NEW ENCDAND
MAGAZINE
% MARCH
Darkest America
By Kelly Milier
Professor of Mathematics, Harvard University
THERE is much speculation as
to the ultimate destiny of the
Negro population in the
United States. History furnishes
no exact or approximate parallel.
When widely dissimilar races are
thrown in intimate contact, it is in¬
evitable that either extermination,
expulsion, amalgamation, or the
continuance of separate racial types
will be the outcome. So far as the
present problem is concerned, ex¬
termination and expulsion have few
serious advocates, while amalgama¬
tion has no courageous ones. The
concensus of opinion seems to be
that the two races will preserve
their separate identity as co-inhabi¬
tants of the same territory. The
main contention is as to the mode
of adjustment, whether it shall be
the co-ordination or subordination
of the African.
All profitable speculation upon
sociological problems must be
based upon definitely ascertained
social tendencies. It is impossible
to forecast coming events unless we
stand within the pale of their
shadow. The Weather Bureau at
Washington, discerning the signs
of air and cloud and sky, makes
probable predictions of sunshine or
storm. Such predictions are not for
the purpose of enabling us to affect
or modify approaching events, but
to put ourselves and our affairs in
harmony with them. Sociological
events have the inevitableness of
natural law, against which specula¬
tions and prophecies are as unavail¬
ing as against the coming of wind
and tide. Prescient wisdom is ser¬
viceable only in so far as it enables
us to put ourselves in harmony with
foreknown conditions. Plans and
policies for the solution of the race
problem should be based upon as
full a knowledge of the facts and
factors of the situation as it is pos¬
sible to gain, and should be in line
with the trend of forces which it is
impossible to subvert. Social ten¬
dencies, like natural laws, are not
affected by quackery and patent
nostrums. Certain of our socio¬
logical statesmen are assuming in¬
timate knowledge of the eternal de¬
crees, and are graciously volunteer¬
ing their assistance to Providence.
They are telling us, with the assur¬
ance of inspiration, of the destiny
which lies in store for the black
man. It is noticeable, however,
that those who affect such famili¬
arity with the plans and purposes
of Providence are not usually men
of deep knowledge or devout spirit.
The prophets of evil seem to derive
their inspiration from hate rather
than love. In olden times when
God communicated with man from
burning bush and on mountain top,
He selected men of lowly, loving,
loyal souls as the chosen channel of
revelation. To believe that those
who breathe out slaughter and hat¬
red against their fellow-men are now
his chosen mouth-piece is to assume
that Providence, in these latter days,
has grown less particular than
aforetime in the choice of spokes¬
men.
The most gifted of men possess
14
DARKEST
AMERICA
15
very feeble clairvoyant power. We
do not know the changes that even
a generation may bring forth. To
say that the Negro will never attain
to this or that destiny, requires no
superior knowledge or foresight ex¬
cept audacity of spirit and reckless¬
ness of utterance. History has so
often changed the "never" of the
orator into accomplished results,
that the too frequent use of that
term is of itself an indication of
heedlessness and incaution. It is
safe to follow the lead of Dr. Lyman
Abbott, and limit the duration of
the oratorical "never" to the present
generation. When, therefore, we
say that the Negro will never be ex¬
pelled or amalgamated, or that he
will forever maintain his peculiar
type of race, the prediction, how¬
ever emphatically put forth, does
not outrun the time which we have
the present means of foreseeing.
The fortune of the Negro rises and
falls in the scale of public regard
with the fluctuation of mercury in
the bulb of a thermometer ranging
alternately from blood heat to
freezing point. In i860, he would
have been considered a rash
prophet who should have pre¬
dicted that within the next fit-
teen years colored men would
constitute a potent factor in
state legislatures and in the nation¬
al Congress. On the other hand,
who, in 1875, would have hazarded
his prophetic reputation by predict¬
ing that during the following
quarter of a century the last Negro
representative would be driven
from places of local and national
authority, and that the opening of a
new century would find the last two
amendments to the Constitution
effectually annulled? No more can
we predict what change in public
feeling and policy the remote or
near future may have in store. But
of one thing we may rest assured,
the coming generations will be
better able than we are, to cope with
their own problems. They will
have more light and knowledge,
and, let us hope, a larger measure
of patience and tolerance. Our
little plans of solution that we are
putting forth with so much assur¬
ance and satisfaction will doubtless
afford ample amusement in years to
come.
