The Journal of Negro History, Volume 1, January 1916

W. R. Ward

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor–Musician. His Life and Letters. By W. C. Berwick Sayers. Cassell and Company, London, 1915. Pp. 328.

In this work we have the first extensive account of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. The author of this volume has succeeded in producing a sympathetic and interesting narrative of the life of one of the greatest musicians of his time. Taking up his birth and childhood and then his college days, ending in the romance which attached him to a young Croydon girl, the author does not delay in bringing the reader to a consideration of those fundamentals which made Samuel Coleridge-Taylor famous …

Much space is devoted to Coleridge-Taylor's achievement of success with his "Ballade in A Minor." How Sir Edward Elgar extended the promising composer a welcoming hand and arranged for him to write for a concert a short orchestral piece which turned out to be the artist's first great success is well described. The author emphasizes the barbaric strain and orchestral coloring, the prominently marked features which made the composer great.

The next task of the author is to show how the "essential beauty, naive simplicity, unaffected expression and unforced idealism," of Longfellow's "Hiawatha" stirred the artist and set him composing an unambitious cantata which resulted in "Hiawatha's Wedding Feast," and the "Song of Hiawatha." The expressions of enthusiasm and the euologies which crowned the musician as one of the greatest artists that Great Britain has produced justly constitute a large portion of the work.

His "Visit to America" is an important chapter of the volume. The manner in which the oppressed of his race received him in their troubled land is treated in detail, and the names of the persons and organizations that arose to welcome him are given honorable mention. The author brings out too that so impressed was Coleridge-Taylor with the frank recognition of pure music in America that he once "contemplated the desirability of emigrating to this land."

The book abounds with letters and extracts from publications, which enable the reader to learn for himself how the artist's work was appreciated. The volume is well illustrated. In it appear the early portraits of Coleridge-Taylor's mother, of himself, and family, and home, and of the Coleridge-Taylor Society in Washington, D.C. Not only persons who appreciate music but all who have an intelligent interest in the achievements of the Negro should read this work.

J. R. Davis

Race Orthodoxy in the South and other Aspects of the Negro Problem. By Thomas Pearce Bailey, Ph.D. The Neale Publishing Company, New York, 1914.

The author of this volume has a long intellectual pedigree. Pedigrees are important in authors who write on the race problem. This is particularly true when they attempt to tell us what the orthodox opinion of the South is regarding the Negro. Much that passes for Southern opinion on the Negro is too violent to be taken at its face value. Other interpretations of the South have too frequently been the individual views of eminent men of Southern origin who no longer hold orthodox views.

The author discusses some of these interpretations and criticises them. There are four principal types. There is the philosophical view, represented by Edgar Gardiner Murphy's "The Basis of Ascendancy." Mr. Murphy "is one of the choicest specimens of noble character that the South has produced," but he came under Northern influences and his book represents a struggle between Northern and Southern points of view. "The first part of his book seems to be, in the main, pro-Southern and defensive of the South, while the latter part becomes largely Northern and critical of the South." He does not succeed, in the opinion of the author, in synthesizing these two divergent views.

The second type is sociological, represented by "The Southerner," a novel written in the form of an autobiography or, perhaps, rather an autobiography written in the form of a novel. The author is supposed to be Walter Hines Page, at present American ambassador to Great Britain. Of this book Mr. Bailey says: "The author is not a Southerner of the spirit, whatever he may be of the flesh. There is something of North Carolina and something of Massachusetts in his attitude, but none of the all-inclusive Americanism that alone is able to write about the South with sympathy of the heart yet with balanced discrimination."

To understand the South one must have lived in South Carolina, and understand the "apparent violence" of Ben Tilman, or in Mississippi, the home of Senator Vardaman. The South, the orthodox South, is today as it was before the war, the "far South"; but the sentiments which dominate it are not now, as in slavery days, the sentiments of the "master class" but rather those of the "poor white man."

The third type of interpretation is represented here by "Uncle Tom's Cabin." The criticsm of this book is so subtle that it is difficult to indicate the outlines of it in a single paragraph. The difficulty with Mrs. Stowe's interpretation of the South and the Negro is that she, just as certain Southern humanitarians of the present day, is inclined to treat the Negroes as a class. She does not regard them as a race, a different breed, whose blood is a contamination. "No one," says the writer, "has come within shouting distance of the real Negro problem who does not appreciate this distinction. Indeed, almost everything critical that can be alleged against 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' springs from the failure of its humanitarian author to sympathize with race consciousness as such."

Finally there is the scientific interpretation of Southern sentiment, and the "race instinct" which is back of most Southern opinion in regard to the Negro. This scientific interpretation is represented by Boas, "The Mind of Primitive Man." "Ultimately," according to Professor Boas, "this phenomenon (race instinct) is a repetition of the old instinct and fear of the connubium of the patricians and the plebeians, of the European nobility and the common people, or of the castes of India. The emotions and reasoning are the same in every respect."

