Out of this ma.s.s of material examined one would expect a more unbiased treatment. The work suffers from some of the defects of most Reconstruction writers, although the author has endeavored to write with restraint and care. One man is made almost a hero while another is found wanting. The white Southerner could not but be a Democrat but no excuse is made for the Negro who had no alternative but to ally himself with those who claimed to represent his emanc.i.p.ator. The State was at one time bordering on economic ruin because the Negroes became migratory and would not comply with their labor contracts. Little is said, however, about the evils arising from the att.i.tude of Southern white men who have never liked to work and that of those who during this period, according to the author, formed roving bands for plundering and stealing. But we are too close to the history of Reconstruction to expect better treatment. We are just now reaching the period when we can tell the truth about the American Revolution. We must yet wait a century before we shall find ourselves far enough removed from the misfortunes and crimes of Reconstruction to set forth in an unbiased way the actual deeds of those who figured conspicuously in that awful drama.
NOTES
"That the idea of a "Secretary of Peace" for the United States is no new thing was brought out in the course of a paper by P. Lee Phillips, read by President Allen C. Clark before the Columbia Historical Society, which met at the Sh.o.r.eham Hotel last night.
"In the course of the paper, ent.i.tled "The Negro, Benjamin Banneker, Astronomer and Mathematician," it was brought out that Banneker, who was a free Negro, friend of Washington and Jefferson, published a series of almanacs, unique in that they were his own work throughout. In the almanac for 1793 one of the articles from Banneker"s pen was "A Plan of Peace Office for the United States," for promoting and preserving perpetual peace. This article was concise and well written, and contains most of the ideas set forth today by advocates of peace. Banneker took a "crack" at European military ideas, and advocated the abolishment in the United States of military dress and t.i.tles and all militia laws. He laid down laws for the construction of a great temple of peace in which hymns were to be sung each day.
"Mr. Phillips"s paper brought out that Banneker helped in one of the early surveys of the District of Columbia."--_Washington Star._
This dissertation will be brought out in the Annual Publication of the Columbia Historical Society.
Professor Alain Leroy Locke, of Howard University, has published an interesting prospectus of his lectures on the race problem.
Professor A. E. Jenks, of the University of Minnesota, has contributed to the _American Journal of Sociology_ an elaborate paper on the legal status of the miscegenation of the white and black races in the various commonwealths.
Miss L. E. Wilkes, of the Washington Public Schools, has been lecturing on "_Missing Pages of American History."_ This is a summary of her work treating the Negro soldier from the Colonial Period through the War of 1812. The treatise will be published in the near future.
In the Church Missionary Review has appeared "_A Survey of Islam in Africa,"_ by G. T. Manley.
An article ent.i.tled "_The Bantu Coast Tribes of East Africa Protectorate,"_ by A. Werner, has been published in the _Journal_ of the Royal Anthropological Inst.i.tute. In the same _Journal_ has appeared also "_The Organization and Laws of Some Bantu Tribes in East Africa."_
_Ashanti Proverbs_, translated by R. Sutherland Rattray, with a preface by Sir Hugh Clifford, has been published by Milford in London.
A. Werner has published in London "_The Language Families of Africa,"_ a concise and valuable textbook of the cla.s.sification, philology, and grammar of the languages.
_The German African Empire_, by A. F. Calvert, has appeared over the imprint of Werner Laurie.
_The History of South Africa from 1795 to 1872_, by G. McCall Theal, has been published in London by Allen and Unwin. This is a fourth and revised edition of a work to be completed in five volumes.
_"The Tropics,"_ by C. R. Enock, has been brought out by Grant Richards.
This is a description of all tropical countries. It contains some valuable information but is chiefly concerned with advancing the theory that it is essential to study the capabilities of a country so as to develop all of its industries. The contention of the author is that the economic independence of each country is its safeguard from war and that commercialism is ruin.
