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diff --git a/31268-8.txt b/31268-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2a630e1 --- /dev/null +++ b/31268-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1238 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Civilization the Primal Need of the Race, by +Alexander Crummell + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Civilization the Primal Need of the Race + The American Negro Academy. Occasional Paper No. 3 + +Author: Alexander Crummell + +Release Date: February 13, 2010 [EBook #31268] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CIVILIZATION THE PRIMAL NEED *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Stephanie Eason, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. + + + + + + + + + + The American Negro Academy + + Occasional Papers, No. 3. + + + CIVILIZATION THE PRIMAL NEED OF THE RACE, + The Inaugural Address, + + ALEXANDER CRUMMELL, + + MARCH 5, 1897. + + --AND-- + + THE ATTITUDE OF THE AMERICAN MIND TOWARD + THE NEGRO INTELLECT, + First Annual Address, + + DEC. 28, 1897, + + --BY-- + + ALEXANDER CRUMMELL, + + President of the American Negro Academy. + + + Price, Fifteen Cents. + + WASHINGTON, D. C. + PUBLISHED BY THE ACADEMY, + 1898. + + + + +OCCASIONAL PAPERS. + + +No. 1.--A Review of Hoffman's Race Traits and Tendencies of the + American Negro.--Kelly Miller 25 Cts. + +No. 2.--The Conservation of Races.--W. E. Burghardt DuBois 15 Cts. + +No. 3.--(a) Civilization, the Primal Need of the Race; + (b) The Attitude of the American Mind Toward the + Negro Intellect.--Alexander Crummell 15 Cts. + + +Orders filled through the Corresponding Secretary, J. W. Cromwell, 1439 +Pierce Place, Washington, D. C. + +Trade supplied through John H. Wills, 506 Eleventh Street, N. W., +Washington, D. C. + + + + +CIVILIZATION, THE PRIMAL NEED OF THE RACE. + + +GENTLEMEN:-- + +There is no need, I apprehend, that I should undertake to impress you +with a sense either of the need or of the importance of our assemblage +here to-day. The fact of your coming here is, of itself, the clearest +evidence of your warm acquiescence in the summons to this meeting, and +of your cordial interest in the objects which it purposes to consider. + +Nothing has surprised and gratified me so much as the anxiousness of +many minds for the movement which we are on the eve of beginning. In the +letters which our Secretary, Mr. Cromwell, has received, and which will +be read to us, we are struck by the fact that one cultured man here and +another there,--several minds in different localities,--tell him that +this is just the thing they have desired, and have been looking for. + +I congratulate you, therefore, gentlemen, on the opportuneness of your +assemblage here. I felicitate you on the superior and lofty aims which +have drawn you together. And, in behalf of your compeers, resident here +in the city of Washington, I welcome you to the city and to the important +deliberations to which our organization invites you. + +Just here, let me call your attention to the uniqueness and specialty of +this conference. It is unlike any other which has ever taken place in +the history of the Negro, on the American Continent. There have been, +since the landing of the first black cargo of slaves at Jamestown, Va., +in 1619, numerous conventions of men of our race. There have been +Religious Assemblies, Political Conferences, suffrage meetings, +educational conventions. But _our_ meeting is for a purpose which, while +inclusive, in some respects, of these various concerns, is for an object +more distinct and positive than any of them. + +What then, it may be asked, is the special undertaking we have before +us, in this Academy? My answer is the civilization of the Negro race in +the United States, by the scientific processes of literature, art, and +philosophy, through the agency of the cultured men of this same Negro +race. And here, let me say, that the special race problem of the Negro +in the United States is his civilization. + +I doubt if there is a man in this presence who has a higher conception +of Negro capacity than your speaker; and this of itself, precludes the +idea, on my part, of race disparagement. But, it seems manifest to me +that, as a race in this land, we have no art; we have no science; we +have no philosophy; we have no scholarship. Individuals we have in each +of these lines; but mere individuality cannot be recognized as the +aggregation of a family, a nation, or a race; or as the interpretation +of any of them. And until we attain the role of civilization, we cannot +stand up and hold our place in the world of culture and enlightenment. +And the forfeiture of such a place means, despite, inferiority, +repulsion, drudgery, poverty, and ultimate death! Now gentlemen, for the +creation of a complete and rounded man, you need the impress and the +moulding of the highest arts. But how much more so for the realizing of +a true and lofty _race_ of men. What is true of a man is deeply true of +a people. The special need in such a case is the force and application +of the highest arts; not mere mechanism; not mere machinery; not mere +handicraft; not the mere grasp on material things; not mere temporal +ambitions. These are but incidents; important indeed, but pertaining +mainly to man's material needs, and to the feeding of the body. And the +incidental in life is incapable of feeding the living soul. For "man +cannot live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the +mouth of God." And civilization is the _secondary_ word of God, given +for the nourishment of humanity. + +To make _men_ you need civilization; and what I mean by civilization is +the action of exalted forces, both