0' 
 
 . ^^ o^^^^\li::%'"- ^. .-?> 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 4 O 
 
 
 y ^/ 
 
 
 "hV 
 
 ^'^^. 
 
 
 
 fe\ ^-^.^^ /A^l^^ 
 
 '%- 
 
 .9^ 
 
 ^"^ .*i:k\w/H,^., <^^^s^ 
 
 ^/* ^^ ^ 
 
 
 c" 
 
 u r^ 
 
 o " a 
 
 
 'W- -ov*' :'i 
 
 .0^_, 
 
 
 < o 
 
 * A-' 
 
 Q^ ' 
 
u 
 
 
 A - <J> - 3 „ 
 
 0^ sL*''* > 
 
 
 •^ 
 
 
 ^. 
 
 
 
 
 ^-^^^ 
 
 s^ 
 
 
 
 " o - "^ *^ 
 
 
 
 
 ^^ 
 
 
 o rfs 
 
 lP 
 
 
 o 
 
 ^\o'^ 
 
 
 ^^^■^ •^Ml//^^^ ■^JUrS oV'^^1L%'» S^*, «-i' 
 
 '>0^ 
 
 
 ^ 
 ■<<» 
 
 
 '^^r^^ oV'^^^la- ^^^> -'Mm>r.\ '^^nH 
 
 ^: 
 
 
 
 
0' 
 o 
 
 
 %^- 
 
 ^x 
 
 
 
 ;^ 
 
 °^ 
 
FOKWARD MISSION STUDY COURSES 
 
 EDITED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE 
 
 yOUNQ people's missionary MOVEMENT OF THE 
 
 UNITED STATES AND CANADA 
 
 THE UPWARD PATH: 
 THE EVOLUTION OF A RACE 
 
 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. 
 
7 
 
SLOW THROUGH THE DARK 
 
 Slow moves the pageant of a climbing race; 
 
 Their footsteps drag far, far below the height, 
 And, unprevailing by their utmost might. 
 Seems faltering downward from each won place. 
 No strange, swift-sprung exception we; we trace 
 A devious way thro' dim, uncertain light- 
 Our hope, through the long vistaed years, a sight 
 Of that our Captain's soul sees face to face. 
 
 Who, faithless, faltering that the road is steep, 
 Now raiseth up his drear insistent cry? 
 
 Who stoppeth here to spend a while in sleep, 
 Or curses that the storm obscures the sky? 
 
 Heed not the darkness round you, dull and deep; 
 The clouds grown thickest when the summit's high. 
 
 ^Faul Lawrence Dunbar 
 
E\'35 
 
 Copyright, 1909, bt 
 
 Young Pkoplk's Missionary Movement 
 
 OP THE United States and Canada 
 
 r*" 
 
 spfv'^M 
 
 CIn.. 
 
 JUL 15 T90'9 
 
 ^-msch 
 
"S-i 
 
 .^ 
 
 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 Religious 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 
 
 Witch-Doctor 
 
 Slave Cabins, Lawrenceville, Virginia 
 
 Slave Cabins, " Tlie Hermitage," Savannah, 
 Georgia 
 
 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 Cotton Mill, Greensboro, South Carolina 
 
 Cotton Field, Georgia 
 
 General 0. O. Howard 
 
 Class in Domestic Science 
 
 Electrical Engineering 
 
 St. Paul Normal and Industrial School, Law- 
 renceville, Virginia 
 
 Farmers' Conference, Lawrenceville, Virginia.. 
 
 Two Houses Owned by a Negro, in One of 
 Which He Lives, Charleston, West Virginia 
 
 Negro Cabin 
 
 J. W. E. Bowcn, President Gammon Theological 
 Seminary 
 
 Booker T. Washington, President Tuskcgee Nor- 
 mal and Industrial Institute 
 
 * * Stonewall ' ' Jackson 
 
 Walter B. Hill, Ex-Chancellor University of 
 Georgia 
 
 Napier Public School, Nashville, Tennessee.... 
 
 Jubilee Hall, Fisk University, Nashville, Ten- 
 nessee 
 
 St. Mark 's Industrial School, Birmingham, Ala- 
 bama 
 
 11 
 
 19 
 
 47 
 
 47 
 
 81 
 
 95 
 
 95 
 
 99 
 103 
 103 
 
 121 
 121 
 
 147 
 147 
 
 163' 
 
 163 
 173 
 
 173 
 193^ 
 
 193 
 
 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, Register of the Treasury " 241 
 
 James S. Russell, Archdeacon for Work Among 
 
 Negroes in Southern Virginia " 241 
 
 W. S. Scarborough, President Wilberforce Uni- 
 versity " 241 
 
 St. Athanasius' Protestant Episcopal Church, 
 
 Brunswick, Georgia " 251 
 
 First Baptist Church, Richmond, 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. I 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 
 purjDOse 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. 
 
 Mary Helm. 
 
 Helm Place, 
 
 ElizabetJitown, Kentucky, 
 June 1, 1909. 
 
EDITORIAL NOTE 
 
 Through the courtesy of the Council of 
 Women for Home Missions, Miss Mary 
 Helm, the author, and the Fleming H. 
 Eevell Company, publishers, The Upivard 
 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 Fctichism 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 
 
 THERE 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? " 
 '' Wliither 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. 
 
 Law of Progress The uuivcrsal law of evolution, that of 
 progressive development from the lower 
 condition to th6 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^lceiVy While 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 his 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 j^gj^^'^^a*^! 
 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 JccuJ"^ 
 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 Cancasian. There they dwelt 
 five hundred years ago in a condition of 
 absolute brutishness. 
 ^"''Euro^pea^ Modcm Africa may be said to have 
 Conquest y^^^^ rediscovcrcd 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 
 j! affected by environment, but race hered- 
 ity is found in the mass. 
 UfbTvL^I The Negro race had and has many 
 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-sFive 
 
 ' _ , Divisions 
 
 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.'M 
 
 "•""K' These five divisions he subdivides into 
 
 Differences and 
 
 Resemblances many tribcs, having marked differences 
 in their i3olitical, 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. 
 characteSi ^^' ^mythc, 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. 
 American The Negrocs lu tlio United States came 
 
 INegroes Chiefly _ '-■^ 
 
 Bantus originally, to a large degree, from the 
 western coast — the Bantus. Among them 
 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 of 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. 
 
 AVliile there was and is a marked dif- Fundamental 
 
 . . Race 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 jDigment under the 
 Negro's skin and his kinky hair do not 
 constitute the chief difference between him 
 and the straight-haired white man. 
 Emotional, Under some conditions the Negro may 
 
 Impulsive, 
 
 Imaginative be 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 i:)hysical 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 
 
 TvricAL liuuui' OF West Africa iSativec 
 
In the African Jungle 11 
 
 fear of than love for his mother. He does k"';""^^'?u 
 
 Outward Show, 
 
 not look with pleasure upon the broad pTeasurl**^"" 
 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 iDhysical 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 HhiraStks 
 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 
 Formfof"ju"stice little powcr bcyoud that of 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 
 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 
 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 Life 
 scarcely exists as we regard it. There is 
 no gathering around the table or the 
 hearthstone; *' naked children snatch a 
 
 1 Nassau, Fetichism 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. 
 Degrad^Hnd The womau is a hard-worked slave from 
 ^oa=morai ^^^^^ momiug uutll 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 Parsons, Christus Liberator, 71. 
 
In the African Jungle 15 
 
 no forethought. . . . 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 iDarticularly un- 
 known." 
 
 Polygamy was and is practised every- ^^y^a*J^y 
 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 motherhood belongs to 
 Children all animal life. With the heathen African 
 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 tlie 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- SfS'*" 
 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 belief ^^SSwo^lS^ 
 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- 
 
 » Foa, Le Dahomy, HI, 113, 194. 
 
18 The Upward Path 
 
 sumably 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. 
 pearo^fEvn " 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." 
 anrlvlrchcTfft It is tho 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. 
 

 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 po^er of 
 
 , , - T T „ Witch-doctor 
 
 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- 
 
 * Menzies, History of Religion, 73. 
 
20 The Upward Path 
 
 venient place to prevent evil or to secure 
 good.^ 
 Sacrifice ^ pjig Qf stoncs 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 jorayer 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, Peticliism in We&t 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 ^^^^^'^^^''^ 
 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. ' ' ^ 
 "wwte^Art" There may be said to be two entirely 
 
 1 Nassau, Fetichism in West Africa, 83, 85. 
 
 " Black Art " 
 
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 
 
M 
 
 Company " 
 
 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. 
 SilLnv" 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 ^^^^^'"^ "°" "* 
 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, Fetichism in West Africa, 123. 
 
West Indies 
 
 26 The Upward Path 
 
 dreads its influence if possibly it should 
 be directed against himself. ' ' ^ 
 ^E^portldto '' The slaves exported from Africa to 
 the West Indies 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- 
 ly Nassau, Feticliism 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 X**^ ■^^'"2,. 
 
 ^ " Brought His 
 
 slave to America, and unmistakable traces ^^S '** 
 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 
 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 African oniy 
 
 . '-' '' Uplifted by 
 
 the Africa of to-day, except where Chris- Christianity 
 tianity has lifted up the Christ at a ter- 
 
 1 Beach, Geography 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 of 
 Eighteousness is shining in many places 
 in the Dark Continent, and in the kingdom 
 of God many will rise up and bless Moifat, 
 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 FOE 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. 
 
In 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 I 
 
 Aim: To Realize What to Expect of the Negro in 
 View of His Former Environment 
 
 1.* What was the original state of the whole hu- 
 man race and the law of its evolution! 
 2.* Is the Negro an exception to the rule? 
 
 3. Why is it necessary in this study to consider the 
 origin of the Negro? 
 
 4. What section of Africa did the Negro enter? 
 
 5. Name some of the main subdivisions of the 
 Negro race. 
 
 6. Is there any uniformity of type? 
 
 7. From what section of Africa was the Negro 
 brought to America? 
 
 8. Enumerate some of the fundamental race traits. 
 9.* What conditions of environment have devel- 
 oped these traits? 
 
 10. Name some of the most striking weaknesses in 
 the government of the Africans. 
 
 11. How are slaves obtained and treated? 
 
 12. How does the African make his living! 
 
 13. Which members of the family do most of the 
 work? 
 
 14. What would you miss most in an African 
 family? 
 
 15. Name at least three objections to being the 
 wife of an African. 
 
 16. Why do you suppose mothers early lose con- 
 trol of their children! 
 
30 The Upward Path 
 
 17.* Compare the Christian God with that of the 
 
 African. 
 18.* What is the difference between our belief in 
 
 the Holy Spirit and the belief of the African 
 
 in spirits? 
 
 19. What is fetichism? 
 
 20. Who has the power to make fetiches? 
 
 21. What is the difference between " black art " 
 and " white art "? 
 
 22. Enumerate some of the acknowledged powers 
 of a witch-doctor. 
 
 23.* Are religious beliefs easy or difficult to change, 
 
 and why? 
 24.* What conditions have made missionary work 
 
 difficult among the Negroes? 
 
 Eefeeences for Further Study. — Chapter I^ 
 
 I. Social Life. 
 
 Dowd : The Negro Eaces, Part II, Ch. VIII. 
 Nassau: Fetichism in West Africa, I. 
 Naylor: Daybreak in the Dark Continent, II. 
 Parsons: Christus Liberator, III, V. 
 Stone: In Afric's Forest and Jungle, III, XL 
 Williams: History of the Negro Race, III, IV. 
 
 n. Heligiotis Life. 
 
 Dowd: The Negro Eaces, Part II, XXIII, 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 Nassau: Fetichism in West Africa, II, III, 
 
 IV, IX, XIII, XV. 
 
 Naylor: Daybreak in the Dark Continent, III. 
 
 Parsons: Christus Liberator, III, IV. 
 
 Stone : In Af ric 's Forest and Jungle, X, XXIV. 
 
 1 These references are largely confined to the sections of Africa 
 from which the American Negro came. 
 
AMERICAN SLAVERY 
 
More than any other part of Africa, the West Coast 
 was or has been the slaver's hunting-ground. Here was 
 the " Slave Coast " of the geographers, and among the 
 Toruba west of the Niger there was or has been more 
 kidnaping than in any other quarter. 
 
 — Ellen C. Parsons 
 
 The slave had to work, but his work was conducted 
 upon the right plan — he was not overworked, but was re- 
 quired to do a reasonable amount, without injury to 
 himself physically, or to his master financially. . . . We 
 had shoemakers, mechanics, blacksmiths, farmers, barbers, 
 and butlers, each happy in his occupation. The old Ne- 
 gro men made baskets, chair bottoms, rugs, and the like 
 to sell, as well as to supply the plantation; the old 
 darkies received the proceeds of the articles sold. The 
 field-hands who cultivated the fleecy staple of their mas- 
 ters' estates were very important factors in plantation 
 life. 
 
 John Ambrose Price 
 
 'American slavery was a great curse to both races, 
 and I would be the last to apologize for it; but in the 
 presence of God, I believe that slavery laid the founda- 
 tion for the solution of the problem that is now before 
 us in the South. During slavery the Negro was taught 
 every trade, every industry, that constitutes the founda- 
 tion for making a living. 
 
 — BooTcer T. Washington 
 
n 
 
 AMERICAN SLAVERY 
 
 THE history of the rest of mankind of- Exodus of 
 •^ Israelites 
 
 fers no parallel to the story of the voluntary 
 
 transportation of the Negroes from the 
 African wilds to the shores of the Ameri- 
 can continent. The exodus of the Israelites 
 from Egypt was a voluntary colonization 
 scheme organized and directed, as they be- 
 lieved, by Jehovah, whereby they hoped to 
 escape from cruel bondage to liberty and 
 prosperity ; and the distance to be traveled 
 was comparatively short. Later their 
 Babylonish caj^tivity was an incident of 
 war that did not destroy their national life, 
 and they later returned to their country. 
 
 The Negro, contrary to his will, without g^^te^d'"^"' 
 knowledge of his destination and with no 
 hope for the future, was forcibly carried 
 thousands of miles across an unknown sea 
 to an unknown fate in an unknown land. 
 Thus uptorn as a weed from his native 
 soil and all its surroundings and his past 
 obliterated, difficult indeed would it have 
 
34 The Upward Path 
 
 been for him to believe that in the distant 
 future his new home and its bondage was 
 to work out for him a higher destiny. Seek 
 to evade it as we may, we cannot escape 
 the conviction that the Almighty's hand of 
 love overshadowed the poor, unconscious 
 victim and made the '^ wrath of man " to 
 praise him in the future good of the 
 Negro. Joseph said to his brethren who 
 had sold him into slavery — " Ye meant 
 evil against me ; but God meant it for good, 
 to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save 
 much people alive. ' ' ^ 
 Slavery the As tho upward movcmeut of the race 
 
 First Step , -^ 
 
 proceeds, it becomes more and more evi- 
 dent that American slavery with its dis- 
 cipline and training was the first great 
 step in the evolution of the African savage 
 into a citizen of civilization. With this 
 preview of its resultant purpose, the stu- 
 dent takes a deeper interest in noting the 
 beginning, the conditions that existed, and 
 the close of the period of Negro bondage 
 in the United States. 
 Nations Ei'tSd While slavcry existed in all African 
 lavery ^^jj^gg throughout the continent as far as 
 known, it was left to the civilized nations — 
 
 1 Gen. 1. 20. 
 
American Slavery 35 
 
 Portugal, Spain, England, Denmark, and 
 France — to extend the traffic by exporting 
 slaves to other lands. This slave-trade be- 
 gan in the fifteenth century, and continued 
 for nearly four centuries. To Protestant 
 Christian England belongs the largest 
 share of the infamy involved, for with her 
 usual impelling force she soon outstripped 
 all competitors. The traffic was legalized 
 in 1562, and charters were granted to trad- 
 ing companies. She supplied her own col- 
 onies with slaves, and her merchants se- 
 cured the monopoly of the Spanish colonial 
 slave-trade. The United States followed 
 the example set by the mother country and 
 was not behind her in energy. 
 
 The horrors of the slave-trade have been ^,^"'>f^ of 
 
 SIave=traae 
 
 often described; they could not be exag- 
 gerated. There were continual scenes of 
 raid, burning villages, fettered slaves, 
 cruel beatings, and weary marches. The 
 weak often perished on the way to the 
 slave-ships which were waiting at the 
 coast. Then followed the horrors of the 
 " middle passage," when men, women, and 
 children were shackled and packed to- 
 gether in the ship's hold in suffocating 
 masses to die or to live, as the chance might 
 
36 The Upward Path 
 
 be. Imagination refuses to picture the 
 agony the unfortunate captives must have 
 endured during those long weeks, ere they 
 were unloaded in a strange land, where 
 they were to begin an entirely new exist- 
 ence. 
 Opposition to The conscience of Christendom was not 
 
 Slave=trade 
 
 sleeping and her voice was not silent. Pitt 
 and Fox fought against the slave-trade in 
 England, and the opposition of some of 
 the American colonies was great. As early 
 as 1760, " an act of total prohibition in 
 South Carolina was disallowed by Great 
 Britain." In 1772, Virginia appealed to 
 the King against '' the pernicious com- 
 merce." Thomas Jefferson put into his 
 original draft of the Constitution a clause 
 indicting George III for maintaining this 
 slave-trade as a " piratical warfare." 
 The clause was stricken out by Congress. 
 Legislation, limiting and prohibitive, was 
 passed again and again by the original 
 thirteen States. Massachusetts passed 
 such a law as early as 1641, at the time 
 when her own Boston merchants were the 
 largest importers. 
 Date of First Statements differ as to the date of the 
 
 Slaves in the 
 
 United States landing of the first African slaves in what 
 
American Slavery M 
 
 is now the United States. One is that a 
 Spanish ship brought the first load as early 
 as 1526. Another is that they were 
 brought by the Dutch, twenty in number, 
 in 1619, and were landed at Jamestown, 
 Virginia. This last date seems to have the 
 best authority. 
 
 In 1807 laws to abolish the slave-trade siavi&e^ 
 were passed in both England and the 
 United States and these went into effect 
 the next year. At that time, after one 
 hundred and eighty-eight years of the 
 trade, over 1,000,000 Negroes were in the 
 United States. In 1860, fifty-three years 
 later, that number had increased, by birth 
 and continued importation, to 4,441,830. It 
 has been claimed, and with a large degree 
 of probability, that the law was often 
 evaded and that slaves were smuggled into 
 the country in large numbers at first, but 
 that the numbers gradually decreased as 
 the danger and frequent loss rendered the 
 trade unprofitable. 
 
 When first introduced into this country segregation in 
 
 J.1 -NT , , T . . t*'^ South 
 
 the JNegroes were scattered m varymg 
 numbers throughout the colonies, or the 
 States, as they became later. The condi- 
 tions of climate and not public opinion 
 
38 The Upward Path 
 
 influenced their distribution, and, finally, 
 brought about their almost entire segrega- 
 tion in the South. The Northern slave- 
 holders, finding them unprofitable in cold 
 latitudes, did not pass emancipation laws 
 until nearly all had been sold into the 
 Southern States, where the more genial 
 climate made their labor more productive. 
 Thus the South became charged with the 
 life and destiny of the American Negro — 
 a responsibility greater than the profit to 
 be gained and one that was to affect its 
 own destiny, complicate its own life so- 
 cially, industrially, and politically, and 
 leave it involved in a gigantic problem 
 that must be worked out by the two races 
 as they live side by side and work together 
 with God. 
 savageSeti^ "^^^ pitiable condition of the Negroes 
 Civilization ^jjeu they were landed on our shores can 
 hardly be described, yet the imagination 
 has many solid facts on which it may paint 
 a picture. The rapid survey given of the 
 condition of the African in his native wilds 
 showed his state to be that of a degraded 
 savage. To this must now be added the 
 horrible results of his long voyage. Physi- 
 cally he was often suffering from disease 
 
American Slavery 39 
 
 and cruel wounds, sometimes crippled, 
 maimed, or mutilated. Mentally he was 
 absolutely ignorant of the demands of civ- 
 ilization, its dress and food, its customs, 
 its labor, and its language. Morally he was 
 generally vicious in habits, and displayed 
 only the basest standard of life. Spirit- 
 ually it was inevitable that he would be the 
 fearful slave of belief in evil spirits, with 
 a religion that was a foul compound of 
 animalism and witchcraft. Yet these poor, 
 wretched savages were human beings, with 
 possibilities of suffering and sorrow, love, 
 happiness, and righteousness that God 
 alone knew at that time, but which the 
 white people were to learn. 
 
 There was no thought of preserving f am- Restraint 
 
 •^ i- o Necessary for 
 
 ily ties — these were destroyed when the Protection 
 victims were sold in Africa. Often utter 
 strangers to each other, perhaps of war- 
 ring tribes, and speaking different dia- 
 lects, they were bartered like a herd of ani- 
 mals to white American masters for whom 
 they naturally felt hatred as well as fear. 
 These sentiments constantly threatened to 
 break out into open mutiny, and they often 
 did so; therefore close, often severe, con- 
 trol was resorted to in order to restrain 
 
40 The Upward Path 
 
 them and insure the protection of the 
 owners. 
 New Experiences They were Compelled to labor with un- 
 known tools by commands given in an un- 
 known tongue; to wear irksome clothing, 
 to eat unfamiliar food; to submit to un- 
 known and, to them, unreasonable re- 
 straints in habits and morals. Civilization 
 had its price for the savage African, as 
 it has for all peoples. 
 Slavy iLk ^^ ^^® other hand, we can hardly con- 
 ceive of the magnitude of the task which 
 devolved upon the owners of these savages 
 in civilizing, training, and evangelizing 
 them. Such a task might well fill an 
 angel's hands. And yet in a large degree, 
 considering the circumstances, it was ac- 
 complished, as we must believe, when we 
 compare these imported Africans with 
 their descendants at the time of their eman- 
 cipation. 
 A National Sin It is not ucccssary here to enter upon 
 an arraignment of or defense of slavery. 
 If it was a sin it was a national sin, and 
 the nation as a whole is responsible for it. 
 And well may the people of all sections 
 thank God that the institution of Negro 
 slavery no longer exists in our country. 
 
American Slavery 41 
 
 Justice demands, however, that a true a Burden of 
 
 Misunderstand- 
 
 narration of the conditions of American '"« 
 slavery be given, to exonerate a great and 
 noble peojole from the accumulated misrep- 
 resentations of generations — a people who, 
 while seeking to fulfil rightly their in- 
 herited task, bore a burden that none but 
 themselves understood, not the least of 
 which was the misunderstanding of those 
 who had helped to lay that burden upon 
 them. Surely the time has come when all 
 are willing to hear something of the true 
 story of American slavery. 
 Justice to the Negroes also demands Negro capawe 
 
 *-" of Progress 
 
 that it be shown that they were capable of 
 taking advantage of the restraints of civil- 
 ization, the industrial training and the gos- 
 pel opportunities of slavery, to rise to a 
 higher plane than that of their African an- 
 cestors. 
 
 The limited extent of slave ownership Extent of 
 
 -■- Ownership 
 
 IS often a matter of surprise to those who 
 learn the facts for the first time. Pro- 
 fessor G. W. Dyer in his valuable work. 
 Democracy in the South Before the Civil 
 War, presents the following statistics: 
 
 From the census of 1860 we learn that 
 the total white population in the Southern 
 
 ■' 
 
42 The Upward Path 
 
 States was 8,179,356; while the number of 
 slaveholders in all these States was only 
 383,637 and the total number of slaves was 
 3,948,713, the average number of slaves to 
 each owner was 10. Only about one-fourth 
 of the Southern men owned any slaves at 
 all, and one-fifth of that one-fourth owned 
 only one slave; and more than half of all 
 the slaveholders owned less than five. 
 There were about 2,300 men that owned 
 more than 100, and only 14 that owned 
 more than 500. 
 Slave Labor Professor Dyer says further: ''Slave 
 
 expensive '' ♦' 
 
 labor was just as expensive in the South 
 before the war as free labor would have 
 been under similar economic conditions. 
 . . . The owners had to look after every 
 interest of the slave — his food, clothing, 
 shelter, health, his habits and his disci- 
 pline — and not for the working slave only, 
 but for those incapacitated for work by 
 sickness, old age, and infancy, and this in 
 hard times as well as flush, for the un- 
 worthy and for the worthy. . . . The 
 fact that hundreds of thousands of free 
 white men were employed in the South be- 
 fore 1860 and received as high wages 
 as farm-hands in the North shows that 
 
American Slavery 43 
 
 there was no special advantage in slave 
 labor. ' ' ^ 
 
 The selling of slaves, especially in a way Thousands of 
 to sunder members of families, was not so ^^^^ ^^«''«^« 
 frequent as is sometimes imagined. In 
 1860 there were thousands of slaves who 
 had been owned for generation after gen- 
 eration by the same family. There were 
 also many thousands who had been emanci- 
 pated by their masters. Before the Civil 
 War the free Negro population in the 
 South was estimated at over a quarter of 
 a million. While by far the larger number 
 of these were idle and shiftless, many were 
 honest and industrious artisans who plied 
 their trades among both white and black 
 people. Some of this better class o^Tied 
 valuable property, and in a few instances 
 they were not only landowners but slave- 
 owners. 
 
 There were a large number of slaves Principal 
 who served a regular apprenticeship at 
 some trades and became skilled workmen. 
 Some of these rendered valuable service on 
 the plantations, others were hired out by 
 their masters to contractors, and still 
 others were allowed to '' hire their own 
 
 ^ Dyer, Democracy in the South Before the Civil War, 41-44. 
 
 Occupations 
 
44 The Upward Path 
 
 time " and make monthly or annual set- 
 tlement with their masters. The Negro 
 artisan worked side by side most amicably 
 with the white man following the same, 
 i;rade. 
 Agriculture and The vast maioritv of the slaves were em- 
 
 Domestic Service 
 
 ployed in agriculture and domestic service. 
 There was a marked difference between 
 those known as " farm-hands " and the 
 '' house servants." The position of the 
 latter being regarded as higher and the 
 work lighter, it was eagerly desired and 
 sought. This difference was more marked 
 on large plantations in the far South than 
 on the small farms in the Middle States. ^ 
 Plantation Life The plantation Negroes were generally 
 the latest arrivals from Africa and those 
 of the lowest tribal type. These were be- 
 ing constantly reenforced by the worst 
 specimens from other sections. Being! 
 " sold down South " was frequently the'^ 
 punishment for offenses that now send 
 them to the penitentiary. The threat of it 
 often proved an efficacious restraint upon 
 bad propensities. 
 Overseers Qn the large sugar, rice, and cotton plan 
 
 Sometimes Cruel 0077 
 
 tations where, they dwelt in large numbersj 
 and came very little into contact with the 
 
American Slavery . 45 
 
 white race, the gain for the Negroes for 
 a long time was only in settled habits of 
 industry and in learning obedience to law. 
 It seemed impossible for even this to be 
 accomplished without force, and, since the 
 ordinary plantation overseer was not al- 
 ways what he ought to have been any more 
 than industrial subordinates or city police 
 are to-day, brutal force was undoubtedly 
 often used rather than Christlike patience 
 and instruction in righteousness. This 
 was more frequently the case where plan- 
 tations suffered from the evils of " absen- 
 teeism," but many times the returning 
 owner indignantly corrected abuses and 
 discharged the overseer. In the hands of 
 wicked men the power of the owner was 
 abused, as power always has been and al- 
 ways will be by the unrighteous the world 
 er. It should not, however, be forgotten 
 that many of the punishments inflicted by 
 the owner upon slaves were for such of- 
 fenses as in this day send both white and 
 black culprits to the jails and peniten- 
 tiaries. The effect upon the character of 
 the oif ender and in the prevention of crime 
 was far more satisfactory, especially if 
 the criminal was young. 
 
46 The Upward Path 
 
 An^Honorabie rJ^•^Q large majority of Southern slave- 
 holders felt an honorable responsibility for 
 the care and protection of their slaves, 
 aside from pecuniary interest, even though 
 such care should lessen their financial 
 profits. Beyond this, they felt an indul- 
 gent compassion, that deepened into love 
 for the helpless folk dependent upon them. 
 They looked at them en masse and saw ra- 
 cial inferiority in mind, body, and morality, 
 and did not expect from them what they 
 did from white people. Any one going 
 upon a plantation to-day where Negroes 
 work in large niunbers, either in America 
 or elsewhere, will receive the same impres- 
 sion without, possibly, the same indulgent 
 feeling. 
 ""Soes The plantation Negroes lived in loca- 
 tions known as '' the quarters," usually, 
 each family in a house of one or two rooms. 
 The character of these houses as to ap- 
 pearance and comfort varied with the 
 financial ability or humanity of the owner. 
 Some slave-owners were poor or involved 
 in debt, and lived poorly themselves, while 
 others, alas! lacked the Christly love that 
 gives attention to the conditions of the un- 
 fortunate. Generally speaking, the houses 
 

 i 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 mmSi^KfltM 
 
 
 "*y^'^*>g^ 
 
 1^^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^l^jajprn 
 
 in 
 
 y^ "^^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 ?^ T^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 If 
 
 IPp 
 
 i 
 
 S^^^^.A_t 
 
 1^ 
 
 wlHi 
 
 l^jt^^^l 
 
 ^HHi 
 
 IMJl 
 
 
 
 
 ^lE 
 
 ■*(" 
 
 ••53 
 1 
 
 
 ^^pP 
 
 Jk^'W*^-- 
 
 
 
 
 H 
 
 
 ^B 
 
 Mi 
 
 
 ^^^a 
 
 B 
 
 ' 'JBi 
 
 _ 
 
 apEai^ai 
 
 •ixami 
 
 H 
 
 ^s 
 
 
 M 
 
 
 .mm. 
 
 ■^tI 
 
 ^Ie. 
 
 ' jm 
 
 B 
 
 BHs 
 
 B 
 
 ^^^ 
 
 Slave Cabins, Lawkexceville, Virginia 
 
 Uopynght, Umlcr«uod aiul L inlfi« uud 
 
 Slave Cabins, " The Hermitage," Savannah, Georgia 
 
American Slavery 47 
 
 for the slaves would bear comparison with 
 the homes of the peasant class in many- 
 lands, and were far less crowded and more 
 sanitary than the houses occupied by the 
 lower class of laborers, white or black, in 
 some of our cities to-day. 
 
 The Negroes of the South corresponded usuaiiy weir 
 
 Cared for by 
 
 to the poor people of other countries, and owners 
 poverty anywhere means the lack of lux- 
 ury and, sometimes, of the necessities of 
 life; yet these last the Southern slave 
 never lacked. To this statement there are 
 a thousand witnesses to one against it. ' 
 
 The food and clothing given them were good 
 and sufficient for the climate — very plain, 
 of course, but satisfying and clean. Where 
 the climate required a fire there was al- 
 ways an ample supply of fuel, and there 
 never was any rent to pay, or bills for 
 physician and drugs. The old, the young, 
 and the sick were even more the recipients 
 of such provision than the laborer, from 
 whose shoulders the burden of caring for 
 these was lifted. 
 
 The hours of work, as is usual for farm- Labor 
 
 IT Till n Regulations 
 
 hands, were regulated by the length of the 
 season's day, the weather, and the physi- 
 cal condition of the individual. No work 
 
48 The Upward Path 
 
 was required of the old or feeble beyond 
 what they were capable of rendering. The 
 expectant mother and the nursing mother 
 were guarded from overwork. On some 
 plantations mothers were given no work 
 that took them away from their little chil- 
 dren, on others the children were placed in 
 the care of a woman called a " tender," 
 who kept them in what we now call a day 
 nursery or creche. There was no thought 
 of child labor as it is now understood ; gen- 
 erally only a few trivial tasks were given 
 children before they were ten or twelve 
 years old, and later on their work was reg- 
 ulated to suit their years and strength. 
 They were not confined as our white chil- 
 dren are to-day in mills and factories and 
 sweat-shops. 
 Houdjiys^and Saturday afternoons, Christmas week, 
 and the Fourth of July were by almost 
 universal custom regarded as holidays, 
 and no work was required except feeding 
 the stock. These holidays were spent by 
 the thrifty in the truck gardens usually 
 allowed them, or on any kind of job work 
 by which they could make money for them- 
 selves, such as the making of baskets, 
 brooms, shuck mats, and similar articles; 
 
American Slavery 49 
 
 while the fun-loving spent them in hunt- 
 ing, fishing, dancing, and play. Sunday 
 was a day of rest, wherein they loafed or 
 slept, except during the hours of worship. 
 Unless the master was actively opposed 
 to Christianity, which was rare, regular 
 religious services were conducted in a 
 house he had built for the purpose, or in 
 a barn or gin house cleaned for the occa- 
 sion, the preacher being either a white 
 " missionary " or one of their own race — 
 sometimes the master or mistress. 
 
 The marriage relation was encouraged Mamage 
 by owners and accounted honorable among 
 themselves, though the disregard of it was 
 frequent, as is the case with the ignorant 
 class everywhere. When compared with 
 the unrestrained licentiousness of their 
 savage past, this was slight indeed. 
 
 To sell liquor to a slave was illegal and Brunkenness and 
 subjected the seller to punishment; hence ««™''''"8 
 there was little drunkenness among them, 
 and there was little occasion or opportu- 
 nity for gambling on the plantation. The 
 restraints of slavery saved them from 
 these vices that to-day are doing much to 
 destroy them. 
 
 Negroes were not allowed to leave the 
 
50 The Upward Path 
 
 Restrictions^nd plantation after nightfall without a writ- 
 ten permit from the owner. If one was 
 found outside without this " pass," he was 
 subject to arrest by the rural police called 
 *' patrols," or, as the Negroes pronounced! 
 it, '' patter-rollers." This restraint pre-; 
 vented much roguery and was especially 
 helpful in keeping young men from night 
 dissipation, and it left them in better con- 
 dition for the morrow's work. Within the 
 bounds of the plantation there was little 
 or no restraint placed on their frolics and 
 fun-making. On such occasions their joy- 
 ous temperament and natural gayety found 
 such expression as made it hard to believe 
 that they were miserable and unhappy. 
 Marriage off the plantation was not en- 
 couraged. In some cases it was forbidden. 
 The custom in such marriages was to allow 
 the husband, if the distance was not great, 
 to go every night to the home of the wife ; 
 if distant, to go Saturday night and remain 
 till Monday morning. The children of 
 such marriages belonged to the owner of 
 the wife. 
 bSv^hfabfe There were no schools for the Negroes, 
 Training ^^^ ^^j^ ^^^ ^^^ exccptious the plantation 
 
 Negroes were absolutely illiterate, yet 
 
American Slavery 51 
 
 there was a certain amount of education 
 and mental development that came with 
 training in diversified industries, and with 
 the learning of a new language by those 
 who were brought to this country as 
 adults. There was also much verbal teach- 
 ing among them in the way of songs, reci- 
 tations, and story-telling. A considerable 
 amount of valuable information was im- 
 parted by their " wise ones," gained by 
 close observations of nature in its various 
 forms, to which they added shrewd ''say- 
 ings " and wise i^roverbs full of common 
 sense. 
 The " house servants " formed a class Domestic 
 
 Servants 
 
 quite distmct and socially above the field- 
 hand, and even among them there were de- 
 grees, something after this fashion: the 
 children's nurse, " M'ammy," the butler, 
 the carriage driver, the gentleman's body- 
 servant, the " lady's-maid," the cook, the 
 gardener. All of these held sway in cer- 
 tain realms of their own, the dignity of 
 which they tried to impress on others, 
 while they enjoyed its advantages and i^er- 
 quisites. Next to these was the " head 
 man" (known only in fiction as the 
 '' driver ") of the farm-hands. He was 
 
52 The Upward Path 
 
 most frequently a man of fine character 
 as well as of physical prowess, and re- 
 spected alike by white and black. 
 House Servants The housc scrvants were generally 
 chosen from among their fellows because 
 of their intelligence and good appearance, 
 or because their jDarents had been in the 
 house. Their close association — for it was 
 very close, intimate, and affectionate — 
 with the white family and their guests 
 gained for them a certain sort of culture 
 of mind, morals, and manners totally un- 
 known to the mass of their people. Many 
 of them read well. They were loyal to the 
 last degree to the white family and its 
 traditions, identifying themselves with it 
 to the extent of feeling themselves a part 
 of it in joy or sorrow, and having a sense 
 of ownership in all that belonged to it. 
 They were in turn trusted and loved by 
 their white people, and thus was formed a 
 bond so strong that not even the great war 
 was able to sunder it. 
 '^%™?si1ng Those who did not know personally the 
 relation between the black '' Mammy " 
 and her nurslings can never understand 
 it. The heart grows tender, the eyes 
 moist, in recalling the dear black face that 
 
American Slavery 53 
 
 so often bent over the writer of these 
 pages and the sheltering arms that held 
 her in sleep or sickness, the sympathetic 
 consoler in childish troubles and the in- 
 structor in manners, all summed up in 
 *' Mammy," otherwise '' Aunt Gilly," 
 '' faithful until death." She was a type 
 of hundreds of others, and all through the 
 South there are white men and women who 
 have the same tender memories of their 
 loving nurses. The same feeling in a les- 
 ser degree extended to many " uncles " 
 and " aunts " and playfellows. 
 
