mi OLOf ME R ; C I ; c From Slavery Honorable Citizenship w 9 '^ University of California Berkeley Mm&%$S5& sSfrrr- ft4p\ '^^^KR--'! ;|Vtfp? THREE PROMINENT EDUCATORS AND AUTHORS. THE COLORED AMERICAN FROM SLAVERY TO HONORABLE CITIZENSHIP BY Prof. J. W. GIBSON (White) Member of G. A. R.; Author of U. S. School History AND Prof. W. H. CROGMAN, A. M. (Colored) Professor In ClorK University, Atlanta, Ga.; Author of "Talks for the Times" Special Features: NATIONAL NEGRO BUSINESS LEAGUE AND INTRODUCTION BY Prof. BOOKER T. WASHINGTON, A. M. Principal Tuskegee Institute CLUB MOVEMENT AMONG NEGRO WOMEN BY FANNIE BARRIER WILLIAMS PUBLISHED BY HERTEL, JENKINS & COMPANY ATLANTA. GA. AGENTS WANTED 1905 COPYRIGHT. 1902. BY J. L. NICHOLS & Co. Sold only by subscription and not to be had in the bookstores Any one desiring a copy should address the publishers. This book, including illustrations, is protected by copyright, and any infringement will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. PREFACE. Our apology for presenting to the public a new boolc is not that there are not sufficient books already written on the Negro, but that to our knowledge there has been no attempt made to put into permanent form a record of his remarkable progress under freedom a progress not equaled in the annals of history. Although the " Progress of a Generation" might, as to time, more accurately bound the limits of our theme, we have preferred to record as well the struggles and triumphs of the Race in the dark days of bondage, for slavery, with all its appalling horrors, was neverthe- less in a sense educative to the Race. We are not ignorant of the fact that the eye. of the critic will discern imperfections, but after much and labored research we have followed the plan that, in our judgment, would make the volume an incentive to greater progress in the future. In the chapter on Noted Men and Women we may be charged with gross omissions, but the modesty of many men and women worthy of mention has pre- vented a record of noble lives. In other cases the manuscript did not reach us in time. We have quoted largely from different authors, and wherever possible have given credit, but in some cases even this was not possible, as the author was not always known. We are especially indebted to Dr. Hubbard, of Meharry Medical College, and Prof. Spence, of Fisk University, for valuable information. Our motive throughout has been that of an increas ing desire to aid in the work of elevating the Race foi which many noble lives have been given. We shall feel well repaid for our labors, if, through the perusal of these pages, there shall be an incentive to even greater efforts, during the second generation of freedom. With the sincere hope that our efforts may aid in inducing the multitudes to catch the same spirit of progress that imbues their leaders, we send this volume forth. THE AUTHORS. 9 INTRODUCTION. The Progress of a Generation in the history of the Negro is the most fascinating study modern times pos- sesses. Springing from the darkest depths of slavery and sorrowful ignorance to the heights of manhood and power almost at one bound, the Negro furnishes an un- paralleled example of possibility. In the pages follow- ing, the authors have performed a duty at once difficult and needful that of following the rise of the Negro through the different stages of his career. It is a task that merits respect, commands attention, and is, unhap- pily, too seldom attempted. The task of a biographer of a people is too frequently a thankless one. In sifting out the conflicting elements which present themselves for his consideration he is apt to injure tradition. In using material which he thinks best he is likely to upset preconceived ideas of theorists. His work must be the result of careful think- ing and an astonishing amount of finesse and diplomacy. The historian of the Negro race has all this and more too. He must, in addition to the other duties which devolve upon him in his work, be able to prophecy and foresee the days to come. For the progress of the Negro is far from completed it is yet in its incipient stage and the eyes of the prophet must discern whither the road leads, upward or downward. The unprecedented leap the Negro made when freed from the oppressing withes of bondage is more than deserving of a high place in history. It can never be chronicled. The world needs to know of what mettle these people are built. It needs to understand the vast possibility of a race, so much despised and so thor- oughly able to prove without blare and flourish of' trumpet its ability to hold its own and compete, after only thirty years of life, with those of centuries of lineage. The dawn of new life is again gleaming behind the 4 INTRODUCTION. 5 horizon. After the words were spoken which pro- nounced the Negro free, he hesitated a minute, then sprang towards the highest place at once. It was not many days before he was heard from in all positions, in ,all walks of life; he was in high government posi- tions, his name was on the most exclusive professional roles, yet the common horde lingered in surprised help- lessness, wondering what next. Such a state of affairs, though brilliant, was without foundation and could not last. In building the structure of his race-life the Negro had begun at the top. The cupola could not last without a foundation ; the work was shaking without a firm support. Of late years this is being realized, and we are turning our attention to the foundation work. It may be that some are blind to the crying needs of an absolute and unwrenchable foundation in the soil of the state, but those whose eyes are opened must realize that we can advance no further, or do no better work, until we have paused and implanted ourselves firmly. The progress made thus far has been magnifi- cent, but like the house built upon sands. Ere we add another gable or tower to its structure we must insure it against the lash of the storm's fury by placing a solid rock beneath its surface. This is where the progress of the Negro leads us today to pause in the brilliant meteoric advance and stride forward henceforth as a solid phalanx of earnest, industrious toilers, for^a merited place in the world's array of nations. By* the work-shop, the well-tilled farm, the scientifically conducted dairy, the mechanic's well-done work, our advance is now being noted. From gaining the wondering curiosity of the world for a chosen, brilliant few, we are compelling its respect and admiration for ourselves as a whole, as a people upon whom the stigma of idle dreaming can no longer be laid. Thus, while the authors record in these pages the progress of the Negro within the past generation, let us hope that when another quarter century has passed away the race's biographer may have a still more oromisinjar story to tell. Let us hope that it will be a 6 INTRODUCTION. story of a people taking part in the interests of a nation not in isolated cases, but as an integral part of a magnificent whole. Let us hope that there will be manufacturers, as well as senators; good and success- ful business men, as well as politicians; reputable artisans, as well as literateurs; millionaires, as well as laborers. Let us hope that the wave of industrial feeling now extending over the country may find its culmination in the unmistakable and solid foundation of a magnificent people, and crystallize a race into conformation with the high standard reached by man in the present age. BOOKER T. WASHINGTON, Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute. TUSKEGEE, ALA., January, 4, 1902. CONTENTS. CHAPTEK. PAfF. I. HISTORY OF THE RACE ., 13-32 II. SLAVERY 33-6o III. THE NEGRO IN THE REVOLUTION 61-72 IV. ANTI-SLAVERY AGITATION 73-88 V. FUGITIVE SLAVE LAWS UNDERGROUND RAIL- ROAD SYSTEM SLAVE POPULATION 89-106 VI. THE NEGRO IN THE CIVIL WAR 107-130 VII. THE NEGRO IN THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR, 131-146 VIII. MORAL AND SOCIAL ADVANCEMENT 147-196 IX. CLUB MOVEMENT AMONG NEGRO WOMEN 197-232 X. NATIONAL NEGRO BUSINESS LEAGUE 233-254 XI. PROGRESS IN INDUSTRIES 255-296 XII. V/FINANCIAL GROWTH .'297-304 > XIII. MORTALITY 305-322 XIV. EDUCATIONAL IMPROVEMENT THE PRESS 323-454 XV.y RELIGION AND THE NEGRO 455-484 7 8 CONTENTS. CHAPTER. PAGE. XVI. NOTED PERSONAGES OP THE AFRO-AMERICAN RACE 485-632 XVII. PLANTATION MELODIES INCIDENTS PLEAS- ANTRIES 633-654 XVIII. PRESENT STANDING AND OUTLOOK 655-672 XIX. STATISTICS OF THE RACE 673-718 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Page. Abbott, Miss Helena 208 A Bold Strike for Freedom, 08 Abraham Lincoln . . 106 Adams, J. W 256 Alexander, Rev. W. G. . . . 546 Allen University, Columbia, S.C 256 A. M.E. Big Bethel Church. Atlanta, Ga 461 A. M.E.Sunday School Union 473 An Ex-Slave 35 36 38 Arkansas Baptist College. Little Rock, Ark 436 Arnett, Bishop B. \V 540 "A Stitch in Time ' 650 Atlanta Baptist Seminary.. . 408 A Valiant Negro Soldier ... 141 Ballard Drug Store, Lexing- ton, Ky 241 Banks, Dr. J. B 597 Barrier, Miss Ella D 225 Biddle University, Char- lotte, N. C 445 Black, Henry 192 Blocker, Miss Sarah A 209 Bowen, Rev. J. W. E 590 Boyd Building, Nashville, Tenn 449 Boyd, Dr. R. F 586 Brown, John 88 Bruce, Mrs. Josephine 224 Cadets, Knoxville College, Knoxville, Tenn 435 Campbell, Mrs. Haydee. . 225 Captured Slaves 4* Page. Carney, Sergeant Wm. H.. .119 Carter, Rev. E. R 549 Carver, Prof. Geo. W 599 Charity Still 101 Cheatham. H. P 256 Children of Distinguished Negroes 162 Clark University, Atlanta, Ga 410 Class in Chemistry, Atlanta Baptist Seminary 330 Class in Mech. Drawing, Rust Univ. .Holly Springs, Miss 448 Cooper, E. E 612 Cornell, A. C 256 Coshburn, Mrs. W. M 106 Coshburn, Walter M 193 Councill, Prof. W. H 284 Custalo, Wm 256 Darden, J. H 256 Davenport, Mrs. M. L 196 Davis, Mrs. L.A 224 Davis, Miss Mattie B 224 Desperate Conflict in a Barn, 94 Dogan, M.W 193 Douglass, Frederick 486 Dunbar, Paul Lawrence. . . .601 Earnest, Lewis 192 Emma Brick Works, Emma, N. C 289 "Equal to the Emergency".. 643 Fall of Attucks 60 Ferguson's Delivery Wag- ons, Jacksonville, Fla 304 10 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Page. Fierce Encounter with Bloodhounds 123 First Congregat'nal Church, Atlanta, Ga 47 Fisk Jubilee Singers 397 Fisk University, Nashville, Tenn 37& Francis, Mrs. John R 208 Franklin, G. W., Undertak- er, Chattanooga, Tenn . . . 335 Frontispiece. Furness, Rev. Wm. H 3 21 Gammon Theological Sem- inary Class 386 Garnett, Miss Belle 209 Garrett, Thomas 91 Garrison, William Lloyd 75 General Ed. Johnson as a Prisoner 127 General Grant and Colored Guard 111 Gibbs, Miss Hattie 225 Girls' Industrial School, Clark University 322 Gordon, Nora A 406 Grandchildren of Slaves... 56 Grey, F. H., Residence, Lex- ington, Ky.. 334 Hampton Institute, Virginia Hall 39 o Hansberry, E 193 Harper, Mrs. F. E. W 21 Holmes, Prof. Wm. E 518 Holsey, Bishop L. H 532 Hort, Mrs. Emma T 209 Industrial School, Gladden's, Greenville, S. C 273 James & Allen Drug Co., Chattanooga, Tenn 240 Jenkins, Hon. S. J 580 Pate. Jones, Miss Anna 196 Kelly, James..... *93 King, Horace, and His Sons, 257 Knoxville College, Knox- ville, Tenn 431 Ladies' and Gents' Furnish- ing, Montgomery, Ala. . . . 463 Langston, Hon. John M . . . . 577 Left by Slave Traders 58 Lehman, M. J 192 Little Chicago Millinery, Helena, Ark 462 Love, Miss Lulu 208 Lucas, Rev. W. W 168 Lyons, Hon. Judson W 631 Maceo, General Antonio.. . . 133 Magnolia Drug Store, Deca- tur, Ala 32 1 Martin Luther Graves Hall, Union University, Rich- mond, Va 338 Mayor and Councilmen, Hobson City, Ala 288 Meharry Medical College. . 427 Morris Brown College, At- lanta, Ga 433 Morris, Rev. E. C 476 Murray, Prof. J. L 344 Myers, Rev. Cyrus 618 Napier, Hon. J. C 566 Negro Educators, Group of. 186 Negro Farmer's One-room Cabin 261 "Negroes (The) Saved the Fight" , 136 Norman, Rev. M. W. D 477 On Picket Duty 115 Parker Model House 271 Pettiford, W. R 193 Phillips, Wendell 78 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 11 Page. Picking Cotton .269 Platt, Miss Ida 574 Powell, Bartow F 290 Proctor, Rev. H. H 541 Residence of Albert Nash. .275 Residence of John T. Schell . 279 Resurrection of Henry Box Brown 99 Roanoke Institute 456 Robinson, Mrs. M. A 209 Rucker, Hon. H. A 285 Ruffin, Mrs. Josephine St. P. 224 Rust University, Holly Springs, Miss. .* 636 Samuel Huston College, Aus- tin, Texas 438 Sanders, Rev.D.J. 366 Saw-Mill Men of Tusk egee. 266 Scarborough, Prof. W 511 Scripture Reminiscences. . .641 Scruggs, Dr. B. E 593 Settle, Hon. J. T 560 Singleton, Huston 192 Slave Traders and Their Captives. 32 Smalls, Robert. 192 Smith, Amanda 483 Smith, Albretta Moore 209 Smith, Mrs. C. S 224 Southern Mercantile Co., Pine Bluff, Ark 305 Spelman Seminary, New Building of 400 Spelman Seminary, Stu- dents of. 402 Page. Still, William 96 Stowe, Harriet Beecher 83 Students, Mrs. Gladden's, Greenville, S. C 272 Sumner, Charles 81 Sykes, Undertaker, Decatur, Ala..... 320 Tanner, Bishop B. T 538 Terrell, Mrs. Mary C '208 Thankful Baptist Church, Augusta, Ga 465 Thomas, Lillian J. B 196 Trained Nurses, Spelman Seminary 356 Turner, Bishop H. M 537 Union University, Lecture Hall. 430 University Hall, Leland University 348 Walker, Rev. C. T 625 Washington, Booker T 232 Washington, Mrs. Margaret . 2 1 West, Rev. W.B 551 Wheeler.L.G 571 Williams, Miss Emma Rose . 225 Williams, Mrs. D. H 106 Williams, Mrs. Fannie Bar- rier 197 Williams, Mrs. Sylvanie F..2o8 Williams, S. L 573 Wilson, Henry 86 Wright, R. R 423 Yates, Mrs. J. S 225 Young, Major Charles 145 WE ARE RISING. BY REV. GEORGE C. ROWE. Among the sayings of our race, Suggestive and surpiising, That fill a most exalted place, Is, "Tell them we are rising!" The question asked for right and truth. What to the North your greeting? The answer from a Negro youth "Tell them we are rising!" Within Atlanta's classic halls, This youth, self-sacrificing, Wrote high his name upon her wall*, His motto: "We are rising!" Out in the world he makes his mark, Danger and fear despising, E'er soaring upward like the lark, My brethren: "We are rising!" He meets the foe with voice and pen, With eloquence surprising! Give us a chance, for we are men! Most surely we are rising! Rising to take our place beside The noble, the aspiring; With energy and conscious pride, To the best things, we're rising! Within the class-room is his place, Greek, Latin, criticising, To raise the youthful of his race, And show the world we're rising! Go forth, my. friend, upon your way, Each obstacle despising, Prove by your efforts every day To all that we are arising! In farming, trade and literature, A people enterprising! Our churches, schools, and home life pure, Tell to the world we're rising! NOTE. About a score of years since, Gen. O. O. Howard, then con- nected with the Freedman's Bureau, on visiting one of the colored schools In Georgia, asked the children: "What message shall I take from you to the people of the North?" An intelligent boy answered promptly: "Tell them we are rising!" The boy was Richard Wright, of Augusta, Ga.. who has since graduated from Atlanta University, ably filled the editorial cha*>, and is now President of the State Normal School, of College, Georgia. 12 CHAPTER I. '# HISTORV OF THE RACE. Unity of the Race. Attempts have been made in the past to prove that the Negro is not a human being. Jn this age of the world such a preposterous idea does not receive countenance. The remarkable progress of the Negro -and the rapid disappearing of race malice and prejudice, have made this theory so absurd that to-day no one can be found to advocate it. It is, how- ever, to be noted that as late as 1868 a minister of the South advocated this theory. Arguing from this stand- point he says, "Half an eye tells us the fate of the Negro on this continent is fixed, his doom is irrevocably sealed, he is out of his natural condition to which he aspires. If he is separated from man he sinks speedily to savage cannibalism. Men cannot refute the fixed decree of Omnipotence ; nothing but the power of God can save the Negro from extinction. Four millions of blacks are doomed to extinction. The history of the Negro proves -that he does not, never did possess, a self- directing, independent mind. The white man regards him as a natural, lawful slave, the Negro admits the fact and instinctively seeks the condition of slavery to man. ' ' Of One Blood. Why should we here refer to this theory so absurd and contradictory to all history? Not that we place any confidence in any of the argu- ments, nor that we will refute the arguments, they need no refutation ; but that the young man of to-day, who is an American citizen, may know something of the tendency of the times when slavery existed. 13 14 PROGRESS OF A RACE. To-day the universal belief is that God "Created of one blood all nations of man to dwell on the face of the Dearth." The unity of the race is demonstrated with emphasis in the possible and actual assimilation of all the races in the one man, and is distinctly shown in the personalities and careers of men like Benjamin Banneker, Frederick Douglass, and Alexander Dumas. No Inferior Races. God did not create an inferior race ; there are races with inferior conditions, and these may be black or white, but, says Dr. Blyden, "There is no absolute or essential superiority on the one side, nor absolute or essential inferiority on the other. Man is a unity in the plan of salvation. No man is too inferior to be saved. In all the wondrous work of creation the making of man is God's crowning act, and whoever has His image has infallible credentials of his high origin and sonship. Man is our universal repre- sentative head and from him all peoples sprung. God never made a superior race nor an inferior one ; and there is nothing in the heavens above, nor in the earth beneath, that can substantiate any such doctrine, "For God hath made of one blood all nations of men to dwell upon the face of the earth. ' ' The Curse Theory . Failing to establish the theory that the Negro is not a human being, we find an attempt on the part of those who would have held the Negro in perpetual slavery to show that he belongs to an inferior race. That against him an irrevocable curse has been pronounced. But the remarkable advancement of the race in all lines of activity has dispelled even the doubts of those who "hoped against hope" that this might be the case, and has scattered the mists of unbelief that rose above the horizon of a few of the Anglo-Saxon race. HISTORY OF THE RACE. 15 Base of Arguments. Such arguments are based upon passages of the scripture in which Noah cursed Canaan in these words: " Cursed be Canaan, a ser- vant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. Blessed be the Lord God of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant. God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem and Canaan shall be his servant. " If this were a prophecy then the argument might have some weight, but it is considered a prophecy only by a very few writers, and these are those who would sub- stantiate preconceived opinions thereby. The best evidence of a prophecy is its fulfillment. This state- ment was never fulfilled either in the case of Canaan, whose descendants have often conquered and been among the powerful nations of olden times, nor of Shem and Japheth, whose descendants were frequently enslaved. The Hebrews were in bondage in Egypt for centuries, they were the descendants of Shem; Egypt was peopled by the Children of Ham. The Proper Interpretation. We have neither incli- nation nor time to spend on extended argument against this theory so contradictory to all facts revealed by the light of true history and now no longer a question of debate, and yet a statement is necessary for the information of the youth who knows nothing of slavery, and the arguments and the attempts to hold in per- petual bondage a race destined to play an important part in the civilization and Christianization of the world. Noah was once a preacher of righteousness, but he afterward became drunk on the wine that he made. The exposure to which he was subjected by his drunken condition caused him in his irritable and self- defensive mood to utter these words, which cannot in any sense be prophetic. The best argument against 16 PROGRESS OF A RACE. this theory is the remarkable progress of the race and the moral and intellectual condition of the best of the race in these closing years of the nineteenth century. Josephus says: "The children of Ham possessed the land from Syria to Amanus, and the mountains of Libanus, seizing upon all the maritime ports and keep- ing them as their own. Of the four sons of Ham, time has not at all hurt the name of Cush, for the Ethiopians over whom he reigned are even at this day, both by themselves and by all men in Asia, called Cushites. " Herodotus. Herodotus states that Cambyses at- tempted to conquer Ethiopia but failed. He succeeded in conquering Egypt, but he found the Ethiopian equal to the Egyptian in refinement and intelligence and superior in military skill. Cambyses attempted, by means of spies and by means of various designs, to entrap and enslave the Ethiopian, but was forced to return to Egypt with but a remnant of his army. The Case Stated. Rev. Norman Wood puts it thus : "Whereas, Noah got drunk and cursed Canaan, an innocent party; and whereas, this curse was never fulfilled; therefore, all to whom these presents may come, greeting: Pagan, infidel, or pirate, are hereby empowered to kidnap and to enslave all the sable Africans who are descendants from Cush. We are here reminded of the statement of Liliuokalani, the recent dethroned queen of Hawaii, that the best blood of the English flowed in her veins, because her grandfather devoured Captain Cook." The Color Theory. Another argument in support of the curse of Noah is the color of the African. This argument also fails utterly when we take into account the climatic influence. Climate, and climate alone, is the sole cause. The predominant color of the inhabit- HISTORY OF THE RACE. 17 ants of the tropical regions of Asia and Africa is black, while the whites are found in the temperate and cold regions. We see and admit the change which a few years produce in the complexion of a Caucasian going from our northern latitude into the tropics. If a few years make such great changes why shall we hesitate to recognize the changes of centuries and ages? Plants and Animals. There is perhaps no better evidence of the influence of climate upon man than to witness its effects upon plants and animals. The flowers of the north are almost invariably white, while the arctic rabbit is spotless white, and the fox and polar bear are either white or pale yellow. The lack of color in the northern regions of animals which possess color in more temperate regions can be attributed only to change of climate. The common bear is differently colored in different regions. The dog loses its coat in Africa, and has a smooth skin. Gradations of Color. Let us survey the gradations of color on the continent of Africa itself. The inhabit- ants of the north are whitest; and, as we advance southwards towards the line, we find in those countries in which the sun's rays fall more perpendicularly, the complexion gradually assumes a darker shade. And the same men whose color has been rendered black by the powerful influence of the sun, if they remove to the north t gradually become white (I mean their pos- terity), and eventually lose their dark color. Caucasians. The Portuguese, who planted them- selves on the coast of Africa a few centuries ago, have been succeeded by descendants blacker than many Africans. On the coast of Malabar there are two colonies of Jews, the old colony and the new, separated 2 Progress. 18 PROGRESS OF A RACE. by color and known as the ' 'black Jews" and the 4 'white Jews." The old colony are the black Jews, and have been longer subjected to the influence of the climate. The hair of the black Jews is curly, showing a resemblance to the Negro. The white Jews are as dark as the Gypsies, and each generation is growing darker. Dr. Livingstone say: "I was struck with the appearance of the people in Londa and the neighbor- hood; they seemed more slender in form and their color a lighter olive than any we had hitherto met. ' ' Lower down the Zambesi, the same writer says: "Most of the men are muscular, and have large, ploughman hands. Their color is the same admixture, from very dark to light olive, that we saw in Londa. ' ' Equator to Polar Circles. Under the equator we have the deep black of the Negro, then the copper or olive of the Moors of northern Africa ; then the Span- iards and Italian, swarthy compared with other Euro- peans ; the French, still darker than the English, while the fair and florid complexion of England and Germany passes more northerly into the bleached Scandinavian white. From Inland to Coast. As we go westward we ob- serve the light color predominating over the dark ; and then, again, when we come within the influence of the dampness from the sea air, we find the shade deepened into the general blackness of the coast population." If these opinions, given by the best authorities, mean anything, and if we shall credit them as having any value, then the color line can be drawn only where there is deep-seated prejudice. Black, a Mark of Reproach. Prof. Johnson, in his school history, justly says: "Black is no mark of re- HISTORY OF THE RACE. 10 proach to people who do not worship white. The West Indians in the interior represent the devil as white. The American Indians make fun of the 'pale face' and so does the native African. People in this country have been educated to believe in white because all that is good has been ascribed to the white race, both in pic- tures and words. God, the angels and all the prophets are pictured white, and the devil is represented as black." Ideals of Negro. The ideals of the Negro are the ideals of the white man. The two races are both edu- cated to one standard, that is, the white man's standard. While the white man would have the Negro adopt his standard, at the same time there are those who would repel him ; somewhat like putting on steam and throttling the valve. True manhood knows no color. While the ideals are the same, the standards the same, let all, black and white, aim to attain to a virtuous manhood that would impress itself upon mankind and make men more and more to see the ideals shine out in the lives of all true leaders. God Knows Best. George Williams says: "It is safe to say that when God dispersed the sons of Noah he fixed the 'bounds of their habitation,' and that from the earth and sky the various races have secured their civilization. He sent the different nations into separate parts of the earth. He gave to each its racial peculiarities and adaptability for the climate into which it went. He gave color, language, and civilization; and, when by wisdom we fail to interpret his inscrutable ways, it is pleasant to know that 'he work- eth all things after the counsel of his own mind. ' " Antiquity. It is difficult to find a writer on ethnol- ogy or Egyptology who doubts the antiquity of the 20 PROGRESS OF A RACE. Negroes as a distinct people from the dawn of history down to the present time. They are known as dis- tinctly as any of the other families of men. Negroes are represented in Egyptian paintings. They formed the strength of the army of the King of Egypt. They came against the King of Rehoboam as well as the armies of Sesostris and Xerxes. John P. Jefferis, who is not friendly to the Negre, in his criticism nevertheless makes this statement: 1 * Every rational mind must readily conclude that the African race has been in existence as a distinct people over four thousand two hundred years, and how long before that period is a matter of conjecture only there being no reliable data on which to predict a reliable opinion." Further Evidence. Further evidence in favor of the antiquity of the Negro is found in Japan and East- ern Asia. In these large, magnificent temples, hoary with age, are found idols that are exact representations of woolly-headed Negroes; other inhabitants of the country have straight hair. But why accumulate evi- dence, when monuments, temples and pyramids rise up to declare the antiquity of the Negro race? The Word Negro. The word Negro is a name given to a considerable branch of the human family possess- ing certain physical characteristics which distinguish it in a very marked degree from the other branches or varieties of mankind. "It is not wise," says George Williams, "for intelligent Negroes in America to seek to drop the word * Negro. ' It is a good, strong and healthy word, and ought to live. It should be covered with glory ; let Negroes do it. ' ' The Term Negro. The term, Negro, is properly applied to the races inhabiting that part of Africa lying il B W tt OM M 2 SB 5-g 81J %*l ** S-S S 2 si ^-t OQ *O S A 3 2 ?? PROGRESS OF A RACE. between latitude 10 degrees north and 20 degrees south and to their descendants in the old and new world. It does not include the Egyptians, Berbers, Abyssinians, Hottentots, Nubians, etc., although in some writings it comprises these and other dark- skinned nations. One characteristic, however, the crisp hair, belongs only to the true Negro. Africa for the Negroes. Centuries of effort and centuries of corresponding failure have fully demon- strated that the white man cannot colonize the largest part of the great continent of Africa. It seems that, in the providence of God, this great and glorious conti- nent is chiefly for the colored races, and especially for the Negro. Is it not possible that this great continent with its millions of Negroes occupying the most fertile portions, and in all more than one-half of the conti- nent, is to be enlightened, civilized and Christianized by the American Negro? Deportation, Let it not be understood that the pre- ceding paragraph argues in favor of deportation of the American Negro to Africa. This is impossible, but that the American Negro has a part in the elevation of the black brother of the dark continent is as true as that the Caucasian of America has a part in the Chris- tianization of the white race in other parts of the world. The Negro is better adapted to the climate and can endure the hardships of mission work in Africa much better than the Caucasian. Not Well Considered. Booker T. Washington says : "I recall that a few months ago, when, on the occasion of six hundred deluded colored people sailing from Savannah for Liberia, some of the newspapers and not a few of the magazines gravely announced to an expectant people that the race problem was in process HISTORY OF THE RACE. 23 of solving itself. These newspapers and magazine writers did not take into consideration the important fact that perhaps before breakfast that same morning six hundred colored babies were born. I have a friend down in Georgia whose unfailing solution of the race problem is, that the Negro should be cooped up in some place, surrounded by a high fence, and kept separate from the whites. That would not even reach the dig- nity of touching the question, since it would be utterly impossible to keep the blacks inside the fence to say nothing of the impossible task of keeping the whites outside of it. If the Negroes were fenced in Africa the white men would break in at the first cry that gold existed in the inhabited territory. Besides, the Negro has never yet been able to exile himself to any place the white man would not follow him and break in." Separation would Not Relieve. "Talks for the Times" says: "If such a separation were even pos- sible, are we simple enough to believe that that would relieve us of the presence of the white man? He who is scouring the seas, dredging the oceans, tunneling the mountains, boring his way into the frozen regions of the North, parceling out the continent of Africa, and giving civilization and laws to its tribes it is not likely, I say, that this restless, energetic white brother will respect the boundary line of a state or- territory at home ; he has not done so in reference to the Indian ; he would never do so in reference to us. Were it possible for us to go off to-morrow to some territory by our- selves, within a week the Connecticut Yankee would be there peddling his wooden nutmegs. The patent medi- cine man would be there selling his nostrums. The Georgia Cracker and the Kentucky horse-trader would 24 PkOGKESS OF A RACE. be there with their horses and mules. The Southern white man would especially be there, for he has been so accustomed to us from his childhood that he does not feel at home without us, although sometimes, in the heat of political excitement, he wishes we were in Africa or a warmer place. ' ' Not Possible. Judge Gunby says: "The favorite remedy for the race problem with some has come to be the deportation of the Negroes. I am prepared to say with the utmost confidence that this remedy does not meet with general approval, although it is fair to con- cede that it has many able advocates. The Negroes do not desire to leave and the great majority of the whites do not want them to go. The enforced removal of the Negroes would be unnatural and unjust ; cruel, bitter cruel, would be the task of tearing Negroes from their genial Southern homes, their Southern friends, their churches, their graveyards, and the haunts they love so well. Sadder than the melancholy processions that moved to the shore from Goldsmith's 'Deserted Vil- lage, ' sadder than the doomed band of Acadian farm- ers that looked for the last time on their burning homes in Grand Pre, would be the final movement of the Negroes from the South. It would be worse than slav- ery ; for the Negroes in a colony of their own would degenerate and speedily lose the civilization they have derived from contact with the whites. Such a crime would never be forgiven. It would raise a protest from whites and blacks alike and from an indignant world. The very stones would rise up and cry against it. Deportation is not conceivable ; because, although a few might be transported to Africa or scattered elsewhere, yet reproduction will increase their number in spite of such trifling methods, and our only way to get rid of HISTORY OF THE RACE. 25 their presence in the country is to kill them which would be difficult, for many of- them already have guns." Points of Superiority. A certain writer says that the Negro has less nervous sensibility than the white, and is not subject to nervous afflictions. He is com- paratively insensible to pain, bearing severe surgical operations well; he seldom has a fetid breath, but transpires much excrementious matter by means of glands of the skin, whose odorous secretion is well known. His skin is soft, and his silky hair, though called wool, does not present the characteristics of wool, and differs but little from that of other races except in color and in its curly and twisted form. He flourishes under the fiercest heat and unhealthy dampness of the tropics where the white man soon dies. Physical Characteristics. The physical characteris- tics of the black, or Negro, race are: A large and strong skeleton, long and thick skull, projecting jaws, skin from dark brown to black, woolly hair, thick lips, flat nose and wide nostrils. The typical color of the race is not coal black but the dark brown of a horse- chestnut. Observation shows that the darkest speci- mens are found on the borders where Negroes have been in contact with lighter races, while in the popu- lation of the Congo basin, which has been almost com- pletely free from mixture, the dark-brown type pre- vails. It should, however, be understood, that there is as great a difference among Negroes as among Caucasians. Distinguishing Traits. The Africans, as a race, are passionately fond of music and have many ingeniously contrived musical instruments. While some of their inventions may have been borrowed from other people, 9(5 PROGRESS OF A RACE. it is a well established fact that they are the inventors of an ingenious musical instrument. They have a keen sense of the ridiculous and are of a cheerful disposi- tion. They are naturally kind hearted and hospitable to strangers and are generally ready to receive instruc- tion and to profit by it. They are quick to perceive the beauty of goodness and hence they generally appreciate the services of missionaries in their behalf, and, but for the curse of intoxicating drinks brought upon them by unscrupulous white traders, the dark continent would shine more brightly with the light of Him who is the light of the world. Fidelity of the Negro. During the Civil war the fidelity of the negro was tested to a most remarkable degree; and he stood the test. Nearly all able-bodied men of the South were in the Confederate army. Only helpless women and children, and old or disabled men were left with the slaves to care for the plantation houses. While the white-faced "Copperhead" of the North was aiding the South, the black-faced slave was caring for the helpless ones in Southern houses. Strange as it may seem, these same colored men knew that victory for the Union meant freedom for them- selves. General Sherman, in describing his first day's experience on his famous "March to the Sea," says: "The negroes were simply frantic with joy. When- ever they heard my name, they clustered about my horse, shouting and praying in their peculiar style, which had a natural eloquence that would move a stone. I have witnessed hundreds, if not thousands, of such scenes. * "We made our bivouac, and I walked up to a plan- tation house close by, where were assembled many negroes, among them an old, gray-haired man, of as HISTORY OF THE RACE. Zl fine a head as I ever saw. I asked him if he under- stood about the war and its progress. He said he did; that he had been looking for the 'angel of the Lord* ever since he was knee-high, and, though we profess to be fighting for the Union, he supposed that slavery was the cause, and that our success was to be his free- dom. I asked him if all the negro slaves compre- hended this fact, and he said they surely did." Every Union soldier escaping from Confederate prison-pen, knew that it was safe to make himself known to a colored man. No Union soldier ever asked in vain for help from his dusky brother. Drink Traffic. The drink traffic carried on by civil- ized nations in Africa is the curse of millions. The same ship that carries missionaries to its shores carries thousands of gallons of rum that does more to degrade the helpless and ignorant Negro than many mission- aries through a lifetime can succeed in winning to a better life. Let it be known that the Christian (?) nations, Great Britain and the United States, are lead- ers in this degrading and soul destroying business. This can be permitted only where dollars and the greed of gain surpass in estimation the worth of true man- hood and of immortal souls. Ingenuity. The African Negroes display consider- able ingenuity in the manufacture of weapons, in the working of iron, in the weaving of mats, cloth and baskets from dyed grasses, in the dressing of the skins of animals, in the structure of their huts and household utensils and in the various implements and objects of use in a barbarous state of society. In Other Continents. In addition to Africa, Negroes are found in the United States, Brazil, West Indicc, Peru, Arabia and the Cape Verd Islands. They are 28 PROGRESS OF A RACE. rare in Europe and the islands of the Pacific. Africa is, however, the native home of the Negro. Whenever he is found outside of this great continent it is because he has been carried away and subjected to slavery. Unknown to Hebrews. Negroes were almost un- known to Hebrews. They were unknown to the Greeks until the seventh century B. C. About twenty- three hundred years B. C. the Egyptians became acquainted with the Negroes, who helped them on their monuments as early as 1,600 years B. C. Liberia. Liberia is a Negro republic of western Africa, on the upper coast of Upper Guinea. It was founded by the American Colonization Company. The first expedition of eighty-six emigrants was sent out in February, 1820. It was organized as a home for the Negro of the United States. The suffering that slavery brought upon the Negro aroused his friends, and, fol- lowing the plan of Wilberforce and other Englishmen, Liberia was founded as a refuge for the colored men who would avail themselves of its blessings. The constitution of Liberia, like that of the United States, establishes an entire separation of the church from the state, but all citizens of the republic must belong to the Negro race. The constitution has recently been changed and this point has been modified. Its present constitution was adopted in 1847 and is similar to that of the Constitution of the United States. The article on slavery reads thus : * ' There shall be no slav- ery within the republic, nor shall any citizen of this republic, or any person residing therein, deal in slaves either within or without the republic. ' ' The first years witnessed the struggle of a noble band of colored people who were seeking a new home on the edge of a continent given over to idolatry. Immigra- HISTORY OF THE RACE. 9 tion went forward slowly, but the republic continued establishing and extending itself until it now numbers more than one million inhabitants. Already in 1853 Bishop Scott, of the M. E. Church, stated that the gov- ernment of Liberia was extremely well administered. In his visit of several months he saw no intoxicated colonists and did not hear a profane word, the Sab- bath was kept in a singularly strict manner and the church crowded with worshipers. Agriculture is carried on with increasing success. Sugar was formerly the principal article of produce and of manufacture, but through the efforts of Mr. Morris, coffee has become the principal article. Rice, arrowroot and cocoa are also cultivated ; trade is rap- idly extending. Although the circumstances that led to the founding of this republic passed away when the shackles were torn from the Negroes of the South, yet it had done a vast amount of good before the days of the great rebellion, and to-day stands as a beacon light penetrating the darkness and gloom of Africa. May we not hope that through the ages to come the light of this Christian republic will reach the dark, trackless regions of African Paganism and bring millions to the brightness of its shining? Sierra Leone. Sierre Leone is under the protecting hand of England, it has a population of half a million. Freetown, the capital, is a well built city, with a popu- lation of about seventy thousand, not more than 150 whites. There is no friction among the races. A man is a man for what he is, what he knows and what he has. The west coast of Africa is often said to be a death trap on account of the malarial regions along the coast. This, however, is not substantiated by the report* from Freetown. While it has little or none of 30 PRGGRtoS OF A RACE. the modern hygienic and sanitary improvements and only six physicians, four colored and two white, the death rate in 1896 was lower than that of Atlanta with all her advantages of altitude, hospitals, water, sewers and other modern sanitary improvements, together with her several hundred physicians and three medical colleges. The reason given for this is that in Freetown the majority of the colored people are in a position to take care of themselves; while in Atlanta the death rate is greatly increased by poverty and ignorance. The Mayor of Freetown is a rich colored man. The streets of the city are lighted with oil lamps, there are no street cars, and only one railroad entering the city. The people are industrious and intelligent and hate ignorance. A man going there, if he wishes the respect of the people, must be a good mechanic, lawyer, doctor or preacher. An American common laborer finds no open door for the African can be secured much cheaper. Africa, like other parts of the civilized world, is calling for brains, morals and money ; without at least one of these Africa does not want you. Purpose and Preparation. ''Unless the Negro out of Africa goes to Africa seeking a home because he has none ; goes on. his own volition, with as correct a knowl- edge of Africa as may be obtained from the writings of trustworthy African travelers and explorers and mis- sionaries, reinforced by race loyalty, and with greater confidence in himself and his face than in any alien self and alien race ; goes from a sense of duty imposed by his Christian enlightenment, and not unprovided with ability and previous experiences to organize and control labor, with as ample means as he would go from the Atlantic coast of the United States to the HISTORY OF THE RACE. 31 Pacific slope for the purpose of engaging in business, he is wholly and entirely unsuited for Africa, and would impede by his presence not only the progress of Liberia (if he went thither) but any part of Africa by his unprofitable presence, and ought to be denied the right to expatriate himself. ' ' Africa's Future. " If my opinion about the future were asked," says Heli Chatelain, "I should not hesi- tate to declare my conviction that within one hundred years all Bantu-land will contain more than 500,000,000 inhabitants, will equal Europe in civilization, will be united in a great United States of Central Africa under a new and improved edition of our American constitu- tion, will both speak and write a common language, the mother-tongue of all Bantu dialects, as revived by scholars and enriched with the best developments of its daughters, and will produce masterpieces of litera- ture, science, and art, vying with all the best that Europe and America will then be able to bring forth. CHAPTER II. SLAVERY. Knowledge Worth Knowing. Dr. Hamilton says: 1 'The popular notions which have prevailed concerning African slavery have shaped imaginations and con- trolled opinions concerning the origin and destiny of the African race. Men have asserted boldly and arro- gantly that the African people were designed in the very first cosmogony to be hewers of wood and drawers of water. Slavery was their natural relation. As the slaves in America within the recollection of the present generation have been Negroes, most persons have thought that all slaves have been Negroes. As Negroes have come from Africa, it has been com- monly believed that all Africans were Negroes. As the sons of Ham in the dispersion went into Africa to live, it has been supposed that all Negroes were the sons of Ham. And as Ham is said in the book of Genesis to have looked on the nakedness of his drunken father and so incurred his anger that he visited the sin of the father on the son of Ham, and in his anger cried out, 'Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall be unto his brethren, ' it has been claimed scriptural rant is found for the enslavement of Negr' Of such knowledge and such rgu. lent it pertinent to affirm, in the language of * r. Jc BillL ~iat it would be better not to kn^ * hi: a than to know so many things that are L In Africa. From time immemorial slavery has existed in Africa. The oldest records of the human race, the inscriptions of the Nile valley, show us that 8 Progress 33 34 PROGRESS OF A RACE. Negro slaves from the Soudan were then, as to-day, one of the principal articles of Egyptian trade. Neither the institution of slavery nor the slave trade were introduced into Africa or forced upon the natives by Arabic, Moslems, or European Christians. At all times, so far as human knowledge goes, slavery has been a constituent element in the social order of Negro Africa. It is said of two or three African Negro tribes that they object to selling their own tribesmen, and oppose slave dealing in a general way. But these exceptions only confirm the rule that slavery is the universal practice of native Africa. There the trade in human beings is considered just as honest as trade in any other merchandise. All those who want to work for the extinction of slavery in Africa should know from the start, that for one Arab or European slave-holder, slave -raider, or slave-dealer, there are hundreds of African slave- holders, slave-dealers and slave-raiders. Therefore, in their effort to conquer that monster they will have to face thousands of interested native opponents. This will be made clearer by a consideration of Sources of Slavery. Chief among these is (i) the right of parents to sell their children. Every child born is the property of its maternal uncle ; in a few tribes of its father. The uncle or the father has the right to dispose of his property as he pleases. He may even kill this human property and no one can prose- cute him, claim damages, or demand his punishment. If he sells his children, separating child from mother, nobody seems to think he is doing wrong. The victim itself is expected not to protest against it more than a young girl of our land would protest against being sent to a boar ding, school for the first time. SLAVERY. 35 (2.) The Right of a Free Adult to Sell Himself. Runaway slaves, or liberated slaves, rather than be kid- naped, prefer to sell themselves to masters of their own choice. In times of famine hundreds are com- pelled to change their liberty for the food that will keep body and soul together. In war, cowards would rather live as slaves than die as freemen. (3.) Insolvent Debtors. Those who have lost all resources of material, animal and human property, sometimes give themselves for debt. (4.) Sale of Criminals by Legal Action. In Africa there are no prisons, hence punishment is always paid by death or the pay- ment of a fine. If the fine cannot be paid the individual is sold to pay for it. (5.) Kidnaping. This is much more frequent than is gen- erally supposed. The kidnaped generally resent the injustice committed, and fre- quently, with tears in their eyes, enter- tain a secret, though forlorn, hope of re- gaining their liberty AN EX-SLAVE. and returning to their homes. (6. ) Capture in War. Captives are often committed to slavery, many wars are often even made that cap- tives may be taken and carried into slavery. 36 PROGRESS OF A RACE. Slaves of Slaves. It is not an unusual thing for slaves to own slaves, and in old Calabor plantation, slave-holding by slaves is so common that you often hear of slaves belonging to slaves of slaves. Any slave may by industry and thrift redeem himself, take his seat among the tribal headman, and aspire to the kingship. Early History of Slavery. The history of Negro slavery carried on by Europeans, beginning in Portu- gal over a period of 400 years, and in- volving the exporta- tion by violence from their African homes of forty million of men, women and chil- dren, is one of ex- ceeding and unimag- inable bitterness. It is too late to crimi- nate those who were responsible for be- ginning the slave trade and for perpet- uating the system of bondage that grew AN EX-SLAVE. out o f it. Many of them were conscien- tious, Christian men, who worked without a thought of the wrong they were doing. Some of them really believed they were benefiting the Negro by buying him out of a condition of barbarism into the enlight- ening and purifying influences of Christianity. Livingstone's Tomb. On Livingstone's tomb-slab SLAVERY. 37 in Westminster Abbey are engraved these, among the last words which he wrote: "All I can add, in my solitude is: May Heaven's rich blessing come down on everyone, Americans, English and Turk, who will help to heal this open sore of the world, the slave trade." For What Purpose. Slaves are hunted by Moslems, Arabs, half-breeds, or Mohammedan Negroes, for the three following purposes: i, To supply labor for their fields and plantations in the Soudan, in Zanzibar and the adjoining coast belt ; 2, to supply Negresses for the harems of Turkey, especially Arabia, Egypt, Tripoli, and Morocco ; 3, to obtain carriers for the trading cara- vans taking European goods to the interior and bring- ing down in exchange the tusks of ivory and the balls of rubber so much coveted by Europeans and Amer- icans. European Plantation Slavery. Under the pretense of redeeming slaves from patriarchal native slavery these poor creatures are taken into European planta- tion slavery, which means that the slave has no more free time, no accumulation of property, no hope of redeeming one's self by thrift, no home life, no possi- bility of flight, but unremitting toil from morning until night in the broiling sun, under the lash of the driver, without pay, and often with insufficient food. His only prospect is that he is being worked slowly to death. In Asia. Slavery existed in Persia, China and India. Parents sold their children to be slaves. There was slavery among the Hebrews. All Africans are not Negroes, many of them are entirely distinct from the Negro the idea that a slave is always black is erroneous. It is not Noah, nor Ham, nor Canaan, nor Africa, but sin and slavery that has cursed the Negro. 38 PROGRESS OF A RACE. Portugal inaugurated the slave trade. Antonio Gonsalve brought home some gold dust and ten slaves in 1443. These were probably the first slaves taken from western Africa by Europeans. They were pre- sented to Pope Martin V. , and he conferred on Portu- gal the right of possession of all countries discovered between Cape Bo- jado and the Indies. Portugal also had the first of many chart- ered companies to trade in African gold and slaves. Columbus began his intercourse with the natives of Africa by kidnapping and he gave the word for the opening of the slave trade. Slavery in the New World. Afri- can slavery was in- AN EX-SLAVE. troduced into the New World by the Spaniards. Their cruelty to the inoffensive Indians in the islands of the West Indies had greatly reduced their numbers. The poor Indian had been reduced to slavery, and in order to prevent extermination the Spaniards re- sorted to importing slaves from Africa. The first cargo of Negro slaves was landed at San Domingo on the Is- land of Hayti in the year 1565. These were at once put to cultivating the plantations, and it was soon found that, as Rev. Wood says, "These hearty sons of Africa SLAVERY. not only survived the oppressive cruelty of their heart- less taskmasters, but in time they rebelled against them, and under their invincible 'Black Prince,' Tous- saint, killed them in battle and drove them from the island. ' ' First Slaves, First Liberty. Bancroft aptly says : "Hayti, the first spot in America that received African slaves, was the first spot to set the example of African liberty." Slavery in the United States. Slaves were brought by the Spaniards to Florida soon after the founding of St. Augustine, in 1565, but the first slaves brought to the colonies were landed at Jamestown, Va., in 1619, by a Dutch trading vessel. Twenty Negroes were exchanged for food and supplies. These had no per- sonal rights, were doomed to service and ignorance by law, and could not leave the plantation to which they belonged without a written pass from their master. They received no religious instruction, and were some- times given to white ministers as pay for their ser- vices. It was, however, nearly a half century from this time before the system of Negro slavery became well established in the English colonies. Slavery Contended for. The slave trade was the great industry contended for and carried on. In 1748 there were 97,000 slaves carried to America by all nations, and up to that time the total number was probably a million. During the eighteenth century six millions were carried to America, besides the horrible traffic which was kept up to the coasts of the Mediter- ranean, to Egypt and Asia, which has been carried on from time immemorial. It is estimated that the profits of the slave trade in the seventeenth and eighteenth 40 PROGRESS OF A RACE. centuries from the Dark Continent were equal to that on gold and all other products. The Slave Trade. We cannot in a few paragraphs, relate all the horrors and suffering entailed on the African race by means of the slave trade. While it is true that the revenue of the kings of the country some- times depended on the sale of slaves, yet it remains as a blot on Christian England and America's record that they were the means of carrying out this cruel work. Some Americans, at least, went one step further, and, not content with selling slaves, sold their own sons and daughters. The Slave Dealer. Many chapters might be written upon the cruelties and inhuman treatment of the slave dealers, but as all who have engaged in this nefarious business have rendered their accounts to God, who is just, and have been justly dealt with, we will pen but a few items to show what the race has endured. Kidnapping. Pro.bably the largest number of slaves were obtained by a system of kidnapping. In this case a village was often surrounded in the night and torches applied to the combustible huts; the able- bodied men and women were seized, bound, while children, the aged and infirm were cruelly murdered in the light of their burning homes. In journeying to the seashore, over rugged mountain sides and through fields of cacti, whose sharp thorns would lacerate and tear their flesh, they endured more than can be expressed. On reaching the coast the best of them were selected and placed "on board ships, while those who had not endured the march, or were maimed^ were often murdered in cold blood. It is said that 'King Loango, "rather than incur the expense of feeding slaves for whom he found no mar* SLAVERY. 41 ket, sent them to a side of a hill and cruelly butchered them there. Middle Passage. The slave ships were frequently crowded to such an extent that men were barely allowed room enough to lie down. Lord Palmerston says: "A Negro has not as much CAPTURING SLAVES. room in a sea ship as a corpse in a coffin. ' ' Bancroft says: "The horrors of the middle passage correspond to the infamy of the trade." Small vessels, of little more than two hundred tons burden, were prepared for the traffic, for these could most easily penetrate the bays and rivers of the coast; and quickly obtaining 42 PROGRESS OF A RACE. lading, could soonest hurry away from the deadly air of Western Africa. In such a bark, five hundred Negroes and more were stored, exciting wonder that men could have lived, within the tropics, cribbed in so few inches of room. The inequality in force between the crew and the cargo, led to the use of manacles ; the hands of stronger men were made fast together, and the right leg of one was chained to the left of another. The avarice of the trader was a partial guarantee of the security of life, as far as it depended upon him ; the Negroes, as they came from the higher level to the seaside, poorly fed on the sad pilgrimage, sleeping at night on the damp earth, without covering, and often reaching the coast at unfavorable seasons, imbibed the seeds of disease, which confinement on board ship quickened into feverish activity. There have been examples where one -half of them it has been said, even two- thirds of them perished on the passage." President Lincoln, who was always easily moved by appeals for mercy, when appealed to by a slave trader, promptly and sternly refused, although the appeal was very pathetic, and the man had served a long time in prison. The President said: "I could forgive the foulest murder for such an appeal, but the man who could go to Africa and rob her of her children and sell them into endless bondage, with no other motive than that of getting dollars and cents, is so much worse than the most depraved murderer that he can never receive a pardon at my hands. No ! he may rot in jail before he shall have liberty by any act of mine. ' ' Profit. Dr. Roy says: "Before the annual meeting of the American Missionary Association, in 1859, Rev. Dr. George B. Cheever, from Harper's Encyclopedia of Commerce, made the following statements as to the SLAVERY. 43 slave trade: For it every year twelve vessels were fitted out by three cities each, Boston and Baltimore being of the number, and from other places enough to make forty slave ships, owned mostly by northern men. Each made two trips a year, at a total cost of three million dollars. The receipts being twenty million dol- lars, left for profit seventeen million dollars. One voyage of the fleet would bring in twenty-four thousand slaves, of whom four thousand were lost by death. The two trips a year would make the total importation forty thousand. These were mainly taken to Cuba, but fifteen thousand were for the United States the preceding year. A slave ship was landed after the war broke out, in a distant part of the South, and there the slaves were held till after the war. It has been esti- mated by Hon. John M. Langston and Col. Keating, of the Memphis Appeal, that up to 1825, forty million slaves had been imported to the West Indies and to the American continent. Slavery a Curse. Some writers will insist that American slavery has been a blessing to the race. Slavery is dead, and 'there is no one that would revive it. Ancient slavery may have been a step forward in evolution, because it ended in emancipation, and ulti- mately in the fusion of the races. But American slav- ery was a long step backward. It wa carried on by a desire of Europeans in a lan- guid climate to have the work done for them instead of doing it themselves. Fusion in the case of Negro slavery was fatally pre- cluded by color; there could be no intermingling except that which arose from the abuse of the Negro woman by her white master. While household slavery may frequently have been mild, the plantation slave 44 PROGRESS OF A RACE. was overworked and tortured, and, with impunity, sometimes murdered. If certain writers are correct in attempting to show that the slave was contented in his bonds, why those fetters, those cruel slave laws, those bloodhounds? If he was fully content to live in slavery, why the laws that forbade the holding of meetings, the restraint from moving about freely, the liability to arrest when found alone, and the subjection to flogging when found away from the plantation Think of the revolting sights when, at public auction, husband and wife, parent and child, were sold apart, a sight of human cattle on the way to the auction and the adver- tisements of human flesh, especially of girls nearly white. Negro quarters on the plantation were hovels, his clothes rags, his food coarse, his life foul; it has been asserted that his life was happier than his African home, but it remains to be proven that this is the case. Slavery Cannot Be Justified. "Slavery cannot be justified," says Gov. Atkinson, "but may not God have intended that you, who are the descendants of those whom slavery has brought into the country, should pray and work for the redemption of your fatherland?" Slavery Degrading. Judge Stroud, in his "Sketch of the Laws Relating to Slavery," declares: "This maxim of civil law, the genuine and degrading principle of slavery, inasmuch as it places the slave on a level with brute animals, prevails universally in the slave-holding states." "It is plain that the dominion of the master is as unlimited as that which is tolerated by the laws of any civilized country in relation to brute animals to quadrupeds, to use the words of the civil law." To the unprincipled observer, at thirty-five years' distance, the whole system, as a system, was "the sura of all villianies," one universal harem, that, SLAVERY. 45 at the emancipation of the slave, had swept to the vortex of tyranny, degradation, fornication and diabol- ism of the most vicous character. "In the case of Harris vs. Clarissa and others, in the March term, 1834, the chief justice, in delivering his opinion to the court, said: 'In Maryland, the issue (i. e. , of female slaves) is considered not an accessory, but as a part of the use, like that of other female animals. Suppose a brood mare be hired for five years, the foals belong to him who has a part use of the dam. The slave in Maryland in this respect is placed on no higher or different ground. ' ' ' The Slave Trade in the United States. In 1774, the Articles of the Continental Association agreed that no more slaves should be imported and that the African slave trade should be wholly discontinued. These agreements were signed by the representatives of the colonies, but it was left to the next generation to carry out the agreement fully. Abolishing African Slave Trade. In his message to Congress at the commencement of the session in 1806, President Jefferson asked of that body the wisdom of abolishing African slave trade. The message was referred to a select committee, which reported a bill to prohibit the importation of slaves into the United States. This bill, of course, was fought by the South- ern representatives. A long and fiery debate ensued and the act was finally passed, after several amend- ments, imposing a fine on persons engaged in the slave trade were added. A Baltimore journal of this period says: "Dealing in slaves has become a large business. Establish- ments have been made in several places in Maryland and Virginia at which they are sold like cattle. These 46 PROGRESS OF A RACE. places of deposit are strongly bolted and are supplied with iron thumb- screws and gags ornamented with cows' skins, ofttimes bloody." A Curious Advertisement in a religious paper of Richmond, in March, 1850, is found the following: "Who wants thirty-five thousand dollars in property. I am desirous to spend the balance of my life as a minister, if the Lord permits, and therefore offer for sale my farm, the Vineyard, adjoining to Williams- burg * * * and also about 40 servants, mostly young and likely, and rapidly increasing in number and value. ' ' Effect on Slave Owners. While the slave owner may have been hospitable, courteous, grave, the char- acter of a true gentleman cannot be found where reigns domestic despotism, amidst whips, manacles and bloodhounds. The minds of young men were tainted by familiarity with slaves. With slavery always goes lust. If, as the advocates of slavery con- tended, the Negro was not a man, what were all these half-breeds to be called. The tendency of slavery in that which is not elevating in man is clearly seen in the inferiority of Southern to Northern life. Culture, invention, literature, scientific research, were not found South as long as slavery existed. It is only since slav- ery has been abolished that the South is beginning to rise in all these lines. Not Content in Slavery. The argument against the Negro is that he has never rebelled or resisted slavery, that his docility and contentment in slavery suggested that this was this normal condition. But we need understand the true condition of the Negro, his help- lessness and lack of leadership, to see the falsity of such arguments. Negro insurrections, wherever the SLAVERY. 47 opportunity presented itself, were not wanting in the south land. We need but refer to what is called the Nat Turner insurrection to show that the Negro was struggling for freedom, and was not as docile as the white slaver would make him. The influence of this bloody insurrection in which the lives of so many whites were taken spread through- out Virginia and the South. For years afterwards they lived in a state of dread for fear another Nat Turner might arise. Serious Apprehensions. "Talks from the Times" says: "During the days of slavery there were con- tinuous and serious apprehensions on the part of mas- ters. The whole South was under patrol every night, and the Negro, though regarded then, as many seem to regard him now, as a harmless, spiritless being, a 'scrub race,' a 'race of timid rabbits,' was an object of suspicion and distrust, and not infrequently was consternation thrown into whole states by apprehen- sions of servile uprisings. ' ' Uncle Tom's Cabin. Dr. Edwards says: "The key to 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' is one of the most abhorrent and appalling commentaries ever written 'on African slavery. It has made the cheek of many a slave-holder tingle. But the legislation at that time in Virginia was deemed a life and death question Nothing short of it, for the time being, could allay the painful and distressing excitement that prevailed everywhere throughout the country. It almost makes one's blood run cold, even at this remote period of time, to recall the trepidation and alarm that pervaded the whole community. The stoutest hearts were made to quail. Negro Insurrection. Rumors of Negro insurrec- tion filled the air. Sleep ceased to be refreshing, 48 PROGRESS OF A RACE. haunted as it was by hideous dreams of murder, blood and arson. Mothers and maidens, and even little children, for months not to say years, following the 'Nat Turner Insurrection.' looked pale and ghastly as the shadows of evening gathered around them, from the horrifying apprehension that with bludgeon they might be brained, or with torch might be burned to a crisp before morning. I speak from experience. Nor would I go through the agony of those years again for all the gold that ever passed hands in the Negro traffic from Colonial times till President Lincoln emancipated them with a stroke of his pen. Pharaoh and his peo- ple, under the visit of the destroying angel, when the first-born was convulsively quivering in the death struggle in every household, did not more earnestly desire the quick departure of the Hebrews out of the land of Egypt than did the great majority of the slave holders in the Carolinas and Virginias desire the removal of the Negroes from among them immediately after the Southampton Insurrection. ' ' Restriction of Slavery. The African trade having been abolished, the next question that agitated the mind of the American abolitionist was that of restrict- ing slavery; while the North would restrict it to its present limits, the South insisted that slavery should be permitted to be carried into the new territory and states as they entered the Union. The Congressional discussion of the slavery question aroused the anti- slavery sentiment of the North, and thereby hastened the day when it was possible to liberate the last slave. Slavery in the Colonies. Slavery was early intro- duced into all of the thirteen original colonies. But climate and other considerations proved that it was not so profitable to the Northern colonies as to those in SLAVERY. 40 the South. After some years the Northern colonies liberated their slaves and adopted laws against slavery. While in the South, the large rice and cotton fields, where labor was in demand, the slave was held in cruel bondage, for no other reason than that of the profit that it might bring the owner. The Southern Colonists. The Southern colonists differed widely from the Northern in habits and style of living. In place of thickly settled towns and vil- lages, they had large plantations, and were surrounded by a numerous hotisehold of servants. The Negro quarters formed a hamlet apart, with its gardens and poultry yards. An estate in those days was a little empire. The planter had among his slaves men of every trade, and they made most of the articles needed for common use upon the plantation. There were large sheds for cutting tobacco, and mills for grinding corn and wheat. The tobacco was put up and con- signed directly to England. The flour of the Mount Vernon estate was packed under the eye of Washington himself, and we are told that barrels of flour bearing his brand passed in the West Indies market without inspection. Maryland and Delaware. While the North liber- ated the slave, the Quakers of Maryland and Delaware were rapidly emancipating theirs. Men felt that the best interests of white society demanded that the curse of slavery should be abolished. * ' The whole commerce between master and slave," says Mr. Jefferson, "is a perpetual exercising of the most boisterous passions, our children see this and learn to imitate it. If a parent could find no other motive for restraining the temper of passion against his slave it should always be a sufficient one that his child is present. The man (4 Progrs. 50 PROGRESS OF A RACE. must be a prodigy that can retain his morals and man- ners tmdepraved by such circumstances, and what exe- cration should come upon the statesman who permits half the citizens thus to trample on the rights of others, transform them into despots, and these into enemies, destroy the morals of one, and the love of country of the other." It was often difficult to tell whether the slave or the master was injured the more, the ignorance of the slave hid from him the great evils of his condition, while the intelligence of the owner revealed the bane- ful effects of slavery upon all who came within its area. It made men sectional, licentious, profligate, cruel, and selfishness paled the holy fire of patriotism. Profitable in Maryland. In Maryland the slave trade became a profitable enterprise on account of its rich soil and cultivation of tobacco. Labor was scarce, and the Negro slave labor could be made as cheap as his master's conscience and heart were small. Slavery gained a foothold and at once became the bone and sinew of the working force of the colony. While many attempted to persuade themselves that slavery was an institution indispensable to the success of the colony here, as elsewhere, it was impossible to escape the bad results of the trade which made men cruel and avaricious. Virginia. There is no doubt that the colony of Virginia purchased the first Negroes, and thus opened the nefarious traffic in human flesh. It may, however, be stated, that the first twenty were forced upon the colony by the Dutch sailors who were famishing and insisted upon the exchange of Negroes for food. It is to be noted that even after the institution of SLAVERY. 51 slavery was founded, its growth was very slow in Vir- ginia; according to the census of 1624, there were but twenty-two in the entire colony. The African slave trader was some time in learning that this colony was a ready market for his helpless victims. Whatever compunction of conscience the colonists had in refer- ence to the sub-dealing in slaves, this was destroyed at the golden hopes of immense gains. Slavery existed in this colony from 1619 until 1662, without any sanction of law, but in a later year slavery received the direct sanction of statutory law, and it was also made hereditary ; with each returning year, this cruel inhuman institution flourished and mag- nified. While in some colonies efforts were made to put down slavery from 1619 to 1775, there is nothing in history to show that Virginia ever sought to prohibit in any manner the importation of slaves. That she enriched herself by the slave trade cannot be doubted. The slave had no personal rank ; if he dared lift up a hand against any white man he was punished with lashes, or if he resisted his master he could be killed. Virginia, the mother of Presidents, was also the mother of American slavery. In the absence of the slave trade which Great Britain had suffered, the de- mand for more Negroes in the cotton fields of the South was met by the conversion of Virginia, the old Dominion state, into a breeding state, a shameful, degrading end for the mother of Presidents. New York. An urgent and extraordinary demand for labor, rather than the cruel desire to traffic in human beings, led the Dutch to engage in Negro slave trade. The majority of them were employd on farms, and led quiet and sober lives. At first the Negro slave 52 PROGRESS OF A RACE. was regarded as a cheap laborer, but after a time he became a coveted chattel. It is stated that Queen Elizabeth discouraged slavery and at one time attempted to rebuke a slave dealer, but soon after was found encouraging the slave trade. The condition of the slaves in the Christian colony of New York was no better than in many other colonies, they had no family relations, for a long time lived together by common consent, had no schools, neglected in life, and were abandoned to burial in a common ditch after death. The Negro Plot. In 1741, through a combination of circumstances, the Negroes of New York were accused of plotting against the whites, and in less than three months more than 150 Negroes were put into prison, some of them burned at the stake, others hanged, some transported, and the remainder pardoned. The hatred and mistrust of the Negro was the occasion of much of this supposed riot. Without evidence, and with the mere form of a trial, many Negroes were convicted and sentenced to death. The result of the supposed Negro plot in New York is a stain upon the fair name of that province. It is stated that the desperate valor of the Negro in the war with Great Britain gave her an opportunity to dispell injustice and wipe out with his blood the dark stains of 1841. Rhode Island. The institution of slavery was never established by statute in this colony, but in a few years after the establishment of the government it became so fully rooted that it was not possible to destroy it without explicit and positive prohibition of law. Demand for Ignorance. The education of the Negro in all colonies was considered to be a step against the best interests of their masters. The flourishing of the SLAVERY. 53 slave trade demanded that the slave be kept in ignorance. New Jersey. It is not known when slavery was introduced into New Jersey, but early in its history the Dutch, Quakers and the English held slaves, but were more humane in their treatment of them than in the other colonies. Legislation on the subject was not undertaken until about the middle of the eighteenth century, and at no time did it reach the severity that exhibited itself in the other parts of the country. In this colony alone, of all the colonies north or south, was the American Negro given the right of trial by jury. In Virginia, Maryland, Massachusetts and in all other colonies, the Negro went into the court con- victed, and went out convicted, he was executed on the flimsiest evidence imaginable, but be it said to the praise of New Jersey that justice was shown towards the Negro in this colony as in no other. The Negro slave was given the privilege of being tried by jury and permitted to be sworn in the courts. South Carolina. In South Carolina the inhumanities of the slave trade reached its height. The entire slave population of this province was regarded as a chattel. Rice fields of this state demanded labor and the increase of the slave was almost phenomenal. The laws were not surpassed in stringency by any other celony, and it was unlawful for any free person to inhabit or trade with Negroes. The cruelties of the code are without parallel. Goldwin Smith says: "In the upshot she became the typical slave state, the heart of slavery and the focus of all the ideas and all the ambitions connected with the system ; while Charleston, her social capital and seaport, became the paradise of planter society 54 PROGRESS OF A RACE. with its luxury and pride. Her slave code transcended even that of Virginia in cruelty and expressed still more vividly the terrors of a dominant race. Every one who found a slave abroad without a pass was to flog him on the spot. All Negro houses were to be searched once a fortnight for arms and for stolen goods. For the fourth larceny a slave was to suffer death, and the kind of death was left to the discretion of the judge. For running away a fourth time a slave was to undergo mutilation. For punishing a slave so that he died no one was to suffer any penalty. For the wilful murder of a slave the penalty was a fine of forty pounds. It need not be supposed that the most revolting articles of the code were often put in force, or that they repre- sent the general relations between master and slave. ' ' North Carolina. In this colony there was but little improvement on the condition of the slave in South Carolina. If any Negro showed the least independence with white men he could be murdered in cold blood. The free Negro population was small and were not allowed any communion with the slaves; here, as else- where, the slave was left in a state of ignorance in order to further the interests of his master. New Hampshire. Early in the history of New Hampshire slavery was considered by the authorities as a wicked, hateful institution. The colony never passed any laws establishing slavery, but as early as 1714 passed several laws regarding the conduct and service of the slaves. In New Hampshire there were slaves up to the beginning of the war of the Revolu- tion, but they were slaves in name only. Massachusetts. In Massachusetts, as well as in some other colonies, slavery was first introduced into individual families and afterwards into communities SLAVERY. 55 where, without the sanction of the law, usage and cus- tom made it legal. Finally, men desiring to enjoy the field of unrequiting labor gave it the sanction of stat- utory law. Pennsylvania. Since the habit of enslaving the Negro spread through the colonies north and south, Pennsylvania, even, tolerated slaves within her borders. It is said that William Penn himself once owned slaves. Efforts were made in early years to pass laws emanci- pating slaves, but the mother country would not per- mit such laws at that time. Slave -Breeding States. After the establishing of our republic, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky and Mis- souri were the border states of slavery. North of these the slave was free, and even in these states slavery was found to be an unprofitable business as far as labor was concerned. We may well then ask, "Why was not slavery abolished in these states?" For the simple reason that it was found that since the African slave trade was abolished the South needed an increasing number of slaves for the great plantations. Here was found a profitable business, and these states became breeding states for the propagation of the race, increas- ing the number so as to flood the markets of the South. One of the largest exports of these states was slaves. It was estimated that in 1836 the number sold from the single state of Virginia was 40,000, yielding a return of twenty -four million dollars. This business, horrible as it seems in our day, was licensed and protected by law, advertised in papers, and recognized as one of the branches of legitimate production of trade. Not Universally Countenanced. It must not be supposed that this trade was countenanced by all in the South, even there, there were men who denounced in SLAVERY. 57 strong and vehement language the barbarous custom of separating man and wife, mother and child, scattering families never to meet again until at the great cL.y they meet their inhuman masters as common accusers. The pathetic scenes that presented themselves to the better element in the South brought words of condem- nation against the remorseless traffic that presented scenes along the streets and highways where crowds of suffering victims whose * * Miserable condition was sec- ond only to the wretched borders of Hell, ' ' were made the victims of man's greed and gain. Border States. The states bordering on the slave states, while not permitting slavery within their bor- ders, yet passed what were called "Black Laws," which left the free Negro but little better off in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois than in the Southern states. Black or mulatto persons were not allowed to reside in the state without having a certificate of freedom. Later, amended laws in Ohio required that a bond be given not to become a charge upon the county in which they settled. They were not permitted to give evidence in any court of record or elsewhere in the state against a white person. Severe penalties were inflicted on all who harbored such as had not given bonds. Thus, being denied the right of citizenship, ruled out of courts, compelled to produce a certificate of freedom, and in many other ways annoyed by laws limiting the rights they were suffered to enjoy, the free Negroes of these states were little better than slaves. That they endured patiently these restrictions which public sentiment threw across their social and political pathway is a matter of record. Pensioning Old and Feeble Slaves. This question has been discussed and urged upon our government 58 SLAVERY. 59 repeatedly, but no definite action has been taken. While race prejudice is rapidly disappearing, it may be safe to say that before a sentiment can be obtained that will enact laws favorable to pensioning old and feeble slaves by congress or by any state legislature, every ex-slave will have passed into that life where he receives the recompense of reward for all his deeds, and where he is beyond the reach of the inhumanities of the slave master and needs no pension. Added Items. The emancipation of slaves in all the French colonies took place February 4, 1794. The complete emancipation of slaves in the English colonies occurred in 1838 to 1839, when more than 800,000 men, besides women and children, were lib- erated. Sweden emancipated her slaves in 1846, and this was soon followed (in 1848) by the Danish colonies pro- claiming the freedom of her slaves. Holland delivered her American colonies from slav- ery August 8, 1862. The African slave trade was closed in this country on the first day of January, 1862. CHAPTER III. THE NEGRO IN THE REVOLUTION. Slave Population. In 1715 the slave population was about 60,000, but England's policy of crowding her American plantations with slaves increased the num- ber rapidly, so that sixty years after, when the revolu- tionary war began, the slave population of the thirteen colonies was about 500,000; 50,000 of these were found in the North. The desire to gain liberty with such a host of beings was not to be despised, and both sides contended for their services. A Great Mistake. If the colonists had at once will- ingly enlisted the Negro in the cause of liberty it can hardly be doubted that the struggle of eight years would have been shortened greatly, but in this case, as in many other instances, their enemy, the mothe r coun- try, succeeded in using the slaves to a much greater extent than the colonists. Jefferson says: " That 30,- ooo Negroes from Virginia alone went to the British army. ' ' Had the colonies permitted the Negro to enlist, and had the Negro been urged from the first to stand for the cause of liberty, much bloodshed might have been avoided. The selfishness of the colonists, espe- cially in the South where the opposition to the arming of the Negro was much stronger than the love for inde- pendence, asserted itself to such a degree that any effort to enlist the Negro in that section seemed useless. The First Blood for Liberty shed in the colonies was that of a real slave and Negro. On the 5th day of March, 1770, occurred the Boston massacre, which, 61 C2 PROGRESS OF A RACE. although not opening the real struggle, yet was the bloody drama that opened the most eventful and thrill- ing chapter in American history. Crispus Attucks, a runaway slave, at the head of a crowd of citizens resolved that the conduct of the British soldiers who marched through Boston as through a conquered city could no longer be endured, and led the charge against the British with the cry: "The way to get rid of these soldiers is to attack the main guard. Strike at the root, this is the nest." The troops were ordered to fire, the exposed and com- manding person of the fearless Attucks went down first. Three others fell in the same attack, Caldwell, Gray and Maverick. This aroused the people of Bos- ton. The burial of these four men from Faneuil Hall was attended by a large and respectable concourse of people. "Long as in freedom's cause the wise contend, Dear to your country shall your fame extend; While to the world the lettered stone shall tell Where Caldwell, Attucks, Gray and Maverick fell. ' The following notice appeared in the Boston Gazette twenty years before when Attucks ran away from his master : "Ran away from his master, William Brown, of Framingham, on the 2oth of Sept. last, a Mullato Fel- low, about 27 years of age, named Crispus, 6 feet 2 inches high, short curl' d hair, his knees nearer together than common ; had on a light colored Bearskin Coat, plain brown Fustian Jacket, or brown All Wool one, new Buckskin breeches, blue Yarn Stockings, and a checked woolen shirt. Whoever shall take up said runaway, and convey him to his abovesaid master, shall have ten pounds, old Tenor Reward, and all THE NEGRO IN THE REVOLUTION. 03 necessary charges paid. And all Masters of Vessels and others are hereby cautioned against concealing or carrying off said Servant on Penalty of the Law. Bos- ton, October 2, 1750." Hero and Martyr, Attucks cut the cord and knot that held us to Great Britain. "From that moment," says Webster, "we may date the severance of the Pritish Empire." It touched the people of the col- onies as they had never been touched before. Orators poured out upon this former slave, now a hero and martyr, their unstinted praise. At each succeeding anniversary of this eventful day Crispus Attucks and his noble companions were lauded until our Na- tional Independence was achieved, when the 4th of July was substituted. Committee of Safety. A committee of safety was early appointed after the beginning of the war, and according to its decision no slaves were to be admitted into the army under any consideration whatever. Some free men had already enlisted. Peter Salem was a slave who fought side by side in the ranks with white soldiers. It was he who, on that memorable occa- sion at Bunker Hill when Major Pitcairn, at the head of the British army made an attack upon the American forces, shouting, "The day is ours," poured the contents of his gun into that officer's body killing him instantly, and checking temporarily the advance of the British. Of this occasion Mr. Aaron White, of the Massa- chusetts Historical Society, writes: " With regard to the black hero of Bunker Hill, I never knew him personally nor did I ever hear from his lips the story of his achievements; but I have better authority. A soldier of the Revolution, who 64 PROGRESS OF A RACE. was present at the Bunker Hill battle, related to my father the story of the death of Major Pitcairn. At the moment when the major appeared, startling the men before him, a Negro stepped forward, and, aim- ing his musket at the major's bosom, blew him through. I have frequently heard my father relate the story and have no doubt of its truth. Salem was not the only Negro at the battle of Bunker Hill. Others whose bravery has not been recorded participated in the bat- tle, showing valor and fidelity. ' ' Major Lawrence, who fought through the war from Concord to the peace of 1783, and who participated in many of the severest battles, at one time commanded a company of Negroes whose courage, military disci- pline and fidelity he spoke of with respect. On one occasion, being out reconnoitering with his company, he got so far in advance of his command that he was surrounded and on the point of being made a prisoner by the enemy. The colored men, soon discovering his peril, rushed to his rescue and fought with the most determined bravery till that rescue was effect- ually secured. He never forgot this circumstance, and ever after took special pains to show kindness and hospitality to any individual of the colored race who came near his dwelling. Freeing the Slave. After the committee of safety had excluded slaves from the army many of them were freed by their masters on condition that they join the army. But the prejudice against the Negro asserted itself more and more until the legislative bodies took action and entirely prevented Negroes from enlisting. Colonial Congress. Edward Rutledge, of South Carolina, moved that all Negroes be discharged that HE NEGRO IN tHE REVOLUTION. 65 were in the army. This proposition was strongly supported by the Southern delegates, but the North- ern delegates succeeded in voting it down. The con- test, however, continued until a conference committee was called at Cambridge, at which it was agreed that the Negro should be rejected altogether. Reorganization. In the reorganization of the army many officers who had served with Negroes in the militia, and who had been enlisted in the Colonial army, protested against the exclusion of their old comrades on account of color. Washington saw what might be the result if they were not permitted to enlist, and gave his consent to the enlistment with this proviso "If this is disapproved by Congress I will put a stop to it. ' ' It could be clearly seen that if a Negro was not permitted in the army the British would gain the advantage over the Colonial forces, and no one could predict what the Negro might do. Congress reluctantly receded from its position and granted per- mission to enroll Negroes under certain conditions. Lord Dunmore, who had charge of the British forces in the South, proclaimed freedom to all the slaves who would repair to his standard and bear arms to the king. The flocking of slaves to the British standard greatly alarmed the Colonial forces and caused them to utilize the Negro forces, but in this the British had already preceded them. The Negro Prince. It is impossible to recite all in- cidents and circumstances showing the heroism and bravery on the part of the Negro in this war, but a few stand out more prominently than others. Of these one is the Negro Prince, in Colonel Barton's command, who succeeded in capturing General Prcs 5 Progress. 66 PROGRESS OF A RACE. cott in bed. The daring part that this negro took is shown in the following: " The pleasing information is received here that Lieutenant- Colonel Barton, of the Rhode Island mi- litia, planned a bold exploit for the purpose of sur- prising and taking Major-General Prescott, the com- manding officer of the royal army, at Newport. Taking with him, in the night, about forty men, in two boats, with oars muffled, he had the address to elude the vigilance of the ships- of -war and guard boats, and, having arrived undiscovered at the quarters of Gen- eral Prescott, they were taken for the sentinels ; and the general was not alarmed till the captors were at the door of his lodging chamber, which was fast closed. A Negro man named Prince, instantly thrust his beetle head through the panel door and seized his victim while in bed. This event is extremely honorable to the enterprising spirit of Colonel Barton, and is con- sidered an ample retaliation for the capture of General Lee by Colonel Harcourt. The event occasions great joy and exultation, as it puts in our possession an officer of equal rank with General Lee, by which means an exchange may be obtained. Congress re- solved that an elegant sword should be presented to Colonel Barton for his brave exploit. ' ' Major Jeffrey. Among the brave blacks who fought in the battles for American liberty was Major Jeffrey, a Tennesseean, who, during the campaign of Major- General Andrew Jackson, in Mobile, filled the place of " regular " among the soldiers. In the charge made by General Stump against the enemy the Americans were repulsed and thrown into disorder, Major Stump being forced to retire in a manner by no means desir- able under the circumstances. Major Jeffrey, who THE NEGRO IN THE REVOLUTION. 67 was but a common soldier, seeing the condition of his comrades and comprehending the disastrous results about to befall them, rushed forward, mounted a horse, took command of the troops, and by an heroic effort rallied them to the charge, completely routing the enemy who left the Americans masters of the field. He at once received from the general the title of "major," though he could not, according to the Amer- ican policy, so commission him. To the day of his death he was known by that title in Nashville, where he resided, and the circumstances which entitled him to it were constantly the subject of popular conver- sation. Major Jeffrey was highly respected by the whites generally, and revered in his own neighborhood by all the colored people who knew him. A few years ago, receiving an indignity from a common ruffian, he was forced to strike him in self defense, for which act, in accordance with the laws of slavery in that as well as many other of the slave states, he was compelled to receive on his naked per- son, nine and thirty lashes with a rawhide ! This, at the age of seventy-odd, after the distinguished services rendered his country, probably when the white ruffian by whom he was tortured was unable to raise an arm in self defense, was more than he could bear ; it broke his heart, and he sank to rise no more, till summoned by the blast of the last trumpet, to stand on the bat- tlefield of the general resurrection. Re-enslavement. Many Negroes were induced to enlist in the Colonial army with the understanding that they were to have their freedom at the close of the war. But the re-enslaving of the Negro who fought for American independence by stay-at-homes 68 PROGRESS OF A RACE. was a flagrant outrage. In the legislatures of some states they passed acts rebuking the injustice of such treatment. The Legislature of Virginia ordered that persons in the states who caused the slaves to enlist as free persons could not thereafter force them to return to a state of servitude, so contradictory to that principle of justice and their own solemn vows. Every slave who had enlisted in any regiment, and who had been received as a substitute for any free person whose duty it was to serve in a regiment, was held and deemed free in as full and ample a manner as if each one who came had been especially named in the act. Simon Lee. Simon Lee, grandfather of Wm. Wells Brown, was a slave in Virginia and served in the war of the Revolution. Although honorably discharged with the other troops at the close of the war he was sent back to his master where he spent the remainder of his life toiling on a tobacco plantation. Massachusetts, although having abolished slavery in 1783, it seems was still subjected to slave hunts y and her Negro soldiers were insulted by attempts to re -enslave them. The British Army. Not only did the soldiers of the American army receive unjust treatment but the British, who had promised freedom to all who would join their ranks, after enduring the hardships of the war often committed them back to slavery. Mr. Jefferson says: " From an estimate I made at that time, on the best information I could collect, I supposed the state of Virginia lost under Lord Corn- wallis' hand that year, about thirty thousand slaves, and that of these twenty thousand died of the small- pox and camp fever. The rest were partly sent to THE NEGRO IN T3E REVOLUTION. 69 the West Indies and exchanged for rum, sugar, coffee and fruit, and partly sent to New York, from whence they went, at the peace, either to Nova Scotia or to England. From this place I believe they have lately been sent to Africa. History will never relate the horrors committed by the British army in the South- ern states of America. ' ' The Heroism of the Negro. The heroism of the Negro has been eulogized by many of our American statesmen, notably Mr. Pinckney and Mr. Eustis. Mr. Pinckney says: "It is a remarkable fact that notwithstanding, in the course of the Revolution, the Southern states were continually overrun by the British, and that all Negroes in them had an oppor- tunity of leaving their owners, few did, proving there- by not only a most remarkable attachment to their owners, but the mildness of the treatment from whence their affections sprang. They then were, as they still are, as valuable a part of our population to the Union as any other equal number of inhabitants. They were in numerous instances the pioneers, and in all, the laborers of your- armies. To their hands were owing the erection of the greatest part of the forti- fications raised for the protection of our country; some of which, particularly Fort Moultrie, gave, at the earlier period of the inexperience and untried valor of our citizens, immortality to American arms. In the Northern states numerous bodies of them were enrolled into, and fought by the side of the whites, the battles of the Revolution. ' ' Mr. Eustis, of Massachusetts, said: "At the com- mencement of the Revolutionary war there were found in the Middle and Northern states many blacks and other people of color capable of bearing arms ; a part 70 PROGRESS OF a RACE. of them free, the greater part slaves. The freemen entered our ranks with the whites' The time of those who were slaves was purchased by the states, and they were induced to enter the service hi consequence of a law by which, on condition of their serving in the ranks during the war, they were made freemen. ' ' 14 The war over and peace restored, these men re- turned to their respective states, and who could have said to them on their return to civil life after having shed their blood in common with the whites in the defense of the liberties of their country, You are not to participate in the liberty for which you have been fighting? Certainly no white man in Massachussetts. ' ' Rev. Dr. Hopkins, of Rhode Island, said: " God is so ordering it in his providence that it seems absolutely necessary something should speedily be done with respect to the slaves among us, in order to our safety and to prevent their turning against us in our present struggle, in order to get their liberty. Our oppressors have planned to get the blacks and in- duce them to take up arms against us, by promising them liberty on this condition, and this plan they are prosecuting to the utmost of their power, by which means they have persuaded numbers to join them. And should we attempt to restrain them by force and severity, keeping a strict guard over them, and punishing those severely who shall be detected in at- tempting to join our oppressors, this will only be mak- ing bad worse, and serve to render our inconsistence, oppression and cruelty more criminal, perspicuous and shocking, and bring down the righteous vengeance of Heaven on our heads. The only way pointed out to prevent this threatening evil is to set the blacks at liberty ourselves by some public act and laws, and THE NEGRO IN THE REVOLUTION. 71 then give them proper encouragement to labor, or take arms in the defense of the American cause, as they shall choose. This would at once be doing them some degree of justice, and defeating our enemies in the scheme that they are prosecuting, ' ' Colonel Laurens. No man stands out more prom- inently in the war of the Revolution than Colonel Laurens. He labored earnestly for the South to over- come the prejudices and to raise colored regiments. Although supported by the general government the selfishness of the Southern slaveholder frustrated his plans. In one of his letters to Washington he says : "The approaching session of the Georgia legislature induces me to remain in these quarters for the purpose of taking new measures on the subject of our black levies. I shall, with all the tenacity of a man, do everything that I can in regaining a last effort on so interesting an occasion. ' ' Washington's reply Showed that he, too, had lost faith in the patriotism of the citizens of the South to a great degree. He said : "I must confess that I am not at all astonished at the failure of your plan. That spirit of freedom which, at the commencement of this contest, would have gladly sacrificed everything to the attainment of its object has long since subsided, and every selfish pas- sion has taken its place. It is not the public, but pri- vate interest which influences the generality of man- kind, nor can the Americans any longer boast an exception. Under these circumstances it would rather have been surprising if you had succeeded ; nor will you, I fear, have better success in Georgia." Negro Soldiers. George Williams says as soldiers the Negroes went far beyond the most liberal expec- tations of their staunchest friends. Associated with 72 PROGRESS OF A RACE. white men, many of whom were superior gentlemen and nearly all of whom were brave and enthusiastic, the Negro soldiers of the American army became worthy of the cause they fought to sustain. Colonel Alexander Hamilton had said: " Their natural facul- ties are as good as ours, ' ' and the assertion was sup- ported by their splendid behavior on all the battlefields of the Revolution. Endowed by nature with a poetic element, faithful to trusts, abiding in friendship, bound by the golden threads of attachment to places and persons, enthusiastic in personal endeavor, sentimental and chivalric, they made hardy and intrepid soldiers. The daring, boisterous enthusiasm with which they sprang to arms disarmed racial prejudice of its sting and made friends of foes. Their cheerfulness in camp, their celerity in the performance of fatigue-duty, their patient endurance of heat and cold, hunger and thirst, and their bold efficiency in battle, made them welcome companions wherever they went. The officers who frowned at their presence in the army at first, early learned from experience, that they were the equals of any troops in the army for severe service in camp and excellent fighting in the field. CHAPTER IV. ANTI-SLAVERY AGITATION. Slavery Established in the South.- After the Revo- lution, when the new nation was recovering from the effects of the long continued war, it was found that slavery had established itself in the Southern States while in the North, slaves were being set free. Responsibility. The responsibility of fastening slavery upon the new republic was not the fault of the Declaration of Independence, which stated that all men are created equal and are endowed by the Creator with inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Southern statesmen proved themselves masters of the situation, and, seeing great gain in the traffic in slaves, labored to establish it more and more in the South. While they could not hide behind the walls of the constitution they took refuge, as they thought, behind the Bible, and urged that the divine origin of slavery was incontrovertible, that slavery was the nor- mal condition of every Negro, and that the white man was God's agent to carry out the prophecy of Noah respecting the descendants of Ham. Agitation. While in the slave states there was a determined effort to establish slavery, yet throughout the whole nation, especially in the North, the anti-slav- ery sentiment was being agitated and increased. Some statesmen, notably Mr. Jefferson, prophesied a dissolu- tion of the Union if the nation were to remain half slave and half free. The whole commerce between master and slave w&; 73 74 PROGRESS OF A RACE. denounced as the most unrelenting despotism on the one part and degrading submission on the other. Property in Man. Says George Williams: "When the doctrine of property in man was driven out of Europe as an exile and found a home in this New World in the West, the ancient and time honored anti- slavery sentiment combined all that was good in brain, heart and civilization, and hurled itself with righteous indignation against the institution of slavery the per- fected curse of the ages. The Quakers. Foremost in the anti-slavery agita- tion were the good and kind-hearted Quakers, or Friends. In our poor Negro slaves they saw a brother, and very early in the history of the nation emancipated all their slaves and labored to increase the anti-slavery sentiment. Benjamin Lundy. One of the first agitators of the anti-slavery movement was Benjamin Lundy, who traveled through a number of states and labored inces- santly for the freeing of the Negro. In 1830 he says: ' * I have within ten years sacrificed several thousands of dollars of my own earnings, I have traveled upwards of 5,000 miles on foot and more than 20,000 in other ways, have visited nineteen states of this Union and held more than two hundred public meetings, have per- formed two voyages to the West Indies, by which means the emancipation of a considerable number of slaves has been affected, and, I hope, the way paved for the enfranchisement of many more. ' ' Considering the extreme dangers to which any one agitating anti- slavery was subjected in these times this was a remark- able work. He was afterwards associated with William Lloyd Garrison. These men, together equally ardent in their efforts to abolish slavery, were, however, not ANTI-SLAVERY AGITATION. agreed as to the method. Lundy favored gradual emancipation, Garrison immediate and unconditional emancipation. William Lloyd Garrison. This young man devoted his life to the cause of freeing the Negro. At an early period he edited an anti-slavery paper and afterwards WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. united with Mr. Lundy in publishing a paper at Balti- more. Seeing a load of slaves for the New Orleans market, the sundering of families, as well as the har- rowing cruelties that attended these scenes, he de- nounced in his paper in no measured terms, the whole institution, and expressed his determination to cover with thick infamy all who were engaged in the trans- 76 PROGRESS OF A RACE. action. The result was that his paper was destroyed, he was arrested, tried for libel, and convicted and imprisoned. The exorbitant fine imposed upon him was afterwards paid by the benevolent Arthur Tap- pan. Garrison went forth from the prison if possible a more inveterate foe to slavery than ever. It was not popular to denounce slavery and hence this young orator often encountered great dangers. When cau- tioned he replied: "I am aware that many object to the severity of my language, but is there not cause for severity. I am but as harsh as truth and as uncom- promising as justice. Tell a man whose house is on fire to give a moderate alarm ; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hands of the ravisher ; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen ; but urge me not to use mod- eration in a cause like the present. I am in earnest. I will not equivocate I will not excuse I will not retreat a single inch. And I will be heard. ' ' There never was a more intrepid leader against slavery than William Lloyd Garrison. Anti-Slavery Societies. In 1836 there were 250 auxiliary societies in thirteen states, and eighteen months later they had increased to 1,000. Silence of the Pulpit. It is true that many of the foremost ministers of the day maintained an unbroken silence on the slavery question, but all could not be kept silent. There were notable exceptions in many parts of the north, while in some parts anti-slavery men who had been hoping for aid from the church went out of the church temporarily, hoping that the scales would drop from the eyes of the preachers ere long. Dr. Albert Barnes stated: "That there was no power out of the church that would sustain slavery an hour if it were not sustained in it. " ANTI-SLAVERY AGITATION. 