duce strength of character and vigor of mind are wanting,
and man becomes the slave of his surroundings. He acquires no
energy of disposition, he yields himself to superstition and
fatalism; the very conditions of life which produced his
civilization set the limit of its existence."

It is evident from the foregoing that there had been almost nothing in
the conditions of Africa to further habits of thrift and industry. The
warm climate made great provision for the future unnecessary, not to say
impossible, while social conditions did not favor accumulation of
property. It is necessary to emphasize these African conditions, for
they have an important influence on future development. Under these
conditions Negro character was formed, and that character was not like
that of the long-headed blonds of the North.

The transfer to America marked a sharp break with the past. One needs
but to stop to enumerate the changes to realize how great this break
was. A simple dialect is exchanged for a complex language. A religion
whose basic principle is love gradually supplants the fears and
superstitions of heathenhood. The black passes from an enervating, humid
climate to one in which activity is pleasurable. From the isolation and
self-satisfaction of savagery he emerges into close contact with one of
the most ambitious and progressive of peoples. Life at once becomes far
more secure and wrongs are revenged by the self-interest of the whites
as well as by the feeble means of self-defense in possession of the
blacks. That there were cruelties and mistreatment under slavery goes
without saying, but the woes and sufferings under it were as nothing
compared to those of the life in the African forests. This fact is
sometimes overlooked. With greater security of life came an emphasis,
from without, to be sure, on better marital relations. In this respect
slavery left much to be desired, but conditions on the whole were
probably in advance of those in Africa. Marriage began to be something
more than a purchase. Sanitation, not the word, but the underlying idea,
was taught by precept and example. There came also a dim notion of a new
sphere for women. Faint perceptions ofttimes, but ideas never dreamed of
in Africa. I would not defend slavery, but in this country its evil
results are the inheritance of the whites, not of the blacks, and the
burden today of American slavery is upon white shoulders.

Many of the change