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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Negro in Literature and Art in the
+United States, by Benjamin Brawley
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Negro in Literature and Art in the United States
+
+Author: Benjamin Brawley
+
+Release Date: January 25, 2011 [EBook #35063]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE NEGRO IN LITERATURE AND ARTS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell, Gary Rees and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE NEGRO IN LITERATURE AND ART
+
+
+[Illustration: (C) MARY DALE CLARK & CHARLES JAMES FOX
+
+CHARLES S. GILPIN AS "THE EMPEROR JONES"]
+
+
+
+
+The Negro
+in Literature and Art
+_in the United States_
+
+
+BY
+BENJAMIN BRAWLEY
+
+_Author of "A Short History of the American Negro"_
+
+
+_REVISED EDITION_
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+NEW YORK
+DUFFIELD & COMPANY
+1921
+
+
+Copyright, 1918, 1921, by
+DUFFIELD & COMPANY
+
+
+
+
+TO MY FATHER
+EDWARD MACKNIGHT BRAWLEY
+
+WITH THANKS FOR SEVERE TEACHING
+AND STIMULATING CRITICISM
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAP.                                                   PAGE
+
+PREFACE                                                   xi
+
+I. THE NEGRO GENIUS                                        3
+
+II. PHILLIS WHEATLEY                                      10
+
+III. PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR                                 33
+
+IV. CHARLES W. CHESNUTT                                   45
+
+V. W. E. BURGHARDT DU BOIS                                50
+
+VI. WILLIAM STANLEY BRAITHWAITE                           56
+
+VII. OTHER WRITERS                                        65
+
+VIII. ORATORS.--DOUGLASS AND WASHINGTON                   83
+
+IX. THE STAGE                                             97
+
+X. PAINTERS.--HENRY O. TANNER                            103
+
+XI. SCULPTORS.--META WARRICK FULLER                      112
+
+XII. MUSIC                                               125
+
+XIII. GENERAL PROGRESS, 1918-1921                        142
+
+XIV. CHARLES S. GILPIN                                   156
+
+  APPENDIX:
+
+  1. THE NEGRO IN AMERICAN FICTION                       165
+
+  2. STUDY OF BIBLIOGRAPHY                               180
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+CHARLES S. GILPIN AS "THE EMPEROR JONES"      _Frontispiece_
+
+PHILLIS WHEATLEY                              _Facing p._ 10
+
+PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR                              "       34
+
+CHARLES W. CHESNUTT                               "       46
+
+W. E. BURGHARDT DU BOIS                           "       50
+
+WILLIAM STANLEY BRAITHWAITE                       "       56
+
+HENRY O. TANNER                                   "      104
+
+META WARRICK FULLER                               "      112
+
+HARRY T. BURLEIGH                                 "      130
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+The present volume undertakes to treat somewhat more thoroughly than has
+ever before been attempted the achievement of the Negro in the United
+States along literary and artistic lines, judging this by absolute
+rather than by partial or limited standards. The work is the result of
+studies in which I first became interested nearly ten years ago. In 1910
+a booklet, "The Negro in Literature and Art," appeared in Atlanta,
+privately printed. The little work contained only sixty pages. The
+reception accorded it, however, was even more cordial than I had hoped
+it might be, and the limited edition was soon exhausted. Its substance,
+in condensed form, was used in 1913 as the last chapter of "A Short
+History of the American Negro," brought out by the Macmillan Co. In the
+mean time, however, new books and magazine articles were constantly
+appearing, and my own judgment on more than one point had changed; so
+that the time has seemed ripe for a more intensive review of the whole
+field. To teachers who may be using the history as a text I hardly need
+to say that I should be pleased to have the present work supersede
+anything said in the last chapter of that volume.
+
+The first chapter, and those on Mr. Braithwaite and Mrs. Fuller,
+originally appeared in the _Southern Workman_. That on the Stage was a
+contribution to the _Springfield Republican_; and the supplementary
+chapter is from the _Dial_. All are here reprinted with the kind consent
+of the owners of those periodicals. Much of the quoted matter is covered
+by copyright. Thanks are especially due to Mr. Braithwaite and Mr. J. W.
+Johnson for permission to use some of their poems, and to Dodd, Mead &
+Co., the publishers of the works of Dunbar. The bibliography is quite
+new. It is hoped that it may prove of service.
+
+BENJAMIN BRAWLEY.
+
+North Cambridge, August, 1917.
+
+
+
+
+THE NEGRO IN
+LITERATURE AND ART
+
+
+
+
+THE NEGRO IN LITERATURE AND ART
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+THE NEGRO GENIUS
+
+
+In his lecture on "The Poetic Principle," in leading down to his
+definition of poetry, Edgar Allan Poe has called attention to the three
+faculties, intellect, feeling, and will, and shown that poetry, that the
+whole realm of aesthetics in fact, is concerned primarily and solely
+with the second of these. _Does it satisfy a sense of beauty?_ This is
+his sole test of a poem or of any work of art, the aim being neither to
+appeal to the intellect by satisfying the reason or inculcating truth,
+nor to appeal to the will by satisfying the moral sense or inculcating
+duty.
+
+The standard has often been criticised as narrow; yet it embodies a
+large and fundamental element of truth. If in connection with it we
+study the Negro we shall find that two things are observable. One is
+that any distinction so far won by a member of the race in America has
+been almost always in some one of the arts; and the other is that any
+influence so far exerted by the Negro on American civilization has been
+primarily in the field of aesthetics. To prove the point we may refer to
+a long line of beautiful singers, to the fervid oratory of Douglass, to
+the sensuous poetry of Dunbar, to the picturesque style of DuBois, to
+the mysticism of the paintings of Tanner, and to the elemental sculpture
+of Meta Warrick Fuller. Even Booker Washington, most practical of
+Americans, proves the point, the distinguishing qualities of his
+speeches being anecdote and brilliant concrete illustration.
+
+Everyone must have observed a striking characteristic of the homes of
+Negroes of the peasant class in the South. The instinct for beauty
+insists upon an outlet, and if one can find no better picture he will
+paste a circus poster or a flaring advertisement on the walls. Very few
+homes have not at least a geranium on the windowsill or a rosebush in
+the garden. If also we look at the matter conversely we shall find that
+those things which are most picturesque make to the Negro the readiest
+appeal. Red is his favorite color simply because it is the most
+pronounced of all colors. Goethe's "Faust" can hardly be said to be a
+play primarily designed for the galleries. One never sees it fail,
+however, that in any Southern city this play will fill the gallery with
+the so-called lower class of Negro people, who would never think of
+going to another play of its class, but different; and the applause
+never leaves one in doubt as to the reasons for Goethe's popularity. It
+is the suggestiveness of the love scenes, the red costume of
+Mephistopheles, the electrical effects, and the rain of fire that give
+the thrill desired--all pure melodrama of course. "Faust" is a good show
+as well as a good play.
+
+In some of our communities Negroes are frequently known to "get happy"
+in church. Now a sermon on the rule of faith or the plan of salvation is
+never known to awaken such ecstasy. This rather accompanies a vivid
+portrayal of the beauties of heaven, with the walls of jasper, the
+angels with palms in their hands, and (_summum bonum!_) the feast of
+milk and honey. And just here is the dilemma so often faced by the
+occupants of pulpits in Negro churches. Do the people want scholarly
+training? Very often the cultured preacher will be inclined to answer in
+the negative. Do they want rant and shouting? Such a standard fails at
+once to satisfy the ever-increasing intelligence of the audience itself.
+The trouble is that the educated minister too often leaves out of
+account the basic psychology of his audience. That preacher who will
+ultimately be the most successful with a Negro congregation will be the
+one who to scholarship and culture can best join brilliant imagination
+and fervid rhetorical expression. When all of these qualities are
+brought together in their finest proportion the effect is irresistible.
+
+Gathering up the threads of our discussion so far, we find that there is
+constant striving on the part of the Negro for beautiful or striking
+effect, that those things which are most picturesque make the readiest
+appeal to his nature, and that in the sphere of religion he receives
+with most appreciation those discourses which are most imaginative in
+quality. In short, so far as the last point is concerned, it is not too
+much to assert that the Negro is thrilled not so much by the moral as by
+the artistic and pictorial elements in religion.
+
+But there is something deeper than the sensuousness of beauty that makes
+for the possibilities of the Negro in the realm of the arts, and that is
+the soul of the race. The wail of the old melodies and the plaintive
+quality that is ever present in the Negro voice are but the reflection
+of a background of tragedy. No race can rise to the greatest heights of
+art until it has yearned and suffered. The Russians are a case in point.
+Such has been their background in oppression and striving that their
+literature and art are to-day marked by an unmistakable note of power.
+The same future beckons to the American Negro. There is something very
+elemental about the heart of the race, something that finds its origin
+in the African forest, in the sighing of the night-wind, and in the
+falling of the stars. There is something grim and stern about it all,
+too, something that speaks of the lash, of the child torn from its
+mother's bosom, of the dead body riddled with bullets and swinging all
+night from a limb by the roadside.
+
+So far we have elaborated a theory. Let us not be misunderstood. We do
+not mean to say that the Negro can not rise to great distinction in any
+sphere other than the arts. He has already made a noteworthy beginning
+in pure scholarship and invention; especially have some of the younger
+men done brilliant work in science. We do mean to say, however, that
+every race has its peculiar genius, and that, so far as we can at
+present judge, the Negro, with all his manual labor, is destined to
+reach his greatest heights in the field of the artistic. But the impulse
+needs to be watched. Romanticism very soon becomes unhealthy. The Negro
+has great gifts of voice and ear and soul; but so far much of his talent
+has not soared above the stage of vaudeville. This is due most largely
+of course to economic instability. It is the call of patriotism,
+however, that America should realize that the Negro has peculiar gifts
+which need all possible cultivation and which will some day add to the
+glory of the country. Already his music is recognized as the most
+distinctive that the United States has yet produced. The possibilities
+of the race in literature and oratory, in sculpture and painting, are
+illimitable.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Along some such lines as those just indicated it will be the aim of the
+following pages to study the achievement of the Negro in the United
+States of America. First we shall consider in order five representative
+writers who have been most constantly guided by standards of literary
+excellence. We shall then pass on to others whose literary work has been
+noteworthy, and to those who have risen above the crowd in oratory,
+painting, sculpture, or music. We shall constantly have to remember that
+those here remarked are only a few of the many who have longed and
+striven for artistic excellence. Some have pressed on to the goal of
+their ambition; but no one can give the number of those who, under hard
+conditions, have yearned and died in silence.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+PHILLIS WHEATLEY
+
+
+On one of the slave ships that came to the harbor of Boston in the year
+1761 was a little Negro girl of very delicate figure. The vessel on
+which she arrived came from Senegal. With her dirty face and unkempt
+hair she must indeed have been a pitiable object in the eyes of would-be
+purchasers. The hardships of the voyage, however, had given an unusual
+brightness to the eye of the child, and at least one woman had
+discernment enough to appreciate her real worth. Mrs. Susannah Wheatley,
+wife of John Wheatley, a tailor, desired to possess a girl whom she
+might train to be a special servant for her declining years, as the
+slaves already in her home were advanced in age and growing feeble.
+Attracted by the gentle demeanor of the child in question, she bought
+her, took her home, and gave her the name of Phillis. When the young
+slave became known to the world it was customary for her to use also the
+name of the family to which she belonged. She always spelled her
+Christian name P-h-i-l-l-i-s.
+
+[Illustration: PHILLIS WHEATLEY]
+
+Phillis Wheatley was born very probably in 1753. The poem on Whitefield
+published in 1770 said on the title-page that she was seventeen years
+old. When she came to Boston she was shedding her front teeth. Her
+memory of her childhood in Africa was always vague. She knew only that
+her mother _poured out water before the rising sun_. This was probably a
+rite of heathen worship.
+
+Mrs. Wheatley was a woman of unusual refinement. Her home was well known
+to the people of fashion and culture in Boston, and King Street in which
+she lived was then as noted for its residences as it is now, under the
+name of State Street, famous for its commercial and banking houses. When
+Phillis entered the Wheatley home the family consisted of four persons,
+Mr. and Mrs. Wheatley, their son Nathaniel, and their daughter Mary.
+Nathaniel and Mary were twins, born May 4, 1743. Mrs. Wheatley was also
+the mother of three other children, Sarah, John, and Susannah; but all
+of these died in early youth. Mary Wheatley, accordingly, was the only
+daughter of the family that Phillis knew to any extent, and she was
+eighteen years old when her mother brought the child to the house, that
+is, just a little more than ten years older than Phillis.
+
+In her new home the girl showed signs of remarkable talent. Her childish
+desire for expression found an outlet in the figures which she drew with
+charcoal or chalk on the walls of the house. Mrs. Wheatley and her
+daughter became so interested in the ease with which she assimilated
+knowledge that they began to teach her. Within sixteen months from the
+time of her arrival in Boston Phillis was able to read fluently the most
+difficult parts of the Bible. From the first her mistress strove to
+cultivate in every possible way her naturally pious disposition, and
+diligently gave her instruction in the Scriptures and in morals. In
+course of time, thanks especially to the teaching of Mary Wheatley, the
+learning of the young student came to consist of a little astronomy,
+some ancient and modern geography, a little ancient history, a fair
+knowledge of the Bible, and a thoroughly appreciative acquaintance with
+the most important Latin classics, especially the works of Virgil and
+Ovid. She was proud of the fact that Terence was at least of African
+birth. She became proficient in grammar, developing a conception of
+style from practice rather than from theory. Pope's translation of Homer
+was her favorite English classic. If in the light of twentieth century
+opportunity and methods these attainments seem in no wise remarkable,
+one must remember the disadvantages under which not only Phillis
+Wheatley, but all the women of her time, labored; and recall that in any
+case her attainments would have marked her as one of the most highly
+educated young women in Boston.
+
+While Phillis was trying to make the most of her time with her studies,
+she was also seeking to develop herself in other ways. She had not been
+studying long before she began to feel that she too would like to make
+verses. Alexander Pope was still an important force in English
+literature, and the young student became his ready pupil. She was about
+fourteen years old when she seriously began to cultivate her poetic
+talent; and one of the very earliest, and from every standpoint one of
+the most interesting of her efforts is the pathetic little juvenile
+poem, "On Being Brought from Africa to America:"
+
+    'Twas mercy brought me from my pagan land,
+    Taught my benighted soul to understand
+    That there's a God--that there's a Saviour too:
+    Once I redemption neither sought nor knew.
+    Some view our sable race with scornful eye--
+    "Their colour is a diabolic dye."
+    Remember, Christians, Negroes black as Cain
+    May be refined, and join th' angelic train.
+
+Meanwhile, the life of Phillis was altogether different from that of the
+other slaves of the household. No hard labor was required of her, though
+she did the lighter work, such as dusting a room or polishing a table.
+Gradually she came to be regarded as a daughter and companion rather
+than as a slave. As she wrote poetry, more and more she proved to have a
+talent for writing occasional verse. Whenever any unusual event, such as
+a death, occurred in any family of the circle of Mrs. Wheatley's
+acquaintance, she would write lines on the same. She thus came to be
+regarded as "a kind of poet-laureate in the domestic circles of
+Boston." She was frequently invited to the homes of people to whom Mrs.
+Wheatley had introduced her, and was regarded with peculiar interest and
+esteem, on account both of her singular position and her lovable nature.
+In her own room at home Phillis was specially permitted to have heat and
+a light, because her constitution was delicate, and in order that she
+might write down her thoughts as they came to her, rather than trust
+them to her fickle memory.
+
+Such for some years was the course of the life of Phillis Wheatley. The
+year 1770 saw the earliest publication of one of her poems. On the first
+printed page of this edition one might read the following announcement:
+"A Poem, By Phillis, a Negro Girl, in Boston, On the Death of the
+Reverend George Whitefield." In the middle of the page is a quaint
+representation of the dead man in his coffin, on the top of which one
+might with difficulty decipher, "G. W. Ob. 30 Sept. 1770, Aet. 56." The
+poem is addressed to the Countess of Huntingdon, whom Whitefield had
+served as chaplain, and to the orphan children of Georgia whom he had
+befriended. It takes up in the original less than four pages of large
+print. It was revised for the 1773 edition of the poems.
+
+In 1771 the first real sorrow of Phillis Wheatley came to her. On
+January 31st Mary Wheatley left the old home to become the wife of Rev.
+John Lathrop, pastor of the Second Church in Boston. This year is
+important for another event. On August 18th "Phillis, the servant of Mr.
+Wheatley," became a communicant of the Old South Meeting House in
+Boston. We are informed that "her membership in Old South was an
+exception to the rule that slaves were not baptized into the church." At
+that time the church was without a regular minister, though it had
+lately received the excellent teaching of the Rev. Dr. Joseph Sewell.
+
+This was a troublous time in the history of Boston. Already the storm of
+the Revolution was gathering. The period was one of vexation on the part
+of the slaves and their masters as well as on that of the colonies and
+England. The argument on the side of the slaves was that, as the
+colonies were still English territory, they were technically free, Lord
+Mansfield having handed down the decision in 1772 that as soon as a
+slave touched the soil of England he became free. Certainly Phillis must
+have been a girl of unusual tact to be able under such conditions to
+hold so securely the esteem and affection of her many friends.
+
+About this time, as we learn from her correspondence, her health began
+to fail. Almost all of her letters that are preserved were written to
+Obour Tanner, a friend living in Newport, R. I. Just when the two young
+women became acquainted is not known. Obour Tanner survived until the
+fourth decade of the next century. It was to her, then, still a young
+woman, that on July 19, 1772, Phillis wrote from Boston as follows:
+
+     MY DEAR FRIEND,--I received your kind epistle a few days ago;
+     much disappointed to hear that you had not received my answer
+     to your first letter. I have been in a very poor state of
+     health all the past winter and spring, and now reside in the
+     country for the benefit of its more wholesome air. I came to
+     town this morning to spend the Sabbath with my master and
+     mistress. Let me be interested in your prayers that God will
+     bless to me the means used for my recovery, if agreeable to his
+     holy will.
+
+By the spring of 1773 the condition of the health of Phillis was such as
+to give her friends much concern. The family physician advised that she
+try the air of the sea. As Nathaniel Wheatley was just then going to
+England, it was decided that she should accompany him. The two sailed in
+May. The poem, "A Farewell to America," is dated May 7, 1773. It was
+addressed to "S. W.," that is, Mrs. Wheatley. Before she left America,
+Phillis was formally manumitted.
+
+The poem on Whitefield served well as an introduction to the Countess of
+Huntingdon. Through the influence of this noblewoman Phillis met other
+ladies, and for the summer the child of the wilderness was the pet of
+the society people of England. Now it was that a peculiar gift of
+Phillis Wheatley shone to advantage. To the recommendations of a strange
+history, ability to write verses, and the influence of kind friends, she
+added the accomplishment of brilliant conversation. Presents were
+showered upon her. One that has been preserved is a copy of the
+magnificent 1770 Glasgow folio edition of "Paradise Lost," given to her
+by Brook Watson, Lord Mayor of London. This book is now in the library
+of Harvard University. At the top of one of the first pages, in the
+handwriting of Phillis Wheatley, are these words: "Mr. Brook Watson to
+Phillis Wheatley, London, July, 1773." At the bottom of the same page,
+in the handwriting of another, are these words: "This book was given by
+Brook Watson formerly Lord Mayor of London to Phillis Wheatley & after
+her death was sold in payment of her husband's debts. It is now
+presented to the Library of Harvard University at Cambridge, by Dudley
+L. Pickman of Salem. March, 1824."
+
+Phillis had not arrived in England at the most fashionable season,
+however. The ladies of the circle of the Countess of Huntingdon desired
+that she remain long enough to be presented at the court of George III.
+An accident--the illness of Mrs. Wheatley--prevented the introduction.
+This lady longed for the presence of her old companion, and Phillis
+could not be persuaded to delay her return. Before she went back to
+Boston, however, arrangements were made for the publication of her
+volume, "Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral," of which more
+must be said. While the book does not of course contain the later
+scattered poems, it is the only collection ever brought together by
+Phillis Wheatley, and the book by which she is known.
+
+The visit to England marked the highest point in the career of the young
+author. Her piety and faith were now to be put to their severest test,
+and her noble bearing under hardship and disaster must forever speak to
+her credit. In much of the sorrow that came to her she was not alone,
+for the period of the Revolution was one of general distress.
+
+Phillis remained in England barely four months. In October she was back
+in Boston. That she was little improved may be seen from the letter to
+Obour Tanner, bearing date the 30th of this month:
+
+     I hear of your welfare with pleasure; but this acquaints you
+     that I am at present indisposed by a cold, and since my arrival
+     have been visited by the asthma.
+
+A postscript to this letter reads:
+
+     The young man by whom this is handed to you seems to be a very
+     clever man, knows you very well, and is very complaisant and
+     agreeable.
+
+The "young man" was John Peters, afterwards to be her husband.
+
+A great sorrow came to Phillis in the death on March 3, 1774, of her
+best friend, Mrs. Wheatley, then in her sixty-fifth year. How she felt
+about this event is best set forth in her own words in a letter
+addressed to Obour Tanner at Newport under date March 21, 1774:
+
+     DEAR OBOUR,--I received your obliging letter enclosed in your
+     Reverend Pastor's and handed me by his son. I have lately met
+     with a great trial in the death of my mistress; let us imagine
+     the loss of a parent, sister or brother, the tenderness of all
+     were united in her. I was a poor little outcast and a stranger
+     when she took me in; not only into her house, but I presently
+     became a sharer in her most tender affections. I was treated by
+     her more like her child than her servant; no opportunity was
+     left unimproved of giving me the best of advice; but in terms
+     how tender! how engaging! This I hope ever to keep in
+     remembrance. Her exemplary life was a greater monitor than all
+     her precepts and instructions; thus we may observe of how much
+     greater force example is than instruction. To alleviate our
+     sorrows we had the satisfaction to see her depart in
+     inexpressible raptures, earnest longings, and impatient
+     thirstings for the _upper_ courts of the Lord. Do, my dear
+     friend, remember me and this family in your closet, that this
+     afflicting dispensation may be sanctified to us. I am very
+     sorry to hear that you are indisposed, but hope this will find
+     you in better health. I have been unwell the greater part of
+     the winter, but am much better as the spring approaches. Pray
+     excuse my not writing you so long before, for I have been so
+     busy lately that I could not find leisure. I shall send the 5
+     books you wrote for, the first convenient opportunity; if you
+     want more they shall be ready for you. I am very affectionately
+     your friend,
+
+     PHILLIS WHEATLEY.
+
+After the death of Mrs. Wheatley Phillis seems not to have lived
+regularly at the old home; at least one of her letters written in 1775
+was sent from Providence. For Mr. Wheatley the house must have been a
+sad one; his daughter was married and living in her own home, his son
+was living abroad, and his wife was dead. It was in this darkening
+period of her life, however, that a very pleasant experience came to
+Phillis Wheatley. This was her reception at the hands of George
+Washington. In 1775, while the siege of Boston was in progress, she
+wrote a letter to the distinguished soldier, enclosing a complimentary
+poem. Washington later replied as follows:
+
+     CAMBRIDGE, _Feb. 2, 1776_.
+
+     MISS PHILLIS,--Your favor of the 26th of October did not reach
+     my hand till the middle of December. Time enough, you say, to
+     have given an answer ere this. Granted. But a variety of
+     important occurrences continually interposing to distract the
+     mind and to withdraw the attention, I hope, will apologize for
+     the delay and plead my excuse for the seeming, but not real
+     neglect. I thank you most sincerely for your polite notice of
+     me, in the elegant lines you enclosed, and however undeserving
+     I may be of such encomium and panegyric, the style and manner
+     exhibit a striking proof of your poetical talents, in honor of
+     which, and as a tribute justly due to you, I would have
+     published the poem, had I not been apprehensive that while I
+     only meant to give the world this new instance of your genius,
+     I might have incurred the imputation of vanity. This and
+     nothing else determined me not to give it place in the public
+     prints. If you should ever come to Cambridge or near
+     headquarters, I shall be happy to see a person so favored by
+     the muses, and to whom Nature has been so liberal and
+     beneficent in her dispensations.
+
+     I am, with great respect,
+     Your obedient humble servant,
+     GEORGE WASHINGTON.
+
+Not long afterwards Phillis accepted the invitation of the General and
+was received in Cambridge with marked courtesy by Washington and his
+officers.
+
+The Wheatley home was finally broken up by the death of Mr. John
+Wheatley, March 12, 1778, at the age of seventy-two. After this event
+Phillis lived for a short time with a friend of Mrs. Wheatley, and then
+took an apartment and lived by herself. By April she had yielded to the
+blandishments of John Peters sufficiently to be persuaded to become his
+wife. This man is variously reported to have been a baker, a barber, a
+grocer, a doctor, and a lawyer. With all of these professions and
+occupations, however, he seems not to have possessed the ability to make
+a living. He wore a wig, sported a cane, and generally felt himself
+superior to labor. Bereft of old friends as she was, however, sick and
+lonely, it is not surprising that when love and care seemed thus to
+present themselves the heart of the woman yielded. It was not long
+before she realized that she was married to a ne'er-do-well at a time
+when even an industrious man found it hard to make a living. The course
+of the Revolutionary War made it more and more difficult for people to
+secure the bare necessaries of life, and the horrors of Valley Forge
+were but an aggravation of the general distress. The year was further
+made memorable by the death of Mary Wheatley, Mrs. Lathrop, on the 24th
+of September.
+
+When Boston fell into the hands of the British, the inhabitants fled in
+all directions. Mrs. Peters accompanied her husband to Wilmington,
+Mass., where she suffered much from poverty. After the evacuation of
+Boston by the British troops, she returned thither. A niece of Mrs.
+Wheatley, whose son had been slain in battle, received her under her own
+roof. This woman was a widow, was not wealthy, and kept a little school
+in order to support herself. Mrs. Peters and the two children whose
+mother she had become remained with her for six weeks. Then Peters came
+for his wife, having provided an apartment for her. Just before her
+departure for Wilmington, Mrs. Peters entrusted her papers to a daughter
+of the lady who received her on her return from that place. After her
+death these were demanded by Peters as the property of his wife. They
+were of course promptly given to him. Some years afterwards he returned
+to the South, and nothing is known of what became of the manuscripts.
