The New Man: Twenty-nine years a slave, twenty-nine years a free man

by Henry Clay Bruce

I have written quite fully of the institution over which Professor Washington presides, to the exclusion of others, not because there were no others worthy of mention, but because I had fuller information of that institution than of any other. But I am reliably informed that there are several such schools established in the South, and that they are doing a good work, but being in their infancy, as it were, are not on a par with the Tuskegee Institute.

CHAPTER XIV.

In a former chapter I have attempted to show the manner in which we have suffered in the past from the effects of an unwarranted prejudice against us, due not so much to our color as to our condition, and from the mistakes we have made in mapping out the course best suited for us to follow. We are a peculiar people, hitherto unknown to the laws of the United States. We have been made citizens by these laws, but are still regarded as a distinct people. In this chapter I shall try to give my views as to the best course for us, as a class, to pursue in order to succeed in the race of life as newly made citizens, and this advice is intended wholly for the Colored people.

Above every other consideration we must get money, and to do that, we must engage in business of some kind, however small, and then support it with our undivided patronage. By so doing we shall not only build up business houses, but create places for our boys and girls when they leave the schools, fitted for higher callings than the mudhod or the washtub. We can do this without any sacrifice, as we are compelled to spend a large portion of our earnings for the necessaries of life any way, and when it comes to the question as to whether we shall spend it with a white or a Colored tradesman, other things being equal, the question itself ought to suggest the answer.

We would do well, in my opinion, to take a few lessons from the Hebrews in this country, as to the way in which to accumulate money, for they have been sorely pressed by all Christian nations for centuries, and notwithstanding have steadily, and in the face of great prejudice, accumulated vast wealth. By turning their attention entirely to trade, they have been enabled to command respect by reason of their money solely, so that to-day, especially in this country, they have a very high standing in the commercial business of the country, and are gradually increasing it each year, so that it is only a matter of time, when they will be able to control such business. They give their children a common school course, then a business course, and then put them to work as salesmen, rarely ever sending them to college.

We are the real producers of the wealth of the country, especially of the southern portion, and have that advantage over the Hebrews, who never produce anything at any time, and yet they strive to control the business of the entire country. As an evidence of the fact that we are the real producers, note the large number of mercantile failures when there is a shortage in the crop. Now then, since we are the producers of the wealth, why not spend it in a way to benefit ourselves? So long as the merchant can get our trade without recognition, he will not give employment to our young men and women, in consideration of that class of trade, and is sometimes bold enough to say so.

As a case in point, I will state this: A few years ago, a certain merchant on Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, D. C., who had and still has a large trade with the Colored people, especially the better class, including the families of clerks in the several departments and school teachers, there being over three hundred of them, was applied to by a delegation of Colored citizens for a position for a respectable and well-educated girl, wanting employment. They called his attention to the fact that he had a very large Colored patronage and that he had employees representing nearly every other class of people, and that it would be nothing more than fair to give employment to one Colored saleswoman. He refused. They gave him to understand that an effort would be made to withdraw the Colored trade from him, since he would not recognize it in a substantial way. His reply was: “Gentlemen, you may make all the efforts you please, but you cannot do it; good day”.

Are we prepared to say that this merchant did not state the fact? I think not, because he knew our disorganized condition, our inability to concentrate our strength in a way to make it effective, and therefore felt free to tell the delegation to their faces, “You cannot do it.” He spoke the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, because they could not do it then, and cannot do it now, and never will until the Colored people are educated to it by force of self-defence.