History of the Negro Race in America from 1619 to 1880. Vol. 2: Negroes as Slaves, as Soldiers, and as CitizensWilliams, George Washington
History
History of the Negro Race in America from 1619 to 1880. Vol. 2: Negroes as Slaves, as Soldiers, and as Citizens
Williams, George Washington
African Americans -- History; Liberia; Sierra Leone
submit to the "_outrage_!"
The places of amusements in all the large cities in the North excluded
the Negro; and when he did gain admission, he was shown to the
gallery, where he could enjoy peanut-hulls, boot-blacks, and
"black-legs." Occasionally the side door of a college was put ajar for
some invincible Negro. But this was a performance of very rare
occurrence; and the instances are easily remembered.
When courts and parties, corporations and companies had refused to
accord the Negro the rights that were his due as a man, he carried his
case to the highest earthly court, the Christian Church. He felt sure
of sympathy and succor from this source. The Church had stood through
the centuries as a refuge for the unfortunate and afflicted. But,
alas! the Church shrank from the Negro as if he had been a reptile. If
he gained admission it was to the "Negro pew" in the "organ loft." If
he secured the precious "emblems of the broken body and shed blood" of
his Divine Master, it was after the "white folks" were through. If the
cause of the Negro were mentioned in the prayer or sermon, it was in
the indistinct whisper of the moral coward who occupied the sacred
desk. And when the fight was on at fever heat, when it was popular to
plead the cause of the slave and demand the rights of the free Negro,
the Church was the last organization in the country to take a position
on the question; and even then, her "moderation was known to all men."
If the Negro had suffered from neglect only, had been left to solve
the riddle of his anomalous existence without further embarrassment,
it would have been well. But no, it was not so. Studied insolence
jostled Colored men and women from the streets of the larger cities;
mobocratic violence broke up assemblages and churches of Colored
people; and malice sought them in the quiet of their homes--outraged
and slew them in cold blood. Thus with the past as a haunting, bitter
recollection, the present filled with fear and disaster, and the
future a shapeless horror, think ye life was sweet to the Negro?
Bitter? Bitter as death? Ay, bitter as hell!
Driven down from the lofty summit of laudable ambitions into the
sultry plains of domestic drudgery and menial toil, nearly every ray
of hope had perished upon the strained vision of the Negro. The only
thing young Colored men could aspire to was the position of a waiter,
the avocation of a barber, the place of a house-servant or groom, and
teach or preach to their own people with little or no qualifications.
Denied the opportunities and facilities of securing an education, they
were upbraided by the press and pulpit, in private gatherings and
public meetings, for their ignorance, which was enforced by a narrow
and contracted public prejudice.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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