death and marriage had stolen youth andleft age and childhood there

death and marriage had stolen youth andleft age and childhood there

tawn

The Burkes held a hundred acres

Doc or the seventy-five acres

Old and the New I felt glad, very glad,and yet . .

wan

osie was dead

beyond the World

War, Hell, and Slavery were but childhood tales, whose young appetiteshad been whetted to an edge by school and story and half-awakened though

fluttered and thundered

the village of the colored folks

aristocracy of Toms, Dicks, andCaptains

humdrum

“looked like” they never could get farenough ahead to let her; how the crops failed and the well was yet unfinished; and, finally, how“mean” some of the white folks were

I liked to stay with the Dowells

. At first I used to be a little alarmed at theapproach of bedtime in the one lone bedroom, but embarrassment was very deftly avoided

crops needed the boys

fine faith the children had in the wisdom of their teacher was truly marvellous

hot morning

The schoolhouse was a log hut, where Colonel Wheeler used to shelter his corn. It sat in a lotbehind a rail fence and thorn bushes, near the sweetest of springs. There was an entrance where adoor once was, and within, a massive rickety fireplace; great chinks between the logs served aswindows. Furniture was scarce. A pale blackboard crouched in the corner. My desk was made ofthree boards, reinforced at critical points, and my chair, borrowed from the landlady, had to bereturned every night. Seats for the children—these puzzled me much. I was haunted by a NewEngland vision of neat little desks and chairs, but, alas! the reality was rough plank bencheswithout backs, and at times without legs. They had the one virtue of making naps dangerous,—possibly fatal, for the floor was not to be trusted

sun laughed and the water jingled

affectation

for their knowledge of theirown ignorance

She seemed to bethe centre of the family: always busy at service, or at home, or berry-picking; a little nervous andinclined to scold, like her mother, yet faithful, too, like her father. She had about her a certainfineness, the shadow of an unconscious moral heroism that would willingly give all of life to makelife broader, deeper, and fuller for her and hers

she herself longed to learn

gaunt

wandered beyond railways, beyond stage lines, to a land of “varmints” and rattlesnakes,where the coming of a stranger was an event, and men lived and died in the shadow of one bluehill

“Got a teacher? Yes.”

hunted acountry school has something to learn of the pleasures of the chase

But I wander

white teachers inthe morning, Negroes at night

superintenden

Such changes will bring far largerresults than the mere improvement of our Negroes

teaching him how not to work, but how to make theforces of nature–air, steam, water, horse-power andelectricity–work for him

industrial education is meant tomake the Negro work as he worked in the days of slavery.

highest satisfaction

does not fulll the expectations made for her

Ireceived a great many verbal messages and letters fromparents informing me that they wanted their childrentaught books, but not how to work.

laundry work, cooking andsewing and housekeeping to the young women.

withoutleisure no opportunity for thoughtful reection and thecultivation of the higher arts.”

Every coloredmechanic is by virtue of circumstances an elevator of hisrace

such a foundation as this will grow habitsof thrift, a love of work, economy, ownership of property,bank accounts. Out of it in the future will grow practicaleducation, professional education, positions of publicresponsibility

I believe most earnestly thatfor years to come the education of the people of my raceshould be so directed that the greatest proportion of themental strength of the masses will be brought to bearupon the every-day practical things of life

poorly cooked and still more poorlyserved bread and meat

impossible to nd inthe whole country an educated colored man who couldteach the making of clothing

’liberaleducation,’

in my opinion, they teach very fewchildren just what they ought to know in order tomake their way successfully in life

natural it is, then, thatwhen he has the ordering of his life he wants to live it inthe city

ighty-ve cen

something to be escaped, to be got as faraway from as possible

industriesthat gave the South its power, prominence and wealthprior to the Civil War were mainly the raising of cotton,sugar cane, rice and tobacco

mental training in connectionwith the training of the hand

both races

every slave plantation in the South was an industrialschool.

Negro mechanic about the plan and aboutthe actual building of the structure. If he wanted a suit ofclothes made he went to a Negro tailor

1903

being worked and working–to learnthat being worked meant degradation, while workingmeans civilization;

all men are created equal

North—her co-partner in guilt—cannotsalve her conscience by plastering it with gold

initiative of the richer andwiser environing group

slavery and race-prejudice are potent if not sufficient causes ofthe Negro’s position

semi-slavery

should not be blindly hated or blamed for it

Wehave no right to sit silently by while the inevitable seeds are sown for aharvest of disaster to our children, black and white

voting is necessaryto modern manhood, that color discrimination is barbarism, and thatblack boys need education as well as white boys

straightforward honesty, not in indiscriminate flattery

only hope lies in emigration beyond the borders of the United States

helped their speedier accomplishment

race problem

amal-gamation

they recognized the slavery of slaves

1800 under Gabriel in Virginia, in 1822 under Veseyin Carolina, and in 1831 again in Virginia under the terrible Nat Turner

ardor

revolt and revenge

sticks andstones and beasts

real progress may be negative and actual advance be relative retro-gression

If that is all you and your race ask, take it.

hitherto

it is easier to do ill than well in the world

cult

speech and thought of triumphant commercialism

separate as the five fin-gers, and yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress

decades of bitter complaint; it startled and won the applauseof the South

Way of Life

indissolubly

industrial education, conciliationof the South, and submission and silence as to civil and political rights

insists on thrift and self-respect, but at the same timecounsels a silent submission

modern competitive methods

First, political power,Second, insistence on civil rights,Third, higher education of Negro youth,—

impetus