As the hand upon the dial of the nineteenth, century clock pointed to
its last figure, it showed that the American Negro had ceased to be a
thing, a commodity that could be bought and sold, a mere animal; but
was indeed a human being possessing all the qualities of mind and
heart that belong to the rest of mankind, capable of receiving
education and imparting it to his fellow man, able to think, act,
feel, and develop those intellectual and moral qualities, such as
characterize mankind generally.

Let us glance at the intellectual Negro and see if he has made any
progress commensurate with his opportunities during the nineteenth
century.

Intuitively we turn to that great historian of our race--who for seven
years worked with such care and zeal to write a thoroughly trustworthy
history of the American Negro, and to-day stands as our first and
greatest historian--George W. Williams. In prefacing his second
volume, he says: "I have tracked my bleeding countrymen through widely
scattered documents of American history; I have listened to their
groans, their clanking chains, and melting prayers, until the woes of
a race and the agonies of centuries seem to crowd upon my soul as a
bitter reality. Many pages of this history have been blistered with my
tears; and although having lived but a little more than a generation
my mind feels as if it were cycles old.

"A short time ago the schools of the entire North were shut in his
face; and the few separate schools accorded him were given grudgingly.
They were usually held in the lecture room of some colored church or
thrust off to one side in a portion of the city or town toward which