THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO RACE SINCE ITS EMANCIPATION
In the preceding chapter, I referred to some of the things which the
Negro brought with him out of slavery into his life of freedom that he
used to his advantage. I shall now discuss those things that were to
his disadvantage.
We must bear in mind that one of the influences of slavery was to
impress upon both master and slave the fact that labor with the hand
was not dignified, was disgraceful, that labor of this character was
something to be escaped, to be gotten rid of just as soon as possible.
Hence, it was very natural that the Negro race looked forward to the
day of freedom as being that period when it would be delivered from
all necessity of laboring with the hand. It was natural that a large
proportion of the race, immediately after its freedom, should make the
mistake of confusing freedom with license. Under the circumstances,
any other race would have acted in the same manner.
One of the first and most important lessons, then, to be taught the
Negro when he became free was the one that labor with the hand or with
the head, so far from being something to be dreaded and shunned, was
something that was dignified and something that should be sought,
loved, and appreciated. Here began the function of the industrial
school for the education of the Negro. This was the uppermost idea of
General Armstrong, the father of industrial education of the Negro.
And permit me to say right here, that, in my opinion, General
Armstrong, more than any other single individual, is the father of
industrial education not only for the Negro, but in a large measure
for the entire United States. For you must always bear in mind that,
prior to the establishment of such institutions as the Hampton
Institute, there was practically no systematic industrial training
given for either black or white people, either North or South. At the
present time more attention is being paid to this kind of education
for white boys and girls than is being given to black boys and girls.
It is an interesting thought that this kind of education, started
thirty-five years ago for the education of the Negro, has spread
throughout the United States, in the North and West, and has taken
hold upon the people who once enslaved the Negro in our Southern
states.
When industrial schools were first established in the South for the
education of members of my race, stubborn objection was raised against
them on the part of black people. This was the experience of Hampton,
and this in later years was the experience of the Tuskeegee
Institute.
I remember that for a number of years after the founding of the
Tuskeegee Institute, objection on the part of parents and on the part
of students poured in upon me from day to day. The parents said that
they wanted their children taught "the book," but they did not want
them taught anything concerning farming or household duties. It was
curious to note how most of the people worshiped "the book." The
parent did not care what was inside the book; the harder and the
longer the name of it, the better it satisfied the parent every time,
and the more books you could require the child to purchase, the better
teacher you were. His reputation as a first-class pedagogue was added
to very largely in that section if the teacher required the child to
buy a long string of books each year and each month. I found some
white people who had the same idea.
They reminded me further that the Negro for two hundred and fifty
years as a slave had been worked, and now that the race was free they
contended that their children ought not to be taught to work and
especially while in school. In answer to these objections I said to
them that it was true that the race had been worked in slavery, but
the great lesson which we wanted to learn in freedom was to work. I
explained to them that there was a vast difference between being
worked and working. I said to them that being worked meant
degradation, that working meant civilization.
We have gone on at Tuskeegee from that day until this, emphasizing the
difference between being worked and working, until, I am glad to say,
every sign of opposition against any form of industrial education has
completely disappeared from among parents and students; and I but
state the truth when I say that industrial education, whether on the
farm or in the carpenter shop or in the cooking class, is even more
sought after at Tuskeegee than is training in purely academic
branches. It has been ten years since I have had a single application
for other than a form of industrial training. On the contrary, this
kind of training is so popular among them that we have many
applications from other students who live in other states who wish to
devote themselves wholly to the industrial side of education.
From Hampton and Tuskeegee and other large educational centres the
idea of industrial education has spread throughout the South, and
there are now scores of institutions that are giving this kind of
training in a most effective and helpful manner; so that, in my
opinion, the greatest thing that we have accomplished for the Negro
race within the last twenty-five years has been to rid his mind of all
idea of labor's being degrading. This has been no inconsiderable
achievement. If I were asked to point out the greatest change
accomplished for the Negro race, I would say that it was not a
tangible, physical change, but a change of the spirit,--the new idea
of our people with respect to Negro labor.
Industrial education has had another value wherever it has been put
into practice, that is in starting the Negro off in his new life in a
natural, logical, sensible manner instead of allowing him to be led
into temptation to begin life in an artificial atmosphere without any
real foundation.
