Freedom

       In W. E. B. Du Bois' The Souls of Black Folk, Du Bois discusses freedom from prejudice and an America that conveys the equality and union that the nation was founded on. He explains that the African American population won't ever be able to see themselves or be seen by whites as equal in humanity or in conscience without schooling that equals to that of white Americans. Blacks long for freedom from intellectual bondage caused by prejudice and social bondage. He writes, "Freedom,...we still seek,--the freedom of life and limb, the freedom to work and think...--all these we need, not singly but together,...each growing and aiding each,  and all striving toward that vaster ideal that swims before the Negro people,...the ideal of fostering and developing the traits and talents of the Negro, not in opposition to or contempt for other races, but rather in large conformity the greater ideals of the American Republic" (Du Bois 1691). He ends by explaining that the test of the principles of the republic is the Negro Problem, and all within the nation must strive to act in accordance with the founding principles decided on by the nation's forefathers. 

       Du Bois addresses the issues of social unbalance between blacks and whites in America. He gives the example of the time he first realized that he was different from everyone else, not because he was lesser of a person but because his fellow peer treated him as such. He wants all Americans, regardless of race, to put aside prejudice and live in the equality that the Declaration of Independence expresses. Thomas Jefferson wrote, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" (Jefferson 1). Du Bois believes that this can be accomplished once both blacks and whites work together to "give each to each those characteristics both so sadly lack;" the process will progress once the products of freedom are used by all to unify the nation (Du Bois 1691).

When Du Bois writes, "After the Egyptian and Indian, the Greek and Roman, the Teuton and Mongolian, the Negro is a sort of seventh son," does he mean that African Americans are seen as seventh on the race totem pole (Du Bois 1687)?