The Education of the Negro

Angebote / Angebote:

Excerpt from The Education of the Negro: Its Rise Progress and Present Status, Being an Address Delivered Before the National Educational Association at Its Late Meeting at Chautauqua, N. Y Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: I come before you to-night to discuss a subject of the deepest public concern, and I am happy to know that my audience is composed of persons with minds broadened by culture, liberalized by learning and capable of weighing properly whatever may be advanced. I am happy, moreover, to believe that sufficient time has now elapsed for reason to begin to assert her sway, and that men of all sections of our common country are now prepared to hear with candor. This I shall expect of my present audience, and I do not believe I shall be disappointed. I promise on my part to exercise the same candor which I look for in you. African slavery, either fortunately or unfortunately, was introduced into the colony of Virginia in the year 1620 - two hundred and sixty years ago. Soon after, this example was followed by the other colonies, and not a great many years had elapsed before every one of them became slaveholding. The laws of climate, the laws governing the remunerativeness of negro labor, and other influences caused slavery soon to begin to gravitate Southward, and this movement continued till at the time the colonies declared themselves independent in 1776, the great bulk of the five hundred thousand negroes then in the country were to be found in the Southern States. The existence of slavery in the South formed the basis of a civilization in that section entirely distinct in many particulars from that found in the Northern portion of the Union. It early became evident that, as in the celebrated instance recorded in sacred history, two nations, as it were, were struggling to the birth. The difference in social influences, the difference in moral teachings, the difference in interest, the differences in the theories of the constitution generally held in the two sections, and, indeed, the difference in the entire surroundings separated very widely the two peoples. Each section misunderstood the other in a hundred particulars, and the obstacles to a better understanding constantly grew in magnitude as time moved on. The terrible war which followed, in which men of a common origin, priding themselves in a common history, cherishing the same glorious traditions, and of equal bravery met in deadly strife, - I do not propose to trace. Would that the horrors of that fearful period could be buried forever in oblivion, or, if remembered at all, that they might be recalled only for the useful lessons which they teach! About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.