452 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



THE EDUCATION OF THE COLORED RACE IS THE 

 DUTY OF THE NATION 



By Professor HARRIS HANCOCK 



UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI 



FORTY years ago the civil war was ended, the negro freed. In- 

 dividually there will always be persons who entertain feelings of 

 animosity against their fellow man of another section; for sectionalism 

 will ever exist. But as a nation such feelings must be buried, if there 

 are any which influence the political government of the people. For 

 every section is a part of the nation and the nation is under equal 

 obligations to every section. Each state is an integral part of the 

 nation, and no state may be regarded by the union as a province. 



It is a historical fact that slavery was forced upon this country by 

 England against the protests of the states, both north and south. For 

 example, in 1769 the House of Burgesses of Virginia by a vote 

 abolished slavery, but was prohibited from so doing by George III., 

 King of England, " in the interests of commerce." Further, in 1778 

 Virginia, and in 1798 Georgia, passed acts prohibiting the importation 

 of slaves, Virginia fixing as a penalty the heavy fine of one thousand 

 pounds; it is also true that Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky were 

 banded together in the support of a practical system of emancipating 

 the slaves by degrees, a movement which was eventually stopped by 

 the abolitionists, a party that came into existence after the Missouri 

 compromise, in 1820-21. This party demanded the immediate and 

 uncompensated freedom of all slaves, notwithstanding the fact that 

 England had just liberated four hundred thousand slaves at the cost 

 of twenty million pounds. No other such attack upon private property 

 can be found in the history of civilized nations. We emphasize the 

 fact that some of the southern states led the world in an earnest appeal 

 to prevent slavery, although with a peculiar irony the world to-day 

 holds the south responsible absolutely for the existence of this institu- 

 tion. And further to show that the nation as a whole was responsible 

 for the existence of the colored race in America, it must be recognized 

 that although the south was at that time somewhat of a maritime 

 people, no slave was ever brought to this country by a southern vessel, 

 and that " New England ship-owners practically monopolized the 

 traffic of slavery for a number of years/' 1 It is also found that 

 Massachusetts was the first colonial state (1641) that legalized slave 



1 See " The True Civil War," pp. 28, 29, 30; and in this connection see also 

 " Origin of the Late War," by George Lunt, an eminent lawyer of Massachusetts. 



