The Journal of Negro History, Volume 4, 1919

Union Springs, Ala.

My dear old friend: Yours of a few days ago has been received and in reply I can only say that I was only too glad to hear from you and to know that you are having such great success in your farming as well as church work since I dont farm I know that my Kmza joys will be made from a box fresh from your farm.

We are still well and happy glad to say and doing about as well as can be expected. We have had some heavy snows this fall, but the last four days have been like summer.

How is the conscription, high cost of living and now high cost of postage serving you? It is giving me more trouble than I want. One hundred of my men are gone to Texas and we feel that if Uncle Sam doesn't come down they will have to go to France and from the battle fields to the grave yards as the Germans are still on the job and playing havoc.

I am to preach the Thanksgiving Sermon for the Union Services this year. At this service all of the churches of the city come together, both white and colored. I also recd. a notice of being elected to preach the Annual Sermon for the Dist. Grand Lodge K of P. in May of next year. Son pray for me for these are no small gatherings, no little honors. How would you like for me to play off and get you to fill my place? speak out, son.

The madam joins me in asking to be remembered to dear sister Hayes and extending you all an invitation to come to see you soon.

    Holden, W. Va.

Dr. –,

Union Springs, Ala.

How are you Dr. I am OK and family I make $80 to $90 per mo. with ease and wish you all much success Hello to all the people of my old home Town. I am saving my money and spending some of it. Have Joined the K. P. Lodge up here in the mountain. Sen me 5 galls of country syrup will pay you your price.

Yours in F. C. & B.

    Chicago, Ind., July 15, 1917.

Dr. –,

Union Springs, Ala.

My dear Pastor: I find it my Duty to write you my whereabouts also family, I am glad to say Family and myself are enjoying fine health, wish the same of you and your dear wife. Well I can say the people in my section are very much torn up about East St. Louis. Representive col men of Chicago was in conference with Governor he promise them that he would begin investigation at once tell Sister Hayes my wife Says She will write her in a few days. Dear Pastor I shall send my church some money in a few days. I am trying to influence our members here to do the same. I recd. notice printed in a R.R. car (Get straight with God) O I had nothing so striking to me as the above mottoe. Let me know how is our church I am to anxious to no. My wife always talking about her seat in the church want to know who accupying it.

Yours in Christ.

    Dayton, Ohio, Oct. 17, 1917.

Dear Pastor: I have join the church up here and I authorize the church to write for my letter of dismission but they say they have not heard enything from the church at all. Sister – – wrote to you she ask for my letter so I can join here in full and if the church hold me for enything on why say to them I will know what to do. I have never herd eny thing from my credental from old man Bonnett. I sent him a letter and also credencil for him to sign and sent stamps for him send them and he fail to let me here fum him at all, so I thought you would here fum him befour know & got him to tend to it for me so dear pastor let me here from you and be shure to send me my letter of dismission By Return mail my famil send they regaurd to you and wife they planning to send some on they salary love to who may ask about me.

    East Chicago, Ind., June 10, 1917.

Dr. –,

Union Springs, Ala.

Dear Old Friend: These moments I thought I would write you a few true facts of the present condition of the north. Certainly I am trying to take a close observation—now it is tru the (col) men are making good. Never pay less than $3.00 per day or (10) hours—this is not promise. I do not see how they pay such wages the way they work labors. they do not hurry or drive you. Remember this is the very lowest wages. Piece work men can make from $6 to $8 per day. They receive their pay every two weeks. this city I am living in, the population 30,000 (20) miles from Big Chicago, Ill. Doctor I am some what impress. My family also. They are doing nicely. I have no right to complain what ever. I rec. the papers you mail me some few days ago and you no I enjoyed them reading about the news down in Dixie. I often think of so much of the conversation we engage in concerning this part of the worl. I wish many time that you could see our People up hese as they are entirely in a different light. I witness Decoration Day on May 30th, the line of march was 4 miles. (8) brass band. All business houses was close. I tell you the people here are patriotic. I enclose you the cut of the white press. the chief of police drop dead Friday. Burried him today. The procession about (3) miles long. Over (400) auto in the parade—five dpt—police Force, Mayor and alderman and secret societies; we are having some cold weather—we are still wearing over coats—Let me know what is my little city doing. People are coming here every day and are finding employment. Nothing here but money and it is not hard to get. Remember me to your dear Family. Oh, I have children in school every day with the white children. I will write you more next time. how is the lodge.

Yours friend,

    Akron, Ohio, May 21, 1917.