+
+The conduct of her husband estranged Mrs. Peters from her old
+acquaintances, and her pride kept her from informing them of her
+distress. After the war, however, one of Mrs. Wheatley's relatives
+hunted her out and found that her two children were dead, and that a
+third that had been born was sick. This seems to have been in the winter
+of 1783-84. Nathaniel Wheatley, who had been living in London, died in
+the summer of 1783. In 1784 John Peters suffered imprisonment in jail.
+After his liberation he worked as a journeyman baker, later attempted to
+practice law, and finally pretended to be a physician. His wife,
+meanwhile, earned her board by drudgery in a cheap lodging-house on the
+west side of the town. Her disease made rapid progress, and she died
+December 5, 1784. Her last baby died and was buried with her. No one of
+her old acquaintances seems to have known of her death. On the Thursday
+after this event, however, the following notice appeared in the
+_Independent Chronicle_:
+
+     Last Lord's Day, died Mrs. Phillis Peters (formerly Phillis
+     Wheatley), aged thirty-one, known to the world by her
+     celebrated miscellaneous poems. Her funeral is to be this
+     afternoon, at four o'clock, from the house lately improved by
+     Mr. Todd, nearly opposite Dr. Bulfinch's at West Boston, where
+     her friends and acquaintances are desired to attend.
+
+The house referred to was situated on or near the present site of the
+Revere House in Bowdoin Square. The exact site of the grave of Phillis
+Wheatley is not known.
+
+At the time when she was most talked about, Phillis Wheatley was
+regarded as a prodigy, appearing as she did at a time when the
+achievement of the Negro in literature and art was still negligible. Her
+vogue, however, was more than temporary, and the 1793, 1802, and 1816
+editions of her poems found ready sale. In the early years of the last
+century her verses were frequently to be found in school readers. From
+the first, however, there were those who discounted her poetry. Thomas
+Jefferson, for instance, said that it was beneath the dignity of
+criticism. If after 1816 interest in her work declined, it was greatly
+revived at the time of the anti-slavery agitation, when anything
+indicating unusual capacity on the part of the Negro was received with
+eagerness. When Margaretta Matilda Odell of Jamaica Plain, a descendant
+of the Wheatley family, republished the poems with a memoir in 1834,
+there was such a demand for the book that two more editions were called
+for within the next three years. For a variety of reasons, especially an
+increasing race-consciousness on the part of the Negro, interest in her
+work has greatly increased within the last decade, and as copies of
+early editions had within recent years become so rare as to be
+practically inaccessible, the reprint in 1909 of the volume of 1773 by
+the A. M. E. Book Concern in Philadelphia was especially welcome.
+
+Only two poems written by Phillis Wheatley after her marriage are in
+existence. These are "Liberty and Peace," and "An Elegy Sacred to the
+Memory of Dr. Samuel Cooper." Both were published in 1784. Of "Poems on
+Various Subjects," the following advertisement appeared in the _Boston
+Gazette_ for January 24, 1774:
+
+    This Day Published
+    Adorn'd with an Elegant Engraving of the Author,
+    (Price 3s. 4d. L. M. Bound,)
+
+    POEMS
+
+    on various subjects,--Religious and Moral,
+    By Phillis Wheatley, a Negro Girl.
+    Sold by Mess's Cox & Berry,
+    at their Store, in King-Street, Boston.
+
+    N. B.--The subscribers are requested to apply for their
+    copies.
+
+The little octavo volume of 124 pages contains 39 poems. One of these,
+however, must be excluded from the enumeration, as it is simply "A
+Rebus by I. B.," which serves as the occasion of Phillis Wheatley's
+poem, the answer to it. Fourteen of the poems are elegiac, and at least
+six others are occasional. Two are paraphrases from the Bible. We are
+thus left with sixteen poems to represent the best that Phillis Wheatley
+had produced by the time she was twenty years old. One of the longest of
+these is "Niobe in Distress for Her Children Slain by Apollo, from
+Ovid's Metamorphoses, Book VI, and from a View of the Painting of Mr.
+Richard Wilson." This poem contains two interesting examples of
+personification (neither of which seems to be drawn from Ovid), "fate
+portentous whistling in the air," and "the feather'd vengeance quiv'ring
+in his hands," though the point might easily be made that these are
+little more than a part of the pseudo-classic tradition. The poem, "To
+S. M., a Young African Painter, on seeing his works," was addressed to
+Scipio Moorhead, a young man who exhibited some talent for drawing and
+who was a servant of the Rev. John Moorhead of Boston. From the poem we
+should infer that one of his subjects was the story of Damon and
+Pythias. Of prime importance are the two or three poems of
+autobiographical interest. We have already remarked "On Being Brought
+from Africa to America." In the lines addressed to William, Earl of
+Dartmouth, the young woman spoke again from her personal experience.
+Important also in this connection is the poem "On Virtue," with its
+plea:
+
+    Attend me, Virtue, thro' my youthful years!
+    O leave me not to the false joys of time!
+    But guide my steps to endless life and bliss.
+
+One would suppose that Phillis Wheatley would make of "An Hymn to
+Humanity" a fairly strong piece of work. It is typical of the restraint
+under which she labored that this is one of the most conventional things
+in the volume. All critics agree, however, that the strongest lines in
+the book are those entitled "On Imagination." This effort is more
+sustained than the others, and it is the leading poem that Edmund
+Clarence Stedman chose to represent Phillis Wheatley in his "Library of
+American Literature." The following lines are representative of its
+quality:
+
+    Imagination! Who can sing thy force?
+    Or who describe the swiftness of thy course?
+    Soaring through air to find the bright abode,
+    Th' empyreal palace of the thundering God,
+    We on thy pinions can surpass the wind,
+    And leave the rolling universe behind:
+    From star to star the mental optics rove,
+    Measure the skies, and range the realms above;
+    There in one view we grasp the mighty whole,
+    Or with new worlds amaze th' unbounded soul.
+
+Hardly beyond this is "Liberty and Peace," the best example of the later
+verse. The poem is too long for inclusion here, but may be found in
+Duyckinck's "Cyclopedia of American Literature," and Heartman and
+Schomburg's collected edition of the Poems and Letters.
+
+It is unfortunate that, imitating Pope, Phillis Wheatley more than once
+fell into his pitfalls. Her diction--"fleecy care," "vital breath,"
+"feather'd race"--is distinctly pseudo-classic. The construction is not
+always clear; for instance, in the poem, "To Maecenas," there are three
+distinct references to Virgil, when grammatically the poetess seems to
+be speaking of three different men. Then, of course, any young writer
+working under the influence of Pope and his school would feel a sense
+of repression. If Phillis Wheatley had come on the scene forty years
+later, when the romantic writers had given a new tone to English poetry,
+she would undoubtedly have been much greater. Even as it was, however,
+she made her mark, and her place in the history of American literature,
+though not a large one, is secure.
+
+Hers was a great soul. Her ambition knew no bounds, her thirst for
+knowledge was insatiable, and she triumphed over the most adverse
+circumstances. A child of the wilderness and a slave, by her grace and
+culture she satisfied the conventionalities of Boston and of England.
+Her brilliant conversation was equaled only by her modest demeanor.
+Everything about her was refined. More and more as one studies her life
+he becomes aware of her sterling Christian character. In a dark day she
+caught a glimpse of the eternal light, and it was meet that the first
+Negro woman in American literature should be one of unerring piety and
+the highest of literary ideals.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR
+
+
+Incomparably the foremost exponent in verse of the life and character of
+the Negro people has been Paul Laurence Dunbar. This gifted young poet
+represented perfectly the lyric and romantic quality of the race, with
+its moodiness, its abandon, its love of song, and its pathetic irony,
+and his career has been the inspiration of thousands of the young men
+and women whose problems he had to face, and whose aspirations he did so
+much to realize.
+
+Dunbar was born in Dayton, Ohio, June 27, 1872. His parents were
+uneducated but earnest hard-working people, and throughout his life the
+love of the poet for his mother was ever a dominating factor. From very
+early years Dunbar made little attempts at rhyming; but what he
+afterwards called his first poetical achievement was his recitation of
+some original verses at a Sunday School Easter celebration when he was
+thirteen years old. He attended the Steele High School in Dayton, where
+he was the only Negro student in his class; and by reason of his modest
+and yet magnetic personality, he became very popular with his
+schoolmates. In his second year he became a member of the literary
+society of the school, afterwards became president of the same, as well
+as editor of _The High School Times_, a monthly student publication, and
+on his completion of the course in 1891 he composed the song for his
+class. Somewhat irregularly for the next two or three years Dunbar
+continued his studies, but he never had the advantage of a regular
+college education. On leaving the high school, after vainly seeking for
+something better, he accepted a position as elevator boy, working for
+four dollars a week. In 1893, at the World's Columbian Exposition in
+Chicago, he was given a position by Frederick Douglass, who was in
+charge of the exhibit from Hayti. "Oak and Ivy" appeared in 1893, and
+"Majors and Minors" in 1895. These little books were privately printed;
+Dunbar had to assume full responsibility for selling them, and not
+unnaturally he had many bitter hours of discouragement. Asking people to
+buy his verses grated on his sensitive nature, and he once declared to a
+friend that he would never sell another book. Sometimes, however, he
+succeeded beyond his highest hopes, and gradually, with the assistance
+of friends, chief among whom was Dr. H. A. Tobey, of Toledo, the young
+poet came into notice as a reader of his verses. William Dean Howells
+wrote a full-page review of his poems in the issue of _Harper's Weekly_
+that contained an account of William McKinley's first nomination for the
+presidency. Dunbar was now fairly launched upon his larger fame, and
+"Lyrics of Lowly Life," published by Dodd, Mead & Co. in 1896,
+introduced him to the wider reading public. This book is deservedly the
+poet's best known. It contained the richest work of his youth and was
+really never surpassed. In 1897 Dunbar enhanced his reputation as a
+reader of his own poems by a visit to England. About this time he was
+very busy, writing numerous poems and magazine articles, and meeting
+with a success that was so much greater than that of most of the poets
+of the day that it became a vogue. In October, 1897, through the
+influence of Robert G. Ingersoll, he secured employment as an assistant
+in the reading room of the Library of Congress, Washington; but he gave
+up this position after a year, for the confinement and his late work at
+night on his own account were making rapid inroads upon his health. On
+March 6, 1898, Dunbar was married to Alice Ruth Moore, of New Orleans,
+who also had become prominent as a writer. Early in 1899 he went South,
+visiting Tuskegee and other schools, and giving many readings. Later in
+the same year he went to Colorado in a vain search for health. Books
+were now appearing in rapid succession, short story collections and
+novels as well as poems. "The Uncalled," written in London, reflected
+the poet's thought of entering the ministry. It was followed by "The
+Love of Landry," a Colorado story; "The Fanatics," and "The Sport of the
+Gods." Collections of short stories were, "Folks from Dixie," "The
+Strength of Gideon," "In Old Plantation Days," and "The Heart of Happy
+Hollow." Volumes of verse were "Lyrics of the Hearthside," "Lyrics of
+Love and Laughter," "Lyrics of Sunshine and Shadow," as well as several
+specially illustrated volumes. Dunbar bought a home in Dayton, where he
+lived with his mother. His last years were a record of sincere
+friendships and a losing fight against disease. He died February 9,
+1906. He was only thirty-three, but he "had existed millions of years."
+
+[Illustration: PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR]
+
+Unless his novels are considered as forming a distinct class, Dunbar's
+work falls naturally into three divisions: the poems in classic English,
+those in dialect, and the stories in prose. It was his work in the Negro
+dialect that was his distinct contribution to American literature. That
+this was not his desire may be seen from the eight lines entitled, "The
+Poet," in which he longed for success in the singing of his "deeper
+notes" and spoke of his dialect as "a jingle in a broken tongue." Any
+criticism of Dunbar's classic English verse will have to reckon with the
+following poems: "Ere Sleep Comes Down to Soothe the Weary Eyes," "The
+Poet and His Song," "Life," "Promise and Fulfillment," "Ships That Pass
+in the Night," and "October." In the pure flow of lyrical verse the
+poet rarely surpassed his early lines:[1]
+
+    Ere sleep comes down to soothe the weary eyes,
+      How questioneth the soul that other soul--
+    The inner sense which neither cheats nor lies,
+      But self exposes unto self, a scroll
+    Full writ with all life's acts unwise or wise,
+      In characters indelible and known;
+    So, trembling with the shock of sad surprise,
+      The soul doth view its awful self alone,
+    Ere sleep comes down to soothe the weary eyes.
+
+[Footnote 1: As stated in the Preface, we are under obligations to Dodd,
+Mead & Co. for permission to use the quotations from Dunbar. These are
+covered by copyright by this firm, as follows: "Ere Sleep Comes Down to
+Soothe the Weary Eyes," "The Poet and his Song," and "Life," 1896;
+"Lullaby," 1899; and "Compensation," 1905.]
+
+"The Poet and his Song" is also distinguished for its simplicity and its
+lyric quality:
+
+    A song is but a little thing,
+    And yet what joy it is to sing!
+    In hours of toil it gives me zest,
+    And when at eve I long for rest;
+    When cows come home along the bars,
+      And in the fold I hear the bell,
+    As night, the Shepherd, herds his stars,
+      I sing my song, and all is well.
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+    Sometimes the sun, unkindly hot,
+    My garden makes a desert spot;
+    Sometimes a blight upon the tree
+    Takes all the fruit away from me;
+    And then with throes of bitter pain
+      Rebellious passions rise and swell;
+    But life is more than fruit or grain,
+      And so I sing, and all is well.
+
+The two stanzas entitled "Life" have probably been quoted more than any
+other lines written by the poet:
+
+    A crust of bread and a corner to sleep in,
+    A minute to smile and an hour to weep in,
+    A pint of joy to a peck of trouble,
+    And never a laugh but the moans come double;
+                  And that is life.
+
+    A crust and a corner that love makes precious,
+    With a smile to warm and the tears to refresh us;
+    And joy seems sweeter when cares come after,
+    And a moan is the finest of foils for laughter;
+                  And that is life.
+
+"Promise and Fulfillment" was especially admired by Mrs. Minnie Maddern
+Fiske, who frequently recited it with never-failing applause. Of the
+poet's own reading of "Ships that Pass in the Night" on one occasion,
+Brand Whitlock wrote: "That last evening he recited--oh! what a voice he
+had--his 'Ships that Pass in the Night.' I can hear him now and see the
+expression on his fine face as he said, 'Passing! Passing!' It was
+prophetic."
+
+Other pieces, no more distinguished in poetic quality, are of special
+biographical interest. "Robert Gould Shaw" was the expression of
+pessimism as to the Negro's future in America. "To Louise" was addressed
+to the young daughter of Dr. Tobey, who, on one occasion, when the poet
+was greatly depressed, in the simple way of a child cheered him by her
+gift of a rose. "The Monk's Walk" reflects the poet's thought of being a
+preacher. Finally, there is the swan song, "Compensation," contributed
+to _Lippincott's_, eight exquisite lines:
+
+    Because I had loved so deeply,
+      Because I had loved so long,
+    God in his great compassion
+      Gave me the gift of song.
+
+    Because I have loved so vainly,
+      And sung with such faltering breath,
+    The Master in infinite mercy
+      Offers the boon of Death.
+
+The dialect poems suffer by quotation, being artistic primarily as
+wholes. Of these, by common consent, the masterpiece is, "When Malindy
+Sings," a poem inspired by the singing of the poet's mother. Other
+pieces in dialect that have proved unusually successful, especially as
+readings, are "The Rivals," "A Coquette Conquered," "The Ol' Tunes," "A
+Corn-Song," "When de Co'n Pone's Hot," "How Lucy Backslid," "The Party,"
+"At Candle-Lightin' Time," "Angelina," "Whistling Sam," "Two Little
+Boots," and "The Old Front Gate." Almost all of these poems represent
+the true humorist's blending of humor and pathos, and all of them
+exemplify the delicate and sympathetic irony of which Dunbar was such a
+master. As representative of the dialect verse at its best, attention
+might be called to a little poem that was included in the illustrated
+volume, "Candle-Lightin' Time," but that, strangely enough, was omitted
+from both of the larger editions of the poems, very probably because the
+title, "Lullaby," was used more than once by the poet:
+
+    Kiver up yo' haid, my little lady,
+      Hyeah de win' a-blowin' out o' do's,
+    Don' you kick, ner projick wid de comfo't,
+      Less'n fros'll bite yo' little toes.
+    Shut yo' eyes, an' snuggle up to mammy;
+      Gi' me bofe yo' han's, I hol' 'em tight;
+    Don' you be afeard, an' 'mence to trimble
+      Des ez soon ez I blows out de light.
+
+    Angels is a-mindin' you, my baby,
+      Keepin' off de Bad Man in de night.
+    Whut de use o' bein' skeered o' nuffin'?
+      You don' fink de da'kness gwine to bite?
+    Whut de crackin' soun' you hyeah erroun' you?--
+      Lawsy, chile, you tickles me to def!--
+    Dat's de man what brings de fros', a-paintin'
+      Picters on de winder wid his bref.
+
+    Mammy ain' afeard, you hyeah huh laughin'?
+      Go 'way, Mistah Fros', you can't come in;
+    Baby ain' erceivin' folks dis evenin',
+      Reckon dat you'll have to call ag'in.
+    Curl yo' little toes up so, my 'possum--
+      Umph, but you's a cunnin' one fu' true!--
+    Go to sleep, de angels is a-watchin',
+      An' yo' mammy's mindin' of you, too.
+
+The short stories of Dunbar would have been sufficient to make his
+reputation, even if he had not written his poems. One of the best
+technically is "Jimsella," from the "Folks from Dixie" volume. This
+story exhibits the pathos of the life of unskilled Negroes in the North,
+and the leading of a little child. In the sureness with which it moves
+to its conclusion it is a beautiful work of art. "A Family Feud" shows
+the influence of an old servant in a wealthy Kentucky family. In similar
+vein is "Aunt Tempe's Triumph." "The Walls of Jericho" is an exposure of
+the methods of a sensational preacher. Generally these stories attempt
+no keen satire, but only a faithful portrayal of conditions as they are,
+or, in most cases, as they were in ante-bellum days. Dunbar's novels are
+generally weaker than his short stories, though "The Sport of the Gods,"
+because of its study of a definite phase of life, rises above the
+others. Nor are his occasional articles especially strong. He was
+eminently a lyric poet. By his graceful and beautiful verse it is that
+he has won a distinct place in the history of American literature.
+
+By his genius Paul Laurence Dunbar attracted the attention of the great,
+the wise, and the good. His bookcase contained many autograph copies of
+the works of distinguished contemporaries. The similarity of his
+position in American literature to that of Burns in English has
+frequently been pointed out. In our own time he most readily invites
+comparison with James Whitcomb Riley. The writings of both men are
+distinguished by infinite tenderness and pathos. But above all worldly
+fame, above even the expression of a struggling people's heart, was the
+poet's own striving for the unattainable. There was something heroic
+about him withal, something that links him with Keats, or, in this
+latter day, with Rupert Brooke and Alan Seeger. He yearned for love, and
+the world rushed on; then he smiled at death and was universally loved.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+CHARLES W. CHESNUTT
+
+
+Charles Waddell Chesnutt, the best known novelist and short story writer
+of the race, was born in Cleveland, Ohio, June 20, 1858. At the age of
+sixteen he began to teach in the public schools of North Carolina, from
+which state his parents had gone to Cleveland; and at the age of
+twenty-three he became principal of the State Normal School at
+Fayetteville. In 1883 he left the South, engaging for a short while in
+newspaper work in New York City, but going soon to Cleveland, where he
+worked as a stenographer. He was admitted to the bar in 1887.
+
+While in North Carolina Mr. Chesnutt studied to good purpose the
+dialect, manners, and superstitions of the Negro people of the state. In
+1887 he began in the _Atlantic Monthly_ the series of stories which was
+afterwards brought together in the volume entitled, "The Conjure
+Woman." This book was published by the Houghton Mifflin Co., the firm
+which published also Mr. Chesnutt's other collection of stories and the
+first two of his three novels. "The Wife of his Youth, and Other Stories
+of the Color-Line" appeared in 1899. In the same year appeared a compact
+biography of Frederick Douglass, a contribution to the Beacon
+Biographies of Eminent Americans. Three novels have since appeared, as
+follows: "The House Behind the Cedars" (1900); "The Marrow of Tradition"
+(1901); and "The Colonel's Dream" (1905).
+
+Mr. Chesnutt's short stories are not all of the same degree of
+excellence, but the best ones show that he is fully master of the short
+story as a literary form. One of the best technically is "The Bouquet."
+This is a story of the devotion of a little Negro girl to her white
+teacher, and shows clearly how the force of Southern prejudice might
+forbid the expression of simple love not only in a representative home,
+but even when the object of the devotion is borne to the cemetery. "The
+Sheriff's Children" is a tragic tale of the relations of a white father
+with his illegitimate colored son. Most famous of all these stories,
+however, is "The Wife of his Youth," a simple work of art of great
+intensity. It is a tale of a very fair colored man who, just before the
+Civil War, by the aid of his Negro wife, makes his way from slavery in
+Missouri to freedom in a Northern city, Groveland [Cleveland?]. After
+the years have brought to him business success and culture, and he has
+become the acknowledged leader of his social circle and the prospective
+husband of a very attractive young widow, his wife suddenly appears on
+the scene. The story ends with Mr. Ryder's acknowledging before a
+company of guests the wife of his youth. Such stories as these, each
+setting forth a certain problem and working it out to its logical
+conclusion, reflect great credit upon the literary skill of the writer.
+
+[Illustration: CHARLES W. CHESNUTT]
+
+Of the novels, "The House Behind the Cedars" is commonly given first
+place. In the story of the heroine, Rena Walden, are treated some of the
+most subtle and searching questions raised by the color-line. Rena is
+sought in love by three men, George Tryon, a white man, whose love fails
+when put to the test; Jeff Wain, a coarse and brutal mulatto, and Frank
+Fowler, a devoted young Negro, who makes every sacrifice demanded by
+love. The novel, especially in its last pages, moves with an intensity
+that is an unmistakable sign of power. It is Mr. Chesnutt's most
+sustained treatment of the subject for which he has become best known,
+that is, the delicate and tragic situation of those who live on the
+border-line of the races; and it is the best work of fiction yet written
+by a member of the race in America. In "The Marrow of Tradition" the
+main theme is the relations of two women, one white and one colored,
+whose father, the same white man, had in time been married to the mother
+of each. The novel touches upon almost every phase of the Negro Problem.
+It is a powerful plea, but perhaps too much a novel of purpose to
+satisfy the highest standards of art. The Wellington of the story is
+very evidently Wilmington, N. C., and the book was written immediately
+after the race troubles in that city in 1898. "The Colonel's Dream" is a
+sad story of the failure of high ideals. Colonel Henry French is a man
+who, born in the South, achieves success in New York and returns to his
+old home for a little vacation, only to find himself face to face with
+all the problems that one meets in a backward Southern town. "He dreamed
+of a regenerated South, filled with thriving industries, and thronged
+with a prosperous and happy people, where every man, having enough for
+his needs, was willing that every other man should have the same; where
+law and order should prevail unquestioned, and where every man could
+enter, through the golden door of hope, the field of opportunity, where
+lay the prizes of life, which all might have an equal chance to win or
+lose." Becoming interested in the injustice visited upon the Negroes in
+the courts, and in the employment of white children in the cotton-mills,
+Colonel French encounters opposition to his benevolent plans, opposition
+which finally sends him back to New York defeated. Mr. Chesnutt writes
+in simple, clear English, and his methods might well be studied by
+younger writers who desire to treat, in the guise of fiction, the many
+searching questions that one meets to-day in the life of the South.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+W. E. BURGHARDT DUBOIS
+
+
+William Edward Burghardt Dubois was born February 23, 1868, at Great
+Barrington, Mass. He received the degree of Bachelor of Arts at Fisk
+University in 1888, the same degree at Harvard in 1890, that of Master
+of Arts at Harvard in 1891, and, after a season of study at the
+University of Berlin, received also the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
+at Harvard in 1895, his thesis being his exhaustive study, "Suppression
+of the Slave-Trade." Dr. DuBois taught for a brief period at Wilberforce
+University, and was also for a time an assistant and fellow in Sociology
+at the University of Pennsylvania, producing in 1899 his study, "The
+Philadelphia Negro." In 1896 he accepted the professorship of History
+and Economics at Atlanta University, the position which he left in 1910
+to become Director of Publicity and Research for the National
+Association for the Advancement of Colored People. In connection with
+this work he has edited the _Crisis_ since the beginning of that
+publication. He has made various investigations, frequently for the
+national government, and has contributed many sociological studies to
+leading magazines. He has been the moving spirit of the Atlanta
+Conference, and by the Studies of Negro Problems, which he has edited at
+Atlanta University, he has become recognized as one of the great
+sociologists of the day, and as the man who more than anyone else has
+given scientific accuracy to studies relating to the Negro.
+
+[Illustration: W. E. BURGHARDT DU BOIS]
+
+Aside from his more technical studies (these including the masterly
+little book, "The Negro," in Holt's Home University Library Series), Dr.
