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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/35063-8.txt b/35063-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..29c2064 --- /dev/null +++ b/35063-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4962 @@ +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: ISO-8859-1 + +*** 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: © 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 Męcenas," 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 armčd 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. Grimké. 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. Grimké, 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 +Verhęren 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 pęan + 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 £150 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 Misčre," 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. +Grimké 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, Désespoir, 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 Gręę, 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-Cuillé" (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 Eugčne Warburg, who went to Italy +and distinguished himself as a sculptor. Another was Victor Séjour, 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 Dédé, 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 "Prélude Réligieuse" 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 Opéra 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. Grimké +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 régime, 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 Cyclopędia 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 Męcenas," "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 Athenęum_ 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 + +Dčdč, 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. + +Grimké, Angelina W., 146. + +Grimké, 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. + +Séjour, 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, Eugčne, 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 Castél-Cuillé" to "The Blind +Girl of Castel-Cuillé". + +Page 129 (and Index): Changed "Edmund Dčdč" to "Edmund Dédé". + +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 + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE NEGRO IN LITERATURE AND ARTS *** + +***** This file should be named 35063-8.txt or 35063-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/0/6/35063/ + +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.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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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: ISO-8859-1 + +*** 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.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + + +<h1>THE NEGRO IN LITERATURE AND ART</h1> + +<a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii"></a> +<p><span class="pagenum"></span></p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 360px;"> +<img src="images/001.jpg" width="360" height="600" alt="CHARLES S. GILPIN AS "THE EMPEROR JONES"" title="CHARLES S. GILPIN AS "THE EMPEROR JONES"" /> +<div class="copy1">© MARY DALE CLARK & CHARLES JAMES FOX<br /><br /></div> +<span class="caption">CHARLES S. GILPIN AS "THE EMPEROR JONES"</span> +</div> + +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<h1>The Negro</h1> +<h1>in Literature and Art</h1> +<div class="title2"><i>in the United States</i></div> +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<h2>BY</h2> +<h2>BENJAMIN BRAWLEY</h2> + +<div class="center"><i>Author of "A Short History of the American Negro"</i></div> + +<p><br /></p> + +<div class="center"><i>REVISED EDITION</i></div> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 75px;"> +<img src="images/logo.png" width="75" height="100" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<div class="center">NEW YORK</div> +<div class="title2">DUFFIELD & COMPANY</div> +<div class="center">1921</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h3>Copyright, 1918, 1921, by<br /> +DUFFIELD & COMPANY</h3> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="center">TO MY FATHER<br /> +<div class="smcap">EDWARD MacKNIGHT BRAWLEY<br /><br /></div></div> + +<div class="center">WITH THANKS FOR SEVERE TEACHING<br /> +AND STIMULATING CRITICISM</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="TOC - chapters"> +<tr><td align="left" colspan="2">CHAP.</td><td align="right">PAGE</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"></td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Preface</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_xi">xi</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">I.</td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">The Negro Genius</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_3">3</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">II.</td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Phillis Wheatley</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_10">10</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">III.</td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Paul Laurence Dunbar</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_33">33</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">IV.</td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Charles W. Chesnutt</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_45">45</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">V.</td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">W. E. Burghardt Du Bois</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_50">50</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">VI.</td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">William Stanley Braithwaite</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_56">56</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">VII.</td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Other Writers</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_65">65</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">VIII.</td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Orators.—Douglass and Washington</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_83">83</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">IX.</td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">The Stage</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_97">97</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">X.</td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Painters.—Henry O. Tanner</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_103">103</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">XI.</td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Sculptors.—Meta Warrick Fuller</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_112">112</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">XII.</td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Music</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_125">125</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">XIII.</td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">General Progress, 1918-1921</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_142">142</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">XIV.</td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Charles S. Gilpin</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_156">156</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"></td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Appendix:</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"></td><td align="left">1. <span class="smcap">The Negro in American Fiction</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_165">165</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"></td><td align="left">2. <span class="smcap">Study of Bibliography</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_180">180</a></td></tr> +</table> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Charles S. Gilpin as "The Emperor Jones"</span></td><td align="right" colspan="2"><i><a href="#Page_iii">Frontispiece</a></i></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Phillis Wheatley</span></td><td align="right"><i>Facing p.</i></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_11">10</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Paul Laurence Dunbar</span></td><td>"</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_37">34</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Charles W. Chesnutt</span></td><td>"</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_47">46</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">W. E. Burghardt Du Bois</span></td><td>"</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_51">50</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">William Stanley Braithwaite</span></td><td>"</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_59">56</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Henry O. Tanner</span></td><td>"</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_105">104</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Meta Warrick Fuller</span></td><td>"</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_113">112</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Harry T. Burleigh</span></td><td>"</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_131">130</a></td></tr> +</table> + +<a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi"></a> +<p><span class="pagenum"></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>PREFACE</h2> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The first chapter, and those on Mr. Braithwaite and Mrs. Fuller, +originally appeared in the <i>Southern Workman</i>. That on the Stage was a +contribution to the <i>Springfield Republican</i>; and the supplementary +chapter is from the <i>Dial</i>. 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.</p> + + +<div class="right"><span class="smcap">Benjamin Brawley.<br /></span></div> +<p>North Cambridge, August, 1917.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span></p> +<h2>THE NEGRO IN LITERATURE AND ART</h2> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>I</h2> + +<h3>THE NEGRO GENIUS</h3> + + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span>N 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. <i>Does it satisfy a sense of beauty?</i> 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.</p> + +<p>The standard has often been criticised as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span> walls of jasper, the +angels with palms in their hands, and (<i>summum bonum!</i>) 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.</p> + +<p>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 dis<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span>courses 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span> riddled with bullets and swinging all +night from a limb by the roadside.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span> United States has yet produced. The possibilities +of the race in literature and oratory, in sculpture and painting, are +illimitable.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span></p> +<h2>II</h2> + +<h3>PHILLIS WHEATLEY</h3> + + +<p><span class="dropcap">O</span>N 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 <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 338px;"> +<img src="images/002.jpg" width="338" height="500" alt="PHILLIS WHEATLEY" title="PHILLIS WHEATLEY" /> +<span class="caption">PHILLIS WHEATLEY</span> +<p class="padding"></p> +</div> + +<p>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 <i>poured out water before the rising sun</i>. This was probably a +rite of heathen worship.</p> + +<p>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 Susan<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span>nah; 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span> 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:"</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Twas mercy brought me from my pagan land,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Taught my benighted soul to understand<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That there's a God—that there's a Saviour too:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Once I redemption neither sought nor knew.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some view our sable race with scornful eye—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Their colour is a diabolic dye."