The broad ax., 1906-11-17
CHAPTER ".

But like all men born in poor cir
crmstances he had many difficulties to
srrmount and although there did not
exist so intensely, that narrow mind
ed and provincial prejudice on account
os color as prevails to day yet there
Was enough of it to render his sue
cess harder to attain. The ban OF
slavery was not then so exclusively
d.srraceful to the Colored races as
the whites themselves had hardly es-
CAPPED from it. There were too many
descendants of white people who had
keen sold into slavery and sent to
rLe plantations for crimes. Thus sla-
very could not then be regarded as Pc
cuIiarly a stain upon the freedom of
any race. White people were arrested
for vagrancy and sold and system
of apprenticeship existed in all the
states that was a real enslavement
And it is only within the last century
that white slavery has died out in
Germany and some other nations. And
We all should know that twenty mil
lion of white slaves were freed in
Russia by the Car just about the be-
ginning of our Great Civi war of 1861.
These facts should be borne in mind
by all these who are disposed to re-
gard the previous condition OF ser
Nitude" as attaching any stain upon
the Afro-American body of the Negro
race. Old Rome was the great slave
holder of the world. Her laws were
the never ceasing fountain of slavery.
Fathers owned and sold their sons in
TO slavery If the son redeemed him.
self he could be sold once more. All
children of slave mothers were slaves.
And the captives of war were sold in
TO slavery. And thus as Rome grew
old all of her surrounding regions
svarmed with slaves. They were al
most exclusively white. AS slave hol.
ding there was not profitable and in
some respects. The law favored eman-
oipation, freedom abounded. And 1t
became proverbial in old Rome that
the first descendants of the freedmen
we're degenerates. They were in
clined to be idle and became, to use
our modern description "1oafers and
lard cases. And this too is a COM
plant in Russia of the offspring OF
the emancipated serfs While the dis
cipline of slavery is severe 1t no doubt
may be beneficial in some respects.
As one of the ex-German soldiers In
late magazine article entitled "The
Soldier Of the Kaiser" says: at was
hell-but it made a man of me-" no
doubt like all adversities it has its
sweet uses. We have thus made
long disgression in ORDER to state some
truth, it were well our readers should
forever bear in mind; the Colored for
their own self-respect-the whites
Tor the sake Of justice to their fel
low citizens. BY the way, on leaving
this subject let us state that Thomas
Jefferson in his Autobiography says
that in the debates on the constitution
concerning the assessment of taxes
and the right of representation by the
South for her slaves, that John
Adams declared emphatically that,
the laboring people of the North were
Serfs as much so as the slaves Of the
South. The creed of the Declaration
of Independence had few hearty be-
levers. But for Thomas Jefferson we
never should have had that And al
though young Tom Jefferson had writ
ten it all out and enclosed 1t with
all its peculiar phrases and, in por-
lions of the article, with al its espe-
cial forms as an address TO old Geo.
Sd some years before (see Note c. to
Appendix of his Autobiography Yet
several writer's would rob him OF that
immortal laurel in the wreath that
crowns his brow.
Again to return. Ben found himself
compelled in duty, as he conceived It,
to assist his father about the time he
had attained his 18th year. His for
mer patron ana master had retired
from business. The library and
store were kept BY people who had no
use for Ben's exclusive services. he
sometimes assisted them more to get
Access to books than anything else
Being naturally Industrious and .
good son he aided HIS father in his
work He had desk AZ the book
store where he SAT and kept accounts
for the proprietor e such time as
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