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Usually: argument (867) · detachment (728) · exhortation (505) · curiosity (481) · narrative (423) · reflection (284) · censure (258) · skepticism (253) · the test or trial (250) · indignation (182)
“By far the larger part of the slaves know as little of their ages as horses know of theirs, and it is the wish of most masters within my knowledge to keep their slaves thus ignorant.” Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an Amer · observation
“For what this separation is done, I do not know, unless it be to hinder the development of the child’s affection toward its mother, and to blunt and destroy the natural affection of the mother for the child.” Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an Amer · insight
“Let the errors and deceits of our very senses be set before us; the insuperable difficulties which attend first principles in all systems; the contradictions which adhere to the very ideas of matter, cause and effect, extension, space, time, motion; and in a word, quantity of all kinds.” David Hume, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion · insight
“I called at Paul's Churchyard, where I bought Buxtorf's Hebrew Grammar; and read a declaration of the gentlemen of Northampton which came out this afternoon.” Samuel Pepys, Diary of Samuel Pepys — Volume 02: January 1659-1660 · observation
“If you give a nigger an inch, he will take an ell. A nigger should know nothing but to obey his master—to do as he is told to do.” Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an Amer · precept
“In teaching me the alphabet, had given me the *inch,* and no precaution could prevent me from taking the *ell.*” Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an Amer · insight
“Master Thomas was one of the many pious slaveholders who hold slaves for the very charitable purpose of taking care of them.” Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an Amer · wit
“Nor do I hold with those who regard it as a presumption if a man of low and humble condition dare to discuss and settle the concerns of princes; because, just as those who draw landscapes place themselves below … and in order to contemplate the plains place themselves upon high mountains, even so to understand the nature of the people it needs to be a prince” Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince · insight
“We can now legitimately ask as to the “truth” of geometrical propositions interpreted in this way, since we are justified in asking whether these propositions are satisfied for those real things we have associated with the geometrical ideas.” Albert Einstein, Relativity: The Special and General Theory · insight
“In the interest of clearness, it appeared to me inevitable that I should repeat myself frequently, without paying the slightest attention to the elegance of the presentation.” Albert Einstein, Relativity: The Special and General Theory · precept
“The present book is intended, as far as possible, to give an exact insight into the theory of Relativity to those readers who, from a general scientific and philosophical point of view, are interested in the theory, but who are not conversant with the mathematical apparatus of theoretical physics.” Albert Einstein, Relativity: The Special and General Theory · observation
“Life is uncertain, as the preacher tells us; and what will the world say if kind, humane, and benevolent Ben. Franklin should leave his friends and the world deprived of so pleasing and profitable a work;” Benjamin Franklin, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin · observation
In New Bedford, Douglass changes his name for concealment, becomes Frederick Douglass through Nathan Johnson’s selection, and explains how Massachusetts laws and schooling amazed him after slavery.
how to make an honest living. Thus, in a fortnight after my flight from Maryland, I was safe in New Bedford, a citizen of the grand old commonwealth of Massachusetts. Once initiated into my new life of freedom and assured by Mr. Johnson that I need not fear recapture in that city, a comparatively unimportant question arose as to the name by which I should be known thereafter in my new relation as a free man. The nam…
Margoliouth says the suras were meant for hearers via public recital rather than silent readers, outlines key stages of Muhammad’s career tied to suras, and notes that individual verse-to-event links are often hard to pinpoint.
Apostle's, God's pleasure and the Apostle's, spoken of in the same breath, and epithets and attributes elsewhere applied to Allah openly applied to himself as in Sura ix., 118, 129. The Suras, viewed as a whole, strike me as being the work of one who began his career as a thoughtful enquirer after truth, and an earnest asserter of it in such rhetorical and poetical forms as he deemed most likely to win and attract h…
A Quranic section introduces Sura XVIII “The Cave,” recounting the Seven Sleepers’ faith, their sleep and awakening, and guidance that depends on God, not argument or speculation.
legend of Solomon's power over the Genii originates in a mistranslation of Eccl. ii. 8. Comp. also for other points in this story Prov. vi. 6; 1 Kings x. 1-10. 5 "Demons obeyed him (Solomon) . . . and evil spirits were subjected to him." Targ. 2. on Esther 1, 2. From the same source Muhammad has adopted, with slight variations, the whole story of Solomon's intercourse with the Queen of Saba. Comp. also Tr. Gittin, f…
Continuing “The Cave,” the text repeats guidance counsel, forbids disputing too much or asking Christians, and states the Seven Sleepers’ disputed stay length as 300 years plus nine.
