to 
 Normal and Industrial Schools, $3,983,819. In ten years 
 these Negro institutions increased their endowments by 
 half a million dollars. All institutions for higher and 
 special learning among the whites in the United States in 
 the same period added to their endowments a value of 
 $9,761,122. It is reckoned that the direct contribution of 
 the Negro people towards education, apart from taxation, 
 amounts to about $1,000,000 per annum. 
 
126 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES 
 
 The discrepancy between the amounts spent on all 
 branches of Negro education, as compared with the 
 amounts devoted to the instruction of whites, seems very 
 great, and my experience showed that in buildings, equip- 
 ment, and the efficiency of teachers the white institutions 
 were much superior. It must be remembered, however, 
 that even in the South, the Negro population is below 
 one-third of the total population, and if we take the ex- 
 penditure in this ratio, and the ratio is a decreasing one, 
 the disproportion, although large, does not seem so ex- 
 cessive. According to a Negro publication the Southern 
 States have since 1870 expended $160,000,000 on the 
 Negro common schools. During the same period about 
 Si, 200, 000,000 was spent by the Southern States on all 
 their common schools. Taking the Negro population for 
 this period as one-third of the whole, multiplying 
 160,000,000 by 3, thus making the appropriations apply to 
 an equal number in each case, it would appear that 
 8480,000,000 is the ratio of the Negro appropriations, and 
 $720,000,000 that of the white population. Certainly a 
 great disproportion, but nothing like what the visitor 
 would imagine when listening to the complaints of a sec- 
 tion of the Negro people. 
 
 It may be interesting to compare the position in two 
 of the provinces of the South African Union, Natal and 
 the Transvaal, premising that the per capita amount spent 
 in the Cape Colony is higher, and in the Orange Free 
 State lower. In Natal we have about a million Bantu 
 people and approximately 100,000 whites. An average of 
 the last few years would give about £15,000 spent on 
 native education and £150,000 on white education. This 
 £15,000 represents $75,000. During this period it 
 would be quite fair to average the Negro population 
 of the South as 8,000,000, it certainly would not ex- 
 ceed this. Yet on these 8,000,600 was spent in 1910-11, 
 from public funds $8,645,846, and from all sources 
 $13,061,700. We may safely say that on each million of 
 the Negro population in the South a million dollars of 
 
EDUCATION OF THE BLACK CHILD 127 
 
 public money was annually spent for education. In Natal 
 the million natives receive $75,000 worth! In the 
 Transvaal the position is not so good. Here in this 
 Northern province of the Union of South Africa it is 
 computed that the native population contribute ;£i, 500,000 
 to the State Exchequer, and yet barely £15,000 is spent 
 upon their education. It is well sometimes to make such 
 comparisons when one is told that the position in the 
 South in this regard is without parallel, for discrimination 
 and injustice, in the civilized world. 
 
 I said that primary education was within the reach 
 of the great majority of Negro children in the South. I 
 would also say that a special industrial course, or a Uni- 
 versity education, may be obtained by any intelligent 
 Negro boy or girl, however poor, if endowed with grit 
 and character. Many of these institutions for higher and 
 vocational training make special provision for such cases 
 by allowing students to work out their fees, which are 
 never high, and often extremely low. 
 
 For many years the education given in most of the 
 higher Schools and Colleges was entirely literary, and 
 those passing through them became teachers and preach- 
 ers. Often it consisted largely in an exercise of memory, 
 was on the surface, having little depth or value to 
 character. Many of the Negro preachers thus turned 
 out were vain and pompous, darkening counsel by long 
 words, and with a low standard of morality. There ap- 
 peared to be a failure in linking on education to life. 
 Edgar Gardner Murphy says : " We have been giving the 
 Negro an educational system which is but ill-adapted to 
 ourselves. It has been too academic, too little related to 
 practical life for the children of the Caucasian. Yet 
 if this system is ill-adapted to the children of the most 
 progressive and most efficient of the races of mankind, 
 who shall measure the folly of that scholastic traditional- 
 ism which would persist in applying the system to the 
 children of the Negro. If the weaknesses of the Negro 
 have made him run to the bookish and decorative in 
 
128 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES 
 
 knowledge, we must remember that the schooling we 
 have provided for him has at least been bookish if it has 
 not been decorative." 
 
 In some of the cities in which there has been a large 
 permanent Negro, population, such as Washington, D.C., 
 educational facilities have been excellent for many years, 
 on the whole as good as they were for whites, yet it does 
 not seem to have had the effect in bettering their worldly 
 positions ; few attained positions of trust and responsi- 
 bility. It is true they were handicapped by their colour 
 in competition with whites, but there was a wide field 
 for personal advance and social usefulness among their 
 numerous kinsfolk. Prof. Kelly Miller says on this point : 
 " There is perhaps no place on earth where so much 
 culture runs to seed, and so much intelligence goes to 
 waste, as among the Negro element in our large cities. 
 The younger element of the race, at least, is practically 
 as well educated as the whites, and yet they count for 
 almost nothing in the higher business and industrial life 
 of the community. The fact cannot be disputed." 
 
 The predominance of literary education is now, how- 
 ever, being challenged by industrial training, including 
 scientific and practical instruction in agriculture. The 
 movement may be said to have been initiated by General 
 Samuel Chapman Armstrong, the founder of the Hamp- 
 ton Normal and Industrial Institute in Virginia. 
 
