OTHER WRITERS

IN addition to those who have been mentioned, there have been scores of writers who would have to be considered if we were dealing with the literature of the Negro in the widest sense of the term. Not too clearly, however, can the limitations of our subject be insisted upon. We are here concerned with distinctly literary or artistic achievement, and not with work that belongs in the realm of religion, sociology, or politics. Only briefer mention accordingly can be given to these latter fields.

Naturally, from the first there have been works dealing with the place of the Negro in American life. Outstanding after the numerous sociological studies and other contributions to periodical literature of Dr. DuBois are the books of the late Booker T. Washington. Representative of these are "The Future of the American Negro," "My Larger Education," and "The Man Farthest Down." As early as 1829, however, David Walker, of Boston, published his passionate "Appeal," a protest against slavery that awakened Southern legislatures to action; and in the years just before the Civil War, Henry Highland Garnet wrote sermons and addresses on the status of the race in America, while William Wells Brown wrote "Three Years in Europe," and various other works, some of which will receive later mention. After the war, Alexander Crummell became an outstanding figure by reason of his sermons and addresses, many of which were preserved. He was followed by an interesting group of scholarly men, represented especially by William S. Scarborough, Kelly Miller, and Archibald H. Grimké. Mr. Scarborough is now president of Wilberforce University. He has contributed numerous articles to representative magazines. His work in more technical fields is represented by his "First Lessons in Greek," a treatise on the "Birds" of Aristophanes, and his paper in the Arena (January, 1897) on "Negro Folk-Lore and Dialect." Mr. Miller is Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Howard University. He has collected his numerous and cogent papers in two volumes, "Race Adjustment," and "Out of the House of Bondage." The first is the more varied and interesting of the two books, but the latter contains the poetic rhapsody, "I See and Am Satisfied," first published in the Independent (August 7, 1913). Mr. A. H. Grimké, as well as Mr. Miller, has contributed to the Atlantic; and he has written the lives of Garrison and Sumner in the American Reformers Series. "Negro Culture in West Africa," by George W. Ellis, is original and scholarly; "The Aftermath of Slavery," by William A. Sinclair, is a volume of more than ordinary interest; and "The African Abroad," by William H. Ferris, while confused in construction and form, contains much thoughtful material. Within recent years there have been published a great many works, frequently illustrated, on the progress and achievements of the race. Very few of these books are scholarly. Three collaborations, however, are of decided value. One is a little volume entitled, "The Negro Problem," consisting of seven papers by representative Negroes, and published in 1903 by James Pott & Co., of New York. Another is "From Servitude to Service," published in 1905 by the American Unitarian Association of Boston, and made up of the Old South Lectures on the history and work of Southern institutions for the education of the Negro; while the third collaboration is, "The Negro in the South," published in 1907 by George W. Jacobs & Co., of Philadelphia, and made up of four papers, two by Dr. Washington, and two by Dr. DuBois, which were the William Levi Bull Lectures in the Philadelphia Divinity School for the year 1907.

Halfway between works on the Negro Problem and those in history, are those in the field of biography and autobiography. For decades before the Civil War the experiences of fugitive slaves were used as a part of the anti-slavery argument. In 1845 appeared the "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass," this being greatly enlarged and extended in 1881 as "The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass." In similar vein was the "Autobiography of a Fugitive Negro," by Samuel Ringgold Ward. Then Josiah Henson (the original of Uncle Tom) and Sojourner Truth issued their narratives. Collections of more than ordinary interest were William Wells Brown's "The Black Man" (1863), James M. Trotter's "Music and Some Highly Musical People" (1878), and William J. Simmons's "Men of Mark" (1887). John Mercer Langston's "From the Virginia Plantation to the National Capitol" is interesting and serviceable; special interest attaches to Matthew Henson's "A Negro Explorer at the North Pole"; while Maud Cuney Hare's "Norris Wright Cuney" was a distinct contribution to the history of Southern politics. The most widely known work in this field, however, is "Up From Slavery," by Booker T. Washington. The unaffected and simple style of this book has made it a model of personal writing, and it is by reason of merit that the work has gained unusual currency.

