ccomplishment, and yet it is not. To thoughtless
and headstrong people who meet duty with impertinent dictation I do not
now address myself; but to those who wish the most gracious of all
blessings, a fuller enlightment as to their duty,--to those I beg to
say, think of what is suggested in this appeal.

AN APPEAL TO OUR BROTHER IN WHITE[31]

BY W. J. GAINES, D. D.

_Bishop of the A.M.E. Church in Georgia_

[Note 31: From "The Negro and the White Man," 1897.]

Providence, in wisdom, has decreed that the lot of the Negro should be
cast with the white people of America. Condemn as we may the means
through which we were brought here, recount as we may the suffering
through which, as a race, we passed in the years of slavery, yet the
fact remains that today our condition is far in advance of that of the
Negroes who have never left their native Africa. We are planted in the
midst of the highest civilization mankind has ever known, and are
rapidly advancing in knowledge, property, and moral enlightenment. We
might, with all reason, thank God even for slavery, if this were the
only means through which we could arrive at our present progress and
development.

We should indeed count ourselves blest if our white brethren would
always extend to us that kindness, justice, and sympathy which our
services to them in the past should inspire, and our dependence upon
them as the more enlightened and wealthy race should prompt them to
bestow.

Why should there be prejudice and dislike on the part of the white man
to his colored brother? Is it because he was once a slave, and a slave
must forever wear the marks of degradation? Is there no effacement for
the stigma of slavery--no erasement for this blot of shame? Will our
white brother not remember that it was his hand that forged the links of
that chain and that riveted them around the necks of the people who had
roved for thousands of years in the unrestrained liberty of the
boundless forests in far-away Africa? As well might the seducer blacken
the name and reputation of the fair and spotless maiden he has cruelly
and wantonly seduced. Go far enough back and it is more than probable
that you will find the taint of slavery in your line and its blot upon
your escutcheon. The proud Saxon became the slave to the Norman, and yet
to-day millions are proud to be called Anglo-Saxons.

Will our white brother refuse us his cordial fellowship because of our
ignorance? Ignorance i