<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Remember, Christians, Negroes black as Cain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">May be refined, and join th' angelic train.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>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 +re<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span>garded 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<blockquote><p><span class="smcap">My Dear Friend</span>,—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.</p></blockquote> + +<p>By the spring of 1773 the condition of the health of Phillis was such as +to give her friends<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> 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."</p> + +<p>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 con<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span>tain the later +scattered poems, it is the only collection ever brought together by +Phillis Wheatley, and the book by which she is known.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<blockquote><p>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.</p></blockquote> + +<p>A postscript to this letter reads:</p> + +<blockquote><p>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.</p></blockquote> + +<p>The "young man" was John Peters, afterwards to be her husband.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span></p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<blockquote><p><span class="smcap">Dear Obour</span>,—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 <i>upper</i> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> 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,</p> + +<div class="right"><span class="smcap">Phillis Wheatley</span>.<br /></div> +</blockquote> + +<p>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:</p> + +<blockquote> +<div class="right"><span class="smcap">Cambridge</span>, <i>Feb. 2, 1776</i>.<br /></div> + +<p><span class="smcap">Miss Phillis</span>,—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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> 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.</p> + + +<div class="right">I am, with great respect,<br /> +Your obedient humble servant,<br /> +<span class="smcap">George Washington</span>.<br /> +</div> +</blockquote> + +<p>Not long afterwards Phillis accepted the invitation of the General and +was received in Cambridge with marked courtesy by Washington and his +officers.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>When Boston fell into the hands of the British, the inhabitants fled in +all directions. Mrs. Peters accompanied her husband to Wil<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span>mington, +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span> +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 +<i>Independent Chronicle</i>:</p> + +<blockquote><p>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.</p></blockquote> + +<p>The house referred to was situated on or near the present site of the +Revere House in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span> Bowdoin Square. The exact site of the grave of Phillis +Wheatley is not known.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>Boston +Gazette</i> for January 24, 1774:</p> + +<div class="center"> +This Day Published<br /> +Adorn'd with an Elegant Engraving of the Author,<br /> +(Price 3s. 4d. L. M. Bound,)<br /> +<br /> +POEMS<br /> +<br /> +on various subjects,—Religious and Moral,<br /> +By Phillis Wheatley, a Negro Girl.<br /> +Sold by Mess's Cox & Berry,<br /> +at their Store, in King-Street, Boston.<br /> +<br /> +N. B.—The subscribers are requested to apply for their<br /> +copies.<br /> +</div> + +<p>The little octavo volume of 124 pages contains 39 poems. One of these, +however, must<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> 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 sub<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span>jects 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:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Attend me, Virtue, thro' my youthful years!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O leave me not to the false joys of time!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But guide my steps to endless life and bliss.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>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:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Imagination! Who can sing thy force?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or who describe the swiftness of thy course?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Soaring through air to find the bright abode,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Th' empyreal palace of the thundering God,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We on thy pinions can surpass the wind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And leave the rolling universe behind:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From star to star the mental optics rove,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Measure the skies, and range the realms above;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There in one view we grasp the mighty whole,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or with new worlds amaze th' unbounded soul.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 Męcenas," 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span></p> +<h2>III</h2> + +<h3>PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR</h3> + + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span>NCOMPARABLY 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span> 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 <i>The High School Times</i>, 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 <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span>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 <i>Harper's Weekly</i> +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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span> 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,"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span> "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."</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 332px;"> +<img src="images/003.jpg" width="332" height="500" alt="PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR" title="PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR" /> +<span class="caption">PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR</span> +<p class="padding"></p> +</div> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span> flow of lyrical verse the +poet rarely surpassed his early lines:<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ere sleep comes down to soothe the weary eyes,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">How questioneth the soul that other soul—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The inner sense which neither cheats nor lies,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">But self exposes unto self, a scroll<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Full writ with all life's acts unwise or wise,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In characters indelible and known;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So, trembling with the shock of sad surprise,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The soul doth view its awful self alone,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ere sleep comes down to soothe the weary eyes.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> 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.</p></div> + +<p>"The Poet and his Song" is also distinguished for its simplicity and its +lyric quality:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A song is but a little thing,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And yet what joy it is to sing!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In hours of toil it gives me zest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And when at eve I long for rest;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When cows come home along the bars,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And in the fold I hear the bell,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As night, the Shepherd, herds his stars,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I sing my song, and all is well.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i5">* * * * *<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Sometimes the sun, unkindly hot,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My garden makes a desert spot;</span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Sometimes a blight upon the tree<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Takes all the fruit away from me;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And then with throes of bitter pain<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Rebellious passions rise and swell;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But life is more than fruit or grain,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And so I sing, and all is well.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The two stanzas entitled "Life" have probably been quoted more than any +other lines written by the poet:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A crust of bread and a corner to sleep in,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A minute to smile and an hour to weep in,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A pint of joy to a peck of trouble,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And never a laugh but the moans come double;<br /></span> +<span class="i7">And that is life.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A crust and a corner that love makes precious,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With a smile to warm and the tears to refresh us;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And joy seems sweeter when cares come after,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And a moan is the finest of foils for laughter;<br /></span> +<span class="i7">And that is life.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span> him now and see the +expression on his fine face as he said, 'Passing! Passing!' It was +prophetic."</p> + +<p>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 <i>Lippincott's</i>, eight exquisite lines:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Because I had loved so deeply,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Because I had loved so long,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">God in his great compassion<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Gave me the gift of song.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Because I have loved so vainly,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And sung with such faltering breath,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Master in infinite mercy<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Offers the boon of Death.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The dialect poems suffer by quotation, being artistic primarily as +wholes. Of these, by com<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span>mon 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:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Kiver up yo' haid, my little lady,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Hyeah de win' a-blowin' out o' do's,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Don' you kick, ner projick wid de comfo't,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Less'n fros'll bite yo' little toes.</span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Shut yo' eyes, an' snuggle up to mammy;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Gi' me bofe yo' han's, I hol' 'em tight;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Don' you be afeard, an' 'mence to trimble<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Des ez soon ez I blows out de light.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Angels is a-mindin' you, my baby,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Keepin' off de Bad Man in de night.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whut de use o' bein' skeered o' nuffin'?<br /></span> +<span class="i2">You don' fink de da'kness gwine to bite?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whut de crackin' soun' you hyeah erroun' you?—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Lawsy, chile, you tickles me to def!