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FORWARD MISSION STUDY COURSES

EDITED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE

YOUNG people's MISSIONARY MOVEMENT OF THE

UNITED STATES AND CANADA

THE UPWAED PATH: THE EVOLUTION OF A EACE

Leader's general helps to accompany each text-book in the

Forward Mission Study Courses and special denominational helps

may be obtained by corresponding with the secretary of your

mission board or society.

SLOW THEOUGH 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 Lawrence Buribar

'* Aunt Gilly "

She Las lived to the af?e of eishty-six honored and respected by all who know her, and greatly l)eloved by her nurslings

THE UPWARD PATH: is

THE EVOLUTION OF A RACE ' "

BY

MARY HELM

s^^

NEW YOEK

YOUNG people's MISSIONARY MOVEMENT OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA

1909

Copyright, 1909, by

Young People's Missionary Movement OP THE United States and Canada

^0

MY FAITHFUL OLD NURSE

"AUNT GILLY^' THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED

WITH TENDER LOVE AND GRATEFUL MEMORIES

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

Introduction xiii

Preface xvii

Editorial Note xxi

I In the African Jungle 1

II American Slavery 31

III First Years of Freedom 65

IV Industrial and Economic Progress 105

V Social Conditions 143

VI Educational Opportunities 185

VII Eeligious Development 219

VIII The Next Step : Need and Supply 267

Appendixes

Appendix A Hymn 301

Appendix B Negro Melodies 302

Appendix C Bibliography 308

Appendix D Main and Minor Geographic Divisions

of Continental United States 315

Appendix E Proportion of Negro to Total Popu- lation 316

Appendix F Negro Population and Per Cent of

Total Population 317

Appendix G Distribution of Negro Population, . . . 318

Appendix H Negro Population for Physiographic

Divisions 319

Appendix I Sexes and Ages of Negro Population

by States and Territories 320

Appendix J Negro Population for 55 Counties

Having at Least 75 Per Cent 322

Appendix K Per Cent of Illiterate in Negro Pop- ulation at Least 10 Years of Age. . 323

Appendix L Negro Population at Least 10 Years of Age Engaged in Specific Occu- pations 324

Index 325

ILLUSTRATIONS

' ' Aunt Gilly " Frontispiece

West Africa Village Page 11

Typical Group of West Africa Natives '' 11

Witch-Doctor *' 19

Slave Cabins, Lawrenceville, Virginia " 47

Slave Cabins, *' The Hermitage/' Savannah,

Georgia ' ^ 47

Abraham Lincoln ' ' 81

Cotton Mill, Greensboro, South Carolina '' 95

Cotton Field, Georgia ' ' 95

General O. O. Howard ' ' 99

Class in Domestic Science ' ^ 103

Electrical Engineering " 103

St. Paul Normal and Industrial School, Law-

renceville, Virginia ^' 121

Farmers' Conference, Lawrence ville, Virginia.. ^' 121 Two Houses Owned by a Negro, in One of

Which He Lives, Charleston, West Virginia " 147

Negro Cabin *' 147

J. W. E. Bowen, President Gammon Theological

Seminary '^ 163

Booker T. Washington, President Tuskegee Nor- mal and Industrial Institute " 163

'* Stonewall ' ' Jackson " 173

Walter B. Hill, Ex-Chancellor University of

Georgia '' 173

Napier Public School, Nashville, Tennessee .... ' ' 193 Jubilee Hall, Fisk University, Nashville, Ten- nessee ' ' 193

St. Mark 's Industrial School, Birmingham, Ala- bama " 197

XI

xu

Illustrations

Graduating Classes, Meharry Medical College,

Nashville, Tennessee Page 197

Emory Halls for Boys, Tuskegee, Alabama. ... '* 205

Parker Cottage for Girls, Tuskegee, Alabama.. '' 205

Typical Group of Students ' ' 213

Physical Laboratory " 213

W. T. Vernon, Eegister of the Treasury '* 241

James S. Eussell, Archdeacon for Work Among

Negroes in Southern Virginia *' 241

W. S. Scarborough, President Wilberforce Uni- versity i ' ' 241

St. Athanasius' Protestant Episcopal Church,

Brunswick, Georgia " 251

First Baptist Church, Eichmond, Virginia '' 251

Jubilee Club, St. Paul Normal and Industrial

School, Lawrenceville, Virginia " 275

Students, Bishop Payne Divinity School, Peters- burg, Virginia ' ' 275

Women's Bible Training Class, Howe Institute,

Memphis, Tennessee ' ' 281

St. Mark's Chapel, Wilson, North Carolina '' 281

INTRODUCTION

The longest distance ever traveled by a race in just three hundred years was from Jungle in Africa to Highway in American civilization. The American Negro has made that journey. Whatever remains un- attained and difficult, whatever the remain- ing gap from the front rank as races stand at the opening of the twentieth century, that fact is unchallengeable, that distinc- tion for the Negro is secure.

It has been a peculiar pilgrimage, the strangest in the annals of history. It can scarcely be reckoned a pilgrimage as we are used to speak of other great human move- ments outward and upward. Stage by stage from tribal slavery in Africa, to com- mercial bondage in the slave-ships, to the feudal serfdom of the South, and then to sudden emancipation, and then to a daz- zling day of citizenship in a republic, the Negro came, always thrust on by forces he did not originate and over which he had no control.

xiv Introduction

The author of this book has keenly dis- cerned the significance of this important fact at the outset in the statement that * ' the Negro in America has through a new environment escaped many retarding con- ditions and has passed with unnatural ra- pidity through processes of evolution.''

One may question if the three hundred years of such swift and unanticipated changes, and so marked by dramatic pres- sures, does not place the Negro's progress outside the category of evolution entirely. Environment is the word that explains what we see, and providence is the only word that indicates the inscrutable forces at work back of it all.

To some sympathetic students the fact that the Negro's progress has come to him so largely without his own initiative has not been regarded as a hopeful feature of his history. This is, however, to be said. Although no driving impulse of discontent or aspiration from within sent him upon his remarkable adventure of progress, yet at each pause of the advance the Negro race has shown an inward capacity for grasping the gain tenaciously. So if the race may not be accredited with pioneering

Introduction xv

power, the power of response to advantage and the passion for holding on to it may suggest a compensation for the apparent absence of initiative capacity.

Those who read, and especially those who study, this book will not miss the one truth above all others to be kept clear by American Christians — ^namely, that the presence of ten million Negroes in this country is not primarily a Southern prob- lem nor even a national problem which puts our political institutions to the test. It is profoundly a missionary problem, and it puts our Christianity to the test. It is the Christian's gospel that is in the crucible.

Speaking as a Southern man, I have never dared to risk a Christianity or a faith of Christianity as trustworthy for myself or mine which doubted the efficiency of Christ for all the difficulties that have discouraged the philosophers in relation to the Negro.

The Christian " not only confronts sin and claims that it can be destroyed, and stands before sorrow and claims that it can be transfigured, he stands amid the misunderstandings of men, amid the per-

xvi Introduction

versions in the purposed order of life, the ugly twists that have been given to fellow- ship which were ordained to be beautiful and true, and he proclaims their possible rectification in Christ,' '

To the end that we all stand at this angle of outlook, '* and, having done all, to stand, '^ may this book go forth.

John E. White.

Atlanta, Georgia.

PREFACE

Many great interests with their problems have been presented in the study courses of the Young People's Missionary Move- ment, but none have exceeded in its impor- tance to the nation the subject presented in this volume — the American Negro; yet the very naming of this subject makes ap- parent the difficulty of its presentation and of securing an impartial investigation by those who read. The author has endeav- ored to give a true history of the Negro's past, his progress and present condition, ** without fear or favor '' telling of his successes and failures ; and now asks that the reader — North and South, white and black — ^will lift the bandage of prejudice from the eyes, unstop the ears closed by sectional animosity, and eliminate from the heart race bitterness, that the book may be dispassionately studied. Thus only can

xviii Preface

the subject be viewed aright, past misun- derstandings be corrected, and present con- ditions realized, in order to prepare for a future of vital importance to both races.

There is no more need of sentimentality and no more room for injustice in the study of this subject than in that of any other. There will be need possibly to face squarely some views, different from those accepted in the past; there will be need to forget some things that have been told of the past, and to remember some things that Christ says which there is danger of our forget- ting, ere wise, righteous judgment can be exercised in dealing with the present need of the race that has dwelt for centuries like a native alien, ^ ' a stranger within our gates. ' ^

The Negro has been a valuable asset of the nation, yet a bone of contention, to the hurt of the nation. It is time for this un- christian contention to cease, it is time for the whole nation to unite in securing the good of its whole population — every part

Preface xix

for its own sake, every part in its relation to the whole. It is with this desire and purpose that the author has written this book and now presents it with the prayer that its simple, direct narrative may be blessed of God to the nation, and the Negro race that forms an integral part of the nation.

Maky Helm.

Helm Place,

Elisabethtown, Kentucky, June 1, 1909.

EDITORIAL NOTE

Thkough the courtesy of the Council of Women for Home Missions, Miss Mary Helm, the author, and the Fleming H. Eevell Company, publishers. The Upward Path is placed before the public. The orig- inal text-book, written by the same author under the title of From Darkness to Light, has been revised to meet the needs of an- other class of students. The Upward Path contains eight chapters under new titles, but the changes and additions are not suf- ficiently extensive to distinguish it from the book. From Darkness to Light, except in form and illustrations.

IN THE AFRICAN JUNGLE

The African is Nature's spoiled child. Throughout much of his continent she is lavishly kind to him. She feeds him almost without the asking. She clothes him with tropical sunshine. If his necessity or his vanity calls for more covering, she furnishes it — again with no excess of labor on his part — from leaf or bark or skin. Everything that has to do with the primitive demands of his physical well-being is, as it were, ready at his hand. Intellectually, he is untrammelled by tradition or practice. He has kept himself free from educational entanglements. No a b c's, no puzzling multiplication tables, no grammatical rules, no toiling over copybooks, harass his brain. . . .

Aside from his wives and children, a man's house- hold may include slaves. His wives not only may be his slaves, but all of his female slaves may be his con- cubines. , . . The freedom of a slave is not greatly restricted and it is possible for him to accumulate prop- erty of his own. But the utter disregard for human life in Pagan Africa makes the slave wholly dependent upon his master ^s caprice for his very existence. Punish- ment, as a matter of course, may be meted out to him at the slightest provocation. . . .

African Paganism or Fetichism is a religion of dark- ness. Its prayers are petitions for mercy and impreca- tions upon enemies, rather than praise and thanksgiving. Its gods are malignant. Love for them is unknown. Hope, in the Christian sense, an anchor to the soul both sure and steadfast, is foreign to pagan thought. The African conceives himself as beset behind and before, above and below, by innumerable ill-tempered spirits, all, with one accord, consciously and constantly attempt- ing to frustrate his endeavors, and all seeking his in- jury and death. He thinks that deceased relatives covet his company in *' Deadland,'' and for some time after death lurk about their old haunts with snares of dis- ease and violence. — Wilson S. Naylor

IN THE AFRICAN JUNGLE

THEEE are three great questions that Three Questions claim attention, when considering the life and destiny of a man or a race: '' Whence comes he? '' '' What is he? '' ^* Whither goes he? '' The first calls for a record of facts that mnst be set down truly and in proper sequence, with rela- tion to that which is past and that which is to follow. It involves heredity, and his natural traits and tendencies; his ability to progress toward a higher state of devel- opment ; his power to form a new environ- ment, or properly to use the one in which circumstances have placed him. The second question deals with his present status, and sets in array the conditions that form and surround his life to-day, growing out of his use or abuse of those of yesterday — his achievements and his failures. The third is speculative, since the answer must be found in the future; yet it may be safely based on the character

3

4 The Upward Path

and trend of the life that has been. No man's to-morrow is an entirely new crea- tion, but a result of many yesterdays. The past, present, and future of a race present successive but continuous steps in its evo- lution.

uw of Progress The Universal law of evolution, that of progressive development from the lower condition to the higher, has made no excep- tion of human life, and the history of man reveals his origin as very low in the scale of civilization. The Negro race, like other members of the human family, began in a condition of savagery. Owing to many contributing depressive causes, the large mass of the race in its native African jungle remains in its primitive state. The Negro in America has, through a new en- vironment, escaped many retarding condi- tions, and has passed with unnatural rapidity through processes of evolution that have left the race as a whole far be- hind. This does not mean that he has lost race identity, but that race progress is possible.

origin^NlceMwy ^^ile it is the Negro in America we are to study, we cannot understand our subject without knowing something of his origin

In the African Jungle 5

and ancestry in Ms native land, that we may understand the hereditary traits, and even beliefs, that influence the race as it is with us to-day in America.

The prehistoric Negro is supposed to JIJ^**J"*^came have entered Africa from the northeast in a dwarfish type and using only the rudest stone implements. The big black Negro type developed in the Nile basin and spread due west. These two types were, so far as we know, the exclusive human inhabitants of the whole of Africa south of the Sahara Desert down to four hundred years ago, with the excep- tion of Arab and Persian colonies, or the east coast seekers of gold, and those Galla herdsmen who invaded equatorial Africa and brought with them the first elements of Caucasian civilization to the black man.

