The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-11-01
He Also Says Booker Washington is
"The Greatest Man, Save General
Lee, Born in the South in
Hundred Years."
SOUTHERN LEADERS SLANDERED

the negro, holding back at both extremes.
He kept the slave man from going into
the higher fields of intellectual develop
ment; he confirmed his lack of high moral
purpose and he weighed down his self-re-
spect and his individuality. all of which
were checks on the best negroes. On
the other hand the master was
check on the lowest tendencies of the
negro. He restrained his designations; nc
sought to save him from disease; he tired
to make him honest and peaceable: and
he was very careful that he should not
be an idler. The removal of the masters
authority has produced a marked change
on each of these extremes. The upper
class negro has seized with surprising
readiness his new opportunity. No sensl-
bic man in the North or in the South who
is not blinded by passion will deny that
the better negroes of the country have
made a remarkable record since the days
of emancipation. In the same way the
lower class have also made rapid prog
ress Among them idleness and shiftless-
ness have increased; petty crimes and
quarrels have increased; coarse ideas have
found greater sway; and viciousness has
augmented These good and these bad
habits are the fruits OF his freedom.
Neither of these two classes. the upper
and the lower, are all the negroes; and
in forgetting this fact some well ntentloned
people have fallen into serious error. A
man whose mind runs away into baseless
optimism is apt to point to Booker T.
Washington as product of the negro
race. NOW WASHINGTON IS A GREAT
AND GOOD MAN, A CHRISTIAN
STATESMAN. AND TAKE HIM ALL IN
ALL THE GREATEST MAN. SAVE LEE,
BORN IN THE SOUTH IN A HUNDRED
YEARS; BUT HE is NOT A TYPICAL
NEGRO. He does not even represent the
better class of negroes He is an excep-
tional man: and. endowed as he is. it is
probable that he would have remained un-
educated but for the philanthropic inter
vention of white men. The race. even
the best of them. are so far behind him
that we cannot in reason look for his re
production in the present generation. IL
is. therefore too much to hope. for a con-
tinued appearance of such men in the
near future. It is also too much to set
his development up as standard for his
race. To expect it is to insure disappoint-
ment.
In the same way some people who arc
pessimistic in regard to the negro base
their opinions on their observations OF the
negro of the lowest class. Said gentle
man to me recently: 1.-THE negro race
will die out within a century" His rea-
son was this: few years ago there were
sixteen negroes in the Jail of his county,
and the county physician had told him
that fifteen OF them had venereal dis
cases From this he argued that the
physical constitution of the race was I'M
periled Manifestly, it is illogical to
measure either the health. morals, or 9th
er quality OF the negro by the similar
quality of the most dcpraved. 1t is true
that there is III the race a large lowest
class-and a small upper class And it Is
true that this lowest class gives the race
a certain discouraging tendency. But there
is also a strong, and perhaps an increas-
ing, upper class which is ever fighting
back it's own weakness and shaking off It's
own shackles
In this connection l cannot refrain from
speaking of certain false notion in re-
gard to the negro which has caused much
error in the opinions of men North aud
South / refer to the notion that the
ante bellum negro was a benign old man
or gracious old NANNY guardian
of the family children. and a dignifed ex-
preston in ebony OF the family honor,
The falseness of this notion is due partly
to the imaginations of certain novellsts
and partly to the emotional memories OF
most Southern women and some South
ern men. AS to the letter it is pardon
able failing woman may well remen-
Der her old NANNY and have no reco'-
lection of hair-lipped Peter who ran
away with long scar across his forehead.
as the advertisements put 1t. But men
who undertake to describe the life OF the
old South ought to know what 1t was
before they talk about it. Mr. Thomas
Nelson Pages castles in Virginia are also
castles in the air The typical ante-belu0l
negro was the field hand. When We COM
pare the old and the new negro we ought
to place the new man by the side oil that
individual. And if We do net remember
what kind of man the field hand OF
slavery was-for our novelists have not re
membered much about hinl-we may iu-
form ourselves in the instructive pages OF
Olmsted or in Fanny Kemble's interesting
Journal Nine tenths of the negroes
now in America arc descended from this
part of the old slave population.
1t is important for Us to note that the
progress of the negro has brought him OPP
position as well as his repression OF tins
the white men who oppose him may not