—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dat's de man what brings de fros', a-paintin'<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Picters on de winder wid his bref.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Mammy ain' afeard, you hyeah huh laughin'?<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Go 'way, Mistah Fros', you can't come in;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Baby ain' erceivin' folks dis evenin',<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Reckon dat you'll have to call ag'in.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Curl yo' little toes up so, my 'possum—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Umph, but you's a cunnin' one fu' true!—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Go to sleep, de angels is a-watchin',<br /></span> +<span class="i2">An' yo' mammy's mindin' of you, too.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>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 con<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span>clusion 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span> 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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span></p> +<h2>IV</h2> + +<h3>CHARLES W. CHESNUTT</h3> + + +<p><span class="dropcap">C</span>HARLES 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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>Atlantic Monthly</i> the series of stories which was +afterwards brought together in the volume entitled, "The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span> 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).</p> + +<p>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. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 327px;"> +<img src="images/004.jpg" width="327" height="500" alt="CHARLES W. CHESNUTT" title="CHARLES W. CHESNUTT" /> +<span class="caption">CHARLES W. CHESNUTT</span> +<p class="padding"></p> +</div> + +<p>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 mu<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span>latto, 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span> 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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span></p> +<h2>V</h2> + +<h3>W. E. BURGHARDT DUBOIS</h3> + + +<p><span class="dropcap">W</span>ILLIAM 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 Advance<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span>ment of Colored People. In connection with +this work he has edited the <i>Crisis</i> 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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 332px;"> +<img src="images/005.jpg" width="332" height="500" alt="W. E. BURGHARDT DU BOIS" title="W. E. BURGHARDT DU BOIS" /> +<span class="caption">W. E. BURGHARDT DU BOIS</span> +<p class="padding"></p> +</div> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span> 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 <i>Atlantic</i> and the <i>World's Work</i>, 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span> 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:</p> + +<blockquote><p>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.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>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?</p> + +<p>Thus sadly musing, I rode to Nashville in the Jim Crow car.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>I sit with Shakespeare and he winces not. Across the color-line +I move arm in arm with Balzac and Dumas,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span> 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?</p></blockquote> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>W. E. Burghardt DuBois is the best example that has so far appeared of +the combination<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span> 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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span></p> +<h2>VI</h2> + +<h3>WILLIAM STANLEY BRAITHWAITE</h3> + + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span>HE 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 <i>Boston Evening Transcript</i>; he has had verse or +critical essays in the <i>Forum</i>, the <i>Century</i>, <i>Scribner's</i>, the +<i>Atlantic</i>, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span>etc.; and in 1916 became editor of the new <i>Poetry +Review</i> 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 +<i>Transcript</i> 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....<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span> 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 re<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span>gard +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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 332px;"> +<img src="images/006.jpg" width="332" height="500" alt="WILLIAM STANLEY BRAITHWAITE" title="WILLIAM STANLEY BRAITHWAITE" /> +<span class="caption">WILLIAM STANLEY BRAITHWAITE</span> +<p class="padding"></p> +</div> + +<p>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 +<i>Atlantic</i>, <i>Scribner's</i>, 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span> 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":</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The trees are bare, wild flies the snow,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Hearths are glowing, hearts are merry—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">High in the air is the Mistletoe,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Over the door is the Holly Berry.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Never have care how the winds may blow,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Never confess the revel grows weary—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yule is the time of the Mistletoe,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Yule is the time of the Holly Berry.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i5">* * * * *<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">December comes, snows come,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Comes the wintry weather;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Faces from away come—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Hearts must be together.<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Down the stair-steps of the hours<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Yule leaps the hills and towers—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Fill the bowl and hang the holly,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Let the times be jolly.<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span></div></div> + +<p>"The Watchers" is in the spirit of Kingsley's "The Three Fishers":</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Two women on the lone wet strand—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">(<i>The wind's out with a will to roam</i>)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The waves wage war on rocks and sand,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">(<i>And a ship is long due home</i>.)<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The sea sprays in the women's eyes—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">(<i>Hearts can writhe like the sea's wild foam</i>)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lower descend the tempestuous skies,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">(<i>For the wind's out with a will to roam</i>.)<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"O daughter, thine eyes be better than mine,"<br /></span> +<span class="i2">(<i>The waves ascend high on yonder dome</i>)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"North or South is there never a sign?"<br /></span> +<span class="i2">(<i>And a ship is long due home</i>.)<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">They watched there all the long night through—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">(<i>The wind's out with a will to roam</i>)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wind and rain and sorrow for two—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">(<i>And heaven on the long reach home</i>.)<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>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:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">My thoughts go marching like an armčd host<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Out of the city of silence, guns and cars;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Troop after troop across my dreams they post<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To the invasion of the wind and stars.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O brave array of youth's untamed desire!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With thy bold, dauntless captain Hope to lead<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His raw recruits to Fate's opposing fire,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And up the walls of Circumstance to bleed.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How fares the expedition in the end?<br /></span> +<span class="i2">When this my heart shall have old age for king<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And to the wars no further troop can send,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">What final message will the arm'stice bring?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The host gone forth in youth the world to meet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In age returns—in victory or defeat?<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Then there is the epilogue with its heart-cry:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Lord of the mystic star-blown gleams<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose sweet compassion lifts my dreams;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lord of life in the lips of the rose<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That kiss desire; whence Beauty grows;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lord of the power inviolate<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That keeps immune thy seas from fate,<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i5">* * * * *<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Lord, Very God of these works of thine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hear me, I beseech thee, most divine!<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>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 ob<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span>served in "Sandy Star," that appeared in the +<i>Atlantic</i> (July, 1909):</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">No more from out the sunset,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">No more across the foam,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No more across the windy hills<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Will Sandy Star come home.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He went away to search it,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With a curse upon his tongue,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And in his hands the staff of life<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Made music as it swung.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I wonder if he found it,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And knows the mystery now:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our Sandy Star who went away<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With the secret on his brow.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The same note is in "The Mystery" (or "The Way," as the poet prefers to +call it) that appeared in <i>Scribner's</i> (October, 1915):</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He could not tell the way he came<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Because his chart was lost:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet all his way was paved with flame<br /></span> +<span class="i2">From the bourne he crossed.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He did not know the way to go,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Because he had no map:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He followed where the winds blow,—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And the April sap.