Racial integrity and other features of the Negro problem

Front matter

BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME FROM THE

SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND

THE GIFT OF

Preface

This volume is in no sense the result of any recent agitation of the race question. Its inception dates from the year 1900, and the manuscript was practically completed before the Brownsville affair, the Atlanta riots, and other less serious race conflicts aroused the country to at least a temporary realization of the existence of latent racial antagonisms which, under sufficient provocation, may at any time cause serious trouble. Advantage was, however, taken of a final revision of the manuscript to refer briefly to two or three of the more recent outbreaks because of their value as illustrations of facts and conditions under discussion.

The purpose of this volume is primarily to bring before thoughtful people the moral and ethical principles involved in the amalgamation of the white and the black races. Busy men will find the gist of the volume in Chapter I. A. H. Shannon.

Nashville, Tenn., May i, 1907.

Introduction

Some six or seven years ago, I was a student attending the Theological Departmient of Vanderbilt University. On one occasion Dr. W. F. Tillett, Dean of the Department, while lecturing to his class in Systematic Theology, spoke of a visit made to the United States by the late Rev. Hugh Price Hughes, sometime city missionary of the Wesleyans in East London.^

The reference made by Dean Tillett was brief, perhaps an illustration of some point under discussion, perhaps scarcel)'^ more than an allusion. For some reason, however, this reference caused the situation to flash upon me and to get such a hold upon my mind that I was unable to put the matter aside. My attention having been thus directed to the moral principles involved in the amalgamation of the races, I began to investigate the situation as carefully as press of studies and other duties would admit. From conditions obtaining in the schools, I turned to conditions obtaining in religious organizations, especially the practical attitude of the mission boards of the Northern Churches toward the moral and ethical features of the negro problem.

Several instances, in which the United States gov-

'See "Racial Integrity," p. 59.

ernment had utterly disregarded moral considerations and social safeguards in the selection of mulattoes for Federal positions, having already come under my personal observation, I extended the scope of my investigation so as to include the influences emanating from the political situation.

It was not a part of my original plan to enter upon any discussion of either the economic or the political features of the negro problem, but rather to limit this study to those factors which have to do with its moral phases. It soon became evident, however, that other matters must be discussed in order that the moral and ethical features of the problem might be presented with any degree of clearness or fullness. In dealing with so complex a situation, the problem of what to omit has been a difficult one to solve.^

In undertaking to deal with any feature of the negra problem, I am aware of the danger, as a Southern man, of becoming a partisan rather than an impartial student of existing conditions. My sympathies are with the South, and naturally so. The temptation, therefore, to stress those facts which, as I see the situation, constitute the strongest defense of the course

\ When a man attempts to discuss the negro problem

at the South, he may begin with the negro; but he really touches, with however light a hand, the whole bewildering problem of a civilization. ("The Present South," Murphy,, p. T58.)

pursued by the South between the years 1840 and 1865, and those elements entering into the negro problem since 1865, which bid fair ultimately to vindicate the contentions of the more conservative Southern leaders of that trying period when the lines were being drawn for the final struggle with slavery, has been present as every page was written. Perhaps the reader will regard many things as written with this ulterior purpose. I see clearly, however, that in so far as the sectional differences of the past and the bitternesses incident to these are drawn into any discussion of present conditions, the possibility of an impartial comprehension of the present situation will be removed- Looking backward, we may now recognize many things, done in the days when passion ran high as stupendous blunders. Even so : yet it is not necessary to question the integrity of either section, nor should the former mistakes of either section of our country be regarded as precedents fettering us in our attempts to deal with the present.

It is not less difficult for a typical Northern man to make an impartial study of the negro problem than it is for a Southern man to do so. In the one case, as in the other, mistakes have been made, and affiliations and point of view are determined largely by surroundings. Instead, therefore, of indulging in bitter recriminations, it is well that both sections should remember that we inherit our present problems from an age "when slavery touched no man's conscience," and that every section of the original colonies must share the responsibility for the presence of the negro in these United States. But for climatic and economic reasons, slavery would have remained national instead of becoming local and- sectional.

England was forced to deal with a situation in her West Indian possessions similar to that existing in our own country. England liberated the slaves in her American possessions at a cost of less than one hundred and twenty-five dollars per capita.^ No serious interruption to the commercial or to the social interests of the colonies resulted from this step because of the manner in which it was taken.

