FOOTNOTES:[A]These documents were collected by Prof. Wm. K. Boyd, of Trinity College, Durham, North Carolina.
[A]These documents were collected by Prof. Wm. K. Boyd, of Trinity College, Durham, North Carolina.
[A]These documents were collected by Prof. Wm. K. Boyd, of Trinity College, Durham, North Carolina.
The following from Mr. A. P. Vrede of Paramaribo, Surinam, Dutch Guiana, South America, will be informing and interesting to persons interested in missions as a factor in the uplift of the race:
Cornelius Winst BlydThe First Negro Presbyter in SurinamParamaribo, Feb. 5, 1923.Dear Sir:Likewise as in 1861 the Freedman Association sprang up for aid for the enlightenment of the freed blacks on American soil, so in the epoch from 1738 to 1818 did the missionaries of the Evangelical Brother's Union take upon their shoulders the burden of the enslaved blacks on Surinam. Then, too, their way was not always paved with roses. No they had to face the same mockery, the same martyrdom. They were jailed, despised because for the slaves to remain in their ignorance was favorable to the filling of their "masters" purses.Let us go back to the year 1850 to see what had been happening on one of the plantations situated on the beach of the Matapica. On these plantations, there we found the administrator, Mr. Rouse, in charge of the plantation administration, busy in making arrangements for transportation of the properties of the plantation, nicknamed by the slaves, "Domiri," to upper Surinam, to the plantation St. Barbara. Among the properties over which Mr. Rouse's superintendenceship extended, we found among living stock a slave family, Father Dami, his wife bearing the name of Ma Jetty, but better known by the name of Ma Jetty of Domiri, so called because her birth-place is Domiri. Father Dami and Jetty had two daughters, the one called Christina and the other, known in slave registration by name of Wilhelmina. So it was on a windy morning of the dry season, that we found this little family. They, too, were occupied with the removal of the plantation properties. It was a busy day. The rays of the sun pierced the backs of theslaves. Their bodies glimmered in their going to and fro as rubbed black-ebony wood furniture.When the work was over, we left Domiri with its slave caravan for St. Barbara. St. Barbara as aforesaid situated on the upper Surinam the main-stream of the colony Surinam. Entering Mr. Rouse's new dominion from the rear we found the slaves uncommonly active, so different from that they had displayed for a time ago at Domiri.—They were jolly about the coming emancipation days. As we were wandering along the slaves' cabin-rows, it was then July 19, 1860, we heard a baby cry. Turning our heads toward where the voice had been coming from, we detected that it came from the cabin inhabited by the family headed by Father Dami. We walked into, found that Wilhelmina, Dami's daughter, had added to her family a male member. There he lay down sprawling on the floor in pieces of rag clothes used for his bed and pillow. But this child will grow up to become a distinguished man among his people, a shepherd to watch over his flock. Winst, or Profit, the administrator, Mr. Rouse, called him. One would try to solve that puzzle of nomenclature in those days. But we know and understand it now better. It was the time when the administrator was expecting to get for every slave three hundred guilders on the emancipation day. So we may suppose that this was done, as a profit upon his debit on the government account. Let us now see what became of that slave child Winst.Cornelis Winst Blyd was born of slave parents, as stated above, on the plantation St. Barbara July 19, 1860. He was the son of Wilhelmina, a daughter of Father Dami. Besides Winst, his mother had two other sons. It came to pass that when Winst's mother Wilhelmina died, survived by her three sons, they were put under care of their Aunt Christina. Blyd, his brothers and Aunt afterward moved into town. His aunt placed Blyd in one of the Moravian mission boarding schools for boys, formerly known as "Amtri" School. It was desired that after he should finish his literary training he should be instructed in the handicraft of carpentry. So he was brought in to Mr. Ammon, the carpenter well renowned in the colony for furniture.But this was not the way traced for him by our Lord. So they took him from Mr. Ammon to the "Central School" a former preparatory boarding school for teachers. Blyd, with his pious, gentle and sincere character, had won in no time the friendship of everyone who inhabited the institution. His educational instruction inthe Bible was received from Rev. E. A. Renkemir. For song he was trained by Mr. Batenburg. In the classroom of the normal school for teachers, he was one of the beloved pupils of Dr. H. D. Benjamin, then the Inspector of the Board of Education in Surinam. Blyd had in competition among his fellow classmates held by his teachers, distinguished himself as a remarkable student in solving Bible questions. So we see he showed more inclination to the clergy and to become a minister than a school teacher. But in that time no natives were exalted to the order of preacher. So Blyd became a teacher.Blyd followed his occupation as a teacher in several districts of the colony. His first field of operation was on the plantation, Berger Dal, one of the largest Negro settlements in Surinam. We may mention here an uproar that took place during his stay there. These will make us a little acquainted with his sincere and pious character. It came to pass, one day after school hours, two school boys got to quarreling about a pocket-knife. The quarrel became so noisy that the family of both the boys were coming up with hatchet, walking-stick and some more murderous weapons. So much feeling had then developed that the uproar would not have been prevented had not Mr. Blyd undertaken this difficult task and by his unusual moral power brought both parties to reflection. After a reprimand in well chosen words the quarrel was suppressed.When Mr. Blyd later moved to plantation Wederzorg, situated on the Commewyne river, he then got permission from the Director of the Mission in Surinam, to lead now and then the church service. But these all were for Blyd merely as forerunner to reach his mile-stone. At the plantation Alkmaar, he came into touch with the Rev. Mr. Kersten, and it was not long before this man detected in Mr. Blyd a preacher of power. Blyd's impression made upon Rev. Mr. Kersten was so favorable that soon in 1899, the Mission Director in Surinam decided to appoint him as sub-preacher. And once the words spoken by the old Rev. Mr. Haller (white) became truth. He had said to Mr. Blyd "You should try to train yourself for the uplift of your fellow race-men, and to teach them the words of our living God." In the year 1902 Mr. Blyd was ordained to the order of deacon, and from that time, his name as a preacher was established.Rev. Mr. Blyd had to wrestle with many storms that touched his social life. There came upon him the bad deportment of his two sons. He who knows the battle which he had to fight, broughtupon him by his sons' evil deeds, will find in him, the preacher of God, a true and sincere knight of our Lord. Rev. Mr. Blyd sought in his hours of these temptations his refuge on his Savior knees and he always was consoled. Many had wondered at his patience and long suffering amid these storms of life. But this man, the preacher by the grace of God, the sincere Christian in the full sense of the word, had as his encouragement, that had been giving him consolation and confidence: "The Lord shall provide, be still my soul."Rev. Mr. Blyd's sermons were of an uncommon sort. Never would one part from his service not being touched in the depths of his inner life. His sermons were delivered in Dutch and Negro-English. They were a splendor of oratory. In spite of all of these, however, Rev. Mr. Blyd still retained his humility, without overrating himself. His words won many hearts, even many a stranger. Among them we may count Bishop Hamilton, High Commissioner of the Moravian Board of Missions in England. In 1913, the year of the celebration of the Fifty Emancipation Anniversary, the Mission Director in Surinam decided to send Rev. Mr. Blyd to Europe, to the Netherlands, our mother country, to represent the black race. Rev. Mr. Blyd traveled also throughout Germany and Denmark. There in Europe, he came into touch with several notables.He won many friends by his sermon preached at the celebration of the mission feast at Utrecht in the Netherlands as attested by H. M. Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands. Many ministers with the degree of Doctor of Divinity had addressed the audience on that occasion. After them Rev. Mr. Blyd rose from his seat to walk to the pulpit for he was being given a turn. When he was on the way to the pulpit, a white minister hastened to offer to him a minister's gown, but the man Blyd kept his simplicity and refused to accept it.[1]After the service everyone longed to cheer and greet the black minister. By hundreds and thousands they crowded themselves to see him pass. Photographers were busy taking his photo. To and fro they went to ask for a picture of the black minister. Rev. Mr. Blyd had made a deep impression upon H. M. Queen Wilhelmina, and under the emotion that Rev. Mr. Blyd had caused H. M. the Queen, he was invited by Her Majesty to deliver a sermon at the court, attended by all H. M. court representatives.Rev. Mr. Blyd was later invited to dinner at H. M. residence at Hagen, and he sat at the same table near by H. M. the Queen. This extraordinary event took place after his traveling from North Europe.His love for his native land will be illustrated by the following event. It was at H. M. Queen Wilhelmina's residence that this took place. When the Queen put before him this question: "Reverend Mr. Blyd," H. M. turning to him, "which of the two places do you prefer? The Netherlands or Denmark?" And without hesitation he answered the Queen's question in his simple words: "Your Majesty, East, West, home is best!"Rev. Mr. Blyd surrounded by all these courtesies has never forgot his race. He took the opportunity to bring before the Queen the needs of his people. He had made also his entrance at the courts of Germany and Denmark. In Denmark he was received with great enthusiasm and great homage. He had so impressed the clergy of Denmark that they made efforts to retain him for the order in that country. But the man with his humble character chose above all to serve among his own people. In Germany he had held several street meetings. A white eye-witness, now in the colony, told about the impression Rev. Mr. Blyd made upon his hearers. He said that the longer he lived the more he learned from Rev. Mr. Blyd.During Rev. Mr. Blyd's sojourn in Europe the mission authorities were offered a better opportunity to study his character. And so this led to the conclusion to exalt him to the order of presbyter. This event took place before a large audience when he was returning to the Colony.Alas! the poor slave boy, Cornelis Winst Blyd, with his unlimited energy traced his way from the slave cabin to kings and queens' palaces. From body bondage to liberty of spirit and body—raised to the highest order of Protestant dignity, the order which no man of his color in the Colony has since attained.Of the literature which Rev. Mr. Blyd has left, we may mention here his well-styled booklet: "Superstition in Surinam." Therein he has showed a great capacity as a writer. In this booklet he warned his people of the devil's sacrifice—the fetishism and the belief in witchcraft, an African religion transplanted here in the colony by their ancestors from Africa. His effort in doing so was only as he has said, to release his people from the chains of such an empty religion.It was on April 12, 1921, that the Colony was shocked from its foundation. People stood in groups, heads sadly bent. Black clouds now and then saluted in snow-white rainy cloud, to regain after a few moments their original ash-grey color. Rev. Mr. Blyd, nursed in the Military Hospital, had passed away. The sickness that had ended his life so suddenly had returned. It was known that physically his body was overpowered by a disease. But none had expected his end so suddenly. On Sunday he had delivered his last sermon. In the week when his sickness had become more serious they decided to take him to the Military Hospital at Paramaribo for a careful nursing. But his end was at hand.The day of his burial, a funeral-service was conducted by the Rev. Dr. Muller. It would require too much space in this Journal to note here all that he spoke on that occasion. But I shall note here some passages. Dr. Muller said: "He was one of the most popular and loveliest personalities among our society. He was the first among his co-workers. Everyone respected his name with deep respect, the young as well as the aged. He stood for better days above all parties; above all difference of color, sect and confession. He was the man that won the general confidence of the Colony."Yea! he was a man loved by all, respected by his own people the black, as well as by white. His name will live forever in the hearts of his people, friends and all. His name is holy for young and old. His wandering upon this earth was a guide to and for many in this Colony. He was simplicity itself and his life ended the same."A. P. Vrede,Paramaribo, Surinam
Cornelius Winst Blyd
The First Negro Presbyter in Surinam
Paramaribo, Feb. 5, 1923.
Dear Sir:
Likewise as in 1861 the Freedman Association sprang up for aid for the enlightenment of the freed blacks on American soil, so in the epoch from 1738 to 1818 did the missionaries of the Evangelical Brother's Union take upon their shoulders the burden of the enslaved blacks on Surinam. Then, too, their way was not always paved with roses. No they had to face the same mockery, the same martyrdom. They were jailed, despised because for the slaves to remain in their ignorance was favorable to the filling of their "masters" purses.
Let us go back to the year 1850 to see what had been happening on one of the plantations situated on the beach of the Matapica. On these plantations, there we found the administrator, Mr. Rouse, in charge of the plantation administration, busy in making arrangements for transportation of the properties of the plantation, nicknamed by the slaves, "Domiri," to upper Surinam, to the plantation St. Barbara. Among the properties over which Mr. Rouse's superintendenceship extended, we found among living stock a slave family, Father Dami, his wife bearing the name of Ma Jetty, but better known by the name of Ma Jetty of Domiri, so called because her birth-place is Domiri. Father Dami and Jetty had two daughters, the one called Christina and the other, known in slave registration by name of Wilhelmina. So it was on a windy morning of the dry season, that we found this little family. They, too, were occupied with the removal of the plantation properties. It was a busy day. The rays of the sun pierced the backs of theslaves. Their bodies glimmered in their going to and fro as rubbed black-ebony wood furniture.
When the work was over, we left Domiri with its slave caravan for St. Barbara. St. Barbara as aforesaid situated on the upper Surinam the main-stream of the colony Surinam. Entering Mr. Rouse's new dominion from the rear we found the slaves uncommonly active, so different from that they had displayed for a time ago at Domiri.—They were jolly about the coming emancipation days. As we were wandering along the slaves' cabin-rows, it was then July 19, 1860, we heard a baby cry. Turning our heads toward where the voice had been coming from, we detected that it came from the cabin inhabited by the family headed by Father Dami. We walked into, found that Wilhelmina, Dami's daughter, had added to her family a male member. There he lay down sprawling on the floor in pieces of rag clothes used for his bed and pillow. But this child will grow up to become a distinguished man among his people, a shepherd to watch over his flock. Winst, or Profit, the administrator, Mr. Rouse, called him. One would try to solve that puzzle of nomenclature in those days. But we know and understand it now better. It was the time when the administrator was expecting to get for every slave three hundred guilders on the emancipation day. So we may suppose that this was done, as a profit upon his debit on the government account. Let us now see what became of that slave child Winst.
