Barnes, Jasper C. The influences of the change of the industrial systems of the South on the development of personality in the Afro-America The Influences of the Change of the Industrial Systems of the South on the Development of Personality in the Afro-American. A THESIS f \ * PRESENTED B Y Jasper C. Barnes, Ph. D., Professor of Pedagogy, Maryville College, Maryville, Tenn. For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, on Examination, in the Post-Graduate Department, Course A, Philosophy, of the University of Wooster, June. 1900. Reprinted from the Post-Graduate and Wooster Quarterly, April, 1900. WOOSTER, OHIO; THE HERALD PRINTING CO. INFLUENCES OF TEE CHANGE OF THE INDUS- TBIAL SYSTEMS OF THE SOUTH ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONA LITY IN THE AFEO-AMERICAN. Professor Jasper C. Barnes, Ph. D., Maryville, College, Mary- ville, Tenn. A Graduating Thesis; Course A, Philosophy. The development of the American Negro from a barbar- ous state to the highest degree of modern civilization fur- nishes a fertile field for sociological study. The Negro was thrust into the midst of modern civilization, though he had done almost nothing to produce that civilization. The negro problem is, therefore, unique. The history of mankind demonstrates the truth that all genuine development has been attained by hard work. The careers of Germany, France, England and the United States are good exemplifications of this truth. The three first nations mentioned struggled for centuries to attain their present high state of civilization. They have earned their present privileges at the cost of all the labor of which human beings are capable. The social status of the American negro is the result of a very different process. His civilization is an engrafted one. To trace the development of his personality, it is necessary to go a little back of his emancipation. The investigator must know the Negro’s condition at that time, and the traits that he ac- quired during his bondage, a period during which individual action was unknown to him. Personality is an indefinite and variable quantity ; hence a concise definition of it cannot be given. It varies in mean- ing from the vague conscious experiences of the lower types of humanity and of children to the clear and vivid experiences of the wisest men. Prof. James Mark Baldwin says: “A per- 2 Development of Personality son stands for a group of experiences quite unstable in its prophetic as in its historical meaning.” Each person, then, stands for an indefinite and varied number of experiences linked together in consciousness. The writer’s first thesis is, that work is the most impor- tant factor in the development of personality. That is, that work in its various forms affords more of the conscious exper- periences that make us what we are, than does any other one kind of experiences, and, if we take work in its broadest sense, its influence is greater than is that of all others combined. The term work signifies physical or intellectual effort in which the end lies outside the immediate. Its effect Is to bind together the past, present and future. Play, then, may become work whenever its activities are directed toward an end outside of the immediate. The professional base-ball player furnishes a good example of this fact; the chief object of his play is to gain a livelihood. Is the group of experiences occasioned by work a more important factor in the development of the individual con- sciousness than is the group of experiences occasioned by play? The games of children afford excellent training for the work of manhood. Children should be taught to play by system. This habit will help them to work by system. Just as instincts ripen and pass over into reason, so the activities of play may be made to pass over into the higher activities of of work. Early in life, at least before our maturity, we must choose our occupation, if we hope to succeed; our thoughts and our acts must be directed toward the accom- plishment of the end we have in view. It is a maxim that the education of the child should begin three generations be- fore its birth. To begin ten generations before its birth would be still better. Heredity wields a powerful influence in the deyelopment of mankind; tendencies are transmitted to succeeding gener- ations whose whole future seems to be directed by the devel- opment of inborn tendencies. Tendencies to form habits of gesture, modes of walking, smiling, eating, talking and the like, are transmitted from parent to child, and seem to in- fluence the action of that child so strongly that one might think that all bis personality depends upon its ancestors, and in the Afro-American. S that he might well exclaim: “Nihil est in puero quod non prius in parenti.” But what was the cause of these habitp, manners and tendencies of the parents? Occupation, employ- ment, work. The tendency to activity is