The source of this uncorrected OCR text may be viewed in the DjVu format at: http://fax.libs.uga.edu/E185x5xA881p/aup07 or http://purl.galileo.usg.edu/ugafax/E185x5xA881p/aup07 ATLANTA UNIVERSITY PUBLICATIONS, No. 7 THE NEGRO ARTISAN A SOCIAL STUDY MADE UNDER THE DIRECTION OF ATLANTA UNIVERSITY BY THE SEVENTH ATLANTA CONFERENCE PRICE, 50 CENTS ATLANTA TWIVEESItT PBKSS ATLANTA, GA. 19O2 JHE whole country should be grateful to this institution for the painstaking and systematic manner with which it has developed from year to year a series of facts which are proving most vital and helpful to the interests of our nation." Booker T. Washington, speech at the Seventh Atlanta Conference. THE NEGRO ARTISAN REPORT OF A SOCIAL STUDY MADE UNDER THE DIRECTION OF ATLANTA UNIVERSITY; TOGETHER WITH THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE SEVENTH CONFERENCE FOR THE STUDY OF THE NEGRO PROBLEMS, HELD AT ATLANTA UNIVERSITY, ON MAY 2?TH, 1902. EDITED BY W. E. BURGHARDT Du BOIS, Corresponding Secretary of the Conference. Atlanta University ATLANTA, GA,., 18OS. "nPHE work with the Negro must affect also our work with the brown man and the yellow man. The object is not to train him only to become useful or innocuous, to be a helot of toil, to be a producer,—but under and over all is the fact that the Negro, however unfit he may be now or for some time to come to exercise the political franchise, must be educated so that in time he may become worthy to be in full sense a citizen. We can not endure as a republic if we have classes among us not educated to assume the duties of citizenship. As moral human beings we cannot afford to treat another human being as if he were less than human." DR. FELIX ADLER. January 9, 1903. EN I speak of industrial education I do not mean to dis parage higher education, which will provide teachers. The important thing is to give the best education which it is possible for the recipient to use, which will bring out the best in the stu dent." W. H. BALDWIN, JR., President General Educational Board. January 9, 1903. CONTENTS. o. 6. PAGE BIBLIOGRAPHY . ... ... v-vii To THE BEADJOR . . . . ... viii INTRODUCTION. The Atlanta Conference . • . . ... . 1 Sociological Work of Atlanta University .... .2 PROCEEDINGS ov THK SEVENTH ATLANTA CONFERENCE . . 4 THE NKGKO ARTISAN.—By the ICditor. 1. Scope and Method of the Inquiry . . .... 8 History of the Negro Artisan. 2. The Ante-bellum Artisan ..... .13 8. Kconomics of .Emancipation . ...... 21 The Training of Artisans. 4. Occupations and Home-training . . . 23 The Rise of Industrial Training . . . 28 Tho Industrial School ..... ... 33 7. The Influence of the Slater Fund ..'.... 39 8. Curricula of Industrial Schools ..... 42 9. The Differentiation of Industrial Schools ... .58 10. Manual Training .......... 59 11. The Post-Graduate Trade School ... ... 62 12. Cost of Industrial Training ...... .65 13. Results of Industrial Training ..... .08 14. Five Faults of Industrial Schools ..... 79 15. Five Accomplishments of Industrial Schools .... 83 16. The Higher ^Education and the Industries—By Dr. J. G. Mer rill, President of Fisk University ...... 83 17. The Industrial Settlement at Kowaliga, Ala. .... 84 Local Conditions of Negro Artisans. 18. General Statistics of Negro Artisans ...... 87 19. Liocal Conditions: A Study in Memphis, Tenu.—By Henry N. Lee, of LeMoyue Institute .....*. 94 20. Local Conditions: Texas—By K. H. Holmes, of the Prairie \7ie\v Normal School .......... 98 21. Local Conditions: A jSTegro Contractor of Atlanta, Ga..—By Alexander Hamilton, Jr., of the firm of Hamilton & Sou, Building Contractors ......... 102 22. Local Conditions: Indianapolis, Ind.—By W. T. B. Williams . 104 Distribution of Negro Artisans. 23. Alabama .... ....... 106 24. California . . . ...... W8 IV 25. Colorado .......... 108 26. District of Columbia .......... 109 27. Florida ............ Ill 28. Georgia ...... ..... 112 29. Atlanta, Ga ........... 115 30. Other Towns in Georgia ........ 120 31. Illinois ............ 124 32. Indiana ........ ... 125 33. Indian Territory and Oklahoma ....... 125 34. Iowa and Kansas ... . . . 126 35. Kentucky ......... . . 126 36. Louisiana .......... . 127 37. Maine and Massachusetts ........ 128 38. Maryland ....... .... 129 39. Michigan, Minnesota and AYisconsin . ... 130 40. Mississippi ...... ... 131 41. Missouri ............ 132 42. Other New England States (N. H., Vt., E. I., and Conn.) . 133 13. New York and New Jersey ........ 133 44. North Carolina ....... . . 135 45. Ohio ............. 138 16. Oregon and the Northwest (Ore., Mont., Ida., N. D., S. I)., Neb., U., Wash., and AYy.) ........ 139 47. Pennsylvania and Delaware . ... 140 48. South Carolina ... . . . .141 49. Tennessee and Arkansas ......... 142 50. Texas and the Southwest (Tex., Ariz., Nev., and N. Mex.) . 146 51. Virginia and est Virginia ..... . 147 52. Summary of Local Conditions . . .... 150 Trade Unions and Negro Labor. 53. The Negro and Organized Labor .... . 153 54. Unions with a Considerable Negro Membership . . . 158 55. Unions with Few Negro Members ... ... 164 56. LTnions with No Negro Members . . ... 166 57. Local Option in Choice of Members . . . . 171 58. Strikes Against Negro AYorkmeu ... ... 173 59. Summary of the Attitude of Organized Labor .... 176 60. Views of Labor Leaders.—By C. C. Houston, Secretary of the Georgia Federation of Labor, and others . . 176 The Employers of Negro Labor. 61. The Employer, the Artisan and the Eight of Suffrage . . 179 62. The Employment of Skilled Negroes, 1901 . . ... .180 63. The Negro Inventor ... . . . 187 64. Summary ....... . . . 188 INDEX .... . ' . . 189 A Bibliography of the Negro Artisan and the Industrial Training of Negroes. African Laborers, Importation of, DeBow's Keview, 24:421. American Missionary, 46 vol., 1856-1902. America's Kace Problems, N.Y., McClure, Phillips & Co., 1901, 8 o. pp. 187. Awakening of the Negro, Atlantic, 78:322. "Benjamin C. Bacon, Statistics of the colored people of Philadelphia, taken by and published by order of the board of education of the Pennsylvania Society for the promotion of the abolition of slavery, 2d ed. Pliila. 1859, 8 o. pamphlet, 24 pp. Samuel J.Barrows, What the Southern Negro is Doing for Himself, Atlantic, 67:805. John S. Bassett, Slavery and Servitude in the Colony of South Carolina, Johns Hopkins Pi-ess, Baltimore, 1896. John S. Bassett, Slavery in the State of North Carolina, Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore, 1899. Bibliography of Negro Education in Keport U. S. Bureau of Kducat.ion, 1893-94, pp. HB8-61. The Black North (Studies of Negroes in Northern Cities) ,N. Y. Times, 1901. Jeffrey It. Brackett. Notes on the progress of the colored people of Mary land since the war; a supplement to the "Negro in Maryland: a study of the institution of slavery." Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore, 1890, 8 o. pp. 96. Jeffrey R. Brackett, The Negro in Maryland : a study of the institution of slavery. Julius Hopkins Press, Baltimore, 1889, s'o. 2C8 pp. A Brief Sketch of the schools for black people and their descendants, es tablished by the Society of Friends, etc., Phila. 1H57, 80. pamph.B2pp. P. A. Brnce, Economic History of Virginia in the 17th century, 2 vol., New York. U. S. Bureau of Kdlication, Annual Iteports, 1870-1901. L. S. Census Bureau, Censuses of 1850, I860, 1870, 1880, 1«90, and 1900. Cincinnati Convention of Colored Freedmen of Ohio, Proceedings, Jan. 14-19, 1852; Cincinnati, 1852, 8 o. Coleman Cotton Mill, Gnnton's Magazine, Sept. 1902. Colored Help for Textile Mills, Manufacturers' Itecord, (Baltimore, Md.) Sept. 22, 189:5. Condition of the Negro. What he is doing for himself and what is being done for him. Testimony from both races, (a syuinosium), Indcpend 48:477. J. L. M. Curry, Difficulties, complications and limitations connected with the education of the Negro. (Trustees of the John V. Slater-Kund—oc casional papers, No. 5), Bah imore, 1895, pp. 23, 8 o. VI J. E. Rankin, Industrial Education for the African, Independ., April 2, 1891, vol. 48, p. 3., Educ. 5:63C. E. Deloney, The South Demands More Negro Labor, I)e Bow, 25:491. W. E. B. DuBois, The Philadelphia Negro, 520 pp., Ginn & Co., 1896. "Education of Negroes, New World, 9:625. It. T. Ely, The Labor Movement in America, Crowell, 1890. T. Thomas Fortune, Black and White, New York, 1884, 6 o., pp. 311, Fords & Co. Freedmeu and Free Labor at the South, Christian Examiner, 76:344. Freedmen and Southern Labor Problems, N. Ecclesiastical Review, 3:257. Freedmen's Bureau, Annual Reports of the Bureau for Refugees, Freed men, and Abandoned Lands, 1866-1872. Henry Gannett, Occupations of the Negroes, (Trustees of the John F. Slater Fund—occasional papers, No. 6), Baltimore, 1895, 8 o. pp. 16. Hampton Negro Conference, Reports, 1897-1901. Attitus G. Haygood, Our Brother in Black: his Freedom and his Future; New York, 1881, 12 o. Richard Humphreys, Founder of institute for colored youth, Barnard's Am. Jour. Ed., 19:379. Index to acts and resolutions of Congress, and to proclamations and exec utive orders of the President, from 1861-1867, relating to the refugees, freedmen, etc., Washington. Industrial Capacity of Negroes, Edinburg Review, 45:383. Industrial Education of Negroes, Andover Review, 14:254. Industrial Question, Lippincott, 59:266. Industrial Training of Negroes, Our Day, 16:79,343. Edward Ingle, The Negro in the District of Columbia, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins Press, 1893, 8 o. pp. 110. Wm. H. Johnson, Institute for colored youth, Philadelphia, 1857, Pa. rich. Jour. 5:387. Win. Preston Johnson, Industrial Education of the Negroes, Educ. 5:636. U. S. Department of Labor, Bulletins: » Negroes in Cities, No. 10. Negroes of Farmville, Va., No. 14. Negroes of the Black Belt, No. 22. Negroes of Sandy Spring, Md., No. 32. Negro Land-holder of Georgia, No. 35. The Negroes of Litwalton,Va.,No. 37. The Sugar Plantation Negro, No. 38. Labor and Capital: Investigation of Senate Committee (Blair committee) 5 vol., Washington, 1885. K. Levasseur, The American Workman, translated by T. H. Adams, edited by T. Marburg, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins Press, 1900, 517 pp. T. B. Macaulay, Social and Industrial Capacities of Negroes, critical and misc. essays, 6:361-404. G. E. McNeill, The Labor Movement, the Problem of Today; Boston and New York, 1887, 670 pp. S. C. Mitchell, Higher Education and the Negro, (in Report of U. S. Bureau of Education, 1895, pt. 2, p. 1360.) Mohonk Conference on the Negro Question. First conference held at Lake Mohonk, N. Y., June 4-6, 1890, Boston, 1890. 8 o. pp. 144. Second conference held at Lake Mohonk, N. Y., June 3-5,1891, Boston, 1891, 8 o pp. 125. vii' Negro as an Industrial Factor, Outlook, 62:31. Negro as an Industrial Factor, International Monthly, 2:672. Negro as a Mechanic, North American Review, 156:472. Negro as He Really Is, World's Work, 2:848. Negro Exodus. Report and Testimony of the Select Committee of the U. S. Senate, etc., 3 vol., Washington. Negro Exodus (1879) Atlantic, 44:222; Amer. Journal of Social Sci., 11:1,22; International Review, 7:373, N. Y. Nation, 28:242,386; Methodist Quar terly, 39:722; Bankers' Monthly, 33:933. Negro and Knights of Lab»r, Public Opinion, 2:1. Negroes of the South Under Free Labor, Seribners, 21:830. Negro in Southern Manufactures, Nation, 53:208. Negro Labor. Tradesman (Chattanooga., Tenn.) July 15, 1889. Negro Labor, Tradesman (Chattanooga, Tenn.) July 20, 1891. Negro Manual Training Experiment in Texas, Independ., 47:5552. Negro School at New Haven, Niles Re ister, 41:74, 85. The Negro Skilled Laborer in the South, Tradesman (Chattanooga, Tenn ) Oct. 15, 1902. Frederick Law Olmstead, A Journey in the Back Country, N. Y., 1856. Frederick Law Olmstead, A Journey in the Seaboard Slave States, N Y., 1856. Frederick Law Olmstead, A Journey Through Texas, N. Y., 1857. Edward L. Pierce, The Freedmen at Port Royal, Atlantic, 12:291. T. V. Powderly, Thirty Years of Labor, 1889, 693 pp. Publiaations of Atlanta University, 7 numbers, Atlanta, 1896-1902. Report of the Industrial Commission on the Relations and Conditions of Capital and Labor, etc., 19 volumes, Washington, 1S01. (Consult especial ly Volumes VII, VIII, XII, XIV and XVII.) Report of the Condition of the Colored People of Cincinnati, 1835. Albert Shaw, Negro Progress on the Tuskegee Plan, Rev. of Revs., 9:436. Social Condition of Negroes Before the War, Conservative Review, 3:211. Southern Workman, 31 volumes, 1871-1902. Henry Talhot, Manual Training, Art and the Negro, An Experiment. (Re printed from the Pub. Sch. Journal, 1894,) 16 o. pp. 34. Trade Schools for Negroes, American, 19:353. Of the Training of Black Men, Atlantic, 90:289. Trustees of the John F. Slater Fund, Occasional Pa.pers, 10 numbers, Bal timore, 1891-1897. (Nos. 1-6, partly reprinted in Keport U. S. Bureau of Education, 1894-95, chapter 32.) Twenty-two Years' Work of the Hampton Normal and Agricultural In stitute, etc., Hampton, 1891, 8 o. pp. 57. Booker T. Washington, Address delivered at the opening of Atlanta Ex position, Sept. 18, 1895, "Atlanta Constitution," Sept. 19, 1895. Booker T. Washington, Future of the American Negro, Boston, 1897. Booker T. Washington, Up From Slavery, N. Y., 1901. Carroll D. Wright, The Industrial Evolution of the United States, Cha- tauqua, 1897, 362 pp. R. R. Wright, The Negro as an Inventor, A. M. E. Ch. Review, 2:397. G. W. Williams, History of the Negro Race in America, 2 vol. in one, 481-611 pp. Putnam's, 1882. Vlll TO THE READER. This study is intended for the general reader, the student of so cial questions and the special student of the Negro problems. The general reader will find the most interesting material in sec tions 2, 3, 5, 11, 14,15, 21, 29, 30, 52, 53, 59, 01, (53 and 64. The chief conclusions of the study.may be found by a hurried reader in sec tions 14, 15, 52, 53, 59, and 63. The student of social questions will lind food for thought in nearly all but the purely statistical parts; he is recommended to sections 2, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 14, 15,16,17,19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 26, 27, 28, 2 , 30, 36, 38, 40, 44, 48, 49, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 61, <>2, 63, and <»4. The special student of the Negro problems will find that the whole study lias been arranged primarily for ln.