The northern coast of Africa belonged J®j;JJ?g^J to the white man with some admixture of the black. The eastern side became the domain of the mixed race which may be called the Ethiopian. Below the line of 18 degrees north latitude, right across Africa, the Negro country was almost entirely closed to intercourse

6 The Upward Path

with the Caucasian. There they dwelt five hundred years ago in a condition of absolute brutishness. Effect^of^EaHy Modcm Africa may be said to have Conquest \)qqj^ rodiscovored by the Portuguese five hundred years ago. Then came the Spaniards, followed by the Dutch, the British, and the French. All sought by conquest to gain dominion, power, and gold; all warred with each other; and all made captives of or destroyed the na- tives, whose low race status made them subservient to the dominant Caucasian without imbibing or developing any of the racial traits of their conquerors, save in a rude imitation of their cus- toms and habits, often the worst. This seeming adoption disappeared when the outside compulsion was removed, because their distinctive racial characteristics were antagonistic to those of the white race* Individuals may be permanently affected by environment, but race hered- ity is found in the mass. Negro Race The NcsTro raco had and has many

Subdivisions ^ ^ ^ ^ •'

subdivisions, nations, and tribes, differ- ing as greatly from each other as the nations that go to make up the Cau-

In the African Jungle 7

casian race. We are versed in the char- acteristics that differentiate the peoples of Europe and their representatives coming to this land. We do not always consider this in dealing with the Negro subject, and do not realize how com- plicated is the study.

Dowd in his valuable work, The Negro oowd'sPive Races: A Sociological Study, while using the word Negro as ** a general term to include more or less black skin and woolly hair,'' makes five subdivisions of the Negro type: ** First, the Negritos, in- cluding the dwarf races of the equatorial region, the Bushmen of the Kalahari desert, and the Hottentots of the south- ern steppe. . . .

** Second, the Nigritians, including all of the natives with dark skin and woolly hair occupying the territory of the Sudan. ...

** Third, the Fellatahs, a race supposed to have sprung from crossings of the Ber- bers of the desert with the Nigritians of the Sudan.

^' Fourth, the Bantus, . . . occupying almost all of West Africa below the Sudan. . . .

8 The Upward Path

** Fifth, the Gallas, including all of the

lighter-colored people of East Africa

from the Galla country to the Zambezi

Eiver."!

Tribal These five divisions he subdivides into

Differences and . , .

Resemblances many tribcs, havmg marked differences in their political, social, and industrial conditions and habits, and in their reli- gious beliefs, or rather superstitions. In all, however, there are fundamental re- semblances. In all are to be found polygamy, slavery, witchcraft and their resultant evils.

charactwrsSS ^^' Smythc, minister from the United States to Liberia and a native-born African, says that he had knowledge of two hundred tribes on the west coast alone, and describes them as more un- like in their characteristics than French and Germans. This difference is mani- fested in color, features, intelligence, and possibility for acquiring the arts of civil- ization.

Ne o^ThiefT ^^^ Negroes in the United States came Fantus Originally, to a large degree, from the western coast — the Bantus. Among them ^-V were representatives of many tribes, and

1 The Negro Races, xi, xii.

In the African Jungle 9

the differences that existed in Africa are still to be noted in their descendants by those who study them closely.

Notwithstanding the efforts to gain a a study o; west foothold in Africa by the nations men- tioned, at the beginning of the nineteenth century the continent of Africa was prac- tically unknown to Europe, save the fringes of it. Possibly the best study of conditions of the native African can be made on the west coast, where there was originally the least contact and inter- mixture with the white race, and yet later a larger knowledge of them by the whites. Much that follows will have special reference to those on the west coast.

While there was and is a marked dif- Fundamental

Rflce Traits

ference between the great divisions of the African race, both in physical appear- ance and in many characteristics, and we find as varied customs and manner of life as there are tribes, yet there are funda- mental traits belonging to the race that can be seen in all. There are different types, to a large extent due to the modify- ing effects of climate and contact with other peoples, but as there is a color-line

10 The Upward Path

^' between the Negro or black race '' and the white Caucasian, or yellow Mongolian, so there are mental race traits that make as clear a demarcation between these great races and differentiate them to an even greater degree. The pigment nnder the Negro's skin and his kinky hair do not constipate the chief difference between him and the straight-haired white man. Emotional, Under some conditions the Negro may Imaginative bc Warlike and fierce, under others he may be gentle and indolent; but he is always emotional and lacking in self-restraint, easily excited either to anger or laughter. Impulsive, illogical, he is easily influenced by that which appeals to his feelings, good or bad. His physical senses are acute and dominate his being even where there is knowledge of moral laws that should re- * strain the appetites or desires aroused by them. The desire to possess what pleases the eye or taste leads to theft. He is imag- inative without being inventive, and is therefore a romancist rather than an in- ventor, and this power makes him an inim- itable story-teller, or a liar that stops at no exaggeration. He is a child of nature, but has more

West Africa Village

			1		'■^ »*:^^^^^^^^B
fc	=9V:	If^	X.^^^'-s,^'" ■■■■■. ^
%	•i^	^	ll	.	J.. ^ M
HBW'^'tk		-~2
^^1	1""	g^r^ ;

Typical Group of West Africa Natives

In the African Jungle 11

fear of than love for his mother. He does outj'^d'show, not look with pleasure upon the broad pKrl***"^^ landscape, but studies minutely the animal and vegetable life around him, and pos- sesses himself of nature's secrets, not with any innate love of science, but for his per- sonal gratification. His mind is objective, and his life is a day-by-day existence that left to itself takes no forward step, and generation after generation remains the same. His vanity and love of show and ostentation is inordinate, at times ludi- crous in its physical expression, and ren- ders him sensitive to any lack of apprecia- tion. He is an optimist that has no care for the morrow and its needs; this may make him lazy or improvident, or give him absolute faith in the providence of God if he becomes a Christian. He loves fun and frolic, dancing and music, and this last tendency becomes the favorite expression of his emotions and has a marked race .-character.

It is impossible to give in detail the chSacti^Mics traits and characteristics of a race or peo- ^^" ^^ ^""^^ pie that will seem altogether correct, be- cause of the many individual exceptions, class modifications, and local surroundings.

12 The Upward Path

But there are a few traits so marked that they cannot avoid observation and which adhere to the subconscious life of the race as a tendency that finds expression as varied as the circumstances surrounding the individual, and may result in a surpris- ing reversion to type. Little A king or chief in western Africa has

Government or ^ n , c* i t ' i

Forms of Justice httlc power beyoud that oi declaring and waging war, deciding palavers according to the unwritten law of custom, and in- flicting the punishment due. He has no rights over the property of others nor powers of taxation. There are no higher state forms as in civilized lands. There ^r ( is no judicial system. Eules are handed ( down as tradition, by word of mouth.

Capital punishment is executed by the ac- cuser in various modes, formerly by burn- ing, torturing, and amputation by piece- meal. Blood atonement is everywhere practised, and it is a duty devolving upon the blood relatives. ^^Each family is held responsible for the misdeeds of its mem- bers. However unworthy a man may be, his people are to stand by him, defend him, and even claim as right his acts, however unjust. He may demand their help, how-

^

In the African Jungle 13

ever guilty he may be."^ A stranger is c^ r'oC-y entertained hospitably, and must be pro- tected by the village as long as he is their guest, even though he be a criminal.

Negroes themselves originated the slav- slavery ery of one another. Before the slave-trade brought to the outside world a larger knowledge of them, they held one another in bondage, as they do to-day. Slaves are the spoils of war, or reprisals for personal \ - injuries; they are used to pay debts, even <'

to the extent of the debtor giving his own wife and children. The character of slav- ery varies in different sections from ex- treme mildness to great severity, but everywhere is of the lowest grade in morals. Labor is intermittent, and the slaves, like their masters, are lazy and thriftless. They are used, however, in hunting and fishing and as soldiers, espe- cially in the slave-stealing raids on other tribes.

While tribal life is strong, family life no Family ufe scarcely exists as we regard it. There is no gathering around the table or the hearthstone; *^ naked children snatch a

1 Nassau, FeticMsm in West Africa, 4. This feeling in the Ameri- can Negro to-day renders it difficult to detect crime and punish criminals.

14 The Upward Path

handful of food and lie down to eat and sleep like little cubs.'' If the family gather together at all it is under the com- mand of the man to work for him as slaves.

DegraS'Snd "^^ womau is a hard-worked slave from Non=morai q^^Ij moming Until late at night. In the field with her baby strapped on her back, carrying heavy loads supported by ropes across her forehead, cooking for her hus- band, then watching him eat up every crumb, leaving her hungry. " She is bought and sold, married and turned off, without regard to her preference, and when left a widow is inherited like other property by some man of her husband's family, perhaps his son. . . . Her virtue is held of no account. She has no innocent childhood, motherhood is desecrated, and when she wraps vileness about herself as her habitual garment, it is encouraged. ' ' ^

Kongo Women ^ reccut Writer in a missionary magazine says, '* Kongo women are on a low plane. As children we can teach them to read and write, but when grown up it seems a hope- less task to teach them anything. They have no desire to rise higher mentally. They have very little thought, practically

1 Pacsons, Christus Liberator, 71.

In the African Jungle 15

no forethouglit. . . . But savage though a girl be, she gives a good deal of atten- tion to dress, . . . even though it be only beads and a few leaves, and sometimes no leaves. . . . She has no consciousness of sin, and therefore no fear of the future. . . . Morally they are little better if any than the beasts of the forest. . . . The wrong is far more in being found out than in doing, . . . Stealing is general. . . . Lying and cheating are so usual that to lie is easier to many than to speak the truth. . . . Purity of life is particularly un- known. ' '

Polygamy was and is practised every- ^^l^my where among native, unevangelized Afri- cans. The only limit to the number of wives is the man's inability to buy. The number of wives a man has increases the respect and honor in which he is held, since it indicates his wealth. Young girls are sold in infancy, yes, sometimes before their birth, to polygamous husbands who can take them while yet children into the intolerable life of the kraal — a life too brut- ish to bear description. Marriage being a commercial or animal affair there is no romance connected with it. A suitor does

16 The Upward Path

not say, ^^ I love this girl," but ** I want her, ' ' and pays her price. A woman is al- ways treated as property, first by her parents, then by her husband. '^ Chas- tity among unmarried, or even betrothed, women is not at all valued or insisted upon. . . . The universal understanding of adultery among the people is that of an offense with reference to married women only — ^not against chastity, but prop- erty."^ Relation of The iustiuct of mothcrhood belongs to

Mother to . t t « . ^ , , a p •

Children all auimal life. With the heathen Airican mother, generally speaking, it is of short duration. It is limited to the period when the child is dependent upon her for nour- ishment. ^* If it falls she picks it up; if it cries she rocks it in her arms to make it hush [or slings it on her back and goes to work] ; it is prevented from falling into the fire or into the stream, but no affection or solicitude inspires the care of it. . . . As soon as it can walk it receives no further care. . . . When it reaches the age of seven or eight it is put to work, some- times before that time. From the tenth

1 Dowd, The Negro Races, 135, 136. The girl is regarded as the property of her father and it is for that reason she has her value.

In the African Jungle 17

year the discipline becomes more severe and lashes rain upon it if it commits a fault, or fails to do its part of the work. His good and bad instincts are developed at haphazard. . . . We have lived sev- eral years in their midst and have never seen a mother embrace a child. ' ' ^

The affection of fathers for their chil- pJhJj fS?' "**" dren is naturally weaker and less enduring than that of the mothers. The love of chil- dren for their parents is also short-lived, lasting only during the time when they are physically dependent upon them. Old or sick parents are often abandoned without food or care.

The West Africans have a vague helief |g';^'^^^j|fjfy in a Supreme Being which has grown dim- | mer and dimmer with passing generations. - This Being, however, had nothing to do with the practical life. He was not even an object of worship. Their real religion was (and is) spirit worship, or rather the fear of evil spirits. *^ The Negro fancies the world is full of enemies, corporeal and spiritual, and is daily tortured with sus- picions and superstitious fear. Every un- usual place or object harbors a spirit pre-

iFoa, Le Dahomy, 111, 113, 194.

18 The Upward Path

snmably hostile. He sees in every person who has anything to gain by his death or misfortune an enemy who is trying, by means of charms, incantations, or witch- craft to work him harm. ' *^ Thus the Negro spends his lifetime in bondage. FearrfEvn << They believe the spirits of the dead can return and wreak vengeance upon their enemies, or cause the death of those they wish to have with them. With this belief wives and slaves are to-day often sacrificed on the grave of a chief that they may attend him. They believe also that evil spirits make their abode in dangerous animals and in natural objects that have some unusual size or appearance, and make propitiatory offerings and prayers to them." andWitehS It is the office of the chief to pray to the tribal and local spirits for the protection of his people, but it is the medicine-man who is the powerful personage with the spirits. To him the people go when ill or unlucky, and he performs incantations and dances, while drums are beaten and women sing weird songs. This goes on all night, and sometimes for three or four nights.

1 Parsons, A Life for Africa^ 299.

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}^^? .- ^^

WiTCH-DoCTOR

In the African Jungle 19

Belief in witchcraft is one of the last to be undermined, and its power is both ter- rible and relentless.

