Just this side Atlanta is the land of the Cherokees and to the southwest, not far from where Sam Hose was crucified, you may stand on a spot which is to-day the centre of the Negro problem,—the centre of those nine million men who are America’s dark heritage from slavery and the slave-trade.
W.E.B. Du Bois: “Just this side Atlanta is the land of the Cherokees and to the southwest, not far from where Sam Hose was crucified, you…”
Editor's note · Context
Du Bois identifies a specific region in Georgia as the focal point of the "Negro problem," highlighting the enduring legacy of slavery and the slave trade in America.
Share
More from W.E.B. Du Bois
Away back in the days of bondage they thought to see in one divine event the end of all doubt and disappointment; few men ever worshipped Freedom with half such unquestioning faith as did the American Negro for two centuries.
So the Cotton Kingdom still lives; the world still bows beneath her sceptre.
The holocaust of war, the terrors of the Ku-Klux Klan, the lies of carpet-baggers, the disorganization of industry, and the contradictory advice of friends and foes, left the bewildered serf with no new watchword beyond the old cry for…
This waste of double aims, this seeking to satisfy two unreconciled ideals, has wrought sad havoc with the courage and faith and deeds of ten thousand thousand people,—has sent them often wooing false gods and invoking false means of…