The Negro in Literature and Art in the United States
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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 UnitedStates was not really open to the charge of provincialism. Within thelast year or two the argument has been very much revived; and an Englishcritic, Mr. Edward Garnett, writing in _The Atlantic Monthly_, haspointed out that with our predigested ideas and made-to-order fiction wenot only discourage individual genius, but make it possible for themultitude 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 ofthe crowd--divorce, graft, tainted meat or money--and they proceed tocut the cloth of their fiction accordingly. Mr. Owen Wister, a "regularpractitioner" of the novelist's art, in substance admitting the weightof these charges, lays the blame on our crass democracy which utterlyrefuses to do its own thinking and which is satisfied only with thetinsel and gewgaws and hobbyhorses of literature. And no theme hassuffered so much from the coarseness of the mob-spirit in literature asthat of the Negro.
As a matter of fact, the Negro in his problems and strivings offers toAmerican writers the greatest opportunity that could possibly be givento them to-day. It is commonly agreed that only one other largequestion, that of the relations of capital and labor, is of as muchinterest to the American public; and even this great issue fails topossess quite the appeal offered by the Negro from the socialstandpoint. One can only imagine what a Victor Hugo, detached andphilosophical, would have done with such a theme in a novel. When we seewhat actually has been done--how often in the guise of fiction a writerhas preached a sermon or shouted a political creed, or vented hisspleen--we are not exactly proud of the art of novel-writing as it hasbeen developed in the United States of America. Here was opportunity fortragedy, for comedy, for the subtle portrayal of all the relations ofman with his fellow man, for faith and hope and love and sorrow. Andyet, with the Civil War fifty years in the distance, not one novel orone short story of the first rank has found its inspiration in thisgreat theme. Instead of such work we have consistently had traditionaltales, political tracts, and lurid melodramas.
Let us see who have approached the theme, and just what they have donewith it, for the present leaving out of account all efforts put forth byNegro writers themselves.
The names of four exponents of Southern life come at once tomind--George W. Cable, Joel Chandler Harris, Thomas Nelson Page, andThomas Dixon; and at once, in their outlook and method of work, thefirst two become separate from the last two. Cable and Harris havelooked toward the past, and have embalmed vanished or vanishing types.Mr. Page and Mr. Dixon, with their thought on the present (though forthe most part they portray the recent past), have used the novel as avehicle for political propaganda.
It was in 1879 that "Old Creole Days" evidenced the advent of a newforce in American literature; and on the basis of this work, and of "TheGrandissimes" which followed, Mr. Cable at once took his place as theforemost portrayer of life in old New Orleans. By birth, by temperament,and by training he was thoroughly fitted for the task to which he sethimself. His mother was from New England, his father of the stock ofcolonial Virginia; and the stern Puritanism of the North was mellowed bythe gentler influences of the South. Moreover, from his longapprenticeship in newspaper work in New Orleans he had receivedabundantly the knowledge and training necessary for his work. Settinghimself to a study of the Negro of the old regime, he made a specialtyof the famous--and infamous--quadroon society of Louisiana of the thirdand 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 thevery first he raised the question propounded by this paper. In hisearliest volume there was a story entitled "'Tite Poulette," the heroineof which was a girl amazingly fair, the supposed daughter of one MadameJohn. A young Dutchman fell in love with 'Tite Poulette, championed hercause at all times, suffered a beating and stabbing for her, and was byher nursed back to life and love. In the midst of his perplexity aboutjoining himself to a member of another race, came the word from MadameJohn that the girl was not her daughter, but the child of yellow feverpatients whom she had nursed until they died, leaving their infant inher care. Immediately upon the publication of this story, the authorreceived a letter from a young woman who had actually lived in very muchthe same situation as that portrayed in "'Tite Poulette," telling himthat his story was not true to life and that he knew it was not, forMadame John really was the mother of the heroine. Accepting thecriticism, Mr. Cable set about the composition of "Madame Delphine," inwhich the situation is somewhat similar, but in which at the end themother tamely makes a confession to a priest. What is the trouble? Theartist is so bound by circumstances and hemmed in by tradition that hesimply has not the courage to launch out into the deep and work out hishuman problems for himself. Take a representative portrait from "TheGrandissimes":
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 oldNegro has been held up to the children of the South as the perfectexpression of the beauty of life in the glorious times "befo' de wah,"when every Southern gentleman was suckled at the bosom of a "blackmammy." Why should we not occasionally attempt to paint the Negro of thenew day--intelligent, ambitious, thrifty, manly? Perhaps he is not sopoetic; but certainly the human element is greater.