of God and man. For manhood is the +most majestic thing in God's creation; and hence the demand for the very +highest art in the shaping and moulding of human souls. + +What is the great difficulty with the black race, in this era, in this +land? It is that both within their ranks, and external to themselves, by +large schools of thought interested in them, material ideas in divers +forms are made prominent, as the master-need of the race, and as the +surest way to success. Men are constantly dogmatizing theories of sense +and matter as the salvable hope of the race. Some of our leaders and +teachers boldly declare, now, that _property_ is the source of power; +and then, that _money_ is the thing which commands respect. At one time +it is _official position_ which is the masterful influence in the +elevation of the race; at another, men are disposed to fall back upon +_blood_ and _lineage_, as the root (source) of power and progress. + +Blind men! For they fail to see that neither property, nor money, nor +station, nor office, nor lineage, are fixed factors, in so large a thing +as the destiny of man; that they are not vitalizing qualities in the +changeless hopes of humanity. The greatness of peoples springs from +their ability to grasp the grand conceptions of being. It is the +absorption of a people, of a nation, of a race, in large majestic and +abiding things which lifts them up to the skies. These once apprehended, +all the minor details of life follow in their proper places, and spread +abroad in the details and the comfort of practicality. But until these +gifts of a lofty civilization are secured, men are sure to remain low, +debased and grovelling. + +It was the apprehension of this great truth which led Melancthon, 400 +years ago, to declare--"Unless we have the scientific mind we shall +surely revert again to barbarism." He was a scholar and a classic, a +theologian and a philosopher. With probably the exception of Erasmus, he +was the most erudite man of his age. He was the greatest Grecian of his +day. He was rich "with the spoils of time." And so running down the +annals of the ages, he discovered the majestic fact, which Coleridge has +put in two simple lines:-- + + "We may not hope from outward things to win + The passion and the life whose fountains are within;" + +which Wordsworth, in grand style, has declared, + + "By the soul only the nations shall be free." + +But what is this other than the utterance of Melancthon,--"Without the +scientific mind, barbarism." This is the teaching of history. For 2,000 +years, Europe has been governed, in all its developments, by Socrates, +and Aristotle, and Plato, and Euclid. These were the great idealists; +and as such, they were the great progenitors of all modern civilization, +the majestic agents of God for the civil upbuilding of men and nations. +For civilization is, in its origins, ideals; and hence, in the loftiest +men, it bursts forth, producing letters, literature, science, +philosophy, poetry, sculpture, architecture, yea, all the arts; and +brings them with all their gifts, and lays them in the lap of religion, +as the essential condition of their vital permanance and their +continuity. + +But civilization never seeks permanent abidence upon the heights of +Olympus. She is human, and seeks all human needs. And so she descends, +re-creating new civilizations; uplifting the crudeness of laws, giving +scientific precision to morals and religion, stimulating enterprise, +extending commerce, creating manufactures, expanding mechanism and +mechanical inventions; producing revolutions and reforms; humanizing +labor; meeting the minutest human needs, even to the manufacturing +needles for the industry of seamstresses and for the commonest uses of +human fingers. All these are the fruits of civilization. + +Who are to be the agents to lift up this people of ours to the grand +plane of civilization? Who are to bring them up to the height of noble +thought, grand civility, a chaste and elevating culture, refinement, and +the impulses of irrepressible progress? It is to be done by the scholars +and thinkers, who have secured the vision which penetrates the center of +nature, and sweeps the circles of historic enlightenment; and who have +got insight into the life of things, and learned the art by which men +touch the springs of action. + +For to transform and stimulate the souls of a race or a people is a work +of intelligence. It is a work which demands the clear induction of +world-wide facts, and the perception of their application to new +circumstances. It is a work which will require the most skillful +resources, and the use of the scientific spirit. + +But every man in a race cannot be a philosopher: nay, but few men in any +land, in any age, can grasp ideal truth. Scientific ideas however must +be apprehended, else there can be no progress, no elevation. + +Just here arises the need of the trained and scholarly men of a race to +employ their knowledge and culture and teaching and to guide both the +opinions and habits of the crude masses. The masses, nowhere are, or can +be, learned or scientific. The scholar is exceptional, just the same as a +great admiral like Nelson is, or a grand soldier like Cæsar or Napoleon. +But the leader, the creative and organizing mind, is the master-need in +all the societies of man. But, if they are not inspired with the notion +of leadership and duty, then with all their Latin and Greek and science +they are but pedants, trimmers, opportunists. For all true and lofty +scholarship is weighty with the burdens and responsibilities of life and +humanity. + +But these reformers must not be mere scholars. They must needs be both +scholars and philanthropists. For