inherent, but the individual is enlarged and developed by activity; work being a necessary activity wields the greatest influence. The occupations of a people indicate to a large extent, their physical, intellectual and moral condition. Or, to put it more accurately, the degree of perfection reached in their various vocations is an index to their civilization. Mind and body develop by action. Work is the occasion of systematic effort and activity, and by repetition habits are formed. In accordance with the law of habit in the nervous system, the activities occasioned by work plow a deeper groove in the nervous structure, and so deyelop a more defin- ite and stable personality than do play and other kinds of activity. The habits of systematic work change the ten- dencies of the individual and these tendencies are transmitted to off-spring, and in this way work is indirectly the cause of many hereditary traits. The activities of ordinary manual labor, after they are once learned, are carried on chiefly by the lower nerve centers; and, if the individual thus engaged does not supplement his conscious- ness with other things, he will become narrow in his intellec- tual nature. If work, then, is the most important factor in the devel- opment of personality, the elevation of the Negro will be accomplished only in so far as his literary and his industrial education go hand in hand. All other races have worked and fought for every step in their progress. It is true that their progress has been slow. All genuine advancement is slow. The rights and privileges enjoyed by the people of Germany, France and England, haye cost cen- turies of toil and hardships. History teems with accounts of valiant deeds. In the United States, a man’s real worth measures his social and civil standing. He stands where he himself has climbed. The Negro is an exception to this rule; his history is a savage, a slave, a freeman. The last two steps were not taken by himself; another took them for him. Citizenship, with its rights, privileges and burdens was, with- Development of Personality 4 out effort on his part, thrust upon him. This has no parallel in the history of civilization. 1. The Period of Bondage. What were the in- fluences of slavery upon the Negro? A Southern his- torian says: “Under its influences they (the slaveholders) saw hundreds of thousands of African savages civilized and Christianized; and many of them thought it the greatest missionary agent the world had ever known !” This is a startling statement to be made in the dawn of the twen- tieth century; and yet while intelligent people hold such views, their views must not be disregarded in the considera- tion of the great problem. Upon careful investigation, the writer finds that a very small per cent of the slaves were thus Christianized and civilized by the influence of their masters. A few old slaves have told the inyestigator personally of the good influences and of the kind treatment given them by their masters. But those masters formed the class that finally either gave or sold the slave his freedom. Such good men, of course, could easily believe slavery to be a missionary agent ; and it was, so far as they were concerned ; true, their number was, perhaps, greater than we now believe it to have been. But the history of slavery shows that it has been neither a Christianizing nor a civilizing agent. Forcible seizure in Africa, cruel exportation and coercive enslavement, tended to emascu- late the negro of all noble aspirations. His Caucasian master compelled him to live in tbe midst of civilization, and yet he did not permit the negro to enjoy its blessings. Laws were enacted making it a penal offence to teach a negro to read ; he was kept thus in ignorance and abject slavery. These influences, in no manner, tended either to civilize or to Chris- tianize him. During his bondage, the Negro was excluded from all the professions, from mercantile transactions, and from all the pursuits in which skilled labor was required. For two and one half centuries, or from 1619 to 1865, his development was due almost entirely to two occupations, — agriculture and per- sonal seryice. Individual personality and independent action were unknown to him. In his native tribes the Negro was obliged to do as his chief commanded, and in slavery he was compelled to do as his master directed. The influence of in the Afro-American. 