Peter Pringle to Frederick Douglass, April 11, 1853
The Way it is Exactly.
SQUIRE DOUGLASS:—You say that the ne-
cessity of learning trades, is important. I
say so, too. The difficulty with our people,
is, that we are not willing to do what is need-
ful, to give us a solid, substantial, command-
ing character. Our character is soft, light,
effeminate. We fail, as a mass, to command
attention and respect. This is so because
there is so much more of show, than substance,
about us. It is useless to charge all this to
Slavery, or Prejudice, or both. For, if Sla-
very made us this, or that, our hatred to Sla-
very should lead us to a transformation of
ourselves. If Prejudice demands so and so,
or tends in a certain direction, our business
is, to cultivate opposite tendencies, and to
deny such demands.
To be always what Prejudice and Slavery
demand, is one of the saddest exposures and
evidences of our softness. And soft as mush
shall we ever remain until we learn to con-
tend manfully—and that is to contend suc-
cessfully—with the obstacles thrown across
our pathway, by Slavery and Prejudice.
You see, Squire Douglass, that the mass of
us are menials. We are "hewers of wood
and drawers of water" to white men. We
are so, in the majority of cases, because we
choose rather to follow menial occupations
than to contend with negro-hating appren-
tices and journeymen, in shops or to con-
tend with the negro-hating indisposition to
give work to a black mechanic. Finding
Prejudice in our way, we comply with its de-
mands, almost without questioning, quite
without resisting it. The consequence, is,
Prejudice continues and increases, and we
continue to be its victims, sinking into deep-
er and deeper subserviency to it. Should we
continue in this way, we shall become a
poor, helpless, sycophantic set of half men—a sort of fellows the Romans used to call
semi vivi—a sort of hermaphrodites, in which
the good qualities of both the man and woman
are wanting. A few generations hence we shall
at the rate things go with us, be unfit to con-
tend for the positions of men, or feel the
awkwardness of our false unmanly position,
or, indeed, were the whites, unanimously, to
accord to us the places and privileges of oth-
er men, to enjoy the rights thus restored. If
any man doubt this, let him look at the past
and the present condition of Greece and
Rome. Or what is more to the purpose, let
him compare the brave, manly, warlike Greek
of ancient times, with his poor apology of a
modern descendant—the noble, conquering
Roman, with a pitiable effeminate Italian-aye
to come near home—let him smart under the
most unwelcome fact, that so different is the
modern from the ancient negro, that we are
put to the trouble of demonstrating, that we
belong to the same race as the schoolmasters
of Moses!
Now, Squire, it is this very softness, sheep-
ishness, which gives us greater contentment
as finely-dressed, gaily-appearing, dandified
menials, while young, with a pretty certain
prospect of retiring to pauperism, in old age,
than we contending with our own weak-
ness, and the white people's wickedness, that
render us, generation after generation, a sort
of almost donkeys to bear the burdens im-
posed on us, by the whites. Yes; we pre-
fer the most persevering (and I admit suc-
cessful) labor at cleaning knives and forks, to
the exhibition of the courage needed, to
learn the art of making knives and forks.-
While this remains true of us, we never shall
be either respected or elevated. But we
shall be "deemed, held, taken and reputed,"
and should that most justly, as a service
race.—Should any of our number grow angry and
rail at this, he would prove more successfully
than I can how true are my words. This
our present condition, can never be altered
by our friends. The work is ours. We must
do it, or it will never be done.
Look you, Squire, at two other facts. One
is, that this very idea of contending against
Prejudice, and its infernal demands, is ab-
solutely necessary, both to the destruction of
Prejudice in the whites, and to the forma-
tion of solid, manly character in ourselves.
The other, is, that all the men who have
manfully fought, in this battle, have either
heroically conquered, or won laurels green
and seemly, and enrolled their names upon
Fame's imperishable scroll. That is just the
brief history of the fame—the greatness—or what is better, the usefulness of Doug-
lass, Pennington, Remond, Garnett, Smith,
Crummell, Reason, et it omne genus niger.-
While all, and sundry of our preachers, bar-
bers, waiters, &c., who chose not to contend
with the current of negro hate, have, flood-
wood like, been drifted down stream. In-
deed, some who are good mechanics, are now
cleaning old clothes, and playing the barber
—if nothing worse, just because of this mis-
erable softness-sheepishness. You will lift
Mount Chimborazo from its base, before you
will elevate such men; still, should these
very men put on manliness enough to aspire
to the position and dignity of full-grown,
well-developed men, there is neither Slavery
nor negrophobia, nor any other deviltry
enough this side of Erebus, to prevent their
elevation. Indeed, the very welcoming of
the idea—the grasping of the conception—the forming of the determination, would be
elevation itself. Alas! it would be more of
elevation than the majority of us conceive
of or care about.
The very combatting with obstacles in the
way of the learning of trades, and other
lucrative callings, is just the discipline we
need. It is just the death Prejudice needs.
And the mere money earned and saved,
would be but as the small dust of the bal-
ance, compaired with the improvement that
our character would undergo in the process.
Let those who will, whine and complain of
Prejudice. It is enough for me to use my
humble powers, in the effort to arouse those
who alone have the power to cripple and de-
stroy it. I warrant you, Squire, the whites
will be right as soon as we. I warrant you,
Prejudice will die when we decree its death.
Who blames, or ought to blame a white man
when he meets one of us, for taking it for
granted, that he meets some voluntary me-
nial, proud of his degradation, and disdain-
ing manly toil, and ignorant of a respecta-
ble handicraft? Are not the majority of us
just that? Yes—and when we shall be some-
thing else, we shall be treated accordingly.
Our almost universal position, has made its
impression. When we shall have changed
our position, we shall erase that impression.
Till then, never. Every colored man can do
as much to effect such a change as you, once
a slave—as Dr. Pennington, once a slave, has
done. If he cannot—as he needs not—be
an editor, or a clergyman, still, he may be
something—a man. I have been a waiter,
hostler and boot-black—I am now
Your humble servant,
PETER PRINGLE.
PRINGLE COTTAGE, April 11, 1853.