 Trained in this Institute was Dr. Booker T. Wash- 
 ington, who carried the spirit and methods of Hampton 
 far to the South, and built up a daughter institute at 
 Tuskegee in Alabama. Widespread and deep have been 
 the results. Now all over the Southland the Negro is 
 looking for, and getting, education in the practical affairs 
 of life, which will react on character, and will have, I be- 
 lieve, a far-reaching effect on the race. 
 
 Large bequests have been made by Northern men 
 and women to this end. Federal appropriations and 
 organization have been given, and the States are assisting. 
 The position differs in different parts of the South ; in 
 
EDUCATION OF THE BLACK CHILD 129 
 
 some districts the whites stand aloof, but in many 
 sections Southern men and women are taking part, both 
 officially and unofficially, in this work. In Virginia 
 supervising teachers have been appointed, who visit the 
 rural Negro schools, and advise, assist, and encourage 
 to more zeal and better methods, and especially to foster 
 industrial and agricultural training. In this State there 
 are travelling instructors in agriculture, who visit the 
 farms, and call meetings of farmers, giving advice, en- 
 couragement, and demonstration. One branch of this 
 work is that of agricultural demonstration agents, whose 
 work is to superintend the actual growing of crops by 
 improved methods as an object lesson, on land belonging 
 to the farmer himself. As the work progresses local 
 farmers are invited to watch and criticise the various 
 operations, and test the results. Many instances could 
 be given in which these actual practical demonstrations 
 have resulted in almost fabulous increases of crops. It 
 is stated that in some cases the yield of corn has been 
 raised from 5/15 bushels per acre to 30/60, and lint cotton 
 from 1 50/200 lbs. per acre to as much as 300/600 lbs. per 
 acre. Annual conferences of farmers are called by these 
 officials. In 19 12 one was held at Tuskegee, and it was 
 shown that at that time 451 demonstrators were work- 
 ing, 1400 landowners carrying on experiments over 3000 
 acres of land, and 4069 Negro farmers also co-operating 
 in experiments. 
 
 Other organizations also assist, and Farmers' Confer- 
 ences are becoming quite a feature of the South. At these 
 meetings mutual help and co-operation are preached ; yet 
 the personal note is struck, and individuals give their 
 experience, showing how difficulties have been met, and 
 advance has been made. I could fill pages of testimony 
 from white and black alike as to the beneficial results in 
 individual cases and local areas of this interest taken in 
 the people, and the value of the teaching and application 
 of new and better methods; the difficulty is to choose 
 and condense them. I must ask my reader to take my 
 
 9 
 
130 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES 
 
 word for it, and to anyone who desires further informa- 
 tion, I would refer them to the publications issued by 
 the Hampton and Tuskegee Normal and Industrial in- 
 stitutions, the two largest and most widely known institu- 
 tions for Negro education, and which I briefly describe 
 in the next chapter. 
 
 The value of this work is not only in bettering the 
 material condition of the Negro, but in giving him hope 
 and interest in life, a wider outlook, and a vista before 
 him of increasing prosperity for himself, and greater use- 
 fulness for his race. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 EDUCATION LINKED TO LIFE— HAMPTON AND TUSKEGEE. 
 
 I had the pleasure of visiting both these places, and the 
 deep impression they created makes me feel that they 
 must have a chapter to themselves, even though a short 
 one. I here again experience the difficulty of condensing. 
 Scores of pages could be filled with statistics, showing 
 the magnitude of the work done, and the results achieved 
 at these institutions, but they would probably only tire the 
 reader. I must quote figures, but I will be as sparing 
 as possible, and in preference will give my impressions. 
 
 Hampton in Virginia, situated on a beautiful coast, is 
 the mother institute. It was founded by General Samuel 
 Chapman Armstrong in 1868. This far-seeing and de- 
 voted man, the greatest benefactor to the Negro and 
 American Indian peoples, was born in Hawaii of American 
 parents, and commanded a corps of Negro soldiers in 
 the Civil War. A man of unusual insight, he was con- 
 vinced that for the true uplift of these people, an educa- 
 tion should be given that would form character, and at 
 the same time be calculated to help them and fit them 
 for their work in life, and make them worthy men and 
 citizens. And so Hampton was founded, and from small 
 beginnings it has gradually grown to the great under- 
 taking I found. It is now presided over by Dr. Hollis 
 B. Frissell, who is carrying on the work in the spirit 
 of the founder. What that is may be expressed in his own 
 words : " To train selected youth who shall go out and 
 teach and lead their people, first by example by getting 
 land and homes, to give them not a dollar that they can 
 
 131 9 
 
132 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES 
 
 earn for themselves, to teach respect for labour, to replace 
 stupid drudgery with skilled hands, and to these ends to 
 build up an industrial system, for the sake not only of 
 self-support and intelligent labour, but also for the sake 
 of character ". 
 
 I found on my visit a large park-like area of 185 acres, 
 beautifully kept lawns shaded by forest trees, and in this 
 park numerous isolated substantial buildings, 113 in 
 number, suited to the numerous and varied requirements 
 of such an institution. The students are both male and 
 female and are all resident. They number over 1600. 
 The faculty, instructors and officers, are for the greater 
 part white, and number about 200, and the policy pursued 
 is laid down by a Board of seventeen Trustees, including 
 prominent men from both North and South. 
 