Dear Friend: I am well and hop you are well. I am getting along fine I have not been sick since I left home I have not lost but 2½ day I work like a man. I am making good. I never liked a place like I do here except home. Their is no place like home How is the church getting along. You cant hardly get a house to live in I am wide awake on my financial plans. I have rent me a place for boarders I have 15 sleprs I began one week ago and be shure to send me my letter of dismission By Return mail. I am going into some kind of business here by the first of Sept. Are you farming. Rasion is mighty high up here. the people are coming from the south every week the colored people are making good they are the best workers. I have made a great many white friends. The Baptist Church is over crowded with Baptist from Ala & Ga. 10 and 12 join every Sunday. He is planning to build a fine brick church. He takes up 50 and 60 dollars each Sunday he is a wel to do preacher. I am going to send you a check for my salary in a few weeks. It cose me $100 to buy furniture. Write me.

BOOK REVIEWS

The American Negro in the World War. By Emmett J. Scott, Special Assistant to the Secretary of War. The Negro Historical Publishing Company, Washington, D.C., 1919.

Mr. Scott's account of the Negro in the World War is one of a number of works presenting the achievements of the Negroes during the great upheaval. Kelly Miller, W. Allison Sweeney and others have preceded him in publishing volumes in this same field. The account written by Kelly Miller is apparently of dubious authorship. It is but a common-place popular sketch of the war supplemented by one or two essays bearing the stamp of controversial writing peculiar to Kelly Miller. W. Allison Sweeney's work undertakes to make a more continuous historical sketch of the achievements from year to year while at the same time guided by the topical plan. At times the author is lofty in his treatment and equally as often trivial. To say that Miller's and Sweeney's works are not scientific does not exactly cover the ground. They do not well measure up to the standard of the average popular history.

Mr. Scott's history is far from being a definitive one, as the purpose of the author was rather to popularize the achievements of the Negro soldiers. In addition to giving the current historical comment accessible in newspapers and magazines, Mr. Scott has incorporated into his work a large number of official documents accessible only to some one, who like himself, was connected with the War Department during the conflict. It has another value, moreover, in that it well sets forth the reaction of an intelligent federal official of color on the thousands of events daily transpiring around him.

The author undertakes to connect the Negro with the fundamental cause of the war in that race prejudice was its source. He shows how fortunate it was to have Negro troops as the first of the national guard to be adequately equipped for immediate service and to occupy the post of honor in guarding the White House and the national capital, by order of the President of the United States. His own appointment and his work as the Special Assistant to the Secretary of War as an official recognition of the Negroes' interest in the war are made the nucleus around which the facts of the work are organized. How the Negroes figured in the national army, how Negro soldiers and officers were trained, and how they were treated in the camps all bring to light information for which the public has long been waiting. After giving passing mention to the black soldiers in the armies of the European nations the author directs his attention to the Negro regiments overseas. Special chapters are devoted to the achievements of the 367th, 368th, 370th, 371st and 372d regiments. The behavior of the Negroes in battle is sketched in the chapter entitled the Negro as a Fighter.

While dealing primarily with actual war, the author has been careful to give adequate space to agencies which helped to make the war possible. The valuable service rendered by the Negroes in the Service of Supply constitutes one of the most interesting chapters of the book. Whereas these Negroes were actually conscripted to labor in spite of the declaration of the War Department to the contrary, they accepted their lot with the spirit of loyalty and performed one of the great tasks of the war in getting supplies to Europe and furnishing the army with them in France. Negro labor in war times, Negro women in war work, the loyalty of the Negro civilians, and the social welfare agencies are also treated. Finally the author takes up an important question: Did the Negro get a square deal? In a position to know the many problems confronting the Negroes drawn into the army, Mr. Scott has brought forward in this final chapter adequate evidence to prove that the Negro did not get a square deal.

The Heart of a Woman. By Georgia Douglas Johnson, with an introduction by William Stanley Braithwaite. The Cornhill Co., Boston, 1918. Pp. 62.

In these days of vers libre and the deliberate straining for poetic effect these lyrics of Mrs. Johnson bring with them a certain sense of relief and freshness. Also the utter absence of the material theme makes an appeal. We are all weary of the war note and are glad to return to the softer pipings of old time themes—love, friendship, longing, despair—all of which are set forth in The Heart of a Woman.

The book has artistry, but it is its sincerity which gives it its value. Here are the little sharp experiences of life mirrored poignantly, sometimes feverishly, always truly. Each lyric is an instantaneous photograph of one of the many moments in existence which affect one briefly perhaps, but indelibly. Mr. Braithwaite says in his introduction that this author engages "life at its most reserved sources whether the form or substance through which it articulates be nature, or the seasons, touch of hands or lips, love, desire or any of the emotional abstractions which sweep like fire or wind or cooling water through the blood." The ability to give a faithful and recognizable portrayal of these sources, is Mrs. Johnson's distinction.

