The Souls of Black Folk

Du Bois guides the reader on an imagined train tour of the “Black Belt” (so named because of its fertile soil), the region of the South most densely populated by African Americans. The journey begins in Georgia, the epicenter of the race problem because of its high percentage of African Americans and its role as an entry point for slaves even after the trade was abolished internationally. Next is land that was owned by the Cherokees until they were forced West by the Trail of Tears. To go any farther, the reader will need to join Du Bois in the Jim Crow car. The car is relatively clean and has passengers who are both black and white.

As the train approaches Albany, Georgia, the real center of the Black Belt, the land becomes more fertile. The federal government took the land on which Albany was built from Native Americans and gave it to white settlers, who in turn planted a “Cotton Kingdom” (46). The sleepy town swells with “black peasantry” (46) on Saturdays, when the country folk come for a brief break from their lives in the country.

Braving the heat, Du Bois next takes the reader out to the countryside around Albany.