 Every year a larger number of students apply for 
 admission than can be accepted, but they are not neces- 
 sarily denied because of poverty ; they may, by working 
 during the day, learn and work at a trade and thus earn 
 their board and academic instruction, which in that case 
 is given in the evening. 
 
 There are thirteen Trade Courses, including all the 
 principal handicrafts, which are practically taught in 
 thoroughly equipped workshops. All male students 
 must also take a course in agriculture, as well as manual 
 training. In the same spirit girls must learn housekeeping 
 in all its branches, gardening and hygiene. This training 
 is of course linked to an academic course. In addition, at 
 a distance of some six miles is a farm of 587 acres with 
 1 7 5 head of cattle, 3 1 horses and mules, 300 hogs, and 1 000 
 fowls, with 400 acres under cultivation, and with 22 
 houses and farm buildings. At both places the greater 
 part of the buildings have been erected by the students, 
 and all repairs are done by them. 
 
 All this and much more may be gleaned from the ad- 
 mirable catalogue issued annually, but it does not exhaust 
 by any means the activities which centre in Hampton. 
 Annual conferences are held to discuss subjects of interest 
 
EDUCATION LINKED TO LIFE 133 
 
 to the Negro people, when such matters are on the 
 agenda as " The Negro labourer in his relation to Trades 
 Unions," "The progress of Education in rural commun- 
 ities," and the like. Twice a year a Farmers' Conference 
 is convened on the lines I have previously indicated. A 
 mass of literature is issued by the publication department, 
 including an excellent monthly, "The Southern Work- 
 man," and a large number of educative leaflets which are 
 distributed free of charge, or at nominal rates. I select 
 a few of the subjects dealt with in these pamphlets : 
 "Sheep, their care and management," "Dairy cattle," 
 "Drainage," "Mosquitos," "Milk and butter," "Seed 
 planting," "Rotation of crops," "Farm manures," 
 "Patent medicines," "Proper use of certain words". 
 
 Very wisely, as I think, the male students are organized 
 into a cadet corps, and wear neat uniforms made at the 
 place. The Negro is peculiarly susceptible to mass 
 movement and discipline, and this establishes an esprit 
 de corps and mutual feeling and action that could not 
 otherwise be provided for. 
 
 After all, it is the spirit that matters, and though 
 I was deeply impressed with all my eyes saw, I was still 
 more moved by the underlying spirit that pervaded and 
 actuated the staff, and which must be communicated to 
 the students. A spirit of social helpfulness was present ; 
 they were training themselves to help their own people. 
 I find from the accurate records kept that 83 per cent of 
 those who learned trades either followed them or taught 
 them after they left Hampton. The authorities keep 
 touch with the students who leave, and it is clear that the 
 great majority carried the spirit of Hampton into the 
 world of life. I went carefully through all departments 
 and was struck with the close and careful thinking that 
 had been devoted to all details ; the final result was always 
 kept in view, and the methods most carefully thought 
 out to attain it. 
 
 As an instance — I found the girls did not wear a uni- 
 form as did the boys. When previously visiting a State 
 
134 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES 
 
 Normal School for Negroes in the far South, I found all 
 the girls wearing a plain uniform costume, made by them- 
 selves, and costing very little. I asked the principal the 
 reason, and he told me the tendency was to dress in showy, 
 unsuitable garments, and he insisted on the uniform to 
 encourage thrift and discourage display. I mentioned 
 this to the lady teacher at Hampton. She did not agree 
 with this policy. She felt there was a greater value to 
 the students if they were shown how good and necessary 
 it was that they should choose suitable clothes for each 
 occasion. A girl might come overdressed, and the tone 
 of the community would induce her generally to cast her 
 unsuitable finery. If not, the teacher would quietly talk 
 to her and explain. The result was that they learned to 
 select and wear what was suitable. If uniformed, this 
 value would be lost, and as soon as they were free they 
 would blossom out in extravagance. This is an example 
 of the thought given to the problem. 
 
 I have said elsewhere that the Negro has had the 
 assistance of the biggest brains, the warmest hearts, and 
 the heaviest purses of the North, and Hampton goes to 
 confirm this. 
 
 I conclude with an extract from my rough notes 
 written while the impression of the place was vivid : 
 " The staff here seem splendid in their trained enthusiasm 
 and devotion, and in the brain they have put into their 
 work. It is magnificent." 
 
 It was here that a boy of mixed descent came, poor 
 and without friends. He went through the courses with 
 enthusiasm and finally left, saturated with the spirit of 
 Hampton, resolved to make another Hampton in the 
 South. This boy was Booker T. Washington, now 
 known the world over as the great and wise leader of 
 his race. I visited the Institution he founded at Tuskegee 
 at an unique time. He had determined to hold there a 
 Conference on the Negro and his problems, and sent in- 
 vitations to Governments, Societies, and individuals. 
 Eighteen foreign countries or colonies, and twenty-five 
 
EDUCATION LINKED TO LIFE 135 
 
 missionary societies and other organizations were repre- 
 sented at the Congress. Both black and white attended. 
 Many interesting and valuable papers were read, and 
 the discussions were most informative. A Committee 
 appointed to consider future work recommended that a 
 similar Congress be held triennially. 
 
 One of the most striking features of the proceedings 
 was to me what was not said. There were many papers 
 read on what the Negro had accomplished in different 
 countries, the best educational methods to suit his circum- 
 stances, the civilization of Africa by missionary effort, 
 and the like, but I did not hear a word publicly said 
 about his disabilities in the South. Of course at such a 
 gathering one came into contact with Negro men and 
 women from all parts of the South, and from them in 
 conversation I heard much of social conditions. In this 
 way I met men, gained information, and heard opinions 
 that would have been impossible but for this gathering, 
 and I feel I owe a debt of gratitude to Dr. Washington 
 for such an unique opportunity. 
 