+DuBois has written three books which call for consideration in a review
+of Negro literature. Of these one is a biography, one a novel, and the
+other a collection of essays. In 1909 was published "John Brown," a
+contribution to the series of American Crisis Biographies. The subject
+was one well adapted to treatment at the hands of Dr. DuBois, and in the
+last chapter, "The Legacy of John Brown," he has shown that his hero
+has a message for twentieth century America, this: "The cost of liberty
+is less than the price of repression." "The Quest of the Silver Fleece,"
+the novel, appeared in 1911. This story has three main themes: the
+economic position of the Negro agricultural laborer, the subsidizing of
+a certain kind of Negro schools, and Negro life and society in the city
+of Washington. The book employs a big theme in its portrayal of the
+power of King Cotton in both high and lowly life in the Southland; but
+its tone is frequently one of satire, and on the whole the work will not
+add much to the already established reputation of the author. The third
+book really appeared before either of the two works just mentioned, and
+embodies the best work of the author in his most highly idealistic
+period. In 1903 fourteen essays, most of which had already appeared in
+such magazines as the _Atlantic_ and the _World's Work_, were brought
+together in a volume entitled, "The Souls of Black Folk." The remarkable
+style of this book has made it the most important work in classic
+English yet written by a Negro. It is marked by all the arts of
+rhetoric, especially by liquid and alliterative effects, strong
+antithesis, frequent allusion, and poetic suggestiveness. The color-line
+is "The Veil," the familiar melodies, the "Sorrow Songs." The qualities
+that have just been remarked will be observed in the following
+paragraphs:
+
+     I have seen a land right merry with the sun, where children
+     sing, and rolling hills lie like passioned women wanton with
+     harvest. And there in the King's Highway sat and sits a figure
+     veiled and bowed, by which the traveler's footsteps hasten as
+     they go. On the tainted air broods fear. Three centuries'
+     thought has been the raising and unveiling of that bowed human
+     heart, and now behold a century new for the duty and the deed.
+     The problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the
+     color-line.
+
+            *       *       *       *       *
+
+     My journey was done, and behind me lay hill and dale, and Life
+     and Death. How shall man measure Progress there where the
+     dark-faced Josie lies? How many heartfuls of sorrow shall
+     balance a bushel of wheat? How hard a thing is life to the
+     lowly, and yet how human and real! And all this life and love
+     and strife and failure--is it the twilight of nightfall or the
+     flush of some faint-dawning day?
+
+     Thus sadly musing, I rode to Nashville in the Jim Crow car.
+
+            *       *       *       *       *
+
+     I sit with Shakespeare and he winces not. Across the color-line
+     I move arm in arm with Balzac and Dumas, where smiling men and
+     welcoming women glide in gilded halls. From out the caves of
+     evening that swing between the strong-limbed earth and the
+     tracery of the stars, I summon Aristotle and Aurelius and what
+     soul I will, and they all come graciously with no scorn nor
+     condescension. So, wed with Truth, I dwell above the Veil. Is
+     this the life you grudge us, O knightly America? Is this the
+     life you long to change into the dull red hideousness of
+     Georgia? Are you so afraid lest peering from this high Pisgah,
+     between Philistine and Amalekite, we sight the Promised Land?
+
+Where merit is so even and the standard of performance so high, one
+hesitates to choose that which is best. "The Dawn of Freedom" is a study
+of the Freedmen's Bureau; "Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others" is a
+frank criticism of the late orator and leader; "The Meaning of Progress"
+is a story of life in Tennessee, told with infinite pathos by one who
+has been the country schoolmaster; "The Training of Black Men" is a plea
+for liberally educated leadership; while "The Quest of the Golden
+Fleece," like one or two related essays, is a faithful portrayal of life
+in the black belt. The book, as a whole, is a powerful plea for justice
+and the liberty of citizenship.
+
+W. E. Burghardt DuBois is the best example that has so far appeared of
+the combination of high scholarship and the peculiarly romantic
+temperament of the Negro race. Beneath all the play of logic and
+statistic beats the passion of a mighty human heart. For a long time he
+was criticised as aloof, reserved, unsympathetic; but more and more, as
+the years have passed, has his mission become clearer, his love for his
+people stronger. Forced by the pressure of circumstance, gradually has
+he been led from the congenial retreat of the scholar into the arena of
+social struggle; but for two decades he has remained an outstanding
+interpreter of the spiritual life of his people. He is to-day the
+foremost leader of the race in America.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+WILLIAM STANLEY BRAITHWAITE
+
+
+The foremost of the poets of the race at present is William Stanley
+Braithwaite, of Boston. Mr. Braithwaite is not only the possessor of
+unusual talent, but for years he has worked most conscientiously at his
+art and taken the time and the pains to master the fundamentals that
+others all too often deem unimportant. In 1904 he published a small book
+of poems entitled "Lyrics of Life and Love." This was followed four
+years later by "The House of Falling Leaves." Within recent years he has
+given less and less time to his own verse, becoming more and more
+distinguished as a critic in the special field of American poetry. For
+several years he has been a regular and valued contributor of literary
+criticism to the _Boston Evening Transcript_; he has had verse or
+critical essays in the _Forum_, the _Century_, _Scribner's_, the
+_Atlantic_, etc.; and in 1916 became editor of the new _Poetry
+Review_ of Cambridge. He has collected and edited (publishing chiefly
+through Brentano's) "The Book of Elizabethan Verse," "The Book of
+Georgian Verse," and "The Book of Restoration Verse"; and he has also
+published the "Anthology of Magazine Verse" for each year since 1913. He
+is the general editor of "The Contemporary American Poets Series," which
+is projected by the Poetry Review Company, and which will be issued in
+twelve little books, each giving a sympathetic study of a poet of the
+day; he himself is writing the volume on Edwin Arlington Robinson; and
+before long it is expected that a novel will appear from his pen. Very
+recently (1917) Mr. Braithwaite has brought together in a volume, "The
+Poetic Year," the series of articles which he contributed to the
+_Transcript_ in 1916-17. The aim was in the form of conversations
+between a small group of friends to discuss the poetry of 1916. Says he:
+"There were four of us in the little group, and our common love for the
+art of poetry suggested a weekly meeting in the grove to discuss the
+books we had all agreed upon reading.... I made up my mind to record
+these discussions, and the setting as well, with all those other touches
+of human character and mood which never fail to enliven and give color
+to the serious business of art and life.... I gave fanciful names to my
+companions, Greek names which I am persuaded symbolized the spirit of
+each. There was nothing Psyche touched but made its soul apparent. Her
+wood-lore was beautiful and thorough; the very spirit of flowers, birds
+and trees was evoked when she went among them. Our other companion of
+her sex was Cassandra, and we gave her this name not because her
+forebodings were gloomy, but merely for her prophesying disposition,
+which was always building air-castles. The other member besides myself
+of our little group was Jason, of the heroic dreams and adventuresome
+spirit. He was restless in the bonds of a tranquillity that chafed the
+hidden spirit of his being." From the introduction we get something of
+the critic's own aims and ideals: "The conversational scheme of the book
+may, or may not, interest some readers. Poetry is a human thing, and it
+is time for the world--and especially our part of the world--to regard
+it as belonging to the people. It sprang from the folk, and passed, when
+culture began to flourish, into the possession of a class. Now culture
+is passing from a class to the folk, and with it poetry is returning to
+its original possessors. It is in the spirit of these words that we
+discuss the poetry of the year." Emphasis is here given to this work
+because it is the sturdiest achievement of Mr. Braithwaite in the field
+in which he has recently become most distinguished, and even the brief
+quotations cited are sufficient to give some idea of his graceful,
+suggestive prose.
+
+[Illustration: WILLIAM STANLEY BRAITHWAITE]
+
+In a review of this writer's poetry we have to consider especially the
+two collections, "Lyrics of Life and Love," and "The House of Falling
+Leaves," and the poems that have more recently appeared in the
+_Atlantic_, _Scribner's_, and other magazines. It is to be hoped that
+before very long he will publish a new edition of his poems. The earlier
+volumes are out of print, and a new book could contain the best of them,
+as well as what has appeared more recently. "Lyrics of Life and Love"
+embodied the best of the poet's early work. The little book contains
+eighty pages, and no one of the lyrics takes up more than two pages,
+twenty in fact being exactly eight lines in length. This appearance of
+fragility, however, is a little deceptive. While Keats and Shelley are
+constantly evident as the models in technique, the yearning of more than
+one lyric reflects the deeper romantic temper. The bravado and the
+tenderness of the old poets are evident again in the two Christmas
+pieces, "Holly Berry and Mistletoe," and "Yule-Song: A Memory":
+
+    The trees are bare, wild flies the snow,
+      Hearths are glowing, hearts are merry--
+    High in the air is the Mistletoe,
+      Over the door is the Holly Berry.
+
+    Never have care how the winds may blow,
+      Never confess the revel grows weary--
+    Yule is the time of the Mistletoe,
+      Yule is the time of the Holly Berry.
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+    December comes, snows come,
+      Comes the wintry weather;
+    Faces from away come--
+      Hearts must be together.
+        Down the stair-steps of the hours
+        Yule leaps the hills and towers--
+      Fill the bowl and hang the holly,
+      Let the times be jolly.
+
+"The Watchers" is in the spirit of Kingsley's "The Three Fishers":
+
+    Two women on the lone wet strand--
+      (_The wind's out with a will to roam_)
+    The waves wage war on rocks and sand,
+      (_And a ship is long due home_.)
+
+    The sea sprays in the women's eyes--
+      (_Hearts can writhe like the sea's wild foam_)
+    Lower descend the tempestuous skies,
+      (_For the wind's out with a will to roam_.)
+
+    "O daughter, thine eyes be better than mine,"
+      (_The waves ascend high on yonder dome_)
+    "North or South is there never a sign?"
+      (_And a ship is long due home_.)
+
+    They watched there all the long night through--
+      (_The wind's out with a will to roam_)
+    Wind and rain and sorrow for two--
+      (_And heaven on the long reach home_.)
+
+The second volume marked a decided advance in technique. When we
+remember also the Pre-Raphaelite spirit, with its love of rhythm and
+imagery, we are not surprised to find here an appreciation "To Dante
+Gabriel Rossetti." Especially has the poet made progress in the handling
+of the sonnet, as may be seen in the following:
+
+    My thoughts go marching like an armed host
+      Out of the city of silence, guns and cars;
+    Troop after troop across my dreams they post
+      To the invasion of the wind and stars.
+    O brave array of youth's untamed desire!
+      With thy bold, dauntless captain Hope to lead
+    His raw recruits to Fate's opposing fire,
+      And up the walls of Circumstance to bleed.
+    How fares the expedition in the end?
+      When this my heart shall have old age for king
+    And to the wars no further troop can send,
+      What final message will the arm'stice bring?
+    The host gone forth in youth the world to meet,
+    In age returns--in victory or defeat?
+
+Then there is the epilogue with its heart-cry:
+
+    Lord of the mystic star-blown gleams
+    Whose sweet compassion lifts my dreams;
+    Lord of life in the lips of the rose
+    That kiss desire; whence Beauty grows;
+    Lord of the power inviolate
+    That keeps immune thy seas from fate,
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+    Lord, Very God of these works of thine,
+    Hear me, I beseech thee, most divine!
+
+Within very recent years Mr. Braithwaite has attracted unusual attention
+among the discerning by a new note of mysticism that has crept into his
+verse. This was first observed in "Sandy Star," that appeared in the
+_Atlantic_ (July, 1909):
+
+    No more from out the sunset,
+      No more across the foam,
+    No more across the windy hills
+      Will Sandy Star come home.
+
+    He went away to search it,
+      With a curse upon his tongue,
+    And in his hands the staff of life
+      Made music as it swung.
+
+    I wonder if he found it,
+      And knows the mystery now:
+    Our Sandy Star who went away
+      With the secret on his brow.
+
+The same note is in "The Mystery" (or "The Way," as the poet prefers to
+call it) that appeared in _Scribner's_ (October, 1915):
+
+    He could not tell the way he came
+      Because his chart was lost:
+    Yet all his way was paved with flame
+      From the bourne he crossed.
+
+    He did not know the way to go,
+      Because he had no map:
+    He followed where the winds blow,--
+      And the April sap.
+
+    He never knew upon his brow
+      The secret that he bore--
+    And laughs away the mystery now
+      The dark's at his door.
+
+Mr. Braithwaite has done well. He is to-day the foremost man of the race
+in pure literature. But above any partial or limited consideration,
+after years of hard work he now has recognition not only as a poet of
+standing, but as the chief sponsor for current American poetry. No
+comment on his work could be better than that of the _Transcript_,
+November 30, 1915: "He has helped poetry to readers as well as to poets.
+One is guilty of no extravagance in saying that the poets we have--and
+they may take their place with their peers in any country--and the
+gathering deference we pay them, are created largely out of the
+stubborn, self-effacing enthusiasm of this one man. In a sense their
+distinction is his own. In a sense he has himself written their poetry.
+Very much by his toil they may write and be read. Not one of them will
+ever write a finer poem than Braithwaite himself has lived already."
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+OTHER WRITERS
+
+
+In addition to those who have been mentioned, there have been scores of
+writers who would have to be considered if we were dealing with the
+literature of the Negro in the widest sense of the term. Not too
+clearly, however, can the limitations of our subject be insisted upon.
+We are here concerned with distinctly literary or artistic achievement,
+and not with work that belongs in the realm of religion, sociology, or
+politics. Only briefer mention accordingly can be given to these latter
+fields.
+
+Naturally, from the first there have been works dealing with the place
+of the Negro in American life. Outstanding after the numerous
+sociological studies and other contributions to periodical literature of
+Dr. DuBois are the books of the late Booker T. Washington.
+Representative of these are "The Future of the American Negro," "My
+Larger Education," and "The Man Farthest Down." As early as 1829,
+however, David Walker, of Boston, published his passionate "Appeal," a
+protest against slavery that awakened Southern legislatures to action;
+and in the years just before the Civil War, Henry Highland Garnet wrote
+sermons and addresses on the status of the race in America, while
+William Wells Brown wrote "Three Years in Europe," and various other
+works, some of which will receive later mention. After the war,
+Alexander Crummell became an outstanding figure by reason of his sermons
+and addresses, many of which were preserved. He was followed by an
+interesting group of scholarly men, represented especially by William S.
+Scarborough, Kelly Miller, and Archibald H. Grimke. Mr. Scarborough is
+now president of Wilberforce University. He has contributed numerous
+articles to representative magazines. His work in more technical fields
+is represented by his "First Lessons in Greek," a treatise on the
+"Birds" of Aristophanes, and his paper in the _Arena_ (January, 1897) on
+"Negro Folk-Lore and Dialect." Mr. Miller is Dean of the College of Arts
+and Sciences at Howard University. He has collected his numerous and
+cogent papers in two volumes, "Race Adjustment," and "Out of the House
+of Bondage." The first is the more varied and interesting of the two
+books, but the latter contains the poetic rhapsody, "I See and Am
+Satisfied," first published in the _Independent_ (August 7, 1913). Mr.
+A. H. Grimke, as well as Mr. Miller, has contributed to the _Atlantic_;
+and he has written the lives of Garrison and Sumner in the American
+Reformers Series. "Negro Culture in West Africa," by George W. Ellis, is
+original and scholarly; "The Aftermath of Slavery," by William A.
+Sinclair, is a volume of more than ordinary interest; and "The African
+Abroad," by William H. Ferris, while confused in construction and form,
+contains much thoughtful material. Within recent years there have been
+published a great many works, frequently illustrated, on the progress
+and achievements of the race. Very few of these books are scholarly.
+Three collaborations, however, are of decided value. One is a little
+volume entitled, "The Negro Problem," consisting of seven papers by
+representative Negroes, and published in 1903 by James Pott & Co., of
+New York. Another is "From Servitude to Service," published in 1905 by
+the American Unitarian Association of Boston, and made up of the Old
+South Lectures on the history and work of Southern institutions for the
+education of the Negro; while the third collaboration is, "The Negro in
+the South," published in 1907 by George W. Jacobs & Co., of
+Philadelphia, and made up of four papers, two by Dr. Washington, and two
+by Dr. DuBois, which were the William Levi Bull Lectures in the
+Philadelphia Divinity School for the year 1907.
+
+Halfway between works on the Negro Problem and those in history, are
+those in the field of biography and autobiography. For decades before
+the Civil War the experiences of fugitive slaves were used as a part of
+the anti-slavery argument. In 1845 appeared the "Narrative of the Life
+of Frederick Douglass," this being greatly enlarged and extended in 1881
+as "The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass." In similar vein was the
+"Autobiography of a Fugitive Negro," by Samuel Ringgold Ward. Then
+Josiah Henson (the original of Uncle Tom) and Sojourner Truth issued
+their narratives. Collections of more than ordinary interest were
+William Wells Brown's "The Black Man" (1863), James M. Trotter's "Music
+and Some Highly Musical People" (1878), and William J. Simmons's "Men of
+Mark" (1887). John Mercer Langston's "From the Virginia Plantation to
+the National Capitol" is interesting and serviceable; special interest
+attaches to Matthew Henson's "A Negro Explorer at the North Pole"; while
+Maud Cuney Hare's "Norris Wright Cuney" was a distinct contribution to
+the history of Southern politics. The most widely known work in this
+field, however, is "Up From Slavery," by Booker T. Washington. The
+unaffected and simple style of this book has made it a model of personal
+writing, and it is by reason of merit that the work has gained unusual
+currency.
+
+The study, of course, becomes more special in the field of history.
+Interest from the first was shown in church history. This was
+represented immediately after the war by Bishop Daniel A. Payne's
+studies in the history of the A. M. E. Church, and twenty-five years
+later, for the Baptist denomination, by E. M. Brawley's "The Negro
+Baptist Pulpit." One of the earliest writers of merit was William C.
+Nell, who, in 1851, published his pamphlet, "Services of Colored
+Americans in the Wars of 1776 and 1812." "The Rising Son," by William
+Wells Brown, was an account of "the antecedents and advancement of the
+colored race"; the work gave considerable attention to Africa, Hayti,
+and the colonies, and was quite scholarly in method. Then, in 1872, full
+of personal experience, appeared William Still's "The Underground
+Railroad." The epoch-making work in history, however, was the two-volume
+"History of the Negro Race in America," by George W. Williams, which was
+issued in 1883. This work was the exploration of a new field and the
+result of seven years of study. The historian more than once wrote
+subjectively, but his work was, on the whole, written with unusually
+good taste. After thirty years some of his pages have, of course, been
+superseded; but his work is even yet the great storehouse for students
+of Negro history. Technical study within recent years is best
+represented by the Harvard doctorate theses of Dr. DuBois and Dr.
+Carter G. Woodson. That of Dr. DuBois has already been mentioned. That
+of Dr. Woodson was entitled "The Disruption of Virginia." Dr. Woodson is
+the editor of the _Journal of Negro History_, a quarterly magazine that
+began to appear in 1916, and that has already published several articles
+of the first order of merit. He has also written "The Education of the
+Negro Prior to 1861," a work in the most scientific spirit of modern
+historical study, to which a companion volume for the later period is
+expected. Largely original also in the nature of their contribution have
+been "The Haitian Revolution," by T. G. Steward, and "The Facts of
+Reconstruction," by John R. Lynch; and, while less intensive,
+interesting throughout is J. W. Cromwell's "The Negro in American
+History."
+
+Many of the younger writers are cultivating the short story. Especially
+have two or three, as yet unknown to the wider public, done excellent
+work in connection with syndicates of great newspapers. "The Goodness of
+St. Rocque, and Other Stories," by Alice Moore Dunbar (now Mrs. Nelson),
+is representative of the stronger work in this field. Numerous attempts
+at the composition of novels have also been made. Even before the Civil
+War was over appeared William Wells Brown's "Clotille: A Tale of the
+Southern States." It is in this special department, however, that a
+sense of literary form has frequently been most lacking. The
+distinctively literary essay has not unnaturally suffered from the
+general pressure of the Problem. A paper in the _Atlantic Monthly_
+(February, 1906), however, "The Joys of Being a Negro," by Edward E.
+Wilson, a Chicago lawyer, was of outstanding brilliancy. A. O. Stafford,
+of Washington, is a special student of the folklore of Africa. He has
+contributed several scholarly papers to the _Journal of Negro History_,
+and he has also published through the American Book Company an
+interesting supplementary reader, "Animal Fables From the Dark
+Continent." Alain Locke is interested in both philosophical and literary
+studies, represented by "The American Temperament," a paper contributed
+to the _North American Review_ (August, 1911), and a paper on Emile
+Verhaeren in the _Poetry Review_ (January, 1917).
+
+Little has been accomplished in sustained poetic flight. Of shorter
+lyric verse, however, many booklets have appeared. As this is the field
+that offers peculiar opportunity for subjective expression, more has
+been attempted in it than in any other department of artistic endeavor.
+It demands, therefore, special attention, and the study will take us
+back before the Civil War.
+
+The first person to attract much attention after Phillis Wheatley was
+George Moses Horton, of North Carolina, who was born in 1797 and died
+about 1880 (or 1883). He was ambitious to learn, was the possessor of
+unusual literary talent, and in one way or another received instruction
+from various persons. He very soon began to write verse, all of which
+was infused with his desire for freedom, and much of which was suggested
+by the common evangelical hymns, as were the following lines:
+
+    Alas! and am I born for this,
+      To wear this slavish chain?
+    Deprived of all created bliss,
+      Through hardship, toil, and pain?
+
+    How long have I in bondage lain,
+      And languished to be free!
+    Alas! and must I still complain,
+      Deprived of liberty?
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+    Come, Liberty! thou cheerful sound,
+      Roll through my ravished ears;
+    Come, let my grief in joys be drowned,
+      And drive away my fears.
+
+Some of Horton's friends became interested in him and desired to help
+him publish a volume of his poems, so that from the sale of these he
+might purchase his freedom and go to the new colony of Liberia. The
+young man became fired with ambition and inspiration. Thrilled by the
+new hope, he wrote:
+
+    'Twas like the salutation of the dove,
+    Borne on the zephyr through some lonesome grove,
+    When spring returns, and winter's chill is past,
+    And vegetation smiles above the blast.
+
+Horton's master, however, demanded for him an exorbitant price, and when
+"The Hope of Liberty" appeared in 1829 it had nothing of the sale that
+was hoped for. Disappointed in his great desire, the poet seems to have
+lost ambition. He became a janitor around the state university at Chapel
+Hill, executed small commissions for verse from the students, who
+treated him kindly, and in later years went to Philadelphia; but his old
+dreams had faded. Several reprintings of his poems were made, however,
+and one of these was bound with the 1838 edition of Phillis Wheatley's
+poems.
+
+In 1854 appeared the first edition of "Poems on Miscellaneous Subjects,"
+by Frances Ellen Watkins, commonly known as Mrs. Frances E. W. Harper.
+Mrs. Harper was a woman of exceptionally strong personality and could
+read her poems to advantage. Her verse was very popular, not less than
+ten thousand copies of her booklets being sold. It was decidedly lacking
+in technique, however, and much in the style of Mrs. Hemans. Mrs. Harper
+was best when most simple, as when in writing of children she said:
+
+    I almost think the angels
+      Who tend life's garden fair,
+    Drop down the sweet white blossoms
+      That bloom around us here.
+
+The secret of her popularity was to be seen in such lines as the
+following from "Bury Me in a Free Land":
+
+    Make me a grave where'er you will,
+    In a lowly plain or a lofty hill;
+    Make it among earth's humblest graves,
+    But not in a land where men are slaves.
+
+Of the Emancipation Proclamation she wrote:
+
+    It shall flash through coming ages,
+      It shall light the distant years;
+    And eyes now dim with sorrow
+      Shall be brighter through their tears.
+
+While Mrs. Harper was still prominently before the public appeared
+Albery A. Whitman, a Methodist minister, whose "Not a Man and Yet a Man"
+appeared in 1877. The work of this writer is the most baffling with
+which this book has to deal. It is diffuse, exhibits many lapses in
+taste, is uneven metrically, as if done in haste, and shows imitation on
+every hand. It imitates Whittier, Longfellow, Tennyson, Scott, Byron and
+Moore. "The Old Sac Village" and "Nanawawa's Suitors" are very evidently
+"Hiawatha" over again; and "Custer's Last Ride" is simply another
+version of "The Charge of the Light Brigade." "The Rape of Florida"
+exhibits the same general characteristics as the earlier poems. And
+yet, whenever one has about decided that Whitman is not worthy of
+consideration, he insists on a revision of judgment. The fact is that he
+shows a decided faculty for brisk narration. This may be seen in "The
+House of the Aylors." He has, moreover, a romantic lavishness of
+description that, in spite of all technical faults, still has some
+degree of merit. The following quotations, taken respectively from "The
+Mowers" and "The Flight of Leeona," will exemplify both his extravagance
+and his possibilities in description:
+
+    The tall forests swim in a crimson sea,
+    Out of whose bright depths rising silently,
+    Great golden spires shoot into the skies,
+    Among the isles of cloudland high, that rise,
+    Float, scatter, burst, drift off, and slowly fade,
+    Deep in the twilight, shade succeeding shade.
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+    And now she turns upon a mossy seat,
+    Where sings a fern-bound stream beneath her feet,
+    And breathes the orange in the swooning air;
+    Where in her queenly pride the rose blooms fair,
+    And sweet geranium waves her scented hair;
+    There, gazing in the bright face of the stream,
+    Her thoughts swim onward in a gentle dream.
+
+In "A Dream of Glory" occur the lines:
+
+    The fairest blooms are born of humble weeds,
+      That faint and perish in the pathless wood;
+    And out of bitter life grow noble deeds
+      To pass unnoticed in the multitude.
+
+Whitman's shortcomings become readily apparent when he attempts
+sustained work. "The Rape of Florida" is the longest poem yet written by
+a Negro in America, and also the only attempt by a member of the race to
+use the elaborate Spenserian stanza throughout a long piece of work. The
+story is concerned with the capture of the Seminoles in Florida through
+perfidy and the taking of them away to their new home in the West. It
+centers around three characters, Palmecho, an old chief, Ewald, his
+daughter, and Atlassa, a young Seminole who is Ewald's lover. The poem
+is decidedly diffuse; there is too much subjective description, too
+little strong characterization. Palmecho, instead of being a stout
+warrior, is a "chief of peace and kindly deeds." Stanzas of merit,
+however, occasionally strike the eye. The boat-song forces recognition
+as genuine poetry:
+
+    "Come now, my love, the moon is on the lake;
+      Upon the waters is my light canoe;
+    Come with me, love, and gladsome oars shall make
+      A music on the parting wave for you,--
+
+      Come o'er the waters deep and dark and blue;
+    Come where the lilies in the marge have sprung,
+      Come with me, love, for Oh, my love is true!"
+    This is the song that on the lake was sung,
+    The boatman sang it over when his heart was young.