77 Leaders of the Anti-Slavery Party. Among the leaders of the anti-slavery party we may mention Par- ker Pillsbury, Stephen Foster, James G. Birney and Samuel Brooke. Mr. Pillsbury said: "The anti- slavery movement has unmasked the character of the American church. Our religion has been found at war with the interests of humanity and the laws of God. And it is more than time the world was awakened to its unhallowed influence on the hopes and happiness of man while it makes itself the palladium of the foul- est iniquity ever perpetrated in the sight of Heaven. ' ' Theodore Parker was another of the strong men who lent his influence wholly against slavery. Other Agitators. Foremost among agitators were such men as E. P. Lovejoy, who afterwards gave his life for the cause, James G. Birney, Cassius M. Clay and John Brown. Of John Brown it may be said that it was given to him to write the lesson upon the hearts of the American people so that they were enabled, a few years later, to practice the doctrine of resistance and preserve the nation against the bloody aggressions of the Southern Confederacy. Colonization Societies. These were formed earlier than any other an ti- slavery organizations. Their objects were to rescue the free colored people of the United States from the political and social disadvantages and to place them in a country where they might enjoy the benefits of free government with all the blessings which it brings in its train. The American Coloniza- tion Society was never able to secure the confidence and the support of the anti-slavery societies of the day nor the Negro in general. It did not oppose slavery in its stronghold, but simply sought to secure a place for freed Negroes. The press, in many cases, lent its aid 78 PROGRESS OF A RACE. to the colonization societies, but, notwithstanding the apparent favor which it received, it was readily seen that to send the Negro to Africa or some other favored spot was an impossibility. The society lost strength WENDELL PHILLIPS. yearly until all were convinced the race could not be colonized, but that the Negro must be emancipated here and remain here. Wendell Phillips. One of Mr. Garrison's most able and earnest supporters was Wendell Phillips. Although ANTI-SLAVERY AGITATION. 79 in many respects they strangely differed yet they stood united for the cause of freedom ; one was a self-made man, the other a product of New England culture. One was the executive of the anti-slavery movement, the other the orator spreading the eloquence that melted the fetters from a race and transformed a nation. Mr. Phillips was a reformer and early espoused the cause of anti-slavery. One of his most remarkable addresses against slavery was made in Faneuil Hall, Boston, where a number had gathered after the murder of Love- joy to discuss the subject of slavery. Faneuil Hall was secured by Dr. Channing. It was crowded at the time of the meeting, thronged with three factions, some being for free discussion, some to make mischief, and others, idle spectators, were swayed to and fro by each speaker in turn. Resolutions were offered denouncing the murder of Lovejoy. To defeat the adoption of these resolutions a popular politician, attorney-general of Massachusetts, made a captivating speech and almost succeeded in turning the audience against the cause for which they had met. The foes of freedom, through this astute attorney, captured the hall and were ready to vote down the resolutions. It was at this important moment, under the very shadow of the pending catastrophe, that Wendell Phillips claimed the floor and with his marvelous voice captivated the ears of his audience. Mr. Phillips soon made him- self master of the situation and hurled anathemas at the previous speaker, and so completely carried his audi- ence with him that at the close, with a whirlwind of applause, the resolutions were carried by an over- whelming vote. Oliver Johnson says of this speech : "I had heard Phillips once before, and my expecta- tions were high, but he transcended them and took the audience by storm. ' ' 6 PROGRESS OF A RACE. It was a speech to which not even the ablest report could do justice, for such a report could not bring the scene and the speaker vividly before the people. Mr. Phillips, by espousing the cause of anti-slavery, was ostracised from social circles, for caste at that time in New England knew no recognition of true moral worth. It cost Wendell Phillips much when he became an abolitionist. This speech on Loyejoy's murder in Faneuil Hall, cut him from all social intercourse with previous friends. No one but those who have endured the persecutions of these days can understand what it cost these men to stand so earnestly for the freedom of the slaves. Their true moral worth cannot be too forcibly presented to the youth of to-day. Long live in the memory of the present and future generations men like Wendell Phillips who staked their all and were ready at any cost to stand for the suppression of the slave trade. Convention of Colored People. As early as 1831 the freed Negroes throughout the Northern states deter- mined to do what they could for their brethren in bonds. Several conventions were held. A college was to be established and no doubt much good might have been done had they been permitted to continue in their work. Able leaders succeeded in making the conven- tion a power, but the intense hatred of the slavery element succeeded in abolishing these societies com- posed of persons of color. These societies were dis- banded and their members took their places in white societies. The Proposed College. A plan was proposed at one of these conventions that a college on the manual-labor system be established in New Haven. It seems, how- ever, New Haven resented the idea of having a colored ANTI-SLAVERY AGITATION. 81 CHARLES SUMNER. A staunch anti-slavery man who did more in Congress for the freedom of the slave than any other man. He was Senator from Massachusetts. college and another site was selected. The disband- ing of the colored associations put a stop to this move- ment which might have '"brought so much good to the wiole of the .colored race. Anti-Slavery Women of America. In 1837 the anti- slavery women met in their first convention in New York, and the question as to admitting colored women 6 Progress. 82 PROGRESS OF A RACK. was 'discussed and ably defended. It was finally decided that the society should admit colored members as well. The following lines by a colored member, Miss Sarah Forten, justified the hopes of her white sisters concern- ing the race : "We are thy sisters. God has truly said That of one blood the nations he has made. Oh, Christian woman, in a Christian land, Canst thou unblushing read this great command? Suffer the wrongs which wring our inmost heart, To draw one throb of pity on thy part. Our skins may differ, but from thee we claim A sister's privilege and a sister's name." Anti- Slavery Orators. The arguments of anti- slavery orators were often met by rotten eggs and many of them were abused. Mr. Garrison was dragged through the streets of Boston with a halter about his neck. Colored schools were broken up. Public meet- ings were disturbed by pro- slavery mobs. All this violent opposition added fuel to the flame and made the anti-slavery agitators all the bolder. While the foreign slave trade had been suppressed slave popula- tion was increasing at a wonderful ratio. Garrison's voice was not uncertain in those days. In July, 1860, he declared: "Our object is the abolition of slavery throughout the land. I am for meddling with slavery everywhere attacking it by night and by day, in sea- son and out of season in order to effect its overthrow. Down with this slave -holding government! Let this 'covenant with death and agreement with hell* be annulled ! Let there be a free, independent Northern republic and the speedy abolition of slavery will inev- itably follow." HARRIET BEECHER STOWE. Author of "Uncle Tom's Cabin." 84 PROGRESS OF A RACE. Literature. Anti- slavery literature was scattered throughout the nation. Many pamphlets and books were written by eminent Negroes informing the pub- lic mind, stimulating the action and touching the heart of the civilized world of two continents. * * Uncle Tom's Cabin," however, pleaded the cause of slavery more effectually than the millions of anti-slavery books and pamphlets, presenting the despairing cry of the en- slaved, the struggle of fettered manhood, and touched the sympathies of the youth as well as the aged with a pity for the slave and a determination to abolish so hideous an institution. Harriet Beecher Stowe. Although Harriet Beecher Stowe was not permitted to take an active and direct part in freeing the slaves, yet her work, "Uncle Tom's Cabin. ' ' did more in bringing about the final liberation of the slave than any other agency. This volume has been translated into many languages. Everywhere read it is destined to create a sentiment against the traffic in man. The Pro-Slavery Reaction. The agitation of the anti-slavery question brought about a strong opposition to any effort made to free the slaves. Rewards of Si 0,000 and even $50,000 were offered for the heads of prominent abolitionists. Andrew Jackson in his mes- sage to Congress in 1835, suggested the propriety of a law that would prohibit, under severe penalties, the cir- culation in the Southern states through the mails of pub- lications intended to incite the slaves to insurrection. Attempts to Stifle Discussions. The legislatures of the different states, as well as Congress, were next entreated to prohibit discussions of the slavery ques- tion. These efforts were generally defeated in the North, but in the South were successful ANTI-SLAVERY AGITATION. 85 Mob Riots. In many places mob violence was re- sorted to in breaking up meetings called for the discus- sion of anti-slavery questions. Philadelphia had a riot lasting three nights and the harmless and powerless blacks were mainly its victims. At Concord, N. H. , the mob demolished an academy because colored boys were admitted as pupils. At Northfield, N. H., George Storrs attempted to deliver an anti-slavery lecture, but was dragged from his knees while at prayer. On trial he was acquitted, but soon after was again ar- rested and sentenced to three months' imprisonment. He appealed and that ended the matter. At Boston, William Lloyd Garrison was dragged through the streets with a rope around his body, but was finally rescued by the mayor who protected him from further violence. In the same city a women's anti-slavery society was dispersed by a mob while its president was at prayer. In the South there was but one mode of dealing with the abolitionists. ' * Let your emissaries cross the Potomac and I promise you that your fate will be no less than Hainan's," says a South- ern writer. Rifling the Mails. Anti-slavery literature was not permitted to be sent through the mails in the South and a meeting in Charleston, S. C., unanimously resolved that all mail matter of this kind should be burned. The mails were searched and rifled for the purpose. Attempts were made to bring offenders to justice, but failure met them in every case. Congress Suppressing Agitation. Not only in the state legislatures, but in Congress, measures were adopted to suppress the discussion of the slavery ques- tion. In 1837 Congress adopted by a vote of 117 to 68 the following resolution: "That all petitions, mem- 86 PROGRESS OF A RACE. orials, resolutions, propositions, or papers relating in any way to the subject of slavery or the abolition of slavery shall, without being either first read or referred, HENRY WILSON. An anti-slavery agitator and Vice-President in 1872. While in Congress in 1862 he introduced a bill for the employment of Negroes as Soldiers. be laid on the table. ' ' Amazing as it may seem, this heroic treatment was not successful in arresting agi- tation and restoring tranquillity to the public mind, ANTI-SLAVERY AGITATION. 87 so that each succeeding Congress was necessitated to do the work over again. John Brown. One of the most prominent of the agitators of anti-slavery was John Brown of national fame. The story >f this man's life is too well known to be repeated here. After laboring for many years and succeeding in aiding the cause of anti-slavery in many ways, he attacked Harper's Ferry in 1859 and, with a number of associates was made a prisoner. It is vain to under-rate either the man or his work. With firmness of will and a purpose unconquerable, he labored for the cause so dear to him and to which he had given most of his years. After the fight at Har- per's Ferry he said: "I never intended plunder or treason or the destruction of property, or to excite the slaves to rebellion ; I labored only to free the slaves. ' ' South Carolina, Missouri and Kentucky each sent a rope to hang him, but Kentucky's, proving the strong- est, was selected and used. His last letter, written before his death to Mrs. George L. Stearns, Boston, Mass., follows: "CHARLESTON, JEFFERSON Co., 2pth Nov., 1859. "MRS. GEORGE L. STEARNS, Boston, Mass. "My Dear Friend: No letter I have received since my imprisonment here has given me more satisfaction or comfort than yours of the 8th inst. I am quite cheerful and never more happy. Have only time to write you a word. May God forever reward you and all yours. ' * My love to ALL who love their neighbors. I have asked to be spared from having any mock or hypocrit- ical prayers made over me when I am publicly mur* 88 PROGRESS OF A PACE. dered; and that my only religious attendants be poot little, dirty, ragged, bare-headed and bare-footed slave boys and girls led by some old gray -headed slave mother. Farewell. Farewell, " Your friend, "JOHN BROWN." John Brown gave slavery its death wound and his. immortal name will be pronounced with blessings in all lands and bv all people till the end of time. JOHN BROWN. THE ABOLITIONIST. m CHAPTER V. THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAWS. UNDERGROUND RAILROAD SYSTEM SLAVE POPULATION. Fugitive Slave Laws. Very severe and stringent laws were passed to prevent anyone from aiding the slaves in attempting to escape to the North. These laws permitted owners to follow slaves and legally claim them in other states. Any one suspected of showing even an act of kindness to a fugitive slave was liable to be flogged, fined or imprisoned. The greater the agitation of the question the more severe were these laws. Calvin Fairbanks. Many respected citizens were imprisoned and fined for aiding slaves. Calvin Fair- banks spent nearly eighteen years in a Kentucky peni- tentiary for the crime of aiding poor slaves in gaining freedom. It is said that during this time he received 35,000 stripes on his bare body. Early in life he had heard of the sufferings and miseries endured by slaves and had resolved then to do all in his power to right the wrongs suffered by the race. He was one of the first in the Underground Railway work along the Ohio. A number of times he was arrested in the act of giving assistance to slaves and committed to prison, where he suffered untold cruelties from the hands of his keeper. "I was flogged sometimes bowed over a chair or some other object, often receiving seventy lashes four times a day, and at one time received 107 blows at one time, particles of flesh being thrown upon the wall several feet away." All this was endured by a white man in order to free the Negro. 89 90 PROGRESS OF A RACE. Rev. John Rankin, of Ohio, was fined $1,000, besides serving a term in prison. W. L. Chaplin aided two young slaves of Georgia to escape. Caught in the act, he was imprisoned for five months and released on a bail of $25,000. His friends, knowing that he would be convicted and sent to the penitentiary for a number of years, and perhaps for life, resolved to pay his bail. All his property was sacrificed, and through the liberality of that princely man, Garrett Smith, the sum was raised. Thomas Garrett, a Quak er of Delaware, one of the most successful agents of the Underground Railway, assisted nearly 3,000 slaves to escape from bondage ; he was at last convicted and fined so heavily that he lost all his property When the auctioneer had knocked off his last piece of property to pay the fine he said : "I hope you will never be guilty of doing the like again." Garrett, although penniless at the age of sixty, replied: "Friend, I have not a dollar in the world, but if thee knows a fugitive slave who needs a breakfast send him to me." It is with pleasure we learn Mr. Garrett lived to see the day when the slaves obtained their freedom. Levi Coffin. This man of high social position, a Quaker of Cincinnati, was frequently called the presi- dent of the Underground Railway. He succeeded in aiding about 25,000 slaves in gaining their freedom. Captain Jonathan Walker. Mr. Walker took aeon- tract to build a railroad in Florida and for this purpose employed a number of Negroes. By kind treatment he gained the confidence of these slaves who afterwards persuaded him to aid them in gaining their liberty. They attempted to escape in a boat to an island not far away. Captain Walker was taken violently sick, and THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAWS. 91 the Negroes, not understanding how to manage the boat, were taken tip by another vessel and taken to Key West. Captain Walker was tried in the United States Court and was sentenced to be branded on the right hand with the capital letters "S. S. " (slave stealer), and to pay as many fines as there were slaves ; to suffer THOMAS GARRETT. Prom " Underground Railroad," by permission of Author. as many terms imprisonment; and to pay the costs and stand committed until the fines were paid. The initials of the words * ' slave stealer ' ' were branded upon his hand and he was imprisoned, but his friends succeeded in raising money to pay his fines and he was released in 1845. The following lines by Whittier gave quite another meaning to the brand "S. S.," 92 PROGRESS OF A RACE. making it a badge of honor, signifying the heroism and self-sacrifice in spirit of these forerunners of liberty. " Then lift that manly right hand, bold plowman of the wave, Its branded palm shall prophesy Salvation to the Slave ; Hold up its fire- wrought language, that whoso reads may feel His heart swell strong within him, his sinews change to steel ; Hold it up before our sunshine, up against our Northern air. Ho! men of Massachusetts, for the love of God, look there! Take it henceforth for your standard, like the Bruce 's heart ol yore; In the dark strife closing round ye let that hand be seen before." Underground Railroad. By this term we designate the many methods and systems by which fugitive slaves from the Southern States were aided in es- caping to the North or Canada. After slavery was abolished in the North slaves frequently ran away from their masters and attempted to reach the free states of the North, or better still, Canada, where they were beyond the reach of their former masters. These so-called railroads were most useful auxiliar- ies in giving aid to the Negro. Fugitive slave laws gave masters the right to pursue the slaves into an- other state and bring them back. The men interested in these railways were men who felt they should fear God rather than man, that the fugitive slave laws were unjust and that they should not be obeyed. They were composed of a chain of good men who stretched themselves across the land from the borders of the slave states all the way to Canada. Many fu- gitive slaves were thus permitted to escape. They were carried by night to a place of safety and then turned over to another conductor who very often THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAWS. 93 would load up and convey the fugitives in a covered wagon to the next station. Thus they were carried on from one place to another. As soon as leaders rose among the slaves who refused to endure hard- ship, the fugitive then came north. George Williams says: "Had they remained, the direful scenes of St. Domingo would have been re-enacted, and the hot vengeful breath of massacre would have swept the South as a tornado and blanched the cheek of" the civilized world. ' ' Different Branches. It would be very difficult to name all the branches of the ' ' Underground Railroad. ' ' They extended all the way from New Jersey to Illi- nois. Probably those on which the greatest number was rescued extended through Pennsylvania and Ohio. Many local branches existed in different parts of the country. William Still. One of the most active workers in freeing slaves was William Still. He was chairman and secretary of the eastern branch of the road. It is won- derful what work such men as Mr. Still did in those days when opposition was so great. A part of the work that he has done is recorded in " Underground Railroad." In the preface of this work Mr. Still says : " In these records will be found interesting nar- ratives of the escapes of men, women and children from the present House of Bondage ; from cities and plantations ; from rice swamps and cotton fields ; from kitchens and mechanic shops ; from border states and gulf states; from cruel masters and mild masters; some guided by the north star alone, penniless, brav- ing the perils of land and sea, eluding the keen scent of the bloodhound as well as the more dangerous pur- suit of the savage slave-hunter; some from secluded i* fa -a" II OS w p si THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAWS. 95 dens and caves of the earth, where for months and years they had been hidden away awaiting the chance to escape; from mountains and swamps, where inde- scribable sufferings and other privations had patiently been endured. Occasionally fugitives came in boxes and chests, and not infrequently some were secreted in steamers and vessels, and in some instances jour- neyed hundreds of miles in skiffs. Men disguised in female attire and women dressed in the garb of men have under very trying circumstances triumphed in thus making their way to freedom. And here and there, when all other modes of escape seemed cut off, some, whose fair complexions have rendered them indistinguishable from their Anglo-Saxon brethren, feeling that they could endure the yoke no longer, with assumed airs of importance, such as they had been accustomed to see their masters show when trav- eling, have taken the usual modes of conveyance and have even braved the most scrutinizing inspection of* slave-holders, slave -catchers, and car conductors, who were ever on the alert to catch those who were con- sidered base and white enough to practice such decep- tion. ' ' Mr. Still says that the passengers on the Un- derground Railroad were generally above the average order of slaves. Agents. As the branches of the railroad were nu- merous it would be impossible to name any consider- able number of the agents of the road. Some of these nobly periled their all for the freedom of the op- pressed. Seth Concklin lost his life while endeavoring to rescue from Alabama slavery the wife and children of Peter Still. Samuel D. Burris, whose faithful and heroic service in connection with the underground railway cost him imprisonment and inhuman treat- 96 PROGRESS OF A RACK. ment, at last lost his freedom by being sold from the auction block. WILLIAM STILL. See sketch in Chapter XIV. THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAWS. 97 Indeed, prudence often dictated that the recipients of favors should not know the names of their helpers and vice versa, they did not desire to know others. The slave and his friends could only meet in private to transact the business of the road. All others were outsiders. The right hand was not to know what the left hand was doing. The safety of all concerned called for still tongues. For a long time no narratives were written. Probably the best and most authentic of these thrilling accounts of the struggle for liberty are found in ''Underground Railroad." Methods Pursued. Different methods were pursued to aid fugitive slaves; some availed themselves of steamboats, railroads, stage coaches, but more fre- quently a more private method was resorted to, so as to escape detection. A number of cases are reported where colored men were boxed up and shipped by express across the line. William Jones, from Baltimore, succeeded in having his friends box him up and ship him by express to Philadelphia ; for seventeen hours he was enclosed in the box, but friends at the Philadelphia underground station succeeded in getting the box safely, and after a time in sending the slave to Canada. Mr. Pratt, in his sketches of the underground railway, gives a number of interesting accounts of escapes, among which are a mother and daughter who escaped in a box from Washington to Warsaw, New York. With the aid of a friend they secured a box, put in it straw, quilts, plenty of provisions and water, and their friend carried the box in a spring wagon to the North. This friend, in order to succeed in his efforts, passed himself off as a Yankee clock peddler, and as he drove a wagon and good team, no questions were asked. 7 Progress. 98 PROGRESS OF A RACfi. When out of sight of settlements he would open the box and give the inmates an opportunity to walk in the night for exercise. The master heard of their whereabouts and sent slave-hunters to recapture them, A BOLD STROKE FOR FREEDOM. From "Underground Railroad," by permission of Author." but the sentiment against slavery was so strong that they were not permitted to take them back. Henry Box Brown. The marvelous escape of Henry Box Brown was published widely in papers when the an ti- slavery agitation was being carried on. In point of interest his case is no more remarkable than any other; indeed, he did not suffer near as much as many. He was a piece of property in the city of Richmond. He seemed to be a man of inventive mind, and knew 'that it was no small task to escape the vigilance of Virginia slave hunters, or the wrath of an enraged master, for attempting to escape to a land of liberty. THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAWS. 99 The ordinary modes of travel, he concluded, might prove disastrous to his hopes, he therefore hit upon a new invention, which was to have himself boxed up and forwarded to Philadelphia by express. Size of box was 2 feet wide, 2 feet 8 inches deep and 3 feet long-. His food consisted of a few small biscuits. He had a large gimlet which he intended to use for fresh air if necessary. Satisfied that this would be far better than to remain in slavery, he entered the box. It was RESURRECTION OF HENRY BOX BROWN. Prom " Undergrrotmd Railroad," by permission of Author. safely nailed up and hooped with five hickory hoops, and addressed by his friend, Jaines A. Smith, a shoe dealer, to Wm. Johnson, Arch street, Philadelphia, marked "This side up, with care. " It was twenty-six hours from the time he left Richmond until he arrived in Philadelphia. The notice, "This side up," did not avail, for the box was often roughly handled. For a while the box was upside down and he was on his head for miles. The members of the vigilance com- 100 PROGRESS OF A RACE. mittee of Philadelphia had been informed that he would be started. One of the committee went to the depot at half past two o'clock in the morning to look after the box, but did not find it. The same afternoon he received a telegram from Richmond, "Your case of goods is shipped and will arrive to-morrow morning. " Mr. McKim, who had been engineering this under- taking, found it necessary to change the program, for it would not be safe to have the express bring it directly to the anti-slavery office. He went to a friend who was extensively engaged in mercantile business who was ready to aid him. This friend, Mr. Davis, knew all the Adams Express drivers, and it was left to him to pay a trusty man $5 in gold to go next morn- ing and bring the box directly to the an ti- slavery office. Those present to behold the resurrection were J. M. McKim, Professor C. D. Cleveland, Lewis Thompson, and Wm. Still. The box was taken into the office. When the door had been safely locked, Mr. McKim rapped quietly on the lid of the box and called out " All right." Instantly came the answer from within, "All right, sir." Saw and hatchet soon removed the five hickory hoops and raised the lid of the box. Rising up in his box, Brown reached out his hand, saying, ' ' How do you do, gentlemen." He was about as wet as if he had come up out of the Delaware. He first sang the psalm beginning with these words : "I waited patiently for the Lord, and he heard my prayer. ' ' At the home of Lucretia Mott he received a cordial reception, and was entertained for some time, when he went to Boston. The success of this undertaking encouraged Smith, who had nailed him up in the box, to render similar service to two other young bondmen. But, unfortun- ately, in this attempt the undertaking proved a failure. THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAWS. 101 The young men, after being duly expressed and some distance on the road, were, through the agency of the telegraph, betrayed, and the heroic young fugitives were taken from the box and dragged back to helpless bondage. Smith was arrested and imprisoned for seven years in a Richmond penitentiary. He lost all CHARITY STILL, Who Twice Escaped from Slavery. his property, was refused witnesses on his trial, and for five long months, in hot weather, he was kept heavily chained in a cell 4x8 feet in dimensions. Mr. Smith had, by his efforts, aided many to gain their liberty. He received five stabs aimed at his heart by a bribed assassin. But all these things did not move him from his purpose. After his release he went North and was united in marriage at Philadelphia to a lady who had remained faithful to him through all his sufferings. Amanda Smith, in her autobiography, tells how her 102 PROGRESS OF A RACE. father assisted runaway slaves. ' ' Our house, ' ' she says, "was one of the main stations of the underground railway. My father took the Baltimore Weekly Sun newspaper, that always had advertisements of runaway slaves. These would be directed by their friends to our house and we would assist them on their way to liberty. Excitement ran very high, and we had to be very discreet in order not to attract suspicion. My father was watched closely, as he was suspected of aiding slaves. After working all day in the harvest field he would come home at night, sleep about two hours, then start at midnight and walk fifteen or twenty miles and carry a poor slave to a place of security, sometimes a mother and child, sometimes a man and wife, then get home just before day. Thus he many times baffled suspicion, and never but once was there a poor slave taken from my father's hands, and if that man had told the truth he would have been saved. "One week the papers were full of notices of a slave who had run away. A heavy reward was offered, a number of men in our neighborhood deterimned to get the reward if possible. They suspected our home as a place of safety for the poor slave. We had concealed the poor fellow for about two weeks, as there was no possible chance for father or anyone else to get him away, so closely were we watched. One day four men came on horseback. As father saw them he called to mother that four men were coming. He met them and they demanded of him to know whether he had a nigger there. Father said, 'If I tell you I have not you won't believe me, if I tell you I have it will not satisfy you, so search for yourself. ' Mother had in the meantime concealed him between the cords and the straw tick. The men searched the house, looked under THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAWS. 103 the bed, and satisfied themselves that he was not there ; thus we succeeded in saving him from slavery." William and Ellen Graft were slaves in the state of Georgia. The desire to become free became so strong that they commenced planning to escape. Ellen, being fair, would pass for a white man, and was to act the part of master, while William was to be the servant. She dressed in a fashionable suit of male attire, and was to pass as a young planter. But Ellen was beardless. After mature reflection her face was muffled up as though the young planter was suffering from a face or toothache. In order to prevent the method of register- ing at hotels, Ellen put her right arm in a sling, put on green spectacles, and pretended to be very hard of hearing and dependent upon the faithful servant. Ellen, disguised as a young planter, was to have nothing to do but to hold herself subject to her ail- ments and put on the air of superiority. The servant was always ready to explain in case of inquiry. They stopped at first-class hotels in Charleston, Richmond and Baltimore, and arrived safely in Philadelphia, where the rheumatism disappeared, her right arm was unslung, her toothache was gone, the beardless face was unmuffled, the deaf heard and spoke, the blind saw. The strain on Ellen's nerves, however, had tried her severely, and she was physically prostrated for some time. Her husband, William, was thoroughly colored, and was a man of marked ability and good manners, and full of pluck. They were sent to Boston, where they lived happily until the fugitive slave law was passed. Then slave, hunters from Macon, Georgia, were soon on their track, but the sympathy of friends in Boston would not permit their being returned to Georgia. It was, however, considered best for them 104 PROGRESS OF A RACE. to seek a country where they would not be in daily fear of slave capturers, backed by the United States Government. They were therefore sent by their friends to Great Britain: In England the Crafts were highly respected. After the emancipation they returned to the United States with two children, and, after visiting Boston and neighboring places, William purchased a plantation near Savannah, and is living there with his family. Emancipators Tried. Those who aided slaves in their struggle for liberty were often tried and impris- oned. Many of them lost all of their property and suffered much from the hands of slave dealers. Seth Concklin's noble and daring spirit induced him to put forth the most strenuous efforts to redeem a family of slaves. He learned to know Peter Still and found that his wife and children were still in Alabama in bondage. After considering the hazardous under- taking, he decided to make an attempt to bring the wife and children of Peter Still to the North. He went South, laid his plans well, and succeeded in carrying the family for seven days and seven nights in his skiff, then traveled hundreds of miles on foot. They at last reached Vincennes, Indiana. By this time the adver- tisements of the runaway slaves had spread all over the country, and at Vincennes they were arrested and taken South to their former owner. Imagine the state of mind of these enslaved ones, who, after having endured so many hardships and pain, so near to freedom's territory, were caught and returned to slavery. Seth Concklin was brutally murdered on the way south. Thus we might give numerous cases where slaves were secreted for months and endured the greatest THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAWS. 105 hardships and were willing rather to meet death than to remain in slavery. Several girls made their escape in male attire, some secreted themselves in woods, traveling at night. Others succeeded in having friends hide them in steamers, but the underground railroad, with all its stations and well-planned schemes, suc- ceeded often in defeating the plans of the slave hunt- ers. As soon as a slave ran away papers were filled with advertisements and rewards were offered for their return. In this way many were looking for slaves so as to secure the rewards, making the escape of some more difficult. One cannot read such books as "The Underground Railroad, by Wm. Still, ' ' or the story of Peter Still, the kidnapped and the ransomed, without sincere thankfulness that slavery is ended, and that a man is a man without respect to the color of his skin. Slave Population. In 1800 the slave population was over 900,000; in 1830 it had reached about 2,000,000; in 1840 it was estimated to be about 2,500,000; and in 1850 it was about 3,000,000. In 1860 the aggregate Negro population in the United States was about 4, 5 oo, ooo, of which about 4, ooo, ooo were slaves. Nearly 3,000,000 of the slaves were in the rural districts of the South. Southern prosperity depended upon the prod- uct of slave labor, which amounted to about $140,000,- ooo per year. It can be readily seen that the Civil War, which commenced in 1861, was destined to shake the very foundation of Southern civilization. While both North and South attempted to keep the real cause of the war in the background the maxim, "No question is settled until it is settled right," asserted itself here, and no real progress was made in the war until the Northern leaders acknowledged slavery as the issue, and met the question direct by freeing all slaves. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. CHAPTER VI. THE NEGRO IN THE CIVIL WAR. The part enacted by Negro troops in the War of the Rebellion is the romance of North American history. Number Enrolled. The records of the war depart- ment show that there were 178,595 colored men regu- larly enlisted as soldiers in the Union army during the rebellion who by their good conduct established a commendable record and did efficient service in camp, fortress and field. The first enlistment of Negroes was by Gen. Hunter in the Department of the South in June, 1862. It was made without the authority of the War Department and was due to an emergency. Gen. Hunter needed men. Ready for Enlistment. At the sound of the tocsin at the North the Negro waiter, barber, cook, groom, porter, boot-black, and laborer, stood ready at the enlisting office ; although the recruiting officer refused to take his name he waited patiently for the prejudice to be removed, waited two long years before the door was opened, but even then he did not hesitate but walked in, and with what effect the world knows. Opposition to Enlistment. From the beginning there was great opposition to enlisting the Negro in the army. The Northerners even went so far as to return runaway Negroes to their owners, while the South kept the Negro on the plantation. The Confed- erates, however, found it no easy task to watch the Negro and the Yankee too; their attention could be given to but one at a time; as a slave expressed it, 107 108 PROGRESS OF A RACE. "When Marsa watch the Yankee, nigger go when Marsa watch the nigger, Yankee come. ' ' Objections. The "New York Times," of February 16,1863, in an editorial summed up the objections to en- listing the Negroes as follows : ' ' First, that the Negroes will not fight. Second, it is said that the whites will not fight with them. Third, that the prejudice against them is so strong that our citizens will not enlist or will quit the service if compelled to fight by their side, and thus we shall lose two white soldiers for one black one that we gain. Fourth, it is said that we shall get no Negroes or not enough to be of any service. In the free states very few will volunteer, and in the slave states we can get but few because the rebels will push them southward as fast as we advance upon them. Fifth, the use of the Negroes will exasperate the South. We presume it will but so will any other scheme we may adopt which is warlike and effective in its charac- ter and results. We are not ready with Mr. Vallandin- ham, to advocate immediate and unconditional peace ! The best thing we can do is to possess ourselves in patience while the experiment is being tried. ' ' The President and Secretary of War and a large majority of the generals in the army acted on the theory, "This is a white man's war, and the Negro has no lot or part in it. ' ' They seemed to be ignorant of the fact that slavery was the real cause of the war, and hence held to the principal that all runaway slaves must be returned to their owners by the Union army. General Hunter. To General David Hunter, com- manding the army in the South, is given the honor of organizing the first southern colored regiment. He could not get white recruits and was surrounded by a THE NEGRO IN THE CIVIL WAR. 109 multitude of able-bodied Negroes who were idle, but anxious to serve as soldiers. In advance of public opinion he organized a regiment and was called to account for it by the Secretary of War. He replied that he had instructions to employ all loyal persons in defense of the Union and the suppression of the rebellion, and hence was not limited as to color. He informed the secretary that loyal slaves everywhere remained on their plantations to welcome them, aid them, supply the army with food and information, and since they were the only men who were loyal, he had organized them into a regiment and appointed officers to drill them. He closed with these words: "The experiment of arming the blacks, so far as I have made, has been a complete and even marvelous suc- cess. They are sober, docile, attentive and enthusias- tic; displaying great natural capacities for acquiring the duties of the soldier. They are eager, beyond all things, to take the field and be led into action ; and it is the unanimous opinion of the officers who have charge of them that in the peculiarities of this climate and country they will prove invaluable auxiliaries. ' ' Mr. Wyckliff created a scene in the house by de- nouncing General Hunter and declaring that the enlist- ments of Negroes was an insult to every white soldier in the army. Nevertheless Congress authorized the Pres- ident to enlist "persons of African descent," but pro- vided that they should be used as laborers in the camps and forts, and were not to be allowed to bear arms. After a Year. Towards the close of 1862 the war clouds were still "growing thicker. The Union army had won few victories ; the Northern troops had to fight in a tropical climate, the forces of nature and an arro- gant, jubilant and victorious enemy, but in the face of 110 Pk OGRESS OF A RACE. all these discouraging features the President still held to his views of managing the war without bringing the subject of slavery to the front. In reply to a deputa- tion of gentlemen from Chicago, who urged a more vigorous policy of emancipation, the President denied the request and stated : "The subject is difficult and good men do not agree. For instance : The other day, four gentlemen of standing and intelligence from New York called as a delgation on business connected with the war ; but before leaving two of them earnestly be- sought me to proclaim general emancipation, upon which the other two at once attacked them. You know also that the last session of Congress had a decided ma- jority of anti-slavery men, yet they could not unite upon this policy. And the same is true of the religious people. Why, the rebel soliders are praying with a great deal more earnestness, I fear, than our own troops, and expecting God to favor their side; for one of our soldiers, who had been taken prisoner, told Senator Wilson a few days since that he met nothing so discour- aging as the evident sincerity of the prayers of those he was among." He admitted " that slavery was at the root of the rebellion, but was not willing to act, but just nine days from that time when he thought a proclamation not warranted and impracticable, he issued his first Emanci- pation Proclamation, Public Opinion Changes. When the Union men began to see the worth of the Negro to the Confederate army in throwing up breastworks that were often almost impregnable, they began to complain that the Negro with his pick and spade was a greater hindrance to their progress than the cannon ball of the enemy ; slowly but surely public opinion changed. Congress 112 PROGRESS OF A RACE. prohibited the surrender of the Negroes to the rebels, the President issued his Emancipation Proclamation and the Negroes were rapidly enlisted. In the Union Ranks. Charles Sumner says: " Those who have declaimed loudest against the employment of Negro troops have shown a lamentable amount of ignorance, and an equally lamentable lack of common sense. They know as little of the military history and martial qualities of the African race as they do of their own duties as commanders. All distinguished generals of modern times who have had opportunity to use Negro soldiers have uniformly applauded their subor- dination, bravery, and power of endurance. Washing- ton solicited the military services of Negroes in the Revolution, and rewarded them. Jackson did the same in the War of 1812. Under both these great captains the Negro troops fought so well that they received unstinted praise. ' ' Confederate Measures, The enlistment of Negroes in the Northern army changed the policy of the South, and public opinion, now so strongly endorsed in the North, affected the rebels, who soon passed a measure for arming 200,000 Negroes themselves. In the Navy. In the navy a different course was pursued from the first. Negroes were readily accepted all along the coasts on board the war vessels, this being no departure from the regular and established practice in the service. Official Authority. General Rufus Saxon was the first officer to receive official authority to enlist Negroes as soldiers. On the 26th of August, 1862, the Secre- tary of War ordered him to proceed to the Department of the South and organize 5,000 troops of "African descent, ' ' which were to be designated for service in THE NEGRO IN THE CIVIL WAR. 113 garrisons not in danger of attack by the enemy, to relieve white regiments whose terms of enlistment had expired. But one of General Saxon's first acts after recruiting a regiment was to send it on a foraging expedition into the enemy's country. The result was entirely satisfactory. The colored men proved to be remarkably good foragers, and brought in more sup- plies than three times the number of white men could have secured. Recruiting Offices. Recruiting stations were estab- lished throughout the South, and officers were sent out to enlist slaves. In these journeys through the country officers often met with strange experiences. Recruits were taken wherever found, and as their earthly pos- sessions usually consisted of but what they wore upon their backs, they required no time to settle their affairs. The laborer in the field would lay down his hoe, or leave his plow, and march away with the guard. On one occasion a large plantation was visited and the proprietor asked to call in his slaves ; he com- plied, and when they were asked if they wished to enlist replied that they did, and fell into the ranks with the guard. As they started away the old man turned and, with tears in his eyes, said: "Will you take them all? Here I am an old man; I cannot work; my crops are ungathered, my Negroes have all enlisted or run away, and what am I to do?" Several recruit- ing officers were tarred and feathered and others were shot. Several officers were dismissed from the army for refusing to command Negro troops ; others resigned in preference to doing so. Indignation. Although the Confederates anticipated the Federal government in the employment of Negroes as military forces, they exhibited a good deal of indig- 8 Progress. 114 PROGRESS OF A RACE. nation when their example was followed, and the Records of the Confederate Congress show some sensa- tional measures of retaliation threatened against the government of the United States on this account. It was proposed, among other things, to raise the black flag against Negro soldiers and white officers who com- manded them, and in some cases this retaliation was enforced, as at Port Pillow, but finally the Confederate Congress formally recognized the usefulness of the Negro as a soldier as well as a laborer, and authorized President Davis to enlist an unlimited number of col- ored troops. Governor Yates. This fact was commented upon by Governor Yates, of Illinois, in a message he sent to the legislature of that state, as a most extraordinary phe- nomenon in history. He said the leaders of the insur- rection had called upon the cause of the insurrection to save it, and had recognized the intelligence and manhood of the despised race by lifting it to a level with themselves. A wise providence, he said, was directing the destiny of the Confederates, so that they will terminate the very evil they are fighting to main- tain. . Slavery was to be the corner stone of their new Confederacy, but, says Governor Yates, a man who has been a soldier will never be a slave. Discrimination. In the matter of pay there was for a long time discrimination against the Negro troops. While the troops of the regular army were paid $13.00 per month, the Negroes received but $10.00, three of which was deducted on account of clothing. Some regiments refused to receive $10.00 per month and others were paid in full. The injustice done the Negro soldier in this discrimination was often a violation of a solemn and written pledge of the govern- 116 PROGRESS OF A RACE. ment that declared that they should receive the same pay and allowances as the white men. In definite terms, Congress and the War Department was de- nounced as the enemy of the Negro in this discrimina- tion. All honor to the Fifty-fourth colored regiment of Massachusetts that refused to receive the $7.00 per month until the authorities were driven to give equal pay to Negroes and whites. General Butler. Nearly all the generals of the army opposed the enlistment of the Negro. General Phelps, stationed at Louisiana, made a bold fight for the Negro, and attempted to enlist them in and around New Orleans, but being so strongly opposed by General Butler, he was forced to resign and return to his home. The sentiment of the North seemed to admit the right of the South to hold slaves. That General Butler afterwards entirely changed his opinion is seen by his speech on the floor of Congress, when he said: "It became my painful duty, sir, to follow in the track of the charging column, and there, in a space not wider than the clerk's desk, and three hundred yards long, lay the dead bodies of three hundred and fifty-three of my colored comrades, slain in the defense of their country, who laid down their lives to uphold its flag and its honor as a willing sacrifice ; and as I rode along among them, guiding my horse this way and that way lest he should profane with his hoofs what seemed to me the sacred dead, and as I looked on their bronzed faces upturned in the shining sun as if - in mute appeal against the wrongs of the country for which they had given their lives, and whose flag had only been to them a flag of stripes on which no star of glory had ever shone for them feeling I had wronged them in the past, and believing what was the future of my country to them THE NEGRO IN THE CIVIL WAR. 117 among my dead comrades there I swore myself a solemn oath: 'May my right hand forget its cunning, and my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I ever fail to defend the rights of those men who have given their blood for me and my country this day, and for their race forever;' and, God helping me, I will keep this oath. ' ' President Lincoln, when urged by Dr. Patton, of Chicago, to press the Negro into service said: "If we were to arm them, I fear that within a few weeks, the arms would be in the hands of the rebels. ' ' In Congress. In Congress a bill was passed to raise and equip 1.50,000 soldiers of African descent. Colonel T. Higginson now watched the acts of Congress and ascended the St. John's river in Florida and captured Jacksonville, which had been abandoned by white Union troops. The New York Tribune said: "Drunkenness, the bane of our army, does not exist among our black troops." "Nor have I yet discovered the slightest ground of inferiority to white troops. " Prejudice Broken Down. The bravery and excel- lence of the Negro in the battlefield soon broke down prejudices against the Negro on the part of the white officers, and it was not long before 100,000 Negroes were found in the Union ranks. Colonel Shaw. Colonel Shaw commanded the first colored regiment organized in the free states,- the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts, and it was this regiment that played such an important part in the attempt to take Fort Wagner. After making 'a forced effort and march .for a day and a 'night, through swamps -and drenching rains, without food or rest, hungry -and- fatigued they reached General Strong's headquarters'oxT 118 PROGRESS OF A RACE. that memorable morning, just as they were forming into line of battle. Colonel Shaw made a thrilling patriotic speech to his men, and, after a most desperate and gallant fight, succeeded in planting the regimental flag on the works. The Negro color bearer, John Wall, was killed. But. Wm. H. Carney seized it, and, after receiving several wounds, one of which mangled his arm, brought the flag to the standard with his own blood on it and shouted, "Boys, the old flag never touched the ground. ' ' Fort Wagner. M. S. Littlefield, in writing of Fort Wagner says: "Sergeant W. H. Carney, Company C, writes he was with the first battalion, which was in the advance of the storming column. He received the regimental colors, pressed forward to the front rank, near the colonel, who was leading the men over the ditch. He says, as they ascended the wall of the fort, the ranks were full, but as soon as they reached the top 'they melted away* before the enemy's fire * almost instantly. ' He received a severe wound in the thigh, but fell upon his knees. He planted the flag upon the parapet, lay down on the outer slope, that he might get as much shelter as possible ; there he remained for over an hour, till the second brigade came up. He kept the colors flying until the second conflict was ended. When our forces retired he followed, creeping upon one knee, still holding up the flag. It was thus that Sergeant Carney came from the field, having held the emblem of liberty over the walls of Fort Wagner during the sanguinary conflict of. the two brigades, and having received two very severe wounds, one in the thigh and one in the head. Still he refused to give up his sacred trust until he found an officer of his regi- ment. SERGEANT WM. H. CARNEY. 119 120 PROGRESS OF A RACE. "When he entered the field hospital, where his wounded comrades were being brought in, they cheered him and the colors. Though nearly exhausted with the loss of blood, he said: 'Boys, the old flag never touched the ground. ' Of him as a man and soldier I can speak in the highest terms of praise. ' ' Milliken Bend. "Tauntingly it has been said that Negroes won't fight. Who say it, and who but a dastard and brute will dare to say it, when the battle of Milliken 's Bend finds its place among the heroic deeds of this war? This battle has significance. It demonstrated the fact that the freed slaves will fight. ' ' General Grant says of Mifliken Bend: "This was the first important engagement of the war in which colored troops were under fire. These men were very raw, perhaps all had been enlisted since the beginning of the siege, but they behaved well. ' ' First Colored Regiment, The first colored regiment raised in New Orleans under General Butler, after remaining in camp for about six months, were quite efficient in the use of arms. It was then ordered to report to General Dwight. Its commanding officer, Colonel Stafford, was disabled, and was not permitted to go with the regiment. Before the regiment left the officers assembled at the quarters of Colonel Stafford. The colored guared marched up to receive the regi- mental flags. Colonel Stafford made a speech full of patriotism and feeling, and concluded by saying: "Colored guard, protect, defend, die for it, but do not surrender these flags." The reply of the sergeant was, "Colonel, I will bring back these colors to you in honor, or report to God the reason why. ' ' Port Hudson. At Port Hudson, "the deeds of hero- ism performed by these colored men were such as the THE NEGRO IN THE CIVIL WAR. 121 proudest white men might emulate. Their colors were torn to pieces by shot, and literally bespattered by blood and brains. The color-sergeant of the First Louisiana, on being mortally wounded, hugged the colors to his breast, when a struggle ensued between the two color-corporals on each side of him as to who should have the honor of bearing the sacred standard, and during this generous contention one was seriously wounded. One black lieutenant actually mounted the enemy's works three or four times, and in one charge the assaulting party came within fifty paces of them. Indeed, if only ordinarily supported by artillery and reserve, no one can convince us that they would not have opened a passage through the enemy's works. "Captain Callioux, of the First Louisiana, a man so black that he actually prided himself on his blackness, died the death of a hero, leading on his men in the thickest of the fight. One poor wounded fellow came along with his arm shattered by a shell, and jauntily swinging it with the other, as he said to a friend of mine: 'Massa, guess I can fight no more.' I was with one of the Captains, looking after the wounded going to the rear of the hospital, when we met one limping towards the front. On being asked where he was going, he said: 'I have been shot bad in the leg, cap T tain, and dey want me to go to the hospital, but I guess I can gib 'em some more yet. ' I could go on filling your columns with startling facts of this kind, but I hope I have told enough to prove that we can hereafter rely upon black arms as well as white in crushing this infernal -rebellion. I long ago told you there was an army of 250,000 men ready to leap forward in defense of freedom at the first call. You know where to find them, and what they are worth. " 122 PROGRESS OF A RACE. "Although repulsed in an attempt which, situated as things were, was all but impossible, these regiments, though badly cut up, are still on hand, and burning with a passion ten times hotter from their fierce baptism of blood. Who knows but that it is a black hand which shall first plant the standard of the republic upon the doomed ramparts of Port Hudson. " In the Mississippi Valley. In many engagements of the Mississippi valley the colored soldiers won for them- selves lasting glory and golden opinions from the officers and men of white organizations. The Battle of Wilson's Wharf. The following ac- count-is given ; "At first the fight raged fiercely on the left The woods were riddled with bullets; the dead and wounded of the rebels were taken away from this part of the field, but I am informed by one accustomed to judge, and who went over the fields today, that from the pools of blood and other evidences, the loss must have been severe. Finding that the left could not be broken, Fitz-Hugh Lee hurled his cavalry dismounted of course upon the right. Steadily they came on, through obstruction, through slashing, past abattis without wavering". Here one of the advantages of the colored troops was made apparent. They obeyed orders, and bided their time. When well tangled in the abattis the death warrant, "Fire," went forth. Southern chivalry quailed before Northern balls, though fired by Negro hands. Volley after volley was rained upon the superior by the inferior race, and the chivalry broke and tried to run." Petersburg. This was a stronghold of the Confed- eracy. To dislodge them tons of powder were buried near their lines. It was to be exploded and in the con- sequent confusion in the Confederate ranks a charge PS p 3" ill * at > SO ll 124 PROGRESS OF A RACE. was to be made and capture their forces. Four thou- sand four hundred Negro braves were on hand to do this work. The refusal to allow them to do so, many believe, lost the day to the Union army. Ah ! but the black braves that day proved that they were willing to fight, bleed and die for their kindred .in chains so cruelly forged. Black men fell on the very parapet of the enemy's works, in a hand-to-hand fight with their white antagonists. The soil was saturated in the blood of the colored valiants. When Petersburg did fall into Federal hands, and Richmond followed later, Negro soldiers were among the first to enter the field and claim these cities in the name of the Federal gov- ernment. Close on the fall of these Confederate cities Lee surrendered at Appomatox under the shade of the old apple tree. Thus ended the war, leaving our brave black heroes covered with glory crowned with imper- ishable laurels. When, therefore, the last drum shall beat, the last bugle note shall sound, and the roll call of nations shall be heard, and the names of Phillips, Leonidas, Alexander, Hannibal, Caesar, Napoleon and Wellington are sounded on the lips of the worshipers of heroes, with equal praise shall be heard the name of Attucks, Peter Salem, Captain Cailloux, Colonel Shaw the talented, and Toussaint L' Overture. A race with such indomitable courage, under such discourage- ments, must have under God a future inspiring and glorious. General Smith on Petersburg. " The hardest fight- ing was done by the black troops. The forts they stormed were the worst of all. After the affair was over General Smith went to thank them, and tell them he was proud of their courage and dash. He said : 'They can- . not be exceeded as soldiers, and that hereafter he THE NEGRO IN THE CIVIL WAR. 125 will enter them in a difficult place as readily as the best.'" "The charge on the advanced works was made in splendid style, and as the 'dusky warriors' stood shout- ing- upon the parapet, General Smith decided that 'they would do,' and sent word to storm the first redoubt. Steadily these troops moved on, led by officers whose unostentatious bravery is worthy of emulation. With a shout and rousing cheers they dashed at the redoubt. Grape and canister were hurled at them by the infuriated rebels. They grinned and pushed on, and with a yell that told the Southern chivalry, their doom, rolled irresistibly over into the work. The guns were speedily turned upon those of our 'misguided brethren,' who forgot that discretion was the better part of valor. Another redoubt was carried in the same splendid style, and the Negroes have established a reputation that they will surely maintain. "Officers on General Hancock's staff, as they rode by the redoubt surrounded by a moat with water in it, over which these Negroes charged, admitted that its capture was a most gallant affair. The Negroes bear their wounds quite as pluckily as the white soldiers. ' ' Adjutant General L. Thomas pays the following tribute to the Negro soldiers: "On several occasions when on the Mississippi river, I contemplated writing to you respecting the colored troops, and to suggest that, as they have been fully tested as soldiers, their pay should be raised to that of white troops, and I desire now to give my testimony in their behalf. You are aware that I have been engaged in the organization of freedmen for over a year, and have necessarily been thrown in contact with their orders. 126 PROGRESS OF A RACfi. Strict Obedience. ''The Negro, in a state of slav- ery, is brought tip by the master from early childhood to strict obedience and to obey implicitly the dictates of the white man, and they are thus led to believe that they are an inferior race. Now, when organized into troops, they carry their habits of obedience with them, and their officers, being entirely white men. the Negroes promptly obey them. Important Addition. "A regiment is thus rapidly brought into a state of discipline. They are a religious people another high quality for making good soldiers. They are a musical people, and thus readily learn to march and accurately perform their maneuvers. They take pride in being elevated as soldiers, and keep them- selves, as their camp grounds, neat and clean. This I know from special inspection, two of my staff officers being constantly on inspecting duty. They have proved a most important "addition to our forces, enabling the Generals in active operations to take a large force of white troops into the field ; and now brigades of blacks are placed with the whites. The forts erected at the important points on the river are nearly all garrisoned by blacks artillery regiments raised for the purpose, say at Paducah and Columbus, Kentucky ; Memphis, Tennessee ; Vicksburg and Natchez, Mississippi, and most of the works around New Orleans. Heavy Guns. * * Experience proves that they manage the heavy guns very well. Their fighting qualities have also been fully tested a number of times, and I have yet to hear of the first case where they did not fully stand up to their work. I passed over the ground where the First Louisiana made the gallant charge at Port Hudson, by far the stronger part of the rebel works. The wonder is that so many have made their GENERAL EDWARD JOHNSON AND G. H. STEWART AS PRISONERS IN CHARGE OF A FORMER SLAVE. 127 128 PROGRESS OF A RACE. escape. At Milliken's Bend, where I had three incom- plete regiments one without arms until the day prev- ious to the attack greatly superior numbers of the rebels charged furiously up to the very breastwork. The Negroes met the enemy on the ramparts, and both sides freely used the bayonet, a most rare occurrence in warfare, as one or the other party gives way before coming in contact with the steel. The rebels were defeated with heavy loss. The bridge at Moscow, on the line of railroad from Memphis to Corinth, was defended by one small regiment of blacks. A cavalry attack of three times their number was made, the blacks defeating them in three charges made by the rebels. ' ' General S. 0. Armstrong, who for years was at the head of Hampton Institute, says: "Two and one-half years' service with Negro soldiers (half a year as captain and major in the One Hundred and Twentieth New York Volunteers) as lieutenant-colonel and colonel of the Ninth and Eighth regiments of the United States colored troops, convinced me of the excel- lent qualities and capacities of the freedmen. Their quick response to good treatment, and to discipline, was a constant surprise. Their tidiness, devotion to their duty and their leaders, their dash and daring in battle, and ambition to improve, even studying their spelling books under fire, showed that slavery was a false, though doubtless for the time being an educative, condition, and that they deserve as good a chance as any people. A Cavalry Force. "A cavalry force of three hun- dred and fifty attacked three hundred rebel cavalry near the Big Black with signal success, a number of prisoners being taken and marched to Vicksburg. THE NEGRO IN THE CIVIL WAfc. 129 Forrest attacked Paducah with 7,500 men. The garri- son was between 500 and 600, nearly 400 being 1 colored troops recently raised. What troops could have done better? So, too; they fought well at Fort Pillow till overpowered by greatly superior numbers. The above enumerated cases seem to be sufficient to de- monstrate the value of the colored troops. ' ' Few of Many Tributes. These are but few of the many tributes that generals and white leaders have cheerfully given to the loyalty, valor and bravery of the colored troops during the war. George Williams truly says: "No officer, whose privilege it was to com- mand or observe the conduct of these troops, has ever hesitated to give a full and cheerful endorsement of their worth as men, their loyalty -as Americans, and their eminent qualifications for the duties and dangers of military life. No history of the war has ever been written without mentioning the patience, endurance, fortitude, and heroism of the Negro soldiers who prayed, wept, fought, bled and died for the preserva- tion of the Union of the United States of America. " Items of Interest. History records the fact that during the late rebellion the Negro soldiers partici- pated in more than four hundred engagements. There were between four and five hundred Negro soldiers who were engaged in the battle of New Orleans. About 6,000 Negroes were connected in different ways with the Confederate army. The first colored regiment to enter the services of the rebellion was the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Vol- unteers. In Present Service. At present time there are four regiments of colored men in the regular service, two 9 Progress 130 PROGRESS OF A RACE. of cavalry and two of infantry. They are commanded by white officers and have done very good service in Indian warfare. Their constitutions endure the heat of the Southern states much better than those of the white men, and they have been particularly valuable along the Mexican border. In Military Academy. James Smith, of Columbia, S. C. , was the first colored student to enter the U. S. military academy at New York. Up to date there were ten colored cadets admitted, of whom three graduated. Colored Soldiers of Georgia. The colored soldiers of the state are pleading for proper aid from the state they have enlisted to defend. They deserve help, if the following letter be true, which was written by one of the oldest colored soldiers in the state. "The colored soldiers of Georgia have maintained their military organizations for twenty-six years. At the re-organization of the state militia in 1888, there were forty-seven colored companies of infantry uni- formed and equipped by themselves at a cost of not less than $25,000. Besides this, they furnished their own armories, fuel and lights, the cost of which, added to the above, would make the amount spent by the colored soldiers themselves for their support and for an opportunity to assist in defending the state for a period of twenty- six years, more than $95,000. This money has come from the poor or average colored citi- zen, as the majority of colored soldiers come from that class of our people. Though these men are Georgians, they love their name, they love their honor, and they are willing to lay down their lives in the defense of her soil. All they ask at the hands of those in power is to treat them as citizens and as soldiers. CHAPTER VII. THE NEGRO SOLDIER IN THE CUBAN INSURRECTION AND SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR. Written expressly for this book by Prof. W. H. Crogman, A. M. The persistent efforts of Spain to retain under her cruel, corrupt, and inefficient government the fertile island of Cuba have again, in these closing years of the nineteenth century, brought to light the splendid qual- ities of the Negro soldier. Of limited education, poorly armed, poorly clad, and poorly fed, he has shared the toils, the perils, the privations of his white compatriots, and has exhibited such fortitude and loyalty, such unswerving devotion to the cause of Cuban liberty as to win unstinted praise even from those cherishing strong prejudice against his race. Whatever may be the future of Cuba, impartial history will ascribe to the Negro no small part of the sacrifice made for her de- liverance. Both as a slave and as a freedman his sym- pathies were with the insurgents. In the first revolu- tion, beginning October 10, 1868, and lasting ten years, there were thousands of blacks under the insurgent standard. It is reasonable to believe, that in this first uprising they imbibed the martial spirit, and acquired that training and discipline which made them so effi- cient in the last struggle to throw off the Spanish yoke. It has been officially stated that of the thirty thousand Cubans recently under arms two-fifths were Negroes, commonly so called. 131 132 PROGRESS OF A RACfe. Leadership. Not only soldiers, however, but Negro leaders of conspicuous ability were brought to light by the recent Cuban insurrection. Prominent among these may be mentioned Flor Crombet, a dashing lead- er, a stubborn fighter, unflinching in his loyalty to Cuba as he was unrelenting in his hostility to Spain. Equally brave, and more of a military genius, per- haps, was Quintin Bandera, a Negro of unmixed blood. Indeed, there is much of romance in the life of this man. Hon. Amos J. Cummings, one of the five con- gressmen invited by the New York Journal to visit Cuba, and report the state of things there, had this to say about Quintin Bandera, in his speech before Con- gress, Friday, April, 29, 1898: "Quintin Bandera means 'fifteen flags. ' The appel- lation was given to Bandera because he had captured fifteen Spanish ensigns. He is a coal-black Negro, of remarkable military ability. He was a slave of Que- sada. With others of Maceo's staff, he was sent to prison at Ceuta. While in prison the daughter of a Spanish officer fell in love with him. Through her aid, he escaped in a boat to Gibraltar, where he became a British subject and married his preserver. She is of Spanish and Moorish blood, and is said to be a lady of education and refinement. She taught her husband to read and write, and takes great pride in his achieve- ments." Antonio Maceo. Of all the leaders produced by the Cuban war the most colossal and imposing figure is Antonio Maceo. Says Mr. Cummings of him : * ' He was as swift on the march as either Sheridan or Stonewall Jackson, and equally as prudent and wary. He had flashes of military genius when a crisis arose. It was to his sudden inspiration that Martinez Campos NEGRO SOLDIER IN THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR. 133 owed his final defeat at Coliseo, giving the patriots the opportunity to overrun the richest of the western provinces and to carry the war to the very gates of Havana." GEN. ANTONIO MACEO. Speaking of his attachment to the cause of Cuban liberty, the same author says: '* No one has ever questioned his patriotism. Money could not buy him ; promises could not deceive him. 134 PROGRESS OF A RACE. His devotion to Cuban freedom was like the devotion of a father to his family. All his energies, physical and intellectual, were given freely to his country." It is well known that of all the men arrayed against them the Spaniards dreaded Maceo most. Through emissaries they made repeated efforts to have him poisoned ; but without success. When finally the news reached them of his fall by Spanish biillets, their joy was indescribable and their hope of success corre- spondingly raised. The greatness of this man as a leader, however, ap- parent as it was in his life, became even more so in his death. His fall sent a shock throughout the civilized world. Men felt instinctively that the Cuban cause had lost its mightiest chieftain, its loftiest source of inspiration. It is doubtful, indeed, whether the death of any man within the century produced a sorrow more general and profound. So sincere was the regret that for weeks, nay, almost months, people would not be- lieve that the daring leader was gone. They said it was only a ruse he was practicing on the Spaniards, and at some moment when they least expected him he would strike like a thunderbolt. Alas! that moment was never to come. His death, however, won uni- versal sympathy for the Cuban cause. So far, then, as he was personally concerned, it was as well for him to die when he did as to die later. He had shown to the world what was in his heart and brain; he had written his name high upon the scroll of the world's heroes; he had done this, too, not for vain-glory, not for self aggrandizement, not for the purpose of crushing and humiliating his fellow-men; but for the purpose of rescuing a suffering people from a hideous and op- pressive tyranny. NEGRO SOLDIER IN THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR. 135 The Negro Soldier in the Spanish-American War. It is an historic fact that reflects no little credit on the Negro, that on the very verge of hostilities with Spain the first regiment ordered to the front was the Twenty- fourth United States regulars. This colored regiment, like all the regiments of its kind, had, in time of peace, maintained in the West a splendid record, not only for soldierly efficiency, but for manly and respectful con- duct. Wherever quartered in that section of country the Negro regiments were liked, and in more than one instance did the citizens- petition for their retention when they were about to be moved, preferring their presence to that of white troops. It is safe to say, per- haps, that the best behaved men in times of peace are the best and most reliable men in times of war. Char- acter always tells. The ruffian and the rowdy are brave under favorable conditions, when the odds are on their side. It requires courageous men to face coolly all sorts of dangers and difficulties. The short war with Spain has shown Negroes to be just such men. From no service have the black soldiers shrunk. At no time did they show the white feather. With far less to inspire them they have shown themselves oa every occasion not one whit inferior to their white comrades in arms. Nay, some are inclined to give them the palm for bravery displayed in the recent war around Santiago and at other stubbornly-disputed points. A correspondent of the New York Sun a paper quick, by the way, to recognize the merits of the black troops describing the scenes on that fatal Friday at Santiago, said : 44 While the proportion of colored men wounded has been large, by their courage and supreme cheerfulness they have really carried off the palm for heroism," 136 NEGRO SOLDIER IN THE SPANISH- AMERICAN WAR. 137 Here is what one of the wounded Rough Riders, Ken- neth Robinson, has to say about the black soldiers. Robinson is lying in one of the tents here suffering from a shot through his chest. A pair of underdraws and one sock, the costurie in which he arrived from the front, is all that he has to his name at present. On the next cot to him lies an immense Negro, who has been simply riddled with bullets, but is still able to crack a smile and even to hum a tune occasionally. Bet\veen him and the Calumet man there has sprung up a friendship. 'I'll tell you what it is/ said Robin- son this morning, * Without any disregard to my own regiment I want to say that the whitest men in this fight have been the black ones. At all events they have been the best friends that the Rough Riders have had, and every one of us, from Colonel Roosevelt down, appreciates it. When our men were being mown down to right and left in that charge up the hill it was the black cavalry men who were the first to carry our wounded away, and during that awful day and night that I lay in the field hospital, waiting for a chance to get down here, it was two big colored men, badly wounded themselves, who kept my spirits up. Why, in camp every night before the fight the colored soldiers used to come over and serenade Colonels Wood and Roosevelt; and weren't they just tickled to death about it f The last night before I was wounded a whole lot of them came over, and when Colonel Roose- velt made a little speech thanking them for their songs, one. big 1 sergeant got up and said: 'It's all right, col- onel; we ' se" all' rough riders now. ' " From another source we take the following: "I was standing near Captain Capron and Hamilton Fish," said the corporal to the Associated Press corre- 138 PROGRESS OF A RACE. spondent tonight, "and saw them shot down. They were with the Rough Riders and ran into an ambush, though they had been warned of the danger. Captain Capron and Fish were shot while leading a charge. If it had not been for the Negro cavalry, the Rough Riders would have been exterminated. I am not a Negro lover. My father fought with Mosby's rangers, and I was born in the South, but the Negroes saved that fight, and the day will come when General Shafter will give them credit for their bravery." A correspondent of the Atlanta Evening Journal, July 30, 1898, has this to say: ' * I have been asked repeatedly since my return about what kind of soldiers the Negroes make. The Negroes make fine soldiers. Physically the colored troops are the best men in the army, especially the men in the Ninth and Tenth cavalry. Every man of them is a giant. The Negroes in the Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth infan- try, too, are all big fellows. These colored regiments fought as well, according to General Sumner, in whose command they were, as the white regiments. What I saw of them in battle confirmed what General Sumner said. The Negroes seemed to be absolutely without fear, and certainly no troops advanced more promptly when the order was given than they." In the course of the war, however, there came to the colored troops a severer test than that of facing Mauser bullets. A yellow fever hospital was to be cleansed and yellow fever sufferers were to be nursed. An order went forth from General Miles that a regiment be detailed for such service. "In response to this order," said Mr. Robert B. Cramer in the Atlanta Constitution, Tuesday, August 16, 1898, "the Twenty- fourth infantry, made up entirely of colored men, left NEGRO SOLDfER IN THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR. 139 their trenches at night, and at dawn the next morning they had reported to Dr. LaGarde. An hour later they were put at work, and before sunset again the lines of their tents were straightened out, the debris of the burned buildings was cleared away, the waterworks were put in operation, and the entire camp became a place in which a sick man stood at least a fighting- chance of getting well." "It was peculiarly appropriate," continues Mr, Cramer, "that the Twenty- fourth should be selected for that place, because it was one of unquestionable honor, and at that time there was nothing that could be done for the colored troops in paying tribute to their work as soldiers that ought not to have been done. In all the disputes that historians will indulge in as to who did and who did not do their duty at the siege of Santi- ago no one will ever question the service of the dark- skinned regulars, who from the time the Tenth fought with the Rough Riders in the first day's fight, until the Twenty-fifth infantry participated in the actual surrender, did their whole duty as soldiers. All that can be said in praise of any regiment that participated in the campaign can be said of those regiments which were made up of colored troops, and I am glad to quote General Wheeler as saying : 4 The only thing necessary in handling a colored regiment is to have officers over them who are equally courageous. Give them the moral influence of good leadership and they are as fine soldiers as exist any- where in the world. Put them where you want them, point out what you want them to shoot at and they will keep on shooting until either their officers tell them .to stop or they are stopped by the enemy. ' Such testimony from a hard-fighting ex-Confederate 140 PROGRESS OF A RACE. general ought to be sufficient to establish the merits of the Negro as a soldier; but it may be well, as there is evidence varied and abundant, and from high author- ity to hear from others. Mr. George Kennan of Sibe- rian prison fame, special correspondent for the Outlook, wrote in the issue of August 13: "I have not, as yet, the information necessary to do anything like justice to the regiments that particularly distinguished themselves in Friday's battle; but upon the basis of the information I already have, I do not hesitate to call especial attention to the splendid behavior of the colored troops. It is the testimony of all who saw them under fire, that they fought with the utmost courage, coolness, and determination, and Col- onel Roosevelt said to a squad of them in the trenches, in my presence, that he never expected to have, and could not ask to have better men beside him in a hard fight. If soldiers come up to Colonel Roosevelt's standard of courage, their friends have no reason to feel ashamed of them. His commendation is equiva- lent to a medal of honor for conspicuous gallantry, because, in the slang of the camp, he himself is 'a fighter from 'way back. ' I can testify, furthermore, from my own personal observation in the field hospital of the Fifth army corps Saturday and Sunday night that; the colored regulars who were brought in there displayed extraordinary fortitude and self control. There were a great many of them, but I can not- re- member to have heard a groan or a complaint from, a single man." -V, - -,--: His Patriotism. At the outbreak of the war .with Spain, there were not wanting those .who questioned the patriotism of the Negro. To all such skeptics we commend the following extract from the organ of the American Missionary Association : 142 PROGRESS OF A RACE. "Never can the students of Talladega college forget the commencement of 1898, when so many brave men left their cherished plans to engage in the war with" Spain. Those laughter-loving boys, earnest in study, but full of fun and careless sometimes, as boys will be one hardly knew them when the war spirit rose and they stood in line with the new, steady light of resolu- tion shining in their dark eyes. In 1860 yoimg men of Anglo-Saxon blood left that same building to fight against the Union. One of those young men, now governor of the state, thirty-eight years later, tele- graphs to the same school asking Negroes to defend the same government, and they cheerfully respond. Is not this a revolution of the wheel of time? The governor's telegram came Wednesday, almost two weeks before commencement. All volunteers were prompt, having completed satisfactorily the work of the year with the exception of the closing exercises. Thirty in all volunteered, three or four of whom were not students, a third of this number being unable to pass the severe physical test. A farewell meeting was held in the chapel, and the young soldiers told in stirring words the motives that led them to offer their lives- to their country ; their resolve to fight for the freedom of bleeding Cuba, their love of the Stars and Stripes in spite of the wrongs they themselves had suffered, their strong desire to show that Negroes could not only live and work, but die, like men. Many earnest appeals were made for prayers, that they might never turn their backs to their enemies, nor yield to the temptations of camp life. At last a quiet little woman with an earnest face arose and told in trem- bling tones her determination to go as nurse, if she could find an opportunity. She was called to the plat- NEGRO SOLDIER IN THE SPANISH- AMERICAN WAR. 14$ form and it was beautiful to see the reverence with which the tall, young fellows gathered, about her. Talladega college had reason to be proud of her sons as they marched to the station with a flag and a band, and went off with a ringing cheer. Nor were her daughters wanting; their hearts were aching, but their faces dressed in smiles as they sent their brothers away as patriotically as those of fairer hue. The Talladega students have not been permitted to meet any Spaniards in battle, but their record in camp at Mobile has been true to their promises. They have shown to every one the advantage of education. Their officers prize them highly, and the rough, ignorant men who are their comrades, have felt their influence, so that the governor has publicly commended their behavior. ' ' Commenting on the above, the writer says : "Probably no institution in the East sent as large a percentage of student soldiers to bear the flag of our common country to victory as did our missionary schools. Our students have not been taught that war is glory. It was conscience with them. They went as deliverers from oppression and saw their opportunity to prove their devotion and gratitude to the country for their own deliverance. They have made their record. ' ' Surely this is very refreshing, especially just now when a certain class of persons are endeavoring to deprecate Negro education, or at least to confine it to manual training, as best suited to the sphere in which he is to move, a proposition, we may add, as absurd as any that could be propounded by enlightened men living under a republican form of government. Von Moltke attributed his success at Sadowa to the 144 PROGRESS Oi' A A KACIi. influence of the Prussian schoolmaster, and Wellington thought that the battle of Waterloo was first won on the cricket field at Rugby. Evidently a machine is a good thing, but a thinking machine is better. What the Negro needs is thought power, and that kind of education which will develop this power in him will fit him not only for the best mechanic, but for the best soldier and most efficient citizen. In closing this chapter we would add that we have by no means exhausted the evidence in favor of the Negro soldier; but have presented enough to show that he has won universal admiration and respect, and is entitled to the generous consideration and gratitude of the whole country. Negro Officers. At the beginning of the war there was but one Negro commissioned officer, Major Charles Young, a graduate of West Point. The major is a Kentuckian by birth, and though yet a young man has distinguished himself in several responsible posi- tions. After graduation he was assigned to the Tenth cavalry. He served also in the Ninth; but was sub- sequently appointed by President Cleveland instructor in military science at Wilberforce University, Ohio. He is now Major of the Ninth battalion, Ohio National Volunteers, appointed to this position by Governor Bu^hnell. Wfth the opening of the war and the -enlistment of Negro troops there naturally arose among them a demand for Negro officers. The country, however was not prepared to grant this. Doubts were expressed, perhaps reasonably, as to the ability of the Negro to lead. The newspapers, especially the class of them that feel it their religious duty to oppose everything looking towards the promotion of a Negro, declared MAJOR CHARLES YOUNG. 145 10 Progress. 146 PROGRESS OF A RACE. that he was fundamentally and eternally unfitted for leadership. There was, however, as there always is, a thoughtful minority who espoused the other side of the question. Prominent among these should be mentioned Gen. Thomas J. Morgan. "There was no better fighting done during the civil war," says this old-time friend of the colored people, "than was done by some of the Negro troops. With my experience, in command of 5,000 Negro soldiers, I would on the whole prefer, I think, the command of a corps of Negro troops to that of a corps of white troops. With the magnificent record of their fighting qualities on many a hard-contested field, it is not unreasonable to ask that a still further opportunity shall be extended to them in commissioning them as officers as well as enlisting them as soldiers. ' ' It is encouraging, however, to notice at this point, that, notwithstanding the opposition to the appoint- ment of Negro officers, the commissioned officers of this race now number considerably over one hundred. They rank from second-lieutenant up to colonel. This much inside of a brief period of three months. Governor Tanner, of Illinois, addressing a volunteer regiment of that state, said : "I propose, my fellow-citizens, to be the first man in this broad land the first governor of the United States, to offer this full measure of citizenship to the African race, not only to enlist a regiment of volunteer soldiers, but to officer that regiment, from colonel down, with colored men. Then if upon the field of conflict, whether it be upon the soil of the United States, the island of Cuba, Porto Rico, or the Philippines, or upon the soil of that decrepit nation, you win victory, all the glory of it will be to your officers and your race." CHAPTER VIII. MORAL AND SOCIAL ADVANCEMENT. Hon. Frederick Douglass once said in a great pub- lic meeting in New York: "The colored race will not crawl in the dirt forever. It is honorable to do white- washing, but there is no reason why my people should do that and nothing else. The day will come in which they will be found in all pursuits, achieving distinction and showing capabilities which they were never sup- posed to possess. The destiny of the colored race is in their own hands, they must bear and suffer, they must toil and be patient, they must carve their own fortunes, and they will do it. ' ' Statement Verified. Thirty-five years have gone since the shackles of the slave were broken. Is the truth of Mr. Douglass' statement being verified? Look at the colored race of that time, grossly ignorant, desti- tute of clothing, without homes, without name, perse- cuted, forced to bear much on account of the prejudices against color. This despised race to-day after so few years has made progress such as history nowhere else records. Although much remains to be done, yet to- day we find the Negro recognized as a man, having the sympathy and respect of all, filling important and hon- orable positions throughout the land ; greatly improved and exalted in his home life ; recognizing that he has a part to do in the elevation of his race, aiming at the highest success, and determined to stand among the best citizens and the most useful members of society. He is determined that there shall be no better schools than his own, no grander statesmen, no more success- 147 148 PROGRESS OP A RACE. ful business men, none better known in the professional life, no happier homes, no more cultivated women, none better, more moral, upright and righteous than his own. Look at that picture and then at this, and the fact that the Negro is rapidly rising will dawn at once upon the most skeptical of minds. Hopeless Condition. Prof. Bowen says : " When the famous edict of freedom went forth on January i, 1863, the Negro, instead of being born into a state of liberty and freedom, was damned into it. For well-nigh eight generations he had been worked like dumb, driven cattle and punished like a brute, crushed with the iron hoof of oppression and repression; whipped, torn, bleeding in body, mind and soul ; day after day, year after year, he had toiled, sweated, groaned and wept, but there had been no hope of reward to lighten his burdens. He had no wife, no children, no altar ; no home, no hope, no purpose ; no motive, 310 aspiration, no thought, no life, but he had a God. He was a thing, a dog, a brute, an animal. His notions, even among his preachers, were crude ; he had seen her whom he had desired to call his wife torn from his side, insulted, degraded, banished ; he had looked upon his fondlings with an indescribable heartache as they were sold from under his eye ; he had been trained in theft, dishonesty and duplicity; he had drank deeply from the bitter waters of crime and lewdness. He was ignorant of the duties, and even privileges of Christianity, and of the responsibilities and possibilities of the family life. Thus he walked forth on that famous morn, out frcfm the tomb of his living and torturing death, with abso- lutely nothing in his hands, his head, his heart, his pocket, and he went forth to try his fortunes in a new world. MORAL AND SOCIAL ADVANCEMENT. 149 Freedom Gave Him His Hands. Freedom gave him his hands and his wife to start with, two great boons ; with the hand to chip out his place and to work with a royal will, and with a wife to build his altar and weave his destiny, he is endowed as never before. Hence the Negro at the close of the war, was all that Ameri- can slavery would make any people, viz., bestialized and animalized; ignorant, poor, crude, rude, helpless, moneyless and thoughtless. American slavery was not a blessing; it was a curse. The good that came to the Negro (and there was good even in so baneful contact) came in spite of slavery. "Endeavor, then, to com- bine the whole in one view to take in the full idea of this mighty mass of evil, in all the suffering of mind and body which it inflicts, in all its brutalizing effects and demoralizing tendencies on the slave and on his master the misery which it entails on man, and the guilt which incurs in the sight of God and you will have some conception of the multiplied and horrifying evils of slavery. ' ' Not Surpassed in History. This view represents the status of the Negro at the close of the war. No other slavery in all history has ever succeeded to so great an extent as has this American slavery in degrad- ing the women of a race and in corrupting the fountain of every virtue; and were it not that the gospel is all conquering and all purifying, we would be hopeless. Degraded by Compulsion. "The slave Negro, " says Professor Bowen, "was taught by precept and authori- tative commandment, as well as trained by example and driven by the merciless lash, to commit adultery and fornication, and to live in the murky and unrestrained passions of the flesh that rush on through the open sluices of libertinism and shame down through the 150 PROGRESS OF A RACE. gates of hell. Who dare deny it, and will buttress that denial with fact? A thousand trustworthy witnesses will confirm it, who carry in their minds and souls the imprint of that lustful period, and who can speak that which they do know and testify to what they have seen and felt." President Dewey, of William and Mary College, in Virginia, speaking of the slave trade, says : "It furnishes every inducement to the master to attend to his Negroes, to encourage breeding and to cause the greatest number of slaves to be raised. " "Virginia is, indeed, a Negro-raising state for other states. " " The noblest blood of Virginia, ' ' says Paxton in a letter to Jay, "runs in the blood of her slaves. " The slave had no marriage or family rights. Dr. Taylor, in his * * Elements of the Civil Law, ' ' says : * * Slaves were not entitled to the condition of matrimony, and therefore had no relief in cases of adultery, nor were they the proper objects of cognation or affinity, but of quasi cognation only." And the Louisiana reports quoted by Wheeler in his "Law of Slavery, " page 199, declare: " It is clear that slaves have no legal capacity to assent to any contract. With the consent of their masters they may marry, but while in a state of slavery it can not produce any civil effects." "No slave," says Jay, "can commit bigamy, because the law knows no more of marriage of slaves than it does of the marriage of brutes. A slave may indeed be formally married, but, as far as legal rights and obligations are concerned, it is an idle ceremony. ' ' Slave Breeders. The cruelties of the lash did not in any measure equal in degradation the action of the gain- greedy and conscienceless slave breeders, who sold wives into separation from their husbands and com- -pelled them to accept new partners in order that the fruitfulness of the plantation might not suffer. MORAL AND SOCIAL ADVANCEMENT. 151 Well Known to Slave Holders. Professor Bow- ers says, " The deplorable condition of the slaves was well known to the slave-holders and aboli- tionists. The legally closed school house and church, and the cupidity of master, as well as his inhu- manity and brutality, were bringing forth fruit of the blackest kind and in prodigious quantities. Human reason hesitates to accept, without convincing proof, the horrible tale of woe, and when this tale is well authenticated it sits dumb and speechless in its pres- ence. These are not the fancies of verdant youth, nor are they the ravings and discolorations of an unbal- anced brain, neither are they the highly colored tales of the Arabian Nights ; but they are the statements of honorable slaveholders, the careful compilations and observations of the white ministry in the South during slavery, and the unvarnished accounts of the actual sufferers themselves. Why Stated. Let it be borne in mind that these facts are not written to feed the almost quenchless fires of prejudices. I would walk, face forward, in the presence of that harrowing and nameless shame and cover it with the garment of Christian charity ; but my only apology for uncovering this pit of seething, reek- ing and nauseating corruption is to show from whence we came, and to refute the statement that slavery was the halcyon days of purity and moral power for the Negro, and to show the absurdity of the claim that the slave-driver's whip and bloodhounds are superior moral teachers for a man to sympathetic, consecrated and humanity-loving teachers with a spelling book in one hand and the Bible in the other. And again these words are written to show the Negro himself the black heritage he has brought with him from slavery, and 152 PROGRESS OF A RACE. to impress with him the thought that heroic treatment, patiently and persistently administered, will ultimately develop in him those moral qualities that are necessary to a happy life. ' ' Heathenism. On the 5th of December, 1833, a com- mittee of the Synod of South Carolina and Georgia, to whom was referred the subject of the religious instruc- tion of the colored population, made a report, which has been published, and in which this language is used : 4 'Who would credit it that in these years of revival and benevolent effort in this Christian republic there are over 2,000,000 of human beings in the condition of heathens, and in some respects in worse condition? From long continued and close observation, we believe that their religious and moral condition is such that they may justly be considered the heathen of this Christian country, and will bear comparison with the heathen of any country in the world. The Negroes are destitute of the Gospel, and ever will be under the present state of things. In the vast field extending from an entire state beyond the Potomac to the Sabine river, and from the Atlantic to the Ohio, there are, to the best of our knowledge, not twelve men exclusively devoted to the religious instruction of the Negroes. In the present state of the feeling in the south, a min- istry of their own color could neither be obtained or tolerated. But do not the Negroes have access to the Gospel through the stated ministry of the whites? We answer, No ; the Negroes have no regular and efficient ministry ; as a matter of course, no churches ; neither is there sufficient room in white churches for their accommodation. We know of but five churches in the slave-holding states built expressly for their use ; these are all. in the State of Georgia. We may now inquire MORAL AND SOCIAL ADVANCEMENT. 153 if they enjoy the privileges of the Gospel in their own houses and on plantations? Again we return a nega- tive answer. They have no Bibles to read by their own firesides ; they have no family altars ; and when in affliction, sickness or death, they have no minister to address to them the consolations of the Gospel, nor to bury them with solemn and appropriate services. Humane Masters. In every state there were masters who were kind-hearted and genuinely sympathetic, who treated their slaves with consideration, and some of them taught their slaves to read ; had them to marry according to the requirements of the church ; did not allow them to violate with impunity, nor did these masters themselves violate, the marriage vows of the slaves ; took them to their churches and had them to share the benefits of the pulpit ministrations, and thus acted towards them in the capacity of fathers and mothers towards their children. There was genuine affection between them, and these slaves were the fav- ored ones in the South, and the ex-slaves of to-day who had such masters, never cease to sing their praise. Few in Number. But.it must be borne in mind that such slave- masters were exceedingly few and far between, and what is still more remarkable, such moral, intellectual and spiritual care of the slave by these few noble spirits was contrary to the letter and spirit of the law in every slave state. The law of certain states forbade the use of the Bible or any other book, and also religious meetings of the Negroes, unless a majority of whites were present. All prohibited the impartation of instruction, while Vir- ginia unequivocally forbade all evening meetings. "In the House of Delegates of Viginia, in 1832, Mr. Berry said: 'We have, as far as possible, closed every avenue 154 PROGRESS OF A RACE. by which - ight might enter their (the slaves') minds. If we could extinguish the capacity to see the light our work would be completed; they would then be on a level with the beasts of the field, and we should be safe ! I am not certain that we would not do it if we could find out the process, and that on the plea of necessity. ' ' ' Defending Slavery. Dr. Blyden, in his "Christian- ity, Islam and the Negro," says: "The highest men in the South, magistrates, legislators, professors of religion, preachers of the gospel, governors of states, gentlemen of property and understanding, all united in upholding a system which every Negro felt was wrong. Yet these were the men from whom he got his religion, and whom he was obliged to regard as guides. Saints, no doubt, there were among the bond- men, but they became so not in consequence, but in default, and often, we may say, in defiance, of instruc- tions. " The sacredness of the marriage relation, the punishments for fornication and adultery, ethical integ- rity, the glories and rewards for faithful service, and the duties, privileges, and opportunities of the Christian life, were never discussed before and unfolded to the slave. Where he was permitted to hold meetings he was trained in the most grotesque types of worship ; his emotions and wildest eccentricities were cultivated, and his motives for life were drawn from no higher source in the main than this temporary, enthusiastic and emotional worship. Financial Consideration. He was trained in certain handicraft for financial consideration. The lash was his taskmaster, and from him he received no view of the dignity of labor. A man may learn mechanics by force, but not ethics. The last may make (?) a good blacksmith, but not a good conscience. There was no MORAL AND SOCIAL ADVANCEMENT. 155 thought among the slaveholders of improving the slave in any element for the slave's sake. A Struggling Race. President Wright says : * ' Ex- tremely interesting must such a task be when it is understood that the history of the American Negro is the history of a race struggling amid environments and against difficulties such as no similar nation in all history has had to meet. It is pretty generally agreed that the Negro in America introduces a problem with- out a parallel. His history is unique. Properly given in all its phases, the narrative would teem with inci- dents and achievements almost romantic. "The surrender of General Lee was the occasion of the total collapse of the social and industrial features of the old Georgia progress. Society among the white people for the time was thrown into almost chaotic con- dition, but it was for the moment only. They under- stood how to cover a rout, to gather the demolished fragments and reform. "But how was it with the Negro? Had he ever any conception of society, of voluntary order? Had one- tenth of one per cent of them ever looked into a book or saved a dollar? Ignorance Equaled by Poverty. Their ignorance was equaled only by their poverty. Improvident and totally helpless, the freedman was well nigh friendless. Considered by many as property illegally taken from those among whom his lot was to be cast hereafter as a citizen, he was looked upon as an intruder in the body politic. Hindered, rather than helped, by those whom he knew best ; confused by his new surroundings, and with his intellectual and moral abilities subjects of misunderstanding and doubt on the part of his friends, the Negro of Georgia was sent forth in 1865 to develop 156 PROGRESS OF A RACE. character, to get education and money, and to prove himself worthy the freedom which was thrust upon him. In short, he was to maintain himself as a freed- man and citizen in the midst of his old masters, who had enjoyed centuries of civilization. That it was a great task all will acknowledge ; that under its environ- ments it was a feat fraught with much doubt, few will deny. But while this condition was pitiable, it was not hopeless. Under slavery, he, though a simple child of the shovel and hoe, had developed a faith in God which was abiding, and had obtained a working knowledge of the English tongue. These were his sole stock in trade, but they were very valuable. To under- stand, then, the difficulties which the Negro has over- come and to estimate the progress which he has made in the past thirty years, his condition at emancipation must be borne steadily and faithfully in mind. Difficult to Comprehend. It is difficult to compre- hend the utter poverty and disheartening ignorance which enveloped the colored people at the beginning of the period under discussion. They began without any adequate amount of food, clothing or shelter ; a vast majority without the least conception of a school or a home. Their exertions to obtain food, clothing, and shelter, certainly greatly retarded their efforts for book learning. They did not know how to make contracts or agreements for wages. Consequently they worked the first year for a bare subsistence ; with a few exceptions their first possessions outside of food and clothing were bought during the second year, and con- sisted of oxen and mules and farming implements. They began to rent lands in the third year, and in the fourth to buy land. This was the rule; there were exceptions. To fully understand the educational devel- MORAL AND SOCIAL ADVANCEMENT. opment of the first decade would require a thorough knowledge of the colored man's progress and achieve- ments as a free laborer; for the labor question and educational problem are, as Siamese twins, insepar- able/' Moral Improvement. "Talks for the Times" says: "To estimate fairly their improvement in this direc- tion it would be necessary to realize, if possible, the depth of degradation to which two hundred and fifty years of thralldom had sunk them, and to take into consideration at the same time the fact that the moral nature of man everywhere and among all people is by far the most difficult to train. This being so, what must be ,the task to repair it, after it has been bruised and maimed and twisted and gnarled and distorted? A crooked limb, by proper appliances, may be straight- ened. A bone of the body may be broken and set, and become even stronger in the fractured parts ; but man cannot sin and be strong. The violation of the moral law means, in every instance, the sapping of moral foundations, the weakening of the moral nature. When, therefore, I consider by what processes, during two centuries, the moral groundwork of my people was undermined and shaken, it is no wonder that to-day many of them are found immoral. The greater won- der is that their moral perception has not been entirely swept away. Many people, however, and those, especially, who stigmatize us as a race peculiarly immoral, do not reason in this way. They do not seem to realize that slavery was a school ill adapted to the producing of pure and upright characters. Can you rob a man continually of his honest earnings and not teach him to steal? Can you ignore the sanctity of marriage and the family relations and not inculcate 158 PROGRESS OF A RACE. lewdness? Can you constantly govern a man with the lash and expect him always to speak the truth? If you can do these things, then, verily, are my people dishon- est, impure and untruthful. But our enemies demand of us perfection. They are unreasonable. They require among us in twenty short years a state of moral recti- tude which they themselves, with far more favorable opportunities, have not realized in one hundred times twenty. They are unphilosophical, for they do not perceive that diseases are more quickly contracted than cured. Negro Immoralities. " Very amusing, too, it is to listen to the hue and cry sent up every little while against Negro immoralities; such a cry and howl as went up but recently from the swamps of the Missis- sippi, and are still reverberating through the country with a jarring sound. Very amusing, I say, it is to listen to these cries against Negro immoralities, when the same immoralities are continually cropping out among the white people, professedly our superiors. How many times within the last two decades, has this nation had to hang its head in shame because of the dishonesty of its public men! What about Credit Mobilier and the Tamany frauds? What about whis- ky rings? What about cipher dispatches? What about Star Route trials?, What about the stuffing of ballot boxes? What about the defalcation and impeachment of high state officials? And so on, and so on, ad infirntum. In Proportion to Opportunities. "We have not had a fair chance in this country ; but, in proportion to our opportunities we can show as many good, virtuous, law-abiding citizens as any other race on this continent. Wherever, in the South, Christian education has MORAL AND SOCIAL ADVANCEMENT. 