"We call our fathers fools,
So wise we grow
Our wiser sons, no doubt will
Call us so."
The late Professor Freeman, in
his "Impressions of the United
States" suggests a unique solution
of the race problem: viz.—let each
Irishman kill a Negro and get
hanged for it. In this way America
would be speedily rid of its race
problems, both Ethiopic and Celtic.
We read this suggestion and smile,
as no doubt the author intended we
should. And so we smile at the
panaceas and nostrums that are be¬
ing put forth with so much ardor of
feeling. Many such theories might
be laughed out of existence if one
only possessed the power of comic
portrayal. While we muse, the fire
is burning. But alas, we lack the
discernment to read aright the signs
of the times.
Physical population contains all
the potential elements of society,
and the careful student relies upon
its movement and expansion as the
controlling factor in social evolu¬
tion. It is for this reason that the
federal census is so eagerly awaited
by those who seek careful knowl¬
edge upon the race problem in
America. There are certain defi¬
nitely ascertainable tendencies in
16
NEW ENGLAND MAGAZINE
the Negro population that seem
clearly to indicate the immediate, if
not the ultimate destiny of that race.
Amid all the conflicting and con¬
tradictory showings of the several
censuses since emancipation, there
is one tendency that stands out
clear and pronounced: viz.—the
mass center of the Negro population
is moving steadily toward the Gulf
of Mexico. Notwithstanding the
proffer of more liberal political and
civil inducements of the old aboli¬
tion states of the North and West,
the mass movement is in the South¬
erly direction. The industrial ex¬
clusion and social indifference of
the old free states are not inviting
to the African immigrant, nor is the
severe climate congenial to his
tropical nature. The Negro popula¬
tion in the higher latitudes is not a
self-sustaining quantity. It would
languish and gradually disappear
unless constantly reinforced by
fresh blood from the South. Al¬
though there has been a steady
stream of immigration for the past
forty years, yet 92 per cent of the
race is found in the states which
fostered the institution of slavery at
the time of the Civil War. The
thirty-one free states of the North
and West do not contain as many
Negroes as Alabama. There is no
likelihood that the Negro popula¬
tion will scatter itself equally
throughout the different sections of
the country. We should not be mis¬
led by the considerable Northern
movement of the last census decade.
This period was marked by unusual
unrest in the South, and many of the
more vigorous or more adventurous
Negroes sought refuge in the cities
of the North. But evidently this
tendency is subject to sharp self-
limitation.
In the lower tier of the Southern
States, comprising Georgia, Florida,
Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana,
Texas and Arkansas, there has been
a steady relative gain in the Negro
population, rising from 39 per cent
of the entire race in 1850 to 53 per
cent in 1900. On the other hand
the upper tier including Delaware,
Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia,
North Carolina, South Carolina,
Tennessee, Kentucky and Missouri,
showed a decline from 54 to 37 per
cent during the same interval. The
census shows an unmistakable
movement from the upper South to
the Coast and Gulf States. The
Negro constitutes the majority of
the population in South Carolina
and Mississippi, and also in Louisi¬
ana, outside of the City of New Or¬
leans. The colored race forms the
more numerous element in the group
of States comprising South Caro¬
lina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama,
Mississippi, and Louisiana, a con¬
tiguous territory of 290,000 square
miles. Within this region the two
races seem to be growing at about
the same pace. During the last de¬
cade the Negro rate of increase ex¬
ceeded the white in Florida, Ala¬
bama and Mississippi, but fell below
in South Carolina, Georgia and
Louisiana.
But the State as the unit of area,
gives us a very imperfect idea of
the relative and general spread and
tendency of the Negro element.
The movement of this population
is controlled almost wholly by
economic and social motives, and is
very faintly affected by State bound¬
aries or political action. The
Negro is segregating in the fertile
regions and along the river courses
where the race was most thickly
planted by the institution of slavery.
