University of Virginia Library

Chapter
Forty Years later

After my nine and half years experience
among the Freedmen of Virginia — an
experience wholly different from that of
persons who spend a few weeks or months in
some part of the south for the benefit of their
health or to take advantage of a milder
climate than that of New England — an
experience in which we learned to know the
colored people as they really were; their abilities
and their good qualities as well as their bad
ones: and added to that what I have learned
through letters from old pupils, and through
articles in papers and magazines — after all
this what is my opinion of them as a race?
What would have been their progress after being
freed had they been left wholly to their own
devices? What advance would they have made
in education and in a decent manner
of living? and in their nearly half a century

of freedom what have they to show for
the advantages they have enjoyed? These
are pertinent questions, and should be
answered thoughtfully, candidly and
without prejudice.

In the first place, is it hardly fair to speak
of them as a race? To most minds this would
convey the idea that they were negroes, and
yet a large proportion of those I knew were
descendants of two races. It seems a common
trait of the Anglo Saxon that wherever he
perceives an individual of mixed races to
classify him with the one he considers the inferior
and if he displays any undesirable qualities, they
are the traits of that inferior race, while all his
brilliant and otherwise desirable characteristics
can be traced to a white ancestor.
I knew many among the so-called
colored people who were perfect blonds — white
skins, blue eyes and flaxen hair, but despite
the testimony of ones eyes they were negroes,
or as more commonly designated — niggers, and
of course belonged to the African race, even

if the African ancestors were twenty generations
back. However, for the sake of convenience I
shall adopt the common rule and speak of
them as a race.

As benevolent societies took up the work of
educating and otherwise assisting this people
immediately after their emancipation, it is
difficult to form any idea as to how long their
poverty, added to the habits engendered by slavery
would have held them in abject ignorance and
degredation. The struggle of the greater number
to satisfy their most pressing needs would probably
have exhausted all their time and strength, and
to many life would have been harder in some
ways than during the days of slavery. But there
were some among them in better circumstances
than the majority — free colored people who had,
in one way and another accumulated a little
property, and, in spite of obstacles acquired the
rudiments of an education — men and women
of much natural intelligence and public spirit
enough to feel an interest in their race Their
better positions and attainments would have
spurred the ambition of those of a lower grade,
for the humblest among them were anxious to
learn, and the services of the more fortunate
would have been called into requisition, as teachers

of the ignorant and poverty stricken. The work
would have been slow and very imperfect at
first and many would have yielded to
discouragements, but the instinct to learn
was so strong in the race that I firmly believe
that although it might have taken generations
to do so, they would have won out in the end.

Of course there were shiftless, degenerate
individuals among them as there are in all
races and all classes, but I believe taking
all the circumstances into consideration they
have made as much progress in the brief
period of their lives as free people, as any race
would have done in the same time and
under similar circumstances.

The obstacles they had to overcome in spite
of the aid that was extended them through
various educational and charitable organizations
were greater than most people can realize
To say nothing of the limitations that
descended to them through a barbarian
ancestry; or of the brutalizing effects of slavery
upon their natures, they came out of bondage
owners of themselves to be sure but of little else
— poor not only in worldly goods, but utterly
poverty stricken as regards a knowledge as
to how to make the best use of such means

and qualifications as had fallen to their lot.
They looked out upon the world with bewildered
eyes, not knowing what to do in the strange
situation in which they found themselves, and
finally, when their brains had been able to solve
the puzzle, and they had started out to make
their way in the world, they were met with
prejudice and persecution in all directions.
It seems to me that instead of it being
a matter of surprise that so many of them
are still shiftless and ignorant the fact that
so many are sober, industrious intelligent
citizens, and no small number of individuals
among them who have attained to positions
of considerable eminences should excite our
admiration and applause.

"What have they to show for the advantages
they have enjoyed in their half century of freedom?"
In answer I would say that I have no statistics at
hand, but that these can be procured from various
sources, notably from the report of such schools
as Hampton, Tuskeegee and dozens of others
through which we learn of the progress they have
made, not only in book learning, but in
industrial education, wealth, and the art
of decent living. And a reference to the

letters of some of my former pupils, to be found
in Chapter 19th of these Reminiscences, must
surely convince any unprejudiced person that
in one locality at least there has been most
hopeful progress. Fifty years is a brief period
in the educating and civilizing of a race.
It is true that some civilizing influences reached
them through slavery. The servants in families
of culture and intelligence acquired some of the
manners and habits of those they served, and
naturally each generation took on something
more of the qualities of the governing race than
the preceding one, so they had this
advantage as a foundation to build upon;
and some of them found good friends in
their former masters when the bonds of slavery
were broken. But it was more often that the
bitterness of their defeat roused a feeling of
enmity in the hearts of the masters towards
their former chattels, and instead of stretching
out a helping hand, they either tried to
obstruct their progress, or ignored them entirely
so the help they received from friends, and the
obstacles put in their way by unfriendly ones,
just about balanced each other. Instead of
judging too harshly those who tried to restrain
the progress of the Freedmen we should exercise
feelings of pity and charity towards them
They did not view the shield from the same side
as ourselves, and the change from the old
regime was very hard on them. It was only
human nature that they should feel bitter and
resentful, but in taking this course they stood
in their own light, and in retarding the
progress of the colored people they also retarded
their own interests as well. But they are learning
their lesson, and prosperity smiles upon them in
these new industries which are springing
up all over the South — industries in which
their old time chattels are an important factor.
As years go on, it is possible that whatever
of ill feeling remains between the white
people and their former bondmen will
gradually fade away and future generations
of southerners will wonder as do we in
the North how it was ever possible for our
ancestors to think it right to hold human
beings in slavery.

It is good to feel that this greatest of all blots
upon our free institutions, this "sum of all
villianies" as it was designated by one of our
brave old time abolitionists, has been erased

as we trust for all time. There is still much
to be done to remove the effects of the great
wrong our fathers handed down to us as a
legacy, but time, and patience, and the
growing moral sense of the world at large
are working wonders. And as a final word
I would say that my faith in the future of
this people has never wavered, and I am
glad, glad, glad that I had even a small
and insignificant part in the uplifting
of the freed people of Virginia.

Whittier