this, indeed, has it been in all the +history of men. In all the great revolutions, and in all great reforms +which have transpired, scholars have been conspicuous; in the +re-construction of society, in formulating laws, in producing great +emancipations, in the revival of letters, in the advancement of +science, in the rennaissance of art, in the destruction of gross +superstitions and in the restoration of true and enlightened religion. + +And what is the spirit with which they are to come to this work? My +answer is, that _disinterestedness_ must animate their motives and their +acts. Whatever rivalries and dissensions may divide man in the social or +political world, let generosity govern _us_. Let us emulate one another +in the prompt recognition of rare genius, or uncommon talent. Let there +be no tardy acknowledgment of worth in _our_ world of intellect. If we +are fortunate enough, to see, of a sudden, a clever mathematician of our +class, a brilliant poet, a youthful, but promising scientist or +philosopher, let us rush forward, and hail his coming with no hesitant +admiration, with no reluctant praise. + +It is only thus, gentlemen, that we can bring forth, stimulate, and +uplift all the latent genius, garnered up, in the by-places and +sequestered corners of this neglected Race. + +It is only thus we can nullify and break down the conspiracy which would +fain limit and narrow the range of Negro talent in this caste-tainted +country. It is only thus, we can secure that recognition of genius and +scholarship in the republic of letters, which is the rightful +prerogative of every race of men. It is only thus we can spread abroad +and widely disseminate that culture and enlightment which shall permeate +and leaven the entire social and domestic life of our people and so give +that civilization which is the nearest ally of religion. + + + + +THE ATTITUDE OF THE AMERICAN MIND TOWARD THE NEGRO INTELLECT. + + +For the first time in the history of this nation the colored people of +America have undertaken the difficult task, of stimulating and fostering +the genius of their race as a distinct and definite purpose. Other and +many gatherings have been made, during our own two and a half centuries' +residence on this continent, for educational purposes; but ours is the +first which endeavors to rise up to the plane of culture. + +For my own part I have no misgivings either with respect to the +legitimacy, the timeliness, or the prospective success of our venture. +The race in the brief period of a generation, has been so fruitful in +intellectual product, that the time has come for a coalescence of +powers, and for reciprocity alike in effort and appreciation. I +congratulate you, therefore, on this your first anniversary. To me it +is, I confess, a matter of rejoicing that we have, as a people, reached +a point where we have a class of men who will come together for +purposes, so pure, so elevating, so beneficent, as the cultivation of +mind, with the view of meeting the uses and the needs of our benighted +people. + +I feel that if this meeting were the end of this Academy; if I could see +that it would die this very day, I would nevertheless, cry out--"All +hail!" even if I had to join in with the salutation--"farewell forever!" +For, first of all, you have done, during the year, that which was never +done so completely before,--a work which has already told upon the +American mind; and next you have awakened in the Race an ambition which, +in some form, is sure to reproduce both mental and artistic organization +in the future. + +The cultured classes of our country have never interested themselves to +stimulate the desires or aspirations of the mind of our race. They have +left us terribly alone. Such stimulation, must, therefore, in the very +nature of things, come from ourselves. + +Let us state here a simple, personal incident, which will well serve to +illustrate a history. + +I entered, sometime ago, the parlor of a distinguished southern +clergyman. A kinsman was standing at his mantel, writing. The clergyman +spoke to his relative--"Cousin, let me introduce to you the Rev. C., a +clergyman of our Church," His cousin turned and looked down at me; but +as soon as he saw my black face, he turned away with disgust, and paid +no more attention to me than if I were a dog. + +Now, this porcine gentleman, would have been perfectly courteous, if I +had gone into his parlor as a cook, or a waiter, or a bootblack. But my +profession, as a clergyman, suggested the idea of letters and +cultivation; and the contemptible snob at once forgot his manners, and +put aside the common decency of his class. + +Now, in this, you can see the attitude of the American mind toward the +Negro intellect. A reference to this attitude seems necessary, if we +would take in, properly, the present condition of Negro culture. + +It presents a most singular phenomenon. Here was a people laden with the +spoils of the centuries, bringing with them into this new land the +culture of great empires; and, withal, claiming the exalted name and +grand heritage of Christians. By their own voluntary act they placed +right beside them a large population of another race of people, seized +as captives, and brought to their plantations from a distant continent. +This other race was an unlettered, unenlightened, and a pagan people. + +What was the attitude taken by this master race toward their benighted +bondsmen? It was not simply that of indifference or neglect. There was +nothing negative about it. + +They began, at the first, a systematic ignoring of the fact of intellect +in this abased people. They undertook the process of darkening their +minds. + +"Put out the light, and then, put out the light!" was their cry for +centuries. Paganizing themselves, they sought a deeper paganizing of +their serfs than the original paganism that these had brought from +Africa. There was no legal artifice conceivable which was not resorted +to, to blindfold their souls from the light of letters; and the church, +in not a few cases, was the prime offender.