+
+In 1890 Whitman brought out an edition of "Not a Man and Yet a Man" and
+"The Rape of Florida," adding to these a collection of miscellaneous
+poems, "Drifted Leaves," and in 1901 he published "An Idyl of the
+South," an epic poem in two parts. It is to be regretted that he did not
+have the training that comes from the best university education. He had
+the taste and the talent to benefit from such culture in the greatest
+degree.
+
+All who went before him were, of course, superseded in 1896 by Paul
+Laurence Dunbar; and Dunbar started a tradition. Throughout the country
+there sprang up imitators, and some of the imitations were more than
+fair. All of this, however, was a passing phenomenon. Those who are
+writing at the present day almost invariably eschew dialect and insist
+upon classics forms and measures. Prominent among these is James Weldon
+Johnson. Mr. Johnson has seen a varied career as teacher, writer, consul
+for the United States in foreign countries, especially Nicaragua, and
+national organizer for the National Association for the Advancement of
+Colored People. He has written numerous songs, which have been set to
+music by his brother, Rosamond Johnson, or Harry T. Burleigh; he made
+for the Metropolitan Opera the English translation of the Spanish opera,
+"Goyescas," by Granados and Periquet; and in 1916, while associated with
+the _Age_, of New York, in a contest opened by the _Public Ledger_, of
+Philadelphia, to editorial writers all over the country, he won a third
+prize of two hundred dollars for a campaign editorial. The remarkable
+book, "Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man," half fact, half fiction, was
+published anonymously, but is generally credited to Mr. Johnson. Very
+recently (December, 1917) has appeared this writer's collection, "Fifty
+Years and Other Poems." In pure lyric flow he is best represented by two
+poems in the _Century_. One was a sonnet entitled, "Mother Night"
+(February, 1910):
+
+    Eternities before the first-born day,
+      Or ere the first sun fledged his wings of flame,
+      Calm Night, the everlasting and the same,
+    A brooding mother over chaos lay.
+    And whirling suns shall blaze and then decay,
+      Shall run their fiery courses and then claim
+      The haven of the darkness whence they came;
+    Back to Nirvanic peace shall grope their way.
+    So when my feeble sun of life burns out,
+      And sounded is the hour for my long sleep,
+        I shall, full weary of the feverish light,
+    Welcome the darkness without fear or doubt,
+      And, heavy-lidded, I shall softly creep
+        Into the quiet bosom of the Night.
+
+When we think of the large number of those who have longed for success
+in artistic expression, and especially of the first singer of the old
+melodies, we could close this review with nothing better than Mr.
+Johnson's tribute, "O Black and Unknown Bards" (_Century_, November,
+1908):
+
+    O black and unknown bards of long ago,
+      How came your lips to touch the sacred fire?
+    How, in your darkness, did you come to know
+      The power and beauty of the minstrel's lyre?
+    Who first from 'midst his bonds lifted his eyes?
+      Who first from out the still watch, lone and long,
+    Feeling the ancient faith of prophets rise
+      Within his dark-kept soul, burst into song?
+
+    There is a wide, wide wonder in it all,
+      That from degraded rest and servile toil,
+    The fiery spirit of the seer should call
+      These simple children of the sun and soil.
+    O black singers, gone, forgot, unfamed,
+      You--you alone, of all the long, long line
+    Of those who've sung untaught, unknown, unnamed,
+      Have stretched out upward, seeking the divine.
+
+    You sang not deeds of heroes or of kings:
+      No chant of bloody war, nor exulting paean
+    Of arms-won triumphs; but your humble strings
+      You touched in chords with music empyrean.
+    You sang far better than you knew, the songs
+      That for your listeners' hungry hearts sufficed
+    Still live--but more than this to you belongs:
+      You sang a race from wood and stone to Christ.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+ORATORS.--DOUGLASS AND WASHINGTON
+
+
+The Negro is peculiarly gifted as an orator. To magnificent gifts of
+voice he adds a fervor of sentiment and an appreciation of the
+possibilities of a great occasion that are indispensable in the work of
+one who excels in this field. Greater than any of these things, however,
+is the romantic quality that finds an outlet in vast reaches of imagery
+and a singularly figurative power of expression. Only this innate gift
+of rhetorical expression has accounted for the tremendous effects
+sometimes realized even by untutored members of the race. Its
+possibilities under the influences of culture and education are
+illimitable.
+
+On one occasion Harriet Tubman, famous for her work in the Underground
+Railroad, was addressing an audience and describing a great battle in
+the Civil War. "And then," said she, "we saw the lightning, and that
+was the guns; and then we heard the thunder, and that was the big guns;
+and then we heard the rain falling, and that was drops of blood falling;
+and when we came to git in the craps, it was dead men that we
+reaped."[2] All through the familiar melodies one finds the pathos and
+the poetry of this imagery. Two unusual individuals, untutored but
+highly gifted in their own spheres, in the course of the last century
+proved eminently successful by joining this rhetorical faculty to their
+native earnestness. One of these was the anti-slavery speaker, Sojourner
+Truth. Tall, majestic, and yet quite uneducated, this interesting woman
+sometimes dazzled her audiences by her sudden turns of expression.
+Anecdotes of her quick and startling replies are numberless. The other
+character was John Jasper, of Richmond, Va., famous three decades ago
+for his "Sun do move" sermon. Jasper preached not only on this theme,
+but also on "Dry bones in the valley," the glories of the New Jerusalem,
+and many similar subjects that have been used by other preachers,
+sometimes with hardly less effect, throughout the South. When one made
+all discount for the tinsel and the dialect, he still would have found
+in the work of John Jasper much of the power of the true orator.
+
+[Footnote 2: Reported by A. B. Hart, in "Slavery and Abolition," 209.]
+
+Other men have joined to this love for figurative expression the
+advantages of culture; and a common characteristic, thoroughly typical
+of the romantic quality constantly present, is a fondness for biblical
+phrase. As representative might be remarked Robert B. Elliott, famous
+for his speech in Congress on the constitutionality of the Civil Rights
+Bill; John Mercer Langston, also distinguished for many political
+addresses; M. C. B. Mason, for years a prominent representative of the
+Methodist Episcopal Church; and Charles T. Walker, still the most
+popular preacher of the Negro Baptists. A new and telling form of public
+speaking, destined to have more and more importance, is that just now
+best cultivated by Dr. DuBois, who, with little play of voice or
+gesture, but with the earnestness of conviction, drives home his message
+with instant effect.
+
+In any consideration of oratory one must constantly bear in mind, of
+course, the importance of the spoken word and the personal equation. At
+the same time it must be remembered that many of the most worthy
+addresses made by Negroes have not been preserved in accessible form.
+Again and again, in some remote community, with true eloquence has an
+untutored preacher brought comfort and inspiration to a struggling
+people. J. C. Price, for years president of Livingstone College in North
+Carolina, was one of the truest orators the Negro race ever had, and
+many who heard him will insist that he was foremost. His name has become
+in some quarters a synonym for eloquence, and he certainly appeared on
+many noteworthy occasions with marked effect. His reputation will
+finally suffer, however, for the reason given, that his speeches are not
+now generally accessible. Not one is in Mrs. Dunbar's "Masterpieces of
+Negro Eloquence."
+
+One of the most effective occasional speakers within recent years has
+been Reverdy C. Ransom, of the A. M. E. Church. In his great moments Mr.
+Ransom has given the impression of the true orator. He has little humor,
+is stately and dignified, but bitter in satire and invective. There is,
+in fact, much in his speaking to remind one of Frederick Douglass. One
+of his greatest efforts was that on the occasion of the celebration of
+the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of Garrison, in Faneuil Hall,
+Boston, December 11, 1905. Said he, in part:
+
+     What kind of Negroes do the American people want? That they
+     must have the Negro in some relation is no longer a question of
+     serious debate. What kind of Negroes do the American people
+     want? Do they want a voteless Negro in a republic founded upon
+     universal suffrage? Do they want a Negro who shall not be
+     permitted to participate in the government which he must
+     support with his treasure and defend with his blood? Do they
+     want a Negro who shall consent to be set aside as forming a
+     distinct industrial class, permitted to rise no higher than the
+     level of serfs or peasants? Do they want a Negro who shall
+     accept an inferior social position, not as a degradation, but
+     as the just operation of the laws of caste based on color? Do
+     they want a Negro who will avoid friction between the races by
+     consenting to occupy the place to which white men may choose to
+     assign him? What kind of a Negro do the American people want?
+     ... Taught by the Declaration of Independence, sustained by the
+     Constitution of the United States, enlightened by the education
+     of our schools, this nation can no more resist the advancing
+     tread of the hosts of the oncoming blacks than it can bind the
+     stars or halt the resistless motion of the tide.[3]
+
+[Footnote 3: Quoted from "Masterpieces of Negro Eloquence," 314-5.]
+
+Two men, by reason of great natural endowment, a fitting appreciation of
+great occasions, and the consistency with which they produced their
+effects, have won an undisputed place in any consideration of American
+orators. These men were Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington.
+
+Frederick Douglass was born in 1817 and lived for ten years as a slave
+upon a Maryland plantation. Then he was bought by a Baltimore
+shipbuilder. He learned to read, and, being attracted by "The Lady of
+the Lake," when he escaped in 1838 and went disguised as a sailor to New
+Bedford, Mass., he adopted the name _Douglas_ (spelling it with two
+_s's_, however). He lived for several years in New Bedford, being
+assisted by Garrison in his efforts for an education. In 1841, at an
+anti-slavery convention in Nantucket, he exhibited such intelligence,
+and showed himself the possessor of such a remarkable voice, that he was
+made the agent of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society. He now
+lectured extensively in England and the United States, and English
+friends raised L150 to enable him regularly to purchase his freedom. For
+some years before the Civil War he lived in Rochester, N.Y., where he
+published a paper, _The North Star_, and where there is now a public
+monument to him. Later in life he became Recorder of Deeds in the
+District of Columbia, and then Minister to Hayti. At the time of his
+death in 1895 Douglass had won for himself a place of unique
+distinction. Large of heart and of mind, he was interested in every
+forward movement for his people; but his charity embraced all men and
+all races. His reputation was international, and to-day many of his
+speeches are to be found in the standard works on oratory.
+
+Mr. Chesnutt has admirably summed up the personal characteristics of the
+oratory of Douglass. He tells us that "Douglass possessed, in large
+measure, the physical equipment most impressive in an orator. He was a
+man of magnificent figure, tall, strong, his head crowned with a mass of
+hair which made a striking element of his appearance. He had deep-set
+and flashing eyes, a firm, well-moulded chin, a countenance somewhat
+severe in repose, but capable of a wide range of expression. His voice
+was rich and melodious, and of carrying power."[4] Douglass was
+distinctly dignified, eloquent, and majestic; he could not be funny or
+witty. Sorrow for the slave, and indignation against the master, gave
+force to his words, though, in his later years, his oratory became less
+and less heavy and more refined. He was not always on the popular side,
+nor was he always exactly logical; thus he incurred much censure for his
+opposition to the exodus of the Negro from the South in 1879. For half a
+century, however, he was the outstanding figure of the race in the
+United States.
+
+[Footnote 4: "Frederick Douglass," 107-8.]
+
+Perhaps the greatest speech of his life was that which Douglass made at
+Rochester on the 5th of July, 1852. His subject was "American Slavery,"
+and he spoke with his strongest invective. The following paragraphs from
+the introduction will serve to illustrate his fondness for interrogation
+and biblical phrase:
+
+     Pardon me, and allow me to ask, Why am I called upon to speak
+     here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your
+     national independence? Are the great principles of political
+     freedom and of natural justice embodied in that Declaration of
+     Independence extended to us? And am I, therefore, called upon
+     to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to
+     confess the benefits, and express devout gratitude for the
+     blessings resulting from your independence to us?
+
+            *       *       *       *       *
+
+     By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when
+     we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the
+     midst thereof. For there they that carried us away captive
+     required of us a song; and they that had wasted us required of
+     us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How shall
+     we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? If I forget thee, O
+     Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not
+     remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth.[5]
+
+[Footnote 5: Quoted from Williams, II, 435-6.]
+
+The years and emancipation and the progress of his people in the new day
+gave a more hopeful tone to some of the later speeches of the orator. In
+an address on the 7th of December, 1890, he said:
+
+     I have seen dark hours in my life, and I have seen the darkness
+     gradually disappearing, and the light gradually increasing. One
+     by one I have seen obstacles removed, errors corrected,
+     prejudices softened, proscriptions relinquished, and my people
+     advancing in all the elements that make up the sum of general
+     welfare. I remember that God reigns in eternity, and that,
+     whatever delays, disappointments, and discouragements may come,
+     truth, justice, liberty, and humanity will prevail.[6]
+
+[Footnote 6: Quoted from Foreword in "In Memoriam: Frederick
+Douglass."]
+
+Booker T. Washington was born about 1858, in Franklin County, Virginia.
+After the Civil War his mother and stepfather removed to Malden, W. Va.,
+where, when he became large enough, he worked in the salt furnaces and
+the coal mines. He had always been called Booker, but it was not until
+he went to a little school at his home and found that he needed a
+surname that, on the spur of the moment, he adopted _Washington_. In
+1872 he worked his way to Hampton Institute, where he paid his expenses
+by assisting as a janitor. Graduating in 1875, he returned to Malden and
+taught school for three years. He then attended for a year Wayland
+Seminary in Washington (now incorporated in Virginia Union University in
+Richmond), and in 1879 was appointed an instructor at Hampton. In 1881
+there came to General Armstrong, principal of Hampton Institute, a call
+from the little town of Tuskegee, Ala., for someone to organize and
+become the principal of a normal school which the people wanted to start
+in that place. He recommended Mr. Washington, who opened the school on
+the 4th of July in an old church and a little shanty, with an
+attendance of thirty pupils. In 1895 Mr. Washington came into national
+prominence by a remarkable speech at the Cotton States Exposition in
+Atlanta, and after that he interested educators and thinking people
+generally in the working out of his ideas of practical education. He was
+the author of several books along lines of industrial education and
+character-building, and in his later years only one or two other men in
+America could rival his power to attract and hold great audiences.
+Harvard University conferred on him the degree of Master of Arts in
+1896, and Dartmouth that of Doctor of Laws in 1901. He died in 1915.
+
+In the course of his career Mr. Washington delivered hundreds of
+addresses on distinguished occasions. He was constantly in demand at
+colleges and universities, great educational meetings, and gatherings of
+a civic or public character. His Atlanta speech is famous for the
+so-called compromise with the white South: "In all things that are
+purely social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand
+in all things essential to mutual progress." On receiving his degree at
+Harvard in 1896, he made a speech in which he emphasized the fact that
+the welfare of the richest and most cultured person in New England was
+bound up with that of the humblest man in Alabama, and that each man was
+his brother's keeper. Along somewhat the same line he spoke the next
+year at the unveiling of the Robert Gould Shaw Monument in Boston. At
+the Chicago Peace Jubilee in 1898 he reviewed the conduct of the Negro
+in the wars of the United States, making a powerful plea for justice to
+a race that had always chosen the better part in the wars of the
+country. Mr. Washington delivered many addresses, but he never really
+surpassed the feeling and point and oratorical quality of these early
+speeches. The following paragraph from the Atlanta speech will
+illustrate his power of vivid and apt illustration:
+
+     A ship lost at sea for many days suddenly sighted a friendly
+     vessel. From the mast of the unfortunate vessel was seen a
+     signal: "Water, water; we die of thirst!" The answer from the
+     friendly vessel at once came back: "Cast down your bucket where
+     you are." A second time the signal, "Water, water; send us
+     water!" ran up from the distressed vessel, and was answered:
+     "Cast down your bucket where you are." And a third and a fourth
+     signal for water was answered: "Cast down your bucket where you
+     are." The captain of the distressed vessel, at last heeding the
+     injunction, cast down his bucket, and it came up full of
+     fresh, sparkling water from the mouth of the Amazon River. To
+     those of my race who depend on bettering their condition in a
+     foreign land, or who underestimate the importance of
+     cultivating friendly relations with the Southern white man, who
+     is their next door neighbor, I would say: "Cast down your
+     bucket where you are"--cast it down in making friends in every
+     manly way of the people of all races by whom we are
+     surrounded.[7]
+
+[Footnote 7: Quoted from "Story of My Life and Work," 165-6.]
+
+The power to realize with fine feeling the possibilities of an occasion
+may be illustrated from the speech at Harvard:
+
+     If through me, an humble representative, seven millions of my
+     people in the South might be permitted to send a message to
+     Harvard--Harvard that offered up on death's altar young Shaw,
+     and Russell, and Lowell, and scores of others, that we might
+     have a free and united country--that message would be, Tell
+     them that the sacrifice was not in vain. Tell them that by
+     habits of thrift and economy, by way of the industrial school
+     and college, we are coming up. We are crawling up, working up,
+     yea, bursting up--often through oppression, unjust
+     discrimination and prejudice, but through them all we are
+     coming up, and with proper habits, intelligence, and property,
+     there is no power on earth that can permanently stay our
+     progress.[8]
+
+[Footnote 8: Quoted from "Story of My Life and Work," 210-11.]
+
+The eloquence of Douglass differed from that of Washington as does the
+power of a gifted orator differ from the force of a finished public
+speaker. The one was subjective; the other was objective. Douglass
+swayed his audience, and even himself, by the sweep of his passion and
+rhetoric; Washington studied every detail and weighed every word, always
+keeping in mind the final impression to be made. Douglass was an
+idealist, impatient for the day of perfect fruition; Washington was an
+opportunist, making the most of each chance as it came. The one voiced
+the sorrows of the Old Testament, and for the moment produced the more
+tremendous effect; the other longed for the blessing of the New
+Testament and spoke with lasting result. Both loved their people and
+each in his own way worked as he could best see the light. By his
+earnestness each in his day gained a hearing; by their sincerity both
+found a place in the oratory not only of the Negro but of the world.
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+THE STAGE
+
+
+In no other field has the Negro with artistic aspirations found the road
+so hard as in that of the classic drama. In spite of the far-reaching
+influence of the Negro on American life, it is only within the last two
+years that this distinct racial element has begun to receive serious
+attention. If we pass over Othello as professedly a Moor rather than a
+Negro, we find that the Negro, as he has been presented on the English
+or American stage, is best represented by such a character as Mungo in
+the comic opera, "The Padlock," on the boards at Drury Lane in 1768.
+Mungo is the slave of a West Indian planter; he becomes profane in the
+second act and sings a burlesque song. Here, as elsewhere, there was no
+dramatic or sympathetic study of the race. Even Uncle Tom was a
+conventional embodiment of patience and meekness rather than a highly
+individualized character.
+
+On the legitimate stage the Negro was not wanted. That he could succeed,
+however, was shown by such a career as that of Ira Aldridge. This
+distinguished actor, making his way from America to the freer life of
+Europe, entered upon the period of his greatest artistic success when,
+in 1833, at Covent Garden, he played Othello to the Iago of Edmund Kean,
+the foremost actor of the time. He was universally ranked as a great
+tragedian. In the years 1852-5 he played in Germany. In 1857 the King of
+Sweden invited him to visit Stockholm. The King of Prussia bestowed upon
+him a first-class medal of the arts and sciences. The Emperor of Austria
+complimented him with an autograph letter; the Czar of Russia gave him a
+decoration, and various other honors were showered upon him.
+
+Such is the noblest tradition of the Negro on the stage. In course of
+time, however, because of the new blackface minstrelsy that became
+popular soon after the Civil War, all association of the Negro with the
+classic drama was effectively erased from the public mind. Near the
+turn of the century some outlet was found in light musical comedy.
+Prominent in the transition from minstrelsy to the new form were Bob
+Cole and Ernest Hogan; and the representative musical comedy companies
+have been those of Cole and Johnson, and Williams and Walker. Bert
+Williams is to-day generally remarked as one of the two or three
+foremost comedians on the American stage. Even musical comedy, however,
+is not so prominent as it was ten years ago, by reason of the
+competition of vaudeville and moving-pictures; and any representation of
+the Negro on the stage at the present time is likely to be either a
+burlesque, or, as in such pictures as those of "The Birth of a Nation,"
+a deliberate and malicious libel on the race.
+
+In different ones of the Negro colleges, however, and elsewhere, are
+there those who have dreamed of a true Negro drama--a drama that should
+get away from the minstrelsy and the burlesque and honestly present
+Negro characters face to face with all the problems that test the race
+in the crucible of American civilization. The representative
+institutions give frequent amateur productions, not only of classical
+plays, but also of sincere attempts at the faithful portrayal of Negro
+character. In even wider fields, however, is the possibility of the
+material for serious dramatic treatment being tested. In the spring of
+1914 "Granny Maumee," by Ridgely Torrence, a New York dramatist, was
+produced by the Stage Society of New York. The part of Granny Maumee was
+taken by Dorothy Donnelly, one of the most emotional and sincere of
+American actresses; two performances were given, and Carl Van Vechten,
+writing of the occasion in the New York _Press_, said: "It is as
+important an event in our theater as the first play by Synge was to the
+Irish movement." Another experiment was "Children," by Guy Bolton and
+Tom Carlton, presented by the Washington Square Players in March, 1916,
+a little play in which a mother shoots her son rather than give him up
+to a lynching party. In April, 1917, "Granny Maumee," with two other
+short plays by Mr. Torrence, "The Rider of Dreams," and "Simon the
+Cyrenian," was again put on the stage in New York, this time with a
+company of colored actors, prominent among whom were Opal Cooper and
+Inez Clough. This whole production, advertised as "the first colored
+dramatic company to appear on Broadway," was under the patronage of Mrs.
+Norman Hapgood and the direction of Robert Edmond Jones, and its success
+was such as to give hopes of much greater things in the future.
+
+Three or four other representative efforts within the race itself in the
+great field of the drama must be remarked. One of the most sincere was
+"The Exile," written by E. C. Williams, and presented at the Howard
+Theater in Washington, May 29, 1915, a play dealing with an episode in
+the life of Lorenzo de Medici. The story used is thoroughly dramatic,
+and that part of the composition that is in blank verse is of a notable
+degree of smoothness. "The Star of Ethiopia," by Dr. DuBois, was a
+pageant, elaborately presented. Originally produced in New York in 1913,
+it also saw performances in Washington and Philadelphia. The spring of
+1916 witnessed the beginning of the work of the Edward Sterling Wright
+Players, of New York. This company used the legitimate drama and made a
+favorable impression, especially by its production of "Othello." At
+present special interest attaches to the work of the Lafayette Players
+in New York, who have already made commendable progress in the
+production of popular plays.
+
+The field is comparatively new. It is, however, one peculiarly adapted
+to the ability of the Negro race, and at least enough has been done so
+far to show that both Negro effort in the classic drama and the serious
+portrayal of Negro life on the stage are worthy of respectful
+consideration.
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+PAINTERS.--HENRY O. TANNER
+
+
+Painting has long been a medium through which the artistic spirit of the
+race yearned to find expression. As far back as in the work of Phillis
+Wheatley there is a poem addressed to "S. M." (Scipio Moorhead), "a
+young African painter," one of whose subjects was the story of Damon and
+Pythias. It was a hundred years more, however, before there was really
+artistic production. E. M. Bannister, whose home was at Providence,
+though little known to the younger generation, was very prominent forty
+years ago. He gathered about himself a coterie of artists and rich men
+that formed the nucleus of the Rhode Island Art Club, and one of his
+pictures took a medal at the Centennial Exposition of 1876. William A.
+Harper, who died in 1910, was a product of the Chicago Art Institute, at
+whose exhibitions his pictures received much favorable comment about
+1908 and 1910. On his return from his first period of study in Paris his
+"Avenue of Poplars" took a prize of one hundred dollars at the
+Institute. Other typical subjects were "The Last Gleam," "The Hillside,"
+and "The Gray Dawn." Great hopes were awakened a few years ago by the
+landscapes of Richard L. Brown; and the portrait work of Edwin A.
+Harleston is destined to become better and better known. William E.
+Scott, of Indianapolis, is becoming more and more distinguished in mural
+work, landscape, and portraiture, and among all the painters of the race
+now working in this country is outstanding. He has spent several years
+in Paris. "La Pauvre Voisine," accepted by the Salon in 1912, was
+afterwards bought by the Argentine government. A second picture
+exhibited in the Salon in 1913, "La Misere," was reproduced in the
+French catalogue and took first prize at the Indiana State Fair the next
+year. "La Connoisseure" was exhibited in the Royal Academy in London in
+1913. Mr. Scott has done the mural work in ten public schools in
+Chicago, four in Indianapolis, and especially was he commissioned by the
+city of Indianapolis to decorate two units in the city hospital, this
+task embracing three hundred life-size figures. Some of his effects in
+coloring are very striking, and in several of his recent pictures he has
+emphasized racial subjects.
+
+[Illustration: HENRY O. TANNER]
+
+The painter of assured fame and commanding position is Henry Ossawa
+Tanner.
+
+The early years of this artist were a record of singular struggle and
+sacrifice. Born in Pittsburgh in 1859, the son of a minister of very
+limited means, he received his early education in Philadelphia. For
+years he had to battle against uncertain health. In his thirteenth year,
+seeing an artist at work, he decided that he too would become a painter,
+and he afterwards became a student at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine
+Arts. While still a very young man, he attempted drawings of all sorts
+and sent these to various New York publishers, only to see them promptly
+returned. A check, however, for forty dollars for one that did not
+return encouraged him, and a picture, "A Lion at Home," from the
+exhibition of the Academy of Design, brought eighty dollars. He now
+became a photographer in Atlanta, Ga., but met with no real success; and
+for two years he taught drawing at Clark University in Atlanta. In this
+period came a summer of struggle in the mountains of North Carolina, and
+the knowledge that a picture that had originally sold for fifteen
+dollars had brought two hundred and fifty dollars at an auction in
+Philadelphia. Desiring now to go to Europe, and being encouraged by
+Bishop and Mrs. Hartzell, the young painter gave in Cincinnati an
+exhibition of his work. The exhibition failed; not a picture was
+regularly sold. Bishop and Mrs. Hartzell, however, gave the artist a sum
+for the entire collection, and thus equipped he set sail for Rome,
+January 4, 1891, going by way of Liverpool and Paris.