 Many a Southern home was a better Home a 
 model for an industrial school than some 
 that have been established of late years 
 for white and black girls. The training 
 was individual, thorough, practical, and 
 the result the finest domestic service that 
 ever existed. The men and women who 
 owned the Negroes were not luxurious 
 idlers, as they have often been represented. 
 The Southern mistress, besides being a no- 
 table housekeeper and a devoted mother of 
 many children, was often a combination of 
 " a head resident in a settlement," a 
 " health officer," a ^' superintendent of 
 nurses, "a'' director of industries, "a'' con- 
 
54 The Upward Path 
 
 fidential adviser and umpire " of fam- 
 ily and neighbor difficulties, with many 
 minor duties. She loked after the sanitary 
 condition of the " cabin " and the personal 
 habits of its occupants, and required clean- 
 liness. She visited the sick constantly, and 
 often administered the medicine and pre- 
 pared the food with her own hands. She 
 looked after the babies, and instructed the 
 mothers in their care. She comforted the 
 sorrowing, rejoiced with the happy, and, if 
 she herself were a Christian, pointed the 
 dying to Christ. She or her daughters 
 were often the Sunday-school teachers of 
 the children, and read the Bible to the old 
 and sick in their cabins. 
 witch=doctors Imported along with others of their 
 
 Imported i a 
 
 tribe came the " witch-doctors," or medi- 
 cine-men, and these by their knowledge of 
 the secret things of their profession and by 
 the desire to preserve their power over the 
 people (with the gains of it) did more than 
 anything else to liinder the evangelization 
 of the Negroes. Fear of the malevolent 
 use of the witch-power was the largest 
 cause of their influence over the timid ; and 
 with the wicked there was a desire to se- 
 cure their help in furthering their own evil 
 
American Slavery 55 
 
 purposes. This power was possessed as 
 often by women as men, and was a terrible 
 weapon when directed by jealousy, envy, 
 and anger, and its results were manifested 
 in the failing health and sometimes in the 
 death of its victims. The explanation 
 may be found in some degree in mental 
 suggestion and nervous terror, but also, 
 though in possibly a lesser degree, in the 
 use of poison, the secret of which was 
 brought from Africa. This practice of the 
 ' ' black art ' ' of f etichism was hidden with 
 cunning wisdom from the whites, espe- 
 cially from the master, except in sad cases 
 of sickness when the sufferer would be pro- 
 nounced conjured. For these medical 
 treatment was of little avail. 
 
 '' It was a secret religion, that lurked FeticWsm 
 thinly covered in slavery days, and that 
 lurks to-day beneath the Negro 's Christian 
 profession as a white art, and among non- 
 professors as a black art ; a memory of the 
 revenges of his African ancestors ; a secret 
 fraternity among slaves of far distant 
 plantations, with words and signs — the 
 lifting of a finger, the twitch of an eyelid — 
 that telegraphed from house to house with 
 amazing rapidity (as to-day in Africa) 
 
56 The Upward Path 
 
 current news in old slave days and during 
 the Civil War ; suspected but never under- 
 stood by the white master; which, as a 
 superstition, has spread among our igno- 
 rant white masses as the ' Hoodoo. ' Vudu, 
 or Odoism, is simply African fetich- 
 ism transplanted to American soil."^ 
 
 gSHHRetam i'jf^ jg almost impossible for persons 
 who have been brought up under this sys- 
 tem ever to divest themselves fully of its 
 influence. It has been retained among the 
 blacks of this country, though in a less 
 open form, even to the present day, and 
 probably will never be fully abandoned un- 
 til they have made much higher attain- 
 ments in Christian education and civiliza- 
 tion. "^ 
 Diffkum'el ^ statement of these conditions shows 
 
 TrInsSed thc great difficulty that was encountered 
 in teaching the gospel of purity and truth 
 to a people many of whom were born sav- 
 ages, or were but one generation removed 
 from savagery. Yet faithful men and 
 women of God wrought a great work for 
 their Lord in bringing thousands, yes, hun- 
 dreds of thousands, of these poor heathen 
 and semi-heathen to know and to love the 
 
 1 Nassau, Fetichism in West Africa, 274, 275. 
 9 Wilson, Western Africa. 
 
American Slavery 57 
 
 Christ. There have been many " simple 
 annals of the poor " Christian Negroes 
 preserved that thrill the heart to gladness 
 in Jesus, for that He hath redeemed unto 
 Himself many peoples of many nations — 
 stories of humble faith and unswerving de- 
 votion to God, of patient unselfishness 
 toward others, of joy in the Lord, and of 
 power in intercessory prayer for the 
 sinner. 
 
 In considering the Christianization of considerations 
 the Africans who dwelt in this country as 
 slaves, conditions should be frankly con- 
 sidered in order to understand not only 
 the missionary efforts of the Churches and 
 Christian workers, but also the difficulties 
 and, at times, the almost insurmountable 
 hindrances that attended those efforts and 
 lessened their results. 
 
 1. The public opinion of an age that per- Pubnc^opinion 
 mitted the slave-trade was not favorable 
 
 to a Christlike attitude toward the slave, 
 or a recognition of his spiritual nature and 
 its needs. 
 
 2. The majority of the colonists came to Majority of 
 
 . . Colonists Not 
 
 America to improve their fortunes, and 'nterested in 
 
 ^ ' Religion 
 
 the purchase of slaves was simply a com- 
 mercial transaction. Many colonists were 
 
58 The Upward Path 
 
 not Christians themselves, and, as a matter 
 of course, cared nothing for the salvation 
 of others, either white or black. This class 
 of men in that day, as in this, easily per- 
 suaded themselves into thinking that all 
 religion was either superstition or hypoc- 
 risy, and that the Negroes were better off 
 without it. The worst of them exercised 
 their power in refusing religious oppor- 
 tunities to their slaves. 
 Ne^esskiSId 3. Ccrtalu uprisings of dissatisfied 
 Precautions gi^ygg [j^ different parts of the country 
 
 made it necessary, in the minds of some, 
 to prevent all large gatherings among 
 them with the possibilities which they of- 
 fered of fomenting and planning disturb- 
 ances; and, as religious gatherings were 
 sometimes used for this purpose, they 
 were also at times disallowed, and in 
 some places laws were passed forbidding 
 them as well as others. This was espe- 
 cially true during the period immediately 
 following the early abolition movement 
 and the intolerance which accompanied it. 
 mlKLSar'y 4. Thc low, vicious nature of the Afri- 
 Effort Difficult ^^^^ niade then, as now, any missionary 
 
 effort among them difficult and slow. 
 They were imbued with the basest super- 
 
American Slavery 59 
 
 stitions and cJung to their fetich with un- 
 reasoning fear. Their spiritual faculties 
 were so dormant that they often seemed 
 incapable of spiritual perception of any 
 kind. Their physical habits and immoral 
 practices were so filthy and debasing that 
 their moral degeneracy opposed bitterly 
 the doctrines of purity and truth, and even 
 when Christianity was accepted many ad- 
 herents would not regard its ethics. 
 
 5. On the plantations there were many Language a 
 
 Barrier 
 
 who did not know enough iLinglish to un- 
 derstand the words of the preacher, and 
 they were so stupid that they could never 
 learn it, and their own language possessed 
 no spiritual terms that would properly 
 convey to them the gospel of love and pu- 
 rity. Over this class of native Africans 
 and their children the witch-doctor had as 
 much fearful power as in the wilds of 
 Africa. 
 
 6. The turbulent state of mind preceding Turbulent 
 and during the Eevolutionary War, and unfavorable 
 the unsettled conditions which followed it 
 
 and which led to the Western movement, 
 were unfavorable to all religious life. 
 
 7. The infidel propaganda of Voltaire, 'nfi^ei 
 
 i^ i- ^ ' Propaganda an 
 
 Rousseau, and Paine that swept through imp«»'ment 
 
60 The Upward Path 
 
 Christendom like a poison virus turned 
 away many hearts from Christ and right- 
 eousness. Its influence was felt from New 
 England to the Carolinas, in the eastern 
 cities and the wildernesses of the West. 
 Slave-owners infected by it bitterly re- 
 sented or ridiculed the efforts of preachers 
 or even of their own Christian wives to 
 teach the Negroes belief in God. The un- 
 shaken faith and Christian courage of 
 American women during that time of apos- 
 tasy was the leaven that saved this country 
 for Christ. Later, great revivals swept 
 over the country and the quickening of the 
 Holy Spirit was felt by both white and 
 black — master and slave often being con- 
 verted at the same '' mourner's bench." 
 One of the important results of these re- 
 vivals was the increased sense of responsi- 
 bility felt by masters for the religious in- 
 struction of their Negroes. 
 ^HiJpioE ^^ ^^^ through all these difficulties and 
 adverse influences the Church of God and 
 His faithful children never ceased their ef- 
 forts to save the poor African slaves. And 
 God was fulfilling His promise that His 
 Word should not return unto Him void. 
 The seed of the Word was falling upon 
 
American Slavery 61 
 
 hearts prepared by the Spirit to receive it, 
 and was bearing fruit to the glory of God 
 in the conversion and daily life of more 
 and yet more of the slaves. The history 
 of this missionary movement is as inter- 
 esting as any that has been written of 
 Africa, and the results are more wonder- 
 ful.i 
 At the beginning of the Civil War church 
 
 /tnnfw ii , ,1 -K-r Membership In 
 
 (IodU), the census reports the Negro pop- south 
 ulation of the South as 4,097,111. In the 
 Baptist and Methodist Churches alone 
 607,786 Negroes were enrolled as baptized 
 members, and instructed adherents were 
 estimated at 1,823,328. Add to this the 
 membership and adherents of the Presby- 
 terian, Protestant Episcopal, Moravian, 
 and Negro BajDtist Churches, of which no 
 records can be obtained, and there must 
 have been over 2,000,000 Negroes in the 
 Southern States who were either profess- 
 ing Christians or under direct Protestant 
 Christian influence and instruction — nearly 
 one-half of their whole number. Of the 
 
 1 The details of this great work of the saving of a people will 
 be told elsewhere In this volume, as the story of the evolution ot 
 the race proceeds and the dark meaning of its different stages un- 
 folds and grows clearer. Let it sutBce here to give the result of 
 the unquenchable love, unfailing patience, generous giving, and 
 unflagging zeal of years of this heroic effort. 
 
62 The Upward Path 
 
 other half there were hundreds, possibly 
 thousands, of Eoman Catholics, and there 
 must also have been large numbers to 
 whom the gospel had been preached and 
 who refused to receive it. 
 Membership^n i^ the North, in 1860, there was a Negro 
 population of 344,719, of whom we can 
 claim that an equal proportion were Chris- 
 tians and under Christian instruction. 
 Does the history of missions present any 
 parallel to this? 
 
 SUGGESTED QUESTIONS ON CHAPTEE II 
 
 Aim: To Understand Thoroughly the Conditions 
 THAT Obtained Among the Slaves and the Prog- 
 
 EESS 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 
 traflSe. 
 
 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 ci\dlization 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 
 
 Eeferences 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, IV, VI, VII. 
 Pyrnelle: Diddie, Dumps and Tot, I-XVII. 
 Shannon: Eacial Integrity, III. 
 Sinclair: The Aftermath of Slavery, I. 
 Washington: Up From Slavery, I, II. 
 Washington: Frederick Douglass, I, II, III. 
 Whipple: Negro Neighbors, I. 
 Williams : History of the Negro Eace, XXX, 
 XXXI. 
 
 1 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 suil- 
 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 Schurs 
 
 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 
 
m 
 
 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. 
 ^ Freedom ^^^ Ncgro laborcr 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 
 
 Northern 
 Seatimeot 
 
 growing in the North, the proslavery senti- 
 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 lenliment 
 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 
 
 I 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. 
 
 jj That which began in recriminations be- a^ouS'**" 
 came open curses and violent demonstra- 
 
70 The Upward Path 
 
 tions of hatred. Philanthropy entered upon 
 the political arena, and sectional politicians 
 fought 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 ^fj^^^^ It would be useless to recount here the 
 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 tyjDical 
 of the feelings of those who on both sides 
 fought for what they deemed the right. 
 The intrepid, great-souled Lee, accepting 
 defeat, rendered up 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. God 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 Jhe 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. 
 '^'^N^^o ^^ i® 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 Ms 
 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- Kge"^,^eSony 
 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. ' ' - 
 
 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- 
 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 
 
 Booker T. 
 
 Washington's 
 
 Testimony 
 
 1 Page, The Negro: The Southerner's Problem, ISS. 
 a 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. If 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. ' ' ^ 
 Weakness of rpjjg game writcr says of the Eeconstruc- 
 
 Reconstruction •> 
 
 P^""** tion 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 Wasliington, 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 ^1%%^,^^ for 
 with similar preparation and similar sur- ^Iriod**''"'^*'"" 
 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 welfare of the 
 Negro. . . . 
 
76 The Upward Path 
 
 Lack of i ' i^ ^as unfortunate that the Southern 
 
 Sympathy 
 
 '^"°'whi"e Men white man did not make more of an effort 
 at this time to get the confidence and sym- 
 pathy of the Negro, and thus keep him in 
 close touch and sympathy in politics. It 
 was also unfortunate that the Negro was 
 so completely 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 prescribed 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 Negro, 
 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 Negro can stand in the future 
 and make himself a useful, honorable, and 
 desirable citizen."^ 
 
 1 Washington, The Future of the American Negro, 10-15. 
 
First Years of Freedom 77 
 
 Of the Eeconstruction Period Mr. Pag'e strong Bond 
 
 » of Friendship at 
 
 says : ' ' When the war closed the friend- '^'"^^ **' ^^^ 
 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, 
 
 at 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 accomplished 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 SefeTted neids 
 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 South 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 occui3ation. 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 uQworkcd lauds were declared 
 Negroes << abaudoucd lands," and in some places 
 they were given by government officials to 
 
 1 Page, The Negro: The Southerner's Problem, 28-30, 18S, 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 mh*"!"" 
 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 Freedmen-s 
 
 . Bureau 
 
 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 Tlicu 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. 
 Disastrous ^^^® eight ycars following, known as the 
 ^^^i"* Eeconstruction Period, possibly cost the 
 
 1 " The Negro Common School." Atlantic Monthly, March, 1901. 
 
 2 The "carpetbagger" came from, the North, the " scalawag " 
 was a mean Southern white man. 
 
Copyright, (jilbo Jt Co. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln 
 
First Years of Freedom 81 
 
 South more than the four years of war 
 cost her.i 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 SJstlSt* 
 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 self- 
 
 1 Page. The Negro: The Southerner's Problem, 45. 
 
Lincoln's 
 Plan 
 
 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. ' ' ^ 
 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. 
 ^*"soidiers 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 Problem, 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 
 upon 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 shuttii;ock 
 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 g^f^^ ^^^ pu„ 
 emancipated freedman into a citizen re- ^'"^^"^'"p 
 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 in Qur civilizatiou fiuds uot ouly its unit in 
 
 Power ^ '' 
 
 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 J^l^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? 
 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?oduce*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 fraud and thievery; and (3) tbe 
 Army of Occupation.^ 
 
 Franchise a That the Negro, so handicapped by his 
 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 carpctbag 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 used L"®^?' Measures 
 
 , Employed 
 
 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 Re- 
 construction," and '' The Repudiation of 
 Johnson's Policy." 
 
 Later, many of the states held conven- K^anchised 
 tions that adopted new Constitutions which 
 by their educational qualifications virtu- 
 ally disfranchised the gTeat 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. a. Stanley ' ' ^he 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 Rico. 
 Negroes^Arrayed " Whatcvcr allcgiance aud friendship 
 Masters j^]^q Negrocs 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 Sheeted whoie 
 political rather than the industrial, social, ^ife of Negro 
 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 [r"nse™ay"* 
 said, it at least taught industrial habits and "'^"^ss 
 obedience to law, and prohibited many of 
 the grosser vices. "With its restraints taken 
 nway, every form of vice became rampant. 
 Drunkenness, gambling, stealing, lying, and 
 
90 The Upward Path 
 
 sensuality found 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, 
 ^"^^church The Negroes had either shared the 
 Privileges Qii^j^^]! privileges 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 swe"fAwf^™** 
 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 imi 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, 
 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- 
 
 Christian Efforts 
 Thwarted 
 
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. 
 ^"corSvl I* i^ hard for any one who did not see 
 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 3ome 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. 
 Unprepared for Cared for iu cvcry respect as slaves, 
 
 Responsibility . . 
 
 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 tliese things for themselves? 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- 
 difference or necessity, far widely and 
 more frequently than during the days of 
 slavery. 
 
 They had no home, and often their only "nTsorro^w'*""^ 
 shelter was a crude shed, while frequently 
 they lay in the open field, weary pilgrims 
 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 nufifin 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 outcome of their baseless hopes at 
 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. 
 ^'shon,esty^in jt did uot 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." 
 ^"of 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 
 
 n 
 
96 The Upward Path 
 
 '^^?stand1tfii ^^^ 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 -^ ^ 
 
 Embarrassed •^ Schurz, " First Days of Reconstruction," McClure's Magazine, 
 
 May, 1908. 
 
First Years of Freedom 97 
 
 that the Southern 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 ^dI&Z'S'"' 
 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 
 j way to its accomplishment was one that an 
 1 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 • i i i 
 
 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, they transmitted these ideas 
 Animosity to 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, thev 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 aifectionate 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- {f^g'JjJIj:^ 
 
 ^ 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 1 Was) 
 it wonderful that the far-famed ' ' Southernjs 
 hospitality " was not extended and them 
 Northern teacher felt herself, as she was.j 
 socially ostracized! 
 Some Mistakes Thesc first missionaries saw the worst ofl 
 
 Unavoidable ^ . ,1 
 
 the worst state of the Negro, and the goodl 
 was overshadowed by it so that there! 
 seemed no good at all or else the good wasi 
 deified. Their ignorance was felt by thef 
 South to be almost unpardonable, for ill 
 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 asi 
 the ordinary experience. These fearful re-l 
 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 
 
 ill 
 
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 Lelsonl^ 
 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 witli any desire to emphasize missionary 
 mistalies. These have occurred in the beginning of all missionary 
 enterprises and have served as stepping-stones to better things. 
 
1C2 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 his white friends 
 Leadershipjhe ^q^q 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. ' ' 
 
 n 
 
1* fw'^ifl 
 
 Class in Domestic Science 
 
 Electrical Engineering 
 
First Years of Freedom 103 
 
 SUGGESTED QUESTIONS ON CHAPTEE ITT 
 
 Aim : To Understand the Effect of the First Years 
 OF Freedom Upon the Negroes 
 
 1. What was the sentiment in the Northern and 
 Southern States in regard to the abolition of 
 slavery ? 
 
 2. How were the early abolitionists treated in the 
 North? 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 during 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 Re- 
 construction Period. 
 
 11. Tn what ways was the Negro a sufferer physi- 
 cally and morally during the Eeconstruction 
 Period? 
 
 12.* How did the period especially effect the relig- 
 ious life of the Negro? 
 
 13. What mistakes were made by some mission- 
 aries from the North? 
 
 14.* How may we profit in our religious work by 
 the mistakes of the past? 
 
104 The Upward Path 
 
 References for Further Study. — Chapter III 
 The First Years of Freedom. 
 
 Avary : Dixie After the War, XII-XA^ XVII. 
 
 DuBois: The Souls of the Black Folk, II. 
 
 Merriam: The Negro and the Nation, XVI, 
 
 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. 
 
 I 
 
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. 
 
 — Bool'er 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 tte 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 tl» earth. 
 As a race they have done well. As a race they are do- 
 ing well. As a race they do produce criminals, so does 
 our own; so does every race under the sun. 
 
 — Earry StiUwell Edwards 
 
IV 
 INDUSTRIAL AND ECONOMIC PROGRESS 
 
 A 
 
 T the time of the Negro's emancipa- "?/fJR>l^ 
 
 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 
 ^"ith courageous cheerfulness. 
 
 Harlan P. Beach says: " The African q^^^^^-^^^^^ 
 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. "^ 
 '^'^"ououd Drunmiond 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." 
 A ^^^^^ The African, while subjected to the con- 
 Laborers (Jitious of American slavery, proved his 
 ability to work with continuous regularity 
 and in many respects intelligently. Those 
 conditions involved compulsion and gaiid- 
 ance, and on some rare occasions furnished 
 a stimulus that proved an inner incentive 
 
 1 Geography and Atlas of Protestant MissionSj 451. 
 
Industrial and Economic Progress 109 
 
 to labor. The results of this last were al- 
 ways marked. But when all his wants 
 were met, mth nothing to gain or to lose 
 by a greater or lesser etfort, 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 ^,"''*J^"' 
 Negro's past life of which we have any 
 knowledge, attention is now directed to his 
 present condition, with its ind'mtions of 
 undoubted progress during tht lialf-cen- 
 tury of his freedom. 
 
 As a first step in studying the present Distribution of 
 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 pop. 
 
 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 This table shows that 89.7 per cent, of 
 
 the South ^ 
 
 the entire Negro population resides m thes 
 fourteen Southern States, lea^dng 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 segre- 
 gated in the four large cities of those 
 States. In thirty of the States, out of 
 every one hundred people, only three are 
 Negroes: nnd 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- 
 
r 
 
 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 ^fliH^'^^f '*" 
 ninth of the total population, form only Country 
 about one fifteenth of the urban popu- 
 lation and more than one seventh of the 
 rural j^opulation. 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 Rouge, 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 i3opulation 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 poj^ulation 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?'! ^ glaucc 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 his 
 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 o'^^ort^unu^ in 
 Problems of the Present South: "The the^south^' 
 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 
 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 South 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 '' Tlio race prcjudice 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 finds 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 230ssibilities, there, of 
 self-respect, of decency, of hope? "What 
 are the pOJBsibilities of bread? 
 
 ' ' The economic problem lies at the very gP^^Klst*'* 
 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, Prollems of the Present South, 1S4, 185, 187. 
 
116 The Upward Path 
 
 ^DesfroySo V^^^U " 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. 
 EarSc'reate! Tlio 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." 
 o'f"ReI{iz"n| Wlicu we consldcr the great host of 
 
 Progress Negrocs Hviug 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 
 the 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 [aboring^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 
 number of the unemployed that will not 
 or cannot work. These conditions tend to 
 poverty of the laboring class everywhere. 
 Rapid Economic Putting aside 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. 
 South not Booker T. Washington, when asked if 
 
 opposed to cj / 
 
 Negro's Progress ^j^e 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 their interest 
 in the Negro's education and progress, 
 says: ''Such 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. 
 Encouraging '^ Qf 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, aocial Progress, 1906, 174. 
 
St. Paul Normal and Industrial School, 
 Laavrexceville, Virginia 
 
 Farmers' Conference, Lawkenceville, 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 ^Jjj^^ln^t"" 
 Arnett 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.- 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- ^^.ZS^^ 
 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 coiarse 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 em- 
 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 Ncgrocs are employed as 
 
 Employees . 7 o x ./ 
 
 miners and quarrymen, saw and planing- 
 mill emi3loyees, 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- ^|?;;?|,f •" 
 gro females engaged in gainful occupa- occupations 
 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-four must 
 have been married, as sixty-eight and 
 three-tenths per cent, of all Negro women 
 between those ages were reported as mar- 
 ried. "^ 
 
 M^the*'rsTfflcts ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ ^ dccided effect upon 
 Children ^]^g homc Ufc 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 m 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. S. 
 
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- Sl"dw?ves"'' 
 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- g/I^^Tressel *"** 
 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 ronghly 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, 
 ^^"xradl^ 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. 
 '*'DSvSftageI ^' 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 
 
 I 
 
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. Who 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."* 
 wofkmeS ^^^ 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 Segro^^rtisan 
 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- Personal 
 
 ' ' ~ Example and 
 
 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 conceiDtion 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. ' ' 
 cobpe^atTJn ^^® Ncgrocs havo manifested in various 
 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 effort 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 exiDression 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 benejficial 
 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 fodS"' 
 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. Regalia 
 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. 
 ^"^"oK^zTtlon ^^^ True Eeformers constitutes prob- 
 ably the most remarkable Negro organiza- 
 tion in this country. It was organized in 
 1881, by the Eev. 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 Eeformers 
 is now a mutual insurance association hav- 
 ing 2,678 fountains, or lodges, with mor6 
 than 100,000 members, of whom there are 
 now benefited in the Fountain 50,636. It 
 has a " Eosebud 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 Richmond 
 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 ^SStrof 
 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 socrct societics, 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, propertj^ 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 
 
 i Atlanta University Publications, No. 12. 
 
 r^... 
 
Industrial and Economic Progress 135 
 
 1905, had a membersliip 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. From 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- Benevofence 
 festation in between 75 and 100 homes and 
 orphanages supported wholly or largely 
 by Negroes. Some of these are well-pro- 
 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 Uniyerslty Publications, No. 12. 
 
136 The Upward Path 
 
 government supports. Nearly every town 
 in the South has a colored cemetery o^Tied 
 and conducted by Negroes, making a total 
 of probably about 500. 
 Negro Banks i^ 1865, tlic national congress incor- 
 IDorated 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. 
 ^"eSisl ^^^^ 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. Wliile 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. 
 '^""mIsSppI ^^^^ estate and credit societies have re- 
 sulted in Negro settlements in towns, some 
 
Industrial and Economic Progress 137 
 
 !d' 
 
 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 neiglibor- 
 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-. rN • Improvement 
 
 Texas, organized by R. 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 ^ -y 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 communi- 
 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 agi'icultural fairs and lec- 
 tures, and the establishment of an agricul- 
 tural and industrial college. 
 Business Men j^ q^q mcdium-sizcd 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. 
 ^pSils With such an array of facts, who can 
 doubt the progress of the Negro in indus- 
 trial life and pursuits? 
 
Industrial and Economic Progress 139 
 
 SUGGESTED QUESTIONS ON CHAPTEE IV 
 
 Aim: To Learn How the Negroes Have Progressed 
 Industrially and Economically Since Their 
 Emancipation 
 
 1. What conditions of the past, in Africa, in 
 American slavery, and the first years of free- 
 dom, has the Negro been obliged to overcome? 
 
 2. Did the Anglo-Saxon race rise suddenly? 
 
 2. How many years has it taken the Anglo-Saxon 
 to reach his present condition? 
 
 4.* "What are some of the advantages and disad- 
 vantages that the Negro has had compared 
 •with the Anglo-Saxon? 
 
 5. Why have the majority of the Negroes re- 
 mained in the South? 
 
 6. Do you think that they will continue to remain, 
 in the South, and why? 
 
 7.* Compare the advantages, economically and in- 
 dustrially, that the Negroes have in the South 
 and the North. 
 
 8. Where are the physical conditions more favor- 
 able ? 
 
 9. To what extent can the people in the North aid 
 in helping the Negro? 
 
 10. Why are the cities especially destructive to the 
 physical life of the Negroes? 
 
 11. Do the cities have an equally bad effect upon 
 the other races? 
 
 12. Do the women and children among the poor 
 Negroes suffer any more than among the poor 
 of other races under similar conditions? 
 
 13. In what occupations do the Negro men and 
 women find the most employment, and why? 
 
 14. What is the chief value of the societies organ- 
 ized among the Negroes? 
 
140 The Upward Path 
 
 15. What are the conditions that must be consid- 
 ered in estimating the progress of any race? 
 
 16. Enumerate all the evidences of industrial and 
 economic progress among the Negroes. 
 
 17.* In view of the past conditions do you believe 
 that the Negroes have made substantial prog- 
 ress? State reasons. 
 
 18.* How may the Negroes make themselves more 
 useful in the industrial and economic system 
 of our country? 
 
 19. Sum up the chief hindrances to more rapid 
 progress among the Negroes. 
 
 20.* What can the whites both North and South do 
 to assist the Negroes to improve their indus- 
 trial and economic conditions? 
 
 Eeferences for Further Study. — Chapter IV* 
 
 Industrial and Economic Conditions Among the Negroes. 
 Baker: Following the Color Line, Part I, IV. 
 Galloway: " The Negro as a Business Man," 
 World's Work, June, '08. 
 Miller: Race Adjustment, 179-198. 
 Park: " Agricultural Extension Among Ne- 
 groes," World To-Day, Aug., '08. 
 Sinclair: The Aftermath of Slavery, VIII. 
 Smith: " The Uplifting Negro Co-operation 
 Society," World's Work, July, '08. 
 Stone: Studies in the American Race, Part II, 
 IV, V. 
 
 Washington: " The American Negro of To- 
 Day, " Putnam's Magazine, Oct., '07. 
 
 1 On this chapter and those that follow the religious periodicals 
 and home mission magazines will be found helpful. Other publica- 
 tions such as the " The Southern Workman," " Atlanta University " 
 and " American Academy of Science " should be consulted. 
 
Industrial and Economic Progress 141 
 
 Washington: " A Town Owned by Negroes," 
 World's WorTc, July, '07. 
 
 Washington: " Negro Homes," Century Maga- 
 zine, May, '08. 
 
 Washington and DuBois: The Negro in the 
 South, II, III. 
 

SOCIAL CONDITIONS 
 
Thirty years ago, when I was a boy in Georgia's 
 central city, one part of the suburbs given over to Ne- 
 groes contained an aggregation of unfurnished, ill-kept, 
 rented cabins, the occupants untidy, and for the most ji 
 part shiftless. Such a thing as virtue among the female I 
 members was in but few instances conceded. Girls from si 
 this section roamed the streets at night, and vice was 
 met with on every corner. Eecently, in company with a ' 
 friend who was interested in a family residing in the 
 same community, I visited it. I found many families 
 occupying their own homes, flowers growing in the yard - 
 and on the porches, curtains at the windows, and an air | 
 of homelike serenity overflowing the entire district. In 
 the house wo entered, the floors were carpeted, the white 
 walls were hung with pictures, the mantels held bric-a,- 
 brac. In one room was a parlor organ, in another a sew- 
 ing-machine, and in another a piano, where a girl sat 
 at practise. In conversation with the people of the house 
 and neighborhood, we heard good ideas expressed in ex- 
 cellent language and discovered that every one with whom 
 we came in contact could read and wi'ite, while many 
 were much further advanced. Just one generation lies 
 between the two conditions set forth, and the change 
 may be said to indicate the urban Negro 's mental and 
 material progress throughout the whole South. Of those 
 who see only gloom ahead for the Negro, the question 
 may be fairly asked. Where else in the world is there a 
 people developing so rapidly? The men who have pur- 
 chased these houses, the women who keep them, have 
 achieved a higher standard of citizenship, and the reac- 
 tion on their descendants has, so far as their influence is 
 operative, helped to free the streets of vice. So far as 
 this community is concerned, one great stride toward the 
 elevation of the race has been taken and the pace set. 
 
 — Earry Stillwell Edwards 
 
 I 
 
SOCIAL CONDITIONS 
 
 THE Negro in Africa had no knowledge j^'^^g'^Llfe 
 of a home, except as a shelter from 
 the elements and his enemies, physical and 
 spiritual. The home of the American 
 slave, though often dear to him, lacked of 
 necessity some of the essentials of a true 
 home, yet from it and his contact with the 
 home and home life of his owner he formed 
 an ideal, however dim, toward which he 
 was to struggle when his circumstances 
 were changed. As a freedman the Negro 
 was practically a man without a home, a 
 people without a social form, a race with- 
 out a country. 
 
 From the crudest elements, blended of HJmeui" 
 poverty and ignorance, desire and hope, he 
 began to construct a new standard of life 
 and form about himself certain social 
 forms by imitating what he saw the white 
 people have and do. Possibly he was not 
 always able to distinguish between the 
 good and bad examples set before him, or 
 
146 The Upward Path 
 
 chose the latter because it was easier to 
 human nature, but he also chose in innu- 
 merable instances the best things which he 
 has learned how to do by doing; and out of 
 his persistent efforts a home and social life 
 is being evolved that, far from perfect as it 
 yet may be, shows a great advance beyond 
 his past, a decided step in his onward way 
 toward Christian civilization. 
 Moving Onward The white man 's laws and moral stand- 
 ards, his counsel and helping hand, have 
 all aided the Negro in his progress, but the 
 best part of his achievement, and that 
 which makes it most worth while, has come 
 through his own courageous, patient seek- 
 ing for that which was best as far as he 
 knew it. Mistakes, failures, offenses have 
 come, as needs they must, but undismayed 
 he is still moving onward. 
 
 '^^^"' Ownership '' "^^^ white or black man, by the sweat 
 of whose brow a home has been bought, 
 is by virtue of that act an infinitely better 
 citizen." The increased sense of self- 
 respect that comes with such ownership 
 leads to a deeper sense of obligation for 
 the protection and maintenance of the 
 home and the character of family life. It 
 also brings an increased sense of responsi- 
 
Two Houses Uwnkd by a Negro, in One of Which He Lives. 
 Charleston, West Virginia 
 
 '?■^i\i^^^ — "--ssSfj.. 
 
 iSiEGRo Cabin 
 
Social Conditions 147 
 
 bilities for the public good and of personal 
 advantage in the preservation of law. All 
 this is becoming more and more manifest 
 among the better class of Negroes who are 
 of course the home owners. 
 
 With this view of the case, it is of great f^"^poEi 
 importance in our study of present-day ^'^^^^ 
 conditions to consider the growth in num- 
 ber and character of the homes of the Ne- 
 gro race. We have seen his need of such 
 preparation for and experience in citizen- 
 ship to fit him for an intelligent apprecia- 
 tion of not only the privilege, but the re- 
 sjionsibility of the ballot-box. If the loss, 
 in a large measure, of this privilege has 
 turned his attention from politics toward 
 home-building it was a blessing to him as 
 well as to the coimtry. He felt and still 
 feels afflicted by the laws restraining his 
 franchise, but as he comes by degrees into 
 possession of the required qualifications, 
 and by an intelligent use of his political 
 rights when gained manifests his just 
 claim to them, he will wipe out the infamy 
 that attaches to his first deplorable effort 
 in the political arena. In that day he will 
 understand yet once again that " God 
 meant it for good." 
 
148 The Upward Path 
 
 ^"•iHom^ ^^ liave noted the large number of 
 farms that are owned by the Negroes, 
 which of course in practically every in- 
 stance means a home to each farm. Be- 
 sides these rural homes, there are a still 
 larger number in the towns and cities. The 
 whole number of homes owned by Negroes 
 is stated as 372,414. Of these 255,156 are 
 known to be absolutely free from encum- 
 brance. The character of these homes 
 varies from the few handsome residences 
 of the wealthy class, and the second-grade 
 of neat, comfortable houses of the well-to- 
 do laboring class, to the one-room cabin in 
 the country or the dilapidated cottage in 
 town or city. Comparing the number of 
 homes of all kinds with the whole Negro 
 population, it will be seen that the ' ' home 
 owner " is still a small class, and that the 
 great mass of the race is as yet homeless 
 or housed in rented tenements on the farm 
 or in the city, or living in the homes of em- 
 ployers, 
 
 safSrdI Booker T. Washington says: ^' An in- 
 creasing number of Negro homes have 
 gone along with an increasing sense of im- 
 portance of the safeguards which the home 
 throws about the family and of the house- 
 
Social Conditions 149 
 
 hold virtues which it encourages and 
 makes possible. ... In every Southern 
 city there is a Negro quarter. It is often 
 a cluster of wretched hovels, situated in 
 the most dismal and unhealthy part of the 
 city. They all have the same dingy, dirty, 
 God-forsaken appearance. These are the 
 places that are usually pointed out as the 
 Negro homes. 
 
 " But in recent years there have grown "hrTft^ "^ **** 
 up, usually in the neighborhood of a school, 
 small Negro settlements of an entirely dif- 
 ferent character. Most of them are modest 
 cottages, but they are clean . . . and 
 
 1^ have a wholesome air of comfort and thrift. 
 
 |» . . . Within you will find an air of de- 
 cency and self-respect, pictures and books. 
 . . . These are the homes of the thrifty 
 laboring class who generally have some 
 education. Some of them have gone 
 through a college or industrial school, and 
 their children are at school. ... In the 
 same communities you will find other 
 
 h homes, larger and more comfortable, many 
 of them handsome modern buildings with 
 all the evidences of taste and culture that 
 you might expect to find in any other home 
 of the same size and appearance. If you 
 
150 The Upward Path 
 
 should inquire here, you would learn that 
 the people living in these homes are suc- 
 cessful merchants, doctors, and teachers. 
 . . . They are not usually recognized as 
 Negro homes. 
 Some < ' gtill handsomer houses here and there 
 
 Handsome 
 
 Homes ^j.q ^o be f ouud. The fact is that white men 
 know almost nothing about this better 
 class of homes. They know the criminals 
 and the loafers, because they have dealt 
 with them in the courts, or because they 
 collect rent from the places where they 
 congregate and live. They know to a cer- 
 tain extent the laboring classes whom they 
 employ, and they know something, too, of 
 the Negro business men with whom they 
 have dealings ; but they know almost noth- 
 ing about the doctors, lawyers, teachers, 
 and preachers, who are usually the leaders 
 of the Negro people, the men whose opin- 
 ions, teaching, and influence are, to a very 
 large extent, directing and shaping the 
 healthful, hopeful constructive forces in 
 these communities. 
 Influence of '^ Ju the sectious whcrc the influence of 
 
 Hampton and , 
 
 Tuskegee g^(,jj schools as Hamptou and Tuskegee is 
 felt you will find a marked growth in re- 
 cent years not only in the size of the home 
 
Je 
 ?ins 
 oes 
 
 Social Conditions 151 
 
 —rarely ever one room— but in its neat ap- 
 pearance within and without, having out- 
 buildings and fences in repair and white- 
 washed. Notable instances of this may be 
 seen in Gloucester County, Virginia, where 
 a large number of Hampton students have 
 settled, and in Alabama around Tuskegee 
 and in Calhoun County. 
 
