Project Gutenberg's The Journal of Negro History, Volume 2, 1917, by Various
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Title: The Journal of Negro History, Volume 2, 1917
Author: Various
Release Date: March 6, 2007 [EBook #20752]
Language: English
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THE JOURNAL
OF
NEGRO HISTORY
Volume II
1917
Table of Contents
Vol II--January, 1917--No. 1
Slavery and the Slave Trade in Africa JEROME DOWD
The Negro in the Field of Invention HENRY E. BAKER
Anthony Benezet C. G. WOODSON
People of Color in Louisiana ALICE DUNBAR-NELSON
Notes on Connecticut as a Slave State
Documents
Letters of Anthony Benezet
Reviews of Books
Notes
Vol II--April, 1917--No. 2
Slave Status in American Democracy JOHN M. MECKLIN
John Woolman's Efforts in Behalf of Freedom G. DAVID HOUSTON
The Tarik É Soudan A.O. STAFFORD
From a Jamaica Portfolio T.H. MACDERMOT
Notes on the Nomolis of Sherbroland WALTER L. EDWIN
Documents
Observations on the Negroes of Louisiana
The Conditions against which Woolman
and Anthony Benezet Inveighted
Book Reviews
Notes
Vol II--July, 1917--No. 3
Formation of American Colonization Society HENRY NOBLE SHERWOOD, PH.D
Slave Status in American Democracy JOHN M. MECKLIN
History of High School for Negroes
in Washington MARY CHURCH TERRELL
The Danish West Indies LEILA AMOS PENDLETON
Documents
Relating to the Danish West Indies
Reviews of Books
Notes
African Origin of Grecian Civilization
Vol II--October, 1917--No. 4
Historical Errors of James Ford Rhodes JOHN R. LYNCH
The Struggle of Haiti and Liberia for Recognition CHARLES H. WESLEY
Three Negro Poets BENJAMIN BRAWLEY
Catholics and the Negro JOSEPH BUTSCH
Documents
Letters of George Washington Bearing on the Negro
Petition for Compensation for the Loss of Slaves
An Extract from the Will of Robert Pleasants
Proceedings of a Reconstruction Meeting
Reviews of Books
Notes
The First Biennial Meeting of the Association
THE JOURNAL
OF
NEGRO HISTORY
VOL. II--JANUARY, 1917--NO. 1
SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE TRADE IN AFRICA
I. THE ORIGIN AND EXTENT OF SLAVERY IN THE SEVERAL ECONOMIC ZONES OF
AFRICA
Slavery in Africa has existed from time immemorial, having arisen, not
from any outside influence, but from the very nature of the local
conditions. The three circumstances necessary to develop slavery are:
First, a country favored by the bounty of nature. Unless nature yields
generously it is impossible for a subject class to produce surplus
enough to maintain their masters. Where nature is niggardly, as in
many hunting districts, the labor of all the population is required to
meet the demands of subsistence.
Second, a country where the labor necessary to subsistence is, in some
way, very disagreeable. In such cases every man and woman will seek to
impose the task of production upon another. Among most primitive
agricultural peoples, the labor necessary to maintenance is very
monotonous and uninteresting, and no freeman will voluntarily perform
it. On the contrary, among hunting and fishing peoples, the labor of
maintenance is decidedly interesting. It partakes of the nature of
sport.
Third, a country where there is an abundance of free land. In such a
country it is impossible for one man to secure another to work for him
except by coercion; for when a man has a chance to use free land and
its products he will work only for himself, and take all the product
for himself rather than work for another and accept a bare subsistence
for himself. On the contrary, where all the land is appropriated a man
who does not own land has no chance to live except at the mercy of the
landlord. He is obliged to offer himself as a wage-earner or a tenant.
The landlord can obtain, therefore, all the help he may need without
coercion. Free labor is then economically advantageous to both the
landlord and the wage-earner, since the freedom of the latter inspires
greatly increased production. From these facts and considerations,
verified by history, it may be laid down as a sociological law that
where land is monopolized slavery necessarily yields to a regime of
freedom.[1]
In applying these principles to Africa it is necessary to take account
of the natural division of the continent into distinct economic zones.
Immediately under the equator is a wide area of heavy rainfall and
dense forest. The rapidity and rankness of vegetable growth renders
the region unsuited to agriculture. But the plentiful streams abound
in fish and the forests in animals and fruits. The banana and plantain
grow there in superabundance, and form the chief diet of the
inhabitants. This may be called, for convenience, the banana zone. To
the north and south of this zone are broad areas of less rainfall and
forest, with a dry season suitable to agriculture. These may be called
the agriculture zones. Still further to the north and south are areas
of very slight rainfall and almost no forests, suitable for pasturage.
Here cattle flourish in great numbers. These may be called the
pastoral zones. These zones stretch horizontally across the continent
except in case of the cattle zones, which, on account of the
mountainous character of East Africa, include the plateau extending
from Abyssinia to the Zambesi river. Each of these zones gives rise to
different types of men, and different characteristics of economic
organization, of family life, government, religion, and art.
In the banana zone nature is extremely bountiful. The people subsist
mostly upon the spontaneous products. A small expenditure of effort
will support a vast population. Agriculture is very little practiced.
Here the effort to live would seem to be easier and more agreeable
than in any other part of the world, so that man would not be under
pressure to enslave his kind. But alas, the work of gathering and
transporting the fruits, of the preparation and cooking them, as well
as the bringing home and cooking of the game, the building of houses,
etc., is not altogether pleasant. It is uninteresting, and the heat
and the humidity of the climate render it almost insupportable in
certain seasons and hours of the day. The repugnance to labor of
tropical people, whether natives or white immigrants, is proverbial.
Every one in the banana zone, therefore, seeks to shift his burden
upon another. As a first resort, he unloads it upon his wife, and she,
finding it grievous, cries out, and he then relieves her by procuring
additional wives. This kind of wife-slavery suffices for the support
of the population in this zone, but in the case of families of rank,
who have been accustomed to some degree of luxury, other helpers are
needed, and these form a class of domestic slaves. Now, in this zone,
the climatic conditions not only render labor disagreeable but tend to
curb aspiration, so that people do not acquire a taste or demand for
products which minister to the higher nature. Lassitude keeps the
standard of living down to a low level. Hence, in this zone the labor
of women suffices, for the most part, for the maintenance of the
population. Since land is free and no one will voluntarily work for
another, such additional workers as are needed must be obtained and
bound to the master by coercion.
In this zone two very remarkable consequences follow from the fact
that very few slaves are needed for workers. The first is the practice
of cannibalism, once universal in this zone, and still in vogue
throughout vast regions. The bountiful food supply attracts immigrants
from all sides, and the result is a condition of chronic warfare. When
one tribe defeats another the question arises, What is to be done
with the prisoners? As they cannot be profitably employed as
industrial workers, they are used to supplement a too exclusive
vegetable diet. Wars come to be waged expressly for the sake of
obtaining human flesh for food. The Monbuttu eat a part of their
captives fallen in battle, and butcher and carry home the rest for
future consumption. They bring home prisoners not to reduce to slavery
but as butcher-meat to garnish future festivals.
A second consequence of the limited demand for slaves is that war
captives are sold to foreigners. Adjacent to the banana zone are zones
of agriculture, where slaves are in great request, and, during the
European connection with the slave trade, the normal demand for slaves
in this zone was greatly heightened. Among the Niam Niam all prisoners
belong to the monarch. He sells the women and keeps the children for
slaves. Hence, the banana zone has been the great reservoir for
supplying slaves to other parts of the world. Hundreds of thousands of
slaves came from this zone to the West Indies, and to the slave states
of North and South America. In Dahomey and Ashanti war captives used
to be sold "en bloc" to white traders at so much per capita.
In the agricultural zones to the north and south nature is more
niggardly, though she yields enough, when coaxed by the hoe, to permit
of a large class of parasites. The labor of maintenance is more
onerous than in the banana zone. While the heat and humidity are not
so great the work is more grievous because of its greater quantity and
monotony. The motive to shift the work is, therefore, very strong and
the demand for slaves is very great. In fact, the ratio of slaves to
freemen is about three or four to one. As land is free and the
resources open, the only means of obtaining workers is by coercion.
The supply of slaves is kept up by kidnapping, by warfare upon weak
tribes, by the purchase of children from improvident parents, and by
forfeiture of freedom through crime.
In the cattle zones farther to the north and south, nature is still
less bountiful. The labor of maintenance requires a combination of
the pastoral art, agriculture and trade. A slave class could not
maintain itself and at the same time support a large master class. The
labor of a large proportion of the population is, in one way or
another, necessary to existence. The nature of the work, so far as it
is pastoral or trading, is not especially irksome, but rather
fascinating. Tending cattle is full of excitement, and is a kind of
substitute for hunting; while trading is an occupation which appeals
with wonderful force to all the races of Africa. The impulse to shift
labor in the cattle zones is, therefore, very slight, except in the
case of a few populations subsisting largely upon agriculture. The
ruling classes, therefore, instead of owning many personal slaves,
make a practice of subjugating the agricultural groups in such a way
as to constitute a kind of feudalism. As land is free the enslaved
groups can be made to serve the free class only by coercion.
Similar conditions among the natural races all over the world give
rise in the same way to the institution of slavery. Ellis thinks that
slavery probably originated under the regime of exogamy where the sons
born of captured women formed the slave class because they were
considered inferior to the sons born of the women of the group.[2] But
it is quite evident that slavery originated primarily from economic
conditions. For further sociological explanations of slavery in the
several zones the reader is referred to the author's first and second
volumes on the Negro races.
II. THE SLAVE TRADE OF WEST AFRICA AND THE DESERT OF SAHARA
The African slave trade goes back as far as our knowledge of the Negro
race. The first Negroes of which we have any record were probably
slaves brought in caravans to Egypt. They were in demand as slaves in
all the oases of the deserts, and along the coasts of the
Mediterranean. "Among the ruling nations on the north coast," says
Heeren, "the Egyptians, Cyrenians and Carthaginians, slavery was not
only established but they imported whole armies of slaves, partly for
home use, and partly, at least by the latter, to be shipped off to
foreign markets. These wretched beings were chiefly drawn from the
interior, where kidnapping was just as much carried on then as it is
at present. Black male and female slaves were even an article of
luxury, not only among the above mentioned nations, but even in Greece
and Italy; and as the allurement to this traffic was on this account
so great, the unfortunate Negro race had, even thus early, the
wretched fate to be dragged into distant lands under the galling yoke
of bondage."[3] Since the introduction of Mohammedanism, slaves have
been carried eastward into all of the Moslem States as far as Asia
Minor and Turkey, where they are still much valued as domestic
servants or as eunuchs to guard the seraglios of Mohammedan princes.
In the middle ages many African slaves were carried into Spain through
the instrumentality of the Saracens, and from there the first slaves
were imported into America. The supply of slaves for the Northern and
Eastern States was obtained chiefly from the region of the Sudan. At
an early period many caravan routes led northward from this region.
During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the slaves were
obtained by a variety of methods, of which the most common was that of
raiding the agricultural Nigritians who lived in towns and cities
scattered and unorganized in the agricultural zone, and who were easy
victims of the mounted bands of desert Berbers, Tuaregs and Arabs who
descended into the region in quest of booty and captives. Robert
Adams, an American sailor who was wrecked on the West Coast of Africa
in 1810, said of the raiding parties sent out from Timbuktu, "These
armed parties were all on foot except the officers. They were usually
absent from one week to a month, and at times brought in considerable
numbers," mostly from the Bambaras. "The slaves thus brought in were
chiefly women and children, who, after being detained a day or two at
the king's house, were sent away to other parts for sale."[4]
The Fellatahs, who, since the beginning of the nineteenth century,
have been the dominators of the Nigritians in West Africa, used to
carry on a merciless campaign against their subjects, destroying their
homes and fields, and seizing women and children by the thousands to
barter away to the West, or to send across the desert. Describing the
effects of a Fellatah raid, Barth says: "The whole village, which only
a few moments before had been the abode of comfort and happiness, was
destroyed by fire and made desolate. Slaughtered men, with their limbs
severed from their bodies, were lying about in all directions and made
passers-by shudder with horror."[5]
The slave traffic in the Sudan gave rise at a very early date to
regular slave markets. The city of Jenné on the Niger was, in the
middle ages, the greatest emporium in West Africa, far outshining
Timbuktu. From the fifteenth century to the present time, the most
celebrated slave markets have been Kuka, on Lake Chad, Timbuktu,
capital of the Songhay empire, Kano, capital of the Haussa empire, and
Katsena, capital of a district of the same name. Rohlfs found at the
Kuka slave market, white haired old men and women, children suckling
strange breasts, young girls and strong boys who had come from Bornu,
Baghirmi, Haussa, Logun, Musgu, Waday and from lands still more
distant.[6]
The slaves were carried across the desert by two kinds of caravans.
First, those composed of nomad tribes, which migrated periodically
from north to south. During the winter the tribes would pasture their
camels along the edges of the desert, but in the spring they would
visit the cities in the oases to gather up a supply of dates and other
desert products to sell in the north. They would then in the same
season proceed north to the cultivated regions of the Atlas mountains
and arrive there in the midst of the harvest, exchanging their
southern commodities for grain, raw-wool, and a variety of European
goods. At the end of the summer they would return to the south,
arriving at the oases just as the dates were ripening. Here the grain,
wool and other stuffs from the north would be exchanged for dates and
manufactured articles of the desert. The same tribes which advanced
from the oases of the desert to the north also descended towards the
south, thus establishing intercourse between the Barbary States and
Timbuktu. Many slaves picked up by these immigrating tribes were
carried from one oasis to another until they were finally sold into
the states bordering the Mediterranean.
The second kind of caravans were those conducted by merchants,
traveling with hired camels, and making rapid and direct journeys
across the desert to and from the chief slave markets. These caravans
would come into the Sudan composed of men mounted upon camels, asses
and mules, bringing salt, hides, cloth, and sundry articles from
civilized North Africa, and return with slaves through Tibbu to
Fezzan, and there fatten them for the Tripoli slave markets. Those
that came to Timbuktu returned to any of the Barbary States, and there
transferred their slaves to other traders who carried them as far as
Turkey in Asia. Those that came to Kano usually passed out by way of
Kuka or Katsena and proceeded thence by several routes to markets in
North Africa.
The journey across the desert was exceedingly fatal to the blacks,
since they were not accustomed to the northern climate. They suffered
from hunger, thirst and cold, and a large per cent. of them perished
along the way. Damberger, who traveled through the interior of Africa
between 1781 and 1797, relates, as follows, his experience as a
slave-captive in crossing the desert. Passing through the Sudan he
fell in with some Moors, journeying to Tegorarin, where he was sold to
a slave dealer, who resold him to a Mussulman en route to Mezzabath, a
town on the river Oniwoh. Here again he was sold to a merchant who
carried him to Marocco. He narrates that "On the 6th of September, my
new master and I departed with the caravan. It consisted of merchants
from various nations, of persons of distinction, who had been
performing a pilgrimage to Mecca, and of slaves. We proceeded slowly
on our journey, as the roads were bad and our beasts were very heavily
laden. Every day some of our company left the caravan, as we
approached or passed the respective destinations. We traveled over
mountains where the path was sometimes so narrow as only to permit the
passage of one person at a time. We were constantly on the watch in
these parts to prevent being surprised by the Arabs, as our caravan
conveyed many valuable articles, which would have afforded rich
plunder to those robbers. That which we apprehended actually happened
on the seventh day after our departure, namely, on the 13th of Sept. A
number of armed Arabs attacked us between the Cozul mountains and the
river Tegtat; killed four of our slaves and three camels; and, though
they lost several men in the attack, obstinately continued the combat.
We defended ourselves to the utmost of our power, and at length had
the good fortune to repel the whole troop. The victory, however, was
not obtained till two of our merchants and five slaves were wounded,
besides the four that were killed. We preserved all our property and
the burthens of the slain camels were distributed among those that
remained."[7]
An account of the caravan traffic from Timbuktu is given by Jackson,
who says that Timbuktu "has from time immemorial carried on a very
extensive and lucrative trade with the various maritime states of
North Africa, viz., Marocco, Tunis, Algiers, Tripoli, Egypt, etc., by
means of accumulated caravans, which cross the great desert of Sahara,
generally between the months of September and April inclusive; these
caravans consist of several hundred loaded camels, accompanied by the
Arabs who let them to the merchants for the transportation of their
merchandise to Fez, Marocco, etc., and at a very low rate. During
their routes they were often exposed to the attacks of the roving
Arabs of Sahara who generally commit their depredations as they
approach the confines of the desert."[8] The wind sometimes rolls up
the sand like great billows of the ocean, and caravans are often
buried under the pile, and then the wind, shifting, scatters in the
air those newly constructed mounds, and forms, amidst the chaos,
dreadful gulfs and yawning abysses: the traveler, continually deceived
by the aspect of the place, can discover his situation only by the
position of the stars.
When the caravans reach Akka, on the northern border of the desert,
the camels and the guides are discharged, and others hired to proceed
to Fez, Marocco, etc. The trip across the desert is made in about 130
days, including the necessary stops. Caravans go at the rate of three
and one half miles an hour, and travel seven hours a day. The convoys
of the caravan usually consist of two or more Arabs belonging to the
tribe through whose territory the caravan passes. When the convoys
reach the limit of their country, they transfer the caravan to other
guides, and so on till the desert is crossed. The individuals who
compose the caravans are accustomed to few comforts. "Their food,
dress and accommodation are simple and natural: proscribed from the
use of wine and intoxicating liquors by their religion, and exhorted
by its principles to temperance, they were commonly satisfied with a
few nourishing dates and a draft of water; and they will travel for
weeks successively without any other food."[9]
The caravans from Timbuktu were wont to export to the Barbary States
gold dust and gold rings, ivory, spices, and a great number of slaves.
"A young girl of Haussa, of exquisite beauty," remarks Jackson, "was
once sold at Marocco, whilst I was there, for four hundred ducats,
whilst the average price of slaves is about one hundred."[10] As to
the cost of transporting the slaves, Jackson states that "Ten dollars
expended in rice in Wangara is sufficient for a year's consumption for
one person; the wearing apparel is alike economical; a pair of
drawers, and sometimes a vest, forming all the clothing necessary in
traversing the desert."[11]
Gen. Daumas describes a journey he made from Katsena in the Sudan
across the desert about the middle of the nineteenth century. Arriving
at Katsena, he says that his caravan was met by a great and mixed
crowd of Negroes, who crowded around the camels, speaking in the most
animated manner their unknown language. He and his companions were
assigned to a special quarter of the city, and provided with lodgings.
The camels were put in charge of some poor men of the caravan who led
them away every day to the pasture, brought them back at four or five
o'clock in the evening, and placed them in the enclosure in the city.
The caravan leaders paid their respects to the chief of the city who
bade them welcome and promised them protection. The business proceeded
leisurely, as it was customary for the caravans to remain there two
months.
The chief, not having a sufficient supply of slaves on hand to trade,
caused his big drums to be beaten, and organized two bands of troops
to execute a raid among the heathen tribes to the east and southwest.
The raiding bands attacked only tribes with whom they were at war, or
who refused to adopt the Mohammedan religion. While the troops were on
the warpath, the caravan leaders visited the city slave market and
made, from day to day, a few purchases. The price paid for an old
Negro was 10,000 to 15,000 cowries, an adult Negro 30,000, a young
Negro woman 50,000 to 60,000, a Negro boy or girl 35,000 to 45,000.
The seller agreed to take back, within three days of the date of the
purchase, any slaves that proved to have objectionable qualities, such
as a disease, bad eyes or teeth, or a habit of snoring in sleep. As a
rule slaves that come below Nupé were not salable for the reason that,
being unaccustomed to eat salt, it was difficult for them to withstand
the regime of the desert. Also, slaves from certain countries south of
Kano were not salable because they were cannibals. The slaves from
this region were recognized by their teeth which were sharpened to a
point, resembling those of a dog. Negroes from other tribes were not
purchased because they were believed to have the power of causing a
man to die of consumption by merely looking at him. The purchase of
Fellatahs, or pregnant Negro women, or Jews was strictly forbidden by
the Sultan. The Fellatahs were not bought because they boasted of
being white people. The Negro women could not be bought because the
child to be born would be the property of the Sultan if its mother
were a heathen, and it would be free if the mother were a Mohammedan.
The Jew Negroes could not be bought because they were jewelers,
tailors, artisans and indispensable negotiators.
The raiding troops, after having been on the campaign for nearly a
month, returned with 2,000 captives, who marched in front of the
column, the men, women, old and young, almost all nude, or half clad
in ragged blue cloth, and the children piled upon the camels. The
women were groaning, and the children crying, while the men, though
seemingly more resigned, bore bloody marks upon their backs made by
the whips. The convoy was marched to the palace, where its arrival was
announced to the Sultan by a band of musicians. The Sultan
complimented the chief, examined the slaves and ordered them to the
slave market; and the next morning the caravan leaders were invited to
come and make their purchases.
After the slave-trading was over, it was necessary to purchase
supplies of corn, millet, dried meat, butter and flour for three
months, also to purchase camels and hide-tents. Daumas's caravan,
which set out from Metlily with only 64 camels and sixteen men, had
now increased to 400 slaves and nearly 600 camels.
A caravan from Tuat, which had joined that of Daumas, had augmented in
the same proportions. It had bought 1,500 slaves and its camels had
increased to 2,000. These two caravans waited two days to be joined by
three others which had penetrated farther to the south. It was
desirable that all of the caravans recross the desert together in
order better to resist attacks from the Tuaregs, Tibbus, and other
highwaymen of that region.
The slaves had to be watched very closely, since believing that they
were to be eaten by the white men, they were ready to take any chance
of escaping. The women were tied in twos by the feet, and the men tied
eight or ten together, each with his neck in an iron collar, to which
was attached a short chain which held the hand of each slave at the
height of his chest. At night Daumas fastened to his wrist the chains
which bound all of his slaves together so that the least movement
would wake him.
In a short time the three expected caravans arrived. One had
originally come from Ghedames, one from Ghat and one from Fezzan. The
first had gone as far as Nupé. It brought back 3,000 slaves and 3,500
camels. The second had gone to Kano and returned with 400 or 500
slaves and 700 or 800 camels. The third returned from Sokoto, and had
about the same number of slaves and camels as the second.
After the proper ceremonies of farewell at the palace of the Sultan,
the camels were loaded, and the children placed upon the baggage. The
Negro men, chained together, were placed in the middle of each
caravan, and the women were grouped eight or ten together, and guarded
by a man with a whip. The signal was given, and the great combined
caravans, consisting in all of about 6,000 slaves and 7,500 camels,
started on their homeward march.
But suddenly there was a mighty noise of crying and groaning, of
calling at each other and bidding farewell to friends. Some were so
overcome at the fear of being eaten that they rolled upon the ground
and absolutely refused to walk. Nothing could persuade them to get up
until a guard came along with his great whip which brought blood at
each lash. As the great army passed through the gate of the city, an
officer of the Sultan examined every slave to be sure none was a
Fellatah, Mohammedan, or Jew. The Ghat caravan happened to have among
its slaves a Fellatah, who was at once discovered and set free. At
the first camp, says Daumas, "Each caravan established its bivouac
separately, and as soon as the camels were crouched, and after having
chained our Negro women by the feet and in groups of eight or ten, we
forced our Negro men to aid us, with the left hand which we had left
free, to unload our baggage, to arrange it in a circle and to stretch
in the center the tents which we had brought from Katsena. Two or
three of the oldest women that we had not put in chains, but who had
always had their two feet fettered, were directed to prepare our
supper. We ate in groups of four. This sad supper over, we placed the
guards around our camp, and made the slave women and men sleep as
before said."[12]
The next day the caravans were obliged to stop in consequence of a
Negro woman who gave birth to a child. This stop, however, was not
very lengthy. In a few hours she and her infant were placed upon a
camel and the caravan went forward. When the camp was pitched for the
next night, the leader, in making his rounds, ordered that the young
Negro mother be left unshackled, and that she be given some meat for
supper and allowed to sleep warmly upon a mat. But during the night,
when everything was quiet, the mother put her infant in a basket
filled with ostrich feathers, placed it upon her head, and made her
escape.
Next morning, upon discovering her flight, several bands of men were
sent out in different directions to find her. One of these, after a
few hours of search, found her in a thicket nursing her child. She was
led back to the camp, and two gun-shots recalled the other bands, and
the caravans then resumed their march. The caravans stopped at
Aghezeur to replenish their provisions and make repairs; and up to
that time none of the people had died, and only one camel was lost.
After a month's traveling they reached "Ogla d'Assaoua," which was a
rendezvous for all the marauding bands that returned from the Sudan.
It was particularly dangerous for the reason that it was the point at
which groups of caravans divided and proceeded in different directions
across the desert, and some of the independent caravans had to pass
near the Tuareg nomads.
"None of our slaves," says Daumas, "I am sure, will ever forget this
stop, for it was there that they were for the first time given their
liberty after being in irons a month. The men and women danced all day
after the fashion of their own country, until they fell prostrated
with heat and fatigue. Even those whose legs and necks had been made
sore from the chains took an active part in this fatiguing exercise,
and all came to kiss our hands and to prostrate themselves at our feet
and to sprinkle them with sand. We were careful not to interrupt this
feast of good augury. It was the first proof to us that they had at
last accepted their lot, and we had no longer to fear they would dream
of escaping as they were so far from the Sudan and in the very middle
of the desert.... From that day all were sincerely attached to us, and
our joy was not less than theirs, for the continued watch which had
been imposed upon us had been frightfully fatiguing. They helped us to
load and unload our camels, to guide them en route, to stretch our
tents, and to bring wood and water, labors which we alone had
performed for a month. Finally we could lie down and sleep in
peace."[13] At an early hour the next morning the tents were folded
and the several caravans parted company. One went eastward through
Ghat to Ghedames, accompanied as far as Ghat by another whose wares
were sold in Fezzan and to other caravans coming from Murzuk. Another
went eastward directly to Fezzan, where its merchandise was to be
distributed to points in Tunis, Tripoli and Egypt. Daumas and his
companion caravan of Tuat struck out to the northwest for the oasis of
Tuat.
Two thirds of the camels bought by Daumas in the Sudan died before he
reached "Isalab" (Ain Salah?), as they could not stand the hardship of
the journey, especially the chilly and damp nights of the desert.
Arriving at Metlily the Arab merchants repaired to a mosque and
thanked God for His protection.
III. REGION OF NORTHWEST AFRICA AND THE DESERT OF SAHARA. HARDSHIP OF
THE DESERT ROUTE
In 1850 Barth estimated the number of slaves carried across the desert
from Kuka at 5,000 per annum, and in 1865 Rohlfs estimated the number
at 10,000. A British Blue Book of 1873 estimated that the Mohammedan
States of North Africa absorbed annually one million slaves.
The mortality in crossing the desert was frightful. Denham saw near a
well in the Tibbu country 100 skeletons of Negroes who had perished
from hunger and thirst. In his travels he saw a skeleton every few
miles, and for several days he passed from sixty to ninety skeletons
per day. Sometimes a whole caravan perished, consisting of as many as
2,000 persons and 1,800 camels. The Negroes composing the caravans
often had to walk and carry heavy loads. Rohlfs says that if one did
not know the route of their pilgrimage he could find the way by the
bones that lie to the right and left of the path. When he was passing
through Murzuk in 1865, he gave medical aid to a slave dealer who was
very ill, and, in compensation, received a boy about seven or eight
years old. The boy had traveled four months across the desert from
Lake Chad. He knew nothing of his home country, had even forgotten his
mother tongue, and could jabber only some fragments of speech picked
up from the other slaves of the caravan. As a result of the long
journey he was emaciated to a skeleton and so enfeebled that he could
scarcely stand up. He crawled on all fours and kissed the hand of his
new master, and the first words he uttered were "I am hungry." The boy
prospered and followed Rohlfs to Berlin. Thomson, in his travels,
mentions having met a caravan of forty slave-girls crossing the Atlas
Mountains on its way to Marocco. "A few were on camel-back, but most
of them trudged on foot, their appearance telling of the frightful
hardships of the desert route. Hardly a rag covered their swarthy
forms." Marocco used to be the destination of most of the slaves
transported across the desert. About twenty-five years ago the center
of the traffic in that state was Sidi Hamed ibu Musa, seven days
journey south of Mogador where a great yearly festival was held. The
slaves were forwarded thence in gangs to different towns, especially
to Marocco City, and Mequinez. Writing in 1897, Vincent says the slave
trade is as active as ever at Mequinez and Marocco City. The slaves
were sold on Fridays in the public markets of the interior, but never
publicly at any of the seaports, owing to the adverse European
influence. There is a large traffic at Fez, but Marocco City is the
great mart for them, where one may see frequently men, women and
children sold at one time. Marakesh was once a chief market in
Marocco. In 1892 a caravan from Timbuktu reached that city with no
less than 4,000 slaves, chiefly boys and girls whose price ranged from
ten to fourteen pounds per head. As many as 800 were sold there within
ten days to buyers from Riff, Tafilett and other remote parts of the
empire. A writer in the _Anti-slavery Reporter_, December, 1895, said:
"Few people know the true state of affairs in Marocco; only those who
live in daily touch with the common life of the people really get to
understand the pernicious and soul-destroying system of human
flesh-traffic as carried on in the public markets of the interior.
Having resided and traveled extensively in Marocco for some seven
years, I feel constrained to bear witness against the whole gang of
Arab slave-raiders and buyers of poor little innocent boys and girls.
"When I first settled in Marocco I met those who denied the existence
of slave-markets but since that time I have seen children, some of
whom were of tender years, as well as very pretty young women, openly
sold in the city of Marocco, and in the towns along the Atlantic
seaboard. It is also of very frequent occurrence to see slaves sold in
Fez, the capital of Northern Marocco.
"The first slave-girls that I actually saw being sold were of various
ages. They had just arrived from the Soudan, a distance by camel,
perhaps, of forty days' journey. Two swarthy-looking men were in
charge of them. The timid little creatures, mute as touching Arabic,
for they had not yet learned to speak in that tongue, were pushed out
by their captors from a horribly dark and noisome dungeon into which
they had been thrust the night before. Then, separately, or two by
two, they were paraded up and down before the public gaze, being
stopped now and again by some of the spectators and examined exactly
as a horse dealer would examine the points of a horse before buying
the animal at any of the public horse-marts in England. The sight was
sickening. Some of the girls were terrified, others were silent and
sad. Every movement was watched by the captives, anxious to know their
present fate. My own face blushed with anger as I stood helpless by
and saw those sweet, dark-skinned, wooly-headed Soudanese sold into
slavery.
"Our hearts have ached as we have heard from time to time from the
lips of slaves of the indescribable horrors of the journeys across
desert plains, cramped in pain, parched with thirst, and suffocated in
panniers, their food a handful of maize. Again, we have sickened at
the sight of murdered corpses, left by the wayside to the vulture and
the burning rays of the African sun, and we have prayed, perhaps as
never before, to the God of justice to stop these cruel practices."
Tunis and Algiers have also been great receptacles for the slaves of
the Sudan. Describing the slave market at Tunis, Vincent says that it
is a courtyard surrounded by arcades, the pillars of which are all of
the old Roman fabrication. Around the court are little chambers or
cells in which the slaves are kept, the men below, the women in the
story above.
According to the statement of Barard, in 1906, Negro slavery is still
prevalent throughout Marocco, and Negro women still populate the
harems. "In the towns and plains, the present generations are pretty
strongly colored by their infusion of black blood. But the
mountainous tribes who represent three fourths of a Maroccan
population have kept themselves almost free from mixture; white or
blond, they always resemble, by the color of their skin or texture of
hair, the Europeans of Germany or France rather than the
Mediterraneans of Spain and Italy." In Tunis the open sale of slaves
is pretty well suppressed, but in a modified form the trade continues.
Vivian says: "By resorting to fictitious marriages, and other
subterfuges, the owner of a harem may procure as many slaves as he
pleases, and, once he has got them into his house, no one can possibly
interfere to release them. Slaves can, of course, escape and claim
protection from the Consulates, but, as a matter of fact, they are
generally quite contented with their position and know that such
action would only involve them in ruin." In all of the Barbary States
the slave trade is at the present time under prohibition, although it
has not been effectively suppressed in any of them. According to a
recent statement in the _Anti-slavery Reporter_, "a sale of slaves
among which some white women and children were included, took place in
a Fondak (an enclosure for accommodation of travelers and animals) in
Tangier in April last (1906) and the sale was reported in a local
newspaper, _Al Moghreb Al Aksa_." In July of the same year it was
reported that a young black girl had been brought to the city and sold
as a slave. The sultan had issued orders to the customs officers and
at the various ports to prevent the transport of slaves by sea, and in
event of any person discovered to be bringing slaves by sea, to punish
him and free the slaves in his possession.
In July, 1906, the Anti-slavery Society of Italy published the
particulars of a Turkish ship which left the port of Bengazi (Tripoli)
for Constantinople with six slaves on board. Through the activity of
the Society's agent the vessel was boarded and the slaves liberated.
Within the last decade the traffic in slaves across the desert has
been limited to routes between the Niger and Marocco, and between Kuka
and Tripoli. At the present time there are probably no regular slave
routes across the desert. Owing to the activity of European consuls in
Northwest Africa caravans have a precarious existence and no safe
markets.
"Only a few years ago," says the _Anti-slavery Reporter_, "Timbuctu,
the famous trade metropolis of Central Africa, was also the most
active center of the slave trade. French occupation (1894) has put an
end to that traffic, and it is extending the _pax Gallica_ throughout
the vast and fertile territory of the Niger where formerly anarchy and
brutality reigned."[14]
JEROME DOWD,
_Professor in the University of Oklahoma._
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Nieboer, "Slavery as an Industrial System," 257-348.
[2] "The Ewé Speaking Peoples," 222.
[3] "Historical Researches," 181.
[4] "Narrative of an American Sailor," 55.
[5] "Travels in North and Central Africa," II, 379.
[6] "Reise von Mittelmeer nach dem Tshad-See," I, 344.
[7] "Travels Through the Interior of Africa," 490.
[8] "An Account of the Empire of Morocco," 282.
[9] _Ibid._, 288.
[10] "Account of the Empire of Morocco," 292.
[11] _Ibid._, 295.
[12] "Le Grand Desert," 228.
[13] _Ibid._, 251.
[14] "Tunesia and the Modern Barbary Pirates," 65.
THE NEGRO IN THE FIELD OF INVENTION
There is no branch of technical and scientific industry in our country
that is at all comparable in scope and results with the business of
perfecting inventions. These constitute the basis on which nearly all
our great manufacturing enterprises are conducted, both as to the
machinery employed and the articles produced. So vast is the field
covered by inventors, and so industriously do they apply their talent
to it that patents for new and useful inventions are now being granted
them by our government at the rate of more than one hundred a day for
every day that the office is open for business. And when one considers
the enormous part played by American inventors in the economic,
industrial and financial development of our country, it becomes a
matter of importance to ascertain what share in this great work is
done by the American Negro.
The average American seems not to know that the Negro has contributed
very materially to this result. Not knowing it, he does not believe
it, and not believing it he easily advances to the mental attitude of
being ready to assert that the Negro has done absolutely nothing worth
while in the field of invention. This conclusion necessarily grows out
of the traditional attitude of the average American on the question of
the capacity of the Negro for high scientific and technical
achievement. This state of mind on the part of the general public is
not perceptibly changed by the well-authenticated reports now and then
of meritorious inventions in many lines of experiment made by Negroes
in various parts of the country, notwithstanding the fact that these
reports are frequently made through channels that would seem to leave
nothing to doubt.
It has always been and presumably always will be difficult for truth
to outrun a falsehood. One instance of the way in which such false and
erroneous impressions of the Negro's capacity and achievement gain
currency and fix themselves in the public mind is shown sometimes in
the campaign methods of some politicians. One of these, a Marylander,
addressing a political gathering in his native State in behalf of his
own candidacy for Congress, a few years ago declared that the Negro
was not entitled to vote because he had never evinced sufficient
capacity to justify such a privilege, and that not one of the race had
ever yet reached the dignity of an inventor. It is not easy to
understand how a gentleman of the requisite qualifications to
represent an intelligent constituency acceptably in the Congress of
the United States could so palpably pervert the truth in a matter on
which he could so easily have rightly informed himself. At the time
when this statement was made, 1903, in Talbot County, Maryland, there
was on the shelves of the Library of Congress a book[15] containing a
chapter on "The Negro as an Inventor," and citing several hundred
patents granted by our government for inventions by Negroes. And still
another instance is that of a leading newspaper of Richmond, which
some time ago published the bold statement that of the many thousands
of patents granted to the inventors in this country annually not a
single patent had ever been granted to a colored man. These and
similar general statements which make no mention of exceptions admit
of but one interpretation. The wish may be father to the thought, but
the truth is not father to their words.
In the cause of truth it is very gratifying to the writer to be able
to show that notwithstanding the frequency and the persistency of
these misrepresentations, the facts are gradually coming to the front
to prove that the Negro not only now but in the remote past exhibited
considerable of the inventive genius which has been so instrumental in
the development of our country. In the ordinary course of
investigation along this particular line the official records of the
U. S. Patent Office must necessarily be referred to in order to
ascertain the number of patents granted either for a given class of
inventors, or to a certain geographical group of citizens, as by State
or nationality, or for a given period of time. But, voluminous as are
these records, and various as are the items they cover, they make
almost no disclosure of the fact that any of the multitude of patents
that are granted daily are for inventions by Negroes. The solitary
exception to this statement is the case of Henry Blair, of Maryland,
to whom were granted two patents on corn harvesters, one in 1834, the
other in 1836. In both cases he is designated in the official records
as a "colored man." To the uninformed this very exception might appear
conclusive, but it is not. It has long been the fixed policy of the
Patent Office to make no distinction as to race in the records of
patents granted to American citizens. All American inventors stand on
a level before the Patent Office. It may perhaps be an open question
whether, in the enforcement of such a policy, the advantages outweigh
the disadvantages as it regards colored inventors.
In the period preceding the Civil War mechanical inventions of merit
by colored persons were not numerous, so far as the investigation has
shown, but this was also true of all classes of inventors of that
time. With the great majority of slaves the question uppermost among
them was how to effect their freedom, and those who were fortunately
gifted with an active intelligence and some vision were, for the most
part, using their mental faculties to devise some plan to interest
others in their efforts for emancipation. This situation would
obviously lend itself more readily to developing literary talent and
oratorical ability than to producing machinists, engineers or
inventors. Hence the preachers and teachers and orators of the colored
race that here and there rose above the masses greatly outnumbered the
inventors. But it should be remembered also in this connection that in
the period just mentioned the mechanical industries of the South were
carried on mostly by slaves, and that bits of history gathered here
and there show that many of the simple mechanical contrivances of the
day were devised by the Negro in his effort to minimize the exactions
of his daily toil. None of these inventions were patented by the
United States as being the inventions of slaves; and it is quite
conceivable that some inventions of value perfected by this class will
be forever lost sight of through the attitude at that time of the
Federal Government on that subject. In 1858 Jeremiah S. Black,
Attorney-General of the United States, confirmed a decision of the
Secretary of the Interior, on appeal from the Commissioner of Patents,
refusing to grant a patent on an invention by a slave, either to the
slave as the inventor, or to the master of the latter, on the ground
that, not being a citizen, the slave could neither contract with the
government nor assign his invention to his master.[16]
Another instance of this sort was an invention on the plantation owned
by Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, President of the late Confederate
States. The Montgomerys, father and sons, were attached to this
family, and some of them made mechanical appliances which were adopted
for use on the estate. One of them in particular, Benjamin T.
Montgomery, father of Isaiah T. Montgomery, founder of the prosperous
Negro Colony of Mound Bayou, Mississippi, invented a boat propeller.
It attracted the favorable attention of Jefferson Davis himself, who
unsuccessfully tried to have it patented. The writer is informed by a
recent letter from Isaiah T. Montgomery that it was Jefferson Davis's
failure in this matter that led him to recommend to the Confederate
Congress the law passed by that body favorable to the grant of patents
for the inventions of slaves. The law was:
"And be it further enacted, that in case the original inventor or
discoverer of the art, machine or improvement for which a patent
is solicited is a slave, the master of such slave may take an
oath that the said slave was the original; and on complying with
the requisites of the law shall receive a patent for said
discovery or invention, and have all the rights to which a
patentee is entitled by law."[17]
The national ban on patents for the inventions of slaves did not, of
course, attach itself to the inventions made by "free persons of
color" residing in this country. So that when James Forten, of
Philadelphia, who lived from 1766 to 1842, perfected a new device for
handling sails, he had no difficulty in obtaining a patent for his
invention, nor in deriving from it comfortable financial support for
himself and family during the remainder of his life.
This was also true in the case of Norbert Rillieux, a colored Creole
of Louisiana. In 1846 he invented and patented a vacuum pan which in
its day revolutionized to a large extent the then known method of
refining sugar. This invention with others which he also patented are
known to have aided very materially in developing the sugar industry
of Louisiana. Rillieux was a machinist and an engineer of fine
reputation in his native State, and displayed remarkable talent for
scientific work on a large scale. Among his other known achievements
was the development of a practicable scheme for a system of sewerage
for the city of New Orleans, but he here met his handicap of color
through the refusal of the authorities to accord to him such an honor
as would be evidenced by the acceptance and adoption of his plan.[18]
Who knows but that the city of New Orleans might have been able to
write a different chapter in the history of its health statistics on
the Yellow Fever peril if its prejudices had not been allowed to
dominate its prophecy?
[Illustration: _N. Rillieux_
_Evaporating Pan._
_No. 4,879_
_Patented Dec. 10, 1846_
_Sheet 3-4 Sheets_]
Let us turn now to a consideration of those inventions made by colored
inventors since the war period, and at a time when no obstacles stood
in the way. With the broadening of their industrial opportunities, and
the incentive of a freer market for the products of their talent, it
was thought that the Negroes would correspondingly exhibit inventive
genius, and the records abundantly prove this to have been true. But
how have these records been made available? It has already been shown
that no distinction as to race appears in the public records of the
Patent Office, and for this reason the Patent Office has been
repeatedly importuned to set in motion some scheme of inquiry that
would disclose, as far as is possible, how many patents have been
granted by the government for the inventions of Negroes. This has been
done by the Patent Office on two different occasions. The first
official inquiry was made by the Office at the request of the United
States Commission to the Paris Exposition of 1900, and the second at
the request of the Pennsylvania Commission conducting the Emancipation
Exposition at Philadelphia in 1913. In both instances the Patent
Office sent out several thousand circular letters directed to
prominent patent lawyers, large manufacturing firms, and to newspapers
of wide circulation, asking them to inform the Commissioner of Patents
of any authentic instances known by them to be such, in which the
patents granted by the Office had been for inventions by Negroes.
The replies were numerous, interesting and informing. Every one of the
several thousand that came to the Patent Office was turned over to the
writer who, in his capacity as an employee of that department, very
willingly assumed the additional task of assorting and recording them,
verifying when possible the information presented, and extending the
correspondence personally when this proved to be necessary either to
trace a clew or clinch a fact. The information obtained in this way
showed, first, that a very large number of colored inventors had
consulted patent lawyers on the subject of getting patents on their
inventions, but were obliged finally to abandon the project for lack
of funds; secondly, that many colored inventors had actually obtained
patents for meritorious inventions, but the attorneys were unable to
give sufficient data to identify the cases specifically, inasmuch as
they had kept no identifying record of the same; thirdly, that many
patents had been taken out by the attorneys for colored clients who
preferred not to have their racial identity disclosed because of the
probably injurious effect this might have upon the commercial value of
their patents; and lastly, that more than a thousand authentic cases
were fully identified by name of inventor, date and number of patent
and title of invention, as being the patents granted for inventions of
Negroes. These patents represent inventions in nearly every branch of
the industrial arts--in domestic devices, in mechanical appliances, in
electricity through all its wide range of uses, in engineering skill
and in chemical compounds. The fact is made quite clear that the names
obtained were necessarily only a fractional part of the number granted
patents.
It developed through these inquiries that some very important
industries now in operation on a large scale in our country are based
on the inventions of Negroes. Foremost among these is the gigantic
enterprise known as The United Shoe Machinery Company of Boston. In a
biographical sketch of its president, Mr. Sidney W. Winslow, a
multimillionaire,[19] it is related that he claims to have laid the
foundation of his immense fortune in the purchase of a patent for an
invention by a Dutch Guiana Negro named Jan E. Matzeliger. This
inventor was born in Dutch Guiana, September, 1852. His parents were a
native Negro woman and her husband, a Dutch engineer, who had been
sent there from Holland to direct the government construction works at
that place. As a very young man Matzeliger came to this country and
served an apprenticeship as a cobbler, first in Philadelphia and later
in Lynn, Massachusetts. The hardships which he suffered gradually
undermined his health and before being able to realize the full value
of his invention, he passed away in 1889 in the thirty-seventh year of
his age.
He invented a machine for lasting shoes. This was the first appliance
of its kind capable of performing all the steps required to hold a
shoe on its last, grip and pull the leather down around the heel,
guide and drive the nails into place and then discharge the completed
shoe from the machine. This patent when bought by Mr. Winslow was made
to form the nucleus of the great United Shoe Machinery Company, which
now operates on a capital stock of more than twenty million dollars,
gives regular employment to over 5,000 operatives, occupies with its
factories more than 20 acres of ground, and represents the
consolidation of over 40 subsidiary companies. The establishment and
maintenance of this gigantic business enterprise forms one of the
biggest items in the history of our country's industrial development.
Within the first twenty years following the formation of The United
Shoe Machinery Company, in 1890, the product of American shoe
manufacturers increased from $220,000,000 to $442,631,000, and during
the same period the export of American shoes increased from $1,000,000
to $11,000,000, the increase being traceable solely to the superiority
of the shoes produced by the new American machines, founded on the
Matzeliger type. The cost of shoes was reduced more than 50 per cent.
by these machines and the quality improved correspondingly. The wages
of workers greatly increased, the hours of labor diminished, and the
factory conditions surrounding the laborers immensely improved. The
improvement thus brought about in the quality and price of American
shoes has made the Americans the best shod people in the world.[20]
That invention will serve as Matzeliger's towering monument far beyond
our vision of years. Throughout all shoe-making districts of New
England and elsewhere the Matzeliger type of machine is well known,
and to this day it is frequently referred to in trade circles as the
"Nigger machine," the relic, perhaps, of a possible contemptuous
reference to his racial identity; and yet there were some newspaper
accounts of his life in which it was denied that he had Negro blood in
him. A certified copy of the death certificate of Matzeliger, which
was furnished the writer by William J. Connery, Mayor of Lynn, on Oct.
23, 1912, states that Matzeliger was a mulatto.
[Illustration: J. E. MATZELIGER
LASTING MACHINE
NO. 274,207
PATENTED MAR. 20, 1883
AN ILLUSTRATION SHOWING THE MODELS MADE BY MATZELIGER TO ILLUSTRATE
HIS INVENTIONS IN SHOE MACHINES.]
Another prosperous business growing out of the inventions of a colored
man is The Ripley Foundry and Machine Company, of Ripley, Ohio,
established by John P. Parker. He obtained several patents on his
inventions, one being a "screw for Tobacco Presses," patented in
September, 1884, and another for a similar device patented in May,
1885. Mr. Parker set up a shop in Ripley for the manufacture of his
presses, and the business proved successful from the first. The small
shop grew into a large foundry where upwards of 25 men were constantly
employed. It was owned and managed by Mr. Parker till his death. The
factory is still being operated, and on the business lines originated
by the founder, but the ownership has passed from the Parker family.
Another business, the development of which is due in large measure to
the inventions of a colored man, Elijah McCoy, is that of making
automatic lubricators for machinery. Mr. McCoy is regarded as a
pioneer inventor in that line. He completed and patented his first
lubricating cup in 1872. Since then he has patented both in this
country and abroad nearly fifty different inventions relating
principally to the art of automatic lubrication machinery, but
including also a considerable variety of other devices. His
lubricating cup was at one time in quite general use on the
locomotives of the leading railways of the Northwest, on the steamers
of the Great Lakes, and in up-to-date factories throughout the
country. He is still living in Detroit, Michigan, and still adding new
inventions to his already lengthy list.
In completing and patenting upwards of 50 different inventions
Granville T. Woods, late of New York, appears to have surpassed every
other colored inventor in the number and variety of his inventions.
His inventive record began in 1884 in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he then
resided, and continued without interruption for over a quarter of a
century. He passed away January 30, 1910, in the city of New York,
where he had carried on his business for several years immediately
preceding. While his inventions relate principally to electricity, the
list also includes such as a steam boiler furnace, the subject of his
first patent, obtained in June, 1884; an amusement apparatus,
December, 1899; an incubator, August, 1900; and automatic airbrakes,
in 1902, 1903, and 1905. His inventions in telegraphy include several
patents for transmitting messages between moving trains, also a number
of other transmitters. He patented fifteen inventions for electric
railways, and as many more various devices for electrical control and
distribution.
In the earlier stages of his career as a successful inventor he
organized the Woods Electric Company, of Cincinnati, Ohio. This
company took over by assignment many of his earlier patents; but as
his reputation in the scientific world grew apace, and his inventions
began to multiply in number and value, he seems to have found a ready
market for them with some of the largest and most prosperous technical
and scientific corporations in the United States. The official records
of the United States Patent Office show that many of his patents were
assigned to such companies as the General Electric Company, of New
York, some to the Westinghouse Air Brake Company, of Pennsylvania,
others to the American Bell Telephone Company, of Boston, and still
others to the American Engineering Company, of New York. So far as the
writer is aware there is no inventor of the colored race whose
creative genius has covered quite so wide a field as that of Granville
T. Woods, nor one whose achievements have attracted more universal
attention and favorable comment from technical and scientific journals
both in this country and abroad.
Granville Woods' brother, Lyates Woods, is credited with uniting with
Granville in the joint invention of several machines. Most of these
consisted of electrical apparatuses, but two of them seem to have been
of sufficient importance to attract the attention of such corporations
as the Westinghouse Electric Company, of Pennsylvania. Patents No.
775,825, of March 29, 1904, and No. 795,243, of July 18, 1905, both
for railway brakes, were assigned by the Woods brothers to this
company. The record shows that the American Bell Telephone Company
purchased Woods' patent No. 315,386, granted April 7, 1885, for the
latter's invention of an apparatus for transmitting messages by
electricity. The same inventor sold to the General Electric Company,
of New York, his patent No. 667,110, of January 29, 1901, on his
invention for electric railways.
We should mention here also two other inventors of importance in the
line of appliances for musical instruments, Mr. J. H. Dickinson and
his son S. L. Dickinson, both of New Jersey. They have been granted
more than a dozen patents for their appliances, mostly in the line of
devices connected with the player piano machinery. They are still
engaged in the business of inventing, and both are holding responsible
and lucrative positions with first-class music corporations.
The inventions of W. B. Purvis, of Philadelphia, in machinery for
making paper bags are reported to be responsible for much of the great
improvement made in that art; and his patents, more than a dozen in
number on that subject alone, are said to have brought him good
financial returns. Many of them are recorded as having been sold to
the Union Paper Bag Company, of New York.
Another instance is that of an invention capable of playing an
important part in the cotton raising industry. This was a
cotton-picking machine covered by two patents granted to A. P. Albert,
a native Louisiana Creole. Mr. Albert invented a second machine which
is said to have the merit of perfect practicability, a feat not easy
of accomplishment in that class of machinery. Special significance is
attached to this case because of the inventor's experience in putting
through his application for a patent. He was obliged to appeal from
the adverse decision of the principal examiner to the Board of
Examiners-In-Chief, a body of highly trained legal and technical
experts appointed to pass upon the legal and mechanical merits of an
invention turned down by the primary examiners. Albert appeared before
this Board in his own defense with a brief prepared entirely by
himself, and won his case through his thorough painstaking
presentation of all the legal and technical points involved. Mr.
Albert is a graduate of the Law Department of Howard University in
Washington, and is connected with the United States Civil Service as
an examiner in the Pension Office.
Other colored men in the Departmental Civil Service at Washington have
obtained patents for valuable inventions. W. A. Lavalette patented two
printing presses, Shelby J. Davidson a mechanical tabulator and adding
machine, Robert A. Pelham a pasting machine, Andrew F. Hilyer two hot
air register attachments; and Andrew D. Washington a shoe horn. Nearly
a dozen patents have been granted Benjamin F. Jackson, of
Massachusetts, on his inventions. These consisted of a heating
apparatus, a matrix drying apparatus, a gas burner, an electrotyper's
furnace, a steam boiler, a trolley wheel controller, a tank signal,
and a hydrocarbon burner system.
It is not generally known that Frederick J. Loudin, who brought fame
and fortune to one of the leading Negro universities in the South by
carrying the Fisk Jubilee Troupe of Singers on several successful
concert tours around the world, is also entitled to a place on the
list of Negro inventors. He obtained two patents for his inventions,
one for a fastener for the meeting rails of sashes, December, 1893,
and the other a key fastener in January, 1894. Several colored
inventors have also applied their inventive skill to solving the
problem of aerial navigation, with the result that some of them have
been granted patents for their inventions in airships. Among these are
J. F. Pickering, of Haiti, February 20, 1900; James Smith, California,
October, 1912; W. G. Madison, Iowa, December, 1912; and J. E. Whooter,
Missouri, 2 patents, October 30 and November 3, 1914. It has been
reported that the invention in automatic car coupling covered by the
patent to Andrew J. Beard, of Alabama, dated November 23, 1897, was
sold by the patentee to a New York car company, for more than fifty
thousand dollars. This same patentee has obtained patents on more than
a half dozen other inventions, mostly in the same line.
Willie H. Johnson, of Texas, obtained several patents on his
inventions, two of them being for an appliance for overcoming "dead
center" in motion; one for a compound engine, and another for a water
boiler. Joseph Lee, a colored hotel keeper, of Boston, completed and
patented three inventions in dough-kneading machines, and is reported
as having succeeded in creating a considerable market for them in the
bread-making industry in New England. Brinay Smartt, of Tennessee,
made inventions in reversing valve gears, and received several patents
on them in 1905, 1906, 1909, 1911 and 1913.
The path of the inventor is not always an easy one. The experiences of
many of them often lie along paths that seem like the proverbial "way
of the transgressor." This was fitly exemplified in the case of Henry
A. Bowman, a colored inventor in Worcester, Massachusetts, who devised
and patented a new method of making flags. After he had established a
paying business on his invention, the information came to him that a
New York rival was using the same invention and "cutting" his
business. Bowman brought suit for infringement, but, as he informed
the writer, the suit went against him on a legal technicality, and
being unable to carry the case through the appellate tribunals, the
destruction of his business followed.
One inventor, J. W. Benton, of Kentucky, completed an invention of a
derrick for hoisting, and being without sufficient means to travel to
Washington to look after the patent, he packed the model in a grip,
and walked from Kentucky to Washington in order to save carfare. He
obtained his patent, October 2, 1900.
One other instance in which the inventor regards his experience as one
of special hardship is the case of E. A. Robinson of Chicago. He
obtained several patents for his inventions, among which are an
electric railway trolley, September 19, 1893; casting composite and
other car wheels, November 23, 1897; a trolley wheel, March 22, 1898;
a railway switch, September 17, 1907; and a rail, May 5, 1908. He
regards the second patent as covering his most valuable invention. He
says that this was infringed on by two large corporations, the
American Car and Foundry Company, and the Chicago City Railway
Company. He endeavored to stop them by litigation, but the court
proceedings in the case[21] appear to reveal some rather discouraging
aspects of a fight waged between a powerless inventor on the one side
and two powerful corporations on the other. So far as is known, the
case is still pending.
These instances of hardships, however, in the lot of inventors are in
no sense peculiar to colored inventors. They merely form a part of the
hard struggle always present in our American life--the struggle for
the mighty dollar; and in the field of invention as elsewhere the race
is not always to the swift. A man may be the first to conceive a new
idea, the first to translate that idea into tangible, practical form
and reduce it to a patent, but often that "slip betwixt the cup and
the lip" leaves him the last to get any reward for his inventive
genius.
Because of the very many interesting instances at hand the temptation
is very great to extend this enumeration beyond the intended limits of
this article by specific references to the large number of colored men
and women who in many lands and other days have given unmistakable
evidence of really superior scientific and technical ability. But this
temptation the writer must resist. Let it suffice to say that the
citations already given show conclusively that the color of a man's
skin has not yet entirely succeeded in barring his admission to the
domain of science, nor in placing upon his brow the stamp of
intellectual inferiority.
HENRY E. BAKER,
_Assistant Examiner, United States Patent Office_.
FOOTNOTES:
[15] "Twentieth Century Negro Literature," by W. W. Culp, page 399.
Published by J. L. Nichols Co., Atlanta, Ga.
[16] Opinions of Attorney General of the U. S., Vol. 9, page 171.
[17] An act to establish a Patent Office, and to provide for granting
patents for new and useful discoveries, inventions, improvements and
designs. Statutes at large of the Confederate States of America,
1861-64, page 148.
[18] Desdunes, Nos Hommes et Notre Histoire, 101.
[19] _Munsey's Magazine_, August, 1912, p. 723.
[20] "Short History of American Shoemaking," by Frederick A. Gannon,
Salem, Mass., 1912.
[21] A copy of this was shown the writer September, 1915.
ANTHONY BENEZET
During the eighteenth century the Quakers gradually changed from the
introspective state of seeking their own welfare into the altruistic
mood of helping those who shared with them the heritage of being
despised and rejected of men. After securing toleration for their sect
in the inhospitable New World they began to think seriously of others
whose lot was unfortunate. The Negroes, therefore, could not escape
their attention. Almost every Quaker center declared its attitude
toward the bondmen, varying it according to time and place. From the
first decade of the eighteenth century to the close of the American
Revolution the Quakers passed through three stages in the development
of their policy concerning the enslavement of the blacks. At first
they directed their attention to preventing their own adherents from
participating in it, then sought to abolish the slave trade and
finally endeavored to improve the condition of all slaves as a
preparation for emancipation.
Among those who largely determined the policy of the Quakers during
that century were William Burling[22] of Long Island, Ralph Sandiford
of Pennsylvania, Benjamin Lay of Abington, John Woolman of New Jersey
and Anthony Benezet of Philadelphia. Early conceiving an abhorrence to
slavery, Burling denounced it by writing anti-slavery tracts and
portraying its unlawfulness at the yearly meetings of the Quakers.
Ralph Sandiford followed the same methods and in his "_Mystery of
Iniquity_" published in 1729, forcefully exposed the iniquitous
practice in a stirring appeal in behalf of the Africans.[23] Benjamin
Lay, not contented with the mere writing of tracts, availed himself of
the opportunity afforded by frequent contact with those in power to
interview administrative officials of the slave colonies, undauntedly
demanding that they bestir themselves to abolish the evil system.[24]
Struck by the wickedness of the institution while traveling through
the South prior to the Revolution, John Woolman spent his remaining
years as an itinerant preacher, urging the members of his society
everywhere to eradicate the evil.[25] Anthony Benezet, going a step
further, rendered greater service than any of these as an anti-slavery
publicist and at the same time persistently toiled as a worker among
the Negroes.
Benezet was born in St. Quentin in Picardy in France in 1713. He was a
descendant of a family of Huguenots who after all but establishing
their faith in France saw themselves denounced and persecuted as
heretics and finally driven from the country by the edict of Nantes.
One of the reformer's family, François Benezet, perished on the
scaffold at Montpelier in 1755, fearlessly proclaiming to the
multitude of spectators the doctrines for which he had been condemned
to die.[26] Unwilling to withstand the imminent persecution, however,
John Stephen Benezet, Anthony's father, fled from France to Holland
but after a brief stay in that country moved to London in 1715.
After being liberally educated by his father, Benezet served an
apprenticeship in one of the leading establishments of London to
prepare himself for a career in the commercial world. He had some
difficulty, however, in coming to the conclusion that he would be very
useful in this field. He, therefore, soon abandoned this idea and
followed mechanical pursuits until he moved with his family to
Philadelphia in 1731. There his brothers easily established themselves
in a successful business and endeavored to induce Anthony to join
them, but the youth was still of the impression that this was not his
calling. His life's work was finally determined by his early
connection with the Quakers, to the religious views and testimonies of
whom he rigidly adhered. He continued his mechanical pursuit and later
undertook manufacturing at Washington, Delaware, but feeling that
neither of these satisfied his desire to be thoroughly useful he
decided to return to Philadelphia to devote his life to religion and
humanity.[27]
Benezet finally became a teacher. In this field he, for more than
forty years, served in a disinterested and Christian spirit all who
diligently sought enlightenment. He aimed to train up the youth in
knowledge and virtue, manifesting in this position such "a rightness
of conduct, such a courtesy of manners, such a purity of intention,
and such a spirit of benevolence" that he attracted attention and
ingratiated himself into the favor of all of those who knew him. He
first served in this capacity in Germantown, working a part of his
time as a proof reader. In 1742 he was chosen to fill a vacancy in the
English department of the public school founded by charter from
William Penn. After serving there satisfactorily twelve years he
founded a female seminary of his own, instructing the daughters of the
most aristocratic families of Philadelphia.[28]
Benezet was a really modern teacher, far in advance of his
contemporaries. Much better educated than most teachers of his time,
he could write his own textbooks. He had an affectionate and fatherly
manner and always showed a conscientious interest in the welfare of
his pupils. "He carefully studied their dispositions," says his
biographer, "and sought to develop by gentle assiduity the peculiar
talents of each individual pupil. With some persuasion was his only
incitement, others he stimulated to a laudable emulation; and even
with the most obdurate he seldom, if ever, appealed to any other
corrective than that of the sense of shame and the fear of public
disgrace." In his teaching, too, he endeavored to make "a worldly
concern subservient to the noblest duties and the most intensive
goodness."[29] In serious discussions like that of slavery he
undertook to instill into the minds of his students firm convictions
of the right, believing that in so doing he would greatly influence
public sentiment when these properly directed youths should take their
places in life.
This whole-souled energetic man, however, could not confine himself
altogether to teaching. While following this profession he devoted so
much of his time to philanthropic enterprises and reforms that he was
mainly famous for his achievements in these fields. "He considered the
whole world his country," says one, "and all mankind his
brethren."[30] Benezet was for several reasons interested in the man
far down. In the first place, being a Huguenot, he himself knew what
it is to be persecuted. He was, moreover, during these years a
faithful coworker of the Friends who were then fearlessly advocating
the cause of the downtrodden. He deeply sympathized, therefore, with
the Indians. His work, too, was not limited merely to that of
relieving individual cases of suffering but comprised also the task of
promoting the agitation for respecting the rights of that people.
Unlike most Americans, he had faith in the Indians, believing that if
treated justly they would give the whites no cause to fear them. When
in 1763 General Amherst was at New York preparing to attack the
Indians, Benezet addressed him an earnest appeal in these words: "And
further may I entreat the general, for our blessed Redeemer's sake,
from the nobility and humanity of his heart, that he would condescend
to use all moderate measures if possible to prevent that prodigious
and cruel effusion of blood, that deep anxiety of distress, that must
fill the breast of so many helpless people should an Indian war be
once entered upon?"[31] Not long before his death Benezet expressed
himself further on this wise in a work entitled "_Some Observations on
the Situation, Disposition, and Character of the Indian Natives of the
Continent_."
Further evidence of Benezet's philanthropy was exhibited in his
attitude toward certain Acadians who for political reasons were driven
from their homes to Philadelphia in 1755. Devoid of the comforts of
life in a foreign community, they were in a situation miserable to be
told. Being of the same stock and speaking their language, Benezet
took upon himself the task of serving as mediator between this
deported group and the community. A man of high character and much
influence, he easily obtained a relief fund with which he provided
asylum for the decrepit, sustenance for the needy, and employment for
those able to labor. He attended the sick, comforted the dying, and
delivered over their remains the last tribute due the dead.[32]
His sympathetic nature too impelled him to speak in behalf of the
suffering soldiers of the American Revolution. Adhering to the faith
of the Quakers, he could not but shudder at the horrors of that war.
He was interested not only in the soldiers but also in the unfortunate
Americans on whom they were imposed. He saw in the whole course of war
nothing but bold iniquity and crass inconsistency of nations which
professed to be Christian. To set forth the distress which such a
state of the country caused him Benezet wrote a dissertation entitled
"_Thoughts on the Nature of War_," and distributed it among persons of
distinction in America and Europe. In 1778 when the struggle for
independence had reached a crisis he issued in the interest of peace
with the enemy a work entitled "_Serious Reflections on the Times
addressed to the Well-disposed of every Religious Denomination_."[33]
Moved by every variety of suffering whenever and wherever found,
Benezet's attention had during these years been attracted to a class
of men much farther down than the lowliest of the lowly of other
races. He had not been in this country long before he was moved to put
forth some effort to alleviate the sufferings of those bondmen whose
faces were black. In the year 1750, when the Quakers, although
denouncing the evil of slavery here and there, were not presenting a
solid front to the enemy, Anthony Benezet boldly attacked the slave
trade, attracting so much attention that he soon solidified the
anti-slavery sentiment of the Quakers against the institution.[34] For
more than thirty years thereafter he was a tireless worker in this
cause, availing himself of every opportunity to impress men with the
thought as to the wickedness of the traffic. In his class room he held
up to his pupils the horrors of the system, always mentioned it in his
public utterances, and seldom failed to speak of it when conversing
with friends or strangers. Benezet set forth in the almanacs of the
time accounts of the atrocities of those engaged in slavery and the
slave trade and published and circulated numerous pamphlets
ingeniously exposing their iniquities.[35]
Devoted as Benezet was to the cause of the blacks, he was not an
ardent abolitionist like Garrison, who fifty years later fearlessly
advocated the immediate destruction of the system. Benezet was
primarily interested in the suppression of the slave trade. He hoped
also to see the slaves gradually emancipated after having had
adequate preparation to live as freedmen. Writing to Fothergill,
Benezet expressed his concurrence with the former's opinion that it
would be decidedly dangerous both to the Negroes and the masters
themselves in the southern colonies, should the slaves be suddenly
manumitted. Except in particular cases, therefore, even in the
northern colonies the liberation of slaves in large numbers was not at
first Benezet's concern. He believed that "the best endeavors in our
power to draw the notice of the governments, upon the grievous
iniquity and great danger attendant on a further prosecution of the
slave trade, is what every truly sympathizing mind cannot but
earnestly desire, and under divine direction promote to the utmost of
their power." If this could be obtained, he believed the sufferings of
"those already amongst us, by the interposition of the government, and
even from selfish ends in their masters, would be mitigated, and in
time Providence would gradually work for the release of those, whose
age and situation would fit them for freedom." Benezet thought that
this second problem could be solved by colonizing the Negroes on the
western lands. "The settlements now in prospect to be made in that
large extent of country," said he, "from the west side of the Allegany
mountains to the Mississippi, on a breadth of four or five hundred
miles, would afford a suitable and beneficial means of settlement for
many of them among the white people, which would in all probability be
as profitable to the negroes as to the new settlers." But he did not
desire to take up time especially with matters of so remote a nature,
it being indeed with reluctance that he took up at all a question
which he would have avoided, "if there had been any person to whom he
could have addressed himself with the same expectation, that what he
had in view would have thereby been answered."[36]
Taking a more advanced position with this propaganda Benezet published
in 1762 a work entitled "_A Short Account of that Part of Africa
inhabited by Negroes, with general Observations on the Slave Trade and
Slavery_." "The end proposed by this essay," says the author, "is to
lay before the candid reader the depth of evil attending this
iniquitous practice, in the prosecution of which our duty to God, the
common Father of the family of the whole earth, and our duty of love
to our fellow creatures, is totally disregarded; all social connection
and tenderness of nature being broken, desolation and bloodshed
continually fomented in those unhappy people's country." It was also
intended, said he, "to invalidate the false arguments which are
frequently advanced for the palliation of this trade, in hopes it may
be some inducement to those who are not yet defiled therewith to keep
themselves clear; and to lay before such as have unwarily engaged in
it, their danger of totally losing that tender sensibility to the
sufferings of their fellow creatures, the want whereof set men beneath
the brute creation."[37]
In the year 1769 appeared his "_Caution and Warning to Great Britain
and her Colonies on the Calamitous State of the Enslaved Negroes in
the British Dominions_." Referring to this work, he says: "The intent
of publishing the following sheets, is more fully to make known the
aggravated iniquity attending the practice of the Slave Trade; whereby
many thousands of our fellow creatures, as free as ourselves by nature
and equally with us the subjects of Christ's redeeming Grace, are
yearly brought into inextricable and barbarous bondage; and many; very
many, to miserable and untimely ends." Fearlessly directing this as an
attack on public functionaries he remarks: "How an evil of so deep a
dye, hath so long, not only passed uninterrupted by those in power,
but hath even had their countenance, is indeed surprising; and charity
would suppose, must in a great measure have arisen from this, that
many persons in government both of the Laity and Clergy, in whose
power it hath been to put a stop to the Trade, have been unacquainted
with the corrupt motives which gives life to it, and with the groans,
the dying groans, which daily ascend to God, the common Father of
mankind, from the broken hearts of those his deeply oppressed
creatures." Coming directly to the purpose in mind, however, the
author declares: "I shall only endeavor to show from the nature of the
Trade, the plenty which Guinea affords to its inhabitants, the
barbarous treatment of the Negroes and the observations made thereon
by authors of note, that it is inconsistent with the plainest precepts
of the Gospel, the dictates of reason, and every common sentiment of
humanity."[38]
This work turned out to be the first really effective one of Benezet's
writings, creating not a little sensation both on this continent and
Europe. It was especially rousing to the Quakers here and abroad. The
Yearly Meeting of London recommended in 1785 that all the quarterly
meetings give this book the widest circulation possible. The Quakers
in various parts accordingly approached numerous classes of persons,
all sects and denominations, and especially public officials. Desiring
also to reach the youth the agents for distribution visited the
schools of Westminster, the Carter-House, St. Paul's, Merchant
Tailors', Eton, Winchester, and Harrow. From among the youths thus
informed came some of those reformers who finally abolished the slave
trade in the English dominions.
The most effective of Benezet's works, however, was his "_An
Historical Account of Guinea, its Situation, Produce, and the General
Disposition of its Inhabitants, with an Enquiry into the Rise and
Progress of the Slave Trade, its Nature and Calamitous Effect_." This
volume approached more nearly than his other writings what students of
to-day would call a scientific treatise. The author devoted much time
to the collection of facts and substantiated his assertions by
quotations from the standard authorities in that field. While it added
nothing really new to the argument already advanced, the usual
theories were more systematically arranged and more forcefully set
forth.[39] "This book," says a writer, "became instrumental beyond any
other work ever before published in disseminating a proper knowledge
and detestation of this Trade."[40]
The most important single effect the book had, was to convert Thomas
Clarkson, who thereafter devoted his life to the cause of abolishing
the slave trade. While a Senior Bachelor of Arts at the University of
Cambridge, Clarkson had in 1784 distinguished himself by winning a
prize for the best Latin dissertation. The following year a prize was
offered for the best essay on the subject "anne Liceat invitos in
servitutem dare," is it lawful to make slaves of others against their
will? Knowing that he was then unprepared to compete, he hesitated to
enter the contest, not wishing to lose the reputation he had so
recently won. Yet owing to the fact that it was expected of him, he
entered his name, actuated by no other motive than to distinguish
himself as a scholar. As there was then a paucity of literature on
slavery in England, his first researches in this field were not
productive of gratifying results. "I was in this difficulty," says
Clarkson, "when going by accident into a friend's house, I took up a
newspaper there lying on the table. One of the first articles which
attracted my notice was an advertisement of Anthony Benezet's
'_Historical Account of Guinea_.' I soon left my friend and his paper,
and, to lose no time, hastened to London to buy it. In this precious
book I found almost all I wanted." Clarkson easily won the first
prize. Although Benezet himself did not live to see it, this volume
converted to the cause of the oppressed race a man who as an author
and reformer became one of the greatest champions it ever had.[41]
Benezet continued to write on the slave trade, collecting all
accessible data from year to year and publishing it whenever he could.
He obtained many of his facts about the sufferings of slaves from the
Negroes themselves, moving among them in their homes, at the places
where they worked, or on the wharves where they stopped when
traveling. To diffuse this knowledge where it would be most
productive of the desired results, he talked with tourists and
corresponded with every influential person whom he could reach.
Travelers who came into contact with him were given thoughts to
reflect on, messages to convey or tracts to distribute among others
who might further the cause. Hearing that Granville Sharp had in 1772
obtained the significant verdict in the famous Somerset case, Benezet
wrote him, that this champion of freedom abroad might be enabled to
cooperate more successfully with those commonly concerned on this side
of the Atlantic.[42] With the same end in view he corresponded with
George Whitefield and John Wesley.[43]
His connection with the work of George Whitefield was further extended
by correspondence with the Countess of Huntingdon who had at the
importunity of Whitefield established at Savannah a college known as
the Orphan House, to promote the enlightenment of the poor and to
prepare some of them for the clerical profession. Unlike Whitefield,
the founder, who thought that the Negroes also might derive some
benefit from this institution, the successors of the good man
endeavored to maintain the institution by the labor of slaves
purchased to cultivate the plantations owned by the institution.
Benezet, therefore, wrote the Countess a brilliant letter pathetically
depicting the misery she was unconsciously causing by thus encouraging
slavery and the slave trade. He was gratified to learn from the
distinguished lady that in founding the institution she had no such
purpose in mind and that she would prohibit the wicked crime.[44]
Learning that Abbé Raynal had exhibited in his celebrated work a
feeling of sympathy for the African, Benezet sought in the same way to
attach him more closely to the cause of prohibiting the slave trade.
Observing that the slave trade which had because of the American
Revolution declined only to rise again after that struggle had
ceased, Benezet addressed a stirring letter to the Queen of England,
who on hearing from Benjamin West of the high character of the writer,
received it with marks of peculiar condescension.