All races that have reached success and have influenced the world for
righteousness have laid their foundation at one stage of their career
in the intelligent and successful cultivation of the soil; that is,
have begun their free life by coming into contact with earth and wood
and stone and minerals. Any people that begins on a natural foundation
of this kind, rises slowly but naturally and gradually in the world.
In my work at Tuskeegee and in what I have endeavored to accomplish in
writing and in speaking before the public, I have always found it
important to stick to nature as closely as possible, and the same
policy should be followed with a race. If you will excuse my making a
personal reference, just as often as I can when I am at home, I like
to get my hoe and dig in my garden, to come into contact with real
earth, or to touch my pigs and fowls. Whenever I want new material for
an address or a magazine article, I follow the plan of getting away
from the town with its artificial surroundings and getting back into
the country, where I can sleep in a log cabin and eat the food of the
farmer, go among the people at work on the plantations and hear them
tell their experiences. I have gotten more material in this way than I
have by reading books.
Many of these seemingly ignorant people, while not educated in the way
that we consider education, have in reality a very high form of
education--that which they have gotten out of contact with nature.
Only a few days ago I heard one of these old farmers, who could
neither read nor write, give a lesson before a Farmers' Institute that
I shall never forget. The old man got up on the platform and began
with this remark: "I'se had no chance to study science, but I'se been
making some science for myself," and then he held up before the
audience a stalk of cotton with only two bolls on it. He said he began
his scientific work with that stalk. Then he held up a second stalk
and showed how the following year he had improved the soil so that the
stalk contained four bolls, and then he held up a third stalk and
showed how he had improved the soil and method of cultivation until
the stalk contained six bolls, and so he went through the whole
process until he had demonstrated to his fellow farmers how he had
made a single stalk of cotton produce twelve or fourteen bolls. At the
close of the old man's address somebody in the audience asked what his
name was. He replied, "When I didn't own no home and was in debt,
they used to call me old Jim Hill, but now that I own a home and am
out of debt, they call me 'Mr. James Hill.'"
In the previous chapter I referred to the practical benefit that could
be achieved in foreign mission fields through economic and industrial
development. Now that industrial education is understood and
appreciated by the Negro in America, the question which has the most
practical value to you and to me is what effect has this kind of
development had upon the moral and religious life of the Negro right
here in America since the race became free.
By reason of the difficulty in getting reliable and comprehensive
statistics, it is not easy to answer this question with satisfaction,
but I believe that enough facts can be given to show that economic and
industrial development has wonderfully improved the moral and
religious life of the Negro race in America, and that, just in
proportion as any race progresses in this same direction, its moral
and religious life will be strengthened and made more practical.
Let me first emphasize the fact that in order for the moral and
religious life to be strengthened we must of necessity have industry,
but along with industry there must be intelligence and refinement.
Without these two elements combined, the moral and religious lives of
the people are not very much helped.
A few months ago I was in a mining camp composed largely of members of
my race who were, for the most part, ignorant and uncultivated, who
had had little opportunities in the way of education, but they had
been taught to mine coal. The operators of this mine complained that,
notwithstanding the unusually high wages being paid during that
season, these miners could not be induced to work more than three or
four days out of six. The difficulty was right here; these miners
were so ignorant that they had few wants, and these were simple and
crude. Their wants could be satisfied by working a few days out of
each week, and when they had satisfied their wants they could not
understand why it was necessary to work any longer, and we must all
acknowledge that there is a good deal of human nature in this point of
view.
In a case of this kind, what is needed is not only to have the
individual educated in industry but to have his hand so trained that
he will become ambitious; as one man put it not long ago, "He will
want more wants." We should get the man to the point where he will
want a house, where his wife will want carpet for the floor, pictures
for the walls, books, a newspaper and a substantial kind of furniture.
We should get the family to the point where it will want money to
educate its children, to support the minister and the church. Later,
we should get this family to the point where it will want to put
money in the bank and perhaps have the experience of placing a
mortgage on some property. When this stage of development has been
reached, there is no difficulty in getting individuals to work six
days during the week.
