The Negro dimly personifies
in the white man all his ills and misfortunes; if he is poor, it
is because the white man seizes the fruit of his toil; if he is
ignorant, it is because the white man gives him neither time
nor facilities to learn; and, indeed, if any misfortune happens
to him, it is because of some hidden machinations of "white
folks." On the other hand, the masters and the masters' sons
have never been able to see why the Negro, instead of settling
down to he day-laborers for bread and clothes, are infected
with a silly desire to rise in the world, and why they are
sulky, dissatisfied, and careless, where their fathers were
happy and dumb and faithful. "Why, you niggers have an
easier time than I do," said a puzzled Albany merchant to his
black customer. "Yes," he replied, "and so does yo' hogs."
Taking, then, the dissatisfied and shiftless field-hand as a
starting-point, let us inquire how the black thousands of
Dougherty have struggled from him up toward their ideal,
and what that ideal is. All social struggle is evidenced by the
rise, first of economic, then of social classes, among a homo-
geneous population.
Pages:
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213