 " The average person who does not live ^„'^,!J^rS 
 in the South has the impression that the ^^^"' 
 Southern white people do not like to see 
 Negroes live in good homes. Of course 
 there are narrow-minded white people liv- 
 ing in the South as well as in the North 
 and elsewhere; but as I have gone through 
 the South, and constantly come into con- 
 tact with the members of my race, I am sur- 
 prised at the large numbers who have been 
 helped and encouraged to buy beautiful 
 homes by the best element of white people 
 in their community. I think I am safe in 
 saying that the sight of a well-kept, at- 
 tractive home belonging to a Negro does 
 not call for as much adverse comment in 
 the South as it does in the Northern 
 States." 1 
 
 Dr. Edward Gardner Murphy in writing 
 
 1 Washington, Century Magazine, May, 1908. 
 
152 The Upward Path 
 
 Wholesome of the NesTro home life says : ' ' All promise 
 
 Home Life " . 
 
 and all attaimnent are worth while, but the 
 only adequate measure of social efficiency 
 and the only ultimate test of essential race 
 progress lies in the capacity to create the 
 home; and it is in the successful achieve- 
 ment of the idea and the institution of the 
 family, of the family as accepted and hon- 
 ored under the conditions of Western civil- 
 ization, that we are to seek the real criti- 
 cism of Negro progress. . . . His heritage 
 has given him but small equipment for the 
 achievement of his task. And yet the Ne- 
 gro home exists. That its existence is, in 
 many cases, but a naive pretense, that Ne- 
 gro life often proceeds upon its way with 
 a disregard — partly immoral, partly non- 
 moral— of our accepted marital conditions, 
 is evident enough. And yet those who 
 would observe broadly and closely will 
 find a patiently and persisently increasing 
 number of true families and real homes, a 
 number far in excess of the popular esti- 
 mate, homes in which with intelligence, 
 probity, industry, and an admirable sim- 
 plicity, the man and the woman are creat- 
 ing our fundamental institution. Scores of 
 such homes, in some cases hundreds, exist 
 
Social Conditions 153 
 
 in numbers of our American communities 
 —exist for those who will try to find them 
 and will try sympathetically to know them. 
 But one of the tragic elements of our situa- 
 tion lies in the fact that of this most hon- 
 orable and most hopeful aspect of Negro 
 life the white community, North and 
 South, knows practically nothing. ' ' ^ 
 
 It has been the pleasure of the author to ^^1^'^^^*^^ 
 enter some of the true homes of old-time 
 colored friends and it is now a privilege to 
 bear personal testimony to the honest, re- 
 spectable, wholesome family life lived 
 therein. They are homes where parents 
 are seeking to rear and train their children 
 aright, and to make their aims high and 
 their ambitions noble. The men have an 
 honest pride in the achieving of a home 
 and the women seek to make those homes 
 attractive for their families and an influ- 
 ence for good. In many of these homes the 
 young girls are shielded from the many 
 temptations and dangers that come to 
 their race and sex in going out to service. 
 One mother said : ' ' Knowing what I know, 
 I prefer to keep my daughters in my home, 
 though their wages would be a help to us. 
 
 1 Problems of the Present South, 166. 
 
154 The Upward Path 
 
 If they stay at night where they work, they 
 are not always protected; if they come 
 home at night, that means they are late 
 and very early on the street unprotected. ' ' 
 The quality of these homes and the care of 
 the girlhood of such families may serve as 
 a partial reason why it is not always the 
 most desirable class that go out to service, 
 and may suggest some changes in the con- 
 ditions and requirements of service. It 
 does not follow that these women live in 
 idleness. They do the work in their own 
 homes. Many take in sewing or go out to 
 sew by the day. Some teach or enter upon 
 other employments for which their measure 
 of education qualifies them. 
 "SIsTlICr There are, however, very many so-called 
 homes where the worst conditions prevail, 
 and the greatest lack of the race as a whole 
 is proper home surroundings and training. 
 In many instances this comes from igno- 
 rance or viciousness of the parents, in 
 others from that poverty that takes both 
 parents away from home to work and 
 leaves the children to " run wild " in the 
 worst section of the city and to learn all 
 the evil of the street. 
 Much as has been achieved by the race 
 
Social Conditions 155 
 
 in owning and making homes, the great 5'HJ.me^^"'*' 
 lack is still in the home life and the end to 
 which their chief energies should be di- 
 rected, through church, school, societies, 
 and clubs, should be the bettering of home 
 life. The home is the heart of Christian 
 civilization. From it flows the life-blood 
 of a race or nation. The center of the home 
 is the woman, and its existence for good or 
 bad depends largely upon her as wife and 
 mother. Therefore the right education and 
 training of the Negro woman is of the 
 greatest importance to the future of the 
 race. If she be imbued with the sanctities 
 of life, she will keep herself and her home 
 pure and clean. If she be taught the dig- 
 nity of labor and trained to do her duty in 
 the practical things pertaining to a real 
 home, she will make it more desirable to 
 her family than an evil outside life. If she 
 be taught to appreciate aright the sacred- 
 ness of motherhood and the proper care of 
 her children, she will send forth noble sons 
 and daughters. 
 
 The Negro is eminently social in his ^°c?aitife 
 nature. As a race he loves to congregate 
 and to communicate. He naturally loves a 
 crowd, whatever may be the occasion for 
 
156 The Upward Path 
 
 bringing it together — an excursion, a 
 church service, or a circus, a wedding, or 
 a death-bed. His pliable emotions fit them- 
 selves to any occasion with wonderful 
 facility, and reach a state of excitement 
 with alacrity and enjoyment. 
 Social Nature This social uaturc leads them to segre- 
 
 Leads to ^ _ o 
 
 Segregation gate lu towu or city where there is quick 
 access to each other and opportunity to 
 talk— either in gossip or quarrel. It makes 
 it far easier to secure Negro labor in em- 
 ployments where a large number work to- 
 gether. It often hinders regular work and 
 steady gains. The irresistible attractions 
 of an excursion will draw the laborer from 
 his work and together with his whole fam- 
 ily he will spend on it all he has saved, 
 ^""oid^s'odai With education and a growing refine- 
 customs nient and restraint resulting from it, we 
 see in the better class a gradual elimina- 
 tion of the emotional excitement attendant 
 upon the old social customs. Indeed, there 
 may be too great a tendency to imitate the 
 formal etiquette and half-hearted manner 
 which the Anglo-Saxon shows in his efforts 
 at enjoyment. 
 Upper and Social distiuctious have led to the 
 
 Lower Classes 
 
 formation of a class spirit as well-defined 
 
Social Conditions 157 
 
 in the Negro race as in the white. There 
 is the upper class and the lower classes. 
 Strange to say, this brings about a peculiar 
 state of affairs. The lower classes resent 
 the effort of their own upper class to make 
 a social inequality within the race, al- 
 though they accept their inequality with 
 the better-class white people for whom 
 they work. The first-class white people as 
 a general thing know better and prefer the 
 Negro servant class to those of " colored 
 society ' ' rank. On the other hand, we find 
 the latter class brought into closer associa- 
 tion with the poor, laboring class of the 
 white race residing nearer to them, who, 
 while clinging tenaciously to white su- 
 premacy in sentiment, admit them in a cer- 
 tain way into social relations. 
 
 The " society " circle of colored people society circie 
 have their handsome or pretty homes 
 opened for the same kind of entertain- 
 ments that white people have, and extend 
 their hosj)itality as generously to their 
 own set; and, in proportion to their means, 
 these entertainments are made as attrac- 
 tive by the fine dress of the women, the 
 floral decorations, the well-served menu, 
 and the character of the music. Their par- 
 
158 The Upward Path 
 
 ties, their weddings, their funerals, are 
 made as nearly as possible like those of the 
 white people, and in some instances they 
 could not be distinguished from them ex- 
 cept by the color of the participants, and 
 sometimes that is not very marked. 
 
 an?Fun Blood Thcro is a point in the social life of the 
 Negroes ^egro that is difficult and delicate to han- 
 dle. The Negroes recognize and so do the 
 Southern white people a condition which 
 forms an inner problem to the much-dis- 
 cussed " Eace Problem." And this is the 
 class distinction based on color that is 
 drawing apart the mixed blood from the 
 full-blood Negro. There are no defined 
 rules governing this classification, because 
 of its varying degrees, and there are many 
 deviations from the line even when there 
 is a marked difference to one side or the 
 other. Yet that line is growing more and 
 more evident in both social and religious 
 life. 
 ^in"SiIi ^^ ^ general thing those that continue 
 
 ^nt^imlod their education beyond the common school 
 are those of mixed blood— the mulattoes, 
 quadroons, and octoroons. This grows in 
 a large measure out of the eliminating 
 process wherein the mentally fit survive. 
 
Social Conditions 159 
 
 But there are other contributory causes 
 that have a large effect. The Negro mother 
 often feels great pride in her half-white 
 child because of the beauty and intelli- 
 gence it frequently possesses, and feels am- 
 bitious for it to rise in the world, therefore 
 more care is taken of its appearance and 
 greater effort is made to secure its educa- 
 tion than if it were black. It is frequently 
 not so strong physically as the black child, 
 and is, as much as possible, shielded from 
 the hardships of life. This is more es- 
 pecially true of the girl. All these things 
 find a result in the character and life of the 
 child. Often the outcome is good as far 
 as its own attainments are concerned, but 
 with its advantages there comes the natural 
 feeling of superiority over the less favored. 
 '' Like likes like " is the proverbial basis 
 of all social life. These favored, educated, 
 successful people of mixed blood are by far 
 the largest element of the select social cir- 
 cle—an upper-tendom that more or less 
 wishes to avoid association with the real 
 ^' brother in black," but cannot. In some 
 things the law of the land holds them to- 
 gether, in others the still more difficult 
 laws of relationship. 
 
160 The Upward Path 
 
 Mixed Blood in A visit to aliTiost anv of the Ne^To insti- 
 
 Select Social ^ ^ . 
 
 Circles tutions of higher education will furnish 
 proof of what has been said in the fact that 
 the large majority of the pupils, especially 
 of the girls, are light-colored. There are 
 also what they call " tony " churches in 
 which can be seen very few black faces, 
 and the same thing may be noted in many 
 of their high-class social entertainments. 
 This color-line is not so distinctly drawn 
 but that the full-blooded, well-educated 
 professional or successful business man, 
 and his wife, may find entrance. Nor is 
 the line drawn strictly on education and 
 worthiness. The light-colored beauty, man 
 or woman, who assumes a certain style of 
 dress and manner may be found there, and 
 ''no questions asked." 
 ciassDi^jnc^ons Thcse distiuct classcs in the Negro social 
 to Race j^f^ ^^.^ f^^ morc frequently found in the 
 city than in the country, and in some cities 
 more than in others, and this may result 
 from the different degrees of educational 
 advantages to be found in different locali- 
 ties. It may well be said that class dis- 
 tinctions that divide the educated from the 
 uneducated, the rich from the poor, are to 
 be found among all civilized peoples. 
 
Social Conditions 161 
 
 Granted, but the point here is that yet 
 more and more the higher class among the 
 Negroes is being made up of the mixed 
 blood, and this social drawing away of the 
 ' ' high class ' ' from the ' ' masses, ' ' if color 
 be the cause, while the individual cannot 
 be blamed, is resulting in several ways to 
 the detriment of the race. For although 
 there are a large number of mixed blood 
 who are the children of parents who are 
 both mulattoes and are born in wedlock, 
 a great number are half white, and are, 
 therefore, in all the Southern States ille- 
 gitimate. Thus it would seem that a pre- 
 mium is put on amalgamation resulting 
 from immorality. 
 
 It must not be understood from what has evm Results of 
 
 Amalgamation 
 
 been written that those of mixed blood are 
 all superior to the full-blood Negroes, for 
 some of the worst, most stupid, most dan- 
 gerous elements of the race are to be found 
 among them. While they preponderate in 
 the higher schools and higher society, these 
 represent but a small proportion of the 
 whole race, or even of the mixed blood, of 
 whom it is estimated there are 3,000,000 
 in the United States. The general results 
 of amalgamation have proved it to be an 
 
162 The Upward Path 
 
 evil for both races, and therefore both 
 should do all in their power to preserve 
 race integrity. 
 True Leaders Tlicrc is a still higher class, though a 
 much smaller one than the '* society set '* 
 — true leaders who are doing their part 
 nobly toward helping others who have 
 been less fortunate. Among these may be 
 found men who are principals of colleges, 
 and teachers, physicians, lawyers, minis- 
 ters, graduates of colleges, North and 
 South. There are also women of means, 
 refinement, and culture who are spending 
 time, strength, and money for the uplift of 
 the women of their race who need their 
 help. These feel that they must keep ia 
 touch with the men and women whose ad- 
 vantages and opportunities have not been 
 as great as theirs, if they would save the 
 race. May we not hope that as the influence 
 of this class extends, it will counteract the 
 evil arising from prejudice and resentment 
 caused by other conditions and prove to be 
 the bond that will draw together in love 
 and helpfulness the jarring elements in 
 their own race, and be ready to cooperate 
 with men and women of like minds in the 
 white race who would seek a righteous 
 
» 
 
Social Conditions , 163 
 
 solution of the race problem. It is hoped 
 that this spirit of cooperation may increase. 
 
 No discussion of the social life of the !;[f*So„of 
 Negro would be complete without consid- Colored women 
 ering the National Association of Colored 
 Women and the work being done by the 
 various affiliated clubs that include in their 
 membership at least 10,000 women. While 
 the object of these clubs, to a certain ex- 
 tent, is self-culture, it is to a much larger 
 extent philanthropic and charitable. They 
 are formed of the leading women of the 
 race and represent the best class intellec- 
 tually as well as socially. These are the 
 women who most fully realize the condi- 
 tion of the mass of their people and, feel- 
 ing a keen responsibility for its better- 
 ment, are seeking through the educational 
 and institutional features of their clubs to 
 establish higher standards of life in the 
 home and family relations. 
 
 This association was incorporated in q^'"^*^^* 
 1904, and is therefore still in its incipiency. 
 Some of its work is crude, but its influence 
 has already been for good in those commu- 
 nities where conditions are favorable, and 
 there is every reason to believe that a 
 larger sphere and better results lie before 
 
164 The Upward Path 
 
 it in the future. The organization grew 
 out of the *' felt need of united and sys- 
 tematic effort," and the hope of furnish- 
 ing '' evidence of moral, mental, and ma- 
 terial progress made by the [Negro] 
 people. ' ' Its object is to secure ' ' harmony 
 of action and cooperation among all wo- 
 men in raising to the highest plane, home, 
 moral, and civil life;" and its motto, ' ' Lift- 
 ing As We Climb," shows how the work is 
 to be done. 
 wjdeRan^e_of Mys. Bookcr T. WasMugton, vice-presi- 
 dent at large of the National Association, 
 writes in a personal letter: " I think one 
 thing about the colored women's clubs is 
 perhaps a little different from those of the 
 white women — we are necessarily more 
 practical. We are running sewing classes, 
 cooking classes, plantation schools, carry- 
 ing on reading-rooms, building up schools, 
 and like objects." The report of the Tus- 
 kegee Club, which numbers seventy-four, 
 shows great activity along all lines for the 
 general development of the club women 
 themselves and in the help they render 
 others. Its literary topics are fine and sug- 
 gestive; its charity is well-directed; its in- 
 stitutional work in sections where this is 
 
Social Conditions 165 
 
 much needed is resultful; its religious and 
 temperance instruction is given in the jail, 
 the school, and in the mothers' meetings. 
 The mothers' meeting is perhaps pro- 
 ductive of more good than any other 
 branch of the work, since it deals directly 
 with the home life of which the mother is 
 always the center, the chief influence for 
 good or for bad. The talks and discus- 
 sions handle the very practical subjects of 
 cleanliness in house and person, proper 
 food and its preparation, character of 
 clothing, physical health, moral standards, 
 thrift and well-directed economy, and the 
 influence of the mother's life and teachings 
 upon her children and their manners and 
 appearance in public. 
 
 More numerous than the women's clubs ffietlL^^"*"* 
 are the mutual benefit societies, with 
 many varying names and objects. These, 
 properly conducted, are a great blessing, 
 especially among the poor, day-laboring 
 class, who are often without friends who 
 can be of the least assistance in times of 
 distress and sickness. They have also their 
 social features, and through them furnish 
 respectable entertainment and amusement 
 to supplant much that would degrade. Be- 
 
1C3 The Upward Path 
 
 sides these, there are many church soci- 
 eties that have social features, and are in 
 many ways beneficial both to the women 
 composing them and to those who receive 
 help from them. 
 
 *^"'nS^I The Negroes, while forming about one 
 eighth of the whole population of the 
 United States in 1890, were responsible for 
 nearly one fifth of the crime. According 
 to the twelfth census, there were in the 
 United States 57,310 prisoners; of these, 
 25,019 were Negroes — a number three 
 times as great in proportion to population 
 as that of the native whites, and one and a 
 half times as great as that of the foreign- 
 bom white. The figures also show that in 
 proportion to the Negro population there 
 are more criminal Negroes in the North 
 than in the South, eight tenths of them be- 
 ing in the South, where nine tenths of the 
 Negroes dwell. This may be explained by 
 the fact that those in the North live almost 
 entirely in the cities, while in the South 
 the vast majority are in the rural districts. 
 In both races the criminality of the city 
 far exceeds that of the country. 
 
 chararter^f Of the Ncgro prisoucrs in the State peni- 
 tentiaries, city or county jails, and work- 
 
Social Conditions 167 
 
 houses or houses of correction, the men 
 largely predominate. Half of them are be- 
 tween the ages of twenty and thirty, and a 
 fifth between the ages of ten and nineteen. 
 The figures show a lower criminal age than 
 among the whites, and the crime of most 
 of these youthful offenders is stealing. If 
 commitments were tabulated, undoubtedly 
 pilfering would be found to be preemi- 
 nently the Negro crime. One fourth of the 
 Negro prisoners are confined for crimes 
 against the person. This consists of fight- 
 ing and quarreling, which end at times in 
 homicide, and also the crime of rape. One 
 sixth of the prisoners in jail are charged 
 with crimes against society, such as 
 gambling, drunkenness, adultery. 
 
 No one can go into a Southern city or ^a^lJ^opHome 
 town and fail to notice in certain sections Training 
 the large number of idle, ragged, dirty Ne- 
 groes, and every village and wayside rail- 
 way station has its quota. These are in a 
 large measure vagrants— though an occa- 
 sional " job *' may save them from the 
 vagrant law— and their only steady occu- 
 pation is the game of '' crap-shooting." 
 It does not take a very strong temptation 
 to make one of this shiftless class a crim- 
 
168 The Upward Path 
 
 inal. To feed such as these many an honest 
 wife or mother wears her life out at the 
 wash-tub, and to protect them from pun- 
 ishment she would perjure her soul, or lay 
 down her life. Yet without doubt many of 
 them are what they are because of the evil 
 influence and the lack of moral training in 
 miserable homes, where the immoral lives 
 of wife and mother are on the same plane 
 as their own. 
 Race Traits Broadlv Speaking, the same causes that 
 
 Determine ^ x o? 
 
 charac^er^f tcud to poverty, iguoraucc, and crime, in 
 every land and among every people, are to 
 be found among the Negroes, Closer ob- 
 servation reveals certain race traits and 
 inherited tendencies manifested in the 
 character of crimes committed. The Ne- 
 gro is emotional and is easily influenced to 
 evil; his passions are strong and he lacks 
 in self-control ; his judgment is poor and he 
 does not quickly discern the logical se- 
 quence of cause and effect; while immedi- 
 ate gratification blinds him to the penal 
 consequences of his act. Add to these igno- 
 rance, drunkenness, resentment, or cupid- 
 ity, and the criminal is accounted for— the 
 homicide, the ravi slier, the thief. 
 
 Judge W. H. Thomas, of Montgomery, 
 
Social Conditions ■ 169 
 
 Alabama, says in his admirable treatise on crime committed 
 
 ' "^ _ while Angry 
 
 Law and License: " It is noteworthy that 
 the Negro in the South does not kill 
 the white man, nor the white man the Ne- 
 gro, as often as the Negro kills the Negro. 
 . . . Unfortunately the Negro holds with 
 too little regard the life of his colored 
 neighbor when angered by him." In re- 
 sponse to an inquiry made of the chaplain 
 of the Tennessee penitentiary, he said: 
 *' More than two thirds of the Negro pris- 
 oners here were convicted for crimes com- 
 mitted while angry." A great wrong is 
 done the Negro by his enemies, his mis- 
 taken white friends, and the ill-advised 
 members of his own race, who by printed 
 or spoken words play upon the emotions of 
 the Negro so as to produce resentment, for 
 that soon grows to hatred that may at any 
 moment become violence. 
 
 Strong drink and exciting drugs have an ^^^me '"*^"^®* 
 even more fearful effect upon the Negro 
 than upon the white race. When he is 
 drunk, what little self-control he has 
 learned from being forced to check his pas- 
 sions is swept away, and he becomes a 
 murderer or a lustful animal, regardless 
 of consequences. Much, very much of the 
 
 I 
 
170 The Upward Path 
 
 Negro's worst criminality has been the 
 result of whiskey or, worse still, of a hor- 
 rid, adulterated gin especially prepared 
 and labeled to excite his worst passions, 
 ''"(fa'useof Poverty walks a close companion of 
 Much Crime ^j^jj^ie. Not ouly arc the large majority of 
 all criminals poor, but poverty with its 
 concomitants is the basal cause of the 
 crimes of many. The poorest class in the 
 South is largely composed of Negroes. 
 The idle, unemployed class who will not 
 work, or are unable to find work that they 
 can do, become either loafing dependents 
 on others of their race, or thieves. In the 
 homes of poverty there are insanitary and 
 immoral conditions affecting both the 
 moral and physical life. There often the 
 worst vices reign unchecked and unshamed, 
 and many arrests result from riotous be- 
 havior, brawls, and often murder. Chil- 
 dren growing up in these homes and the 
 streets and the alleys adjacent to them are 
 corrupted in their infancy, and before they 
 reach maturity they have been added to 
 the criminal class. 
 
 "cHmei ^^ ^^ ^^^ ^®^^ ^^ enter into any discussion 
 of the heinous crime of rape, or its punish- 
 ment. Only those who live at a distance 
 
Social Conditions 171 
 
 and have never realized its daily and 
 hourly terror can discuss it dispassionately. 
 Only those whose lives have never touched 
 a life so wrecked can calmly condemn the 
 agonized fury of those who love the victim. 
 It is only those who have heard and seen 
 the violence of the mob who can truly de- 
 plore it. 
 
 There is a danger often overlooked in SSf^"** 
 the administration of the law in the case '""''^'"y 
 of the Negro — a certain indifference to 
 crimes that relate solely to his own race 
 and well-being and which, because they are 
 condoned so often, are increasing to an 
 ; I arming extent. Chief among these are 
 l)ioamy and marital infidelity. It might 
 astonish some to know the prevalence of 
 these evils, and yet how seldom prosecu- 
 tion and punishment follows the offense— 
 practically in no cases. The calmness with 
 which the Negro, male and female, accepts 
 this evil condition and the indifference 
 with which it is regarded by the white peo- 
 ple as ^' the Negro's way " is a shame 
 to both races, and as long as it is allowed 
 to continue will prove a destructive ele- 
 ment in the home and social life. Too often 
 the white man, from sentimental reasons 
 
172 The Upward Path 
 
 largely based on the old-time relation of 
 master and slave, stands between the law 
 and a " good-for-naught " who is being 
 tried for a minor offense, and " talks or 
 pays him out of court," heedless of the 
 fact that he will continue, possibly in- 
 crease, in crime because of the ease with 
 which he has escaped its consequences. 
 Unjust If the miscarriage of iustice and un- 
 
 Discrimmation ^ '' 
 
 in Courts equal administration of the law existed in 
 only one section of our country, or was 
 directed toward only one race of people, 
 the subject would be greatly simplified. If 
 partial judges and juries and corruptible 
 policemen were confined to that section 
 and injured that one race, the rest of the 
 world might well sit in judgment upon that 
 unfortunate section. But this is not the 
 case. From all over the country— nay, all 
 over the world— comes the cry of the poor 
 that there is unjust discrimination made 
 in the courts between them and the rich. 
 We have grown familiar with the phrases, 
 *' The poor man has no chance with the 
 rich when they go to law, " ' ' The rich man 
 bribes himself free," " It is only the poor 
 man who must hang," ^' The rich man 
 pays his fine, the poor man must go to the 
 

 aj = 
 
 --^ 
 
 M 
 
 ^^^^ V^^ '^^^^H^^^H 
 
 
 
 ^SHHpiV^Q^^' -" 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 7J 
 
Social Conditions 173 
 
 workhouse or the chain-gang. ' ' And again 
 the alien complains that through his ig- 
 norance, and often through the prejudice 
 against him, he is unable to secure justice 
 in the courts. Ignorance, poverty, help- 
 lessness, each has its cry against the op- 
 pression and injustice of the world. It is a 
 cry that ascends unto heaven and will be 
 heard. Justice perverted becomes retribu- 
 tive, and no man or country can fail to re- 
 ceive sooner or later the evil result of in- 
 justice. Chancellor Hill, of the University 
 of Georgia, of whom the whole South was 
 proud, and for whose death the whole 
 South grieved, said : ' ' The thing which the 
 South cannot afford in its relation to the 
 Negro race is injustice; all history teaches 
 that injustice injures and deteriorates the 
 individual or nation that practises it, while 
 en the other hand, it develops and 
 strengthens the race upon which it is in- 
 flicted. '» 
 
 There is no class of statistics more unre- |^Skf Not 
 liable or more difficult to classify than obtainable 
 those relating to birth, death, and disease. 
 For this there are many contributory 
 reasons; for example, imperfect registra- 
 tion, and in some States, no registration of 
 
174 The Upward Path 
 
 births, an unknown or concealed cause of 
 death, no report of disease that has not 
 resulted in death, and in some sections no 
 ofiScial report of persons dying without the 
 attendance of a physician. (This last is of 
 frequent occurrence among the poor in 
 rural districts.) These usual difficulties 
 face one to a very large degree in consider- 
 ing Negro statistics, owing to the fact that 
 the large majority of them belong to the 
 poor and ignorant class, from which such 
 statistics are most difficult to obtain. 
 ^ExceSlI* White From comparing the number of children 
 with the number of women of child-bearing 
 age, it is seen that the Negro birth-rate 
 exceeds and has always exceeded the white 
 birth-rate. 
 Def^"^?!: "r^® statistics as to insane and defective 
 ^"""i^f are very imperfect and relate only to those 
 in institutions. From these we gather that 
 in 1903 there were in continental United 
 States 9,452 Negroes in hospitals and asy- 
 lums. Nearly one third of these were in 
 the North and West, a proportion far in 
 excess of the relative Negro population. 
 This may be offset, however, by the fact 
 that much of the Negro population in the 
 South is in rural districts, where the harm- 
 
Social Conditions 175 
 
 less insane and defective are kept at home 
 more generally than in the city. In 1900 
 there were reported 8,228 blind and over 
 5,000 deaf Negroes. 
 
 The colored death-rate greatly exceeds 
 the white. For every one thousand living 
 colored children under one year of age 397 
 died in the city and 219 in the country; 
 under five years of age, 132 in the city and 
 67 in the country. These figures tell a story 
 of ' * the slaughter of the innocents. ' ' There 
 is, however, a great improvement in infant 
 mortality during the last decade. 
 
 Di G. Stanley Hall, in his pamphlet, compos" uon of 
 ' ' The Negro in Africa and America, ' ' says : ^'*'°*' 
 *' We find in compiling many medical 
 studies of the blacks, that their diseases 
 are very different from ours. Their lia- 
 bility to consumption is estimated at from 
 one and a half to three times greater than 
 that of the whites. . . . Very striking is 
 their immunity from malaria and yellow 
 fever, which shows a different composition 
 of the blood. . . . They have extraor- 
 dinary power to survive both wounds and 
 grave surgical operations. . . . Cancer 
 of the worst kind is rare, as are stone in 
 gall and bladder, and ovarian tumor. 
 
176 The Upward Path 
 
 There is less insanity, but epilepsy is far 
 more common. . . . They are naturally 
 cheerful, therefore melancholia and suicide 
 are rare. . . . General paralysis, or 
 softening of the brain, said never to have 
 occurred in slavery, is now sometimes 
 found. Their diseases require modifica- 
 tions of treatment, so that the training 
 of physicians for the two races needs dif- 
 ferentiation. ... Of course, mixture of 
 blood brings approximation to pathologi- 
 cal conditions." If this statement be true, 
 and the weight of evidence is with the dis- 
 tinguished writer, it loudly emphasizes the 
 need of physicians who are especially 
 trained for the treatment of the Negro, and 
 for the peculiar training of the Negro 
 physician. 
 Poverty a^cause Thcrc are many causes for the high rate 
 of mortality among the Negroes, and not 
 the least of these are poverty and igno- 
 rance. '' All observation goes to show that 
 the cities are the hotbeds of crime, misery, 
 and death among the colored people. They 
 are huddled together, often with two or 
 three families in one room. Without em- 
 ployment for more than half the time, they 
 are consequently insufficiently fed and 
 
Social Conditions 177 
 
 poorly clothed. When sick, they are un- 
 able either to employ a physician or to buy 
 medicine. At least twenty-five per cent, 
 of them die without medical aid. ' ' ^ 
 
 Not only is poverty the cause of sickness [fa^J'/Z^p ^'**' 
 and death, but so also is the ignorance that Mortality 
 occasions neglect of sickness and preven- 
 tion of contagious disease. Add to these 
 his superstition and social customs, and 
 one may sum up the main causes of the ex- 
 cessive death-rate of the Negro. Poverty 
 not only leads to the evils stated above, but 
 compels residence in the most insanitary 
 part of the city, where often the water-sup- 
 ply is impure and the drainage bad. It 
 prevents proper disinfection of houses or 
 the separation of the sick from those in 
 health. It compels the laboring man to 
 work under all kinds of exposure and the 
 laboring woman to leave uncared-for the 
 sick in her family. Much of the effects of 
 all this might be saved by intelligent pre- 
 cautions and insistent and quickly applied 
 remedies. The large number of still-births 
 I is caused by the character of labor per- 
 formed by the mothers and the ignorant 
 midwives who attend them. Later the 
 
 1 Atlanta University Publications, No. 1. 
 
178 The Upward Path 
 
 babes die from the ignorance of the moth- 
 ers in feeding and caring for them. The 
 neglect of older children leads to much ex- 
 posure to disease, physical and moral — a 
 neglect that extends through life. 
 Diseases Cause Jt may also be said that much poverty 
 and suffering among the Negroes comes 
 from disease that might be j^revented or 
 controlled, or even cured, if they had more 
 knowledge concerning the cause, dissemi- 
 nation, and treatment of the diseases most 
 prevalent among them. They cannot be 
 convinced that fresh air or bathing are 
 valuable in both sickness and health. They 
 hold to the old fatalistic view of consump- 
 tion and will take no precaution against 
 its infection. Many will not voluntarily 
 vaccinate themselves or their children, and 
 they resist as far as possible compulsory 
 vaccination, though free; consequently 
 their settlements are frequently ravaged 
 by smallpox and form centers of infection 
 to the community at large, 
 ^"^pre'idl The Negro 's social nature, together with 
 his deficiency in the logical faculty that 
 reasons out future results from present 
 acts, is also responsible in a large degree 
 for the rapid spread of disease among 
 
 Diseases 
 
Social Conditions 179 
 
 them. They are constantly visiting each 
 other and having all sorts of gather- 
 ings from house to house; visiting the sick 
 and attending funerals (no matter what 
 the nature of the disease) are regarded as 
 especially meritorious. Often the sick room 
 is a scene of wild religious excitement, 
 shared in by the patient and his friends, 
 who will crowd around the bed regardless 
 of contagion. 
 
 The intelligent white physician often ^/'tv'hL''"'"'^ 
 does a large charity practise among the Pi^y^'^^^^^ 
 poor Negroes, though he has but little hope 
 of his directions being followed. The in- 
 telligent Negro physician is often unable 
 to do much charity practise, and in many 
 cases, being poor himself, refuses to attend 
 cases where there is no hope of remunera- 
 tion or success. 
 
 But there is a species of '' quack doc- KeEe" 
 tors," both white and black, who appeal to 
 the Negro by promising for their nostrums 
 immediate and wonderful effects, and some- 
 how get paid ' ' cash down ' ' for their often 
 injurious medicines. The universally ad- 
 vertised and ignorantly recommended 
 '' quack medicines " (especially those of a 
 stimulating character) find ready accep- 
 
180 The Upward Path 
 
 tance with the Negro. Without intelligent 
 diagnosis of his disease, and governed by 
 the most general symptoms, he will take 
 bottle after bottle of medicines that injure 
 his health, and to purchase them he will 
 empty his jjurse of the money necessary 
 to secure the means of health. Unfortu- 
 nately this deplorable habit is not limited 
 to the Negro. 
 Witch-Doctors Thcro is still another enemy that the 
 poor, ignorant Negro has to contend with 
 and is least capable of resisting— the Ne- 
 gro '^ witch-doctor," or '' conjurer," who 
 still survives after all these years since 
 leaving Africa, and nearly two generations 
 of freedom. His practise of both " the 
 white art "of healing and the" black art " 
 of destruction continues to find a field in 
 the fear and superstition of the lowest 
 class of his race. If one of these medicine- 
 men pronounces his patient " conjured " 
 and prescribes the remedy— no matter how 
 difficult, disgusting, or foolish — every ef- 
 fort is made to carry out his orders as 
 closely as possible, to '* break the spell " 
 of the enemy that has caused the illness. 
 Time, money, reputation, all are sacrificed 
 to an amazing degree. So great is the ef- 
 
Social Conditions 181 
 
 feet of the mind upon the body that a man 
 or woman may, without any real ailment, 
 pine away and die because he cannot find 
 a witch strong enough to " break the 
 spell," or rebound into sudden health if 
 made to believe he has been released from 
 the power of the enemy. A number of cases 
 could be recited to show the prevalence of 
 this pitiful superstition. Nor is a part of 
 this fear of conjurers and their arts 
 altogether groundless or imaginary, for 
 some of their concoctions are very harm- 
 ful, and their knowledge of subtle poisons, 
 brought from Africa and handed down to 
 descendants, is used in connection with 
 their " charms " and fetiches to really 
 cause incurable disease. 
 
 In dealing with these witchcraft troubles V?affl N"g?o 
 any white doctor is at a disadvantage, un- ^'^y*'"*"* 
 less he has some peculiar hold upon the 
 love and confidence of the Negroes, for it 
 is a part of their superstition to keep such 
 matters secret from white people. Any- 
 thing he might say to discount the power 
 of the fetich, or of the witch-doctor, 
 would be regarded as an expression of 
 prejudice against the black man, or be- 
 cause, as a white man, he could not under- 
 
182 The Upward Path 
 
 stand what belonged to the African. 
 Therefore, it is all-important that there 
 should be Negro physicians of fine mental 
 and moral ability with special training to 
 do medical work of a missionary character 
 among them. They will feel that the black 
 blood of such a man makes him one with 
 them in sympathy and understanding. 
 They will confide in him, and his unbelief 
 in their superstitions will not offend them 
 as with the white man. But it will be seen 
 at a glance how necessary it is for such a 
 Negro doctor to be not only sympathetic 
 and scientific, but so deeply grounded in 
 the things that be of God that his own mind 
 and heart are unenthralled by supersti- 
 tion and he has the power to lead his pa- 
 tients into " the liberty of the children of 
 God." 
 
 SUGGESTED QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER V 
 
 IAjm: To Realize the Present Social Condition of 
 THE Negro and How Life May be Improved 
 
 1. Describe the home life of a Negro in Africa. 
 
 2. What would you miss most in his home life? 
 
 3.* What are some of the things that make possi- 
 ble your home life that the African does not 
 have ? 
 
Social Conditions 183 
 
 4. What are some of the incentives to better 
 home life that come from ownership? 
 
 5. Is it necessary to own a home to have efficient 
 home life? 
 
 6. What is essential to home life in addition to a 
 good building and fine furnishings? 
 
 7. Contrast a typical home among the poor Ne- 
 groes with those among the poor of other races. 
 
 8. How do the best homes among the Negroes com- 
 pare with some of the good homes among the 
 whites? 
 
 9. Enumerate some of the chief temptations 
 toward sociability among the Negroes? 
 
 10. How do these effect the progress of the race? 
 
 11. What are the conditions that produce class dis- 
 tinction among the Negroes? 
 
 12. What are the conditions that produce class dis- 
 tinction among other races? 
 
 13.* Do the circumstances that cause class distinc- 
 tion differ among the various races? 
 
 14. What benefits will accrue to the uplift of the 
 Negro through the women's associations and 
 other benevolent organizations? 
 
 15. Among what classes of Negroes is the largest 
 percentage of crime? 
 
 16. What conditions in their history, to some ex- 
 tent, account for the character of their crimes? 
 
 17. Sum up the principal causes of crime among 
 them to-day. 
 
 18.* Give several suggestions that you believe would 
 
 check criminality. 
 19. What are the various causes that are seriously 
 
 effecting the physical life of the Negroes? 
 20.* What recommendation would you make in a 
 
 community to improve the social, moral, and 
 
 physical conditions? 
 
184 The Upward Path 
 
 21.* What can you do to help the Negroes to im- 
 prove their social life? 
 