This is one of the signs of God. Guided indeed is he whom God guideth; but for him whom He misleadeth, thou shalt by no means find a patron, director. And thou wouldst have deemed them awake,3 though they were sleeping: and we turned them to the right and to the left. And in the entry lay their dog with paws outstretched.4 Hadst thou come suddenly upon them, thou wouldst surely have turned thy back on them in flight…
The notes explain Quranic terms and background (e.g., Sabbath-like or ritual matters, specific wars, mosques, and an incident involving an attempted killing of Muhammad), then introduces Sura V-"The Table" set in Medina.
27 Lit. (are) the one from the other. 28 From giving alms. 29 Comp. Sura liv. 15, p. 77. The traditions as to the collection of pitch from wood of the Ark, in the time of Berosus (B.C. 250?) for amulets, and of the wood itself, in the time of Josephus (Ant. i. 3, 6, c. Apion, i. 19) must have reached Muhammad through his Jewish informants. Fragments are said to have existed in the days of Benjamin of Tudela, and to…
The editor’s preface praises Pepys’s diary as a detailed source for plays and stage life, and claims it also describes surprising early scientific and military experiments, along with scandalous anecdotes.
the curious, affect dramatic antiquities--a line which has special charms for the present age--no book published in our time has thrown so much light upon plays, playwrights, and play- actors. "Then those who desire to be aware of the earliest discoveries, as well in sciences, as in the useful arts, may read in Pepys's Memoirs, how a slice of roast mutton was converted into pure blood; and of those philosophical gla…
The memoir traces Samuel Pepys’s family background, birth in 1632 (likely London), education and early drinking incident at Cambridge, marriage to Elizabeth St. Michel, naval-administrative career, and later persecution during the Popish Plot.
MEMOIR OF SAMUEL PEPYS. Samuel Pepys, the author of the Diary here presented to the reader was descended from the family of Pepys originally seated at Diss, in Norfolk, and who settled at Cottenham, in Cambridgeshire, early in the sixteenth century. His father, John Pepys, followed for some time the trade of a tailor; and the reader may hereafter notice the influence which this genealogy seems to have exercised ove…
Pepys meets a French visitor and discusses France’s religious politics and Charles II’s court conduct, then moves through early February events: Navy manuscript work, private king sightings, and university schooling.
of Chester. William Outram, D.D., Prebendary of Westminster. Ob. 1679; one of the ablest and best of the Conformists, and eminent for his piety and charity, and an excellent preacher.] 6th. To Lincoln's Inn Fields; and it being too soon to go to dinner, I walked up and down, and looked upon the outside of the new theatre building in Covent Garden, which will be very fine. And so to a bookseller's in the Strand, and…
Pepys attends the Order of the Garter ceremonies at Windsor, visits St George’s Chapel, Eton College, reads Latin verse and epitaphs, then shifts to March plague-count updates and begins further sittings for his wife’s portrait.
and other mad sports till towards twelve at night, and then being sleepy, I and my wife in a passage-room to bed, and slept not very well because of noise. 26th. Called up about five in the morning, and my Lord up, and took leave, a little after six, very kindly of me and the whole company. So took coach and to Windsor, to the Garter, and thither sent for Dr. Childe: [William Child, Doctor of Music, Organist of S…
At Arundel House Pepys hosts or attends a society event expecting the Duchess of Newcastle, describes her appearance and a show of scientific experiments, and remarks on her reception.