I have in mind now an old colored man who lived some four miles from
the Institution. I first noticed him a number of years ago as I took
my daily exercise after my day's work. I found him and his wife living
in a little broken-down cabin and resolved to try an experiment on
them to see if I could not get them to realize that that kind of life
proved of no benefit. When I began, their wants were for the bare
necessities of life only. I gradually began to talk to his wife and
urge her to see the importance of living a different kind of life.
Without the old man's knowing it, I took pains to tell her of how some
of their neighbors were living and about some of the things her
neighbors were owning. Some had two-room houses, glass windows, new
furniture, and little pieces of carpet, and had whitewashed their
houses. Finally she became quite interested.
When I began with the man he was working about three days in the week.
The old fellow grew interested and began to work a little longer,
until the last time I rode by that house the old man was working
nearly every day in the week, while they were living in a two-room
house and everything had changed. The hardest task I had was to get
him to put up a chimney for the second room, finally he put up one and
although it was a pretty rickety, crooked affair, yet it answered the
purpose and he felt proud of it. When I left this time he informed me
that by the time I came back he would try to have both of those rooms
whitewashed. I am not through with that family yet. I am going to work
on that woman until through her I will get the old man to work five
and six days out of the week.
It should always be borne in mind that, for any person of any race,
literary education alone increases his want; and, if you increase
these wants without at the same time training the individual in a
manner to enable him to supply these increased wants, you have not
always strengthened his moral and religious basis.
The same principle might be illustrated in connection with South
Africa. In that country there are six millions of Negroes.
Notwithstanding this fact, South Africa suffers to-day perhaps as
never before for lack of labor. The natives have never been educated
by contact with the white man in the same way as has been true of the
American Negro. They have never been educated in the day school nor in
the Sunday-school nor in the church, nor in the industrial school or
college; hence their ambitions have never been awakened, their wants
have not been increased, and they work perhaps two days out of the
week and are in idleness during the remaining portion of the time.
This view of the case I had confirmed in a conversation with a
gentleman who had large interests in South Africa.
How different in the Southern part of the United States where we have
eight millions of black people! Ask any man who has had practical
experience in using the masses of these people as laborers and he will
tell you that in proportion to their progress in the civilization of
the world, it is difficult to find any set of men who will labor in a
more satisfactory way. True, these people have not by any means
reached perfection in this regard, but they have advanced on the whole
much beyond the condition of the South Africans. The trained American
Negro has learned to want the highest and best in our civilization,
and as we go on giving him more education, increasing his industrial
efficiency and his love of labor, he will soon get to the point where
he will work six days out of each week.
But as to the results of industrial training. Following the example of
the modern pedagogue, let me begin with that which I know most about,
the Tuskeegee Institute. This institution employs one of its officers
who spends a large part of his time in keeping in close contact with
our graduates and former students. He visits them in their homes and
in their places of employment and not only sees for himself what they
are doing, but gets the testimony of their neighbors and employers,
and I can state positively that not ten per cent. of the men and women
who have graduated from the Tuskeegee Institute or who have been there
long enough to understand the spirit and methods of that institution
can be found to-day in idleness in any part of the country. They are
at work because they have learned the dignity and beauty and
civilizing influence and, I might add, Christianizing power of labor;
they have learned the degradation and demoralizing influence of
idleness; they have learned to love labor for its own sake and are
miserable unless they are at work. I consider labor one of the
greatest boons which our Creator has conferred upon human beings.
Further, after making careful investigation, I am prepared to say that
there is not a single man or woman who holds a diploma from the
Tuskeegee Institute who can be found within the walls of any
penitentiary in the United States.
I have learned that not more than a score of the graduates of the
fifteen oldest and largest colleges and industrial schools in the
entire South have been sent to prison since these institutions were
established. Those who are guilty of crime for the most part are
individuals who are without education, without a trade, who own no
land, who are not taxpayers, who have no bank account, and who have
made no progress in industrial and economic development.
