es," remarks an
observing friend of mine, "are startling!" And when you think that the
masses of these women live in the rural districts; that they grow up in
rudeness and ignorance; that their former masters are using few means to
break up their hereditary degradation, you can easily take in the
pitiful condition of this population, and forecast the inevitable future
to multitudes of females unless a mighty special effort is made for the
improvement of the black womanhood of the South.

I know the practical nature of the American mind, I know how the
question of values intrudes itself into even the domain of philanthropy;
and, hence, I shall not be astonished if the query suggests itself,
whether special interest in the black woman will bring any special
advantage to the American nation.

Let me dwell for a few moments upon this phase of the subject. Possibly
the view I am about suggesting has never before been presented to the
American mind. But, Negro as I am, I shall make no apology for venturing
the claim that the Negress is one of the most interesting of all the
classes of women on the globe. I am speaking of her, not as a perverted
and degraded creature, but in her natural state, with her native
instincts and peculiarities.

Let me repeat just here the words of a wise, observing, tender-hearted
philanthropist, whose name and worth and words have attained celebrity.
It is fully forty years ago since the celebrated Dr. Channing said: "We
are holding in bondage one of the best races of the human family. The
Negro is among the mildest, gentlest of men. He is singularly
susceptible of improvement from abroad.... His nature is affectionate,
easily touched, and hence he is more open to religious improvement than
the white man.... The African carries with him much more than _we_ the
genius of a meek, long-suffering, loving virtue."

I should feel ashamed to allow these words to fall from my lips if it
were not necessary to the lustration of the character of my black
sisters of the South. I do not stand here to-day to plead for the black
_man_. He is a man; and if he is weak he must go the wall. He is a man;
he must fight his own way, and if he is strong in mind and body, he can
take care of himself. But for the mothers, sisters, and daughters of my
race I have a right to speak. And when I think of their sad condition
down South; think, too, that since the day of emancipation hardly any
one has lifted up a voice in th