6 heredity during these periods counts as a negative quantity for the Negro. His work and his environments developed in him some elements of positive value. The first of these influences was the work of agriculture, that is, the mere drudgery of agriculture, for he was not per- mitted to engage in the intellectual part of it. All persons learn largely by imitation, and this is especially true of the Negro; he is an imitator. His first attempts in agriculture were attempts at imitation. But these attempts brought him conscious experiences of success or failure. The former pro- duced in him a state of satisfaction and confidence; the latter, disappointment and distrust. Failure to imitate exactly the acts of another is frequently more valuable to the individual than are the exact imitations; for the failure results in a new experience which, in a somewhat different manner, accomp- lishes the end in view. And this new experience becomes original knowledge to the individual. Each effort to repro- duce or to perform a given act is an invention peculiar to the individual imitator. The Negro acquired some originality in the simplest form of work. In the mere drudgery of plowing and hoeing, sowing and reaping, planting and picking, new acts and ideas, and new habits became a part of his personal self. Personal service yielded a greater force in the Negro’s elevation than did the occupation of agriculture. The more docile slaves were used for this service; and in considering the educational influence of such service, we must not overlook this fact. Being more teachable than the others, and coming in closer contact with their cultured masters, they acquired quite a number of the traits of civilization. The personal ser- vice slaves with their newly acquired culture tended by their example to elevate the less favored of their race. In short, they learned the culinary arts, the household duties, the toil- ette and the etiquette of the most highly civilized race. The statement of the Southern historian that slavery was a civilizing agent is not wholly false. Even drudgery under the direction of an overseer developed habits of doing certain things at fixed times and in a definite manner, and so tended to build up a definite personality. Personal service developed habits of politeness, and gentility, while constant contact with 6 Development of Personality people of superior attainments developed the power of imita- tion. Slavery developed three good characteristics in the Negro: his imitative instinct, the habit of work, and the habit of politeness. Work, imitation, and politeness are the valuable results of his bondage. But personality stands for a bundle of experi- ences; and so it is necessary to consider his bad acquisitions as well as his good ones. The first bad habit for which slavery is responsible, and perhaps the most detrimental to the race, was the almost total disregard of the marital and family relations. The fundamental principle of modern Christian civilization, the basis of both Church and State, was not con- sidered applicable to the Negro. As a rule, his marriage was little more than a mating: whenever the master thought it ad- vantageous to sell the so-called husband and wife and chil- dren, they were widely separated at his will. So the con- sciousness resulting from the faithful keeping of the marriage vow and the joy in caring for loved ones in the home were al- most entirely wanting in the Negro. The other day, the writer asked an old slave who had been put on the block seven different times, and sold to the highest bidder, how he felt at such times. He replied. “I got so I did not care what they did with me.” All confidence and self respect was gone. But this auction business was not the worst practice: it was a common custom, in order to improve the stock, to select choice males for breeding purposes, just as farmers select male calves or colts for that purpose. Some negroes who were used in that way are still living. This practice shows that the personal purity of the slave was totally disregarded. In view of the fact that the Negro was taught impurity for two hun- dred and fifty years, we can not expect him to attain purity in the thirty-five years of freedom. The influence of heredity is too great for that miracle to be possible. Slavery is responsible also for the Negro’s disposition to steal, the next bad habit acquired during the period of servi- tude. In his native condition, the Negro was as little ad- dicted to this fault as was any other race on the globe. The missionary Grout says : “There is, perhaps, no more astonish- ish trait of the Kafir character, at least so far as the tribes surrounding Natal are concerned, than the scrupulous honesty in the Afro-American. 