</span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He never knew upon his brow<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The secret that he bore—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And laughs away the mystery now<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The dark's at his door.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>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 <i>Transcript</i>, +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."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span></p> +<h2>VII</h2> + +<h3>OTHER WRITERS</h3> + + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span>N 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span> 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. Grimké. 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 <i>Arena</i> (January, 1897) on +"Negro Folk-Lore and Dialect." Mr. Miller is Dean of the College of Arts +and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span> 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 <i>Independent</i> (August 7, 1913). Mr. +A. H. Grimké, as well as Mr. Miller, has contributed to the <i>Atlantic</i>; +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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span> 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 <i>Journal of Negro History</i>, 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."</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span> 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 <i>Atlantic Monthly</i> +(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 <i>Journal of Negro History</i>, +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 <i>North American Review</i> (August, 1911), and a paper on Emile +Verhęren in the <i>Poetry Review</i> (January, 1917).</p> + +<p>Little has been accomplished in sustained<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Alas! and am I born for this,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To wear this slavish chain?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Deprived of all created bliss,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Through hardship, toil, and pain?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">How long have I in bondage lain,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And languished to be free!</span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Alas! and must I still complain,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Deprived of liberty?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i5">* * * * *<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Come, Liberty! thou cheerful sound,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Roll through my ravished ears;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Come, let my grief in joys be drowned,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And drive away my fears.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>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:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Twas like the salutation of the dove,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Borne on the zephyr through some lonesome grove,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When spring returns, and winter's chill is past,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And vegetation smiles above the blast.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I almost think the angels<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Who tend life's garden fair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Drop down the sweet white blossoms<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That bloom around us here.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The secret of her popularity was to be seen in such lines as the +following from "Bury Me in a Free Land":<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Make me a grave where'er you will,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In a lowly plain or a lofty hill;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Make it among earth's humblest graves,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But not in a land where men are slaves.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Of the Emancipation Proclamation she wrote:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">It shall flash through coming ages,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">It shall light the distant years;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And eyes now dim with sorrow<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Shall be brighter through their tears.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span> 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:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The tall forests swim in a crimson sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Out of whose bright depths rising silently,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Great golden spires shoot into the skies,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Among the isles of cloudland high, that rise,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Float, scatter, burst, drift off, and slowly fade,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Deep in the twilight, shade succeeding shade.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i5">* * * * *<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And now she turns upon a mossy seat,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where sings a fern-bound stream beneath her feet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And breathes the orange in the swooning air;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where in her queenly pride the rose blooms fair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And sweet geranium waves her scented hair;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There, gazing in the bright face of the stream,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her thoughts swim onward in a gentle dream.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>In "A Dream of Glory" occur the lines:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The fairest blooms are born of humble weeds,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That faint and perish in the pathless wood;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And out of bitter life grow noble deeds<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To pass unnoticed in the multitude.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>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:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Come now, my love, the moon is on the lake;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Upon the waters is my light canoe;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Come with me, love, and gladsome oars shall make<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A music on the parting wave for you,</span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span>—<br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">Come o'er the waters deep and dark and blue;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Come where the lilies in the marge have sprung,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Come with me, love, for Oh, my love is true!"<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This is the song that on the lake was sung,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The boatman sang it over when his heart was young.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span> 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 <i>Age</i>, of New York, in a contest opened by the <i>Public Ledger</i>, 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 <i>Century</i>. One was a sonnet entitled, "Mother Night" +(February, 1910):</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Eternities before the first-born day,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or ere the first sun fledged his wings of flame,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Calm Night, the everlasting and the same,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A brooding mother over chaos lay.</span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">And whirling suns shall blaze and then decay,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Shall run their fiery courses and then claim<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The haven of the darkness whence they came;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Back to Nirvanic peace shall grope their way.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So when my feeble sun of life burns out,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And sounded is the hour for my long sleep,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">I shall, full weary of the feverish light,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Welcome the darkness without fear or doubt,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And, heavy-lidded, I shall softly creep<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Into the quiet bosom of the Night.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>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" (<i>Century</i>, November, +1908):</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O black and unknown bards of long ago,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">How came your lips to touch the sacred fire?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How, in your darkness, did you come to know<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The power and beauty of the minstrel's lyre?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who first from 'midst his bonds lifted his eyes?<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Who first from out the still watch, lone and long,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Feeling the ancient faith of prophets rise<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Within his dark-kept soul, burst into song?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">There is a wide, wide wonder in it all,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That from degraded rest and servile toil,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The fiery spirit of the seer should call<br /></span> +<span class="i2">These simple children of the sun and soil.</span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">O black singers, gone, forgot, unfamed,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">You—you alone, of all the long, long line<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of those who've sung untaught, unknown, unnamed,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Have stretched out upward, seeking the divine.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">You sang not deeds of heroes or of kings:<br /></span> +<span class="i2">No chant of bloody war, nor exulting pęan<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of arms-won triumphs; but your humble strings<br /></span> +<span class="i2">You touched in chords with music empyrean.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">You sang far better than you knew, the songs<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That for your listeners' hungry hearts sufficed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Still live—but more than this to you belongs:<br /></span> +<span class="i2">You sang a race from wood and stone to Christ.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span></p> +<h2>VIII</h2> + +<h3>ORATORS.—DOUGLASS AND WASHINGTON</h3> + + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span>HE 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span> +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."<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Reported by A. B. Hart, in "Slavery and Abolition," 209.</p></div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 re<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span>membered 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."</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span> +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:</p> + +<blockquote><p>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.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p></blockquote> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Quoted from "Masterpieces of Negro Eloquence," 314-5.