The following extracts from a letter written by a Southern white man
to the _Daily Advertiser_, of Montgomery, Alabama, contains most
valuable testimony. The letter refers to convicts in Alabama, most of
whom are colored:
"I was conversing not long ago with the warden of one of our
mining prisons, containing about 500 convicts. The warden is a
practical man, who has been in charge of prisoners for more than
fifteen years, and has no theories of any kind to support. I
remarked to him that I wanted some information as to the effect
of manual training in preventing criminality, and asked him to
state what per cent. of the prisoners under his charge had
received any manual training, besides acquaintance with the
crudest agricultural labor. He replied: 'Perhaps about one per
cent.' He added: 'No, much less than that. We have here at
present only one mechanic; that is, there is one man who claims
to be a house painter.'
"'Have you any shoemakers?'
"'Never had a shoemaker.'
"'Have you any tailors?'
"'Never had a tailor.'
"'Any printers?'
"'Never had a printer.'
"'Any carpenters?'
"'Never had a carpenter. There is not a man in this prison that
could saw to a straight line.'"
Now these facts seem to show that manual training is almost as good a
preventative of criminality as vaccination is of smallpox.
The records of the South show that ninety per cent. of the colored
people in prisons are without knowledge of trades, and sixty-one per
cent. are illiterate.
There are few higher authorities on the progress of the Negro than
Joel Chandler Harris, of the _Atlanta Constitution_, of "Uncle Remus"
fame. Mr. Harris had opportunity to know the Negro before the war, and
he has followed his progress closely in freedom. In a printed
statement made some time ago Mr. Harris says:
"The point I desire to make is that the overwhelming majority of
the Negroes in all parts of the South, especially in the
agricultural regions, are leading sober and industrious lives. A
temperate race is bound to be industrious, and the Negroes are
temperate when compared with the whites. Even in the towns the
majority of them are sober and industrious."
Dr. Frissell makes the same statement regarding Hampton Institute. Not
more than a score of the graduates have been sent to prison since
these institutions were established. The majority is among those who
are without training and who have made no progress in industrial and
economic development. The idle and criminal classes among them make a
great show in the police court records, but right here in Atlanta the
respectable and decent Negroes far outnumber those who are on the
lists of the police as old or new offenders. I am bound to conclude
from what I see all about me, and what I know of the race elsewhere,
that the Negro, notwithstanding the late start he has made in
civilization and enlightenment, is capable of making himself a useful
member in the communities in which he lives and moves, and that he is
become more and more desirous of conforming to all the laws that have
been enacted for the protection of society.
Some time ago I sent out letters to representative Southern men,
covering each ex-slave state, asking them to state, judging by their
observation in their own communities, what effect industrial education
has upon the morals and religion of the Negro. To these questions I
received 136 replies as follows:
Has education improved the morals of the black race?
Answers--Yes, 97; No, 20; Unanswered, 19.
Has it made his religion less emotional and more practical?
Answers--Yes, 101; No, 16; Unanswered, 19.
Is it, as a rule, the ignorant or the educated who commit crime?
Answers--Ignorant, 115; Educated, 3; Unanswered, 18.
Does crime grow less as education increases among the colored people?
Answers--Yes, 102; No, 19; Unanswered, 15.
Do not these figures speak for themselves?
If possible I want to give you an idea of the progress of the Negro
race in a single county in one of the Southern States. For this
purpose I select Gloucester County, Virginia. I take this one for the
reason that I had the privilege of visiting it a number of years ago,
just about the time when interest in the education of the colored
people was beginning to be aroused, and for the further reason that
this is one of the counties in Virginia and the South that has been
longest under the influence of graduates of the Hampton Institute, or
of men and women trained in other centres of education.
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, and both
sets of schools are in session from five and a half to six months, and
the pay of the two sets of teachers is about the same. The majority of
the colored teachers in this county were trained at Hampton, and have
been teaching in this county a number of years. For the most part, the
teachers of Gloucester County are not mentally superior, but what they
lack in methods of teaching and mental alertness is more than made up
for by the moral earnestness and the example they set. Most of the
teachers are natives of the county, and, what is more important, most
of them own property in the county.