150 reached the freedmen it has awakened in them a taste for the true and beautiful. This may be seen in the changed manner of living of many of them. The dirty shanty and clumsy log cabins in which, formerly, so many were accustomed to be huddled together, are retreating, step by step, before the steady advance of neat and cozy cottages. Christian homes, the strength of any nation, are being built up, decorated with the beauties and improvement of modern art. Negro Domination. ' ' Old civilizations die hard, and old prejudices die harder. They have nine lives, like a cat. For this reason, therefore, you may expect for many a year yet to find those who are still living in the dead past, and who feel it their duty to champion the old order of things, and to throw stumbling blocks in the path of progress. I entertain no ill will toward this class of persons. I have for them no word of cen- sure or reproach. I give them the credit of even being sincere ; but I assure them from every page of history and human experience they are mistaken. They are at war with the spirit of the age and the sermon on the mount. Nor are they even consistent. They advocate the theory of repression. They say the Negro must be kept down for fear of Negro domination. On the other hand, they hold that he is an inferior race, fundamentally inferior, created so by almighty God. Why, in the name of righteous heaven should it be necessary to keep down a race that is naturally inferior? Why should there be any fear of its ever becoming dominant? There is something crooked in this philos- ophy. To say the least, there is something in it exceedingly incongruous. Nevertheless it is this kind of philosophy that is sending armed ruffians into first- class cars to drag them from their seats, for which they 160 PROGRESS OF A fcACE. have honestly paid their money, the best men and women of our race. It is this kind of philosophy that is shutting everywhere in our faces the doors of public accommodation. It is this false philosophy, I say, by which it is made to appear that every advancement of the Negro is a menace to the interests of the white man ; and it is this philosophy that will ever keep alive in the South race antagonism. Inconsistent, Incorrect and Narrow Views. "The men who advocate this philosophy are not only incon- sistent, but incorrect, and exceedingly narrow in their views as to the nature of this government. They claim that it is not only a 'white man's' government, but an Anglo-Saxon government, thereby robbing of their merit and glory the noble-minded foreigners who helped fight for American independence, and the hundreds of thousands more who were not Anglo- Saxons, but who, during four years of a terrible civil war fought as bravely and as heroically as any Anglo- Saxon to save this nation from dissolution and ruin. Did not Lafayette, that gallant Frenchman, fight for American independence? Let the battle of Brandy wine tell. Did not Count Pulaski, the noble Pole, fight for American independence? Let the same battle of Brandywine tell. Did he not afterward even fall in an attempt to capture Savannah? Did not Kosciusko, another Pole, and even far more distinguished than the other, cast in his fortune with the cause of American independence? And what shall we say of the hundreds of thousands who were not Anglo-Saxons, but who poured out their life blood at Gettysburg and the Wil- derness and Chickamauga, and around the defenses of Richmond and Vicksburg? Indeed, it is my belief, that if all the blood that is not Anglo-Saxon could be MORAL AND SOCIAL ADVANCEMENT. 161 drawn off from the great stream supplying- our national life, that which remained would be conspicuous for the insignificance of its quantity." Look Not for Greatness. Senator Logan once said : If there is any one thing that will clog the wheels of your material progress it is the fact that some of you are trying to overreach yourselves. Do not become dazzled at the splendor and magnificence of those who had hundreds of years to make this country what it is today. No man is a success who has not a fixed object as a sign-post an aim in life to attain unto. A man should get that kind and that amount of education that will best fit him for the performance and the attain- ment of his object in life. Too much Greek will do you no good; what does a man want with Greek around a table with a white apron on? I do not say that you should not study Greek if you intend to fill a chair in some institution of learning ; I do not say that you should not read medicine if you desire to become a physician, or law if you wish to follow that profession. But I tell you our white people are fast growing indo- lent and lazy. If you watch your chance and take timely advantage of the opportunities offered you, your race will be the wage workers, the skilled arti- sans, and eventually the land owners and the wealthy class of this country. I advise you to learn trades, learn to become mechanics. You have the ability and the capacity to reach the highest point, and even go further, in the march of progress than has yet been made by any people. Labor to Become Great. It takes labor to become a great man, just as it takes centuries to become a great nation. Great men are not fashioned in heaven and thrown from the hand of the Almighty to become 11 Progress. 162 PROGRESS OF A RACE. potentates here on earth, nor are they born rich. I admit that there is, in some parts of this country, a prejudice against you on account of your color and former condition. In my opinion the best way to overcome this is to show your capability by doing everything that a white man does, and do it just as well or better than he does. If a white man scorns BROOKS SANDERS. Son of Pres. Sanders, of Biddle University, Charlotte, N. C. DAUGHTER OF BISHOP C. R. HARRIS, Salisbury, N. C. you, show him that you are too high bred, too noble hearted, to take notice of it ; and, the first opportunity you have, do him a favor, and I warrant that he will feel ashamed of himself and never again will he make an exhibition of his prejudice. The future -is yours, and you have it in which to rise to the heights or descend to the depths MORAL AND SOCIAL ADVANCEMENT. 163 In America. I believe that the future of the Negro race is to be found in the segment of that race provi- dentially lodged on this soil. Say what we may about this or that, these United States have given us the most advanced, the most progressive Negro to be found on the face of the globe. And this is true for the reason that she is giving him the largest all-round opportunities, the highest civil ideals, and the steadiest aims. The troubles we suffer here in our day are only a part of the old, old conflict that has raged so long. "Must we be earned to the skies On flowery beds of ease, While others fought to win the prize And sailed through bloody seas?" No, we cannot be, and will not be, though we may wish to ever so much. "Through conflict to the skies," is as true for dark humanity as for any other variety of men. Had we then not better learn this lesson and cease our shameful grumbling, as if the Almighty had done us some special wrong? God has given us minds to think, hands to work and hearts to love. Let us subject these God-given powers to the regimen of a severe discipline, and, walking with hope to the future, work out a noble destiny for ourselves and our children. Change During Years of Bondage. Said Rev. A. D. Mayo, at the Mohonk conference in 1890: "It has never been realized by the loyal North what is evident to every intelligent Southern man, what a prodigious change has been wrought in this people during its years of bondage, and how, without the schooling of this era, the subsequent elevation of the emancipated slave to a full American citizenship would have been an impossi- bility. In that condition he learned the three great elements of civilization more speedily than they were 164 PROGRESS OF A RACE. ever learned before. He learned to work, he acquired the language, and adopted the religion of the most progressive of peoples. Gifted with a marvelous apti- tude for such schooling, he was found in 1865 farther out of the woods of barbarism than any other people at the end of a thousand years. ' ' In Twenty Years. The scholastic education of the Negro began in earnest only about twenty years ago, 1876 being the date of the complete inauguration of the public school system of the South. This is too short for us to expect great results. The educated generation are not yet fairly out of school, but there have already appeared some isolated cases which show signs of promise. In the class of 1888 at Harvard University were two Negroes, one of whom was selected by the faculty to represent his class on commencement day, as being the foremost scholar among his two hun- dred and fifty classmates; the other was elected by the class for the highest honor in their gift, by being made their orator on class day. The circumstance reflects honor, not merely on him, but on the democratic spirit of our oldest university, which recognized merit with- out regard to color. Boston University has also yielded first honors to a Negro. A Negro professor of theology at Straight University, at New Orleans, is a graduate of Vermont University, who afterwards took the prize for traveling scholarship from Yale Theo- logical Seminary, and spent a year in Germany upon it. Professor Bowen, of the Gammon Theological Seminary, delivered at the Atlanta Exposition opening an address which in classic finish will bear comparison with the best orations of Edward Everett. The prin- cipal of one of our auxiliaries, Mr. E. N. Smith, a perfect gentleman and an excellent teacher, is a full MORAL AND SOCIAL ADVANCEMENT. lt)5 bloeded Negro, a graduate of Lincoln University and Newton Theological Institution, and pronounced by Dr. Hovey one of the best scholars that have been educated there. False Hopes. The most obvious hindrance in the way of the education of the Negro has so often been presented and discussed his origin, history and envir- onment that it seems superfluous to treat it anew. His political status, sudden and unparalleled, compli- cated by antecedent condition, excites false hopes and encourages the notion of reaching per saltum, without the use of the agencies of time, labor, industry, discip- line, what the dominant race had attained after cen- turies of toil and trial and sacrifice. Education, prop- erty, habits of thrift and self-control, higher achieve- ments of civilization, are not extemporized nor created by magic or legislation. Behind the Caucasian lie centuries of the educating, uplifting influences of civilization, of the institution of family, society, the churches, the state, and the salutary effects of heredity. Behind the Negro are centuries of igno- rance, barbarism, slavery, superstition, idolatry, fetish- ism, and the transmissible consequences of heredity. Charitable Judgment. Nothing valuable or perma- nent in human life has been secured without the sub- stratum of moral character, of religious motive, in the individual, the family, the community. In this matter the Negro should be judged charitably, for his aboriginal people were not far removed from the savage state, where they knew neither house nor home, and had not enjoyed any religious training. Their condition as slaves debarred them the advantage of regular, con- tinuous, systematic instruction. The Negro began his life of freedom and citizenship with natural weaknesses 166 PROGRESS OF A RACE. unconnected, with loose notions of piety and morality, and with strong racial peculiarities and proclivities, and has not outgrown the feebleness of the moral sense which is common to all primitive races. Thrift. Professor Greenwood says: " Twenty-five years ago the colored people of Missouri were unedu- cated, poverty-stricken, dependent, and helpless creat- ures. To-day they number 200,000. The value of their real and personal property is more than $30,000,000. "Thousands of them live in comfortable homes. "Of the 50,000 children of school age, seventy per cent, are now in attendance. They are as neatly and cleanly clad as the average white child, and many of them much better. Those who were the boys and girls in school a few years ago are the leaders among their people now. The self-denial practiced by parents to educate their children is one of the strongest evidences of parental affection that the world has ever beheld. When the schoolhouse doors were opened for the admission of colored pupils, they rushed in to get an education, and the influx is unabated. I have seen old white-haired men and women studying the first reader and spelling book so as to be able to read the Bible, the newspapers, and to write letters to relatives and friends. Have you seen white people doing these things?" A Loyal American. But let us look at these people from another standpoint, and see what progress they have made. In Missouri there are 45,000 of them church communicants; more than 450 ministers of the gospel; 400 church edifices and 60 parsonages. Do these evidences of prosperity indicate the wretchedness of this race? The Negro must be treated as a man, neither cajoled nor despised, He is here to stay, and MORAL AND SOCIAL ADVANCEMENT. 167 it is our duty to help him make the most of himself as an industrious, intelligent, law-abiding and faithful citizen. Whether educated or uneducated, he is not a dangerous element in our civilization. A thousand- fold is he to be trusted when compared with those dan- gerous elements which have swept in upon us from European countries, and are now a standing menace to our social and political institutions. The Negro is thoroughly and loyally American. Thrift and Self-Respect. The thrift and self-respect of the Negro has removed him from the dark and cheerless abode in which he lived, and has placed him in neat and well-kept homes. Negro Homes, The Contrast. The Negro whose soul is free, like every other man, appreciates the sa- credness and beauty which must be inseparable from a happy home. On the other hand, the Negro, debased and brutified by a servitude of centuries, has no desire for home in any exalted sense. Legacy Bequeathed by Slavery. Perhaps the least respected legacy left by slavery to the children' of its victims is the disintegrating and nomadic tendency to a homeless and non-f amilied people. There are among the Negroes those whom no wretchedness can impel, no opportunity inspire to alter or make tolerable the places in which their families exist, and many an old Negro lives for years in a one or two room cabin, declin- ing to build another room "Kase he won't be. g' wine to leave. ' ' Happy and Comfortable Homes. The influences that are at work in transforming the women of the race, making a generation of virtuous, clean, industrious women, though they may not shine in society and speak but pne language, though they may be ugly in feature! 168 PROGRESS OP A RACK. and unsophisticated in manner, though their .names are never heard outside of the limits of their own state, these influences, I say, will improve the homes REV. W. W. LUCAS, A. M., B. D. Secretary of the Stewart Missionary Foundation for Africa, graduate of Clark University and Gammon's School of Theology of Atlanta, Ga., and Boston Uni- versity, of Boston, Massachusetts. of the race more speedily than any other aspiration, after the empty honors and applause of the multitude. Do Something. Booker Washington says: "We expect too often to get things that God did not mean for us to have in certain ways. At one time an o!4 MORAL AND SOCIAL ADVANCEMENT. 169 colored man was very anxious to get a turkey, and prayed and prayed for the Lord to send him a turkey. The turkey did not come, and finally the old man changed his prayer somewhat and said, *O Lord, send dis nigger to a turkey,' and he got it that night. God means for us to get many things in about that same way, that is, by working for them rather than by depending on the power of mouth. ' ' There are multitudes who are willing to accept honors and advantages who are not ready to work for them. It is necessary for all who would succeed to put forth strenuous efforts in that direction. The days of chance are gone, it is only the man who does not wait for things to turn up, but turns up something, that suc- ceeds. Young man, do something ; attempt something that will be a benefit to your race. Something en- nobling, something enduring; something to elevate manhood and win men to noble, virtuous, upright lives, and your life will not have been lived in vain. These thoughts must be impressed upon the humblest of the race. Success comes not by waiting for it. If the Afro- American race is to continue to rise, and is to hold a prominent place in this nation, there must be an effort. Empty wishes carry us nowhere. With- out an earnest effort on the part of those of the race who hold the key to circumstances the race may as well yield to the prejudice still existing, and hold for- ever an inferior position, but with a determination that surmounts the obstacles and with a corresponding effort to stand first in the industries of our nation, we may well expect that the past achievement in this line is nothing compared to the progress of the future. Cast Down Your Bucket. "At one time a ship was lost at sea for many days, when it hove in sight of a 170 PROGRESS OF A RACE. friendly vessel. The signal of the distressed vessel was at once hoisted, which read: 'We want water; we die of thirst.' The answering signal read, 'Cast down your bucket where you are, ' but a second time the dis- tressed vessel signaled, 'We want water, water,' and a second time the other vessel answered 'cast down your bucket where you are. ' A third and fourth time the distressed vessel signaled, 'We want water, water; we die of thirst;' and as many times was answered, 'Cast down your bucket where you are. ' At last the com- mand was obeyed, the bucket was cast down where the vessel stood, and it came up full of fresh and sparkling water from the Amazon river. My friends, we are failing to cast down our buckets for the help that is right above us, and spend too much time in signaling for help that is far off. Let us cast down our buckets here in our own sunny South, cast them down in agri- culture, in truck gardening, dairying, poultry raising, hog raising, laundering, cooking, sewing, mechanical and professional life, and the help that we think is far off will come and we will soon grow independent and useful. ' ' In Our Stead. In a speech before a National Council of Colored Men, Bishop Turner made the following excellent points : "I am willing to accord to the white man every meed of honor that ability, grit, backbone, sagacity, tact and invincibility can entitle him to. For this Anglo-Saxon, I grant, is a powerful race; but put him in our stead, enslave him for two hundred and fifty years, emancipate him and turn him loose upon the world, without education, without money, without horse or mule or a foot of land, when passion engen- dered by war was most intense, to eke out a subsistence from nothing beyond the charity of an indignant people MORAL AND SOCIAL ADVANCEMENT. 171 on the one hand, and a cold shouldering and prescriptive people on the other, and I do not believe he would have equaled us in respect, obedience, fidelity, and accomplished the results and maintained the pacific equilibrium we have. For our nation freed the black man as a war measure, I grant, but that freedom entailed and left upon us a mendicancy that the unborn will ask the reason why. Even the usufruct claim, guaranteed to the serfs of Russia a nation at that time regarded as semi-civilized was denied the freed- men by this so-called enlightened and Christian nation. The Mule and Forty Acres. The mule and forty acres of land, which has been so often ridiculed for being expected by the black man, was a just and right- eous expectation, -and had this nation been one-fiftieth part as loyal to the black man as he has been to it, such a bestowment would have been made, and the cost would have been a mere bagatelle, compared with the infinite resources of this republic, which has given countless millions to foreigners to come into the country and destroy respect for the Sabbath, flood the land with every vice known to the ends of the earth, and form themselves into anarchal bands for the overthrow of its institutions and venerated customs. Freedom. Nevertheless, freedom has been so long held before us, as man's normal birth-right, and the bas-relief of every possibility belonging to the achieve- ments of manhood, that we received it as Heaven's greatest boon, and nursed ourselves into satisfaction, believing that we had the stamina, not only to wring existence out of our poverty, but also wealth, learning, honor, fame and immortality. Rape, But, through some satanic legerdemain, 172 PROGRESS OF A RACE. within the last years, the most fearful crimes have been charged upon the members of our race known to the catalogue of villainy, and death and destruction have stalked abroad with an insatiable carnivoracity that not only beggars description, but jeopardizes the life of every Negro in the land, as anyone could raise an alarm by crying rape, and some colored man must die, whether he is the right one or not, or whether it was the product of revenge, or the mere cracking of a joke. An Awful Charge. The civilized world has been informed through Christian Advocates and through the public daily papers that Negroes have raped white women in such numbers that the charge is undoubtedly the most revolting and blood-curdling ever presented against the people since time began. Without affirm- ing or denying this monstrous imputation, we owe it to ourselves and posterity to inquire into this subject and give it the most patient, thorough and impartial investigation that ever befell the lot of man. No Attribute to Side with Us. If the charges are true, then God has no attribute that will side with us. Na- ture has no member, no potential factor, that will defend us ; and while we may not all be guilty, nor one in ten thousand, it nevertheless shows, if true, that there is a libidinous taint, a wanton and lecherous corruption, that is prophetic of a dreadful doom, as there must be a cardinal blood poison in the precincts of our race that staggers the most acute imagination in determining its woeful results. Counter Charge. Nor can we excuse it, palliate it, or manifest indifference upon the postulation that it is a righteous retribution upon the white man for the way he treated our women for hundreds of years. For if MORAL AND SOCIAL ADVANCEMENT. 173 the counter-charge is true, we certainly did not visit swift vengeance upon the white man, as he is doing upon us by his lawless mobs. One Recourse Left. There is but one recourse left us that will command the respect of the civilized world and the approval of God, and that is to investigate the facts in the premises, and if guilty, acknowledge it, and let us organize against the wretches in our own ranks. Let us call upon the colored ministry to sound it from the pulpit, our newspapers to brand it with infamy daily, weekly, monthly and yearly. Let us put a thou- sand lecturers in the field, to canvass every section of the land, and denounce the heinous crime. Heathen Africa. Among the heathen Africans, whatever else may be said about them, the world will have to admit that they are the purest people, outside of polygamy, in their connubial and virgin morals, upon the face of the globe. White women, to my personal knowledge, hundreds of miles interiorward in Africa, can remain in their midst and teach school for years without being insulted, which proves to a demonstra- tion that where our natures have not been distorted and abnormalized we are the most honorable cus- todians of female virtue now under Heaven. I have been told by white ladies in Africa, from Louisiana, South Carolina, New York, Nebraska, England, and Ireland, that no white lady could be improperly approached in Africa in a lifetime unless she made herself unusually forward. Not the Nature of the Black Man. It is not the nature of the black man to outrage white women, unless it is one of our American retrogressive abnormalities, which has possibly grown out of the degradation en- tailed upon us by the singular prejudice and degrading 174 PROGRESS OF A RACE. conditions tinder which we exist. The whole range of West India islands show by their records that only one rape has been charged upon a black man since 1832, and that occurred twenty years ago, while eleven rapes were charged upon white men, nine of which were per- petrated upon black women and two upon white women. Like Begets Like. It may, however, be due to the fact that there the laws and institutions recognize the black man as a full-fledged citizen and a gentleman, and his pride of character and sense of dignity are not degraded, and self-respect imparts a higher prompting and gentlemanly bearing to his manhood, and makes him a better citizen and inspires him with more gal- lantry and nobler principles. For like begets like. A Degraded Condition. While, in this country, we are degraded by the public press, degraded by the courts of the country from the United States Supreme Court down, degraded on the railroads after purchasing first-class tickets, degraded at the hotels and barber shops, degraded in many states at the ballot-box, degraded in some of the large cities by being com- pelled to rent houses in alleys and the most disreputa- ble streets. Thus we are degraded in so many respects that all the starch of respectability is taken out of the manhood of millions of our people, and as degradation begets degradation, it is very possible that in many instances we are guilty of doing a series of infamous things that we would not be guilty of if our environments were different. The World's Fair. Think of it ! The great World's Fair, or exposition, in Chicago, out of more than ten thousand employes, gave 110 recognition to the colored race beyond taking charge of the toilet rooms. MORAL AND SOCIAL ADVANCEMENT. 175 Half Free and Half Slave. I would not have you understand that I am denying, condoning or excusing the crime of rape, as is being charged to a greater or less extent upon the members of our race ; nor must we jump at a hasty or rash conclusion ; but I fear much of it, if true, is due to our natural and immethodical environment and ignoble status, nor do I, for one, believe that we will ever stand out in the symmetrical majesty of higher manhood, half free and half slave. The Great Desideratum. The one great desider- atum of the American Negro is manhood impetus. We may educate and acquire general intelligence, but our sons and daughters will come out of the college with all their years of training and thrift to the plane of the scullion, as long as they are restricted, limited and circumbounded by colorphobia. For abstract edu- cation elevates no man, nor will it elevate a race. What we call the heathen African will strut around in his native land, three-fourths naked, and you can see by the way he stands, talks, and acts that he possesses more manhood than fifty of some of our people in this country, and any ten of our most distinguished colored men here. A Dwarfed People. Until we are free from menace by lynchers, hotels, railroads, stores, factories, restaur- ants, barber shops, machine shops, court houses and other places where merit and worth are respected, we are destined to be a dwarfed people. Our sons and daughters will grow up with it in their very flesh and bones. Gratitude. As one, I feel grateful for many things that have been done for us within the last thirty years. I am thankful for Mr. Lincoln's manumitting proc- lamation, for its ratification by Congress, for the thir- 176 PROGRESS OF A RACE. teenth, fourteenth and. fifteenth amendments to the Constitution, which were placed there by the American people for the benefit of our race, even if the United States Supreme Court has destroyed the fourteenth amendment by its revolting decision. Millions for Education. I am thankful to our gen- erous-hearted friends of the North who have given voluntarily millions upon millions to aid in our educa- tion. I am thankful to the South for the school laws they have enacted, and for the generous manner in which they have taxed themselves in building and sus- taining schools for our enlightenment and intellectual and moral elevation, Full- Fledged Men. But, if this country is to be our home, the Negro must be a self-controlling, automatic factor of the body politic or collective life of the nation. In other words, we must be full-fledged men. Otherwise we will not be worth existence itself. God Hates Cowardice. To passively remain here and occupy our present ignoble status, with the possi- bility of being shot, hung and burnt, not only when we perpetrate deeds of violence ourselves, but when- ever some bad white man wishes to black his face and outrage a female, as I am told is often done, is a matter of serious reflection. To do so would be to declare our- selves unfit to be free men or to assume the responsi- bilities which involve fatherhood and existence. For God hates the submission of cowardice. Physical Resistance. But, on the other hand, to talk about physical resistance is literal madness. Nobody but an idiot would give it a moment's thought The idea of eight or ten millions of ex-slaves contending with sixty millions people of the most powerful race under Heaven! Think of two hundred and sixty-five MORAL AND SOCIAL ADVANCEMENT. 177 millions of dollars battling with one hundred billions of dollars. Why, we would not be a drop in the bucket. It is folly to indulge in such a thought for a moment. Debt of Our Nation. This nation justly, righteously, divinely, owes us for work and service rendered billions of dollars, and if we cannot be treated as American people, we should ask for five hundred million dollars at least, to begin an immigration somewhere, if we can not for service rendered receive manhood recognition here at home. Freedom and perpetual degradation are not in the economy of human events. " Bishop Gaines on Lynching. "The better class of colored people all over the South are unanimous in the condemnation of the wretches who are guilty of this unmentionable crime. They recognize the fact that the whole race is suffering in the eyes of the world through the conduct of the vile scoundrels who perpe- trate these crimes. In many places the white people regard a Negro with detestation and suspicion, believ- ing him to be capable of any criminal act where he is left unrestrained. From experience and observation I know this to be true. Not in Sympathy with Crime. I for one am not willing to be thought in sympathy with crime or crim- inals, and especially those cf the character I am now considering. If the colored people, as a race, expect to gain the confidence and respect of their white neigh- bors and to elevate themselves in the scale of civilized life, they must emphasize in no uncertain way their detestation of that most brutal of the race, who com- mit the horrible offense of rape, arson and the like. There must be no maudlin sympathy for such charac- ters who disgrace their own race and bring the Negro into shame and contempt. 12 Yrogress, 178 PROGRESS OF A RACE. Innocent Men Victims. While I say these things I would not be understood as favoring lynch laws. Could the real criminal suffer it would not be so bad, but when innocent men are frequently the victims of excited and infuriated mobs, who take the law into their own hands, the necessity of legal conviction is apparent. Lynch law, too, no matter how justly administered, is bad in its tendency, working a disre- gard for all laws and educating the people in the law- lessness it is intended to prevent. Justice. All our people ask is that justice be done that before the law the same evidence be required to convict a Negro that is required to convict a white man, and that the same punishment be meted out to the one as to the other. Wherever the proof is con- clusive let the guilty suffer, though the heavens fall. Lynching is not a race question but a national ques- tion, as is proven by the fact that of one hundred and forty-one persons lynched in 1896, fifty-four were white men. ' ' Temperance, Soberness Increasing. "Remember- ing the circumstances, " says Rev. J. C. Price, "in which the Negro was placed by the dreadful institution of slavery, it is not to be wondered at that he now culti- vates a taste, even a love, for alcohol. Yet it is re- markable to note the progress towards sobriety that the race has made in the latter years of its emancipation. A colored total abstainer is not a rare person in any com- munity nowadays. The various temperance societies, and nearly all the other secret organizations supported by the Afro- American race, uniformly require those who seek admission to pledge themselves to be sober men and women, and in most cases to be total abstain- ers. The drift is more and more in this direction, and MORAL AND SOCIAL ADVANCEMENT 179 hence soberness in the race is constantly on the increase. Total Abstinence. It is remarkable, too, to observe the steadfastness and persistency with which the col- ored teachers, as a rule, hold to the idea that the race is to be uplifted morally, as well as materially and religiously improved, through total abstinence as a chief instrument. It is the rare exception, not the rule, to find a colored teacher who does not hold to this doctrine. The result is that many boys and girls in the school- room all over the South and other sections as well are being trained to habits of temperance, and will in all probability develop into consistent temper- ance men and women. And it must not be forgotten that the true and most influential leaders of the race, the ministers, are molding and shaping the opinions of both old and young in favor of soberness and total abstinence. Leaders Temperate. I have watched closely the men who are recognized as the race leaders in various states and localities. It is acknowledged that they are generally shrewd, calculating, and hard to circumvent when they attempt political maneuvers. It is my obser- vation that these leaders are strictly reliable and trustworthy when confided in, and however surpris- ing the statement may be to some that they are 'gen- erally sober, upright and honest. I confess that in some localities this rule does not apply, but on the whole a more sober class of leaders does not exist in any race than in the Afro- American. Cross -Roads Grocery. One of the evils against which our people have to contend is the cross-roads grocery store, to be found all over the Southland the bane of this section. Here, with no city or town 180 PROGRESS OF A RACE. ordinance to make drunkenness an offense, and to threaten certain punishment, they congregate and drink their fill, carouse, engage in free fights, and do other hurtful and equally unlawful things, while no one dares molest or make afraid, and the grocery keeper, finding his trade benefited, encourages the debauchery. This evil, instead of becoming less, increases. The business of many prosperous towns and villages is being injured seriously by the competi- tion at the cross-roads, and the resulting vice, violence and impoverishment. Crime Traceable to Liquor Habit. The records of the courts show that crime among our people is trace- able in a large majority of cases to a too free exercise of the liquor habit. Of the men belonging to the race who were hanged, I think it entirely reasonable to say that at least four-fifths committed their offenses while under the influence of liquor. But speaking of the race broadly, and duly allowing for all the unusual cir- cumstances that ought to be taken into consideration, I think it cannot fairly be charged with anything like gross intemperance. Delirium Tremens. It is something out of the usual order to come upon a case of delirium tremens among the Negroes. Comparatively few of them drink any- thing of consequence during the week, but excessive imbibation is mostly indulged in on Saturdays. Not a Race of Drunkards. Therefore this is not a race of drunkards, and there is abundant reason for believing that with proper education and training it may be made a race of sober people and abstainers. Reliable Allies. In order to strengthen the cause of temperance in the South, nothing is more important than to treat the Negro fairly, and to keep faith with MORAL AND SOCIAL ADVANCEMENT. 181 him, to permit no pledge to be broken. Once won, the colored man is the most faithful and reliable of all allies. It is, of course, needless to add that the supply of temperance literature should be kept up and increased. ' ' Educational Institutions. Especially valuable is the work of arousing total abstinence enthusiasm among the students in the various educational insti- tutions young men, and women too, upon whom the future of the race and its influence for good or evil so largely depends. I am indeed hopeful for the future of the Afro- American race, and particularly hopeful that it will become a positive and influential contributor to the triumph of the temperance reform. The Shame of a Christian Nation. It is estimated that Christendom has introduced 70,000 gallons of rum into Africa to every missionary. In the great Congo Free State there are one hundred drunkards to one convert. Under the maddening influence of intoxicat- ing drink sent from New England two hundred Congo- ans slaughtered each other. One gallon of rum caused a fight in which fifty were slain. A Sad End. A generation since there lived in a western city a wealthy Englishman who was what is called a high liver. He drank his toddy in the morn- ing, washed down his lunch with champagne, and finished a bottle of port for dinner, though he com- plained that the heavy wines here did not agree with him, owing to the climate. He died of gout at fifty years, leaving four sons. One of them became an epileptic, two died from drinking. Called good fellows, generous, witty, honorable young men, but before middle age miserable sots. The oldest of the brothers was a man of fixed habits, occupying a leading place 182 PROGRESS OF A RACE. in the community from his keen intelligence, integrity and irreproachable morals. He watched over his brothers, laid them in their graves, and never ceased to denounce the vice which had ruined them; and when he was long past middle age financial trouble threw him into a low, nervous condition, for which wine was prescribed. He drank but one bottle. Shortly after his affairs were righted and his health and spirits returned, but it was observed that once or twice a year he mysteriously disappeared for a month or six weeks. Nor wife, nor children, nor even his partner, knew where he went ; but at last, when he was old and gray- headed, his wife was telegraphed from a neighboring obscure village where she found him dying of mania a potu. He had been in the habit of hiding there when the desire for liquor became maddening, and when there he drank like a brute. ' ' Temperance Resolutions Adopted by the A. M. E. Church. The African Methodist Episcopal Church, at its General Conference, held in Indianapolis, Indi- ana, adopted the following resolutions : "Resolved: i. That we discourage the manufacture, sale and use of all alcoholic and malt liquors. "2. That we discourage the use of tobacco by our ministers and people. "3. That we discourage the use of opium and snuff. "4. That we endorse the great prohibition move- ment in this country, also work done by the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and will use all honora- ble means to suppress the evils growing out of intem- perance. "5. That it shall be a crime for any minister or member of the A. M. E. Church to fight against tem- perance, and if convicted of this crime he shall lose his place in the conference and the church. ' ' MORAL AND SOCIAL ADVANCEMENT. 183 The bishops at this same conference said in their address; "We should allow no minister, or member who votes, writes, lectures or preaches to uphold the mm trade to retain his membership, either in the con- ference or in the church. And those who are addicted to strong- drink, either ministers or laymen, should have no place among us. Visit our station houses, bride- wells, jails, almsjiouses, and penitentiaries, and you will there witness the effects of this horror of horrors. Rum has dug the grave of the American Indian so deep that it will never be resurrected. If we would escape the same fate as a church and race, we must be temperate. "Some of the loftiest intellects have been blasted and blighted by this terrible curse. The use of wine at weddings should never be encouraged by our minis- ters ; it is often the beginning of a blasted life. ' ' Woman in Temperance. Mrs. McCurdy, corre- sponding secretary of the Georgia W. C. T. U. for col- ored women, says: "The call for 'God and home in every land,' is growing to be more popular than in former years. Ministers all over the Southland are taking hold of the temperance question and are agitat- ing it as never before. They see that "Mental suasion for the thinker Moral suasion for the drinker Legal suasion for the drunkard maker Prison suasion for the statute breaker " are not virtues and therefore will not bring about the desired end. We are growing in numbers and are believing that among the Christian races temperance is a cardinal virtue, upon which physical strength, moral worth, social happiness and political tranquillity depend." 184 PROGRESS OF A RACE. Evils of Alcohol as a Beverage. The shackles of strong drink are more galling than were the shackles of slavery. In saying this we do not discount the horrors of the slave- pen and the auction-block. The slave-master could not put shackles on the man, the immortal. President Lincoln, with the aid of General Grant and his mighty host, could proclaim liberty to the captive ; but in the war against King Alcohol, each man must be his own emancipator. The horrors of intemperance are known to the most thoughtless. Every intelligent person knows the awful effects of alcohol on the intellectual, moral, and religious nature of man. But, strange as it may seem, "the multitude" believe that alcphol has the power to give life, vitality, energy, force to the body ; that it is needful in heat or cold. But, listen ! The fol- lowing statements are made by the president of one of the largest life insurance companies in America: "A group of total abstainers, aged 20, will, on the average, live 44. 2 years apiece ; a group of moderate drinkers, aged 20, will, on the average, live 15.6 years apiece. A group of total abstainers, aged 30, will, on the aver- age, live 36.5 years apiece; a group of moderate drink- ers, aged 30, will, on the average, live 13 years apiece. A group of total abstainers, aged 40, will, on the aver- age, live 28.8 years apiece; a group of moderate drink- ers, aged 40, will, on the average, live n.6 years apiece." It will be seen by the above testimony that total ab- stainers between the ages of 20 and 40 have 23 years' advantage over the users of alcoholic beverages in the expectancy of life. This, of course, has reference to the average man of his class. Smoking a Grime. Tobacco was early introduced into Europe. Its use, however, was condemned, and MORAL AND SOCIAL ADVANCEMENT. 185 the Sultan of Turkey declared smoking a crime, and death of the most cruel kind was fixed as the punish- ment. In Russia, the " noses of the smokers were cut off in the earlier part of the seventeenth century." Its use vas described by King James I of England, as "a custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black, linking fume thereof nearest resembling the horrible Stygian smoke of the pit that is bottom- less." Tobacco a Poison. Dr. J. H. Kellogg, M. D., in Health Science Leaflet, No. 216, says: "Chemists, botanists and physicians unite in pronouncing tobacco one of the most deadly poisons known. No other poison, with the exception of Prussic acid, will cause death so quickly, only three or four minutes being required for a fatal dose to produce its full effect. Nicotine. "The active principle of tobacco, that is, that to which its narcotic and poisonous properties are due, is nicotine, a heavy, oily substance which may be separated from the dry leaf of the plant by distillation or infusion. The proportion of nicotine varies from two to eight per cent. A pound of tobacco contains on an average 380 grains of this deadly poison, of which one-tenth of a grain will kill a dog in ten minutes. Killed in Thirty Seconds. "A case is on record in which a man was killed in thirty seconds by this poison. Hottentots use the oil of tobacco to kill snakes, a single drop causing death as quickly as a lightning stroke. It is largely used by gardeners and keepers of green- houses to destroy grubs and noxious insects (its proper usefulness)." Habit of Smoking. The habit of smoking was dis- covered on the island of Cuba. Two sailors who were 186 PROGRESS OF A RACE. sent by Columbus to explore the island report that: "Among many other strange and curious discoveries, the natives carried with them lighted fire brands, and puffed smoke from their mouths and noses, which they supposed to be the way savages had for perfuming themselves. They afterwards declared that they 'saw ROBERT H. BONNER, ORISHANTKEH FREDREMAS. New Haven, Conn. Grad. Theol. Dept, Ceylon, West Africa. CHAS. H. BOYER, HENRY H. PROCTOR. Maryland Academical Dept. Graduate Theological Dept., Yale University. the naked savages twist large leaves together and smoke like devils. ' ' ' Filthy and Pernicious. The use of tobacco is both filthy and pernicious. "Keep thyself pure," was Paul's injunction to Timothy; and again he says, "Let MORAL AND SOCIAL ADVANCEMENT. 181 us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit." "If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy ; for the temple of God is holy, which temple we are. ' ' Leaders Needed. Since the death of Dr. J. C. Price, of Livingstone College, Rev. J. H. Hector, of York, Pa., is the most popular temperance lecturer of the race. The race sadly needs a great leader in the tem- perance work, a leader who will inspire the hosts to active and progressive measures. Moral Status. President Wright says: "One who does not know the character of the moral lives of the colored people at the emancipation is incapable of ren- dering an opinion as to the Negro's moral status now. It is extremely difficult to measure the distance of the advancement or to estimate the weight and quality of the good that has been done. No people have made further advancement in moral and Christian character. The schools have given them eyes to see. Eyes to see themselves as others saw them, and year after year vice and ignorance have become odious.. In 1865 there was scarcely any Negro homes in all Georgia. In 1870 they could be easily counted. Who but the census taker would undertake such a task to-day? There is taxable property of some sixteen millions of dollars, and thousands of comfortable homes in the city and rural districts. None have become very rich but many have made a good start in life. There are over five hundred good business establishments whose affairs are conducted wholly by colored men. Business World. The Negro is taking a reliable, useful, and honorable place in the business and indus- trial world. He is becoming an intelligent producer and developer of the resources of this great state. 188 PROGRESS OF A RACE. Under the benign influence of private and public schools he is becoming patriotic; he is purchasing land and fixing himself to the soil. Discourtesies and Insults. He is becoming more sensitive with regard to discourtesies and insults. His restiveness is the natural result of his increased intelli- gence and love for his country in common with others. He may even grow defiant in the face of these out- rages, if continued. The intelligence and means among the colored people inspire confidence and respect on the part of the whites. There is practically no trouble or possibility of trouble between the intelli- gent and upright colored people and the same class of white people. This is what Christian and industrial education has done. The Negro, or Southern prob- lem, finds its key in the education of the race. The Negro should not only be given every opportunity the state can afford for elementary education, but should be urged to avail himself of these opportunities. Criminals. There are in Georgia more than five thousand Negro criminals ; about twice the number of colored teachers. Very few of these criminals can read or write. Here is found the connection between crime and ignorance. Education is not a panacea for crime, but, in proportion to the intelligence of the colored people of a given community, the number of actual and alleged crimes among that class of citizens has decreased. Professions. There are in Georgia some twenty- five physicians, two pharmacists, seven lawyers, and half a dozen newspaper editors. Some of these, how- ever, have not been broadly educated. What Georgia needs most is men who can clearly and wisely state the needs of the colored people. MORAL AND SOCIAL ADVANCEMENT. 189 Trade Education. While the work in the schools has included industrial training, yet very little legiti- mate and genuine trade teaching has been done until within the last few years. The entire number of per- sons who have learned, in all these schools, enough of a trade to make them as safe in following it as it would in attempting to teach school, is very small. This is the natural result of the beginnings. There is, how- ever, an awakening on these lines, and a demand for abler and better teachers and advantages in industrial work. The colored people are at a point in their natural and material development when everybody recognizes the pressing need of more attention to the teaching of trades. The march of the Negro race towards the better day will not be only along the class of classic learning, but its pathway of victory must be as well through the physical sciences and along the avenues of industrial and business enterprises. The demands of the times are for genuine industrial teach- ing, which sends a young man into the world with an industrial bent that fits him for his life work; that gives him a trade by which he may support himself and benefit the world. Patents. The colored patentees of the Union are credited with more than sixty useful inventions. This clearly shows that the Negro has genius and skill, and the means and opportunities now presented aid in the development and training of their genius. Perhaps no other school can come nearer to filling the demands than the industrial school well equipped and with a liberal curriculum. Debt of Gratitude. The colored people of the South are under an everlasting debt of gratitude to the phil- anthropists of the country, north and south, who have 190 PROGRESS OF A RACE. done so much to raise them from their low estate. While it is difficult to estimate the amount of money spent by the states and different benevolent institu- tions for the education of the colored people, the fact remains that a great and grand work has been done, and is being done, for their education. Our Country. There are many and almost ancient ties that bind the Negro to the United Stats. There are numerous reasons why he should feel as much at home on the American soil as any man of any other nation that treads our shores. Among America's earliest explorers and discoverers, some of the boldest and bravest, and most successful of our citizens, as early as 1529, were woolly-haired Negroes. From then until now, whether he is happy and prosperous in his Southland, or fighting the battles of the nation, the Ne- gro, by sweat and blood, identified himself with every phase and fiber of the American history and life. The pathway of the race has not been strewn with flowers, but it has steadily led towards the light. And to-day the Negro stands upon higher ground, where the light of liberty shines upon him more steadily. Standing here, new duties, new responsibilities, await him. In this broader day the demand is for more men of thought and action. Does Not Crave Domination, but Equality. The Negro craves not domination. He simply asks for equalization of rights and privileges, such as belong to American citizens under the fundamental law of the land. As an American citizen he cannot ask less nor be contented with less. ' ' Prejudice. "Talks for the Times" says: H Thereare but very few white people in this country who are capable of passing fair judgment upon us as a race, for MORAL AND SOCIAL ADVANCEMENT. 191 the large majority of them do not associate with us. The Jews have no extensive communion with the Samaritans. Now, it is a law in optics that the size of the visual angle varies with the distance of the body, and an object looks smaller as we recede from it. On this principle it is easy to account for the absurd and strange opinions of many of our white friends con- cerning us. They stand off at so magnificent a dis- tance from the Negro that they either lose sight of him altogether, or what they do see of him seems insignifi- cant and contemptible. Corruption of Public Men. I am proud, too, to know, that in this transition period of ours we have among us a few public men of unimpeachable charac- ter. When Oscar Dunn was lieutenant-governor of Louisiana a certain white man, interested in a bill before the legislature, endeavored by the use of money, to secure Mr. Dunn's influence in favor of that bill. The reply of that noble Negro was as withering as it was laconic: *Sir, ' said he, 'my conscience is not for sale.' In that memorable presidential election when Messrs. Hayes and Tilden were candidates, a colored man in one of those Southern states, at that time a member of the electoral college, was approached by a white man and offered fifty thousand dollars for his vote for Mr. Tilden, being informed, at the same time, that it was a 'graveyard secret,' and that if he ever exposed the offerer of that sum death would be the penalty. I am proud to say that brave and faithful man rejected with scorn the proffered bribe. Would Anglo-Saxon morality have stood a better test against gilded corruption?" Toward the Light. Professor Bo wen says: "Before the war the Negro was a dumb driven and a dumb 192 PROGRESS OF A RAC!. used cattle for work and for breeding. Shame, the virtue that Eve brought out of the Garden with her, that belongs alike to heathen and to Christian, was mocked, insulted and trampled under the merciless hoofs. The women were the tools for lechery. The whole head of the race was sick and the heart was faint ; bruises and putrefying sores covered the body of the race. To-day, in education, in morals, in spiritual power, the Negro is far superior. He marries accord- ing to law, rears his family in a home of culture and morality, and reaches up with divine aspirations to the ideal perfections of human nature. The women are women. And while it is true that, as a mass, the race has not yet attained unto all perfection, yet they press with vigor toward the mark and are far removed from that dark age. They are purer, their preachers have improved and are still improving in all the elements of moral power. Progress Since Freedom. Says E. A. Johnson, in his history of the Negro race: " Through a century and a half we have traced our ancestors' history. We have seen how they performed the hard tasks assigned them by their masters ; followed the h(pe and the plow with a laugh and a song ; making magnificent estates, building mansions, furnishing them with the splendor of the times; so eager in patriotism as to be the first to shed their blood on the altar of their country's liberty. All this they did with no other hope of reward than a slave's cabin and a life of bondage for themselves and children. Scarcely have they ever sought revenge in riot and bloodshed. Stolen from a home of savage freedom, they found themselves in straitened circumstances as slaves in America, but the greatness of the Negro's nature crops out plainly 1. Proprietor of Black's Hotel, Evansville. Ind. 2. Successful Stove Repairer, Decatur, 111. 3. Cigar Manufacturer, Philadelphia. 4. Restaurateur and Caterer, Decatur, 111. 5. Prominent Business Man. 194 PROGRESS OF A RACK. selfish interest to the slave as his property somewhat modified the venom that might have more often visited itself upon the unfortunate slave in lashes and stripes. Many Affections and Friendships formed between master and slave exist to the present day. Some slaves are still at the old homestead, conditions entirely reversed, voting differently at the polls, but friends at home ; and in death the family of one follows that of the other to the grave. When the War Ended the whole South was in an unsettled condition, property destroyed, thousands of her sons dead on the battlefield, no credit, conquered. But if the condition of the whites was bad, that of the blacks was worse. They were without homes, money, or learning. They were now to feed, clothe and pro- tect themselves in a government whose treasury they had enriched with two and a half centuries of unre- quited labor, and a country whose laws they must obey but could not read. It Was Natural that they should make mistakes. But they made less mistakes than the bummers who came south for plunder during reconstruction times, and with the false promise of "forty acres and a mule, " led the unlettered race into a season of idleness and vain hopes. But this condition did not last. The Negro inherited the ability to work from the institu- tion of slavery. He soon set about to utilize this ability. I ask, what race could have done more. And this the Negro has done, though virtually ostracised from the avenues of trade and speculation. His admis- sion to a trades union is the exception rather than the rule in America. A colored boy taking a place as a porter in a store at the same time with a white boy, may find the white boy soon promoted to a clerkship, MORAL AND SOCIAL ADVANCEMENT. 195 then to a partnership in the firm, if he is smart ; but the colored boy remains, year after year, where he first commenced, no matter how worthy, no matter how competent. His lot is that of a menial; custom assigns him there, and in looking for clerks and part- ners he is not thought of by the white business man;- and thus, by the rigid laws of custom, he has continu- ally lost golden opportunities to forge his fortune ; yet he has prospered in spite of this, and it bespeaks for him a superior manhood." Best Specimens of Physical Manhood. Under the influence of civilized customs and habits, they have improved in form and feature, until they have become strong, well proportioned, and can furnish some of the finest specimens of physical manhood in the world. They have improved equally in mental and moral traits. From naked barbarians they have become civ- ilized Christians. From groveling and stupid savages they have become intelligent and industrious work- men, skilled in many of the arts and all of the handi- crafts of civilized life. By this vast progress in so short a period, the Negroes have demonstrated a capacity, an aptitude for improvement, which should make us hesitate [to predict that they cannot finally ascend, under favorable conditions, to the highest heights of human development. In that event the argument based on the inferiority and the color of the Negro must vanish. Not in Color. Dr. Haygood truly says : "The Negro cannot rise simply because he is black ; the white man cannot stay up simply because he is white. A man rises, not by the color of his skin, but by intelligence, industry and integrity. The foremost man in these excellencies and virtues must, in the long run, be also the brightest man. " 196 PROGRESS OF A RACE. Remarkable Advancement. It should be remem- bered that less than thirty years ago the Negro started with less than nothing, having, as a slave, acquired habits of thriftlessness and wastefulness, unfitting him for the accumulation of property. In one generation he has managed to accumulate and pile up an aggre- gate of wealth that is simply enormous. Still in Idleness. It is true that a considerable per- centage of the race still retain their habits of idleness which characterized them as slaves. It is true that a large percentage exhibit talents for accumulation, but are content to earn from day to day the wages of the day before, trusting to providence for the future. But there is a rapidly increasing number of those who exhibit decided financial ability. Honored Mention. Starting in the most humble way, with limited intelligence and exceedingly circum- scribed knowledge in a manner in which economy is to be practiced, they have gone on from year to year accumulating a little until the savings, as represented by their property, have built churches, erected schools, paid teachers and preachers and greatly improved the home and home life. These results, coming through the humble earnings of day labor deserve honorable mention. Just Judgment. It is frequently the case that in contemplating the race as a mass it is judged by its worst representatives. This is unkind and unjust. The colored people of the South cannot justly be judged by the criminals among them, who have become con- spicuous for their evil deeds. They should rather be judged by the honest, hard-working men and women, who, beginning with nothing, in'the course of one gen- eration accumulated an amount of property that even in our magnificent wealth forms no inconspicuous portion. . Lil I i 5.11 J. 5 JtiODQ e>^y. f 1. Prominent Leader and Kindergartner in Chicago. 2. President of Woman s Conference in Chicago. 3. Leading Club Woman and High School Teacher. Kansas City. 4. A Prominent Leader in Worcester, Mass. 5 Stenographer of Garnet Transfer Co., Louisville. Ky. FANNIE BARRIER WILLIAMS CHAPTER IX. CLUB MOVEMENT AMONG NEGRO WOMEN. Written expressly for this work by Fannie Barrier Williams. The Negro Woman in the United States has had a difficult task in her efforts to earn for herself a char- acter in the social life of this country. By a sort of national common consent, she has had no place in the Republic of free and independent womanhood of America Slavery left her in social darkness, and freedom has been slow in leading her into the day- light of the virtues, the refinements and the blessed influences that center in and radiate from the life of American free women. With individual exceptions, the colored woman, as the mother of a distinctive race in America, has been unknown. She has excited neither pity nor hope. The domestic routine of her household or cabin duties seemed to be her fixed status. She has been looked upon as a being without romance, incapable of exciting any of the sweet senti- ments of femininity, any of the poetry of heart, or any of those delightful votaries that have glorified with song and chivalry the relationships of men and women. Slavery in America was debasing, but the debase- ment of the Negro woman was deeper than that of the Negro man. Slavery made her the only woman in all America for whom virtue was not an ornament and a necessity. What a terrible inheritance is this for the women of a race declared to be emancipated and equal sharers in the glories and responsibilities of the Republic! 107 198 PROGRESS OF A RACE. Did the Great Work of "reconstruction" after the war of 1860 begin here at the root of all the Negro's ills? No, "reconstruction" was mainly political and not social. It was the work of practical statesmen, in which the sociologist had no part. Through all the clamor and confusion of those stirring times, the woman, scorned, subjective and silent, was covered with a hateful obscurity. She was simply unknown and unconsidered. It is true that the Negro race as a whole was not obscure. The enthusiasm and ex- altation born of the triumphs of freedom and national unity, swept the Negro into a prominence that was simply phenomenal. The Negro unmanacled had been the dream of one half of the country during many years of strife, and when that dream became a fact, the Nation seemed to be fairly dazed by the very magnitude of its achievements. In those great days of national exaltation over the riddance of slavery and the saving of the Union, the terms freedom, equality and citizenship were clothed with a potency that seemed capable of working miracles. Making the colored people free and equal seemed equivalent to making them equal to every task that befits men of inherited enlightenment. While the Nation was being swept along by this kind of idealism, it was easy for colored men to be elected as governors of states, as state legislators, as congressmen, as United State senators, and to secure important appointments in the diplomatic and civil service of the government. Nothing so delighted the people of this great Nation as to witness this wonderful transformation scene "From the plantation to the halls of Congress." The Nation was so proud of itself that thousands of colored men worthily and unworthily occupied the front of CLUB MOVEMENT AMONG NEGRO WOMEN. 199 the stage. These prominent Negroes filled the public eye. Of course such coinmon-place things as home- making, family establishment, industrial and social in- dependence and the many social economies and refine- ments that make for race-character were not thought of. It seemed to be taken for granted that a people who could produce statesmen so quickly must have all those minor virtues and equipments that in other pro- gressive races are the basis of human greatness. The Negro as a Social Factor. It took the people of this country a long time to learn and understand that the Negro as a social factor, as a home-maker, as an equal participator in all the civil rights and privi- leges and responsibilities, as a contributor to the vir- tues and vices of the Nation, was more important than the Negro as a mere voter and office seeker. It took the colored people a long time to realize that to be a citizen of the United States was serious business, and that a seat in Congress was an insecure prominence unless supported by good women, noble mothers, family integrity and pure homes. It was not until the Negro race began to have some consciousness of these primary things, that the women of the race be- came objects of interest and study. It must not be understood that during all of this period of the colored man's political ascendency and the colored woman's social obscurity that she was altogether unprogressive. In spite of some of the unspeakable demoralizations of slavery, the woman- hood of the race was marked by many of the virtues, mental and social, that are characteristic of the women of all races who are capable of a high state of development. 200 PROGRESS OF A RACE. Not a Cheap Set of Women. One of the curious, but creditable things for which the Negro race has been given but slight praise is that emancipation found thousands of colored women, both North and South, who could read and write, and who were guided and governed by womanly instincts and womanly principles. They were not a cheap set of women in the sense that their souls were dulled and uncultured. The fact is that the Negro woman in America has always been one of the most persistent of students. Though the laws and customs in the southern half of the country made it a crime to teach the Negro to read and write, and though race hatred and mob violence rendered it perilous for any colored person to seek an education, yet in the northern half thousands of colored women were educated. There were thousands of colored women in the South who could not read and write, but they had an enlightenment of heart and mind that meant some- times more than a knowledge of the three "R's." The noble mother of Frederick Douglass was an in- teresting type of thousands of women who came out of slavery pure, strong and capable of the best things of which the best of women are capable. In the Northern States before the war hundreds of colored women secured their education in secret schools. The colored people living in the free states cried out for learning, and the colored young women were the ones most benefited. Such persecuted schools as the famous Canterbury Seminary, taught by Prudence Crandall in Canterbury, Connecticut, trained many of the young women who afterwards became pioneers in the larger and freer work of education of colored youth. Nearly every woman thus educated CLUB MOVEMENT AMONG NEGRO WOMEN. 201 dedicated herself to the work of teaching. To these women the colored race is almost wholly indebted for the general intelligence that was found among the colored people of the North and that enabled them to be leaders in the early days of freedom. The colored women who laid the foundation of Negro intelligence in the Northern states form an interesting group. Among those deserving of more than a mere mention are Mrs. Fannie Jackson Coppin of Phila- delphia, Blanche V. H. Brooks, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Mrs. D. I. Hayden, Mrs. S. W. Early of Ten- nessee, Mrs. Mary A. Shadd, Maria Becraft, Mrs. Charlotte F. Grimke, Mrs. Henry H. Garnett and Miss Fannie Richards of Detroit, Michigan. The work of no group of women in America is more easily trace- able in the character and lives of good men and women than is that of these early colored educators. By common consent Mrs. Fannie Jackson Coppin ranks first in mental equipment, in natural gifts and achieve- ments among colored teachers. She was among the first colored women of this country to receive a college education, having graduated from Oberlin. She was also the first colored woman who was permitted to teach in the training school of Oberlin. From Ober- lin she went to Philadelphia, where for more than thirty years she was principal of the Institution for Colored Youth, and was the most thoroughly controlling influ- ence in moulding the lives and character of the colored people of that great city. Mrs. Coppin would be regarded as eminent in any race where superior worth and dominent influence for good are recognized and properly rewarded. Mrs. Frances Eilea Watkias Harper's life and influ- 202 PROGRESS OF A RACE. ence are a part of the permanent good for which the Negro stands in this country. As teacher, lecturer and writer of story and verse, she was in her earlier life more than a promise of the Dunbars, the Campbells and Chestnuts of a later generation. Along with these women was Charlotte Forten Grimke, representing two family names well known in American history. Unlike Mrs. Coppin and Mrs. Harper, Mrs. Grimke was not a public woman in its strictest sense; hers was a gentle and unobtrusive spirit. She was one of the early teachers in the great missionary work of fitting a new race for high tasks. Her fine poetic and artistic taste, her exceptional gift as a writer brought her into a congenial fellowship with some of the most eminent literary men and women of our times. A more refined and unaffected character, a more thoroughly cultured woman can scarcely be found among those who helped to give character and grace to womanhood of the colored race in America. The Howards, the Reasons, the Ray Sisters of New York and of a later generation can be safely classed among those who have helped to make the history, which marks the intellectual growth of the Negro race during the past twenty-five years. White Women. It is but justice also to acknowl- edge that hundreds of educated, refined and thor- oughly white-souled white women cheerfully left home and all the delights of life in the North and went South to ostracism and contempt with hearts and hands full of humane helpfulness. They penetrated and illumined regions of darkness untouched and unfelt by the amendments and statutes of liberty, in CLUB MOVEMENT AMONG NEGRO WOMEN. 203 order to share in the work of redemption in which colored women were distinguishing themselves. The progress of colored women as teachers and leaders in education may be fairly judged from the fact that about twenty- five thousand colored women are now engaged as teachers in the colored schools and colleges of the country. A large number of this genera- tion of teachers have been trained in some of the best universities of the country and they teach every- thing required from the kindergarten to the university. The Capacity of the Negro. The progress of colored women as teachers and students, ought to be a conclusive answer to those who question the capacity of the Negro race for the highest development. It ought not to be surprising that the women who have so diligently prepared themselves by education and service should now be able to take hold of the great social problems which require for their solution the intelligence, courage, race pride and the force of initiative such as have characterized the work of colored women as the educators of a race. Organization. The organization of the colored women of the country into clubs, leagues and associa- tions for the moral uplift of their race is a dis- tinctive forward movement, and it is wonderfully significant of the long distance traveled in thirty years. The Negro woman's club of to-day represents the new Negro with new powers of self-help, with new capacities, and with an intelligent insight into her own condition. It represents new interests, new anxieties and new hopes. It means becter schools, better homes and better family alignments, better opportunities for young colored men and women to earn a living, and purer social relationships. 204 PROGRESS OF A RACE. These are some of the things that have been made im- portant and interesting to all of the people by the women's clubs. The Call for Club Work. The causes for this new movement among colored women are not difficult to find. As before stated, the gradual decadence of the Negro as a political power in the South, has tended to force the race back upon itself, and to give to it the services of men whose superior intelligence found no outlet in politics. The studies and efforts of such men as DuBois, Washington and other Negro philoso- phers made the subjects in which women are chiefly concerned of commanding interest. Heretofore it seemed to be taken for granted that tke schoolhouse would take care of itself, that the morals of the people, and home sanctities would grow out of the influence of the church alone, but women have dis- covered that all the agencies of civilization need to be safe-guarded and supplemented by the organized intelligence of the people. Women Deserve the Praise. While the colored men of the last decade have done much to give the race a consciousness of its own shortcomings, the colored women's club as a reformatory movement is wholly the creation of women. To them must be accredited the moral sense and the mental insight that enabled them to discover their own social disorders and imper- fections and to suggest their remedies. In other words, they did not need to be told what was to be done or what to do. It was not the preacher who created in them an anxiety for a better home environment for themselves and their children. The conscience-call for kindergartens, day nurseries, reading rooms, etc., was not man-made. The white women's clubs, as large, CLUB MOVEMENT AMONG NEGRO WOMEN. 205 numerous and generous as they sometimes are, sent no missionaries among their darker sisters to show them the way out of social darkness and despair. On the contrary the colored women began their club work in the same independent spirit with which they have taught themselves, and then began to teach others, even in the dark days before they became free. Without demonstration, or flourish of trumpets, the colored women began a more or less systematic study of social conditions. First Clubs Organized. Many clubs were organized for this purpose as early as in 1890. Between 1890 and 1895 many clubs were organized in the principal cities of the country, where the Negro population was large enough. Among the best known clubs of this period were the Ellen Watkins Harper Club of Jeffer- son City, Missouri, The Loyal Union of Brooklyn, The Ida B. Wells Club of Chicago, The Phyllis Wheatley Club of New Orleans, The Sojourner Truth of Provi- dence, Rhode Island, The Woman's Era Club of Boston, and The Woman's League of Washington, D. C. An examination of the constitution and by-laws of these first organizations among colored women, shows a degree of earnestness and freedom from affectation and pretense that is very refreshing, and speaks much for the strong character of the workers. Temperance, mothers' meetings, sewing schools, rescue agencies, night schools, home sanitation and lectures on all sub- jects of social interest were some of the many things attempted and carried on by these clubs. These clubs made themselves felt for good in their respective com- munities. In some places these groups of women con- stituted the only organized force among the colored people for any purpose, and they are recognized as 206 PROGRESS OF A RACE. such in every instance where the organized voice of the colored people is needed. The Best Women Interested. The clubs during this period were in no way affiliated. They were purely a creation for local needs and had no other pur- pose than the betterment of their own communities. As a general rule those who, in the proper sense, may be called the best women in the communities where these clubs were organized, became interested and joined in the work of helpfulness. It is perhaps the first instance of the women of culture, social standing and independence availing themselves of the oppor- tunity to make use of their superior training. The charge that the colored women of education and refinement had no sympathetic interest in their own race met a complete refutation in the zealous and unselfish service rendered the club movement by these very women. Clubs Deserving Special Mention. Among the earlier clubs, special mention should be made of The Phyllis Wheatley Club of New Orleans, Louisiana, The Woman's League of Washington, D. C., and The Woman's Era Club of Boston, Massachusetts. They have furnished the models for all the successful clubs that have followed them. The Phyllis Wheatley Club is one of the best equipped clubs in the South, both as to the quality of its membership and the work accomplished. It has fostered and developed more interests that have affected helpfully the social life of the people, than any other club in the South. Among other suc- cessful undertakings, it has founded and sustained a training class for colored nurses, and largely assisted in the support of a colored orphans' home. CLUB MOVEMENT AMONG NEGRO WOMEN. 207 Its president, Mrs. Sylvanie Williams, is a fine ex- ample of the resourcefulness and noble influence that a cultivated woman can and will give to the uplift of her race. The Woman's League, Washington, D. 0., The Woman's League of Washington, D. C., has per- haps the largest membership of any club in the coun- try. It has the advantage of being largely composed of the teachers of the district, and there is no lack of the right sort of intelligence and interest to make it one of the best agencies of social improvement to be found at the capital. Mrs. Helen Cook has been the president since its organization, and she has been assisted by such well- known women as Mrs. Anna J. Cooper, Mrs. J. H. Smythe, Miss Ella D. Barrier, the efficient secretary, Mrs. Ida Bailey, Mrs. John R. Frances, Mrs. C. F. Grimke, Miss Victoria Thompkins, and many other ladies equally well known. ' The club has been in existence about twelve years, and during that time it has regularly conducted and carried on kindergartens, sewing schools, day nurseries, night schools, and penny saving banks right among the people who need this kind of service, as well as the example and sympathy of superior women. As a woman of culture, refinement and financial independence, Mrs. John F. Cook has been, and is, a noted example and inspiration to women of her own social standing, in the serious work of social reform. The Woman's Era Club of Boston, Massachusetts. The Woman's Era Club of Boston, Massachusetts, is probably the best known club in the country. It was organized in February, 1893, an ^ nas about 200 mem- bers. It has a larger membership than any other club 08 PROGRESS OF A in the country, except perhaps the League of Washing- ton. The personelle of its members represents a larger number of educated and refined women than prob- ably any other club that could be mentioned. The president, Mrs. Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, is of an unusually strong and interesting personality. She is also one of the best known club women in New England and is an influencial member of many of the leading clubs in Massachusetts. Mrs. Ruffin's mental training, leisure and aggressive nature amply qualify her for leadership. She has probably had more news- paper notice for her bold stand for the equal rights of women than any other colored woman in the country. The Era Club is the most influential organization of colored people in New England. It embraces in its purposes and plans many of the best features of club work. The most distinctive work of the new club was the publication for several years of a monthly journal called The New Era. This paper is the first publica- tion ever successfully managed and published solely by colored women. Among its contributors were some of the brightest colored women of America. It had a wide circulation and did much to arouse the col- ored women of the country to the necessity of united effort. The Development of the Club Movement, The next step in the development of the club movement among colored women was the formation of a National Associa- tion of colored women's clubs. The Woman's League of Washington and the Woman's Era Club of Boston began the agitation for the affiliation of the clubs some time before its actual accomplishment, for which great credit is due them. 1. Honorary President of National Association. 2. Physical Culture Teacher in Washington. 3. President of St. Louis Woman s Club, and Kindergartner. 4. Prominent Club Woman and Educator. 5 President of a Practical New Orleans Woman's CI ib 1. Principal of Normal Dept. Florida Baptist College, Jacksonville. 2. Leadei of Her Race, Jacksonville, Fla. 3. Graduate Nurse, Provident Hospital, Chicago. 4. Public Stenographer, Chicago 5. A Successful Business Woman. St Louis. CLUB MOVEMENT AMONG NEGRO WOMEN. 20& In the spring of 1895, the colored women of the country became justly excited over a scurrilous article appearing in a Missouri paper in which the colored women of the country were written down in the most libelous manner. The widespread feeling aroused by this cowardly attack resulted in the call for a National Conference issued by the Woman's Era Club of Boston, and was composed of delegates from all regularly organized colored women's clubs in the country. The Conference was held in Berkeley Hall, Boston, Massachusetts, from the 29th to the 3ist of July inclusive. About one hundred women repre- senting twenty-five clubs from ten different states com- posed the Conference. Among them were such women as Mrs. J. St. P. Ruffin, Miss Maria Baldwin, Mrs. Ridley, Mrs. Dick- erson, Miss Imogen Howard, Mrs. Helen Cook of Washington, Mrs. Anna G. Cooper and Miss Ella D. Barrier who responded to the call. The Conference attracted wide attention because it was the first of the kind ever held in this country, and because it was highly representative of the best intelligence of the women of the colored race. The important work of the Conference was the organization of the National Association of colored women. The women quickly found that their power for good would be greatly increased by uniting their forces The first officers of the new Association, elected without contest or confusion, were as follows: President, Mrs. Booker T. Washington, Tuskegee, Alabama; Secretary, Mrs. U. A. Ridley, Brooklyn, Massachusetts; Treasurer, Mrs. Libbie C. Anthony, Jefferson City, Missouri ; Chairman Executive Commit- tee, Mrs. Victoria E. Matthews. 14 Progress 210 PROGRESS OF A RACE. The organization of the National Association in- spired new life in club work throughout the country. It gave an importance to the club work of colored women, and brought into public discussion social ques- tions concerning the development of the race which had heretofore been neglected. Growth of the Association. The power of the Association has grown from a few scattered and un- affiliated clubs throughout the country to an associa- tion of 400 clubs with a membership of from 50 to 200 each. It is estimated that from 150,000 to 200,000 women are being influenced for good more or less through the activity of these clubs, and hundreds of poor Negro homes have felt the cleansing and refining touch of the home department of these various clubs. The National Association of colored clubs has held four large National Conventions as follows: Washing- ton, D. C., in 1896; Nashville, Tennessee, in 189 7; Chicago, Illinois, in 1899, and Buffalo in 1901. The following women have served as presidents of the National Association : Mrs. Booker T. Washington, Mrs. Mary Church Terrell for three terms and Mrs. Silome Yates. Club List of the National Association of Colored Women. ALABAMA. Eufala Woman's Club. Greensboro Woman's Mutual Benefit Club. Montgomery Sojourner Truth Club. Mt. Meigs Woman's Club. Tuskegee Woman's Club. Tuskegee-Notasulga Woman's Club. Birmingham Sojourner Truth Club. CLUB MOVEMENT AMONG NEGRO WOMEN. 211 Ladies' Auxiliary, Montgomery. Ten Times One, Montgomery. ARKANSAS. Little Rock Branch of National Association. Woman's Club, Little Rock. CALIFORNIA. Los Angeles Woman's Club. NORTH CAROLINA. Biddle University Club SOUTH CAROLINA. Charleston Woman's League. Charleston W. C. T. U. COLORADO. The Woman's League, Denver. CONNECTICUT. Rose of New England League, Norwich. FLORIDA. Jacksonville Woman's Christian Industrial and Protec- tive Union. The Phyllis Wheatley Chautauqua Circle, Jacksonville. The Afro-American Woman's League, Jacksonville. GEORGIA. Atlanta's Woman's Club. Harriet Beecher Stowe, Macon. Columbus, Douglass Reading Circle. Augusta, Woman's Protective Club. Woman's Club of Athens. INDIANA. The Booker T. Washington Club, Logansport. 212 PROGRESS OF A RACE. ILLINOIS. Chicago Ida B. Wells Club. Chicago Phyllis Wheatley Club. Chicago Woman's Civic League. Chicago Woman's Conference. Chicago Wayman Circle. Chicago Progressive Circle of King's Daughters. Chicago Hyde Park Woman's Club. Chicago North Side Woman's Club. Peoria Woman"' s Club. KANSAS. Sierra Leone Club. Woman's Club, Paola. KENTUCKY. Louisville Woman's Improvement Club. Echstein Daisy Club, Cane Springs. LOUISIANA. Phyllis Wheatley Club, New Orleans. MASSACHUSETTS. Woman's Era Club, Boston. Lend-a-Hand Club, Boston. Female Benevolent Firm, Boston. E. M. Thomas League. Cavalry Circle, Boston. Woman's Loyal Union, New Bedford. Woman's Protective League, Salem. Golden Rule Club, Cambridge. B. T. Tanner Club, Chelsea. St. Pierre Ruffin Club, New Bedford. MINNESOTA. Ada Sweet Pioneer Club, Minneapolis. CLU1 MOVEMENT AMONG NEGRO WOMBN. Twin City Woman's Era Club, Minneapolis and St. Paul. Woman's Loyal Union and John Brown Industrial Club. MISSOURI. Jefferson City Woman's Club. F. E. W. Harper League, St. Louis. F. E. W. H. League, St. Joseph. St. Louis Suffrage Club. St. Louis Phyllis Wheatley Club. St. Louis Woman's Club. St. Louis Married Ladies' Thimble Club. Kansas City Club. Self-Improvement Club, St. Louis. MICHIGAN. The Detroit Willing Workers. Detroit Phyllis Wheatley Club. The Booker T. Washington Club, Lima. Gramd Rapids Married Ladies' igth Century Club. The Sojourner Truth Improvement Club, Battle Creek. The Woman's Federation Club, Ann Arbor. NEW YORK. New York and Brooklyn, Woman's Loyal Union Buffalo Woman's Club. Harlem Woman's Sympathetic Union. Rochester Woman's Club. N. Y. aad Brooklyn W. A. A. U. NEBRASKA. Omaha Woaaan's Club. Woman's Improvement Club. PENNSYLVANIA. Pittsburgh and Allegheny F, E. W. H. League. 214 PROGRESS OF A RACK. Woman's Loyal Union, Pittsburg. Washington Young Woman's Twentieth Century Club. OHIO. Toledo Woman's Club. A. M. E., Columbus. RHODE ISLAND. Newport Woman's League. Providence Working Woman's League. Lucy Thurman W. C. T. U., St. Paul. The Dunbar Reading Circle, Cleveland. TENNESSEE. Knoxville, Woman's Mutual Improvement Club. Memphis, Coterie Migratory Assembly. Memphis, Hook's School Association. Phyllis Wheatley, Nashville. Jackson Woman's Club. Jackson W. C. T. U. TEXAS. Fort Worth Phyllis Wheatley Club. VIRGINIA. Woman's League of Roanoke. Richmond Woman's League. Cappahoosic Gloucester A and L School. Urbana Club. Lynchburg Woman's League. Lexington Woman's Club. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. Washington, D. C., Ladies' Auxiliary Committee. Washington, D. C., Lucy Thurman W. C. T. U. Woman's Protective Union, Washington, D. C. WEST VIRGINIA. Wheeling Woman's Fortnightly Club, CLUB MOVEMENT AMONG NEGRO WOMEN. 215 The Influence of the National Conventions. The four national gatherings of the representatives of colored women's clubs have excited more public inter- est and newspaper comments and discussions of the social status of the colored race in this country than any conventions held by the colored people since the close of the war. The intelligent reports of committees on reformatory work attempted and accomplished have helped to bring into public notice the real needs of enlightenment among the masses of the race and have developed altogether new agencies for carrying out these reforms. To the people who have known the Negro only as a menial it has been a delightful surprise to witness so many women accomplished and graceful in all the manners, capabilities and charms of personality that characterize the best women of the more favored races. The public has not yet ceased to wonder at these bien- nial exhibitions of the progress made by colored women throughout the country, and the opportunities offered to a large number of superior women who have not yet attached themselves to the work of the National Association. The only danger to the future usefulness of the National Association are the weaknesses that are common to most women's organizations, and the tendency to imitate men in their political organ- izations where strife for place and honor too often obscure the noble purposes and urgent needs of the work in hand, and also the purely womanly pecu- liarities of emphasizing the petty things that make for envy, jealousy and personal vanities. Unless the association can be sufficiently animated and inspired by the largeness of its opportunity and the dignity of its calling to saye itself from the tendencies above 216 PROGRESS OF A RACE. enumerated, it will be in danger of losing the co-opera- tion of the women who are capable of everything except bickerings and small personalities. It must not be lost sight of that this great Asso- ciation has helped to nationalize those vital interests that touch the whole social fabric of the colored race. Whether the National Association shall live or not, to carry out its pledges to itself and to the people, the interest that it has awakened in the great problems which concern the social uplift of the race must re- main a part of the anxieties and responsibilities of the men and women who are striving in church and school and other agencies of reform to give a standard of character to the Negro race. The Attitude of White Women's Clubs. The attitude of the white women's clubs toward the col- ored woman, as a clubwoman, has furnished one of the most interesting and stirring features in the history of the club movement. While many colored women in the Northern states have been welcomed as mem- bers to white women's clubs as individuals, the ques- tion of their admission in some instances has given rise to some of the fiercest controversies over the colored question that have been witnessed in this country for many years. Two Incidents Noted. There have been two inci- dents in this connection that are illustrative of the extent of the interest aroused. First. The admission of a colored woman into the Chicago Woman's Club. Second. The refusal of the National -Federation -of Women's Clubs at its biennial meeting in Milwaukee in 1900, to receive the credentials of Mrs. Josephine St. P Ruffin representing the Woman's Era Club of Bostoa, CLUB MOVEMENT AMONG NEGRO WOMEN. 217 The first incident gave rise to a color controversy that lasted fourteen months. In the fall of 1894 Mrs. Ellen Henroten, late president of the National Fed- eration, Mrs. Celia Parker Wooley, author and lecturer, and Mrs. Grace Bagley, a prominent club woman of Chicago, presented the name of Mrs. Fannie Barrier Williams of Chicago, with their endorsement, for mem- bership in the Chicago Woman's Club. The name was presented in the same way that other women's names are presented and with no thought of exciting opposition or discussion. The Chicago Woman's Club has a membership of about 800 women. In its personality it fairly repre- sents the wealth and culture of the women of Chicago. Every applicant for membership is rigidly scrutinized and investigated to determine her mental and moral fitness for this exclusive fellowship. The club motto is Humam Nihil Alienum Puto ("Nothing Human is Foreign to Me"). The loyalty of the members of the Chicago Woman's Club to this motto had never been questioned before. When, however, this great club came to know the color of this new applicant, there was a startling cry that seemed to have no bounds. Scarcely has a question of such small significance in itself assumed such a national range of interest and controversy. There was scarcely a publication of any kind in the country that did not enter into a discussion of the rights and wrongs, the justice and the injustice, and the dangers real and imaginary over the simple question of admission to the club of a person who admittedly came within the meaning of the club's motto. The Women's Clubs everywhere took up the matter and discussed the question, had lectures upon it, wrote essays on it, and some of them went so far, 218 PROGRESS OF A RACE. by way of testing their own feelings, as to vote upon the question of admitting the Chicago colored appli- cant as an honorary member. The whole anti-slavery question was fought over again in the same spirit and with the same arguments. This simple question was the old bugbear of social equality. After fourteen months' agitation and heart-aches and hysteria, the common sense of the members tri- umphed over their prejudices. The colored applicant stood the test of the club's law of eligibility, which was declared to be "Character, intelligence and the reciprocal advantages to the club and the individual, without regard to race, color, religion or politics. " The most gratifying thing about this long-drawn-out and exciting contest is that fully nine-tenths of the most influential publications in the United States, without regard to politics, were in favor of the colored applicant, and insisted upon high grounds in settling all similar controversies. Certain it is that no more interesting contribution to the literature of the color question in this country can be found than that growing out of this discussion. It is also gratifying to note that none of the fears insisted upon by those opposed to the admission of the colored applicant have been realized, but on the contrary the club has steadily grown in interest, mem- bership and influence. The Ruffin Incident. The "Ruffin incident," as it has been aptly called, furnishes the second national controversy over the color question growing out of the attitude of the white women's club toward the colored woman as a club member. The meaning of the "Ruffin incident" is the refusal of the National Federation of Women's Clubs at their biennial meet- CLUB MOVEMENT AMONG NEGRO WOMEN. 219 ing at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to admit to its mem- bership any club composed exclusively of colored women. This as an issue was brought out by Mrs. Ruffin's loyalty to the Woman's Era Club, of which she was president and from which she was sent with proper credentials as a delegate. There is such a widespread misapprehension of the facts, and so little has been published that can be relied upon as authentic, that the following carefully prepared official statement of the entire controversy has been secured from the Woman's Era Club to be used in this chapter. We think it will be of historical value in the future discussion of this question. Official Statement from .the Woman's Era Club of Boston, Massachusetts. The following is a con- densed statement of the Woman s Era Club (colored) of Boston, concerning the "Ruffin incident," referred to above: The Milwaukee episode has made the Era Club of Boston a target of criticism, friendly and unfriendly, of 2,500 women's clubs, and through them of 150,000 women. For this reason the club feels itself justified in making this general statement: "It is urged by critics: "First. The Massachusetts and the Woman's Era Club are to be condemned for attempting to force the color question upon the Biennial, when least prepared for it. "Second. That the action of the President of the Federation, Mrs. Lowe, in admitting the Woman's Era Club was not ratified by the Board, therefore the Board's action in excluding Mrs. Rufnn was per- fectly legal. "Third. That Mrs. Rtiffin should have accepted a compromise should have been willing to forego the 220 PROGRESS OF A RACE. privilege of representing the club of which she was president and enter the convention as a delegate from Massachusetts, which privilege was offered her. '"'Fourth. That colored women should confine them- selves to their clubs and the large field of work open to them there. We think it best to answer these points by a brief statement of the career of our club and the events immediately leading to its entrance into the general federation. * * * * * j n allying itself with the general movement for women, the club has sought to elevate itself by taking advantage of every oppor- tunity possible to help or to be helped. It sought to spread the club movement among colored women, and to that end, called together in Boston the first convention of colored women ever held in America, the convention which ultimately resulted in the National Federation of Colored Women's Clubs. * * "We became a member of the Massachusetts State Federation, and no club in that body had a deeper pride in it and the women it represents than we. Our association with Massachusetts club women had been such that the possibility of color discrimination had been lost sight of. Our delegates had been received at meetings, receptions, and conventions with that courtesy invariably extended by ladies toward all with whom they come in contact; nothing less was ex- pected; certainly nothing less was received. "With this explanation it can be readily understood that when invited to join the General Federation, the Woman's Era Club accepted the honor in all sincerity, as free from any thought of forcing an issue, as was doubtless the true-hearted Mrs. Anna D. West, state CLUB MOVEMENT AMONG NEGRO WOMEN. 221 chairman of correspondence for Massachusetts, who gave us the invitation. "The club went through the prescribed form in making its application for membership in the General Federation. ***** A reply was immediatly received from Mrs. Lowe, in which she said : ATLANTA, GA., April 30, 1900. " 'Dear Madam President: I hope you have by this time received your certificate of membership in the General Federation. It is with great pride that I write to extend to your club my congratulations, and at the same time to assure them of my desire to be helpful to them in any way possible. ***** Extend to your club greetings from me, and tell them to call upon me for all that they need and to send me all they can spare for encouraging and strengthening the union of our work. Believe me, Fraternally yours, REBECCA D. LOWE.' "The dues were forwarded, a receipt and certificate of membership were received and a ratification of the action of the president, Mrs. Lowe, was received by Mrs. West, dated May 14, 1900, as follows: " 4 It gives me great pleasure to inform you that the application of the Woman's Era Club for membership in the General Federation has been accepted by the Executive Committee. Congratulating you on the success of your work, I am Sincerely yours, MINNIE M. KENDRICK, Corresponding Secretary, General Federation.' "Acting upon this situation, the Woman's Era Club sent Mrs. Ruffin as its delegate to the biennial conven- tion held at Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She was also elected a delegate by the Massachusetts State Federa- 222 PROGRESS OF A RACE. tion, and also an alternate from the N. E. W. Press Association. "Upon arriving at Milwaukee, Mrs. Ruffin was forced into a humiliating position for which she was wholly unprepared. The Massachusetts delegation was im- mediately notified that the Board had met and would not receive an application for membership of the Woman's Era Club. Mrs. Ruffin was informed that she could not enter the convention representing a 'colored club' but would be received as a delegate from a 'white club,' and to enforce this ruling an attempt was made to snatch from her breast the badge which had been handed her on the passing of her credentials. "Mrs. Ruffin refused to enter the convention under the conditions offered her, that is, as a delegate from the Massachusetts State Federation, for which she was also a delegate. * * * "The General Federation of Women's Clubs has no color line in its constitution; there is nothing in its constitution, in its oft-published statement of ideas and aims, in its supposed advanced position upon humanitarian questions to lead any club, with like aims and views," to imagine itself ineligible for mem- bership. "The Woman's Era Club having been regularly admitted, no legal or moral ground can possibly be found upon which it could be ruthlessly thrown out at the pleasure of a few individuals. "As a member of the Massachusetts State Federation, the Woman's Era Club is still a member of the Gen- eral Federation. "The question before the Board and before the country is not whether colored clubs shall be admitted to the General Federation, but whether that unwar- CLUB MOVEMENT -AMONG NEGRO WOMEN. 223 rantable action shall 'be sustained. Shall women, ask- ing for suffrage and a large participation in public life, endorse a ruling which, as a specimen of bossism, could not be overmatched by the lowest political gathering in the country ? ****** "The Woman's Era Club believes it voices the senti- ments of the colored women of the country when it says it is perfectly willing to abide the decision of the majority as to whether or not there shall be color discrimination in the General Federation. We, as members of the club, will, however, regret to see the standard lowered, the higher ideals repudiated, the power of the club work diminished, by any declaration that it is the cause of white women for which it stands, and not the cause of womankind. 4 'Whatever may be the result of the deliberations of the General Federation upon the question of the color line, the decision should be explicit and final, so that in the future there may be no possibility of the trampling upon the feelings and aspirations of those they consider beneath them. "The wearers of the despised * color/ many millions strong, cannot annihilate or eliminate themselves; they are forced, in the passing of the years, to touch the larger life of the Nation at many points; but should this touch be deemed undesirable by those with the greater power, it is only human that the weaker side should be allowed to protect itself." * * * * * * The whole country was aroused over this Milwaukee incident. As in the case cited, the newspapers of the country made much of the case and were generally on the side of the strong and womanly stand taken by 224 PROGRESS OF A RACE. Mrs. Ruffin. The individual clubs composing the Federation have been preparing themselves to meet the issue to at the next biennial meeting. The women composing the delegates to the Federation went home to their respective clubs with hearts burdened with this vexatious color-line question. In reporting to their clubs, there were embodied recommendations as to what should be the attitude of their clubs in the next biennial. As a result many of the clubs have already committed themselves as a protest against a fixed policy of narrowness and exclusion. Protest of White Clubs. Among the first clubs to take a decided stand against such injustice was the Catholic Woman's League of Chicago, which was the first to register a decided protest against the treatment of the Woman's Era Club. It is notable that the Catholic women's clubs throughout the country are uncompromising in their stand for an equality of opportunity. The Chicago Women's Club again fought out this question against fierce opposition from some of its members, but under the leadership of its best women, including many cultured women of Southern birth and with the assistance of their one colored member, they once more triumphed over their prejudices. These discussions in many clubs are creating much bitterness, and there are heard on every side threats of the withdrawal of Southern clubs, and some North- ern clubs that sympathize with the Southern woman. It is also curious to observe how slight has been the advance in thought and argument over the same arguments of ante-bellum days. The women are still haunted by the old phantoms "Do you want your daughter to marry a Negro?" "Do you want social 1. Recording Secretary National Association, Nashville. Tenn. 2. Vice President of National Association. Washington. D. C. 3. President of Woman's Club. Athens, Ga. 4. Editor of "Woman's Era," and a recognized leader 6. National Organizer of Woman's Club, Chicago. 1. Teacher; also Secretary of Woman's Club in Washington. D C. 2. Charming Creole Teacher in New Orleans. 3. Director of Music in Washington Public Schools. 4. President of National Association; also Teacher in Kansas City. 5. Kindergarten Teacher in St. Louis. CLUB MOVEMENT AMONG NEGRO WOMEN. 225 equality?" "White supremacy?" These are all used in the same manner and with the same assurances of effectiveness as they were fifty years ago against the abolitionists. It is the same old fight of light against darkness and progress against caste. Prejudice resists all that tends to soften the heart and enlighten the mind. It defies logic. It has no part with charity ; humanity is not its shibboleth. It ever gropes in the dark and takes no pride in the onward sweep of the great forces of love and sympathy that inevitably blend into the controlling sentiment of the brotherhood of man. The colored women of the country have borne the burden of more misery than has ever been imposed upon womankind by a Christian nation. She knows herself and asks for the assistance and encouragement of those who are more or less responsible for this bur- den. Yet there are thousands of free strong women in this country who would refuse her appeal Friends of the Colored Woman. There is, how- ever, a brighter side to this question. The women who are committed to a more liberal view on the ad- mission of colored clubs to the National Federation are equally tenacious of their position. They insist the great Federation shall not commit itself to any policy of exclusion, by which the deserving woman of any race or color shall be kept from its benefits and inspirations. There are thousands of such women, and they prefer that the Federation should go to pieces and cease to be rather than to make vital in their work the prejudices and principles of fifty years ago. They believe in Ter- rence's motto as above quoted. They believe that the white women of the country should not be unwilling to aid in every way colored women who are struggling 15 Progress 226 PROGRESS OF A RACE. to work out their own salvation. They are not dis- turbed by the cry of social equality. They stand for progress and for the broadest sympathy and for woman- kind. This seems to be the sentiment of the majority of the noble women in the country, and they have no doubt of saving the Federation from committing itself to the meaner policy of exclusion. The Attitude of Colored Women in the Contro- versy. The colored women have kept themselves serene while this color-line controversy has been rag- ing around them. They have taken a keen and intelli- gent interest in all that has been said for and against them, but through it all they have lost neither their patience nor their hope in the ultimate triumph of right principles. The Federation has never been troubled by many applicants from colored clubs. Some influential col- ored women even go so far as to believe that little is to be gained as to clubs, by exposing themselves to the humiliation of being rejected. Then again there is the serious danger of being misrepresented by some ambitious or self-seeking women who would bring dis- credit to the claims of colored women's clubs. The case of the Woman's Era Club is rather the exception. It sought membership in the Federation because that was the logical and proper thing for it to do. In the first place it is a New England club, composed in in the main of superior women, who personally, and through their club had affiliated with the best white clubs of New England. Its president, Mrs. Ruffin, is an honored member of many of the clubs composing the Federation. It was solely a question of loyalty to the larger interests of the federated club work in the country that induced the Era Club to lend its forces to CLUB MOVEMENT AMONG NEGRO WOMEN. 