"
But Colonel Cresswell shook his head. "It's precisely these leaders of
the Negroes that we mush crush," he insisted. Taylor looked puzzled.
"I thought it was the lazy, shiftless, and criminal Negroes, you
feared?"
"Hang it, no! We can deal with them; we've got whips, chain-gangs,
and--mobs, if need be--no, it's the Negro who wants to climb up that
we've got to beat to his knees."
Taylor could not follow this reasoning. He believed in an aristocracy of
talent alone, and secretly despised Colonel Cresswell's pretensions of
birth. If a man had ability and push Taylor was willing and anxious to
open the way for him, even though he were black. The caste way of
thinking in the South, both as applied to poor whites and to Negroes,
he simply could not understand. The weak and the ignorant of all races
he despised and had no patience with them. "But others--a man's a man,
isn't he?" he persisted. But Colonel Cresswell replied:
"No, never, if he's black, and not always when he's white," and he
stalked away.
Zora sensed fully the situation. She did not anticipate any immediate
understanding with the laboring whites, but she knew that eventually it
would be inevitable. Meantime the Negro must strengthen himself and
bring to the alliance as much independent economic strength as possible.
For the development of her plans she needed Bles Alwyn's constant
cooperation.
Pages:
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426