We have another disturbing element in the negro population, a large
portion of which is unfitted for a republican government by ignorance
and social debasement, but fortunately free from the violence and
turbulence of the lower class of immigrants. This degradation is fast
being removed by education and the ambition inspired by freedom. The
latter is shown by the formation of the Afro-American League for the
protection of the blacks, especially in the Southern States, and the
advancement of their interests and influence. This idea originated
with Mr. Fortune, the editor of the _New York Freeman_.
Few are aware of the progress of negro education. We have already
16,000 colored teachers. In the Southern States alone there are said
to be 1,000,000 of pupils,--in the male and female high schools,
15,000. There are sixty normal schools, fifty colleges and
universities, twenty-five theological seminaries, and in the churches
3,000,000 worshippers. The colored population pays taxes on from 150
to 200 millions of dollars.
The black race will be free from slavery at the close of this century.
The Brazilian Parliament passed a law for gradual emancipation in
1871, when there were about 2,000,000 slaves. In 1885, the number was
reduced to 1,200,000, and measures have been introduced to hasten the
completion of emancipation.
In Cuba, slavery seems to be at an end. The queen regent of Spain has
signed a decree freeing the Cuban slaves, some 300,000, from the
remainder of their term of servitude. The work, thus consummated,
began in 1869, which provided for the conditional emancipation of
certain classes of slaves in Cuba, and for the payment of recompense
to the owners of the men and women liberated. From the first,
slave-owners have been paid for their slaves.