1903
The Negro’s Traditional Place in Society.
Ridicule and contempt have characterized the habitual attitude of
the American mind toward the Negro’s higher strivings. The African
was brought to this country for the purpose of performing manual and
menial labor. His bodily powers alone were required to accomplish
this industrial mission. No more account was taken of his higher
susceptibilities than of the mental and moral faculties of the lower
animals. As the late Mr. Price used to say, the white man saw in the
Negro’s mind only what was apparent in his face, “darkness there,
and nothing more.” His usefulness in the world is still measured by
physical faculties rather than by qualities of mind and soul. The
merciless proposition of Carlyle that, the Negro is useful to God’s
creation only as a servant, still finds wide acceptance. It is so
natural to base a theory upon a long-established practice that one
no longer wonders at the prevalence of this belief. The Negro has
sustained servile relation to the Caucasian for so long a time that it
is easy as it is agreeable to Aryan pride to conclude that servitude is
his ordained place in society. When it was first proposed to furnish
means for the higher development of this race, some, who assumed the
wisdom of their day and generation, entertained the proposition with a
sneer, others, with a smile.