Chapter IV: The Royal Adventurers and the Plantations (12)

_Dear Mary:_--I just got in from B. Y. P. U. eat a little bite
and got my writing together. Now May dear you mus pardon me for
not answering promp I no you will when I tell you the cause We
had a souls stiring revival this year I mis you so much We
baptised 14 and after the Revival had closed up come George B----
confesing Christ so we baptized the first sunday in May and the
third Sunday in May George were baptise May I cant tell you how I
feel I wrote Ella J---- A---- Ella said she cried as far as she
is from here so she no I cut up but I diden I am just as quite as
I can be Sam H---- joined to. B os Jones Hattie J---- boy Geo
L---- Mr. B---- two boys Walice P---- I dont know the others.
Dear May I got a card from Mrs. Addie S---- yesterday she is well
and say Washington D.C. is a pretty place but wages is not good
say it better forther on Cliford B---- an his wife is back an
give the North a bad name Old lady C---- is in Cleavon an wonte
to come home mighty bad so Cliford say. I got a hering from Vick
C---- tell me to come on she living better than she ever did in
her life Charlie J---- is in Detroit he got there last weak
Hattie J---- lef Friday Oh I can call all has left here Leala
J---- is speaking of leaving soon There were more people left
last week then ever 2 hundred left at once the whites an colored
people had a meeting Thursday an Friday telling the people if
they stay here they will treat them better an pay better. Huney
they are hurted but the haven stop yet. The colored people say
they are too late now George B---- is on his head to go to
Detroit Mrs. Anna W---- is just like you left her she is urgin
everybody to go on an she not getting ready May you dont no how I
mis you I hate to pass your house Everybody is well as far as I
no Will J---- is on the gang for that same thing hapen about the
eggs on Houston road. His wife tried to get him to leave here but
he woulden Isiah j---- is going to send for Hattie. In short
Charles S---- wife quit him last week he aint doin no better May
it is lonesome her it fills my heart with sadiness to write to my
friends that gone we dont no weather we will ever see one or
nother any more or not May if I dont come to Chgo I will go to
Detroit I dont think we will be so far apart an we will get
chance to see each other agin I got a heap to tell you but I feal
so sad in hart my definder diden come yesterday I dont no why it
company to me to read it May I received the paper you sent me an
I see there or pleanty of work I can do I will let you no in my
next lettr what I am going to do but I cant get my mind settle to
save my life. Love to Mr. A----. May now is the time to leave
here. The weather is getting better I wont to live out from town
I would not like to live rite in town My health woulden be good
75 blocks burned in Atlanta. they had fire department from Macon,
Augusta, in Savanah--well all of the largest cities in Georgia to
help put out that fire the whites believe the Gurmons drop that
fire down Now may I hope we will meet again so we can talk face
to face just lik I once have. I will write to Mrs. V---- soon we
hurd Mr. L---- is there I didn't tell the nabors, I was writing
to you M. W---- will write next weak to you

Now we no that we or to pray for each other by by.

From

MARY B----

P. S. I will tell you this Ida gone out to about a farm and wants
me to take one but I feal like I make more up there than I will
fooling with a farm May if I stay here I will go crazy I am told
there is no meeting up there like we have here now May tell me
about the houses you can write me on a pos card of some of the
building. May tell me about the place. Lilian D---- come here
last night an tore my mind al to peaces I got your paper an note
so I will keep up corespond with you.

NASHVILLE, TENN., Aug. 14, 1917.

_Dear Mrs. T----.:_ I received your card and was glad to hear
from you pleas excsue me for not writing before now I have been
sick and have got a tubl headacke write back to me and let me
know how times is--I know you are getting fat of good boes--I
wish it was here--T---- sent love to you and said to get her a
boe. You ought to send me a apron or waist one--J---- said hody
and write to him and tell him about the browns up there and tell
R---- I said hody. I see T---- down to Mrs. S---- G---- and to
tell Mrs. N---- I said hody--how is the weigh up there--we can
get all the beerret we want--You think of me in your prays and I
will think of you in my prays

By By
From your
FRIEND.

ATLANTA, GA., July 4, '17.

