BOOKS.

CHILDREN OF 1.11.a SLAVES.*

WE have dealt in our leading columns with the reasons why Mr. Stephen Graham's book The Children of the Slaves deservd special attention. Here we will deal, chiefly by means of quo, tation, with the facts set forth by Mr. Stephen Graham, partly based on public documents and partly on his own observations, during his journeys in the Southern States. When we get down to the bedrock of the negro problem wa find that the supreme element, the causes causans of the whole • Children el the Slaver. By Stephen Graham. London : Macmillan. (I, nets] trouble, is lynching. It is as doubly cursed as the auto-da-fe. It may possibly to some extent intimidate the blacks and so act as a deterrent in matters of crime, but this result is as nothing compared with the demoralization which it spreads amongst the whites and with the sense of injustice, of hopelessness, and of bitter resentmentaithwhich it fills the minds of the negroes. No doubt the lynchings were inspired originally by the terror that a white minority always feels when living amongst a coloured and semi-servile race greatly outnumbering it. This terror is intensified when that race is also physically powerful, and by nature brave, savage, cruel, and lustful. The plan of intimi- dating the negro by very quick punishment when he was a slave was a natural, if horrible, result of ownership. Why wait for the slow processes of law to destroy one's own property ? A man does not get a judicial order to kill a vicious horse. But owner- ship plus a very primitive and inadequate police organization, though they may have been the origins of lynching, are unhappily not the forces that maintain the system at the present time, and are even extending its area and increasing its practice. It has become something more than a remnant, a survival of a gradually perishing system of popular revenge. There seems abundant evidence to show that the crowds who attend modern lynchings have become as demoralized by the blood-lust as were the Roman Catholic mobs of Spain and Portugal who " howled " for the blood of Protestants, Jews, and Freemasons.

It will be remembered that Mr. Roosevelt not very many years ago denounced lynching, with that splendid courage which belonged to him, as the greatest and worst of demoralizing influences in the South. He pointed out that no man who had ever willingly attended a lynching left it anything but a worse man. If he was indifferent to what he saw and heard—in their agony the negroes cry for mercy and a quick death—the demoralization of callousness was there. If he felt genuine remorse, that remorse would cling to him throughout life and in a very real sense unman him. The white mobs who drug themselves with the idea that they are doing a good turn for civilization by keeping these "dangerous animals," the negroes, in their place, do not, of course, consciously call for victims, to slake the blood-lust that they feel and show so plainly. Unques- tionably, however, there are many people who are very glad to End an opportunity for taking part in the work of "putting the fear of God into the negroes' hearts," as they would say. So shameless, indeed, have the lynchers become, that it is a common practice for them to. be photographed grouped around the burning negro. The reproduction of one of these photographs Is contained in Mr. Stephen Graham's volume. The charred remains in the foreground of the black man's body still keeping something of the human form is by far the least repulsive thing in the picture. In the white crowd ranged up behind, with their eager, excited faces, there is actually a woman ! All this is bad enough, but perhaps what is even worse ie the fact that the lynching crowds show their delight in the sport by cries of "Let him die slow !" when it is feared that thepleasure of torture may pass too quickly.

Last year in America, assuming that Mr. Stephen Graham's statistics are correct, no fewer than seventy-sever, negroes were lynched. Fourteen of them were burnt alive. Burning alive appears, unfortunately, to be on the increase, and remember it is real burning alive, and not, as many people suppose, merely the burning of the bodies of persons who have been previously shot. The negroes talk and pray and curse and call to God and man for mercy as they burn. Of the seventy-seven lynchings, seventy-two occurred south of the Mason-Dixon line, and the rest in the Western States. The North was, of course, entirely immune. To the ordinary inhabitants of a Northern State the burning of a man or woman alive or dead would he as absolutely unthinkable as it would be in Surrey or Somersetshire.

Of all the States Georgia has the worst modern record for lynching. Li 1919, twenty-two persons were lynched in that State. And now here comes a curious point. In only two of these lynchings was it even alleged that assaults had taken place on white women. The other twenty lynchings were for a variety of crimes and misdemeanours. Here is Mr. Stephen Graham's summary in regard to these crimes :— " Thus, in April, a soldier was beaten to death at Blakely for wearing his uniform too long. In May, at Warrenton, Penny Richards was burned to death for murder. In the first week in August a soldier was shot for refusing to yield the road, and another was hanged for discussing the Chicago race-riots. At Pope City another soldier was lynched for shooting. In the belief that the Negroes were planning a rising, Eli Cooper was taken at Ocmu]gee and publicly burned at the stake. Oa September 10th in the Georgian city of Athens another Negro, Obe COX, was burned for murder. In Americus, in October, Ernest Glenwood was drowned as a propagandist. On October 5th Mr. Moses Martin was shot for incautious remarks. Next day, at Lincolnton, one Negro was shot for misleading the mob, and two others were burned alive for committing murder. Next day another was shot at Macon for attempted murder. Two were hanged at Buena Vista for intimacy with a white woman, and before the end of the month three more met their end from the mob for shooting and manslaughter. As far as Georgia is concerned, this record disposes of the theory that lynching only takes place when white women have been attacked. As a matter of fact, the commonest motive for lynching of Negroes throughout the United States has been shown to be mob-condemnation of violence—not of lust. By far the greatest number of lynchings are for supposed murder. The mob lynches the Negro as a man shoots his dog when the latter has turned on him. Formerly attacks on women provided the greater number of cases. If the Negro were fool enough ever to make eyes at a white woman he risked his life. Many innocent admirations and misunderstandings have resulted in lynchings."