Now, what is the economic or material result in one county where the
Negro has been given a reasonable chance to make progress? I say
"reasonable" because it must be kept in mind that the great body of
white people in America, with whom the Negro is constantly compared,
have schools that are in session from eight to nine months in the
year. Note especially what I am going to say now. According to the
public records, the total assessed value of the land in Gloucester
County is $666,132.33. Of the total value of the land, the colored
people own $87,953.55. The buildings in the county have an assessed
valuation of $466,127.05. The colored people pay taxes upon $79,387.00
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. This 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.
It is interesting to note the influence of this material growth upon
the home life of the people. It is stated upon good authority that
about twenty-five years ago at least three-fourths of the colored
people lived in one-roomed cabins. Let a single illustration tell the
story of the growth. In a school where there were thirty pupils ten
testified that they lived in houses containing six rooms, and only one
said that he lived in a house containing but a single room.
I repeat, I have always believed that in proportion as the industrial,
not omitting the intellectual, condition of my race is improved, in
the same degree would their moral and religious life improve.
Some years ago, before the home life and economic condition of the
people had improved, bastardy was common in Gloucester County. In 1903
there were only eight cases of bastardy reported in the whole county,
and two of those were among the white population. During the year 1904
there was only one case of bastardy within a radius of ten miles of
the court house. Another gratifying evidence of progress is shown by
the fact that there is very little evidence of immoral relations
existing between the races. In the whole county, during the year 1903,
about twenty-five years after the work of education had gotten under
way, there were only thirty arrests for misdemeanors; of these sixteen
were white, fourteen colored. In 1904 there were fifteen such
arrests--fourteen white and one colored. In 1904 there were but seven
arrests for felonies; of these two were white and five were colored.
In one point at least the colored people in Gloucester County have set
an example for the rest of the religious world that ought to receive
attention. It is in this regard: there is only one religious
denomination in all of this county, and that is the Baptist. No
over-multiplying, no over-lapping, no denominational wrangling and
wasting of money and energy.
May I add that, out of my own observation and experience in the heart
of the South during the last twenty-five years, I have learned that
the man of my race who has some regular occupation, who owns his farm,
is a taxpayer and perhaps has a little money in the bank, is the most
reliable and helpful man in the Sunday-school, in the church, and in
all religious endeavor. The man who has gotten upon his feet in these
directions is almost never charged with crime, but is the one who has
the respect and the confidence of both races in his community.
I can give you no better idea of the tremendous advance which the
Negro has made since he became free than to say that largely through
the influence of industrial education the race has acquired ownership
in land that is equal in area to the combined countries of Belgium and
Holland. This, for a race starting in poverty and ignorance forty
years ago, it seems to me is a pretty good record.
I would not have you understand that I emphasize material possessions
as the chief thing in life or as an object within itself. I emphasize
economic growth because the civilization of the world teaches that the
possession of a certain amount of material wealth indicates the
ability of a race to exercise self-control, to plan to-day for
to-morrow, to do without to-day in order that it may possess
to-morrow. In other words, a race, like an individual, becomes highly
civilized and useful in proportion as it learns to use the good things
of this earth, not as an end, but as a means toward promoting its own
moral and religious growth and the prosperity and happiness of the
world. This is what I advocate for my race; it is what I would
advocate for any race.
The average white man of America, in passing judgment upon the black
race, very often overlooks the fact that geographically and physically
the semi-barbarous Negro race has been thrown right down in the centre
of the highest civilization that the world knows anything about.
Consciously or unconsciously, you compare the Negro's progress with
your progress, forgetting, when you are doing it, that you are placing
a pretty severe test on the members of my race. If, for example, we
were compared with the civilization of the Oriental countries, the
test would not be so severe. But we have been placed in the midst of a
pushing, surging, restless, conquering, successful civilization, and
you must acknowledge that when the American white man wants to lead,
no other race can go far ahead. In fact, he would have the whole
field to himself. The progress of the Negro will be in proportion as
they learn to get the material things of this world, consecrate them,
and weave them into the service of our Heavenly Father.
In conclusion, may I say that I hope the people of this country, North
and South, will learn to pray more and more; and, as they pray, to put
their hands upon their hearts and then ask God if they were placed in
the Negro's state, how, under the circumstances, would they like to be
treated by their fellows. Conscience will answer the question.
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