To the school of Cable and Harris belong also of course Miss Grace Kingand Mrs. Ruth McEnery Stuart, a thoroughly representative piece of workbeing Mrs. Stuart's "Uncle 'Riah's Christmas Eve." Other more popularwriters of the day, Miss Mary Johnston and Miss Ellen Glasgow forinstance, attempt no special analysis of the Negro. They simply take himfor granted as an institution that always has existed and always willexist, as a hewer of wood and drawer of water, from the first flush ofcreation to the sounding of the trump of doom.
But more serious is the tone when we come to Thomas Nelson Page andThomas Dixon. We might tarry for a few minutes with Mr. Page to listento more such tales as those of Uncle Remus; but we must turn to livingissues. Times have changed. The grandson of Uncle Remus does not feelthat 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. Thiswill never do; so in "Red Rock" and "The Leopard's Spots" it must beshown that he should never have been allowed to vote anyway, and thosehonorable gentlemen in the Congress of the United States in the year1865 did not know at all what they were about. Though we are given thecharacters and setting of a novel, the real business is to show that theNegro has been the "sentimental pet" of the nation all too long. By allmeans let us have an innocent white girl, a burly Negro, and a burningat 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'scharacter. Stoneman (Thaddeus Stevens very thinly disguised) is himselfthe whole Congress of the United States. He is a gambler, and "spends apart of almost every night at Hall & Pemberton's Faro Place onPennsylvania Avenue." He is hysterical, "drunk with the joy of atriumphant vengeance." "The South is conquered soil," he says to thePresident (a mere figure-head, by th
e way), "I mean to blot it from themap." Further: "It is but the justice and wisdom of heaven that theNegro shall rule the land of his bondage. It is the only solution of therace problem. Wait until I put a ballot in the hand of every Negro, anda bayonet at the breast of every white man from the James to the RioGrande." Stoneman, moreover, has a mistress, a mulatto woman, a "yellowvampire" who dominates him completely. "Senators, representatives,politicians of low and high degree, artists, correspondents, foreignministers, and cabinet officers hurried to acknowledge their fealty tothe uncrowned king, and hail the strange brown woman who held the keysof his house as the first lady of the land." This, let us remember, wasfor some months the best-selling book in the United States. A slightlyaltered version of it has very recently commanded such prices as werenever before paid for seats at a moving-picture entertainment; and with"The Traitor" and "The Southerner" it represents our most populartreatment of the gravest social question in American life! "TheClansman" is to American literature exactly what a Louisiana mob is toAmerican democracy. Only too frequently, of course, the mob representsus all too well.
Turning from the longer works of fiction to the short story, I have beeninterested to see how the matter has been dealt with here. For purposesof comparison I have selected from ten representative periodicals asmany distinct stories, no one of which was published more than ten yearsago; and as these are in almost every case those stories that firststrike the eye in a periodical index, we may assume that they arethoroughly typical. The ten are: "Shadow," by Harry Stillwell Edwards,in the _Century_ (December, 1906); "Callum's Co'tin': A PlantationIdyl," by Frank H. Sweet, in the _Craftsman_ (March, 1907); "HisExcellency the Governor," by L. M. Cooke, in _Putnam's_ (February,1908); "The Black Drop," by Margaret Deland in _Collier's Weekly_ (May 2and 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 AliceMacGowan, in _Everybody's_ (March, 1910); "Abram's Freedom," by EdnaTurpin, in the _Atlantic_ (September, 1912); "A Hypothetical Case," byNorman Duncan, in _Harper's_ (June, 1915); and "The Chalk Game," by L.B. Yates, in the _Saturday Evening Post_ (June 5, 1915). For highstandards of fiction I think we may safely say that, all in all, theperiodicals here mentioned are representative of the best that Americahas to offer. In some cases the story cited is the only one on the Negroquestion that a magazine has published within the decade.