Cornelis Winst Blyd was born of slave parents, as stated above, on the plantation St. Barbara July 19, 1860. He was the son of Wilhelmina, a daughter of Father Dami. Besides Winst, his mother had two other sons. It came to pass that when Winst's mother Wilhelmina died, survived by her three sons, they were put under care of their Aunt Christina. Blyd, his brothers and Aunt afterward moved into town. His aunt placed Blyd in one of the Moravian mission boarding schools for boys, formerly known as "Amtri" School. It was desired that after he should finish his literary training he should be instructed in the handicraft of carpentry. So he was brought in to Mr. Ammon, the carpenter well renowned in the colony for furniture.
But this was not the way traced for him by our Lord. So they took him from Mr. Ammon to the "Central School" a former preparatory boarding school for teachers. Blyd, with his pious, gentle and sincere character, had won in no time the friendship of everyone who inhabited the institution. His educational instruction inthe Bible was received from Rev. E. A. Renkemir. For song he was trained by Mr. Batenburg. In the classroom of the normal school for teachers, he was one of the beloved pupils of Dr. H. D. Benjamin, then the Inspector of the Board of Education in Surinam. Blyd had in competition among his fellow classmates held by his teachers, distinguished himself as a remarkable student in solving Bible questions. So we see he showed more inclination to the clergy and to become a minister than a school teacher. But in that time no natives were exalted to the order of preacher. So Blyd became a teacher.
Blyd followed his occupation as a teacher in several districts of the colony. His first field of operation was on the plantation, Berger Dal, one of the largest Negro settlements in Surinam. We may mention here an uproar that took place during his stay there. These will make us a little acquainted with his sincere and pious character. It came to pass, one day after school hours, two school boys got to quarreling about a pocket-knife. The quarrel became so noisy that the family of both the boys were coming up with hatchet, walking-stick and some more murderous weapons. So much feeling had then developed that the uproar would not have been prevented had not Mr. Blyd undertaken this difficult task and by his unusual moral power brought both parties to reflection. After a reprimand in well chosen words the quarrel was suppressed.
When Mr. Blyd later moved to plantation Wederzorg, situated on the Commewyne river, he then got permission from the Director of the Mission in Surinam, to lead now and then the church service. But these all were for Blyd merely as forerunner to reach his mile-stone. At the plantation Alkmaar, he came into touch with the Rev. Mr. Kersten, and it was not long before this man detected in Mr. Blyd a preacher of power. Blyd's impression made upon Rev. Mr. Kersten was so favorable that soon in 1899, the Mission Director in Surinam decided to appoint him as sub-preacher. And once the words spoken by the old Rev. Mr. Haller (white) became truth. He had said to Mr. Blyd "You should try to train yourself for the uplift of your fellow race-men, and to teach them the words of our living God." In the year 1902 Mr. Blyd was ordained to the order of deacon, and from that time, his name as a preacher was established.
Rev. Mr. Blyd had to wrestle with many storms that touched his social life. There came upon him the bad deportment of his two sons. He who knows the battle which he had to fight, broughtupon him by his sons' evil deeds, will find in him, the preacher of God, a true and sincere knight of our Lord. Rev. Mr. Blyd sought in his hours of these temptations his refuge on his Savior knees and he always was consoled. Many had wondered at his patience and long suffering amid these storms of life. But this man, the preacher by the grace of God, the sincere Christian in the full sense of the word, had as his encouragement, that had been giving him consolation and confidence: "The Lord shall provide, be still my soul."
Rev. Mr. Blyd's sermons were of an uncommon sort. Never would one part from his service not being touched in the depths of his inner life. His sermons were delivered in Dutch and Negro-English. They were a splendor of oratory. In spite of all of these, however, Rev. Mr. Blyd still retained his humility, without overrating himself. His words won many hearts, even many a stranger. Among them we may count Bishop Hamilton, High Commissioner of the Moravian Board of Missions in England. In 1913, the year of the celebration of the Fifty Emancipation Anniversary, the Mission Director in Surinam decided to send Rev. Mr. Blyd to Europe, to the Netherlands, our mother country, to represent the black race. Rev. Mr. Blyd traveled also throughout Germany and Denmark. There in Europe, he came into touch with several notables.
He won many friends by his sermon preached at the celebration of the mission feast at Utrecht in the Netherlands as attested by H. M. Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands. Many ministers with the degree of Doctor of Divinity had addressed the audience on that occasion. After them Rev. Mr. Blyd rose from his seat to walk to the pulpit for he was being given a turn. When he was on the way to the pulpit, a white minister hastened to offer to him a minister's gown, but the man Blyd kept his simplicity and refused to accept it.[1]After the service everyone longed to cheer and greet the black minister. By hundreds and thousands they crowded themselves to see him pass. Photographers were busy taking his photo. To and fro they went to ask for a picture of the black minister. Rev. Mr. Blyd had made a deep impression upon H. M. Queen Wilhelmina, and under the emotion that Rev. Mr. Blyd had caused H. M. the Queen, he was invited by Her Majesty to deliver a sermon at the court, attended by all H. M. court representatives.Rev. Mr. Blyd was later invited to dinner at H. M. residence at Hagen, and he sat at the same table near by H. M. the Queen. This extraordinary event took place after his traveling from North Europe.
His love for his native land will be illustrated by the following event. It was at H. M. Queen Wilhelmina's residence that this took place. When the Queen put before him this question: "Reverend Mr. Blyd," H. M. turning to him, "which of the two places do you prefer? The Netherlands or Denmark?" And without hesitation he answered the Queen's question in his simple words: "Your Majesty, East, West, home is best!"
Rev. Mr. Blyd surrounded by all these courtesies has never forgot his race. He took the opportunity to bring before the Queen the needs of his people. He had made also his entrance at the courts of Germany and Denmark. In Denmark he was received with great enthusiasm and great homage. He had so impressed the clergy of Denmark that they made efforts to retain him for the order in that country. But the man with his humble character chose above all to serve among his own people. In Germany he had held several street meetings. A white eye-witness, now in the colony, told about the impression Rev. Mr. Blyd made upon his hearers. He said that the longer he lived the more he learned from Rev. Mr. Blyd.
During Rev. Mr. Blyd's sojourn in Europe the mission authorities were offered a better opportunity to study his character. And so this led to the conclusion to exalt him to the order of presbyter. This event took place before a large audience when he was returning to the Colony.