227 strengthening and supporting the more inclusive work of the Federation. Then again by its very aims, pur- poses and doctrines as declared, the Federation extends an invitation to all qualified organizations of woman- kind, without hint as to color, race or previous condition. It is really surprising that more of the colored clubs have not sought the inspiration, instruction and help that are so freely offered by the Federation to all clubs. The fact that so few clubs have applied for admission shows how groundless are their fears that the Federa- tion is in danger of being "Africanized." As before stated, there are many clubs in Northern communities in which may be found colored members. Many prominent white clubs have extended cordial invitations to prominent colored women to address them on all questions of peculiar interest to women. In fact, as between individual clubs, there has been an increase of cordiality and reciprocal advantages in this interchange of service. Many colored women have been trained and schooled for leadership among their own women by the expe- riences gained in well organized white associations. How the Color-line Controversy Has Helped Col- ored Women. It can be said that colored women have gained more than they have lost by this wide- spread controversy as to their fitness for membership in white clubs. Through the justice of the press the best things among colored women and the best women have been brought into public notice to an extent that never could have been gained by other means. Thousands of people have learned things that they never knew before, and have been converted to a re- spectful consideration of the clairn^ of colored women as to their standing in a community. 228 PROGRESS OF A RACE. The public is beginning to learn and to discriminate that colored women are not all alike ; that there are so- cial differences, mental differences and character differ- ences. The public has learned how these dark-skinned women -have literally redeemed themselves by the thousands. For the first time they have learned of their versatility, their culture, their charms and their virtues. They have learned of many clever writers, many fluent speakers, many doctors, dentists, some lawyers, some linguists, some artists, some business women and thousands of teachers. All these things have certainly added to the force of public sentiment that is growing stronger day by day in favor of equal justice to the colored race. The agitation has also had the indirect effect of strengthening and improving the work of colored women themselves. Colored women have begun to learn that if they would give their clubs prestige and influence with the great association of white women, they must bring to the front and encourage their best women ; that their representatives must be represent- ative of the best they have. It should also be noted that there has been a closer affiliation of white and colored clubs in the same com- munities. White women of influence have offered their services to colored women, and colored women of influence have found their way to the lecture plat- form, through which they have been able to reach the hearts of the people. Recognition of the Clubs. These women's clubs are coming more and more to be recognized as the center of the ethical activities and best influence of the community in which they live and work. The churches, schools and other institutions have CLUB MOVEMENT AMONG NEGRO WOMEN. 229 all learned to appeal to these clubs and to seek their co-operation in everything important. In other words, colored women's clubs have established for them- selves a character. They have gained the prestige that comes from things done, and done for the benefit of the people. They are always accessible to the young and old, to those who need them, and to those who need them not. Their methods are democratic and open, and their aims and purposes are always changeable to meet the requirements of their communities. In some localities the crying need is instruction to mothers and sanitary decency ; in others it is day nurseries and kindergartens; in others it is night schools for old and young, or employment agencies; protection for the young women of poor homes and no homes. In still others it is the fostering of a taste for art, for culture, for music. In other words, the colored women have, through their clubs, established for themselves a Woman's Tribune, where every question, every interest, every hope and every despair, and every need can be brought and are brought, and thus made the concern and anxiety of all. Some Frank Admissions. It is not claimed in all that has been said in behalf of colored women's clubs, either as a local or national organization, that it is entirely free from an admixture of some of the mean- nesses of our poor human nature. It is due to candor to admit that unworthy ambitions, jealousies, envies, spitefulness, piques, tale-bearing, suspicions, affecta- tions and many of the other little sins peculiar to human nature generally, and to femininity in partic- ular, have played their part in retarding the progress of the club movement. The important thing, however, to be noted is that 230 PROGRESS OF A RACE. in spite of hindrances, the women have advanced their work; have sustained the integrity of the National Association, and can to-day claim to have the most spirited, thorough and well organized National Asso- ciation among the colored people. Club Work Cannot be Exaggerated. Is it possible to exaggerate the importance of this work of the col- ored women in the country? Scarcely so, when it is understood how great is the variety of regenerating agencies needed to bring the colored people up to the standard of qualified citizenship in this country. Things to be Overcome. In America the Negro has no history, no traditions, no race ideals, no inher- ited resources, either mental, social or ethical, and no established race character. The race is coming into its own power of self respect, self help and self pride by the forces of the initiative, submission and assimila- tion. The term Negro excites only the emotion of pity or contempt or anxiety or, at best, hope. The term colored woman has been more of a reproach in this country than anything else. These are the conditions under which colored women have begun their work of social reform. Courage, patience, love and the best qualities of the human heart are all needed for those who would assume this work hopefully and successfully. Can they succeed in bringing to their race a better social status? Can they alone make for themselves a name that shall be respected; and remove from them the reproach of bonded conditions? Is the final work of making the Negro race worthy of its place in this country to be left to women? Scarcely so. The chief value of woman's work to-day as purposed and carried out in their club work is that of helping to CLUB MOVEMENT AMONG NEGRO WOMEN. 231 educate the Negro race as to its fundamental needs. The club has helped to turn the searchlight of Negro intelligence upon the darkness of Negro ignorance, of the things that make a race strong and respected. The colored race is learning for the first time the social value of the many smaller activities that women everywhere are carrying on with more or less intelligence. The Negro race is learning that these things which the women are doing come first in the lessons of citizenship; that there will never be an unchallenged vote, or a respected political power, or an unquestioned claim to positions of influence and importance, until the present social stigma is removed from the home and the women of the race. Women have suffered so much and have been so much humiliated by our Christian civilization that their zeal for vindication of themselves and their race is without bounds or possible abatement. Like old Zarca in George Eliot's "Spanish Gypsy," they are ambitious "To make their name, now but a badge of scorn, A glorious banner floating in their midst, Stirring the air they breathe with impulses Of generous pride, exalting fellowship, Until it soars to magnanimity." No race can long remain mean and cheap with aspirations such as these. Let the women be not dis- couraged. They are helping to make history for a race that has no history. They are furnishing material for the first chapter which shall some day recite the discouragements endured, the oppositions conquered, and the triumph of their faith in themselves. BOOKER T. WASHINGTON. 82? CHAPTER X. NATIONAL NEGRO BUSINESS LEAGUE. Written by Booker T. Washington expressly for this work. Origin of League. The National Negro Business League was organized in Boston, in August of the year 1900, and the first annual meeting was held at that time and place. The various sessions occupied three days. The second annual meeting of the League was held in Chicago, in August of 1901. The third annual meeting is to be held in Richmond, Vir- ginia, in 1902. During the last twenty years my work in connection with the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, in Alabama, has obliged me to travel about a great deal over a large portion of the United States, both North and South. In the course of this going about I have been constantly surprised especially during the last few years to see how many colored men and women there are, often in small towns and remote country districts, who are engaged in various lines of business. Prof. W. E. B. DuBois, as a result of care- ful studies recently made for a work published by At- lanta University, estimates the capital invested in Negro business enterprises in the United States at nearly nine millions of dollars. The fact that 79 per cent of this is invested in enterprises of less than $2,500 capi- tal, shows how widely the business interests of the race are distributed, and how many Negro men and women there are who are engaged in them. Prof. DuBois very well says: "Small as this total may seem in com- parison with the vast business investment of th 234 PROGRESS OF A RACE. country, when we remember that the freedmen started with nothing, it is creditable." It is true that these business enterprises are some- times very humble, and the capital invested small, but enough is being done to thoroughly indicate the oppor- tunities of the race in this direction. My observations of these facts led me to be- lieve, in the year 1900, that a time had come when the successful colored men and women en- gaged in business in the country could be profitably brought together. After consultation with a con- siderable number of representative persons in vari- ous parts of the country, it was determined to call a meeting in the city of Boston, that summer, to organize a National Negro Business League. Boston was selected as the place for the first meeting, partly on account of the generally cooler climate in New England in the summer, but quite as much on account of the historic associations connected with the city by the members of the colored race. It was believed that many of the delegates who would attend the meeting especially men from the far South who had never been North before would be glad to have this opportunity to visit the city of Wendell Phillips, William Lloyd Garrison, Shaw, George L. Stearns and a host of others who labored for the abolition of slavery. This proved to be the case. One of the inspiring features of the meeting was an address made to the delegates by William Lloyd Garrison, the son of the famous aboli- tionist. Another interesting and dramatic incident was the pilgrimage which the delegates made to the spot on State street marked by a star in the pave- ment where Crispus Attucks, one of the first martyrs of his race, fell. NATIONAL NEGRO BUSINESS LEAGUE. 235 I quote one paragraph from Mr. Garrison's address: 4 'The particular word 1 wish to leave with you is this: Aim to be your own employers as soon as possible. If you are farmers, do not rest until you control the land on which you live. He who is compelled to till another's land is in a degree dependent and a bond- man. If you are mechanics, seek first to own a home without mortgage, foregoing many things until you are free of debt. Independence and debt cannot long keep company. In the South, as in the North, posses- sion of honestly earned property will surely bring respect and increase personal security." In addition to the consideration to which I referred which may perhaps be called one of sentiment it was felt that the delegates to the convention could not but be benefited from the opportunities which they would have to observe the methods of business of those with whom they would come in contact. Yankee shrewdness and ability are proverbial, and they are nowhere shown to better advantage than in Boston. Object of First Meeting. This meeting was called with two objects in view : first, to bring together the men and women engaged in business, in order that they might get acquainted, and get information and inspiration from each other; and second, to form plans for a permanent organization which should hold annual meetings in different parts of the country and encour- age the formation of local leagues in various parts of the United States, which should co-operate with the national organization. Both of these objects, I think, have been admirably accomplished. The second an- nual meeting, held in Chicago, was even more largely attended than the first, and with if possible in- creased interest. Local leagues have been formed in 236 PROGRESS OF A RACE. many states which are doing excellent work to stimu- late a healthy and intelligent interest in business in their respective localities. Although it is desirable to have such local societies as these, membership in them is not necessary in order to be a member of the national league. Every individual engaged in business is entitled to membership; and it is important, and especially to be desired, that every line of business in which any Negro man or woman is engaged should be represented, because only by a complete represen- tation will it be possible for the League to show the world what progress the race has made in business since freedom was conferred upon it. The fact has been repeatedly stated since the League was first proposed, and the proceedings of the League have clearly shown the correctness of the statement, that the organization is not in opposition to any other in existence, but is expected to do a distinct work that no other can do as well. The meeting in Boston was held on August 23-25. Day and evening sessions were held the first two days. The delegates assembled in the large hall of the Parker Memorial Building, which was beautifully and appropriately decorated for the occasion. The use of the hall was donated by one of the philanthropists of Boston, and the decorations were put up by a business man of our own race, Mr. B. F. Washington. On August 25th, which was Saturday, the delegates were given an excursion on a steamer down Boston Harbor by the city government. This was one of the pleasantest features of the week, and the courtesy was thoroughly appreciated by the visitors. Not only in this excursion, but in many other ways, were the dele- gates made welcome. Hon. Thomas N. Hart, the NATIONAL NEGRO BUSINESS LEAGUE. 23? mayor of Boston, himself an eminently successful business man, was present at one of the sessions and made an address which gave the delegates inspiration and encouragement. The people of Boston were unremitting in their efforts to help the visitors in their city to get all the pleasure and profit possible out of their stay. The arrangements for the meeting in Boston were made by a local committee composed of Dr. S. B. Courtney ; P. J. Smith ; Louis F. Baldwin, real estate ; J. R, Hamm, newsdealer and stationer; Rev. W. H. Thomas; Virgil Richardson, gents' furnishings; Cap- tain Charles L. Mitchell; William L. Reed, tobacco- nist; J. H. Louis, tailor; Gilbert C. Harris, manufac- turer of and dealer in hair goods. On the morning of August 2$d, Dr. S. E. Courtney, the chairman of the local committee, called the gather- ing to order and read the call for the meeting. Prayer was offered by Rev. Dr. Montague, of Boston. Mr. Louis F. Baldwin, a real estate dealer of Cambridge, was made temporary chairman, and Mr. E. E. Cooper, the publisher of The Colored American^ of Washing- ton, was made temporary secretary. These tempor- ary positions were subsequently made permanent, and the success of this first meeting was in no small measure due to the able and interested manner in which these two gentlemen performed their duties. An address of welcome was made by Hon. John J. Smith of Boston. There were appointed to serve as a com- mittee of resolutions, Mr. W. R. Pettiford, a banker, of Birmingham, Alabama; Mr. C. K. Johnson, a real estate dealer, of Virginia; Mr. Daniel W. Lucas, a bar- ber, of Kansas City, Missouri, and Mr. M. M. Lewey, an editor and publisher, of Pensacola, Florida. The 238 PROGRESS OF A RACE. permanent organization, effected later, consisted of myself as president; vice-presidents, Giles B. Jackson, Richmond, Mrs. A. M. Smith, Chicago; Treasurer, Gil- bert C. Harris, Boston; Secretary, Edward E. Cooper, Washington; Compiler, Edward A. Johnson, Raleigh, North Carolina; Executive Committee, T. Thomas Fortune, New York ; T. W. Jones, Chicago ; Isaiah T. Montgomery, Mound Bayou, Mississippi; Booker T. Washington, Tuskegee, Alabama; George C. Jones, Little Rock, Arkansas; W. R. Pettiford, Birmingham, Alabama; Gilbert C. Harris and Louis F. Baldwin, Boston. I give these names because they show the widely representative character of the League from the very first, both as regards the territory from which the delegates came, and also the industries represented. This same representative character was fully sustained at the next year's meeting at Chicago. Wide Scope of League. I do not think that I can give an idea of the wide scope of the League and its value, in any better way than by reviewing briefly the first meeting, although it will be impossible for me even to mention the names of all the men who spoke. I give the names of a few, with their topics, and quote a paragraph here and there to show how practical the addresses were. As a general thing the papers and addresses were short, compact, and right to the point. Some of them may have been lacking in some of the graces of rhetoric, but they told what the speakers had accomplished, in simple words that all could under- stand. Particular effort was made that the speakers should understand that formal, set addresses were not required. What was wanted was for a person who had succeeded in some business to tell how he went to work NATIONAL NEGRO BUSINESS LEAGUE. 239 to achieve his success to tell what obstacles he had met and how he had overcome them, that others hear- ing him, or reading what he had said, might get information and encouragement which would help them to go and do the same thing. Mr. Andrew F. Hillyer, of Washington, D. C., spoke of "The Colored American in Business," giving very valuable figures derived from government records at Washington. "The census of 1890," he said, "showed 20,020 Negroes in business. There are more colored barbers than men engaged in any other business. The next most influential and successful class is that made up of the caterers. The late James Wormley of Washington, who for many years kept the famous Wormley House, died leaving an estate valued at $100, - ooo. The most remarkable classes of business except the barbers and caterers are those which comprise the gro- cers and small shopkeepers. The butchers form anothe r successful class. Almost every considerable Southern city, and, indeed, many in the North having a large colored population, has one or more drug stores kept by colored pharmacists. Another successful class is made up of the undertakers, and the capital invested here averages much higher than, in any other class of business. The most important bank is the True Re- formers' Bank, of Richmond, Virginia, chartered under the laws of the state, owning its own large building, and with a paid-up capital of $125,000 and a surplus of $2 5, ooo. This bank has 40, ooo depositors. The bank in Washington has a capital of $50, ooo. Another suc- cessful bank is located at Birmingham, Alabama. There are three book and tract publishing houses, one of them with a plant valued at $45, ooo. There are over 200 newspapers and three magazines. One of these 240 PROGRESS OF A RACE. newspapers has 5,000 subscribers, and a plant costing $10,000. A firm of truck gardeners, near Charleston, South Carolina, has been in business over thirty years, has over 500 acres under cultivation, and ships several carloads of garden truck every week to Northern markets. The railroad considers the trade of this firm of enough account to run an independent siding to their land. A dealer and shipper of fish in Charles- ton has $30,000 invested in the business, in nets, boats, ice-houses and other buildings. A photographer in St. Paul does a business of $30,000 a year. A race- horse breeder in Knoxville, Tennessee, has $50,000 invested in blooded horses. A pawnbroker in Augusta, Georgia, has $5,000 capital.'* Mr. Giles B. Jackson, a real estate dealer of Rich- mond, Virginia, spoke on "The Negro as a Real Estate Dealer." Mr. Jackson quoted figures from the report of the auditor of the state of Virginia for the year previous, to show that at that time the Negroes of Virginia owned one twenty-sixth of all the land in the state, that he owned one sixteenth of all the land east of the Blue Ridge, that he owned one tenth of all the land in twenty-five of the hundred counties of the state, that he owned one seventh of the land in Middlesex county, one sixth of the land in Hanover county, and that in one county Charles City he owned one third of all the land. He told how, in the year 1893, when the city of Richmond needed to borrow money to pay school expenses, $100,000 was loaned to the city by the True Reformers' Bank, one of the colored banks of Richmond. Mr. J. E. Shepard, of Enfield, North Carolina, also spoke upon "The Negro in Real Estate." Mr. M. M. Lewey, of Pensacola, Florida, spoke of NATIONAL NEGRO BUSINESS LEAGUE. 241 the Negro business enterprises in his city. Mr. Lewey said that one half of the 23,000 inhabitants of Pensa- cola were Negroes, and that there were no less than, fifty distinct public business enterprises owned and operated by Negroes. There is a colored furni- ture dealer with a business of $20,000 a year. One colored man in the city owns real estate conservatively estimated at $i oo, ooo. There are particularly success ful grocery firms. One man only twenty-eight years of age who began life as cobbler in a tiny shop, with no capital, has built, owns and rents nine houses. There are two drug stores, a firm of prosperous con- tractors, and a restaurant proprietor employing twelve men. The tax collector of Pensacola reported 400 colored families owning their homes, and 200 more buying homes. Mr. J. W. Pullen, of Enfield, North Carolina, spoke of the business enterprises in that city. Mr. R. B. Fitzgerald, of Durham, North Carolina, made a very brief address, but the mere presence of this man and his wife at the meeting was eloquent with encourage- ment. Mr. and Mrs. Fitzgerald began the manufac- ture of bricks in North Carolina several years ago, with unbounded energy and determination, but with so little capital that at first Mrs. Fitzgerald was obliged to wheel away and pile up to dry the bricks that her husband was making. Now they own an establishment that turns out 3,000,000 bricks every year, own much real estate in addition, and Mrs. Fitzgerald runs a drug store. It was interesting to see how often in the meeting such testimony as that of Mr. Fitzgerald to his wife's help was repeated. Over and over again a speaker would say, "I could never have succeeded if it had 16 Progress. 242 PROGRESS OF A RACE. not been for the help that my good wife gave me." Many told how the wife attended to the little busi- ness at first, after it was started, while the head of the family worked out to earn money to increase the capital. Dr. A. J. Love, of Chattanooga, Tennessee, spoke for the colored people of that city, reporting one hun- dred homes owned, and $243,000 capital invested. Dr. A. C. Dungee, of Montgomery, Alabama, spoke as the representative of the Citizens' Commercial Union of that city. He said that the Negroes of that city own 1,500 homes and have representatives in eighty-five per cent of the business enterprises of the city. He spoke particularly of the dry goods, furnish- ings and millinery store of Mr. J. N. Adams. This man, who was a graduate of Tuskegee Institute, began work as a clerk at a counter in a white clothing store. About eight years ago he went into business for him- self in a modest way. His business has increased until he now has one of the most prosperous stores in Montgomery, with yearly sales amounting to nearly if not quite $50,000. The millinery department of this store is in charge of a young woman who learned her trade in the millinery class at Tuskegee Institute. Another man, Henry Lovelace, who not many years ago walked from his home sixty-five miles away to Montgomery because he was too poor to come in any other way, now owns a large undertaking establish- ment, a coal and wood yard, and a truck farm. He employs thirty-five men, and his weekly pay roll is $400. Of the twenty colored restaurants in Mont- gomery, the most successful one is owned and man- aged by a woman. Mr. R. B. Hudson, of Selma, spoke for the business NATIONAL NEGRO BUSINESS LEAGUE. 243 men of that community. He was followed by Dr. L.L. Burwell, a druggist of the same city. The latter spoke of the great demand that there is all o\;er the South for competent Negro druggists. He said there was a special need for such men and a special respon- sibility resting upon them, because the mass of the colored people in the South as yet are wanting in proper hygienic knowledge, while their readiness to use all kinds of medicines for any kind of disease often puts them in danger. They frequently bring medicine to a druggist to ask him if they shall take it. One day a man brought arsenic to this man's store, think- ing it to be quinine. The Negro needs to enter the medical profession not only as a business for pecuniary profit for himself, but for the good he can do his people, Dr. Burwell said. Dr. E. E. Elbert, of Wil- mington, Delaware, and Dr. A. M. Brown, of Bir- mingham, Alabama, continued the discussion of this subject. Mr. Gilbert C. Harris, of Boston, spoke upon "Work in Hair." As a young man Mr. Harris came to Boston from the South, poor and with a knowledge of no business. He went to work in a store where hair goods were made and sold, and learned the trade so thoroughly and was so thrifty that some years later, when the business was to be sold, he bought it. Mrs. A. A. Casneau, a dressmaker of Boston, made an excellent address. She said that one thing that the colored people needed was business courage. Mrs. Casneau has written and published a book about dressmaking. A young woman in a New England town wrote to her that the librarian in her town had called her attention to the book, that she had 244 PROGRESS OF A RACE. read it, and that as she wished to become a dressmaker and there were two or three lessons in the book which she wished to see demonstrated she wrote to ask if she could arrange to come to Boston and have Mrs. Cas- neau give her these lessons. "Such an arrangement was made," Mrs. Casneau said, "and a date was set when she was to come to Boston and call upon me. I had not signed my letters 'colored' and I knew she had no idea that when she came to Boston she was to come to see a colored woman. When the day came for her first visit, I found that that was to be a weak time in my experiences, for all my fortitude forsook me, and I hesitated, right on my own ground, to meet a woman who had written to me that she commended my work and was willing to pay me a fair price for the instruction which she felt that my experience fitted me to give her. I stood outside the door of the room into which she had been shown, and pictured to my- self the expression on her face when I went in ; how she would catch her breath and stammer, and ask if I was the person she had been corresponding with. Finally I gave myself a good shaking mentally, and told myself that if I allowed such circumstances as these to master me I was not worthy of success that if I lost confidence in myself I would never be able to teach any one successfully. "Just then there came to me an account which I had read of how a colored man who had learned dairying at Tuskegee Institute, and who had been rejected be- cause of his color when he applied for a place as man- ager of a creamery, kept on talking butter-making and refused to consider the matter of his color, until he had finally convinced the owners of the dairy of his ability to such a degree that they gave him a trial and NATIONAL NEGRO BUSINESS LEAGUE. 245 eventually hired him. I remembered that this man's color had been forgotten by these business men when they found out that the butter which he made for them sold for three cents a pound more than any that their dairy had ever made before. "In that moment all my fear left me. I entered the room a woman, not particularly a colored woman. The woman who had come to see me acted just as I had expected she would, but her manner had no effect upon me because I had already fought out my battle from within, and was prepared to talk so fast about my work and what she wanted to know that I did not have any time to remember that I was colored. I think she soon forgot it, too. At any rate she was soon free from embarrassment. I sold a book to a friend who was with her, gave her several lessons, and, best of all, gained in self strength. I came to understand that wherever a man or woman has put conscientious, skillful effort into any business, he or she, regardless of color, has attained a degree of suc- cess equal to that of any other person under the same conditions." One interesting and helpful feature of the League has been the fact that from the first the colored busi- ness women as well as the men, have been included in its membership. Some of the most helpful and en- couraging addresses at the meetings have been made by women, just as some of the most creditable work of the race in business lines is being done by them. Mr. VV. R. Pettiford, the president of the colored bank in Birmingham, Alabama, spoke upon "The Negro Savings Bank." He emphasized the import- ance of the colored people having savings banks of their own, and the great incentive which these 246 PROGRESS OF A RACE. would be for the saving of money and the baying of homes. Mr. Isaiah T. Montgomery, the mayor of Mound Bayou, Mississippi, spoke upon "The Building of a Negro Town." Mr. Montgomery was a slave of Jefferson Davis and as a house servant employed about the library and office of Mr. Davis and his brother Mr. Joe Davis, was given unusual opportunities to acquire an education. After the slaves were freed he was employed with his father and brother for some years as a superintendent on the plantation. Wishing to establish a Negro community, in 1887 he made arrange- ments with a large railroad company to colonize a tract of wild land in the Yazoo Delta. The town of Mound Bayou is the result, a purely Negro commun- ity, having churches, a good school, a tributary agricultural population of 2,000, four cotton gins, three saw-mills, and several stores, the latter doing a business every year of over $30,000. Mr. T. W. Walker, of Birmingham, Alabama, spoke on "A Negro Coal Mining Company," giving an account of the operation of a coal mine near Birming- ham, of which he is the president, the only enterprise of the. kind in the United States. Mr. J. C. Left- wich, of Klondike, Alabama, spoke upon "The Negro of the South, and what he must do to be saved. " Mr. Leftwich has bought 200 acres of land near Mont- gomery, and laid out a Negro town which he lias named Klondike. Mr. W. O. Emery, of Macon, Georgia, spoke upon "Negro Business Enterprises." Among other items in his report, he said that although Negro railroad men were not allowed to become con- ductors and engineers, there were Negro brakemen and firemen in his city who earned as high as $80 a NATIONAL NEGRO BUSINESS LEAGUE. 247 month. J. A. Williams, of Omaha, spoke for the col- ored people of that city. He said there were 5,000 colored in the 140,000 population of Omaha, that they owned in homes $200,000 and had invested in business $50,000. One of the best addresses was that made by Mr. J. H. Lewis, a tailor, of Boston, who thoroughly deserves to be called one of the notable men of his race. Mr. Lewis was formerly a slave. He began work for him- self with nothing. His tailoring establishment in Boston, which occupies one of the best stores in the busiest part of Washington street, is one of the finest in the city. The rent of this store is nearly $10,000 a year, and he employs men whose pay ranges from $40 to $75 a week. What Mr. Lewis said was so sound and practical that I quote a few sentences from his address: "In this business world of ours happily there is no color. Every tub stands upon its own bottom. Fortunately human selfishness, the desire of every man to get all he can for the least effort or money, has banished all prejudice. If you can make a better article than anybody else, and sell it cheaper than any- body else, you can command the markets of the world. Produce something that somebody wants, whether it be a shoestring or a savings bank, and the purchaser or patron will not trouble to ask who the seller is. Rec- ognize this fundamental law of trade, add to it tact, good manners, a resolute will, a tireless capacity for hard work, and you will succeed in business." Mr. R. T. Palmer, a tailor and men's furnisher in Columbia. South Carolina, spoke on the business con- ditions in his part of the country. Mrs. A. M. Smith, of Chicago, spoke upon "Women's Development in Business." 48 PROGRESS OF A RACE. Mr. Theodore W. Jones, of Chicago, the proprietor of a large furniture moving and storage business, spoke, his topic being, 4t Go Into Business." Mr. Jones, like Mr. Lewis, may justly be spoken of as a notable man. He began life with no capital but energy and ambition, and drove an express wagon for wages until he had saved money enough to buy a team of his own. He owns and manages to-day a four-story furniture storage warehouse, and a trucking business of forty vehicles, seven of them being huge furniture vans that cost $1,000 each. He employs regularly forty persons, and in the busy season the number rises to seventy-five. I do not wish to be understood as meaning that Mr. Jones told all these things about himself in his address before the League. Like Mr, Lewis, he is too modest a man to speak much of him- self. I am telling here only what I have seen for myself of his business in Chicago. Mr. David B. Allen, of Newport, Rhode Island, spoke upon "Catering/' and an excellent paper was read upon "The Afro- American as a Caterer," writ- ten by Mr. C. H. Smiley, of Chicago, a man who began work for himself as a waiter in a small restaurant at wages of a few dollars a week. Mr. Smiley now owns and occupies a four-story building, from which he operates a first-class catering business. As is the case with Mr. Lewis and Mr. Jones, I speak of what I have personally seen of Mr. Smiley 's business. His patronage includes some of the wealthiest and most fastidious people of Chicago. He has the china, glass, silver and linen to set out a small dinner in such style as to please the most exacting, or to supply a collation to a company numbering hundreds. Mr. T. Thomas Fortune, the editor and publisher NATIONAL NEGRO BUSINESS LEAGUE. 249 of The New York Age, spoke upon "The Negro Publisher." Mr. T. H. Thomas, of Galveston, had for a subject, "Barbering. " Mr. George E. Jones, of Little Rock, Arkansas, spoke upon "Undertaking," of which he is a prosperous representative. He said that Little Rock is the only city in which there is a street railway built, owned and operated by colored men. Mr. J. K. Graves, of Kansas City, spoke upon ** Potato Growing." Mr. A. F. Crawford, of Meriden, Con- necticut, had for a topic "The Negro Florist." Mr. E. B. Jourdain, of New Bedford, Massachusetts, spoke upon the business conditions of that city. Mr. D. J. Cunningham, a successful grocer of Pensacola, Florida, spoke upon general merchandising there, and the same subject was continued by Mr. E. P. Booze, of Clarks- dale, Mississippi. Mr. J. P. Fowlkes, of Evington, Virginia, explained how co-operative stores have been established in his state. Mr. F. G. Stedman, a founder and manufacturer, of East Hampton, Connecticut, spoke upon "Bell Making," and presented the League with a souvenir bell made by himself. Mr. J. N. Vande- vall, of East Orange, New Jersey, described his busi- ness of steam cleaning high-grade rugs and carpets, in which fifteen persons are employed. Second Annual Meeting of the League. The sec- ond annual meeting of the League was held in Handel Hall, Chicago, August 21-23, 1901, under the auspices of the local organization of the Cook County Negro Business Men's League. As was true at the Boston meeting, fully three-quarters of the states were repre- sented by delegates. The hall was crowded at all of the meetings and a keen interest was maintained in all of the discussions. The people of Chicago were untiring in their efforts to make the occasion one of 250 PROGRESS OF A RACE. pleasure and profit for their visitors. In addition to the meetings in Handel Hall, a banquet and reception were given in the First Regiment Armory, at which an opportunity was afforded for social intercourse and acquaintance. The late President William McKinley honored the League by a telegram expressing his good wishes for the organization and the race. The officers elected at the second annual meeting were President, Booker T. Washington, Tuskegee, Alabama; Vice-presidents, Giles B. Jackson, Rich- mond, Virginia; Mrs. D. R. Robinson, St. Louis, Missouri; Charles Banks, Clarksdale, Mississippi; Re- cording Secretary, Edward E. Cooper, Washington; Corresponding Secretary, Emmett J. Scott, Tuskegee, Alabama; Treasurer, Gilbert C. Harris, Boston; Com- piler, S. Laing Williams, Chicago; Registrar, P. J. Smith, Boston; Executive Committee, T. Thomas Fortune, New York; Dr. S. B. Courtney, Boston; T. W. Jones, Chicago; George E. Jones, Little Rock; N. T. Veler, Brinton, Pennsylvania; W. L. Taylor, Rich- mond, Virginia; T. A. Brown, San Francisco, Cali- fornia i J. C. Napier, Nashville, Tennessee; M. M. Lewey, Pensacola, Florida. As was true of the Boston meeting, it would be im- possible for me, within the limits allowed me here, to do more than mention some of the speakers and some of the more important addresses and papers. Mr. W. L. Taylor, of Richmond, Virginia, spoke upon "The Business Features of the Order of True Reformers." Mr. J. A. Wilson, of Kansas City, Missouri, told "What the Twin-City Business Association is Accom- plishing/' Mr. Theodore W. Jones, of Chicago, had for a topic, "Can the Negro Succeed as a Business NATIONAL NEGRO BUSINESS LEAGUE. 251 Man?" Charles Banks, of Clarksdale, Mississippi, spoke upon "Merchandising," and William O. Murphy, of Atlanta, upon "The Grocery Business." Mr. Har- ris Bartlett, of Hampton, Virginia, spoke upon the "Hampton Building and Loan Association," and Mr. A. N. Johnson, of Mobile, upect of all. The industrial schools of the South are * 17 Progress. ^ 258 PROGRESS OF A RACE. doing more in this respect, in bringing up the masses to a realization of their privileges, than any other agency. Brains and Labor. If the Negro is to succeed it is essential that in the first place he dignify labor, and in the second place that he put brains into labor. Thrift and Industry. Rev. J. E. Edwards, D. D., a white man of learning and exalted character, says : 4 'Hand in hand with the progress of education among the Negro population of Petersburg, Virginia, there has been a corresponding progress in industry, thrift, morals and manners of the race. Their ability to live at less expense than the poor whites has enabled the more provident of them to lay by a larger surplus from their earnings, and, as a result, they are buying lots, and in some instances putting up comfortable and taste- fully constructed residences. The marriage relation is recognized by them as of more binding obligation than formerly, both in its civil and moral respects. The family idea is a healthful growth. Self-respect and self reliance are on the advance. Improving in Morals. They are property owners, shop keepers, manufacturers, contractors, master build- ers, mechanics and laborers, competing fairly and with out let or hindrance with the whites. They are con- stantly improving in morals, in thrift and industry, and are rapidly advancing in civilization, refinement and learning. Peaceable Community. The present population of Petersburg may be put down in round numbers at 22,000 say 10,000 whites and 12,000 colored giving the Negroes 2,000 majority in the whole population. At the ballot-box the Negroes can poll a larger number than the whites. But with this predominance of the PROGRESS IN INDUSTRIES. 250 Negro population we have the most gratifying spectacle presented of one of the most orderly, quiet and peaceable communities anywhere to be found in all these broad lands. There is, comparatively, but little litigation in the civil courts of the corporation ; and the police record will compare favorably with that of any city of the same population in the whole country. The Mayor's court is often held without a case, even of misdemeanor. Felonies are infrequent, and of those that do occur, which are sent up to higher tribunals, the parties are quite as often white as colored. Disturbances of the peace are not more common among the Negroes than among the whites. Life, limb and property are as secure and as well protected in Petersburg by day and night as in any city of 22,000 population in the United States of America. No Idle Boasting. The appeal from any question of these facts is to our records police, civil and crim- inal; and when it is remembered that there are 12,000 Negroes and only 10,000 whites in the city, the record is as creditable as it is really wonderful. It is very much questioned whether a parallel can be found in all this country. Testimonials of Hampton Students. The following items taken from "Twenty-two years' work at Hamp- ton, ' ' being the testimony of graduates of that school, are worthy of consideration. If any one is unable to judge whether the Negro is rising or not, the reliable testimony of these graduates ought to decide the ques- tion: James A. Fields, Hampton, Virginia. "All things considered, the condition of the colored people is good. They are rapidly improving in religion, intelligence, and morals. My property consists mostly of land and 260 PROGRESS OF A RACE. house, in value six thousand dollars. I have only one child, the finest boy in Christendom." David D. Weaver, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. "I employ more help and do more work than any other colored shoemaker in Philadelphia, and have had the lead for five years. I am doing as much for my people as I could in the school room. The colored people are progressing; they work. The money is made and the money is spent. The greatest barrier is that they do not look beyond to-day. They expect every day to take care of itself. With such short calculations they are often found wanting. There are many exceptions to this rule. There are men here who are doing good business and making great headway in the world. ' ' Lewis Peyton, Wabash, Indiana. ''The intellectual religious, moral, industrious and economical status of the people varies much in different sections of the country. Where they are settled down and have their homes and regular pursuits, they are prosperous, and every way in a prospering condition. ' ' George F. Galloway, Halifax County, Virginia. "In this section of the state our people show a decided improvement. As a rule, they are farmers. Some own their homes, and a few own large tracts of land varying from forty to twelve hundred acres." William P. Henry, Berlin, Maryland. In this com- munity, which I believe was one of the worst places below Mason's and Dixon's line for prejudice and Negro persecution, the Negro people are grasping every effort that will lift them higher in the intel- lectual, moral and social scale. They are generally sober and industrious, and they adhere strictly to economy, through which the rude hut and log cabin PROGRESS IN INDUSTRIES. 261 are rapidly being transformed into neat cottages, with their domestic improvements. ' ' L. L. Ivy, Danville, Virginia. "The colored people in this vicinity are improving slowly but surely, get- ting little homes, and making great sacrifices to do as other people." NEGRO FARMER'S ONE-ROOM LOG CABIN. William B. Weaver, Sassafras, Virginia. "The col- ored people in this neighborhood are industrious and temperate. Some accumulate property and have good homes, and are interested in the work of education." R. H. Matthews, Pensacola, Florida. "On account of the large number of dram-shops and the tendency of our people to patronize them, their condition is not what we might desire. They are badly divided and will seldom unite for any public good; this is on account of the narrow and ignorant spirit engendered fri' our churches by ignorant ministers. Not withstand- 262 PROGRESS OP A RACE. ing, there is gradual progress. Hard work, honesty and frugality are the means by which we are to rise. I own property in Columbus, Georgia, and in Pensa- cola worth three thousand dollars. ' ' Robert H. Hamilton, one of the Hampton Student Singers, now Assisting in the Normal at Tuskegee. "To the thoughtful Negro there is a great deal in the condition of his people to make him sigh. Such a dense mass of humanity steeped in ignorance ! Who can foresee the danger and bloodshed that may yet overtake this sunny land? While these men and women have the minds of children, they have the passions of age. However, as dark as things may be, they are not so bad as they were. It is fair to say the Negro of the South is rising. ' ' Mrs. William Day, Greensboro, North Carolina. "The general condition of our people in Greensboro is good. There are few renters now among good me- chanics. We have good schools and churches; one colored doctor. Our people have certainly improved themselves and are second to no other town in this respect." Mrs, F. Galloway, Lynchburg, Virginia. "When I first came to this place there were not many people owning property. They were renting from their mas- ters or from some other white man, paying as much for a cabin a year as it would take to buy an acre of land. Some of the houses, actually, were not good enough for horses to stay in. Today for two or three miles around you will find colored people owning from two to twenty acres of land, horses, cows, farm- ing implements, and raising their own bread. When we were married we did not own anything; now we PROGRESS IN INDUSTRIES. 263 have two and one-half acres of land and a comfortable little house to live in. ' ' Mrs. George E. Rumsey, Thomas Run, Maryland. "The majority of the colored people at Thomas Run are property-holders, and are improving their lands considerably. My husband has a farm, and owns thirty- three acres of land. ' ' C. R. Creekmur, Deep Creek, Virginia. "I own a house and lot with four and one-half acres of land, farming utensils, etc. The people are poor and igno- rant. There are, however, signs of improvement. Several have purchased homes and they are working nicely in that direction. ' ' Mrs. Mary Owen, Warrentown, North Carolina. "Large numbers of Negroes here own homes. Some have nice large houses, others have small but neat ones. They are, as a rule, making rapid progress. ' ' Mrs. Briscoe, Mecklenburg, North Carolina. "The general condition of the Negro people is improving. There are many who do not take as much interest in bettering their condition as they should, but there are many who have made marked progress in business and intellectual matters. ' ' E. D. Stewart, Farmville, Virginia. " The condition of the colored peope is hopeful. They are accumulat- ing property and educating their children. ' ' J. B. Tynes, Smithville, Virginia. " The colored people in the main are financially embarrassed, but here and there are signs of improvement. " Mrs. Martin, Carlisle, Ohio. "We own property valued at about three thousand dollars. I do not find the majority of the colored people so far advanced as I expected, considering the advantages they have had compared with the colored people of the South." 264 PROGRESS OF A RACE. Frances L. Butt, Germantown, Pennsylvania. "The colored people are improving financially, but the young girls are not doing well. Their standard is low." C. E. Vanharler. "The people are slowly climbing the ladder of prosperity." Julia E. Coles, Halifax County, Virginia. "In some places the people are very well situated, owning a small tract of land with a good house on it. In they are in a worse condition than in any other place. The people are very poor, living in houses no better than sheds, and with the poorest kind of food. This is true of the whites as well as the colored." J. W. Brown, Winchester, Virginia. "The Negroes in this section are inaiisfrious and independent, and, although some spend the greater part of their hard earnings foolishly, they have money enough to secure for themselves comfortable homes, which the majority have. The homes differ with the ambition of the owner. Their cost ranges from one hundred dollars up into the thousands. Some own farms of from fifty to two hundred acres. The richest colored man in the county is said to be worth more than fifty thou- sand dollars. I do not think you will find a dozen beg- gars in our town, and the Negro population is over two thousand. ' ' * Hope and Progress. The best hope of the South is in the manufacture of her raw material. The best hope of the Negro is in his application to the various callings of industry. The future commercial greatness of the South depends upon the measure in which she manufactures her iron, wood, and cotton into articles of merchandise, and the happiness and well being of the Negro depend upon the part that he elects to play PROGRESS IN INDUSTRIES. 265 in this drama of industrial progress. Will he, by careful training, fit himself as an artisan and thus con- tribute to his country's progress and to his own uplift- ing, or will he scorn the homely callings of industry and devote himself to college lore and starvation? The South will one day be the nation's workshop. Whence will come her workmen? In the solution of this problem is wrapped up the hope and progress of the Negro. Dignity and Nobility of Manual Labor. When the colored citizen can demonstrate his usefulness as a member of society, his rise to a higher plane of liberty and independence is assured. Industrial training will help students to appreciate the dignity and nobility of manual labor; will make them self-reliant, competent to lay out work for others, to oversee the erection of a dwelling house, a school house, a meeting house ; will make them industrial leaders, and, in a modest way, capitalists, enabling them to own a house, a farm, working with the hands in the intervals of preaching or teaching ; and all this not for themselves alone they should never lose sight of the idea of service, that he who would be first must become the servant of all. In the Business World. If the Negro is to maintain his place in the business world as an industrial and commercial factor, it behooves him to put on his think- ing cap ; no force without will help him. He must rise, if he rises at all, through his own efforts. He is not wanted in many of the avenues of opportunity and will be shut out if he does not get to thinking for himself. The politician has no use for him excepting before elec- tion. If he would maintain his place, he must, of necessity, think for himself. Half Free. Booker T. Washington, that wise leader PROGRESS IN INDUSTRIES. 267 of the colored race, never spoke more truly and pithily than when he said: "The black man who cannot let love and sympathy go out to the white man is but half free. The white man who would close the shop or factory against a black man seeking an opportunity to earn an honest living, is but half free. ' ' Negro Labor. Although the Negro is practically barred from the great trade alliances of the land, and denied a place in the industrial army which he would so naturally and capably fill, the race is slowly edging into labor equalities and must, ere long, be counted a factor. The latest movement serving to bring Negro labor to a permanent stage of discussion is the intro- duction of black labor into the cotton mills of the South. Charleston Cotton Mills have recently introduced Negro labor with excellent results. The Negro hands are proving entirely satisfactory. It seems that colored operators were employed successfully in several mills before the war, but since then the Negro was denied an entrance. This will open a new field for the Negro. Besides this, all over the South colored men are being employed in mechanical pursuits, as carpenters, masons, wheelrights, engineers, while colored women are em- ployed as cooks, dressmakers, etc. This predicts a brighter day for the colored race, and if the race is true to its calling and exhibits true merit by rising and showing proficiency in all these lines, the day is not far distant when Negro labor in the South or in any other section of our country will be in as great demand a? the labor of any other race. Fears Aroused. The danger that is feared by some who have given any thought to the Charleston experi- ment is that the colored operators will succeed so well there that they will gradually supplant the white opera- 268 PROGRESS OF A RACE. tives in Southern mills, and that their success in Charles- ton will result in the establishment of many Negro cotton mills in the South by New England capitalists. We believe that the Charleston "experiment" will succeed we are told that it is succeeding; but we do not believe that its most substantial success will greatly interfere with the labor problem in the Southern mills. It probably would result in the establishment of many cotton mills in the black belt of the South, but it would not, for years, if ever, result in the displacement of white labor. They will work the kind of hands they can hire at the lowest wages and get good results. The agitation of the Negro-in-the-cotton-mill question began among the Southern mill managers. No Northern owned and con- ducted mill has been mentioned in connection with Negro help. Capable. There is little reason to doubt that Negroes will prove capable of performing the work required of them in the cotton mills. With white superiors to direct they can easily perform the duties of mill hands in the manufacture of the coarser goods of cotton cloth. Negro slaves, it is alleged, were successfully employed in the cotton mills. Prospect. What a field is presented for speculation as to the possibilities in this contrast! What if the success of th experiment should give such an impetus to the cotton mill industry in this city that soon not only the spindles of the old mill would be humming night and day under the inspiration of a happy, con- tented and economic labor, but other mills would start up, giving hope, ambition and employment to thousands more of our at present idle and non-productive surplus colored population, who are a burden upon the com- 270 PROGRESS OF A RACE. munity instead of a blessing ! Does it not follow, as the night the day, that more money would be put into cir- culation; more stores would be given patrons; more business men and clerks would be needed, as well as that increase of forces in every other of the depart- ments of life preferred by white men which necessarily follows an increase in the volume of business and of the productive population of the community? The prospect is a pleasing one. Let us hope that at last we have found the true philosopher's stone, that with its magic touch will bring about the renewed prosperity and business revival which we have so long hoped for in vain. A Business Education. Rev. A. A. Whitman says : "We need to begin in a business way right at the bot- tom and grow up from the ground. We need to know how to make a living. That education which fails to fit one to do this fails to educate. He who has not the business parts and qualifications in him to earn a living is a dependent a pauper, as it were and undesirable as a citizen, regardless of any amount of useless informa- tion that may be found lying around loose in his cranium. The Negro, the masses, must come back to the ground. Business is the root and the bottom of the education he needs now. The Negro must be found taking a helping part lending a helping hand in the exercises and business of his day ; thus making himself needed by the state. This is the root of the whole matter. ' ' Tilling the Soil. Man's independence grows up out of the soil. It is never a fungus. The Negro must be trained to know how to intelligently and successfully till the soil ; and, what is more, he must learn to love the occupation. He must know the farm, the orchard PROGRESS IN INDUSTRIES. 271 and the vineyard. He must see that his farm is a duke- dom. He must find that stalwart independence comes up with his cotton and corn. The landscape, beauti- fied and ennobled by the touch of care and endeared by the fond and exalted idea of possession, must be to him PARKER MODEL HOME. Made by Tuskegee Students. the rallying point for his patriotism. Cincinnatus, Washington, Lincoln, Grant, mightiest of earth, digni- fied their lives by tilling the soil. The Negro must see this. 72 PROGRESS OF A RACE. Way-Marks. Pastures filled with horses and cattle ; ample barns and great farm houses are grander way- marks for civilization than all the monuments ever reared on the fields of battle. Back to this idea the Negro must come and make a start. It must be taught into his brains to see this truth. Waiting for Something to Do. The man who reads Greek and Latin while he sits in idleness waiting for something to do is an inferior man ; while he who tills the soil is a sovereign, though he knows little of books The Negro must not be afraid of the clouds ; he must come out of the shade. He must learn that there is more music in a hand saw than in a guitar, and a great deal better pay. He must feel that it is no disgrace to go to work after he has gone to school. He must understand that a liberal education is as valuable to him who tills the soil as it is to the professions. Skilled Mechanics. Next to tilling the soil, the Negi*o must learn the value of being skilled in me- chanics. He must learn to mingle his thoughts with his labor. He nrnst be taught to see that if he can chop wood and earn one dollar per day, he may, by using saw and chisel, earn twice that amount and work no harder than before ; and again by using steam and lathe and scroll he can earn ten times that amount and still work no harder. Practical Education. This, we understand, is prac- tical education, to enlighten the citizen first concern- ing his nearest environments earth, air, water, wood, stone, metal first become acquainted with these and then come on with your theorems, your hypotheses, your abstractions and such. First the dinner pot and the loom, and then the beatitudes poetry, painting and the like. PROGRESS IN INDUSTRIES. 73 Higher Education. After a moral and industrial training those who have the talent, the means, and the leisure, may pursue their studies into the province of higher education, language, literature, the arts and the sciences. All hold out brilliant inducements for such as strive to find "room at the top. " What the South Especially Needs is Negro farmers who study the best methods of tilling the soil, and are alert to find the most improved method and best imple- ments the market can supply. No profession is higher or more honorable than that of farming. A farmer supports the people. Go to the Farm. As Horace Greeley advised young men to go west, so we would advise young people in cities and towns who cannot find anything to do, often compelled to beg or to steal in order to live, we would advise such to go to the farm, for there they can make an independent living for themselves. Buy a Farm. By saving a little money a small farm at least, can be bought, and by cultivating it carefully more can be added from time to time. The European emigrants come to this country and settle on homestead lands and soon become inde- pendent. Why should not the Negro do the same if he is willing to lay aside extravagance and expensive habits and devote himself to industry, economy and frugality. There is no reason why the average Negro should not have a home of his own. Young men, aim to have a home of your own. Sound Advice. A typical Louisa county, Va. , Negro tobacco raiser was asked very lately how he managed to beat all his neighbors making tobacco, as was evi- denced by his having always led them in prices on the market. Here is the secret in his vernacular: 18 Progress 274 PROGRESS OF A RACE. "What I does make, I makes de bes* de Ian' will fotch. I keeps puttin' back de manure on de same Ian'. I makes dat manure myself, en I don't spread out none like some folks does, who ain't never satisfied 'ceptin' dey allers plants more'n dey can ten' to. No matter how terbarker is sellin' I gits to de top price it's allus $10 to $12 roun'. Noc, sah, I ain't neber studyin* 'bout spreadin' out like some folks, 'case I dun seen urn try dat, an' my four acres beats der'n all de time. Dey plant more'n double as much agin as me an' more, too. In course I know how to make fine sun-cured terbaker, and I ain't trustin' dat to nobody else, nuther. "Nor, sah, I ain't nuver grumble 'bout de price yit do I see plenty uv dem what duz, an' I ain't never spec' to crap more'n dem four acres sometimes a little less dan dat. I ain't nuver hear nobody complain 'bout my terbaker yit allus 'pear to suit dem what buys it, an' dey want more. Yas, I got 150 akers size dese four, but dese four is dat rich as when I fust started, and richer, too. ' ' We wish we could emphasize this good advice still more strongly. What the market wants is quality, not quantity. This applies to everything that the farm pro- duces. The way to get the prices that are paying ones is to follow the old "darky's c EDUCATIONAL IMPROVEMENT. 387 New Problem. When the Negro passed from under the yoke he left a state of semi-barbarism behind him, put his feet for the first time within the domain of civilization, and immediately there sprang up before him a new problem of life, But that problem is not industrialism. That is simply the modification of an old condition ; for it is but the introduction of intelli- gence into the crudeness of the old slave-labor system. A Question. The other question, then, presents itself is not the Negro's elevation to come from the quickening and enlightenment of his higher nature? Is it to come from below or from above? Higher Culture. It seems manifest that the major factor in this work for the Negro is his higher culture. There is not dispute as to the need of industrialism. This is a universal condition of life everywhere. But there is not need of an undue and overshadowing exag- geration of it in the case of the Negro. A Result, not a Cause. And, first of all, industrial- ism itself is a result in man's civilization, not a cause. It may exist in a people and with much excellence for ages, and still that people may "lie in dull obstruction, " semi-barbarous and degraded. We see in all history large populations moving in all the planes of industrial life, both low and high, and yet paralyzed in all the high springs of action, and for the simple reason that the hand of man gets its cunning from the brain. And without the enlightened brain what is the hand of man more than the claw of a bird or the foot of a squirrel? In fine, without the enlightened brain, where is civili- zation. A New Factor. The Negro race, then, needs a new factor for its life and being, and this new factor must come from a more vitalizing source than any material 388 PROGRESS OF A RACE. condition. The end of industrialism is thrift, prosperity or gain. But civilization has a loftier object in view. It is to make men grander ; it is to exalt them in the scale of being ; and its main energy to this end is the "higher culture." Greatness Comes from Altitudes. Observe, then, just here, that "every good gift and every perfect gift conies from above. ' ' I have no hesitation in using this text (albeit thus abbreviated) as an aphorism. And what I wish to say in its interpretation is this, viz. , that all the greatness of men comes from altitudes. All the improvement, the progress, the culture, the civili- zation of men come from somewhere above. They never come from below ! Culture of Human Society. Just as the rains and dews come down from the skies and fall upon the hills and plains and spread through, the fields of earth with fertil- izing power, so, too, with the culture of human society. Some exalted man, some great people, some marvelous migration, some extraordinary and quickening culti- vation, or some divine revelation, "from above" must come to any people ere the processes of true and permanent elevation can begin among them. And this whole process I call civilization. A Heritage. If a more precise and definite meaning to this word is demanded, I reply that I use it as indicative of letters, literature, science and philosophy. In other words, that this Negro race is to be lifted up to the acquisition of the higher culture of the age. This culture is to be made a part of its heritage ; not at some distant day, but now and all along the development of the race. And no temporary fad of doubting or pur- blind philanthropy is to be allowed to make "industrial training' ' a substitute for it. EDUCATIONAL IMPROVEMENT. S80 Leaders. For, first of all, it is only a dead people who can be put into a single groove of life. And, next, every live people must have its own leaders as molders of its thought and determiners of its destiny : men, too, indigenous to the soil in race and blood. Thought Makes the World. It is thought that makes the world high, noble, prophetic, exalted and exalting thought. It is this that makes races and nations, industries and trades, farming and commerce ; and not the reverse of this, i. e., that these make thought and civilization. And without thought, yea, scientific thought, peoples will remain everlastingly children and underlings, the mere tools and puppets of the strong. From the Schools. And such thought, in these days, comes from the schools. The leaders of races must have wisdom, science, culture and philosophy. One such man has often determined the character and destiny of his race for centuries. Optned to the Negro Mind. This does not mean that noodles and numbskulls shall be sent to college; nor that every Negro shall be made a scholar ; nor that there shall be a waste of time and money upon inca- pacity. No one can make a thimble hold the contents of a bucket ! But what it does mean is this, that the whole world of scholarship shall be opened to the Negro mind ; and that it is not to be fastened, temporarily or permanently to the truck -patch or to the hoe, to the anvil or to the plane ; that the Negro shall be allowed to do his own thinking in any and every sphere, and not to have that thinking relegated to others. It means that when genius arises in this race and elects, with flaming torch, to push its way into the grand arcanum of philosophy or science or imagination, no bar shall ISliHii'i, 390 EDUCATIONAL IMPROVEMENT. 891 be raised against its entrance ; albeit it be incarnated in a form deeply tinged with "The shadowed livery of the burnished sun." Conclusions. I submit: 1. That civilization is the foremost, deepest need of the Negro race. 2. That the " higher culture" is its grandest source. 3. That the gift to the Negro of the scientific mind, by Fisk and Clark and Lincoln, and Oberlin and Howard and Yale, and Harvard and other colleges, is of the most incalculable value to the black race. United Action. There is probably no dissent from the above opinion of Dr. Crummell. Even the leaders in industrial education have repeatedly declared them- selves in favor of the broadest culture possible. While there may be differences of opinion in the practical working, yet all are laboring diligently for the one great end the elevation of the race. Educational Institutions. It is impossible in the brief space allotted to us to make special mention of many of the excellent schools for the colored race. Some that are not mentioned we would have been glad to mention, but were unable to secure the need- ed information. This chapter is prepared at .a time when the schools are closed. No doubt when the forms are closed much of the desired informa- tion will be at hand, too late to use. We have done the best with the facts at hand. In the last chapter will be found statistics of all schools of the colored race. Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute. This institution was opened in April, 1868. In 1870 It was chartered by special act of the General Assembly of Virginia. It is not owned or controlled by state or 392 PROGRESS OF A RACE. government, but by a board of seventeen trustees, representing different sections of the country, and six religious denominations, no one of which has a majority. Object. The object of its founders was to train selected Negro youth so that they could go out and teach and lead their people, first, by example, and by getting land and homes, to give them not a dollar they could earn for this, to teach respect for labor, 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 labor, but also for the sake of character. From the first it has been true to the idea of education by self-support. Nothing is asked for the student that he can provide by his own labor. Annual Cost. The school is maintained at an annual cost of about $175,000; deducting the labor payments of Negro students, say $55,000, $120,000. This is pro- vided for in part by one-third of the amount allowed the state of Virginia under the Land Grant Act and the Morrill Act in aid of agricultural schools, by an appro- priation from Congress to pay the board, etc., of 120 Indians, with aid from the Slater and Peabody funds. The large balance is met by contributions from friends of the Negro and Indian races. Valuation of Property. The cost or the valuation of property owned by the institution is about $600,000. There are about fifty buildings. The home farm con- sists of 150 acres, the grass and dairy farm, four miles distant, 600 acres. Both are cultivated by students, and the products used or sold. Enrollment. The enrollment for the years 1896 and 1897 is as follows: Negro young men, 305; Negro young women, 187; making a total of 492, Indian EDUCATIONAL IMPROVEMENT. /*'* 893 young men, 87; Indian young women, 51; total, 138. Besides these there are 320 children in the Whittier School, or primary department, making a total of 950 students, representing twenty states and territories. Teachers and Officers. There are 80 teachers, officers, assistants and managers about half of whom arc in the industrial department, Girls' Industries. Housework, laundering, sewing, tailoring, dressmaking, cooking, and training in the use of carpenter's tools. Boys' Industries. Farming, carpentering, house painting, wheelwrighting, tailoring, harness making, printing, engineering, machine knitting, floriculture, and the machinists' trade. Graduates. Nine-tenths of the 909 Negro graduates, besides many undergraduates, have done good work in teaching, and about three-fourths have made it their life work. They are also earnest workers in the Sun- day school, and in behalf of temperance. The thirty-thousand free Negro schools of the South need nothing so much as well-trained teachers. Vir- ginia's twenty-five hundred colored schools are not nearly supplied. No harvest field in the land, or in the world, is more urgent than this. Trade Schools. The need of a trade school to equip young men who could not only do good work themselves but also reach others has long been felt, and in the fall of 1896 a large and thoroughly equipped building was opened, followed by a very successful term, and another building of similar size is now going up in which the young men receive a like training in domestic science. Field Missionary. One of the colored graduates is employed as field missionary, whose work is to visit graduates and ex-students, their homes, schools, farms. 394 PROGRESS OF A RACE. shops, and also to keep the school informed as to what they are doing, to assure them of continued interest in their welfare and usefulness, and to encourage and help them to be in their communities ministers of Christ, cultivating industrious habits and intelligent labor. He visits schools for the purpose of selecting good student material for Hampton. Negro Education. The North and South are work- ing together for the Negro for whose education no less than $4,000,000 annually in taxation and donations are raised. Agriculture. The need of developing and improving agricultural work in the school, always a prominent feature, has take,n new impetus and a thoroughly organ- ized system for teaching agriculture scientifically and practically has been introduced. Seventy-five per cent, of the Southern Negroes are still renters of land held under a mortgage system in a very real sort of slavery. Outgrowth of Hampton. Tuskegee, Calhoun, Mt. Meigs, Gloucester, Kittrell, Laurenceville, and other outgrowths of Hampton are showing what can be done, toward helping the people to get land for their own and making them self-respecting citizens. "The Southern Workman." This is the paper pub- lished by the school and is a great help in bringing to the country a knowledge of the true condition of the Negro. It probably gives fuller and juster information regarding the condition and wants of the Southern col- ored people than any other periodical. A Record of Its Work. If any one should doubt as to the advisability of educating the Negro we would recommend the reading of the volume, " Twenty- two Years' Work of Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute. ' ' This certainly must satisfy every one that EDUCATIONAL IMPROVEMENT. 395 the colored people are improving both in morals and intelligence; that they are becoming less dependent upon the charities of the white race, and that they now see that it is no disgrace to work. A Remarkable Record. This volume gives a remark- able record of more than nine hundred graduates of Hampton. A large number of them are engaged in teaching, others are in the ministry, a number are merchants, and not a few are cultivating farms. Most of them have homes of their own and property worth from five hundred to five thousand dollars. Not the least benefit that Hampton is to the race is the influ- ence that these graduates exert in the communities in which they live. Fisk University is now in the thirty-second year of its existence. From its incipiency until today it has been under the auspices and fostering care of the American Missionary Association. The school was formally opened January 9, 1866, in the old army hospital west of the Chattanooga depot. In the year 1871 the univer- sity sent out a concert troupe, known as the Jubilee Singers. For seven years they sang with great accept- ance both in this country and in Europe, and realized the sum of $150,000, \vith which the present site of the university was bought and Jubilee Hall was erected. There now stand upon the university grounds five beautiful brick buildings, the Memorial Chapel, built of stone, and one frame building. The present plant of the university could not be replaced with $350,000. The campus comprises thirty-five acres of land, and the site is universally conceded to be one of the most beautiful about Nashville. From the beginning the university has stood for the higher education of the colored race; and, although it embraces departments 396 PROGRESS *F A RACE. of domestic science and industrial training, the empha- sis is laid upon its classical course of study. Since 1875 there have been graduated 163 from college and 150 from the normal department, making a total of 313, or an average of ten alumni for each of the thirty years of the university's existence. This is a good showing of the work done by the school, when we remember that it started thirty-two years ago with freedmen who had not more than the barest elements of primary educa- tion. In addition to the college and normal alumni, there have been graduated five from the theological department, which is only four years old, and six from the department of music, Work of the Alumni. The excellence of the work done in Fisk University has elicited again and again the warmest praise of the friends of higher education. Nearly all the alumni are holding positions of honor and trust Eight of the teachers at Tuskegee are grad- uates from Fisk University. For a number of years the presidents and most of the faculty of Alcorn Industrial College, at Rodney, Mississippi, have been alumni from Fisk. The same thing is true of the State Normal School at Hempstead, Texas. An alumnus of Fisk, who was recently professor of Greek and Latin at Wil- berforce University, then had a fellowship in the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania, is now professor of economics in Atlanta University. Another alumnus is instructor in Greek in Howard University, in Washington; and still another is instructor in Hebrew and Old Testament literature in his Alma Mater. Eight of the alumni have done missionary work in Africa, The young woman who is in charge of the musical department in Booker T. Washington's School at Tuskegee is a graduate in music from Fisk. The reputation of the school for 897 398 PROGRESS OF A RACE. broad and thorough scholarship has gone throughout the South, and the president, E. M. Cravath, D. D., often receives applications for teachers from school superin- tendents and principals in different sections of the South. The character of the work done in Fisk 13 ni- versity has gained for it the confidence of the people in the North as well as in the South; and, as a conse- quence, from twenty-three to twenty-five states are annually represented among the students. Berea College. The founder of Berea College, Rev. J. G. Fee, was convinced of the evil of slavery while taking a course at Lane Seminary, Ohio. On account of his anti-slavery views his father disinherited him. Before he became an abolitionist his father had given him a farm in Indiana, which he sold for $2,400 and spent the whole of it in buying and liberating a female slave, raised and married on the plantation, to prevent her being sold away. Mr. Fee early began his work of teaching and preaching, but was frequently interrupted by disturbances from slave holders. In 1858 the first charter for Berea was drawn up. It opposed sectarian- ism, slave holding, and every other wrong institution or practice. On account of the persecution of all men holding anti-slavery views, Mr. Fee and his associates were compelled to flee from the state. Some of them endured much from the hands of the mob. John G. Hanson, one of the trustees of the college, and for a short time a teacher, was almost miraculously protected from a mob. Several efforts were made to return to Kentucky, but nothing could be done until the close of the war. In 1865 the school was opened, and a charter for the college was obtained. Three colored youths asked admission, and but one decision was pos- sible to men like Mr. Fee and his associates. The EDUCATIONAL IMPROVEMENT. 399 morning that these three harmless youths walked in, half the school walked out. But these brave teach- ers kept on with their work. The vacancies made by the white deserters were soon filled with colored stu- dents, and eventually all who left returned and became fast friends of Berea. At no time have the colored pupils exceeded two-thirds of the school. The evils which were predicted have never appeared. There is no school in the state more easily governed than this. The ques- tion whether the colored pupils are not necessarily a drag upon the school would never be asked by one who had any fair criterion by which to judge. A certain amalgamation which was to follow is all in the future. The school regulations make no distinctions whatever on account of color. They recite in the same classes, eat at the same table, room in the same buildings, attend the same meetings, and meet in all general social gatherings. In 1869 E. H. Fairchild was called to the presidency of Berea College. Besides the build- ings, which are estimated at $82,000, the college owns three acres of land, not including the ground about the buildings, worth about $15,000. It has an endowment of about $100,000 besides the land. In 1892 Professor W. G. Frost, of Oberlin, was called to the presidency. The following paper, signed by such men as George Cable, Herrick Johnson, Frederick Douglas, Josiah Strong, Cassius Clay, M. D. Mayo and others, will suggest Berea' s work and influence. "The peculiar work and opportunity of Berea Col- lege place it quite apart from all other institutions, and give it a special claim upon the attention of every Christian and patriot. Situated near the center of pop- ulation, and furnishing an education of the best type- industrial, normal, collegiate to multitudes who would DINING HALL AND DORMITORY. HOSPITAL. PRESIDENT S RESIDENCE. JJ THE NEW DORMITORY THE NEW BUILDINGS SPELMAN SEMINARY, ATLANTA, GA. 400 EDUCATIONAL IMPROVEMENT. 401 otherwise fail of such advantages, it exerts a potent in- fluence in favor of progressive and Christian ideas. But beyond this, having been founded by anti-slavery Ken- tuckians before the war, and having shown a courage that compels respect, Berea is in a position to do an un- paralleled sendee in opposing the spirit of caste and ef- facing sectional lines. Berea is distinctively Christian, but controlled by no sect, and there is no denominational school which has before it this providential opening. Until larger endowments can be secured, about $12,000 must be procured each year from friends of the cause. We not only seek the large benefactions of the rich, but earnestly invite every one who approves of this work to contribute, according to his ability, any sum from $5 to 5,000." SPELMAN SEMINARY. Work of a Generation. The contrast between a slave pen of a generation ago, with its chain-gang, its auction block, its profanity, vulgarity and other acces- sories, and a modern school for Negro girls, like Spel- man Seminary, with its beautiful buildings, its attrac- tive rooms, its chapel and Bible, its corps of Christian workers, the smiling faces of hundreds of pupils bud- ding into strong and useful womanhood, is wonderfully suggestive of the new era that has dawned for the Negroes of the South. Surely, we have reason to thank God and take courage. Beginning. The evolution of Spelman Seminary is one of the marvels of the age. Beginning in a damp, dark, desolate basement of a colored^ Baptist church, without any of the accessories needed for successful work, with two teachers and less than a dozen pupils, it has, within the last fourteen years, grown to be the largest, best equipped school for colored girls in the 26 Progress. EDUCATIONAL IMPROVEMENT. world. It has a most choice location, with a magnifi- cent outlook over the surrounding country ; has build- ings specially suited for its need ; has a large and able faculty of devoted teachers ; an attendance of pupils numbered by the hundreds ; a constituency of friends and patrons rapidly extending in numbers and interest ; and has made for itself a large place in the educational forces of the South, and established a reputation of the very highest order. Opening. Spelman Seminary was opened on the nth of April, 1881, in the basement of Friendship Baptist church. Two ladies, Miss S. B. Packard and H. E. Giles, journeyed south that they might have a better knowledge of the condition of the freedmen. This visit opened their eyes to the appalling need of help for the colored women and girls. They came north and, after many discouraging efforts, they suc- ceeded in raising funds to start the school. Arriving at Atlanta, they at once called on Pastor Quarles, the leading colored Baptist minister of the state. When he learned their mission, he said: "While I was pray- ing, the Lord answered. ' ' For fifteen years I have been pleading with God to send teachers to the Baptist women of Georgia, and now you have come. ' ' Rev. Frank Quarles. The enthusiasm of this man to establish the work among the colored women was great and he was anxious lest the teachers should become discouraged. He went North to enlist the sympathies of the people and to get further support for the school. His last words to the school were : * * I am going North for you. I may never return. Remember, if I die, I die for you and in a good cause. ' ' To his people he said: "Take care of those ladies who have come to us as angels of mercy. Don't let them suffer." The 404 PROGRESS OF A RACE. northern climate was too severe for his Southern consti- tution, and he died in New York at the home of his son. The Second Year. During the second year 175 were enrolled, one-third of them were of ages ranging from twenty-five to fifty years, and had known and felt the evils of slavery. Touching were the incidents showing the eagerness and perseverance of these women. Often were they laughed at and even persecuted, be- cause they showed a determination to get a little light. Some walked seven and eight miles to and from school, hardly missing a day, even in the severest \\-eather. The Coal Bin. In January, 1882, the school was so large two of the recitations were already heard in the main room; a third teacher, Miss Champney, took as her recitation room the coal bin, in which there was one small window. Rockefeller Hall. Miss Packard and Miss Giles went North in 1 88 2 to secure funds for the school. When some thousands had been raised, Mr. John D. Rockefeller came to their relief and gave a large sum, and the school was named Spelman Seminary in honor of Mr. Spelman, the father of Mrs. Rockefeller. Rockefeller Hall was dedicated in 1886. It contains recitation rooms, dormi- tories, and a beautiful chapel, on whose walls is inscribed the motto: ''Our whole school for Christ." Giles Hall. In 1892 Mr. Rockefeller again presented the institution with a building 170 feet long and four stories high, and requested that it should be called Giles Hall. On the first floor are a large school room and ten class rooms for the use of the primary department ; on the second floor are similar rooms for the interme- diate department ; the third floor contains a laboratory and science lecture room, commodious recitation rooms EDUCATIONAL IMPROVEMENT. 405 for the normal and training and missionary training -classes, and dormitories for the students of these depart- ments. The building was dedicated in December, 1893. Buildings. Spelman Seminary now has six brick buildings, four frame dormitories, and a frame hospital for the sick, and about fourteen acres of land. The property is now estimated at about $150,000. Enrollment. The aggregate enrollment for fifteen years has been about 6,500. Fifty-one certificates have been given in the nurse training department. Ninety-two have gone out from the academic depart- ment, a majority of whom are teachers. Two are on the Congo as missionaries ; one, a Congo girl, was sent to be educated, and returned in 1895 as an appointed missionary from the Woman's Baptist Missionary Society of Boston. Success. The success which has attended this work has proved how valuable and important normal train- ing is. There are hundreds whose circumstances would not allow them to remain longer in school who have gone out to do efficient services and become centers of influences for good in the communities where they live. Teachers. The number of teachers has greatly in- creased, until at present there are 38. The Women's American Baptist Missionary Society provided for a number of these; the Slater Fund for others, while some of them labor unselfishly and faithfully with onfy a meager salary. Influence. -Spelman Seminar} 7 is a power for good. It is to the colored women of the South all that Vassar is to the white women of the North. It is an enterprise of quick gr ,wth and phenomenal proportion. Prof. -Wm, E, Holmes. The Negro Baptists of the 406 PROGRESS OF A RACE. South show their appreciation of the school by the hundreds who have already enlisted as members. The intelligent interest and co-operation of Prof. Holmes, formerly of the Baptist Seminary, from the very com- mencement have been of inestimable value, a means of elevating the race. The colored people more and more appreciate the worth and work of this noble sem- inary. They feel they have now a training home for their daughters where correct discipline is administered by consecrated Christian women, who give their lives, while many give their money, to prepare toilers for service as a means in the elevation" of the race. Spel- man is invaluable and indispensable. Nora A. Gordon, Nora A. Gordon was born in Columbia, Georgia, in 1866. Her parents were formerly slaves, belonging to the well- known General Gor- don, from whom they received their name. She attended the pub- 1 i c schools of La Grange, Georgia, where she resided. In the fall of 1882 she entered Spelman Seminar}-. She was ignorant and super- stitious, and had many mistaken ideas about religion. She soon became a Christian, and joined the Baptist Church of Atlanta. She then NORA A. GORDON, Missionary in Africa. EDUCATIONAL IMPROVEMENT. 407 began organizing temperance societies, Sunday schools, and caused family altars to be erected in the homes of her pupils. She was a diligent student, completing the course in Spelman in 1888, and at once accepted the position as teacher in one of the Atlanta public schools, but in 1889 an urgent call came for her to go to Africa. She said: "Christ's preciousness to me makes me feel that I wish my feet had wings, that I might hasten to take the Bread of Life to the poor heathen. I have counted the cost of missionary service, and my love for Christ makes me willing to bear the many peculiar trials through which I am confident I must pass. ' * At the farewell services in Atlanta she said: "This has been a peculiar day to me, the happiest of my life, as I am so soon to realize a long cherished hope. I feel that perfect peace which passeth understanding. "Some friends have asked me why I go, What may my reason be; You have my answer in these words, 'God's love constraineth me.' " Miss Gordon labored in Africa until 1893, when broken-down health compelled her to return to Amer- ica, but in 1895, her health being restored, she was married to Rev. S. C. Gordon, of Stanley Pool, and again returned to the Congo. Bishop Hapgood says: "No money apportioned by me from 1882 till 1891 was ever better used than that I gave to Spelman. Whatever concerns bodily, mental or spiritual health is considered and provided for at Spelman. The houses and premises are clean ; the discipline and instruction are of the very best; the atmosphere is religious. ' ' Clara Howard. Clara Howard was born in Green- ville, Georgia. At nine years of age she entered a little 4oa EDUCATIONAL IMPROVEMENT. 409 private school and afterwards Atlanta University, where she remained nearly three years. Afterwards she en- tered Spelman Seminary, and graduated in 1887, and was at once appointed teacher in the Atlanta public schools. vShe was appointed missionary to the Congo, in 1890. where she remained until 1894, when she was compelled by ill health to leave her work, and returned to Spel- man. She hopes again to take up her chosen work after regaining health. Atlanta Baptist Seminary. The work of this semi- nary was begun in 1871, and carried on for some years at Augusta, Georgia, but in 1879 it was removed to the capital of the state and buildings erected at a cost of $12,500. The special aim of the school is the education of preachers and such teachers as can be classed with them profitably. A strong sentiment in favor of edu- cation of young women was soon developed after the removal of the school to Atlanta. The Spelman Girls' School and Atlanta Baptist Seminary are located on almost the same grounds. The site contains about eight acres. The colored people of the state have taken a deep interest in the work, and have succeeded in rais- ing money for the purpose. The future work of the school is great, the developing of thought among the 100,000 colored Baptists in the Empire State of the South. In 1888 a new site of eighteen acres was pur- chased in West Atlanta. The new buildings cost $30,- ooo. The value of the property at present is $40,000. Clark University, like most schools of its kind, had' an humble beginning. Starting as an ordinary grade school, in the city of Atlanta, in the year 1869, it has come, through various changes of fortune, to be what it is today the largest and best located of the schools of the Freedmen's Aid Society of the Methodist Epis- 410 EDUCATIONAL IMPROVEMENT. 411 copal Church. Confined for many years to narrow quarters in the city, it was moved to its present spacious site in the year 1880, when its first new building 1 , Chris- man Hall, was erected. Its charter was secured in 1877, and the first meeting of the trustees took place on the fifteenth day of Feb- ruary of that year. The land, 450 acres, was secured through the untir- ing efforts and far sightedness of Bishop Gilbert Haven, and its first building owes its existence chiefly to the generosity and benevolence of Mrs. Eliza Chrisman, of Topeka, Kansas. From 1880 to 1884, Bishop Henry W. Warren made his home at the institution, and rendered to it the most substantial aid it has had since its foundation. It was in this period that the industrial department, under the patronage of Bishop Warren, came into being depart- ments that had steady and rapid growth, and continued in operation until two years ago, when, because of the great financial stringency, they were closed yet with the hope of opening again. In these departments were taught carpentry, blacksmithing, carriage making, carriage painting, harness making, and printing. Sim- ultaneously with the establishment of the shops, was also established the ' * Model Home, ' ' for the instruction of girls in all domestic arts and duties. This home accommodates twenty pupils. No department of the institution has been richer in good results. In the year 1883, the Gammon School of Theology was founded in connection with Clark University, by Rev. Elijah H. Gammon, of Batavia, Illinois. This school remained a department of the university until the year 1888, when it became a separate institution tinder the corporate name of Gammon Theological Seminary. 412 PROGRESS OF A RACE. The property of the university, situated just outside the city limits, is at present valued at $400,000. Its value will be enhanced, probably, twice, that sum, as the city pushes out around and about it. With proper management, the school has unlimited possibilities for good. Knowles Uuilding. Boys' Hall. Stone Hall. Girls' Hall. Model Hor ATLANTA UNIVERSITY. Atlanta University, originally under the auspices of the American Missionary Association, but now inde- pendent and unsectarian, was organized in the year 1 869. Its organization was largely due to the energy and foresight of Rev. Edmund Asa Ware, who became its first .president, and continued in that position twenty years, or up to the time of his death. The school had phe- nomenal growth during those twenty years, and became, perhaps, -the best known institution of its kind in the j South. It offers its advantages to both sexes, without regard to race, color or nationality. The property of the- school is valued at about" $200,- ooo, and is situated on a commanding elevation in the city, easily accessible by the- streetcars, which, indeed, run through its .grounds: Like most schools of its kind -in the South, it has some EDUCATIONAL IMPROVEMENT. 413 industrial features, but unlike the other schools, it has. now no grade work, that work having been discontinued three " years ago. The efforts of the institution are now directed solely toward building up a college proper. The standard is being gradually raised, and it is the laudable ambition of the authorities to have here, in the Central South, a university worthy of the name, that shall supply the educational needs of the people. Work of the Graduates of Atlanta University. As an encouragement to prospective students to attend Atlanta University, and to friends of Southern educa- tion to support its work, the following somewhat detailed statement is presented showing the marked success the graduates have had in securing not only remunerative positions for their own self-support, but also opportunities for the widest usefulness in the work of uplifting their race. The statements are taken from a recently printed leaflet concerning the work of its graduates. Of the 104 graduates, twelve have died. Of the ninety-two now living, eleven are ministers, four are physicians, two are lawyers, one is a dentist, forty-nine are teachers, one is a medical student, ten are in the service of the United States, five are in other kinds of business, two are married women not otherwise designated, and the occupation of one is unknown. Ministers. Three of the ministers are pastors of Congregational churches in the cities of Chattanooga, Tennessee; Selma, Alabama, and Savannah, Georgia; one is pastor of a Baptist church in Charleston, South Carolina; three of the Methodist churches in Griffin, Georgia; San Francisco, California, and Portsmouth, 414 PROGRESS OF A RACE. Virginia; one is chaplain of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute and dean of its Bible School; another is secretary of the International Sunday School Convention; another is the general secretary of the Baptist Negro churches in Georgia ; another is missionary of the American Baptist Publication Society. One of the above has been presiding elder of the African Methodist Episcopal churches in Sierra Leone, Africa. All the churches named are centers of great power and wide influence. Some of these ministers have made addresses in national and international assemblages, one is a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, and one has had the unique honor of being a member of the board of education in a large Southern city for eleven successive years. Teachers. Many of the teachers hold high positions. Ten are principals of public schools and three of high schools. Others are designated as follows: professor of Latin and Greek in Clark University, Atlanta, Georgia; teacher of music in Savannah, Georgia; pres- ident of the State Industrial College of Georgia; principal of Howard Normal School, Cuthbert, Georgia; professor of Greek in Morris Brown College, Atlanta, Georgia; vice-principal of State Normal and Indus- trial College, Prairie View, Texas; vice-president of Territorial Normal, Langston, Oklahoma; principal of Knox Institute, Athens, Georgia; superintendent of the Industrial Department in Biddle University, Charlotte, North Carolina; professor of Modern Lan- guages, History and Pedagogy, and vice-president in Lincoln Institute, Jefferson City, Missouri; president of the Florida Baptist College, Jacksonville, Florida; southern secretary of Atlanta University ; professor of EDUCATIONAL IMPROVEMENT. 415 Pedagogy in Atlanta University; professor of Natural Science in the State Normal School, Frankfort, Ken- tucky; principal of the Georgia Normal and Industrial Institute, Greensboro, Georgia; principal of Walker Institute, Augusta, Georgia; professor of Latin and Greek in Bennett College, Greensboro, North Caro- lina; superintendent of Mechanical Department of Knox Institute, Athens, Georgia; teacher of Science in the J. K. Brick Normal and Agricultural School, Enfield, North Carolina ; assistant superintendent of the Mechanical Department in Tougaloo University, Tougaloo, Mississippi. Other Professions. The four physicians are located in Denver, Colorado; St. Joseph, Missouri; Savannah, Georgia, and Atlanta, Georgia. All of them were among the very first in their classes in the medical schools that they attended. The two lawyers are practicing severally in Boston, Massachusetts, and Augusta, Georgia, and are suc- cessful in their profession. One is a Master in Chan- cery by appointment of the governor of his state. The one dentist lives in Atlanta and has an extensive practice. One of these graduates was a lieutenant in the army during the Spanish War and is now a captain of U. S. Volunteers, serving at Manila. Another was pay- master with the rank of major. Civil and Political Service, Several of the grad- uates who are clerks in the United States service in Washington have taken a full course in law or medi- cine. And when it is considered that this lias required several hours of hard work in the evening after a full day at the office, for months and years, one can under- 416 PROGRESS OF A RACE. stand that they have grit and perseverance. Then three at least have been mail agents on railroads under four successive administrations and have suc- cessfully passed the severe examination required and conquered the violent opposition that has risen against them from various sources. The peculiar conditions existing in the South have prevented these graduates from becoming prominent in political affairs. Yet one of them has been a member of three successive National Republican conventions and another has represented his county in the Georgia legislature, while a third has served two terms in the Texas legislature, being elected by the aid of the votes of Southern white men in a predominantly white com- munity. Normal Trained Teachers. Most of these teachers are located in Georgia, but some are in North Carolina, Missouri, Tennessee, Arkansas, Texas, Alabama, Mis- sissippi, Louisiana and Florida. Of the forty-four teachers in the colored public schools of Atlanta, thirty received their education in Atlanta University. One of these has been in continuous service, until two years ago, ever since colored teachers began to be employed, in 1874, and others nearly as long. Two have been in the same school in Savannah since 1876. While most are teaching in public schools, several are in private insti- tutions. One is the founder and principal of the Haines Normal and Industrial Institute in Augusta, Georgia, a large and important school, in which two others are assistants; another is the founder and princi- pal of the Shepard School in Macon ; three are teachers in the Morris Brown College in Atlanta, an institu- tion of high grade under the auspices of the African EDUCATIONAL IMPROVEMENT. 417 Methodist Episcopal church ; another is the founder and manager of an orphans' home and school in Covington; another is principal of an American Missionary Associa- tion school in Marshallville ; two are teachers in the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, besides two of our college graduates, while two are wives of prominent teachers there and participate in the work ; and another is teacher of elocution in Atlanta Uni- versity. Almost every one of these graduates is a Christian and is doing Christian work in church, Sunday-school and home, and is exerting a strong influence for good in the community in which he lives. They are leaders in temperance organizations, sociological clubs and teachers' associations, and are found in the front ranks of every social reform movement. In a large measure they are moulders of public sentiment and are helping in a quiet way to solve some of the perplexing prob- lems of these troublous times. Although they are reformers in the best sense of the word, they are an eminently conservative social element. The Atlanta Conference. Atlanta University rec- ognizes that it is its duty as a seat of learning to throw as much light as possible upon the intricate social problems affecting the American Negro, both for the enlightenment of its own graduates and for the information of the general public. It has, therefore, during the last five years sought to unite its graduates, the graduates of similar institutions, and educated Negroes in general throughout the country in an effort to study carefully and thoroughly certain definite aspects of Negro problems. Six conferences have been held, and the proceedings 27 Progress. 418 PROGRESS OF A RACE. of each have been published by the Atlanta University Press, upon: "Mortality among Negroes in Cities," "Social and Physical Condition of Negroes in Cities," "Some Efforts of American Negroes for Their Own Social Betterment," "The Negro in Business," "The College-bred Negro," and the sixth on "Public Education." Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute. In 1881 the Alabama legislature passed a bill appropriating $2,000 yearly for the support of a school at Tuskegee for the education of Negro youth. General Armstrong was asked to suggest a suitable man to establish and direct the work, and he recommended Booker T. Wash- ington. The district in which the school is located is one in which the black people outnumber the whites three to one. Here, on the fourth of June, 1881, he opened the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in a small church and shanty. Since that time the insti- tution has grown until it has now 80 instructors, about 40 buildings, and over 800 students, all over fourteen years of age, the average age being eighteen and one- half years. Students come from twenty-four states. From the first industrial training has been a prominent feature of this school. This is kept uppermost, to train men and women in head, heart and hand ; to meet con- ditions that exist right about them rather than conditions that existed centuries ago, or that exist a thousand miles away. The institution is Christian, but not denominational. Professor Washington says it is not the type of Christianity that prevails in some places among the colored race, where, as an example, is told the story of the colored man who went to his weekly class meeting and said to his class leader, "I's had a ha'd time since our las' meetin' ; I's been sometimes EDUCATIONAL IMPROVEMENT. 419 up and sometimes down. 'Spects I's broken eb'ry one ob de ten comman'ments since our las' meetin', but I tanks God I's not los' my 'ligionyet." In connection with literature and Christian training the students are trained in industrial pursuits. Over twenty-four hundred acres of land are owned by the institute, 650 of which are cultivated. The students receive instruction in various branches of agriculture, horticulture, dairy products, brick masonry, wheel- wrighting, blacksmithing, tinning, carpentering, paint- ing, shoemaking, tailoring, dressmaking, and various branches of industrial training, besides preparing men and women as teachers, preachers, physicians, lawyers, clerks, merchants, machinists, etc. This system enables them to make practical application of the theories which they learn in the class room. The principles of physics are immediately applied in the machine shop, those of chemistry in farming and cooking, those of mathematics in carpentering, etc. There are no idlers in Tuskegee. They erect their own buildings, even manufacturing every brick ; they also do the carpenter and other work. Thus the institute secures buildings for permanent use with a minimum of expense, and the students have the industrial training. This also helps the young men and women to get rid of any old idea they may have had that labor is disgraceful ; that it is beneath one to use his hands if he has any education. The Tuskegee property is now valued at $300,000, on which there is no mortgage. One great difficulty in endeavoring to better the condition of the Southern Negro is the "mort- gage system," which makes them virtually the property of well-to-do planters, taking away all their independ- ence, ambition and self-respect. They live in little cabins, and try to pay sometimes 40 per cent, interest 420 PROGRESS OF A RACE. on their property and on their crops, which are often mortgaged before they are raised. The result in pov- erty and lack of hope for better things can be imagined. Tuskegee Institute is seeking to find arid apply a rem- edy for this state of things. This work they do not consider hopeless or even discouraging. The Negroes acknowledge their ignorance and low condition, but they think that there is no help for it. What they need is intelligent and unselfish leadership in their religious, industrial and intellectual life, and this is what the Tuskegee institution is endeavoring to give them. The trouble is that these people do not know how to utilize the results of their labor. What they earn gets away from them in paying mortgages, and in buying lace, snuff, and cheap jewelry. They have not yet learned the distinctions between cheap and showy imitations of wealth and education, and the culture and refinement which only comes by slow and labored progress. A one-roomed cabin will sometimes have clocks bought on the installment plan for $12, when, in nine cases out of ten, not one in the family can tell when the hands point to six o'clock and when to twelve; or a family will mortgage a year's crop to pay for a funeral or a wedding. Tuskegee has already succeeded in reforming many districts. At the time of their emancipation practically all of the Negroes lived in one-room cabins ; ten years ago nine-tenths of them lived in the same way ; whereas today one-third of them have at least doubled their accommodations, and many of them own their farms and homes. The students who come to Tuskegee from wretched, single-roomed hovels, go back to transform them into homes where peace and purity can thrive. Already the graduates of the institution are in great EDUCATIONAL IMPROVEMENT. 