_Our First Great Men and Women--New Lights to the Front--Our Own Humble
Beginning in 1865--Cleanliness and Industry--Music and Song--Immense
Progress in Education, and a Mighty Advance Along the Whole Line--The
Rapid Increase of Wealth--The Crime of Lynching--The Church and
Sunday-School--The Colored Man's Right to Vote, and to Rule the Nation._
Though I have only sketched the lives of two most eminent members of
color, and two famous women of the same race, I must confess that I feel
greatly tempted to go on with the subject, and speak of many others,
some of whom have gone to their reward, and others remain alive unto the
present day. At first sight the general reader might imagine that those
first bright stars that shone in our intellectual firmament were
brighter than the talented men and women whom we can see at this day and
hour, walking up and down our streets, and shining like suns in their
different professions, doing splendid service in elevating the colored
race in America. We had Fred. Douglass, Bishop Payne, Mrs. Frances Ellen
Harper, and some other bright, particular stars, who shone with
apparently unusual brilliancy some fifty or sixty years ago, and they
have been set down for the seven wonders of the world (Fred. Douglass,
at least, was a genuine wonder for all time). But while we are inclined
to look upon these worthies as towering geniuses, and most extraordinary
lights in the heavens in but recently bye-gone days, we forget that the
thick darkness that surrounded them went a long way in making their
brilliance and splendor appear far brighter than they really were. This
is quite true of all races, and is no detraction whatever from the real
merits that were justly their own. I am safe in saying that 10,000
clever colored men and women, representing all the different arts and
professions, could be picked out at this day, who would have passed for
stars of the first magnitude, had they made their appearance upon the
stage of time some fifty or sixty years ago. To shine to the same extent
of brilliancy and glory nowadays would indeed be a very difficult
matter, when the whole United States is flooded with a great tide of
knowledge that was never known before.
In these happy days of ours knowledge covers the land, as the waters
cover the seas. It is perfectly laughable for me now to look back and
remember the taunting expressions that were flung upon our dear people,
saying that we had no originality, and that we could never rise above
being mere imitators of the white man! In those days our people were in
slavery, and had no opportunities of showing what they were capable of
doing. But now we are free, and we can all go to school, and education
can polish us like other races, in the same way as we polish the block
of marble, and cut out the precious jewels of all descriptions. If we
leave a diamond in its rude, rough state, like the colored race in the
dark days of slavery, that diamond will continue to be rude and rough
still; but place the precious stone in the hand of the jeweler, and we
shall soon behold a bright and shining precious stone, indeed. It was
not only cruel, but it was cowardly to taunt a whole race of people with
incapacity and lack of talent, when our enemies had our hands tied, and
were unwilling to give us a chance. But by the grace of God, and the
blood of the Americans, both white and black, we are now all free, and
thousands upon thousands of our dear people have acquired splendid
educations, in all the different professions and walks of life, and they
have proved to the whole world, both men and women, that there is talent
and genius among our sons and daughters who have forged to the front,
who are self-made men and women, indeed--men and women who have risen
from the ranks, just the same as officers and commanders start up from
the ranks in the time of war.
My dear reader, we are often told that poverty is no disgrace, but that
it is very inconvenient. Which is all true, indeed, too true; and what
is still worse, it often cannot be helped. In days not so long since
gone by, we used to be taunted with poverty, but if we had no
possessions of our own in the days of slavery, we at least, like the
apostle Paul, made others rich, and it was our oppressed people who
built up the Sunny South--the richest section of the United States
before the war. If we had had all the wealth that was thus stolen away
from us and given to those who led on the great rebellion, we would
never had been turned loose with nothing in our hands in 1865, and to
begin life anew at the lowermost round of the ladder of prosperity. It
is very true that even in the days of slavery there were colored men
scattered over all the free States of the Union, many of whom had
amassed vast sums of money, and who were invariably treated with great
respect and honor by white people because they were rich. So long as
they had plenty of money it was all right, and there was nothing either
thought or said about the color of their skin. But if the whole race of
colored people in the South were turned loose with nothing in 1865, they
have at least made in the aggregate immense sums of money since then,
and devoted it all to those noble purposes whereby the entire race has
been raised up and elevated in the scale of nations. Above all other
causes, religion and education have been thus spread all over the land,
the money being supplied by a willing people, whose good natural
inclination to give has never been surpassed, and very seldom equalled
by any race under the sun. Immense sums of money have been put away in
savings banks, and property in land is a noble feature of the wisdom of
our people in the South.
