Then came the revolution of war and Emancipation, the bewilderment of Reconstruction,—and now, what is the Egypt of the Confederacy, and what meaning has it for the nation’s weal or woe?
Du Bois reflects on the historical trajectory of the South, from the Civil War and Emancipation through Reconstruction, and its contemporary significance.
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By 1830 slavery seemed hopelessly fastened on the South, and the slaves thoroughly cowed into submission.
In song and exhortation swelled one refrain—Liberty; in his tears and curses the God he implored had Freedom in his right hand.
Many of the worst characteristics of the Negro masses of to-day had their seed in this period of the slave’s ethical growth.