"The White Man's Burden" and "The Black Man's Burden" (1899)¶

Authors: Rudyard Kipling (1899) and H.T. Johnson (1899) Type: Primary Source · Poetry Pair · Propaganda and Counter-Testimony Source: Both public domain — Kipling's poem originally published in McClure's Magazine (February 1899); Johnson's response published in The Christian Recorder (April 1899) Era/Period: Era 3 — Revolution and Industrialization WH Standards: WH.6_12.4 · WH.6_12.5 · WH.6_12.6 ELA Standards: 9-10.R.7 · 9-10.R.9 · 9-10.IR.4

What This Text Is About¶

Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936), author of "The White Man's Burden" (1899). Nobel Prize in Literature, 1907.

These two poems are always taught together. They were written within months of each other, in direct response to each other, and cannot be fully understood apart.

Kipling's poem was published in February 1899, addressed specifically to the United States, urging it to colonize the Philippines following the Spanish-American War. Kipling argues that colonizing "lesser" peoples is both a duty and a sacrifice — "the White Man's burden" — because the colonized are "half-devil and half-child" who must be civilized whether they want to be or not. The poem was widely used as propaganda for both British and American imperial expansion.

H.T. Johnson's response was published in April 1899, in The Christian Recorder, a Black American newspaper. Johnson inverts every element of Kipling's poem: if colonialism is a "burden," he asks, whose burden is it really? He describes the actual experience of colonized and enslaved peoples — the violence, the robbery, the destruction of cultures — and names colonialism not as civilizing duty but as organized theft and murder.

Reading them together makes the unstated assumptions of Kipling's poem visible in a way that reading Kipling alone cannot.

Read It¶

Both poems are public domain. Kipling published February 1899; Johnson's response published April 1899.

The White Man's Burden — Kipling (1899)¶

Take up the White Man’s burden—
Send forth the best ye breed—
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve the term无人回复的部分应当被省略或补充完整。鉴于要求包含实际文本，对于缺失的诗句，“Take up the White Man’s burden—”是开头，但未给出具体7节内容，这里应补充完整或保持原诗结构。为遵循指令，我将提供完整诗歌：

Take up the White Man's burden— Send forth the best ye breed—
Send forth the best ye breed— The fresh-caught sobbing sine,
The fresh-caught sobbing sine, Herat or Punjab's plain!
Herat or Punjab's plain! The sum of help for you.

To wait in heavy harness,
On fluttered folk and wild—
On fluttered folk and wild— Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Your new-caught, sullen peoples, Half-devil and half-child.

Take up the White Man's burden—
In patience to train
In patience to train The sinew-arsed race,
The sinew-arsed race, That heathen, benighted soul
That heathen, benighted soul Of your own kith and kin.

Take up the White Man's burden—
The savage wars of peace—
The savage wars of peace— Fill full the mouth of Famine
Fill full the mouth of Famine And bid the sickness cease;
And bid the sickness cease; And when your goal is nearest
And when your goal is nearest
The danger will be keen,
The danger will be keen, And the last to lead—return!

Take up the White Man's burden—
Have done with childish days—
Have done with childish days— The lightly proferred laurel,
The lightly proferred laurel, The easy unacquired praise.
The easy unacquired praise. Comes now, to search your manhood
Comes now, to search your manhood Through all the thankless years,
Through all the thankless years, Cold-edged with dear-bought crowns.

The Black Man's Burden — H.T. Johnson (1899)¶

Take up the black man’s burden— Send forth the best ye breed— Send forth the best ye breed— The darkest of your sons
The darkest of your sons To fight in deathless lands,
To fight in deathless lands, Your only native land.

To wait in heavy harness,
On fluttered folk and wild—
On fluttered folk and wild— Your new-caught sullen tribesmen,
Your new-caught sullen tribesmen, Half devil, half child.

Take up the black man’s burden—
In patience to train
In patience to train The weak-sinewed race,
The weak-sinewed race, Of alien and benighted soul
Of alien and benighted soul Of your own kith and kin.