> needs, and by aid of the table of contents, index, and bibliograplu his use of the results has been made as easy as possible. Errors will undoubtedly be found and in such case the editor would be very thankful for spe cific information. flntrofcuction. THE ATLANTA CONFERENCE. FOK the past six years Atlanta University ha& conducted through its annual Negro Conferences a series of studies into certain aspects of the Negro problems. The results of these conferences put into pamphlet form and distributed at a nominal price have been widely quoted and used. Certainly the wisdom of President Horace Biuustead and Mr. George G. Bradford in establishing the conferences, and the, co-operation of grad uates of Atlanta, Fisk, Howard, .Lincoln, Hampton, Tuskegee, Meharry, and other institutions, has been amply vindicated and rewarded by the collection and publication of much valuable material relating to the health of Negroes, their social condition, their efforts at social reform, their bus iness enterprises, their institutions for higher training, and their common schools. Notwithstanding this success the further prosecution of these important studies is greatly hampered by the lack of funds. With meagre appro priations for expenses, lack of clerical help and necessary apparatus, the Conference cannot cope properly with the vast field of work before it. Studies of this kind do not naturally appeal to the general public, but rather to the interested few and to students. Nevertheless there ought to be growing in this land a general conviction that a careful study of the condition and needs of the Negro population—a study conducted with scientific calm and accuracy, and removed so far as possible from preju dice or partisan bias—that such a study is necessary and worthy of liberal support. The twelfth census has, let us hope, set at rest silly predictions of the dying out of the Negro in any reasonably near future. Tile nine million Negroes here in the land, increasing steadily at the rate of over 150,000 a year, are destined to be part and parcel of the Nation for many a day if not forever. We must no longer guess at their condition, we must know it. We must not experiment blindly and wildly, trusting to our pro verbial good luck, but like rational, civilized, philanthropic meii, spend time and money in finding what can be done before we attempt to do it. Americans must learn that in social reform as well as in other rational endeavors, wish and prejudice must be sternly guided by knowledge, else it is bound to blunder, if not to fail. We appeal therefore to those who think it worth while to study this, the greatest group of social problems that has ever faced the Nation, for sub stantial aid and encouragement in the further prosecution of the work of the Atlanta Conference. THE NEORO ARTISAN SOCIOLOGICAL WORK AT ATLANTA UNIVERSITY. The work of social study at Atlanta University falls under six heads: 1. Sociological Laboratory. The work in the department of Economics and History aims not only at .neutal discipline but also at familiarizing students with the great eco nomic and social problems of the day. It is hoped that thus they may be able to apply broad and careful knowledge to the solution of the many intricate social questions affecting the Negro in the South. The depart ment aims, therefore, at training in good, intelligent citizenship; at a thorough comprehension of the chief problems of wealth, work and wages; at a. fair knowledge of the objects and methods of social reform; and with the more advanced students, at special research work in the great labora tory of social phenomena, which surrounds this institution. The more advanced courses of study no\v offered include: Modern European History (1 year). Economics (2 terms). 1'olitical Science (1 term). Sociology, with special reference to the Negro (1 year). Instruction is given by means of a special class room library with reference books and the leading text books, the arranging of charts and tabular work, the presentation at regular intervals of special reports and theses, and field work in and about the city of Atlanta for the obser vation of economic and social conditions. The aim is gradually to equip a library and laboratory of sociology which will be of the highest value for instruction and training. Contributions to the laboratory for general or specific objects are greatly needed. B. General Publications. Members of the Department of Sociology of this Institution have, from time to time, published the followingstudics and essays on various phases of the Negro problem: Suppression of the Slave Trade, 335 pp., Longmans, 1890. The Philadelphia Negro, 520 pp., Oinn & Co., 1809. The Negroes of Farmville, Va., 38 pp., Bulletin U. S. Department of Labor, January, 1898. Condition of the Negro in Various Cities, 112 pp., Bulletin U. S. Depart ment of Labor, May, 1897. The Negro in the Black Belt, 17 pp., Bulletin U. S. Department of Labor, May, 1899. The Study of the Negro Problems, 21 pp., Publications of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, No. 219. Strivings of the Negro People, Atlantic Monthly, August, 1896. A Negro Schoolmaster in the New South, Atlantic Monthly, January, 1899. The Negro and Crime, Independent, May 18, 1896. SEVENTH ANNUAL COKFEKEJNUE 3 The Conservation of Races, 16 pp., Publications of the American Negro Academy, No. 2. The American Negro at Paris, Review of Reviews, November, 1900. Careers Open to College-bred Negroes, 14 pp., Nashville, 1899. The Suffrage Eight in Georgia, Independent, November 30,1899. The Twelfth Census and the Negro Problems, Southern Workman, May, 1900. The Evolution of Negro Leadership, (a review of Washington's "Up from Slavery,") Dial, July 16, 190]. The Storm and Stress in the Black World, (a review of Thomas' "Amer ican Negro,") Dial, April 16, 1901. The Savings of Black Georgia, Outlook; September 14, 1901. The Relation of the Negroes to the Whites in the South, Publications of American Academy of Social and Political Science, No. 311. (Reprinted in America's Race Problems, McClure, Phillips & Co., 1901.) The Negro Land-holder in Georgia, 130 pp., Bulletin of U. S. Depart ment of Labor, No. 35. The Negro as He Really Is, Worlds Work, June, 1901. The Freedmen's Bureau, Atlantic Monthly, March, 1801. The Spawn of Slavery, Missionary Review, October, 1901. The Religion of the American Negro, New World, December, 1900. Results of Ten Tnskegee Conferences, Harper s Weekly, June 22, 1901. The Burden of Negro Schooling, Independent, July 18, 1901. The Housing of the Negro, Southern Workman, July, September, October, November, December, 1901, and February, 1902. The Opening of the Library, Independent, April 3, 1902. Of the Training of Black Men, Atlantic Monthly, September, 19U2. Hopeful Signs for the Negro, Advance, October 4, 1902. C. Unirersity Pnlillr.ations. The regular University publications are as follows: Annual Catalogue, 1870-1902. Bulletin of Atlanta University, 4 pp., monthly; 25 cents per year. No. 1. Mortality of Negroes, 51 pp., 1896, (out of print.) No. 2. Social and Physical Condition of Negroes, 86 pp., 1897; 50 cents. No. 3. Some Efforts of American Negroes for Social Betterment, 66 pp., 1898; 50 cents. No. 4. The Negro in Business, 78 pp., 1899; 50 cents. No. 5. The College-Bred Negro,115 pp., 1900, (out of print;) 2nd edition, abridged, 1902, 32 pp., 25 cents. No. 6. The Negro Common School, 120 pp., 1901; 25 cents. No. 7. The Negro Artisan, 1902; 25 cents. Select Bibliography of the American Negro, for general readers, second revised edition, 1901; 10 cents. Atlanta University Leaflets, 15 numbers; free. D. Bureau of Information. The Corresponding Secretary of the Atlanta Conference undertakes, upon request, to furnish correspondents with information upon any phases 4 THE NEGRO ARTISAN of the Negro problem, so far as he is able; or he points out such sources as exist from which accurate data may he obtained. No charge is made for this work except for actual expenses incurred. During the past years the United States Government, professors in several Northern and Southern institutions, students of sociology, philanthropic societies and •workers, and many private persons, have taken advantage of this bureau. A column of "Notes and Queries" is published monthly in'the Bulletin. E. The Lecture Bureau. The department has for some time furnished lectures on various subjects connected with the history and condition of the American Negro, and upon other sociological and historical subjects. School duties do not admit of the acceptance of all invitations, but so far as possible we are glad to ex tend this part of the work. Expenses must in all cases he paid and usually a small honorarium in addition, although this latter is often contributed to any worthy cause. During the past few years lectures have been given before the Twentieth Century Club of Boston. The Unitarian Club of New York. The American Academy of Political and Social Science. The American Society for the Exteusion of University Teaching. The American Negro Academy. Hampton Institute. Fisk University. Cooper Union, New York City, etc., etc. F. The Annual Meeting of the Conference. The results of each annual investigation are first reported in May of each year to a meeting of the Negro conference which assembles at the University. It is (hen discussed and afterward edited and printed the following fall. The attendance at these conferences is largely made up of local city Negroes, although Southern whites are always on the programme and visitors from abroad are usually present. An attempt is made here especially to encourage practical movements for social betterment, and many such enterprises have had their inception here. Proceedings of the Seventh Atlanta Conference. TUESDAY, May 27, at In-.00 a. in. SYMPOSIUM: "The Condition of Negro Artisans." Texas—Mr. Elijah H. Holmes, of Prairie View State Normal School, Texas. Memphis, Teiin.—Mr. II. N. Lee. of LeMoyne Institute, Tennessee. Atlanta, Ga.—Mr. Alexander Hamilton, Jr., of the firm of Hamilton & Son, building contractors. At 3:30 p. m. Miss Tjiicy C. Lane,5r, of Haines Institute, Ga., presiding. SUBJECT: "Boy and Girl Artisans in the Home." SEVENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE Music by Orphans from the Carrie Steele Orphanage. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Music. Opening Remarks, by the Chairman. Symposium of Five-minute Speeches. Mrs. M. A. Ford, of Morris Brown College. Miss E. O. Werden, of Spelman Seminary. Miss B. L. Wolfe, of the Atlanta Kindergarten. Mrs. J. B. Porter, President of the Woman's Club. Music. Symposium of Five-minute Speeches. Mrs. Isabella W. Parks, of South Atlanta. Mrs. S. S. Butler, of Atlanta. Mrs. Geo. W. White, of Atlanta. Miss Anna E. Hall, Deaconess, M. E. Church. Artisans in the Homes: Answers from 600 school children. By the Secretary. Music. At 8:00 p. m. SUBJECT: "The Negro Artisan." Opening- Remarks—President Horace Bumstead. The Industrial Settlement—Mr. William E. Benson, of the Dixie In dustrial Company, Kowaliga, Ala. The Trades School—Major B. B. Moton, of Hampton Institute, Va. The Higher Education and the Industries—President J. G. Merrill, of Fisk University, Tenn. The Trades Union Movement—Hon. C. C. Houston, Secretary of the State Federation of Labor and member of the Legislature of Geor gia. Closing Remarks—Mr. Hooker T. Washington, of Tuskegee Institute, Ala. Among other things Mr. Washington said: "For several years I have watched with keen interest and appreciation the work of these annual conferences, and the whole country should be grateful to this institution for the painstaking and systematic manner with which it has developed from year to year a series of facts •which are proving most vital and helpful to the interests of our nation. The work that Dr. DnBois is doing- will stand for years as a monument to his ability, wisdom and faithfulness. ********** "I hope you will excuse me if, for a few moments, I seek to discuss the occupation of our people in a broader way than the narrower one suggested by the subject under discussion at this conference. I want to say as a foundation for my remarks that my belief is that the proper way to begin in the development of a race would be the same as with an individual. The proper place to begin to develop an individual is just where the indi vidual is. We can begin in no wiser way to develop any race than by beginning just where that race finds itself at the moment of beginning-. (frff 6 THE NEGRO ARTISAN "I think you will agree with me when I assert that by far the largest proportion of our people are engaged in some form of agriculture, are en gaged in the cultivation of the soil. Since the bulk of our people are to live out of the soil, are accustomed to agricultural life, it is my opinion that agriculture should be made the chief industry for our people, at least for a long period of years. The Negro should be encouraged to own and cultivate the soil; in a word, as a rule, should be encouraged to remain in the country district**. The Negro is at his best in most cases when in agri cultural life; iu too many eases he is at his worst in contact with city life. Of course, out of agriculture, the fundamental industry, will grow most, if not all, of the most skilled occupations with which, I understand, this conference is now specifically dealing. "In order that the Negro may be induced to remain in the country dis tricts, we should see to it that life is made not only bearable and safe but attractive and comfortable. We cannot expect our people to remain in the country when they can send their children to school but four months in a year, when by moving to a city they can keep their children in school eight or nine months. Nor can we expect them to remain in the country districts unless they are are assured of the same protection of life and property that is guaranteed to them in the cities. Nor can we expect them to remain upon the soil if we are to let them understand that by agricul ture is meant simply drudgery, ignorance