Take the more than 8,000,000 colored people all over the Union, and
behold what a vast number own their own houses, and have money to their
credit stored up in banks against a rainy day. And then see the comfort,
cleanliness and order to be observed everywhere in an untold number of
dwellings. The colored race are unusually fond of cleanliness and order
in their nice and cosy snug homes, when they can get them; and take the
United Stages all over to-day, it is most astonishing to behold such a
number of beautiful and comfortable homes as there are. I think, dear
reader, that our own people taken as a whole, have been both industrious
and thrifty since the close of the war, and, as the Bible tells us, they
have succeeded in building up the walls of Jerusalem, because they have
had a mind to work. Wherever there is a will there is a way. It is all
very true that some among us are extravagant, lazy, shiftless, but that
is quite true of the white race, too, only I think more so, and we never
condemn a whole race for the faults of a few.
[Illustration: _STATUE OF LIBERTY._]
Let us then judge fairly, and award to the colored race what belongs to
them by right. As in the days of slavery, so at the present day it is
the colored man who still extracts the wealth from the soil of the
South, partly for himself, and partly for the white man. He can stand
the heat of the sun far better than the white tiller of the soil, and it
seems that the rich white man would rather have him than the other. In
the days of slavery we had to do the best we could. We had no Vanderbilt
palaces to live in then. But now we have at least lots of comforts--nice
furniture, carpets, pictures hanging from our walls, whole libraries on
our book-shelves, and hundreds of other things too numerous to mention.
[Illustration: _GRANT'S TOMB._]
Music and song are more or less bound up with the history of every
nation of which we have ever heard or read. Away back in the dark night
of slavery in America, the slaves in the field used to sing their
mournful, plaintive, yet musical ditties to lighten their heavy labors,
and cheer up their hearts. These ditties were songs and prayers at one
and the same time. In the day of his distress, the African never forgot
the God who brought Israel out of Egypt, and we know quite well that
many of our own people confidently expected that day of happy
deliverance that came at last to all. Therefore they sang praises unto
the Lord, God of Israel, and, like the Psalmist, they prayed and sang at
the same time; and we have it plainly on record that they had powerful
lungs and most wonderfully rich voices, showing in advance what great
and famous singers they would become if their musical talents were only
fully developed like others. I have already spoken of the "Jubilee
Minstrels," who were mostly born in slavery, many of whom indeed "came
up by the rough side of the mountain," and yet who possessed such a
wealth of music and song within themselves that they surprised the whole
country, and even crossed the North Atlantic, and rendered themselves
illustrious for all coming time by performing and singing before Queen
Victoria, the grandees and general population of the British Isles, and
some of the royal families, and magnates and peoples of continental
Europe. This was honor, indeed, with a vengeance! Old England and all
the rest cared nothing for the color of the skin. They all at once set
their seals upon the wonderful talents of the colored race in the
musical line, and there was rejoicing among Freedom's friends over all
the earth.
The time would fail to mention the names of all those eminent singers
who have made themselves illustrious in these latter years in this
country, and not in this country alone, but they have crossed the wide
oceans in ships, and sung before the admiring audiences of many a
foreign land. But among all these great singers of our race who have
thus distinguished themselves, I will simply mention the name of Miss
Flora Batson, who has justly been called the "Jenny Lind of America,"
and she can sing, indeed, before any audience in this nation--a
veritable nightingale and queen of song. But leaving her and a whole
host of other warblers on one side, there is a grandeur in singing of
our church members and congregations on the Sabbath-day that has become
the standing wonder of the country; and it is my own deliberate opinion,
and the openly-confessed opinion of many of the white race, that for
music and song, at least, we have no equals in the United States.
