adoption. We are Africans by descent and
Americans both by birth and adoption. This addition, Africans plus
Americans, equals Afro-Americans. We conclude, therefore, that the
term "Negro," although honorable and significant, is too narrow to be
adopted as a national appellation. We need a name that will include
every man that came from Africa, regardless of the section or
territory from which he came, and that name is "African." We want a
name that will include every American citizen who has a drop of Negro
blood in his or her veins, let them be as white as snow or as black as
soot, and that name is "Afro-American."

THE NATION'S DUTY TO THE NEGRO.

BY BISHOP PETTY, NORTH CAROLINA.

THE NEGRO AS A SLAVE.

In order to define the duty of the nation to the Negro we must first
notice the relationship existing between the Negro and the nation. For
two hundred and seventy-six years we have inhabited this country, and,
whether as slaves or as freemen, I say here, without fear of
successful contradiction, that we have done more to enhance the wealth
of this country, in proportion to our numbers, than any other race in
America. The Negro as a slave was docile and obedient. He was harmless
to his master--yea, one white woman was not afraid to live alone on
her farm with a hundred Negro men as her servants. They frequently did
so, and were never harmed, notwithstanding the number of Negroes who
have been lynched since under the accusation of unbecoming conduct. In
other words, he made a good slave, if such a thing as a good slave be
possible.

THE NEGRO AS A COMMON LABORER.

As for this great Southland, the largest portion of her wealth is but
the product of the black man's labor. Cotton is the chief staple of
America, and when to this we add sugar and iron we have the heft of
Southern wealth--and the brawny hand of the Negro produces at least
three-fourths of these commodities. It was his hand chiefly that
felled the mighty forest of this Southland; it was his hand that dug
out and laid these railroads, taking away the old stagecoach and
making pleasant and rapid transit possible; it was his shoulder that
carried the mortar hod to erect these palatial cities; it was the
sweat from the Negro's brow that has made Georgia the Empire State of
the South; it was Negro labor that made it possible for the Exposition
to be held in Atlanta. Go where you will, from Washington to the gulf,
and from the Atlantic to the Ohio