Modern Industrialism and the Negroes of the United States The American Negro Academy, Occasional Papers No. 12

In this compelling essay, the writer asks what place modern industrialism will carve for African Americans in the United States. He traces the tension between the founding creed of equality and the historical compromise that allowed slavery to persist as the nation grew. By framing the question as a riddle waiting for an answer, the piece invites listeners to follow a logical excavation of the past.

The author links the rise of machines such as the spinning jenny, the power loom, and Whitney’s cotton gin to an unexpected revival of the slave‑based economy, arguing that technology paradoxically reinforced oppression. He also points to constitutional compromises and southern expansion as forces that locked the country into a conflicted path. Listeners will hear a clear, historically grounded analysis that asks whether industrial progress can ever be disentangled from the legacy of racial inequality.