The Project Gutenberg EBook of Imperium in Imperio: A Study Of The Negro Race Problem, by Sutton E. Griggs

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Title: Imperium in Imperio: A Study Of The Negro Race Problem A Novel

Author: Sutton E. Griggs

Release Date: March 24, 2005 [EBook #15454]

Language: English

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IMPERIUM IN IMPERIO

A STUDY OF THE NEGRO RACE PROBLEM A NOVEL

Sutton E. Griggs

1899

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER. PAGE.

        Berl Trout's Declaration 1
      I A Small Beginning 3
     II The School 8
    III The Parson's Advice 15
     IV The Turning of a Worm 24
      V Belton Finds a Friend 38
     VI A Young Rebel 48
    VII A Sermon, a Sock, And a Fight 64
   VIII Many Mysteries Cleared Up 83
     IX Love and Politics 95
      X Cupid Again at Work 111
     XI No Befitting Name 125
    XII On the Dissecting Board 139
   XIII Married and yet not Married 161
    XIV " " " " " (Continued) 171
     XV Weighty Matters 177
    XVI Unwritten History 188
   XVII Crossing the Rubicon 200
  XVIII The Storm's Master 223
    XIX The Parting of Ways 249
     XX Personal (Berl Trout) 262

TO THE PUBLIC.

The papers which are herewith submitted to you for your perusal and consideration, were delivered into my hands by Mr. Berl Trout.

The papers will speak for themselves, but Mr. Trout now being dead I feel called upon to say a word concerning him.

Mr. Berl Trout was Secretary of State in the Imperium In Imperio, from the day of its organization until the hour of his sad death. He was, therefore, thoroughly conversant with all of the details of that great organization.

He was a warm personal friend of both Bernard and Belton, and learned from their own lips the stories of their eventful lives.

Mr. Trout was a man noted for his strict veracity and for the absolute control that his conscience exercised over him.

Though unacquainted with the Imperium In Imperio I was well acquainted with Berl, as we fondly called him. I will vouch for his truthfulness anywhere.

Having perfect faith in the truthfulness of his narrative I have not hesitated to fulfil his dying request by editing his Ms., and giving it to the public. There are other documents in my possession tending to confirm the assertions made in his narrative. These documents were given me by Mr. Trout, so that, in case an attempt is made to pronounce him a liar, I might defend his name by coming forward with indisputable proofs of every important statement.

  Very respectfully,
  Sutton E. Griggs,
  March 1, 1899. Berkley, Va.

IMPERIUM IN IMPERIO.

BERL TROUT'S DYING DECLARATION.

I am a traitor. I have violated an oath that was as solemn and binding as any ever taken by man on earth.

I have trampled under my feet the sacred trust of a loving people, and have betrayed secrets which were dearer to them than life itself.

    For this offence, regarded the world over as the most
    detestable of horrors, I shall be slain.

    Those who shall be detailed to escort my foul body to its
    grave are required to walk backwards with heads averted.

On to-morrow night, the time of my burial, the clouds should gather thick about the queenly moon to hide my funeral procession from her view, for fear that she might refuse to longer reign over a land capable of producing such a wretch as I.

In the bottom of some old forsaken well, so reads our law, I shall be buried, face downward, without a coffin; and my body, lying thus, will be transfixed with a wooden stave.

Fifty feet from the well into which my body is lowered, a red flag is to be hoisted and kept floating there for time unending, to warn all generations of men to come not near the air polluted by the rotting carcass of a vile traitor.

Such is my fate. I seek not to shun it. I have walked into odium with every sense alert, fully conscious of every step taken.

While I acknowledge that I am a traitor, I also pronounce myself a patriot.

It is true that I have betrayed the immediate plans of the race to which I belong; but I have done this in the interest of the whole human family—of which my race is but a part.

My race may, for the time being, shower curses upon me; but eventually all races, including my own, shall call me blessed.

The earth, in anger, may belch forth my putrid flesh with volcanic fury, but the out-stretched arms of God will receive my spirit as a token of approval of what I have done.

    With my soul feasting on this happy thought, I send this
    revelation to mankind and yield my body to the executioner to
    be shot until I am dead.

    Though death stands just before me, holding before my eyes my
    intended shroud woven of the cloth of infamy itself, I shrink
    not back.

  Yours, doomed to die,
  BERL TROUT.

IMPERIUM IN IMPERIO

CHAPTER I

A SMALL BEGINNING.

"Cum er long hunny an' let yer mammy fix yer 'spectabul, so yer ken go to skule. Yer mammy is 'tarmined ter gib yer all de book larning dar is ter be had eben ef she has ter lib on bred an' herrin's, an' die en de a'ms house."

These words came from the lips of a poor, ignorant negro woman, and yet the determined course of action which they reveal vitally affected the destiny of a nation and saved the sun of the Nineteenth Century, proud and glorious, from