This shaded area extends from the
head of the Chesapeake Bay through
DARKEST
A MERIC A
17
Eastern Virginia and North Caro¬
lina, thence through South Caro¬
lina, middle Georgia and Alabama
and Mississippi to the Mississippi
River. Leading off from the main
track, there are darkened strips of
various width, along the Atlantic
Ocean through Eastern Georgia
and Northern Florida and along the
banks of the Chattahoochee, Ala¬
bama, Mississippi, Sabine, and
Brazos Rivers leading to the Gulf
of Mexico. The South is dotted
with white belts as well as with
black ones. Western Virginia and
North Carolina, the Southern and
Northern extremes of Georgia and
Alabama, and the peninsula part of
Florida are predominantly white
sections. There are scores of coun¬
ties in which the Negro does not
constitute ten per cent of the popu¬
lation. The Negro element not
only does not tend to scatter equal¬
ly throughout the country at large,
but even in the South it is gather¬
ing more and more thickly into
separate spaces. The black belts
and white belts in the South are so
interwoven as to frustrate any plan
of solution looking to political and
territorial solidarity. The measures
intended to disfranchise the Negro
in Eastern Virginia operate against
the ignorant whites in the Western
end of the State. The coming po¬
litical contest in the South will not
be between whites and blacks, but
it will be over the undue power of
a white vote based upon the black
majority. The black counties are
the more populous, and therefore
have greater political weight. The
few white voters in such counties
are thus enabled to counter¬
balance many times their own num¬
ber in the white districts. This
gives rise to the same dissatisfac¬
tion that comes from the North be¬
cause the Southerner's vote is
given added weight by reason of
the black man whose representative
power he usurps. A closer study of
the black belts reveals the fact that
they include the more fertile por¬
tions of the South. The master
settled his slaves upon the rich, pro¬
ductive lands, and banished the poor
whites to the thin and barren regions.
These belts are best adapted to the
culture of cotton, tobacco, rice and
sugar cane, the staple productions
in which the South has advantage
over other sections of the country.
The Negro by virtue of his geo¬
graphical distribution holds the key
to the agricultural development of
the South.
A clearer idea of the distribution
of the Negro population can be
gotten by taking the county as the
unit of area. The number of coun¬
ties in which the Negroes out-num¬
ber the whites has risen from 237
in i860 to 279 in 1900. This would
make a section as large as the North
Atlantic division of States. With¬
in these counties there are, on the
a verage, 130 Negroes to every 100
whites. In i860 there were 71
counties in which the Negroes were
more than twice as numerous as the
whites, which number had swollen
to 108 in 1900. The region of total
eclipse shows a tendency to spread
much more rapidly than the penum¬
bra surrounding it. The average
number of Negroes in these dense¬
ly black counties is about three to
one. I11 some counties there are
from ten to fifteen Negroes to every
white person. The future of such
counties, so far as the population is
concerned, is too plainly fore¬
shadowed to leave the slightest
room for doubt.
There seems to be some concert
of action on the part of the afflicted
18
NEW ENGLAND MAGAZINE
States. The Revised Constitutions
have followed with almost mathe¬
matical exactness, the relative
density of the colored element. The
historic order has been Mississippi,
South Carolina, Louisiana, North
Carolina, Alabama and Virginia.
Georgia and Florida have not fol¬
lowed suit, for the simple reason
that they do not have to. But po¬
litical action does not affect the
spread of population. The Negro
finds the South a congenial habitat.
Like Flora and Fauna, that race va¬
riety will ultimately survive in any
region that is best adapted to its
environment. We can no more stop
the momentum of this population
than we can stop the oncoming of
wind and wave. To the most casual
observer, it is clearly apparent that
the white race cannot compete with
the Negro industrially in a hot cli¬
mate and along the miasmatic low
lands. Where the white man has
to work in the burning sun, the
cadaverous, emaciated body, droop¬
ing spirit, and thin, nasal voice be¬
speak the rapid decline of his breed.
On the other hand the Negro multi¬
plies and makes merry. His body
is vigorous and his spirit buoyant.
There can be no doubt that in many
sections the Negro element is
gradually driving out the whites.