Alas! the poor slave boy, Cornelis Winst Blyd, with his unlimited energy traced his way from the slave cabin to kings and queens' palaces. From body bondage to liberty of spirit and body—raised to the highest order of Protestant dignity, the order which no man of his color in the Colony has since attained.
Of the literature which Rev. Mr. Blyd has left, we may mention here his well-styled booklet: "Superstition in Surinam." Therein he has showed a great capacity as a writer. In this booklet he warned his people of the devil's sacrifice—the fetishism and the belief in witchcraft, an African religion transplanted here in the colony by their ancestors from Africa. His effort in doing so was only as he has said, to release his people from the chains of such an empty religion.
It was on April 12, 1921, that the Colony was shocked from its foundation. People stood in groups, heads sadly bent. Black clouds now and then saluted in snow-white rainy cloud, to regain after a few moments their original ash-grey color. Rev. Mr. Blyd, nursed in the Military Hospital, had passed away. The sickness that had ended his life so suddenly had returned. It was known that physically his body was overpowered by a disease. But none had expected his end so suddenly. On Sunday he had delivered his last sermon. In the week when his sickness had become more serious they decided to take him to the Military Hospital at Paramaribo for a careful nursing. But his end was at hand.
The day of his burial, a funeral-service was conducted by the Rev. Dr. Muller. It would require too much space in this Journal to note here all that he spoke on that occasion. But I shall note here some passages. Dr. Muller said: "He was one of the most popular and loveliest personalities among our society. He was the first among his co-workers. Everyone respected his name with deep respect, the young as well as the aged. He stood for better days above all parties; above all difference of color, sect and confession. He was the man that won the general confidence of the Colony.
"Yea! he was a man loved by all, respected by his own people the black, as well as by white. His name will live forever in the hearts of his people, friends and all. His name is holy for young and old. His wandering upon this earth was a guide to and for many in this Colony. He was simplicity itself and his life ended the same."
A. P. Vrede,Paramaribo, Surinam
The following communication from Captain T. G. Steward, U. S. A., retired, contains several statements of interest to students of Negro History:
Wilberforce, Ohio, January 13, 1923.Mr. Carter G. Woodson,Washington, D. C.Dear Sir: Allow me to kindly refer you to page 67 of my book "Fifty Years in The Gospel Ministry" where you will find recounted the opening of the school in Marion, S. C, the names of the teachers, and a copy of their credentials, etc.Also on page 47 of your "Negro in Our History" you mention one "Irish Nell." I am quite confident that the late Bishop James Theodore Holly, bishop of Haiti, was a descendant of the union of that lady with a black man. I do not know how the name Holly came in, but I may be able to cite you to the facts if you think it worth while to publish the matter.I am glad to find you doing so much first hand work; and were I able I should be delighted to be engaged with you.I suppose you are aware of the fact that the keeper of Fraunce's tavern or Faunce's tavern in New York where Washington took leave of his officers was a negro. Also his daughter was Washington's house-keeper when the latter lived on Murray Hill in New York.I would think the Faunce hotel at that time was probably among the best, if not itself the best hotel in the country.Yours truly,T. G. Steward
Wilberforce, Ohio, January 13, 1923.
Mr. Carter G. Woodson,Washington, D. C.
Dear Sir: Allow me to kindly refer you to page 67 of my book "Fifty Years in The Gospel Ministry" where you will find recounted the opening of the school in Marion, S. C, the names of the teachers, and a copy of their credentials, etc.
Also on page 47 of your "Negro in Our History" you mention one "Irish Nell." I am quite confident that the late Bishop James Theodore Holly, bishop of Haiti, was a descendant of the union of that lady with a black man. I do not know how the name Holly came in, but I may be able to cite you to the facts if you think it worth while to publish the matter.
I am glad to find you doing so much first hand work; and were I able I should be delighted to be engaged with you.
I suppose you are aware of the fact that the keeper of Fraunce's tavern or Faunce's tavern in New York where Washington took leave of his officers was a negro. Also his daughter was Washington's house-keeper when the latter lived on Murray Hill in New York.
I would think the Faunce hotel at that time was probably among the best, if not itself the best hotel in the country.
Yours truly,
T. G. Steward
FOOTNOTES:[1]Here in Surinam the Moravian preacher needs no gown by the church service. This offering was then for Rev. Blyd a sign of his worthiness, an honor and an acknowledgment of his true Christian soul.
[1]Here in Surinam the Moravian preacher needs no gown by the church service. This offering was then for Rev. Blyd a sign of his worthiness, an honor and an acknowledgment of his true Christian soul.
[1]Here in Surinam the Moravian preacher needs no gown by the church service. This offering was then for Rev. Blyd a sign of his worthiness, an honor and an acknowledgment of his true Christian soul.
Das unbekannte Afrika(Unknown Africa). By Leo Frobenius. (O. Beck, München, 1923.)
The war has fettered Frobenius to his country and his desk, and he has found time to study his material, and the series of diaries, written every day while in Africa. Ten volumes of folklore, three volumes ofAtlas Africanus, several philosophical books, and this one under discussion, have been the fruits of his unwelcome restraint. Frobenius is now preparing another book, "The dying Africa." Many of his collections have gone to the various museums, but he has a large number of interesting objects, and many thousands of pictures which are contained in his recent publications, and, at last, made known.
Each chapter ofDas unbekannte Afrikais headed by small maps showing the distribution of the cultural elements treated in it. This is the form of registration which Frobenius has practiced for the last 25 years. Thus the enormous wealth of ethnological data is statistically fixed. The area, for instance, for a house type or a custom, when found in his travels, is compared with data found, in literature, on the same subject, and all the findings are, again, registered on a map. The results of seven expeditions, on which skilled artists accompanied him, have been kept under control in this manner. As soon as the center of a district which seemed of interest was reached, numerous trained assistants were sent in different directions. Each took notes and pictures on a given subject, so that a marvelous amount of work could be accomplished. Other data were gained by leaving questionnaires among the resident missionaries, merchants, or government officials, to whom letters were sent later, where matters did not seem sufficiently clear, when studied at home.
The deductions made are illustrated by the fascinating pictures contained inThe unknown Africa, in which more than half of the space is devoted to illustrations. By them the interrelation between Neolithic European, Asiatic, Phoenician, Carthaginian, and the African cultures is shown, mainly in regard to art and architecture.
African art is nearer related to the prehistoric European than to the Asiatic and the American. On the whole, that of the south is historic, as compared with that of northwestern Africa. Linguistically the south African idioms are the oldest, while the illiterate eastern constitutes the second period, and the northwestern the youngest.