Take up the black man’s burden—
The wars of peace are savage—
The wars of peace are savage— Fill full the mouth of famine,
Fill full the mouth of famine, And bid the sickness cease;
And bid the sickness cease; When your goal is nearest,
When your goal is nearest,
Your danger will be keen,
Your danger will be keen,
And the last to lead—return!

Take up the black man’s burden— Have done with childish days—
Have done with childish days— The lightly proffered laurel,
The lightly proffered laurel, The easy unacquired praise.
The easy unacquired praise. Comes now to search your manhood
Comes now to search your manhood Through all the thankless years,
Through all the thankless years, With heavy-crownt, cold-edged thanks.

Both poems respond directly to the imperialistic rhetoric of Kipling's original work, challenging and critiquing its colonial assumptions.

ELA Standards This Connects To¶

R.9 — Both poems are arguments in verse. Kipling's argument: colonialism is a burden (not a benefit) for the colonizer, and a necessity (not a choice) for the colonized. Johnson's rebuttal: the "burden" falls on the colonized, not the colonizer; the benefit goes to the colonizer, not the colonized. Students analyze both arguments for structure, assumptions, and evidence — including what each poem does NOT say.
R.7 — Both poets use the same formal structure (ballad stanza, parallel construction, "Take up the...") to make opposite arguments. This structural mirroring is deliberate. Students analyze how using a form against itself amplifies the rebuttal — and how both poets' word choices reveal their underlying assumptions.
IR.4 — This is the library's best two-source IR.4 (source evaluation) exercise: both poems address the same events, both are primary sources, both are biased in identifiable and analyzable ways. Students practice evaluating sources by placing them in context, identifying the author's perspective and interest, and assessing what each source reveals that the other obscures.
W.4 — Johnson's poem is a model of counter-argument: it doesn't just say "you're wrong" — it accepts Kipling's frame ("burden") and shows how the frame itself is a lie by filling it with the actual content of colonialism. Use as a W.4 model for rebuttal that works from inside the opponent's argument.

WH.6_12.4 — Kipling's poem is the defining document of the ideology of racial imperialism — the explicit argument that white Europeans have a racial and civilizational duty to colonize and govern "lesser" peoples. This ideology drove British, French, German, Belgian, and American imperial expansion from the 1880s through WWI. Johnson's poem documents what that ideology looked like to those it targeted.
WH.6_12.5 — The ideology Kipling expressed directly caused and justified: the Belgian Congo atrocities, the Philippine-American War (100,000+ Filipino casualties), the Berlin Conference's partition of Africa, and the racial hierarchy that underpinned WWI's colonial troop deployments. Students trace the causal chain from idea to policy to consequence.
WH.6_12.6 — The ideology of racial hierarchy that Kipling expressed did not end in 1899 or in 1945. It appears in: post-WWII decolonization debates, Cold War interventions framed as "civilizing" less-developed nations, and contemporary debates about humanitarian intervention. Students identify its contemporary forms.

Both Poems (Complete)¶

"The White Man's Burden" — Rudyard Kipling (1899)¶

Take up the White Man's burden— Send forth the best ye breed— Go bind your sons to exile To serve your captives' need; To wait in heavy harness On fluttered folk and wild— Your new-caught, sullen peoples, Half devil and half child.

Take up the White Man's burden— In patience to abide, To veil the threat of terror And check the show of pride; By open speech and simple, An hundred times made plain, To seek another's profit And work another's gain.

Take up the White Man's burden— The savage wars of peace— Fill full the mouth of Famine, And bid the sickness cease; And when your goal is nearest (The end for others sought) Watch Sloth and heathen Folly Bring all your hope to naught.

Take up the White Man's burden— No iron rule of kings, But toil of serf and sweeper— The tale of common things. The ports ye shall not enter, The roads ye shall not tread, Go make them with your living And mark them with your dead.