The emancipation of the slaves in the United States could not, perhaps, have been accomplished in a manner more injurious to the slaves themselves, nor at a greater cost to the white race. The cost of the Civil War, reckoning only the financial interests involved, is appalling. For each group of four slaves freed we must reckon a cash value of at least two thousand dollars utterly lost to the slaveholder; war expenses amounting in cash to at least three times the value of the group; indirect expenditures, depreciations in values, and loss of time from productive occupations on

'See "Leading Facts of English History," Montgomery, p. 354.

7the part of those actually serving in the two armies; subsequent pension rolls, etc. — all amounting- to several times the value of the entire slave population, and causing the emancipation of the slaves in the United States to cost in cash and economic values from twenty to thirty times as much as was the case in the British -colonies, and at least four or five times as much as it would have cost to purchase the entire slave population of i860 and to transport it back to Africa. To this estimate of the cost of the Civil War must be added the loss of the life of one white man for each group of four slaves freed.

This line of thought appeals strongly for further elaboration ; but these matters, except as they show the folly of war as a general proposition, have an academic interest rather than a practical bearing upon the present situation. Only as we have deemed the experiences of the past valuable in preventing the repetition of such of the mistakes of the past as are possible under present conditions, and in avoiding equally serious mistakes in the future, have we thought best to refer to anything that may kindle afresh dying embers left by the scourge of fire which swept over this nation during the sixties.

That there is a disposition to make a careful study of the negro problem is evident, on the one hand, from the number of books recently issued and the number of magazine articles constantly appearing dealing with lo RACIAL INTEGRITY.

this subject, and, on the other hand, by the reception given these by the thoughtful, reading public.

There was a time when the negro problem appealed to the passions of men rather than to their reason. The antislavery agitation preceding the Civil War, the war itself, and the chaotic conditions incident to and succeeding the war forced this problem upon the country under circumstances most unfavorable to its just settlement. Beginning in an unselfish interest in the negro race, the antislavery movement soon became entangled with other interests, and entered the arena of politics and party strife, uniformly taking that course calculated to arouse the bitterest antagonisms. Between the contending forces of the North and the 'South, the negro has suffered much — more, perhaps, in proportion to numbers . than either section of the white race involved.

Of the chapters following, that dealing with "Racial Integrity" is by far the most important. Amalgamation of the races, in the case of two dissimilar and unassimilable peoples, involves a degree of moral depravity which, because it afifects the very foundation of all virtue and of all character, cannot be overlooked.

It is with the hope that these pages will awaken interest in the moral welfare of the negro race as well as that of the white race that this volume is sent forth. The low moral standard which we practically set for the negro, and which the race as a whole tacitly ac-

INTRODUCTION. ii

cepts, constitutes the most serious feature of the present situation. If the reader will kindly bear this in mind and will interpret every part of the following pages in the light of this definite purpose to emphasize the moral and ethical features of the problem, he will see that nothing is here said with a view to reviving any of the sectional differences once more prominent than at present. There is need for agitation. Only when the situation is fully understood may we hope to see its evils corrected. We hope that the reading of this chapter will promote sympathy for, if not cooperation in, the efifort to bring these conditions so clearly and so forcibly before the American people that the wrongs and the injustice now being done the full-blood negro — and the white race — shall be no longer possible.

The chapter dealing with the "Problem of the City" is now infinitely more pertinent than that dealing with slavery. For good or evil, the institution of slavery is buried in a past which, while it cannot be forgotten, should not fetter either the present or the future. The present herding together in our cities and towns is injuring a large class of the negroes infinitely more than it was ever in the power of the system of slavery to do. Next to the chapter dealing with "Racial Integrity, with the possible exception of that dealing with the "Educational Problem," this chapter deals with the most vital interests of the negro at the present time.

The chapter dealing with slavery is necessary to this study, if for no other reason, because of the historical setting which it furnishes. Our excuse for devoting so large a part of this volume to the subject of slavery lies in this fact. When future historians are able to strike a just balance between the contending interests of i860, the verdict will certainly be that the South of i860 was the victim, rather than the master, of the slave population.

As a general proposition, it is easier to point out mistakes than to offer safe counsel. In so far as the chapter dealing with the "Educational Problem" is constructive, it may be considered as tentative and suggestive rather than final. It is of the highest importance that methods of instruction be adapted to the race as a whole, and that exceptions to the general racial characteristics be dealt with as such. It is also of the highest importance that the instruction given shall be such as will help the negro to meet his immediate obligations and to provide for his immediate necessities. Here, as elsewhere, the most serious mistakes are those growing out of the suspension of moral and ethical principles by those who have sought to assist the race.