Racially the lighter Hamite in the northwest has displaced older types, which are now prevalent in the east. The Hamitic culture extends between the Canaries and the Indian Ocean, with extensions into Abyssinia and the southern apex. In the south dwell the Ethiopians. Originally there were two main points of cultural influx, one in Erythraea, and one on the western shores, having travelled through the Mediterranean and Gibraltar, around northwestern Africa. Some influence was also introduced from the north, and traversed the Sahara desert. There it did not survive, but penetrated the Soudan.
The two cultures are explained distinctly. The Hamitic contains remnants of the solar cult, while the Ethiopian shows that of the moon. The first has the matriarchal while the second has the patriarchal system. Hamitic inclinations are connected with the animal world, the Ethiopian with Mother Earth and the plant. Proofs for the entry of Hamitic elements by way of Erythraea are found in the fact that the matriarchate has existed on the eastern coast of India, and in southern Arabia, and that it still exists in northern Africa. Also, the ritual killing of the kings which exists near the White Nile, and in the eastern Soudan, was reported, by Diodorus, to have existed on the eastern coast of India and in Meroe.
The Nile kept Egypt in touch with the rest of the civilized world, while the western parts of northern Africa had no great stream to retain the ancient height of culture, but this tended to the guarding of traditions, and the preservation of ancient customs.
The same ritual procedure which is depicted on the rock-drawings, thousands of years old, prevails in these days in western Soudan. The same posture is taken by the supplicant huntsman, in regard to the cardinal points, while he traces similar images on the sand. The present-day pious Yoruba consults the replica of boards which were found in Ife, and which were thousands of years old. On them are carved the four main pairs of deities, or the sixteen cardinal points.
Frobenius found ancient terra-cotta heads and wood carvings which represented the same objects as those found in Benin. Thelatter must be considered as mediaeval. The pupils of the Benin heads are perforated, while the Ilife heads have blind eyes. This would affix, to the latter, a much greater age, as it is a feature of ancient Mediterranean sculpture. The Atlantic art of western Africa is highly developed, and has nothing in common with primitive Negro art. Some of the boards are exquisite, and rows of beautiful figures and mythological representations are carved on a door, in Yoruba, as shown in the book.
A very interesting theory is put forth, in this connection. So far, it was accepted that time, in archaeology, could be measured only by stone objects, as these were lasting. The author, however, is of the opinion that rock drawings and carvings may answer the aesthetic or ritual requirements of a region or a people for many centuries, while wooden implements and works of art must be replaced, being eminently perishable. Wood is available everywhere. The idea underlying a figure is renewed, with each generation of carvers, and the traditions are handed down as faithfully by wooden carvings as by folk-lore.
Drawings, in the strict sense of the word, are found, in Africa, only in ancient Egypt. They are more closely related to the Bushman paintings of South Africa than to the petrography of the western parts of the continent. Hamitic rock drawings, with depressed lines of contour, and tinted in the intervening surfaces, are seen in Egypt. Prehistoric and early historic figures were found in Egypt, Lesser Africa, and the Guinea Coast. In the east the lines are generally severe, while in the northwest they are rounded. The Hamitic culture zone has no plastic art, among Berber, Bisharin, Somali, Masai, and Hottentot. The Bushman who drew the beautiful rock ornaments has produced no plastic. What is found among this tribe must be considered as Carthaginian.
The primitive Hamite fears representations of the human and animal, from magic. Later the plastic representations have, however, penetrated the Hamitic boundaries, and reached the Nile. The peoples of Lesser and North Africa do not recognize what is on the rocks. The Negro is not gifted in this sense. The Hamite who does not readily see a drawing or picture, and never seems to have produced plastic art, draws well, realistically or ornamentally. The Negro is a good carver but draws very badly. Even those Negroes who recognize every photograph and carve excellently cannot draw.
Many deductions are made in studying the migration of cultures,and many parallels are shown up. One of the relationships found is that between the tattooing of the Neolithic Period of France and that of the living individual near the Niger. The lines run from the ear to the nose. Another well-known feature is the figure of the obese woman which extends from France to Malta. It is quite prevalent in Hamitic art, in the graphic productions of northern Africa, and in Egyptian plastic. Steatopygy, in the living, is natural to the South African tribes. The deduction made is that those models which seemed desirable to the artist, during the stone age of the northwest, still exist in the south. Therefore Hamitic culture must have wandered from the north, east and south.
Other stone-age elements, the stone graves, are found in the Hamitic regions. In Morocco the stone tumuli are explained as remnants of the houses of forebears. When food ran low, goes the tale, the head of the family collected all its members about him, and tore the home down, over them.
Two main types of dwellings are found in Africa, one a cave, the other a pile structure. The Hamitic culture prefers the first, the Ethiopian the latter. The oldest Hamitic "chthonic" bed is a pit. The oven and storehouse is built in the ground. The inhabitants of the Canary Islands, who are the descendants of the ancient Guanches, and most of the Kabyle tribes of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunis still have artificial caves, which are, however, not generally known. In Matamata, in the south of Tunis, tunnel-shaped, honeycomb dwellings constitute the newer type of cave dwelling.
Ethiopian "telluric" architecture uses the pile in the construction of beds, huts for guards, dwelling houses, and meeting places. The edifices are round or rectangular, and thatched. Later the thatch is covered with clay. Fortresses are constructed of clay and rafters. In parts of the Soudan the walls are beautifully ornamented with reliefs of humans and animals, or geometrical figures. In the interior of the houses the clay walls are tinted and polished, and the pictures show many beautiful decorative designs.
Beatrice Bickel
A History of the United States Since the Civil War.By Ellis Paxon Oberholtzer. In five volumes. Volume II, 1868-1872. (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1922. Pp. XI, 649. $4.00.)
This is the second of five volumes of a history of the United States since the Civil War to be completed by this author. Coveringthe period from 1868 to 1872, this treatise deals in detail with the Reconstruction, the Ku Klux Klan, international questions resulting from the Civil War, the building of railroads, and Oriental problems.
It is not usual, however, to find one publishing such a large and expensive volume as this for the purpose of giving merely the author's opinion about the problems of that day and the shortcomings of the men who were trying to solve them. Not unlike most writers on the Reconstruction, this author endeavored to commend those who achieved as he would have them and to condemn those who addressed themselves to these tasks in a different way. In most places, however, he found many to censure and few to praise. If the book has any purpose at all, it is intended not as a history of the period but a survey of the corruption and vice of the age. Very little of the malfeasance in positions of public trust escaped the attention of this writer.
Beginning with President Grant himself, the author has tried to show that there was little of virtue and efficiency among public functionaries of that time. He refers to Grant as being ignorant, stupid, and simple, holds up to scorn James G. Blaine, and questions Garfield's connection with Credit Mobilier in the style characteristic of the book. Other crimes to the credit of the leading statesmen of that day are given detailed treatment. The book abounds in so many recriminations and epithets belaboring the most distinguished men of the time that the uninformed reader would expect something like the fall of Rome to follow.
