Part 2 (1/2)
Considering what the relationshi+p between the whites and the blacks had been, and what kind of traditional views the for the inferiority of the coloured race, we cannot wonder that the planters, and those ith them, should have been appalled at the outlook The situation becah the h any want of charity, whether real or iinary, on the part of the Southern statesmen There ounds to be healed on both sides, and there was too much of a disposition to maintain the vindictive war spirit after the as over Those who aiered their cause when they suddenly gave to the negroes greater political privileges than they understood, or would be able to use with any advantage to themselves It would seem that soroes being installed in important State offices The result of this and reat bitterness on both sides If many in the North were disposed to make the emancipated slaves a bone of contention--athe States which had wished to secede and to found a Commonwealth of their own--they missed their mark and involved the coloured race in ht well have been spared If we look through such a record as the autobiography of Laura Haviland, we findto this unsettled period of the kind which, under the circumstances, were pretty sure to happen In a sense, Southern society was in a condition of that kind of chaos which has often marked siently needed ould work for peace and advance those, whose interests were supposed to be at variance, that their cause was one Who could have prophesied at that time that the coloured people were destined to find so the whites of the south?
It has also to be confessed, that the outlook aht be expected to inspire , or even some alarm They neither comprehended the situation nor could they properly understand as the true aiton hihly well trained in the best school that then existed, that of General Arlance the kind of obstacles which threatened to bring disaster to his race by hindering their progress In large measure the squalor and superstition which naturally conorance prevailed It was seen that the training which was imperatively needed would have to be mainly industrial, while there must be no aspiration for equality with the whites by atte to come into competition with them in the co, however, so that while he studied for a tireat institute at Tuskegee saw that there were breakers ahead unless certain errors could be corrected The negroes became too much disposed to look to the Government to make full provision for the able to read and write Many would indulge in extravagant habits in order to make it appear that they were better off than they really were Then there were an extraordinary nu as divines and as adht to become instructors of others before they had any ballast of character of their own It was a tireat opportunities,it all the more remarkable that, in the way of social, educational and industrial progress, the negroes are where they are to-day In those days of uncertainty the prophets of evil ton recently remarked in the _International Monthly_: ”There were not a feho predicted that, as soon as the negro became a free man, he would not only cease to support himself and others, but he would become a tax upon the community”
Persons who held notions of this kind doubtless supposed that negroes had some physical kinshi+p with the native American Indians, who have never shown any disposition to take to field labour; and while they involve the Governradually dying out The negroes, on the contrary, are fast , and their value as field labourers, and as workers in other departeneral incapacity of the Indians In the article just referred to, Booker Washi+ngton is able to bear this high testieneral worth of his own people:--
”Few people in any part of our country have ever seen a black hand reached out fro for charity In our Northern coe amount offor the sick, the poor, and other classes of unfortunates In the South, with very few exceptions, the negro takes care of himself, and of the unfortunate members of his race This is usually done by a coh the churches or fraternal organisations Not only is this true, but I want to make a story illustrate the condition that prevails in some parts of the South The white people in a certain Black Belt county in the South had been holding a convention, the object of which was to encourage white people to erate into the county After the adjournment of the convention an old colouredon the street and asked the object of the convention When told, the old coloured gers have just as many white people in this county as we can support?'”
The eneral character and capacity of the negro, the more are we likely to beco any drawback to life in the South, those States, so favoured by Nature, could not do without them It is true that a number of white persons in the States chiefly concerned have boldly testified that the coloured race have proved the best labourers which the country has ever had for its peculiar needs, and better than are likely to be forthconised by those whose interests are chiefly affected Thus we even find it stated, ”The greatest excite the white people in two counties in Georgia, because of the fact that a large proportion of the coloured people decided to leave No stone has been left unturned to induce the coloured people to remain in the country and prevent financial ruin to rown in 1899, under free labour, is nearly fourfold greater than was produced in 1850 by slave labour
During the transition or reconstruction ti his college training at Washi+ngton, Booker Washi+ngton was a keen observer of his own people, the result being that he probably understands their needs, idiosyncrasies and tendencies better than any other living authority He also eagerly reads what others who are not members of his own race say upon the subject What he considers the most valuable testio in an article in _Appleton's Popular Science Monthly_, written by Professor N S Shaler of Harvard University, and Dean of the Scientific School Take this passage:--
”The negroes who cao as complete a transition as ever fell to the lot ofprocess They were brought froion where the winter's cold is ally humid to a very dry air They cae to them in speech and in purpose They had to betake the such as they had never worn before Rarely could one of the creatures find about him a familiar face of friend, parent or child, or an object that recalled his past life to hiro cleaves to all the dear, fas of life, how fond he is of life and friendliness, can conceive the physical and mental shock that this introduction to new conditions meant to them To people of our own race it would have meant death But these wonderful folk appear to have withstood the trials of their deportation in a marvellous way They showed no particular liability to disease Their longevity or period of usefulness was not diminished, or their fecundity obviously iia was not a source of mortality, as it would have been with any Aryan population The price they brought in the market and the satisfaction of their purchasers with their qualities show that they were from the first alton took up his residence in the tohich the first President of the United States called the Federal City, but which was destined to take the naroes were found there As a town, Washi+ngton has made wonderful strides since the close of the Civil War The schools or colleges for coloured students, which are provided, of course have attraction for negroes, while other characteristics of the city also have strong fascination for such susceptible folk If we ton is the seat of the Court and of the Legislature The population h not a very large town, it has recently developed into a beautiful place, fine buildings of wide thoroughfares and charton seems to have discovered that such a place failed to exercise the best of influence on negro students It is not in any sense an industrial centre; the people are for the most part Government officials, professional people, and persons of s and society are congenial The temptation to coloured students was to assume too lofty airs, to despise any occupation other than a profession, and to think that the President and his Governs for them