421 demand all over the South, and other schools are apply- ing the Tuskegee principles and methods of education. The chief requisites for admission to the institute are a good moral character, attested by recommendations from reliable persons, a good physique and a fair ability to read, write and cipher. No student who cannot read and write will be admitted to the institute. No student is admitted to any department on any terms under four- teen years of age ; this rule is rigidly enforced. Ten years ago a young man born in slavery found his way to the Tuskegee school. By small cash payments and work on the farm he finished the course with a good English education and a practical and theoretical knowledge of farming. Returning to his country home, where five-sixths of the citizens were black, he found them still mortgaging their crops, living on rented land from hand to mouth, and deeply in debt. School had never lasted longer than three months, and was taught in a wreck of a cabin by an inferior teacher. Finding this condition of things, the young man took the three months' public school as a starting point. Soon he organized the older people into a club that came together every week. In these meetings the young man taught them the value of owning a home, the evils of mortgaging, and the importance of educating their children. He taught them how to save money, how to sacrifice to live on bread and potatoes until they got out of debt, begin buying a home and stop mortgaging. Through the lessons and influence of these meetings during the first year of this young man's work, these people built by their contributions and labor a good frame school house, which replaced the wreck of a log cabin. The next year this work was continued, and those people, by their own gifts, furnished funds for 422 PROGRESS OF A RACE. adding two months to the original school term. Month by month has been added to the school term, till it now lasts seven months every year. Already fourteen fam- ilies within a radius of ten miles have bought and are buying homes, a large proportion have ceased mortgag- ing their crops, and are raising their own food supplies. In the midst of all is the young man educated at Tusk- egee in a model cottage and a model farm that serve as a center of light for the whole community. A few years ago a young woman was educated and converted at Tuskegee. After her graduation she went to one of the plantations where they only had school for three months in the year in a broken-down log cabin. She took charge of the school, and went among the mothers and fathers of the pupils and found out what their resources were. She] taught them how to save money. The first year many men decided not to mort- gage their crops, but to provide suitable homes and a good schoolhouse. They added to the school term until now they have a season of eight months. The com- munity is transformed, and the very faces of the peo- ple show the revolution that has been wrought in their lives by that one Christian leader. Every improve- ment has come through this young woman in their midst showing them how to direct their efforts, how to take the money that had hitherto gone for mortgag- ing, snuff and tobacco, and to use it for their own uplifting. The Georgia State Industrial College was estab- lished in 1891, beginning its first regular session in October of that year. In the summer of 1891 a pre- liminary session was held in Athens, Georgia, while a permanent location was being selected for its establish- ment. EDUCATIONAL IMPROVEMENT. 423 Prof. R. R. Wright, A. M., who was a member of the class of 1876 of the Atlanta University, and who had been for eleven years principal of the Ware High School of Augusta, was chosen as its first President. RICHARD R. WRIGHT, A. M. President of Georgia State Industrial College See sketch, page 393. During the session at Athens, President Wright was assisted by Prof. L. B. Palmer and Mrs. Addrienne McNeal Herndon, both graduates of the Atlanta Uni- versity, 424 PROGRESS or A RACK. The Georgia State College was established in pursu- ance of an act of the state legislature in 1890, when the act of 1874 appropriating to the Atlanta University a sum of $8,000 per annum was repealed, and an enact- ment made providing for the establishment of a state school for colored youth. This institution is a branch of the State University now at Athens, so is under the general supervision of the Chancellor of the University of Georgia and its Board of Trustees. The Georgia State College is the only one of its kind in the state for the education of colored youth. A more beautiful as well as healthful situation for a col- lege could not be found in the state. The main buildings are Boggs Hall, the principal recitation building; Parson Hall, constituting the dormitory and dining hall ; and a shop for training in architectural and mechanical drawing, wood and iron working, masonry and decorating. In 1892 three neat cottages were erected as homes for the President and the professors. A magnificent chapel and model school building has just been completed, which stands as a monument to the industrial feature of the College. This building was erected entirely by the students, working under the direction of the principal of the Manual Train- ing department. This department was awarded a medal at the International Exposition held in Atlanta in 1895. There is a Normal Course of three years besides a regular College department. Industrial Training, which is one of the prominent features, extends throughout the entire course. The last year of this department, however, is elective. There have been eleven grad- uates from the Normal Course. There is also a Teachers' Training department for the benefit of those who contemplate entering that profession. EDUCATIONAL IMPROVEMENT. 425 Since its first session it has been necessary for the College to almost double the number of instructors, which evidences the steady growth of the institution. Its energetic and persevering President and his assist- ants have labored untiringly to make of this institution a first-class college for the industrial as well as intellect- ual training of the colored youth in the state. The enrollment has increased from forty-two for the first year to more than two hundred. At present there are no scholarships belonging to this institution, though needy students aid themselves by work. In connection with the College there is a farm containing fifty-four acres on which most of the necessary vege- tables are cultivated by student labor under the super- vision of an experienced agriculturist. As the result of the generosity of Miss Jennie E. Bill, of Norwich, Connecticut, and other friends, there is for the students an excellent library to which collections are being added from time to time. There are two literary societies, besides a Young Men's Chris- tian Association under whose direction are conducted the prayer meetings and other devotional exercises. The present faculty is composed of some of the best talent afforded by the race. Central Tennessee College. Central Tennessee Col- lege was chartered in 1866 by the legislature of Tennessee. It is supported by the Methodist Epis- copal Church. A large number of the students have engaged in teaching. Many of these teachers have charge of Sunday schools as well as day schools, thus aiding in the religious instruction of the communities where they labor. Many of them are professed Chris- tians. Some are successful preachers, while over three hundred have graduated in the medical depart- 426 PROGRESS OF A RACE. ment and are now practicing successfully. There are more than five million colored people in the South who are asking for more competent teachers, doctors, dentists, pharmacists and preachers, who can teach the people, better educated farmers and mechanics and more enlightened wives and mothers to lift the home life of the entire people. The aim of this school is to aid in this great work. With a history of nearly a third of a century, the different departments of the College, now fully organized, have accomplished a great work. This gives hope for the future. The College buildings consist of seven brick edifices. The "Tennesseeans" were a popular troupe who established a national reputation and delighted thou- sands of intelligent audiences with their popular plan- tation melodies. With the proceeds obtained by these gifted singers an elegant and commodious four-story brick structure was added to Central Tennessee College. Meharry Medical College. The Meharry Medical Department of Central Tennessee College was organ- ized in 1876, for the purpose of furnishing to the col- ored people of the South an opportunity of obtaining a medical education. At that time there was no med- ical school in the Southern states that would admit colored students, and in the North the doors of many of the medical colleges were closed against them. It takes its name from the generous and philanthropic family who so liberally contributed towards its estab- lishment and support. In 1879, through the munifi- cence of the Rev. Samuel Meharry, Shawnee Mound, Ind., and his brothers, Rev. Alexander Meharry, D.D., and Hugh Meharry, Esq., aided by Rev. R. S. Rust, D.D., corresponding secretary of the Freedmen's MEHARRY MEDICAL COLLEGE, Nashville, Tennessee. 427 428 PROGRESS OF A RACE. Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, a lot was purchased, and the beautiful and commodious brick building, now known as the Meharry Medical College, was erected. This school has conferred the degree of M. D. on 308 students, nearly all of whom are now engaged in the successful practice of their profession. They have been kindly received by the white physicians, whose uniform testimony is that the colored physicians sent out by this school give evidence of very thorough prep- aration for their work. More than one-half of the educated colored physicians in the Southern states are graduates of this institution. The success of this department is largely due to the untiring zeal and energy of Dr. Hubbard, who has for so many years stood at the head of this department. Dr. Hubbard is probably better informed on the work done by colored physicians of the South than any other man. Meharry Medical college stands today as the most prominent of all the medical schools for colored people. Ninety-six per cent of her graduates are practicing medicine. Leland University, New Orleans, La. Leland Uni- versity was founded, as its name implies, for high- er education, a just provision for which is the essential factor in all education, as its source and mainspring. It was founded in New Orleans, a great center of the region of the greatest illiteracy and therefore of greatest need. It was by its founder and its charter opened to all classes of citizens, without distinction of sex or color, and therefore became avail- able, as it was intended to be, to the descendants of the class which was at that time most needy, because of having been shut out from the privilege of educa- tion. EDUCATIONAL IMPROVEMENT. 429 At first it was found that this class were unprepared for higher education, not having received the lower, and to accommodate them a temporary provision of primary instruction was made in the university. After thirty years of opportunity and, in view of the progress which the people have made, in both primary and sec- ondary education, a similar necessity no longer exists. During the first year of the work of the present faculty (session of 1887-88) there were 185 students enrolled, of whom 109 were primary scholars, 76 of the grammar school grade, and only 14 in the normal department, with no college students. For three years about 90 per cent, of our students were below the normal grade, and of these over a hundred were primary, crowding our rooms and our classes with a heterogeneous mass of beginners in the very rudiments of knowledge. By authority of the Board in 1890 was commenced the work of establishing auxiliary schools in the state for primary work. Howe Institute, Alexandria High School and Leland Academy at Donaldsonville, were among the first inaugurated, the object being to bring preparatory work nearer to the people and thus make it available to a larger number. At the same time the terms of ad- mission were, by order of the trustees, raised in the uni- versity to prevent competition with country schools, and to improve the work in the higher classes. The plant- ing of these schools has stimulated others, until now ten such institutions exist, where an eight months' course of study like our preparatory department has been given this year to 1,276 pupils, more than ten times as many as could have come to New Orleans if they had desired to do so. Three of these schools are directly auxiliary to Leland. The names of their teachers and pupils appear in its catalogue, and their 430 EDUCATIONAL IMPROVEMENT. 431 interests are under the fostering care of its faculty and the thoughtful benevolence of its trustees. Rev. Edward Gushing Mitchell, D. D. Since 1887 Dr. Mitchell, a distinguished divine, teacher and author, has been President of Leland University. Through his untiring zeal he has succeeded in raising the standard of the institution and in enlarging and extending its work. The University owes its existence to the late Holbrook Chamberlain, Esq. , of Brooklyn, N. Y., who erected the buildings, assisted in its man- agement, and at his death left to it the bulk of his property, about $100,000, as an endowment fund, the interest of which goes to the payment of teachers. Southland College and Normal and Industrial In- stitute. This school was organized by the Indiana Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends in 1864; the College department was organized in 1872. The first class was graduated in 1876. The leading object of the school is to qualify teachers, and about five hundred have already gone out into the free schools of Arkansas and adjoining states, while some have been employed in schools of higher grade. The primary object of the school is the preparation of teachers, but other lines of work have been taken up. An Industrial department has been added where is given a practical knowledge of the use of tools in such lines of work as will make students self-sustaining and will fit them for the duties of useful citizenship. The school is at present in charge of Prof. Wm. Russell and wife. During the past few years the amount of land owned by the College has been more than doubled. A printing press has been put in, a kindergarten department established, and other valua- ble improvements made. The expenses for tuition, 432 PROGRESS OP A RACE. board and washing range from eight to ten dollars per month, and many of the students pay nearly all by work. The funds to carry on the institution are obtained from the income of an endowment fund of $35,000, from annual appropriations of the Indiana Religious Meetings and from voluntary donations of friends of the school. Of course, the products of the farm and the tuition fees paid, help to increase the income. The school is located at the foot of Crowley's Ridge, nine miles northwest of Helena, Arkansas, in a remarkably healthy climate. A high moral tone and deep relig- ious convictions are characteristics of the students who remain long enough in the school. Southland College has been a factor of peace, true to the teachers who founded it. Leading citizens of Helena attribute much to the Institution in promoting peace and harmony in the county in which it is located. No mob violences have occurred here, and county offices are frequently filled by colored men of the different political parties. Morris Brown College. Morris Brown College, the principal school of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, was founded in 1881. The site overlooking the city of Atlanta was purchased at a cost of $3,500. During the first year 107 students were enrolled; about $25,000 has been spent in erecting two large buildings. The present corps of teachers numbers 16 ; the number of students 430. The course of instruction embraces English, Academic, Normal and Industrial depart- ments. All the members of the faculty are Negroes. Every dollar of the funds which are used in supporting this college comes from Negroes. We run no risk in saying that the work of these Negro minds and hearts suffers nothing in comparison with the best of any race. 28 Progress. 433 434 PROGRESS OF A RACE. A number have graduated from the lower classes. It will have its first classical graduates in '98. This institution bids fair to become the leading institution entirely manned by Negroes. All that it needs is to be properly encouraged and fostered. It has the advantage of Wilburforce in that it is situated in the very heart of the South, where so .many of the colored race are anxious to obtain an education. It needs funds to complete the central building, as well as to carry on the work in general. This institu- tion is indeed an honor to the race. Theory sometimes fails of conviction, but the most obdurate mind will be convinced of such a practical proof of the Negroes' ability. Prof. James Henderson is president since 1888. Livingstone College. Livingstone College is the principal college of the A. M. E. Zion Church. It was organized in 1882, in Salisbury, N. C. Its existence is largely due to the energy of that prince of orators, Rev. j . C. Price, who afterwards became its president. He collected funds both in this country and in Europe. The valuation of the buildings and grounds, now about 50 acres, 13 estimated at $100,000. Although young in years its graduates have already passed the hundred mark. President Price, its efficient and popular president, devoted his life to the work of this institution. There have been enrolled more than three hundred students. The death of President Price, in 1893, was a blow to Livingstone. The work is being carried on by his successor, Dr. H. Goler. A humble colored man recently loaned the Baptists of Virginia $13,000, with which to build a seminary at Lynchburg. EDUCATIONAL IMPROVEMENT. 435 Knoxville College is located at Knoxville, Tennes- see, and is under the control of the Board of Missions to the Freedmen of the United Presbyterian Church of North America, which supports it in part by volun- tary contributions. By arrangement with the Univer- sity of Tennessee, the college is also the Industrial Department of the university, for colored students. For this purpose the university has added largely to the equipment of the Agricultural Department and the Mechanical Department, provides for the salaries of the professors of these departments, and sets aside $600 annually to pay for the labor of students in these departments. Thus they are enabled to earn part of their expense; besides each has the opportunity of learning a trade. The faculty of the college, including matrons and instructors in the Industrial Department, numbers twenty-five. In 1899 Rev. R. W. McGranahan, D.D., became its president. Knoxville College stands for the most thorough intellectual and industrial training. It is in hearty sympathy with all efforts to teach the trades to the colored people, and is maintaining a thorough Indus- trial Department for that purpose. The courses of study offered are classical, scientific, theological, normal and common school. The Industrial Depart- ment offers training in agriculture, carpentering, electrical work, printing, cooking, sewing and house- work. The Agricultural Department is not confined to the eighty-five acres of land owned by the college, but a considerable tract adjoining is rented, and gives employment to many students. Its property, consisting of nine buildings and eighty-five acres of land, is valued at $110,000. 436 EDUCATIONAL IMPROVEMENT. 437 Arkansas Baptist College, Little Rock, Ark., has made rapid strides during the first twelve years of its existence. The attendance has increased from year to year till the. last matriculation register shows nearly two hundred names who attended some of its depart^ ments during the past year. Consequently, it now wields a wide-spread influence over the entire state and adjacent states. During the summer vacation (1899) the president has had applications from Geor- gia, North Carolina, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Missouri, Alabama, Indian Territory, and Oklahoma. Besides the increased attendance and the conse- quent growth of influence ever strengthening and ever widening, its property values have enhanced and its improvements have moved steadily on in spite of the hard times. The great brick structure has been nicely finished on the inside, with a chapel large enough to accommodate five hundred, with an elegant suite of office rooms, and ample recitation rooms. The property is located in the, southwest part of the city, between two of the most popular street railway lines, fine electric cars passing every twelve minutes. The printing department also has a handsome building 25x60, in which there is placed 'a large Prouty power press, operated either by hand or mechanical power, a small job press and six racks or stands fitted with a great variety of news and job type. From this department the students issue the Baptist Vanguard, most of the denominational minutes, college catalogues and smaller jobs for local patrons. A small beginning has also been made in the line of carpentry and shoe mending, fashionable and plain sewing, cooking and laundry work. 438 PROGRESS OF A RACE. Howard University. Howard University was estab- lished by the government primarily through the instrumentality of General O. Howard, the distin- guished soldier whose name it bears. It has always welcomed all nationalities alike. The work of this university is now well known to the country. It is confessedly the leader in the education of the Negro race. Every year the trustees seek to enlarge its scope and fit it for greater usefulness. With its departments of theology, medicine, dentistry, phar- macy, law, industry, music, and nurse training, it is accomplishing much in elevating the Negro. Samuel Huston College. The Samuel Huston College was opened Nov. i, 1900. It is under the auspices of the Freedmen's Aid and Southern Educa- tional Society of the Methodist Episcopal church. Mr. Samuel Huston of Iowa gave $9,000 to begin this SAMUEL HUSTON COLLEGE, AUSTIN, TEXAS. school. The West Texas Conference and the Freed- men's Aid Society appropriated enough more to bring the estimated value to about $30,000. The school EDUCATIONAL IMPROVEMENT 439 bids fair to be one of the best in the South. Though but a year old, its enrollment is about 250. Public School Expenses in the South. The fol- lowing is from the pen of Robert Lloyd Smith concern- ing the Sixth Negro Conference held at Atlanta University, Atlanta, Georgia. There is room to question the accuracy of the statements about the indirect taxes. Of necessity the amount given in that item must be, in part, at least, estimated. But after making due allowance for any possible exaggeration, the showing is still decidedly encouraging. "Papers were read upon different phases of the Negro common school as it related to town and country, school equipment and qualification, but the interest centered in the charts, which were statistical and prepared under the direction of Professor Dubois. "These charts showed the school population of Negro children, the enrollment, the average attendance, the sources of the school fund, the amounts contrib- uted by either race, the number of school buildings, their condition and cost, qualification of teachers of both races, cost of Negro common schools from 1870 to 1898, and the relative contributions and expenses of the public schools for Negroes in a group of states. "There are now 2,912,910 Negro children of school age in the South almost as many as the whole Negro population at the breaking out of the war. The total enrollment is 1,511,618, a fraction more than half of the children of school age ; the average daily attend- ance is 969,011, which indicates that for every Negro child in school in the South there are two who are somewhere else. The number of colored teachers is 28,560, a standing army of unselfish workers, as subsequent statistics will show. The states having the greatest number of teachers are Georgia, Missis- sippi, Texas and Alabama, each of which has more than three thousand in her common schools. "The Negroes in Texas have deeded to them in trust 44U PROGRESS OF A RACE. for school purposes $608,212, which is more than the worth of all the white and Negro school buildings in either Georgia, Florida or South Carolina. "Some of the statistics gathered by this conference and displayed at the sessions were strikingly surpris- ing, because they were at complete variance with popular belief upon these subjects. 4 'For example, the statement has been made so of ten and not disputed that the South (meaning the white people of the South, of course) has spent over $100,000,- ooo upon the education of the Negro since 1870, that one might be disposed to question the reliability of the fol- lowing figures if they had been prepared by an authority less eminent. "Total cost of Negro common schools in 16 Southern states from 1870 to 1898 ........................... $101,860,661 Contributed by Negro direct taxation ............... 29,539,561 By indirect taxation ....... . ................ j ?~ .000,000 "This is a magnificent showing for a race which has had only thirty-five years of partial opportunity, and the North can relieve itself hereafter from any qualms it may have experienced from daring to differ from the white South in the matter of Negro education. A cool hundred million given directly for the education of the blacks would almost establish the right to dictate the whole educational policy, but the state- ment is not founded on facts. If this chart was a surprise, what could be said of these figures taken from the official reports of Georgia, South Carolina, Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida? "Negro direct taxes in the above group for the year 1900 for educational purposes .............................. $339,585 Negro indirect taxes in the same states ................. 925,204 Total contributed to school fund by Negroes ........ $1,264,739 Total expense of all the Negro common schools in these states .............................................. 1,243,925 Excess contributed by Negroes in those states, as a whole, to run white schools ............ . .......... $20,864 "This does not seem possible, but it is one of the strange revolutions that happen occasionally. EDUCATIONAL IMPROVEMENT. 441 "I append hereto an interesting item from the report of the superintendent of education of Florida. It is another unexpected surprise. FLORIDA. "In nine 'black-belt' counties- Negro pro-rata of state fund $13, 554 Negro pro-rata of railroad tax 3,630 Negro pro-rata of other taxes 3,000 Direct taxes paid by Negroes 3,800 Total contributed by Negroes $23,984 Actual cost of Negro schools 19.454 Contributed by Negroes for education of whites 4.527 "The work, then, of this conference may be briefly summed up as follows: The school facilities for both races as regards equipment, teachers and funds are altogether inadequate to the pressing needs of the people. This the average attendance shows. This would seem to indicate the fitness of legislation in the direction of compulsory education, but a law com- pelling a man to send his child to a school already overcrowded to be taught by a teacher whose average salary is $19.81 per month for an average attendance of sixty-five, would seem farcical. Is it not a little short of marvelous that in the period from 1870-98 more than $29,000,000 have been paid toward their own education in the common schools by the Negroes themselves by direct taxes and a total not less than $40,000,000. By indirect taxation in Georgia, South Carolina and Louisiana, they receive from the com- mon school fund a sum smaller than they contribute by taxation. The figures are: Georgia, taxes direct and indirect, $292,168; expense of Negro common schools, $288,128; Louisiana Negro contribution to public school fund, $350,080 , expense of Negro common schools, $227,023. In South Carolina they put into the treasury for public education directly and indirectly $ 2 33, 3 01 ; they get back $203,033. 4V A people that make such a showing with the limited opportunities about them deserve the continued sup- port of those who admire pluck, perseverance and progress. It is a record of which any race may well be proud," 442 PROGRESS OF A RACE. Selma University. A convention of colored Baptists at Tuscaloosa in 1873, decided to establish a school for preachers and asked the white brethren for money and advice. Receiving" no encouragement they went to work among themselves and succeeded in opening the school at Selma in 1878. In that year property was bought at a cost of $3, ooo, and paid for wholly by the colored people. Improvements have since been going on so that the property today is worth about $20,000. In 1881 Rev. W. H. McAlpine, who was a slave until 1865, and who had done more for the school than any other man, was chosen President. The pros- pects for the great work are flattering. Shaw University, Raleigh. This school was estab- lished by Rev. H. M. Tupper, of Massachusetts, in 1865, under the auspices of the American Baptist Home Missionary Society. The work of construction was slow in the beginning but by liberal contributions from Mr. Shaw, J. Estey & Co., George M. Moore and other New England men, enough was raised to erect the Shaw building. In 1875 the school was in- corporated as Shaw University. The medical depart- ment was begun in the summer of 1881, a fine building having been furnished by the Leonard family of Hampden, Massachusetts. President Tupper opened his first Sunday school in Raleigh in 1865 under an oak tree; in 1892 he presided over an institution having five large brick buildings and in all parts unequaled by any other educational institution in the state. To him is largely due the success of the project, for he, by persistent effort even to the manufacture of brick on the farm and the construction of the building, devoted his whole strength to the work. The school has six departments and is doing a great work in pre- EDUCATIONAL IMPROVEMENT. 443 paring teachers and ministers for the South as well as for Africa. Roger Williams University. The beginning of the work of the Baptist Home Missionary Society in Nash- ville dates back to the close of the war. Rev. H. L. Wayland was the first missionary teacher in that place. Rev. D. W. Phillips succeeded him, and in 1875 a large building was erected at a cost of nearly fifty thousand dollars. The school, from the beginning, has maintained a high reputation for thorough work. The institution was incorporated in 1883. With a number of buildings and a small endowment Roger Williams University is doing a great work at Nashville, although from the beginning it has had powerful com- petitors. The number of students is gradually increas- ing. The graduates are widely scattered throughout the South occupying positions of influence and useful- ness. Tougaloo University, Tougaloo, Mississippi. This is emphatically the "Black Belt" plantation school of the American Missionary Society, located in the midst of America's "Darkest Africa," touching by far the most numerous and important class on which the future of the Negro rests, the plantation Negro. The school was established in 1869. Five hundred acres were purchased and with them a fine mansion. The work of chief importance is that of the normal department, for the future of the race depends largely upon the teachers trained for the common schools. Stieby Hall, erected in 1882, is the boys' dormitory, accommodating from seventy to eighty boys. The Theological depart- ment was established about seven years ago and is doing a great work in that direction. Senator Beard says it would quite repay those who would study the 444 PROGRESS OF A RACE. problem of saving Negro children of the rural districts of the "Black Belt," to go far out of their way to visit Tougaloo. Tougaloo is a great school where efficiency and economy are found pulling quietly in the same harness as in few institutions. Biddle University, Charlotte, North Carolina, was opened at the close of the war between the states. The first teachers were Rev. S. C. Alexander and Rev. W. G. Miller. The liberality of Mrs. Mary D. Biddle, of Philadelphia, gave to the institution its first generous contribution. Her husband had yielded his life in the cause of the Union, and Mrs. Biddle requested the privilege of perpetuating his memory in connection with the school. Generous gifts from friends in the North have not been wanting, and the school is on a good financial basis. The property is vested in a board of trustees, and a clause in the charter makes it the perpetual heritage of the colored people in connection with the Presby- terian Church. There are thirteen buildings. The main building, devoted to recitation rooms, library, chapel, etc., was built at a cost of $40,000. The grounds include sixty acres situated one mile west of Charlotte. The total valuation of grounds and build- ings is $125,000. There are four departments, the School of Theology, School of Arts and Sciences, Normal and Preparatory School, and School of Indus- try, in which are taught the various trades. Self Support. The students are being educated to rely upon themselves and become self-supporting. The total earnings of the students for the year ending October, 1895, amounted to $11,291. Graduates. The graduates are distributed as fol- lows: Theology, 73; School of Art and Sciences, 118; 416 PROGRESS OF A RACE. Normal and Preparatory School, 183; 62 are active ministers of the colored Presbyterian Church; 6 are serving at Biddle as professors; i is a foreign mis- sionary in Africa and professor of Latin and Greek in Liberia College; i is a bishop in the A. M. E. Zion Church. A number are lawyers and physicians, and many are teachers in normal, high and public schools. Since 1891 Rev. D. J. Sanders, D. D., is president. The faculty and not a few of the students are aware of the important part played by the spiritual tone of the university life. Earnest efforts are made to induce new students to enter upon a spiritual life. The col- lege classes contain very few unconverted persons, and the close of each year sees seven-eighths of the entire body of students professed followers of Jesus Christ. Tuskegee Conference. One of the helpful features in industrial training in the South is the annual Negro Conference, held at Tuskegee, Alabama. In this con- ference are found men of all classes, ministers and teachers, as well as farmers and laborers, and these, too, have had an education. The reports from differ- ent parts of the South are encouraging. We append extracts from a few of them. Willis Ligon said: "The first crop I made I was har- nessed like a mule to a plow, and my little boy held the handles. Many colored men are getting cotton- gins, grist mills and saw mills, as well as land. I am going to start a new town at my settlement and call it Nazarene. ' ' Mr. Ligon has never missed a conference. He owns several large farms and is a stockholder in both the banks of Tuskegee. Father Mitchell, a gray-haired farmer, said: "I tank God I is living yet. My people has been eating too much. Don't laugh, now. Mr. President, you EDUCATIONAL IMPROVEMENT. 447 preached a mighty good text last night. I liked yer prayer 'bout gettin' all de obstacles out ob de way first I am a hard-working man, I've got sons and daughters. De Nigger race can make the best people in de world. Jest allow me to call you Niggers, case you'se all black. We can get land if any people can. We knows how to work and make a happy home and a good school. I has learned more in de last five years since dese conferences started, dan I ever knowed before in all my sixty years. We wants good leaders as will take de difficulties out of our way. * * * De people don't count as much on religion as dey ought. Religion is a mighty nice thing if you use it right. It takes a pious man to live religion. De longer de worl' stands de wiser it grows. Some of our people is getting too wise. Many likes to dance too much. De jail-house* is full and we is running excursions. If you see a man crooked, straighten him by the grace of de Lord. We hollers and shouts too much, and jumps like we was crazy. It is a sad thing to preach de Gos- pel, de saddest thing dis side ob de grave. Our churches is plumbfull of hypocrites. If a man preaches de pure Gospel dey don't want to hear it. If we had de truth, white folks could live and Niggers could live. Dey tinks more of a bad person than dey does ob a good one. You let a man preach de true Gospel and he won't git many nickels in his pocket; but if he hol- lers and jumps he gits all the nickels he can hold and chickens besides. I has been in de cause forty-five years, and I knows what preachin' is, and I tell you, if our young race don' do better in ten years we're gone. Now, Mr. President, I fotch you a hog yester- day to help feed this conference, I hoped to see eight or nine in de pen, but mine is de only one. I'll bring 448 PROGRESS OF A RACE. you a hog or a cow next year. Father Washington, I'se a-gwine to stick to you as long as I live." One report for a county in Alabama said: "We have one hundred families owning 4,000 acres of land, and not more than ten live in one-roomed houses/' Another reported fifteen persons owning nearly 2,000 acres and living in good houses. Many similar reports were given from other states. It is not always an easy matter for colored people to purchase land. Many land owners do not like to sell in small tracts ; others will not sell to Negroes. The mortgage system has no friends in this conference, not one word being raised in its favor. The tide is turning. Many are still, how- ever, sadly in its clutches but struggling hard to free themselves from its power. In one community the wives have an organization by which to reduce home expenses; instead of buying on credit at" greatly in- creased prices, they bring together their butter, eggs, chickens and the like, till enough is collected to pur- chase one hundred pounds of meat for cash at half the price they formerly paid. This meat they divide among themselves and save money ; i, 300 pounds have thus been bought. The one-roomed cabin was thor- oughly discussed and the reports show that its days are numbered. Houses with two, three, four or five rooms are to be seen where formerly the cabin was thought to be sufficient. Tenants are demanding bet- ter houses, and land owners are forced to give them or lose good farm hands. Mr. R. L. Smith, of Oakland, Texas, a young man with only one arm, a school teacher, practical farmer, and a member of the state legislature, said: "About five years ago I began to look into the condition of my people. I found them making good crops, from one BOYD BUILDING. NASHVILLE. TENN. EDUCATIONAL IMPROVEMENT. 449 and a half to two bales of cotton per acre, but their homes were small and the influences surrounding them bad. In 1892 I started a society called the 'Village Improvement Society.' We have fifty-six members in a village of two hundred people. In five years fifteen families have spent $10,000 in improvements. The surrounding country has been helped by our work. Our smallest house now has four rooms in it and some have eight rooms. Last year we extended the order and called it 'The Farmers' Improvement Society,' with about seven hundred members. We have five purposes : to get out of debt, and keep out, to adopt improved methods of farming, to co-operate in buying and selling, to get homes and to improve them. * * * One result of our efforts has been a marked change in the treatment we have received from the white people. Texas is more liberal than most of the Southern states. I was more or less guided in my work by what I had heard or read of the Tuskegee conferences." Mr. Smith showed many pictures of homes and families in Oakland. He said he had car- ried on this work in connection with his school and farm, and that the legislature of Texas was so much interested in his coming to Tuskegee that it gave him a leave of absence and promised to defer action on a bill in which he was interested until his return home. A young teacher and farmer from Choctaw county said: "When we heard what Tuskegee was doing I said to our people, * We can do it, too. ' So we organ- ized a conference in our county. We are under the mortgage system. Our labor is unskilled. Last year of twenty-five families with mortgages on their crops only twelve were able to pay them. Forty-four fam- ilies lived on rented lands in one 'beat, ' six of them in 20 Progress. 450 PROGRESS OF A RACE. houses with only one room ; some raised nothing but cotton. Twenty-four families have recently bought land, ten are building better homes, nine report that they lived for the year without a mortgage. The average length of our school term is three months. We have no school houses but use the churches, which are not fit for service in winter. Sixty per cent, of the teachers hold third-grade certificates, 30 per cent, second grade, and 4 per cent, first grade. Morals are better than they used to be ; women are treated better on the whole ; less whisky is used, and, as we have no railroads in our county, we are not troubled with excursions. We propose to organize conferences throughout the whole county and gradually bring the people up. Our people get money enough but don't use it right. ' ' Roscoe C. Bruce. Roscoe C. Bruce, the son of Ex- Senator Bruce from Mississippi, who went from the colored high schools of Washington to Phillips Exeter Academy, New Hampshire, was honored in 1897 by an election as assistant editor for the magazine pub- lished by the students of that institution. The color line was not drawn here. Young Bruce is a remarka- bly bright and handsome fellow and has made many friends at Phillips Exeter. He has distinguished him- self for scholarship and oratory. He will graduate in 1898 and will probably enter Harvard University. The catalogue of Harvard University now contains the names of six colored men, three of them in the senior class. In the * ' Life and Letters of Roscoe Conkling, ' ' the circumstances under which young Bruce was named are given, and there appears a letter from Senator Bruce in which he asks permission to christen his son in honor of Mr. Conkling, because when he first EDUCATIONAL IMPROVEMENT. 451 entered the senate chamber to take the oath of office Mr. Conkling was the first man to offer him welcome. 44 The effect upon some members of the senate," wrote Mr. Bruce, " was so marked that when I was called to be sworn in, my colleague, Mr. Alcorn, a man who owed his seat in the senate largely to my efforts, took refuge behind a newspaper to avoid extending the courtesy usual upon such occasions. It was at this point that the grasp of your hand the first token of friendship that I had received and your warm wel- come, made me feel and know that in that august body I had a friend. No one who has not undergone a similar ordeal can understand and appreciate my feel- ings on that occasion." Alabama appropriates $2,000 annually for the sup- port of a Normal School for the training of colored teachers. Nearly all the Southern States make annual contributions for the education of their colored citizens. Freedman's Savings Bank. Still another agency in the education of the colored people was the Freed- man's Savings Bank. While it existed it was one of the most powerful agencies in the education of the colored people. The Freedman's Savings Bank was organized March 3, 1866. It had thirty- three branches, four of which were located in Georgia, at Atlanta, Macon, Augusta and Savannah. During the nine years of its existence the total deposits amounted to $56,000,000 for the entire South. When it failed it owed the colored people of Georgia $57,149.38. While its loss entailed great misery on many, it taught the colored people that they could save, and thus laid the basis of the material prosperity which has attended the efforts of the colored people of 452 PROGRESS OF A RACE. Georgia. The colored people of Georgia pay taxes now on about $16,000,000 worth of real and personal property, and have, perhaps, not less than $2,000,000 on deposit in the banks of the state and in bonds. Such were some of the various agencies which were at work during that early formative stage of Negro education. And such and so great was the work of preparing the colored people for the public school sys- tem which was inaugurated in 1871. The Colored Press. Considering the time since the Negro was freed there has been a remarkable advance- ment in providing literature for the colored people. There have been not a few authors of note of the race, but in the colored press we find a repetition of the press in general. There are in the United States be- tween three hundred and three hundred and fifty colored newspapers, the number varying with the campaigns, etc. There are at least twenty colored papers of large circulation and influence and standing ; among these may be mentioned : The Christian Record, The Star of Zion, The American Baptist, The Christian Index and The Afro- American Presbyterian. The best secular papers are The New York Age, The Indianapolis Freeman, The Colored American, of Washington, D. C., The Richmond Planet, and The Philadelphia Tribune. Character. Of many of the papers for colored peo- ple it might be said, as of many other papers, that it would be better that they had no existence. The hope of the race lies in education. The colored man must read, and, as has been said before, it would be better for him not to read at all than to read the trashy liter- ature of today. While the colored press in a general way is doing much for the elevation of the Negro, yet the number of papers published and the large circula- EDUCATIONAL IMPROVEMENT. 453 tion of some of them is not a criterion of good work done. The press, pulpit and the platform have been great liberators of the nations, but, in order that this should be the case with the Afro- American press, like that of any race, there must be an ennobling and ele- vated tone. Without this the daily and weekly paper becomes a curse instead of a blessing. Records of riots, mobs, murders, and every- day misdoings do not elevate the morals of the reading public. Too often it is forgotten that the editorial chair requires more culture than is gotten by reading the newspapers, and to the detriment of the race there are those who are editing some of these race journals that ought to be relegated to the rear. Able Editors. The editor who is sending out week by week into the families of his patrons, a paper that is to benefit its readers, ought to be able to grapple with the problems of the day, the problems upon which depend the elevation and the continued advancement of the race. With Dr. Crummell we believe that it would be better that many of these race journals were not to exist, because of the incompetency in the editorial management. Ministers, physicians, lawyers and leaders in general, can do much toward suppressing objectionable literature of today by advo- cating the patronizing only of such papers as are ennobling and are building up the race. Select your paper, not for its value in dollars and cents, but rather for the contents of its columns. Religious Papers. Every family should have at least one religious paper. Even in religious papers some might be greatly improved, but when it comes to the secular paper it were much better not to take a paper at all than to allow the trashy and objectionable 454 PROGRESS OF A RACE. newspaper, that has no definite aim, to enter the home. Here is a field that ought not to be overlooked. The colored youth of today will read. Good Literature. Let parents and leaders in society everywhere see to it that the literature placed in the hands of the youth of the race is. ennobling, elevating and instructive, and a great forward movement will have been made in advancing the interests of the race in general. Banish the low, trashy and sensational literature from your homes. Avoid it as you would a pestilence, and your sons and daughters will in the future rise up and in improved manhood and woman- hood pronounce blessings upon your heads. The First Daily Newspaper published by the colored people was the Cairo Gazette, owned, edited and pub- lished by Hon. W. S. Scott, of Cairo, Illinois. The first issue came from the press April 23, 1882. First Newspaper in the South. The first race news- paper published in the South for the colored men was the Colored American. It was published in Augusta, Georgia, and was edited by J. T. Shuften in 1865. We find the following description of this paper in the Afro- American Press : " It is designed, to be a vehicle for the diffusion of religious, political and general intel- ligence. It will be devoted to the promotion of harmony and good will between the whites and colored people of the South, and uniting in its advocacy of industry and education among all classes ; but particularly the class most -in need of our agency. It will steadfastly oppose all forms of vice that prey upon society, and give that counsel that tends to virtue, peace and pros- perity and happiness. " . '. CHAPTER XV. RELIGION AND THE NEGRO. A Religious Nature. Whatever else the Negro may or may not possess, it is generally conceded that he has an intensely religious nature. His religion, it is true, does not always manifest itself according to the precise rules and requirements of cultured and refined society. He is sometimes boisterous, very demonstrative, and altogether emotional. By the superficial observer, these characteristics are regarded as extremely ludi- crous, if not disgusting, and are usually catalogued, with great self-complacency, among the "idiosyncrasies of the Negro. ' ' The thoughtful mind, however, recog- nizes beneath all these crudities a buoyant spirituality a spirituality which even the malign influences of slavery could not suppress. It was Burke who said, "Religion, to have any force upon men's under- standings, indeed, to exist at all, must be sup- posed paramount to law, and independent for its subsistence upon any human institution. ' ' This glori- ous truth, arrived at through reasoning and reflec- tion by England's great political philosopher, seems to have been grasped intuitively by the ignorant Negro in the days of his bondage. Above the law that fixed his hard condition and held him therein, above the sophistry of ecclesiasticism that perverted truth to justify unrighteous legislation, his faith rose sublimely and took hold upon the unseen "Power that maketh for righteousness." Sustained by Faith. It was this f aith that sustained 4*9 fl H H u < S fe o O W X 2 W H 456 RELIGION AND THE NEGRO. 457 him in his darkest hours, that caused melody to well up in his soul, and gush forth in his voice. It was this faith that enabled him to endure patiently, with- out cherishing feelings of vengeance against those whom he might justly have regarded as oppressors. Finally, it was this faith that formed the substratum of his preliminary training, however inadequate, for the larger life that was to be realized under freedom. "By that mysterious influence," says Dr. Ely den, "which is imparted to man independently of outward circumstances, to not a few of them the preaching of the Gospel, defective as was its practical exemplifica- tion, opened a new world of truth and goodness. There streamed into the darkness of their surroundings a light from the Cross of Christ, and they saw that, through suffering and affliction, there is a path to per- fect rest above this world ; and in the hours of the most degrading and exhausting toil, they sang of the eternal and the unseen ; so that while the scrupulous among their masters often, with Jefferson, "trembled for their country, ' ' the slaves who had gained a new language and new faculties were enjoying themselves in raptur- ous music often laboring and suffering all day, and singing all night sacred songs which, in rude but impressive language, set forth their sad fortunes and their hopes for the future. Cheerful Music. No traveler in the South, who passed by the plantations thronged with dusky laborers, and listened to their cheerful music, could ever dream that they beheld in that suffering but joyous race the destroyers of the Southern whites. The captive Jews could not sing by the waters of Babylon, but the Negroes, in the dark dungeons of American slavery, made themselves harps and swept them to some of the most thrilling melodies," 458 PROGRESS OF A RACE. Noticeable Fact. It is a noticeable fact, and indic- ative of the susceptibility of the Negro's nature to religious influences, that, with such limited insight into divine truth, there should have sprung up all over the South among them so many effective preachers and exhorters some of them men of extraordinary natural endowments. Stevens, in his history of the Methodist Episcopal Church, has the following inter- esting statement: "Harry Hosier, better known as 'Black Harry,' was the traveling servant of Bishop Asbury, and had a popularity as a preacher which excelled that of the bishop himself. Dr. Rush, whose predilections for Methodist preaching are well known, did not disdain to hear him, and making allowance for his illiteracy (for he could not read), pronounced him the greatest orator in America. ' ' Genuineness. As to the genuineness of the Negro's religion, the late Bishop Haygood has said: "I know that the religious life of the colored people in the days of slavery was not what it ought to have been, yet among them were the holiest of men and women. ' ' Strangest Characteristic. The same author has elsewhere expressed an opinion which those endeavor- ing to educate the race might do well to consider. He says: "As to my opinion with as good opportunity as most men to know what the religious life of the col- ored people really is I say unhesitatingly that his religion is his strongest and best characteristic. All there is of hope for him in this country will rise or fall with the healthy development or the decay of his religion." Progress Phenomenal. Under freedom the religious progress of the race has been phenomenal, Jt would RELIGION AND THE NEGRO. 459 be difficult to find its parallel in the whole history of missions. Over a million of these people are today within the communion of the Baptist churches. Con- siderably over a million more are within the Methodist fold, while they are to be found also in the Congrega- tional, Presbyterian, and other evangelical denomina- tions. As before the war, even so now, a goodly number of them are adherents of the Romish Church. They are intensely loyal to their denomination, and possess in a larger degree than many other people what is commonly called "church pride." Organizations. The most remarkable, however, and at once the most promising feature in their religious development, is the organizations, which, independently of outside patronage, they have created and sustained. The African Methodist Episcopal Church, The Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church, and the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church, in America, are large and influential bodies, containing eight hundred thousand members or more. These bodies, officered and managed throughout by colored men, are ocular demonstrations of the capability of the race, and are inspiring in the people self-respect and self-reliance. Many of their general officers are men of great power and personal magnetism, while some have a national reputation. Liberality. In the August (1897) number of "The Gospel in All Lands," appears the following with reference to the religious growth of the colored people since emancipation: "They have shown a remarkable degree of liber- ality in contributing toward religious purposes. Not- withstanding their poverty and the discouraging circumstances surrounding them, they have, in addition 460 PROGRESS OF A RACE. to the ordinary expenses of maintaining 1 religious worship, including pastors' salaries, contributed prob- ably not less than ten million dollars for the erection of meeting houses. Some of these buildings are large, comparatively costly, convenient and attractive. Noble Achievements. "They have done remarka- bly well, considering all the circumstances, in the mat- ter of educational, missionary, charitable, and philan- thropic work ; many of their religious institutions of learning being managed by Negro boards of trustees, taught by Negro teachers, and supported largely or entirely by themselves. They are also represented on the boards and in the faculties of the schools main- tained for them by Northern benevolence. The aggregate amount which they pay annually toward the education of their children in Christian institu- tions is a very considerable sum. They have their local, state, and national educational and missionary organizations, and are year by year making progress in the art of organization and administration. While they have very much yet to learn in the matter of sys- tematizing their beneficence, of keeping and rendering accurate accounts of money received and disbursed, they are apt learners, and are making good progress. They edit and publish numerous religious periodicals, some of them evincing vigor, independence, [and no little ability." The Future. With such a showing, made under the most discouraging circumstances, what may not be expected of the race under improved and constantly improving conditions? Churches Important, There are at present between nine and ten millions of Negroes in this country. This includes all who have any computable fraction of 461 462 PROGRESS OF A RACE. Negro blood in their veins. All of these, with the exception of about five hundred thousand, are in the Southern states where the emancipation proclamation reached them and made them forever free from invol- untary bondage. The Negro churches of the South are, therefore, a large and important factor in the Christianity of that section. In point of church mem- bership the Negro is quite as devoted as are his white brethren. The proportion of colored people who are connected with the churches in the United States is larger than that which obtains among the white people. Denominations. As to denomination, the Negro is predominantly Baptist. More than one-half of all Negro communicants are of this faith ; next ccme the Methodists and other branches of the church. The increase in the number of colored communicants since the emancipation proclamation has been marvelous. There were at the outbreak of the war about 275,000 Methodists of color, while at the present there are over a million. Colored Baptists in 1860 did not exceed 250,000, while today they number 1,500,000. Helping Himself. The Negro, considering the little wealth he had at command when slavery ceased, has achieved wonders in the accumulation of church prop- erty. The value of the churches he owns is $26,626,- ooo, the number of edifices being 23,770. Making due allowance for the generous help which the whites have given, it still appears that the Negro has not been unwilling to make large sacrifices for the sake of religion, and that his industry, thrift and business capacity have been made to contribute to his successful endeavors to provide himself with suitable accommo- dations for public worship. RELIGION AND THE NEGRO. 463 Sums Spent. In education and evangelization among the Negroes, the various religious bodies have been specially active. Among these bodies the Congrega- tionalists claim to have spent $11,000,000 for the Negro, and spend now nearly $400, ooo a year. The Methodists have spent since emancipation $6,000,000, and are now spending annually through the Freed- man's Aid and Southern Education Society $350,000; the Presbyterian Board of Missions for Freedmen in twenty years have spent $2,400,000, and in addition to this contribution founded Lincoln University, Penn- sylvania, in 1859. The Baptists since 1865, $3,000,000; the Southern Presbyterian Church, $55,000, between 1878 and 1894; the Christian Church, $100,000. This vast outlay has produced a result known and read of all men. No man has attempted to deny the statement that the Negro has improved intellectually. Not even the bitterest of his enemies have denied this statement, and it may be said modestly that there are men and women among the Negroes who can compare favor- ably with some of the best of the other race. Christian Ministry. Professor Bowen says: "A vital question in this consideration is, has the character of the Negro Christian Ministry improved? The bald statement of truth is that the distance between the ministry of today and that of slavery days, or the days immediately following freedom, cannot be measured in words. Then, we had no regularly constituted Negro ministry. A few of our fathers in whose heart the 'woe is me if I preach not* burned with an un- quenchable fire, were permitted to speak occasionally to the slaves, and that under the freezing gaze of an overseer's eye, and to this day it is a miracle unsolved how God preserved a knowledge of the truth through 464 PROGRESS OF A RACE. the broken vessels of thought amid the dervish wor- ship of the ignorant slaves. Educated and Consecrated. Since that day there has been a constant stream of educated and consecrated ministers flowing into the ranks of the Negro popu- lation. These have been trained in the great universi- ties of the North. Besides these, there have gone forth from the institutions established in the South for colored people large numbers of genuinely consecrated ministers of every denomination. Whether it be accepted or reflected, the fact is that there are in Negro pulpits all over the land and in the South some Negro preachers who, in intellectual ability, in moral power and purity, and in spiritual insight and breadth of wis- dom, are the equal of some of the best of the Anglo- Saxon race." CHURCHES. Regular Baptists (Colored). The colored Baptists of the South constitute the most numerous of regular Baptists. Not all colored Baptists are embraced in this division ; only those who have separate churches, associations, and state conventions. There are many colored Baptists in Northern states, who are mostly counted as members of churches belonging to white associations. None of them are included in the fol- lowing estimates and figures. The first convention of colored Baptists was organ- ized in North Carolina in 1866, the second in Alabama, and the third in Virginia in 1867, the fourth in Arkansas in 1868, and the fifth in Kentucky in 1869. There are colored conventions in fifteen states and the District of Columbia. In addition to these organizations the colored Bap- tists of the United States have others more general in w J td 5 O w THANKFUL BAPTIST CHURCH, AUGUSTA. GEORGIA. 80 Progress. 465 466 PROGRESS OF A RACfi. character: The American National Convention, the purpose of which is "to consider the moral, intellectual and religious growth of the denomination, ' ' to delib- erate upon questions of general concern, and to devise methods of bringing the churches and members of the race together; the Consolidated American Missionary Convention, the General Association of the Western States and Territories, the Foreign Mission Conven- tion of the United States, and the New England Missionary Convention. All except the first are mis- sionary in their purpose. The Regular Baptists (colored) are represented in fifteen states, all in the South, or on the border, and the District of Columbia. In Virginia and Georgia they are very numerous, having in the latter 200,516, and in the former 199, 87 1 communicants. In Alabama they have 142,437; in North Carolina, 134,445; in Mississippi, 136,647; in South Carolina, 125,572, and in Texas, 111,138 members. The aggregate is 1,348,- 989 members, who are embraced in 12,533 organizations, with 11,987 church edifices, and church property valued at $9,038,549. There are 414 associations, of which 66 are in Alabama, 63 in Georgia, 49 in Missis- sippi, and 39 in North Carolina. African Methodist Episcopal. This branch of American Methodism was organized in Philadelphia in 1816 by a number of colored members of Methodist Episcopal Church. They withdrew from the parent body in order that they might have larger privileges and more freedom of action among themselves than they believed they could secured in continued associa- tion with their white brethren. The Rev. Richard Allen was elected the first bishop of the new church by the same convention that organized it In the RELIGION AND THE NEGKO. 467 year 1787 Mr. Allen had been made the leader of a class of forty persons of his own color. A few years later he purchased a lot at the corner of Sixth and Lombard streets, Philadelphia, where the first church erected in this country for colored Methodists was occu- pied in 1794. This site is now covered by an edifice dedicated in 1890, valued at $50,000. In doctrine, government and usage, the church does not essentially differ from the body from which it sprang. It has an itinerant and a local or non-itinerant ministry, and its territory is divided into annual con- ferences. It has a general conference, meeting once every four years ; bishops or itinerant general super- intendents, elected for life, who visit the annual conferences in the episcopal districts to which they are assigned, and presiding elders, who exercise sub- episcopal oversight in the districts into which the annual conferences are divided, and it has the proba- tionary system for new members, with exhorters, class leaders, stewards, stewardesses, etc. There are in the United States, 2,481 organizations; 4,124 edifices, with church property valued at $6,468,- 280, and 452,725 communicants or members. The church is widely distributed, having congrega- tions in forty-one states and territories. The states in which it is not represented are the two Dakotas, Idaho, Maine, Nevada, New Hampshire and Vermont, the territories being Alaska, Oklahoma, and Arizona. Its members are most numerous in South Carolina, where there are 88,172. Georgia comes second with 73,248; Alabama third, with 30,781; Arkansas fourth, with 27,956; Mississippi fifth, with 25,439; Tennessee has 23,718; Texas 23,392, and Florida 22,463. In no other state does the number reach 17,000. The eight 468 PROGRESS OF A RACE. Southern states above given report 315,169 members, or considerably more than two-thirds of the entire membership of the church. African Union Methodist Protestant. This body, which has a few congregations divided among eight states, came into existence at about the same time the African Methodist Episcopal Church was organized (1816), differing from the latter chiefly in objections to the itineracy, to a paid ministry, and to the episco- pacy. It has two annual conferences, with 40 organi- zations, 27 church edifices, church property valued at 55,440, and 3,415 communicants. African Methodist Episcopal Zion. A congregation of colored people, organized in New York city, in 1796, was the nucleus of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. This congregation originated in a desire of colored members of the Methodist Episcopal Church to hold separate meetings, in which they "might have an opportunity to exercise their spiritual gifts among themselves, and thereby be more useful to one another." They built a church, which was dedicated in 1800, the full name of the denomination subsequently organized being given to it. The church entered into an agreement in 1801, by which it was to receive certain pastoral supervision from the Meth- odist Episcopal Church. It had preachers of its own who supplied its pulpits in part. In 1820 this arrange- ment terminated, and in the same year a union of colored churches in New York, New Haven, Long Island, and Philadelphia was formed and rules of gov- ernment adopted. Thus was the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church formally organized. The first annual conference was held in 1821. It was attended by nineteen preachers, representing six RELIGION AND THE NEGRO. 469 churches and 1,426 members. Next year, James Yarick was chosen superintendent of the denomina- tion, which was extended over the states of the North, chiefly, until the close of the civil war, when it entered the South to organize many churches. In its policy, lay representation has long" been a prominent feature. Laymen are in its annual confer- ences as well as in its general conferences, and there is no bar to the ordination of women. Until 1880 its superintendents, or bishops, were elected for a term of four years. In that year the term of the office was made for life or during a good behavior. Its system is almost identical with that of the Methodist Episcopal Church, except the presence of laymen in the annual conference, the election of presiding elders on the nom- ination of the presiding bishop, instead of their appointment by the bishop alone, and other small divergences. Its general conference meets quadrennially. Its territory is divided into seven Episcopal districts, to each of which a bishop is assigned by the general con- ference. The church is represented in twenty-eight states and the District of Columbia. It is strongest in North Carolina, where it has 111,949 communicants. Ala- bama comes next with 79,231 communicants; South Carolina third, with 45,880, and Florida fourth, with 14,791. There are in all 1,704 organizations; 1,587 church edifices; church property valued at $2,714,128, and 349,788 communicants. Colored Methodist Episcopal, The Colored Meth- odist Episcopal Church was organized in 1870, of colored members and ministers of the M. E. Church, South. Before the war this church did a large evan- FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, ATLANTA, GEORGIA. 470 RELIGION AND THE NEGRO. 471 gelistic work among the Negroes. Many of the Negro slaves received the gospel from the same preachers and in the same churches as their masters, the galleries or a portion of the house being assigned to them. For those who were not privileged to attend organized churches, special missions were begun as early as 1829. In 1845 there were 124,000 members of the slave pop- ulation, and in 1860 207,000 members. In 1866, after the opening of the South to Northern churches had given the Negro members opportunity to join the A. M. E. Church, the A. M. E. Zion and other Methodist bodies, it was found that there were only 78,000 mem- bers left. The General Conference of 1866 authorized these colored members to be organized into separate conferences, and in 1870 two bishops were appointed to organize the colored conferences into a separate and independent church. This church has the same articles of religion, the same form of government, and the same discipline as its parent body. Its bishops are elected for life. Bishop Holsey declares that the great aim of the church is to evangelize the Negro, and to educate and elevate him. There are 23 annual conferences, 129,383 members. There are 1,750 organizations, with 1,653 church edifices. Valuation of property, $1,713,366. This church is strongest in Georgia, where it has more than 22,000 members, Mississippi comes next with 20,000, Tennessee third, with 18,968, and Alabama fourth, with 18,940. Congregational Methodists (Colored). This body consists of congregations of colored members organ- ized into conferences by presidents of the Congrega- tional Methodist Church, to which it corresponds in all particulars of doctrine, polity and usage. The only 472 PROGRESS OF A RACE. difference in the churches of the two bodies is that they are composed of white and colored persons, respectively. There are in all nine organizations and 319 communicants. Cumberland Presbyterian (Colored). This body was organized in May, 1869, at Murfreesboro, Ten- nessee, under the direction of the General Assembly of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. It was con- stituted of colored ministers and members who had been connected with that church. Its first synod, the Tennessee, was organized in 1871, and its general assembly in 1874. It has the same doctrinal symbol as the parent body, and the same system of govern- ment and discipline, differing only in race. It has twenty-three presbyteries, and is represented in nine states and one territory. It has 224 organizations, 183 church edifices, 12,956 communicants and church property valued at $195,826. It has 8 1 organizations, 72 church edifices, with an approximate seating capacity of 24,125 ; 7 halls with a seating capacity of 825 ; its church property is valued at $88,660, with 2,202 communicants or members. Sunday School Union of the A. M. E. Church. Of all the public institutions owned and controlled by Afro-Americans, the Sunday School Union of the African Methodist Episcopal Church deserves special mention. From a purely business standpoint, it has been a decided success. Organized August u, 1882, it has just completed the first fifteen years of its existence. What as to results? It is the first colored religious denomination to adopt "Children's Day" as an anniversary of annual observance, and to apply the collections received there- from to the extension of Sunday school work. It is RELIGION AND THE NEGRO. 473 the first colored religious organization in the world to purchase and possess real estate paid for by moneys raised ex- clusively by Sunday school is the children. It first colored ^ religious denomina- tion to issue a series o f graded Sunday " : school helps, such as quarterlies, and les- son papers. It is the first colored religious denomination to print and publish with the aid of its own machinery and material Sunday x- school literature and requisites. From the returns of Children's Day, it has received $56,- 969.57, while the '/ receipts to business aggregate $158,658. It has donated to needy Sunday schools, in the way of books and periodi- cals, $5,057.98. It owns a solid stone front, brick building, situated on the public square, in Nashville, Tennessee, which 474 PROGRESS OF A RACE. is of inestimable value to the A. M. E. Church, and would not be parted with for any sum less than $25,000. It is five stories high, including the basement. Its periodicals have a circulation in almost every state and territory in the West Indies and West and South Africa. Its property and business is easily worth $40,000, and is free and unencumbered, except a current debt of 1,500, which is partially offset by a cash balance. It has never assumed the attitude of a public beggar, nor asked a white person for a single penny. Its support from all source's has come absolutely and exclusively from colored people. Its founder, Charles Spencer Smith, has been its secretary and treasurer from its organization to the present. Items. Hon. Frederick Douglass, in his early life, was a local preacher in the A. M. E. Zion Church. The first A. M. E. Zion church established south of the Mason and Dixon line, was St. Peter's at New- berne, North Carolina, in 1862. The American Baptist Home Missionary Society has expended in Georgia for educational work among the 200,000 Negroes there, more than $500,000. Two of the most important schools Spelman Seminary and the Baptist College are located at Atlanta. The colored Baptists of the United States report a membership of 1,348,000, with 11,000 ordained minis- ters; 13,000 church buildings, valued at $10,000,000, and 9,000 Sunday schools, with more than 500,000 scholars. Rev. Lott Carey was born in Virginia in 1780, and died November 10, 1828, in Liberia. He was the first colored American missionary to Africa. RELIGION AND THE NEGRO. 475 Fully nine-tenths of the colored church members are Methodists and Baptists, and between these two they are pretty equally divided. The oldest colored church in the South is Evans' Chapel, Fayetteville, North Carolina (A. M. E. Zion). Remember, Christian Negroes black as Cain may be refined and join the angelic train. Phillis Wheatley. Negroes are more religious than white folks. They are more emotional. Emotion is not a virtue, for some emotionalists are sadly wanting in all the virtues. The amount of knowledge a man has does not secure his usefulness if he has so taken it in that rfe is lop-sided. Ely den. If a man wants to know his own strength, he need not measure himself. He needs only to size up the fellows who are pulling against him to find out how strong he is. Bishop Grant. Rev. E. 0. Morris, D. D., born May 7, 1855, was a native of Murray county, Georgia. He and his parents were slaves until liberated by the Emancipa- tion Proclamation of " Father Abraham." His early educational advantages were limited to the common school, but as he was a careful student and a close observer, his knowledge of men and cur- rent events made him a practical business man and a wise adviser. In 1879 he took the pastorate of the Centennial Bap- tist church of Helena, Arkansas, which position he has held continuously to the present time. His ability is also recognized as an organizer in educational, mis- sionary and literary interests. He established, and for two years edited the first religious paper published by his race in the state of Arkansas. In 1884, he organ- ized the Arkansas Baptist College, and for sixteen 476 PROGRESS OF A RACE. years has been chairman of its board of trustees. For nineteen years he has been president of the Baptist state convention. Since 1894 he has been president of REV. E. C. MORRIS, D. D. the National Baptist convention, the largest delibera- tive body of negroes in the world. It was bis active brain that conceived the idea of the National Baptist RELIGION AND THE NEGRO. 477 Young People's Union Board. In addition to his other duties, that of editor-in-chief of the "Conven- tion Teacher" was undertaken by his energetic hand. REV. M. W. D. NORMAN, D. D. Rev. M. W. D. Norman, D. D. Rev. Moses W. D. Norman of North Carolina was educated at Plymouth Normal School and Shaw University. In the fall of 1893 he was appointed Professor of Theology in Shaw 478 PROGRESS OF A RACE. University. This position he resigned in 1896 to accept the presidency of Roanoke Institute. MRS. MARY RICE PHELPS, AUGUSTA, GA. See sketch page 608. Provident Hospital. This institution, located at Chicago, was founded in 1891, and incorporated through the united efforts of a few earnest men. With the exception of Freedman's Hospital at Washington, it is the only institution engaged in special work in behalf of the colored people. It is unique in its RELIGION AND THE NEGRO. 479 character, and those for whom its benefits are more specially intended are grateful for and appreciative of its advantages. Training School for Nurses. In it is established a school in which young colored women are fitted for nurses, and thus a new field for their independence has been developed. A course of two years has been laid out, and already three classes have graduated. In addition to the regular hospital duties, visiting nurses are sent out among the poor and sick colored people, with most gratifying results. Receipts. The fifth annual report of the board of trustees gives as the total receipts nearly $30,000, of which more than $11,000 were voluntarily contributed by patients themselves, and the remainder by friends of the institution. Patients. The number of colored patients in the hospital for the first five years was 655. Gratitude. Words cannot express the gratitude of the colored people in the establishment of this home which has brought new and liberal facilities to the needy of the colored race. Rev. Thos. H. B. Walker was born in Tallahassee, Florida, in 1873. Like most colored boys of the South, he began life at the very bottom; but by his intelligence and perseverance, he has placed himself among the leaders of his race in the "black belt" of the South. Without money or special friends he worked his way through Cookman Institute, Jackson- ville, Florida. He was pastor of a church at the age of nineteen. In 1897 he was elected editor of The Sabbath School Banner. The same year he organized the St. Joseph Aid Society, whose membership is now found in all parts of the South. 480 PROGRESS OF A RACE. REV. TIIOS. H. B. WALKER. Hale Infirmary. In Montgomery, Alabama, in the eastern part of the city, near Hall street, is a large eigh teen-room building with this inscription on the corner-stone: "Infirmary, given by James Hale, for the benefit of his race, and erected by his wife, as a memorial to their deceased daughter and son, Sarah and James." It was the desire of James Hale to do something to help the poor and aged of his people, but before he was able to carry out his plans, he was called away to ''that home over there," in the heavenly city of rest. He told his wife, however, to carry out his wishes; RELIGION AND THE NfcGfcO. and, faithful to her promise to her dying husband, this good woman did not cease work until the desires of her husband were fulfilled. And indeed, although the in- firmary is in full operation today, she has not stopped work, but is going about among the poor, the aged and the homeless, doing all she can to lighten their burdens of life. Those who are sick, those who are alone, those who have no homes, and those who have fallen among thieves, she is lifting them up, building up their wounds and taking them to her inn, the Hale Infirmary. " The property as it stands today is worth $7,000, and, knowing the needs of my people as I do, I can say for a truth, James Hale could not have left his money to a better cause. Our people have been buying church property and building churches and preparing to live in heaven, for more than a generation. To this I have no objection, but I think the time is near at hand when we should begin to mix a little business with our religion, and while building our churches, let us also build homes for our- selves, homes for the orphans, the poor and the aged of our race, and also infirmaries and hospitals where the lame, sick and the injured can be cared for." Mrs. Watts' Orphanage. At Covington, Georgia, is located an institution which is doing much good for the state and for our people. There, in that quiet little city, is an orphanage and industrial school under the management of Mrs. D. Pace Watts. That good woman is toiling on with her work, spending her earn- ings and her life, all for the good she may do for the poor and parentless of her race, and is building up the kingdom of God among them, and, in her way, as best she can, is teaching them how to make honest and honorable citizens, II Progress, 482 PROGRESS OF A RACE. How sweet must be the lives of those who pass be- yond the whirlpool of society and lose themselves in the midst of spiritual work among the poor, the friend- less, the motherless and the fatherless of the communi- ties in which they live. There they work and pray to make the world better, often without pay, without thanks, and without encouragement, but they labor on with the belief that some day, and somewhere, they will be rewarded. Such has been the life work of Mrs. Diana Pace Watts. She has toiled with her work at Covington almost single-handed, and has overcome many obsta- cles. The extent of her work cannot be told in such a short article ; suffice it to say, however, she is doing much good for her race and the state, and deserves the co-operation and support of all who are interested in Christian work among the lowly. To Rescue Colored People. The Rev. George W. Dickey, pastor of the Burning Bush Mission, Chicago, Illinois, recently purchased the three-story brick build- ing at 2838 Dearborn street, for the purpose of con- verting it into a home for homeless and unfortunate women. It will be called a Rescue and Industrial institute. The plan has been under consideration for some time, and recently a few wealthy Baptists took hold of the matter, with the Rev. Mr. Dickey, and the result is that the home will be opened as soon as the alterations can be made in the two upper floors. The property cost $10,500, and is a three-story brick building, 25x98 feet, on a lot no feet deep. There will be sleeping apartments on the top floor, and on the second floor the women will be taught sewing, housekeeping, cooking, stenography, and typewriting, and whatever else will enable them to be self-support- CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS. 483 ing 1 . The plan of Rev. Dickey is one of several to give practical aid to the unemployed among the col- ored people. The Rev. Dickey, in speaking of his work, says: "We need to do something for our young women. AMANDA SMITH. They come to Chicago in large numbers from the South every year, and drift about in this great city without any guidance or friends. In a short while they go to the dogs. It is the one reason why one can go into 484 PROGRESS OF A RACE. the various stations of the city and see such a large percentage of colored criminals. I think it is about time for the Christian people to bestir themselves and do something practical in the way of giving protection and kindly assistance to unemployed colored men and women. Our home is established for this purpose. And, while we are colored people, I can assure you that we will not close our doors against the needy of any race or color. ' ' Amanda Smith Industrial Orphan Home for Col- ored Children. Amanda Smith, who has labored much for the elevation of her people, was greatly im- pressed with the need of an orphan home for colored children, and in 1895 secured possession of a property in North Harvey, Chicago, Illinois, worth $6,000. Through the sale of her book, evangelistic work and donations, she has already secured considerable toward the payment for the building. She is putting all her time and strength into collecting funds so that the Home may be free of debt. While she is spend- ing her time in the evangelistic field, and in collecting for the orphanage, her permanent address is 2940 South Park avenue, Chicago, Illinois. There is no doubt that this institution will be a great blessing to the colored people of Chicago and the North when it is once fully established. Other Institutions. The presence of the orphanage at Covington, the Carrie Steele Orphans' Home, and the Carter Home for old people and boys, in Atlanta, the Old Folks' Home at Norfolk, Virginia, the Old Folks' Home at Philadelphia, the Orphans' Home at St. Louis, and the Home for Working Girls at Wash- ington, D. C., are only some of the evidences which show to what extent and with what earnestness the women of our race have entered upon the work. CHAPTER XVI. NOTED PERSONAGES OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN RACE. FORERUNNERS OF LIBERTY. Frederick Douglass, the most remarkable man of Negro blood yet produced in the United States was born in Talbot county, Maryland, in February, 1817, and had just completed his seventy-eighth year, at the time of his death. He was the mulatto son of a slave mother, and consequently himself born a slave. At a very early age he went to Baltimore to live, where he ac- quired a rudimentary education. His owner allowed him to employ his own time at three dollars per week, and he obtained work in a shipyard. When just twenty-one years old he ran away to New York, and from there went to New Bedford, Massachusetts, where he supported himself as a laborer. He came, by some means, under the observation of William Lloyd Garrison, who assisted his efforts at self-education, and under Garrison's aus- pices he was brought out as an orator at abolition meet- ings in New England. In 1841 he attended an anti- slavery meeting at Nantucket, and made a speech that brought him into national notice. After this, as agent of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, he traveled through the Northern states making abolition speeches. Anti-slavery agitation was a sensitive and exciting theme at that period of the country's history, and the bold utterances of the colored orator, the first person of his race to display such capability, made him a very much discussed person. He afterward edited The North Star, an abolition paper, at Rochester, New York, and published one or two books giving his 495 HON. FREDERICK DOUGLASS. 48$ PERSONAGES OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN RACE. 487 experience as a slave, and intended to promote the then fast growing abolition sentiment. The Maryland family to whom Douglass had always belonged as a slave were named Lloyds, but after going North he adopted for himself the name he has since borne. When he had become distinguished his friends in England raised a purse of $750 with which his freedom was legally purchased. He visited England in 1845, and made many speeches there that were well received. He was charged with conspiracy in the John Brown raids into Virginia in 1859, and Governor Wise made a requisition for his arrest on the governor of Michigan. Legal complica- tions were avoided by a second visit to England. Of this visit Douglass later beautifully said: "I fled from the talons of the American eagle to nestle in the mane of the British lion. ' ' When the Civil War broke out he urged emancipation and the employment of the Negro troops. Late"r he was active in organizing Negro regi- ments in the North. After the war he held various offices under Republican administration. Mr. Cleveland removed him from his office of Recorder of Deeds of the District of Columbia in 1886, and three years later Mr. Harrison made him minister to Hayti, the last official position that he filled. The Haytian govern- ment made him one of the commissioners for its exhibit at the Columbian Exposition at Chicago. In early life, while residing at New Bedford, Mas- sachusetts, Douglass was married to a woman of his own color, by whom he had two sons and a daughter, who survive him. A few years ago he was married to Helen Pitts, a white woman from New England, who was employed as clerk in the office when he was Recorder of Deeds. In appearance, Douglass' Cau- 488 PROGRESS OF A RACK. casian blood was very manifest. He was of bright com- plexion, with prominent, clearly defined features, and hair only slightly curly. In old age he wore his hair and beard long, which gave him an air at once striking and venerable. His oratorical gift was of no ordinary quality, and no man in American public life was a greater factor in that agitation which led up to the events of 1860-65, and created such a revolution in the country's condition. He leaves a fortune, the accu- mulation of savings during a long life, estimated by some as high as $200,000. William Lloyd Garrison relates the following story of Douglass and Sojourner Truth, a character as remark- able in her way as Douglass was in his. She was a thorough African of unmixed blood, gaunt and black. She was born a slave in New York, and emancipated when slavery was abolished in that state. She could neither read nor write, whereas Douglass had educated himself and was the peer of any so-calied self-educated white man. At an anti-slavery meeting, when the aspect of affairs was particularly dark, Douglass was speaking and indulging in gloomy views of the situa- tion. Sojourner, who was a listener, and was pos- sessed with an intense religious faith, was disturbed at the tone of his despondency, and in a moment relieved her feelings and those of the meeting as well, by saying in her deep voice: "Is God dead, Fred- erick?" Nobody could appreciate the hit better than himself, and the closing remarks were in a more hope- ful strain. Hon. Josiah T. Settle, of Memphis, says: "On one occasion, some time before emancipation, he attended the Fourth of July celebration, I think, at Rochester; he was then a man of international fame, and was PERSONAGES OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN RACE. 489 called upon to speak I have not seen the speech in print for more than thirty years, but as I read it then and remember it now, taken in connection with the times and circumstances under which it was made, the man and the occasion, nothing could have been more truly eloquent. When he arose and looked over his audience, among" other things he said: 'Why am I called upon to speak on an occasion such as this? Why should I celebrate your Fourth of July? What freedom have I and my people to celebrate? Above your shouts and the roar of your cannon I can hear the crack of the slave whip, the clanking of the chains, and the groans of my oppressed brethren in the South. Your rejoicings do but fill to overflowing my cup of bit- terness. You were willing to bare your breasts to cannon to evade a tax on tea, but you turn a deaf ear to three millions of human beings, made in the image of God, who are vainly pleading to you in chains that they may own their own bodies, and that they may be protected in the commonest ties of husband and wife, parent and child. While you celebrate the anniversary of your independence, you have coiled up in the youthful bosom of your republic the serpent of slavery, sucking her life's blood, and sending its poison into every mem- ber of her body. Your Declaration of Independence is a lie ! And your flag contaminates the very air of God. Every stripe upon it represents the blood and bondage of my people, and every star glitters to your country's shame.' " From a memorial address in "Talks for the Times," we take the following; "If I were asked to sum up in a word what made Frederick Douglass great, I should say a noble purpose, fixed and unchangeable, a pur- pose to render to mankind the largest possible service, 490 PROGRESS OF A RACE. Verily, he nas served us well, faithfully, unselfishly, and now, full of years, and full of honors, loaded with such distinctions as this poor world has to give, he dies, dies as he lived, a brave, strong, good man. No more shall we behold that manly form. No more shall we listen to those eloquent lips upon which, for over fifty years, so many thousands have hung with rapture, those eloquent lips that made his name famous in two hemispheres, and will surely keep it so as long as freedom has a history. God grant that the mantle of this old hero may fall upon a worthy successor ! God grant that our young men, contemplat- ing his life and emulating his example, may be lifted up to a higher conception of life, of duty, of responsi- bility, of usefulness ! ' ' William Still. We abridge the following from the 4 * Life of William Still, "as it is given in the revised edition of the "Underground Railroad": His parents, Levin and Sidney, were both slaves on the eastern shore of Maryland. "Massa, I'd sooner die than stay a slave!" was the declaration of his father to his young master before either was twenty- one years of age. The master saw that it would be impossible to change this determination of the slave, and felt that it would be policy under the circum- stances to drive the best bargain he could. He decided to sell him to himself, or in other words, give him the chance of buying his freedom. The price was named and accepted by the slave. His former dili- gence was now doubly taxed to complete the hard task of working out his freedom. At last, by dint of perse- verance and economy he succeeded. Being free, he could not breathe the air tainted by slavery, hence, severing the sacred ties of family, bidding good-bye PERSONAGES OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN RACE. 491 to his wife and four children (two boys and two girls), and trusting God for the future, he started northward and located near Greenwich, New Jersey. The wife felt more keenly than ever the yoke of bondage ; she, too, resolved to break it, but not in the tedious way her husband had done. For the sake of liberty and of being reunited to her husband, she resolved to accept the trials and dangers of escape, and if not successful, the death which such an attempt often involved. Under the influence of a mighty resolution, hoping for such indirect aid as her husband could furnish, she set out with her four children on her toilsome fugitive journey. Then came days of watching, waiting and fear of detection, nights perilous with forced travel, times of despair as swamps and forests interposed, rivers intervened or starvation threatened. Success crowned her perils and sacrifices. The father's heart and hand had been diligent in her movements, as she had anticipated. The family was joyfully reunited, and a home was provided near Greenwich. The old name of Steele became Still. Every precaution was taken to preserve the secret of their past existence. But the scent of the slave hunter was not to be baffled by these precautions. In a few months, a capturing gang, terrible as an army with banners, suddenly pounced upon the peaceful household, and the wife and four children were dragged back to their old slave quarters in Maryland. Liberty's draught once tasted, the lips of the slave mother longed for it again. Plans for a second attempt were laid. None seemed feasible that included her four children. Agonizing as was the thought of severing herself from her children, she could not overcome the dreadful alternative by any ingenuity of her own. At last, the plan was laid out ; PROGRESS OF A RACE. she would leave her two boys under the care of her dear mother, who was also in bondage. What tears watered the sad conclusion ! She would save the girls, the youngest and weakest. The sorrowful night came. Nerved for the hour and the painful occasion, she rushed to the little straw bed on which her four chil- dren were sleeping, kissed her boys farewell without waking them, clasped her two little girls in her strong, true arms, bade her mother good-bye, and trusting in God, began again the perilous march to freedom. Not recounting the trials and hardships and dangers overcome, she reached the free soil of New Jersey, and rejoined her husband with her two little girls. And now greater precaution was necessary, hence a home in the depths of the Jersey pines, seven miles east of Medford, was chosen. Guarding their family history, working peaceably and industriously, dealing honestly, walking reverently, Levin Still was permitted to escape the pursuit of the slave hunter, and to enjoy the blessings of home. His acres became his own ; thrift brought this reward to him. His family increased until it numbered eighteen children in all, the youngest of whom was William Still, the subject of our sketch Suffice it to say of the two sons in slavery, that they were sold and taken South. One of them died in slavery, and the other, Peter Still, returned to the family forty years later. When old enough, William began to work on the farm, the stock of which consisted of a horse and a yoke of oxen. The cranberry meadows near by furnished employment for him and his brothers. In the winter, the Still family were occupied in putting up eordwood. In the rich agricultural district west of Medford, he succeeded in obtaining work during harvest, always receiving PERSONAGES OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN RACE. 493 kind treatment and good wages. Whisky was served, according to custom, to the harvest hands. One day, William, exhausted by the heat, and his efforts to do a full hand's work, was induced to take a drink. It sickened him so that he was forced to return home, and report a quarter of a day's work lost labor. This humiliated him so that he resolved never to touch the accursed stuff again. If there is anything in his life of which he is proud, it is the faithful keeping of the vow then registered. William received no schooling until he was seventeen years of age, when a teacher was secured who was favorably inclined to the colored race. He then drop- ped all work and attended school. He subscribed for Tlte Colored American, but the postmaster did not con- sider it proper to dispense that kind of literature through the mails, and so withheld the paper for a number of weeks. At last he was informed that he could have his papers if he paid what was due on them. He paid thirty cents postage, and was given a bundle of papers which, when he got home and unfolded, were undelivered numbers of other papers not his own. He, however, applied at once to the postmaster, and carried his point. In 1844, when he was twenty- three years old, he went to Philadelphia with only $3 in his pocket. Here he was obliged to confront the question of color. He was not able to secure steady work, discouragement and failure met him on every hand. After being engaged in work for some time, he found that he was not making enough to pay his modest board bill. During the next summer, he worked in a brick yard. Determined to provide for the coming winter better than he did for the first win- ter spent in Philadelphia, he resolved to start a busi- 494 PROGRESS OF A RACE. ness of his own. He engaged in the oyster business, but a very brief experience proved to him that he was not capable of carrying it on. Through the pious rep- resentations of a rogue the money he had on hand was temporarily loaned, and the prospective profit became a real loss. He then became a second-hand clothing dealer, but this plunged him into bankruptcy. He then got a position as a waiter in a Broad street house, but the surroundings were so disgusting and the work so hard that in three weeks, hearing of a vacancy in the family of an aged widow of great wealth, he ventured to try for the place. Here he was engaged after a searching examination at $14 per month. By faithfulness, he soon won the esteem of the lady, and found that, although she was exacting in requiring her rules to be obeyed, yet she was kind and always ready to aid him. His duties were light, and as the good lady discovered his taste for books, she extended all encouragement to him that she could. She permitted him to keep up his connection with the Sunday school at the Moral Reform Retreat, and assisted him in acquiring knowledge of books. After spending eight- een months very profitably and pleasantly in the home of this old lady, she left the city to reside with her daughter in New York. This ended William's engage- ment, and he was sorry enough to part with one who was so kind to him. With the references from the good old lady, he soon secured a place with the family of a retired merchant until he heard that a clerk was needed in the office of the Pennsylvania An ti- Slavery Society. He made application for the position, and was informed that the committee would employ him provided the salary suited, $3.75 per week. In the meantime, having won a lady and made her his wife, PERSONAGES OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN RACE. 495 he looked around for further employment in order that he might eke out a comfortable subsistence for himself and wife. This he procured as janitor of the library building, at a salary of $6 per month. His wife, in the meantime, carried on dressmaking. His faithful- ness and ability in office work soon induced the committee in charge of the Anti- Slavery office to increase his salary. He had become an earnest, con- fidential worker in the underground railroad matters, and his house had been known as a safe and con- venient station on the line of northward march. He was ever on the alert to aid slaves to escape. Many of the successful attempts that he made to liberate Negroes are recorded in his volume, "The Under- ground Railroad." He resigned as chairman of the committee in 1861, and immediately began business as a dealer in stoves, also the sale of coal on a small scale, and this business increased until he has become one of the noted coal dealers of the city. He was unanimously elected a member of the Philadelphia Board of Trade, and has for years been reaping the reward of energy and integrity in the shape of a daily enlarging confidence. In 1872 he published his work, "The Underground Railroad." The manuscript had been very carefully secreted during the war, as no other of the underground railroad managers had dared to make any note of the work. At the Centen- nial Exposition in 1876 his book attracted much atten- tion. Mr. Still, although past seventy-five years of age, is still vigorous and active. He is still engaged in phi- lanthropic work. He is actively engaged as president, etc., on the board of "The Home for Aged and Infirm Colored People," for more than thirty years. His life has been a busy and useful one. He was connected 496 PROGRESS OF A RACE. with a society for improving the condition of the Negro race, of which Benjamin Franklin was first president, and which was organized one year before the United States government. The reader will, no doubt, desire to know something concerning the two boys who were sold in slavery into the South. We take the following from the life of William Still, giving an account of his meeting with his brother: 4 'One summer day, in 1850, as I was busily engaged in mailing the weekly issue of the Pennsylvania Free- man^ two colored men entered the office. One of them was a resident of Philadelphia, and well known to me ; the other I never had seen. My acquaintance intro- duced the stranger as coming from the South, and with the added remark, *He will tell you his own story.' I paused, and the stranger began in a very deliberate manner, saying: 'I am from Alabama. I have come in search of my people. I and my little brother were kidnapped about forty years ago, and I thought by coming to Philadelphia and having notices written and read in the colored churches old people would remem- ber about it, and I could find my mother and people. ' " After going on with his story for a few mintues in this way, I became fully satisfied that, if his story were as he had given it thus far, I could save valuable time by asking a few questions. I therefore asked: " 'Where were you kidnapped from?' " A. 'I don't know.' "Q. 'Don't you know the name of the place?' "A. 'No.' "Q. Don't you know the name of any town, river, neighborhood or state?' "A. 'No. 1 PERSONAGES OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN RACE. 49? "Q. 'What was your name?' "A. 'Peter.' "Q. 'What was your little brother's name?' "A. 'Levin.' "Q. 'What were the names of your father and mother?' "A. 'Mother's name was Sidney and father's name was Levin?' "Q. 'Do you remember the name of any other person?' "A. 'I know the name of one white man.' (Here he named him. ) "By this time I was simply thunderstruck, so to speak. I had to summon all my powers of control in the presence of the stranger, so fully was I convinced by this time that he was one of my long-lost brothers. I scarcely knew what to do for a little time, but by and by I dismissed the pilot, saying I would look further into the case after I got through with my mailing and take care of the stranger over night. This was satis- factory to the pilot, but hardly so to the stranger, till he was advised by his friend that it would be all right. "Before intimating to my brother the discovery I had made, I allowed a full hour to pass, meanwhile plying him with a thousand questions touching his entire life. Then, seating myself by his side, I said : ' I think I can tell you all about your kinf oik mother, father, etc.,' and went on to say, 'You are an own brother of mine. ' "As anxious as he had been all his life to find his lost parents and relatives, this news was at the moment too 'good for him to fully credit. He was as one dumb- founded. I went on to assure him of the truth of all I had said, by relating our family history in detail, and 32 Progress. 