Spring, Lindley. The Negro At Home (The Black Heritage Library Collection). Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries Press, 1971. [2041]
Very good black cloth hardcover with silver spine title, ex college library with the usual extras, no dj, tight, clean text. A facsimile reprint of the scarce 1868 first edition. Very good. Hardcover.
The full original title is: The Negro at Home: An Inquiry after His Capacity for Self-Government and the Government of Whites for Controlling, Leading, Directing, or Co-operating in; the Civilization of the Age; its Material, Intellectual, Moral, Religious, Social and Political Interests; the Objects of Society and Government; the Business and Duties of our Race; the Offenses of Legislation.
Lindley Spring, b. 1815 in New York City, son of the Presbyterian minister Rev. Gardiner Spring, who was the minister at the Brick Presbyterian Church. Church records indicate that Lindley was dismissed from the church in 1843 without note of transfer to a different congregation.
The book is an inflammatory effort to sway public opinion against Negroes in the South receiving the right to vote and hold office. The author seeks to prove that the Negro has never been civilized, but is a savage brute with no conscience, and incapable of ruling over whites. The "home" in the title refers to Africa, and a review of the society and living conditions of Africans makes up the bulk of the book.
The Negro is "cruel and murderous," parents kill their children, Negros are addicted to sensuality, "Gross, Filthy Feeding," addicted to cannibalism and blood-drinking, conduct black magic and necromancy, know "how to cut up a fat girl," practice human sacrifice, and are addicted to every degradation and depravity. In fact, 300 years of missionary efforts had not civilized the African, and when missionaries are not present all reverts to superstition and paganism. The author insists that such creatures are not fit to be in white society, let alone rule over it. His aim is to stop Radical Reconstruction in the South.
