NEGRO LIFE 
 IN THE SOUTH 
 
 PRESENT CONDITIONS 
 AND NEEDS 
 
 BY 
 
 W. D. WEATHERFORD, PH.D. 
 
 I 1 
 
 WITH A SPECIAL CHAPTER 
 ON THE ECONOMIC CON 
 DITION OF THE NEGRO 
 
 BY 
 
 G. W. DYER, PH.D. 
 
 Assistant Professor of Economics ind Sociology in Vtnderbilt University 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 YOUNG MEN S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION PRESS 
 1910 
 
8PBEOKEU 
 
 Copyright, 1910, by 
 
 THB INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE 
 
 OF 
 YOUNG MEN S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATIONS 
 
DEDICATED TO THE COLLEGE MEN OF 
 THE SOUTH, IN WHOSE TOLERANT 
 SPIRIT AND UNSELFISH INTEREST 
 LIES THE HOPE OF THE NEGRO RACE. 
 
 210819 
 
PREFACE 
 
 During the month of April, 1908, a company 
 of seven men, four negroes and three white men, 
 came together in the City of Atlanta to discuss 
 the present race question, with special reference 
 to what the college men of the South might do 
 to better conditions. Those present in this con 
 ference were Dr. W. R. Lambuth, Missionary 
 Secretary of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
 South; Dr. Stewart R. Roberts, formerly a pro 
 fessor at Emory College, Georgia, now profes 
 sor of physiology in the Atlanta School of Phy 
 sicians and Surgeons; President John Hope, of 
 Atlanta Baptist College (colored), a colored man 
 of broad education and scholarly spirit; Profes 
 sor John Wesley Gilbert, one of the most schol 
 arly and sane minded negro men in the South; 
 Messrs. W. A. Hunton and J. E. Moorland, 
 secretaries of the Colored Department, Inter 
 national Committee of Young Men s Christian 
 Associations, and the author. 
 
 We spent six hours in a very thorough and 
 earnest conference, the result being a unanimous 
 vote to have a text book prepared on the negro 
 in the South, which could be used in the Home 
 Mission classes of the College Young Men s 
 Christian Associations. The task of preparing 
 this text book was placed upon the author by 
 
VI PREFACE 
 
 this committee. On one particular phase of this 
 study, the economic conditions, I have called to 
 my assistance an expert, who is specially qual 
 ified to speak on this subject. Dr. G. W. Dyer, 
 who writes this chapter, is a Virginian, who was 
 reared in the midst of the economic reconstruc 
 tion after the war, and has been a close student 
 of every phase of economic life in the South. He 
 was graduated from two Southern colleges, 
 Randolph Macon and Vanderbilt University, and 
 holds his doctor s degree from the University of 
 Chicago. He is now Assistant Professor of 
 Economics and Sociology in Vanderbilt Uni 
 versity. 
 
 It may be worth while to say that the author 
 is a Southern man, a graduate of Vanderbilt Uni 
 versity, and, since leaving college, has been the 
 Student Secretary of the International Com 
 mittee of Young Men s Christian Associations 
 for the South. 
 
 It will thus appear that this volume has been 
 prepared by those who have spent their lives in 
 the midst of the conditions about which they 
 write. They, therefore, have no reason to be 
 prejudiced for or against the negro any more 
 than should any other Christian man of the 
 section, save wherein a thorough study of con 
 ditions may have brought new convictions. 
 
 It is difficult always to think calmly and to 
 speak without passion on a problem such as 
 this, but a deliberate attempt has been made to 
 state the facts in all fairness and calmness. It 
 is believed that the educated men of the South 
 will be glad to study these facts in the same 
 
PREFACE Vll 
 
 spirit. In them alone do we have any large 
 hope, for most of the untrained men are too full 
 of prejudice to face fairly or solve justly such 
 a momentous question. On the college men, 
 therefore, rests the burden of responsibility in 
 this matter. 
 
 If this little volume arouses new interest, and 
 stimulates such careful study as will help toward 
 the proper solution of this, the nation s greatest 
 problem, the writers of the same will be more 
 than satisfied. 
 
 W. D. WEATHERFORD. 
 
 Nashville, Tenn., 
 June, i, 1910. 
 

CONTENTS 
 
 PREFACE .... 
 
 I 
 
 WHY STUDY THE NEGRO QUESTION ? . . I 
 
 II 
 THE ECONOMIC CONDITION OF THE NEGRO . 2/ 
 
 III 
 THE HEALTH AND HOUSING OF THE NEGRO . 59 
 
 IV 
 THE EDUCATION OF THE NEGRO . . 85 
 
 V 
 THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF THE NEGRO . 115 
 
 VI 
 WHAT CAN WE DO? . . . . 147 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY ..... 177 
 
 IX 
 
I 
 
 WHY STUDY THE NEGRO QUESTION? 
 
THE DESERTED PLANTATION 
 
 Oh, de grubbin -hoe s a-rustin in de co nah, 
 An de plow s a-tumblin down in de fiel , 
 
 While de whippo will s a-wailin lak a mou nah 
 When his stubbo n hea t is tryin ha d to yiel . 
 
 In de furrers whah de co n was allus wavin , 
 Now de weeds is growin green an rank an tall; 
 
 An de swallers roun de whole place is a-bravin 
 Lak dey thought deir folks had allus owned it all. 
 
 An de big house Stan s all quiet lak an solemn, 
 Not a blessed soul in pa lor, po ch, er lawn ; 
 
 Not a guest, ner not a ca iage lef to haul em, 
 Fu de ones dat tu ned de latch-string out air gone. 
 
 An de banjo s voice is silent in de qua ters, 
 D ain t a hymn ner co n-song ringin in de air ; 
 
 But de murmur of a branch s passin waters 
 Is de only soun dat breks de stillness dere. 
 
 Whah s de da kies, dem dat used to be a-dancin 
 
 Ev ry night befo de ole cabin do ? 
 Whah s de chillun, dem dat used to be a-prancin 
 
 Er a-rollin in de san er on de flo ? 
 
 Whah s ole Uncle Mordecai an Uncle Aaron? 
 
 Whah s Aunt Doshy, Sam, an Kit, an all de res ? 
 Whah s ole Tom de da ky fiddlah, how s he farin ? 
 
 Whah s de gals dat used to sing an dance de bes ? 
 
 Gone! Not one o dem is lef to tell de story; 
 
 Dey have lef de deah ole place to fall away. 
 Couldn t one o dem dat seed it in its glory 
 
 Stay to watch it in de hour of decay? 
 
 Dey have lef de ole plantation to de swallers, 
 But it hoi s in me a lover till de las ; 
 
 Fu I fin hyeah in de memory dat follers 
 All dat loved me an dat I loved in de pas . 
 
 So I ll stay an watch de deah ole place an tend it 
 Ez I used to in de happy days gone by. 
 
 Twell do othah Mastah thinks it s time to end it, 
 An calls me to my quarters in de sky. 
 
 PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR. 
 
WHY STUDY THE NEGRO QUESTION? 
 
 Foreword 
 
 In a time like ours when there are so many 
 vital subjects demanding attention, and every 
 subject is represented by many books, it is only 
 legitimate that men should ask, "Why study the 
 race question?" If it is not a question of first 
 importance, if it does not have to do with our 
 daily lives, if it does not vitally affect our phy 
 sical, intellectual or moral well-being separately 
 or collectively, then there can be no urgent neces 
 sity for the study of this question. If, on the 
 other hand, it can be shown that this race prob 
 lem enters into every relationship in Southern 
 life, if it can be shown that our health, our in 
 tellectual advancement, and our moral lives are 
 hedged about and often limited by the disease, 
 the ignorance, and the immorality of another 
 race ; and if it can be further shown that we, as 
 Christian college men, have an opportunity to 
 better these conditions, we will have a sufficient 
 reason for the study of so difficult a question. 
 
 Our Ignorance of the Facts 
 
 My first answer to why we should study this 
 question is, that we, as Southern college men, 
 are woefully ignorant of the facts. It has been 
 
 3 
 
4 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 said hundreds of times in print and from the 
 platform that this question cannot be handled by 
 the Northern man, because he is hundreds of 
 miles removed from the scene of action, and 
 does not know the facts. I believe that most of 
 the Northern men are coming to accept the truth 
 of this statement, and most of the best informed 
 negroes, such as Booker T. Washington, are 
 saying plainly that the North does not and can 
 not know, at least under present conditions, the 
 real race problem. With this first statement, 
 there is always coupled the second, that the 
 Southern white man does know and can there 
 fore solve the Southern race question. I de 
 liberately challenge this statement. I feel per 
 fectly sure that we, as Southern white men, know 
 much more of real negro life than men of other 
 sections can possibly know; I feel sure also of 
 the fact that the best and more broad minded 
 men of the South are more intensely interested in 
 this question than men in any other section can 
 possibly be; and I further feel sure that this 
 question, if ever solved, must be solved by the 
 broad minded Southern men leading the way 
 and calling to their aid the broad minded and 
 philanthropic men of all the nation. But do we 
 as Southern men know the negro? 
 
 Knowledge of Servant Class Only 
 
 We know the negro as a hired servant in our 
 homes. We know Aunt Mary, who cooks our 
 meals, who waits on our table or acts as house 
 maid in our homes. We know John, the butler, 
 or the coachman, or the gardener. We know 
 
WHY STUDY THE NEGRO QUESTION? 5 
 
 the day laborer who cleans the street or hauls 
 the coal, or runs the grocery wagon. We know 
 one or two negro men who, because of more 
 intelligence, have positions as mail carriers, and 
 perhaps we know half a dozen negroes who, be 
 cause of skill and hard work, have entered the 
 list of skilled employment. But all of these we 
 know only in their work. We do not know 
 their thought; we do not know their religious 
 life; we do not know their home life. 
 
 The Church, the Home, the School 
 
 Probably the three best indices of the real 
 character of a people are their religion, their 
 schools and their homes. Of the religious life 
 of the negro, we, as Southern men, know almost 
 nothing. Most of us have not visited half a 
 dozen negro churches in our lives, and then only 
 as onlookers, rather than attempting to enter 
 into the spirit of the service and trying to find 
 its real message. Neither have we studied 
 their school life. We have passed the negro 
 school house every day of our lives, have seen 
 the negro college perched on the hill, but never 
 have we visited these places more than once or 
 twice to see what was actually going on in them. 
 It has never occurred to most of us that these 
 school buildings have anything of interest for 
 us, and nine cases out of ten we do not know the 
 negro preacher or the negro teacher who pre 
 sides over the nearest church or school. Neither 
 do we know the home life of the negro. I have 
 again and again asked groups of college men 
 how many negro homes they had ever entered. 
 
6 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 I have rarely ever found men who had been in 
 more than two or three or half a score at the 
 most. Even where men have gone into negro 
 homes, they have been of the poorer type. It 
 has been the home of the washwoman, the cook 
 or the servant man. The real life of the negro 
 we do not know. There is much justice, though 
 it hurts us as Southern men to admit it, in the 
 statement of Ray Stannard Baker, after his 
 careful and, on the whole, fair minded observa 
 tions of conditions in the South : 
 
 "But, curiously enough, I found that these 
 men rarely knew anything about the better class 
 of negroes those who were in business, or in 
 independent occupations, those who owned their 
 own homes. They did come into contact 
 with the servant negro, the field hand, the com 
 mon laborer, who make up, of course, the great 
 mass of the race. On the other hand, the best 
 class of negroes did not know the higher class 
 of white people, and based their suspicion and 
 hatred upon the acts of the poorer sort of 
 whites, with whom they naturally come into con 
 tact. The best elements of the two races are as 
 far apart as if they lived in different continents ; 
 and that is one of the chief causes of the grow 
 ing danger in the Southern situation. It is a 
 striking fact that one of the first almost in 
 stinctive efforts at reconstruction after the 
 Atlanta riot was to bring the best element of both 
 races together, so that they might, by becoming 
 acquainted and gaining confidence in each other, 
 allay suspicion and bring influence to bear on the 
 
WHY STUDY THE NEGRO QUESTION? 7 
 
 lawless elements of both white people and col 
 ored." 1 
 
 It is not fair to judge a race by its weaker ex 
 ponents alone, neither is it fair to judge a race 
 simply by one aspect of its life. We must know 
 its whole life before we can claim to know the 
 race. If we are to have a right to speak with 
 any authority on this race question, and if we are 
 to have our proper share in bringing about a true 
 race adjustment, we will need to study with care 
 all the essential activities of this race. To what 
 other group of men can this appeal be so fairly 
 made, and from what other group of men should 
 there be such ready response as from college 
 men? 
 
 Self-Preservation 
 
 Again, it is important that we study this ques 
 tion, because only a thorough knowledge of the 
 situation will enable us to take such steps as will 
 insure our own safety physical, mental and 
 moral. However carefully we may guard our 
 contact with the negro and no sane white man 
 in the South, and few, if any, sane negroes be 
 lieve in promiscuous mingling there can be no 
 doubt that the destiny of the Southern white 
 man is inextricably intertwined with that of the 
 Southern black man. Whatever affects one, 
 affects the other, whether we want it so or not. 
 
 Health Relations 
 
 Every day we put our health in the hands of the 
 negro, because he cooks our meals, washes our 
 1 "Following the Color Line," p. 44. 
 
8 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 linen, cleans our homes, and nurses our children. 
 If he is clean and healthy, it is well with us ; if he 
 is unclean and diseased, woe be to the white man 
 whom he serves. Recently a malignant epidemic 
 of typhoid fever broke out in an Alabama 
 female college. A number of girls died, many 
 others were in bed for weeks and months, 
 some of them will never be so well again. Prof. 
 William Litterer, bacteriologist of Vanderbilt 
 University, Medical Department, was asked to 
 make an investigation of the cause of the epi 
 demic, and after an exhaustive search the in 
 fection was traced to a negro boy employed as a 
 dishwasher, "who was a walking arsenal of 
 typhoid germs." Those mothers and fathers 
 who lost their daughters in this epidemic would 
 be easily convinced that it is worth while to 
 make a careful study of the race problem with 
 the purpose of seeing to it that there is better 
 sanitation and health conditions among the 
 negroes who work in our homes. Whether we 
 sit down to dinner in our home or in a hotel, 
 it is a vital question which cannot lightly be 
 passed over under what sanitary conditions 
 does the negro who cooked this meal and the 
 negro who served it live? To be indifferent to 
 the health question of the negro is to be indiffer 
 ent to the sickness and disease which may rob us 
 of our health or the health and life of our own 
 loved ones. 
 
 Intellectual Relations 
 
 This is equally true of the intellectual life of 
 the Southern white man. We are bound down 
 
WHY STUDY THE NEGRO QUESTION? 9 
 
 and hedged about by the ignorance of our serv 
 ants and our laboring class. Not long since a col 
 lege president was writing to me about a college 
 graduate who wanted a place in Young Men s 
 Christian Association work, and in his letter he 
 apologized for the poor English of this student 
 in the following words : "His weakest spot is his 
 spoken English, as he grew up in a community 
 so thickly populated by negroes that he has never 
 been able to shake off some of the dialect." It 
 is probably impossible ever to estimate just how 
 much of a handicap are the superstitions, the 
 prejudices and the ignorant fears, which are be 
 ing daily poured into the minds of Southern 
 childhood by the ignorant servant class. In 
 simple self-defence, we must see to it that the 
 negroes are freed from at least the grosser forms 
 of ignorance and superstition. 
 
 Moral Contagion 
 
 Nor can we escape the moral contagion of 
 close contact with those who are morally leprous. 
 The latest word of psychology and sociology is 
 that character is not taught but character is 
 caught. Character is as contagious as measles 
 or confluent smallpox. Henry Drummond 
 once said: "I become a part of every 
 man I meet, and every man I meet becomes 
 a part of me." Almost every child in the 
 well-to-do Southern home is more in the com 
 panionship of the nurse than of the mother, up 
 to the age of six that is, during those very 
 impressionable days when character is just taking 
 shape. Even in the less wealthy homes, the 
 
IO NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 child is constantly thrown into the presence of 
 the servants, and if these servants be immoral 
 in any sense, the consequent detriment of char 
 acter is sure. 
 
 The constant presence of those who are im 
 pure and immoral means the gradual lowering 
 of ideals, the deadening of conscience, the loss of 
 the sense of sin. Who of us has not seen just 
 such a process going on in a Southern house 
 hold? 
 
 No Arraignment of Servants 
 
 These words are not written as an arraignment 
 of negro servants, for I am well aware that 
 hundreds of servants are honest and true, and 
 while they are usually ignorant as to books, they 
 not infrequently have that truer knowledge 
 gained from contact with life, and, at the same 
 time, that unselfishness of spirit and genuineness 
 of soul which makes them a real blessing to 
 the home in which they work. But so long as 
 there are many of the opposite type, so long as 
 there are many who live in unsanitary hovels and 
 are filthy in body, ignorant and superstitious in 
 mind, and leprous in soul just so long will they 
 be a plague to our Southern white people. In 
 the interest of self-defence, every intelligent 
 white man must study this question, and be pre 
 pared to take his part in the physical, social, in 
 tellectual, and moral regeneration of this ne 
 glected race. 
 
 Race Antagonism 
 
 Again, there is need of study of this question 
 because of the growing spirit of race antagonism 
 
WHY STUDY THE NEGRO QUESTION? II 
 
 and unrest. That there is such an antagonism 
 in certain sections can hardly be denied. The 
 reasons for this are not far to seek. The passing 
 away of the old-time darkey with his simplicity, 
 love of the plantation, and devotion to the people 
 of the "big house/ the rise of the younger 
 negro, with less respect, with less ability as a 
 trained workman, with possibly less disposition 
 to work; the rise also of the educated negro 
 class, sometimes arrogant, always and rightly 
 more independent ; the passing of the old planta 
 tion owners who knew the negro far better than 
 the present generation of white men ; these have 
 made possible less and less of real understanding 
 between the two races, and have brought on 
 many conditions of friction. Besides these nat 
 ural causes of race antagonism, there have been 
 three classes of men who have piled fuel on the 
 fire and fanned the smouldering embers into 
 flame. 
 
 Prejudiced Southern White Man 
 
 The first is that class of Southern white men 
 who are utterly incapable of seeing anything 
 good in the negro. I met one of them not long 
 since a physician who in one breath declared 
 hell was too good for the negro criminal, and 
 in the next breath claimed the negro had no 
 soul. He was somewhat surprised and seemed 
 not to catch the point when I asked him if he 
 thought his horse would go to hell because in a 
 fit of ill temper he kicked his master. But the 
 more dangerous Southern white man is he who 
 mounts the political stump and with wild gestic- 
 
12 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 illations cries, "Social Equality," "Negro Dom 
 ination/ "Race Amalgamation," and such other 
 blood curdling shibboleths, and so stirs up such a 
 race antagonism that men forget all about the 
 real political issues, and the demagogue rides 
 into office, at the expense of justice to the negro 
 and the self-respect of the white man. We have 
 had all too many of these political demagogues 
 these so-called "defenders of the white man s 
 honor and the white woman s virtue." It is high 
 time that the college should know enough about 
 this question not to be browbeaten and befogged 
 into supporting any such cheap gerrymanderism. 
 
 The Radical Negro 
 
 The second man who stirs up race hatred 
 is the radical negro, and I am sorry to say he 
 frequently comes from the ranks of the educated. 
 This type of man finds his best expression 
 through the "Niagara Movement," organized by 
 Prof. W. E. B. DuBois, the express object of 
 which is to continually protest against all forms 
 of discrimination. Its purpose seems not to be 
 the helping of the colored race to be worthy of 
 position, but the stirring up of that race to de 
 mand and take certain so-called rights. The 
 public exponent of this ideal has been the 
 "Guardian," published by William Monroe Trot 
 ter, in Boston. This group of men is hot in its 
 denunciation of Booker T. Washington, because 
 he believes in conciliation and constructive work. 
 They believe that the whole regime of the pres 
 ent is wrong and should be destroyed. This atti 
 tude toward Washington is best displayed in a ref- 
 
WHY STUDY THE NEGRO QUESTION? 13 
 
 erence to him by Professor DuBois: "So thor 
 oughly did he (Washington) learn the speech and 
 thought of triumphant commercialism, and the 
 ideals of material prosperity, that the picture of a 
 lone black boy poring over a French grammar 
 amid the weeds and dirt of a neglected home soon 
 seemed to him the acme of absurdities. One 
 wonders what Socrates and St. Francis of Assisi 
 would say to this . . . It is as though Na 
 ture must make men narrow in order to give 
 them force." 1 
 
 These men can as little see any virtue in a 
 Southern white man as the Southern demagogue 
 can see virtue in the negro. I cannot better convey 
 the spirit of bitterness and hatred of this radical 
 negro wing than to give one or two quota 
 tions from some of its leaders: "In general," 
 says William A. Sinclair a South Carolina 
 negro and a college graduate "a spirit of cruel 
 intolerance dominates the white population of 
 the whole Southland. Its church life, despite 
 the many excellent and truly Christian members, 
 both men and women, betrays strange deformities 
 and inconsistencies; in large measure, ignoring 
 alike the Golden Rule, the Sermon on the Mount, 
 the divinely beautiful lesson of the Good Samar 
 itan, and, in short, the more vital and central 
 truth of the entire teaching of Jesus himself 
 the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of 
 man/ 2 Or, take another quotation from Professor 
 Du Bois, which whatever measure of truth 
 or falsity there may be in it has much more of 
 
 1 "Souls of Black Folk," p. 43. 
 
 2 "The Aftermath of Slavery," p. 4. 
 
14 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 bitterness. Speaking of slavery, he says : "So after 
 the war, and even to this day, the religious and 
 ethical life of the South bows beneath this bur 
 den. Shrinking from facing the burning ethical 
 questions that front it unrelentingly, the Southern 
 Church clings all the more tenaciously to the let 
 ter of a wornout orthodoxy, while its inner, 
 truer soul crouches before and fears to answer 
 the problem of eight million black neighbors. It 
 therefore assiduously preaches Christ crucified 
 in prayer meeting patois, and crucifies niggers 
 in unrelenting daily life." 1 Such wholesale and 
 bitter denunciations of a whole people can be 
 nothing else than the expression of prejudice 
 rather than the word of statesmanship. 
 
 Northern Enthusiast 
 
 The third disturbing element is that of the 
 Northern enthusiast who feels sure he could 
 settle the whole race question if he had a few 
 years to give to it. It is a source of real rejoic 
 ing to most men who earnestly face this question 
 that this tribe is rapidly dying out. Were it not 
 for these disturbing elements, the relations be 
 tween the races would be cordial enough. It is 
 gratifying to note that in spite of them Dr. 
 Booker T. Washington, after an extended tour 
 through South Carolina, can say; 
 
 Booker T. Washington s Testimony 
 
 "My object in going on this educational tour 
 was to see for myself the actual condition of my 
 own race, and to say a word wherever I could 
 
 "The Negro in the South," p. 170. 
 
WHY STUDY THE NEGRO QUESTION? 15 
 
 that would improve their life, and to note the 
 actual relations existing between white people 
 and black people, and to make a suggestion 
 wherever I could that would further promote 
 friendly relations. Of course, in a great State 
 like South Carolina one cannot fail to see many 
 things that are wrong, that are unjust, that need 
 changing for the better. Notwithstanding this 
 fact, I was surprised from the beginning to the 
 end of the trip at the tremendous progress that 
 the negro race is making, and at the friendly re 
 lations existing between black people and white 
 people. 
 
 "In South Carolina, as in most parts of the 
 South, I found the individual relations between 
 black and white nearly all that could be hoped 
 for. We frequently get a wrong impression of 
 conditions in the South because we place too 
 much dependence upon utterances made in Con 
 gress or in newspapers, or when some one is on 
 parade. Everywhere I went I found at least one 
 white man who believed implicitly in one negro ; 
 I found at least one negro who believed implicitly 
 in one white man ; and so it goes all through the 
 South. So long as these individual relations are 
 as kindly as they are, there is great hope for the 
 future." 1 
 
 The fact remains, however, that there is no 
 small amount of unrest and race prejudice, which 
 it behooves every sane searcher for truth and 
 every true lover of his Southland to allay where 
 possible. This can only be done after a careful 
 and fair minded study of the whole race problem. 
 
 1 Outlook, May i, 1909. 
 
l6 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 Rightly Directed Progress 
 
 There is also need for study of this problem in 
 order that the future advancement of the negro 
 may be in the right direction. If we look to the 
 single department of education, we must be con 
 vinced that the negro is advancing and will con 
 tinue to advance whether we like it or not. If 
 we of the South do not help direct this growing 
 intellectual life, they of the North will, and we 
 shall have no one but ourselves to blame if the 
 education is falsely directed. Any one who 
 fairly investigates the history of Northern phil 
 anthropy must be struck with the large un 
 selfishness of the givers, even if their zeal does 
 sometimes seem to act without sufficient knowl 
 edge. Much of this money has been poorly ad 
 ministered because we as Southern men, who 
 ought to have been in position to give sane coun 
 sel, have not sufficiently studied this question to 
 be able to formulate any reasonable constructive 
 policy. After his tour through South Carolina 
 to which I have referred, Booker T. Washington 
 wrote to the Outlook: 
 
 "I was convinced, too, as I made this trip 
 through the State of South Carolina, that more 
 and more in the future an effort should be made 
 to speak directly to the best type of Southern 
 white people about our methods and aims in 
 the education of the negro. There is too much 
 discussion at long distance. In many cases the 
 white people in the South do not understand the 
 methods that are being pursued, nor the object 
 sought. In proportion as we are perfectly frank 
 with each other the difficulties are going to dis- 
 
WHY STUDY THE NEGRO QUESTION? 17 
 
 appear, and larger amounts of money are going 
 to be forthcoming from the South itself for the 
 education of the black man." 
 
 There is further need of a constructive edu 
 cational policy for the negro, because for every 
 dollar given by Northern philanthropy, we 
 ourselves have paid out of our own pockets 
 probably ten dollars in taxes toward the ne 
 gro public school. Up to 1906 it was estimated 
 by the United States Commissioner of Education 
 that for this purpose alone the South had paid 
 $132,000,000 since the war. Mr. W. T. B. 
 Williams, Field Agent of the Slater Fund, writ 
 ing in the "Southern Workman," Nov., 1908, 
 estimates the amount spent on negro public 
 schools since 1870 at $155,000,000. During 
 this period the illiteracy of the negro has been 
 reduced by half. The negro is therefore being 
 educated, however slowly. But how is he being 
 educated? Is his increasing knowledge such as 
 fits him for larger and better usefulness and for 
 more worthy citizenship? Is he being educated 
 away from life or into a truer life? These are 
 the pertinent questions which every educated man 
 of to-day must help to answer. Up to the present 
 time, be it said to our shame, we have done little 
 as Southern white men to answer these questions 
 properly. It is no more than truth to say that 
 General Armstrong, a Northern white man and 
 a Union soldier, the founder of Hampton Insti 
 tute, and Booker T. Washington, a Southern 
 negro and an ex-slave, the founder of Tuskegee, 
 have probably done more than any dozen South 
 ern white men to answer these questions aright. 
 
1 8 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 We need more Southern men who can write and 
 speak with the knowledge and sanity of Edgar 
 Gardner Murphy, in his The Present South" if 
 we are to give proper direction to this new in 
 tellectual movement. 
 
 Encouragement 
 
 Again, we should study this question in order 
 that we may know the encouragement of the 
 negro s progress. Not a few Southern men have 
 become darkly pessimistic about the future of the 
 negro race. Some think that the door of hope 
 is forever shut in his face. I must confess that, 
 although a Southern man, reared in the midst 
 of the large negro population of Texas, and at 
 tending college in Nashville, a city where 
 negro education is at its best, I have been 
 constantly surprised at the marvellous progress 
 of the negro race. In 1908, Ray Stannard Baker 
 estimated that negroes owned 1,400,000 acres 
 of land in the State of Georgia alone, and paid 
 taxes on $28,000,000 worth of property. Prof. 
 John W. Gilbert, one of the most capable and 
 sane negro leaders in the South, has re 
 cently estimated that negroes own 200,000 farms, 
 worth approximately $700,000,000, and that 
 $500,000,000 worth of these farms are en 
 tirely free of debt; that in 1900, in cities and vil 
 lages, negroes owned 126,329 homes free from 
 debt ; and that negroes not stinting in their con 
 tributions have built churches valued at $40,- 
 000,000. Forty-eight per cent, of the race are 
 members of churches, and the generous contribu 
 tions they make annually to missions would put 
 
WHY STUDY THE NEGRO QUESTION? IQ 
 
 to shame many of our wealthy white churches. 
 Booker T. Washington has said, again and 
 again, that fifty-seven per cent, of the negro race 
 is now literate, although forty years ago illiteracy 
 was well-night universal. 
 
 But these figures are abstract, and the real 
 story of race progress is only thoroughly 
 understood when one goes into the best bar 
 ber shop in Atlanta and finds it owned and 
 operated by a negro, with negro barbers 
 at the chairs, or visits a Georgia plantation 
 of a thousand acres as it is possible to do 
 owned by one negro, or goes into the home of an 
 educated negro, as I did recently in Texas 
 where the building is commodious and modern, 
 where there are good carpets on the floors, a piano 
 in the parlor, and you could not tell from appear 
 ances that a white banker did not live there. Or, 
 if one wants further to be convinced of this 
 progress, let him visit a high-grade negro church. 
 Some months ago one of the connectional officers 
 of the Methodist Episcopal Church South and I 
 had to break our journey across the South by 
 stopping in a Southern city to spend Sunday. At 
 eleven o clock we went up to the first church and 
 listened to a good average sermon from the 
 pastor. After the service we went for a walk 
 before dinner and chanced to come upon a lead 
 ing negro church. We went in, and found the 
 first floor filled to overflowing with a well- 
 dressed, orderly and reverent congregation it 
 would seem more than a thousand so we were 
 shown to the gallery by a polite and altogether 
 well-appearing negro. The sermon had just 
 
2O NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 begun from the text: "I am the way, the truth 
 and the life." It was clear, logical, filled with 
 practical and helpful truth, and as it progressed 
 my connectional officer and preacher friend 
 leaned over and whispered to me: "The white 
 church would do mighty well to trade preachers 
 with this negro church." And he was perfectly 
 right. The whole service was of a high order, 
 and would have done grace to any white church 
 I ever attended. 
 