In this work, Mrs. Johnson, although a woman of color, is dealing with life as it is regardless of the part that she may play in the great drama. Here she is a woman of that imagination that characterizes any literary person choosing this field as a means of directing the thought of the world. Several of her poems bearing on the Negro race have appeared in the Crisis. In these efforts she manifests the radical tendencies characteristic of every thinking Negro of a developed mind and sings beautifully not in the tone of the lamentations of the prophets of old but, while portraying the trials and tribulations besetting a despised and rejected people, she sings the song of hope. In reading her works the inevitable impression is that it does not yet appear what she will be. Adhering to her task with the devotion hitherto manifested, there is no reason why she should not in the near future take rank among the best writers of the world.

    J. R. Fauset

A History of Suffrage in the United States. By Kirk and Porter, Ph.D. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Ill. Pp. 265. Price $1.25.

Knowing that few citizens realize the restrictions on suffrage during the early years of the republic and the difficulty with which the right of franchise has been extended during the last half century, the author has undertaken a scientific study in this field. How the franchise was at first limited to persons owning considerable property, and how some of the most popular statesmen of that day endeavored to keep it thus restricted, and how this aristocratic test gradually ceased, constitute the interesting portion of the book. The author's aim, however, is to "present a panoramic picture of the whole United States and to carry the reader rapidly on from decade to decade without getting lost in the detailed history."

The author himself raises the question as to whether he has placed undue stress on the Civil War and the Reconstruction periods; "but the intention," says he, "was to pick out of Civil War history the events and circumstances that had to do directly with suffrage and to lay them before the reader who is not necessarily familiar with that history. This decision to emphasize these two periods was determined to some extent by the fact that the study of suffrage during the colonial period has been covered by C. F. Bishop's History of Elections in the American Colonies and A. V. McKinley's Suffrage Franchise in the Colonies. One of the aims of the book is to clear up the problems of suffrage so far as the Negro is concerned.

Taking up the question of the extension of suffrage to Negroes upon the passing of the property qualifications, the author gives some valuable information, showing the restriction of Negro suffrage culminating with their disfranchisement in Pennsylvania but falls into the attitude of a biased writer in making such remarks as "New York was not a State that suffered greatly from the presence of the Negro" to account for its action on the question. Again on page 87 he says: "Up to about this time the Negroes had not been a serious problem." No large group of Negroes have ever made a State suffer, but communities living up to the expensive requirements of race prejudice have paid high costs for which the Negroes have not been responsible. Because of this bias the writer betrays throughout his treatment his feeling that Negro suffrage was justly restricted, when white persons not better qualified were permitted to vote.

After briefly discussing the extension of the franchise to aliens and the beginnings of woman suffrage the author directs his attention to the question as it developed during the Civil War and the Reconstruction. Into this he brings so many impertinent matters concerning reconstruction that he almost wanders afield. In the discussion, however, he makes clear his position that Congress in its plan for reconstruction had no right to require the seceded States to make provision for Negro suffrage. As these States, moreover, were not qualified for representation in Congress they could not be for ratification of an amendment. It is not surprising then that the author blamed the Negro for his own recent disfranchisement. He says: "The Negro must have failed to make himself an intelligent dominant political factor in the South or such constitutions as have been renewed here would be utterly impossible." The author has evidently ignored the forces making history.

A Social History of the American Family. By Arthur W. Calhoun, Ph.D. Volumes II and III. The Arthur A. Clark Company, Cleveland, Ohio.

This work, the first volume of which with these two completes the treatise, appeared in 1917 when it was reviewed in this publication. The second volume covers the period from our independence through the Civil War. Carrying forward this treatment the author considers marriage and fecundity in the new nation, the unsettling of foundations, the emancipation of childhood, the social subordination of woman, the emergence of woman, the family and the home, sex morals in the opening continent, the struggle for the west, the new industrial order, the reign of self indulgence, Negro sex and family relations in the ante-bellum South, racial associations in the old South, the white family in the old South, and the effects of the Civil War.

Discussing Negro sex the author says (II, 243): "If the blacks were gross and bestial, so would our race be under a like bondage; so it is now when driven by capitalism to the lower levels of misery. The allegedly superior morality of the master race or class is not an inherent trait but merely a function of economic ease and ethical tradition." He then discusses slave breeding, which was so degrading as to force sexual relations between healthy Negroes and even that of orphan white girls with Negroes to produce desirable looking offspring for purposes of concubinage. Such a case happened in Virginia near the end of the eighteenth century. After long litigation she and her children were declared free. Under these conditions sexual relations among Negroes became loose. The attachment of husband to wife was not strong and ties of blood were often ignored in sexual relations. There appears, on the other hand, much evidence that a high sense of morality obtained among the Negroes. Women of color would not yield to the lust of their masters, and the forced separation by sale of the wife from the husband caused heartaches and sometimes suicide.

