The western sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1887-1926, 1889-01-03

a luxury to the novel reader to find a |
st"ry-in which the characters have
any feeling beyond self conscious
sensibility which seems to give them g.
deal of trouble without ever ripening
into motive or resulting in achieve
ment.
1t is noteworthy in this revival that
the Negro and the poor white are TAX
ing rank as by far the more interest.
ing elements of Southern life. True,
the dashing Confederate cavalier holds
his place pretty well. 1t is rather odd
that he was always P cavalier; but.
does not appear to have been any Con-
federate infantry. Still, even the
cavalier has come to need foil, just
as Dives required a Lazarus, and
with like result-the bsggar has over
shadowed his patron. In literature as
In politics, the poor white is having
the best of the Southern renaissance.
The sons of schoo!masters and over
seers and even "crappers" have come
to the fore in the "New South" and
the poor white is exalted not only in
his offspring hut in literature. There
are infinite possibilities in the poor
white of either sex and as the supply
is limited to the South, there seems to
be nc reason why he should not dur
ing the next half century become to
the fiction of the United States what
the Highlander is to Scottish litera-
ture the only Interesting" white
character in it.
Bu' the Negro has of late develop
ed capacity as stock character of
fiction which no one ever dreamed
that he possessed in the good old days
when he was 3 merchantab!e eommo-
dity. 1t must be admitted, too, that
the Southern writers are working
him for all he is WORTH" as foil to
the aristocratic types Of the land Of he
roic possibilities. The Northern man,
no matter what his prejudices, is apt
to think of the Negro as having an in
dividuality of his own. To the South
ern mind, he is only shadow-an in
cident of another's lite. As such he is
invariably assigned one of two roles.
In one he figures as the devoted slave
who serves and sacrifices for his mas.
ter and mistress, and is content to live
or die, do good or evil, for those to
whom he feels himself under infinite
obligation for the living and serving
| There were such miracles no doubt,
but they were so rare as never to have
lost the miraculous character. The
other favorite aspect of the Negroe
| character from the point of view of the
Southern fictionist, is that of the poor
"n.gger" to whom liberty has brought
only misfortune, and who is relieved
by the disinterested friendship of some
one whose property he once was. There
numerous as to destroy the charm of
novelty. About the Negro as man,
with hopes, fears, and aspirstions like
other men, our literature IS very near
| ly silent Much has been written of
the slave and something of the freed
man, but thus far no one has been
found able to weld the new life to the
old.
This indeed is the great difficulty to
be overcome. AS soon as the Ameri-
can Negro seeks to rise above the level
of the former time, he finds himself
confronted with the past of his race
and the woes of his kindred. 1t is to
him not only record of subjection
but of injustice and oppression. The
.stwice-told tales" of his childhood are
animate with ranking memories OF
wrongs Slavery colored not only the
lives but the traditions of his race
With the fathers and the mothers
blood is transmitted the story, not
merely of their individual wrongs but
of races woe, which the impenetra
BILE oblivion of the past makes even
more terrible and which the sense o.
color will not permit him to forget
The white man traces his ancestry
back for generations, knows whenct
they came, where they lived and guess
es what they did. To the American
Negro that past is only darkness re
plete with unimaginable horrors. An
cestors he has none. Until within {
quarter of century he had no recorG
of his kindred. He was simply on.
I. number of an infinite mo name Sc
ries." He had no father, no mother
only sire and dam. Being bred fol
market, he had no name, only a dis
tinguishing appellative, like that of {
horse or dog. Even in comparison
with these animals he was at disad
vantage, there was no "herdbook" O
slaves. A we'll bred horse may b,
traced back in his descent for thou
sand years, and may show hundred
strains of noble blood: but even thi
poor consolation is denied the eigh
millions of slave descended men anl
women in our country.
The remembrance of this condition
is not pleasant and can never becom.
so. 1t is exasperating, CALLING, degra
ding. Every freeman's life is coloret
by this shadow. The farther he get
away from slavery, the more bite
and terrible will be his memory Of it
The wrong that was done to his fore
fathers is continuing and self-magni
flying evil. This is the inevitable con
|, sequence of the conditions of the past
no kindness can undo it; no success
can blot it out It is the sole inheri
tance the bondman left his issue, ant
it must grow heavier rather than light
sr until the very suggestion ofinequal
ity has disappeared If indeed such
time shall ever come.
The life of the Negro as q slave
, freedman, and racial outcast offers un
!, doubtedly thelrichest mine ofromanti
} material that has opened to the En-
! glish-speaking novelist since the Wiz