If the white people with all their advantages had degenerated to such a low level, the reader might wonder why the author should make any comment at all on the corruption of the Negroes in the South. Inasmuch as they had not been generally educated and had been denied participation in civic affairs, he might have excused them for abandoning work to enjoy their freedom, stealing from their former masters, and obtruding themselves socially upon haughty persons of the old regime. In the same style, however, the Negroes are given their share of vilification. "He refers to them as 'Sambo' and 'Cuffee' entering the halls of government, and a 'Coal Black' member made temporary chairman," "'The Black Crook Convention,' 'Ring-tailed Coons,' 'Outlaws and Rag-a-muffins,' and a 'Gang of Jailbirds.'"
All of these expressions are not original with the author. They are taken from southern newspapers and books of the same sort ofauthorship. Instead of using such evidence only when known to be unconscious, the author has accepted this information as the truth. According to the requirements of modern historiography, newspapers are generally valuable only in determining the sentiment of the people except when the evidence obtained is unconscious. Furthermore, the author has too often accepted second-hand information, found in books of writers who have produced treatises on the Reconstruction for the express purpose of vilifying the Negroes who participated in that drama, and to justify the high-handed action of the whites who through such invisible powers as the Ku Klux Klan overthrew the liberal governments, and re-established the power of the aristocracy of the South. It is unreasonable to suppose that orators and editors interested in disfranchising and re-enslaving the Negroes would tell the truth about the freedmen.
It is most unfortunate that writers have accepted the point of view of these biased authors instead of making a research for the facts in the case. In too many instances, this author quotes Fleming for facts of Reconstruction in Alabama, Hamilton for North Carolina, Ficklen for Louisiana, Garne for Mississippi, Ramsdell for Texas, Reynolds for South Carolina, Davis for Florida, Eckenrode for Virginia, Thompson for Georgia, and the like. These "authorities" do not strengthen the claims of a work because of the very bias with which these books were written, for these writers accepted rumors, violent newspaper comments, and inflammatory speeches as reasons for their conclusions. Any history built upon such authority cannot be considered trustworthy.
From the point of view of the Negro himself, this book is not a history of the United States for the period which it purports to cover. It has very little to say about the Negroes except to refer to them as an ignorant, illiterate mass of thieves and rascals. In a work covering merely four years, a seeker of the truth would expect some information therefrom as to how the freedmen began their social and economic stride upward, what forces were set to work among them, and how susceptible they proved to be of the training offered in the schools and churches established for their special needs. Inasmuch as he found so much space for the Carpet-Baggers who went South to control the State governments through the Negro vote, it would have hardly been out of place for the author to mention that throng of apostles who came South as teachers to give their lives as a sacrifice in the uplift of these belated people. What these Negroes did, during these very years, to helpthemselves should have received some consideration. Every Negro of consequence in the South was not a politician or an office-seeker. What the race is accomplishing today is due in a large measure to the foundation laid at that time by Negroes of foresight, who acquired education and property and joined the missionary teachers from the North in the noble effort for the education and economic amelioration of the freedmen.
The Partition of Africa.By Sir Charles Lucas, K.C.B., K.C.M.G. (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1922. Pp. 228.)
This book consists of the lectures given by the author at the Royal Colonial Institute to a circle of teachers of the London County Council in 1921. The author disclaims any pretension to exhaust the subject. He acknowledges that these lectures are somewhat discursive with the intention of suggesting diverse points of view and a variety of subjects for further study. With this purpose in mind he freely quotes a number of books and papers, evidently desiring to stimulate the reader to further study. It is admitted, moreover, that while these lectures have been awaiting publication there has taken place in Africa so many developments that this volume will not suffice to inform the reader.
The work begins with a survey of Africa in ancient times as it connected with the Mediterranean World. Unfortunately, in this chapter the author follows the well-beaten path of misrepresenting that land by referring to it as the "Dark Continent," which, from his point of view, was dependent and backward because it had no facilities of communication with Europe. In this chapter, therefore, he proves not that Africa had not made much advancement but that the European was merely ignorant of that part of the world.
In the chapter discussing "Africa from Ancient Times to the Nineteenth Century" there is little more than a casual sketch of the invasion of the Vandals, the Mohammedan conquest, followed by a rather brief and unscientific discussion of the natives of Africa. This chapter, however, presents in epitome the leading facts of the explorations of Europeans beginning with Prince Henry of Portugal, the forerunner of other adventurers from England, Italy, Spain and France.
Taking up the slave trade, the author becomes a little more interesting. He discusses the question from two points of view, distinguishing between the Mohammedan slave trade and the Europeantraffic in men on the West Coast of Africa. He undertakes to give the causes of the West African slave trade in terms of the commercial revolution. Then follows a more detailed account of the participation therein by various European nations. In this connection is treated also the effort of philanthropic Europeans who exposed the horrors of the slave trade and finally abolished it. Further efforts for the improvement of the Negroes are traced to the establishment of Sierra Leone and Liberia.
The author then shows how this interest in the Negro, developing along with European expansion into Africa, led to further exploration and settlement and to the missionary enterprise of David Livingston. The interest in the uplift of the natives, however, as the book admits, was lost sight of after the Franco-German war, the prelude to the scramble for Africa. Then came the beginning of Belgian Congo, the Anglo-Portuguese treaty of 1884, the general acts of the Berlin Conference, the Congo atrocities, and the partition of the continent into Northeast-Africa, East-Africa, South-Africa, West-Africa and other spheres of influence. There followed also another sort of scramble in building African railways, tapping the wealth of the hinterland of Africa. The bearing of the Anglo-French Convention of 1904, the Franco-German Agreement of 1911 and other European treaties are all set forth.
Discussing North-Africa, the author first makes a comparison of the situation in the different parts of the continent, allowing for such influences as the proximity of that portion of the continent to Europe, the effect of the orientalization of Egypt, Tunis, Algeria, Tripoli, and Morocco. This discussion, however, is not carried out in all of its ramifications and the reader must make further investigation for adequate information.
In Chapter VIII the author reviews the settlements of the Dutch in South-Africa, the British occupation of the Cape, the conflict of the British and the Dutch, the rise of the Boer Republic, and the Kaffir wars. In keeping with so many writers who endorse almost anything which Europeans do, this author finds some justification for the intrusion of the Europeans in Africa. The cruel oppression visited upon the natives as a result of this conquest does not cause the author any grief. In the same way, he discusses the conquest and settlements of France and Great Britain in West-Africa, their dependencies, and methods of development. Treating the late campaigns in Africa, the author makes an effort to bring this information up to date as far as possible, trying to account for theterritorial settlement in that continent as shown by the reconstructed map of Africa. The book closes with a discussion of such African problems as the elimination of Germany from Africa, the plurality of powers in Africa as an advantage to the Africans in bringing about mutual checks, and the effect of the World War upon the relation between whites and blacks.