1661, employed on several Embassies, and Governor of Jamaica. Ob. 1684.] and a very pretty young man, the Duke of Somerset. [Francis fifth Duke of Somerset, murdered in Italy 1678.] 31st. At the Treasury chamber. Here I saw Duncomb look as big, and take as much state on him, as if he had been born a lord. Here I met, with Sir H. Cholmly, who tells me that he is told this day by Secretary Morris that he believes we…
Pepys attends Royal Society officer elections and observes a bloodletting procedure, then continues noting Commons likely to yield or force Clarendon’s commitment, including a fear of falling into a Commonwealth.
peace for what he had done; for that he never could foresee that what he meant so well, in the counselling to lay by the Chancellor, should come to this. 30th. To Arundell House, to the election of officers [Of the Royal Society.] for the next year; where I was near being chosen of the Council, but am glad I was not, for I could not have attended, though above all things I could wish it; and do take it as a mighty…
While traveling, Pepys attends sermons and visits at Brampton and Cambridge, including time at Magdalene College butteries, then returns toward London by stages via Hodsden and Tibald’s road.
that I was in to-night, though full of wit; and worth a man's being in for once to know the nature of it, and their manner of talk and lives. 31st. I hear that Mrs. Davis is quite gone from the Duke of York's house, and Gosnell comes in her room; which I am glad of. At the play at Court the other night Mrs. Davis was there; and when she was to come to dance her jigg, the Queene would not stay to see it; which peopl…
Pepys records Parliament adjourning, experiments with paper-tube spectacles, hears about changes to the Duke of York’s naval authority, attends dinners, drafts a report for the Duke of York, and observes ambassadors and art.
his work, and the chrystal and case and gold case comes to 8l. 3s. 4d.; and which I sent him this night, that I might be out of his debt. 11th. The Parliament met enough to adjourne to the 10th of November next. At the office all the afternoon till night, being mightily pleased with a trial I have made of the use of a tube- spectacall of paper, tried with my right eye. This day I hear that, to the great joy of th…
The editor reports Pepys’s brief college misconduct for drunkenness in October 1653, then narrates his classical education, graduation in 1653, his marriage to Elizabeth St. Michel in December 1655, and her family’s Huguenot background.
in the following month he was elected to one of Mr. Spendluffe's scholarships, and two years later (October 14th, 1653) he was preferred to one on Dr. John Smith's foundation. Little or nothing is known of Pepys's career at college, but soon after obtaining the Smith scholarship he got into trouble, and, with a companion, was admonished for being drunk. [October 21st, 1653. "Memorandum: that Peapys and Hind were …
Pepys reports leaving dinner, hearing of a recent gibbet in Cheapside with a hanging display linked to Huson, then buying Buxtorf’s Hebrew grammar, reading a Northampton declaration, and making preparations for household tarts and larding.
to dinner. After dinner I took leave, and coming home heard that in Cheapside there had been but a little before a gibbet set up, and the picture of Huson [John Hewson, who, from a low origin, became a colonel in the Parliament army, and sat in judgment on the King: he escaped hanging by flight, and died in 1662, at Amsterdam. A curious notice of Hewson occurs in Rugge's "Diurnal," December 5th, 1659…
Odysseus proves himself by describing a scar and the exact number of trees Laertes gave him, then Minerva helps Laertes regain a youthful, imposing appearance as the family gathers to eat and greet him.
“If you really are my son Ulysses,” replied Laertes, “and have come back again, you must give me such manifest proof of your identity as shall convince me.” “First observe this scar,” answered Ulysses, “which I got from a boar’s tusk when I was hunting on Mt. Parnassus. You and my mother had sent me to Autolycus, my mother’s father, to receive the presents which when he was over here he had promised to give me. Furt…
To study variation systematically, Darwin explains his pigeon project, describing how breeds differ drastically in beaks, skulls, behaviors, and other inherited traits across many sub-breeds.
very distinct* breeds could not be got without extreme care and long-continued selection; nor can I find a single case on record of a permanent race having been thus formed. *On the Breeds of the Domestic Pigeon*.—Believing that it is always best to study some special group, I have, after deliberation, taken up domestic pigeons. I have kept every breed which I could purchase or obtain, and have been most kindly favo…
He uses the pigeon and selective breeding of fanciers to show that rapid artificial selection keeps traits variable while selection stabilizes them over time, and he notes sex-biased attachment of variable characters.
great, that it is no exaggeration to state that the varieties differ more from each other in the characters of these important valves than do other species of distinct genera. As birds within the same country vary in a remarkably small degree, I have particularly attended to them, and the rule seems to me certainly to hold good in this class. I cannot make out that it applies to plants, and this would seriously have…
Darwin begins the chapter on instinct, arguing instinct differs from habit in origin but can involve limited judgment or reasoning, and he introduces examples and categories needed to explain instinct by natural selection.