 Eefekences for Further Study. — Chapter V^ 
 
 Social Conditions Among the Negroes.^ 
 
 Baker: Following the Color Line, II, III, VI, 
 
 IX. 
 
 Baker: " The Negro in Southern City Life," 
 
 American Magazine, March, '07. 
 
 Baker : ' ' Negro Conditions in the Black Belt, ' ' 
 
 American Magazine, July, '07; Aug., '07. 
 
 Jones : " A Eaee in the Making, ' ' Westminster 
 
 Beview, April, '07. 
 
 Page: The Negro: The Southerner's Problem, 
 
 IV. 
 
 Stone: Studies in the American Eace Problem, 
 
 Part V, Ch. I. 
 
 Washington: "Negro Homes," Century Maga- 
 
 sine, May, '08. 
 
 1 Further references will be found in the home missionary 
 magazines of tlie various denominations. 
 
EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES 
 
The right education of the Negro is at once a duty 
 and a necessity. All the resources of the school should 
 be exhausted in elevating his character, improving his 
 condition, and increasing his capacity as a citizen. The 
 policy of enforced ignorance is illogical, un-American, 
 and unchristian. It is possible in a despotism, but peril- 
 ous in a republic. It is indefensible on any grounds of 
 social or political wisdom, and is not supported by any 
 standards of ethics or justice. If one fact is more clearly 
 demonstrated by the logic of history than another, it is 
 that education is an indispensable condition of wealth 
 and prosperity. . . . Ignorance is a cure for nothing. 
 . . . Suppose we close the 30,000 Negro schools of the 
 South, what would be the result? Let Dr. Curry tell us: 
 * ' Ignorance more dense, pauperism more general and 
 severe, crime, superstition, and immorality rampant. ' ' 
 We could not survive such a policy. The boasted 
 strength of our government institutions could not endure 
 the strain. . . . 
 
 I have been at not a little pains to ascertain from 
 representatives of various institutions the postcollegiate 
 history of their students, and I am profoundly gratified 
 at the record. I believe it is perfectly safe to say that 
 not a single case of criminal assault has ever been 
 charged on a student of a mission school for Negroes 
 founded and sustained by a great Christian denomina- 
 tion. 
 
 — Charles B. Galloivay 
 
VI 
 
 EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES 
 
 EDUCATION is not only a demand of EssSaun a 
 civilization, but it is a part of the '^^*'°" 
 very foundation upon which it rests, and 
 no nation has risen to its highest place 
 that has left its people in ignorance. Illit- 
 eracy may be the misfortune of the indi- 
 vidual, but the country that is content to 
 allow illiteracy to prevail within its bounds 
 when it may be removed proclaims its 
 shame to the world and prepares for its 
 own degeneracy in the future. Thus the 
 schoolhouse becomes the pivot upon which 
 a nation 's fate revolves, and upon its char- 
 acter depends the advancement and pros- 
 perity of that nation. '' Knowledge is 
 power " for good or evil according to its 
 character and direction, but ignorance 
 means weakness for good and strength for 
 evil. It helps nothing, it hinders every- 
 thing. 
 
 The freedman's need of education was Freedman's Need 
 
 of Education 
 
 apparent, that he must have it to fit him 
 
 187 
 
188 The Upward Path 
 
 for the life before him was equally appar- 
 ent. In the beginning many mistakes were 
 made by those who sought to help him, 
 caused by ignorance of his nature and 
 needs, and overhaste to secure the appear- 
 ance of education rather than real results. 
 Not a few of these have been rectified, 
 proving the value of failure as " a step- 
 ping-stone to better things," and the Xe- 
 gro has already gained tremendously 
 from the educational advantages furnished 
 him by Church and State. 
 wnmt* fo" Lifi This is not to say that the race has gone 
 very far in education; indeed, it has but 
 just started to climb the hill of learning. 
 It signifies much that it has started, and 
 will mean still more if, gaining a clearer 
 and ever clearer view of the height beyond, 
 it continues to toil upward and onward, 
 choosing the best way and the best things 
 and wisely rejecting that which experience 
 teaches is not worth while. The gain that 
 will come to the Negro in exchanging igno- 
 rance for knowledge will be a gain to the 
 nation as well, and especially to those sec- 
 tions where he dwells in largest numbers. 
 This does not mean that every man or 
 woman that has '' a smattering " of educa- 
 
Educational Opportunities 189 
 
 tion, or makes a conceited claim to being 
 educated simply because he has been in a 
 school, is benefited or will prove a benefit 
 to anybody. Such as these have done much 
 harm in discounting the value of education 
 to the race, and awakening prejudice 
 against it in the minds of many who should 
 have known how to discriminate between 
 the true and the false. Nor does it mean 
 that every member of the race is capable 
 of receiving the higher forms of education, 
 or is bettered by an attempt to impose 
 them upon him. What it does mean is that 
 every man, woman, and child, black as well 
 as white, should have an opportunity to 
 gain the kind and measure of education 
 that will be best fitted to meet the demands 
 of individual and race life. 
 
 That such education should be Christian chdst/an Negro 
 is only to say that it should be true educa- >">p^«»"«" 
 tion, which informs, develops, and inspires 
 man's whole nature, spiritual as well as 
 mental. The industrious, educated Chris- 
 tian Negro is to-day no problem and, as his 
 kind increases, will prove a blessing to the 
 country. The larger the number of Ne- 
 groes who remain ignorant, and often 
 through ignorance are vicious, the greater 
 
190 The Upward Path 
 
 the curse the race will become to itself and 
 to others. 
 schooK North Only about five per cent, of the Negroes 
 in 1860 could read and write. Of this 
 I number a minority were among the slaves ; 
 I the majority were " free persons of 
 ! color." The former learned what they 
 knew from their owners. The first Negro 
 school, or at least among the first, in the 
 North was established in New York by 
 1 Elias Neau in 1704. This was principally 
 ) for religious instruction, though other sub- 
 jects were taught, and was supported by 
 the Society for the Propagation of the Gos- 
 r pel in Foreign Parts. The Quakers of 
 Philadelphia opened in 1770 a school for 
 Negroes which exists to-day. In Massachu- 
 setts there was a school supported by Ne- 
 groes opened in 1798. In 1820 the Negroes 
 of Cincinnati opened a school, and other 
 schools were started elsewhere. These 
 schools had a struggling life and many of 
 them passed out of existence. " From 
 about 1835 it became general in the North- 
 ern States to have separate schools for the 
 Negroes. They were usuallypoorer than the 
 \ schools for whites, worse taught and worse 
 equipped, and wretchedly housed. Begin- 
 
Educational Opportunities 191 
 
 /ning with Massachusetts, in 1855, these 
 separate schools have been abolished in 
 nearly all Northern States. ' ' ^ 
 
 v^ Some few schools for the Negroes ghooK'south 
 existed here and there through the South 
 before the war. The first was ojDened in 
 Charleston, South Carolina, in 1774, by 
 the Society for the Propagation of the Gos- 
 pel in Foreign Parts. " It flourished 
 greatly and seemed to answer their utmost 
 needs." In the District of Columbia no 
 less than fifteen schools were conducted, 
 mainly at the expense of the colored 
 people, between 1800 and 1861. In Savan- 
 nah a French Negro from San Domingo 
 conducted a free Negro school — openly 
 from 1819 to 1829 and secretly for some 
 time after. In Maryland, St. Francis 
 Academy for colored girls was founded 
 by the Eoman Catholics in 1829. The sis- 
 ters were colored. In North Carolina 
 there were several schools. 
 
 While the war was yet in progress there ffing^w^" 
 were '' army schools " opened for the 
 benefit of the refugee Negroes who flocked 
 from the plantations within the bounds of 
 the Federal army. They were principally 
 
 X 1 Atlanta University Publications, No. 6. 
 
i 
 
 I 
 f 
 
 192 The Upward Path 
 
 in Virginia and the Carolinas along the 
 sea-coast, and in the Mississippi river 
 towns. These were sustained then, and 
 later, by Northern benevolence and by the 
 nse and sale of the confiscated property of 
 the Southern whites.^ In 1866 when the 
 Freedmen's Bureau went into effect there 
 were 740 of these " army schools," taught 
 I by 1,314 teachers, with 90,589 pupils. The 
 pupils ranged in age from wee toddlers to 
 gray heads. The desire to be educated 
 was almost a craze, yet few appreciated 
 the time and effort involved in the process. 
 Some of the older pupils, discouraged at 
 seeing themselves outstripped by little 
 children, abandoned the schools themselves 
 but urged their children and grandchildren 
 to attend. Others by extraordinary pa- 
 tience and industry attained their desire 
 X. to read the Bible. 
 schooi|^under Whcu the Frecdmeu's Bureau came it 
 Bureau ^qq[^ jj^ jjaud the schools for freedmen al- 
 ready established and improved them. 
 They were largely increased in number 
 and efficiency, and at the close of its four 
 years of work (1870), General Howard re- 
 ported 2,677 schools, with 3,300 teachers 
 
 1 Atlanta University Publications, No. 6. 
 
Napiek I'L'iiLic School, Nashville, Tennessee 
 
 Jubilee Hall, Fisk University, Nashville, Tennessee 
 
Educational Opportunities 193 
 
 and 149,581 pupils, for which had been ex- 
 pended $5,879,924. 
 
 It has been stated that the South had no southern school 
 
 aystem oeiore 
 
 free school system before the war. In ^^ 
 1860 the South had 27,582 public schools 
 with 954,678 pupils, for which there was an 
 annual expenditure by the States of 
 $5,269,642. The legislative records show 
 that North Carolina, South Carolina, and 
 Virginia had well-organized systems of 
 public schools as early as 1811. In fact 
 the State system of free public schools 
 originated in the South, and was in opera- 
 tion nearly a half century before it was 
 adopted by a member of the Northern 
 States.^ 
 
 That the South was without public I^SIh'lTschoois 
 schools in 1865 was the result of the civil 
 war, the most destructive to all interests 
 of a people that the modern world has 
 ever known. There was not only a lack of 
 schools but of food and clothing among 
 those best capable of supplying the educa- 
 tional needs of the population, white and 
 colored. While money was being lavished 
 on schools for Negro children, white chil- 
 dren lacked equal facilities. Under the cir- 
 
 1 Dyer, Democracy in the South before the Civil War, 66-75. 
 
 / 
 
194 The Upward Path 
 
 cumstances, it is not surprising that the 
 
 first and best efforts of the white South 
 
 were directed toward caring for its own. 
 
 Money Expended Yct, betwceu the vears 1870 and 1905, the 
 
 by South for ' -^ ' 
 
 Negro Schools sixtccu Southem States expended for the 
 Negro public schools more than $155,000,- 
 000. In the year 1905-06, about $9,200,000 
 more was expended. The enrolment of Ne- 
 gro pupils in public schools is about one 
 fourth as large as that of the white, and 
 the Negro schools receive about one fifth 
 of the State school funds, or one fifth as 
 much as the white schools receive. For 
 many years the direct school tax was al- 
 most entirely paid by the white property 
 owners. As the Negroes gain property, 
 they pay an ever-increasing amount of the 
 direct as well as their part of the indirect 
 tax. 
 
 In addition to the amount expended by 
 the Southern States for public schools, 
 millions more have been given by the 
 North for Church and private schools, 
 principally for higher education. It would 
 be difficult to calculate the total of the vast 
 sums that have been devoted to Negro edu- 
 cation by both North and South since 
 emancipation. It would not be an over- 
 
Educational Opportunities 195 
 
 estimate to place it at $250,000,000— a 
 quarter of a billion ! 
 
 CHARACTEE OF SCHOOLS 
 
 From the Report of the Commissioner ^J^'o"schoois 
 of Education for 1906, the following statis- 
 tics are gathered as to Negro schools : 
 
 1. Common schools. Teachers, 27,747; 
 pupils enrolled, 1,617,998. 
 
 2. Public high schools, 146; teachers, 
 891 ; pupils, 45,037. 
 
 3. Secondary and higher schools other 
 than public, 127; teachers, 2,057; pupils, 
 42,500. Of these 25,209 are elemen- 
 tary pupils, 14,281 secondary, and 310 are 
 college students. 
 
 The majority of the institutions in the Types of schoo!= 
 third group are maintained by Home Mis- 
 sion Boards, white and colored. One home 
 mission board alone has contributed over 
 $4,000,000 to educational work among Ne- 
 groes. Philanthropic associations and 
 individuals have also contributed largely 
 to their establishment and maintenance. 
 Some of them were founded by the 
 United States government through the 
 Freedmen's Bureau, and some of them are 
 
196 The Upward Path 
 
 State institutions. In 1905-6 the govern- 
 ment contributed $265,640 toward eighteen 
 of these schools. In all of them the tuition 
 fees and board (though very small in 
 some) make the Negroes themselves con- 
 tributors to that extent to their support. 
 Character and Thcso iustitutious are of ditf creut char- 
 
 uraae 
 
 acter and grade. Some of them have many 
 departments. Forty-one are normal or 
 have a normal course, with 4,574 students ; 
 forty have an industrial department, with 
 21,622 students, who are being trained to 
 more or less proficiency in various lines of 
 industry. Thirty-four are distinctively 
 termed colleges or universities, but many 
 of these have elementary grades. Twenty- 
 one are professional schools, or have pro- 
 fessional courses, with 1,907 students. The 
 property of this class of schools is valued 
 at $11,227,303, and they receive an annual 
 income of $1,437,480. 
 Kind and Tlio testimouv of many educators of the 
 
 Number of j ^ 
 
 Schools Needed Negro race, white and black, agree as to 
 the kind and number of schools needed for 
 the race. Dr. W. E. B. DuBois, of Atlanta 
 University, cannot be accused of partiality 
 in his opinion upon this subject when he 
 says : ' ' From a careful consideration of 
 
St. Mark's Industrial School, Birmingham, Alabama 
 
 Graduating Classes, Meharry Medical College, 
 Nashville, Tennessee 
 
Educational Opportunities 197 
 
 the facts and of such, testimony as has been 
 given, the following propositions seem 
 clear : 
 
 1 i:: The great mass of the Negroes need 
 lQ.QnivoiiQ)ri school and manual training. 
 / ^: There is a large and growing demand 
 / for industrial and technical training, and 
 trade schools. 
 ^. There is a distinct demand for the 
 higher training of persons selected for tal- 
 ent and character to be leaders of thought 
 and missionaries of culture among the 
 masses. 
 
 /4f To supply this demand for a higher 
 training there ought to be maintained sev- 
 eral colleges in the South. 
 
 .Sf The aim of these colleges should be 
 to supply thoroughly trained teachers, 
 preachers, professional men, and captains 
 of industry. ' ' ^ 
 
 For two important reasons the primary pJ-S^lJr&hoois 
 school should be emphasized as of greater 
 value to the race than those of higher 
 grade, and larger efforts should be made to 
 increase their number and efficiency: 
 
 1. It is the opinion of scientists and edu- 
 cators of long experience that the Negro 
 
 1 Atlanta University Publications, No. 5. 
 
 \ 
 
198 The Upward Path 
 
 child, even more than the white child, j 
 learns more quickly than one later in life, 
 and it is well known that lessons in moral- 
 ity and religion make a deeper impression 
 in early youth. 
 
 2. The chief reason is that the large ma- 
 jority of Negroes are of the poorer class 
 who will never go beyond the primary 
 school, and what is not learned there will 
 j never be learned, and because these schools 
 f will furnish the first stage in the sifting 
 I process, the separating from the mass of 
 I those who have the mental ability to make 
 I it worth while to advance to the high 
 \school. 
 ^^""^Bette? This emphasis may be given by having 
 Equipment jj^ttcr school buildiugs and more of them 
 in the city and the country. Larger build- 
 ings with more classrooms are required. 
 There should be more teachers, with 
 smaller classes. There should be longer 
 school terms. There should be a demand 
 for better equipped, more intelligent 
 teachers, who have had such normal train- 
 ing as will especially fit them to understand 
 and train the children of their own race. 
 Need of Manual Of prime importaucc is the need of man- 
 ual training in the common schools, includ- 
 
Educational Opportunities 199 
 
 ing for girls practical instruction in do- 
 mestic science. The earlier in a child's life 
 the muscles of the hands and fingers are 
 trained to respond to the will, the more 
 surely does skilled labor become possible 
 in the later years. The value and dignity 
 of manual labor is more wisely impressed 
 upon the child by showing him how to do 
 such work than by much lecturing. The 
 consciousness of doing good work makes of 
 that work a pleasure and incites to an am- 
 bitious effort that will save from future 
 idleness. 
 
 Of course the improvements indicated ReqSi?2d"^^ 
 as needed in the common schools will re- 
 quire far more money than is now to be 
 had and a wiser expenditure than has yet 
 been made, especially in the rural districts, 
 and so the possibility of much improve- 
 ment lies with the future. But it is well 
 to keep this aim before us and steadily 
 work toward it. 
 
 A first step in that direction is the ^^1^1^^'"''' 
 wise and generous gift of Miss Anna sc"h"ois" 
 P. Jeanes of $1,000,000 for the use of 
 the Negro rural public schools. This 
 fund was placed in wise, experienced hands 
 and will be wisely and intelligently admin- 
 
200 The Upward Path 
 
 istered. So far the board of trustees has 
 devoted its attention to the investigation 
 of conditions. It plans to use the interest 
 of this fund as far as possible in encour- 
 aging Negroes to do more for their own 
 schools, and at the same time to do every- 
 thing possible to induce the local school au- 
 thorities to do more from the present 
 school funds for the Negro schools than is 
 being done in many places. In other 
 words, in the county where the teacher 
 receives $20 a month, say, for a four 
 months' school, the aim will be to get the 
 colored people to raise sufficient money to 
 add a month, or a month and a half, to 
 the school term and the board of trustees 
 of the Jeanes fund add as much more, pro- 
 vided the school board will increase the sal- 
 ary to, say, $25, and provided also that 
 the teacher is deserving and intelligent. 
 A part of the plan is the elimination as far 
 as possible of all teachers who are not de- 
 serving and qualified for the work. The 
 board regards the outlook at present as 
 hopeful. May we not hope that other rich 
 women and men will see the wisdom of 
 largely increasing this fund, and may we 
 not also hope that wise Christian men and 
 
Teachers 
 
 Educational Opportunities 201 
 
 women living in localities where this fund 
 is to be used will aid in every way possible 
 the full execution of the board's plans? 
 In no way can Negro education be better 
 advanced than by improving the rural pub- 
 lic schools. The great mass of the people 
 live in the country, where there is more 
 ignorance and where there are at present 
 the poorest school advantages. 
 
 The value of the normal school to the S'TValli^*"'****'^ 
 common and high schools is beyond compu- 
 tation. One may know much and yet be a 
 j:oor teacher until he has been taught how 
 to impart his knowledge. Especially is 
 this true of those who would teach children, 
 or any who are undeveloped mentally. 
 Through these schools many teachers have 
 been prepared who are doing good work 
 to-day, and it is to be regretted that so 
 many other teachers have not had the ad- 
 vantage of normal training. But many of 
 them must be fitted for a still broader and 
 more thorough work if they would fulfil 
 their whole mission. The course of study 
 should include methods suited to the Negro 
 child, in order to secure the right develop- 
 ment of his natural powers, giving proper 
 consideration to heredity and environment. 
 
202 The Upward Path 
 
 This necessarily involves a practical 
 knowledge by the normal teacher of the 
 race and its present conditions. If indus- 
 trial features are ever to be introduced 
 into the primary and secondary schools, 
 the normal schools must prepare the way 
 for them by giving to their future teachers 
 practical courses in the industrial branches 
 that may be taught in the lower schools. 
 The fact that all public schools for Negroes 
 in the South are taught exclusively by Ne- 
 groes adds a strong argument for the 
 maintenance of Negro normal schools of 
 the highest degree of efficiency. 
 sKfriai Regarding Hampton and Tuskegee In- 
 stitutes as models of the kind of industrial 
 schools the Negro needs, too much cannot 
 be said as to their value both for the pres- 
 ent and the future development of the race. 
 The latter institution is an outgrowth of 
 the former in that Hampton trained and 
 gave to Tuskegee its distinguished prin- 
 cipal, a man who has proved himself to be 
 the greatest representative of his race. 
 The history of these great schools is too 
 well known to need to be reproduced here. 
 The results of their work are already 
 manifest, not only in the industrial life of 
 
 Schools 
 
Educational Opportunities 203 
 
 the colored people that have come under 
 their influence, but in their mental attitude 
 toward life and its best aims, in a new 
 view of the dignity of honest work and 
 the nobility of good work. 
 
 That a man or woman has earned his or ffSpf 
 her education adds tenfold to its value as seif=Respect 
 a life force, and if in the earning of it he 
 has prepared himself to take up a trade 
 or line of business that will enable him to 
 gain a living for himself and his family, 
 more than half of life's battle has been 
 fought. For every one such there is a 
 place waiting in this world in which he will 
 be respected and self-respecting, no matter 
 what his race or color. 
 |l There are a large number of Negroes not f*hoois"NeIded' 
 able either mentally or financially to get 
 a real college education, to whom such 
 schools are a great and special providence. 
 There should be at least two other large 
 industrial institutions, one in Texas or the 
 Southwest and one in the Southeast, and 
 their greatest work should consist in train- 
 ing men and women who can in turn train 
 industrially the great mass of the people in 
 private secondary schools and in the pub- 
 lic schools of city and country. It is there, 
 
204 The Upward Path 
 
 too, that the leaders of great industrial 
 enterprises must be trained for the future 
 and its needs. 
 
 Trade Schools As a further development of the indus- 
 trial school must come the distinctive trade 
 school that is already in demand for both 
 races. Hampton and Tuskegee are making 
 a near approach to this ; and they are do- 
 ing much to create a demand for them and 
 are preparing their future instructors. 
 TrIrninJ'for The womau side of industrial education 
 is replete with meaning both for herself 
 and the race. If made truly valuable by 
 being both skilful and practical, it will 
 mean moral as well as physical better- 
 ment for herself, her home, and her fam- 
 ily. If she should be a bread-winner it will 
 insure for her remunerative employment. 
 
 Hon'^e'sflabor ^ot uutil wc appreciate the dignity of 
 labor, and learn that every kind of labor 
 that supplies a need or looks to the ad- 
 vancement of humanity is equally honor- 
 able, will we accept the fact that every man 
 owes it to himself and his fellows to devote 
 himself to that kind of work for which by 
 nature he is best fitted. That only is honest 
 labor which is the best a man can do. He 
 only is an honest workman who does what 
 
Emory Halls for Boys, Tuskegee, Alabama 
 
 Parker 
 
 Cottage for Girls, Tuskegee, Alabama 
 
Educational Opportunities 205 
 
 he can do best. Impress these ideas upon 
 the childhood and youth of to-day, and the 
 effect will be seen in the men and women 
 of the future, not only in the increased 
 industry of the race but in a wiser 
 selection of employment. Ambition means 
 effort to become that which is desired, 
 and if it appears just as desirable to 
 be a skilled mechanic, or agriculturist, 
 or railroad builder, as to be a professional 
 man, then these occupations will cease to 
 appear on a lower industrial plane than 
 the professions, and, when they are valued 
 as of importance to human life, efforts will 
 be made to do good honest work in all of 
 them. 
 
 The college course is not to be graded FuSKed 
 higher in practical value to the race than 
 industrial training, but it does a work that 
 the other cannot do, and supplies as great, 
 though a different need. The college must 
 be looked to to furnish thoroughly edu- 
 cated men and women for teachers in all 
 the lower schools, if these elementary insti- 
 tutions are to be productive of the best re- 
 sults. From thence must come the trained 
 men who are to make skilful physicians 
 and surgeons, clear-thinking lawyers, and 
 
206 The Upward Path 
 
 preachers from whose minds have been 
 broken the shackles of ignorance and su- 
 perstition. These are all a felt need of 
 the race and its future evolution depends 
 largely on their character and work. To 
 deny or withhold such preparation from 
 the natural leaders of the race would be to 
 dwarf its powers and make it a still 
 greater problem to the nation as its num- 
 bers increase. John E. Mott says : ' ' The 
 universities and colleges teach the teachers, 
 preach to the preachers, and govern the 
 governors. They are the strategic points 
 in civilization. As go these institutions of 
 higher learning, so go the nations. ' ' 
 Fewer but, Be«er Some chaugcs should bc made in this 
 class of schools. Dr. DuBois asserts that, 
 out of the thirty-four Negro colleges exist- 
 ing in the South in 1900, only about ten 
 were needed to accommodate the pupils 
 that should continue a college course, and 
 then leave large room for growth. He sug- 
 gests that twenty-two of the smaller insti- 
 tutions leave off their college departments 
 and develop into normal or industrial 
 schools, allowing the college work to be 
 concentrated in the ten large institutions. 
 This would secure better equipment, create 
 
Educational Opportunities 207 
 a higher standard, and save much criti- 
 
 1 
 
 cism. 
 
 Following the college, come the profes- ^,'Sooif "" 
 sional schools. The number of these could 
 not definitely be learned, but their nearly 
 three thousand students and graduates tell 
 of the work that is being done. In every 
 city and in many towns throughout the 
 South these men are to be found in the 
 court-houses, the pulpits, and the sick 
 rooms, each in his place and each accord- 
 ing to his ability helping to fulfil and guide 
 the destiny of his people. 
 
 Dr. G. W. Hubbard, Dean of the Ma- K^Nelro 
 harry Medical College, Nashville, Tennes- p*'^^'"^"^ 
 see, says, in the Southern Workman: 
 ' ' There is an urgent need of an increased 
 number of Christian Negro physicians in 
 the South. In addition to their work of 
 ministering to the sick, their services 
 would be of incalculable value in giving 
 their people instruction in the observance 
 of the laws of health and in providing com- 
 fortable homes for themselves. They 
 would also be able to teach them by pre- 
 cept and example to lead pure, noble, and 
 upright Christian lives. ... The great 
 
 1 Atlanta University Publications, No. 5. 
 
208 The Upward Path 
 
 proportion of the graduate Negro physi- 
 cians are located in the large cities and 
 towns, few being found in the country dis- 
 tricts. . . . The relations that have 
 existed between the white and the colored 
 physicians of the South have been most 
 commendable. The colored have been 
 treated mth courtesy and respect by the 
 white medical profession. They have been 
 given all needed assistance in serious 
 cases and difficult surgical operations. 
 There is less friction between the races in 
 the practise of medicine than in any other 
 part of industrial or professional ac- 
 tivity." 
 unSiS "^^ ^ climax to Negro education it has 
 been wisely suggested that a great central 
 university should be established in one of 
 our large cities, where there would be am- 
 ple opportunity for the students, while ac- 
 quiring the necessary theoretical instruc- 
 tion, to study actual conditions among the 
 masses, as well as among the best class 
 of Negroes. Washington City or Baltimore 
 or Atlanta would be a favorable location. 
 It should be a kind of educational labora- 
 tory, a university of practi<^al investiga- 
 tion for all lines of life. 
 
Educational Opportunities 209 
 
 The requirements for entrance should be f^r^AdrnTslFon 
 maturity, intelligence, education, morality, ^"^ ^°^** 
 and a consecrated zeal that leads the stu- 
 dent to devote his life to the elevation of 
 his people. These students should, as far 
 as it is possible to human nature, banish 
 all race prejudice and sensitiveness from 
 their minds and make an honest study of 
 the race life of the Negro and its traits and 
 characteristics from the standpoints of an- 
 thropology and psychology. They should 
 also acquaint themselves with the history 
 and development of the race since its com- 
 ing into America, weighing fairly and im- 
 partially all contrary statements and opin- 
 ions. They should not content themselves 
 with printed accounts of present conditions 
 in the city and in the country, but make 
 first-hand investigations and close personal 
 study of the different phases of life. They 
 should know of the demoralizing social 
 evils, and devastating diseases, the mock- 
 ery of religion in some of the churches, and 
 the gross practises among some of the 
 clergy. They should also know how, out 
 of and over all these hindrances, many 
 members of the race have come victorious 
 to a high plane of life; and, with this 
 
210 The Upward Path 
 
 knowledge, they should take heart and 
 hope to fight the evils that are tending 
 toward the destruction of the great igno- 
 rant mass. 
 ^""^ Adap^ted^to ^^^ Negro, out of his subjective con- 
 Train His Race gciousncss, kiiows that which pertaius to 
 his own race — knows it as it is difficult, 
 yea, well-nigh impossible for the Cau- 
 casian race to know it — and men so trained 
 should be far more capable of training the 
 Negro brain, of meeting the needs of his 
 physical life, and of responding to his spir- 
 itual nature than the white man, be he ever 
 so wise and sympathetic. That there are 
 Negro men capable of receiving and nobly 
 using such training has been abundantly 
 proved. 
 Differences.^o^be j^ ^uy training of the Negro mind, con- 
 sideration should be given to the different 
 racial elements that inhere in the whole 
 race; and to the natural endowment, the 
 history, and the environment that differen- 
 tiate the Negro race from the Caucasian. 
 ^'''"'oroSpl The American Negroes when closely in- 
 vestigated and studied are found to form 
 four racial groups. (1) The true Negro, of 
 whom there are several types — Guinea 
 Coast, Hottentot, and Bushman — consti- 
 
Educational Opportunities 211 
 
 tute the majority of those in the South. 
 These types have distinctive characteris- 
 tics, and vary in mental ability and possi- 
 bilities of elevation. (2) The Hamitic Ne- 
 gro — Bantu, Zulu, and Kaffir — is found in 
 fewer numbers throughout the whole coun- 
 try, but most frequently in Virginia and 
 the Carolinas. (3) The Semitic Negro — 
 Sudanese and Dahomian — is found in 
 smaller numbers than any other class. (4) 
 The Caucasian Negro — mulattoes, quad- 
 roons, and octoroons — are found in in- 
 creasing numbers throughout the whole 
 country, but predominant in proportion to 
 their numbers in the North. 
 
 Many Hamitic, Semitic, and Caucasian KeenHamitic 
 Negroes have fine minds and naturally be- ^""^ ^^'"'"'' 
 come the leaders of their people. The 
 Hamitic Negro is warlike and dominant in 
 Africa and also in America among his own 
 people. The Semitic Negro has a gentle, 
 placid nature and is especially adapted to 
 domestic life. 
 
 The Caucasian Negro is of too recent JJ^'^^^gSclsian 
 origin to get the necessary perspective for Negroes 
 a fair estimate of race type, but many in- 
 dividuals of this class indicate great pos- 
 sibilities. This last group may be divided 
 
212 The Upward Path 
 
 into three classes, not as to the relative 
 amount of white and black blood or as to 
 color, but as to certain marked characteris- 
 tics. First, there is the large, muscular 
 type with the Negro features magnified, 
 who is self-assertive and loud-voiced. The 
 second type resembles the first, but is in- 
 ferior to it physically and mentally. These 
 two classes often combine the worst traits 
 of both races and form the most dangerous 
 elements of the Negro population. The 
 third type more nearly resembles the Cau- 
 casian physically and mentally and in in- 
 clinations, and some have minds capable 
 of the highest culture.^ 
 Modifkations Of coursc all these groups have been 
 modified by frequent admixture among 
 themselves, thus blending their different 
 characteristics, and here and there may be 
 found one or more of an entirely different 
 type from any here mentioned. Yet taken 
 as a whole, these four groups are so 
 marked and diverse, not only in their char- 
 acteristics but in their possibilities, that it 
 would be manifestly unfair to demand the 
 same treatment, training, and education 
 for all Negroes under all circumstances. 
 
 1 Bean, Century Magazine, September, 1906. 
 
Typical Group op Students 
 
 Physical Laboratory 
 
Educational Opportunities 213 
 
 If this is true, how much more unjust to 
 do so for the still more widely divergent 
 white and black races in their different 
 stages of development. 
 
 Not only in solving the political and so- ^fpTe^Must 
 eial Negro problem, but in educating and Be considered 
 Christianizing him there are fundamental 
 principles that should be considered and 
 established in order to secure a reasonable 
 basis upon which to build and proceed to 
 success. This will require a careful study 
 of the different races that are involved. 
 
 This is not the place to present the di- Kd'''^" 
 vergent views of scientists as to certain 
 racial mental differences. That must be 
 left to students of anthropology, and psy- 
 chology, whose investigations have not 
 yet reached undoubted conclusions. The 
 day may come when out of their honest, pa- 
 tient investigations there will be evolved 
 assured facts relating to the mind and 
 spirit that will enable those who follow 
 after them to labor more wisely for man's 
 advancement and God's glory. 
 
 In dealing with or passing judgment Ke^Sment 
 upon any race, due consideration must be 
 given to the history and status of that race 
 in the life of humanity. It is in accord 
 
214 The Upward Path 
 
 with the laws of evolution to recognize the 
 Negro as " a child race," that must pro- 
 ceed as all races have done through the 
 processes of development to its highest 
 and best. No race has risen as a whole 
 with a sudden bound from one step in its 
 evolution to another. There has always 
 been first, individuals, then groups, that 
 have appeared above the level of the mass 
 and by their efforts, alone or aided, accord- 
 ing to circumstances, have helped to lift 
 up those on the lower plane. " Rome was 
 not built in a day " ; far less the peoples 
 that formed the great Roman Empire. 
 Adva"ncemen{ Lookiug back ouly a few generations to 
 without Parallel the African savage and less than fifty 
 years to the slave, we see remarkable prog- 
 ress in the mental evolution of the Ameri- 
 can Negro. To expect that the whole race 
 in so short a period of time would reach 
 the highest level of civilization and of 
 mental and moral development would be 
 to demand of it a miracle such as no other 
 race in the world has performed. Yet 
 when we note such facts as that the lit- 
 eracy of the race has risen from five to 
 about sixty per cent, in less than fifty 
 years, we claim that such an educational 
 
Educational Opportunities 215 
 
 advancement is without parallel in a race, 
 and it appears still more remarkable when 
 we find a growing class of its men and 
 women entering the higher ranks of edu- 
 cators and professional workers. With 
 such facts before us we are ready to say 
 that which God has begun to work out for 
 the race and through the race for the world 
 shall be accomplished. There is no cause 
 for discouragement, when we look back- 
 ward; and there is every reason to hope, 
 when we look forward with the patience of 
 faith. 
 
 SUGGESTED QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER VI 
 
 Aim: To Realize the Educational Achievements 
 AND Needs for Further Efforts Among the Ne- 
 groes. 
 1. Why is education fundamental to the best life 
 
 of a nation? 
 2.* What should be the chief aims of education? 
 3. Can you give any reasons why the ignorant 
 
 among any race should not be educated? 
 4.* What does a nation gain by educating its peo- 
 ple? 
 5,* What is the effect of ignorance upon the indus- 
 trial and social life of the people? 
 
 6. Why was the South not able to support schools 
 among the Negroes immediately after the war? 
 
 7. What were the motives that caused the Freed- 
 
216 The Upward Path 
 
 men's Bureau to establish schools among the 
 Negroes ? 
 
 8. What is the extent of the public school sys- 
 tem of education now supported by the South- 
 ern States in behalf of the Negroes? 
 
 9. What other agencies are assisting in 'the educa- 
 tion of the Negro? 
 
 10.* Do you believe the Negro has improved in edu- 
 ■n* wi'"""^^ opportunities thus far? Give reasons, 
 il. What IS the comparative need and value of 
 
 industrial and professional schools? 
 12. Is it just to use the same method of education 
 
 among Negroes as among whites? 
 
 What type of schools should immediately be 
 
 strengthened and why? 
 
 How much financial support can reasonably be 
 
 expected from the Negroes? 
 15. Where and from what class must the educa- 
 tional leaders be secured, and why? 
 
 State in the order of importance the greatest 
 
 educational needs among the Negroes. 
 
 Where can the money be secured to carry out 
 these plans? 
 
 13 
 
 14, 
 
 16. 
 17. 
 
 Refere.vces for Further Stttdt.— Chapter VI 
 Negro Education.^ 
 
 Bratton: " The Christian South and the Edu- 
 cation of the Negro," Sewanee Review, July 
 '08. •" 
 
 1 For articles on the education of the Negro in mission schools 
 
 consulted Other material on the question of education will be 
 found in the United States Census and Bureau of Educatirn the 
 
 refer^nc^s ''""" '^"^ ''' ^""^^^"'^"^ ^^^-^^ *^ ^^ the pTevio^s 
 
Educational Opportunities 217 
 
 DuBois: The Souls of the Black Folk, VI. 
 Gordon: " Manual Training for Negro Chil- 
 dren, Charities, Oct. 7, '05. 
 Miller: Eace Adjustment, 244-274. 
 Murphy: Problems of the Present South, II. 
 Percy: " A Southern View of the Education of 
 the Negro," Outlook, Aug. 3, '07. 
 Price, The Negro, XXII. 
 Shannon: Kacial Integrity, IV. 
 "Washington: " Education of the Man Behind 
 the Plow," Independent, April 23, '08. 
 Washington: Up From Slavery, XI. 
 Washington: Working With the Hands, IV, 
 XIX. 
 
RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT 
 
The slave had found in Christianity, often in rude, 
 half-barbaric forms, a consolation, a refuge, a tender- 
 ness and hope, to which we can scarcely do justice. Per- 
 haps its most eloquent expression to our imagination is 
 those wonderful old-time melodies, the Negro ' ' spirit- 
 uals, ' ' as they have been made familiar by the singers 
 of the Negro colleges. Their words are mystic. Scrip- 
 tural, grotesque ; the melodies have a pathos, a charm, 
 a moving power, born out of the heart 's depths through 
 centuries of sorrow dimly lighted by glimmerings of a 
 divine love and hope. The typical African temperament, 
 the tragedy of bondage, the tenderness and triumph of 
 religion, find voice in those psalms. 
 
