The White Negro; Or, a Series of Lectures on the Race Problem (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1894 edition. Excerpt: ... AN HONEST PLEA FOR THE NEGRO. X. fHE NEGRO differs from the Anglo-Saxon in color only; he has been educated by his surroundings, out of barbarism into the highest type of enlightenment, having had twenty-seven years of freedom in which to develop his faculties and obtain a fair recognition of his natural ability. It is now time that he should be given an opportunity. He is of sanguine temperament, and he naturally looks upon the bright side of everything; he believes that his future is bright, and is willing, yea, anxious, to work out his own destiny. His position in America to-day is far from being a desirable one; if the Caucasian were regarded as an inferior by a ruling race, his instinct of liberty and his pride cultivated by a taste of freedom, would resist. The Negro after years of slavery, has all the more deeply inculcated into his temperament that love of freedom and that spirit of liberty of which Americans are so proud; he was once a bondsman, but now he is free. A reflection on the fact that if events had not transpired as they have, he would today, instead of breathing freedom's air, wear shackles of slavery, imbues him with that love of liberty. His ability would have no peer had he the years of cultivation and development of the white man. Raised from the depths of barbarism, he is capable, in one century, of standing in the Congressional halls of the mightiest nations of the earth, capable of representing his country in foreign fields of diplomacy, of writing deep and interesting articles for our great magazines, and of filling the loftiest pulpits of the land. He has no desire to associate with his white neighbor further than for his own development; it is not social equality he is seeking, it is a chance to develop, ...