_The Master's Slave--Elijah John Fisher_. By MILES MARK FISHER.
The Judson Press, Philadelphia, Pa. Pp. 194.
This work is a biographical sketch of one of the most prominent Negro
Baptist preachers of his time. The author, the son of the subject of
the sketch, believes that too little has been said concerning the
Negro Church, which is largely responsible for whatever advancement
the race has made. To stimulate interest in this institution and to
give it the proper place in the history of the race, this biography is
given to the public.
The book contains an introduction by Dr. L. K. Williams, the popular
successor of Dr. Fisher at the Olivet Baptist Church in Chicago, where
the latter faithfully served many years. It contains also an
appreciation by Martin B. Madden, Congressman from Illinois, who
personally knew Dr. Fisher and speaks most commendably of his
character and achievements in that State.
The actual sketch begins with the chapter entitled "Bound and
Branded," presenting the life of Dr. Fisher during the slavery of the
last decade prior to emancipation. Herein are set forth interesting
facts showing the connection of the Negro with Africa and his status
in the slave-holding South. The effects of the Civil War in this
section appear also from page to page.
Then follows that part of his career when he as a youth undertook to
secure an education by which he might be qualified for the serious
duties of life. How he began as a teacher during the beginning of
Negro education of the Reconstruction period, and how he finally
became an exhorter and developed into a minister acceptable to the
communicants of his denomination, make the story increasingly
interesting. The sketch reaches its climax through a detailed account
of Dr. Fisher's work at Atlanta, Nashville, and Chicago, emphasizing
the last mentioned as the place of his most successful labor.
The historian will find this work valuable in that it illuminates one
of the most interesting periods of Negro church history. It is not
only a sketch of one distinguished churchman but a narrative
presenting an important chapter of the story of the Baptists by
relating the many incidents connected with the leading churchmen and
ecclesiastical organizations interested in the uplift of the Negro
since the Civil War. This narrative, moreover, shows how the Negro
minister, in keeping with the exigencies of the time, often had to be
drawn into politics in self defense and that in the case of unselfish
service like that of Dr. Fisher, he may come out of the controversy
untarnished.
_History of the United States. Vol. V._ By EDWARD CHANNING. The
Macmillan Company, New York City. Pp. 615.
This is the most recent volume of Professor Channing's eight volume
History of the United States from the very beginning of our history to
the present time. This particular volume covers the years from 1815 to
1848 and is entitled "The Period of Transition." It is written in
keeping with the standard of thoroughness characteristic of the author
and is made further informing by the use of ten valuable maps
illustrating important facts in American History.
In this volume the author engages the attention of the reader with an
account of the wonderful century in which he writes. He then discusses
the westward movement of the population, urban migration, the rise of
labor unions, giving more attention to economic matters than his
predecessors have been accustomed to do in the treatment of this
period. A study of the documentary history of the United States has
convinced the author that these important factors in the making of
this country have been neglected. His treatment, therefore, is a
change in the point of view in American historical writing.
This volume does not show the usual interest in slavery and abolition.
Only one chapter of this large work is devoted primarily to the
plantation life and abolitionism. The author discusses the lot of the
slave, accounting for his tendency to escape from bondage, the traffic
in human flesh, the free people of color, the colonization movement in
the South, and abolition in the North. This chapter culminates in a
discussion of the efforts of William Lloyd Garrison, the agitating
editor of the _Liberator_, of Wendell Phillips, the abolition orator,
of Prudence Crandall, the sacrificing worker, and of Elijah Lovejoy,
the martyr in the cause. Prof. Channing does not go into details as to
the achievements of the abolitionists. His account is merely
sufficient to connect this movement with other forces at work in the
country at that time.
Most of this volume is devoted to changes in religion, education,
literature, and politics, effected by such outstanding figures as
James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, John C.
Calhoun and Daniel Webster. The book shows an extensive treatment of
the territorial expansion of that time, especially the efforts to
secure Texas, California and Oregon, and the war with Mexico. On the
whole, this book has a decided economic and social trend. It is an
effort to account for the significant upheavals in our history through
connection with important industrial and economic events which have
materially influenced the history of the United States during the last
century. The book emphasizes the fact that current history can not be
easily written, that one must be far removed from situations in the
past in order to weigh the influences having a bearing thereon to
determine exactly how the country has become what it is today.
_Recent History of the United States_. By FREDERICK L. PAXSON.
Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston. Pp. 588.