 — George S. Merriam 
 
 To every man among them with the evident qualities 
 of leadership we should lend our Christian sympathy and 
 a helping hand. President Tucker, of Dartmouth Col- 
 lege, was entirely correct when he said : " I believe with 
 a growing conviction that the salvation of the Negro 
 in this country lies with the exceptional men of that 
 race. ' ' And those who have studied the philosophy of 
 Christian missions and the progress of civilization will 
 tell you that the same is true r^_ all the peoples of the 
 earth. We train and Christianize the exceptional men 
 who are to be the real redeemers of their race, whether 
 in China, Japan, India, or Africa. 
 
 — Charles B. GaUoway 
 
 The various missionary socities . . . have done a 
 work which, in a large degree, has been the salvation of 
 the South; and the result will appear in future genera- 
 tions more than in this. 
 
 — BooTcer T. Washington 
 
vn 
 
 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT 
 
 THERE is no phase in the history of the gevdop^ent 
 Negro's progress more striking and 
 remarkable than that of his religious de- 
 velopment. This would become convinc- 
 ingly apparent to the most skeptical could 
 they be transported to Africa and view the 
 weird incantations of the savage fetich 
 worshiper, and returning enter a Negro 
 church where a congregation of earnest 
 Christians listen intelligently to the 
 preaching of the gospel by an educated 
 minister, and such churches can be found 
 in hundreds of communities. 
 
 In his other dealings with the race God ^rlce 
 may have moved " in a mysterious way 
 his wonders to perform, ' ' but his presence 
 and grace are clearly manifest in the work 
 of the Holy Spirit in these transformed 
 lives. This has been done in accordance 
 with his own divine plan for the redemp- 
 tion of the world — by the testimony of liv- 
 ing witnesses, as, in obedience to his com- 
 
 Result of God's 
 
222 The Upward Path 
 
 mand, they preached the gospel to ' ' every 
 creature ! ' ' 
 
 "^^^"'Among the ^^ study of the American Negro could 
 Slaves \)Q complete without a narrative of how 
 this great change has been effected. Some 
 general statements have been given in 
 Chapter II, showing the many and varied 
 difficulties that for a time seemed almost 
 insurmountable to those who sought to 
 evangelize the Negro slaves. The results 
 of their efforts were seen in 1860, when 
 nearly one-half of the 4,000,000 Negroes 
 congregated in the South were either en- 
 rolled members of the Church, or under di- 
 rect Christian influence and instruction. 
 This story has been told in interesting de- 
 tail by the Rev. C. C. Jones of Savannah, 
 Georgia, in his book, The Religious In- 
 struction of the Negroes of the United 
 States, published in 1842 ; and in The Gos- 
 pel among the Slaves, by Harrison and 
 Barnes, which takes up Dr. Jones' account 
 and carries the narrative down to 1865. 
 From these two authentic sources the fol- 
 lowing statements are drawn. 
 
 ^*'"^h!'sode?y The first organized effort to give gospel 
 
 propagauon of instructlou to the Negroes in the American 
 
 ForeSf plr'is colouics was madc in 1701 by the Society 
 
Eeligious Development 223 
 
 for the Propagation of the Gospel in For- 
 eign Parts incorporated under William 
 III. The first missionary, the Eev. 
 Samuel Thomas, began work in South 
 Carolina, where he and his successors met 
 with ' ' the ready good- will of the masters, 
 though much discouragement was felt be- 
 cause of the difficulties of the task, not 
 many of the Negroes understanding the 
 English tongue." The zeal of the society 
 and its missionaries increased, and in less 
 than forty years the report was made of 
 a " great multitude of Indians and Ne- 
 groes brought over to the Christian faith " 
 in different parts of the country, and later 
 of a flourishing school at Charleston send- 
 ing out annually about twenty young Ne- 
 groes well instructed in English and the 
 Christian faith. 
 
 After the separation of the colonies from K^tesunt' ""^ 
 the mother country the Protestant Epis- Episcopal church 
 copal Church took up the work of the Eng- 
 lish society with increased interest and 
 zeal, and in 1841 it reported in South Caro- 
 lina alone 869 colored members in twenty- 
 two churches, and fifteen Sunday-schools 
 with 1,459 pupils, and also two plantation 
 missions with congregations of 1,400 Ne- 
 
224 The Upward Path 
 
 groes. In Virginia a similar work was 
 being done by the same methods. 
 Presbyterians ^ dircct effort for the religious instruc- 
 tion of the Negroes was begun by Presby- 
 terians in 1747 at Hanover, Virginia, with 
 immediate success. About 1,000 Negroes 
 attended the ministry of the Rev. Samuel 
 Davis, at different points, who were eager 
 to hear and readily accepted the gospel. 
 Other missions were established and many 
 godly men devoted their time to the work 
 among the slaves both in the towns and on 
 the plantations. Sunday-schools were es- 
 tablished and the Bible and catechism were 
 taught. The greatest work of this Church 
 was in printing and freely distributing 
 sermons and books addressed to the own- 
 ers, urging them to give religious instruc- 
 tion to their servants. Their sjmods and 
 Presbyteries adopted resolutions impress- 
 ing this duty upon the masters, while in- 
 creased efforts to evangelize the Negro 
 continued fruitful in results, until retarded 
 by the abolition excitement in the free 
 States between the years 1839 and 1842. 
 Baptists As the result of sweeping revivals in the 
 Baptist churches about 1785 and 1790, 
 large numbers of Negroes were converted 
 
Eeligious Development 225 
 
 and joined that Church. In 1793 its colored 
 members numbered over 18,000 and twenty 
 years later there were enrolled 40,000 
 members and a number of preachers and 
 exhorters who j^reached to thousands of 
 their own color on the plantations. In 1841 
 there were attached to this Church more 
 Negro communicants and more regnilar 
 houses of worship exclusively for Negroes 
 with their own ordained preachers than to 
 any other Church. Many Sunday-schools 
 were reported, with large numbers of 
 pupils. 
 
 From the Rev. J. W. Jones of Richmond, ^fl^H^^lf 
 Virginia, a leading Baptist divine and one ^^^^""^^ 
 well versed in the history of his denomina- 
 tion and of the South, the following infor- 
 mation has been secured: ^' It was custo- 
 mary for our white pastors to hold special 
 services for the Negroes in all of their 
 churches, and each church had a special 
 committee on the religious instruction of 
 the Negroes. Our home mission board also 
 had special missionaries among them. As 
 a result of this work, it was estimated that 
 in 1860 there were 400,000 Negroes belong- 
 ing to the white Baptist churches of the 
 South. Many individual Christians were 
 
226 The Upward Path 
 
 accustomed to have their Negroes attend 
 their family worship and to give them spe- 
 cial religious instruction besides. 
 
 MiSCnar'*' ' ' ludced, uo missiouary work anywhere 
 ^^"''^Negroel ^^^^ heen so successful as the work of 
 Southern Christians among these people, 
 whom old England and New England 
 brought as pagans, and in some cases as 
 cannibals, to our shores. Such Negro 
 Sunday-schools as Stonewall Jackson's in 
 Lexington, Virginia, Prof. John B. 
 Minor's at the University of Virginia, Dr. 
 James P. Bryce's and H. A. Tuppin's in 
 Charleston, South Carolina, and Dr. J. C. 
 Furman's in Greenville, South Carolina 
 (all men of note), were but specimens of 
 the general work which the Southern white 
 people did for the Negro people. ' ' 
 
 In 1860 the number of Negro Bap- 
 tists was estimated at 400,000, and count- 
 ing three adherents to each of these bap- 
 tized adults we have 1,200,000 Negroes 
 under the instruction and influence of that 
 Church. 
 
 Methodists One of the first missionaries of Metho- 
 dism in the United States (1766) reports 
 successful work among the Negroes. In 
 describing a Virginia revival in about 1770 
 
Religious Development 227 
 
 he says, " Hundreds of Negroes were 
 there with tears streaming down their 
 faces ... as they expressed their love 
 for Jesus. ' ' In 1797 there were 12,215 col- 
 ored members and in less than twenty 
 years later there were nearly four times 
 that number. The objections made at first 
 by slave-owners to these efforts to Chris- 
 tianize the Negroes passed away, as they 
 witnessed the effect of the gospel upon 
 them, and the preachers were encouraged 
 and aided in their labors, especially in the 
 plantation missions, until suspicion of 
 their motives was aroused by the anti- 
 slavery movement in this Church. Later, 
 this being removed, the work again pros- 
 pered. In 1861 the colored membership of 
 the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 
 was 207,776. Counting three adherents to 
 each enrolled member, we have 623,328 Ne- 
 gro slaves under the instruction of this 
 Church. During the thirty-four years of 
 its slave mission period the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church paid out upward of 
 $2,000,000 for Christianizing the Negro 
 slaves. 
 
 In the year 1864, when every resource ^Si^^^Ne'fo'es"' 
 was well-nigh exhausted, the white Chris- 
 
228 The Upward Path 
 
 tians of the South gave for the religious 
 instruction of the Negroes a sum that 
 would closely approximate $250,000. This 
 great work was accomplished largely by 
 the direct preaching of the gospel, aided 
 by much personal work of missionaries and 
 Christian owners, and also by careful in- 
 struction in the Bible and catechism. It 
 was usual in the towns for both races to 
 be members of the same congregation, to 
 worship in the same house (separate sit- 
 tings being provided for the colored mem- 
 bers), and to receive the sacrament from 
 the same altar. In some instances sepa- 
 rate churches were built for them, where 
 they were preached to by white pastors or 
 an approved colored minister. 
 ^'.Miitfons The necessity for a different provision 
 Organized ^^^ evaugeliziug the large masses of the 
 Negroes who were on the plantations be- 
 came apparent as early as 1821, and 
 '' plantation missions " were organized to 
 meet the needs, first by the Methodists in 
 South Carolina and afterward in other 
 sections and by other churches. Place is 
 given here for a description of that work 
 from an address by the Eev. L. F. Beaty, 
 before the historical society of the South 
 
Eeligious Development 229 
 
 Carolina Conference, because wliat he says 
 is applicable to the same class of work 
 done all through the Southern States and 
 by other churches. 
 
 ' ' It was found that the regular ministry Attentf^ to 
 did not reach the river deltas of the ' low {improvement 
 country ' where on sugar, rice, and cotton *** ^^^^'^^ 
 plantations were segregated large num- 
 bers of Negroes who had but few advan- 
 tages of civilization, and little knowledge 
 of God and his Word. But the day of 
 their deliverance was at hand. ... In 
 1821 the Missionary Society of the South 
 Carolina Conference was organized, and 
 with it began an increased attention to the 
 religious improvement of the blacks. Dr. 
 Capers, afterward Bishop, was profoundly 
 interested and through him appeals came 
 to send regular missionaries to their slave 
 plantations from the Hon. Chas. C. Pinck- 
 ney, Col. Lewis Morris, and Mr. Chas. 
 Baring — names written high in the annals 
 of the State. These gentlemen and many 
 others were ever after warm supporters 
 of this cause, and by their strong personal 
 influence contributed largely to its ulti- 
 mate success. 
 
 " Not only were these South Carolina 
 
200 The Upward Path 
 
 pianfation planters interested in the salvation of their 
 
 Missions General i^ 
 
 slaves, but the Southern people as a whole 
 demanded kind treatment and religious 
 training in their behalf, as witness the 
 later fact that a great statesman of Mis- 
 sissippi, almost omnipotent in jDolitieal in- 
 fluence, was hurled from place and power 
 because he was regarded as unsound on 
 the great issue, plantation preaching. . . . 
 coeperation of <' Tho assistauce which many of the 
 
 Slave Owners ^ ^ •' 
 
 planters and their families gave the mis- 
 sionaries was invaluable. They not only pro- 
 vided places of worship, but they did all 
 they could to encourage the attendance of 
 the Negroes upon religious services. They 
 assisted in teaching the little Negroes 
 the Word of God, and in the absence of 
 the missionary, held regigious services for 
 the older ones. Many a dying slave had 
 the couch of death softened by the tender 
 ministrations of these faithful Christian 
 owners. . . . 
 '"wilafm^ One of the most interesting sights in 
 plantation life was the missionary's ar- 
 rival; his hearty greeting from scores and 
 sometimes hundreds of little Negroes, cry- 
 ing ' Preacher's come! ' which was fol- 
 lowed by a general preparation for the 
 
Eeligious Development 231 
 
 catecliising service, the singing of hymns 
 he had taught them, and prayers. . . . 
 Often the master and his family took part 
 in the service held in a plain church pre- 
 pared for it. . . . After this came the 
 class-meetings conducted by the preacher, 
 and they were fruitful of good. The 
 prayer-meetings were often occasions of 
 great power and blessing. Besides faith- 
 ful catechising, all ages were taught the 
 Apostle's Creed, the Ten Commandments, 
 and the Lord's Prayer. Visits were made 
 by the preacher to the aged and sick, and 
 often the cabin home became the very ante- 
 chamber of heaven. 
 
 " The first missionaries appointed (by Missionaries and 
 the South Carolina Conference) to the 
 people ' of color ' (in 1829), were John 
 Honour, John H. Massey, and James Dan- 
 nelly, under the superintendence of Dr. 
 Capers, and 657 members were gained 
 during the year. In 1838, only nine years 
 later, there were in that Conference 6,556 
 members in the twelve plantation missions 
 (besides the 23,498 members in the regular 
 charges), and 25,025 Negro children study- 
 ing the catechism prepared by Bishop 
 Capers. In 1864 in that one State alone 
 
 Results 
 
232 The Upward Path 
 
 there were thirty-two missionaries giving 
 their whole time to this work, with 13,373 
 members of the missions, and $42,475 col- 
 lected for its maintenance (and this not- 
 withstanding the war was in progress with 
 its ' hard times ')." 
 Episcopal Church ^his work was wronght out in the face 
 ■ ''"stl^?y of many difficulties — but a still greater ob- 
 stacle was added in the antagonism aroused 
 in the public mind by the attitude of the 
 Church toward slavery. The General Con- 
 ference of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
 in 1800 condemned Negro slavery in strong 
 terms and urged its abolishment. The 
 resolutions embodying this pronounce- 
 ment were published, probably, by every 
 newspaper in the South, and this was cal- 
 culated to destroy the Methodist Church in 
 that section. Later stringent enactments 
 and a continual agitation of the subject 
 embittered many against that Church. The 
 antislavery sentiment was stronger in the 
 South before this position was taken than 
 it was at any subsequent time. It proved 
 to be injurious to the preachers, the 
 Church, and to the slaves themselves. 
 Every Methodist preacher was regarded 
 as an abolition agent, and indiscreet ones 
 
Keligious Development 233 
 
 among them, trying to carry out the reso- 
 lutions of the Conference, brought upon 
 themselves the violence of the lawless ele- 
 ments of society. Persecution against 
 those who undertook to j^reach to the Ne- 
 groes was now rife in every direction. 
 
 " No apology can, or ought to be, made olcurltfon 
 for those miscreants who resorted to vio- suspicion and 
 lence in their treatment of Methodist '^"'™"*"^ 
 preachers, not because they cared for the 
 slaves or their masters, but because they 
 loved deeds of violence. But the truth 
 of history requires it to be stated that the 
 Methodist Church had assumed the posi- 
 tion of an abolitionist society, and it was 
 natural that this should excite the sus- 
 picions of the slaveholders, arouse the ani- 
 mosity and opposition of those who 
 were non-christian, and render the Church 
 generally unpopular. It required almost 
 a whole generation of time to overcome 
 this hostility. "\Miere the Negroes were 
 mingled with the white family, worship- 
 ing under the same roof and taught by the 
 same minister, it was easy enough to break 
 down the prejudice."^ But on the large 
 plantations, where the overseer and his 
 
 1 Harrison and Barnes, The Gospel Among the Slaves, 143. 
 
234 The Upward Path 
 
 family were the only white people, who 
 could assure the owner that under the pre- 
 tense of preaching the gospel his Negroes 
 would not be stirred up to rebellion? 
 o osiuolfto Violent expressions of disapproval of 
 Aboiitionists^aiso abolitiou doctriues were not limited to the 
 South. William Lloyd Garrison was 
 mobbed and dragged through the streets 
 of Boston in 1835, barely escaping with his 
 life, and the entire press of the city, with 
 one or two exceptions, approved the action 
 of the mob. The English abolitionist, 
 George Thompson, had a narrow escape 
 from a mob in Concord, Massachusetts, 
 and also in Augusta, Maine. Whittier was 
 pelted with mud and stones. Prudence 
 Crandall, for teaching colored girls in Can- 
 terbury, Connecticut, was subjected to per- 
 sistent, barbarous persecution. The shops 
 and meeting-houses were closed against 
 her and her pupils. " Carriage in public 
 conveyance was denied them; physicians 
 would not wait on them; Miss Crandall 's 
 own family and friends were forbidden un- 
 der many fines to visit her; the well was 
 filled with manure, and water from other 
 sources refused; the house itself was 
 smeared with filth, assailed with rotten 
 
Eeligious Development 235 
 
 eggs, and finally set on fire."^ At last 
 Miss Crandall was expelled from tlie State 
 by law, and an act was passed by the legis- 
 lature prohibiting private schools for non- 
 resident colored people and providing for 
 their expulsion. At Canaan, New Hamp- 
 shire, the Noyes Academy, '' open to pu- 
 pils of both colors," in pursuance of a 
 formal town meeting vote was dragged 
 from the land within the corporate limits 
 of the town and the teacher and colored 
 pupils given a month in which to quit the 
 town. 
 
 It was largely left to the Methodist IS'caJers 
 preachers in the South to stem this oppos- ^"'' ^^^^" 
 ing current of public opinion. The exam- 
 ple of the illustrious Bishop Capers was 
 followed by many of the preachers and the 
 owners becoming convinced that, instead 
 of creating trouble and strife, the preach- 
 ing of such men as these did much to pre- 
 serve peace and good conduct among the 
 Negroes, gave their full consent for their 
 slaves to hear the gospel from these white 
 missionaries. 
 
 The division of the Methodist Church, 
 in 1844, was regarded by wise and good 
 
 ^Life of William Lloyd Garrison, 321. 
 
236 The Upward Path 
 
 men of that time as a necessity, to prevent 
 the destruction of the Church in the 
 South.^ The immediate result of the or- 
 ganization of the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church, South, was the breaking down of 
 every barrier in preaching the gospel to 
 the slaves. The call for missionaries 
 was heard throughout the whole of the 
 South, where large numbers of slaves 
 existed. 
 ^A^ous^eTto " The religious sentiment of the whole 
 Missions to Slaves go^-^them couutry became keenly and jeal- 
 ously aroused in behalf of slave missions. 
 Every effort within the power of her 
 Christian people was put forth to furnish 
 the Negro, especially the plantation Negro, 
 the light of the gospel. Men, women, and 
 even little children contributed to the fund. 
 . . . High and low alike entered into this 
 noble work. There was no phase of it too 
 humble, no duty too unjDleasant, to deter 
 the most earnest and painstaking effort." - 
 All the churches shared in this revival of 
 interest, especially the Baptist, which out- 
 
 1 Reference is made to the division of the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church because of its historical importance and wide-spread effect 
 on this work among the slaves. The divisions that occurred In 
 other Churches were later and had little or no connection with 
 slavery. 
 
 2 Harrison and Barnes, The Gospel Among the Slaves, 302. 
 
Religious Development 237 
 
 stripped all others in its Negro naember- 
 ship. 
 
 The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, fc^^ft 
 never held in its richest Churches, nor sent 
 to any mission field, men of higher order 
 of intellect, culture, or consecration than 
 those who were appointed by it as super- 
 intendents and pastors of its missions 
 among the Southern slaves. Bishops An- 
 drew, Capers, Early, McTyire, and Fitz- 
 gerald; Drs. McFerrin, Evans, and many 
 others, though called in after years to fill 
 the highest offices in the Church, accounted 
 among their richest experiences and hap- 
 piest work that which came to them as mis- 
 sionaries to the Negroes. 
 
 There was scarcely any comparison now chingl" wrought 
 between the condition of these plantation 
 Negroes and their state when this work 
 of evangelization was begun among them. 
 Then, ** ignorant, superstitious, grossly 
 immoral, it was like seeking to pierce im- 
 penetrable darkness. Thousands of them 
 could speak English in only a broken way, 
 while hundreds still jabbered their African 
 dialects. It was pitiful to hear them trying 
 to pray in their broken language." ^ Now, 
 
 1 Harrison anfl Barnes, The Gospel Among the SlaveSj 305. 
 
238 The Upward Path 
 
 many of those who had received the gospel 
 seed in hearts, made fertile by the Holy 
 Spirit, became themselves the sowers of 
 the Word. And so this work of grace grew 
 and multiplied, until thousands and thou- 
 sands were converted to Christ and by 
 their lives gave abundant evidence of his 
 righteousness. 
 Religious Christian Negroes gained, while in slav- 
 
 Expenence 007 
 
 ^^sfavery ^^y^ ^^^ ^^^5" ^ ^^^® mental conception of 
 God, but a spiritual perception of his truth 
 which their related experiences and 
 prayers made manifest to those who heard 
 them in that day. A record of this fact 
 has been preserved and handed down to 
 later generations in their songs, and of 
 them more than of any other people it may 
 be said, *' Their songs are the voice of the 
 soul." To those well versed in what are 
 called Plantation Melodies, it is clear thrt 
 not only did the Negro possess an ortho- 
 dox theology but it possessed him, perme- 
 ating, as it did, his whole life, and molding 
 his religious experience. 
 Negro Melodies a rp|-^g Ncgro was cvcr siugiug; he saug 
 
 of his troubles and hopes, his bondage and 
 his freedom. Mingled with these were 
 echoes of his struggles with sin, his striv- 
 
Eeligious Development 239 
 
 ing after godliness, his fleeing from Satan, 
 his search for God." ^ 
 
 After the Civil War there were some 
 sporadic efforts made by the Southern 
 white people to continue or renew the work 
 of Christianizing the Negroes with past 
 methods; but this was rendered difficult 
 and often impossible by the conditions that 
 prevailed during the Reconstruction 
 Period. Kindly feeling for them still ex- 
 isted with many, and the hand of help was 
 extended whenever and wherever those 
 conditions made it possible. The attitude 
 of the Negro mind toward the white people 
 who had once owned them caused them to 
 refuse to occupy the sittings formerly as- 
 signed them in the white churches, and to 
 seek to build their own churches. 
 
 The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, Methodists 
 in organizing its colored members into a 
 separate Church bestowed on them all the 
 churches it had built for their distinctive 
 use — a rich gift — and aided them in every 
 possible way. A large number of its col- 
 ored members, however, went into the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church and into the 
 
 1 Procter, Southern WorTcman, November, 1907. Tbe author is 
 ittuch indebted to this writer for some suggestions in the detailed 
 account of Plantation Melodies given in Appendix B. 
 
240 The Upward Path 
 
 African Methodist Episcopal Church, 
 from which bodies they received much help 
 in the building of churches and in the edu- 
 cation and support of the ministry. 
 
 ^*p%th"rs The Baptist congregations had less diffi- 
 culty in securing and maintaining a dis- 
 tinct Negro Church, for they had more 
 churches for their exclusive use while 
 slaves, and these were retained by them 
 without the necessity of legal procedure. 
 These also have received help from both 
 Southern and Northern friends of that de- 
 nomination as the years have gone by. 
 Other Churches have aided in the direct 
 work of evangelization by preaching the 
 gospel and in building churches for the 
 Negroes. 
 christian^hSo*is But by far the greatest work for their 
 religious betterment since emancipation 
 has been done through the Christian 
 schools established for their benefit by the 
 white churche and mission boards, North 
 and South, and by their own intelligent ef- 
 forts resulting from the advantages thus 
 gained. 
 ^chJrch ^6 have noted the progress of the 
 
 Organization American Negro as a citizen in his indus- 
 trial and economic attainments, his home 
 
w 
 
 ■^JnJ 
 
 :Wr" 
 
 ' -Smm 
 
 o ^ 
 
 o y 
 
 « o 
 
 63 "M 
 
 < Z 
 
 ^ ua 
 
 o- 
 
 C3.— 
 
 4 
 
 ... .1 
 
 * 1 1 
 
 
 H 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 "4 
 
 ■' -'K-Jt^r-lJ! m 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 1 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
Eeligious Development 241 
 
 and social life, his political, criminal, and 
 physical status. We have also seen him 
 as a student in all the different phases of 
 his educational world. We must now turn 
 our attention to the still more important 
 side of his nature, the spiritual, and con- 
 sider him as a Christian, and see how far 
 he has advanced in Church organization 
 and attainment in righteousness. Eelig- 
 ious statistics are always difficult to obtain 
 because of the inaccuracy of Church 
 records. This is markedly the case among 
 the Negroes, and the difficulty is increased 
 by the fact that some white Churches have 
 Negro members whom they do not report 
 separately. 
 
 The majority of the Negroes are Bap- stScr"**"*' 
 tists or Methodists. In Dr. Strong's So- 
 cial Progress, for 1906 the combined re- 
 ports of eight Negro Methodist organiza- 
 tions place their membership at 1,863,258, 
 with 14,844 regular preachers and 30,725 
 local preachers. Their Church property is 
 valued at $22,267,298. The colored Bap- 
 tist Churches report a membership of 
 2,038,427, with 16,080 ministers, and 
 Church property valued at $12,196,130. 
 There are some Baptist organizations with 
 
242 The Upward Path 
 
 a considerable following of which no report 
 could be obtained. Besides these, there 
 are a large number of colored members in 
 the following Churches : Methodist Episco- 
 pal, Presbyterian (North and South), Re- 
 formed Presbyterian, Protestant Episco- 
 pal, Congregational, Disciples of Christ, 
 some small Methodist bodies, Lutheran, 
 and Roman Catholic. Considering the rate 
 of growth in the past it will be a safe esti- 
 mate to say that at this time there are 
 4,500,000 enrolled as Church members, and 
 at least 3,000,000 adherents; or that more 
 than two thirds of the entire Negro popula- 
 tion are related to some Church. 
 Me^hodfs" The first Church organization for Ne- 
 ^"churdl groes only was the African Methodist 
 Episcopal Church, which was effected un- 
 der the leadership of Richard Allen. 
 ' ' This was owing to a defection among the 
 colored members in Philadelphia, by which 
 upward of 1,000 in that city withdrew from 
 the Methodist Episcopal Church. ... At 
 their first General Conference Richard Al- 
 len was elected Bishop. "^ This Church 
 spread slowly at first through the North- 
 em States but did not come South until af- 
 
 1 Bangs, History of MethoMam. 
 
Religious Development 243 
 
 ter the Civil War. Now it is widely dis- 
 tributed, having 762,580 members and 
 property valued at $10,360,131. It has 
 to-day in Africa one hundred and eighty 
 mission stations with 12,000 members, be- 
 sides missions in Canada and the West In- 
 dies. It supports at home twenty-five 
 schools, with about 4,000 pupils and prop- 
 erty valued at $535,000. 
 
 The African Methodist Episcopal Zion AethoSist 
 Church was organized in New York and churcT'^"*" 
 had a similar history to the African Metho- 
 dist Episcopal Church. Its last available 
 report claims 575,271 members and 
 Church property of all kinds valued at 
 $5,102,567. It has established and main- 
 tained nineteen schools. These two 
 Churches have united and the consolidated 
 organization forms one of the largest de- 
 nominations in this country. It is possible 
 that other smaller Negro Methodist de- 
 nominations will in the near future unite 
 with them. 
 
 The Colored Methodist Episcopal SoL 
 Church was organized in 1866 by the church and 
 
 -. /-M n i i? Others 
 
 Methodist Episcopal Church, South, out ot 
 its colored members. Two bishops of their 
 own election were ordained, and all Church 
 
244 The Upward Path 
 
 l^roperty that had been acquired, held, and 
 used for Methodist Negroes was turned 
 over to them. This Church has now 209,- 
 972 communicants and property vahied at 
 $2,525,600. It suports five schools and has 
 a publishing house worth $20,000. There 
 are four smaller Methodist organizations 
 and the Methodist Episcopal Church has 
 292,109 colored members. 
 
 '^^"coIiSnuon ^^^ ^^'^^ Baptist church for colored peo- 
 ple was organized in Williamsburg, Vir- 
 ginia, in 1796. There are now six Baptist 
 denominations, the largest being known as 
 the Regular Baptists and has 1,348,989 
 members with property valued at $9,038,- 
 549. ' ' These Baptist churches unite in as- 
 sociations and State conventions for mis- 
 sionary and educational work. For a 
 long time, however, it seemed impossible to 
 unite any large number of them in a na- 
 tional convention, but this has at last been 
 done. The National Baptist Convention 
 (all Negroes) was organized at Atlanta, 
 . Georgia, September 28, 1895. Its objects 
 are missionary and educational work and 
 the publication of religious literature. ' ' ^ 
 The most remarkable result of the 
 
 1 Atlanta University Publications, No. 8. 
 
Eeligious Development 245 
 
 united effort of the Negro Baptists is the ^l^^l ^jtist 
 home mission department, including the p^^eign Missions 
 publishing house. For these purposes in 
 1902 they expended $81,658. They have 
 established foreign missions in various 
 parts of Africa, the West Indies, South 
 America, and Russia. In these missions 
 they support thirty-seven missionaries and 
 a large number of native helpers. Of the 
 missionaries, eight are American Negroes 
 and eleven are native Africans who have 
 received their education in America. 
 Through its educational department, this 
 Church maintains in America eighty 
 schools, with probably 6,000 or 7,000 pu- 
 pils. They are for the most part primary 
 and secondary schools, and supplement the 
 public schools. School property is valued 
 at $564,000, and they raised in 1902 the 
 sum of $127,941 for education. Forty- 
 three periodicals are published by them. 
 
 The Christian Church (Disciples of 2l"^taJother 
 Christ) reported in 1908 a membership of i>«'>»--«««°« 
 55,881 and 475 ministers in strictly Negro 
 churches. The Congregational, Presby- 
 terian, Cumberland Presbyterian, and 
 Episcopal Negro Churches are largely the 
 immediate result of the educational institu- 
 
246 The Upward Path 
 
 tions of these Churches, and as a general 
 thing their ministers and congregations are 
 from the educated class, but they are few 
 in number and increase slowly. The mem- 
 bership of these four denominations num- 
 bers about 65,000. They have no distinct 
 general organizations, but are affiliated 
 with the white churches through whose 
 missionary effort they were organized. 
 Roman Catholics There are but few Roman Catholics out- 
 side of Louisiana and other parts of the 
 country that were formerly under French 
 or Spanish domination. No statistics con- 
 cerning them could be obtained. 
 Missionary and Jq all of thcse Churchcs there are 
 
 Benevolent 
 
 Societies -^^omen's missionary societies more or less 
 developed and effective. There are also 
 many benevolent societies that do much 
 local home mission and charity work. 
 There are generally societies of various 
 kinds for young i3eople and children. The 
 difficulty of procuring correct data of these 
 organizations renders it impossible to even 
 estimate their numerical or s^Diritual force. 
 Outside of the regular i^reaching service, 
 the Sunday-school is the most universal 
 and best developed feature in all the 
 Churches, and the teaching and training of 
 
Eeligious Development 247 
 
 Sunday-school teachers presents a large 
 opportunity to those who desire to do local 
 missionary work among the Negroes. 
 
 The Young Men's Christian Association ^^ij!!""''' 
 is doing a good and growing work both in Association 
 city and college. There are at present one 
 hundred and twenty-six colored associa 
 tions with a membership of 9,198, and six- 
 teen buildings are owned, valued at $185,- 
 900. There are twenty-eight secretaries 
 employed by the local associations. 
 
 CHURCH CONDITIONS AND METHODS 
 
 The Atlanta University has issued as 
 one of its social studies a pamphlet desig- 
 nated " The Negro Church. "^ Though 
 one may not agree with all the conclusions 
 drawn, yet the first-hand investigations it 
 presents are very valuable. These investi- 
 gations are made by intelligent, educated 
 Negroes in different localities, North and 
 South, and are generally based on the fol- 
 lowing inquiries: 
 
 1. What is the condition of the churches 1 
 
 2. What is the influence of the churches ? 
 
 1 This pamphlet Is prepared and edited by Dr. W. E. B. DuBoIs, 
 of the Atlanta University, who is one of the leading Negroes in 
 the South in the advocacy of higher education. That publication 
 is responsible for the statements under this heading. 
 
248 The Upward Path 
 
 3. Are the ministers good? 
 
 4. What charity work is done? 
 
 5. What is done for the young people? 
 
 6. Are moral standards being raised? 
 The responses made to these questions 
 
 are remarkable chiefly for their diversity, 
 running from one end of the gamut of 
 opinion to the other — from the extreme of 
 optimism to the extreme of pessimism. 
 This is what might be expected in any in- 
 vestigation of the religious life of individ- 
 uals or of communities, yet the facts and 
 illustrations upon which these opinions are 
 based are extremely interesting and sug- 
 gestive. It would not be possible here to 
 give more than a brief summary of these, 
 with a few items especially illustrative. 
 County fn Ih a ' ' black belt " county of Georgia 
 Georgia thcrc arc ninety-eight churches of all de- 
 nominations, the Baptist predominating, 
 for a Negro population of 17,450. *' Un- 
 like most of our American poi^ulation, the 
 Negro is well churched. It is his only in- 
 stitution and forms the center of his pub- 
 lic life." Many of these churches have 
 been formed as the result of '' a split " 
 caused by internal dissension, and not 
 from the home mission work of the larger 
 
Eeligious Develoj}ment 249 
 
 churches. These churches demand the 
 shout-producing preacher, and vahie his 
 ability to preach " rousement " sermons 
 more than his education or morals. The 
 result is that young men of ability and edu- 
 cation are driven out of the ministry and 
 the Church has no influence over those of 
 both sexes who have been to college nor 
 can draw them to its services, except as it 
 furnishes them amusement. Inordinate 
 rivalry exists between the denominations 
 to the extent of '' petty meannesses," and 
 money ranks a member higher than moral- 
 ity. There are about one hundred and 
 twenty preachers in the county. The 
 number might be doubled if there were 
 added all who call themselves preachers 
 and who try to interpret the Word of God. 
 Out of forty-three applicants for admis- 
 sion to a Methodist Conference, thirty-five 
 were refused, but that did not deter them 
 from preaching. 
 
 Learned or unlearned, the Negro fh'eTi'adIrr 
 preacher is to-day the leader of the race. 
 The ig-norant preacher has an ignorant 
 wife and their home life is on no higher 
 level than those of the congregation. In 
 morality they have much to learn : moral- 
 
250 The Upward Path 
 
 ity as it affects (1) temperance, (2) debt- 
 paying and business honesty, (3) sexual 
 relations. Eesponses from intelligent lay- 
 men in this county generally accuse the 
 preachers of being sexually immoral and 
 many say " the influence of the Church is 
 bad," yet these statements are contra- 
 dicted by others who say " the moral 
 standards are being raised." One says, 
 " There are fewer separations of hus- 
 bands and wives, and fewer illegitimate 
 children. ' ' 
 Farmviiie ^t Farmvillc, Virginia, a small town. 
 
 Institutional 707 7 
 
 Church there is a Baptist church that in a way is 
 a good representative of the down-town or 
 institutional church so strongly advocated 
 by many Church leaders. The auditorium 
 is large and attractive. " It is the central 
 club-house of the Baptist part of the com- 
 munity. Various organizations meet 
 there, entertainments and lectures are 
 given, and the whole social life centers 
 there. The unifying and directing force is, 
 however, in religious exercises of some 
 sort. The result of this is not so much 
 that recreation and social life have become 
 stiff and austere, but rather that relig- 
 ious exercises have acquired a free and 
 
/=% 
 
 ^KSj^p^wflsrj "^rf* 
 
 It 
 
 rmtJf 
 
 St. Athanasius' Protestant Episcopal Church, 
 Brunswick, Georgia 
 
 First Baptist Church, Richmond, Virginia 
 
Keligious Development 251 
 
 easy expression and in some respects 
 serve as amusements. For instance, the 
 camp-meeting is a picnic with incidental 
 sermons and singing; the rally of the 
 country churches, called the ' big meetin',' 
 is the occasion of the pleasantest social in- 
 tercourse, with a free barbecue; the Sun- 
 day-school convention and the various 
 preachers' conventions are occasions of 
 reunions and festivities. Even the weekly 
 Sunday service serves as a pleasant meet- 
 ing-place for working people who find little 
 time for visiting during the week. . . . 
 