The witch-doctor is regarded with great ij^jj^f j^ct^r respect and unbounded fear. '' He can not only deal out herbs but can foretell the future; he can change a thing into some- thing else, or a man into a lower animal or a tree or anything; he can also assume such transformations himself at will.''^ Very frequently he is regarded as inspired, or possessed by a familiar spirit through whose aid he makes his invocations and incantations and falls into cataleptic trances or ' * Delphic rages. ' '

Fetichism like witchcraft was and is a Fetichism fearful and deep-rooted power among African tribes. Fear is the motive of the fetich worshiper, though its outward ex- pression in objects and rites may and does vary greatly in different localities and tribes. ** In the heathen Negro's soul the fetich takes the place, and has the regard which an idol has with the Hindu and the Chinese." A fetich, strictly speaking, is little else than a charm or amulet worn, about the person, or set up at some con-

1 Menzies, History of Beligiorij 73.

20 The Upward Path

venient place to prevent evil or to secure good.^ Sacrifice j^ pj^e of stoHCS placcd at the foot of a tree or a leaf thrown into the water may do away with some lurking evil; an offer- ing of food may appease a malignant spirit. A great evil expected calls for a blood sacrifice, usually a domestic fowl or animal, though in some places there are human sacrifices to propitiate malignant forces for the safety of the tribe. Sacri- fices are often made to appease the dis- pleased spirits of exacting grandfathers and other dead. Prayer Prayer does not play much part in this worship. Their first purpose is to attract the attention of the spirit by loud calls, and the requests are generally for good luck in hunting, fishing, and other pursuits. Generally what might be called prayer is the utterance of cabalistic words or sen- tences supposed to be a charm against bad luck and their chief element is a pitiful deprecation of evil — there is no praise, no love, no thanks, no confession of sin. What is a Fetich? ^ fetich is any material object conse- crated by the oganga, or magic doctor,

^Nassau, FeticMsm in West Africa^ 81.

In the African Jungle 21

with a variety of ceremonies and proc- esses, by which some spirit becomes local- ized in that object, and subject to the will of the possessor. Anything that can be conveniently carried on the person may thus be consecrated — a stone, chip, rag, string, or bead. Articles most frequently used are snail-shells, nut-shells, and small horns. Its value depends, not on itself, but on the skill of the oganga in dealing with spirits.

In preparing a fetich the oganga selects p^J^^^^^^^^ substances such as he deems appropriate to the end in view — the ashes of certain ' medicinal plants, pieces of calcined bones, gums, spices, and even filth, portions of organs of animals, especially human beings (eyes, brain, heart, gall-blad- der), particularly of ancestors or men of renown, or enemies. Human eyeballs, par- ticularly of a white person, are a great prize, and new-made graves have been rifled for them. They are compounded in secret, with the accompaniment of drums, dancing, invocations, and other perform- ances, and are stuffed into the hollow of the shell or bone, or smeared over the stick or stone. If it be desired to obtain power

22 The Upward Path

over some one else, there must be given to the oganga by the applicant, to be mixed in the compound, either crumbs from the food, or clippings of finger-nails or hair, or (most powerful!) even a drop of blood of the person over whom influence is sought. These represent the life or body of that person. ' ' So fearful are natives of power being thus obtained over them, that they have their hair cut only by a friend; and even then they carefully burn it or cast it into a river. If one accidentally cuts himself, he stamps out what blood has dropped on the ground, or cuts out from wood the part saturated with blood. . . . The water with which a lover's body (male or female) is washed is used in making a philter to be mingled secretly in the drink of the loved one. . . . For every human passion or desire of every part of our nature, for our thousand necessities or wishes, a fetich can be made, its operation being directed to the attain- ment of one specified wish, and limited in power only by the possible existence of some more powerful antagonizing spirit. ' ' ^ «white^Art" There may be said to be two entirely

«• 3iack Art "

1 Nassau, Fetichism in West Africa, 83, 85.

In the African Jungle 23

different kinds of fetichism. Dr. Nassau uses the two terms * * white art ' ' and ' ' black art.'' The former has been described above, and, as seen, its main purpose is to protect from evil spirits and to use them in preventing sickness and securing ^^ good luck.'' ** Black art " consists of evil practices pursued to cause sickness or death. The Negro justifies the former and practises it openly. The practitioner of the black art denies it and carries on his practices secretly. All over Africa such a thing as death from natural causes is not thought to exist ; it is always the result of witchcraft, and the witch-doctor decides who is the guilty party. Any person ac- cused is immediately put to death with his whole family. " To bewitch any one it is sufficient to spread medicine on his path or in his hut. There are also numerous other modes of working charms ; for instance, if you want to cause an enemy to die, you make a clay figure that is supposed to rep- resent him. With a needle you pierce the figure, and your enemy the first time he comes in contact with a foe, will be speared." The witch-doctor is able to produce sickness or death whenever he

24 The Upward Path

pleases, and he can produce or stop rain and many other things. Hence these wiz- ards are greatly feared. When once con- vinced that he has been bewitched, the vic- tim cannot have that belief shaken by rea- son or argument, and can only be assured of recovery when stronger countercharms are used or the witch has been killed. "Wttchcraft There is a society (not distinctly organ- ized) that may be called the ^' Witchcraft Company." It has its meetings at which they plot for the causing of sickness, or the taking of life. These meetings are secret ; preferably in a forest or at least distant from a village. The hour is midnight. An imitation of the hoot of an owl, which is their sacred bird, is their signal call. They profess to leave their corporeal body lying asleep in their huts, and claim that the part which joins in the meeting is their spiritual body, whose movements are not hindered by walls or other physical ob- jects. ^^ They can pass with instant rapid- ity through the air, over the tree-tops. At their meetings they have visible, audible, and tangible communication with evil spirits. They partake of feasts; the arti- cle eaten being the * heart-life ' of some

In the African Jungle 25

human being, who, in consequence of this loss of his * heart * becomes sick and will die, unless it be restored. The early cock- crowing is a warning to disperse . . . should the sun rise upon them before they reach their corporeal ' home,' their plans will fail, and themselves sicken ... or if Cayenne pepper should have been rubbed over their home body before their return, they will be unable to re-enter it, and will die or miserably waste away.''^

^^ In emerging from his heathenism and p"t^JJ'"^ "®''* °' abandoning his fetichism for the accept- superstition ance of Christianity, no part of the process is more difficult to the African Negro than the entire laying aside of superstitious practices, even after his assertion that they do not express his religious belief. From being a thief he can grow up an honest man; from being a liar, he can be- come truthful ; from being indolent, he can become diligent; from being a polygamist, he can become a monogamist; from a status of ignorance and brutality, he can develop into educated courtesy. And yet in his secret thought, while he would not wear a fetich, he believes in its power, and

1 Nassau, FeticMsm in West Africa, 123.

26 The Upward Path

dreads its influence if possibly it should be directed against himself. ' ' ^ sgperstitwns a rpj^^ slaves exported from Africa to West Indies ^^^ "West ludics brought with them some of the seeds of African plants held by them as sacred to fetich in their native land. They established on those plantations the fetich-doctor, their dance, their charm, their lore, before they had learned English at all. And when the British mission- aries came among them with church and school, while many of the converts were sincere, there were those of the doctor class who, like Simon Magus, entered into the Church fold for the sake of gain by the white man's influence, the white man's Holy Spirit. Outwardly everything was serene and Christian. Within was work- ing an element of diabolism or fetichism, there known by the name of oheah^ under whose leaven some of the churches were wrecked. And the same diabolism, known as voodoo worship in the Negro communi- ties of the southern United States, has emasculated the spiritual life of many pro- fessed Christians.'' 2 And alas! we must accept the truth that ** inbred beliefs, deep-

1 Nassau, FeticMsm in West Africa, 101.

2 Ibid., 125, 126.

In the African Jungle 27

ened by thousands of years of practice, are , not eliminated by even a century of foreign \^ teaching. Costume and fashion of dress are easily and voluntarily changed ; not so the essence of one's being."

This evil religion came with the Negro gjougw^ftis slave to America, and unmistakable traces aSSS '** of it can be found to-day among the ignor- ant masses. ** To overcome the inertia of ages, engendered in much of the continent [of Africa] by favoring soil and climate, and to displace the thirst for blood and for iJ^-Y gold with a desire for peace and industry, requires rare patience and ability of a high order. How much greater is the demand- made upon the spiritual nature, when one must create ideas of holiness and virtue by a stainless life before there can be any de- sire for better living ! ' ' ^ This is the task that devolves upon those who seek to evangelize the African savage, and that was laid upon those who sought to evan- gelize that same savage when transplanted to America.

The Africa of the eighteenth century is {f^l^^^^^ the Africa of to-day, except where Chris- Christianity tianity has lifted up the Christ at a ter-

1 Beach, GeograpTty and Atlas of Protestant Missions, 458.

28 The Upward Path

rible cost of life and a vast expenditure of money. It is a tremendous task that has had its chief hindrance in the white man's rum and greed of gold which has further besotted the race. The fierce cannibal is not bettered when he is made a drunken idiot. The missionary has found among the poor, ignorant savages some noble re- sponses to the gospel's call. The Sun g£ Eighteousness is shining in many places in the Dark Continent, and in the kingdom of God many will rise up and bless Moffat, Livingstone, Taylor, and many others. The best work of these has not been in making Caucasian Christians of them, but noble Christian Negroes, in whom the highest of which they were capable has wonderfully responded to the Christ, and by His help and grace triumphed over the lowest of which human life was capable.

SUGGESTIONS FOR USING THE QUESTIONS

It is a mistake to assume that the questions at the end of the chapters can be used by any leader, because every list of questions must keep in mind the local con- ditions, and the ability of the class. These questions are not exhaustive, only suggestive, and should be used with discretion by every one leading the course of study.

Ill the African Jungle 29

The leader can easily add memory questions and others that will bear fruitful discussion, adapting all to the aim of each session. Questions marked * should prove helpful in more extended discussion.

SUGGESTED QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER II

1A.IM: To Understand Thoroughly the Conditions THAT Obtained Among the Slaves and the Prog- ress THEY MADE

1. When were the first slaves landed in America? 2.* What was the real motive for importing Ne- groes to America?

3. Name the countries most interested in this traffic.

4. Describe some of the horrors of the slave-trade. 5.* Imagine and describe the condition of the mind

of an African when he first landed on American soil.

6. What States made the first movement toward abolition?

7. When and in what country was the slave-trade first abolished:?

8. What were the natural causes that segregated the slaves in the South?

American Slavery 63

9.* Why was it necessary to place the Negroes un der restraint when they first landed in America?

10. What proportion of the Negroes were enslaved and what proportion of the Southern whites owned slaves?

11. What were the principal occupations of tho slaves?

12. Why was it not advantageous to an owner to neglect the care of his slaves?

13.* Why is it not just to assume that all owners or overseers treated the Negroes cruelly?

14. What was the responsibility of an owner to his slaves?

15. Name some of the regulations as to labor, moral and physical conditions, under which slaves were held.

16. Why were these necessary?

17. What were the duties of some of the most im- portant servants ?

18. What benefits did the Negroes acquire in slav- ery?

19.* Name some of the difficulties that surrounded the civilization of the Negroes.

20. Name some of the difficulties in the way of evangelizing the slaves among the white people.

21. What were the obstacles among the slaves that made their evangelization difficult?

22.* How do you account for the success of mission- ary work among the slaves?

64 The Upward Path

Eefebences for Further Study. — Chapter II

American Slavery.'^

Merriam: The Negro and the Nation, XII. Page, In Ole Virginia, 1-77. Page: The Negro: The Southerner's Problem, I.

Price : The Negro, lY, VI, VII. Pyrnelle: Diddie, Dumps and Tot, I-XVIL* Shannon: Racial Integrity, III. Sinclair: The Aftermath of Slavery, I. Washington: Up From Slavery, I, II. Washington: Frederick Douglass, 1, II, III. Whipple: Negro Neighbors, I. Williams: History of the Negro Eace, XXX, XXXI.

* In these references the view-point of Negroes, Southerners and Northerners, is given. Students may select whichever they prefer. However, as a rule, it will be wise to have all sides presented.

FIRST YEARS OF FREEDOM

As to actual behavior of the Negroes, under this sud- den and tremendous change of condition, certain facts were noted; not a single act of vengeance was charged against them; a great part, probably the large majority, remained or soon went back to work for their old em- ployers; but a considerable part began an aimless roam- ing to enjoy their new liberty, or huddle around the stations where the agents of the Freedmen's Bureau doled out some relief.

— George S. Merriam

The white people of the South were harassed by press- ing necessities, and most of them in a troubled and greatly excited state of mind. The emancipation of the slaves had destroyed the traditional labor system upon which they had depended.

—Carl ScJiurz

The Southern people, blacks and whites, were in a position of almost unexampled difficulty. To the rav- ages of war and invasion, of impoverishment and be- reavement— and, as it fell out, to two successive sea- sons of disastrous weather for crops, — ^was added at the outset a complete disarrangement of the principal sup- ply of labor. The mental overturning was as great as the material. To the Negroes *' freedom " brought a vague promise of life without toil or trouble. The hard facts soon undeceived them.