This book beginning with the inauguration of Hayes shows how he
reestablished home rule in the South, thus clearing the way for a
realization of education and economic reconstruction of both South and
North. The author then treats the civil and border strife as expressed
in the Mexican Revolution of 1876, Indian wars, social unrest,
national labor unions, and the War with Spain. Then follows the
treatment of post-bellum ideals as expressed by literary periodicals
and new writers showing a revolution in literature, and especially in
historical writing.
In his treatment of silver, greenbacks, railroad and mine booms, and
the like, he shows that the country had reached a new stage in its
development when a transition both economic and political was
apparent. This is made evident by his discussion of election frauds,
Republican factions, office holders in politics, the abuse of
patronage and the necessity for civil service reform. Next the author
takes up the era of prosperity, the disappearance of the frontier, the
land grants to railroads, the development of the telephone, telegraph,
typewriter, electrical appliances, and the like, in their bearing on
the industrial reconstruction of the whole country.
The author then discusses events more in detail, directing his
attention to the tariff revision of the eighties, the "Mugwump
Campaign" of 1884, the Wild West, labor ideals, protection, populism,
the revival of the Democratic party through the leadership of
Cleveland, industrial unrest, political schism, the Spanish-American
War, business in politics, the career of Theodore Roosevelt,
government control, insurgency, the rise of Woodrow Wilson, watchful
waiting, neutrality and preparedness, the United States in the World
War, and the League of Nations. Some attention is also given to the
reconstruction and the election of 1920.
While the work is a valuable treatise from the point of view of a man
who is trying to write the history of a particular race, it does not
come up to the standard of history of the United States in all of its
national and racial ramifications. So far as the Negro is concerned,
it merely refers to his undoing as a political factor in the
Reconstruction, the efforts for his education by northern
sympathizers, the rise of Booker T. Washington, the elimination of the
Negro as a factor in the South, the efforts to pass a force bill
protecting the Negro in the exercise of the right of suffrage, and the
continued control of the South of the Democratic party. A foreigner
who reads this work might wonder whether the Negroes by this political
upheaval have been exterminated or have emigrated from the country.
Any student of the history of the whole Southland knows that it is
centered largely around the Negro and any historian failing to take
this into account cannot be recognized as an authority.
_The Backbone of Africa. A Record of Travel during the Great War,
with some Suggestions for Administrative Reform._ By SIR ALFRED
SHARPS, K. C. M. G., C. B., formerly Governor of Nyasaland.
London, H. F. & G. Witherby, 1921. Pp. 232.
This is the reaction of a public functionary to the scenes of colonial
life as they appeared to him from a different angle in a survey of the
whole continent and under the circumstances of a political upheaval.
He had in mind here the regions of Rhodesia, Nyasaland, Tanganyika,
Ruanda, the Congo, and the Upper Nile. The book is illustrated, well
written and suggestive throughout. It contains four valuable maps and
has an index largely of names.
Writing from the point of view of the exploiter of Africa, the author
considers such questions as the disposition of the German Colonies
coming into the possession of England at the close of the Great War,
the question of restitution, the partition of Africa, the suggested
union of the Protectorates in Eastern Africa under a Governor
General, the partition of German East Africa, the redelimitation of
boundaries, problems of railway construction and a united East African
Colony. He discusses also the Home Government, native taxation, local
representation, land along with land laws, native rights, their
education, the labor problem, migration, industrial questions, and
missions.
Treating the colonial policy in dealing with the natives, the author
shows some sympathy. He does not believe that the tax on natives has
been wisely imposed and, therefore, asks for a uniform and more
equitable system. To effect such a reform, however, he believes that
the local government with increased authority in its own affairs
should exercise such power rather than have such a policy determined
by the Home Government through its appointive executive and
legislators who act for the colonies though not of them. The question
of native ownership of spare land, he believes, should be carefully
considered, inasmuch as there has never been any real title to the
possession of definite blocks of freehold lands in Native Africa.
Native education also should be taken in hand and there should be
adopted a suitable scheme, applicable to all the Protectorates.
"In the first place in one shape or another," says the author, "we
introduce a direct but immoderate impost such as a hut-tax or a more
general poll-tax, the money for which has to be earned. Next, we
endeavor to create new wants: clothes, ornaments, manufactured goods
and luxuries of all kinds. All this represents a gradual process of
regeneration, as the native is by nature very conservative and,
therefore, slow to adopt new tastes or acquire ambitions. But we
endeavor to raise his ideals and to inculcate the view we ourselves
hold: that man should not be satisfied with mere existence, like
beasts in the field, but should adopt civilisation and everything
that, in the main, we consider to be essential to civilised life. We
ask him, therefore, to produce something--other than for his own
immediate wants--whether it be by labour done for an employer, or on
his own account."