call to the pastorate of the Centennial Baptist Church of
Helena, Arkansas, which position he has held continuously to
the present time. His ability as an organizer is fully
recognized among his people. He established and for the
first two years edited the first religious paper published
by the Negroes in the State of Arkansas. In 1884, he
organized the Arkansas Baptist College and for sixteen years
has been Chairman of its Board of Trustees. For nineteen
consecutive years he has been annually elected President of
the Arkansas Baptist State Convention. In 1894 he was
elected President of the National Baptist Convention, whose
constituency numbers about a million and a half, and has
been elected every year since to the same position. Under
his leadership, this society has been firmly unified and has
enjoyed the greatest prosperity in its history. It was his
address before this Convention at Washington, in 1893, that
inspired an indomitable and uncompromising determination in
the minds of the colored Baptists to begin publishing
interests of their own. It was his active brain that
conceived the idea of the National Baptist Young People's
Union Board, which Board is located at Nashville. And so his
progressive acts have multiplied as he has advanced in age
and responsibility. Dr. Morris is an acknowledged adviser of
the colored people of his community, in all matters relating
to their general uplift. He is a friend to humanity and a
lover of his race. He is a possessor and advocate of
wholeheartedness and sincerity, being charitable to a
difference or a fault. His influence begins at home and
spreads abroad, and all distinctions that he bears are borne
with gentlemanly modesty, believing leadership to him a duty
rather than an honor.
The subject of this article is a very important and delicate one;
important because it forms the base from which all the advancement
made by the race for the last past thirty-six years must be measured,
and delicate because it makes comparison between father and son. If
there has been no improvement in the race, morally, since its
emancipation from slavery, then no real advancement has been made; and
to say that the Negro has made no advancement would be sufficient to
call forth universal derision.
It must be admitted in the beginning that to do full justice to the
subject, much study and space is required. In the absence of
comprehensive statistics on the subject and the time in which to
compile the same, several standpoints of reasoning must be assumed,
and these will be taken up in no regular order, one being important as
the others. I do not attempt to go upon or set up a system of
scientific theories either, but simply to state and connect obvious
facts. The past and present moral status of the race is involved, but
I shall not go beyond that period in which the race was emancipated,
and will include, as the fathers, such as were the heads of families
at that time and those who were born about that time, constituting
largely the heads of families now, as the respective parties to the
comparison.
What is here said in comparison of father and son is not intended as
unfavorable criticism even where the language may appear
uncomplimentary, but rather to make a truthful statement of the
virtues found in both. I wish also to be understood as placing myself
with those who have faith in the race, to the extent that I believe a
large majority of the freedmen and their descendants are moral, and
should be counted with the good and upright in heart. Such a decision
cannot be reached, however, from a surface examination or outward
appearances. For it is a notorious fact that in all the years of the
Negro's life in this country, he has been subjected to the most menial
occupations such as would, in a large measure, prejudice the
disinterested observer against any high opinion of his morals. The
subject is by no means a new one, but has been investigated and
discussed for a long time by great writers and thinkers. Opinions have
been expressed which are by no means favorable to the race--by no
means favorable because of the ignorance of the party expressing the
opinion. Many of these opinions have been formed and influenced by
what is seen of the Negro in the crowded streets of great cities, at
railroad depots, or at steamboat landings; or upon the great cotton,
rice and sugar plantations, where thousands of Negroes who are
employed only as day laborers, meet. But these do not represent the
majority of the Negroes. Nor should opinions be formed, of the moral
status of this people, out of what may be seen of them at such places
as above referred to, any more than the morals of a great city like
New York or Chicago should be judged by what is seen of the motley
crowds that gather about the wharfs and in the congested streets and
other places where the lowest element of society is to be seen in the
majority. The Negro fathers of forty years ago were as good as the
circumstances and conditions of that day required, and many of them
showed themselves to be superior to the requirement. It is to be
admitted that environment and teaching have much to do with moral
development, and that neither of these were, as a rule, favorable to
the fathers. The contraband life of the Negroes during the war was
perhaps the best that could be provided at that time. But it was far
from being conducive to good morals, and was not, in a moral sense, an
improvement upon the plantation life prior to the war, when almost all
the slaves were huddled by families in one room cabins of what was
known as "the quarters." It was fortunate for the race and the fathers
that the contraband life was of short duration, and the heads of
families among the Negroes, as fast as they could get their loved ones
together, began to settle in families all over the Southland. The
privilege of being a free man, to come and go at will, had its evil
effect upon the fathers for a few years, but they soon became
enveloped with the desire that their children become educated and
otherwise cultured, as were the children of their white neighbors.
The desire to educate and accumulate for the good of the children
became the restraining point in the lives of the fathers, and a very
appreciable change for better morals was noticeable in the latter
sixties and early seventies.
