Year: 1869

Lecture by Mrs. Hurper nj ssIss,sh fgacrcf,


shiioh church. corner OF Prince and Marion streets
was well dlled last night with colored people who came
to hear Mrs. +. Il. g. Harper, one Of their own race,
discourse upon 'Our Work." Rev. M. Ray presided
and introduced the speaker In few fitting words.
She said that this nation had been q divided ose.
One half had believed In slavery and one half in re,,-
DOM one half In the divine right OF the master and
the other In the divine right OF the slave That was
the aspect OF affairs 80 far as the white people were
concerned. Why it was asked, had the coored race
been at the bottom OF the social scae9 The
Jew, the German. the Irlshman were speedily
merged In the body polite and became part aud
parcel OF the nation while the coored people were
social pariahs and political outcasts. The speaker
did not know that there was any invincible an
tagonism against any particular color Il there was
II certainly was not black. There was not lady
who thought her wardrobe at all complete without
one or more black dresses. The colored peoples
hair was not perfectly straight, but that was not
the ground of the prejudice. II one should go down
ladies doing their best to put kinks In their hair,
while on the other hand the c0lored people
were doing the best they could to straighten out
thelrs. The speaker said she would concede
that her people had been poor in land
OF wealth and ignorant in land Of culture, yet she
thought that they possessed elements OF strength
and OF progress. The c0lored man had brain power,
muscular power and political power The colored





been their support in the past and would insure
their triumph In the future. What the race needed


s ss s or
race IN the scale OF being. How was it, IL was asked
that the white man had succcededs There was a
time when the island OF Manhattan was sold for
twenty-f0ur dollars. 1t was knowledge, combined
with muscle and enterprise, that had made New
brain power was not lacking ia the coored race, ace,
but like the power OF steam before the time Of Watt
the power OF electricity before the time Of Morse,
nj ha fipN0 nf
Daguerre 1t was dormant force only awaiting some
one to bring it out Its development depended on
people, and only 1000 names Of their children were
on the schoo registry while but about 700 were in
a Of the Soea SsG people
well enough But times were changing more and
more. Rude muscular labor was coming in contact
by this competition will be SO great
that people who have nothing but their
would b. be driven To- the WaII The coored cd man
should not be content with ignorance In certain
circumstances contentment was Christian virtue;
COntentment with poverty with ignorance. when
no effort was put forth 10 overcome either, was al
reap, was as true in the moral as in the physical
world. II the colored people sowed idleness
and ignorance they would reap social contempt.
No race had ever done ANYTHING until they mad
become owners OF land. II need not be expected
that the cO0red race would be any exception TO the
general law. They would never come into posses
sion Of their full power and command the respect OF
other until like Aneas they touched the earth.
race always LOOKING up to another race for bread
would be q race always covered with contempt.
But, cOlOred man would ask, CHOW shall get
landY' Let them get 1t as The Germans do who, on
the average when they land in this country have but
sixty-eiRht dollars piece. There were number Of
young coOred men who would go to Newport or
Niagara, or Long Branch, and who would make
more than this the coming summer, and return TO
the city and spend 1t all before winter ries that
amounted to nothing. The cOored people should
be to the South what the German and Norwegian
are to the great Northwest. They should get the
cotton power into their hands and use 1t for nelli-
gence for liberty and for civilization In the past
1t had beeu used for ignorance for slavery and for
barbarsm. COlOred people should be taught to
respect their word slavery taught them 10 disre
gard II. They should learn TO despise no work
less 1t was selling whiskey, and they should take the
first thing at hand and stick to that until something
better offered. determined the while to become wor
thy Of something better The cOlored race has been
a race claiming the nations pity; now let them be
race demanding their respect-nOt by cam0ring for
their rights, but by going to work and faithfully per-
forming their duties Their daughters should be
trained up to be useful. They should not be at
the piano or working cats or dogs in embrOid-
cry while their mothers were up to their elbows in
the washtub working for their support. Find a
house where this state OF afairs exists and 1t might
be set down as certainty that there was something
wrong there II one wants to know what young
men are let him ind out what kind OF women he
ass0ciatts with. Mrs. Harper spoke at considerable
length, giving much other sensible advice which II
needed cannot but tell the condition " the
in whose behalf she labors