 That social and political disabilities had no part on 
 the public agenda may have been due to the fact that 
 the meeting was held in the South, and the discussion 
 of such topics have been deemed, by general consent, to ft t 
 be unwise, or it may have been that the atmosphere of 
 Tuskegee is not one for dwelling on what is being suffered, 
 but on what has to be done. 
 
 So the tone was a hopeful one, much had been 
 achieved, very much more was to be accomplished in the 
 future. Meeting at Tuskegee, and seeing what has been 
 done, it would have been difficult to strike the pessimistic 
 note. In contrast to Hampton the staff here are wholly 
 coloured, but the plan of the place is modelled on that of 
 the older Institute, in Virginia. I found the same well-kept 
 lawns, shady trees, and beautiful and suitable detached 
 buildings among these surroundings. I went through 
 all departments, including the farm, and what I saw is 
 much like what I saw and have related of Hampton. I 
 
 I 
 
136 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES 
 
 may just give a few figures to show the magnitude of 
 this daughter Institute. The estate consists of 2345 acres 
 of land, with 113 buildings of all kinds, and these, together 
 with the stock in trade, equipment, live-stock, etc., are 
 valued at $1,279,248. In 191 1 there were 1702 students, 
 1600 of whom boarded and slept at the Institute. As 
 at Hampton these students are compelled to learn a trade, 
 they cannot attend for purely academic instruction and, 
 as there, the poor student gets a chance of working out 
 his fees. At first entrance all must do their share of 
 manual work, whether they pay for their course or work 
 it out, they must undertake janitor's work, scrubbing 
 floors, cleaning windows and the like. 
 
 The work and influence of Tuskegee extends beyond 
 the school grounds, large as these are, and every year 
 sees an increase of this outside extension work. An 
 annual Negro farmer's Conference is held on the lines I 
 have previously described. This was established twenty- 
 three years ago, and was then only attended by the local 
 farmers of Macon County, now they gather from all 
 over the South. A Farmer's Institute was formed in 
 1897, and the members meet monthly at Tuskegee in the 
 large Agricultural Buildings. A short course is given 
 which consists of two weeks' concentrated observation 
 and study. When it was started eleven attended. In 
 191 1 the number registered was 1900. This work has 
 proved of the greatest value as a stimulus and encourage- 
 ment. These are only a few of the extension activities 
 which radiate from Tuskegee. 
 
 In going round the workshops I made inquiries from 
 instructors and pupils alike as to the prospects of the 
 latter when they left school. Many told me they intended 
 to be teachers, and that there was always a demand for 
 Tuskegee graduates as instructors. I was informed that 
 others, more energetic or ambitious, did not seek openings 
 in established schools, but that they themselves started 
 new work in virgin ground. Many others said they in- 
 tended to work as journeymen at their trades, and would 
 
EDUCATION LINKED TO LIFE 137 
 
 be able to get full journeyman's wages when they left, and 
 that on the average they would earn $2*50 to $3 a day. 
 In one department the teacher in charge said they had 
 fifty applications for every competent man they could 
 turn out. Although this may be exceptional, it is not 
 extraordinary, for the training the students get is far 
 more complete and thorough than is obtainable by the 
 ordinary apprentice in a workshop. They not only 
 handle the tools of their trade, but the principles under- 
 lying their use, and the reasons for the various operations 
 are explained. They must be good executive workmen, 
 skilful with their hands, and they must also be designers, 
 planning and working to plan. Those engaged in the 
 building trade take their places in the drawing office, and 
 have an opportunity of learning and practising what is 
 denied to the ordinary apprentice, and they thus become 
 fitted for the higher posts in the trade. 
 
 The authorities here claim that the average earnings 
 of the 9000 students who have passed through the 
 Institute are $700 per annum. Their average earnings 
 before they entered were $100 a year. They also say of 
 adult students, of whom there are a considerable number, 
 that before entering their earning capacity was from $5 
 to $10 a month. After remaining at the Institute from 
 one to three years such are in demand at wages ranging 
 from $1-50 to $3 a day with prospect of increased pay as 
 experience is gained. The exceptional ones are able to 
 command almost at once from $4 to $5 a day. 
 
 The Institute commands the respect of the better 
 South, though I felt in converse with many who may 
 be taken to represent the average man, that they view 
 the work with at most a watchful tolerance. I feel sure 
 that any points of weakness would be carefully noted, 
 but it is significant that I heard little that was definite in 
 the criticism that was sometimes directed at it. The 
 students were admitted to be well behaved and well 
 taught, though some said the Tuskegee trained artisans 
 were at first slow. The upholders of Tuskegee make a 
 
138 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES 
 
 claim that they furnish no inmates to the penitentiary, 
 and I never heard any serious doubt cast on this signifi- 
 cant statement. 
 
