foes and indifferent friends they asserted the rights of the person and the community, and finally fixed them secure in our political system. Far-seeing, vigilant, bold, and energetic, they urged on,

by eloquent voice and tireless pen, a timid, reluctant people to revolution and independence. independence. They were the motive force in effecting the political franchisement of America.

Frank Gaylord Cook.

Give no leaf less

I fondly dream!

Wendell P. Stafford.

IT is easy to see that in the generations to come the history of the negro race in America will be much studied. Considered from a scientific point of view, the African in America affords the most remarkable experiment ever made in transplanting a tropical variety of man to regions having a very different climate, and offering a totally different set of associations from those in which it originated. It is doubtful if human history will ever again offer another such chance of testing the influence of a new environment on a strongly

marked though lowly variety of ma The results of this vast essay will, time, throw a flood of light on the que tion of the improvability of the low races of mankind.

But it is not only as an experime in practical anthropology that this tran plantation of the negro in America w interest our successors. They will fir in it an economic problem of the utmo importance. Their task will be so combine these millions of the Africa people in a social order to which inhe itance has not accustomed them, th

the state may receive no evil influence from their presence; if possible, that it may gain some advantage from the peculiarities which the new and varied motives of this people may afford. The most hopeful friend of the negro, if he temper his hope with reason, must have much anxiety as to the final result of this unprecedented trial to which the race is being subjected. He must feel that all the other difficulties which beset the future of our people on the continent of North America are small compared with that which the negro problem presents. It has been the lot of the United States to encounter a wide range of social and political dangers. All these seem in a fair way of solution, at least in as fair a way as in any European country, except this which comes from the presence of the children of Africa on our soil. The problem of the proletariat, of the distribution of wealth and education, the dangers arising from the great social congestions in our cities, the difficulty of uniting in one social order diverse branches of the Aryan peoples, are trials which we share with every important state in the civilized world. The African question is peculiarly our own. We can see how English, Irish, French, Germans, and Italians may, after a time of trouble, mingle their blood and their motives in a common race, which may be as strong, or even stronger, for the blending of these diversities. We cannot hope for such a result with the negro, for an overwhelming body of experience shows that the third something which comes from the union of the European with the African is not as good material as either of the original stocks; that it has not the vital energy and the character required for the uses of the state. African and European races must remain distinct in blood, and at the same time they must, if possible, be kept from becoming separate castes; there must be a perfect civil union without a perfect

The

social accord; they must both march forward with entire equality of privilege as far as the state is concerned, yet without the bond of kinship in blood to unite them in the work of life, indeed, with a sense that it is their duty to remain apart.

To bring about this peculiar social order is the task which is before us. By what means shall it be begun, in what ways shall our efforts be directed, with some hope of a fair issue from the grave perils which we must encounter? These are questions of the utmost moment to any American who wishes to do his duty by the difficulties of his time. At present we are doing little or nothing which appears likely to contribute much to the solution of the questions which are connected with the future of the African race in this country. After the exertions of the civil war, which was the first step in the real discussion of the African question, it seems natural that our people should be wearied of it, and determine to abandon all further care of the matter to the States which are naturally concerned therewith. We must protest, however, against the idea that the negro question is a purely local problem, and that the right to consider it is limited to those who dwell where the blacks abound. It was doubtless a very wise thing for the federal government to cease its efforts to help the negro by congressional enactments and federal authority. The stages of the so-called reconstruction were really steps towards a more fatal disunion than that which was rendered impossible by the civil war. These steps were leading to a total sepa

ration between the whites and blacks of this country; towards the destruction of the sympathy and understanding between the races, which was a heritage of great value to the old slave-holding States. But it should not be supposed that the people of the whole country have abandoned all share in the discussion of this question of the future of the negro with

their relinquishment of the unconstitutional and futile effort to determine delicate social and civil relations by the rude machinery of legislation. Such an abnegation of a natural interest in a problem which profoundly concerns the future well-being of the nation and the race would be more unfortunate than the old selfish indifference of the mass of the people to the evils of slavery.

In large part, the present indifference, to the negro problem arises from a failure to perceive its importance. Few persons see the magnitude of the dangers it presents, for the reason that few can conceive the amazing intricacy and delicacy of the civil and social order by which the life of the individual is built into the larger life of the state. But there are many who do discern the true importance of the African question, who remain silent because they cannot see what is to be done, and who prefer inaction to rash experiment. The following pages are intended as an essay towards a method of determining what shall be done at the outset of our effort to grapple with the difficulties which the presence of our African brethren has brought upon the state.

