The Journal of Negro History, Volume 6, 1921Various
History
The Journal of Negro History, Volume 6, 1921
Various
African Americans -- Periodicals
The general argument of the author in favor of the beneficence of
colonization is not convincing. There is no authority for the
contention that colonization promoted emancipation when the records
show that the majority of slaveholders who supported it had in mind
the expatriation of the free Negroes who among the bondmen were a
living testimony against slavery. To say that colonization might check
the slave trade by establishing one small colony in Africa is about as
unsound, contended some free Negroes in 1831, as to argue that "a
watchman in the city of Boston would prevent thievery in New York; or
that the custom house officers there would prevent goods being
smuggled into any other part of the United States." It is an insult to
the intelligence of men who have seriously considered history to say
that colonization was so built upon national sentiment as to have a
direct bearing on the preservation of the Union when the
colonizationists differed widely among themselves in the very
beginning and finally divided just as the abolitionists, who at one
time had also a national standing, in that most anti-slavery societies
were once found in the South. Until Negro history, therefore, has been
removed from the hands of those using it to whitewash their ancestors
the world must still lack knowledge as to how the progress of mankind
has been influenced by the Negro.
* * * * *
_The Voice of the Negro._ By ROBERT T. KERLIN, Professor of
English at the Virginia Military Institute. New York, E. P.
Dutton and Company, 1920. Pp. xii, 188.
The purpose of this book may best be expressed in the words of the
author himself, when he says, in the preface: "The following work is a
compilation from the colored press of America for the four months
[July 1st to November 1st, 1919] immediately succeeding the Washington
riot. It is designed to show the Negro's reaction to that and like
events following, and to the World War and the discussion of the
Treaty. It may, in the Editor's estimation, be regarded as a primary
document in promoting a knowledge of the Negro, his point of view, his
way of thinking upon race relations, his grievances, his aspirations,
his demands." A book of such purport, especially when coming from the
pen of a white man, must attract attention, and if the newspapers and
periodicals from which the various extracts are chosen may be called
truly representative, as in this case they are, the compiler has
performed a distinct service in the field of American History.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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