 Tuskegee^ 
 
 Or, if one prefers, let him visit Tuskegee, and 
 look into the faces of fourteen hundred negro 
 boys and girls; hear their trained chorus of a 
 hundred voices render the old plantation melodies 
 with matchless power; go to their wood shops, 
 blacksmith shops, model laundry, bakery, millin 
 ery establishment, and see the splendid work 
 done; hold a Bible study institute for five hours 
 on a hot spring day without anybody leaving; 
 see five hundred and twenty-five men enroll in 
 the voluntary study of the Bible ; and three years 
 later learn that the number has grown to seven 
 hundred and thirty ; finally, let him learn that not 
 a single graduate of this school has ever been in 
 jail for any crime whatsoever and if he does not 
 have some hope for the negro and believe he is 
 making substantial progress, he would be hard to 
 convince. 
 
 Physical Needs 
 
 Lastly, we should study the problem for the 
 sake of the help it will enable us to render a 
 
WHY STUDY THE NEGRO QUESTION? 21 
 
 backward race in its hour of need. These needs 
 are, first of all, physical. So long as millions of 
 these people live in the one-roomed cabin, which 
 is poorly ventilated, poorly heated, and not 
 lighted at all ; so long as millions more live in 
 the crowded tenement section or in the damp 
 alleys of our cities in houses that have neither 
 sanitation nor comfort ; so long as the bath tub is 
 almost an unknown luxury in the great mass of 
 negro homes; so long as four, five, or even ten 
 negroes are sleeping in one crowded little tene 
 ment room ; so long as the death rate of negroes 
 is from eight to twelve more per thousand than 
 that for white people; so long as deaths from 
 venereal diseases among colored people are six to 
 seven times as great as among white people if 
 the Alabama statistics for certain periods can be 
 trusted and so long as the negro mortality from 
 consumption in many of our leading cities is from 
 fifty to one hundred and fifty per cent, in advance 
 of the corresponding white mortality just so 
 long will the Southern white man have an obliga 
 tion to study these facts, find their causes, and 
 apply cures. 
 
 Intellectual Needs 
 
 The next great need of the negro is training. 
 While marvellous progress has been made, forty- 
 three per cent, of this race is illiterate. Even 
 if $155,000,000 has been spent on public 
 schools for negroes since 1870, the average length 
 of school term has never been and is not now over 
 seventy days per year 1 According to the report 
 
 1 School reports for the present year make a much 
 better showing than this. 
 
22 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 of the Superintendent of Colored Normal Schools 
 in North Carolina for the year 1908, the average 
 cost of public school buildings used for negro 
 schools was $124.37. Out of 2,198 such build 
 ings, only 64 had patent desks all the others 
 being furnished with simple benches. This makes 
 any genuine school work next to impossible. In 
 thirty counties in this State, the country school 
 teachers were paid less than seventeen dollars 
 per month on the average, and in these counties 
 there were 59,665 negro children of school age, 
 and yet it is a known fact that, in proportion to 
 her wealth, North Carolina is spending more than 
 almost any other State in the Union on the edu 
 cation of her youth. Surely the knowledge of 
 such facts should impel us to do more for gen 
 eral education. In addition, there is the greatest 
 need of industrial and mechanical education. 
 According to a computation of Thomas Jesse 
 Jones in the "Southern Workman," March, 1909, 
 the product per agricultural worker in 1900 was 
 for the State of Iowa, $1,088; for New Hamp 
 shire, $477; Alabama, $150.98; North Carolina, 
 $149.75; South Carolina, $147.46, or the Iowa 
 worker, largely because of greater skill, is able 
 to produce more than seven times as much wealth 
 annually as the worker in South Carolina. We 
 in the South cannot afford to allow this disparity 
 of wealth producing ability to continue. There 
 are at present a few thousand students in in 
 dustrial schools like Tuskegee and Hampton 
 Institute., but the number ought to be multiplied 
 ten-fold. Who will see that this is done if we 
 of the South remain ignorant of our great in- 
 
WHY STUDY THE NEGRO QUESTION? 23 
 
 dustrial need ? Why leave this mass of humanity 
 in a half- fed and half-starved condition? Why 
 not train their hands and their heads so that they 
 may not only secure competence for themselves, 
 but z.dd millions annually to the wealth of the 
 section. What we need more than any other one 
 element in our Southern industrial life is trained 
 laborers. There are eight million negroes in our 
 very midst; the graduates of Hampton and Tus- 
 kegee have forever dispelled the doubt that 
 they can be made efficient workmen by proper 
 training ; when will there be enough of construc 
 tive study and statesmanship in the South to 
 harness this mighty force and make it the wonder 
 of the world in its wealth producing power? 
 
 As Mr. Murphy has put it : "The only real peril 
 of our situation is, not in any aspect of the 
 negro s wise and legitimate progress, but rather 
 in the danger that the negro will know so little, 
 will do so little, and will increasingly care so 
 little about knowing and doing, that the great 
 black mass of his numbers, his ignorance, his idle 
 ness, and his lethargy will drag forever like a 
 cancerous and suffocating burden at the heart of 
 our Southern life," 1 
 
 Moral Needs 
 
 Lastly, one must mention the moral needs of 
 the negro. While forty-eight per cent, of the 
 whole colored population of the South has a 
 church affiliation, and while $40,000,000 have 
 been invested in churches, there is nevertheless a 
 terrible moral corruption that eats at the vital* 
 
 i The Present South," p. 61. 
 
24 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 of the negro race. A Christian negro physician 
 told me recently that ninety-eight per cent, was 
 a low estimate for the negro men who have been 
 socially impure. Cheap whiskey and cocaine are 
 doing their deadly work for literally thousands of 
 negro men and women. Profanity, gambling and 
 debauchery are everywhere prevalent. All of 
 these vices are destroying the body and damning 
 the souls of countless thousands. Add to this 
 the fact that in the rural churches the religion is 
 all too frequently of an emotional type, which 
 is completely divorced from ethical action, and 
 the further fact that not infrequently the minister 
 is himself leprous with the sins of laziness, dis 
 honesty and impurity and the picture darkens un 
 til one is most sick at heart. 
 
 What shall we do about such crying needs as 
 these? Shall we close our eyes and remain in 
 blissful ignorance? Shall we waive the whole 
 matter aside and say that the race is unworthy of 
 our attention and effort ? Or shall we fairly face 
 these problems and do our part in bringing to 
 them a real solution ? It is always easier to close 
 one s eyes to the hard and unpleasant things of 
 life but is it always manly? No man has ever 
 been a prophet to humanityjwho has not faced the 
 facts, however unpleasant. He who is not will 
 ing to bear the heartache of knowing the world s 
 sorrow and suffering and sin can never know 
 the joy of being a messenger of a new and 
 brighter day. One is profoundly sorry for that 
 sweet girl graduate who went home with her 
 diploma in her hand after hearing a commence 
 ment address on the struggle of men, and, throw- 
 
WHY STUDY THE NEGRO QUESTION? 25 
 
 ing herself into a chair, said : "Oh, mother, I wish 
 people wouldn t talk so much about the struggles 
 and hardships of the masses it makes one so un 
 comfortable." 
 
 The White Man s Obligation 
 
 It is just because the negro is ignorant; just 
 because he is having a hard battle to win indus 
 trial competence ; just because he is sinking under 
 the burdens of awful diseases; and just because 
 he has not yet attained unto the full stature of 
 moral manhood that every college man is under 
 obligation to know and better his condition. It 
 is because we of the South love our homes and 
 want to protect them, that we must no longer 
 remain ignorant of this question. It is because 
 we are born in a section immortalized by such 
 spirits as Lee and Jackson, who gave their lives 
 for its welfare, that we, in this hour of our South 
 land s greatest need, will not prove traitors, but 
 will, with the hearts of true sons, bring to its aid 
 the largest knowledge, the sanest judgment, the 
 clearest thought which loyal sons can bring. 
 
II 
 
 THE ECONOMIC CONDITION OF THE 
 NEGRO 
 
SLOW THROUGH THE DARK 
 
 Slow moves the pageant of a climbing race; 
 
 Their footsteps drag far, far below the height, 
 
 And, unprevailing by their utmost might, 
 Seems faltering downward from each won place. 
 No strange, swift-sprung exception we; we trace 
 
 A devious way thro dim, uncertain light 
 
 Our hope, through the long-vistaed years, a sight 
 Of that our Captain s soul sees face to face. 
 
 Who, faithless, faltering that the road is steep, 
 Now raiseth up his drear insistent cry? 
 
 Who stoppeth here to spend a while in sleep, 
 Or curses that the storm obscures the sky? 
 
 Heed not the darkness round you, dull and deep ; 
 The clouds grown thickest when the summit s high. 
 
 PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR. 
 
II 
 
 THE ECONOMIC CONDITION OF THE 
 NEGRO 
 
 Economic Relationships 
 
 To treat the negro from the economic point of 
 view strictly would be most difficult. The eco 
 nomic life of the negro is so peculiarly and so 
 vitally connected with many other phases of his 
 life that it is necessary to touch upon much that 
 is not in any real sense economic, in order to 
 understand his peculiarities as an economic fac 
 tor in our complex life. To understand any 
 phase of the life of the negro, his whole life must 
 be studied, not only in this country, but in Africa 
 as well. The negro problem never can be under 
 stood at all adequately in this country until we 
 know more of his peculiar racial characteristics, 
 which can be learned only by a very thorough 
 study of the negro in his native land. Of course, 
 no such study is attempted here, but is merely 
 suggested as a prerequisite to a proper under 
 standing of this most intricate problem. 
 
 The Discussion Tentative 
 
 The subject matter of this paper is not meant 
 
 to be taken in any sense as authoritative, though 
 
 the dogmatic form of expression is sometimes 
 
 used for the sake of emphasis, We know too 
 
 29 
 
3O NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 little of this problem at the present time for any 
 one to speak with authority; certainly the writer 
 claims no such right. What is here said is meant 
 to be taken as only suggestive. A fuller knowl 
 edge of the subject may render every position 
 here taken untenable. But if this study proves 
 suggestive and arouses some interest in a more 
 thorough study of the economic phases of the 
 negro life it will not be without profit. 
 
 African Background 
 
 The negro was brought to this country as a 
 savage. In his native land he had made practi 
 cally no progress at all within historic times. He 
 was thousands of years behind any other people in 
 the world that could be called in any real sense civ 
 ilized, and his manner of life was that of the most 
 ignorant and the lowest of men. "The native in 
 East Africa is untold thousands of years younger 
 than Abraham, and untold thousands of years 
 nearer the monkey than were Abraham s 
 Phoenician kinsfolk," says Dr. W. S. Rainsford, 
 who has recently made a first hand study of the 
 African in Africa. 
 
 African Slavery and its Results 
 
 The negro had been accustomed to slavery be 
 fore he was brought to this country. In Africa 
 the natives held each other in slavery, and it is 
 said that this slavery was of the lowest grade in 
 morals. It was of such a nature that it doubtless 
 did practically nothing in giving the African that 
 training in systematic, regular work which he so 
 much needs, In Africa the native had never 
 
ECONOMIC CONDITION OF THE NEGRO 3! 
 
 
 
 shown the least capacity to grapple successfully 
 with any serious problem of civilization, and he 
 seemed to be destined to move indefinitely in that 
 very circumscribed circle fixed for him by his 
 natural environment. His life of carnage and 
 idleness and sensualism and pillage had paralyzed 
 every intellectual faculty and had developed in 
 him a roaming, restless disposition, a love of 
 excitement, a distaste for systematic work that 
 made him incapable of any advancement under 
 his own direction, and made anything like self- 
 mastery impossible. 
 
 American Slavery 
 
 The first cargo of slaves was landed on the 
 Virginia shore in 1619. They were brought in 
 by the Dutch and were twenty in number. At 
 this time the colonists were looking to the in 
 dentured white servants to supply the demands of 
 the colony for extra labor, and for this and other 
 reasons but few slaves were imported for a num 
 ber of years. In 1650, thirty years after the 
 landing of the first cargo, there were but about 
 three hundred slaves in the colony of Virginia. 
 But after the middle of the century, on account 
 of an uprising of certain of Cromwell s soldiers, 
 who were sent to Virginia as indentured servants 
 after Charles II came to the throne, the Vir 
 ginians passed a very stringent law against the 
 landing of any one who had been convicted of any 
 kind of crime, political or otherwise. This law 
 doubtless affected materially the supply of white 
 labor for the colony, and increased the demand 
 for slaves. At any rate, the slaves began to come 
 
32 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 % 
 
 in now in greater numbers, and by the end of the 
 century the slave population was of considerable 
 size. The growth of the slave population is 
 shown by the following figures : 
 
 Year. Slave Population in Virginia. 
 
 1619 20 
 
 1649 300 
 
 1671 2,000 
 
 1700 6,000 
 
 1715 23,000 
 
 1763 150,000 
 
 New England Slave Traders 
 
 The slaves, after the first few lots that were 
 landed, were brought to this country in large 
 measure by New England ship owners, who 
 traded for them in Africa, and sold them to the 
 Southern planters. The shipping industry was 
 developed very early by New England, and the 
 New Englanders found in the slave trade a thriv 
 ing business. "During the Eigtheenth Century 
 a three-cornered trade was developed by New 
 England, by means of which molasses was 
 brought from the West Indies to New England, 
 where it was manufactured into rum; this was 
 taken to Africa and exchanged for slaves, who 
 were sold in the West Indies or the Southern 
 colonies." 1 
 
 Economic Basis of Distribution 
 
 Slavery was in vogue in all of the American 
 colonies, but from the beginning the great 
 
 1 "Economic History of the United States." Bogart. 
 
ECONOMIC CONDITION OF THE NEGRO 33 
 
 majority of the slaves were placed in the South 
 ern colonies. The forces that determined the 
 location of the slaves in the South rather than in 
 the North were purely and exclusively economic 
 forces. If the slaves had been more profitable in 
 New England than in the South they would have 
 been sold there and kept there. New England 
 was a section of small farms and small farmers 
 from the beginning, while the Southerners in 
 considerable numbers farmed on a large scale 
 almost from the beginning. This does not mean 
 that farming on a large scale was the rule in the 
 South at any time, as is commonly believed. The 
 great majority of the farmers of the South from 
 the beginning were small farmers. It was the 
 enterprise and capacity and jDrogressiveness of 
 the leading men of the South, as well as the- 
 forces of the nakiral environment, that created a 
 relatively stronger demand for the slaves in the 
 Southern colonies. 
 
 Effects of Slavery on the South 
 
 Perhaps no other phase of our history has been 
 so persistently and so violently misinterpreted 
 and so grossly misrepresented as that which deals 
 with the economic effect of slavery on the South. 
 This misrepresentation is not due to the prejudice 
 engendered by the struggle between the two sec 
 tions over the ethics of slavery, as may be be 
 lieved ; at least this is not the chief cause. Southern 
 writers, as well as Northern writers, tell prac 
 tically the same story, and are guilty of the same 
 misrepresentations. The trouble is not prejudice, 
 primarily, but ignorance ; ignorance not only of 
 
34 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 the simplest facts bearing on the subject, but of 
 the elementary principles of economics as applied 
 to industrial life. 
 
 The almost universal opinion with reference to 
 the economic effect of slavery on the South is 
 well expressed in a recent economic history of 
 the United States by Professor Bogart, of Prince 
 ton University. 1 "While the country, as a whole," 
 says Professor Bogart, "had made marvelous 
 industrial progress during this period, the benefits 
 were confined largely to the North and West. 
 The great advances in manufacturers, in agricul 
 tural improvements, and in commerce had 
 scarcely affected the South. In fact the South 
 had lagged far behind the North in the indus 
 trial advance of the previous half century. The 
 whirl and rush of this progress encompassed the 
 South on every side. Yet, alonein all the world, 
 she stood unmoved by it; in government, in so 
 ciety, in employment, in labor, the States of the 
 South in 1860 were substantially what they had 
 been in 1810, when the abolition of the slave 
 trade had impressed upon their development the 
 last modification of form of which it seemed 
 susceptible." 
 
 Southern Progress during Slavery 
 
 Notwithstanding the above statement, which is 
 the opinion of practically all of the leading his 
 torians, the South made great industrial progress 
 before the Civil War. The South had consider 
 ably more wealth in proportion to population in 
 1860 than was possessed by the rest of the coun- 
 
 1 "Economic History of the United States." Bogart. 
 
ECONOMIC CONDITION OF THE NEGRO 35 
 
 try, counting the slaves as a part of the popula 
 tion. The value of fanning implements in use in 
 1860 was one-seventh greater in the South than 
 in the Northern and Western States in propor 
 tion to population. The per capita value of farm 
 ing implements in Louisiana was more than three 
 times that of New York, Pennsylvania, or Ohio. 
 The South, in 1860, with more than one-fourth 
 of the free population, possessed almost as many 
 head of live stock as the remaining States of the 
 Union. 
 
 Banking 
 
 If we compare the South with the North and 
 West with reference to banking, we find that the 
 South had about one-third more capital invested 
 per capita free population than the North and 
 West, and a very much larger proportion of loans 
 and deposits. New York is left out in this com 
 parison, since New York belonged as much to the 
 South as to the rest of the country, in a business 
 way. 
 
 From 1850 to 1860 the increase in the cash 
 valuation of farms was as follows: 
 
 The Southern States 129% 
 
 The New England States 27% 
 
 The remaining States of the Union.. 102% 
 
 Railways 
 
 In 1860 the South had more miles of railroad 
 than the rest of the country in proportion to free 
 population and the percentage increase in rail 
 road construction from 1850 to 1860 was as 
 follows : 
 
36 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 Southern States 350% 
 
 New England States 46% 
 
 Northern and Western States, includ 
 ing the New England States 320% 
 
 Manufacturing 
 
 In 1850 the Southern States had invested in 
 manufacturing $90,615,214. In 1860, the amount 
 of capital invested in manufacturing had in 
 creased to $159,496,572. The percentage increase 
 in manufacturing was greater for the South 
 from 1850 to 1860 than for the rest of the 
 country. In 1860 the Southern States had thirty 
 cities of 8,000 population and more, with a com 
 bined population of 999,947, 
 
 Education 
 
 In 1860, the South was spending more money 
 for education in proportion to her free popula 
 tion than the rest of the country, and the State 
 free public school system which originated in 
 the South had made great progress, and millions 
 of dollars were being spent each year on public 
 school education. 
 
 A glance at the census reports for 1860 will 
 show that the South was in the very forefront in 
 material and educational progress in 1860, and 
 that the general opinion of the life of this sec 
 tion before the Civil War is without foundation. 
 
 It can hardly be shown that slavery interfered 
 materially with the economic progress of the 
 South, and it is very probable that our industrial 
 progress would have been very much the same 
 as it is to-day had slavery continued. 
 
ECONOMIC CONDITION OF THE NEGRO 37 
 
 Effect of This Economic Institution on the Slaves 
 
 What was the effect of slavery on the slave? 
 There is, doubtless, much difference of opinion 
 on this question, but perhaps all will agree that 
 the slaves, as a whole, received great benefit from 
 the institution of slavery. Slavery was essentially 
 an economic institution, not a philanthropic enter 
 prise. The slave owners were men of average 
 philanthropic impulses, it is believed, and doubt 
 less compared favorably with any other body of 
 men of their day in this particular. But their 
 chief motive in buying slaves and holding slaves 
 was an economic motive, just as the chief motive 
 of the employer of free labor was economic. 
 Whatever advantages or disadvantages came to 
 the slave by virtue of the institution of slavery 
 were incidental, and the same may be said of the 
 employment of free labor. By this it is not meant 
 that economic motives always controlled in the 
 attitude of the master to the slave. The economic 
 was often sacrificed in the interest of humanity, 
 and it is probable that the economic was oftener 
 sacrificed by the slave owner in the interest of 
 humanity than was done by the employer of free 
 labor, since the moral obligation of the slave 
 owner was greater than that of the employer of 
 free labor. 
 
 However hard hearted and commercial the 
 master may have been in some instances, it was 
 against his economic interest as a rule to starve 
 or maim or materially injure his slave, and in 
 the main, slaves were well cared for and pro 
 tected from injury, just as men care for and 
 protect their stock from injury. It is very un- 
 
38 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 usual for the class of men who owned slaves to 
 injure and abuse and wilfully mistreat their 
 horses and cows, and we are sure that the econo 
 mic interest of the slave-owner protected the 
 slave from any considerable amount of inhuman 
 treatment, even if the master had been brutal 
 by nature. 
 
 Slave Ownership a Trust 
 
 While the economic was the chief motive in 
 slave ownership, it was by no means the only 
 motive; and there is abundance of proof that 
 many masters accepted slave ownership as a 
 sacred trust, and worked hard to lift the slave 
 to a higher and better life. 
 
 But with all that may be said for philanthropic 
 effort to help the negro and surely much may 
 be said in its behalf it is probable that it was 
 far better for the negro that the economic motive 
 controlled in slavery even with the accompany 
 ing hardships, and sometimes gross abuses. It 
 is often the case that the training that is worth 
 most in the making of men is that which en 
 lightened philanthropy would not choose. The 
 African savage needed above everything else just 
 such training as he got in the main under slavery 
 in this country. Any other than such a vigorous 
 and such a positive policy as the individual eco 
 nomic interest of slavery demanded would not 
 have met the demands of his nature. While 
 those who were responsible for the institution of 
 slavery in this cowntry deserve no special credit 
 for these incidental and accidental effects of 
 slavery, since their motives were chiefly ceo- 
 
ECONOMIC CONDITION OF THE NEGRO 39 
 
 nomic, the recognized beneficent effects of slav 
 ery on the negro should mitigate that criticism 
 often heard against those who defended the in 
 stitution. 
 
 Contact with Whites First Benefit of Slavery 
 
 In what ways did slavery benefit the negro? 1 
 First, slavery brought the negro into vital touch 
 with Christian civilization; it brought him in a 
 close individual relation with men and women 
 who were the heirs of all the ages. His removal 
 from the environment of his own country made 
 it much easier for him to break away from those 
 forces that had held him at the very bottom of 
 human society for untold ages. While many 
 negroes lived in quarters and were in a measure 
 cut off from much association with the white 
 people, the great majority of the slaves were in 
 close and continuous touch with white men and 
 white women, and a very large proportion of 
 them lived in the homes of the whites, and thus, 
 for the first time in all their history, got a con 
 ception of Christian home life, which is so essen 
 tial to the uplift of any people, and the lack of 
 which has been the chief weakness of the negro. 
 But even the negroes who lived in the big negro 
 quarters were never separated from vital contact 
 with the white man, whom they had an opportu 
 nity to observe and study and imitate at all times. 
 
 Segregation 
 
 Second, slavery segregated the negroes from 
 each other, and thus gave them a better oppor- 
 
 l Cf. "The Negro in the South." Booker T. Wash 
 ington. 
 
40 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 tunity to break away from the negro influence 
 and substitute the influence of the whites. The 
 common idea that the slaves belonged to a rela 
 tively small number of big slave holders is not 
 in accord with the facts. About one-fifth of the 
 slave holders owned only one slave, and a major 
 ity of the slave holders of the South owned five 
 or less than five slaves. The average size of the 
 family being about five, the man who owned five 
 slaves, owned, as a rule, one man, one woman, and 
 three children. The average number of slaves 
 held by each owner was about ten. Slave owner 
 ship in the South was really very democratic, 
 and it may be truly said that the great majority 
 of the slave holders were either poor men or 
 men in very moderate circumstances. The 
 negroes for the most part segregated into small 
 groups, were kept away from the excitement of 
 the crowd, and were given an opportunity for 
 individual development under conditions most 
 favorable to the peculiar demands of their nature. 
 Regular systematic work by day under intelli 
 gent direction, and the "patty rollers" by night 
 kept the negro at home, and prevented him from 
 spending his nights and much of his time in the 
 day, as is his custom to do now, in seeking the 
 deadly poison of excitement which his abnormal 
 restless, nomadic nature craves. 
 
 Freedom from Excitement 
 
 Third the slave was kept on the farm away 
 from the excitement of the city. The census of 
 1860 shows that very few of the one million in 
 habitants of the cities of the South were slaves. 
 
ECONOMIC CONDITION OF THE NEGRO 4! 
 
 More than 900,000 of the inhabitants of the 
 cities were white. No other place could have 
 been more conducive to the development of those 
 characteristics of which he was so much in need 
 as the quiet country life of the rural South. But 
 nothing short of slavery or some other powerful 
 outside force could have held him in the country. 
 
 Systematic Habits of Life 
 
 Fourth, slavery forced the negro to work, to 
 work hard, to work systematically, and to work 
 continuously. He was forced to live systemati 
 cally, to eat and sleep, and rest systematically. 
 All of this was absolutely new to him and was 
 contrary to every inclination of his nature. Yet 
 it was the training above all others he most 
 needed. It was the lack of capacity to hold him 
 self to systematic, regular work and systematic 
 regular habits of life that constituted his chief 
 weakness then as an economic factor and it is 
 this that constitutes his chief weakness to-day. 
 Perhaps no kind of philanthropic effort could 
 have given him this training of which he was so 
 much in need so successfully as slavery. Noth 
 ing but slavery with the economic motive in con 
 trol could have succeeded at all adequately, it 
 is believed, in training this savage nomad to 
 regular habits of life and systematic, continuous 
 work. On this point it is interesting to note the 
 opinion of Dr. W. S. Rainsford of his recent 
 studies of the African in Africa: "To advance 
 at all," says Dr. Rainsford, speaking of the East 
 African, "he must be firmly, lovingly, forced to 
 work, kept at his job, for his own strongest de- 
 
42 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 fense against all civilization and religion is the 
 fact that at heart he is a nomad still. . . . For 
 a long time to come the East African must be 
 firmly and wisely made to do what he ought to 
 do. ... The opponents of forced labor in 
 any form and under any circumstances wax 
 ignorantly eloquent. But outcries do not alter 
 facts. The man who is not fit to be his own 
 master must be put under the mastership of 
 some one else or he will perish from the earth. 
 No savage ever did or ever will in any age or 
 in any land work systematically unless obliged 
 to." 
 
 Intelligent Supervision 
 
 Fifth, slavery gave the negro an intelligent 
 master, and this above all other things was his 
 greatest need. He had shown himself absolutely 
 incapable of self-mastery ; and it is far better for 
 one to have another for a master than to have 
 no master at all. 
 
 Altruism and Loyalty 
 
 Sixth, slavery developed in the slave to a very 
 remarkable degree the spirit of altruism and the 
 spirit of loyalty to this master. It can hardly 
 be shown that slavery was ever very repulsive 
 to the negro. Of course, he would have accepted 
 freedom gladly at any time, as he will gladly 
 accept any change which he thinks will give him 
 larger opportunities to satisfy his inordinate de 
 sire for excitement. But slavery was the best 
 life he knew, and the freedom from care and 
 responsibility which it gave met a responsive 
 
ECONOMIC CONDITION OF THE NEGRO 43 
 
 chord in his soul. He took great pride in the 
 system of which he recognized himself as an 
 essential part; and he respected and honored the 
 man that owned slaves and felt great pride in 
 his own master s success. The slave abhorred 
 with the utmost contempt the white man who 
 owned no slaves, and spoke of him in a contempt 
 uous way as "poor white trash." The attitude 
 of the negro slave to slavery and to his master 
 was so radically different from what the attitude 
 of the white man would have been under similar 
 circumstances that it is almost impossible for us 
 to comprehend the feeling of the negro, and we 
 are continuously in danger of misinterpreting 
 the negro altogether by reading into his acts and 
 motives the point of view of the white man. 
 When we understand his peculiar nature and 
 what seems his peculiar attitude to his master, 
 it is not difficult to understand how slavery de 
 veloped to a very marked degree in the negro 
 altruistic traits and genuine loyalty to his mas 
 ter s family. The loyalty and devotion and un 
 selfish service of the negro to the family of his 
 master during the Civil War have rightly elicited 
 the admiration and praise of the whole world for 
 this down-trodden race. The splendid traits 
 shown by the slave in the time of peril to his 
 master and to his master s family have doubtless 
 been responsible in a very large measure for the 
 exaggeration of the evils of slavery to the negro. 
 A recognition of such traits doubtless intensified 
 the feeling of disgust on the part of many that 
 such a people should have been held in bondage 
 at all by another race. But it is extremely prob- 
 
44 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 able that these very commendable traits were 
 almost exclusively the products of slavery. To 
 understand the relation of slavery to the develop 
 ment of these traits in the negro, compare the 
 negro during the Civil War with the negro who 
 has grown up since that time in this particular. 
 
