The bright ideals of the past,—physical freedom, political power, the training of brains and the training of hands,—all these in turn have waxed and waned, until even the last grows dim and overcast.
This passage reflects on the historical ideals of Black liberation, including freedom, political power, and education, noting their fluctuating prominence and eventual dimming.
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This waste of double aims, this seeking to satisfy two unreconciled ideals, has wrought sad havoc with the courage and faith and deeds of ten thousand thousand people,—has sent them often wooing false gods and invoking false means of…
The Nation has not yet found peace from its sins; the freedman has not yet found in freedom his promised land.
The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife,—this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self.
By 1830 slavery seemed hopelessly fastened on the South, and the slaves thoroughly cowed into submission.