CHAPTER VI
AMERICAN INDIANS--WORK AT HAMPTON
Just about the time that he coton seeive his life and energy to public speaking and politics He took part in the agitation as a representative of a co the place of Wheeling as capital of West Virginia
By effective platfor about this change Thus early, although he was hardly ee seehtly guided, and taught to turn their energies and gifts to the best account, the negroes are a very capable race; but it was being proved on every hand that when left to go their oithout check or control they were liable to be captivated by very high-flown notions As legislators, poets, jurists, artists and ly in request; but in the world of a hundred industries there were s for all ere adequately trained It was fortunate both for hiton saw his opportunity and determined not to be diverted from it by any considerations of self-interest
Under these conditions it was soenthim to revisit Hampton to address the students It had becoraduates who had passed through the institution to undertake this duty periodically, and the request was understood to be one of the greatest of coladly complied with; and a revisit to the Institute showed that, under General Ar's capable and sympathetic control, the all-round educational work, and especially the industrial training, which was ever considered to be of first iress The General had a quick eye to see where ied Until that tienius for seeing in what direction the coloured people would find that their best interests lay Thus early he also probably saw that in his quondaton, he had a coreat enterprise Certain students who had been prepared by this coloured tutor before being sent on to Haested that operations should be carried on in other directions
It was characteristic of General Ar that he believed the Aroes, were capable of being raised to a condition of honour and usefulness by education and adequate training
The institute at Hampton was specially intended for Indians as well as for ex-slaves; and when it was decided to extend the accommodation for such pupils, where could so coton? The acceptance on the part of the latter of such an office of coursestanding to be severed, but the path of duty seeh the coloured pupils in the school in West Virginia would sorely ton's situation was now strangely anomalous In their own eyes, and even in the eye of United States law, the Red folk were quite above those who happened to be black In ante-emancipation days the Reds had actually been the owners of a number of Blacks as slaves We believe that it may be assumed that even in the present day a Red roes would be refused accoe class of so socially quite superior to their tutor! A thoroughly well-educated negro had now to seek the iht be disposed to resent such innovations as white people's civilisation suggested Why should they have shorter hair? Why should the ancestral blanket be superseded by the conventional dress sanctioned by the United States President and the people he governed? On the whole, however, Booker Washi+ngton found these strange pupils to be amenable to reason; they were quite tractable when kindly treated
The Aines, and in course of an admirable article on their characteristics, habits and present condition, by Dr C W Greene, in _Chambers's Encyclopaedia_, it is remarked that ”their physical and mental characters are ia” The tribes differ so to the ancient, uncivilised way, others take to the tilling of the ground One tribe may be warlike, another will befor athletic exercises The following descriptive passage is borrowed from Dr Greene's article:--
”Their physical characters are a certain tallness and robustness, with an erect posture of the body; a skull narrowing from the eyebroard; prominence of the cheek-bones; the eyes black, deep-set, and having, it is thought, a slight tendency, in many cases, to strabisht; the nose prominent or even aquiline; the complexion usually of a reddish, coppery, or cinnamon colour, but with considerable variations in this respect They have seldom much beard In physical qualities the Indians thus olian type There is also a certain remarkable feebleness of constitution, coth of body At least, the aboriginal races do not resist well the epidemics introduced by the whites; and many tribes have been exterminated by the effects of the 'firewater' and the vicious habits brought in by more civilised men The Red loomy, in his views of life; comparatively indifferent to wit or pleasantry; vain of personal endowments; brave and fond of war, yet extre and drinking; seeers, yet revengeful and cruel, aliven offence They often excel in horse are wonderfully acute”
Such was the reton now endeavoured to educate and to drill into civilised habits A uage All in the institute showed theratitude
The strangest thing of all was that if the devoted tutor had occasion to go abroad with one of his pupils the Red ible for reception anywhere, while in a stea-room, or at the clerk's desk of an hotel, the Black one was ostracised Apart from this there appeared to be so the Indians; but it h his kindness of heart their teacher harboured expectations which were too sanguine to be realised
In the fall of 1900, as he himself explains in course of an article on ”The Econoro,” in _The International Monthly_ for Deceton received letters showing that openings for negro labourers existed in Cuba, the Sandwich Islands and elsewhere This naturally led him to think closely on the subject _:--
”When the first twenty slaves were landed at Jainia, in 1619, it was this econoht to this country At the saht to the shores of Virginia froinia were swar with thousands of another dark-skinned race The question naturally arises, Why did the io thousands of miles for a dark-skinned people, to heood and draater for the whites, when they had right about them a people of another race who could have answered this purpose? The answer is that the Indian was tried and found wanting in the coro seemed to possess The Indian would not submit to slavery as a race, and in those instances where he was tried as a slave his labour was not profitable, and he was found unable to stand the physical strain of slavery As a slave, the Indian died in large nuo and other parts of the Ae and to learn the white reater portion of Areater portion of those who re than the Indian, patiently endured slavery; and the contact with the white ro in America a civilisation vastly superior to that of the Indian”
To this may be added the testimony of Professor Shaler, of Harvard University, in _Appleton's Popular Science Monthly_:--”If we coonquin Indian, in appearance a sturdy felloith these negroes, we see of what stuff the blacks are made A touch of housework and of honest toil took the breath of the aborigines away, but these tropical exotics fell to their tasks and trials far better than the men of our own kind could have done”