 Lack of Loyalty Since Civil War 
 
 Would the white women of the South be safe 
 to-day surrounded by the negroes who have 
 grown up under a regime of freedom, with their 
 husbands and brothers and fathers away in a 
 distant battle field? They hardly feel safe with 
 their husbands and fathers and brothers at home. 
 What can be said of his loyalty to his employer 
 even to his recognized benefactor to-day? Is 
 it not true that he is noted for his lack of loyalty 
 and the absence, seemingly, of any real apprecia 
 tion of gratitude for favors shown him by the 
 white people? One of his most serious defects 
 in the industrial field is the fact that he may 
 leave his work at any time regardless of his obli 
 gations to his employer and regardless of the loss 
 that his leaving may bring to his employer. As 
 to unselfish service, the negro of the present day, 
 with some few exceptions, seems to know but 
 little of this virtue. He expects to be paid well 
 for everything he does for a white person, and 
 we can hardly conceive of his rendering valuable, 
 unselfish service to the whites to-day as the 
 negro gave during the Civil War. After years 
 of training under slavery the negro showed him 
 self capable of keeping sacred a great trust com 
 mitted to his hands by the accident of war; but 
 
ECONOMIC CONDITION OF THE NEGRO 45 
 
 after years of training under freedom he gives 
 no satisfactory evidence of any capacity to meas 
 ure up to such responsibility at the present time. 
 
 Mastery of Tools 
 
 Seventh, slavery developed the negro in the 
 use of tools, and gave him considerable skill in 
 many instances as a worker. Many slaves were 
 trained as carpenters and blacksmiths and in a 
 number of other skilled occupations, and it is 
 probable that there were more skilled negro 
 mechanics just after the war in proportion to 
 the negro population than to-day. 
 
 Ethical and Religious Training 
 
 Eighth, the ethical and religious training the 
 negro received under slavery can hardly be ex 
 aggerated as an economic factor in his life. He 
 was taught the difference between right and 
 wrong by the white man and the white woman, 
 and the ethical standards of the white man were 
 instilled at home and at the church; for the 
 negro then attended the white church and was 
 taught ethics and religion by the white preacher. 
 His ethical and religious training doubtless had 
 much to do with his efficiency as a worker; for 
 his chief trouble in the industrial world has 
 always been moral deficiencies. 
 
 Whatever may be the proper condemnation of 
 slavery as an institution in this country, and what 
 ever may have been the injuries it brought to the 
 South, slavery was an immeasurable blessing to 
 the negro, and did more for his real advance 
 ment than all other influences combined. The 
 
46 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 negro race should never cease to hold as one of 
 their most priceless possessions the training they 
 received under the regime of slavery in the South 
 ern States. 
 
 Dangers of Freedom 
 
 The effect of freedom on the negro from the 
 economic point of view is a question on which 
 there is much difference of opinion, and perhaps 
 we are not yet far enough from slavery to be in 
 a position to measure accurately the possibilities 
 of the negro as an economic factor in our modern 
 life. But we must reason on what data we have, 
 and hold our theories subject to change when 
 more light demands a change. 
 
 Freedom was not an exchange of outside mas 
 tery for self-mastery, as was the assumption of 
 emancipation, but an exchange of outside mastery 
 for no mastery at all in many, many instances. 
 The shock of such a freedom as was conferred 
 on the negro was too great for him to with 
 stand without serious, if not lasting, injury to 
 himself. Freedom destroyed the mastery and 
 control which had come to him through slavery, 
 and he found himself incapable of building up 
 a defense from within that would meet the de 
 mands of progress. The training the older slaves 
 had received under slavery was sufficient in many 
 instances to protect them against the dangers of 
 freedom, for it is very true that the child trained 
 up in the way he should go in the industrial field 
 will hardly depart from it when he is old. But 
 it was very different with the younger negroes, 
 and those who were born after emancipation. 
 
OF THE \^ 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 ECONOMIC CONDITION OF THE NEGRO 47 
 
 These were allowed to follow their own inclina 
 tions in large measure, and very rapidly they 
 got away from that regular, systematic life that 
 did so much for their fathers under slavery. 
 Slavery gave splendid training to the individual, 
 but it did not continue long enough to get this 
 character into the fibre of the race. Hence, 
 when the bonds of slavery were broken and the 
 negro was freed from all the restrictions that 
 slavery involved, the tendency was for the 
 younger negroes to revert to the old type. The 
 Anglo-Saxon can survive a long time on the 
 capital he inherited from his ancestors, who have 
 been in training in the school of self-mastery 
 for thousands of years. One, two, three, or a 
 half dozen generations may destroy themselves 
 by the abuse of freedom, and yet when a child 
 comes forth and decides to make something of 
 himself, he can draw on the capital of his an 
 cestors and begin to build up where his imme 
 diate progenitors left off. But the negro in 
 herits nothing from his distant ancestors to help 
 him in the struggle for self-mastery and suc 
 cessful competition with a superior race. To the 
 extent that the white man in this country returns 
 to the distant type, to that extent he gains strength 
 in the stubborn virtues, but to the extent that 
 the negro returns to the distant type, he is weak 
 ened for the rough and strenuous struggle of our 
 modern industrial life. 
 
 Negro Weaknesses Moral 
 
 The chief weakness of the negro in his struggle 
 for a place in the- modern industrial world that 
 
48 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 will guarantee his safety and progress is not alone 
 an intellectual weakness, as is generally believed, 
 but a moral weakness. He lacks the moral 
 stamina of self-mastery, of self-control; he lacks 
 the capacity to sacrifice the present for the future, 
 the capacity that is essential to any adequate eco 
 nomic progress. The restless, roaming disposi 
 tion of the nomad, and the abnormal desire for 
 sensualistic excitement have taken possession of 
 him again, and as yet he has given little evidence 
 of his capacity to cope successfully with these 
 dangerous enemies of his life. 
 
 Difficulties of Educational Policy 
 
 The education we have given him has some 
 times done more harm than good in fitting him 
 for the only sphere that holds out any hope to 
 him for the future. Undoubtedly the education 
 of the common schools has done much to lift cer 
 tain individual negroes and give them a better 
 life, but for the negro, as a whole, the effect of 
 the education he has received is open to question. 
 To the extent that it has educated him away 
 from the pursuit of manual labor, it is believed 
 that it has been injurious. It is the one ambi 
 tion of the negro s life to get away from manual 
 labor, and many of them hope that education 
 will enable them to do this. It is this wrong 
 ideal, it is believed, that has much to do with his 
 inefficiency as an industrial worker. The indus 
 trial field is his only hope for a place of perma 
 nence in our modern life, and anything that tends 
 to divert his attention and ambition to other fields 
 does him a real injury; it not only leads him to 
 
ECONOMIC CONDITION OF THE NEGRO 49 
 
 failure in other fields but unfits him for a place 
 in which he might succeed. 
 
 Manual Labor Needed 
 
 Unless the negro s ideals can be changed with 
 reference to manual labor, or some outside com 
 pulsion can be brought to bear upon him to hold 
 him to the work that gives him the only oppor 
 tunity to develop his life, it is very questionable 
 if even industrial training will be of much real 
 service in solving the problem of tfie negro in 
 this country. 
 
 Industrial Training 
 
 The effects of industrial training, even under 
 the most favorable conditions, are not altogether 
 encouraging in giving a substantial hope that 
 such education will be successful in turning the 
 negro from professional careers to the pursuit 
 of manual labor. The Tuskegee Institute under 
 the direction of Booker T. Washington is per 
 haps the best school of the kind ever established 
 for negroes. He has doubtless gathered into his 
 school the very pick of the negro race, for the 
 fact that a negro would send his children to an 
 industrial school rather than a "university" is 
 proof that the students that go to the Tuskegee 
 Institute are far above the average in a compre 
 hension of the true sphere of the negro in this 
 country. But with all this, and with the in 
 spirational effect of the strong personality of the 
 head of this school always pointing them to the 
 industrial field as their best opportunity, the 
 graduates of Tuskegee, true to the negro nature 
 
5O NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 when left to choose and follow his own career, 
 by a great majority follow other than industrial 
 pursuits when they are graduated. 1 In the cata 
 log of Tuskegee some years ago, giving the oc 
 cupations of graduates of the school we find the 
 following : 
 
 Painters I 
 
 Tinners 5 
 
 Dairymen I 
 
 Butchers i 
 
 Tailors 1 1 
 
 Brickmasons 8 
 
 Carpenters 4 
 
 Dressmakers 2 
 
 Harness makers I 
 
 Plasterers I 
 
 Shoemakers 2 
 
 Wheelwrights i 
 
 Machinists i 
 
 Blacksmiths 3 
 
 Milliners 4 
 
 Firemen i 
 
 Artisans 48 
 
 Teachers of trades in industrial schools. 28 
 
 Students in industrial schools 2 
 
 People who work at their trades when not em 
 ployed at some other principal occupation: 
 
 1 In another chapter one reason for such a small 
 number of these men entering their trades has been 
 pointed out, in that the demands for them as teachers 
 in industrial and other schools has absorbed fully half 
 of them. Editor. 
 
ECONOMIC CONDITION OF THE NEGRO 5! 
 
 Carpenters 8 
 
 Dressmakers and Seamstresses 16 
 
 Blacksmiths i 
 
 Shoemakers 2 
 
 Mattress makers I 
 
 Wheelwrights i 
 
 Plasterers I 
 
 Painters i 
 
 Printers I 
 
 Tailors i 
 
 Total 33 
 
 Other occupations of graduates: 
 
 Cashier i 
 
 Bookkeeper I 
 
 Teachers 157 
 
 Students 31 
 
 Pharmacists 4 
 
 Physicians 8 
 
 Preachers 1 1 
 
 School officials 9 
 
 Other professions 6 
 
 Newspaper work 2 
 
 Civil service 6 
 
 Farmers 9 
 
 Trained nurses 7 
 
 (This includes three who kept house also.) 
 
 Railway laborers I 
 
 Steward I 
 
 Laundresses I 
 
 Miners 3 
 
 Draymen I 
 
 Merchants . 6 
 
52 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 Clerks 8 
 
 U. S. Army 4 
 
 Housewives 29 
 
 It is hardly sufficient to say that the reason so 
 small a number of these graduates of this in 
 dustrial school actually follow the work for 
 which they were trained is the fact that the pro 
 fessions offer them larger incomes. This is per 
 haps true in some cases, but the chief motive 
 that prompts the negro to follow a "profession," 
 although he has been thoroughly trained for a 
 trade, it is believed, is his natural disinclination 
 to do manual work, and his inordinate desire "to 
 shine" in society. 
 
 Per Cent, of Trained Workers Following Trades 
 
 In a journal issued under the direction of the 
 Negro University of Atlanta we find this state 
 ment : "Roughly speaking, it has cost above five 
 millions of dollars to establish the industrial 
 schools and send out a thousand workmen. 
 . . . In one case only six in every hundred 
 artisans trained are following their trades." 
 
 Low Morals and Economic Inefficiency 
 
 In the negro journal mentioned above is an 
 article from a negro in Texas. That the negro s 
 chief difficulty in the industrial work is not in 
 tellectual but moral is emphasized by this writer. 
 "Many of our young men who do follow the 
 trades are not living up to the full measure of 
 their opportunities. In the first place the em 
 ployer cannot always depend upon them. They 
 
ECONOMIC CONDITION OF THE NEGRO 53 
 
 are just as likely not to come to work at the 
 appointed time as they are to come. It matters 
 not how busy the employer may be or how anx 
 ious he is to finish the job our young workman 
 feels that he is under no obligation to see him 
 through. He feels free to take a day off and to go 
 a -fishing or to enjoy himself in some other way. 
 That s his idea of liberty. When the next negro 
 workman comes along and asks for a job the 
 contractor says No, we don t want any more 
 negroes. Then we say that that man is prej 
 udiced. I used to think so too, but I don t 
 think so any more. I have hired some of them 
 myself and I know that unreliability has kept 
 more negroes out of good jobs than incompe- 
 tency ever did. ... I do not mean that these 
 general statements apply to all our workmen, 
 but I do say that they will apply to the majority." 
 
 Negro Driven Out by Competition 
 
 The negro s lack of moral qualities more than 
 his lack of skill and training is causing him to 
 lose out almost everywhere he really comes in 
 competition with the white man. In the cities 
 where the negroes are more and more congre 
 gating they are being driven out from every 
 place desired by a white competitor. In the 
 northern cities where white people concede no 
 sphere of work to the negro, but compete with 
 him at every point, it is very difficult for the 
 negro to make a living at all, and this is doubt 
 less one reason we find so much more crime 
 among the negroes of northern cities than among 
 the negroes in the South. 
 
54 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 In the South, certain spheres of work were for 
 a long time given to the negro, and in these 
 spheres the white man did not compete with him. 
 But this is changing now, and the white man is 
 more and more competing for this work, once 
 considered as belonging to the negro; and as 
 the white man comes in the negro gives back, 
 not because he is a negro, but because he can t 
 be depended upon to do the work well. The 
 white man is driving him out of the barber s 
 trade and now the Greek boys are rapidly driv 
 ing the negro out of that business upon which 
 he had an exclusive monopoly for so long, name 
 ly, the shoe-shining business. The negro knows 
 how to shine shoes, and there is no objection on 
 the part of the white people to having the negro 
 do this work. But the negro cannot be depended 
 upon to give as good service as the Greek ; hence, 
 he must retire, as he is doing, and leave the field. 
 
 Intermittent Workers Not Wanted 
 
 Under modern industrial conditions there is no 
 place of importance for the intermittent, unrelia 
 ble worker. Too much depends on each man being 
 at his post at the right time to take any risks with 
 unreliable labor. Hence, the negro is forced 
 back more and more to that class of work which 
 has not been so highly specialized. But special 
 ization is being carried into almost every field in 
 the city, and the negro must improve or lose out 
 altogether as a factor in the industrial life of the 
 Southern city. 
 
 The Negro and the Cotton Industry 
 
 For a long time it was believed that the negro 
 was essential to the successful production of cot- 
 
ECONOMIC CONDITION OF THE NEGRO 55 
 
 ton in the South. But this position is no longer 
 tenable. "The President of the Mississippi Agri 
 cultural and Mechanical College has contributed 
 something towards assisting us in forming an 
 opinion on this matter of efficiency, in a study 
 of conditions in several Mississippi counties. 
 Lowndes County, with three negroes to one white 
 man, having 21,972 blacks and 7,121 whites, re 
 quires 3.15 acres to make a bale of cotton, while 
 Jones County, with three whites to one negro, 
 requires 1.98 acres to make a bale. The farm 
 lands of Jones County are valued, as found in the 
 census reports, at $2.85 per acre, and the farm 
 lands of Lowndes County are valued at $9.83 per 
 acre. Yet the poor lands of Jones County under 
 intelligent cultivation produced nearly twice as 
 much per acre as the rich lands of Lowndes 
 County when cultivated mostly by negroes. 
 Noxubee County, with more than five blacks to 
 one white, requires 3.50 acres to make a bale of 
 cotton, while Union County, with three whites to 
 one black, requires only 2.56 acres to make a 
 bale. The farm lands of Noxubee County are 
 valued at $7.12 and the lands of Union are valued 
 at $4.81. Hinds County, with three negroes to 
 one white man, requires 2.50 acres to make a bale, 
 while Perry County, with more than two whites 
 to one negro, requires only 1.96 acres to make 
 a bale. The farm lands of Hinds are valued at 
 three times as much as are those of Perry. In 
 the counties Leflore, Bolivar, and Washington, 
 where they have about eight negroes to one 
 white man, but almost without exception the 
 negroes are under white managers, they make one 
 bale to every acre and a half, while in Lowndes, 
 
$6 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 Noxubee and Monroe, where not many white 
 managers are employed, they make on an average 
 about one bale to three acres. While this dif 
 ference is partly caused by a difference in the 
 fertility of the two groups of three counties, yet 
 the principal difference is due to the superior in 
 telligence used in the management of the first 
 group." 1 
 
 Italians Supplanting Negroes 
 
 In a recent book on the "American Race Prob 
 lem," by Stone, a comparison is given between 
 negro and Italian labor in the cotton fields of 
 Arkansas. Certain cotton planters in this section, 
 purely as a business proposition, employed a num 
 ber of Italians, together with a number of ne 
 groes to work on their plantation. The Italians 
 had come to Arkansas some time before and rep 
 resented a number of heterogeneous occupations 
 instead of being taken solely from the farming 
 class. 
 
 "The number of Italian squads in 1898 (em 
 ployed on this plantation) was 28, with 200 work 
 ing hands, cultivating 1,200 acres of cotton. Of 
 negro squads, there were 203, with 600 hands, 
 cultivating 2,600 acres of cotton. At the end of 
 1905, after eight years, there were on the property 
 107 Italian squads, with 500 working hands, and 
 38 negro families with 175 working hands, an 
 increase of 69 squads and 300 hands for the Ital 
 ians, a decrease of 165 squads and 425 hands for 
 the negro. The total cotton acreage has in 
 creased to 3,900, of which the Italians are cul- 
 
 1 Stone : "Studies in the American Race Problem." 
 
ECONOMIC CONDITION OF THE NEGRO 57 
 
 tivating 3,000 acres and the negroes 900. This 
 bare statement of numerical loss and gain is of 
 itself pregnant with meaning. It becomes doubly 
 significant when we analyze the operations of the 
 period under investigation. Beyond the number 
 of families, hands and acreage the details for 
 1898 are not available. As the year s business for 
 1905 is not yet closed, I shall eliminate it also. 
 This gives us a six year period for a comparative 
 exhibit of the two classes of labor, working liter 
 ally side by side, their land indiscriminately al 
 lotted, each on the same tenure, each under the 
 same conditions of soil, climate and management. 
 This gives us the following results: Average 
 number of squads, Italian, 5, negroes, 167 ; 
 average number of working hands, Italians, 269, 
 negroes, 433 ; average number of acres per work 
 ing hand, Italians, 6.3, negroes, 5.1 ; average 
 pounds of lint per hand, Italians, 2,584, negroes, 
 1,174; average pounds of lint per acre, Italians, 
 403, negroes, 233 ; average cash product value 
 per hand (cotton and seed) Italians, $277.36, 
 negroes, $128.47; average cash product value per 
 acre, Italians, $44.77, negroes, $26.36. Thus, the 
 Italian is seen to have produced more lint per 
 hand by 1,410 pounds or 120.1 per cent., and to 
 have exceeded the negroes yield per acre by 170 
 pounds, or 72.9 per cent. The difference in 
 money value in favor of the Italian was $148.89 
 per hand, or 115.8 per cent., and $18.41 per acre 
 or 69.8 per cent. It must also be borne in mind 
 that the negro was cultivating a crop with which 
 his race has been familiar for generations, while 
 the Italian had r!v n r seen a stalk of cotton before 
 
58 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 coming to America only a few years ago. Until 
 shown, they did not even know the difference be 
 tween the plant they were to save and the weeds 
 they were to cut out in the process of cultivation. 
 To state it bluntly and coldly, it is for the negro 
 a recital of conditions as old as his freedom ; too 
 much time spent out of his crop, and away from 
 his work; too much waiting for the weather to 
 improve; too much putting off to a more con 
 venient season ; a too constant and too successful 
 besieging of those in authority for money accom 
 modations and supplies; too little reckoning 
 against the future day of settlement; too much 
 "leaning on the Lord," and too little upon himself 
 in things not spiritual ; too much living for to-day 
 and not enough for to-morrow." 1 
 
 Negro Must Have Special Preparation for Economic 
 Efficiency 
 
 It is now very clear that the negro is not an 
 essential factor in any single sphere of the life 
 of the South, though as yet we are dependent on 
 him for the mass of our labor, and if he hold 
 his own, or if he hold any place at all in the in 
 dustrial field of the South, he must prepare him 
 self or be prepared to compete with the white 
 man. 
 
 1 Stone; "Studies in the American Race Problem." 
 
Ill 
 
 HEALTH AND HOUSING OF THE 
 NEGRO 
 
WE WEAR THE MASK 
 
 We wear the mask that grins and lies, 
 It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes, 
 This debt we pay to human guile; 
 With torn and bleeding hearts we smile, 
 And mouth with myriad subtleties. 
 
 Why should the world be over-wise, 
 In counting all our tears and sighs? 
 Nay, let them only see us, while 
 We wear the mask. 
 
 We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries 
 To thee from tortured souls arise. 
 We sing, but oh, the clay is vile 
 Beneath our feet, and long the mile; 
 But let the world dream otherwise, 
 We wear the mask! 
 
 PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR. 
 
Ill 
 
 HEALTH AND HOUSING OF THE 
 NEGRO 
 
 Test of Civilization 
 
 The surest test of a civilization lies not in 
 the accumulated wealth of the people, not in 
 the degree of perfection in political organiza 
 tion, not in its educational advancement, and 
 one is tempted to say not even in its organized 
 church life. All of these are, to be sure, indices 
 of development, but the surest test of any civil 
 ization lies in the character of its homes. Any 
 race that has the ability to build up and keep 
 sacred the institution of the family must be 
 counted as a progressive race. The past history 
 of the negro has not been very encouraging in 
 this regard. Neither in Africa nor in America 
 during the days of slavery did he know the true 
 meaning of the word home. It is much to the 
 credit of the negro race that out of such a past 
 he is slowly but surely evolving the institutions 
 of the family and the home. 
 
 Relation of House to the Home 
 
 In this process of evolution, the house in which 
 
 he lives plays no small part. It has been often 
 
 and well said that a palace without love and 
 
 ideals is not a home, and the glory of the one 
 
 61 
 
62 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 room cottage where love reigns has been sung 
 by poets and bards. The plain truth, however, 
 is that one room gives poor opportunity to keep 
 pure and sweet the love that once entered there, 
 and the house has more to do with the home than 
 some poets have dreamed ; and surely the house 
 has a most vital relation to the health and, there 
 fore, to the morals and ideals of its inmates. If 
 a nation s progress can be measured by its 
 homes, almost as surely can the state of the 
 homes be measured by the state of the houses in 
 which these homes are made. With the idea of 
 this vital relationship in mind, let us study the 
 question of negro housing. 
 
 Housing in Slavery Days 
 
 During the days of slavery, the negroes lived 
 in the long rows of log cabins mostly one 
 roomed which stretched away from the big 
 house" like two white wings. These were known 
 as the slave quarters, and, being whitewashed, 
 they not infrequently gave a very picturesque ap 
 pearance to the old plantation. One who visits 
 these old Southern plantations to-day may find 
 the remnants of the slave quarters still in ex 
 istence, though they are fast tumbling into decay. 
 In these early days of the South most of the 
 poorer people of the section lived in these one 
 or two roomed log cabins; however, the life 
 therein was cheerless and without comforts. 
 Booker T. Washington has given a graphic de 
 scription of this life in his "Up from Slavery": 
 There was a door to the cabin that is, some 
 thing that was called a door but the uncertain 
 
HEALTH AND HOUSING OF THE NEGRO 63 
 
 hinges by which it was hung, and the large 
 cracks in it, to say nothing of the fact that it 
 was too small, made the room a very uncomfort 
 able one. In addition to these openings there 
 was, in the lower right-hand corner of the room, 
 the cat-hole, a contrivance which almost every 
 mansion or cabin in Virginia possessed during 
 the ante-bellum period. The cat-hole was a 
 square opening, about seven by eight inches, pro 
 vided for the purpose of letting the cat pass 
 in and out of the house at will during the night. 
 In the case of our particular cabin I could never 
 understand the necessity for this convenience, 
 since there were at least a half-dozen other places 
 in the cabin that would have accommodated the 
 cats. There was no wooden floor in our cabin, 
 the naked earth being used as a floor. In the 
 center of the earthen floor there was a large, 
 deep opening covered with boards, which was 
 used as a place in which to store sweet potatoes 
 during the winter. . . . " 
 
 This picture drawn by Washington is much 
 more dreary than the average cabin would 
 justify; for usually there was a board floor and 
 somewhat better doors. Life in slave quarters, 
 however, was poor at the best. 
 
 Country Housing 
 
 The housing conditions of the negro farmer 
 have not changed since slavery nearly so much 
 as one would wish, nor as one might reasonably 
 expect. I have traveled through the country in 
 almost every section of the South, and the negro 
 farm houses consist usually of one, two, or three 
 
64 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 rooms, poorly furnished, poorly kept, with no 
 pictures, and with the barest necessities for liv 
 ing. Professor DuBois has made some study of 
 a typical slave county Dougherty County, 
 Georgia. His word about conditions of housing 
 is rather pessimistic but is doubtless not much 
 overdrawn: "The form and disposition of the 
 laborers cabins throughout the Black Belt 
 is to-day the same as in slavery days. Some 
 live in the self-same cabins, others in cabins re 
 built on the sites of the old. All are sprinkled 
 in little groups over the face of the land, center 
 ing about some dilapidated Big House where the 
 head-tenant or agent lives. The general char 
 acter and arrangement of these dwellings re 
 mains on the whole unaltered. There were in 
 the country, outside the corporate town of Al 
 bany, about fifteen hundred negro families in 
 1898. Out of all these, only a single family oc 
 cupied a house with seven rooms; only fourteen 
 have five rooms or more. The mass live in one- 
 and two-room houses." 
 
 "The size and arrangements of the people s 
 homes are no unfair index of their condition. 
 If, then, we inquire more carefully into these 
 negro homes, we find much that is unsatisfac 
 tory. All over the face of the land is the one- 
 room cabin now standing in the shadow of the 
 Big House, now staring at the dusty road, now 
 rising dark and sombre amid the green of the 
 cotton-fields. It is nearly always old and bare, 
 built of rough boards, and neither plastered nor 
 ceiled. Light and ventilation are supplied by 
 the single door and by the square hole in the 
 wall with its wooden shutter. There is no glass, 
 
HEALTH AND HOUSING OF THE NEGRO 65 
 
 porch, or ornamentation without. Within is a 
 fireplace, black and smoky, and usually unsteady 
 with age. A bed or two, a table, a wooden chest, 
 and a few chairs compose the furniture ; while a 
 stray show-bill or a newspaper makes up the 
 decorations for the walls. Now and then one 
 may find such a cabin kept scrupulously neat, 
 with merry steaming fireplace and hospitable 
 door, but the majority are dirty and dilapidated, 
 smelling of eating and sleeping, poorly venti 
 lated, and anything but homes." 
 
 "Above all, the cabins are crowded. We have 
 come to associate crowding with homes in cities 
 almost exclusively. This is primarily because 
 we have so little accurate knowledge of coun 
 try life. Here in Dougherty county one may 
 find families of eight and ten occupying one or 
 two rooms, and for every ten rooms of house ac 
 commodation for the negroes there are twenty- 
 five persons. The worse tenement abominations 
 of New York do not have above twenty-two 
 persons for every ten rooms. Of course, one 
 small, close room in a city, without a yard, is 
 in many respects worse than the larger single 
 country room. In other respects it is better; 
 it has glass windows, a decent chimney, and a 
 trustworthy floor. The single great advantage 
 of the negro peasant is that he may spend most 
 of his life outside his hovel in the open fields." 1 
 
 City Housing 
 
 The conditions of houses in themselves are but 
 little more inviting in the cities. In an investi 
 gation of 1,137 negro families made under di- 
 
 1 "Souls of Black Folks," pp. 138-140. 
 
66 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 rection of Atlanta University in 1897 it was 
 found that 117 families lived in single-room 
 houses, 276 lived in two-roomed houses, 308 
 families occupied three rooms each, 197 had four 
 rooms each, 112 had five rooms, 122 had more 
 than five rooms, and the average number of 
 occupants for all rooms was 2.22 persons. In a 
 study of the Philadelphia negro in 1899 it was 
 found that in the seventh ward alone 829 fam 
 ilies, or 35 per cent, of the negro families of the 
 ward, occupied just one room to the family. 
 It is not an uncommon thing for one in passing 
 through the poorer negro section to see a sign, 
 "sleepers wanted," tacked on the front of a two- 
 or three-roomed house occupied by a family of 
 from two to six persons. One house visited had 
 a shed-room, used for a dining-room and kitchen, 
 and two front rooms. In these two front rooms 
 the negro man, his wife, and three grown 
 daughters lived, and they took three "men sleep 
 ers" into the house. Another house visited had 
 two rooms one used for kitchen, dining-room 
 and laundry-room. The wife made the living 
 by taking in washing. In the other room one 
 without a ray of sunlight lived this woman, 
 her invalid husband, and two children. In these 
 houses one almost never finds a bath-room and 
 almost as seldom finds a toilet. In the investi 
 gation by Atlanta University, of the 1,031 houses 
 visited only 43, or 4 per cent., had bath tubs. 
 It is safe to say that among this class of ne 
 groes the ignorant day-laboring class this 
 percentage of bath tubs is fully up to the average. 
 
HEALTH AND HOUSING OF THE NEGRO 67 
 
 Unfavorable Location 
 
 These negro homes have the additional dis 
 advantage of being located in the lower, damper, 
 and more disagreeable parts of the city. In At 
 lanta, as an illustration, there are large negro 
 settlements in the lower parts of Houston Street, 
 and in the more undesirable parts of West At 
 lanta. In Nashville, the lowlands between the 
 central part of the city and the residence section 
 of South Nashville, known as "Black Bottom," 
 is tenanted by negroes. So one could go through 
 the list of almost every Southern city, and the 
 facts are always the same. 
 
 Still further, these houses are undesirable, 
 because they are largely located on the alleys 
 rather than the streets. Mr. H. Paul Douglass 
 says : "I know a Charleston alley lined with thirty- 
 two negro tenement houses. In the midst of the 
 alley, its sole source of water supply is an open 
 dipping well, surrounded by a sixteen-inch curb. 
 On this curb all the people of the thirty-two 
 houses do their washing, etc." 1 This means that 
 these homes have absolutely no yard space, that 
 they have a most dreary outlook, that they are 
 surrounded by all sorts of unsightly trash, and 
 that the air is not infrequently ladened with foul 
 odors. It would be hard for any people to make 
 homes in such houses. It would be hard to es 
 timate just what would be the deteriorating effect 
 of removing from the homes of our white people 
 every flower, every tree, every blade of grass, 
 and yet that is what has happened for the mass of 
 the negro working-men. Professor DuBois, in his 
 
 1 "Christian Reconstruction in the South," p. 177. 
 