A Boy's Life of Booker T. Washington.By W. C. Jackson, Vice President of the North Carolina College for Women, and Professor of History, Greensboro. (New York, The Macmillan Company, 1922. Pp. 147.)
The author does not pretend to add anything new to what is generally known about Booker T. Washington, or to what may be found in such works asUp from Slavery,My Larger Education, andBooker T. Washington: Builder of a Civilization. The aim is to tell this story in such simple language as to make it comprehensible for children. The author hopes that by reading this book some of them may be inspired to higher ambition and encouraged to nobler effort. While the reader may not agree with all of the observations made by the author, he must commend this effort to popularize the record of the distinguished citizen who by his achievement demonstrated that the race has within it the possibilities of other groups. This effort, then, has an important bearing on the dissemination of information concerning the Negro and on the preservation of the records of the race.
The details of the life of the subject of the sketch are omitted except that the interesting beginnings of Booker T. Washington as a boy, and his rise through poverty and ignorance to a position of leadership, are given with some degree of thoroughness. The author endeavors to impress upon the youth the bravery, courage, backbone, energy, fair-mindedness, honesty, wisdom, intelligence, judgment, modesty, patriotism, will power, self control, and love of humanity of Booker T. Washington. To do this, each important trait in the man is portrayed by reference to some achievement which served as a striking example of his character. In this way, the author draws upon his planning for an education, school days at Hampton, beginning life in the outside world, first efforts at teaching, the beginning of Tuskegee, early hardships, struggles to raise money, speech-making, leadership, political experiences, and travels abroad.
The book is well printed and neatly bound. It is also adequatelyillustrated so as to concentrate the attention of the youth on certain important achievements and events in the life of Washington. Among these illustrations appear the monument recently unveiled at Tuskegee, which constitutes the frontispiece of the book. Then follow various illustrations of the many activities of the institution. While there is not given a general view of the whole school, the various groups given will impress the reader with the magnitude of the work undertaken at Tuskegee. The cuts of Washington and his family show the home life of the man.
Mr. A. A. Taylor, who during the last fiscal year devoted a part of his time to research under the direction of the Association, has been permanently employed as an Associate Investigator of the Association to make researches into Negro Reconstruction History. Mr. Taylor is an alumnus of the University of Michigan. He has recently done graduate work under Professors Abbott, Usher, Turner, Merk, and Channing at Harvard, where he obtained the degree of Master of Arts.
Miss Irene A. Wright, who has been employed by the Association to copy certain documents in the Archives of the Indies, Seville, Spain, reports that in the near future she will offer for publication in these columns interesting and valuable data giving the history of the Mose Settlement of Negroes in Florida.
Mr. Albert Parry, the contributor of the article in this number entitled "Hannibal, the Favorite of Peter the Great," is a former resident of Russia. He has been studying in this country two years.
The various aspects of German colonization in East Africa and the rôle played by that portion of this continent in the World War are treated inKumbuke; Erlebnisse eines Arztes in Deutsch Ostafrika(Berlin, Dom-Verlag, 1922, pp. 502), by August Hauer.
Études sur l'Islam en Côte d'Ivoire(Paris, Leroux, 1922, pp. 502) by Paul Marty,Au Congo: Souvenirs de la Mission Marchand(Paris, Fayard, 1921) by General Baratier, andUne Étape de la Conquête de l'Afrique Équatoriale Française(Paris, Fournier, 1922, pp. 260) by the Ministry of War of France, cover altogether in a general way French colonization in Western and Central Africa.
The Associated Publishers will soon publish a work entitledNegro Poets and Their Poemsby Robert T. Kerlin, Professor of English of the State Normal School, West Chester, Pennsylvania, former Professor of English at the Virginia Military Institute. This work will be an illustrated textbook for schools and will at the same time serve as a volume of general information on contemporary Negro poetry.
The fiscal year which ended June 30, 1923, was the most prosperous in the history of the Association. The efforts of the staff were directed toward carrying out the purposes for which the Association was organized, namely, to collect historical data and to promote studies bearing on the Negro. To attain these objectives the Director had to perform the two important tasks of soliciting funds to finance the Association and then to use the same in the employment of assistants to investigate the various aspects of Negro life and history.
Funds have been received and disbursed as follows:
Complete Financial Statement of all Departments of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History[A]July 1, 1922-June 30, 1923ReceiptsDisbursementsResearch Fund$5,000.00Printing and Stationery$2,996.34Interest on Reserve78.77Paid for Research4,401.62Subscriptions1,798.91Petty Cash (Incidentals)900.00Memberships321.10Stenographic Service1,330.01Contributions6,727.99Rent and Light518.50Advertisements264.55Salaries2,733.37Refunds57.11Traveling Expenses300.39Miscellaneous107.80Miscellaneous520.47Books3.25Total Receipts$14,359.48Total Disbursements$13,700.70Balance on hand for Research June 30, 19225,000.00Balance on hand, June 30, 1923, appropriated for Printing and Research5,677.15Balance on hand, General Expense Fund, June 30, 192289.46Balance on Hand, General Expense Fund, June 30, 192371.09Grand Total$19,448.94Grand Total$19,448.94Respectfully submitted,(Signed)S. W. Rutherford,Secretary-Treasurer.
Complete Financial Statement of all Departments of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History[A]
July 1, 1922-June 30, 1923ReceiptsDisbursementsResearch Fund$5,000.00Printing and Stationery$2,996.34Interest on Reserve78.77Paid for Research4,401.62Subscriptions1,798.91Petty Cash (Incidentals)900.00Memberships321.10Stenographic Service1,330.01Contributions6,727.99Rent and Light518.50Advertisements264.55Salaries2,733.37Refunds57.11Traveling Expenses300.39Miscellaneous107.80Miscellaneous520.47Books3.25Total Receipts$14,359.48Total Disbursements$13,700.70Balance on hand for Research June 30, 19225,000.00Balance on hand, June 30, 1923, appropriated for Printing and Research5,677.15Balance on hand, General Expense Fund, June 30, 192289.46Balance on Hand, General Expense Fund, June 30, 192371.09Grand Total$19,448.94Grand Total$19,448.94
Respectfully submitted,
(Signed)S. W. Rutherford,Secretary-Treasurer.
The Director, who is editor of theJournal of Negro Historyas well as the executive of the Association, has devoted some of his time to administrative duties, which, with the expansion of the work, are rapidly multiplying. It has been possible, however, to give much stimulus to all phases of the work in spite of arduous duties. That the additional assistants now associated with the Director will relieve him of some of these tasks is indeed gratifying.