7 of almost every individual.” Of course, Kafirland is a very small part of Africa, but the Kafirs are evidently fair repre- sentatives of the Negro race. It is a common saying among Southern people that all Negroes will steal. The writer’s observations haye been that, in the same or similar financial circumstances and conditions, the percentage of negroes that steal is no greater than is that of the Caucasians. But the Negro himself is stolen property ; for two and a half centuries the products of his labor were taken from him, and so it is easy to see how he justifies his own thefts. There are honest negroes just as there are honest white people. As fast as the colored people are educated and Christianized, they become good, honest, and useful citizens. II. The Period of Freedom. The sudden emancipa- tion of the four million slaves of the United States is one of the most remarkable events in the world’s history. To under- stand fully the development of the Negro, it is necessary to keep in mind the fact that work is the most important factor in the development of personality. In the following discus- sion, the writer’s aim is to show the influences of the change from slavery to freedom upon the development of the Negro’s personality. Emancipation opened five great institutions for the per- sonal development of the Negro: the family, the school, the church, civil society, and the State. The first important effect of emancipation upon the Negro was the change in his home life and in his family rela- tions. The family is the basic element of a community. All genuine development begins in the individual. The good seed must be planted and cultivated in the home. If this truth be a fundamental principle it follows that the home is the real starting point of the Negro’s development; for as a rule, prior to his emancipation, the marital relation was for him a mere mating, and not a sacred ordinance. He began his new family life with a very loose idea of its duties and sacred obligations. Deprived of mental and moral develop- ment under the degrading and baleful influences of slavery for two and one-half centuries, nevertheless the Negro is now rapidly learning virtue. The writer does not mean to say that the great masses of the colored race are chaste, but 8 Development of Personality judgirg from statistics collected for him by educated, Chris- tian men of the negro race, he belieyes that a goodly number of the race are liying chaste liyes. The truth is, that the per cent of chaste negroes is more nearly equal to that of the Anglo-Saxons than one would think ; for impure practices of the latter in society circles are passed in silence. But Mary- ville affords exceptional opportunities for education and moral training, and so we can not, perhaps, form a general induction from conditions found within its limits. Hoffman tell us that fifty per cent of the Negro children born in Richmond, Vir- ginia, die before they are one year old. He believes that the cause of this mortality is due to “enfeebled constitutions and congenital diseases, inherited from parents suffering from the effects of sexual immorality and debauchery.” The same writer says that twenty-five per cent of the Negro children born in Washington are illegitimate. This laxity was prac- ticed for two hundred and fifty years; we need not hope to eradicate it in thirty-fiye years, no, nor in a hundred and thirty-five years. This state of affairs still leaves the other seyenty-five per cent with, at least, a chance to cultivate purity and chastity. The influence of Christian education is a mighty power in developing chastity in the Negro ; but in order for this development to endure, industrial education must go hand in hand with it. A large per cent of the negroes are learning to live virtuous lives ; and, since their emancipation, all of them are conscious of their priyilege and power to live such lives. Personality is a bundle of conscious experiences, and the experience mentioned above is one of fundamental importance. In the January (1898) number of the United States Bul- letin of Labor, Prof. DuBois shows that the average negro family of Farmyille, Virginia, consists of five members ; that the school attendance of the children between the ages of six and twenty years is only forty-six per cent of the school pop- ulation; and that some of these enrolled pupils attend school for a few days only during the year. Statistics, collected from fifty- fiye families in Maryville, show that the average negro family consists of five members. The following tables are the results of careful investiga- tion of fifty- five families of Maryville, Blount County, Ten- in the Afro- American. 9 nessee. The facts were obtained by educated negroes, and are as nearly correct as can be obtained. Blount County, of which Maryville is the county seat, has a population of 17,589, 1632 of whom are negroes. The population of Maryville can not be given accurately, because the town is not incorporated, but it is estimated at 2509, 600 of whom are negroes: this estimate includes a number of suburban residents. The following table shows (a) the real family, i. e., the parents and all children living at present; (b) the economic family, i. e., all persons related and unrelated, living together in one home under conditions of family life. NUMBER OF FAMILIES BY SIZE IN MARYVILLE, TENNESSEE. Size of Family. The Real Family. The Economic Family. Families. Persons. Families. Persons. 1 Member, 2 2 4 4 2 Members, 5 10 7 14 3 Members, . 3 9 6 18 4 Members, 1 4 7 28 5 Members, . 10 59 12 60 6 Members, . ^ 3 18 3 18 7 Members. . 