and unskilled methods of labor. From the beginning of time agriculture has constituted the main founda tion upon which all races have grown strong and useful. "Our knowledge,must be harnessed to the things of real life. I want to see more of our educated young men and women tako hold in a downright, earnest, practical manner of the fundamental, primary, wealth-producing occupations that constitute the prosperity of every people. I would much rather see a young colored man graduate from college and go out and start a truck garden, a dairy farm, or conduct a cotton plantation, and thus become a first-hand producer of wealth, rather than a parasite living upon the wealth originally produced by others, seeking uncertain and unsatis factory livelihood in temporary and questionable positions. I repeat, do not seek positions but create positions. All people who gained wealth and recognition have come up through the soil and have given attention to these fundamental wealth-producing industries. The young man who goes out into the forest, fells a tree and produces a wagon is the one who has added something to the wealth of the community in which he lives. "I emphasize the ownership and cultivation of the soil, because land is cheaper in the South than it will ever he again, and if we do not get hold of a portion of the soil and use it in laying a foundation for our civilization now, I fear we will not get hold of it in the future. In the country the Negro and his children are free, as a rule, from the temptations which drag so many down in the large cities. The Negro is there always free, too, from the severe competition which, in so many cases, discourages and overmasters him. "The fundamental industry of agriculture will enable us to lay the foun dation upon which will grow wealth, habits of thrift, economy, and will SEVENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE 7 enable us in the end to give our children the best education and develop ment. * « *»»***** "In the case of the Negro artisan we should be careful to follow the same course as in regard to agriculture. We should find out the kind of skilled labor in which the Negro is most likely to find employment; the kind of skilled labor in greatest demand. After we find out the kind for which the Negro is best fitted, and the kind which offers the greatest encouragements, \ should say emphasize in that direction. If the greatest demand is in the direction of wood work, emphasize wood work. If the greatest demand is in the direction of iron work, emphasize iron work. If in some form of leather, emphasize leather work. If in brickrnasonry or plastering, em phasize these. "Many of the trades which were formerly iu our hands have in too large a degree slipped from us, not that there was a special feeling against our working at these trades on the part of the native Southern white man, but because, I fear, we failed to fit ourselves to perform the service in the very best manner. We must not only have carpenters but architects; we must not only have persons who can do the work with the hand, but per sons at the same time who can plan the work with the brain. "I have great faith in the value of all the industries to which I have referred, not only because of their economic value, but because of their mental and moral value. "Go into the North or South and ask to have pointed out to you the most prosperous and reliable colored man in that community, and in the majority of cases, I believe, you will have pointed out to you a Negro who has learned a trade; and, in many cases, you will find that this trade was learned during the days ol slavery. »****#**** "Later on, I hope that this conference will find it in its way to take up the question of domestic service. This is one which we should no longer blink at, but should face squarely. We should do the proper thing re gardless of criticism, which will enable our people to hold on to all forms of domestic service in the South. ********** "If we are wise and patient,we can use all forms of service in a way,not only to lift ourselves up, but to bind us eternally in fellowship and good will to the Southern white man by whose side we must live for all time." After adopting the following resolutions the Conference adjourned: The Seventh Atlanta Conference, in considering the situation of Negro artisans, has come to the following conclusions: 1. While the Negro artisans are still losing strength in many commu nities, they are beginning to gain in others, 'and it would seem as if the tide against them was turning and that concerted action and intelligent preparation would before long restore and increase the prestige of skilled l^egro working men. 8 THE NEGKO ABTJSAN 2. To realize this hope it is necessary, first, to preserve what skill we have,and,secondly,to enter new fields. From keeping our present efficiency we are hindered by the lack of a proper apprentice system, and from en tering new trades we arc stopped by the opposition of organized labor in trades unions. The South has never had a careful apprentice system, and it must build it. Skilled Negro workmen must never rest satisfied until they have imparted their skill to other and younger men, and parents must remember that au excellent career for a child may be found by ap prenticing him to » good carpenter or a first-class mason. 3. In trades or places where Negro workmen are numerous and efficient, trades unions admit and defend them. Where they are few in number they are proscribed and barred by these same unions, no matter what their skill or individual desert. This is unjust and wrong. Negroes should sympathize with and aid the labor movement where it is fair and honest with all men, and should publish to the world all cases of proscription and injustice. 1. We especially commend Trades Schools HA a means of imparting skill to Negroes, and manual training as a means of general education. We believe the movements in this line, especially in the last ten years, have been of inestimable benefit, to the freedmen's sons. 5. Wo believe that, in the future, industrial settlements of Negroes properly guided, financiered and controlled, offer peculiarly promising fields of enterprise for a philanthropy based on solid business principles. (5. Finally, we insist that no permanent advance in industrial or other lines can be made without three great indirect helps: Public Schools, Agencies for Social Betterment, and Colleges for Higher Training: illit eracy must be wiped out, savings banks, libraries a.nd rescue agencies es tablished, and, above all, black men of light and leading, College-bred men, must be trained to guide and lead the millions of this struggling race along paths of intelligent and helpful co-operation. L. M. HKRSIIAW, , W. A. HUNT, > Committee on Resolutions. W. E. B. DuBors. > The Negro Artisan. 1. Scope and Method of tlie Inquiry. The present study is at once a con tinuation of the investigations of Atlanta University, in both economic and educational lines, and is a study of skilled work and the training of black boys for it. The peculiar difficulty of most social studies is the fact that the available information must usually come from interested persons. This has been felt in former Atlanta studies: Negroes had to be asked about their own social condition, business men about their busi ness and college-bred men about their work. To some extent, to be sure, this testimony has been corroborated by observation and the testimony of third parties, but the general fact remains that men and women with prej udices and mixed motives must give us the information used, not only in SEVENTH ANNPAL CONFERENCE 9 these but in all social inquiries. In this investigation there are, however, some peculiar advantages, owing chiefly to the fact that it has been pos sible to get concurrent testimony from three entirely distinct sources on practically the same points. The condition of a modern working-man is best known by himself, his fellow-workmen, and his employer. If to this is added the testimony of the community surrounding him, and a study of his social history and education, we have as complete a picture as one could expect. In this study, the following schedule of questions has been answered by about 1,300 Negro skilled laborers, living for the most part in the State of Georgia: 1. Name........................... ....... ............... .............................................. 2. Address.... .......... ........................... ........................... ......................... 8. Age: U.20............ 20 to 30............ 30 to 40............ 40 or over............ 4. Sex: M.................. F.................. 6. Conjugal condition: S........... M.............. W.............. Sep........ ..... 6. Trade................................ ........................... ................. ( For himself......... Owns tools......... Hires others......... Works \ ( For wages...... Invests other capital...... Foreman........ Years engaged .................... ............. ...... How learned......... .................... ............. ....................... Attended trade school......... How long............... Where.............. 7. Wages, per........................ Time unoccupied per year....................... 8. Relation to whites: Wages of whites in same work.................. .................... Works with whites.............................. . ........................ Works primarily for whites............................................ Works primarily for Negroes............... ..... ........... ........ 9. Trades Union: Belongs to what Union?.............. .............................. Do whites belong?........................................ Can you join with whites?........................... 10. Education: Read............. Write............. Higher training............... 11. Own real estate: Yes........ No......... 12. Facts............................. ................................... ... ................. ........... Besides this, the following schedule was placed in the hands of corres pondents of this Conference—mostly College-bred Negroes and profes sional men—and they were asked to study their particular communities. Reports were thus received from 32 states, besides Ontario, Costa Rica and Porto Rica: THE ARTISAN. An Artisan is a skilled laborer—a person who works with his hands but has attained a degree of skill and efficiency above that ot an ordinary manual laborer—as. for instance, carpenters, masons, engineers, blacksmiths, etc. Omit barbers, ordinary laborers in factories, who do no skilled work, etc. 1. Name of Place................................................State ...................... ...... 2. Are there many Negro skilled laborers here! 10 THE NEGKO ARTISAN 3. What trades do they follow chiefly? 4. What trades did they follow chiefly 20 years ago? 6. Write here the names, addresses and trades of the leading- Negro Artisans. 6. Is the Negro gaining or losing in skilled work? 7. If lie is losing, is this due to his inefficiency or to the great growth of the South in industrial lines? 8. What results can you see of the industrial school training? Are young men entering the trades? 9. What ate the chief obstacles which the Negro meets in entering the trades? 10. Is there any discrimination in wages? 11. Can Negroes join the trades unions? Do they join? 12. Write here a short history of Negro artisans in your community—the number and condition before the war, noted cases since the war, etc. Kvery trades union affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, and all others that could be reached, were asked to answer the following questions. Ninety-seven answered; eleven made no replies after repeated inquiries: 1. Name of Union. 2. May Negroes join this Union ? 3. If not, how is their membership prevented ? 4. If they may joiii, how many Negro members have you at present ? 5. How many had you in 1890? C. How many Negro applicants have been refused admission to your knowledge ? 7. Can local Unions refuse to admit a Negro if he is otherwise qualified ? 8. Can local Unions refuse to recognize the travelling card of a Negro Union man? 9. Do Negroes make good workmen? 10. What are the chief objections to admitting them to membership in your Union ? 11. Are these objections likely to be overcome in time ? 12. General observations (add here any facts or opinions you may wish. They will be held as strictly confldental, if you so desire). The central labor bodies in every city and town of the Union were sent the following schedule of questions. Two hundred of these, representing 30 states, answered: 1. Name of Council or Assembly. 2. Are there any Unions affiliated with you which are composed of Negro members ? 3. If so, how many, and what is their membership ? 4. Are there any Negro members in any of the local Unions ? 5. If so, how many, aud in which Unions ? 6. Do any of the local Unkms bar Negroes from membership ? SEVENTH ANNUAL CONFEKENCE 11 7. Have Negro applicants ever been refused admission to any of the Unions ? 8. Do local Unions ever refuse to recognize the travelling card of a Ne gro mechanic ? 9. Do Negroes make good workmen in any of the trades? In which trades are they the best? 10. What are the chief objections usually raised against, admitting them to Trades Unions ? 11. Are these objections likely to disapper in time? 12. General observations (add hero any facts or opinions you may wish. They will be held afe strictly confldental, if you so desire.) To the state federations a letter was sent asking for whatever general information was available on the subject. Most of them answered these requests. To the industrial schools the following schedule was sent. Many of the schools were not able to answer definitely, and some returned no answer at all. The principal schools reported: 1. Name of institution. 2. Address. 3. How many of your graduates or former students arc earning a living entirely as artisans ? 4. How many of the above mentioned are: Carpenters, Dressmakers, Tailors, Blacksmiths, Iron and steel workers, .......................... Brickmakers, Shoemakers, ........... ........ .... Masons, Painters, ........................'