"Shadow" (in the _Century_) is the story of a Negro convict who for arobbery committed at the age of fourteen was sentenced to twenty yearsof hard labor in the mines of Alabama. An accident disabled him,however, and prevented his doing the regular work for the full period ofhis imprisonment. At twenty he was a hostler, looking forward in despairto the fourteen years of confinement still waiting for him. But thethree little girls of the prison commissioner visit the prison. Shadowperforms many little acts of kindness for them, and their hearts go outto him. They storm the governor and the judge for his pardon, andpresent the Negro with his freedom as a Christmas gift. The story is notlong, 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 atrinket mended for her mistress. At first he makes himself ridiculous byhis finery; later he makes the mistake of coming to a crowd ofmerrymakers in his working clothes. More and more, however, he stormsthe heart of the girl, who eventually capitulates. From the standpointsimply of craftsmanship, the story is an excellent piece of work.
"His Excellency the Governor" deals with the custom on Southernplantations of having, in imitation of the white people, a Negro"governor" whose duty it was to settle minor disputes. At the death ofold 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 besuperseded, however, by loud-mouthed Sambo, though urged to asserthimself by Maria, his wife, an old house-servant who had no desirewhatever to be defeated for the place of honor among the women by Sue, aformer field-hand. At the meeting where all was to be decided, however,Jubal with the aid of his fiddle completely confounded his rival andwon. 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 experiencedwriter, analyzes the heart of a white boy who is in love with a girl whois almost white, and who when the test confronts him suffers thetradition that binds him to get the better of his heart. "But you willstill 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 ofgigantic size who in a moment of fury kills his pretty wife and thewhite man who has seduced her. The tone of the whole may be gleaned fromthe description of Moss Harper's father: "An old darky sat drowsing onthe stoop. There was something ape-like about his long arms, his flat,wide-nostriled nose, and the mat of gray wool which crept down hisforehead to within two inches of his eyebrows."
"The Race-Rioter" sets forth the stand of a brave young sheriff toprotect his prisoner, a Negro boy, accused of the assault and murder ofa little white girl. Hank Egge tries by every possible subterfuge todefeat the plans of a lynching party, and finally dies riddled withbullets as he is defending his prisoner. The story is especiallyremarkable for the strong and sympathetic characterization of suchcontrasting figures as young Egge and old Dikeson, the father of thedead girl.
"Shadow" (in _Everybody's_) is a story that depends for its force verylargely upon incident. It studies the friendship of a white boy, Ranny,and a black boy, Shadow, a relationship that is opposed by both theNorthern white mother and the ambitious and independent Negro mother. Ina fight, Shad breaks a collar-bone for Ranny; later he saves him fromdrowning. In the face of Ranny's white friends, all the harsher side ofthe problem is seen; and yet the human element is strong beneath itall. The story, not without considerable merit as it is, would have beeninfinitely stronger if the friendship of the two boys had been pitchedon a higher plane. As it is, Shad is very much like a dog following hismaster.
"Abram's Freedom" is at the same time one of the most clever and one ofthe most provoking stories with which we have to deal. It is a perfectexample of how one may walk directly up to the light and thendeliberately turn his back upon it. The story is set just before theCivil War. It deals with the love of the slave Abram for a free youngwoman, Emmeline. "All his life he had heard and used the phrase 'freenigger' as a term of contempt. What, then, was this vague feeling, notdefinite 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 hebecomes a hostler in a livery-stable, paying to his master so much ayear for his freedom. Then comes the astounding and forced conclusion.At the very moment when, after years of effort, Emmeline has helped herhusband to gain his freedom (and when all the slaves are free as amatter 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 indis worl' but to wait on you an' master."
In "A Hypothetical Case" we again see the hand of a master-craftsman. Isa white boy justified in shooting a Negro who has offended him? Thewhite father is not quite at ease, quibbles a good deal, but finallysays Yes. The story, however, makes it clear that the Negro did notstrike the boy. He was a hermit living on the Florida coast andperfectly abased when he met Mercer and his two companions. When thethree boys pursued him and finally overtook him, the Negro simply heldthe hands of Mercer until the boy had recovered his temper. Mercer inhis rage really struck himself.
"The Chalk Game" is the story of a little Negro jockey who wins a racein Louisville only to be drugged and robbed by some "flashlight" Negroeswho send him to Chicago. There he recovers his fortunes by giving to agroup of gamblers the correct "tip" on ano
ther race, and he makes hisway back to Louisville much richer by his visit. Throughout the storyemphasis is placed upon the superstitious element in the Negro race, anelement readily considered by men who believe in luck.
