So the Negro forms to-day one of the chief figures in a great world-industry; and this, for its own sake, and in the light of historic interest, makes the field-hands of the cotton country worth studying.
Du Bois highlights the central role of Black laborers in the global cotton industry and advocates for their study.
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Their appearance was uncouth, their language funny, but their hearts were human and their singing stirred men with a mighty power.
But the true Negro folk-song still lives in the hearts of those who have heard them truly sung and in the hearts of the Negro people.
The ten master songs I have mentioned tell in word and music of trouble and exile, of strife and hiding; they grope toward some unseen power and sigh for rest in the End.