. Engineers, Plasterers, ........................... Firemen, Coopers, .......................... 5. Where are most of these artisans located at present ? 6. How many of the rest of your graduates or former students are earn ing a living partially as artisans ? 7. What trades and other work do they usually combine ? 8. What difficulties do your graduates meet in obtaining work as artisans ? 9. Do they usually join Trades Unions ? 10. How many of them teach industries in schools ? 11. Can you furnish us with a list of your graduates from industrial courses, with occupations and addresses ? In 1889 and 1891, the Chattanooga Tradesman made interesting and ex haustive studies of skilled Negro labor in the South. The Corresponding Secretary of the Conference invited the Editors of the Tradesman to co operate with Atlanta, University in a third investigation, in 1902, each bearing half the expense. The Department of Sociology of the University prepared the following schedule, which was distributed by the Tradesman and answered by business establishments all over the Southern States: 12 THE NEGRO ARTISAN THE NEGRO SKILLED LABORER. An Inquiry conducted by THE TRADESMAN (Chattanooga, Temi.,} in con junction with the Sociological Department of Atlanta University. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 10. 11. 12. IB. Name of firm.. .................................................... . ................ ........ Address (street, city and state)............ ....... ........ ....................... Kind of business.................... ............... ................. ....... ............ Total number of employees of all kinds......................................... Total number of Negro employees.............................................. ... How many of the Negroes are skilled or semi-skilled workmen ? What kinds of skilled work do the Negroes do ? What wages do the Negroes receive ? How do they compare in efficiency with white workmen ? Are the Negro workmen improving in efficiency ? How much education have your Negro workmen received ? What effect has this education had ? Shall you continue to employ skilled Negro workmen ? The Superintendents of Education in all the Southern States were con sulted as to manual training in the schools, arid most of them answered the inquiries. Six hundred children in the public schools of Atlanta, Ga., were asked to write out answers to the following questions: 1. What kinds of work do you do at home ? Do you sew? Do you sweep? Do you cook? Do you tend chickens? Do you wash? Do you work in the garden? Do you iron? Do you keep flowers? 2. Have you got a hammer and saw at home ? Do you use them? Have you any other tools at home? 3. Do you ever make little ornaments to hang on the walls, or to put anywhere in the house ? -1. What do you like to do best? 5. What are you going to do when you grow up ? fi. How old are you ? 7. What is your name ? 8. Where do you live ? Finally such available information was collected as could be found in the United States' census, the reports of the Bureau of Education, and other sources as indicated in the bibliography. On the whole the collected information on which this study is based is probably more complete than in the case of any of the previous studies. SEVENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE 13 2. The Antc-bcllvm Artisan. Before the civil war both slaves and free Negroes were artisans to some extent. It is difficult to-day, however, to determine just what proportion could do skilled work and Low their work would compare with that of artisans of to-day. We are told that in Vir ginia* : "The county records of the seventeenth century reveal the presence of many Negro mechanics in the colony during that period, this being espec ially the case with carpenters and coopers. This was what might be ex pected. The slave was inferior in skill, but the ordinary mechanical needs of the plantation did not demand the highest aptitude. The fact that the African was a servant for life was an advantage covering many deficien cies; nevertheless, it is significant that large slaveholders like Colonel Byrd arid Colonel Fitzhugh should have gone to the inconvenience and expense of importing English handicraftsmen who were skilled in the very trades in which it is certain that several of the Kegroos belonging to these planters had been specially trained. It shows the low estimate in which the planters held the knowledge of their slaves regarding the higher branches of mechanical work." As examples of slave mechanics it is stated that among the slaves of the first Robert Beverly was a carpenter valued at £30, and that Ralph Worm- eley, of Middlesex county, owned a cooper and a carpenter each valued at £35. Colonel William Byrd mentions the use of Negroes in iron mining in 1732. t In New Jersey slaves were employed as miners, iron-workers, saw-mill hands, house and ship-carpenters, wheelwrights, coopers, tan ners, shoemakers, millers and bakers, among other employments,** before the Revolutionary war. As early as 1708 there were enough slave me chanics in Pennsylvania to make the freemen feel their competition se verely.t In Massachusetts and other states we hear of an occasional ar tisan. During the early part of the 19th century the Negro artisans increased. In the District of Columbia many "were superior mechanics .... Ben jamin Bamiekor. the Negro Astronomer, assisting in surveying- the Dis trict in 1791"tt Olmsted, in his journeys through the slave states, just be fore tlie civil war, found slave artisans in all the states :ttt In Virginia they worked in tobacco factories, ran steamboats, made barrels, etc. On a South Carolina plantation he was told by the master that the Negro me chanics "exercised as much skill and ingenuity as the ordinary mechanics that he was used to employ in New England." Tn Charleston and some other places they were employed in cotton factories. In Alabama he saw a black carpenter—a careful and accurate calculator and excellent work- Brace: Economic History ot Virginia in the 17th century, ii. pp. 405-6. fWritings, edited by Bussctt, pp. 845, :!4(l, SOU. ooley: Slavery in New Jersey. {Philadelphia Negro, p. Ml ff. tflngle: Negro in District of Columbia. tttOlmsted: Seaboard Slaves States, Journey Through Texas, and Journey in the .Back Country. 14 THE NEGBO ARTISAN man; he was bought for $2,000. In Louisiana lie was told that master mechanics often bought up slave mechanics and acted as contractors. In Kentucky the slaves worked in factories for hemp-bagging, and in iron works on the Cumberland river,t and also in tobacco factories. In the newspapers advertisements for runaway mechanics were often seen, as, for instance a blacksmith in Texas, "very smart," a mason in Virginia, etc. In Mobile an advertisement read "good blacksmiths and horsc-shoors for sale 011 reasonable terms." An ex-governor of Mississippi says:* "Prior to the war there were a large number of Negro mechanics in the Southern States; many of them were expert blacksmiths, wheelwrights, wagon-makers, brick-masons, carpenters, plasterers, painters and shoe makers. They became masters of their respective trades by reason of sufficiently long service under the control and direction of expert white mechanics. During the existence of slavery the contract for qualifying- the Negro as a mechanic, was made between his owner and the master workman." Such slaves were especially valuable and formed usually a privileged class, with a large degree of freedom. They were very often hired out by their masters and sometimes hired their own time although this latter practice was frowned upon as giving slaves too much freedom and nearly all states forbade it by law; although some, like Georgia, permitted the custom in certain cities. In all cases the slave mechanic was encouraged to do good work by extra wages which went into his own pocket. For in stance, in the semi-skilled work of the Tobacco-factories, the Virginia master received from ,$150-$' annually for his slave and the employer fed him; but the slave, by extra work, could earn for himself $5 or more a month. So carpenters sometimes received as much as $2 a day for their masters, and then were given the chance to earn more for themselves. In Texas nine slaves, some of them carpenters, were leased at an average of $280.22 a year and probably earned something over this. If the mechanic was a good workman and honest the master was tempted to allow him to do as he pleased so long as he paid the master a certain yearly income. In this way there arose in nearly all Southern cities a class of Negro clients free in everything but name; they owned property, reared families and often lived in comfort. In earlier times such mechan ics often bought themselves and families and became free, but as the laws began to bear hard on free Negroes they preferred to remain under the patronage and nominal ownership of their white masters. In other cases they migrated North and there worked out their freedom, sending back stipulated sums. Many if not most of the noted leaders of the Negro in earlier times belonged to this slave mechanic class, such as Vesey, Nat Turner, Richard Alien and Absalom Jones. They were exposed neither tNote the attempt to conduct the Baltimore Iron Works by slaves contributed by the shareholders, ft. N. Y. Nation Sept. 1, 1801, p. 171. JEx-C!ov. Lovvry in North American lleview, 156 : 472. SEVENTH ANNUAL CONl'EllENCE 15 to the corrupting privileges of the house servants nor to the blighting tyranny of field work and had large opportunity for self development. Usually the laws did not hinder the slaves from learning trades. On the other hand the laws against teaching slaves really hindered the mechanics from attaining very great efficiency save in rare cases—they must work by rule of thumb usually. North Carolina allowed slaves to learn mathematical calculations, but not reading and writing; Georgia in 1833 decreed that no one should permit a Negro "to transact business for him in writing." Gradually such laws became more severe: Mississippi in 1830 debarred slaves from printing offices and Georgia in 1845 declared that slaves and free Negroes could not take contracts for building and repair ing houses, as mechanics or masons.t Restrictions, however, were not always enforced, especially in the building trades, and the slave mechanic flourished. One obstacle he did encounter however from first to last and that was the opposition of white mechanics. In 1708 the white mechanics of Penn sylvania protested against the hiring out of Negro mechanics and were successful in gettiug acts passed to restrict the further importation of slaves ft but they were disallowed in England. In 1722 they protested again and the Legislative Assembly declared that the hiring of black me chanics was "dangerous and injurious to the republic and not to be sane tioned."t Especially in border states was opposition fierce. In Maryland the legislature was urged in 1837 to forbid free Negroes entirely from be ing artisans; in 1840 a bill was reported to keep Negro labor out of tobacco ware-houses; in 1844 petitions came to the legislature urging the prohibi tion of free black carpenters and taxing free black mechanics; and finally in 1860 white mechanics urged a law barring free blacks "from pursuing any mechanical branch of trade."§ Mississippi mechanics told Olmsted that they resented the competition of slaves and that one refused the free services of three Negroes for six years as apprentices to his trade. In Wilinington, N. 0., 1857, a number of persons destroyed the frame work of a new building erected by Negro carpenters and threatened to destroy all edifices erected by Negro carpenters or mechanics. A public meeting was called to denounce the act and offer a reward. The deed was charged upon an organized association of 150 white working-men. There were similar disturbances in Virginia, and in South Carolina white mechanics about this time were severely condemned by the newspapers as "enemies to our peculiar institutions and formidable barriers to the success of our own native mechanics. "|| In Ohio about 1820 to 1830 and thereafter, the white Mechanics' Societies combined against Negroes. One master mechanic, President of the Me- tStroud's Laws, p. 107. ttCf. the Thiliidelphia Negro. tCI. the Philadelphia Kegro. gBrackett: Negro in Maryland, pp. 100, 210. HOlmstcttd: Scaborfl Slave States and Journey in the Back Country. 