INSTINCT. Instincts comparable with habits, but different in their origin. Instincts graduated. Aphides and ants. Instincts variable. Domestic instincts, their origin. Natural instincts of the cuckoo, ostrich, and parasitic bees. Slave-making ants. Hive-bee, its cell-making instinct. Difficulties on the theory of the Natural Selection of instincts. Neuter or sterile insects. Summary. The subject of instinct might h…
Darwin argues domestic actions are not merely compulsory habit by citing tumbler-pigeon behavior in young birds and inherited effects seen when dogs are predisposed, then discusses how natural instincts can be lost under domestication.
great-grandfather was a wolf, and this dog showed a trace of its wild parentage only in one way, by not coming in a straight line to his master when called. Domestic instincts are sometimes spoken of as actions which have become inherited solely from long-continued and compulsory habit, but this, I think, is not true. No one would ever have thought of teaching, or probably could have taught, the tumbler-pigeon to tu…
Darwin predicts a revolution in natural history: systematists will focus on defining species by measurable differences and intermediates, and broader study of morphology and instincts will become more meaningful.
should infer from analogy that probably all the organic beings which have ever lived on this earth have descended from some one primordial form, into which life was first breathed. When the views entertained in this volume on the origin of species, or when analogous views are generally admitted, we can dimly foresee that there will be a considerable revolution in natural history. Systematists will be able to pursue …
He traces postwar developments from political voting hopes to the “ideal of book-learning,” describing schooling efforts alongside poverty, ignorance, and social repression shaped by prejudice and humiliation.
to have been discovered the mountain path to Canaan; longer than the highway of Emancipation and law, steep and rugged, but straight, leading to heights high enough to overlook life. Up the new path the advance guard toiled, slowly, heavily, doggedly; only those who have watched and guided the faltering feet, the misty minds, the dull understandings, of the dark pupils of these schools know how faithfully, how piteo…
Du Bois says prejudice forced self-questioning and attacks on education, yet argues the situation produced a better understanding of progress, demanding combined work, culture, liberty, and the pursuit of brotherhood.
black, from Toussaint to the devil,—before this there rises a sickening despair that would disarm and discourage any nation save that black host to whom “discouragement” is an unwritten word. But the facing of so vast a prejudice could not but bring the inevitable self-questioning, self-disparagement, and lowering of ideals which ever accompany repression and breed in an atmosphere of contempt and hate. Whisperings …
Du Bois describes the Bureau’s expansion debate in Congress in 1866, the New England schoolteachers’ “crusade,” President Johnson’s vetoes, and the 1866 act making the Bureau permanent through 1868.
vast amount of physical suffering; it transported seven thousand fugitives from congested centres back to the farm; and, best of all, it inaugurated the crusade of the New England schoolma’am. The annals of this Ninth Crusade are yet to be written,—the tale of a mission that seemed to our age far more quixotic than the quest of St. Louis seemed to his. Behind the mists of ruin and rapine waved the calico dresses of …
Du Bois places the Bureau’s work in the late 1860s conflict—Thirteenth through Fifteenth Amendment era—arguing that war’s violence, poverty, and hostility doomed its efforts at social reconstruction and education.
General Howard has said, “scarcely any subject that has to be legislated upon in civil society failed, at one time or another, to demand the action of this singular Bureau.” To understand and criticise intelligently so vast a work, one must not forget an instant the drift of things in the later sixties. Lee had surrendered, Lincoln was dead, and Johnson and Congress were at loggerheads; the Thirteenth Amendment was …
Du Bois assesses Bureau policies on land, labor, and schooling: it limited peasant-proprietor success, spent heavily on education, supported prominent educators, and distributed money to Black soldiers despite recurring fraud.
were the tyrant and the idler,—the slaveholder who was determined to perpetuate slavery under another name; and, the freedman who regarded freedom as perpetual rest,—the Devil and the Deep Sea. In the work of establishing the Negroes as peasant proprietors, the Bureau was from the first handicapped and at last absolutely checked. Something was done, and larger things were planned; abandoned lands were leased so long…
Du Bois says the Revolution of 1876 suppressed Black voting, after which Booker T. Washington became a leader aimed at compromise, and Du Bois critiques Washington’s submission-focused program as causing disfranchisement and educational decline.
was the main programme, and behind Douglass came Elliot, Bruce, and Langston, and the Reconstruction politicians, and, less conspicuous but of greater social significance, Alexander Crummell and Bishop Daniel Payne. Then came the Revolution of 1876, the suppression of the Negro votes, the changing and shifting of ideals, and the seeking of new lights in the great night. Douglass, in his old age, still bravely stood …
Du Bois lists a “triple paradox” in Washington’s position—economic self-help without suffrage, thrift alongside civic submission, and industrial common schools while relying on higher-trained teachers—then contrasts Black revolt and reformist critiques.
