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The American Missionary — Volume 44, No. 05, May 1890 by Various
page 12 of 105 (11%)
coarseness. It is visible in a certain stamp of the features. Education
and elevation will gradually reduce the animalism of the face. With good
breeding, in generations the lips grow thinner; the face takes on
character and even changes in shape.

The Negro condition at present is one of immaturity. The Uncle Rastus
side of Negro character and life may be seen every day in the Southern
Negro. The immaturity of the race and its revelation and expression in
feature and in character, repel more than color does. The antipathy
against color in the South is reduced to its very lowest terms, as facts
prove.

The way to destroy the prejudice which exists both by association with
the ideas of bondage and by features which are not refined, is a common
one. Education is the only way. I have been surprised to see how rapidly
education, especially religious education and the refining influence of
good associations, are eliminating both the idea that color is a badge
of a servile mind, and the inherited coarseness of features. The
educated children of educated parents are in many instances already
showing in their faces the mettle of their pasture. There is a
perceptible growth away from immaturity and coarseness of feature, along
with the growth away from immaturity of mind.

Twenty-five years, indeed, is a short time for a study of this sort. It
is hardly to be counted in the history of a race. A century is but a
unit in the problem of a people's history. We have no right to form our
judgments yet, as to the place the Negro people may take. What three or
four centuries may do for the race is to be settled too remotely for us
to testify.

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