I think we may safely claim that not only can we play and sing, but we
can play and sing well, there arising from the great congregation a
grand volume of music and song that reminds me of the "voice of many
waters," mentioned in the Revelations--a volume of song rising from
powerful lungs, and helped on by the warm feelings and enthusiasm of the
race. And as our oppressed forefathers whiled away the long hours in the
field, and lightened their labors by singing, so our people nowadays
bring home the latest new hymn or fine anthem of praise, and sing them
at home to brighten up their domestic cares, and find a vent for that
joyous nature and devotional enthusiasm for which the colored race are
famed over all the earth.
The greatest blot at the present time upon the fair fame and name of the
internal and domestic doings of the United States, as it appears to me,
is lynching. And this lynching is not confined to any particular race,
or any particular crime, but we find, to a greater or less degree, all
over the land, from the Lakes to the Gulf, a mob spirit among the people
to take the law into their own hands, whenever any flagrant breach of
law occurs, and hang their victim on the nearest tree. The mob is
unwilling to leave the matter in the hands of the regularly constituted
authorities, and proceeds to murder the supposed criminal in its own
way. I say supposed criminal, because the man they are hunting after is
often not the right man at all; an innocent man is put to death, and the
guilty man escapes. It has also been proven beyond the shadow of a
doubt, because we have "all seen the records of the same in the public
papers at the time, that white men have been in the habit of blackening
their faces when about to commit some heinous offence, and thus try to
produce the impression that the guilty party was a colored man, and not
a white man at all! Cases have thus occurred where innocent colored men
have been lynched, and the real criminals made their escape by simply
discoloring their faces. There is hardly a week passes but we find the
hurrying mobs themselves discovering their own mistakes, sometimes in
time to prevent the execution, but at other times too late. It is very
true that on many occasions the really guilty party is taken, confesses
his crime, and is duly executed by the wild and unruly mob of lynchers.
The chief fault, as it appears to my mind, is a lack of firmness on the
part of the States, and I might also add of the central government at
Washington. It is a perfect scandal to a duly constituted government to
say that they are not able to carry out the law, or let the law take its
course. Who would believe for a moment that England or Russia would
allow any and every wild mob to take their victims out of the hands of
the police, and, in fact, administer the law for them? Such a test of
home authority would never run on for twenty-four hours in any foreign
civilized land. If the Governors and the authorities would show a proper
amount of firmness, and the central government at Washington would
tighten up the screws a little all these lynchings would come to an end,
and such a thing would be heard of no more. With regard to the Southern
States, at least, where lynchings have been more common, the taunting
question has been asked by foreign nations, "Are the Southern States fit
for civilization, and ought they to be depended on to govern
themselves?" Well, I think they are fit for self-government, but the
screws ought to be tightened up considerably, and I think the sooner the
better. If I had any power to advise the Houses at Washington, I would
advise them to take the scandal of lynching by the wild mobs into their
own hands, and put a stop to it in their own way. And let Congress see
that all races and crimes are treated alike, and let the duly
constituted authorities of the States administer the laws for which they
are appointed and paid. Lynching is not only a breach of the law, but it
is murder itself, and a horrible system of crime and public disorder
that have brought this most shameful nation into great disrepute. Let us
hope and pray that something may be done very soon to bring this
national scandal to an end; and let public murder by infuriated mobs
come to an end, and be heard of no more.
