CHAPTER V
THE RECONSTRUCTION PERIOD
The years from 1867 to 1878 I think may be called the period of
Reconstruction. This included the time that I spent as a student at Hampton
and as a teacher in West Virginia. During the whole of the Reconstruction
period two ideas were constantly agitating the minds of the coloured people,
or, at least, the minds of a large part of the race. One of these was the
craze for Greek and Latin learning, and the other was a desire to hold
office.
It could not have been expected that a people who had spent generations in
slavery, and before that generations in the darkest heathenism, could at
first form any proper conception of what an education meant. In every part
of the South, during the Reconstruction period, schools, both day and night,
were filled to overflowing with people of all ages and conditions, some
being as far along in age as sixty and seventy years. The ambition to secure
an education was most praiseworthy and encouraging. The idea, however, was
too prevalent that, as soon as one secured a little education, in some
unexplainable way he would be free from most of the hardships of the world,
and, at any rate, could live without manual labour.
There was a further feeling that a knowledge, however little, of the Greek
and Latin languages would make one a very superior human being, something
bordering almost on the supernatural. I remember that the first coloured man
whom I
saw who knew something about foreign languages impressed me at that time as
being a man of all others to be envied.
Naturally, most of our people who received some little education became
teachers or preachers. While among these two classes there were many
capable, earnest, godly men and women, still a large proportion took up
teaching or preaching as an easy way to make a living. Many became teachers
who could do little more than write their names. I remember there came into
our neighbourhood one of this class, who was in search of a school to teach,
and the question arose while he was there as to the shape of the earth and
how he would teach the children concerning this subject. He explained his
position in the matter by saying that he was prepared to teach that the
earth was either flat or round, according to the preference of a majority of
his patrons.
The ministry was the profession that suffered most- and still suffers,
though there has been great improvement- on account of not only ignorant but
in many cases immoral men who claimed that they were “called to preach.”
In the earlier days of freedom almost every coloured man who learned to read
would receive “a call to preach” within a few days after he began
reading. At my home in West Virginia the process of being called to the
ministry was a very interesting one.
Usually the “call” came when the individual was sitting in church.
Without warning the one called would fall upon the floor as if struck by a
bullet, and would lie there for hours, speechless and motionless. Then the
news would spread all through the neighbourhood that this individual had
received a “call.” If he were
inclined to resist the summons, he would fall or be made to fall a second or
third time. In the end he always yielded to the call. While I wanted an
education badly, I confess that in my youth I had a fear that when I had
learned to read and write well I would receive one of these “calls”;
but, for some reason, my call never came.
When we add the number of wholly ignorant men who preached or “exhorted”
to that of those who possessed something of an education, it can be seen at
a glance that the supply of ministers was large. In fact, some time ago I
knew a certain church that had a total membership of about two hundred, and
eighteen of that number were ministers. But, I repeat, in many communities
in the South the character of the ministry is being improved, and I believe
that within the next two or three decades a very large proportion of the
unworthy ones will have disappeared. The “calls” to preach, I am glad to
say, are not nearly so numerous now as they were formerly, and the calls to
some industrial occupation are growing more numerous. The improvement that
has taken place in the character of the teachers is even more marked than in
the case of the ministers.
During the whole of the Reconstruction period our people throughout the
South looked to the Federal Government for everything, very much as a child
looks to its mother. This was not unnatural. The central government gave
them freedom, and the whole Nation had been enriched for more than two
centuries by the labour of the Negro. Even as a youth, and later in manhood,
I had the feeling that it was cruelly wrong in the central government, at
the beginning of our free-
dom, to fail to make some provision for the general education of our people
in addition to what the states might do, so that the people would be the
better prepared for the duties of citizenship.
It is easy to find fault, to remark what might have been done, and perhaps,
after all, and under all the circumstances, those in charge of the conduct
of affairs did the only thing that could be done at the time. Still, as I
look back now over the entire period of our freedom, I cannot help feeling
that it would have been wiser if some plan could have been put in operation
which would have made the possession of a certain amount of education or
property, or both, a test for the exercise of the franchise, and a way
provided by which this test should be made to apply honestly and squarely to
both the white and black races.
Though I was but little more than a youth during the period of
Reconstruction, I had the feeling that mistakes were being made, and that
things could not remain in the condition that they were in then very long. I
felt that the Reconstruction policy, so far as it related to my race, was in
a large measure on a false foundation, was artificial and forced. In many
cases it seemed to me that the ignorance of my race was being used as a tool
with which to help white men into office, and that there was an element in
the North which wanted to punish the Southern white men by forcing the Negro
into positions over the heads of the Southern whites. I felt that the Negro
would be the one to suffer for this in the end. Besides, the general
political agitation drew the attention of our people away
from the more fundamental matters of perfecting themselves in the industries
at their doors and in securing property.
The temptations to enter political life were so alluring that I came very
near yielding to them at one time, but I was kept from doing so by the
feeling that I would be helping in a more substantial way by assisting in
the laying of the foundation of the race through a generous education of the
hand, head, and heart. I saw coloured men who were members of the state
legislatures, and county officers, who, in some cases, could not read or
write, and whose morals were as weak as their education. Not long ago, when
passing through the streets of a certain city in the South, I heard some
brick-masons calling out, from the top of a two-story brick building on
which they were working, for the “Governor” to “hurry up and bring up
some more bricks.” Several times I heard the command, “Hurry up,
Governor!” “Hurry up, Governor!” My curiosity was aroused to such an
extent that I made inquiry as to who the “Governor” was, and soon found
that he was a coloured man who at one time had held the position of
Lieutenant-Governor of his state.