1G TJIE NEGRO ARTISAN chanical Association of Cincinnati, was publicly tried by the Society for assisting a young Negro to learn a train. Such was the feeling that no colored boy could find entrance as apprentice, and few workmen were al lowed to pursue their calling. One Negro cabinet-maker purchased his freedom in Kentucky and came to Cincinnati; fora long time he could get no work; one Englishman employed him but the white workmen struck. The black man was compelled to become a laborer until by saving- he could take small contracts and hire black mechanics to help him.t In Philadelphia the series of fearful riots against Negroes was due in large part to the jealousy of white working men, and in Washington, D. C., New York and other cities, riots and disorder on the part of white me chanics, aimed against Negroes, occurred several times. There were, no doubt, many very efficient slave mechanics. One who learned his trade from a slavett writes us an interesting and enthusiastic account of the work of these men: "During the days of slavery the Negro mechanic was a man of im portance. He was a most valuable slave to his master. He would always sell for from two to three times as much in the market as the unskilled slaveman. When a fine Negro mechanic was to be sold at public auction, or private sale, the wealthy slave owners would vie with each other for the prize and run tne bidding often up into high figures. "The slave owners early saw the aptitude of the Negro to learn handi craft, and fully appreciating what vast importance and value this would be to them (the masters) selected their brightest young slavemeii and had them taught in the different kinds of trades. Hence on every large plan tation you could find the Negro carpenter, blacksmith, brick and stone mason. These trades comprehended and included much more in their scope in those days than they do now. Carpentry was in its glory then. What is done now by varied and complicated machinery was wrought tl-en by hand. The invention of the planing machine is an event within the knowledge of many persons living to-day. Most of our 'wood work ing' machinery has come into use long since the days of slavery. The same work done now with the machine, was done then by hand. The carpenter's chest of tools in slavery times was a very elaborate and ex pensive outfit. His 'kit1 not only included all the tools that the average carpenter carries now, but also the tools for performing all the work done by the various kinds of 'wood-working' machines. There is little oppor tunity for the carpenter of to-day to acquire, or display, genius and skill in his trade as could the artisan of old. "One only needs to go down South and examine hundreds of old Southern mansions, and splendid old church edifices, still intact, to be convinced of the fact of the cleverness of the Negro artisan, who constructed nine- tenths of them, and many of them still provoke the admiration of all who see them, and are not to be despised by the men of our day. -(•Condition (if People of Color, &c. ttMr. j. D. Smith, Stationary Engineer, Chicago, 111. SEVENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE 17 "There are few, if any, of the carpenters of to-day who, if they had the hand tools, could get out the 'stuff' and make one of those old style massive panel doors,—who could work out by hand the mouldings, the stiles, the mullions, etc., and build one of those windows, which are to be found to-day in many of the churches and public buildings of the South; all of which testify to the cleverness of the Negro's skill as artisan in the broadest sense of the term. For the carpenter in those days was also the 'cabinet maker,' the wood turner, coffin maker, generally the pattern maker, and the maker of most things made of wood. The Negro black smith held almost absolute sway in his line, which included the many branches of forgery, and other- trades which are now classified under dif ferent heads from that of the regular blacksmith. The blacksmith in the days of slavery was expected to make any and everything wrought of iron. He was to all intents and purposes the 'machine blacksmith,' 'horse- shoer,' 'carriage and wagon ironer and trimmer,' 'gunsmith,' 'wheel wright' ; and often whittled out and ironed the hames, the plowstocks, and the 'single trees' for the farmers, and did a hundred other things too nu merous to mention. They were experts at tempering edge tools, by what is generally known as the water process. But many of them had secret pro cesses of their own for tempering tools which they guarded with zealous care. "It was the good fortune of your humble servant to have served his time as an apprentice in a general blacksmithing shop, or shop of all work, presided over by an ex-slave genius known throughout the state as a 'master mechanic.' In slavery times this man hired his own time—pay ing his master a certain stipulated amount of money each year, and all he made over and above that amount was his own. "The Negro machinists were also becoming numerous before the down fall of slavery. The slave owners were generally the owners of all the factories, machine shops, flour-mills, saw-mills, gin houses and threshing machines. They owned all the railroads and the shops connected with them. In all of these the white laborer and mechanic had been supplant ed almost entirely by the slave mechanics at the time of the breaking out of the civil war. Many of the railroads in the South had their entire train crews, except the conductors, made up of the slaves—including engineers and firemen. The 'Georgia Central' had inaugrated just such a move ment, and had many Negro engineers on its locomotives and Negro mar- chinists in its shops. So it will be seen at once that the liberation of the slaves was also the salvation of the poor white man of the South. It saved him from being completely ousted, as a laborer and a mechanic, by the masters, to make place for the slaves whom they were having trained for those positions. Yet, strange as it may seem to us now, the great mass of poor white men in the South who were directly and indirectly affected by the slave mechanic—being literally forced out of the business, took up arms and fought against the abolition of slavery! "While the poor whites and the masters were fighting, these same black men were at home working to support those fighting for their slavery. The Negro mechanic could be found, during the conflict, in the machine 18 THE NEGKO ARTISAN shops, building engines and railroad cars; in the gun factories making arms of all kinds for the soldiers; in the various shops building wagons, and making harness, bridles and saddles, for the armies of the South. Negro engineers handled the throttle in many cases to haul the soldiers to the front, whose success, in the struggle going on, meant continued slavery to themselves and their people. All of the flour mills, and most of every other kind of mill, of the South, was largely in charge of black men. "Much has been said of the new Negro for the new century, but with all his training he will have to take a long stride in mechanical skill be fore he reaches the point of practical efficiency where the old Negro of the old century left off. J.t was the good fortune of the writer once to fall into the hands of an uncle who was master of what would now be half a dozen distinct trades. He was generally known as a mill-wright, or mill builder. A mill-wright now, is only a man who merely sets up the machinery, and his work is now confined mostly to the hanging of shafting, pulleys and belting. In the days of slavery the mill-wright, had to know how to construct everything about the mill, from foundation to roofs. This uncle could take his men with their 'cross cut saws' and 'broad axes' and go into the forests, hew the timbers with which to build the dams across the rivers and streams of water, to erect the 'mill house' frames, get out all the necessary timber and lumber at the saw mill. Then he would, without a sign of a drawing on paper, lay out and cut every piece, every mortise and tenon, every brace and rafter -with their proper angles, &c., with perfect precision before they put the whole together. I have seen my uncle go into the forest, fell a great tree, hew out of it an immense stick or shaft from four feet to five feet in diameter, and from twenty to thirty feet long, having as many as sixteen to twenty faces on its surface, or as they termed it, 'sixteen' and 'twenty square.' He would then take it to the mill seat and mortise it, make the arms, and all the intricate parts for a great "overshot" water wheel to drive the huge mill machinery. This is a feat most difficult even for modern me chanics who have a thorough knowledge of mathematics and the laws of mechanics. "It is difficult for us to understand how those men with little or no knowl- edgeof mathematics, or mechanical rules, could take a crude stick of timber, shape it, and then go to work and cut out a huge screw and the 'Tap blocks' for those old style cotton presses." To the above testimony we may append reports from various localities. Prom Alabama we have a report from an artisan at Tuskegee who was 14 or 16 years old at the breaking out of the civil war. The Principal of the Academic Department writes: "He is one of the most remarkable men you ever saw. He is a fine tinner, shoemaker and harness maker, and un til the school grew so large held all these trades under his instruction. He is an all-round tinker and can do anything from the repairing of a watch to the mending of an umbrella." This man names 25 Negro carpenters, 11 blacksmiths, 3 painters, 2 wheelwrights, 3 tin smiths, 2 tanners, 5 masons, and L4 shoemakers in Tuskegee and the SEVENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE 19 surrounding districts before the war. "Tuskegee was a small place" he writes "and you will wonder why such a number of mechanics were there. The answer is this: there were, a large number of wealthy white people who lived in the county, owning large numbers of slaves, and there was thus a lot of work all through the country districts; so they were sent out to do the work." Of them in general lie says: "The mechanics as a rule lived more comfortably than any other class of the Negroes. A number of them hired their time and made money; they wore good clothes and ate better food than the other classes .of colored people. In other words they stood higher in the estimation of the white people than any of the others. A very small number of them were allowed to live by themselves in out of the way houses. All the master wanted of them was to stay 011 his place and pa5T over their wages promptly. As a rulo a white man contracted for the jobs and overlooked the work. These white men often did not know anything about the trade but had Negro foremen under them who really carried on the work." From Georgia there are two reports: in Al bany. "Before the civil war all of the artisans in this section of the state were colored men. Their masters compelled some of their slaves to learn these trades so that they could do the necessary work around the planta tions." In Marshalville, on the other hand, "There were only two Negro artisans here before the war." From West Virginia comes a report: there were "but two skilled laborers" previous to the war in Blnefield. In Chester, South Carolina, "Before the war there were practically no Negro artisans." Charleston reports: "We have no accurate data to work on, except experiences of ex-slaves, who seem to agree that though the anti-bellum artisan was very proficient, yet he could not be compared in point of intelligent service with the artisan of to-day." From Green ville we learn: "The Negro since the war has entered trades more largely and in more varied lines. He is now in trades not open to him before freedom." In Mississippi one town reports that "Before the war Negroes were not artisans from choice, but many large planters would train some of their slaves in carpentry or hlacksmithing for plantation use. Theu the Negro did not have to ask, Does this trade pay? Now he does." An other locality says: "Before the war the principal trades were carpentry and blacksmithing and were done by trained slaves." In Louisiana "Be fore and since the war Negroes have built some of the best structures" in New Orleans and Baton Bouge. Olmsted noted many Negro mechanics here. In Texas there were "few if any" Negro mechanics in Georgetown before the war, while in Dallas they did "most of the skilled labor." In Arkansas artisans were few. In Tennessee there were relatively more arti sans before the war than now in Nashville, fewer in Murfreesboro and McMiunville and about the. same number in Hnryville. In the District of Columbia there were many Negro artisans in ante-bellum times, as shown by the directories: 20 THE NEGRO ABTISAN Negro Artisans in Washington, D. C.* SEVENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE 21 - Carpenters.................. .............................. Blacksmiths......... .................. .................. Tailors........................... ............................ Shoemakers............................................... Pump-borers............... ......... ..................... Caulkers......... ........................ .................. Coppersmiths ......... ................. ................. Bakers.............................. ......... ............... Cabinet-makers....................... ........ ........ Slaters........................... ......... .................. Wheelwrights ..................................... ..... Whitesmiths............................................. Tinners............ ................................. ........ 1827 2 2 1 .1 3 1 1830 2 2 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 1850 2 2 2 7 3 1 1855 1 2 2 1 1 2 18(50 25 11 20 13 12 2 % 1 2 1 1 1 1 2 1 t 1 2 It is not altogether clear from such incomplete reports as to just what the status or efficiency of the ante-bellum artisan was. It is clear that there were some very efficient •workmen and a large number who knew something of the various trades. Still, we must remember that it would be easy to exaggerate the ability and importance of the mass of these workmen. "The South was lacking in manufactures, and used little machinery. Its demand for skilled labor was not large, but what demand existed was sup plied mainly by Negroes. Negro carpenters, plasterers, bricklayers, black smiths, •wheelwrights, painters, harnessmakers, tanners, millers, •weavers, barrelmakers. basketmakers, shoemakers, chairmakers, coachmen, spin ners, seamstresses, housekeepers, gardeners, cooks, laundresses, embroid erers, maids of all work, were found in every community, and frequently on a single plantation. Skilled labor was more profitable than unskilled, and therefore every slave was made as skillful as possible under a slave system, "t Here we have, perhaps, the best key to the situation in the South before the war; there was little demand for skilled labor in the rather rude economy of the average slave plantation and the Negro did the most of this. The slave artisan, however, was rather a jack-of-all-trades than a mechanic in the modern sense of the term—he could build a barn, make a barrel, mend an umbrella or shoe a horse. Exceptional slaves did the work exceptionally well, but the average workman was poor, careless and *Takeii from the directories of these years and apt to be incomplete. Mr. L. M. Hershaw kindly did this work. fG. T. Winston In Annals of the American Academy, July, 1901, p. 111. ill-trained, ami could not have earned living wages under modern com petitive conditions. While then it is perfectly true to say that the slave was the artisan of the South before the war it is probably also true that the average of workmanship was low and suited only to rough plantation life. This does not, of course, gainsay for a moment the fact that on some of the better plantations and in cities like Richmond, Savannah, Charles