W.E.B. Du Bois: “Their appearance was uncouth, their language funny, but their hearts were human and their singing stirred men with a…”

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…

Fully ninety-four per cent have struggled for land and failed, and half of them sit in hopeless serfdom.

Three things characterized this religion of the slave,—the Preacher, the Music, and the Frenzy.

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.