Immediately following the close of the war, a great many missionary
agencies set to work among the Negroes for the purpose of improving
them morally and intellectually. These agencies operated among the old
and young alike, but not with the same results; for it soon became
known that very little change could be wrought among the aged ones
whose superstitious notions of religious worship and peculiar ideas
about "white folks' religion" made it a difficult task to teach them.
Notwithstanding their superstition, the aged Negroes were singularly
kind and respectful to their white neighbors and permitted the white
teachers--for nearly all teachers were white at that time--to have
absolute control of their children both as to home and school life.
One of the attributes of morality is a happy conscience, or happiness,
for there can be no true happiness where there is no morality. Hence,
there existed an appreciable element of morality among the fathers,
for, as a rule, no happier or more contented people could be found
anywhere. I speak of the whole race. One may be a good servant, or a
good neighbor, and yet not a good man. Opportunities have much to do
with developing the attributes of the soul. Many of those noble
qualities which go to make a good man were latent in the fathers, for
there had been no opportunity for the development of these qualities.
The home is the foundation place of all that is good and grand in a
race or nation. Wisdom and virtue are inseparable from a good home.
Hence, to make the comparison which my subject calls for, we must
inquire into the home and religious life of the present generation.
The young men from eighteen to twenty-one years of age who are, so to
speak, in embryo with respect to questions affecting the progress of
the race, are not included in the summary we make and should not be
considered directly, in measuring the moral status of the race. As to
the homes of the fathers forty years ago, very little can be said. But
late statistics show that there are over three hundred thousand homes
and farms owned by the Negroes in the United States, which indicates
that nearly two millions of the nine million of our people live in
their own homes. The figures are very significant when it is
remembered that the race started forty years ago, four million and a
half in number of individuals, with practically no homes. The property
value of the homes now owned is conservatively put at one billion
dollars--not a bad showing for a people who commenced forty years ago
at zero in wealth. But the accumulation of wealth does not always mean
that the owner is moral, yet the accumulation and maintenance of good
homes present a better argument in favor of the good moral inclination
of the people accumulating and maintaining these homes than can be
produced in words. These mean more than the mere ownership of a house
and lot, or a sixty acre farm; a respect for the first institution set
up by the Creator is thereby shown and that in that institution (the
family) is one to love and honor; and that there an altar is to be
erected around which all are to kneel and worship God; they mean that
morality, the foundation of all true greatness, is to be enthroned
there. The establishment and maintenance of so many Christian homes
among our people has brought forward a demand which is a barometer of
the moral changes, and shows conclusively that the race is improving
morally. This demand is for the right kind of men as preachers and
teachers. The time was when a man who could read and write, no matter
what his character, could find a place to preach and teach among our
people. This does not obtain now so much as before, and the people are
demanding that their teachers and spiritual advisers be men and women
whose lives and characters are living epistles of virtue. If proof of
this point were necessary, one would need only to refer to the
continued upheavals in various communities, in the schools and
churches, where war has been made upon those persons whose lives have
been such as to arouse suspicion that they were unworthy the offices
held. The fact that these demands are being made for a pure ministry
and a competent and worthy corps of teachers is encouraging.
In passing judgment upon the moral status of the young Negro, or in
comparing this status with that of the father who has gone from the
stage, we will necessarily have to apply the multiplication process,
for it will require a life fully lived in all its details to
constitute the sum total of a well built character. Therefore, the
_whole_ truth about the morals of the present generation will be known
only to the next. The processes used in the moral development of the
race have been gradual and almost imperceptible in progress, but they
have been in progress, nevertheless, and promise great results. The
man who sowed his seeds yesterday does not expect to reap a harvest
to-morrow. Cultivation is to follow planting. The warm spring rains,
the hot rays of a summer sun are to come and moisten and warm the soil
around the roots, cause the blade to shoot forth and then harden the
stalk and the grain. These are to be followed by the cool winds and
frosts of autumn before harvest comes. The planting of moral
principles in the present generation of Negroes has been done; the
cultivating process is now going on by means of the buying of homes,
entering into business and agricultural pursuits, building churches
and schools and in educating the youth. These facts point to the moral
trend of the mind of the present generation, but perhaps none of them
in the same degree as the religious desire of the colored man.
A larger per cent of the Negroes in this country are members of the
Christian churches than of any other race of people. Notwithstanding
the criticism to the contrary, they are as practical in their
Christianity as any set of people. The matter of divorce has been a
great problem to many of the most thoughtful men of the race, and the
frequent resort to the courts to obtain divorces has been used as an
argument against the growth of the moral sentiment in the race. But
the very fact that such meets with opposition and is disapproved by
the good people is evidence in favor of the Negro's morals. Then
again, the class of Negroes who have but little respect for the
marriage vow are, as a rule, those who are indolent, worthless and
without a home and making no effort to obtain one. But, happily, this
class form but a small minority.
