"The Black Man's Burden": A Response to Kipling

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Author:

Center for History and New Media/American Social History Project

Subject:

Humanities

Institution Name:

American Social History Project/Center for History and New Media

Collection:

Many Pasts (CHNM/ASHP)

Grade Level:

Secondary, Post-secondary

Abstract:

In February 1899, British novelist and poet Rudyard Kipling wrote a poem entitled "The White Man's Burden: The United States and The Philippine Islands." In this poem, Kipling urged the U.S. to take up the "burden" of empire, as had Britain and other European nations. Theodore Roosevelt, soon to become vice-president and then president, described it as "rather poor poetry, but good sense from the expansion point of view." Not everyone was as favorably impressed as Roosevelt. African Americans, among many others, objected to the notion of the "white man's burden." Among the dozens of replies to Kipling's poem was "The Black Man's Burden," written by African-American clergyman and editor H. T. Johnson and published in April 1899. A "Black Man's Burden Association" was even organized with the goal of demonstrating that mistreatment of brown people in the Philippines was an extension of the mistreatment of black Americans at home.

Languages:

English

Material Type:

Primary Source

Media Format:

Text/HTML

Conditions of Use:

Custom License
Fair Use for educational purposes

Copyright Holder:

Copyright 1998-2005 American Social History Productions, Inc. All rights reserved.