In the struggle for existence the
fittest will survive. Fitness in this
case consists in adaptability to cli¬
matic and industrial environment.
In the West Indian archipelago the
Negro race has practically ex¬
pelled the proud Caucasian, not,
to be sure, vi et armis, but by the
much more invincible force of race
momentum. This seems to be the
inevitable destiny of the black belts
in the South. For example; in the
State of Georgia the number of
counties in which the Negro popu¬
lation more than doubles the whites,
was 13 in i860, 14 in 1870, 18 in
1880, 23 in 1890, and 27 in 1900. In
the same interval the counties in
which the Negro constitutes the ma¬
jority had risen from 43 to 67. This
does not imply that the white popu¬
lation in the Southern States is not
holding its own, but the growth of
the two races seems to be toward
fixed bounds of habitation.
Numerous causes are co-operat¬
ing toward this end. The white
man avoids open competition with
the black workman and will hardly
condescend to compete with him on
equal terms. Wherever white men
and women have to work for their
living, they arrogantly avoid those
sections where they are placed on
a par with Negro competitors, and
if indigenous to such localities, they
often migrate to regions where the
black rival is less numerous. For
this reason European immigration
avoids the black belts as an infected
region. The spectacle of black and
white artisans working side by side
at the same trade, of which we used
to hear so much, is rapidly becom¬
ing a thing of the past. The line
of industrial cleavage is almost as
sharp as social separation. The
white man does not desire to bring
his family amidst a Negro environ¬
ment. The lynchings and outrages
and the rumors of crime and cruelty
have the effect of intimidating the
white residents in the midst of
black surroundings, who move away
as rapidly as they find it expedient
to do so. Only a few Jewish mer¬
chants and large planters are left.
The large plantations are becom¬
ing less and less profitable, and
are being broken up and let out to
colored tenants, to enable the land¬
lord to move to the city, where he
finds more congenial social en-
DARKEST AMERICA
19
vironment for himself and children.
The rise and development of
manufacturing industries in the
South also adds emphasis to the
same tendency. The poor whites
are being drawn off in considerable
numbers from the rural districts as
operatives and workmen along lines
of higher mechanical skill. In the
black belts the Negro is protected
by the masses around him. One
may ride for hours in many portions
of the South without meeting a
white face. The great influx of
Negroes into the large cities comes
from regions where the Negro
is thinly scattered among the
whites, rather than from the
. regions of greatest density. These
factors, operating separately and co¬
operating conjointly, will perpetuate
these black belts of the South. The
bulk of the Negroes seems destined
to be gathered into these dark and
dense areas.
If, therefore, we are accorded so
large a measure of prevision, it is
the part of wisdom to arrange our
plans in harmony with the social
movement which we have not the
power to subvert. The first essential
of a well ordered society is good gov¬
ernment, which affords satisfaction
to the people living under it. The
Negroes in the South are not satis¬
fied with the present mode of gov¬
ernment, not only because it was not
formulated in harmony with their
sensibilities, but because of its la¬
mentable failure to protect life and
• property. Perhaps there is no other
government of European type which
so ruthlessly disregards the rights
and feelings of the governed since
the effacement of the Boer repub¬
lics in South Africa. The first need
of the South is a brand of states¬
manship with capacity to formulate
a scheme of government which will
command the hearty good will and
cheerful co-operation of all the
citizens, and at the same time leave
the controlling power in the hands
of those best qualified to wield it.