 " From these facts, however, one must f^M^^^j^'ceil^, 
 not hastily form the conclusion that the re- 
 ligion of such churches is hollow or their 
 spiritual influence wanting. While under 
 present circumstances the Negro church 
 cannot be simply a spiritual agency, but 
 must also be a social, intellectual, and eco- 
 nomic center, it nevertheless is a spiritual 
 center of wide influence that carries noth- 
 ing immoral or baneful. The sermons are 
 apt to be fervent repetitions of an ortho- 
 dox Calvinism . . . with strong condem- 
 nation of the grosser sins and of gossip 
 and ' meanness.' . . . There are long-con- 
 tinued revivals, but with fewer of the 
 
252 The Upward Path 
 
 wild scenes of excitement that used to be 
 the rule. " ^ 
 
 ^^^^MifJtl ^^ ^^® ^^^y ^^ Atlanta, where there was 
 in 1900 a Negro population of 35,727, there 
 are fifty-four churches — twenty-nine Bap- 
 tist and twenty-one Methodist — and only 
 four of other denominations. Their united 
 membership is 16,261 and church property 
 is valued at $252,508. Some of the 
 churches have good buildings and large 
 congregations. Some of them are in debt 
 and some are small and the membership 
 poor. The characters of the pastors are 
 pronounced good, and their education 
 fair, though there are some exceptions. 
 The education of the members varies from 
 '' fair " to '' very poor." 
 ^"^Membe^rThfp Many of the most influential wealthy 
 churches of this city are Baptist, while 
 others of that denomination are among the 
 poorest. One of the latter class claims 
 only six active members and another only 
 fourteen, while one of the first class has 
 1,560 active members that include some of 
 the best colored people of the city and has 
 less than a hundred illiterate persons. 
 The pastor has a good character and a 
 
 1 Atlanta University Publications, No. 8, pp. 81, 82. 
 
Religious Development 253 
 
 good education. It has one of the largest 
 Sunday-schools in the city, supports two 
 missions, and does a large amount of char- 
 ity work. 
 
 One of the largest Methodist churches othlV A"a°i!ta 
 in Atlanta has 500 active members and is ^'»"'«=hes 
 composed of the best class of working peo- 
 ple with a large number of educated peo- 
 ple and graduates of schools. The pastor 
 is '' a gentleman and an honest man." It 
 supports a salaried deaconess to take 
 charge of its charitable work. It does 
 much for its young people, having a large 
 Sunday-school, besides classes in cooking 
 and sewing and a week-day class in relig- 
 ious training. Another Methodist church 
 has 600 active members, and a total mem- 
 bership of 1,400 composed of some of the 
 most influential and cultured colored peo- 
 ple in the city, a considerable number of 
 them being school-teachers and property 
 owners. The church is a handsome edifice 
 that cost $50,000 and seats 3,000 people. 
 It expends much in charity, and last year 
 contributed $360 for missions. The pastor 
 has a good character and a good education. 
 
 The pastors of the Congregational, g*,'^„^J„i„ations 
 Episcopal, and Presbyterian Churches of '" '^"""'^ 
 
254 The Upward Path 
 
 Atlanta are described as having excellent 
 characters and as finely educated. Most of 
 the members are educated and a large per 
 cent, are business and professional men 
 and women. The four have a combined 
 membership of 883. 
 ^*"Richmond Couditious at Richmond, Virginia, are 
 similar to those in Atlanta. There are 
 fewer churches, but these have a larger 
 membership and their church buildings are 
 better. In fact, these conditions with some 
 modifications are found in many cities of 
 the South. 
 Descriptionsare Theso dcscriptious of different classes 
 of city and country churches in Georgia 
 and Virginia may serve as illustrations 
 of the conditions existing throughout the 
 South, varying more or less according 
 to the local conditions of education, 
 wealth, and personal preference. There 
 are some good and some bad preachers, 
 some educated and some ignorant congre- 
 gations, some handsome churches and 
 some dirty hovels. Many churches are in 
 debt. The preachers in the country 
 churches and small towns are generally 
 poorly paid, but they usually live as well 
 as their congregations, who are as liberal 
 
Religious Development 255 
 
 as their own scant incomes admit. The 
 Negro churches in the North vary in 
 character as they do in the South, and as 
 a whole are neither better nor worse. 
 
 In New York City tliere are not less churches'' ^"^ 
 than 30,000 Negroes who are crystallized 
 around three most undesirable centers. 
 There are nine churches and three mis- 
 sions belonging to the different denomina- 
 tions. ' ' The aggregate church membership 
 is very little less than 4,000. The average 
 attendance upon worship at night (nobody 
 there attends a colored church to any ex- 
 tent except at night) is nearly 3,000. . . . 
 There are only 1,725 pupils in the Sunday- 
 schools, with an average attendance of 
 1,200. There is a lack of competent 
 teachers and of means to procure better 
 facilities, and many families are too poor 
 to supply decent clothing for their chil- 
 dren. . . . The church property is valued 
 at $617,500, with an indebtedness on it of 
 $100,000, while less than $100,000 has been 
 contributed by white people to the aid of 
 these better places of worship. ... A few 
 individual members are in comfortable 
 circumstances, but not one would be rightly 
 considered wealthy. . . . The colored ten- 
 
256 The Upward Path 
 
 ants pay a higher rent than any other 
 class, and they must feed and clothe them- 
 selves with all the chances in the industrial 
 field against them. . . . There is a constant 
 stream of colored immigrants from the 
 South, mostly unskilled laborers, and their 
 simple Southern faith does not seem to 
 stand very well the chilling touch of a 
 Northern atmosphere. . . . Many refuse 
 to affiliate with our churches. . . . Exposed 
 to the temptations of city life, the number 
 of them that drift back into sin is appall- 
 ing. "^ 
 
 %naderphi2 In 1900 Philadelphia had 62,613 Ne- 
 groes. There were fifty-five churches in 
 all, with 13,000 members and property 
 valued at $910,000. ''The social life cen- 
 ters in the church and this central club- 
 house tends to become more and more lux- 
 uriously furnished. . . . The average Ne- 
 gro preacher in this city is a shrewd man- 
 ager, a respectable man, a good talker, a 
 pleasant companion, but neither learned 
 nor spiritual, nor a reformer. The moral 
 standards are set by the congregation and 
 vary from church to church. ' ' ^ 
 
 ^°*chicago Conditions are much better in Eastern 
 
 1 " The Religious Condition of New York City," 58-62. 
 
 2 DuBois, " The Philadelphia Negro," 204. 
 
Eeligious Development 257 
 
 cities than in Chicago. The Negro popula- 
 tion there was over 30,000 in 1900, and 
 out of that number there were only about 
 5,000 active Church members reported in 
 the thirty-two churches. Only sixteen of 
 these churches own the places where 
 they worship, and all but two carry large 
 debts. All church property is valued 
 at $178,800. Some of the jDreachers are 
 reported as '^ immoral," or '' intemper- 
 ate, " or " dishonest ; ' ' some of the congre- 
 gations are described as " intelligent," 
 '^ rather intelligent," and " ignorant." 
 '' As a rule the churches are marked with 
 inefficiency and a lack of a proper regard 
 for the moral development of the people in 
 honesty, sexual purity, and other virtues. 
 The larger churches, some of them impos- 
 ing edifices, are largely attended by fash- 
 ionably dressed people. The smaller ones 
 have a hard struggle to exist. There is a 
 constant demand for money in all of 
 them." '' The young people of the intel- 
 lectual class are not attracted to the 
 church. . . . One of the largest churches 
 set a premium upon ignorance and drove 
 the younger element from the church. . . . 
 A very small percentage of our profes- 
 
258 The Upward Path 
 
 sional men and women are regular in their 
 church attendance. ' ' ^ 
 
 ^^"'SlSd '' The standards of life are being raised, 
 and there is a marked improvement in the 
 matter of purity of life," says Dr. H. B. 
 Frissell, the President of Hampton Insti- 
 tute, who has had twenty-one years of ex- 
 perience in the schools and homes of the 
 colored people. There are various grades 
 of morality among Negroes (as among 
 other people), and a vast work yet remains 
 to be done for them and by them that they 
 may be fully Christianized, but it is due to 
 them that they " be sometimes judged by 
 their best and not always by their worst." 
 
 Large Mass^fo^be L^rgo masscs of the people both on the 
 plantations and in city slums are fearfully 
 ignorant and immoral. They are still un- 
 der the sway of superstition ; there is scan- 
 ty school training in many rural districts 
 for only a few months in the year ; there is 
 nothing from the better outside life to 
 stimulate mind or spirit; no influence ex- 
 cept in the church for their uplift, and, 
 alas! this is often lacking because the 
 preacher is no whit above themselves 
 either in knowledge or morality. 
 
 1 Atlanta University Publications, No. S. 
 
Religious Development 259 
 
 " It has been said that the Negro plan- fn'S*"" 
 tation preacher is the curse of the people. 
 Honesty, truth, and purity are not taught, 
 because neither he nor the people have 
 come to realize that these virtues are es- 
 sential to the religious life. The ethical 
 power of Christianity is scarcely felt. The 
 time is ripe for a forward gospel campaign 
 in the great, needy ' back country ' of the 
 Black Belt. "1 
 
 A campaign is needed that will include cllliSgn^""''' 
 both the evangelist and the pastor, who 
 should be a patient instructor in right- 
 eousness. These people need not only to 
 accept the truth, but to be established and 
 built up in the truth — to be Christianized 
 as well as evangelized. 
 
 It is coming to be more and more a habit i5|"ure"of 
 of thought and speech to put ethics and ^^^ '^^^** 
 emotion on different sides of the religious 
 balances, and to presuppose that where the 
 latter exists to any great degree the 
 former is lacking. Growing out of this 
 view, a demand almost is made upon the 
 Negro to repress his emotional nature, to 
 forbid its expression in his religious ser- 
 vices, and by this to give evidence that he 
 
 1 Atlanta University Publications, No. 8. 
 
Misunderstood 
 
 260 The Upward Path 
 
 has progressed in the true religious life 
 and attained to the ethical stage. What 
 would Wesley and Whitefield and Finney 
 and hundreds of great " preachers of 
 righteousness " in the past, and Evan 
 Eoberts, one of the greatest evangelists of 
 to-day, say of this doctrine of repression? 
 Ex^Sns That the Negro has an emotional relig- 
 ion has been dwelt upon in the discussions 
 of the spiritual side of his life and counted 
 against his possession of the real religious 
 experience. His shouting, moans of grief, 
 and tears of joy, fervent ejaculations, 
 vivid experiences, all are regarded as sim- 
 ply the physical excitement of the ignorant 
 and often of the immoral. A protest must 
 be entered here against such misunder- 
 standing of the Negro Christian who thus 
 expresses his emotion. Of course there 
 may be, and unquestionably are, many 
 hypocrites among them (certainly there 
 are among white people), who thus ape 
 what they think will give the appearance 
 of piety, and many who transcend all the 
 bounds of propriety, even decency. Of 
 these there are a great number whose 
 every-day lives are far from being pious 
 or moral. These and their demonstrations 
 
Religious Development 261 
 
 are the counterfeit of the real Christians 
 who " let their joys be known," and their 
 inconsistent lives should receive Church 
 discipline, and firm restraint should be put 
 upon their unseemly exercises. These per- 
 sons should not, however, be taken as a 
 type of a large body of Christians. 
 
 The Christian religion is based on the RenSEmotion 
 emotion of love. Jesus said the first and 
 greatest commandment was to love God, 
 and the second to love mankind, and that 
 on these two " hang all the law and the 
 prophets." The fruits of the Spirit are 
 expressed in the terms of emotion — " love, 
 joy, peace "—and out of these comes as a 
 natural growth a righteous life. Since, ac- 
 cording to Christ's words, all true Chris- 
 tians possess an emotional religion, the 
 seen difference in them must be that some 
 desire and are able to control those emo- 
 tions in their outward expression and 
 some do not. There are three classes of 
 people who are noticeably lacking in self- 
 control of any kind— young children, ig- 
 norant people, and mentally or morally 
 weak people. 
 
 The Negro is a child race in its de- 
 velopment. In the African wilds they did 
 
262 The Upward Path 
 
 Emotional not leam how to control either their emo- 
 
 Expression 
 
 andTnd"vWua1s ^i^iis or appetites, and these grew weakJ 
 through indulgence. In slavery they were' 
 controlled in everything else more than 
 in these. Self-control means self-mastery 
 and belongs to maturity of life, and! 
 is the result of mental and moral train- 
 ing. There are very many Negroes, as we 
 have seen, who are very ignorant, and 
 these, like ignorant, untrained people of 
 other races, are easily swayed by their 
 feelings, whatever they may be, and give 
 uncontrolled expression to them. It is also 
 true that some races are more demonstra- 
 tive than others — the Latin races more 
 than the Teutonic, the Negro more than 
 the Indian — some individuals more than 
 others of the same race, and even of the 
 same family. 
 "^ ReSous ^^^ Negro as a race may be said to have 
 Temperament ^ rcligious temperament. He has heart 
 power, the power of loving, and a vivid 
 imagination that lays hold with strong 
 faith on the unseen. "When he has come 
 into the Christian life and before he has 
 learned self-control he finds great satisfac- 
 tion in giving outward expression to the 
 deep feelings that fill his heart and over- 
 
Eeligious Development 263 
 
 master him. As self-control is gained, the 
 outward, physical demonstrations grad- 
 ually cease with him as with the educated 
 of other races. A\^ile the ignorant masses 
 of Negroes, especially in the rural dis- 
 tricts, have not outgrown the " noisy meet- 
 ing," the process of evolution along the 
 educational and social lines is manifested 
 in that the better educated, more refined 
 Negroes have left these things behind 
 them. It would be as genuine a surprise to 
 some of their best city congregations to 
 hear a shout in their midst as such a 
 demonstration would be in a neighboring 
 white church. 
 
 While all this is true, a protest must be ithfci^possibie 
 entered against the idea that because a 
 Christian, white or black, man or woman, 
 gives outward manifestation to the in- 
 ward joy, therefore there is no intelligent 
 conception of divine truths or that there is 
 a lack of their ethical expression in the life. 
 During the days of slavery, many of those 
 who were " shouting Christians " were 
 also living members of the body of Christ, 
 and walked in their integrity uncondemned 
 before God and man, and there are such 
 persons living to-day whose godly, unsel- 
 
 Companions 
 
264 The Upward Path 
 
 fish lives would be an example to some who 
 have better control over their emotions. 
 The Negroes as a race may not yet possess 
 the highly cultured conscience that would 
 enable them to deal with fine turns of 
 casuistry and hair-splitting ethics, but let 
 them have time — the processes of develop- 
 ment in the spirit world are as slow as in 
 the natural — give them time and help them 
 to know God's Word and love God's will, 
 and the hope may be entertained that they 
 ^^11 grow into a race of good men and 
 women who are good because they love 
 God and delight to do his will. 
 Soul Culture and God grant that soul culture may be kept 
 
 Mental Culture ^ ^ ± 
 
 Needed j^ ]\^q ipjrith mcutal culturc in the Negro's 
 progress! There is every reason to hope 
 that it will be, since much of the help that 
 has come to him has come from the Church 
 of God, and, still more, because of his own 
 religious temperament. In God's great 
 plan for the redemption of the world, who 
 can say what part of his purpose is re- 
 served for this race to accomplish? Let 
 the race look to it that it be ready to carry 
 out that purpose when made manifest by 
 him who rules the hearts and destinies of 
 men and of worlds. 
 
Eeligious Development 285 
 
 SUGGESTED QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER VII 
 
 Aim: To Estimate the Negro's Religious Progress, 
 AND THE Present Religious Needs Among the 
 Negroes 
 1.* Describe the Negro's religion when he came to 
 
 America. 
 2.* What was his idea of the relation of moral 
 conduct to his religion? 
 
 3. Is it an easy task to supplant old beliefs and 
 superstitions? Why not? 
 
 4. By what organizations was the first missionary 
 work done among the Negroes? 
 
 5. Describe the beginning of the work done by 
 your denomination. 
 
 6. What was the relation of the whites in the 
 South to these missionary efforts? 
 
 7. How were the missionaries received by the 
 owners and slaves on plantations? 
 
 8. What denomination in the South was especially 
 active in the campaign for the aboliton of slav- 
 ery? 
 
 9. How did the antislavery movement retard 
 missionary effort? 
 
 10.* Tabulate the progress in religious development 
 among the Negroes up to the time of the Civil 
 War. 
 
 11. Describe the attitude of the two races in the 
 South toward each other immediately after the 
 war. 
 
 12. What was the effect of these conditions upon 
 the religious life of the Negro? 
 
 13.* What conclusions would you reach in estimat- 
 ing the growth of Negro indep: icut Churches? 
 14. In what directions are they best developed ? 
 15.* Where do you consider conditions more favor- 
 
266 The Upward Path 
 
 able for the religious development of the Ne- 
 gro in the rural or urban communities, in the 
 North or the South? State reasons. 
 
 16.* Can the Negroes provide for their own religious 
 needs'? Give reasons for and against. 
 
 17.* If you had $50,000 to invest in the religious up- 
 lift of the Negroes, where would you place it, 
 and why? 
 
 18* Sum up in the order of importance what you 
 consider the greatest and most pressing relig- 
 ious needs among the Negroes. 
 
 Eeferences fob Further Study. — Chapter VII 
 
 Beligious WorJc Among Negroes} 
 
 DuBois: The Souls of the Black Folk, X. 
 Washington and DuBois: The Negro in the 
 South, IV. 
 Whipple: Negro Neighbors, IV. 
 
 1 For the most recent information regarding the religious con- 
 dition of the Negro, the denominational home mission magazines 
 should be read. 
 
THE NEXT STEP: NEED AND SUPPLY 
 
I would not presume to speak dogmatically as to the 
 mind of God with reference to the future status of the 
 Negro. . . . On what specific lines the race will move 
 through the coming centuries, I dare not attempt to 
 prophesy. But I do know that all our dealings with 
 these people should be in spirit and according to the 
 ethics of the Man of Galilee. What is best for them 
 now should be the measure of present duty, leaving the 
 future to the hands of him who knows the end from the 
 beginning. And we must insist that the Negro have 
 equal opportunity with every American citizen to fulfil 
 to himself the highest purposes of an all-wise and benefi- 
 cent Providence. 
 
 — Charles B. Galloway 
 
 The slaves brought into the South a few centuries 
 ago, in ignorance, in superstition, and weakness, are now 
 a free people, multiplied into 8,000,000; they are sur- 
 rounded, protected, encouraged, educated in hand, heart, 
 and head, given the full protection of the law, the high- 
 est justice meted out to him through courts and legis- 
 lative enactments, they are stimulated and not oppressed, 
 made citizens and not aliens, made to understand by 
 word and act that in proportion as they show them- 
 selves worthy to bear responsibilities, the greater oppor- 
 tunities will be given them. I see them loving you, trust- 
 ing you, adding to the wealth, the intelligence, the re- 
 nown of each Southern commonwealth. In turn, I see 
 you confiding in them, ennobling them, beckoning them 
 on to the highest success, and we have all been made 
 to appreciate in full that, 
 
 " The slave's chain and the master's alike are broken. 
 The one curse of the race held both in tether; 
 They are rising, all are rising. 
 The black and white together." 
 
 — Booker T. Washington 
 
vin 
 
 THE NEXT STEP: NEED AND SUPPLY 
 
 WE have seen tlie great extent of mis- J^'"f„^^XI* 
 sionary effort for the Negro which 
 has been made along educational lines, and 
 also that to the schools established and 
 maintained for his benefit is due not only 
 his mental development, but much of the 
 religious advancement that has come to 
 him since his emancipation. We have also 
 seen that missionary work for him has not 
 been limited to the schools and that which 
 emanated from the schools. Direct work 
 has been done in building churches and 
 supporting the regular ministry and, to 
 some extent, lay missionaries. The very 
 fact that so much has been done in the past 
 with such large results only emphasizes 
 the importance of continuing through this 
 work to obey our Lord's command. Not 
 only did he commission us to preach the 
 gospel to every creature, but to '' make 
 disciples of all the nations," and to teach 
 
270 The Upward Path 
 
 them to ' ' observe all things ' ' that he com- 
 manded. To those acquainted with the 
 facts it is unnecessary to say that we have 
 not yet taught this nation to know and ob- 
 serve the " all things " of Christ. Nor 
 does this statement surprise those who 
 have knowledge of missionary work among 
 any people. 
 Lack of It would afford both an interesting and 
 
 Cooperation a "^ 
 
 Waste an inspiring study to take the records of 
 each denomination and sum up the united 
 efforts of the Church of God to Christian- 
 ize the American Negro. From such a 
 study a new light of hope would come with 
 the knowledge of how much the Negro 
 Churches themselves have done and are 
 doing for the redemption of their own race. 
 But this study cannot at present be made 
 intelligently because of the lack of such 
 records in usable form. In any effort to 
 gather the facts concerning the education 
 and evangelization of the Negro one must 
 face a situation none the less diflScult to 
 deal with because of its frequent occur- 
 rence in the work of the Church of God; 
 that is, the lack of concerted and harmoni- 
 ous action between the different denomina- 
 tions composing the Church. This has 
 
The Next Step: Need and Supply 271 
 
 caused much waste of funds and energy in 
 an overlapping that duplicates effort in 
 some localities and in some departments, 
 and leaves others neglected; and, worse 
 still, it has engendered a harmful rivalry 
 between the denominations. 
 
 That we have reached the dawn of a bet- eftte" Day 
 ter day is clearly manifest. The spirit of 
 unity and cooperation is in the air, and 
 great Church organizations are putting 
 aside distrust, division, and rivalry, and 
 are drawing closer together, saying: *' We 
 be brethren, the sons of one Father, and 
 must go about our Father's business, lov- 
 ing one another even as he hath loved us. ' ' 
 One great step in this direction was the re- 
 cent organization of the Home Missions 
 Council, a federation of Home Mission 
 Boards, having for its purpose the unifica- 
 tion of the work of the Churches repre- 
 sented in it, or their harmonious coopera- 
 tion in that work. 
 
 The first duty of the Council was the ap- ^Z.Tf '"""" 
 pointment of a committee or commission 
 on comity. This committee should give its 
 immediate consideration to the work where 
 its offices are most needed — missionary 
 work for the Negroes. At present the mis- 
 
272 The Upward Path 
 
 sion boards are each doing its Negro work 
 as if it alone was in the field, knowing little 
 or nothing of what others are doing, with 
 the results as above stated. To these 
 boards should be issued by the Council 
 blanks upon which to tabulate in clear, ex- 
 plicit statements the locality, extent, char- 
 acter and cost of its work for the Negro; 
 giving the date of establishing the work, 
 the amount of money expended since that 
 tune, and value of property accumulated. 
 With this should go also an account of the 
 methods used, frankly stating their suc- 
 cess or failure along different lines. These 
 reports should be carefully considered by 
 the committee, summarized, and tabulated 
 as a whole, so that a clear view may be ob- 
 tained by each denomination of the work 
 of the others and of the joint work of the 
 Church of God, of which they are now in 
 hurtful ignorance. To this summing up 
 of the work of the Church the committee 
 should be prepared to add similar statis- 
 tics of the educational work for the Negro 
 of every kind that has been done, and is 
 being done, by the national and state gov- 
 ernments ; also of the large gifts made to 
 this work by philanthropists outside of 
 Church channels. 
 
The Next Step: Need and Supply 273 
 
 The submission of this matter to the cor"rat!on"* 
 Council presupposes a desire to profit by 
 the information thus gathered in the future 
 operations of the boards. If this has the 
 hoped-for result, the work and claims of 
 each Church being weighed and properly 
 considered by the council as to locality, 
 character, and success, the outcome will be 
 the acceptance by each of its rightful place 
 and in its doing its best where it is most 
 needed. Then such questions as these will 
 have a reasonable answer : Wliy should one 
 small city have three rival institutions for 
 Negro youth, while other cities and large 
 rural districts are left without one? 
 Would not one or two well-conducted, well- 
 equipped normal schools in a State be bet- 
 ter than tacking on a '' normal depart- 
 ment " to many academies that can 
 scarcely maintain their academic course? 
 When the great need of the large mass of 
 the race can be met only by the public 
 school system of the State, for which there 
 may be insufficient funds, does not that 
 seem a better direction for philanthropic 
 gifts than for them to be used in inaugu- 
 rating new enterprises for the benefit of a 
 few who can have their need supplied else- 
 
274 The Upward Path 
 
 where? Might it not be wise for some in- 
 stitutions to give up their futile efforts 
 to maintain a college department and what- 
 ever false glory that name has given them, 
 and to adopt the more honest name and 
 purpose of an academy or high school? 
 Their loss would be only a seeming one, 
 while there would come from it a real gain 
 to the true college. 
 
 Strengthen''work ^^^ cffcct of mutual kuOWlcdgC, COUplcd 
 
 with the purpose to cooperate, would be to 
 quicken zeal by making it more intelligent, 
 to raise the standard of work by a proper 
 recognition of its quality, and to secure 
 more permanent as well as sj^iritual re- 
 sults. It would increase and strengthen 
 the best things, and lead to the abandon- 
 ment of that which is not worth while. 
 Better one good thing well done than many 
 indifferent things half done. The advice 
 of Poor Richard is good in missionary 
 work as well as elsewhere: '' Learn what 
 you can't do, and cease trying; learn what 
 you can do, and do it with all your might. ' ' 
 NSr'S'cVuS Not only should the white Churches work 
 under rules of comity in their missionary 
 efforts for the Negroes, but the Negroes as 
 individuals and as Churches should recog- 
 
Jubilee Club, St. Paul Normal and Ixdustrial ycHOOL, 
 Lawkenceville, Virginia 
 
 Students, Bishop Payne Divinity School, Petersburg, Virginia 
 
The Next Step: Need and Supply 275 
 
 nize the wisdom of this, and unite with 
 them in hastening the day of their deliver- 
 ance from those things which have held 
 them back from their highest and best. In 
 his time of weakness, ignorance, and bitter 
 need, the Negro has had the strength and 
 wisdom of others to support and guide him. 
 He has had the hand of benevolence over- 
 flowing with gifts constantly extended to 
 him, but he must not linger at the ' ' Beau- 
 tiful Gate " of charity; he must heed as a 
 clarion voice in the soul the command, " In 
 the name of Jesus Christ, arise and walk ! " 
 He must stand and walk on his own feet 
 and earn his right to a place not only in 
 the life and work of this world but in the 
 kingdom of God, taking for his watchword, 
 '' Saved to serve." Yes, saved to serve 
 his own day and generation and to make 
 it possible for those who follow to live 
 more truly and nobly. Many men and 
 women among them are consecrating their 
 lives to this saving work for their race, and 
 still more are giving to it liberally, not 
 only of their abundance, but out of their 
 
 It is well to pause, before we close tins Next step? 
 record of the evolution of the Negro race. 
 
276 The Upward Path 
 
 and consider what shall be the next on- 
 ward step toward his full development in 
 Christian life. What needs to be done in 
 the lines of work begun, and what new ef- 
 forts should be put forth? 
 Neejof^the That there is a great need of improve- 
 ment in the Negro ministry is an evident 
 fact. To simply say, " they must be bet- 
 ter educated," is an easy way to escape 
 the question. Education for the Negro 
 preacher means as much as it does for the 
 white man; but it is well known that the 
 fact of a preacher's being well educated 
 does not necessarily give him success in 
 dealing with the ignorant mass of the 
 people. The education of the Negro 
 preacher, especially the man who is to be 
 a pastor, must be of such a character as 
 will keep him in close sympathetic touch 
 with the natural life of the people, so that 
 he will know how to " lead on gently " 
 these '' little ones " of God's kingdom. 
 Knowing their trials, temptations, ignor- 
 ance, superstition, and sins, he should use 
 a language that they can understand, in 
 order to administer comfort and to 
 strengthen, teach, and rebuke without driv- 
 ing them away by an assumption of su- 
 
The Next Step: Need and Supply 277 
 
 periority. He should be endued with the 
 Spirit and by wisdom spiritually received 
 so present the love and purity of the gospel 
 and its rewards, both here and hereafter, 
 that if the emotional member must shout 
 it may be the heart's true expression, 
 based upon knowledge of the truth. He 
 also needs to know how to discipline his 
 flock and deal with flagrant sins impar- 
 tially and justly, manifesting hatred of sin 
 even while loving the sinner. And his life 
 must exemplify his teaching. 
 
 It is not simply education that is needed, §|fu''cS*' °* 
 Init education of the right kind. He must 
 not only know books, but he must know the 
 people. He must not only know the Bible, 
 but he must know how to use it as the sword 
 of the Spirit, a light to the feet, a 
 message of comfort. He must live a right- 
 eous life, above reproach. He should have 
 business sense, social tact, patience, perse- 
 verance, courageous hope, and, above all, 
 unfailing love. This is the ideal pastor. 
 Yes, and it ought to be the standard to- 
 ward which all pastors should aim. The 
 ideal Negro preacher should have all those 
 qualities of head and heart that the 
 priestly office requires of any other race, 
 
278 The Upward Path 
 
 for he, as all who fill the sacred office, 
 stands as an ambassador of God before his 
 people and as an example for their lives. 
 BeingTaSup Where are such men to be found? God 
 is able to raise up Negro men, is raising 
 them up, '' called to be apostles " to their 
 race, even as he has done at other times for 
 other iDcoples, and often where and when 
 they were least expected. But it remains 
 for those who pray for such *' wise shep- 
 herds " to make them ready to feed and 
 care for the flock. The men who are at the 
 head of their educational institutions and 
 theological seminaries need to pray also 
 for themselves, that God may help them 
 to a better understanding of the Negro 
 race and its need, and may give them wis- 
 dom to teach their pastors how to meet it. 
 ^^^Xeded Outside the regular pastorate there is 
 another factor of power at work in the 
 Church — the Negro evangelists. Some of 
 these are of good and some of indifferent 
 quality; some are responsible to the 
 Church for the character of work done, 
 others are responsible only to themselves 
 for their work and its results. To enforce 
 that which is good and hinder that which is 
 bad, there should be missionary evangel- 
 
The Next Step: Need and Supply 279 
 
 ists prepared for the work and appointed 
 to it by mission boards to whom they will 
 be responsible and from whom they will 
 receive as far as necessary their support. 
 
 These evangelists should be something ^^a^ngeusts 
 more than *' heralds " of the gospel, or ex- 
 horters to sinners; they should not pass 
 hastily from one ignorant church to an- 
 other, leaving their converts to slip back 
 for lack of instruction in the truth which 
 they have accepted. They should be not 
 only spiritual men whose lives are above 
 reproach, but men well trained in the scrip- 
 tural requirements of righteous living, and 
 be able to teach its ethics plainly and 
 frankly as a rule for the daily life. Be- 
 sides the preaching services they should 
 hold simple Bible readings, and before 
 leaving a community they ought to organ- 
 ize Bible study classes in the church, giv- 
 ing their leaders very practical instruc- 
 tions as to how to continue the work and 
 directing them to the proper helps in their 
 study. There were evangelists of power 
 among the Negroes in the olden times, such 
 as " Black Harry " and many others; and 
 who that has heard the Bible readings of 
 Amanda Smith can doubt that there exist 
 
280 The Upward Path 
 
 to-day men and women among them who 
 are not only " fervent in spirit," but are 
 able to teach the deep things of the Spirit, 
 and from them, righteous living. 
 RS^sIrtPons These evangelistic efforts coupled with 
 Bible study should be extended into the ru- 
 ral districts, where they are greatly needed 
 far more than in the cities, there they would 
 be of great value to the ignorant masses 
 who can never have the advantage of much 
 if any Bible instruction in the schools. The 
 pastors would be greatly helped by these 
 evangelists in their future work, if they are 
 the men that they should be to have charge 
 of churches. 
 Plantation Wo havc secu liow iu the past a great 
 
 Missions ^ ^ 
 
 work for the Negro was done through what 
 was called " plantation missions." Elim- 
 inate the fact of bond slavery and on many 
 large cotton, sugar, and rice plantations 
 to-day many conditions may be found simi- 
 lar to those of the past, owing to the pov- 
 erty and ignorance of large numbers of 
 farm laborers and their families. These 
 people need a work done for them some- 
 what similar to that which was done for 
 their ancestors. They are too ignorant to 
 know their own needs, and if they knew 
 
Women 's JJidle Tkaixjxu Class, Howe Institute, 
 Memphis, Tennessee 
 
 St. Mark 's Chapel, Wilson, North Carolina 
 
The Next Step: Need and Supply 281 
 
 them they are too poor to supply them, as 
 they cannot pay the salaries of the right 
 kind of i^reachers nor build decent places 
 of worship. Although some work is being 
 done on plantations, the Church of to-day 
 should meet this opportunity as generously 
 as it was met by the Church and the mas- 
 ters in the past. Let the wisdom and 
 money of mission boards of white and col- 
 ored Churches unite in establishing planta- 
 tion missions by building neat, plain 
 churches where they are needed and by 
 paying the salaries of missionary workers, . 
 men and women, who are consecrated and 
 qualified. Put circuits of several planta- 
 tions each in charge of men who cannot 
 only preach on the Sabbath but teach Bible 
 classes and do true, instructive pastoral 
 visiting, and a great change for the better 
 would be manifest in a few years. 
 
 Here, too, is a large opportunity for the KJ^J^Les and 
 colored deaconess or Bible reader to visit Bibie Readers 
 and work in the home, to uplift and guide 
 the women and girls as no man can. She 
 could also hold mothers' meetings, teach 
 sewing schools and Bible classes, and in 
 many respects prove an angel of mercy as 
 well as a teacher of righteousness on many 
 
282 The Upward Path 
 
 a plantation in the '^ back country.'* 
 Ought not the large number of Church 
 schools to furnish the women suited to 
 such work, and might not the money be ob- 
 tained for the specific training which they 
 would need? 
 City Missions The Ncgro life in the city presents the 
 same extremes that are to be found in the 
 white urban population. There are the 
 richest, best educated, most refined repre- 
 sentatives of the race, who have good 
 churches and good homes and are not in 
 any way to be considered as objects of mis- 
 sionary effort. In fact, it is through this 
 class that much of the city missionary 
 work of the future should be done for the 
 redemption of the Negro slums. The sad 
 conditions existing in these wretched quar- 
 ters do not differ greatly from those exist- 
 ing in slums inhabited by white people. 
 Methods The kind of work done successfully in 
 the Negro slum and the methods used do 
 not vary materially from those that have 
 been successfully employed for the same 
 class of people of other races. The Chris- 
 tian settlement and institutional church, 
 with all the various forms of service for 
 which they stand, would be very effective 
 
The Next Step: Need and Supply 283 
 
 if properly managed and sustained in both 
 Northern and Southern cities. 
 
 Possibly their influence upon the Negro opp'orfunity 
 would be more effective than upon any 
 other people, for the Negro, even in the 
 slums, has not yet become alienated from 
 the Church nor has he given up Church at- 
 tendance, as is the case with the denizens of 
 foreign slums unless they are Roman Cath- 
 olics. The Church is still the center of 
 his social as well as religious life, and he is 
 willing to receive from it instruction and 
 direction. The Negro slum is ready for 
 the installation of such work in the midst 
 of its iDopulation, and the Churches should 
 not lose to-day's opportunity to reach the 
 hundreds of thousands there who through 
 disease, ignorance, and sin are sinking 
 lower and lower in the scale of life. ' ' Out 
 of the depths " they are crying to the 
 Church of God and in the name of God the 
 Church should go to their deliverance. 
 
 The methods of accomplishing this work 
 must, of course, be fitted to the locality, 
 its conditions, and its needs. It will be 
 necessary that the missionary be a friend, 
 freely admitted into the home, if the home, 
 where the need is greatest, is to be bene- 
 
 Kind of Workers 
 
2S4 The Upward Path 
 
 fited. Admission usually is not difficult 
 with this impulsive, affectionate, and in 
 many respects unreserved race. Once con- 
 vince them that their good is desired, hy 
 going about the work kindly and patiently 
 with consideration for their feelings, and 
 their confidence is gained and their co- 
 operation secured. Consecrated, trained, 
 colored men and women can do more effec- 
 tive missionary work among their own peo- 
 ple than can those of another race. 
 ""l^ncTS?! I^ay nurseries and kindergartens are 
 gartens valuable features of institutional work for 
 the children of a race where the mother is 
 so frequently the breadwinner and away 
 from home. They furnish the opportunity 
 of impressing moral precepts and religious 
 truths upon the child at its most impres- 
 sionable age, and of forming habits for 
 them of physical cleanliness. They also 
 make possible the instruction of the 
 mothers in the care of children and in 
 maintaining sanitary conditions in their 
 homes,^ the lack of which causes infant 
 mortality, alarmingly great among Ne- 
 groes. 
 
 cSfs'ctef: ^^^'^^S classes for girls (giving them 
 and Clubs the garments made by themselves) lead 
 
The Next Step: Xeed and Supply 285 
 
 to the better making and repairing of com- 
 fortable clothing, rather than the purchase 
 of ragged, second-hand finery for which so 
 much of their money is wasted. Kitchen- 
 garden classes have been found especially 
 interesting and helpful to half -grown girls 
 because this objective teaching appeals to 
 them. Cooking schools for older girls and 
 women should give plain, practical instruc- 
 tion as to the character of foods and their 
 preparation in accordance with what their 
 condition makes possible. Premiums given 
 for well-prepared simple dishes would 
 have a good effect by inciting to ambitious 
 effort. The result of such instruction 
 would be a healthier home for the house- 
 keeper and more remunerative employ- 
 ment for those who go out to service. 
 Clubs for men, women, boys, and girls all 
 have their beneficial results here as else- 
 where. Playgrounds, miniature farming 
 and truck-gardening, gymnasium with, 
 bathing facilities, well conducted and with 
 proper instruction present most desirable 
 preventive missionary work that is both 
 destructive of evil and constructive of 
 good. 
 