ton, and New Orleans, there were really first-class Negro workmen who did good work. 3. Economics of Emancipation. Slaves and the lowest freemen were the ordinary artisans of Greece and Borne, save only as the great artists now and then descended from above as sculptors and architects. In me diaeval times mechanics were largely bondsmen and serfs and were pur chased and imported just as black carpenters formed a part of the ex penses of a Texas emigrant in 1850. While exceptional mechanics in the middle ages acquired a degree of practical freedom just as the Negro me chanics of the South did, yet they were in earlier times serfs. Gradually in free communities there arose a class of free mechanics, but in the rural districts and in the households of the lords they still, for many genera tions, remained serfs. The rise and development of cities gave the freed artisan his chance; there, by defensive and offensive organization, he be came the leading factor in the economic and political development of the new city-states. His development was rapid, and about the 14th century a distinction between laborers and masters arose which has gradually grown and changed into our modern problem of labor and capital. A very interesting comparison between this development and the situa tion of the Southern freedmen might be drawn at some length. Even be fore the war a movement of slaves to the cities took place: first of house- servants with the masters' families and then of slave artisans: if the slave was a good artisan he was worth more hired out in the city than on the country plantation. Moreover,- the Negro greatly preferred to be in town —he had more liberty, more associates, and more excitement. Probably in time there would have been evolved in the South a class of city serf- artisans and servants considerably removed from the. mass of field-hands. It is significant that the Georgia law prohibiting slaves from hiring their time specifically excepted certain of the larger towns. After emancipation came suddenly, in the midst of war and social up heaval, the first real economic question was the self-protection of freed working men. There were three chief classes of them: the agricultural laborers chiefly in the country districts, the house-servants in town and country and the artisans who were rapidly migrating to town. The Freed- man's Bureau undertook the temporary guardianship of the first class, the second class easily passed from half-free service to half-servile freedom. The third class, the artisans, however, met peculiar conditions. They had always been used to working under the guardianship of a master and even though that guardianship in some cases was but nominal yet it was of the greatest value for protection. This soon became clear as the Negro freed artisan set up business for himself: if there was a creditor to be sued he •could no longer bring suit in the name of an influential white master; if 22 THE NEGRO ARTISAN there was a contract to be had, there was no responsible white patron to answer for the good performance of the work. Nevertheless, these dif ferences were not strongly felt at first—the friendly patronage of the former master was often voluntarily given the freedman and for some years following the war the Negro mechanic still held undisputed sway. Three occurrences, however, soon disturbed the situation: (a). The competition of white mechanics. (b). The efforts of the Negro for self-protection. (c). The new industrial development of the South. These changes were spread over a series of years and are not yet com plete, but they are the real explanation of certain facts which have hith erto been explained in false and inadequate ways. It has, for instance, been said repeatedly that the Negro mechanic carelessly threw away his monopoly of the Southern labor market and allowed the white mechanic to supplant him. This is only partially true. To be sure, the ex-slave was not alert, quick and ready to meet competition. His business hitherto had been to do work but not to get work, save in exceptional cases. The whole slave system of labor saved him from certain sorts of competition, and when he was suddenly called to face the competition of white me chanics he was at a loss. His especial weakness was the lack of a hiring contractor. His master or a white contractor had usually taken jobs and hired him. The white contractor still hired him but there was no one now to see that the contractor gave him fair wages. Indeed, as the white mechanics pressed forward the only refuge of the Negro mechanic was lower wages. There were a few Negro contractors here and there but they again could only hope to maintain themselves by markedly underbidding all competitors and attaining a certain standing in the community. What the Negro mechanic needed then was social protection—the pro tection of law and order, perfectly fair judicial processes and that personal power which is in the hands of all modern laboring classes in civilized lands, viz.,' the right of suffrage. It has often been said that the freedman throwing away his industrial opportunities after the war gave his ener gies to politics and succeeded in alienating his friends and exasperating his enemies, and proving his inability to rule. It is doubtless true that the freedman laid too much stress on the efficacy of political power in making a straight road to real freedom. And undoubtedly, too, a bad class of politicians, white and black, took advantage of this and made the reconstruction Negro voter a hissing in the ears of the South. Notwith standing this the Negro was fundamentally right. If the whole class of mechanics here, as in the Middle Age, had been without the suffrage and half-free, the Negro would have had an equal chance with the white me chanic, and could have afforded to wait. But he saw himself coming more and more into competition with men who had the right to vote, the prestige of race and blood, the advantage of intimate relations with those acquainted with the market and the demand. The Negro saw clearly that his industrial rise depended, to an important degree, upon his political power and he therefore sought that power. In this seeking he failed pri marily because of his own poor training, the uncompromising enmity and SEVENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE 23 apprehensions of his white neighbors and the selfishness and half-hearted measures of his emancipators. The result was that the black artisan en tered the race heavily handicapped—the member of a proscribed class, with restricted rights and privileges, without political and social power. The result was of course that he was enabled to maintain himself only by accepting low wages and keeping at all hazards the good-will of the com munity. Even here however he could not wholly succeed. The industrial condi tions in the country were rapidly changing. Slowly but surely the new industrial South began to arise and with it came new demands on the mechanic. Now the Negro mechanic could not in the very nature of the case meet these demands; he knew how to do a few things by rule of thumb—he could build one of the rambling old-fashioned southern man sions, he could build a slave shanty; he could construct a rough sugar hogshead and resole a shoe; in exceptional cases he coulcl do even care ful and ingenious work in certain lines; but as a rule he knew little of the niceties of modern carpentry or iron-working, he knew practically noth ing of mills and machinery, very little about railroads—in fact he was es pecially ignorant in those very lines of mechanical and industrial develop ment in which the South has taken the longest strides in the last thirty years. And if he was ignorant, who was to teach him ? Certainly not his white fellow workmen, for they were his bitterest opponents because of strong race-prejudice and because of the fact that the Negro works fol low wages. Apprenticeship to the older Negro mechanics was but partial ly successful for they could not teach what they had never learned. In fact it was only through the lever of low wages that the Negro secured any share in the new" industries. By that means he was enabled to -re place white laborers in many branches, but he thereby increased the en mity of trades-unions and labor-leaders. Such in brief wks the compli cated effort of emancipation on the Negro artisan and one could not well imagine a situation more difficult to remedy. 4. Occupations and Home-training. Manifestly it is necessary that any constituent group of a great nation should first of all earn a living; that is, they must have the ability and will to labor effectively and must re ceive enough for that labor to live decently and rear their children. Since emancipation the Negro has had greater success in earning a living as a free workingman than the nation had a rig-lit to expect. Nevertheless, the situation to-day is not satisfactory. If we compare the occupations of Negroes and native and foreign whites, we have: 24 THE NEGRO ARTISAN Occupations of American Negroes, 1890: 1. Agriculture, Fishing and Mining, 1,757,403, or 57% 2. Domestic and Personal Service, 963,080, or 31% t^ 3. Manf. and Mechanical Industries, 172,970, or 6% • 4. Trade and Transportation, 145,717, or 5% • 5. Professional service, 33,994, or 1% i Occupations of Native "Whites,* 1890: 1. Agriculture, Fishing and Mining, 5,122,613, or 47% 3. Manf. and Mechanical Industries, 2,067,135, or 19% •• 4. Trade and Transportation, 1,722,462, or 16% • 2. Domestic and Personal Service, 1,342,028, or 12% •• 5. Professional Service, 640,785, or 6% • Occupations of Foreign Whites, 1890: 3. Manf. and Mechanical Industries, 1,597,118, or 31% 2. Domestic and Personal Service, 1,375,067, or 27% 1. Agriculture, Fishing and Mining, 1,305,901, or 26% 4. Trade and Transportation, 712,558, or 14% n 5. Professional Service, 1] 4,113, or 2% « Dividing the Negro wage earners by sex we have: MALE Professions ........................................... 1.2% Agriculture........................................... 63.4 Trade and Transportation..................... 6.8 Manf. and Mechanical Industries........ 7.0 Domestic and Personal Service............ 21.C 100.0 FEMALE 0.9 44.0 0.2 2.8 52.1 TOTAL 1.1 57.2 4.7 5.6 31.4 100.0 100.0 There is manifestly here a strikingly small proportion of this race en gaged in trade, transportation, manufactures and the mechanical indus tries—about one-tenth, as compared with 45% of the foreign-born, and 40% of all the native boru.t If we take all the States of the Union we have the following figures for 1890: '"Native whites, "with native parents. fWitti native and foreign parents. SEVENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE 25 NTCGK.O WAGE-EARNERS, 1890. The United States. 1. Alabama... ....... 3. Arizona. ...... ..... 5. California.......... 8. Delaware........... 9. Dig. of Columbia 10. Florida.. ............ 11. Georgia....... ....... 12. Idaho........ ........ 13. Illinois.......... .... 16. Kansas .............. 18. Louisiana ......... 20. Maryland......... . 21. Massachusetts... 22. Michigan........... 23. Minnesota......... 25. Missouri ............ 27. Nebraska........... 28. Nevada. ............ 29. New Hampshire 30. New Jersey........ 31. New Mexico...... 32. New York. ........ 33. North Carolina.. 34. North Dakota... 35. Ohio...... ............ 36. Oklahoma ......... 38. Pennsylvania. ... 39. Rhode Island..... 40. South Carolina... 41. South Dakota.... 43. Texas... ............. 44. Utah............ ..... 46. Virginia............ 47. "Washington ...... 48. West Virginia... 50. Wyoming.......... All Occupations. Males. 2,101,233 192,322 i,09"i 86,861 4,301 2,765 4,064 9,334 21,238 46,302 246,913 83 19,270 14,648 3,615 13,889 76,411 159,180 409 63,166 7,593 5,065 1,719 198,531 43,940 971 3,741 130 242 16,143 888 23,272 148,370 146 28,085 958 536 37,534 2,337 186,714 284 121,016 123,395 298 322 169,343 902 11,478 855 563 Females. 971,890 101,085 71 30,115 1,041 792 1,964 3,016 18,770 19,071 122,352 23 4,713 4,210 730 3,400 31,255 83,978 145 32,642 3,435 1,329 383 105,306 16,715 140 959 22 107 7,738 156 13,664 68,220 23 7,791 125 99 15,704 1,362 102,836 43 44,701 46,691 51 109 71,752 153 2,623 205 75 Trade and Transportation. Males. 143,350 9,147 13 2,787 457 406 634 633 4.776 4,106 16,397 8 1,994 1,426 289 1,148 7,381 6,045 68 7,538 1,402 448 216 5,671 4,862 45 323 17 24 2,111 40 4,231 7,564 10 3,027 28 42 5,213 546 6,860 121 10,954 6,386 14 33 15,655 69 2,080 74 31 Females. 2,399 140 27 3 5 7 21 195 52 372 41 23 1 20 66 129 2 144 34 6 5 74 44 1 4 1 25 54 106 40 1 1 104 3 188 1 125 69 1 253 7 1 3 Manufacturing and Mechanical Industries. Males. 146,126 9,917 12 3,403 358 402 565 816 2,839 4,501 16,604 2 1,602 1,669 309 1,315 6,519 8,455 55 4,458 1,132 549 88 5,686 3,525 45 370 5 72 1,864 24 2,288 12,114 4 3,426 42 37 4,630 322 9,842 14 10,404 5,794 14 31 18,864 87 927 105 20 Females. 26,929 951 4 275 106 55 165 51 1,490 746 1,924 361 175 35 124 840 2,774 11 1,074 426 137 48 803 396 13 64 2 23 263 3 1,005 2,360 442 2 10 1,077 170 2,341 4 1,141 461 2 6 4,483 15 41 28 26 THE NEGRO ARTISAN SEVENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2T There is but one way of remedying such a distribution of occupation^ and that is by training children and youth into new callings. This is a diffi cult matter. The children get their ideals of life from home life primarily, and amoug a people largely servants and farmers they would not naturally turn to trades or merchandizing. Still, the city groups of Negroes are changing rapidly and eagerly grasping after new ideals. To test the trend of thinking among the growing children of a city group the Conference questioned GOO of the Negro school children of Atlanta in such way as to bring out the influence of home-training in preparing them for artisans. There were 226 boys and 374 girls. Their ages were: 9 to 12 years........................... 48 12 to 15 " ....................... ...349 15 to 18 " ...........................203 First they were asked what sort of work they were accustomed to do at home.. They answered: Sewt..... .................. Cook. ................... .... Wash .................. ..... Iron.............. ...... ... Sweep............ ......... 'Tend Chickens....... Work in Garden ..... Keep Flowers.......... BOYS. 59 04 64 51 198 134 129 118 GIRLS. 350 304 323 348 3G5 159 142 282 fSome did two or more of these sorts of work. On being asked as to the tools they had in the home they answered as follows: 430 have hammer and saw at home. 121 have neither hammer nor saw. 11 have hammer. 1 has saw. 37 gave no answer. 322 use the hammer and saw. 108 do not use them. 420 have other tools besides the hammer and saw. 135 have no other kinds of tools. 45 gave no answer as to other kinds of tools. 294 of the girls and 114 of the boys were accustomed to making little or naments or articles for the home; 82 of the girls and 110 of the boys never did this. When questioned as to what they liked to do best, and what they expected to be when grown up, they replied: GIBLS. To sew............. .........................193 To cook..... .......... ...................... 76 To wash and iron........................ 29 To keep house............................ 22 To 'tend flowers.......................... 18 To sweep.................................... 9 To playmusic............................ 6 To'tend chickens..... .... ............ 5 To go to school........................... 3 To read....................................... 3 To make lace..................... ........ 1 To nurse.... ............................... 1 To play................................ ...... 1 To sing.................. ......... ........... 1 To "work" .................................. 5 What do you like to do best ? BOYS. To carpenter...................................37 To do garden-work........................27 To "work" ......................... ............25 To 'tend chickens...........................24 To sweep............................... ........ 1C To do housework.............................13 To play........................................... 11 To go to school...................... ........10 To drive.......................................... 8 To draw....................... .................. 5 To make ornaments........................ 5 To cook........................................... 5 To wash andiron. ....... .................. 4 To play music................................. 3 To sell goods..........:...... ................. 3 To deliver goods...... ...................... 3 To make money.............................. 1 "Don't know"................................. 8 What are you going to do when grown ? BOYS. Artisans, 58. Carpenters...................................15 Wheelwrights.............................. 3 Masons.............. ................. ........ 9 Carriage-makers.......................... 2 Blacksmiths ............................... 5 Boiler-maker............................... 1 Machinists................................... 5 Butcher................................. ..... 1 Railway Employees........ ............ 5 Shoemaker................................... 1 Firemen......................................... 4 Harnessmaker............................. 1 Tailors ......................................... 3 A "trade".................................... 3 Professional Men, 41. Physicians....................... ...........20 Lawyers................—...-.....-..-...... 3 Teachers,.....................................10 Dentist......................................... 1 Musicians and Music Teachers... 6 Pharmacist.................................. 1 Servants and Laborers, 18. Porters .......................................10 Teamsters............... ..................... 2 Butlers......................... .............. 2 Waiter............. Ice-cream-makers ....................... 2 Cook................. Mercantile and Clerical Pursuits, 13. Merchants .................... .............. 3 Book-keepers... Canvassers................................... 2 Cotton-sampler Commercial Men......................... 2 Draughtsman... Typewriters.................................. 2 Miscellaneous. Farmer........................................ 1 "Help my race"....................... ... 1 "Work".......................................14 "Gentleman"................... ........... 1 "President"................................. 1 "Don't know"...............................41 28 THE NEGRO ARTISAN SEVENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE 29 What are you going to do when grown? GIBLS. Professional Pursuits, 158. Teachers...... ................................85 Musicians arid Music Teachers...65 Missionary.................................. 2 Students.... .................................. 2 Dressmakers and Seamstresses...................109. Servants and Housework, 63. Cooks...........................................27 Housekeepers., Physician..... Elocutionist. Singer........... Writer.......... Nurses .........................................27 Laundresses...... .......................... 4 These answers reveal much of the home life and ideals of city Negroes: first there is no doubt but what the boys and girls naturally like to "do" something with the hands, the larger number of the boys wishing to be artisans of some sort despite the fact that, not one in fourteen of their parents follow such callings. Outside of this they are of course attracted by the successes they see—the neat carriage of the black physician, the colored mail carrier, etc. At the same time it is clear they do not get at home much chance to exercise their mechanical ingenuity—even the sim plest tools being unused in nearly half the homes. Here is the chance for kindergarten work and manual training. These children have actual contact with things less often than in the case of the average child. Much of the world about them is unknown in the concrete and consequently they have greater difficulty in grasping abstract ideas. 5. The Rise of Industrial Training. These facts have long been recognized in the training of children. In the case of the Negroes there were a number of mixed incentives to action which have not yet clearly worked themselves out to-day, First there was the idea of work ing one's own way through school which many consider an excellent moral tonic; secondly there was the idea of educating children in the main according to the rank in life which they will in all probability oc cupy. This is a wide-spread theory of education arid can be especially traced in the European schools. Tliirdty there was the scheme of using student labor to reduce the expenses of maintaining the school; fourthly there was the idea of training girls for house-work; fifthly there was the idea of having the youth learn trades for future self-support, and sixthly there was the idea of "learning by doing"—of using things to enforce ideas arid physical exercises to aid mental processes. All these distinct aspects of education have been loosely lumped together in popular speech as "In dustrial Education" with considerable resulting confusion of thought. Among the Northern free Negroes "Industrial" training found early arid earnest advocates. They meant by this some way of teaching black boys trades in order that they might earn a decent livelihood amid the economic proscription of the North. As Mr. John W. Cromwell has lately said,t it is remarkable that in nearly every one of the dozen or more Negro conventions from 1831 to tSoiithern Workman, July. 1802. 1860 there was developed strong advocacy of trade schools for Negro youths. "In the convention of 1831, assembled at Philadelphia, it was decided to establish a college on the manual labor plan, as soon as twenty thousand dollars should be raised. Rev. Samuel E. Cornish, an educated colored Presbyterian clergyman, was appointed agent to secure funds. Within one year three thousand dollars had been secured for the purpose. Arthur Tappaii, the philanthropist, bought several acres in the southern part of New Haven, Conn., and had completed arrangements for erecting thereon a building, fully equipped for the purpose, that would have done credit to the city, the state and the country. But the people of New Haven and of Connecticut were bitterly opposed to the location of such an institution in their midst. In a mass meeting of the citizens, the mayor, aldermen and councilmen leading, they declared this opposition in forcible and uiimis- takablr language, even against the protest of so powerful a citizen as Roger S. Baldwin, who subsequently defended the Amistad captives, and became governor of the state and United States Senator. More than this, the commonwealth subsequently passed a law prohibiting the establish ment of any institution of learning 'for the instruction of persons of color of other states.' "Half a generation later, at the Colored National Convention of 1847, the demand for a colored college, led by so talented and able a controversialist as the late Alexander Crummell, noted even at that date for the same polished, incisive style and elegant diction which marked his later years, was offset by a firm and powerful constituency that successfully insisted on industrial training- having the prior claim. "But it was at Rochester, N. Y., in 1853, at the most influential of all the conventions in the history of the Negro race, that their approval of indus trial education what most emphatically given. At a time when 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' and the name of its authoress, Harriet Beecher Stowe, were on every tongue, she, at the urgent request of friends in Great Britain, was planning a trip to Europe. The convention, following the lead of Frederick Douglass, commissioned her by an overwhelming voice to so licit funds in their name for the establishment of an industrial and agri cultural institution, hi England her reception was most enthusiastic,aiid her mission seems to have been favorably received. The enemies of the Negro in this country severely criticised her course, but after a defence by Frederick Douglas in his paper, 'The North Star,' copied in 'The Inde pendent,' then edited by Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, the attacks ceased. When Mrs. Stowe returned to America she had changed her mind respect ing the industrial education school, and the second attempt of the colored people to found in the North what has since succeeded so well in the South, came to naught. "In the 'Autographs for Freedom,' published in 1854, Prof. Charles L. Reason, who writes the introductory article, says: "The free colored man at the North .... in on* department of re formatory exertion .... feels that he has been neglected. .... He has failed to see a corresponding earnestness, according to the influence \ SO THE NEGRO ARTISAN •of abolitionists in the business world, in opening the avenues of industrial labor to the proscribed youth of the land. This work, therefore, is evi dently left for himself to do. And he has laid his powers to the task. The record of his conclusions was given at Rochester in July, and has become already a part of history. " 'Though shut out from the workshops of the country, he is determined to make self-provision so as to triumph over the spirit of caste that would keep him degraded. The utility of the industrial institution he would erect must, he believes, commend itself to abolitionists. " 'The usefulness, the self-respect and self-dependence—the combination of intelligence and handicraft—the accumulation of the materials of wealth, all referable to such an institution, present fair claims to the •assistance of the entire American people.' "Mr. Reason proves himself a prophet in forecasting conditions familiar to every observer. He adds: " 'Whenever emancipation shall take place, immediate though it be, the subjects of it, like man5r who now make vip the so-called free population, will be in what geologists call a transition state. The prejudice now felt against them for hearing on their persons the brand of slaves, cannot die out immediately. Severe trials will be their portion. The curse of a 'tainted race' must be expiated by almost miraculous proofs of ad vancement. .... To fight the battle on the bare ground of abstract principles will fail to give us complete victory. .... The last weak argument—that the Negro can never contribute anything to advance the national character, must be 'nailed to the counter as base coin.' .... Already he sees springing into growth from out his foster ivork-schocl, in telligent young laborers competent to enrich the world with necessary products—industrious citizens, contributing their proportion to aid on the advancing civilization of the country; self-providing artisans vindicating their pcopb from the never-ceasing charge of a fitness for servile posi tions.' " The Negroes who emigrated to Canada were more successful. In 1842 they held a convention to decide on the expenditure of $1,500 collected for them in England by a Quaker. They finally decided to start "a manual labor school where children could be taught the elements of knowledge which are usually the occupations of a grammar school; and where the boys could be taught in addition the practise of some mechanic art, and the girls could be instructed in those domestic arts which are the proper occupation and ornament of their sex."t Father Henson, the Negro who was chiefly instrumental in founding the school stated that the object was "to make it self-supporting by the employment of the students for certain portions of the time on the land." The school lasted some ten or fifteen years, but gradually decayed as the public schools were opened to Negro youth. In many of the colored schools opened in the Northern statep some in dustrial training was included. The Philadelphia "Institute for Colored fSicbcrt: Underground Railroad, r- 206. SEVENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE 31 Youth" was founded by Kichard Humphreys in 1837 for the education of Negroes "in school learning, in the various branches of the mechanic arts and trade, and in agriculture." For a while a farm and trade school was maintained from this fund in Bristol county, Penna., but the school is now in Philadelphia and is being reorganized as a technical and trade school. When the civil war opened and the fall of slavery seemed imminent, some of the earliest suggestions for educating the blacks insisted on in dustrial training. The development, however, was slow and interesting. We may indicate the evolution of the Southern industrial school some- • what as follows: 1. Janitor work and chores performed by students. 