"Only as we increase in property will our political barometer rise."
It is significant to find one who has seen so much of the world as Judge Gibbs has, saying, as he does: "With travel somewhat extensive and diversified, and with residence in tropical latitudes of Negro origin, I have a decided conviction, despite the crucial test to which he has been subjected in the past, and the present disadvantages under which he labors, that nowhere is the promise along all the lines of opportunity brighter for the American Negro than here in the land of his nativity."
I bespeak for the book a careful reading by those who are interested in the history of the Negro in America, and in his present and future.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
CHAPTER I [3]
Parents, School and Teacher—Foundation of the Negroes' Mechanical Knowledge—First Brick A. M. E. Church—Bishop Allen—Olive Cemetery—Harriet Smith Home—"Underground Railroad"—Incidents on the Road—William and Ellen Craft—William Box Brown.