 No missionary work for the Negro can 
 
286 The Upward Path 
 
 PhyiidMs b® fully successful that does not consider 
 his physical condition and seek to alleviate 
 his sufferings from preventive diseases by 
 teaching sanitation in the home, personal 
 cleanliness and chastity of habit, freedom 
 from superstitious practises, and the rejec- 
 tion of quacks and their nostrums. Of 
 course poverty and ignorance will present 
 obstacles to such work with the Negro as 
 with the lower classes of other races, but 
 these can be at least partly overcome by 
 the use of right methods and by patience. 
 To the foreign field the Church sends mis- 
 sionary physicians as well as teachers and 
 evangelists, and the same plan should be 
 used in the home mission work of the 
 Church. There is no phase of home mis- 
 sions where this threefold work is more 
 needed than among the Negroes. The 
 trained Christian Negro as a missionary 
 physician would be found invaluable in the 
 slums of the cities, in mining camps, on 
 IDlantations, and wherever the Negroes are 
 congregated. 
 Deaconesses and In tlio home aud domestic life lies 
 
 Trained Nurses 
 
 the largest opportunity for the missionary 
 doctor as well as pastor. The colored 
 deaconess and trained nurse also have here 
 
The Next Step: Need and Supply 287 
 I 
 a great and effectual door waiting wide 
 open for their Christ-like ministry to the 
 sorrowing, the suffering, and the erring. 
 Many aching hearts among the poor, hard- 
 working colored women, cowering under 
 almost insupportable burdens, are await- 
 ing the word of sympathy and hope to save 
 them from despair and sin. Many there 
 are, too, who must suffer and die and see 
 their loved ones suffer and die because 
 they are ignorant of those things that re- 
 late to health and the care of the sick, 
 knowledge that a nurse could impart. 
 There are many young girls and older 
 women whom the hand and prayer of the 
 deaconess might keep from the path of sin, 
 or lead back if their feet have already 
 strayed. 
 
 From whence are the workers for this who win do 
 
 this work? 
 
 the greatest home mission enterprise to 
 come? Where else but from the Church 
 schools and colleges for Negroes now being 
 maintained largely by the Home Mission 
 Boards. If the principals and teachers 
 of these institutions are truly missionary 
 in spirit, as they should be and as many 
 of them are, they will instil the same spirit 
 into their pupils and lead them to conse- 
 
288 The Upward Path 
 
 crate their lives to the saving and uplifting 
 of their people. 
 sSitul?*Tr1ith III ^11 1^^ schools thcro should be a regu- 
 and Ethics |^^ thorough study of the Bible of such a 
 character as will not only give literary, his- 
 torical, and geographical information, but 
 a knowledge of its spiritual truths and 
 ethical lessons. The Bible so taught will 
 not only be ** a savor of life unto life " to 
 the pupils, but make them men and women 
 '^ prepared unto every good word and 
 work," when they go back to their homes 
 to be teachers in the Sunday-schools and 
 Bible study circles and to become mission- 
 aries. It will give a rock basis on which 
 men and women may build their profes- 
 sional education, whether it be as 
 preacher, teacher, physician, deaconess, or 
 nurse. It will be as grappling-irons hold- 
 ing the business man to honest dealings. 
 It will be a strong wall around the Negro 
 home and a shield to the virtue of woman. 
 *' My word . . . shall not return unto me 
 void, . . . but it shall prosper in the thing 
 whereto I sent it," is God's promise. 
 Whites Must While much of this missionary work can 
 
 Continue to Help '' 
 
 best be done by the Negroes for their own 
 people now, and the promise is bright for 
 
The Next Step: Need and Supply 289 
 
 still more to be done by them in the future, 
 with their fuller training, the time has not 
 yet come for the white race to cease its 
 help; nor will it come until we have done 
 still more to develop this " backward 
 race," which by a strange providence has 
 been placed in the reach of our helping 
 hand. There rests upon us the debt always 
 due from the strong to the weak. White 
 mission boards and white philanthropists 
 North and South must continue yet longer 
 to give to and guide the work of educating 
 and Christianizing " our brother in black." 
 At the same time they must be taught that 
 self-help is the best help, and be encouraged 
 and stimulated to continued and larger ef- 
 forts for their own race. 
 
 In the annals of the Church and philan- |^2the?n ivien 
 thropy not much recognition has been giv- *"'' ^'""^" 
 en to the purely local work which has been 
 done and is being done by Southern men 
 and women to aid the Negro along every 
 line of his progress. Possibly this is be- 
 cause they have not exploited this work, 
 but have set it down to the score of indi- 
 vidual love and personal interest rather 
 than made a church record of it. It would 
 be difficult to find a Negro church, school. 
 
290 The Upward Path 
 
 orphanage, hospital, or any other institu- 
 tion projected by them to which Southern 
 white people have not contributed by as- 
 sisting either in its building or mainte- 
 nance. There is a continued outflow to 
 them of benevolence in various forms from 
 the white home, church societies, and pub- 
 lic charities. 
 A'^Jo^.^hite In many Southern cities the white min- 
 
 Ministry .... 
 
 istry is aiding the colored ministry in 
 presenting the gospel in their pulpits when- 
 ever opportunity offers, and such oppor- 
 tunities are not rare. In many instances 
 they give practical and valuable aid to pas- 
 tors in their studies and preparation of 
 sermons, with wholesome advice as to 
 church methods and discipline. More of 
 this work perhaps should be done, but 
 those who understand fully the present 
 situation will appreciate the many difficul- 
 ties in the way. Here, too, it is to be hoped 
 that the future holds many possibilities of 
 brotherly help not now existing. 
 ^^''i-lymenVnd Christian laymen and women also have 
 Women ^ large local opportunity to help the col- 
 ored people by teaching Sunday afternoon 
 Bible classes, and in aiding them to plan 
 and conduct various lines of work for so- 
 
The Next Step: Need and Supply 291 
 
 cial and religious betterment, nor have 
 they been neglectful of this opportunity. 
 Large classes are being taught in the 
 churches, and smaller bands of Sunday- 
 school teachers and Christian workers are 
 being instructed in private homes. There 
 is also a great volume of personal Chris- 
 tian work and industrial training done for 
 those who come into homes as domestic 
 servants. 
 
 That Southern white Christians ought to ^Puth*"""^ "^ 
 do much more in these lines is undoubtedly 
 true of them, as of those who have the 
 same opjDortunity in other sections for 
 other races. They know, though others 
 may not, how truly and nobly their parents 
 worked for the civilizing and Christianiz- 
 ing of the Negro slaves. The providence 
 of God continues to entrust the fate of the 
 Negro to the South. The South cannot es- 
 cape the trust if it would; it should not 
 want to escape it if it could. A large num- 
 ber of its people are trying to fulfil nobly 
 their duty to the Negro of to-day amid 
 many hindrances. In doing this there will 
 come a better knowledge, each of the other, 
 on the best side, and a bettering of each 
 other, because this Christly connection in 
 
292 The Upward Path 
 
 Christian work will bring closer together 
 those of both races who truly love their 
 Lord^ 
 Hope Ahead The presencG of two great races in our 
 land, living a close yet divided existence, 
 presents a unique situation in the history 
 of the world. That there should be antag- 
 onism and prejudice one toward the other 
 is natural, since by nature they belong to 
 the two divisions of the human family 
 most diverse in racial qualities and tradi- 
 i tions. That there should be so little con- 
 \ ilict and so much personal kindliness is the 
 \ marvel of those who look upon the situa- 
 tion from the outside. The spirit of help- 
 fulness in the stronger race has been dem- 
 onstrated by unnumbered deeds of active 
 benevolence. These have been acknowl- 
 edged by the less developed race with 
 grateful appreciation. Satisfactory re- 
 sults for the latter are manifested in the 
 fruits of industrial advancement, growing 
 patriotism, mental activity, and a broader 
 Christianity, and through and by it all 
 there is a development of power from 
 within, leading to a self-dependence and 
 self-reliance that will require less and less 
 from without. \ This gain for the one does 
 
 f 
 
 v_ 
 
 ^ 
 
The Next Step: Need and Supply 293 
 
 not mean loss for the other, but additional 
 gain. There have been many places along 
 the way which they have traveled together 
 where an Ebenezer might have been set up, 
 proclaiming to the world, " Hitherto hath 
 Jehovah helped us." 
 
 AVhat is known as the Negro problem Sffe^e'd"""" 
 has been in the minds of the readers of this 
 book as they scanned its every chapter. 
 No attempt has been made to solve that 
 problem, nor can any solution that has ever 
 been offered be accepted as of value. It 
 must be left to the prophets and statesmen 
 yet to arise in both races who, with an all- 
 wise, all-loving Heavenly Father, must 
 work together to accomplish his divine will 
 
 foi* the race. 
 
 That there is a serious problem none can The coior une 
 deny. Every race has its problems of exist- 
 ence and development, as has every indi- 
 vidual life in all its relations and efforts, 
 and no race, as no man, liveth to itself or 
 for itself alone. No real problem is sim- 
 ple, and in its complexity it should be 
 fairly estimated from every side. It must 
 be remembered that the Negro problem is 
 the Southern white man's problem as well, 
 and the latter has rights to be considered 
 
294 The Upward Path 
 
 as well as the former — rights that pertain 
 to the man as an individual and also to his 
 race life. 
 '""'^QueSons ^^* ^^^ Negro problem involves much 
 more than the color line. It presents anew 
 the old questions of evangelization and 
 education, labor and capital, poverty and 
 crime, that are clamoring for answer all 
 over the world. When these problems 
 have received a just and righteous solu- 
 tion, not much of the Negro problem will 
 be left to solve. 
 RS'DemaSded Whatever the problem that exists, it 
 involves both races at the North and at the 
 South, and its solution cannot be accom- 
 plished by one race. It must be a dual 
 work, not done separately but unitedly, 
 with mutual trust and effort. It will re- 
 quire love and sacrifice from both, and also 
 truth and justice from both. It will de- 
 mand the highest, sanest thought of the 
 trained and developed intellect of the two 
 races to grasp and conjointly master the 
 situation with all its complex conditions. 
 It will require all the heroic courage and 
 martyr faith of which both races are cap- 
 able to struggle and faint not until the vic- 
 tory shall come, as come it surely will. 
 
The Next Step: Need and Supply 295 
 
 How any great national or religious Jj-glje'h 
 problem is to be worked out through the 
 years, God who works in us and through us 
 alone knows. But that he has worked 
 hitherto and is still working through us to 
 accomplish his will for both races is mani- 
 fest. The great processes by which it is to 
 come are already in motion and their mo- 
 mentum is increasing. The future is hidden 
 from us, but faith sees beyond the veil and 
 triumphantly cries, '' The Lord our God, 
 the Almighty reigneth. ' ' Not by chance but 
 by his hand the world was made, and those 
 that dwell upon it. By his hand does he 
 sustain and guide the sun in its course, and 
 by his hand the life of humanity in its de- 
 velopment is directed step by step ever 
 toward himself. All history proves this to 
 be true in the past, and the God-implanted 
 aspirations within us demand its truth for 
 the future. This truth has in it the very 
 essence of God's nature, and is too broad 
 and deep to be restricted to one world in 
 his universe, far less to one race in our 
 world. God's truth means a justice to all 
 that will not brook that any race be 
 counted out of the great law of love which 
 is over all for the good of all. 
 
296 The Upward Path 
 
 A Vision I stood at an open window and looked 
 xipon an extended landscape. The sum- 
 mer sky was overspread with heavy clouds 
 that cast dark shadows on all around me, 
 making nature's beauty dim. But looking 
 out beyond I saw far ahead the sunshine 
 lying golden on a distant mountain. 
 Watching with glad expectancy, I saw the 
 clouds with their shadows gradually roll- 
 ing back, and the sunlit space widening and 
 drawing ever nearer and nearer, until at 
 last the whole land was flooded with its 
 radiance. The sun looked down upon me — 
 the clouds had passed away. 
 "Wait^Thou^for Courage, doubting heart! Hope on, 
 trusting heart, whether thou beatest in a 
 white or black breast! The clouds have 
 hung low, they still overshadow us in the 
 present; but behind the clouds the Sun of 
 Righteousness has light for the world. 
 The joy of his redeeming presence draweth 
 ever nearer, the clouds are rolling away, 
 for with him there is light and life forever- 
 more. ' ' Wait for Jehovah : be strong, and 
 let thy heart take courage ; yea, wait thou 
 for Jehovah. ' ' 
 
The Next Step: Need and Supply 297 
 
 SUGGESTED QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER VIII 
 
 Aim : To Realize the Present Needs and Opportunity 
 FOR Christian Service Among the Negroes 
 
 1.* Contrast the social and religious life of the 
 
 Negro in Africa and the United States to-day. 
 2. Has his experience in this country been a help 
 
 to him? 
 3.* Has he made any contribution to the social 
 
 and industrial life of our country? Discuss 
 
 fully. 
 
 4. Does the United States need the Negro, and 
 why? 
 
 5. Estimate the progress that the Negro has made, 
 industrially, socially and religiously. 
 
 6. What help in the upward path has the Negro 
 had that the Anglo-Saxon did not have? 
 
 7. Do you believe the Negro as a race is capable 
 of still further progress, and why? 
 
 8. In what directions and where do you consider 
 the greatest opportunity for progress? 
 
 9.* What types of schools would you recommend, 
 and by what agencies should they be directed? 
 
 10. What kind of leaders are most needed? 
 
 11. By whom are these leaders to be trained? 
 
 12. What types of religious leaders are most 
 needed ? 
 
 13. Where do you think there is the greatest re- 
 ligious need at the present time? 
 
 14. Are the needs among the Negroes in our 
 cities any greater than among the poor of other 
 races? 
 
 15.* Are our obligations any greater to the Negro 
 than to the aliens? Give reasons. 
 
 16.* Upon whom does the responsibility for mis- 
 sions to Negroes rest most heavily, and why? 
 
298 The Upward Path 
 
 17.* Do you know of any greater home mission op- 
 portunity, in population, and in proximity? 
 
 18. Do you know of any more responsive people 
 than the Negroes? 
 
 19. What is your personal responsibility? 
 
 Eeferences for Further Study. — Chapter VIII 
 TTie Future of the Negro 
 
 Baker: Following the Color Line, XIV. 
 Conant: " Future of the Negro," Arena, July, 
 '09. 
 
 Hart: " Outcome of the Southern Eace Ques- 
 tion," North American Bevietv, July, '08. 
 Merriam: The Negro and the Nation, XL. 
 Miller: Eace Adjustment, 133-151. 
 Page: The Negro: The Southerner's Problem, 
 VIII. 
 
 Price: The Negro, XXIX. 
 Stone: Studies in the American Eace Problem, 
 Part V, Ch. III. 
 
 Washington: The Future of the American Ne- 
 gro, I- VIII. 
 
APPENDIXES 
 
APPENDIX A 
 
 HYMN 
 
 O li'l lamb out in de col', 
 De Mastah call you to de f ol ', 
 
 O li'l lamb! 
 He hyeah you bleatin' ob de hill; 
 Come hyeah an' keep yo' mou'ning still, 
 
 O li'l lamb! 
 
 De Mastah sen' de shepud fo'f; 
 He wandah souf, he wandah no'f, 
 
 O li'l lamb! 
 He wandah eas', he wandah wes'; 
 De win' a-wrenchin' at his breas', 
 
 O li'l lamb! 
 
 Oh, tell de shepud whaih you hide; 
 He want you walkin' by his side, 
 
 O li'l lamb! 
 He know you weak, he know you so'; 
 But come, don' stay away no mo', 
 
 O li'l lamb! 
 
 An af'ah while de lamb he hyeah 
 
 De shepud 's voice a-eallin ' cleah — 
 
 Sweet li'l lamb! 
 
 He answah f'om de brambles thick, 
 
 ' ' O Shepud, I 's a-comin ' quick ' '— 
 
 O li'l lamb! 
 
 — Paul Lawrence Dunbar 
 
 Prom Lyrics of tJie Eearthstone. 
 
302 The Upward Path 
 
 APPENDIX B 
 NEGRO MELODIES* 
 
 They believed in God as the maker and ruler of all 
 things and sang: 
 
 "He is King of kings; 
 
 He is Lord of lords; 
 
 No man works like him." 
 
 His omnipresence and close knowledge of our daily 
 lives was expressed in: 
 
 " Oh, he sees all you do, 
 He hears all you say." 
 
 They believed in Jesus as the atoning Son of God, and 
 sang: 
 
 " Ever see such a man as God? 
 
 He gave up his Son for to come an' die, 
 
 Gave up his Son for to come and die, 
 
 Just to save my soul from a burning fire." 
 
 They saluted him as their King: 
 
 " Eeign, er reign, er reign, my Savior, 
 Eeign Mass' Jesus er reign." 
 
 They expressed their deep love as they sang: 
 
 " Oh, when I come to die. 
 
 Give me Jesus, give me Jesus, give me Jesus, 
 
 You may have all the world, but give me Jesus." 
 
 With voices trembling with unsimulated grief, they 
 sang of his death: 
 
 1 The author Is indebted to Proctor, " The Southern Workman," 
 November, 1907, for some suggestions on these melodies. 
 
Appendixes 303 
 
 " Were you there when they crucified my Lord? 
 Were you there when they nailed him to a tree? 
 Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, trem- 
 ble." 
 
 They believed in the Holy Spirit. No one could be a 
 Christian without the " witness of the Spirit "; no one 
 could preach without a revelation of the Spirit; no 
 meeting could be successful without an outpouring of the 
 Spirit clearly manifested. They sang: 
 
 " When Peter was preachin' at Pentecost, 
 He was filled with the Holy Ghost," 
 
 and again: 
 
 " If you want to ketch that heavenly breeze, 
 Go down in the v?illey on yer knees. 
 Go bow your knees upon de groun' 
 An' ax de Lord ter turn yer roun'. " 
 
 At the height of a camp-meeting sermon their song 
 leader will sing out: 
 
 "Oh, I feel de Spirit a-movin'." 
 
 and the audience will respond: 
 
 " Don't get weary, 
 
 Bar's a great camp-meetin' in de Promus Lan'." 
 
 They believed in repentance for sin and forgiveness in 
 response to confession. Could a more pathetic expression 
 be given of the loneliness of a soul that feels cut off 
 by sin from God than in the song, " I couldn't hear 
 nobody pray "? 
 
 Longing to grow in grace in seeing the inch worm 
 
304 The Upward Path 
 
 measuring its way along slowly on the ground, some poet- 
 moralist saw it as a symbol of Christian growth: 
 
 " 'Twas inch by inch I sought the Lord, 
 
 Jesus will come by and by, 
 An' inch by inch he blessed my soul, 
 
 Jesus will come by and by. 
 
 Chorus : 
 
 Keep a inehin ' along, keep a inchin ' along, 
 
 Jesus will come by and by, 
 Keep a inchin' along like the poor inch worm, 
 
 Jesus will come by and by. ' ' 
 
 They believed in and sang of the practical Christian 
 virtues : 
 
 " Go read the fifth of Matthew, 
 An' read the chapter through; 
 
 It is a guide for Christians, 
 An' it tells 'em what ter do." 
 
 Again : 
 
 " You say you're aimin' fer de skies; 
 Why don't you stop yer tellin' lies? 
 You say de Lord has set you free; 
 Why don't you let yer neighbor be?" 
 
 Again : 
 
 " Watch that sun, how steady she come, 
 Don't let her ketch ye wid yer work undone." 
 
 They wanted and prayed to be holy, and knew it must 
 be through love: 
 
 ** Oh, make a-me holy, holy, I do love, I do love; 
 Make a-me holy, holy, I do love, I do love de Lord. ' ' 
 
Appendixes 305 
 
 They believed in heaven, and with exulting joy in the 
 blessed life that would be their portion, they expressed 
 their determined resolve to get there: 
 
 " Let my steps be many er few, 
 
 By an' by, by an' by; 
 I mean ter keep heaven in view, 
 By an' by, by an' by. 
 
 " Oh, when the storms of life are over, 
 We shall anchor in the harbor, 
 
 We will praise our God forever, 
 By an' by, by an' by." 
 
 They triumphed over *' Jordan's stream, so chilly an' 
 cole, ' ' when they sang : 
 
 " I looked over Jordan, an' what did I see, 
 
 Comin' fer ter carry me home? 
 A band of angels, comin' after me, 
 
 Comin' fer ter carry me home. 
 
 Chorus : 
 
 Swing low, sweet chariot, 
 
 Comin' fer ter carry me home." 
 
 Within the ' ' pearly gates ' ' of the heavenly city they 
 will " lay down my heavy load," and walk " de golden 
 streets," " all robed in white," meeting with sainted 
 fathers, mothers, sisters and brothers, whom the " pale 
 horse an' rider have taken away," and with whom they 
 will dwell in " de manshuns in de skies." 
 
 They felt a keen sense of pleasure in the defeat their 
 redemption brings to Satan, whom they described as a 
 " liar and a conjurer too ": 
 
 01' Satan's mad an' I am glad; 
 That 's what Satan 's a-grumblin ' about ; 
 
 ( ( 
 
306 The Upward Path 
 
 He missed that soul he thought he had, 
 That 's what Satan 's a-grumblin ' about. ' ' 
 
 They accepted the great commission to deliver the 
 gospel message to others: 
 
 " I'll take my gospel trumpet, 
 
 An' I'll begin to blow, 
 An' if my Savior helps me 
 
 I '11 blow wherever I go. ' ' 
 
 They exhorted others : 
 
 " Go an' tell everybody, 
 
 Yes, Jesus is risen from the dead. ' ' 
 
 The sinner is plead with in their revival meetings: 
 " Sinner, please don't let this harvest pass, 
 An' die an' lose your soul at las'." 
 
 He is encouraged to come to Jesus : 
 " Come on, mourner, make a bound, 
 De Lord will meet you on half-way ground." 
 
 He is warned of the terrible judgment day lest he 
 should be among those that cry out: 
 
 ' ' Kocks an ' mountains, please fall on me. ' ' 
 
 They believed in the angels, especially " Gabriel and 
 his trumpet," and the " angel band " that carried them 
 to heaven on wings " tipped with gold." Their songs 
 also are filled with references to Bible incidents and 
 characters that testify to their acquaintance vrith the 
 Word of God and also to their ability to draw practical 
 lessons from it. Noah and the ark prefigure salvation 
 and safety in the Church. Moses, chosen by God to lead 
 his people out of bondage, is an especial favorite, and 
 they claimed the deliverence of the Israelites as a 
 promise of their own liberation: 
 
Appendixes 307 
 
 ' * Our bondage '11 have an end by an ' by. 
 Jehovah rules de tide an' de water he'll divide, 
 Oh, de vpay he'll open wide, 
 By an' by, by an' by." 
 
 " Little David," who played on his harp and " killed 
 Goliath, ' ' is emblematic of the Christian 's conquest over 
 sin ; as is also * ' Joshua the son of Nun, ' ' who ' ' never 
 would quit till the work was done. ' ' Jonah is used as a 
 warning to those who refuse to preach when called. 
 Daniel, cast in the lions' den on account of his praying 
 habit and delivered by the Lord, was a familiar subject 
 in their preaching, and of him they sang: 
 
 " Dan'l wuz a prayin' man; 
 
 He pray three times er day; 
 De Lord he hist de winder 
 
 Fer to hear po' Dan'l pray." 
 
 They sympathized with " weepin' Mary " and 
 " doubtin' Thomas," and alluded to all the apostles by 
 name. John and his apocalyptic visions were of the 
 deepest interest to them and they exhort him: 
 
 " Tell all the world, John, 
 
 ' I know de odder world's not like this'." 
 
 It is needless to say that with the educated classes 
 these melodies are regarded as relics of the past, and 
 that with perhaps a few exceptions they have no place 
 in their religious services of to-day. They use instead 
 the same hymns and gospel songs that are used by white 
 congregations, some of the latter having not as much 
 music or religion as those they have discarded. 
 
308 The Upward Path 
 
 APPENDIX C 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 No attempt has been made to provide a complete 
 bibliography on the Negro. So many books, pamphlets, 
 and articles have been written that only the most recent 
 relating to the contents of the book are included. The 
 alphabetical order has been adopted so as to avoid dis- 
 crimination of any kind, as the view-point of South- 
 erner, Northerner, and Negro is presented in the list. 
 
 The Negro in Africa 
 
 Dowd: The Negro Eaees. 1907. The Macmillan Co., 
 New York. $2.50, net. 
 
 Nassau: Fetichism in West Africa. 1904. Charles 
 Scribner'a Sons, New York. $2.50, net. 
 
 Naylor: Daybreak in the Dark Continent. 1908. Young 
 People's Missionary Movement, New York. 50 
 cents, net. 
 
 Parsons: Christus Liberator. 1905. The Macmillan Co., 
 New York. 50 cents, net. 
 
 Historical and General 
 
 Dyer: Democracy in the South Before the Civil War. 
 1905. Smith & Lamar, Nashville. $1.00. 
 
 Harrison and Barnes: The Gospel Among the Slaves. 
 1893. Smith & Lamar, Nashville. $1.25. 
 
 Murphy: Problems of the Present South. 1909. Long- 
 mans, Green & Co., New York. $1.50, net. 
 
 Montgomery: Vital American Problems. 1908. G. P. 
 Putnam's Sons, New York. $1.50, net. 
 
Appendixes 309 
 
 stone: Studies in the American Eaee Problem. 1908. 
 Doubleday, Page & Co., New York. $2.00. 
 
 Williams: History of the Negro Race in America, 1619- 
 1880. 1882. G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York. 
 $4.00. 
 
 The Negro in the United States 
 
 Baker: Following the Color Line. 1908. Doubleday, 
 Page & Co., New York. $2.00, net. 
 
 Cable: Negro Question. 1890. Charles Scribner's 
 Sons, New York. 75 cents. 
 
 Du Bois: Souls of the Black Folk. 1907. A. C. McClurg 
 & Co., Chicago. $1.20. 
 
 Merriam: The Negro and the Nation. 1906. Henry 
 Holt & Co., New York. $1.75, net. 
 
 Miller: Race Adjustment. 1908. Neale Publishing Co., 
 Washington. $2.00, net. 
 
 Morgan: The Negro in America, and the Ideal Amer- 
 ican Republic. 1898. American Baptist Publi- 
 cation Society, Philadelphia. $1.00. 
 
 Page: The Negro: The Southerner's Problem. 1904. 
 Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. $1.25, net. 
 
 Shannon: Racial Integrity. 1907. Smith & Lamar, 
 
 Nashville. $1.25. 
 Sinclair: The Aftermath of Slavery. 1905. Small, 
 
 Maynard & Co., Boston. $1.50. 
 Smith : The Color Line. 1905. Doubleday, Page & Co., 
 
 New York. $1.50, net. 
 Thomas: The American Negro. 1901, The Macmillan 
 
 Co., New York. $2.00, net. 
 
310 The Upward Path 
 
 Washington: The Future of the American Negro. 1907. 
 Small, Maynard & Co., Boston. $1.50. 
 
 Washington: Character Building. 1902. Doubleday, 
 Page & Co., New York. $1.50, net. 
 
 Washington: Up from Slavery. 1900. Doubleday, Page 
 & Co., New York. $1.50, net. 
 
 Washington: Frederick Douglass. 1906. George W. 
 Jacobs & Co., Philadelphia. $1.25, net. 
 
 Whipple: Negro Neighbors. 1907. Woman's American 
 Baptist Home Missionary Society, Boston. 50 
 cents, net. 
 
 Washington: The Negro in Business. 1907. Hertel, 
 Jenkins & Co., Boston. $1.50. 
 
 Washington and Du Bois: The Negro in the South. 
 1907. George W. Jacobs & Co., Philadelphia. 
 $1.00. 
 
 Negro Songs and Stories 
 
 Avary: Dixie After the War. 1906. Doubleday, Page 
 & Co., New Y^ork. $2.75, net. 
 
 Chesnutt: The Wife of His Youth. 1899. Houghton, 
 Mifflin & Co., New York. $1.50. 
 
 Dunbar: Poems of Cabin and Field. 1899. Dodd, Mead 
 & Co., New York. $1.50, net. 
 
 Dunbar: Lyrics of Lowly Life. 1908. Dodd, Mead & 
 Co., New York. $1.00, net. 
 
 Gordon and Page: Befo' de War. Echoes of Negro 
 Dialect. 1888. Charles Seribner's Sons, New 
 York. $1.00. 
 
Appendixes 311 
 
 Harris: The Tar-Baby, and Other Rhymes of Uncle 
 Remus. 1904. D. Appleton & Co., New York. 
 $2.00, net. 
 
 Harris: Told by Uncle Remus; New Stories of the Old 
 Plantation. 1905. Doubleday, Page & Co., New 
 York. $2.00. 
 
 Harris : Uncle Remus, His Songs and Sayings. 1902. D. 
 Appleton & Co., New York. $2.00. 
 
 Hobson: In Old Alabama; being the Chronicles of Miss 
 Mouse, the Little Black Merchant. 1903. Double- 
 day, Page & Co., New York. $1.50. 
 
 Page: In Ole Virginia. 1887. Charles Scribner's Sons, 
 New York. $1.25. 
 
 Price: The Negro, Past, Present and Future. 1907. 
 Neale Publishing Co., Washington. $1.50. 
 
 Pyrnelle: Diddie, Dumps and Tot. 1882. Harper & 
 Brothers, New York. 60 cents. 
 
 Stanton: Songs from Dixie Land. 1900. Bobbs-Mer- 
 rill Co., Indianapolis. $1.25. 
 
 Weeden: Bandanna Ballads, including " Shadows on the 
 Wall," verses and pictures. Introduction by 
 Joel Chandler Harris. 1899, Doubleday, Page 
 & Co., New York. $1.00, net. 
 
 Weeden: Songs of the Old South. 1900. Doubleday, 
 Page & Co., New York. $1.50, net. 
 
 Work : Jubilee Songs. Fisk University, Nashville, Tenn. 
 
 Magazine Articles 
 
 Baker: " The Negro in Southern City Life." Ameri- 
 can Magazine, March, 1907. 
 
312 The Upward Path 
 
 Baker : ' ' Negro Conditions in the Black Belt. ' ' Ameri- 
 can Magazine, July, 1907; August, 1907. 
 
 Baker : ' ' Negro Eace Eiot, Atlanta, 1906. ' ' American 
 Magazine, April, 1907; May, 1907. 
 
 Baker: " What to do About the American Negro." 
 American Magazine, September, 1908. 
 
 Baker: " The Conflict of the Negro in Dealing with the 
 Eace Problem." American Magazine, May, 1908. 
 
 Baker: " Negroes in the North." American Magazine, 
 February, 1908. 
 
 Baker: " Opportunities of the Negro." American 
 Magazine, June, 1908. 
 
 Baker: " Negroes in Politics." American Magazine, 
 June, 1908. 
 
 Baker: ** Power of the Negro in the South." Ameri- 
 can Magazine, July, 1908. 
 
 Bonham: " Emigration to Settle the Negro Question." 
 Education, April, 1908. 
 
 Bousal: " The Negro Soldier in War and Peace." 
 North American Review, June 7, 1907. 
 
 Bratton: " The Christian South and the Education of 
 the Negro." Sewanee Review, July, 1908. 
 
 Bumstead: " The Ballot as a Whip." Independent, 
 June 11, 1908. 
 
 Conant: " Future of the Negro." Arena, July, 1908. 
 
 Cooley: " Negroes of the Sea Islands." Outlook, Octo- 
 ber 24, 1908. 
 
 Fleming : * ' Jefferson Davis and the Negroes. ' ' Setva- 
 nee Magazine, October, 1908. 
 
Appendixes 313 
 
 Galloway: " The Negro as a Business Man." World's 
 WorTc, June, 1908. 
 
 Garner: " Recent Agitation of the Negro in the South.'- 
 South Atlantic Quarterly, June, 1908. 
 
 Gilman: " Negroes: A Suggestion on the Problem." 
 American Journal of Sociology, July, 1908. 
 
 Gladden: " The Negro Crisis." American Magazine, 
 January, 1907. 
 
 Hart: " Outcome of the Southern Eace Question." 
 North American Eeview, July, 1908. 
 
 Ingersoll: " Negro Plot in New York in 1741." Green 
 Bag, February, 1908. 
 
 Jelks : ' ' The Acuteness of the Negro Problem ; A Sug- 
 gested Remedy." North American Beview, Feb- 
 ruary 15, 1907. 
 
 Johnston: " Negroes: How to Make Them Work." 
 Nineteenth Century, January, 1908. 
 
 Jones: "A Eace in the Making." Westminster Be- 
 vieio, April, 1907. 
 
 Livingstone : ' ' West Indian and United States Negro ; 
 
 A Contrast." North American Beview, July 19, 
 
 1907. 
 Minor: " Separate Cars for Negroes." Nation, August 
 
 1, 1907. 
 Moore: " Negroes in the Army of the Eevolution." 
 
 Magazine of History, 1908. 
 
 Moton: "Negroes' Uphill Climb." World's Work, 
 April, May, August, 1907. 
 
 Northern: " The Negro Situation: One Way Out 
 World To-Day, September, 1907. 
 
 )) 
 
314 The Upward Path 
 
 Page: " The Negro Question." McClure's Magazine, 
 March, 1907. 
 
 Park : ' ' Agricultural Extension Among the Negroes. ' ' 
 World To-Day, August, 1908. 
 
 Percy : " A Southern View of Education of the Negro. ' ' 
 OutlooTc, August 3, 1907. 
 
 Smith: " An Uplifting Negro Cooperative Society," 
 World's Work, July, 1908. 
 
 Stone: " Race Friction." American Journal of Soci- 
 ology, March, 1908. 
 
 Summers: " Negro Town in Illinois." Independent, 
 August 27, 1908. 
 
 "The Negro and Justice." Independent, October 17, 
 1907. 
 
 Ward: " Negro Exhibition at Jamestown, 1907." In- 
 dependent, November 14, 1907. 
 
 Washington: " American Negro of To-day." Putnam's 
 Magazine, October, 1907. 
 
 Washington: " A Negro College Town." World's 
 Work, September, 1907. 
 
 Washington: " A Town Owned by Negroes." World's 
 Work, July, 1907. 
 
 Washington: " Negro Homes." Century Magazine, 
 May, 1908. 
 
 Washington: " Education of the Man Behind the 
 Plow." Independent, April 23, 1908. 
 
 Wells: " Negro Eace Prejudice." Independent, Feb- 
 ruary 14, 1907. 
 
> B ■ 
 
 liii 
 
APPENDIX F 
 
 Negro population, and per cent. Negro in total population, 1900. 
 
 STATE OR TERRITORY IN ORDER OF DECREAS- 
 ING PER CENT. NEGRO IN TOTAL 
 POPULATION. 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 South Carolina 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 Georgia 
 
 Alabama 
 
 Florida 
 
 Virginia 
 
 North Carolina 
 
 District of Columbia. 
 
 Arkansas 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 Texas 
 
 Maryland. . 
 
 Delaware 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 Indian Territory. . . . 
 
 Missouri 
 
 Oklahoma 
 
 West Virginia 
 
 New Jersey 
 
 Kansas. 
 
 Pennsylvania 
 
 Indiana 
 
 Ohio 
 
 Rhode Island 
 
 Illinois 
 
 Connecticut 
 
 Colorado 
 
 Arizona 
 
 New York 
 
 Massachusetts. . . 
 
 Wyoming 
 
 New Mexico 
 
 California 
 
 Michigan 
 
 Iowa 
 
 Montana 
 
 Nebraska 
 
 Washington 
 
 Minnesota 
 
 Nevada 
 
 Oregon 
 
 Idaho 
 
 Maine . . 
 
 New Hampshire. 
 
 Utah 
 
 Vermont 
 
 North Dakota. . . 
 South Dakota. . . 
 Wisconsin 
 
 Negro 
 popula- 
 tion: 
 1900. 
 
 907,630 
 782,321 
 650,804 
 ,034,813 
 827,307 
 230,730 
 660,722 
 624,469 
 86,702 
 366,856 
 480,243 
 620,722 
 235,064 
 30,697 
 284,706 
 36,8.53 
 161,234 
 18.831 
 43,499 
 69,844 
 52,003 
 156,845 
 57,.505 
 96,901 
 9,092 
 85,078 
 15,226 
 8,570 
 1,848 
 99,232 
 31,974 
 940 
 1,610 
 11,045 
 15,816 
 12,693 
 1,523 
 6,269 
 2,514 
 4,959 
 134 
 1,105 
 293 
 1,319 
 662 
 672 
 826 
 286 
 465 
 2,542 
 
 Per cent. 
 Negro 
 in total 
 popula- 
 tion : 1900. 
 
 .=i8. 
 
 5 
 
 58. 
 
 4 
 
 47. 
 
 1 
 
 46. 
 
 7 
 
 45. 
 
 2 
 
 43. 
 
 7 
 
 35. 
 
 6 
 
 33. 
 
 
 
 31. 
 
 1 
 
 28 
 
 
 
 23. 
 
 8 
 
 20. 
 
 4 
 
 19. 
 
 8 
 
 16. 
 
 6 
 
 13. 
 
 3 
 
 9 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 2 
 
 4 
 
 7 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 3 
 
 7 
 
 3 
 
 5 
 
 2 
 
 5 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 9 
 
 1 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 7 
 
 
 6 
 
 
 5 
 
 
 .4 
 
 
 .1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 .8 
 
 
 
 .7 
 
 
 
 .7 
 
 
 
 .6 
 
 
 
 .6 
 
 
 
 .6 
 
 
 
 .5 
 
 
 
 .3 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 .3 
 
 
 
 .2 
 
 
 
 .2 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 € 
 
 .2 
 
 c 
 
 .2 
 
 c 
 
 .1 
 
 c 
 
 .1 
 
 
 
 .1 
 
 1 Negroes in the United States, Bulletin 8. 
 
APPENDIX G 
 
 Number and per rent, distribution of Negro population of continental 
 United States, by State or Territory of residence, 1900.' 
 