Let no casual reader of this story conclude that Benezet was a mere
theorist or pamphleteer. He ever translated into action what he
professed to believe. Knowing that the enlightenment of the blacks
would not only benefit them directly but would also disprove the mad
theories as to the impossibility of their mental improvement, Benezet
became one of the most aggressive and successful workers who ever
toiled among these unfortunates. As early as 1750 he established for
the Negroes in Philadelphia an evening school in which they were
offered instruction gratuitously. His noble example appealing to the
Society of Friends, he encouraged them to raise a fund adequate to
establishing a larger and well-organized school.[46] This additional
effort, to be sure, required much of his time. When he discovered,
however, that he could not direct the colored school and at the same
time continue his female academy which he had conducted for three
generations, he abandoned his own interests and devoted himself
exclusively to the uplift of the colored people. In this establishment
he received all the rewards he anticipated. It was sufficient for him
finally to be able to say: "I can with truth and sincerity declare
that I have found amongst the Negroes as great variety of talents, as
among a like number of whites, and I am bold to assert, that the
notion entertained by some, that the blacks are inferior in their
capacities, is a vulgar prejudice, founded on the pride or ignorance
of their lordly masters, who have kept their slaves at such a distance
as to be unable to form a right judgment of them."[47]
His devotion to this work was further demonstrated by another noble
deed. His will provided that after the payment of certain legacies and
smaller obligations his estate should at the death of his widow be
turned over to the trustees of the public school "to hire and employ
a religious-minded person or persons to teach a number of negroe,
mulatto, or Indian children, to read, write, arithmetic, plain
accounts, needle work." "And," continued he, "it is my particular
desire, founded on the experience I have had in that service, that in
the choice of such tutor, special care may be had to prefer an
industrious, careful person, of true piety, who may be or become
suitably qualified, who would undertake the service from a principle
of charity, to one more highly learned not equally disposed."[48]
But this philanthropist's work was almost done. He was then seventy
years of age and having been an earnest worker throughout his life he
had begun to decline. One spring morning in the year 1784 it was
spread abroad in Philadelphia that Anthony Benezet was seriously ill
and that persons realizing his condition were apprehensive of his
recovery. So disturbed were his friends by this sad news that they for
several days besieged the house to seek, so to speak, the dying
benediction of a venerable father. The same in death as he had been in
life, he received their attentions with due appreciation of what he
had been to them but exhibited at the same time in the presence of his
Maker the deepest self-humiliation. "I am dying," said he, "and feel
ashamed to meet the face of my Maker, I have done so little in his
cause." Anthony Benezet was no more.
The honors which his admirers paid him were indicative of the high
esteem in which they held the distinguished dead. Thousands of the
people of Philadelphia followed his remains to witness the interment
of all that was mortal of Anthony Benezet. Never had that city on such
an occasion seen a demonstration in which so many persons of all
classes participated. There were the officials of the city, men of all
trades and professions, various sects and denominations, and hundreds
of Negroes, "testifying by their attendance, and by their tears, the
grateful sense they entertained of his pious efforts in their
behalf."[49]
C. G. WOODSON.
FOOTNOTES:
[22] William Burling of Long Island was the first to conceive an
abhorrence of slavery. Early in his career he began to speak of the
wickedness of the institution at the yearly meetings of the Quakers.
He wrote several tracts to publish to the world his views on this
great question. His first tract appeared in 1718. It was addressed to
the elders of the Friends to direct their attention to "the
inconsistency of compelling people and their posterity to serve them
continually and arbitrarily, and without any proper recompense for
their services." See Clarkson's "History of the Abolition of the
African Slave Trade," Volume I, pp. 146-147.
[23] After Burling came Ralph Sandiford, a merchant engaged in
business in Philadelphia. This man attracted the attention of his
friends because he declined the assistance offered him by persons
sufficiently wealthy to establish him in life, merely because they had
acquired their wealth by enslaving Negroes. He not only labored among
his own people for the liberation of the slaves, but boldly appealed
to others. He finally expressed his sentiments in a publication called
the "Mystery of Inquiry," a brief treatise on the evil of the
institution of slavery. The importance attached to this work is that
Sandiford published it and circulated it at his own expense despite
the fact that he had been threatened with prosecution by the judge.
This pamphlet was written in correct and energetic style, abounding
with facts, sentiments and quotations, which showed the virtue and
talents of the author and made a forceful appeal in behalf of the
blacks. See Clarkson's "History of the Abolition of the Slave Trade,"
Volume I, pp. 147-148.
[24] Benjamin Lay, the next worker in this cause, lived at Abington,
not far from Philadelphia. He was a man of desirable class and had
access to the homes of some of the best people even when in England.
He was not long in this country before he championed the cause of the
slave. In 1737 he published his first treatise on slavery,
distributing it far and wide, especially among the members of the
rising generation. He traveled extensively through this country and
the West Indies and personally took up the question of abolition with
the governors of the slave colonies. It is doubtful, according to
Clarkson, that he rendered the cause great service by this mission.
This writer says that "in bearing what he believed to be his testimony
against this system of oppression, he adopted sometimes a singularity
of manner, by which, as conveying demonstration of a certain
eccentricity of character, he diminished in some degree his usefulness
to the cause which he had undertaken; as far indeed as this
eccentricity might have the effect of preventing others from joining
him in his pursuit, lest they should be thought singular also, so far
it must be allowed that he ceased to become beneficial. But there can
be no question, on the other hand, that his warm and enthusiastic
manners awakened the attention of many to the cause, and gave them
first impressions concerning it, which they never forgot, and which
rendered them useful to it in the subsequent part of their lives." See
Clarkson's "History of Abolition of the African Slave Trade," Vol. I,
pp. 148-150.
[25] John Woolman shared with Anthony Benezet the honor of being one
of the two foremost workers in behalf of the oppressed race. He was
born in Burlington County in New Jersey in 1720. When quite a youth he
was deeply impressed with religion and resolved to live a righteous
life. He was therefore in his twenty-second year made a minister of
the gospel among the Quakers. Just prior to his entering upon the
ministry there happened an incident which set him against slavery.
Being a poor man he was working for wages as a bookkeeper in a store.
"My employer," said he, "having a Negro woman sold her, and desired me
to write a bill of sale, the man being waiting, who bought her. The
thing was sudden, and though the thought of writing an instrument of
slavery for one of my fellow-creatures made me feel uneasy, yet I
remembered I was hired by the year, that it was my master who directed
me to do it, and that it was an elderly man, a member of our Society,
who bought her. So through weakness I gave way and wrote, but, at
executing it, I was so afflicted in my mind, that I said before my
master and the friend, that I believed slave-keeping to be a practice
inconsistent with the Christian religion. This in some degree abated
my uneasiness; yet, as often as I reflected seriously upon it, I
thought I should have been clearer, if I had desired to have been
excused from it, as a thing against my conscience; for such it was.
And some time after this, a young man of our Society spoke to me to
write a conveyance of a slave to him, he having lately taken a Negro
into his house. I told him I was not easy to write it; for though many
of our meeting, and in other places kept slaves, I still believed the
practice was not right, and desired to be excused from the writing. I
spoke to him in good will; and he told me that keeping slaves was not
altogether agreeable to his mind, but that the slave being a gift to
his wife he had accepted her." Moved thus so early in his life he
developed into an ardent friend of the Negro and ever labored
thereafter to elevate and emancipate them. See Clarkson's "History of
the Abolition of the African Slave Trade."
[26] Felice's "History of French Protestants."
[27] Vaux, "Memoirs of the Life of Anthony Benezet," 64.
[28] Special Report of the U. S. Com. of Education on the Schools of
the District of Columbia, 1871, p. 362.
[29] "Slavery a Century ago," p. 16.
[30] Vaux, "Memoirs of the Life of Anthony Benezet," 12.
[31] _Ibid._, 76.
[32] Clarkson, "History of the Abolition of the Slave Trade," 166;
"Slavery a Century ago," 19-20.
[33] Vaux, Memoirs, etc., 77.
[34] "Slavery a Century ago," 23-24.
[35] Some of these accounts appeared in the almanacs of Benjamin
Franklin, who had made these publications famous.
[36] Vaux, Memoirs, etc., 29 et seq.
[37] See Benezet's "Short Account, etc.," p. 2.
[38] See Benezet's "Caution, etc.," p. 3.
[39] See Benezet's "An Historical Account, etc."
[40] See Benezet's "An Historical Account of Guinea." Clarkson, "The
History of the Abolition of the African Slave Trade," I, 169.
[41] "Slavery a Century ago," p. 4.
[42] Vaux, "Memoirs of Anthony Benezet," 32.
[43] _Ibid._, 44.
[44] Vaux, "Memoirs, etc.," 42.
[45] _Ibid._, 38.
[46] "The African Repository," IV, 61.
[47] "Slavery a Century ago," 25.
[48] Vaux, "Memoirs, etc." 135.
[49] _Ibid._, 134.
PEOPLE OF COLOR IN LOUISIANA
PART II
Louisiana was transferred to Spain but was not long to be secure in
the possession of that country. France again claimed her in 1800, and
Napoleon, busy with his English war and realizing the dangers of a
province so open to British attack as was this bounded by the
Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico, readily listened to the
proposition of the United States. Twenty days after the French
tri-color waved in place of the Spanish flag in the old Place d'Armes,
the American stars and stripes proclaimed the land American territory.
The Creoles, French though they were in spirit, in partisanship, in
sympathy, could not but breathe a sigh of relief, for Napoleon had
dangerous ideas concerning the freedom of slaves, and already had
spoken sharply about the people of color in the province.[50] Were the
terrors of San Domingo to be reenacted on the banks of Mississippi?
The United States answered with a decided negative.
Men of color, however, were to be important factors in the maintenance
of order in the province.[51] Laussat, the Colonial Prefect of France,
placed in charge of Louisiana in 1803, tells how the old Spanish
Governor Salcedo, in his anxiety to keep the province loyal to Spain,
had summoned all the military officers of the militia to come to his
lodgings and declare whether they intended to remain in the service of
the king of Spain. "The Marquis," writes Laussat to his friend Decrès,
"went so far as to exact a declaration in the affirmative from two
companies of men of color in New Orleans, which were composed of all
the mechanics whom that city possessed. Two of these mulattoes
complained to me of having been detained twenty-four hours in prison
to force them to utter the fatal yea which was desired of them."[52]
Within the next six years New Orleans doubled in population and that
population was far from white. Those refugees from San Domingo who had
escaped to Cuba were now forced by the hostilities between France and
Spain again to become exiles. Within sixty days between May and July
in one year alone, 1809, thirty-four vessels from Cuba set ashore in
the streets of New Orleans nearly 5,800 persons, 4,000 of these being
free colored and blacks.[53] Later others came from Cuba, Guadaloupe
and neighboring islands until they amounted to 10,000. The first
American governor of Louisiana certainly had no easy task before him.
Into the disorganized and undisciplined city, enervated by frequent
changes and corruption of government, torn by dissensions, uncertain
whether its allegiance was to Spain or to France, reflecting the
spirit of upheaval and uncertainty which made Europe one huge
brawl--into this cosmopolitan city swarmed ten thousand white, yellow
and black West Indian islanders, some with means, most of them
destitute, all of them desperate. Americans, English, Spanish,
French--all cried aloud. Claiborne begged the consuls of Havana and
Santiago de Cuba to stop the movement; the laws forbidding the
importation of slaves were more rigidly enforced; and free people of
color were ordered point blank to leave the city.[54] Where they were
to go, however, no one seemed to care, and as the free people of
color had no intention of going, the question was not discussed. For
some reason the enforcement of the law was not insisted upon. When a
meagre attempt was made, it proved unsuccessful, and the complexion of
Louisiana was definitely settled for many years to come.[55]
The administration of Governor Claiborne from 1803 to 1816 was one
long wrestle, not only with the almost superhuman task of adjusting a
practically foreign country to American ideals of government but of
wrestling with the color problem. Slowly and insidiously it had come
to dominate every other problem. The people of color had helped to
settle the territory, had helped to make it commercially important,
had helped to save it from the Indians and from the English, and they
seemed likely to become the most important factors in its history.
The Louisianians were greatly mortified at the enforcement by
Claiborne of the law against the importation of slaves. They were
undecided whether to blame Claiborne for enforcing the law or to blame
Philadelphia for harboring the first Abolition Society which met in
1804 and promulgated doctrines as dangerous as those of Napoleon
regarding human slavery. Slaves were daily smuggled into the territory
by way of Barataria Bay, the lakes, and all the innumerable outlets to
Spanish possessions.[56] Claiborne was alternately accused of
conniving at this smuggling and abused for trying to suppress it. Jean
and Pierre Lafitte, infamous in history for their feats of smuggling
and piracy, made capital of the slave trade, and but for their
stalwart Africans would have been captured and hung long before
Louisiana had suffered from their depredations and the bad reputation
which they gave her. The Lafittes appealed to the romantic temperament
of the French, and the fact that the American governor, Claiborne, had
set a price upon their heads was almost sufficient in itself to
secure them immunity from the Creoles.[57]
"Americans," says Grace King, "were despised and ridiculed." Men,
women and children of color, free and slave, united to insult the
American Negro or--"Mericain Coquin," as they called him. The French
and the Spaniards, moreover, united in using the people of color to
further their own interests, or to annoy the new American government
while the intrigues of Spain and France weakened the feeble territory.
It was difficult to know how to treat this almost alien people.
Governor Claiborne found the militia in the territory entirely
inadequate for the purposes of protection, should Spain make an
attempt to wrest the land back from the United States. In one of his
anxious despatches to headquarters he says plaintively: "With respect
to the Mulatto Corps in this city, I am indeed at a loss to know what
policy is best to pursue."[58] The corps, old and honorable, as it
was, had been ignored by the previous Legislative Council, and was now
disaffected. The neglect had "soured them considerably with the
American government."[59]
Claiborne, however, determined to procure a census of free people of
color in the city. He estimated that there were five hundred capable
of bearing arms, and added that he would do all in his power to
conciliate them, and secure a return of their allegiance to the
American government. One Stephen, a free black man, had appeared
before Claiborne and declared on oath that the people of color were
being tampered with by the Spanish government.[60] This caused the
governor to redouble his energies toward conciliating the doubtful
militia. Louisiana bordered on the Spanish territory, Texas, and a
constant desertion of people of color to this foreign land continued,
Spain doing all in her power to make the flight of these free men and
slaves interesting. Colored men were furnished the Spanish cockades,
and dances were given in their honor when they escaped over the
border. The disaffected adherents of Aaron Burr on the border-land of
Texas kept up the underhand warfare against the government, through
these people of color. Perhaps it was as a means of protection that
Louisiana and a much restricted Louisiana was admitted as a State in
1812.
Writers describing the New Orleans of this period agree in presenting
a picture of a continental city, most picturesque, most un-American,
and as varied in color as a street of Cairo. There they saw French,
Spaniards, English, Bohemians, Negroes, mulattoes; varied clothes,
picturesque white dresses of the fairer women, brilliant cottons of
the darker ones. The streets, banquettes, we should say, were bright
with color, the nights filled with song and laughter. Through the
scene, the people of color add the spice of color; in the life, they
add the zest of romance.[61]
Such was the situation in the city of New Orleans. The condition of
the free people of color in Louisiana as a whole, however, and the
form of slavery which existed in that state are somewhat difficult to
determine because of the conflicting statements of observers who did
not distinguish between the conditions obtaining in the metropolis and
those obtaining in the parishes. All seem to agree, however, that on
account of the extensive miscegenation so common in the French
colonies there had been produced in that state various classes of
mixed breeds enjoying degrees of freedom in conformity with their
proximity or separation from the white race. Paul Alliot said in his
reflection on Louisiana in 1803: "The population of that city counting
the people of all colors is only twelve thousand souls. Mulattoes and
Negroes are openly protected by the Government. He who was to strike
one of those persons, even though he had run away from him, would be
severely punished. Also twenty whites could be counted in the prisons
of New Orleans against one man of color. The wives and daughters of
the latter are much sought after by the white men, and white women at
times esteem well-built men of color."[62] Elsewhere the same writer,
in speaking of the white men, said that few among them married,
choosing rather to live with their slaves or with women of color.[63]
A generation later the situation was apparently the same despite the
reactionary forces which seemed likely to change the social order.
While on a tour through this country in 1818 Evans saw much in New
Orleans to interest him. "Here," said he, "may be seen in the same
crowds, Quadroons, mulattoes, Samboes, Mustizos, Indians, and Negroes;
and there are other commixtures which are not yet classified. As to
the Negroes, I may add that whilst in this place I saw one who was
perfectly white. This peculiarity, however, is rarely witnessed in
this country."[64] Thereafter the tendency seemed to be not to check
promiscuous miscegenation but to debase the offspring resulting
therefrom.[65]
In the midst of this confusing commixture of population and unstable
society of mixed breeds of three nations the second war between
England and the United States came like a thunderbolt to upset the
already seething administration of Claiborne. As of old, Louisiana was
the strategical point upon which both powers had their eyes. It was
the intention of England to weaken the United States by capturing
Louisiana and handing it over in its entirety to the Spanish
government waiting greedily over the border of Texas. On the same day
that Gov. Claiborne sent the communication to the Secretary of War
containing this astounding piece of information which he had obtained
from authentic sources, he wrote to General Jackson, the despised "red
Indian" of the aristocratic Louisianians. He had reason, he said in
this letter, to doubt the loyalty of many men in the state, because of
their known adherence to foreign nations, but he hopefully adds,
"Among the militia of New Orleans there is a battalion of chosen men
of color, organized under a special act of Legislature, of which I
inclose a copy for your perusal."
Under the Spanish Government the men of color of New Orleans were
always relied upon in time of difficulties, and on several occasions
evinced in the field the greatest firmness and courage.[66] "With
these gentlemen, Colonel Fortier and Major Lacoste, and the officers
attached to companies," Claiborne continued, "I had an interview on
yesterday, and assured them that, in the hour of peril, I should rely
on their valor and fidelity to the United States. In return, they
expressed their devotion to the country and their readiness to serve
it."[67] Claiborne then ordered the taking of a census of the men of
color in the city capable of bearing arms, and found that they
numbered nearly eight hundred. In his appeal to General Jackson,
Claiborne said, "These men, Sir, for the most part, sustain good
characters. Many of them have extensive connections and much property
to defend, and all seem attached to arms. The mode of acting toward
them at the present crisis, is an inquiry of importance. If we give
them not our confidence, the enemy will be encouraged to intrigue and
corrupt them."[68] General Jackson took the cue from Governor
Claiborne and enlisted the services of the battalion of men of color,
addressing them in stirring and thrilling words. There were not
wanting objections to this address. Its publication was delayed a few
days to give him time to reconsider the matter, since advisers of Gov.
Claiborne thought it a little too free with its suggestions of perfect
equality between the companies. But the well-known temper of General
Jackson precluded the possibility of any retraction, and the address
came down in history as he originally drafted it.[69]
The American soldiers on the field aggregated 3,600, among whom were
430 colored. The first battalion of men of color was commanded by
Major Lacoste, a wealthy white planter. In reviewing the troops, Gen.
Jackson was so well pleased with Major Lacoste's battalion, that he
deemed it prudent to levy a new battalion of the same description.
Jean Baptiste Savary, a colored man who had fled from Santo Domingo
during the struggle there, undertook, therefore, to form a battalion
of his countrymen. Savary obtained the rank of captain, and was
remarkably successful.[70] The new battalion was put under the command
of Major Jean Daquin, also a native of Santo Domingo. Whether or not
Major Daquin was a white man as Gayarré tells us, or a quadroon as
other writers assert, is a disputed question.[71]
But not only was this regiment of free men of color to have all the
honor of the struggle. The colored men were enlisted in more ways than
one. Slaves were used in throwing up the famous entrenchments. The
idea of a fortification of cotton bales, which we are told practically
saved the city, was that of a colored man, a slave from Africa, who
had seen the same thing done in his native country. It was the cotton
breastworks that nonplussed the British. Colored men, free and slave,
were used to reconnoitre, and the pirate Lafitte, true to his word, to
come to the aid of Louisiana should she ever need assistance, brought
in with his Baratarians a mixed horde of desperate fighters, white and
black.
On the British side was a company composed of colored men, and
historians like to tell of their cowardice compared with the colored
men of the American side.[72] Evidently a scarlet coat does not well
fit a colored skin. To the eternal credit of the State troops composed
of the men of color, not one act of desertion or cowardice is recorded
against them. There was a most lamentable exhibition of panic on the
right bank of the river by the American troops, but the battalion of
the men of color was not there. They were always in the front of the
attack.[73]
In the celebration of the victory which followed in the great public
square, the Place d'Armes, now Jackson Square, where a statue of the
commander rears itself in the center, the colored troops came in for
their share of glory.[74] The train which brought in the four hundred
wounded prisoners was met by the colored women, the famous nurses of
New Orleans, who have in every war from the Revolutionary until the
Spanish-American held the reputation of being some of the best nurses
in the world.
The men of color were apparently not content with winning the victory;
they must furnish material for dissension for many days afterwards.
When the British army withdrew from Louisiana on January 27, 1815,
they carried away with them 199 slaves, whom they had acquired by the
very easy method of taking them willy-nilly. The matter of having
these bondmen restored to their original owners, of convincing the
British that the Americans did not see the joke of the abduction
caused one of the most acrimonious discussions in the history of the
State. The treaty between the two countries, England and America, was
distorted by both sides to read anything they wished. The English took
a high stand of altruism, of a desire to free the oppressed; the
Louisianians took as high a stand of wishing to grow old with their
own slaves. It was an amusing incident which the slaves watched with
interest. In the end the colored men were restored, and the
interpretation of the treaty ceased.[75]
Following the War of 1812 the free people of color occupied a peculiar
position in Louisiana, especially in New Orleans. There were distinct
grades of society. The caste system was almost as strong as that of
India. Free people of color from other states poured into Louisiana in
a steady stream. It was a haven of refuge. Those were indeed halcyon
times both for the Creole and the American, who found in the rapidly
growing city a commercial El Dorado. For the people of color it was
indeed a time of growth and acquisition of wealth. Three famous
streets in New Orleans bear testimony to the importance of the colored
people in the life of the city. Congo Square, one of the great open
squares in the old Creole quarter, was named for the slaves who used
to congregate in its limits and dance the weird dances to the tunes of
blood-stirring minor strains. Those who know the weird liet-motif of
Coleridge-Taylor's Bamboula dance have heard the tune of the Congo
dance, which every child in New Orleans could sing. Gottschalk's Danse
des Nègres is almost forgotten by this generation but in it he
recorded the music of the West Indians. Camp Street, to-day one of the
principal business streets in the city, was so called because it ran
back of the old Campo de Negros.[76] Julia Street, which runs along
the front of the so-called New Basin, a canal of great commercial
importance, connecting, as it does, the city with Lake Pontchartrain,
and consequently, the greater gulf trade, was named for one Julia, a
free woman of color, who owned land along the banks.[77] What Julia's
cognomen was, where she came from, and whence she obtained the
valuable property are hidden in the silent grave in which time
encloses mere mortals. Somewhere in the records of the city it is
recorded that one Julia, a F. W. C. (free woman of color), owned this
land.
The minor distinctions of complexion and race so fiercely adhered to
by the Creoles of the old regime were at their height at this time.
The glory and shame of the city were her quadroons and octoroons,
apparently constituting two aristocratic circles of society,[78] the
one as elegant as the other, the complexions the same, the men the
same, the women different in race, but not in color, nor in dress, nor
in jewels. Writers on fire with the romance of this continental city
love to speak of the splendors of the French Opera House, the first
place in the country where grand opera was heard, and tell of the
tiers of beautiful women with their jewels and airs and graces. Above
the orchestra circle were four tiers, the first filled with the
beautiful dames of the city; the second filled with a second array of
beautiful women, attired like those of the first, with no apparent
difference; yet these were the octoroons and quadroons, whose beauty
and wealth were all the passports needed. The third was for the hoi
polloi of the white race, and the fourth for the people of color whose
color was more evident. It was a veritable sandwich of races.
With the slaves, especially those outside of New Orleans, the
situation was different. The cruelty of the slave owners in the State
was proverbial. To be "sent down the Mississippi" became a by-word of
horror, a bogie with which slave-holders all over the South threatened
their incorrigible slaves. The slave markets, the tortures of the old
plantations, even those in the city, which Cable has immortalized,
help to fill the pages of romance, which must be cruel as well as
beautiful.
The reaction against the Negro was then well on its way in Louisiana
and evidences of it soon appeared in New Orleans where their condition
for some time yet differed much from that of the blacks in the
parishes. Moved by the fear of a rising class of mixed breeds
resulting from miscegenation, the whites endeavored to diminish their
power by restraining the free people of color from exercising
influence over the slaves, who were becoming insurrectionary as in the
case of those of the parish of St. John the Baptist in 1811. The State
had in 1807 and 1808 made additional provisions for the regulation of
the coming of free Negroes into Louisiana, but when there came reports
of the risings of the blacks in various places in the Seaboard States,
and of David Walker's appeal to Negroes to take up arms against their
masters, it was deemed wise to prohibit the immigration of free
persons into that Commonwealth. In 1830 it was provided that whoever
should write, print, publish or distribute anything having the
tendency to produce discontent among the slaves, should on conviction
thereof be imprisoned at hard labor for life or suffer death at the
discretion of the court. It was further provided that whoever used any
language or became instrumental in bringing into the State any paper,
book or pamphlet inducing discontent should suffer practically the
same penalty. Any person who should teach or permit or cause to be
taught, any slave to read or write should be imprisoned not less than
one month nor more than twelve.[80]
Under the revised Black Code of Louisiana special care was taken to
prevent free Negroes from coming in contact with bondmen. Free persons
of color were restricted from obtaining licenses to sell spirituous
liquors, because of the fear that intoxicants distributed by this
class might excite the Negroes to revolt. The law providing that
there should be at least one white person to every thirty slaves on a
plantation was re-enacted so as to strengthen the measure, the police
system for the control of Negroes was reorganized to make it more
effective, and slaves although unable to own property were further
restricted in buying and selling. Those taken by masters beyond the
limits of the State were on their return to be treated as free
Negroes. But it was later provided on the occasion of the institution
of proceedings for freedom by a slave who had been carried to the
Northwest Territory[81] that "no slave shall be entitled to his or her
freedom under the pretense that he or she has been, with or without
the consent of his or her owner, in a country where slavery does not
exist or in any of the States where slavery is prohibited."[82]
After that the condition of the Negroes in Louisiana was decidedly
pitiable, although in certain parts of the State, as observed by
Bishop Polk,[83] Timothy Flint,[84] and Frederic Law Olmsted[85] at
various times, there were some striking exceptions to this rule. About
this time Captain Marryat made some interesting remarks concerning
this situation. "In the Western States," said he, "comprehending
Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Georgia, and Alabama, the Negroes
are, with the exception, perhaps, of the latter States, in a worst
condition than they were in the West India Islands. This may be easily
imagined," continued he, "when the character of the white people who
inhabit the larger portion of these States is considered--a class of
people, the majority of whom are without feelings of honor, reckless
in their habits, intemperate, unprincipled, and lawless, many of them
having fled from the Eastern States, as fraudulent bankrupts,
swindlers or committers of other crimes, which have subjected them to
the penitentiaries, miscreants, defying the climate, so that they can
defy the laws. Still this representation of the character of the
people, inhabiting these States, must from the chaotic state of
society in America be received with many exceptions. In the city of
New Orleans, for instance, and in Natchez and its vicinity, and also
among the planters, there are many honorable exceptions. I have said
the majority: for we must look to the mass--the exceptions do prove
the rule. It is evident that slaves under such masters can have but
little chance of good treatment, and stories are told of them at which
humanity shudders."[86]
The free people of color, however, kept on amassing wealth and
educating their children as ever in spite of opposition, for it is
difficult to enforce laws against a race when you cannot find that
race. Being well-to-do they could maintain their own institutions of
learning, and had access to parochial schools. Some of them like their
white neighbors, sent their sons to France and their daughters to the
convents to continue their education beyond the first communion. The
first free school ever opened for colored children in the United
States was the "Ecole Des Orphelins Indigents," a School for Indigent
Orphans opened in 1840. Mme. Couvent, a free woman of color, died,
leaving a fund in trust for the establishment and maintenance of this
institution. It has been in continuous operation ever since. Later, it
was aided by Aristide Mary, a well-to-do Creole of color, who left
$5,000 for its support, and by Thomy Lafon, also a colored Creole, one
of the noted benefactors of the city. Until now, the instruction is in
both English and French, and many children, not orphans, are willing
to pay a fee to obtain there the thorough education obtainable.[87]
In 1859 John F. Cook, afterwards of Washington, D. C., went to New
Orleans from St. Louis, Missouri, and organized a school for free
children of color. This was just at the time when discontent among
Southern States was rife, when there was much war-talk, and secession
was imminent. Mr. Cook had violated two laws, he was an immigrant, and
he opened a school for children of persons of color. He continued as
a successful instructor for one year, at the expiration of which he
was forced to leave, being warned by one John Parsons, a barber, who
had been told by his white friends that Mr. Cook was to be arrested
and detained.[88]
Mr. Trotter, in his "Music and Some Musical People," gives unwittingly
a picture of the free people of color of this epoch in fortune and
education. He quotes the _New Orleans Picayune_ in its testimony to
their superior taste for and appreciation of the drama, particularly
Shakespeare, and their sympathetic recognition of the excellence of
classical music. Grace King aptly says "even the old slaves, the most
enthusiastic of theatre-goers, felt themselves authorized to laugh any
modern theatrical pretension to scorn."[89] Trotter records a number
of families whose musical talent has become world-wide. The Lambert
family, one of whom was decorated by the King of Portugal, became a
professor in Paris, and composer of the famous Si J'Etais Roi,
L'Africaine, and La Somnambula.[90] In this same field Basile Barrès
also achieved unusual fame.
Natives of New Orleans remember now how some years ago Edmond Dédé
came from Paris, whence he had been sent in 1857 by an appreciative
townspeople to complete his musical education. He became director of
the orchestra of L'Alcazar in Bordeaux, and a great friend of Gounod.
When he returned to New Orleans after an absence of forty-six years to
play for his native city once more, he was old, but not worn, nor
bent, the fire of youth still flashed in his eye, and leaped along the
bow of his violin.[91] One may mention a long list of famous musicians
of color of the State, but our picture must be filled in rather with
the broad sweep of the mass, not of the individual.
Across the cloudless sky of this era of unexampled commercial,
artistic and social sphere[92] the war cloud crept with ominous
grimness. It burst and drenched the State with blood. Louisiana made
ready to stand with the South. On the 23d of November, 1861, there had
been a grand review of the Confederate troops stationed in New
Orleans. An associated press despatch announced that the line was
seven miles long. The feature of the review, however, was one regiment
composed of fourteen hundred free colored men. The state militia was
reorganized entirely for whites but Governor Moore ordered the men of
color into the army. Another grand review followed the next spring.
The _New Orleans Picayune_ made the following comment. "We must also
pay a deserved compliment to the companies of free colored men, all
very well drilled and comfortably uniformed. Most of these companies,
quite unaided by the administration, have supplied themselves with
arms without regard to cost or trouble."[93] On the same day, one of
these colored companies was presented with a flag, and every evidence
of public approbation was manifested.
These men of color in New Orleans were the only organized body of
Negro soldiery on the Confederate side during the Civil War. They were
accepted as part of the State militia forming three regiments and two
batteries of artillery. In the report of the Select Commission on the
New Orleans Riots, Charles W. Gibbons testified that when the war
broke out, the Confederacy called on all free people to do something
for the seceding States, and if they did not a committee was appointed
to look after them, to rob, kill, and despoil their property. Gibbons
himself was advised by a policeman to enlist on the Confederate side
or be lynched. This accounts for the seeming disloyalty of these free
men of color.[94] The first victories of the South made their leaders
overconfident thereafter and the colored troops were dismissed.
When Unionists finally got control of New Orleans they found it a city
of problems. Wherever there was a Union fort, slaves, the famous
"contrabands of war," made their appearance, and in a few months
General Butler, then in command, found himself face to face with one
of the most serious situations ever known in the history of a State.
Obviously, the only thing to do was to free all of the slaves, but
with Gen. Hunter's experience in South Carolina to warn him, and with
Lincoln's caution, Butler was forced to fight the problem alone. He
did the best he could under the circumstances with this mass of black
and helpless humanity. The whipping posts were abolished; the star
cars--early Jim Crow street cars--were done away with. Those slaves
who had been treated with extreme cruelty by their masters were
emancipated, and by enforcing the laws of England and France, which
provided that no citizen of either country should own slaves, many
more were freed. But the problem increased, the camps filled with
runaway slaves, the feeling grew more intense, and the situation more
desperate every day. Gen. Butler asked repeatedly for aid and
reenforcement from the North. Vicksburg was growing stronger, Port
Hudson above the city became a menace with its increasing Confederate
batteries, and Mobile and a dozen camps near the city made the
condition alarming. No help coming from the North, General Butler
turned to the free men of color in the city for aid, and as usual,
they responded gallantly to his appeal.
The free people of color in Louisiana then furnished the first colored
contingent of the Federal Army, just as they had furnished the first
colored contingent of the Confederate Army.[95] The army records
likewise show that Louisiana furnished more colored troops for the war
than any other State. By the 27th of September, 1862, a full regiment
of free men of color entered the service of the government, many of
them being taken over from the State militia. It was in the beginning
called the First Regiment of the Louisiana Native Guards. In June,
1863, its designation was changed to the First Regiment Corps
D'Afrique, and later to the 73d Regiment U. S. C. Infantry. In
October, 1862, another regiment was formed and the following month a
regiment of heavy artillery was organized. About the same time a
fourth regiment of men of color answered the call. Gen. Butler was
succeeded in Louisiana by General Banks, who was so pleased with the
appearance and drill of the colored regiments, that he issued an order
for the organization of more in 1863, contemplating 18 regiments,
comprising infantry, artillery, and cavalry. These were entirely
officered by colored men, at first, but, as Col. Lewis tersely puts
it, after the battle of Port Hudson,[97] a "steeple-chase was made by
the white men to take our places."[98] These troops thereafter
acquitted themselves with great honor in this battle and also at that
of Milliken's Bend.
The Emancipation Proclamation of January, 1863, was a most complicated
matter in Louisiana, for the reason that out of the forty-eight
parishes in the State, thirteen were under federal control, and
consequently the slaves there were left in their original state. Many
of the masters even in those parishes where the slaves were declared
emancipated sent their most valuable slaves to Alabama and Texas,
some of them themselves fleeing with them. In parishes far removed
from Union headquarters, news of the Emancipation Proclamation did not
reach the slaves until long after it had been issued. Even then, in
many cases, the proclamation had to be read at the point of the sword,
federal soldiers compelling the slave owners to tell their chattels
the news.[99]
From the time of the accession of General Banks to 1876, the history
of Louisiana becomes a turmoil of struggle, centering around the
brother in black.[100] It is no longer romance; it is grim war, and
the colored man is the struggle, not the cause of it. Political
parties in 1862 were many and various. The Free State party was in
favor of abolishing slavery, but wanted representation based
altogether on the white population. This was opposed by the Union
Democrat party, which repudiated secession, but wished slavery
continued or rather revived, believing that emancipation was only a
war measure, and that after cessation of hostilities, slavery could be
reestablished. But the plans of both parties fell to the ground.[101]
The colored man became more and more of a political factor from day to
day.
Cognomens here too proved to be another difficulty. Louisiana had two
classes of colored men, freedmen and free men, a delicate, but
carefully guarded distinction, the latter distinctly aristocratic. In
1863, the free men of color held a meeting and appealed to Governor
Shepley for permission to register and vote. In the address to him,
they reviewed their services to the United States from the time of
General Jackson through the Civil War, and stated that they were then
paying taxes on over $9,000,000. Several petitions of this sort failed
to move General Banks,[102] for he thought it unfeasible to draw the
line between free men of color and the recently emancipated Negroes.
The war of Reconstruction in Louisiana was fairly well launched in the
Constitutional Convention of 1864. The issue on which this body
divided was what treatment should be accorded the freedmen. The two
parties had much difficulty in reaching an agreement.[103] P. M.
Tourne was sent to Washington to see President Lincoln. He had already
suggested the ratification of the Emancipation Proclamation and the
education of the colored youth.[104] In a letter congratulating the
recently elected Governor Hahn on his election as the "first
free-state governor of Louisiana" in 1864, Lincoln suggested suffrage
for the more intelligent Negroes, and those who had served the country
in the capacity of soldiers. This letter of Lincoln's, says Blaine,
was the first proposition from any authentic source to endow the Negro
with the right of suffrage.[105] In his last public utterance on April
11, 1865, Lincoln again touched the subject of suffrage in Louisiana,
repeating that he held it better to extend to the more intelligent
colored men the elective franchise, giving the recently emancipated a
prize to work for in obtaining property and education.[106] The
Convention tried in vain to declare what constituted a Negro, giving
it up in disgust. It did abolish slavery in general; granted suffrage
to those whites who were loyal to the government; and to colored men
according to educational and property qualifications. In 1865, the
Thirteenth Amendment was ratified and the body adjourned.
The culmination of the fight between the Democrat and the Radical was
in the struggle over the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment in July,
1866. An attempt was made to re-open the Constitutional Convention of
1864.[107] The delegates, who favored the reopening of the convention,
formed in the streets of New Orleans, and proceeded to march to the
famous Mechanics Hall, the scene of almost every political riot in
the history of the city. The paraders became involved in a brawl with
the white spectators; the police were called in; and the colored
members of the convention and their white sympathizers fled to the
hall where they attempted to barricade themselves. A general fight
ensued, and over two hundred were killed.[108] The effect of this riot
was electrical, not only in Louisiana but in the North, where it was
construed as a deliberate massacre, and an uprising against the United
States Government by the unreconstructed Louisianians.[109]
Efforts were made to bring about changes satisfactory to all. In 1867,
Sheridan, in charge of the department of Louisiana, dismissed the
board of aldermen of New Orleans, on the ground that they impeded the
work of reconstruction and kept the government of the city in a
disorganized condition. He appointed a new board of aldermen, some of
whom were men of color, and in the next month this council appointed
four assistant recorders, three of whom were colored, and two colored
city physicians. In this month, September, 1867, the first legal
voting of the colored man under the United States Government was
recorded, that being their voting for delegates to the Constitutional
Convention of 1868.[110]
This body proved to be an assemblage of ardent fighters for the rights
of the factions they represented. Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback
proposed the adoption of the Civil Rights Bill, and the abolition of
separate schools. In the convention were proposed the most stringent
of all suffrage laws which would practically disfranchise many whites.
Mr. Pinchback voted against this. He saved the day for the Republican
party by opposing Wickliffe and other demagogues who wished to use the
vote of the colored man by promising a majority of the offices to
Negroes. Pinchback maintained that offices should be awarded with
reference not to race, but to education and general ability.[111] In
this he was fiercely opposed by many who were anxious for office, but
not for the good of the State.[112]
Louisiana did not long delay in returning to the Union. On the same
day on which she voted for the constitution which restored her to the
Union, H. C. Warmoth was elected governor, and Oscar J. Dunn, a
colored man, Lieutenant-Governor. Pinchback was then a State
senator.[113] When the State legislature met in New Orleans in 1868,
more than half of the members were colored men. Dunn was President of
the Senate, and the temporary chairman of the lower house was R. H.
Isabelle, a colored man. The first act of the new legislature was to
ratify the Fourteenth Amendment.[114]
And then ensued another halcyon period for the colored man in
Louisiana, a period about which the average historian has little but
sneers. Government in Louisiana by the colored man was different from
that in other Southern States. There the average man who was
interested in politics had wealth and generations of education and
culture back of him. He was actuated by sincerest patriotism, and
while the more ignorant of the recently emancipated were too evidently
under the control of the unscrupulous carpetbagger, there were not
wanting more conservative men to restrain them.
The period following the meeting of the State legislature in 1868 was
a stirring one. The Louisiana free people of color had a larger share
in their government than that class had in any other Southern State.
Among their representatives were Lieut.-Governor Oscar J. Dunn, State
Treasurer Antoine Dubuclet, State Superintendent of Education Wm. G.
Brown, Division Superintendent of Education Gen. T. Morris Chester, a
Pennsylvanian by birth, congressmen, William Nash, and J. Willis
Menard, the first colored representative elected, although he was not
seated. Col. Lewis became Sergeant of the Metropolitan Police,
following his service as Collector of the Port. Upon the death of
Dunn, C. C. Antoine, who had served his country as a captain in the
famous Seventh Louisiana, and then in the State Senate, succeeded him.
Antoine was Lieutenant-Governor for eight years, first under Governor
Kellogg, and then re-elected to serve under Governor Packard.
But the most thrilling part of the whole period centers about the
person of that redoubtable fighter, Pinchback. He was nominated for
Governor, and to save his party accepted a compromise on the Kellogg
ticket. In 1872 he ran the great railroad race with Governor Warmoth,
being Lieutenant-Governor and Acting Governor in the absence of the
Governor from the State. His object was to reach the capital and sign
two acts of the legislature, which involved the control of the State
and possibly the national government.[115] It was a desperate
undertaking, and the story of the race, as told by Governor Pinchback
himself, reads like a romance. By a clever trick and the courage to
stay up and fight in the senate all night, he saved the senate to the
Republicans and perpetuated their rule four years longer in Louisiana
than it would have continued.[116]
By the impeachment of Governor Warmoth in December, 1872, he became
Acting Governor of the State until Jan., 1873, when the term expired
and the Kellogg government was inaugurated, with C. C. Antoine,
Lieutenant-Governor. That period when Pinchback was Governor of
Louisiana was the stormiest ever witnessed in any state in the Union;
but he was equal to the emergency. Then followed his long three years'
fight for the seat in the United States Senate, with the defeat after
the hard struggle.
The campaign of 1874 was inaugurated. The White Camelias, a league
formed of Southern white men, determined to end the existing
government, stood armed and ready. The Governor was garrisoned at the
Custom-house, a huge citadel, and the fight was on between the White
League and the Metropolitan Police. It was characteristic of this
community that the fight should take place on Sunday. The struggle
lasted all day, September 14, 1874, and by evening the citizens were
in command of the situation. President Grant ordered troops to the
place; the insurgents were ordered to disperse in five days, and the
Governor resumed his office. But it was the end of the government by
the men of color and their allies in the State. President Hayes, in
order to conciliate his constituents in the South, withdrew federal
support, and the downfall was complete.[117]
The history of the Reconstruction and the merits and demerits of the
men who figured in that awful drama belong to the present generation.
The unstable Reconstruction regime was overthrown in 1874 and the
whites, eliminating the freedmen and free people of color from the
government, established what they are pleased to call "home rule." The
Negroes, who had served the State, however, deserved well of their
constituents. It should be said to the credit of these black men that
upon an investigation of the Treasurer's office which had for years
been held by Antoine Dubuclet, a man of color, the committee of which
Chief Justice Edward D. White of the United States Supreme Court was
then chairman, made a report practically exonerating him. Although
making some criticisms as to irregularities and minor illegalities,
the committee had to report that "the Treasurer certainly by a
comparison deserves commendation for having accounted for all moneys
coming into his hands, being in this particular a remarkable
exception." A minority report signed by C. W. Keeting and T. T.
Allain[118] thoroughly exonerated him. The expected impeachment
proceedings which were to follow this investigation did not
materialize.[119]
More about the people of color in Louisiana might be written. It is a
theme too large to be treated save by a master hand. It is interwoven
with the poetry, the romance, the glamour, the commercial prosperity,
the financial ruin, the rise and fall of the State. It is hung about
with garlands, like the garlands of the cemeteries on All Saints Day;
it may be celebrated in song, or jeered at in charivaris. Some day,
the proper historian will tell the story. There is no State in the
Union, hardly any spot of like size on the globe, where the man of
color has lived so intensely, made so much progress, been of such
historical importance and yet about whom so comparatively little is
known. His history is like the Mardi Gras of the city of New Orleans,
beautiful and mysterious and wonderful, but with a serious thought
underlying it all. May it be better known to the world some day.
ALICE DUNBAR-NELSON.
FOOTNOTES:
[50] Rose, "Life of Napoleon I," 333-336.
[51] As to the ability of a man of color to rise in this territory,
the life of one man, recorded by the Pennsylvania Abolition Society,
will furnish a good example. James Derham was originally a slave in
Philadelphia, sold by his master to a physician, who employed him in
the shop as an assistant in the preparation of drugs. During the war
between England and America, he was sold by this physician to a
surgeon, and by that surgeon to Dr. Robert Dove of New Orleans. Here
he learned French and Spanish so as to speak both with ease. In 1788,
he was received into the English church, when he was twenty-one and
became, says the report, "one of the most distinguished physicians in
New Orleans." "I conversed with him on medicine," says Dr. Rush, "and
found him very learned. I thought I could give him information on the
treatment of diseases, but I learned more from him that he could
expect from me." _The Columbian Gazette_, II, 742-743.
[52] Gayarré, III, p. 595.
[53] _Ibid._, IV, p. 218.
[54] _Ibid._, p. 219.
[55] Gayarré, IV, p. 219.
[56] _Ibid._, p. 229.
[57] Grace King tells a pretty story of the saving of Jean Lafitte's
life. On the very day that a price was set upon his head by Gov.
Claiborne he was invited to be the guest at a plantation, and almost
at the same instant there arrived unexpectedly Mrs. Claiborne, the
wife of the governor. The hostess, with quick presence of mind,
introduced the gentleman to the wife of the governor as Monsieur
Clement, and then hurriedly went out of the room, leaving her guests
together. She called Henriette, her confidential servant, and looking
her straight in the eyes, said: "Henriette, Gov. Claiborne has set a
price upon Monsieur Lafitte's head. Anyone who takes him a prisoner
and carries him to the governor will receive five hundred dollars
reward, and M. Laffitte's head will be cut off. Send all the other
servants away; set the table yourself, and wait on us yourself.
Remember to call M. Lafitte, M. Clement--and be careful before Mme.
Claiborne." The colored woman responded with perfect tact and
discretion. See Grace King, "New Orleans, the Place and the People,"
204.
[58] Gayarré, IV, p. 127.
[59] _Ibid._, p. 127.
[60] Gayarré, IV, p. 131.
[61] King, "New Orleans: The Place and Its People."
[62] Paul Alliot's Reflections in Robertson's "Louisiana under the
Rule of Spain," I, p. 67.
[63] _Ibid._, 103, 111.
[64] Evans, "A Pedestrian's Tour, etc." Thwaites, "Early Western
Travels," VIII, 336.
[65] Harriet Martineau painted in 1837 a picture of this society,
showing how the depravity of the settlers had worked out. "The
Quadroon girls of New Orleans," said she, "are brought up by their
mothers to be what they have been, the mistresses of white gentlemen.
The boys are some of them sent to France; some placed on land in the
back of the State; and some are sold in the slave market. They marry
women of a somewhat darker color than their own; the women of their
own color objecting to them, '_ils sont si degoutants_!' The girls are
highly educated, externally, and are, probably, as beautiful and
accomplished a set of women as can be found. Every young man early
selects one and establishes her in one of those pretty and peculiar
houses, whole rows of which may be seen in the Remparts. The connexion
now and then lasts for life; usually for several years. In the latter
case, when the time comes for the gentleman to take a wife, the
dreadful news reaches his Quadroon partner, either by letter entitling
her to call the house and furniture her own, or by the newspaper which
announces his marriage. The Quadroon ladies are rarely or never known
to form a second connexion. Many commit suicide, more die heartbroken.
Some men continue the connexion after marriage. Every Quadroon woman
believes that her partner will prove an exception to the rule of
desertion. Every white lady believes that her husband has been an
exception to the rule of seduction." See Harriet Martineau, "Society
in America," II, 326-327; see also Nuttall's Journal in Thwaites,
"Early Western Travels," XIII, 309-310.
[66] Gayerré, IV, p. 335.
[67] Gayerré, IV, p. 336.
[68] _Ibid._, p. 336.
[69] He said: "Through a mistaken policy you have heretofore been
deprived of a participation in the glorious struggle for national
rights in which our country is engaged. This no longer exists.
As sons of freedom, you are now called upon to defend our most
inestimable blessing. As Americans, your country looks with confidence
to her adopted children for a valorous support as a faithful return
for the advantages enjoyed under her mild and equitable government. As
fathers, husbands and brothers, you are summoned to rally round the
standard of the eagle to defend all which is dear in existence.
Your country, although calling for your exertions, does not wish you
to engage in her cause without amply remunerating you for the services
rendered. Your intelligent minds are not to be led away by false
representations. Your love of honor would cause you to despise the man
who would attempt to deceive you. In the sincerity of a soldier and
the language of truth I address you.
To every noble-hearted, generous freeman--men of color, volunteering
to serve during the present contest with Great Britain and no longer,
there will be paid the same bounty in money and lands now received by
the white soldiers of the United States, viz.: $124 in money and 160
acres of land. The non-commissioned officers and privates will also be
entitled to the same monthly pay and daily rations and clothes,
furnished to any American soldier. On enrolling yourselves in
companies, the Major-General commanding will select officers from your
government from your white citizens. Your non-commissioned officers
will be appointed from among yourselves.
Due regard will be paid to the feelings of freemen and soldiers. You
will not, by being associated with white men in the same corps, be
exposed to improper comparisons, or unjust sarcasm. As a distinct,
independent battalion or regiment, pursuing the path of glory, you
will undivided, receive the applause and gratitude of your country
men.
To assure you of the sincerity of my intentions and my anxiety to
engage your invaluable services to our country, I have communicated my
wishes to the Governor of Louisiana, who is fully informed as to the
manner of enrollment, and will give you every necessary information on
the subject of this address." See Williams, "History of the Negro
Race," II, 25 and 26.
[70] Gayarré, IV, p. 406.
[71] He was probably regarded as a quadroon who had been accepted by
the white race. See Gayarré, IV, 406.
[72] Gayarré, IV, p. 451.
[73] _Ibid._, p. 427 et passim.
[74] For years after the Civil War, one of the most picturesque
figures in New Orleans was Jordan B. Noble, who at the time of the
Battle of New Orleans was a slim youth. It was his tireless beating of
the drum which led to battle the American forces on the nights of
December 23 and January 8. He lived to be an old man, and appeared on
several occasions at the St. Charles theatre, where a great audience
turned out to do him honor and give an ovation when he beat the drum
again as he had on those memorable nights. The Delta records a benefit
given him at the theatre in 1854. In 1851 _The New Orleans Picayune_
in commenting on the celebration of the victory of New Orleans notes
the presence in the line of parade of 90 colored veterans. "And who
did more than they to save the city?" it asks in the midst of a highly
eulogistic review of the battle. Grace King, "New Orleans, the Place
and the People," 256; and Grace King's letter to A. O. Stafford in
1904.
[75] Gayarré, IV, pp. 517-531.
[76] Fortier, "Louisiana," II, p. 231.
[77] Cable, "The Creoles," p. 211; Grace King, "New Orleans," 260.
[78] Martineau, "Society in America," p. 326 et passim.
[79] Channing, "The Jeffersonian System," 84.
[80] For a general sketch see Ballard and Curtis's "A Digest of the
Statutes of the State of Louisiana," pp. 65 et seq.
[81] Dunn, "Indiana," 234; and 1 Miss. (Walker), p. 36.
[82] See "The Revised Statutes of Louisiana," 1852, pp. 524 et seq.
[83] Rhodes, "History of the United States," III, 331.
[84] Flint, "Recollections of the Last Ten Years," 345.
[85] Olmsted, "The Cotton Kingdom," II, 213.
[86] Captain Marryat, Diary in America, 67-68.
[87] Desdunes, "Nos Hommes et Notre Histoire," 32.
[88] This fact is based on the statements of the persons concerned.
[89] Grace King, "New Orleans," 272.
[90] Trotter, "Music, and Some Musical People," pp. 339-340.
[91] _Ibid._, pp. 340-341; Desdunes, "Nos Hommes et Notre Histoire,"
pp. 117-118.
[92] The most definite picture, and the best possible of the state of
the persons of color in Louisiana, is to be found in Parton's "Butler
in New Orleans." History will never agree about Gen. Butler. He is
alternately execrated by the South, sneered at by the North, written
down by his contemporary officers, and canonized by the abolitionists.
If he did nothing else worthy of record, at least he gave the splendid
militia composed of the free men of color a chance to prove their
loyalty to the union by entering the Civil War as fighters.
We are indebted to him for the pictures he draws of the slave
population of Louisiana; of the wealth and beauty of the free men and
women of color. Their population was 18,647. "The best blood of the
South flows in the veins of these free people of color," he writes,
"and a great deal of it, for the darkest of some of them were about
the complexion of Daniel Webster." Parton, "General Butler in New
Orleans," p. 517.
[93] _New Orleans Picayune_, Feb. 9, 1862.
[94] Report of the Select Committee on the New Orleans Riots, p. 126.
[95] Ficklen, "Reconstruction in Louisiana," 121.
[96] From Ex-Lieutenant Governor Antoine we have a statement as to how
the troops were organized at Baton Rouge. Of the gallant officers of
this first regiment, one man lives to tell of its glories. This was
Col. James Lewis, who was in command for four months at Port Hudson.
[97] The battle of Port Hudson, like the battle of New Orleans, is
almost too well known to be told of. It takes its place naturally in
history with desperate fights, reminding one somewhat of the battles
of Balaklava. It was early in the morning of May 27, 1863, that the
engagement began. The colored men in line numbered 1,080. When the
order for assault was given they charged the fort, which belched forth
its flame and shot and shell. The slaughter was horrible, but the line
never wavered. Into the mill of death the colored troops hurled
themselves. The colors were shot through and almost severed from the
staff; the color-sergeant, Anselmas Planciancois, was killed, and two
corporals struggled for the honor of bearing the flag from his dying
hands. One of them was killed.
The bravest hero of the day was Capt. André Caillioux, whose name all
Louisianians remember with a thrill of pride. He was a freeman of West
Indian extraction, and fond of boasting of his blackness. With superb
heroism and splendid magnetism he led his men time and again into the
very "jaws of death" in the assault, and fell at the front in one last
heroic effort within fifty yards of the fort.
"Still forward and charge for the guns," said Caillioux,
And his shattered sword-arm was the guidon they knew;
But a fire rakes the flanks and a fire rakes the van,
He is down with the ranks that go down as one man.
A correspondent of the _New York Times_ gave a most glowing account of
the battle. "During the time the troops rallied, they were ordered to
make _six distinct charges_, losing 37 killed, 155 wounded, and
sixteen missing.... The deeds of heroism performed by these colored
men were such as the proudest white men might emulate.... I could fill
your columns with startling tales of their heroism. Although repulsed
in an attempt which, situated as things were, was almost impossible,
these regiments, though badly cut up, are still on hand, and burning
with a passion ten times hotter from their fierce baptism of blood."
See Williams, "History of the Negro Race," II, 321.
The battle of Milliken's Bend will always rank as one of the hardest
fought engagements in the Civil War. It was an important point on the
river, because it commanded Vicksburg, and in General Grant's scheme
to effect the reduction of that city, it was necessary to control this
point. The engagement was on June 6, 1863, and continued from three in
the morning until twelve noon. Never did men fight with greater
courage against such odds at the point of the bayonet than did these
colored troops. The appalling list of casualties shows how they stood
the test. Of the officers in the colored forces, seven were killed,
nine wounded, three missing. Of the enlisted men, 123 killed, 182
wounded, 113 missing. In commenting on this battle, Schouler, in his
history of the United States, speaks of the great bravery shown by the
troops, and points out there was a sudden change of opinion in the
South about enlisting colored troops on the side of the Confederacy.
"Many of the clear-sighted leaders of this section proposed seriously
to follow the Northern President's example,--and arm Negro slaves as
soldiers." He adds: "That strange conclusion, had it ever been
reached, would perhaps have reunited North and South eventually in
sentiment,--by demonstrating at length the whole fallacy upon which
the social difference of sections had so long rested. For as a
Confederate writer expressed it, 'if the Negro was fit to be a
soldier, he was not fit to be a slave,'" Schouler, "History of U. S.,"
Vol. VI, p. 407; and Williams, "History of the Negro Race," II,
326-328.
[98] Colonel Lewis's statement.
[99] Based on the statements of slaves.
[100] Rhodes, "History of the U. S.," VII, 104 et seq.; Schouler,
"History of U. S.," VI, 245 et seq.
[101] Ficklen, "Reconstruction in Louisiana," 47 et seq.
[102] _Ibid._, pp. 64, 65.
[103] In the meanwhile, Confederates had set up a capital at
Shreveport, and their governor recommended Negro conscripts in the
Confederate army. His reasoning was acute and clear: He said, "The
Negro must play an important part in the war. He caused the fight, and
he must have his portion of the burden to bear." See Ficklen,
"Reconstruction," 63.
[104] Ficklen, "Reconstruction," 63.
[105] Blaine's "Twenty Years of Congress," II, 39, 40.
[106] Lincoln, Address of, April 11, 1865.
[107] 39 Cong. House of Representatives, No. 16.
[108] Ficklen, "Reconstruction in Louisiana," 146-179.
[109] Not all Southern sympathizers saw menace in granting the Negro
political privileges. Seeing it inevitable, General Beauregard wrote
in 1867, "If the suffrage of the Negro is properly handled and
directed, we shall defeat our adversaries with their own weapons. The
Negro is Southern born. With education and property qualifications, he
can be made to take an interest in the affairs of the South, and in
its prosperity. He will side with the whites." Letter of Gen.
Beauregard.
[110] With the year 1868 one of the most picturesque and splendid
figures in the history of the state springs fully into the light.
Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback had already made himself known by
his efforts to recruit soldiers for the Louisiana Native Guards; by
his stringent demands for the rights of the colored man on all
occasions. He was the dashing young Lochinvar of the political
struggle. He had made his first move in 1867 by organizing the Fourth
Ward Republican Club, and had been appointed Inspector of Customs by
Collector of Port Kellogg. In the Constitution of 1868 he took his
definite rôle of a fighter to be feared, respected and followed--and
for many a year afterwards, the history of Louisiana is written around
his name. Simmons, "Men of Mark," 672.
[111] Accounts of this appeared in the _Tribune_, the best, and almost
the only influential organ of the Republican party in the state, the
editor of which was Dr. Roudanez, a well-to-do man of color. It was
not a financial success, though a powerful factor in the political
arena. Dr. Roudanez said that he spent over $35,000 on the paper in
the effort to keep up an honest organ. It was suspended in April,
1868, but was revived later.
[112] Journal of the Convention, 124, 192, 205 et passim.
[113] Simmons, "Men of Mark," 678.
[114] Journal of the Senate, 1868, p. 21.
[115] Pinchback's own Statement.
[116] Based on the statements of the persons participating in these
affairs.
[117] Rhodes, "History of the U. S.," VII, 287.
[118] Mr. T. T. Allain is now living in Chicago. He has much to say in
praise of the efficient, honest and courageous men of color who
administered the affairs of Louisiana during this period. Mr. Allain
himself was a State Senator.
[119] The report consisted of answers to the following questions:
1. What was the condition of the accounts of the Treasurer connected
with the verification of the entries of such accounts as well as
ascertaining by such verification whether the receipts had been
correctly entered and disbursed, and the cash properly and legally
applied.
2. What mode of settlement had been established by the Treasurer in
receiving revenue turned in by tax collectors.
3. What discrimination, if any, had been exercised in the payment of
warrants.
The report in part was:
"Beyond these matters your committee find the books of the Treasurer
to have been kept in an orderly manner; the disbursements have been
regularly entered, and the cash presently all accounted for up to the
first of January, 1877, to which period this report alone extends.
These vouchers and orders are all on hand and the warrants for each
payment are properly canceled....
"These figures do not of necessity import proof absolute and
conclusive of any undue favoritism, although by circumstances and
legitimate inference they point to that conclusion. Warrants being
negotiable it has been impossible to ascertain who held those
outstanding, and therefore impossible to fix a proper proportion of
payment, but the fact that the multitude of payments made to the same
person, while other warrant holders were forced to wait, and the
intimacy existing between themselves or their employees and the
Treasurer are, undeniably, circumstances which, unexplained, justify
at least a suspicion that these parties have enjoyed facilities,
preferences and privileges at the Treasury over the general public, to
which they were not entitled.
"It is true that these figures are explained by statements that the
proportion paid the respective persons mentioned were only in
proportion to the amount which the warrants held by them bore to the
whole amount of outstanding warrants, but this explanation in itself
merits notice and explanation, because of the fact that the persons
named were the holders of such a large amount of warrants imply some
inducement on their part to invest in them, more especially as by
avocation the majority of them were not brokers but employees in the
Custom-House. Some of them have testified that all the warrants they
held were paid. Another has refused to disclose for whom he collected.
A third was a relative of a personal employee of the Treasurer. One
has been shown to be a constant frequenter of his office, and must
have been an intimate of the Treasurer's from the fact that he appears
to have been the payee of a check for $75,000 illegally drawn, as
mentioned before. They point, at least, to the necessity of such
legislation as may be adequate to prevent even possible suspicion of
favoritism in the future. Under the provisions of the acts of the
General Assembly, passed at the session of 1877, the danger of
favoritism has been very much safeguarded and needs supplementing in
only minor particulars.
"The Treasurer certainly by comparison deserves commendation for
having accounted for all moneys coming into his hands, being in this
particular a remarkable exception. EDWARD D. WHITE, JAMES D. HILL, SAM
H. BUCK."--Report of Joint Committee to Investigate the Treasurer's
Office, State of Louisiana, to the General Assembly, 1877, pp. 7-12,
Majority Report.
NOTES ON CONNECTICUT AS A SLAVE STATE
On June 17 Mr. E. B. Bronson, the Winchester historian and president
of the Winchester Historical Society, delivered before the woman's
club and the students of the Gilbert School an address on "Connecticut
as a Slave State." The address in part was:
"The caste system was in full being in church, business and
social life. There was no more question about his right of
keeping slaves than of his owning sheep. The minister--the leader
and aristocrat of the day--invariably owned his slave or slaves.
Even the heavenly-minded John Davenport and Edward Hopkins were
not adverse to the custom, and Rev. Ezra Stiles, one time
president of Yale college and later a vigorous advocate of
emancipation, sent a barrel of rum to Africa to be traded for a
'Blackamoor,' because, he said, 'It is a great privilege for the
poor Negroes to be taken from the ignorant and wicked people of
Guiana and be placed in a Christian land, where they can become
good Christians and go to heaven when they die.' Religious
freedom was an inherent right of the mind, but slaveholding was a
matter of the pocketbook, and an entirely different proposition
in the Puritan eyes. The fact of the matter is, he kept them
because it paid.
"The high-water mark of slavery in Connecticut was reached in
1774, and thereafter steadily declined. To speak in the Billy
Sunday vernacular, 'Connecticut had hit the sawdust path.' The
number of slaves rapidly decreased from 6,562 in 1774 to only
2,759 in 1790, and 10 years later, in 1800, there were only 951
slaves in the state. Still the good work went on, and in 1810
only 310 were left. In 1820 but 97, and in 1830, 200 years from
the commencement of the evil system, there were only 25 slaves
owned within Connecticut's borders. In 1840 there were 17. In
1848 Connecticut experienced a full change of heart and enacted a
law forever doing away with this blot upon her fair escutcheon,
and emancipated all slaves remaining in Connecticut. At this time
there were but six slaves remaining in bondage within the state.
"Throughout the whole history of this slavery thraldom in
Connecticut, some curious laws were passed, showing that the
Puritan was not fully satisfied with the situation. In 1702,
there was enacted a law which arose from the practice of turning
loose a slave who had broken down, and was of little use, and
abandoning him, thus forcing him to care for himself. This law
obliged the last owner of the slave and his heirs, and
administrators, to pay for the care of these wrecks of humanity.
In 1711 it was further enacted, that in case the former owner
refused to give the care required, the selectmen of the town
where the owner resided, should care for the needy slave, and
collect with costs from his owner. In 1774 it was enacted that
'no Indian, Negro, or mulatto slave, shall at any time hereafter
be brought or imported into this state, by sea or by land, from
any place or places whatsoever, to be disposed of, left or sold,
within this state.'
"In 1784, a law was passed which provided that no Negro or
mulatto child born after March 1, 1784, should be held in
servitude beyond the age of 25 years. In 1797, a further
enactment released all colored children from slavery, when they
'had attained the age of 21 years.' Connecticut gradually was
'coming to her own' again. Even the ministry received a change of
heart, for in 1788, the general association of ministers of
Connecticut declared the slave trade to be unjust, and that every
justifiable measure ought to be taken to suppress it. In 1789,
Connecticut shippers were prohibited from engaging in the slave
trade anywhere.
"One of the interesting points to note in this gradual
metamorphosis is that as the number of slaves gradually
diminished, the number of free Negroes correspondingly increased,
showing that but comparatively few left the state. The caste
system was in full force everywhere. It was very evident in the
church. For years the system of 'dignifying the pews,' as it was
termed, was practiced. That is, assigning seats to the different
members of the parish by a committee appointed for that purpose.
For a man must go to church whether he wished to or not, and pay
his share of supporting the minister, by a tax laid upon him and
collected by the town. Social standing secured the first choice
of seats, wealth the second, and piety the last. In this
assignment one or more pews were 'set off' away up in the top of
the gallery for the slaves of the social leaders and ministers.
At the First Congregational church, Winsted, there were two pews
thus 'set off' in the gallery, and they were so high up that they
were called 'Nigger heaven.'
"In 1837, a number of enthusiasts were invited to meet in
Wolcottville (now Torrington) to organize a county abolition
society. Upon looking for a place of meeting, they found that
every church, public and private hall, was closed against them,
and also heard public threats of violence if they persisted in
attempting to hold a meeting, from the proslavery element of the
town. A barn was offered them as a meeting place and promptly
accepted. The barn was filled, floor, scaffold, haymow and
stables, by these disciples of abolition. It was a very cold day
in January, and much suffering resulted in spite of their warm
zeal. Roger S. Mills of New Hartford was appointed chairman, and
Rev. R. M. Chipman of Harwinton secretary, and Daniel Coe of
Winsted offered prayer. The following officers were appointed:
President, Roger S. Mills; vice-presidents, Erastus Lyman of
Goshen, Gen. Daniel Brinsmade of Washington, Gen. Uriel Tuttle of
Torringford and Jonathan Coe of Winsted; secretary, Rev. R. M.
Chipman of Harwinton, and treasurer, Dr. E. D. Hudson of
Torringford. While being addressed by an agent of the American
society, and suffering from extreme cold, they were attacked by a
mob of proslaveryites who had paraded the streets of Wolcottville
and had elevated their courage with New England rum. They
gathered around the barn which was near the Congregational
church, yelling, blowing horns, thumping on tin pans and kettles,
and ringing furiously the church bell, and finally, by brute
force, broke up the meeting which took a hasty adjournment.
"When the people were leaving Wolcottville the entire village
seemed to be a bedlam. Dea Ebenezer Rood was set upon while in
his sleigh, and some of the mob endeavored to overturn him and
cause his horses to run away. But the blood of his Puritan
ancestors became rampant, and in defiance he shouted: 'Rattle
your pans; hoot and toot; ring your bells, ye pesky fools, if it
does ye any good,' and plying his whip to his now frantic horses
he escaped the mob.
"Torringford street arose in its anger and might, at this insult,
opened her church doors, and the abolition convention held
session there for two days. Although there was great opposition
on the street at this new move, there was no other demonstration.
"Inspired by Dea Rood's defiance, the abolition spirit blazed
high, and monthly meetings were held in barns, sheds, and groves,
throughout the county. These enthusiasts were called all sorts of
opprobrious names such as, 'Nigger friends, and disturbers of
Israel,' and some were excommunicated from the churches. These
were indeed stirring days; Connecticut had received a change of
heart, and in her ecstasy had forgotten her own sins.
"Even our own village did not escape unscathed. A pastor of the
First Congregational church who had strong antislavery
principles, dared to preach an abolition sermon one Sunday from
his pulpit, and the next morning the village was flooded with a
'Broadside' demanding the people to rise, and teach this
disturber a lesson, and not allow such sins to be perpetrated in
their midst. A copy of this sheet was even nailed upon his own
doorway, and is now deposited in our historical society, and is
worthy of your perusal.
"Even the historic cannon now reposing in our historical rooms
was used to break up 'pestilent abolition meetings' in our own
midst. Thus I have endeavored to give you some idea of an
interesting phase in the history of our Commonwealth, that may
not be familiar to all, and which I would term as a Connecticut
mistake."--_The Springfield Republican_, June 18, 1916.
DOCUMENTS
LETTERS OF ANTHONY BENEZET
Benezet published his letters at his own expense and distributed them
with the accompanying circular letter below.
"Copy of the substance of a letter written to several persons of note,
both in Europe and America, on sending them some of the negroe
pamphlets, viz. account of Africa, &c. particularly to the ARCHBISHOP
OF CANTERBURY, dated about the year 1758, and since.
* * * * *
"With the best respects I am capable of, and from, I trust, no other
motive but that of love to mankind; and from a persuasion of thy
sincere desires for the suppression of evil and the promotion of that
righteousness which alone exalteth a nation, I make bold
affectionately to salute thee, and to request a little of thy
attention to a subject which has long been a matter of deep concern to
many, vast many, well disposed people of all denominations in these
parts, viz. that of the negroe trade, the purchase and bringing the
poor negroes from their native land, and subjecting them to a state of
perpetual bondage, the most cruel and oppressive, in which the English
nation is so deeply engaged, and which with additional sorrow we
observe to be greatly increasing in their northern colonies, and
likely still more to increase by the acquisition the English have
lately made of the factories on the river Senegal. I herewith send
thee some small treatises lately published here on that subject,
wherein are truely set forth the great inhumanity and wickedness which
this trade gives life to, whereby hundreds of thousands of our fellow
creatures, equally with us the objects of Christ's redeeming grace,
and as free as we are by nature, are kept under the worst oppression,
and many of them yearly brought to a miserable and untimely end.
"I make bold earnestly to entreat, that thou wouldst be pleased
seriously to read them, when I doubt not thou wilt perceive it to be a
matter which calls for the most deep consideration of all who are
concerned for the civil, as well as religious welfare of their
country, and who are desirous to avert those judgments, which evils of
such a dye must necessarily sooner or later bring upon every people
who are defiled therewith, and will, I trust, plead my excuse for the
freedom I take in thus addressing myself to thee. How an evil of so
deep a dye, has so long, not only passed unnoticed, but has even had
the countenance of the government, and been supported by law, is
surprising; it must be because many worthy men in power, both of the
laity and clergy, have been unacquainted with the horrible wickedness
with which the trade is carried on, the corrupt motives which give
life to it, and the groans, the numberless dying groans, which daily
ascend to God, the common father of mankind, from the broken hearts of
those our deeply oppressed fellow creatures."[120]
* * * * *
"PHILADELPHIA, TENTH MONTH, 30th, 1772.
"I herewith send thee a small tract (which I desire thou mayest keep)
lately sent me by Granville Sharp; it is an appendix to his former
treatise, and was published on account of the late negroe trial. He
has wrote me a long intelligent letter, with relation to the situation
of things in London on that head, which I shall be well pleased to
have an opportunity to communicate to thee. It seems lord Mansfield,
notwithstanding truth forced him to give such a judgment, was rather
disposed to favour the cause of the master than that of the slave. He
advised the master to apply to the parliament then sitting, which was
done accordingly, but without success. He fears such an application
will be renewed at the next session, and is preparing through his
friends in parliament and the bishops, to endeavour to prevent its
taking place, and calls for our help from this side the water. In this
case as he desires a speedy answer, I stand in need of the advice of
my friends what answer to make him. I have already let one opportunity
pass; there will be soon another to Liverpool. I have also to
communicate an interesting letter from Benjamin Franklin on the same
subject."
* * * * *
"PHILADELPHIA, ELEVENTH MONTH, 30th, 1772.
"_Dear Samuel_,
"I received both thy letters, inclosing the petition, and have been
concerned that I have not sooner acquainted thee with what had been
resulted thereon; but the care of a large school, engagement upon
engagement, I think four or five evenings last week, on committees,
&c., and the books which I received from England, which I intended to
send thee not being all returned, occasioned the delay. The vessel
from Virginia being near its departure when the petitions came to
hand, had but just time to confer with James Pemberton, on the
expediency of forwarding them, when we concluded best to take more
time and wait for a future opportunity which he thought would offer. I
herewith send thee such of the pieces relating to slavery, &c. of the
negroes, which I have been able to get back; people are shamefully
careless in not returning borrowed books. That wanting, wrote by a
West Indian, I will send hereafter. I have received since I saw thee,
a letter from the chief justice of South Carolina, which will I
believe afford thee much satisfaction."
* * * * *
"PHILADELPHIA, TWELFTH MONTH, 14th, 1773.
"_Beloved Friend_,
"The passage we were seeking for is Psalms 68, 31, 'Princes shall come
out of Egypt, Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God,'
under which name all that part of Africa inhabited by negroes may be
comprehended, and that these are the people here intended is clear
from Jer. 13, 23, 'can the Ethiopian change his skin?'
"Since my return I have received letters from Thomas Nicholson in
North Carolina, Edward Stabler in Virginia, and James Berry in
Maryland, all leading members in their several yearly meetings (these
I shall be glad to communicate to thee) expressive of their concern
for forwarding the great and good work we are engaged in. Edward
Stabler, clerk of the yearly meeting of Virginia, expresses, that
though they have not yet received the encouragement they desire to
their petition in England, yet it has not abated the zeal of some of
their leading men against the traffic."
* * * * *
"PHILADELPHIA, FOURTH MONTH, 28th, 1773.
"_Doctor John Fothergill_,
"Thy kind letter of the twenty-eighth of Eight Month last, I received
in due time, and gratefully acknowledge thy kind sympathy therein
expressed. I am likeminded with thee, with respect to the danger and
difficulty which would attend a sudden manumission of those negroes
now in the southern colonies, as well as to themselves, as to the
whites; wherefore except in particular cases the obtaining their
freedom, and indeed the freedom of many even amongst us, is by no
means the present object of my concern. But the best endeavors in our
power to draw the notice of the governments, upon the grievous
iniquity and great danger attendant on a further prosecution of the
slave trade, is what every truly sympathising mind cannot but
earnestly desire, and under divine direction promote to the utmost of
their power. If this could be obtained, I trust the sufferings of
those already amongst us, by the interposition of the government, and
even from selfish ends in their masters, would be mitigated, and in
time Providence would gradually work for the release of those, whose
age and situation would fit them for freedom. The settlements now in
prospect to be made in that large extent of country, from the west
side of the Allegany mountains to the Mississippi, on a breadth of
four or five hundred miles, would afford a suitable and beneficial
means of settlement for many of them among the white people, which
would in all probability be as profitable to the negroes as to the new
settlers. But I do not desire to take up thy time especially with
matters of so remote a nature, it being indeed with reluctance I take
up any of it, which I would have avoided, was there any person to whom
I could have addressed myself with the same expectation, that what I
have in view would be thereby answered. An address has been presented
to our assembly, desiring it would use its utmost endeavours with the
king and parliament, that an end may be put to the slave trade, by
laying a duty of twenty pounds on all slaves imported. It was thought
necessary that some friends with you should be acquainted with the
further steps that had been, or were likely to be taken, so as to
enable you to speak in support of the law, if necessary: to which end
I herewith send thee a copy of the address, also a copy of what I now
write to our agent, Benjamin Franklin, on that head, in order to make
him acquainted with what passes here on this momentous concern.
"I have also enclosed a number of copies of a pamphlet wrote at the
time we presented the petition, in order to lay the weight of the
matter briefly before the members of the assembly, and other active
members of government in this and the neighbouring provinces. It was
written by Benjamin Rush, a young physician of the Presbyterian
communion, a person who I understand thou was acquainted with, when
pursuing his studies three or four years past with you. I almost send
a small collection of religious tracts, chiefly compiled for the use
of inquiring people in our back countries, where such books are much
wanted. I endeavoured so to collect them as to be plain, instructive
and edifying, without touching upon that which might be of fruitless
debate.
