OUR COLORED FOLK IN THE SOUTHLAND.
by d. h. mann, h.d., of brooklyn, n. t.
By the powers that be I have been deputed to write something
upon the condition of the Colored Folk in the Southland.
In attempting the task I am fully impressed with its importance and
with the difficulties attending the attempt at depicting the condition
of, and the means being used for, the uplifting of a so recently down¬
trodden race, especially as its limited history is enshrouded with a
mystic cloud of doubts and uncertainties, engulphed by so many
vituperations and falsifications as have been promulgated upon either
side of the great question. " •
That the condition of the colored race in the Southland is unsettled
and unsatisfactory is patent from personal observation, and that it is
generally and rapidly changing for the better, is as certainly demon¬
strated.
The theory that the negro is not susceptible to cultivation and high
attainments has already been proven a phantom.
That he is indifferent to mental and moral improvement, my per¬
sonal observation has taught me, is fallacious.
That the natural tendency along the lower classes of the colored
population is downward I shall not attempt to deny.
Whether it is really more so than along the lower stratum of white
society which has not been reared under the preverting influences of
shivery is not my px-ovince to discuss in this limited paper.
That marvelous strides have already been taken toward a higher
type of civilization and cultivated attainments among them is a pleas¬
ing fact.
That many of them have reached high, honorable and lucrative
positions in life an observer in the Southland will witness all around
him.
It is unnecessary and would be out of place for me to take time and
space here to show the condition of the slave population at the time of
their emancipation, as that is household history.
But to show as best I can the progress, developments and attain¬
ments acquired by the people and the means being put forth for their
upbuilding is the end sought in this brief summary.
As a close observer of causes and effects I have in my observations
in the Southland during my travels, which have been somewhat ex¬
tended, come to the firm conviction that the drink devil is the black
man's greatest enemy, presenting to him the most formidable barrier
in the way of a more general and rapid growth to a higher, better and
more cultivated sphere of happiness and unselfishness.
2
So here the question may naturally be asked, what can be, or what
is being done for the upbuilding of this needy race?
Great progress is being made along these avenues of reform. I know
of no people quicker of perception or more anxious to improve. Anything
in the way of lectures, sermons or printed literature is hailed With
eagerness.
I have addressed many audiences among them in a number of differ¬
ent States, both in the higher and more common circles of these people,
and find the above to be true in all places.
I have had pleasure in addressing a large number of colored schools,
and have been signally impressed with the interest evinced in the matter
presented to them orally, and most pleasingly so with the effect pro¬
duced by the distribution of literature from the National Temperance
Society. In one instance, in the Baptist Academy in Jacksonville,
Florida, I invited the scholars of the juvenile department to march
around in front of me, and as they passed I gave to each one a copy of
the Banner or Water Lily, and I never saw a more delightful class. Ol¬
der ones are equally pleased with like attentions. The professor in the
school told me they would sacredly preserve those papers and get their
parents or friends to read them over and over to them, thus the matter
therein contained served a double purpose.
Much, very much is being done in the Southland by our society in
sending lecturers to the people, and in its distribution of gratuitous
literature which is read and re-read vastly more than it would be by
the whites under like circumstances.
This is a most beneficent feature of the mission work of the society,
But the great draw-back is the want of sufficient funds to furnish these
missionary weapons to such a multitude of people, numbering only four
millions less than a third a century ago, now reaching the munificent
number of eight millions. Would that some philanthropists put into
the hands of the society funds by means of which the Southland could
be strewn with its valuable convincing literature.
What a revelation it would be, and what a revolution would follow'
There are many portions of that land where a temperance lecturer has
never been seen, nor have the masses of the people there ever heard
a temperance address.
One of the lecturers recently visited such a community twelve miles
from anywhere, off through a pine woods district in Alabama, and the
people were on tip-toe of wonder over the thought of what kind of an
animal was going to be let loose upon them, and some traveled miles
and miles to hear him. He was greeted with a large audience, one of
the first among the number being a drunken deacon of the church.
They were so taken with what they heard that they tried to induce
the speaker to take tip his permanent residence among them as their
own lecturer. The literature he distributed was grasped as a captured
prize.
In another place he visited he found a fine field open to him. as on
the previous day a large excursion of colored people visited the town:
and on the morning of his arrival he learned that more than a hundred
?
\J
of the happy excursionists, men and women, were in jail for drunken¬
ness.
Some of our lecturers down there travel through the country on foot,
tugging along with a satchel full of books and leaflets for distribution
furnished by the society. It is, indeed, a great missionary field.
Even the comparatively little mission work the Society is enabled
to do is producing marvelous results. The National Temperance Society
are household words in the South.
In Jacksonville, Florida, I found many thrifty colored people in all
branches of business. Half of the thirty thousand people there are
colored, among whom are three lawyers, six physicians, fifty school
teachers, one hundred and twenty-five ministers, and other business
people.
They own and manage a Trust Company, with a capital of $25,000,
a printing house, dry goods stores, drug stores, and many other places
of business, have a number of public halls, several academies, one col¬
lege and numbers of other fine schools, mostly conducted by colored
people.
Some of the best qualified teachers we have met were among them,
and the proficiency of the pupils was marvelous.
They have their own literary societies ably conducted, and some
of their churches, may it be said to their praise, have fine edifices in
which they take great pride, notably, Bethel Baptist Church. Rev. J.
Milton Waldron, A.M., one of the Vice-presidents of our society, pastor;
one of the finest church edifices in the city, not completed for lack of
funds. A large congregation worships there.
Mt. Zion A.M.E. Church has a fine edifice and a membership of more
than a thousand souls, Rev. A. J. Carey, D.D., pastor. I have addressed
large audiences in these churches a number of times and know whereof
I speak.
The Laura Street Presbyterian Church has a bright little edifice.
W.E.Parker, D.D., pastor; and others, all of which are doing an earnest
reformatory work, holding temperance to the front all the time.
I wish I could tell what is being done to help these churches and
schools. In the main they have to struggle along as best they can on
their own resources. I saw in a Florida paper the other day the fol¬
lowing:—
" The statistics of our public schools prove that the Afro-American
receives from the State of Florida, on an average, but thirty-three days
of schooling per annum."
If that be so, it adds greatly to the heroism and determination on
the part of our colored friends in keeping so many schools up to so
creditable a standpoint.
This is, indeed, a deserving mission field, and one that should be
cultivated.