Dixie After the War: An Exposition of Social Conditions Existing in the South, During the Twelve Years Succeeding the Fall of RichmondAvary, Myrta Lockett
Philosophy
Dixie After the War: An Exposition of Social Conditions Existing in the South, During the Twelve Years Succeeding the Fall of Richmond
Avary, Myrta Lockett
Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865-1877); Southern States -- Social conditions
The integrity of the races depends largely upon the virtue of white men
and black women; also, it rests _on the negroid side upon the aspiration
to become white_, acknowledgment in itself of inferiority and
self-loathing. The average negress will accept, invite, with every wile
she may, the purely animal attention of a "no-count white man" in
preference to marriage with a black. The average mulatto of either sex
considers union with a black degradation. The rainbow of promise spanning
this gloomy vista is the claim that the noble minority of black women who
value virtue is on the increase as the race, in self-elevation, recognises
more and more the demands of civilisation upon character, and that dignity
of racehood which will not be ashamed of its own skin or covet the skin of
another. The virtuous black woman is the Deborah and the Miriam of her
people. She is found least often in crowded cities, North and South; most
often in Southern rural districts. Wherever found, she commands the white
man's respect.
Hope should rest secure in the white man. If the faith of his fathers, the
flag of his fathers, the Union of his fathers, are worthy of preservation,
is not the blood of his fathers a sacred trust also? Besides, before
womanhood, whatever its colour or condition, however ready to yield or
appeal to his grosser senses, the white man should throw the ægis of his
manhood and his brotherhood.
The recent framing of State Constitutions in the South to supersede the
Black and Tan creations revived the charge of race prejudice because their
suffrage restrictions would in great degree disfranchise the negro. As
compared with discussion of any phase of the race issue some years ago,
the spirit of comment was cool and fair. "The Outlook" led in justifying
the South for protecting the franchise with moderate property and
educational qualifications applying to both races, criticising, however,
the provision for deciding upon educational fitness--a provision which
Southerners admit needs amendment. One effect of these restrictions will
be to stimulate the negro's efforts to acquire the necessary education or
the necessary three hundred dollars' worth of property. Another effect
will be decrease of the white farmer's scant supply of negro labour; this
scarcity, in attracting white immigrants, provides antidote for
Africanisation of the South.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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