 I again make a verbatim extract from the daily notes 
 I made at the time. As far as I can judge, the behaviour 
 of the students here, boys and girls alike, is exemplary. 
 They are quite free from an} 7 awkward self-consciousness, 
 are courteous and helpful, not in the least prim, but 
 rather, among themselves, full of bright fun. I can hear 
 the girls now talking and laughing among themselves, 
 without roughness or undue noise. Each evening a 
 meeting was held in the vast chapel, all the students 
 attended, the audience probably numbered nearly two 
 thousand. Their singing of the old plantation songs, the 
 rising and falling of the waves of melody, the perfect 
 rhythm, I will never forget. The way this audience en- 
 joyed the jokes of the Negro speakers was delightful. 
 One evening a little jerky speaker fairly danced about the 
 platform, performing heroic gymnastics and acting the 
 comic at the same time. He told of a preacher who read 
 his address, and who placed his manuscript on the desk 
 in a draught, while he rushed backward and forward 
 along the platform. This was acted by our speaker, who 
 ran to one end of the stage and shouted, " Hence, my 
 brethren," saw nothing on the desk, and off to the other 
 end and shouted again, "Hence, my brethren," back again 
 and, "Hence, Hence," and then in despair, "Oh, my 
 brethren, Hence has gone out of de window ". A pause, 
 and then laughter began to lightly ripple, and then fairly 
 broke over the audience in a storm of swaying laughter. 
 It was glorious. 
 
 I find at the conclusion of the notes written day by 
 day during my visit the following : " I do not think I have 
 laid sufficient stress on the beauty of this place. It is all 
 planted with shady trees, and large lawns separate the 
 buildings, which are substantial and in excellent taste. 
 The bedrooms are large, well lighted and ventilated, and 
 some are furnished with bath-rooms attached, and all the 
 
EDUCATION LINKED TO LIFE 139 
 
 dormitory buildings have large airy sitting-rooms. It 
 would be considered a very well-appointed high-class 
 school in England. The system of eye and hand training, 
 and the actual training for a vocation, along with academic 
 learning ; the learning of principles, then applying them 
 in practical work, and then describing what has been 
 done, seem to me admirable. The idea of a military 
 corps with drill, uniform, and band is excellent, and is 
 shown in the esprit de corps, the physique, manners, 
 and bearing of the students." 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 GRIEVANCES. THE JIM CROW CAR. 
 
 On i March, 1875, the Congress of the United States 
 passed a Civil Rights Bill in which it is declared that, 
 ''all persons within the jurisdiction of the United States 
 shall be entitled to the full and equal enjoyment of the 
 accommodations, advantages, facilities, and privileges of 
 inns, public conveyances on land and water, theatres, 
 and other places of public amusement, subject only to 
 conditions established by State law, and which must be 
 applicable to citizens of every race and colour regardless 
 of any previous condition of servitude ". 
 
 Yet in every Southern State with the exception of 
 Missouri, laws have been passed and are now in operation, 
 requiring that separate compartments or coaches shall be 
 provided on all railways for persons of African descent, 
 who shall not travel in the same coaches as whites. It 
 should be noted that these ordinances explicitly provide 
 that such separate accommodation shall be of equal 
 comfort and convenience as that provided for whites, 
 and that the fare shall be the same. 
 
 The earliest of these laws was passed in Tennessee 
 in 188 1 and the last in Oklahoma in 1907. 
 
 By State or Municipal ordinance the races are also 
 separated in street cars in most of the cities of the 
 Southern States. 
 
 This is in marked contrast to the position in slavery 
 days when, as F. L. Olmsted shows, black and white 
 
 140 
 
GRIEVANCES. THE JIM CROW CAR 141 
 
 travelled together. He says in one place, "Among our 
 passengers inside the Stage Coach was a free coloured 
 woman, she was treated no way differently to the white 
 ladies. My room-mate, a Southerner, said this was en- 
 tirely customary in the South, and no Southerner would 
 ever think of objecting to it. " There seems to be no doubt 
 but that here, as in many other ways, discrimination is 
 clearer and harder than it was in the past. G. W. Cable, 
 writing in 1885, says, "In Virginia they may ride exactly 
 as the white people do, in the same cars. In South 
 Carolina respectable coloured people who buy first-class 
 tickets on any railroad ride first-class as a right, and their 
 presence excites no comment on the part of their white 
 fellow passengers." Neither in Virginia nor South 
 Carolina would this be possible to-day. 
 
 This universal separation is one of the grievances 
 constantly voiced by those who demand equal rights ir- 
 respective of race or colour. While many claim that there 
 should be no distinction, but that the Federal law should 
 be carried out to the letter, the majority are not so 
 insistent. These say they do not demand to ride in the 
 same cars as the whites, they would scorn to go where 
 the}' are not wanted, but they do demand equally good 
 accommodation when they pay the same fare, and they 
 say this is in practice denied them. They complain that 
 the coaches provided for coloured passengers are old and 
 dirty, that sufficient accommodation is not supplied, and 
 that they are consequently often overcrowded, also that 
 disreputable white men use them, and act insultingly to 
 the proper occupants, and all this is in marked contrast 
 to what is provided for whites. 
 
 I travelled several thousands of miles in the South by 
 ordinary trains, always by daytime, and preferably by 
 mixed and stopping trains, both on the trunk lines and 
 on branches running to remote country towns. I was 
 much interested in this question, for it is a live one in 
 South Africa. It also seemed to me to be an excellent 
 opportunity for actually testing and checking the common 
 
142 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES 
 
 statements made, by my own personal observations, so I 
 took full notes of what I saw. 
 
