And yet with all this there was something sordid, something forced,—a certain feverish unrest and recklessness; for was not all this show and tinsel built upon a groan?
W.E.B. Du Bois: “And yet with all this there was something sordid, something forced,—a certain feverish unrest and recklessness; for was…”
Editor's note · Context
This passage critiques the superficial grandeur of the antebellum South, revealing the underlying human suffering that supported its wealth and extravagance.
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Hear my cry, O God the Reader; vouchsafe that this my book fall not still-born into the world wilderness.
Around us the history of the land has centred for thrice a hundred years; out of the nation’s heart we have called all that was best to throttle and subdue all that was worst; fire and blood, prayer and sacrifice, have billowed over this…
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.
Our song, our toil, our cheer, and warning have been given to this nation in blood-brotherhood.