This is the desideratum devoutly to
be wished. The amiable African
can be ruled much more effectively
by the wand of kindness than by a
rod of iron. Strange to say, South¬
ern statesmanship has never serious¬
ly tested this policy. European
powers in control of tropical races
have found that reconciliation is es¬
sential to effective control. The in¬
ferior element must feel that they
are a constituent part of the govern¬
mental order and are responsible for
the maintenance, authority and dis¬
cipline. But Southern statesman¬
ship has been characterized by brok¬
en pledges and bad faith and open
avowal to humiliate a third of the
population. The democratic party
claimed to have won the election
in 1876, upon a platform which, in
clearly avowed terms, accepted the
amendments to the Constitution of
the United States. But the demo¬
cratic states forthwith proceeded to
revise their Constitutions with the
undisguised purpose of defeating
the plain intendment of these
amendments. This on the plea
that if the Negro were eliminated
from politics, the government
should be equitable and just,
guaranteeing to all, equality before
the law. But, as soon as these plans
are adopted, the very statesmen who
were most instrumental in bringing
them to pass are urging more dras¬
tic and dreadful measures. They
are demanding the repeal of the
Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amend¬
ments, which, by indirect tactics, they
have already annulled. Has the
Negro any reason to feel that the
demanded appeal would stop this
20
N E W ENGLAND M AGAZIXE
reactionary movement? There can
never be peace and security and per¬
manent prosperity for whites or
blacks until the South develops a
brand of statesmanship that rises
above the pitchfork variety.
The next great need of these black
belts is moral and industrial re¬
generation. This can be effected
only through the quickening touch
of education. Outside help is abso¬
lutely necessary. These people un¬
aided can no more lift themselves
from a lower to a higher level than
one can sustain the weight of his
body by pulling against his own
boot straps. The problem belongs
to the nation. Ignorance and deg¬
radation are moral blights upon the
national life and character. It is
wasteful of the national resource.
The cotton area is limited, and this
fabric will become more and more
an important factor in our national,
industrial and economic scheme.
And yet thousands of acres of these
valuable lands are being washed
away and wasted annually by igno¬
rant and unskilled tillage. The na¬
tion is contemplating the expendi¬
ture of millions of dollars to irrigate
the arid regions of the West. But
would it not be a wiser economic
measure to save the cotton area of
the South through the enlighten¬
ment of the peasant farmers? The
educational facilities in the black
counties outside of the cities are al¬
most useless. The reactionary cur¬
rent against the education of the
Negro in the South is deep and
strong. Unless the nation, either
through statesmanship or philan¬
thropy, lends a helping hand, these
shade places will form a continuing
blot upon the national escutcheon.
There should be better school fa¬
cilities and social opportunities, not
onlv as a means of their own better¬
ment, but in order that contentment
with the rural environment to which
they are well suited may prevent
them from flocking into the cities,
North and South, thus forming a
national municipal menace.
The Negro's industrial opportu¬
nities lie in the black belts. He oc¬
cupies the best cotton, tobacco,
rice and sugar lands of the South.
The climate shields him from the
crushing weight of Aryan compe¬
tition. Agriculture lies at the base
of the life of any undeveloped race.
The manufacturing stage is a later
development. The exclusion of the
Negro from the factories is perhaps
a blessing in disguise. The agri¬
cultural industries of the South are
bound to become of greater and
greater national importance and the
Negro is to become a larger and
larger industrial factor. The cotton
area is limited, but the demand for
cotton stuffs increases not only with
the growth of our own national
population, but with the expansion
of our trade in both hemispheres.
A shrewd observer has suggested
that the time seems sure to come
when a pound of cotton will be
worth a bushel of wheat. When
cotton regains its ancient place and
again becomes king, the Negro will
be the power behind the throne.
It is interesting to notice from the
last census the extent to which Ne¬
groes are owning and managing
their own farms. The large estates
are being broken up into small
farms and let out to Negro tenants
at a higher rate of annual rental.
This is but the first step toward
Negro proprietorship. There is a
double field for philanthropy.
First, to furnish school facilities so
that the small farmer may become
intelligent and skilled in the con¬
duct of his affairs; and second, to
SARRACfiNIA PURPUREA
•21
make it possible for him to buy
small facts of land. The holders
of the old estates do not care to
atovaize their plantations, but would
gladly dispose of their entire hold¬
ings. There is a vast field for phi¬
lanthropy with the additional in¬
ducement of five per cent. Already
such attempts have been made.
Hon. George W. Murray, the last
Negro Congressman from South
Carolina, has disposed of 60,000
acres of land in South Carolina in
small holdings to Negro farmers,
and is equally enthusiastic over the
commercial and philanthropic as¬
pect of the enterprise. Some North¬
ern capitalists have undertaken a
similar movement in the neighbor¬
hood of Tuskegee Institute, which
promises to have far-reaching ef¬
fect- upon the betterment of black
belt conditions. There are also in¬
dications of- Negro villages and in-
"thistrial settlements to afford better
social and business opportunities.