 I found the distinctions were rigidly carried out. I 
 never saw a coloured person in a white car, though on 
 one or two occasions I did see a white man in a coloured 
 car, usually this person was the purveyor of candy, fruit, 
 tobacco, and nuts, who served white and black alike, and 
 who most frequently occupied a couple of seats in the 
 white car. 
 
 On one occasion, being at the Depot some time be- 
 fore the train started, I inadvertently lit a pipe in a 
 compartment I took for the white smoker, and which 
 was really the coloured car, and was told abruptly by 
 an official to go where I belonged, which I humbly did. 
 
 In most cases the black and white sections were 
 compartments of the same car, built at the same time, 
 and the upholstery, fittings, etc., was identically the same 
 in both cases. Both appeared to be cleaned before 
 starting by the same officials, and both, occasionally — 
 very occasionally — cleaned up during a long day's 
 journey. 
 
 The number of white travellers was almost invariably 
 far in excess of the Negroes, but the actual accommoda- 
 tion provided was often the same, not that the railway 
 authorities favoured the latter, but they could not give 
 them less. My notes show that on many occasions the 
 white compartments were uncomfortably crowded, while 
 the coloured were almost empty. I will give two in- 
 stances. I copy verbatim from my notes made the same 
 day. "Left New Orleans for Birmingham, Ala., and 
 arrived there at 7 p.m., filthy beyond description. 
 Chunks of hard biting coal struck one's face, and yet it 
 was so hot that the windows must be open. Our 
 carriage was uncomfortably crowded and looked like the 
 steerage of an emigrant ship ; dishevelled women, men 
 in shirt sleeves, many hot and tired children, among the 
 dirt and discomfort I've mentioned. Twice I looked into 
 the coloured compartment, the first time it was not 
 
GRIEVANCES. THE JIM CROW CAR 143 
 
 filled like ours, the second time there was plenty of 
 room." Again, "Left Asheville, North Carolina, for 
 Danville, Virginia, the train was uncomfortably full, and 
 near me was a party of Greeks, two women and a bunch 
 of children, not poor, I should judge, but excessively 
 dirty. The women were small, almost dwarfish, and of 
 a low, coarse-featured type, the children were noisy and 
 ill-mannered, and spankings and yellings were frequent. 
 Later on more passengers entrained, several men being 
 obliged to stand, and the smoking car was crowded and 
 filthy. I looked into the coloured car, there was seating 
 accommodation for between thirty and forty, and the 
 sole occupants were three women, two by the way 
 wearing University caps. It was infinitely cleaner than 
 the smoker, and I think cleaner than the white general 
 car. No white person attempted to invade the coloured 
 section, though they could easily see the vacant space, 
 as the door opened frequently to admit the passage of 
 the officials." 
 
 It is true that on some of the branch lines the ac- 
 commodation for coloured is inferior. If there are two 
 separate coaches the older one is for the Negro, but, 
 take it all through, I found that the whites were more 
 frequently incommoded by the distinction than the 
 coloured. 
 
 There are, however, disabilities in railroad travelling 
 that in occasional cases press home more hardly. No 
 Negro could enter the Pullman car, or have a meal on 
 board a train. No Negro would be allowed a sleeper. 
 It was pointed out by coloured people that if one of their 
 people travelled from the Pacific to the Atlantic by the 
 Southern routes, he could neither eat nor sleep on board 
 the train, however willing to pay for it. This disability 
 will of course only affect the few, the merest percentage 
 of the total number. 
 
 Discrimination on the street cars is present in almost 
 every Southern city, but there are local differences in 
 practice. In Baltimore an extremely dirty Negro came 
 
144 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES 
 
 and sat beside me on a seat constructed for two, though 
 there was an unoccupied one farther up the car. In a 
 city in Alabama, contrary to the usual custom, the six 
 front seats in the car were reserved for Negroes. If 
 racial effluvia is one of the objections to indiscriminate 
 seating this is curious, for I saw white ladies taking the 
 seats immediately behind the Negroes. In one Southern 
 city I went out by tramcar to a park in the suburbs. It 
 was a holiday, and the cars were crowded, especially on 
 the return journeys in the evening. The whites took up 
 the whole of the seating accommodation, and coloured 
 people were deprived of what was specially reserved for 
 them, and I presume they had to return by late tramcars 
 after all the whites had got home. Here was occasion 
 for justifiable complaint, and similar cases are bound to 
 happen at exceptional times. On the other hand I have 
 seen white men standing, and seats in the coloured 
 section vacant. I have pointed out all this to Negroes 
 and they have replied by giving cases of undeniable 
 hardship. Still the observations of an impartial traveller 
 should be of some value in a case like this, and my ob- 
 servations go to show that the disabilities are not in a 
 practical sense of so serious a nature as some would 
 have us believe. Undoubtedly the very fact of dis- 
 crimination rankles in the minds of some, and these 
 principally the educated of mixed blood. One can 
 understand and sympathize with these feelings which 
 have been thus expressed by H. G. Wells in 1906: 
 "There are gentlemen of education and refinement, 
 qualified lawyers and doctors whose ancestry assisted in 
 the Norman Conquest and they dare not enter a car 
 marked whites, or intrude on the dignity of a rising 
 loan-monger from Esthonia ; for them the Jim Crow 
 Car ". 
 