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span></p></div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>Douglas</i> (spelling it with two +<i>s's</i>, 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 £150 to enable him regularly to purchase his freedom. For +some years be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span>fore the Civil War he lived in Rochester, N.Y., where he +published a paper, <i>The North Star</i>, 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span> carrying power."<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> 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.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> "Frederick Douglass," 107-8.</p></div> + +<p>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:</p> + +<blockquote><p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span> +confess the benefits, and express devout gratitude for the +blessings resulting from your independence to us?</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p></blockquote> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> Quoted from Williams, II, 435-6.</p></div> + +<p>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:</p> + +<blockquote><p>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.<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p></blockquote> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> Quoted from Foreword in "In Memoriam: Frederick +Douglass."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span></p></div> + + +<p>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 <i>Washington</i>. 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 +attend<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span>ance 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span> 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:</p> + +<blockquote><p>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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span> 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.<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p></blockquote> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> Quoted from "Story of My Life and Work," 165-6.</p></div> + +<p>The power to realize with fine feeling the possibilities of an occasion +may be illustrated from the speech at Harvard:</p> + +<blockquote><p>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.<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p></blockquote> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> Quoted from "Story of My Life and Work," 210-11.</p></div> + +<p>The eloquence of Douglass differed from that of Washington as does the +power of a gifted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span> 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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span></p> +<h2>IX</h2> + +<h3>THE STAGE</h3> + + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span>N 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 embodi<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span>ment of patience and meekness rather than a highly +individualized character.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span> 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 <i>Press</i>, 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span> "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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span></p> +<h2>X</h2> + +<h3>PAINTERS.—HENRY O. TANNER</h3> + + +<p><span class="dropcap">P</span>AINTING 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 com<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span>ment 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 Misčre," 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 <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 328px;"> +<img src="images/007.jpg" width="328" height="500" alt="HENRY O. TANNER" title="HENRY O. TANNER" /> +<span class="caption">HENRY O. TANNER</span> +<p class="padding"></p> +</div> + +<p>The painter of assured fame and commanding position is Henry Ossawa +Tanner.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>In the story of his career that he contributed to the <i>World's Work</i> +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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span> +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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span> annual exhibition +of American paintings at the Chicago Art Institute.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span> 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."</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span></p> +<h2>XI</h2> + +<h3>SCULPTORS.—META WARRICK FULLER</h3> + + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span>N 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 <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span>"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. +Grimké 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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 378px;"> +<img src="images/008.jpg" width="378" height="500" alt="META WARRICK FULLER" title="META WARRICK FULLER" /> +<span class="caption">META WARRICK FULLER</span> +<p class="padding"></p> +</div> + +<p>The sculptor at the present time of assured position is Meta Vaux +Warrick Fuller.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span> Falstaff, Oriental Dancer, Portrait +of William Thomas, The Wrestlers, Death in the Wind, Désespoir, 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span> energy, she has naturally never +regarded it as her representative work.</p> + +<p>Certain productions, however, by reason of their unmistakable show of +genius, call for special consideration. These are invariably tragic or +serious in tone.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span> eyes out. The artist's later conception, "Three +Gray Women," from the legend of Perseus, was in similar vein. It +undertook to portray the Gręę, the three sisters who had but one eye and +one tooth among them.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>"Immigrant in America" was inspired by two lines from Robert Haven +Schauffler's "Scum of the Earth":</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Children in whose frail arms shall rest<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Prophets and singers and saints of the West.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Peace Halting the Ruthlessness of War," the recent prize piece, +represents War as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span> 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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span></p> +<h2>XII</h2> + +<h3>MUSIC</h3> + + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span>HE 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.</p> + +<p>Samuel Coleridge-Taylor<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> (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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span> 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-Cuillé" (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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span> +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."<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> <i>Crisis</i>, October, 1912.</p></div> + +<p>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 Eugčne Warburg, who went to Italy +and distinguished himself as a sculptor. Another was Victor Séjour, 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 Dédé, who was born in New Orleans<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span> 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."<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> Washington: "The Story of the Negro," II, 276-7.</p></div> + +<p>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 <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 335px;"> +<img src="images/009.jpg" width="335" height="500" alt="HARRY T. BURLEIGH" title="HARRY T. BURLEIGH" /> +<span class="caption">HARRY T. BURLEIGH</span> +<p class="padding"></p> +</div> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span> 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 "Prélude Réligieuse" at one of +the grand orchestral concerts of the Academy.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span> 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 Congre<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span>gational 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>Daily State Register</i>, 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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span> 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 Opéra Comique when the war began and forced her to +change her plans.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span> 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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span></p> +<h2>XIII</h2> + +<h3>GENERAL PROGRESS, 1918-1921</h3> + + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span>HE 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span> 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" +(<i>Crisis</i>, 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."</p> + +<p>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. Grimké +has formally published "Rachel," a play in three acts (The Cornhill Co., +Boston, 1920), while several teachers and advanced students at the +different educa<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span>tional 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" (<i>Southern +Workman</i>, 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span> History of the +English Drama," by the author of the present book (Harcourt, Brace & +Co., New York, 1921).</p> + +<p>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).</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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 dif<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span>ficult +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.</p> + +<p>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 Mu<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span>sicians. 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 <i>Southern Workman</i> (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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span> 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 <i>Musical Observer</i>. 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 <i>Musical Observer</i> (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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span> work of H. Laurence Freeman will also win the recognition it +deserves.</p> + +<p>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 +Tal<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span>bert, 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.</p> + +<blockquote><p>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 <i>Crisis</i>, +September, 1920.</p> + +<p>A Social History of the American Negro, by Benjamin Brawley. +The Macmillan Company, New York, 1921.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Negro Folk-Songs: Hampton Series, recorded by Natalie Curtis +Burlin, in four books. G. Schirmer, New York and Boston, 1918.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>J. A. Lomax: Self-Pity in Negro Folk-Songs. <i>Nation</i>, August 9, +1917.</p> + +<p>Louise Pound: Ancestry of a "Negro Spiritual." <i>Modern Language +Notes</i>, November, 1918.</p> + +<p>Natalie Curtis Burlin: Negro Music at Birth. <i>Music Quarterly</i>, +January, 1919, and <i>Current Opinion</i>, March, 1919.</p> + +<p>William Stanley Braithwaite: Some Contemporary Poets of the +Negro Race. <i>Crisis</i>, April, 1919.</p> + +<p>Elsie Clews Parsons: Joel Chandler Harris and Negro Folklore. +<i>Dial</i>, May 17, 1919.</p> + +<p>Willis Richardson: The Hope of a Negro Drama. <i>Crisis</i>, +November, 1919.</p> + +<p>N. I. White: Racial Traits in the Negro Song. <i>Sewanee Review</i>, +July, 1920.</p> + +<p>Our Debt to Negro Sculpture. <i>Literary Digest</i>, July 17, 1920.</p> + +<p>C. Bell: Negro Sculpture. <i>Living Age</i>, September 25, 1920.</p> + +<p>Robert T. Kerlin: Present-Day Negro Poets. <i>Southern Workman</i>, +December, 1920.</p> + +<p>Robert T. Kerlin: "Canticles of Love and Woe." <i>Southern +Workman</i>, February, 1921.</p></blockquote> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span></p> +<h2>XIV</h2> + +<h3>CHARLES S. GILPIN</h3> + + +<p><span class="dropcap">A</span>S 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.