The study, of course, becomes more special in the field of history. Interest from the first was shown in church history. This was represented immediately after the war by Bishop Daniel A. Payne's studies in the history of the A. M. E. Church, and twenty-five years later, for the Baptist denomination, by E. M. Brawley's "The Negro Baptist Pulpit." One of the earliest writers of merit was William C. Nell, who, in 1851, published his pamphlet, "Services of Colored Americans in the Wars of 1776 and 1812." "The Rising Son," by William Wells Brown, was an account of "the antecedents and advancement of the colored race"; the work gave considerable attention to Africa, Hayti, and the colonies, and was quite scholarly in method. Then, in 1872, full of personal experience, appeared William Still's "The Underground Railroad." The epoch-making work in history, however, was the two-volume "History of the Negro Race in America," by George W. Williams, which was issued in 1883. This work was the exploration of a new field and the result of seven years of study. The historian more than once wrote subjectively, but his work was, on the whole, written with unusually good taste. After thirty years some of his pages have, of course, been superseded; but his work is even yet the great storehouse for students of Negro history. Technical study within recent years is best represented by the Harvard doctorate theses of Dr. DuBois and Dr. Carter G. Woodson. That of Dr. DuBois has already been mentioned. That of Dr. Woodson was entitled "The Disruption of Virginia." Dr. Woodson is the editor of the Journal of Negro History, a quarterly magazine that began to appear in 1916, and that has already published several articles of the first order of merit. He has also written "The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861," a work in the most scientific spirit of modern historical study, to which a companion volume for the later period is expected. Largely original also in the nature of their contribution have been "The Haitian Revolution," by T. G. Steward, and "The Facts of Reconstruction," by John R. Lynch; and, while less intensive, interesting throughout is J. W. Cromwell's "The Negro in American History."

Many of the younger writers are cultivating the short story. Especially have two or three, as yet unknown to the wider public, done excellent work in connection with syndicates of great newspapers. "The Goodness of St. Rocque, and Other Stories," by Alice Moore Dunbar (now Mrs. Nelson), is representative of the stronger work in this field. Numerous attempts at the composition of novels have also been made. Even before the Civil War was over appeared William Wells Brown's "Clotille: A Tale of the Southern States." It is in this special department, however, that a sense of literary form has frequently been most lacking. The distinctively literary essay has not unnaturally suffered from the general pressure of the Problem. A paper in the Atlantic Monthly (February, 1906), however, "The Joys of Being a Negro," by Edward E. Wilson, a Chicago lawyer, was of outstanding brilliancy. A. O. Stafford, of Washington, is a special student of the folklore of Africa. He has contributed several scholarly papers to the Journal of Negro History, and he has also published through the American Book Company an interesting supplementary reader, "Animal Fables From the Dark Continent." Alain Locke is interested in both philosophical and literary studies, represented by "The American Temperament," a paper contributed to the North American Review (August, 1911), and a paper on Emile Verhæren in the Poetry Review (January, 1917).

Little has been accomplished in sustained poetic flight. Of shorter lyric verse, however, many booklets have appeared. As this is the field that offers peculiar opportunity for subjective expression, more has been attempted in it than in any other department of artistic endeavor. It demands, therefore, special attention, and the study will take us back before the Civil War.

The first person to attract much attention after Phillis Wheatley was George Moses Horton, of North Carolina, who was born in 1797 and died about 1880 (or 1883). He was ambitious to learn, was the possessor of unusual literary talent, and in one way or another received instruction from various persons. He very soon began to write verse, all of which was infused with his desire for freedom, and much of which was suggested by the common evangelical hymns, as were the following lines:

Alas! and am I born for this,
To wear this slavish chain?
Deprived of all created bliss,
Through hardship, toil, and pain?

How long have I in bondage lain,
And languished to be free!
Alas! and must I still complain,
Deprived of liberty?