68 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 study of the Philadelphia negro, gives the fol 
 lowing figures: Of the 1,751 families making 
 returns, 932 had a private yard 12x12 feet, or 
 larger; 312 had a private yard smaller than 
 12x12 feet ; 507 had either no yard or a yard and 
 outhouse in common with the other denizens of 
 the tenement or alley. 1 
 
 Yet again the homes of a large number of 
 negroes are located down in the heart of the 
 city in the old houses long since abandoned by 
 white people, or in those sections of the town 
 where railroads, factories, etc., have made living 
 undesirable. 
 
 Lastly, these houses are often old and are kept 
 in poor repair. If it were not for the high rental 
 which they command they would be torn down to 
 give place for better structures. 
 
 Exorbitant Rentals 
 
 Now the negro not only puts up with these 
 miserable houses and bad locations, but he fre 
 quently pays an exorbitant rent. I have asked 
 a good number of landlords why they do not 
 tear away the old negro houses and build decent 
 tenements, and the usual reply is that the pres 
 ent investment brings a larger dividend. Fifteen 
 to twenty per cent, dividends is not thought to 
 be exorbitant from such rentals. In many 
 of the very worst sections of Negrotown in 
 Nashville, rooms rent for two dollars per week. 
 If a woman who is a cook, working for twelve 
 dollars per month, has only one room, she will 
 pay a half to two-thirds of her income for the 
 
 l "The Philadelphia Negro," p. 293. 
 
HEALTH AND HOUSING OF THE NEGRO 69 
 
 rent of a miserable hovel. In a recent investiga 
 tion made in the city of Nashville, out of 12,579 
 females over fifteen years of age, 5,595 were em 
 ployed as laundresses, cooks, house girls, and 
 child nurses, the average salary for which serv 
 ices ranged from eight to fifteen dollars per 
 month. Unless these women had other support 
 than that of their own labor, they would have a 
 bare pittance on which to live after paying room 
 rent. There is no wonder they resort to stealing 
 and even worse crimes. 
 
 Why Negroes Accept These Conditions 
 
 There are two reasons why negroes will con 
 tinue to live in these unsanitary houses in the 
 worst sections of the city. In the first place, 
 the great majority of negroes are engaged in 
 personal services, such as that of cooks, waiters, 
 and waitresses, butlers, drivers, nurses, etc. This 
 necessitates their being as near their work as 
 possible. In the second place, the strong social 
 nature of the negro calls for constant compan 
 ionship. He wants to be where he can see many 
 others of his kind. He does not want to be 
 isolated. Where there are many congregated, 
 there can be some constant amusement. The 
 organ grinder, the medicine man, the street 
 preacher all of these flourish in the thickly 
 populated sections of the negro district, and to 
 miss these things would be not to live. It is for 
 this reason that people living far out in the sub 
 urbs of a city find it difficult to keep negro 
 servants, in spite of the fact that good servants 
 quarters are furnished. Thousands of negroes 
 
70 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 thus live in crowded and unsanitary tenement 
 houses on the back alleys of the city rather than 
 live out in the suburbs where they might have 
 fresh air and sunshine, cheaper rent and a yard 
 with a garden. 
 
 The barest recital of facts such as these con 
 vinces one that the negro does not have a chance. 
 He has had so little and has grown accustomed to 
 so little that there is danger lest he will not ever 
 want any better than he has. To increase his 
 wants, to make him see the blessings of better 
 houses, and more air and sunshine this is a 
 staggering task. 
 
 The Better Class of Houses 
 
 And, yet, we must not pass without giving 
 something of the brighter side of the picture. 
 We are reminded of the 126,329 negro homes 
 free of debt and owned by negroes. We must 
 remember that more and more the negro is oc 
 cupying whole sections of our cities and is mak 
 ing such sections beautiful and attractive. Re 
 cently, I went through that section of Atlanta 
 near Atlanta University where are to be found 
 the homes of the better class of negroes. The 
 streets were clean, the yards were green and 
 well kept, there were plenty of shade trees, and 
 most of the houses had from four to eight 
 rooms. They were well painted and one would 
 hardly have known that it was not a white set 
 tlement. Just out by the University, I saw the 
 handsome new residence of the leading negro 
 barber of the city, a brick edifice costing more 
 than twenty-five thousand dollars. Nor is this 
 an isolated case. There are such negro settle- 
 
HEALTH AND HOUSING OF THE NEGRO 71 
 
 ments in Chattanooga, Nashville, and many other 
 cities that I have visited. 
 
 Relation of Health to Housing 
 
 In view of what has preceded, one may expect 
 the health of the negro to be below that of the 
 white man. And such is evidently the case. Con 
 trary to the idea of the casual observer, the ne 
 gro has less of endurance, and his death rate 
 is higher than that of the white man. "The vital 
 ity of the negro," says Hoffman, 1 "may well 
 be considered the most important phase of the 
 so-called race problem; for, it is a fact which 
 can, and will, be demonstrated by indisputable 
 evidence, that of all races for which statistics 
 are obtainable, and which enter at all into the 
 consideration of economic problems as factors, 
 the negro shows the least power of resistance in 
 the struggle for life." Mr. Hoffman thinks that 
 ihis physical weakness of the race presages ex 
 termination unless such weakness can be over 
 come, while others take an opposite view and 
 claim that the birth rate will easily keep in ad 
 vance of the death rate. 
 
 High Death Rate of Negroes 
 
 In Washington, for the year 1890, the vital 
 statistics for white and colored showed a rela 
 tive number of deaths of 67.07 whites to 141.69 
 colored; and for the same year the figures for 
 Baltimore stood 67.19 whites to 121.55 colored; 
 or, in other words, the negroes in these two 
 
 1 "Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Ne 
 gro," p. 37. I am greatly indebted to this student of 
 the negro for many of the facts in this chapter. 
 
72 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 cities that year were twice as unhealthy as the 
 white people. In the cities of Atlanta, Memphis, 
 Charleston, and Richmond, the death rates for 
 the years 1881-1895 were as follows : Atlanta, 18.5 
 whites to 34.7 colored; Memphis, 20.6 whites to 
 31.2 colored; Charleston, 23.2 white to 44 col- 
 cied; Richmond, 20.7 white to 38 colored. 
 Among these cities the comparative death rate 
 most favorable to the negro was in Memphis, 
 where, for every two white deaths per thousand 
 of population, there were three colored deaths; 
 and the least favorable comparative death rate 
 was in Atlanta, where, for every five white deaths 
 per thousand population, there were nine colored 
 deaths. Without wearying the reader with the 
 statistics, it may be stated that both the white 
 death rate and colored death rate in all these cities 
 decreased greatly between 1881 and 1895, but 
 the decrease of the white death rate was greater 
 than that of the colored, hence at the end of the 
 period the latter still stands about 70 per cent, 
 in advance of the former. It may be said also 
 that the statistics of the last census and such 
 other local statistics as are available up to the 
 present year, seem to indicate that this disparity 
 is probably larger now than it was in 1895. In 
 deed, a number of students of the question have 
 put the death rate per thousand of each race as 
 two to one in favor of the white man. 
 
 Causes of Excessive Death Rate 
 
 The chief causes of this excessive death rate 
 among negroes seem to be infant mortality, con 
 sumption, scrofula, venereal troubles, and in 
 testinal diseases. It will be noted that all of 
 
HEALTH AND HOUSING OF THE NEGRO 73 
 
 these are what may be called constitutional dis 
 eases, that is, either the disease or else the weak 
 ness which makes the subject an easy prey, may 
 be inherited. Hoffman sums up a number of sta 
 tistical tables as giving "evidence that environ 
 ment has less effect on the duration of life than 
 have the factors of race and heredity." 1 
 
 Infant Mortality 
 
 The infant mortality among the peoples in 
 America is alarmingly high. Too little atten 
 tion has been paid in the past to the feeding 
 and care of infants. Among the colored people 
 this mortality is still further marked. As illus 
 trations of this fact, the following statistics for 
 the year 1890 may be cited: New Orleans, 1,290 
 colored births, 555 of which children died before 
 one year of age, or a death rate of 430.2 per thou 
 sand; Charleston, 758 births, 350 of whom died 
 under one year of age, or a rate of 461.7; Rich 
 mond, 625 births, 331 deaths, death rate of in 
 fants, 529.6 per thousand. In other words, of 
 every two colored children born only one lives to 
 be one year old. This is a death plague almost 
 like that visited upon the children of Egypt by 
 the destroying angel. 
 
 Neglect of Children 
 
 For this alarming infant mortality there are 
 three chief causes : First, the mother works out 
 and must leave the infant in the care of other 
 children who are too young to give it proper at 
 tention. According to statistics quoted before, 
 44 per cent, of the negro women in Nashville 
 
 "Race Traits and Tendencies," p. 51. 
 
74 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 over fifteen years of age are employed as laun 
 dresses, cooks, housemaids, and child nurses, 
 which means that in most cases they must leave 
 their own children without proper care during 
 the day. It may also be added that the medical 
 care given to negro children is altogether in 
 adequate. Thousands of them die without ever 
 being seen by a physician. Here is a crying need 
 for more trained negro physicians who can, and 
 will, meet this need of humanity. These facts 
 will undoubtedly account for much of this ex 
 cessive infant mortality. As to the other great 
 causes of high death rate among infants, let a 
 negro speak, lest we shall be charged with unfair 
 judgment. 1 
 
 Immorality and Child Diseases 
 
 "There is one obstacle in the race s reproduc 
 ing itself that has some connection with venereal 
 diseases and hence I speak of it now. I refer to the 
 enormous amount of still births and infant mor 
 tality prevalent everywhere among colored peo 
 ple. For the period of 1893-95,^6 still and prema 
 ture births in the city of Nashville were 272 for 
 the white, and 385 for the colored ; or, in propor 
 tion to the population, two and one-third times as 
 many as there ought to have been. This relative 
 state of affairs obtains in Memphis and Atlanta, 
 and in all the large cities of the South. From the 
 health reports of all our large Southern cities we 
 learn that a considerable amount of our infant 
 mortality is due to inanition, infantile debility, 
 and infantile marasmus. Now, what is the case 
 
 1 "Social and Physical Conditions of Negroes in 
 Cities," p. 24. 
 
HEALTH AND HOUSING OF THE NEGRO 75 
 
 in regard to these diseases? The fact is that 
 they are not diseases at all, but merely the names 
 of symptoms due to enfeebled constitutions and 
 congenital diseases inherited from parents suf 
 fering from the effects of sexual immorality and 
 debauchery. Translated into common speech, 
 they are nothing more than infant starvation, in 
 fant weakness, and infant wasting away, the 
 cause of which is that the infants parents be 
 fore them have not given them a fighting chance 
 for life. According to Hoffman, over 50 per 
 cent, of the negro children born in Richmond, 
 Va., die before they are one year old. 
 
 The number of still and premature births 
 among us is a matter of great alarm, not only be 
 cause it seriously interferes with the numerical 
 increase of the race, but because it involves the 
 fecundity, the health, and even the moral char 
 acter of large numbers of our women. The sup 
 port of the family often falls very heavily upon 
 our poor washerwomen; and since they find it 
 hard to get the husks to feed and the rags to 
 clothe their already large number of little folks, 
 living in one room like stock, rather than add 
 to their burden, they resort to crime. An official 
 on the Nashville Board of Health, who is also 
 proprietor of a drug store, tells me that he is 
 astonished at the number of colored women who 
 apply at his store for drugs with a criminal pur 
 pose in view," 
 
 Prevalence of Coniumption 
 
 A second cause of excessive death rate among 
 negroes is consumption. According to the census 
 of 1890, the mortality from consumption per 
 
76 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 100,000 of each race in certain typical cities was 
 as follows : * 
 
 White. Colored. 
 
 Charleston, S. C. 3554 686.3 
 
 New Orleans, La. 2 S-3 5%77 
 
 Savannah, Ga 37 1 - 1 54-4 
 
 Mobile, Ala. 304.1 608.2 
 
 Atlanta, Ga. 213.8 483.7 
 
 Richmond, Va. 2 3O-5 411.1 
 
 Washington, D. C. 245 591-8 
 
 It will be seen from this table that the lowest ex 
 cess for the colored deaths over white from con 
 sumption is 74 per cent, in Richmond, and the 
 highest excess is 136 per cent, in the City of New 
 Orleans. Not only is this death rate very much 
 higher, but it seems to be increasing. The 
 figures from the City of Charleston, from 1822 
 or 1894, will indicate this; 2 
 
 CONSUMPTION IN CHARLESTON, S. C, 1822-1894 
 
 (Death rates per 100,000 of population). 
 
 Period. White. Colored. 
 
 1822-30 457 447 
 
 1831-40 331 .... 320 
 
 1841-48 268 266 
 
 1865-74 .198 41 1 
 
 1875-84 255 668 
 
 1885-94 I ^9 .... 627 
 
 1 Figures taken from "Race Traits and Tendencies 
 of American Negro," p. 83. 
 
 2 Figures copied from "Race Traits and Tendencies 
 of American Negro," p. 70. 
 
HEALTH AND HOUSING OF THE NEGRO 77 
 
 Thus, while the consumptive death rate, 1822-30, 
 was about equal for whites and blacks, that of the 
 blacks was nearly three and one-third times as 
 great as that of the whites for the period 1885- 
 1894. It seems quite evident that consumption 
 is very much more prevalent since slavery than 
 during slave days. 
 
 Predisposition to Consumption 
 
 Hoffman thinks the negro has a predisposition 
 to consumption, the conclusions concerning which 
 he sums up the following words: 1 The aver 
 age girth of chest of the negro male of thirty 
 years ago was slightly greater than that of the 
 white, but at the present time the chest expansion 
 of the colored male is less than that of the white. 
 This decrease in the size of the living thorax in 
 part explains the increase in the mortality from 
 consumption and respiratory diseases." 
 
 "The capacity of the lungs of the negro is con 
 siderably below that of the white. This fact, 
 coupled with the smaller weight of the lungs 
 (4 oz.), is without question another powerful 
 factor in the great mortality from diseases of the 
 lungs." There can be little doubt that one cause 
 of depleted lung power and hence of increased 
 consumption, may be the foul atmosphere in the 
 midst of which so many negroes live. 
 
 These facts will only explain the prevalence of 
 the disease and not its increase. The reason for 
 the increase of the disease among negroes may 
 possibly be found in the increase of that other 
 group of diseases, scrofula, syphilis and gon- 
 
 1 "Race Traits and Tendencies," p. 170. 
 
78 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 orrhea. These diseases are known to be veritable 
 scourges among the colored population. I have 
 taken pains to question a great many Christian 
 physicians, both white and colored, about the 
 prevalence of gonorrhea among negroes, and 
 most of them put the percentage among the men 
 at ninety-five out of every hundred. Some of the 
 colored physicians have put it higher than that. 
 There can, of course, be no reliable statistics 
 secured on this point, and these are simply opin 
 ions which cannot be verified. It is always 
 dangerous to accept opinions as verified facts: 
 but, allowing for all error, the figures must be 
 alarmingly high. Let us turn to the Atlanta 
 University investigation, which was made by 
 negroes, to find their opinion about the increase 
 and deadliness of these diseases among their own 
 race : * "For the period 1882-85, the colored death 
 rate in Memphis from scrofula and syphilis was 
 205.8 per cent, in excess of that among the 
 whites; but from 1891 down to the present time, 
 the excess has been 298 per cent. For the 
 period 1893-95, there were in the City of Nash 
 ville 8 white deaths from scrofula and syphilis, 
 and 35 colored. In proportion to the population 
 there ought to have been only 5 colored. Of 
 course, allowance must be made for the fact that, 
 on account of the scandal and disgrace, white 
 physicians are reluctant to report white deaths 
 from these causes; whereas such motives rarely, 
 if ever, influence them in reporting colored 
 deaths." 
 
 1 "Social and Physical Condition of Negroes in 
 Cities," p. 23. 
 
HEALTH AND HOUSING OF THE NEGRO 79 
 
 Scrofula and Syphilis 
 
 "According to the May Bulletin of the Depart 
 ment of Labor, out of 1,090 colored people can 
 vassed this year in the City of Nashville, 18 were 
 suffering from scrofula and syphilis. One whose 
 attention has not been called to the matter has 
 no conception of the prevalence of these diseases 
 among the negroes of Nashville. I have looked 
 for it in both races as I have walked the streets of 
 my city, and to come across the loathsome disease 
 in the colored passers-by is not an uncommon oc 
 currence. This state of affairs can be accounted 
 for when I tell you that there is probably no city 
 in this country where prostitution among colored 
 people is more rampant and brazen, and where 
 abandoned colored women are more numerous or 
 more public in their shameful traffic." 
 
 Inferences 
 
 It would seem to be a fair conclusion from 
 these facts that sexual immorality among negroes 
 is so debilitating the mothers and fathers, that a 
 large percentage of the children are born dead, or 
 else they enter the world so starved and diseased 
 that half of them die before they reach the age of 
 one year. 
 
 Further, it may be concluded that this sexual 
 immorality is so sapping the vital power of the 
 negro race that they fall an easy prey to diseases 
 such as consumption, and when once such a dis 
 ease has got hold of their lives they have not the 
 vital power to withstand or check its ravages. 
 And, lastly, one may conclude that -the diseases 
 which arise out of sexual immorality are taking 
 
8O NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 off large numbers of the race to premature 
 graves. Here is a sight loathsome enough to 
 sicken even the stoutest heart. A race of people 
 in our very midst, many of them working in our 
 own homes, and yet dying of a more awful 
 leprosy than one dare describe a leprosy all the 
 more deadly because it kills not only the body but 
 damns the soul. 
 
 Housing and Health 
 
 What relationship has the housing question to 
 these questions of health and morals? A very 
 vital one, and yet, perhaps, not just the relation 
 which has been so commonly in mind. It is not 
 fevers alone that arise out of housing conditions, 
 though such conditions may be directly re 
 sponsible for a large portion of such diseases. 
 Poor housing, back alleys, no ventilation, poor 
 sanitation, no sunshine do much to foster disease 
 of all kinds. In particular they prepare fertile 
 soil for the growth of the tubercular germs. 
 They weaken the body of the inhabitant so that 
 he is not best able to withstand disease. They 
 may so discourage the people who dwell in such 
 surroundings that they do not struggle against 
 the ravages of sickness. 
 
 Housing and Morals 
 
 But these are not the worst results of the over 
 crowding and poor housing. By far the worst 
 results on health arise out of the low state of 
 morals they superinduce. So long as people are 
 huddled together in filthy houses and unsanitary 
 surroundings, so long will they be lacking in that 
 pride and self-respect which makes for morality. 
 
HEALTH AND HOUSING OF THE NEGRO 8l 
 
 A man living on a clean street all other things 
 being equal is a more decent and moral man 
 than he would be were he living on a back alley. 
 A man who has had a bath is surely more apt 
 to have clean thoughts than the man who never 
 bathes. The man who wears decent clothes in 
 keeping with his decent surroundings has a 
 better chance to be moral than the man who is 
 filthy in the midst of filthy surroundings. No 
 man who has ever shaved and bathed and donned 
 clean linen can for one moment fail to understand 
 that cleanliness not only is next to godliness, but 
 cleanliness helps to create godliness. We can 
 not make people moral so long as they live in 
 filth and in squalid surroundings. 
 
 Further, people cannot be moral so long as they 
 are herded together like cattle without privacy or 
 decency. If the men and the women, the boys 
 and the girls from half a dozen tenements are 
 forced to use one toilet, we cannot expect either 
 privacy or decency. If a mother, a father, three 
 grown daughters, and men boarders have to sleep 
 in two small rooms, we must expect lack of mod 
 esty, promiscuity, illegitimacy and sexual dis 
 eases. It would be a miracle if it turned out 
 otherwise. No nation in modern times can live 
 and be moral when its people eat and drink, work 
 and sleep, bring forth children and come to death 
 in one-room cabins. A one-room house, however 
 clean, is not conducive to family morality, and the 
 sooner we realize this and have some measure of 
 sympathy for the weakness of people who live 
 under such conditions, the sooner will we take 
 steps to make conditions of life for the negro such 
 <is will be more conducive to morality. 
 
82 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 After all, the question of negro health and 
 housing is a moral question. His present mode 
 of life is such as to render it well nigh impossible 
 ior him to be moral, and his present immorality 
 makes him an inefficient laborer, an expensive 
 criminal, a distributor of infectious diseases, and 
 a moral plague. We are whether we like it or 
 not bound in the matter of self-defense, to see 
 that these conditions are changed. He must have a 
 new sense of personal purity, he must have a new 
 sense of the sacredness of the family relations, 
 he must come to have a new pride in his home. 
 To this end the houses in which he lives must 
 be improved, the streets on which his house 
 stands must be cleaner, and the sanitation in his 
 section of the city must be made equal to that 
 of any other section of the city in which he lives. 
 
 Common Sense Policy 
 
 It is not maudlin sentiment that dictates such 
 a policy; it is sane commonsense. It is the law 
 of economics which demands strong, healthy 
 and efficient labor ; it is the law of self-preserva 
 tion which knows the danger of social contamina 
 tion; it is the law of justice which would give to 
 every man, whether rich or poor, learned or 
 ignorant, white or black, an equal chance to 
 achieve, and that under the fairest conditions; it 
 is these laws and not sentiment that demand the 
 betterment of the negro s condition. 
 
 Hopeful Signs 
 
 Through the darkness of the present condition 
 there are two rays of light. The first is the 
 
HEALTH AND HOUSING OF THE NEGRO 83 
 
 awakening conscience of a respectable minority 
 of the colored race, who are making a heroic 
 fight to preserve their own purity of life, and do 
 ing what they can to lift their race out of the 
 mire. All honor to the little band of brave, 
 heroic souls. It is a battle worthy of the best 
 steel. Here and there I have met these moral 
 heroes, and their bold, hopeful courage in the 
 oresence of such difficulties is a tonic to the faith 
 of any man. He who would scorn such a fighter 
 or laugh at his failures and mistakes has not 
 the spirit of true chivalry in his heart. Would 
 that we had more men who labored as unselfishly 
 for what they conceive to be the good of their 
 people, as are Washington, DuBois, Gilbert, 
 Hunton, Hope and scores of others less promin 
 ent, but no less earnest. 
 
 The second ray of light emanates from the 
 awakening responsibility of the white man. As 
 I have traveled from college to college, here and 
 there I have found college men that really cared, 
 men that saw the dire need of these "neighbors 
 in black," and began to stretch out a hand to 
 them. It is not strange it is what one would 
 expect that this generation of college men are 
 more interested in these human beings by their 
 sides than any other class of men, and the time 
 will come when every college man will see that 
 his larger culture, his better chance, his broader 
 outlook all these put him under obligation to 
 help the race that is down. 
 
IV 
 THE EDUCATION OF THE NEGRO 
 
UNEXPRESSED 
 
 Deep in my heart that aches with the repression, 
 And strives with plenitude of bitter pain, 
 
 There lives a thought that clamors for expression, 
 And spends its undelivered force in vain. 
 
 What boots it that some other may have thought it? 
 
 The right of thoughts expression is divine; 
 The price of pain I pay for it has bought it, 
 
 I care not who lays claim to it tis mine ! 
 
 And yet not mine until it be delivered; 
 
 The manner of its birth shall prove the test. 
 Alas, alas, my rock of pride is shivered 
 
 I beat my brow the thought still unexpressed. 
 
 PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR. 
 
 86 
 
IV 
 THE EDUCATION OF THE NEGRO 
 
 1 rejudice Against Education 
 
 Aside from the question of social inter 
 mingling, perhaps the question of negro educa 
 tion has aroused more prejudice and created 
 more discussion than any other in connection with 
 the race problem. Those who have studied the 
 prevailing opinion among Southern whites must 
 recognize that there is little enthusiasm for the 
 educated negro. As a civilized nation we have 
 long since accepted the maxim that "knowledge 
 is power," and that any nation which keeps its 
 people in ignorance is doomed to mediocrity. But 
 somehow we have not applied this thought to the 
 colored race of America. Perhaps this attitude 
 has arisen out of the fear that education will 
 lead to negro dominance in politics and to pro 
 miscuous mingling in social life. The Southern 
 white man will never be enthusiastic for negro 
 education until he is convinced that such educa 
 tion will not lead to either of these. Neither 
 will he become enthusiastic until he finds the 
 trained negro becoming a more efficient work 
 man and a better citizen. The so-called educated 
 negro has not always proven himself a better 
 laborer or a better citizen. This, perhaps, ii 
 
 87 
 
88 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 the fault neither of education nor of the negro 
 it is the fault of mistaken ideas of what con 
 stitutes education. There has been much said 
 about the decrease of illiteracy among negroes 
 from somewhere between 90 per cent, and 100 
 per cent in 1865, to only 43 per cent, in 1909. 
 This is a marvelous development, and is a long 
 step toward education. To be able to read and 
 write opens up an entirely new world to men. It 
 is as though one opened the eyes of the blind or 
 unstopped the ears of the deaf. But I can easily 
 understand that the discordant noises of the 
 world would break with great harshness on those 
 ears which had always been closed, and the soul 
 wiin this new gateway of knowledge suddenly 
 opened would be completely bewildered and fail 
 to understand the meaning of all these conflict 
 ing noises. So it is with the negro who has just 
 come into possession of the use of these strange 
 symbols that we call an alphabet. He is not 
 at once transformed into a man with a cultured 
 mind; he must be bewildered by much that he 
 reads, having no key to its real understanding. 
 Education for the negro has not been tried, for 
 the little smattering of knowledge which he has 
 may well have bewildered him rather than cleared 
 his thought. 
 
 Present Negroes vs. Slave Negroes 
 
 It is not unlikely that the negro is more im 
 moral to-day than he was during slavery days 
 now that he is all too free. Neither can it be 
 denied that the mass of negroes were better 
 trained workmen during slavery days than now, 
 
THE EDUCATION OF THE NEGRO 89 
 
 even though in slavery days nine out of every 
 ten were illiterate. Not infrequently men have 
 jumped to the conclusion that the cause of the 
 immorality and of the economic inefficiency is 
 education. This, however, is an entirely unwar 
 ranted conclusion. 
 
 Unfounded Argument 
 
 "These opponents of negro education, with the 
 lack of logic characteristic of the man who draws 
 general conclusions from a few particulars and 
 sees only what is superficially discernible with 
 out looking for deeper and more far-reaching 
 causes, ascribe the cause of this difference to 
 the little education that the negro has received. 
 The modern negro has had some sort of educa 
 tion and the old-issue negro had none, therefore 
 they argue education is the cause of the inferior 
 ity of the modern negro. They forget that the 
 best of the old negroes were trained in the best 
 industrial schools, on farms and in shops, for the 
 work they were to do in life, under the direction 
 of intelligent masters ; that in many instances the 
 intimacy of relations between them and the 
 families of humane masters afforded them an en 
 vironment, association and example that proved 
 most potent in shaping and strengthening their 
 characters; and that the whole social system of 
 the old regime was conducive to training the 
 negroes in obedience, self-restraint and industry. 
 Though these old negroes were ignorant of 
 books, they were, from earliest infancy, trained 
 ?nd educated in many of the essentials of good 
 citizenship and efficient service. The present 
 
QO NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 generation of negroes have been given a mere 
 smattering of the unessentials of knowledge, and 
 left untrained in those other things so essential 
 to life and happiness and progress. The new 
 generation, without preparation, were ushered 
 into freedom and have been left to follow largely 
 their own will without direction or restraint, 
 save that of the criminal law, without elevating 
 associations, without leaders or teachers, save a 
 few rare exceptions." 
 
 Need of Practical Demonstration 
 
 "We cannot answer effectively this prejudice 
 against negro education, arising from the results 
 produced by causes largely attributable, perhaps, 
 to revolutionized social, political and industrial 
 conditions wrought by the tornado of civil war, 
 save with a practical demonstration of the better 
 results of a better education. All the evils of a 
 reconstruction of society, life and government 
 upon a weak race unprepared for such changes, 
 ushered into the new order of things with but 
 few intelligent, wise, right-thinking leaders, with 
 out power of proper self-restraint or self-direc 
 tion, have been laid by the demagogues, by the 
 unthinking, and by some other men and women 
 as honest and patriotic as any that breathe, at the 
 door of partial education as the quickest, easiest 
 and most plausible solution of the unsatisfac 
 tory results. Too few stop to think what might 
 have been the result if the new generation of 
 negroes had been allowed to grow up in absolute 
 ignorance under these changed conditions, with 
 the rights and freedom of citizens of a republic, 
 without the restraint of the training and the 
 
THE EDUCATION OF THE NEGRO OJ 
 
 association of educated masters, as under the 
 old system. Too few stop to think that what 
 ever of deterioration there may have been in 
 the new generation of negroes, as compared with 
 the old, may be more attributable to a change in 
 civilization and in the whole order of things than 
 to the little learning that he has received. Too 
 few stop to think of the danger and the unfair 
 ness of the sort of reasoning that compares the 
 best of the old generation of negroes with the 
 worst of the new, that compares the partly edu 
 cated negro of the present generation with the 
 illiterate negro of the old generation, who, though 
 ignorant of books, had much knowledge of many 
 useful industries and trades and better oppor 
 tunities of acquiring such knowledge; instead of 
 comparing the literate negro of the new genera 
 tion with the illiterate negro of the new genera 
 tion, that ascribes all the faults found in the 
 new generation to the smattering of learning that 
 they have received and all the virtues found in 
 the old generation to their illiteracy. One is 
 partly educated, the other was illiterate; there 
 fore education is the cause of the faults of the 
 one and illiteracy of the virtues of the other. The 
 absurdity of such logic ought to be manifest to 
 the average man. Here are two men, one edu 
 cated, the other ignorant. One becomes a mur 
 derer, for there have been educated murderers in 
 all times; the other becomes a good citizen, for 
 there have been ignorant good citizens in all 
 times; therefore education makes murderers and 
 ignorance makes good citizens." 5 
 
 1 Report of North Carolina Superintendent of Pub 
 lic Instruction. 1906-7; 1907-8, pp. 44, 45. 
 
92 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 Reconstruction and Prejudice Against Education 
 
 Another cause for prejudice against negro 
 education arises out of its checkered career 
 during reconstruction days. At that particular 
 time the relationship between the Northern white 
 and the Southern white man was greatly strained. 
 The North suspected the South of keeping the 
 negro in ignorance in order that he might be 
 exploited; and the South suspected the North of 
 trying to educate the negro in order that he 
 might have political dominion and sooner or later 
 lay claim to so-called social equality. Both sides 
 were in a measure right and it is certain now 
 that both were in a measure wrong. It is usually 
 an unsafe thing to condemn wholesale the 
 motives and the judgment of the people of a 
 whole section, whether North or South. Never 
 theless, in the passion of the times, many mistakes 
 were made by the missionaries who came South, 
 which completely alienated the Southern whites, 
 and it is only within the last decade that this 
 gulf has been at all adaquately bridged. Even 
 now there are not a few sincere Southern men 
 who confuse negro education with doctrines of 
 social intermingling. It is now time we were 
 forgetting this feeling and facing like men the 
 question of negro education on its merits, with 
 out reference to the mistakes of the past, save in 
 so far as they may serve as warnings for the 
 present. 
 