' — George S. Merriam .

in

FIRST YEARS OF FREEDOM

ONCE again the American Negro, with- Another step out his volition or personal effort, was subjected to a radical change in his condition and forced to take another step in the onward movement of his racial life. It was a change as bewildering and at- tended with as much suffering as that which brought him out from the African jungle into American slavery. This time he was to pass over a sea, not of water but of blood, into a land of strange responsi- bilities. Like a babe cradled on a battle- field, amid the sounds of a strife in which he had no part, the Negro first breathed the priceless air of liberty and seized un- thinkingly upon its unearned privileges, nor counted its cost. As his feet entered the path leading onward and upward to a still further process in his evolution, he found that that which his past life gave him was to prove his best preparation for the demands of his present, and the hard les-

68 The Upward Path.

sons still to be learned were to be the * * growing pains " of a life that meant the real achievement that is wrought out from within. The inner processes of racial evo- lution cannot be ignored, though they may be hindered or accelerated from without. Demand^for Tlio Negro laborer in the South sang or sighed at his work, and partook of human joy and sorrow all unconscious of the forces that were working out his destiny. "While the invention of the cotton-gin, car- peting the South with that great staple for which the commerce of the world waited, increased the value of his labor and fas- tened his bonds more surely, there was a growing demand among the nations for universal freedom. Strange to say, from the Mother Country, which had forced slavery upon her Southern colonies, came the first cry for its abolishment, and the cry was caught up in those Northern States that, having rid themselves of the oppor- tunity to bestow freedom on the Negro, now demanded that others be more generous in loosing his bonds. The underlying forces worked mightily, and a great upheaval ap- proached. While the antislavery sentiment was

First Years of Freedom 69

growing in the North, the proslavery senti- sen^St ment was growing in the South. The aboli- tionist became fiercely uncompromising, and in his burning enthusiasm for the free- dom of the Negro represented the white slave-owner as little better than an agent of the devil, and his professions of Chris- tianity as almost blasphemous hypocrisy. An intelligent Christian gentleman stated recently that in home, school, and church he was taught that it was impossible to be both a Christian and a slave-owner, and that he hated the whole South until he grew old enough to think and see for him- self.

The activities of the abolitionists in I^StimSt arousing prejudice against the South in the nation and in the world were bitterly resented, and when they extended to ef- forts to incite the slaves to insurrection, the Southern man blazed with fury and heaped anathemas upon all Yankees. An aboli- tionist meant to him a ^ * canting fanatic ' ' who would steal, burn, and even murder white people to carry out his mistaken ideas of good for the black man.

That which began in recriminations be- aJoi^'°" came open curses and violent demonstra-

70 The Upward Path

tions of hatred. Philanthropy entered upon the political arena, and sectional politicians fonght out the battle in the national capi- tol. Brilliant intellect, intrepid courage, intense conviction, bitter prejudice, all combined to make the conflict amazing. The giants of the nation on both sides of the line were engaged in it. On one side the slogan was *' State Eights,'' on the other ** Federal Power." Great constitu- tional questions were thus involved and their establishment became the supreme effort of the statesmen of the country, as each conceived them. But underneath it all was the question and fate of the institu- tion of slavery. A National It would be uscloss to rocouut here the

Tragedy

different steps of this political contest. It would be a long story to tell ** How the battle was lost and won." Nor is it need- ful to rewrite the '^ oft-told tale " of the Civil War which out of political antago- nism burst like a fearful storm over our devoted land. Hand to hand, foot to foot, brother against brother, we fought our fight to a finish. The world has never known such a war. Brave hearts on each side recognized the true soldier on the

First Years of Freedom 71

other, and when the end came, that final scene on the field of Appomattox is typical of the feelings of those who on both sides fought for what they deemed the right. The intrepid, great-souled Lee, accepting defeat, rendered np his sword with calm dignity to the conqueror. With true mag- nanimity, Grant, the invincible warrior, re- turned that sword with courteous words of refusal to claim such evidence of his tri- umph, (xod help us! What untold suffer- ing and shame would have been spared our country if that spirit had prevailed in the councils of the nation in the years that fol- lowed ! It is an acknowledged fact that Negro p® Negro the

^ ^ Greatest Sufferer

slavery was made the cause of the war, yet whatever of wrong was wrought, or agony suffered, the Negro was an innocent cause, and in the immediate results the greater sufferer. After forty years one can look back and see how for his sake ignorance, hate, prejudice, and greed united in caus- ing that great national tragedy, and later on the still more bitter suffering to the South of the Reconstruction Period. But, alas! none can ever calculate the loss en- tailed upon him by the way his freedom

72 The Upward Path

came to him. Nor has he yet been relieved of the destructive, degenerating influence brought to bear upon him when, like a child beginning to walk, he looked for some one to lead him and was recklessly pushed into a ditch and left to extricate himself. When he needed bread he was given a stone which, when he had thrown it, re- bounded against himself. When he needed a light to keep his feet from straying, he was taught to look at the sun until his eyes were dazzled and he lost his way. "^^NeSo -^^ ^^ hardly in place to introduce here a broad discussion of the matter, yet it would not be just to the Negro to remain silent in regard to some of the facts of this period of his history that redound to his praise, and others that plunged him into so many difficulties, political, industrial, and social, and retarded all missionary effort in his behalf.

Writers and speakers, both white and black, have recorded these things in worthy tributes to both races, and it seems well to repeat some of them here as the best pres- entation of the subject to present-day readers.

Thomas Nelson Page says : * * It is to the

First Years of Freedom 73

eternal credit of the whites and of the Ne- pagJ^xiSiSSiy groes that during the four years of war, when the white men of the South were ab- sent in the field, they could entrust their homes, their wives, their children, all they possessed, to the care and guardianship of their slaves with absolute confidence in their fidelity. An this trust was never violated. ... Of the thousands who went as servants with their masters to the war I never heard of one who deserted to the North, and many had abundant opportu- nity."^

' ' They raised the crops that fed the Confederate army, and suffered without complaint the privations which came alike to white and black. " 2

This is a tribute to both races, inasmuch Both Ra«s. as it shows that mutual love and kindness helped to keep the bondsman true to his master.

Booker T. Washington says on this sub- wSnJton's ject: " The self-control which the Negro '^"'""^"^ exhibited during the war marks, it seems to me, one of the most important chapters in the history of the race. Notwithstand- ing he knew his master was away from

1 Page, The Negro: The Southerner's Problem, 188.

2 Ibid., 22.

74 The Upward Path

home fighting a battle which, if successful, would result in his continued enslavement, yet he worked faithfully for the support of the master's family. K the Negro had yielded to the temptation and suggestion to use the torch or dagger in an attempt to destroy his master's property or family, the result would have been that the war would have been quickly ended; for the master would have returned from the bat- tle-field to protect and defend his property and family. But the Negro to the last was faithful to the trust that had been thrust upon him, and during the four years of war there is not a single instance recorded where he attempted in any way to outrage the family or to injure his master's prop- erty. ' ' ^ Re^SSfctlo"!! The same writer says of the Eeconstruc- period |- Q^ Period : ^ ^ At the close of the war both the white man and the Negro found them- selves in the midst of poverty. The ex- master returned from the war to find his slave property gone, his farms and other industries in a state of collapse, and the whole industrial or economic system upon which he had depended for years entirely

1 Washington, The Future of the American Negro, 8, 9.

First Years of Freedom 75

disorganized. . . . The weak point, to my mind, in the reconstruction era, was that no strong force was brought to bear in the direction of preparing the Negro to be- come an intelligent, reliable citizen and voter. The main effort seems to have been in the direction of controlling his vote for the time being, regardless of future inter- ests.

' ' I hardly believe that any race of people uSfrepared for with similar preparation and similar sur- p|riod^*''"^"°" roundings would have acted more wisely or very differently from the way the Negro acted during this period of reconstruction. Without experience, without preparation, and in most cases without ordinary intelli- gence, he was encouraged to leave the field and shop and enter politics. That under such circumstances he should have made mistakes is very natural. I do not believe that the Negro was so much at fault for en- tering so largely into politics and for the mistakes that were made in too many cases, as were the unscrupulous white leaders who got the Negro's confidence and con- trolled his vote to further their own ends, regardless of the permanent weKare of the Negro. ...

76 The Upward Path

Sympathy ^^ ^^ ^^^ unf ortuiiate that the Southern ^^^Mhiu MeS white man did not make more of an effort

at this time to s-et the confidence and svm-

• I— ' »

pathy of the Xegro, and thus keep him in close tonch and sympathy in politics. It was also unfortunate that the Xegro was so comjDletely alienated from the Southern white man. I think it would have been bet- ter for all concerned if, immediately after the close of the war, an educational and property qualification for the exercise of the franchise had been ]3rescribed that would have applied fairly and squarely to both races, and also if, in educating the Negro, greater stress had been put on train- ing him along the lines of industry for which his services were in the greatest de- mand in the South. ... I believe this period serves to point out many weak points in our effort to elevate the Xegro, and that we are now taking advantage of the mistakes that were made. . . . What is needed is to apply these lessons bravely and honestly in laying the foundation upon which the Xegro can stand in the future and make himself a useful, honorable, and desirable citizen. ' ' ^

1 Washington, The Future of the American NegrOj 10-15.

First Years of Freedom 77

Of the Eeconstruction Period Mr. Page o^FJfeiSshfp at says: ^' When the war closed the friend- cioseofwar ship between the races was never stronger; the relations were never more closely welded. Each recognized and appreciated the good in the other. " The majority of the slaves heard of their freedom first from their own masters. . . . The joy with which the slaves hailed emancipation did not relax the bonds of affection be- tween them and their former masters and owners. There was, of course, much dis- organization and no little misunderstand- ing. The whites, defeated and broken, but unquelled and undismayed, were un- speakably sore; the Negroes, suddenly freed and facing an unknown condition, were naturally in a state of excitement. But the transition was accomiDlished with- out an outbreak or an outrage ... or even few incidents of ill temper on either side. This was reserved for a later time when a new poison had been instilled into the Negro's mind and had begun to work. ...

* ^ For years after the war many of the SS^JSi Fields older Negroes, men and women, remained the faithful guardians of the white women

78 The Upward Path

and children of their dead masters' fam- ilies. . . . The first pressing necessity in the Sonth was to secure the means of liv- ing, for in sections where the armies had been the country was swept clean and in all sections the entire labor system was dis- organized. ... In most instances the old masters informed their servants that their homes were open to them, and if they were willing to remain and work, they would do all in their power to help them. But to re- main, in the first radiant holiday of free- dom, was, perhaps, more than could be ex- pected of human nature, and most of the blacks went off for a while, though later a large number of them returned. In a little while the country was filled with an army of occupation. The Negro, moved by curi- osity, the novelty, and mainly by the love of the rations which the government imme- diately began to distribute, not unnaturally flocked to the posts of the local garrison, leaving the fields unworked and the crops to go to destruction. ' ' ^ Anticipationt'of Thcsc uuworked lands were declared Negroes n abandoned lands,'' and in some places they were given by government officials to

1 Page, The 'Negro: TTie Southerner's ProUem, 28-30, 188, 192.

First Years of Freedom 79

the Negroes who retained possession of them. The idea became widespread that the government intended to divide the land of the whites among the Negroes and the belief became current that every Negro was to receive ^' forty acres and a mule."

The antagonism felt by the white people ^f^^^ toward each other, North and South, mani- fested itself in their different opinions in regard to existing conditions in the South and how they should be met. The North believed the Negro was, or might be made, the actual equal of the white. The South held that he was not ; and that, suddenly re- leased from slavery, he must, to prevent his becoming a menace and a burden, be controlled and compelled to work. In their warring efforts almost every possible mis- take was made by North and South, white and black.

The Freedmen's Bureau came into the ^''^^^^^'^ South with almost unlimited authority, backed by the United States army and treasury. ^' It made laws, executed them, and interpreted them; it laid and collected taxes; defined and punished crime; main- tained and used military force; and dic- tated such measures as it thought neces-

80 The Upward Path

sary and proper for the accomplishment of its varied ends. " ^ Its chief purpose, in fact only purpose, was to care for the f reed- man and advance his interests, and to that end all its legislative, judicial, and execu- tive powers were exercised, usually with- out regard to the interests of the white population. Through its influence the Union League was formed among the Ne- groes—an organization whose inflammatory teaching consolidated the Negro race against the white and whose bitter fruit still survives.

Carpetbagger and Then camo the postbellum politicians- Scalawag -

*^ carpetbagger '' and " scalawag "^ — who made the Negroes the instruments by which they enriched themselves. Their oppor- tunity was the Fifteenth Amendment— now generally acknowledged North and South a national blunder— which enfranchised a great mass of ignorant blacks and disfran- chised the most intelligent and conservative class of whites; their power was the Fed- eral army. DisaJtroSs '^^^ eight ycars following, known as the Years Eecoustructiou Period, possibly cost the

1 " Tiie Negro Common School," Atlantic Monthly, March, 1901.

2 The "carpetbagger" came from the North, the "scalawag" ■was a mean Southern white man.

Copyright, Gilbo & Co.

Abraham Lincoln

First Years of Freedom 81

South more than the four years of war cost her.^ When these eight years of Ne- gro domination under carpetbag leaders had passed, the public indebtedness of the Southern States had increased about four- fold. "While the property values in all the States had shrunk, in those which were un- der Negro rule they had fallen to less than half what they had been when the South entered upon that period. The South does not hold that the Negro race was pri- marily responsible for this travesty of gov- ernment. Few reasonable men now charge the Negroes at large with more than ig- norance and an invincible faculty for being * ^ worked on. ' ' But the consequences were not the less disastrous.