+
+In the story of his career that he contributed to the _World's Work_
+some years ago, Mr. Tanner gave an interesting account of his early days
+in Paris. Acquaintance with the great French capital induced him to
+abandon thoughts of going to Rome; but there followed five years of
+pitiless economy, broken only by a visit to Philadelphia, where he sold
+some pictures. He was encouraged, however, by Benjamin Constant and
+studied in the Julien Academy. In his early years he had given
+attention to animals and landscape, but more and more he was drawn
+towards religious subjects. "Daniel in the Lions' Den" in the Salon in
+1896 brought "honorable mention," the artist's first official
+recognition. He was inspired, and very soon afterwards he made his first
+visit to Palestine, the land that was afterwards to mean so much to him
+in his work. "The Resurrection of Lazarus," in 1897, was bought by the
+French government, and now hangs in the Luxembourg. The enthusiasm
+awakened by this picture was so great that a friend wrote to the painter
+at Venice: "Come home, Tanner, to see the crowds behold your picture."
+After twenty years of heart-breaking effort Henry Tanner had become a
+recognized artist. His later career is a part of the history of the
+world's art. He won a third-class medal at the Salon in 1897, a
+second-class medal in 1907, second-class medals at the Paris Exposition
+in 1900, at the Buffalo Exposition in 1901, and at the St. Louis
+Exposition in 1904, a gold medal at San Francisco in 1915, the Walter
+Lippincott Prize in Philadelphia in 1900, and the Harris Prize of five
+hundred dollars, in 1906, for the best picture in the annual exhibition
+of American paintings at the Chicago Art Institute.
+
+Mr. Tanner's later life has been spent in Paris, with trips to the Far
+East, to Palestine, to Egypt, to Algiers, and Morocco. Some years ago he
+joined the colony of artists at Trepied, where he has built a commodious
+home and studio. Miss MacChesney has described this for us: "His studio
+is an ideal workroom, being high-ceilinged, spacious, and having the
+least possible furniture, utterly free from masses of useless studio
+stuff and paraphernalia. The walls are of a light gray, and at one end
+hangs a fine tapestry. Oriental carved wooden screens are at the doors
+and windows. Leading out of it is a small room having a domed ceiling
+and picturesque high windows. In this simply furnished room he often
+poses his models, painting himself in the large studio, the sliding door
+between being a small one. He can often make use of lamplight effects,
+the daylight in the larger room not interfering." Within recent years
+the artist has kept pace with some of the newer schools by brilliant
+experimentation in color and composition. Moonlight scenes appeal to
+him most. He seldom paints other than biblical subjects, except perhaps
+a portrait such as that of the Khedive or Rabbi Wise. A landscape may
+attract him, but it is sure to be idealized. He is thoroughly romantic
+in tone, and in spirit, if not in technique, there is much to connect
+him with Holman Hunt, the Pre-Raphaelite painter. In fact he long had in
+mind, even if he has not actually worked out, a picture entitled, "The
+Scapegoat."
+
+"The Annunciation," as well as "The Resurrection of Lazarus," was bought
+by the French government; and "The Two Disciples at the Tomb" was bought
+by the Chicago Art Institute. "The Bagpipe Lesson" and "The Banjo
+Lesson" are in the library at Hampton Institute. Other prominent titles
+are: "Christ and Nicodemus," "Jews Waiting at the Wall of Solomon,"
+"Stephen Before the Council," "Moses and the Burning Bush," "The Mothers
+of the Bible" (a series of five paintings of Mary, Hagar, Sarah, Rachel,
+and the mother of Moses, that marked the commencement of paintings
+containing all or nearly all female figures), "Christ at the Home of
+Mary and Martha," "The Return of the Holy Women," and "The Five
+Virgins." Of "Christ and His Disciples on the Road to Bethany," one of
+the most remarkable of all the pictures for subdued coloring, the
+painter says, "I have taken the tradition that Christ never spent a day
+in Jerusalem, but at the close of day went to Bethany, returning to the
+city of strife in the morning." Of "A Flight into Egypt" he says: "Never
+shall I forget the magnificence of two Persian Jews that I once saw at
+Rachel's Tomb; what a magnificent 'Abraham' either one of them would
+have made! Nor do I forget a ride one stormy Christmas night to
+Bethlehem. Dark clouds swept the moonlit skies and it took little
+imagination to close one's eyes to the flight of time and see in those
+hurrying travelers the crowds that hurried Bethlehemward on that
+memorable night of the Nativity, or to transpose the scene and see in
+each hurrying group 'A Flight into Egypt.'" As to which one of all these
+pictures excels the others critics are not in perfect agreement. "The
+Resurrection of Lazurus" is in subdued coloring, while "The
+Annunciation" is noted for its effects of light and shade. This latter
+picture must in any case rank very high in any consideration of the
+painter's work. It is a powerful portrayal of the Virgin at the moment
+when she learns of her great mission.
+
+Mr. Tanner has the very highest ideals for his art. These could hardly
+be better stated than in his own words: "It has very often seemed to me
+that many painters of religious subjects (in our time) seem to forget
+that their pictures should be as much works of art (regardless of the
+subject) as are other paintings with less holy subjects. To suppose that
+the fact of the religious painter having a more elevated subject than
+his brother artist makes it unnecessary for him to consider his picture
+as an artistic production, or that he can be less thoughtful about a
+color harmony, for instance, than he who selects any other subject,
+simply proves that he is less of an artist than he who gives the subject
+his best attention." Certainly, no one could ever accuse Henry Tanner of
+insincere workmanship. His whole career is an inspiration and a
+challenge to aspiring painters, and his work is a monument of sturdy
+endeavor and exalted achievement.
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+SCULPTORS.--META WARRICK FULLER
+
+
+In sculpture, as well as in painting, there has been a beginning of
+highly artistic achievement. The first person to come into prominence
+was Edmonia Lewis, born in New York in 1845. A sight of the statue of
+Franklin, in Boston, inspired within this young woman the desire also to
+"make a stone man." Garrison introduced her to a sculptor who encouraged
+her and gave her a few suggestions, but altogether she received little
+instruction in her art. In 1865 she attracted considerable attention by
+a bust of Robert Gould Shaw, exhibited in Boston. In this same year she
+went to Rome to continue her studies, and two years later took up her
+permanent residence there. Among her works are: "The Freedwoman," "The
+Death of Cleopatra" (exhibited at the exposition in Philadelphia in
+1876), "Asleep," "The Marriage of Hiawatha," and "Madonna with the
+Infant Christ." Among her busts in terra cotta are those of John Brown,
+Charles Sumner, Lincoln, and Longfellow. Most of the work of Edmonia
+Lewis is in Europe. More recently the work of Mrs. May Howard Jackson,
+of Washington, has attracted the attention of the discerning. This
+sculptor has made several busts, among her subjects being Rev. F. J.
+Grimke and Dr. DuBois, and "Mother and Child" is one of her best
+studies. Bertina Lee, of Trenton, N. J., is one of the promising young
+sculptors. She is from the Trenton Art School and has already won
+several valuable prizes.
+
+[Illustration: META WARRICK FULLER]
+
+The sculptor at the present time of assured position is Meta Vaux
+Warrick Fuller.
+
+Meta Vaux Warrick was born in Philadelphia, June 9, 1877. She first
+compelled serious recognition of her talent by her work in the
+Pennsylvania School of Industrial Art, for which she had won a
+scholarship, and which she attended for four years. Here one of her
+first original pieces in clay was a head of Medusa, which, with its
+hanging jaw, beads of gore, and eyes starting from their sockets, marked
+her as a sculptor of the horrible. In her graduating year, 1898, she
+won a prize for metal work by a crucifix upon which hung the figure of
+Christ torn by anguish, also honorable mention for her work in modeling.
+In her post-graduate year she won the George K. Crozier first prize for
+the best general work in modeling for the year, her particular piece
+being the "Procession of Arts and Crafts." In 1899 the young student
+went to Paris, where she worked and studied for three years, chiefly at
+Colarossi's Academy. Her work brought her in contact with St. Gaudens
+and other artists; and finally there came a day when the great Rodin
+himself, thrilled by the figure in "Secret Sorrow," a man represented as
+eating his heart out, in the attitude of a father beamed upon the young
+woman and said, "Mademoiselle, you are a sculptor; you have the sense of
+form." "The Wretched," one of the artist's masterpieces, was exhibited
+in the Salon in 1903, and along with it went "The Impenitent Thief"; and
+at one of Byng's exhibitions in L'Art Nouveau galleries it was remarked
+of her that "under her strong and supple hands the clay has leaped into
+form: a whole turbulent world seems to have forced itself into the cold
+and dead material." On her return to America the artist resumed her
+studies at the School of Industrial Art, winning, in 1904, the Battles
+first prize for pottery. In 1907 she was called on for a series of
+tableaux representing the advance of the Negro, for the Jamestown
+Tercentennial Exposition, and later (1913) for a group for the New York
+State Emancipation Proclamation Commission. In 1909 Meta Vaux Warrick
+became the wife of Dr. Solomon C. Fuller, of Framingham, Mass. A
+disastrous fire in 1910 destroyed some of her most valuable pieces while
+they were in storage in Philadelphia. Only a few examples of her early
+work, that for one reason or another happened to be elsewhere, were
+saved. In May, 1914, however, she had sufficiently recovered from this
+blow to be able to hold a public exhibition of her work. Mrs. Fuller
+resides in Framingham, has a happy family of three boys, and in the
+midst of a busy life still finds some time for the practice of her art.
+
+The fire of 1910 destroyed the following productions: Secret Sorrow,
+Silenus, Oedipus, Brittany Peasant, Primitive Man, two of the heads
+from Three Gray Women, Peeping Tom, Falstaff, Oriental Dancer, Portrait
+of William Thomas, The Wrestlers, Death in the Wind, Desespoir, The Man
+with a Thorn, The Man who Laughed, the Two-Step, Sketch for a Monument,
+Wild Fire, and the following studies in Afro-American types: An Old
+Woman, The Schoolboy, The Comedian (George W. Walker), The Student, The
+Artist, and Mulatto Child, as well as a few unfinished pieces. Such a
+misfortune has only rarely befallen a rising artist. Some of the
+sculptor's most remarkable work was included in the list just given.
+
+Fortunately surviving were the following: The Wretched (cast in bronze
+and remaining in Europe), Man Carrying Dead Body, Medusa, Procession of
+Arts and Crafts, Portrait of the late William Still, John the Baptist
+(the only piece of her work made in Paris that the sculptor now has),
+Sylvia (later destroyed by accident), and Study of Expression.
+
+The exhibition of 1914 included the following: A Classic Dancer,
+Brittany Peasant (a reproduction of the piece destroyed), Study of
+Woman's Head, "A Drink, Please" (a statuette of Tommy Fuller), Mother
+and Baby, A Young Equestrian (Tommy Fuller), "So Big" (Solomon Fuller,
+Jr.), Menelik II of Abyssinia, A Girl's Head, Portrait of a Child, The
+Pianist (portrait of Mrs. Maud Cuney Hare), Portrait of S.
+Coleridge-Taylor, Relief Study of a Woman's Head, Medallion Portrait of
+a Child (Tommy Fuller), Medallion Portrait of Dr. A. E. P. Rockwell,
+Statuette of a Woman, Second model of group made for the New York State
+Emancipation Proclamation Commission (with two fragments from the final
+model of this), Portrait of Dr. A. E. P. Rockwell, Four Figures (Spring,
+Summer, Autumn, Winter) for over-mantel panel, Portrait-Bust of a Child
+(Solomon Fuller, Jr.), Portrait-Bust of a Man (Dr. S. C. Fuller), John
+the Baptist, Danse Macabre, Menelik II in profile, Portrait of a Woman,
+The Jester.
+
+Since 1914 the artist has produced several of her strongest pieces.
+"Peace Halting the Ruthlessness of War" in May, 1917, took a second
+prize in a competition under the auspices of the Massachusetts Branch of
+the Woman's Peace Party. Similarly powerful are "Watching for Dawn,"
+"Mother and Child," "Immigrant in America," and "The Silent Appeal."
+Noteworthy, too, are "The Flower-Holder," "The Fountain-Boy," and "Life
+in Quest of Peace." The sculptor has also produced numerous statuettes,
+novelties, etc., for commercial purposes, and just now she is at work on
+a motherhood series.
+
+From time to time one observes in this enumeration happy subjects. Such,
+for instance, are "The Dancing Girl," "The Wrestlers," and "A Young
+Equestrian." These are frequently winsome, but, as will be shown in a
+moment, they are not the artist's characteristic productions. Nor was
+the Jamestown series of tableaux. This was a succession of fourteen
+groups (originally intended for seventeen) containing in all one hundred
+and fifty figures. The purpose was by the construction of appropriate
+models, dramatic groupings, and the use of proper scenic accessories, to
+trace in chronological order the general progress of the Negro race. The
+whole, of course, had its peculiar interest for the occasion; but the
+artist had to work against unnumbered handicaps of every sort; her work,
+in fact, was not so much that of a sculptor as a designer; and, while
+the whole production took considerable energy, she has naturally never
+regarded it as her representative work.
+
+Certain productions, however, by reason of their unmistakable show of
+genius, call for special consideration. These are invariably tragic or
+serious in tone.
+
+Prime in order, and many would say in power, is "The Wretched." Seven
+figures representing as many forms of human anguish greet the eye. A
+mother yearns for the loved ones she has lost. An old man, wasted by
+hunger and disease, waits for death. Another, bowed by shame, hides his
+face from the sun. A sick child is suffering from some terrible
+hereditary trouble; a youth realizes with despair that the task before
+him is too great for his strength; and a woman is afflicted with some
+mental disease. Crowning all is the philosopher, who, suffering through
+sympathy with the others, realizes his powerlessness to relieve them and
+gradually sinks into the stoniness of despair.
+
+"The Impenitent Thief," admitted to the Salon along with "The Wretched,"
+was demolished in 1904, after being subjected to a series of unhappy
+accidents. It also defied convention. Heroic in size, the thief hung on
+the cross, all the while distorted by anguish. Hardened, unsympathetic,
+blasphemous, he was still superb in his presumption, and he was one of
+the artist's most powerful conceptions.
+
+"Man Carrying Dead Body" portrays a scene from a battlefield. In it the
+sculptor has shown the length to which duty will spur one on. A man
+bears across his shoulder the body of a comrade that has evidently lain
+on the battlefield for days, and though the thing is horrible, he lashes
+it to his back and totters under the great weight until he can find a
+place for decent burial. To every one there comes such a duty; each one
+has his own burden to bear in silence.
+
+Two earlier pieces, "Secret Sorrow," and "Oedipus," had the same
+marked characteristics. The first represented a man, worn and gaunt, as
+actually bending his head and eating out his own heart. The figure was
+the personification of lost ambition, shattered ideals, and despair. For
+"Oedipus" the sculptor chose the hero of the old Greek legend at the
+moment when, realizing that he has killed his father and married his
+mother, he tears his eyes out. The artist's later conception, "Three
+Gray Women," from the legend of Perseus, was in similar vein. It
+undertook to portray the Graeae, the three sisters who had but one eye and
+one tooth among them.
+
+Perhaps the most haunting creation of Mrs. Fuller is "John the Baptist."
+With head slightly upraised and with eyes looking into the eternal, the
+prophet rises above all sordid earthly things and soars into the divine.
+All faith and hope and love are in his face, all poetry and inspiration
+in his eyes. It is a conception that, once seen, can never be forgotten.
+
+The second model of the group for the New York State Emancipation
+Proclamation Commission (two feet high, the finished group as exhibited
+being eight feet high) represents a recently emancipated Negro youth and
+maiden standing beneath a gnarled, decapitated tree that has the
+semblance of a human hand stretched over them. Humanity is pushing them
+out into the world, while at the same time the hand of Fate, with
+obstacles and drawbacks, is restraining them in the exercise of their
+new freedom. In the attitudes of the two figures is strikingly
+portrayed the uncertainty of those embarking on a new life, and in their
+countenances one reads all the eagerness and the courage and the hope
+that is theirs. The whole is one of the artist's most ambitious efforts.
+
+"Immigrant in America" was inspired by two lines from Robert Haven
+Schauffler's "Scum of the Earth":
+
+    Children in whose frail arms shall rest
+    Prophets and singers and saints of the West.
+
+An American mother, the parent of one strong healthy child, is seen
+welcoming the immigrant mother of many children to the land of plenty.
+The work is capable of wide application. Along with it might be
+mentioned a suffrage medallion and a smaller piece, "The Silent Appeal."
+This last is a very strong piece of work. It represents the mother
+capable of producing and caring for three children as making a silent
+request for the suffrage (or peace, or justice, or any other noble
+cause). The work is characterized by a singular note of dignity.
+
+"Peace Halting the Ruthlessness of War," the recent prize piece,
+represents War as mounted on a mighty steed and trampling to death
+helpless human beings, while in one hand he bears a spear on which he
+has impaled the head of one of his victims. As he goes on in what seems
+his irresistible career Peace meets him on the way and commands him to
+cease his ravages. The work as exhibited was in gray-green wax and
+treated its subject with remarkable spirit. It must take rank as one of
+the four or five of the strongest productions of the artist.
+
+Meta Warrick Fuller's work may be said to fall into two divisions, the
+romantic and the social. The first is represented by such things as "The
+Wretched" and "Secret Sorrow," the second by "Immigrant in America" and
+"The Silent Appeal." The transition may be seen in "Watching for Dawn,"
+a group that shows seven figures, in various attitudes of prayer,
+watchfulness, and resignation, as watching for the coming of daylight,
+or peace. In technique this is like "The Wretched," in spirit it is like
+the later work. It is as if the sculptor's own seer, John the Baptist,
+had, by his vision, summoned her away from the ghastly and horrible to
+the everyday problems of needy humanity. There are many, however, who
+hope that she will not utterly forsake the field in which she first
+became famous. Her early work is not delicate or pretty; it is gruesome
+and terrible; but it is also intense and vital, and from it speaks the
+very tragedy of the Negro race.
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+MUSIC
+
+
+The foremost name on the roll of Negro composers is that of a man whose
+home was in England, but who in so many ways identified himself with the
+Negroes of the United States that he deserves to be considered here. He
+visited America, found the inspiration for much of his best work in
+African themes, and his name at once comes to mind in any consideration
+of the history of the Negro in music.
+
+Samuel Coleridge-Taylor[9] (1875-1912) was born in London, the son of a
+physician who was a native of Sierra Leone, and an English mother. He
+began the study of the violin when he was no more than six years old,
+and as he grew older he emphasized more and more the violin and the
+piano. At the age of ten he entered the choir of St. George's, at
+Croydon, and a little later became alto singer at St. Mary Magdalene's,
+Croydon. In 1890 he entered the Royal College of Music as a student of
+the violin; and he also became a student of Stanford's in composition,
+in which department he won a scholarship in 1893. In 1894 he was
+graduated with honor. His earliest published work was the anthem, "In
+Thee, O Lord" (1892); but he gave frequent performances of chamber music
+at student concerts in his earlier years; one of his symphonies was
+produced in 1896 under Stanford's direction, and "a quintet for clarinet
+and strings in F sharp minor (played at the Royal College in 1895) was
+given in Berlin by the Joachim Quartet, and a string quartet in D minor
+dates from 1896." Coleridge-Taylor became world-famous by the production
+of the first part of his "Hiawatha" trilogy, "Hiawatha's Wedding-Feast,"
+at the Royal College, November 11, 1898. He at once took rank as one of
+the foremost living English composers. The second part of the trilogy,
+"The Death of Minnehaha," was given at the North Staffordshire Festival
+in the autumn of 1899; and the third, "Hiawatha's Departure," by the
+Royal Choral Society, in Albert Hall, March 22, 1900. The whole work was
+a tremendous success such as even the composer himself never quite
+duplicated. Requests for new compositions for festival purposes now
+became numerous, and in response to the demand were produced "The Blind
+Girl of Castel-Cuille" (Leeds, 1901), "Meg Blane" (Sheffield, 1902),
+"The Atonement" (Hereford, 1903), and "Kubla Khan" (Handel Society,
+1906). Coleridge-Taylor also wrote the incidental music for the four
+romantic plays by Stephen Phillips produced at His Majesty's Theatre, as
+follows: "Herod," 1900; "Ulysses," 1901; "Nero," 1902; "Faust," 1908; as
+well as incidental music for "Othello" (the composition for the
+orchestra being later adapted as a suite for pianoforte), and for "A
+Tale of Old Japan," the words of which were by Alfred Noyes. In 1904 he
+was appointed conductor of the Handel Society. The composer's most
+distinctive work is probably that reflecting his interest in the Negro
+folk-song. "Characteristic of the melancholy beauty, barbaric color,
+charm of musical rhythm and vehement passion of the true Negro music are
+his symphonic pianoforte selections based on Negro melodies from Africa
+and America: the 'African Suite,' a group of pianoforte pieces, the
+'African Romances' (words by Paul L. Dunbar), the 'Songs of Slavery,'
+'Three Choral Ballads' and 'African Dances,' and a suite for violin and
+pianoforte."[10] The complete list of the works of Coleridge-Taylor
+would include also the following: "Southern Love Songs," "Dream-Lovers"
+(an operetta), "Gipsy Suite" (for violin and piano), "Solemn Prelude"
+(for orchestra, first produced at the Worcester Festival, 1899),
+"Nourmahal's Song and Dance" (for piano), "Scenes from an Everyday
+Romance," "Ethiopia Saluting the Colors" (concert march for orchestra),
+"Five Choral Ballads" to words by Longfellow (produced at the Norwich
+Festival, 1905), "Moorish Dance" (for piano), "Six Sorrow Songs,"
+several vocal duets, and the anthems, "Now Late on the Sabbath Day," "By
+the Waters of Babylon," "The Lord is My Strength," "Lift Up Your Heads,"
+"Break Forth into Joy," and "O Ye that Love the Lord." Among the things
+published since his death are his "Viking Song," best adapted for a male
+chorus, and a group of pianoforte and choral works.
+
+[Footnote 9: This account of Coleridge-Taylor is based largely, but not
+wholly, upon the facts as given in Grove's Dictionary of Music (1910
+edition, Macmillan). The article on the composer ends with a fairly
+complete list of works up to 1910.]
+
+[Footnote 10: _Crisis_, October, 1912.]
+
+In America the history of conscious musical effort on the part of the
+Negro goes back even many years before the Civil War. "Some of the most
+interesting music produced by the Negro slaves was handed down from the
+days when the French and Spanish had possession of Louisiana. From the
+free Negroes of Louisiana there sprang up, during slavery days, a number
+of musicians and artists who distinguished themselves in foreign
+countries to which they removed because of the prejudice which existed
+against colored people. Among them was Eugene Warburg, who went to Italy
+and distinguished himself as a sculptor. Another was Victor Sejour, who
+went to Paris and gained distinction as a poet and composer of tragedy.
+The Lambert family, consisting of seven persons, were noted as
+musicians. Richard Lambert, the father, was a teacher of music; Lucien
+Lambert, a son, after much hard study, became a composer of music.
+Edmund Dede, who was born in New Orleans in 1829, learned while a youth
+to play a number of instruments. He accumulated enough money to pay his
+passage to France. Here he took up a special study of music, and finally
+became director of the orchestra of L'Alcazar, in Bordeaux, France."[11]
+
+[Footnote 11: Washington: "The Story of the Negro," II, 276-7.]
+
+The foremost composer of the race to-day is Harry T. Burleigh, who
+within the last few years has won a place not only among the most
+prominent song-writers of America, but of the world. He has emphasized
+compositions in classical vein, his work displaying great technical
+excellence. Prominent among his later songs are "Jean," the "Saracen
+Songs," "One Year (1914-1915)," the "Five Songs" of Laurence Hope, set
+to music, "The Young Warrior" (the words of which were written by James
+W. Johnson), and "Passionale" (four songs for a tenor voice, the words
+of which were also by Mr. Johnson). Nearly two years ago, at an
+assemblage of the Italo-American Relief Committee at the Biltmore Hotel,
+New York, Mr. Amato, of the Metropolitan Opera, sang with tremendous
+effect, "The Young Warrior," and the Italian version has later been
+used all over Italy as a popular song in connection with the war. Of
+somewhat stronger quality even than most of these songs are "The Grey
+Wolf," to words by Arthur Symons, "The Soldier," a setting of Rupert
+Brooke's well known sonnet, and "Ethiopia Saluting the Colors." An
+entirely different division of Mr. Burleigh's work, hardly less
+important than his songs, is his various adaptations of the Negro
+melodies, especially for choral work; and he assisted Dvorak in his "New
+World Symphony," based on the Negro folk-songs. For his general
+achievement in music he was, in 1917, awarded the Spingarn Medal. His
+work as a singer is reserved for later treatment.
+
+[Illustration: HARRY T. BURLEIGH]
+
+Another prominent composer is Will Marion Cook. Mr. Cook's time has been
+largely given to the composition of popular music; at the same time,
+however, he has produced numerous songs that bear the stamp of genius.
+In 1912 a group of his tuneful and characteristic pieces was published
+by Schirmer. Generally his work exhibits not only unusual melody, but
+also excellent technique. J. Rosamond Johnson is also a composer with
+many original ideas. Like Mr. Cook, for years he gave much attention to
+popular music. More recently he has been director of the New York Music
+Settlement, the first in the country for the general cultivation and
+popularizing of Negro music. Among his later songs are: "I Told My Love
+to the Roses," and "Morning, Noon, and Night." In pure melody Mr.
+Johnson is not surpassed by any other musician of the race to-day. His
+long experience with large orchestras, moreover, has given him unusual
+knowledge of instrumentation. Carl Diton, organist and pianist, has so
+far been interested chiefly in the transcription for the organ of
+representative Negro melodies. "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" was published
+by Schirmer and followed by "Four Jubilee Songs." R. Nathaniel Dett has
+the merit, more than others, of attempting to write in large form. His
+carol, "Listen to the Lambs," is especially noteworthy. Representative
+of his work for the piano is his "Magnolia Suite." This was published by
+the Clayton F. Summy Co., of Chicago. As for the very young men of
+promise, special interest attaches to the work of Edmund T. Jenkins, of
+Charleston, S. C., who three years ago made his way to the Royal
+Academy in London. Able before he left to perform brilliantly on half a
+dozen instruments, this young man was soon awarded a scholarship; in
+1916-17 he was awarded a silver medal for excellence on the clarinet, a
+bronze medal for his work on the piano, and, against brilliant
+competition, a second prize for his original work in composition. The
+year also witnessed the production of his "Prelude Religieuse" at one of
+the grand orchestral concerts of the Academy.
