The nation had at last come to the parting of the ways, one of which led to a free-labor system, the other to a slave system fed by the slave-trade.
W.E.B. Du Bois: “The nation had at last come to the parting of the ways, one of which led to a free-labor system, the other to a slave…”
Editor's note · Context
Du Bois reflects on the critical choices facing the nation regarding labor systems during a pivotal moment in history.
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Three things characterized this religion of the slave,—the Preacher, the Music, and the Frenzy.
A million black men started with renewed zeal to vote themselves into the kingdom.
He simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an American, without being cursed and spit upon by his fellows, without having the doors of Opportunity closed roughly in his face.
Away back in the days of bondage they thought to see in one divine event the end of all doubt and disappointment; few men ever worshipped Freedom with half such unquestioning faith as did the American Negro for two centuries.