 Education in Slave Days 
 
 The history of negro education before the 
 Civil War is very checkered and also very 
 
THE EDUCATION OF THE NEGRO 93 
 
 meager. It was not thought wise to educate the 
 slaves lest they might become restive, hence one 
 State after another, both North and South, put 
 laws on their statute books forbidding the teach 
 ing of negroes. In 1740 South Carolina passed 
 a law with the following provisions : 
 
 "Whereas, the having of slaves taught to write, 
 or suffering them to be employed in writing, may 
 be attended with inconvenience be it enacted, 
 That all and any person or persons whatsoever, 
 who shall hereafter teach, or cause any slave or 
 slaves to be taught, or shall use or employ any 
 slave as scribe in any manner of writing what 
 ever, hereafter taught to write, every such person 
 or persons shall for every such offense forfeit the 
 sum of loo pounds current money." 
 
 In 1831 Virginia followed suit with the fol 
 lowing law: 
 
 "That all meetings of free negroes or mulat- 
 toes at any school house, church, meeting-house 
 or other place for teaching them reading or writ 
 ing, either in the day or night, under whatsoever 
 pretext, shall be deemed an unlawful assembly. 
 . . . If any white person or persons assemble 
 with free negroes or mulattoes at any school 
 house, church, meeting-house, or other place for 
 the purpose of instructing such free negroes or 
 mulattoes to read or write, such person or persons 
 shall, on conviction thereof, be fined a sum not 
 exceeding $50, and, moreover, may be impris 
 oned, at the discretion of a jury, not exceeding 
 two months. " 
 
 1 "Race Adjustment." Miller, p. 251. 
 Ibid. p. 252. 
 
94 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH. 
 
 In 1829 Georgia put on her statute books a 
 law which reads as follows : 
 
 "If any slave, negro, or free person of color, or 
 any white person, shall teach any other slave, 
 negro, or free person of color to read or write, 
 either written or printed characters, the said free 
 person of color or slave shall be punished by fine 
 and whipping, or fine or whipping, at the dis 
 cretion of the court; and if a white person so 
 offend he, she, or they shall be punished with a 
 fine not exceeding $500 and imprisonment in the 
 common jail, at the discretion of the court." 1 
 
 Mississippi, North Carolina, Kentucky and 
 Louisiana in establishing their systems of public 
 education between 1830 and 1840 all discrim 
 inated against the colored race. 
 
 In spite of these facts, however, there were a 
 number of schools in existence before 1860 for 
 the training of the children of freedmen. It is 
 estimated that in the slave States at the opening 
 of the war there were no less than 4,000 free 
 colored children in school. 
 
 Freedman s Bureau 
 
 The second period of negro education extends 
 from 1860 to 1875. This is the period of the 
 army schools, the Freedman s Bureau, and of 
 Northern domination. The "army schools," as 
 they were called, were made up of those negroes 
 who fled to the Federal armies and were organ- 
 izd into schools. When the Freedman s Bureau 
 opened work in 1866, these schools had in attend 
 ance nearly one hundred thousand. When Gen- 
 
 "Race Adjustment."- Miller, p. 24& 
 
THE EDUCATION OF THE NEGRO 95 
 
 cral O. O. Howard was put in charge of the 
 Freedman s Bureau he took over these schools, 
 gave them a better organization, doubled their 
 attendance, and brought in a large number of the 
 best young women of the North as teachers. 
 That these schools did not do all that could be 
 expected was surely not due to the lack of un 
 selfishness on the part of these teachers. 
 
 Period of Industrialism 
 
 About 1870 the Southern States began estab 
 lishing schools for negroes, and by 1875 a con 
 structive policy was in the making. With the 
 establishment of Hampton Institute a new type of 
 education came into vogue, which has greatly in 
 fluenced alj subsequent educational methods. The 
 third period of negro education, therefore, has 
 been marked by a decided tendency toward in 
 dustrialism. This tendency has been constantly 
 accentuated as the industrial awakening of the 
 South has been more and more pronounced. 
 
 A Dual System of Schools 
 
 It was during this period that the South came 
 to realize the stupendous task that lay before her 
 in educating two races in separate school systems, 
 and yet with heroism the men of this section have 
 set their faces forward and they will not turn 
 back. This dual system has been expensive in a 
 country so sparsely settled as the South, and it is 
 but natural that it should have meant poorer 
 schools, shorter terms and more meager salaries. 
 Nevertheless it has been a necessity. In many of 
 the counties of the South there are two, three or 
 
96 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 even ten negroes to every white man, and to mix 
 the schools in these sections would be to reduce 
 the more advanced race to the station of the less 
 advanced. 
 
 This would be an expensive process both for 
 the white and the colored race. If the colored 
 race is to find its largest progress, it must be 
 through the inspiration and help of the more 
 cultured race, and that race to give its best, needs 
 to have opportunity to develop its children under 
 the most favorable conditions. Not only so, but 
 the negro has gained in that he has had a chance 
 to furnish the teachers and leaders for his own 
 race. This has set a goal of ambition for the 
 negro youth, and has meant much to engender a 
 real race pride. Had the races been educated to 
 gether, the schools would have had white 
 teachers, and the negro would have lost this ad 
 vantage. Under the heavy burden of a double 
 school system the South has moved steadily and 
 bravely forward. 
 
 Elementary Education Needed 
 
 Three types of education are needed for the 
 negro of the South. The first is that of the 
 elementary public school. This the South has 
 deliberately set out to furnish. According to the 
 Report of the United States Commissioner of 
 Education for 1909, there were in the former 
 slave States 3,054,888 negro children between 
 the ages of five and eighteen. Of this number 
 1,659,217, or about 54 per cent., were enrolled in 
 the common schools of these States. Including 
 the numbers in two or three of the border States, 
 
THE EDUCATION OF THE NEGRO 97 
 
 there were 3,114 male teachers and 5,886 female 
 teachers in charge of these children. All of the 
 Southern States do not keep separate records of 
 expenditures for the education of the two races, 
 so no exact amount can be given. North Car 
 olina does keep such a record. This State had 
 231,801 colored children of school age in 1908, as 
 compared with 483,915 white children. For the 
 colored children the State spent on common 
 schools $366,734.28, as compared with $1,851,- 
 376.57 for white children. In other words, for 
 less than half the number of children about one- 
 fifth of the amount spent for whites was spent on 
 colored schools. The expenditure per colored 
 child was $1.58, that for each white child of 
 school age, $3.82. If this same proportion holds 
 for the other former slave States, the total ex 
 penditure for negro common schools for 1907-8 
 would be $12,487.079. Of course, one cannot be 
 sure that this is even an approximately close 
 estimate. The total amount of money spent in 
 the common schools of these former slave States 
 since 1870 is $979,831,485. If one-fifth of this 
 has been spent on negro schools which is prob 
 ably too large an estimate the amount would be 
 $195,966,097. This would be really an enormous 
 sum spent by the white people of the South on 
 the education of the negro, particularly when we 
 consider the poverty which has prevailed in this 
 section up to within the last few years. 
 
 The Negro s Share 
 
 Of this amount the negro is beginning to pay a 
 fair proportion. Thus, in 1908, in North Car- 
 
98 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 olina, the negroes paid in taxes $147,949 toward 
 the $366,734.28 spent on their schools. In this 
 connection it must be noted that $1.58 is a very 
 paltry sum to spend on the education of a child 
 each year. At this rate between the ages of five 
 and eighteen, the State would spend on every 
 child $20.12. But New York and Massachusetts 
 each spend $27 yearly on every child of school 
 age, and the District of Columbia spends $35.21, 
 and yet North Carolina s school tax is heavier 
 than that of Massachusetts. While the South, 
 therefore, is making a heroic effort to give the 
 common school to the negro, the results are 
 nothing less than pitiable. As the wealth of the 
 section grows, there must be heavier school taxes 
 if we are to do our duty by these backward 
 people. 
 
 Limitations 
 
 The outcome of these meager appropriations 
 can readily be seen in the length of term and 
 salary of teachers. The average length of term 
 for rural colored schools in North Carolina in 
 1908 was 82.1 days, and the average length for 
 all colored schools, including city high schools, 
 was only 93 days. The average monthly salary of 
 rural colored teachers this same year was $22.48, 
 and for city colored teachers it was $30.20. 
 There are still 195 log school houses for colored 
 children in the State, and 2,216 of the negro 
 school houses are still furnished with home 
 made desks and benches. I have before me the 
 reports from almost every Southern State and 
 the figures are often much lower. Thus, in 
 
THE EDUCATION OF THE NEGRO 99 
 
 Georgia, the average length of term for white 
 children is 59 days, and for colored children 40 
 days. The salaries paid, however, are somewhat 
 higher, being $37.65 per month for negro men, 
 and $27.22 per month for negro women. In most 
 of the States only about 50 per cent, of the 
 negro children attend school, and then the school 
 houses are overcrowded. In some of our South 
 ern cities I am told there are three children for 
 every seat in a colored school house if they all 
 should really attend. These statements are surely 
 enough to show a great need for better educa 
 tional equipment. Of the need for better teachers 
 we will speak later. 
 
 Contribution of Public Schools 
 
 The contribution which the negro common 
 school makes to the civilizing and elevating of 
 the negro, Mr. Edgar Gardner Murphy puts in 
 the four following statements : 
 
 1. "It represents the discipline of punctuality. 
 When the untutored child first gets into his mind 
 the notion of going to a particular place and of 
 doing a particular thing at a particular time, he 
 has begun to get into line with conscious, intel 
 ligent, efficient human life. In other words, he 
 has got hold of one of the rudimentary assump 
 tions of civilization." 
 
 2. "It stands also for the discipline of order. 
 The child finds not only that there is a time to 
 come and a time to go, but that there is a place to 
 sit and a place not to sit. He finds that there is 
 a place for everything, that everything has its 
 place, and that even standing and sitting, as well 
 
100 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 as the whole task of behaving, are to be per 
 formed under the control and direction of an 
 other. 
 
 3. The primary school stands also for the dis 
 cipline of silence. For a group of chattering 
 children negro children, any children there is 
 a moral value in the discipline of silence. To 
 learn how to keep still, to learn the lesson of self- 
 containment and self-command, to get hold of 
 the power of that personal calm which is half 
 modesty and half courage, to learn a little of the 
 meaning of quiet and something of the secret of 
 listening this is an element in that supremacy 
 of will which is the faculty and privilege of the 
 civilized. 
 
 4. "Finally, the primary school stands for the 
 discipline of association. It represents the idea 
 of getting together. Getting together is a civil 
 izing exercise. Ten people, old or young, cannot 
 get together in a common room for a common 
 purpose without every one s yielding something 
 for the sake of others some whim, some impulse 
 of restlessness, some specific convenience, or some 
 personal comfort. Human society is a moral 
 achievement. Associated effort, however slight the 
 sphere of its exercise, represents part of the dis 
 cipline of civilization." 3 
 
 Industrial Schools Needed 
 
 The second type of school needed for the negro 
 is that which gives industrial training. In fact 
 every common school should have some industrial 
 features. One of the charges brought against 
 
 Present South." Murphy, p. 73. 
 
THE EDUCATION OF THE NEGRO IOI 
 
 the public schools, both for whites and blacks, is 
 that they train children away from the practical 
 interests of life. This practical side may easily 
 be exaggerated, and our schools drift into simple 
 bread and butter machines, without any of the 
 cultural value which should pertain to any edu 
 cation; nevertheless, there is need that we shall 
 guard against a too theoretical system of edu 
 cation. 
 
 There is peculiar need to guard this point with 
 the negro child since his new freedom has be 
 gotten a disposition to despise all labor. He must 
 be taught that labor is sacred and that honest 
 toil never degrades. If he is to have this atti 
 tude toward labor, he must be taught to use skill 
 in his work, to take pride in his ability to do it 
 better than others could do it. Possibly no sec 
 tion of the country is so greatly in need of 
 skilled industrial laborers to-day as is the South. 
 The marvelous growth of the cotton mills during 
 the last two decades is the wonder of the manu 
 facturing world. The new demands for inten 
 sive farming make it imperative that we shall 
 have better trained agriculturists. The develop 
 ment of building industries calls for thousands of 
 skilled carpenters, masons, bricklayers, plumbers, 
 painters, etc. Much of this work must be done 
 by colored men. If they are not well trained, our 
 farms will produce one-half or one- third of what 
 they ought to produce, our houses will be poorly 
 built, and every industrial interest of our country 
 will languish. Booker T. Washington has char 
 acterized industrial education as having these 
 functions: (i) "To teach the dignity of labor"; 
 
102 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 (2) "To teach the trades thoroughly and effect 
 ively"; (3) "To supply the demand for trained 
 industrial leaders." 1 
 
 South an Agricultural Section 
 
 The South is still largely an agricultural sec 
 tion. This is peculiarly true of the colored South. 
 In spite of the rapid drift of the negro to the city, 
 probably 80 per cent, of the colored laborers are 
 on the farms. This means they must have some 
 special training in agriculture. They must learn 
 how to make two blades of grass grow where 
 formerly only one grew. If this is to come about, 
 every negro leader must have a deeper sympathy 
 for this industrial life. Booker T. Washington 
 puts it thus strongly : 
 
 "I do not want to startle you when I say it, 
 but I should like to see during the next fifty 
 years every colored minister and teacher, whose 
 work lies outside the large cities, armed with a 
 thorough knowledge of theoretical and practical 
 agriculture, in connection with his theological 
 and academic training. This, I believe, should be 
 so because the race is an agricultural one, and be 
 cause my hope is that it will remain such. Upon 
 this foundation almost every race in history has 
 got its start. With cheap lands, a beautiful 
 climate and a rich soil, we can lay the foundation 
 of a great and powerful race. The question 
 that confronts us is whether we will take ad 
 vantage of this opportunity?" 2 
 
 1 "Working with Hands," p. &x 
 "Character Building," p. 262. 
 
THE EDUCATION OF THE NEGRO IO^ 
 
 Public Schools Not Industrial Schools 
 
 Now the negro common or public school has 
 not been able, up to the present time, to meet 
 this need, because of small means. Superin 
 tendent Joyner puts it thus: "When we are ap 
 propriating only $366,734.28 for the education of 
 231,801 negro children, we need not be enter 
 taining many hopes of giving the negro much 
 helpful industrial training yet, for everybody 
 ought to know that this amount is not sufficient to 
 give this number of children thorough instruction 
 in the mere rudiments of reading, writing and 
 arithmetic, so essential to civilized living and in 
 telligent service in the humblest callings of life." 1 
 
 Jeanes Foundation 
 
 In order to meet this pressing need for agricul 
 tural and industrial training, Miss Anna T. 
 Jeanes has set aside a fund of $1,000,000, the in 
 terest on which is to be applied in aiding rural 
 schools. Prof. James H. Dillard, formerly Dean 
 of the Academic Department of Tulane Univer 
 sity, is the president and general agent for the 
 Jeanes Foundation. The methods of work of this 
 Foundation can be gathered from Professor Dil 
 lard s report on the work done in Henrico Coun 
 ty, Va., during the year 1908-9 : 
 
 "We supplied the county superintendent with 
 the salary for a competent teacher, whose duty 
 it should be to introduce industrial work into the 
 twenty-two colored rural schools of the county, 
 and to supervise the work. This teacher, Miss 
 
 1 "Report of Superintendent of Public Schools ef 
 North Carolina." 1007-8, p. 43. 
 
104 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 Virginia E. Randolph, began work on October 
 26, 1908, and the schools closed June i. She 
 has spent her whole time in visiting these schools, 
 sometimes two or three a day, so that the schools 
 have had the benefit, not only of the industrial 
 training, but of constant supervision, suggestion 
 and encouragement. It has also been a part of 
 her work to form in the various communities, 
 organizations for school and home improvement. 
 
 Miss Randolph writes me that the work of the 
 schools is now on exhibition at the Henrico 
 County Court House, and that the members of 
 the Henrico board are agreeably surprised. I 
 can state from letters received that the work is 
 very heartily approved by the county superin 
 tendent. 
 
 There are very many counties in which it 
 would be impossible at present to carry out this 
 plan. Whether from lack of schools, or the wide 
 separation of those that exist, or the shortness of 
 term, or the incompetence of the teachers, the 
 plan would not yet be feasible. I find, however, 
 that it will be possible in many places to adopt a 
 modification of the plan; that is, we can supply 
 the salary for a teacher at the most favorable 
 point in the county, have this teacher give three 
 or four days work to this school, and let her 
 give the rest of her time to two, three or four 
 neighboring schools, with the intention of in 
 fluencing these schools and communities in the 
 same manner as has been done in Henrico 
 County." * 
 
 1 "Report of United States Commissioner of Educa 
 tion." 1909. Vol. I, pp. 235-6. 
 
THE EDUCATION OF THE NEGRO IO5 
 
 Other Form of Help 
 
 During the first year of the work of this 
 Foundation, ending July, 1909, $15,059 was thus 
 spent in teachers salaries, supplementing the 
 common school with special industrial instruc 
 tion. It is much to be regretted that the fund 
 is not much larger in order that this work might 
 be greatly multiplied. 
 
 Training Leaders 
 
 To supply the leaders in this industrial educa 
 tion the country has to look to such schools as 
 Hampton Institute in Virginia, and Tuskegee in 
 Alabama. We are scarcely aware of the debt of 
 gratitude we owe to these two schools and to 
 those newer ones that are trying to embody 
 their ideals. The ideal of these schools is to make 
 men efficient, to teach them the dignity of labor, 
 to inculcate the ideal of service, and to make real 
 to every student his duties to God and man. 
 Some people have found fault with Tuskegee 
 because it has not trained servants for our homes. 
 It has done a much more important thing. It has 
 sent out hundreds of graduates who have be 
 come the foremost leaders of their race training 
 them to be industrious, to work regularly and to 
 work efficiently. It is a better thing for a girl 
 that graduates from Tuskegee to spend her en 
 ergies teaching other women how to cook and 
 sew well than to spend her time in one white 
 man s kitchen. Ultimately we reap the benefit in 
 the form of a better trained laboring class. 
 Booker T. Washington has so admirably de 
 scribed the purposes of this type of school in his 
 
lOO NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 introductory chapter to "Working with Hands," 
 that I could wish that every Southern man would 
 read it carefully. 
 
 Special Training Needed 
 
 The third type of negro education needed is 
 what we may call collegiate training. Against 
 this type of education there has been much op 
 position and prejudice. I suppose there is no 
 doubt that it has at times been over emphasized 
 and that students poorly qualified have been 
 allowed to enter such courses. The negro, how 
 ever has no monopoly of this false policy in the 
 South, where there are white colleges that take 
 men from the plow handles and teach them every 
 thing from their letters "plumb through" to the 
 final touches of classic lore in the remarkably 
 short time of four years. That there have been 
 mistakes made in negro education cannot be 
 doubted. The question for us to consider, how 
 ever, is what are the needs of a rightly directed 
 collegiate training for negroes. It seems to me 
 there are three classes of men that must have ad 
 vanced training; these are the ministers, the 
 teachers and the professional class, including phy 
 sicians and dentists. 
 
 Policy of Self Help 
 
 It is a well established policy of all missionary 
 work to put the burden of responsibility on the 
 natives just as rapidly as representative leaders 
 can be trained for these tasks. The same policy 
 has been followed in the South with regard to 
 the negro. We have turned over to the negro 
 
THE EDUCATION OF THE NEGRO 10? 
 
 preacher the development of the religious and 
 moral life of his race ; to the teacher the develop 
 ment of its intellectual life; and as rapidly as 
 possible we are turning over to their physicians 
 and dentists the care of the physical well-being 
 of the negro. This is just as it should be, but 
 the questions of supreme importance both to the 
 colored man and to the white man are : Are these 
 leaders competent to do their work? Are they 
 sufficiently educated to have broad sympathies 
 and clear judgment ? Can they be trusted in times 
 of crises to lead their people aright? These 
 are questions of tremendous import. In the 
 answer to them much of the well-being and peace 
 of the South depends. 
 
 Trained Ministers Needed 
 
 As we shall see in a later chapter the negro 
 minister is all too frequently ignorant, prejudiced, 
 emotional, and even immoral. Education does 
 not always change a man s morals, and yet it 
 may be said to the credit of the negro educated 
 ministers, that they stand head and shoul 
 ders above the general mass in morals and 
 in fair mindedness. No negro minister can be a 
 good leader of his people who does not know the 
 moving of God in history. He must have thor 
 ough training in the Bible. He must have some 
 acquaintance with the laws of human life. In 
 short, the negro minister must have much of the 
 same kind of training that our white ministers 
 need, with the exception, perhaps, of the languages. 
 Be it said to the credit of most of the negro col 
 leges they jut more stress on English, history and 
 
IO8 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 economics than on the more impractical branches. 
 I confess I am disappointed that some of the 
 catalogues seem to indicate an overfondness for 
 Latin and Greek. This, however, will be righted 
 when the Southern white man gives sufficient 
 study to this whole question to be able to give 
 sane counsel. 
 
 Physicians and Dentists Needed 
 
 In another chapter we have referred to the need 
 of better medical attention among negroes. This 
 can be had only through a well trained medical 
 and dental fraternity of the negro race. For this 
 purpose we must have well equipped and well 
 endowed medical and dental colleges. 
 
 Trained Teachers Needed 
 
 Lastly, we must have better trained negro 
 teachers. According to the State School Com 
 missioner of Georgia, the number of negro 
 teachers in that State holding normal certificates 
 in 1908 was only 326. Only 129 held first grade 
 certificates, 476 held second grade certificates, 
 while the vast majority, 2,037, held third grade 
 certificates. When one remembers the exceed 
 ingly low requirements for a third grade certif 
 icate, it is no wonder that negro education is so 
 inefficient, and apparently shows such poor 
 results. 
 
 Broad Culture Needed 
 
 It is coming to be a maxim of good education 
 that the elementary teacher needs as broad cul 
 ture and as thorough training as the teacher in 
 
THE EDUCATION OF THE NEGRO 109 
 
 higher branches. Otherwise the teaching in the 
 lower grades becomes simply a process of ques 
 tions and answers, according to the letter of the 
 text book. In order that there may be a more 
 thorough uplift of the negro child there must be 
 a better training of the negro teacher. 
 
 Schools of Advanced Standing 
 
 Now of all the schools that are attempting 
 to do work of high school grade and upward, not 
 counting public schools, including all the indus 
 trial schools, such as Tuskegee, there are in the 
 former slave States, plus those in Ohio, Penn 
 sylvania, Delaware, New Jersey and Oklahoma, 
 just 135 institutions, according to the report of 
 the United States Commissioner of Education for 
 1909. These schools enroll 9,775 boys and 13,734 
 girls of elementary grades, 7,751 boys and 9,258 
 girls of secondary grade, and 2,885 men an d 
 1,300 women of collegiate grade. 1 
 
 Leaders in Training 
 
 In other words, there were in process of train 
 ing for leadership in the ministry, teaching and 
 the professions only 2,885 men m tne vear 1909. 
 This little handful of men not so many as the 
 number of colored teachers in the single State of 
 Georgia are to be the leaders of 9,000,000 col 
 ored people. Surely this is not an overcrowding 
 in the realm of trained leadership. 
 
 Work for 33 Colleges and their Graduates 
 
 Professor DuBois, in the report of the Atlanta 
 University Conference for 1902, tabulates thirty- 
 
 1 "Report of U. S. Commissioner of Education," 1009. 
 
110 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 three colleges that he thinks should really 
 bear that title. From these colleges up to 1899 
 there have been graduated 2,008 negroes. From 
 the Northern universities there have been 
 graduated several hundred more (400?), so that 
 from all sources Professor DuBois estimates there 
 are probably 2,500 negro graduates in America. 
 Of this number probably 80 per cent, are at 
 work in the South. In order to find out what 
 these college graduates do an investigation was 
 undertaken by Atlanta University. Letters were 
 written to all the 2,500 college-bred negroes who 
 could be located, asking their occupation, etc. 
 1,312 sent replies. Of this number 701 or 53 
 per cent, were teachers, 221 or 17 per cent, were 
 preachers, 83 or 6.3 per cent, were physicians, 53 
 or 4 per cent, were in Civil Service work, and 
 the remainder were in business, farming, secre 
 tarial positions, etc. * Of the efficiency of these 
 graduates and of the moral worth, Booker T. 
 Washington writes : "Not a single graduate of the 
 Hampton Institute or of the Tuskegee Institute 
 can be found to-day in any jail or State peniten 
 tiary. After making careful inquiry, I cannot 
 find a half-dozen cases of a man or a woman 
 who has completed a full course of education in 
 any of our reputable institutions like Hampton, 
 Tuskegee, Fisk or Atlanta who are in prisons. 
 The records of the South show that 90 per cent, 
 of the colored people in prisons are without 
 knowledge of trades, and 61 per cent, are illit 
 erate." * 
 
 This is surely a splendid showing, and should 
 
 1 Atlanta University Publication, No. 5, passim. 
 
 2 "Working with Hands," p. 235. 
 
THE EDUCATION OF THE NEGRO III 
 
 put our minds at ease on this much-mooted ques 
 tion of the higher education of the negro. 
 
 Recommendations of Southern Educational 
 Association 
 
 That the education of the negro is not a 
 failure is well indicated by the resolutions ad 
 opted by the Southern Educational Association 
 at its meeting in 1907 : 
 
 "We endorse the accepted policy of the States 
 of the South in providing educational facilities 
 for the youth of the negro race, believing that 
 whatever the ultimate solution of this grievous 
 problem may be, education must be an important 
 factor in that solution." 
 
 "We believe that the education of the negro in 
 the elementary branches of education should be 
 made thorough, and should include specific in 
 struction in hygiene and home sanitation, for the 
 better protection of both races." 
 
 "We believe that in the secondary education of 
 negro youth, emphasis should be placed upon 
 agriculture and the industrial occupations, in 
 cluding nurse training, domestic science, and 
 home economics." 
 
 "We believe that for practical, economical and 
 psychological reasons negro teachers should be 
 provided for negro schools." 
 
 "We advise instruction in normal schools and 
 normal institutions by white teachers, whenever 
 possible, and closer supervision of courses of 
 study and methods of teaching in negro normal 
 schools by the State Department of Education." 
 
 "We recommend that in urban and rural negro 
 schools there should be closer and more thorough 
 
112 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 supervision, not only by city and county super 
 intendents, but also by directors of music, draw 
 ing, manual training, and other special topics." 
 
 "We urge upon school authorities everywhere 
 the importance of adequate buildings, comfort 
 able seating, and sanitary accommodations for 
 negro youth." 
 
 "We deplore the isolation of many negro 
 schools, established through motives of philan 
 thropy, from the life and the sympathies of the 
 communities in which they are located. We 
 recommend the supervision of all such schools 
 by the State, and urge that their work and their 
 methods be adjusted to the civilization in which 
 they exist, in order that the maximum good of 
 the race and of the community may be thereby 
 attained." 
 
 "On account of economics and psychological 
 difference in the two races, we believe that there 
 should be a difference in courses of study and 
 methods of teaching, and that there should be 
 such an adjustment of school curricula as shall 
 meet the evident needs of negro youth." 
 
 "We insist upon such an equitable distribution 
 of the school funds that all the youth of the 
 negro race shall have at least an opportunity to 
 receive the elementary education provided by the 
 State, and in the administration of State laws, 
 and in the execution of this educational policy, we 
 urge patience, tolerance and justice." 
 
 Education vs. Ignorance 
 
 It has never been found in all the world that a 
 sane and thorough intellectual equipment has 
 
THE EDUCATION OF THE NEGRO 113 
 
 been detrimental to morals or to industrial effici 
 ency. The negro is no exception to this rule. It 
 is not the educated negro that fills our peniten 
 tiary and jails, works in our chain gangs and fills 
 our poor-houses. These places are given over 
 to the ignorant and depraved. It is not the edu 
 cated negro that makes up our idle and vagrant 
 class, that commits our murders and despoils 
 our women. Here, again, it is the illiterate and 
 degraded negro. The trained negro lives in a 
 better home, wears better clothes, eats better 
 food, does more efficient work, creates more 
 wealth, rears his children more decently, makes a 
 more decent citizen, and in times of race friction 
 is always to be found on the side of law and 
 order. These things seem to be worthy fruits, 
 and whatever system produces them should have 
 our approval. If we are to be fair to ourselves, 
 fair to the section in which we live, and fair to 
 the negro race, we must see that a common school 
 education is provided for all, that industrial train 
 ing is given to the majority, and that a more 
 thorough and complete training shall be given to 
 the capable few who are to become the leaders of 
 this race. 
 