3. The steady withdrawal of aid from institutions for the higher training of the Negro. These movements are not, to be sure, direct results of Mr. Washington’s teachings; but his propaganda has, without a shadow of doubt, helped their speedier accomplishment. The question then comes: Is it possible, and probable, that nine millions of men can make effective progress in economic lines if they are deprived of politica…
Du Bois identifies a group of educated Black critics who honor Washington’s conciliation but insist on voting, civic equality, and education, arguing that abandoning these demands would sabotage progress.
and they insist that there is a demand for a few such institutions throughout the South to train the best of the Negro youth as teachers, professional men, and leaders. This group of men honor Mr. Washington for his attitude of conciliation toward the white South; they accept the “Atlanta Compromise” in its broadest interpretation; they recognize, with him, many signs of promise, many men of high purpose and fair ju…
Du Bois recounts a summer teaching trip in rural Tennessee—searching for schools, meeting families like Josie’s, and describing the remote, isolated landscape where a single teacher is eagerly sought.
stage lines, to a land of “varmints” and rattlesnakes, where the coming of a stranger was an event, and men lived and died in the shadow of one blue hill. Sprinkled over hill and dale lay cabins and farmhouses, shut out from the world by the forests and the rolling hills toward the east. There I found at last a little school. Josie told me of it; she was a thin, homely girl of twenty, with a dark-brown face and thic…
Du Bois describes the log schoolhouse, its rough furniture and unreliable benches, then portrays the first day of class with children eager to learn, alongside absences caused by work and domestic duties.
reality was rough plank benches without backs, and at times without legs. They had the one virtue of making naps dangerous,—possibly fatal, for the floor was not to be trusted. It was a hot morning late in July when the school opened. I trembled when I heard the patter of little feet down the dusty road, and saw the growing row of dark solemn faces and bright eager eyes facing me. First came Josie and her brothers a…
Du Bois describes teaching and neighborhood visits in rural Black communities, including a week of simplified Cicero, bedtime routines in Doc Burke’s cabin, and his changing stays with different farming families.
and getting as far into the cabin as possible, I put Cicero “pro Archia Poeta” into the simplest English with local applications, and usually convinced them—for a week or so. On Friday nights I often went home with some of the children,—sometimes to Doc Burke’s farm. He was a great, loud, thin Black, ever working, and trying to buy the seventy-five acres of hill and dale where he lived; but people said that he would…
He explains the shared but uneven consciousness among his rural Black “world,” shaped by poverty and the “Veil,” then recounts how Josie, Jim, and Ben respond differently as youth meets barriers of caste and life.
and wonder, and make the weekly sacrifice with frenzied priest at the altar of the “old-time religion.” Then the soft melody and mighty cadences of Negro song fluttered and thundered. I have called my tiny community a world, and so its isolation made it; and yet there was among us but a half-awakened common consciousness, sprung from common joy and grief, at burial, birth, or wedding; from a common hardship in pover…
Du Bois describes Atlanta University’s campus routine and curriculum as a “green oasis,” argues university education should aim at knowing life’s ends, and critiques hurried, unequal schooling elsewhere.
fair flower of Freedom which, despite the jeers of latter-day striplings, sprung from our fathers’ blood, must that too degenerate into a dusty quest of gold,—into lawless lust with Hippomenes? The hundred hills of Atlanta are not all crowned with factories. On one, toward the west, the setting sun throws three buildings in bold relief against the sky. The beauty of the group lies in its simple unity:—a broad lawn o…
He argues universities should adjust real life and growing knowledge to enable civilization, lists Southern educational gaps, and calls for building Southern and Negro universities with broad culture.
