The Journal of Negro History, Volume 4, 1919Various
History
The Journal of Negro History, Volume 4, 1919
Various
African Americans -- Periodicals
The study of the Reconstruction has proceeded with renewed impetus and
has finally been seemingly exhausted in a way peculiar to the recent
investigators. Among these studies are those of Matthews, Garner,
Ficklen, Eckenrode, Hollis, Flack, Woolley, Ramsdell, Davis, Hamilton,
Thompson, Reynolds, Burgess, Pearson, and Hall, most of whom received
their inspiration at Johns Hopkins University or Columbia. The same
period has been treated in a general way by W. A. Dunning, John W.
Burgess, James Schouler, J. B. MacMaster, James Ford Rhodes and W. L.
Fleming. Most of these studies deal with social and economic causes as
well as with the political and some of them are in their own way well
done. Because of the bias in several of them, however, John R. Lynch
and W.E.B. DuBois have endeavored to answer certain adverse criticisms
on the record of the Negroes during the Reconstruction period.
Speaking generally, however, one does not find in most of these works
anything more than the records of scientific investigators as to facts
which in themselves do not give the general reader much insight as to
what the Negro was, how the Negro developed from period to period, and
the reaction of the race on what was going on around it. There is
little effort to set forth what the race has thought and felt and done
as a contribution to the world's accumulation of knowledge and the
welfare of mankind. While what most of these writers say may, in many
respects, be true, they are interested in emphasizing primarily the
effect of this movement on the white man, whose attitude toward the
Negro was that of a merchant or manufacturer toward the materials he
handled and unfortunately whose attitude is that of many of these
gentlemen writing the history in which the Negroes played a part as
men rather than as coal and iron.
The multiplication of these works adversely critical of the Negro race
soon had the desired result. Since one white man easily influences
another to change his attitude toward the Negro, northern teachers of
history and correlated subjects have during the last generation
accepted the southern white man's opinion of the Negro and endeavor to
instill the same into the minds of their students. Their position
seems to be that because the American Negro has not in fifty years
accomplished what the master class achieved in fifty centuries the
race cannot be expected to perform satisfactorily the functions of
citizenship and must, therefore, be treated exceptionally in some such
manner as devised by the commonwealths of the South. This change of
sentiment has been accelerated too by southern teachers, who have
established themselves in northern schools and who have gained partial
control of the northern press. Coming at the time when many Negroes
have been rushing to the North, this heresy has had the general effect
of promoting the increase of race prejudice to the extent that the
North has become about as lawless as the South in its treatment of the
Negro.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account