 I do not think the ordinary Negro has any feeling of 
 resentment to this separation in travelling accommoda- 
 tion. He recognizes he is different, and would not feel 
 / happy in a white car, and he accepts his own without 
 
GRIEVANCES. THE JIM CROW CAR 145 
 
 complaint. And again, in the tense state of racial feeling 
 in the South, if no official discrimination was made, 
 and the races mixed and jostled in travel, it would result 
 in continuous quarrelling and frequent loss of life. As it 
 is, though the position is felt to be humiliating by some, 
 it must perforce be accepted by all, and this prevents 
 occasion for active hostility. 
 
 Although the Civil Rights Bill explicitly lays it down 
 that hotels, theatres, and all places of entertainment and 
 amusement shall be equally free to all, the position in 
 the South is that these places, as usually understood, are 
 for whites only. The black man has of course his separate 
 places, for he does travel, he must be fed, and he demands 
 amusement. But he must find his own. There is, so 
 far as I know, no State law prohibiting him these places, 
 but the custom is stronger than any law, certainly 
 stronger than the Civil Rights Bill of the United States. 
 It would be almost like committing suicide for a person 
 who is obviously coloured, or who was known in the 
 neighbourhood to be of African descent, to enter any 
 hotel or restaurant in the South, and insist on his 
 privileges under this law. The risks are so obvious that 
 not a single Negro attempts it. 
 
 Although, as I have said, all these deprivations of the 
 ordinary civil privileges of citizens, and discrimination 
 against the race, are accepted by the mass without vocal 
 protest, and are not in my opinion considered a ground 
 of grievance by them, they are intensely disliked and re- 
 sented in the hearts of the educated, and especially those 
 of mixed descent. As I have pointed out, however, the 
 rigid application of these laws and customs makes the 
 position of the race quite clear, prevents misunderstand- 
 ing and conflict, and has compensations. 
 
 This view is taken by many friends of the race who 
 strive to attain a fair view of the situation. The reasons 
 for and the results of race separation have been elabor- 
 ated in the works of Edgar G. Murphy, from which many 
 eloquent and truthful passages might be cited dealing 
 
 10 
 
146 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES 
 
 with this phase of the question, but it may be summarized 
 in the following short quotation : "The South in estab- 
 lishing the dogma of race integrity has not done so in 
 order to enforce a policy of degradation, but simply to 
 express her own faith in a policy of separation. Her 
 desire is not to condemn the Negro for ever to a lower 
 place, but to accord to him another place. She believes 
 that where two great racial masses, so widely divergent 
 in history and character, are involved in so much of local 
 and industrial contact, a clear demarcation of racial life 
 is in the interest of intelligent co-operation, and in spite 
 of occasional hardships, is on the whole conservative of 
 the happiness of both." 
 
 In discussing remedies or palliatives for the present 
 strained position, Professor A. B. Hart writes : " Race 
 separation would give greater opportunities to the Negro, 
 and reduce the contact with the lower class of whites out 
 of which comes most of the race violence in the South. 
 It is substantially the method applied in the Northern 
 cities, though nowhere to any such degree as in the 
 South. It is a method which, with all its hardship to 
 Negroes of the higher class, comes nearest being a modus 
 vivendi between the races." 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 POLITICAL RIGHTS AND WRONGS. 
 
 The 15th Amendment to the Constitution of the United 
 States passed on 30 March, 1870, specifically guarantees 
 to all those born in the United States equal electoral 
 privileges, both Federal and State, and explicitly states 
 that there shall be no discrimination against any person 
 or class on account of race, colour, or previous condition 
 of servitude. In order to make this effective in the 
 States and Territories an Act was passed immediately 
 afterwards which states, "All citizens of the United 
 States who are or shall be otherwise qualified by law to 
 vote at any election by the people in any State or Terri- 
 tory, district, county, city, parish, township, school 
 district, municipality or other territorial division, shall 
 be entitled and allowed to vote at all such elections with- 
 out distinction of race, colour, or previous condition of 
 servitude, any constitution, law, custom, usage or regula- 
 tion in any State, Territory or by or under its authority 
 to the contrary notwithstanding " The intention of these 
 enactments is obvious. 
 
 As I have shown elsewhere, from this time on for 
 several years, say till 1877, many of the Southern whites 
 were disenfranchised by reason of their participation in 
 the Civil War, while the Negro, under the 15th Amend- 
 ment, got and exercised the vote, and he and the carpet 
 bagger ruled the land. These were the bad days of 
 Reconstruction, still remembered and hated in the South. 
 
 The North, tired of the war, perplexed by the tre- 
 mendous issues and responsibilities raised, eager to 
 
 147 10 * 
 
148 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES 
 
 repair the economic loss due to years of death struggle, 
 and wearied of the Negro, took the easiest course, gave 
 the franchise to the Freedman, and told him to look after 
 himself. In this frame of mind, and wedded to the 
 tradition that the way to attain and retain true freedom 
 is to exercise the vote, this seemed the only path open 
 to the conquerors. They had no actual experience of 
 what happens, and must happen, when two races of un- 
 equal strength and equipment are placed in a position of 
 nominal equality. To-day, after nearly fifty years' ex- 
 perience, few Northerners will claim that this plan had 
 in it the germ of a permanent and satisfactory solution 
 of the question. It is easy for us, with the experience 
 of this half century, and some knowledge of similar con- 
 ditions elsewhere, to denounce the futility of what was 
 done, and point out a better course ; it is not difficult to 
 be wise after the event. 
 