^^ The injury to the whites was not the m^JS? only injury caused by the reconstruction system. To the Negro, the object of its bounty, it was no less a calamity. He was taught that the white man (Southern) was his enemy, when he should have been taught to cultivate his friendship. He was told he was the equal of the white man, when he was not ; that he was the ward of the nation, when he should have been trained to seif-

1 Page, The Negro: The Southerner's Fro'blem, 45.

i07<?S'^

82 The Upward Path

reliance; that the government would sus- tain him, when he could not be sustained. In legislation he was taught thieving; in politics to slavishly follow his leaders; in private life he was taught insolence. . . . To these teachings may be traced most of the misfortunes of the Negro race, and in- deed of the whole South since the war. ' ' ^

Lincoln's It is but just to Say that throughout the North there was a large element who fa- vored Lincoln's plan of reconstruction,^ which, if his foul assassination had not pre- vented, he would have carried out, and thereby added a still greater luster to his name in securing a complete restoration of the Union without destroying a part of it.

so^Jrjje Among those who came South as officers in the army there were some who — true soldiers — came in obedience to orders, but with no desire to injure the South in obey- ing those orders. They honestly and ear- nestly sought to do their duty by all, white and black. The difficulties and perplexities surrounding them were great, not the least

1 Page, The Negro: The Southerner's Prohlem, 47, 48.

2 Lincoln's plan would have restored the seceded States to their former status in the Union under the Constitution. In *:he plan adopted by congress, those States were regarded as a conquered province, and military occupation was deemed necessary to quell any possible attempt at revolution.

First Years of Freedom 83

being that their presence was resented by the whites, their sympathy was imposed npon by the blacks, and any attempt to deal justly between them excited suspicion of their loyalty. These sometimes received undeserved retaliation from the whites for the misdeeds of others which they had not endorsed.

It must also be said that while the wisest shuttie*co?k and best men of the South counseled con- servative action, there were many whose losses and wrongs stung them to reckless resistance. Attempts at coercive legisla- tion and private efforts to retrieve the situ- ation proved alike their impotence and their bitterness. Mistakes and errors seemed the order of the day on both sides, and the Negro was the shuttlecock between their battledores— now tossed high in the air, now struck down to the ground. He was too ignorant to rule, yet he deserved a citizen's rights. The wonder is that he should have come out of this political strife as well as he did.

The process used in making the recently ReSyforFuii emancipated freedman into a citizen re- c»"zenship versed all natural order and logical se- quence. It was like demanding foliage,

84 The Upward Path

flower, and fruit of a newly planted root, in expecting results before causes were set in motion to produce them. Looking back over the forty years that have passed, we might in the light of the present laugh over those '' first days " as a farce, if it were not that its tragedy makes us weep. ignorance^m ^ Qur clvilizatiou fiuds uot ouly its unit in the home, but its character is based upon it. Our form of government to be success- ful requires, though it does not always find, intelligence in the people from whom its power emanates, statesmanship in its legis- lators, integrity in its executive officers, and a pure judiciary. Ere the Negro could make a home and learn to fulfil the duties of a free husband and father, before he had time to gain the rudiments of an education, while he was yet ignorant of the Constitu- tion (except the Thirteenth Amendment) and the existing laws of the nation and the state, he had forced upon him, not only the right to vote, but was himself placed in high official position in municipal and state governments, where he must make laws and administer them, where he must pre- side over the courts and render judicial decisions. And this power was to be exer-

First Years of Freedom 85

cised not over himself alone, but over a race accustomed to self-government and to governing their new rulers.

For eight years a number of Southern Ne^o^coStroi states were partly, and three of them were wholly, given up to Negro control. The Negro was invested with absolute power and turned loose, with the strength of the Federal army back of him, always to be exercised in his favor and against the pro- testing white man. ^ * What was the result 1 Such a riot of folly and extravagance, such a travesty of justice, such a mummery of government as was never before wit- nessed.'* Governor Chamberlain, of South Carolina, though representing the policy and authority of the North, declared: * ' The civilization of the Puritan and Cavalier, of the Eound Head and the Huguenot, is in peril."

A condition such as is described could p?odSce*d** have been made possible only (1) by his ^^°^"'°"* numbers and the disfranchisement of al- most the entire Southern white voters; (2) the bitter political partizanship that sought to punish the South and use the Negro as a whip, and allowed unprincipled men to use that whip to gorge themselves with the re-

86 The Upward Path

suits of his frand and thievery; and (3) the Army of Occupation.^ Franchise a That the Negro, so handicapped by his

iYlistaKe ...

own ignorance and these demoralizing in- fluences, would prove an undesirable, even dangerous ruling element, was a foregone conclusion, and, as time has passed, has served to emphasize the mistake of those who added the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution so soon after emancipa- tion. The general opinion of dispassionate men, even many of those who had a part in it, has come to regard it as untimely. The most intelligent leaders of the Negro race now coincide with this view. The fran- chise might well have waited for his own sake until the freedman had acquired the knowledge to use it creditably to himself. Negro Rule The Carpetbag politicians disappeared with the Army of Occupation and the Freedmen^s Bureau, and then Negro rule crumbled. But, alas! the Negro had to stay and bear the burden of the mistakes of all these, and to become the subjective and objective victim of the race hatred they had engendered. It did not take long for the white race to regain the supremacy

1 A term applied to the Federal forces stationed in the South at that time.

First Years of Freedom 87

to which they claimed the right and to re- organize the whole system of state gov- ernment.

That drastic, illegal measures were nsed "m^fi^^*"®* in many instances to secure this is an un- disputed fact. For this, explanation was given in the oft-repeated terse proverbs, *^ Necessity knows no law," and ^^ Self- preservation is the first law of life." The general feeling was expressed in the state- ment, ^' This is war, not politics," and af- ter-history shows that they recognized the true situation. This is borne out by the re- markably frank articles by Carl Schurz, recently published in McClure's Magazine under the captions of '' First Days of Ee- construction, " and ** The Repudiation of Johnson 's Policy. ' '

Later, many of the states held conven- ~g?gj„^^.g^ tions that adopted new Constitutions which by their educational qualifications virtu- ally disfranchised the great mass of Negro voters who were illiterate. If this has proved an incentive to education among the blacks it has given them an advantage over the illiterate white of the exempt class who are left without such incentive.

Dr. G. Stanley Hall in his pamphlet.

88 The Upward Path

Dr. Q. Stanley < < The Negro in Africa and America, ' ^ says : *' After the war the majority at the North continued the policy of giving the Negro the ballot, which Lincoln disapproved and which had been persistently refused him in many Northern states. It was given, if not as a penalizing measure to those lately in rebellion, at least as a weapon to safe- guard the freedom of these new wards of the nation. Then followed the eight years beginning with 1867, so tragic for the South, involving enormous waste and con- fusion, an indebtedness equaling the entire cost of the war plus the value of the slaves as property, negroizing more or less one third of the States of the Union until they seemed to be on the downward path toward conditions like those of Hayti, San Do- mingo, or Porto Eico. Negroes Arrayed < < Whatever allcsriance and friendship

Against Old ^ ^

Masters ^j^^ Ncgrocs had felt for their old masters was transferred to their new Northern al- lies. For myself, as abolitionist both by conviction and descent, I wish to confess my error of opinion in those days; and I be- lieve that all candid minds who, in Kelly Miller's trenchant phrase, study rather than discuss the problem, and are not too

First Years of Freedom 89

old to learn, are ready to confess mistakes. Even the Freedmen's Bureau helped to make the colored man at the South feel de- pendent upon the North rather than upon his own efforts. Much as the New South has done to outgrow these evils, perhaps the worst effect of all these years is now seen in the fact that Southern Negroes are a solidified party arrayed against their old masters on all questions, and cannot divide freely among themselves even on local and economic problems, or follow their old in- terests, but the party and color line still coincide. ' '

All that has been said has related to the Affected whoie political rather than the industrial, social, ^'^^ °* ^®^^^ and religious aspects of the freedman's condition. Yet slow indeed would we be in noting cause and effect in the moral world, if we failed to see how the facts stated affected the whole life of the Negro in the nation.

Let be said against slavery what may be oclnse^and^^"* said, it at least taught industrial habits and H'^"®^^ obedience to law, and prohibited many of the grosser vices. With its restraints taken away, every form of vice became rampant. Drunkenness, gambling, stealing, lying, and

90 The Upward Path

sensuality foiind opportunity and encour- agement never known before. To the ma- jority freedom meant license and idleness. Work of any kind was regarded as an ex- pression of slavery. warDegroyed rj^-j^Q Ncgrocs had either shared the Privileges Qi^^iirch privilcgcs of the white people, or had them provided by the whites. They now suffered the same deprivation of those privileges that the white people did when the reckless hand of war destroyed the churches, or turned them into barracks or hospitals; or when the pastor or mission- ary became the chaplain or soldier. In some places where the federal forces had not entered, the plantation missions were kept up during the war, and the Negro preacher continued his exhortations and Christian mistresses their ministrations. But gradually the whole land lay van- quished and desolate, and white and black suffered alike for a while in the loss of the ordinary religious ministry. The poverty of the white people made it scarcely possi- ble now to support churches for themselves, and all missionary work was necessarily suspended, and this was at the very time when the Negro 's temptation was greatest

First Years of Freedom 91

to break away from all religious restraints and indulge in sinful excesses.

The older Christians among the Negroes sw""? Awlf °^^ saw and deplored the fact that, while they ^^ ^'" held fast to their Christian profession, the younger and less established in the ways of righteousness were being swept away in the current of sin. As one old mother ex- pressed it: ** My chilluns is a-breakin' my heart while dey's doin' dey best to kill dey own souls. Dey won't listen to me, nor to Brer' Sam'ul, and when I ax ole Miss' ter talk ter um lak what she uster, dey won't listen ter her nuther, and ole Marster he can't do nothing nuther. Me an ole Miss' we des prays for um, kaze dat 's all we kin do."

To these faithful ones, white and black, xhwSfe'd^"*''*" who sought in every way to stay the mad rush of the weaker element into destruc- tion, belongs the praise of preserving that which was best to the race through this time of trial and temptation. *' To them shall be given a crown of life." In line with the work formerly done among their own slaves, Sunday-schools were opened in many places by devout men and women, evangelistic services were held when pos-

92 The Upward Path

sible, and efforts were made to induce the Negroes to attend. But as the days went by and distrust and insolence grew among the younger Negroes, these efforts were unavailing. Strange to say, sometimes they were objected to by some Southern white people, who also had come in turn to feel bitter resentment and distrust to- ward the Negroes.

and grieve over it to understand the condi- tion of the poor black people during the first period following the war. Those who did, though suffering with and from them, can scarcely restrain their tears to-day when the memory of it rises before them. They have by virtue of these memories a better understanding of come of the things of to-day than have those. North and South, who did not see this part of the Ne- - gro ^s history, and know what was in his past. ^Reronsibiur Cared for in every respect as slaves, guided in their work, provided with all the necessaries of life, nursed in sickness, pro- tected from labor and hardships in child- hood and age, how could the Negroes, in a moment, as it were, know as freedmen how

First Years of Freedom 93

to do all these things for themselves 1 The land was filled with wandering vagrants, who either would not work, or who fol- lowed those who refused to do so. Family ties were sundered by them, either from in- ditference or necessity, far widely and more frequently than during the days of slavery.

They had no home, and often their only SUTIorro^w*'"^** shelter was a crude shed, while frequently they lay in the open field, weary iDilgrims seeking they knew not what. Clothing grew so ragged as scarcely to cover the nakedness of their emaciated bodies; dis- ease unattended to, with no money for physician or medicine, carried off thou- sands, especially children and delicate women reared as house servants. Deluded with impossible promises, they hoped for wealth as a part of freedom. Their disap- pointment was practically expressed by one who said: ^* I thought when I got free I'd hev a big white house an' do lak Missus did. I'd hev a fine silk dress a-trailin' on de carpet, all trimmed up wid lace, an' er mahogamy table, a-shinin' wid silver. But freedom ain't meant nuffin ter me yit but sickness an 'hunger an'sorrer, an'instid of

94 The Upward Path

■workin' my main bizness has been a-burrin of my dead." Necessity Drove The ontcome of their baseless hopes at

to Work ^ ^

the time was temporary pauperism for the mass, but there were many who did not '' lose their heads/' but went steadily on working for wages, or '* on shares," and by their industry, honesty, and thrift se- cured a competency and retained the re- spect of the white people. Their number constantly increased as the first wild ex- citement wore off and necessity drove back to work some who had been vagrants, ^'shongg^in Jt (iid not help either of these classes to see the worst men of their race becoming the great men set up in the high places and clothed with political and judicial power, * * spreading like a green bay tree. ' ' It was an unsafe object-lesson that taught many that *^ dishonesty is its own reward;" while of those poor tools of the *^ carpet- bag " politician it might well have been said, ' ' Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad." ^^%'w^ The war-desolated South is thus de- scribed by Carl Schurz: ^^ My travels in the South in the summer and fall of 1865 took me over the track of Sherman's march.

First Years of Freedom 95

.... It looked for many miles a broad, black streak of ruin and desolation — fences gone, lonesome smokestacks surrounded by dark heaps of ashes and cinders, marking the spot where human habitations had stood, the fields along the road wildly over- grown by weeds, with here and there a sickly looking patch of cotton or com, cul- tivated by Negro squatters. Even those regions which had been touched but little or not at all by military operations were laboring under dire distress. . . . Con- federate money had become worthless. Only a few individuals of more or less wealth had been fortunate enough to save, and keep throughout the war, small hoards of gold and silver. . . . The people may be said to have been without a ' circulating medium ' to serve in the ordinary transac- tions of business. . . . United States money could not be had for anything; it could only be obtained by selling something for it in the shape of goods or of labor. . . . They had of course very little to sell . . . and needed all their laboring capacity to provide for the wants of the next day. ... ** The whole agricultural labor system

96 The Upward Path

^^'lliindsmi ^as turned upside down. Many of the Ne- groes, especially in the neighborhood of towns or of Federal encampments, very naturally yielded to the temptation of test- ing and enjoying their freedom by walking away from the plantations to frolic. . . . In various parts of the South the highways and byways were alive with * foot-loose ' colored people. . . . They stayed away from the plantations just when their labor was most needed to secure the crops of the season, and those crops were more than ordinarily needed to save the population from continued want and misery. Violent efforts were made by white men to drive the straggling Negroes back to the planta- tions by force, and reports of bloody out- rages inflicted upon colored people came from many quarters. . . . The total over- turning of the whole labor system of a country accomplished suddenly without preparation or general transition, is a tre- mendous revolution, a terrible wrench, well apt to confuse men's minds. ... It was indeed an appalling situation, looking in many respects almost hopeless. ' ' ^ Southern People From this dcscriptiou it is a patent fact

Financially ^ ,. ,, v,, , ,,

Embarrassed ^ Schurz, " First Days of Reconstruction," McClure's Magazine,

May, 1908.