+
+Outstanding pianists are Raymond Augustus Lawson, of Hartford, Conn.,
+and Hazel Harrison, now of New York. Mr. Lawson is a true artist. His
+technique is very highly developed, and his style causes him to be a
+favorite concert pianist. He has more than once been a soloist at the
+concerts of the Hartford Philharmonic Orchestra, and has appeared on
+other noteworthy occasions. He conducts at Hartford one of the leading
+studios in New England. Miss Harrison has returned to America after
+years of study abroad, and now conducts a studio in New York. She was a
+special pupil of Busoni and has appeared in many noteworthy recitals.
+Another prominent pianist is Roy W. Tibbs, now a teacher at Howard
+University. Helen Hagan, who a few years ago was awarded the Sanford
+scholarship at Yale for study abroad, has since her return from France
+given many excellent recitals; and Ethel Richardson, of New York, has
+had several very distinguished teachers and is in general one of the
+most promising of the younger performers. While those that have been
+mentioned could not possibly be overlooked, there are to-day so many
+noteworthy pianists that even a most competent and well-informed
+musician would hesitate before passing judgment upon them. Prominent
+among the organists is Melville Charlton, of Brooklyn, an associate of
+the American Guild of Organists, who has now won for himself a place
+among the foremost organists of the United States, and who has also done
+good work as a composer. He is still a young man and from him may not
+unreasonably be expected many years of high artistic endeavor. Two other
+very prominent organists are William Herbert Bush, of New London, Conn.,
+and Frederick P. White, of Boston. Mr. Bush has for thirty years filled
+his position at the Second Congregational Church, of New London, and
+has also given much time to composition. Mr. White, also a composer, for
+twenty-five years had charge of the instrument in the First Methodist
+Episcopal Church, of Charlestown, Mass. Excellent violinists are
+numerous, but in connection with this instrument especially must it be
+remarked that more and more must the line of distinction be drawn
+between the work of a pleasing and talented performer and the effort of
+a conscientious and painstaking artist. Foremost is Clarence Cameron
+White, of Boston. Prominent also for some years has been Joseph
+Douglass, of Washington. Felix Weir, of Washington and New York, has
+given unusual promise; and Kemper Harreld, of Chicago and Atlanta, also
+deserves mention. In this general sketch of those who have added to the
+musical achievement of the race there is a name that must not be
+overlooked. "Blind Tom," who attracted so much attention a generation
+ago, deserves notice as a prodigy rather than as a musician of solid
+accomplishment. His real name was Thomas Bethune, and he was born in
+Columbus, Ga., in 1849. He was peculiarly susceptible to the influences
+of nature, and imitated on the piano all the sounds he knew. Without
+being able to read a note he could play from memory the most difficult
+compositions of Beethoven and Mendelssohn. In phonetics he was
+especially skillful. Before his audiences he would commonly invite any
+of his hearers to play new and difficult selections, and as soon as a
+rendering was finished he would himself play the composition without
+making a single mistake.
+
+Of those who have exhibited the capabilities of the Negro voice in song
+it is but natural that sopranos should have been most distinguished.
+Even before the Civil War the race produced one of the first rank in
+Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield, who came into prominence in 1851. This
+artist, born in Mississippi, was taken to Philadelphia and there cared
+for by a Quaker lady. Said the _Daily State Register_, of Albany, after
+one of her concerts: "The compass of her marvelous voice embraces
+twenty-seven notes, reaching from the sonorous bass of a baritone to a
+few notes above even Jenny Lind's highest." A voice with a range of more
+than three octaves naturally attracted much attention in both England
+and America, and comparisons with Jenny Lind, then at the height of her
+great fame, were frequent. After her success on the stage Miss
+Greenfield became a teacher of music in Philadelphia. Twenty-five years
+later the Hyers Sisters, Anna and Emma, of San Francisco, started on
+their memorable tour of the continent, winning some of their greatest
+triumphs in critical New England. Anna Hyers especially was remarked as
+a phenomenon. Then arose Madame Selika, a cultured singer of the first
+rank, and one who, by her arias and operatic work generally, as well as
+by her mastery of language, won great success on the continent of Europe
+as well as in England and America. The careers of two later singers are
+so recent as to be still fresh in the public memory; one indeed may
+still be heard on the stage. It was in 1887 that Flora Batson entered on
+the period of her greatest success. She was a ballad singer and her work
+at its best was of the sort that sends an audience into the wildest
+enthusiasm. Her voice exhibited a compass of three octaves, from the
+purest, most clear-cut soprano, sweet and full, to the rich round notes
+of the baritone register. Three or four years later than Flora Batson
+in her period of greatest artistic success was Mrs. Sissieretta Jones.
+The voice of this singer, when it first attracted wide attention, about
+1893, commanded notice as one of unusual richness and volume, and as one
+exhibiting especially the plaintive quality ever present in the typical
+Negro voice.
+
+At the present time Harry T. Burleigh instantly commands attention. For
+twenty years this singer has been the baritone soloist at St. George's
+Episcopal Church, New York, and for about half as long at Temple
+Emanu-El, the Fifth Avenue Jewish synagogue. As a concert and oratorio
+singer Mr. Burleigh has met with signal success. Of the younger men,
+Roland W. Hayes, a tenor, is outstanding. He has the temperament of an
+artist and gives promise of being able to justify expectations awakened
+by a voice of remarkable quality. Within recent years Mme. Anita Patti
+Brown, a product of the Chicago conservatories, has also been prominent
+as a concert soloist. She sings with simplicity and ease, and in her
+voice is a sympathetic quality that makes a ready appeal to the heart of
+an audience. Just at present Mme. Mayme Calloway Byron, most recently
+of Chicago, seems destined within the near future to take the very high
+place that she deserves. This great singer has but lately returned to
+America after years of study and cultivation in Europe. She has sung in
+the principal theaters abroad and was just on the eve of filling an
+engagement at the Opera Comique when the war began and forced her to
+change her plans.
+
+In this general review of those who have helped to make the Negro voice
+famous, mention must be made of a remarkable company of singers who
+first made the folk-songs of the race known to the world at large. In
+1871 the Fisk Jubilee Singers began their memorable progress through
+America and Europe, meeting at first with scorn and sneers, but before
+long touching the heart of the world with their strange music. The
+original band consisted of four young men and five young women; in the
+seven years of the existence of the company altogether twenty-four
+persons were enrolled in it. Altogether, these singers raised for Fisk
+University one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and secured school
+books, paintings, and apparatus to the value of seven or eight thousand
+more. They sang in the United States, England, Scotland, Ireland,
+Holland, Switzerland, and Germany, sometimes before royalty. Since their
+time they have been much imitated, but hardly ever equaled, and never
+surpassed.
+
+This review could hardly close without mention of at least a few other
+persons who have worked along distinctive lines and thus contributed to
+the general advance. Pedro T. Tinsley is director of the Choral Study
+Club of Chicago, which has done much work of real merit. Lulu Vere
+Childers, director of music at Howard University, is a contralto and an
+excellent choral director; while John W. Work, of Fisk University, by
+editing and directing, has done much for the preservation of the old
+melodies. Mrs. E. Azalia Hackley, for some years prominent as a concert
+soprano, has recently given her time most largely to the work of
+teaching and showing the capabilities of the Negro voice. Possessed of a
+splendid musical temperament, she has enjoyed the benefit of three years
+of foreign study, has published "A Guide to Voice Culture," and
+generally inspired many younger singers or performers. Mrs. Maud Cuney
+Hare, of Boston, a concert pianist, has within the last few years
+elicited much favorable comment from cultured persons by her
+lecture-recitals dealing with Afro-American music. In these she has been
+assisted by William H. Richardson, baritone soloist of St. Peter's
+Episcopal Church, Cambridge. Scattered throughout the country are many
+other capable teachers or promising young artists.
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+GENERAL PROGRESS, 1918-1921
+
+
+The three years that have passed since the present book appeared have
+been years of tremendous import in the life of the Negro people of the
+United States, as indeed in that of the whole nation. In 1918 we were in
+the very midst of the Great War, and not until the fall of that year
+were the divisions of the Students' Army Training Corps organized in our
+colleges; and yet already some things that marked the conflict are
+beginning to seem very long ago.
+
+To some extent purely literary and artistic achievement in America was
+for the time being retarded, and in the case of the Negro this was
+especially true. The great economic problems raised by the war and its
+aftermath have very largely absorbed the energy of the race; and even if
+something was actually done--as in a literary way--it was not easy for
+it to gain recognition, the cost of publication frequently being
+prohibitive. An enormous amount of power yearned for expression,
+however; scores and even hundreds of young people were laying solid
+foundations in different lines of art; and within the next decade we
+shall almost certainly witness a great fulfillment of their striving.
+Yet even for the time being there are some things that cannot pass
+unnoticed.
+
+Of those who have received prominent mention in the present book, W.E.
+Burghardt DuBois and William Stanley Braithwaite especially have
+continued the kind of work of which they had already given indication.
+In 1920 appeared Dr. DuBois's "Darkwater" (Harcourt, Brace & Co., New
+York), a strong indictment of the attitude of the white world toward the
+Negro and other colored peoples. This book belongs rather to the field
+of social discussion than to that of pure literature, and whether one
+prefers it to "The Souls of Black Folk" will depend largely on whether
+he prefers a work primarily in the wider field of politics or one
+especially noteworthy for its literary quality. Mr. Braithwaite has
+continued the publication of his "Anthology of Magazine Verse" (now
+issued annually through Small, Maynard & Co., Boston), and he has also
+issued "The Golden Treasury of Magazine Verse" (Small, Maynard & Co.,
+1918), "Victory: Celebrated by Thirty-eight American Poets" (Small,
+Maynard & Co., 1919), as well as "The Story of the Great War" for young
+people (Frederick A. Stokes & Co., New York, 1919). As for the special
+part of the Negro in the war, importance attaches to Dr. Emmett J.
+Scott's "Official History of the American Negro in the World War"
+(Washington, 1919), while in biography outstanding is Robert Russa
+Moton's "Finding a Way Out" (Doubleday, Page & Co., Garden City, N. Y.,
+1920), a work written in modest vein and forming a distinct contribution
+to the history of the times.
+
+Of those poets who have come into prominence within the period now under
+review first place must undoubtedly be given to Claude McKay. This man
+was originally a Jamaican and his one little book was published in
+London; but for the last several years he has made his home in the
+United States and his achievement must now be identified with that of
+the race in this country. He has served a long apprenticeship in
+writing, has a firm sense of form, and only time can now give the full
+measure of his capabilities. His sonnet, "The Harlem Dancer," is
+astonishing in its artistry, and another sonnet, "If We must Die," is
+only less unusual in strength. Mr. McKay has recently brought together
+the best of his work in a slender volume, "Spring in New Hampshire, and
+Other Poems" (Grant Richards & Co., London, 1920). Three young men who
+sometimes gave interesting promise, have died within the period--Joseph
+S. Cotter, Jr., Roscoe C. Jamison, and Lucian B. Watkins. Cotter's "The
+Band of Gideon, and Other Lyrics" (The Cornhill Co., Boston, 1918)
+especially showed something of the freedom of genuine poetry; and
+mention must also be made of Charles B. Johnson's "Songs of my People"
+(The Cornhill Co., 1918), while Leslie Pickney Hill's "The Wings of
+Oppression" (The Stratford Co., Boston, 1921) brings together some of
+the striking verse that this writer has contributed to different
+periodicals within recent years. Meanwhile Mrs. Georgia Douglas Johnson
+has continued the composition of her poignant lyrics, and Mrs. Alice M.
+Dunbar-Nelson occasionally gives demonstration of her unquestionable
+ability, as in the sonnet, "I had not thought of violets of late"
+(_Crisis_, August, 1919). If a prize were to be given for the best
+single poem produced by a member of the race within the last three
+years, the decision would probably have to rest between this sonnet and
+McKay's "The Harlem Dancer."
+
+In other fields of writing special interest attaches to the composition
+of dramatic work. Mary Burrill and Mrs. Dunbar-Nelson especially have
+contributed one-act plays to different periodicals; Angelina W. Grimke
+has formally published "Rachel," a play in three acts (The Cornhill Co.,
+Boston, 1920), while several teachers and advanced students at the
+different educational institutions are doing excellent amateur work
+that will certainly tell later in a larger way. R. T. Browne's "The
+Mystery of Space" (E. P. Dutton & Co., New York, 1920), is an
+interesting excursion in metaphysics; and this book calls forth a remark
+about the general achievement of the race in philosophy and science.
+These departments are somewhat beyond the province of the present work.
+It is worthwhile to note, however, that while the whole field of science
+is just now being entered in a large way by members of the race, several
+of the younger men within the last decade have entered upon work of the
+highest order of original scholarship. No full study of this phase of
+development has yet been made; but for the present an article by Dr.
+Emmett J. Scott, "Scientific Achievements of Negroes" (_Southern
+Workman_, July, 1920), will probably be found an adequate summary. Maud
+Cuney Hare has brought out a beautiful anthology, "The Message of the
+Trees" (The Cornhill Co., Boston, 1919); and in the wide field of
+literature mention might also be made of "A Short History of the
+English Drama," by the author of the present book (Harcourt, Brace &
+Co., New York, 1921).
+
+The general attitude in the presentation of Negro characters in the
+fiction in the standard magazines of the country has shown some progress
+within the last three years, though this might seem to be fully offset
+by such burlesques as are given in the work of E. K. Means and Octavus
+Roy Cohen, all of which but gives further point to the essay on "The
+Negro in American Fiction" in this book. Quite different and of much
+more sympathetic temper are "The Shadow," a novel by Mary White Ovington
+(Harcourt, Brace & Co., New York, 1920) and George Madden Martin's
+"Children of the Mist," a collection of stories about the people in the
+lowlands of the South (D. Appleton & Co., New York, 1920).
+
+In the field of the theatre and the drama there has been progress,
+though the lower order of popular comedy still makes strong appeal; and
+of course all legitimate drama has recently had to meet the competition
+of moving-pictures, in connection with which several members of the
+race have in one way or another won success. Outstanding is Noble M.
+Johnson, originally of Colorado, a man of great personal gifts and with
+a face and figure admirably adapted to Indian as well as Negro parts. In
+the realm of the spoken drama attention fixes at once upon Charles S.
+Gilpin, whose work is so important that it must be given special and
+separate treatment. It is worthy of note also that great impetus has
+recently been given to the construction of playhouses, the thoroughly
+modern Dunbar Theatre in Philadelphia being a shining example.
+Interesting in the general connection for the capability that many of
+the participants showed was the remarkable pageant, "The Open Door,"
+first presented at Atlanta University and in the winter of 1920-21 given
+in various cities of the North for the benefit of this institution.
+
+In painting and sculpture there has been much promise, but no one has
+appeared who has gone beyond the achievement of those persons who had
+already won secure position. Indeed that would be a very difficult
+thing to do. Mr. Tanner, Mr. Scott, Mrs. Meta Warrick Fuller, and Mrs.
+May Howard Jackson have all continued their work. Mr. Tanner has
+remained abroad, but there have recently been exhibitions of his
+pictures in Des Moines and Boston, and in 1919 Mrs. Jackson exhibited at
+the National Academy of Design and at the showing of the Society of
+Independent Artists at the Waldorf-Astoria. In connection with
+sculpture, important is a labor of love, a book, "Emancipation and the
+Freed in American Sculpture," by Frederick H. M. Murray (published by
+the author, 1733 7th St., N. W., Washington, 1916). This work contains
+many beautiful illustrations and deserves the attention of all who are
+interested in the artistic life of the Negro or in his portrayal by
+representative American sculptors.
+
+In music the noteworthy fact is that there has been such general
+recognition of the value of Negro music as was never accorded before,
+and impetus toward co-operation and achievement has been given by the
+new National Association of Negro Musicians. R. Nathaniel Dett has been
+most active and has probably made the greatest advance. His compositions
+and the songs of Harry T. Burleigh are now frequently given a place on
+the programs of the foremost artists in America and Europe, and the
+present writer has even heard them at sea. Outstanding among smaller
+works by Mr. Dett is his superb "Chariot Jubilee," designed for tenor
+solo and chorus of mixed voices, with accompaniment of organ, piano, and
+orchestra. To the _Southern Workman_ (April and May, 1918) this composer
+contributed two articles. "The Emancipation of Negro Music" and "Negro
+Music of the Present"; and, while continuing his studies at Harvard
+University in 1920, under the first of these titles he won a Bowdoin
+essay prize, and for a chorus without accompaniment, "Don't be weary,
+traveler," he also won the Francis Boott prize of $100. Melville
+Charlton, the distinguished organist, has gained greater maturity and in
+April, 1919, under the auspices of the Verdi Club, he conducted "Il
+Trovatore" in the Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria. Maud Cuney
+Hare has helped to popularize Negro music by lecture-recitals and
+several articles in musical journals, the latter being represented by
+such titles as "The Drum in Africa," "The Sailor and his Songs," and
+"Afro-American Folk-Song Contribution" in the _Musical Observer_. In
+January, 1919, with the assistance of William R. Richardson, baritone,
+Mrs. Hare gave a lecture-recital on "Afro-American and Creole Music" in
+the lecture hall of the Boston Public Library, this being one of four
+such lectures arranged for the winter by the library trustees and
+marking the first time such recognition was accorded members of the
+race. The violinist, Clarence Cameron White, has also entered the ranks
+of the composers with his "Bandanna Sketches" and other productions, and
+to the _Musical Observer_ (beginning in February, 1917) he also
+contributed a formal consideration of "Negro Music." Meanwhile J.
+Rosamond Johnson, Carl Diton, and other musicians have pressed forward;
+and it is to be hoped that before very long the ambitious and frequently
+powerful work of H. Laurence Freeman will also win the recognition it
+deserves.
+
+In the department of singing, in which the race has already done so much
+laudable work, we are evidently on the threshold of greater achievement
+than ever before. Several young men and women are just now appearing
+above the horizon, and only a few years are needed to see who will be
+able to contribute most; and what applies to the singers holds also in
+the case of the young violinists, pianists, and composers. Of those who
+have appeared within the period, Antoinette Smythe Garnes, who was
+graduated from the Chicago Musical College in 1919 with a diamond medal
+for efficiency, has been prominent among those who have awakened the
+highest expectation; and Marian Anderson, a remarkable contralto, and
+Cleota J. Collins, a soprano, have frequently appeared with distinct
+success. Meanwhile Roland W. Hayes, the tenor, has been winning further
+triumphs by his concerts in London; and generally prominent before the
+public in the period now under review has been Mme. Florence Cole
+Talbert, also the winner of a diamond medal at Chicago in 1916. Mme.
+Talbert has been a conscientious worker; her art has now ripened; and
+she has justified her high position by the simplicity and ease with
+which she has appeared on numerous occasions, one of the most noteworthy
+of her concerts being that at the University of California in 1920.
+
+     A list of books bearing on the artistic life of the Negro,
+     whether or not by members of the race, would include those
+     below. It may be remarked that these are only some of the more
+     representative of the productions within the last three years,
+     and attention might also be called to the pictures of the Van
+     Hove Statues in the Congo Museum at Brussels in the _Crisis_,
+     September, 1920.
+
+     A Social History of the American Negro, by Benjamin Brawley.
+     The Macmillan Company, New York, 1921.
+
+     Songs and Tales from the Dark Continent, recorded from the
+     singing and the sayings of C. Kamba Simango, Ndau Tribe,
+     Portuguese East Africa, and Madikane Cele, Zulu Tribe, Natal,
+     Zululand, South Africa, by Natalie Curtis Burlin. G. Schirmer,
+     New York and Boston, 1920.
+
+     Negro Folk-Songs: Hampton Series, recorded by Natalie Curtis
+     Burlin, in four books. G. Schirmer, New York and Boston, 1918.
+
+     The Upward Path: A reader for colored children, compiled by
+     Myron T. Prichard and Mary White Ovington, with an introduction
+     by Robert R. Moton. Harcourt, Brace & Co., New York, 1920.
+
+            *       *       *       *       *
+
+     J. A. Lomax: Self-Pity in Negro Folk-Songs. _Nation_, August 9,
+     1917.
+
+     Louise Pound: Ancestry of a "Negro Spiritual." _Modern Language
+     Notes_, November, 1918.
+
+     Natalie Curtis Burlin: Negro Music at Birth. _Music Quarterly_,
+     January, 1919, and _Current Opinion_, March, 1919.
+
+     William Stanley Braithwaite: Some Contemporary Poets of the
+     Negro Race. _Crisis_, April, 1919.
+
+     Elsie Clews Parsons: Joel Chandler Harris and Negro Folklore.
+     _Dial_, May 17, 1919.
+
+     Willis Richardson: The Hope of a Negro Drama. _Crisis_,
+     November, 1919.
+
+     N. I. White: Racial Traits in the Negro Song. _Sewanee Review_,
+     July, 1920.
+
+     Our Debt to Negro Sculpture. _Literary Digest_, July 17, 1920.
+
+     C. Bell: Negro Sculpture. _Living Age_, September 25, 1920.
+
+     Robert T. Kerlin: Present-Day Negro Poets. _Southern Workman_,
+     December, 1920.
+
+     Robert T. Kerlin: "Canticles of Love and Woe." _Southern
+     Workman_, February, 1921.
+
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+CHARLES S. GILPIN
+
+
+As an illustration of the highly romantic temperament that characterizes
+the Negro race, and also as an instance of an artist who has worked for
+years to realize his possibilities, we might cite such a shining example
+as Charles S. Gilpin, the star of "The Emperor Jones" in the New York
+theatrical season of 1920-21. Here is a man who for years dreamed of
+attainment in the field of the legitimate drama, but who found no
+opening; but who with it all did not despair, and now, after years of
+striving and waiting, stands with his rounded experience and poise as an
+honor and genuine contributor to the American stage.
+
+Charles S. Gilpin was born in Richmond, Va., the youngest child in a
+large family. His mother was a nurse in the city hospital; his father a
+hard-working man in a steel plant. He was educated at St. Frances'
+Convent, where he sang well and took some part in amateur theatricals;
+but he was to work a long while yet before he found a chance to do the
+kind of work that he wanted to do, and meanwhile he was to earn his
+living as printer or barber or otherwise, just as occasion served. He
+himself has recently said, "I've been in stock companies, vaudeville,
+minstrel shows, and carnivals; but not until 1907 did I have an
+opportunity to show an audience that the Negro has dramatic talent and
+likes to play parts other than comedy ones."
+
+It was in the 90's that Mr. Gilpin began his professional work as a
+variety performer in Richmond, and he soon joined a traveling
+organization. In 1903 he was one of the Gilmore Canadian Jubilee
+Singers; in 1905 he was with Williams and Walker; the next season with
+Gus Hill's "Smart Set"; and then from 1907 to 1909 with the Pekin Stock
+Company of Chicago. This last company consisted of about forty members,
+of whom eleven were finally selected for serious drama. Mr. Gilpin was
+one of these; but the manager died, and once more the aspiring actor was
+forced back to vaudeville.
+
+Now followed ten long years--ten years of the kind that blast and kill,
+and with which even the strongest man sometimes goes under. With the New
+York managers there was no opening. And yet sometimes there was
+hope--not only hope, but leadership and effort for others, as when Mr.
+Gilpin carried a company of his own to the Lafayette Theatre and helped
+to begin the production of Broadway shows. Life was leading--somewhere;
+but meanwhile one had to live, and the way was as yet uncertain. At
+last, in 1919, came a chance to play William Custis, the old Negro in
+Drinkwater's "Abraham Lincoln."
+
+The part was not a great one. It was still bound by racial limitations
+and Custis appeared in only one scene. Nevertheless the work was
+serious; here at least was opportunity.
+
+In the early fall of 1920 Mr. Gilpin was still playing Custis and
+helping to make the play a success. Meanwhile, however, Eugene O'Neill,
+one of the most original playwrights in the country, had written "The
+Emperor Jones"; and Charles S. Gilpin was summoned to the part of the
+star.
+
+There were many who regretted to see him leave "Abraham Lincoln," and
+some indeed who wondered if he did the wise thing. To Charles Gilpin,
+however, came the decision that sooner or later must be faced by every
+artist, and indeed by every man in any field of endeavor--either to rest
+on safe and assumed achievement, or to believe in one's own self, take
+the great risk, and launch out into the unknown. He choose to believe in
+himself. His work was one of the features of the New York theatrical
+season of 1920-21, and at the annual dinner of the Drama League in 1921
+he was one of the ten guests who were honored as having contributed most
+to the American theatre within the year.
+
+The play on which this success has been based is a highly original and
+dramatic study of panic and fear. The Emperor Jones is a Negro who has
+broken out of jail in the United States and escaped to what is termed a
+"West Indian Island not yet self-determined by white marines." Here he
+is sufficiently bold and ingenious to make himself ruler within two
+years. He moves unharmed among his sullen subjects by virtue of a legend
+of his invention that only a silver bullet can harm him, but at length
+when he has reaped all the riches in sight, he deems it advisable to
+flee. As the play begins, the measured sound of a beating tom-tom in the
+hills gives warning that the natives are in conclave, using all kinds of
+incantations to work themselves up to the point of rebellion. Nightfall
+finds the Emperor at the edge of a forest where he has food hidden and
+through whose trackless waste he knows a way to safety and freedom. His
+revolver carries five bullets for his pursuers and a silver one for
+himself in case of need. Bold and adventurous, he plunges into the
+jungle at sunset; but at dawn, half-crazed, naked, and broken, he
+stumbles back to the starting-place only to find the natives quietly
+waiting for him there. Now follows a vivid portrayal of strange sounds
+and shadows, with terrible visions from the past. As the Emperor's fear
+quickens, the forest seems filled with threatening people who stare at
+and bid for him. Finally, shrieking at the worst vision of all, he is
+driven back to the clearing and to his death, the tom-tom beating ever
+nearer and faster according as his panic grows.
