[Pg vii]
THE NEGRO:
THE SOUTHERNER’S PROBLEM
THE NEGRO:
THE SOUTHERNER’S PROBLEM
BY
THOMAS NELSON PAGE
CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS
NEW YORK :::::::::::::: 1904
Copyright, 1904, by
CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS
Published, November, 1904
TROW DIRECTORY
PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY
NEW YORK
TO
ALL THOSE WHO TRULY WISH TO HELP
SOLVE THE RACE PROBLEM, THESE
STUDIES ARE RESPECTFULLY
DEDICATED
INTRODUCTORY
In this volume of essays relating to one ofthe most vital and pressing problemswhich has ever confronted a people, nopretence is made that the subject has been fullydiscussed. All that is claimed is that an attemptis made, after years of study and of more orless familiarity with some phases of the Problem,to present them plainly, candidly and, asfar as possible, temperately. It is not evenclaimed that this is wholly possible. No mancan entirely dissociate himself from the conditionsamid which he grew up, or free himselffrom the influences which surrounded himin his youth. The most he can do is to striveearnestly for an open and enlarged mind andtry to look at everything from the highest andsoundest standpoint he can reach. If he doesthis and tries to tell the truth absolutely as hesees it, though he may not have given the exacttruth, he will, possibly, have done his part tohelp others find it.
[Pg viii]
It is not claimed that the author is absolutelycorrect in all of his propositions. Sometimesthe information on which they are based is,possibly, incorrect; the classification of facts incompleteor inexact; and, no doubt, his deductionsare occasionally erroneous; but no propositionhas been advanced for which he does notbelieve he has sound authority; no fact has beenstated without what appears to him convincingproof, and whatever error his deductions containmay readily be detected, as they are plainlystated.
Although it has appeared at one time or anotherthat the race question was in process ofsettlement, yet always, just when that hopeseemed brightest, it has been dashed to theground, and the Question has reappeared insome new form as menacing as ever. In fact,it is much too weighty and far-reaching to bedisposed of in a short time. Where ten millionsof one race, which increases at a rate that doublesits numbers every forty years, confrontwithin the borders of one country another race,the most opposite to it on earth, there mustexist a question grave enough in the present andlikely to become stupendous in the future. Nextto Representative Government, this is to-day the[Pg ix]most tremendous question which faces directlyone-third of the