Contending Forces

Contending Forces

By Pauline E. Hopkins.

Table of Contents

1. Titlepage
2. Imprint
3. Epigraph
4. Dedication
5. Preface
6. Contending Forces
   1. I: A Retrospect of the Past
   2. II: The Days “Before the War”
   3. III: “Coming Events Cast Their Shadows Before”
   4. IV: The Tragedy
   5. V: Ma Smith’s Lodging-House
   6. VI: Ma Smith’s Lodging-House
   7. VII: Friendship
   8. VIII: The Sewing-Circle
   9. IX: “Love Took Up the Harp of Life”
   10. X: The Fair
   11. XI: The Fair
   12. XII: A Colored Politician
   13. XIII: The American Colored League
   14. XIV: Luke Sawyer Speaks to the League
   15. XV: Will Smith’s Defense of His Race
   16. XVI: John Langley Consults Madam Frances
   17. XVII: The Canterbury Club Dinner
   18. XVIII: What Easter Sunday Brought
   19. XIX: The Bitter Arrow
   20. XX: Mother-Love
   21. XXI: After Many Days
   22. XXII: “So He Bringeth Them Into Their Desired Haven”
7. Colophon
8. Uncopyright

Imprint

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“The civility of no race can be perfect whilst another race is degraded.”

Emerson

Dedication

To the
Friends of Humanity Everywhere
I offer this humble tribute
written by
one of a proscribed race.

Preface

In giving this little romance expression in print, I am not actuated by a desire for notoriety or for profit, but to do all that I can in an humble way to raise the stigma of degradation from my race.

While I make no apology for my somewhat abrupt and daring venture within the wide field of romantic literature, I ask the kind indulgence of the generous public for the many crudities which I know appear in the work, and their approval of whatever may impress them as being of value to the Negro race and to the world at large.

The colored race has historians, lecturers, ministers, poets, judges and lawyers⁠—men of brilliant intellects who have arrested the favorable attention of this busy, energetic nation. But, after all, it is the simple, homely tale, unassumingly told, which cements the bond of brotherhood among all classes and all complexions.

Fiction is of great value to any people as a preserver of manners and customs⁠—religious, political and social. It is a record of growth and development from generation to generation. No one will do this for us; we must ourselves develop the men and women who will faithfully portray the inmost thoughts and feelings of the Negro with all the fire and romance which lie dormant in our history, and, as yet, unrecognized by writers of the Anglo-Saxon race.

The incidents portrayed in the early chapters of the book actually occurred. Ample proof of this may be found in the archives of the courthouse at New Bern, NC, and at the national seat of government, Washington, DC.

In these days of mob violence, when lynch-law is raising its head like a venomous monster, more particularly in the southern portion of the great American republic, the retrospective mind will dwell upon the history of the past, seeking there a solution of these monstrous outbreaks under a government founded upon the greatest and brightest of principles for the elevation of mankind. While we ponder the philosophy of cause and effect, the world is horrified by a fresh outbreak, and the shocked mind wonders that in this⁠—the brightest epoch of the Christian era⁠—such things are.

Mob-law is nothing new. Southern sentiment has not been changed; the old ideas close in analogy to the spirit of the buccaneers, who formed in many instances the first settlers of the Southland, still prevail, and break forth clothed in new forms to force the whole republic to an acceptance of its principles.

“Rule or ruin” is the motto which is committing the most beautiful portion of our glorious country to a cruel revival of piratical methods; and, finally, to the introduction of Anarchy. Is this not so? Let us compare the happenings of one hundred⁠—two hundred years ago, with those of today. The difference between then and now, if any there be, is so slight as to be scarcely worth mentioning. The atrocity of the acts committed one hundred years ago are duplicated today, when slavery is supposed no longer to exist.

I have tried to tell an impartial story, leaving it to the reader to draw conclusions. I have tried to portray our hard struggles here in the North to obtain a respectable living and a partial education. I have presented both sides of the dark picture⁠—lynching and concubinage⁠—truthfully and without vituperation, pleading for that justice of heart and mind for my people which the Anglo-Saxon in America never withholds from suffering humanity.

In Chapter XIII I have used for the address of the Hon. Herbert Clapp the statements and accusations made against