498 PROGRESS OF A RACE. dwelling particularly on mother's escapes, and how, in her second attempt, she was obliged to leave her two little boys, Levin and Peter, behind, in the care of their grandmother. "Having explained the matter to Peter thus fully, his doubts vanished and he went home with me. Our two sisters living in Philadelphia, who were acquainted with all the secrets of the family history, were soon called in, and became joyful witnesses of the marvel- ous restoration. Outside of myself and sisters, I felt sure he might have enquired the city over without having obtained the slightest cue to his lost relations. "The next day he was taken to our mother's home in New Jersey, and fully recognized by her, not a shadow of doubt appearing as to his identity, as he was her very image. "Allow me to remark just here that it was this heartrending history connected with my own family that first prompted me to keep the records of the underground railroad. Thousands of escapes, har- rowing separations, dreadful longings, dark gropings after lost parents, brothers, sisters, and identities, seemed ever to be pressing on my mind. While I knew the danger of keeping strict records, and while I did not dream that in my day slavery would be blotted out, or that the time would come when I could publish these records, it used to afford me great satisfaction to take them down fresh from the lips of fugitives on the way to freedom, and to preserve them as they had given them. But, thank God! the end of slavery came ere we looked for it, and the records are no longer preserved in secret, nor is their presence a source of danger. ' ' Francis Ellen Watkins Harper was born in Baltimore PERSONAGES OF THE AFRO- AMERICAN RACE. 499 in 1825, not of slave parentage, and yet subjected to the oppression which bond and free alike endured under the slave laws. Since reaching her majority, in looking back, the following sentences from her own pen express the loneliness of her childhood days: "Have I yearned for a mother's love? The grave was my robber. Before three years had scattered their blight around my path, death had won my mother from me. Would a strong arm of a brother have been welcome? I was my mother's only child. " An aunt cared for her during her early years. She was sent to school until she was about thirteen years of age, and then put to work to earn her living. It was her fortune to work for a lady willing to let her have any book in her library to read at her leisure, except a novel. She had an ardent thirst for knowledge, and a remarkable talent for composition. She was noted for her industry, rarely trifling away time, as many girls are wont to do. In early life she acquired a taste for reading and poetry, and soon found, as she says, "she could string verses together and make them jingle." Scarcely had she reached her majority before she had written a book, "Forest Leaves," consisting of prose and poetry. The following is one of the poems of the volume. At the time it was also printed in an English paper. Not having either the volume or the paper at hand, Mrs. Harper has kindly sent us a copy which she has quoted from memory, although she is seventy-two years of age : ETHIOPIA. Yes, Ethiopia yet shall stretch Her bleeding hands abroad ; Her cry of agony shall reach The burning throne of God. l>00 PROGRESS OF A RACE. The tyrant's yoke from off her neck, His fetters from her soul, The mighty hand of God shall break And spurn the base control. Redeemed from dust, and freed from chains, Her sons shall lift their eyes ; From lofty hills and verdant plains Shall shouts of triumph rise. Upon the dark, despairing brow . Shall play a smile of peace ; For God shall bend unto her woe, And bid her sorrows cease. 'Neath sheltering vines and stately palma Shall laughing children play ; And aged sires, with joyous psalms, Shall gladden every day. Secure by night and blest by day, Shall pass her happy hours ; No human tigers hunt for prey Within her peaceful bowers. Then, Ethiopia, stretch, O, stretch Thy bleeding hands abroad ; Thy cry of agony shall reach And find the throne of God. Her taste for poetry was nurtured and fed in her uncle's school, which she attended for a number of years. Among the early recollections of her life are some reminiscences of Whittier and Garrison. Of her uncle, she says: "Our teacher, in instructing his pupils, did more than simply carry us through the routine of lessons, and nearly sixty years have not affected what I learned in that little school room, which was only a few yards from a slave-pen. ' ' All her writings have a highly moral and elevated tone. In 1851 she left Baltimore to seek a home in a free state, and for a short time resided in Ohio, where PERSONAGES OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN RACE. 501 she was engaged in teaching. She soon left that state, and engaged in teaching in Little York, Pennsylvania. While in York she had frequent opportunities of seeing passengers of the underground railroad. In one of her letters, she alluded to a traveler, thus: "I saw a passenger per the underground yesterday. Not- withstanding the abomination of the nineteenth century, the fugitive slave law men still determine to be free. Notwithstanding all the darkness in which they keep the slaves, it seems that somehow light is dawning upon their minds. These poor fugitives are a property that can walk. Just to think that from the rain-bow crowned Niagara to the swollen waters of the Mexican Gulf, from the restless murmur of the Atlantic to the ceaseless roar of the Pacific, the poor, half -starved, flying fugitive has no resting place for the sole of his foot." In 1853 Maryland, her native state, enacted a law forbidding free people of color from the North from going into the state, on pain of being imprisoned and sold into slavery. A free man, who had unwittingly violated this infamous statute, had recently been sold in Georgia, but had escaped thence by hiding behind the wheel-house of a boat bound northward. Before he reached the desired haven, he was discovered and remanded to slavery, and soon after died from the effects of exposure and suffering. In a letter to a friend referring to this outrage, Mrs. Harper wrote: "Upon that grave I pledged myself to the Anti- Slavery cause. " She soon went to Philadelphia, making her home at the station of the underground railroad. Although anxious to enter the anti-slavery field as a worker, her modesty prevented her from pressing her claims, and, being >ut little known, no especial encouragement was ten- 5U2 PROGRESS OF A RACE. dered her. From Philadelphia she went to Boston, and soon was found lecturing in New Bedford Her first effort made such an impression that she was at once engaged by the State An ti- Slavery Society of Maine. Her ability and labors were everywhere appreciated, and her meetings were largely attended. Open doors, hospitable homes, and helping hands were proof that she had found her field of labor in pleading for the cause of her people in bondage. For a year and one-half, she continued in the Eastern states, and then visited the fugitives in Canada. Her newly acquired reputation as a lecturer opened wide for her the door in Pennsylvania and Ohio. Her con- stant traveling required her absence from what she might call home, and she often expressed the desire that she might be able to enjoy the blessings of a home, "and yet," says she, "I do not regret that I have espoused this cause. Perhaps I have been of some service to the cause of human rights, and I hope the consciousness that I have not lived in vain will be a halo of peace around my dying bed, a heavenly sunshine lighting up the dark valley and shadow of death." She was far from desiring at her death a burial in a slave state, as expressed in the following language : "Make me a grave wher'er you will, In a lowly plain or a lofty hill ; Make it among earth's humblest graves, But not in a land where men are slaves." In the fall of 1860, Mrs. Harper was married to Fenton Harper, a widower and a resident of Ohio. The means she had saved from the sale of her books and from lectures she invested in a small farm near Columbus. Notwithstanding her family cares, she PERSONAGES OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN RACE. 503 only ceased from her literary and anti-slavery labors when compelled to do so by other duties. In 1864 death deprived her of her husband. After the war, she spent much of her time in laboring for her people in the South. Mrs. Harper traveled extensively, going on the plantations among the lowly as well at to the cities and towns, addressing schools, churches, meetings in court houses, etc., influenced wholly by the noble impulses of her own heart, working her way along unsustained by any society. The work among the freedmen of today may sometimes have difficulties and trials to encounter, but for Mrs. Harper, in the days of reconstruction, when the Negro had no rights that a white man might respect, to go alone into these waste places of the South and bring comfort and encouragement to the down-trodded of her race, often endangering her' life, was more than the average indi- vidual of today would consent to do. After many years of hard labor in the South, Mrs. Harper returned to Philadelphia, where she has since had her home. She is, however, not idle, but is always look- ing to the necessities of those around her, whom she may lift up by her encouraging and helpful advice. Mrs. Harper is a woman of high moral tone, with superior native powers, highly cultivated, and a captivating eloquence that hold her audience in rapt attention from the beginning to the close. She always speaks well, but particularly so when the subject relates to the condition of her people, in whose welfare, before and since the war, she has taken the deepest interest. The following lines were written by Mrs. Francis E. Harper on the return from Cleveland, Ohio, of a poor, ill-fated girl, under the Fugitive Slave law : 504 PROGRESS OF A RACE. TO THE UNION SAVERS OF CLEVELAND. "Men of Cleveland, had a vulture Sought a timid dove for prey, Would you not, with human pity, Drive the gory bird away? Had you seen a feeble lambkin Shrinking from a wolf so bold, Would ye not, to shield the trembler, In your arms have made its fold? But when she, a hunted sister, Stretched her hands that ye might save, Colder far than Zembla's regions Was the answer that ye gave. On the Union's bloody altar Was the hapless victim laid ; Mercy, truth, and justice shuddered, But your hands would give no aid. And ye sent her back to torture, Robbed of freedom and of right, Thus the wretched captive stranger Back to slavery's gloomy night. Back where brutal men may trample On her honor and her fame ; And unto her lips so dusky, Press the cup of woe and shame. There is blood upon your city, Dark and dismal is the stain ; And your hands would fail to cleanse it Though Lake Erie ye should drain. There's a curse upon your Union, Fearful sounds are in the air ; As if thunderbolts were framing Answers to the bondsman's prayer. Ye may offer human victims Like the heathen priests of old; And may barter manly honor For the Union and for gold. PERSONAGES OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN RACE. 505 But ye cannot stay the whirlwind - When the storm begins to break; And our God doth rise in judgment For the poor and needy's sake. And your sin-cursed, guilty Union, Shall be shaken to its base, Till ye learn that simple justice Is the right of every race." Since freedom she has also been engaged in the tem- perance field, and for many years has held the position of superintendent of colored work in the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. She has contributed freely to the columns of the Union Signal^ the weekly paper of that organization. She has been a member from the beginning of the "Woman's Congress," holding for a time the position of director. She has spoken at and attended the "National Council of Women." Although seventy-two years old, she is still in the lecture field, and is actively engaged in different lines of literary work. Her home is 1006 Bainbridge street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. There is probably no woman, white or colored, who has come so intimately in contact with the colored people in the South, for she has labored in every Southern state except Arkansas and Texas. She has never lacked for evidences of hearty appreciation and grati- tude. EDUCATORS. The items of the following biographical sketch have been gleaned from different sources but principally from an article by Dr. Parks, of Gammon Theological Seminary. (H. F. Kletzing.) Prof. W. H. Crogman, A. M., who occupies the chair of Greek and Latin in Clark University, Atlanta, Georgia, in Christian character, scholarship in his 506 PROGRESS OF A RACE. department, literary ability, general culture, and distinguished services, stands, it is safe to say, at the very head of the colored race. In all the particulars mentioned, he would honor a professorship in any college in the land. The subject of this sketch was born on the Island of St. Martin's, May 5, 1841. In 1855 he went to sea on a vessel on which Mr. B. L. Boomer was mate. Mr. Boomer took a deep interest in him, and afterwards took him to his home in Massachusetts. Mr. Boomer's brothers were sea captains. The boy, Willie Crog- man, followed the sea with this family for eleven years. He visited many lands, and, observant and thoughtful, obtained a wide knowledge of various nationalities and parts of the world. His visits included especially England, various points of the continent of Europe, Calcutta and Bombay in Asia, and various places in South America. Mr. Boomer says: "It has been my good fortune to know our good friend all the way since he was fifteen years old, and it would afford me the greatest satisfaction if I could feel that his great success in all these years had in any manner been furthered by me. On the contrary, his untiring perseverance, diligent, wise and studious use of his time and money, made him from the first inde- pendent of all save our love, respect and never-ceasing interest." In 1866, at the suggestion of Mr. Boomer, he began to earn means to attend an academy, and in 1868 entered Pierce Academy, in Massachusetts. Of his work during the two years in this school, Prof. J. W. P. Jenks, of Brown University, who was then the principal of the academy, says: "Beginning with me in the elementary English PERSONAGES OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN RACE. 507 branches, I may safely say, in them all, he accom- plished in one quarter as much as the average student did in two, mastering almost intuitively, and with equal facility, both mathematical and linguistical prin- ciples. I formed him into a class of one, lest he should be hindered by the dullness of others. In the third quarter he commenced French, and, as I have often said, surpassed every one of the hundreds of students, in both rapidity of advancement and accuracy of scholarship. I need say no more, except that his record since leaving the academy, taking all the exten- uating circumstances into the account, has reflected greater honor upon me as its principal, and his almost sole instructor while connected with it, than any other alumnus. ' ' After completing this academic course, Prof. Crog- man started South to give his life to the Christian education of his race. He spent three years as instruc- tor in English branches at Claflin University, Orange- burg, South Carolina. The experience of these years impressed upon him the need of a knowledge of Greek and Latin, and at the age of twenty-nine he began the study of Latin by himself. In the fall of 1873, he entered Atlanta University, completing the full clas- sical course in 1876. Through industry, thorough scholarship and rapid advancement, he completed the four years course in three, then carrying off as his bride one of the noblest and most gifted and cultured young ladies, Miss Lavinia C. Mott, of Charlotte, North Carolina, Professor Crogman entered upon the worjk to which he has given all these years. Called at once to the position in the faculty of Clark University, he has occupied his present chair since 1880. For more than twenty long years, Professor Crogman has been 508 PROGRESS OF A RACE. an incessant laborer, and continuous in self sacrificing, in order that he might break the fetters of ignorance and superstition, and give liberty to the captives. His earnestness and faithfulness in the class-room, where he is so much at home, produces an eloquence more effective than a thousand orators upon the stage. Learned and yet modest, humble and yet dignified, he carries with him a personality that is his own. As the result of his labor, let the voices from a thousand ham- lets in this and adjoining states speak out; let the young men and women from a thousand homes, who have imbibed knowledge and manhood at his feet, come forward and tell the story. Pages might be written containing tributes from his students through all these years. His is a life whose influence is not bounded by any section of country. To him more than to any other instructor are many of the educated colored people of the South indebted for the success with which they are meeting. At his fiftieth anniversary, letters from students expressive of their highest appreciation of him were read, the excellent qualities that characterize him as a man and as a teacher were vividly set forth, as well as his thorough work in class-room, system and method in instructing, manly and helpful talks that often were a source of inspiration and led many to noble resolves. Professor Crogman's library is large, choice and costly, and every book in it shows that it has been used. He is a close and thorough student. He was a lay delegate to the General Conference of the M. E. Church of 1880, 1884 and 1888, and one of the secretaries of the last two of these, being the first colored man placed on the staff of secretaries of a gen- eral conference of that church, PERSONAGES OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN RACE. 509 At his fiftieth anniversary, already referred to, his friends presented him with an elegant gold watch, a beautiful set of Carlsbad china, nine handsomely bound volumes of ancient classics, and a large ornamental inkstand, from which rolled out one hundred dollars in gold. Mrs. Crogman, a graduate of Atlanta University, in her character and services as his helpmeet, and as queen of one of the most refined and cultured homes, and as mother of eight most promising children, is worthy of no less honor than the professor himself. Some years ago a university of good standing conferred upon Professor Crogman the degree of LL.D., but in his modesty he insists on declining the honor, and most of his friends defer to his wishes in not using the title, though they regard him as worthy of the honor it implies. Professor Crogman, though closely confined to his class-room for most of the year, has addressed with great acceptability not only his own people, on various occasions, but some of the most prominent audiences in this country, notably at Ocean Grove, in Beecher's church, and at the National Teachers' Association. His address, a few years ago, at the meeting of the last named in Madison, Wiscon- sin, was generally regarded as one of the ablest and most eloquent. His life is a busy one. Besides attending to the many duties devolving upon him, he is author of a volume, * ' Talks for the Times, ' ' which cannot but be a blessing to all who read it. This volume is receiving the highest encomiums from both press and educators in all parts of the land. These addresses are rhetori- cally beautiful, intellectually brilliant, and show the author to be perfectly familiar with history, philosophy and current literature. 510 PROGRESS OF A RACE. Bishop Mallalieu says of him : ' ' He is a man in whom I have the greatest confidence. He is an honor to the human race. I wish the world was full of such men. " As chief Exposition Commissioner for the colored people of the state of Georgia, it was he who made the exhibit of the cotton states and international exposition of Atlanta, in 1895, such a remarkable success. His race feels proud of him. Well may they wish that he were many times multiplied. Professor Crogman has been presiding in the school room for more than twenty years, and has occupied the chair of languages at Clark University for nearly that length of time, and during these years he has been secretary of the trustee boards of both Clark University and Gammon Theological Seminary. Be- sides these heavy duties, he has taken an active part in all movements that had for their object the better- ment of the state, the city, the United States and his people. The story of his life shows something of the adverse circumstances under which he has labored, the man- hood, scholarship, usefulness to his race and humanity, and the honor his indefatigable industry, perseverance, hard work, and Christian faith have achieved, and points the way to every aspiring youth, however lowly and unfavorable his circumstances. Few men have rendered more faithful and useful services in educa- tional work than Professor Crogman. Few men have steadily and unwaveringly maintained a more straight- forward and manly course, or acted more wisely under all circumstances, than has he. He is every inch a Christian gentleman, a living- teacher in no mere tech- nical nor narrow sense. His platform utterances show thorough preparation and are received with delight by whites and blacks alike. PERSONAGES OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN RACE. 511 Well does Professor Parks say: "In a true estimate, not only of many enlarged and ennobled individual lives, but also of the great movement since emancipa- tion in the elevation of the colored people, he must be given an important place. " PROF. W. SCARBOROUGH, LL. D. For twenty years Professor in Wilberforce University. Prof. W. S. Scarborough, LL.D. The subject of this sketch was born in Macon, Georgia, February 16, 1852. He inherited a passionate love for knowledge, besides an aptness to overcome all obstacles in obtain- 12 PROGRESS OF A RACE. ing it. The Georgia law required that any Negfd caught with a spelling book in his hand should receive severe punishment, and the white man who taught the Negro should pay a heavy penalty or go to the peni- tentiary. Yet, young Scarborough was so keen that with his book concealed he spent part of the time in a private school ostensibly to play. He continued in this clandestine way to attend undisturbed one of the few private schools up to the close of the war, and was then placed under the instructions of a Miss Kidd, from the North. Later he entered the Atlanta University, where he spent two years in preparation for a Northern college. In 1871 he graduated from the preparatory department of the Atlanta University, and in the fall entered Oberlin College, where he spent four years. He was a hard working student, which made him popular with his classmates; his genial disposition and gentlemanly bearing won for him many friends. Immediately after graduation in 1875, he taught Latin, Greek and mathematics in the Lewis High School, but in 1876 he returned to Oberlin, and spent some months in studying Hebrew and Hellenistic Greek. He then became Principal of Payne Institute, Cokesville, South Carolina, and in 1877 was called to the chair of ancient languages in Wilberforce University, near Xenia, Ohio, which posi- tion he has held for many years with marked ability. His experience is large and varied. Clear in explana- tion, polished in language and bearing, profound in scholarship, a perfect gentleman, he has been able to impress himself upon many young minds as few young men have been able to do. With unflinching steadfast- ness of purpose, unwavering uprightness and straight- forward devotion to principle, he has been enabled to PERSONAGES OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN RACE. 513 attain the heights and win the fame so undeniably his. In 1880 he prepared his "First Lessons in Greek," which was published by Barnes & Co. This book has received the highest encomiums from the press, and what is still better, received practical recognition, that of adoption by schools and colleges, both white and colored. He has been a frequent contributor to the press, and has been quite active in political life, being elected to state conventions, and quite frequent- ly an active worker in the campaigns as speaker. Professor Scarborough has, however, won his laurels as a scholar. As a teacher and philologist his ability is unquestioned. He has paid especial attention to Sanscrit and other old languages, and has not neglected the modern. He is author of a number of works, notably "Latin Moods and Tenses," "Questions on Latin Grammar, with Appendix." As a member of the American Philological Association, he has con- tributed valuable papers at different times. Prof. Scarborough stands out as one of the ripest scholars and prominent educators of his race. Principal Booker T. Washington, A. M. " I was born a slave on a plantation in Virginia, in 1857 or 1858, 1 think. My first memory of life is that of a one- room log cabin with a dirt floor and a hole in the center that served as a winter home for sweet potatoes, and, wrapped in a few rags on this dirt floor, I spent my nights, and, clad in a single garment about the plan- tation, I often spent my days. The morning of free- dom came, and, though a child, I recall vividly my appearance with that of forty or fifty slaves before the veranda of the 'big house,' to hear read the docu- ments that made us men instead of property. With the long-prayed-for freedom in actual possession, each 83 Progress. 514 PROGRESS OF A RACE. started out into the world to find new friends and new homes. My mother decided to locate in West Virginia, and after many days and nights of weary travel, we found ourselves among the salt furnaces and coal mines of West Virginia. Soon after reaching West Virginia I began to work in the coal mines for the support of my mother. "While doing this, I heard, in some way, I do not now remember how, of General Armstrong's school at Hampton, Virginia. I heard at the same time, which impressed me most, that it was a school where a poor boy could work for his education, so far as his board was concerned. As soon as I heard of Hampton, I made up my mind that in some way I was going to find my way to that institution. I began at once to save every nickel I could get hold of. At length, with my own savings and a little help from my brother and mother, I started for Hampton, although at the time I hardly knew where Hampton was, or how much it would cost to reach the school. After walking a por- tion of the distance, traveling in a stage coach and cars the remainder of the journey, I at length found my- self in the city of Richmond, Virginia. I also found my- self without money, friends or a place to stay all night The last cent of my money had been expended. Af tei walking about the city till midnight, growing almost discouraged and quite exhausted, I crept under a side- walk and slept all that night. The next morning, as good luck would have it, I found myself near a ship that was unloading pig-iron. I applied to the captain for work, and he gave it, and I worked on this ship by day and slept under the sidewalk by night, till I had earned money enough to continue my way to Hampton, where I soon arrived, with 50 cents in my pocket. PERSONAGES OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN RACE. 515 "I at once found General Armstrong, and told him what I had come for, and what my condition was. In his great hearty way, he said that if I was worth any- thing he would give me a chance to work for my education. While at Hampton, I resolved, if God permitted me to finish the course of study, I would enter the far South, the black belt of the Gulf states, and give my life in providing as best I could the same kind of chance for self-help for the youth of my race that I found ready for me when I went to Hampton, and so, in 1881, I left Hampton and went to Tuskegee and started the Normal and Industrial Institute in a small church and shanty, with one teacher and thirty students. '* Since then the institution of Tuskegee has grown till we have connected with the institution eighty-one instructors and 850 young men and women, represent- ing nineteen states ; and, if I add the families of our instructors, we have on our grounds constantly a pop- ulation of about 1,000 souls. The students are about equally divided between the sexes, and their average is 1 8^ years. In planning the course of training at Tuskegee we have steadily tried to keep in view our condition and our needs rather than to pattern our course of study directly after that of a people whose opportunities of civilization have been far different and far superior to ours. From the first, industrial or hand training has been made a special feature of our work." Pres. Richard Robert Wright, A. M. The parents of Richard Robert Wright were South Carolinians. Coming to Georgia in 1853, they first settled in Dalton, where Richard was born. In his boyhood he worked on the farm. Immediately after the war, he attended 516 PROGRESS OF A RACE. school in Cuthbert. Subsequently, on the removal of his parents to Atlanta, he enjoyed the privileges of the city schools, and in course of time was graduated from the college course of Atlanta University. Immediately upon graduation he returned to Cuth- bert, and was made principal of the Howard Normal School, which position he held for four years. In 1878 he called the first convention of Negro teachers ever assembled in Georgia, and was for three years president of that body. When, in 1880, it assumed the name of the Georgia State Teachers' Association he was again elected president. In the same year he was called to the principalship of the Ware High School, in Augusta, the first high school ever estab- lished in the state, and supported by city funds. For ten years Mr. Wright remained at the head of this school, or until he was called by the state to organize the Georgia State Industrial College, over which he now presides. He is also vice-president of the Board of Trustees of Atlanta University. By request, he represented, in 1881, the work of the American Mis- sionary Association, at its annual meeting in Worces- ter, Massachusetts. Besides his services to education, President Wright has mingled some in politics, both state and national. He was a member of the National Republican Conven- tion that nominated Garfield; also a member of the one that nominated and of the one that renominated Harrison. In one of the national conventions he served on the platform committee with Governor, now President, McKinley. For ten years President Wright was editor of an influential newspaper, and wrote for others, being once a regular correspondent of a Democratic daily. PERSONAGES OF THE AFRO- AMERICAN RACE. 517 Recently the following tribute to President Wright appeared in a reputable newspaper. Coming from Prof. Thomas N. Chase, one of President Wright's old teachers, the tribute has the more force : "Pres. R. R. Wright became my pupil in 1869. I have had an intimate acquaintance with him ever since. He was one of the brightest students Atlanta University has had, and is its most prominent graduate. Col. A. E. Buck has said to me more than once that President Wright was the ablest colored man in Georgia, and I concur with him in his estimate. As principal of the Howard Normal School at Cuthbert, and then as principal of the Ware High School in Augusta, and later as president of the State College at Savannah, as editor of a paper for many years, as trustee of Atlanta University, as the institution's commencement orator, by his public addresses in all the large cities of his state, by conducting of teachers' institutes, by his printed speeches and essays, and in other ways, President Wright has come to be the best known and most influential colored man in the state of Georgia, and best of all, he has maintained an untar- nished reputation, and his example and teachings have always been on the side of morality and virtue." Such, in brief, has been the life and career of the little black, barefooted boy who, shortly after the war, when General Howard, addressing a school in the city of Atlanta, asked the question, ''What shall I tell your friends in the North?" instantly replied : "Tell them we are rising. ' ' The poet Whittier, hearing of this, immor- talized it in verses, of which the following is a stanza: 'Oh, black boy of Atlanta, but half was spoken; The slave's chains and the master's are broken, The one curse of the races held both in tether, They are rising, all are rising, the black and white together." 518 PROGRESS OF A RACE. PROF. WM. E. HOLMES, President Central City College, Macon, Ga. Prof. Wm. E. Holmes, A. M. Prof. William E. Holmes, President of Central City College, is another worthy representative of his race. Like many others born in obscurity, he has, by honesty, diligence, and studious habits, lifted himself to a position of respect- ability and great usefulness among his fellow men. Born of slave parents, he has, at least, shown that he deserved to be free. His taste for books developed early, and in the last years of the war we find him attending school. Im- PERSONAGES OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN RACE. 519 mediately after the war, he had the privilege of sitting as pupil under the " Yankee school marm. " To him, as to so many others, the quickening of the heart was also the quickening of the brain. Converted at eigh- teen, he became the more desirous to enlarge his mental vision, and fit himself for service to his race in the large field opened up by emancipation. Conse- quently, he entered, in his native city, the Augusta Institute, where he spent several years. Subse- quently, on the removal of that institution to Atlanta, under the changed name of the Atlanta Baptist Seminary, Mr. Holmes followed it, and in a few years was graduated from it. The best proof, perhaps, of his worthiness is seen in the fact that on graduation he was given a position in the seminary, which he has held up to 1899 with efficiency and honor. His degree of Master of Arts is from the University of Chicago. Personally, Professor Holmes is a royal man. Court- eous, kind, obliging, free from the ambition that is always "o'erleaping itself," ever ready to contribute to the happiness of others, he becomes an object of love and esteem wherever known. In his home life he has been blessed with the companionship of a devoted and sympathetic partner, formerly Miss Eliza- beth Easley, a graduate of Atlanta University, but now the proud mother of several intelligent children. Prof. John Wesley Gilbert, A. M. The subject of this sketch was born July 6, 1864, in Hephzibah, Richmond county, Georgia. His mother, herself a slave, brought the young Gilbert, when six months old, to Augusta, the city which, with little interrup- tion, has been his home as well as the scene of his early struggles for a livelihood and an education. The only son of a widow, he was nursed in the arms of 520 PROGRESS OF A RACE. poverty. "Six months of the year," to use his own words, "I ploughed, hoed, picked cotton, split rails, and spent the other six months in the public schools of Augusta." In this and other honorable ways he supported himself and helped his mother. Having completed the work of the public schools, he attended for some months the Baptist Seminary, in his own city, but for lack of means was obliged to withdraw from the school for three years. At this period in his life he began to despair of securing a liberal education. Nevertheless, he kept up his studies, working by day and perusing books by night. In the year 1883, the "Paine Institute," under the patronage of the Methodist Church, South, opened in Augusta. This Mr. Gilbert attended for three years, or rather for six months in each of three years. About this time Rev. George Williams Walker became president of the Institute a noble-hearted Christian man, and as sincere a friend as the Negro ever had. This gentleman became interested in Mr. Gilbert, and after his graduation from the institute loaned him money enough to enter Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island. This money was supplemented by such as he could earn while a student. He shoveled snow in the winter, taught pupils at night, availed himself of every opportunity to gain "an honest dollar." To his very great credit, it should be said that, notwith- standing this extra demand upon his time and strength, he maintained a uniformly high standing in his classes, and, upon his graduation from the classical course, was awarded the scholarship for "excellence" in Greek in the American School at Athens, Greece. He was the first and only Negro admitted to that school. He traveled all over Greece, took part in the excavations PERSONAGES OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN RACE. 521 in Eretria, carried on by the school during the session of 1890-91, contributed accounts of that year's excava- tions to the New York Independent, found and traced the ancient walls of Eretria, locating the towers of that structure, made, in collaboration with Professor Pickard, a map of ancient Eretria, and wrote a thesis on the Demes of Attica. Before returning to his native land, Professor Gilbert visited all the largest and most important cities of Europe, getting thus a comprehensive view of the customs, manners and political systems of that ancient land the nursery of arms, the prolific mother of arts and sciences. In recognition of his work in Greece, Brown University conferred on him, in 1891, the degree of Master of Arts. With the exception of the time spent in Europe, Pro- fessor Gilbert has taught in Paine Institute since 1888. Affable, kind-hearted, sympathetic, he wins admira- tion and respect among all classes. To the responsi- ble duties of teacher he has now added those of preacher, being at present a minister in the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church in America. Few young men have achieved as much, and few have a brighter future. To close this sketch, however, without referring to the gentle partner of his life would be like leaving Hamlet out of Hamlet. In the spring of 1889 he was happily and pleasantly married to Miss Osceola K. Pleasant, a young lady of one of the best families in Augusta. Educated at Fisk University, she also holds a diploma from Paine Institute. To this true and affectionate helpmeet, the fond mother of his chil- dren, he is indebted for no small degree of his success, for every true wife is an inspiration to her husband. 522 PROGRESS OF A RACE. In conclusion, we are happy to say that, while penning this sketch, the announcement is made that Professor John Wesley Gilbert has recently been elected a member of the American Philological Associ- ation. President J. C. Price, D. D., Livingstone College. We take the following extracts from the memorial address given by President Goler, the successor of President Price: President Price was born in North Carolina, in the dark days when the outlook for Negro development was exceedingly discouraging. Emancipation and the opening of the schools to all classes found him a lad of nine years in the eager pursuit of the rudiments of knowledge, under the care and keeping of a self- denying Christian mother, who early instilled in his mind those principles which subsequently developed into that manly deportment, that uprightness of char- acter, that geniality and pliability of disposition which captivated his companions and made him everywhere a favorite. It was while still a youth, studying law in Shaw University at Raleigh, that it pleased God to reveal Himself to him. He sought and found salva- tion in the crucified Redeemer, was saved by the working of the mighty power, and experienced the joy that comes from believing. Soon after his conversion, he felt that necessity was laid upon him to preach the gospel, to lift up Jesus by his voice as well as in his exemplary life, and so for better preparation he entered Lincoln University in Pennsylvania in 1875. It was there I first met to admire and afterward to love him. Lincoln is a Presbyterian institution, but opens wide her doors to all creeds and all colors. He was a Methodist, and brought with him to the university PERSONAGES OF THE AFRO- AMERICAN RACE. 523 some of the distinguishing characteristics of that denomination. He invariably absented himself from the dining hall on Fridays, and spent the time in fast- ing and prayer. As a student, he was docile, obedient to his instructors, courteous to his companions, true to his books, honest in the class-room, industrious in his studies and punctual at the prayer meeting. He exerted a healthy influence in the institution. He was one of those whom we find occasionally, yet rarely, in all schools, a model young man. It was while finishing up his course in theology that Bishop Hood, quick to see what is in a young man, and recog- nizing his rare qualities of head and heart, ordained him to the order of deacon, and finally of elder in the A. M. E. Zion Church. He was subsequently elected to the general conference of 1880. There, coming in contact with the superior minds of the general church, his gifts and graces were recognized and readily appre- ciated and here won for himself the distinguished honor of representing, with others, the A. M. E. Church at the ecumenical conference in England in 1 88 1. His efforts there laid the foundation of Living- stone College. This work was near his heart and in its interest, as one of the means of race elevation, he spent the energies of his short but eventful life. He was no self-seeker. He did not labor for the notice of society or the prizes of the world, but the one con- trolling idea of his life was to lift his race out of the ignorance and moral degradation into which the mis- fortune of a cruel past had sunk them, and to lead them to higher planes of intelligence and social refine- ment. He was forcible in his appeals for justice and fair dealing ; honest in his statements, and true to his convictions, yet he carried no gall in his nature. No 524 PROGRESS OF A RACE. bitterness escaped his lips. There was no rancor in his bosom. He had faith in the power of Christ to eradicate the evils of society. He believed in the ulti- mate triumph of truth and righteousness and was satisfied that the evils of society will be rooted out, when men receive the power of Christ in their hearts rather than the knowledge of Jesus in their heads. As president of this institution he governed by love. He held his teachers about him in hearty co-operation with all his plans. They stood by him, not because they received their pay for there was not and is not much pay here but because they loved the president. I remember a letter he wrote to a friend to teach here with him at the beginning of this work, and here is the inducement he offered: "We are just starting the work. I cannot promise you any pay the first year, but after that some provision will be made. ' ' With this not over-bright prospect, two teachers, who are still in the institution, came to him. It pained him to send a needy student away, and so large was his heart and so sympathetic withal, that none appealed to him in vain, even to the denying himself of home necessities. He was devoted to his work, he apprehended that God had called him to it, and no inducement could draw him away. Men, recognizing the great powers of oratory and the logical acumen with which God endowed him, urged him to seek for himself honors in the paths of politics, and pave his way to the legisla- tive halls of the nation. The President of the repub- lic, appreciating his ability and his moral worth, appointed him to a post of honor in a foreign country. There was money in it, and he needed money, there was honor in it, and men love honor, but he refused PERSONAGES OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN RACE. 525 the honor and the emolument, preferring to labor for his little school in North Carolina, simply remarking-, "I think I can do more good in Salisbury." The honors that have come to him, both at home and abroad, would have had an inflating effect upon the self-seeker and the egotist. But who ever saw Price inflated? Who ever charged Price with egotism? If there was one thing that particularly character- ized him, it was modesty ; he was as unassuming as a little child. As we stand off and hold up his qualities, oh, how they loom ! He envied no man his gifts or his prosperity, but unostentatiously endeav- ored to do his own work faithfully and well. An undisputed leader of his people, he came to them always in the character of a helper, and appeared un- conscious of his leadership. Where is there a greater Negro than Price? Great, not in the sense that men ordinarily estimate greatness, but great in goodness, great in devotion to duty, great in his faith in the possi- bilities of the future for the race, great in his concep- tion of individual responsibilities, great in his humility and unshaken faith in the living God. Frederick Douglass calls him "the ablest advocate of the race." And Price is dead. How befitting the words of David, "Know ye not that there is a prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel?" Miss Lucy Laney. There is probably no one of all the educators of the colored race who stands higher, or who has done more work in pushing forward the education of the Negro woman, than the subject of our sketch. Miss Laney is a graduate of Atlanta Uni- versity, and, after graduation, she taught school in a number of places in Georgia. Relinquishing a salary of $400 a year in 1886, she went to Augusta for the 52C PROGRESS OF A RACE. purpose of establishing an industrial boarding school. No aid was promised her, but she went forward and became responsible for the support of the teachers and the expense of the institution. The first year her school enrolled 140 pupils. It has steadily increased in power and influence, as well as numbers, from the first. It is, at present, under the auspices of the Presbyterian Church, and through the benevolence of a Northern lady, a five- story brick building has been erected. Miss Laney's assistants, Miss Jackson, Miss Smallwood and Mrs. Mary R. Phelps, are competent teachers, and together they are doing a great work in that part of the state. Dr. George C. Rowe puts it in this way: "Among the women of our race We know of few, if any, Who fill a nobler, worthier place Than earnest Lucy Laney." Miss Laney, who conceived the idea of founding this school for the uplifting of the Negro woman, and who began it on her own responsibility, has succeeded in a remarkable manner. Haines Normal and Industrial Institute has two departments, a normal and a college preparatory. The normal department prepares the students for teachers. This department is ably presid- ed over by Miss M. C. Jackson, who in her training class succeeds admirably in making practical teachers. The college department fits young men and women so that they are able to pass entrance examinations in our best colleges. Haines Normal Institute and its noble workers, Miss Laney and Miss Jackson, are doing a great and good work in Augusta. This is the only Presbyterian school for the colored in Georgia. It deserves what it is receiving the liberal support of the church. PERSONAGES OF THE AFRO- AMERICAN RACE. 527 Margaret Murry Washington was born in Macon, Mississippi, March 9, 1865, being one of ten children. Here she received her early English education. After spending nine years at Fisk University, in 1889 she graduated from the classical course in that institution, one other girl and herself being the only girls in a large class of boys. While in school Margaret Murry had very poor health, and the same ambitious spirit and iron will that now master her physical weakness pulled her through the long years of study during her college course. When she graduated from Fisk University she was employed as teacher of English literature at the Tusk- egee Normal and Industrial Institute. Recognizing exceptional strength of mind and disciplinary power, the trustees of the above mentioned institution the next year appointed her Lady Principal, which position she so well filled that now many matters naturally falling to the duties of the lady principal are carried to Mrs. Washington both by teachers and students. She not only in position, as the wife of the principal of the institution, but in reality, stands next to him in power and influence. In the fall of 1892 Margaret Murry became the wife of Booker T. Washington, and is a power in the home as well as in the public. Her boys, the youngest of which was three years old when she went into their home, are as fond of her as any boys are of their own mother. As to personal appearance, Mrs. Washington is a mulatto, with reddish-brown hair, gray hazel eyes, strong features, and a large, commanding figure. Mrs. Washington is the leader of the movement to work directly for and among the less fortunate class 528 PROGRESS OF A RACE. of the Negro race, and has promoted social settlement, organizations and various other clubs and movements looking to the elevation mentally, and especially morally, of the women of her race. There are few women who have so strong a person- ality as Mrs. Washington, which power directs while others execute her commands. Mrs. Booker T. Washington has the honor of being the first president of the National Federation of Colored Women's Clubs, now the National Association of Colored Women. Prof. W. E. Burghardt Dubois was born in Great Bar- rington, Massachusetts, February 23, 1868. He was educated in the public schools, and at Fisk University, Harvard University and the university at Berlin. He was two years a fellow of Harvard, and holds her degree of Ph. D. He taught at Wilberforce, Ohio, two years, and was assistant in sociology in the University of Pennsylvania in 1896, for the purpose of studying the Negro in Philadelphia. He is at pres- ent professor of economics and history in Atlanta University. Professor Dubois is the author of ^Sup- pression of the African Slave Trade," also '* Harvard Historical Students, No. i." He was married in 1896 to Nina Gomer, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Of his ap- pointment as professor in Atlanta University the Independent says: "We are very glad that this insti- tution, devoted to the education of colored people, has elected to so important a professorship a thoroughly competent colored man." Prof. 0. W. Luckie graduated from the college department of Atlanta University in the class of 1883. He went directly .to Texas, spending four years as principal of the colored schools of Huntsville. Then PERSONAGES OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN RACE. he was elected to the professorship of English in Prairie View State Normal School, which position he has since held to the satisfaction of all. With such a grand field as Texas in which to labor, Professor Luckie may look for laurels yet unearned. Prof. Wm. Lewis Bulkley. The subject of this sketch was born of free parents in Greenville, South Carolina, on the 23d day of March, 1861. His father, Vincent Henry, and his mother, Madora, being also of free parentage, had enjoyed educational advantages before the war. Vincent Henry Bulkley became, shortly after the war, a Methodist Episcopal clergyman, and remained in the service of this church as one of its most faithful ministers till the day of his death. He was sent as a delegate to the Ecumenical Conference of Methodism, which met in London, England, in 1881. The parents of William Lewis, having " tasted of the Pierian spring," had a consuming desire that at least their eldest son should "drink deep," and began by sending him to school at a very early age. His earliest recollections of school life are a poor frame building, with an old, gray-haired Negro school- master, who had picked up a little "larnin* *fo* de wah. ' ' The curriculum in this institution was a Web- ster's blue-back speller (a species fast becoming extinct). The magic wand that made the pupils look studious and " wondrous wise" was a well-grown hickory switch, an article that was neither an orna- ment or a mere scarecrow, as the back of more than one dullard can testify. In fact, that period of life was to William "the reign of terror." From this school he passed into one taught by some Northern missionaries, whose great-heartedness had 34 Progress. PkoGkfcss of A RACE. brought them into that dark section of South Carolina. Prominent among these early teachers were Rev. L. M. Dunton and wife, of New York state, two of the most faithful workers that ever came to help degraded mankind. By a strange ordering of fate, he is asso- ciated at present with these last two persons in Claflin University. At sixteen he began to teach in the public schools of his state, when scholars were legion, books were few and salaries were mere promissory notes. In 1878 he entered Claflin University, where, through the assistance of self-sacrificing parents, and whatever work he could get to do at the school, he continued in study four years, finishing in 1882 as the first college graduate. He taught two years in his Alma Mater, and then went, in 1884, to Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut. At this, the best institution of learning in the Methodist Church, he paid his expenses by different jobs, and by what money he could raise during vacations in a hard canvass for nursery goods, pictures, or steam cookers. It often affords amusement to him to tell of how he cooked his own meals, consisting largely of oatmeal or pancakes, at an outlay of 10 cents a day, and how he used to wash such of his clothes as did not need starch and hang them by the stove to dry. He saved many a nickel by folding his rough-dried handkerchiefs in a book and then sitting upon it, while he "ground" trigonometry or tackled the mysteries of logic. The death of a devoted father precipitated his return to South Carolina. He resumed work at Claflin, and has taught there ever since, save a year and a half which he spent with his wife and child in study at Strassburg, Germany, and Paris. PERSONAGES OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN RACE. 531 In 1893 he completed his "in absentia" study of the Latin language and literature at Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York, and received the degree of Ph. D. Professor Smalley, of the Latin department, says: "I have been well pleased with Professor Bulkley's work. He has the spirit of an investigator, and of an independent thinker, that refuses to accept the con- clusions of editors without a careful examination of the reasons for himself. He has done much work on the literature, and toward mastering the principles of the languages, and shows excellent ability in grasping the thought of an author, and has unusual facility in rendering into idiomatic English." Professor Bulkley's forte is in the field of languages. In addition to the Latin and Greek, he has spent some time in the study of French, German and Spanish. In reviewing a new French book for English stu- dents, he detected an error which was subtle and mis- leading. He called the attention of the author to the fact, and received a long reply, from which the follow- ing is clipped : "I shall certainly introduce this excep- tion in subsequent editions of the French book, and wish to thank you for bringing this omission, singu- larly committed by so many of the highest authorities, and most complete books and dictionaries, to my attention. ' ' Professor Bulkley was elected to the World's Sunday School Convention which met in London, England, in 1889, and was also a delegate to the General Con- ference of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Cleve- land, Ohio, in 1896. In 1888, he married Mary Fisher Carroll, of Columbia, South Carolina, an honor graduate of Claflin. Three promising little girls now bless their happy PROGRESS OF A RACE. He is a member of the American Philological Asso- ciation. His present position is the professorship of Latin and Greek and the vice-presidency in Claflin University, Orangeburg, South Carolina. BISHOP L. H. HOLSEY, D. D. MINISTERS. L. H. Holsey, D. D., Bishop C. M. E. Church, was born in the state of Georgia, July 3, 1842, near the city of Columbus. His mother was the slave of James Holsey, who was also his father. His mother PERSONAGES OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN RACE. 533 was of African descent, and of pure blood of that race, with fine form and features. When he was about seven years of age, his father and first master died. He was then taken away from his mother, and never lived with her again, except about three or four years, during which time she lived on the same place in Hancock county that he did with his second owner. In 1857, Mr. T. L. Wynn, his second owner, died, and he became the servant of Col. R. M. Johnstone, who resided in the same place. He lived with him until emancipation. The first three years after emancipation, he conducted a farm in Hancock county, near Sparta. He felt that he was called to preach from his youth, and the brightest place in his memory is vivid with the aspirations and longings that then glowed upon his heart, and framed and flashed through his soul. He was licensed to preach in 1868, and served nearly two years on the Hancock circuit. On January 9, 1869, he was sent by Bishop Pierce to Savannah, Georgia, to serve there that year. In 1871 he was sent to Augusta, Georgia, as pastor of Trinity Church, which at that time was one of the largest and most prominent churches belonging to the colored members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. At this church he remained two years and three months, at the end of which time (March, 1873) he was elected to the Episcopal office, and was ordained by Bishop W. H. Miles, one of the first bishops of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church in America. He was a delegate to the first General Conference of his church, which convened in Jackson, Tennessee, 1870, at which time and place the church was organized as a separate and distinct organization from that of the 534 PROGRESS OF A RACE. Methodist Episcopal Church, South, of which it had formed a part. He was delegate to the first Ecumen- ical Conference, which met in London in 1881, and also a delegate to the one that was held in Washington in 1891. He was a delegate, and the first delegate of his church, to the Conference of the Methodist Epis- copal Church, South, held in Nashville, in 1882. He founded the Paine Institute, located in Augusta, and made the initiatory steps for the beginning of the Lane College, at Jackson, Tennessee. For twenty years he has been secretary of the College of Bishops, and the general corresponding secretary of the connec- tion, and perhaps has been most prominent in all the leading movements. of the church. He also compiled the Hymnal and Manual of the Discipline of his church, and is editor-in-chief of The Gospel Trumpet, a paper that is published in the interest of the church and race. This paper is published in Atlanta, Georgia, where he lives at present (1897). In this year (1897) he has been appointed as Commis- sioner of Education for his church. He has been prominent in all the movements connected with his church and race, and has traveled and labored success- fully throughout all parts of the Southern states, and has done much to educate and Christianize his people. * Alexander Crummell, D. D., was born in New York city, March 3, 1819; educated with Henry Highland Garnet at Canaan, New Hampshire (1835) ; he remained at Canaan till the school was broken up by a mob, when he went, in 1836, to Oneida Institute, New York. Under the direction of Rev. Peter Williams, rector of St. Phillip's Church, New York, he became a candi- PERSONAGES OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN RACE. 535 date for orders in the Protestant Episcopal Church in 1839, but, on account of color, was refused admission in the General Theological Seminary. Having been ordained deacon by Bishop Griswold, and having studied with Rev. Dr. A. H. Vinton, he was ordained priest in Philadelphia by Bishop Lee of Delaware. This was in 1844. Doctor Crummell graduated from the University of Cambridge, England, in 1852. Thereafter removed to Liberia, West Africa, where he was a professor and minister of the gospel for twenty years. From 1873 till 1894, Doctor Crummell was rector of St. Luke's Church in Washington, D. C. Having retired from the ministry, Doctor Crummell is giving himself up to work for the Negro race, in which he is intensely interested. In March, 1897, at the formation of the American Negro Academy, "an organization of authors, scholars, graduates and writers, men of African descent, for the promotion of letters, art, literature and science," Doctor Crummell was chosen president unanimously. Doctor Crummell recently celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of his ordination. Referring to his early days he says: "The pro-slavery and caste spirit dominated the country, and it was as strong in the church as in the state. Three other colored candidates had been admitted to seminaries, but with limitations and indignities to which 'it was impossible for me to submit." Concerning his reception in England, he says: "I was received in England with a generosity which almost bewildered me after such sufferings in my native land. I preached in London, Liverpool, Birmingham and other cities of England. This was a period of grand opportunities and richest experiences, 536 PROGRESS OF A RACE. almost unlimited privileges and cherished remem- brances. I was introduced into the best society of England, and made friends with the Froudes, Thack- erays, Thorntons and other distinguished gentlemen." He is a fluent speaker and writer ; scholarly, instruct- ive and entertaining in all that he says and does. Doctor Crummell stands among the first of those who have labored for the elevation of the African race. He is at present in England. Rev. Edward W. Ely den, A.M., D.D., LL.D. Rev. Edward Blyden was born in the West Indies, he is of Negro parentage. Early in youth he was impressed with the love for his fatherland. He came to the United States in his seventeenth year and sought admis- sion to an institution of learning, but the prejudice against his race was so great that he was not admitted. He went to Liberia and there entered the Presbyterian school, and after some years was elected to professor- ship in the newly founded college of Liberia. In 1864 he was appointed Secretary of State by the President of Liberia. In 1877 he was appointed Minister Pleni- potentiary of the Republic of Liberia at the Court of St. James. In 1880 he was elected Fellow of the American Philological Association. The honorary de- grees he holds were conferred upon him by Ameri- can colleges. He is a strong man and careful instructor, a diligent student, and is constantly seeking new plans and methods by which he may be able to elevate his people. Dr. Blyden has written many articles and is the author of several books. He has in his labors come in contact with some of the literary men of his day. Bishop Henry M. Turner, of the A. M. E. Church, BISHOP HENRY MCNEAL TURNER, D. D., LL. D. BISHOP BENJAMIN TUCKER TANNER, KANSAS CITY, KANSAS. 588 PERSONAGES OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN RACE. 539 was born in Newberry, South Carolina, in 1834. His parents were free, but he was bound out to a slave owner and was required to work side by side with slaves until he was fifteen years old, when he ran away from his master and entered the service of a firm of attor- neys in Aberville. Here he learned to read and write, often spending much time at night after his employers had gone home. He was licensed as a minister at twenty years of age ; he then entered Trinity college, Baltimore, where he spent four years, intending to go to Africa after completing his education. He was made chaplain of the first regiment of colored troops. He was then under the Freedman's Bureau service for a time, but the necessity of religious and educational work among his people caused him to resign and enter the ministry of the A. M. E. Church. He was once appointed post- master at Macon, Ga. , but resigned on account of the opposition of the white people. In 1880 he was elected bishop of the A. M. E. Church. Bishop Turner has written much on the Negro ques- tion. He has visited Africa five times and organized conferences in Sierre Leone and Liberia. The bishop is a firm believer in deportation, and insists his race will ultimately return to Africa, and that it is the duty of our government to help them to return. He thinks the black man will have greater opportunities, and will improve faster if he is placed in a republic by himself, and that this alone will bring peace and quiet to our country as far as the race question is concerned. He insists upon it that two races of people under the same government, the same institutions, and subject to the same laws with no social contact is an impossi- bility and will only produce evil results. 540 PROGRESS OF A RACE. Bishop B. W. Arnett. Bishop B. W. Arnett's boy- hood days were spent on a farm in Pennsylvania, where he had figured as a cow boy; afterward he took to steamboat life until 1856. In 1864 he com- menced the study of the ministry, and in 1865 he was licensed to preach, and received as his first appoint- ment Walnut Hills' Church, Cincinnati, Ohio. He was a dele- gate to the Interna- tional Convention of the Young Men's Christian Association in Washington in 1871, where he delivered an address upon " The Stand the W. M. C. A. Takes in Relation to Colored Young Men." He served in the lower house of the Ohio Legislature in 1876 two years; in 1876 he was elected secretary of the General Conference of the A. M. E. Church, at Atlanta, Georgia. Bishop Arnett is an entertaining speaker and stands high in the estimation of his people. Bishop Benjamin Tucker Tanner was born in Pitts- burg, December 25, 1835. Studied at Avery College and Western University, Allegheny, Pennsylvania; entered ministry in 1860; editor of Christian Recorder from 1868 to 1884; then elected editor of A. M. E. Church Review till his election to the Bishopric, in BISHOP B. W. ARNETT. PERSONAGES OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN RACE. 541 1888, of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. He is author of "Apology for African Methodism," "Out- line of History," "Negro Origin," "Theological Lectures," "The Color of Solomon," "Is the Negro Cursed?" etc. He is a contributor to numerous jour- . REV. HENRY HUGH PROCTOR. nals, among them the Independent. He now presides over the district including Kansas, Missouri, Colorado, Nebraska, Wyoming, Montana and New Mexico. Henry Hugh Proctor, B.A., B.D. In a one-room log cabin, ante-bellum in type, near Fayetteville, Ten- 542 PROGRESS OF A RACE. nessee; the subject of our sketch was born, December 8, 1868. Ten years were spent on the farm. To get better school advantages, the family moved to town. After going through the public schools, he began to teach. Later he became principal of the school of his native town. In the fall of 1884 he entered Fisk University, Nash- ville, Tennessee. By digging, type-setting, teaching and preaching, he helped pay his way. During his course he was, among other things, society president, college paper editor, and intercollegiate oratorical con- testant. At Fisk he experienced a call to preach, and began to exercise his talents in the vicinity of the university. On the completion of his literary course in 1891, he entered the Divinity School of Yale Uni- versity, New Haven, Connecticut. He spoke and sung his way through Yale, and during his three years of study in the East he was heard in many of the leading churches of New England. His classmates chose him among the eight out of a class of thirty to deliver commencement addresses, and to him the faculty assigned the coveted post of honor, that of delivering the final oration of the day. He was the first Negro to speak at a Yale commencement, and his address on the African's forthcoming contribution of love to Christianity was widely published. Called to the pastorate of the First Congregational Church of Atlanta, Georgia, he entered the practical work of the ministry immediately after his graduation. After three years of hard and tactful labor the church, which had been somewhat disintegrated, secured a firm financial footing, and doubled its membership, thus becoming the largest Congregational church in the South. The pastor is broad but aggressive PERSONAGES OF THE AFRO- AMERICAN RACE. 5i3 liberal but positive in his views on social and religious questions. In his preaching he deals with questions of practical Christianity with simplicity. He is frequently called upon to make addresses on popular occasions throughout the state. He is correspondent for a number of first-class Northern periodicals. In connec- tion with the publication of an article from his pen, the Boston Congregatio7ialist says of him: "He is one of the best equipped and trained of the Afro- American clergymen in the South, and is an orator of much promise. ' ' Rev. Francis J. Grimke was born in Charleston, S. C., in 1850; came North in 1865, and entered Lincoln University in 1866, from which he graduated in 1870; studied law three years, and then decided to enter the ministry ; entered Princeton Theological Seminary in the fall of 1875, and graduated in 1878. He immedi- ately afterwards became pastor of the Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church in Washington, D. C. , where he continued until the fall of 1885. Owing to failing health, he resigned his charge, and accepted a call to the Laura Street Presbyterian Church of Jacksonville, Florida, where he continued to labor until the winter of 1889. His health having improved, he accepted a call to return to the church in Washington, where he has been ever since. Bishop James Walker Hood, D.D., LL.D. Doctor Hood is the oldest Negro bishop in the world. He was elected bishop by the American Methodist Epis- copal Zion Church at Charlotte, North Carolina, in 1872. The church has ordered a celebration of the bishop's episcopal labors. An extended programme has been prepared by a committee of which R. S. Rives is chairman. This anniversary was celebrated September 18, 1897%^ 544 PROGRESS OF A RACE. Bishop C. R. Harris was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina. His father died when he was three years old, and left his widow with ten children. The mother, at once finding that the discussion of slavery was det- rimental to free colored people in the South, sold out her little property, and went to Ohio, where Harris was educated in good schools, and when the war closed Robert and Cicero Harris were among the first to enter the field in the South. They went to Fayette- ville, and established a colored school under the auspices of the American Missionary Association. Through their efforts an appropriation was secured from the Freedman's Bureau, and a two-story school building was erected. Afterwards Governor Vance visited the school, and at his suggestion the legislature established this, the first colored state normal school. Rev. J. W. Smith, the able editor of the Star of Zion, Charlotte, North Carolina, was a pupil in this school when Governor Vance visited it, and he gave several figures on the blackboard in multiplication, division and fractions for Mr. Smith to solve, and encouraged him by saying he would make a good bookkeeper. Professor C. R. Harris taught at Fayetteville until 1872, when he took charge of a public school at Char- lotte. Later he was connected -with what is now Liv- ingstone College, and assisted much in building up that institution in its early days. In 1880 he was elected Bishop of the A. M. E. Zion Church. He has been a member of every general conference since 1876, and as an educator he stands high. His success in Episcopal work has been as pronounced as in other fields of labor in which he has worked. Howard University conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1881. A person must merit PERSONAGES Of THE AFRO- AMERICAN RACE. 545 what he gets from this institution, for it bestows its honors with great caution. The life of Bishop Harris has been spent in the unselfish service of his fellow men, and is an illustration of fair opportunities in youth worthily followed up, and of energies devoted to the service of humanity receiving their due recog- nition and reward. Rev. W. G. Alexander, D. D., was born December 25, 1856, in Orange county, Virginia. Early in life he was employed by Rev. Thomas E. Green, of Wash- ington, D. C. Rev. Mr. Green, being a man of large means, took a great interest in young Alexander, and educated him as if he were his own son. After finish- ing his course in preparatory work, he was admitted to Howard University. At the age of twenty-two, he entered the African Methodist Episcopal ministry His early years in the ministry were spent in hard circuit work. He has successfully filled pastorates at many prominent places in .he South, and at present is pastor of Big Bethel, Atlanta, Georgia. While pastor in Virginia, he was appointed by Governor Lee Cura- tor of the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute. In 1889 he was elected Fraternal Messenger to the General Conference of the Colored Methodist Episco- pal Church at Little Rock, Arkansas. In 1892 he was elected to the Presidency of Payne University, Selma, Alabama, but declined, preferring to remain in the ranks of the traveling ministry. He was one of the principal colored speakers at the Con- gress of Religions at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. He is at present dean of the theo- logical department of the Morris Brown College, Atlanta, and acceptably fills the professorship of theology and sacred literature. 35 Progress. 546 PROGRESS OF A RACE. v As the pastor of Big Bethel, he has succeeded admirably in canceling the debt by. means of a debt REV. W. G. ALEXANDER. chart which he has invented. This chart consists of a number of squares, and as soon as any one has contrib- uted ten dollars the name of the contributor is placed PERSONAGES OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN RACE. 547 in a square. The church is valued at nearly $100,000. Reverend Alexander is very popular among his people. He has a large and choice library of books. Wilberforce University, Xenia, Ohio, conferred upon him the honorary degree of D. D. He is the author of "Living Words," "The Negro in Commerce and Finance," and " The Efficient Sunday School." Many of his friends think that he would grace a bishop's chair. His experience and ability make him one of the most popular and ablest ministers of his denomination. Rev. James. A. Davis, D.D., is one of the prominent ministers of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and for the past ten years has filled some of the best and most influential churches. Doctor Davis is a native of Ken- tucky. He was taken to Ohio by his mother in his in- fancy, who, in company with others, was set free, and located in Mercer county. His father, who belonged to a different master, in the meantime escaped to Canada, and in 1862 his mother joined him in Windsor, Canada, where they remained until after the war. He was licensed to preach in 1879. In 1887 he was sent to Greencastle, Indiana, where, in connection with his pastorate, he completed a course of theology in De Pauw University. He is at present stationed in Nash- ville. For him the years are full of promise. Rev. W. D. Balay is the organizer of the Afro- American Industrial Union of America; the object of the organization is to elevate and uplift the race. Besides spending his time on the work of the union, he is pastor of the Baptist Church of Oak Cliff, Texas. Mr. Balay has labored hard to make himself useful to his race, and has succeeded in a remarkable way. 548 PROGRESS OF A .RACE. Rev. Joseph Albert Booker, A.M., was born at Portland, Arkansas. His mother died when he was but one year old. His father, having been found guilty of a knowledge of books, and of communicating the same, was charged with spoiling the "good Niggers. ' ' For this he was whipped to death when the son was three years of age. With such adverse circumstances to begin with, young Booker was sent to school by his grandmother. He soon acquired sufficient education to teach at the age of seventeen. He first taught a subscription school. He afterward entered Roger Williams Academy, graduating there- from in 1886. Soon thereafter he was elected President of Arkansas Baptist College. President Booker is one of the youngest of our Negro college presidents, and with a long life before him, and great opportunities about him, he bids fair to become a useful and influ- ential man in the great work of elevating the race. Rev. E. R. Carter was born in Clark county, Georgia, in 1856, .and was a slave until the overthrow of the Confederacy in 1865. Soon thereafter he entered school, and in 1874 began teaching. He entered Atlanta Baptist Seminary in 1879. Poverty compelled him to subsist upon the scantiest meals, but undaunted, the youth held to his purpose through all his experi- ences of hardship, self-denial and sacrifice. In 1882 he was called to the First Baptist Church of Atlanta, which position he has most acceptably filled since. In 1884 he graduated from the the theological department of the Atlanta Baptist Seminary. Mr. Carter enjoys the esteem and confidence of all classes and denomina- tions. He is the author of several books: "Our Pulpit Illustrated," "The Black Side." Rev. Mr. Carter has traveled extensively. His is a busy life. To serve PERSONAGES OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN RACE. 549 others and to do his part in the great work of elevating the race is the supreme aim of his life.. REV. E. R. CARTER, ATLANTA, GEORGIA." Bev. Z. T. Pardee, who was born a slave at Sparta 550 PROGRESS OF A RACE. Georgia, is one of the pioneer preachers of the Baptist Church in Texas. Rev. James Robinson Carnes, pastor of the A. M. E. Bethel Church of Dallas, Texas, was born in Tennessee. His parents were slaves, his grandmother a pure African woman and his grandfather a Guinea Negro. Before the breaking out of the civil war, Texas was supposed to be the best place to send slaves for safe keeping. In 1860 he and his mother were sent to Columbus, Texas. Without having the privilege of an education as many others have had, he nevertheless has worked his way to the front, and has served many prominent churches in Texas. He is a ready speaker, and takes high grounds on all moral and religious subjects He is a progressive and successful worker for the elevation of his people along all lines. Rev. W. B. West studied at Gammon Theological Seminary, Atlanta, and is now presiding ejder of the Dallas District of the C. M. E. Church, and editor of the Western Index, published at Dallas. He was born a slave and was raised on a farm, but like many others has pushed his way to the front, and is now one of the leaders of the race. Bishop Daniel Payne is sometimes called "The Apostle of Education. ' ' He was a carpenter by trade He taught school until his school was closed by slave- holders. He then left his native city, Charleston, South Carolina, with the determination never to return until slavery was abolished. In 1840 he joined the Philadelphia Conference of the A. M. E. Church as a local preacher. After serving churches at Wash- ington, Baltimore and other cities, be was elected bishop. In 1863 he purchased for the. A. M. E Church Wilberf orce University, Ohio, and the success PERSONAGES OF THE AFRO- AMERICAN RACE. 551 that this school has met with is altogether due to the energy and earnest zeal of this devoted man. In 1881 he presided over the Ecumenical Conference in London of the M. E. Chfirch, and in 1893 was one of those REV. W. B. WEST. who presided over the World's Parliament of Religions in Chicago. He died in Wilberforce, Ohio, in 1893, being at the time President of the Payne Theological Seminary at Wilber'fbree. Eev. M. 0. D. Mason was born of slave parents on a sugar farm near Houma, Louisiana, in ^85 9. In 1875 552 PROGRESS OF A RACE. he entered the State Agricultural College at New Orleans. From 1 8 7 7 to 1 880 he taught a town school and then entered New Orleans University. In 1883 he joined the Louisiana Conference of the M. *fe. Church. He won great popularity as a preacher and a pastor while serving Lloyd Street Church, Atlanta. He completed a course of theology in Gammon Theological Seminary while in Atlanta, and immediately thereafter was appointed field agent of the Southern Educational Society of the M. E. Church; He still holds this position, and is doing a good work for the race. He is a man of fine scholarly ability, discriminating min- utely in choice of books and the subjects of which he treats. His life is an inspiration to all who come under his influence. Rev. Paul H. Kennedy was born in Elizabeth town, Kentucky. He had an earnest desire to acquire an education, but was hindered by that institution, slavery. During the early part of the Rebellion* the Union soldiers appeared near his home, and he expressed the desire to be free. The soldiers con- cealed him in a wagon, but he was aftenvard returned to his master. Soon after he set out on foot, and walked to Louisville, and enlisted in the logth Regi- ment of Colored Troops. He declares that the walk from slavery to freedom, although a long one, was a pleasant trip. In 1876 he was appointed pastor of the First Baptist Church of Clarkesville, Tennessee. Afterward he entered Roger Williams University, where he prepared himself for his life work. He has served as pastor of some of the largest Baptist Churches of the colored race in the country. He is author of several books, and also designed the Afro- American chart, which was exhibited at the World's Fair* Chicago. PERSONAGES OF THE AFRO- AMERICAN RACE. 553 Rev. G. V. Clark was brought by his slave mother to Atlanta when about three years old. In 1862 he was put "by his master in the service of the Confederate hospital, where he remained until the close of the war. He began going to school in his sev nteenth year, and soon after entered Atlanta University, and then How- ard University, Washington. After teaching for a time, he graduated in Howard University in 1881. He was pastor of the First Congregational Church in Atlanta for seven years. Since then he has served some of the largest Congregational churches of the South. He is a popular lecturer and speaker. Rev. Wm. Howard Day, A.M., D.D. Dr. Wm. Howard Day, General Secretary of the A. M. E. Zion Church, and Chief Secretary of the Philadelphia Conference, was born in New York city, and is the only man living who when a babe was baptized by Bishop Varick, the founder of the Zion Church. He prepared for college at New York city and Northamp- ton, Massachusetts, but on account of color prejudice he was obliged to go to Oberlin College, Ohio, as the only institution with a curriculum equal to that of Yale, admitting men of color. Graduated in 1847, and taking the degree A.B., he received the degree of A.M. in 1859 from Oberlin, his alma mater, and later on D.D., from Livingstone College. He was elected professor of languages and mathematics by two col- leges, 1857; offered Latin tutorship, Lincoln, Eng- land, 1862. He visited Great Britain 1859, and was received by the_ Rt. Hon. the Earl Spencer at Spencer house, England; and by her grace the Duchess of Sutherland, the first lady in the kingdom next to her majesty, the Queen, at Stafford house, London. Subsequently by the lord provost of Edin- 554 PROGRESS OF A RACE. burg, Scotland; main speaker at a meeting of 3,000 persons, in Music Hall, Dublin, Ireland, presided over by the Lord Mayor, clad in his official robe and jewel of office; addressed other thousands in England, Ireland and Scotland; in 1866 was ordained Deacon and Elder at Petersburg, Virginia, by Rt. Rev. J. J. Clinton; elected General Secretary by the General Conference in 1876, 1888, 1892 and 1896, for four years; pastor, presiding elder, general missionary, supervisor of missions, intellectual instructor, etc., during the past fifteen years in the Philadelphia and Baltimore Conference; unanimously elected President of the Board of School Control, Harrisburg, 1891-92, the only instance on record in the United States where a man of color, and the only colored member, has been successfully elected president of twenty-five men, fifteen Republicans and ten Democrats. Elected President of the Dauphin county (Pennsylvania) Directors' Association (comprising all the educational boards in the county), for five successive years, he the only colored member in the county, 1891-96, the only instance in the United States where such a fact appears. The fact carries its own comment, and in every respect is doubly creditable to the Board and to Doctor Day. Rev. Emperor Williams was born a slave in Nash- ville, Tennessee. He was sold into Louisiana in 1841 to a builder. The builder had. a difficult piece of cornice, and none of his white men could put it up. Wil- liams told his master that he could do it, and his master replied that if he could put it up he should have his freedom. Williams studied over the plan all night, and the next day took a gang of men and accomplished the difficult task. He was given his freedom. After- ward he attempted to buy his wife, offering $2,000 for PERSONAGES OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN RACE. 555 her, but her master would not sell her. Soon afterward General Butler took New Orleans, and Williams got his wife for nothing and took his money and bought a home. While a slave Williams frequently wrote passes for himself. His master once asked him where he learned to write the passes. He said: " While I was collecting your rents for you." . Thus frequently did the Negro succeed in getting the rudiments of an education. LAWYERS. The following is taken from an address by the Hon. J. T. Settle, delivered at Greenville, Mississippi : Gentlemen of the Colored Bar Association of Missis- sippi : I have listened with pleasure and profit to your excellent addresses on different legal topics, and I can pay you no higher compliment than to say you are an honor to the profession. I look upon this meeting as the dawn of a new era in the history of our race. It is no new thing for us to meet and participate in the public assemblages of men ; in fact, one of the misfor- tunes of our people has been a too great love for meet- ings and conventions of every kind, out of which little if any permanent good has ever accrued to us. The emotional side of our nature has ever been so easily reached that we have been too often used as instru- ments in the hands of others. First Annual Meeting. This organization,, of which this is the first annual meeting, marks the advent of the colored citizen into a new field of labor. It evidences the existence of a sufficient number of col- ored lawyers in Mississippi engaged in active practice of the law to form a state organization to promote their interests individually and collectively, and in doing this they cannot fail to promote the interests of 556 PROGRESS OF A RACE. the entire race and to contribute to the general welfare of our common country, for we are as much a part of our composite nationality as any element it contains. It is no new thing for the residents of this beautiful delta to see gatherings of colored men. Politics and Religion have given us conventions and conferences at short intervals until some have come to believe that we take to them as naturally as birds to the air and fishes to the sea. But whoever thought that here in this beautiful city, queen of the valley, beside this great inland sea, would meet the first col- ored bar association ever organized in the United States? And I think I may safely say that never in the history of the race has there been a meeting fraught with more significance. It shows that the various and trying ordeals through which we have passed during the last fifteen or twenty years in this beautiful Southland, have evolved a class of men, educated, thoughtful and conservative indeed, men who are alive to the present and prepared to meet the demands of the future. No Hope of Success. Many of our friends and all of our enemies discourage us by saying that this was the one profession in which we could not hope to succeed. We have been compelled to realize that we are the representatives of that race which has labored in mental and physical servitude and suffered from polit- ical and social degradation since the planting of civili- zation on this continent. We realize in the beginning that the - undertaking to become practical lawyers, and to acquire such a mastery of the law as to enter favorably upon its practice, was a serious one, and doubly so to us. Prejudice. -We have met iinreasoning prejudice PERSONAGES OF f HE AFRO-AMERICAN RACE. 557 which denied us excellence of any kind, which declared that we were without intellectual vigor and inventive power, and destitute of strength to grasp and persis- tency to retain and master any complex and profound proposition. In many instances we have commenced our trial before a jury whose pre-formed judgment would disqualify them from sitting in any other case. We have often found, not our clients, but ourselves on trial, and not ourselves alone, but the whole race with us a race which is condemned for the failure of its individuals, while the success of every member of it is pronounced exceptional and due to incidental conditions. Equal to Struggles. We have made good soldiers and successful teachers, we have produced some great preachers and distinguished speakers, and this meeting demonstrated the fact that we are equal to the hard, tough and long continued struggles of the bar, in some respects the severest test that can be applied to a man; and yet the world may be slow to admit our success until, perhaps, we have produced an attorney- general or a justice of the supreme court. Not All Succeed. I do not mean to say that every young man of color who has begun the practice of law has succeeded; no, not by any means. Nor is this true of the young men of any race, for along life's highway, in all of the professions, are many wrecks which mark the weakness and frailty of human char- acter; and here I think I may safely say that one of the principal causes of failure in the legal profession is the w r ant of sufficient preparation. An Oily Tongue. Some persons unwisely think that all that is necessary to constitute a successful lawyer is an oily tongue, a vivid imagination and a 558 PROGRESS OF A RACE. great capacity to lie ; in fact, some people profess to think that lawyer and liar are synonymous terms. Such persons, it is needless for me to say, know but little of the law and still less, of the lawyer. They forget or do not think, that the contests of lawyers are not "ex-parte. " They confront each other before learned and astute courts and in the presence of the world, where lies and frauds have the least possible chance of success, and where exposure would usually prove fatal to a cause. A Good Education. No lawyer can build a splendid professional career upon an insufficient education any more than he can build a monument of stone upon a foundation of sand. I do not mean to say a collegiate education is absolutely necessary to a successful career, but it is a great help. Few men ever reached distinc- tion in the law who were. not thorough scholars. Many also fail who are well equipped intellectually because they depend upon the oily tongue and vivid imagina- tion rather than real earnest work. Courage. Courage, moral and physical, are both necessary elements of character. There is probably no element of character that inspires so much admira- tion and creates so quick and enthusiastic a following* as this. A man who is afraid of nothing in the discharge of his duty, afraid of no consequence personal to .himself, has his battle half won before he strikes a blow. So great is the popular admiration of courage that it has always been surrounded by a halo of romance. Earnestness and Enthusiasm are also so essential that I cannot refrain from mentioning them in this connection. I name them together because they are so nearly akin ; indeed, enthusiasm is only earnestness PERSONAGES OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN RACE. 559 carried to white heat ; they are the only qualities that can take the place of personal magnetism in compell- ing sympathy. Earnestness comes from strong conviction and strong feeling; enthusiasm rising out of it is the fusion and sublimation of all the elements of power within a man, and is strong in proportion as it is rational ; the moment it becomes mere passion it becomes weakness. The world refuses to be moved by men who are not in earnest. Human nature is very much like iron if you would bend it or shape it you must heat it. Earnestness is the furnace; enthusiasm the fire whose flames need only to envelop other minds to make plastic or ductile. Citizens. We are citizens of this country by nativity, not by choice or adoption, and here, under God's providence, we mean to stay, and strike glad hands with all lovers of justice, work out our own destinies and vie with every other nationality in developing the material resources and contributing to the greatness of our beloved Southland. Agitators may discuss the so- called race problem, but in the busy, active duties of life we have no time for theories. We should prepare ourselves by every energy of mind and soul to solve the problem put to us by those by whom we are surrounded, and with whom we live, viz. : "The survival of the fittest. ' ' Citizens by nativity, we have no other land to love. To this we have given our labor for more than one hundred years ; in defense of her flag we have given our lives; to sustain her integ- rity we have contributed whatever was demanded of us. At all times have we been faithful and reliable. We have never been numbered among our country's enemies. We have never been found in the ranks of the Socialists and Anarchists in their attack upon 560 PROGRESS OF A RACE. social order and our free institutions. Yet we have lived under a condition of things at times unequaled in the history of civilized government. True to Our Native Land. Erin's sons were never truer to the Emerald Isle, nor the Highlander to Scot- HON. J. T. SETTLE. land's cliffs and crags than we to the land of our birth. What member of any race ever gave expression to loftier sentiments of patriotism in the American Con- gress than the distinguished lawyer and scholar, Hon. PERSONAGES OK THE A FRO- AMERICAN RACE. T)(vl John M. Langston, of Virginia, when from his seat in that august body he said: "Ah, my white fellow citizens on the other side of the house, and on every side, black as we are, no man shall go ahead of us in devotion to this country, in devotion to its free insti- tutions, for we hold our lives, our property and our sacred honor in pledge to the welfare of our country and of all our fellow citizens. Do you want iis to fight for our flag? Call on us and we will come. Do you want men to tarry at home and take care of your wives and children, to take care of your homes and protect your interests? Call on us, and we will sacredly keep and perform every trust and obligation." History and Patriotism. Every member of the race echoes these sentiments, and in the years to come, when man's passions and prejudices have subsided, impartial history will give to no race a prouder place in their country's history than we shall possess, and no race or condition of people will be prompted by a purer or loftier patriotism than we, in our efforts to make our beloved South the home of a happy, prosperous and contented people. Hon. J. T. Settle. The subject of this sketch was born upon the mountains of East Tennessee, Septem- ber 30, 1850, while his parents were "in transit" from North Carolina to Mississippi. In 1856 he was carried to Ohio and located at Hamilton, where he attended the public school until 1866, when he was sent to Oberlin, where he prepared and entered college in 1868. He was one of the three or four colored boys in a class numbering forty- five or fifty. Yet he was chosen ah one of the eight orators to represent his class when they entered college, an honor much coveted by all students. 36 Progress, 562 PROGRESS OF A RACE. Mr. Settle completed his Freshman year and entered the Sophomore class at Obeiiin. In 1869, having lost his father, who had indeed been a father in the broadest sense of the word, he left Oberlin, went to Washington City, and entered the Sophomore class of Howard Uni- versity, where he pursued his college studies and taught in the preparatory department. He graduated from the college department of Howard University in 1872. In the latter portion of his senior year he was elected " Reading Clerk" of the House of Delegates (the District of Columbia then being under a territorial form of government) and at the time of his graduation was performing his duties as reading clerk of the legislature, teaching a class in Latin and one in mathematics daily at the university and pursuing his own studies at the same time. Immediately upon his graduation from college he entered the law department of the same institution. Upon his graduation from the law department he was selected as one of the orators to represent his class. He was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, but having determined to make his chosen profession his life's work, he left the District of Columbia in the spring of 1875 and located in North Mississippi, where he at once engaged in the practice of law. He returned the same year and was married to Miss Therese T. Voglesong, of Annapolis, Maryland, and again made his home in Mississippi. In 1876 he was a delegate to the National Republican convention. He was the only delegate from Mississippi who voted for the nomination of Roscoe Conkling for President, and continued to vote for him as long as his name was before the convention. Mr. Settle was elector for the state at large on the PERSONAGES OP THE AFRO-AMERICAN RACE. 563 Hayes and Wheeler ticket. In 1880 he was Presi- dential elector on the Garfield and Arthur ticket. In 1883 Mr. Settle was nominated and elected to the legislature upon an independent ticket, being strongly opposed to the fusion his party made with the Democ- racy. It was during this canvass that he made the most brilliant efforts of his life. He was met by the ablest speakers on both sides; but before the people he was irresistible, and was triumphantly elected by more than 1,200 majority. Upon his return from the legislature he determined to abandon active participation in politics and devote his time and energy to the practice of law; he left Mississippi and located in Memphis, where he is now living. About two months after his location in Mem- phis, he was appointed assistant attorney-general of the criminal court of Shelby county ; which position he held over two years. The manner in which he dis- charged the responsible duties of prosecuting are thus put by the Hon. A. H. Douglass, who was upon the bench at that time: "His uniform attention to official business, his manly courtesy and amiability, won him the esteem and respect of the bench, the bar and liti- gants, and went very far to break down the existing prejudices against his color in the profession. His talent is fully recognized and his integrity has in no instance been in the least questioned from any source. He prosecuted without acerbity and with fairness, but neglected no legitimate resources to fix the conviction on the really guilty. He is such a master of elocution, and displays such fluency, and indeed brilliancy, that he invariably captivated those who listened to him. He is remarkably simple in his manners, and utterly without ostentation, and is an honor to his profession. " 564 PROGRESS OF A RACE. He is now comfortably situated in a handsome two- story residence in a beautiful part of the city, where he enjoys the esteem and confidence of a large circle of friends. Hon. Samuel McElwee. Lawyer, Legislator, Orator. It is wonderful how easily some men rise in the world, and how hard others struggle to accomplish the same things. Every step with some seems marked with severe toils, bitter hardships, and apparently insurmountable difficulties. But when at last the goal has been attained, the prize seems ever so sweet, aye, sweeter that it could possibly be without the conflicts and discouragements. Samuel Allen McElwee is a brave soul, who can wear on the forehead, "Through difficulties to the stars. " The chains of slavery bound his body not half so tightly as ignorance his mind. When the war ended he could not write. He was a farmer's boy, for many years going to school but three months in the year. Yet he studied until midnight, burning patiently the light which would give him an opportunity to read, which in future years gave him a brighter light whereby he might see the condition of his race, and find a remedy for their many ills. Though worn with the daily toil, he never neglected his studies, and on examination day entered with his class and passed the tests from the year 1868 to 1874, He then taught school. He often tells how, at that time, he was influenced by The National Era, Fred Douglass* paper, and how he longed for more education. He matriculated at Oberlin, and waited on the table, picked currants, and washed dishes for his board. At the end of the year he went to Mississippi, where he taught school for five years. Then he taught a year in Alabama. He once walked thirty miles to secure a PERSONAGES OF THE AFRO- AMERICAN RACE. 565 School in Tennessee. He was often without money, and even a place to sleep. Anxious to obtain means to return to college, he commenced selling Lyman's Historical Charts, Bibles and Medicines. Failing to make enough money to return to college, he deter- mined to study under a private teacher. After teach- ing a large school in the day, he would walk ten miles two nights in the week to recite in Latin, Greek, German and Algebra to a white student at Vanderbilt University. Mark that, young man; victory await? the daring, and reward always follows the persevering. The student teacher was so impressed with the story of this Negro's perseverance in seeking an education that he told the president of Fisk University of the ambitious boy. The president invited him to enter the University. After a year in the senior preparatory class, he entered college and graduated in 1883. In the campaign of 1882, he traveled over the eighth and ninth districts of Tennessee for the Republican party, advocating a just settlement of the state debt. While he was yet a student in January, 1883, he took his seat in the Tennessee legislature, and served three terms as a statesman and orator. He studied law in Central Tennessee College, and was graduated in 1885. He was a delegate to the Chicago convention which nom- inated Hon. J. G. Blaine, f.nd with, six others voted for him on every ballot Mr. McElwee takes a deep in- terest in the moral, social and industrial future of his people. He is a magnetic speaker, forcible debater, and an indefatigable worker, a manly man and a truly honest citizen. His speech on "Mobs," in the Ten- nessee legislature, was widely circulated. Mr. Mc- Elwee f s popularity with the people of his race is unbounded. He lives honestly and soberly, thus PROGRESS OF A RACE. challenging their admiration and winning their friend- ship. Mr. McElwee was married in 1888 to Miss Georgia Shelton, the daughter of one of Nashville's most prominent and refined families. In a beautiful HON. J. C. NAPIER. residence, opposite Central Tennessee College, Mr. and Mrs. McElwee, with their two children, reside. Their hospitality is widely known. The past few v years have been devoted solely to the practice of law, in which he ranks with the best white legal lights PERSONAGES OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN RACE. 567 before the national bar. He has a lucrative practice. His impassioned and forcible eloquence appeals to judge and jury in defense of right and condemnation of wrong. Mr. McElwee declares that his color is no barrier to his practice, and that he receives due recog- nition from the judges and the legal fraternity in general. He is still a hard student, and finds pleasant society with his books, and in keeping abreast with the latest legal news of the day. He is a brilliant conver- sationalist, of pleasing address, and a ready speaker, lie is a devout member of St. Paul's Methodist Epis- copal Church, 'and perhaps the fact that he is a true Christian gentleman speaks the best for the man. Among the Older Members of the Legal Profession are D. Augustus Straker, of Detroit ; J. C. Napier and S. A. McElwee, of Nashville; Hale G. Parker, of Chi- cago; J. Madison Vance, of New Orleans, O. F. Gar- rett, of Greenville, Mississippi; H. F. Bowles, of Natchez; J. E. Burgee, Chattanooga, Tennessee; W. M. Gibbs and S. A. Jones, of Little Rock, Arkansas; J. T. Little and B. F. Booth, of Memphis, Tennessee. James Carrol Napier. The subject of this sketch was born near Nashville, Tennessee, June 9, 1848. He received his primary education in such schools as were permitted for colored people in Nashville before the war, and in 1859 was sent to Wilberforce Univer- sity, near Xenia, Ohio. From thence he went to Oberlin, where he remained until near the completion of his junior college year, when he left school to accept a position 'in the government service in the War depart- ment at Washington, D. C. In 1873 he was graduated from the law department of Howard University, and was admitted to the bar by the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia. Passing a civil service examin a- 568 PROGRESS OF A RACE. tion, he was appointed to a first-class clerkship in the bureau of the Sixth Auditor, the first of his race in that branch of the government service. His services in that position were so satisfactory that he was in a short time prompted to a clerkship in the bookkeeping division, which position he resigned, after three years' service, to take the responsible position of Revenue Agent for the Internal Revenue District embracing the states of Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama and Louisiana, in which position he was repeatedly complimented by the department for the efficiency with which he performed his duties. Desiring to return to his home at Nash- ville, he resigned the position of Internal Revenue Agent to become a Gauger in the Fifth Internal Rev- enue District of Tennessee, and after a long and hon- orable service in such capacit)^, was promoted to be a Deputy Collector, which position he filled with great credit to himself and the entire satisfaction of the government until the advent of Cleveland's first administration, when he was relieved to give place to a Democrat. In 1878 Mr. Napier revisited Washington to marry the only daughter of Hon. John M. Langston, then Min- ister to Hayti, a woman of broad culture, high educa- tion and superior intellect, a step which has never been regretted by either. Immediately after his retirement from the govern- ment service, Mr. Napier entered upon the practice of law at Nashville, and has been engaged therein con- tinuously to the present 'time. Beginning as an inex- perienced practitioner, he has, by dint of industry and close application, advanced step by step to the enviable position which he now occupies as a citizen and a member of the Nashville bar. As was natural, PERSONAGES OF THE AFRO- AMERICAN RACE. 569 he has associated politics with law, and in this field he has been eminently successful also. Never descend- ing to the plane of the ward politician, his political life has been so straightforward, clean and fearless as to give confidence and inspiration to his party asso- ciates and demand the respect of men of all parties. He was four times elected a member of the City Council of Nashville, and as the representative of the colored population of that city, with the assistance of his fellow citizens, secured the appointment of colored teachers in the public schools, the erection of new and additional school buildings, and did much to bettei their educational and financial condition. He is the representative of the colored Republicans in the State of Tennessee, and has been a member of the Repub- lican State Executive Committee for sixteen consecu- tive years, during which time he has served a considerable period as its acting chairman, and six years as its secretary. He has been four times elected a delegate to the National Republican Convention, once as the representative of his Congressional District, and three times from the state-at -large, one of the highest honors within the gift of the Republicans of a state. He is at present a member of the National Executive Committee of the Republican League. Mr. Napier has not only been successful as a lawyer and politician, but financially as well. Fortune has followed honor, and he is regarded as one of the most substantial citizens of Nashville. May we not hope that such an exhibition of tact, industry and intelli- gence will be an inspiration to the youth of the country wherever this sketch is read. 570 PROGRESS OF A RACE. Colored Attorneys of Nashville, Tenn.: Abbot, G. T. Hodgkins, W. H. Anderson, G. F. Kizer, J. W. Cheairs, H. B. Menefee, A. Cameron, H. A. Napier, J. C. Crosthwait, W. A. McElwee, S. A. Ewing, P. A. Robinson, G. T. Ewing, T. G., Sr. Smith, N. B. Grant, J. W. Woods, Z. T. The Colored Bar of Chicago. Over thirty colored men and one colored woman have been regularly admit- ted to the Illinois bar, and are now practicing law in Chicago. Considering the fact that less than forty years ago a large majority of the race in this country to which these colored lawyers belong, and that sev- eral of the lawyers themselves, were slaves, the race prejudice that they had to overcome, and the dif- ficulties they had to encounter, with no rich and influ- ential friends to give them a helping hand, the record they have made at the bar is an honor to the race, and well may their example be held up to the colored men and women of other cities as worthy of imitation. It is stated on good authority that no other city has had as large a number of colored lawyers. They are not only graduates of law colleges, but of universities as well. Some of them have been teachers for years. Names. The names of the colored lawyers of Chicago in the order in which they were admitted to the bar are: Lloyd G. Wheeler, Richard A. Dawson, Ferdinand L. Barnett, Louis Washington, Edward H. Morris, J. W. E. Thomas, Maurice Bauman, John G. Jones, R. O. Lee, George W. W. Lytle, S. Laing Williams, Franklin A. Dennison, Charles P. Walker, 17 ~ =.L -.: f . .Is . . J.. Cdwsuvl G. Lt- - "- Johnson, S. A. T. Watksss. WTr.