Iola Leroy; Or, Shadows UpliftedHarper, Frances Ellen Watkins
General
Iola Leroy; Or, Shadows Uplifted
Harper, Frances Ellen Watkins
African American women -- Fiction; African Americans -- Fiction
Doctor Latimer by his kindness and skill has won the name of the "Good
Doctor." But he is more than a successful doctor; he is a true patriot
and a good citizen. Honest, just, and discriminating, he endeavors by
precept and example to instill into the minds of others sentiments of
good citizenship. He is a leader in every reform movement for the
benefit of the community; but his patriotism is not confined to race
lines. "The world is his country, and mankind his countrymen." While he
abhors their deeds of violence, he pities the short-sighted and besotted
men who seem madly intent upon laying magazines of powder under the
cradles of unborn generations. He has great faith in the possibilities
of the negro, and believes that, enlightened and Christianized, he will
sink the old animosities of slavery into the new community of interests
arising from freedom; and that his influence upon the South will be as
the influence of the sun upon the earth. As when the sun passes from
Capricorn to Cancer, beauty, greenness, and harmony spring up in his
path, so he hopes that the future career of the negro will be a greater
influence for freedom and social advancement than it was in the days of
yore for slavery and its inferior civilization.
Harry and Lucille are at the head of a large and flourishing school.
Lucille gives her ripening experience to her chosen work, to which she
was too devoted to resign. And through the school they are lifting up
the homes of the people. Some have pitied, others blamed, Harry for
casting his lot with the colored people, but he knows that life's
highest and best advantages do not depend on the color of the skin or
texture of the hair. He has his reward in the improved condition of his
pupils and the superb manhood and noble life which he has developed in
his much needed work.
Uncle Daniel still lingers on the shores of time, a cheery, lovable old
man, loved and respected by all; a welcome guest in every home. Soon
after Iola's marriage, Robert sold out his business and moved with his
mother and sister to North Carolina. He bought a large plantation near
C----, which he divided into small homesteads, and sold to poor but
thrifty laborers, and his heart has been gladdened by their increased
prosperity and progress. He has seen the one-roomed cabins change to
comfortable cottages, in which cleanliness and order have supplanted the
prolific causes of disease and death. Kind and generous, he often
remembers Mrs. Johnson and sends her timely aid.
Marie's pale, spiritual face still bears traces of the beauty which was
her youthful dower, but its bloom has been succeeded by an air of
sweetness and dignity. Though frail in health, she is always ready to
lend a helping hand wherever and whenever she can.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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