PREFACE.
There seems to be a general impression and a growing sentiment in this country that the colored people, as a class, have not, and are not, making any progress; or, that they have not improved the educational opportunities offered them by the philanthropic white people who have proven themselves friendly to the cause of Negro education. This feeling has developed from two causes: First, we have a large and wealthy class of white people who go South every year during the cold season for either their health or pleasure, and while in the South, they see a great many colored people on the streets of Southern cities who appear to have no employment. In many cases this may be true; sometimes because they do not want to work; but in the majority of cases the true cause of so much idleness among the colored people in the South lies in the fact that they are not able to get work, no matter how much they may seek it. Let this be as it may, the presence of these people on the streets, dressed as the unemployed usually dress in the South, gives these Northern white people an unfavorable impression of the colored brother and an erroneous idea of the real condition of these people. Hence they return to their Northern homes with a very pessimistic story to tell regarding the Southern colored people.
The second reason for this erroneous impression regarding the condition of the colored people of the South, lies in the fact that white people never look in the right direction for evidences of race progress, but are continually drawing their comparisons from the lowest types and judging the whole race by a few who occupy only the lowest levels in common society. For an illustration: A country girl from the South, who has never spent six days of her life in a school-room, is employed in a Northern family to do menial work. The mistress of the household finds her ignorant and sometimes absolutely stupid, and instead of classing this girl where she belongs, as all races are divided into classes, she immediately arrives at the conclusion that because the girl hails from the South, she must be a fair specimen and a true representative of all the colored people in that section. And she further concludes that all this talk about the wonderful progress made by the Negro since the war is mere talk, having no foundation in fact, and that this talk is kept up in order that the people may be misled into subscribing their money for educational work.
I have talked with a great many white people on this subject, and they have, in almost every instance, expressed about the same sentiment I have given above. One lady, in Boston, Mass., said to me: "But colored people are so ignorant." I asked her with whom she was acquainted among colored people. "Why," said she, "we have employed colored help for years, and one colored woman has washed for our family ever since I was a child." It will be seen that her conclusions were drawn from a very low level, and that her contact with colored people had always been limited to the poorer, working classes. Indeed, so general is the impression among white people that no real progress has been made by the ex-slaves, that at least seven out of every ten seem to think of the colored people as a worthless, inflexible element, incapable of mental, moral and other developments essential to a high state of civilization.
I think that I can safely say that the only white people who are willing to admit that there is a better class of colored people, are those who have either taught in their institutions, or have intimate friends engaged in that kind of work. Friends who are anxious to help the race, find that these wrong impressions have been so thoroughly established, that the educational work is very much hampered and interfered with from year to year; and the success of Southern schools, dependent on Northern philanthropy, has been very much hindered on account of the gloomy aspect given by Northern people visiting Southern cities. The contributions from the North to these schools, have been very meagre and, of course, the higher possibilities of negro education have not been reached. Enemies of the race, and those laboring under false impressions, are led to believe that the money invested in Southern Educational Institutions has been simply thrown away. We cannot hope for a change for the better as long as colored people are only known as coachmen, waiters, cooks, and washerwomen.
I have called your attention to a very gloomy aspect of the Southern situation. But while the aspect is a gloomy one, it represents the true attitude of the American people, with a few exceptions. I have put forth this effort to set my friends right on this important question, and I sincerely believe that the time is not far distant when the white people will see to it that these Southern Institutions are guaranteed more liberal support and better encouragement. I see the colored people in a much brighter light and in a more hopeful condition than the men of my race who visit the South for the purpose of making superficial observations. And because I have found so many interesting "Evidences of Progress Among Colored People," I offer this as my apology for writing this book. The facts contained in this work have been gathered during sixteen years of actual labor and contact with the colored people in all parts of the United States. I have had to go deeper into the question, to secure my information, than merely to visit street-corners and hold casual conversation with the unfortunate and the unemployed, North or South.
When those who read this book take into consideration the fact that many of the characters herein mentioned started some thirty years ago without a dollar, without a home, and without education, except here and there a few who had, in some mysterious way, learned to read and write, they will, I am sure, be willing to admit that some progress has been made by the people in whose interest this book is published. I wish to make prominent four phases of the race question, namely: (1) The schools which have been built for colored people and managed by whites; (2) The schools managed by colored people; (3) The church work carried on among them, and (4) The business and professional development as the result of education.
I am well aware that, had it not been for the philanthropists who gave their money so freely at the close of the Civil War for the education of the freedmen, and the Christian and unselfish missionaries who went South to teach the ex-slaves, I would not have been able to present so many interesting and, in many cases, startling "Evidences of Progress Among Colored People." I want to mention most of the schools started by white friends. But I shall deal more at length and in greater detail with the school work carried on by the colored people themselves. There are many who are asking if the colored people are doing anything for themselves in an educational way. This question will be clearly answered in this book. I do not claim that colored people support entirely all of the schools managed by them, nor have the white people a right to expect that they should be able to do so, in so short a time. For my part, I shall feel that they will have accomplished a great deal if, in the next hundred years, they will have reached that point where they can support their own schools and meet all the financial obligations involved. I have no doubt but that many who shall read this book will be, as I was, greatly surprised, yes, astonished; for some of the sketches read like romances more than the ordinary things of life.