The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-10-10

s;bla the integrity of my race. /, Tor
one. am proud of my blood. l would not
help to adulterate it legally or other
wise. | would like to see, hopeless as the
complete experiment seems to be, what
my race could accomplish, without To-
tal absorption into the white race. 1t
is natural that any human being should
resist a process that means the eN-
tinction of the race to which he be-
longs. ] have that pride of race which
would make me desire to preserve IL
intact and unauthorized. l believe that
the negro needs only the uplifting power
of knowledge and religion to make
him the peer of any race.
( The increase of negro emigration,
which is so stoutly upheld by Gaines's
brother bishop. Henry NJ. Turner, is
riddIcd by this new rectal doctrine.
He says the theory is utterly impracti-
cable He fouts it as a device by
which the ignorant and trustful of his
race have been fieeced out of untold dol
lars. as the scheme of hypocrites and
demagogues. Amalgamation is the only
future he sees for his race.
II am not blind to the fact that ANAL
gamation is no longer a theory, but well
nigh an accomplished fact; and if the
interblending of the races keeps up IN
the same ratio it has gone on in the past
/ it will be totally consummated IN the
not-far distant future. The African
negro will no longer appear as factor
in American civilization.
according to the statistics of the UNI
ted States for 1890, there were about one
! million and quarter of mulattos IN the
south, These do not include the multi
tudes who have traces of white blood i'll
| their veins. Indeed, except in remote
! sections it is difficult to find a negro OF
unmixed African blood in the entire
southern country.
! linus it appears that the dreaded a.
malgamation is already partially accom-
pIished. 1t no longer belongs to the
realm Of theory; it has been transferred
to the region of fact. Silently and in
! defiance of law, this interblending Of
races has been going on for years, until,
/ like eaven. it has well nigh leavened
the whole lump.
4 "These may be unpleasant and unpala-
i table truths both to the better class Of
white people and negroes, but they are
truths, nevertheless, and cannot be over
4 looked or set aside in amy intelligent con-
4 sideratiOn of the negro question"
He presents as causes for this the eX-
posure to which colored girls are sub
iected Ignorance, moral and religious
deprivation, and one of the most impor-
tant of all, the premium which the ne
gro sets upon white blood.
II said it to the shame of my people.
writes the bishop "colored girls in the
south often prefer to be mothers of
! white children. The white skin and
straight hair are possessions to be adj
mired and instead of being ashamed Of
I the disgrace of which such marks are
the evidence they are proud of them,
/ and boastfully fiaunt them to the world
and before the eyes of their own race.
f. With such ideas it seems hopeless
case. The girls with straight hair and
y light skin, too, are preferred for wives
by colored men to the women of pure
| African descent. With such manifest
preference for amalgamatiOn and with
such conditions to forward it on. is he Il
dreamer who predicts its final consumma-
tiOn?"
Under the head of ignorance. the bish
/ op argues that no ignorant race can pre-
serve even the semblance Of virtue when
they come in contact with more REIN
ed and intelligent race. Intelligence
and money!, he says. ''unreStralned by
moral principles will debaunch any race
less intelligent and less aftiuent There
must be intelligence if there be chasti-
ty. Who but the cultivated and refined
can properly estimate the value, of puri-
ty? Ignorant and untutored, the aver
age colored girl goes out to the tempting
and seductive influence of an exposed
life and thousands there are to bid for
her ruin. And so she is swept up into
the current of vice to land at last on the
rocks and reefs OF husbandless mother
hood"
The bishop draws in strong cOlors the
dark side of the picture of anna gama-
ton. Under the laws of the south it is
possible, he says, only through adultery
and fornication. Going through the
world with this brand upon his brow, and
his mother with a scarlet letter upon her
bosom, the bishop concludes that the
influences are enough to mar the future
of all such negro children. The subjec-
tive influence Of such humiliation operate
TO destroy the fine sense of virtue and
chastity which are the chief qualities Of
a self-respecting people.
Take the child born under such rela-
TONS Going forth without recognized
parentage, he carries with him the con-
seriousness Of tainted birth, which, if he
be human, must wound his pride and fes-
ter like a sore in his bosom. Amalga
nation without legitimacy is a blight
upon both mother and child, an unnatur-
al and divinely forbidden crime against
God and society. 1t is standing threat
to the virtue of the race, sword of
Damocles which hangs suspended above
the chastity of every daughter of the
negro in the south. The child sees, for
such things cannot be hid, the illicit re-
In of har ofh
mour and at length becomes familiar
with sin.
"'Vice is a monster of such hideous
mein,
That to be hated needs but to be seen.
But seen too oft, familiar with its face
We first endure, then pity, then embrace
Thus we see that the demoralizing
influence of unlawful amalgamation per-
meates through the strata of colored So
ciety and saps the virtues of the race,
like poison from the bite of a serpent