_Hello Mr. M----:_ How are you at this time--I arrived here safe
and all O. K. and I am well and hope you are the same. Mrs. M----
told me that she reecived the money you sent to her and everybody
sends love to you. I found my baby very sick when I come home but
he is better now and I am going to try to come back up there in
short time. How are times there now since my leaving there. I
stopped in Cincinnati Ohio for 4 days then I left for G. but I
will be with you some days I hope. Ask J---- W---- did he get my
letter I wrote to him. Plenty work here but no money to it $1.50
to $2.00 a day that all I am telling you truly. Have you seen
anything of W---- W---- he is there in Chicago If you do tell him
to send me his address. I want to here from him I learn he is
making $23.00 a week he lives on Federal St., in the 40 block
some where. If I were there I would locate him.

Tell all the boys Hello. Tell them to write to me and tell me all
the news.

Good Bye
YOUR FRIEND.

NASHVILLE, TENN., Oct. 25th, 1917.

_Mrs. L---- t----:_ my dear friend I receuve your card and was
truly glad to hear from you--it found me not so well at this time
present and when these few lines come to you I hope they will
find you all well and doing well--I want you to write to me and
tell me what ar you doing and what ar you making and where is
your son w---- and how do you think it would soot me up there.
All of your friends said howdy and they would be glad to see
you--I would love to see you and Mrs. B---- I miss you so much.

Say T---- do you think that I could get a job up there if I
would come up there where you are--if so write me word and let me
no are you keeping house now to your self--if so write to me and
let me no--write soon tu me

Yours truley.

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

_My dear Sister:_ I was agreeably surprised to hear from you and
to hear from home. I am well and thankful to say I am doing well.
The weather and everything else was a surprise to me when I came.
I got here in time to attend one of the greatest revivals in the
history of my life--over 500 people joined the church. We had a
Holy Ghost shower. You know I like to have run wild. It was
snowing some nights and if you didn't hurry you could not get
standing room. Please remember me kindly to any who ask of me.
The people are rushing here by the thousands and I know if you
come and rent a big house you can get all the roomers you want.
You write me exactly when you are coming. I am not keeping house
yet I am living with my brother and his wife. My sone is in
California but will be home soon. He spends his winter in
California. I can get a nice place for you to stop until you can
look around and see what you want. I am quite busy. I work in
Swifts packing Co. in the sausage department. My daughter and I
work for the same company--We get $1.50 a day and we pack so many
sausages we dont have much time to play but it is a matter of a
dollar with me and I feel that God made the path and I am walking
therein.

Tell your husband work is plentiful here and he wont have to loaf
if he want to work. I know unless old man A---- changed it was
awful with his sould and G---- also.

Well I am always glad to hear from my friends and if I can do
anything to assist any of them to better their condition, please
remember me to Mr. C---- and his family I will write them all as
soon as I can. Well I guess I have said about enough. I will be
delighted to look into your face once more in life. Pray for me
for I am heaven bound. I have made too many rounds to slip now. I
know you will pray for prayer is the life of any sensible man or
woman. Well goodbye from your sister in Christ

P. S. My brother moved the week after I came. When you fully
decide to come write me and let me know what day you expect to
leave and over what road and if I dont meet you I will have some
one ther to meet you and look after you. I will send you a paper
as soon as one come along they send out extras two and three
times a day.

CHICAGO, ILL.

_Dear Partner:_ You received a few days ago and I was indeed glad
to hear from you and know that you was well. How is the old burg
and all of the boys. Say partner is it true that T---- M---- was
shot by a Negro Mon. It is all over the city among the people of
H'burg if so let know at once so I tell the boys it true. Well so
much for that. I wish you could have been here to have been here
to those games. I saw them and beleve me they was worth the money
I pay to see them. T. S. and I went out to see Sunday game witch
was 7 to 2 White Sox and I saw Satday game 2 to 1 White Sox.
Please tell J---- write that he will never see nothing as long as
he stay down there behind the sun there some thing to see up here
all the time, (tell old E---- B---- to go to (H----) Tell B----
he dont hafter answer my cards. How is friend Wilson Wrote him a
letter in August. Tell him that all right I will see him in the
funny paper. Well Partner I guess you hear a meny funey thing
about Chicago. Half you hear is not true. I know B---- C---- hav
tole a meny lie Whenever you here see them Pardie tell them to
write to this a dress Say Pardie old H---- is moping up in his
Barber shop. Guess I will come to you Boy Xmas. I must go to bed.
Just in from a hard days work.