</p> + +<p>Charles S. Gilpin was born in Richmond, Va., the youngest child in a +large family. His mother was a nurse in the city hospital;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span> 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."</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span> for serious drama. Mr. Gilpin was +one of these; but the manager died, and once more the aspiring actor was +forced back to vaudeville.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>In the early fall of 1920 Mr. Gilpin was still playing Custis and +helping to make<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span> 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 por<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span>trayal 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>For once the critics were agreed. Said Alexander Woolcott in the <i>New +York Times</i> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span> which are part of the secret of +'The Emperor Jones.'" Kenneth MacGowan wrote in the <i>Globe</i>; "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 +<i>Tribune</i> 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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span></p> +<h2>APPENDIX</h2> + + +<div class="center"><i>1. THE NEGRO IN AMERICAN FICTION</i></div> + +<p><span class="dropcap">E</span>VER 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 <i>The Atlantic Monthly</i>, 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.</p> + +<p>As a matter of fact, the Negro in his problems<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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 régime, 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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span> 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":</p> + +<blockquote><p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span> sight, some dead, some not accounted for. +Husbands—like the Samaritan woman's. We know she was a +constant singer and laugher.</p></blockquote> + +<p>Very brilliant of course; and yet Clemence is a relic, not a prophecy.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>Century</i> (December, 1906); "Callum's Co'tin': A Plantation +Idyl," by Frank H. Sweet, in the <i>Craftsman</i> (March, 1907); "His +Excellency the Governor," by L. M. Cooke, in <i>Putnam's</i> (Febru<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span>ary, +1908); "The Black Drop," by Margaret Deland in <i>Collier's Weekly</i> (May 2 +and 9, 1908); "Jungle Blood," by Elmore Elliott Peake, in <i>McClure's</i> +(September, 1908); "The Race-Rioter," by Harris Merton Lyon, in the +<i>American</i> (February, 1910); "Shadow," by Grace MacGowan Cooke and Alice +MacGowan, in <i>Everybody's</i> (March, 1910); "Abram's Freedom," by Edna +Turpin, in the <i>Atlantic</i> (September, 1912); "A Hypothetical Case," by +Norman Duncan, in <i>Harper's</i> (June, 1915); and "The Chalk Game," by L. +B. Yates, in the <i>Saturday Evening Post</i> (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.</p> + +<p>"Shadow" (in the <i>Century</i>) 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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span></p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span> I love you?" he asks, ill at ease as they separate. +"No, of course I can not believe that," replies the girl.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Shadow" (in <i>Everybody's</i>) 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>Of these ten stories, only five strike out with even the slightest +degree of independence. "Shadow" (in the <i>Century</i>) 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 +<i>Everybody's</i>) 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.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, "Callum's Co'tin'" and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span> "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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span> +him. The day of Uncle Remus as well as of Uncle Tom is over.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span> +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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span> +<br /><br /></p> + + +<div class="center"><i>2. STUDY OF BIBLIOGRAPHY</i></div> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span>HE 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.</p> +<p><br /></p> + +<div class="center">I<br /><br /> + +BOOKS BY SIX MOST PROMINENT AUTHORS</div> +<p class="padding"></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wheatley, Phillis</span> (Mrs. Peters).</p> + +<blockquote><p>Poem on the Death of the Reverend George Whitefield. Boston, +1770.</p> + +<p>Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral. London and +Boston, 1773.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span></p> + +<p>Elegy Sacred to the Memory of Dr. Samuel Cooper. Boston, 1784.</p> + +<p>Liberty and Peace. Boston, 1784.</p> + +<p>Letters, edited by Charles Deane. Boston, 1864.</p></blockquote> + +<blockquote><p>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 <i>Boston Daily +Advertiser</i>, Dec. 21, 1863. It is brief, but contains several +facts not to be found elsewhere. Duyckinck's Cyclopędia of +American Literature (1855 and 1866) gave a good review and +reprinted from the <i>Pennsylvania Magazine</i> the correspondence<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span> +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 Męcenas," "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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span> 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) <i>Christian Examiner</i>, +Vol. XVI, p. 169 (Review by W. J. Snelling of the 1834 edition +of the poems); (2) <i>Knickerbocker</i>, Vol. IV, p. 85; (3) <i>North +American Review</i>, Vol. 68, p. 418 (by Mrs. E. F. Ellet); (4) +<i>London Athenęum</i> for 1835, p. 819 (by Rev. T. Flint); (5) +<i>Historical Magazine</i> for 1858, p. 178; (6) <i>Catholic World</i>, +Vol. 39, p. 484, July, 1884; (7) <i>Chautauquan</i>, Vol. 18, p. +599, February, 1894 (by Pamela McArthur Cole).</p></blockquote> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Dunbar, Paul Laurence</span>.</p> + +<blockquote><p>Life and Works, edited by Lida Keck Wiggins. J. L. Nichols & +Co., Naperville, Ill., 1907.</p> + +<p>The following, with the exception of the sketch at the end, were +all published by Dodd, Mead & Co., New York.</p> + +<p><i>Poems:</i></p> + +<p>Lyrics of Lowly Life, 1896.<br /> +Lyrics of the Hearthside, 1899.<br /> +Lyrics of Love and Laughter, 1903.<br /> +Lyrics of Sunshine and Shadow, 1905.<br /> +Complete Poems, 1913.</p> + +<p><i>Specially Illustrated Volumes of Poems</i>:</p> + +<p>Poems of Cabin and Field, 1899.<br /><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span> +Candle-Lightin' Time, 1901.<br /> +When Malindy Sings, 1903.<br /> +Li'l' Gal, 1904.<br /> +Howdy, Honey, Howdy, 1905.<br /> +Joggin' Erlong, 1906.<br /> +Speakin' o' Christmas, 1914.</p> + +<p><i>Novels</i>:</p> + +<p>The Uncalled, 1896.<br /> +The Love of Landry, 1900.<br /> +The Fanatics, 1901.<br /> +The Sport of the Gods, 1902.</p> + +<p><i>Stories and Sketches</i>:</p> + +<p>Folks from Dixie, 1898.<br /> +The Strength of Gideon, and Other Stories, 1900.<br /> +In Old Plantation Days, 1903.<br /> +The Heart of Happy Hollow, 1904.<br /> +Uncle Eph's Christmas, a one-act musical sketch, Washington, 1900.</p></blockquote> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Chesnutt, Charles Waddell</span>.</p> + +<blockquote><p>Frederick Douglass: A Biography. Small, Maynard & Co., Boston, +1899.</p> + +<p>The Conjure Woman (stories). Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, 1899.</p> + +<p>The Wife of His Youth, and Other Stories of the Color-line. +Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, 1899.</p> + +<p>The House Behind the Cedars (novel). Houghton Mifflin Co., +Boston, 1900.</p> + +<p>The Marrow of Tradition (novel). Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, +1901.</p> + +<p>The Colonel's Dream (novel). Doubleday, Page & Co., New York, +1905.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span></p></blockquote> + + +<p><span class="smcap">DuBois, William Edward Burghardt</span>.</p> + +<blockquote><p>Suppression of the African Slave-Trade. Longmans, Green & Co., +New York, 1896 (now handled through Harvard University Press, +Cambridge).</p> + +<p>The Philadelphia Negro. University of Pennsylvania, +Philadelphia, 1899.</p> + +<p>The Souls of Black Folk: Essays and Sketches. A. C. McClurg & +Co., Chicago, 1903.</p> + +<p>The Negro in the South (with Booker T. Washington). Geo. W. +Jacobs & Co., Philadelphia, 1907.</p> + +<p>John Brown (in American Crisis Biographies). Geo. W. Jacobs & +Co., Philadelphia, 1909.</p> + +<p>The Quest of the Silver Fleece (novel). A. C. McClurg & Co., +Chicago, 1911.</p> + +<p>The Negro (in Home University Library Series). Henry Holt & Co., +New York, 1915.</p></blockquote> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Braithwaite, William Stanley</span>.</p> + +<blockquote><p>Lyrics of Life and Love. H. B. Turner & Co., Boston, 1904.</p> + +<p>The House of Falling Leaves (poems). J. W. Luce & Co., Boston, +1908.</p> + +<p>The Book of Elizabethan Verse (anthology). H. B. Turner & Co., +Boston, 1906.</p> + +<p>The Book of Georgian Verse (anthology). Brentano's, New York, +1908.</p> + +<p>The Book of Restoration Verse (anthology). Brentano's, New York, +1909.</p> + +<p>Anthology of Magazine Verse for 1913 (including the Magazines +and the Poets, a review). Cambridge, Mass., 1913.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span></p> + +<p>Anthology of Magazine Verse for 1914. Cambridge, Mass., 1914.</p> + +<p>Anthology of Magazine Verse for 1915. Gomme & Marshall, New +York, 1915.</p> + +<p>Anthology of Magazine Verse for 1916. Laurence J. Gomme, New +York, 1916.</p> + +<p>The Poetic Year (for 1916): A Critical Anthology. Small, Maynard +& Co., Boston, 1917.</p> + +<p>Anthology of Magazine Verse for 1917. Small, Maynard & Co., +Boston.</p> + +<p>Edwin Arlington Robinson, in "Contemporary American Poets +Series," announced for early publication by the Poetry Review +Co., Cambridge, Mass.</p></blockquote> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Washington, Booker Taliaferro</span>.</p> + +<blockquote><p>The Future of the American Negro. Small, Maynard & Co., Boston, +1899.</p> + +<p>The Story of My Life and Work. Nichols & Co., Naperville, Ill., +1900.</p> + +<p>Up from Slavery: An Autobiography. Doubleday, Page & Co., New +York, 1901.</p> + +<p>Character Building. Doubleday, Page & Co., New York, 1902.</p> + +<p>Working With the Hands. Doubleday, Page & Co., New York, 1904.</p> + +<p>Putting the Most Into Life. Crowell & Co., New York, 1906.</p> + +<p>Frederick Douglass (in American Crisis Biographies). Geo. W. +Jacobs & Co., Philadelphia, 1906.</p> + +<p>The Negro in the South (with W. E. B. DuBois). Geo. W. Jacobs & +Co., Philadelphia, 1907.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span></p> + +<p>The Negro in Business. Hertel, Jenkins & Co., Chicago, 1907.</p> + +<p>The Story of the Negro. Doubleday, Page & Co., New York, 1909.</p> + +<p>My Larger Education. Doubleday, Page & Co., Garden City, N. Y., +1911.</p> + +<p>The Man Farthest Down (with Robert Emory Park). Doubleday, Page +& Co., Garden City, N. Y., 1912.</p></blockquote> +<p><br /></p> + +<div class="center">II<br /><br /> + +<span class="smcap">ORIGINAL WORKS BY OTHER AUTHORS</span></div> +<p class="padding"></p> + +<blockquote><p><span class="smcap">Brown, William Wells</span>:</p> + +<p>Clotelle: A Tale of the Southern States. Redpath, Boston, 1864 +(first printed London, 1853).</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Carmichael, Waverley Turner</span>:</p> + +<p>From the Heart of a Folk, and Other Poems. The Cornhill Co., +Boston, 1917.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Douglass, Frederick</span>:</p> + +<p>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).</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dunbar, Alice Moore</span> (Mrs. Nelson):</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Harper, Frances Ellen Watkins</span>:</p> + +<p>Poems on Miscellaneous Subjects. Boston, 1854, 1856; also +Merrihew & Son, Philadelphia, 1857, 1866 (second series), 1871.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span></p> + +<p>Moses: A Story of the Nile. Merrihew & Son, Philadelphia, 1869. +Sketches of Southern life. Merrihew & Son, Philadelphia, 1872.