*^ H. WSCT! 3L Max&s, Albert G. HaUbaiO, James H. LCTTJS, J Locas, Hale Gaddisigs Parker, Jas. E. WlrSe! W Akeis, Charies W. Semid^u, R. >L M:-jr. WiT G. Anderson, Thomas L. Joamsr^. M5ss Ida R Jobs L. Tnmer, Beaan^aid F. M^^sely. E. - r.;-"-: G. Wheeler ^> ib r- W. A. . B H. Mr. WHliams ias grrea 572 PROGRESS OF A RACE. Louis Washington was born in Alabama. His com- plexion is no counterfeit, it is plain, genuine black. He was a slave until 1863, when, inspired by the love of freedom, not having heard of President Lincoln's proclamation freeing the slaves, and having been told there was a large army at Vicksburg which liberated all the slaves who came into its lines, he left his mas- ter's service unbidden, walked barefooted from Enon to Vicksburg, and there entered the service. After the war, by dint of hard work and strict economy, he succeeded in acquiring money enough to attend school. While at Wheaton College, Illinois, the bank in which he deposited his money failed, and he lost nearly three hundred dollars, which compelled him to forego the pleasure of completing his course. He afterward took a course in the Union College of Law, and was admit- ted to the Illinois bar in 1879. E. H. Morris, the leader of the colored bar in Chi- cago, was born a slave in Kentucky in 1859. He has lived in Chicago twenty-six years. When he was admitted to the bar, in 1879, he was unable to purchase a suit of clothes to make himself presentable, and so kept on his long overcoat, and during the examination had it buttoned up so as not to show the fractures which time and wear had made in his antiquated pants. Contrast the situation of this poor lawyer with that of the Mr. Morris of today ! He now receives in cash for his professional services over ten thousand dollars a year, not including his services as south town attor- ney. He is worth more than $50,000 in Chicago real estate. J. IjT. E. Thomas served a year in the Illinois House of Representatives, and is among the wealthiest colored men in the city of Chicago. PERSONAGES OF THE AFRO- AMERICAN RACE. 573 8. Laing Williams entered the University of Mich- igan and graduated with the class of 1881, receiving the A. B. degree. After teaching for some time in Ala- bama, he was ap- pointed to a position in the Pension office at Washington. In 1885 h** resigned and came to Chicago to practice law. While in Washington he en- tered the law depart- ment of the Colum- bian University, and after finishing his course took post- graduate work in the same school. Mr. Williams is a fine student, and in schol- arly ability has no superior among the colored lawyers of Chicago. He is the husband of Mrs. Fannie Barrier Williams, who is the first and only colored woman ever admitted to membership in the Chicago Woman's Club. Franklin A. Dennison was born in San Antonio, Texas, and educated at Lincoln University, Pennsyl- vania, and was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1879. For a number of years he was chief assisting prose- cuting attorney. Miss Ida Platt was born in Chicago of colored parents, September, 1863. She was educated in the S. LAING WILLIAMS. 74 PROGRESS OF A RACE. public schools of Chicago, and graduated from the High School with honor at the age of sixteen. She u the only colored woman admitted to the Illinois bar. For nearly nine years she was private secretary in an insurance office, I then, while stenog- ' rapher in a law office, commenced the study of. law. She graduated from the Chicago College of Law in 1894, and received her license to practice in June of that year. One of the judges of the court, in signing his name to her license, said: "We have done today what we never did before ; admitted a colored woman to the bar; and it may now be truly said that persons are now admitted to the Illi- nois bar without re- gard to race, sex or color. ' ' Miss Platt is a woman of very decided ability, and entered upon her professional career with talents possessed by few. Taylor G. Ewing was born of slave parents near Nashville in 1849. He experienced all the horrors of slavery until 1861, when he ran off, going to Nash- ville, where he managed to get work at Fort Negley. MISS IDA PLATT, OF CHICAGO. First colored lady admitted to the bar in Illinois. PERSONAGES OF THE AFRO- AMERICAN RACE. 575 After the close of the war, he began work as a barber. During the evening he attended school with the deter- mination to obtain an education. He then went to teaching, and taught school for four years, and then received an appointment in the revenue service, which he held until 1885. During this time, he began the study of law, and in 1886 he was admitted to the bar, and since then has engaged in the practice of law, and has succeeded in building up a large and lucrative practice. By thrift and economy he has accumulated considerable property, and is estimated to be worth about $10,000. Alfred Menefee. Probably the oldest colored man practicing law is Alfred Menefee. He is seventy years of age, and is a successful lawyer in Nashville, although he has never had the advantages of a schol- astic training. J. W. Grant, In the fourth year of the war, J. W. Grant was taken from his home near Sparta, Tennes- see, by the i4th U. S. colored troops. After cxpe riencing the hardships of soldier life, he returned to his mother, and then, besides attempting to support his mother and sisters, he attended school as best he could until he was sufficiently educated to teach. He enter- ed Fisk University in 1871. The close of the first year found him without a dollar or any opening to make a cent. Not being able to secure means to return to school, he taught for twelve successive years. In 1887 he entered Central Tennessee College, graduating in 1890, and immediately entered the law department of that institution. In 1894 he was chosen a member oi the faculty of the law department of Central Tennes- see College, and in 1895 he was elected Dean of the col lege, which position he now holds. He is worth $10, ooo, 576 PROGRESS OF A RACE. and has a beautiful residence in Nashville. His only daughter will graduate from Fisk University in 1899. William Richard Morris was born February 22, 1859, near Flemingsburg, Kentucky. He entered Fisk University at Nashville, Tennessee, when seven- teen years of age, and graduated with high honors from the classical department in the class of 1884. As a student he was apt, studious, strictly first grade in all his studies, and was known as a bright scholar, a fine essayist, a logical debater, a correct thinker, and an eloquent, forcible speaker. For five years he taught in Fisk University, giving entire satisfaction in teach- ing mathematics, languages and the sciences. He was at the time the only colored teacher of the institution. In 1885, he represented the colored people of the South at the annual meeting of the A. M. A., at Mad- ison, Wisconsin, and delivered an address entitled, * ' The Negro at Present, ' ' that won for him a broad reputation. In 1886, the State Superintendent of Education of Tennessee employed him to hold insti- tutes for colored teachers of that state. He received the degree of Master of Arts from his Alma Mater in 1887, and the same year was admitted to the bar by the Supreme Court of Illinois in a class of twenty-four, he being the only colored man. In the examination he and two others received the same and highest mark. He has also been admitted to the bar by the Supreme Court of Tennessee, and practiced some at Chicago and Nashville. In June, 1889, he resigned his position at Fisk University, came to Minneapolis, and, having been admitted to the bar by the Supreme Court, opened a law office, and was the first colored lawyer to appear before the courts of Hennepin county, Minnesota PERSONAGES OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN RACE. 577 HON. JOHN M. LANGSTON. Hon. John M. Langston, A. M., LL. D., was born a slave in Virginia. He takes the name of his mother. His father was his owner, and upon his death John 87 Progress. 578 PROGRESS OF A RACE. 5vas set free. Thereupon he was sent to Ohio, and educated at Oberlin, graduating in 1853. In 1867 he was appointed inspector of the colored schools, and made a trip through the South, and the same year was admitted to practice in the United States Supreme Court. For some years he was dean of the law department of Howard University. In 1877 he was appointed Minister to Hayti by President Hayes. Upon his return in 1885, he was elected president of the Virginia Normal and Collegiate Insti- tute, which position he filled for two years, and was then elected a member of the List Congress to represent the state of Virginia. Mr. Langston has exerted a wide influence for good on the race in the many posi- tions he has held. He has for years been at the head of the legal profession among men of his color in Washington. He is a man of wealth, and lives in his beautiful "Hillsdale Cottage" in Washington. Mr. Langston is one of the ablest lawyers of his race. He is author of "Freedom and Citizenship" and "From the Virginia Plantation to the National Capitol. ' ' Isaac F. Bradley. This gentleman is a rising young lawyer of Kansas City, Wyandotte county, Kansas. He is studious, honorable and upright in his dealings, and is highly respected by both bench and bar of Wyan- dotte county, and well deserves the success he is now enjoying. Mr. Bradley was born at Hazelwood Hall, near Cam- bridge, Saline county, Missouri, September 8, 1862. As a result of the criminal practice of that cruel institution which flourised at that time, he never saw his father; hence, from the beginning his way was not smooth, thus he received very little schooling in his youth. Being anxious, however, to obtain a good PERSONAGES OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN RACE. 579 education, he saved his earnings, and in 1881, entered Lincoln Institute at Jefferson City, Missouri, from which he graduated with the full course in June, 1885. In the fall of the same year he entered the law school of the Kansas State University ; took the degree LL. R, June 1887, and was admitted to the practice of law ; opened an office in Kansas City, Kansas, and now enjoys a good practice. In April, 1889, he was elected justice of the peace for two years, and dis- charged the duties with credit. He is active in polit- ics, ready and willing at all times to espouse the cause of his race. He is now first assistant prosecuting attorney of Wyandotte county, Kansas, the most pop- ulous and wealthy county in the state. B. S. Smith, the subject of this sketch, is one of the most widely, as well as favorably, known negro attor- neys west of the Mississippi river. He was born in Arkansas, August 6, 1862, of slave parentage. Left an orphan at an early age, he wandered to central Illinois, where in 1876 he took up his residence in Springfield, and entered the public schools of that city, working for his board and lodging, and in 1883 graduated with honor from the High School (one of the finest in the state). Thereupon he immediately secured employment on a stock farm in Logan county, where he worked until October, 1884, when, having earned sufficient money to attend college, he entered the law department of the University of Michigan, and graduated from that institution in 1886. Mr. Smith immediately entered upon the practice of his profession, locating in Kansas City, Kansas, in 1887, where he now has a lucrative and growing prac- tice, stands high in the community, having served four years as an alderman in his adopted home, and 580 PROGRESS OF A RACE. was elected on the Republican ticket, presidential elector in 1892. He has now abandoned politics altogether, and devotes his entire time to his practice. HON. S. J. JENKINS, AUSTIN, TEXAS. S. J. Jenkins is a prominent lawyer of Austin, Texas. He has been prominent in politics, and is at present President of the Deaf, Dumb and Blind Asylum at Austin. Daniel M. Mason is one of the prominent lawyers of Dallas, Texas. Mr. Mason entered Howard Univer- sity in 1886, graduating in 1890. He then entered PERSONAGES OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN RACE. 581 the law department of this institution, and graduated with honors two years later. Since then he has prac- ticed law in Dallas, Texas, and as a young man of his profession is meeting with success. THE COLORED MAN IN MEDICINE. Voodoos. When the civil war was over, and the smoke of battle had cleared away, the field in the South was occupied by the red-eyed "voodoo," who styled himself a "doctor." There were, at that time, possibly two or three exceptions to this rule, but only two or three. Should you ask these voodoos, better known among the illiterate as ' 'root- workers, " what might be their business, the answer would quickly be given something like this: "My trade, dat am a doctor. " "Is that so?" "Yes, sar, I is a root doctor from 'way back; and when I gets done standing at de forks ob de road at midnight, pullin' up roots twixt de hollowing ob de owels, and gittin' a little fresh dirt from de grave yard, honey, der am suffin 'agwinter drop. " This being, with his weird stories, went forth among a people who were rocked, as it were, in the cradle of superstition, and early became monarch of all he sur- veyed. He was known and feared throughout the country. He claimed to be able to cure anything from consumption to an unruly wife or husband, and fur- nishing charms to make love matches, and to keep the wife or husband at home, was- one of his specialties. Every patient they called on they diagnosed the trouble thus: He or she was tricked; if pneumonia, they were tricked ; if a fever, they were tricked ; or if a case of consumption, they were tricked. Their stock of medicine, if such we must call it, 582 PROGRESS OF A RACE. generally consisted of such things as these : small bags of graveyard soil, rabbits' feet, rusty nails, needles, pins, goose grease, snake skins, and many other such things. I say, a little more than a generation ago, this was the class of so-called "colored doctors" that predomi- nated in the South, and which for many years was a great stumbling block to the educated physicians of our race, because it seemed to be understood that all "colored doctors" were and must be "root doctors." But thank Him who holds the destinies of races in His hands that in the flight of years, and in this electric age of progress, this "voodoo doctor" has almost not entirely, but almost passed away, while his territory is being occupied by colored physicians whose qualifications in education, character and honor are equal to similar qualifications in the physicians of any other race. The Contrast. Thirty years ago, there were few, if any, Negro physicians to be found, says Dr. L. T. Burbridge, while today there is scarcely a Southern town and a large proportion of the 'Northern towns and cities that cannot boast of one or more colored physicians, regular graduates of authorized medical colleges. While this is true, we are compelled to admit that there is a field for many more. It is esti- mated that there is one white physician to every 300 of his people, while there is only one colored doctor to every 9,000 of his people. This furnishes an idea of our need, for we feel assured that when the colored physician become more numerous, so as not to be a rare object, then he will be more respected by all classes of people. Then, too, we feel proud to state that the practice of the colored doctor is by no means PERSONAGES OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN RACE. 583 confined solely to his own race. The Negro physician enjoys in many instances a small but growing white pat- ronage. This, in itself, is a confession of a recognition of skill and ability, wrung-, as it were, from the lips of the oppressor. Patronage. The colored physician does not ask patronage on the score of color, and on the other hand he does not want to be denied work on that account. He does not ask that allowances be made for his defi- ciencies because he is a Negro, and on the other hand, he does not want to be denied the privileges that skill and ability should demand for any medical man, whether white or black. A recognition of skill and competency is all that he asks, regardless of color. In other words, he wants to be treated as a man one who has fully prepared himself to do the work as thoroughly and skillfully as any other man, of what- ever nationality. The Negro physician realizes the fact that this is his only hope for successfully overcom- ing the many discouraging features of his work, and with this fact in view, he has ever bent diligently to the accomplishment of the task set before him. Advantages. The advantages offered to the colored man for a medical education are good. Meharry, New Orleans and Shaw Medical Colleges, in the South, are doing good work, and in the North but few, if any, doors are closed against the colored aspirant; while England, France and Germany all extend to him a wel- coming hand. And, if yet we have not a Treve, we have a Newman, if we have not a Koch, we have a Stewart, and if we have not a Sims, we have a Boyd. These are among the pioneers of the Negro medical profession, and where they leave off their posterity will take up and carry on the work so well begun. 584 PROGRESS OF A RACE. Influence. While the farmer, the mechanic, the teacher, the newspaper man, and the lawyers of our race are laboring in their spheres, the physicians of the race are spending their talents, their little means, and their life for the elevation of their people, physi- cally, morally and spiritually, and too often without remuneration. These men are doing much good for their people and the communities in which they live. Physicians of Today. The colored physicians in the South today are men and women fully equipped in education, morals and integrity for the high calling they have elected, as their noble work will show. In the United States today there are about one thou- sand colored physicians, men and women, and more than seven hundred of them are located in the Southern states. While they represent the homeopathic and eclectic schools, yet the regulars are largely in the majority. Women, The colored women have gone into the profession very rapidly. They are scattered through- out the South, and are doing a good practice. While most of the medical schools are open to them, they come largely from Ann Arbor, Howard, Meharry and the school in Kentucky, and also the Woman' s Med- ical College of Philadelphia. Dr. Alice McCain, of Savannah, Georgia, is the only lady physician in that state. Her husband is a fine physician also. She is a graduate of the Woman's Medical College of Philadel- phia, and he of the University of Vermont. There is one thing commendable about our female physicians, as well as our male ph)^sicians, and that is they come from good schools, and are fully prepared for their work. They, too, should be encouraged as they go forth to their labors. PERSONAGES OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN RACE. 585 Reception by White Profession. The white phy- sicians of the South, especially the better class of them, give the colored members of the profession a hearty welcome into the field. They always have a kind word for them; they encourage the people to employ their own physicians; they lend them their instruments, and come in consultation whenever called. This is not local, but is reported to us from all parts of the South. Their Wealth. The colored physicians in the South, most of them, are in better circumstances than their brethren in the North and East. Most of them have beautiful homes, fine horses, city and town lots ; while some have plantations and others large bank accounts. One of the wealthiest colored physicians with whom we are acquainted is Dr. H. T. Noel, of Tennessee, whose wealth is estimated to be about $85,000. The American Medical Association of Colored Phy- sicians and Surgeons was organized in November, 1895, at Atlanta, Georgia. Its necessity grew out of the fact that colored physicians of the South are not admitted to the old organization. The second bi-ennial meeting will be held in Nashville, Tennessee, October 15 and 1 6, 1897. A large attendance is expected. Dr. R. F. Boyd, of Nashville, Tennessee, is presi- dent; Dr. D. L. Martin is secretary. The programme of the coming session includes many of the most prominent colored physicians of the country. The Southern Empire State Medical Association of Georgia held its fourth annual meeting in Macon, July i and 2, 1897. This association is composed of the colored physicians and surgeons of the state. It is in a flourishing condition. It was organized by Dr. H. R. Butler, A. M.., M. D., who was elected the first president and served one year. 586 PROGRESS OF A RACE. The colored physicians are organized in six states: North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Florida, and Texas. Dr. Robert Fulton Boyd was born in Giles county, DR. R. F. BOYD, Professor in Meharry Medical College, Nashville, Tenn. Tennessee, where he spent his early boyhood days. At the age of eight years, he was taken to Nashville PERSONAGES OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN RACE. 587 to live with Dr. Paul Eve, a noted surgeon of his day. It was here that he first conceived the idea of making a physician of himself. He attended night school at the old Fisk School, and learned to spell and to lead from McGuffey's First Reader; from 1868 to 1870 he worked on a farm, then returned to Nashville to learn the brick trade. He had not yet learned to write, and was anxious for an education, and in 1872 hired himself to Gen. James Hickman to work half a day and go to school the other half. He earned enough for clothing by teaching old colored people their letters, so that they might read the Bible. In 1875 he began teaching school and rapidly rose in that profession. He became principal of the Pulaski schools, and was employed by the State Superintendent to hold state institutes for colored teachers in middle Tennessee. In 1880 he entered Meharry Medical College, and graduated in 1882. In the same year^he was appointed adjunct pro- fessor of chemistry in Meharry Medical College, and at the same time entered the college department of Central Tennessee College, graduating in 1886. He then entered the dental department of Meharry Medi- cal College, and graduated in 1887. He paid his ex- penses all this time by teaching in the various depart- ments of the Central Tennessee College. In 1887 he entered the practice of his profession in Nashville, where he has since done a work second in importance and magnitude to no other physician. Mr. Boyd is a hard worker, and uses all his powers to elevate and educate his race: He is a typical ex- ample of what young men can do in spite of the greatest opposition. He has built for himself a practice that is an honor to any man. His office, in- struments, horses and buggies compare favorably with 588 PROGRESS OF A RACE. those of any other physician. He has instituted a society for the study of sociology and ethics among colored people. In this respect alone he has done much for the betterment of the colored people in Nash- ville. In 1890 he took a post-graduate course, and in 1892 he took a second post-graduate course in a Chicago medical college. He is at present a member of the faculty of Meharry Medical College, being professor of gynecology and clinical medicine. He owns the valuable property, 417 and 419 Cedar street, Nashville, worth $20,000. It is a building used for offices, and contains forty rooms. He was once nominated candi- date for mayor of Nashville, and the legislature of Tennessee. Connected with his office is an infirmary for the care of the sick and surgical cases. Trained nurses are always on hand. He gives two hours three times a week to the sick and indigent poor during the college year. Many now attend his free clinic and are helped. Dr. Boyd is a polite and affable gentleman, respected both by whites and blacks, and an honor to the race which he so ably represents. He is president of the American Medical Association of Colored Phy- sicians and Surgeons, and in every respect leads his race in everything that is elevating and ennobling. His friends are urging him for surgeon-in-chief of the Freedman's Hospital at Washington, D. C. He is well endorsed, and has numerous letters of recom- mendation and petitions to President McKinley to appoint him. While the people of Nashville are glad to see Dr. Boyd honored and have his ambitions and aspirations gratified, they do not want him to leave them. Daniel H. Williams, Chicago, 111., son of Daniel and Sarah (Price) Williams, grandson of Daniel Williams, PERSONAGES OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN RACE. 589 was born January 18, 1858, at Hollidaysburg, Pa. He attended the Janesville, Wis., high school, and was graduated from the Janesville Classical Academy in 1878. Commenced the study of medicine at Janesville in 1880, under Surgeon-General Henry Palmer; attended three courses of lectures at Chicago Medical College, from which he was graduated March 28, 1883, his education having been obtained through his own exer- tions, his parents being unable to render financial assistance. In May, 1883, he located permanently in the practice of medicine in Chicago. Dr. Williams is a member of the American Medical Association, Illinois State Medical Society, Chicago Medical Society, and Ninth International Medical Con- gress. He was surgeon to South Side Dispensary, Chicago, i884-'92; Surgeon to Provident Hospital, 1 890- '93; physician to Protestant Orphan Asylum, 1 884- '93; member of Illinois State Board of Health, 1889; reappointed, 1891. He is also a member of the Hamilton Club, of Chicago. Was appointed surgeon in charge of the Freedmen's Hospital, Washington, D. C., February 15, 1894. Dr. Williams stands at the head of the list of the great surgeons of our country. He came into promi- nence when a very young man a few years ago by per- forming one of the most difficult of surgical operations on the heart and pericardium, which properly consisted in operating upon and saving the life of a man who had been stabbed in the heart. Since his advent to Freedmen's Hospital he has continued to perform very difficult operations, and has directed more attention to Freedmen's and the work being done there than many institutions of -the kind in the country. He recently performed an operation which is regarded by the med- 590 PROGRESS OF A RACE. ical profession as not only one of the rarest, but also one of the most hazardous the Caesarian section. The race has reason to be proud of him for the great service he is rendering it. J. W. E. BOWEN, D. D., PH. D. Professor of Historical Theology in Gammon Theological Seminary. J. W. E. Bowen, D. D., Ph. D. Doctor Bowen was born in New* Orleans in 1855. His father, Edward PERSONAGES OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN RACE. 591 Bowen, was a free man, his mother a slave. At the age of five the boy and his mother were bought out of slav- ery by the father. At the age of seventeen young Bowen entered the New Orleans University, a school established by the Methodist Episcopal church at the close of the Rebellion. Soon after his graduation from the university, Doctor Bowen became professor of Latin and Greek in the Central Tennessee College at Nashville, Tennessee. In 1882, having resigned his professorship, he en- tered Boston University, where he studied for four years. In 1887 this University conferred upon him the degree of Ph.D. In 1892 he received the degree of D.D. from Gammon Theological Seminary. After graduating from Boston University he entered the New England conference of the Methodist Epis- copal church. His pastorates included leading churches in Boston, Newark, Baltimore, and Washington, and covered a period of eleven years. While pastor of the church in Washington, he pursued the study of the Semitic lan- guages. Doctor Bowen 's next promotion was his election as professor of Historical Theology in Gammon Theo- logical Seminary at Atlanta, Georgia, which position he holds at this writing. At the general conference of his church, held at Chicago in May, 1900, he came within a few votes of being elected one of the bishops of that great church. Amid all the cares of the pastorate and teacher he found time to do much writing. Some of his works are: "Plain Talks to the Colored People of America," 592 PROGRESS OF A RACE. 44 Appeal to the King," "The Comparative Status of the Negro at the Close of the War and To-day/' "The Struggle for Supremacy between Church and State in the Middle Ages," "The American and the African Negro," "University Addresses," and "Dis- cussions iu Philosophy and Theology." David Lee Johnstone enrolled as a student at the State Normal School at Tuskegee, September 14, 1885, completing the course in 1889. His vacations were spent at Pratt City, Alabama, working there as a miner to earn money enough to return to school in the fall and to support an invalid father. After completing his course he returned to Pratt City, and found employment as a teacher in the public schools, which position he held for four years. Having a desire to complete a course in pharmacy and not being able to accumulate a sufficient amount at teach- ing, he resigned and accepted a contract in the mines at Milldale, Alabama. This employment, although very hard, was more lucrative, and the ist of Septem- ber, 1894, he entered the pharmaceutical department of Meharry Medical College, Nashville, fouring vacation he continued working in the mines. At graduation he was elected by the members of his class to represent them in the commencement exercises. He soon found employment with the Peoples' Drug Company, of Birmingham, Alabama, In April, 1896, he opened the Union Drug Store, at Birmingham, Alabama, and continued in it until December of that year, when it was swept out by fire. His purpose, however, was not to be defeated by losses, and in April, 1897, he again opened the doors of the \Jnion Drug Company, and is doing a prosperous bus- iness. PERSONAGES OP THE AFRO-AMERICAN RACE. 593 Dr. W. A. Hadley was born of slave parents in 1850. He attended Fisk University, and was one of the first normal teachers sent out from that institution. In 1878 he entered Meharry Medical College, from which he graduated in 1880. After practicing medicine four years, he returned to teaching, and is at present prin- cipal of one of the Nashville schools. His house is modern in every respect, and is a perfect, ideal home. One remarkable feature in Dr. Hadley 's home is a col- lection of pictures, all of which were painted by his daughter, who is the principal of music in the Tuskegee Normal School, and enjoys the distinction of being the first graduate in music from Fisk University. Dr. Hadley 's real estate and other property are valued at $14,000. B. E. Scruggs, M. D., was born of Christian parents i n Huntsville, A 1 a- bama. He received his education at Central Alabama College and Central Tennessee Col- lege, at Nashville. He graduated from Me- harry Medical College in 1897, and in July of the same year he passed the state medical exam- ination, standing high- est of any of those who were examined at that time. He has had a successful practice ever since. In 1892 he was B. E. SCRUGGS, M. D., Huntsville, Alabama. elected alderman of the city of Huntsville, and re- 98 Progress. 594 PROGRESS OF A RACE. elected in 1897 by the largest vote of any aspirant. He is the first Afro-American of Alabama to graduate from a school of medicine. Dr. Scruggs was married to Miss Sophia J. Davidson in 1881. He owns some property, and is in good circumstances. Dr. Ferdinand A. Stewart was born in Mobile, Ala- bama, in 1862. He completed the classical course in Fisk University in 1885, and three years later grad- uated in the medical department of Harvard University with the first honors of his class of over one hundred, all of whom were white excepting himself. Since 1888 he has been practicing medicine in Nashville, and has succeeded admirably, both professionally and financially. He has no other ambition than to serve his people in his professional capacity. Dr. Henry Fitzbutler, of Louisville, was born Decem- ber 22, 1842. He graduated in the Michigan University in 1872. He was granted a charter by. the legislature of Kentucky in 1888 to practice medicine, having graduated at the Louisville National Medical College. He was the first regular physician of the Negro race to enter upon the practice of medicine in the state of Kentucky. T. T. Wendell. The subject of this sketch, Mr. T. T. Wendell, was born July 24, 1871, at Nashville, Ten- nessee. At an early age he evinced great aptitude for study, and very often led his classes in the public schools of his native city. After completing the pre- scribed course in the city schools, and possessing a strong desire to become proficient in medicine, he entered Meharry College, where he pursued his studies with diligence and vigor, graduating from the phar- maceutical department in the class of 1894, with marked distinction, being the valedictorian of the largest class graduating from that famous institution. PERSONAGES OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN RACE. 595 Mr. Wendell, now realizing that it was time for him to repay his widowed mother for the care and many sacrifices she made for his advancement, secured a position at Henderson, Kentucky, as manager of The Citizens' Drug Company, which position he held until a more remunerative one was offered by Dr. W. H. Ballard at Lexington. He is now filling this position to the satisfaction of his employer and his many friends, who are numerous, which is testified to by the fact that although in the Leader (a daily paper) contest for the most popular clerk in the city, he was opposed by ten others, all white, yet when the votes were counted Mr. Wendell had over five hundred votes more than his next highest competitor. F. B. Coffin, Ph. G., Pharmacist and Poet. F. B. Coffin was born in 1869, in Holly Springs, Mississippi. His father being poor and having a large family, Frank had very meagre educational advantages. At the age of ten, he lost his best earthly friend, his mother. His older brothers and sisters scattered over the South, as teachers, and morally and intellectually he was left to his own guidance. He was raised in the sturdy mold of tireless industry. Against his will, but to please his father, he stayed on the farm until seventeen years of age, receiving three months' schooling annually. He read all kinds of literature that came to his hand, good and bad, but through the influence of his brothers, he cast away the trashy novel and more than ever desired an education. His elder brothers having left home, he was his father's only stay, and the remark was often made, "What would I do without Frank." Through correspondece with his brothers, the desire to attend school was constantly increasing, and in 1886, by the aid and consent of his father and brothers, he 506 PROGRESS OF A RACE. entered Fisk University, where both his brothers had graduated. He spent his vacations on the farm, and in 1889, with his father's consent, he remained in Nashville, where he was able to earn more money. At the beginning of his senior year, he was called home by the sickness of his father. This was a severe trial to him, as he was thus cut off from his classmates, and not permitted to graduate with them. In writing to one of his classmates, he says: "If misfortune pre- vents my graduating with you you will hear from me somewhere, for Fisk has kindled a fire of determina- tion and it cannot be extinguished." After his father's death, he taught school for a time, but was disgusted with it through the fact that in gaining and holding a position merit was drowned by political wire- pulling. In 1891 he entered Meharry Medical College and graduated in 1893. He is now conducting a drug store at Little Rock, Arkansas, and is thoroughly awake to the necessity of competing if he would excel. He takes as his motto, "No step backward," and is working with all the energy of his soul to range among the successful ones of our closing century. Mr. Coffin has just published a volume of poems of about two hundred pages, forty of which relate to the crime of lynching.. He is preparing another book of poems, which he hopes to publish in the near future. He is a lover of children, and is actively engaged in Christian work. He stands fearlessly for right, without regard to what the effect may be upon his business. Dr. Sarah Helen Fitzbutler graduated in medicine and surgery in the Louisville National Medical College with the class of 1892. Doctor Butler is the first woman to receive the regular degree to practice medi- cine in Kentucky. PERSONAGES OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN RACE. 597 The Louisville National Medical College is doing much, by its thorough work, to disarm the public mind of race prejudice. The race may justly feel proud of what its representatives are achieving. Its attain- ments are worthy of schools that boast of much higher standing. J. B. Banks, M. D., taught school for a short time. DR. J. B. BANKS, NATCHEZ, MISSISSIPPI. then entered Leland University, New Orleans, in 1877, working evenings and mornings for his board and 598 PROGRESS OF A RACE. lodging. The yellow fever compelled him to leave. He then went to the country where he obtained a private school of ten or fifteen pupils. After paying his board of $5 a month, he had one dollar left for his work. He afterward succeeded in finding better pay- ing employment and managed, besides supporting his aged grandparents through the next winter, to save $30. He then taught for a number of years, and entered Meharry Medical College in 1885. After graduating he at once returned to Mississippi, and passed his examination before the State Medical Board. He, with seven white applicants, was success- ful, while the same number of whites were unsuccess- ful. He at once began practicing medicine, and in 1889 moved to Natchez, Mississippi, where he has a fair practice. In 1890 he was appointed a member of the Board of Surgeons of the United States at Natchez. Doctor Banks enjoys the esteem of his own race and of the white citizens of Natchez and the surrounding country. He owns a comfortable home, valued at $3,000; is married and has two children. He is a, prominent member and officer of the African M. E. Church of Natchez. Thomas A. Curtis was born in Alabama. His parents were slaves, but by earnest effort his father educated himself and became state senator from Ala- bama. The son, after graduating from the State Normal School, taught for some years in Texas, and then entered Meharry Dental School, from which he graduated in 1889. His success as the first colored dentist of Alabama is assured. During the first year he earned more than $2,000. With such an energetic spirit as he possesses it is needless to say that he has each year improved in proficiency in his profession and in the increase of his practice. PERSONAGES OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN RACE. 599 Prof, Geo. W. Carver is director of the agricultural department of the famous industrial school at Tuske- gee, Alabama. He is a graduate of the State Agricul- tural College at Ames, Iowa, from which he received his Master's degree. PROF. GEO. W. CARVER, M. AG. From childhood he seems to have had a passion for music, painting, flowers, stones, minerals, and like objects of beauty and interest. The study of the char- 600 PROGRESS OF A RACE. acter and productive ability of soils seem to have been in him an instinct. As a boy he was known as the " Plant Doctor." His painting, the " Yucca and Cactus," was exhibited at the World's Fair in Chicago. It is, perhaps, safe to say that he has the largest private collection of botanical and geological speci- mens in the state of Alabama. But in order to reach his present position of ability and usefulness he had a long and weary road to travel. He was born a slave in Missouri during the period of the Civil war. Prof. Carver expresses the deepest gratitude to Mr. and Mrs. Carver to whom his mother belonged until set free by the war. For some years his foster-parents (Mr. and Mrs. Carver) cared for him, and during this time he acquired the rudiments of an education. When ten years of age he began his wanderings through Kansas, Missouri, and Iowa, in his struggles for intellectual and bodily food. He had to meet not only the difficulties of an ordinary poor boy in his efforts to gain a position in the world, but he must overcome natural race-prejudice among his white as- sociates. But he has won an exalted position worthy the best minds. While working his way at school Carver exhibited a remarkably versatile mind. At one time he was a suc- cessful laundryman, at another a skilled cook, and again an ingenious milliner. He also knit his own mittens and stockings. He shows, with commendable pride, three hundred samples of knitting, crocheting, and embroidering. PERSONAGES OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN RACE. 601 AUTHORS AND LITERARY WORKERS. Paul Laurence Dunbar. The first poet of his race in the English language was Paul Laurence Dunbar, PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR, The Famous Colored Poet whose parents were full blood Negroes. His father escaped from slavery in Kentucky to freedom in Can- ada, and at a time when there was no hope of freedom 602 PROGRESS OF A RACE. otherwise. His mother was liberated by the Emanci- pation Proclamation, and came North to Ohio. Paul was born at Dayton, Ohio, and grew up with such opportunities for mental training as befalls the chil- dren of the poor. His father was a plasterer, and after learning to read, he loved chiefly to read history. His mother had a passion for literature, with a special delight for poetry. After his father died, mother and son struggled on in still deeper poverty. His writings attracted many, and it was not long before his friends recognized that in him was found the first instance of an American Negro who had evinced an innate distinction in litera- ture, although many of his race had proven themselves proficient in music, oratory, and some of the other arts. It is said that Paul Dunbar was the only man of pure African blood and of American civilization to feel the Negro life aesthetically and to express it lyrical- ly. While all of his poems are beautiful in sentiment, yet those pieces where he studied the modes and traits of his race we find the most charming. His refined and delicate art is shown most clearly where he describes the range between appetite and emotion. He reveals in these an ironical perception of the Negro's limita- tion with a tenderness that is quite new. If Mr. Dunbar does nothing more than he has done, he may rightfully be said to have made the strongest claim for the Negro in English literature that the Negro has ever made. Although we may not agree in all he says, we can hardly refuse to enjoy it. Well may it be said of many of his productions that they are works of art. Let us notice a few of the many beautiful and practical sentiments expressed. The following is from "Accountability" : PERSONAGES OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN RACE. 603 "But we all fits into places dat no othah ones could fill, And we does the things we has to, big er little, poor er ill. John cain't take the place o' Henry, Su an' Sally ain't alike; Bass aint nuthin' like a sucker, shad ain't nuthin' like a pike. When you come to think about it, how it's all planned out, it's splendid. Nuthin's done ere evah has been 'dout hit's somefin' dat's intended ; Don't keer what you does, you, has to, an' hit sholy beats de dickens. Viney, go put on de kettle, I got one o' mastah's chickens." Then again, notice the sentiment expressed in the following stanza on the grand old man, Frederick Douglass, in all respects the representative of his race: "Through good and ill report, he cleaved his way right, with his face set towards the heights, Nor feared to face the foeman's dread array The lash of scorn, the sting of petty spites. He dared the lightning in the lightning's track, And answered thunder with his thunder back." What poet has more graphically and in fewer words expressed the realities of life than Mr. Dunbar in the following stanza: "A crust of bread and a corner to sleep in, A minute to smile, and an hour to weep in ; A pint of joy to a peck of trouble, And never a laugh but the moans come double ; And that is life!" "Rising of the Storm" is beautifully expressed, while "An Ante-bellum Sermon" gives us an insight into the real life of the Negro of those days. The "Banjo Song" carries back many a gray-haired freed- man to the time when the banjo, taken from the wall, brought cheer and comfort to the weary slave. Who has more really pictured the lawyer's ways 604 PROGRESS OF A RACE. than he when he describes the effort of the contending sides to paint either in blackest crime the condition of the persons on one hand, and to gild with virtuous graces the fair name as seen from the other side? Pertinently does he ask : "How an angel an' a devil Can persess the self -same soul!" Our sympathies are aroused in "Deacon Jones' Grievance, ' ' when he so pathetically pleads with the parson to modify the "hifaluting style" of modern song in the churches, and the objection to being made an object of ridicule, when a solo was being sung and he struck in to help the poor fellow out, and the whole church scowled at him. "The Spelling Bee" brings to mind the days of yore so vividly that we wish we were there. "Keep Pluggin' Away," although a quaint motto, carries with it many a noble and worthy truth. All the gallant sons of Ham that have fought for freedom are anew fired with the spirit of patriotism and loyalty to Uncle Sam in reading "The Colored Soldiers, ' ' in which the bravery of the Negro at Fort Wagner and Fort Pillow are so graphically set forth. Well does it close with this stanza : "So all honor and all glory to these noble sons of Ham, The gallant colored soldiers who fought for Uncle Sam." A sigh escapes many a longing heart as we read the "Ol' Tunes," as the new-fashioned anthems prevent the 'joining of the uncultured and untrained voices. Every Negro rejoices in freedom, and yet what ex-slave who was blessed with a humane and kind master does not sigh when he reads 4 * The Deserted Plantation, ' ' brings to the mind the days of long ago? PERSONAGES Of THE AFRO-AMERICAN RACE. 605 We have space for but one more selection from this gifted author of the colored race : MORTALITY. "Ashes to ashes! dust to dust! What of his loving? What of his lust? What of his passion? What of his pain? What of his poverty? What his pride? Earth, the great mother, has called him again j Deeply he sleeps, the world's verdict defied. Shall he be tried again? Shall he go free? Who shall- the court convene? Where shall it be? No answer on the land, none from the seal Only we know that as he died, we must You with your theory, you with your trust- Ashes to ashes, dust to dust!" A London correspondent says: "Paul Dunbar, the American Negro Poet, has captured London. He has been received with marked attention by good society, and he is in big demand in the most fashionable draw- ing-rooms. No color line is drawn in England, and the talented American is much sought after. He reads his verses at receptions, garden parties and other entertainments, and he has received the most favora- ble criticisms from the press. Mr. Dunbar came to London well recommended by W. D. Howells and other American literary lights well known to the British public. His humble origin and the story of his self-culture, struggles and final triumph have won him a peculiar regard here, where the Negro slave and the prejudices against him and his descendants have never existed. Mr. Dunbar expects to spend several months in London, and he will have no lack of occu- pation, judging by his early successes. His mission promises to be all that he hopes it to be." Frances E. W. Harper. We have already noticed G06 PROGRESS OF A RACE. Mrs. Harper as one of the forerunners of liberty. It is, however, due Mrs. Harper that we also mention her as an author, for, since the emancipation she has written a number of works besides spending much of the time in the lecture field. Some of her writings are the following : ' * Moses, a story of the Nile ; " * ' Sketches of Southern Life, ' ' in which she portrays the life of the Negro; " Shalmanezer. " Her book of poems con- tains some excellent and practical thoughts. "The Dying Bondman" is so touching that we reproduce it here: THE DYING BONDMAN. Life was trembling, faintly trembling, On the bondman's latest breath, And he felt the chilling pressure Of the cold, hard hand of Death. He had been an Afric chieftain, Worn his manhood as a crown ; But upon the field of battle Had been fiercely stricken down. He had longed to gain his freedom, Waited, watched and hoped in vain, Till his life was slowly ebbing Almost broken was his chain. By his bedside stood the master, Gazing on the dying one, knowing by the dull-grey shadows That life's sands were almost run. "Master," said the dying bondman, "Home and friends I soon shall see; .But before I reach my country, Master, write that I am free. "For the spirits of my fathers Would shrink back from me in pride, If J tcld them at our greeting V a slave had lived and died. PERSONAGES OF THE AFRO- AMERICAN RACE. 607 "Give to me the precious token, That my kindred dead may see Master! write it, write it quickly! Master !, write that I am free!" At his earnest plea the master Wrote for him the glad release, O'er his wan and wasted features Flitted one sweet smile of peace. Eagerly he grasped the writing; "I am free at last!" he said. Backward fell upon the pillow, He was free among the dead. Among other interesting poems are found, "Saving the Boys;" "Nothing and Something;" "My Mother's Kiss;" "Home, Sweet Home." Probably the volume which has received the most favorable reception is her "lola Leroy, " presenting a vivid view of scenes at the South before, during and after the war. It is written in a vigorous and graphic manner, and is effec- tive in appealing to the finer sensibilities of the Amer- ican public and, at the same time, addresses itself to those logical sequences of mind that follow out of that fundamental principle of Christianity, the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. Mrs. Harper introduces into her work many thrilling war scenes and succeeds in making her romance one of the most interesting. It pleads the cause of the race whose destinies were never more closely involved with those of the nation than at the present time. Mrs. Harper is one of the ablest writers among the women of the colored race. Phillis Wheatley. This girl was brought on a slave ship from Africa to Boston in 1761, and bought by Mrs. John Wheatley, an intelligent and cultured lady. When bought her clothing consisted of a piece of dirty 608 PROGRESS OF A RACfc. carpet around her loins. Mrs. Wheatley was impress- ed by her intelligent countenance, and selected her from a large number of slaves. Through kind treat- ment and encouragement she learned easily, and devel- oped a talent for poetry. She wrote a book of poems of about forty pieces, and the literary merit of these poems disposed some to question their origin. At one time she addressed a poem to George Washington, and received a kind and courteous reply. Mrs. Mary R. Phelps. In Union county, South Car- olina, on the first day of May, 1867, was born to Adeline and Hilliard Rice the subject of this sketch. Many names of the rising young women of her race have, doubtless, received more public eulogy, but few names deserve a more worthy mention than that of Mrs. Mary R. Phelps. There were many qualities noticeable about her when quite young, all significant of her future usefulness. But the one especially inter- esting to her parents and friends was the voluntary devotion to books and other reading matter. Her perusing picture books, papers, etc., awakened an interest in her to enquire about the words which often accompanied such pictures. In this way she learned to read simple readings by the time she was four years old. At the age of five years she entered the public schools of Union county, the annual terms of which were of but two or three months' duration. So remark- able was her progress as a student and scholar under ad- verse circumstances, that at the age of thirteen she ac- cepted, with consent of her parents, the charge of a large school in a rural district of Spartanburg county, South Carolina, was examined, received a certificate of qualifi- cation, and taught the term with such remarkable credit as to win the approval of both her patrons and trustees. PERSONAGES OF THE AFRO- AMERICAN RACE. 609 Her parents, being thus encouraged, determined with renewed efforts to have her educated, notwithstanding their limited advantages. They sent her to Benedict Institute (now Benedict College), Columbia, South Carolina, and afterward to Scotia Seminary, at Con- cord, North Carolina, from which institution she grad- uated. Since completing her course in school, she has contributed to various journals, etc., and has been offered a liberal salary for her services. But, in con- sideration of the need of well-prepared educators among the race, that it may become what it can be, she- chose to use her talent in assisting that grand purpose. Aside from her accomplishment in the literary line, Mrs. Phelps has acquired a practical knowledge in the arts of music, painting, dressmaking, etc. , to any of which she can creditably apply herself. Her career as a teacher has been one of usefulness and success. She spent each vacation of her school life in teaching, which experience greatly increased her devo- tion to that work. Hence, when she was no longer a school girl she entered into the teachers' field as a pro- fession. She was principal of a public school at Glenn Springs, South Carolina, for three years. In 1890 she resigned that school to accept a position in the graded school at Rome, Georgia, where she taught for some time. She then taught in Milledgeville, after which she was married to Mr. J. L. Phelps in 1891. The demand for well trained teachers was so great that in 1893 she again consented to act as assistant principal in Cleve- land Academy, Helena, South Carolina, and more recently has held a position in Haines Institute, Augusta, Georgia. Mrs. Phelps is an earnest Sabbath school worker, and her labors for God and the church have been greatly blessed. 39 Progress. 610 PROGRESS OF A RACE. Mrs. Fanny Barrier Williams came into prominence during the World's Columbian Exposition. Her ad- dress at the Woman's Congress on the "Intellectual Progress of the Colored Woman" created a profound impression. Since the close of the Exposition, Mrs. Williams has received invitations from all parts of the country to deliver addresses. She was born in Brock- port, New York, and received a collegiate education. Her complexion is a clear, light brown, and her voice is singularly soft and sympathetic in tone. She is a woman of more than usual intelligence, and as a lecturer is in great demand. Her most popular lectures are : 1 ' What Will You Do with Our Women ; " " Christianity and the American Negro;" "Prudence Crandall, or, a Modern Canterbury Tale ; " * ' Opportunities of Western Women;" '"'The Opportunities and Responsibilities of American Colored Women. ' ' Mrs. M. A. McCurdy was born in Carthage, Indiana, in 1852. She acquired the rudiments of an education in the mixed schools of that place, but, being deprived of attending any other school by the death of her father, she labored diligently, and before she was nine- teen years of age had prepared herself for teaching, and secured a school near her home. After teaching for some time, she was married to J. A. Mason, and for more than eight years filled with profit and precision the worthy position of wife and mother. The hand of death removed from her four precious jewels and her husband, leaving her alone to battle life's conflicts. She then entered the temperance work, and became a noted worker in Richmond, Indiana. For a time she edited a temperance paper in that city. A desire to go South and labor among her people seemed to im- press itself more and more upon her mind until 1886, PERSONAGES OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN RACE. 6ll when she was led to Atlanta, where sne became editor of the Southern Recorder. Here, besides her work in temperance and as editor, she built up a fine mission during her four years' stay, St. James' M. E. Church, of that city. In 1890 she was married to Rev. C. McCurdy, of Rome, Georgia. Her labors in Rome since that time have been varied and greatly appre- ciated by the people. She is engaged in industrial work among the women of her race ; is corresponding secretary for the W. C. T. U. for the state of Georgia; president of the missionary work in the Presbyterian Church, and editor of The Woman's World, a paper devoted to the intellectual, moral and spiritual prog- ress of the people. In all these departments of work she has made herself known and felt not only in the city of Rome, but throughout the state. Her work will outlive empires and the stars. Mrs. Ida B. Wells Barnett. The subject of this sketch became noted for her crusades against the lynching evil. Shocked by the awful barbarity of that species of outlawry, brought home to her by the lynching of three highly respectable colored men of Memphis, because of a neighborhood quarrel, Miss Wells started out to call the attention of the American people to the dangerous growth of this evil. Denied a hearing in America she went to England and there from pulpit, platform and in the public press her appeal was effectively made. In 1895 she married Ferdinand L. Barnett, Jr. , of the Chicago bar. Edward E. Cooper. Among the strange happenings in Washington is to see many new men, unknown quantities in the politics and history of our people, pushing themselves to the front, clamorously calling upon the President to give them an office for their 012 PROGRESS OF A RACE. great services to the party in power. On the other hand, you see the real leaders, men of thought and action, quietly and modestly moving on in the even tenor of their way, working out their own destinies and the des- tinies of the people, asking no political favors. To o'ne of these latter men we wish to refer, a quiet, modest, resolute man, who, by his indefatigable will and tenacity of purpose, is making a name which will be honored when many of our so-called great men will be forgotten, E. E. Cooper, editor and man- ager of the Colored Am- erican. Mr. Cooper was born in Tennessee about thirty-five years ago. He early went to India- napolis, where he was educated. After gradu- ation he entered upon his journalistic career, which has been a unique one. He established in India- napolis the first colored illustrated paper pub- lished in the United States, The Freeman, a new order in colored journalism. Everybody knows of its phe- nomenal success. After seeing The Freeman estab- lished on a firm financial basis, Mr. Cooper sold his interest and turned his travels toward the National Capitol, where he founded the Colored American, a paper which has lifted colored journalism in the Capi- tol to a plane it never reached before. Here his best E. E. COOPER, Editor " Colored American," Washington, D. C. PERSONAGES OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN RACE. 613 work is being done; bravely does he champion the Negro's cause. His influence is widespread, it is national. His acquaintanceship with political leaders has given him an influence not possessed by any other young man of his race*. His success with the American has been gratifying, some weeks during the last cam- paign it having reached a circulation of 100,000 copies. Henry 0. Tanner. Henry O. Tanner, son of Bishop Benjamin Tucker Tanner, of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, was born and reared in the city of Philadelphia, As a boy he enjoyed the privileges of the .city schools. Early in life the natural bent of his genius began to manifest itself. Consequently, he entered the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and became a pupil of Professor Eakins. Under this efficient and faithful instructor, Mr. Tanner secured that foundation upon which he has since so magnifi- cently built. Like many others, however, Mr. Tanner has had to struggle with the gaunt wolf, poverty. Shortly after leaving the academy he, among other ventures, started a photograph gallery in Atlanta, Georgia. TKis was not a success. He then spent a year at Clark Univer- sity, where he taught freehand drawing and gave instruction in painting to private classes, colored and white, at the, institution and in the city. One summer vacation he spent at Highlands, North Carolina, a health resort, where he also instructed classes of white people, some of them Southern. For a long time it was the topmost desire of Mr. Tanner's heart to go to Paris, and study under the great masters of art in that brilliant metropolis. It was by the severest economy, together with assistance 614 PROGRESS OF A RACE. from friends, that he was enabled to gratify his desire. Nor was he altogether relieved from embarrassment after reaching Paris, for, within a short time after his arrival, he fell sick, and lay in the hospital for two months with typhoid fever. On his recovery he again resumed with a hopeful heart, but under discouraging circumstances, the pursuit of his studies. For two years he was a pupil of Benjamin Constant. "Becom- ing stranded again," as he quaintly states it, he re turn- ed to America for about eighteen months. Within this time he sold several pictures. Of these "The Banjo Lesson," his first picture exhibited at the Salon, was sold to Mr, Robert C, Ogden, a tried friend and patron of Mr, Tanner, and to whom, as Mr, Tanner acknowledges, he "is much indebted for whatever of success he has had, ' ' Another picture, entitled, " Thankful Poor," he sold to Mr. John T. Morris. Here, too, it may be said that at the Columbian Expo- sition were exhibited one hundred pictures from American art students, at home and abroad. Of this hundred was one of Mr. Tanner's, "The First Lesson on the Bagpipe," painted from a scene in Brittany. At the close of the exposition a committee of art critics was appointed to select from the hundred the forty best, and catalogue them, inserting cuts of each. Mr. Tanner's picture was one of the forty. This picture was afterwards exhibited at the "Cotton States and International Exposition," Atlanta, Georgia, and at- tracted the attention of many. With moneys realized from his sales while in America he returned to Paris in 1894, and resumed his studies under Jean Paul Laurens and Benjamin Constant. His first picture to receive any official recognition was the one entitled. "Daniel in the Lion's Pen" -mention PERSONAGES OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN RACE 615 honorable, 1896. Then came the picture of the year, u Lazarus Rising from the Dead," which received " third medal, " and was purchased by the French gov- ernment. These, now, are the achievements of a young man. What may the race expect of him? But, outside his art, much might be said of the man. He belongs to that class whom to know is to admire and to love. Genial, simple in manner, generous, with an intense desire to serve and uplift his race, he moves among his fellows with the appearance of a man who has found his life-work and is in love with it. To such men the people must look for loftiest inspiration and safest guidance- Mr, Tanner is spending his summer vacation (1897) with his parents at Kansas City, Kansas. He likes Paris because of the companionship of artists, and he vrill probably spend the rest of his life-time there ; still, he glories in the fact that he is an American citizen, and he will retain that title as long as he lives. Dur- ing his stay at home he has been painting portraits of his parents. When he returns to Paris he will begin work on another Biblical painting, "The Annuncia- tion," which he hopes will surpass his "Raising of Lazarus, ' ' which made him famous as an artist. Clark Hampton. Young Clark Hampton, whose painting of "Napoleon at Waterloo" is receiving such widespread attention, is really a genius. He is only eighteen yeats old, and the sole support of a widowed mother. In his modest studio is to be found a charm- ing original sketch, "Waiting in the Wildwood. " The boy is ambitious, and, although finding it difficult to support his mother and to continue his work, he is determined to press forward. "If I live, the race shall yet be proud of me," says this youtt*. 616 PROGRESS OF A RACE Edmonia Lewis probably surpasses every other per- son of her race as a sculptor. She is of lowly birth, and was left an orphan when quite young, but her determination has enabled her to overcome difficulties. When visiting Boston the first time, she saw a statue of Benjamin Franklin. She was so touched by the sight that the latent talent within her broke forth in, "I, too, can make a stone man!" She was introduced by William Lloyd Garrison to one of Boston's famous sculptors, and as she triumphed in her work she has won a position as an artist on two continents. Some of the masterpieces of her hands are: "Hagar in the Wilderness," *' Hiawatha's Wooing," busts of Long- fellow, John Brown and Wendell Phillips, Her studio in Rome has become an object of interest to travelers from all countries, MISCELLANEOUS, We have mentioned in these pages a number of col- ored men representing the different classes. There are many others as able as these who may imagine that we have neglected to mention them. This is not a biography, but our object in mentioning a number of these different classes is to show the .progress made since freedom. Many colored women might be named. It should be remembered that they have had fewer privileges of education before the war and since than the men of their race, yet there are a number of them, who have shown themselves capable and useful". .. : Hon. H. 0. Smith, who has represented one of the districts of Ohio in the legislature for a number of years, and is editor and proprietor of the Cleveland Gazette, is one of the young men of whom the race may feel proud. It is but fitting to say that his election, to the Ohio legislature in 1893 has rmde hirn even more PERSONAGES OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN RACE. 617 popular than before among the people. He has made a record that has amply vindicated the choice and judgment of his constituents. John Mitchell, Jr., who was born of slave parents, has for a number of years been editor of the Richmond Planet, a weekly paper. Amanda Smith, born in slavery, has, through pov- erty and adversity, pushed her way upward until she is one of the most spiritual and eloquent exhorters and lecturers of her race in the world. She is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and has traveled extensively in America, Europe and Africa. She has written her biography, which has a wide sale. She is now engaged in raising funds for a home for colored orphan children in Chicago. Her visits to the churches throughout the North and West are an inspiration and a blessing, and she has succeeded in a remarkable manner in the work for which she has so long been laboring. Mrs. Charlotte Fortune Grimke is a native of Penn- sylvania. She was educated in Massachusetts, and proved to be a student of more than ordinary ability and application. Mrs. Grimke has been a contributor to the columns of the Atlantic Monthly and other repre- sentative magazines of the East. Rev. W. A. Lewis, of West Tennessee, was com 1 pelled to work at home by his stepfather, who though.! it a crime for a stepson to attend school. He worked hard on the farm in the day, and walked a- mile at night to take lessons" of a white lady, paying a dollar a month for instruction. He picked berries and sold melons at odd times to pay his tuition. Such qualities might worthily be emulated today. John William McKinney is a successful lawyer in 618 PROGRESS OF A RACE. Sherman, Texas. He was admitted to the bar in 1891, and was elected delegate from the state at large by the Union Republican convention in 1892. In 1894 he was nominated by the Republicans for Congress. Richard T. Greener, one of the most cultured Afro- Americans, was for many years dean of the law depart- ment of Howard University. REV. CYRUS MYERS. Rev. Cyrus Myers, of Simpson county, Mississippi, who has become prominent in his efforts to have Con- gress pass a bill pensioning ex-slaves, is a remarkable Negro of the old slave class. Rev. Myers brought with him over 6,000 signatures of Mississippi ex-slaves. He is seventy-nine years old, and was a slave forty- seven years. He is black, tall, eloquent and full of reminiscences. He was a novelty at Washington in that he is not an office-seeker, but is working for his race. Charles L. Remoud was the first Negro to take the PERSONAGES OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN RACE. 619 platform as a regular lecturer in the anti-slavery cause, and was the ablest representative that the race had till the appearance of Frederick Douglass irr 1842. W. E. King is one of the rising young men of Dallas, Texas. Improving the opportunities given him in his youth, he has succeeded in making himself useful. He is at present editor of the Weekly Express, and is yield- ing an influence for true worth and progress with his race. Among the young men of the state who are devoting their lives to the welfare of the race Mr. King stands prominent. B, K. Bruce. On the 23d day of May, 1881, Presi- dent Garfield appointed ex-Senator B. K. Bruce, of Mississippi, Registrar of the United States Treasury.. This was the first colored man whose signature made money of worthless paper, Professor M, A. Hopkins, of Franklintown, North Carolina, a colored teacher of marked ability, was ap- pointed by President Cleveland, first term, as Minister to Liberia. Miss L. Vina Givens, of Dallas, Texas, has, by her natural ability, become prominent in the musical world of Texas. Through adverse circumstances she has risen, and is today one of the sweetest singers of Dallas. COLORED AUTHORS AND NAMES OF PUBLICATIONS. Albert, A. E. P., D. D. The Negro Evangelist. Plantation Melodies. Universal Reign of Jesus. Alexander, William T. History of the Colored Race in America. Alexander, Rev. W. G. Living Words. The Negro in Commerce and Finance. The Efficient Sunday School. 620 PROGRESS OF A RACE. Anderson, Rev. J. Harvey Directory of the A. M. E Zion Church. Arnett, Bishop. Negro Literature. The Centennial Budget. Bannecker, Benjamin. Science. Bates, R. C. Architecture and Building. Benjamin, R. C. O., D. D. Africa, the Hope of the Negro. Future of the American Negro. History of the British West Indies. Life of Toussiant L'Ouverture. Origin of the Negro Race. The Southland, The Boy Doctor, Don't Black well, G. L.The Model Homestead. Blyden, E. W., LL.D. Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race. From West Africa to Palestine. Liberia's Offering. Booth, Rev. C. O.~ Plain Theology for Plain People Bowen, J. W. E., D. D. Plain Talks. Africa and the American Negro. Brawley, Rev. E. M. The Negro Baptist Pulpit. Brown, Rev. R. T. Doctrines of Christ. and th< Church. Pastor's Annual and Financial Report. Brown, William Wells. The Black Man. The Negro in the Rebellion. " The Rising Sun. Carter, Rev. E. R. Our Pulpit Illustrated. ' The Black Side. The Holy Land. Clark, P. H. - Black Brigade. OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN fcACE. 621 Coleman, Mrs. L. N. C. Poor Ben. Cooper, Mrs. A. J. A Voice from the South. Crogman, W.H., A. M. Talks for the Times. Crummell, Rev. Alex., D. D. Africa and America. The Future of Africa. Davis, D. W. Poems. Douglass, Frederick. Life and Times of Frederick Douglass. My Bondage and My Freedom. Narrative of My Experience in Slavery. DuBois, W. E. Burghardt, Ph. D. The Suppression of the African Slave Trade to the United States of America, 1838-1870. Dunbar, Paul L. Oak and Ivy. Poems. Negro Love Song. Dyson, J. F., B. D. Are We Africans or Americans? Origin of Color. Political X Roads Which Way? Richard Allen's Place in History. Earl, Victoria. Aunt Linda. Early, Sarah. Life and Labors of Rev. J. W. Early. Embry, J. C., D. D. Digest of Christian Theology. Our Father's House. Fortune, T. T. Black and White. Gordon, J. E. Political Works. Gregory, J. M. Hon. Frederick Douglass. Green, Dr. A. R. History of Independent Method- ism. Hagood, Rev. L. M., M. D.- The Colored Man in the M. E. Church. Harper, Mrs. F. E. W. lola Leroy; or, Shadows Uplifted. Forest Leaves. 622 PROGRESS OF A RACE. Sketches of Southern Life. Moses : A Story of the Nile. Miscellaneous Poems. Shalmanezer. Hood, Bishop J. W., D. D. Book of Sermons. History of the A. M. E. Z. Church. Johnson, Mrs. A. E. Clarence and Corinne. The Hazely Family. Johnson, E. A. School History of the Negro Race in America. Jones, S. T., D. D. Book of Sermons. Langston, Hon. John M. Freedom and Citizenship. From the Virginia Plantation to the National Capitol. Lectures and Addresses. Majors, M. A. Noted Negro Women. Matthews, Mrs W. E. Aunt Linda. Moore, Bishop J. J. History of the A. M. E. Church Mossell, Mrs. N. F. The Work of Afro- American Women. Payne, Bishop Daniel. Domestic Education. History of the A. M. E. Church. Recollections of Seventy Years. Official Sermons of the A. M. E. Church. The Semi-Centenary of the A. M. E. Church. Pegues, Rev. A. W., Ph. D. Our Baptist Ministers and Schools. Pendleton, Lewis. The Sons of Ham. Penn, I. Garland. The Afro- American Press and Its Editors. Ransom, R. C. School Days at Wilberforce. Rowe, Rev. George C. Patriotic Poems. The Aim of Life. Thoughts in Verse. PERSONAGES OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN RACE. 623 Rush, Bishop. Rise and Progress of Zion Church. Scarborough, W. S.. A. M., Ph. D., LL. D. First Lessons in Greek. Latin Moods and Tenses. Questions on Latin Grammar. Scruggs, L. A. Afro- American Women of Distinc- tion. Grammar Land. Simmons, William, D. D. Men of Mark. Smith, Rev. C. S. Glimpses of Africa. Smith, Rev. S. E. Anti-Separate Coach History of Kentucky. Smith, W. H. Earnest Pleas. Smith, Amanda. A Story of My Life. Stevenson, Rev. J. W., M. D. Church Financiering. Stewart, T. McCants. Liberia, Still, William. The Underground Railroad. The Kidnapped and Ransomed. Straker, D. A. The New South Investigated. Tanner, Benjamin Tucker. Apology for American Methodism. Is the Negro Cursed? Outline of History. The Negro's Origin. The Negro (African and American). Theological Lectures. Taylor, M. W. Plantation Melodies, Trotter, J. M. Music and Some Highly Musical People. Troy, Rev. William. Hairbreadth Escapes from Slav- ery to Freedom. Turner, Bishop African Letters, Methodist Polity. Negro In All Ages, 6~4 PROGRESS OF A KACiL Wayman, Bishop A. W. Cyclopedia of the A. M. E. Church. Wheatley, Phillis. Memoirs of Poems. Wheeler, B. F., A. M. Sacred Heart. Whitman, A. A. Not a Man, and Yet a Man. The Rape of Florida. Poems. Wells, Ida B. A Red Record. Williams, Prof. D. B. Science and Art of Elocution. Freedom and Progress. Williams, George W., LL. D. A History of the Negro Troops in the Rebellion. History of the Negro Race in America. Wilson, J. T. Black Phalanx (History of Negro Soldiers). Emancipation. Twenty-two Years of Freedom. Voice of a New Race. Wright, Prof. R. R.--A Brief Historical Sketch of Negro Education in Georgia. Rev. Charles T. Walker, D. D., pastor of the Mount Olivet Baptist church, New York City, was born a slave in Richmond county, Georgia, January n, 1859. He was the youngest of eleven children, His father was buried the day before his son's birth. When about eight years old his mother also passed away, leaving him to battle for himself. In 1873, while working in a cotton field, he sud- denly decided to be at peace with God. He went into the woods where for three days he wrestled, without food or drink, when the struggle ended and he was happily converted. After spending several years in public school, he felt JPERSOKAGES OF THE AFRO-AMERiCAN RACE. 625 that he was called to the ministry. Accordingly he entered the Theological Institute, at Augusta, Georgia. For five years he studied, showing much energy and ability. REV. CHARLES T. WALKER, D. D. Pastor Mount Olivet Baptist Church, New York City. He was licensed to preach in 1876, and ordained to the ministry when but eighteen years old. He was immediately elected pastor of his mother-church, which had been organized in 1848. The house had been built by slaves after they had worked all day for their masters. 40 Progress. 626 PROGRESS OF A RACE. After successful pastorates at Waynesboro, La Grange, and Augusta, Georgia, his friends at Augusta sent him to Europe and the Holy Land. On his re- turn he wrote a book on "A Colored Man Abroad." He has given much time to evangelistic work, and counts 10,000 conversions under his preaching. He has been called the "Black Spurgeon," and is some- times known as the "Ccrlored John the Baptist." In addition to his pastoral and evangelistic work, he has done much to encourage education among his own people. He was one of the founders of the Walker Baptist Institute at Augusta, Georgia. He is still its financial secretary. He is trustee of the Atlanta Baptist College, vice- president of the National Baptist Convention of the United States, and one of the vice-presidents of the International and Interdenominational Sunday School Convention of America and Canada. While doing heavy pastoral work in New York, he was instrumental in organizing a colored Y. M. C. A. of 500 members. They are now engaged in raising money for permanent quarters of their own. Doctor Walker is still a student, and is at present engaged in the study of the Hebrew and the Spanish languages. As a speaker he is eloquent and convincing. His "Appeal to Caesar," in which he replies to Rev. Henry Frank upon his criticism of the negro race, and his review of the Montgomery conference, are perhaps his most noted efforts. During the Spanish-American war, Dr. Walker was chaplain of the gth Immune regiment, and served in Santiago and San Luis, Cuba. PERSONAGES OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN RACE. 627 Henry Plummer Cheatham. The most successful Negro in American politics, with the probable excep- tion of the lamented B. K. Bruce, and the youngest of all the colored statesmen who have gained a national reputation, is the present Recorder of Deeds for the District of Columbia, Henry Plummer Cheatham. Mr. Cheatham 's rise in public life has been some- what phenomenal. Party confidences were thrust upon him at twenty- five. At the age of forty, he enjoys political honors that would afford a man of sixty much satisfaction. Tact and honesty of purpose, the true basis for per- manent success and distinction, have marked Mr. Cheatham 's public career. He was born in Henderson, North Carolina, about forty years ago, and was edu- cated in the public schools of his county and at Shaw University in Raleigh. After graduating from the latter institution, Mr. Cheatham returned to his native county with the intention of dedicating his life to the interests of his struggling people. Because of his fitness and integ- rity, Providence decreed that these same people should honor him. Shortly after his graduation, he was taken from the principalship of one of the state nor- mal schools and elected Register of Deeds of his county. He was elected to the same position a second time. Among those who supported him for this office and stood his security was the most aristocratic family in the state, whose name Mr. Cheatham bears. After two years of official service in his own county, he was elected to the fifty-first Congress, and in 1889, when Mr. Harrison took his seat as President, Mr. Cheatham was sworn in as member of Congress. Though the youngest member of the body, he 628 PROGRESS OF A RACE. wielded large influence and showed marked legislative and executive ability. He was returned to the fifty- second Congress, where he gained a national reputa- tion. Mr. Cheatham was again elected to the fifty- third Congress, but on a contest was counted out. Though a private citizen his individuality stood out. In a quiet, unassuming way, he was an influential member of the Republican party; he was a constant defender of his race, and at all times counseled peace and conservatism. In 1897, President McKinley appointed him Re- corder of Deeds for the District of Columbia, a posi- tion of honor and trust. So satisfactory was his administration that the business men of Washington were unanimous in requesting that he be reappointed. Mr. Cheatham is a scholar, and holds the degrees of A. M. and LL. D. His legal career would doubt- less have been brilliant, had he not been called into public service so early in life. David Augustus Straker. The subject of this sketch was at one time professor of common law, and dean of the law department of Allen University, at Columbia, South Carolina, and later Circuit Court Commissioner for Wayne county, Michigan. At this writing he is editor and manager of the Detroit Advocate, He was born in 1842 on the island of Barbados, one of the West Indies. As Britain's flag floats over no slave, he, of course, was born a free man. After receiving a thorough education in the public schools of the island, he was, at the age of seventeen, appointed teacher in St. Mary's school in Bridgetown, the chief city of the island. While engaged in his line of work as teacher, he continued his studies in DAVID AUGUSTUS STRAKER. REV. LEIGH B. MAXWELL. Rev. Leigh B. Maxwell was born in Darien, Georgia, in 1861, and died in Los Angeles, California, where he had gone for his health, in 1902, leaving a wife and four children. He was graduated from Atlanta Uni- versity in 1885, and later from Hartford Theological Seminary. For ten years he was pastor of the Congregational Church in Savannah, Georgia, and during the rest of his life was a secretary of the International Sunday School Convention. In these positions he was eminently successful, and through his public addresses at large gatherings in both the North and South and in England he became known and honored as one of the leading and most influential men of his race. PERSONAGES OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN RAGE. 629 the higher branches of learning, such as the French, Latin, and Greek languages, and science and phi- losophy. In 1867 Prof. Straker, with two others, was per- suaded through the appeals of Bishop S. S. Smith of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the diocese of Kentucky, to come to the United States to assist in the education and elevation of the newly emancipated race. His first work in his new field of labor was teaching a school in Louisville, Kentucky, under the auspices of the Protestant Episcopal Church and the Freed- man's Bureau. In the meantime, while teaching, he made due prep- * aration for entering the ministry of the Protestant Episcopal Church, but finding the prejudice against the Negro so strong, even in the church, he decided not to receive orders offered him by his Bishop. Having been free-born in a country where prejudice against color is but slightly felt, the feeling against the Negro in the United States was extremely offen- sive to Mr. Straker, as it naturally would be to any intelligent, refined, sensitive colored man. Under these conditions he decided to return to his first-love, the profession of the law. While yet in his home on the island of Barbados, he had commenced the study of law. Fortunately at this time he learned through Hon. James M. Langston, then of Oberlin, Ohio, about the opening of the Howard University in Washington, D. C., in which a law school had been organized, which was open to all citizens without regard to color, race, or previous condition of serv- itude. In 1869 Mr. Straker entered the Howard law school and graduated with honor two years later. PROGRESS OF A RACE. During the year of his graduation, he married Miss Annie M. Gary, of Detroit, Michigan. Soon after these events, he was appointed clerk in the Treasury department at Washington, D. C. In 1875 he was appointed by Secretary Bristow inspector of customs at the port of Charleston, South Carolina. But the profession of the law still beckoned him on- ward. Resigning his office as inspector of customs, he commenced the practice of law at Orangeburg, South Carolina. In 1876 he was elected to the legisla- ture of South Carolina. But this being the era of Ku Klux Klans, Rifle Clubs, and Red Shirt organizations, Mr. Straker, with other colored men and Republicans, was ejected from office. ^ Though elected -to the state legislature in 1878 and again in 1880, he was not per- mitted to take his seat. In 1882 he was called to the chair of professor of common law in the department of law, and dean of the law department in Allen University, Columbia, South Carolina. But on the decline of the univer- sity Mr. Straker again returned to the practice of the law. His clientage being confined to his own race, whose poverty did not enable one of their own number to earn a competent living by .their support, he returned to Detroit, Michigan. His law practice in Detroit was eminently successful. Here, by reason of a similarity of his accent to an Irishman, he is called the "black Irish lawyer." In 1892 Mr. Straker was elected to the office of Circuit Court Commissioner of Wayne county, Michigan. Again in 1891 he was elected to the same office. Mr. Straker is also a writer of merit. During the last twenty years he has written for well-nigh all of PERSONAGES OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN RACE. 631 our most prominent colored journals, as well as for many of our journals controlled by whites. He has also written and published "The New South Investigated," and "Reflections on the Life and Times of Toussaint L'Ouverture;" also a pamphlet on ''Lar- ceny of Dogs." On the subject of law, he has writ- ten and compiled a "Circuit Court Commissioners' Guide to Law and Practice," and a digest of the law of evidence known as "Straker's Compendium of Evidence." These works are highly commended by those who are competent to judge in such matters. At this writing Mr. Straker is editor and manager of the Detroit Advocate, a weekly journal published by some of the colored people of Detroit, Michigan. Hon. Judson W. Lyons, at the time of this writing, is the Register of the Treasury of the United States. He is now about forty years of age, and a native of Georgia. Following his com- mon school educa- tion, he attended the Augusta Institute, now the Baptist Col- lege of Atlanta, Georgia. He re- mained at the insti- tute for about eight years, or until 1879. HON. JUDSON W. LYONS. While attending this school, he taught in the public schools of Georgia and South Carolina during his sum- ine.r vacations. 632 PROGRESS OF A RACE. He was a delegate from Georgia to the National Republican convention of 1880, held at Chicago, Illinois. This was the historic convention that nomi- nated J. A. Garfield for President. He was also a delegate to the National Republican conventions of 1892, 1896, and 1900. At the St. Louis convention of 1896, he was appointed a member of the National committee for Georgia and also in 1900. He was the only colored man on this committee. Soon after leaving the school he was appointed deputy in the internal revenue department of the general government, but after a few months' service he resigned in order to take up the study of law in the Howard University at Washington, D. C. He grad- uated in 1884, and was admitted to the Augusta bar in November of the same year. He practiced law in Augusta for about fourteen years, or until his appoint- ment as Register of the Treasury of the United States. He has been highly honored by different educa- tional institutions; one conferred upon him the honor- ary degree of A. M., another of LL.D., and still another of Ph. D. CHAPTER XVII. PLANTATION MELODIES. INCIDENTS, EXPERIENCES AND PLEASANTRIES. Hampton and Its Students. For many years the Hampton school has been making an effort to preserve and collect the spiritual songs of the Negroes in Amer- ica, and to give to its students so great a love for these beautiful utterances of the emotions of an enslaved and deeply religious race that they would strive as they went out to gather up and preserve a form of emotional expression only too likely to pass away in the transition period through which the colored people are now pass- ing. So impossible is it to reproduce this music under changed conditions that there is danger lest even where both words and music are preserved, the spirit which gives it its peculiar charm may be lost forever. The educated Negro cannot sing the old songs as his father sang them. He may yet evolve a higher and nobler music of his own, but the old spirituals, squeezed as it were out of the human heart by the pressure of slav- ery, are a part of his history that he cannot afford to lose a breaking forth from bondage of that thing which could never be enslaved, the genius of a race. Hampton and its students have done more to pre- serve Negro melodies than any other agency. The following are a few of the many songs that might be given. Most of them are taken from the Hampton collection. 634 PROGRESS OF A RACE. THE ANGELS DONE CHANGED MY NAME. " I went to the hillside, I went to pray; I know the angels done changed my name- Done changed my name for the coming day ; I knew the angels done changed my name. " I looked at my hands, my hands was new, I knew the-angels done changed my name ; I looked at my feet, and my feet was, too- Thank God the angels done changed my name." While the Negro brought out from bondage no liter- ature and no theology, yet he did bring with him the plantation songs which show in Christian song that the doctrines of Christianity were held by these people in the days of slavery. We cannot expect to find the same modes of expression now that prevailed among them while in slavery, but that they held to the funda- mental truths of religion must be recognized by all who study these songs. That they believed in Christ as a Savior from sin and in the Atonement is beautifully illustrated in the refrain "I've been redeemed! I've been redeemed! Been washed in de blood ob de lamb." The Divinity of Christ is shown in "Jus' stan' right still and steady yo'self : . . , , I know that my Redeemer lives. Oh, jus' let me tell yo' about God hisself : I know that my Redeemer lives." At Tougaloo, Mississippi, they sing a hymn which especially emphasizes the personality of Satan, which, it seems, they never doubted " Ole Satan he wears de hypocrite shoe; If yo' don' min' he slip it on yo'." Frederick Douglass says that " Run to Jesus, shun the danger, J don't expect to stay much longer here," PLANTATION MELODIES, ETC. 635 sung on the plantation where he was a slave, first sug- gested to him the thought of escaping from slavery, or, as he put it, " Praying with his feet." While their lives were full of misery on account of the oppressions of their masters, their songs do not show anywhere a revengeful spirit. They looked for- ward with confidence, expecting to be relieved in the land of the redeemed. " Shine, shine, I'll meet you in that morning. Oh, my soul's goin' to shine, to shine: I'm goin' to sit down to a welcome table- Stone, shine, my soul's goin' to shine." SWING LOW, SWEET CHARIOT. Oh, de good ole chariot swing so low, Good ole chariot swing so low, Oh, de good ole chariot swing so low, I don't want to leave me behind. Chorus. Oh, swing low, sweet chariot. Swing low, sweet chariot, Swing low, sweet chariot, I don't want to leave me behind. Oh, de good ole chariot will take us all home, I don't want to leave me behind. Cho. Oh, swing low, sweet, etc. THE DANVILLE CHARIOT. Chorus. Oh, swing low, sweet chariot; Pray let me enter in, I don't want to stay here no longer. I done been to heaven, an' I done been tired, I been to the water, an' I been baptized I don't want to stay no longer. O, down to the water I was led, My soul got fed with heav'nly bread I don't want to stay here no longer. Cho. Oh ? swing low, sweet chariot, etc, PLANTATION MELODIES, ETC. 637 I had a little book, an' I read it through, I got my Jesus as well as you; Oh, I got a mother in the promised land. I hope my mother will feed dem lambs I don't want to stay here no longer. Cho. Oh, swing low, sweet chariot, etc. Oh, some go to church for to holler an' shout. Before six months they're all turned out I don't want to stay here no longer. Oh, some go to church for to laugh an' talk, But dey knows nothin' 'bout dat Christian walk I don't want to stay here no longer. Cho. Oh, swing low, sweet chariot, etc. Oh, shout, shout, de deb'l is about; Oh, shut your do' an' keep him out I don't want to stay here no longer. For he is so much-a like-a snaky in de grass, Ef you don' mind he will get you at las' I don't want to stay here no longer Cho. Oh, swing low, sweet chariot, etc VIEW DE LAND. I'm born of God, I know I am View de land, view de land! And you deny it if you can Go view de heav'nly land. I want to go to heaven when I die View de land, view de land I To shout salvation as I fly Go view de heav'nly land. Chorus. Oh, 'way over Jordan View de land, view de land! 'Way over Jordan Go view de heavenly land. What kind of shoes is dem-a you wear? View de land, etc. Dat you can walk upon the air? Go view, etc. Dem shoes I wear are de Gospel shoes View the land, etc. An' you can wear dem ef-a you choose Go view, etc. Cho. Der' is a tree in paradise View the land, etc. De Christian he call it de tree ob life Go view, etc. I spects to eat de fruit right off o' dat tree View de land, etc. Ef busy old Satan will let-a me be Go view, etc. Cho. You say yer Jesus set-a you free View de land, etc, Why don't you let-a your neighbor be? Go view, etc. 638 PROGRESS OF A RACE. You say you're aiming for de skies View de land, etc. Why don't you stop-a your telling lies? Go view, etc. Cho. OH, YES. Ef eber I land on de oder sho' Oh, yes ! I'll neber come here for to sing no more Oh, yea! A golden band all round my waist, An' de palms of victory in my hand, An' de golden slippers on to my feet Gwine to walk up an' down o' dem golden street Chorus. Oh, wait till I put on my robe Wait till I put on my robe. Oh, yes! Oh, yes". An', my lobely bretherin, dat ain't all Oh, yes I'm not done a-talkin' about my Lord. An' a golden crown a-placed on-a my head, An' my long white robe a-come a-dazzlin' down ; Now wait till I get on my Gospel shoes, Gwine to walk about de heaven an' a-carry de news. Cho. I'm anchored in Christ, Christ anchored in me Oh, yes! All de debils in hell can't a-pluck me out ; An' I wonder what Satan's grumbling about. He's bound into hell, an' he can't git out, But he shall be loose and hab his sway Yea, at de great resurrection day. Cho. I went down de hillside to make a-one prayer Oh, yes ! An' when I got dere Ole Satan was dere Oh, yes t An' what do you t'ink he said to me? Oh, yes! Said, "Off from here you'd better be. " Oh, yes ! And what for to do I did not know Oh, yes ! But I fell on my knees and I cried 'Oh, Lord!' Oh, yes! Now, my Jesus bein' so good an' kind, Yea, to the with-er-ed, halt, and blind My Jesus lowered His mercy down, An' snatch-a me from a-dem doors ob hell. He a-snatch-a me from dem doors ob hell. An' took-a me in a-wid htm to dwell. Cho. I was in de church an' prayin' loud, An' on my knees to Jesus bowed; Ole Satan tole me to my face ; PLANTATION MELODIES, ETC. 639 " I'll git you when-a you leave dis place." Oh, brother, dat scare me to my heart, I was 'fraid to walk-a when it was dark. Cho. I started home, but I did pray, An' I met ole Satan on de way; Ole Satan made a-one grab at me, But he missed my soul an' I went free. My sins went a-lumberin' down to hell, An' my soul went a-leaping~up Zion's hill. I tell ye what, bretherin, you'd better not laugh, Ole Satan'll run you down his path ; If he runs you as he run me You'll be glad to fall upon your knee. Chorus. Oh, wait till I put on my robe. Wait till I put on my robe Oh, yes! Oh, yes! MY LORD DELIVERED DANIEL. I met a pilgrim on de way, An' I ask him whar he's a gwine. I'm bound for Canaan's happy land, An' dis is de shouting band. Go on ! Chorus. My Lord delibered Daniel, My Lord delibered Daniel, My Lord delibered Daniel Why can't he deliber me? Some say dat John de Baptist Was nothing but a Jew ; But de Bible doth inform us Dat he was a preacher, too. Yes, he was! Chorus. My Lord delibered Daniel, etc. Oh, Daniel cast in the lions' den, He pray both night and day ; De angel came from Galilee, And lock de lions' jaw. Dat's so. Chorus. My Lord delibered Daniel, etc. He delibered Daniel from de lions' den, Jonah from de belly ob de whale, An' de Hebrew children from de fiery furnace An' why not ebery man? Oh, yes! Chorus. My Lord delibered Daniel, etc. 640 PROGRESS OF A RACE. De richest man dat eber I saw Was de one dat beg de most ; His soul was filled wid Jesus, An' wid de Holy Ghost. Yes, it was. Chorus. My Lord delibered Daniel, etc. NOBODY KNOWS. THE TROUBLE I'VE SEEN. Sometimes I'm up, sometimes I'm down Oh, yes, Lord. Sometimes I'm almost to de groun' Oh, yes, Lord. Although you see me goin' long so Oh, yes, Lord. I have my trials here below. Oh, yes, Lord. Chorus. Oh, nobody knows de trouble I've seen, Nobody knows but Jesus ; Nobody knows de trouble I've seen Glory Hallelujah ! One day when I was walkin' along Oh, yes, Lord. De element opened, an' de love came down Oh, yes, Lord. I never shall forget dat day Oh, yes, Lord. When Jesus washed my sins away. Oh, yes, Lord. Chorus. Oh, nobody knows the trouble, etc. HAIL ! HAIL ! HAIL ! Oh, look up yander, what I see I'm on my journey home; Bright angels comin' arter me I'm on my journey home. Chorus. Children, hail! hail! hail! I'm gwine jine saints above; Hail! hail! hail! I'm on my journey home. If you git dere before I do I'm on my journey home; Look out for me, I'm comin* too I'm on my journey home. Chorus. Children, hail 1 etc. Oh, hallelujah to de Lamb ! I'm on my journey home; King Jesus died for ebery man I'm on my journey home. ' Chorus. Children, hail! etc. PLANTATlOiN MELODIES, ETC. SCRIPTURAL REMINISCENCES. Aunt Patty: "Bress me, Uncle Abum, ef yer doesn't call to mind Baalam gwine down ter J'rusalem." Uncle Abram (with a weakness for Aunt Patty): "Yaas, and does yer 'member dar stood an angel in de way? " WISE SAYINGS " MULTUM IN PARVO." ' Long ha'r don't hide de brand on de horse." " Muddy roads call de mile-post a liar." " 'Tis hard to make clo'es fit a miserbul man." " De stopper gits de longes' res' in de empty jug." " De church bells sometimes do better wuk dan de sermon." " Some o' de wus lookin' animals at de county fa'r got to pay to get in." " De price ob your hat ain't de medjer ob your brain." " Ef your coat-tail cotch a-fire, don't wait till you kin see de blaze 'fo' you put it out." " De graveyard is de cheapes* boardin' -house." " Dar's a fam'ly coolness 'twix' de mule an' de single-tree." 41 It pesters a man dreadful when he git mad an' don' know who to cuss." " Buyin* on credit is robbin' next 'ear's crop." " Chris'mas without holiday it lik a candle without a wick." 11 Progress. 642 PROGRESS OF A RACE. " De crawfish in a hurry look like he tryin' to git dar yistiddy/ " Lean houn' lead de pack when de rabbit in sight." " Little flakes make de deepes' snow." " Knot in de plank will show froo de whitewash." " A short yardstick is a po' thing to fight de debbul wid." " Dirt show de quickes' on de cleanes' cotton." " De candy -pullin' kin call louder dan de log-rollin'." " De bes' apple float on de top o' de peck medjer." " De right sort o' 'ligion heaps de half-bushel." " De steel hoe dat laughs at de iron one is like de man dat is 'shamed o' his grand-daddy." " A mule kin tote so much goodness in his face dat he don't nab none lef for his hind legs." " Some grabble walks may lead to de jail." " De cow-bell can't keep a secret." " Ripe apples make de tree look taller." " De red rose don't brag in de dark." " Blind horse knows when de trough empty." " De no4se of de wheels don't medjer de load in de wagon. " Las' 'ear's hot spell cools off mighty fast." " Little hole in your pocket is wusser'n a big one at de knee." " Appetite don't reggerlate de time o' day." " De quagmire don't hang out no sign." " One pusson kin th'ead a needle better than two." " De pint o' de pin is de easiest en' to find." " De green top don't medjer de price o' de turnup." " Muzzle on de yard dog unlocks de smokehouse." 11 'Tis hard for de bes' an' smartes' folks in de wul' to git 'long widout a little tech o' good luck." " De billy-goat gits in his hardes' licks when he looks like he gwine to back out o' de fight." Miss Anita Hemming, tall, brunette, and graceful, was one of the graduates at Vassar in 189 7, and, although the world did not know it. there was then enacted a great scene, showing the advance of woman into the iife-giving but long-forgotten precept that all men are born free and equal. This young woman, who stood side by side with her classmates, keeping pace with them in studies and accomplishments, for four years 644 PROGRESS OF A RACE. kept the secret of her birth from her associates the secret that blood that marks a race of slaves flowed through her veins. It was just before examination when the faculty, to their utter astonishment, learned that into that stately and exclusive institution an alien race had gained admission. To this school for young ladies of the highest circle of society this modest, studious, refined young lady had gained admission without making known the secret of her birth. The question for the faculty to decide was a hard one. The girl, in deportment, scholarship, and in every way, was worthy, but yet would the public receive the inno- vation. After due consideration the young woman, whose only fault lay in the accident of her birth, was informed that she would be allowed to graduate with her class. Then the girls of the finishing class heard the story. Some of them were from the proudest old families of the South, but they took her hands with right good comradeship, and the real ordeal for her had passed. Miss Hemming stood among her associates at com- mencement in her simple white gown, a mark for many eyes. Her dark hair, with its burnished waves, was brushed back from her low, broad brow ; a deep flush burned in her cheeks, and she was fairer than many of the blue-blooded girls around her. Then she went out into the world. But the attitude taken by Vassar's august faculty could not be ignored, and the young alumnus of 1897 gained the position of assistant in the Boston public library. Fred Douglass. In the course of an address made to a colored school in Talbot county, Maryland, where he was born a slaTe, Frederick Douglass said: "I once knew a little colored boy, whose father and mother PLANTATION MELODIES, ETC. 045 died when he was six years old. He was a slave, and had no one to care for him. He slept on a dirt floor in a hovel, and in cold weather would crawl into a meal bag, headforemost, and leave his feet in the ashes to keep them warm. Often he would roast an ear of corn and eat it to satisfy his hunger, and many times has he crawled under the barn or stable and secured eggs, which he would roast in the fire and eat. This boy did not wear pants, like you do, but a tow linen shirt. Schools were unknown to him, and he learned to spell from an old Webster's spelling book, and to read and write from posters on cellars and barn doors, while boys and men would help him. He would then preach and speak, and soon became well known. He became presidential elector, United states marshal, United States recorder, United States diplomat, and accumulated some wealth. He wore broadcloth, and didn't have to divide crumbs with the dogs under the table. That boy. was Frederick Douglass. What was possible for me is possible for you. Don't think because you are colored you can't accom- plish anything. Strive earnestly to add to your knowledge. So long as you remain in ignorance, so long will you fail to command the respect of your fel- low men. ' ' Pred Douglass. Fred Douglass has said that Presi- dent Lincoln was the only white man with whom he ever associated in this country who did not make him feel that he was colored and a supposed inferior, and that only in England and on the continent among the Caucasians had he been permitted to realize that he was a man and an equal. Everything Must Go, In a lecture by Rev. William 646 PROGRESS OF A RACE. Johnson, illustrating the law that " everything must go," he gives the following: "A minister told me that he fell in love with his wife at first sight, and married after six months' acquaintance. 'But,' said he, 'dur- ing that whole time I went to see her every day. At four o'clock I was always there. ' Some young men do not choose that delightful hour to visit, but go later. One young man lingered at the gate after a long visit, and the girl began to cry. He said, 'Dear, don't cry; I will come to see you again.' But she cried on. 'O, darling, don't cry so; I will be sure to come again. ' Still she cried. At last he said : ' Love, did I not tell you that I would soon come again to see you?' And through her tears she replied: 'Yes, but I am afraid you never will go ; that is what is the mat- ter with me. ' We must all go. ' ' In the same lecture on the subject of practical phil- osophy, he gives the following: "Uncle Jim was once asked a great question. It was: 'If you had to be blown up which would you choose, to be blown up on the railroad or the steam- boat?' 'Well,' said Uncle Jim, 'I don't* want to be blowed up no way ; but if I had to be blowed up I would rather be blowed up on de railroad, because, you see, if you is blowed up on de railroad, dar you is, but if you is blowed up on de steamboat, whar is you?' He was practical in his philosophy. " Faithful Service Rewarded. On July 10, 1897, Alexander B. Williamson, colored, of Memphis, Ten- nessee, didn't have a cent that he could call his own. July ii he went to the probate judge, J. S. Galloway, and qualified to take possession of a fortune valued at $45,000, that had been left him under the will of the late Mrs. Clara Mariani. This is the reward the Negro PLANTATION MELODIES, ETC. 647 gets for a lifetime of devotion to duty in the service of the family of the woman who has just died. He has for years been in charge of the affairs of Mrs. Mariani, and has always been found honest, diligent and pecul- iarly trustworthy. She gave him credit for having done much to make the fortune she left behind, and as she had no relatives living to whom she could leave her property, she thought it was only just that it should go to this faithful servant. Mr. Moody. When Mr. Moody was preaching in Washington, he asserted that if Jesus Christ should return to this world in person and appear in that city the people would not consent to be governed by him. He asked the audience if they would receive him, and to emphasize the assertion, he appealed to an aged Negro man sitting near the pulpit. "Would you vote for him?" The reply came promptly, "It would do no good; they wouldn't count my vote." A Negro Huckster was driving his wagon through the streets of Richmond, yelling at the top of his voice, " 'Tatoes, 'tatoes!" A black woman standing at a gate said to him: "Hush yo' mouf, nigger, an' stop makin' such a fuss!" "Yo' he'rd me then?" he said. ' ' He'rd yo' ! I could hear yo' a mile ! " " That is why I am yelling," said he. 'Tatoes! 'tatoes!" THE FUNERAL. I was walking in Savannah, past a church decayed and dim, When there slowly through the window came a plaintive funeral hymn; And a sympathy awakened and a wonder quickly grew Till I found myself environed in a little Negro pew. Out in front a colored couple sat in sorrow, nearly wild, On the altar was a coffin, in the coffin was a child. I could picture him when living curly hair, protruding lip And had seen perhaps a thousand in my hurried Southern trip. 648 PROGRESS OF A RACE. But no baby ever rested in the soothing arms of death That had fanned more flames of sorrow with his fluttering breath ; And no funeral ever glistened with more sympathy profound Than was in the chain of tear drops that enclasped those mourn- ers round. Rose a sad old colored preacher at the little wooden desk, With a manner grandly awkward, with a countenance grotesque ; With simplicity and shrewdness on his Ethiopian face, With the ignorance and wisdom of a crushed, undying race. And he said, " Now don' be weepin' for dis pretty bit o' clay For de little boy who lived there he done gone an' run away ! He was doin' very finely, an' he 'predate your love, But his sure 'nuff Father want him in de large house up above. " Now He didn't give you dat baby, by a hundred thousand mile! He just think you need some sunshine, an' He lend it for a while ! An' He let you keep 'an' love him till your heart was bigger grown ; An' dese silver tears you're sheddin's just de interest on de loan. " Here yer oder pretty chillun! Don't be makin' it appear Dat your love got sort o' 'nopolized by this little fellow here. Don't pile up too much sorrows on deir little mental shelves, So's to kind o 1 set 'em wonderin' if dey're no account demselves! "Just you think, you poor deah mounahs, creepin' 'long o'er sorrow's way, What a blessed little picnic dis yere baby's got to-day ! Your good faders and good moders crowd de little fellow round In de angel-tended garden in de Big Plantation Ground ! " An' dey ask him, ' Was your feet sore?' an' take off his little shoes. An' dey wash him, an* dey kiss him, an* dey say, ' Now, what's de news? ' An de Lord done cut his tongue loose, den de little fellow say, ' All our folks down in de valley tries to keep de hebbenly way. * " An' his eyes dey brightly sparkle at de pretty tings he view; Den a tear come, an' he whisper, ' But I want my parents, too ! * But de angel Chief Musician teach dat boy a little song-- Says, ' If only dey be faithful, dey will soon be comiii' 'long,' PLANTATION MELODIES, ETC. 649 " An' he'll get an education dat will probably be worth Seberal times as much as any you cotud buy for him on earth; He'll be in de Lawd's big schoolhouse, widout no contempt or fear, While dere's no end to de bad things might have happened to him here. " So, my poor, dejected, mounahs, let your hearts wid Jesus rest, An' don't go to criticism' dat ar One wot knows de best! But have sent us many comforts He have right to take away To de Lawd be praise an* glory, now an' ever! Let us pray." Will M. CarletoiL A LULLABY. Bedtime's come fu' little boys, Po' little lamb. Too tiahed out to make a noise, Po' little lamb. You gwine t' have to-mprrer sho'? Yes, you tole me dat befo', Don't you fool me, chile, no mo', Po' little lamb. You been bad de livelong day, Po' little lamb. Th'owin' stones an' runnin* 'way, Po little lamb. My, but you's a-runnin' wild! Look jes' lak some po' folks' chile ; Mam gwine whup you atter while, Po' little lamb. Come hyeah ! you mos' tiahed to def , Po' little lamb. Played yo'sel' clean out o f bref, Po little lamb. See dem han's now sich a sight! Would you evah b'lieve dey's white? Stan' still 'twell I wash dem right, Po' little lamb. Jes' cain't hoi' yo' haid up straight, Po' little lamb. Hadn't oughter played so late 'Po' little lamb. PLANTATION MELODIES, ETC. 651 Mammy do' know whut she'd do, Ef de chillun's all lak you ; YOU'S a caution now, fu* true, Po' little lamb. Lay yo' haid down in my lap, Po' little lamb. Y' ought to have a right good slap, Po' little lamb. You been runnin' roun' a heap. Shet dem eyes an' don't you peep Dah now, dah now, go to sleep Po' little lamb. Paul Lawrence Dunbar. WHEN THE WARM DAYS COME. When the warm days come, an' the green is all around, An' the bushes are noddin' to their shadders on the ground ; When the meader lark is singin' 'round its nest hid in the grass, An' the brown thrush is a-swingin' 'mongst the thorn an' sassa- fras. When the Juneberry's in blossom, tho' the oak tree still is bare ; When the blows are all a-fallin' from the ' cherry an' the pear; When the orchard is in blossom, an' the roads i are gittin' dry An' the lilacs are a-flirtm"- with tfie'-lazy butterfly. When the world is full of sunshine, an* wprkin' seems a sm, An' you don't want to : 04 6,744,179 6,489,452 12,081,637 1,151,994 11,824,618 1,409,013 10,710,634 6,538,967 4,171,667 1,113,984 1,852,001 7,728 71,587 1 6,847 20.9 21.1 22.5 12.4 21.4 17.8 28.8 18.9 86.2 12.2 18.1 '6.1 497.2 '2.5 Females. .. Natiye born Foreign born White Colored* Native white Native parents. . . Foreign parents.. Foreign white Negrot Chinese Japanese 1 Decrease. f Includes all persons of Negro descent* * Less than one- tenth of one per cent. * Persons of Negro descent, Chinese, Japanese and Indians. 