The Methodist Book Concern has announced _"Pioneering on the Congo,"_ by John Springer.
Hodder and Stoughton have published _"Mary Slessor of Calabar: Pioneer Missionary."_ This is an account of a factory girl who distinguished herself as a missionary and was later appointed head of a native court.
_French Memories of Eighteenth Century America_, by Charles H. Sherrill, has been published by Scribners. He failed to take into account the many references of French travelers to the Negroes and slavery.
In the second number of _Smith College Studies in History_ appears Laura J. Webster"s _Operations of the Freedmen"s Bureau in South Carolina._
About the middle of July the Neale Publishing Company will bring out _The New Negro, His Political, Civil and Mental Status_, by Dean William Pickens, of Morgan College.
Professor Sherwood, of La Crosse, Wisconsin, has for some time been making researches into _Paul Cuffee._
AN INTERESTING COMMENT
_Dear Sir:_
It was very good of you to mail me a copy of the Journal of Negro History.
I had seen a copy of this publication, I believe, at the library of the Inst.i.tute of Jamaica. The second number is certainly an impressive issue indicative of the changed point of view. The so-called literature on slavery and the negro is, in the main, rather a hindrance than a help. The expression of mere personal opinion is of exceedingly slight value in the furtherance of any good cause. What the world needs is not mere knowledge but a better understanding of the facts and experience already available.
When a race has reached a point where it realizes its own place in history, and the value of a critical a.n.a.lysis of its historical experience, a measurable advance has been made towards the attainment of a genuine progress. All values are relative. True history concerns itself with any and all achievements and not merely with political changes or military events. Most of the so-called historical disquisitions delivered annually before the American Historical a.s.sociation fall seriously short in this respect. Ever since Green wrote his first real history of the English people the old-time historian has lost caste among men who are seriously concerned with the urgent solution of present-day problems. Unquestionably, a true political history is of real value, but the social history of mankind is infinitely more important.
The Journal of Negro History seems to meet the foregoing requirements for a social history of the negro race rather than a mere increase in the already voluminous so-called history of the political aspects of slavery reconstruction or reorganization during recent times. The article on the negro soldier in the American revolution is excellent. The prerequisite for a genuine race progress is race pride. For this reason the past achievements of the negro in this or any other country, individually or collectively, are of the utmost teaching value. It is a far cry, apparently, from the very recent high and well deserved promotion of a negro to a commanding position in the army, back to the days of the service rendered by negro soldiers in the Revolution, but in its final a.n.a.lysis it is all a chain of connected events. Where so much has been done and is being achieved the outlook for the future must needs be encouraging.
Progress is only made by struggling, and the best results are those achieved against apparently insuperable difficulties. Race progress and race pride are practically equivalent terms. Individuals and races fail in proportion as they permit discouraging circ.u.mstances or conditions to control their destinies. A true philosophy of history never fails to bring home the conviction that lasting success is attained only through the ages by persistent effort in the right direction. The negro race has reason to be proud of its achievements, but I am sure that the future progress will rest largely upon a better understanding of the negro"s place in history.
Just as in the case of individuals, so in the case of races, it is, first and last, a question of finding our place in the world. Variation in type is absolutely essential to the highest development of the human species. It is not, therefore, the duty of any one race to follow blindly in the footsteps of another. It is for each race to seek for the best traits peculiarly its own, and to leave absolutely nothing undone, in season and out, to develop those particular traits to the highest possible degree. In other words, it is not for the negro to try to be as near as he can to a white man, even in his innermost thoughts and aspirations, but to interpret the lessons of his own life through the philosophy of negro history and to be true to the moral and spiritual ideals of his race and his ancestors, be they what they may.
Very truly yours,
F. L. HOFFMAN, _Statistician_.
THE JOURNAL OF NEGRO HISTORY
VOL. I--JUNE, 1916--No. 3
PUBLISHED QUARTERLY
CONTENTS