To this scientific exposition of the Southern attitude Mr. Bailey replies: "Even if it could be scientifically proved that an infusion of Negro blood would help the white race, the prejudice against a really great branch of the white race like the Jews is sufficient warning to us not to confine our discussion of race problems to the question of equality or inequality of physical and mental endowment."

What then is race orthodoxy? Where shall we look for a true statement of the attitude of the South on the subject of the Negro since none of these attempts at interpretation have done justice to it? The racial creed has been expressed at different times in a number of pithy expressions current in the Southern states. Here they are in order as the author gives them: "Blood will tell"; The white race must dominate; The Teutonic peoples stand for race purity. The Negro is inferior and will remain so. "This is a white man's country." Let there be no social equality; no political equality. In matters of civil rights and legal adjustments give the white man as opposed to the colored man the benefit of the doubt. In educational policy let the Negro have the crumbs that fall from the white man's table. Let there be such industrial education of the Negro as will fit him to serve the white man. Only Southerners understand the Negro question. Let the South settle the Negro question. The status of peasantry is all the Negro may hope for, if the races are to live together in peace. Let the lowest white man count for more than the highest Negro. The above statements indicate the leadings of Providence.

This statement of the Southern creed is practically the common opinion of the South. It is not the only opinion. It is not, perhaps, the "best" opinion. But is it right opinion? Mr. Bailey thinks it is, in its underlying meaning at any rate, but not in its "present shape." His book may be said, on the whole, to be an interpretation and a justification of this "underlying meaning."

Race orthodoxy in the South is, take it all in all, the most candid statement of the race problem; the most searching, suggestive and revealing interpretation of the attitude of the Southern white man that has ever been written. The book is, however, merely a statement of the problem and not a solution. Rather it is intended, as the author suggests again and again, to provoke and stimulate–not discussion, heaven forbid,–but inquiry, investigation. In spite of the fact that the author professes his personal loyalty to the dogma upon which race orthodoxy is founded, still, by stating it in the clear and candid way in which he has, in pointing out with unflinching directness the moral cul-de-sac into which it has forced the Southern people, he has at once enabled and compelled them to put their faith on rational grounds. His is the higher criticism in race creeds, and it is hard to tell where criticism once started will lead.

Robert E. Park

Notes

Mr. Monroe N. Work has brought out the Negro Year Book for 1916-1917. In keeping with the progress hitherto shown this edition surpasses that of last year. Here one finds an unusually large collection of statistical material as to the economic, social and religious progress of the black race; and a brief account of what exceptional Negroes have done to distinguish themselves in various fields. It contains also a brief history of the Negro given in such succinct statements as will please the hurried reader and meet the requirements of those who have not access to reference libraries.

The striking new feature of the work, however, is a brief account of what leading thinkers and the press have said about such perplexing problems as the "Birth of a Nation," "Miscegenation," and "Segregation." The editor has endeavored to present in popular style a brief account of everything of importance with which the Negro has been concerned during the year. He has done his task well. Sold at such a reasonable price as thirty-five cents a copy, this valuable book should find its way to the home of every one who desires to keep himself informed on what the Negro is actually achieving.

The United Brethren Publishing Co., Huntington, Ind., has published M. B. Butler's My Story of the Civil War and the Underground Railroad. A native of Vermont, where he had an opportunity to see many a fugitive on his way to freedom, the author naturally makes his narrative interesting and straightforward. He recounts his unusual experiences as a soldier in detail but does not grow tiresome.

In the Mississippi Valley, Historical Review, II, March, 1916, appeared Doctor H. N. Sherwood's Early Negro Deportation Projects. This is a selected part of the author's doctorate thesis. It treats of the endeavors to ameliorate the condition of emancipated slaves and the colonization plans which finally led to the establishment of the republic of Liberia.

The Tennessee Historical Magazine for June contains a dissertation by Asa Earl Martin, entitled Anti-Slavery Activities of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Tennessee. The article covers the period from 1784 to the time of the great schism of 1844.

Professor Tenny Frank has contributed to the July number of the American Historical Review a valuable article entitled Race Mixture in the Roman Empire.

In the same number of this publication appear also twenty-three pages of documents on the Cane Sugar Industry collected by Irene A. Wright. As the Negroes proved to be a great factor in the development of this industry, these documents will be helpful to those who desire to study the bearing of the Negro on its origin and early growth.

Miss Helen Nicolay has turned over to the Library of Congress some important Lincoln Manuscripts, among which are the first and second autograph copies of the Gettysburg Address, the autograph of the Second Inaugural Address, and the President's memorandum of August 23, 1864, pledging support to the next administration.

In The Case for the Filipino, Maximo M. Kalaw gives an account of the American occupation of the Archipelago, and in presenting his claims for independence he puts his countrymen in the attitude of an oppressed people.