Your life long friend.

DIXON, ILL., Sept.-25-17.

_Dear Sir:_ Time affords of writting you people now as we have
raised to wages to three dollars a day for ten hours--eleven hrs.
a day $3.19 We work two wks day and two wks night--for night work
$3.90 This is steady work a year round We have been running ten
years without stopping only for ten days repair. I wish you would
write me at once.

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, 11/13/17.

MR. H----
Hattiesburg, Miss.

_Dear M----:_ Yours received sometime ago and found all well and
doing well, hope you and family are well.

I got my things alright the other day and they were in good
condition. I am all fixed now and living well. I certainly
appreciate what you done for us and I will remember you in the
near future.

M----, old boy, I was promoted on the first of the month I was
made first assistant to the head carpenter when he is out of the
place I take everything in charge and was raised to $95. a month.
You know I know my stuff.

Whats the news generally around H'burg? I should have been here
20 years ago. I just begin to feel like a man. It's a great deal
of pleasure in knowing that you have got some privilege My
children are going to the same school with the whites and I dont
have to umble to no one. I have registered--Will vote the next
election and there isnt any 'yes sir' and 'no sir'--its all yes
and no and Sam and Bill.

Florine says hello and would like very much to see you.

All joins me in sending love to you and family. How is times
there now? Answer soon, from your friend and bro.

PITTSBURG, PA., May 11, 1917.

_My dear Pastor and wife:_ It affords me great pleasure to write
you this leave me well & O. K. I hope you & sis Hayes are well &
no you think I have forgotten you all but I never will how is
ever body & how is the church getting along well I am in this
great city & you no it cool here right now the trees are just
peeping out. fruit trees are now in full bloom but its cool yet
we set by big fire over night. I like the money O. K. but I like
the South betterm for my Pleasure this city is too fast for me
they give you big money for what you do but they charge you big
things for what you get and the people are coming by cal Loads
every day its just pack out the people are Begging for some
whears to sta If you have a family of children & come here you
can buy a house easier than you cant rent one if you rent one you
have to sign up for 6 months or 12 month so you see if you dont
like it you have to stay you no they pass that law becaus the
People move about so much I am at a real nice place and stay
right in the house of a Rve.---- and family his wife is a state
worker I mean a missionary she is some class own a plenty rel
estate & personal Property they has a 4 story home on the
mountain, Piano in the parlor, organ in the sewing room, 1
daughter and 2 sons but you no I have to pay $2.00 per week just
to sleep and pay it in advance & get meals whear I work so I
think I shall get me a place whear I work next week the lady said
she would rather we stay in the house with them & give me a room
up stairs than to pay so much for sleeping so she pays me eight
Dols per week to feed now she says she will room me so if I dont
take that offer I cant save very much I go to church some time
plenty churches in this plase all kinds they have some real
colored churches I have been on the Allegany Mts twice seem like
I was on Baal Tower. Lisen Hayes I am here & I am going to stay
ontell fall if I dont get sick its largest city I ever saw 45
miles long & equal in breath & a smoky city so many mines of all
kind some places look like torment or how they say it look & some
places look like Paradise in this great city my sister in law
goes too far I stop here I will visit her this summer if I get a
pass I cant spend no more money going further from Home I am 26
miles from my son Be sweet Excuse me for writeing on both sides I
have so much to say I want to save ever line with a word and that
aint the half but I have told you real facts what I have said I
keps well so far & I am praying to contenure & I hope you & your
dear sweet wife will pray for me & all of my sisters & Bros &
give Mrs. C. my love & sis Jennie & all the rest & except a
barrel ful for you and Hayes Pleas send me a letter of
recommendation tell Dr., to sign & Mr. Oliver. I remain your
friend.

