But this latter person, I am not trying to convince. If, however, he regards the Negro as a distinctly inferior creation, who can never successfully take part in modern civilization and whose emancipation and enfranchisement were gestures against nature, then he will need something more than the sort of facts that I have set down. If he believes that the Negro in America and in general is an average and ordinary human being, who under given environment develops like other human beings, then he will read this story and judge it by the facts adduced. It would be only fair to the reader to say frankly in advance that the attitude of any person toward this story will be distinctly influenced by his theories of the Negro race. I need hardly add that none of these persons are in any way responsible for the views herein expressed.
This book seeks to tell and interpret these twenty years of fateful history with especial reference to the efforts and experiences of the Negroes themselves.įor the opportunity of making this study, I have to thank the Trustees of the Rosenwald Fund, who made me a grant covering two years the Directors of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, who allowed me time for the writing the President of Atlanta University, who gave me help and asylum during the completion of the work and the Trustees of the Carnegie Fund who contributed toward the finishing of the manuscript. Particularly interesting for students of human culture is the sudden freeing of these black folk in the Nineteenth Century and the attempt, through them, to reconstruct the basis of American democracy from 1860-1880. The story of transplanting millions of Africans to the new world, and of their bondage for four centuries, is a fascinating one.
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