It had long been the more or less definitely expressed theory of the North that all the chief problems of Emancipation might be settled by establishing the slaves on the forfeited lands of their masters,—a sort of poetic justice, said some.
Du Bois discusses the Northern belief that land redistribution could resolve the issues of emancipation, reflecting on its implications.
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The silently growing assumption of this age is that the probation of races is past, and that the backward races of to-day are of proven inefficiency and not worth the saving.
Hear my cry, O God the Reader; vouchsafe that this my book fall not still-born into the world wilderness.
Our song, our toil, our cheer, and warning have been given to this nation in blood-brotherhood.