First of all, it seems to be evident that we need in this task the combined action of all those who recognize the magnitude and importance of the work, and are willing to labor for its solution. Experience shows that, with a large field of inquiry such as this question presents, good work is most easily done by a wellconstituted society, containing a large number of students who are willing to plan their researches so that each division of the subject may come into the hands of those best fitted to attend to it. As will be seen at a later point in this writing, the variety of inquiries which should be prosecuted is very great; equally great is the need that they be prosecuted under some central control. Before we proceed to indicate the methods by which such a society should be

organized, it will be proper to consider the lines on which it could appropriately begin its work.

The inquiries which would properly fall within the purview of such a society divide themselves into three main divisions, namely: first, the history of the negro race; second, the present condition of the race from the point of view of anthropology, including psychology; and, third, the social and civic quality of the race both in itself and in relation to the white people. As we shall see, these inquiries are much entangled, but this separation of the questions will at least aid us to a better presentation of the work which seems to be appointed for such an association of students. We will now proceed to discuss the method of inquiry which may be followed.

A study of the history of the negro race will necessarily open a wide field of research, one in which the facts will be hard to gather. It is the least promising of all the departments into which the work of the society should be divided, yet we may be sure that it will give valuable results, at least from a scientific point of view, and these will have an important bearing on the other and more immediate questions. The history of the African slave-trade has yet to be written; there is a great mass of scattered material, from which a tolerably good account of it can be made. In preparing this history, the first object should be to determine, if possible, whence came the Africans who were the forefathers of the blacks in this country. It is erroneously assumed that our negro folk came altogether from the Guinea coast, and that they were entirely from the low-grade tribes who now inhabit that part of Africa. A preliminary survey of the evidence makes it appear probable that the American Africans represent a great variety of peoples from that jumble of races which have in some unknown way been brought together in central Africa. It is not unlikely that

we shall find that, although our blacks are principally descended from the peoples who inhabit the Guinea coast, still there is in them a considerable admixture of other and nobler blood. If an intelligent observer travels in the old slave States, he will remark the great diversity in the form of body and outline of face among the negroes. For a time the dark skin may mask these differences; but as soon as the first impression of uniformity has worn off, he will perceive that the negroes vary in their physical configuration as much as the whites, if indeed they are not even more varied in aspect. If we can trust the reports of travelers, no such wide variation is found among the blacks of the Guinea coast, or indeed among any of the distinct races of Africa. If the result of the proposed inquiry should be to show that our negroes are not of the Niger and Congo types alone, but are an admixture of many different peoples, having little in common except their dermal uniform of the tropics, it would be a most satisfactory conclusion, for it would show us that we have among the negroes something comparable to the variety of blood and motive which is probably the basis of much of the success which our own race has achieved. If it should be found that among our negroes there exists a large share of the vigorous life of the Zulu group of Africans; even more, if it were, as seems to me probable, discovered that a considerable part of their ancestors were from the Zanzibar and Mozambique coasts, we should have to conclude that our American Africans have a far greater variety of origin than we have commonly supposed.

This hypothesis as to the composite nature of the American negro receives support from the aspect of many individuals in the South. It is not uncommon to find there faces and limbs which depart widely from the Guinea coast type, and closely approach the aspect of the Arab.

we should then

Assuming, however, that the result of the proposed inquiry is that our negroes are mainly of one blood, that of the Congo group of tribes, turn our attention to the history and condition of these peoples. It is important that skilled observers should visit that region, and make a careful inquiry into the conditions and history of these folk. We should acquaint ourselves with their arts and their social order, that we may know the motives which inheritance has supplied in our African fellow-citizens. Although this is a large and difficult inquiry, much will remain to be done. Besides the African in Africa, there is the African in various parts of America, as well as on the continents of Europe and Asia, the wide field into which the enforced migrations of slavery have brought the race. It is of great importance that the history of the people under these diverse conditions should be well known. The range of moral and physical condition to which the Africans have been exposed has been very great. In many regions they have amalgamated with the native dominant races; there the effects of miscegenation can be traced. We know enough of the results of this process to make it tolerably clear that it is destructive to the best interests of both varieties of men; but we need a more extended study of the phenomena. Then, too, the influences of environment are of great interest. In this country, we have some data for the study of the effects of climate upon those of African blood. But the question is one of exceeding difficulty, for the reason that it is complicated with matters of race prejudice. By taking a broad statistical view of the field, it will be possible to found our conclusions on much surer ground than can be obtained in this country alone. Such data might in large measure be secured by the proper organization of the census of 1900.

Besides the study of the many scattered fragments of the African race now