 Yet without claiming superior wisdom, it may be 
 well to indicate a different, and what seems to me a 
 better way. Instead of being forced into a position of 
 nominal equality, for which he was totally unfitted, the 
 Negro should have been adopted as the ward of the 
 Federal Government. A special department of that 
 Government should have been established for his guid- 
 ance and protection, for the study of race relations, and 
 to advise the Government thereon. Land should have 
 been set apart, and as the members of the race became 
 qualified, they should have been established on it under 
 kind but strict control. Meantime work should have 
 been provided for them, and they should have been made 
 to work. Only as they became fitted should they have 
 been allowed to take part in public affairs, and this should, 
 for a long time, have been simply the management of 
 local affairs. All this would have meant the expenditure 
 of a very large sum of money by specially qualified men, 
 and probably neither men nor money were available. 
 Something in this direction, it is true, was done even 
 before the conclusion of the war, as in March, 1865, the 
 
POLITICAL RIGHTS AND WRONGS 149 
 
 Freedman's Bureau was established, and under it the 
 immediate needs of the freed people were supplied, and 
 the beginnings of an educational system created. But it 
 was always hampered, its efforts were only considered 
 provisional and tentative, and in 1870 it ceased to exist. 
 
 During the years of reconstruction and after, the 
 white man of the South did not sit still under the rule of 
 the Negro and his self-seeking white colleagues. No one 
 who could adequately gauge the forces at work could 
 have expected it. Even Northern and Western States, 
 after the ratification of the 15th Amendment, restricted 
 the vote to whites, and among these States were Cali- 
 fornia, Connecticut, Colorado, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, 
 Nevada, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon, and Pennsylvania. 
 The question of granting the suffrage to Negroes was 
 submitted to popular vote in the fall elections of 1865 
 in the States of Connecticut, Minnesota, Wisconsin, 
 and Colorado. It was defeated in each, though they 
 were all in the undisputed control of the Republican 
 party. 
 
 Alfred Holt Stone says : " There is not a State in the 
 Union from Massachusetts to California, which, through 
 some element in its population, does not discriminate 
 against the Negro race. We are fundamentally alike in 
 our attitude towards the Negro, however much we may 
 deny it, on each side of the line. And this truth will be 
 more and more realized as our Negro population be- 
 comes more distributed, and political and economic 
 conditions gradually tend to greater uniformity between 
 different sections of the country." 
 
 In the South the opposition took violent forms to 
 prevent the Negro from exercising the rights conferred 
 upon him by the Federal Government. White organiza- 
 tions, secret and open, were formed to keep him from 
 going to the poll. The notorious Ku-Ku-Klan terrorized 
 him, and when it was considered expedient used the 
 gun, the torch, and the rope. The whole South was 
 solid in its grim determination to prevent, and make im- 
 
150 BLACK AND WHITE IN SOUTHERN STATES 
 
 possible in the future, not only Negro dominance, but 
 Negro equality in any form. They succeeded, and in a 
 few short years the Negro was as effectually eliminated 
 from politics as if his short spell of dominance had never 
 been, and the 15th Amendment had never been passed. 
 Yet it still remains as part of the Constitution of the 
 United States. / 
 
 Then came a time for the consideration of the position, 
 and many attempts were made by Southern State Legis- 
 latures to clinch by law what had been secured by force. 
 Tests were established of various kinds, educational, 
 property, character ; tax and understanding qualifications 
 were demanded. It is not too much to say that under- 
 lying these laws, in the minds of those who framed them, 
 as of those who were subjected to them, was the idea 
 that by them all white men should attain the vote, and 
 only such black men obtain it as would be negligible in 
 politics. 
 
 I quote the following from the Democratic State plat- 
 form of North Carolina in support of this opinion : "We 
 can congratulate the people of North Carolina upon the 
 successful operation of the Constitutional Amendment 
 regulating the elective franchise. The adoption of this 
 measure has permanently solved the problem which has 
 so long agitated the public mind, and been a menace to 
 peace and good government. In its operation the assur- 
 ance made by the Democratic party to the people, that 
 no white man would be disenfranchised thereby, has been 
 fully verified, and the prediction of the Republican party 
 to the contrary, proved false." 
 
 In the State of Georgia for example, a voter must 
 have 40 acres of land or 500 dollars worth of property in 
 the State. He must, unless physically incapacitated, 
 be able to read and write the Constitution of the United 
 States, and if physically unable to do so must understand 
 and give a reasonable interpretation of the Constitution 
 to an appointed Board. With such a Board, altogether 
 white and nominated by whites, it is easy to understand 
 
POLITICAL RIGHTS AND WRONGS 151 
 
 how few Negroes would be able to interpret and give a 
 reasonable explanation, and how few whites would fail to 
 do so. These clauses might, however, conceivably debar 
 some white men and admit some Negroes. The mesh of 
 the net was made smaller. Although a person (white per- 
 son of course) may have neither property nor education, he 
 may be permitted to register if he is of good character, 
 and understands the duties and obligations of citizenship 
 under a Republican form of government. This might 
 have been thought sufficient to make white domina- 
 tion secure, but to give another opportunity to the white 
 man, the grandfather clause was passed, under which 
 any uneducated or impecunious person may register who 
 is the lineal descendant of a voter of 1867, or of a soldier 
 who was enrolled in the forces of the United States. 
 
 In Mississippi there was no property test, nor did they 
 attempt to provide for all contingencies by the compli- 
 cated laws of Georgia. They achieved the same end by 
 demanding that every voter shall be able if called upon, 
 to reasonably interpret any portion of the Constitution of 
 the > 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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