+
+To the work of this remarkable part--which is so dominating in the play
+that it has been called a dramatic monologue--Mr. Gilpin brings the
+resources of a matured and thoroughly competent actor. His performance
+is powerful and richly imaginative, and only other similarly strong
+plays are now needed for the further enlargement of the art of an actor
+who has already shown himself capable of the hardest work and the
+highest things.
+
+For once the critics were agreed. Said Alexander Woolcott in the _New
+York Times_ with reference to those who produced the play: "They have
+acquired an actor, one who has it in him to invoke the pity and the
+terror and the indescribable foreboding which are part of the secret of
+'The Emperor Jones.'" Kenneth MacGowan wrote in the _Globe_; "Gilpin's
+is a sustained and splendid piece of acting. The moment when he raises
+his naked body against the moonlit sky, beyond the edge of the jungle,
+and prays, is such a dark lyric of the flesh, such a cry of the
+primitive being, as I have never seen in the theatre"; and in the
+_Tribune_ Heywood Broun said of the actor: "He sustains the succession
+of scenes in monologue not only because his voice is one of a gorgeous
+natural quality, but because he knows just what to do with it. All the
+notes are there and he has also an extraordinary facility for being in
+the right place at the right time." Such comments have been re-echoed by
+the thousands who have witnessed Mr. Gilpin's thrilling work, and in
+such a record as this he deserves further credit as one who has finally
+bridged the chasm between popular comedy and the legitimate drama, and
+who thus by sheer right of merit steps into his own as the foremost
+actor that the Negro race has produced within recent years.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX
+
+
+_1. THE NEGRO IN AMERICAN FICTION_
+
+Ever since Sydney Smith sneered at American books a hundred years ago,
+honest critics have asked themselves if the literature of the United
+States was not really open to the charge of provincialism. Within the
+last year or two the argument has been very much revived; and an English
+critic, Mr. Edward Garnett, writing in _The Atlantic Monthly_, has
+pointed out that with our predigested ideas and made-to-order fiction we
+not only discourage individual genius, but make it possible for the
+multitude to think only such thoughts as have passed through a sieve.
+Our most popular novelists, and sometimes our most respectable writers,
+see only the sensation that is uppermost for the moment in the mind of
+the crowd--divorce, graft, tainted meat or money--and they proceed to
+cut the cloth of their fiction accordingly. Mr. Owen Wister, a "regular
+practitioner" of the novelist's art, in substance admitting the weight
+of these charges, lays the blame on our crass democracy which utterly
+refuses to do its own thinking and which is satisfied only with the
+tinsel and gewgaws and hobbyhorses of literature. And no theme has
+suffered so much from the coarseness of the mob-spirit in literature as
+that of the Negro.
+
+As a matter of fact, the Negro in his problems and strivings offers to
+American writers the greatest opportunity that could possibly be given
+to them to-day. It is commonly agreed that only one other large
+question, that of the relations of capital and labor, is of as much
+interest to the American public; and even this great issue fails to
+possess quite the appeal offered by the Negro from the social
+standpoint. One can only imagine what a Victor Hugo, detached and
+philosophical, would have done with such a theme in a novel. When we see
+what actually has been done--how often in the guise of fiction a writer
+has preached a sermon or shouted a political creed, or vented his
+spleen--we are not exactly proud of the art of novel-writing as it has
+been developed in the United States of America. Here was opportunity for
+tragedy, for comedy, for the subtle portrayal of all the relations of
+man with his fellow man, for faith and hope and love and sorrow. And
+yet, with the Civil War fifty years in the distance, not one novel or
+one short story of the first rank has found its inspiration in this
+great theme. Instead of such work we have consistently had traditional
+tales, political tracts, and lurid melodramas.
+
+Let us see who have approached the theme, and just what they have done
+with it, for the present leaving out of account all efforts put forth by
+Negro writers themselves.
+
+The names of four exponents of Southern life come at once to
+mind--George W. Cable, Joel Chandler Harris, Thomas Nelson Page, and
+Thomas Dixon; and at once, in their outlook and method of work, the
+first two become separate from the last two. Cable and Harris have
+looked toward the past, and have embalmed vanished or vanishing types.
+Mr. Page and Mr. Dixon, with their thought on the present (though for
+the most part they portray the recent past), have used the novel as a
+vehicle for political propaganda.
+
+It was in 1879 that "Old Creole Days" evidenced the advent of a new
+force in American literature; and on the basis of this work, and of "The
+Grandissimes" which followed, Mr. Cable at once took his place as the
+foremost portrayer of life in old New Orleans. By birth, by temperament,
+and by training he was thoroughly fitted for the task to which he set
+himself. His mother was from New England, his father of the stock of
+colonial Virginia; and the stern Puritanism of the North was mellowed by
+the gentler influences of the South. Moreover, from his long
+apprenticeship in newspaper work in New Orleans he had received
+abundantly the knowledge and training necessary for his work. Setting
+himself to a study of the Negro of the old regime, he made a specialty
+of the famous--and infamous--quadroon society of Louisiana of the third
+and fourth decades of the last century. And excellent as was his work,
+turning his face to the past in manner as well as in matter, from the
+very first he raised the question propounded by this paper. In his
+earliest volume there was a story entitled "'Tite Poulette," the heroine
+of which was a girl amazingly fair, the supposed daughter of one Madame
+John. A young Dutchman fell in love with 'Tite Poulette, championed her
+cause at all times, suffered a beating and stabbing for her, and was by
+her nursed back to life and love. In the midst of his perplexity about
+joining himself to a member of another race, came the word from Madame
+John that the girl was not her daughter, but the child of yellow fever
+patients whom she had nursed until they died, leaving their infant in
+her care. Immediately upon the publication of this story, the author
+received a letter from a young woman who had actually lived in very much
+the same situation as that portrayed in "'Tite Poulette," telling him
+that his story was not true to life and that he knew it was not, for
+Madame John really was the mother of the heroine. Accepting the
+criticism, Mr. Cable set about the composition of "Madame Delphine," in
+which the situation is somewhat similar, but in which at the end the
+mother tamely makes a confession to a priest. What is the trouble? The
+artist is so bound by circumstances and hemmed in by tradition that he
+simply has not the courage to launch out into the deep and work out his
+human problems for himself. Take a representative portrait from "The
+Grandissimes":
+
+     Clemence had come through ages of African savagery, through
+     fires that do not refine, but that blunt and blast and blacken
+     and char; starvation, gluttony, drunkenness, thirst, drowning,
+     nakedness, dirt, fetichism, debauchery, slaughter, pestilence,
+     and the rest--she was their heiress; they left her the cinders
+     of human feelings.... She had had children of assorted
+     colors--had one with her now, the black boy that brought the
+     basil to Joseph; the others were here and there, some in the
+     Grandissime households or field-gangs, some elsewhere within
+     occasional sight, some dead, some not accounted for.
+     Husbands--like the Samaritan woman's. We know she was a
+     constant singer and laugher.
+
+Very brilliant of course; and yet Clemence is a relic, not a prophecy.
+
+Still more of a relic is Uncle Remus. For decades now, this charming old
+Negro has been held up to the children of the South as the perfect
+expression of the beauty of life in the glorious times "befo' de wah,"
+when every Southern gentleman was suckled at the bosom of a "black
+mammy." Why should we not occasionally attempt to paint the Negro of the
+new day--intelligent, ambitious, thrifty, manly? Perhaps he is not so
+poetic; but certainly the human element is greater.
+
+To the school of Cable and Harris belong also of course Miss Grace King
+and Mrs. Ruth McEnery Stuart, a thoroughly representative piece of work
+being Mrs. Stuart's "Uncle 'Riah's Christmas Eve." Other more popular
+writers of the day, Miss Mary Johnston and Miss Ellen Glasgow for
+instance, attempt no special analysis of the Negro. They simply take him
+for granted as an institution that always has existed and always will
+exist, as a hewer of wood and drawer of water, from the first flush of
+creation to the sounding of the trump of doom.
+
+But more serious is the tone when we come to Thomas Nelson Page and
+Thomas Dixon. We might tarry for a few minutes with Mr. Page to listen
+to more such tales as those of Uncle Remus; but we must turn to living
+issues. Times have changed. The grandson of Uncle Remus does not feel
+that he must stand with his hat in his hand when he is in our presence,
+and he even presumes to help us in the running of our government. This
+will never do; so in "Red Rock" and "The Leopard's Spots" it must be
+shown that he should never have been allowed to vote anyway, and those
+honorable gentlemen in the Congress of the United States in the year
+1865 did not know at all what they were about. Though we are given the
+characters and setting of a novel, the real business is to show that the
+Negro has been the "sentimental pet" of the nation all too long. By all
+means let us have an innocent white girl, a burly Negro, and a burning
+at the stake, or the story would be incomplete.
+
+We have the same thing in "The Clansman," a "drama of fierce revenge."
+But here we are concerned very largely with the blackening of a man's
+character. Stoneman (Thaddeus Stevens very thinly disguised) is himself
+the whole Congress of the United States. He is a gambler, and "spends a
+part of almost every night at Hall & Pemberton's Faro Place on
+Pennsylvania Avenue." He is hysterical, "drunk with the joy of a
+triumphant vengeance." "The South is conquered soil," he says to the
+President (a mere figure-head, by the way), "I mean to blot it from the
+map." Further: "It is but the justice and wisdom of heaven that the
+Negro shall rule the land of his bondage. It is the only solution of the
+race problem. Wait until I put a ballot in the hand of every Negro, and
+a bayonet at the breast of every white man from the James to the Rio
+Grande." Stoneman, moreover, has a mistress, a mulatto woman, a "yellow
+vampire" who dominates him completely. "Senators, representatives,
+politicians of low and high degree, artists, correspondents, foreign
+ministers, and cabinet officers hurried to acknowledge their fealty to
+the uncrowned king, and hail the strange brown woman who held the keys
+of his house as the first lady of the land." This, let us remember, was
+for some months the best-selling book in the United States. A slightly
+altered version of it has very recently commanded such prices as were
+never before paid for seats at a moving-picture entertainment; and with
+"The Traitor" and "The Southerner" it represents our most popular
+treatment of the gravest social question in American life! "The
+Clansman" is to American literature exactly what a Louisiana mob is to
+American democracy. Only too frequently, of course, the mob represents
+us all too well.
+
+Turning from the longer works of fiction to the short story, I have been
+interested to see how the matter has been dealt with here. For purposes
+of comparison I have selected from ten representative periodicals as
+many distinct stories, no one of which was published more than ten years
+ago; and as these are in almost every case those stories that first
+strike the eye in a periodical index, we may assume that they are
+thoroughly typical. The ten are: "Shadow," by Harry Stillwell Edwards,
+in the _Century_ (December, 1906); "Callum's Co'tin': A Plantation
+Idyl," by Frank H. Sweet, in the _Craftsman_ (March, 1907); "His
+Excellency the Governor," by L. M. Cooke, in _Putnam's_ (February,
+1908); "The Black Drop," by Margaret Deland in _Collier's Weekly_ (May 2
+and 9, 1908); "Jungle Blood," by Elmore Elliott Peake, in _McClure's_
+(September, 1908); "The Race-Rioter," by Harris Merton Lyon, in the
+_American_ (February, 1910); "Shadow," by Grace MacGowan Cooke and Alice
+MacGowan, in _Everybody's_ (March, 1910); "Abram's Freedom," by Edna
+Turpin, in the _Atlantic_ (September, 1912); "A Hypothetical Case," by
+Norman Duncan, in _Harper's_ (June, 1915); and "The Chalk Game," by L.
+B. Yates, in the _Saturday Evening Post_ (June 5, 1915). For high
+standards of fiction I think we may safely say that, all in all, the
+periodicals here mentioned are representative of the best that America
+has to offer. In some cases the story cited is the only one on the Negro
+question that a magazine has published within the decade.
+
+"Shadow" (in the _Century_) is the story of a Negro convict who for a
+robbery committed at the age of fourteen was sentenced to twenty years
+of hard labor in the mines of Alabama. An accident disabled him,
+however, and prevented his doing the regular work for the full period of
+his imprisonment. At twenty he was a hostler, looking forward in despair
+to the fourteen years of confinement still waiting for him. But the
+three little girls of the prison commissioner visit the prison. Shadow
+performs many little acts of kindness for them, and their hearts go out
+to him. They storm the governor and the judge for his pardon, and
+present the Negro with his freedom as a Christmas gift. The story is not
+long, but it strikes a note of genuine pathos.
+
+"Callum's Co'tin'" is concerned with a hard-working Negro, a blacksmith,
+nearly forty, who goes courting the girl who called at his shop to get a
+trinket mended for her mistress. At first he makes himself ridiculous by
+his finery; later he makes the mistake of coming to a crowd of
+merrymakers in his working clothes. More and more, however, he storms
+the heart of the girl, who eventually capitulates. From the standpoint
+simply of craftsmanship, the story is an excellent piece of work.
+
+"His Excellency the Governor" deals with the custom on Southern
+plantations of having, in imitation of the white people, a Negro
+"governor" whose duty it was to settle minor disputes. At the death of
+old Uncle Caleb, who for years had held this position of responsibility,
+his son Jubal should have been the next in order. He was likely to be
+superseded, however, by loud-mouthed Sambo, though urged to assert
+himself by Maria, his wife, an old house-servant who had no desire
+whatever to be defeated for the place of honor among the women by Sue, a
+former field-hand. At the meeting where all was to be decided, however,
+Jubal with the aid of his fiddle completely confounded his rival and
+won. There are some excellent touches in the story; but, on the whole,
+the composition is hardly more than fair in literary quality.
+
+"The Black Drop," throughout which we see the hand of an experienced
+writer, analyzes the heart of a white boy who is in love with a girl who
+is almost white, and who when the test confronts him suffers the
+tradition that binds him to get the better of his heart. "But you will
+still believe that I love you?" he asks, ill at ease as they separate.
+"No, of course I can not believe that," replies the girl.
+
+"Jungle Blood" is the story of a simple-minded, simple-hearted Negro of
+gigantic size who in a moment of fury kills his pretty wife and the
+white man who has seduced her. The tone of the whole may be gleaned from
+the description of Moss Harper's father: "An old darky sat drowsing on
+the stoop. There was something ape-like about his long arms, his flat,
+wide-nostriled nose, and the mat of gray wool which crept down his
+forehead to within two inches of his eyebrows."
+
+"The Race-Rioter" sets forth the stand of a brave young sheriff to
+protect his prisoner, a Negro boy, accused of the assault and murder of
+a little white girl. Hank Egge tries by every possible subterfuge to
+defeat the plans of a lynching party, and finally dies riddled with
+bullets as he is defending his prisoner. The story is especially
+remarkable for the strong and sympathetic characterization of such
+contrasting figures as young Egge and old Dikeson, the father of the
+dead girl.
+
+"Shadow" (in _Everybody's_) is a story that depends for its force very
+largely upon incident. It studies the friendship of a white boy, Ranny,
+and a black boy, Shadow, a relationship that is opposed by both the
+Northern white mother and the ambitious and independent Negro mother. In
+a fight, Shad breaks a collar-bone for Ranny; later he saves him from
+drowning. In the face of Ranny's white friends, all the harsher side of
+the problem is seen; and yet the human element is strong beneath it
+all. The story, not without considerable merit as it is, would have been
+infinitely stronger if the friendship of the two boys had been pitched
+on a higher plane. As it is, Shad is very much like a dog following his
+master.
+
+"Abram's Freedom" is at the same time one of the most clever and one of
+the most provoking stories with which we have to deal. It is a perfect
+example of how one may walk directly up to the light and then
+deliberately turn his back upon it. The story is set just before the
+Civil War. It deals with the love of the slave Abram for a free young
+woman, Emmeline. "All his life he had heard and used the phrase 'free
+nigger' as a term of contempt. What, then, was this vague feeling, not
+definite enough yet to be a wish or even a longing?" So far, so good.
+Emmeline inspires within her lover the highest ideals of manhood, and he
+becomes a hostler in a livery-stable, paying to his master so much a
+year for his freedom. Then comes the astounding and forced conclusion.
+At the very moment when, after years of effort, Emmeline has helped her
+husband to gain his freedom (and when all the slaves are free as a
+matter of fact by virtue of the Emancipation Proclamation), Emmeline,
+whose husband has special reason to be grateful to his former master,
+says to the lady of the house: "Me an' Abram ain't got nothin' to do in
+dis worl' but to wait on you an' master."
+
+In "A Hypothetical Case" we again see the hand of a master-craftsman. Is
+a white boy justified in shooting a Negro who has offended him? The
+white father is not quite at ease, quibbles a good deal, but finally
+says Yes. The story, however, makes it clear that the Negro did not
+strike the boy. He was a hermit living on the Florida coast and
+perfectly abased when he met Mercer and his two companions. When the
+three boys pursued him and finally overtook him, the Negro simply held
+the hands of Mercer until the boy had recovered his temper. Mercer in
+his rage really struck himself.
+
+"The Chalk Game" is the story of a little Negro jockey who wins a race
+in Louisville only to be drugged and robbed by some "flashlight" Negroes
+who send him to Chicago. There he recovers his fortunes by giving to a
+group of gamblers the correct "tip" on another race, and he makes his
+way back to Louisville much richer by his visit. Throughout the story
+emphasis is placed upon the superstitious element in the Negro race, an
+element readily considered by men who believe in luck.
+
+Of these ten stories, only five strike out with even the slightest
+degree of independence. "Shadow" (in the _Century_) is not a powerful
+piece of work, but it is written in tender and beautiful spirit. "The
+Black Drop" is a bold handling of a strong situation. "The Race-Rioter"
+also rings true, and in spite of the tragedy there is optimism in this
+story of a man who is not afraid to do his duty. "Shadow" (in
+_Everybody's_) awakens all sorts of discussion, but at least attempts to
+deal honestly with a situation that might arise in any neighborhood at
+any time. "A Hypothetical Case" is the most tense and independent story
+in the list.
+
+On the other hand, "Callum's Co'tin'" and "His Excellency the
+Governor," bright comedy though they are, belong, after all, to the
+school of Uncle Remus. "Jungle Blood" and "The Chalk Game" belong to the
+class that always regards the Negro as an animal, a minor, a
+plaything--but never as a man. "Abram's Freedom," exceedingly well
+written for two-thirds of the way, falls down hopelessly at the end.
+Many old Negroes after the Civil War preferred to remain with their
+former masters; but certainly no young woman of the type of Emmeline
+would sell her birthright for a mess of pottage.
+
+Just there is the point. That the Negro is ever to be taken seriously is
+incomprehensible to some people. It is the story of "The Man that
+Laughs" over again. The more Gwynplaine protests, the more outlandish he
+becomes to the House of Lords.
+
+We are simply asking that those writers of fiction who deal with the
+Negro shall be thoroughly honest with themselves, and not remain forever
+content to embalm old types and work over outworn ideas. Rather should
+they sift the present and forecast the future. But of course the editors
+must be considered. The editors must give their readers what the readers
+want; and when we consider the populace, of course we have to reckon
+with the mob. And the mob does not find anything very attractive about a
+Negro who is intelligent, cultured, manly, and who does not smile. It
+will be observed that in no one of the ten stories above mentioned, not
+even in one of the five remarked most favorably, is there a Negro of
+this type. Yet he is obliged to come. America has yet to reckon with
+him. The day of Uncle Remus as well as of Uncle Tom is over.
+
+Even now, however, there are signs of better things. Such an artist as
+Mr. Howells, for instance, has once or twice dealt with the problem in
+excellent spirit. Then there is the work of the Negro writers
+themselves. The numerous attempts in fiction made by them have most
+frequently been open to the charge of crassness already considered; but
+Paul Laurence Dunbar, Charles W. Chesnutt, and W. E. Burghardt DuBois
+have risen above the crowd. Mr. Dunbar, of course, was better in poetry
+than in prose. Such a short story as "Jimsella," however, exhibited
+considerable technique. "The Uncalled" used a living topic treated with
+only partial success. But for the most part, Mr. Dunbar's work looked
+toward the past. Somewhat stronger in prose is Mr. Chesnutt. "The Marrow
+of Tradition" is not much more than a political tract, and "The
+Colonel's Dream" contains a good deal of preaching; but "The House
+Behind the Cedars" is a real novel. Among his short stories, "The
+Bouquet" may be remarked for technical excellence, and "The Wife of His
+Youth" for a situation of unusual power. Dr. DuBois's "The Quest of the
+Silver Fleece" contains at least one strong dramatic situation, that in
+which Bles probes the heart of Zora; but the author is a sociologist and
+essayist rather than a novelist. The grand epic of the race is yet to be
+produced.
+
+Some day we shall work out the problems of our great country. Some day
+we shall not have a state government set at defiance, and the massacre
+of Ludlow. Some day our little children will not slave in mines and
+mills, but will have some chance at the glory of God's creation; and
+some day the Negro will cease to be a problem and become a human being.
+Then, in truth, we shall have the Promised Land. But until that day
+comes let those who mold our ideals and set the standards of our art in
+fiction at least be honest with themselves and independent. Ignorance we
+may for a time forgive; but a man has only himself to blame if he
+insists on not seeing the sunrise in the new day.
+
+
+_2. STUDY OF BIBLIOGRAPHY_
+
+The following bibliography, while aiming at a fair degree of
+completeness for books and articles coming within the scope of this
+volume, can not be finally complete, because so to make it would be to
+cover very largely the great subject of the Negro Problem, only one
+phase of which is here considered. The aim is constantly to restrict the
+discussion to that of the literary and artistic life of the Negro; and
+books primarily on economic, social, or theological themes, however
+interesting within themselves, are generally not included. Booker T.
+Washington may seem to be an exception to this; but the general
+importance of the books of this author would seem to demand their
+inclusion, especially as some of them touch directly on the subject of
+present interest.
+
+
+I
+
+BOOKS BY SIX MOST PROMINENT AUTHORS
+
+WHEATLEY, PHILLIS (Mrs. Peters).
+
+  Poem on the Death of the Reverend George Whitefield. Boston,
+  1770.
+
+  Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral. London and
+  Boston, 1773.
+
+  Elegy Sacred to the Memory of Dr. Samuel Cooper. Boston, 1784.
+
+  Liberty and Peace. Boston, 1784.
+
+  Letters, edited by Charles Deane. Boston, 1864.
+
+     Note.--The bibliography of the work of Phillis Wheatley is now
+     a study within itself. Titles just enumerated are only for what
+     may be regarded as the most important original sources. The
+     important volume, that of 1773, is now very rare and valuable.
+     Numerous reprints have been made, among them the following:
+     Philadelphia, 1774; Philadelphia, 1786; Albany, 1793;
+     Philadelphia, 1801; Walpole, N. H., 1802; Hartford, 1804;
+     Halifax, 1813; "New England," 1816; Denver, 1887; Philadelphia,
+     1909 (the last being the accessible reprint by R. R. and C. C.
+     Wright, A. M. E. Book Concern). Note also Memoir of Phillis
+     Wheatley, by B. B. Thatcher, Boston, 1834; and Memoir and Poems
+     of Phillis Wheatley (memoir by Margaretta Matilda Odell),
+     Boston, 1834, 1835, and 1838, the three editions in rapid
+     succession being due to the anti-slavery agitation. Not the
+     least valuable part of Deane's 1864 edition of the Letters is
+     the sketch of Phillis Wheatley, by Nathaniel B. Shurtleff,
+     which it contains. This was first printed in the _Boston Daily
+     Advertiser_, Dec. 21, 1863. It is brief, but contains several
+     facts not to be found elsewhere. Duyckinck's Cyclopaedia of
+     American Literature (1855 and 1866) gave a good review and
+     reprinted from the _Pennsylvania Magazine_ the correspondence
+     with Washington, and the poem to Washington, also "Liberty and
+     Peace." Also important for reference is Oscar Wegelin's
+     Compilation of the Titles of Volumes of Verse--Early American
+     Poetry, New York, 1903. Note also The Life and Works of Phillis
+     Wheatley, by G. Herbert Renfro, edited by Leila Amos Pendleton,
+     Washington, 1916. The whole matter of bibliography has recently
+     been exhaustively studied in Heartman's Historical Series, in
+     beautiful books of limited editions, as follows: (1) Phillis
+     Wheatley: A Critical Attempt and a Bibliography of Her
+     Writings, by Charles Fred Heartman, New York, 1915; (2) Phillis
+     Wheatley: Poems and Letters. First Collected Edition. Edited by
+     Charles Fred Heartman, with an Appreciation by Arthur A.
+     Schomburg, New York, 1915; (3) Six Broadsides relating to
+     Phillis Wheatley, New York, 1915. These books are of the first
+     order of importance, and yet they awaken one or two questions.
+     One wonders why "To Maecenas," "On Virtue," and "On Being
+     Brought from Africa to America," all very early work, were
+     placed near the end of the poems in "Poems and Letters"; nor is
+     the relation between "To a Clergyman on the Death of His Lady,"
+     and "To the Rev. Mr. Pitkin on the Death of His Lady," made
+     clear, the two poems, evidently different versions of the same
+     subject, being placed pages apart. The great merit of the book,
+     however, is that it adds to "Poems on Various Subjects" the
+     four other poems not generally accessible: (1) To His
+     Excellency, George Washington; (2) On Major-General Lee; (3)
+     Liberty and Peace; (4) An Elegy Sacred to the Memory of Dr.
+     Samuel Cooper. The first of Heartman's three volumes gives a
+     list of books containing matter on Phillis Wheatley. To this
+     may now be added the following magazine articles, none of which
+     contain matter primarily original: (1) _Christian Examiner_,
+     Vol. XVI, p. 169 (Review by W. J. Snelling of the 1834 edition
+     of the poems); (2) _Knickerbocker_, Vol. IV, p. 85; (3) _North
+     American Review_, Vol. 68, p. 418 (by Mrs. E. F. Ellet); (4)
+     _London Athenaeum_ for 1835, p. 819 (by Rev. T. Flint); (5)
+     _Historical Magazine_ for 1858, p. 178; (6) _Catholic World_,
+     Vol. 39, p. 484, July, 1884; (7) _Chautauquan_, Vol. 18, p.
