"One of the things which militates most against the Negro here is his
unreliability. * * * His mental processes are past finding out and he
can not be counted on to do or not to do a given thing under given
circumstances. There is scarcely a planter in all this territory who
would not make substantial concessions for an assured tenantry." A
Northern man, now resident in the South and employing Negro labor, says:
"I am convinced of one thing and that is that there is no dependence to
be placed in 90 per cent. of the Negro laborers if left to themselves
and out of the overseer's sight." These quotations from men who are
seeking to promote the success of the Negroes with whom they come in
contact might be multiplied indefinitely from every part of the South.
The statements are scarce open to discussion, so well recognized is the
fact. If I have rightly apprehended the nature of the training afforded
by Africa and slavery there was little in them to develop the habits of
forethought, thrift and industry, upon which this reliability must be
based.
I am not arguing the question as to whether this unreliability marks a
decadence of Negro standards or whether it is due to the present higher
standards of the white. For argument, at least, I am willing to admit
that in quality of workmanship, in steadfastness and self-control there
has really been great progress. My interest is in the present and future
rather than the past. I have tried to show that, judged by present
standards, the Negro is still decidedly lacking. Personally I am not
surprised at this. I should be astonished if it were otherwise. The
trouble is that we at the North are unable to disabuse ourselves of the
idea that the Negro is a dark skinned Yankee and we think, therefore,
that if all is not as it should be that something is wrong, that
somebody or some social condition is holding him back. We accuse
slavery, attribute it to the hostility of the Southern white. Something
_is holding him back_, but it is his inheritance of thousands of years
in Africa, not slavery nor the Southern whites. It is my observation
that the white of the black belt deal with the Negro more patiently and
endure far more of shiftless methods than the average Northerner would
tolerate for a day. It is interesting to note that Northern white women
who go South filled with the idea that the Negro is abused can scarce
keep a servant the first year or so of their stay. Of course there are
exceptions, few in number, who say as did a lumberman in Alabama last
summer: "I never have any trouble with the Negro. Have worked them for
twenty years. Why, I haven't had to kill one yet, though I did shoot one
once, but I used fine shot and it didn't hurt him much." We have
attempted to have the Negro do in a few years what it has taken us
thousands to accomplish, and are surprised that he has disappointed us.
There is no room for discouragement. Contrast the Negro in Africa and
America to see what has been done.
Unless this unreliability is overcome it will form even a greater
handicap for the future. Southern methods of agriculture have been more
wasteful of small economies than have Northern. That a change is
imperative, in many districts at least, has been shown. Is the Negro in
a position to take advantage of these changes? At present it must be
admitted that he does not possess the knowledge to enable him to utilize
his environment and make the most out of it. It has been shown that he
is bearing little part in the development of the trucking industry, nay
more, that he does not even raise enough garden truck for his own
support. In a bulletin of the Farmer's Improvement Society of Texas I
find the following:
Very many, in the first place, do not try to make their supplies at
home. Very often much is lost by bad fences. Lots of them don't know
where their hoes, plows, single-trees, etc., are at this minute. Lots
of them buy butter, peas, beans, lard, meat and hay. * * * Well,
really, to sum up, if there's anything like scientific methods among
the vast majority of our people I don't know it. * * * I venture to
say that not one negro farmer in a hundred ever saw the back of one
of these bulletins (agricultural), much less the inside.
If some of these primary lessons have not been mastered what chance is
there that the Negro will overcome, unaided, the crop lien system and
his other handicaps and introduce diversified agriculture, stock
raising, etc.? Slavery taught him something about work and he is willing
to work, and work hard, under leadership. Herein lies the possibility of
his economic salvation. He is not yet ready as a race to stand alone and
advance at the pace demanded by America of the twentieth century. He
must be taught and the teaching must be by practice as well as by
precept. Viewed from this standpoint, though it is equally true from
another, one of the great needs of the South is that its white farmers
should pay more attention to other things than cotton. So long as land
is considered too valuable to use for pasture, for hay, for the various
crops on which stock live and fatten, or so long as it is considered
profitable to sell cotton seed for $5 a ton and throw away four or five
times this amount in the food and manure which the same seed contains,
the Negro will not see the advantage of a different system. Nor does the
sight of thousands of tons of rice straw dumped into the Mississippi
each year, just as a generation ago the oat straw in Iowa was burned,
lead him to suspect unused sources of wealth. The possibilities of
Southern agriculture are great, but the lead must be taken by the
whites.
