There is a very ancient chestnut tree which has been shaken by many a traveler on his way. One of its nutshells has a word of wisdom in the story of two knights who contended about a certain shield. “It was gold.” “It was silver.” Both were sure, for did they not see it for themselves? Both were wrong, of course; people usually are who see one side. There were two sides to that shield.
The point of view has to do with what one sees. For example, when Rev. Doctor Field went South, the shield which he looked at on the way was burnished gold. He saw it. He wrote a book about it, which was honorable to his heart and to his eyesight. Everything was lovely and of good report down South. It was faith, hope and charity, but the greatest of all was charity. Then Editor Grady came to New York and told us in eloquence and imagination of the New South. The shield which he held up to us was gold studded with diamonds. “Very well, let it be gold, that is what we want,” was the hopeful response of tens of thousands until it has come to be the mode to say, “Surely it is gold. The era of good will and justice has come, and nothing either great or small remains for us to do.”
Those of us who have been praying and working for “the acceptable year of the Lord” could wish that this were so, but it remains true that an intelligent view is not a one-sided view. People may run through the South and get the view that leans to inclination. They may have delightfully warm receptions, but it takes a good many warm days to make a summer.
There is no doubt that there is a New South, that the beginning of the dawn of a glorious morning is lifting itself up. Thoughtful people in the South are realizing the trend of things. They are attent to the problems which present themselves. They are re-adjusting their opinions. A few leaders are coming into the realm of convictions which are quite other than those they once entertained. They are nobly meeting questions once ignored. This is the prophecy of the golden year for which the American Missionary Association has been expending itself. From the time when the American Missionary Association planted its first Institution at Hampton, Va., until its last one was destroyed so lately by incendiaries at Quitman, Ga., it has waited patiently for Southern recognition of its work. This has been coming gradually, and we need not say that we appreciate it. Many have been convinced, some are urgently exhorting us to increased activities and service. Thoughtful Southern people do not look upon a population of another race, now numbering about seven millions, which averages upwards of seventy per cent of absolute illiteracy, with unconcern.
They begin to see what we are doing; they begin, in some respects, to feel with us. They even, in some slight measure, are co-operating with us.
This is the golden side. It is full of promise. But now if one should see this, and see this only, he would make a great mistake. That which centuries have cherished will not change in a life-time. It is true that it does not require the heroism of the past years for our teachers to go South now, but none of them, so far as we have learned, have been spoiled as yet by being too greatly honored. To illustrate the point of view, we quote from a recent issue of the Banner-Watchman of Athens, Ga. It reads: “About 8 o’clock in the morning of any school day a passer through the streets of Athens is met by great swarms of negro children on their way to be educated. * * * * The question naturally presents itself, who feeds and clothes and buys books for these pupils? We do not suppose that one negro in twenty has $10 worth of property, and they are paid, too, the smallest wages imaginable, barely sufficient to buy them coarse raiment and the plainest food, and yet they all seem not only able to keep their children in idleness (sic) but these children are nicely clad and have expensive books. The question then arises, who pays for all this? And the conundrum naturally arises, what are we educating these young negroes for? What can we do with them? The field for educated whites is narrow enough, and there is no opening for a learned negro, except the pulpit and the school bench, and these two avocations are now crowded to suffocation. Experience has taught that when you educate a negro you incapacitate him for manual labor; and to be a hewer of wood and drawer of water for the superior race is all the sphere that the African ever has or ever will creditably fill. (We forgive this unpremeditated murder of the Queen’s English.) Visit the chain gangs of Georgia, or any old slave State, and you will see that a little education, assisted by a linen duster, a cotton umbrella and a hymn book, is the best recruiting sergeant that the penitentiary has.”
“And yet the white people of our State, through the medium of politicians and office-seekers, are taking an enormous load of taxation on their shoulders (sic) to make convicts and vagabonds of the only class of labor they now have. To substantiate this statement we have only to refer to Athens before and since public schools were established, and the history of our city is the history of every place in the South where the whites have consented to bear the burthen of educating the negro. There is (sic) ten times as much stealing in our midst now as before free schools were established, and the number of idlers has increased as many fold. So it is unkindness to the negro to lift him above his position.” In the same paper, a second article declares that the colored schools are rapidly “becoming nuisances.”
Now, it would not be just to say that the sentiments quoted above are those of the New South. They are not. It would be equally erroneous to deny that these views would be accepted by the great body of people living in the South. The New South to many means simply a new South for white people. Those who have had the misfortune to be the children of slavery are to most as yet not in the newness.
There is a New South that is becoming awake to the possibilities, the opportunities, and the duties, especially of the dominant race, but he shuts his eyes to serious facts, and to many sad ones, who is led to think that the movements which we herald with gladness are the thought and feeling of any large significance, or that they can do the work to which the American Missionary Association is consecrated. It will, we fear, be a long time yet before the South will become so new that it will spell negro with one g. And it will be as long perhaps before the poor and despised shall be so elevated and Christianized that people shall be ashamed to use two g’s where one is superfluous.
The appreciation which our work gains from noble and thoughtful people in the South is the bright side. We love to look upon this. But the fact that there are seven millions of colored people in the South, and probably not more than five hundred well educated colored preachers for them, is a fact not so bright. Our schools and theological seminaries are bright spots in the darkness. While we are grateful to note the fact that the thoughts of men are widening, we know that there is need of faith and patience, because there remains much land to be possessed. One need not go far from what is hopeful to find enough to excite concern for the future, and to urge him to relax no zeal to hasten the day when Christ shall make all things new.