But not all the coloured people who were in office during Reconstruction
were unworthy of their positions, by any means. Some of them, like the late
Senator B. K. Bruce, Governor Pinchback, and many others, were strong,
upright, useful men. Neither were all the class designated as carpetbaggers
dishonourable men. Some of them, like ex-Governor Bullock, of Georgia, were
men of high character and usefulness.
Of course the coloured people, so largely without education, and wholly
without experience in government, made tremendous mistakes, just as any
people similarly situated would have done. Many of the Southern whites have
a feeling that, if the Negro is permitted to exercise his political rights
now to any degree, the mistakes of the Reconstruction period will repeat
themselves. I do not think this would be true, because the Negro is a much
stronger and wiser man than he was thirty-five years ago, and he is fast
learning the lesson that he cannot afford to act in a manner that will
alienate his Southern white neighbours from him.
More and more I am convinced that the final solution of the political end of
our race problem will be for each state that finds it necessary to change
the law bearing upon the franchise to make the law apply with absolute
honesty, and without opportunity for double dealing or evasion, to both
races alike. Any other course, my daily observation in the South convinces
me, will be unjust to the Negro, unjust to the white man, and unfair to the
rest of the states in the Union, and will be, like slavery, a sin that at
some time we shall have to pay for.
In the fall of 1878, after having taught school in Malden for two years, and
after I had succeeded in preparing several of the young men and women,
besides my two brothers, to enter the Hampton Institute, I decided to spend
some months in study at Washington, D.C. I remained there for eight months.
I derived a great deal of benefit from the studies which I pursued, and I
came into contact with some strong men and women. At the institution I
attended there was no industrial training given to the students, and I had
an opportunity of comparing the influ-
ence of an institution with no industrial training with that of one like the
Hampton Institute, that emphasized the industries. At this school I found
the students, in most cases, had more money, were better dressed, wore the
latest style of all manner of clothing, and in some cases were more
brilliant mentally. At Hampton it was a standing rule that, while the
institution would be responsible for securing some one to Pay the tuition
for the students, the men and women themselves must provide for their own
board, books, clothing, and room wholly by work, or partly by work and
partly in cash. At the institution at which I now was, I found that a large
proportion of the students by some means had their personal expenses paid
for them. At Hampton the student was constantly making the effort through
the industries to help himself, and that very effort was of immense value in
character-building. The students at the other school seemed to be less
self-dependent.
They seemed to give more attention to mere outward appearances. In a word,
they did not appear to me to be beginning at the bottom, on a real, solid
foundation, to the extent that they were at Hampton. They knew more about
Latin and Greek when they left school, but they seemed to know less about
life and its conditions as they would meet it at their homes. Having lived
for a number of years in the midst of comfortable surroundings, they were
not as much inclined as the Hampton students to go into the country
districts of the South, where there was little of comfort, to take up work
for our people, and they were more inclined to yield to the temptation to
become hotel waiters and Pullman-car porters as their life-work.
During the time I was a student in Washington the city was crowded with
coloured people, many of whom had recently come from the South. A large
proportion of these people had been drawn to Washington because they felt
that they could lead a life of ease there. Others had secured minor
government positions, and still another large class was there in the hope of
securing Federal positions. A number of coloured men- some of them very
strong and brilliant- were in the House of Representatives at that time, and
one, the Hon. B. K. Bruce, was in the Senate. All this tended to make
Washington an attractive place for members of the coloured race. Then, too,
they knew that at all times they could have the protection of the law in the
District of Columbia. The public schools in Washington for coloured people
were better then than they were elsewhere. I took great interest in studying
the life of our people there closely at that time. I found that while among
them there was a large element of substantial, worthy citizens, there was
also a superficiality about the life of a large class that greatly alarmed
me. I saw young coloured men who were not earning more than four dollars a
week spend two dollars or more for a buggy on Sunday to ride up and down
Pennsylvania Avenue in order that they might try to convince the world that
they were worth thousands. I saw other young men who received seventy-five
or one hundred dollars per month from the Government, who were in debt at
the end of every month. I saw men who but a few months previous were members
of Congress, then without employment and in poverty. Among a large class
there seemed to be a dependence upon the Government for every conceivable
thing. The members of this class had little ambition to create a position
for themselves, but wanted the
Federal officials to create one for them. How many times I wished then, and
have often wished since, that by some power of magic I might remove the
great bulk of these people into the country districts and plant them upon
the soil, upon the solid and never deceptive foundation of Mother Nature,
where all nations and races that have ever succeeded have gotten their
start- a start that at first may be slow and toilsome, but one that
nevertheless is real.
In Washington I saw girls whose mothers were earning their living by
laundering. These girls were taught by their mothers, in rather a crude way
it is true, the industry of laundering. Later these girls entered the public
schools and remained there perhaps six or eight years. When the
public-school course was finally finished, they wanted more costly dresses,
more costly hats and shoes. In a word, while their wants had been increased,
their ability to supply their wants had not been increased in the same
degree. On the other hand, their six or eight years of book education had
weaned them away from the occupation of their mothers. The result of this
was in too many cases that the girls went to the bad. I often thought how
much wiser it would have been to give these girls the same amount of mental
training- and I favour any kind of training, whether in the languages or
mathematics, that gives strength and culture to the mind- but at the same
time to give them the most thorough training in the latest and best methods
of laundering and other kindred occupations.