The Negro has a great advantage over the Italian or other European
peasant in that the white man prefers him as a helper. He is patient,
docile and proud of his work. He is wanted by the native whites, and if
the reader doubts this let him go to any Southern community and attempt
to bring about any great exodus of the Negroes and he will be surprised
to find how soon he is requested to move on. This interest on the part
of the whites is a factor which must be considered. It would be a happy
day for the Negro if the white woman of the South took her old personal
interest in his welfare. This friendly sentiment will not increase with
time and each succeeding generation will emphasize, more and more,
industrial efficiency, and the Negro will not be preferred.
Corresponding to this is the fact that the Negro respects and willingly
follows the white man, more willingly and more trustingly than he does
another Negro. He is personally loyal, as the care received by the
soldiers during war time illustrated. But slavery is gone and the
feudalism which followed it is slowly yielding to commercialism, which
gives the palm to the more efficient.
Hitherto the Negro has tilled much of the best land of the South.
Meantime the great prairies have been settled and about all the good
cheap land of the northwest taken. A tide of immigration is setting in
towards the Southern states. Already the rice industry of Louisiana has
been revolutionized by white immigrants. What may this mean for the
Negro if these incoming whites defy race prejudice and seek the rich
bottom lands of the Mississippi or elsewhere? Will the Negro be in a
position of independence or will he only assist the white? Will he till
in the future the best lands or will he be forced to the less fertile?
With the knowledge of the present regarding yellow fever, malaria and
typhoid the dread of the lowlands is disappearing. If the indications
point, as many believe, towards the South as the seat of the next great
agricultural development these questions become of vital importance to
the Negro. Can he become economically secure before he is made to meet a
competition which he has never yet faced? Or does the warmer climate
give him an advantage, which the whites can not overcome? I must confess
that I doubt it. In "The Cotton Plant" (page 242), Mr. Harry Hammond
states that in 39 counties of the Black Prairie Region of Texas, in
which the whites predominate, the average value of the land is $12.19
per acre, as against $6.40 for similar soil in twelve counties of the
Black Prairie of Alabama, in which the Negroes are in the majority. He
says further: "The number and variety of implements recently introduced
in cotton culture here, especially in the prairies of Texas, is very
much greater than elsewhere in the cotton belt." This would indicate
that heat alone is no insurmountable obstacle.
If these things be true, then as the late Mr. J. L. M. Curry said:
"It may be assumed that the industrial problem lies at the heart of
the whole situation which confronts us. Into our public and other
schools should be incorporated industrial training. If to
regularity, punctuality, silence, obedience to authority, there be
systematically added instruction in mechanical arts, the results
would be astounding."
The question of classical education does not now concern us. The
absolutely essential thing is that the Negro shall learn to work
regularly and intelligently. The lesson begun in slavery must be
mastered. As Dr. E. G. Murphy puts it:
The industrial training supplied by that school (slavery) is now
denied to him. The capacity, the equipment, and the necessity for
work which slavery provided are the direct cause of the superiority
of the old time darkey. Is freedom to have no substitute for the
ancient school? * * * The demand of the situation is not less
education, but more education of the right sort.
I would not say that I thought all Negroes should be farmers, but I do
feel that the farm offers the mass of the race the most favorable
opportunity for the development of solid and enduring character. It
seems to me that the following words from one of our broadest minded men
apply with special force to the Negro:
If I had some magic gift to bestow it would be to make our country
youth see one truth, namely, that science as applied to the farm,
the garden and the forest has as splendid a dignity as astronomy;
that it may work just as many marvels and claim just as high an
order of talent."