The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1910-07-05
THE UNkNOWADLE NEGRO

The News and Observer has been
requested by a subscriber, Hon. Jacob
Battle, of Rocky Mount, to publish a
norton Of an admirable article on
THE Unknowable Negro" published
originally in June, 1909, Hampton,s
Magazine. Judge Battle says: 1t Is
the best thing 1 have ever read on the
subject
people will never try to understand
the negro problem because they
brush aside every fact which tends
to upset a prejudice. One Of these
classes condemns all negroes lndls-
criminality for the crimes Of a few,
and derides the idea that a black
man may possess a single good quail
ity." 1.-The other class is composed
largely Of pro-negro Missionaries who
have never rubbed elbows with a real
negro; they ignore his fixed hereditary
instincts and insist on mlSf1ttlng to
him certain beautiful theories which
have elevated the white races. These
men imagine the negro to be a white
man who was u~nluckily born black"
The following excerpts are taken
from Judge D~ickson's article:
THE pro negro enthusiast and the
negro Halter are running neck and
neck to see which can do the black
man q SIedkeT INJURY. II Is OlfIeIoIll
to determine which is more unjust
the man who says there is no good in
any negro, or the ph~ilanthropist who
boosts all negroes into a false posi-
ton where they cannot maintain
themselves
TIE extremists are very far apart,
and truth lies on the moderate ground
between them. Within the past few
years the open-nlinded classes have
developed a feeling hat the negro
question may not be confined to a
section nor even to a country. 1t may
be bigger, broader. deeper-a Ques-
ton of race, heredity and civilization.
The problem is not peculiar to the
white man n the negro, nor to the
United States, nor yet to modern
times. 1t is as old as mankind and
has arisen wherever two races in
large numbers have dwelt in the same
land.
Our first problem here in America
IS to develop the negro into a self
sustaining, wealth-producing, law
abiding member of society. We need
to study carefully and broadly the
record Of the negro during his ages
of jungle sloth and his forty years Of
freedom SO that we may know cor
rectly just what we have, or have
not, accomplished in the way Of de-
Velopment- His labor could be made
of far greater value to the South
With his assistance, fully developed
and well directed, the wealth of the
South could be ~immeasurably in
creased. Millions Of dollars have
been spent to educate him and the
results are not yet manifest Perhaps
the systems employed to develop him
are at fault; or perhaps we have not
taken the time and thought necessary
to analyze the negro, and to make
sure that our efforts are widely de-
velOped.
The negro as a laborer and a
producer Of wealth is essentially diff
ferent from the white man. The negro
laborer has little conception of duty or
responsibility, and not the slightest
feeling Of kinship with his employer.
He takes no pride in his labor as a
rule, and will lay down the most i'm
portant piece of work, where dozens OF
others are depend nt on him, without
giving a moments notice. Every
contractor and builder in the South.
a IN large enterprises, must al
ways make allowances for this quality
of his negro Iaborers. Each night he
can scarcely guess how many of his
men will show up for work the next
morning Many a will start to
work, keep at it half a day, then
saunter away with his hands in his
pockets. He has made as much as he
needs, and quits. Before the war.
practically every negro was a trained
man; he was a farmer of cotton, sugar
or tobacco; he could make a shoe,
forge a nail, or build a fence. His
master had taught him some particu-
lar thing. The negro had some train
Ing In almost every simple branch Of
industry. Some were good farmers,
carpenters, blacksmiths, timers, brick
layers of stone masons. In those days
the best work OF the South was done
by negroes. Plantation discipline
could place the black boy under con-
troll of the black b~ricklayer and hold
him to his apprenticeship. Nowadays
no negro boy IN the towns will submit
to the regular hours and steady work
OF a long apprenticeship. That's not
his idea Of town. He came to town
to escape work.