Dr. C. G. Woodson delivered at the University of Chicago in July a lecture on The varying Attitude of the White Man toward the Negro in the United States.

A Happy Suggestion

My dear Dr. Woodson: I am in receipt of the current number of The Journal of Negro History and am more and more delighted with it. I think it furnishes the richest source for available information on the Negro that I have yet found. The leading article in this number is inspiring as well as illuminating and the idea has come to me that it would be an excellent thing to have history reading circles organized in all our schools for the purpose of systematically reading the Journal. A hundred or more such organizations with the Journal as a text would accomplish two or three very valuable things, viz., promote the circulation of the Journal and disseminate historical knowledge of the race so necessary to give it self-respect and pride. These historical clubs might meet monthly and include others than teachers. By all means your work should not lack for funds for keeping it going. I hope to interest the colored High School Alumni here at its annual meeting next week. I shall also call the attention of my teachers here to your publication. It is great.

Very truly yours,

J. W. Scott, Principal, Douglass High School, Huntington, W. Va.

1

Quillin, "The Color Line in Ohio," 18.

2

"Tyrannical Libertymen," 10-11; Locke, "Antislavery," 31-32; Branagan, "Serious Remonstrance," 18.

3

Woodson, "The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861," 230-231.

4

Constitution, Article I, Sections 2, 6.

5

Laws of Ohio, II, 63.

6

Laws of Ohio, V, 53.

7

Hickok, "The Negro in Ohio," 41, 42.

8

Warden, "Statistical, Political and Historical Account of the United States of North America," 264.

9

Quillin, "The Color Line in Ohio," 32.

10

The Census of the United States, from 1800 to 1850.

11

Flint's Letters in Thwaite's "Early Western Travels," IX, 239.

12

Cist, "Cincinnati in 1841," 37; Cincinnati Daily Gazette, Sept. 14, 1841.

13

Ibid.

14

United States Census, 1850.

15

Ohio State Journal, May 3, 1827; African Repository, III, 254.

16

Abdy, "Journal of a Tour in the United States," III, 62.

17

Jay, "Miscellaneous Writings on Slavery," 27, 373, 385, 387; Minutes of the Convention of the Colored People of Ohio, 1849.

18

Barber, "A Report on the Condition of the Colored People of Ohio," 1840.

19

Proceedings of the Ohio Antislavery Convention, 1835, 19.

20

Ibid.

21

Proceedings of the Ohio Antislavery Convention, 1835, 19.

22

African Repository, V, 185.

23

African Repository, V, 185.

24

For a lengthy account of these efforts see Woodson's "The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861," 245, 328, 329; and Hickok, "The Negro in Ohio," 83, 88.

25

Fairchild, "Oberlin: Its Origin, Progress and Results."

26

Howe, "Historical Collections of Ohio," 356.

27

The Southern Workman, XXXVII, 169.

28

For a full account see Howe, "Historical Collections of Ohio," 225-226.

29

Barber, "Report on the Condition of the Colored People in Ohio," 1840, and The Philanthropist, July 14 and 21, 1840.

30

These facts are taken from A. D. Barber's "Report on the Condition of the Colored People in Ohio" and from other articles contributed to The Philanthropist in July, 1840.

31

In this case I have taken the statements of Negroes who were employed in this capacity.

32

The Philanthropist, July 14 and 24, 1840; and May 26, 1841.

33

Hickok, "The Negro in Ohio," 89.

34

The Philanthropist, July 14 and 21, 1840.

35

The Philanthropist, July 21, 1840.

36

The Cincinnati Daily Gazette, September 14, 1841.

37

The Philanthropist, July 21, 1840.

38

Ibid.

39

The Cincinnati Daily Gazette, September 14, 1841.

40

A detailed account of these clashes is given in The Cincinnati Daily Gazette, September 14, 1841.

41

The Cincinnati Daily Gazette, September, 1841.

42

A very interesting account of this riot is given in Howe's "Historical Collections of Ohio," pages 226-228.

43

It was discovered that not a few of the mob came from Kentucky. About eleven o'clock on Saturday night a bonfire was lighted on that side of the river and loud shouts were sent up as if triumph had been achieved. "In some cases." says a reporter, "the directors were boys who suggested the point of attack, put the vote, declared the result and led the way."–Cin. Daily Gaz., Sept. 14, 1841.

44

Hickok, "The Negro in Ohio," 90 et seq.

45

Laws of Ohio, XL, 81.

46

Ibid., LIII, 118.

47

The Convention Debates.

48

Special Report of the United States Commissioner of Education, 1871, page 372.

49

Laws of Ohio.

50

Ibid., LIII, 118.

51

The New York Tribune, February 19, 1855.

52

Lyell, "A Second Visit to the United States of North America," II, 295, 296.

