They are ignorant of the world about them, of modern economic organization, of the function of government, of individual worth and possibilities,—of nearly all those things which slavery in self-defence had to keep them from learning.
In his analysis of the condition of Black Americans after emancipation, Du Bois explains the deep-seated ignorance resulting from the systemic denial of education under slavery.
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Fully ninety-four per cent have struggled for land and failed, and half of them sit in hopeless serfdom.
Many of the worst characteristics of the Negro masses of to-day had their seed in this period of the slave’s ethical growth.
And yet, being a problem is a strange experience,—peculiar even for one who has never been anything else, save perhaps in babyhood and in Europe.
The ballot, which before he had looked upon as a visible sign of freedom, he now regarded as the chief means of gaining and perfecting the liberty with which war had partially endowed him.