In the books which Fred. Douglass wrote of his life and times he always
mentions the miserable and doleful processions of slaves who were
driven, during the darkness of the night, from the pens into which they
had been gathered in Baltimore to the vessels which were to sail with
them to Georgia and other scenes of toil and exhaustion in the
far-distant South. Alas, alas! The Sunny South had no joys for them, and
as they passed through the streets of Baltimore, during the night, they
wailed and lamented their hard fate. This leads me on to reflect, my
dear reader, upon the gloriously-altered state of affairs that freedom
has brought around, and which we can see all around about us at the
present day. One of the grandest sights that delights our eyes now is
the great array of Sunday-Schools in every State and county of the
United States. I have always called the Sunday-School "the children's
church," and it is the children's church, indeed, and a glorious church
at that, too. Far and wide, spread over all this broad land, running all
along the way from the wild Atlantic to the mild Pacific, and from the
Lakes to the Gulf, young, well-dressed boys and girls in thousands and
tens of thousands may be seen wending their happy way to their own
dearly beloved "Children's Church"--I mean their Sunday-School. The
great and powerful wide-spread Methodist, Baptist and other grand
churches, organized and carried on by the colored race to the utmost
limits of the American Union, deserve the utmost praise for pains and
labors they have been at to make such splendid provision for the rising
generation of boys and girls, who thus go forth upon the Sabbath-day to
worship the Lord in their own youthful, sweet and attractive way, well
taught by devoted men and women, who rear their tender vines, and watch
over them, and tend them well, as the careful and skilful gardener tends
and ripens his precious plants in the hot-house.
What a glorious change for the better, my dear reader, has come over
this Federal Union of ours in our own day! Well did the Jubilee
Minstrels sing before the royal family of England, "No more Auction
Blocks for Me!" For at the present day, instead of auction blocks and
wronged and oppressed slaves being conveyed (in a fugitive way, under
cover of the darkness of the night) from their pens to the ships,
wailing and lamenting their sad fate, in the self-same city of
Baltimore, at the present time thousands and tens of thousands of
children, and men and women, wend their peaceful way to Sunday-school
and church, walking the streets of the city in love and peace, on their
pilgrimage to Jerusalem, the city of the Great King. And yet if anybody
had told the slave-holder only fifty years ago that his darling
"peculiar institution" was on its last legs, he would probably there and
then have caused us to be lynched for our rashness of speech! As I have
mentioned already in this book, preachers in the South in those days had
even the audacity to preach sermons in the defence of slavery, and they
were so bold as to select for their text: "This" (meaning slavery) "is
the Lord's doings; and it is wonderful in our eyes." Very wonderful,
indeed, I should say. And the war for the extinction of slavery was the
Lord's doing, too, I suppose! And it also was wonderful in our eyes,
indeed! If those miserable slave-traders were to rise from their graves
to-day; were to hear colored minstrels singing in the courts of Europe,
"No More Auction Blocks for Me!" and then were to see millions of
colored children, youths and maidens wending their way to the happy
Sunday-schools on the day of rest--even they also would be compelled to
admire the great changes for the better, and to exclaim in a different
sense, "Truly these are the Lord's doings, and they are wonderful in our
eyes!"
It has always been a matter of personal interest and importance for men
to take a hand in voting and the ruling of their native State. Universal
history shows us plainly that this has always been the case, unless,
indeed, the nation was a monarchy, and therefore subject to the
unlimited will and pleasure of one man as despot in chief, and those who
served under him, and did as they were commanded. But in those lands
where freedom ruled in the days of old, and all countries to-day where
constitutional government prevails, men have always voted in one form or
another, and they still lend a hand at elections, and this without
regard to race, color or any such thing. Neither has there ever been any
friction or trouble in legislative assemblies, and there is none now in
foreign nations, where men of different races, colors, and even creeds,
take their seats side by side, and proceed to work together for the good
of all the citizens. We all know how it was in the South in the early
years of Reconstruction after the close of the war, when the State
legislatures were composed of white and colored men, who ruled the
States together. We thought at the time that this thing would go on and
that all parties had settled down in peace and harmony, for every man to
vote as he pleased, and to send such men, black or white, to represent
them in their legislatures, as were returned by the largest number of
voters at the elections, conducted according to the constitution of the
nation. But the white man of the South had almost always been accustomed
to his own selfish, despotic way and sway in the days of slavery. The
South had not only the rule of colored men, but even over white men in
the halls of Congress! Unless that section of the Union could have her
own dictatorial way there was no peace whatever in the House!
The North therefore felt herself often obliged to give way, which
encouraged the South to take a mile the next time when we gave her an
ell.