Apropos of the fact that murder is the crime for which most negroes are lynched, Mr. Stephen Graham tells a terrible story. It shows what is often the cause of the alleged murders which are made the excuse for lynchings :— "Granted that the black man is the under-man as far as the Whites are concerned : is he not entitled to some protection for his own women ? One of these Georgia lynchings which occurred last year was a characteristic affair. It occurred at the town of Milan. Two young white fellows tried to break into a house and seize two coloured girls living there with their mother. They ran screaming to a neighbour's home. The Whites tore down a door, ripped up flooring, fired a gine and made a great disturbance. One old Negro woman irgle SO frightened she jumped into a well, and a worthy Negro grand- father of seventy-two years came out with a shot-gun and fired in defence of the women. One of the white men fired on him. The Negro fired back and killed him. The other white man fled. Now, for that deed, instead of being honoured as a brave man, the Negro was seized by the white mob and hanged on a high post, and his old body was shot to pieces. This man was a good quiet citizen who went to chapel every Sunday, and had performed his duty at peace with God and man for a life- tune. The man who led the lynchers was a' Christian 'preacher. Sworn evidence on the matter was taken, but the officers of the law in the county refused to act."

We cannot, of course, vouch for these fade. If they casuist be fully authenticated, then, unquestionably, Mr. Stephen Graham has incurred a very terrible responsibility. This matter, however, will soon be tested. If he wrote on mere hearsay or lightly accepted negro gossip in the matter, con- tradiction is sure to follow.

A still more terrible story follows the one we have just given--a story which involved the lynching of a negro woman, the wife of a negro murderer, but the details are too terrible to be set forth here. Frankly, indeed, they are incredible.

Before we leave Mr. Stephen Graham's book we must quote the following passage in regard to the uses made of the photo- graphs of lynchings, which the crowds appear to be proud to supply:—

" It seems rather strange that lynching crowds allow there selves to be photographed. Men and women and children in hundreds are to be seen in horrible pictures. One sees this summer mob all in straw hats, the men without coats or waist- coats, the women in white blouses, all eager, some mirthful, some facetious. You can upon occasion buy these photogr8el2 as picture postcards. The people are neither ashamed nor afraid. Northern Negroes go down to investigate lynchiutP, buy these photographs, bring them back to safe New Ton; and then print them off in circulars with details of the whole affair. Southern newspapers, though reticent, cannot forge giving descriptions of 'lynchings; every one is so much la, terested in them. Newspaper reports are also reprinted. is no need to resort to hearsay in telling of the mob-murders 9 the South. They are heavily documented and absolutell authenticated. The United States Government cannot, for Instance, prosecute such a Negro Amociation as the N.A.A.C.P. for the pamphlets it issues on lynchings, because t does n more than publish facts which have been Rubliely authenticated. ie If prosecuted, worse details would see lights Therefore tlbo? pamphlets go forth. The first thing they do is tell the coloul people as a whole what has been happening. The Negroes Alabama and Tennessee hear what has been haPeeniugh, Georgia ; the Negroes of Florida and Louisiana hear whet taken place in Arkansas and Texas. Above all, the (idlest?... Northern Negroes mow of it. Advanced papers such se te," Crises, the Chicago Defender, and the Negro Messenger are girl the Negro people as a whole a new consciousness. First 0! Ts; in Christianity in the days of slavery and in their melanchas plantation music they obtained a collective race-conseieuent And now, through persecution on the one band and neweIxTf, on the other they are strengthening and fulfilling that sug. sciousness. Destiny is being shaped in this race, an 00, men are the instruments who are shaping it 3183'

emerge eventually as a sword, the sword of the wrath of the Lord I met many Whites who boasted of having taken part in a lynching, and I have met these who possessed gruesome mementoes in the shape of charred bones and grey dry Negro skin. I said they were fools Actually to have the signs upon them ! Truly they were in the state of mind in which most men seem to be when fate is going to overtake them. They were proud of their quick way with niggers,' they justified it, they felt the wisdom of lynch could never be disproved. The matter to them was not worth arguing. They assumed that any one who wished to argue the point must have sympathy with the 'niggers,' and that was enough for them. It never occurred to them that one who doubted the wisdom of lynching might be actuated by sympathy or at least apprehension for them."