First Years of Freedom 97

that the Sonthern people were powerless to aid in a financial way the poverty-stricken black population. Other circumstances as completely hindered them from aiding them in other ways.

Into this rupture of the whole life of the ^oeScltlr^sk^ land, involving the poverty and suffering of both races, came the first missionaries from the North to ^ ^ seek and to save ^ ' the Negro. Theirs was a delicate task, and the way to its accomplishment was one that an angel might well hesitate to tread. Some of them were wise as well as godly, and were a blessing to the Negroes in their Christlike work, and good results attended their labors. To these men and women all praise be given. ^^ Many shall rise up in that day and call them blessed.'' The pity is that these wise, understanding ones were not the type of all, and the pity is still greater that the prejudice aroused by the unwise should have extended to them also, and that even yet many of the Southern people do not discriminate between the two classes. That justice may be done to both sides, some explanations are needed of this painful state of feeling and its unfortunate results.

98 The Upward Path

Existing Many of these teachers had been bitterly

Conditions '' •'

Misunderstood prejudiced against the exslave-owners by inflammatory literature and addresses of agitators and by the pitiful exaggerations of fugitive slaves, and verily they would have thought they did God's service if they might have punished the ^^ oppressors " still more severely. They had no appreci- ative knowledge of the race traits or the characteristics of the Negro. They did not realize his primitive condition nor the long hard process of evangelizing and civilizing him, therefore they could not know how much had been accomplished for him by the Southern white people. They thought of the Negro as a Caucasian with a black skin who had been robbed of his possessed rights and brutally treated, and all his ig- norance and sin and misery were laid at the door of the white man. Taking no ac- count of the recent terrible cataclysm through which both races had passed, they failed to recognize existing conditions as in part, at least, resulting from it. Unwise Teaching Sad to Say, thcy transmitted these ideas

Aroused '' ^ •^

Animosity |q their pupils, young and old, in the school and in the cabin, and the tares of distrust and resentment (not purposely, it is hoped) were sown along with the good seed of the

General O. O. Howard

First Years of Freedom 99

/

Gospel and the primer. These tares bore dangerous fruit in the lives and manners of the impressionable Negroes, and the white people learned from them in various unpleasant ways (possibly much exagger- ated) what the missionary and teacher were saying, and they took bitter offense at such instruction. Especially was this re- sentment felt by the Southern women. Their land was battle-scarred, its desolate fields were filled with the unsodded graves of their dead, they had endured untold hardships during the war, and now poverty and its unaccustomed labor pressed upon many of them. They were boiling with in- dignation under the double rule of the army and the Negro; they were fearfully conscious of the danger that lurked at every window and door; and now it was intolerable to have those with whom they had once lived in affectionate intercourse, and upon whom as the only servant class they were still dependent, so turned against them that their presence in the home was offensive even when it could be secured.^ Was it a wonder under the circum- ^°^*J2J

1 In some instances they saw their ancestral homes and lucra- Ostracized tive plantations confiscated and used for Negro schools, or sold for their maintenance. (See report of Gen. Howard for 1869; also Atlanta University Publications, No. 6, pp. 22, 29.) This did not tend to good feeling.

100 The Upward Path

stances that the strangers were regarded as '^ political emissaries '' (in a certain sense regarded as the anarchist is to-day), rather than as Christian missionaries I Was it wonderful that the far-famed ^ ' Southern hospitality " was not extended and the Northern teacher felt herself, as she was, socially ostracized? Some Mistakes Theso first missiouaries saw the worst of

Unavoidable p i t^t

the worst state of the Negro, and the good was overshadowed by it so that there seemed no good at all or else the good was deified. Their ignorance was felt by the South to be almost unpardonable, for it caused them to misunderstand and there- fore to misrepresent causes and conditions. The truth was exaggerated, when it was bad enough, by their writing of the worst and picturing that as typical of all, and by the narration of distressing incidents as the ordinary experience. These fearful re- ports sent back to the North aroused there a perfect fever of sympathy for the Negro, and in many cases a greater dislike for the Southern white man. Enthusiasm ran high, and all kinds of effort were put forth in behalf of the slaves. Zeal quickened into action, and without waiting for the prepa-

First Years of Freedom 101

ration of knowledge, large numbers of en- thusiastic men and women were '' thrust forth into the harvest. *' Money from the plethoric purses of the North was poured into the poverty-stricken South for the education of the Negro. Under such con- ditions it was impossible that mistakes should not have been made, serious mis- takes, as to the character of educative work to be done and the methods best suited to the Negro race and to its present needs and future development.^

Thanks be to God, there was also much \f^^^^ good wrought, and by his overruling provi- ^^^^^ dence he has made even some of these mis- takes to work to his glory by providing val- uable lessons by which better service may be rendered in the future. Not the least of these lessons is the larger knowledge of the character of the race, its needs and pos- sibilities. This has brought disappoint- ment to some and encouragement to others. ^' The Negro has been found to be neither an angel nor a devil, simply a man. ' ' The halo of the saint and martyr has been lifted from his head. Underneath his foibles and

1 This is not written with any desire to emphasize missionary mistakes. These have occurred in the beginning of all missionary enterprises and have served as stepping-stones to better things.

102 The Upward Path

weakness the kindly heart has been found. When intellect has seemed to be lacking, deep spiritual perception has been discov- ered, and when the classics ^ ' didn 't fit, ' ' the hand has been made skilful. How to ^' live the common life of daily task " nobly and honestly has been found to be a lesson often needed and gained when circumstances for- bade the halls of learning. 'chJiS -^^ ^^^ hard that while hii white friends Leader|hipjhe -^Q^e learning how to help him, the Negro should suffer from their mistakes, but slow- ly, ploddingly, by that help and the pres- sure of his own needs, he is emerging from the chaotic condition of the freedman into responsible citizenship. The greatest force in his uplift has and will come from the trained intelligence of the Christian men and women of his own race. Comparatively few, it may be, have shared in this task as yet, but that few are proving a leaven that ** will leaven the whole lump."

Ci^ss IX ro2.rE5Tic Science

ELx-lTRICAL il^XGI--

First Tears of Freedom 103

SUGGESTED QUESTIONS OX CHAPTEE m

Aim: To Uxdeestaxd the Eppect or tez Fibst Tzazs OF Frffdqm Upon the Xzgbozs

1. What was the sentiment in the Northern and Southern States in regard to the abolition of slavery f

2. How were the early abolitionists treated in the Xorth? Give examples.

3. What relation did slavery have to the declara- tion of war?

4. "Why does the Negro deserve credit for his con- duct dnring the Civil War?

5.* Was the Negro prepared for the duties of com- plete citizenship!

6. Name some of the false anticipations that de- luded the Negroes.

7. Name some of the causes of the changed finan- cial and industrial conditions in the South after the Civil War.

8. Describe fully the work of the Freedmen's Bureau.

9. What is the difference between a " carpet- bagger " and a " scalawag ''?

10.* Name some of the mistakes that were made by both the North and the South during the Ee- construction Period.

11. In what ways was the Negro a sufTerer physi- cally and morally during the Beconstruction Period f

12.* How did the period especially effect the relig- ious life of the Negro f

13. What mistakes were made by sonie mission- aries from the North?

14.* How may we profit in our religious work by the mistakes of the past?

104 The Upward Path

Eeferences for Further Study. — Chapter III The First Years of Freedom.

Avary : Dixie After the War, XII-XV, XVII.

DuBois: The Souls of the Black Folk, II.

Merriam: The Negro and the Nation, XYI,

XXVII.

Page: The Negro: The Southerner's Problem,

II.

Price: The Negro, VIII, IX.

Sinclair: The Aftermath of Slavery, II.

Thomas: The American Negro, 44-47.

Washington: Frederick Douglas, III.

INDUSTRIAL AND ECONOMIC PROGRESS

Gloucester County is the tide-water section of eastern Virginia. According to the census of 1890, Gloucester County contained a total population of 12,832, a little over one half being colored. . . . According to the pub- lic records, the total assessed value of the land in Glou- cester County is $666,132. Of the total value of the land, the colored people own $87,953. The buildings in the country have an assessed valuation of $466,127. The colored people pay taxes upon $79,387 of this amount. To state it differently, the Negroes of Gloucester County, beginning about forty years ago in poverty, have reached the point where they now own and pay taxes upon one-sixth of the real estate in this county. The property is very largely in the shape of small farms, varying in size from ten to one hundred acres. A large proportion of the farms contain about ten acres.

— Boolcer T. Washington

Looking back through the American history of the Negroes and considering the vicissitudes of their life, the hardships some of them have endured and the re- sultant condition, their faithfulness in captivity, their peacefulness for two hundred years, their evolution from complete ignorance, their rapid adoption of the white man's methods, and their amiable life as a people, the fair-minded and unprejudiced student must accord them a high place among the laboring populations of tte earth. As a race they have done well. As a race they are do- ing well. As a race they do produce criminals, ^ does our own; so does every race under the sun.

— Harry Stillwell Edwards

IV

INDUSTRIAL AND ECONOMIC PROGRESS

A

T the time of tlie Negro's emancipa- {{f/^J{j|i®^

tion there was much doubt expressed as to his ability to meet the demands of human life upon the free man. ^^ Will he be able to feed, clothe, and shelter him- self?" was the question asked. To which he has given a humble but brave answer. Since those first mad days of delirium and of license the race as a race (with excep- tions of course) has fed and clothed and sheltered itself. This has been done by patient, ceaseless toil, with many hard- ships and discouragements under which the weaker element has succumbed, but which the stronger majority has borne with courageous cheerfulness.

Harlan P. Beach says: ^' The African Ked***^®^^^ has been stigmatized as lazy and wholly ir- responsible. His laziness is the legitimate result of having nothing worth while to do. His simple wants are easily supplied, and as work under indigenous conditions can

108 The Upward Path

secure him nothing more than is now in his possession, he yields before his tropical en- vironment. This is not the case where suf- ficient incentive for labor exists; as wit- ness the natives along the coast, on the great transport routes or railways in con- struction, and in the far interior where a work like the Stevenson Road suddenly de- velops surprising trustworthiness and willingness to labor. ' ' ^ ^'" gSed Drummond says : ^ ^ In capacity the African is fit to work, in inclination he is willing to work, and in actual experiment he has done it ; so that with capital enlisted and wise heads to direct these energies, with considerate employers who will re- member that these men are but children, this vast nation of the unemployed may yet be added to the slowly growing list of the world's producers.'' AHost^of The African, while subjected to the con- Laborers (Jitious' of Amcricau slavery, proved his ability to work with continuous regularity and in many respects intelligently. Those conditions involved compulsion and guid- ance, and on some rare occasions furnished a stimulus that proved an inner incentive

1 Geography and Atlas of Protestant Missions, 451.

Industrial and Economic Progress 109

to labor. The results of this last were al- ways marked. But when all his wants were met, with nothing to gain or to lose by a greater or lesser effort, he only worked when compelled, and escaped that compulsion whenever it was possible. Suddenly and entirely set free from this compulsion, it is not surprising that a little time was needed before he realized the compulsion of his needs as an incentive to voluntary effort. That the whole race is not yet so fully dominated by this incentive as to leave no vagrants and idlers among them is a patent fact to even the most cas- ual observer ; but to one who gives a closer study will be revealed a great host of earnest, faithful laborers whose industry is being rewarded by the full supply of life's necessities and, with many, by the accumulation of property. -

Having noted the three stages of the K*^^^^ Negro's past life of which we have any knowledge, attention is now directed to his present condition, with its ind^'^^ations of undoubted progress during tht half-cen- tury of his freedom.

As a first step in studying the present ^^jj^**®"** status of the Negro in America, it is well

110 The Upward Path

to note the number and distribution of the race in continental United States. The twelfth census of the United States (1900) places the total number of Negroes at 8,833,994, distributed as follows:

Division Population Per cent, of

total negro E>op.

North Atlantic 385,020 4.3

South Atlantic 3,729,017 42.2

North Central 495,751 5.6

South Central 4,193,952 47.5

Western 30,254 0.3

Nearly all in TMs table shows that 89.7 per cent, of

the South ^ ^ ^

the entire Negro population resides in the fourteen Southern States, leaving only 10.3 per cent, to be scattered over the whole of the remainder of the United States. More than half of that (5.7) are in the States of Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, and Illinois — and are largely segr9- gated in the four large cities of those States. In thirty of the States, out of every one hundred people, only three are Negroes: i.nd in eighteen of these States there ai^ less than one to the hundred; while in two Southern States there are more than fifty-eight Negroes to forty-two whites, and in none of them does the pro-

Industrial and Economic Progress 111

portion fall below nineteen in every hun- dred, except in Kentucky.