Another virtue in the Negro's character which comes only from a moral
sentiment is gratitude. He loves his benefactors and would gladly
repay them for all they have done for him, if he were able to do so.
If the mind was filled with sensuality, deception, hatred and like
vices, there would be no room for that noble characteristic,
gratitude, which is so prominent in the present generation. His
gratitude extends beyond the individual benefactor to the flag of his
country; overlooking present conditions and remembering past favors,
he is always ready to dare and die for his country's honor. We
conclude by saying that the fathers who came up out of slavery,
unlettered and untrained, did well. The present generation of fathers,
or heads of families, by reason of superior advantages, are doing far
better. The race as a whole for the last past thirty-six years has
made a history for itself which will form the apex of its glory when
it has passed through a century of training under its changed
condition from slavery to freedom.
FOURTH PAPER.
IS THE YOUNG NEGRO AN IMPROVEMENT, MORALLY, ON HIS FATHER?
BY MRS. ARIEL S. BOWEN.
[Illustration: Mrs. Ariel S. H. Bowen]
MRS. ARIEL SERENA HEDGES BOWEN.
Mrs. Ariel Serena Hedges Bowen, wife of Dr. J. W. E. Bowen
of Gammon Theological Seminary, Atlanta, Ga., was born in
Newark, N. J. Her father was a Presbyterian clergyman in
that city. He had graduated from Lincoln University, Pa.,
and had organized churches in New York State. Her mother
represents one of the oldest Presbyterian families of that
State. Her grandfather was a bugler in the Mexican war, and
was a Guard of Honor when Lafayette revisited the United
States. Her parents removed early to Pittsburg, Pa., where
she attended the Avery Institute. She completed the Academic
course of this school. Her parents then moved to Baltimore,
Md., where her father became pastor of Madison Avenue
Presbyterian Church, and finally of Grace Presbyterian
Church. She was sent to the High School of Springfield,
Mass., where she remained and graduated with honor in a
large class in 1885. She also took the Teachers' Course and
Examination and passed a creditable examination and was
favorably considered as teacher for one of the schools of
that city. She was then called to teach History and English
Language in the Tuskegee Institute, Tuskegee, Ala., under
Prof. B. T. Washington.
In the year 1886 she was married to Dr. J. W. E. Bowen. She
became a Life Member of the Woman's Home Missionary Society
of the Methodist Episcopal Church. She removed to Atlanta
with her husband in 1893. She became Professor of Music in
Clark University in 1895. She is the State President of the
Georgia W. C. T. U., No. 2. She has written very largely,
among which may be mentioned, "Music in the Home," "The
Ethics of Reform," etc. She is an accomplished vocalist and
musician with the piano and pipe organ. She is busily
engaged in temperance and reform work, together with
training and fitting her family of one boy and three girls
for life. She is regarded as one of the foremost and best
cultured women of her race. She reads Greek, Latin and
German with facility, and is a superb housekeeper.
The most important and vital factors in the development of a race are
physical strength, intelligence and morality, these three, but the
greatest of these is morality.
The individual or the race possessed of either or both of the first
two, and that utterly ignores the third, can never attain to the full
status of man, nor reach the zenith of full racial development or the
pinnacle of civilization. To-day we hear much about the survival of
the fittest and the "superior race and the inferior races." The
earnest, thoughtful student of life and its affairs immediately raises
the question, To whom do such titles "fittest," "superior" and
"inferior" refer, and why? The history of a people shows the advance
and growth of that people. Their development can be traced from the
crude barbarous or semi-barbarous state in which physical prowess
predominated through the period of intellectual development where the
mind begins to grasp new ideas and where new ideals of higher and
nobler purposes are sought after. Then came the greater perfection,
the nobler aspiration, the purer, higher civilization, growing out of
the purer thought and purer life of a purified people. This is true of
all races, therefore the Negro race is no exception, and is entitled
to the same justice that is accorded to every race that has had its
rise and fall.
The writer takes it that the young "Negro" and his father are to
represent only the ante-bellum and the post-bellum Negro. To go beyond
that, to take him in his earlier state in the native wilds of his
fatherland, before the Anglo-Saxon missionary reached him and gave to
the world a true picture of his morality, would be to present to the
world some startling facts that would not only put to shame the "young
Negro," but also the hosts of men of all nations who glory in the
progress they have made in morals.
It can be proven by the best authorities that many of the heathen
Africans, though crude in ethics, were pure morally.
But the discussion resolves itself into two very important questions.
What was the moral condition of the Negro before the war, and what is
his moral condition to-day? Before the war, what a picture comes
before us at these words, what a panorama of deeds passes before our
mind's eye. Years of gross darkness, darkness that deepens into the
blackness of the pit, those days that seem like a hideous nightmare to
the hoary headed, and the story of which sounds to the youth like a
heart-rending and nauseating recital. Yet, it was not all dark, some
would say; perhaps not, but the bright spots only tended to intensify
the darkness.
