The negro: the southerner's problemPage, Thomas Nelson
History
The negro: the southerner's problem
Page, Thomas Nelson
African Americans; United States -- Race relations
Her property values have steadily increased. Mills have been started
and manufactories established, and this not only by Southern
investors, but, to a considerable extent, by Northern capital, until
the South has become one of the recognized fields for investment.
This, among other causes, has made the South restive under an
electorate which has confined her to one political party, shut her
off from ability to divide on economic questions, and which, to
a certain extent, withdrew her from her due participation in the
National Government. With this, another cause is the change of the
relation between the two races. It is useless to blink the question.
The old relation of intimacy and affection that survived to a
considerable extent even the strain and stress of the reconstruction
period, and the repressive measures that followed it, has passed
away, and in its place has come a feeling of indifference or contempt
on the one side, and indifference or envy on the other. In some
places, under some conditions, the old attitude of reliance and the
old feeling of affection still remain. For example, in many families,
the old relation of master and servant, of superior and retainer,
may still exist. In some neighborhoods or towns, individuals of
the colored race, by their ability and character, have achieved a
position which has brought to them the respect and sincere good-will
of the whites. A visit to the South will show anyone that, in the
main, the feeling of kindness and good-will has survived all the
haranguing of the politician and all the teaching of the doctrinaire.
Ordinarily, the children still play together, the men work together,
the elders still preserve their old good-will. The whites visit the
sick and afflicted, help the unfortunate, relieve the distressed,
console the bereaved, and perform the old offices of kindness. But
this is, to some extent, exceptional. It is mainly confined to the
very young, the old, or the unfortunate and dependent. The rule is a
changed relation and a widening breach. The teaching of the younger
generation of Negroes is to be rude and insolent. In the main, it
is only where the whites have an undisputed authority that the old
relation survives. Where the whites are so superior in numbers that
no question can be raised; or again, where, notwithstanding the
reversed conditions, the whites are in a position so dominant as not
to admit of question, harmony prevails.
When the relations are reversed there is danger of an outbreak.
The Negro, misled by the teaching of his doctrinaire friends into
thinking himself the equal of the white, asserts himself, and the
white resents it. The consequence is a clash, and the Negro becomes
the chief sufferer so invariably that it ought to throw some light on
the doctrine of equality.
FOOTNOTES:
[15] The same thing happened in Russia on the emancipation of the
serfs. See Kropotkin’s Memoirs.
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.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account