"ANTHONY BENEZET."
* * * * *
"PHILADELPHIA, FOURTH MONTH, 1773.
"_Granville Sharp_,
"I wrote thee at large, by a vessel for Ireland, about six weeks past,
and also three weeks ago by the packet from New York, respecting the
steps taken, and likely to be pursued in the several more northern
provinces, in relation to the slave trade. I am glad to understand
from my friend Benjamin Franklin, that you have commenced an
acquaintance, and that he expects in future, to concert with thee in
the affair of slavery. I herewith send thee some pamphlets, and in a
confidence of thy goodness of heart, which by looking to the
intention, will construe the freedom I have taken in the best light,
"I remain with love,
"ANTHONY BENEZET."
* * * * *
"HANOVER, January 18, 1773.
"_Dear Sir_:
"I take this opportunity to acknowledge the receipt of Anthony
Benezet's book against the slave trade: I thank you for it. It is not
a little surprising, that the professors of christianity, whose chief
excellence consists in softening the human heart, in cherishing and
improving its finer feelings, should encourage a practice so totally
repugnant to the first impressions of right and wrong. What adds to
the wonder is, that this abominable practice has been introduced in
the most enlightened ages. Times, that seem to have pretensions to
boast of high improvements in the arts and sciences, and refined
morality, have brought into general use, and guarded by many laws, a
species of violence and tyranny, which our more rude and barbarous,
but more honest ancestors detested. Is it not amazing, that at a time,
when the rights of humanity are defined and understood with precision,
in a country, above all others, fond of liberty; that in such an age,
and in such a country, we find men professing a religion the most
humane, mild, gentle and generous, adopting a principle as repugnant
to humanity, as it is inconsistent with the bible, and destructive to
liberty? How few in practice from conscientious motive!
"Would any one believe that I am master of slaves, of my own
purchase! I am drawn along by the general inconvenience of living here
without them. I will not, I cannot justify it. However capable my
conduct, I will so far pay my devoir to virtue, as to own the
excellence and rectitude of her precepts, and lament my want of
conformity to them.
"I believe a time will come when an opportunity will be offered to
abolish this lamentable evil. Every thing we can do, is to improve it,
if it happens in our day; if not, let us transmit to our descendants,
together with our slaves, a pity for their unhappy lot, and an
abhorrence for slavery. If we cannot reduce this wished for
reformation to practice, let us treat the unhappy victims with lenity.
It is the furthest advance we can make towards justice. It is a debt
we owe to the purity of our religion, to show that it is at variance
with that law, which warrants slavery.
"I know not where to stop. I could say many things on the subject; a
serious view of which, gives a gloomy perspective in future
times!"[121]
* * * * *
"PHILADELPHIA, TENTH MONTH, 23d, 1774.
"_Dear_ ----.
"I was pleased to hear from thee. I have not been unmindful of
endeavoring to lay before all the delegates I have conversed with, the
dreadful situation of the people in the most southern provinces, and
the absolute necessity they are under of ceasing, at least from any
farther import of negroes. With Patrick Henry I went further, he gave
some attention when I mentioned from whence I apprehended we must look
for deliverance, even from God alone, but pursuing such methods as
would be most agreeable to the nature of the Beneficent Father of the
family of mankind, whose love and regard to his children, even such
who were influenced by wrong dispositions, remained unchangeable. That
we could not conciliate the Divine regard, but by acting agreeably to
the Divine attribute, which was love, and was to overcome by
suffering.
"That whatever wound might be given or received, between us and the
mother country, if ever that which was right prevailed, we should
mourn over. That as christianity knew of no enemies, we could not
expect deliverance by the violent method proposed, without departing
from the true foundation. To this with seriousness he replied, that it
was strange to him, to find some of the Quakers manifesting so
different a disposition from that I had described. I reminded him
that many of them had no other claim to our principles, but as they
were children or grandchildren of those who professed those
principles. I suppose his remark principally arose from the violent
spirit which some under our profession are apt to show, more
particularly in the congress, amongst whom I understand one of the
deputies from your city, and one from ours, appear as principals for
promoting such measures. I feel but little apprehension at the
prospect of things, which to many is so alarming. People are afraid of
being disturbed in their enjoyments, in their ease, their confidence
in the world, and the things of it. But I fear nothing more than
giving way to a spirit whose hope and expectation is from the
unchristian, yea unnatural, and cruel measures proposed by many, too
many, who seemed to have worked themselves to such a pitch, that it
looks as if they were athirst for blood! Its from God alone, by true
faith in his promises, deliverance must arise; and if from the
prevalence of other measures affliction and distress should be our
lot, it will be our own fault if it does not work for our good. Oh! if
a sufficient concern prevailed to experience grace to gain the
victory, to know all worldly inclinations and desires to be brought
under the regulation of the humbling power of the gospel, many would
feel so much of self in themselves, inducing to hope and seek for
comfort from the world, from our ease and plenty, which is yet as a
bar to obtaining an establishment in the pure, the humble, self
denying path of truth. If we properly felt our wants, the gulf between
us and true peace, if the combat between nature and grace were duly
maintained, the dread of outward evils would have little weight with
us, however we fall by outward commotion, even if the earth should be
dissolved, if in proper dispositions we cannot fall lower than in
God's arms.
"ANTHONY BENEZET.
"P.S. I should have been glad to have seen thyself and dear companion
before you left us, but make it a rule to take no exception where no
slight is intended; indeed where it is, to bear it, and take the first
opportunity to return kindness for the contrary, as most noble, and
most conducive to peace."
* * * * *
"PHILADELPHIA, THIRD MONTH, 30th, 1774.
"I was sorrowfully disappointed in not seeing thee in town. I had just
received a long letter from Granville Sharp, which I should have been
glad of an opportunity of showing thee, and taking thy advice upon a
suitable answer, more particularly upon a matter he appears to have
much at heart, viz. our procuring as many petitions as possible from
persons of some weight in the several provinces, to the same purport
as ours to the assembly, immediately to the king alone. As I shall not
send my letter before William Dillwyn goes, which may be some time
first, perhaps I may still have an opportunity of consulting thee on
this matter. Inclosed I send the copy of an argument, &c. I found in
Granville Sharp's letter which strikes me boldly and deeply. I hope
the idea will have a tendency to raise generous sentiments in some of
thy brethren of the law, whose hearts are not yet quite scared with
the love of the world, to appear in the noble cause of real liberty. I
showed it to Dr. Rush, and inquiring whether we should publish it in
the prints, he replied, 'they would knock us on the head if we did,' I
believe it will in future be profitably made use of. Remember me
affectionately to James Kinsey, I should be glad to know his
sentiments on the law reasoning of the argument. What a great thing it
is to stand up for liberty, true liberty, from a mind truly delivered
from all selfishness, in an unfeigned love to God and mankind. O the
selfishness of the human heart, how much of it is apt still to cleave
to us, even when our designs are upright."
* * * * *
"_Dear Samuel_,
"I herewith send thee a dozen pamphlets. I shall be glad that these
and more of the same may be handed to the members of your assembly,
and such others in your province, with whom they may be likely to
promote a representation being made to the king and parliament against
the slave trade."
* * * * *
"Seventh day, 4 o'clock.
"_Dear Friend_,
"I should have been very glad to have got thee to peruse the notes (on
slavery) I intend to make, as they will be large, and I wish if
possible to put them into the hands of the members of every assembly
on the continent, except South Carolina and Georgia, but do not desire
thou shouldst be put out of the way on that occasion. I suppose it
will be eight or ten, or more days before in the press. It might
preserve me from inadvertently publishing something which might rather
weaken the cause we have both at heart. However, in this, and all
other things, I desire to stand clear in the purity of my design, and
leave the event, but watch against my national activity."
* * * * *
FROM GOVERNOR LIVINGSTONE, OF NEW JERSEY
"The piece on slave keeping is excellent, but the arguments against
the lawfulness of war, have been answered a thousand times. May the
father of lights lead us into all truths, and over all the commotions
of this world, to his own glory, and the introduction of that kingdom
of peace and righteousness, which will endure forever. Believe me to
be your sincere friend."
* * * * *
FROM AMBROSE SERLE, SECRETARY TO LORD HOWE
"PHILADELPHIA, JUNE 2d, 1778.
"I ought not to omit, my valued friend, the returning you my kindest
thanks for your obliging present of books, which I shall peruse with
intention, and for your sake keep them by me. It would be happy for
the world at large, and for individuals, if the principles they
maintain were rightly understood and cordially received; we should in
that case have had no occasion to deplore the present miseries and
troubles, which (as the certain effect of sin) naturally result from
the ambition, dishonesty and other unmortified passions of mankind.
The world on the contrary would be something like a paradise regained;
and universal benevolence and philanthropy, reside as they ought in
the human heart. But though from long experience we may and must
despair of the general diffusion of Christian sentiments and practice,
we have this comfortable trust, in our own particular persons, that we
have a peace which the world can neither give nor take away; and
though the kingdoms of this world tumble into confusion, and are lost
in the corrupted strivings of men, we have a kingdom prepared of God,
incorruptible and that cannot fade away. There, though I see your face
no more upon earth, I have hope of meeting with you again; both of us
divested of all that can clog or injure our spirits, and both
participating that fulness of joy which flows from God's right hand
for evermore. To his tender protection I commend you, and remain with
sincere esteem your affectionate friend."
* * * * *
FROM JOHN WESLEY
"Mr. Oglethorp you know went so far as to begin settling a colony
without negroes, but at length the voice of those villains prevailed
who sell their country and their God for gold, who laugh at human
nature and compassion, and defy all religion but that of getting
money. It is certainly our duty to do all in our power to check this
growing evil, and something may be done by spreading those tracts
which place it in a true light. But I fear it will not be stopped till
all the kingdoms of this earth become the kingdoms of our God."
* * * * *
FROM NATHANIEL GILBERT, OF ANTIGUA
"October 29, 1768.
"I desire to embrace as my brethern all who love the Lord Jesus in
sincerity. I cannot but think that all true Christians agree in
fundamentals. Your tracts concerning slavery are very just, and it is
a matter I have often thought of, even before I became acquainted with
the truth: your arguments are forcible against purchasing slaves, or
being any way concerned in that trade."
* * * * *
"PHILADELPHIA, SEVENTH MONTH, 16th, 1781.
"_My Friend Abbé Raynal_,
"From the idea which I conceived of the justice, and generosity of thy
sentiments, I took the liberty of writing to thee about seven or eight
months past under cover of my friend Benjamin Franklin, and likewise
by J---- B----, who we are afraid was lost on his passage. Having
received no answer by several vessels, nor knowing whether my letters
reached thee, or whether thine miscarried, and a good opportunity
offering by my friend Dr. Griffitts, I now seize it to send thee two
copies of a small extract of origin and principles of my brethern the
Quakers, whom I observe in such of thy writings as have come to our
hands, thou didst not think unworthy of thy attention. I have nothing
to add to what I have already wrote thee, but I shall repeat my wish
of saluting thee affectionately on the principles of reason and
humanity, which constitutes that grand circle of love and charity,
unconfined by our parentage or country, but which affectionately
embraces the whole creation, earnestly desiring to the utmost of my
abilities to promote the happiness of all men, even of my enemies
themselves, could I have any. I beseech God to give thee strength that
thou mayest continue to hold up to mankind, thy brethren, principles
tending to replenish their hearts with goodness, friendship and
charity towards each other, that thus thou mayest, to the utmost of
thy power, render men reasonable, useful, and consequently happy; and
more especially that thou mayest combat that false principle of
honour, or rather of intolerable pride and folly, which so strongly
prevails in our nation, where the most indolent, and the least
useful, fancy themselves, and are reputed the most noble. Let us
endeavour to make them sensible that men are noble, but in exact
proportion with their being rational. The happiness which is to be
found in virtue alone, is sought for by men through the titles
acquired by their fathers for their activity in those wars which have
desolated the world, or in the wealth accumulated by their ancestors;
both means generally unjust and oppressive, and consequently rather
sources of shame and humiliation. For as the Chinese philosopher well
observes, 'there is scarcely one rich man out of an hundred, who was
not himself an oppressor, or the son of an oppressor.'
"Let us display to princes and rulers of nations, the example of Numa
Pompilius, who, by a conduct opposite to that of Romulus, his
predecessor, and most of his successors, rendered the Romans, during
his long reign, so respectable and happy. Above all, my dear friend,
let us represent to our compatriots the abominable iniquity of the
Guinea trade. Let us put to the blush the pretended disciples of the
benign Saviour of the World, for the encouragement given to the
unhappy Africans in invading the liberty of their own brethren. Let us
rise, and rise with energy against the corruption introduced into the
principles and manners of the masters and owners of slaves, by a
conduct so contrary to humanity, reason, and religion. Let us be still
more vehement in representing its baneful influence on the principles
and manners of their wretched offspring, necessarily educated in
idleness, pride, and all the vices to which human nature is liable.
"How desirable is it that Lewis the Sixteenth, whose virtues, and good
disposition have been so nobly praised, would set an example to the
other potentates of Europe, by forbidding his subjects to be concerned
in a traffic so evil in itself, and so corrupting in its consequences;
and that he would also issue out ordinances in favour of the negroes,
who are now slaves in his dominions. Alas! should christianity, that
law of love and charity, work its proper effect on the hearts of its
pretended disciples, we should see numbers of christians traverse
Africa, and both the Indies, not to pollute themselves with slavery
and slaughter, nor to accumulate wealth, the supreme wish of the
present nominal christians, but that divine love would impel them to
visit remote regions in order to make the inhabitants acquainted with
the corruption of the human heart, and invite them to seek for the
influence of that grace proposed by the gospel, by which they may
obtain salvation. I am under the necessity of concluding hastily,
requesting thou wouldst excuse faults, which time does not allow me to
correct, and to write to me by various opportunities, the vessels
bound to those parts often missing their destination.
"I am affectionately thy friend,
"ANTHONY BENEZET."
To this energetic and impassioned epistle, the abbé made the following
answer.
"BRUXELLES, DECEMBER 26, 1781.
"All your letters have miscarried; happily I received that of the
sixteenth of July, 1781, with the pamphlets filled with light and
sensibility, which accompany it. Never was any present more agreeable
to me. My satisfaction was equal to the respect I have always had for
the society of Quakers. May it please Heaven to cause all nations to
adopt their principles; men would then be happy, and the globe not
stained with blood. Let us join in our supplications to the supreme
Being, that he may unite us in the bonds of a tender and unalterable
charity.
"I am, &c.
"RAYNAL."
* * * * *
TO CHARLOTTE, _Queen of Great Britain_.
"Impressed with a sense of religious duty, and encouraged by the
opinion generally entertained of thy benevolent disposition to succour
the distressed, I take the liberty, very respectfully, to offer to thy
perusal some tracts which I believe faithfully describe the suffering
condition of many hundred thousands of our fellow creatures of the
African race, great numbers of whom, rent from every tender connexion
in life, are annually taken from their native land, to endure, in the
American islands and plantations, a most rigorous and cruel slavery,
whereby many, very many of them, are brought to a melancholy and
untimely end. When it is considered, that the inhabitants of Britain,
who are themselves so eminently blessed in the enjoyment of religious
and civil liberty, have long been, and yet are, very deeply concerned
in this flagrant violation of the common rights of mankind, and that
even its national authority is exerted in support of the African slave
trade, there is much reason to apprehend that this has been, and as
long as the evil exists, will continue to be, an occasion of drawing
down the Divine displeasure on the nation and its dependencies. May
these considerations induce thee to interpose thy kind endeavours on
behalf of this greatly oppressed people, whose abject situation gives
them an additional claim to the pity and assistance of the generous
mind, inasmuch as they are altogether deprived of the means of
soliciting effectual relief for themselves. That so thou may not only
be a blessed instrument in the hand of Him '_by whom kings reign, and
princes decree justice_,' to avert the awful judgments by which the
empire has already been so remarkably shaken, but that the blessings
of thousands ready to perish may come upon thee, at a time when the
superior advantages attendant on thy situation in this world, will no
longer be of any avail to thy consolation and support. To the tracts
on the subject to which I have thus ventured to crave thy particular
attention, I have added some others, which at different times, I have
believed it my duty to publish, and which I trust will afford thee
some satisfaction; their design being for the furtherance of that
universal peace, and good will amongst men, which the gospel was
intended to introduce. I hope thou will kindly excuse the freedom used
on this occasion, by an ancient man, whose mind for more than forty
years past, has been much separated from the common course of the
world, and long painfully exercised in the consideration of the
miseries under which so large a part of mankind equally with us the
objects of redeeming love, are suffering the most unjust and grievous
oppression, and who sincerely desires the temporal, and eternal
felicity of the queen and her royal consort.
"ANTHONY BENEZET.
"PHILADELPHIA, EIGHTH MONTH, 25th, 1783."
REVIEWS OF BOOKS
_The Life and Times of Booker T. Washington_. By B. F. RILEY, D.D.,
LL.D. Introduction by EDGAR Y. MULLINS, D.D., LL.D., President of the
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Fleming H. Revell Company, New
York, 1916. Pp. 301.
_Booker T. Washington, Builder of a Civilization_. By EMMETT J. SCOTT
and LYMAN BEECHER STOWE. Doubleday, Page & Company, 1916. Pp. 331.
Since the death of Dr. Booker T. Washington, the press has been loud
in singing his praises and writers have hurriedly published sketches
of his career. These first biographies unfortunately have been
inadequate to furnish the public a proper review of the record of the
distinguished man. In these two volumes before us, however, this
requirement has certainly been met.
The first is a valuable work which must find its way into every
up-to-date library in this country. It is an excellent estimate of the
services of a distinguished Negro, written by a white man who is
unselfishly laboring for the uplift of the black race. "Though of
another race," says Dr. Riley, "the present biographer is not affected
by the consciousness that he is writing of a Negro." Throughout this
work the writer is true to this principle. He has endeavored to be
absolutely frank in noting here and there the difficulties and
handicaps by which white men of the South have endeavored to keep the
Negro down. The aim of the author is so to direct attention to the
needs of the Negro and so to show how this Negro demonstrated the
capacity of the blacks that a larger number of white men may lend
these struggling people a helping hand.
Primarily interested in the bearing of the educator's career on the
conditions now obtaining in this country, the author has little to say
about his private life, choosing rather to present him as a man of the
world. Tracing his career, the author mentions his antecedent, his
poverty, his training at Hampton, his first ventures and the
establishment of Tuskegee. He then treats with more detail Dr.
Washington's national prominence, widening influence, ability to
organize, and increasing power. He carefully notes, too, the great
educator's chief characteristics, his sane and balanced views, his
belief in the cooperation of the two races, and his power to
interpret one race to the other. It is mainly this portion of the book
that makes this biography a work of incalculable value in the study of
the Negro during the last quarter of the century.
The other biography of Booker T. Washington is a somewhat more
intensive study of his life than that of Dr. Riley. The authors are
Mr. Washington's confidential associate and a trained and experienced
writer, sympathetically interested in the Negro because of the career
of his grandmother, Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of "Uncle Tom's
Cabin." It contains a fitting foreword by Major R. R. Moton, Dr.
Washington's successor, and a forceful preface by Ex-President
Theodore Roosevelt. The book is well written and well illustrated.
These authors were chosen by Mr. Washington himself with the hope that
they would produce "a record of his struggles and achievements at once
accurate and reliable." Coming from persons so closely associated with
the distinguished educator, the reader naturally expects some such
treatment as the "Life and Letters of Booker T. Washington." A work of
such scope, however, the authors themselves maintain is yet to be
written. Passing over his childhood, early training and education,
which they consider adequately narrated in "Up From Slavery," the
authors have directed their attention toward making an estimate of the
services of the educator during the last fifteen years of his life.
Written with this purpose in view the work serves as a complement of
Dr. Riley's book which is more concerned with the earlier period.
Each chapter is complete in itself, setting forth a distinct
achievement or the manifestation of some special ability. Here we get
an excellent account of the making of Tuskegee, the leadership of its
founder, his attitude on the rights of the Negro, how he met race
prejudice, the way in which he taught Negroes to cooperate, how he
encouraged the Negro in business, what he did for the Negro farmer,
his method of raising large sums of money, his skill in managing a
large institution, and finally an appropriate estimate of the man.
* * * * *
_In Spite of Handicap. An Autobiography._ By JAMES D. CORROTHERS. With
an Introduction by RAY STANNARD BAKER. George H. Doran Co., New York,
1916. Pp. 238.
This book is a study of Negro race prejudice, chiefly in the North.
One can not read the life of this member of the Negro race without
becoming much more vividly informed of the terrible power race
prejudice plays in retarding the progress of undeniably capable
persons when they are known to have some Negro blood. It is a sadly
true picture not only of the handicaps to Mr. Corrothers, but of
practically all Negroes of talent who essay to come out of the caste
to which barbaric prejudice assigns his group. For this reason we
could substitute for this individual as subject of this story most of
his race in the North.
The student of history will be more interested in his description of
his boyhood home, a Negro settlement in Cass County, Michigan. This
place was first an Under-Ground Railroad Station established in 1838
by some Southern Quakers whose conscience no longer allowed them to
hold their black brethren in slavery. They brought their slaves into
this far Northern region and soon protected other fugitive slaves from
the South. It became such a place of security for these runaway slaves
that in a few years they became sufficiently numerous to constitute a
large settlement. In 1847 a number of slave owners raided the place in
an effort to capture some of their Negroes. They had little success,
however. Manumitted slaves, free persons of color, and fugitives
continued to come and at the time of the outbreak of the Civil War the
community had been well established. Since the Civil War many of the
descendants of these pioneers have risen in various walks of life and
have left an impress on the world. The author of this volume is a
representative of this class.
The writer describes how that early in his career in this Cass County
atmosphere he met with the awful handicap of race prejudice which
forced upon him the conviction as to the difficulty of a colored man
to rise. In running from the conditions in the South his people did
not find a paradise in the North. Just as the author began by fighting
his way among the white boys who objected to him because of his
manifestation of superior talent for one of his color so he has had to
struggle throughout life. He has, however, become a writer of some
note, contributing verse and stories to such leading publications as
the _Century Magazine_, _Harper's_, _The Dial_, _The Crisis_, _The
Southern Workman_, _The Boston Transcript_, and _The Chicago Tribune_.
The author makes no pretence of writing a scientific historical or
sociological treatise. He relates such anecdotes of his own life as
will throw light on the influence of race prejudice in impeding the
progress of capable Negroes. His style is easy and clear, at times
beautiful. The book is well worth the reading of any person seriously
interested in our race problems.
E. L. MCLEAN
* * * * *
_The Administration of President Hayes._ BY JOHN W. BURGESS. Charles
Scribner's Sons, New York, 1916. Pp. 154.
These lectures, the author says, give in bare outline a description of
the administration of President Hayes. For various reasons his
administration has not received extended treatment by the students of
American History. Professor Burgess seeks to show that Hayes was one
of the greatest executives in the history of our nation, and that
wrongfully "the manner of his election has been used to depreciate his
service." He says: "As time goes on, however, and as the partisan
hatreds which are clustered around the election are lost from view,
his work looms larger and ever larger."
At the present time when there is such uncertainty in the election of
President and reference is made to that one of 1876, many are
repeating the contention that a partisan vote of the Electoral
Commission unconstitutionally made Hayes President. The author very
clearly points out that no president was more entitled to his office
on constitutional grounds than Rutherford B. Hayes. Contrary to the
assertion that eight Republican members of the Electoral Commission
voted on partisan grounds, Professor Burgess says that it was they who
stood squarely on the constitution and the seven Democratic members of
that commission voted purely on party lines. The Democrats had neither
"a leg nor a peg to stand upon in any one of the cases" of Oregon,
Louisiana, Florida or South Carolina. The Electoral Commission in each
case went back of the returns and accepted those certified by the
officials of the State, who had been in conformity with the
Constitution of the United States duly qualified to make them.
These lectures review the important problems of Hayes's
administration. Among these problems growing out of the Civil War was
the increasing aggression of the legislative branch of the federal
government. Beginning with the Reconstruction Period the government
was more and more becoming a parliamentary one. Hayes was determined
to reestablish it on its constitutional foundations. When he came into
power the lower house was in control of the Democrats and it was they
who were determined to usurp executive power. Riders were placed on
appropriation bills and efforts were made to force the President to
assent to laws which would eliminate the Federal Government from all
interference with the affairs of the Southern States. Notwithstanding
the fact that they forced an extra session of Congress when both
branches were Democratic, Hayes stood firm and in a long fight curbed
the aggression of the legislative branch. Among other great
achievements of his administration the author points out the reform of
the currency, improvements in civil service, and the adoption of a
wise policy in the treatment of the Indians.
The withdrawal of the troops from the defence of the Republican
governments in the South, President Hayes thought was necessary that
strife might cease and that those best fitted to rule should take
charge of their home affairs. The author considers this to be one of
the greatest acts of statesmanship that any president ever performed.
The old charge that this was a result of a deal between Southern
Democrats who were peacefully to permit Hayes to become President in
return for relieving them of military rule, he terms an invention of
the politicians and radical friends of the Negro. He maintains that
before Hayes ever became a candidate for the presidency it was well
known that he held such views favorable to the South.
The reader should bear in mind here that this theory of Mr. Burgess is
in keeping with his radical position that the Negro being inferior and
unfit for citizenship he should have been left at the mercy of the
white man who wanted to enslave him. Here as in all of Mr. Burgess's
Reconstruction discussions he sees only one side of the question. The
white man should be supreme and the Negro should merely have freedom
of body with no guarantee that even this would not be of doubtful
tenure. Reconstruction studies will always be valueless as long as
they are prosecuted by men of biased minds.
ORVILLE HOLLIDAY.
* * * * *
_American Patriots and Statesmen from Washington to Lincoln._ By
ALBERT BUSHNELL HART. P. F. Collier & Son, New York, 1916. Five
Volumes.
The editor deserves great credit for bringing together so much
original material reflecting the thought of the men who made the
nation. Every phase of American life and politics has been considered,
giving both the scholar and the layman a ready reference and guide for
a more intensive study of public opinion in this country than can be
obtained from the ordinary treatises on history and government. The
manner of selecting and arranging the materials exhibits evidence of
breadth of view on the part of the compiler and places his long
experience as a professor in the leading university of this country at
the disposal of persons who have not labored in this field so long.
Here we have the thoughts of almost every distinguished man who
materially influenced the history of this country from the time of the
discovery of America to the outbreak of the Civil War. The writer has
drawn on the works of all classes, statesmen, sages, men of affairs,
State officials, congressmen, senators, presidents, judges; ministers,
doctors, lawyers, educators, novelists, essayists and travellers;
poets and orators. Every section of the country, too, is represented
in this collection and a few foreigners who have manifested peculiar
interest in Americans have also been included. Some of these important
subjects treated in these documents are such questions as
"Expectations from the New World," "The First Immigrants," "Principles
of Personal Liberty," "Extension of Colonial Freedom," "The American
Revolution," "Independence of the United States," "Liberty in a
Federal Constitution," "National Democracy," "The Frontier," "States
Rights," "Slavery," "Nullification," and "The Popularization of
Government." Important treatises having a special bearing on the Negro
have not been omitted. Among these are Hinton Rowan Helpers' _Appeal
to the Non-slaveholding Whites_, Benjamin Wade's _Defiance of
Secession_, John Brown's _Last Speech of a Convicted Abolitionist_,
William H. Seward's _Irrepressible Conflict_, Abraham Lincoln's _A
House Divided against itself cannot Stand_, his _Meaning of the
Declaration of Independence_, his _Philosophy of Slavery_, the
_Gettysburg Address_, and the _Emancipation Proclamation_.
The collection as a whole makes a valuable reference work for the
modern teacher who is trying to explain the past in terms of present
achievements. These materials are so arranged as to show that what we
now call new problems in American life are issues of old, that the
questions now arising as to how to manage the army and navy, how to
deal with our colonies, how to maintain our position as a world power,
and how to promote national preparedness, have all been discussed pro
and con by leading statesmen in the past. Libraries in need of source
material lying in this field would make no mistake in purchasing this
valuable collection.
A. H. CLEMMONS.
FOOTNOTES:
[120] All of these letters are taken from Roberts Vaux's "Memoirs of
the Life of Anthony Benezet," pp. 25-62.
[121] Written by Patrick Henry.
NOTES
Harrison and Sons, London, have published an "_Anthropological Report
on Sierra Leone_," by Northcote W. Thomas, in three parts. Part I
covers the law and customs of the Tinne and other tribes. Part II
consists of a "Tinne-English dictionary" and part III of a grammar and
stories.
This firm has also brought out "_Specimens of Languages from Sierra
Leone_" by the same author. This work contains tabular vocabularies
with short stories and notes on Tones, illustrated with the Staff
Notation.
Macmillan and Company have published the "_My Yoruba Alphabet_" by R.
E. Bennett.
"_Mâliki Law_" by F. H. Buxton has appeared with the imprint of Luzac
and Company. This is a summary from French Translations of the
"_Mukhtasar of Sîdî Khalîl_" by Captain Buxton of the Political
Department of Nigeria. It was published by order of Sir F. D. Sugard,
Governor-General of Nigeria.
"_Native Life in South Africa before and since the European War and
the Boer Rebellion_" by Sol. T. Plaatje has been published by P. S.
King. This work is especially valuable for students of Negro History
in that they may obtain from it the other side of the race problem in
that country. The author is an educated native who has served the
government as an interpreter, and now edits for a native syndicate
_Tsala ea Batho_ (The People's Friend). The purpose of the writer is
to explain the grievances of the natives and especially that one
resulting from the Land Act of 1913.
Allen and Unwin have published the third volume of "_The History of
South Africa from 1795 to 1872_" by G. McCall Theal. The work is to be
completed in five volumes.
Among Putnam's recent publications is F. W. Seward's "_Reminiscences
of a War Time Statesman and Diplomat_," being his father William H.
Seward.
The University of Chicago Press has published "_Slavery in Germanic
Society during the Middle Ages_."
C. R. Hall has published through the Princeton University Press his
"_Andrew Johnson: Military Governor of Tennessee_."
Stokes has published J. A. B. Scherer's _Cotton as a World Power_.
Mr. Henry B. Rankin's "_Personal Recollections of Abraham Lincoln_"
has come from the press of the Putnams. This book is interesting and
valuable in that it is written by a man who studied law under Lincoln
and Herndon.
The Chicago Historical Society has published a booklet entitled "_The
Convention that nominated Lincoln_," giving its outward and local
aspects.
In C. J. Heatwole's _History of Education in Virginia_, published by
Macmillan, passing mention is given the effort to enlighten the
Negroes in that State. The writer is mainly concerned with the efforts
for the uplift of the Negro since emancipation. He seemed to be
ignorant of the many efforts at education put forth by the Negroes
with the help of their friends even before the Civil War.
E. S. Green's _History of the University of South Carolina_ has been
published by the State Publishing Company at Columbia. In treating the
period during which the Negroes were in control of that institution
the author is adversely critical of the freedmen in general, but
mentions some colored graduates and pays a tribute to the high
character of Richard Theodore Greener, who served there as instructor.
"_The South To-day_" by John M. Moore has been published by the
Missionary Education Movement of the United States and Canada.
The JOURNAL OF NEGRO HISTORY has received a copy of Charles E.
Benton's "_Troutbeck: A Dutchess County Homestead_," with an
introduction by John Borroughs. Among the beautiful illustrations in
this pamphlet is that of Webutuck River at Troutbeck during the
performance of the "Hiawatha Pageant" at the fifth Amenia Field Day,
August 15, 1914.
A. A. Schomburg's _Bibliographical Checklist of American Negro Poetry_
has been published as one of a series of monographs edited by Charles
F. Heartman of New York. It is a valuable work.
The Argosy Company, Georgetown, British Guiana, has recently published
a work entitled _Black Talk_. This book consists of notes on Negro
dialect compiled by C. G. Cruickshank. It is an interesting and
informing volume.
THE JOURNAL
OF
NEGRO HISTORY
VOL. II--APRIL, 1917--No. 2
I
THE EVOLUTION OF THE SLAVE STATUS IN AMERICAN DEMOCRACY
Slavery and freedom were constituent elements in American institutions
from the very beginning. In the inherent antagonism of the two,
DeTocqueville recognized the most serious menace to the permanence of
the nation.[122] Slavery, which came in time to be known as the
"peculiar institution" of the South, gradually shaped the social,
moral, economic and political ideas of that section to fit its genius.
The more democratic tendencies of the free industrial order of the
North served by contrast to crystallize still more the group
consciousness of the South. In this wise the erstwhile loyal South was
slowly transformed into a section that was prepared to place local and
sectional interests above national, and the result was secession. Just
as it was not loyalty to inalienable human rights in the abstract that
brought about the abolition of slavery in the North, but rather the
gradual expansion of the idea of liberty through the free give and
take of a vigorous democracy in which economic and social conditions
militated against slavery, so it was not loyalty to States' rights in
the abstract that brought about the Civil War but rather the alien
group consciousness of the slave States which was the outgrowth of
totally different economic and social conditions. It is the object of
this paper to trace the influence of these various factors upon the
status of the slave.
Slavery of both Indians and Negroes and white servitude were well
recognized forms of social status in all the colonies, and slavery was
general down to the time of the American Revolution. As early as 1639
we hear of a Negro slave in Pennsylvania. In 1644 Negroes were in
demand to work the lowlands of the Delaware. In 1685 William Penn
directed his steward at Pennsbury to secure blacks for work "since
they might be held for life," which was not true of indentured
servants.[123] Negro slaves were sold in Maryland in 1642.[124]
Negroes are referred to in the Connecticut records as early as
1660.[125] An "act against trading with negro slaves" was passed in
Elizabeth-Town, New Jersey, in 1682.[126] An entry in Winthrop's
Journal, February 26, 1638, states that a "Mr. Peirce, in the Salem
ship, the _Desire_, returned from the West Indies after seven months.
He had been to Providence, and brought some cotton, and tobacco, and
_Negroes_, etc."[127] The twenty Negroes sold to the colonists at
Jamestown, 1619, were the first landed on the soil of Virginia and
possibly the first brought to the American colonies.[128]
There is evidence to show that the status of the Negro was at first
very closely affiliated with that of the white servant with whom the
colonists were thoroughly familiar and who stood half way between
freedom and complete subjection. It is probable, therefore, that both
Indian and Negro servitude preceded Indian and Negro slavery in all
the colonies,[129] though the transition to slavery as the normal
status of the Negro was very speedily made. The first and essential
feature in this transition was the lengthening of the period of
servitude from a limited time to the natural life. The slave differed
from the servant then not so much in the loss of liberty, civil and
political, as in the perpetual nature of that loss.[130]
There were several factors operating in the case of the Negro to fix
the status of the slave as his normal condition, the earliest and one
of the strongest of which was economic in character. Certainly the
influences which brought Negro slavery to the West-Indies and later to
the British colonies to the north were primarily economic. As a result
of her great commercial expansion in the first half of the fifteenth
century Spain had established a thriving slave trade with the west
coast of Africa. When it was discovered that the natives of the West
Indies, who had been enslaved to meet the labor demands of the new
world, were unable to do the work Spain began to import Negro slave
labor at the suggestion of Bishop Las Casas, thus turning the stream
of slave trade westward about the beginning of the sixteenth century.
By way of the English island colonies, the Bermudas and Barbados, the
slave trade extended northward to the American colonies, the first
slaves being brought from the West Indies to Virginia in 1619, so that
by the end of the seventeenth century the traffic had reached
proportions that frightened the colonists into taking measures for its
restriction.[131]
The fact that Negro slavery reached American soil by way of the West
Indies is not without significance as throwing light upon the status
of the slave especially in the southern colonies such as the Carolinas
and Georgia. The first Negro slaves imported into South Carolina came
from Barbados in 1671 and there is reason for thinking that the
Barbadian slave code and customs were imported with the slaves, for
the act passed in Barbados in 1668 declaring Negro slaves to be real
estate was copied very closely in the South Carolina act of
1690.[132] The stringency of the Barbadian slave code and the
resulting barbarous treatment of the slaves have made the little
island famous in history. "For a hundred years," says Johnston,
"slaves in Barbados were mutilated, tortured, gibbeted alive and left
to starve to death, burnt alive, flung into coppers of boiling sugar,
whipped to death, overworked, underfed, obliged from sheer lack of any
clothing to expose their nudity to the jeers of the 'poor'
whites."[133] And yet the owners of these slaves were English, of the
same stock under which developed the mild patriarchal type of slavery
of Virginia. The difference in the status of the slave in Virginia and
in the northern colonies as opposed to the colonies farther south,
where in some places the Barbadian conditions were at least
approximated, is to be explained in terms of the different social and
economic conditions rather than the character of the slave-owners. The
West Indian type of slavery was not conducive to the more intimate and
sympathetic relations which arose between slave and master in the
colonies to the north where a fairly complete integration of the Negro
in the social consciousness of the white took place.
It is easy to distinguish factors in the economic conditions in the
northern and southern colonies which brought about these differences
in the status of the slave in the two sections. In the trading
colonies of New England and in the farming colonies of the Middle
States the occupations in which slave labor could be profitably made
use of were limited in number. The climate was too cool, especially
for freshly imported slaves. Slave labor was ill adapted to the kind
of crops the soil demanded. The status of the slave from the very
nature of the case approximated that of the servant. The slaves became
for the most part servants, the time of whose service was perpetual.
The slaves of Pennsylvania, for this reason, were treated much more
kindly than the Negroes in the West Indies. Their lot was doubtless
far happier than that of the slaves in the lower South.[134]
The conditions in the planting colonies from Virginia southward were
different. Here was an unlimited supply of fertile lands which lent
themselves readily to the unskillful and exhausting methods of slave
labor. Here too was a warm climate congenial to the Negro, though
enervating and often unhealthful for the white. The staples, such as
the sugar cane, rice and later the cotton plant, were such as the
unscientific slave labor might easily cultivate. All the conditions of
profitable slave labor were present, namely, possibilities for
concentration of labor, its absolute control and direction and
exploitation.
The status of the Negro in the planting colonies was the outcome of
these economic conditions. He was deprived of the stimulating effect
of personal intercourse with the white, enjoyed by the slave at the
north. His status was fixed by a certain position in an industrial
system, the tendency of which was to attach him more and more to the
soil and, especially on the larger plantation, to make of him a
"living tool." He became, as time went on, the economic unit. Even
free labor, in so far as it survived slave labor, was forced to take
its measure of values from the slave. There were of course gradations
in status even among the slaves in the lower South so that the same
system could include the conditions described in Fanny Kemble's
_Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation_ as well as those
portrayed in Smedes' _Memorials of a Southern Planter_. If we take the
whole sweep of country from New England to the far South, the
differences in the status of the slave varied still more, including
the exceedingly mild form of slavery in Pennsylvania where the slave
was not essentially different from the indentured servant, the
patriarchal slavery of Virginia, as well as the capitalistic
exploitation of slave labor in the great rice plantations of South
Carolina and Georgia and the cotton and cane plantations of
Mississippi and Louisiana. Here, in some cases at least, the West
Indian conditions were approximated. In the lower South particularly
were found those conditions which as we shall see later tended to fix
the slave status as an integral part of southern life so that in time
it came to be spoken of as the South's "peculiar institution."
Strange as it may seem, religion also played a large part in the
determination of the status of the slave in early colonial days. Just
as it was the zeal of the early Church which had much to do with the
eradication of the slavery of antiquity, so it was also the zeal and
bigotry of churchmen that had much to do with the reinstatement of
slavery of a type worse in some respects than that of antiquity.
Speaking of the custom of the Spaniards of enslaving the Moors that
fell into their hands through conquest, Prescott says: "It was the
received opinion among good Catholics of that period, that heathen and
barbarous nations were placed by the circumstances of their infidelity
without the pale both of spiritual and civil rights."[135] The
expansion that took place as a result of the discovery of the new
world brought Europeans into contact with heathen who according to the
prevailing opinions were without the pale of Christianity and,
therefore, possessed of no rights that Christians need observe. It is
not surprising then that Columbus brought back Indian slaves with him,
though Isabella ordered returned those "who had not been taken in just
war."
The Puritan settlers of New England were not one whit behind the
Spanish in making use of the same religious grounds for the enslaving
of the Indians conquered in war. Roger Williams in a letter to John
Winthrop in 1637 writes as follows of a successful expedition against
the Pequots: "It having again pleased the Most High to put into our
hands another miserable drove of Adam's degenerate seed, and our
brethren by nature, I am bold (if I may not offend in it) to request
the keeping and bringing up of one of the children." The following
extract from a letter to Winthrop in 1645 is a curious mixture of
religious bigotry and Yankee shrewdness: "A war with the Narragansetts
is very considerable to this plantation, for I doubt whether it be not
sin in us, having power in our hands, to suffer them to maintain the
worship of the devil, which their pow wows often do; secondly, if upon
a just war the Lord should deliver them into our hands, we might
easily have men, women and children enough to exchange for Moors
(Negroes?) which will be more gainful pillage for us than we conceive,
for I do not see how we can thrive until we get into a flock of slaves
sufficient to do all our business, for our children's children will
hardly see this great continent filled with people, so that our
servants will still desire freedom to plant for themselves and not
stay but for very great wages. And I suppose you know very well how we
shall maintain twenty Moors cheaper than one English servant."[136]
Few passages better illustrate how religious ideas and economic needs
conspired to bring about the enslavement of both Indian and Negro at
this early period.
Race also played its part in determining the slave status. There was
present more or less from the very beginning of slavery in States like
Virginia the tendency to limit such servitude to the Negro race. At
first, when both Indian and Negro slaves were found together, there
was no _a priori_ ground for discriminating against the Negro in favor
of the Indian and designating the status of the slave as the normal
status of the Negro. The probable reason is that racial
characteristics of the Indian made him a bad subject for slavery. The
Massachusetts colonists found the Pequot Indians surly, revengeful and
in the words of Cotton Mather unable to "endure the Yoke."[137] The
Negro, on the contrary, proved himself much more tractable and
therefore more profitable as a slave. These plastic race traits, in
fact, have enabled the Negro to survive while the less adaptive Indian
has disappeared. Thus the bonds of a servile status hardened from
decade to decade about the Negro, being determined partly by economic
needs, partly by religious prejudices and partly by the Negro's own
peculiar racial traits.
Legislation, which always follows in the wake of status and normally
gives expression to it, corroborates what has just been stated.
Virginia in the act of 1670 first fixed the legal status of the slave
and so worded the act as virtually to protect the Indian from
enslavement. By an act of 1705 she made Indian enslavement illegal,
thus practically limiting slavery to the Negro. Hence at the time when
Virginia drew up her famous Declaration of Rights, in which she
affirmed the natural equality and inalienable rights of all men, the
prevailing sentiment of the community undoubtedly was that the normal
status of the Negro was that of the slave, which status placed him
entirely without the scope of these lofty declarations. The protests
of such men as George Wythe and Thomas Jefferson were contrary to the
drift of the social mind.[138] The last stage in this process of
determining status on the basis of race is to be found in the various
slave codes that grew up in the Southern States. They were supposed to
be done away with forever by the war amendments and Sumner's famous
Bill of Rights but the problem is one far too subtle and intricate for
regulation by statute, as the Supreme Court has discovered. Status
based upon color still exists both North and South though without
legal sanction.[139]
The noble conceptions of freedom and equality which were embodied in
the bills of rights and the Declaration of Independence were destined
in time to triumph over slavery, though not without bloodshed. It is
interesting to trace their influence on the status of the slave. The
doctrine of human rights found in the Declaration of Independence and
in the bills of rights of the State constitutions, despite its
metaphysical cast, is not derived from the political philosophy of the
French; the key of the demolished Bastile sent by Lafayette to
Washington by the hand of Thomas Paine symbolized rather the debt owed
to America by France.[140] The Declaration itself perhaps shows
closer affiliations with John Locke's _Treatise on Civil Government_,
which may be taken as a statement of the principles contended for in
the Puritan Revolution of 1688. But even Locke's ideas of civil and
religious liberty were not original with him. They were in reality the
result of applying to the sphere of politics the logical implications
of doctrines preached by the Protestant reformers of a century or two
earlier in their revolt against the authority of tradition. To be sure
the masses of men were ignorant of the theological distinctions drawn
by Luther and Knox between the democracy of sin under the first Adam
and the democracy of grace under the second Adam or Christ. The
levelling effect of these ideas, however, was unmistakably felt as in
the doggerel of John Ball, the mad Wycliffite priest of Kent,
"When Adam dalf and Eve span,
Who was then the gentleman?"
In the next century under the pressure of their struggle against
injustice masquerading behind charters and parliaments, the Puritans
under the leadership of John Locke made their appeal to natural rights
just as the reformers before them had made their appeal to the higher
rights and duties that hold in a spiritual kingdom of grace. The
appeal, originally religious in origin, now appears stripped of its
theological setting and hence with a certain "metaphysical nakedness"
which only the enthusiasm and sense of need arising from the
necessities of their situation prevented its champions from
perceiving. Locke and Blackstone, while insisting upon the absolute
and inalienable rights of the individual, never broke with the feeling
for precedent inherent in the Englishman. The natural rights they
preached were only conceived as having validity within the sphere of
the British subject and not for humanity in general.[141]
In very much the same way the colonists, in the struggles against
royal oppression, felt the need for a higher and more comprehensive
sanction for their conduct and following the precedent set them by the
Puritans of the seventeenth century, they fell back upon the notion of
inalienable rights possessed by each individual independent of
society. Here, too, the inspiration and original setting of these
ideas were strongly religious. Religious toleration had gained
constitutional recognition in almost all the colonies so that the
political movement out of which American freedom was born had the
powerful support of religious sanction. To this fact must be
attributed in part at least the tone of finality and absoluteness in
the American declarations of rights. Out of this universal recognition
of liberty of conscience arose the notion of a right of a higher sort
not inherited but inherent and inalienable because rooted in man's
religious nature--"a God-given franchise."
This sense of the inherent and inalienable nature of the rights of
conscience was, under the stress of the immediate political exigencies
of the struggle with England, very easily and naturally extended from
the sphere of religion to that of civil and political rights. It
provided the sanction for the break with the mother-country that was
contemplated. Virginia's declaration of rights was intended to be law,
for the preamble states that these rights "do pertain to them (the
people of Virginia) and their posterity as the basis and foundation of
government." And what are these rights? They are first of all, "That
all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain
inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society,
they can not by any compact deprive or divest their posterity,
etc."[142] Thus, from the logic of events and not as a result of a
philosophical speculation, the Revolutionary fathers were forced to
take advanced ground in their definition of human rights. Leaving the
fixed social order of the old country for the wilderness, where the
only society was that of the savage, they naturally looked upon
government as arising out of a compact behind which lay the sovereign
autonomy of the individual by virtue of inalienable rights given him
by God. What more natural in their revolt from the old country than to
make this doctrine the political and moral sanction of their course?
The rich emotional life aroused by the war for national independence
as well as the struggle of over half a century later for the
emancipation of the slave have given to these ideas of inalienable
human rights a hold upon the conscience of the nation altogether
incommensurate with their actual validity. It would be a thankless
task and yet an altogether feasible one to show that the Revolutionary
fathers did not break with English traditions in their declarations of
rights. They simply stripped these principles of their original
religious and political setting and persuaded themselves that through
a fresh and rigorous restatement of them they had established their
finality and originality. A stream is not changed by altering the name
it bears at its fountain head. The very enthusiasm and loyalty of the
men of '76 for what has been called "metaphysical jargon" leads one to
suspect that the ultimate basis of these ideas lay in the social
consciousness of the people. The democratic ideals they expressed in
institutional forms--social, political or religious--belonged, of
course, to the social heritage they brought with them from the old
country. They did not, therefore, discover these "lost title deeds of
the human race." It would be much nearer the truth to say they merely
stated them clearly because by virtue of previous training and a new
environment they had succeeded best in realizing those conditions,
social and political, which alone make their clear statement possible.
The measure of success and validity of any social doctrine, no matter
how abstract, is to be found in its harmony with the background from
which it springs and in the extent to which it actually succeeds in
effecting needed social adjustments. It was perfectly natural that our
forefathers should wish to proclaim as a new and unalterable truth,
the everlasting possession of themselves and of all free people, what
they already enjoyed. This did not alter the fact that the only
guarantee for the perpetuity of these rights was the vigorous
democracy of which they were the expression. "The Americans," writes
Jellinek, "could calmly precede their plan of government with a bill
of rights, because that government and the controlling laws had
already long existed."[143]
As these great notions of human rights first took hold of the Anglo
Saxon through religion, so it was through religion also that the
ideals of freedom and equality first affected the status of the slave.
We have already seen what was the prevailing doctrine of Christendom
at the time of the discovery of the new world. It was that infidels
and heathen were without the Christian fold and so did not come under
those sanctions of conduct that prevailed in the dealings of
Christians with each other. The colonists, therefore, assumed "a right
to treat the Indians on the footing of Canaanites or Amalekites" with
no rights a Christian need regard.[144] The same was held true of
the Negroes. In time, however, petitions began to be received from
slaves desiring to be admitted to baptism and this raised the
question concerning the status of the slave after conversion to
Christianity.[145] The dilemma faced by the slave-owner with religious
scruples was as follows: To confer baptism would be in accordance with
the contention of pious churchmen that slavery was but a means to
bring about the salvation of the heathen.[146] On the other hand, to
admit to baptism would, according to the doctrines of the Reformation,
destroy the slave status entirely. By virtue of having entered the
democracy of grace represented by the Church of Christ, the
distinction of bond and free disappeared. To keep out the slave would
be to hamper the spread of Christianity; to admit him would be to
eliminate slavery.
This problem, however, seems never to have troubled the Puritan's
conscience greatly.[147] From his stern, high Calvinistic point of
view he was the elect of the earth, to whom the Almighty had given the
heathen for an inheritance, and in this he found a satisfactory
justification for his harsh and high-handed dealings with weaker races
such as the Indian and the Negro. Yet the germ of freedom contained in
the limited democracy of the elect of Calvinism was bound in time to
break the hard theological moulds in which it was originally cast. It
did this subsequently under the stress of external events in the
effort to throw off the shackles of British oppression. Nowhere did
the essential injustice of slavery become more evident to the minds of
men than in the healthful humanizing and socializing atmosphere of the
progressive industrial democracy of New England.
In the southern colonies especially, the question about the status of
the converted slave threatened to interfere with the slave-traffic so
that several of them passed acts to relieve the consciences of its
citizens. That of Virginia in 1667 is typical. It was enacted that
"Baptism doth not alter the condition of the person as to his bondage
or freedom; in order that diverse masters freed from this doubt may
more carefully endeavor the propagation of Christianity."[148] This
act is interesting as showing the appearance even at this early period
of the ethical dualism between free spiritual personality and the
physical disabilities of slavery. This in time became classic with
pro-slavery writers and perhaps received its strongest statement in a
book that appeared even after emancipation.[149]
In the constitution of the province of Carolina, drawn up by John
Locke in 1669, we have another interesting instance of the way in
which the traditions of freedom associated with religion conflicted
with slavery. The author of the famous _Treatise on Government_, which
was in part the inspiration of our Declaration of Independence, did
not feel that slavery was in any way incompatible with the doctrine
of freedom. Locke's constitution takes it for granted that slaves
would form part of the population of the province, though the
constitution was drawn up possibly two years before the first slave
was brought to the colony.[150] Locke insists upon entire religious
freedom. "No person whatsoever shall disturb, molest, or persecute
another for his speculative opinions in religion or his way of
worship." But he stipulates that this spiritual freedom shall in no
way affect the status of the slave. "Since charity obliges us to wish
well to the souls of all men, and religion ought to alter nothing in
any man's civil estate or right, it shall be lawful for slaves, as
well as others, to enter themselves, and be of what church or
profession any of them shall think best and, therefore, be as fully
members as any freeman. But no slave shall hereby be exempted from
that civil dominion his master hath over him, but be in all things in
the same state and condition he was in before." And again, even more
explicitly in section 110: "Every freeman of Carolina shall have
absolute power and authority over his negro slaves, of what opinion or
religion soever." These sections were evidently intended to meet any
scruples that might arise as to the effect of conversion upon the
slave's status. The culmination of this discussion was an opinion of
the Crown-Attorney and Solicitor-General of England, given in 1729 in
response to an appeal from the colonists, to the effect that baptism
in no way changed the status of the slave.[151] The trade of British
merchantmen was being endangered and it was important to remove the
scruples of the religious slaveholder.
In this feeling of Christian sympathy and fellowship for the slave who
professed Christianity undoubtedly lay potentialities for the
betterment of his conditions. Had there been favorable economic and
political forces working to bring these notions of equality more and
more to the consciousness of men, just as the storm and stress of
political struggle forced them to espouse the doctrines of inalienable
human rights, doubtless freedom would have come to the slave with the
growing sense of the wider implications of democracy. Certainly had
there prevailed in the South economic and social forces similar to
those in the North, the emancipation of the Negro would have taken
place naturally and normally in both sections. That Locke and his
contemporaries felt no incongruity between their ideas of liberty and
the existence of slavery must be attributed to the fact that the full
social implications of their doctrines had not yet been brought home
to them by industrial development. They accepted the status of the
slave as a matter of course in the existing agricultural order.
It is easy to see in Virginia, the chief slave-holding State of the
earlier period, how economic interests in time narrowed the sphere of
action and finally counteracted entirely the tendency of religion to
extend to the slave the ideal of freedom. In the act of 1670, the
first which dealt with slaves in Virginia, the enfranchising effect of
conversion was limited to servants imported from Christian lands; thus
were excluded at once the great majority of Negroes who came, of
course, from Africa. The few Negroes brought in from Christian lands,
such as England and the West Indies, were assigned by the act to the
status of servants from which many attained freedom. It was inevitable
that, in Virginia and the southern colonies especially, the religious
notion that profession of Christianity made a difference in status
should disappear before the more practical principle of race and
color. By the time of the Revolution the matter of religion had
practically disappeared as a factor in the status of the slave,[152]
except in so far as it continued in the form of the vicious ethical
dualism which asserted that the slave could enjoy equality and freedom
in the spiritual sphere while enduring physical bondage. This provided
an effective salve for many a pious slaveholder's conscience.
At the time of the American Revolution before the real problem of
slavery was felt, except in the minds of a few prophetic spirits such
as Jefferson, we can still detect two clearly marked tendencies. At
the South economic forces were combining with the social and racial
conditions to fix the status of slave as the normal condition of the
Negro, a most portentous fact for the future of that section. At the
North economic and social conditions were pointing already towards a
gradual emancipation of the slave in a democratic order that was
becoming more and more conscious of the full significance of the ideas
of freedom and equality.
What was the effect upon the status of the slave North and South of
the struggle for independence and the adoption of a declaration to the
effect that all men are free and equal and possessed of certain
inalienable rights?[153] In Pennsylvania from the very beginning of
the war of independence interest in the manumission of slaves
increased until it finally culminated in the act of 1780, an "Act for
the Gradual Abolition of Slavery," by adopting which Pennsylvania
became the first State to pass an abolition law.[154] The preamble of
this act asserts it to be the duty of Pennsylvanians to give
substantial proof of their gratitude for deliverance from the
oppression of Great Britain "by extending freedom to those of a
different color but the work of the same Almighty hand." Previous to
1776 discussion had been going on also in Massachusetts looking to the
abolition of slavery and in 1777 there was introduced an act with the
preamble declaring that "the practice of holding Africans and the
children born of them, or any other persons in slavery, is
unjustifiable in a civil government, at a time when they are asserting
their natural freedom."[155] This act never became law and it is an
interesting commentary upon conditions in the North, and especially in
New England, that in Massachusetts slavery was not abolished by
legislation but by the slow working of public sentiment. The assembly
of Rhode Island, likewise, prefaced an act against the importation of
slaves in 1774 by asserting that those who were struggling for the
preservation of their rights and liberties, among which that of
personal freedom is greatest, must be willing to extend a like liberty
to others.[156] Similar agitation and legislation were going on in
almost all the Northern and Middle States under the stimulus of the
spirit of freedom of the time.[157]
It is easy to note a change in the mental atmosphere as we pass to the
States farther south. The Assembly of Delaware tabled indefinitely a
bill of 1785 for the gradual abolition of slavery, and Maryland in her
declaration of rights adopted in 1776 restricted the enjoyment of
certain rights _to freemen only_. A petition introduced in the House
of Burgesses of Virginia in 1785, asking for general emancipation on
the ground that slavery was contrary to the principles of religion and
the ideas of freedom on which the government was founded, was read and
rejected without an opposing voice; Washington remarked in a letter to
Lafayette that it could hardly get a hearing.[158] In fact, there is
evidence for believing that, while leading men such as Jefferson,
Madison, Washington, Mason and Pinkney saw the evil of slavery and
wished heartily to rid their States of it, the mass of the citizens of
Maryland and Virginia did not wish to do away with the institution
either because of social habits and economic interests, or because
they felt unable to cope with the problem of an emancipated black
population. It must be remembered that in Maryland there were three
slaves to five whites, in Virginia and Georgia the numbers were about
equal, in South Carolina there were two slaves to one white, while in
Massachusetts there were sixty whites to one slave.[159] In the States
farther south, the Carolinas and Georgia, no change or attempted
change in the status of the slave seems to have occurred. The force
of social and economic habits was already too strong for the movings
of the spirit of freedom to affect the status of the slave.
The leaders of the time realized this only too well. Patrick Henry,
writing to a Quaker in 1773, said that slavery was "as repugnant to
humanity as it is inconsistent with the Bible and destructive of
liberty. Every thinking honest man rejects it as speculation, but how
few in practice from conscientious motives! Would any one believe that
I am a master of slaves of my own purchase? _I am drawn along by the
general inconvenience of living without them._"[160] Jefferson in a
letter written in 1815 expressed the hope that slavery would in time
yield "to the enlargement of the human mind, and its advancement in
science," but he confessed also that "where the disease is most deeply
seated, there it will be slowest in eradication. In the Northern
States it was merely superficial and easily corrected; in the
Southern, it is incorporated with the whole system, and requires time,
patience and perseverance in the curative process. That it may finally
be effected and its progress hastened, will be my last and fondest
prayer."[161]
Little light is gained as to the position occupied by the slave in the
social mind from the discussions and debates of the constitutional
convention of 1787, although slavery is tacitly recognized in the
clauses on representation and taxation, the extension of the
slave-trade, and the regulation of fugitive slaves. In connection with
the basis of representation and taxation the question arose whether
the slave was a person or a chattel, but it was debated not with the
view of bringing out what the consensus of opinion of the nation at
large was but rather with a view to the political exigencies of the
situation. The individual States had never been inclined nor did they
now propose to surrender to the Union the right to determine the
status of persons within their limits so that the debates were begun
with the general concession of the fact that slavery existed in some
of the States, that it would in all probability continue to exist, and
that the future of the institution was primarily a problem that
belonged to the individual States where it was found.
The problem facing the members of the convention was, therefore, to
provide a system of representation that would ensure political
equality to all sections and at the same time safeguard the peculiar
conditions and social and economic institutions of each State. To base
representation entirely upon the number of the free population would
give an undue preponderance to the free States, while to base it upon
all, both slave and free, would give an undue advantage to the five
slave States. Hence the rather queer compromise that representation
"shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free persons,
including those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding
Indians not taxed, _three fifths of all other persons_"--"all other
persons" being a euphemism for "slaves," a term which does not occur
in the document. By this measure the slave was made to be only three
fifths of a full social unit, or three fifths of a man. This would
seem to imply that in the social consciousness of the nation at large
the slave was part chattel and part person and this doubtless was the
fact. Certainly this is not the last instance where a tendency has
manifested itself to assign to the Negro a sort of intermediary status
between a chattel and a full social unit. The question came up in 1829
in the Virginia constitutional convention in the struggle between the
slaveholding eastern and the free western section of that State.[162]
Doubtless one reason for the refusal of Congress to reduce the
representation of the Southern States, after the legislation of a few
years ago, that practically disfranchised the Negro in the far South,
has been an unwillingness thus to lend national sanction to the
inferior political as well as social status to which this legislation
has at least for the time being reduced the Negro.
The clause in the constitution which subjected its framers to the
bitterest criticism at the hands of anti-slavery agitators is that
which requires that a "person held to service"--the term "slave" is
here avoided also--in one State and escaping to another shall be
delivered up on claim of the party to whom the service is due. In view
of the interests to be reconciled this clause was undoubtedly
necessary to union.[163] If the free States were to become a place of
refuge for escaping slaves it meant disaster for the States in which
the institution of slavery existed and they insisted upon this as a
self-protective measure. The constitution recognized the right of each
State to preserve the integrity of its own domestic institutions. "It
can never too often be called to mind," says Rhodes, "that the
political parties of the Northern States and their senators and
representatives in Congress, scrupulously respected the constitutional
protection given to the peculiar institution of the South, until, by
her own act, secession dissolved the bonds of union."[164] The tragedy
of the situation lay in the fact that the political necessities of the
time made unavoidable this strange union between freedom and slavery,
the fundamental incompatibility of which the expanding national life
was bound to make clear to the minds of men.
Looking back on this momentous period we are struck with what Lecky
calls "the grotesque absurdity of slaveowners signing a Declaration of
Independence which asserted the inalienable right of every man to
liberty and equality."[165] That the contradiction existed, that it
was felt by men like Jefferson, and that it was destined to become
more prominent in the mind of the nation as the implications and
applications of the great ideas of freedom and equality were enriched
and enlarged in the expanding life of a virile democracy, can not be
denied. But it may be remarked in the defense of our Revolutionary
fathers that they were facing the practical problem of effecting
national unity and that "it is a tendency of the Anglo-Saxon race to
take the expedient in politics when the absolute right can not be
had."[166] They compromised on slavery and on the whole wisely.
Moreover, the history of the development of great moral and political
concepts indicates that men often formulate principles the logical
implications of which are not grasped until new problems and the
demand for new social adjustments emerge. The great moral categories
of courage, temperance and justice first received scientific
formulation at the hands of the Greeks; the ever swelling stream of
human civilization has vastly enriched and enlarged these conceptions
but without altering their essential meaning. When the idea of liberty
which in 1776 included only one class, namely, those who owned the
property and administered the government of the nation, was expanded
so as to include every member of the social order, at that moment
slavery was doomed.
JOHN M. MECKLIN,
_Professor in the University of Pittsburgh_
FOOTNOTES:
[122] "Democracy in America," Vol. I, pp. 30, 361 ff, 369, 370,
Colonial Press edition.
[123] Turner, "The Negro in Pennsylvania," pp. 1 and 19.
[124] Bracket, "The Negro in Maryland," p. 26.
[125] Steiner, "History of Slavery in Connecticut," p. 12.
[126] Cooley, "A Study of Slavery in New Jersey," p. 12.
[127] Moore, "Notes on the History of Slavery in Mass.," p. 5.
[128] Ballagh, "A History of Slavery in Virginia," p. 8.
[129] _Ibid._, p. 30.
[130] Ballagh, _op. cit._, p. 28.
[131] _Ibid._, p. 11.
[132] McCrady, "Slavery in the Province of South Carolina, 1670-1770,"
pp. 631 ff of the Report of the American Historical Association for
1895.
[133] Sir H.H. Johnston, "The Negro in the New World," pp. 217, 218.
[134] Turner, _op. cit._, p. 40; see also DuBois, "The Suppression of
the African Slave Trade," Chs. III and IV.
[135] "Ferdinand and Isabella," Part II, Ch. 8.
[136] Moore, "History of Slavery in Massachusetts," pp. 2, 10.
[137] Brackett, _op. cit._, p. 20; Ballagh, _op. cit._, p. 36.
[138] Ballagh, _op. cit._, pp. 47 ff.
[139] Stephenson, "Race Distinction in American Law"; R. S. Baker,
"Following the Color Line."
[140] Ritchie, "Natural Rights," p. 3; see also in this connection
Jellinek, "The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of Citizens," and
Scherger, "The Evolution of Modern Liberty."
[141] Jellinek, "The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of Citizen,"
p. 56.
[142] Jellinek, _op. cit._, p. 84.
[143] Jellinek, _op. cit._, pp. 88, 89.
[144] Moore, _op. cit._, pp. 2, 30.
[145] _Ibid._, p. 58.
[146] Cotton Mather, who sanctioned slavery, evidently had this in
mind as the following observations show: "We know not when or how
these Indians first became inhabitants of this mighty continent, yet
we may guess that probably the devil decoyed these miserable savages
hither, in hopes that the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ would never
come here to destroy or disturb his absolute empire over them."
(Quoted by Moore, _op. cit._, p. 31.)
[147] Moore, _op. cit._, pp. 58, 71.
[148] Ballagh, _op. cit._, pp. 46, 47.
[149] Dabney, _Defence of Virginia_, pp. 158 ff.
[150] McCrady, _op. cit._, p. 644; for the text of the constitution
see Perley Poore, "The Federal and State Constitutions, Colonial
Charters and other Organic Laws of the United States," Part II, pp.
1397 ff.
[151] Brackett, _op. cit._, p. 30.
[152] Ballagh, _op. cit._, pp. 46 ff.
[153] Brackett, "The Status of the Slave, 1775-1789," pp. 263 ff. of
"Essays in the Constitutional History of the United States," edited by
Jameson, 1889.
[154] Turner, _op. cit._, p. 79.
[155] Moore, _op. cit._, p. 182.
[156] Johnston, _op. cit._, p. 22.
[157] Brackett, "The Status of the Slave, etc.," pp. 296 ff.
[158] _Ibid._, p. 305.
[159] _Ibid._, p. 265.
[160] Quoted by Merriam, "The Negro and the Nation," p. 19.
[161] Wks., VI, 456; IX, 515, Ford Ed.
[162] Greeley, "The American Conflict," I, p. 109 ff.
[163] Curtis, "Constitutional History of the United States," I, p.
606.
[164] History of the United States, I, p. 24.
[165] Lecky, "A History of England in the Eighteenth Century," VI, p.
282.
[166] Rhodes, "History of the United States," I, p. 18.
JOHN WOOLMAN'S EFFORTS IN BEHALF OF FREEDOM
Pioneers of epoch-making reforms are seldom accorded the reward they
merit. Later apostles usually obscure the greatness of their
predecessors, and posterity is prone to overlook the pristine
achievements of those who first had the vision. Such is the case of
John Woolman, a poor, untutored shopkeeper of New Jersey. He was among
the foremost to visualize the wrongs of human slavery, but his real
significance as an abolitionist has been greatly dimmed by the
subsequent deeds of such apostles as Garrison, Phillips, and Lincoln.
John Woolman's career as an apostle of freedom dates from his first
appearance in the ministry of the Society of Friends, an organization
commonly known as the Quakers, founded by George Fox in England during
the middle of the seventeenth century. Shortly after the organization
of this society, many of the members migrated to New England and the
Middle Atlantic Colonies. Others were exiled by Charles II to the West
Indies.[167] Paradoxical as it may seem, these earliest Friends,
though distinguishing themselves from other Christian sects by their
special stress on immediate teaching and guidance of the Holy Spirit,
had no scruples against keeping slaves. As a matter of fact, there was
a prevalent conviction that Christianity indorsed slavery.[168]
This anomalous indifference to the enslaved Negro's condition remained
almost constant until 1742. A few sporadic attempts, to be sure, were
made to discountenance slavery, but popular opinion, incited by
greed, favored the institution. In 1671, for example, George Fox,
during his visit to Barbadoes, admonished slaveholders to train their
slaves in the fear of God; and further admonished the overseers "to
deal gently and mildly with their Negroes, and not use cruelty towards
them as the manner of some hath been and is, and after certain years
of servitude make them free."[169] Four years later, William Edmundson
complained against the unjust treatment of slaves, but was brought,
for his pains, before the Governor, on the charge of "endeavoring to
excite an insurrection among the blacks."[170] In 1688 the German
Quakers of Germantown, Pennsylvania, sent to the Yearly Meeting for
the Pennsylvania and New Jersey Colonies a protest against "the buying
and keeping of Negroes."[171] The matter was taken under advisement,
but not until eight years later did the Yearly Meeting advise against
"bringing in any more Negroes." The Chester Quarterly Meeting,
however, insisted upon the adoption of definite measures against slave
traffic, but the Society never manifested any enthusiasm for such
legislation. The Friends were themselves slaveholders, and
slaveholders were rapidly increasing their wealth and power through
slavery; so they felt no pressing need of reform. The Yearly Meetings,
therefore, like many modern congresses, dextrously dodged the grave
issue of Negroes' rights, and merely expressed an opinion meekly
opposed to the importation of the blacks, and a desire that "Friends
generally do, as much as may be, avoid buying such Negroes as shall
hereafter be brought in, rather than offend any Friends who are
against it; yet this is only caution and not censure."[172] Not until
1742 was any appreciable influence exerted on the Friends against
slavery. A storekeeper of Mount Holly, New Jersey, requested his clerk
to prepare a bill of sale of a Negro woman whom he had sold. The
thought of writing such an instrument greatly oppressed the clerk. He
complied, however, but afterwards told both the employer and the
customer that he considered slave-keeping inconsistent with the
Christian religion.[173] The clerk who ventured such an opinion was
John Woolman.
John Woolman was born in Northampton, in Burlington County, West
Jersey, in the year 1720. His youthful struggle against wickedness was
in many respects similar to Bunyan's. The fear of God seized him in
early boyhood, and an intense religious fervor characterized his
future career. Though this fervor was undoubtedly an innate tendency,
it owed its development partly to the early guidance of pious parents;
for Woolman's father was, without doubt, a devout Christian. Every
Sunday after meeting, the children were required to read the Holy
Scriptures or some religious books. Here, no doubt, was the beginning
of Woolman's religious devotion to the teachings of the Bible.[174] At
times, during his youth, he apparently forgot these earliest
teachings, but he never wandered too far to be reproved by his
conscience. When he reached the age of sixteen, his will was finally
subdued, and he learned the lesson that youth seldom learns,--that
"all the cravings of sense must be governed by a Divine principle." He
tells us that he became convinced that "true religion consisted in an
inward life, wherein the heart doth love and reverence God, the
Creator, and learns to exercise true justice and goodness, not only
toward all men, but also toward the brute creatures."[175]
All this time Woolman lived with his parents and worked on the
plantation. His schooling was, consequently, meagre, but he gave a
generous portion of his leisure to his self-improvement. At the age of
twenty-one, he left home to tend shop and keep books for a baker in
Mount Holly. Meanwhile, his religious fervor was growing more intense,
and with it his genuine philanthropy. The inevitable sequence of his
accelerated enthusiasm for spreading the teachings of Christianity was
his entrance into the Christian ministry.[176]
In 1746 Woolman accompanied his beloved friend, Isaac Andrews, on a
tour through Maryland, Virginia, and Carolina. It was on this journey
that he beheld for the first time the miseries of slavery.[177] He
became so depressed with what he saw that on his return he wrote an
essay on the subject, publishing it in 1754. The essay appeared under
the elongated title of "Some Considerations on the Keeping of
Negroes Recommended to the Professors of Christianity of Every
Denomination."[178] The theme of Woolman's discussion is the
Brotherhood of Man. "All men by nature," he argues, "are equally
entitled to the equity of the Golden Rule, and under indispensable
obligations to it."[179] The whole discussion, which is an appeal to
the Friends to be mindful of the teachings of the Bible, glows with
the religious zeal which was so eminently characteristic of the
author. It is replete with such Biblical references as are sure to
have a wholesome effect upon a religious sect like the Society of
Friends.
Woolman made a second visit in 1757 to the Southern meetings of the
Society of Friends. Again he beheld the miseries of slavery and became
greatly alarmed at the extension of the system. Everywhere he turned,
he saw slaves. What pained him most was the presence of slaves in the
homes of Friends. He declined, therefore, to accept the hospitality of
his several hosts, feeling that the acceptance of such courtesies
would be an indorsement or encouragement of the evil.[180] Meanwhile,
he held confidential talks with Friends on the subject of slavery. On
one occasion, when a colonel of the militia berated the Negroes'
slothful disposition, Woolman replied that free men, whose minds are
properly on their business, find a satisfaction in improving,
cultivating, and providing for their families; whereas Negroes,
laboring to support others, and expecting nothing but slavery during
life, have not the same inducement to be industrious. Again, when
another slaveholder gave the wretchedness of Negroes, occasioned by
intestine wars, as a justification of slave-traffic, Woolman answered
that, if compassion for the Africans, on account of their domestic
troubles, was the real motive of buying them, the spirit of tenderness
should incite the Friends to use the Negroes kindly, as strangers
brought out of affliction. Many other arguments were urged in defence
of slavery, among which number was the oft-repeated notion that the
Africans' color subjects them to, or qualifies them for, slavery,
inasmuch as they are descendants of Cain who was marked with this
color, because he slew his brother Abel.[181] In short, a large portion
of Woolman's time during this second journey was given over to
answering such arguments. He travelled in the two months, during which
he was out, about eleven hundred and fifty miles. His efforts were not
without fruit, for he made a profound impression on many of the
honest-hearted.
All this time Woolman fought single-handed against overwhelming odds,
but he was destined soon to have help from two of the most remarkable
and antithetical personages connected with this early movement against
slavery; namely, Benjamin Lay and Anthony Benezet.[182] Lay
represented the revolutionary type of reformer. Whittier describes his
personal appearance as "a figure only four and a half feet high,
hunchbacked, with projecting chest, legs small and uneven, arms longer
than his legs; a huge head, showing only beneath his enormous white
hat large, solemn eyes and a prominent nose; the rest of his face
covered with a snowy semicircle of beard falling low on his breast--a
figure to recall the old legends of troll, brownie, and kobold."[183]
By birth he was a Friend, but the Society in England disowned him on
account of his revolutionary propensities. He took up residence in the
West Indies, but was compelled to leave on account of his violent
denunciation of slavery. He went to Philadelphia, but finding slavery
there, retired to a cave, where he lived a most eccentric life,
refusing to eat food or wear clothes which had been secured at the
expense of animal life, or produced by slave labor. He made frequent
excursions, however, from his cave to denounce slavery, his favorite
subject being "Deliverance to the Captive." He usually succeeded in
being heard, though he was detested by the slaveholders. On one
occasion, when he interrupted a meeting in Philadelphia, he was
forcibly ejected by a burly blacksmith. He remained, however, the most
fearless of the earliest abolitionists. Though his methods were
entirely different from Woolman's, and though, no doubt, neither
reformer was influenced by the other, Lay's stubborn fight against
slavery was obviously helpful to Woolman's calmer campaign against the
same evil.
Anthony Benezet, on the other hand, was a reformer of riper judgment
and calmer methods than Lay. He has been described as "a small,
eager-faced man, full of zeal and activity, constantly engaged in
works of benevolence, which were by no means confined to the
blacks."[184] He was a descendant of persecuted French Protestants.