V 
 THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF THE NEGRO 
 
RELIGION 
 
 I am no priest of crooks nor creeds, 
 For human wants and human needs 
 Are more to me than prophets deeds; 
 And human tears and human cares 
 Affect me more than human prayers. 
 
 Go, cease your wail, lugubrious saint! 
 You fret high Heaven with your plaint. 
 Is this the "Christian s joy" you paint? 
 Is this the Christian s boasted bliss? 
 Avails your faith no more than this? 
 
 Take up your arms, come out with me, 
 Let Heav n alone; humanity 
 Needs more and Heaven less from thee. 
 With pity for mankind look round; 
 Help them to rise and Heaven is found. 
 
 PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR. 
 
THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF THE NEGRO 
 
 Religious Index 
 
 One index of the life of a people is its re 
 ligion. Find the context of that term and you 
 have found the key to the civilization or the sav 
 agery of a people, the key to its progress or its 
 stagnation. Not only the content of a religion 
 but the attitude of a people toward that religion 
 are topics of supreme importance in a discussion 
 such as this. 
 
 What is Religion 
 
 Professor Rhys-Davids contends that religion 
 includes three conceptions, "first, beliefs as to 
 internal and external mysteries (souls and gods) 
 second, the mental attitudes induced by these 
 beliefs, thirdly, the actions and conduct depend 
 ent upon both." 1 
 
 Professor Jevons would define religion as 
 "man s consciousness of a supernatural spirit (or 
 spirits) having affinity with his own spirit and 
 having power over him." 2 Dr. Tiele says : "The 
 origin of religion consists in the fact that man has 
 the Infinite within him even before he is himself 
 
 ^ Buddhism: American Lectures," p. 4. 
 Introduction to the "History of Religion," p. 15. 
 117 
 
Il8 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOVTH 
 
 conscious of it, and whether he recognizes it or 
 not." 1 
 
 Perhaps we may define religion as man s con 
 sciousness of a higher but kindred being with 
 whom he desires and ought to live on terms of 
 truest fellowship. If such be in any sense a true 
 definition of religion, it will be readily seen that 
 such consciousness must have deep meaning for 
 ever> nation as well as for every individual. 
 
 Nesro Ancestry 
 
 In order that we may understand the religion 
 of the present negro, we must take a look at 
 his religious life in his fatherland. According to 
 Mr. Dowd 2 the races of Africa fall under five di 
 visions. First, the Negritos, dwelling in the low 
 lands of the central equatorial region ; second, the 
 Negritians, occupying the territory of the Sudan ; 
 third, the Fellatahs, scattered among the Negri 
 tians of Central Sudan; fourth, the Bantus, oc 
 cupying almost all the Western portion of the 
 continent, south of the fourth degree of north 
 latitude; and fifth, the Gallas, occupying the 
 southeastern portion of Africa. It was from the 
 fourth division, the Bantus, that most of the 
 slaves were brought to America, and it is among 
 these same tribes that the atrocities of the rubber 
 and ivory trade have recently been perpetrated. 
 
 God s Self-Revelation 
 
 It is generally agreed now by anthropologists, 
 I believe, that there are no races, however rude, 
 
 1 "Elements of the Science of Religion," Vol. 2, p. 3. 
 
 2 "The Negro Races," p. n. 
 
THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF THE NEGRO 11$ 
 
 that are destitute of all idea of religion. 1 It is 
 further agreed, I believe, by most Christian think 
 ers that God has always been trying and still is 
 trying to make Himself known to all men. That 
 this revelation is not equally clear and without 
 admixture for all men need not cause surprise, 
 for the content of a message is not determined 
 alone by the speaker, but by the varying capaci 
 ties and degrees of attention on the part of the 
 listeners. That the Bantu tribes have some con 
 ception of God however crude it may seem 
 is not doubted by those that have worked among 
 them longest and known them best. 
 
 "Standing in the village street, surrounded by 
 a company whom their chief has graciously sum 
 moned at my request, I do not need to begin by 
 telling them that there is a God. Looking on that 
 motley assembly of villagers the bold, gaunt 
 cannibal with his armament of gun, spear, and 
 dagger; the artisan with rude adz in hand, or 
 hands soiled at the antique bellows of the village 
 smithy ; women who have hastened from their 
 kitchen fire with hands white with the manioc 
 dough or still grasping the partly scaled fish 
 I have yet to be asked, Who is God? " 2 
 
 "The belief in one great Supreme Being is uni 
 versal. Nor is this idea held imperfectly or ob 
 scurely developed in their minds. The impression 
 is so deeply engraved upon their moral and men 
 tal nature that any system of Atheism strikes 
 
 1 Jevons "Introduction to the History of Religion/ 
 p. 7. 
 "Fetichism in West Africa," Nassau, p. 36. 
 
120 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 them as too absurd and preposterous to require 
 a denial." 1 
 
 Debased Conception of God 
 
 But, of course, this conception of God is much 
 debased and mixed with many superstitions. 
 They do not think of God as a father who loves 
 and cares for his children, but as a vague being 
 responsible for man s existence, but caring 
 little for man s destiny. "The prevailing notion 
 seems to be that God, after having made the 
 world and filled it with inhabitants, retired to 
 some remote corner of the universe, and has 
 allowed the affairs of the world to come under 
 the control of evil spirits; and hence the only 
 religious worship that is ever performed is di 
 rected to these spirits, the object of which is to 
 court their favor, or ward off the evil effects of 
 their displeasure." 2 
 
 Spirits 
 
 The spirits are of three classes as to origin. 
 First, those existing from eternity those con 
 terminous with the Supreme being Paia- 
 Njambi; second, those created by the Supreme 
 Being; third, the souls of dead human beings. 
 These spirits fill the air and inhabit the rocks, 
 the caverns, the trees and even take up their 
 abode in wild animals. Graveyards are their 
 favorite abiding places, hence every native stands 
 in fear of such grounds. 
 
 1 Wilson s "Western Africa," p. 39. 
 3 Idem, p. 39- 
 
THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF THE NEGRO 121 
 
 Origin of Belief in Spirits 
 
 The original conception of spirits probably 
 arose from two sources. First, all savages be 
 lieve that not only plants and animals have spirits 
 but also inanimate things. Whatever moves has 
 life has a spirit. The stream as it runs and 
 sings, the lightning as it flashes or strikes, the 
 flame as it flickers or consumes the wood are all 
 supposed to be alive. Not only so, but the rock 
 against which man falls and it cuts him, the tree 
 which seems to spring of itself out of the ground, 
 and numerous other objects have life within 
 them. Thus animism the imputing of spirits 
 to objects of nature has its rise, and from this 
 it is a short step to the fear and worship of 
 spirits. 
 
 Secondly, the idea of spirits arises from man s 
 experiences in dreams. These experiences to the 
 savage are as real as any waking experience. 
 While he sleeps his spirit wanders it meets the 
 spirits of friends and they recognize each other ; 
 when he wakes he is perfectly sure that he has 
 seen and talked with his friend. But he is told 
 that his body has been in his bed well, then, his 
 spirit has been journeying at will. When he 
 wakes this is just the return of his spirit to 
 his body. Hence death is simply a continued 
 sleep, where the spirit refuses to return to its 
 body. When a man dies, therefore, his spirit is 
 set wandering, having power to help or harm 
 where it pleases. His spirit may take up its 
 abode in an animal and return to vex the life of 
 his enemies or even his own family. Dr. Nassau 
 tells us of a native who refused to kill an ele- 
 
122 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 phant that was ravaging his crop, because he 
 thought his dead father s spirit had taken up its 
 abode in that particular animal. 
 
 Character of Spirits 
 
 The character of these disembodied spirits is 
 the same as the characters of the living men. 
 They are benevolent or malevolent, full of kind 
 ness or full of hatred, in accordance with their 
 former existence. If they have been slighted 
 while in their embodied form, they may come 
 back to take revenge on their enemies. The fact 
 that these spirits have not the encumbrance of 
 a body may make them ten times more powerful 
 than any living man, and the further fact that 
 they can act without detection throws about the 
 life of the native African a constant dread and 
 fear which is almost paralyzing. 
 
 Origin of Magic Witch Doctors 
 
 The one recourse of the savage is to placate 
 these spirits, winning their favor and warding 
 off their anger. This gives rise to a complicated 
 system of magic. In order to protect himself 
 against the anger of these spirits, the native 
 employs the services of the witch doctor. This 
 witch doctor or medicine man is supposed to have 
 great power over evil spirits. They have power 
 to condemn to death any person suspected of 
 causing death; they are supposed to be able to 
 drive out the spirits that cause sickness; they 
 may call back the spirits of those near unto 
 death for all of which services they demand 
 great respect and large fees. 
 
THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF THE NEGRO 123 
 
 Meaning of Fetiches 
 
 One of the chief methods of work of the medi 
 cine man or witch doctor is the preparation and 
 use of fetiches. A fetich is any rag, string, 
 stone, shell, tooth, piece of wood or what not, 
 into which a magic doctor has coaxed a spirit to 
 take up its abode, or into which a spirit has vol 
 untarily entered. The material in itself is not 
 sacred, but the fact that a spirit dwells in it 
 gives it power to ward off sickness or defend one 
 against his enemies. If the spirit leaves the 
 fetich then the wood or stone is cast away and 
 another is found. "He addresses his prayer to 
 it and extols its virtues ; but should his enter 
 prise not prosper he will cast his deity aside as 
 useless, and cease to worship it; he will address 
 it with torrents of abuse, and will even beat it, 
 to make it serve him better. It is a deity at his 
 disposal, to serve in the accomplishment of his 
 desires; the individual keeps gods of his own to 
 help him in his undertakings." 3 
 
 White and Black Art 
 
 So long as these fetiches are used simply for 
 protection the owner is a practicer of white art, 
 but, when they are used to injure others or force 
 others to do certain things pleasing to the owner 
 of the fetich, their possessor is said to practice 
 black art. It is this latter that keeps the Afri 
 can native in constant fear. At any hour 
 his enemy may by witchcraft destroy his prop 
 erty, rob him of his friends or take his life. All 
 that an enemy has to do is to get some of his 
 
 History of Religion." p. 32. Menzies. 
 
124 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 victim s hair, his nails, or water in which he 
 has bathed, and have a witch doctor make a con 
 coction which, buried in front of the victim s 
 door or secretly hung in his room, will bring 
 sure death. If the man dies, this black art has 
 worked ; if he fails to die, then he himself has a 
 fetich stronger than the spirit that was trying to 
 induce his death. In this murderous supersti 
 tion the natives have absolute confidence. 
 
 Religious Constituents 
 
 These, then, are the constituents of the African 
 religion: A God who created man and is su 
 preme, but who has gone away into the corner 
 of the universe and is no longer interested in 
 his creation ; an infinite host of spirits, good and 
 bad, which hold the destinies of men in their 
 hands and whose favor must, therefore, be won ; 
 witch doctors and medicine men who conjure 
 with the spirits and keep the people in constant 
 awe; fetiches which are the habitats of spirits 
 used for protection ; and the practice of black art 
 with all of its murderous motives and deeds. 
 Of course, there are elements of moral power in 
 this religion, but so much is it degraded that one 
 almost wonders if God has been able to reveal 
 himself in the smallest degree to these people. 
 
 Religion of the Slave 
 
 When the Bantu slave was brought to Amer 
 ica he brought with him all the superstitions, all 
 the wild savagery of his religion. One does 
 not need to go far to find that this religion still 
 has its remnants in the life of the negro race of 
 
THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF THE NEGRO 125 
 
 to-day. In particular the fetich held sway among 
 these benighted people as is still exemplified 
 in the carrying of the rabbit foot and other 
 relics for the sake of warding off evil. "Not only 
 did this religion of the fetich endure under slav 
 ery, it grew. It was a secret religion that lurked 
 thinly covered in slavery days, and that lurks to 
 day beneath the negro s Christian profession as a 
 white art, and among non-professors as a black 
 art; a memory of the revenges of his African 
 ancestors." Thousands of negroes still believe 
 implicitly in hoodoos, spirits, witchcraft, ghosts. 
 In the city of Nashville, some years ago, a group 
 of medical students went out to "snatch" a body 
 for dissecting purposes. They were piloted by a 
 negro man who betrayed them into the hands of 
 a band of armed negroes. In the dark of the 
 night the armed negroes shot into the party and 
 accidentally killed the negro pilot. Since that 
 time the house which he then occupied has not 
 been used. No negro will rent it for fear of 
 being troubled by the spirit of the dead man 
 who was killed because of treachery. A negro 
 that has had considerable schooling and has had 
 employment among white people for years told 
 me that the spirit of this man could be heard 
 every night moaning and crying in the house 
 where he had formerly lived. As a test I offered 
 this negro five dollars to go with me at mid 
 night into this house, which he refused, saying 
 he would not go for five hundred. This seems 
 to me purely a survival of the old African spirit 
 belief. Hoodoo or Voodoo (French Creole 
 1 "Fetichism in West Africa, p. 274. Nassau. 
 
126 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 Vaudois the witchcraft of the Waldensians) is 
 no more nor less than the survival of the black 
 art, against which a fetich or charm must be 
 carried, 
 
 "And you s got a rabbit foot to drive away 
 the Hoodoo!" 
 
 It is not unlikely that the stories of Uncle 
 Remus are direct descendants of the folk tales 
 which lived centuries ago in Africa. In fact, 
 many of the superstitions of the uneducated ne 
 gro of to-day can be traced directly back to the 
 African home of the slave. 
 
 Tenacity of Religious Tradition 
 
 Religious tradition outlives all others, and may 
 manifest itself long after its origin or meaning 
 is forgotten. We need not be surprised, there 
 fore, if we find the religious life of the Amer 
 ican negro filled with superstition and less re 
 lated to morals than our own ethical sense would 
 demand. We must remember that New England 
 did not throw off her witchcraft for many years 
 and not all the white people of the South are 
 free from belief in a hoodoo. 
 
 Grades of Religious Life 
 
 It must be understood that negro religious 
 life, like any other religious life, varies widely. 
 There are many well educated and cultured ne 
 groes who have moved far away from all the 
 superstitions, and in whose lives their religion is 
 a vital moral force. Of these we will speak more 
 at length under religious development. We are 
 
THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF THE NEGRO 127 
 
 here concerned about the elemental types of ne 
 gro religion. 
 
 Characterization of Negro Religion 
 
 From what has preceded we are prepared to 
 believe that the religion of the masses may be 
 characterized as partly superstitious, largely 
 emotional, and in an alarmingly small degree 
 ethical. Perhaps enough has been said to in 
 dicate the bearing of superstition upon religion. 
 The negro has a tropical imagination which 
 revels in the strange, mysterious or supernatural, 
 and this type of mind, touched with a deep emo 
 tionalism and augmented by ignorance, may easily 
 give rise to the most grotesque types of religious 
 belief. 
 
 Emotional Element 
 
 The emotionalism of the negro religion I 
 mean the religion of the great masses who are 
 ignorant is well known to every Southern man. 
 I have visited negro churches where the sermon 
 could scarcely be called more than a wild chant 
 or incantation. The high shrieking voice of the 
 preacher as he calls over and over again the 
 refrain of his text in dull monotony is inter 
 rupted continually by the heavy groans and occa 
 sionally by the weird cry of a happy "mourner." 
 Professor DuBois describes his first negro 
 camp meeting as follows : "A sort of sup 
 pressed terror hung in the air, and seemed to 
 seize us a pythian madness, a demoniac pos 
 session, that lent terrible reality to song and 
 words. The black and massive form of the 
 
128 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 preacher swayed and quivered as the words 
 crowded to his lips and flew at us in singular 
 eloquence. The people moaned and fluttered, and 
 then the gaunt-cheeked brown woman beside me 
 suddenly leaped straight into the air and shrieked 
 like a lost soul, while round about came wail 
 and groan and outcry and a scene of human pas 
 sion such as I had never before conceived." * 
 
 Mr. L. C. Perry, in a sociological study of the 
 negro, printed in the Vanderbilt University 
 Quarterly, April, 1904, gives the following ac 
 count of a service in one of the cruder churches 
 of Nashville: "A very warm evening. Every 
 seat in the house packed and most of the stand 
 ing room occupied. Two stoves nearly red hot 
 and the door kept tightly shut. Text : And the 
 Lord spoke to Daniel in the valley of dry bones, 
 saying, Rise ye up and meet me. The sermon 
 began something like this: Brethren and sis 
 ters, I started out early one morning, a long time 
 ago, and knew not witherward I was going for the 
 Lord was leading of me in ways unbeknownst to 
 me, henceward I went on and on till finally when 
 the day got hot I came down into the valley of 
 Jehosaphat. And as I went down the slippery 
 walls of that slimy valley my weary feet slided 
 over rottening bones of many hell-parched sin 
 ners. I fell not, though the valley was full of 
 pits and horrible falls; I fell not, for a band of 
 holy angels were rustling their wings around 
 me to bear me upward and onward to meet my 
 God, and they bore me on and I came to my 
 Lord, and he was Here followed a descrip- 
 
 1 "Souls of Black Folk," p. 190. 
 
THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF THE NEGRO I2Q 
 
 tion of his meeting the Lord; but what he said 
 could not be understood, for his voice was 
 drowned by the shouts of twenty-five or more 
 people. Then my Lord told me to come here 
 to Nashville, to Kayne Avenue, and preach to 
 his chosen lambs for to rise up and meet their 
 
 God Then much more shouting, which, in 
 
 fact, never entirely died out at any time, and only 
 at intervals allowed the speaker to be heard. The 
 harangue lasted in this strain for an hour and 
 a half without touching the ground." 
 
 Negro Prayers 
 
 "The prayers are often more offensive than the 
 sermon. Bass Street Church, first Sunday even 
 ing in May. A very small house, only forty- 
 five present, and six of them preachers. The 
 pastor called on one of the young preachers to 
 pray. He prayed eleven minutes, and, after the 
 first, few sentences, fell into a perfectly uniform 
 mode of expression and montonous chant. His 
 sentences were all alike, with the exception of 
 only one clause in each. "O ! Lord, my God, 
 wilt thou be so good and so kind and so merciful 
 as to condescend as to bless us ? O ! Lord, my 
 God, wilt thou be so good and so kind and so 
 merciful as to condescend as to bless our little 
 children?" And on and on with the use of this 
 same expression till a blessing had been invoked 
 on everything imaginable, from the stars in 
 heaven even to the pavements of the streets, 
 while at the same time another preacher was 
 keeping up a symmetrical chant of response: 
 "O ! yes, Lord grant it ; O ! do Lord, amen and 
 
I3O NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 amen. O ! yes, Lord grant it ; O ! do Lord, amen 
 and amen." And a layman, presumably so from 
 his position out in the congregation, also kept a 
 chant going; but he uttered no word that could 
 be distinguished, though at certain evenly meas 
 ured intervals his voice rose very high. And 
 then, besides all of this, there was another man 
 whose action is hard to describe or name. He was 
 perfectly quiet except at well-measured points 
 in the prayer, about twenty seconds apart, when 
 he raised a hideous, indescribable snort, more 
 like the sound of an animal than a human being. 
 The effect of all this was weird, and one often 
 had to pull himself together to realize that he 
 was still in Nashville and had not been suddenly 
 transported to Africa." 
 
 Lack of Ethical Content 
 
 Naturally, a superstitious and emotional re 
 ligion does not do much to affect the standard of 
 morals. It is not simply a discrepancy between 
 creed and practice, as Kelly Miller puts it, for 
 that is found often among whites, but, with the 
 
 (mass of the negroes, religion is lacking both 
 in ethical creed and ethical practice. Religion 
 is a thing to die by and not to live by. It 
 , has reference to states of ecstacy but little to 
 [ do with a man s state of morals. A negro man 
 of much more than average sense one whom I 
 have known for years and have never known him 
 to be dishonest or untruthful said to me about 
 his preacher lately : "He s a purty good lecturer, 
 but he can t preach much." When I questioned 
 him I found he meant that his preacher was good 
 
THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF THE NEGRO 13! 
 
 at making appeals for honesty, purity, sobriety, 
 etc., but he did not use much "gravy" as they 
 call the sing-song chant and hysterical oratory. 
 A teacher in a negro college told me once that 
 many of their graduates went out with the idea 
 of preaching a real gospel of moral life, but the 
 pressure from the congregations they served 
 was so great that they frequently had to 
 abandon their gospel and more and more fall 
 into the habit of putting on the "rousements." 
 
 Rev. W. H. Holloway s Testimony 
 
 Rev. W. H. Holloway, a graduate of Talladega 
 College, a Congregational minister in charge of 
 a colored church in Thomas County, Ga., in a 
 study of the negro church in that county, writes 
 as follows: 
 
 "The supreme element in the old system was 
 emotionalism, and while we hate to confess it 
 truth demands that we affirm it as the predom 
 inating element to-day. The church which does 
 not have its shouting, the church which does 
 not measure the abilities of a preacher by the 
 rousement of his sermons, and, indeed, which 
 does not tacitly demand of its minister the shout- 
 producing discourse, is an exception to the rule. 
 This is true of the towns as well as the country. 
 Of course, we all understand that it has always 
 occupied first place in the worship of the negro 
 church; it is a heritage of the past. In the ab 
 sence of clearly defined doctrines, the great shout, 
 accompanied with weird cries and shrieks and 
 contortions and followed by a multivaried ex 
 perience which takes the candidate through the 
 
132 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 most heart-rending scenes this to-day in Thomas 
 County is accepted by the majority of the churches 
 as unmistakable evidence of regeneration." 
 
 I spoke some time since at a negro university 
 
 on sins of men and after the address the negro 
 
 physician, himself a Christian man, told me that 
 
 ninety-eight per cent, was too low an estimate 
 
 for the negro men who live or have lived impure 
 
 lives, and yet forty-eight per cent, of them are 
 
 .church members. This divorcement of religion 
 
 j and morals is perhaps the most serious phase of 
 
 i the negro problem. 
 
 Encouragement in Spite of this Picture 
 
 I am well aware that I have not drawn a 
 bright picture. A religion divorced from morals, 
 with intense emotionalism and with crudest su 
 perstitions is not altogether a hopeful factor in 
 developing a race. One does not like to write 
 such a statement but one must be true to facts. 
 And yet all is not hopeless. There is a brighter 
 side to the picture. It is surely hopeful that 
 such a large proportion of the negroes are re 
 ligious, that the religious hunger is planted deep 
 in their nature. When there is a hungering and 
 thirsting, there is a chance that men may be 
 filled. This very fact of the religious nature of the 
 negro gives the surest indication that he can be 
 helped, that he can be moralized, that he can be 
 made into a true citizen. We only need to help 
 him purify his ideas of religion, and that is never 
 so difficult a task as to create a capacity for re 
 ligious truth. 
 
 A Progressive Minority 
 
 There is a second sign of hope in the fact that 
 
THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF THE NEGRO 133 
 
 there is a growing minority of the race with a 
 religion of moral content. I heard a sermon by 
 a negro preacher recently on the text : "I am the 
 way, the truth and the life." It was clear, logical 
 and full of practical suggestion. It is sheer 
 pessimism, if not ignorant prejudice, or perhaps 
 it is both, to say that religion with all negroes is 
 divorced from morality. I know negroes even 
 uneducated negroes whose religion means hon 
 esty, truthfulness, and purity. I know negroes 
 of culture with whom religion has as much of 
 content as it has for the cultured white man. 
 This is the foundation for a real hope. If a 
 minority has moved up into a realm of genuine 
 religion, then the mass, with sufficient cultivation 
 and care, may be brought into the same realm. 
 If any considerable minority is capable of know 
 ing and practicing genuine religious truth, there 
 is possibility of redeeming the whole race from 
 its ignorance, its superstition and its immoral 
 ity. If anyone doubts that there is such a minor 
 ity the one way to convince himself is to visit 
 some of the best negro churches and see for 
 himself. Let him come to know some of the 
 best negroes and watch their conduct and even 
 the most skeptical will be convinced. 
 
 These two pictures put on every man who 
 reads an obligation. If there is a minority with 
 a real religion of moral and spiritual content, 
 and if there is a great mass with a religion of 
 low moral and low spiritual content, then it is 
 our duty as enlightened Christian men to give 
 to this second class a vital Gospel. l 
 
 *Cf. Chapter I. 
 
134 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 The Missionary Appeal 
 
 The greatest appeal that a missionary from the 
 heart of Africa, or of China, or of India, can 
 make is this : "The people are in ignorance, they 
 are in sin, their religions are full of errors, they 
 do not know our God we have a real gospel of 
 life and we must take it to them, for they are 
 capable of receiving and are glad to hear." This 
 is precisely the appeal that can be made on be 
 half of the lower half of the negroes at our very 
 doors. It is splendid to have a missionary spirit, 
 but God knows no home or foreign lands he 
 simply knows that a black man in America may 
 be as needy as a black man in Africa and His 
 Gospel will help both alike. 
 
 The Negro Church 
 
 The embodied expression of religion is the 
 Church and no discussion of negro religion would 
 be complete without some word about church 
 life. In the early days of slavery in America 
 there was great question as to whether slaves 
 should be allowed to receive baptism or to join 
 the church, lest such action might make them 
 free. It always seemed somewhat incongruous 
 for a man who was a Christian and a church 
 member to be a slave. However, Virginia, in 
 1667, passed a law that "Baptism doth not alter 
 the condition of the person as to his bondage or 
 freedom, in order that divers masters freed from 
 this doubt may more carefully endeavor the 
 propagation of Christianity." 3 North Carolina 
 passed a similar law in 1670 and so the propaga 
 tion of Christianity among slaves went on. 
 
 i "The Negro Church," p. 8. 
 
THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF THE NEGRO 135 
 
 The Church in Slave Days 
 
 Most of the converted slaves belonged to the! 
 white churches since it was feared that separate/ \ 
 churches would give too great opportunity for\ 
 the stirring up of discontent and strife. Indeed, 
 a number of the States went so far as to make it 
 a finable offense for any master to allow his 
 slaves to build or worship in a separate church. 
 However, the records show that "various mas 
 ters had their own ministers whom they paid to 
 instruct their slaves in religious matters." 
 
 Early Work. Moravians 
 
 The Moravians early began a missionary work 
 among the negroes. As early as 1735 mission 
 aries were sent into South Carolina and Georgia 
 to preach the gospel. Work was also undertaken 
 among the negroes of Philadelphia. 
 
 Presbyterians 
 
 The Presbyterians, under the leadership of 
 Rev. Samuel Davis, began work in Virginia be 
 fore the middle of the seventeenth century. In 
 1755 Dr. Davis writes: "A considerable number 
 of them had been baptized, after a proper time 
 for instruction, having given creditable evidence 
 not only of their acquaintance with the important 
 doctrines of the Christian religion, but also a 
 deep sense of them in their minds, attested by a 
 life of strict piety and holiness." 1 
 
 Methodists 
 
 In 1776 the Methodists began work in Vir 
 ginia and in the great revivals that followed 
 
 J "The Negro Church," p. 17. 
 
136 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 many negroes, along with the whites, were con- 
 
 j verted. The minutes of the Methodist Confer- 
 
 I ence for 1786 show a membership of 18,791 
 
 I whites and 1890 colored. In 1791, there were 
 
 \ 12,884 colored members reported; in 1792, there 
 
 \vere 13,871 ; in 1793, there were 16,227; m X 794 
 
 there were 13,814; in 1795, 12,179. The decrease 
 
 in numbers is probably due to the great revivals 
 
 in the Baptist Church during the last two years 
 
 mentioned, and the preaching of colored ministers 
 
 which drew many members from other churches 
 
 into the Baptist fold. According to the order 
 
 of the conference of 1790 the Bishops, elders 
 
 and preachers were to appoint leaders for schools 
 
 to be taught on Sundays from 6:00 to 10:00 A.M. 
 
 and from 2:00 to 6:00 P.M., in which all colored 
 
 children who desired might be taught to read 
 
 the Bible. 
 
 Baptists 
 
 Between 1785 and 1792 during the great Bap 
 tist revivals many negroes were converted and 
 brought into the Baptist Church. In 1792 the 
 first colored Baptist church was built in the city 
 of Charleston, the city contributing the lot. This 
 denomination had had negro preachers for twenty 
 years prior to this time. 
 
 Awakening of 1830 
 
 About 1830 there was a great revival of in 
 terest among all the churches of the South in 
 the evangelization of the slaves. "A reaction 
 set in about 1835, and the Methodists and Bap 
 tists especially were active among the slaves. 
 
THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF THE NEGRO 137 
 
 A minister in Mississippi testified that he had 
 charge of the negroes of five plantations and 
 three hundred slaves ; another in Georgia visited 
 eighteen plantations every two weeks. Two 
 owners have built three good churches at their 
 own expense, all framed, 290 members have been 
 added, and about 400 children are instructed. 
 Another traveling minister declared, in 1841, 
 that in many places like Baltimore, Alexandria, 
 and Charleston, the negroes had large spacious 
 churches, and he thinks there were 500,000 negro 
 church members at the time." : Whether this is 
 an overestimation or not we cannot determine^- 
 but it indicates that the Southern churches and I * 
 the owners of slaves were far from unmindful of J 
 their duty to look after the moral life of the! 
 slaves. 
 
 In 1860, according to Bishop McTyiere, the 
 number of slaves that were members of the 
 Southern conferences of the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church were 207.000. This church alone through 
 its conference in the Southern States contrib 
 uted between the years of 1844 and 1860, inclu 
 sive, $1,320,778.03 for the evangelization of the 
 slaves. In the year 1861 this church alone had 
 327 missionaries among the negroes and spent 
 $86,359.20. 
 