+     599, February, 1894 (by Pamela McArthur Cole).
+
+
+DUNBAR, PAUL LAURENCE.
+
+  Life and Works, edited by Lida Keck Wiggins. J. L. Nichols &
+  Co., Naperville, Ill., 1907.
+
+  The following, with the exception of the sketch at the end, were
+  all published by Dodd, Mead & Co., New York.
+
+  _Poems:_
+
+  Lyrics of Lowly Life, 1896.
+  Lyrics of the Hearthside, 1899.
+  Lyrics of Love and Laughter, 1903.
+  Lyrics of Sunshine and Shadow, 1905.
+  Complete Poems, 1913.
+
+  _Specially Illustrated Volumes of Poems_:
+
+  Poems of Cabin and Field, 1899.
+  Candle-Lightin' Time, 1901.
+  When Malindy Sings, 1903.
+  Li'l' Gal, 1904.
+  Howdy, Honey, Howdy, 1905.
+  Joggin' Erlong, 1906.
+  Speakin' o' Christmas, 1914.
+
+  _Novels_:
+
+  The Uncalled, 1896.
+  The Love of Landry, 1900.
+  The Fanatics, 1901.
+  The Sport of the Gods, 1902.
+
+  _Stories and Sketches_:
+
+  Folks from Dixie, 1898.
+  The Strength of Gideon, and Other Stories, 1900.
+  In Old Plantation Days, 1903.
+  The Heart of Happy Hollow, 1904.
+  Uncle Eph's Christmas, a one-act musical sketch, Washington, 1900.
+
+
+CHESNUTT, CHARLES WADDELL.
+
+  Frederick Douglass: A Biography. Small, Maynard & Co., Boston,
+  1899.
+
+  The Conjure Woman (stories). Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, 1899.
+
+  The Wife of His Youth, and Other Stories of the Color-line.
+  Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, 1899.
+
+  The House Behind the Cedars (novel). Houghton Mifflin Co.,
+  Boston, 1900.
+
+  The Marrow of Tradition (novel). Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston,
+  1901.
+
+  The Colonel's Dream (novel). Doubleday, Page & Co., New York,
+  1905.
+
+
+DUBOIS, WILLIAM EDWARD BURGHARDT.
+
+  Suppression of the African Slave-Trade. Longmans, Green & Co.,
+  New York, 1896 (now handled through Harvard University Press,
+  Cambridge).
+
+  The Philadelphia Negro. University of Pennsylvania,
+  Philadelphia, 1899.
+
+  The Souls of Black Folk: Essays and Sketches. A. C. McClurg &
+  Co., Chicago, 1903.
+
+  The Negro in the South (with Booker T. Washington). Geo. W.
+  Jacobs & Co., Philadelphia, 1907.
+
+  John Brown (in American Crisis Biographies). Geo. W. Jacobs &
+  Co., Philadelphia, 1909.
+
+  The Quest of the Silver Fleece (novel). A. C. McClurg & Co.,
+  Chicago, 1911.
+
+  The Negro (in Home University Library Series). Henry Holt & Co.,
+  New York, 1915.
+
+
+BRAITHWAITE, WILLIAM STANLEY.
+
+  Lyrics of Life and Love. H. B. Turner & Co., Boston, 1904.
+
+  The House of Falling Leaves (poems). J. W. Luce & Co., Boston,
+  1908.
+
+  The Book of Elizabethan Verse (anthology). H. B. Turner & Co.,
+  Boston, 1906.
+
+  The Book of Georgian Verse (anthology). Brentano's, New York,
+  1908.
+
+  The Book of Restoration Verse (anthology). Brentano's, New York,
+  1909.
+
+  Anthology of Magazine Verse for 1913 (including the Magazines
+  and the Poets, a review). Cambridge, Mass., 1913.
+
+  Anthology of Magazine Verse for 1914. Cambridge, Mass., 1914.
+
+  Anthology of Magazine Verse for 1915. Gomme & Marshall, New
+  York, 1915.
+
+  Anthology of Magazine Verse for 1916. Laurence J. Gomme, New
+  York, 1916.
+
+  The Poetic Year (for 1916): A Critical Anthology. Small, Maynard
+  & Co., Boston, 1917.
+
+  Anthology of Magazine Verse for 1917. Small, Maynard & Co.,
+  Boston.
+
+  Edwin Arlington Robinson, in "Contemporary American Poets
+  Series," announced for early publication by the Poetry Review
+  Co., Cambridge, Mass.
+
+
+WASHINGTON, BOOKER TALIAFERRO.
+
+  The Future of the American Negro. Small, Maynard & Co., Boston,
+  1899.
+
+  The Story of My Life and Work. Nichols & Co., Naperville, Ill.,
+  1900.
+
+  Up from Slavery: An Autobiography. Doubleday, Page & Co., New
+  York, 1901.
+
+  Character Building. Doubleday, Page & Co., New York, 1902.
+
+  Working With the Hands. Doubleday, Page & Co., New York, 1904.
+
+  Putting the Most Into Life. Crowell & Co., New York, 1906.
+
+  Frederick Douglass (in American Crisis Biographies). Geo. W.
+  Jacobs & Co., Philadelphia, 1906.
+
+  The Negro in the South (with W. E. B. DuBois). Geo. W. Jacobs &
+  Co., Philadelphia, 1907.
+
+  The Negro in Business. Hertel, Jenkins & Co., Chicago, 1907.
+
+  The Story of the Negro. Doubleday, Page & Co., New York, 1909.
+
+  My Larger Education. Doubleday, Page & Co., Garden City, N. Y.,
+  1911.
+
+  The Man Farthest Down (with Robert Emory Park). Doubleday, Page
+  & Co., Garden City, N. Y., 1912.
+
+
+II
+
+ORIGINAL WORKS BY OTHER AUTHORS
+
+  BROWN, WILLIAM WELLS:
+
+  Clotelle: A Tale of the Southern States. Redpath, Boston, 1864
+  (first printed London, 1853).
+
+  CARMICHAEL, WAVERLEY TURNER:
+
+  From the Heart of a Folk, and Other Poems. The Cornhill Co.,
+  Boston, 1917.
+
+  DOUGLASS, FREDERICK:
+
+  Life and Times of Frederick Douglass. Park Publishing Co.,
+  Hartford, Conn., 1881 (note also "Narrative of Life," Boston,
+  1846; and "My Bondage and My Freedom," Miller, New York, 1855).
+
+  DUNBAR, ALICE MOORE (Mrs. Nelson):
+
+  The Goodness of St. Rocque, and Other Stories. Dodd, Mead & Co.,
+  New York, 1899. Masterpieces of Negro Eloquence (edited). The
+  Bookery Publishing Co., New York, 1914.
+
+  HARPER, FRANCES ELLEN WATKINS:
+
+  Poems on Miscellaneous Subjects. Boston, 1854, 1856; also
+  Merrihew & Son, Philadelphia, 1857, 1866 (second series), 1871.
+
+  Moses: A Story of the Nile. Merrihew & Son, Philadelphia, 1869.
+  Sketches of Southern life. Merrihew & Son, Philadelphia, 1872.
+
+  HORTON, GEORGE MOSES:
+
+  The Hope of Liberty. Gales & Son, Raleigh, N. C., 1829 (note
+  also "Poems by a Slave," bound with Poems of Phillis Wheatley,
+  Boston, 1838).
+
+  JOHNSON, GEORGIA DOUGLAS:
+
+  The Heart of a Woman, and Other Poems. The Cornhill Co., Boston,
+  1917.
+
+  JOHNSON, FENTON:
+
+  A Little Dreaming. Peterson Linotyping Co., Chicago, 1913.
+
+  Visions of the Dusk. Trachlenburg Co., New York, 1915.
+
+  Songs of the Soil. Trachlenburg Co., New York, 1916.
+
+  JOHNSON, JAMES W.:
+
+  Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man (published anonymously).
+  Sherman, French & Co., Boston, 1912.
+
+  Fifty Years and Other Poems, with an Introduction by Brander
+  Matthews. The Cornhill Co., Boston, 1917.
+
+  MARGETSON, GEORGE REGINALD:
+
+  The Fledgling Bard and the Poetry Society. R. G. Badger, Boston,
+  1916.
+
+  MCGIRT, JAMES E.:
+
+  For Your Sweet Sake. John C. Winston Co., Philadelphia, 1909.
+
+  MILLER, KELLY:
+
+  Race Adjustment. The Neale Publishing Co., New York and
+  Washington, 1908.
+
+  Out of the House of Bondage. The Neale Publishing Co., New York
+  and Washington, 1914.
+
+  WHITMAN, ALBERY A.:
+
+  Not a Man and Yet a Man. Springfield, Ohio, 1877.
+
+  Twasinta's Seminoles, or The Rape of Florida. Nixon-Jones
+  Printing Co., St. Louis, Mo., 1884.
+
+  Drifted Leaves. Nixon-Jones Printing Co., St. Louis, 1890 (this
+  being a collection of two former works with miscellanies).
+
+  An Idyl of the South, an epic poem in two parts (Part I, The
+  Octoroon; Part II, The Southland's Charms and Freedom's
+  Magnitude). The Metaphysical Publishing Co., New York, 1901.
+
+
+III
+
+BOOKS DEALING IN SOME MEASURE WITH THE LITERARY AND ARTISTIC LIFE OF THE
+NEGRO
+
+  BROWN, WILLIAM WELLS:
+
+  The Black Man, His Antecedents, His Genius, and His
+  Achievements. Hamilton, New York, 1863.
+
+  CHILD, LYDIA MARIA:
+
+  The Freedman's Book. Ticknor & Fields, Boston, 1865.
+
+  CROMWELL, JOHN W.:
+
+  The Negro in American History. The American Negro Academy,
+  Washington, 1914.
+
+  CULP, D. W.:
+
+  Twentieth Century Negro Literature. J. L. Nichols & Co.,
+  Naperville, Ill., 1902.
+
+  ELLIS, GEORGE W.:
+
+  Negro Culture in West Africa. The Neale Publishing Co., New
+  York, 1914.
+
+  FENNER, THOMAS P.:
+
+  Religious Folk-Songs of the Negro (new edition). The Institute
+  Press, Hampton, Va., 1909.
+
+  GREGORY, JAMES M.:
+
+  Frederick Douglass the Orator. Willey & Son, Springfield, Mass.,
+  1893 (note also "In Memoriam: Frederick Douglass," John C.
+  Yorston & Co., Philadelphia, 1897).
+
+  HATCHER, WILLIAM E.:
+
+  John Jasper. Fleming H. Revell Co., New York, 1908.
+
+  HOLLAND, FREDERIC MAY:
+
+  Frederick Douglass, the Colored Orator. Funk & Wagnalls, New
+  York, 1891 (rev. 1895).
+
+  HUBBARD, ELBERT:
+
+  Booker Washington in "Little Journeys to the Homes of Great
+  Teachers." The Roycrofters, East Aurora, N. Y., 1908.
+
+  KREHBIEL, HENRY E.:
+
+  Afro-American Folk-Songs. G. Schirmer, New York & London, 1914.
+
+  PIKE, G. D.:
+
+  The Jubilee Singers. Lee & Shepard, Boston, 1873.
+
+  RILEY, BENJAMIN F.:
+
+  The Life and Times of Booker T. Washington. Fleming H. Revell
+  Co., New York, 1916.
+
+  SAYERS, W. C. BERWICK:
+
+  Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: Musician; His Life and Letters. Cassell
+  & Co., London and New York, 1915.
+
+  SCHOMBURG, ARTHUR A.:
+
+  A Bibliographical Checklist of American Negro Poetry. New York,
+  1916.
+
+  SCOTT, EMMETT J., and STOWE, LYMAN BEECHER:
+
+  Booker T. Washington, Builder of a Civilization. Doubleday, Page
+  & Co., Garden City, N. Y. 1916 (note also Memorial Addresses of
+  Dr. Booker T. Washington in Occasional Papers of the John F.
+  Slater Fund, 1916).
+
+  SIMMONS, WILLIAM J.:
+
+  Men of Mark. Geo. M. Rewell & Co., Cleveland, Ohio, 1887.
+
+  TROTTER, JAMES M.:
+
+  Music and Some Highly Musical People. Boston, 1878.
+
+  WILLIAMS, GEORGE W.:
+
+  History of the Negro Race in America from 1619 to 1880. 2 vols.
+  G. P. Putnam's Sons. New York and London, 1915.
+
+
+IV
+
+SELECT LIST OF THIRTY-SIX MAGAZINE ARTICLES
+
+(The arrangement is chronological, and articles of unusual scholarship
+or interest are marked *.)
+
+  * Negro Spirituals, by Thomas Wentworth Higginson. _Atlantic_,
+  Vol. 19, p. 685 (June, 1867).
+
+  Plantation Music, by Joel Chandler Harris. _Critic_, Vol. 3, p.
+  505 (December 15, 1883).
+
+  * The Negro on the Stage, by Laurence Hutton. _Harper's_, Vol.
+  79, p. 131 (June, 1889).
+
+  Old Plantation Hymns, Hymns of the Slave and the Freedman,
+  Recent Negro Melodies: a series of three articles by William E.
+  Barton. _New England Magazine_, Vol. 19, pp. 443, 609, 707
+  (December, 1898, January and February, 1899).
+
+  Mr. Charles W. Chesnutt's Stories, by W. D. Howells, _Atlantic_,
+  Vol. 85, p. 70 (May, 1900).
+
+  The American Negro at Paris, by W. E. Burghardt DuBois. _Review
+  of Reviews_, Vol. 22, p. 575 (November, 1900).
+
+  Sojourner Truth, by Lillie Chace Wyman. _New England Magazine_,
+  Vol. 24, p. 59 (March, 1901).
+
+  A New Element in Fiction, by Elizabeth L. Cary. _Book Buyer_,
+  Vol. 23, p. 26 (August, 1901).
+
+  The True Negro Music and its Decline, by Jeannette Robinson
+  Murphy. _Independent_, Vol. 55, p. 1723 (July 23, 1903).
+
+  Biographia--Africana, by Daniel Murray. _Voice of the Negro_,
+  Vol. 1, p. 186 (May, 1904).
+
+  Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, by William V. Tunnell. _Colored
+  American Magazine_ (New York), Vol. 8, p. 43 (January, 1905).
+
+  The Negro of To-Day in Music, by James W. Johnson. _Charities_,
+  Vol. 15, p. 58 (October 7, 1905).
+
+  William A. Harper, by Florence L. Bentley. _Voice of the Negro_,
+  Vol. 3, p. 117 (February, 1906).
+
+  Paul Laurence Dunbar, by Mary Church Terrell. _Voice of the
+  Negro_, Vol. 3, p. 271 (April, 1906).
+
+  Dunbar's Best Book. _Bookman_, Vol. 23, p. 122 (April, 1906).
+  Tribute by W. D. Howells in same issue, p. 185.
+
+  Chief Singer of the Negro Race. _Current Literature_, Vol. 40,
+  p. 400 (April, 1906).
+
+  Meta Warrick, Sculptor of Horrors, by William Francis O'Donnell.
+  _World To-Day_, Vol. 13, p. 1139 (November, 1907). See also
+  _Current Literature_, Vol. 44, p. 55 (January, 1908).
+
+  Afro-American Painter Who Has Become Famous in Paris. _Current
+  Literature_, Vol. 45, p. 404 (October, 1908).
+
+  * The Story of an Artist's Life, by H. O. Tanner. _World's
+  Work_, Vol. 18, pp. 11661, 11769 (June and July, 1909).
+
+  Indian and Negro in Music. _Literary Digest_, Vol. 44, p. 1346
+  (June 29, 1912).
+
+  The Higher Music of Negroes (mainly on Coleridge-Taylor).
+  _Literary Digest_, Vol. 45, p. 565 (October 5, 1912).
+
+  * The Negro's Contribution to the Music of America, by Natalie
+  Curtis. _Craftsman_, Vol. 23, p. 660 (March, 1913).
+
+  Legitimizing the Music of the Negro. _Current Opinion_, Vol. 54,
+  p. 384 (May, 1913).
+
+  The Soul of the Black (Herbert Ward's Bronzes). _Independent_,
+  Vol. 74, p. 994 (May 1, 1913).
+
+  A Poet Painter of Palestine (H. O. Tanner), by Clara T.
+  MacChesney. _International Studio_ (July, 1913).
+
+  The Negro in Literature and Art, by W. E. Burghardt DuBois.
+  _Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social
+  Science_, Vol. 49, p. 233 (September, 1913).
+
+  Afro-American Folksongs (review of book by Henry Edward
+  Krehbiel). _Nation_, Vol. 98, p. 311 (March 19, 1914).
+
+  Negro Music in the Land of Freedom, and The Promise of Negro
+  Music. _Outlook_, Vol. 106, p. 611 (March 21, 1914).
+
+  Beginnings of a Negro Drama. _Literary Digest_, Vol. 48, p. 1114
+  (May 9, 1914).
+
+  George Moses Horton: Slave Poet, by Stephen B. Weeks. _Southern
+  Workman_, Vol. 43, p. 571 (October, 1914).
+
+  The Rise and Fall of Negro Minstrelsy, by Brander Matthews.
+  _Scribner's_, Vol. 57, p. 754 (June, 1915).
+
+  The Negro in the Southern Short Story, by H. E. Rollins.
+  _Sewanee Review_, Vol. 24, p. 42 (January, 1916).
+
+  H. T. Burleigh: Composer by Divine Right, and the American
+  Coleridge-Taylor. _Musical America_, Vol. 23, No. 26 (April 29,
+  1916). (Note also An American Negro Whose Music Stirs the Blood
+  of Warring Italy. _Current Opinion_, August, 1916, p. 100.)
+
+  The Drama Among Black Folk, by W. E. B. DuBois. _Crisis_, Vol.
+  12, p. 169 (August, 1916).
+
+  Afro-American Folk-Song Contribution, by Maud Cuney Hare.
+  _Musical Observer_, Vol. 15. No. 2, p. 13 (February, 1917).
+
+  After the Play (criticism of recent plays by Ridgely Torrence),
+  by "F. H." _New Republic_, Vol. 10, p. 325 (April 14, 1917).
+
+
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+A
+
+Aldridge, Ira, 98.
+
+Anderson, Marian, 153.
+
+
+B
+
+Bannister, E. M., 103.
+
+Batson, Flora, 137.
+
+Bethune, Thomas, 135-136.
+
+Braithwaite, William Stanley, 56-64, 143, 144.
+
+Brawley, E. M., 70.
+
+Brown, Anita Patti, 138.
+
+Brown, Richard L., 104.
+
+Brown, William Wells, 66, 69, 70, 72.
+
+Browne, R. T., 147.
+
+Burleigh, Harry T., 80, 130-131, 138, 151.
+
+Burrill, Mary, 146.
+
+Bush, William Herbert, 134.
+
+Byron, Mayme Calloway, 138-139.
+
+
+C
+
+Charlton, Melville, 134, 151.
+
+Chesnutt, Charles W., 45-49, 89, 178.
+
+Childers, Lulu Vere, 140.
+
+Clough, Inez, 101.
+
+Cohen, Octavus Roy, 148.
+
+Cole, Bob, 99.
+
+Coleridge-Taylor, Samuel, 125-129.
+
+Collins, Cleota J., 153.
+
+Cook, Will Marion, 131.
+
+Cooper, Opal, 100.
+
+Cotter, Joseph S., Jr., 145.
+
+Cromwell, J. W., 71.
+
+Crummell, Alexander, 66.
+
+
+D
+
+Dede, Edmund, 129-130.
+
+Dett, R. Nathaniel, 132, 151.
+
+Diton, Carl, 132, 152.
+
+Douglass, Frederick, 4, 34, 68, 86, 88-91, 95-96.
+
+Douglass, Joseph, 135.
+
+Du Bois, W. E. Burghardt, 4, 50-55, 65, 68, 70, 143, 178.
+
+Dunbar, Alice Ruth Moore (Mrs. Nelson), 36, 71, 86, 146.
+
+Dunbar, Paul Laurence, 4, 33-44, 79, 101, 128, 178.
+
+
+E
+
+Elliott, Robert B., 85.
+
+Ellis, George W., 67.
+
+
+F
+
+Ferris, William H., 67.
+
+Freeman, H. Laurence, 153.
+
+Fuller, Meta Warrick, 4, 112-124, 150.
+
+
+G
+
+Garnes, Antoinette Smythe, 153.
+
+Garnet, Henry H., 66.
+
+Gilpin, Charles S., 149, 156-162.
+
+Greenfield, Elizabeth Taylor, 136-137.
+
+Grimke, Angelina W., 146.
+
+Grimke, Archibald H., 66, 67.
+
+
+H
+
+Hackley, E. Azalia, 140.
+
+Hagan, Helen, 134.
+
+Hare, Maud Cuney, 69, 141, 147, 152.
+
+Harleston, Edwin A., 104.
+
+Harper, Frances E. W., 75-76.
+
+Harper, William A., 103-104.
+
+Harreld, Kemper, 135.
+
+Harrison, Hazel, 133.
+
+Hayes, W. Roland, 138, 153.
+
+Henson, Josiah, 68.
+
+Henson, Matthew, 69.
+
+Hill, Leslie Pickney, 146.
+
+Hogan, Ernest, 99.
+
+Horton, George M., 73-75.
+
+Hyers, Anna and Emma, 137.
+
+
+J
+
+Jackson, May Howard, 113, 150.
+
+Jamison, Roscoe C., 145.
+
+Jasper, John, 84-85.
+
+Jenkins, Edmund T., 132-133.
+
+Johnson, Charles B., 145.
+
+Johnson, Mrs. Georgia Douglas, 146.
+
+Johnson, James W., 79-82, 130.
+
+Johnson, J. Rosamond, 80, 131-132, 152.
+
+Johnson, Noble M., 149.
+
+Jones, Sissieretta, 138.
+
+
+L
+
+Lambert, Lucien, 129.
+
+Lambert, Richard, 129.
+
+Langston, John M., 69, 85.
+
+Lawson, Raymond Augustus, 133.
+
+Lee, Bertina, 113.
+
+Lewis, Edmonia, 112-113.
+
+Locke, Alain, 72.
+
+Lynch, John R., 71.
+
+
+M
+
+Martin, George Madden, 148.
+
+Mason, M. C. B., 85.
+
+McKay, Claude, 144-146.
+
+Means, E. K., 148.
+
+Miller, Kelly, 66-67.
+
+Moorhead, Scipio, 103.
+
+Moton, Robert Russa, 144.
+
+Murray, Frederick H. M., 150.
+
+
+N
+
+Nell, William C., 70.
+
+
+O
+
+O'Neill, Eugene, 159.
+
+Ovington, Mary White, 148.
+
+
+P
+
+Payne, Daniel A., 69.
+
+Price, J. C., 86.
+
+Prichard, Myron T., 155.
+
+
+R
+
+Ranson, Reverdy C., 86-87.
+
+Richardson, Ethel, 134.
+
+Richardson, William H., 141, 152.
+
+
+S
+
+Scarborough, William S., 66.
+
+Scott, Dr. Emmett J., 144, 147.
+
+Scott, William E., 104-105, 150.
+
+Sejour, Victor, 129.
+
+Selika, Mme., 137.
+
+Simmons, William J., 69.
+
+Sinclair, William A., 67.
+
+Stafford, A. O., 72.
+
+Steward, T. G., 71.
+
+Still, William, 70.
+
+
+T
+
+Talbert, Florence Cole, 153-154.
+
+Tanner, Henry O., 4, 105-111, 150.
+
+Tibbs, Roy W., 134.
+
+Tinsley, Pedro T., 140.
+
+Trotter, James M., 69.
+
+Truth, Sojourner, 69, 84.
+
+Tubman, Harriet, 83.
+
+
+W
+
+Walker, Charles T., 85.
+
+Walker, David, 66.
+
+Warberry, Eugene, 129.
+
+Ward, Samuel Ringgold, 68.
+
+Washington, Booker T., 4, 54, 65, 68, 69, 88, 92-96.
+
+Watkins, Lucian B., 145.
+
+Weir, Felix, 135.
+
+Wheatley, Phillis (Mrs. Peters), 10-32, 73, 75, 103.
+
+White, Clarence Cameron, 135, 152.
+
+White, Frederick P., 134, 135.
+
+Whitman, Albery A., 76-79.
+
+Williams, Bert, 99.
+
+Williams, E. C., 101.
+
+Williams, George W., 70.
+
+Wilson, Edward E., 72.
+
+Woodson, Carter G., 71.
+
+Work, John W., 140.
+
+Wright, Edward Sterling, 101.
+
+
+
+
+[Transcriber's Notes:]
+
+Two variations appear in the text when DuBois is printed in all caps.
+The variations, "DUBOIS" and "DU BOIS", have been left as printed.
+
+Page 38 (footnote): Changed 'Lullaby," 1889.' to '"Lullaby," 1889.'
+
+Page 42: "erceiving" left as printed; verified in book of Dunbar's
+poetry cited, "Candle-Lightin' Time".
+
+Page 92: Changed "Maiden, W. Va." to "Malden, W. Va.".
+
+Page 98: Changed "ministrelsy" to "minstrelsy".
+
+Page 127: Changed "The Blind Girl of Castel-Cuille" to "The Blind
+Girl of Castel-Cuille".
+
+Page 129 (and Index): Changed "Edmund Dede" to "Edmund Dede".
+
+Page 153: Changed period to comma, after "Hayes" ("Meanwhile Roland W.
+Hayes, the tenor, ...").
+
+Page 154: Changed "if" to "of" ("A list of books bearing ...").
+          Changed "if" to "of" ("these are only some of...").
+
+Page 181: Changed "(Note:" to "Note:"
+
+Page 191: Changed "(June, 1867)" to "(June, 1867)."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Negro in Literature and Art in the
+United States, by Benjamin Brawley
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+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE NEGRO IN LITERATURE AND ARTS ***
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