He, therefore, inherited an aversion to any form of persecution, and
readily became a benefactor of the slave. It was inevitable that he
should become a friend of Woolman, and a coadjutor in the movement to
abolish slavery.[185]
Whether Lay or Benezet was influenced by Woolman may be a matter of
speculation and debate. The consideration of primary importance is the
increasing interest manifested in abolition. The Friends were
beginning to realize that slavery was contradictory to the basic
principles of their organization. Woolman's real opportunity,
therefore, came at the memorable Yearly Meeting of 1758, in
Philadelphia--the meeting which Whittier has seen fit to term "one of
the most important convocations in the history of the Christian
church." All during the early part of the meeting, Woolman remained
silent, his "mind frequently covered with inward prayer." But when,
towards the close of the meeting, the subject of slavery was brought
up, he took such an active part in the discussion that he dominated
that part of the meeting. His remarks were simple but impressive.[186]
The effect was so immediate that many slaveholders expressed a desire
to pass a rule to treat as offenders Friends who in the future bought
slaves. But there arose the criticism that the real evil could hardly
be cured "until a thorough search was made in the circumstances of
such Friends as kept Negroes with respect to the uprighteousness of
their motives in keeping them, that impartial justice might be
administered throughout." Sober thought prevailed. Many assented to
the proposition, and others declared that liberty was the Negro's
right. Before the meeting closed, John Woolman, John Scarborough,
Daniel Stanton, and John Sykes were appointed a committee "to visit
and treat with such Friends as kept slaves."[187] Thus the first
important step towards the abolition of slavery was taken.
The committee lost no time in setting out on their mission. Such a
stupendous undertaking, however, was fraught with obvious
difficulties. In the first place, the system of slavery had assumed
such large proportions that it required a number of years to visit and
treat with any appreciable number of slaveholders. Again, it was by no
means easy to persuade slaveholders to give up a possession which
meant so much to them in power and wealth. Finally, it was
unfortunately true in the eighteenth century, as it is in the
twentieth, that an argument of right and justice, based upon
Christianity, did not have instantaneous effect upon professing
Christians. But Woolman seemed divinely inspired to perform his
mission. He travelled extensively and never hesitated to approach
Friends on the subject of slavery.[188] At the Yearly Meeting for
1759, he was gratified to learn that a recommendation had been made to
Friends "to labor against buying and keeping slaves."[189]
As a means of promoting his cause, Woolman published in 1762 the
second part of his "Considerations on Keeping Negroes," a continuation
of his appeal for the operation of the Golden Rule.[190] The overseers
of the press offered to print the essay at the expense of the Yearly
Meeting, but Woolman did not accept the offer. He published the essay
at his own expense.[191] Woolman gives the following reason for not
accepting the overseers' offer: "This stock is the contribution of the
members of our religious society in general, among whom are some who
keep Negroes, and being inclined to continue them in slavery, are not
likely to be satisfied with such books being spread among a people,
especially at their own expense, many of whose slaves are taught to
read, and, such receiving them as a gift, often conceal them. But as
they who make a purchase generally buy that which they have a mind
for, I believe it best to sell them expecting by that means they would
more generally be read with attention."
The story of the rest of Woolman's life is but a repetition of his
travels and labors in behalf of abolition. He travelled extensively,
beheld the deplorable conditions attending slavery, and preached to
Friends his only sermon, that "Whatsoever ye would that men should do
unto you, do ye even so unto them." He did not live to see the slaves
manumitted by all the slaveholding Friends, but he "was renewedly
confirmed in mind that the Lord (whose tender mercies are over all his
works, and whose ear is open to all the cries and groans of the
oppressed) is graciously moving in the hearts of people to draw them
off from the desire of wealth and to bring them into such an humble,
lowly way of living that they may see their way clearly to repair to
the standard of true righteousness, and may not only break the yoke of
oppression, but may know Him to be their strength and support in times
of outward affliction."[192]
Woolman's career was fittingly brought to an end in England, the
birthplace of the society for whose improvement he labored so
faithfully. He landed at London in June, 1772, and went straightway to
the Yearly Meeting.[193] He visited a number of meetings in
neighboring towns. While he was attending a meeting of Friends at
York, he was smitten with small-pox. He died of the malady, October 1,
1772. But his difficult duty had been performed, and his labor had not
been in vain. His efforts had so greatly influenced the Society of
Friends that the traffic in slaves had been almost abandoned during
his life. Some, of course, continued the practice of holding slaves;
but a protest against the practice was made at the Yearly Meeting two
years after the death of Woolman, and in 1776 the subordinate meetings
were instructed to "deny the right of membership to such as persisted
in holding their fellow-men as property." Thus, within four years
after the pious reformer's death, the Society of Friends embraced the
doctrine of abolition and made slaveholding an offence against
Christianity.
The life of John Woolman furnishes another example of a poor but
courageous man, who, guided by the real teachings of the Christian
religion, rendered a great service to mankind. Living at a time when
the defence of black men's rights was considered reprehensible, he
fought against discouraging odds for the brotherhood of mankind. He
was meek, persuasive, and confident. He was not a scholar, but "the
greatest clerks be not the wisest men," says Chaucer. Like Bunyan, he
was a student of the Holy Bible, and well understood its teachings. He
realized that no power is durable, or any religion permanent, that is
based on hypocrisy. He realized, further, that the grave question of
men's rights must be interpreted in terms of the Christian religion.
His fellow Friends, incited by selfish motives, had become unmindful
of the basic elements of their religion. In their attempt to condone
slavery and embrace the religion of brotherhood, they had made
Christianity appear farcical. John Woolman's task, then, was not to
propagate a new religion, but to make fashionable the Christian
religion in which all professed a belief. He succeeded because he was
allied to the right. He succeeded because he fought courageously
against the wrong. He succeeded because he was a true disciple of the
Christian religion. Although his laudable achievement is somewhat
overlooked in these days, and his name does not command a conspicuous
place on the pages of anthologies, the true lovers of freedom and the
sincere exponents of the Christian religion will always remember with
reverence the wonderful service of John Woolman, the pious Quaker of
New Jersey.
G. DAVID HOUSTON
FOOTNOTES:
[167] The Act of Banishment enforced by Charles II against all
dissenters.
[168] This opinion was held and supported by Richard Nisbit, in his
"Slavery Not Forbidden by Scripture, or a Defence of the West-India
Planters." See "Slave-Trade Tracts," Vol. 1, Tract 3. The same opinion
was given by John Millar, LL.D., of the University of Glasgow, in his
treatise on the "Ranks of Society."
[169] Whittier, "The Journal of John Woolman," 7.
[170] _Ibid._, 7.
[171] _Pa. Mag._, IV, 28.
[172] Whittier, "The Journal of John Woolman," 8-9.
[173] Woolman relates this experience in the first chapter of his
"Journal," as follows: "My employer, having a Negro woman, sold her,
and desired me to write a bill of sale, the man being waiting who
bought her. The thing was sudden; and though I felt uneasiness at the
thoughts of writing an instrument of slavery for one of my fellow
creatures, yet I remembered that I was hired by the year, that it was
my master who directed me to do it, and that it was an elderly man, a
member of our Society, who bought her; so through weakness I gave way
and wrote it; but at the executing of it I was so afflicted in mind,
that I said before my master and the Friend that I believed
slave-keeping to be a practice inconsistent with the Christian
religion. This, in some degree, abated my uneasiness; yet as often as
I reflected seriously upon it I thought I should have been clearer if
I had desired to be excused from it, as a thing against my conscience;
for such it was." "Journal of John Woolman," Edition Philadelphia,
1845, pp. 30-31.
[174] Concerning this early home training, Woolman writes: "The pious
instructions of my parents were often fresh in my mind, when I
happened to be among wicked children, and were of use to me. Having a
large family of children, they used frequently, on first-days, after
meeting, to set us one after another to read the Holy Scriptures, or
some religious books, the rest sitting by without much conversation; I
have since often thought it was a good practice. From what I had read
and heard, I believed there had been, in past ages, people who walked
in uprightness before God in a degree exceeding any that I knew or
heard of now living." "Journal of John Woolman," 20.
[175] "Journal of John Woolman," 25.
[176] That Woolman had a very lofty conception of his calling will
appear in his following reflection: "All the faithful are not called
to the public ministry; but whoever are, are called to minister of
that which they have tasted and handled spiritually. The outward modes
of worship are various; but whenever any are true ministers of Jesus
Christ, it is from the operation of his Spirit upon their hearts,
first purifying them, and thus giving them a just sense of the
conditions of others. This truth was early fixed in my mind, and I was
taught to watch the pure opening, and to take heed lest, while I was
standing to speak, my own will should get uppermost, and cause me to
utter words from worldly wisdom, and depart from the channel of the
true gospel ministry." "Journal of John Woolman," 29.
[177] According to tradition, Woolman travelled mostly on foot during
his journeys among slaveholders. Brissot points out the similarity
between the Apostles' practices and Woolman's. The comparison is
entertaining, but cannot on all points be reconciled with facts given
by Woolman himself in his "Journal." See Brissot's "New Travels in
America," published in 1788.
Woolman's impression of slavery at this time is best told in his own
words referring to this first journey. He writes: "Two things were
remarkable to me in this journey: first, in regard to my
entertainment. When I ate, drank, and lodged free-cost with people who
lived in ease on the hard labor of their slaves I felt uneasy; and as
my mind was inward to the Lord, I found this uneasiness return upon
me, at times, through the whole visit. Where the masters bore a good
share of the burden, and lived frugally, so that their servants were
well provided for, and their labor moderate, I felt more easy; but
where they lived in a costly way, and laid heavy burdens on their
slaves, my exercise was often great, and I frequently had conversation
with them in private concerning it. Secondly, this trade of importing
slaves from their native country being much encouraged amongst them,
and the white people and their children so generally living without
such labor, was frequently the subject of my serious thoughts. I saw
in these southern provinces so many vices and corruptions, increased
by this trade and this way of life, that it appeared to me as a dark
gloominess hanging over the land." "Journal of John Woolman," 93.
[178] Note that this essay was not published until eight years after
Woolman's journey. The publication in 1754 was due partly to the
suggestion of Woolman's father, who, just before his death, persuaded
his son to publish the essay. This essay may be found in "Slave-Trade
Tracts," Vol. 2.
[179] See Some Considerations, etc.
[180] In this connection, Woolman has two striking passages on page 61
of his "Journal," viz., "Receiving a gift, considered as a gift,
brings the receiver under obligations to the benefactor, and has a
natural tendency to draw the obliged into a party with the giver. To
prevent difficulties of this kind, and to preserve the minds of judges
from any bias, was the Divine prohibition: 'Thou shalt not receive any
gift; for a gift bindeth the wise, and perverteth the words of the
righteous.'" (Exod. XXIII, 8.)
Again, "Conduct is more convincing than language, and where people, by
their actions, manifest that the slave-trade is not so disagreeable to
their principles, but that it may be encouraged, there is not a sound
uniting with some Friends who visit them."
[181] Woolman answered this argument by showing that Noah and
his family were all who survived the flood, according to Scripture;
and as Noah was of Seth's race, the family of Cain was wholly
destroyed. Woolman's opponent, however, replied that after the flood
Ham went to the land of Nod and took a wife; that Nod was a land far
distant, inhabited by Cain's race, and that the flood did not reach
it; and as Ham was sentenced to be a servant of servants to his
brethren, these two families, being thus joined, were undoubtedly fit
only for slaves. Woolman answered that the flood was a judgment upon
the world for their abominations, and it was granted that Cain's stock
was the most wicked, and therefore unreasonable to suppose that they
were spared. As to Ham's going to the land of Nod for a wife, no time
being fixed, Nod might be inhabited by some of Noah's family before
Ham married a second time. Moreover, according to the text, "All flesh
died that moved upon the earth." (Gen. VII, 21.) For the full account
of the argument, see the "Journal," p. 66.
It is interesting in this connection to note how Montesquieu, in his
"Spirit of Laws," treats this color argument with ridicule. He writes
ironically:
"Were I to vindicate our right to make slaves of the Negroes, these
should be my arguments.
"The Europeans, having extirpated the Americans, were obliged to make
slaves of the Africans for clearing such vast tracts of land.
"Sugar would be too dear, if the plants which produce it were
cultivated by any other than slaves.
"These creatures are all over black, and with such a flat nose that
they can scarcely be pitied.
"It is hardly to be believed that God, who is a wise being, should
place a soul, especially a good soul, in such a black ugly body.
"The Negroes prefer a glass necklace to that gold, which polite
nations so highly value: can there be greater proof of their wanting
common sense?
"It is impossible for us to suppose these creatures to be men,
because, allowing them to be men, a suspicion would follow, that we
ourselves are not Christians."--Book XV, Chap. V.
[182] See Clarkson's "History of the Abolition of the African Slave
Trade," II, 148, and Vaux's "Memoirs of Anthony Benezet."
[183] See John Greenleaf Whittier's "Introduction to John Woolman's
Journal."
[184] This description is by the Marquis de Chastellux, author of "De
la Felicite Publique."
[185] For an exhaustive discussion of Benezet, see the "Journal of
Negro History," Vol. II, No. 1.
[186] Woolman reports his remarks in substance as follows: "In the
difficulties attending us in this life nothing is more precious than
the mind of truth inwardly manifested; and it is my earnest desire
that in this weighty matter we may be so truly humbled as to be
favored with a clear understanding of the mind of truth, and follow
it; this would be of more advantage to the Society than any medium not
in the clearness of Divine wisdom. The case is difficult to some who
have slaves, but it should set aside all self-interest, and come to be
weaned from the desire of getting estates, or even from holding them
together, when truth requires the contrary, I believe way will so open
that they will know how to steer through those difficulties."
"Journal," pp. 91-92.
[187] "Journal of John Woolman," 93.
[188] Speaking of his mission, Woolman writes: "I have found an
increasing concern on my mind to visit some active members in our
Society who have slaves, and having no opportunity of the company of
such as were named in the minutes of the Yearly Meeting, I went alone
to the houses, and, in fear of the Lord, acquainted them with the
exercise I was under; and thus, sometimes by a few words, I found
myself discharged from a heavy burden." "Journal," p. 97.
[189] "Journal of John Woolman," 96.
[190] Following are two typical passages taken from the essay:
"Through the force of long custom, it appears needful to speak in
relation to color. Suppose a white child, born of parents of the
meanest sort, who died and left him an infant, falls into the hands of
a person, who endeavors to keep him a slave, some men would account
him an unjust man in doing so, who yet appear easy while many black
people, of honest lives, and good abilities, are enslaved, in a manner
more shocking than the case here supposed. This is owing chiefly to
the idea of slavery being connected with the black color, and liberty
with the white. And where false ideas are twisted into our minds, it
is with difficulty we get fairly disentangled." "Slave-Trade Tracts,"
Vol. 2.
Again, "The color of a man avails nothing, in the matters of right and
equity. Consider color in relation to treaties; by such, disputes
betwixt nations are sometimes settled. And should the Father of us all
so dispose things, that treaties with black men should sometimes be
necessary, how then would it appear amongst the princes and
ambassadors, to insist upon the prerogative of the white color?"
"Slave-Trade Tracts," Vol. 2.
[191] "Journal of John Woolman," p. 126.
[192] _Ibid._, p. 98.
[193] William J. Allinson, editor of the Friends' Review, tells the
following story concerning Woolman's first appearance in England: The
vessel reached London on the fifth day of the week, and John Woolman,
knowing that the meeting was then in session, lost no time in reaching
it. Coming in late and unannounced, his peculiar dress and manner
excited attention and apprehension that he was an itinerant
enthusiast. He presented his certificate from Friends in America, but
the dissatisfaction still remained, and some one remarked that perhaps
the stranger Friend might feel that his dedication of himself to this
apprehended service was accepted, without further labor, and that he
might now feel free to return to his home. John Woolman sat silent for
a space, seeking the unerring counsel of Divine Wisdom. He was
profoundly affected by the unfavorable reception he met with, and his
tears flowed freely.
... He rose at last, and stated that he could not feel himself
released from his prospect of labor in England. Yet he could not
travel in the ministry without the unity of Friends; and while that
was withheld he could not feel easy to be of any cost to them. He
could not go back as had been suggested; but he was acquainted with a
mechanical trade, and while the impediment to his service continued he
hoped Friends would be kindly willing to employ him in such business
as he was capable of, and that he might not be chargeable to any.
A deep silence prevailed over the assembly, many of whom were touched
by the wise simplicity of the stranger's words and manner. After a
season of waiting, John Woolman felt that words were given him to
utter as a minister of Christ. The spirit of his Master bore witness
to them in the hearts of his hearers. When he closed, the Friend who
had advised against his further service rose up and humbly confessed
his error, and avowed his full unity with the stranger. All doubt was
removed; there was a general expression of unity and sympathy, and
John Woolman, owned by his brethren, passed on to his work. Whittier,
"Journal of John Woolman," 257-258.
THE TARIK É SOUDAN
The sixteenth century was the golden age of science and literature in
Timbuctoo. Her scholars with the University of Sankoré as a center had
so generously contributed to the world's thought that they had brought
to that country no less fame than its statesmen and warriors by their
constructive work and daring deeds. The country, however, was finally
invaded by the Moors and the scattering of the talented class
resulting thereby led to the inevitable decline of culture. "Yet,"
says Félix DuBois, "the greatest work of all literature of the Sudan
was produced in the first days of its twilight, namely, that Tarik é
Soudan (the History of the Soudan)"[194] which we shall here briefly
consider.
Investigators had for years endeavored to discover this valuable book,
which because of certain traces in the Barbary States had been
generally considered the work of Ahmed Baba. The explorer Barth, the
first to make a study of this document, was of the same opinion. Félix
DuBois expresses his surprise that a man so well informed on Arabian
subjects as Barth could be so easily misled, when the very extracts
themselves quote Ahmed Baba as an authority. This misconception was
due to the failure of the German scholar to read anything but the
fragments which he discovered at Gando and to his suspicion that the
author in quoting Ahmed Baba was following the Arabs' custom of
quoting themselves. Félix DuBois found an excellent copy in Jenne and
made from it a duplicate which was corrected from a copy of
Timbuctoo,[195] so that he now has the work in what he considers as
complete a form as possible.[196]
In establishing the authorship of this work, Félix DuBois emphasizes
the fact that the book contains the date, year, month and day of
Ahmed Baba's death and that elsewhere the author gives a very
circumstantial account of himself and his belongings. "His name,"
according to this authority, "is Abderrahman (ben Abdallah, ben Amran,
ben Amar) Sadi el Timbucti, and he was born at Timbuctoo, (the 'object
of his affections'), of one of those families in which science and
piety are transmitted as a patrimony."[197] It seems that he was
trained by a distinguished professor who inspired him with the desire
to be intellectual. This book shows, too, that he was a mature man
some time between 1625 and 1635, during the period when the star of
Timbuctoo was waning. That he should still maintain himself as a
scholar and obtain the respect of the destructive invaders was due to
the reverence with which they held the learned men of the fallen
Empire. Having established a reputation which far transcended the
bounds of his native country, Abderrahman Sadi was received with marks
of honor and presented with gifts during all of his travels to Massina
and the regions of the Upper Niger. He was made iman of a mosque of
Jenne in 1631, but was later deprived of that honor. He then returned
to Timbuctoo, where he was received with sympathy and consoled by
friends.
Abderrahman Sadi spent his remaining years, first at Timbuctoo, then
at Jenne. It seems that because of his unusual learning and knowledge
of politics and government he was employed by the pashas in diplomatic
affairs. Although there was then no longer the same center of culture
as flourished at the University of Sankoré in former years,
Abderrahman Sadi, still imbued with the desire to impart knowledge,
devoted no little of his time to giving lectures and holding
conferences. His most important undertaking, however, was his great
historical work embracing all the countries of the Niger. For such a
stupendous task he had adequate preparation not only by his former
training but by his experience as a traveller, his services as a
public functionary, his social contact and his access to documents
which are no longer extant. The following is the preface:
"Praise be to God whom the weight of a pearl upon the earth does
not escape. May prayer and salvation be with the Master of the
first and last, our Lord Mohammed. We know that our ancestors
took pleasure in mentioning the companions of the Prophet and the
saints, the sheiks and eminent kings of their country, with their
lives, their edifices, and the great events of their reigns. They
have told us all that they have seen, or heard, of the times
extending behind us.
"As for the present time, no one is to be found to take an
interest in these things or follow the path traced by their
ancestors. Witnessing the decline of this science (history), so
precious on account of the instruction it offers to mankind, I
have implored the assistance of God in writing down all that I
have read, seen, or heard concerning the kings of the Sudan and
the Songhoi people, and in relating their history and the events
connected with their expeditions of war. I shall speak of
Timbuctoo and of its foundation, of the princes who have wielded
the power of that city, I shall mention the learned and pious men
who dwelt therein, and I shall continue this history to the close
of the dominion of the sultans of Morocco."[198]
While it is not our purpose to sketch here the history of this empire,
some knowledge of it will give a better appreciation of this great
work. As an historical document the Tarik é Soudan is the only source
from which we get an idea as to the origin of the Songhoi. The natives
of this country inform the traveller that they came from the east. The
Tarik é Soudan says: "The first king of the Songhoi was called
Dialliaman," meaning, "He has come from Yemen." Dialliaman quitted
Yemen in company with his brother. They travelled through the country
of God until destiny brought them to the land of Kokia. Giving a more
detailed account it says:
"Now Kokia was a town of the Songhoi people situated on the banks
of a river, and was very ancient. It existed in the time of the
Pharaohs, and it is said that one of them, during his dispute
with Moses, sent thither for the magician whom he opposed to the
Prophet.
"The two brothers reached the town in such a terrible state of
distress that their appearance was scarcely human; their skins
were cracked by the heat and dust of the desert, and they were
almost naked. The inhabitants questioned them concerning the
country of their origin, and their names have been forgotten in
the surname with which their reply provided them, 'Dia min al
Jemen'--'Come from Yemen,' And Dialliaman the elder settled in
Kokia. Now the god of the Songhoi was a fish who appeared to them
from the water at certain periods wearing a golden ring in his
nose; and the people gethered together and worshipped the fish,
receiving its commands and prohibitions and obeying its oracles.
"Perceiving their error, Dialliaman hid in his heart a resolution
to kill the false deity, and God assisted him in his design.
"One day he pierced the fish with a lance in the presence of the
people and killed it. Then the people proclaimed Dialliaman
king."[199]
Here the author has confused tradition with history.[200] The document
itself, however, substantiates the contention that there arose in this
region one of the world's greatest empires ruled by an almost unbroken
succession of kings who piloted the nation through the trials of its
incipiency, enabled it to develop a very advanced civilization, and
extended its influence over a large portion of Africa. The empire of
the Songhoi lasted about 1,000 years, during which three dynasties
ruled over these people. The kings of these lines adopted the names
Dia, Sunni, and Askia. The first included thirty kings who ruled from
700 to 1335; the second a line of eighteen kings from 1335 to 1492,
and the third and last dynasty from 1494 to 1591.
During the reign of Dia Sobi of the first dynasty the empire passed
through a crisis. Unable to conquer its enemies from without, it
finally became the vassal of the Mali empire on the west. Jenne, the
city of much wealth and culture, was then separated from the Songhoi
empire. But finally there came Ali Kolon, of the second dynasty, who
freed the Songhoi from the rule of Mali. The country thereafter
continued for some time in peace. Later it expanded considerably under
Sunni Ali, "the true Negro soldier," who ruled from 1464 to 1493.
Although skeptical, violent and oppressive he paved the way for the
establishment of the largest empire which had ever existed in that
part of the world.
In 1494 the second dynasty was brought to a close when Sunni Barro,
the last of that line, was obliged to flee from the country and Askia
Mohammed usurped the throne. He began as a pious ruler and was,
therefore, praised as "a brilliant light shining after great darkness;
a savior who drew the servants of God from idolatry and the country
from ruin."[201] He made pilgrimages to Mecca, scattered his funds in
the holy places, rendered homage to the Khalif Abassid Motewekkel in
Egypt, got in touch with the theologians and learned men of Cairo and
endeavored to take over the more advanced civilization of Egypt.
During these years, however, his piety did not deter him from the use
of the sword. He ever fought his neighbors, conducting an expedition
against some nation almost every year. He eventually succeeded in
triumphing over his enemies, conquering Mali on the west and Agades,
Katsina, Kano, Zegzey, and Sanfara on the east. He was then Askia the
Great, the ruler of one of the greatest empires of the world,
extending north and south from Thegazza to Bandouk and east and west
from Lake Chad to the Atlantic Ocean. He was not a mere warrior. He
was just as successful in carrying out a constructive policy of
incorporation. Instead of being satisfied with the payment of tribute,
he destroyed old systems, established his lieutenants in the seats of
government, appointed viceroys to supervise the governors of
provinces, promoted commerce, and built up a formidable standing army.
Askia the Great, however, finally declined and was deposed by his son
Askia Moussa in 1521. He entered upon the policy of killing his
hundred brothers and was finally assassinated. Then came a nephew of
Askia the Great, Askia Bankouri, who, much like his predecessor,
endeavored to murder his uncles who might pretend to the throne.
Despite this blot on his escutcheon, however, it is said that he
wielded power with magnificence and maintained a great court. He was
dethroned by the Viceroy of Dandi in 1537 and Askia Ismael was
proclaimed king. His motives, according to the Tarik, are interesting.
"I accepted the honour for three reasons," declared he; "to rescue my
father from his distressful condition, to enable my sisters to resume
the veil that Bankouri had obliged them to relinquish, and to pacify
Yan Mara, one of the hundred hen ostriches, who was wont to throw
herself into a frenzy whenever she saw Bankouri."[202]
Ismael died in 1540 and was succeeded by his brother Ishak. Following
the example of his predecessor, he put to death many of his relations.
The last four Askia to rule over the entire empire had much difficulty
in maintaining their positions because of the internal and external
causes operating to make it decline and fall. The Moors, the most
aggressive peoples then seeking to invade the dominions, finally
overran the empire and made it a colony.
Referring to this turbulent period through which the empire passed,
the Tarik says: "All was changed in a moment. Danger took the place of
security, destitution of abundance, trouble, calamities, and violence
succeeded to tranquillity. Everywhere the populations began to destroy
each other. In all places and in every direction rapine became the
law, war spared neither life nor property, nor the position of the
people. Disorder was general, it spread everywhere till it reached at
last the highest degree of intensity." "Things continued thus," adds
the historian, "until towards the moment in which the Songhoi dynasty
approached its end, and its empire ceased to exist. At this moment
faith was exchanged for infidelity; there was nothing forbidden by God
which was not openly done. Men drank wine, they gave themselves up to
vice.... As to adultery, it became so frequent that indulgence in it
was almost accepted as permissible. Without it there was no elegance
and no glory. ... Because of these abominations, the Almighty in his
vengeance drew down upon the Songhoi the victorious army of the Moors.
He brought it through terrible suffering from a distant country. Then
the roots of this people were separated from the trunk, and the
chastisement they underwent was exemplary."[203]
The Tarik é Soudan, however, continues its story beyond the fall of
the empire of the Songhoi. It throws light on Foulbes, Touaregs, Mossi
and Ouolofs, mentions Morocco and Massina, sketches the careers of
saints and scholars, sets forth the authors _curriculum vitae_, and
brings this narrative to a close in 1653. His task as a historian
finished, the author appends the annals of the country to the year
1656, saying: "What shall happen hereafter I shall relate in the same
manner as that which is past, for as long as I shall be alive."[204]
It is highly probable that the author died that year.
Considered from all angles the student must agree with the
investigator that the Tarik é Soudan is a masterpiece. Barth, the
distinguished German scholar, says that the book forms "one of the
most important additions that the present age has made to the history
of mankind."[205] Lady Lugard, another writer in this field, believes
that it is not merely an authentic narrative but is an unusually
valuable document since it throws unconscious light upon the life,
manners, politics and literature of that country. "Above all," says
she, "it possesses the crowning quality, displayed usually in creative
poetry alone, of presenting a vivid picture of the character of the
men with whom it deals. It has been called the 'Epic of the Soudan,'"
continues the writer. "It lacks the charm of form, but in all else
the description is well merited. Its pages are a treasure-house of
information for the careful student and the volumes may be read many
times without extracting from them more than a small part of all that
they contain."[206]
Félix DuBois refers to it as serving him as his "charming and
picturesque guide through the Soudan." "The _Tarik é Soudan_," says
he, "is conceived upon a perfectly clear and logical plan according to
the most correct rules of literary composition."[207] "It forms, with
the exception of the holy writings, the favorite volume of the negro,
and is known to the furthest extremity of western Africa, from the
shores of the Niger to the borders of Lake Chad." "Its style,"
continues he, "is very simple and clear, entirely lacking those
literary artifices so much in vogue among the Arabs; and the author
displays an unusual conscientiousness, never hesitating to give both
versions of a doubtful event."[208] On the whole it is a book of
elevated active morals and with its charming combination of fables,
marvels and miracles it is well adapted to influence the negraic mind.
The work is not an uninteresting narration of events but an
explanation of them as the rewards of God when fortunate and
punishments of the wicked when calamitous. Devoted to religion and
civic virtue, the author portrays as sinful the evil deeds of all
whether they be peasants or kings. "The _Tarik_ is to this day,"
remarks Félix DuBois, "the Hozier of the Soudan. In addition to the
attractions to be found in its pages, it contains a charm which
entirely escapes the Sudanese, and which we alone are privileged to
taste, viz., the _naïvete_, good nature, and delicious sincerity which
pervade the book." The "book admirably reflects the life and mind of
the Soudan of yesterday. One enjoys from its pages," says this writer,
"the delicate repasts offered by Homer, Herodotus, and Froissard, and
it is for this reason I have called the _Tarik_ the chef-d'oeuvre of
Sudanese literature."[209]
A.O. STAFFORD
FOOTNOTES:
[194] Félix DuBois, "Timbuctoo the Mysterious," 310.
[195] _Ibid._, 315.
[196] This work has been translated into French by M. Octave Houdas,
Professor of the Oriental School of Languages in Paris.
[197] Félix DuBois, "Timbuctoo the Mysterious," 312.
[198] Félix DuBois, "Timbuctoo the Mysterious," 313-314.
[199] Félix DuBois, "Timbuctoo the Mysterious," 90-91.
[200] "Like Homer, Abderrahman sometimes wanders astray," says DuBois,
"pen in hand. Side by side with the gravest events he mentions that 'a
white crow appeared from the 22nd of Rebia to the 28th of Djoumada, on
which day the children caught and killed it.' Elsewhere in the
narratives of his voyage to Massina, one of his hosts gave him his
daughter in marriage. He was fifty years of age at the time, and in
possession of several other wives. Not content with imparting the
event to posterity, he adds, 'My union with Fatima was concluded on
the twelfth day of Moharrem, 1645, but the marriage was not
consummated until Friday the sixteenth.' I believe he would have given
us his washing-bills if the use of body linen had been familiar to the
Sudanese. In referring to this tendency of the annalist, DuBois does
not mean to say anything which might be taken as an undervaluation of
this work. He aims to show how the Tarik reminds the reader of works
of some of the leading writers of the most civilized countries." See
DuBois, "Timbuctoo the Mysterious," p. 316.
[201] It was said "He made a pilgrimage to the house of God,
accompanied by a thousand foot-soldiers and five hundred horse, and
carrying with him three hundred thousand mitkals of gold from the
treasure of Sunni Ali. He scattered this treasure in the holy places,
at the tomb of the Prophet in Medina, and at the sacred mosque at
Mecca. In the latter town he bought gardens and established a
charitable institute for the people of the Sudan. This place is well
known in Mecca, and cost five thousand mitkals.
"He rendered homage to the Khalif Abassid Motewekkel in Egypt, praying
to be made his deputy in the Sudan in general and in Songhois in
particular. The Abassid consented, requiring the king of Songhois to
abdicate for three days and to place the power in his hands. On the
fourth day Motewekkel solemnly proclaimed Askia Mohammed the
representative of the sultan in Sudan. He accompanied this by placing
a green fez and white turban upon his head and returning him his
sabre." "Timbuctoo the Mysterious," 110.
[202] Félix DuBois, "Timbuctoo the Mysterious," 119-120.
[203] Lady Lugard, "A Tropical Dependency," 283-284.
[204] Félix DuBois, "Timbuctoo the Mysterious," 314.
[205] Lady Lugard, "A Tropical Dependency," 154.
[206] _Ibid._, 154-155.
[207] Félix DuBois, "Timbuctoo the Mysterious," 313.
[208] Félix DuBois, "Timbuctoo the Mysterious," 312.
[209] _Ibid._, 316.
FROM A JAMAICA PORTFOLIO--FRANCIS WILLIAMS[210]
A great dividing line in the history of Jamaica runs across the record
between the years 1834 and 1838. On the further side lay slavery; on
the hitherward side lies the freedom, partially proclaimed on August
1, 1834, and made complete and absolute on a like date in the year of
grace 1838. Amid the noise and gloom of the period from these years
back into the past, it is only here and there that the face and figure
of a son of Africa stands out with anything like clearness or
distinction against the background of historic events. It was in 1494
that the European first came to Jamaica. The island was then
discovered by Columbus. Fifteen years later the Spaniards, who had
meantime harried and slain the native Indians, set to work seriously
to settle in the island. As the Arrowaks withered from the land,
before the cruelty of the conqueror, the African was brought in to
supply slave labor.[211] It is not our immediate task to enquire into
the condition of the slaves during the Spanish occupation, nor does
there exist very much material for answering such an enquiry, but it
may be noted, as an interesting fact, that a black priest was in the
deputation that came forth to negotiate with the British conqueror
when, in 1655, the surrender of the capital city, St. Jago de la Vega,
became a necessity. The Spanish Governor, Don Arnoldi Gasi, sent as
one of his representatives Don Acosta, "a noble Portuguese."
Belonging to his establishment and accompanying him as chaplain was a
Negro priest. His name has not come down to us but we know his fate.
One of the conditions of the surrender was that the Spaniards were not
to attempt to remove their belongings.[212] The town, however,
contained a party, chiefly of Portuguese, hostile to the surrender.
The first article of the capitulation required that all "goods, wares,
merchandizes, or what else upon the said island, be delivered up,
etc., without any deceit, embezzlement, or concealment whatever." A
certain Colonel made bold to drive away into the woodlands all the
cattle he could collect. Don Acosta was not only as a man of honor
shocked at this breach of a solemnly signed agreement, but he had the
painful personal interest in it of being a hostage in the hands of the
British for the due performance of the treaty of surrender. He
therefore, we are told, sent to the Colonel "his priest, a discreet
Negro, to remonstrate."[213] The Colonel put the priest to death, and
apparently suffered no worse punishment for this dastardly act than to
have the cattle he had gone away with discovered and brought back to
the British lines.[214]
When the Spaniards a few weeks after evacuated the island, going by
ship to Cuba, they took the liberty of further transgressing the
treaty made with Penn and Venables, the British commanders, for,
instead of taking their slaves with them, they turned them loose into
the hills, with directions to harass the British as much as was
possible. These slaves formed the nucleus of the Maroons, a body of
mountain warriors whose deeds of daring and battle form a story too
long and too interesting to be dealt with here.[215]
The British speedily introduced African slaves into the island, and,
after a few generations, the population had taken the contour it still
preserves, namely, the pure whites, the colored folk (mixed breeds)
and the pure blacks. For one reason and another, individuals in the
last-named section obtained their freedom. Sometimes it was granted to
them by masters who appreciated some special service rendered.
Sometimes it was bequeathed to them by kind-hearted masters. At times
it was a gift from the state for services rendered in times of
rebellion or other disaster to the commonwealth.[216]
Among the colored element of the population the tendency towards
manumission was even more marked and extensive, for there the white
fathers often not only bestowed freedom on their offspring but
bequeathed to them comfortable, if not ample, means. Our immediate
interest is, however, to be found among the blacks, for it is among
them that we see a face and figure that holds our attention.
Among the earliest Negroes in Jamaica freed because of services
rendered to the state was one John Williams. Under date of 1708, a law
stands on record, the first of its kind, forbidding slave testimony
being received in evidence against two Negroes, to wit, Manuel
Bartholomew and John Williams. This was bestowing on them one of the
vital privileges as a rule confined to whites. Eight years later there
was passed another act extending the privilege to Dorothy Williams,
wife of John, and also to the sons of these two, namely, John, Thomas,
and Francis. Exactly what led to such marked discrimination in favor
of Williams and his family the records have not so far revealed, but
the mere continuation of the concession and its extension suggest that
there was something special about the character and worth of John
Williams, Senior, as viewed by the ruling authorities. Another fact
emphasizes this. John Williams, between 1708 and 1716, had to endure
the rather dangerous hostility of a member of the legislature. This
legislator applied to Williams the term "a black Negro," as one of
contempt. Williams replied with the term, self-contradictory no doubt
but effective enough to rile a Jamaican legislator in the early part
of the eighteenth century. He styled his would-be traducer a "white
Negro." As a result he ran the risk of seeing his valued privileges
withdrawn once and for all. Supported by a few of his friends, the
irate legislator brought the matter before the House of Assembly, and
it was actually proposed that the Act of 1708, the Magna Charta so to
speak of the Williams family, should be revoked. The effort, however,
failed, and it seems reasonable to view that fact as a testimony to
something of worth in John Williams, especially when we find that soon
after his privileges were extended to his wife and his three
sons.[217]
Francis Williams now replaces John, his father, and Dorothy, his
mother, against the background of the past. The Duke of Montague
wished to put to the test some of his opinions about the capabilities
of the Negro. He desired to see whether a black boy taken and trained
at an English school and then at a university would not equal in
intellectual attainments a white youth similarly educated.[218] The
links that would explain how it was that the choice for this
experiment fell on Francis Williams are missing, but there it did
fall. He must certainly have been, as Gardner suggests, "a lively,
intelligent lad,"[219] but that by itself would not fully explain his
being chosen. Someone fairly high up in Jamaica must have been taking
a special interest in the Williams family, and that interest, in view
of the collateral facts, must have been based on something of note in
John Williams, Senior.
Francis received preliminary training in Jamaica, and then was sent to
an English grammar school. Thence he went to Cambridge University.
Only the bare facts of his story remain, like a skeleton, but we can
safely argue that he did not disappoint the expectations of his patron
to any serious extent, for, when the time came for Francis to return
to Jamaica, the Duke of Montague used his influence with some
determination to get his protégé appointed to a seat in the Council,
that his abilities might be fully put to the test. The Governor of
the island with whom the Duke had to do was Edward Trelawny, and this
shows that Williams returned to Jamaica between 1738 and 1748, for it
was between those years that Trelawny held sway. They were stormy
times, and Trelawny was a man with anything but a placid temper or
compliant views. The famous war of "Jenkin's ear," between Britain and
Spain, began in 1738. Porto Bello was destroyed by Vernon and
Cartagena was attacked with troops whose base was Jamaica. In fact,
Trelawny added a Negro detachment to the army employed.[220] In the
quarrels that followed the disastrous failure at Cartagena, Trelawny
had even more than his fair share of the cursing, and it is hardly
surprising to find that a man of such temper, and amid such storms of
fate, was anything but malleable to the Duke's request. The Governor
knew his mind, and it was that setting a black man in the Council
would excite restlessness among the slave population. The Duke's
experiment with Williams was, therefore, not completed as the Duke
himself intended it should be.[221]
Williams settled down in Spanish Town (St. Jago de la Vega), the then
capital of the island, and conducted a school for imparting a
classical and mathematical education. He became known also in the
island, and to some extent abroad, as a poet and the fragments of his
work that have come down to us show that he was at any rate a fair
literary craftsman. Of the sort of man he was personally, we have not
the material for a fair judgment, for we are practically shut up to
surveying the man through the very colored glass that the historian
Long inserts in the loophole of observation he has turned on Williams.
Long, who published his History of Jamaica in 1774, was of the planter
class, and his prejudice on such a matter was probably so complete
that he was not even conscious that prejudice existed. He says of
Williams: "In regard to the general character of the man, he was
haughty, opinionated, looked down with sovereign contempt on his
fellow blacks, entertained the highest opinion of his own knowledge,
treated his parents with much disdain, and behaved towards his own
children and slaves with a severity bordering on cruelty. He was fond
of having great deference paid to him, and exacted it with the utmost
degree from the negroes about him. He affected a singularity of dress
and a particularly grave cast of countenance, to impart an idea of his
wisdom and learning; and to second this view, he wore in common a huge
wig, which made a very venerable figure."[222] The influence of
prejudice on this picture is easily to be detected. There is not a
single line of sympathy through the whole presentation, and it is
something more than probable that there is actual misrepresentation of
facts. Long would repeat what was current in his own circle, without
feeling himself at all bound to investigate the assertions before
setting them down for future generations to read.[223]
That Williams was set in a most difficult position is obvious. It was
one that could only be creditably filled by one highly and
exceptionally gifted, both in intellect and spirit. Still more
difficult was it so to fill that position that he would appear before
an age of wider and sweeter altruistic principles without disfavor in
its eyes. Long credits him with the saying: "Show me a negro, and I
show you a thief";[224] and Gardner, who enters in his behalf a
defence that is in many ways effective, merely says regarding this
accusation: "The race to which he belonged was then almost universally
despised, and the temptation to curry favor with the whites by
denouncing the negroes was too great for him to resist."[225] But it
seems to me that something more deserves to be said on the subject.
We do not know whether Williams' epigram was a sober opinion or merely
one cast off in a fit of irritation, that moment of "haste," which
even the Psalmist knew, when he was led to sweep all mankind in under
the term of "liar." But, further, if Williams was the deliberate
sycophant and racial toady Gardner strives to shelter behind his
shield of excuse, how was it that he had not won from the planter
party, whose voice reaches us through Long, a more softened if not a
more favorable opinion? There must have been some marked independence
of spirit about a man who cut himself off thus on the one side and on
the other. He was an educated man, placed in a false position; cut off
by the narrowmindedness of the educated men around him from the
environment for which training and education had fitted him. Had his
savage epigram employed the term "slave," instead of "negro," and that
was practically what it meant, it could stand as a thought-compelling
truth, pointing beyond the slave to the tyrant system that made the
slave.
Gardner, whose history was published in 1876, was, by class, of the
missionaries, and by disposition a liberal, and a conscientious
liberal. His estimate of Williams is thoroughly well-intentioned, and
not wholly inadequate. It lacks subtlety, rather than sympathy. I
cannot help hoping that time will bring to light material by which
something may be attempted regarding the personality and character of
Francis Williams, nearer what one feels instinctively is the truth
than the outline at present holding the field.
Francis Williams has been mentioned as the author of the song:
"Welcome, welcome, fellow debtor," but on what grounds, beyond
tradition, it is not clear. We have, however, a Latin poem which is
indubitably his work. It was addressed to General George Haldane, who
arrived in Jamaica as Governor, April 17, 1758. It is panegyric, after
the fashion of the eighteenth century, that is excessively so, but
there are lines in it worth remembering. It is thus inscribed:
Integerrimo et Fortissimo
Viro
GEORGIO HALDANO, ARMIGERO,
Insulæ Jamaicensis Gubernatori;
Cui, omnes morum, virtutumque dotes billicarum,
In cumulum accesserunt,
CARMEN.[226]
DENIQUE venturum fatis volventibus annum (_e_)
Cuncta per extensum læta videnda diem,
Excussis adsunt curis, sub inagine (_f_) clara
Felices populi, terraque lege virens.
(_g_) Te duce, (_h_) quæ fuerant malesuada mente peracta
Irrita, conspectu non reditura tuo.
Ergo omnis populus, nee non plebecula cernet
(_h_) Hæsurum collo te (_i_) _relegasse_ jugum,
Et mala, quæ diris quondam cruciatibus, insons
Insula passa fuit; condoluisset onus
Ni victrix tua Marte manus prius inclyta, nostris
Sponte (_k_) ruinosis rebus adesse velit.
Optimus es servus _Regi_ servire _Britanno_,
Dum gaudet genio (_l_) _Scotica_ terra tuo:
Optimus heroum populi (_m_) fulcire ruinam:
Insula dum superest ipse (_n_) superstes eris.
Victorem agnoscet te _Guadaloupa_, suorum
Despiciet (_o_) merito dirutà castra ducum.
Aurea vexillis flebit jactantibus (_p_) _Iris_,
Cumque suis populis, oppida victa gemet.
Crede, (_q_) menum non est, vir _Marti_ chare! (_r_) _Minerva_
Denegat _Æthiopi_ bella sonare ducum.
Concilio, caneret te _Buchananus_ et armis,
Carmine _Peleidae_ scriberet ille parem.
Ille poeta, decus patriæ, tua facta referre
Dignior, (_s_) altisono vixque Marone minor.
(_t_) Flammiferos agitante suos sub sole _jugales_ (_u_)
Vivimus; eloquium deficit omne focis.
Hoc demum accipias, multa fuligine fusum
Ore sonaturo; non cute, corde valet.
Pollenti stabilita manu, [(_w_) Deus almus, eandem
Omnigenis animam, nil prohibente dedit]
Ipsa coloris egens virtus, prudentia; honesto
Nulus inest animo, nullus in arte color.
Cur timeas, quamvis, dubitesve, nigerrima celsam
_Cæsaris occidui_, candere (_x_) _Musa_ domum?
(_y_) Vade salutatum, nec sit tibi causa pudoris,
(_z_) _Candida quod nigra corpora pelle geris!_
Integritas morum (_a_) _Maurum_ magis ornat, et ardor
Ingenii, et _docto_ (_b_) _dulcis in ore decor_;
Hunc, mage, _cor sapines, patriæ_ virtutis amorque,
(_c_) Eximit e sociis, conspicuumque facit.
(_d_) Insula me genuit, celebres aluere _Britianni_,
Insula, te salvo non dolitura (_e_) patre!
Hoc precor; o (_f_) nullo videant te fine, regentem
Florentes populos, terra, Deique locus!
FRANCISCUS WILLIAMS
(_e_) _Aspice venturo lætentur ut omnia Sæclo. Virg. E._
iv. 52.
(_f_) Clara seems to be rather an improper epithet joined to
_Imago_.
(_g_) _Te duce_, si qua manent sceleris vestigia nostri
_Irrita_, perpetua solvent formidine terras.
_Virg. E._ iv. 13.
(_h_) Alluding perhaps to the contest about removing the seat of
government and public offices from _Spanish Town_ to
_Kingston_, during the administration of governor Kn----s.
(_i_) Pro _relevasse_.
(_k_) Quem vocet divum populus _ruentis_
Imperi _rebus. Hor. Lib._ I. _Od_. ii.
(_l_) Mr. Haldane was a native of North Britain.
(_m_) Tu Ptolomaee potes magni _fulcire ruinam_. Lucan.
_Lib._ viii. 528.
(_n_) This was a promise of somewhat more than antediluvian
longevity. But the poet proved a false prophet, for Mr. Haldane
did not survive the delivery of this address many months.
(_o_) Egerit _justo domitos_ triumpho.
_Hor. Lib._ I. _Od_. xii.
(_p_) _Iris._ Botanic name of the _fleur-de-luce_,
alluding to the arms of France.
(_q_) _Phoebus_, volentem prælia me loqui
Victas et urbes, increpuit lyra
Ne. _Hor_.
(_r_) Invita Minerva. _Hor. de Art. Poet._
(_s_) _Maronis altisoni_ carmina.
_Juv. Sat._ xi. _ver._ 178.
(_t_) _Flammiferas_ rotas toto cælo _agitat_.
(_u_) I apprehend Mr. Williams mistook this for _jubara_, fun beams.
(_w_) This is a _petitio principii_, or begging the question,
unless with Mr. Pope,
"All are but parts of one stupendous whole,
"Whose body nature is, and God the Soul."
But,
"Far as creation's ample range extends,
"The _Scale_ of sensual _mental_ powers ascends."
(_x_) Mr. Williams has added a _black Muse_ to the Pierian choir;
and, as he has not thought proper to bestow a name upon her, we
may venture to announce her by the title of madam Æthiopissa.
(_y_) _Vade salutatum_ subito perarata parentem
Litera. _Ovid._
(_z_) See his apophthegms before mentioned.
(_a_) _Maurus_ is not in classic strictness proper Latin for a
_Negroe_.
(_b_) _Mollis_ in ore decor. Incert.
(_c_) Me _doctarum_ ederæ præmia frontium
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
_Secernunt populo. Hor. Lib. I. Od. 1._
(_d_) Mantua me genuit, Calabri rapuere. _Virg._
(_e_) Hic ames dici _pater_ atque princeps. _Hor._
(_f_) Serus in coelum redeas, _diuque_
_Lætus intersis populo. Hor._
This is Long's translation:
To
That most upright and valiant Man,
GEORGE HALDANE, Esq;
Governor of the Island of Jamaica;
Upon whom
All military and moral Endowments are accumulated.
An ODE.
AT length revolving fates th' expected year
Advance, and joy the live-long day shall cheer,
Beneath the fost'ring law's auspicious dawn
New harvests rife to glad th' enliven'd (_g_) lawn.
With the bright prospect blest, the swains repair
In social bands, and give a loose to care.
Rash councils now, with each malignant plan,
Each faction, that in evil hour began,
At your approach are in confusion fled,
Nor, while you rule, shall rear their dastard head.
Alike the master and the slave shall fee
Their neck reliev'd, the yoke unbound by thee.
Ere now our guiltless isle, her wretched fate
Had wept, and groan'd beneath th' oppressive weight
Of Cruel woes; save thy victorious hand,
Long fam'd in war, from Gallia's hostile land;
And wreaths of fresh renown, with generous zeal,
Had freely turn'd, to prop our sinking weal.
Form'd as thou art, to serve _Britannia's_ crown,
While _Scotia_ claims thee for her darling son;
Oh! best of heroes, ablest to sustain
A falling people, and relax their chain.
Long as this isle shall grace the Western deep,
From age to age, thy fame shall never sleep.
Thee, her dread victor _Guadaloupe_ shall own,
Crusht by thy arm, her slaughter'd chiefs bemoan;
View their proud tents all level'd in the dust,
And, while she grieves, confess the cause was just.
The golden _Iris_ the sad scene will share,
Will mourn her banners scattered in the air;
Lament her vanquisht troops with many a sigh,
Nor less to see her towns in ruin lie.
Fav'rite of _Mars!_ believe, th' attempt were vain,
It is not mine to try the arduous strain.
What! shall an _Æthiop_ touch the martial string,
Of battles, leaders, great achievements sing?
Ah no! _Minerva_, with th' indignant _Nine_,
Restrain him, and forbid the bold design.
To a _Buchanan_ does the theme belong;
A theme, that well deserves _Buchanan's_ song,
'Tis he, should swell the din of war's alarms,
Record thee great in council, as in arms;
Recite each conquest by thy valour won,
And equal thee to great _Peleides'_ son.
That bard, his country's ornament and pride,
Who e'en with _Maro_ might the bays divide:
Far worthier he, thy glories to rehearse,
And paint thy deeds in his immortal verse.
We live, alas! where the bright god of day,
Full from the zenith whirls his torrid ray:
Beneath the rage of his consuming fires,
All fancy melts, all eloquence expires.
Yet may you deign accept this humble song,
Tho' wrapt in gloom, and from a faltering tongue;
Tho' dark the stream on which the tribute flows,
Not from the _skin_, but from the _heart_ it rose.
To all of human kind, benignant heaven
(Since nought forbids) one common soul has given.
This rule was 'stablish'd by th' Eternal Mind;
Nor virtue's self, nor prudence are confin'd
To colour; none imbues the honest heart;
To science none belongs, and none to art.
Oh! _Muse_, of blackest tint, why shrinks thy breast.
Why fears t' approach the _Cæsar_ of the _West!_
Dispel thy doubts, with confidence ascend
The regal dome, and hail him for thy friend:
Nor blush, altho' in garb funereal drest,
_Thy body's white, tho' clad in sable vest_.
Manners unsullied, and the radiant glow
Of genius, burning with desire to _know_;
And learned speech, with modest accent worn,
Shall best the sooty _African_ adorn.
An heart with wisdom fraught, a patriot flame.
A love of virtue; these shall lift his name
Conspicuous, far beyond his kindred race,
Distinguish'd from them by the foremost place.
In this prolific isle I drew my birth,
And _Britain_ nurs'd, illustrious through the earth;
This, my lov'd isle, which never more shall grieve,
Whilst you our common friend, our father live.
Then this my pray'r--"My earth and heaven survey
"A people ever blest, beneath your sway!"
The following translation of this poem has been supplied by Mr. E.J.
Chinock, M.A., LL.B.:
A Poem in Honour of
Sir George Haldane, Knt.,
A most virtuous and brave man,
Governor of the island of Jamaica, on whom all the endowments of
morals and of warlike virtues have been accumulated.
Since the Fates wish the year should come at last, all the joys
which are to be seen through a lengthened day are present. The
people having shaken off their anxieties, are prosperous under a
bright image, and the land flourishing under law. While thou art
ruler, the useless things which had been done by an ill-advising
mind will not return at thy appearance. Therefore, all the
people, even the rabble, will see that thou hast removed the yoke
clinging to their necks, and the ills which the guiltless island
has formerly endured with dreadful tortures. The burden would
have been excessively painful did not thy victorious hand,
previously renowned for valour, wish of its own accord to aid our
state going to ruin. The British King has no better servant than
thou art, whilst Scotland rejoices in thy talent. Thou are the
best of heroes to prop up the fall of a nation; while the island
survives, the memory of thee will also survive. Quadaloupe will
recognise thee as her conqueror, and will deservedly despise the
plundered camps of its governors. The golden Iris will weep for
her boastful standards, and together with her inhabitants will
groan for the conquered towns. Believe me, it is not in my power,
O man, dear to Mars! Minerva denies to an Ethiopian to celebrate
the wars of generals. Buchanan would sing thee in a poem, he
would describe thee as equal to Achilles in counsel and in war.
That famous poet, the honour of his country, is more worthy to
relate thy exploits, and is scarcely inferior to the majestic
Virgil. We live under an Apollo driving his own flame-bringing
team. Every kind of eloquence is lacking to slaves. Receive this
at any rate. Though poured forth from one very black, it is
valuable, coming from a sonorous mouth; not from his skin, but
from his heart. The bountiful Deity, with a hand powerfully and
firm, has given the same soul to men of all races, nothing
standing in his way. Virtue itself, and prudence, are free from
colour; there is no colour in an honourable mind, no colour in
skill. Why dost thou fear or doubt that the blackest Muse may
scale the lofty house of the western Caesar? Go and salute him,
and let it not be to thee a cause of shame that thou wearest a
white body in a black skin. Integrity of _morals_ more adorns a
_Moor_, and ardour of intellect and sweet elegance in a learned
mouth. A wise heart and a love of his ancestral virtue the more
remove him from his comrades and make him conspicuous. The island
(of Jamaica) gave me birth; the renowned Britons brought me up;
the island which will not grieve while thou its father art well.
This I pray: O may earth and heaven see thee without end, ruling
a flourishing people.[227]
Gardner quotes the line
"Candida quod nigra corpora pelle geris,"
giving it an interpretation disparaging to Williams' racial
self-respect. With more understanding of the poet's surroundings it
may be taken rather to express the poet's desire to be marked as
distinct from the then condition of those who represented his race
round him, namely slaves.
The following lines especially deserve praise for the height in
emotion and manliness to which they ascend:
Pollenti stabilita manu, Deus almus, eandem
Omnigenis animam, nil prohibente dedit.
Ipsa coloris egens virtus, prudentia; honesto
Nullus inest animo, nullus in arte color.
Mr. Chinook's rendering conveys some of their stirring force, but they
deserve a better translation, and one reason for giving the whole poem
here is the hope that it may elicit another translation from some one
entering more feelingly and with equal lingual knowledge into the
poet's conception.
T. H. MACDERMOT
REDEAM,
KINGSTON,
JAMAICA, B. W. I.
FOOTNOTES:
[210] The writer of the following article, though not of the race to
serve which this JOURNAL specially exists, offers a contribution to
its pages because of the deep and sympathetic interest he has long
taken in the African race, and because of his belief in its future. He
would also interest readers of the JOURNAL in his native island,
Jamaica, where, although the creation still bears marks of human
imperfection and incompleteness, a community has been brought into
being in which the racial elements, in such fierce and embittered
antagonism elsewhere, are gradually, but surely, blending into a whole
of common citizenship. T.H. MACDERMOT, Editor of the _Jamaica Times_,
Ltd.
[211] Gardner, "History of Jamaica," 10.
[212] Gardner, "History of Jamaica," 31.
[213] Bridges, "Annals of Jamaica," I, 204.
[214] Long, "History of Jamaica," 234; and Gardner, "History of
Jamaica," 31-32.
[215] See Dallas's "History of the Maroons," I, 26.
[216] This is the history of gradual emancipation in most slaveholding
states.
[217] Gardner, "History of Jamaica," 207.
[218] Long, "History of Jamaica," II, 476.
[219] Gardner, "History of Jamaica," 207.
[220] Gardner, "History of Jamaica," 123.
[221] Long, "History of Jamaica," II, 476; and Gardner, "History of
Jamaica," 207.
[222] Long, "History of Jamaica," II, 478.
[223] Long says: "He defined himself 'a white man acting under a black
skin,' He endeavored to prove logically, that a Negroe was superior in
quality to a Mulatto, or other craft, or other cast. His proposition
was, that 'a simple white or simple black complexion was respectively
perfect: but a Mulatto, being an heterogeneous medley of both, was
imperfect, _ergo_ inferior,'" Long, "History of Jamaica," II, 478.
[224] _ibid._, II, 478
[225] Gardner, "History of Jamaica," 208.
[226] Edward Long undertook to analyze this poem in such a way as to
show the inferiority of the Negro. These notes are all his. See Long's
"History of Jamaica," II, 478-485.
[227] Gardner, _History of Jamaica_, appendix.
NOTES ON THE NOMOLIS OF SHERBROLAND
Among Sierra Leoneans the Sherbro country enjoys a reputation for
mysteriousness. A country where every object, from the sandy soil one
treads in the streets to the bamboo chair one sits upon at home, is
supposed to possess intelligence and to be capable of "catching" one,
to wit, afflicting one with disease; a country where the penalty for
such a venal offence as stubbing one's devoted foot against the roots
of a famous cotton tree, which stands perilously near the roadside, is
a sure attack of elephantiasis; a country which boasts of a certain
holy city upon whose soil no man on earth may walk shod and live to
see the next day, a tradition for which the District Commissioners,
adventurous Britons as they are, have had so much respect that they
have been content to get only a cruising knowledge of the place,
always summoning the headmen to conferences on the beach and
delivering instructions from the safe precincts of a boat awning; such
a country evidently deserves to be called a land of mystery.
Now, to this air of mystery is added one of interest for students of
archæology in general, and particularly for all Negroes who are
interested in the study of the history of their race with a view to
discover whether it has really made any worthy achievements in the
past or, as its traducers love to make us believe, it is indeed a
backward race, that is only just emerging from barbarism and beginning
to enjoy and assimilate the blessings of Western culture. I refer to
certain sculptured finds which are from time to time made in the
country and are naturally looked upon by the unsophisticated native
mind as nothing short of a mystery.
These images, or _nomolis_, as they are called in the vernacular, are
by no means the empirical efforts of some crude artists, but are the
products of finished workmanship wrought in steatite or soapstone,
which abounds in the Protectorate. They present purely Egyptian and
Ethiopian features, and are apparently of great antiquity, possibly
thousands of years old. They are dug out from old graves in the course
of ploughing, and the finder of one of them considers himself a lucky
man indeed. He sees visions of an unprecedentedly rich harvest, or of
an extraordinarily brisk trade, if he happens to be in the commercial
line, as the _nomoli_ is the presiding deity of crops and commerce.
If the good services of the god are required on the farm a small
shrine is erected there for it and a great big hamper and a bundle of
rods placed in front of it. The demon is then addressed in some such
manner as this: "I wish you to protect this farm from injury. Make the
crop prosper more than everybody's else, and, to do this, every day
you must steal from other people's farms and fill this hamper to the
full. If you do this I shall treat you well; but if you fail, this
bundle of rods is reserved for your punishment." The god is then
heartily treated to a sample of the walloping it should expect in case
of default. When its help is needed in the store a similar temple is
put up for it in a corner within, and its duty is then to protect the
store from burglary, to replenish it by theft and to "draw" custom by
a sort of personal magnetism. In either case it must be well cared
for. Whatever food or drink its owner partakes every day, a portion
must be given to it--and don't forget the whipping. Whether you
realize or are disappointed in your expectations of it the guardian
angel respects force more than gentleness, and must be whipped soundly
every morning.
It will be seen from this that the morality of the _nomoli_ is of a
rather naughty order. The controlling principle of its life is theft;
in fact it idealizes this vice, since ownership in regard to it cannot
be transferred except by stealing. The god argues it this way: "He who
is so careless of me that he allows me to be stolen from him, is not
worthy to be my master; but he who so much believes in my powers that
he risks the consequences of theft for the sake of getting possession
of me, is deserving to be my master and I will serve him." In the
event of discovery the culprit is taken to the barre or native court
and the Chief inflicts a fine on him; and, "whereas, contrary to
customary law, Kai Baki, the plaintiff, did harbour a 'big man'
stranger (to wit, a _nomoli_) in the chiefdom without intimating the
Chief in order that his majesty might pay his homage etc., etc.," the
aforesaid plaintiff, who in native law is entitled to receive the
amount of defendant's fine as compensation, is not only mulcted in the
same amount more or less, but his _nomoli_ becomes forfeited to the
crown in the bargain. Obviously, then, it does not pay to prosecute
for _nomoli_ stealing, and the robbed native would rather bear his
trouble like a philosopher, secretly admiring the cuteness of the
other fellow and stealing his property back at the earliest
opportunity.
ORIGIN OF THE NOMOLI
If one depends upon the aborigines for a clue as to the origin of the
_nomoli_ the enquiry would, like Kipling's "eathen," "end where it
began." The whole thing is veiled in mystery; there is not even a
legend about it. All that the native would tell you, and it is what he
honestly believes to be the truth, is that the image was created by
Gehwor (God) and came down directly from heaven. The fact that no
sculpturing of the kind is now-a-days prosecuted in the country,
although the Sherbros are clever at wood-carving, makes him ridicule
the idea that the _nomoli_ is man's handiwork. The enquiring student
must for the present, therefore, go upon very scanty basis to
formulate his theory. In order to help in the solution of this problem
I shall state one or two facts about the natives of these regions. The
Sherbros and Mendis, both of whom inhabit the vast territory known as
Sherbroland, are, of all primitive Africans, the least given to fetish
worship. This fact has always proved a stumbling-block to the spread
of Mohammedanism in that part of the world. Arab as well as Negro
Moslem missionaries have always found the Sherbro and Mendi man rather
hard nuts to crack. Many an emissary of the prophet has invaded
Sherbroland, exposing for sale all the tempting superstitious
paraphernalia of the faith, but the native has almost invariably
beaten him with his cold logic.
"How long does it take to come here from Mecca?" once asked a native
of an Arab Sheik, who went out hawking some charms in the course of a
religious tour. "Oh, more than a month," answered the unsuspecting
Moslem. "A month!" exclaimed the intended convert. "Yes." "And you
have come all that distance to help us with these things?" "Yes."
"Then you must have paid quite a lot of money for your passage?"
"Quite a lot." "And I dare say, you must have only a little money left
now?" pursued the native. "Oh, yes, that's why I am selling these
potent charms so cheaply, because I wish to raise money to go back
home," confessed the true believer. "But how is that?" queried the
native; "if, as you say, these charms can make a poor man become rich,
how is it that you did not stay in Mecca and use them yourself to
become rich instead of coming all the way here to sell them to get
money?"
As this attitude towards charms, which is typical of the Sherbro
natives, shows that they are not a fetish worshipping people, it can
hardly be supposed that the _nomolis_ are relics of that superstition.
If this were the case, it could easily be suggested by those who wish
to discredit the race that the images might have been made by members
of some foreign race and exported to the "heathen," who are supposed
to delight in "bowing down to wood and stone," a sort of execution to
order. This should be quite possible, because it was recently
discovered that a certain London firm did a thriving business in idols
with China; and it has even been suggested that the _nomolis_ were
imported into Sherbroland from Phoenicia.
But such a contingency being ruled out of court, in view of the
Sherbro native's antipathy to idol worship, we must look for an
explanation of the origin of the _nomoli_ to one other feature in the
customs of Sherbroland. The Sherbros have a custom almost similar to
that of the Timnis, a kindred people. The latter are given to ancestor
worship. At the burial of a Timni, a few stones are placed upon the
grave, and after three days, when the spirit of the deceased is
supposed to have entered into the stones, they are removed to a little
shrine in the porch of the family house. The spirit then becomes a
guardian angel, and offerings are made at the shrine from day to day.
The Sherbros also make use of stones for the reception of the spirits
of their departed ones, but not with a view to ancestor worship. If a
Sherbro happened to die away from home, which is considered a great
calamity, the remains are either exhumed and brought back to the old
familiar scenes, or, if the distance be too great, three stones are
taken to the last resting place and, after three days in the case of a
male, or four days in the case of a female, the spirit is supposed to
have entered the stones, and the latter are brought to the old town
and _buried_.
Is it not possible, then, that the _nomolis_ are real pictures of some
ancient Sherbro men and women, and that these people, dying away from
"home, sweet home," their images, after having supposedly received
their spirits, were interred in the old homeland? I believe the Rev.
Dr. Hayford in his "Ethiopia Unbound" suggests that Ethiopia or
Negrodom was once the mistress of the world; that much-talked-of Egypt
was but a province of hers, and the pharaohs not real kings, but
merely governors sent from the mother country. If this be true, might
it not be that some of these _nomolis_ are sculptures of eminent men
and women, natives of the region now known as Sherbroland, who went to
far-away Egypt as Empire builders, lost their lives in the land of the
sphynx; and, since distance prevented the return of their bodies,
their busts, after receiving their imperishable parts, were brought
back home and buried with due solemnity "under the stately walls of
Troy?"
WALTER L. EDWIN
SIERRA LEONE, WEST AFRICA
DOCUMENTS
OBSERVATIONS ON THE NEGROES OF LOUISIANA
To present a broad view of the Negroes concerned in this and the
subsequent series of documents we have given below accounts appearing
from decade to decade, written by men of different classes and of
various countries. Some received one impression and some another, as
the situation was viewed from different angles. In the mass of
information, however, there is the truth which one may learn for
himself.
CONSIDERATIONS SUR L'ESCLAVAGE; NÈGRES LIBRES; MULÂTRES DE LA
LOUISIANE, 1801
L'esclavage, le plus grand de tous les maux nécessaires, soit
relativement à ceux qui l'endurent, soit par rapport à ceux qui
sont contraints d'en employer les victimes, existe dans toute
l'étendue des deux Louisianes. Il ne seroit pas facile de
determiner pendant combien d'années la partie septentrionale en
aura besoin; mais on peut assurer qu'il doit exister bien des
siècles encore dans le Midi si le Gouvernement veut y encourager
l'agriculture, qui est son unique ressource. Les Nègres seuls
peuvent se livrer aux travaux dans ces climats brûlans: le Blanc
qui y périt jeune malgré toutes sortes de ménegemens, ne feroit
qu s'y montrer s'il étoit obligé d'y cultiver son champ de ses
propres mains. Pour tirer parti de cette colonie, l'on doit donc
protéger l'importation des Nègres qui y sont en trop petit
nombre; mais il est en même temps de l'intérêt du Gouvernement,
de veiller a ce que les habitans n'y abusent pas du pouvoir que
la loi et droit de propriété leur donnent.
Après la cruelle expérience de Saint-Domingue, qui probablement
aura ouvert les yeux de tous ces philantropes qui ne comptent
pour rien la prosperité des empires, lorsqu'elle semble être en
contradiction avec ces sentimens d'humanité, dont ils feignent
souvent d'avoir été doués par la nature; je suis loin d'engager
aucun gouvernement à relâcher les liens de l'esclavage: on doit
les laisser subsister dans leur intégrité, ou perdre les
colonies. Cependant doivent-ils négliger cette branche
d'administration et s'en rapporter aveuglément aux proprietaires,
qui paroissent avoir un intérêt direct à ménager leurs esclaves?
C'est ce que je suis loin de croire. Les passions agissent trop
fortement sur le coeur des hommes, pour ne pas en restreindre la
vivacité par des règlemens sages; leur intérêt même souvent
mal-entendu les aveugle sur leurs propres avantages. L'avarice
crie à l'un que ses esclaves mal vêtus et mal nourris, n'en sont
pas moins tenus a lui rendre les services qu'l exige; la colère
conduit l'autre à faire des exemples terribles, sous prétexte
d'effrayer ceux qui seroient tentés de lui manquer; un grand
nombre enfin se croit autorisé à s'en servir pour assouvir ses
passions et servir ses passions et servir ses gouts, fussent-ils
même contraires aux devoirs de la société et opposés aux
principes religieux. Aux yeux des gouvernans les hommes ne
doivent être que de grands enfans, dont, en sages précepteurs,
ils dirigent les caprices de manière à les faire tourner à leur
plus grand bien.
Dans la basse Louisiane les Nègres sont très mal nourris: chacun
ne reçoit pas par mois audelà, d'un baril de maïs en épis, ce qui
ne fait que le tiers d'un baril en grain;[228] encore beaucoup de
propriétaries prélèvent-ils quelque chose sur leur ration. Ils
doivent se procurer le suplus de leur nourriture, ainsi que leurs
vêtemens, avec le produit de leur travail du dimanche. S'ils ne
le font pas, ils sont exposés à rester nus pendant la saison
rigoureuse. Ceux qui leur fournissent des vêtemens, le
contraignent à employer pour eux les jours de repos, jusqu'a ce
qu'ils aient été remboursés de leurs avances. Pendant tout l'été,
les Nègres ne sont pas vêtus. Les parties naturelles sont
uniquement cachées par une pièce d'étoffe, qui s'attache à la
ceinture par devant et par derrière, et qui a conservé dans toute
l'Amérique septentrionale habitée par les François, le nom de
_braguet_. L'hiver ils ont généralement une chemise et une
couverture de laine, faite en forme de redingotte. Les enfans
restent souvent nus jusqu'à l'age de huit ans, qu'ils commencent
à rendre quelques services.
Un maître ne doit-il pas a son esclave le vêtement et une
nourriture substantielle, à proportion du travail qu'il en exige?
Le jour du repos n'appartient-il pas à tous les hommes, et plus
particulièrement à ceux qui sont employés aux penibles travaux de
la campagne? Ce sont des questions qui n'en seroient pas, si
l'avarice, plus forte que l'humanité, ne dominoit presque tous
les hommes, mais sur-tout les habitans des colonies. Que
résulte-t-il cependant de cette avarice mal entendue? les Nègres
mal nourris et trop fatigués s'épuisent et ne peuplent pas; de
l'épuisement nait la foiblesse, de la foiblesse le decouragement,
la maladie et la mort. Pour augmenter son revenue le
propriétaire perd donc le capital, sans que son expérience le
rende ordinairement plus sage. Je n'ignore pas que les Nègres
sont loin de ressembler aux autres hommes; qu'ils ne peuvent être
conduits ni par la douceur, ni par les sentimens; qu'ils se
moquent de ceux qui les traitent avec bonté; qu'ils tiennent par
la morale à la brute, autant qu'à l'homme par leur constitution
physique; mais ayons au moins pour eux soins que nous avons pour
les quadrupèdes, dont nous nous servons: nourrissons-les bien
pour qu'ils travaillent bien, et n'exigeons pas au-dela de leurs
facultés ou de leurs forces.
Les Nègres sont naturellement fourbes, paresseux, voleurs et
cruels; il est inutile d'ajouter qu'ils sont tous dans le coeur
ennemis des Blancs: le serpent cherche à mordre celui qui le
foule aux pieds; l'esclave doit haïr son maître. Mais ce dontil
est difficile de rendre compte, c'est l'aversion et la brutalité
des Noirs libres pour ceux de leur espèce. Parviennent-ils à se
procurer des esclaves? ils les traitent avec une barbarie dont
rien ne peut approcher; ils les nourrissent plus mal encore que
ne font les Blancs, et les surchargent de travail: heureusement
leur penchant à la fainéantise et a l'ivrognerie, les tient dans
un état de mediocrité dont ils sortent rarement.
Quoique les Nègres libres perdent très-peu de leur haine pour les
Blancs, ils sont cependant loin d'être aussi dangereux que les
Mulâtres. Ces hommes qui semblent participer aux vices des deux
espèces, comme ils out participé à leurs couleurs, sont méchans,
vindicatifs, traîtres et également ennemis des Noirs qu'ils
méprisent, et des Blancs qu'ils ont en horreur. Cruels jus qu'à
la barbarie envers les premiers, ils sont toujours prêts à saisir
l'occasion de tourner leurs bras contre les seconds. Fruits du
libertinage de leurs pères, dont ils recoivent presque tous la
liberté et une éducation assez soignée, ils sont loin d'en être
reconnaissans; ils voudroient en être traités comme des enfans
légitimes, et la différence que l'on met entr'eux les porte à
détester même les auteurs de leurs jours. On en a vu un grand
nombre, dans le massacre de Saint-Domingue, porter sur eux leurs
mains parricides. Les plus délicats se chargeoient mutuellement
de cette détestable commission. Vas tuer mon père, se
disoient-ils, je tuerai le tien.
Mais, dira-t-on, le premier droit de la nature est de se racheter
de l'esclavage, comme c'en est un aussi de faire jouir des
bienfaits de la liberté l'être qui tient de nous l'existence. Ces
vérités ne peuvent être contestées; mais une troisième qui n'est
pas moins évidente, c'est qu'il est du devoir d'un bon
gouvernement d'assurer par toutes sortes de moyens la vie et la
propriété des peuples qui vivent sous sa domination: or, par-tout
où il y aura des Nègres libres ou des Mulâtres, l'une et l'autre
seront chaque jour exposées au plus imminent danger. Un esclave
fuit-il son maître? c'est chez un Nègre libre qu'il va se
réfugier. Un vol a-t-il été commis? si le Nègre libre n'en est
point l'auteur, il en est au moins le receleur. Lorsque par la
suite de son travail ou de son économie un esclave peut racheter
sa liberté, qu'il aille en jouir parmi les nations qui voudront
le recevoir, ou qu'il retourne dans son pays, c'est tout ce que
le Gouvernement lui doit. Mais je ne crains pas d'assurer que
toute colonie où l'on souffrira des Nègres libres, sera le
repaire du brigandage et des crimes.