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Horton, George Moses</span>:</p> + +<p>The Hope of Liberty. Gales & Son, Raleigh, N. C., 1829 (note +also "Poems by a Slave," bound with Poems of Phillis Wheatley, +Boston, 1838).</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Johnson, Georgia Douglas</span>:</p> + +<p>The Heart of a Woman, and Other Poems. The Cornhill Co., Boston, +1917.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Johnson, Fenton</span>:</p> + +<p>A Little Dreaming. Peterson Linotyping Co., Chicago, 1913.</p> + +<p>Visions of the Dusk. Trachlenburg Co., New York, 1915.</p> + +<p>Songs of the Soil. Trachlenburg Co., New York, 1916.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Johnson, James W.</span>:</p> + +<p>Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man (published anonymously). +Sherman, French & Co., Boston, 1912.</p> + +<p>Fifty Years and Other Poems, with an Introduction by Brander +Matthews. The Cornhill Co., Boston, 1917.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Margetson, George Reginald</span>:</p> + +<p>The Fledgling Bard and the Poetry Society. R. G. Badger, Boston, +1916.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">McGirt, James E.</span>:</p> + +<p>For Your Sweet Sake. John C. Winston Co., Philadelphia, 1909.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Miller, Kelly</span>:</p> + +<p>Race Adjustment. The Neale Publishing Co., New York and +Washington, 1908.</p> + +<p>Out of the House of Bondage. The Neale Publishing Co., New York +and Washington, 1914.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Whitman, Albery A.</span>:</p> + +<p>Not a Man and Yet a Man. Springfield, Ohio, 1877.</p> + +<p>Twasinta's Seminoles, or The Rape of Florida. Nixon-Jones +Printing Co., St. Louis, Mo., 1884.</p> + +<p>Drifted Leaves. Nixon-Jones Printing Co., St. Louis, 1890 (this +being a collection of two former works with miscellanies).</p> + +<p>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.</p></blockquote> +<p><br /></p> + +<div class="center">III<br /><br /> + +<span class="smcap">BOOKS DEALING IN SOME MEASURE WITH THE LITERARY AND ARTISTIC LIFE OF THE +NEGRO</span></div> +<p class="padding"></p> + +<blockquote><p><span class="smcap">Brown, William Wells</span>:</p> + +<p>The Black Man, His Antecedents, His Genius, and His +Achievements. Hamilton, New York, 1863.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Child, Lydia Maria</span>:</p> + +<p>The Freedman's Book. Ticknor & Fields, Boston, 1865.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Cromwell, John W.</span>:</p> + +<p>The Negro in American History. The American Negro Academy, +Washington, 1914.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Culp, D. W.</span>:</p> + +<p>Twentieth Century Negro Literature. J. L. Nichols & Co., +Naperville, Ill., 1902.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ellis, George W.</span>:</p> + +<p>Negro Culture in West Africa. The Neale Publishing Co., New +York, 1914.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Fenner, Thomas P.</span>:</p> + +<p>Religious Folk-Songs of the Negro (new edition). The Institute +Press, Hampton, Va., 1909.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gregory, James M.</span>:</p> + +<p>Frederick Douglass the Orator. Willey & Son, Springfield, Mass., +1893 (note also "In Memoriam: Frederick Douglass," John C. +Yorston & Co., Philadelphia, 1897).</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hatcher, William E.</span>:</p> + +<p>John Jasper. Fleming H. Revell Co., New York, 1908.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Holland, Frederic May</span>:</p> + +<p>Frederick Douglass, the Colored Orator. Funk & Wagnalls, New +York, 1891 (rev. 1895).</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hubbard, Elbert</span>:</p> + +<p>Booker Washington in "Little Journeys to the Homes of Great +Teachers." The Roycrofters, East Aurora, N. Y., 1908.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Krehbiel, Henry E.</span>:</p> + +<p>Afro-American Folk-Songs. G. Schirmer, New York & London, 1914.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Pike, G. D.</span>:</p> + +<p>The Jubilee Singers. Lee & Shepard, Boston, 1873.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Riley, Benjamin F.</span>:</p> + +<p>The Life and Times of Booker T. Washington. Fleming H. Revell +Co., New York, 1916.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sayers, W. C. Berwick</span>:</p> + +<p>Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: Musician; His Life and Letters. Cassell +& Co., London and New York, 1915.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schomburg, Arthur A.</span>:</p> + +<p>A Bibliographical Checklist of American Negro Poetry. New York, +1916.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Scott, Emmett J.</span>, and <span class="smcap">Stowe, Lyman Beecher</span>:</p> + +<p>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).</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Simmons, William J.</span>:</p> + +<p>Men of Mark. Geo. M. Rewell & Co., Cleveland, Ohio, 1887.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Trotter, James M.</span>:</p> + +<p>Music and Some Highly Musical People. Boston, 1878.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Williams, George W.</span>:</p> + +<p>History of the Negro Race in America from 1619 to 1880. 2 vols. +G. P. Putnam's Sons. New York and London, 1915.</p></blockquote> +<p><br /></p> + +<div class="center">IV<br /><br /> + +<span class="smcap">SELECT LIST OF THIRTY-SIX MAGAZINE ARTICLES</span></div> +<p class="padding"></p> + +<blockquote><p>(The arrangement is chronological, and articles of unusual scholarship +or interest are marked *.)</p> + +<p>* Negro Spirituals, by Thomas Wentworth Higginson. <i>Atlantic</i>, +Vol. 19, p. 685 (June, 1867).</p> + +<p>Plantation Music, by Joel Chandler Harris. <i>Critic</i>, Vol. 3, p. +505 (December 15, 1883).</p> + +<p>* The Negro on the Stage, by Laurence Hutton. <i>Harper's</i>, Vol. +79, p. 131 (June, 1889).</p> + +<p>Old Plantation Hymns, Hymns of the Slave and the Freedman, +Recent Negro Melodies: a series of three articles by William E. +Barton. <i>New England Magazine</i>, Vol. 19, pp. 443, 609, 707 +(December, 1898, January and February, 1899).</p> + +<p>Mr. Charles W. Chesnutt's Stories, by W. D. Howells, <i>Atlantic</i>, +Vol. 85, p. 70 (May, 1900).</p> + +<p>The American Negro at Paris, by W. E. Burghardt DuBois. <i>Review +of Reviews</i>, Vol. 22, p. 575 (November, 1900).</p> + +<p>Sojourner Truth, by Lillie Chace Wyman. <i>New England Magazine</i>, +Vol. 24, p. 59 (March, 1901).</p> + +<p>A New Element in Fiction, by Elizabeth L. Cary. <i>Book Buyer</i>, +Vol. 23, p. 26 (August, 1901).<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span></p> + +<p>The True Negro Music and its Decline, by Jeannette Robinson +Murphy. <i>Independent</i>, Vol. 55, p. 1723 (July 23, 1903).</p> + +<p>Biographia—Africana, by Daniel Murray. <i>Voice of the Negro</i>, +Vol. 1, p. 186 (May, 1904).</p> + +<p>Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, by William V. Tunnell. <i>Colored +American Magazine</i> (New York), Vol. 8, p. 43 (January, 1905).</p> + +<p>The Negro of To-Day in Music, by James W. Johnson. <i>Charities</i>, +Vol. 15, p. 58 (October 7, 1905).</p> + +<p>William A. Harper, by Florence L. Bentley. <i>Voice of the Negro</i>, +Vol. 3, p. 117 (February, 1906).</p> + +<p>Paul Laurence Dunbar, by Mary Church Terrell. <i>Voice of the +Negro</i>, Vol. 3, p. 271 (April, 1906).</p> + +<p>Dunbar's Best Book. <i>Bookman</i>, Vol. 23, p. 122 (April, 1906). +Tribute by W. D. Howells in same issue, p. 185.</p> + +<p>Chief Singer of the Negro Race. <i>Current Literature</i>, Vol. 40, +p. 400 (April, 1906).</p> + +<p>Meta Warrick, Sculptor of Horrors, by William Francis O'Donnell. +<i>World To-Day</i>, Vol. 13, p. 1139 (November, 1907). See also +<i>Current Literature</i>, Vol. 44, p. 55 (January, 1908).</p> + +<p>Afro-American Painter Who Has Become Famous in Paris. <i>Current +Literature</i>, Vol. 45, p. 404 (October, 1908).</p> + +<p>* The Story of an Artist's Life, by H. O. Tanner. <i>World's +Work</i>, Vol. 18, pp. 11661, 11769 (June and July, 1909).</p> + +<p>Indian and Negro in Music. <i>Literary Digest</i>, Vol. 44, p. 1346 +(June 29, 1912).</p> + +<p>The Higher Music of Negroes (mainly on Coleridge-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span>Taylor). +<i>Literary Digest</i>, Vol. 45, p. 565 (October 5, 1912).</p> + +<p>* The Negro's Contribution to the Music of America, by Natalie +Curtis. <i>Craftsman</i>, Vol. 23, p. 660 (March, 1913).</p> + +<p>Legitimizing the Music of the Negro. <i>Current Opinion</i>, Vol. 54, +p. 384 (May, 1913).</p> + +<p>The Soul of the Black (Herbert Ward's Bronzes). <i>Independent</i>, +Vol. 74, p. 994 (May 1, 1913).</p> + +<p>A Poet Painter of Palestine (H. O. Tanner), by Clara T. +MacChesney. <i>International Studio</i> (July, 1913).</p> + +<p>The Negro in Literature and Art, by W. E. Burghardt DuBois. +<i>Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social +Science</i>, Vol. 49, p. 233 (September, 1913).</p> + +<p>Afro-American Folksongs (review of book by Henry Edward +Krehbiel). <i>Nation</i>, Vol. 98, p. 311 (March 19, 1914).</p> + +<p>Negro Music in the Land of Freedom, and The Promise of Negro +Music. <i>Outlook</i>, Vol. 106, p. 611 (March 21, 1914).</p> + +<p>Beginnings of a Negro Drama. <i>Literary Digest</i>, Vol. 48, p. 1114 +(May 9, 1914).</p> + +<p>George Moses Horton: Slave Poet, by Stephen B. Weeks. <i>Southern +Workman</i>, Vol. 43, p. 571 (October, 1914).</p> + +<p>The Rise and Fall of Negro Minstrelsy, by Brander Matthews. +<i>Scribner's</i>, Vol. 57, p. 754 (June, 1915).</p> + +<p>The Negro in the Southern Short Story, by H. E. Rollins. +<i>Sewanee Review</i>, Vol. 24, p. 42 (January, 1916).<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span></p> + +<p>H. T. Burleigh: Composer by Divine Right, and the American +Coleridge-Taylor. <i>Musical America</i>, Vol. 23, No. 26 (April 29, +1916). (Note also An American Negro Whose Music Stirs the Blood +of Warring Italy. <i>Current Opinion</i>, August, 1916, p. 100.)</p> + +<p>The Drama Among Black Folk, by W. E. B. DuBois. <i>Crisis</i>, Vol. +12, p. 169 (August, 1916).</p> + +<p>Afro-American Folk-Song Contribution, by Maud Cuney Hare. +<i>Musical Observer</i>, Vol. 15. No. 2, p. 13 (February, 1917).</p> + +<p>After the Play (criticism of recent plays by Ridgely Torrence), +by "F. H." <i>New Republic</i>, Vol. 10, p. 325 (April 14, 1917).</p></blockquote> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<div class="center">THE END</div> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>INDEX</h2> + + +<p> +A<br /> +<br /> +Aldridge, Ira, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Anderson, Marian, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +B<br /> +<br /> +Bannister, E. M., <a href="#Page_103">103</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Batson, Flora, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Bethune, Thomas, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>-<a href="#Page_136">136</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Braithwaite, William Stanley, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>-<a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Brawley, E. M., <a href="#Page_70">70</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Brown, Anita Patti, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Brown, Richard L., <a href="#Page_104">104</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Brown, William Wells, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Browne, R. T., <a href="#Page_147">147</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Burleigh, Harry T., <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>-<a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Burrill, Mary, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Bush, William Herbert, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Byron, Mayme Calloway, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>-<a href="#Page_139">139</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +C<br /> +<br /> +Charlton, Melville, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Chesnutt, Charles W., <a href="#Page_45">45</a>-<a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Childers, Lulu Vere, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Clough, Inez, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cohen, Octavus Roy, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cole, Bob, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Coleridge-Taylor, Samuel, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>-<a