 STATE OR TERRITORY IN ORDER 
 
 OF DECREASING NUMBER 
 
 OF NEGROES 
 
 Continental United States, 
 
 Georgia 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 Alabama 
 
 South Carolina 
 
 Virginia 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 North Carolina 
 
 Texas 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 Arkansas 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 Maryland 
 
 Florida 
 
 Missouri 
 
 Pennsylvania 
 
 New York 
 
 Ohio 
 
 District of Columbia 
 
 Illinois 
 
 New Jersey 
 
 Indiana 
 
 Kansas 
 
 West Virginia 
 
 Indian Territory 
 
 Massachusetts 
 
 Delaware 
 
 Oklahoma 
 
 Michigan 
 
 Connecticut 
 
 Iowa 
 
 California 
 
 Rhode Island 
 
 Colorado 
 
 Nebraska 
 
 Minnesota 
 
 Wisconsin 
 
 Washington 
 
 Arizona 
 
 New Mexico 
 
 Montana 
 
 Maine 
 
 Oregon 
 
 Wyoming 
 
 Vermont 
 
 Utah 
 
 New Hampshire 
 
 South Dakota 
 
 Idaho 
 
 North Dakota 
 
 Nevada 
 
 Negro 
 popula- 
 tion: 
 1900. 
 
 8,833,994 
 
 ,034,813 
 
 907,630 
 
 827,307 
 
 782,321 
 
 660,722 
 
 650,804 
 
 624,469 
 
 620,722 
 
 480,243 
 
 366,856 
 
 284,706 
 
 235,064 
 
 230,730 
 
 161,234 
 
 156,845 
 
 99,232 
 
 96,901 
 
 86,702 
 
 85,078 
 
 69,844 
 
 57,505 
 
 52,003 
 
 43,499 
 
 36,853 
 
 31,974 
 
 30,697 
 
 18,831 
 
 15,816 
 
 15,226 
 
 12,693 
 
 11,045 
 
 9,092 
 
 8,570 
 
 6,269 
 
 4,959 
 
 2,542 
 
 2,514 
 
 1,848 
 
 1,610 
 
 1,523 
 
 1,319 
 
 1,105 
 
 940 
 
 826 
 
 672 
 
 662 
 
 465 
 
 293 
 
 286 
 
 134 
 
 Per cent, of 
 Negro pop- 
 ulation of 
 continental 
 
 United 
 States liv- 
 ing in speci- 
 fied State 
 or Terri- 
 tory: 1900. 
 
 100.0 
 
 Total of per 
 
 cents in 
 
 column 2, 
 
 to and 
 
 including 
 
 specified 
 
 State. 
 
 11.7 
 
 11.7 
 
 10.3 
 
 22.0 
 
 9.4 
 
 31.4 
 
 8.9 
 
 40.3 
 
 7.5 
 
 47.8 
 
 7.4 
 
 55.2 
 
 7.1 
 
 62.3 
 
 7.0 
 
 69.3 
 
 5.4 
 
 74.7 
 
 4.2 
 
 78.9 
 
 3.2 
 
 82.1 
 
 2.7 
 
 84.8 
 
 2.6 
 
 87.4 
 
 1.8 
 
 89.2 
 
 1.8 
 
 91.0 
 
 1.1 
 
 92.1 
 
 1.1 
 
 93.2 
 
 1.0 
 
 94.2 
 
 1.0 
 
 95.2 
 
 0.8 
 
 96.0 
 
 0.6 
 
 96.6 
 
 0.6 
 
 97.2 
 
 0.5 
 
 97.7 
 
 0.4 
 
 98.1 
 
 0.4 
 
 98.5 
 
 0.3 
 
 98.8 
 
 0.2 
 
 99.0 
 
 0.2 
 
 99.2 
 
 0.2 
 
 99.4 
 
 0.1 
 
 99.5 
 
 0.1 
 
 99.6 
 
 0.1 
 
 99.7 
 
 0.1 
 
 99.8 
 
 0.1 
 
 99.9 
 
 0.1 
 
 100.0 
 
 (2) 
 
 100.0 
 
 (2) 
 
 100 
 
 (2) 
 
 100.0 
 
 C-) 
 
 100.0 
 
 (2) 
 
 100.0 
 
 (2) 
 
 100 
 
 (») 
 
 100.0 
 
 (2) 
 
 100 
 
 (*) 
 
 100.0 
 
 (-) 
 
 100.0 
 
 (2) 
 
 100.0 
 
 (*) 
 
 100.0 
 
 (2) 
 
 100.0 
 
 (=*) 
 
 100.0 
 
 (2) 
 
 100.0 
 
 ' Negroes in the United States, Bulletin 8. 
 2 Less than one-tenth of 1 per cent. 
 
Appendixes 
 
 319 
 
 APPENDIX H 
 
 Total population, Negro population, per cent. Negro, and per cent, 
 distribution, for physiographic divisions, 1900.' 
 
 
 1900 
 
 PHYSIOGRAPHIC 
 DIVISION. 
 
 Total pop- 
 ulation. 
 
 Negro pop- 
 ulation. 
 
 Per 
 
 cent. 
 
 Negro 
 
 ia 
 
 total 
 popu- 
 lation. 
 
 Per cent, 
 of the Ne- 
 gro pop- 
 ulation of 
 continen- 
 tal United 
 
 States 
 living in 
 specified 
 division. 
 
 Continental United 
 States 
 
 75,994,575 
 
 8,833,994 
 
 11.6 
 
 100.0 
 
 New England hills 
 
 10,260,153 
 1,865,952 
 
 6,427,635 
 6,809,103 
 4,499,072 
 6,070,246 
 9,571,215 
 8,129,760 
 
 1,227,094 
 
 13,300,970 
 
 1,203,880 
 
 1,974,677 
 1,052,719 
 592,972 
 356,758 
 375,345 
 201,669 
 995,363 
 1,079,992 
 
 137,553 
 795,155 
 
 2,972,269 
 
 1,818,732 
 
 236,782 
 
 189,267 
 
 70,640 
 
 628,371 
 
 771,486 
 
 466,416 
 
 57,478 
 
 654,567 
 13,402 
 4,016 
 1,471 
 881 
 2,428 
 5,409 
 7,671 
 
 1.4 
 42.6 
 
 46.3 
 26.7 
 5.3 
 3.1 
 0.8 
 7.7 
 
 62.9 
 3.5 
 
 4.8 
 
 33.2 
 1.3 
 0.7 
 0.4 
 0.2 
 1.2 
 0.6 
 0.7 
 
 1.6 
 9.0 
 
 Coastal plain (east of 
 Mississippi river) .... 
 
 Piedmont region 
 
 Appalachian valley 
 
 A legheny plateau 
 
 Tjake reo'ion 
 
 33.6 
 
 20.6 
 
 2.7 
 
 2.1 
 
 0.8 
 
 Interior timbered region 
 Mississippi alluvial re- 
 gion 
 
 7.1 
 
 8.7 
 
 
 5.3 
 
 Ozark hills 
 
 0.7 
 
 Coastal plain (west of 
 Mississippi river) 
 
 7.4 
 0.2 
 
 Rocky Mountain' 
 
 Columbian mesas 
 
 Great basin 
 
 C-) 
 
 (2) 
 
 
 ^'K , 
 
 Pacific vallev 
 
 0.1 
 
 Coast ranges 
 
 0.1 
 
 
 
 1 Negroes in the United States, Bulletin 8. 
 * Less than one-tenth of 1 per cent. 
 
320 
 
 The Upward Path 
 
 o 
 
 t-t 
 
 < 
 •J 
 
 o 
 o 
 
 K 
 
 c 
 
 w 
 
 
 fo 
 
 g 
 
 t; 
 
 t-H 
 
 
 « 
 
 O) 
 
 n 
 
 w 
 
 H 
 
 o 
 
 t— t 
 
 < 
 
 K 
 
 
 Bi 
 
 Q W 
 
 ZH 
 
 < 
 
 
 
 u 
 
 !» ^ 
 
 >:^ 
 
 <! 
 
 X 
 
 
 w 
 
 Oi 
 
 m 
 
 W 
 
 
 H 
 
 a <: 
 
 
 fe 
 
 o 
 « 
 
 03 
 O 
 I— I 
 
 H 
 
 H-t 
 
 < 
 H 
 CO 
 
 > 53 
 
 O eS 
 a) 
 
 E 
 
 o 
 
 
 c 
 H 
 
 K 
 O 
 
 < 
 CO 
 
 iq ^M lO O C'l_Tj<_iC «D M to rj^^a^l^O C^l t^O 00 CS r)< Cl_-f © CC O <M o 
 00 OOlO NtON M'-l'-l 'Ht>.'^ cDr-( OJ'* 
 
 t-l M rt l-H 
 
 oroi^t^oroocooO'Hioocc-t'ccojaiOC'^oooxc-iiot^ocoo 
 
 rH N iH r-l 
 
 o o c^i >c o o X "-H o o O O o c-1 ro "I* to 05 fo --I ^^ r» L-5 o N M « -^ 
 t^tDxroooococ;oio>o-Hcocoo''Tt^-i"Ot»o-i'icicc3cot>-'-< 
 
 oo'ON05'He<fio->"cccc"'HiN050o'oi05-H05 i-T-^cociodr-^pJrt 
 
 «D t>. rH-*© rH rt lO IM •* 00 <N 
 
 T-4 N tH -H 
 
 OLO-fC5t--C:-<'»J<'-<»tt>.t^Tt<«DOO-HM005r-MOMeOOO'-<i-iC<J 
 0"*<l0 C>JOOOMiOC5rHO>CCt^OO'^COrH©-*iM'C ^ (N0!0 05 
 
 00 rHiOTjTtCioooo'^ o>t>^t~io>oc^foo ostorCirJ-i^o cJ 
 
 — < 00 rH'Sfrnfl COINiH C^TflC^) i-(rH l-OOO 
 
 ■^ r-l IHIO rHCO r-t -^ 
 
 t^MMfflror»<OOOOC5«Or-<-Hr^iOC^M'l'OI>'-<OCD-^COW»N 
 t^tO-f'iCt^-^-H-tHOCOCDC-lOI't^fl^Ol^rHOMCOCCOrHCDM 
 W CO CO l> I^N 50 CO 'H 00 rH i-< t^ ^00 >0 O ® «Ci O IC C") 00 CO (N 0> CO 
 O rH iClOTlTtdo 00 OoT lOoTostffcD^lIN lOiOodci^COrH CO 
 
 O as I-HCOIMO T»l<NrH C")^C1 rHrH ICOO 
 
 ■^ ^-t rHlO riCO r-l Tj" 
 
 ro.2 Q.2 aJ o 
 
 5 Jsl IM-^ 
 
 — t- <- 03 o oi;-^i O 
 
 0) 
 
 tn r- e 
 ■He" 
 
 ca-STS-B 
 
 S S^ 2 
 
 ^5 2 
 
 c c _ 
 
 rt cj o 
 
 T) 3 
 
 ex 
 
 03 
 
 
 <<<oooQQfaoSw£>5hSW«^jSSSSSSSSZ2: 
 
^ 
 
 Appendixes 
 
 321 
 
 MScDO'Hcc'^^-l*X'OT}^o(^^c<;oo!^^^7^^Tl^o^^ 
 COOOr-lCTCCOOffl'H I> -H 05 CO M x_o CO t.'^.'*-'^.'®. 
 
 IM"'*O5 00'^'-'"t~-COCOCON'O"c-fl>'H O'-i-^CO'-' -^ 
 C^COfNCO'-'^^O^CO -^i-Hf-t CI 
 
 oooococ'i-^t^a50t^ooo:-i<-*'coo5a;icoioiON 
 
 r5iOlfflO5C0C^lC00> O "C lM_O_C0 0)_r-^-* --i co oo_c» o> co 
 ©(N^f co'-H"^'0-HCO'^COCO>C'^ CO'-iW-H 
 
 OOd5-*(3>-1"COOCOC005^t^050'-iCOCOOOcOCO'M(M 
 rH050'*'COiOI^05-<-it^COOO«0'^t^C4 000iC 
 
 ,-lCl rt CS CO 05IM 
 
 (MCOt^-^ 
 
 CO 
 
 lO (35 1>. ■* o CO o M cc r^ 01 lo CO I* t^ oc ^'i CO L': CI -?< o~. 
 
 CO & CO rt -t< — I — I M -M ^i O O) C: lO M — 1 1-^ 'X! (M CO ?>< C 
 
 COOiOCOOO'HOCO-*'* 00_O —< C« lO CS CO M 0> CO '-<_C0 
 
 to O-IO too t^'^CC 'HO (» OO'H 
 
 coicc-i'* t~m'*<-H CO"-! 
 
 CO CO <NCO CO 
 
 r^iocoM-^coicoit^-xotoojoc-o-^-iiaiOf-cc-^ 
 
 C«-<J<(M'HClt~00Or--*05C)t^00C0i0iOiCX«0-HC0 
 
 COt^OcDO'^O'OOCO C^CO IM C0_'^^ ■^ -^lO rt -^<0 
 
 CO'-'OCO 05C5 OSrfcO OCO CO'-^i-OtH 
 
 CO TfiO ■* t^ CO CO—" <N C^ 
 
 CO CO <NCO CO 
 
 a ^-3 
 
 & & & 
 
 lU CI o 
 
 ooQ 
 
 _: - c3 
 
 ■g cs o 
 
 — ■— ' — ^ ID 
 
 
 3'MC si) 
 
 .2 c> c:-3 
 = •" o a 
 
 bJ! K y: 
 
 - ci u. 
 
 60 
 
 s 
 
 s 
 
 8 
 
 :§ 
 
 
 o 
 
 
322 
 
 The Upward Path 
 
 APPENDIX J 
 
 Per cent. Negro in total population, for the 55 counties having at least 
 75 per cent. Negro in total population, 1900.' 
 
 COUNTY IN ORDER OF 
 
 DECREASING PER 
 
 CENT. NEGRO. 
 
 Issaquena, Miss. . . 
 
 Tensas, La 
 
 Madison, La 
 
 East Carroll, La. . . 
 
 Beaufort, S. C 
 
 Tunica, Miss 
 
 Washington, Miss. 
 Coahoma, Miss. . . . 
 
 Leflore, Miss 
 
 Bolivar, Miss 
 
 Sharkey, Miss 
 
 Concordia, La 
 
 Chicot, .\rk 
 
 Lowndes, Ala 
 
 Greene, .A.la 
 
 West P'eliciana, La 
 
 Lee, Ga 
 
 Noxubee, Miss. . . . 
 Crittenden, Ark. . . 
 
 Dallas, Ala 
 
 Sumter, Ala 
 
 Dougherty, Ga 
 
 Bullock, Ala 
 
 Burke, Ga 
 
 Desha, Ark 
 
 Hale, Ala 
 
 Macon, Ala 
 
 Jefferson, Miss 
 
 Per cent. 
 Negro 
 in total 
 popu- 
 lation: 
 1900. 
 
 94.0 
 93.5 
 92.7 
 91.6 
 
 90 
 90 
 89 
 
 88 
 88 
 88. 
 88. 
 87. 
 87. 
 86. 
 
 86.3 
 
 86.2 
 85.4 
 84.8 
 84.6 
 83.0 
 82.7 
 82.1 
 81.7 
 81.7 
 81.7 
 81.7 
 81.6 
 81.1 
 
 COUNTY IN ORDER OF 
 DECREASING PER 
 CENT. NEGRO. 
 
 Leon, Fla 
 
 Wilcox, Ala 
 
 Madison, Miss , 
 
 Wilkinson, Miss 
 
 Berkeley, S. C 
 
 Adams, Miss 
 
 Phillips, Ark 
 
 Perry, Ala 
 
 Bossier, La 
 
 Russell, Ala 
 
 Claiborne, Miss 
 
 Holmes, Miss 
 
 Jefferson, Fla 
 
 Lee, Ark 
 
 Mcintosh, Ga 
 
 West Baton Rouge, La, 
 
 Yazoo, Miss 
 
 Marengo, Ala 
 
 Quitman, Miss 
 
 Georgetown, S. C 
 
 Morehouse, La 
 
 Warwick, Va 
 
 Fairfield, S. C 
 
 Lowndes, Miss 
 
 Hinds, Mi.ss 
 
 Houston, Ga 
 
 Sunflower, Miss 
 
 Per 
 
 cent. 
 Negro 
 in total 
 popu- 
 lation: 
 1900. 
 
 80.4 
 80.4 
 79.8 
 79.6 
 78.7 
 78.6 
 78.6 
 78.5 
 78.2 
 78.1 
 78.0 
 77.9 
 77.9 
 77.8 
 77.7 
 
 77 
 
 77 
 
 76 
 
 76 
 
 76 
 
 76 
 
 76 
 
 76.0 
 
 75.5 
 
 75.2 
 
 75.1 
 
 75.0 
 
 Negroes in the United States, Bulletin 8. 
 
APPENDIX K 
 
 Per cent, illiterate in Negro population at least 10 years of age: 
 1900 and 1890.' 
 
 STATE OR TERRITORY HAVING 
 
 AT LEAST 500 NEGROES 10 
 
 YEARS OF AGE AND 
 
 OVER IN 1900. 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 Alabama 
 
 South Carolina 
 
 Georgia 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 North Carolina 
 
 Virginia 
 
 Arkansas 
 
 Indian Territory. . . . 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 Florida 
 
 Texas 
 
 Delaware 
 
 Maryland 
 
 West Virginia 
 
 Missouri 
 
 Oklahoma 
 
 District of Columbia 
 
 Indiana 
 
 Kansas 
 
 New Mexico 
 
 Iowa 
 
 Illinois 
 
 Ohio 
 
 New Jersey 
 
 Wyoming 
 
 Pennsylvania 
 
 Vermont 
 
 Maine 
 
 Rhode Island 
 
 California 
 
 Colorado 
 
 Arizona 
 
 New Hampshire .... 
 
 Nebraska 
 
 Washington 
 
 Connecticut 
 
 Montana 
 
 Wisconsin 
 
 Michigan 
 
 New York 
 
 Massachusetts 
 
 Oregon 
 
 Minnesota 
 
 Utah 
 
 PER CENT. ILLITERATE 
 
 IN NEGRO 
 
 POPULATION AT 
 
 LEAST 10 YEARS 
 
 OF AGE. 
 
 1900 
 
 61.1 
 57.4 
 52.8 
 52.4 
 49.1 
 47.6 
 44.6 
 43.0 
 42.8 
 41.6 
 40.1 
 38.4 
 38.2 
 38.1 
 35.1 
 32.3 
 28.1 
 26.0 
 24.3 
 22.6 
 22.3 
 19.1 
 18 
 18 
 17 
 17 
 17 
 15 
 14 
 14 
 14 
 13 
 13.0 
 12.7 
 11.9 
 11.8 
 11.6 
 11.5 
 11.4 
 11.4 
 10.9 
 10.8 
 10.7 
 8.8 
 7.9 
 6.3 
 
 1890 
 
 72.1 
 69.1 
 64.1 
 67.3 
 60.8 
 60.1 
 57.2 
 53.6 
 
 54.2 
 
 55.9 
 
 50.5 
 
 52.5 
 
 49.5 
 
 50.1 
 
 44.5 
 
 41.7 
 
 39.0 
 
 35.0 
 
 32.3 
 
 32.8 
 
 45 
 
 26 
 
 26 
 
 25 
 
 28 
 
 17 
 
 23 
 
 20 
 
 15.9 
 
 18 
 
 26 
 
 17 
 
 19 
 
 22 
 
 19 
 
 17 
 
 15 
 
 11.0 
 
 20.0 
 
 18.9 
 
 17 
 
 14 
 
 17 
 
 12 
 
 26 
 
 Decrease 
 in per 
 
 cent, illit- 
 erate: 
 1890 to 
 1900. 
 
 11.0 
 
 11. 
 11. 
 14. 
 11, 
 12 
 12 
 10 
 
 12.6 
 
 15.8 
 
 12.1 
 
 14.3 
 
 11.4 
 
 15.0 
 
 12.2 
 
 13.6 
 
 13.0 
 
 10.7 
 
 9.7 
 
 10.5 
 
 26.7 
 
 7.6 
 
 8.7 
 
 7.6 
 
 10.9 
 
 0.6 
 
 8.1 
 
 5.8 
 
 1.7 
 
 4.0 
 
 13.1 
 
 4.6 
 
 6. 
 
 10. 
 
 .5 
 .6 
 .3 
 .1 
 .8 
 .4 
 .6 
 
 6. 
 3. 
 
 20. 
 
 8. 
 8.0 
 6.3 
 3.6 
 8.3 
 4.2 
 20 3 
 
 * Negroes in the United States, Bulletin 8. 
 2 Increase. 
 
APPENDIX L 
 
 Negro population at least 10 years of age engaged in specific 
 occupations: 1900 and 1890.^ 
 
 OCCUPATION. 
 
 Continental United States: 
 All occupations 
 
 Occupations giving employ- 
 ment to at least 10,000 
 negroes in 1900 
 
 Agricultural laborers.. . 
 
 Farmers, planters, and 
 overseers 
 
 Laborers (not specified) 
 
 Servants and waiters. . 
 
 Launderers and laun- 
 dresses 
 
 Draymen, hackmen, 
 teamsters, etc 
 
 Steam railroad em- 
 ployees 
 
 Miners and quarrymen. 
 
 Saw and planing mill 
 employees 
 
 Porters and helpers (in 
 stores, etc.) 
 
 Teachers and professors 
 in colleges, etc 
 
 Carpenters and joiners. 
 
 Turpentine farmers and 
 laborers 
 
 Barbersand hairdressers 
 
 Nurses and midwives. . 
 
 Clergymen 
 
 Tobacco and cigar fac- 
 tory operatives 
 
 Hostlers 
 
 Masons (brick and stone) 
 
 Dressmakers 
 
 Iron and steel workers. 
 
 Seamstresses 
 
 Janitors and sextons. . . 
 
 Housekeepers and stew- 
 ards 
 
 Fishermen and oyster- 
 men 
 
 Engineers and firemen 
 (not locomotive) .... 
 
 Blacksmiths 
 
 Other occupations 
 
 NEGRO POPULATION AT LEAST 10 
 YEARS OF AGE ENGAGED IN GAIN- 
 FUL OCCUPATIONS. 
 
 1900 
 
 3,992,337 
 
 3,807,008 
 
 1,344,125 
 
 757,822 
 545,935 
 465,734 
 
 220,104 
 
 67,585 
 
 55,327 
 36,561 
 
 33,266 
 
 28,977 
 
 21,267 
 21,113 
 
 20,744 
 19,942 
 19,431 
 15,528 
 
 15,349 
 14,496 
 14,386 
 12,569 
 12,327 
 11,537 
 11,536 
 
 10,596 
 
 10,427 
 
 10,224 
 10,100 
 
 1890 
 
 3,073,164 
 
 22,917,169 
 
 1,106,728 
 
 590,666 
 349,002 
 401,215 
 
 153,684 
 
 43,963 
 
 47,548 
 19,007 
 
 17,276 
 
 11.694 
 
 15,100 
 22,581 
 
 (*) 
 
 17,480 
 
 5,213 
 
 12,159 
 
 15,004 
 10,500 
 9,760 
 7,586 
 6,579 
 11,846 
 5,945 
 
 9,248 
 
 10.071 
 
 6,326 
 10,988 
 
 185,329 5155,995 
 
 Increase: 
 1890 to 1900. 
 
 Num- 
 ber. 
 
 Per 
 
 cent. 
 
 919,173i 29.9 
 
 2869,095 =29.8 
 
 237,397 
 
 167,156 
 
 196,933 
 
 64,519| 
 
 66,420[ 
 
 23,622 
 
 7,779 
 17,554 
 
 15,990 
 
 17,283 
 
 6,167 
 
 31.468 
 
 21.5 
 
 28.3 
 56.4 
 16.1 
 
 43.2 
 
 53.7 
 
 16.4 
 92.4 
 
 92.6 
 
 147.8 
 
 40.8 
 36.5 
 
 2,462 
 
 14,218 
 3,369 
 
 345 
 3,996 
 4,626 
 4,983 
 5,748 
 
 3309 
 5,591 
 
 1,348 
 
 356 
 
 3,898 
 
 14.1 
 
 272.7 
 27.7 
 
 2.3 
 
 38.1 
 47.4 
 65.7 
 87.4 
 32.6 
 94.0 
 
 14.6 
 
 3.5 
 
 61.6 
 
 38. 1 
 
 «50,078' 532.1 
 
 ' Negroes in the United States, Bulletin 8. 
 
 Excludes turpentine farmers and laborers. ' Decrease. 
 
 ^ Turpentine farmers and laborers were included in "other agricul- 
 tural pursuits" in 1890. ^ Includes turpentine farmers and laborers. 
 
INDEX 
 
INDEX 
 
 Abolition, disapproval of, 69, 
 234; first cry for, from 
 Great Britain, 68 
 
 Abolitionists, activities of, 
 69 
 
 Africa, condition of the Ne- 
 gro in, xiii, 2, 6-28; con- 
 trol of and gold in, sought 
 by European people, 6; 
 part from which slaves 
 chiefly came, 8, 9 ; peopled 
 largely by two Negro types, 
 5; rediscovery by Portu- 
 guese, 6 ; superstitions 
 brought from, by the Ne- 
 groes, 26, 27, 54-56, 180- 
 182 
 
 African, children, 16, 17; fet- 
 ichism or paganism, see 
 Fetichism; mothers and 
 fathers, 16, 17. See also 
 Negro, in Africa 
 
 African Methodist Episcopal 
 Zion Church, 243 
 
 Allen, Bishop Richard, re- 
 ferred to, 242 _ 
 
 Amendment, Fifteenth, 80, 
 86; Thirteenth, 84 
 
 American Federation of La- 
 bor, 114 
 
 Andrews, Bishop, 237 
 
 Army of Occupation, 86 
 
 Asset of the nation, the Negro 
 a valuable, xviii 
 
 Atlanta, churches of, 252 
 
 Atlanta University, 247 ; 
 Publications, quoted, 134, 
 135, 137, 244, 257, 259 
 
 Atlantic Monthly, quoted, 80 
 
 Bangs, Nathan, quoted, 242 
 
 Banks, Negro, 136 
 
 Bantus, the, 7, 211; Negroes 
 of United States largely 
 from, 8 
 
 Baptist Church, 244; in At- 
 lanta, 252; predominance 
 in Black Belt, 248; work 
 among Negroes, 225, 226 
 
 Beach, Harlan P., quoted, 
 107 
 
 Beaty, Rev. L. F., quoted on 
 plantation missions, 229- 
 232 
 
 Benevolence, cooperative, 
 135, 136 
 
 Bible, 277; study of, 279, 
 280, 281, 288 
 
 Birth-rate, Negro, 174 
 
 "BlackArt,"23-26, 55, 56 
 
 Black Belt, churches in, 248, 
 249 ; need of forward cam- 
 paign in, 259 
 
 "Black Harry," 279 
 
 Bone of contention, the Negro 
 a, xviii 
 
 Brown, Rev. William Wash- 
 ington, referred to, 132 
 
 Bushmen, the, 7, 210 
 
 Business man, the Negro as a, 
 136-138 
 
 Campaign, a forward gospel, 
 
 needed, 259 
 Capers, Bishop, 229, 231, 235, 
 
 237 
 "Carpet-bagger," 80, 86, 94 
 Catholics, Roman, 62, 191, 
 
 242, 246 
 
328 
 
 Index 
 
 Caucasian, civilization, 5 ; 
 Negro, three classes of, 
 211, 212; race, 6, 7, 10, 
 98, 210 
 
 Census of the United States, 
 Twelfth, map from, show- 
 ing Negro distribution, 
 316; tables from, relating 
 to Negro, 110, 166, 317-324 
 
 Chamberlain, Governor, 
 
 quoted, 85 
 
 Chicago, 257 
 
 Child-labor, 123 
 
 Christ, see Jesus Chirst 
 
 Christian Church, the (Dis- 
 ciples of Christ), 242, 245 
 
 Christianity, acceptance of, 
 25 ; test of, by Negro prob- 
 lem, XV ; thwarted among 
 Negroes, 91 
 
 Church, benevolent societies 
 of, 130; destroyed by war, 
 90; efforts to win the 
 slaves to Christ, 60-62; 
 in large cities, 256-258; 
 organizations, 240-247 ; so- 
 cial center, 251 ; united ef- 
 fort to Christianize present 
 Negro population, 270- 
 275; work of, 239, 240 
 
 Civil War, cause of, 71; end 
 of, 71; Negro population 
 before, 43 ; political antag- 
 onism of, 70 
 
 Clubs, benefit of, 285 
 
 Colleges, need of, 197; work 
 of, 205; would gain by 
 concentration, 206, 207 
 
 Colored Methodist Episcopal 
 Church, 243, 244 
 
 Color line, the, 293, 294 
 
 Conference, General, action 
 in 1800 against slavery, 232 
 
 Congregational Church, 242, 
 245 
 
 Cooking schools, 285 
 
 Cooperation, economic, 130 
 Cotton-gin, invention of, 68 
 Crandall, Prudence, perse- 
 cuted for teaching colored 
 girls, 234, 235 
 Crime, Negro, 166-173; char- 
 acter of, 166, 168; list of 
 causes, 166-172; miscar- 
 riage of justice, 172, 173 
 Culture, soul and mental, 264 
 Cumberland Presbyterian 
 Church, 245 
 
 Davis, Rev. Samuel, ministry 
 
 of, 224 
 Deaconesses, colored, 281, 
 
 286, 287 
 Death, 18; result of witch- 
 craft, 23 
 Death-rate, 175; causes for, 
 
 176-179 
 Dowd, Jerome, quoted, 7, 8 
 Drummond, quoted, 108 
 Drunkenness prevented 
 
 among slaves, 49 
 DuBois, Dr. W. E. B., 
 
 quoted, 128, 196; referred 
 
 to, 115,206 
 Dunbar, Paul Lawrence, 
 
 quoted, 301 
 Dyer, Prof. G. W., quoted, 
 
 41,42 
 
 Early, Bishop, 237 
 
 Economic problem of Negro, 
 115 
 
 Edwards, Harry Stillwell, 
 quoted, 106, 144 
 
 Education, advantages fur- 
 nished by Church and 
 State, 188; Christian, 189; 
 freedmen's need of, 187; 
 gains of, 188, 189; Report 
 of the United States Com- 
 missioner of, 195; the 
 South 's interest in, 118, 119 
 
Index 
 
 329 
 
 Elks, order of, 135 
 
 Emancipation, 7 ; effect upon 
 household servants, 122 
 
 Emotion to have proper ex- 
 pression, 259-264 
 
 England, large part in slave- 
 trade, 35, 36 
 
 Ethical development, hope 
 for, 259, 263, 264 
 
 Ethiopian race, 5 
 
 Evangelists, Negro, need of, 
 278; work of, 279 
 
 Evangelization, task de- 
 volved upon, 27, 257-264 
 
 Evolution, working of, 4, 214, 
 215 
 
 Farmers' Improvement So- 
 ciety, 137, 138 
 
 Farmville Institutional 
 
 Church, 250 
 
 "Federal Power," 70 
 
 Fellatahs, the, 7, 8 
 
 Fetich, defined, 20, 21 ; prep- 
 aration of, 21, 22; sup- 
 posed power of, 21, 22 
 
 Fetichism, 2, 19-26; export- 
 ed to United States and the 
 West Indies, 26, 54-56; 
 two kinds of, 22, 23 
 
 Financial Embarrassment of 
 South, 96, 97 
 
 Fitzgerald, Bishop, 237 
 
 Foa, quoted, 17 
 
 Fox, referred to, 36 
 
 Franchise, exercise of, 76, 147 
 
 Freedmen's Bureau, 66; 79, 
 80, 86, 89; schools of, 192, 
 195 
 
 Free Masons, 134 
 
 Frissel, Dr. H. B., quoted, 258 
 
 Gallas, the, 8 
 
 Galloway, Bishop Charles B., 
 quoted, 186, 220, 268 
 
 Gambling prevented among 
 
 slaves, 49 
 Garrison, William Lloyd, 
 
 mobbed in Boston, 234 
 Grand Order of the Galilean 
 
 Fisherman, 135 
 Grant, referred to, 71 
 Groups, racial, 210-213 
 Guinea Coast, 210 
 
 Hall, Dr. G. Stanley, quoted, 
 
 87-89, 175 
 Hamilton, Alexander, Jr., 
 
 129 
 Hamitic Negro, the, 211 
 Hampton Institute, 150, 151, 
 258 ; model industrial 
 school, 202; trade schools, 
 204 
 Harrison and Barnes, quoted, 
 
 233, 236 
 Hill, Chancellor, quoted, 173 
 Holmes, E. H., quoted, 129 
 Holy Spirit, the, 60, 61, 238 
 
 277 
 Home life, 145, 146, 152-154 
 Home owners, 148 
 Home Mission Boards, 271, 
 
 287 
 Home Missions Council, a 
 federation of Home Mis- 
 sion Boards, 271 ; work for 
 Negro, 272-275 
 Homes, 148-151 
 Hottentots, the, 7, 210 
 Hubbard, Dr. G. W., quoted, 
 207 
 
 Institutions, State, 196 
 Israelites, exodus of, 33; in- 
 cident of Babylonish cap- 
 tivity, 33 
 
 Jeanes, Miss Anna P., gift of, 
 
 199 
 Jefferson, Thomas, attempt 
 
Forward Mission Study Courses 
 
 " Anywhere, provided it he forward." — David Living- 
 stone." 
 
 Prepared under the direction of the 
 YOUNG PEOPLE'S MISSIONARY MOVEMENT 
 
 OP THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA 
 
 Editorial Committee: T. H. P. Sailer, Chairman, 
 A. E. Armstrong, T. B, Ray, H. B. Grose, S. Earl Tay- 
 lor, J. E. McAfee, C. R. Watson, John W. Wood, L. B. 
 Wolf. 
 
 The forward mission study courses are an outgrowth of 
 a conference of leaders in young people's mission work, 
 held in New York City, December, 1901. To meet the 
 need that was manifested at that conference for mission 
 study text-books suitable for young people, two of the 
 delegates, Professor Amos R. Wells, of the United Society 
 of Christian Endeavor, and Mr. S. Earl Taylor, Chairman 
 of the General Missionary Committee of the Epworth 
 League, projected the Forward Mission Study Courses. 
 These courses have been officially adopted by the Young 
 People's Missionary Movement, and are now under the 
 immediate direction of the Editorial Committee of the 
 Movement. The books of the Movement are now being 
 used by more than forty home and foreign mission boards 
 and societies of the United States and Canada. 
 
 The aim is to publish a series of text-books covering 
 the various home and foreign mission fields aud written 
 
by leading authorities. The entire series when completed 
 will comprise perhaps as many as forty text-books. 
 
 The following text-books having a sale of nearly 
 600,000 have been pubUshed: 
 
 1. The Price of Africa. (Biographical.) By S. Earl 
 Taylor. 
 
 2. Into All the \A^orld. A general survey of missions. 
 By Amos R. Wells. 
 
 3. Princely Men in the Heavenly Kingdom. (Bio- 
 graphical.) By Harlan P. Beach. 
 
 4. Sunrise in the Sunrise Kingdom. A study of 
 Japan. By John H. De Forest. 
 
 5. Heroes of the Cross in America. Home Missions. 
 (Biographical.) By Don O. Shelton. 
 
 6. Daybreak in the Dark Continent. A study of Af- 
 rica. By Wilson S. Naylor. 
 
 7. The Christian Conquest of India. A study of 
 India. By James M. Thoburn. 
 
 8. Aliens or Americans? A study of Inimigration. 
 By Howard B. Grose. 
 
 g. The Uplift of China. A study of Chma. By 
 Arthur H. Smith. 
 
 10. The Challenge of the City. A study of the City. 
 By Josiah Strong. 
 
 11. The Why and How of Foreign Missions. A 
 study of the relation of the home Church to the foreign 
 missionary enterprise. By Arthur J. Brown. 
 
 12. The Moslem World. A study of the Moham- 
 medan World. By Samuel M. Zwemer. 
 
 13. The Frontier. A study of the New West. By 
 Ward Piatt. 
 
 14. South America : Its Missionary Problems. A 
 study of South America. By Thomas B. Neely. 
 
 15. The Upward Path : The Evolution of a Race. A 
 study of the Negro. By Mary Helm. 
 
 16. Korea in Transition. A study of Korea. By 
 James S. Gale. 
 
In addition to these courses, the following have been 
 published especially for use among younger persons: 
 
 1. Uganda's White Man of Work. The story of Alex- 
 ander Mackay of Africa. By Sophia Lyon Fahs. 
 
 2. Servants of the King. A series of eleven sketches 
 of famous home and foreign missionaries. By Robert E. 
 Speer. 
 
 3. Under Marching Orders. The Story of Mary Por- 
 ter Gamewell of China. By Ethel Daniels Hubbard. 
 
 These books are published by mutual arrangement 
 among the home and foreign mission boards, to whom 
 all orders should be addressed. They are bound uni- 
 formly and are sold at 50 cents, in cloth, and 35 cents, 
 in paper; postage, 8 cents extra. 
 
 ( 
 
 »D 
 
 44 
 
4- 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 ■h 
 

 
 
 A 
 
 ^. 
 
 
 • V^ 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 011 642 577 4