Quant aux hommes de couleur, plus dangereux encore, il seroit
probablement très-avantageux d'en former des colonies dans
quelques parties inhabitées du continent: cette mesure auroit une
suite doublement utile; elle priveroit les colonies de ces êtres
par lesquels elles seront tôt ou tard anéanties, et elle
diminueroit ce goût crapuleux des Blancs pour leurs esclaves, qui
est la ruine de la société et la cause première du pen de
population des pays qu'ils habitent.--_Voyage dans Les Deux
Louisianes_, 1801, 1802, and 1803, pp. 408-415, par M. Perrin Du
Lac.
OBSERVATIONS OF BERQUIN DUVALLON ON THE FREED PEOPLE OF COLOUR IN
LOUISIANA IN 1802
The class of free people of colour is composed of negroes and
mulattoes, but chiefly of the last, who have either obtained or
purchased their liberty from their masters, or held it in virtue
of the freedom of their parents. Of these, some residing in the
country, cultivate rice and a little cotton; a great number, men,
women and children collected in the city, are employed in
mechanical arts, and menial offices.
The mulattoes are in general vain and insolent, perfidious and
debauched, much giving to lying, and great cowards. They have an
inveterate hatred against the whites, the authors of their
existence, and primitive benefactors. It is the policy of the
Spanish government to cherish this antipathy; but nothing is to
be feared from them. There is a proportion of six whites to one
man of colour, which, with their natural pusillanimity, is a
sufficient restraint.
The mulatto women have not all the faults of the men. But they
are full of vanity, and very libertine; money will always buy
their caresses. They are not without personal charms; good
shapes, polished and elastic skins. They live in open concubinage
with the whites; but to this they are incited more by money than
any attachment. After all we love those best, and are most happy
in the intercourse of those, with whom we can be the most
familiar and unconstrained. These girls, therefore, only affect a
fondness for the whites; their hearts are with men of their own
colour.
They are, however, not wanting in discernment, penetration,
finesse; in this light they are superior to many of the white
girls in the lower classes of society, girls so impenetrably
dull, that like that of Balsac's village, they are too stupid to
be deceived by a man of breeding, gallantry and wit.
OBSERVATIONS ON THE NEGRO SLAVE
We come now to the class of negro slaves, the most numerous but
least fortunate of all. The negro Creoles of the country, or born
in some other European colony, and sent hither, are the most
active, the most intelligent, and the least subject to chronic
distempers; but they are also the most indolent, vicious and
debauched.
Those who come from Guinea are less expert in domestic service,
and the mechanical arts, less intelligent, and oftener victims of
violent sickness or grief (particularly in the early part of
their transportation) but more robust, more laborious, more
adapted to the labours of the field, less deceitful and libertine
than the others. Such are the discriminative characteristics of
each, and as to the rest, there is a strong relation between
their moral and physical character.
Negroes are a species of beings whom nature seems to have
intended for slavery; their pliancy of temper, patience under
injury, and innate passiveness, all concur to justify this
position; unlike the savages or aborigines of America, who could
never be brought to servile controul.
This colony of Louisiana, offers a philosophic and instructive
spectacle on this subject, from which I shall make a number of
deductions. If nature had imparted the same instinct to negroes
that she has to savages, it is certain that, instead of
subjecting themselves mechanically to the eternal labours of the
field, and the discipline of an imperious task-master, they
would abandon those places (to which they are not chained), and
gaining the woods, encamp themselves in the interior of the
country; in this imitating the savages, or aborigines, who sooner
than live in the vicinity of the whites, retire at their
approach.
Is it the uncertainty of a subsistence in this new mode of life,
that deters them from undertaking it? They have never any
solicitude for their future support. Is it the fear of being
pursued and overtaken that is an obstacle to the project?
Ignorant as they are, they cannot but know that, protected by
almost impenetrable woods, and formidable in numbers, they might
set at defiance a handful of whites. Does the apprehension of
being combated by the Indians damp their enterprize? Such a
chimera could never affright them, since the Indians roving in
detached parties, would be the first to flee; nay, they would
probably court their union, there having been instances of
negroes finding an asylum among them, but after a lapse of time,
unworthy to enjoy freedom, the fugitives have returned to their
plantation, like a dog, who, having escaped from his kennel,
returns to it by an instinct of submission. To multiply
comparisons, as the ox resigns himself to his yoke, so the negro
bends to his burden.
Their defect in instinct is apparent. Could the Indians be ever
brought to that state of slavery which the negroes bear without
repining; every method hitherto practiced to deprive them of
their liberty, has been ineffectual.
But it is not so with the negroes. In their own country, or
abroad, if they have ever discovered a desire to emerge from
slavery this flame as resembled a meteor which appears only for a
moment. And even, the scenes, which have been witnessed in the
French colonies, and, particularly, the island of Saint
Domingo,[229] serve to corroborate and support my theory. It is
undeniable that the negroes of that colony have never ceased to
be slaves. Before their insurrection they were the slaves of the
legitimate masters; in the early part of the revolution they were
slaves to the French commissioners and mulattoes; and afterwards
they became subject to the nod of negroes like themselves. We do
not alter the substance of a thing by changing the name.
Nature may be modified but cannot be essentially changed. It is
not possible to impart to the dog the habits of the wolf, nor to
the ape those of the sheep. This position cannot be refuted.
Sophistry may for a while delude, but the mind reposes upon the
stability of truth.
From this digression let us return to the examination of the
negro slave of Louisiana. He has the faults of a slave. He is
lazy, libertine, and given to lying, but not incorrigibly wicked.
His labour is not severe, unless it be at the rolling of sugars,
an interval of from two to three months, when the number of
labourers is not proportionate to the labour; then he works both
by day and night. It must be allowed that forty negroes rolling a
hundred and twenty thousand weight of sugar, and as many
hogsheads of syrup, in the short space of two cold, foggy, rainy
months (November and December) under all the difficulties and
embarrassments resulting from the season, the shortness of the
days, and the length of the nights, cannot but labour severely;
abridged of their sleep, they scarce retire to rest during the
whole period. It is true they are then fed more plentifully, but
their toils are nevertheless excessive. [230] In the country
where there are not those resources that distinguished the
Antilles, nor its spontaneous supplies, such as bananas, yams,
sweet potatoes, &c. the food of the negroes is less abundant.
The fixed ration of each negro a month is a barrel of maize not
pounded; indian corn being the only grain of the colony which can
assure an unfailing subsistence to the slaves. The rice, beans
and potatoes cultivated here, would not supply a quarter of them
with food. Some masters, more humane than others, add to the
ration a little salt.
The negro, during his hours of respite from labour, is busied in
pounding his corn; he has afterwards to bake it with what wood he
can procure himself. Both in summer and winter, he must be in the
fields at the first dawn of day. He carries his sorry pittance of
a breakfast with him, which he eats on the spot; he is, however,
scarce allowed time to digest it. His labour is suspended from
noon till two, when he dines, or rather makes a supplement to his
former meal. At two his labour re-commences, and he prosecutes it
till dark, sometimes visited by his master, but always exposed
to the menaces, blows and scourges either of a white overseer, or
a black driver.
The good negro, during the hours of respite allowed him, is not
idle. He is busy cultivating the little lot of ground granted
him, while his wife (if he has one) is preparing food for him and
their children. For it is observable that in this colony, the
children of the slaves are not nourished by their masters, as
they are at the Antilles; their parents are charged with them,
and allowed half a ration more for every child, commencing from
the epoch when it is weaned.
Retired at night to their huts, after having made a frugal meal,
they forget their labors in the arms of their mistresses. But
those who cannot obtain women (for there is a great disproportion
between the numbers of the two sexes) traverse the woods in
search of adventures, and often encounter those of an unpleasant
nature. They frequently meet a patrole of the whites, who tie
them up and flog them, and then send them home.
They are very fond of tobacco; they both smoke and chew it with
great relish.
Nothing can be more simple than the burial of a slave; he is put
into the plainest coffin, knocked together by a carpenter of his
own colour, and carried unattended by mourners to the
neighbouring grave-field. The most absolute democracy, however,
reigns there; the planter and slave, confounded with one another,
rot in conjunction. _Under ground precedency is all a jest!_
"Imperial Caesar dead, and turned to clay,
"May stop some hole to keep the wind away!"--Pope.
Death is not so terrible in aspect to these negroes as to the
whites. In fact death itself is not so formidable to any man as
the pageantry with which it is set forth. It is not death that is
so terrible, but the cries of mothers, wives and children, the
visits of astonished and afflicted friends, pale and blubbering
servants, a dark room set round with burning tapers, our beds
surrounded with physicians and divines. These, and not death
itself, affright the minds of the beholders, and make that appear
so dreadful with which armies, who have an opportunity of being
thoroughly acquainted and often seeing him without any of these
black and dismal disguises, converse familiarly, and meet with
mirth and gaiety.
The only cloathing of a slave is a simple woollen garment; it is
given to them at the beginning of winter. And will it be
believed, that the master, to indemnify himself for this
expense, retrenches half an hour from his negro's hours of
respite, during the short days of the rigorous season!
Their ordinary food is indian corn, or rice and beans, boiled in
water, without fat or salt. To them nothing comes amiss. They
will devour greedily racoon, opossum, squirrels, wood-rats, and
even the crocodile; leaving to the white people the roebuck and
rabbit, which they sell them when they kill those animals.
They raise poultry and hogs, but seldom eat either. They prefer
selling them, and purchasing from their profits, cloathing and
brandy. They love brandy to excess. Promise a negro a dram, and
he will go through fire and water to serve you.
Their smoaky huts admit both wind and rain. An anecdote offers
itself to my pen on this subject, which will exhibit the frigid
indifference of the colonists of Louisiana towards every thing
that interests humanity. Being on a visit at a plantation on the
Mississippi, I walked out one fine evening in winter, with some
ladies and gentlemen, who had accompanied me from the town, and
the planters at whose house we were entertained. We approached
the quarter where the huts of the negroes stood. "Let us visit
the negroes," said one of the party; and we advanced towards the
door of a miserable hut, where an old negro woman came to the
threshold in order to receive us, but so decrepit as well as old,
that it was painful for her to move.
Notwithstanding the winter was advanced, she was partly naked;
her only covering being some old thrown away rags. Her fire was a
few chips, and she was parching a little corn for supper. Thus
she lived abandoned and forlorn; incapable from old age to work
any longer, she was no longer noticed.
But independently of her long services, this negro woman had
formerly suckled and brought up two brothers of her master, who
made one of our party. She perceived him, and accosting him,
said, "My master, when will you send one of your carpenters to
repair the roof of my hut? Whenever it rains, it pours down upon
my head." The master lifting his eyes, directed them to the roof
of the hut, which was within the reach of his hand. "I will think
of it," said he.--"You will think of it," said the poor creature.
"You always say so, but never do it."--"Have you not," rejoined
the master, "two grandsons who can mend it for you?"--"But are
they mine," said the old woman, "do they not work for you, and
are you not my son yourself? who suckled and raised your two
brothers? who was it but Irrouba? Take pity then on me, in my old
age. Mend at least the roof of my hut, and God will reward you
for it."
I was sensibly affected; it was _le cri de la bonne nature_. And
what repairs did the poor creature's roof require? What was
wanting to shelter her from the wind and rain of heaven? A few
shingles!--"I will think of it," repeated her master, and
departed.
The ordinary punishment inflicted on the negroes of the colony is
a whipping. What in Europe would condemn a man to the galleys or
the gallows incurs here only the chastisement of the whip. But
then a king having many subjects does not miss them after their
exit from this life, but a planter could not lose a negro without
feeling the privation.
I do not consider slavery either as contrary to the order of a
well regulated society, or an infringement of the social laws.
Under a different name it exists in every country. Soften then
the word which so mightily offends the ear; call it dependence.
The most common maladies of the negroes are slight fevers in the
spring, more violent ones in the summer, dysenteries in autumn,
and fluxions of the breast in winter. Their bill of mortality,
however, is not very considerable. The births exceed the deaths.
The language of the negro slaves, as well as of a great number of
the free mulattoes, is a patois derived from the French, and
spoken according to rules of corruption. There are some
house-slaves, however, who speak French with not less purity than
their masters: their language, it may be presumed, is depraved
with many words not to be found in a Voltaire, a Thomas or a
Rousseau.--_Travels in Louisiana and The Floridas, in the Year,
1802_, by Berquin Duvallon, pp. 79-94. Trans. by Davis.
JOHN DAVIS, 1806
TIMOTHY FLINT'S RECOLLECTIONS OF CONDITIONS IN LOUISIANA IN 1826
In the region where I live, the masters allow entire liberty to
the slaves to attend public worship, and as far as my knowledge
extends, it is generally the case in Louisiana. We have regular
meetings of the blacks in the building where I attend public
worship. I have, in the years past, devoted myself assiduously,
every Sabbath morning, to the labour of learning them to read. I
find them quick of apprehension. They learn the rudiments of
reading quicker than even the whites, but it is with me an
undoubting conviction, that having advanced them to a certain
point, it is much more difficult to carry them beyond. In other
words, they learn easily to read, to sing, and scrape the fiddle.
But it would be difficult to teach them arithmetic, or
combination of ideas or abstract thinking of any kind. Whether
their skull indicates this by the modern principles of
craniology, or not, I cannot say. But I am persuaded, that this
susceptible and affectionate race have heads poorly adapted to
reasoning and algebra.
I had heard, before I visited the slave states in the West,
appalling stories of the cruelty and barbarity of masters to
slaves. In effect I saw there instances of cruel and brutal
masters. But I was astonished to find that the slaves in general
had the most cheerful countenances, and were apparently the
happiest people that I saw. They appeared to me to be as well fed
and clothed, as the labouring poor at the North. Here I was told,
that the cruelty and brutality were not here, but among the great
planters down the Mississippi. So strongly is this idea
inculcated, that it is held up to the slave, as a bugbear over
his head to bind him to good behaviour, that if he does not
behave well, he will be carried down the river, and be sold. When
I descended to this country, I had prepared myself to witness
cruelty on the one part, and misery on the other. I found the
condition of the slaves in the lower country to be still more
tolerable, than in that above; they are more regularly and better
clothed, endure less inclemency of the seasons, are more
systematically supplied with medical attendance and medicine,
when diseased, and what they esteem a great hardship, but what is
in fact a most fortunate circumstance in their condition, they
cannot, as in the upper country, obtain whiskey at all.
It is a certain fact, and to me it is a delightful one, that a
good portion of the lights of reason and humanity, that have been
pouring such increasing radiance upon every part of the country,
have illumined the huts of the slaves, and have dawned in the
hearts of their masters. Certain it is, that in visiting great
numbers of plantations, I have generally discovered in the slaves
affection for their masters, and sometimes, though not so
generally, for the overseers. It appears to be a growing desire
among masters, to be popular with their slaves, and they have
finally become impressed, that humanity is their best interest,
that cheerful, well fed and clothed slaves, perform so much more
productive labour, as to unite speculation and kindness in the
same calculation. In some plantations they have a jury of negroes
to try offences under the eye of the master, as judge, and it
generally happens that he is obliged to mitigate the severity of
their sentence. The master too has hold of the affection of the
slaves, by interposing his authority in certain cases between the
slave and the overseer. Where the master is really a considerate
and kind man, the patriarchal authority on the one hand, and the
simple and affectionate veneration on the other, render this
relation of master and slave not altogether so forbidding, as we
have been accustomed to consider it.
The negro village that surrounds a planter's house, is, for the
most part, the prototype of the village of Owen of Lanark. It is
generally oblong rows of uniform huts. In some instances I have
seen them of brick, but more generally of cypress timber, and
they are made tight and comfortable. In some part of the village
is a hospital and medicine chest. Most masters have a physician
employed by the job, and the slave, as soon as diseased, is
removed there. Provision is also made for the subsistence and
comfort of those that are aged and past their labour. In this
village by night you hear the hurdy-gurdy, and the joyous and
unthinking laugh of people, who have no care nor concern for the
morrow. I enter among them, and the first difficulty appears to
arise from jealousy, and mutual charges of inconstancy, between
the husbands and wives. In fact, the want of any sanction or
permanence to their marriage connexions, and the promiscuous
intimacies that subsist among them, are not only the sources of
most of their quarrels and troubles, but are among the most
formidable evils, to a serious mind, in their condition. You now
and then see a moody and sullen looking negro, and if you inquire
into the cause of his gloom, you will be informed that he has
been a fugitive, that he has lived long in the woods upon
thieving, that he has been arrested and whipped, and is waiting
his opportunity to escape again. Judging of their condition from
their countenances, and from their unthinking merriment, I should
think them the happiest people here, and in general, far more so
than their masters.
It is a most formidable part of the evil of slavery, that the
race is far more prolific than that of the whites, and that their
population advances in a greater ratio. They are at present in
this region more numerous than the whites, and this inequality is
increasing every day. Thinking people here, who look to the
condition of their posterity, are appalled at this view of
things, and admit that something must be done to avert the
certain final consequences of such an order of things. I remark,
in concluding this subject, that the people here always have
under their eye the condition and character of the free blacks.
It tends to confirm them in their opinions upon the subject. The
slaves are addicted to theft, but the free blacks much more so.
They, poor wretches, have had the privilege of getting drunk, and
they avail themselves of it. The heaviest scourge of New Orleans
is its multitudes of free black and coloured people. They wallow
in debauchery, are quarrelsome and saucy, and commit crimes, in
proportion to the slaves, as a hundred to one.
The population of Louisiana is supposed to be, at present,
between two and three hundred thousand. After New Orleans, the
most populous parishes are Baton Rouge, Feliciana, Rapidé, and
Natchitoches. Parishes in this region are civil divisions,
derived from the former regime. They are often larger than our
counties at the North. This country, from the character of its
soil, cannot have a dense population, until the swamps are
drained. The population, except the sparse inhabitants of the
pine woods, is fixed along the margin of the water courses, and
the greater part of the planters can convey their produce
immediately on board the steam-boats.--_Recollections of the Last
Ten Years. Passed in Occasional Residences and Journeyings in the
Valley of the Mississippi_, by Timothy Flint, 1826, pp. 345-349.
THE OBSERVATIONS OF BERNARD, DUKE OF SAXE-WEIMAR EISENACH, IN NEW
ORLEANS
The garrison consists of two companies of infantry, of the first
and fourth regiments. This has been here since the last
insurrection of Negroes, and has been continued, to overawe them.
In case of a serious alarm, this would prove but of little
service; and what security is there against such an alarm? In
Chartres street, where we dwelt, there were two establishments,
which constantly revolted my feelings, to wit: shops in which
Negroes were purchased and sold. These unfortunate beings, of
both sexes, stood or sat the whole day, in these shops, or in
front of them, to exhibit themselves, and wait for purchasers.
The abomination is shocking, and the barbarity and indifference,
produced by the custom in white men, is indescribable.[231]
There were subscription balls given in New Orleans, to which the
managers had the politeness to invite us. These balls took place
twice a week, Tuesdays and Fridays, at the French theatre, where
the masquerade had been, which I mentioned before. None but good
society were admitted to these subscription balls; the first that
we attended was not crowded, however, the generality of the
ladies present were very pretty, and had a very genteel French
air. The dress was extremely elegant, and after the latest Paris
fashion. The ladies danced, upon the whole, excellently and did
great honour to their French teachers. Dancing, and some
instruction in music, is almost the whole education of the female
Creoles.
Most of the gentlemen here are far behind the ladies in elegance.
They did not remain long at the ball, but hasted away to the
quadroon ball, so called, where they amused themselves more, and
were more at their ease. This was the reason why there were more
ladies than gentlemen present at the ball, and that many were
obliged to form "tapestry." When a lady is left sitting, she is
said to be "bredouillè." Two cotillions and a waltz, are danced
in succession, and there is hardly an interval of two or three
minutes between the dances. The music was performed by negroes
and coloured people, and was pretty good. The Governor was also
at the ball, and introduced me to several gentlemen, among
others, a Frenchman, General Garrigues de Flaugeac, who, having
emigrated here from St. Domingo, had married, and given the world
some very handsome daughters. Several of the French families here
settled, and indeed, the most respectable, were emigrants from
that island, who wait for the indemnification due to them, but
without any great hopes of receiving it.
* * * * *
At the masked balls, each paid a dollar for admission. As I
visited it for the second time, I observed, however, many present
by free tickets, and I was told that the company was very much
mixed. The unmasked ladies belonging to good society, sat in the
recesses of the windows, which were higher than the saloon, and
furnished with galleries. There were some masks in character, but
none worthy of remark. Two quarrels took place, which commenced
in the ball-room with blows, and terminated in the vestibule,
with pocket-pistols and kicking, without any interruption from
the police.
On the same evening, what was called a quadroon ball took place.
A quadroon is the child of a mestize mother and a white father,
as a mestize is the child of a mulatto mother and a white father.
The quadroons are almost entirely white: from their skin no one
would detect their origin; nay many of them have as fair a
complexion as many of the haughty Creole females. Such of them as
frequent these balls are free. Formerly they were known by their
black hair and eyes, but at present there are completely fair
quadroon males and females. Still, however, the strongest
prejudice reigns against them on account of their black blood,
and the white ladies maintain, or affect to maintain, the most
violent aversion towards them. Marriage between the white and
coloured population is forbidden by the law of the state. As the
quadroons on their part regard the negroes and mulattoes with
contempt, and will not mix with them, so nothing remains for them
but to be friends, as it is termed, of the white men. The female
quadroon looks upon such an engagement as a matrimonial contract,
though it goes no farther than a formal contract by which the
"friend" engages to pay the father or mother of the quadroon a
specified sum. The quadroons both assume the name of their
friends, and as I am assured preserve this engagement with as
much fidelity as ladies espoused at the altar. Several of these
girls have inherited property from their fathers or friends, and
possess handsome fortunes. Notwithstanding this, their situation
is always very humiliating. They cannot drive through the streets
in a carriage, and their "friends" are forced to bring them in
their own conveyances after dark to the ball: they dare not sit
in the presence of white ladies, and cannot enter their
apartments without special permission. The whites have the
privilege to procure these unfortunate creatures a whipping like
that inflicted on slaves, upon an accusation, proved by two
witnesses. Several of these females have enjoyed the benefits of
as careful an education as most of the whites; they conduct
themselves ordinarily with more propriety and decorum, and confer
more happiness on their "friends," than many of the white ladies
to their married lords. Still, the white ladies constantly speak
with the greatest contempt, and even with animosity, of these
unhappy and oppressed beings. The strongest language of high
nobility in the monarchies of the old world, cannot be more
haughty, overweening or contemptuous towards their fellow
creatures, than the expressions of the creole females with regard
to the quadroons, in one of the much vaunted states of the free
Union. In fact, such comparison strikes the mind of a thinking
being very singularly! Many wealthy fathers, on account of the
existing prejudices send daughters of this description to France,
where these girls with a good education and property, find no
difficulty in forming a legitimate establishment. At the quadroon
ball, only coloured ladies are admitted, the men of that caste,
be it understood, are shut out by the white gentlemen. To take
away all semblance of vulgarity, the price of admission is fixed
at two dollars, so that only persons of the better class can
appear there.
As a stranger in my situation should see every thing, to acquire
a knowledge of the habits, customs, opinions and prejudices of
the people he is among, therefore I accepted the offer of some
gentlemen who proposed to carry me to this quadroon ball. And I
must avow I found it much more decent than the masked ball. The
coloured ladies were under the eyes of their mothers, they were
well and gracefully dressed, and conducted themselves with much
propriety and modesty. Cotillions and waltzes were danced, and
several of the ladies performed elegantly. I did not remain long
there that I might not utterly destroy my standing in New
Orleans, but returned to the masked ball and took great care not
to disclose to the white ladies where I had been. I could not
however refrain from making comparisons, which in no wise
redounded to the advantage of the white assemble. As soon as I
entered I found a state of formality.[232]
At the end of January, a contagious disorder prevailed, called
the varioloid. It was said to be a species of small-pox, and was
described as malignant in the highest degree. Even persons who
had undergone vaccination, and those who had passed through the
natural small-pox, were attacked by this disorder. The garrison
lost six men, of whom two were severely marked. The garrison were
placed in the barracks to preserve them from this malady. It was
through that it was imported by some negro slaves from the north.
Many owners of slaves in the states of Maryland and Virginia have
real--(pardon the loathsome expression, I know not how otherwise
to designate the beastly idea,) stud nurseries for slaves, whence
the planters of Louisiana, Mississippi, and other southern states
draw their supplies, which increase every day in price. Such a
disease as the varioloid is a fit present, in return for slaves
thus obtained![233]
FROM CHARLES GAYARRÉ'S UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPT ON THE PEOPLE OF COLOR
IN LOUISIANA
"By 1830, some of these _gens de couleur_ had arrived at such a
degree of wealth as to own cotton and sugar plantations with
numerous slaves. They educated their children, as they had been
educated, in France. Those who chose to remain there, attained,
many of them, distinction in scientific and literary circles. In
New Orleans they became musicians, merchants, and money and real
estate brokers. The humbler classes were mechanics; they
monopolized the trade of shoemakers, a trade for which, even to
this day, they have special vocation; they were barbers, tailors,
carpenters, upholsterers. They were notable successful hunters
and supplied the city with game. As tailors, they were almost
exclusively patronized by the _élite_, so much so that the
Legoasters', the Dumas', the Clovis', the Lacroix', acquired
individually fortunes of several hundred thousands of dollars.
This class was most respectable; they generally married women of
their own status, and led lives quiet, dignified and worthy, in
homes of ease and comfort. A few who had reached a competency
sufficient for it, attempted to settle in France, where there was
no prejudice against their origin; but in more than one case the
experiment was not satisfactory, and they returned to their
former homes in Louisiana. When astonishment was expressed, they
would reply, with a smile: 'It is hard for one who has once
tasted the Mississippi to keep away from it.'
"In fact, the quadroons of Louisiana have always shown a strong
local attachment, although in the state they were subjected to
grievances, which seemed to them unjust, if not cruel. It is
true, they possessed many of the civil and legal rights enjoyed
by the whites, as to the protection of person and property; but
they were disqualified from political rights and social equality.
But ... it is always to be remembered that in their contact with
white men, they did not assume that creeping posture of
debasement--nor did the whites expect it--which has more or less
been forced upon them in fiction. In fact, their handsome,
good-natured faces seem almost incapable of despair. It is true
the whites were superior to them, but they, in their turn, were
superior, and infinitely superior, to the blacks, and had as much
objection to associating with the blacks on terms of equality as
any white men could have to associating with them. At the Orleans
theatre they attended their mothers, wives, and sisters in the
second tier, reserved exclusively for them, and where no white
person of either sex would have been permitted to intrude. But
they were not admitted to the quadroon balls, and when white
gentlemen visited their families it was the accepted etiquette
for them never to be present.
"Nevertheless it must not be imagined that the amenities were not
observed when the men of the races met, for business or
otherwise; many anecdotes are told to illustrate this. The
wealthy owner of a large sugar plantation lived in a parish where
resided also a rich, highly educated sugar planter of mixed
blood, a man who had a reputation in his day for his rare and
extensive library. Both planters met on a steamboat. When the
hour for dinner struck, the white gentleman observed a small
table set aside, at which his companion quietly took his place.
Moved by this voluntary exhibition of humble acquiescence in the
exigencies of his social position, the white gentleman, escorted
by a friend, went over to the small table and addressed the
solitary guest: 'We desire you to dine with us.' 'I am very
grateful for your kindness, gentlemen,' was the reply, 'and I
would cheerfully accept your invitation, but my presence at your
table, if acceptable to you, might be displeasing to others.
Therefore, permit me to remain where I am.'
"Another citizen, a Creole, and one of the finest representatives
of the old population, occupying the highest social position, was
once travelling in the country. His horses appearing tired, and
he himself feeling the need of refreshment, he began to look
around for some place to stop.
"He was just in front of a very fine, large plantation belonging
to a man of color, whom he knew very well, a polished, educated
man, who made frequent visits to Paris. He drove unhesitatingly
to the house, and, alighting, said: 'I have come to tax your
hospitality.' 'Never shall a tax be paid more willingly,' was the
prompt reply. 'I hope I am not too late for dinner.' 'For you,
sir, it is never too late at my house for anything that you may
desire.' A command was given; cook and butler made their
preparations, and dinner was announced. The guest noticed but one
seat and one plate at the table. He exclaimed: 'What! Am I to
dine alone?' 'I regret, sir, that I cannot join you, but I have
already dined.' 'My friend,' answered his guest, with a
good-natured smile on his lips, 'Permit me on this occasion to
doubt your word, and to assure you that I shall order my carriage
immediately and leave, without touching a mouthful of this
appetizing menu, unless you share it with me.' The host was too
much of a Chesterfield not to dine a second time, if courtesy or
a guest required.
"The free quadroon women of middle age were generally in easy
circumstances, and comfortable in their mode of living. They
owned slaves, skilful hairdressers, fine washerwomen,
accomplished seamstresses, who brought them in a handsome
revenue. Expert themselves at all kinds of needle-work, and not
deficient in taste, some of them rose to the importance of
modistes, and fashioned the dresses of the elegantes among the
white ladies. Many of them made a specialty of making the fine
linen shirts worn at that day by gentlemen and were paid two
dollars and a half apiece for them, at which rate of profit a
quadroon woman could always earn a honest, comfortable living.
Besides, they monopolized the renting, at high prices, of
furnished rooms to white gentlemen. This monopoly was easily
obtained, for it was difficult to equal them in attention to
their tenants, and the tenants indeed could have been hard to
please had they not been satisfied. These rooms, with their large
post bedsteads, immaculate linen, snowy mosquito bars, were
models of cleanliness and comfort. In the morning the nicest cup
of hot coffee was brought to the bedside; in the evening, at the
foot of the bed, there stood the never failing tub of fresh water
with sweet-smelling towels. As landladies they were both menials
and friends, and always affable and anxious to please. A cross
one would have been a phenomenon. If their tenants fell ill, the
old quadroons and, under their direction, the young ones, were
the best and kindest of nurses. Many of them, particularly those
who came from St. Domingo, were expert in the treatment of yellow
fever. Their honesty was proverbial."--GRACE KING, _New Orleans,
the Place and People_, pp. 346-349.
CASWALL'S ACCOUNT OF BISHOP POLK'S EFFORTS IN LOUISIANA IN 1854
"Bishop Polk, of Louisiana, was one of the guests. He assured me
that he had been all over the country on Red River, the scene of
the fictitious sufferings of 'Uncle Tom,' and that he had found
the temporal and spiritual welfare of the negroes well cared for.
He had confirmed thirty black persons near the situation assigned
to Legree's estate. He is himself the owner of four hundred
slaves, whom he endeavours to bring up in a religious manner. He
tolerates no religion on his estate but that of the Church. He
baptizes all the children, and teaches them the Catechism. All,
without exception, attend the Church service, and the chanting is
creditably performed by them, in the opinion of their owner.
Ninety of them are communicants, marriages are celebrated
according to the Church ritual, and the state of morals is
satisfactory. Twenty infants had been baptized by the bishop just
before his departure from home, and he had left his whole estate,
his keys, &c., in the sole charge of one of his slaves, without
the slightest apprehension of loss or damage. In judging of the
position of this Christian prelate as a slave-owner, the English
reader must bear in mind that, by the laws of Louisiana,
emancipation has been rendered all but impracticable, and, that
if practicable, it would not necessarily be, in all cases, an act
of mercy or of justice."--_The Western World Revisited_, by the
Rev. Henry Caswall, M.A., author of _America and the American
Church_, etc. Oxford, John Henry Parker, 1854. See _Journeys and
Explorations in the Cotton Kingdom_, by Frederick Law Olmsted,
Vol. II, pp. 212-213.
OLMSTED'S OBSERVATIONS IN LOUISIANA IN 1860
With regard to the religious instruction of slaves, widely
different practices of course prevail. There are some
slaveholders, like Bishop Polk of Louisiana, who oblige, and many
others who encourage, their slaves to engage in religious
exercises, furnishing them certain conveniences for the purpose.
Among the wealthier slave owners, however, and in all those parts
of the country where the enslaved portion of the population
outnumbers the whites, there is generally a visible, and often an
avowed distrust of the effect of religious exercises upon slaves,
and even the preaching of white clergymen to them is permitted by
many with reluctance. The prevailing impression among us, with
regard to the important influence of slavery in promoting the
spread of religion among the blacks, is an erroneous one in my
opinion. I have heard northern clergymen speak as if they
supposed a regular daily instruction of slaves in the truths of
Christianity to be general. So far is this from being the case,
that although family prayers were held in several of the fifty
planters' houses in Mississippi and Alabama, in which I passed a
night, I never in a single instance saw a field-hand attend or
join in the devotion of the family.--See Olmsted's _Cotton
Kingdom_, II, 212-213.
FOOTNOTES:
[228] Environ soixante livres.
[229] It is apparent that our author once lived at St. Domingo. I
imagine he was a sufferer from the revolt, insurrection and triumph of
the Negroes; hence his aversion to them, hence his revilings, hence
his outrageous invectives.
[230] The disastrous events proceeding from the late war should be
impressed with redoubled force upon the minds of all slave-holders
throughout the globe, they should teach them the necessity of keeping
them in that state of content and subordination, which will alienate
them from the wish of acquiring a freedom, which has cost so much
blood to the colonists of St. Domingo. I subjoin for the information
of the inhabitants of the United States the directions issued by the
Spanish government for the treatment of slaves in Louisiana. They
exhibit the internal police of the plantations.
Every slave shall punctually receive the barrel of corn allowed by the
usage of the colony, and which quantity is voluntarily augmented by
the greater part of their masters.
The Syndics shall take measures to induce the planters of their
district to allow their negroes a portion of their waste lands; by
which they will not only add to their comforts, but increase the
productions of the province, and that time will be usefully employed
which would otherwise be devoted to libertinism.
Every slave shall be allowed half an hour for breakfast, and two hours
for dinner; their labor shall commence at break of day, and shall
cease at the approach of night. Sundays shall be the holiday of the
slaves, but their masters may require their labor at harvest, &c. on
paying them four escalins per diem.
The slaves who have not a portion of waste lands shall receive
punctually from their masters a linen shirt and trowsers for the
summer, and a woollen great coat and trowsers for the winter.
No person shall cause to be given, at once, more than thirty lashes to
his slave, under penalty of fifty piasters, but the same may be
repeated, if necessary, within an interval of one day.
It is permitted to shoot at an armed run-away negro, who shall refuse
to stop when required; or who cannot otherwise be taken, even if he be
not armed; at a negro who shall dare to defend himself against his
master or overseer; and lastly at those who shall secretly enter a
plantation with intent to steal.
Whosoever shall kill a slave, unless in one of the cases before
mentioned, shall be punished to the extent of the law, and if he shall
only wound him, he shall be punished according to the circumstances of
the case. Intrigues, plots of escape, &c. arising in general from the
negroes of one plantation visiting those of another, the inhabitants
are forbidden under the penalty of ten piasters, to allow any
intercourse or resort of negroes to their plantations for the purpose
of dancing, &c. And the amusements of their own slaves, which shall be
allowed only on Sundays, shall terminate always before night.
A slave shall not pass the bounds of his master's land, without his
permission in writing, under the penalty of 20 lashes.
A slave shall not ride the horse of his master or any other person,
without permission, shall be punished with 30 lashes.
Slaves shall not be permitted to be proprietors of horses, under
penalty of the confiscation thereof.
Fire-arms are prohibited to slaves, as also powder, ball and lead,
under the penalty of thirty lashes and the confiscation thereof.
An inhabitant may not have more than two hunters, who are to deliver
up their arms and ammunition on their return from the chase.
Slaves may not sell any thing without the permission of their master,
not even the productions of the waste lands allowed them.
Rum, fire-arms and ammunition shall be seized when in possession of
coasters, and sold at public auction for the use of the treasury.
New-Orleans, June 1, 1795.
Le Baron de Carondelet.
[231] Among the slave traders, a Hollander from Amsterdam, disgusted
me particularly, his name was Jacobs. He had the most vulgar and
sinister countenance imaginable, was constantly drunk, and treated the
wretched negroes in the most brutal manner; he was, however, severely
beaten by these miserable beings, driven to despair. BERNARD, DUKE OF
SAXE-WEIMAR EISENACH, _Travels through North America during the years
1825 and 1826_, pp. 57-59.
The virtuous indignation of the Duke, at these horrible consequences
of slavery, is such as every man, not hardened by long familiarity
with such scenes, must feel; those to whom they are daily presented
regard them with calm indifference, or even attempt to argue in favour
of their continuance and harmlessness. It is not as generally known,
as it should be, that the slave trade is carried on, almost as
vigorously now, as ever it was, and by citizens of almost every
nation; not in the least excepting Americans. The slave vessels sail
principally from Havanna and St. Thomas, and land their cargoes on the
island of Puerto Rico, and elsewhere, whither purchasers and agents
resort, when such an arrival occurs. Two schooners, with large
cargoes, arrived in Puerto Rico in February last, and two brigs were
daily expected. It is said in the West Indies, that all ships of war,
of powers owning West India Colonies, _connive_ at the trade, which is
fully supported by facts; as French, Danish, and English cruisers were
in the vicinity, when the above mentioned cargoes arrived. The idea of
cruising off the coast of Africa, to prevent the trade, is ridiculed
by the slave dealers, with one of whom the writer of this note
conversed. If the American, or any other government _really wished_ to
put an end to this trade, it could be very effectually accomplished,
by sending small armed vessels to intercept the slave traders near
their places of landing cargoes, which are not very numerous. It is
also _said_, in the West Indies, that the Havanna traders still
contrive to introduce Africans into the southern part of the United
States; of the truth or falsehood of this, we know nothing. The slave
vessels are generally Baltimore clipper brigs, and schooners,
completely armed and very fast sailers. Two of them sailed on this
execrable trade in February last, from a port visited by the
writer.--Trans.
[232] If it be known that a stranger, who has pretensions to mix with
good society, frequents such balls as these, he may rely upon a cold
reception from the white ladies.
[233] A plain, unvarnished history of the _internal slave trade_
carried on in this country, would shock and disgust the reader to a
degree that would almost render him ashamed to acknowledge himself a
member of the same community. In unmanly and degrading barbarity,
wanton cruelty, and horrible indifference to every human emotion,
facts could be produced worthy of association with whatever is
recorded of the slave trade in any other form. One of these internal
slave traders has built, in a neighboring city, a range of _private
prisons_, fronting the main road to Washington, in which he collects
his _cattle_ previous to sending off a caravan to the south. The voice
of lamentation is seldom stilled within these accursed walls. BERNARD,
DUKE OF SAXE-WEIMAR EISENACH, _Travels through North America during
the years 1825 and 1826_, pp. 61-63.
THE CONDITIONS AGAINST WHICH WOOLMAN AND ANTHONY BENEZET INVEIGHED
Impressions of Jasper Danckaerts in 1679-1680
Servants and negroes are chiefly employed in the culture of
tobacco, who are brought from other places to be sold to the
highest bidders, the servants for a term of years only, but the
negroes for ever, and may be sold by their masters to other
planters as many times as their masters choose, that is, the
servants until their term is fulfilled, and the negroes for life.
These men, one with another, each make, after they are able to
work, from 2,500 pounds to 3,000 pounds and even 3,500 pounds of
tobacco a year, and some of the masters and their wives who pass
their lives here in wretchedness, do the same. The servants and
negroes after they have worn themselves down the whole day, and
come home to rest, have yet to grind and pound the grain, which
is generally maize, for their masters and all their families as
well as themselves, and all the negroes, to eat. Tobacco is the
only production in which the planters employ themselves, as if
there were nothing else in the world to plant but that, and while
the land is capable of yielding all the productions that can be
raised any where, so far as the climate of the place allows. As
to articles of food, the only bread they have is that made of
Turkish wheat or maize, and that is miserable. They plant this
grain for that purpose everywhere. It yields well, not a hundred,
but five or six hundred for one; but it takes up much space, as
it is planted far apart like vines in France. This grain, when it
is to be used for men or for similar purposes, has to be first
soaked, before it is ground or pounded, because the grains being
large and very hard, can not be broken under the small stones of
their light hand-mills; and then it is left so coarse it must be
sifted. They take the finest for bread, and the other for
different kinds of groats, which, when it is cooked is called
sapaen or homina. The meal intended for bread is kneaded moist
without leaven or yeast, salt or grease, and generally comes out
of the oven so that it will hardly hold together, and so blue and
moist that it is as heavy as dough; yet the best of it when cut
and roasted, tastes almost like warm white bread, at least it
then seemed to us so. This corn is also the only provender for
all their animals, be it horses, oxen, cows, hogs, or fowls,
which generally run in the woods to get their food, but are fed
a little of this, mornings and evenings during the winter when
there is little to be had in the woods; though they are not fed
too much, for the wretchedness, if not cruelty, of such living,
affects both man and beast. This is said not without reason, for
a master having a sick servant, and there are many so, and
observing from his declining condition, he would finally die, and
that there was no probability of his enjoying any more service
from him, made him, sick and languishing as he was, dig his own
grave, in which he was to be laid a few days afterwards, in order
not to busy any of the others with it, they having their hands
full in attending to the tobacco.--Jasper Danckaerts' _Original
Narratives of Early American History_, 1679-1680, p. 133.
Observations of Campbell in 1745-1746
The Negroes live as easily as in any other Part of America, and
at set Times have a pretty deal of Liberty in their Quarters, as
they are called. The Argument of the Reasonableness and Legality,
according to Nature, of the Slave-Trade, has been so well handled
on the Negative Side of the Question, that there remains little
for an Author to say on that Head; and that Captives taken in
War, are the Property of the Captor, as to Life and Person, as
was the Custom amongst the Spartans; who, like the Americans,
perpetuated a Race of Slaves, by marrying them to one another, I
think, has been fully disprov'd: But allowing some Justice in,
or, at least, a great deal of Necessity for, making Slaves of
this sable Part of the Species; surely, I think, Christianity,
Gratitude, or, at least, good Policy, is concerned in using them
well, and in abridging them, instead of giving them
Encouragement, of several brutal and scandalous Customs, that are
too much practised: Such as giving them a Number of Wives, or, in
short, setting them up for Stallions to a whole Neighborhood;
when it has been prov'd, I think, unexceptionably, that Polygamy
rather destroys than multiplies the Species; of which we have
also living Proofs under the Eastern Tyrants, and amongst the
Natives of America; so that it can in no Manner answere the End;
and were these Masters to calculate, they'd find a regular
Procreation would make them greater Gainers. A sad Consequence of
this Practice is, that their Children's Morals are debauch'd by
the Frequency of such Sights, as only fit them to become the
Masters of Slaves. This is one bad Custom amongst many others;
but as to their general Usage of them, 'tis monstrous, and
shocking. To be sure, a new Negro, if he must be broke, either
from Obstinacy, or, which I am more apt to suppose, from
Greatness of Soul, will require more hard Discipline than a
young Spaniel: You would really be surpriz'd at their
Perseverance; let an hundred men shew him how to hoe, or drive a
Wheelbarrow, he'll still take the one by the Bottom, and the
other by the Wheel; and they often die before they can be
conquer'd. They are, no Doubt, very great Thieves, but this may
flow from their unhappy, indigent Circumstances, and not from a
natural Bent; and when they have robb'd, you may lash them Hours
before they will confess the Fact; however, were they not to look
upon every White Man as their Tormentor; were a slight Fault to
be pardon'd now and then; were their Masters, and those
adamantine-hearted Overseers, to exercise a little more
Persuasion, Complacency, Tenderness and Humanity towards them, it
might perhaps, improve their Tempers to a greater Degree of
Tractability. Such Masters and such Overseers, Maryland may with
Justice Boast; and Mr. Bull, the late Lieutenant-Governor of
Carolina, is an Instance, amongst many, of the same, in that
Province: But, on the contrary, I remember an Instance of a late
Sea Officer, then resident in a neighbouring Colony, that for a
mere Peccadillo, order'd his Slave to be ty'd up, and for a whole
Hour diverted himself with the Wretched Groans; struck at the
Mournful Sound, with a Friend, I hasted to the Noise, where the
Brute was beginning a new Scene of Barbarity, and belabour'd the
Creature so long with a large Cane, his Overseer being tir'd with
the Cowskin, that he remained without Sense and Motion. Happily
he recovered, but, alas! deceas'd soon after, and perhaps, may
meet him, where the Wicked cease from troubling, and the Weary be
at rest: Where as our immortal Pope sings.
No friends torment, no christians thirst for gold. Another, upon
the same Spot, when a Girl had been lash'd till she confess'd a
Robbery, in mere Wantonness continu'd the Persecution, repeating
every now and then these christian-like, and sensible Expressions
in the Ragings of his Fury, G--dd--mn you, when you go to Hell, I
wish G--d would d--mn me, that I might follow you with the
Cowskin there.
Slavery, thou worst and greatest of Evils! Sometimes thou
appearest to my affrighted Imagination, sweating in the Mines of
Potosi, and wiping the hard-bound Tears from thy exhausted eyes;
sometimes I view thy sable Liberty under the Torture of the Whip,
inflicted by the Hands, the remorseless Hands of an American
Planter: At other Times I view thee in the Semblance of a Wretch
trod upon by ermin'd or turban'd Tyrants, and with poignant,
heart-breaking Sighs, dragging after thee a toilsome Length of
Chain, or bearing African Burdens. Anon I am somewhat comforted,
to see thee attempt to smile under the Grand Monarque; but on the
other Side of the Alpes, thou again resum'st thy Tears, and what,
and how great are thy Iberian Miseries! In Britain, and Britain
only, thy name is not heard; thou hast assum'd a new Form, and
the heaviest Labours are lightsome under those mild Skies!
Oh Liberty, do thou inspire our breasts!
And make our lives in thy possession happy;
Or our deaths glorious, in thy just defence.
Addison.
--Campbell, _Itinerant Observations in America_,
1745-1746, p. 37.
IMPRESSIONS OF PRISCILLA WAKEFIELD
After one of these handsome entertainments, where we had been
attended by negro slaves, I observed a cloud upon the brow of my
young friend, for which I could not account, till he confessed,
that the sight of men who were the property of their fellow
creatures, and subject to every indignity, excited such painful
reflections, that he could not banish them from his mind. I
endeavoured to soothe him, by representing that their treatment
here is gentle, compared with that exercised in the southern
states, and in the West Indies; though the efforts that have been
made for the abolition of slavery, have improved their conditions
every where.
It is indeed to be regretted, that men, so ardent in the love of
liberty for themselves as the Americans are, should continue, in
any degree, to tolerate the slave trade. Many amongst them,
however, have used every endeavour to abolish it, particularly
Anthony Benezet. He was born at St. Quintin, in Picardy, in 1712.
France, at this time, suffered from religious persecution; which
drove the parents of Benezet to England, where he embraced the
doctrines of the Quakers. He went to America in 1736, and settled
at Philadelphia, in a commercial line of business; but that
employment being unsuitable to his turn of mind, he quitted it
for the instruction of youth, and undertook the management of a
school, belonging to the society whose principles he had adopted.
From that period, he devoted the chief part of his life to public
instruction, to the relief of the poor, and the defense of the
unhappy negroes.
The amiable Benezet was warmed with universal philanthropy: he
felt a brotherly affection for all men, of all countries, and of
all colours. Not contented with persuasion, he composed many
books, in which he collected authorities from Scripture and other
writings, to discourage and condemn the slave-trade and slavery.
The first influence of his works was perceived amongst the
Quakers. Many of them determined to emancipate their slaves; and
the society since has been very active in promoting the
abolition. Benezet knew that instruction was necessary for those
blacks whose liberty he had procured; and finding few willing to
undertake a task, that prejudice had rendered contemptible, he
determined to devote his own time to the glorious occupation of
enlightening the ignorant and neglected, and his little fortune
to the establishment of a school for the negroes. The influence
of a good example is powerful. Those who had not courage to
begin, cheerfully assisted the work; and the school now enjoys a
revenue of two hundred pounds per annum. This good man died in
1784; honoured by the tears of the blacks, and the regrets of
every friend to humanity. John Woolman, also a member of the same
society, remarkable for the simplicity of his manners, and his
opposition to the slave-trade, united with Benezet and others, in
application to the British government for the abolition. Their
efforts were ineffectual. America after gaining her independence,
has listened, more favourably, to the cause of humanity. Most of
the northern and middle states have proscribed for ever, the
importation of slaves; and in some others, the prohibition is
limited to a certain time. Georgia is the only state that
continues to receive transported slaves. Rhode Island had a great
traffic in slaves, but has totally prohibited it. The abolition,
and amendment in the condition of the negroes, certainly advance,
though by slow degrees; and it is to be devoutly wished, that in
time these improvements will extend to all parts of the world,
where slavery prevails. It will be interesting to you, my dear
brother, to know the steps that have procured these advantages.
In 1780, the General Assembly of Pennsylvania abolished slavery
for ever; compelled the owners of slaves to have them registered;
declared their children free at the age of twenty-eight; placed
them, while under that age, on the footing of hired servants; and
assured to them the privilege of trial by jury. But this was not
sufficient to secure to them all the intended advantages: by a
second act it was ordained, that no negro could be sent into a
neighbouring state without his consent; that all vessels and
cargoes employed in the slave trade should be confiscated; and
that all stealers of the negroes should be condemned to the
public works. The little state of Delaware followed this noble
example. New York has sanctioned nearly the same regulations in
their favour as Pennsylvania. A society, connected with one in
London, and others in the American states, formed for the express
purpose of promoting the abolition, has greatly ameliorated their
condition, in all respects; especially by affording numbers of
them a degree of instruction in religion, and the useful arts of
reading and writing, which they acquire with as much facility as
white men brought up in the same manner. From this information we
may encourage the hope, that the time approaches when their
shackles shall be removed, and they shall participate with the
other races of mankind, in the common benefits of liberty and
independence: that instead of the treatment of beasts of burthen,
they shall be considered as rational beings, and co-heirs with us
of immortality: that a conscientious care of educating their
children in the great duties of Christianity, will produce a
happy change from the vices in which, from ignorance and a
combination of unfavorable circumstances, they now live, to the
practice of religion and morality, and entitle them to rank on an
equality with their fellow-creatures. Besides these public acts
in favour of the negroes, many individuals have generously given
liberty to their slaves; amongst others that have fallen under my
notice, I shall mention the instance of Messrs. David and John
Barclay, respectable merchants in London, who received, as an
equivalent for a debt, a plantation in Jamaica, stocked with
thirty-two slaves. They immediately resolved to set these negroes
free; and that they might effectually enable them afterwards to
provide for themselves, the surviving brother, David, sent an
agent from England to manage the business, and convey them to
Philadelphia, having first supplied them with all necessaries;
where, under the fostering hand of his friends in the city, with
the assistance of the Abolition Society, they were apprenticed to
mechanic trades, and the children sent to school to be properly
instructed. This benevolent act was rewarded with extraordinary
success. Except two, these liberated slaves prospered, and became
useful members of the community.
Many of those who are free, gain a great deal of money; as I
conclude, from a ball given among themselves, at which we were
present, where, though all of a sooty black, the company was well
dressed, came in coaches, and were regaled with a good supper and
variety of refreshments.--Priscilla Wakefield, _Excursions in
North America_, 1806, p. 16 et seq.
BOOK REVIEWS
_Andrew Johnson, Military Governor of Tennessee._ By CLIFTON R. HALL,
Ph.D. Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1916. Pp. 234.
This book, according to the author, is an attempt to "trace the
personality of Andrew Johnson through the years 1862-1865 when the
burden of military government and reconstruction in Tennessee rested
principally upon his shoulders." The author has intentionally
neglected to give detailed treatment of the military administration in
West Tennessee by the generals of the regular army and also of the
Federal trade regulations in the State. No effort is here made to
trace the career of Johnson after the close of his services in
Tennessee. The account is largely based on the papers of Johnson found
in the _Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies_ and on
the newspapers of that period, especially the _Nashville Union_. The
author is conscious of his failure adequately to present the
"Confederate side of many controverted points," because of "a most
regrettable dearth of material for this purpose."
Dr. Hall aims to answer certain charges, among which are such as the
assertion that Johnson purposely delayed the work of reconstruction
and that he by rather harsh treatment excluded many unquestionably
loyal men from the work of reconstruction. The purpose of the work is
to show how the lesson learned by Johnson in reconstructing his own
State constituted a training for the higher work to which he was so
suddenly and unexpectedly called. With this end in view the writer
considers first secession, and then gives a sketch of Andrew Johnson
leading up to his inauguration as Military Governor. Then follow such
topics as the defense of Nashville, repression under Rosecrans,
military and political reverses, the progress of reorganization and
the presidential campaign of 1864. Throughout the treatise an
effort is made to show the arduousness of the task of the
Governor-of-all-work had to do and how he summoned to his aid the
constructive element and reestablished order. There is given also an
account not only of the opposition of those who looked upon the
Governor as a traitor but of that of the militant factions that
divided on the question as to how the State should be reconstructed.
Lincoln's plan of reconstruction is presented as a factor which
figured largely in the problems the Governor had to solve.
How the question of slavery was then treated by the men solving the
problem of maintaining the Union is not neglected. Andrew Johnson is
referred to as product of the poor white stock that hoped to see the
evil of slavery exterminated because it was at variance with the
principles of democracy, but on the other hand believed that it was so
deeply rooted in the life of the nation that it should not be molested
so long as it "remained in strict subordination to and in harmony with
the government." The writer shows also how Johnson felt that in case
of secession the Federal Government could not coerce a State, yet
believing that this government, the best and freest on earth, should
be preserved, he undermined his own anti-coercion doctrine by
denouncing the right of secession and urging that although the Federal
Government could not coerce a State, it had a right to guarantee the
loyal citizens representing it a constitutional form of government.
Some space is given to the discussion of the exception of Tennessee
from the Emancipation Proclamation, the growing tendency of Johnson to
ignore slavery to preserve the Union, how the opponents sought to
weaken him by saying that he was opposed to the institution and
finally how he suffered it to be sacrificed to save the Union. Passing
mention is given the working out of the problem of abolition and the
proposition as to what relief and what privileges should be given the
emancipated Negroes.
J. O. BURKE
* * * * *
_The New Negro._ By WILLIAM PICKENS, Dean of Morgan College,
Baltimore. Neale Publishing Company, New York, 1916. Pp. 239.
"The New Negro" is a collection of speeches and essays through which
this well known orator has endeavored to present his views on the race
problem in the United States. Primarily polemic and ex-parte, this
work will hardly attract the attention of the investigator. But when
an author like this one, a man of reputation and influence among his
people, writes on such subjects as the "renaissance" of the Negro, his
constitutional status, and discusses Alexander Hamilton, Frederick
Douglass, and Abraham Lincoln, the serious reader might well pause to
give this work more than ordinary consideration.
The book does not bear the stamp of research; the aim of the work is
to defend the Negro and laud those who have championed his cause. The
bold claims which Negroes have been making from time immemorial are
set forth in brilliant and forceful style. In this respect the book is
a success. It goes over old ground, but it does its work well.
Although not historical, some valuable facts of Negro history are
given from page to page. It contains, however, a few statements which
are not essential to the establishment of the Negro's claim to great
achievement. It is very difficult to demonstrate to a thinking man the
advantage to the Negro of such a contention as the much mooted
connection of Alexander Hamilton and Robert Browning with the black
race when those men spent their lives and passed into history as white
men. Such argument has just about as much bearing on the present as
the efforts now being made by certain enthusiastic race leaders to
prove that Christ was a black man rather than a Jew. Fraught then with
opinions rather than with organized facts adequate to the development
of the subject constituting its title, the book must be classed as
controversial literature.
It may be well to note here, however, exactly what the author means by
the "new Negro." The "new Negro," says he, "is not really new; he is
the same Negro under new conditions. Those who regret the passing of
the 'old Negro' and picture the new as something very different must
remember that there is no sharp line of demarcation between the old
and the new in any growing organism like a germ, a plant or a race."
The "new Negro" then is simply the Negro differently circumstanced. He
is ignored by the white man and, therefore, misunderstood. The "new
Negro" is living under the handicap of isolation by white men who
differ from their former masters who lived in close contact with them.
The result is that the white man of today, choosing not to become
acquainted with the Negro, has constructed within his mind a person
entirely different from what the Negro actually is. The "new Negro" is
not treacherous, indolent and criminal as suspected. He "is a sober,
sensible creature, conscious of his environment, knowing that not all
is right, but trying hard to become adjusted to this civilization in
which he finds himself by no will or choice of his own. He is not the
shallow, vain, showy creature which he is sometimes advertised to be.
He still hopes that the unreasonable opposition to his forward and
upward progress will relent. But, at any rate, he is resolved to
fight, and live or die, on the side of God and the Eternal Verities."
* * * * *
_Cotton as a World Power._ By JAMES A. B. SCHERER, LL.D. Frederick A.
Stokes Company, New York, 1916. Pp. 452.
Here we see cotton again not as king but as a world power. It is the
new Golden Fleece. The Civil War brought home to the public mind that
this vegetable fleece is really golden "and that its golden values are
so interwoven with the solidarity of mankind as to depend to a
peculiar degree for their stability on the maintenance of an unbroken
network of international trade. Cotton is here considered peculiar in
that it is the only crop of importance, all of which is sold by those
who produce it. It, therefore, gives rise to an enormous commerce and
provides a medium of exchange that almost entirely takes the place of
gold in the settlement of interstate and international balances." By
it countries are bound together "in its globe engirdling web; so that
when a modern economist concerns himself with the interdependence of
nations he naturally looks to cotton for his most effective
illustration."
Showing its startling growth in the Orient and the Occident even from
the time of Alexander the Great, cotton is traced as a factor in the
development of ancient nations and in the rise of the modern. It
strikes one as being a little strange to read in this economic
treatise such captions as "The Vegetable Lamb" and "Cotton Mythology."
The author then gives in more detail the earliest history of the
industry, referring to Hindu skill, Alexander's trade routes, Egyptian
mummies, the microscope, the transit from Rome to Spain, cotton and
the Renaissance, Edward III as the weaver king, the entrance of cotton
into England and the transformation of the country.
Taking up the industrial revolution the author develops the subject
more scientifically. The work contains less of mere history and gives
a more economic view of the forces set to work by the culture of
cotton throughout the civilized world. The numerous inventions which
figured so conspicuously in the rise of the industry are discussed. In
this portion of the work, however, the author has hardly said anything
new. He has merely restated well-known facts so as to give them a
somewhat enlarged and original treatment. Here we read more about Kay,
Hargraves, Arkwright, Compton, Cartwright, Watt, Davy and Brindley,
whose inventive genius supplied the mechanical appliance upon which
this industrial progress was based. Mention is also made of the
captains of industry who set this machinery going and directed the
world-wide movement which resulted in multiplying the wealth of some
and bringing comfort and prosperity to many. The references to the
influence of cotton on such writers as Malthus and Darwin and upon
such explorers as Columbus and Cortes show the breadth with which the
author treats the subject.
A large part of this work, of course, is devoted to tracing the
connection of cotton with the early manufacturing in the United
States, its impetus to slavery, its influences upon States' rights,
its effects on manufacturing in New England and on protection, free
trade, secession, the reconstruction of the South and the social
problem. On the whole this is an excellent work and will be received
by students of economic history as a valuable contribution in its
field.
C. B. WALTER
* * * * *
_Centennial Encyclopedia of the African Methodist Episcopal Church._
By RICHARD R. WRIGHT, JR., Ph.D., Editor-in-chief, assisted by JOHN R.
HAWKINS, LL.B. Book Concern of the A. M. E. Church, Philadelphia, Pa.,
1916. Pp. 392.
This is a neatly printed and handsomely bound volume of valuable facts
meeting a long-felt need. It contains an introduction by Bishop L. J.
Coppin, a foreword entitled "One Hundred Years of African Methodism,"
a sketch of "What African Methodism Has to Say for Itself," by Dr. J.
T. Fenifer, the historian of the church, and the Chronology of African
Methodism by Dr. R. R. Wright. In these pages one finds in epitome the
leading facts of the history of this church from the time of its
establishment by Richard Allen to the present time.
Then follows the Centennial Encyclopedia of the African Methodist
Episcopal Church. "The purpose of this work," according to the
editors, "is to present in some literary form the work of the men and
women, both ministers and laymen, who have helped to make the Church
what it is and especially those now living who receive the inheritance
of the fathers and upon whose shoulders rest the responsibility of
passing the work down to a new century." The editors disclaim
pretension to scientific historical treatment. The work is rather
biographical and autobiographical and was prepared under such a
handicap that some of the matter presented could not be verified. Yet
when we consider the fact that the editors had access to the files of
newspapers, church histories, and other church encyclopedias, we must
conclude that they have here compiled information of incalculable
value. The reader must be impressed too by the scientific disposition
of the editors in that they show no inclination to criticize or
eulogize, but endeavor to present facts.
The second part of the book, differing somewhat from the first, is
equally as valuable. It contains an account of the Church in general,
its location, laws, doctrines, statistics and almost every sort of
information bearing on the life of those connected with this Church.
Among these facts, too, the reader finds not only a religious history
but an excellent account of the development of education among these
people. In this respect, therefore, the editors have rendered the
cause of education a service hardly less valuable than that to the
Church.
The volume as a whole shows much progress. It is the best Negro Church
encyclopedia hitherto produced. One may obtain here in succinct form
an excellent ready reference work. The book is modestly given to the
public as a beginning, but it has accomplished much for the race not
only in the information which it contains but in demonstrating what a
store of knowledge may be obtained through an effective organization.
Just as the African Methodist Episcopal Church has gone to the expense
of bringing out this valuable volume to publish to posterity the deeds
of its fathers, so should every Negro organization address itself to
the task of preserving a record of all of their connection, who have
done something for the development of the country and the progress of
their people.
NOTES
FATHER UNCLES OF BALTIMORE
The following from the _Brooklyn Tablet_, January 13, 1917, will
interest students of the Negro Church:
"Rev. Charles Randolph Uncles, of Baltimore, Maryland, received
congratulatory messages from all parts of the country last month,
the occasion being the twenty-fifth anniversary of his
ordination. Father Uncles was the first colored man of the United
States to be raised to the priesthood, and he has had a brilliant
career during the quarter century that has elapsed since Cardinal
Gibbons ordained him in the Baltimore Cathedral on December 19,
1891.
"Father Uncles has done much missionary work and is at present
engaged in teaching Latin and French in Epiphany College,
Walbrook, Maryland, the preparatory school for St. Joseph's
Seminary, where young men are trained to carry on work among the
negroes of the United States.
"Father Uncles was the first negro in this country to be
ordained. He reached his goal after years of preliminary study
which led to his taking a course in St. Joseph's and St. Mary's
Seminaries. He was graduated with honors and went to Epiphany
College as teacher as soon as he left St. Mary's. He has done
much to put the negro missions on a thorough working basis, and
he has the admiration of Cardinal Gibbons. Father Uncles was born
in Baltimore November 6, 1859, and his parents and grandparents
were free negroes. His father was a machinist and worked for
years with the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. His mother is still
living.
"He was baptized at St. Francis Xavier's Church, Calvert and
Pleasant streets, Baltimore, and there he recently said his
jubilee Mass. He studied at St. Francis's parish school and in
the public schools. He worked as printer and journalist from 1874
to 1879 and then as printer. In 1880 he began as teacher in the
Baltimore county schools, and in 1883 entered St. Hyacinth's
College, Quebec, to study. He returned to St. Joseph's Seminary
in 1888."
The same paper said on this date in its editorial columns:
"Congratulations to Father Uncles, of Baltimore, a priest, a
gentleman, a scholar--and a negro. He has just celebrated the
twenty-fifth anniversary of his entrance into the Order of Abel,
Abraham and Melchizedek.
"Father Uncles was the first of his race in this country to be
raised to the dignity of the priesthood. His was a unique
position. The eyes of the American world were upon him. Though
one of God's anointed, he was a "colored man," and thus more was
demanded of him than of any of his white brothers. At the end of
twenty-five years, he can, with his gentle good nature, laugh at
the world's scrutiny.
"For Father Uncles is gentle--a gentleman. In conversation with
him, in association with him, one never thought of the color of
his body. The beautiful whiteness of his soul shone so in the
kindly lightning of his eyes, the courtesy of his speech, the
correctness of his manner.
"He was, and is, a scholar--not merely book-learned, for he was
one of the first three in a class of sixty in Saint Mary's
Seminary, but the man of parts that bespeak the student.
"Yet he is a negro--of that long-suffering race that we first
damned into slavery and then freed into servitude. But a man's a
man for a' that, and from time to time the negro is proving that.
Father Uncles was a pioneer in that line. For emancipation's sake
he will not object to this projection of himself upon America's
mental screen."
In connection with the sketch given above the following account of the
work of the Catholics at Van de Vyver College, Richmond, Virginia,
from 1885 to the present time should also be interesting.
Among the many signs of the progress of the colored people in the city
of Richmond is the Van de Vyver College on North First street, which
is equipped with all modern improvements, and has accommodations for
five hundred pupils.
This elegant plant was erected at the sole expense of the Catholics
who, abreast of the times, met at every turn the requirements of an
aspiring class of colored boys and girls.
It was not erected with the idea of drawing the attention or of
eliciting the applause of the people of Richmond; it is an institution
which, by its growth and development, has marked time with the demands
of the younger generation of the colored people, whose endeavor is to
follow the higher ideals as they are set before them.
This grand building, with its large auditorium, now covers the site,
together with additional area, of a former two-roomed schoolhouse,
which thirty years back first gave the Catholic Sisters from Mill
Hill, England, a place and opportunity to show their zeal for, and
their interest in, the future welfare of the colored youth of the
principal city of the Old Dominion.
These Sisters are known as the Sisters of St. Francis of Baltimore.
They have the privilege of being the first of all the white
sisterhoods in this country to take up the work of teaching colored
children exclusively. Today there are many colored citizens who are
not backward in their praise of the successful and unselfish efforts
of these same good sisters, whose energetic endeavors have led many a
colored boy and girl to a happy and prosperous career.
On the college grounds is an excellently equipped kindergarten, in
which many pupils, who later on were graduated from the commercial and
academic courses, made their first start.
Special classes in music, fancy needlework, Latin and French are also
taught to those desiring to pursue such lines.
For the working boys and young men, there is a night session, wherein
is given a theoretical and practical knowledge of the automobile. Many
a young man has gone forth from this class qualified as an expert
mechanician and chauffeur.
The church adjoining the college, attendance at which is of course
optional, affords all the opportunity of gaining a knowledge of the
doctrine of the Catholic Church. Affiliated with this church are four
flourishing societies, one for the men called the Holy Name Society;
one for the women called The Sodality of the Mother of Jesus; one for
men and women called The League of the Sacred Thirst--a Temperance
Society; and one for the boys and girls called the Knights and Ladies
of the Cross. The members of these societies are very faithful in the
duties required of them, and hence give great edification to the
people of both races.
This whole plant, it is needless to say, is an inspiring spectacle to
the very many colored men and women, who pass up and down North First
street. They have reason to point to it with pride. They appreciate
all that it represents to them. It matters not of what denomination
the people may be, Catholic or Non-Catholic, words of the highest
commendation are freely and generously given by all alike.
FATHER TOBIN
MORE ABOUT NEGRO SOLDIERS
The following account of the services of Negroes during the American
Revolution appeared in the _Washington Post_, January 16, 1917:
"The employment of colored men became a subject of much
importance at an early stage of the American war of independence.
The British naturally regarded slavery as an element of weakness
in the condition of the colonies, in which the slaves were
numerous, and laid their plans to gain the colored men and induce
them to take up arms against their masters by promising them
liberty on this condition.
"The situation was looked upon by the public men of the colonies
as alarming, and several of them urged the Congress to adopt the
policy of emancipation. But while the general question of
emancipation was defeated, the exigencies of the contest again
and again brought up the practical one of employment for colored
men, whether bond or free.
"ONLY FREEMEN WANTED IN ARMY
"In May, 1775, Hancock and Warren's committee of safety
introduced the following formal resolution: 'Resolved, That it is
the opinion of this committee, as the contest now between Great
Britain and the colonies respects the liberties and privileges of
the latter, which the colonies are determined to maintain, that
the admission of any person as a soldier into the army now
raising, but only such as are freemen, will be inconsistent with
the principles that are to be supported and reflect dishonor on
these colonies, and that no slaves be admitted into this army
upon any consideration whatever.'
"Washington took command of the army around Boston on July 3,
1775. The instructions for the recruiting officers from his
headquarters at Cambridge prohibited the enlistment of any
'negro.' It may also be noticed that they were forbidden to
enlist 'any person who is not an American born, unless such
person has a wife and family and is a settled person in this
country.'
"MANY COLORED MEN ENROLLED
"Notwithstanding all this, the fact remains, according to
Bancroft, that 'the roll of the army at Cambridge had, from its
first formation, borne the names of men of color.' Free colored
men stood in the ranks by the side of white men. In the beginning
of the war they had entered the provincial army, and the colored
men, like others, were retained in the service after the troops
were adopted by the continent.
"A committee on conference, consisting of Dr. Franklin, Benjamin
Harrison and Thomas Lynch, met at Cambridge, October 18, 1775,
with the deputy governors of Connecticut and Rhode Island and the
committee of the council of Massachusetts Bay, to confer with
Gen. Washington, and advise a method for renovating the army. On
the 23d of October the negro question was presented and disposed
of as follows: 'Ought not negroes to be excluded from the new
enlistment, especially such as are slaves?' All were thought
improper by the council of officers. It was agreed that they be
rejected altogether.
"In general orders, issued November 12, 1775, Washington says:
'Neither negroes, boys unable to bear arms, nor old men unfit to
endure the fatigues of the campaign are to be enlisted.'
"PERMITTED THEIR ENLISTMENT
"Washington, however, in the last days of the year, under
representations to him that the free colored men who had served
in his army were very much dissatisfied at being discarded, and
fearing that they might seek employment in the British army, took
the responsibility to depart from the resolution respecting them
and gave license for their being enlisted.
"Washington promised that if there was any objection on the part
of Congress he would discontinue the enlisting of colored men,
but, on January 15, 1776, Congress determined 'that the free
negroes who had served faithfully in the army at Cambridge may be
reenlisted therein, but no others.'
"The entire aspect of the affairs changed when, in 1779, the
South began to be invaded. South Carolina, especially, was unable
to make any effectual efforts with militia, by reason of the
great proportion of citizens necessary to remain at home to
prevent insurrections among the colored men and their desertions
to the enemy, who were assiduous in their endeavors to excite
both revolt and desertion.
"The result was that in all the Southern States the legislatures
passed resolutions to enlist the colored men, and the colored
patriots of the Revolution are as much entitled as their white
brethren for the ardor with which they fought the common enemy,
whether they were bondmen or freemen. It has never been possible
to give an exact statement as to the number of colored men who
served in the Revolution, for the reason that they were generally
mixed in regiments and not calculated separately."
The following was taken from the columns of the _Boston Journal_,
June, 1897, by Mr. Frederic S. Monroe.
A GALLANT NEGRO
_How Salem Poor Fought at the
Battle of Bunker Hill_
There is an interesting record in the Massachusetts Archives
(clxxx, 241) which Dr. Samuel A. Green ran across during his
historical researches, and which the _Journal_ prints below. It
relates to a colored man at the Battle of Bunker Hill.
The Subscribers begg leave to Report to your Honble. House (Which
Wee do in justice to the Caracter of so Brave a Man) that under
Our Own observation, Wee declare that A Negro Man Called Salem
Poor of Col Fryes Regiment. Capt. Ames. Company in the late
Battle at Charleston, behaved like an Experienced Officer, as
Well as an Excellent Soldier, to Set forth Particulars of his
Conduct Would be Tedious, Wee Would Only begg leave to say in the
Person of this sd. Negro Centers a Brave & gallant Soldier. The
Reward due to so great and Distinguisht a Caracter, Wee submit to
the Congress----
Cambridge Decr. 5th 1775
JONA. BREWER. _Col_
THOMAS NIXON _Lt. Col_
WM PRESCOTT _Colo._
EPHM. COREY _Lieut._
JOSEPH BAKER _Lieut_
JOSHUA REED _Lieut_
To the Honorable General Court of the Massachusetts Bay.
JONAS RICHARDSON _Capt._
ELIPHELET BODWELL _Segt_
JOSIAH FOSTER _Leutn._
EBENR VARNUM _2d Lut._
WM HUDSON BALLARD _Cpt_
WILLIAM SMITH _Capn_
JOHN MARTEN _Surgt: of a Brec_:
LIEUT. RICHARD WELSH
In Council Decr. 21st. 1775
Read & Sent down
PEREZ MORTON
_Dpy Secry_
This paper is indorsed
Recommendation of
Salem Poor a free Negro
for his Bravery at ye Battle
of Charlestown
leave to withdraw it
Although histories have been written of the members and actions of
Col. Frye's regiment and Capt. Ames's company, of which Salem Poor was
a member, the account given of him shows that the story of his life
was not known. It is, however, noted in Miss Bailey's "History of
Andover" that he was a slave, owned by John Poor. At the Battle of
Bunker Hill, when Lieut. Col. Abercrombie, of the British forces,
sprang upon the redoubt, while the Americans were running in retreat,
and exclaimed, "The day is ours," Salem Poor turned, aimed his gun and
felled with a bullet the English leader. The deed was considered by
the officers of the regiment to be one of great bravery, as their
petition to the General Court of Massachusetts shows.
Other colored men serving at the Battle of Bunker Hill were Titus
Coburn, Alexander Ames, Barzillai Lew, all of Andover; Cato Howe of
Plymouth, and Peter Salem.
Among those who gave valued services in the Continental Army was
Deborah Gannett. She assumed the dress of a man, and under the name of
Robert Shurtliff, enlisted in the fourth Massachusetts Regiment,
Captain Webb, serving in the ranks without once revealing her sex from
May 20, 1782, to October 23, 1783, a period of seventeen months. By an
act of the legislature, Jan. 20, 1792, she was paid £34 by the State
for her services.
The extract below is from a discussion of the questions of pension and
bounty for Negro soldiers by James Croggon. It appeared in the
_Washington Star_.
"January 21 Gen. Jackson read an address to each of the commands
which had taken part in the battles, reviewing the campaign, and
saying of the engagement of January 8 that the loss of the enemy
was more than 3,000 while the American loss was but thirteen--"a
wonderful interposition of heaven! An unexampled event in the
history of war!" Gen. Jackson characterizes the event.
"In his general orders of January 21, prior to breaking camp,
Gen. Jackson complimented the various regiments and commands,
saying of the two bodies of colored volunteers: 'They have not
disappointed the hopes that were formed of their courage and
perseverence in the performance of their duty. Majs. Lacoste and
Daquin, who commanded them, have deserved well of their country.'
"REWARDS HELD UP
"Yet, although these colored troops were commended for their
coolness and bravery under fire, especially in the memorable
engagement of December 23 when they were attached to Coffee's
brigade, which opened the series of battles, recognition for
their services, by way of pension and bounty, was withheld for
several years after their discharge from the service and then was
granted only after an opinion had been given by William Wirt,
Attorney General of the United States at that time, that they
might legally be so recompensed.