 Organization of Separate Negro Churches 
 
 The African Methodist Episcopal Church was 
 organized in 1816 at Baltimore by the withdrawal 
 of a number of negro members from the Metho- 
 
 i"The Negro Church," p. 28. 
 
 1 "Gospel Among the Slaves." p. 318. Harrison & 
 Barnes. 
 
138 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 dist Episcopal Church. Rev. Richard Allen was 
 elected their first Bishop by this organizing con 
 ference. This church has now about half a mil 
 lion members and nearly three thousand organ 
 ized churches. 
 
 Another branch from the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church is the African Methodist Episcopal Zion 
 organized in 1811. It now has nearly four hun 
 dred thousand adherents. 
 
 The Colored Methodist Episcopal is a branch 
 of the Methodist Episcopal Church South and 
 was organized in 1870. It now has a member 
 ship approximating one hundred and fifty thou 
 sand. 
 
 The Cumberland Presbyterian Church (col 
 ored) was organized in 1869, at Murfreesboro, 
 Tennessee. It has fifteen thousand members and 
 property valued at two hundred thousand dol 
 lars ($200,000). 
 
 Regular Baptist (colored) constitute the 
 
 * ai !SgLJUSgIg , l coml ^HSl2!I T < pj_ngQCs. The first 
 ColoredBapitist Convention ""was organized in 
 North Carolina, 1866. They now have a million 
 and a half members and property valued at ten 
 millions of dollars. 
 
 Summary of Negro Churches 
 
 The census of 1890 gives the total number of 
 members or communicants as 2,673,977 an d the 
 total property valuation at $26,626,448. It seems 
 likely that the 1910 census will give a total mem 
 bership of between four and four and a half mil 
 lions. Mr. John Wesley Gilbert, of the Colored 
 Methodist Episcopal Church, estimates that prop- 
 
THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF THE NEGRO 139 
 
 crty valuation now aggregates forty millions of 
 dollars. Here is a powerful organization. What 
 is its strength and what are its weaknesses? 
 
 Inclusive Character of Negro Church Its First 
 Source of Strength 
 
 The first element of the strength of the Negro 
 Church lies in its all-inclusive character. It is 
 not simply the place for worship, it is also the so 
 cial center of the race, the place of amusement and 
 to an extent the place for gathering information. 
 church ha 
 
 tinctjvF-ly npgrfr-A^nf.rtQti gnfljflj institution. Dur 
 ing slave days the home was not a place of much 
 social power. While there were many masters 
 who did what they could to give their slaves 
 something of home life, the conditions were such 
 and the past history of the slave was such that 
 little could be effected. It easily came about, 
 therefore, that the church stood for whatever of 
 social ideals the negro had. After the war, the 
 home life of the negro improved very slowly and 
 even to this day there is really no home life for 
 great masses of negroes. The church, therefore, 
 still holds its sway as a powerful social factor. 
 
 The Church and Amusement 
 
 Likewise the church is the center of amuse 
 ment. In few cities do the negroes have any 
 theaters, amusement halls, etc. Hence the 
 church has had to step in and become the center 
 of amusement. Here the debating club holds 
 sway; here in later days the moving picture is 
 seen. The fact that the church is the center of 
 
I4O NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 amusements has put a severe ban on many forms 
 of pleasure. There is practically no outdoor 
 amusement for the negro, save peeping over the 
 fence to see a white ball game, or in the country 
 or small town district having a country "break 
 down." The fact that the negro church has 
 been the center both of the social life and of the 
 pleasure life of the negro has given to it a very 
 firm hold on the negro race. 
 
 Material Equipment 
 
 A second fact of real importance is the ma 
 terial equipment of the negro church. While 
 many of the buildings are poor and uninviting, 
 it must be acknowledged that the race has done 
 splendidly to erect buildings aggregating in cost 
 $40,000,000. This is no small asset for the power 
 of the church. 
 
 Breadth of Influence 
 
 Another strength of the church lies in the fact 
 that it reaches almost the whole community in 
 stead of just a fraction of the community as is 
 the case of the white church. It is estimated that 
 forty-eight per ceftt. of the negroes are church 
 > members and many more are adherents and regu 
 lar attendants. However poor the gospel that 
 is preached, there is power for good in the fact 
 that the vast majority of the race has respect for 
 the church and attend its services. 
 
 Educated Ministers 
 
 Possibly the most important asset of the negro 
 church lies in its increasing number of educated 
 
THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF THE NEGRO 14! 
 
 ministers. On the darker side of the question we 
 must say a word later, but it is only fair to say 
 here that the standard is certainly rising. In the 
 cities where the problems are more difficult there 
 is an increasing number of pastors that are col 
 lege and seminary graduates. In such churches 
 the service is orderly, the sermons are wholesome, 
 logical and practical. This is perhaps the most 
 encouraging sign of the whole negro problem 
 to-day. 
 
 Uneducated Ministry a Weakness 
 
 With all of these elements of strength there 
 are also not a few weaknesses in the negro 
 church. The first of these is the other side of 
 our last sentence the low average intelligence 
 and morality of the negro ministry. Here, lest 
 we shall be unfair in our judgment, let a negro 
 minister speak: 
 
 Dougherty County, Georgia 
 
 "We have been able to learn of about 120 
 preachers in the county. Of this number fully 
 seventy-five are either ordained or licensed. The 
 most of their names appear in the minutes of 
 the various denominations. Now this number 
 may be almost doubled if we search for all those 
 who call themselves preachers and fill the func 
 tion of interpreters of the Word of God. This 
 number moulds as great a sentiment for or 
 against the church as those who hold license." 
 
 "You will get some idea of the vast host who 
 belong to this class when I tell you that the 
 records of the last conference of the Southwe? 4 ; 
 
142 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 Georgia District of the African Methodist Epis 
 copal Church show that there were forty-three 
 applicants for admission to the conference. Note 
 that this is only one of the four or five confer 
 ences of this church in the State. Be it said, to 
 the lasting credit of the conference, that it in un 
 mistakable terms put the stamp of condemna 
 tion upon the presumption of about thirty-five of 
 them and sent them back to their homes dis 
 appointed men. And yet, while it sent them back 
 home unadmitted, it did not make them less de 
 termined to preach, for in their several communi 
 ties you will find them still exercising themselves 
 in the holy calling." : 
 
 Character of Ministers 
 
 In an investigation made by Atlanta Uni 
 versity concerning the character of the negro 
 ministry,twojiiiiidped negro laymen were asked 
 their opinion of the moral character of negro 
 preachers. It is remarkable that only thirty- 
 
 A * 
 
 I seven gave jgcjded answers of approval. All 
 tfie others made "some qualifications. Among 
 faults mentioned by these negro laymen were 
 selfishness, deceptiveness, love for money, sex 
 ual impurity, dogmatism, laziness, ignorance, etc. 
 It cannot be doubted that these adjectives carry 
 all too large a truth. In this connection also may 
 be mentioned again the type of preaching done 
 by many of these ministers. It is highly emo 
 tional and lacking in any practical moral mes- 
 sage. 
 
 Rev. W. H. Holloway. Study of Thomas County, 
 Ga. The Negro Church," p. 61. 
 
THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF THE NEGRO 143 
 
 Church Splits 
 
 Another weakness of the church lies in its 
 spirit of rivalry and dissensions. None of the 
 churches seem so far to have devised a system of 
 government that will cement its members into 
 strong, compact organizations. In most cases 
 organization counts for little, personal prejudice 
 counts for much. If debate arises in the church 
 over the ability of a preacher, one wing will pull 
 off and establish a new church. Hence it arises 
 that many of the negro churches are family 
 churches, being the relatives and friends of some 
 dissenting pastor who organized the new church. 
 Rev. W. H. Holloway declares that of the ninety- 
 eight churches in Thomas County, Georgia, about 
 half of them originated out of a church split. "I 
 know of no rural churches in Thomas County 
 whose inception had the careful nursing of an 
 educated, cultured leader. The largest churches 
 and the biggest preachers in Thomas County do 
 little home missionary work and organize no new 
 churches." : This means that there are twice 
 as many church organizations as there should be, 
 there are too many church buildings, that con 
 gregations are too small, and hence salaries paid 
 to ministers cannot be large enough to secure 
 competent men. 
 
 In going over the list of fifty-four churches 
 in the City of Atlanta, I find seventeen churches 
 with less than one hundred members, the aver 
 age membership of these seventeen being thirty. 
 Only eight of the fifty-four had more than two 
 hundred, and only four had more than three hun- 
 
 1 "The Negro Church," p. 57. 
 
144 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 dred members. Eleven of these Atlanta churches 
 are the outgrowth of church splits. 
 
 In the City of Nashville there are fifty-two 
 negro churches, the average membership of 
 which is two hundred and seven, while the aver 
 age in the white churches is nearly twice as 
 great, three hundred and ninety. There are 
 seventeen negro churches in Nashville with less 
 than one hundred members each. This condition 
 at once accounts for poor church buildings and 
 the low grade of ministers. 
 
 Loose Business Methods 
 
 Lack of business methods is another weakness 
 of the negro church. In this the negro church 
 has no monopoly, as, indeed, it has not in any of 
 the other weaknesses mentioned. All of these 
 weaknesses are simply more marked in the negro 
 than in the white church. Of one hundred and 
 sixty-five negro laymen asked concerning the 
 progress of the negro church, thirty-five an 
 swered decidedly that its financial management 
 was very bad. Again, let a negro minister speak 
 for us on this question: 
 
 "Another condition which gives rise to our 
 assertion that the church is not exercising its 
 highest moral influence, is seen in its lax business 
 methods. Let us give one example, which we 
 dare assert is true of nine-tenths of the churches 
 in Thomas County, and in the South : A contract 
 is made with every incoming minister. They 
 promise him a stipulated sum for his year s serv 
 ice, and when the year ends he goes to confer 
 ence with only about two-thirds of the pledge 
 
THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF THE NEGRO 14$ 
 
 fulfilled. If he is sent back to the same field, 
 the second year finds the church still deeper on 
 the debit side of the ledger. If he is sent to an 
 other field the debt is considered settled, a new 
 contract is made with the new preacher, and the 
 same form is gone through." 3 
 
 Danger of Losing Its Aim 
 
 Lastly, we must mention the fact that the non- 
 essentials of the church are in danger of absorb 
 ing its whole life to the exclusion of its real 
 functions of religious teaching. The numerous 
 church socials, the multitudinous societies, the 
 prominence given to certain rites and cere 
 monies, fill the life of the average church mem 
 ber to a dangerous extent. The church is pri 
 marily a place for worship, for religious in 
 struction, and for religious fellowship and serv 
 ice. When it loses its distinctively religious 
 character it is in danger of losing its power. 
 
 The Appeal of Facts 
 
 Here, then, is a problem of no small concern 
 to every Southern man. We live in a section 
 of the country where eight million colored people 
 live. Whatever affects the lives of these people 
 affects our lives. The colored man is a decidedly 
 religious being, but if his religion is not worthy 
 it will degrade rather than elevate him. The 
 church which fosters his religion is torn with in 
 ternal dissensions which weaken its power and 
 dissipate its energies; its ministers are all too 
 frequently ignorant, lazy and immoral; its gos- 
 
 1 "The Negro Church," p. 60. 
 
146 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 pel is in many cases an emotional hysteria, with 
 little reference to morals; and the majority of 
 white men are either ignorant or indifferent to 
 these facts. Shall we, as southern college men, 
 not be statesmen-like enough to see the im 
 portance of this present situation, and lend our 
 help in meeting the present needs? And the 
 conditions are by no means hopeless. The negro 
 is teachable, he is deeply religious, he looks to 
 the white man for counsel, he will welcome aid 
 from any college man and, what is best of all, 
 he is making- substantial progress in higher re 
 ligious ideals. 
 
VI 
 WHAT CAN WE DO? 
 
RIGHT S SECURITY 
 
 What if the wind do howl without, 
 And turn the creaking weather-vane; 
 What if the arrows of the rain 
 Do beat against the window-pane? 
 Art thou not armored strong and fast 
 Against the sallies of the blast? 
 Art thou not sheltered safe and well 
 Against the flood s insistent swell? 
 
 What boots i*, that thou stand st alone, 
 And laughest in the battle s face 
 When all the weak have fled the place 
 And let their feet and fears keep pace? 
 Thou wavest still thine ensign high, 
 And shouted thy loud battle-cry; 
 Higher than e er the tempest roared, 
 It cleaves the silence like a sword. 
 
 Right arms and armors, too, that man 
 
 Who will not compromise with wrong; 
 
 Though single, he must front the throng, 
 
 And wage the battle hard and long. 
 
 Minorities, since time began, 
 
 Have shown the better side of man; 
 
 And often in the lists of time 
 
 One man has made a cause sublime! 
 
 PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR. 
 
VI 
 WHAT CAN WE DO? 
 
 Present Social Awakening 
 
 Ours may be characterized as a sociological 
 age. Men are thinking to-day in terms of so 
 cial life. It would be safe to say that more books 
 dealing with social questions have come from 
 the press within the last twenty-five years than 
 in all the previous centuries of the world s history. 
 There is a widespread awakening to the facts 
 of all humanity and a consequent interest in 
 them. One would scarcely dare to say that this 
 is a wholly modern movement, for it has its roots 
 deep in the soil of the past, but its flower can 
 hardly be said to have burst into bloom until this 
 present generation. 
 
 World Unity 
 
 At least three elements each of which have 
 had much accentuation during the last decade 
 have entered into this growing social conscious 
 ness. First of these may be mentioned the prin 
 ciple of a spiritual monism. Slowly, but surely, 
 philosophy has been moving away from the vari 
 ous forms of dualism, until it now proclaims a 
 unifying element in the universe, into which all 
 forces and all beings are caught up and knit into 
 one complete whole. Behind the forces of 
 149 
 
I5O NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 nature there is a supreme force; behind the 
 lives of the universe, there is a supreme life; 
 and these blend into a complete and perfect per 
 sonality, whom Christians call God. Such seems 
 to be the decided tendency of science and 
 philosophy. 
 
 Sacredness of the Individual 
 
 The second element is but a corollary of the 
 first the growing sacredness of the individual. 
 If all life is unified in one supreme life, each in 
 dividual is enhanced in value because it is a part 
 of the all inclusive and the universal. It par 
 takes of the divine nature, and is to be judged 
 not by what it possesses, but by what it is and 
 by that to which it is related. This thought is as 
 old as the book of Job, for there the writer says : 
 If I have despised the cause of my man-servant 
 or of my maid-servant, when they contended 
 with me; what then shall I do when God riseth 
 up? And when he visiteth, what shall I answer 
 him? Did not he that made me in the womb 
 make him? And did not one fashion us in the 
 womb? Job 31:13-15. This was the supreme 
 teaching of Jesus Christ out of which grew 
 His universal sympathy but, strange to say, 
 the Christian Church is just coming to realize 
 the tremendous meaning of this conception. 
 
 Social Responsibility 
 
 Growing out of these two is the third element 
 of modern social ideals, namely, the sense of re 
 sponsibility which one man feels for the well- 
 being of all other men. If there is one supreme 
 
WHAT CAN WE DO? 151 
 
 person a Father God ; if each individual is 
 caught up into that Godhood and so becomes 
 sacred ; then, each man is brother to his neigh 
 bor, just because they are both alike sons of God 
 and every true brother must be interested in, 
 and, so far as his power extends, responsible 
 for, the welfare of every other brother in this 
 universal household. Such, it seems to me, is 
 the real meaning of this new social awakening. 
 
 Loyalty to Social Ideals 
 
 If, then, this is the highest development of 
 human thought if our philosophy, our science, 
 and our religion have led us to this that each 
 individual is sacred and we have an obligation to 
 him because of what he is then, we, who de 
 sire to be loyal to the highest, must let this 
 highest find expression in our attitude, in our 
 words, and in our deeds; for, as Dr. Royce has 
 said, "Loyalty, as you see, is essentially an active 
 virtue. It involves manifold sentiments love 
 good-will, earnestness, delight in the cause, but 
 it is complete only in the motor terms, never in 
 merely sentimental terms. It is useless to call 
 my feelings loyal unless my muscles somehow 
 express my loyalty." 1 The enunciation of a 
 social principle has far-reaching meaning for 
 our present discussion, for if a man is sacred 
 just because he is a human individual, we will 
 need to realize anew that the negro has a claim 
 on our sympathy and help. President King, in 
 his latest volume, has well put it: "We can 
 
 1 "Race Questions and Other American Problems," 
 P- 239- 
 
152 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 hardly claim, indeed, to have risen to the level of 
 even the common consciousness of our time, if 
 we are not ready to recognize the ideals of 
 others, though expressed in quite unconventional 
 forms. The willingness to see and to cherish 
 ideals, and the heroism persistently to live or 
 unhesitatingly to die for them, let us be sure, is 
 not confined to our clique or to our race. Have 
 we really open eyes for the hidden ideals in the 
 lives that seem to us unlike our own laborer, 
 capitalist, negro, white, educated, uneducated, 
 quick or slow ? It is not a true interpretation of 
 Christian law of love which insists upon either 
 racial or class barriers to the setting aside of 
 the far more fundamental likeness of men. We 
 owe reverence and faith and love not merely to 
 those whom we call our own, but to all in the 
 significant words of Jesus, despairing of no 
 man (Luke, 6:35, margin). And we shall have 
 no final peace, either as individuals or as a 
 nation, until we recognize in its entirety this 
 primal law of Jesus." 1 
 
 The Real Question 
 
 Now, the real point of the race question is 
 not shall we have social intermingling but shall 
 we recognize that the other man has a soul, is a 
 real human personality in spite of the fact that 
 he often lives on a back alley, wears poor clothes, 
 uses a broken language, and has a black skin. 
 I have sometimes felt that we really do not be 
 lieve the negro is possessed of human person 
 ality. 
 
 1 "Ethics of Jesus," p. 246. 
 
WHAT CAN WE DO? 153 
 
 This fact came to me with intensity some 
 years ago as I was riding on a Pullman car 
 through Alabama. We stopped rather long at 
 some small station, and I noted, without asking 
 the cause, that a very large crowd of colored 
 people were gathered on the station platform. 
 After the train had started again, a traveling 
 man, who had gone out to see what was wrong, 
 returned to the car, and was asked by his com 
 panion the cause of the delay. "Oh, nothing," 
 replied the drummer, "one nigger shot an 
 other, and they were loading the wounded one 
 on to carry him to the nearest town with a hos 
 pital." Then and there it dawned upon me 
 that we really did not appreciate the sacredness 
 of humanity, provided that humanity be clothed 
 in a dark skin. 
 
 Professor DuBois describes in beautiful and 
 heart-searching English the death of his own 
 baby boy. He tells how dark the day seemed to 
 him as the carriages rolled along through the 
 crowded streets of Atlanta behind the hearse, 
 which carried the lifeless form of the child, as 
 dear to him as life. As the crowd parted for a 
 moment to let the procession pass, some one in 
 quired who it was that had died. Professor 
 DuBois heard the reply as it broke in upon his 
 saddened heart Just niggers. " Do you won 
 der that he is sometimes bitter? 
 
 One would be disposed to charge him with over 
 emphasizing the indifference of white men if we 
 had not lived all our lives in the midst of these 
 conditions and had not heard such expressions 
 hundreds of times. These, of course, are the 
 
154 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 expressions of the coarser element of white men, 
 and yet they indicate a tendency to forget that 
 a subject race is not a dehumanized race. It 
 should be said also that this attitude toward a 
 weaker race is not seen alone in the South. 1 
 have seen things in Northern cities, and heard 
 words to and about foreigners which made my 
 blood boil. When I was making a tour of the 
 Pacific Coast colleges, I saw treatment of Jap 
 anese which I could scarcely keep from resent 
 ing with physical violence but I reflected that 
 this was only parallel to the attitude of the 
 coarser element of my own section toward a 
 backward race. 
 
 Attitude Toward Dependent Races 
 
 Mr. Milligan, in his charming book, "The 
 Jungle Folk of Africa," tells us the story of the 
 treatment of the Kruboys, who load and unload 
 the ships on the West Coast. This work is ex 
 ceedingly dangerous, on account of poor harbors 
 and heavy surf, and none with less endurance, 
 skill and bravery than these Africans would dare 
 undertake the task. 
 
 One day the sea was so very dangerous, "the 
 boys presented themselves in a body before one 
 of the officers and said : Mastah, them sea be 
 bad too much. We no be fit for land cargo. 
 S pose we try, we go loss all cargo, and plenty 
 man s life. So please excuse to-day, Mastah, 
 for we think to-morrow go be fine. 
 
 "The answer they received was a volley of 
 profanity and curses. Just because one of them 
 was killed they all turn cowards, said one. AI- 
 
WHAT CAN WE DO? 155 
 
 ways thinking of themselves, said another. With 
 many such shrewd observations and sundry 
 moral exhortations to bravery, the boats were 
 lowered and they were ordered into them." 
 
 "One day our boys went ashore early in the 
 morning, leaving the ship at half-past five. They 
 were expecting to make the trip before break 
 fast, as usual, and therefore had nothing to 
 eat before starting. They had landed the cargo 
 safely at the trading-house; but the sea was so 
 bad that they could not get off to the ship all 
 that day. They made several unsuccessful at 
 tempts, and it was almost night before they suc 
 ceeded. Meanwhile, the swell was so heavy that 
 we had steamed far out for safety, and were 
 anchored seven miles from the shore. The boys 
 reached the ship after dark, and we then learned 
 that the white trader ashore had given them 
 nothing to eat, although the ship would have 
 repaid him. Those boys had battled with the 
 sea and with hunger, not having had a taste of 
 food all that day." 
 
 "Only a short time afterwards, one evening 
 at the table, an officer who had been ashore told 
 us a story that was intended to prove the cruelty 
 of the native. A white trader, he said, had 
 caught a young elephant. He went away on a 
 journey to the bush, leaving the care of it to his 
 native workmen. Upon his return, after several 
 months, he found the elephant in very poor 
 health, and a few weeks later it died. There 
 was no doubt that the natives had neglected to 
 feed it in his absence, and this was the cause of 
 its death. Horrible cruelty of the beastly native ! 
 
156 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 Pungent remarks, appropriate to the occasion, 
 were contributed all around the table. For my 
 self, I was thinking of those starved and tired 
 boys battling with a raging sea. But I said not 
 a word. What would be the use?" 
 
 So ever it is that a weak and dependent race is 
 badly used by those that are greedy and unscru 
 pulous. One cannot refrain from calling atten 
 tion to Christ s parable in Matt. 25 134-46 : "Inas 
 much as ye did it not unto one of these least, ye 
 did it not unto me." The application of these 
 words to the problem in hand cannot by any pos 
 sibility be escaped, by the man of open mind. 
 
 Test of White Civilization 
 
 We have heard much discussion of whether 
 the negro would be able to stand the test of con 
 tact with a more advanced civilization. In my 
 opinion this is not at all the real question. The 
 question at issue is, will the white man, with his 
 superior training, greater advancement, and 
 larger opportunities, be able to stand the test of 
 contact with a less fortunate race? Every race, 
 as well as every individual, must be finally 
 judged by its attitude toward, and its treatment 
 of, those who are not able to protect themselves. 
 The father that despises one of his children be 
 cause it is weaker physically or mentally, is 
 branded as a savage. The boy that "picks on" 
 another under his size is promptly denominated 
 a bully and a coward. Not less will the race 
 that deals unfairly with 5 weaker and more in 
 fantile race be judged of God to be unworthy 
 of its heritage. "The responsibility of a privi- 
 
WHAT CAN WE DO? 157 
 
 leged people" is the key thought of one of the 
 world s greatest prophetic utterances. "You 
 only have I known of all the families of the 
 earth," said Amos to the highly favored Israel 
 ites, "Therefore I will visit upon you all your 
 iniquities," 
 
 A National Question 
 
 The supreme race questions of this nation are 
 not whether the Chinese and Japanese on the 
 Pacific Coast will be able to meet the demands 
 of a more exacting civilization; not whether the 
 European immigrant of the East is the equal of 
 the native American; not whether the negro of 
 the South can ever measure up to the standard 
 of achievement of his white neighbor but 
 whether in all these varying situations we Amer 
 icans, with our boasted culture, larger wealth, 
 and splendid opportunities, will be able so to 
 deal with these weaker peoples as to prove to 
 God and to the world that we are a race of su- 
 peror advancement. Our culture and our civil 
 ization are not given us for selfish use. We are 
 simply the custodians of these rich blessings. 
 Just as the new social consciousness demands 
 that a man of accumulated millions shall use it 
 for the good of humanity so the social sense of 
 the world at large will sooner or later demand 
 that we shall use our culture and our civilization 
 to elevate those less fortunate than ourselves. 
 
 Fair Mindcdness Toward the Negro 
 
 Thus, we have revealed the first great service 
 that we can render to the negro race. We must 
 
158 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 change public opinion. We must see to it that 
 he is no longer thought of simply as a brute, but 
 as a human being. Here there needs to be dis 
 crimination and the crowd rarely ever discrim 
 inates. Because one negro, or a dozen, or two 
 score, or several thousand may be brutish and 
 commit brutal crimes, it is neither fair-minded 
 nor just to accuse the whole race as being with 
 out souls. There are many brutal white men. 
 Many of them are as low in sin and shame as 
 human thought can imagine, and yet we assert 
 the essential dignity and sacredness of the in 
 dividual. If we are to be fair to the negro, we 
 must recognize that there are various stratas 
 within that race, and that many of them are 
 working hard to acquire culture and character. 
 We shall give the race a great impetus when we 
 help the world to recognize that they must have 
 a fair chance that they must be treated as 
 human personalities. 
 
 Obligation to Know the Negro 
 
 Another aim we need to set for ourselves is 
 a more thorough knowledge of the negro s con 
 dition. Our attention was called, in the first 
 chapter, to the ignorance of our white people 
 concerning negro life. It should be the de 
 liberate purpose of every college man to know 
 more about this problem. This book claims to 
 do nothing but point the way. Each man must 
 investigate for himself. We must go to their 
 homes just to see how they live, we must visit 
 their schools to find how they think, we must 
 visit their churches to know how they worship. 
 
WHAT CAN WE DO? 159 
 
 To the man who is in earnest about life there 
 can be no more fascinating study than to find 
 just how this "other half lives." It must always 
 be remembered that this can be done well only 
 in the sympathetic spirit. 
 
 Visit Schools and Churches 
 
 But we can do much more than investigate 
 conditions. There is the very greatest need for 
 men that have higher ideals to lend their help 
 and encouragement in the matter of education 
 and religion. It would mean much to the negro 
 youth if more white men visited their schools 
 and made addresses that would fire the ambi 
 tion of these backward children. Character is 
 made by setting ideals and who can better do 
 this than the educated white men of the South? 
 In like manner, we would do well to speak in 
 their churches, giving them addresses on the 
 practical ethical problems. I cannot imagine a 
 greater service that we could render. In par 
 ticular, addresses could be given to the men 
 and boys on questions of social purity which 
 might be of very great benefit. I gave such an 
 address recently to a group of negro men, and 
 many of them said afterwards it was the only 
 address of the kind they had ever heard. If we 
 are looking for some practical service, here is 
 the chance. 
 
 Negro Sunday Schools 
 
 In this connection, one is reminded of the 
 large opportunity for service through the negro 
 Sunday school. There is hardly a negro church 
 
l6o NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 that would not welcome the services of a col- 
 lege man to teach its Bible class for older people, 
 or to teach a group of younger men, or a class 
 of boys. In the city of Nashville, the Methodist 
 Training School is sending out Bible teachers to 
 a number of churches. I have visited some of 
 these churches, and it was with evident pride and 
 appreciation that they told me of this help. 
 
 In other places there is need for the organiza 
 tion of Sunday schools in those sections of the 
 city or country where there are no churches. 
 Hampden-Sidney students have been doing this 
 for a number of years. They organize small 
 schools anywhere within a radius of three or 
 four miles of the college, and students go out 
 to teach. 
 
 Presbyterian Colored Mission 
 
 One of the most notable undertakings of the 
 kind is that of the Presbyterian Theological Sem 
 inary in Louisville, Kentucky. Rev. John Little, 
 who was one of the student founders of this 
 particular Sunday school, and is now in charge 
 as superintendent, gives the following account 
 of its inception : "At a business meeting of the 
 Students Missionary Society of the Presbyterian 
 Theological Seminary in Louisville, November, 
 1897, the needs of the colored people were men 
 tioned, and the suggestion made that a Sunday 
 school be organized for their instruction. Six 
 students volunteered to teach in such a Sunday 
 school, and plans were formulated to begin the 
 work. We thought it would be an easy matter 
 to secure a house, but we found landlords very 
 
WHAT CAN WE DO? l6l 
 
 cautious about renting buildings for this purpose. 
 Twenty-five vacant houses were inspected before 
 one could be rented." 
 
 "The house was formerly a lottery office, and 
 was well known to the people of the neighbor 
 hood. This site was selected because it was in 
 the midst of a densely settled negro district. 
 These negroes were very poor, and day and 
 night were exposed to vice. Saloons were on 
 every corner; gambling places were numerous." 
 
 "A definite site on Preston Street a main 
 thoroughfare having been selected, the six 
 teachers divided themselves into three groups, 
 going two and two. Each group took a street 
 and visited every house, and in the tenement 
 houses every room. They gave a personal in 
 vitation to each member of the family to attend 
 the services and left a printed card giving the 
 name of the mission, the location, and the hours 
 for services. This plan was persistently fol 
 lowed until the building was crowded." 
 