life; and from the dawn of history, from Academus to Cambridge, the culture of the University has been the broad foundation-stone on which is built the kindergarten’s A B C. But these builders did make a mistake in minimizing the gravity of the problem before them; in thinking it a matter of years and decades; in therefore building quickly and laying their foundation carelessly, and lowering the standard of knowing,…
Du Bois concludes with a program for Southern universities: train workers and thinkers, not everyone for the same role, and weave a connected education system grounded in ideals, truth, and righteousness.
the world of work; and until she has this, not all the Apples of Hesperides, be they golden and bejewelled, can save her from the curse of the Boeotian lovers. The Wings of Atalanta are the coming universities of the South. They alone can bear the maiden past the temptation of golden fruit. They will not guide her flying feet away from the cotton and gold; for—ah, thoughtful Hippomenes!—do not the apples lie in the …
Du Bois argues that three streams of thought—from global cooperation, the older Southern belief in Negro inferiority, and black Americans’ demands for liberty—create a tangle that Education must solve by using labor without oppression.
founding the common school on the university, and the industrial school on the common school; and weaving thus a system, not a distortion, and bringing a birth, not an abortion. When night falls on the City of a Hundred Hills, a wind gathers itself from the seas and comes murmuring westward. And at its bidding, the smoke of the drowsy factories sweeps down upon the mighty city and covers it like a pall, while yonder…
He says Southern color prejudice is real and cannot be legislated away, but must be met through broader human reason and careful education that encourages aspiration without inflaming untrained minds into crime.
future as in the past, what shall save us from national decadence? Only that saner selfishness, which Education teaches, can find the rights of all in the whirl of work. Again, we may decry the color-prejudice of the South, yet it remains a heavy fact. Such curious kinks of the human mind exist and must be reckoned with soberly. They cannot be laughed away, nor always successfully stormed at, nor easily abolished by…
Du Bois outlines four phases of Southern education since the Civil War, describing early chaotic schooling, later systems-building with Freedmen’s Bureau and teacher training, and the rise of industrial schooling amid economic crisis.
the contingent—of the ideal and the practical in workable equilibrium—has been there, as it ever must be in every age and place, a matter of infinite experiment and frequent mistakes. In rough approximation we may point out four varying decades of work in Southern education since the Civil War. From the close of the war until 1876, was the period of uncertain groping and temporary relief. There were army schools, mi…
He challenges the idea that industrial schools alone can uplift Black Americans, warning against treating people as material resources for profit, and insisting that education should also pursue culture and character.
brought it in direct touch with the South’s magnificent industrial development, and given an emphasis which reminded black folk that before the Temple of Knowledge swing the Gates of Toil. Yet after all they are but gates, and when turning our eyes from the temporary and the contingent in the Negro problem to the broader question of the permanent uplifting and civilization of black men in America, we have a right to…
Du Bois argues that the proposed linear schooling sequence was historically impossible in the South because the social separation of races prevented white or Northern teachers from establishing common schools without training Black teachers.
work, then simple schools should have taught him to read and write, and finally, after years, high and normal schools could have completed the system, as intelligence and wealth demanded. That a system logically so complete was historically impossible, it needs but a little thought to prove. Progress in human affairs is more often a pull than a push, a surging forward of the exceptional man, and the lifting of his d…
He describes how training-schools evolved from common/grammar into high schools and by 1900 some offered college-grade studies, while debating whether higher education was overdone or prematurely granted.
generation they put thirty thousand black teachers in the South; they wiped out the illiteracy of the majority of the black people of the land, and they made Tuskegee possible. Such higher training-schools tended naturally to deepen broader development: at first they were common and grammar schools, then some became high schools. And finally, by 1900, some thirty-four had one year or more of studies of college grade…
Du Bois defends the distinct purpose of Black colleges like Atlanta, Fisk, and Howard, portraying them as New England-rooted social settlements, then cites data from Atlanta University’s 1900 study of bachelor’s graduates’ work.
conviction. We must not forget that most Americans answer all queries regarding the Negro a priori, and that the least that human courtesy can do is to listen to evidence. The advocates of the higher education of the Negro would be the last to deny the incompleteness and glaring defects of the present system: too many institutions have attempted to do college work, the work in some cases has not been thoroughly done…
He reports that about two thousand Black students earned bachelor’s degrees and that graduate outcomes showed large proportions becoming teachers and clergy, which he presents as evidence higher education fits Black communities’ needs.
