--Mifflin W. Gibbs--
An Introduction to his life story by Booker T. Washington
It
is seldom that one man, even if he has lived as long as Judge M. W. Gibbs
is able to record his impressions of so many widely separated parts of
the earth's surface as Judge Gibbs can, or to recall personal experiences
in so many important occurrences.
Born
in Philadelphia, and living there when that city--almost on the border
line between slavery and freedom-was the scene of some of the most stirring
incidents in the abolition agitation, he was able as a free colored youth,
going to Maryland to work, to see and judge of the condition of the slaves
in that State. Some of the most dramatic operations of the famous "Underground
Railroad" came under his personal observation. He enjoyed the rare
privilege of being associated in labor for the race with that man of sainted
memory of the Honorable Frederick Douglass. He met and heard many of the
most notable men and women who labored to secure the freedom of the Negro.
As a resident of California in the exciting years, which immediately followed
the discovery of gold, he watched the development of lawlessness there
and its results. A few years later he went to British Columbia to
live, when that colony was practically an unknown country. Returning to
the United States, he was a witness to the exciting events connected with
the years of Reconstruction in Florida, and an active participant in the
events of that period in the State of Arkansas. At one time and another
he has met many of the men who have been prominent in the direction of
the affairs of both the great political parties of the country. In more
recent years he has been able to see something of life in Europe, and
in his official capacity as United States Consul to Tamatave, Madagascar,
adjoining Africa, has resided for some time in that far-off and strange
land.
It
would be difficult for any man who has had all these experiences not to be
entertaining when he tells of them. Judge Gibbs has written an interesting
book.
Interspersed
with the author's recollections and descriptions are various conclusions,
as when he says: "Labor to make yourself as indispensable as possible
in all your relations with the dominant race, and color will cut less
figure in your up- ward grade."
"Vice
is ever destructive; ignorance ever a victim, and poverty ever
defenseless. Only as we increase in property will our political barometer
rise."
It
is significant to find one who has seen so much of the world as Judge
Gibbs has, saying, as he does: "With travel somewhat extensive and
diversified, and with residence in tropical latitudes of Negro origin, I have a decided
conviction, despite the crucial test to which he has been subjected in the
past, and the present disadvantages under which he labors, that nowhere is
the promise along all the lines of opportunity brighter for the American
Negro than here in the land of his nativity.”
I
bespeak for the book a careful reading by those who are interested in
the history of the Negro in America, and in his present and future.
Booker T. Washington