673 48 Progress. 674 PROGRESS OP A RACE. MALE AND FEMALE CHILDREN OF SCHOOL AGE IN THE UNITED STATES. Total number white males from 5 to 20 years of age inclusive 1 1,296,473 Negro 1,722,730 Total number white females from 5 to 20 years of age inclusive 1 1,193,733 Negro 1,777,464 POPULATION OF EACH STATE AND TERRITORY IN THE UNITED STATES ARRANGED IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER. CENSUS OF 1900. States and Territories. Total Population. Total White. Total Negro. The United States Alabama ' 1 76,303,387 1,828,697 66,990,802 I,OOI,I52 8,840,789 827,307 Alaska 6^,592 30, 5O7* 168 Arizona I22.Q3I Q2 QO3 1,848 I ^11 ^61 O44 t8o 366,81:6 i.iS^.o^ I.4O2.727 H.O4C Colorado 5 30, 700 i;20,O46 8,570 908,420 892,424 15,226 184.735; IC3.O77 3O.6o7 District of Columbia 278,718 IQI.S32 86,702 Florida ^28,c;42 2Q7.333 23O.73O 2.2l6.33I I.l8l.2O4 I,034,8l3 Hawaii jci ooi 66800 233 Idaho... 161.772 11:4,40? 2Q3 4.82 1.? to 4,734.873 8^,078 Indiana 2.s l6 4.62 2 4c8 02 C7,cot: Indian Territory. 3Q2 O6O 302 680 ^68^3 2.211,8 S3 2,218,667 12,603 Kansas I.4.7O 4O? 1.4 1 6 "IIQ C2.OO3 Kentucky 2,147,174 1,862,300 284,706 x The number of Chinese, Japanese, and Indians is included in the totals of the first column, but not in the second or third columns. STATISTICS Of THE RACE. 675 POPULATION OF EACH STATE AND TERRITORY-Continued. States and Territories. Total Population. Total White. Total Negro. Louisiana I ^8 1 6l? 72o 6l2 6cn 8oi Maine 6oi 160 6o2 226 I 7IQ Maryland i 188 044 nC2 424 o^v 27C o6l Massachusetts. . . . 2 80? 7l6 2 76o 76l *jj ww * 71 O74. Michigan. 2 42O 082 2 7o8 C67 j*>y/'t ic 816 Minnesota I 7CT -3QJ. "oy3'-'j I 777 O76 4 OCO Mississippi. / j'oyt I CCI 27O 641 2OO *y^y 007 670 Missouri I O5 i .-*/ w 5 1 06 66l 2 Q44 847 l6l 271 Montana. ... 212 72O 226 283 I C27 Nebraska '**JV i 066 7oo I 056,526 *O-*J 6260 Nevada 4.2 775 5C ^QC 171 New Hampshire dii.<;88 4.IO.7QI 1 J*r 662 i 883669 I 8l2 717 60 8ll New Mexico TQC -ITQ 1 80 2O7 i 610 New York *V3O* W 7 268 801 7.1 ^688l OO 272 North Carolina i 807 810 I 26^ 6O^ 621 l6o North Dakota 710.146 1IT712 286 Ohio 4t 1:7 C.AC 4 060 3O1 06 ooi Oklahoma 708,771 767, ?2 4 18,831 Oregon 417. 5 76 7O4.<; 82 I.IOl Pennsylvania 6 7O2 1 1 $ 6 141 661 is6 81^ Rhode Island 428.1; c6 4io,oi;o 0,002 South Carolina I.74O.7l6 cc7,go7 782.721 South Dakota 4IO 57O 780 714. 4 6c Tennessee 2 O2O 6l6 i Cdo 1 86 l8o 217 Texas 7 O48.7IO 2.426.660 620,722 Utah 2?6 74O 272 4.6 1 * 672 Vermont 747.64.1 742,771 826 Virginia I 8?4 l84 1.102 8?t; 660,722 Washington erg TQ7 4o6 7O4 2.CI1 West Virginia 058.800 om,277 17,400 Wisconsin 2,o6o O42 2.O!?7.OII 2.C42 Wyoming O2 571 So.O^I 04O 676 PROGRESS OP A RACE. PERCENTAGE OF WHITE AND COLORED OF TOTAL POPULATION, BY STATES AND TERRITORIES, ARRANGED GEOGRAPHICALLY: 1890 AND 1900. STATES AND TERRITORIES. 1900 White. Negro. 1 1890 White. Negro The United States... ( a ) 87.8 North Atlantic division 98.1 Maine 99.7 New Hampshire 99.8 Vermont 99.7 Massachusetts 98.7 Rhode Island 97.8 Connecticut 98.2 NewYork 98.5 New Jersey 96.2 Pennsylvania 97.6 South Atlantic division 64.2 Delaware... 83.4 Maryland 80.2 District of Columbia.... 68.7 Virginia 64.3 West Virginia 95.5 North Carolina... 66.7 South Carolina 41.6 Georgia 53.8 Florida 56.3 North Central division 97.9 Ohio 97.7 Indiana 97.7 Illinois 98.2 Michigan 99.1 Wisconsin 99.5 Minnesota 99.2 Iowa 99.4 Missouri 94.8 North Dakota 97.7 South Dakota 94.8 Nebraska 99.1 Kansas 96.3 South Central division 69.7 Kentucky 86.7 Tennessee 76.2 Alabama 54.7 Mississippi 41.3 Louisiana 62.8 Texas 79.6 Indian Territory 77.2 11.6 1.8 0.2 0.2 0.2 1.2 2.1 1.7 1.4 8.7 2.5 35.7 16.6 19.8 31.1 35.6 4.6 33.0 58.4 46.7 43.6 1.9 2.3 2.8 1.8 0.7 0.1 0.3 0.6 6.2 0.1 0.1 0.6 3.5 29.8 13.3 23.8 45.2 58.5 47.1 20.4 9.4 87.5 98.4 99.7 99.8 9.7 98.9 97.8 98.8 98.7 96.7 97.9 63.1 83.1 79.8 67.1 61.6 95.7 65.2 40.1 53.9 57.5 97.8 97.8 97.9 98.5 99.0 99.8 98.9 99.4 94.4 95.5 94.1 98.5 964 68.1 85.6 75.6 55.1 42.2 4S.9 78.1 61.2 11.9 1.6 0.2 0.2 0.3 1.0 2.1 1.6 1.2 8.8 2.0 86.8 16.9 20.7 82.8 38.4 4.3 84.7 59.9 46.8 42.5 1.9 2.4 2.1 1.5 0.7 0.1 0.3 0.6 5.6 0.2 0.2 0.8 8.5 81.3 14.4 84.4 44.8 57.6 60.0 21.8 10.3 1 Includes all persons of Negro descent. () The word colored in the United States census tables and in the statement following includes Negroes, Chinese, Japanese, and Indians. The last three are omitted from the table above. STATISTICS OF THE RACE. 677 PERCENTAGE OF WHITE AND COLORED Continued. STATES AND TERRITORIES. 18 OO 18 9O White. Negro. White. Negro. South Central division Continued Oklahoma 92.3 4.7 79.4 8.8 Arkansas 72.0 28.0 72.6 27.4 ^^estern division 94.7 0.7 92.6 0.9 Montana 93.0 0.6 89.3 1.0 \Vyoming . . . 96.2 1 94 8 1.5 Colorado 98 1 6 97 9 1 5 New Mexico 92.3 0.8 89.2 1.2 Arizona 75 6 1 5 63 2 1 5 Utah 98.5 0.2 97.7 03 Nevada 83 6 3 82 6 5 Idaho 95.5 0.2 92.7 0.2 \Vashington . . .... 95 8 5 95.4 0.4 Oregon 95 4 3 95 1 4 California 94.5 0.7 91.6 0.9 Alaska 48 13 4 1 Hawaii 43.4 2 67 4 Of the entire population returned in 1900, the white element constitutes 87.8 per cent, and the colored (2) element. .12.2 per cent., the Negro element by itself constituting n.6 per cento Ten years ago the Negro element represented a slightly larger proportion of the population, or 11.9 per cent. In the two divisions comprising the Southern states and territories, con- sidered as a whole, persons of Negro descent now constitute a somewhat less proportion of the total population than in 1890, but in certain of these states and territories in which this element has increased during the decade at a more rapid rate than the whites, they constitute a slightly larger percentage of the population in 1900 than they did in 1890, namely, West Virginia and Florida, in the South Atlantic division, and Alabama, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Arkansas in the South Central division, 678 PROGRESS OF A RACE. In South Carolina and Mississippi the Negro element predominates, there being in 1900 in South Carolina 782,321 persons of Negro descent and 557,807 white persons, and in Mississippi 907,630 of the former and 641,200 of the latter element. Of the entire popula- tion of South Carolina, the Negro element constitutes 58.4 per cent, in 1900 as against 59.9 per cent, in 1890, while of that of Mississippi the same element consti- tutes 58.5 percent, as against 57.6 per cent, in 1890. Ten years ago the Negroes were in the majority in Louisiana, when they represented practically half of the population, but at the present census they number 650,804 and constitute only 47.1 per cent* of the population of that state. There are now 729,612 white persons in Louisiana and they constitute 52.8 per cent, of the whole population as against 49.9 per cent, in 1890. POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES VOTING AGES MALES, 21 YEARS AND OVER. STATES AND TBEBITOEIES. Aggregate. Total White. Total Negro.? The United States 2I.72Q.8lQ IO O36 143 2 06? 080 Alabama 41-1.862 232.2Q4 l8l 471 Alaska 37.O56 2C QC-l Hi A A 08 1 31 Oil I o8l Arkansas 313,836 226,507 87.157 c 11 .087 l8o C4K 3 711 Colorado 185.708 181 616 3 215 Connecticut 280 ^10 275 126 >** 3 1 576 Delaware ci 018 1C CQ2 fi 77A District of Columbia 83.823 TOOV^ 60 318 O/4 23 O72 Florida I-JQ 6oi 77 062 6l 117 1 J uclndee all persona of Negro descent. STATISTICS OF THE RACE. 679 VOTING POPULATION-Continued. STATES AND TERRITORIES. Aggregate. Total White. Total Negro. Georgia 500,752 Hawaii 79.607 Idaho 53,932 Illinois 1,401,456 Indiana 720,206 Indian Territory 9736i Iowa 635,298 Kansas 413,786 Kentucky 543,996 Louisiana 3 2 5,943 Maine 217,663 Maryland 321,903 Massachusetts 843,465 Michigan 719,478 Minnesota 506,794 Mississippi 349,177 Missouri 856,684 Montana 101,931 Nebraska 301,091 Nevada 17,710 New Hampshire 130,987 New Jersey 555,608 New Mexico 55,067 New York 2,184,965 North Carolina 4i?578 North Dakota 95,217 Ohio 1,212,223 Oklahoma 109,191 Oregon 144,446 Pennsylvania 1317,239 Rhode Island 127,144 South Carolina 283,325 South Dakota 1 12,681 Tennessee 487,380 Texas 737,768 Utah 67,172 277,496 19,576 50,328 1,370,209 701,761 77,865 630,665 398,552 469,206 177,878 216,856 260,979 830,049 712,245 502,384 150,530 809,797 94,873 297,817 14,652 130,648 532,750 50,804 2,145,057 289,263 93,237 1,180,599 101,543 131,261 1,763,482 124,001 130,375 107,353 375,046 599,961 65,205 223,073 93 130 29,762 18,186 9,146 4,441 14,695 74,728 147,348 445 60,406 10,456 5,193 2,168 197,936 46,418 711 2,298 70 230 21,474 775 127,114 "5 31,235 . 4,827 560 51,668 2,765 152,860 184 112,236 136,875 358 680 PROGRESS OF A RACE. VOTING POPULATION Continued. STATES AND TEBBITOBIES. Aggregate. Total White. Total Negro. Vermont 108,356 108,027 289 Virginia... 447.8i5 3OJ.379 146,122 Washington 195.572 183,999 1,230 West Virginia 247,970 233,129 14,786 Wisconsin 570,715 567,213 1,006 Wyoming 37,898 36,262 481 POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE CENSUS YEARS. Census Year. White. Negro. Population. W 3.172,002 757.202 3.929,214 l8 oo 4,306,446 1,002,037 5.308,483 1810 5,862,166 1,377.808 7.239,881 "820 7,862,073 1,771,656 9.633,822 1830 10,537,378 2,328,642 12,866,020 1840 14,195,805 2,873,648 17,069,453 1850 19.553,o68 3.638,808 23,191,876 igoo 26,922,537 4,441,836 31,443,321 '870 33,589,377 4,880,009 38,558,371 l8 8o 43,402,970 6,580,793 50,155,783 1800 54,983,890 7,470,040 62,622,250 1900 66,990,802 8,840,788 76,303,387 CONJUGAL CONDITION OF PERSONS OF NEGRO DESCENT IN THE UNITED STATES. (Census of 1890.) Single.. 4,669,513 Married 2,363,231 Widowed. 411,888 Divorced 15,907 Unknown 9>50i Total .7,470,040 CONJUGAL CONDITION OF PERSONS OF NEGRO DESCENT TWENTY YEARS OF AGE AND OVER. Males. Females. Total. Single 424,552 271,224 695,776 Married 1,171,671 1,122,619- 2,294,290 Widowed 91,633 317,893 409,526 Divorced 5,199 10,391 ic, 59 o Unknown , 4,408 4,563 8,971 STATISTICS OF THE RACE. 681 ILLITERATE POPULATION OF NEGRO DESCENT TEN YEARS OF AGE AND OVER IN 1890.* Total 3,042,668 Total Negro population of the United States ten years of age and over 6,328,972 SKETCH OF THE NEGRO IN THE UNITED STATES. Occupations. In 1890 out of a total population of 62, - 000,000, 34 per cent, were engaged in gainful occupa- tions; of the Negroes, numbering 7,500,000, 3,000,000, or 41 per cent, were engaged in gainful occupations. The proportion was much greater than with the total population. According to the statistics of 1890, the male Negroes were slightly more occupied than were the native whites, while among the female Negroes, the proportion of wage earners was much greater. Out of every 100 native whites, all pursuing gainful occu- pations, 85 were males and 15 were females; out of every 100 Negroes, 69 were males and 31 females. A larger proportion of women pursued gainful occupa- tions among the Negroes than among the whites. Of the male Negro wage earners, more than three-fifths were farmers, and a little less than one-fourth were servants ; of the females, less than one-half were farmers, and more than one-half were servants. This large proportion of female Negro farmers was doubt- less made up principally of women and female children employed in the cotton fields. Ownership of Farms and Homes. The statistics of farm and home ownership and mortgaged indebtedness throw some light upon the pecuniary condition of the Negro. The total number of farms and homes in the country in 1890 was a little more than twelve millions, "Census report for 1900 not complete at time of revision, January, 1902, 682 PROGRESS OF A RACE. of which the Negroes occupied nearly one and a half millions. The proportion of Negroes of the total pop- ulation at that time was about 1 2 per cent. , showing a deficiency in the proportion occupying farms and homes. The number of farms in the country was 4,767,179; of these 549,642 were occupied by Negroes. The number of homes in the country was 7,922,973, of which 861,137 were occupied by Negroes. Tenants. Of the farms occupied by Negroes, 1 20, - 738 were owned by the occupants; more than three- fourths of the farms occupied by Negroes were rented. In other words, more than three-fourths of the Negro farmers were tenants, while less than one-fourth of the white farmers were tenants. Of farms owned by Negroes, more were without indebtedness than those owned by whites ; of houses owned by Negroes, 126,264 were free from incumbrance, showing a greater pro- portion of homes without indebtedness than among the whites. Summary. In summing up the principal points, it is seen that in the matter of occupation the Negro is engaged in agriculture or personal service; he has made little progress in a generation in manufacture, transportation or trade. This could certainly not be expected of the first generation out of slavery. The Negro has, during this generation, however, made good prospects toward acquiring property, especially in farms and homes, and in just so far as they have acquired possession of real estate it is safe to say they have become more valuable citizens. The outlook for them is very favorable as agriculturists, but it will require considerable time for them to become an im- portant factor in manufacture, transportation or com- merce. STATISTICS OF THE RACE. 683 Distribution of the Negro Race. Negroes are dis- tributed very unequally all over the country; while they are found in every state and territory, and in almost every county in the land, the vast body of them are found in the Southern states, in those states lying south of the Mason and Dixon line and the Ohio River, to the north boundary of Missouri, and westward as far as Texas. They are most plentiful in Maryland, Virginia, South Carolina and Mississippi, and secondary in North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama and Louisiana. In the Northern and Western states they are very sparsely distributed, with scarcely an excep- tion, being less than ; four of them to a square mile, while in many places there is less than one to a square mile. The Negroes in Cities. The tendency, as a popula- tion of a country increases, is that the increase constantly raises the proportion of the population in the cities. - The proportion of the Negroes in the cities has, however, been less than that of the whites, but they -have gained upon the whites in this regard. NEGROES IN THE SLAVE STATES. Delaware. In Delaware, the proportion of Negroes in 1790 was about 22 per cent. This proportion in- creased greatly until 1840; since then it has dimin- ished, and in 1900 was about 16.6 per cent. In Maryland over one-third of the population were Negroes in 1790, and in 1810 it had increased to 38 per cent. ; in 1900 it was less than 20 per cent. District ,of Columbia. Here the proportion of Negroes in 1800 was about 29 per cent, in 1860 the proportion was 19 per cent. During the war many Negroes took refuge within the capital, since which time it is about 31 per cent, of the total population, 684 PROGRESS OF A RACE. In Kentucky one-sixth of the population were Negroes in 1790; in 1830 it was about one-fourth; at present it is 13^ per cent., less than one-sixth. In Tennessee one-tenth of the population were Negroes in 1790; in 1880 it was a little more than one- fourth, since which time it has diminished a trifle. Missouri had about one-sixth of its inhabitants Negroes when the first record was given. It has diminished rapidly, and in 1900 it was less than one- nineteenth of the population. Virginia. In 1790 the Negroes constituted not less than two-fifths of the inhabitants. The proportion increased until 1810, and in 1900 it was little less than one-fourth. All of the above are border states, and show a sim- ilar history, excepting Tennessee and the District of Columbia; the remaining show a different history. North Carolina started in 1790 with 27 per cent., and has increased slowly until it reached 33 per cent. South Carolina started with 44 per cent, and in 1880 more than three-fifths of the population were Negroes; since then there has been a trifling decrease in per cent. Georgia started with 36 per cent. , and continued to increase until 1880, since when there has been a slight reduction in per pent. Florida began with 47 per cent, of the population Negroes, but it now stands at 43.6 per cent. Alabama commenced with one-third of her people Negroes, and increased until 1870; since then there has been a decrease in per cent. Mississippi began with 41 per cent, of her people Negroes, and has increased up to 1900 to 58^ per cent. Louisiana began with 55 per cent, but on the whole S ATISTICS OF THE RACE. 65 diminished, and in 1900 more than one-half of the people were Negroes. Texas began in 1850, when 28 per cent, of her people were Negroes, and increased to 31 per cent, ^and then decreased rapidly, largely due to immigration to the central part of the state. Arkansas began when a little less than one-eighth of its people were Negroes. In 1900 the Negroes formed more than one-fourth of the total population. Conclusions. This indicates in a general way the southward migration of the race to the cotton states, and an increase until in the recent past. Conjugal Condition. Comparing the conjugal con- dition of the Negroes with those of the whites there are two points of difference : First, the Negroes marry younger than the whites, and second, the proportion of widows at most ages is greater than among the whites. The first is in accord with a shorter life period of the race, and the second is a result of a greater death rate in the race. Statistics of divorce show more frequent divorces among the Negroes than among the whites. Mortality. The rate of mortality among the Negro population is considerably greater than among the whites ; it is, however, difficult to obtain an accurate record of the relative death rates of the two races. In some of the larger cities the death rate is very nearly if not quite double that of the native white. The rural districts seem to show that the disproportion among the death rates is not so great as it is in the larger cities. Criminality. The proportion of criminals among the Negroes is much greater than among the whites. The last census shows that the proportion of Negroes 686 PROGRESS OF A RACE. was only tour times as great as the whites. It should, however, be kept in mind that the statistics include among its criminal class the commitments of Negroes for petty offenses, which with that race is a greater offense in proportion than among the whites. Paupers. No investigations have been made among these persons receiving out door relief either perma- nently or temporarily. The census reports are of those who receive aid from alms houses. As these are not found in large numbers in the South the Negro paupers, compared with the whites, cannot be accur- ately stated. Illiteracy and Education. There has been a remark- able increase of the race in the elements of education. During the prevalence of slavery this race was kept in ignorance; indeed, generally throughout the South, it was held as a crime to teach the Negro to read and write, and naturally, when they became freedmen, only a trifling proportion of them were acquainted with the elements of education. Five years after they became free, the census shows that only two-tenths of all Negroes over ten years could write. Ten years later the proportion had increased to three-tenths, and in 1900, only a generation after they were emanci- pated, more than forty-seven out of every one hundred Negroes 2 1 or more years of age were able to read and write. These figures show a rapidly increasing progress in elementary education. In 1860 the number of Negroes who were enrolled in the schools of the South was trifling. Since the abolition of slavery the number has increased with great rapidity. Summary. The following conclusions may be stated from the preceding investigations. The Negroes, without increasing rapidly in this country, are dimin- STATISTICS OF THE RACE. 687 ishing in numbers relative to the whites. They are moving southward from the border states into those of the South Atlantic and Gulf states. They prefer the country rather than the city life. The proportion of criminals is much greater than among the whites, and the paupers at least as great, and the indications are the number of attendants at school is far behind the number of whites, but is rapidly gaining upon the race. To raise a people from slavery to civilization is a matter, not of years, but of many generations. Their industry, morality and education is a source of highest gratification to all friends of the race excepting those who expected a miraculous conversion. Colored Physicians. It is difficult to give the exact number of colored physicians in our country. Of course, in the term "colored physicians" we include only those who have received diplomas from reputable medical schools. The first attempt ever made to compile a list of these was made by Dr. Hubbard, Dean of Meharry Medical College, through whose kindness we are enabled to give the following table. This table was first compiled at the close of 1895, and there is probably no one who would be able to give more accurate statistics concerning colored physicians than Dr. Hubbard. We have added one column, bringing the list up to 1897, and have made it as com- plete as possible. The numbers in the last column are given by officers of the different institutions, and include all the graduates in medicine, dentistry and pharmacy, while the remaining table gives only the graduates in medicine who practice in the Southern states ; 688 PROGRESS OF A RACE. * rf 1 c s .2 i is . s y 2 fli 'S J OS g I er * -* a c Q a i ff 1 d^ 1 < 1 Florid 5C 1 Kentu .2 j CD i i North J3 1 Q H H 03 a 'i > *J 1 1 i 1 5 s 17 7 1 19 9 16 9 8 9 8 17 9 2 ? 5 11 51 1 55 v i - 210 54 379 500 Howard University 7. . Leonard Medical School 1 2 2 7 19 9 9 9 51 10? New Orleans University.. 1? fi 19 97 Louisville National <*) 1 V 1 24 49 Other Colleges 4 ^ 1 4 8 9 1 1 1 9 97 Total 885 ~"~ 13 22 11 39 53 25 9 19 28 26 55 65 23 2 The following institutions have been established for the education of colored physicians : The Medical Department of Howard University, Washington, D. C., was established in 1868, and has, we are informed by the secretary, graduated about 500 colored and 200 white students. This includes the medical, dental and pharmaceutical departments. Meharry Medical College is the medical department of Central Tennessee College, Nashville. It was opened in 1876, and has had 308 graduates in medi- cine, 40 in pharmacy, and 31 in dentistry. The med- ical department has been in operation 21 years, the dental department n, and the pharmaceutical 8. Over one-half of the colored physicians of the South are graduates of Meharry Medical College. Ninety- two per cent, of the graduates of this medical college are practicing medicine. Meharry is under the care of the Freedman's Aid and Southern Educational Society of the M. E. Church. Leonard Medical College, of Shaw University, Raleigh, North Carolina, has had 80 graduates in medicine, and 22 in pharmacy. Leonard Medical Col- STATISTICS OF THE RACfi. lege is supported by the Baptist Home Missionary Society. /The Louisville National Medical College was opened in 1888, and in 1897 had 49 graduates. The Medical Department of New Orleans Univer- sity was organized in 1889. Twenty-seven Negroes have received diplomas from this department. It is under the care of the same society as Meharry Medical College. The Medical Department of Knoxville College was opened in November, 1895. There are about one thousand colored physicians in the United States, of which number Nashville has twenty-three. The first female student in the world who received a diploma in law was Miss C. B. Ray, a colored lady of New York city. She graduated at Howard Univer- sity, Washington, D. C. Doctor Hubbard bears testimony to the fact that the colored physicians are kindly received by all the best Southern white physicians. The white physicians find the colored practice is not desirable, and since such institutions as Meharry are able to come up to the standard, they are welcomed by the profession. The colored physicians undergo the same examinations as the whites. Three counties in Tennessee Fayette, Hay wood and Shelby have more colored persons than white. The colored scholastic population of Tennessee is 176,614, while the daily attendance will average 105,458. According to the latest census report', there are 3,115 deaf and dumb and 7,060 blind Afro- Americans in this country. 44 Progress 690 PROGRESS OF A RACE. The Bureau of Education furnishes the following- suggestive table : SIXTEEN FORMER SLAVE STATES AND THE DIS- TRICT OF COLUMBIA. Year. Com. School. White. Enrollment. Colored. Expenditures. (Both R^ces.) 1876-77 1,827,139 571,506 $11, 271, 077 1877-78 2 O74 04.6 675 I5O 12 OQ3 OQl 1878-70 2 017,684 685 04.2 12 174. 141 1879-80 2 215,674 784, 7OO 12 678 685 1 880-81 . . . 2,274,877 802,774 jo 6^6.814 1881-82 2,240,263 802,982 15,241,740 1882-83 2,77O,IIO 817,240 16,36^.471 1883-84 2,546,448 ,OO2, 717 17,884,558 1884-85 2,676,911 ,070,467 19,253,874 1885-86 2,777,145 ,048,650 20,208,113 1886-87 2 Q75 777 ,118 556 20 821 060 1887-88 3,IIO,6o6 ,140,405 21,810,158 1888-89 7 io7 870 ,217,002 27,171,878 1889-90 7 4O2 42O ,206,Q5Q 24,880,107 1890-91 7 570,624 ,72Q,54Q 26,690 310 1891-92 a 6O7, 540 .754,716 27,691,488 1892-93 7 6Q7,8oQ ,367,515 28,535,738 1893-94 3,335,593 ,424,995 29,170,351 Total amount expended ii i 1 8 vears. $751,557,559 CRIME, PAUPERISM, AND BENEVOLENCE. The following is taken from the census report of 1890.* It is interesting to compare the numbers of the different races: Prison- ers. Juvenile Offend- ers. Paupers. Inmates of Benevo- lent Insti- tutions. Insane Paupers. Total. White C7 710 12 OO7 66 ??8 1 06 836 CC OC7 298 680 Negroes Indians .... 24,277 322 i - t y-'j *>930 12 6,418 26 4,102 O2 7 3,601 28 40,328 I 721 Chinese.. . . 4O7 I T-3 41 l84 646 Japanese . . J-3 8 21 Total 82.120 14 846 7-3 odC III OIO t;8866 74O 006 *Census report for 1900 not complete at time of revision, January, 1902. STATISTICS OF THE RACE. 691 COMMON SCHOOL STATISTICS CLASSIFIED BY RACE 1894-95. Enrolled in the public Schools of sixteen Southern States and District of Columbia. White. Colored. No. of Teachers. White. Colored Alabama 100,305 216,863 28,316 26,903 59.503 262,530 394,508 92,613 161,252 162,830 612,378 242,572 103,729 381,632 463,888 235,533 210,059 3,845,414 "5,709 82,429 4,857 14,654 37,272 174,152 73,463 63,313 43,49 2 187,785 32,199 128,318 119,292 101,524 134,720 120,453 7,649 1,441,282 4,412 5,124 734 660 2,151 5,827 8,578 2,506 3,797 4.59 1 13,750 5,285 2,696 6,928 9,960 6,211 6,066 89,276 2,196 1,796 106 331 772 3,206 1,373 915 716 3,264 737 3,075 1,869 1,909 2,502 2,081 233 27,081 Arkansas Delaware Dist.of Columbia. Florida Georgia Kentucky Louisiana Maryland Mississippi Missouri North Carolina South Carolina Tennessee Texas Virginia. ... West Virginia. . Total There are 1,441,282 Afro-American children in the public schools of the sixteen Southern states. This is an encouraging showing. A generation ago it was a penitentiary offense in all the South to educate an Afro- American. SCHOOLS FOR THE EDUCATION OF THE COLORED RACE. The following are the latest statistics of schools for the education of the colored race taken from the report of the Commissioner of Education for the year 1895. Since many of them are controlled by churches we give them under the heads of the different churches supporting and controlling them. We give the institution, its location, and the number of students in each. 692 PROGRESS OF A RACE. BAPTISTS. Students. Selma University, Selma, Alabama 218 Arkansas Baptist College, Little Rock, Ark 390 Arkadelphia Academy, Arkadelphia, Ark 106 Wayland Seminary, Washington, D. C 161 Florida Institute, Live Oak, Fla 165 Jerual Academy, Athens, Ga 250 Atlanta Baptist Seminary, Atlanta, Ga 141 Spelman Ladies' Seminary, Atlanta, Ga 630 Walker Baptist Institute, Augusta, Ga 190 La Grange Academy, La Grange, Ga 425 Leland University, New Orleans, La 157 Jackson College, Jackson, Miss 1 50 Shaw University, Raleigh, N. C 362 Shiloh University, Warrenton, N. C 60 Water's Normal Institute, Winston, N. C 215 Benedict College, Columbia, S. C 135 Roger Williams University, Nashville, Tenn 224 Hearne Academy and Normal and Industrial School, Hearne, Tex 76 Bishop College, Marshall, Tex 360 Richmond Theological Seminary, Richmond, Va 185 Curry College, Longfield, Va 95 Hartshorn Memorial College, Richmond, Va in Storer's College, Harpers Ferry, W. Va 143 Total number of students in Baptist Schools 4556 METHODIST EPISCOPAL. Central Alabama Academy, Huntsville, Ala 130 Philander Smith College, Little Rock, Ark 312 Shorter University, Arkadelphia, Ark 82 Cookman Institute, Jacksonville, Fla 269 Emerson Home for Ladies, Oklahoma, Fla 50 Payne Institute, Augusta, Ga 250 Gammon School of Theology, Atlanta, Ga 86 Clark University, So. Atlanta, Ga 341 Gilbert Academy, and Industrial College, Baldwin, La 170 New Orleans University, New Orleans, La 603 Morgan College, Baltimore, Md 93 Rush University, Holly Springs, Miss 230 Samuel Huston College, Austin, Texas 200 STATISTICS OF THE RACE. Students. Meridian Academy, Meridian, Miss 169 G. R. Smith College, Sedalia, Mo 200 Bennett College, Greensboro, N. C 203 Browning Industrial Home, Camden, S. C 150 Allen University, Columbia, S. C 375 Morristown Normal Academy, Morristown, Tenn. 3^ Central Tennessee College, Nashville, Tenn., Including Me- harry Medical College, the number in attendance at this school for 1900 and 1901 775 Wiley University, Marshall, Tex 284 Total number of students in Methodist Episcopal Schools, 5084 UNITED PRESBYTERIAN. Knoxville College, Knoxville, Tenn 312 Norfolk Mission College, Norfolk, Va 600 Total number of students enrolled in United Presby- terian Schools 912 EPISCOPAL. St. Paul Normal and Industrial School, Lawrenceville, Va.. 256 Bishop Payne's Divinity and Industrial School, Petersburg, Va 8 Total number of students in Episcopal Schools 264 AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL. Edward Walter's College, Jackson, Miss 159 Morris Brown College, Atlanta, Ga 484 Wilberforce University, Wilberforce, O 305 Paul Quinn College, Waco, Tex 125 Total number of students in A. M. E. Schools 1073 CHRISTIAN. Christian Bible School, Louisville, Ky 26 Southern Christian Institute, Edwards, Miss 95 Franklinton Christian College, Franklinton, N. C 140 Total number of students in Christian Schools 261 A. M. E. ZION. Livingston College, Salisbury, N. C 340 694 PROGRESS OF A RACE. PRESBYTERIAN. Students. Stillman Institute, Tuscaloosa, Ala 30 Hayne's Normal and Industrial School, Augusta, Ga 495 Biddle University, Charlotte, N. C 260 Scolia Seminary for Ladies, Concord, N. C 284 Albion Academy, and Normal School, Franklinton, N. C . . . 350 Lincoln University, Pennsylvania 196 Harbison University, Beaufort, S. C 105 Brainard Institute, Chester, S. C 151 Ingleside Ladies' Seminary, Burkeville, Va no Total number of students in Presbyterian Schools 1942 FRIENDS. Southland College, Southland, Ark 179 Freedman's Normal Institute, Maryville, Tenn 201 Total number of students in Friends' Schools 380 ROMAN CATHOLIC. St. Augustin Ladies' Academy, Lebanon, Ky 76 Mt. Carmel Convent, New Liberia (no report.) CONGREGATIONALISTS. Trinity Normal Schools, Athena, Ala 268 Lincoln Normal Schools, Marion, Ala 230 Burrell College, Selma, Ala 276 Talladega College, Talladega, Ala 581 Orange Park Normal and Manual Training School, Orange Park, Fla 101 Knox Institute, Athens, Ga 244 Storr's College, Atlanta, Ga , 272 Dorchester Academy, Mclntosh, Ga 393 Ballard Normal School, Macon, Ga 443 Allen Normal and Industrial School, Thomasville, Ga 185 Chandler Ladies' Normal School, Lexington, Ky . . 245 Straight University, New Orleans, La 569 Tougaloo University, Tougaloo, Miss 377 Lincoln Academy, King's Mountain, N. C 198 Gregory Normal Institute, Wilmington, N.C 360 Avery Normal Institute, Charleston, S. C 410 Brewer Normal School, Greenwood, S. C 375 Warren Institute, Jonesboro, Tenn. , , 113 STATISTICS OF THE RACK. 695 Students. Fisk University, Nashville, Tenn 459 Tillotson College, Austin, Tex. 193 Total number of students in Congregationalist Schools. . 6148 NON-SECTARIAN. Calhoun Colored School, Calhoun, Ala 251 State Normal School, Montgomery, Ala 975 State Normal and Industrial School, Normal, Ala 476 Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, Tuskegee, Ala. . 1231 Arkansas Normal College, Pine Bluff, Ark 255 State College for Colored Students, Dover, Del 61 Howard University, Washington, D. C 587 Normal School, Washington, D. C 26 High School, Washington, D. C 737 State Normal and Industrial School, Tallahassee, Fla 58 Georgia State Industrial College, College, Ga 500 Beech Institute, Savannah, Ga (no record) Atlanta University, Atlanta, Ga 300 Haven Normal Academy, Waynesboro, Ga 272 Roswell Public School, Roswell, Ga 289 West Broad Street School, Athens, Ga 457 Sumner High School, Cairo, 111 28 Governor High School, Evansville, Ind 65 Scribner High School, New Albany, Ind 189 Berea College, Berea, Ky 200 State Normal School, Frankfort, Ky 126 Central High School, Louisville, Ky 996 Paris Colored High School, Paris, Ky 336 Southern University, New Orleans, La 308 Alexandria Academy, Alexandria, La (no report) Baltimore City High School, Baltimore, Md 140 Baltimore Normal School, Hebbville, Md 50 Industrial Home for Girls, Melvale, Md 160 Princess Anne Academy, Princess Anne, Md 67 Mount Hermon Female Seminary, Clinton, Miss 76 State Colored Normal School, Holly Springs, Miss 190 Alcorn Agricultural School and Medical College, West Side, Miss 305 Douglas High School, Hannibal, Mo , 45 Lincoln Institute, Je# erson City, MQ, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, 345 696 PROGRESS OF A RACE. Students. Lincoln High School, Kansas City, Mo 100 Hale's College, Mill Springs, Mo 73 Colored Normal and Industrial Schools, Bordentown, N. J . . 109 Ashboro Normal School, Ashboro, N. C 190 Washburn Seminary, Beaufort, N. C 161 Clinton Normal School, Clinton, N. C 75 State Colored Normal School, Elizabeth City, N. C 1 1 1 State Colored Normal School, Fayetteville, N. C 85 State Colored Norman School, Franklintown, N. C 256 State Colored Normal School, Goldsboro, N. C 105 Agricultural and Mechanic College, for the colored race, Greensboro, N. C 187 Whitin Normal School, Lumberton, N. C 81 Barrett Collegiate and Industrial Institute, Pee Dee, N. C. . 180 State Colored Normal School, Plymouth, N. C 180 City High School, Reedsville, N.C 811 State Colored Normal School, Salisbury, N. C 101 Rankin-Richards Institute, Windsor, N. C no Scofield Normal and Industrial School, Aikin, S. C 223 Wallingford Academy, Charleston, S. C 221 Claflin University, Orangeburg, S. C 570 Beaufort Academy, Beaufort, S. C 388 Penn Industrial and Normal School, Frogmore, S. C 276 Austin High School, Knoxville, Tenn 307 Hannibal Medical College, Memphis, Tenn 7 LeMoyne Normal Institute, Memphis, Tenn 620 Meig's High School, Nashville, Tenn 584 Bradley Academy, Murphysboro, Tenn 425 Mary Allen Seminary, for Ladies, Crockett, Tenn 232 Central High School, Galveston.Tex 250 Prairie View Normal Institute, Prairie View, Tex 207 East End High School, Brenham, Tex 448 Hampton Normal Institute, Hampton, Va 1017 Public High School, Manchester, Va 50 Peabody School, Petersburg, Va 715 Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute, Petersburg, Va. . 331 West Virginia Colored Institute, Farm, Va 78 Manassas Industrial School, Manassas, Va. 6j STATISTICS OF THE RACE. 697 The following table, abstracted from the census pub- lications, shows the number of Negroes in all occupa- tions and in each of the five groups of occupations by sex and by states and territories in 1890:* STATES OB TERRITORY. All Occu- pations. Agricultural, Fisheries and Mining. Professional Service. Males. Females. Males. Females. Males. Females. The United States. 2,101,233 971,890 1,329,584 427,835 25,171 8,829 Alabama 192,322 1,091 86,861 4,301 2,765 4,064 9,334 21,238 46,302 246,913 83 19,270 14,648 3,615 13,889 76,411 159,180 409 63,lt6 7,593 5,065 1,719 198,531 43,940 971 3,741 130 242 16,143 888 23,272 148,370 146 28,085 958 536 37,534 2,337 186,714 284 121,016 123,395 298 322 169,343 902 11,478 855 563 101,085 71 30,115 1,041 792 1,964 3,016 18,770 19,071 122,352 4,713 4,210 730 3,400 31,255 83,978 145 32,642 8,435 1,329 883 105,306 16,715 140 959 22 107 7,738 156 13,664 68,220 23 7,791 125 99 15,704 1,362 102,836 43 44,701 46,691 51 109 71,752 153 2,623 205 75 146,361 29 68,219 1,084 180 879 4,157 553 23,690 172,496 16 4,328 8,273 973 4,171 38.456 111,820 104 29,516 601 1,458 72 167,995 15,757 41 242 41 60 4,166 163 3,031 106,498 35 6,201 635 106 4,602 270 149,915 83 72,316 85,824 21 112 93,745 250 4,790 168 141 66,123 19,069 4 1 34 15 7,629 54,073 134 37 11 110 1,013 49,428 2 743 4 45 77,925 324 3 1 29 3 25 83,796 108 17 2 29 2 73,588 12,510 20,758 1 10,164 2 50 4 1,471 3 1,226 86 75 61 97 390 776 2,122 486 330 78 857 1,406 1,251 640 162 115 57 1,970 897 25 63 287 10 571 1,619 7 617 22 23 584 38 1,543 1,736 2,031 3 1,654 16 166 27 58 491 288 21 13 10 82 835 223 958 116 126 11 69 420 855 2 275 57 89 18 775 887 4 7 82 135 565 246 a 5 197 18 506 2 592 663 Oil 2 63 11 1 Alaska Arizona ... Arkansas California .... Colorado Connecticut Delaware District of Columbia .... Florida .. .... Georgia . Idaho Illinois Indiana . Kansas . Louisiana. . .... Maryland Michigan Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire. New Jersey New Mexico. New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas . Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming . . *Census report for 1900 pot complete at time of revision, January, 1902. PROGRESS OF A RACE. Table showing the number of Negroes in all occu- pations, etc. Continued- STATE OB TEBHITOBY. Domestic or Per- sonal Service. Trade and Transportation. Manufacturing and Mechanical Industries. Males. Females. Males. Females. Males. Females. The United States 457,426 505,898 143,850 2,899 146,126 26,929 Alabama 25,426 1,084 11,223 2,316 1,702 1,925 8,681 12,880 13,299 89,294 57 10,865 7,950 1,966 6,898 22,649 81,609 174 21,014 4,296 2,495 li286 17,209 18,899 815 2,743 67 81 7,715 651 13,151 20,580 90 14,814 281 328 22,505 1,161 18,554 115 25,606 28,360 248 143 39,425 480 8,515 481 313 30,380 67 10,506 897 715 1,781 2,878 16,734 10,421 65,025 21 4,061 3,849 672 3,077 28,916 31,292 128 30,406 2,914 1.102 815 25,729 15,614 '122 881 18 84 . 7,839 150 12,445 31,393 22 6,955 102 81 14,297 1,169 26.213 35 30,333 24,840 48 102 55,941 134 2,462 161 71 9,147 13 2,787 457 406 634 633 4,776 4,106 16,397 1,994 1,426 289 1,148 7,881 6,045 68 7,538 1,402 448 216 5671 4,862 45 323 17 24 2,111 40 4,231 7,564 10 3,027 1 5,213 546 6,860 121 10,954 6,3* 83 15.655 3,080 31 140 27 3 5 7 21 195 52 872 41 23 1 20 66 129 2 144 34 6 5 74 44 1 4 1 25 54 106 40 1 1 104 3 188 1 125 69 1 253 7 1 3 9,917 12 3,403 858 402 565 816 2,839 4,501 16,604 2 1,602 1,669 309 1,315 6,519 8,455 55 4,458 1,132 549 88 5,686 3,525 45 370 5 72 1,864 24 2,288 12,114 4 3,426 42 87 4,630 822 9,842 14 10,404 5,7* 31 18,864 87 927 105 20 951 4 275 106 55 165 51 1,490 746 1,924 361 175 35 124 840 4774 1,074 426 137 48 803 896 13 64 2 23 263 3 1,005 2,360 442 2 10 1,077 170 2,341 1,141 4tfl 2 6 4,483 15 41 88 Alaska Arizona. Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut District of Columbia Florida Georgia . Idaho Indiana.. Kansas Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan. Minnesota Mississippi Missouri. Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey . . . New York North Carolina- North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania. Rhode Island. South Carolina.. South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming. . STATISTICS OF THE RACE. 699 WHITE AND NEGRO POPULATION BY COUNTIES OF THE SOUTHERN STATES, LAST CENSUS, 1900. ALABAMA. Counties. White. Negro. 1 Autauga 6,742 11,173 2 Baldwin 9,016 4,179 3 Barbour 12,781 22,371 4 Bibb 12,285 6,213 5 Blount 21,338 1,781 6 Bullock 5,846 26,097 7 Butler 12,514 13,246 8 Calhoun ....24,247 10,626 9 Chambers . ..15,145 17,415 10 Cherokee . . . 18,080 3,016 11 Chilton 13,258 3,264 12 Choctaw .... 7,858 10,277 13 Clarke 11,952 15,829 14 Clay 15,215 1,884 15 Clebourne ...12,325 871 16 Coffee 16,739 4,233 17 Colbert 12,795 9,546 18 Conecuh .... 9,722 7,793 19 Coosa 10,856 5,288 20 Covington ..12,912 2,434 21 Crenshaw ...14,057 5,601 22 Cullman 17,827 21 23 Dale 16,320 4,869 24 Dallas 9,285 45,372 25 DeKalb 22,586 972 26 Elmore 14,051 6,051 27 Escambia . . . 7,683 3,515 28 Etowah 23,000 4,366 29 Fayette 12,431 1,701 30 Franklin .... 14,353 2,158 31 Geneva 15,878 2,218 32 Greene 3,307 20,875 33 Hale 5,664 25,347 34 Henry 22,543 13,604 35 Jackson 26,860 3,642 Counties. White. Negro 36 Jefferson 83,489 56,917 37 Lamar 13,015 3,069 38 Lauderdale ..19,169 7,390 39 Lawrence ...12,967 7,156 40 Lee 12,759 1,967 41 Limestone ..12,558 9,828 42 Lowndes . . . 4,762 30,889 43 Macon 4,252 19,875 44 Madison 23,827 29,473 45 Marengo .... 8,841 29,473 46 Marion 13,716 778 47 Marshall ....21,789 1,500 48 Mobile 34,306 28,409 49 Monroe 10,529 13,116 50 Montgomery 19,825 52,207 51 Morgan 21,439 7,378 52 Perry 6,821 24,962 53 Pickens 10,481 13,921 54 Pike 10,697 12,474 55 Randolph ...16,469 5,178 56 Russell 5,930 21,152 57 St. Clair 16,003 3,442 58 Shelby 16,680 7,014 59 Sumter 5,672 27,038 60 Talladega . . . 17,547 18,223 61 Tallapoosa . . 18,987 10,688 62 Tuscaloosa . .21,509 14,638 63 Walker 21,046 4,116 64 Washington . 6,106 5,028 65 Wilcox 6,979 28,652 66 Winston .... 9,547 7 ARKANSAS. 1 Arkansas . . . 8,915 4,058 2 Ashley 9,135 10,509 3 Baxter 9,293 5 4 Benton 3M99 na 700 PROGRESS OF A RACE. Counties. White. Negro. 5 Boone 16,254 142 6 Bradley 6,311 3,340 7 Calhoun 5,254 3,285 8 Carroll 19,682 166 9 Chicot 1,876 12,650 10 Clark 14,022 7,267 1 1 Clay 15,877 9 12 Clebourne . . 9,6i7 ii 13 Cleveland . . 8,106 3,514 14 Columbia . . . 12,610 9,467 15 Conway 11,150 7,627 16 Craighead . . 18,302 1,203 17 Crawford . . . 19,045 2,224 18 Crittenden . .. 2,239 12,290 19 Cross 6,188 4,873 20 Dallas 6,935 4,583 21 Desha 2,104 9,405 22 Drew 9,162 10,289 23 Foulkner 16,338 4,440 24 Franklin /. . . 16,808 587 25 Fulton 12,838 79 26 Garland 15,096 3,674 27 Grant 6,825 846 28 Greene 16,898 81 29 Hemstead . . . 12,111 ii,990 30 Hot Springs. 11,263 1,485 31 Howard 10,978 3,098 32 Indep'dence . 21,074 1,483 33 Izard 13,221 285 34 Jackson 13,090 5,290 35 Jefferson 11,146 29,812 36 Johnson 16,828 619 37 Lafayette 4,108 6,486 38 Lawrence . . . 15,439 1,051 39 Lee 4,303 15,105 40 Lincoln 4,938 8,45i 41 Little Rock . 7,982 5,749 42 Logan 19,784 779 43 Lonoke 13,250 9,294 Counties. White. Negro. 44 Madison .... 19,820 44 45 Marion n,339 38 46 Miller 9,935 7,6i9 47 Mississippi . . 8,061 8,321 48 Monroe 5,822 10,995 49 Montgomery. 9,125 319 50 Nevada 10,776 5,833 51 Newton 12,531 7 52 Ouachita 9,257 11,634 53 Perry 6,484 810 54 Phillips 5,677 20,577 55 Pike 9,705 596 56 Poinsett . . . . 5,994 1,031 57 Polk 18,175 177 58 Pope 19,850 1,865 59 Prairie 7,684 4,191 60 Pulaski 34,040 29,116 61 Randolph ...16,550 606 62 St. Francis.. 6,152 11,005 63 Saline 11,202 1,920 64 Scott 13,079 102 65 Searcy n,972 16 66 Sebastian 32,476 4,407 67 Sevier 14,292 2,041 68 Sharp 12,987 212 69 Stone 8,021 79 70 Union ... 12,775 9,720 71 Van Buren. .10,894 326 72 Washington .33,367 888 73 White 22,208 2,656 74 Woodruff . . . 6,357 9,947 75 Yell 20,080 1,670 DELAWARE. 1 Kent 25,017 7,738 2 New Castle -93,456 16,197 3 Sussex 35,504 6,762 DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA I Dist. of 01.191,532 86,702 STATISTICS OF THE RACE. 701 Co I 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ii 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 2? 28 29 30 3i 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 FLORIDA. unties. White. Alachua .. .T?27o Negro. 18,965 1,191 2,727 1,074 2,040 2,637 1,832 9,32i 1,293 672 22,417 n,925 2,242 9,856 5.376 1,815 8,449 1,281 12,276 12,620 763 2,631 188 15,999 3,282 i,497 8,904 458 15,047 5,788 5,092 4,027 43i 1,679 2,943 5,621 3,621 2,466 Co 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 i 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ii 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 3J unties. Sumter White. o OO7 Negro. 2,280 6,577 438 3,464 2,790 2,039 2,886 3,513 4,770 11,256 2,097 6,187 5,937 27,384 10,904 3,153 5,i64 24,645 6,807 6,825 5,242 3,i68 5,036 482 743 41,257 3,938 2,238 1,285 9,476 5,703 4,026 3,590 7,328 6,611 3,602 7,753 14,220 Suwanee . . . . .7 077 Baker . 3, 325 Taylor . 3,361 Bradford . Brevard . . Calhoun .. 7,568 .. 4,003 'j OO2 Volusia . . . . 6538 Wakulla ... Walton 2,359 . 7 707 Citrus .... 2 754 Washington . 7,468 GEORGIA. Aoolincr . . - 8821 Clay ? go"? Columbia . Dade 7,773 -j 548 Baker I Q34 De Soto . . Duval 7,374 . .17 276 Baldwin . . . Banks . 6,511 . 8,448 Escambia . Franklin . . Gadsden . . Hamilton . Hernando . Hillsboro . Holmes . . . -.16,384 .. 2,648 ... 5,438 .. 6,505 .. 1,823 ..27,528 . 6481 Bartow .... . 14,635 Berrien . . . . 1 7, 4Q4 Bibb .23,078 Brooks 7 7O2 Bryan . 2 060 Bullock ... Burke . .12,213 5 450 Jackson II O87 Butts 5008 Jefferson . . Lafayette . Lake 3,575 .. 4,224 . 4820 Calhoun ... Camden . . . Campbell . . Carroll 2,309 . 2,423 . 6,350 21 5 TO Lee 2 77.7 Leon . 3886 Catoosa 534 Lew 5?27 Charlton . . . Chatham . . Chattah'chee Chattooga . . Cherokee . .. Clarke . 2,849 26,314 1,852 .10,714 .13,958 . 823O Liberty . . I 450 Madison . . Manatee . . Marion . . . .. 6,542 . . 4,105 . o 356 Monroe . . . . .12,192 Nassau .... . 4 550 Clay 2865 Orange 7 "347 Clayton 5 5IO Osceola . . Pasco .... 3,013 . 4,375 Clinch 5 142 Cobb .17,7-14 Polk . 523 Coffee . Q 528 Putnam . . . . 6 OI7 Colquitt . . . Columbia . . Coweta .10,034 . 2,900 .10,759 St. John . . . Santa Rosa 5,540 7,827 702 PROGRESS OF A RACE. Counties White. Negro. 32 Crawford . . 4,550 5,8i8 33 Dade . 4,140 438 34 Dawson 5,271 171 35 Decatur .13,676 15,778 36 DeKalb 14,068 7,044 37 Dodge ,. 8,270 5,705 38 Dooly .11,883 14,684 39 Dougherty 2,451 11,228 40 Douglas . . . . 6,590 2,155 41 Early . 5,863 8,905 42 Echols , 2,218 991 43 Effingham . 4,630 3,704 44 Elbert 9,936 9,792 45 Emanuel . . .12,873 8,406 46 Fannin . 10,918 296 47 Fayette 6,553 3,56i 48 Floyd .21,633 11,476 49 Forsyth 10,467 1,083 50 Franklin . . . 13,406 4,204 51 Fulton .72,591 45,717 52 Gilmer .10,121 77 53 Glascock . . . 3,ooi 1,515 54 Glynn . 5,202 9,104 55 Gordon .12,488 1,631 56 Greene . 5,325 11,217 57 Gwinnett . . . .21,442 4,043 58 Habersham . .11,812 1,792 59 Hall .17,480 3,272 60 Hancock . . . . 4,649 13,628 61 Haralson . . . 10,280 1,639 62 Harris . 5,823 12,186 63 Hart . 10,467 4,025 64 Heard . 7,163 4,on 65 Henry . 9,213 9,389 66 Houston . . . . 5,635 17,006 67 Irwin 8,960 4,680 68 Jackson . . , , .16,433 7,606 69 Jasper . 5,388 9,645 70 Jefferson . . . 6,534 n,578 Counties. White. Negro, 71 Johnson 6,878 4,531 72 Jones 3,878 5,447 73 Laurens 14,569 1 1,338 74 Lee 1,507 8,837 75 Liberty .... 4,479 8,614 76 Lincoln 1,883 4,273 77 Lowndes ... 9,347 6,143 78 Lumpkin . . . 6,951 482 79 McDuffie . . . 3,661 10,688 80 Mclntosh ... 1,456 5,079 81 Macon 4,202 9,791 82 Madison 9,339 3,885 83 Marion 4,231 5,849 84 Meriwether . 9,522 13,817 85 Miller 3,611 2,708 86 Milton 6,000 763 87 Mitchell .... 6,778 7,989 88 Monroe 6,817 13,865 89 Montgomery 9,653 6,706 90 Morgan 5,207 10,606 91 Murray 8,102 521 92 Muscogee ..14,229 15,577 93 Newton 8,589 8,144 94 Oconee 4,189 4,413 95 Oglethorpe . 5,638 12,243 96 Paulding ...11,624 1,345 97 Pickens 8,226 415 98 Pierce 5,917 2,184 99 Pike 9,158 9,599 100 Polk 12,937 4,9 X 6 101 Pulaski 7,460 11,029 102 Putnam 3,379 10,057 103 Quitman 1,258 3,447 104 Rabun .. 6,104 181 105 Randolph ... 5,550 11,297 106 Richmond ...27,439 26,255 107 Rockdale .... 4,419 3,090 108 Schley ....... 1,916 3,583 109 Screven 8,306 10,946 STATISTICS OF THE RACE. 703 Counties. White. 1 10 Spalding ... 8,465 in Stewart .... 4,019 112 Sumter 7,399 113 Talbot 3,658 114 Taliaferro . . 2,391 115 Tattnall . . . .13,306 116 Taylor 4,820 117 Telfair 5,957 118 Terrell 5,674 119 Thomas ....13,626 120 Towns 4,677 121 Troup 8,668 122 Twiggs .... 2,911 123 Union 8,353 124 Upson : 6,189 125 Walker 13,197 126 Walton 12,601 127 Ware 8,652 128 Warren .... 3,842 129 Washington 10,805 130 Wayne 7,222 131 Webster .... 2,504 132 White 5,312 133 Whitfield ...12,683 134 Wilcox 6,893 135 Wilkes 6,423 136 Wilkinson . . 5,409 137 Worth 10,252 KENTUCKY. 1 Adair 13,294 2 Allen 13,559 3 Anderson . . . 9,057 4 Ballard 9,259 5 Barren 19,410 6 Bath 13,042 7 Bell 13,947 8 Boone 10,360 9 Bourbon ...11,276 10 Boyd 18,051 Negro. 9J54 n,837 18,813 8,439 5,521 6,113 5,026 4,126 13,349 17,450 71 15,332 5,805 128 7,48i 2,464 8,341 5J09 7,621 17,422 2,227 4,114 600 1,821 4,204 14,442 6,031 8,412 i,594 1,098 1,054 1,502 3,788 1,692 i,754 810 6,792 771 Counties. 11 Boyle 12 Bracken 13 Breathitt 14 Breckinridge 15 Bullitt 16 Butler 17 Caldwell 18 Galloway . . . 19 Campbell . . . 20 Carlisle 21 Carroll 22 Carter 23 Casey 24 Christian . . . 25 Clark 26 Clay 27 Clinton .... 28 Crittenden . 29 Cumberland 30 Daviess . . . 31 Edmonson . 32 Elliott 33 Estill 34 Fayette . . .-. 35 Fleming . .. 36 Floyd 37 Franklin . . . 38 Fulton .... 39 Gallatin .... 40 Garrard .... 41 Grant 42 Graves 43 Grayson . . . 44 Green 45 Greenup . . . 46 Hancock . .. 47 Hardin .... 48 Harlan 49 Harrison . . White. 9,036 11,565 14,023 18,438 85,108 I5J7I n,735 i6,375 53,643 9,557 9,021 20,085 14,740 21,365 n,5i7 14,800 7,691 14,315 8,040 33,i3i 9,628 10,385 11,446 27,660 15,489 .15,416 16,501 8,706 4,598 9,096 12,812 .29,857 19,450 10,516 15,160 8,270 ,20,866 . 9,612 ,16,148 Negro. 4,78l 572 299 2,096 1,094 725 2,775 1,258 58o 638 804 143 504 16,697 5,177 564 175 876 922 5,554 452 2 223 15,409 1,585 136 4,348 2,838 565 2,946 427 2,345 428 1,739 272 644 2,071 *a6 2,421 704 PROGRESS OF A RACE. Counties. White. Negro. 50 Hart 16,190 2,220 51 Henderson . .24,101 8,804 52 Henry 12,690 1,930 53 Hickman 9,622 2,123 54 Hopkins 25,877 5,118 55 Jackson 10,542 19 56 Jefferson . . . 188,630 43,916 57 Jessamine . . . 8,576 3,349 58 Johnson 13,729 i 59 Kenton 60,292 3,582 60 Knox 16,618 754 61 Knott 8,535 169 62 Larue 9,982 782 63 Lawrence . . . 19,427 185 64 Lee 7,717 271 65 Leslie 6,638 75 66 Lewis 17,703 175 67 Lincoln 13, 547 3,512 68 Letcher 9,126 46 69 Livingston . . 10,576 778 70 Logan 19,256 6,738 71 Lyon 7,387 1,932 72 McCracken .21,479 7,283 73 McLean ....11,574 774 74 Madison 18,917 6,690 75 Magoffin ...11,785 136 76 Marion 13,479 2,811 77 Marshall . . . 13,344 348 78 Martin 5,765 15 79 Mason 16,678 3,768 80 Meade 9,643 890 81 Menifee 6,777 41 82 Mercer 11,958 2,868 83 Metcalfe 8,989 999 84 Monroe 12,371 684 85 Montgomery 9,349 2,483 86 Morgan 12,739 53 87 Muhlenberg .18,584 2,157 88 Nelson 13,145 3,442 Counties. White. Negro. 89 Nicholas ....10,623 1,332 90 Ohio 23,894 1,393 91 Oldham 5,458 1,620 92 Owen 16,083 1,470 93 Owsley 6,801 73 94 Pendleton . . . 14,459 588 95 Perry 8,115 161 96 Pike 22,496 190 97 Powell 6,068 375 98 Pulaski 29,957 1,336 99 Robertson ... 4,772 128 100 Rockcastle .. 12,259 157 101 Rowan 8,223 54 102 Russell 9,401 274 103 Scott 13,014 5,062 104 Shelby 13,642 4,698 105 Simpson 9,074 2,550 106 Spencer 6,155 1,250 107 Taylor 5,432 1,643 1 08 Todd 11,202 6,169 109 Trigg 10,576 3,497 no Trimble 7,071 201 in Union 18,213 3,113 112 Warren 22,978 6,992 113 Washington. 12,283 1,899 114 Wayne 14,281 608 115 Webster ....17,708 2,389 116 Woodford .... 8,415 4,719 117 Whitley 24,246 769 1 18 Wolfe 8,667 97 LOUISIANA. 1 Acadia 18,662 4,820 2 Ascension . . . 2,048 12,081 3 Assumption .12,189 9,438 4 Avoyelles ...17,762 11,891 5 Bienville 9,348 8,230 6 Bossier 5,262 18,890 7 Caddo ...... 13,826 30,662 8 Calcasieu 24,267 5,966 STATISTICS OF THE RACE. 705 Counties. White. Negro. 9 Caldwell .... 3,841 3,076 10 Cameron 3,375 577 ii Catahoula . . 9,5i8 6,793 12 Claiborne . . . 9,202 13,828 13 Concordia . . . I,7H 11,845 M De Soto .... 8,150 16,903 15 East Baton Rouge .... 10,562 20,578 16 East Carroll. 959 10,412 17 EastFeliciana 5,570 14,871 18 Franklin 3,870 5,020 IQ Grant O 2.V7 3665 * :/ 20 Iberia v>**o/ 14,729 O> WVj 'O 14282 21 Iberville T^/ **y 9,842 *H> w 7,159 22 Jackson C QIC -3 2O4 23 Jefferson OV * D 8,979 o> ^^t 6,279 24 Lafayette . . 13,309 9,5i6 25 Lafourche . . . 20,626 9,5i6 26 Lincoln QT7Q 6, 75Q 27 Livingston . . y> * Ozr 9,139 >/ o^ 1,144 28 Madison .... 899 11,422 2 9 Morehouse . 3,9H 12,722 30 Natchitoches 13,662 19,544 31 Orleans 208,946 77,714 32 Ouachita 7,847 13,098 33 Plaquemines .5,762 7,276 34 Ponite Cou- nee 6,60 1 IO I7J. 1C Rapides . . . 18,320 y, 1 /^ 21,210 oo 36 Red River .. 4,077 7,471 37 Richland . . . 3,222 7,892 38 Sabine 12,418 5 OO2 O w 39 St. Bernard . 2,832 ,J,W*r 2,197 40 St. Charles , . 2,970 6,102 4i St. Helena .. 3,896 4,583 42 St. James . . . 8,839 11,356 43 St. John the Baptist .... 5,145 7,184 44 St. Landry . . 25,170 26,658 45 Progress Counties. White. Negro. 45 St. Martin ...10,051 8,883 46 St. Mary . . . 13,789 20,264 47 St. Tammany 8,415 4,889 48 Tangipahoa .12,248 5,375 49 Tensas 1,291 17,839 50 Terrebonne .14,142 10,312 51 Union n,553 6,967 52 Vermilion ...16,957 3,747 53 Vernon 9,048 1,279 54 Washington . 6,846 2,776 55 Webster 6,863 5,262 56 West Baton Rouge 2,351 7,934 57 West Carroll. 1,556 2,128 58 West Feliciana2,2i3 13,781 59 Winn 7,067 1,319 MARYLAND. 1 Allegany 52,019 1,669 2 Anne Arundel24,236 15,367 3 Baltimore ..79,123 11,618 4 Bait. City ..429,218 79,258 5 Calvert 5,080 5,143 6 Caroline 12,009 4,237 7 Carroll 31,71? 2,143 8 Cecil 20,850 3,805 9 Charles 8,014 9,648 10 Dorchester ..18,476 9,584 11 Frederick ...45,905 6,012 12 Garrett 17,575 126 13 Harford 22,411 5,854 14 Howard 12,309 4,405 15 Kent 11,343 7,442 16 Montgomery 20,393 10,054 17 Prince George ...17,910 11,985 18 Queen Anne.i 1,991 6,372 19 St. Mary 8,928 8,256 20 Somerset ...16,387 9,533 21 Talbot 12,875 7,466 706 PROGRESS OF A RACE. Counties. White. 22 Washington .42,642 23 Wicomico ..17,023 24 Worcester . ..13,992 MISSISSIPPI. 1 Adams 6,439 2 Alcorn 7,407 3 Amite 8,400 4 Attala 13,875 5 Benton 5,310 6 Bolivar 4,197 7 Calhoun 12,415 8 Carroll 9,197 9 Chickasaw . . 8,148 10 Choctaw 9,451 11 Claiborne . . . 4,565 12 Clarke 9,245 13 Clay ... 5,927 14 Coahoma 3,o8i 15 Copiah 16,355 16 Covington . . 8,471 17 De Soto 6,233 18 Franklin .... 6,883 19 Greene 4,94* 20 Grenada 3,828 21 Hancock 8,356 22 Harrison 14,632 23 Hinds . .13,037 24 Holmes 25 Issaquena 26 Itawamba 27 Jackson -_, 28 Jasper 7, 29 Jefferson 4, 30 Jones 13,156 31 Kemper 8,669 32 Lafayette . . . 12,378 33 Lauderdale .19,190 34 Lawrence . . . 7,535 8,120 622 12,202 10,697 ,729 4,020 Negro. 2,488 5,828 6,8ll 23,668 3,825 12,308 12,350 5,200 3IJ97 4,197 12,919 n,744 3,585 16,213 8,493 13,633 24,183 18,036 4,605 18,513 6,799 i,778 10,281 3,469 6,367 39,53i 28,707 9,77i i,342 5,8i5 7,474 17,270 4,690 n,645 9,730 i8,958 7,568 Counties. White. 35 Leake io,747 36 Lee 13,297 37 Leflore 2,796 38 Lincoln 12,341 39 Lowndes 7,121 40 Madison 6,574 41 Marion 9,178 42 Marshall .... 8,966 43 Monroe 12,555 44 Montgomery 7,963 45 Neshoba 9,874 46 Newton 11,659 47 Noxubee . . . 4,699 48 Oktibbeha . . 6,363 49 Panola 9,661 50 Pearl River . 4,904 51 Perry 9,808 52 Pike 13,829 53 Pontotoc 13,447 54 Prentiss 12,657 55 Quitman 1,258 56 Rankin 8,679 57 Scott 8,107 58 Sharkey 1,449 59 Simpson 7,846 60 Smith 10,695 61 Sunflower . . 4,006 62 Tallahatchie 6,308 63 Tate 8,439 64 Tippah 10,080 65 Tishomingo . 9,073 66 Tunica i,559 67 Union 12,380 68 Warren 10,346 69 Washington 5,002 70 Wayne . . 7,481 71 Webster 9,694 72 Wilkinson . . . 4,384 Negro. 6,231 8,658 21,031 9,209 21,972 25,918 4,323 18,708 18,656 8,573 2,279 7,6i4 26,146 13,819 19,366 i,79i 4,822 13,713 4,827 4,177 12,269 6,065 10,723 4,954 2,360 12,070 13,281 12,179 2,903 1,051 I4-9H 4,142 30,554 44J43 5,058 3,926 17,069 STATISTICS OF THE RACE. 707 Counties. White. 73 Winston 8,192 74 Yalobusha . . 9,284 75 Yazoo n,743 MISSOURI. 1 Adair 21,412 2 Andrew 17,112 3 Atchison .... 18,470 4 Audrain 19,534 5 Barry 25,523 6 Barton 18,205 7 Bates 29,834 8 Benton 16,366 9 Bellinger . . . 14,636 10 Boone 24,028 11 Buchanan ..115,322 12 Butler 15,241 13 Caldwell 16,226 14 Callaway . . . .21,880 15 Camden 13,028 16 Cape Girard- eau 22,327 17 Carroll 25,123 18 Carter 6,702 19 Cass 23,044 20 Cedar 16,878 21 Chariton . . . .22,980 22 Christian 16,822 23 Clark 15,233 24 Clay 17,784 25 Clinton 16,290 26 Cole 18,317 27 Cooper 18,999 28 Crawford ...12,911 29 Dade 17,831 30 Dallas 13,892 31 Daviess 20,994 32 DeKalb 14,291 33 Dent 12,958 34 Douglas 16,775 Negro. Counties. White. "Negro. 5,901 35 Dunklin 21,500 205 10,458 36 Franklin ....28,756 1,825 32,002 37 Gasconade . . 12,230 68 38 Gentry 20,558 16 316 39 Greene 49,4i8 3,298 220 40 Grundy 17,600 232 31 41 Harrison ....24,347 45 1,627 42 Henry '.26,962 1,092 9 43 Hickory .... 9,984 I 48 44 Holt i6,945 137 307 45 Howard 14,155 4,182 190 46 Howell 21,612 222 14 47 Iron 8,458 248 4,564 48 Jackson ...176,053 19,044 6,509 49 Jasper 82,576 1,428 1,524 50 Jefferson ...23,593 1,119 430 51 Johnson 26,128 1,710 4,104 52Knox.. 13,105 175 95 53 Laclede 16,159 364 54 Lafayette . . . 28,002 2,677 1,987 55 Lawrence ...31,379 285 i,332 56 Lewis 15,680 1,043 4 57 Lincoln 16,621 1,731 592 58 Linn 24,727 786 45 59 Livingston .21,507 795 3,246 60 McDonald ..13,560 2 117 61 Macon 31,438 1,570 142 62 Madison 9,732 242 1,115 63 Maries 9,615 I 1,170 64 Marion 22,974 3,35 2,259 65 Mercer 14,448 58 3,505 66 Miller 14,995 190 46 67 Mississippi . . 9,572 2,265 294 68 Moniteau . . . 15,223 706 ii 69 Monroe 18,108 1,608 329 70 Montgomery 15,260 1,411 127 71 Morgan u,737 438 28 72 New Madrid 9,253 2,027 27 73 Newton ....26,280 699 708 PROGRESS OF A RACE. Counties. - White. Negro. 74 Nodaway ...32,809 129 75 Oregon 13,899 7 76 Osage 13,822 274 77 Ozark 12,119 26 78 Pemiscot ...11,253 862 79 Perry 14,694 44O 80 Pettis 29,541 2,897 81 Phelps 14,009 184 82 Pike 21,503 4,239 83 Platte 15,098 1,095 84 Polk 23,070 185 85 Pulaski 10,357 37 86 Putnam 16,670 16 87 Rails 11,360 927 88 Randolph ...21,600 2,842 89 Ray 23,197 1,608 oo Reynolds ... 8,161 o 91 Ripley 13,185 I 92 St. Charles. .22,432 2,139 93 St. Clair 17,645 260 94 St. Genevieve 9,885 474 95 St. Francois.. 23, 440 611 96 St. Louis ...46,511 32,516 97 St. Louis City 539,385 35,5i6 98 Saline 28,939 4,761 99 Schuyler .... 10,840 o 100 Scotland 13,056 80 101 Scott 12,587 305 102 Shannon ....11,241 4 103 Shelby 15,488 679 104 Stoddard . ...24,622 47 105 Stone 9,888 4 106 Sullivan 20,168 no 107 Taney 10,105 2 108 Texas 22,187 3 109 Vernon 31,378 241 no Warren ..... 9,297 614 in Washington 13,622 641 Counties. White. Negro- 112 Wayne 15,194 113 Webster 16,524 114 Worth 9,824 115 Wright . . . .16,204 NORTH CAROLINA. 1 Alamance . . . 18,939 2 Alexander ..10,104 3 Alleghany .. 7,293 4 Anson 10,196 5 Ashe 18,897 6 Beaufort . . . .15,066 7 Bertie 8,717 8 Balden 9,452 9 Brunswick ... 7,613 10 Buncombe . .36,167 n Burke 15,023 12 Cabarrus .... 16,355 13 Caldwell . .. .13,751 14 Camden 3,263 15 Carteret 9,684 16 Caswell 6,829 17 Catavvba 19,148 18 Chatham . . , .15,573 19 Cherokee .. .11,391 20 Chowan .... 4,406 21 Clay 4,398 22 Cleveland ...20,258 23 Columbus . . . 14,541 24 Craven 9,613 25 Cumberland .16,677 26 Currituck . . . 4,752 27 Dare 4,183 28 Davidson ...20,229 29 Davie 9,476 30 Duplin 13,877 31 Durham 16,483 32 Edgecombe .10,004 33 Forsyth 24,718 34 Franklin .... 12,678 116 8 428 6,723 856 466 11,674 684 11,821 8,223 5,044 8,120 2,676 6,101 2,191 2,127 8,199 2,985 8,339 432 5,850 134 4,821 6,476 14.543 i,777 574 3,174 2,635 8,528 9,740 16,584 12,438 STATISTICS OF THE RACE. 709 Counties. White. 35 Gaston 20,661 36 Gates 5,609 37 Graham 4,190 38 Granville ...11,376 39 Greene 6,260 40 Guilford 27,069 41 Halifax 11,060 42 Harnett 10,930 43 Haywood ...15,609 44 Henderson . . 12,345 45 Hertford .... 5,995 46 Hyde 5,264 47 Iredell 21,732 48 Jackson 10,922 49 Johnston . . .24,079 50 Jones 4,466 51 Lenoir 10,592 52 Lincoln 12,537 53 McDowell . .10,673 54 Macon n,43i 55 Madison 20,086 56 Martin 8,056 57 Mecklenburg. 3 1, 393 58 Mitchell ....14,685 59 Montgomery 10,515 60 Moore 15,773 61 Nash 14,856 62 NewHanover 12,663 63 Northampton 9,031 64 Onslow .... 4,330 65 Orange 9,429 66 Pamlico 5,408 67 Pasquotank . 6,630 68 Fender 6,472 69 Perquimans .. 5,088 70 Person 9,654 71 Pitt 15,397 72 Polk 5,797' 73 Randolph . ..24,560 Negro. Counties. White. Negro. 7,242 74 Richmond . . . 8,092 7,763 4,804 75 Robeson . . . .19,577 16,917 26 76 Rockingham 21,544 11,617 11,887 77 Rowan .22,948 8,115 5,778 78 Rutherford . . 20,649 4,441 11,103 79 Sampson . . .17,250 9,130 19,733 80 Scotland . . . 5,709 6,7IO ^ o;8 81 Stanly I -2 421 I 700 J> V ^O*-' 613 82 Stokes * A O T * .16,875 A 9/ ;ry 2,991 i,559 83 Surry . 22,6O9 2,904 8,39i 84 Swain 7,352 174 4,014 85 Transylvania 6,005 615 7,332 86 Tyrrell 3,518 1,462 591 87 Union . . 10 1^7 7 QQQ 8,171 88 Vance *;/j * J/ 6,929 / ^y^y 9755 7,760 89 Wake 70 267 24 7^8 o?/ 8,045 90 Warren O*-','*' vy / . 6,082 ^*TOO U 13,009 2,961 91 Washington 5,242 5,366 i,893 92 Watauga . .. 13,026 391 673 07 Wayne . l8,074 I 7,4IO 551 94 Wilkes . J.WjW^)fc|t 24 47* *O>" 3* 2 4^7 7,327 95 Wilson .... ^''r'HOO 1-1,601 *^T"O/ 9,905 23,873 96 Yadkin .... . A^jWV^ j. .12,895 :7)y** f O 1,187 536 97 Yancey TT.T8T 287 3,682 SOUTH CAROLINA. 7,849 i Abbeville . . .11,340 22,069 10,619 2 Aiken .17,378 21,640 13,109 3 Anderson . . .32,232 23,496 12,112 4 Bamberg . .. ..5,658 11,638 3,6io 5 Barnwell . .. . 10,088 25,416 5,261 6 Beaufort . . . 3,349 32,137 2,637 7 Berkeley . . . 6,481 23,973 7,027 8 Charleston . 27,647 60,312 6,909 9 Cherokee . . . 13,962 7,396 5,003 10 Chester .... . 9,244 19,372 7,023 ii Chesterfield .12,256 8,145 15,492 12 Clarendon . . 8,033 20,151 1,207 13 Colleton . . . .11,187 22,265 3,672 14 Darlington , .13,083 I9>304 710 PROGRESS OF A RACE. Counties. White. Negro. 15 Dorchester . 6,202 10,089 16 Edgefield ... 7,147 18,131 17 Fairfield .... 7,052 22,375 18 Florence 11,819 16,654 19 Georgetown 5,336 19,507 20 Greenville ...33,999 19,488 21 Greenwood .. 9,437 18,906 22 Hampton . . . 8,236 15,502 23 Horry 17,042 6,320 24 Kershaw 10,002 14,693 25 Lancaster ...12,201 12,110 26 Laurens 15,205 22,177 27 Lexington . . 16,961 10,303 28 Marion 16,992 18,160 29 Marlboro ...11,226 16,413 30 Newberry ...10,261 19,831 31 Oconee i7,53O 6,104 32 Orangeburg .18,220 41,412 33 Pickens 14,574 4,8oi 34 Richland 17,513 28,070 35 Saluda 8,819 10,147 36 Spartanburg .44,391 21,167 37 Sumter 12,881 38,353 38 Union io,943 14,558 39 Williamsb'g .11,818 19,867 40 York 19,784 21,839 TENNESSEE. 1 Anderson ...16,516 1,118 2 Bedford 7,577 6,268 3 Benton 11,348 540 4 Bledsoe 6,151 475 5 Blount 17,591 1,607 6 Bradley 13,672 2,085 7 Campbell . . . 16,701 616 8 Cannon 11,266 1,827 9 Carroll 18,669 5,58i 10 Carter 16,026 661 11 Cheatham . . 8,450 1,662 12 Chester 7,870 2,026 Counties. White. Negro 13 Qaiborne ..19,967 729 14 Clay 8,053 368 15 Cocke 17,892 1,261 16 Coffee I3<772 1,802 17 Crockett ....11,821 4,046 18 Cumberland 7,739 574 19 Davidson ...78,888 43,902 20 Decatur 9,219 1,220 21 DeKalb 15,349 1,108 22 Dickson 15,716 2,919 23 Dyer 18,034 5,742 24 Fayette 8,019 21,682 25 Fentress .... 6,081 25 26 Franklin 16,953 3,439 27 Gibson 29,095 10,313 28 Giles 21,629 11,406 29 Grainger .... 14,862 650 30 Greene 29,027 1,569 31 Grundy 7,487 315 32 Hamblen . . . 10,916 1,791 33 Hamilton ...42,184 19,490 34 Hancock 12,874 273 35 Hardeman ..12,771 10,205 36 Hardin 16,568 2,678 37 Hawkins 22,113 2,154 38 Hay wood ... 8,109 19,080 39 Henderson .15,480 2,637 40 Henry 15,480 5,999 41 Hickman 13,756 1,056 42 Houston .... 5,420 1,575 43 Humphreys .. 9,883 470 44 Jackson 4,901 506 45 Jefferson ....16,416 2,174 46 James 4,901 506 47 Johnson ....10,221 368 48 Knox 62,525 n,777 49 Lake 5,384 1,084 50 Lauderdale . .11,802 10,169 51 Lawrence .,,14,43$ 9^7 STATISTICS OF THE RACE. 711 Counties. White. 52 Lewis 4,063 53 Lincoln 20,220 54 London 9,47i 55 McMinn 17,165 56 McNairy . ...15,118 57 Macon 12,007 58 Madison 19,572 59 Marion 15,176 60 Marshall 14,503 61 Maury 24,539 62 Meigs 6,828 63 Monroe 17,355 64 Montgomery 19,852 65 Moore 5,237 66 Morgan 8,987 67 Obion 23,444 68 Overton 13,072 69 Perry 8,135 70 Pickett 5,355 71 Polk 11,054 72 Putnam 16,122 73 Rhea 12,440 74 Roane 20,111 75 Robertson ..18,207 76 Rutherford ..20,572 77 Scott 10,742 78 Sequatchie .. . 2,289 79 Sevier 21,456 80 Shelby ......68,754 81 Smith 16,018 82 Stewart 12,932 83 Sullivan 23,370 84 Sumner 19,394 85 Tipton 15,307 86 Trousdale . . . 3,971 87 Unicoi 5,721 88 Union 12,815 89 Van Buren .. 3,071 90 Warren ,,.,,I433$ Negro. Counties. White. Negro. 392 91 Washington .20,456 2,147 6,084 92 Wayne .11,792 1,144 1,360 93 Weakley . . . .28,318 4,228 1,997 94 White .13,133 1,024 2,442 95 Williamson .16,765 9,664 874 96 Wilson . 19,820 7,256 i6,754 TEXAS. 2,105 i Anderson . . i6,399 11,615 4,260 2 Andrews . . . . 87 o 19,164 3 Angelina . . 11,324 2,156 663 4 Aransas .... . 1,527 189 1,222 5 Archer . 2,496 2 16,158 6 Armstrong . . 1,203 2 469 7 Atascosa . .. . 6,856 277 600 8 Austin 14,483 6,193 4,840 9 Bailey 4 O 273 10 Bandera 5,233 89 66 5 ii Bastrop .... i6,473 10,369 II 12 Baylor . 3,035 17 303 13 Bee . 7,244 476 768 14 Bell .41,712 3,812 1,878 15 Bexar 60,861 8,530 2,625 16 Blanco . 4-479 224 6,822 17 Borden .... 774 2 12,965 18 Bosque .... i6,545 845 335 19 Bowie . i6,477 10,199 37 20 Brazoria . . . . 6,642 8,219 565 21 Brazos . 10,008 8,845 84,773 22 Brewster .. . 2,275 80 3,oo8 23 Briscoe .... . i,253 2,352 24 Brown .... ..15,818 206 1,565 25 Burleson ... .10,044 8,323 6,677 26 Burnet 10,264 264 13,965 27 Caldwell . . . .16,075 5,687 2,033 28 Calhoun .... . 2,124 2.71 130 29 Callahan .... . 8,743 25 79 30 Cameron . .. .I5,9i8 177 55 31 Camp 4,892 4>354 2 >o74 32 Carson ,,,, .. 467 3 712 PROGRESS OF A RACE. Co 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 4i 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 5i 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 unties. Cass White. .15 n^i Negro. 8,908 828 8,196 I 44 o 2 00 2,456 2 9,633 259 14 1,875 570 o 8 3 13,646 I 967 2,067 4,940 o 4i 49 ii 5i 3 II 8,441 620 579 11,985 Co 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 9i 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 HO unties. Fannin White. . .45 ^28 Negro. 5,465 io,394 3 8 o 10,814 829 8,302 163 o 8,708 2 105 i i, 800 8,642 13 7,742 6,898 14,327 5,i87 3 o 7 i 18 948 19,894 21,697 i 5 2,134 2 4,347 no 2,978 241 3,8o Castro 400 Fayette .. Fisher . . . . .26,248 . 1 705 Chambers . . Cherokee . . Childress .. Clay . . 2,217 16,953 - 2,135 . O.I76 Floyd . . . . . . 2,012 Foard I 568 Fort Bend Franklin . Freestone Frio - 5,724 ... 7,745 ...10,608 . 4,0^7 Cochran . . . Coke 25 . T 428 Coleman . . . Collin . . . . 9,986 A1 fY2O Gaines . 55 Collingsworth 1,239 Colorado ...12,569 Comal - 6 *7^R Galveston Garza .... Gillespie . ...35,250 ... I8 3 . .8 \2\ Comanche .. Concho .... .23,009 . I A2\ Glasscock Goliad . . ... 285 . 6 504 Cooke .25,600 Gonzales . Gray ...20,217 467 Coryell . 2O 7^8 Cottle . I ,OO2 Grayson . 55 QOO Crane . er Gresrsr ft A AT) Crockett ... Crosby . 1,583 785 Grimes . II 770 Guadalupe Hale . . . . ..16,295 I 676 Dallam 146 Dallas ,60,052 Hall . 1 ,660 Dawson .... 37 Hamilton , Hansford . Hardeman Hardin . .. Harris . . . . ...13,507 ... 166 . .. 3,614 . 4,101 .,43846 Deaf Smith. Delta . 8 4 I . I 501 Denton 26 251 De Witt . . . Dickens .16,368 I 151 Harrison . Hartley .. ...10,174 376 Dimmit .... Donley .... . 1,065 2 704 Haskell 2 6^2 Duval . 8.471 Hays .. 12 OOO Eastland ... Ector .l8,O09 378 Hamphill . Henderson Hidalgo .. Hill ... 812 ...15,623 ... 6,727 jg -378 Edwards . . . Ellis 3,097 .45,216 .23,860 29,375 21.353 El Paso .... Erath Hockley . Hood .... 44 8 OO5 Falls Hopkins . ,,,,24,143 STATISTICS OF THE RACE. Counties. White, in Houston ...15,108 112 Howard 2,437 113 Hunt 42,945 114 Hutchinson 305 115 Iron 843 116 Jack 10,108 117 Jackson 3,904 118 Jasper 5,142 119 Jeff Davis... 1,117 120 Jefferson . . . 10,290 121 Johnson 32,670 122 Jones 7,049 123 Karnes 8,048 124 Kaufman ...27,281 125 Kendall .... 3,868 126 Kent 899 127 Kerr 4,832 128 Kimble 2,497 129 King 496 130 Kinney 2,096 131 Knox 4,322 132 Lamar 37,605 133 Lamb 31 134 Lampasas .. 8,253 135 La Salle 2,240 136 Lavaca 23,184 137 Lee 10,250 138 Leon n,i35 139 Liberty 5,736 140 Limestone .26,218 141 Lipscomb .. 790 142 Live Oak 2,195 143 Llnao 7,262 144 Loving 33 145 Lubbock ... 293 146 Lynn 17 147 McCulloch . 3,929 148 McLennan .45,345 149 McMullen .. 991 Negro. Counties. White. Negro. 10,342 150 Madison .. . 7,974 2,468 86 ISI Marion . . . . 3,6o6 7,147 4,340 152 Martin 330 2 153 Mason 5,519 54 4 154 Matagorda . 2,306 3,75i US 155 Maverick . . 3,87i 195 2,189 156 Madina . . . 7,427 356 2,996 157 Menard . . . . 1,971 20 42 158 Midland . . . 1,680 56 3,945 159 Milam 29,193 io,473 1,145 160 Mills 7,838 13 4 161 Mitchell ... . 2,712 140 633 162 Montague . 24,774 26 6,092 163 M'ntg'mery 10,448 6,619 235 164 Moore . 209 o o 165 Morris . 4,878 3,342 148 166 Motley i,257 o 6 167 Nacogd'hes 17,986 6,677 168 Navarro ... .34,294 9,072 349 169 Newton . . . . 4,797 2,485 o 170 Nolan 2,591 20 11,007 171 Nueces . . . . 9,844 577 172 Ochiltree . . 267 370 173 Oldham ... 448 i 63 174 Orange . . . . 4,887 1,068 4,890 175 Palo Pinto. .n,993 292 4,343 176 Panola .... . 12,200 9,204 6,937 177 Parker .... .24,956 865 2,366 178 Farmer . . . 34 o 6,354 179 Pecos 2,350 22 180 Polk . 9,3io 4,849 73 181 Potter , , , 1,802 15 39 182 Presidio . .. 3,6i4 53 183 Rains 5,588 539 184 Randall . 961 i o 185 Red River. .21,468 8,422 31 1 86 Reeves . 1,825 12 14,405 187 Refugio . . . . 1,180 4 6l 33 1 88 Roberts ... . 611 9 714 PROGRESS OF A RACE. Counties White. 189 Robertson .14,707 190 Rockwell ... 8,129 191 Runnels 5,346 192 Rusk 15,055 193 Sabine 4,642 194 San Aug'tine 5,513 195 San Jacinto. 4,720 196 San Patricio 2,336 197 San Saba.. . 7,496 198 Schleicher .. 502 199 Scurry 4,157 200 Shackelford 2,326 201 Shelby 16,335 202 Sherman ... 101 203 Smith 21,318 204 Somervell . . 3,492 205 Starr 11,328 206 Stephens . .. 6,461 207 Sterling .... 1,125 208 Stonewall . . 2,183 209 Sutton 1,722 210 Swisher 1,227 211 Tarrant 46,597 212 Taylor 10,315 213 Terry 48 214 Throckm't'n. 1,748 215 Titus 10,144 216 Tom Green. 5,896 217 Travis 34,065 218 Trinity ..... 8,163 219 Tyler 9,5io 220 Upshur 11,309 221 Upton 48 222 Uvalde 4,518 223 Valverde . . . 5,106 224 Van Zandt.. 24,115 225 Victoria .... 9,888 226 Walker 7,492 227 Waller 6,375 Negro. Counties. White. Neero. 16,747 228 Ward 1,448 3 402 229 Washington 16,888 16,039 33 230 Webb , , 21,641 205 11,039 231 Wharton . . . 8,223 8,717 1,752 232 Wheeler . . . 622 14 2,921 233 Wichita 5,595 204 5,531 234 Wilbarger .. 5,713 43 36 235 Williamson. 33,736 4,332 61 236 Wilson .... .12,847 1,114 13 237 Winkler .... 60 238 Wise 26,947 167 134 239 Wood 17,036 4,012 4,ii7 240 Yoakum . . . 26 o 3 241 Young 6,533 7 16,043 242 Zapata 4,76o 6 243 Zavalla 795 I 141 VIRGINIA. 5 i Accomac 20,743 11,825 2 2 Albemarle .. . 18,050 10,337 O 3 Alexandria . . 3,963 2,467 5 4 Alleghany ... 13,715 4,013 o 5 Amelia 3,052 5,985 5,756 6 Amherst .... 10,807 7,057 178 7 Appomattox. 5,731 3,93i o 8 Augusta .... 26,670 5,700 2 9 Bath 4,589 i, 006 2,148 10 Bedford 20,617 9,739 898 ii Bland 5,285 212 13,299 12 Botetourt . . . 13,284 3,977 2,763 13 Brunswick . . 7,375 10,842 2,389 14 Buchanan . . . 9,687 5 4,957 15 Buckingham. 7,415 7,85i o 16 Campbell . . . 13,641 9,6i5 129 17 Caroline 7,667 9,042 *56 18 Carroll 19,964 339 1,365 19 Charles City. 1,344 3,6g6 3,787 20 Charlotte . . . 6,798 8,545 8,319 21 Chesterfield . 11,105 7,699 7^71 22 Qarke ,.,,,, S>65 2,231 STATISTICS OF THE RACE. 715 Counties. White. 23 Craig 11,032 24 Culpeper 8,069 25 Cumberland . 2,791 26 Dickenson . . 7,747 27 Dinwiddie ... 5,874 28 Eliz'b'th City. 10,757 29 Essex 3,576 30 Fairfax 13,576 31 Fauquier 15,074 32 Floyd 14,313 33 Fluvanna .... 5,039 34 Franklin 20,005 35 Frederick . . . 12,486 36 Giles 9,994 37 Gloucester . . 6,222 38 Goochland . . 3,961 39 Grayson 15,894 40 Greene 4,783 41 Greenesville . 3,402 42 Halifax 11,922 43 Hanover 9,696 44 Henrico 17,246 45 Henry 10,881 46 Highland . . . 5,269 47 Isle of Wight 6,833 48 James City.. 1,346 49 King & Qu'n 4,006 50 King George. 3,696 51 King Will'm. 3,276 52 Lancaster . . . 4,058 53 Lee 19,116 54 Loudoun ....16,077 55 Louisa 7,896 56 Lunenburg ... 5,133 57 Madison .... 6,695 58 Mathews .... 5,844 59 Mecklenburg. 10,353 60 Middlesex ... 2,684 61 Montgomery 12,927 Negro. Counties. White. Negro. 261 62 Nansemond ..10,115 12,962 6,053 63 Nelson 10,403 5,672 6,205 64 New Kent... 1,660 3,204 o 65 Norfolk 19,113 31,600 9,500 66 Northampton 6,141 7,627 8,580 67 North'mb'rl'd 6,880 4,166 6,125 68 Nottoway . . . 4,966 7,400 5,003 69 Orange 7,050 5,519 8,298 70 Page 12,354 i,44O 1,075 71 Patrick 13,780 1,624 4,011 72 Pittsylvania .25,605 21,289 5,947 73 Powhatan ... 2,343 4,48i 753 74 Prince Edw'd 5,276 9,769 799 75 Prince G'rge. 2,886 4,858 6,608 76 Princess An'e 1,505 5,687 5,558 77 Prince Will'm 8,240 2,871 959 78 Pulaski 13,372 3,237 i,43i 79 Rappahann'k 6,121 2,722 6,356 80 Richmond ... 4,159 2,942 19,275 81 Roanoke n,99i 3,845 7,898 82 Rockbridge .17,715 4,084 12,816 83 Rockingham 30,893 2,632 8,383 84 Russell 17,267 764 378 85 Scott 22,067 627 6,268 86 Shenandoah .19,604 649 2,342 87 Smyth 15,900 1,170 5,259 88 Southampton. 9,165 13,683 3,322 89 Spottsylvania. 5,355 3,886 4,962 90 Stafford 6,489 1,608 4,891 91 Surry 3,286 5,183 740 92 Sussex 4,121 7,961 5,868 93 Tazwell 19,802 3,582 8,621 94 Warren 7,372 1,463 6,572 95 Warwick .... 1,159 3,729 3,521 96 Washington.. 26,433 2,555 2,395 97 Westmorel'nd 4,381 4,861 16,198 98 Wise 17,688 1,965 4,536 99 Wythe 17,653 2,783 2,9 2 5 100 York 3,396 4,081 716 PROGRESS OF A RACE. 8,059 .i8,7i7 7,079 WEST VIRGINIA. Counties. White. * 1 Barbour 12,390 2 Berkeley 3 Boone 4 Braxton 5 Brooke 6 Cabell 7 Calhoun 10,174 8 Clay 8,230 9 Doddridge ..13,663 10 Fayette 26,130 11 Gilmer 11,726 12 Grant 7,023 13 Greenbrier . . 18,854 14 Hampshire ..11,344 15 Hancock .... 6,646 16 Hardy 7,992 17 Harrison 26,434 18 Jackson 22,872 19 Jefferson n,994 20 Kanawha 50,711 21 Lewis 16,792 22 Lincoln 15,371 23 Logan 6,894 24 McDowell ..12,778 25 Marion 31,942 26 Marshall 27 Mason . .25,941 .22,604 Counties. White. Negro. 28 Mercer 20,119 808 29 Mineral 22,218 1,765 30 Mingo 11,050 135 31 Monongalia .18,747 187 32 Ivlonroe 12,300 139 33 Morgan 7,O74 i,537 34 Nicholas ....11,364 83 35 Ohio 46,765 18 36 Pendleton ... 9,044 25 37 Pleasants ... 9,335 5,857 38 Pocahontas . 7,947 36 39 Preston 22,565 252 40 Putnam . 1,829 41 Raleigh . 461 42 Randolph , , _ 46 43 Ritchie 18,875 457 44 Roane 19,820 1,252 45 Summers ...15,749 115 46 Taylor 14,553 3,941 47 Tucker 13,077 3,983 48 Tyler 18,153 178 49 Upshur 14,473 63 50 Wayne 23,298 61 51 Webster 8,850 5,969 52 Wetzel 22,440 482 53 Wirt 10,220 499 54 Wood -35,528 537 55 Wyoming . . . 8,286 .16,951 .12,076 17,149 Negro. 2,907 665 3IQ 299 830 220 19 1,251 123 6 625 162 378 360 519 26 33 c,"5 423 463 94 221 321 12 439 64 92* 94 POPULATION FOR CITIES HAVING 50,000 INHAB. ITANTS OR MORE 1900. NOTE. The United States census tables place under the heading, "COLORED," all "persons of Negro descent, Chinese, Japanese, and Indians." The first column following gives the number of all persons of every race, color, and nationality living in the cities named ; the second column, all white people of every nationality ; the third column, persons of Negro descent only. This will account for the fact that the sum of the numbers in the second and third columns does not equal the number in the first column. ^ The difference in each case shows the number of Chinese, Japanese, and Indians; StAtlStlCS OF THE RACE. Ill Cities. Total. White. Negro. 1 Albany, N. Y 94,151 92,962 1,178 2 Allegheny, Penn 129,896 126,552 3, 3*5 3 Atlanta, Ga 89,872 53,907 35,912 4 Baltimore, Md 508,957 429,218 79,258 5 Boston, Mass 560,892 548,083 11,591 6 Bridgeport, Conn 70,996 69,775 1,149 7 Brooklyn, N. Y 1,166,582 1,146,909 18,367 8 Buffalo, N. Y 352,387 350,586 1,698 9 Cambridge, Mass 91,886 87,879 3,888 10 Camden, N. J 75,935 70,280 5,576 11 Charleston, S. C 55,807 24,238 31,522 12 Chicago, 111 1,698,575 1,667,140 30,150 13 Cincinnati, Ohio 325,902 311,404 14,482 14 Cleveland, Ohio 381,768 375,664 5,988 15 Columbus, Ohio 125,560 H7.335 8,201 16 Dayton, Ohio 85,333 81,923 3,387 17 Denver, Colo 133,859 129,609 3,923 18 Detroit, Mich 285,704 281,575 4,111 19 Des Moines, Iowa 62,139 60,460 1,675 20 Duluth, Minn 52,969 52,547 357 21 Erie, Penn 52,733 52,483 244 22 Elizabeth, N. J 52,130 50,963 i, 139 23 Evansville, Ind 59,007 51,486 7,518 24 Fall River, Mass 104,863 104,458 324 25 Grand Rapids, Mich 87,565 86,952 604 26 Harrisburg, Penn 50, 167 46,044 4, 107 27 Hoboken, N. J 59,364 59,200 101 28 Hartford, Conn 79,850 77,837 1,887 29 Indianapolis, Ind 169,164 153,201 15,931 30 Jersey City, N. J 206,433 202,510 3,704 31 Kansas City, Kan 51,418 44,903 6,507 32 Kansas City, Mo 163,752 146,090 17,567 33 Lawrence, Mass 62,559 62,314 87 34 Los Angeles, Cal 102,479 98,082 2,131 35 Louisville, Ky 204,731 165,590 39,139 36 Lowell, Mass 94,969 94,774 136 37 Lynn, Mass 68,513 67,664 784 38 Manchester, N. H 56,987 56,926 28 39 Memphis, Tenn 102,320 52,380 49,910 40 Milwaukee, Wis 285,315 284,432 862 718 PROGRESS OF A RACE. Cities. Total. White. Negro. 41 Minneapolis, Minn 202,718 201,213 1,548 42 Nashville, Tenn 80, 865 50, 795 30.044 43 Newark, N. J 246,070 239,108 6,744 44 New Bedford, Mass 62,442 60,633 1,685 45 New Haven, Conn 108,027 105,034 2,887 46 New Orleans, La 287,104 208,946 77,714 47 New York,* N. Y 3, 437, 202 3*369,898 60,666 48 Oakland, Cal 66,960 64, 788 1,026 49 Omaha, Neb 102,555 99,009 3,443 50 Paterson, N. J 105,171 103,859 1,182 51 Peoria, 111 56,100 54,684 1,402 52 Philadelphia, Penn 1,293,697 1,229,673 62,613 53 Pittsburg, Penn 321,616 304,421 17,040 54 Portland, Me 50,145 49,822 291 55 Portland, Ore 90,426 80,614 775 56 Providence, R. 1 175,597 171, 5o8 4,817 57 Reading, Penn 79.9&I 78,4*4 534 58 Richmond, Va 85,050 52,798 32,230 59 Rochester, N. Y 162,608 161,994 601 60 St. Joseph, Mo 102,979 96,712 6,260 61 St. Louis, Mo 575,238 545,385 35 a 5i6 62 St. Paul, Minn 163,065 160,764 2,263 63 San Antonio, Tex 53,342 45,722 7.532 64 San Francisco, Cal 342,782 325,379 1,054 65 Salt Lake City, Utah 53,532 53.017 278 66 Savannah, Ga 54,244 26,109 28,090 67 Scranton, Penn 102,026 101,487 521 68 Seattle, Wash 80,865 76,815 406 69 Somerville, Mass 61,643 61,435 140 70 Springfield, Mass 62,057 60,986 1,021 71 Syracuse, N. Y 108,374 107,309 1,034 72 Toledo, Ohio 131,822 129,478 1,710 73 Trenton, N. J 73.3O7 7I.M9 2,096 74 Troy, N. Y 60,651 60,227 400 75 Utica, N. Y 57.383 56,137 244 76 Washington, D. C 278,718 191,532 86,702 77 Wilkesbarre, Penn. 51,721 51,036 680 78 Wilmington, Del 76,508 66,738 9,736 79 Worcester, Mass 118,421 117,206 i, 104 *This includes Greater New York, composed of the boroughs of (a) Bronx, (b) Brooklyn, (c) Manhattan, and (d) Queen and Richmond. COLORED MEMBERS OF CONGRESS. SENATORS. NAME. Elected. Service. State. Bruce, B. K ............. 1875-81 6 years Mississippi Revells, Hiram .......... Feb. 23, 1870, to Mch. 3, 1871 Mississippi REPRESENTATIVES. NAME. Cain, Rich. H Cheatham, H. P.. De Large, Robt. C Elliott, Robt. B.. Haalson, Jerry... Hyman, John . Langston, John M. Long, Jeff Lynch, John R. .. Miller, Thos. H.. Murray, Geo. W. Nash, Chas. E. . . . O'Hara, Jas. E . . . Rainey, Jos. H... Ransier, A J Rapier, Jas. T.... Smalls, Robt Turner, Benj. S.. Wall, JosiahT..., White, Geo. H.... Cong. Elected. .43d and 45th .52d and 53d .42d .42d .44th .44th 51st .41st .43d, 44th and 47th " .51st .53d and 54th ,44th .48th and 49th .44th et seq .43d .43d .44th, 45th and 47th" .42d .42d, 43d and 44th " 55th Length of Service. State. 4 years S. Carolina 4 N. Carolina 2 S. Carolina 2 " S. Carolina 2 " Alabama 2 " N. Carolina 2 " Virginia 2 ' Georgia 6 " Mississippi 2 S. Carolina 4 " S. Carolina 2 " Louisiana 4 " N. Carolina 10 ' S. Carolina 2 " S. Carolina 2 " Alabama 6 S. Carolina 2 " Alabama 6 " Florida 4 " N. Carolina NUMBER OF NEGROES APPOINTED AND EMPLOYED UNDER THE McKINLEY ADMINISTRATION. In 1901 the Hon. Judson W. Lyons and a few other colored men undertook to obtain exact information on appointments, and their inquiry was so thorough that the results are approximately accurate. They show that President McKinley has appointed Negroes to the following offices that are confirmed by the senate and others of prominence, not including fourth-class postoffices: Collectors of customs 9 Naval officers 2 Ministers plenipotentiary 3 Secretary of legation I Commissioner Paris exposition I Registrar and receiver of public lands 5 720 PROGRESS OF A RACE. Consuls 8 Registrar of the treasury I Stamp agent i Presidential postmasters 17 Collectors of internal revenue 5 Paymasters in the army 2 Army chaplains 3 Army surgeons 5 Pension examiner I Surveyor-general i Recorders of deeds 2 The officials of highest rank and salary, of Negro birth, are W. F. Powell, minister to Haiti ($5,000); O. L. W. Smith, minister to Liberia ($4,000); J. W. Lyons, registrar of the treasury ($4,000); H. P. Cheatham, recorder of deeds ($4,000). The name of J. W. Lyons appears upon every piece of paper money issued by the government. The following table shows the number of Negroes employed under the McKinley administration and the salaries drawn by them in the various executive departments: Number. Salaries. State department 12 $ 27,000 War department (estimated) 5,000 1,250,000 Navy department 40 20,000 Treasury department (estimated) 500 250,000 Interior department 28 19,400 Postoffice department 50 31,530 Agricultural department 12 25,000 General land office 33 39r344 Pension office , 99 07,740 Indian office 6 3,700 Patent office 37 31,120 Geological survey 15 7,240 Censusoffice 844 118,720 Government printing office 213 167,737 Recorder of aeeds 22 14,060 District of Columbia offices 75 41,200 It is impossible to ascertain how many postal railway mail clerks, letter carriers, deputy collectors, storekeepers, gaugers and other employes of the various branches of the government throughout the country are of Negro birth. It is also impossible to ascertain the exact number employed under the war department in various capacities, but they are estimated at 5,000. This does not include twenty-four captains, twenty-four first lieutenants, twenty-four second lieutentants and 4,871 privates in the army in the Philip- pines or several hundred Negroes who have enlisted in the navy and are serving on ships of war. INDEX. PAGE. Academic instruction 342 Accumulation of wealth. . . 301 Adams, J. N 242 Admissions, some frank, concerning women's clubs 229 Advancement 274 Africa, Negro for, 22; its future 31 African Methodist Episco- pal Church, 459; cut of, at Atlanta, Ga 461, 466 African Methodist Episco- pal Schools, list of 693 African Union Methodist Protestant Church 468 African Methodist Episco- pal Zion Schools, list of.. 693 Afro-American Presbyte- rian 452 Alcohol, evils of, as a bev- erage 184, 31$ Alexander, Rev. W. G., sketch of, 545; cut of 546 Allen, D. B 248 Allen University, cut of . . . 256 American Baptist 452 American Baptist Home Missionary Society, 380, 383, 442, 443 474 American Missionary Asso- ciation. 380 Anglo-Saxons 308 Anti-Slavery, agitation, 73; societies, 76; party, 77; women, 81; orators... 82, 85 Anthony, Mrs. Libbie C. . . 209 Area of the World .... 673 Arkansas Baptist College, cut of 436 Armstrong, Gen. S. C., quo- tations from 128, 515 Arnett, Bishop B. W., sketch of 540 Association, the National. . 210 PAGfi. Atkinson, Gov., quotations from 324 Atlanta Baptist Seminary. . 409 Atlanta Conference 417 Atlanta Constitution 336 Atlanta Exposition 295 Atlanta University, 233; cut of, 412; graduates of.... 413 Attucks, Crispus, cut, 60; first martyr for Ameri- can Liberty 62-3, 234 Atwood, W. C 299 Authors, colored, list of, 619-624; their literary work 601 Bailey, Mrs. Ida 207 Balay, Rev. W. D., sketch of 547 Baldwin, Louis F 237, 238 Baldwin, Miss Maria.... ". . 209 Baltimore, T. D , . 298 Bandera, Quintin 132 Banks, Charles 250, 251 Banks, Dr. J. B., cut of, 597; sketch of 597 Banneker, Benjamin 14 Baptist Church, regular, colored, 464; at Augusta, Ga., cut of 465 Baptist College of Arkan- sas, 437; cut of 436 Baptist Missionary Society, 383 Baptist Schools, list of 092 Baptist Seminary, Atlanta, cut of class, 330; cut of building 408, 409 Barnett, Mrs. Ida Wells, sketch of 6n Barrier, Miss Ella D. . .207, 209 Bartlet, Harris 251 Bates, Lewis 302 Becraft, Maria 201 Berea College 398-399 Biddle, Mrs. Mary D 444 46 Progress. 721 INDEX. PAGE. Biddle University, 444, cut of 445 Big Bethel Church, cut of, 461 Billingslea 292 Birney, James G 77 "Black Harry" 458 Black, John 298-299 Black laws in border states 57 Blair, Henry W., quotations from 339 Blood, of one 13 Bloodhounds, encounter with, cut 123 Blyden, Dr., quotation from 14 Blyden, Rev. E. W., sketch of..... 536 Booker, Rev. J. A., sketch of 548 Booz, E. P 249 Border states, black laws in 57 Boston, Massacre, 61; meeting at 237 Bowen, Dr. J. W. E., quo- tations from, 148, 151, 191, 463; cut of, 590; sketch of 590 Boyd, Dr. R. F., cut of, 586; sketch of 586 Boyd, R. H 251 Bradley, I. F., sketch of. ... 578 Briscoe, Mrs 263 Brooks, Blanche V. H 201 Brown, Dr. A. M 243 Brown, David 281 Brown, Henry Box, his escape ..98-101 Brown, John 77, 87 Brown,}. W 264 Brown, T. A 250 Bruce, B. K., sketch of 619 Bruce, Roscoe C 450 Bryce, Prof., quotation from 367 Bulkley.Prof. W. L., sketch of 529 Burwell, Dr. L. L 243 Business education 270 Business world 187 Butler, Dr., quotations from 302-303 Butler, Gen., quotations from 116 Butler, Dr. H.R., quotations from 277-278 Butt.F.L 264 Callioux, Capt 121 Galloway, G. F 260 Galloway, Mrs. F 262 Canterbury Seminary 200 Carleton, Will M 649 Carnes, Rev. J. R., sketch of 550 Carney, Sergt. Wm. H., at Fort Wagner 1 18-120 Carroll; Dr., quotation from 667 Carter, Rev. E. R., sketch of, 548; cut of 549 Carver, Prof. Geo. W., sketch of, 599; cut of. ... 509 Casneau, Mrs. A. A 243 Catholic Women's League, 224 Caucasians 17 Central Tennessee College, 425 Chaplain, W. L 90 Charitable institutions 313 Chicago, meeting at 249 Chicago Woman's Club. . . 217 Christian Index 452 Christian Record. 452 Christian schools, list of . . . 693 Churches, colored 301 Church organizations, col- ored 459 Cities, Negroes living in 310-31 1 Clark, Rev. G. V., sketch of, 553 Clark University, 409; cut of, 410; Girls' Industrial School, cut of 322 Clay, Cassius M 77 Clubs, colored women's, rec- ognition of, 228; names of, Ellen Watkins Har- per, 205; Loyal Union, 205; Ida B. Wells, 205; Phyllis Wheatley, 205, 206; Sojourner Truth, 205; Wo- man's Era, 205, 206; Wo- man's League 205-206 Club, list of Negro women of National Association.. 210 Club movement, among Negro women, 197, 203; INDEX. 723 PAGE. work, 204, 230; first or- ganization, 205; develop- ment of 208 Coffin, F. B., sketch of 595 Coffin, Levi go Coles, Julia E 264 Color line 227 Color, theory of, 16; grada- tions of 17 Colored American 237, 452 Colored Christian ministry, 463 Colored M. E. Church, 459, 469 Colored press discussed, 452-454 Colored woman, her friends, 225; attitude of 226 Conference, Women's 209 "Conflict in a barn," cut. . . 94 Congregationalists 38 1 Congregational Church, At- lanta, Ga., cut of 470 Congregational Methodist, colored 471 Congregational Schools, list of 694 Conklin, Seth 104 Contents 7 Cook, Miss Helen 207-209 Cooper, Mrs. Anna G.. .207-209 Cooper, E. .,237,238, 250; sketch of, 61 1 ; cut of 612 Coppin, Mrs. Fannie Jack- son 201 Cotton mills 268 Cotton picking, cut of 269 Cotton States Exposition, 204-295 Councill, W. H 283-284 Craft, William and Ellen, 103 Crandall, Prudence 200, 607 Crawford, A. F ... 249 Creekmur, C. R 263 Crime, 180, 321; of mothers, 307 Criminals 188 Criminality 685 Crisman, Mrs. Eliza 411 Crogman, W. H., cut, fron- tispiece 505 Cross-roads grocery 179 Crummell, Rev. Alexan- PAGE. der, quotations from, 385; sketch of . . 534 Cumberland Presbyterian, colored 472 Cunningham, D. J 249 Curtis, T. A., sketch of 598 Curse, theory of, 14; basis for argument 15 Cush 16 "Danville Chariot," poem., 635 "Dat Thanksgivin' Tur- key," poem 652 Davis, S. L 251 Davis, Pres. A. G., quota- tion from 298 Davis, Rev. Jas. A., sketch of 547 Day, Mrs. Wm 262 Day, Rev. Wm. H., sketch of 553 Deaths 306 Dennison, F. A., sketch of. 573 Denominations, Negro re- ligious, 462; amounts spent by each 463 Deportation of Negroes. . . 22 Dickerson, Mrs 209 Dickey, Rev. G. W 482 Diseases 315 Dispensaries 314 Distribution of the Negro race 683-685 Douglass, Frederick, 14; quotations from, 147, 200, 474, 644, 645; sketch of, 485; cut of 486 Drink traffic 27 DuBois, Prof. W. E. B., 204, 233; sketch of 528 Dumas, Alexander 14 Dunbar, Paul Laurence, sketch of, 60 1 ; cut of,6or; poems from. 651,654 Duncan, Bishop, quotation from 671 Dungee, Dr. A. C 242 "Dying Bondman, The," poem 606 724 INDEX Early, Mrs. S. W Early School , 379 Eaton, Gen. John 379 Economic conditions 367 Education, its object, 323; improvements in, 324; power of, 339; secondary and higher, 349; past and present 655 Educators... 164 Educational improvements, 323; tables 690-691 Educational institutions, number of 340 Edwards, Dr., quotation from 47 Edwards, Rev. J. E., quota- tion from 258 Elbert, Dr. E. E 243 Emancipation of slaves.. . 59 Emery, W. O 246 Episcopal schools, list of. . 693 "Equal to the emergency," Qut 643 Era Club 207, 208, 209 "Ethiopia," poem 409 Ethiopians 16 Eustis, quotation from 69 Evans, Dr 311 Ewing, T. G., sketch of . . . 574 Exposition, cotton states (1895) 294-295; at Nash- ville (1897) 295 Fairbanks, Calvin 89 Fairchild, E. H 399 Farms and homes 255, 681 Fee, Rev. J. G 398 Fidelity of the Negro 36 Fields, James A 259 Figurative prayer 652 Financial growth of the Negro 297 First colored regiment 120 Fisk University, 377; cut of, 378; alumni, 396; jubi- lee singers, cut of 397 Fitzbutler, Dr. Sarah' H., sketch of 506 PAGE. Fitzbutler, Dr. Henry, sketch of 594 Fitzgerald, JR. W...: 241 Five great institutions. . . . 372 Forerunners of liberty 485 Fortune, T. Thos., 238, 248, 250, 251; quotations from, 363 368 Fort Wagner 118 Fowlkes, J. P 249 Frames, Mrs. John R 207 Freedmen's aid of M. E. Church 382, 409 Freedmen's Bureau 380-381 Freedmen's Savings Bank, 451 Free-Will Baptist 381 Friends' schools, list of. ... 694 Frost, Prof. W. G 399 Fugitive slave law 89 "Funeral, The," poem 647 Furness, Rev. Wm. H., cut of 321 Gaines, Bishop, on lynch- ing... 177 Gammon, Rev. Elijah H. . 4*t Gammon Theological Sem- inary, cut of 386, 411 Garnett, Mrs. Henry H.. . . 201 Garrett, Thomas 90-91 Garrison, Wm. Lloyd, 74, 75,82,85,234,235,485... 488 Gates, Pres., quotation from, 365 Gilbert, Prof. John Wesley, 519 Girls' Industrial School.. . . 322 Givens, Miss L. V., sketch of 619 Glenn, Prof., quotations from 274, 276 Gorden, Nora A 406 Grady, Henry W., quota- tion from 336 Graham, W. F 251 Grandchildren of slaves, cut 56 Grant, Gen. U. S in Grant, J. W., sketch of 575 Graves, J. K 249 Greeley, Horace 273 Greener, R. T., sketch of. . 618 INDEX. 725 Greenwood, Prof. J. M., quotation from .......... 166 Gnmke, Mrs. C. .,201,202, 207; sketch of ........... 617 Grknke, Rev. F. J., sketch of ...................... 543 Gunby, Judge, quotations from ............ .....24, 332 Hadley, Dr. W. A., sketch "Hai'l! Ha'ii !* Hail*!"' poem. '. 640 Hale Infirmary. . .......... 480 Hall, Walter? ............ 251 Ham ................... 15, 16 Hamilton R. H ............ 262 Hamm, J. R .............. 237 Hancock, R. M ........... 298 Hampton, Clark, sketch of, 615 Hampton Institute, 355, 391, 394.5H, 633; cut of..... 390 Hampton Students, testi- monials from ....... 259-264 Hapgood, Bishop ......... 407 Harper, Mrs. Frances E. L. W.,3oi; cut of, 21 ; sketch of, 498; poems from, 500- 504; quotations from. . 606-607 Harris, Prof., quotation from .................... 659 Harris, G. C., 237, 238, 243, 250 Harris, Bishop C. R., sketch of Hart, Thomas N ____ . ..... 2 Hartzell, Dr .............. 3 Haven, Bishop Gilbert ---- 411 Hayden, Mrs. D. 1 ......... 201 Haygood, Dr. A. G., quota- tions from, 195, 323, 325, 334 ..................... 661 Heathen Africa ........... 173 Heathenism .............. 152 Hebrew ................... 15 Hemming, Miss Anita, sketch of ............... 642 Henry,W.P .............. 260 Heredity and Alcohol ..... 315 Herodotus ................ 16 Heroism of the Negro ..... 69 Hillyer, A. F .............. 239 Holmes, Prof. W. .,405; cut of, 518; sketch 0^518-519 Holsley, Bishop L. H., cut of, 532; sketch of 532 Hood, Bishop J. W., sketch of 543 Homes 305 Hope of the South 264 Hopkins, Prof. M. A., sketch of 619 Hopkins, Rev. Dr., quota- tion from 71 Hospitals 314 Howard, Mrs. Imogene... 209 Howard, D. T., his home and family 280 Howard, Clara 407 Hudson, R. B 242 Humane Masters 153 Hunter, Gen. David and the Negro Soldiers. . . 108-109 ffuntsvitfe Herald 284 Ignorance, Evil Effects of. 317 Illiteracy of Colored Peo- ple, 347; Disappearance of 349 Income of Negroes 311-312 Industries, progress of .... 255 Industrial College, Georgia, 422 Industrial Education 351 Industrial Schools of the 44 South, 350, 351; for girls, 322 J u Industrial Training, 350, 351; importance of.. 353, 365 Indianapolis Freemen 452 Ingenuity of Negro 27 Infants, mortality of among 319-320 Insurrection, Negro 47 Intemperance a cause of mortality 314-3*5 Introduction 4 Ivy, L. S 261 ackson, C. H 285 ackson, Deal 293 ackson, G. B 238, 240, 250 apheth 15 726 INf>EX. T T T^ JerferiSj J. P., quotation from 20 effrey, Maj 66 effis, Joe 293 enkins, S. J., sketch of.... 580 ohnson, A. M 251 ohnson, C. K 237 ohnstone, David L., sketch of 592 Johnson, E. A., quotation from 192,230 Johnson, Gen. Edw., cut of, 127 Johnson, Prof., quotation from 18 Johnson, Rev. Wm., quota- tion from 445-446 ones, Geo. C 238 ones, Geo. E 249-250 ones, T.W 238, 250 _ ones, Wm 97 Jones, Wiley, 281, 298 Josephus 16 Jubilee Singers, cut of 397 Kealing, Prof. H. S., quota- tion from 663 Kendrick, Minnie M. 221 Kennedy, Rev. Paul H., sketch of 552 Kidnapping 40 King, W. E., sketch of 619 Knoxville College 435 Labor 353.357 Laney, Mrs. Lucy, sketch of 525 Langston, John M., 568; cut of, 577; sketch of 577 Laurens, Col., letter to Gen. Washington 71 Lawyers, colored, 555; list of . 567, 570 League, National Negro Business, 233; scope of, 238; origin of, 233 ; second annual meeting of 249 "Left to their fate," a cut . . 58 Leftwick, J C 246 Leland University, cut of, 348 428 Lewey, M. M 237, 240, 250 PAGE. Lewis, Edmonia 616 Lewis, J. H 237, 247 Lewis, Rev. W., sketch of, 617 Liberia 28 Lincoln, President A., quo- tation from, 42; cut of, 106, 117 List of colored authors, 619-624 List, Club of National Asso- ciation of Club Women. . 210 List of publications (Negro) 619-624 List of wealthy Negroes. . . 299 Livingstone, Dr., quotation from, 18; his tomb 36-37 Livingstone College ; . 434 Logan, Gen. John A., quota- tion from 161 Love, Dr. A. J 242 Lovejoy, E. P 77 Lovelace, Henry 242 Lowe, Mrs. Rebecca D., 2 19, 221 Lowell, James Russell, quo- tation from 32.7 Lowry, S. R., silk-worm grower 281 Lucas, D. W 237 Lucas, Rev. W. W., cut of, 168 Luckie, Prof. C. W., sketch of 528 Lullaby, a poem 649 Lundy, Benj., quotation - from 74 Lynching, Bishop Gaines on 177 McCurdy, Mrs. M. A., ; sketch of : . 610 McElwee, Hon. Samuel, sketch of 564 McKinley, Jacob 301 McKinley, Pres. Wm.. .250,288 McKinney, J.W., sketch, of, '617 Maceo, Gen. Antonio. ...... "132 Mail rifling .... " 85 Manual labor, dignity of.. . 265 Martin Luther Graves Hall, cut of Martin, Mrs Mason, D. M., sketch of . . . 580 INDEX. 727 PAGE. Mason, Rev. M. C. D., sketch of ............... 551 Matthews, R. H ........... 261 Matthews, Mrs. Victoria E., 209 Mayo, Rev. A. D , quota- tion from ............... 163 Medical Association, The American, 585; The Southern Empire State. . 585 Medical colleges ....... 583, 584 Medical women ........... 584 Meharry Medical College, 376, 426; cut of .......... 427 PAGE. Murphy, W. ............ 251 Murray, Prof. J. L., cut of, 344 Myers, Rev. Cyrus, sketch of, 618; cut of ........... 618 "My Lord Delivered Daniel," poem .......... 639 Napier, Hon. J. C., 250, 251; cut of, 566; sketch of ..... 567 Napoleon, story concern- ing .................. 660-661 Nashville Exposition ...... 295 National Association of Melodies, plantation ____ 633-642 Colored Women ........ 209 Menef ee, Alfred, sketch of, 575 NationalConvent ion, Methodist Episcopal influence of ............. 215 Schools, list of .......... 692 National Federation of Middle passage ........... 41 Women's Clubs ...... 216-219 Military Academy, Negroes National Freedmen's Aid in ...................... 130 Association ............. 380 Millikens Bend ........... 120 National Negro Business Miller, Mrs. Dora A ....... 251 League, 233; organization Miner, Mrs. A. V .......... 282 of, 234; first meeting of, 235 Milwaukee, biennial meet- Negro, meaning of term, ing at ................ 216,221 20; Africa for, 22; points Ministers ................. 532 of superiority, 25; phys- Mitchell, Rev. E.G., quota- ical characteristics of, tions from ........... 351,362 25; traits of, 25; fidelity Mitchell, John ............ 617 of, 26; ingenuity of, 27; Mitchell, Charles L ....... 237 in other conditions, 27; Mobs riots ................ 85 insurrection, 47; plot, 52; Montague, Rev. Dr ....... 237 in the Re volutipnary Montgomery, I. T ...... 238,246 War, 65-72; soldiers of Moral Improvements ...... 157 the Revolution, 71; Morris Brown College, 432; soldiers in the Civil War, cut of ................... 433 107-129; number enrolled; Morris, Rev. C. E ......... 475 107; opposition to enroll- Morris, E. H., sketch of . . . 572 ment, 107; public opinion Morris, W. R., sketch of... 576 changes, no; soldiers in Moody, D. L., quotation Spanish-American War, from ................... 647 131-146; his patriotism, Mortality, among Negroes, 140; his loyalty, 166; his 305, 309; causes or, 312, moral and social advan- 314-315; by poverty, 316; tages, 147-196; his immor- among ch ildr en, 317; ahties, 158; domination,. among infants, 3197320; 159; homes, 167; his recti- rate of , 685 ; of five cities, tude, 191; his progress, ........ ............. 310-311 193; his physical man- Mortgaged property. . .290-300 hood, 195; just judgment Muk aacl forty acres. f 1 1 1 1 171 concerning, 196; a a social 728 INDEX. PAGE. PAGE. factor, 199; his capacity, Normal schools ........... 363 203; business league of, Norman, Rev. M. W. D., 233; a consumer, 257; a cut of, 477; sketch of ..... 477 laborer, 267; he should Northern Freedman's Aid own a farm, 273; as a Society ................. 380 property-holder, 276; Northern women, tribute finance of the, 207; in to.... .................. 370 politics, 303 ; mortality o f , North Star ............... 485 305; birth-rate of, 305; death-rate of, 306; in pub- Oberlin College ........... 201 lie schools, 306; occu- Occupations ........... 306-307 pations of, 306; earnings "Oh, Yes," poem .......... 638 of, 307; diseases of, 307; One-room cabin ........... 364 crimes of mothers, 307; "On Picket Duty," cut ..... 115 social regeneration of ,309; Opportunities, equal ....... 329 mortality among, 309; Orphanages ............... 484 incomes of, 3 1 2 ; grade of O verton, Anthony ......... 251 society among, 318; Owen, Mrs. Mary ......... 263 wages of, 319; living rooms of, 319; social con- Palmer, R. T ............. 247 d i t i o n s a m o n g, 320; Palmerston, Lord, quota- should have equal oppor- tion from ............... 41 tunities, 329; prejudices Pardee, Rev. Z. T., sketch against, 333; a wealth pro- of ................... 549-550 ducer, 336; illiteracy of, Parker, Theodore ......... 77 349, 686; students, 350; Parker model h*me, cut of. 271 teachers, 350; high Patents ................... 189 schools, 350; professors, Patterson, F. D ........... 25 1 350; progress, 362; his Payne, Bishop Daniel, religious nature, 455; sketch of ............... 550 criminality of, 685; pau- Peabody fund .......... . . 383 perism of , 686; education Petersburg, 258; siege of, of, 686; physicians, 689; ..................... 122-124 newspaper, first in the Pettiford, W. R. .. .237, 238,245 South, 454. Peyton, Lewis ............ 260 "Negro farmers cabin, cut Phelps, Mrs. Mary R., cut NVO ' wombs' ciub* ^4^^;:;;;;; iiS3^:y.::::::::; 3 A fim ta' 'Si 362 Nicotine . . . . . ......... ... 185 Noah ................ ...15, 19 "Nobody Knowsthe Trouble I've Seen," poem ........ 640 Non-sectarian schools, list of ............... . ...... 695 Pmckncy. quotations ~ Pitts, Mrs. Emma L ....... 251 Plantation melodies . . . .631-642 Platt, Miss Ida, sketch of, 573; cut of Mf , f , .,,,,,,. 574 INDEX. 729 Population of cities having 50,000 or more inhabit- ants 699 Population of each state and territory 674 Population of the United States, 673; for each cen- sus year 680 Population of the world. . . 673 Population, white and col- ored, by counties, in Southern states 701 Poverty a cause of mortal- ity 316 Port Hudson 120, 121 Powell, Barto F., 289; cut of 290 Powell, W. B., quotation from 341 Presbyterian schools, list of, 694 Present status of the Negro, 658 Prejudice 190 Price, Rev. J. C., on tem- perance 178 Price, Pres. J. C., quota- tions from, 332, 335; sketch of 522 Proctor, H. H., and his asso- ciates, cut of, 186; sketch of, 541; cut of 541 Professions 188 Progress in industries 255 Property and property owners 297 Provident Hospital 478 Publications (colored), names of 619-624 Public schools, colored children in, 306; system, 340; money expended for. 347; expense of, in the South 439 Pullen.J.W 241 Quakers, opposed to slav- ery 74 Quarles, Rev. Frank 403 Race.not inferior, 14; pride, 257; problem, 337; distri- bution, 683-685; statistics, 673; history of 13 Ramsey, Mrs. Geo. E 263 Rankin, Rev. John 90 Rape 171-172 Reconstruction 198 Reed, Wm. L 237 Religion and the Negro,455, 656 Remond, C. L., sketch of. . 618 Reports of Negro schools. . 364 Residence of Albert Nash, cut of, 275; of John Schell, cut of 279 Richards, Miss Fannie.... 201 Richardson, Virgil 237 Richmond Planet 452 Ridley, Mrs. U. A 209 Roanoke Institute, cut of. . 456 Robinson, Mrs. D. R 250 Rockefeller, J. D 404 Roger Williams University 443 Roman Catholic Schools, list of 694 Roscoe Conkling 450 Rowen, D 283 Rucker, Henry A 285 Ruffin, Mrs. Josephine St. Pierre 208, 209, 216, 219 Ruffin incident, the 218 Ruffner, Dr., quotation from 326 Rust University, cut of . . . 036 Samuel Huston College. . . 438 Sanders, Rev. D. J., cut of, 366 Savannah, deaths in.. 320-321 Sawmill, Tuskegee Insti- i - tute, cut of 266 Saxton, Gen. Rufus, re- cruited first Negro regi- ment 112-113 Scarborough, Prof. W. S., cut of, 511 : sketch of, ... 511 Schell, John T., residence, cut of 270-283 Schools, for the Negro, 691; tables of, 692; Bap- tist, 692 ; Methodist Epis- copal, 692 ; United Pres- byterian, 693; Episcopal, 730 INDEX. PAGE. 693 ; African Methodist Episcopal, 693 ; Chris- tian, 693; African Meth- odist Episcopal Zion, 693 ; Presbyterian, 694 ; Friends, 694 ; Roman Catholic, 694; Congrega- tional, 694 ; non-sectar- ian 695-696 School population 346 Schurz, Carl, quotations from 304 Scott, Emmet J 250 Scottron, S. R 25 1 Scriptural reminiscences, 641; cut 641 Scruggs, D. B. E., sketch of, 593; cut of 593 Selma University 442 Separation discussed - . . 23 Settle, J.T. , quotation from, 488; cut of, 560; sketch of 561 Shadd, Mrs. Mary A 201 Shaw, Col. , commander of first Negro regiment ..117-118 Shaw University 383, 442 Shem : 15 Shepard, J. E 240 Sherman, Gen. W. T., quo- tation from . . ^ 26 Short, Madison 282 Sierra Leone 29 Silkworm ; 281 Sill, William .....93, 96 Skilled mechanics 272 Slater, John F 383-384 Slater fund 367, 383 Slave-breeding states k 55 Slave-breeders 150 Slave-pen ; . 377 Slave population . . . -. 105 Slave-trade, cut, 32, 40; in the United States, 45; abolished 45 Slave-traders, cut. 58 Slavery, 33 ; in Africa, 33 ; sources of, 34-35 ; history of, 35; in Asia, 37; in Europe, 37; in the Jtfew PAGE. World, 38; among the Portuguese, 38; Colum- bus and slavery, 38 ; in the United States, 39; a curse, 43 ; degrading, 44 ; its victims not content, 46 ; its restrictions, 48 ; in 'the colonies, 48; in Southern colonies, 49 ; in Maryland and Delaware, 49; in Virginia, 50; in New York, 51; never in Rhode Island, 52; in New Jersey, 53 ; in South Carolina, 53; in North Carolina, 54; in New Hampshire, 54; in Massachusetts, 54 ; in Pennsylvania, 55; not univ ersally count e- nanced, 55; defended, 154 ; effects of 369 Smith, Amanda, quotation from, 101-102 ; cut of, 483 ; Industrial OrphanHom, 484; sketch of 617 Smith, Mrs. A. M 238, 247 Smith, B. S., sketch of 579 Smith, Gen., on Peters- burg 124-125 Smith, Goldwin, quotation from 53 Smith, H. D 282 Smith, P. J 237, 250 Smith, Robert Lloyd 439 Smith, H. C M sketch of . . . 616 Smithe, Mrs. J. H 207 Smiley, J. H 251 Smiley, C. H 248 Smoking 185 Social regeneration of the Negro 309 Society of Friends 380 Sociological conditions .... 320 Southern clubs 224 Southland College 431 Spanish- American War, Negro soldiers in 135-144 Spelman Seminary, INDEX. 731 PAGE. rmrses, cut of, 356, 383; building, cut of 400, 401 Spence, Prof. A. K. , quota- tion from 373 Statistics of the race. . .673, etc. Star of Zion 452 Stearns, Geo. L 234 Stedman, F. G 249 Sterrs, Dr. W. E 251 Stewart, E. D 263 Stewart, Gilehrist 282 Stewart, Dr. F. A., sketch of 594 Still, Charity 101 Still, William 298, 490 "Stitch in Time. A," cut.. 650 Stowe, Mrs. H. B 83-84 Stroke for Freedom, A," cut 98 Strong, Dr. Josiah, quota- tion from 660 Sumner, Charles, cut of, 81 ; quotation from 112 Sunday School Union of the A. M. E. Church, 472 ; cut of building 473 "Swing Low, Sweet Char- lot," poem 635 "Talks for the Times, quo- tation from, 23, 47, 157, 190,326, 350,658 664 Tanner, Bishop B. T., cut of, 538 ; sketch of 540 Tanner, Gov., quotation from 146 Tanner, Henry O . 298 ; sketch of 613 Tarry, John W 298 Taylor, R. T 301-302 Taylor, W. L 250 Temperance resolutions of A. M. F. C 182 Temperance increasing... 178 "The Tennesseeans" 426 Terrill, Mrs. Mary Church, 210 "Thanksgiving Dixie," a poem 651 Thomas, Gen. L., quota- tion from 125 Thomas, J. W. E., sketch AG of 572 Thomas, T. H 249 Thomas, Rev. W. H 237 Thompkins, Miss Victoria, 207 Thurston, T. W 251 Tobacco 185 Total abstinence 179 Tougaloo University 443 Trade education 189 Training school for nurses, 480 Trained nurses Spelman Seminary, cut... 356 Tower, John S 251 Truth, Sojourner 488 Tupper, Rev. H. M 442 Turner, Bishop Henry M., cut of, 537; sketch of, 536-539; quotation from, 170 Tuskegee Normal, 233, 355, 318 418 Tuskegee Conference 446 Tuskegee sawmill, cut of . . 266 Tynes, J. B 263 "Uncle Tom's Cabin" . .47, 84 "Underground Railroad," 89, 92; its branches, 93; discussed 101, 302, 490 Union University, cut of lecture hall 430 United Presbyterian School, list of 693 "View de Land," a poem. 637 Voodoos 581 Wagner, Fort 118 Walker, Rev. Chas. T., sketch of, 624; cut of.... 625 Walker, Capt. Jonathan ... 90 Walker, Rev. Thos. H. B . . 479 Walker, T. W 246 Ware, Pres., quotation from 325 Warren, Bishop W. H 411 Watts (Mrs.) Orphanage. . . 481 Washington, Booker T., quotation from, 22, 168, 204, 236, 265, 267, 352, 668 ; 732 INDEX. PAGE. cut of, 232, 250; autobio- graphical sketch of, 518; concerning National Bus- iness League! 233-238 Washington, Mrs. B. T. 209-210 Washington, Mrs. Margaret Murray, cut of, 21; sketch of 527 Washington, Gen. George, letter to Col. L 71 Washington, Louis, sketch of 572 Wealthy Negroes, list of, 297-298 ; in New York. . . 299 Wealth producer, A 336 ' ' We are Rising, ' ' a poem . . 12 Weaver, D. D 260 Weaver, Wm. B 261 Webb, W. B., quotation from 341 Wendell, T. T., sketch of. . 594 Wesleyans 381 West, Rev. W. B., sketch of, 550; cut of 551 Western Freedman's Aid Commission 380 Wheatley, Phyllis, sketch of 607 "When de Co'n Pone's Hot," poem 653 "When the Warm Days are Come," poem 651 Wheeler, L. G., 251; cut of, 571 ; sketch of 571 White women, acknowl- edgment to 202 White Women's Club', atti- tude of 216 Whitman, Rev. A. A., quo- tation from . . 270 Wilberforce University. , . .383 Williams, Dr. D. H., sketch of 588 Williams, Fannie Barrier, 197-217 ; sketch of 610 Williams, Rev. Emperor, sketch of 554 Williams, Geo., quotation from 665 Williams, J. A 247 Williams, Mrs. Sylvanie. . . 207 Williams, S. L., 250; sketch of, 573; cut of 573 Wilson, T. A 250 Wilson, John W 282 Wilson, Henry, cut of 86 Wilson's Wharf, battle of. . 122 Wise sayings 641-642 Woman's Era Club, 207, 209 ; official statement of 219-226 Woman's League, the. .207-208 Woman in Temperance 183 Wood, Rev. Norman, quo- tation from 16 Wood, Rev. G. T 281, 298 World's Fair, the 174 Wormley, James 239 Worth of property 276 Wright, Pros. R. R., cut of, 423 ; sketch of 515 Wright, quotation from... 187 Wright, President, quota- tion from 155 Wycoff, Ellen F 652 Yates, Gov. Richard 114 Yates, Mrs. Silome 210 Young, Maj. Chas 145 Zion. African M. E. Church 453 ~ 468 /f ^75-