[1] + +Then the legislatures of the several states enacted laws and Statutes, +closing the pages of every book printed to the eyes of Negroes; barring +the doors of every school-room against them! And this was the +systematized method of the intellect of the South, to stamp out the +brains of the Negro! + +It was done, too, with the knowledge that the Negro had brain power. +There was _then_, no denial that the Negro had intellect. That denial +was an after thought. Besides, legislatures never pass laws forbidding +the education of pigs, dogs, and horses. They pass such laws against the +intellect of _men_. + +However, there was then, at the very beginning of the slave trade, +everywhere, in Europe, the glintings forth of talent in great Negro +geniuses,--in Spain, and Portugal, in France and Holland and England;[2] +and Phillis Wheatley and Banneker and Chavis and Peters, were in +evidence on American soil. + +It is manifest, therefore, that the objective point in all this +legislation was INTELLECT,--the intellect of the Negro! It was an effort +to becloud and stamp out the intellect of the Negro! + +The _first_ phase of this attitude reached over from about 1700 to +1820:--and as the result, almost Egyptian darkness fell upon the mind of +the race, throughout the whole land. + +Following came a more infamous policy. It was the denial of +intellectuality in the Negro; the assertion that he was not a human +being, that he did not belong to the human race. This covered the period +from 1820 to 1835, when Gliddon and Nott and others, published their +so-called physiological work, to prove that the Negro was of a different +species from the white man. + +A distinguished illustration of this ignoble sentiment can be given. In +the year 1833 or 4 the speaker was an errand boy in the Anti-slavery +office in New York City. + +On a certain occasion he heard a conversation between the Secretary and +two eminent lawyers from Boston,--Samuel E. Sewell and David Lee Child. +They had been to Washington on some legal business. While at the Capitol +they happened to dine in the company of the great John C. Calhoun, then +senator from South Carolina. It was a period of great ferment upon the +question of Slavery, States' Rights, and Nullification; and consequently +the Negro was the topic of conversation at the table. One of the +utterances of Mr. Calhoun was to this effect--"That if he could find a +Negro who knew the Greek syntax, he would then believe that the Negro +was a human being and should be treated as a man." + +Just think of the crude asininity of even a great man! Mr. Calhoun went +to "Yale" to study the Greek Syntax, and graduated there. His son went +to Yale to study the Greek Syntax, and graduated there. His grandson, in +recent years, went to Yale, to learn the Greek Syntax, and graduated +there. Schools and Colleges were necessary for the Calhouns, and all +other white men to learn the Greek syntax. + +And yet this great man knew that there was not a school, nor a college +in which a black boy could learn his A. B. C's. He knew that the law in +all the Southern States forbade Negro instruction under the severest +penalties. How then was the Negro to learn the Greek syntax? How then +was he to evidence to Mr. Calhoun his human nature? Why, it is manifest +that Mr. Calhoun expected the Greek syntax to grow in _Negro brains_, by +spontaneous generation! + +Mr. Calhoun was then, as much as any other American, an exponent of the +nation's mind upon this point. Antagonistic as they were upon _other_ +subjects, upon the rejection of the Negro intellect they were a unit. +And this, measurably, is the attitude of the American mind +today:--measurably, I say, for thanks to the Almighty, it is not +universally so. + +There has always been a school of philanthropists in this land who have +always recognized mind in the Negro; and while recognizing the +limitations which _individual_ capacity demanded, claimed that for the +RACE, there was no such thing possible for its elevation save the +widest, largest, highest, improvement. Such were our friends and patrons +in New England in New York, Pennsylvania, a few among the Scotch +Presbyterians and the "Friends" in grand old North Carolina; a great +company among the Congregationalists of the East, nobly represented down +to the present, by the "American Missionary Society," which tolerates no +stint for the Negro intellect in its grand solicitudes. But these were +exceptional. + +Down to the year 1825, I know of no Academy or College which would open +its doors to a Negro.