Fear, interest, and philanthropy united for a time in an effort which bade fair to suppress the trade; then the real weakness of the constitutional compromise appeared, and the interests of the few overcame the fears and the humanity of the many.
W.E.B. Du Bois: “Fear, interest, and philanthropy united for a time in an effort which bade fair to suppress the trade; then the real…”
Editor's note · Context
Du Bois reflects on the complex interplay of fear, interest, and philanthropy in the struggle against the slave trade, highlighting the challenges of moral and political compromise.
Share
More from W.E.B. Du Bois
The shades of the prison-house closed round about us all: walls strait and stubborn to the whitest, but relentlessly narrow, tall, and unscalable to sons of night who must plod darkly on in resignation, or beat unavailing palms against the…
The form and disposition of the laborers’ cabins throughout the Black Belt is to-day the same as in slavery days.
This, then, is the end of his striving: to be a co-worker in the kingdom of culture, to escape both death and isolation, to husband and use his best powers and his latent genius.
They approach me in a half-hesitant sort of way, eye me curiously or compassionately, and then, instead of saying directly, How does it feel to be a problem? they say, I know an excellent colored man in my town; or, I fought at…