Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 11.djvu/165

 THE NEGRO RACE AND EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION 149

clearly from the European, the Hamite, or the oriental world. Whether these differences are irreducible is a question which further development alone can solve.

Low social organization, and consequent lack of efficient social action, form the most striking characteristic of the negro race. Among the Africans of the western Sudan the matriarchal organi- zation of the family, combined with the practice of polygamy, makes the mother the real center of the family-group and renders impossible the upbuilding of strong families through the inheri- tance of power and property combined from father to son. The father's property goes, not to his children, but to those of his eldest sister. He can, therefore, not supplement, by his accumu- lated wealth, the physical and mental endowment bestowed upon his son. The redeeming social trait of the African race is the love of sons for their mothers, which is often very deep and touching. But no great families, and therefore no truly great men or leaders to the manor born, exist among Africans.

Among most of the tribes, although there are notable excep- tions, the duties of the marriage relation are strictly observed. This is due primarily to the fact that the husband has paid a respectable sum to acquire his spouse, and his strongly developed sense of private property would brook no interference. Her per- son, her labor, her attentions, belong exclusively to him. In fact, there is but a difference in degree between the position of the wife and that of the slave. The reasons for entering into marriage are almost always prudential : among the poorer people, the working power of the wife; among the wealthier, the influence of her rela- tives, form the main consideration. The African bush traders have a wife in every important village on their route, not only on account of the business advantage accruing from her connections, but also for the reason that traders are in constant danger of hav- ing their food poisoned unless the kitchen is managed by a friendly spirit.

Slavery among the African negroes is an institution which does not at all correspond to what we understand by that term. No special social disgrace attaches to it, nor is a slave a mere chattel; on the contrary, his property rights are scrupulously