[3] In the South it was a matter of absolute legal +disability. In the North, it was the ostracism of universal +caste-sentiment. The theological schools of the land, and of all names, +shut their doors against the black man. An eminent friend of mine, the +noble, fervent, gentlemanly Rev. Theodore S. Wright, then a Presbyterian +licentiate, was taking private lessons in theology, at Princeton; and +for this offense was kicked out of one of its halls. + +In the year 1832 Miss Prudence Crandall opened a private school for the +education of colored girls; and it set the whole State of Connecticut in +a flame. Miss Crandall was mobbed, and the school was broken up. + +The year following, the trustees of Canaan Academy in New Hampshire +opened its doors to Negro youths; and this act set the people of that +state on fire. The farmers of the region assembled with 90 yoke of oxen, +dragged the Academy into a swamp, and a few weeks afterward drove the +black youths from the town. + +These instances will suffice. They evidence the general statement, _i. e._ +that the American mind has refused to foster and to cultivate the Negro +intellect. Join to this a kindred fact, of which there is the fullest +evidence. Impelled, at times, by pity, a modicum of schooling and +training has been given the Negro; but even this, almost universally, +with reluctance, with cold criticism, with microscopic scrutiny, with +icy reservation, and at times, with ludicrous limitations. + +Cheapness characterizes almost all the donations of the American people +to the Negro:--Cheapness, in all the past, has been the regimen provided +for the Negro in every line of his intellectual, as well as his lower +life. And so, cheapness is to be the rule in the future, as well for his +higher, as for his lower life:--cheap wages and cheap food, cheap and +rotten huts; cheap and dilapidated schools; cheap and stinted weeks of +schooling; cheap meeting houses for worship; cheap and ignorant +ministers; cheap theological training; and now, cheap learning, culture +and civilization! + +Noble exceptions are found in the grand literary circles in which Mr. +Howells moves--manifest in his generous editing of our own Paul Dunbar's +poems. But this generosity is not general, even in the world of American +letters. + +You can easily see this in the attempt, now-a-days, to side-track the +Negro intellect, and to place it under limitations never laid upon any +other class. + +The elevation of the Negro has been a moot question for a generation +past. But even to-day what do we find the general reliance of the +American mind in determinating this question? Almost universally the +resort is to material agencies! The ordinary, and sometimes the +_extraordinary_ American is unable to see that the struggle of a +degraded people for elevation is, in its very nature, a warfare, and +that its main weapon is the cultivated and scientific mind. + +Ask the great men of the land how this Negro problem is to be solved, +and then listen to the answers that come from divers classes of our +white fellow-citizens. The merchants and traders of our great cities +tell us--"The Negro must be taught to work;" and they will pour out +their moneys by thousands to train him to toil. The clergy in large +numbers, cry out--"Industrialism is the only hope of the Negro;" for +this is the bed-rock, in their opinion, of Negro evangelization! "Send +him to Manual Labor Schools," cries out another set of philanthropists. +"Hic haec, hoc," is going to prove the ruin of the Negro" says the Rev. +Steele, an erudite Southern Savan. "You must begin at the bottom with +the Negro," says another eminent authority--as though the Negro had been +living in the clouds, and had never reached the bottom. Says the +Honorable George T. Barnes, of Georgia--"The kind of education the Negro +should receive should not be very refined nor classical, but adapted to +his present condition:" as though there is to be no future for the +Negro. + +And so you see that even now, late in the 19th century, in this land of +learning and science, the creed is--"Thus far and no farther", _i. e._ +for the American black man. + +One would suppose from the universal demand for the mere industrialism +for this race of ours, that the Negro had been going daily to dinner +parties, eating terrapin and indulging in champagne; and returning home +at night, sleeping on beds of eiderdown; breakfasting in the morning in +his bed, and then having his valet to clothe him daily in purple and +fine linen--all these 250 years of his sojourn in this land. And then, +just now, the American people, tired of all this Negro luxury, was +calling him, for the first time, to blister his hands with the hoe, and +to learn to supply his needs by sweatful toil in the cotton fields. + +Listen a moment, to the wisdom of a great theologian, and withal as +great philanthropist, the Rev. Dr. Wayland, of Philadelphia. Speaking, +not long since, of the "Higher Education" of the colored people of the +South, he said "that this subject concerned about 8,000,000 of our +fellow-citizens, among whom are probably 1,500,000 voters. The education +suited to these people is that which should be suited to white people +under the same circumstances. These people are bearing the impress which +was left on them by two centuries of slavery and several centuries of +barbarism. This education must begin at the bottom. It must first of all +produce the power of self-support to assist them to better their +condition. It should teach them good citizenship and should build them +up morally. It should be, first, a good English education. They should +be imbued with the knowledge of the Bible. They should have an +industrial education. An industrial education leads to self-support and +to the elevation of their condition. Industry is itself largely an +education, intellectually and morally, and, above all, an education of +character. Thus we should make these people self-dependent. This +education will do away with pupils being taught Latin and Greek, while +they do not know the rudiments of English." + +Just notice the cautious, restrictive, limiting nature of this advice! +Observe the lack of largeness, freedom and generosity in it. Dr. +Wayland, I am sure, has never specialized just such a regimen for the +poor Italians, Hungarians or Irish, who swarm, in lowly degradation, in +immigrant ships to our shores. No! for them he wants, all Americans +want, the widest, largest culture of the land; the instant opening, not +simply of the common schools; and then an easy passage to the bar, the +legislature, and even the judgeships of the nation. And they oft times +get there. + +But how different the policy with the Negro. _He_ must have "an +education which begins at the bottom." "He should have an industrial +education," &c. His education must, first of all, produce the power of +self-support, &c. + +Now, all this thought of Dr. Wayland is all true. But, my friends, it is +all false, too; and for the simple reason that it is only half truth. +Dr. Wayland seems unable to rise above the plane of burden-bearing for +the Negro. He seems unable to gauge the idea of the Negro becoming a +thinker. He seems to forget that a race of thoughtless toilers are +destined to be forever a race of senseless _boys_; for only beings who +think are men. + +How pitiable it is to see a great good man be-fuddled by a half truth. +For to allege "Industrialism" to be the grand agency in the elevation of +a race of already degraded labourers, is as much a mere platitude as to +say, "they must eat and drink and sleep;" for man cannot live without +these habits. But they never civilize man; and _civilization_ is the +objective point in the movement for Negro elevation. Labor, just like +eating and drinking, is one of the inevitabilities of life; one of its +positive necessities. And the Negro has had it for centuries; but it has +never given him manhood. It does not _now_, in wide areas of population, +lift him up to moral and social elevation. Hence the need of a new +factor in his life. The Negro needs light: light thrown in upon all the +circumstances of his life. The light of civilization. + +Dr. Wayland fails to see two or three important things in this Negro +problem:-- + +(a) That the Negro has no need to go to a manual labor school.[4] He has +been for two hundred years and more, the greatest laborer in the land. +He is a laborer _now_; and he must always be a laborer, or he must die. +But: + +(b) Unfortunately for the Negro, he has been so wretchedly ignorant that +he has never known the value of his sweat and toil. He has been forced +into being an unthinking labor-machine. And this he is, to a large +degree, to-day under freedom. + +(c) Now the great need of the Negro, in our day and time, is intelligent +impatience at the exploitation of his labor, on the one hand; on the +other hand courage to demand a larger share of the wealth which his toil +creates for others. + +It is not a mere negative proposition that settles this question. It is +not that the Negro does not need the hoe, the plane, the plough, and the +anvil. It is the positive affirmation that the Negro needs the light of +cultivation; needs it to be thrown in upon all his toil, upon his whole +life and its environments. + +What he needs is CIVILIZATION. He needs the increase of his higher wants, +of his mental and spiritual needs. _This_, mere animal labor has never +given him, and never can give him. But it will come to him, as an +individual, and as a class, just in proportion as the higher culture +comes to his leaders and teachers, and so gets into his schools, academies +and colleges; and then enters his pulpits; and so filters down into his +families and his homes; and the Negro learns that he is no longer to be a +serf, but that he is to bare his strong brawny arm as a laborer; _not_ to +make the white man a Croesus, but to make himself a man. He is always to +be a laborer; but now, in these days of freedom and the schools, he is to +be a laborer with intelligence, enlightenment and manly ambitions. + +But, when his culture fits him for something more than a field hand or a +mechanic, he is to have an open door set wide before him! And that +culture, according to his capacity, he must claim as his rightful +heritage, as a man:--not stinted training, not a caste education, not a +Negro curriculum. + +The Negro Race in this land must repudiate this absurd notion which is +stealing on the American mind. The Race must declare that it is not to +be put into a single groove; and for the simple reason (1) that _man_ +was made by his Maker to traverse the whole circle of existence, above +as well as below; and that universality is the kernel of all true +civilization, of all race elevation. And (2) that the Negro mind, +imprisoned for nigh three hundred years, needs breadth and freedom, +largeness, altitude, and elasticity; not stint nor rigidity, nor +contractedness. + +But the "Gradgrinds" are in evidence on all sides, telling us that the +colleges and scholarships given us since emancipation, are all a +mistake; and that the whole system must be reversed. The conviction is +widespread that the Negro has no business in the higher walks of +scholarship; that, for instance, Prof. Scarborough has no right to labor +in philology; Professor Kelly Miller in mathematics; Professor Du Bois, +in history; Dr. Bowen, in theology; Professor Turner, in science; nor +Mr. Tanner in art. There is no repugnance to the Negro buffoon, and the +Negro scullion; but so soon as the Negro stands forth as an intellectual +being, this toad of American prejudice, as at the touch of Ithuriel's +spear, starts up a devil! + +It is this attitude, this repellant, this forbidding attitude of the +American mind, which forces the Negro in this land, to both recognize +and to foster the talent and capacity of his own race, and to strive to +put that capacity and talent to use for the race. I have detailed the +dark and dreadful attempt to stamp that intellect out of existence. It +is not only a past, it is also, modified indeed, a present fact; and out +of it springs the need of just such an organization as the Negro +Academy. + +Now, gentlemen and friends, seeing