Page:A defence of the negro race in America from the assaults and charges of Rev. J. L. Tucker.djvu/18

 who could read and write. At the North those trained in the schools were chiefly confined to the large cities. In the rural districts tens of thousands were cruelly neglected. At the South education was a thing universally interdicted by law; secured only by stealth; and then confined to only a small fraction of the race. Take these facts into consideration, and then consider the grand fact that this day there are 500,000 of this race who know how to read and write. Consider that a large number of these have advanced to a knowledge of grammar, geography, and history! Consider that no small portion of these are persons who have stretched forth to philosophic acquaintance and some of the acquisitions of science and literature! Consider that over 15,000 of them are employed as teachers! Consider that in this immense army of scholars there is a grand regiment of undergraduates in fifteen colleges; then another, smaller, but not less important, phalanx fitting themselves for the legal and medical professions; and then a larger host of sober, thoughtful, self-sacrificing men, who are looking forward to the pains, trials, and endurance of a thankless but glorious service as ministers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Consider these large and magnificent facts, and you get somewhat an idea of the wonderful contrast between the bright and hopeful present and the dark and disastrous night of our past intellectual history!

Join to this the other significant fact that this large reading population has created a demand for a new thing in the history of the race— And thus have sprung into existence over EIGHTY newspapers edited by men of the Negro race. All this, be it noticed, in a downward-going race!