10 70 7 49 8 Members, 4 32 2 16 9 Members, . 5 45 5 45 10 Members, 3 30 ... 11 Members, . 4 44 2 22 12 Members, 2 24 .. ... 13 Members, . 1 13 ... ... 14 Members, 2 28 ... Totals, 55 379 55 274 Average, 6.89 5.02 The average results obtained from this table do not differ materially from the results of the similar investigations of the condition of the negroes of Farmville, Virginia, made by Prof. DuBois. As Prof. DuBois says, “The size of the real family comes nearest to being a real test of the fecundity of the race under present conditions, while the economic family shows the results of the present economic conditions.” It is the economic family with which we are concerned ; it shows the results of freedom. 10 Development of Personality PER CENT OF NEGRO FAMILIES OF MARYVILLE, TENN., OF FARMVILLE, VA., AND OF THE ENTIRE UNITED STATES. Size of Family. Negroes of Maryville. Negroes of Farmville. U. S. 1 Member, 7.27 4 96 3. 63 2 to 6 Members, 63.63 72.90 73 33 7 to 10 Members, 25 45 19.47 20. 97 11 Members and over, 3 64 2.67 2.07 The houses, which the fifty-five Negro families of Mary- ville accupy, vary from two to eight rooms each in size. The following table shows the distribution of families by size of family and number of rooms to the dwellings they oc- cupy: FAMILIES, BY SIZE OF FAMILY, AND NUMBER OF ROOMS TO A DWELLING. Families occupying dwellings of H o Size of Family. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 rm. rm s rms rms rms rm s rm s r ms 1 Member, . , 1 2 1 4 2 Members, ... 2 2 1 1 i 7 3 Members, .... i 1 2 2 6 4 Members, 2 3 .... 2 .... 7 5 Members, 1 1 5 2 3 .... 12 6 Members, 2 1 .... .... ... 3 7 Members, i 1 2 2 .... 1 7 8 Members, .... 1 1 2 9 Members, 1 3 .... .... 1 5 10 Members, .... .... .... .... .... .... 0 11 Members, i 1 .... 2 Total Families, 8 11 14 8 9 1 4 55 Total Rooms. 16 33 56 40 54 7 32 238 This table shows that the one-room cabin of the days of slavery is rapidly disappearing. The larger and better houses add comfort and health to the Negro. They furnish oppor- tunities for larger and broader intellectual and moral culture; they present opportunities for aesthetic culture; the large number of rooms provides separate bedrooms; the report shows that most of the Negro families investigated in Maryville hayefrom two to three separate bedrooms; these are conducive to health and to that purity which the Negro needs to learn in order to eradicate the influences of slavery. Forty-six of the fifty- five families mentioned in this re in the Afro-Americvn. 11 port own their houses, and nine rent the houses they occupy. The estimated values of the homes of the different families range from $100 to $1500, the average being about $350. The writer does not think the estimated values given in the reports sufficiently accurate to warrant the giving of a table showing the values. The remarkable and instructive part of the report is the large number of families that own their homes. This is partly due to the fact that the information was obtained by the ministers and prominent teachers of the town, and so the report is probably made up largely of the members of the church and school. But, nevertheless, the report gives impor- tant information regarding the development of the Negro’s personality. The consciousness of ownership makes him re- spect his own ability and powers, and causes him to be re- spected by other people. This power of independent action and ownership was not possessed by him during slavery. NUMBER OF FAMILIES, BY SIZE OF ECONOMIC FAMILY, AND ANNUAL INCOMES. Annual Incomes. Families of (below) members. Totah 1 2 o O 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 * Less than $100, $100 to $150, .... $150 to $200 "i 1 2 "i .... 2 .... .... 1 1 5 2 $200 to $250, .... l 1 7 1 1 .... 12 $250 to $350, .... 2 2 1 1 1 2 9 $350 to $500, .... 2 3 2 3 3 1 i" .... 15 Over $500, .... 2 l 4 1 1 l 1 11 Total Families, 4 7 5 5 17 2 5 4 4 2 55 NUMBER OF FAMILIES. BY SIZE OF FAMILY, AND ANNUAL SAYINGS. Annual Savings. Families of (below) members. Total Families. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Less than $25, .... 1 1 2 $25 to $50, .... $50 to $100 2 "4 ... 3 2 1 1 1 7 7 $100 to $150 Over $150, 1 "i 1 1 ... 3 1 Totals, .... 2 5 1 5 3 2 2 20 Development of Personality IS The last two tables are better understood when they are read in connection with figures as to the cost and scale of living in the community. The following is a price list of commodities usually bought by Negroes. The data were fur- nished by the grocers of Maryville. w i— i > Pi < 3 H < oo W i— i H IM Q O 3 3 o o Pm O oo W O i— i Pi Ph OlOO OOOCOMIO lOOiOlO ooo tDHH HCOHOHH IMiOOO OOO lO to © © © ooo o o o o -+J oo oooo ooo Pm 0u510lfll0®00i000®"0l0'l'fl0 00 0 ■^ , OOOOO*Ci-iOOO ( -H^,ooOi 0 OH 0 i 0 HCCW Unit. ® fl 2 « 5 . . +2 . • . .a ©J 2 .aecanc„> 4 .ai 2 !D . T3 .j 3 x UON — o!«03DSD33uO c| 54«Sp,Q«o ao« 33 CS000000®C8 0CS00<*