Colored men of ambition and educa¬
tion will be glad to seek such com¬
munities as a field to exploit their
powers. The secret and method of
New England may thus be trans¬
planted in these darksome places by
the sons of Ethiopia. Thus those
that now grope in darkness may yet
receive the light.
Air. John Temple Graves has, in
a recent, notable utterance, advo¬
cated the separation of the races,
and has elaborated his doctrine with
great rhetorical pains. But mass
movement of the Negro race seems
clearly to indicate immediate, if not
the ultimate outcome to be separate-
ness rather than separation.
No one can tell what the ulti¬
mate future of the Negro is to be;
whether it is to be worked out in
this land or on some distant conti¬
nent. We may, however, be per¬
mitted to foretell the logical out¬
come of forces now at work, with¬
out assuming the prophet's preroga¬
tive.
Sarracenia Purpurea
By Ina Lord McDavitt
As some old castle of the feudal barons
Seemed to the traveller, in his pilgrimage,
Like some great inn, where he might rest, and wage
His battles over, for a dole of bread;
But once within, did fifld it tenanted
By thieves and robbers, and his purse despoiled :
So thou dost lay a bait of honey, sweeter
Than charmed nectar to the wandering fly.
Who, once within, doth find his struggles ft.. ' •
And fares no more his way beneath the skv
When the Rose Bloomed
By Edith Richmond Blanchard
MISS Lucrece was busy among
her roses. Tall old bushes
laden with bloom, lined
either side of the brick walk which
led up to her small white house, and
here and there between these frag¬
rant veterans, low tea-rose clusters
„p£ered out and offered their small
few^et wares. Sometimes a long
green briar, swaying in the soft air,
would lean and catch at Miss Lu-
crece's muslin skirt as though fear¬
ing lest she should overlook its
especial treasure of loveliness.
Sometimes a down-dipping, heavy-
headed blossom would beat gently
against her cheek, leaving upon it
the kirs of the morning dew.
"hey were old friends, Miss Lu-
cr-.ce and the roses. Years ago,
when she was a little girl, their tallest
sprays hgd hung just a span's
breadth above the golden glint in
her dark curls, and they still nodu~d
just a span's breadth over the locks
whose golden glint had long since
softened into a silver shimmer.
Miss Lucrece had never grown up
to the roses. They had watched
over her so many days, so many
years,;, that it was as though they
shared with her the same gentle
spirit of protection which they felt
for thf\ tea-roses at their feet.
J:nd<. "':-c Lucrece was very
a tt herself, so small, so
aweet in an old-
" s the spirit of re-
'^fees jeems to steal over
one oreathes the trag¬
ic ^I cfainty yellow flower,
so wheli one saw Miss Lucrece,
one's mind instinctively filled.with
vague tender thoughts of t&ose
lovely lost summers when she was
a girl, when the gold glint was still
in her hair, when the now faint pink
in her cheeks was but a shade paler
than her small red mouth, when her
dark eyes sparkled instead of softly
glowing.
She was as different from her con¬
temporaries in the little village of
Meadowvale where she lived, as he*"
lavender muslins and cling'ng
wools were different trorr v>.
purple cambrics and stifi ulai-%*
silks. Even her name set her J.
There were Lucretias in plenty, it
was a favorite name in the place,—
there was but one Lucrece—
a queer heathen sounding name the
towns folk thought it, and, loving
Miss Lucrece most loyally, they re¬
gretted this defect. They, had been
very proud of her in the gay old
days wht_. .ovely Lucrece Hamil¬
ton" was the n?me on every young
gallant's lip, and that pride was not
yet submerged in the gentle affec¬
tion with which ^very one thought
of her now that she was "Miss
Lucrece," living alone with her old
servant Martha and her roses.
Perhaps Meadowvale held her all
the dearer because there were two
mysteries about her which had been
the source'of endless conjecture and
had never yet been solved.
One mystery was Miss Lucrece's
reason for remaining single. Ther
had been so many lovers at hei
22