What is the remedy for all these horrors ? We believe that it can be found only in a complete revolution of the treatment of the negro race in the United States. The negroes should be made the guests of the Republic and not be citizens in the full sense. They should not be given the vote, but they should be given complete protection under special federal representa- tives appointed to guard their interests as trustees and guar- dians look after the interests of minors. Instead of the absurdity of declaring there must be the same law for black and white, America should have the courage to Hay, "There shall be a different law for each race." In addition, not only should no ettempt be made to mix the blood of the two razes, but every- thing should be done to discourage miscegenation on either side and in any shape or form.* The idea of sending the negroes back to Africa, which was Abraham Lincoln's remedy, is, of course, now quite impossible. If you could not do it when there were only six million blacks, you certainly cannot do it when there are twelve millions. But though we would not try transportation, we cannot help wondering whether it would not be possible to have a partial experiment in segregation. Might it not be possible to put aside the two States, Mississippi and Alabama. in which more than half the population already consists of negroes as "Reserves," in which negroes should be encouraged,at first under picked white tutelage, to show what they can accomplish in the matter of self-government and self-administration? Here education might be pushed to the furthest point, and no colour prejudice, either social or political, would be allowed to interfere with the com- plete social, spiritual, political, and material development of the black man.

No doubt against an attempt to keep the two races apart will be urged a curious fact which, though well known to many American observers, is seldom put forward in public. It is that the white men, though they appear to hate the negroes, are In reality so much attached to them, so dependent upon them, that no Southerner is ever really happy except in the South. On the other hand, though the resentment is often so bitter, nay so terrible, the negro in his heart admires the white man and is never quite content unless he is in some sort of relation with the white man. Es is usually proud to serve the white man, and quite willing to look up to him as a superior. Therefore, though there can ho no doubt that the white man has demoralized the negro and the negro the white man, there will, in practice, be considerable diffioulty in keeping them apart. All the same, the thing can be done, and ought to be done.

Before we leave Mr. Stephen Graham's interesting book we must say a word or two as to a couple of side points made by him. One is that, whatever we may say as to the ill-treatment of the negroes by the people of the Southern States, the fact remains that in America the negro haa reached the highest point of civilization and cultivation ever attained by him. The educated American negro—who is often, by the way, rich as well as well educated—is the hero of the black man in every other Minty in the world. The other point of which we speak is allied to this. Mr. Stephen Graham shows how real is often the culture and the intellectual power of many of the negroes of

Not merely does he point to Mr. Du Bois' wonderful and terrible book, Dar/meter, but he quotes a poem by Archi- bald Grimk6, entitled "The Thirteen Black Soldiers "—a poem which is as moving as anything in modern literature. It may be read for it literary beauty and distinction as well as because el the terrible spirit of resentment which inspires it. One word more. We know quite well that we shall have offended a large section of Southern opinion in what we have wri_ hen, and also offended a good deal of Northern opinion, and

brerYwhere ID Stephen Graham met with the plea - The negro Is an AAlml.00t a man.- 'Did be aver bear the soul-shaking ao;wer to this rgtenrtlyinon made by a Northern A nuldree by • black wobWitiPet. In the Rath*: Then what Sc you ca g

that many Americans will be unwilling to accept our declaration that we are speaking not so much as Mends of the negro as (4 the American. But even if misrepresentation comes on this point, we must be content to endure It, no vital and so tremendous is the issue. We are, however, most anxious to make it clear that we fully realize that the greater part of what we have written will be as new, as disconcerting, and as painful to the great bulk of the population of the North as it is to us and to the ordinary English reader. Lynching may find a few defenders among Northern Americans when they are over here, for no man when he is away from home likes to hear any portion of his country criticized. The ordinary American, however, at heart feels as strong a sense of indignation over lynching as did that most typical of all Northern Americans, President Roosevelt.

Why, then, is nothing done ? The answer is one which many English people will fail to understand fully. It is the dread of making a new war with the South with all its attendant horrors. The North feels that to force the South to do justice to the negro, or even to leave the negro alone, might lead to civil war in spite of the enormous preponderance of physical force belonging to the North. But, remember, it would mean something much worse than the old civil war. If civil war were to take place now, the emancipated negro would not play the part the slave played in the early sixties. There would be massacres. There would be reprisals. Who can wonder if Americans will not face even the thought of such a situation Or, again, who can wonder if they say to themselves and of themselves, "No matter the merits. If it ever comes to a question of whites against blacks, we must be on the side of the whites"?

Is there no hope that North and South may come together, first on the determination to abolish lynching, to determine, that is, that however drastic must be the punishment in regard to killing of a white man by a black, or a black man by a white, and however severe the punishments for sexual crimes, these punishments must never be administered except by duo process of law ? Secondly, cannot the North and South agree on legislation that will, as far as possible, keep the black man and white man apart and give the black man that protection which is given to wards or non-adolescents in all civilized com- munities ?