That nature has placed any disqualifications upon the negro, and has thus indicated or determined what is or what is not possible for him to accomplish, we cannot know until we have so far removed the obstacles we have put in his way, and stricken off the chains with which we have bound him, and thrown open an opportunity which we have barred against him, that he shall have a chance to show what the purpose was with reference to him; and we may thus learn, also, as we are beginning to do, what our injustice and wrong has been.
Our treatment of the negro, whether as slave or Freedman, has been and will be shaped by our theories in regard to him, but it is time we honestly sought to know what the facts are, and draw our theories from them rather than attempt to limit him by our prejudices, as if they were indisputable facts of nature.
The master said the negro’s place is that of a chattel slave, and he wisely enacted that he should neither be educated out of it, nor be allowed to escape from it. The fortunes of war (should we not say the misfortunes, if the theory were correct?) broke the chain and palsied the whip-arm of the master, and now his friends, many of them, who rejoice that he has escaped from his old place, would attempt to fit him for a new one, but determine for him what it shall be, and express grave apprehensions of evil if we say he should have the best possible opportunity to find for himself what it is. The war destroyed the old chain by which he was held in his appointed place, but has not eradicated the disposition of the Anglo-Saxon to decide for him what his new one must be, and in the minds of many it is that of a laborer of the lowest grade; and lest he might escape from it by rising above it, they would see to it that his education shall be of such character as to fit him for it alone.
While the wise teacher sees to it that he shall not neglect thorough training in the most elementary branches in order to become a smatterer in Greek and Latin, it should be done on the general principle applicable to all races and every individual, that any other course would be consummate folly. The theory to which our practice should conform is this: Give to every child of God the best opportunity possible for him as such, and let him in the untrammeled exercise of his powers find out what his Creator designed him to be and assigned him to do.
The time is coming when it will appear incredible that a man’s place in the intellectual and social world shall be assigned to him because of the color of his skin, any more than because of the color of his eyes, or of his clothes. Educate not the negro, but the child, not for his place, but that he may find his place, and do his work among his fellows.
ANNIVERSARY ANNOUNCEMENTS.
Fisk University, Nashville, Tenn.—Baccalaureate Sermon, Sunday A.M., May 22d. Anniversary of Missionary Society, Sunday evening. Examinations, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Commencement Exercises, and the ceremony of laying the corner-stone of Livingstone Missionary Hall, Thursday.
Talladega College, Talladega, Ala.—Baccalaureate Sermon, by the President, Sunday, June 12th. Examinations, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Commencement Exercises, Thursday.