"When the colored troops enlisted the act of Congress of December
24, 1811, provided a bounty of $16, with three months' pay, and a
grant of 160 acres of land to those who had served five years,
the same amount of land to the heirs of those killed in battle,
and the same amount of land to the heirs of those who had died in
the service after having served five years. The act of January
11, 1812, carried like provisions, and the act of December 10,
1814, again carried the provisions, except that the amount of
land granted was doubled.
"After the colored troops were mustered out, application was made
in their behalf for recognition under these acts, especially for
the bounty of 320 acres of land, but it was not until 1823 that
their claims were recognized.
"JACKSON PRAISED TROOPS
"This apathy and long delay ensued notwithstanding the fact that
under date of December 27, 1814, Gen. Jackson had reviewed the
first engagement in a report in which he spoke highly of the men
of color attached to Coffee's brigade. He said in this engagement
a number of prisoners were taken, and the British loss was about
100. On the night of the 23d of December, in the engagement below
New Orleans, the British left 100 killed, and 230 wounded, their
loss in prisoners taken making their total loss that night about
400.
"Again, reporting on the battle of January 8, Gen. Jackson said
that the enemy advanced in two strong columns, and that 'they
were received with a firmness which defeated all their hopes.
For upward of an hour the firing was incessant, but the enemy at
length fled in confusion from the field, their losses including
Gen. Sir Edward Pakenham.' Under date of January 19 Gen. Jackson
informed the War Department that the enemy had decamped, leaving
eighty of their wounded and fourteen pieces of heavy artillery,
and that he believed Louisiana was then 'clear.'
"ATTORNEY GENERAL'S OPINION
"It was to J. C. Calhoun, then Secretary of War, that William
Wirt, then Attorney General, wrote, under date of March 27, 1823,
declaring that it was not, in his opinion, in the power of the
government to deny the colored troops and their heirs the
emoluments of their service in the army. Mr. Wirt's letter is as
follows:
"'Sir: Had I been called on a priori to give a construction to
the several acts of Congress, which are the subject of Mr.
Cutting's letters of the 21st of May, 1821, and 30th of January,
1823, of Maj. Charles J. Nourse's of the 20th of January, 1823,
and Mr. J. W. Murray's of the 22d of December, 1822, I should
have had no hesitation in expressing the opinion that it was not
the intention of Congress to incorporate negroes and people of
color with the army, any more than with the militia of the United
States. But the acts of Congress, under which this body of people
of color are understood to have been raised during the late war,
uses no other terms of description as to the recruits than that
they shall be 'effective, able-bodied men' (act 24th December,
1811), 'for completing the existing military establishment,' and
act 11th January, 1812, 'to raise an additional military force,'
of 'free, effective, able-bodied men' (act December 10, 1814),
'making further provision for filling the ranks of the army of
the United States.'
"ALL REQUIREMENTS FULFILLED
"As either of these descriptions was satisfied by the persons of
color in question; as the recruiting officers, who were quoad hoc
the agents of the United States, recruited these persons on a
contract for the pay and bounty stipulated by law, as the
officers of government recognize them as a part of the army, by
their regular returns of this corps, who received, till the close
of the war, the same pay and rations with other troops, were
subject to the same military law and performed the same military
services, it seems to me that a practical construction has been
given to the law in this particular, from which it is not in the
power of the government justly to depart.
"I think, therefore, that they ought to receive the promised land
bounty. But, without some further and more explicit declaration
of the purpose of Congress, I would not recommend a repetition of
such contracts on any future occasion on laws worded like those
under consideration; by which I mean, not merely the three laws
which I have cited, but the whole military system of the United
States, militia included."
* * * * *
Mrs. R. L. Pendleton has published the new edition of the _Life and
Works of Phillis Wheatley_ by G. Herbert Renfro. This volume contains
a sketch of G. Herbert Renfro and a much more detailed sketch of the
life of Phillis Wheatley by this writer. It contains the
correspondence of the poetess and a larger number of her poems than we
find in some of the other editions of her works. The book is well
printed and nicely bound and may be purchased for the small sum of
$1.50 from R. L. Pendleton, 1216 You St., Washington, D. C.
* * * * *
Longmans and Company have published A. J. McDonald's _Trade, Politics
and Christianity in Africa and the East_. It is a valuable
contribution to the British colonial policy.
H. O. Newland's _Sierra Leone; its People, Products and Secret
Societies_ has come from the press of Bale, Sons and Donnelson. The
author is a student of sociology and knows much about West Africa. To
this is appended 44 pages of information on Sierra Leone by H. Hamel
Smith.
_In the Hands of Senoussi_ has been published by Mrs. Gwatkin
Williams. This book is a collection of facts compiled from the diary
of Captain R. Gwatkin Williams, giving an account of nineteen weeks of
captivity of the survivors of H. M. S. _Tara_ in the Libyan Desert.
The tales of General Botha's desert march in Southwest Africa have
been published as _Sun, Sand and Sin_ by Hodder and Stoughton.
Articles of interest on Africa recently published are _Islam on the
Congo_ by W. J. W. Roome in the Moslem World, _L'Islam en Mauritanie
et au Senegale_ in the Revue du Monde Musulman and _Observations on
the Northern Section of the Tanganyika-Nile Rift Valley_ by Captain C.
H. Stigand in the Geographical Journal.
_The Early History of Cuba_, 1492-1586, by I. A. Wright, has been
published by MacMillan Company. The book shows evidence of extensive
research and scholarly treatment.
The Association for the Study of Negro Life and History is making
extensive preparation to bring together during the last week in August
all persons who are now seriously interested in the study of Negro
history. It is hoped that a large number of members may be able to
attend and that interest in the work may extend throughout the
country. Some of the leading historians of the United States will be
invited to address this body.
THE JOURNAL
OF
NEGRO HISTORY
VOL. II--JULY, 1917--NO. 3
THE FORMATION OF THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY
What to do with the Negro population has almost always been a question
before the American people. Since the early date of 1714 its removal
to some territory beyond the limits of the United States or to an
unsettled area of our public lands has been advocated. During the
century which followed the earliest mention of deportation, its
advocates published their plans as individual propaganda, sought the
approbation of religious and humanitarian organizations, and in one or
two instances tried to secure favorable State or national action on
them. But throughout this long period of one hundred years no
concerted action was taken: the period is characterized by sporadic
origins and isolated efforts; and these early projectors of plans to
remove the Negro were the trailmakers in a pioneering movement which
culminated in a national organization.[234]
Obviously private enterprise alone could make little headway in the
actual colonization of the Negroes in a territory sufficiently distant
to be beyond the pale of the white population. The one item of expense
was too serious a handicap for individual initiative to overcome.
Besides the case of Captain Izard Bacon of Virginia, who temporarily
removed his fifty-two freedmen to Pennsylvania to await a favorable
time for sending them over sea,[235] and of Mary Matthews of King
George's County, Virginia, who by will emancipated her slaves and
provided for their removal to a place where they could enjoy their
liberty,[236] there is but one significant example of actual
colonization under individual auspices. This occurred in 1815 when
Paul Cuffe took thirty-eight Negroes to the western coast of
Africa.[237] This dramatic event in Negro deportation, owing to the
wide publicity given to it, stimulated activity anew in colonization
ventures.
We shall now review these new schemes and show how representatives of
the transportation movement assembled in Washington city, and having
enlisted in their cause men most distinguished in the councils of the
nation, formed the American Society for Colonizing the Free People of
Color of the United States, an organization still in existence but now
known as the American Colonization Society and having as a monument to
its checkered career, the free Negro republic, Liberia, on the western
coast of Africa.
To begin with, it is well to point out that Thomas Jefferson, whose
advocacy of Negro colonization dates from 1773, replied in 1811, to a
request for his opinion on Ann Mifflin's proposition to make a
settlement of colored people on the west coast of Africa under the
auspices of the different States, that he considered it "the most
desirable measure which could be adopted for gradually drawing off"
the black population; and he added: "nothing is more to be wished than
that the United States should themselves undertake to make such an
establishment on the coast of Africa."[238] It requires little effort
to appreciate the weight of this Ex-President's opinion, and
colonizationists later gave wide publicity to it in order to
strengthen their cause.[239]
Additional deportation sentiment is found in the recommendations of
the Union Humane Society, an anti-slavery organization founded in
1815, in Ohio, by Benjamin Lundy. Two planks in the program of the
Society are noteworthy: first, it emphasized the necessity of common
action by all forces interested in the amelioration of the Negro race;
and, second, it recommended as a basis for common action the removal
of the Negroes beyond the pale of the white man.[240]
While the Union Humane Society was silent on national aid, the
Kentucky Colonization Society came out in strong terms for it. Taking
advantage of the close of the War of 1812 and of the existence of vast
tracts of unappropriated lands in the United States, and realizing
that the number of free blacks daily increased, and that the territory
open to them for residence was greatly restricted owing to the
prohibitory legislation existing in many States, this Society, at its
annual meeting, held in Frankfort, October 18 and 19, 1815, petitioned
Congress that a suitable territory "be laid off as an asylum for all
those negroes and mulattoes who have been, and those who may hereafter
be, emancipated within the United States; and that such donations,
allowances, encouragements, and assistance be afforded them as may be
necessary for carrying them thither and settling them therein; and
that they be under such regulations and government in all respects as
your wisdom shall direct."[241]
Another manifestation of sentiment for removing the Negroes to a
distant territory is found in a series of resolutions passed by the
Virginia Assembly on December 21, 1816. These resolutions were
introduced and sponsored by Charles Fenton Mercer, a slaveholder. In
the spring of 1816, he accidentally discovered the secret action of
the Assembly, taken in 1800, just after the Negro insurrection of that
year, the upshot of which was two resolutions directing the Governor
to correspond with the President of the United States for the purpose
of securing somewhere a suitable territory for the colonization of
emancipated slaves and free Negroes[242]. It was too near the end of
the session when Mercer found these resolutions for him to present a
program to the Assembly. In the interim, however, Mercer broke the bar
of secrecy, interviewed Francis S. Key, of Georgetown, and Elias B.
Caldwell, of Washington city, and with their advice drew up some
resolutions to introduce in the Assembly at its next session.
Moreover, while in the North that summer for the purpose of the
recuperation of his health, having made known his plan, he received
"promises of pecuniary aid, and of active cooperation."[243] At the
next session of the Virginia Assembly, Mercer introduced his
resolutions, the purport of which asked the national government to
find a territory on the North Pacific on which to settle free blacks
and those afterwards emancipated in Virginia. These resolutions having
been amended by the Senate to read on the North Pacific or the African
Coast were passed by the Assembly on December 21, 1816, the very day
on which the first public meeting of deportationists was held in
Washington and out of which grew the American Colonization Society.
A year later, speaking before this organization, Mercer stated his
reasons for supporting deportation. "Many thousand individuals in our
native State, you well know Mr. President, are restrained from
manumitting their slaves, as you and I are, by the melancholy
conviction that they cannot yield to the suggestions of humanity
without manifest injury to their country." He held that the rapidly
increasing free black population endangered the peace of the State and
impaired in a large section the value of slave property. What
banditti, consisting of the degraded, idle, and vicious free blacks,
"sally forth from their coverts, beneath the obscurity of night, and
plunder the rich proprietors of the valleys. They infest the suburbs
of the towns and cities, where they become the depositories of stolen
goods, and, schooled by necessity, elude the vigilance of our
defective police."[245] Thus a Virginia slaveholder saw in Negro
colonization a means to relieve the State of a dangerous population,
to increase the value of slave property and to make possible
manumission by that class of slaveholders in which he put himself.
A concurrent expression on Negro deportation, but apparently an
independent one, is connected with the name of Robert Finley, of
Basking Ridge, New Jersey. A graduate of Princeton, a teacher, a
Presbyterian pastor, Finley was in 1816 made president of the
University of Georgia, at Athens, where he died the following year at
the age of forty-five. As early as 1814 he wrote "a very particular
friend in Philadelphia" his ideas on Negro colonization.[246] On
February 15, 1815, he wrote a letter to John O. Mumford, of New York
City, in which he argued for the removal of the free blacks. He said
in part: "Everything connected with their condition, including their
color, is against them; nor is there much prospect that their state
can ever be greatly ameliorated, while they shall continue among us.
Could not the rich and benevolent devise means to form a colony on
some part of the Coast of Africa, similar to the one at Sierra Leone,
which might gradually induce many free blacks to go there and settle,
devising for them the means of getting there, and of protection and
support till they were established? Ought not Congress to be
petitioned to grant them a district in a good climate, say on the
shores of the Pacific Ocean? Our fathers brought them here, and we are
bound if possible to repair the injuries inflicted by our fathers.
Could they be sent to Africa, a three-fold benefit would arise. We
should be cleared of them; we should send to Africa a population
partially civilized and christianized for its benefits; our blacks
themselves would be put in better condition. Think much on this
subject, then please write me again when you have leisure."[247]
Reverend Mr. Finley participated in a colonization meeting held in
Princeton, New Jersey, November 6, 1816, which drew up a memorial
urging the legislature to use its influence in securing the adoption
of some deportation scheme by Congress. The memorialists recognized
that many slaves had been emancipated; that the same principles that
prompted past manumissions would gradually effect the freedom of all
others; that freedmen should be able "to rise to that condition to
which they are entitled by the laws of God and nature"; therefore,
they should be separated from the whites and placed in a favorable
situation, possibly Africa.[248]
A third concurrent manifestation of colonization activity is connected
with the name of Samuel J. Mills, whose indefatigable energy and
unselfish devotion to all causes missionary are scarcely paralleled in
history. Whether as an undergraduate at Williams College or as a
graduate student at Yale or Andover Theological Seminary, he was
feverishly active in projecting plans for Christian missionary work.
His mother said: "I have consecrated this child to the service of God
as a missionary,"[249] and surely he was faithful to death to this
dedication. He was the leader of the Society of Inquiry Respecting
Missions, founded in 1810, an organization which favored African
colonization.[250] As soon as his college work was over he made a
missionary tour through the Middle West and South, under the auspices
of the Society for Propagating the Gospel,[251] and in 1814-15 he made
a second tour.[252] He is credited with having originated the American
Bible Society, the United Foreign Missionary Society, and the American
Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. He took a deep interest
in the movement which about this time sent men to India, Ceylon, the
Sandwich Islands, and to the various tribes of the American Indians.
He had a hand in the formation of the Foreign Mission school at
Cornwall, Connecticut, and the establishment of the African School at
Parsippany, New Jersey, is directly attributed to him.
When Mills made his tour through the West and South he not only
preached the Gospel and distributed Bibles, he studied the condition
of the Negro as well. "We must save the Negroes or the Negroes will
ruin us," he concluded. He was convinced that if some disposition
could be made of the free Negroes, many slaveholders would gladly
emancipate their slaves. With this in view, he sought to procure a
district in Ohio, Indiana, or Illinois where the blacks might be
colonized. In this way he could test his principle and develop leaders
for a more extended settlement in the far West or in Africa.[253] This
plan did not mature, but he continued to recommend emigration both to
the blacks and whites and to provide for the training of Negro
teachers and preachers. The young missionary established a school
under the care of the synod of New York and New Jersey at Parsippany
in the latter state, which was to "qualify young men of color for
teachers of schools and preachers of the gospel, in hope of exerting
an influence in correcting morals and manners of their brethren in
cities and large towns; and also to raise up teachers for these
people, should an effort be made to settle them by themselves, either
in this country or abroad." Some gave to aid the school as an
auxiliary to the colonization effort, who would not have given, had
not that view been presented. "I am confident," Mills wrote (in 1817),
"that the people of color now in this country, that is, many of them,
will be settled by themselves, either in this country or abroad. The
teachers who may be raised up will promote this object. Whether they
remain in this country or not, much must be done to qualify them for
living in society by themselves."[254]
One of the earliest movements in which an effort was made to adopt
some particular plan of operation was at Georgetown, District of
Columbia, in March, 1816. The meeting was called by a resident of
Georgetown, then a little village, and several citizens of the
neighboring States were present and took part in the discussion.[255]
Other expressions favorable to the deportation of Negroes were made
about this time. At a meeting in Greene County, Tennessee, composed of
delegates of the Manumission Society, emancipation was recommended
"and if thought best, that a colony be laid off for their reception as
they become free."[256] Dr. Jesse Torrey, Jr., a physician, writing a
few days before the passage of the Virginia resolutions, advocated the
transfer of the Negroes to some distant American Territory. He
thought, since Congress had done nothing toward such a movement,
public subscriptions from beneficent societies and individuals should
be solicited with which to purchase a suitable site for a colony and
meet the expense of transportation.[257] Hezekiah Niles, the great
compiler, said he had thought on colonization from his youth up.[258]
An editorial in a Georgia newspaper dated January 1, 1817, said
deportation was seriously agitated in different parts of the country.
The Georgia editor believed that free blacks were dangerous to the
welfare of society and that the gradual reduction of the number of
slaves was imperative to the public good. "We must choose between our
own destruction and general emancipation," said the Georgian. "If the
government will find means of conveying out of the country such slaves
as may be emancipated and would likewise purchase annually a certain
number, particularly females for transportation, it is believed our
black population would soon become harmless if not extinct. To the
importance of such an object, the expense will bear no comparison; and
a more favorable period than at present for its accomplishment can
scarcely be expected."[259]
The Georgia editor was right. On the very day that his editorial went
to press, a representative body of men were in conference on this
subject at Washington city; and as a result of their deliberation the
American Society for Colonizing the Free People of Color of the United
States (later known as the American Colonization Society) was
organized. The leading advocates of Negro deportation looked to the
city of Washington as the strategic place to advance their cause. The
earliest arrival was Robert Finley, who reached the capital about the
beginning of the month of December, 1816. He had spent the greater
part of the fall maturing plans for bringing the cause before the
people. It is highly probable that he knew nothing about the plans of
other advocates nor of the action of the Virginia Assembly. Upon his
arrival at Washington he immediately began to call on Congressmen, the
Cabinet officials, the President, and, in fact, on any one whom he
could interest.[260]
Finley was in communication with Paul Cuffe, the only practical
colonizationist in America. His expeditions to Africa and England, and
especially the transportation of Negroes to Sierra Leone, in 1815,
were noted in the press as far west as Louisville, Kentucky,[261] and
those interested in further efforts along this line were in touch with
him. Samuel C. Aiken, of Andover, had written him on July 23, 1816,
and Jedekiah Morse four days later.[262] Finley wrote Cuffe, December
5, on the back of the printed memorial to the New Jersey Legislature,
undoubtedly the work of the Princeton meeting of the previous
November, for information about Sierra Leone, information to be used
by him and others interested in the free people of color. He also
asked if Cuffe thought some other part of Africa more desirable for a
settlement than Sierra Leone and stated that "the great desire of
those whose minds are impressed with this subject is to give an
opportunity to the free people of color to rise to their proper level
and at the same time to provide a powerful means of putting an end to
the slave trade and sending civilization and Christianity to
Africa."[263] Cuffe was unable to reply to this letter before January
8. He gave Finley the information he desired and recommended in the
event of a general deportation the Cape of Good Hope as a location for
a settlement.[264]
In a printed pamphlet, "Thoughts on the Colonization of Free
Blacks,"[265] which Finley wrote about this time and which he was
distributing in Washington, is contained the line of argument he was
using. He said: "At present, as if by divine impulse, men of virtue,
piety, and reflection, are turning their thoughts to this subject, and
seem to see the wished-for plan unfolding, in the gradual separation
of the black from the white population, by providing for the former,
some suitable situation, where men may enjoy the advantages to which
they are entitled by nature and their Creator's will." He argued for
the practicability of establishing a colony either in the "Wild Lands"
of America or in Africa, but he thought Africa the more desirable as
this location would prevent conflicts with the remaining slave
population, and avoid foreign intrigues. He held that Africa had the
advantage of being the real home of the Negro, of having the existing
settlements in Sierra Leone formed by English philanthropists and by
Paul Cuffe. On the other hand, requiring explorations, diplomatic
negotiations and great expense, it offered greater obstacles than a
location within America. But Finley was not disheartened, believing,
as he did, in the justice of the cause and in the wisdom of Congress
to devise some means to lighten, perhaps to repay, the cost. He
continued by saying: "Many of the free people of color have property
sufficient to transport, and afterward to establish themselves. The
ships of war might be employed occasionally in this service, while
many Negroes themselves could be induced to procure a passage to the
land of their independence. The crews of the national ships which
might be from time to time at the colony, would furnish at least a
part of that protection which would be necessary for the settlers; and
in a little time the trade which the colony would open with the
interior, would more than compensate for every expense, if the colony
were wisely formed." The Negroes, Finley thought, would gladly go, for
they long after happiness and have the common pride and feelings of
men. Already, he pointed out, an association of free blacks existed in
Philadelphia whose purpose was to correspond with Sierra Leone and
investigate the possibilities of an immigration. Finley held that
colonization would gradually reduce slavery, because provision being
made for the emancipated slaves, masters would manumit them.
Samuel J. Mills, "having been providentially made acquainted"[266]
with this movement, about the close of November left New York, where
he was working among the poor, immediately for Washington. What he, as
well as the other workers, did there, is pretty well indicated by
Congressman Elijah J. Mills of Massachusetts in a letter to his wife,
under date of December 25: "Among the great and important objects to
which our attention is called, a project is lately started for
settling, with free blacks which abound in the South and West, a
colony, either on the coast of Africa, or in some remote region in our
own country. It has excited great interest, and I am inclined to think
that in the course of a few years it will be carried into effect. I
enclose you an address which is in circulation here upon the subject.
Agents are attending from different parts of the United States,
soliciting Congress to take the subject up immediately, and I was this
morning called upon by a Mr. Mills (a young clergyman who was at New
Orleans with Smith), who is very zealously engaged in the work. He is
an intelligent young man, and appears completely devoted to the great
work of diffusing the blessings of Christianity to those who are
ignorant of it."[267]
The first general conference that the colonization workers had in
Washington was in the nature of a "prayer meeting"[268] held in the
home of Elias B. Caldwell, a brother-in-law of Finley, clerk of the
United States Supreme Court, and afterward secretary of the American
Colonization Society. This meeting, which both Mills and Finley
attended, was "for the purpose of imploring the divine direction, on
the evening of the following day, when the expediency of forming a
Colonization Society was to be publicly discussed."[269] The
enthusiasm of Finley at this time was almost boundless; he would give
five hundred dollars of his own scanty means to insure its success;
when some, thinking the project foolhardy, laughed at it, he declared,
"I know the scheme is from God."[270] The efficacy of prayer bore the
traditional fruit, for whereas persons "were brought there from
curiosity, or by the solicitation of their friends, viewing the scheme
as too chimerical for any national being to undertake [nevertheless] a
great change"[271] was produced on them.
According to their plans, Congressman Charles Marsh, of Vermont,
having made the necessary arrangements,[272] the colonizationists held
on the next evening, December 21, 1816, in the Davis Hotel, a public
meeting, attended by citizens of Washington, Georgetown, Alexandria,
and other parts of the country. Among the men of note present, not
heretofore mentioned, were Henry Clay, Francis S. Key, Bishop William
Meade, John Randolph, and Judge Bushrod Washington.[273] Niles reports
the attendance "numerous and respectable, and its proceedings fraught
with interest."[274] The avowed object of the meeting was for the
"purpose of considering the expediency and practicability of
ameliorating the condition of the Free People of Color now in the
United States, by providing a Colonial Retreat, either on this
continent or that of Africa."[275]
Henry Clay, the chairman of the meeting, pointed out in his remarks
that no attempt was being made "to touch or agitate in the slightest
degree, a delicate question, connected with another portion of the
colored population of this country. It was not proposed to deliberate
upon or consider at all, any question of emancipation, or that which
was connected with the abolition of slavery. It was upon that
condition alone he was sure, that many gentlemen from the South and
West, whom he saw present, had attended, or could be expected to
cooperate. It was upon that condition only that he himself had
attended."[276]
The principal address was delivered by Elias B. Caldwell, the
Princeton schoolmate of Charles Fenton Mercer. He argued for the
expediency and practicability of African colonization. It was
expedient because the free blacks have a demoralizing influence on our
civil institutions; they can never enjoy equality among the whites in
America; only in a district by themselves will they ever be happy. To
colonize them in America would invite the possibility of their making
common cause with the Indians and border nations, and furnish an
asylum for fugitives and runaway slaves. Africa seemed the best place
to send them: there was a settlement already in Sierra Leone, the
climate was agreeable to the colored man's constitution, they could
live cheaply there, and above all other reasons, they could carry
civilization and Christianity to the Africans. While the expense would
be greater than that connected with a settlement on the American
Continent yet, in order to make atonement for the wrongs done Africa,
America should contribute to this object both from the treasury of the
national government and from the purse of private individuals. With
the promise of equality, a homestead, and a free passage, no black
would refuse to go. In concluding his speech he said: "It is for us to
make the experiment and the offers; we shall then, and not till then,
have discharged our duty. It is a plan in which all interests, all
classes, and descriptions of people may unite, in which all discordant
feelings may be lost in those of humanity, in promoting 'peace on
earth and good will to man.'"[277]
Robert Wright of Maryland, having pointed out some difficulties, gave
colonization his approbation with the hope that there would arise for
gradual emancipation some plan in which slaves would be prepared for
freedom, and slaveholders would be remunerated out of the funds of the
nation.[278]
It appeared to John Randolph of Roanoke that "it had not been
sufficiently insisted on with a view to obtain the cooperation of all
the citizens of the United States, not only that this meeting does not
in any wise affect the question of Negro Slavery, but, as far as it
goes, must materially tend to secure the property of every master in
the United States over his slaves." He considered the free black "a
great evil," "a nuisance," and "a bug-bear to every man who feels an
inclination to emancipate his slaves." "If a place could be provided
for their reception," said Randolph, "and a mode of sending them
hence, there were [sic] hundreds, nay thousands of citizens" who would
manumit their slaves.[279] Randolph's characterization of the free
black was generally approved by the leaders in this movement. Caldwell
used "degraded" and "ignorant" in describing this class of people.
Mills said: "It will transfer to the coast of Africa the blessings of
religion and civilization; and Ethiopia will soon stretch out her
hands to God."[280]
One finds it difficult to explain how the colonizationists could argue
that one of their objects was to remove a dangerous element from our
population and at the same time take civilization and Christianity to
Africa. No doubt it was expected that the Negroes who attended the
schools, established principally by Mills, would become efficient
leaders of their fellows. It is highly probable also that the
arguments were designed for different sections of the country and
different classes of people--to remove the dangerous element would
make a strong appeal to the slaveholder and the South, for it was
believed that the free black contaminated and ruined the slave; to
civilize and Christianize Africa would appeal to churchmen and
religious bodies, and this argument could be used in the North. To
return to Africa people who could contribute to her betterment;
indeed, to return to Africa the descendants of her enslaved sons and
daughters improved by contact with the civilization of the whites
would be a recompense to that continent for the wrongs perpetrated,
during a period of two hundred years, on her population. It was only
America's moral obligation, said the colonizationists, to return the
black population to Africa.
Another object the deportationists had in mind was to stop the slave
trade. They believed that the existence of a settlement in Africa
would deter the slaveholder from securing his cargo in human beings.
It would also furnish the opportunity needed to develop a commerce in
legitimate articles of trade between Africa and America and other
parts of the world. It was also hoped by the leaders of this
deportation movement to remove the great obstacle to the abolition of
slavery. Now that provision was made for the freedmen the slaveholder
felt at liberty to manumit his slaves. To quote Mills again: "It is
confidently believed by many of our best and wisest men, that, if the
plan proposed succeeds, it will ultimately be the means of
exterminating slavery in our country."[281]
The charge was made later, especially by the Abolitionists, that the
movement was a deeply laid device for making slavery more secure than
ever. They took great delight in referring to Randolph's remark, made
at the first public meeting of the deportationists, that colonization
would tend "to secure the property of every master in the United
States over his slaves." Subsequently the management of the Society
itself recognized the force of this remark as a quotation from the
eighty-second report will show: "It was this ill-omened utterance of a
solitary member of the Society, who appears to have taken very little
if any part in its subsequent proceedings, that afterward gave the
impracticable abolitionists a text for the most vituperative and
persistent assaults upon the Society and its purpose."[282] Randolph's
remark is not only qualified by the fact that he took "very little if
any part in its subsequent proceedings" but also by his prediction
that thousands of slaveholders, when assured of a place to send the
Negroes, would emancipate their slaves because they would then be
relieved from their care. With all this, however, Randolph claimed the
colonization movement had nothing to do with abolition.
And it must also be remembered that the eccentric Randolph was only
one man among a large group of men who were interested in the
deportation movement. In this large group two, Mills and Finley,
religious patriots, stand head and shoulders above all the others,
both of whom, Mills, particularly, hoped to provide a method for the
abolition of slavery. Moreover, the Abolitionists should have observed
that the name of Daniel Webster appeared among the signers of the
constitution as well as the name of Ferdinando Fairfax[283] and
especially that of William Thorton.[284] Fairfax and Thorton were
excellent representatives of deportation schemes, proposed in the
eighteenth century and deliberately designed to remove from our
country all Negroes both free and slave. It seems, therefore, safe to
conclude that the colonization movement of 1816-17 was at that time
sincere in its purpose and straightforward in its aims.
Therefore with humanitarian aims the colonizationists at their first
public meeting, December 21, 1816, passed resolutions favorable to the
formation of an association for the purpose of deporting the free
blacks to Africa or elsewhere, and appointed a committee to draw up
and present a memorial to Congress requesting measures for securing a
suitable territory for a settlement, and another committee to prepare
a constitution and rules to govern the association when formed.[285]
Having taken this action, they decided to adjourn until the following
Saturday, December 28, at six o'clock.
According to this arrangement "citizens of Washington, Georgetown, and
Alexandria, and many others" met in the Hall of the House of
Representatives of the United States and adopted a Constitution.[286]
By provision of the Constitution the Association was "The American
Society for Colonizing the Free People of Color of the United States"
and its exclusive object "to promote and execute a plan for colonizing
(with their consent) the Free People of Color residing in our Country,
in Africa, or such other place as Congress shall deem most
expedient." Every citizen of the United States was eligible to
membership upon the payment of one dollar, the annual dues, or as
amended a few days later, thirty dollars for life membership.
Provision was made for the usual officers and for the formation of
auxiliary societies to this parent organization.[287] The first annual
meeting was fixed for Wednesday, January 1, 1817.
On this date the colonizationists met in Davis's Hotel, Henry Clay
again presiding. Bushrod Washington was elected President of the
Society, equally noted men were chosen for the other officers,[288]
and on motion of the Honorable John C. Herbert of Maryland, Reverend
Robert Finley was "requested to close the meeting with an address to
the Throne of Grace"[289] which he did, it being "his last public act
in the last public meeting"[290] for the organization and success of
the American Colonization Society.
HENRY NOBLE SHERWOOD, PH.D.
STATE NORMAL SCHOOL,
LA CROSSE, WIS.
FOOTNOTES:
[234] For an extended account of the plans proposed before 1816, for
removing the colored population, see H. N. Sherwood, "Early Negro
Deportation Projects," in the _Mississippi Valley Historical Review_,
II, 485 ff.
[235] _Niles' Register_, XVII, 30. Some of the slaves of James Smith,
a Methodist preacher of Virginia, had accompanied their quondam master
to Ohio in 1798. Ohio Archæological and Historical Society,
Publications, XVI, 348-352.
[236] Documentary History of American Industrial Society, II, 161,
162.
[237] This story has been told by the writer, "Paul Cuffe and his
Contribution to the American Colonization Society," in Mississippi
Valley Historical Society, _Proceedings_, VI, 370-402.
[238] Thomas Jefferson, Writings (Ford ed., New York, 1892-1899).
[239] American Colonization Society, First Annual Report (Washington,
1817), 6, 7.
[240] "The Life of Benjamin Lundy" (Philadelphia, 1847), 16. The
manuscript record is in the archives of the Ohio Historical and
Philosophical Society.
[241] American State Papers, Miscellaneous, II, 278, 279. The Petition
reached Congress January 18, 1816. It was referred to the Committee on
the Public Lands and reported on adversely. Annals of Congress, 14th
Cong., 1st session, 691.
[242] These resolutions are printed in American State Papers,
Miscellaneous, I, 464.
[243] Archibald Alexander, "A History of Colonization on the West
Coast of Africa" (Philadelphia, 1846), 75-76; _Niles' Register_, XI,
275, 296; James Mercer Garnett, "Biographical Sketch of Charles Fenton
Mercer" (Richmond, Va., 1911), 15.
[244] Mercer's resolutions were passed by the House of Delegates,
December 14, 1816, passed with amendment by the Senate, December 20,
and concurred in by the House, December 21. Annals of Congress, 15th
Congress, 1st session, II, 1774. Indiana, Georgia and Tennessee, all a
little later, passed similar resolutions. _American Quarterly_, IV,
397.
[245] American Colonization Society, First Annual Report, 8.
[246] Isaac V. Brown, "Biography of the Reverend Robert Finley, of
Basking Ridge, N. J." (Philadelphia, 1857), 60.
[247] Printed in Brown, _Finley_, 60, 61. See also _African
Repository_, II, 2, 3, and Matthew Carey, "Letters on Colonization and
its Probable Results addressed to C. F. Mercer," Philadelphia, 1834,
7.
[248] _Niles' Register_, XI, 260. Colonel Ercuries Beatty president at
the meeting. The committee appointed to secure signatures to the
memorial consisted of the following names: Elisha Clark, John G.
Schenck, Dr. E. Stockton, Dr. J. Van Cleve, and Robert Voorhees. Byron
Sunderland in his "Liberian Colonization," _Liberian Bulletin_, No.
16, 18, says this meeting was virtually a failure. The memorial may be
found in the Cuffe manuscripts. It was sent to Paul Cuffe by Robert
Finley when the latter was in Washington seeking to bring about some
general deportation movement.
[249] Gardiner Spring, "Memoir of Samuel John Mills" (Boston and New
York, 1829), 10.
[250] Sunderland, "Liberian Colonization," _Liberian Bulletin_, No.
16, 18.
[251] Massachusetts Historical Society, Collections, Second Series,
II, 1.
[252] Report of a missionary tour through that part of the United
States which lies west of the Allegheny Mountains (Andover, 1815).
[253] Thomas C. Richards, "Samuel J. Mills, Missionary, Pathfinder,
Pioneer and Promoter" (Boston, 1906), 190, 191; Spring, "Memoir of
Mills," 129.
[254] Spring, "Memoir of Mills," 125, 126; _African Repository_, I,
276. A school based on these principles was established in New York
also, in October, 1816. While the above quotation was written by Mills
in July, 1817, it is a fair representation of his idea for several
years previous.
[255] An editorial in the _North American Review_, XXXV, 126.
[256] _Niles' Register_, XIV, 321. Thomas Doan, Aaron Coppock, James
Boyd, Joseph Coin, and Elihu Embree signed such a statement.
[257] Jesse Torrey, Jr., "A Portraiture of Domestic Slavery, in the
United States: with Reflections on the Practicability of Restoring the
Moral Rights of the Slave, without Impairing the Legal Privileges of
the Possessor; and a Project of a Colonial Asylum for Free Persons of
Colour: including Memoirs of Facts on the Interior Traffic in Slaves,
and on Kidnapping" (Philadelphia, 1817), 27-30.
[258] _Niles' Register_, XIII, 180.
[259] "Documentary History of American Industrial Society," II, 157,
158.
[260] _African Repository_, I, 23.
[261] See the Western Courier (Louisville, Kentucky), for October 26,
1815.
[262] Paul Cuffe manuscripts in the Public Library, New Bedford, Mass.
Paul Cuffe to Samuel C. Aiken, August 7, 1816; Paul Cuffe to Jedekiah
Morse, August 10, 1816.
[263] _Ibid._, Robert Finley to Paul Cuffe, December 5, 1816, Finley
asked that the reply if mailed to him at Washington be sent in care of
his brother-in-law, Elias B. Caldwell.
[264] _Ibid._, Paul Cuffe to Robert Finley, January 8, 1817.
[265] Printed in Brown, _Finley_, 66 ff. The pamphlet was written
before he came to Washington.
[266] Spring, "Memoir of Mills," 131.
[267] Massachusetts Historical Society, _Proceedings_, First Series,
XIX, 20.
[268] _African Repository_, I, 2, 3. Referring to Caldwell in an
address at an annual meeting of the Society, January 20, 1827, Clay
said: "It is now a little upwards of ten years since a religious,
amiable and benevolent resident of this city, first conceived the idea
of planting a colony, from the United States, of free people of color,
on the western shores of Africa. He is no more, and the noblest eulogy
that could be pronounced on him would be to inscribe upon his tomb,
the merited epitaph, 'Here lies the projector of the American
Colonization Society.'" Clay was historically mistaken. Similar things
were said of Mills and Finley. This speech may be found in pamphlet
form in the Library of the Ohio Historical and Philosophical Society.
[269] Spring, "Memoir of Mills," 131, 139, 140.
[270] Brown, _Finley_, 65, 66.
[271] _Ibid._, "A Respectable Resident of the District of Columbia to
Brown," 64, 65.
[272] Sunderland, "Liberian Colonization," _Liberian Bulletin_, No.
16, 19.
[273] Virginia Historical Society, Collections, VI, 26; _Niles'
Register_, XI, 296.
[274] _Niles' Register_, XI, 296.
[275] Manuscript Record of the Meeting, Library of Congress. Copy
furnished by the American Colonization Society.
[276] The _National Intelligencer_ reported the meeting. The substance
of Clay's remarks is printed in Archibald Alexander, "A History of
Colonization on the Western Coast of Africa" (Philadelphia, 1849),
77-82; in J. Tracy, "A View of Exertions Lately Made for the Purpose
of Colonizing the Free People of Color in the United States, in
Africa, or Elsewhere" (Washington, 1817), 4 ff.
[277] Alexander, "A History of Colonization," 82-87; Tracy, "A View of
Exertions," 4-11. For a criticism of all the speeches before this
meeting see David Walker, "An Appeal" (Boston, 1830), 50 ff.
[278] Torrey, "A Portraiture of Domestic Slavery," 69.
[279] Torrey, "A View of Exertions," 9, 10; Walker, "Appeal," 57.
[280] Spring, "Memoir of Mills, Samuel J. Mills to Ebenezer Burgess,"
July 30, 1817, 136.
[281] _Ibid._, 136.
[282] American Colonization Society, Eighty-second report, 7.
[283] See the _American Museum_, December, 1790, 285-286, for his
plan.
[284] Thorton's activities have been related by H. N. Sherwood, "Early
Negro Deportation Projects," in _Mississippi Valley Historical
Review_, March, 1916, 502-505.
[285] The committee for the memorial consisted of: E. B. Caldwell,
John Randolph, Richard Rush, Walter Jones, Francis S. Key, Robert
Wright, James H. Blake and John Peter. The committee for the
Constitution: Francis S. Key, Bushrod Washington, E. B. Caldwell,
James Breckenridge, Walter Jones, Richard Rush, and W. G. D.
Worthington.
[286] Mills wrote Cuffe, December 26, 1816, informing him of the
activities in Washington and asked for information about Africa. He
added a postscript: "If the general government were to request you to
go out for the purpose of exploring in your own vessel would you
engage in this service if offered proper support?" Cuffe Manuscripts,
Samuel J. Mills to Paul Cuffe, December 26, 1916.
[287] The signers of this Constitution are given by Sunderland,
"Liberian Colonization," _Liberian Bulletin_, No. 16, 20, as follows:
_Signers of American Colonization Society, December 28, 1816._
H. Clay Jno. Loockerman John Taylor
E. B. Caldwell Jno. Woodside Overton Carr
Thos. Dougherty Wm. Dudley Diggs P. H. Wendover
Stephen B. Balch Thos. Carberry F. S. Key
Jno. Chambers, Jr. Samuel J. Mills Charles Marsh
Thos. Patterson Geo. A. Carroll David M. Forest
John Randolph of Roanoke W. G. D. Worthington John Wiley
Rob't H. Goldsborough John Lee Nathan Lufborough
Wm. Thornton Richard Bland Lee William Meade
George Clark D. Murray William H. Wilmer
James Laurie Robert Finley Geo. Travers
J. T. Stull B. Allison Edm. I. Lee
Dan'l Webster B. L. Lear John P. Todd
J. C. Herbert W. Jones Bushrod Washington
Wm. Simmons J. Mason
E. Forman Mord. Booth
Ferdinand Fairfax J. S. Shaaf
V. Maxsy Geo. Peter
[288] The other officers were as follows:
William H. Crawford of Georgia
Henry Clay of Kentucky
William Phillips of Massachusetts
Col. Henry Rutgers of New York
John E. Howard }
Samuel Smith } of Maryland
John C. Herbert }
John Taylor of Caroline, of Virginia
Andrew Jackson of Tennessee
Robert Ralston }
Richard Rush } of Pennsylvania
John Mason of the District of Columbia
Robert Finley of New Jersey
These were the thirteen vice presidents.
Elias B. Caldwell, Secretary
William G. D. Worthington, Recorder
David English, Treasurer
Francis S. Key
Walter Jones
John Laird
Rev. Dr. James Laurie
Rev. Stephen B. Balch
Rev. Obadiah B. Brown
James H. Blake
John Peter
Edmund I. Lee
William Thorton
Jacob Hoffman
Henry Carroll
These composed the Board of Managers.
[289] Manuscript Records of the Meeting.
[290] Brown, _Finley_, 65, 66.
THE EVOLUTION OF SLAVE STATUS IN AMERICAN DEMOCRACY
II
The story of the evolution of the status of the Negro in the North
during the first part of the nineteenth century can be easily told as
it was the result of forces the existence of which we have already
suggested. By far the most important among these were economic and
industrial. Lecky has said somewhere that the masses of men are
influenced far more by the practical implications of daily life in the
pursuit of their callings than they are by abstract ideas and this
finds abundant illustration in the attitude taken by the northern mind
upon the Negro. In Pennsylvania, where slavery existed in its mildest
form and where the moral sentiment of the community was best prepared
for its eradication, thanks to the persistent and effective campaign
of education begun by the Quakers as early as 1688 and prosecuted
under the leadership of such men as the saintly John Woolman and
Benezet, economic interests still played a more important part than
ethical.[291] Slavery flourished only where the plantation system was
profitable and this was not the case in Pennsylvania. The industrial
development of the State was in the direction of small farming,
manufacturing and commerce, all of which were uncongenial to slavery.
In the absence of paramount economic needs, slavery was unable to hold
its own against the moral idealism of the Quaker and the racial
antipathies of the German and the Scotch Irish.
Even in respect to New England the evidence is abundant that it was
economic rather than moral or religious influences that paved the way
to freedom for the slave. At the beginning it was the imperative
demand for labor that led to the enslavement of the Indian and Negro,
which the Puritan justified by an appeal to his high Calvinism. When
this demand ceased because of the increase of white labor and when the
diminished supply rendered it more difficult to get profitable slaves,
the same economic laws tended to encourage the freedom of the
slave.[292] "Fortunately for the moral development of our beloved
colonies," says Weeden, "the climate was too harsh, the social system
too simple, to engender a good economic employment of black labor. The
simple industrial methods of each New England homestead, described in
so many ways through these pages, make a natural barrier against an
alien social system including either black or copper-colored
dependents. The blacks soon dwindled in numbers, or dropped out from a
life too severe for any but the hardiest and firmest fibered
races."[293] When we see how during the constitutional convention of
1787 selfish economic interests led Massachusetts to enter into the
unholy alliance with the pro-slavery States of the far South to fix
upon another section of the country the nefarious slave-trade for
twenty years longer, we may perhaps conclude that it was after all
fortunate for the integrity of the Puritan conscience that slavery was
unprofitable as a domestic institution. The slave-trade ended in 1808
and during the years 1806, 1807 six hundred New England slavers
arrived at the port of Charleston alone.[294]
There seems to have been, on the whole, comparatively little express
legislation in the way of constitutional changes and few express acts
abolishing slavery in the North during this period.[295] The process
was a gradual one, proceeding by acts of manumission or gradual
abolition, the act of Pennsylvania in 1780 being typical. Slavery does
not appear to have ever been made illegal in Pennsylvania by express
law but died out in the natural course of events. Hence slaves were
found in this State well on toward the middle of the nineteenth
century.[296] This goes to show that the abolition of slavery and the
admission of the Negro to complete citizenship were the result of a
slow evolution of public sentiment. Moore even contends that slavery
was never formally abolished in Massachusetts until 1866 when it was
agreed on all hands that it was "considered as abolished."[297] Thus
the social mind, by a natural and normal development of democratic
ideals, arrived unconsciously at the point where it was impossible to
harmonize the status of the slave with the prevailing sentiments of
the community. The social mind was for this reason often far in
advance of the legal status of the Negro as determined by the laws
which represented earlier stages of opinion. A case in point is the
Massachusetts act of 1788, of which Moore says: "We doubt if anything
in human legislation can be found which comes nearer branding color as
a crime," and yet this law remained upon the statute books of the
State long after it had ceased to be in accord with the feelings and
practices of the community and was only repealed in 1834.[298] The
hesitancy of the legislators of the different free States to pass
express acts of abolition and thus formally to pronounce slavery
illegal may have been due in part to the fact that slavery was
sanctioned to a certain extent by the constitution and was the
"peculiar institution" around which centered the social and economic
life of a large number of sister States.
The great industrial expansion of the North and West toward the end of
the second decade of the century and the increase of population
through immigration in time reduced the Negro in the North in point of
number to an almost negligible factor. He was swept along with the
rising tide of the growing industrial democracy and shared in the
general benefits of citizenship accorded to all. But it would give a
very superficial idea of the real status of the Negro in the North
during this time if we were to base our judgments upon the statistics
of slave and free, the various acts for manumission or the vigorous
anti-slavery agitation from 1830 on. A closer acquaintance with the
actual conditions of the time shows that there was a striking contrast
between the theoretical rights and privileges which the Negro was
supposed to enjoy by virtue of the constitution and bills of rights
and those he really did enjoy.
This was a subject of frequent remark by foreigners travelling in
America. Captain Marryat, writing of conditions in Philadelphia in
1838, says, "Singular is the degree of contempt and dislike in which
the free blacks are held in all the free states of America. They are
deprived of their rights as citizens; and the white pauper who holds
out his hand for charity ... will turn away from a negro or
colored man with disdain."[299] DeTocqueville, in a remarkable
characterization of the relations between the races based upon his
observations in the early thirties, says that as the legal barriers
fall away in the free States those of race prejudice are drawn all the
sharper. Wherever the freemen have increased the gap has widened
between them and the whites. "The prejudice which repels the negroes
seems to increase in proportion as they are emancipated, and
inequality is sanctioned by the manners while it is effaced from the
laws of the country. Though having the franchise the Negro may not
exercise the right for fear of his life;[300] his rights before the
law are pronounced upon by white judges only; his children may not
attend the same school with the white's and gold can not buy a ticket
for him in the same theater; he lies apart in the hospital, worships
at a different altar and must bury his dead in a different
cemetery."[301]
Harriet Martineau, writing in 1834-35 and commenting upon the
statement of a Boston gentleman that the Negroes were perfectly well
treated in New England in the matter of education, the franchise, and
otherwise, states that while they are nominally citizens, "yet their
houses and schools are pulled down,[302] and they can obtain no remedy
at law. They are thrust out of offices, and excluded from the most
honorable employments, and stripped of all the best benefits of
society by fellow-citizens who, once a year, solemnly lay their hands
on their hearts, and declare that all men are born free and equal, and
that rulers derive their just powers from the consent of the
governed."[303] Fanny Kemble, the English actress, writes in 1838-39
of the treatment of the free blacks at the North, "They are marked as
the Hebrew lepers of old, and are condemned to sit, like these
unfortunates, without the gates of every human and social sympathy.
From their own sable color, a pall falls over the whole of God's
universe to them, and they find themselves stamped with a badge of
infamy of Nature's own devising, at sight of which all natural
kindness of man to man seems to recoil from them. They are not slaves
indeed, but they are pariahs; debarred from all fellowship save with
their own despised race--scorned by the lowest white ruffian in your
streets, not tolerated as companions by the foreign menials in your
kitchens. They are free certainly but they are also degraded,
rejected, the offscum and the offscouring of the very dregs of your
society; they are free from the chain, the whip, the enforced task and
unpaid toils of slavery; but they are not the less under a ban."[304]
There was in fact throughout this entire period a remarkable paradox
in the social mind of the North with regard to the Negro, for we find
everywhere the strongest antipathy to the Negro personally and general
discriminations against him socially and politically, united with the
greatest enthusiasm for his rights in the abstract. Even the best
spirits of the time did not escape it. Fanny Kemble relates of John
Quincy Adams, who became the very head and front of the anti-slavery
element in Congress,[305] that while discussing with her at a Boston
dinner-party the Shaksperean heroine Desdemona, he asserted "with a
most serious expression of sincere disgust, that he considered all her
misfortunes as a very just judgment upon her for having married a
'nigger.'"[306] About the time when Garrisonian abolition was at its
high tide, when Wendell Phillips was placing Toussaint l'Ouverture
above Caesar and Napoleon on the roll of fame, when Whittier,
Longfellow, and Lowell were lending their talents to the cause of
unalterable and inalienable rights of mankind, Jesse Chickering
published a "Statistical View of the Population of Massachusetts from
1765 to 1840," at the end of which he appended some very interesting
facts and conclusions as to the colored population of this State. He
stated that, owing partly to their race traits and partly to fixed and
immovable prejudices of the whites against them, the blacks are
deprived of sympathy and social enjoyments and reduced to a servile
and degraded condition of poverty and dependence (p. 137). Because of
this widespread prejudice against their color, "they cannot obtain
employment on equal terms with the whites, and wherever they go a
sneer is passed upon them, as if this sportive inhumanity were an act
of merit.... Thus, though their legal rights are the same as those of
the whites, their condition is one of degradation and dependence." In
spite of the vigorous agitation for the rights of the Negro which
stirred New England and the entire nation at this time, the writer
says "the prejudices which are now felt in this Commonwealth against
the people of color and the disadvantages under which they labor ...
we can hardly expect will soon be removed," though he is persuaded
that "this want of true sympathy, and this sense of degradation, must
operate on their sensibility and unfavorably affect their physical,
moral, and social condition, and shorten to them the duration of life"
(pp. 156, 157).
The anti-slavery movement in Pennsylvania never went to the
rhapsodical extremes we find in Massachusetts. It was from beginning
to end sane and reasonable and yet vigorous and unremittent.
Nevertheless, we find the same enthusiasm for the rights of the Negro
in the abstract combined with racial antipathy, social and political
discriminations, and even on more than one occasion mob violence in
the actual treatment of the Negro population of the State.[307]
Pennsylvania's interest in slavery, because of her position just to
the north of slaveholding States, was never allowed to lag even after
she had set all her slaves free. Her Negro population was constantly
being replenished from the South and largely by fugitive slaves. This
brought about much friction with Maryland, owing to the unwillingness
of Pennsylvanians to surrender the runaways. In spite of Federal law
the spirit of freedom made it unsafe for owners to hunt for their
escaped slaves in Pennsylvania, as the famous Christiana riot of 1851
shows, and brought the State to the verge of nullification,[308] to
such extremes were a peaceful and yet liberty-loving people ready to
go in their championship of the abstract rights of the oppressed
slave.
But while this was true, there is abundant evidence to show that by
the masses of the people the Negro was thoroughly disliked, persecuted
and relegated to an inferior social status by no means in harmony with
the doctrine of the inalienable and unalterable rights of man. Negroes
were set upon in the streets, beaten, cut and even stoned to death in
sheer wanton cruelty. In 1831 the refusal of New Haven, Connecticut,
to establish a Negro college was enthusiastically endorsed in
resolutions passed at a public meeting in Philadelphia, and in 1834,
1835, 1838, 1842 and 1849 this city was distracted by riots directed
against the Negroes. The houses of the Negroes were sacked, their
inmates beaten and mobs of whites and blacks fought through the
streets with clubs and stones.[309] "A careful study of each of these
riots," says Turner, "makes inevitable the deduction that the deep
underlying cause which made every one of them possible, and which
prepared them long before they burst forth, was a fierce, and at least
among the lower classes, an almost universal, hatred of the negro
himself."
How are we to explain this contradiction in dealing with the Negro?
Why did Pennsylvanians mob him, disfranchise him from 1838 to 1873,
seek to get rid of him by colonization and yet hide him from his
master and resolutely refuse to close to him the door of freedom even
in the face of Federal laws? The answer is one of fundamental
importance for the comprehension of the status of the Negro in the
social consciousness of the nation now as well as then. The people of
Pennsylvania had been educated for generations in the great traditions
of freedom. These traditions had their roots in the religious
emancipation of the reformation and gradually extended to the
political sphere and became endeared to the hearts of all Americans
through the struggle with Great Britain. Pennsylvanians had little
special love for the Negro but they loved these traditions dearly. In
a healthy democracy these traditions are inseparably united in the
thought of the average citizen with the personal sense of liberty. To
violate them is to violate that which lends validity to his own
conviction of his right to be free.
It will be said, of course, that in the social and political
restrictions placed upon the Negro as an actual member of the
community, these lofty ideals were negated. Rights that are granted in
theory but are denied in the actual give and take of social contacts
are not true rights. This was undoubtedly the case. But to register
this criticism does not by any means exhaust the situation. For these
so-called inalienable rights are not something that the individual is
born heir to as he is to his father's fortune. They are his
inalienably only by virtue of his potentiality for realizing them and
as such they exist only as possible forms of self-activity, functions
which by common consensus of opinion are conceded to each individual.
In a very real sense, therefore, they must be won or created by each
for himself. The individual or the group, which through ignorance or
inefficiency or thriftlessness or racial discrimination is
incapacitated for measuring up to the demands of an aggressive and
virile democracy, will inevitably find these inalienable and
unalterable rights merely a name so far as they are concerned. Actual
social status in existing American democracy is the result of a
balance of forces one of which is the individual's power of
self-assertion. In _der Kampf um's Recht_ the community imagines it
has done its utmost when it insists upon fair play. There was also the
inevitable friction due to the close contact of diverse race groups.
The Negro population of Pennsylvania was larger than that of any other
northern State. The presence of thousands of members of a different
race, to whom complete social assimilation through intermarriage was
refused, and who represented different standards of living and lower
industrial efficiency, led inevitably to group conflicts.
Just on the eve of the Civil War, therefore, the theoretical status
assigned the Negro in the social consciousness of the North and the
one very soon to be assured to him throughout the entire nation in
Lincoln's emancipation proclamation, insisted that he be included in
those broad and somewhat indefinite categories of rights embodied in
our national political symbols. The enthusiasm for these is to be
explained not so much from the objective and eternal nature of the
rights themselves as from the feeling that they represent a phase of
common social experience of fundamental importance for society as a
whole. Previous training in democratic traditions made men capable of
the noblest self-sacrifice in their loyalty to these ideas of freedom
and equality, but the fact of their being associated with the enslaved
Negro was accidental. No sooner had they assisted the runaway slave to
freedom than they forgot him. He was left to make good in the
autonomous, _laissez faire_ atmosphere of a vigorous democracy. Soon,
however, his economic helplessness and inefficiency, his ignorance of
the tense northern life aroused the same men who had helped him to
freedom to the realization that he was of an alien race, with
characteristics that made his social assimilation difficult. Where the
blacks were present in large numbers the situation was fraught with
the gravest difficulties of social adjustment. These were facts not
encouraging for the future of the two races in the nation. They should
have taught men that emancipation, instead of solving the problem,
would plunge the nation and particularly the South into a situation
the infinite difficulties of which were never dreamed of by the
enthusiastic champions of abstract human rights. DeTocqueville's
language, though written almost thirty years before the _débâcle_
came, sounds like a veritable prophecy. He felt that national
abolition was bound to come in the course of events. "I am obliged to
confess," he says however, "that I do not regard the abolition of
slavery as a means of warding off the struggle of the two races in the
United States," for abolition will inevitably "increase the repugnance
of the white population for the men of color."[310]
It is well to remember, when we come to examine the status of the
Negro in the slave States, that slavery would naturally follow lines
of development determined by the economic, social and climatic
conditions of the sections concerned. These conditions, of course,
vary greatly throughout a region stretching from Maryland to Texas. As
late as the famous Dred Scott case, when slavery was limited to the
South, Justice Curtis could say, "the status of slavery embraces every
condition from that in which the slave is known to the law simply as a
chattel, with no civil rights, to that in which he is recognized as a
person for all purposes, save the compulsory power of directing and
receiving the fruits of his labor. Which of these conditions shall
attend the status of slavery, must depend upon the municipal law which
creates and upholds it."[311] A comparative study of the legislation
of all the slave States with regard to the Negro both as slave and
free will very clearly reveal the effect of these varying conditions
in the several States concerned.[312] Nothing is more necessary to a
calm and unprejudiced study of the institution of slavery than the
realization of this fact.
What then were the economic, climatic and social conditions in the
South which contributed to shape the attitude of the social mind of
the section toward the Negro? The dominant feature of the social and
economic life of the South of ante bellum days was the plantation.
This was the industrial unit comprising usually large land areas,
worked by slaves divided into groups, under strict supervision, with a
fixed routine of labor in the production of special commodities such
as tobacco, rice, sugar-cane or cotton. Two types of plantation life
developed even before the Revolution, the Virginian and the West
Indian, the latter confined at first to the coast line of South
Carolina and later covering the "Black Belt" of the far South. The
term "plantation" was originally synonymous with colony. Virginia was
the "plantation of the London Company"[313] but was later broken up
into smaller economic units which retained the name. By the beginning
of the eighteenth century the prevailing industrial system in Virginia
and Maryland was these small plantations or farms where Negro slaves
gradually took the place of white redemptioners and the prevailing
staple was tobacco. About the end of the seventeenth century the
Jamaican or West Indian type of plantation was introduced on the coast
region around Charleston. It consisted of larger estates cultivated by
thirty or more slaves, with few or no white laborers, the master and
his family often being the only whites present the year around. Fanny
Kemble's "Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation," 1838-39,
gives an interesting though somewhat sombre picture of the conditions
prevailing on the rice plantations near Darien, Georgia.
Slavery, as an industrial institution, has flourished only in
countries with great natural resources, easy of access and affording
ready means of sustenance. The crops cultivated must be simple, such
as tobacco, rice or cotton, and hence admitting of easy mastery by the
slave as well as the efficient organization and direction of gangs of
laborers. The soil must be very fertile and unlimited in extent to
assure a profit on the unskilled routine labor of the slave, which
makes rotation of the crops impossible and soon exhausts the soil so
that the worn out lands must be abandoned for new. The industrial
cycle passed through by the great slave-estates of the West Indies
finds a parallel in the South, where the speedy exhaustion of a
fertile soil with the resulting necessity for a more scientific and
intensive agriculture, impossible under slavery, forced slaveholders
to open up new lands constantly. Hence the insatiable land hunger of
the slave power.[314]
There is evidence that at the end of the colonial period the older
lands of Virginia and Maryland, where slavery and the plantation
system had long existed, were approaching a period of decay. This was
the logical result of slavery. An industrial readjustment was taking
place involving the decline of the plantation system and with it the
decline of slavery. It was at this juncture that the fate of slavery,
and with it the destiny of the entire southwestern region, was
determined by a new factor, namely, the rise of the cotton culture.
But for the invention of the cotton-gin, and the improvements in
cotton manufacture that accompanied it, the economic forces already
militating against the patriarchal form of slavery in Virginia would
doubtless have brought about in time its peaceful abolition. As it
was, these discoveries created an industrial basis for the fostering
of slavery more dangerous than any pro-slavery legislation had been
and more sweeping and insidious than anti-slavery agitators could
possibly imagine. It opened up for the cultivation of the cotton
plant the vast fertile region extending from eastern North Carolina
through South Carolina, middle Georgia and Alabama to Mississippi,
Louisiana and Texas[315]. Here were found all the conditions mentioned
above as necessary to the success of slavery.
Within this vast region, however, there were variations of climate and
soil which made certain sections better adapted to slavery and the
plantation system than others. Between the foothills just to the south
of the Appalachian mountains and the flat sandy levels of the sea
coast lay a central rich alluvial region called the "black belt" at
first after the color of its soil and later after the color of the
majority of its inhabitants. This section was peculiarly well suited
to the growth of the cotton plant and here, after the pell-mell of
immigration which poured into the southwest with the development of
cotton culture began to take on the forms of a fixed social order,
arose those large cotton plantations which were the central feature of
southern ante-bellum civilization. The "black belt" included virtually
the whole of South Carolina, a strip through central Georgia and
south-central Alabama and the rich alluvial lands along the
Mississippi and Red rivers in the States of Mississippi and Louisiana.
Here the large plantations gradually absorbed the lands of the
frontiersmen and small farmers who had preceded them and spread over
all the lands where the gang labor of the slave system could be
prosecuted with profit[316].
This slave aristocracy of the "black belt," which determined the
social standards and shaped the morals and directed the political
policies of the South, was composed of a few powerful families who
through their wealth, social standing and talents for leadership
controlled the destinies of a vast section. Perhaps 500,000 out of a
total white population of 9,000,000 profited by slavery in 1860, but
out of this number some ten thousand families, including such
familiar names as Hampton, Rutledge, Brooks, Hayne, Lee, Mason, Tyler,
Wise, Polk, Breckenridge and Claibourne, really determined the
policies of the South[317]. Beneath the slave aristocracy were ranged
the other elements of society. First among these came the small
farmers, often owning a few slaves. Though having occupied the land
first, they were gradually crowded out by the competition of the large
slaveholders, who bought up their lands and forced them to occupy the
foothills to the north of the "black belt" in Georgia, Alabama and
Mississippi which were ill adapted to the plantation slave system.
Next came the thriftless and impecunious whites, variously known as
the "pine-landers" and "crackers" in Georgia, the "sand-hillers" of
South Carolina, or the "red-necks" of Mississippi. The lowest stratum
was composed of slaves with a slight intermixture of free Negroes.
Bagehot remarks that slavery "creates a set of persons born to work
that others may not work, and not to think in order that others may
think. Therefore, slave-owning nations, having time to think, are
likely to be more shrewd in policy, and more crafty in strategy[318]."
This is amply illustrated in the case of southern leaders. The sons of
the slaveholders received the best education the land could afford;
the plantation life gave a training in administration and leadership
and with leisure and natural political talent they looked to public
life for advancement. Those who showed ability in local or State
governments were advanced to the House or Senate so that by a process
of natural selection the slave-power at the South was able to develop
leaders, who not only moulded the public sentiment of the South itself
but shaped the policies of the nation for the better part of half a
century[319].
Thus, by a slow process of evolution, was built up in the "black
belt" of the South an industrial empire, based upon slavery, nominally
democratic, but in reality an oligarchy composed of a group of
talented men, united in their traditions, social standards and
political ideals by virtue of their common loyalty to the "peculiar
institution" of their section. It was democratic within its own
limits, chivalrous, cultured although it cherished ideals essentially
at variance with democratic institutions and bound in time to give
birth to a social consciousness that was incompatible with that
entertained by the rest of the nation. When the slave-power was
defeated at the polls in the election of 1860, secession was the
logical result.
The status of the Negro, both slave and free, was intimately
associated with this economic development of the far South. There is
much to indicate that the entire South gradually underwent a profound
change of attitude towards slavery in the three decades from 1800 to
1830. Slavery was generally looked upon as an evil by the southern
leaders of the time of the constitutional convention and for two
decades afterwards, perhaps. Mason of Virginia in the debates of 1787
stated that slavery discouraged the arts and manufactures, prevented
immigration of whites, exercised a most pernicious effect upon
manners, made every master a petty tyrant and would bring the judgment
of heaven down upon the country. Baldwin, speaking for Georgia, said
that "If left to herself, she may probably put an end to the
evil[320]." Jefferson's expressions against slavery were many and
pronounced[321], and there is reason for thinking that these ideas
were shared by many even in the far South. An editorial in the
_Milledgeville Journal_ of Georgia, January 1, 1817, has this
remarkable language: "With such a hint from a distinguished
philosopher (_i. e._, Jefferson), shall we not merit execration, if we
fail to provide in time an adequate remedy for this great and growing
evil, an evil which is always staring us in the face--which obtrudes
so frequently upon us in spite of ourselves, the most gloomy and awful
apprehension[322]." As late as 1826, when Edward Everett, of
Massachusetts, asserted before the House that slavery was sanctioned
by religion, John Randolph, of Virginia, himself a slaveholder,
replied: "Sir, I envy neither the head nor the heart of that man from
the North who rises here to defend slavery from principle[323]."
Apparently the first assertion of the usefulness and beneficence of
the institution from a southern man of political repute came from the
governor of South Carolina in 1830[324]. How then are we to explain
the profound change of sentiment indicated by the leading papers of
the South just before the war? _The Richmond Enquirer_, September 6,
1855, asserts: "Every moment's additional reflection but convinces us
of the absolute impregnability of the Southern position on this
subject. Facts, which can not be questioned, come thronging in support
of the true doctrine--that slavery is the best condition of the black
race in this country, and that the true philanthropists should rather
desire that race to remain in the state of servitude, than to become
free with the privilege of becoming worthless." The _Richmond
Examiner_, 1854, advises all southern men to act "as if the canopy of
heaven were inscribed with a covenant in letters of fire that the
negro is here, and here forever; is our property and ours forever; is
never to be emancipated; is to be kept hard at work, and in rigid
subjection all his days[325]." The _Daily Intelligencer_, of Atlanta,
January 9, 1860, states editorially: "Whenever we see a negro, we
presuppose a master and if we see him in what is commonly called a
'free state' we consider him out of his place. This matter of
manumission, or emancipation, now thank heaven less practiced than
formerly, is a species of false philanthropy, which we look upon as a
cousin german to Abolitionism--bad for the master, worse for
the slave." Calhoun pronounced slavery "the most solid and
durable foundation on which to rear free and stable political
institutions[326]." Hammond claimed, in a eulogy of slavery in the
Senate, March 4, 1858, that its "frame of society is the best in the
world." Jefferson Davis defended it as "a form of civil government for
those who by nature are not fit to govern themselves";[327] Mason, a
descendant of the great Mason of revolutionary days, described it as
"ennobling to both races."[328]
It is useless to try to explain these statements by attributing to
their authors moral perverseness; the explanation must be sought in
the conditions that surrounded them. We have already alluded to the
fact that our moral conceptions are absorbed from the social milieu in
which we are reared. The prevailing ideals of family, business, the
social, political or national group of which we happen to be members
we absorb as part of our "social copy" and build into the fabric of
our social selves. The larger the group and the more vital any given
ideal is considered by the group as a whole the greater will be its
hold upon the loyalty of the individual member. Everything conspired
to give to the social sanction of the slave-aristocracy an
authoritativeness and binding force without a parallel in the history
of the nation. Upon the basis of the slave as the industrial unit was
reared in the course of years a mass of _mores_ which conditioned the
entire world-view of the slave-owner. Economic methods, social
differentiations, political institutions, religious ideals, moral
values, local patriotism and pride, all took their color from the
"peculiar institution" of the section. To question its validity or to
deny its divine authority was to threaten the entire social order with
an _Umwerthung aller Werthe_ that to the southern mind was
unthinkable. The increase of the slave population and the ever
widening gap between white and black made it all the harder for the
white to consider schemes for emancipation or manumission which meant
economic and social chaos. The weight of accumulated traditions, the
hardening of social habits and even the constantly increasing economic
handicaps of the ruinous slave-labor made any change more difficult
and dangerous. Many, who would gladly be rid of slavery, found
themselves in the predicament described by Jefferson, "We have the
wolf by the ears, and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him
go."[329]
The status of the slave was determined directly by the rise of the
slave-power and on the whole shows, as was to be expected, a tendency
to treat the slave more and more as a chattel or, as Aristotle would
say, a "living tool." The general drift of the slave codes of the
various southern States was to negate the personality of the slave and
to fix his status as a part of an industrial system. The earliest of
the slave laws to be passed were of the nature of police regulations,
restricting the personal liberties of the blacks.[330] Of peculiar
interest are the laws with regard to emancipation and the status of
the free Negro, for the latter was a standing rebuke to slavery and a
fruitful source of discontent among the slaves. In 1822 a Charleston
writer says, "We look upon the existence of the Free Blacks among us
as the greatest and most deplorable evil with which we are unhappily
afflicted.... Our slaves when they look around them and see persons of
their own color enjoying a comparative degree of freedom and assuming
privileges beyond their own condition, naturally become dissatisfied
with their lot, until the feverish restlessness of this disposition
foments itself into insurrection and the 'black flood of long retained
spleen' breaks down every principle of duty and obedience."[331]
As early as 1800 South Carolina prohibited free Negroes and mulattoes
from entering the State. In 1822 they were required to have a guardian
and in 1825 were forbidden the use of firearms. By an act of 1841
emancipation of slaves was made unlawful and in 1860 free Negroes were
required to wear badges with their name and occupation.[332] In many
States emancipation was made unlawful and in Arkansas by an act of
1858 all free Negroes and mulattoes were required to leave the State
or be sold as slaves.[333] About 1830, and probably as a result of
abolition activity, acts were passed in practically all the southern
States prohibiting even the elementary forms of education to the slave
and placing heavy penalties upon whites who violated it. Thus the
status of the free Negro tended always to approximate that of the
slave. Moreover, a study of the evolution of the slave codes of each
State shows a gradual narrowing of the sphere of the slave and a
general drift towards the principle expressed in South Carolina law
that "Slaves shall be deemed, sold, taken, reputed and adjudged in law
to be _chattels personal_ in the hands of their owners and possessors
and their executors, administrators and assigns, to all intents,
constructions and purposes whatsoever."[334]
So far then as the relations of master and slave went, the law gave
the former complete control over the slave's time and labor, his food
and clothing, punishment, together with the right to turn him over to
an agent or sell his labor. The slave had no property rights in law,
could be sold, mortgaged, leased or disposed of in payment of debt;
the slave could not be party in a legal action against his master,
could not redeem himself, change his master or make a contract. His
status was hereditary and perpetual both for himself and his children.
In his civil status no slave could be a witness against a white or be
a party to a suit; he was deprived of the benefits of education and in
some States of religious instruction also.[335] The actual status of
the slave was, of course, subject to the varying conditions of the
different sections of a wide area of country, the status of the slave
on a Virginia or North Carolina farm being very different from that of
the field hand on a sugar or cotton plantation of the far South. The
slaveholders also were to a very large extent a law unto themselves.
"On our estates," says DeBow, "we dispense with the whole machinery of
public police and public courts of justice. Thus we try, decide, and
execute the sentences in thousands of cases, which in other countries
would go into the courts."[336] Fanny Kemble describes how she made
use of this autonomous position of the slaveholder on her own
plantation to teach her slave Aleck to read in violation of the
law.[337] This explains the great extremes in southern slavery and the
mistakes of writers who judge the institution as a whole by extreme
cases.[338]
Our conclusion as to the effect upon the Negro himself of slavery will
depend largely upon whether we stress his previous savage estate and
the gain made through contact with a superior civilization or the
inherent evils of slavery itself and their effect upon his character.
That the transition from African savagery to slavery was a gain for
the Negro in many respects will hardly be denied.[339] The field hand
of the plantation of the far South doubtless retained many of his most
primitive savage traits. Olmsted, an unprejudiced observer, describes
him as on the average a very poor and a very bad creature, "clumsy,
awkward, gross and elephantine in movement ... sly, sensual and
shameless in expression and demeanor." "He seems to be but an
imperfect man, incapable of taking care of himself in a civilized
manner, and his presence in large numbers must be considered a
dangerous circumstance to a civilized people."[340] And yet he
testifies that slavery improved the African Negro.[341]
The most beneficial effects were noticeable where the slave came in
constant contact with the whites. For this reason the household slaves
manifested a degree of intelligence and initiative far above that of
the untutored field hand; this contact with the white was in effect an
involuntary education. This appeared even in dress. "For though their
own native taste," says Kemble, "is decidedly both barbarous and
ludicrous, it is astonishing how very soon they mitigate it in
imitation of their white models." The mulattoes in Charleston were
often as well dressed as the whites.[342] The best witness to the
benefits derived from slavery was the fact that for a generation after
emancipation the older Negroes who received their training under the
old regime made the most faithful and consistent laborers when set
free.[343]
There were, however, other effects of slavery which offset its
advantages. The slave had no true home life and without this it is
impossible to train personality and character. The father felt no
responsibility for children that were not really his but his master's.
The mother merely discharged the animal functions of bearing and
rearing the child, all the finer instincts of motherhood being
prostituted to a selfish commercial end. The slave-mother, of course,
did not feel the pathos of the situation when pointing to her children
she said: "Look missis! little niggers for you and massa; plenty
little niggers for you and little missis." The slave lived perpetually
in an atmosphere of fawning and flattery by no means conducive to the
development of independent manhood either in himself or his master.
Being outside those social sanctions which keep the free man honest
and trustworthy he was often guilty of petty theft and deceit and the
law recognized the logical results of his status upon his character by
refusing to take the word of a slave against a freeman. The slave had
no social standing and no respect for himself or his fellow slaves and
hence exercised unbounded insolence and tyranny towards his fellows.
This gave to the social intercourse between slaves a flavor of
vulgarity and insincerity utterly incompatible with the development of
the finer instincts of personality.[344]
The essential injustice of slavery lies in withholding the legitimate
use of those means for self-development which are the inalienable
right of every creature born with potentialities for personality. It
becomes a national crime when the public conscience in any age
recognizes in a group or an individual potentialities for the exercise
of rights or the discharge of social functions with a rational regard
for the well-being of society as a whole, and yet through powerful
class interests refuses to give legal recognition to those rights. The
paradox of the slaveholder's position and the fundamental injustice of
it appear even in the slave codes and the arguments used in defense of
the "peculiar institution." The slave codes treated the slave in one
clause as a chattel, an irrational thing, and yet proceed to embody in
the same code regulations against learning to read and write, theft,
and murder, thus acknowledging that the slave is both rational and
moral. Laws against teaching slaves were passed in South Carolina in
1834, in Georgia, 1829, Louisiana, 1829, Alabama, 1830 and Virginia,
1849.
As a result of this negation of his personality the slave thought and
acted solely in terms of the social mind of the white. Hence the
prevailing idea of the slave, "massa can do no wrong."[345] The slave
had no social consciousness, no ethical code apart from that of the
white master; his self-determining powers of personality had no scope
for expression or development. He looked down with infinite scorn upon
the "poor white trash" which had no entrée into his master's circle
and he pitied the free Negro because his lack of a master gave him no
social standing. To have a Negro overseer was a disgrace. Olmsted
overheard the following conversation between two Negroes: "Workin' in
a tobacco factory all de year roun', an' come Christmas, only twenty
dollars! Workin' mighty hard too--up to twelve o'clock o'night very
often--_an' den to hab a nigger oberseah_!" "A nigger!" "Yes dat's it
yer see. Wouldn't care ef it warn't for dat. _Nothin' but a dirty
nigger! orderin' 'round, jes' as ef he was a wite man_."[346] To be
sure, on the basis of this submerged status of the slave, ties of the
greatest intimacy and affection often grew up between master and
slave. But the slave's personality was absorbed by that of his master.
