I shall give the observations I made in Jacksonville as seen through the light of after years; and they apply generally to every Southern community.  The colored people may be said to be roughly divided into three classes, not so much in respect to themselves as in respect to their relations with the whites.  There are those constituting what might be called the desperate class—­the men who work in the lumber and turpentine camps, the ex-convicts, the bar-room loafers are all in this class.  These men conform to the requirements of civilization much as a trained lion with low muttered growls goes through his stunts under the crack of the trainer’s whip.  They cherish a sullen hatred for all white men, and they value life as cheap.  I have heard more than one of them say:  “I’ll go to hell for the first white man that bothers me.”  Many who have expressed that sentiment have kept their word, and it is that fact which gives such prominence to this class; for in numbers it is only a small proportion of the colored people, but it often dominates public opinion concerning the whole race.  Happily, this class represents the black people of the South far below their normal physical and moral condition, but in its increase lies the possibility of grave dangers.  I am sure there is no more urgent work before the white South, not only for its present happiness, but for its future safety, than the decreasing of this class of blacks.  And it is not at all a hopeless class; for these men are but the creatures of conditions, as much so as the slum and criminal elements of all the great cities of the world are creatures of conditions.  Decreasing their number by shooting and burning them off will not be successful; for these men are truly desperate, and thoughts of death, however terrible, have little effect in deterring them from acts the result of hatred or degeneracy.  This class of blacks hate everything covered by a white skin, and in return they are loathed by the whites.  The whites regard them just about as a man would a vicious mule, a thing to be worked, driven, and beaten, and killed for kicking.

The second class, as regards the relation between blacks and whites, comprises the servants, the washerwomen, the waiters, the cooks, the coachmen, and all who are connected with the whites by domestic service.  These may be generally characterized as simple, kind-hearted, and faithful; not over-fine in their moral deductions, but intensely religious, and relatively—­such matters can be judged only relatively—­about as honest and wholesome in their lives as any other grade of society.  Any white person is “good” who treats them kindly, and they love him for that kindness.  In return, the white people with whom they have to do regard them with indulgent affection.  They come into close daily contact with the whites, and may be called the connecting link between whites and blacks; in fact, it is through them that the whites know the rest of their colored neighbors.  Between this class of the blacks and the whites there is little or no friction.