The Forethought
...? In other words, what attitudes, habits or methods does he wish us to bring to the study of this book? The word “spiritual” in the title is probably not intended in the Christian sense referring to an individual’s immortal soul. It has a more secular sense of what animates---what gives a distinctive energy, striving to some particular ideal---to a group or an institution as well as an individual. Thus one might speak of the “spirit” of LTU or of the Pistons. We get even closer to Du Bois’ intended meaning, I think, by looking at how he uses the term in this chapter and in neighboring ones. The spiritual strivings briefly discussed in this chapter are “physical freedom, political power, the training of brains and the training of hands” (quoting from par. 12). These are, each in turn, the leading aspirations of African-Americans in the period after Emancipation (their being officially liberated from slavery), according to Du Bois. Chapter two treats these ideals more fully, and the rest of the book from time to time describes other and more enduring spiritual strivings, as Du Bois sees them, of “black folk” (African-Americans who feel an attachment to their group and embody its spe...