land, in both college and secondary training, be counted, Commissioner Harris assures us “it must be increased to five times its present average” to equal the average of the land. Fifty years ago the ability of Negro students in any appreciable numbers to master a modern college course would have been difficult to prove. To-day it is proved by the fact that four hundred Negroes, many of whom have been reported as br…
Du Bois argues that Black college-bred leaders tend to be conservative and effective rather than agitators, and he claims their training helps build city schools and strengthens the professions and the Negro church in the South.
reality it is the heritage from cultured homes, and that no people a generation removed from slavery can escape a certain unpleasant rawness and gaucherie, despite the best of training. With all their larger vision and deeper sensibility, these men have usually been conservative, careful leaders. They have seldom been agitators, have withstood the temptation to head the mob, and have worked steadily and faithfully i…
Du Bois argues that arguments blaming race and color as crimes drive most Black Americans to feel daily wronged, so the future should focus on education and building Negro colleges to steer between dilettantism and shallow thinking.
and lawlessness its twin abortions; that color and race are not crimes, and yet it is they which in this land receive most unceasing condemnation, North, East, South, and West. I will not say such arguments are wholly justified,—I will not insist that there is no other side to the shield; but I do say that of the nine millions of Negroes in this nation, there is scarcely one out of the cradle to whom these arguments…
Du Bois contrasts depression in the Cotton Kingdom with examples of Black landownership and ruined “big houses,” and describes churches and schoolhouses where Black communities organize mutual care and burial societies.
is uncared-for and poor. Only black tenants can stand such a system, and they only because they must. Ten miles we have ridden to-day and have seen no white face. A resistless feeling of depression falls slowly upon us, despite the gaudy sunshine and the green cottonfields. This, then, is the Cotton Kingdom,—the shadow of a marvellous dream. And where is the King? Perhaps this is he,—the sweating ploughman, tilling …
Du Bois argues that public schools are the best means to build self-respecting citizens, citing extreme Georgia funding disparities between white and Negro schools, and urges national help for popular education to avert crime and listlessness.
for reformatories, which has gone on in Virginia, Georgia, and other States, is the one encouraging sign of the awakening of some communities to the suicidal results of this policy. It is the public schools, however, which can be made, outside the homes, the greatest means of training decent self-respecting citizens. We have been so hotly engaged recently in discussing trade-schools and the higher education that the…
Du Bois describes Northern Black life shaped by schools and discrimination, where radicalism, despair, and sectarian church division grow, while many still await an Awakening toward Liberty and Justice for Black people.
the Southern United States, is it not rather the only method by which undeveloped races have gained the right to share modern culture? The price of culture is a Lie. On the other hand, in the North the tendency is to emphasize the radicalism of the Negro. Driven from his birthright in the South by a situation at which every fibre of his more outspoken and assertive nature revolts, he finds himself in a land where he…
Du Bois begins the biography “Of Alexander Crummell,” describing how Crummell struggled with temptations of Hate, Despair, and Doubt, and how sympathy and education first eased the temptation of Hate.
mocking world which seemed to me at once so light and dark, so splendid and sordid. Fourscore years had he wandered in this same world of mine, within the Veil. He was born with the Missouri Compromise and lay a-dying amid the echoes of Manila and El Caney: stirring times for living, times dark to look back upon, darker to look forward to. The black-faced lad that paused over his mud and marbles seventy years ago sa…
The narrative follows Crummell’s education after Beriah Green brings him to Oneida, then shows his turn toward the priesthood and the second temptation of Despair when the Episcopal seminary rejects admission.
the dull waters of Hopelessness? Hast Thou known Life?” And then all helplessly we peered into those Other-worlds, and wailed, “O World of Worlds, how shall man make you one?” So in that little Oneida school there came to those schoolboys a revelation of thought and longing beneath one black skin, of which they had not dreamed before. And to the lonely boy came a new dawn of sympathy and inspiration. The shadowy, fo…
Du Bois recounts Crummell’s years of wandering for a purpose, his struggles in New York, England, and West Africa, and his eventual return home triumphing over hate and despair through disciplined work.
