American Economic Association

[The Negro in Africa and America]: PrefaceAuthor(s): Walter F. WillcoxSource: Publications of the American Economic Association, 3rd Series, Vol. 3, No. 2 (May,1902), pp. i-iiPublished by: American Economic AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2485872 .

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PREBACE.

The present study does not claim to be an additioll to lluman knowledge. One familiar with tlle writings of travelers and ethllologists on tlle negroes of West Africa, is acquainted with most of the books out of whicll the first few cllapters have beell wovell; one acquainted svith tlle history alld present colldition of the race in the United States, has met tnost of the statemellts and argumelats embodied in the later portions of the work. The nlerit of the book, in my judglnent, is to be found rather in tlle fact that it lDrings together two lilles of investigation svhich have hitherto been kept asunder. The rapidity with which an ullcivilized people ulay be lifted, or lllay lift themselves, to the plane of an advanced civilization is still undetermined. To realize that many characteristics of the Atnerican Negro are part of his iIlheritance from Africa, al]cl were bred into the race there tllrollgll loolg ,enerations, lllay perhaps strengthen the patience and forbearance of those who seek to expedite his progress. To realize tllat many faults ofteol attrib- utecl to the debasing effects of American slavery, are faults wllich he shares with his African ancestors and con temporaries, may suggest a juster and more impartial view of the merits ancl demerits of the economic system which crunlbled as a result of the Civil War. That a southern wllite lllan, the son of a slave holder, should have selected this subject for investigatiotl, have pursued his work at a llorthern university, utilizing for the pur- pose a library, the nucleus of which in this field is a large

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ii Preface.

anti-slavery collection, and have reached results, the tendency of which seenls to me in tlle tnain eirenic rather tllan colltroversial, is a noteworthy sign of the times, suggesting how botll sections and both races are cotning more and rllore to cooperation of eflort and har- mony of conclusions regardillg our great problem. The work of Mr. Tillinghast has given me much light upon a question in which for years I have been interested, and I believe that many others of his readers svill share my judgment.

WALTER F. VVl1:LLCOX. Ithaca, NenY York.

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