The Gift of Black Folk: The Negroes in the Making of AmericaDu Bois, W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt)
History
The Gift of Black Folk: The Negroes in the Making of America
Du Bois, W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt)
African Americans -- History; United States -- Race relations
What may be called, for want of a better term, the colonial spirit, which
is the essence of hyphenism, has persisted in this country to hamper
national progress and national unity. Wherever this colonial spirit shows
itself it is a menace to be fought, whether the secret or acknowledged
attachment binds to England, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Greece or
any other nation.
Jefferson pointed out that we have on this soil evolved a new race of
men who may inexactly be called “Americans”. This term, as a monopoly of
the United States, is properly objected to by our neighbors, North and
South—yet it has a definite meaning for the world.
During the Great War one aspect of war duty was to direct the labor
activities growing out of the war, to divert labor from “non-essential”
to “essential” industry and to arbitrate and mediate on wage matters.
It was found necessary to study and to analyze the greatly feared, but
infrequently discovered “enemy alien”; and as a preparation for this
duty, with the assistance of several hundred local agents, the population
of Massachusetts was separated into naturally allied groups based on
birth, racial descent, religious, social and industrial affiliations.
The astonishing result was that, counting as “native Americans” only
the actual descendants of all those living in Massachusetts in 1840,
of whatever racial stock prior to that time, only two-sevenths, even
with the most liberal classification, came within the group of colonial
descent, while the remaining five-sevenths were found in the various
racial groups coming later than 1840. More than this: While the
“Colonial” group had increased in numbers for three decades after 1840,
in 1918 they were found actually to be fewer in number than in 1840, a
diminution due to excess of deaths over births, proceeding in increasing
ratio.
Membership in the Society of Mayflower descendants is eagerly sought as
the hallmark of American ancestry. In anticipation of the tercentenary
of the Mayflower-coming in 1620, about a dozen years ago a questionnaire
was sent to every known eligible for Mayflower ancestry, and the replies
were submitted to the experts in one of the national universities for
review and report. When this report was presented later, it contained the
statement that, considering the prevailing number of marriages in this
group, and children per family,—when the six-hundredth celebration of the
Pilgrims’ Landing is held in 2220, three hundred years hence, a ship the
size of the original Mayflower will be sufficient to carry back to Europe
all the then living Mayflower descendants.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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