ting civilization to be
engrafted on the Negro race in this land. And this can only be
secured through the womanhood of a race. If you want the
civilization of a people to reach the very best elements of their
being, and then, having reached them, there to abide as an
indigenous principle, you must imbue the _womanhood_ of that people
with all its elements and qualities. Any movement which passes by
the female sex is an ephemeral thing. Without them, no true
nationality, patriotism, religion, cultivation, family life, or
true social status, is a possibility. In this matter it takes two
to make one--mankind is a duality. The male may bring, as an
exotic, a foreign graft, say, of civilization, to a new people. But
what then! Can a graft live or thrive of itself? By no manner of
means. It must get vitality from the stock into which it is put;
and it is the women who give the sap to every human organization
which thrives and flourishes on earth.

"I plead, therefore, for the establishment of at least one large
'_Industrial school_' in every Southern State for the black girls of
the South. I ask for the establishment of schools which may serve
specially the home life of the rising womanhood of my race.

"I want _boarding schools_ for the _industrial training_ of one hundred
and fifty or two hundred of the poorest girls, of the ages of
twelve to eighteen years.

"I wish the intellectual training to be limited to reading,
writing, arithmetic and geography.

"I would have these girls taught to do accurately all domestic
work, such as sweeping floors, dusting rooms, scrubbing,
bed-making, washing and ironing, sewing, mending and knitting.
{107}

"I would have the trades of dress-making, millinery, straw-plating,
tailoring for men, and such like, taught them.

"The art of cooking should be made a specialty, and every girl
should be instructed in it.

"In connection with these schools, garden plats should be
cultivated, and every girl should be required daily, to spend at
least an hour in learning the cultivation of small fruits,
vegetables and flowers.

"It is hardly possible to exaggerate either the personal, family or
society influence which would flow from these schools. Every class,
yea, every girl in an out-going class, would be a missionary of
thrift, industry, common-sense, and practicality. They would go
forth, year by year, a le