What morals were chattels expected to have, and who gave to these
chattels their moral code? It was certainly not of their own making.
What could be the moral condition of a race to whom family rights were
forbidden and whose business, next to labor, was to propagate solely
for the master's gain? The words mother, father, were used only in the
language of the "big house."
Womanhood, the foundation stone of moral eminence, passed through a
crucial ordeal, and it is to be greatly wondered at that the Negro
woman emerged with even the crudest type of moral capacity.
Every line on every page of the history of those dark days teem and
reek with the abandon of licentiousness, nor could this be otherwise.
It was the natural sequence of a debasing system. It is no
disparagement upon the noble few whose garments were kept unspotted,
nor upon those who would have reached towards higher ideals, if they
had been masters of themselves, to say that the ante-bellum Negro did
not possess a great degree of morality. There can be no other
conclusion drawn from such demoralizing conditions.
The moral status of the Negro is to-day an all-absorbing theme, and is
discussed pro and con by friend and enemy in other races, and by the
optimist and pessimist of his own. Comparisons concerning his morals
and moral growth are made as all other comparisons are made concerning
him, not between his present and former condition, nor between his
condition and that of any other people at the same stage of
development, under the same conditions and environments. On the
contrary, inconsistency is ever present in the attempts to show the
world existing facts. Whenever an attack was made upon the system of
slavery, the defenders of the system immediately pointed to the poor
slaveholder and the dearth of Negro criminals as points in favor of a
time when the Negro enjoyed the blessings of a "mild and humane
system."
When the progress of the black race in America is placed in the
balance, the lowest and most degraded and careless of the masses who
have not come out of a state of inertia are brought into comparison
with the noblest types that have ascended the scale of life. What
wonder then that there is so much adverse criticism; what is needed is
a search for facts and an unprejudiced putting of all that appertains
to the Negro, and a just acknowledgment of the results attained.
That the American Negro has made an advance along all lines that make
for the higher development of a people cannot be denied. He has
improved morally in a corresponding way. The limit of this paper will
not permit a statistical comparison, but a few points may be noticed
in passing. His moral instinct is quickened and his moral nature
asserts itself in higher forms of life under the new conditions. He
has started at the fountainhead and the purity of his home and
hearthstone is a magnificent memorial to the purity of the black
woman.
Were it possible to give in numbers the correct estimate of these
beautiful homes and their characters, even the most bitter of his
enemies and the pessimists of his own race would look with doubt upon
the pernicious libels disseminated in the periodical literature of the
day. The dark picture of the Negro's shortcomings is thrown on the
canvas and so familiar has it become that not a few seldom think that
there is another picture which the Negro himself knows to be truer to
life and more prophetic of his real nature, taken from real life, and
one that ought to give inspiration and hope to all seekers after
facts.
The Negro ministry has made rapid and marked progress in moral
achievements for itself and also for the race in their wide influence
upon the same. There is a constant and ever-increasing demand coming
from the people for a higher and nobler service in the pulpit, and the
demand is being met in a comparative measure. Moreover there are
professional men whose lives prove the possessors' estimate of virtue
and are being spent in bringing others up to these lofty ideals.
The noble army of teachers, most of whom are women, are not to be
overlooked or underestimated. Next to the faithful mother, these noble
women have lived and worked for the race. They have proved themselves
ever against untoward conditions. Their work and worth should not be
reflected against because of the few whose lives are not up to the
standards of true womanhood. It is undeniably true that the virtues of
Solomon's virtuous women may be duplicated in multitudes of our women
teachers.
A word concerning the criminal record of the Negro might be worth
considering. It is here that the moral weakness of the race is said to
be most manifest. We are told that figures do not lie, and an appeal
from the records is not to be considered for a moment. Yet, he who
wants facts and is in search of the truth must appeal and must make
personal investigation.
As yet statistics, the press and history, have not given a truthful,
unbiased record of the Negro of to-day as he really is. One side has
been faithfully followed, and elaborately and painfully portrayed, but
of the other side only here and there an item, a reference and a
charitable surmise rewards the seeker after knowledge. A careful study
of the environments of the so-called criminal class, also the courts
of justice before which the criminals are arraigned, would develop
some interesting, not to say startling, facts; for example, "it has
been shown by Prof. Branson, of the Georgia State Normal School, that
while the illiterate Negro population of the state furnish three
convicts per thousand, the Negroes who have profited by the public
schools furnish only one convict per thousand." Many of the criminals
start from the court-room and are the victims of injustice.
Such untoward conditions serve rather to stamp out every vestige of
nobility rather than inspire to a reaching out after higher ideals.