104 UNITED STATES - MISCEl,I,ANEOUS 



of the most advanced of those fellow citizens amongst whom its mem- 

 bers live has been favoured l)y various circumstances. With the activity 

 displayed in varying degree by the public authorities is united that of private 

 associations both of whites or negroes, and of individuals inspired by 

 humanity or patriotism. Let us mention such foundations as the James 

 Fund and the Slater Fund, which have been and still are so important for 

 negro education, especially in the South. The work of the Universities has 

 been continuous and enlightened and their professors and students have 

 accomplished studies and carried out investigations into the economic and 

 social conditions of the negroes, exposing their most urgent needs. 



The elementary school every year draws numbers of negroes from the 

 darkness of ignorance, so that, while at the date of their emancipation, the 

 great mass of the negroes were illiterate, in 1910, the illiterate negroes over 

 ten years of age were 30.4 % (44.5 % in 1900). 



The church in its various sects and divisions has also contributed to 

 the work of progress. In the United States the negroes have their own 

 churches, with clergy of their own race; the reUgious idea, advancing from 

 what was almost idolatry in the first years after the abolition, has undeni- 

 ably been a generally civilizing influence, especially amongst negroes 

 in the country. The clergy, now more cultivated and enlightened, have 

 been able, in addition to diffusing moral and religious principles among the 

 negroes, to carry on a work of economic and practical instruction in places 

 where other influences could not penetrate. 



We must finally observe a general improvement in the outward condi- 

 tions of field life. Progress from this point of view varies greatly in differ- 

 ent locahties, with the greater or less influence the various factors of 

 civilization have been able to exert, the vicinity of cities, the means of 

 communication and the greater or less diffculty of breaking with old local 

 traditions. In some parts of the country, as on the coast of South Carolina, 

 where in the slave days negroes were engaged in no other work than the rude 

 and simple cultivation of the plantations, remote from communication with 

 whites, except their masters and overseers, progress has been very slow. In 

 other places, however, where the conditions were more favourable, the con- 

 trary has been the case. The rude hut made of tree trunks in which the 

 slaves and even those liberated used to sleep after the fatigues of the 

 day, crowded together in a small space, has been succeeded by a cleaner 

 and healthier house, often provided with all the comforts of modern life. 

 Economic and intellectual progress has rendered the need for greater 

 comforts more keen, the desire for education more ardent., 



These few notes will suffice to give an idea of the progress made 1)y the 

 negroes of America in little more than half a century and the beneficent 

 influence that agricultural Hfe has exerted upon them. 



