Alfred H. Stone Collection
Volume: 81

4. Edward A. Pollard, “The Romance of the Negro,” Galaxy (October 1871): 470-78.

Essay extolling the good qualities of African Americans and criticizing the failure of Southerners to recognize their redeemable characteristics. “It is astonishing how little the slaveholders of the South, despite their supposed knowledge of the negro, really knew of what was in him; what little idea of anticipation they had of capacities he is now exhibiting. The difficulty was that slavery was a perpetual barrier to an intimate acquaintance with the negro; it regarded him as a thing, and was never concerned to know what was of the sodden and concealed mind of a creature that represented only so much of productive force, and was estimated, body and soul, in dollars and cents” (emphasis in original).