If we are able to make any original contribution to a thorough understanding of the present situation, it must be along the line of the moral and ethical principles involved, and the value of this addition to the rapidly growing literature dealing with the negro problem should be estimated largely by its success — or failure — in bringing these principles, and the racial degradation incident to amalgamation, clearly before thoughtful men. We regard the volume as a plea for the best and highest interests of both races.

The presence of the negro in these United States constitutes by far our most serious social problem, and there is every reason to fear that, in view of the attitude of the white race, the diflficulties incident to the moral features of this problem will become more and more acute as time passes. That the full significance of the present status of amalgamation has not been recognized by any large number of our people is quite evident. It is equally true that no voice, within or without the race, has been effectively raised against the evils of the present situation.

Personal bias may have its influence upon our interpretation of the statistics of the Census Department, and also upon that of the figures obtained by personal investigations.^ A very stubborn array of facts does exist, however, and these may be subjected to the most careful tests. Our interpretation of these facts may, or may not, be accepted. The reader is asked to give existing facts their proper weight, considering the situation carefully and impartially, and to decide for himself whether or not our conclusions are warranted. If

'See "Racial Integrity," pp. 20 (a) and 26 (h) .

H

RACIAL INTEGRITY.

once the attention of the American people could he fixed upon conditions as they now exist, much would be gained toward securing a better state of affairs.

There are factors entering into this problem of which the Census can take no account. Causes must operate long enough to produce tangible resuhs before the statistician is able to indicate them. In the study of the moral phases of the negro problem, however, we have the results, written large, from which to deduce the causes. Our task is that of tracing the effect back to its cause. If this volume, in spite of its defects, proves the means of leading to a clearer understanding of the situation now confronting us, it will have accomplished much. It is sent forth with the earnest hope that it may lead to the correction of those mistakes made hitherto in practically all efforts to assist the negro. Should it prove the means of destroying, in any measure, sympathetic regard for the full-blood negro, it will, to that extent, fail to accomplish its purpose. Should it create hardships for the mulatto, none can regret the necessity for this more than does the writer. The "greatest good to the greatest number," the vital interests of two races, the foundations of all morality — these are all involved ; and, while recognizing that in proportion as this volume accomplishes its mission its weight must fall heavily upon the mulatto, the cause of truth and righteousness forbids silence.

What the ultimate solution of the problem of amalgamation will be cannot now be foreseen. I am, however, convinced that the best interests of both races, for the present as well as for the future, demand that the negro race shall be held rigidly to the standard of right-living, and that all breaches of the moral and ethical code shall meet with such prompt and practical reprobation as shall furnish a healthful moral stimulus to the entire race. Such is not the case to-day. If the white race of America must be schoolmaster to the negro, it should not only furnish him clean and wholesome and practical instruction, but should enforce this by all the efficacy of right example.

There is one consideration which should not be overlooked. We approach all the problems of history with a belief in the existence of a Supreme Ruler — "a Power which makes for righteousness" — overruling and directing in the affairs of men. With such a faith, it is not difficult to look upon slavery as a providentially ordered school for the African; It is this conception of the events of the past and of the present situation which casts the "Bow of Promise" across all those dark clouds which gather about the negro problem as a storm center. Optimism, however, becomes hurtful whenever it blinds men to the existence of manifest evils or leads to a disregard of legitimate social safeguards.

CHAPTER I. Racial Integrity

In the study of this subject we come to what isunquestionably the most important feature of the negro problem. Yet, notwithstanding its vital importance to both races, it has not received that careful study and that full treatment which it deserves.

Of more than a dozen books recently issued which profess to treat the negro problem with some degree of thoroughness, not one deals satisfactorily with all that is involved in the amalgamation of the races. The authors have either failed to grasp the full significance of existing facts and conditions or, out of consideration for the refinement of their readers, have been content to pass over this feature of the problem with a few suggestive allusions. One or two of the writers, themselves of mixed blood, have referred to racial admixture in such a way as to imply at least a tacit approval. There is a danger in making quotations that a sentence or even a paragraph apart from its context may not truly represent a writer's views. The following, however, seems sufficiently explicit. Manysuch quotations might be given :

"There is no doubt that judicious race amalgamation is capable of exercising a profound and far-reaching influence upon inferior types of people. Degenerate people are always improved and strengthened by an infusion of virile blood. . . . The best examples of negro race admixture that have come under our observation are those which have an equal inheritance of characteristics from both white and black progenitors, with the initial amalgamation extending back to the third or fourth generation. In such cases we have a degree of intelligence, a poise of judgment, and a solidity of character wholly wanting in the extremes of the negro.