Petty thefts, deceits and delinquencies of the slave were excused
because it was all in the family. The master even felt his slave's
acts to be morally his own and condoned them as he would his own
foibles. It should never be forgotten that when the Negro made the
transition from the artificial and quasi-social status of the slave to
a free democratic order, where individual worth and social efficiency
determine one's place in society, he was like a child taught to swim
with bladders and suddenly deprived of them.
"Jove fixed it certain, that whatever day
Makes man a slave, takes half his worth away."
JOHN M. MECKLIN.
FOOTNOTES:
[291] Turner, _op. cit._, p. 14 ff.
[292] Moore, _op. cit._, p. 10; Johnson, _op. cit._, p. 18.
[293] "Economic and Social History of New England," 1620-1789, II, pp.
450, 451.
[294] Dabney, "Defence of Virginia," p. 58.
[295] Locke, _op. cit._, Ch. V.
[296] Turner, _op. cit._, p. 87.
[297] "Notes on the History of Slavery in Massachusetts," pp. 241,
242.
[298] Moore, _op. cit._, pp. 228 ff.
[299] "Diary," p. 149.
[300] No exaggeration! See Turner, "The Negro in Pennsylvania," pp.
146, 147.
[301] "Democracy in America," I, pp. 361 ff.
[302] See Steiner, "History of Slavery in Connecticut," pp. 45 ff. for
the famous instance of the Quakeress, Miss Prudence Crandall, and her
school.
[303] "Society in America," 1, pp. 193-196.
[304] "Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation," p. 11.
[305] Hart, "Slavery and Abolition," pp. 256 ff.
[306] _Journal_, p. 86.
[307] See Turner's excellent account, "The Negro in Pennsylvania,"
Chs. IX-XIII.
[308] Turner, pp. 242, 245.
[309] _Ibid._, pp. 160 ff. for details.
[310] "Democracy in America," I, pp. 379 ff.
[311] 19 Howard's R., p. 624, quoted by Hurd, "Law of Freedom and
Bondage," I, p. 358, see also pp. 321 ff. of Hurd.
[312] Hurd, I, pp. 217 ff., for the colonial legislation and II, Chs.
XVII, XVIII, XIX, for subsequent legislation in the different states
and territories.
[313] "Documentary History of American Industrial Society," I, p. 75.
[314] "Documentary History of American Industrial Society," I, p. 91.
See also Cairnes, "The Slave Power," pp. 52 ff.; Nieboer, "Slavery as
an Industrial System," pp. 417 ff.
[315] For an account of the growth of the cotton industry see Baines,
"History of the Cotton Manufacture," pp. 116 ff. See also DuBois,
"Suppression of the Slave Trade," pp. 151 ff.
[316] Phillips, "Origin and Growth of the Southern 'black belts,'" pp.
798 ff., Vol. XI of _The American Historical Review_.
[317] Hart, "Slavery and Abolition," pp. 67 ff.
[318] "Physics and Politics," p. 73, ed. of 1896; Ingram, "History of
Slavery," p. 5.
[319] Rhodes, I, pp. 347 ff.
[320] Livermore, "An Historical Research Respecting the Opinions of
the Founders of the Republic on Negroes as Slaves, as Citizens, and as
Soldiers," pp. 56 ff.
[321] Foley, "The Jeffersonian Cyclopedia," secs. 7926 ff.
[322] "Documentary History of American Industrial Society," II, p.
158.
[323] Greeley, "The American Conflict," I, p. 109.
[324] Stroud, "A Sketch of the Laws relating to Slavery," p. vi.
[325] Quoted by Olmsted, "Seaboard Slave States," I, pp. 334, 335.
[326] "Wks.," II, 632.
[327] Speech in Senate, Feb. 29, 1860.
[328] _Cong. Globe_, 39 Cong., 1st Session, pp. 557, 596.
[329] Foley, "Jeffersonian Cyclopedia," sec. 7933.
[330] Hurd, _op. cit._, II, pp. 5, 83, 105, 150, etc.
[331] E. C. Holland, "A Refutation of the Calumnies Circulated against
the Southern and Western States Respecting the Institution and
Existence of Slavery among Them," p. 83, Charleston, 1822.
[332] Hurd, _op. cit._, II, 95 ff.
[333] _Ibid._, II, 174.
[334] Stroud, _op. cit._, p. 11; see also Olmsted, "The Cotton
Kingdom," II, 92, and Rhodes, I, p. 369, for similar statements to the
effect that the slave was personal property.
[335] Stroud, _op. cit._, pp. 12, 44.
[336] "Industrial Resources," II, 249, quoted by Hart, "Slavery and
Abolition," p. 112.
[337] _Journal_, pp. 230 ff.
[338] This varying attitude of the master class has been extensively
treated by C. G. Woodson in his "Education of the Negro Prior to
1861."
[339] Tillinghast's "The Negro in Africa and America," pp. 106 ff.
[340] _Op. cit._, II, pp. 12, 13.
[341] II, pp. 108, 118.
[342] _Journal_, pp. 25, 44, 180; Olmsted, "Seaboard Slave States," I,
p. 390.
[343] B. T. Washington, "Future of American Negro," pp. 54 ff. for a
negro's witness to industrial training acquired in slavery.
[344] Kemble, _op. cit._, pp. 60 ff., 29, 134, 153, 239, 263.
[345] Lewis, "Journal of a West India Proprietor," 404.
[346] _Op. cit._, I, p. 114.
HISTORY OF THE HIGH SCHOOL FOR NEGROES IN WASHINGTON
If one is making a collection of striking contrasts between _what once
was, but now is_, he should certainly include in this list the
Preparatory High School established for Negro youth in the National
Capital, November, 1870, and the beautiful new Dunbar High School
which was dedicated January 15, 1917. It is indeed a far cry from the
basement of the Presbyterian Church in which this first Preparatory
High School was located and the magnificent brick, stone-trimmed
building of Elizabethan architecture with a frontage of 401 feet which
was recently christened the Dunbar High School in honor of the poet,
Paul Laurence Dunbar. This new school represents an outlay of more
than a half a million dollars. The ground cost the government $60,000,
the building and equipment $550,000, and it is considered one of the
most complete and beautiful institutions for Negro youth in the
country.[347] There is a faculty of 48 teachers, many of them being
graduates from the leading colleges and universities of the country,
and 1,252 pupils are enrolled, 545 boys and 707 girls.
It would have required a vivid and fertile imagination indeed for a
pupil who attended that first high school to have dreamed of an
institution so comprehensive and efficient as the high school of
to-day. In fact, the first high school for Negro youth was not a high
school at all. It was, as its name indicated, a Preparatory High
School established in 1870. It was mainly composed of pupils
completing the last two years of the grammar grades, although,
according to the school report of that year, a small number of
students were pursuing the high school course.[348] The new
institution labored under several decided disadvantages. In the first
place, the teaching force was inadequate, as there was only one
instructor for 45 pupils. Sufficient time for advanced studies was not
given and the school suffered also from the loss of pupils employed to
meet the growing demand for teachers in the lower grades.[349]
The first class would have graduated in 1875, but the demand for
teachers being so much greater than the supply, the first two classes
were drawn into the teaching corps, before they had completed the
prescribed course.[350] It was not until 1877, therefore, that the
first high school commencement was held, eleven pupils being awarded
diplomas. These were Dora F. Baker, Mary L. Beason, Fannie M. Costin,
Julia C. Grant, Fannie E. McCoy, Cornelia A. Pinckney, Carrie E.
Taylor, Mary E.M. Thomas, James C. Craig, John A. Parker, and James B.
Wright. Three members of this class are now teaching in the Washington
public schools. Of the capabilities of the pupils and conditions of
the school, Superintendent Newton in his annual report said: "The
progress which has been made in the organization and the perfecting of
an efficient school system in a brief period has probably few
parallels in any part of the country. The capabilities of the pupils
in general for acquiring knowledge have been demonstrated to be not
inferior to those of any children in the country."[351]
The first principal of the Preparatory High School was Miss Emma J.
Hutchins, a native of New Hampshire. Like many white men and women who
came from the North at that time, Miss Hutchins was fired with zeal to
do everything in her power to educate and uplift the youth of the
newly emancipated race. She served as principal of the O Street, now
the John F. Cook, School and was then placed in charge of the
Preparatory High School in 1870. After teaching here one year, Miss
Hutchins resigned to accept a position in Oswego County, New York.
There was no dissatisfaction on the part of either Miss Hutchins or of
the people whom she served, but she resigned, because, as she said,
there were among the Negroes themselves teachers thoroughly equipped
to take up the work and carry it on and she could find employment
elsewhere. From one who knew her personally comes the statement, "Miss
Hutchins' term of service in the Washington public schools was brief,
but the impress she made upon those with whom she came into contact
has remained indelibly fixed through the years that have followed.
High ideals, conscientious performance of duty under adverse
conditions and loyalty to the interest of her pupils--hers was indeed
the spirit of the true teacher."
In the third report of the Board of Trustees the Public Schools
Superintendent, George F. T. Cook, tells us: "The pupils first
transferred to this Preparatory High School, as well as those for two
or three subsequent years, had completed only the sixth year of the
seven required for the completion of the school course at that
time--hence the name Preparatory High School." But the superintendent
recommended that the transfer of small classes of pupils in the first
grade of the grammar course from the several school districts be
discontinued, and that in lieu thereof there be two central grammar
schools for the accommodation of all pupils in the last year of the
grammar course--one to be located in the Summer or Stevens building
and the other in the Lincoln building. This was intended to bring into
the high school only those pupils pursuing advanced studies. The
object of this Preparatory High School, according to Mr. Cook, was
twofold: "to economize teaching force by concentrating under one
teacher several small classes of the same grade of attainment, located
in different parts of the city, and to present to the pupils of the
schools incentives to higher aim in education. In both respects," says
he, "it has been eminently successful, perhaps more so in the latter,
since it has furnished to the teacherships of these schools and those
of the surrounding country many teachers."[352]
In the fall of 1871 Miss Mary J. Patterson succeeded Miss Hutchins as
principal of the high school, which was then located in the Stevens
building on 21st Street during that year. Miss Patterson was graduated
from Oberlin College with the degree of A.B. in 1862. So far as the
records show, she has the distinction of being the first woman, of
African blood, to receive a college education. When Miss Patterson
attended Oberlin College, she took what was called the _gentleman's
course_, which required a study of not only Latin and Greek, but the
higher mathematics as well. It doubtless received the name
_gentleman's course_, because at that time women did not as a rule
pursue such studies. It is easy to imagine what an impetus and an
inspiration such a woman would be at the head of a new school
established for the youth of a race for which high standards and lofty
ideals had to be set. She was a woman with a strong, forceful
personality, and showed tremendous power for good in establishing high
intellectual standards in the public schools. Thoroughness was one of
Miss Patterson's most striking characteristics as a teacher. She was a
quick, alert, vivacious and indefatigable worker. During Miss
Patterson's administration, which lasted altogether twelve years,
three important events occurred: the name "Preparatory High School"
was dropped; in 1877, the first high school commencement was held; and
the normal department was added with the principal of the high school
as its head.
After Miss Patterson had served one year as principal, Mr. Richard T.
Greener was appointed in 1872 to take her place. As Miss Patterson was
the first woman of color to be graduated from Oberlin College, so Mr.
Greener has the distinction of being the first man of African descent
to be thus honored by Harvard College. He received his preparatory
education in Boston, Oberlin and Cambridge, and was graduated from
Harvard in 1870. A scholar and lawyer by profession, Mr. Greener has
attracted attention by his essays and orations. He has held a number
of important positions, having served as Professor in the University
of South Carolina in the Reconstruction period, Dean of the Law School
of Howard University, Chief Civil Service Examiner for New York City,
and United States Consul at Vladivostock, Russia. After serving as
principal of the high school nearly one year, Mr. Greener left it for
fields of broader opportunity. Miss Patterson was then reappointed
principal of the Preparatory High School and held the position till
1884, when Mr. F. L. Cadozo, Sr., succeeded her.
When Mr. F.L. Cardozo, Sr., was appointed to the principalship of the
high school, the standard of scholarship required of the principals
was certainly maintained. For he had the rare distinction of being
educated at Glasgow University, Glasgow, Scotland. There he won two
scholarships of $1,000 each in Greek and Latin. He also took a course
in the London School of Theology, London, England, where he completed
the three-year course in two years. He was once pastor of the Tremont
Street Congregational Church, New Haven, Connecticut. Later he went to
Charleston, South Carolina, where he engaged in missionary work in the
employ of the American Board of Missions. Mr. Cardozo founded the
Avery Institute in Charleston, and served as its principal until he
became Treasurer of the State of South Carolina, in 1870. Under
Governor Chamberlain he was Secretary of State for two terms.[353]
At that time there were 172 pupils in the school, but by 1886 the
enrollment was 247, which was more than five times what it was when
the school was established. In 1887-88, when the enrollment was 361,
there were nine teachers, exclusive of the instructors in music and
drawing. There was an increase of two teachers in 1888-89. From 1877
to 1894 the high school course consisted of three years' work. But in
1894 the course was enriched and enlarged by the addition of several
electives and since then it has been lengthened to four years. The
commercial department was established in 1884-85 and in 1887 a
business course requiring two years of study was added. This with a
technical course also requiring two years of study laid the foundation
of the Armstrong Manual Training School. Girls were given an
opportunity of taking up domestic science and boys military
drill.[354] Referring to the school in 1889-90 Superintendent Cook
said: "This school is growing, not only in number but in a condition
to perform better and more useful work. In the practical importance of
subjects taught and in their better and increasing provision for
preparing pupils for business life there is recognition of the fact
that practical usefulness is the great end of intellectual
discipline."[355]
It was during Mr. Cardozo's administration that the high school was
moved from the Miner building to a new structure in 1891. So far back
as 1874 Mr. Cook urged the construction of a suitable building for the
high school. But it was not until 1889-90 that an appropriation
therefor was made.[356] This building, known as the M Street High
School, was erected on M Street, near the intersection of New York and
New Jersey Avenues, where the institution remained until it moved into
the Dunbar.
In 1896 Dr. W. S. Montgomery was appointed principal of the M Street
High School and held that position for three years. Dr. Montgomery was
graduated at Dartmouth College, receiving the degree of A.B. in 1879
and the degree of A.M. in 1906. He completed the Howard University
medical course in 1884. From the time Dr. Montgomery was appointed
principal of the Hillsdale School in 1875 till the present, with the
exception of two years spent in study at Dartmouth, he has served the
public school system of the District of Columbia continuously.[357] In
referring to his principalship of the M Street High School, one of his
co-laborers states that it "was marked by a period of constructive
work. He stood for high scholarship with a leaning toward the
classical high school."
Judge Robert H. Terrell succeeded Dr. Montgomery in 1899. He was the
second principal of the high school to hold a degree from Harvard
College. When a boy, he was a pupil in the public schools of the
District of Columbia and was a member of one of the early classes in
the old Preparatory High School. Mr. Terrell finished his preparation
for college at Lawrence Academy, Groton, Massachusetts and was
graduated from Harvard University in the class of 1884. In the fall of
that year he was appointed a teacher in the high school and held that
position for five years. In the fall of 1889 he was appointed chief of
a division in the United States Treasury Department, where he served
four years. In the meantime Mr. Terrell had studied law. He practiced
that profession till 1889, when he was again appointed teacher in the
high school. He was afterward promoted to the principalship. In 1902
President Roosevelt nominated him for a judgeship of one of the City
Courts of Washington and Mr. Terrell resigned the principalship to
accept this position. While serving as principal of the high school
Mr. Terrell devoted much of his time out of school to preparing his
boys for college. It is largely due to his influence that a goodly
number of its graduates have completed their education at Harvard.
Mrs. Anna J. Cooper was appointed Judge Terrell's successor and served
from 1901 till 1906. Mrs. Cooper prepared for college at the St.
Augustine Normal School. Like Miss Patterson, Mrs. Cooper was
graduated at Oberlin College, receiving the degrees A.B. in 1884 and
A.M. in 1888. With the exception of a few years Mrs. Cooper has taught
in the public schools from 1887 to the present time. She is the author
of "A Voice from the South," which received most complimentary notices
in representative newspapers and magazines. During her administration
in 1904 the course of study for the M Street High School like that of
the other academic high schools was considerably changed and greatly
enlarged.
Mr. William Tecumseh Sherman Jackson succeeded Mrs. Cooper in 1906.
He was educated at Amherst College which conferred upon him the
degrees of A.B. in 1892 and A.M. in 1897. He thereafter pursued
postgraduate studies at the Catholic University of America. Mr.
Jackson's twenty-five years of service have all been in the high
school. He was teacher of mathematics from 1892 to 1904, principal of
M Street High School from 1906 to 1909 and has been head teacher in
the Department of Business Practice from 1912 to the present time. In
commenting upon Mr. Jackson's work, one of his superior officers
declared that he "introduced the individual promotion system,
stimulated interest in athletics and fostered the school spirit."
Mr. Edward Christopher Williams succeeded Mr. Jackson as principal of
the M Street High School in 1909. He was graduated from the Central
High School in Cleveland, Ohio, holds the degree of B.L. from the
Western Reserve University, and an honor certificate from the New York
State Library School. He was Librarian of the Western Reserve
University from 1894 to 1909, and was instructor in bibliographical
subjects in the Western Reserve University Library School from 1904 to
1909. After serving seven years as principal of the M Street High
School, he resigned June, 1916, to accept a position in Howard
University as Librarian and Director of the Library School. Mr.
Williams achieved success as an administrative officer while principal
of the M Street High School.
Mr. G. C. Wilkinson, the present principal of this school, was
educated in the public schools of the District of Columbia, finishing
the course at the M Street High School in June, 1898. He was graduated
from Oberlin, with the degree of A.B. in 1902, and from the Law
Department of Howard University in 1909. In 1902 he was appointed
teacher in the M Street High School and discharged his duties in the
new field of action with enthusiasm and zeal. During these years Mr.
Wilkinson devoted much of his time after school hours to the training
and instructing of athletic teams, particularly football and baseball,
at a time when physical training for high school boys was not an
established part of the regular curriculum. This interest was not
confined to M Street High School only but extended to all secondary
schools of the vicinity and resulted in the formation of the
Inter-Scholastic Athletic Association of the Middle Atlantic States
under whose auspices track meets and basket ball were first introduced
into the capital of the nation. Thus athletic interest was extended,
until they were registered in the Amateur Athletic Union of America as
the first and at present the only football officials of color in
America. Mr. Wilkinson was equally active in assisting the military
organization of the high school. In November, 1912, Mr. Wilkinson was
promoted to the principalship of the Armstrong Manual Training School
and transferred to the principalship of the Dunbar High School, July
15, 1916.
It is safe to assert that at the head of no school in the United
States have there been teachers who have availed themselves of better
educational advantages than have the principals of the high school for
the education of Negroes in the District of Columbia. In looking over
the list one observes that of the ten principals, who have guided and
molded the school, two held degrees from Harvard University, three
from Oberlin College, one from Dartmouth, one from Amherst, one from
Western Reserve University, and one was educated in the University of
Glasgow in Scotland.
But, however well-trained and strong the principal of a school may be,
it is impossible for him to accomplish as much as he might, if his
teachers also are not efficient and conscientious in the discharge of
their duties. In this respect this high school has been greatly
blessed, for the teachers have, as a rule, not only enjoyed superior
educational advantages, but have faithfully discharged their duties.
Although it is impossible in this article to mention by name all the
teachers who have done so much to raise the standard of the high
school to the enviable position it occupies to-day, no sketch, however
short, could do the subject justice without reference to a few of the
instructors who have been in the school almost from its establishment
to the present time. Among these none have rendered more valuable
service than the late Miss Laura Barney, for many years a teacher of
history and an assistant principal, Miss Carolina E. Parke, teacher of
algebra, Miss Harriet Riggs, head of the English Department, Mr. Hugh
M. Browne, instructor in physics, and Mr. T. W. Hunster, the organizer
and director of the Drawing Department.
It would be difficult to name a high school, the graduates or former
pupils of which have achieved success in such numbers and of such
brilliancy as have those trained in the high school for Negroes in the
District of Columbia. If one investigates the antecedents of some of
the young Negroes who have made the most brilliant records at the best
universities in the country, he will discover that a large number of
them were trained in this high school. Miss Cora Jackson by
competitive examination won a scholarship at the University of
Chicago. Phi Beta Kappa keys have been won by R. C. Bruce at Harvard,
Ellis Rivers at Yale, Clyde McDuffie and Rayford Logan at Williams,
Charles Houston and John R. Pinkett at Amherst, Adelaide Cooke at
Cornell, and Herman Drear at Bowdoin.
In scanning the list of the men and women whose foundation of
education and usefulness was laid in this institution, one is
surprised to see the wide range of positions they so creditably fill.
In almost every trade and profession open to the colored American,
from a janitorship to a judgeship, it is possible to find a man or a
woman who has either completed or only partially completed the course
of this high school. Mr. R. C. Bruce, a graduate of Harvard College,
now assistant superintendent of colored public schools; Miss Nannie
Burroughs, the founder and president of the National Training School
for Women; Mr. Frederick Morton, principal of the Manassas Industrial
School; Miss Marian Shadd, Mr. John C. Nalle, Major James E. Walker,
supervising principals in the District of Columbia; Dr. John Smith,
the statistician of the Board of Education; Miss Emma G. Merritt,
director of primary instruction; Mr. Charles M. Thomas, a successful
instructor in the Miner Normal School; 36 out of the 47 principals of
buildings and a large corps of efficient teachers of Washington, have
all either been graduated from or pursued courses in this high school.
The first Negro who ever won the distinction of being commencement
orator at Harvard College was Robert H. Terrell, who studied in the
Preparatory High School shortly after it was established and who is
now one of five justices in the Municipal Court of the District of
Columbia, having been first appointed by President Roosevelt and then
reappointed by Presidents Taft and Wilson. The first Negro who was
ever elected class orator at Harvard University was Clement G. Morgan,
another graduate of this high school. He was formerly a member of the
Board of Aldermen in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and is at present a
lawyer of good repute.
The young man who won the Pasteur prize at Harvard University, who was
twice chosen one of the three to represent Harvard in her debate,
first with Princeton and then with Yale, the young man, who, in
addition to all this honor, was finally elected class orator, was
Roscoe Conklin Bruce, a former student of the same high school. A
distinguished representative in the legal profession is Hugh C.
Francis, who completed the four-year course in Harvard University in
three years, then was graduated from the Harvard Law School with honor
and is now practicing his profession in Porto Rico. Other
representatives of the law are Albertus Brown, who served as a judge
in Toledo, Ohio, for two days by appointment of the mayor, and
Ferdinand Morton, Assistant District Attorney of New York City.
The record made by some of the high school graduates in the Army and
Navy of this country has been very creditable indeed. When Dewey
electrified the world on an eventful day in May some years ago, one of
the seamen who aimed a gun straight and made it bark loud was a
certain colored youth named John Jordan, who had studied in this same
high school. It is even said by those in a position to know that he
opened the battle of Manila. It is certain, however, that he was
placed in charge of a crew of gunners in a forward turret, and that he
was afterward promoted to the position of chief gunner's mate. For a
time he was in Annapolis instructing classes in ordnance, the members
of which were, of course, practically all white. Just a short time ago
he was retired. Frank Stewart, another graduate of this school, served
with distinction as a captain of the volunteer army during the
Philippine campaign and was later made _presidente_ of a town where he
rendered further services with credit to himself and his country.
A few years ago Joseph Cook, another representative of this high
school, taught classes in electricity in the training station at
Newport. Cook ran a dynamo, an extremely complicated affair, on
Admiral Sampson's ship during the Spanish-American war. For some
reason he was assigned to other duty on the ship, was taken from the
dynamo and a white man was put in his place. But the latter was unable
to master the intricacies of the machine and was soon given other work
to do.
Oliver Davis is another alumnus of this school. He is now a captain in
the United States Army, being the first colored man from the ranks who
passed an examination for a commission in the army. Three of the
finest lieutenants in the Spanish-American War, Thomas Clarke, Harry
Burgess and William Cardozo, were all trained at this institution.
Under command of Major James E. Walker, another product of this
school, the First Separate Battalion was the first organization to
leave the District of Columbia for the Mexican border last summer,
because this, the only colored unit in the District National Guard,
was the first to be ready for such military service. Eleven of its
officers are graduates of this high school. This battalion had the
distinction of being generally lauded for the valuable services it
rendered the country during the late unpleasantness with Mexico.[358]
Among others who have distinguished themselves in military affairs
are Eldridge Hawkins, Ex-Secretary of the American Legation at Liberia
and for several years captain of the Liberian Constabulary. Joseph
Martin also served as a lieutenant in Liberia.[359]
Graduates of this school have succeeded in all the walks of life. In
music Captain Walter H. Loving is a distinguished representative
indeed. He is the founder and director of the far-famed Philippine
band, conceded by foremost musicians of the day to be one of the
finest organizations of its kind in the whole world. This band has
made extensive tours and has scored phenomenal success everywhere it
has played. The credit due Captain Loving, who has now retired, is all
the greater, when one considers, that when he commenced this work, a
large proportion of the men not only knew little or nothing about
music but nothing at all about the instruments they now play with such
artistic skill. James Reese Europe is a composer of distinction and
the leader of an orchestra which is constantly in demand among the
most cultured and the wealthiest people of New York. Among these high
school graduates there is at least one theatrical manager, in the
person of Andrew Thomas, who has directed the affairs of the Howard
Theatre with much success. Miss Mary P. Burrill and Mr. Nathaniel Guy,
dramatic readers and trainers, deserve special mention for the service
they have rendered the Washington schools and the community in their
particular field.
Dr. Charles I. West, formerly assistant surgeon-in-chief of Freedman's
Hospital, distinguished himself in a competitive medical examination
held a few years ago, and is to-day one of the foremost physicians in
Washington. Some of the wealthiest and most skillful physicians in the
national capital, among whom may be mentioned Dr. John R. Francis,
lately deceased, and Dr. Thomas Martin, received their scholastic
training in this high school. There are other products of this school
achieving success, both here and elsewhere, in the professions of
medicine and dentistry.
It is very clear that this high school has given a wonderful
intellectual impetus to the youth of Washington, many of whom would
have been unable to get even a sip at the fountain of knowledge, if
they could not have quenched their thirst without money and without
price. Without the knowledge acquired in the high school it would have
been impossible for many teachers to occupy the positions of
usefulness, honor and emolument which they now hold. This high school
too has been a great blessing, not only to those representatives of
the race who live under the shadow of the capitol, but to many
elsewhere. There is no doubt that a majority of the pupils trained in
this school have reflected great credit upon their alma mater by doing
their work in the world conscientiously and well. And here in
Washington, if you meet a skillful physician, an excellent teacher, an
expert typewriter or stenographer, a faithful, efficient letter
carrier, a distinguished officer in the national guard, or a good
citizen on general principles, you are likely to find a graduate of
this high school or somebody who has studied there.
MARY CHURCH TERRELL.
FOOTNOTES:
[347] The auditorium has a large stage, seating capacity for 1,500,
with provisions made for presenting motion pictures. The pipe organ in
the auditorium offers musical advantages which the pupils have never
before enjoyed. The lunch room having a modern kitchen for the
preparation of hot foods contributes greatly to the health and comfort
of both teachers and pupils. The efficiency of the music department
has been greatly enhanced by the five pianos which have been
installed. Standing on the balconies provided for visitors one may see
the large gymnasiums for both boys and girls in which are dressing
rooms provided with shower baths and the most up-to-date equipment.
The printing plant is valued at $4,000. The classes in bookkeeping and
accounting will have the great advantage of receiving instruction in a
real bank, for a banking department has been provided with a safe and
windows and all the other modern facilities found in such an
institution.
In the dining room and the living room, each having modern furniture,
the girls in the domestic science course may learn by actual
experience how to lay a table, arrange furniture and keep house.
Botany, zoology, chemistry and physics are taught in laboratories and
lecture rooms which occupy practically the whole basement floor. In
the department of physics there is a particularly fine apparatus,
which represents the careful collection and selection of many years.
The wireless outfit which is soon to be installed will greatly
increase the advantages enjoyed by the pupils. Nothing is more
gratifying to the visitor than the spacious library on the second
floor of the building, which is complete in its appointments, with a
capacity for 4,337 volumes and facilities for the accommodation of 185
students. On the first floor are the administration offices and a
study hall with a seating capacity for 106 students. In their armory
under the Auditorium the Cadets have space enough for several
companies and there is also a rifle range for target practice. In this
new building there are 35 class rooms, 5 retiring rooms, an emergency
room, 7 locker rooms and locker accommodations for 1,500 pupils. A
greenhouse and a roof garden are being constructed and it is hoped
that Congress may make an appropriation for building a stadium in the
rear of the school.
The course of study in the Dunbar High School includes all the
academic and business subjects taught in similar schools of accredited
standing, as well as domestic science, printing, physical training and
military science.
[348] Annual Report of the Colored Schools of Washington and
Georgetown, 1872-73, p. 31.
[349] _Ibid._, pp. 31, 62, and 95.
[350] First Report of the Board of Trustees of the Public Schools of
the D. C., 1875-76, pp. 174, 181.
[351] _Ibid._, 1874-75, p. 252.
[352] Third Annual Report of the Board of Trustees of the Colored
Public Schools of Washington and Georgetown, The Preparatory High
School.
[353] Simmons, "Men of Mark," p. 428.
[354] This is based on the Reports of the Board of Education of the
District of Columbia.
[355] Annual Report of the Board of Trustees of the Public Schools,
1889-90, p. 175.
[356] The site of the building cost $24,592.50, the building itself
cost $74,454.88, the fixtures $9,862.44, making a total expenditure of
$109,909.82. (See Report of the Board of Education of D. C.,
1904-1905.)
[357] From 1875 to 1882 he was principal of a Grammar School. In 1882
he was appointed supervising principal and served in that capacity for
fourteen years. In 1896 he was placed at the head of the M Street High
School and served three years. In 1899 he was again appointed
supervising principal and served two years. In 1900 he was made
assistant superintendent for the colored schools and remained in that
position for seven years. In 1907 he was appointed for the fourth time
to a supervising principalship and holds this position at the present
time.
[358] Among the officers are Captains C. C. H. Davis, S. H. Epps, L.
H. Patterson, Lieutenants A. C. Newman, Principal of the Armstrong
Manual Training School, B. D. Boyd, T. J. Abrams, C. King and R. A.
Jackson, all products of this high school.
[359] He served in Liberia with Colonel Young, who organized the
Liberian Constabulary.
OUR NEW POSSESSIONS--THE DANISH WEST INDIES
By the recent purchase treaty agreed upon between this country and
Denmark the United States government has for the sum of $25,000,000
obtained the three Virgin Islands known as the Danish West Indies. As
more than ninety per cent. of their 27,000 inhabitants are Negroes,
the American people, upon whom devolves the duty of shaping the
destiny of these new subjects, will doubtless be interested in
learning more about them. Searching for these islands on the map they
appear as three tiny spots lying to the east and southeast of Porto
Rico and at the extreme east of the Greater Antilles. The islands are
St. Thomas, St. John and St. Croix which lies about 40 miles southeast
of St. Thomas. The area of St. Thomas is about 33 square miles; that
of St. John 21, while St. Croix is much larger, covering about 84
square miles. These islands are no less remarkable for their fertility
than for the intelligence and industry of their inhabitants. The
climate is delightful, but this is counterbalanced by the earthquakes
and hurricanes which occur at uncertain intervals.[360]
Although the discovery and settlement of the Danish West Indies by
Europeans are not of ancient date, their early history is fragmentary
and conjectural. Tribes of Caribs[361] were found on these islands by
Christopher Columbus when he discovered the group on his second voyage
to America in 1493. Judging from carvings upon the rocks and numerous
relics these people had occupied the islands from time immemorial. The
natives were decreed enemies of the state by Charles V in 1550 and
thereafter were soon exterminated. When the Earl of Cumberland touched
at the islands on his way to Porto Rico in 1596 he described them as a
knot of little islands, uninhabited, sandy, barren and craggy[362].
The Dutch and English preceded the Danes in the occupation of St.
Thomas, but as far as is known, they were at no time present in large
numbers. Nine families of them with their slaves were found there in
1666. That year a company of Danes under Erik Smidt landed at St.
Thomas and made the first Danish settlement in the Virgin Islands.
They claimed to represent the Danish Chartered Company of Guinea and
the West Indies with headquarters at Copenhagen. Before these settlers
could permanently settle here, however, their expedition was broken up
by certain Dutchmen led by one Huntman after the death of Smidt and
before the Danes had finished their fort. But this was only temporary
success for the Dutch. This company had previously acquired territory
on the Gold Coast and had built forts between Christiansburg and the
eastern side of the Volta River. Their purpose in the West Indies was
the cultivation of sugar, tobacco and other products; and because of
the scarcity of labor the work was to be done by slaves[363] from
their African possessions. Under the encouragement of Christian V the
first cargo of slaves was brought over in 1680[364].
It is conceded that the real progress of the colony began with the
rule of Gov. Jörgen Iwersen, who succeeded Smidt, landing on the
island May 23, 1672. He was a man of stern and forceful personality
who exacted absolute observance of the regulations he imposed, with
severe penalties for their violation. He required the strict keeping
of the Sabbath, dealt severely with bond servants guilty of
misdemeanors, and treated the Negro slaves still more cruelly.[365]
It is said that while the Danes in Africa were not particularly unkind
to the slaves the West Indian Danes were very cruel, especially in St.
John and later in St. Croix. "Besides the usual floggings, cutting off
of ears, hands, and legs and final hangings (when there was nothing
more to torture) the Danes--till the influence of the Moravian
missionaries bettered things--were in the habit of 'pinching' recreant
slaves with red-hot iron pinchers, or for heinous offences pinching
pieces of flesh out of them. The Moravian missionaries came to the
islands and brought to the inhabitants the practice and precept of a
simple Christianity. Their work among the slaves being especially
helpful, the lot of the latter was lightened and masters were no
longer allowed to exercise the power of life and death over
them."[366]
In those days pirates and buccaneers held sway over the seas and for
the better defence of the colony "Christians'-fort" was erected. In
1674 Gov. Iwersen bought a slave to serve for seven years as master
mason in the building of this fort. Within the fort was the governor's
residence, and the services of the Lutheran Church (the State Church
of Denmark) were also held therein, usually in the armory.
"Christians'-fort," modernized, is still standing and is supposed to
be the oldest building on the island.[367]
About 1682 Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg, entered into
partnership with the Danish Company. The purpose of this agreement was
to encourage immigration from Europe and to promote trade with the
islands. The Brandenburghers established themselves in St. Thomas,
built a factory there and maintained a line of ships trading between
Stettin, the Gold Coast and St. Thomas.[368] This arrangement
seemingly worked satisfactorily for a while, but finally caused such
discontent that it was discontinued.
In 1684 the Danes took possession of St. John, the smallest but the
most fertile of these islands. It was colonized about two generations
later by some inhabitants who had the courage to leave St. Thomas. At
this period the colonists were fearful not only of depredations of
pirates or of the settlers of neighboring islands but they dreaded the
attacks of the maroons and uprisings among the slaves. When in
February, 1697, after a severe hurricane the force of the garrison was
reduced to one lieutenant, one ensign, one drummer, and five privates,
a number of maroons gathered in the western part of the island were
considered a menace but no outbreak occurred. For a period of about
sixty years afterward prosperity reigned in the islands.[369] Sugar,
molasses, rum, tobacco and spices were the principal exports and
wealth brought to the master class leisure, luxury, and refinement.
In 1733 the island of St. Croix, after continuously passing from the
control of one proprietor[370] to another, was purchased by certain
merchants of Copenhagen and later was bought from them by King
Christian VI of Denmark. The land was then divided into estates and
sold to various planters, some of whom came from St. Eustatius,
Virgin Gorda, and Tortola. Being thereafter under more stable
control, the island made progress, becoming, like the other Danish
West Indies, a sugar colony. The seat of government was then
transferred from St. Thomas to St. Croix.
The outstanding fact in the history of this group in the eighteenth
century is the insurrection of 1733, which took place on the island of
St. John. Because a large number of slaves had just been brought in
from Africa there had been urged by the masters and later enacted by
decree of the Royal Council certain additional tyrannical regulations
which doubtless caused this trouble. Instead of increasing the number
of armed men necessary to keep order the planters resorted to
legislation.[371] At that time at the west end of St. John stood the
only fort which was garrisoned by eight soldiers under a lieutenant
and a sergeant. These men had to be depended upon to handle thousands
of discontented slaves.[372] The insurrection, on the other hand, was
well planned. Governor Philip Gardelin, of St. Thomas, who was at that
time on a visit to the island was to be murdered along with all other
white inhabitants so as to bring the island entirely under the control
of the Negroes. An unexpected change in his arrangements, however,
caused the Governor and a part of his family to leave St. John on the
day preceding the uprising. On the following Sunday, however, the
insurrection began.
Early that morning certain slaves, as was usual, took into the fort
bundles of wood for the use of the soldiers. Within these bundles they
had concealed their knives and cutlasses, and at a given signal they
brought them forth and murdered all the garrison save one who
succeeded in concealing himself. When in possession, the insurgents
fired the signal previously agreed upon and at once upon every
plantation the slaves began to massacre the masters and their
families. Most of the surviving planters fled with their families to
the Durlo estate, situated on an eminence and protected by two cannon
and, under the direction of an old Englishman, repulsed the slaves,
killing and wounding many. While the slaves were in retreat the
planters hastily removed their families to vessels which conveyed them
to Tortola and St. Thomas.
Thinking that this insurrection might spread to St. Thomas, precaution
was immediately taken. Ninety men were armed, sixty sailors from
vessels in the harbor were impressed into service, and the large
vessel on which the Governor had come from St. John was brought nearer
the town. A detachment of thirty soldiers, some young burghers, and
the Jaeger Corps, fully armed and equipped, then proceeded to St. John
and drove the slaves from the fort. The Durlo estate was then relieved
with much difficulty, so determined were the slaves to continue their
work. In spite of these successes, however, the whites decided that it
was impossible to suppress the insurrection with such a small body of
troops and withdrew to St. Thomas. It was discovered that save those
who had sought refuge on the Durlo estate only Dr. Cornelius F. Bodger
had survived. He had been spared on the condition that he would give
wounded Negroes medical aid. The whites learned too that the Creole
Negroes had not taken a part in the uprising. In obtaining information
the whites were assisted by a servant of Dr. Bodger, called Christian
Sout,[373] who, having the confidence of both the whites and the
blacks, became a useful spy for the former, who rewarded him with
freedom for these services.
Upon returning to St. Thomas the Royal Council secured the assistance
of Captain Meaux and his sixty men of the _Nevis_, a vessel lying in
harbor, but he failed to subdue the Negroes, losing two of his sons in
the conflict. The government then sent to Martinique for help. The
governor of that colony promptly despatched a force of 400 men who,
joined by all the available troops from St. Thomas, drove the Negroes
from the fort and, sending out detachments in various directions,
finally forced the insurgents to concentrate on the northeast side of
the island, where they were surrounded. After holding the island six
months, the blacks, finding all chances of escape cut off, resolved
upon self-destruction. "Three hundred," says an historian, "were,
after a few days from the time they were surrounded, found lying dead
at Brim's Bay, now Anna Burg. In a ravine, a short distance off, were
discovered seven others, who appeared to have been leaders in the
insurrection, who had shot each other. Seven guns broken to pieces,
save one, were found lying by their sides. Tradition reports that
three hundred had cast themselves from a high precipice on the rocks
below. The historian Höst says they were shot and were found lying in
a circle. A few had been taken prisoners. Two of these had been
summarily executed in St. John and twenty-six in St. Thomas, some of
the latter having been made to undergo the severest torture."[374]
The disproportion of the white and black elements of the population
was then brought before the planters as a perplexing problem. In this
unstable state of affairs the islands could not prosper. Many planters
for fear of servile insurrection moved to other islands, as the
situation did not soon become inviting. Captain Peter Tamaryn, of the
Jaeger Corps (the night guard of the town), was ordered by Governor
Jens Kragh to take a census in 1772 of free colored people living in
St. Thomas. It was discovered that there were one hundred and six men
capable of bearing arms; forty-one Catholics, twenty-one Reformed
Dutch, and the rest Moravians and heathen. Among these were eleven
masons, twelve carpenters, ten captains of boats, twenty-nine sailors,
thirteen fishermen, eleven tailors, five shoemakers, one cigar-maker,
one washer, one goldsmith, one musician, two planters and the rest
without occupation. Belonging to the free group were 285 women and
children. In 1773, however, on account of the European wars, during
which Denmark remained neutral, prosperity returned and the population
greatly increased. Once more the harbor of St. Thomas was crowded with
the vessels of all nations. The town limits were extended, business
establishments were multiplied and thousands of refugees, adventurers
and capitalists sought its shores for commercial purposes.
For some decades thereafter the history of these islands was largely
commercial. At one time, however, the Dutch took from the Danes
practically all of the trade of the islands. The Danes, therefore,
secretly fitted out vessels and sent them from Amsterdam under the
Dutch flag and regained their trade, driving the Dutch from the
field.[375] But this was not without some evil consequences. Having a
monopoly of the trade, the Danes set prices rather high and discontent
followed. To put an end to the oppressive restrictions then
prevailing, King Frederik V purchased the privileges of the Danish
West India Company in 1755.[376] The port of St. Thomas brought then
under royal control was no longer free. This sweeping change caused
ruin and starvation to follow. The prosperity of the colony ceased,
money became scarce, and some inhabitants moved away, adding another
problem by leaving slaves in the majority. Endeavoring to check the
injudicious importation of slaves and actuated by the same motives
which led him to liberate the serfs of Denmark, King Frederik VI
prohibited the slave trade in 1792.[377] Prosperity did not again
return until 1764 when St. Thomas was declared a free port for all
nations. For some time thereafter things went well despite the
European wars as Denmark still remained neutral.
This state of affairs continued until 1800 when Denmark became
involved in a war with Great Britain and the islands were blockaded.
They endured for a while and surrendered in 1801. After holding them
ten months, the British restored them in 1802. The short occupation,
however, materially affected the commerce of the island and as a
result of further complication in the Napoleonic wars they were
conquered again by the English and held from 1807 to 1815. Then came
another revival of commerce in these islands, the port of St. Thomas
becoming the principal rendezvous for the Royal Mail Steam Packet
Company's vessels.[378] Yet to a student of economic conditions it was
evident that the prosperity of the colony could not become permanent
after the rise of the beet sugar industry at the expense of the cane
sugar of the West Indies.[379]
During these years slavery was becoming onerous and undesirable in
certain parts of the West Indies and humanitarian forces were
operating, at least, to ameliorate the condition of the slaves as a
preparation for gradual emancipation. Steps were, therefore, taken to
do the same in the Danish West Indies but seemingly without permanent
results. There still remained evidences of oppression and cruelty and
as an observer saw the situation the low physical, intellectual, and
moral condition of the slaves, as compared with that of the liberated
Negroes of the British islands, was obvious and unquestionable.[380]
Some time in the forties, however, a commission was appointed at
Copenhagen to inquire into the state of the islands with a view to
emancipation. Moreover, there were constructed "seven large buildings
in different parts of the island to serve as chapels and schools for
the religious and literary instruction of the Negro population." Some
of the planters too were making "laudable exertions for the education
of their slaves in reading and in a knowledge of the Holy
Scriptures."[381] At the head of this system of schools was one
McFarlane, an intelligent and efficient man of color, who was
successfully disseminating information from plantation to
plantation.[382] The condition of the Negroes was thereby improved,
but this increasing knowledge instead of making them grateful to their
benefactors led them to appreciate freedom and to realize their power.
In 1848, therefore, came an upheaval long to be remembered. This
happened in St. Croix during the administration of Major General P.
von Scholten, a friend of the Negroes. King Christian VIII was induced
in the year 1847 to enact laws to emancipate the slaves in the Danish
West Indies. It was ordered that from the 28th of July, 1847, all
children born of slaves should be free and that at the end of twelve
years slavery should cease altogether. These decrees caused little joy
among the slaves. Discontent was generally shown. They were thereby
made more anxious to have freedom and to have it immediately. They,
therefore, plotted an insurrection which broke out in Frederiksted and
extended to the eastern part of the island.[383] It seemed that the
country Negroes were coming to town to plunder and destroy.
The details of this insurrection are interesting. On the evening of
Sunday, July 2, 1848, the Negroes began rioting and the ringing of
bells and blowing of horns aroused the island. At first they had
confined themselves to noisy demonstration, but the planters,
remembering the insurrection in St. John's more than 100 years before,
were in a state of great alarm. There was in St. Croix one efficient
company of fire-fighters called the Brand Corps which was composed
entirely of free colored men. The Stadthauptmand was advised to call
them out to put down the disorder, but he hesitated to place so much
authority in their hands. One of the Brand officers, however, took a
few of his men and assisted in maintaining peace. The white major of
the Brand Corps nearly lost his life at the hands of a colored woman
who attacked him with an ax. The blow, aimed at his neck, glanced off
and his brave bearing saved him from a second attack. The rioting,
looting of homes and stores, burning of bonfires and the like
continued through several nights. The slaves were led by a young Negro
whom they called Bourdeaux, and in whom they had great confidence. In
the west end of the islands Martin King, another Negro, was in command
or as the slaves styled it, "chief of the fleet." The free people of
color had little or nothing to do with the outbreak. "It is but fair
to say," says Chamberlain Von Scholten, "that it was owing to the
activity and representations of the free colored people that more
violence was not committed."[384]
"A considerable number of Negroes had assembled together in the Fort
yard," continues he. "They cried and shouted, demanded their freedom,
and called on the soldiers to fire upon them. This the commander of
the fort had some difficulty in preventing. Many who were present
begged him also not to do so, as the town would surely be burnt to
ashes. Of this there could not be any doubt, as near by, behind a
corner house which could not be commanded by the guns of the fort
there were several Negro women gathered together with trash and dry
cane leaves which, at the first shot from the fort, it was arranged
they should light and throw into the doors and windows. The fire would
thus have quickly spread through the town, as the houses were mostly
deserted, and there was no one to check it."[385]
Governor-General von Scholten, the friend of the Negroes, arrived at
the fort in Frederiksted on the morning of July 3 and upon his own
authority proclaimed freedom to all slaves in the Danish West Indies
Islands. As it took some time for this news to spread throughout the
island the rioting continued. Finally the authorities called to their
assistance General Bourdeaux and Martin King, who partly restored
order. The rioters in the eastern part who refused to disperse were
fired upon. A few were killed and many wounded. General von Scholten
did not at first let the military commander fire on the rioters. The
planters appealed to him for permission to take the field against the
Negroes but he refused. Upon renewal of the request, however, the
militant element was allowed to proceed on the condition that they
should not fire on the rioters, unless the latter fired on them.
Accordingly the cavalry ran over the estates and forced and overawed
many Negroes into respecting the law on the north side of the island.
On the south side in the meantime disorder was unusual, but energetic
troops under Major V. Geillerup and Captain V. Castonier scoured the
country, captured leaders of the riot and imprisoned them. In the
meantime Governor Prim of Porto Rico had in response to an appeal for
assistance despatched 600 Spanish troops and two mountain howitzers
that assured peace and order.
The subsequent humiliation of General Bourdeaux is a blot on the
character of the Danish government. After using his influence to save
the lives of many of the planters who assured him of their good will,
he was forcibly abducted from his station and made a prisoner. Major
Gyllich, whose life General Bourdeaux saved, stood by him, sharing
even his imprisonment a few days. He was finally sent aboard a vessel
in the garb of a gentleman, provided with all the necessaries and
comforts and then stripped of them as soon as the vessel was out of
port and forced to toil as a member of the crew. He was taken to the
Port of Spain, Trinidad, where he was told that if he returned to the
Danish West Indies, he would be executed.[386] He was said to have
been seen in Curaçao afterwards, whence he proceeded to the United
States of America. Martin King escaped arrest until after the reign of
martial law. He was imprisoned, however, for two years and in 1855
could do no better than serve his community as rat-catcher.
Peter Hansen the next governor undertook to settle these difficulties.
He passed what is known as the "Labor Act," intended to meet the
exigencies of the situation. This was a little better than slavery but
it actually gave the Negroes a status ranging between serfdom and
indentured service. They were still under rigid restrictions.[387]
Thereafter an effort was made to prevent Negroes from assembling,
especially at Christmas dances, which were considered dangerous to the
peace of the colony. On one occasion in 1852 to put a stop to such a
function a squad of militiamen were ordered out and it fired upon the
participants in private dances in their homes, killing many innocent
persons. This caused great alarm. The militia was ordered back to the
barracks, an investigation was made but no one could tell exactly who
gave the order for this cowardly act.
Things went on prosperously for years thereafter. It seemed ideal even
under the Labor Act, which the Negroes learned to endure without
complaint. In this ideal state of things it was thought advisable to
reduce the militia. This was finally done, leaving the whole island
outside of Christiansted defenseless. Forced labor, however, under the
disguise of apprenticeship could not but be odious, especially so when
the differences of blood and color tended to render irritating the
very semblance of restraint, and exaggerate every difficulty of class
and position. Hence, these injudicious artificial regulations, however
seemingly well-intentioned, only gave rise to ill-feeling, mistrust
and eventually resistance. The trouble was that the Negroes had grown
in intelligence and had begun to appreciate the blessings of actual
freedom and free labor. Seeing the trouble in the embryo, the
government procrastinatingly made some amendments to the Labor Act.
The Negroes, however, eventually defied the act, abandoned
agriculture, and came to town to assert themselves.
In 1878 a large number of the country laborers got from some source
the impression that the Labor Act was to cease to be operative on the
first of October of that year.[388] This was the usual time for the
shifting of laborers from one estate to another upon the expiration of
their annual contracts and they usually assembled in towns to find new
fields, many of them seeking, however, to secure employment in the
town. Some planters having foresight, saw the need of larger military
force to deal with these people, should they become discontented. The
establishment of a rural constabulary was urged, but it was not
provided. There were only 60 soldiers to maintain order. On the first
of October there started an uproar in the street of Frederiksted near
the home of Rev. J.C. DuBois, the British Vice-Consul, who upon
inquiring of the mob the cause of the uproar, was informed that they
had been ill-treated by the police, who had severely beaten one of
their number, for which they had chased them into the fort. Rev. Mr.
DuBois sought to appease the rioters, persuading them to leave town.
They eventually consented, but upon being authoritatively and roughly
ordered by the Policemaster and his assistants, brandishing their
swords, the crowd became furious and attacked these officers with
stones, driving them to the fort. Seeing that they intended to attack
the fort, Rev. Mr. DuBois followed them, earnestly entreating them not
to resort to such harsh measures to redress their grievances. The mob
finally agreed to accept his advice, the Vice-Consul agreeing to hear
from a representative delegation the following day exactly what their
complaints were, and promising to assist them in righting their
wrongs. Before leaving them, however, a few of their most intelligent
men set forth what these grievances were. They were in short: low rate
of estate wages in comparison with the larger amounts given those who
labored in the Central Factory--10 cents against 30 cents; the annual
contract which was so managed as to be virtually slavery; the frequent
abuse of the power given the manager by law to impose fines for
certain offences; and the difficulties thrown in the way of laborers
leaving the island by the police in requiring them to exhibit what
money they had when they wanted a passport. They then gave three
cheers for the Vice-Consul and were about to depart when there
suddenly appeared a woman running towards them to convey the
information that the one of their number who had been arrested had
died at the hospital. The mob then hastened to the hospital,
threatened to kill the doctor, rushed in, knocked down the sick nurse
and one of the patients and demanded to see the dead man. It was said
that he was not seriously hurt. They then started for the fort and
attacked it with stones and all sorts of missiles. The fire of the
fort being too hot the mob had to withdraw, as several were wounded.
The defenders, too, managed to send word to the President at
Christiansted, asking for help. The mob, however, ceased to disturb
those armed and sought to harass those who were defenseless,
destroying homes, stores or whatever they found in their way. The
rioters did not, however, destroy the property of such persons, for
example, as Rev. Mr. DuBois who was known to be their friend. Goods
were thrown into the street and burned. Men dared not utter a word
when they saw their accumulations of a life time destroyed. The
rioters later made another attack on the fort but could not carry it.
When they contemplated making a third attack the much desired
assistance had come in time to drive the mob away in all directions.
There had been much difficulty in reaching Christiansted and
especially in informing the Governor. This official arrived the
following afternoon and declared the town in a state of siege. New
troops were put in the field, but it was not until the 3d of October
that they succeeded in overtaking the first band of rioters, after
several soldiers and other whites had been killed and one third of
Frederiksted had been reduced to ashes. Some were captured and some
shot. Others were later hunted down and bayoneted, the innocent
suffering with the guilty. The militia was reenforced by other
soldiers and French and British men-of-war arriving opportunely in
port offered their assistance to the struggling government. Later the
United States _Plymouth_ appeared and assisted. Three hundred
prisoners were finally captured, and twelve were condemned by a court
martial and shot. On the 28th of October the court martial was
discontinued and a commission of investigation charged with adjudging
all cases arising from the riot was appointed. No other severe
punishments, however, ensued. The fact is that the riot had destroyed
the Labor Act and made the Negro actually free.
Despite these undesirable conditions, the United States had for years
desired to purchase the Danish West Indies. The Civil War
demonstrated very clearly our need for a naval and coaling station in
the West Indies. The ports of the Southern States were declared
blockaded, but it was difficult to maintain that decree, when at
several ports in the West Indies, especially at Nassau, blockade
runners were hospitably received and helped where our vessels were not
wanted.[389] A writer has said: "If it had not been for the friendship
of Denmark our vessels would have had a hard time in the Caribbean
during the Civil War so President Lincoln was disposed to be generous
in his offer for the islands out of gratitude to the Danes. The
purchase of Alaska was in part payment of a war debt of the same
sort."[390] It doubtless appears strange, however, that one of these
plans was carried out immediately after the war, while the other could
not be effected before 1917. That this was not done earlier is a sad
reflection on American diplomacy.
The negotiation for the purchase of these islands began January, 1865,
when Secretary of State Seward and General Raasloff, the Danish
Minister to the United States, met at a dinner party.[391] Seward
wanted them for a naval station. The minister was not in favor of it
and did not think the King of Denmark would sell, and so Denmark
replied. When the unfavorable report came, Seward was confined to his
bed and the minister was advised to drop it and leave it to the United
States to take it up again. Then came the assassination of Lincoln and
the attack on Seward. In the meantime there came to power in Denmark a
new ministry favorable to the project. The instructions then were to
say that the government had no desire to sell but would not be
unwilling to entertain Seward's proposition. Not long thereafter
Seward went to Cuba for his health and on the way saw St. Thomas. He
then became resolved to buy and asked Denmark to name a price, but she
refused. The plan, however, was laid before the Danish Cabinet in
1866. The Danes were reluctant to alienate these islands because they
loved the colony. They believed, too, that the sale would offend
England, France, and Spain. Mr. Seward and Mr. Yeamen, our minister at
Copenhagen, however, pushed it and the Danish government finally
offered the United States the three islands for $15,000,000. Denmark
was finally persuaded to sell St. Thomas and St. John for $7,500,000.
A vote of the natives was taken and they agreed to the transfer of
their country to the United States. The treaty was laid before the
United States Senate but delayed on account of the serious trouble
then existing between Charles Sumner, the chairman of the Foreign
Relations Committee, and the administration. The Danish government
regarded this an indignity of the worst kind. The time for
ratification was extended but the treaty finally fell a victim to the
storm of political hatred then raging, and it was dropped in 1868.
After an adverse report of the Foreign Relations Committee of the
Senate it was finally rejected in 1870.[392]
After this the situation of Denmark became such that the transfer of
the islands would have been almost impossible even if the two
countries had come to another agreement. By a secret alliance between
Germany and Russia, Denmark was rendered helpless. Germany was hostile
to American expansion in that quarter.[393] The Republican Party
incorporated into its platform in 1896 a plank requiring the purchase
of the Danish West Indies and in 1898 Senator Henry Cabot Lodge
introduced in the Senate a bill to purchase the group for
$5,000,000.[394] No steps were then taken, doubtless for the reason
that we had just come into the possession of Porto Rico and the
Philippines, which were regarded as burdens to the nation. Many
thought still, however, of the commercial advantages of the islands;
the protection they would be to the proposed Panama Canal, and the
difficulty we would encounter, should a foreign nation in violation of
the Monroe Doctrine undertake to get possession of them.
But the purchase could not then have been effected on account of the
dominating influence of Germany although, because of the Monroe
Doctrine, she dared not acquire the islands herself. Germany decided
upon a policy of commercial expansion in the Danish West Indies, a
scheme to which the United States could make no objection, although
the country was much alarmed by rumors as to German annexation. In
1902, therefore, President Roosevelt and Secretary John Hay offered
the Danish government $5,000,000 for the islands.[395] It was accepted
and the required treaty was drawn up and sent to the United States
Senate, where it was held up too long. German influence being at work
in Denmark, however, it was rejected there also. Prominent among those
opposing the transfer were persons claiming to be friends of the
islands and promising to see to it that several millions be spent for
their improvement. This was accordingly done, bringing some prosperity
to the islands. The present war, however, brought this to an end. For
fear then on this side that the complications of this war might result
in the transfer of the islands to some other power and for fear in
Denmark that she might have to alienate them without receiving just
compensation the two countries reached an agreement that they should
be transferred to this country for $25,000,000.
We have thereby come into possession of three islands inhabited by
about 27,000 inhabitants, ninety per cent. of whom are Negroes. They
have come under all European influences which have reached the West
Indies, as some of them have lived in other islands. It may seem
strange too that although England held the islands only a few years
their language is not Danish but English.[396] Danish was confined
largely to the officials formerly sent out from Denmark and even these
quickly learned English. This was doubtless due to the influence of
England and the United States, with which these islands have had close
commercial relations and to the fact that Denmark never forced the
natives to learn the official language. The Lutheran has been the
state church, but many of the people have Roman Catholic, Moravian,
Israelite, Episcopalian, Dutch Reformed and Methodist connections. The
islands have had no system of actual public education and for that
reason the country is in this respect backward. The Danish government
has been content to subventionize schools maintained by other
agencies, especially those of the churches.
These islands, however, despite their handicaps have produced some
useful Negroes. In addition to Bourdeaux, King and McFarlane they can
point to at least one truly great man. This was Edward W. Blyden, a
man whose sterling character and scholarly attainments gained for him
international recognition. Dr. Blyden was born in St. Thomas in 1832,
of purest Negro parentage. He early felt an ardent love for Africa,
the fatherland, and came to the United States hoping to prepare
himself for work in Africa. Failing in this, he went to Liberia and
was among the first pupils enrolled in the State College. He served
after graduation as professor in the college and was appointed
Secretary of State in 1864. In 1877, Dr. Blyden was made minister
plenipotentiary of the Republic of Liberia at the Court of St. James
and was received by Her Majesty July 30, 1878. He numbered among his
personal friends Lord Brougham, Mr. Gladstone, Dean Stanley, Charles
Dickens, Charles Sumner and many other notables. He was sent on a
diplomatic mission to powerful chiefs in the interior by the Governor
of Sierra Leone, in which mission he was entirely successful. As a
teacher, an author and a statesman Dr. Blyden was a shining example of
what the pure-blooded Negro may accomplish under unhampered
conditions. He died in Sierra Leone in 1912 loved by his countrymen
and respected throughout the civilized world.
LEILA AMOS PENDLETON.
FOOTNOTES:
[360] For a general description and account of the Danish West Indies
see: H. W. Bates, "Central America and the West Indies," 176-178;
Susan De Forest Day, "The Cruise of the Scythian in the West Indies,"
pp. 52-57; Otto Delitsch, "Westindien und die Südpolar-Länder," Bd. I,
Abth. 4, Dänische Besitzungen, pp. 2106-2115; A. Von Dewitz, "In
Dänisch-Westindien," _passim_; H. M. W. Fischer, "Om Dansk
Vestindien," _passim_; A. Granier de Cassagnac, "Voyage aux Antiles,"
II, 161-184; Robert T. Hill, "Cuba and Porto Rico with other Islands
of the West Indies," pp. 25, 26, 306, 309-316; George Höst,
"Efterretninger on den Sanct Thomas og dens Gouverneurer, optegnede
der poa Landet fra 1769 indtil 1776," _passim_; John P. Knox, "An
Historical Account of St. Thomas, West Indies," _passim_; J. P. Labat,
"Nouveau Voyage aux îles de l'Ameríque," I, 73, 74, 78 and II, 12,
196, 197, 285-292; A. P. Ledru, "Voyage aux îles de Ténériffe, la
Trinité, Saint-Thomas, Sainte-Croix et Porto Rico," pp. 160-188; G.
Van Lennep Coster, "Aanterkeningen, gehonden gedurende mijn Verblijf
in de West-Indiën in de jaren 1837-1840"; W. C. Morris, "The History
of Colonization," II, 284-286; C. G. A. Oldendorp, "Geschichte der
Mission der Evangelischen Brüder auf den Caribischen Inseln St.
Thomas, St. Croix, und St. Jan," _passim_; P. L. Oxholm, "De Danske
Vestindiske Öers Tilsand i Henseende til Population, Cultur og
Finance-Forfotning i Anledning af nogle Breve fra St. Croix,"
_passim_; "The Present State of the West Indies," pp. 72-74 and 93-94;
J. J. Élisée, "Virgin Islands and Santa Cruz" (in The Earth and its
Inhabitants by the same author), Vol. XVII, pp. 430-436; J. Reinhardt
and C. F. Lülken, "Bidrag til det Vestindiske Öriges og namligen til
de Dansk-Vestindiske Öers Herpetologie," pp. 153-291; J. P. B. Von
Rohr, "Anmerkungen über den Cattunbau," Part I; Karl von Scherzer,
"Die Westindischen Inseln St. Thomas, Haiti, Porto Rico und Cuba," II,
467-495; Damian Schütz-Holzhausen und R. Springer, "Cuba und die
übrigen Inseln Westindiens"; Sir Hans Sloane, "A Voyage to the Islands
Madera, Barbados, Nieves, St. Christophers and Jamaica"; James Smith,
"The Winter of 1840 in St. Croix, with an Excursion to Tortola and St.
Thomas"; Stenzel, "Die Insel St. Thomas," _passim_; C. A. Stoddard,
"Cruising among the Caribbees," pp. 23-50; C. E. Taylor, "Leaflets
from the Danish West Indies," _passim_; Frederik Thaarup, "Verledning
til det Danske Monarkies Statistik," _passim_; C. W. Tooke, "The
Danish Colonial Fiscal System in the West Indies," _passim_; A.
Trollope, "The West Indies and the Spanish Main," pp. 8 and 235-241;
H. West, "Bidrag til Beskrivelse over Sta. Croix med kort Udsigt over
St. Thomas, St. Jean, Tortola, Spanishtown og Crabeneiland" and
"Beyträge zur Beschreibung von St. Croix," _passim_; F. Wharton, "A
Digest of the International Law of the United States"; "A Winter in
the West Indies and Florida," by an invalid, pp. 35-62.
[361] The Caribs who were kind to each other and hospitable to
strangers were made vindictive and cruel by the treatment received
from the Spaniards. With their cruel weapons they fought without
ceasing for the possession of their native land, but they, of course,
were no match for the invaders.
When missionaries from Europe attempted to convert them they haughtily
replied "You have stolen our lands and those of our neighbors; you
have massacred our people, desolated our homes, and committed
unheard-of cruelties for the sake of gold. How then can you expect
from what we have seen of the bad life of you Christians that we
should wish to be like you?" So fearful had been the barbarities
practiced upon them that the very name of Christian inspired them with
horror and to call them Christians never failed to excite them and to
make them grind their teeth with rage. A defenceless, subject people
who were so intelligent as to understand thoroughly the hypocrisy of
their conquerors and who were possessed of the courage to express
their contempt boldly were, in those times, inviting greater
cruelties, even possible extermination. Taylor, "Leaflets from the
West Indies," 108.
[362] Taylor, "Leaflets from the West Indies," 108.
[363] It is said that a relic of the Danish slave trade, the long
Danish gun, played an important part in the Ashanti War with England
and that up to the present these long-barrelled muskets are prized in
remote parts of West Africa.
[364] Knox, "St. Thomas, West Indies," 45, and Taylor, "Leaflets from
the Danish West Indies," 2 et seq.
[365] Taylor, "Leaflets from the Danish West Indies," 3.
[366] Sir Harry H. Johnson, "The Negro in the New World," p. 345.
[367] Knox, "St. Thomas, West Indies," 60 et seq.
[368] Labat, "Voyage dans l'Amerique," II, 285; _Annals of the
American Academy of Political and Social Science_, XXII, 101.
[369] Knox, "St. Thomas, West Indies," 35.
[370] We hear nothing of importance of St. Croix after its discovery
until 1625. We learn from Bryan Edwards that the Dutch then came to
St. Croix. Du Tertre says that for many years prior to 1645 it was in
the possession of the Dutch and English. A conflict between the two
ensued and by a series of attacks the English forced the Dutch to
leave. The Spaniards in Porto Rico, alarmed at this rising English
colony so near, exterminated the English in 1650. Soon afterwards the
French at St. Christopher took the island with an expedition. Then in
1653 Louis XIV transferred St. Croix with St. Christopher, St.
Bartholomew and St. Martin to the Knights of Malta. In 1665 a newly
formed West Indian Company purchased the island from the Order of
Malta, but the company being dissolved by royal edict, the island
again became annexed to the Crown. On account of destructive droughts
the island was practically abandoned and the forts were demolished in
1720. The French again took possession of the island in 1727 and held
it until 1733 when it was purchased by the Guinea Company and later
from that firm by the King of Denmark. See Taylor, "A Few Words about
St. Croix," 5-7; and Rochfort, "Histoire naturelle et morale des îles
Antilles," 45.
[371] These regulations were:
1. The leader of runaway slaves shall be pinched three times with
red-hot iron, and then hung.
2. Each other runaway slave shall lose one leg, or if the owner
pardon him, shall lose one ear, and receive one hundred and fifty
stripes.
3. Any slave being aware of the intention of others to run away,
and not giving information, shall be burned in the forehead and
receive one hundred stripes.
4. Those who inform of plots to run away shall receive $10 for
each slave engaged therein.
5. A slave who runs away for eight days, shall have one hundred
and fifty stripes, twelve weeks shall lose a leg, and six months
shall forfeit life, unless the owner pardon him with the loss of
one leg.
6. Slaves who steal to the value of four rix-dollars, shall be
pinched and hung; less than four rix-dollars, to be branded and
receive one hundred and fifty stripes.
7. Slaves who shall receive stolen goods, as such, or protect
runaways, shall be branded, and receive one hundred and fifty
stripes.
8. A slave who lifts his hand to strike a white person or
threaten him with violence, shall be pinched and hung, should the
white person demand it, if not to lose his right hand.
9. One white person shall be sufficient witness against a slave,
and if a slave be suspected of a crime, he can be tried by
torture.
10. A slave meeting a white person, shall step aside, and wait
until he passes; if not, he may be flogged.
11. No slave shall be permitted to come to town with clubs or
knives, nor fight with each other, under penalty of fifty
stripes.
12. Witchcraft shall be punished with flogging.
13. A slave who shall attempt to poison his master, shall be
pinched three times with red-hot iron, and then broken on a
wheel.
14. A free Negro who shall harbor a slave or thief shall lose his
liberty, or be banished.
15. All dances, feasts, and plays, are forbidden unless
permission be obtained from the master or overseer.
16. Slaves shall not sell provisions of any kind, without
permission from their overseers.
17. No estate slave shall be in town after drum-beat, otherwise
he shall be put in the fort and flogged.
18. The king's advocate is ordered to see these regulations
strictly carried out.--See Knox, "St. Thomas, West Indies,"
69-71.
[372] For an interesting sketch of the insurrection see Knox, "St.
Thomas, West Indies," 58 et seq. See also _The Annals of the Am.
Academy of Political and Social Science_, XXII, 101.
[373] The whites referred to Sout as an intelligent man and considered
him "skilful and successful as a botanist in the use of medicinal
plants found in the island." See Taylor, "Leaflets from the Danish
West Indies," 104.
[374] Taylor, "Leaflets from the Danish West Indies," 105.
[375] Knox, "St. Thomas," 84.
[376] _Ibid._, 84-85.
[377] _Ibid._, "St. Thomas, West Indies," 111.
[378] Taylor, "Leaflets from the Danish West Indies," 35.
[379] _Arena_, XXVIII, 242-247.
[380] Guerney, "A Winter in the West Indies," 21.
[381] _Ibid._, 22.
[382] _Ibid._, 23.
[383] This insurrection is well set forth in Knox's "St. Thomas" on
page 110 et seq. and in Taylor's "Leaflets from the Danish West
Indies," page 125 et seq.
[384] Taylor, "Leaflets from the West Indies," pp. 127-128.
[385] _Ibid._, 129.
[386] Before things returned to the former state Oberst V. Oxholm
arrived to displace General v. Scholten as governor. The latter was
tried by a Commission and condemned for dereliction of duty by the
influence of the slave-holding class whom he had angered because of
his favorable attitude towards the Negroes. Upon appealing to the
Supreme Court, however, he was acquitted.
[387] See "Labour Act" in Documents of this number.
[388] See Taylor, "Leaflets from the Danish West Indies," 151 et seq.
[389] Rhodes, "History of the United States," V, 397.
[390] _The Independent_, LXXXIV, 515.
[391] For a detailed account of the efforts to purchase these islands
see W.E. Curtis, "The United States and Foreign Powers," pp. 28-51;
Wm. H. Seward, "The Diplomatic History of the War for the Union," V,
28-29; Francis Wharton, "A Digest of the International Law of the
United States," I, 416-417; James Parton, "The Danish Islands,"
_passim_; United States, Twenty-first Congress, second session, House
of Representatives, Report No. 117. Executive Document 21,
Thirty-seventh Congress, second session, House of Representatives.
Miscellaneous Document No. 80; and Dixon, "The History of the St.
Thomas Treaty," _passim_.
[392] According to Schuyler, "Charles Sumner, then chairman of the
Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate, who was engaged in a
personal quarrel with the Administration, simply refused to report
back the treaty to the Senate, and he was supported by a sufficient
number of his Committee and of Senators to enable the matter to be
left in this position. It required new negotiations to prolong the
term of ratification and it was with great difficulty that in a
subsequent session the treaty was finally brought before the Senate
and rejected. As may be imagined, our friendly relations with Denmark
were considerably impaired by this method of doing business." See
Schuyler, "The St. Thomas Treaty."
[393] _The Independent_, LXXXIV, 515.
[394] _North American Review_, CLXXV, 501; and 55th Congress, 2d
session, Senate Report No. 816.
[395] 57th Session. First session. Doc. No. 284.
[396] We have here relied to some extent on information obtained from
the United States Consul C.H. Payne and Vice-Consul A.P. Zabriskie
stationed at St. Thomas for a number of years.
DOCUMENTS
RELATING TO THE DANISH WEST INDIES
It is possible to multiply here the documents bearing on the Danish
West Indies but these are considered adequate to give the student of
history an idea as to the colonial policy of the Danes, their
treatment of the bondmen and the subsequent self-assertion which
culminated in open resistance to established authority. We are
concerned then with what the Danish were endeavoring to do, what they
actually accomplished, and what the observer from afar thought of
these achievements. To bring out more strikingly these phases of the
situation these documents have been added.
A SHORT DESCRIPTION OF THE ISLANDS OF ST. THOMAS AND ST. CROIX, IN THE
POSSESSION OF THE DANES, IN 1769
The only remaining islands in this part of the world, that we
shall now mention, are those of St. Thomas and St. Croix, which
belong to the Danes; the former is situated in 18°. north
latitude, and is one of that cluster of islands called the
Virgins. Though it is not above seven leagues in circumference,
it is in a commodious situation, and has an excellent port of an
oval form, in a manner surrounded by two promontories, which
defend the ships that lie within from almost all winds. In the
bottom of this port is a small fortress which stands in a plain,
and is a regular square with four small bastions, but it has
neither outworks nor a ditch, it being only surrounded with a
pallisade. On the right and left of the fort are two small
eminences which in our plantations would be called bluffs; but
though they seem designed for batteries that would command the
whole harbour, no such use is made of them. The King of Denmark
has here a Governor and a garrison; notwithstanding which, there
is a large factory on the island belonging to the
Brandenburghers, the subjects of the King of Prussia.
The neighbourhood of the Spanish island of Porto Rico is only at
17 leagues distance, and secures the inhabitants from the danger
of wanting provisions, to which they would otherwise be exposed;
for though the soil is tolerably good and every foot of it
cultivated, yet it would not produce sufficient for the
maintenance of the inhabitants, who are very numerous.
The town of St. Thomas consists of one long street, at the end of
which is the Danish magazine, a large magnificent and convenient
building. The Brandenburgh factory is also very considerable, and
the persons belonging to it are chiefly French refugees, who fled
thither when the protestants were expelled from the French
islands. The chief produce of their plantations is sugar, which
is very fine grained, but made in small quantities; yet the
Danish Governor, who is usually a man of some rank, lives in a
manner suitable to his character, and generally acquires a good
fortune in that station. The director of the Danish trade also
becomes rich in a few years, and the inhabitants in general are
in very easy circumstances.
To this island the Spaniards are continually sending large
vessels to purchase slaves. This is the chief support of the
Danish and Brandenburgh commerce, as these slaves are drawn from
their settlements upon the coast of Africa, which, if they had
not this trade, would have long ago become useless, and
consequently deserted. The Spaniards also buy here, as well as at
Curacao, all sorts of European goods, of which there is always a
vast stock in the magazine, belonging chiefly to the Dutch. There
is likewise a great resort of English, Dutch, and French, vessels
to this port, where they can always depend upon the sale of
superfluous, and the purchase of necessary commodities. But
though a prodigious deal of business is transacted in time of
peace, in time of war it is vastly increased, for being a neutral
port, the privateers of all nations resort thither to sell their
prizes.
St. Croix is seated about five leagues east of St. Thomas's, and
about 30 west of St. Christopher's, in 18°. north lat. and in
65°. west longitude. It is about ten or twelve leagues in length,
but not above three broad. The air is very unhealthy but the soil
is easily cultivated; very fertile, and produces sugar canes,
citrons, oranges, lemons, pomegranates, and other excellent
fruits, and has several fine trees, whose wood is very beautiful,
and proper for inlaying.