I have shown the reader of these pages how the Ku-Klux-Klan arose; how
the new shot-gun policy brought the Republican governments of Secessia
to an end, and how the very amendments to the Constitution, including
the bare privilege of casting one's own vote, were all brought to an
end--nay, more than that--the reader knows by this time how an immense
number of colored men, women and children tore up stakes, and left the
States of the South where they were born, and sought new homes in
Northern and Western States, where the shot-gun policy of the late
rebels did not prevail!
But where are representatives in Congress to-day, and where are the
colored Senators and others in the legislative halls of the Southern
States? For the present they have been wiped out, and so far Uncle Sam
has given way, and backed down once more to the violent South for the
sake of keeping peace in the house. It may be argued that coming but
recently out of slavery, as we did, we were unfitted for the full
privilege of freemen and voters. Perhaps there is some reason in that
view of the question. As a nation we certainly could not be expected to
be college-bred in 1865. But that is over thirty years ago, and both we
ourselves and our children have been to almost all the schools,
seminaries and colleges in the land since then. If we were ignorant in
1865, sure we cannot as a race be called ignorant now. In my own
opinion, I think it is about time that the last three amendments to the
Constitution were now carried out to the fullest extent, and that we
should be no longer contented merely to vote for the white man, but vote
for colored men, too, who run for office.
As the South has been so violent over the matter of ruling her own
States to the exclusion of the colored man, the grand hue and cry among
some of our own people has been raised, "Let politics alone, and attend
to your own business, and let the white man rule!" So far as I can see
there is neither sense nor justice in such a cry as that. If the white
man has a right to vote, so has the colored man. To stuff the
ballot-boxes with manufactured votes, or to throw out those that colored
men have voted, is simply breaking the law, and the central government
should punish it as such. If an ambitious young colored man desires to
represent his country in the field of politics, it stands neither in law
nor reason for any white man to presume to stop him. If he be a man of
great talent, like Frederick Douglass, or John M. Langston, or Blanche
K. Bruce, that is just so much more the reason why he should go to
Congress, or represent his own country and State at home. The colored
man must receive every fair play at the elections: his vote must not be
tampered with any more than the white man's vote. By all means let him
have his vote, for he will never be satisfied with anything less. Let
every infringement of the law be pushed to the utmost extent; let a few
examples be made, and tampering with other men's votes will come to an
end. For the very life of me I can see no reason why colored men should
abstain from politics any more than white men. There is no reason why
they should do so if they wish to enter into political life. We can also
attend to other business at home, like the rest of the population. To
discharge our duties at the polls, indeed, is one of the very first
duties of every citizen, and we have a perfect right to vote under the
law of the land.
Every now and then some surviving rebel in South Carolina, or some other
of the late seceded States, takes upon himself to raise the old
parrot-cry, "This is a white man's government! Colored men shall not
rule with us!" If the national government did its full duty, it would
arrest such a man as this for trying to teach the rising generation
falsehoods, and for disturbing the minds of the lieges. This is not a
white man's country, nor a black man's country, nor a red man's
country--but it belongs to all alike. We have only to go back four
hundred years, when this country belonged to the Indians, and if it
belongs by right to anybody at all, it belongs to them. But Spaniards,
Frenchmen, Englishmen and others came over the sea, they murdered or
drove back the Indians, and stole away their lands. Then the self-same
Europeans went to Africa, and killed and kidnapped the nations, and by
physical force brought our ancestors here--and here we are at the
present day. The war of revolution came; the colonists secured their own
freedom, but they did not set their own slaves free. They complained
that they were in subjection under the king of England, but they winked
at the thraldom of our ancestors, and left us to languish in chains and
slavery till the Lord sent the Civil War, and made us all free, while
the three amendments to the Constitution put us on the self-same footing
with white citizens, and here we are in our own country, part and parcel
of the entire American population. This country, then, either belongs to
the Lord from heaven, or it is the property of the North American
Indian, or else it has become, in some way or other, the property of the
whole of us. We had better not examine into our rights too closely, for
we cannot go back more than four hundred years to establish our claims,
and four hundred years will not go for much, especially with the
owner--the Lord of Heaven.