Page:Women of distinction.djvu/22

XIV marvellous advance of womankind? Much have they wrought, vet much remains for future work. It is not just to rate them according to the status they occupy in comparison with Anglo-American womanhood. Not alone should be considered the height to which they have ascended, but also the depth from which they have arisen. Alas, that it must be written! Afro-American women, like Afro-American men, in this "land of the free and home of the brave," are shut out from much which is helpful to a higher development; they are pursued by a monster prejudice whose voracious appetite is appeased only when they have been reduced to abject servitude and are content to remain "hewers of wood and drawers of water." All the disabilities which affect the race in this country our women have to contend against, with the added disability of sex. These disabilities, while artificial and transitory in character, must affect our expectation and our estimate of the work hitherto accomplished. That work, while marvellous in view of the obstacles which have beset the path of Afro-American womanhood, is to be considered rather as a promise than as a fulfillment. If it sometimes fails to be impressive, like the child in whom we watch the dawning of the man, it never fails to be interesting. The sky is

What has been accomplished by our women has been despite many obstacles and discouragements. The Afro-American is no anomaly in that at one stage of his