CLEVELAND, OHIO, Aug. 28, 1917.

hollow Dr. my old friend how are you to day i am well and is
doing fine plenty to eat and drink and is making good money in
fact i am not in the best of health i have not had good health
sence i ben here, i thought once i would hefter be operrated on
But i dont no. i were indeed glad to recieve that paper from
Union Springs, i saw in this a peas swhare I wrote to ellesfore a
2 horse farm, i have seval nochants of coming back, yet i am
doing well no trouble what ever except i can not raise my
children here like they should be this is one of the worst places
in principle you ever look on in your life but it is a fine place
to make money all nattions is here, and let me tell you this
place is crowded with the lowest negroes you ever meet, when i
first come here i cold hardly ever see a Negro but no this is as
meny here is they is thir all kinds of loffers. gamblers pockit
pickers you are not safe here to walk on the streets at night you
are libble to get kill at eny time thir have ben men kill her
jest because he want allow stragglers in his family, yet i have
not had no trouble no way. and we are making good money here, i
have made as hight at 7.50 per day and my wife $4 Sundays my sun
7.50 and my 2 oldes girls 1.25 but my regler wegers is 3.60 fore
8 hours work. me and my family makes one hundred three darlers
and 60 cents every ten days. it don cost no more to live here
than it do thir, except house rent i pay 12 a month fore rent
sence i have rote you everything look closely and tell me what
you think is best. i am able to farm without asking any man fore
enything on a credit i can not in joy this place let me tell you
this is a large place Say Jef thornton, and William Penn taken
dinner with us last Sunday and we taken a car ride over the city
in the evening we taken the town in and all so the great Jake
era. they left Sunday night for Akron. Allso Juf griear spent the
day with me few days ago give my love to all the Surounding
friends

By By

PHILADELPHIA, PA., Oct. 7, 1917.

_Dear Sir:_ I take this method of thanking you for yours early
responding and the glorious effect of the treatment. Oh. I do
feel so fine. Dr. the treatment reach me almost ready to move I
am now housekeeping again I like it so much better than rooming.
Well Dr. with the aid of God I am making very good I make $75 per
month. I am carrying enough insurance to pay me $20 per week if I
am not able to be on duty. I don't have to work hard, dont have
to mister every little white boy comes along I havent heard a
white man call a colored a nigger you no now--since I been in the
state of Pa. I can ride in the electric street and steam cars any
where I get a seat. I dont care to mix with white what I mean I
am not crazy about being with white folks, but if I have to pay
the same fare I have learn to want the same acomidation. and if
you are first in a place here shoping you dont have to wait until
the white folks get thro tradeing yet amid all this I shall ever
love the good old South and I am praying that God may give every
well wisher a chance to be a man regardless of his color, and if
my going to the front would bring about such conditions I am
ready any day--well Dr. I dont want to worry you but read between
lines; and maybe you can see a little sense in my weak statement
the kids are in school every day I have only two and I guess that
all. Dr. when you find time I would be delighted to have a word
from the good old home state. Wife join me in sending love you
and yours.

I am your friend and patient.

DAYTON, OHIO, 7/22/17.

_My dear pastor and wife:_ I reed your letter was Glad to hear
from you I am do find hope the same for you I am send you some
money for my back salary I will send you some more the 5 of Sept
next month Give love to all of the member of church I will be
home on a visit in Oct are early so pray for me write to me I
would have wrote to you but I didnot no just what to say all of
the people leaves Go to place up East that I did not no weather
are not you care to hear from me are not so I am glad you think
of me. Mr. O---- write me was going to take out life insurance
with him but he would not send me the paper so I just let it Go
as I guess he did not class me with himself I am mak $70 month at
this hotel and then not work hard.

PARIS, ILL., 11/7/17.

REV. ----,
Union Springs, Ala.

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

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

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

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

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

HOLDEN, W. VA.

DR. ----,
Union Springs, Ala.

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

Yours in F. C. & B.

CHICAGO, IND., July 15, 1917.

DR. ----,
Union Springs, Ala.

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

Yours in Christ.

DAYTON, OHIO, Oct. 17, 1917.

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

EAST CHICAGO, IND., June 10, 1917.

DR. ----,
Union Springs, Ala.

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

Yours friend,

AKRON, OHIO, May 21, 1917.