In 1880 there were 6,580,793 Negroes in Marvelous

' ' ° Growth in

this country. In twenty years there was Population an increase of 34.2 per cent. The race has not merely maintained its numbers but shows a marvelous growth. Since the cen- sus of 1900 was published nearly another decade has passed, and calculating the in- crease in the Negro population to be in the same ratio as in past decades the number is now estimated to be not less than 10,000,000.

The Negroes, constituting about one cuierind®*" ninth of the total population, form only ^^""^'■y about one fifteenth of the urban popu- lation and more than one seventh of the rural population. They are relatively less numerous in the large cities than in the towns. Among the five Southern cities having at least 100,000 inhabitants, the highest per cent, of Negroes is found at Memphis (48.8), "Washington (31.1), New Orleans (27.1), Louisville (19.1), and Baltimore (15.6). In a group of Southern cities having between 25,000 and 100,000 there are four having a higher per cent, than any of these — ranging from 51.8 to

112 The Upward Path

57.1. In Baton Eouge, Louisiana, it is 58.5. Twelve cities in Georgia having between 4,000 and 8,000 inhabitants have 48.2 per cent, of their combined population Negro. "Washington has a larger per cent, of Negro population than any other city in the coun- try (86,702). They are relatively most numerous in Washington County, Missis- sippi, being 94.2 per cent, of the whole population. In South Carolina, Missis- sippi, and Louisiana more than half of the country population is Negro. This distri- bution varies according to local conditions, and as time goes on there is a growing in- crease of Negroes in the larger cities. Since the census of 1900 there may be a very material difference in these figures. But the trend of the Negro in the South to the city is less than that of the white race, souther'nl?! ^ glauce at the figures showing the dis- probiem" tributiou of the Negro race in the United States demonstrates that whatever prob- lem his presence presents, it is primarily ^' the Southerner's problem,'' and must be worked out in the South. Those figures also demonstrate the fact that after forty years of free access to other parts of the

Industrial and Economic Progress 113

country and with, no restraints upon Ms movements the Negro has chosen as a race to remain in the South. That he has so chosen is proof that the social and eco- nomic conditions in the South are such as make it more desirable for him to remain there than to go elsewhere.

Edgar Gardiner Murphy says, in his oppoSftyin .Problems of the Present South: ''The thesouth broad and living decisions of great masses of men possess a dumb but interesting sig- nificance. They are never wholly irra- tional or sentimental. The Negro remains i at the South because among the primary and the secondary rewards of honest life, he gets more of the primary rewards at the South than at the North. . . . The Ne- gro at the South is preacher, teacher, physician, and lawyer; he is in the dry goods business, the grocery, the livery, the real estate, and the wood and coal busi- ness ; as well as in the business of running errands and blacking boots. He is a shoe- maker and carpenter and blacksmith. He is where there is anything to do, and if he can do it well, he is usually treated fairly and paid for it honestly. Except in profes- sional capacities and as an undertaker he

114 The Upward Path

is employed by all — white and black — he does business with all. The Sonth gives to the Negro something more merciful than sentiment and something more necessary than the unnegotiable abstractions of so- cial rights. The South gives to him the best gift of a civilization to an individual — the opportunity to live industriously and honestly. Discrimination << The raco projudice in the North first forbids to the Negro the membership of the labor union, and then forbids to the employer the services of non-union labor. ^ If the employer turn wholly to non-union men, he fijids that rather than work beside the Negro these usually throw down their tools and walk out of the door of factory or shop. And so the dreary tale proceeds. The Negro at the North can be a waiter in hotel and restaurant (in some) ; he can be a butler or footman in club or house- hold (in some) ; or the hair-cutter or boot- black in the barber shop (in some) ; and I say ^ in some ' because even

1 The American Federation of Labor in Its constitution forbids the exclusion of any one on account " of creed, color, sex, nation- ality, or politics," but many National and Local Unions affiliated, with the American Federation of Labor do exclude Negroes by constitutional provision. At this time, however, there are a larger number of Negro members of trade-unions than ever before.

Industrial and Economic Progress 115

the more menial offices of industry are being slowly but gradually denied to him. And what is the opportunity of such an environment to the development of self- dependence, what is the value to his labor of so inadequate and restricted a market for the complex capacities and the legiti- mate ambitions of an awakening manhood . . . . What are the possibilities, there, of self-respect, of decency, of hope! What are the possibilities of bread?

^ * The economic problem lies at the very Ea?n iJlfntst*^ heart of the social welfare of any race. ^''^''^ The possibility of honest bread is the noblest possibility of a civilization; and it is the indispensable condition of thrift, probity, and truth. No people can do what is right or love what is good if they cannot earn what they need. . . . The South has sometimes abridged the Negro ^s right to vote, but the South has not yet abridged his right in any direction of hu- man interest or of honest effort to earn his daily bread . . . this lies at the very basis of life and integrity — ^whether individual or social.''^

Dr. W. E. B. DuBois in his pam-

1 Murphy, Problems of the Present South, 184, 185, 187.

116 The Upward Path

^oSSSyiSgfo Pt^let, '' The Philadelphia Negro, A So- ciological Study," describes how the slow, silent, pitiless operation of the social and economic forces are destroying the Negro body and soul in the Northern city. Earn?ng GrSteJ Tho Principal of Tuskegee says on this

*"^"*^ subject: ^^ It is in the South that the black man finds an open sesame in labor, indus- try, and business that is not surpassed anywhere. It is here that that form of slavery which prevents a man from selling his labor to whom he pleases on account of his color is almost unknown. We have had slavery in the South, now dead, that forced an individual to labor without a salary, but none that compelled a man to live in idle- ness while his family starved. ... If the Negro would spend a dollar at the opera, he will find the fairest opportunity at the North ; if he would earn the dollar, his fair- est opportunity is at the South. The op- portunity to earn the dollar fairly is of much more importance to the Negro just now than the opportunity to spend it at the opera.'' irieaiMnl Wheu WO cousidcr the great host of

Progress Negroes living in our land, and which will surely become greater, and how they are

Industrial and Economic Progress 117

affecting now and will affect still more in tlie future the life and civilization of our country, it becomes a matter of vital in- terest to the whole nation, and especially the South, to know, beside its growth in numbers, what has been the progress of this race in other matters.

Much has been said about the white LaboriXg^ciass South hindering the progress of the Negro, ^°»^®^^ based upon circumstances long since passed, upon insufficient knowledge of his present status, and upon half-truths greatly exaggerated by unconvinced and unconvincible prejudice. Not enough con- sideration has been given to certain simi- lar conditions that exist in every country and among other races. The struggle be- tween capital and labor, with its contrast between the rich and the poor; the usual features of poverty, ignorance, disease, and sin; the inefficient laborer and the un- employed, are problematic conditions and their manifestations are to be found in the North without reference to race. In the South the Negroes for the most part do the common, rough labor and, although the de- mand for skilled labor is growing ever greater, the vast majority of them remain

118 The Upward Path

unskilled laborers. These, as everywhere, receive low wages, and they form a large nnmber of the unemployed that will not or cannot work. These conditions tend to poverty of the laboring class everywhere. Rapid Economic Putting asido all preconceived ideas of the Negro's handicap in the South, let a few simple statements of his economic progress speak for themselves, and decide if it is fair to the Negro or his ^^ brother in white ' ' to continue to represent him as ** evil-entreated "or ^^ a debased, poverty- stricken people." These will show that, as a laboring class, he is as industrious, ca- pable, and successful and his condition as good as that of any similar class in any other country. That the mass of the race falls below its best is just as true of him as of others, but from the mass is grad- ually developing a larger and larger num- ber of the better and the best classes — more rapidly than in any country in Eu- rope— ^vastly more rapidly than in some of them, southnot Booker T. Washington, when asked if

Opposed to o 7

Negro's Progress ^-^q white mau iu the South wanted the Negro to improve his present condition, answered promptly, ^^ Yes." And after

Industrial and Economic Progress 119

citing instances manifesting tlieir interest in the Negro's education and progress, says: *^Sucli marks of the interest in the education of the Negro on the part of the Southern white people can be seen almost every day. Why should the white people, by their presence, words, and many other things, encourage the black man to get edu- cation, if they do not desire him to improve his condition? '' ^ Again he says : ** While race prejudice is strongly exhibited in many directions, in the matter of business, of commercial and industrial development, there is very little obstacle in the Negro's way. . . . Exaggerated reports are writ- ten by newspaper men, who give the im- pression that there is a race conflict throughout the South, and that all South- ern white people are opposed to the Ne- gro's progress, overlooking the fact that while in some sections there is trouble, in most parts of the South there is a very large measure of peace, good-will, and mu- tual helpfulness. " ^

In 1860 all of the Negroes of working occupation age and in health were engaged in some kind of occupation, the gains of which were

1 Washington, The Future of the American Negro, 236, 237.

2 Ibid., 207.

120 The Upward Path

equal to their maintenance in all the neces- saries of life. This we have seen extended to such as were not capacitated for labor on account of age and sickness. The census of 1900 gives the whole number of Negroes over ten years of age as 6,415,581, and the number over ten years of age engaged in gainful occupations as 3,992,337. There are twenty-seven occu- pations that each give employment to more than 10,000.^ In all other occupations there were only 185,329. No statement is made of the number unemployed. Fifty- two per cent, of the whole specified under different heads, were engaged in agricul- ture, and of the half million ^^ laborers '^ (not specified) it is probable that many were agricultural laborers. Encouragmg ^ ^ Of those engaged in agriculture, nine- teen per cent, were farmers, planters, and overseers. These have risen from a low level to a higher level in their occupation and in Am.erican civilization. I might show how the Negro agricultural laborer of exceptional ability has become share tenant, then cash tenant, then part owner, and finally full owner with almost light-

1 strong, Social Progress, 1906, 174.

St. Paul Normal and Industrial School, Lawrenceville, Virginia

Farmers' Conference, Lawrenceville, Virginia

Industrial and Economic Progress 121

ning rapidity and against fearful odds. ... In the South Central States since 1860 Negro farmers have come to operate as owners and managers 95,624 farms and as tenants 348,805. ... In forty years 287,933 Negroes have acquired control of farming lands in the South Atlantic States, of whom 85,355 are owners or managers. The total value of Negro farm property is conservatively estimated at $230,000,000. These facts spell progress unmistak- ably.'^ ^

To this value of farm lands Bishop Eqllipme^™ Amett adds the value of live stock and farming implements and brings the total value to $4,941,235. The acreage owned in Georgia and Virginia alone he gives as 2,107,438 acres.2 The United States census places the total number of acres owned and partly owned by Negroes at 15,996,- 098. Many farms are very small and the soil poor and unproductive.

"We find that next to agriculture the oc- |^e°™a^^ cupations which give employment to the largest number of Negroes are the kindred ones of servants and waiters, launderers and laundresses, housekeepers and stew-

1 Strong, Social Progress^ 1906, 174.

2 Ibid., 175.

122 The Upward Path

ards, janitors and sextons. These com- bined claim 708,470. Of course this covers many grades of work, yet in the main they may be classed as domestic service. There is a great falling off in the efficiency of household servants since emancipation, and as the years go by this inefficiency in- creases. The cause of this is readily ex- plained by contrasting the fine training given by antebellum mistresses in all do- mestic industries, authoritatively en- forced, with the present day total lack of training of girls and boys in their own poor home surroundings or in the house- holds where they are temporarily era- ployed by those who are unwilling to be- stow time and trouble upon those who may leave their service at any hour. It is a rare occurrence when a white person, male or female, goes into domestic service in the South. Mine and Mill About 85,000 Ncgroes are employed as

Employees . ^' ^ ; ; .

miners and quarrymen, saw and planmg- mill employees, tobacco and cigar factory operatives. These are practically the only employments of this class open to them except canning factories. In textile and other mills where machinery demands reg-

Industrial and Economic Progress 123

ular attendance and regulates the move- ments, they are not considered desirable employees. The reasons stated are that ^^ they do not feel the obligation to work if inclination leads them to take a holiday, and they are rarely capable of the sus- tained attention and regularity of motion required by machinery/' However just these reasons may be, the fact that they are not so employed works to the benefit of the race in that many who might be working in the unhealthy conditions of the cotton-mills are now in the open field, and their children are saved from the evils of child-labor which these present, and thus have * ^ time for school and play, ' ' of which hundreds of white children of their age are being deprived.

In 1900 the census reports 1,316,840 Ne- g|Sl,f *" gro females engaged in gainful occupa- o<^c"pat»ons tions. Of girls between ten and fifteen nearly one third are at work, between six- teen and twenty-four nearly one half, be- tween twenty-five and sixty-four about two out of every five. *^ These figures show clearly that in the case of Negro women marriage does not withdraw them from the field of gainful occupations to any-

124 The Upward Path

thing like the extent that it does white women. ... A good part of the class be- tween twenty-five and sixty-fonr must have been married, as sixty-eight and three-tenths per cent, of all Negro women between those ages were reported as mar- ried. ' ' ^

MShl'isTffects ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ ^ decided effect upon Children |-]^q home life and the rearing of children,

since in a majority of cases the woman breadwinner must leave her home, or else her time is so occupied at home as to hin- der her from giving the attention required to keep her house and children in right con- dition. It is also sadly true that in many instances the man of the family eats ^^ the bread of idleness '' that has been earned by the overworked wife or mother. And in some still sadder cases the idle man in the home is not a legal husband and holds him- self in no wise responsible for the support of the family. Women in A large uumbcr of Negro women are en-

Agnculture . , ^ ,

gaged in agricultural pursuits, that is, they are employed on the large plantations as cotton pickers, either directly by the owner or as helpers of fathers and hus-

1 United States Census, 1900, Bulletin No. 8.

Industrial and Economic Progress 125

bands who are * ^ share tenants. ' ' A much larger number of women than men are en- gaged in domestic service, the latter be- ing able to secure more remunerative em- ployment in other lines.

