On June 1, 1900, a New York newspaper published a review of Paul Laurence Dunbar's volume of short stories called The Strength of Gideon. In addition to commenting on Paul's book, the reviewer wrote cynically about race relations in America and suggested that Black people should leave the country.
Short stories are always welcome, if they are reasonably good. These have the advantage of touching upon a question that is much discussed -- the race question. They give glimpses of Negro life in all its phases. Such glimpses into the life of an alien race are useful. The plantation tales show the Negro in his truest light. The black man in the north is out of his proper setting. He does not belong here. As for the educated Negro, he does not belong anywhere. If the blacks of this country could be taken to some far land, some land of the sunshine where they belong, there to found a new nation, it would be a happy thing for them, and the solution of a vexed problem for us.
"Literature. The Strength of Gideon." New York Commercial Advertiser (New York, New York). June 1, 1900.
The idea of taking Black people away "to some far land" was not new. Thomas Jefferson was a slave holder, but he knew that slavery in the U. S. would end eventually. Believing it impossible for formerly enslaved people to integrate into society, Jefferson said they should be segregated into their own colony and, to make up for the population loss, white people from abroad should be enticed to migrate to America.
It will probably be asked, Why not retain and incorporate the blacks into the state, and thus save the expense of supplying, by importation of white settlers, the vacancies they will leave? Deep rooted prejudices entertained by the whites; ten thousand recollections, by the blacks, of the injuries they have sustained; new provocations; the real distinctions which nature has made; and many other circumstances, will divide us into parties, and produce convulsions which will probably never end but in the extermination of the one or the other race.
"Notes on the State of Virginia, Query XIV," by Thomas Jefferson. 1781.
Abraham Lincoln also doubted that an integrated nation was possible. He told a group of Black men at the White House that they should move to Liberia in Africa or to Central America.
But even when you cease to be slaves, you are yet far removed from equality with the white race. It is better for us both, therefore, to be separated. The colony of Liberia has been in existence a long time. In a certain sense it is a success. The question is if the colored people are persuaded to go anywhere, why not there? The place I am thinking about having for a colony is in Central America. It is nearer to us than Liberia. The country is a very excellent one for any people, and with great natural resources and advantages, and especially because of the similarity of climate with your native land.
"Address on Colonization to a Deputation of Negroes," by Abraham Lincoln. August 14, 1862.
Long before slavery was abolished in the U. S., Frederick Douglass spoke out against moving Black Americans to some distant colony.
We are of the opinion that the free colored people generally mean to live in America, and not in Africa; and to appropriate a large sum for our removal would merely be a waste of the public money. We do not mean to go to Liberia. Our minds are made up to live here if we can, or die here if we must; so every attempt to remove us will be, as it ought to be, labor lost. Here we are, and here we shall remain. While our brethren are in bondage on these shores, it is idle to think of inducing any considerable number of the free colored people to quit this for a foreign land.
"Colonization," by Frederick Douglass. The North Star (Rochester, New York). January 26, 1849. Page 2.
When Paul's mother Matilda was enslaved in Kentucky, she had the opportunity to gain her freedom by moving to Liberia. If she had gone, Paul would never have been born.
In regard to whether or not she should take advantage of this opportunity, Mother Dunbar was torn and perplexed, and in answer to the query as to whether she really wanted to go to Africa, she gave a decided "No." However, she walked a great distance, carrying her baby, who was about three months old. "I don't know how I climbed the fences with my baby, to get to a place where I left my baby, borrowed a horse and rode seven miles to the court house to sign to go to Africa! But freedom was declared before it was time for me to go."
"An Appreciation of Paul Laurence Dunbar," by Rubie Boyd. Unpublished manuscript, no date [after 1934]. Paul Laurence Dunbar collection, New York Public Library, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture (Microfilm edition, Roll 3). Page 109.