_Dear Friend_: I am well and hop you are well. I am getting along
fine I have not been sick since I left home I have not lost but
2-1/2 day I work like a man. I am making good. I never liked a
place like I do here except home. Their is no place like home How
is the church getting along. You cant hardly get a house to live
in I am wide awake on my financial plans. I have rent me a place
for boarders I have 15 sleprs I began one week ago and be shure
to send me my letter of dismission By Return mail. I am going
into some kind of business here by the first of Sept. Are you
farming. Rasion is mighty high up here. the people are coming
from the south every week the colored people are making good they
are the best workers. I have made a great many white friends. The
Baptist Church is over crowded with Baptist from Ala & Ga. 10 and
12 join every Sunday. He is planning to build a fine brick
church. He takes up 50 and 60 dollars each Sunday he is a wel to
do preacher. I am going to send you a check for my salary in a
few weeks. It cose me $100 to buy furniture. Write me.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] These letters were collected under the direction of Mr. Emmett J. Scott.

BOOK REVIEWS

_The American Negro in the World War._ By EMMETT J. SCOTT, Special Assistant to the Secretary of War. The Negro Historical Publishing Company, Washington, D.C., 1919.

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

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

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

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

* * * * *

_The Heart of a Woman._ By GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON, with an introduction by WILLIAM STANLEY BRAITHWAITE. The Cornhill Co., Boston, 1918. Pp. 62.

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

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

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

J. R. FAUSET

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_A History of Suffrage in the United States._ By KIRK and PORTER, Ph.D. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Ill. Pp. 265. Price $1.25.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

NOTES

To facilitate the study of Negro history in clubs and schools, Dr. C. G. Woodson has prepared an illustrated text-book entitled _The Negro in our History_. It has been sent to the publishers and is expected from the press the first of the year. The book has a topical arrangement but the matter is so organized as to show the evolution of the Negro in America from the introduction of slavery in 1619 to the present day. The topics are: _The Negro in Africa_, _The Enslavement of the Negro_, _Slavery in its Mild Form_, _The Negro and the Rights of Man_, _The Reaction_, _Economic Slavery_, _The Free Negro_, _Abolition_, _Colonization_, _Slavery and the Constitution_, _The Negro in the Civil War_, _The Reconstruction_, _Finding a way of Escape_, _Achievements in Freedom_, _The Negro in the World War_, and _The Negro and Social Justice_.

The aim of the author is to meet the long felt need of a book of fundamental facts with references and suggestions for more intensive study. While it is adapted for use in the senior high school and freshman college classes, it will serve as a guide for persons prosecuting the study more seriously.

Just as soon as this book has come from the press the Association will send to all Negro schools of secondary and college grade a field agent to interest them in the effort to inculcate in the mind of the youth of African blood an appreciation of what their race has thought and felt and done. The cooperation of all persons taking seriously the effort to publish the records of the Negro that the race may not become a negligible factor in the thought of the world, is earnestly solicited. Any suggestions as to how this work may be more successfully prosecuted and as to extending it into inviting fields, will be appreciated.

Dr. W. E. B. DuBois and his coworkers are preparing a History of the Negro in the World War to be published about October.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE SECOND BIENNIAL MEETING OF THE ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF NEGRO LIFE AND HISTORY

The Association for the Study of Negro Life and History held its second biennial meeting in Washington, D. C., on the 17th and 18th of June. An effort was made to bring together for a conference all persons interested in the study of Negro life and history and especially to reach those who are giving instruction in these fields. Accordingly there were present persons from all walks of life, some coming even from distant points. The Association was honored by the presence of Dr. J. Stanley Durkee and Dr. H. B. Learned.

In the absence of Dr. Robert E. Park, President of the Association, Dr. J. E. Moorland, Secretary-Treasurer, presided. The first session was an interesting one. Mr. C. H. Tobias delivered an instructive address on "Negro Welfare Work during the World War." The address covered in outline the efforts and achievements of all such agencies as the Knights of Columbus, Red Cross, Young Women's Christian Association, Young Men's Christian Association, and the Salvation Army, with reference to their special bearing on the comfort of the Negroes during the war. The speaker undertook to give the merits and demerits in each case to enlighten the public as to what was done for and what against the Negro soldiers by these social welfare agencies.

Mr. Monroe N. Work then read an interesting and valuable paper on the "Negro and Public Opinion in the South since the Civil War." The purpose of the paper was to set forth the varying attitude of the whites toward the Negro as evidenced by the thought of the community expressed in the records from decade to decade. Exactly why these changes in public opinion were brought about constituted the most interesting part of this address, for it treated not necessarily of present day conditions but undertook to account for them in the past.