"There is an impression in the minds of some superficial white people that the best-developed and most manly types of negro [>eople are those of pure blood. But such impressions are misconceptions, and unwarranted by existing facts. . . . As we have already shown, the pure negro people are, by the very nature of their characteristic endowments, precluded from reaching a high degree of efficiency. Whatever the freedtnan has achieved in the way of intelligence and character is due to alien characteristics incorporated into his being through race amalgamation." ("The American Negro," Thomas, pp. 408, 409.)

The following quotation, however, shows that the writer is not a disinterested witness:

"On my mother's side I come of German and English stock. My maternal grandfather, the son of a white indentured female servant by a colored man, 2 was born in Bedford, Pa., about the year 1758. My maternal grandmother was a white German woman." ("The American Negro," Thomas, Introduction, pp. xi., xii.)

Prof. W. B. Smith, of Tulane University, in his recent book, "The Color Line," from which we quote freely in a subsequent chapter,^ gives a clear and, within its scope, a most satisfactory treatment of the negro problem. He, however, treats the whole matter from the standpoint of the scientist rather than from that of the moralist. He therefore considers only the interests of the white race, and those interests largely as viewed from the scientific standpoint. We strongly urge those who wish a convincing statement of the objections to amalgamation drawn from a careful comparison of the races to read Professor Smith's book. Here will be found interesting comparisons of brain weights and qualities, of nervous organization, of physical characteristics, and other matters entering into the science of comparative anthropology. In this way he presents the grounds upon which he assigns the negro to the lowest place in the scale of mankind. His investigations, as do those of all scientists, lead logically to the conclusion that the principle of "selection" demands that the higher type, whether that type be man or beast, be not degraded by fusion with a lower type.

'See "The Educational Problem."

Science is proverbially heartless; but not more so than the laws of nature which it seeks to interpret and to apply. Christian sentiment, on the other hand, always indulgent to weakness and helplessness, leads naturally to the opposite extreme. It is, therefore, to be expected that the kindliness fostered by the Christian religion will sometimes hesitate to follow the dictates of science. Nowhere, however, is there a demand for more accurate scientific knowledge upon the one hand and for greater display of Christian principles on the other than in dealing with the social and moral problems incident to the presence of the negro in the United States. Christianity should bring to the solution of these problems those sympathies so necessary to a full appreciation of all that enters into this race question. Science, on the other hand, should contribute to this solution a clear and complete intellectual perception of all that is involved. Christian sentiment should mitigate the harshness of science and, in turn, should become infinitely more helpful because of the direction of, and the chastening influence exerted by, scientific knowledge. On the part of those who have sought to assist the negro there has been too much of undisciplined impulse, and this has found expression in many ways really hurtful to the race.

The moral and ethical principles entering into this problem are, if possible, much more important than those merely scientific. It is the conviction that there is urgent need that certain moral principles involved in the amalgamation of the black and the white races should be plainly stated and fully discussed, which prompts the writing of this volume.

Even the most casual study of the negro problem shows that, through amalgamation, the race is rapidly undergoing a change. It is our purpose to discuss :

I. The extent to which amalgamation has been carried.

II. The influences bringing this about.

III. How present conditions are injurious to the moral and to the ethical ideals of the negro race.

I

In seeking to ascertain the extent to which amalgamation has been carried, two sources of information have been used — viz., (o) The United States Census Reports and (ft) personal observation and investigation.

(oi) For accuracy and trustworthiness, nothing can compare with the Census Reports. These reports, found in Bulletin No. 8, Census of 1900, to which frequent reference will be made, furnish information covering a period of forty years. The first census taking cognizance of the mulatto as a distinct element of population was taken in 1850. The latest was in l8go. In the enumeration of 1900 it seems that, instead of regarding the mulatto as a separate class, he is included, along with the negro, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, etc., under the general class "colored." We are, therefore, able to find no statement of the ratio of mulatto to total negro population later than that given for the year 1890. From the various tables of Bulletin No. 8 we gather the facts offered below.

We are warned, however, not to accept the figures of the Census Department as absolutely correct. On page II, Bulletin 8, we find these words:

"The census of the negroes in 1900 was probably less accurate than that of the whites, . . . but it is believed to be not more than two per cent below the truth, and at least as accurate as any previous census of the negroes.

"The censuses of mulattoes, as distinguished from full-blood negroes, taken in 1850, i860, 1870, and 1890, though subject to a far greater and wholly indeterminate probable error, have shown a general agreement of results.