his degree in ’53. Restless still, and unsatisfied, he turned toward Africa, and for long years, amid the spawn of the slave-smugglers, sought a new heaven and a new earth. So the man groped for light; all this was not Life,—it was the world-wandering of a soul in search of itself, the striving of one who vainly sought his place in the world, ever haunted by the shadow of a death that is more than death,—the passing…
Du Bois introduces John Jones at Wells Institute in Johnstown, describing Carlisle Street, Swain Hall, and a recurring student who comes late, then traces his background in Altamaha and the town’s hopes for his return.
his face made one forgive him much,—that broad, good-natured smile in which lay no bit of art or artifice, but seemed just bubbling good-nature and genuine satisfaction with the world. He came to us from Altamaha, away down there beneath the gnarled oaks of Southeastern Georgia, where the sea croons to the sands and the sands listen till they sink half drowned beneath the waters, rising only here and there in long, …
John Jones, initially boisterous and undisciplined at Wells Institute, is suspended for repeated disorder, then—after being warned to leave—returns serious, working hard and teaching himself through difficulty.
John, and he was black; and the white folk thought of another John, and he was white. And neither world thought the other world’s thought, save with a vague unrest. Up in Johnstown, at the Institute, we were long puzzled at the case of John Jones. For a long time the clay seemed unfit for any sort of moulding. He was loud and boisterous, always laughing and singing, and never able to work consecutively at anything. …
John’s education advances, and during college he first notices oppression and the “Veil,” growing angry at Jim Crow restrictions and planning to return to Altamaha despite dread before leaving for summer in the North.
think all things in Greek. So he thought and puzzled along for himself,—pausing perplexed where others skipped merrily, and walking steadily through the difficulties where the rest stopped and surrendered. Thus he grew in body and soul, and with him his clothes seemed to grow and arrange themselves; coat sleeves got longer, cuffs appeared, and collars got less soiled. Now and then his boots shone, and a new dignity …
John and his sister discuss whether studying makes people unhappy, and later John goes to Judge Henderson to seek permission to teach the Negro school, despite feeling he has offended everyone.
Long they stood together, peering over the gray unresting water. “John,” she said, “does it make every one—unhappy when they study and learn lots of things?” He paused and smiled. “I am afraid it does,” he said. “And, John, are you glad you studied?” “Yes,” came the answer, slowly but positively. She watched the flickering lights upon the sea, and said thoughtfully, “I wish I was unhappy,—and—and,” putting both …
A month into the Negro school, the younger John returns bold and contemptuous of the town, while white townspeople criticize his French Revolution and equality talk; Judge Henderson then closes the school and orders children home.
situation, Judge Henderson,” answered John, with a brevity that did not escape the keen old man. He hesitated a moment, and then said shortly, “Very well,—we’ll try you awhile. Good-morning.” It was a full month after the opening of the Negro school that the other John came home, tall, gay, and headstrong. The mother wept, the sisters sang. The whole white town was glad. A proud man was the Judge, and it was a goodl…
He narrates the origins and pilgrimage of the Fisk Jubilee Singers, from Henry Ward Beecher’s welcome to worldwide performance, ending with their fundraising for Fisk University.
Out of them rose for me morning, noon, and night, bursts of wonderful melody, full of the voices of my brothers and sisters, full of the voices of the past. Little of beauty has America given the world save the rude grandeur God himself stamped on her bosom; the human spirit in this new world has expressed itself in vigor and ingenuity rather than in beauty. And so by fateful chance the Negro folk-song—the rhythmic …
A Levite couple hides their newborn, sets Moses afloat in a bulrush basket where Pharaoh’s daughter adopts him, Moses kills an Egyptian, flees to Midian, marries Zipporah, and Israel’s suffering reaches God.
And there went a man of the house of Levi and took a daughter of Levi. And the wife conceived and bare a son. And when she saw that it was a proper child, she hid him three months long. And when she could no longer hide him, she took a basket of bulrushes and daubed it with slime and pitch, and laid the child therein, and put it in the flags by the river's brink. And his sister stood afar off, to wete what would come…
Israel gathers manna in portions measured by a gomer, finds it spoils overnight when gathered too much, and on the Sabbath they gather double before it, resting on the seventh day as manna lasts.
a gomer full for a man according to the number of you, and gather every man for them which are in his tent. And the children of Israel did even so, and gathered some more some less, and did mete it with a gomer. And unto him that had gathered much remained nothing over, and unto him that had gathered little was there no lack: but every man had gathered sufficient for his eating. And Moses said unto them: See that no …