Produced by Bryan Ness, Richard J. Shiffer and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from scanned images of public domain material from the Google Print project.) [Transcriber's Note: Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as possible, including obsolete and variant spellings and other inconsistencies.] THE FUTURE OF THE AMERICAN NEGRO Booker T. Washington Boston Small, Maynard & Company 1900 _Copyright, 1899, By Small, Maynard & Company_ (_Incorporated_) _Entered at Stationers' Hall_ _First Edition (2,000 copies), November, 1899_ _Second Edition (2,000 copies), February, 1900_ _Press of George H. Ellis, Boston, U.S.A._ [Illustration: Booker T. Washington.] PREFACE. _In giving this volume to the public, I deem it fair to say that I have yielded to the oft-repeated requests that I put in some more definite and permanent form the ideas regarding the Negro and his future which I have expressed many times on the public platform and through the public press and magazines._ _I make grateful acknowledgment to the "Atlantic Monthly" and "Appleton's Popular Science Monthly" for their kindness in granting permission for the use of some part of articles which I have at various times contributed to their columns._ BOOKER T. WASHINGTON. TUSKEGEE NORMAL AND INDUSTRIAL INSTITUTE, TUSKEGEE, ALA., October 1, 1899. CONTENTS. Chapter I. Page 3 First appearance of Negroes in America--Rapid increase--Conditions during Civil War--During the reconstruction. Chapter II. Page 16 Responsibility of the whole country for the Negro--Progress in the past--Same methods of education do not fit all cases--Proved in the case of the Southern Negro--Illustrations--Lack of money--Comparison between outlay for schools North and South--Duty of North to South. Chapter III. Page 42 Decadence of Southern plantation--Demoralization of Negroes natural--No home life before the war--Too much classical education at the start--Lack of practical training-- Illustrations--The well-trained slaves now dead--Former plantations as industrial schools--The decayed plantation built up by a former slave--Misunderstanding of industrial education. Chapter IV. Page 67