"They indicate that between eleven and sixteen per cent of the negro population have, or are believed by the enumerators to have, some degree of white blood."

Such is the general conclusion reached by the experts of the Census Bureau. It is well, however, to call attention, in detail, to some of the facts made clear by the tables given in Bulletin 8.

It is evident, in the first place, that the ratio of mulatto to total negro population is rising rapidly, if not steadily. In 1850 the ratio of mulatto to total negro population was, according to the reports, eleven and two-tenths per cent. In 1890 it had risen to fifteen and two-tenths per cent, or an average of one per cent each decade. While the average gain shown is one per cent per decade, this gain, as indicated by the tables referred to above, has not been uniform, or even continuous. The figures are: For 1850, 11.2 per cent; i860, 13.2 per cent; 1870, 12 per cent; 1880, no figures given; 1890, 15.2 per cent.

Concerning the accuracy of these figures, we quote again :

"As a general result of the analysis of the census figures on mulattoes, it appears that the censuses of 1850, i860, and 1870 agree fairly among themselves, and furnish an index of some value regarding the intermixture of whites and blacks toward the close of slavery. It cannot be denied that the per cents of mulattoes to all negroes in some States differ so widely from census to census as to cast grave doubts upon the results. No one familiar with the facts would explain the apparent increase of mulattoes in Tennessee between 1850 and i860 and the decrease between i860 and 1870 as both real. I do not believe that the reported number of mulattoes can be deemed to be within ten per cent of the true number, and see no means of judging with confidence whether the reported num-

J RACIAL INTEGRITY. 33

ber exceeded or fell short of the truth. Yet even so, it is a step away from ignorance to have the observation of many thousand enumerators at four independent inquiries as evidence that in the United States between one-ninth and one-sixth of the negroes were of mixed blood, while in Cuba one-half and in Porto Rico five-sixths have been so classed by the census.'' (Bulletin No. 8, Census of 1900, p. 17.)

The figures for 1870 present a diiiSculty. The ratio of mulatto to total negro population in i860, as given in table 56, was thirteen and two-tenths per cent; in 1870, twelve per cent. Now it is difficult to explain this decrease of one and two-tenths per cent shown by the census of 1870 and the increase of three and two-tenths per cent shown by that of 1890 on any other hypothesis than that of inaccuracy in the returns made by the enumerators of 1870. Many things warrant us in believing that this enumeration should have shown a decided increase in the ratio of mulatto to total negro population. This, we should remember, was the decade of the Civil War; and even later than 1870 matters in the South were in an unsettled condition. We quote again: "An investigation made at the time of the Tenth Census established beyond question the fact that serious omissions, especially in the Southern States and among the negro population, vitiated the census of 1870, taken under a most unsatisfactory system and at a time when the disorganization following the Civil War was a serious obstacle." (Bulletin 8,

It was not in the South, however, that the greatest fluctuations are noted, as is shown by the following comparisons: North Central Division— 1860, 29.6 per cent; 1870, 22.3 per cent; loss, 7.3 per cent. North Atlantic Division— 1860, 24 per cent; 1870, 17.3 per cent; loss 6.7 per cent. South Atlantic Division— i860, 1 1.9 per cent; 1870, 10.4 per cent; loss, 1.5 per cent. Had this enumeration been made as carefully and as honestly as that of either i860 or 1890, a different result would doubtless have been obtained. We shall have occasion to refer to this period again.^

Since the ratio of mulatto to total negro population is not given later than for 1890, we are left largely to conjecture as to the exact relation of the two at the present time. If, however, we suppose the average gain of one per cent per decade to have been maintained until the present time (1907), the ratio of mulatto to total negro population is now about 16.8 per cent. The Census Bureau, however, suggests a possible error amounting to ten per cent. If this be expressed in terms of the ratio of the mulatto to total negro population and added to the above figures, the result is 18.48 per cent. I am satisfied that this result is as near to the truth as it is possible to arrive. My own investigations indicate that it is somewhat too 'See "Racial Integrity," pp. 43 and 44.

low. We may be sure that the ratio of mulatto to total negro population is now between 17 and 20 per cent, and that this ratio is rising at an average rate of at least i per cent each decade.

The real situation is more easily comprehended when the comparison is expressed in round numbers rather than in percentages. The census of 1870 shows that there were at that time in the United States a total of 584,049 mulattoes. That of 1890 reveals the presence of 1,132,060, an increase of almost 100 per cent in the short space of twenty years. There are now very nearly 2,000,000 mulattoes in the United States.