2. Repair work and equipment by student labor. 3. Teaching of ordinary housework to girls. 4. Teaching of house-service for the training of servants. 5. The school of work; co-operative industry for gain, by use of student labor. 6. Teaching of trades. 7. The industrial settlement. 8. The social settlement. 9. Manual training. 10. Technological education. A diagram will best illustrate the logical development of these succes sive ideas: 1 8 10 This diagram may be explained thus: at first nearly all the schools from necessity required their students to help in cleaning and arranging the school buildings and yards. Afterward this feature was kept as a part of the discipline and to this day in nearly all the hoarding schools an hour or more of labor a day is required of each student regardless of his ability to pay for his schooling. From this situation (indicated by "1") two lines of training easily arose: first the boys by simple direction and oversight were enabled to make ordinary repairs about the school and even to make benches, tables and the like. This became a feature of many schools, both for its usefulness and discipline, (2). On the other hand the New England school teachers who came South found the Negro girls startlingly ignorant •of matters of household economy, which are among the first things a •i 32 THE NEGRO ARTISAN SEVENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE 33 properly-bred girl knows. These girls could not sew, they could not sweep, they could not make a bed properly or cook digestible food. Les sons in simple housework for the girls early became a part of the curricu lum, (3). This was practically the extent of industrial training in nearly all schools, except Hampton, until about 1880. The new industrial movement then began to awaken the South and many began to see clearly that unless the Negro made especial effort he could gain no important place. The idea' of a "School of Work" therefore arose. It was to furnish education practically free to those willing to work for it; it was to "do" things—i. e., become a center of productive industry, it was to be partially, if not wholly, self-supporting, and it was to teach trades, (5). Admirable as were some of the ideas underlying this scheme the whole thing simply would not work in practice: it was found that if you were to use time and material to teach trades thoroughly you could not at the same time keep the industries on a commercial basis and make them pay. Many schools started out to do this on a large scale and went into virtual bankruptcy. Moreover it was found also that it was possible to teach a boy a trade me chanically without giving him the full educative benefit of the process, and vice versa, that there was a distinct educative value in teaching a boy to use bis hands and eyes in carrying out certain physical processes, even though he did not actually learn a trade. It has happened, therefore, in the last decade that a noticeable change has come over the industrial schools. In the first place the idea of commercially remunerative indus try in a school is being pushed rapidly to the back-ground. There are still schools with shops and farms that bring an income, and schools that use student labor partially for the erection of buildings and the furnishing of equipment. It is coming to be seen, however, in the education of the Negro as clearly as it has been seen in the e'ducation of youths the world over that it is the boy and not the material product that is the true object of education, Consequently the object of the industrial school became to be the thorough training of boys regardless of the income derived from the process of training, and, indeed, regardless of the cost of the training as long as it was thoroughly well done. Even at this point, however, the difficulties were not surmounted. In the first place modern industry has taken great strides since the war and the teaching of trades is no longer a simple matter. Machinery and long processes of work have greatly changed the work of the carpenter, the iron-worker and the shoemaker. A really efficient workman must be to-day an intelligent man who has had good technical training in addition to thorough common school and perhaps even higher training. To meet this situation the industrial schools began a further development; they established distinct Trade Schools for the thorough training of better class artisans and at the same time they sought to preserve for the purposes of general education such of the simpler processes of elementary trade learn ing as were best suited therefor. In this differentiation of the Trade School and manual training the best of the industrial schools simply fol lowed the plain trend of the present educational epoch. A prominent educator tells us that, in Sweden, "In the beginning the economic concep tion was generally adopted and everywhere manual training was looked upon as a means of preparing the children of the common people to earn their living. But gradually it came to be recognized that manual train- ins has a more elevated purpose and one indeed more useful in the deeper meaning of the term. It came to be considered as an educative process for the complete moral, physical and intellectual development of the child."* This conception of the plan of physical training in the educative pro cess is gradually making its way into all schools. It does not belong pe culiarly to "Industrial" schools, although it was, so to speak, discovered there. It is rather a part of all true education. As Mr. A. G. Boyden has so well pointed out,t the modern "laboratory" methods are but part of this new educational movement: "The learner must handle the objects whose qualities he perceives through the senses." He must handle the objects whose colors he would know, place them together and form pleasing com binations and mix and apply colors with his own hands; he must handle bodies whose forms he would know, measure their dimensions, draw the forms and make them of clay, paper or wood. So too he must examine and analyze minerals, draw and examine plants, observe and dissect animals, apply mathematics to counters and measures and surfaces, perform actual experiments in physics and chemistry and take notes, mould land config urations and draw maps in geography; prepare written exercises in gram mar, prepare outlines, charts and reports in history and civics. Finally the student must express frequently in writing what he thinks and studies. Manual training as an integral part of general culture has but just be gun to enter the Negro industrial schools. It was first established at At lanta University in 1888 by Mr. Clarence C. Tucker. Here General Arm strong saw the system and induced Mr. Tucker to enter into the service of Hampton,where industrial training had been given from the firsthand there introduce the distinct system of manual training. Hampton has since de veloped and perfected it in connection with Kindergarten andSloyd work. In time from such manual training will probably develop higher techno logical and engineering schools, but this is the work of the future. On the other hand with the distinct Trade-school evolved also the idea of the In dustrial settlement. The co-operative commercial organization, which was found impracticable in a school, has been, in one community at least, —Kowaliga—developed into a business organization. The school here has been definitely differentiated from business as such and the community or ganized for. work. A slightly different development occurred at Calhoun, where a settlement of Northern people undertook not simply a school but social and economic work to lift the community to a higher social plane. 6. The Industrial School. There were in the United States iri the scholastic year, 1899-1900, ninety-eight schools for Negroes which gave courses in in dustrial training. Their names and addresses are as follows :t *M. Gluys, quoted in Harris' Psychology of Manual Training, tin Report of Conference on Manual Training, Boston, Mass. tWhere dates are given after tlie name of the school the statistics arc for that year and not for 1899-1800. 34 THE NEGRO ARTISAN Name of School. Kowaliga Academic and In- Emerson Normal Institute. State Normal Institute. .... Agricultural and Mechani- Tuskegee Normal and In dustrial School, '98 and '99 Arkadelphia Acad. '98 & '99. Arkansas Baptist Col. " . Philander Smith College. . . Branch Normal College. .... State College for Colored Edward Waters College. . . . Emerson Memorial Home Orange Park Normal and Manual Training School. Florida State Normal and Atlanta University ........ Haines Normal and Indus trial Institute. .... ..... Address. Alabama. Arkansas. Little Rock........ Little Rock . Pine Bluff..... District of Cohnnbia. Florida. Orange Park ....... Tallahassee . Georgia. Atlanta ... .... itlanta ...... Augusta. .......... > 0} o £ . be 2 c as 2 c3 3U fH +3 o-a 65 £ £J CD BS a -S 3£? o~ 205 100 466 499 195 35 1,180 16 20 56 95 109 120 46 223 38 2£ 25 13C 7( 7f 10( 8< 11' 23; s; 45( 9; 20! 1899-1900. Students trained in industrial branches. Farm or garden work. Carpentry. Bricklaying. Plastering. Painting. 53002 40 1233 2217 17 943 35 1495736 101 3 50 32 2 40 2 2 1214 2 81 1 16 5020 3636 3616 6 22 32 62912 Forging. Machine shop work. Shoemaking. Printing. Sewing. 0350 0)251 60 25 172892 115252025 763 21152 3 321313 906 7 202 212 50 13 828 51510 45 1 602 4 3 20 5 52 75 38 7 22 80S 76 43 16 2 48 80 15 94 20 10167 1 4 44 32402 93 8200 Other trades. •) 2 3 28 4227 1 1 0 0 2 2 0 40 4 7 27 19 21 13 18 51 34 44 50 63 15 SEVENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE 35 Name of School. Georgia State Industrial College, '98 and '99. .... Fort Valley High and In- Ballard Nor. School. .... Central City College. .... Alien Nor. & Indus. Sch. State Normal School for Chandler Nor. School. . . Gilbert Academy and In- St. Frances Academy .... Industrial Home for Col ored Girls, '98 &'99.... Princess Anne Academy. Mount Hermon Female Seminary ..... ....... Southern Christian Inst. Miss. State Nor. School . . Tougaloo University .... Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College. . . Geo. R. Smith College. . . Manual Training and In dustrial School ........ Address. Georgia (Con.) College.......... Fort Valley...... South Atlanta.. Thomasville... . . Kentucky. Louisiana. New Orleans .... New Orleans.... Maryland. Princess Anne . . Mississippi. Clinton...... .... Edwards.... .... Holly Springs. . . Holly Springs. . . Missouri. lefferson City. . . New Jersey. Bordentown .... Total number of pupils receiv ing industrial training. 140 75 209 272 91 41 310 78 170 111 141 16 229 27 105 60 60 43 80 124 60 221 339 125 52 109 1899-1900 Students trained in industrial branches. Farm or garden work. 12 26 35 72 48 31 18 g 22 110 Carpentry. 8 30 85 26 15 59 72 9 14 30 75 85 36 28 Bricklaying. Plastering. Painting. Tin or sheet-metal work. 8 810 5 111 g 8 2 20 3 Forging. Machine shop work. Shoemaking. Printing. Sewing. 8 8 40 50 124 262 11 15 35 6 6 7 175 78 18 70 111 1 16 29157 13 ' 105 3 411 29 60 5 5 15 80 11 56 60 0 98 32 16 6 49 12 40 41 Cooking. 36 21 10 10 1 48 6 70 8 40 29 60 10 10 70 32 Other trades. 32 20 C 4 2 12 75 9 THE NEGRO ARTISAN SEVENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE 37 Name of School. Washburn Seminary .... Scotia Seminary. ........ Franklinton Christian College, '98 & '99....... Agr. and Mechanical Col. for the Colored Race . . High Point Normal and Barrette Collegiate and Industrial School .. .... Plymouth State Nor. Sch. St. Augustine's School. . . Shaw University. ....... Gregory Nor.Sch.,'97 & '98 Rankin-Richards Inst. . The Slater Indus. an£ State Nor. School ...... Inst. for Colored Youth . Schofield Normal and Indus. School......... Browning Home School '97 and '98. ............. Avery Nor. Institute .... Alien University ........ Benedict College. ....... Penn. Nor. and Indus Brewer Nor. Sch. '98 & '99 Claflin University ...... Knoxville College. ...... Morristown Nor. Col .... Cen. Tenn. College. ..... Roger Williams Univ. . . Address. North Carolina. Charlotte.. ...... Franklinton .... High Point. .... Kings Mountain Raleigh. ........ Wilmington .... Pennsylvania. Philadelphia. . . . Soiith Carolina. Camden. ........ Charleston... .... Columbia ....... Columbia ....... Frogmore ....... Greenwood ..... Orangeburg. .... Tennessee. Morristown ..... Total number of pupils receiv-| ing industrial training. 118 107 290 174 60 155 75 37 100 190 9 100 16 118 272 231 136 75 205 84 213 179 147 487 78 68 462 93 70 100 —— 1899-1900 Students trained in industrial branches. Farm or garden work. 143 6 F 18 57 10 27 76 9 Carpentry. 48 23 88 12 F t 6 70 4 22 24 20 24 8 98 108 3 14 45 10 | Bricklaying. 9 8 2 10 8 3 12 175 2 | Plastering. 5 3 5 8 42 1 | Painting. 2 3 2 9 10 | Tin or sheet-metal work. 1 4 | Forging, 88 50 | Machine shop work. 6 50 | Shoemaking. 4 5 9 3 15 10 2 4 2 | Printing. 46 5 12 9 11 10 3 25 12 8 13 19 41 2 bb a (D 00 70 20 290 10 64 60 110 20 37 50 120 100 16 38 173 100 75 117 84 109 91 147 195 52 36 378 93 9 98 bb -S •3 o o 290 64 15 85 20 50 37 87 72 36 40 20 20 46 84 10 80 68 Other trades. 123 10 40 30 12 Name of School. Paul Quinn College ..... Ingleside Seminary ,'98-99 Gloucester Agr. & Indus. College, '98 and '99.. . Hampton Nor. & Agri cultural Institute .... St. Paul Normal and In dustrial School, '98-'99. Manassas Indus. School, '98 and '99. ....... . Norfolk Mission College. Va. Nor. and Coll. Inst. . Va. Union University Storer College . . . Address. Texas. Marshall. ....... Virginia. Burkeville.... Lawreuceville. . . Norfolk.......... Petersburg. . . Richmond . . ... W. Virginia. Harper's Ferry. . Total number of pupils receiv ing industrial training. 327 200 140 109 97 949 230 65 400 183 12 105 ] 899-] 900 Students trained in industrial branches. Farm or garden work. . 32 100 30 413 18 '3 Carpentry. 15 109 29 10 27 35 Bricklaying. 24 11 4 Plastering. 11 5 Painting. 2 6 2 M t* o t£ "3 « I