href="#Page_129">129</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Collins, Cleota J., <a href="#Page_153">153</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cook, Will Marion, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cooper, Opal, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cotter, Joseph S., Jr., <a href="#Page_145">145</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cromwell, J. W., <a href="#Page_71">71</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Crummell, Alexander, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +D<br /> +<br /> +Dédé, Edmund, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>-<a href="#Page_130">130</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Dett, R. Nathaniel, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Diton, Carl, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Douglass, Frederick, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>-<a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>-<a href="#Page_96">96</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Douglass, Joseph, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Du Bois, W. E. Burghardt, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>-<a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Dunbar, Alice Ruth Moore (Mrs. Nelson), <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Dunbar, Paul Laurence, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>-<a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +E<br /> +<br /> +Elliott, Robert B., <a href="#Page_85">85</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Ellis, George W., <a href="#Page_67">67</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +F<br /> +<br /> +Ferris, William H., <a href="#Page_67">67</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Freeman, H. Laurence, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Fuller, Meta Warrick, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>-<a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +G<br /> +<br /> +Garnes, Antoinette Smythe, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Garnet, Henry H., <a href="#Page_66">66</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Gilpin, Charles S., <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>-<a href="#Page_162">162</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Greenfield, Elizabeth Taylor, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>-<a href="#Page_137">137</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Grimké, Angelina W., <a href="#Page_146">146</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span>Grimké, Archibald H., <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +H<br /> +<br /> +Hackley, E. Azalia, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hagan, Helen, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hare, Maud Cuney, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Harleston, Edwin A., <a href="#Page_104">104</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Harper, Frances E. W., <a href="#Page_75">75</a>-<a href="#Page_76">76</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Harper, William A., <a href="#Page_103">103</a>-<a href="#Page_104">104</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Harreld, Kemper, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Harrison, Hazel, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hayes, W. Roland, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Henson, Josiah, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Henson, Matthew, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hill, Leslie Pickney, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hogan, Ernest, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Horton, George M., <a href="#Page_73">73</a>-<a href="#Page_75">75</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hyers, Anna and Emma, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +J<br /> +<br /> +Jackson, May Howard, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Jamison, Roscoe C., <a href="#Page_145">145</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Jasper, John, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>-<a href="#Page_85">85</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Jenkins, Edmund T., <a href="#Page_132">132</a>-<a href="#Page_133">133</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Johnson, Charles B., <a href="#Page_145">145</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Johnson, Mrs. Georgia Douglas, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Johnson, James W., <a href="#Page_79">79</a>-<a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Johnson, J. Rosamond, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>-<a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Johnson, Noble M., <a href="#Page_149">149</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Jones, Sissieretta, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +L<br /> +<br /> +Lambert, Lucien, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Lambert, Richard, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Langston, John M., <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Lawson, Raymond Augustus, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Lee, Bertina, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Lewis, Edmonia, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>-<a href="#Page_113">113</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Locke, Alain, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Lynch, John R., <a href="#Page_71">71</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +M<br /> +<br /> +Martin, George Madden, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Mason, M. C. B., <a href="#Page_85">85</a>.<br /> +<br /> +McKay, Claude, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>-<a href="#Page_146">146</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Means, E. K., <a href="#Page_148">148</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Miller, Kelly, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>-<a href="#Page_67">67</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Moorhead, Scipio, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Moton, Robert Russa, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Murray, Frederick H. M., <a href="#Page_150">150</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +N<br /> +<br /> +Nell, William C., <a href="#Page_70">70</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +O<br /> +<br /> +O'Neill, Eugene, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Ovington, Mary White, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +P<br /> +<br /> +Payne, Daniel A., <a href="#Page_69">69</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Price, J. C., <a href="#Page_86">86</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Prichard, Myron T., <a href="#Page_155">155</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +R<br /> +<br /> +Ranson, Reverdy C., <a href="#Page_86">86</a>-<a href="#Page_87">87</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Richardson, Ethel, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Richardson, William H., <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +S<br /> +<br /> +Scarborough, William S., <a href="#Page_66">66</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Scott, Dr. Emmett J., <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Scott, William E., <a href="#Page_104">104</a>-<a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Séjour, Victor, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span>Selika, Mme., <a href="#Page_137">137</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Simmons, William J., <a href="#Page_69">69</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Sinclair, William A., <a href="#Page_67">67</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Stafford, A. O., <a href="#Page_72">72</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Steward, T. G., <a href="#Page_71">71</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Still, William, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +T<br /> +<br /> +Talbert, Florence Cole, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>-<a href="#Page_154">154</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Tanner, Henry O., <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>-<a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Tibbs, Roy W., <a href="#Page_134">134</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Tinsley, Pedro T., <a href="#Page_140">140</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Trotter, James M., <a href="#Page_69">69</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Truth, Sojourner, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Tubman, Harriet, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +W<br /> +<br /> +Walker, Charles T., <a href="#Page_85">85</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Walker, David, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Warberry, Eugčne, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Ward, Samuel Ringgold, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Washington, Booker T., <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>-<a href="#Page_96">96</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Watkins, Lucian B., <a href="#Page_145">145</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Weir, Felix, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Wheatley, Phillis (Mrs. Peters), <a href="#Page_10">10</a>-<a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>.<br /> +<br /> +White, Clarence Cameron, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>.<br /> +<br /> +White, Frederick P., <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Whitman, Albery A., <a href="#Page_76">76</a>-<a href="#Page_79">79</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Williams, Bert, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Williams, E. C., <a href="#Page_101">101</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Williams, George W., <a href="#Page_70">70</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Wilson, Edward E., <a href="#Page_72">72</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Woodson, Carter G., <a href="#Page_71">71</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Work, John W., <a href="#Page_140">140</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Wright, Edward Sterling, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>.<br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="notes"> +<h2>Transcriber's Notes:</h2> + +<p>Two variations appear in the text when DuBois is printed in all caps. +The variations, "DUBOIS" and "DU BOIS", have been left as printed.</p> + +<p>Page numbers have been removed for blank pages in the text.</p> + +<p>Page 38 (footnote): Changed 'Lullaby," 1889.' to '"Lullaby," 1889.'</p> + +<p>Page 42: "erceiving" left as printed; verified in book of Dunbar's +poetry cited, "Candle-Lightin' Time".</p> + +<p>Page 92: Changed "Maiden, W. Va." to "Malden, W. Va.".</p> + +<p>Page 98: Changed "ministrelsy" to "minstrelsy".</p> + +<p>Page 127: Changed "The Blind Girl of Castél-Cuillé" to "The Blind +Girl of Castel-Cuillé".</p> + +<p>Page 129 (and Index): Changed "Edmund Dčdč" to "Edmund Dédé".</p> + +<p>Page 153: Changed period to comma, after "Hayes" ("Meanwhile Roland W. +Hayes, the tenor, ...").</p> + +<p>Page 154: Changed "if" to "of" ("A list of books bearing ...").<br /> +Changed "if" to "of" ("these are only some of...").<br /></p> + +<p>Page 181: Changed "(Note:" to "Note:"</p> + +<p>Page 191: Changed "(June, 1867)" to "(June, 1867)."</p> +</div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Negro in Literature and Art in the +United States, by Benjamin Brawley + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE NEGRO IN LITERATURE AND ARTS *** + +***** This file should be named 35063-h.htm or 35063-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/0/6/35063/ + +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.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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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 + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE NEGRO IN LITERATURE AND ARTS *** + +***** This file should be named 35063.txt or 35063.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/0/6/35063/ + +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.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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