Racial associations of the slaves with their masters' children, the author contends, was generally harmful in that white children learned from the most degraded class of the population. Yet the fact that the whites often admitted the blacks to great intimacy indicates that there must have been many whites who did not believe it. Slaves thus associated soon learned the ways of their master's family, but white children remaining and even sleeping promiscuously among slaves early formed the habit of fornication. The extent to which this custom prevailed is well established by numerous instances of the concubinage of white men with women of color, the offspring of which served for the same purpose as an article of commerce for similar use throughout the South. In this respect the author has not brought out anything new.

Continuing the discussion further he says (II, 305): "Southerners maintained heatedly that at all events the virtue of the southern woman was unspotted." "Doubtless," says he, "their contention was largely warranted but it could not be maintained absolutely." To prove the assertion he quotes Neilson, who during the six years he spent in the United States prior to 1830 found in Virginia a case of a Negro with whom a planter's daughter had not only fallen in love but had actually seduced him. In North Carolina a white woman drank some of her Negro's blood that she might swear that she had Negro blood in her and marry him. They reared a family. The author quotes also from Reverend Mr. Rankin, who "could refer you to several instances of slaves actually seducing the daughters of their masters! Such seductions sometimes happened even in the most respectable slaveholding families." The author agrees with Pickett, however, that most white women in the South were pure, and questions Bennett's remark that perhaps ladies are not immaculate, as may be inferred from the occasional quadroon aspect of their progeny. He gives some weight, however, to this remark of a southerner (II, 305-306): "It is impossible that we should not always have a class of free colored people, because of the fundamental law partris sequitur ventrum. There must always be women among the lower class of whites, so poor that their favors can be purchased by slaves. "The Richmond Enquirer of 1855," says the author, "contains the news of a woman's winning freedom for herself and five children by proving that her mother was a white woman." While Lyell found scarcely any instances of mulattoes born of a black father and a white mother, Olmsted, another traveler who observed that white men sometimes married rich colored girls, heard of a case of a colored man who married a white girl.

In the third and last volume, covering the period since 1865, the author treats the white family in the new South, miscegenation, the Negro family since emancipation, the new basis of American life, the revolution in the woman's world, the woman in the modern American family, the career of the child, the passing of patriarchism and familiarism, the precarious hour, the trend as to marriage, race sterility and race suicide, divorce, the attitude of the church, the family, and the social revolution. The author finds that during the past half century the American family possesses unity, due to the fact that the period itself is marked by intrinsic oneness as the expression of an economic epoch, the transition to urban industrialism. If any exception to this statement be made it would insist on a subdivision with the line falling within the decade of the eighties when the country was passing beyond the direct influences of the war and modern industrialism was well under way.

Taking up the Negro family since the Civil War, the author shows how difficult it was to uproot the immorality implanted by slavery but notes the steady progress of the mores of the freedmen despite their poverty. Colored women continued the prey of white men and it was difficult to raise a higher standard. There appeared few cases of the miscegenation of the white women with black men but here and there it would recur. "Stephen Powers, who passed through the South shortly after the War, tells of applying for lodging at a lordly mansion in South Carolina and being repelled by the mistress. At the next house he learned the cause of her irritation—her only daughter had just given birth to a Negro babe. After making diligent inquiry he failed to find another such instance in high life, but in South Carolina districts where the black population was densest and the poor whites most degraded 'these unnatural unions were more frequent than anywhere else' (III, 29). In every case, however, he says it was a woman of the lowest class, generally a sand-hiller, who, deprived of her support by the war, took up with a likely 'nigger' in order to save her children from famine." "He found six such marriages in South Carolina," says Calhoun, "but never more than one in any other State." The author has not exhausted this phase of the family, for the reviewer might add that he knew of four cases of concubinage of white women and black men in Buckingham County, Virginia, during the eighties.

On the whole progress toward the elimination of miscegenation by interracial respect and good will to furnish a barrier is seen as in the cases of Oberlin and Berea, where coeducation of the races did not lead to intermarriage. The author refers to the efforts of some States outside of the South attempting to check miscegenation by statute, but shows the folly of such legislation in proving that in general where intermarriage of the races is still permitted very little occurs. Referring to the statutes of the States prohibiting marriage between the whites and the blacks (III, 38), he says: "The necessity for such legislation calls in question the supposed antipathy between the races, unless the intention is merely to guard against the aberrancy of atypical individuals." "The laws," says he, "are of dubious justice and clearly work hardships in certain cases."

The work on the whole is interesting and valuable although the author sometimes goes astray in paying too much attention to biased writers like W. H. Thomas and H. W. Odum who have taken it upon themselves to vilify and slander the Negro race.