that the American mind in the general, +revolts from Negro genius, the Negro himself is duty bound to see to the +cultivation and the fostering of his own race-capacity. This is the +chief purpose of this Academy. _Our_ special mission is the encouragement +of the genius and talent in our own race. Wherever we see great Negro +ability it is our office to light upon it not tardily, not hesitatingly; +but warmly, ungrudgingly, enthusiastically, for the honor of our race, +and for the stimulating self-sacrifice in upbuilding the race. Fortunately +for us, as a people, this year has given us more than ordinary opportunity +for such recognition. Never before, in American history, has there been +such a large discovery of talent and genius among us. + +Early in the year there was published by one of our members, a volume of +papers and addresses, of more than usual excellence. You know gentlemen, +that, not seldom, we have books and pamphlets from the press which, like +most of our newspapers, are beneath the dignity of criticism. In +language, in style, in grammar and in thought they are often crude and +ignorant and vulgar. Not so with "_Talks for the Times_" by Prof. +Crogman, of Clark University. It is a book with largess of high and +noble common sense; pure and classical in style; with a large fund of +devoted racialism; and replete everywhere with elevated thoughts. Almost +simultaneously with the publication of Professor Crogman's book, came +the thoughtful and spicy narrative of Rev. Matthew Anderson of +Philadelphia. The title of this volume is "_Presbyterianism; its +relation to the Negro_" but the title cannot serve as a revelation of +the racy and spirited story of events in the career of its author. The +book abounds with stirring incidents, strong remonstrance, clear and +lucid argument, powerful reasonings, the keenest satire; while, withal, +it sets forth the wide needs of the Race, and gives one of the strongest +vindications of its character and its capacity.[5] + +Soon after this came the first publication of our Academy. And you all +know the deep interest excited by the two papers, the first issue of +this Society. They have attracted interest and inquiry where the mere +declamatory effusions, or, the so-called eloquent harangues of aimless +talkers and political wire-pullers would fall like snowflakes upon the +waters. The papers of Prof. Kelly Miller and Prof. Du Bois have reached +the circles of scholars and thinkers in this country. So consummate was +the handling of Hoffman's "Race Traits and Tendencies" by Prof. Miller, +that we may say that it was the most scientific defense of the Negro +ever made in this country by a man of our own blood: accurate, pointed, +painstaking, and I claim conclusive. + +The treatise of Prof. Du Bois upon the "Conservation of Race" separated +itself, in tone and coloring, from the ordinary effusions of literary +work in this land. It rose to the dignity of philosophical insight and +deep historical inference. He gave us, in a most lucid and original +method, and in a condensed form, the long settled conclusions of +Ethnologists and Anthropologists upon the question of Race. + +This treatise moreover, furnished but a limited measure of our +indebtedness to his pen and brain. Only a brief time before our assembly +last year, Prof. Du Bois had given a large contribution to the +literature of the nation as well as to the genius of the race. At that +time he had published a work which will, without doubt, stand +permanently, as authority upon its special theme. "_The Suppression of +the Slave Trade_" is, without doubt, the one unique and special +authority upon that subject, in print. It is difficult to conceive the +possible creation of a similar work, so accurate and painstaking, so +full of research, so orderly in historical statement, so rational in its +conclusions. It is the simple truth, and at the same time the highest +praise, the statement of one Review, that "Prof. Du Bois has exhausted +his subject." This work is a step forward in the literature of the Race, +and a stimulant to studious and aspiring minds among us. + +One further reference, that is, to the realm of Art. + +The year '97 will henceforth be worthy of note in our history. As a +race, we have, this year, reached a high point in intellectual growth +and expression. + +In poetry and painting, as well as in letters and thought, the Negro has +made, this year, a character. + +On my return home in October, I met an eminent scientific gentleman; and +one of the first remarks he made to me was--"Well, Dr. Crummell, we +Americans have been well taken down in Paris, this year. Why," he said, +"the prize in painting was taken by a colored young man, a Mr. Tanner +from America. Do you know him?" The reference was to Mr. Tanner's +"Raising of Lazarus," a painting purchased by the French Government, for +the famous Luxembourg Gallery. This is an exceptional honor, rarely +bestowed upon any American Artist. Well may we all be proud of this, +and with this we may join the idea that Tanner, instead of having a hoe +in his hand, or digging in a trench, as the faddists on industrialism +would fain persuade us, has found his right place at the easel with +artists. + +Not less distinguished in the world of letters is the brilliant career +of our poet-friend and co-laborer, Mr. Paul Dunbar. It was my great +privilege last summer to witness his triumph, on more than one occasion, +in that grand metropolis of Letters and Literature, the city of London; +as well as to hear of the high value set upon his work, by some of the +first scholars and literati of England. Mr. Dunbar has had his poems +republished in London by Chapman & Co.; and now has as high a