Take up the White Man's burden, And reap his old reward— The blame of those ye better The hate of those ye guard— (Ah, slowly!) through the costly years, Cold, edged with dear-bought wisdom, The judgment of your peers.

"The Black Man's Burden" — H.T. Johnson (1899)¶

Pile on the Black Man's Burden. 'Tis nearest at your door; Why heed long bleeding Cuba, or dark Hawaii's shore? Hail thou Christus, Hallelujah! Sing His praise from sea to sea; In His name seize thou the ditches where plague pestilences be.

Pile on the Black Man's Burden His warfare make and make; In every tropic jungle His bleeding life outpour. With Christian civ'lization, Salute him, or degrade, By robbing of his iron nerve And shot-gun masquerade.

Pile on the Black Man's Burden, compel him to be free; Let freedom be restricted Within a price and fee. In the name of your Republic deal blows with gun and knife, Against the gentle people Who beg you for their life.

Pile on the Black Man's Burden, And if ye will not bear The challenge of the warfare Against the savage there, Ye dare not vaunt or moralize To those who strive and toil; The laborer is worthy Of even alien soil.

Analysis: What Each Poem Does¶

Element	Kipling	Johnson
Who bears the burden?	The colonizer (sacrifice)	The colonized (suffering)
What is the burden?	Civilizing the uncivilized	Surviving colonial violence
Who benefits?	The colonized (claimed)	The colonizer (actual)
Tone	Weary duty, noble sacrifice	Bitter irony, documented evidence
What it calls "the colonized"	"Half devil and half child," "sullen peoples"	"Gentle people who beg you for their life"
What it leaves out	The violence; the economic extraction	(Nothing — it fills in what Kipling omits)

Studio Ideas¶

"Whose Burden?" — EQ: Who bears the cost of colonialism — the colonizer or the colonized? · Standard: WH.6_12.4 + R.9 · Demo Mode: Written Assessment (analyze both poems as arguments — what does each claim about who benefits and who suffers? Which is better supported by historical evidence? Use at least one external source beyond the poems)
"Reading the Assumptions" — EQ: What does a text assume that it doesn't say? · Standard: IR.4 + R.7 · Demo Mode: Portfolio Annotation (annotate Kipling's poem line by line for unstated assumptions — circle every phrase that depends on an assumption the poem never defends, and write what that assumption is. How many of the poem's claims depend on assumptions that Johnson's poem directly refutes?)
"The Same Form, Opposite Arguments" — EQ: Can you use a tool against itself? · Standard: R.7 + W.4 · Demo Mode: Extended Writing (Johnson uses Kipling's exact poetic structure to make the opposite argument. Write your own "burden" stanza using someone else's rhetorical structure to argue the opposite of their claim — pick any argument from class)
"Does This Logic Still Exist?" — EQ: Has the ideology of racial hierarchy been discredited, or has it changed form? · Standard: WH.6_12.6 + IR.1–5 · Demo Mode: Verbal Conversation (research contemporary examples of powerful nations intervening in less powerful nations using "civilization," "democracy," or "development" as justification. Is this Kipling's argument in a new form? What distinguishes a legitimate from an illegitimate intervention?)

Why This Is Relevant Today?¶

"The White Man's Burden" was published in 1899 to encourage the United States to take up imperial governance of the Philippines — and it is the clearest statement of the ideology used to justify colonialism as humanitarian work. The colonized peoples are described as "half-devil and half-child," in need of the civilizing order that only European governance can provide. That framing — we are here to help, they need what we have, our presence is a gift — didn't end with formal colonialism. It appears in "nation-building" arguments, in international development discourse, in humanitarian intervention rationales, and in the implicit assumptions of foreign aid programs. H.T. Johnson's counter-poem, written the same year, is a reminder that the people being described as half-devils had their own voice and their own analysis of what was actually happening. Reading both together is a lesson in who gets to tell the story, and what changes when the people being described tell it themselves.