71 GOOD HOMES, LESS POLITICS, MORE VISION Paths of Hope in the Direction of Better Dwelling-houses and Better Protection of the Negro's Home-The Suppres- sion of Mobs-Less Concentration upon Politics-Better Understanding Between the North and South on the Political Question-Removal of Incentives for the White Demagogue-Golden Opportunities Now Beckoning to the Paths of Hope in the Direction of Revivification of the Ne- gro's Religion-The Development of His Natural Aesthetic Aptitudes-The Complexity and Multiplicity of the Dif- ficulties of the Negro Problem-Likelihood of Compensat- ing Advantages to Both Races If Each Faces the Problem with Soldierly Courage and Faith in Human Destiny CHAPTER I BACKGROUND IN AFRICA AND AMERICA Native Races and Culture of Africa-The Slave Trade and the Transplanting of the Negro into the New World-History of Negro Slavery in Central and South America, and in the Colonies of North America-Economic and Climatic Factors Influencing the Distribution of Slavery in the United States -Service of the Negro to the North and South in the Civil War-The Beginning of Negro Education in the Southern States IT T is generally agreed," says Ellsworth Huntington, "that early man originated somewhere in Asia. Formerly it was supposed that he came from the warm, tropical parts of the continent. Little by little this view has given place to the idea that man's early home was in what are now the central deserts and plateaux, the vast region between Mesopotamia and the Caspian Sea on the west, and eastern Tibet and Mongolia on the east. There is abundant evidence in archæology and history that the greatest of all human movements have been from the central parts of Asia outward. One great stream of migrants presumably went by devious routes southwest into Africa." 1 The Negro probably acquired his dark skin in the tropical regions of the Old World, where the intensity of the heat and glare made it necessary for him to protect himself by developing a thick pigmentation of the skin.2 The Negro of the Old World is found in Africa, and in several tropical and subtropical regions east of that continent. Starting from Africa and going eastward, in geographical order, we find small groups of Negro people in the following countries: Madagascar, the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal, the Malay Peninsula, Luzon of the Philippine Islands, and the Black Islands, the latter comprising a long string of islands stretching from New Guinea to Fiji. In Africa the various types of Negroes may be classified in five divisions, as follows: The Negritos, a pygmy people, found in small, scattered settlements The Character of Races, p. 20. 'Dowd, The Negro Races, Vol. 2, Ch. XXIII. |