reputation +abroad as he has here in America, where his luminous genius has broken +down the bars, and with himself, raised the intellectual character of +his race in the world's consideration. + +These cheering occurrences, these demonstrations of capacity, give us +the greatest encouragement in the large work which is before this +Academy. Let us enter upon that work, this year, with high hopes, with +large purposes, and with calm and earnest persistence. I trust that we +shall bear in remembrance that the work we have undertaken is our +special function; that it is a work which calls for cool thought, for +laborious and tireless painstaking, and for clear discrimination; that +it promises nowhere wide popularity, or, exuberant eclat; that very much +of its ardent work is to be carried on in the shade; that none of its +desired results will spring from spontaneity; that its most prominent +features are the demands of duty to a needy people; and that its noblest +rewards will be the satisfaction which will spring from having answered +a great responsibility, and having met the higher needs of a benighted +and struggling Race. + + + + +Footnotes: + +[1] _Baptism_, for well nigh a century, was denied Negro slaves in the +colonies, for fear it carried emancipation with it. Legislation on +Education began at a subsequent date. In 1740 it was enacted in SOUTH +CAROLINA: "Whereas, the having slaves taught to write or suffering them +to be employed in writing, may be attended with great inconvenience, Be +it enacted, That all and every person or persons whatsoever who shall +hereafter teach or cause any slave or slaves to be taught to write, or +shall use or employ any slave as a Scribe in any manner of writing, +hereafter taught to write; every such person or persons shall forever, +for every such offense, forfeit the sum of £100 current money." + +The next step, in South Carolina, was aimed against mental instruction +of _every kind_, in reading and writing. + +A similar law was passed in Savannah, Georgia. In 1711, in the Colony of +Maryland, a _special enactment_ was passed to bar freedom by baptism and +in 1715, in South Carolina! See "_Stroud's Slave Laws_." + +[2] At the time when France was on the eve of plunging deeply into the +slave trade and of ruining her colonies by the curse of Slavery, the +ABBE GREGOIRE stept forth in vindication of the Negro, and published his +celebrated work--"The Literature of Negroes." In this work he gives the +names and narrates the achievements of the distinguished Negroes, +writers, scholars, painters, philosophers, priests and Roman prelates, +in Spain, Portugal, France, England, Holland, Italy and Turkey who had +risen to eminence in the 15th century. + +Not long after BLUMENBACH declared that "entire and large provinces of +Europe might be named, in which it would be difficult to meet with such +good writers, poets, philosophers, and correspondents of the French +Academy; and that moreover there is no savage people, who have +distinguished themselves by such examples of perfectibility and capacity +for scientific cultivation: and consequently that none can approach more +nearly to the polished nations of the globe than the Negro." + +[3] "Oberlin College" in Ohio was the first opening its doors to the +Negro in 1836. + +[4] "I am not so old as some of my young friends may suspect, but I am +too old to go into the business of 'carrying coals to Newcastle.' * * * * +The colored citizen of the U. S. has already graduated with respectable +standing from a course of 250 years in the University of the old-time +type of Manual labor. The South of to-day is what we see it largely +because the colored men and women at least during the past 250 years, +have not been lazy 'cumberers of the ground,' but the grand army of +laborers that has wrestled with nature and led these 16 States out of +the woods thus far on the highroad to material prosperity. It is not +especially necessary that the 2,000,000 of our colored children and +youth in the southern common schools should be warned against laziness, +and what has always and everywhere come of that since the foundation of +the world." + + The Rev. A. D. Mayo, M. A., LL. D. + Address before State Teachers' Association (Colored) + Birmingham, Ala. + +[5] I owe Mr. Anderson an apology for omitting this references to his +book on the delivery of this address. It was prepared while its author +was in a foreign land; but had passed entirely from his memory in the +preparation of this address. + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Passages in italics are indicated by _underscore_. + +The following misprints have been corrected: + "responsibilitles" corrected to "responsibilities" (page 6) + "imconvenience" corrected to "inconvenience" (page 9) + "legslation" corrected to "legislation" (page 10) + "poeple" corrected to "people" (page 10) + "expectional" corrected to "exceptional" (page 18) + +Other than the corrections listed above, printer's spelling and +hyphenation usage have been retained. + +An unmatched quotation mark has been left as presented in the original +text ("Hic haec, hoc," is going to prove the ruin of the Negro" says +the Rev. Steele, an erudite Southern Savan.). + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Civilization the Primal Need of the +Race, by Alexander Crummell + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CIVILIZATION THE PRIMAL NEED *** + +***** This file should be named 31268-8.txt or 31268-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/2/6/31268/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Stephanie Eason, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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