The progress made thus far by the people is somewhat like that made by
the young, man who hires himself to a farmer and takes his pay in
farming stock and utensils. He is thus acquiring the means to stock a
farm, and the skill and experience necessary to its successful
management at the same time. His career will not appear important,
however, until the day shall arrive when he will set up for himself.
The time spent on the farm of another was passed in comparative
obscurity; but without it the more conspicuous period could never have
followed. So, now, the American colored people are making history, but
it is not of that kind that gains the attention of writers. Having no
political organizations, governments or armies they are not performing
those deeds of splendor in statesmanship and war over which the pen of
the historian usually delights to linger. The people, living, growing,
reading, thinking, working, suffering, advancing and dying--these are
all common-place occurrences, neither warming the heart of the
observer, nor capable of brightening the page of the chronicler. This,
however, is, with the insignificant exception of Liberia, all that is
yet to be found in the brief history of the Afro-American race.
The period for him to set up for himself has not yet come, and he is
still acquiring means and training within a realm controlled in all
respects by a people who maintain toward him an attitude of absolute
social exclusion.
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