The census for 1900 reports 19,431 Ne- {tSwfvl?** groes employed as nurses and midwives, the number having increased more than threefold during the decade, and nearly twice as fast as the whites. The position of nurse offers a large sphere of useful ness to Negro women who are properly trained for the profession, though they do not often receive the high wages of the white nurse. The cost of the latter makes the demand still greater for intelligent secondary Negro nurses for the invalid and convalescent. Southern white women are seeking also more and more for their children the care of reliable trained women who may somewhat take the place of the old-time black '^ Mammy '' of blessed memory.

The number of dressmakers and seam- seaSAsSs ^"'^ stresses is stated to be 24,106. Twice that number could find employment at good wages if the character of their work was better. With but few exceptions it is care-

126 The Upward Path

lessly and roughly done and presents an untidy appearance. If the teachers of sewing classes in industrial schools re- quired a higher standard of work it would be greatly to the future financial advan- tage of their pupils. ^^¥mSl Mechanical trades claim 57,926 as carpenters and joiners, brick and stone masons, blacksmiths, iron and steel workers. There was a marked decrease in the first-mentioned in the decade of 1890 and 1900. In some trades the labor unions have excluded the Negroes in the South, but not to the extent that they have in the North, though it is feared that this will be extended in the future and may drive them out of many trades. '^^ESSvSrtages *^ After emancipation came suddenly, in the midst of war and social upheaval, the first real economic question was the self- protection of freed working-men. There were three classes of them: the agricul- tural laborers, chiefly in the country dis- tricts; the house servants, in town and country; and the artisans, who were rapidly migrating to town. . . . These last met peculiar conditions. They had always been used to working under the guardian-

Industrial and Economic Progress 127

ship of a master, and even though that guardianship in some cases was but nomi- nal, yet it was of the greatest value for protection. . . . "When he set up business for himself ... he could not bring suit in the name of an influential white master; if there was a contract to be made there was no responsible white patron to an- swer for the good performance of the work. . . . At first the friendly patronage of the former master was given the freed- man and for some time the Negro mechanic held undisputed sway. Three occurrences, however, soon disturbed the situation:

(1) the competition of white mechanics,

(2) the efforts of the Negro for self -pro- tection, (3) the new industrial develop- ment of the South. . . . The Negro me- chanic did not carelessly throw away his large share of the Southern labor market and allow the white mechanic to supplant him. To be sure, the exslave was not alert, quick, and ready to meet competi- tion. His business hitherto had been to do work, but not to get work, save in ex- ceptional cases. As the white mechanic pressed forward, the only refuge of the Negro mechanic was lower wages. Even

128 The Upward Path

in this he could not wholly succeed. The new industrial conditions made new de- mands on the mechanic which the Negro was not able to meet. . . . He was ignorant in those very lines of mechanical and in- dustrial development in which the South has taken the longest strides in the last thirty years. Wlio was to teach him? The older Negro mechanics could not teach what they had not learned. His white fel- low workmen were now his bitterest oppo- nents because of his race and the fact that he worked at low wages. . . . And yet the Negro mechanic has had a greater success in earning a living than the conditions might lead one to expect. ' ' ^ Working ^^^ carpenters are the largest body of skilled working-men and there are 20,800 in the South. The States differ consider- ably in the proportion of different kinds of working-men: steam railway employees and carpenters lead in Virginia, the Caro- linas, and the Gulf States; iron and steel workers outnumber all but railway men in the mining state, Alabama, and the ma- sons and stone-cutters are numerous in Tennessee. The great Northern cities are

1 DuBois, The Negro Artizan, 21-23.

Industrial and Economic Progress 129

conspicuous for scarcity of black artisans, while in the more typical Southern cities they are to be found in large numbers. In the Border State cities they are working in some of the important skilled occupations.

It is hard to say what the future holds N^^^iSrtisan for the Negro artisan. In many places he is in large demand, and works at the same wages as the white man. This is said to be especially true of the State of Texas. But unfortunately in many trades they do inferior work and lose out; even many of those who have had training in industrial schools prove unequal to actual work. They do not want to * ^ begin at the bottom and work up." Nor can the employer al- ways depend on them. ^^ It does not mat- ter how anxious a contractor may be to complete the job, he [the Negro workman] feels under no obligation that will hinder him from taking ^ a day off ' for pleas- ure. That 's his idea of liberty. ' ' ^

Alexander Hamilton, Jr., a Negro con- Examp?land tractor of Atlanta, Georgia, has a flourish- Testimony ing business, and some of his patrons are among the best people of the city. Last year he did about $35,000 worth of work.

1 E. H. Holmes, Prairie View Normal School, Texas.

130 The Upward Path

He says : ' ' The opportunity for wage earn- ing for the Negro artisan is good; he is always in demand. This demand does not exist because he works for a lower wage, for as a rule they get the prevailing scale of wages. Some white contractors employ Negroes from the foreman down. He is considered a swifter worker than the white, though in many cases he shows a lack of intelligent conception of the work he is to perform and of pride in its execu- tion. Good work, faithfulness to contract, gains a reputation that secures good wages.'' Economic Tj^e Negroes have manifested in various

C/Ooperation °

ways their desire and ability for economic cooperation. Many failures have attended their efforts, but their many successes have brought not only present advantage but prophesy greater benefits for the fu- ture. This cooperative eifort had its be- ginning where we might expect to find it — in the Church (the independent Churches established by the free Negroes in the North), and found its first expression in the Church benevolent societies. It soon made an effort to extend itself into the school, but in the early days met with much

Industrial and Economic Progress 131

hindrance here; later a large success has been reached. Along with the growing so- cial consciousness of the race there has risen to large proportions the beneficial and insurance societies. ^^ No complete account of these is possible, so large is their number and so wide their ramifica- tion. Nor can any hard and fast line be- tween them and industrial insurance so- cieties be drawn save in membership and extent of business. These societies are also difficult to separate from secret soci- eties ; many have more or less ritual work, and the regular secret societies do much fraternal insurance business."

The majority of the benevolent societies fodlti??"* are purely local and their work limited to the payment generally of from $2.50 to $5 for initiation fee and fifty cents dues monthly, and the paying out from this fund of sick dues, varying from $1.50 per week to $5, and burial expenses of the mem- bers. These societies have been organized by the hundred, and many of them serve a good purpose. They frequently have long and some of them curious names. Eegalia of all kinds is worn, and the society hav- ing the most of it is generally the most

132 The Upward Path

popular. Many of these have died out or been absorbed into larger societies having more of the nature and management of in- surance societies. The larger Negro in- dustrial insurance societies now operating form a list of sixty-four, with many smaller ones. If a complete report could be had of even the one State of Virginia, it would show that more than 300,000 colored men, women, and children carry some form of insurance. ^"*oSaS1on ^^^ True Eeformers constitutes prob- ably the most remarkable Negro organiza- tion in this country. It was organized in 1881, by the Rev. William Washington Brown, an exslave, of Habersham County, Georgia, as a fraternal beneficiary institu- tion, composed of male and female mem- bers numbering one hundred, and a capital of $150. It was to be a joint-stock com- pany, with shares of the value of $5 each. The Grand Fountain of True Reformers is now a mutual insurance association hav- ing 2,678 fountains, or lodges, with more than 100,000 members, of whom there are now benefited in the Fountain 50,636. It has a ^* Rosebud Department '^ with more than 30,000 children. The death benefits

Industrial and Economic Progress 133

paid by all departments up to date have been $1,356,989, with over $1,500,000 in sick benefits. Its total annual income is put at $450,000. It has put into operation a sav- ings-bank, with a capital stock paid in of $100,000 and a surplus fund of $95,000. It incorporated a mercantile and industrial association that conducts a system of stores doing an annual business of over $100,000 and publishes a weekly paper. The Re- former, that has a circulation of 19,000 copies. It has opened a hotel in Eichmond that accommodates a hundred and fifty guests, has established an old folks' home, with a farm of over six hundred acres, and has incorporated a building and loan asso- ciation that has as its object the encourage- ment of industry, frugality, home building, and saving among its members. Its real estate department has under its control twenty- seven buildings and three farms valued at $400,000, which belong to the institution, and leases twenty-three other buildings.

The total income of this class of societies pfsadvaS^of cannot be far from $3,000,000, and their real estate and other capital probably amounts to $1,500,000. The chief criticism

Societies

134 The Upward Path

of all these societies is the unscientific ba- sis of their insurance business, neverthe- less there are signs of improvement. a There is also wide room for peculation and dishonesty in industrial insurance. Protective legislation, especially in the South, is driving out the worst offenders, but some still remain. On the whole, how- ever, these societies have done three things: (1) encouraged economic coopera- tion and confidence, (2) consolidated small capital, (3) taught business methods."^ Secret Societies Amoug the sccrot socictics, the Free Ma- sons report, in 1899, 1,960 lodges with a membership of 55,713, property valued at $1,000,000, and an income of about $500,- 000. The Odd Fellows report, in 1904, the number of lodges as 4,643 with a member- ship of 285,931. Its property is valued at $2,500,000, and over $1,000,000 was spent between 1900 and 1906 in its benevolences. In 1905, the Knights of Pythias had 1,536 lodges with 69,331 members, property val- ued at $321,919, and in the two previous years spent in its relief work $124,146. This order has an insurance department. The United Brothers of Friendship, in

1 Atlanta University Publications, No. 12.

Industrial and Economic Progress 135

1905, had a membership of about 75,000 and valued their property at $500,000, with large amounts expended in benevolence. The order of Elks did not organize until 1899, and in eight years they reported 61 lodges with 5,000 members. The Grand Order of the Galilean Fisherman was or- ganized in 1856, and has at least $250,000 worth of real estate. Besides these there are many smaller secret societies having the same general purpose as the larger or- ders— the care of the sick, burial of the dead, and relief of the poor. Prom the figures given it seems that the Negro se- cret orders in the United States own be- tween four and five million dollars worth of property and collect each year at least $1,500,000.1

Cooperative benevolence finds its mani- Benevolence f estation in between 75 and 100 homes and

p orphanages supported wholly or largely by Negroes. Some of these are well-pro-

1^, vided for and well-managed ; many of them need much in every way. There are about

|, forty hospitals conducted by Negroes, in- cluding the Freedmen's Hospital of Wash- ington, District of Columbia, which the

1 Atlanta University Publications, No. 12.

136 The Upward Path

government supports. Nearly every town in the South has a colored cemetery owned and conducted by Negroes, making a total of probably about 500.

Negro Banks Jn 1865, the national congress incor- porated the Freedmen's Savings and Trust Company. Through ^^ speculative, indiscreet, and culpable transactions,'' the bank failed, in 1874, entailing disastrous losses upon the ignorant, trusting, needy Negroes amounting to over $3,000,000. After this disgraceful swindle the Negro went to banking for himself, and there are now in the United States forty-one Negro banks, many of them doing a flourishing business. ^^teS ^^^ history of cooperative business among the Negroes is long and interesting. Of some it is simply a record of failure, but failure is often educative, as it has been in this case, and leads to better, wiser ef- fort. While there have been hundreds of cooperative business ventures of various kinds that have failed, there are hundreds that continue in operation with a measure of success.

Mound Bayou, Ecal estatc and credit societies have re-

Mississippi

suited in Negro settlements in towns, some

Industrial and Economic Progress 137

of which have had fine success. Among these is Mound Bayou, Mississippi, which was incorporated in 1890. The town em- braces about seventy-five acres of land, is well laid out, with plank walks, and has a population of 400, many living in neat homes. It is surrounded by a neighbor- ing population of about 3,000, who occupy their own farms, ranging from 200 to 600 acres each, and comprising altogether 30,- 000 acres, producing a variety of crops but chiefly cotton. There are over forty busi- ness establishments, and the total value of business amounts to almost three-quarters of a million dollars. There are eleven creditable public buildings, including two graded schools.^ The Farmers' Improvement Society of Farmers'

m • T 1 T-» T rN • • Improvement

Texas, organized by E. L. Smith, m 1890, society has been of great benefit to many of the Negroes of that State. The members are pledged (1) to fight the credit or mortgage system, (2) to improve the method of farming and care of stock, (3) to cooperate in buying and selling, (4) to care for the sick and bury the dead, (5) to 'jiiy and im- prove homes. The effect of the movement

1 Atlanta University Publications, No. 12.

138 The Upward Path

to break up the credit system was so marked that in six years other coramnni- ties were induced to accept the plan. Branches are established in about 400 dif- ferent communities in Texas and Okla- homa. A great improvement has resulted in the character and conduct of the farms and homes, in agricultural fairs and lec- tures, and the establishment of an agricul- tural and industrial college. Business Men j^ ^^^ mcdium-sized Southern cities

there are 160 Negro business men. In one of these, Houston, Texas, there are 41, with a capital of $237,450 invested in their business. Two of these, a building con- tractor and a real estate broker, have been in the same business for thirty years, and eleven have held their own for over fifteen years. In Richmond, Virginia, nine busi- ness men have an invested capital of $230,500. ^'"prog^ess With such au array of facts, who can doubt the progress of the Negro in indus- trial life and pursuits!

Industrial and Economic Progress 139