Those who experienced it all solemnly and sacredly acknowledge the debt of gratitude to that generation of negro servants which they as sacredly bequeathed to their posterity. Said a father to his son, thirty-four years after emancipation, as death was closing his eyes, “Son, see that my old black people are cared for.” This was his sole dying injunction.
But what is the significance of the testing of War? It meant that Africans who, in their native land, had acknowledged no obligation to anybody outside of tribal ties, whose habit of life had been constant warfare with all else, had been transformed by new family ties which embraced, in loyal fidelity, White and Black alike. It meant that savage people, who had owned no sense of responsibility save that which protected personal life and furthered personal wishes, had been so wonderfully tutored as to expand that sense of responsibility into a loyalty of trust that is little short of miraculous. A war whose issue was the Negro’s freedom, could not break that bond of trust. So far, in the character of its product—both White and Negro—the old family and trade-school had been tested, and the examination had been passed. When the War closed, the old friendship was as strong as ever, and the mutual relation closer than ever. In most cases, their freedom was first announced to their former slaves by the old masters; and both together set about the establishment of the new relations with hearty good will and the united desire “to re-build our homes.”
Then came the Reconstruction Period, with its testing of a very different nature. Here again, let us hear what the Negro has to say, and learn from himself his response. Dr. Washington writes: “At the close of the War, both the southern white man and the Negro found themselves in the midst of poverty. The ex-master returned from the war to find his slave-property gone, his farms and other industries in a state of collapse, and the whole industrial and economic system, upon which he had depended for years, entirely disorganized.
As we review, calmly and dispassionately, the period of reconstruction, we must use a great deal of sympathy and generosity. The weak point, to my mind, in the reconstruction era was that no strong force was brought to bear in the direction of preparing the Negro to become an intelligent, reliable citizen and voter. The main effort seemed to have been in the direction of controlling his vote for the time being, regardless of future interests. I hardly believe that any race of people, with similar preparation and similar surroundings, would have acted more wisely than, or very differently from, the way the Negro acted during the period of reconstruction.... I do not believe that the Negro was so much at fault for entering so largely into politics, and for the mistakes that were made in too many cases, as were the unscrupulous white leaders who got the Negro’s confidence, and controlled his vote, to further their own ends, regardless, in many cases, of the permanent welfare of the Negro. I have always considered it unfortunate that the southern white man did not make more effort during the period of reconstruction to get the confidence and sympathy of the Negro, and thus have been able to keep him in close touch and sympathy in politics.... What the Negro wants, and what the country wants to do, is to take advantage of all the lessons that were taught during the days of reconstruction, and apply these lessons bravely and honestly in laying the foundation upon which the Negro can stand in the future, and make himself a useful, honorable and desirable citizen, whether he has his new residence in the North, the South, or the West.”
The description is true. The white friend would have written this one sentence differently—“I have always considered it unfortunate that the Southern white man did not make more effort—to get the confidence of the Negro....” The misfortune was, that the old southern friends were not permitted to retain the confidence of their old Negro friends who were estranged and filled with suspicion by the same “unscrupulous white leaders who got the Negro’s confidence—to further their own ends.” Time and time again, during this era, far-seeing Southerners, sometimes against the vigorous protest of their neighbors, offered small farms to their old servants at very low prices, which would provide homes of self-respect and stem the tide of temptation to wander and to idle about. Not a few accepted the advice of their old and best friends; but the new toy of ownership was too alluring. In nearly all cases the feeling of wealth in possession bred spendthrift habits and the early loss of the farms.
But our purpose is not to trace the story of reconstruction. This has been amply told by Southerners—Thomas Nelson Page and others; and by Northerners—Carl Schurz, Rhodes and others. Our purpose is to note the result of this testing-time upon the pupils trained in the old plantation trade-school.
Again the answer is given by Dr. Washington, whose testimony is substantially that of his race of that generation. “This business contact with the southern white man, and the industrial training received on the plantations, put the Negro, at the close of the war, into possession of all the common and skilled labor of the South. For nearly twenty years after the war, except in one or two cases, the value of the industrial training given by the Negroes’ former masters on the plantations and elsewhere was overlooked. Negro men and women were educated in literature, mathematics and the sciences, with no thought of what had taken place on these plantations for two and one half centuries. After twenty years, those who were trained as mechanics, etc., during slavery, began to disappear by death; and gradually we awoke to the fact that we had no one to take their places. We had scores of young men learned in Greek; but few in carpentry, or mechanical or architectural drawing. We had trained many in Latin; but almost none as engineers, bridge-builders, and machinists. Numbers were taken from the farm and educated, but were educated in everything else except agriculture. Hence they had no sympathy with farm life, and did not return to it.”
The real fact is, that, as a result of the reconstruction policies, quite fifteen years were well nigh lost in the development of the Negro. For what is the value of tuition in Greek and Latin and the finer arts, for a few of the brighter minds—so few as barely to touch the fringe of the great race—compared with the prevailing temporary loss of the advantages of generations of training in practical arts, the racial estrangement in their old homes, and the long years of protected idleness and sloth such as Carl Schurz describes?
During this Reconstruction Period, the religious life as well as the industrial life of the Negro was disturbed and oftentimes destroyed with a resultant loss in the development of good citizenship.