53

The Weekly Herald and Philanthropist, June 26, 1844, August 6, 1844, and January 1, 1845.

54

The Cincinnati Directory of 1860.

55

Foote, "The Schools of Cincinnati," 92.

56

The Weekly Herald and Philanthropist, August 23, 1844.

57

Special Report of the United States Commissioner of Education, 372.

58

Simmons, "Men of Mark," 490.

59

A white slaveholder, a graduate of Amherst, taught in this school. See Weekly Herald and Philanthropist, June 26, 1844.

60

These facts were obtained from oral statements of Negroes who were living in Cincinnati at this time; from M. R. Delany's "The Condition of the Colored People in the United States"; from A. D. Barber's "Report on the Condition of the Colored People in Ohio," 1840; and from various Cincinnati Directories.

61

Delany, "The Condition of the Colored People in the United States," 92.

62

The Cincinnati Directory for 1860.

63

For the leading facts concerning the life of Robert Gordon I have depended on the statements of his children and acquaintances and on the various directories and documents giving evidence concerning the business men of Cincinnati.

64

For many of the facts set forth in this article the writer is indebted to Miss Fannie M. Richards, Robert A. Pelham, and C. G. Woodson.

65

Woodson, The Ed. of the Negro Prior to 1861, pp. 92, 217, 218.

66

The law was as follows: Be it enacted by the General Assembly that if any free person of color, whether infant or adult, shall go or be sent or carried beyond the limits of this Commonwealth for the purpose of being educated, he or she shall be deemed to have emigrated from the State and it shall not be lawful for him or her to return to the same; and if any such person shall return within the limits of the State contrary to the provisions of this act, he or she being an infant shall be bound out as an apprentice until the age of 21 years, by the overseers of the poor of the county or corporation where he or she may be, and at the expiration of that period, shall be sent out of the State agreeably to the provisions of the laws now in force, or which may hereafter be enacted to prohibit the migration of free persons of color to this State; and if such person be an adult, he or she shall be sent in like manner out of the Commonwealth; and if any persons having been so sent off, shall hereafter return within the State, he or she so offending shall be dealt with and punished in the same manner as is or may be prescribed by law in relating to other persons of color returning to the State after having been sent therefrome. Acts of the General Assembly of Virginia, 1838, p. 76.

67

The following enactments of the Virginia General Assembly will give a better idea of the extent of this humiliation:

4. Be it further enacted that all meetings of free Negroes or mulattoes at any school house, church, meeting-house or other place for teaching them reading or writing, either in the day or night, under whatsoever pretext, shall be deemed and considered as an unlawful assembly; and any justice of the county or corporation, wherein such assemblage shall be, either from his own knowledge, or on the information of others, of such unlawful assemblage or meeting, shall issue his warrant directed to any sworn officer or officers, authorizing him or them to enter the house or houses where such unlawful assemblage or meeting may be, for the purpose of apprehending or dispersing such free Negroes or mulattoes and to inflict corporal punishment on the offender or offenders at the discretion of any justice of the peace, not exceeding 20 lashes.

5. Be it further enacted that if any white person or persons assemble with free Negroes or mulattoes, at any school house, church, meeting-house, or other place for the purpose of instructing such free Negroes or mulattoes to read or write, such person or persons shall, on conviction thereof, be fined in a sum not exceeding fifty dollars, and moreover may be imprisoned at the discretion not exceeding two months.

6. Be it further enacted that if any white persons for pay or compensation, shall assemble with any slaves for the purpose of teaching and shall teach any slave to read or write, such persons or any white person or persons contracting with such teacher so to act, who shall offend as aforesaid, shall for each offence, be fined at the discretion of a jury in a sum not less than ten nor exceeding one hundred dollars, to be recovered on an information or indictment. Acts of the General Assembly of Virginia, 1831, p. 107.

I. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia that no slave, free Negro or mulatto, whether he shall have been ordained or licensed or otherwise, shall hereafter undertake to preach, exhort or conduct or hold any assembly or meeting, for religious or other purposes, either in the day time or at night; and any slave, free Negro or mulatto so offending shall for every such offence be punished with stripes at the discretion of any justice of the peace, not exceeding 39 lashes; and any person desiring so to do, shall have authority without any previous written precept or otherwise, to apprehend any such offender and carry him before such justice.

II. Any slave, free Negro or mulatto who shall hereafter attend any preaching, meeting or other assembly, held or pretended to be held for religious purposes, or other instruction, conducted by any slave, free Negro or mulatto preacher, ordained or otherwise; any slave who shall hereafter attend any preaching in the night time although conducted by a white minister, without a written permission from his or her owner, overseer or master or agent of either of them, shall be punished by stripes at the discretion of any justice of the peace, not exceeding 39 lashes, and may for that purpose be apprehended by any person, without any written or other precept: