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The Gift of Black Folk
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tropical or semi-tropical life individual desires of this sort did not usually disarrange the whole economic process or machine.[1]

The white laborer therefore brought to America the habit of regular, continuous toil which he regarded as a great moral duty. The black laborer brought the idea of toil as a necessary evil ministering to the pleasure gift of the white laborer made America rich, or at least made many Americans rich, it will take the psychology of the black man to make it New and better organization of industry and a clearer conception of the value of effort and a wider knowledge of the process of production must come in, so as to increase the wage of the worker and decrease rent, interest, and profit; and then the black laborer’s subconscious contribution to current economics will be recognized as of tremendous and increasing importance.

  1. Olivier, White Capital and Coloured Labor, Chapter 8, London, 1906.