THE COLORED RACE by John Edson White

Pacific Press Publishing Company · OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA · Jun 20, 1900

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 26, No. 25.

THE COLORED RACE.

By John Edson White

IN the Southern States a large proportion of the inhabitants are colored. Their number at the close of the Civil War, thirty-five years ago, was about three and one-half millions. When slavery was abolished in the United States, the future of the negro was a much-discussed problem; but the impression largely prevailed that, left to themselves, without the protecting care of their former masters, the race would soon run out, thus settling the disturbing problem. But the logic of thirty-five years of experience disproves any such theory, as this race in the South has increased in this time from three and one-half millions to nearly eight millions, thus considerably more than doubling their number.

The history and conditions of this people since they obtained their freedom are worthy of study, if we are interested at all in their future. Before the war, the slaves were under the protection of their owners. Their lives and health represented a certain value, and it appealed to the business interests of the slave-owners to care for their property. Hence, the negroes were housed, they were fed, and they were doctored in sickness.

More than this, all the thinking and planning were done for them. As all the labor was performed by the slaves, they must be trained to proficiency, not only in the cotton, corn, and tobacco fields, but also in the necessary trades, where a certain amount of skill is required.

One man was taught the carpenter's trade, so that he could do the building and repairing required on the plantation. Another became a blacksmith, so that he might shoe the horses and mend the simple breaks in the tools and machinery. Another became a stone-mason. And others were trained to other mechanical work, until such avenues of labor were filled and kept filled by intelligent, trained slaves. By this method both city, town, and country were supplied with colored workmen in nearly all mechanical lines.

Before the war, the slaves in many ways came in direct contact with their white owners. Their every-day relation to master and mistress made this inevitable. Hence, the example and restraining influence of a higher civilization were ever before them, and did have a moulding influence upon their habits and lives. How good or how bad this influence was depended entirely upon the predominance of good or evil in the families of their owners.

In religious matters the services of the whites were generally opened to the slaves. They had a gallery or special corner of the church for themselves, where they could listen to the same religious instruction as did their masters. This had a more or less moulding influence on their own form of worship.

In their every-day life the slaves had no occasion for thought or care for themselves; for all they got was supplied by their owners, and any care for personal interests or welfare or surroundings

was unnecessary in most cases. Hence, with no education possible, and no occasion for thought for the morrow, they became the happy-go-lucky class so often described in the ante-bellum literature.

Of course there were exceptions, where the slave was allowed to earn money for himself, by working overtime or by some other arrangement. In such event the right and delight of ownership would often manifest their power and hold upon the human heart in grotesque ways, as in the case of the slave going home bareheaded, with a new straw hat under his coat. When asked by a fellow-slave why he did not wear his hat and spare his head, he replied, "Dat's all right, Pomp; hat's mine, head's massa's."

"Turned loose" at the close of the war, with no education, with no training in caring for themselves, and no knowledge of the world, it is not surprising that they had crude and extravagant ideas of what freedom meant, and but little concern as to what lay before them in life.

At this time the personal interest which the whites had in them as slaves ceased, and they were left to think, and plan, and provide for themselves. There was little if any direct personal contact between the slave and the family of the master, and the churches were no longer open to them. Hence, they became as much a separate people, and as much cut off from the elevating surroundings and contact with the home and religious life of the educated and refined people, as if separated from them by miles.

Ignorance given liberty, and left to itself, after restraint and bondage, is sure to go lower in the scale before it begins the work of elevation. This was the case when the slaves were freed. Cut off from former associations and left to themselves, they lost in morality and refinement.

For a time they held their own in trades, but the rising generation did not care to learn trades, preferring to earn wages and spend the money.

As old mechanics died off, there was no young supply to take their places, and these were soon filled by white men. Thus they became practically restricted to day labor, which is always precarious, and to tenant farming, which is seldom profitable. Hence it is a question often discussed whether the negro was not better provided with shelter, food, and clothing before the war than since the Emancipation Proclamation came in force.

In religious matters they were also in difficulty. There was no educated ministry. Therefore the pulpits could only be supplied by those who had been slaves; and they took the best they could get. Few thus chosen could read a verse of Scripture; and many occupy pulpits to-day who can not read. Of a deeply religious but superstitious and emotional nature, it is not surprising that an emotional religion was evolved, and more attention given to feeling and physical symptoms than to character and the exemplification of the sermon on the mount in every-day life. Conversion, which must consist of some wonderful supernatural manifestation, becomes the assurance of a home in heaven, and "once in grace always in grace" assures the happy reward. Thus, religion with many church-members is entirely divorced from every-day life, and the sentiment prevails that if you have been converted and pay your church dues you are sure of heaven, no matter what iniquity may be indulged in during the week.

J. E. WHITE.

[This will be followed by other articles from the pen of Mr. White.]