The Journal of Negro Historyhas found its way into additional libraries and schools where it is becoming more and more to be regarded as a valuable aid in research. It is now used as such in the accredited colleges and universities of both races in the South and serves for similar purposes in centers of research in the North. A larger number of institutions abroad, moreover, are now subscribing to this publication, requiring, too, a complete file of the magazine in bound form. Briefly stated, then, while this publication has not a popular subscription list, it circulates throughout the civilized world as a library magazine of value for advanced students, investigators, and social workers.
The Director has spent some of his time in field work. Wherever there is a call to encourage a school or a club to do more for the study of Negro life and history, the Director generally responds. In this way the people of Kentucky, especially in Lexington and Louisville, were made acquainted with the purposes of the Association and induced to do something for the preservation of the local records of Negroes who have achieved well. Enterprising citizens of Lexington have organized for this purpose.
At Nashville, the Director availed himself of a similar opportunity to carry the work of the Association to the thinking people of the city, speaking to them for two days in their schools and churches. The interest aroused was most encouraging and resulted in the organization of a local club to co-operate with this national organization.In addition to preserving the records of Negroes in that particular community, this group will engage in the actual study of the neglected aspects of Negro history, using the Branch Library as a center where numerous works on Negro life and history have been provided.
In Baltimore, where the Spring Conference of the Association was held, the citizens showed the same sort of interest in the work and pledged themselves to do more to save local records which are now being rapidly lost. Persons having an intelligent interest in the past of the Negro are now taking steps to organize there a Maryland Historical Society, to record and popularize the achievements of the Negroes of that commonwealth under the leadership of the teachers of history of the public schools and instructors at Morgan College.
For the first time in the history of the Association its researches have taken a definite course. Up to the year just ended, the Association had the benefit of merely what investigations the Director's manifold duties permitted him to conduct, or of what others of their own will worked out in the interest of unearthing the truth. Thanks to the appropriations of the Carnegie Corporation and the Laura Spellman Rockefeller Memorial, however, the Association can now outline a definite program of investigation and systematically carry it out. For the present the staff is engaged in the study of the Free Negro prior to 1861 and Negro Reconstruction History.
With the assistance of a copyist, Mrs. C. B. Overton, the Director has been preparing a report on the Free Negro in the United States. This report will be decidedly statistical, giving the names of the persons of color who were heads of families in 1830, where they were living, how many were in each family, how many slaves each owned, and what relation these free Negroes sustained to the white people. This research covers also the statistics of absentee ownership of slaves by whites. The first volume of the reportwill be published within the next six months. Using it as a basis, the Director will make further investigation of the Free Negroes to determine their economic status, their social position, the attitude of the southern whites toward this class, and the opinion of the North with respect to them as citizens.
Working in this same field, but developing special aspects of this history, are Mr. George F. Dow and Miss Irene A. Wright. Mr. George F. Dow has been employed to read the 18th century colonial newspapers of New England for facts bearing on the Negro. Up to the present, however, he has been unable to finish this task and does not promise to accomplish much until next fall. Miss Irene A. Wright is now extracting from the Archives of the Indies in Seville, Spain, some valuable documents showing the part the Negroes played in the early struggle between the British and Spanish in America and especially the records of the Mose Settlement of Negroes in Florida and the achievements of the Negroes in Louisiana. Miss Wright will also copy all accessible documents of Latin-America giving accounts of Negroes in higher spheres of usefulness. The Association is endeavoring to employ an investigator to render the same sort of service in the British Museum and the Public Record Office in London.
During the year the Association has had one worker in Negro Reconstruction History. This was Mr. A. A. Taylor, an alumnus of the University of Michigan, who has recently received the degree of Master of Arts for graduate work done at Harvard University under Professors W. C. Abbott, F. J. Turner, and Edward Channing. Although he has devoted only a part of his time to this research, he has produced one valuable dissertation,The Social Conditions and Treatment of Negroes in South Carolina, 1865-1880. He has also made a scientific study of the social and economic conditions of the Negroes in Virginia for the same period, but has not yet completed this treatise. It is expected that it will be ready for publication within the next twelve months. Mr. Taylor will continue this work asAssociate Investigator, permanently employed by the Association to devote all of his time to this effort.
The Association continues its interest in the work of training young men for scientific investigation. As far as possible it will follow its program of educating in the best graduate schools with libraries bearing on Negro Life and History, three young men supported by fellowships of $500 each from the Association and such additional stipends as the schools themselves may grant for their support. These students are assigned to different fields, one to make Anthropometric and Psychological measurements of Negroes, one to study African Anthropology and Archaeology, and one to take up history as it has been influenced by the Negro.
Closely connected with these plans, moreover, are certain other projects to preserve Negro folklore. In this effort the Association has the co-operation of Dr. Elsie Clews Parsons, the moving spirit of the American Folklore Society. She is now desirous of making a more systematic effort to embody this part of the Negro civilization and she believes that the work can be more successfully done by co-operation with the Association. As soon as the Director can obtain a special fund for this particular work, an investigator will be employed to undertake it. For the present the Association is endeavoring to stimulate interest in this field by offering a prize of $200 for the best collection of tales, riddles, proverbs, sayings, and songs, which have been heard at home by Negro students of accredited schools.
The interest in the result of these researches has become all but nation-wide. Most advanced institutions of learning now make some use of historical works on the Negro.The Negro in Our Historyhas met with the general welcome as a much desired volume giving the essential facts of Negro achievement. It has been extensively used as collateral reading and has been adopted as a text in more than a score of schools and colleges. The demand for this book is so rapidly increasing that the second edition hasbeen almost exhausted. The third edition, which is now in preparation, will be revised and enlarged so as to give more attention to the Negro in freedom, a period of more concern to most students than that of the Negro before the Civil War.
In almost every center of considerable Negro population and in most of the large schools of the race there are clubs or classes engaged in the study of Negro life and history. Some of these were organized under the supervision of the Association and others sprang up of themselves in response to the increasing desire among Negroes to know about themselves and to publish such information to a world uninformed as to what the race has thought and felt and attempted and done. These groups thus interested in the scientific study of the Negro, moreover, are not restricted to the schools and communities controlled by this race. The Association has found little difficulty in interesting advanced students in large northern universities, and this work has extended to some of the best white schools of the South.
The staff has suffered one irreparable loss in that Miss A. H. Smith, who during the last seven years has served the Association as Office Manager and Assistant to the Secretary-treasurer, has recently retired from the service. The Association is immeasurably indebted to Miss Smith for the faithful service which she has rendered the cause, and it will be difficult to fill her position. Although offered opportunities for earning a larger stipend elsewhere, she remained with the Association because of her interest in the work which it has been prosecuting. The Association wishes her well and earnestly hopes that she may be welcomed in some other field of usefulness.
Respectfully submitted,
Carter G. Woodson,Director
1538 Ninth St., N. W.,Washington, D. C.Sept. 18, 1923