 "In the homes we were well received, and in 
 vited to come again. In the majority of cases 
 the family promised to attend the next Sunday, 
 If I live, and nothing happens/ In nine cases 
 out of ten something happened to the parents, 
 for very few of the older people came to the 
 mission in the early days. In later days they 
 came in larger numbers." 
 
 The School Opened 
 
 "The doors were opened in February, 1898 and 
 23 negro pupils were enrolled. Within a month 
 the attendance had grown to 40. Our room was 
 
l62 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 full, and special efforts to secure a larger attend 
 ance ceased, and we tried to develop the char 
 acter of those enrolled." 
 
 "The first session of this Sunday school re 
 vealed the great need of the people dwelling in 
 this section of the city. Here we found hun 
 dreds of children, within the sound of the 
 bells of white and colored churches, who never 
 attended. The pupils were arranged as in an 
 ordinary school. The singing was good, and 
 this natural gift has been developed until the 
 music is excellent. . . ."* 
 
 This work has grown until, in 1909, there 
 were 450 regular Sunday school students; there 
 were sewing classes for girls, woodwork classes 
 for boys, classes in basketry, cooking, etc. What 
 is fully as important, playgrounds have been ar 
 ranged where colored boys can go for an after 
 noon of clean sport. Such a work as this can be 
 reproduced in any city in the South, if only 
 men can be found with large enough faith and 
 sufficient spirit of self-sacrifice. 
 
 Famous Examples 
 
 For this kind of work we have the very best 
 of precedent in the work of such men as Stone 
 wall Jackson and Robert E. Lee. On one of my 
 visits to Washington and Lee University, I 
 walked out into the country and chanced upon 
 an old man, who had been one of the negro 
 boys in the Sunday school conducted by Jackson 
 before the war, Jackson then being a professor 
 
 *For further facts, address Rev. John Little, 540 
 Roselane, Louisville, Ky. 
 
WHAT CAN WE DO? 163 
 
 at Virginia Military Institute. The old man 
 was very proud of the fact that he sat under the 
 famous General, and quoted a number of Scrip 
 ture passages to prove that he had profited by 
 such instruction. With such an illustrious ex 
 ample, we can well afford to have our share in 
 such a worthy work. 
 
 Helping Colored Young Men s Christian Associa 
 tions 
 
 Again, our colleges located in cities where 
 there are also negro schools, can be of large 
 service by helping to foster the Colored Branch 
 of the Young Men s Christian Association 
 among these colored students. The president 
 of the Young Men s Christian Association in 
 the white college can meet the committees of the 
 colored Association, and give ideas that will be 
 invaluable. This particular suggestion comes 
 to me from a negro, the president of a negro col 
 lege, and from a Christian worker among his 
 students. In like manner, men can help in 
 carrying on the Bible study work of the Young 
 Men s Christian Association. I made a visit a 
 year or two ago to Carlisle Indian School, Car 
 lisle, Pa., and while there, we enrolled four hun 
 dred Indian students in Bible study. There were 
 no students in the school sufficiently prepared to 
 lead these classes. We, therefore, secured lead 
 ers from Dickinson College and Dickinson Sem 
 inary to go over once each week and do this 
 work. Why should not the students of the 
 South, who believe that the negro student should 
 
164 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 know the Bible, go out to these schools to con 
 duct Association classes? 
 
 Athletic Help, etc. 
 
 Another place where the white students may 
 serve the colored is in athletics. As a rule, the 
 negro school is not able to employ coaches or to 
 secure desirable officials for games. And there 
 is no greater need in the negro school than a 
 genuine athletic life. Those of us that have de 
 fended athletics in our own schools on the basis 
 of their moral influence, and of their physical up 
 lift, must readily understand that the colored 
 student needs this even more. At Vanderbilt 
 University, athletic men have gone out to Fisk, 
 Roger Williams, and Meharry for years to act 
 as officials in such games, and wherever I have 
 chanced upon one of the students of these in 
 stitutions, they have always had a most kindly 
 feeling toward all Vanderbilt men. There is no 
 surer way to settle the race question than in 
 these small matters to indicate our interest in 
 these men, and our willingness to help them. 
 
 Boy s Clubs 
 
 In like manner, university students can be of 
 the greatest service to the boys of the negro race 
 if they will organize them into clubs and give 
 them a chance to have some clean and wholesome 
 fun. One of the most serious difficulties in con 
 nection with the negro problem is the fact that 
 there are no playgrounds, no places of amuse 
 ment for these boys. A colored boy cannot play 
 ball, he cannot play tennis, he cannot go to a 
 
WHAT CAN WE DO? 165 
 
 gymnasium, he cannot go swimming in the city 
 because there is no place open to him. A few 
 years ago some colored men rented a small park 
 in Atlanta for the sake of having ball games for 
 colored boys. But some white man in the vicin 
 ity complained, and the park was closed by the 
 city officials. A colored man in Atlanta told me 
 that there was not a single decent place of 
 amusement, so far as he knew, where negroes 
 could go. No wonder we are turning out crops 
 of criminals. A negro boy is just like a white 
 boy he has the play instinct. If this instinct is 
 not legitimately gratified, he is either stunted by 
 too constant work and no play, or else he is de 
 moralized by no work, no play, and all loafing. 
 I believe some of these conditions can be righted 
 by our college men and our churches. If we will 
 organize negro boys clubs, where these boys can 
 be brought together for military training, or for 
 simple games, or for any type of amusement that 
 is wholesome, together with such other more 
 serious and helpful activities as may seem wise, 
 we may bring great blessing to the whole race. 
 
 Reform Schools Needed 
 
 In this connection, it should be said that re 
 form schools have been established for delinquent 
 white boys in most States; but the colored boy 
 who commits a petty crime is thrust right in 
 with the most hardened criminals, and is soon 
 turned out with criminal instincts. From the 
 standpoint of economy alone, this is poor policy, 
 for the boy that becomes a criminal is a constant 
 
l66 ffEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 burden on the State, when he might have been 
 saved to the State for a real factor in production. 
 
 Racial Integrity 
 
 One cannot refrain from saying a word here 
 about that other crying evil which is the plague 
 of white and black alike. Much has been said 
 about the horrors of an unnamable crime per 
 petrated by negro men. The negro race, as a 
 whole, condemns this, and all the better classes 
 are helping in the detection and prosecution of 
 the criminals. But I have had more than one 
 honest and worthy negro man tell me that we 
 would never put a stop to this crime until white 
 men ceased their ravages of colored girls. Of 
 course, it cannot be denied that many colored 
 girls court the favor of white men, but the white 
 man is the stronger, and should be held most re 
 sponsible. But this is only one side of the ques 
 tion. There is another and a blacker side. A 
 college president recently told me of a case 
 which was enough to make one s blood boil. A 
 negro drayman, after giving his daughter all the 
 training possible at home, sent her away to the 
 Prairie View Normal, in Texas, where she grad 
 uated, having in mind teaching as a life work. 
 Meanwhile, an unscrupulous, but wealthy, white 
 man became attracted by her looks and followed 
 her back to her small Mississippi town in the 
 attempt to persuade her to return with him as 
 his personal slave. The father of this girl went 
 to my friend, the white college president, and 
 asked him what to do. Said he: "This white 
 man is hanging about trying to rob my daughter 
 
WHAT CAN WE DO? 167 
 
 of her purity. If I kill him, I will be mobbed 
 in an hour, and if I let him alone, I may lose the 
 hope and pride of a lifetime." No wonder the 
 colored man rebels at such an unjust situation. 
 
 Negro Testimony 
 
 At a meeting held in Atlanta, to which I have 
 referred in the introduction of this book, the 
 hardest charge brought against the white man 
 by the negro delegates present was the fact that 
 many negro girls who would withstand the ap 
 peals of negro men were helpless, and lost their 
 virtue to white men who employed them or who 
 might have enough money to turn their simple 
 heads. 
 
 The Blackest Crime 
 
 There has been no small talk about social 
 equality. I do not believe in social inter 
 mingling, nor do the best class of negroes. But 
 where a white man uses his larger power and 
 influence to force a negro girl to give up her 
 purity, there is no question of social equality 
 involved ; the man is so infinitely below the level 
 of the girl that he does not deserve to be men 
 tioned in the same breath. It is a crime as black 
 as night when a man robs a white girl of her 
 purity, even though she consents but she is his 
 equal in moral strength and has powers of self- 
 protection. The negro girl, however, has no such 
 equal chance in the struggle ; so, when a white 
 man takes advantage of one who is socially down, 
 who cannot protect herself, he is a fiend of the 
 blackest die. There is need that college men should 
 
l68 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 create a sentiment of condemnation against such 
 diabolical sin. If we expect the black man to 
 respect our women and he must then we must 
 force our white men to keep hands off the negro 
 girl whether she be pure or impure. Thert 
 must not be any mingling of the races. 
 
 Lynching 
 
 Just here one must say a word about the 
 question of lynching. It is a fact that it grows 
 more prevalent in both North and South. The 
 question is, can it be defended? and if not, can 
 it be stopped? In the first place, what is the 
 effect on the colored community of lynching? 
 Does it act as a deterrent of further crime? 
 Not at all. I have talked with a great many 
 negro men, and, so far as a white man can, have 
 got into the spirit and mode of their thought on 
 this subject. Lynching only maddens and en 
 rages the lower class. They look upon the 
 lynched negro as a martyr, who has laid down 
 his life on the altar of a just hatred of his op 
 pressor. I am absolutely convinced that lynch 
 ing does not frighten the criminal class, and 
 hence does not prevent the awful crime against 
 our women. On the other hand, it has increased 
 this crime, and has put the criminal in the class 
 of martyrs. If we love our women and want to 
 protect them, some less spectacular method of 
 punishment must be devised. 
 
 It Degrades the White Man 
 
 What effect does lynching have on the whole 
 community? Bad, and only bad. There is 
 
WHAT CAN WE DO? 169 
 
 no light to relieve the shadow here. When 
 ever men, in the name of law and justice, so far 
 forget themselves as to trample every law under 
 their feet, and, in their mad frenzy, even take 
 the lives of honest officials who heroically stand 
 out for their duty and for the law ; when, in their 
 mad brutality, they burn or hang or riddle with 
 bullets a wretched criminal supposed to be guilty 
 of this crime though it occasionally happens 
 that he is not just so often is the self-respect 
 of the community lowered, and the sacredness 
 of law is broken down. The effect is brutaliz 
 ing and demoralizing. The result of this disre 
 gard for law is seen on every hand. It comes 
 out in the night riding in Kentucky, in the Reel 
 Foot Lake tragedies in Tennessee, and in numer 
 ous other ways. As we sow, so shall we reap. 
 If we sow mobs, and violence, and disrespect for 
 courts of justice, we shall surely reap murders, 
 lawlessness and debased public opinion. This is 
 a very high price to pay for the luxury of a little 
 bloodthirtsy revenge. 
 
 Does not Prevent Publicity 
 
 But some one says that we cannot afford to 
 humiliate cair women by bringing them into 
 public for the trial of the criminal. No, surely 
 not, but the trial can be conducted with closed 
 doors. Would this be more humiliating than 
 what now takes place? Does not the infuriated 
 mob take the criminal before the victim if she is 
 alive and ask her to identify him? There is no 
 privacy, no decorum, not even lack of publicity. 
 Nothing could be more public, nothing could be 
 
170 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 more revolting to real womanhood than our 
 present methods. 
 
 Defeats Justice 
 
 And, last of all, justice cannot be done by a 
 frenzied mob. In a Republic such as ours, every 
 man is supposed to have the right of a trial, the 
 right to defend himself against false accusations. 
 A mob never reasons, it does not weigh evidence, 
 it simply acts in the madness of its fury. I quote 
 a case in point: "William McArthur has been 
 for many years the janitor of a white church in 
 a former slave State. He owns a farm and city 
 house; has a bank account, and could loan 
 money more easily than most of the church mem 
 bers he serves. His reputation for character is 
 as good as theirs. When, therefore, a disrep 
 utable white woman attempted to blackmail him 
 by threatening to charge him with assault on a 
 child, he naturally went to the church officers for 
 advice. They believed in him as they did in 
 each other, but put him on a midnight train for 
 California. To his Northern pastor it was in 
 credible that a man of his reputation should have 
 to flee like a thief. The answer was: This 
 community is likely to lynch first and investigate 
 afterwards/ So McArthur went he could 
 afford to saying, with pathetic humor, I al 
 ways wanted to travel West, anyhow. After six 
 months he felt safe to come back and take up 
 his work. Not long after the community did 
 lynch three negroes on an Easter morning. The 
 grand jury, investigating afterward, found that 
 two of them were certainly innocent. Only bay- 
 
WHAT CAN WE DO? 171 
 
 onets saved the negro quarter from burning. 
 Then McArthur came to his pastor to know 
 where, under the stars and stripes, a self-respect 
 ing and respected black man could buy his own 
 vine and fig tree, and go and sit down under 
 them in the ordinary security of Christian civil 
 ization." 
 
 "Now McArthur s character is fixed so that 
 adversity, while it seams his brow and weights 
 his steps, does not make a social rebel of him; 
 but his boy, when I last saw him, was behind 
 the bars." 
 
 "Now, I charge that America did not give 
 McArthur s boy a square deal. Of course, he 
 is a responsible soul, with heart, will and con 
 science enough to make some impression on his 
 own moral destiny. Let him bear his full share 
 of the blame; but let us weigh this: he had felt 
 the helplessness of the property-owning negro 
 before the blackmailer; had seen his father a 
 fugitive at midnight, his life hanging upon an 
 idle word; had heard just men confess their in 
 ability to protect one in whom they had all con 
 fidence; had vainly longed for a fatherland which 
 could guarantee somewhere a peaceful death to 
 one who had lived in honor; had smelled the 
 burning flesh of innocent men of his own race. 
 Besides all this, his own weakness had been 
 trafficked in by a venal police power. Such 
 things are not calculated to make a young negro 
 into a model citizen. You tell me that after all 
 the cord and the torch are rare, that statistically 
 one is more likely to die from falling off a step- 
 ladder at home than a negro is to be lynched. I 
 
172 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 reply that when one has once come under the 
 shadow of such a tragedy he can never forget 
 it. It stamps his imagination for all time and 
 sears his soul against the social order in which 
 it is tolerated/ 3 
 
 Sentiment Against Lynching Needed 
 
 It is ours to create a sentiment of justice, of 
 respect for law, of reverence for the authority of 
 the courts. No nation can stand where its law 
 is not respected and where any chance mob 
 rises up and in the name of justice breaks every 
 law of the land, and tramples justice under its 
 feet. 
 
 Justice in Petty Crimes 
 
 The negro should get justice, not only in this 
 respect, but also in petty crimes. We need to 
 use our influence here to see that he does get 
 justice. He needs justice in the courts, but he 
 does not get it ; far too infrequently he is treated 
 leniently because his white friend pleads his 
 cause, and again, too frequently, he has no 
 chance because there is no friend at court. What 
 ever may be said to the contrary, the negro does 
 not get full justice at the bar of the law. 
 
 Justice in Public Conveyances 
 
 Neither does he get fair treatment in many 
 public conveyances. I once asked Prof. John 
 Wesley Gilbert, one of the best educated and 
 most thoroughly Christian negroes in the South, 
 what he thought of the "Ji m Crow" laws. His 
 
 1 "Christian Reconstruction in the South," pp. 204-5. 
 
WHAT CAN WE DO? 173 
 
 reply was that he had no objection to them if 
 they were fairly administered. But, of course, 
 they are not. We all know that. Some cheap, 
 white man who happens to be in authority treats 
 the negro with disrespect and abuses him, lest 
 some one may think that he, the conductor, is 
 not better than they. Professor Gilbert told me 
 he never rode on the car with his wife, lest some 
 cheap conductor might insult her, and he would 
 do as any other man, defend her, and a mob 
 would be the result. This is not justice, it is 
 not humanity, it is not Christianity. We must 
 change it. 
 
 Negro Self-Sufficiency 
 
 Lastly, if we are to have perfect distinctness 
 of life in this section, we must make the negro 
 sufficient unto himself. So long as all honor 
 lies in being associated with the white man, the 
 negro will want social intermingling. So long 
 as there are none of his own race that can meet 
 him on a high plane and can satisfy the longings 
 of his soul, just so long will he be driven to seek 
 fellowship with white men. But build him up, 
 make him sufficient in himself, give him within 
 his own race life that which will satisfy, and thv 
 social question will be solved. The cultivated ne 
 gro is less and less inclined to lose himself and 
 his race in the sea of another race. As he de 
 velops, he is rinding a new race consciousness, 
 he is building a new race pride. He no longer 
 objects to being called a negro it is becoming 
 the badge of his race and the mark of his self- 
 sufficiency. We have nothing, therefore, to 
 
174 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 fear from giving him a chance. With every new 
 chance he becomes more satisfied to live his life 
 within the pale of his own race. If ever the negro 
 is to become an efficient workman and a real 
 economic factor, it will be because he has so far 
 been elevated in his desires and needs that only 
 constant labor can satisfy his wants. We shall 
 increase his efficiency by increasing his wants. 
 If ever he is to become a good citizen, it will be 
 because he has been so elevated as to desire de 
 cency and honor, and not because he fears the law 
 if he lives otherwise. If he is to be kept as a 
 separate and distinct race, without any desire 
 to mingle in social life with the white race, it 
 will be by making his race so self-sufficient that 
 he can find his desires, his ambitions, his social 
 longings satisfied within his own ranks. This 
 must come through the elevation of the whole 
 race. 
 
 We Need not Fear Advancement 
 
 We have nothing to fear from the advance 
 ment of the negroes. It is a poor race which 
 can sustain the position it has won only by for 
 ever crowding down other races that come into 
 competition with itself. For my part, I do not 
 believe the white race need take any such posi 
 tion. We shall be able to hold our own and care 
 for our own, however great the advancement of 
 the negro race may be. Rather, my fear is that 
 the negro race in the South will remain so back 
 ward, that it will remain so ignorant, that it will 
 remain so far in the rear of civilization, that we 
 of the South will forever be held down b the 
 
WHAT CAN WE DO? 175 
 
 weight of our helpless neighbors, and allow the 
 people of other sections of our country to march 
 on and leave us hopelessly behind in our wealth, 
 in our civilization, and in our culture. 
 
 Negro Needs Encouragement 
 
 Let us encourage the negro race to advance as 
 rapidly as possible ; let us give him all the chance 
 we can. He does not need to be held back or 
 discouraged; he needs to be cheered on. He 
 needs to have held before him the records of 
 high endeavor. No boy has ever grown great 
 by believing that his life was worthless and his 
 ability below the average. No race will ever be 
 come useful and industrious by being brow 
 beaten and discouraged. However difficult the 
 task, we must bring the negro to believe in him 
 self. We must make him feel that he is capable 
 of being a true man. We must help him to 
 become sufficient unto himself. Any other course 
 on our part is the madness of a slow suicide, for 
 we rise or fall with the moral power of our 
 section. 
 
 Will We Stand the Test 
 
 Ours is, perhaps, the most difficult task that 
 has been set before the people of any section of 
 America. It will require more patience, it will 
 cost more faith, it will need more persistence, it 
 will demand a truer sympathy, and it will re 
 quire more Christian courage to solve this great 
 question than any other question that faces the 
 American people. If we are faithless in this 
 trust, woe be to ourselves and our successors! 
 
176 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 But if we are faithful, the very difficulty of our 
 task will mean a greater manhood and a brighter 
 glory than a lesser task could give. I have faith 
 that the educated men of the South will not be 
 wail their fate, but that they will, with the 
 strength of men, meet and master these stupend- 
 our difficulties. It is not the negro that is on 
 trial before the world, but it is we, the white men 
 of the South. The world is looking on to see 
 whether we shall have sufficient wisdom, suffi 
 cient courage, sufficient Christian spirit to lend 
 a helping hand to the race that is down. May 
 the spirit of the Christ, the Friend of Men, give 
 us strength to stand the test, 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 The volumes listed in this bibliography are some of the best 
 in print. The word of explanation after each title has not been 
 intended in a critical spirit, but to help those who only care to 
 purchase one or two volumes to secure the ones which will best 
 meet their needs. Each volume here listed has been carefully 
 read for this purpose. W. D. W. 
 
 Atlanta University Publications (Atlanta University 
 Press, 1896-1906) : 
 
 No. I, Mortality among Negroes in Cities, 1896. 
 Mortality among Negroes in Cities, 1903. 
 
 2, Social and Physical Condition of Negroes in 
 
 Cities, 1897. 
 
 3, Some Efforts of Negroes for Social Better 
 
 ment, 1898. 
 
 4, The Negro in Business, 1899. 
 
 5, The College Bred Negro, 1900 (two editions). 
 
 6, The Negro Common School, 1001. 
 
 7, The Negro Artisan, 1902. 
 
 8, The Negro Church, 1903. 
 
 9, Notes on Negro Crime, 1904. 
 
 10, A Select Bibliography of the Negro American, 
 
 1905. 
 n, Health and Physique of the Negro American, 
 
 1906. 
 
 These are the most thorough and original investiga 
 tions of the negro problem that have been made. 
 
 BRYCE, JAMES. "The Relation of the Advanced and 
 the Backward Races of Mankind." Clarendon 
 Press, 1003. A clear statement of the conditions 
 under which races amalgamate and those under 
 which racial integrity prevails. 
 
 179 
 
l8o NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 * BAKER, RAY STANNARD. "Following the Color Line." 
 Doubleday, Page & Co., 1908. A clear, fair state 
 ment of race conditions, as seen by a Northern 
 man on an extended tour through the South; per 
 haps the sanest book on the topic by a Northern 
 man. 
 
 COMMONS, JOHN R. "Races and Immigrants in Amer 
 ica." The Macmillan Company, 1908. 
 
 DuBois, W. E. B. "The Souls of Black Folk." A. C. 
 McClurg & Co., 1907. From the standpoint of one 
 of the most cultured and literary colored men in 
 America. It bears the marks of keen insight into 
 the thought of the race at times bitterly pessi 
 mistic. 
 
 DOUGLASS, H. PAUL. "Christian Reconstruction in the 
 South." The Pilgrim Press, 1909. A study of 
 the work of the American Missionary Association 
 in the South. 
 
 DOWD, JEROME. "The Negro Races." The Macmillan 
 Company, 1907. A scholarly study of three of the 
 five great divisions of the negro race in Africa. 
 
 *DUNBAR, PAUL LAURENCE. "Lyrics of Lowly Life." 
 Dodd, Mead & Co., 1896. Poems that catch the 
 spirit of the old-time "darkey" to a remarkable 
 degree. Likewise his poems of Cabin and Field, 
 etc. 
 
 GROGMAN. "Progress of a Race." J. L. Nichols & Co., 
 1907. A running account of the life of the Amer 
 ican Negro not all too accurate. 
 
 HART, ALBERT BUSH NELL. "The Southern South." Ap- 
 pleton, 1910. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY l8l 
 
 HELM, MARY. "The Upward Path." Young People s 
 Missionary Movement, 1909. A very sane state 
 ment by a Southern woman who writes with clear 
 insight and with deep sympathy for the negro s 
 struggle. 
 
 HOFFMAN, FREDERICK L. "Race Traits and Tendencies 
 of the American Negro." American Economic As 
 sociation. Published by Macmillan & Co., 1896. 
 The most scholarly and exhaustive study yet made 
 of population, vital statistics, anthropometry, and 
 race amalgamation. 
 
 HARRISON & BARNES. "The Gospel among the Slaves." 
 Smith & Lamar, Nashville, Tenn., 1893. A careful 
 compilation of facts concerning the evangelization 
 of the negro during days of slavery. 
 
 MILLER, KELLY. "Race Adjustment." The Neale Pub 
 lishing Company, 1908. Strictly reliable as to facts, 
 showing deep insight into the life of the race; a 
 little critical of the white man. 
 
 *MIRRIAM, GEORGE S. "The Negro and the Nation." 
 Young People s Missionary Movement, 1906. A 
 historical statement of the political questions aris 
 ing out of slavery. 
 
 *MURPHY, EDGAR GARDINER. "The Present South." The 
 Macmillan Co., 1904. The best expression of the 
 spirit of the New South, dealing with many phases 
 of the Negro question. 
 
 "The Basis of Ascendency." Longmans, Green 
 & Co., 1909. An "explicit statement of those fun 
 damental principles of policy" which underlie the 
 solution of the race question. Absolutely fair and 
 Christian in spirit. 
 
 NASSAU, ROBERT HAMILL. "Fetichism in West Africa." 
 Charles Scribner s Sons, 1904. A most entertaining 
 
l82 NEGRO LIFE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 and thorough statement of the religious life and 
 practices of the West African negro. 
 
 *PAGE, THOMAS NELSON. "The Negro, the Southerner s 
 Problem." Charles Scribner s Sons, 1904. Charac 
 terized by thorough familiarity with the "old-time" 
 negro, with less accurate knowledge of present 
 conditions. Prone to magnify all the virtues of 
 the slave, and all the vices of the present negro. 
 
 ROYCE, JOSIAH. "Race Questions, Provincialism, and 
 Other American Problems." The Macmillan Com 
 pany, 1908. It is tolerably certain that few South 
 ern men will accept Professor Royce s statement 
 that race antipathies are on a "level with a dread 
 of snakes and of mice." The volume can hardly 
 be called unbiased or scholarly. 
 
 SHANNON, A. H. "Racial Integrity." Smith & Lamar, 
 Nashville, Tenn., and Dallas, Texas, 1907. A 
 study of race amalgamation and other topics. 
 
 SINCLAIR, WILLIAM A. "The Aftermath of Slavery." 
 Small, Maynard & Co., 1905. Somewhat unfair in 
 its treatment of the question. The author is a col 
 ored man who chafes under present conditions. 
 
 SMITH, WILLIAM BENJAMIN. "The Color Line." Mc- 
 Clure, Phillips & Co., 1904. Brilliant in its state 
 ments, but bitter in its sarcasm. It is doubtful if 
 the conclusions reached as to the future decay of 
 the negro will prove true. 
 
 THOMAS, WILLIAM HANNIBAL. "The American Negro.* 
 The Macmillan Company, 1901. The harshest ar 
 raignment of the race by one of its own members. 
 While showing clear insight into negro character, 
 it is certainly unfair. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 183 
 
 WASHINGTON & DuBois. "The Negro in the South." 
 George W. Jacobs & Co., 1907. Dealing with the 
 economic and religious life of the negro. 
 
 ^WASHINGTON, BOOKER T. "Up from Slavery." Double- 
 day, Page & Co., 1907. An autobiography of the 
 writer, full of interest, and written in the finest 
 spirit. 
 
 "Working with Hands." Doubleday, Page & Co., 
 1904. A splendid story of the Tuskegee Institute 
 and a powerful argument for industrial education. 
 
 "Character Building." Doubleday, Page & Co., 
 1903. 
 
 Chapel Talks by B. T. Washington at Tuskegee 
 Institute. 
 
 The Y. P. M. M., New York, has published a set of seven 
 vwlumes on the Negro question, price $5. This set includes the 
 volumes marked with a star, and "Daybreak in the Dark Con 
 tinent," by Naylor. 
 
Fundamental Religious Principles 
 in Browning s Poetry 
 
 BY 
 W. D. WEATHERFORD, Ph. D. 
 
 "Dr. Weatherford has done an excellent piece of 
 work in putting the main thought of this great 
 Christian poet on the chief verities of our religion 
 within the popular reach. It is tersely put, very 
 much to the point, well substantiated by abundant 
 quotations." Zion Herald, Boston. 
 
 "Dr. Weatherford has made a serious study of 
 his [Browning s] works, has gathered up his views 
 on the great fundamentals, has arranged them in 
 systematic order, and put them in plain and lucid 
 prose." Christian Observer, Louisville, Ky. 
 
 "The book is more than readable, it is interest 
 ing. It is more than interesting, it is instructive. 
 We heartily commend it." Christian Advocate, 
 Raleigh, N, C. 
 
 "Browning with his deep insight interpreted 
 nature, man, life, God, Christ. Mr. Weatherford 
 has interpreted Browning s interpretation. The 
 result is" a fresh and vital statement of the reality 
 and personality of God, the divine-human and 
 human-divine of Christ, and an elucidation of the 
 problem of evil, which, itself out of the ordinary, 
 affords relief and comfort of no ordinary sort." 
 Dr. Gross Alexander, in Methodist Review, Nash 
 ville, Tenn. 
 
 isrno. 153 Pages, with Foreword by Gross Alexander, S. T. D. 
 Price $1.00 
 
 SMITH & LAMAR 
 
 Nashville, Tenn. Dallas, Texas. 
 
 or 
 Y. M. C. A. Press, 124 East a8th St., New York City 
 
 184 
 
College Problems 
 
 A STUDY OF RELIGIOUS ACTIVITIES AMONG 
 COLLEGE MEN 
 
 Series i, 2, and 3, being the official publications of 
 the Summer School of the Southern Student Secre 
 taries of the Young Men s Christian Associations 
 for the last three years. 
 
 Each series contains twelve to fifteen carefully 
 prepared papers on various phases of Student Asso 
 ciation work, e.g.: 
 
 The Honor System in College 
 
 Relation of Association Bible Study to Curriculum 
 
 Work 
 
 Religious Meetings of the Association 
 The Student Secretaryship as a life calling, etc., 
 etc. 
 
 Papers prepared by College Professors and Stu 
 dent Secretaries of the Young Men s Christian Asso 
 ciations. 
 
 Wide awake, up-to-date, practical gathering up 
 the experience of the foremost religious workers 
 among college men. Contains just the facts that 
 every officer and committeeman should have. 
 
 Price 25 cents per copy for each series 
 ADDRESS 
 
 W. H. MORGAN 
 1513 Hayes St., Nashville, Tenn., 
 
 or 
 
 Y. M. C. A. Press, 124 East aSth St., New York City 
 185 
 
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