Of these ten stories, only five strike out with even the slightestdegree of independence. "Shadow" (in the _Century_) is not a powerfulpiece of work, but it is written in tender and beautiful spirit. "TheBlack 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 thisstory of a man who is not afraid to do his duty. "Shadow" (in_Everybody's_) awakens all sorts of discussion, but at least attempts todeal honestly with a situation that might arise in any neighborhood atany time. "A Hypothetical Case" is the most tense and independent storyin the list.
On the other hand, "Callum's Co'tin'" and "His Excellency theGovernor," bright comedy though they are, belong, after all, to theschool of Uncle Remus. "Jungle Blood" and "The Chalk Game" belong to theclass that always regards the Negro as an animal, a minor, aplaything--but never as a man. "Abram's Freedom," exceedingly wellwritten for two-thirds of the way, falls down hopelessly at the end.Many old Negroes after the Civil War preferred to remain with theirformer masters; but certainly no young woman of the type of Emmelinewould sell her birthright for a mess of pottage.
Just there is the point. That the Negro is ever to be taken seriously isincomprehensible to some people. It is the story of "The Man thatLaughs" over again. The more Gwynplaine protests, the more outlandish hebecomes to the House of Lords.
We are simply asking that those writers of fiction who deal with theNegro shall be thoroughly honest with themselves, and not remain forevercontent to embalm old types and work over outworn ideas. Rather shouldthey sift the present and forecast the future. But of course the editorsmust be considered. The editors must give their readers what the readerswant; and when we consider the populace, of course we have to reckonwith the mob. And the mob does not find anything very attractive about aNegro who is intelligent, cultured, manly, and who does not smile. Itwill be observed that in no one of the ten stories above mentioned, noteven in one of the five remarked most favorably, is there a Negro ofthis type. Yet he is obliged to come. America has yet to reckon withhim. 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 asMr. Howells, for instance, has once or twice dealt with the problem inexcellent spirit. Then there is the work of the Negro writersthemselves. The numerous attempts in fiction made by them have mostfrequently been open to the charge of crassness already considered; butPaul Laurence Dunbar, Charles W. Chesnutt, and W. E. Burghardt DuBoishave risen above the crowd. Mr. Dunbar, of course, was better in poetrythan in prose. Such a short story as "Jimsella," however, exhibitedconsiderable technique. "The Uncalled" used a living topic treated withonly partial success. But for the most part, Mr. Dunbar's work lookedtoward the past. Somewhat stronger in prose is Mr. Chesnutt. "The Marrowof Tradition" is not much more than a political tract, and "TheColonel's Dream" contains a good deal of preaching; but "The HouseBehind the Cedars" is a real novel. Among his short stories, "TheBouquet" may be remarked for technical excellence, and "The Wife of HisYouth" for a situation of unusual power. Dr. DuBois's "The Quest of theSilver Fleece" contains at least one strong dramatic situation, that inwhich Bles probes the heart of Zora; but the author is a sociologist andessayist rather than a novelist. The grand epic of the race is yet to beproduced.
Some day we shall work out the problems of our great country. Some daywe shall not have a state government set at defiance, and the massacreof Ludlow. Some day our little children will not slave in mines andmills, but will have some chance at the glory of God's creation; andsome 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 daycomes let those who mold our ideals and set the standards of our art infiction at least be honest with themselves and independent. Ignorance wemay for a time forgive; but a man has only himself to blame if heinsists on not seeing the sunrise in the new day.
_2. STUDY OF BIBLIOGRAPHY_
The following bibliography, while aiming at a fair degree ofcompleteness for books and articles coming within the scope of thisvolume, can not be finally complete, because so to make it would be tocover very largely the great subject of the Negro Problem, only onephase of which is here considered. The aim is constantly to restrict thediscussion to that of the literary and artistic life of the Negro; andbooks primarily on economic, social, or theological themes, howeverinteresting within themselves, are generally not included. Booker T.Washington may seem to be an exception to this; but the generalimportance of the books of this author would seem to demand theirinclusion, especially as some of them touch directly on the subject ofpresent 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 THENEGRO
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 scholarshipor 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'spoetry 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 BlindGirl 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)."