This island has had several masters; but the French abandoning it
in 1696, it was purchased by his late Danish Majesty. It was
then a perfect desert, but was settled with great expedition,
many persons from the English islands, and among them some of
great wealth, having removed thither.--"_The World displayed or a
Curious Collection of Voyages and Travels_," 1769, pp. 127-129.
II
DANISH COLONIZATION IN THE WEST INDIES IN 1798
The Danes had no sooner submitted to one single chief, than they
fell into a kind of lethargic state. To those great convulsions,
which are occasioned by the clashing of important rights,
succeeded the delusive tranquillity of servitude. A nation, which
had filled the scene for several ages, appeared no more on the
theatre of the world. In 1671, it just recovered so far from the
trance, into which the accession of despotism had thrown it, as
to look abroad, and take possession of a little American island,
known by the name of St. Thomas.
This island, the farthest of the Caribbees towards the west, was
totally uninhabited, when the Danes undertook to form a
settlement upon it. They were at first opposed by the English,
under pretence that some emigrants of that nation had formerly
begun to clear it. The British ministry stopped the progress of
this interference; and the colony were left to form plantations
of sugar, such as a sandy soil, of no greater extent than five
leagues in length, and two and a half in breadth, would admit of.
These improvements, which were at that time very rare in the
American Archipelago, were brought on by particular causes.
The Elector of Brandenburgh had formed, in 1681, a company for
the western part of Africa. The object of this association was to
purchase slaves; but they were to be sold again; and that could
be done in no other place than in the New World. It was proposed
to the court of Versailles to receive them in their possessions,
or to cede Santa-Cruz. These two proposals being equally
rejected, Frederic William turned his views towards St. Thomas.
Denmark consented in 1685, that the subjects of this enterprising
prince should establish a factory in the island, and that they
should carry on a free trade there, upon condition of paying the
taxes established, and of agreeing to give an annual stipend.
They were then in hopes of furnishing the Spanish colonies, which
were dissatisfied with England and Holland, with the Negroes
which those provinces were continually in want of. The treaty
not having taken place, and the vexations being incessantly
multiplied, even at St. Thomas's, the transactions of the
inhabitants of Brandenburg were always more or less unfortunate.
Their contract, however, which had been only made at first for
thirty years, was renewed. Some few of them still belonged to it,
even in 1731; but without any shares or any charter.
Nevertheless, it was neither to the productions, nor to the
undertakings of the inhabitants of Brandenburg, that the island
of St. Thomas was indebted for its importance.
The sea has hollowed out from its coast an excellent harbour, in
which fifty ships may ride with security. This advantage
attracted both the English and French Buccaneers, who were
desirous of exempting their booty from the duties they were
subject to pay in the settlements belonging to their own nations.
Whenever they had taken their prizes in the lower latitudes, from
which they could not make the Windward Islands, they put into
that of St. Thomas to dispose of them. It was also the asylum of
all merchant-ships which frequented it as a neutral port in time
of war. It was the mart, where the neighbouring colonies bartered
their respective commodities which they could not do elsewhere
with so much ease and safety. It was the port from which were
continually dispatched vessels richly laden to carry on a
clandestine trade with the Spanish coasts; in return for which,
they brought back considerable quantities of metal and
merchandise of great value. In a word, St. Thomas was a market of
very great consequence.
Denmark, however, reaped no advantage from the rapid circulation.
The persons who enriched themselves were foreigners, who carried
their wealth to other situations. The mother-country had no other
communication with its colony than by a single ship, sent out
annually to Africa to purchase slaves, which being sold in
America, the ship returned home laden with the productions of
that country. In 1719 their traffic increased by the clearing of
the island of St. John, which is adjacent to St. Thomas, but not
half so large. These slender beginnings would have required the
addition of Crab Island, or Bourriquen, where it had been
attempted to form a settlement two years before.
This island, which is from eight to ten leagues in circumference,
has a considerable number of hills; but they are neither barren,
steep, nor very high. The soil of the plains and valleys, which
run between them, seems to be very fruitful; and is watered by a
number of springs, the water of which is said to be excellent.
Nature, at the same time that she has denied it a harbour, has
made it amends by a multitude of the finest bays that can be
conceived. At every step some remains of plantations, rows of
orange and lemon trees, are still found; which make it evident,
that the Spaniards of Porto-Rico, who are not further distant
than five or six leagues, had formerly settled there.
The English, observing that so promising an island was without
inhabitants, began to raise some plantations there towards the
end of the last century; but they had not time to reap the fruit
of their labour. They were surprised by the Spaniards, who
murdered all the men, and carried off the women and children to
Porto-Rico. This accident did not deter the Danes from making
some attempts to settle there in 1717. But the subjects of Great
Britain, reclaiming their ancient rights, sent thither some
adventurers, who were at first plundered, and soon after driven
off, by the Spaniards. The jealousy of these American tyrants
extends even to the prohibiting of fishing-boats to approach any
shore where they have a right of possession, though they do not
exercise it. Too idle to prosecute cultivation, too suspicious to
admit industrious neighbours, they condemn the Crab Island to
eternal solitude; they will neither inhabit it themselves, nor
suffer any other nation to inhabit it. Such an exertion of
exclusive sovereignty has obliged Denmark to give up this island
for that of Santa Cruz.
Santa Cruz had a better title to become an object of national
ambition. It is eighteen leagues in length, and from three to
four in breadth. In 1643 it was inhabited by Dutch and English.
Their rivalship in trade soon made them enemies to each other. In
1646, after an obstinate and bloody engagement, the Dutch were
beat, and obliged to quit a spot from which they had formed great
expectations. The conquerors were employed in securing the
consequences of their victory, when, in 1650, they were attacked
and driven out in their turn by twelve hundred Spaniards, who
arrived there in five ships. The triumph of these lasted but a
few months. The remains of that numerous body, which were left
for the defence of the island, surrendered without resistance to
a hundred and sixty French, who had embarked in 1651, from St.
Christopher's, to make themselves masters of the island.
These new inhabitants lost no time in making themselves
acquainted with a country so much disputed. On a soil, in other
respects excellent, they found only one river of a moderate
size, which, gliding gently almost on a level with the sea
through a flat country, furnished only a brackish water. Two or
three springs, which they found in the innermost parts of the
island, made but feeble amends for this defect. The wells were
for the most part dry. The construction of reservoirs required
time. Nor was the climate more inviting to the new inhabitants.
The island being flat, and covered with old trees, scarce
afforded an opportunity for the winds to carry off the poisonous
vapours, with which its morasses clogged the atmosphere. There
was but one remedy for this inconvenience; which was to burn the
woods. The French set fire to them without delay; and, getting on
board their ships, became spectators from the sea, for several
months, of the conflagration they had raised in the island. As
soon as the flames were extinguished, they went on shore again.
They found the soil fertile beyond belief. Tobacco, cotton,
arnotto, indigo, and sugar, flourished equally in it. So rapid
was the progress of this colony, that, in eleven years from its
commencement, there were upon it eight hundred and twenty-two
white persons, with a proportionable number of slaves. It was
rapidly advancing to prosperity, when such obstacles were thrown
in the way of its activity as made it decline again. This decay
was as sudden as its rise. In 1696 there were no more than one
hundred and forty-seven men, with their wives and children, and
six hundred and twenty-three blacks remaining; and these were
transported from hence to St. Domingo.
Some obscure individuals, some writers unacquainted with the
views of government, with their secret negotiations, with the
character of their ministers, with the interests of the
protectors and the protected, who flatter themselves that they
can discern the reason of events, amongst a multitude of
important or frivolous causes, which may have equally occasioned
them; who do not conceive, that among all these causes, the most
natural may possibly be the farthest from the truth; who after
having read the news, of journal of the day, with profound
attention, decide as peremptorily as if they had been placed all
their life-time at the helm of the state, and had assisted at the
council of kings; who are never more deceived than in those
circumstances, in which they display some share of penetration;
writers as absurd in the praise as in the blame which they bestow
upon nations, in the favourable or unfavourable opinion they form
of ministerial operations; these idle dreamers, in a word, who
think they are persons of importance, because their attention is
always engaged on matters of consequence, being convinced that
courts are always governed in their decisions by the most
comprehensive views of profound policy, have supposed, that the
court of Versailles had neglected Santa Cruz, merely because they
wished to abandon the small islands, in order to unite all their
strength, industry, and population, in the large ones; but this
is a mistaken notion: this determination, on the contrary, arose
from the farmers of the revenue, who found, that the contraband
trade of Santa Cruz with St. Thomas was detrimental to their
interests. The spirit of finance hath in all times been injurious
to commerce; it hath destroyed the source from whence it sprang.
Santa Cruz continued without inhabitants, and without
cultivation, till 1733, when it was sold by France to Denmark for
738,000 livres (30,750l.). Soon after the Danes built there the
fortress of Christianstadt.
Then it was, that this northern power seemed likely to take deep
root in America. Unfortunately, she laid her plantations under
the yoke of exclusive privileges. Industrious people of all
sects, particularly Moravians, strove in vain to overcome this
great difficulty. Many attempts were made to reconcile the
interests of the colonists and their oppressors, but without
success. The two parties kept up a continual struggle of
animosity, not of industry. At length the government, with a
moderation not to be expected from its constitution, purchased,
in 1754, the privileges and effects of the Company. The price was
fixed at 9,900,000 livres (412,500l.) part of which was paid in
ready money, and the remainder in bills upon the treasury,
bearing interest. From this time the navigation to the islands
was opened to all the subjects of the Danish dominions.
On the first January 1773, there was reckoned in St. John
sixty-nine plantations, twenty-seven of which were devoted to the
culture of sugar, and forty-two to other productions of less
importance. There were exactly the same number at St. Thomas, and
they had the same destination, but were much more considerable.
Of three hundred and forty-five plantations, which were seen at
Santa Cruz, one hundred and fifty were covered with sugarcanes.
In the two former islands, the plantations acquire what degree of
extent it is in the power of the planter to give them, but in the
last, every habitation is limited to three thousand Danish feet
in length, and two thousand in breadth.
St. John is inhabited by one hundred and ten white men, and by
two thousand three hundred and twenty-four slaves: St. Thomas, by
three hundred and thirty-six white men, and by four thousand two
hundred and ninety-six slaves: Santa Cruz, by two thousand one
hundred and thirty-six white men, and by twenty-two thousand two
hundred and forty-four slaves. There are no freed men at St.
John's, and only fifty-two at St. Thomas, and one hundred and
fifty-five at Santa Cruz; and yet the formalities required for
granting liberty are nothing more than a simple enrolment in a
court of justice. If so great a facility hath not multiplied
these acts of benevolence, it is because they have been forbidden
to those who had contracted debts. It hath been apprehended, that
the debtors might be tempted to be generous at the expence of
their creditors.
This law appears to me a very prudent one; with some mitigation
it might be of service, even in our countries. I should very much
approve, that all citizens invested with honourable functions,
either at court, in the army, in the church, or in the
magistracy, should be suspended whenever they should be legally
sued by a creditor, and that they should be unremittingly
deprived of their rank whenever they should be declared insolvent
by the tribunals. It appears to me that money would then be lent
with more confidence, and borrowed with greater circumspection.
Another advantage which would accrue from such a regulation,
would be, that the subaltern orders of men, who imitate the
customs and the prejudices of the higher class of citizens, would
soon be apprehensive of incurring the same disgrace; and that
fidelity in engagements would become one of the characteristic of
the national manners.
The annual productions of the Danish islands are reduced to a
small quantity of coffee, to a great deal of cotton, to seventeen
or eighteen millions weight of raw sugar, and to a proportionate
quantity of rum. Part of these commodities are delivered to the
English, who are proprietors of the best plantations, and in
possession of the slave trade. We have before us at present, very
authentic accounts, which prove that from 1756 to 1773, that
nation hath sold in the Danish settlements of the New World, to
the amount of 2,307,686 livres 11 sols (96,153l. 125.1-1/2d.).
and carried off to the value of 3,197,047 livres 5 sols 6 deniers
(133,210l. 6s. 0-3/4d.). North America receives likewise some of
these productions in exchange for its cattle, for its wood, and
for its flour. The remainder is conveyed to the mother-country
upon forty ships of one hundred, and from that to four hundred
tons burden. The greatest part is consumed in Denmark, and there
is scarcely sold in Germany, or in the Baltic, for more than the
value of one million of livres (41,661l. 13s. 4d.).
The lands susceptible of cultivation in the Danish islands are
not all tilled, and those which are, might be improved. According
to the opinion of the best-in-formed men, the produce of these
possessions might easily be increased by one third, or perhaps by
one half.
One great obstacle to this increase of riches, is the extremely
narrow circumstances of the colonists. They owe 4,500,000 livres
(187,500l.) to the government, 1,200,000 livres (50,000l.) to the
trade of the mother-country, and 26,630,170 livres (1,109,590l.
8s. 4d.) to the Dutch, who, from the immensity of their capitals,
and the impossibility of employing them all themselves,
necessarily become the creditors of all nations.
The avidity of the treasury puts fresh restraints upon industry.
The provisions and merchandise which are not peculiar to the
country, or which have not been brought upon Danish vessels, are
obliged to pay four per cent. upon their departure from Europe.
The national and foreign commodities equally pay six per cent. on
their arrival in the islands; 18 livres (15s) are required for
every fresh Negro brought in, and a poll-tax of 4 livres 10 sols
(3s. 9d.). Some heavy duties are laid upon stamp paper; an impost
of 9 livres (7s. 6d.) for each thousand foot square of ground,
and the tenth of the price of every habitation that is sold. The
productions are all subjected to five per cent. duty on their
leaving the colonies, and to three per cent. on their arrival in
any of the ports of the mother-country, exclusive of the duties
which are paid for rum when consumed in retail. These tributes
collectively bring in to the crown an income of eight or nine
hundred thousand livres, (from 33,333 pounds. 6s. 8d. to
37,500l.).
It is time that the court of Copenhagen should give up these
numerous and oppressive taxes. Well-grounded motives of interest
ought certainly to suggest the same kind of conduct to all the
powers that have possessions in the New World. But Denmark is
more particularly compelled to this act of generosity. The
planters are loaded with such enormous debts, that they will
never be able to repay the capitals, and cannot even make good
the arrears, unless the treasury should entirely drop every kind
of claim upon them.
But can such a prudent measure be expected, either in Denmark or
elsewhere, as long as the public expences shall exceed the public
revenues; as long as the fatal events, which, in the present
order, or rather disorder, of things, are perpetually renewed,
shall compel the administration to double or to treble the burden
of their unfortunate, and already overloaded subjects; as long as
the councils of the sovereigns shall act without any certain
views, and without any settled plan; as long as ministers shall
conduct themselves, as if the empire, or their functions, were to
end the next day; as long as the national treasures shall be
exhausted by unparalleled depredations, and that its indigence
shall only be removed by extravagant speculations, the ruinous
consequences of which will not be perceived, or will be
neglected, for the trifling advantages of the moment? and to make
use of an energetic, but true metaphor, one that is terrifying,
but symbolical of what is practised in all countries; as long as
the folly, the avarice, the dissipation, the degradation, or the
tyranny of the rulers, shall have rendered the treasury so much
exhausted or rapacious, as to induce them to _burn the harvest,
in order the more speedily to collect the price of the ashes!_
If the treasury were by chance to become wiser and more generous
in Denmark than they have been, or than they are in any other
part of the globe, the islands of St. Thomas, of St. John, and of
Santa Cruz, might possibly prosper, and their productions might,
in some measure, compensate for the trifling value of those of
the mother-country.--ABBÉ RAYNAL, _A Philosophical and Political
History of the Settlements and Trade of the Europeans in the East
and West Indies_, 1798, pp. 256-265.
III
SANTA CRUZ IN GENERAL IN 1838
St. Croix is an island, about eighteen miles long, situated in
latitude 17° 45' north, longitude--west of Greenwich. It is
almost exclusively devoted to the cultivation of sugar-cane, and
the manufacture of sugar molasses, and rum. In a good season it
produces from fifty to sixty thousand hogsheads of muscovado
sugar of the best quality. It is generally calculated that the
molasses and rum will pay all the contingent expenses of the
estates; leaving the sugar for clear income, which at
seventy-five dollars the hogshead, for which it is generally sold
there, in a good season, amounts to three millions seven hundred
and fifty thousand dollars. This great revenue is produced by the
careful cultivation of almost every inch of the soil, the estates
generally consisting of but one hundred and fifty to three
hundred acres each; and nearly one hundred negroes being employed
upon each one hundred and fifty acres. The soil is dry and sweet,
producing the best cane, and consequently the best sugar known. I
had heard much of filthiness in the manufacture of sugar and
molasses, but the first view of a St. Croix sugar works
contradicted it. The kettles, the vats in which the sugar is
cooled, the hogsheads in which it is drained, and even the
molasses vats under them, are so perfectly neat and clean, that
no one who has seen them can feel any squeamishness in eating St.
Croix sugar, or molasses either. To look at a vat-full, a foot
deep, just chrystalizing over the surface, and perfectly
transparent to the bottom, would satisfy the most scrupulous upon
this point. There is about twenty-five thousand black, and three
thousand white population. Of course, it is seldom a white man is
seen in riding through the island.
Many of the blacks are free, and the slaves, by the protection
afforded them by the Danish laws, are about as well satisfied
with slavery as they would be with freedom. No slave can be taken
from the island without security for his or her return; masters
cannot inflict punishment without the intervention of public
authority; no slave can be sold against his or her consent,
except with the estate; and cheap and easy provisions are made
for emancipation. Such is the expectation of a general abolition,
that the prices of slaves are only about one fourth as high as in
the United States. In the village of Christianstadt, a large
proportion of the retail trade, and nearly all the mechanical
labour, is in the hands of the free blacks and mulattoes; and the
politeness, intelligence, and ability of some of these, would
surprise those who think their race by Nature unfit for freedom.
Many of them have good countenances, are well behaved, and appear
to evince as much discretion and judgment as whites under similar
circumstances. Some of them hold commissions in the militia
service; one has been promoted to the distinguished situation of
Governor's aid-de-camp; and instead of considering the race as on
a level with brutes, many of the white inhabitants deem them
nearly, if not quite, on a level with themselves. I listened for
a whole evening to a very warm discussion of the question,
whether a lady would be justified in refusing to dance with a
negro or mulatto at a ball; and the negative was not wanting in
supporters.
It is almost surprising, that so small a number of proprietors
should have had the public spirit and perseverance to make such
costly fine roads, not only as public highways whenever needed,
but should also have made a good private road around almost every
estate; beautifully ornamenting both with palm and cocoa-nut
trees, which cut the whole into squares, and add much to the
beauty of the scenery. On each estate there are generally a fine
mansion, a sugar-house, windmill, and plenty of negro-houses, all
situate upon an eminence and interspersed with fruit and
ornamental trees. Little attention is given, however, to the
cultivation of fruits, and, in many places, not an orange will be
seen for miles. Sugar-cane seems to have engrossed the whole
attention of the inhabitants, and crowded out almost every thing
else.--_A Winter in the West Indies and Florida by an Invalid_,
1839, pp. 62-65.
IV
A LETTER FROM AN AMERICAN VISITING SANTA CRUZ IN 1840
_My dear Friend_,
* * * * *
I understand that the slaves form about four-fifths of the
population, and are in number about 19,000. Time was, when the
treatment to which they were exposed, was harsh and severe; and
then their numbers were constantly declining. Of late years,
however, the Danish government has instituted various
restrictions which have ameliorated the condition of the slaves.
They are not allowed, as I understand, to be worked longer in the
day, than from 6 o'clock in the morning, to the same hour in the
evening, with intervals, (not always long enough) for breakfast
and dinner. Legal provisions are made respecting food and
clothing. The driver in the field is not permitted to carry any
more terrible instrument than a tamarind switch of moderate size;
and twelve lashes with the rope, and a short period of solitary
confinement, (mostly I believe in a light room) are the extent of
punishment which even the manager or master is permitted to
inflict. This rope however, is a dangerous instrument of torture;
and I am told that the reduction of the allowed number of lashes,
from thirty to twelve, is no matter of law, but the simple result
of the imperative benevolence of the governor-general Von
Scholten. Any negro has a right to buy his own freedom; and, in
case of need, the price is settled by a public appraiser. The
consequence of these benevolent provisions is, that the condition
of the slaves is improved, and their number is now kept up, with
a very small increase.
I cannot, however, refrain from observing, that legal provisions
for the amelioration of slavery, are in general of little use. In
the British Colonies, the measures of this kind which were
enacted by the Parliament at home, were constantly frustrated by
local influence; and in spite of law or reason, man will often be
found, in the hour of temptation, to abuse arbitrary power over
his fellow man. I consider it therefore highly probable, that
even in Santa Cruz, where the ameliorating laws are enforced by a
local government, at once vigilant and despotic, acts of
oppression and cruelty may at times take place, which are wholly
unknown to the government; much more, to an occasional visitor of
the island.
In the mean time the degradation occasioned by slavery in the
Danish islands--the low physical, intellectual, and moral
condition of the slaves, as compared with that of the liberated
negroes of the British islands--is obvious and unquestionable.
The worst feature of the system is the "Sunday market," as it is
called. The slaves are allowed no one of the working days of the
week for their own business. The consequence is, that multitudes
of them throng from the country (often from a great distance)
into the towns of Bassin and West End, on the First day of the
week, with their provisions and fruits for sale. The rum shops
are hard by the market places. The buyers, of course, misuse the
day as well as the sellers; and the scene is one, not only of
busy traffic, but of noisy merriment, idleness, and dissipation.
Before we left Santa Cruz, we called on General Söbötker, the
present Governor, of the island, to take our leave; and we
ventured to press this subject on his consideration, not without
some remarks on slavery in general. He listened to us in a very
obliging manner, and seemed to look forward to better days; but
his last words to us, as we went down the steps from his door,
were, "PATIENCE, PATIENCE, PATIENCE."
It was very satisfactory to us, to learn from our friend Captain
Von Scholten, the brother of the Governor General (then in
Denmark) that a commission had been appointed at Copenhagen, to
enquire into the state of these colonies, with a view to
emancipation. In the meantime, seven large buildings have been
erected in different parts of the island, to serve as chapels
and schools, for the religious and literary instruction of the
Negro population. They are not yet in use: but several of the
planters are making laudable exertions for the education of their
slaves in reading and in a knowledge of the Holy Scriptures. A
colored person of the name of Macfarlane, in every way adapted
for the office, is employed for the purpose; this school
circulates, with excellent effect, from one estate to another.
Having been taught their moral and religious obligations, the
negroes, on these estates, are greatly improved, and are much
more useful to their masters, than in the days of their
ignorance.
The schools held on the First day of the week under the care of
the members of the Episcopal church, at Bassin and West End, are
attended by several hundreds of black, mulatto, and white
children. Some of the planters and their wives are united with
colored persons and others, as instructors in these schools; and
the blessed work is carried on, both among the teachers and the
taught, without prejudice of caste, or distinction of
color.--JOSEPH JOHN GUERNEY, _A Winter in the West Indies
described in familiar Letters to Henry Clay, of Kentucky_, 1840,
pp. 20-23.
V
STADTHAUPTMAND CHAMBERLAIN VON SCHOLTEN'S NARRATIVE OF THE
INSURRECTION OF 1848
In the week that preceded the 3rd July, 1848, I was confined to
my bed with a rheumatic swelling in my right hand. On Sunday the
2nd July I felt a little better, and could more or less use the
hand. On the afternoon of that day I received a visit from one of
our most respectable planters. In the course of our conversation,
he told me that there were strange reports in circulation
concerning the negroes, who, it was said, were to refuse to go to
work on the next day, and to demand their freedom. He could not
assign any further grounds for these reports than hearsay. Being
accustomed to hear of war and revolution in Europe, as well as
disturbances and riot in the French islands, from the fact of the
majority in this little place, Frederiksted, seeking to make up
for the monotony of their existence by spreading and listening to
all sorts of idle rumours and scandals, this information made no
further impression upon me. I bade him, in the meantime, to
acquaint the commander of the fort, and the policemaster with
what he had heard, and promised myself to inform my brother, the
Governor-General, as soon as he arrived here in the "Ornen," a
brig-of-war, which was momentarily expected.
At about eight o'clock in the evening my physician came to attend
to me, and he spoke of the alarming reports that were in
circulation. As he appeared to be somewhat concerned about the
matter, I remonstrated with him and spoke of the evil of
spreading such reports, which, if unfounded, might awaken ideas
among the slaves which it was to the interest of every one to
prevent. Not that I feared that they would be disposed to
violence or riot. They had been generally well treated and were
apparently satisfied.
About nine o'clock, I received a message that the
Governor-General had arrived in Christiansted, and that his
carriage which stood in my yard was to go up there, but as it was
late, I gave orders to the coachman to wait until next day. In
the meantime I went to bed. A short time after my servant told me
that there must be fire in the country as the bells were being
rung and shells blown. As this is the customary manner of giving
notice of such, the thought of anything unusual did not occur to
me. And as I could see no sign of any fire from my house, which
is built on an elevation, I concluded that it was upon a distant
estate, and again sought refuge in sleep. This lasted but a short
time, when I was once again aroused by a loud knocking at my
gate. Opening the window, I immediately recognized the voice of
the Brandmajor commanding in Frederiksted, he told me that the
negroes in the country were rioting and desired their freedom,
and that was the reason why the bell-ringing and blowing of
shells were to be heard. We then spoke about the plan of action
we should adopt, and whether the alarm gun should be fired or the
Brand corps and Militia should be called out. The Major having
stated that the negroes were committing no excesses and only
making a disturbance, I looked upon this as a good sign, for when
one has evil designs he rarely makes a noise, but generally
proceeds to action at once. Nevertheless, it was a doubtful point
with me whether I, as Stadthauptmand, would be justified in
firing the alarm, the militia law not stating anything definite
or to the point as to who should give such an order. On the other
hand, my authority only extended over the militia. Over the Fort
from which the alarm gun should be fired I had no command
whatsoever.
There were many considerations which induced me to proceed with
caution in the matter.
To have fired the alarm would have been equivalent to placing the
island in a state of siege. The power to do this rested only with
the Governor. Moreover, such an act would have summoned the whole
of the white population into town, away from their estates,
leaving their wives, children and old women in the power of the
negroes. With no one to check them, had excesses been committed,
how blameable it would have been to have acted so precipitately.
I was confirmed in this opinion by a planter and military
officer, who shared my views on the subject. The officer
remarking that: "Should the negroes be intent on evil, they could
easily prevent isolated members of the militia from coming in,
and should the opposite be the case, he saw no reason for calling
them from their estates, where they might by their presence be
able to check violence and plunder." The
policemaster--Andersen--coincided with these views, observing:
"Let us not by hasty proceedings provoke the negroes. The
bell-ringing and noise do not indicate that they are intent upon
violence. We must proceed with caution if we do not desire to see
things worse." These words from one who had a large experience of
the character of the negro, carried weight with most of us.
The opinion has since been expressed on more than one occasion,
that the Brand corps, which was composed of free coloured people,
should have been called out, but from prudential motives it was
deemed advisable to limit their action until absolutely
necessary. I shall now attempt to picture the events which
followed.
About two o'clock a.m., eight or ten mounted militiamen came in
from the country and informed me that the condition was such as
the earlier reports had stated. That there were noisy
demonstrations and disorder, but nowhere had actual violence been
committed. These gentlemen had left behind them their wives,
mothers and children, so to speak, in the power of the negroes,
without the least fear that they would be exposed to any kind of
danger. They came to inquire if the alarm gun had been fired, and
if such were the case, to meet as accustomed. I explained to them
that the gun had not been fired, as it was not considered prudent
to call them away at such a moment from their property, where
they could best work to preserve order. They therefore returned
to their homes. At four o'clock a.m., I sent off my brother's
carriage to Christiansted, and by same opportunity a letter in
which I described to him the condition of things in
Frederiksted. At the same time expressing the hope that order and
quiet might be restored by representations and negotiations.
At seven o'clock in the morning, the negroes streamed into the
town in large numbers. Shortly afterwards it was reported to me
that the police office was being plundered and demolished. The
second Brand officer, who was with me, after expressing the
opinion that it was in no way advisable to call out the corps,
undertook with some of the best disposed of his men to assist in
the keeping of order. And it is but fair to say, that it was
owing to the activity and representations of the free coloured
men that more violence was not committed, only three houses being
plundered and wrecked. At about this time a negro came crying to
me and begged me to write a letter to the Governor-General asking
that he would come down to Frederiksted as soon as possible, so
that by his presence he might save the town from further
molestation. With this I joyfully complied, beseeching my brother
not to delay, as only he would be able to quiet the negroes. In
the meantime the Brand major had narrowly escaped with his life.
Riding into town from his estate he was attacked by the negroes,
a negro woman striking at his neck with an axe, which fortunately
glanced off without injuring him. To show that he intended them
no harm, he threw away his sword, exclaiming: "Take my life, if
that can satisfy you, I come not as an enemy, but as a friend!"
With these words they seemed impressed, and allowed him to pass
on his way.
A crowd of negroes came shouting and yelling up the street, and
stood in front of my residence, demanding that I should proclaim
their immediate freedom. Representing to them how wrongly they
had acted by destroying and plundering, I advised them to keep
quiet until the Governor-General arrived, as he alone could
satisfy their demands. Seeing that they were now more peaceable,
I went to the Fort, where several of the inhabitants of the town
had assembled. These were most restless, not to say unreasonable.
Some thought that to save the town from further disturbance, I
should, in the Governor-General's name, have declared the negroes
free, but, as, in my opinion, I had no such power, I could not,
nor would not, take it upon myself to do so. Nevertheless, it was
the opinion of every one that only the prompt emancipation of the
slaves would save the island from further destruction. And now a
considerable number of negroes had assembled together in the
Fort yard. They cried and shouted, demanded their freedom, and
called on the soldiers to fire upon them. This the commander of
the Fort had some difficulty in preventing. Many who were present
begged him also not to do so, as the town would surely be burnt
to ashes. Of this there could not be any doubt, as near by,
behind a corner house, which could not be commanded by the guns
of the Fort there were several negro women gathered together with
"trash" or dry cane leaves, which, at the first shot from the
Fort, it was arranged they should light and throw into the doors
and windows. The fire would thus have spread quickly through the
town, as the houses were mostly deserted, and there was no one to
check it. With a view of quieting the threatening multitude, I
went among them, accompanied by the Catholic priest[397] and a
few of the bravest of the inhabitants. The priest, whose
influence was very great, spoke to them, admonishing and
exhorting them to be quiet. On the other hand, on my addressing
myself to one who appeared to be a leader of them, I received the
following reply: "Massa, we poor negroes cannot fight with the
soldiers, as we have no guns, but we can burn and destroy if we
do not get our freedom, and that is what we intend to do."
It was rumoured in the Fort that the negroes intended to storm
it, and for that reason had procured an English flag, which they
regarded as the symbol of freedom. I myself saw the flag in the
crowd, and nearing the flag-bearer after some difficulty, I asked
the young negro why he did not carry the Danish instead of the
English flag, to which he answered: "Any flag is good on such an
occasion." But on my speaking further he seemed visibly
embarrassed, and moved away among the crowd. About ten o'clock
a.m. a great noise was heard in the upper part of the town. Some
said it was the Governor-General, but it turned out to be the
Stadthauptmand of Christiansted, Oberst de Nully, and the
Governor-General's adjutant. The Oberst stepped out of the
carriage and spoke to the crowd, which was so dissatisfied that
the Governor-General had not come himself that they would not
listen to him. Suddenly there was a great movement among them,
and with repeated cries of "Moore!" "Moore!" they rushed down the
Strand-street. Here the infuriated mob commenced immediately to
plunder and destroy Merchant Moore's store and residence. Mr.
Moore himself sought refuge on board one of the vessels in the
harbour. The cause of this unexpected outbreak is said to have
been brought about by Mr. Moore's carelessly speaking to the
negroes, who understood that he would request the garrison of the
Fort to shoot them down. This would have been an easy matter, for
it was quite possible to sweep the street with a couple of field
guns from the water battery and the Fort gate; but the commander
of the Fort was besought not to fire for fear that in their
desire for revenge the negroes would burn down the town and
destroy every white person who might fall into their hands.
Besides, as the actually guilty ones were in Mr. Moore's house,
plundering, only innocent people who were in the street would
have been killed. Several sailors from the English vessels in the
harbour were now to be seen among the excited people, encouraging
them by words and actions. And particularly conspicuous upon the
wharf were several water casks belonging to these vessels, on
which was written in large letters--"Liberty." It is worthy of
remark, in contrast to these proceedings, that the free coloured
population did their utmost to prevent the negroes from breaking
into the houses and warehouses in the vicinity.
Most of the whites were now either on board the vessels or in
hiding. About this time a negro appeared upon the scene, who
seemed to be in command of the immense concourse of people which
filled the street. This was Buddhoe, or as he was called later
on, General Bourdeaux.
About three o'clock p.m., the Governor-General arrived,
accompanied by Kammerjunker Upper Court Assessor Rothe. The
General stepped out near the Fort, went in among the crowd and
declared the negroes to be free. He then requested Kammerjunker
Rothe, and as far as I can remember, Major Gyllich, the Brand
major, to see that the negroes left the town, which these
gentlemen soon accomplished.
Later on a detachment of troops arrived from Christiansted, and
at five o'clock p.m. the Governor-General returned to
Christiansted, after having ordered the cavalry, which had
recently arrived, to go back again. First Lieutenant v Holstein,
with two pieces of cannon and forth men, remained over night in
the Fort.
The brig-of-war "Ornen," Captain Irminger, arrived in the harbour
shortly before sunset. The night passed quietly enough, though
fires illuminated the hills of the north side. On Tuesday, the
4th of July, a number of negroes were seen on the road leading to
the North side, and it was feared that, should they enter the
town, it would doubtless result in bloodshed or incendiarism. In
order to prevent this, Major Gyllich rode out among them, and, by
repeated assurances that they were now free and would not be
brought back to slavery again, succeeded in inducing them to
return to their homes. At the same time he persuaded the negro
Buddhoe to accompany him to town, a wise move, for it was through
this negro's influence over them that order and quiet were
restored to this part of the island. In the meantime,
Kammerjunker Rothe arrived from Christiansted, whence he had
started in the morning with a number of printed copies of the
proclamation of freedom. Shortly after his arrival, three
expeditions were organised to make their contents known among the
negroes. Kammerjunker Rothe, the Vice-Brand major and a prominent
planter, went to Annally and Spring Garden, while Major Gyllich,
Buddhoe, or General Bourdeaux[398] and two of the most
respectable free coloured burghers went to the South side.
The company in which I found myself arrived first at estate "La
Grange." We had little difficulty in getting the negroes
together, who stood around our carriage as Kammerjunker Rothe
read out and explained the proclamation to them. Continuing our
road, we came to estate "Northside," where we met the owner and
his family who had remained there during the whole tumult. They
told us that during the forenoon of the same day, they had been
attacked by the negroes from the neighbouring estate of "Ham's
Bay," who under the pretext of wanting to take the overseer's
weapons from him, attempted to force the dwelling house. The
negroes of the estate defended them and prevented the intended
violence. From that place we went to "Ham's Bay," where we found
it difficult to collect the negroes, who had forced the owner and
his family to take flight in a fishing boat shortly before. After
having restored something like order among them, we returned to
Frederiksted.
The expedition in charge of Major Gyllich, after visiting twenty
odd estates reached as far as "La Reine." Mr. Beech read the
proclamation on each of them. On the road they learned that there
was a large gathering at estate "Slob," which had been doing a
great deal of plundering and destruction. Though Buddhoe declared
that he did not know the negroes on that part of the island, and
it was remarked that estate "Slob" was outside of West End
jurisdiction, Major Gyllich decided to go there, being under the
impression that he might prevent further troubles.
Going up the hill towards "Slob," they met a man named "Martin
King," chief of the "fleet," as they called this meeting. This
negro who was half drunk and riding a white horse, and who seemed
to be a leader among the crowd which they encountered, upon
understanding the object of the expedition, after a great deal of
outrageous and foolish talk yielded to the representations of the
Major, and by the influence he seemed to wield over the rest of
his comrades, was of great assistance in restoring order among
them. After visiting estates "La Reine" and "Mount Pleasant," the
major and his party returned to Frederiksted.
On Tuesday and Wednesday several planters with their families
came into town, and sought refuge on board the ships in the
harbour. The owner of the estate "Negro Bay," with twenty or
thirty other managers and overseers also came in, an error which
resulted in his estate being plundered. By this time prisoners
were being continually brought in. The negroes bringing them in
themselves. To this Buddhoe mainly contributed. On Thursday
morning at four o'clock a considerable force consisting of two
cannon, infantry and cavalry under the command of Captain v
Castonier left the town. In the meantime the Fort was garrisoned
from the brig-of-war. Though this expedition met with no
opposition, it served a good purpose, as from that time perfect
quiet and order were brought about.--TAYLOR, _Leaflets from the
Danish West Indies_, pp. 126-132.
VI
CHAMBERLAIN IRMINGER'S ACCOUNT OF THE INSURRECTION OF 1848
After a stay of several days in the island of St. Thomas,
Governor-General v Scholten sailed in the forenoon of the 2nd
July, 1848, for St. Croix, in the brig-of-war "Ornen," which I
commanded.
About four o'clock in the afternoon we anchored in Bassin
(Christiansted), suspecting nothing of the row which the negroes
intended to make. The General dined with me. At sunset he landed
in order to proceed to Bülowsminde, and as he heard that I
intended to have the ship painted, he invited me to pass the time
at his beautiful country seat.
About 10 o'clock, p.m. we retired to rest. The 3rd July, at
about two o'clock in the morning, I was awakened by the General's
servant with a request that I would come to the General as
quickly as possible. I immediately repaired to his presence and
found him already dressed. He then showed me a report from the
Chief Commander of the Fort in West End (Frederiksted), Capt. v
Castonier, which stated that the negroes were restless at that
part of the island--that bells were being rung on the
estates--and they were sounding the alarm on their shells
(conchshells).
When I had read the report, the Governor-General said: "What is
now to be done?" To this I answered that I thought the best thing
to do was to seek as quickly as possible to smother the
disturbance at its birth, because every minute now lost would
lend additional strength to the disturbers of the peace. It was
my impression that twenty to thirty armed men should immediately
be sent on horseback to West End in order to scatter the negroes
apart.
The Governor remarking that he could not dispose of such a force,
I replied that I did not think it would be so difficult to get
such a number of mounted militia collected from the nearest
estates.
In the meantime, the General's horses were saddled and we now
both rode, accompanied by a mounted servant, down to the
Government house in Bassin. The night was a starry one and the
weather exceedingly fine. We stopped now and then on the tops of
the different hills which we rode over to listen if we could not
hear the blowing of shells or any shouting. But all was hushed,
and we heard only the rustling of the cocoa-nut palm leaves moved
by the trade wind. As soon as we arrived in town, messages were
sent to Major v Falbe, who was Chief of the Fort in Bassin, Major
v Geillerup, who lived in the barracks, Oberst de Nully, Major
Keutsch and others. We now spoke of what was to be done. I still
maintained that action should be taken immediately and that if
the cavalry force which I had asked for could not be got, which I
could by no means admit, other military must immediately be sent
to West End. I furthermore said to the General that I would go on
board to let the men that could be dispensed with get ready to
land, and, at the same time, get the brig ready for sea so as to
be able to leave for West End by daybreak, if ordered. The
General requested me to remain a little longer in the Government
House so as to avoid making any disturbance in town where all was
still and quiet. The conference ended, I believe, in Major
Keutsch's coachman being sent towards West End for more
information as to how it stood with the island. It was now nearly
five o'clock in the morning. The time passed and nothing was
done. I believed I knew the negro character, and that the riot
could have been smothered at the beginning by decisive action.
Seeing that my presence at Government House was of no further
use, I told the General that I would now go on board, so that I
could get the brig ready for sea, and to send armed men on shore,
if required. This I did, and awaited the General's order.
To my surprise I received none whatsoever, and about eight
o'clock a.m. I again went on shore. There I was informed that
Oberst de Nully and Lieutenant v Meincke had been sent to West
End. I also found some soldiers drawn up and ready to set out,
though I afterwards learned, with orders not to go further than
King's Hill (an estate in the middle of the island.)
Interrogating the General as to whether the brig should not sail
to West End, I received the answer that she might be possibly
required in Bassin, and I would receive further orders.
In Bassin, everything was quiet, and I began to believe that the
whole affair did not mean much. Indeed, scarcely any one seemed
to have any knowledge of it. I then informed the General that
everything was ready as well for sea, as to send men ashore, and
should the General have anything to order, I could be found in
the Athenaeum; a reading room nearly opposite the Government
House. About one o'clock p.m., Lieutenant v Meincke arrived from
West End and reported the state of affairs. He brought at the
same time information that the negroes wanted to speak to the
Governor-General himself. General v Scholten had the horses
immediately put to, taking Kammerjunker Rothe with him into the
carriage to drive to Frederiksted. This man, from what I had
heard, had been always an advocate for the emancipation of the
negroes. Before the General drove off, I requested a decided
order from him as to whether I should remain lying in Bassin or
depart for West End. After some reflection, he gave me the order.
With this I left for that place.
On my arrival, and immediately after having anchored, the
"Ornen's" boats were armed, and I went ashore. The King's Wharf
was full of negroes, and everything was in disorder. Accompanied
by some of my armed men, I went to the Fort. By the entrance to
same, I met General v Scholten in his carriage; he was just ready
to drive back to Bassin. I reported my arrival, and asked for
orders. The General's answer was: "I have given Emancipation.
Remain here with the 'Ornen'."
This was the last order I received from him, and I did not see
him again before my arrival in Denmark in the following year.
In the Fort I spoke with Captain v Castonier, and shortly after,
I sent, according to agreement with him, an officer with about
fifty men as a reinforcement as well as for patroling. This
detachment remained ashore some time.
"By this time nearly all the estate negroes had left the town.
Still everything was in the greatest confusion. Town-Bailiff
Andresen's house and Police-Assistant Didrichsen's were entirely
wrecked by the negroes. A Mr. Moore's house and store had
suffered to the extent of 20,000 dollars. Several lesser excesses
had been committed, and armed negroes were seen off and on riding
through the streets at a gallop. Most of the whites had fled to
vessels lying in the harbour, of which the 'Johann Marie' had
over two hundred fugitives on board. On the night of our arrival,
fires illumined different parts of the island."[399]
As every thing was yet in the greatest confusion, and deeming it
of the utmost importance to bring about order,
Vice-Stadthauptmand F. v Scholten, the commander of the Fort,
Captain Castonier, Police-master Ogaard and myself, assembled,
and after due deliberation, issued the following order:--
"It is hereby made known, for the information of everyone
concerned, that in case the country people should come to
town in a riotous way and threaten to attack the Fort, or
otherwise to disturb the inhabitants, then, and in such
case, where more than ten people are collected together, the
Fort is ordered to fire upon them, as also his Majesty's
brig-of-war 'Ornen.' All peaceable inhabitants are therefore
desired not to interfere with the country people, but keep
out of their way.
"Frederiksted, 4th July, 1848.
"F. SCHOLTEN, C. IRMINGER, CASTONIER, OGAARD."
At the same time, the Proclamation of Emancipation that had been
sent to West End from Bassin was read out. It is as follows:--
1. All unfree in the Danish West India Islands are from
today free.
2. The estate negroes retain for three months from date the
use of the houses and provision grounds of which they have
hitherto been possessed.
3. Labour is in future to be paid for by agreement, but
allowance of food to cease.
4. The maintenance of the old and infirm, who are not able
to work, is, until further determined, to be furnished by
the late owners.
The General Government of the Danish West India Islands, St.
Croix, the 3rd July, 1848.
P. V SCHOLTEN.
(L. S.)
Still the greatest disorder reigned in the country, and there was
much plundering and destruction on the estates. In the meantime
many negroes showed that they themselves wished for peace and
order. So much so, that several of the originators of the
disturbances were caught and brought into the Fort by the
friendly-inclined negroes.
On the 5th July, the condition of the country being about the
same, and as several buildings, together with a large garden
planted with cocoa-nut trees near to the Fort, obscured the view
and prevented firing from the Fort in that direction, it was
found expedient to demolish them. This was soon effected by the
brig's indefatigable crew, so that we could now cover the North
side road from the Fort.
There were now forty or fifty men from the brig almost
continually in the Fort as a reinforcement. As it was then found
necessary to undertake military excursions inland to overawe the
negroes, and at the same time to secure the authors of the riot,
I took over on the 6th before daybreak the command of the Fort
and garrisoned it with the crew from the brig. At four a.m. all
the Royal infantry and artillery, together with the planters,
overseers, and managers of estates, marched off under the command
of Captain v Castonier. The latter force alone amounted to forty
horsemen, and from sixty to seventy foot.
At noon Art. Lieutenant Frank arrived from Bassin with a
detachment of militia cavalry. Immediately after, a report was
circulated that the Governor-General was dying, and on that
account a Provisional Government had been organized in Bassin. I
asked Lieutenant Frank if he knew anything about it, to which he
answered that shortly before he had left Bassin, he had seen the
General on the wharf.
Some time after Kammerjunker Rothe arrived in a boat from Bassin
and read aloud the following:--
"On account of the illness of the Governor-General, and with
his concurrence, have we, the undersigned, Govt. Councillor
Kunzen, Govt. Councillor Petersen, Kammerjunker
Landsoverrets Assessor Rothe, Justitsraad Lands-overrets
Assessor Foester, Justitsraad Police-master Frederiksen,
Kammar Assessor Arnesen, and Lawyer Bahneberg, assembled as
a Governing Commission, with full power to take all steps
necessary in the present disturbed condition to bring about
peace and order in the country.
"The command of the military will be taken over by Oberst P.
de Nully and Major A. v Falbe, who will confer with the
above-named commission if necessary.
St. Croix Christensted,
6th July, 1848.
"KUNZEN, C. B. PETERSEN, FOESTER, ROTHE, FREDERIKSEN, II.
L. ARNESEN, BAHNEBERG.
"CARL REIMERS."
As the two Royal Government Councillors, Kunzen and Petersen,
according to my ideas, could just as well have been in charge of
the Government with full powers, notwithstanding that the
Governor-General was sick, and there were even contradictory
reports as to the correctness of that. I, for my part, protested
against acknowledging this new Government until I was certain as
to how it had originated. At half past four o'clock p.m. the men
that had marched out in the morning returned with several of the
leaders of the rising, upon which I again handed over the Fort to
its commander.
Although the military which had returned had not met with any
opposition on their march, and the negroes on many estates had
shown that they wished for peace and order, there were yet many
of them who sought to excite the better part of the population.
For this reason, and in view of the necessity for action,
Vice-Stadthauptmand F. v Scholten, Major Gyllich, Capt, v
Castonier, Policemaster Ogaard, Lawyer Sarauw, and I were
unanimous in publishing the following:--
"As the Authorities here have received no answer from His
Excellency the Governor-General to the Reports forwarded to
him, nor any of the instructions requested, and having this
day learned that on account of illness he is not in a
condition to occupy himself with instructions, and as it is
moreover necessary during the present negro rebellion in
this jurisdiction to act immediately, we, the undersigned,
as the highest authority in the place, have assembled to act
until further.
"Frederiksted, 6th July, 1848.
"F. SCHOLTEN, C. IRMINGER, CASTONIER, GYLLICH, OGAARD,
SARAUW."
We then made known:--
"It is with the utmost satisfaction that the inhabitants of
this jurisdiction have learned that order and obedience to
the laws has commenced to be re-established, and as from
most evidence the hope can be entertained that regularity
and order will go hand and hand, it is hereby promulgated
that any person or persons opposing the authorities, or in
any other manner combining for illegal or violent purposes,
will be dealt with as rioters, and instantly shot. All
peaceable and well-disposed inhabitants are called upon to
assist the authorities in quelling disorder and apprehending
the rioters.
"Frederiksted, 6th July, 1848.
"F. SCHOLTEN, C. IRMINGER, CASTONIER, GYLLICH, OGAARD,
SARAUW."
As many of the refugees on board the vessels were still in dread
of the rioting negroes, and as there was some reason to suppose
that in their fear they would remove from the island, in order to
prevent them doing so, I forbade all ferrying with boats, from
nine o'clock in the evening till four o'clock in the morning,
which times were made known by a cannon shot from the brig.
On the 7th the military again marched out in different
directions. This had a good effect upon the negroes, and the
roads became once more safe for traffic. In the Fort there were
about one hundred rioters, of which the greater part had been
brought in by the friendly negroes from the estates. A portion of
the prisoners were taken on board the brig, and some distributed
among the merchant vessels. In the meantime an order was issued
to all parties concerned that they should within three days
deliver up all stolen goods and arms, as every one, who after
that time was found in possession of such, would be punished to
the utmost extent of the law.
On the 8th several carriages passed between Bassin and West End.
Everything was quiet and safe on the road. Refugees from the
vessels returned on shore to take up their residence to town.
Sugar was brought in from several estates for shipment, and as
everything now promised to go on smoothly, we who had assembled
as the highest authority in the place, handed over the charge of
affairs to the commander of the Fort and the policemaster.
At noon 220 men, auxiliary troops, arrived in Frederiksted; 360
were already in Christiansted. The Governor-General had asked for
the assistance from Porto Rico. As an instance of General
Prim's[400] customary activity it should be mentioned that this
fine body of men 580 all told, with cannon, and 30,000 cartridges
were got ready and put to sea five hours after he had received
the letter of the Governor-General. This prompt action and the
fact that the insurrection had been repressed in the eastern and
western parts of the island, contributed much to allay the fears
of the inhabitants, and to inspire confidence. On the 9th
Chamberlain Oxholm came to West End and took over the
Governor-General's affairs. In the meantime the country was
quiet, and the negroes had returned to work on a few of the
estates. By this time several of the rioters had been tried by
court-martial and shot.
* * * * *
From the reports it will be seen that Kammerjunker Rothe was sent
as a sort of commissioner to Frederiksted, in order to proclaim
the new Government established in Bassin. As I had already agreed
with Captain v Castonier, to take over the command of the Fort
with my men, while he undertook a march into the country with the
military, I protested against subjecting myself to this
Government, because--
1. I assumed after the account that Lieutenant Frank had given
me, that General v Scholten was not so sick but that he could
have signed an order to me.
2. There were in the new Government several names almost unknown
to me.
3. Kammerjunker Rothe did not produce anything in writing, either
from General v Scholten, the existing Government, or the other
two Government Councillors, Kunzen and Petersen, concerning this
newly appointed Government Commission. I, therefore, considered
it my duty not to submit myself blindly to the command of this
Commission, especially as the report said that the
Governor-General had been deposed. When Captain Castonier
returned in the afternoon, I informed him of my protest. He fully
concurred in my views. The other authorities in Frederiksted
followed our example, and although Vice-Stadthauptmand,
Chamberlain F. v Scholten, hesitated, he still signed the
measures we took to restore order and quiet.
On the 12th July I despatched my report from West End to St.
Thomas to leave by the Packet for Europe. It bears that day's
date. Written during the actual occurrence of the riots, it
contains my views respecting the events as they then appeared to
me. I have seen no reason to change them. I never imagined that
General v Scholten would leave the island, which, as is known,
happened immediately after; consequently, my report arrived home
with the same Packet on which he took passage.
On the 24th July I left West End to be on hand to assist in St.
Thomas. The 6th September I received orders to come with the
"Ornen" to Bassin as quickly as possible, as riots had occurred,
and it was not desirable, except absolutely necessary, to use the
Spaniards. The Fort in Bassin was now reinforced by men from the
"Ornen," because, as is known, the Government had given way to
the Brand corps and discharged the energetic Police master
Frederiksen.--TAYLOR, _Leaflets from the Danish West Indies_, pp.
133-140.
VII
ST. THOMAS AS SEEN BY AN OBSERVER IN 1858
I have said in a previous chapter that the people one meets there
may be described as an Hispano-Dano-Niggery-Yankee-doodle
population. In this I referred not only to the settlers, but to
those also who are constantly passing through it. In the shops
and stores, and at the hotels, one meets the same mixture. The
Spanish element is of course strong, for Venezuela, New Granada,
Central America, and Mexico are all Spanish, and hereabouts are
called Spaniards. To the Danes the island belongs. The soldiers,
officials, and custom-house people are Danes. They do not,
however, mix much with their customers. They affect, I believe,
to say that the island is overrun and destroyed by these strange
comers, and that they would as lief be without such visitors. If
they are altogether indifferent to money making, such may be the
case. The labouring people are all black--if these blacks can be
called a labouring people. They do coal the vessels at about a
dollar a day each--that is when they are so circumstanced as to
require a dollar. As to the American element, that is by no means
the slightest or most retiring. Dollars are going there, and
therefore it is of course natural that Americans should be going
also. I saw the other day a map, "The United States as they now
are, and in prospective;" and it included all these
places--Mexico, Central America, Cuba, St. Domingo, and even poor
Jamaica. It may be that the man who made the map understood the
destiny of his country; at any rate he understood the tastes of
his countrymen.--ANTHONY TROLLOPE, _The West Indies and the
Spanish Main_ pp. 224-225.
VIII
THE LABOR ACT
_Provisional Act to Regulate the Relations between the
Proprietors of Landed Estates and the Rural Population of Free
Laborers_
I, Peter Hansen, Knight Commander of the Order Dannebrog, the
King's Commissioner for, and officiating Governor-General of the
Danish West India Islands, Make known: That, whereas the
ordinance dated 29th July, 1848, by which yearly contracts for
labor on landed estates were introduced, has not been duly acted
upon: whereas the interest of the proprietors of estates, as well
as of the laborers, requires that their mutual obligations should
be defined: and whereas on inquiry into the practice of the
Island, and into the printed contracts and agreements hitherto
made, it appears expedient to establish uniform rules throughout
the Island, for the guidance of all parties concerned, it is
enacted and ordained:
1st. All engagements of laborers now domiciled on landed estates
and receiving wages in money, or in kind, for cultivating and
working such estates, are to be continued as directed by the
ordinance of 29th July, 1848, until the first day of October of
the present year: and all similar engagements shall, in future,
be made, or shall be considered as having been made, for a term
of twelve months, viz: from the first of October till the first
of October, year after year. Engagements made by heads of
families are to include their children between five and fifteen
years of age, and other relatives depending on them and staying
with them.
2nd. No laborer engaged as aforesaid, in the cultivation of soil,
shall be discharged or dismissed from, or shall be permitted to
dissolve, his or her engagement before the expiration of the
same on the first of October of the present, or of any following
year, except in the instances hereafter enumerated.
A. By mutual agreement of master and laborer, before a
magistrate.
B. By order of a magistrate on just and equitable cause being
shown by the parties interested.
Legal marriage, and the natural tie between mothers and their
children, shall be deemed by the magistrate just and legal cause
of removal from one estate to another. The husband shall have a
right to be removed to his wife, the wife to her husband, and
children under fifteen years of age to their mother, provided no
objection to employing such individuals shall be made by the
owner of the estate to which the removal is to take place.
3rd. No engagement of a laborer shall be lawful in future, unless
made in the presence of witnesses, and entered in the day-book of
the estate.
4th. Notice to quit service shall be given by the employer, as
well as by the laborer, at no other period but once a year, in
the month of August, not before the first, nor after the last day
of the said month; an entry thereof shall be made in the
day-book, and an acknowledgement in writing shall be given to the
laborer.
The laborer shall have given, or received, legal notice of
removal from the estate where he serves, before any one can
engage his services; otherwise the new contract to be void, and
the party engaging in tampering with a laborer employed by
others, will be dealt with according to law.
In case any owner or manager of an estate should dismiss a
laborer during the year without sufficient cause, or should
refuse to receive him at the time stipulated, or refuse to grant
him a passport when due notice of removal has been given, the
owner or manager is to pay full damages to the laborer, and to be
sentenced to a fine not exceeding $20.
5th. Laborers employed or rated as first, second, or third class
laborers, shall perform all the work in the field, or about the
works, or otherwise concerning the estate, which it hitherto has
been customary for such laborers to perform, according to the
season. They shall attend faithfully to their work, and willingly
obey the directions given by the employer, or the person
appointed by him. No laborer shall presume to dictate what work
he or she is to do, or refuse the work he may be ordered to
perform, unless expressly engaged for some particular work only.
If a laborer thinks himself aggrieved, he shall not therefore
leave the work, but in due time apply for redress to the owner of
the estate, or to the magistrate. It is the duty of all laborers
on all occasions, and at all times, to protect the property of
his employer, to prevent mischief to the estate, to apprehend
evil-doers, and not to give countenance to, or conceal, unlawful
practices.
6th. The working days to be as usual only five days in the week,
and the same days as hitherto. The ordinary work of estates is to
commence at sunrise, and to be finished at sunset, every day,
leaving one hour for breakfast, and two hours at noon from twelve
to two o'clock.
Planters who prefer to begin the work at seven o'clock in the
morning, making no separate breakfast time, are at liberty to
adopt this plan, either during the year, or when out of crop.
The laborers shall be present in due time at the place where they
are to work. The list to be called and answered regularly.
Whoever does not answer the list when called, is too late.
7th. No throwing of grass, or of wood, shall be exacted during
extra hours, all former agreements to the contrary
notwithstanding; but during crop the laborers are expected to
bring home a bundle of long tops from the field where they are at
work.
Cartmen and crook-people, when breaking off, shall attend
properly to their stock as hitherto usual.
8th. During crop, the mill gang, crook gang, boilermen, firemen,
still men, and any other person employed about the mill and the
boiling house, shall continue their work during breakfast and
noon hours, as hitherto usual; and the boilermen, firemen, megass
carriers, etc., also, during evening hours after sunset, when
required, but all workmen employed as aforesaid, shall be paid an
extra remuneration for the work done by them in extra hours.
The boiling house is to be cleared, the mill to be washed down,
and the megass to be swept up, before the laborers leave the work
as hitherto usual.
The mill is not to turn after six o'clock in the evening, and the
boiling not to be continued after ten o'clock, except by special
permission of the Governor-General, who then will determine, if
any, what extra remuneration shall be paid to the laborers.
9th. The laborers are to receive, until otherwise ordered, the
following remuneration:
A. The use of a house, or dwelling-rooms for themselves and
their children, to be built and repaired by the estate, but to be
kept in proper order by the laborers.
B. The use of a piece of provision ground, thirty feet square, as
usual, for every first and second class laborer, or if it be
standing ground, up to fifty feet in square. Third class laborers
are not entitled to, but may be allowed, some provision ground.
C. Weekly wages at the rate of fifteen cents to every first class
laborer, of ten cents to every second class laborer, and of five
cents to every third class laborer, for every working day. When
the usual allowance of meal and herrings has been agreed on in
part of wages, full weekly allowance shall be taken for five
cents a day, or twenty-five cents a week.
Nurses losing two hours every working day, shall be paid at the
rate of four full working days in the week. The wages of minors
to be paid as usual to their parents, or to the person in charge
of them.
Laborers not calling at pay time personally, or by another
authorized, to wait till next pay day, unless they were prevented
by working for the estate.
No attachment of wages for private debts to be allowed, nor more
than two thirds to be deducted for debts to the estate, unless
otherwise ordered by the magistrate.
Extra provisions occasionally given during the ordinary working
hours are not to be claimed as a right, nor to be bargained for.
10th. Work in extra hours during crop, is to be paid as follows:
To the mill gang, and to the crook gang, for working through the
breakfast hour, one stiver, and for working through noon, two
stivers per day. Extra provision is not to be given, except at
the option of the laborers in place of the money, or in part of
it.
The boilermen, firemen, the megass carriers, are to receive for
all days when the boiling is carried on until late hours, a
maximum pay of twenty (20) cents per day. No bargaining for extra
pay by the hour, is permitted.
Laborers working such extra hours only by turns, are not to have
additional payment.
11th. Tradesmen on estates are considered as engaged to perform
the same work as hitherto usual, assisting in the field, carting,
potting sugar, &c. They shall be rated as first, second, and
third class laborers, according to their proficiency; where no
definite terms have been agreed on previously, the wages of first
class tradesmen, having full work in their trade, are to be
twenty (20) cents per day. Any existing contract with tradesmen
is to continue until October next.
No tradesman is allowed to keep apprentices without the consent
of the owner of the estate, such apprentices to be bound for no
less a period than three years, and not to be removed without the
permission of the magistrate.
12th. No laborer is obliged to work for others on Saturday; but
if they choose to work for hire, it is proper that they should
give their own estate the preference. For a full day's work on
Saturday, there shall not be asked for nor given more than twenty
(20) cents to a first class laborer, thirteen (13) cents to a
second class laborer, seven (7) cents to a third class laborer.
Work on Saturday may, however, be ordered by the magistrate as a
punishment to the laborer, for having absented himself from work
during the week for one whole day or more, and for having been
idle during the week, and then the laborer shall not receive more
than his usual pay for a common day's work.
13th. All the male laborers, tradesmen included, above eighteen
years of age, working on an estate, are bound to take the usual
night watch by turns, but only once in ten days, notice to be
given before noon to break off from work in the afternoon with
the nurses, and to come to work next day at eight o'clock. The
watch to be delivered in the usual manner by nightfall and by
sunrise.
The above rule shall not be compulsory, except where voluntary
watchmen cannot be obtained at a hire the planters may be willing
to give, to save the time lost by employing their ordinary
laborers as watchmen.
Likewise the male laborers are bound once a month, on Sundays and
holydays, to take the day watch about the yard, and to act as
pasturemen, on receiving their usual pay for a week day's work;
this rule applies also to the crook-boys.
All orders about the watches to be duly entered in the day book
of the estate.
Should a laborer, having been duly warned to take the watch, not
attend, another laborer is to be hired in the place of the
absentee, and at his expense, not, however, to exceed fifteen
cents. The person who wilfully leaves the watch, or neglects it,
is to be reported to the magistrate and punished as the case
merits.
14th. Laborers wilfully abstaining from work on a working day,
are to forfeit their wages for the day, and will have to pay over
and above the forfeit, a fine which can be lawfully deducted in
their wages, of seven (7) cents for a first class laborer, five
(5) cents for a second class laborer, and two (2) cents for a
third class laborer. In crop or grinding days, when employed
about the works, in cutting canes, or in crook, an additional
punishment will be awarded for wilful absence and neglect by the
magistrate, on complaint being made. Laborers abstaining from
work for half a day, or breaking off from work before being
dismissed, to forfeit their wages for one day.
Laborers not coming to work in due time to forfeit half a day's
wages.
Parents keeping their children from work, shall be fined instead
of the children.
No charge of house rent is to be made in future, on account of
absence from work, or for the Saturday.
15th. Laborers wilfully abstaining from work for two or more days
during the week, or habitually absenting themselves, or working
badly and lazily shall be punished as the case merits, on
complaint to the magistrate.
16th. Laborers assaulting any person in authority on the estate,
or planning and conspiring to retard, or to stop the work of the
estate, or uniting to abstain from work, or to break their
engagements, shall be punished according to law, on investigation
before a magistrate.
17th. Until measures can be adopted for securing medical
attendance to the laborers, and for regulating the treatment of
the sick and the infirm, it is ordered:
That infirm persons unfit for any work, shall, as hitherto, be
maintained on the estates where they are domiciled, and to be
attended to by their next relations.
That parents or children of such infirm persons shall not remove
from the estate, leaving them behind, without making provision
for them to the satisfaction of the owner, or of the magistrate.
That laborers unable to attend to work on account of illness, or
on account of having sick children, shall make a report to the
manager, or any other person in authority on the estate, who, if
the case appears dangerous, and the sick person destitute, shall
cause medical assistance to be given.
That all sick laborers willing to remain in the hospital during
their illness, shall there be attended to, at the cost of the
estate.
18th. If a laborer reported sick, shall be at any time found
absent from the estate without leave, or is trespassing about the
estate, or found occupied with work requiring health, he shall be
considered skulking and wilfully absent from work.
When a laborer pretends illness, and is not apparently sick, it
shall be his duty to prove his illness by medical certificate.
19th. Pregnant women shall be at liberty to work with the small
gang as customary, and when confined, not to be called on to work
for seven weeks after their confinement.
Young children shall be fed and attended to during the hours of
work at some proper place, at the cost of the estate.
Nobody is allowed to stay from work on pretence of attending a
sick person, except the wife and the mother in dangerous cases of
illness.
20th. It is the duty of the managers to report to the police any
contagious or suspicious cases of illness and death; especially
when gross neglect is believed to have taken place, as when
children have been neglected by their mothers, in order that the
guilty person may be punished according to law.
21st. The driver or foreman on the estate, is to receive in wages
four and a half dollars monthly, if no other terms have been
agreed upon. The driver may be dismissed at any time during the
year with the consent of the magistrate. It is the duty of the
driver to see the work duly performed, to maintain order and
peace on the estate during the work, and at other times, and to
prevent and report all offences committed. Should any laborer
insult, or use insulting language towards him during, or on
account of the performance of his duties, such person is to be
punished according to law.
22nd. No laborer is allowed, without the especial permission of
the owner or manager, to appropriate wood, grass, vegetables,
fruits, and the like, belonging to the estate, nor to appropriate
such produce from other estates, nor to cut canes, or to burn
charcoal. Persons making themselves guilty of such offences,
shall be punished according to law, with fines or imprisonment
with hard labor; and the possession of such articles not
satisfactorily accounted for, shall be sufficient evidence of
unlawful acquisition.
23d. All agreements contrary to the above rules, are to be null
and void, and owners and managers of estates convicted of any
practice tending wilfully to counteract or avoid these rules by
direct or indirect means, shall be subject to a fine not
exceeding $200.
(Signed,) P. HANSEN.
GOVERNMENT HOUSE, ST. CROIX, 26th January, 1849.
--KNOX, _An Historical Account of St. Thomas, West Indies_,
pp. 248-255.
FOOTNOTES:
[397] Father O'Ryan.
[398] He had obtained this brilliant military title on account of his
fantastic attire.
[399] Extract from Captain Irminger's Report to the Minister of
Marine. Despatched 12th July, 1848.
[400] Then Captain-General of Porto Rico.
REVIEWS OF BOOKS
_A History of the United States_, Vol. IV. By EDWARD CHANNING,
Professor in Harvard University. New York, MacMillan Company, 1917.
Pp. 575. Price $2.75.
This is the fourth volume of what promises to be the most interesting
and possibly the most valuable single work hitherto produced in this
field. It begins with the discovery of the New World and when
completed will come down to 1910. The volume herein referred to covers
the period of "Federalists and Republicans from 1789 to 1815." The
work, therefore, goes over ground which has been extensively treated
by such writers as Richard Hildreth, James Schouler, Herman von Holst,
and James B. McMaster. Professor Channing, however, has given this
period an original treatment and incorporated into his narrative so
much material of human interest that his history makes a more readable
and at the same time a more informing work than any of the general
histories of the United States.
Professor Channing does not fall a victim to the mistakes of his
predecessors. Hildreth is prejudiced, Schouler is dry and ex parte,
von Holst is lost in the debates over slavery, and McMaster, at times,
sinks beneath the load of his undigested material. Realizing that the
problems of peace are greater than those of war and that the mere
proceedings of legislative bodies cannot altogether be depended upon
to reflect the political development of a country, Professor Channing
is making his history economic as well as political. It is just as
important to him to know the prices of commodities in 1800 as to know
the terms of Jay's treaty. In other words, Professor Channing has a
new point of view. He aims not to set forth an interesting narrative
but to marshall his facts so as to make interesting his well-balanced
account of the various forces which have operated to make this country
what it is to-day. The smooth style, common sense, and thoroughness
with which he is now doing this task will doubtless make this the
standard history of the United States.
In reading this valuable work, however, one cannot but express regret
that Professor Channing did not see fit to spell the word "Negro"
with a capital letter and to say more about the people of color. In
the volumes to follow the treatment of this element of our population
will probably be more extensive in keeping with the increasing
importance of the Negro as a factor in history of the later period.
Professor Channing will hardly be so unfortunate as most writers of
American history, who in their voluminous works give space for
honorable mention of every race but the black, considering it
sufficient to mention it, merely as the cause of the great agitation
which finally rent the nation and the present cause of the race
problem in the United States. The bearing of worthy achievements of
the Negroes on the development of this country should be mentioned
along with the deeds of others who have helped to make the nation.
* * * * *
_The Early History of Cuba, 1492 to 1586_. By I. A. WRIGHT. The
MacMillan Company, New York, 1916. Pp. 390.
This book begins with the discovery of Cuba by Columbus and ends with
the raid of Sir Francis Drake in the West Indies in 1586, by which it
was demonstrated that Great Britain ruled the sea and that the
retention of the Spanish possessions in the New World required that
they be provided with means of local defence rather than be left in
the position of dependence on protection from Spain. With this change
is connected the subsequent economic development of Cuba and the
success of the Spanish colonial policy.
In writing this book the author had an advantage over most historians
in this field. It was compiled from documents now available at
Seville, Spain. Miss Wright, however, did not use the documents found
in other archives. What documents she had access to, however, are
considered sufficient as they contain "letters and reports of the
island's governors, of royal officials and lesser clergy, of municipal
and ecclesiastical councils, of distinguished and humble citizens."
This large collection, too, contains some of the documents copied by
Munoz in his collection preserved at Madrid and some printed in the
unsatisfactory series of _Documentos Ineditos_. The author, therefore,
gives this book to the public as the only exhaustive treatment of
Cuban history of this period, which has hitherto been published,
despite the estimate we have placed on such works as those of De las
Casas, Oviedo, Gomara, Solis, Bernal Diaz del Costillo, and Herrera.
The introduction of slavery and the treatment of the bondmen, although
not objective points in this treatise, are given considerable space.
The slave trade was authorized in Cuba in 1513 and we hear of Bishop
Ubite in the possession of as many as 200 slaves in 1523 and later of
Bishop Maestro Miguel Ramirez with a license from the crown to take
half a dozen slaves and two white slave women. The writer shows how
the failure of the native captives to meet the demand for labor
eventually led to declaration making them the free vassals of the
crown and authorizing the enslavement of Negroes in sufficiently large
numbers to make up the deficiency. It was necessary to issue another
order rescinding the license of the slave-traders because of the fear
of servile insurrection, should the slave population too far exceed
that of the whites. This restricted importation of Negroes, however,
did not prevent their uprising in 1533, which, however, was easily
quelled, the four Negroes defending themselves to death.
The author explains too how slavery in Cuba or in the Spanish
possession differed from that of other nations in that although the
Spaniard regarded the black as socially and politically inferior, he
did not look down upon him as a "soul-less son of Cain condemned to
servitude by divine wrath" but recognized the black's equality with
him before the altar of the church. When he became free and even
before he became free the slave had rights before the law. "This
attitude of mind of the Spaniard--so very different indeed from that
of the slave-holding North American,--partly explains the facility
with which he mingled his 'pure, clean' white blood with black, so
begetting a mulatto population to be reckoned with later." Free
blacks, therefore, soon appeared. By 1568 forty in Havana had bought
their freedom. Others, though still slaves, lived independently, the
men doing such as working at trades and the women running eating
houses, but all reporting their earnings to their masters at
intervals.
C. B. WALTER.
* * * * *
_Sierra Leone: Its Peoples, Products and Secret Societies_. By H.
OSMAN NEWLAND, F. R. Hist. S., F.I.D. John Bale, Sons and Danielsson,
London, 1916. Pp. 247.
This work consists of the observations on a journey by canoe, rail and
hammock through Sierra Leone. To this is appended fifty-three pages of
matter on "Practical Planting Notes for Sierra Leone and West Africa,"
by H. Hamel Smith. Subject to sufficient demand, however, it is
proposed to issue this book, annually or biennially, with amendments
and additions to date, as a Sierra Leone Year Book and with a Who's
Who section. Accordingly, it treats of the geographic and economic
conditions of that land and the rule of 1,500,000 Africans, largely by
less than 900 Europeans. Taking up the elements of population the
author devotes much space to the Creole and Aborigine elements, giving
the characteristics of these classes. He then considers the river
system, the railroads, life in the interior, the rubber industry, the
native chiefs, the amusements of the people, native law, peculiar
customs of the people, their secret societies, the important products
and the management of estates.
The author undertakes to answer the questions as to whether this is a
country for a black or white man to live in, which of the two should
rule, whether the people are becoming Europeanized in their habits and
religion and whether it is a place for commerce and capital. Answering
the last question first the author asserts that there are in Sierra
Leone many possibilities for smaller capitalists and companies. As for
the climate, Sierra Leone is much maligned, especially so since
science has reclaimed its swamps and decreased the death rate. The
writer too is satisfied with the progress with which the natives are
taking over European civilization, although he is not anxious to see
the African adopt this culture _in toto_ because of the difference in
climate. Unlike some other travelers, he found the natives
industrious, honest, and truthful. Moreover, he does not share the
prejudices foreigners have against the Creoles and blacks. He believes
that the white man should rule not so long as he is white but so long
as he can prove his superiority. "The black man," says he, "will only
respect the rule of the white man as long as the latter can prove his
superiority, and consequently, reasonableness." The natives have such
a keen sense of justice that they are not blinded by hypocrisy. The
writer believes that neither the white man nor his religion must rule
because they are white and not black. The administrators, too, must
not rule for themselves but as representatives only. "It is Britain
that must rule--Britain which has one law for all, and administers it
not for white or black, but for all who own her sway whatever their
colour, race, or religion." While the portraiture of the sense of
justice of Great Britain does not square with her colonial policy, the
caution to those administering the affairs of Sierra Leone is well
put.
After all that he says, however, the writer does not seem to be so
sanguine as to future of West Africa. "Probably West Africa," says
he, "will always remain a land of romance, mystery and imagination,"
Science may reclaim the swamp. The iron railroad may open up tracks
for the engineer and planter to exploit its vast resources. But
Nature, unchecked by man, has been allowed too long to run riot there
among its impenetrable forests. Never, perhaps, will it be entirely
subdued. As with the primeval forest, so with the people.
Mohammedanism, Christianity, modern education, have all tried their
civilizing influences upon the West African, and nowhere, perhaps,
with more success than in Sierra Leone. But the old Adam dies slowly.
Civilization is too tame, too quiet for those who love noise and
mystery. And this feeling is infectious.
J. O. BURKE.
* * * * *
_Trade Politics and Christianity in Africa and the East_. By A. J.
MACDONALD, M.A. With an introduction by SIR HARRY JOHNSTON. Longmans,
Green and Co., London, 1916. Pp. 296.
This is a dissertation awarded the Maitland Prize at Cambridge in 1915
for an essay on the thesis, _Problems raised by the contact of the
West with Africa and the East and the part that Christianity can play
in their solution_. The work shows scientific treatment. The facts
used were obtained largely from the Government Blue Books, the Minutes
of Evidence attached to Reports of the Committee of Inquiry into the
Liquor Trade in Southern Nigeria together with the reports of the
United Races Committee, the Journal of the Anglo-Indian Temperance
Association, the British Quarterlies, the publications of the Society
for the Suppression of the Opium Trade, and the reports of the
Proceedings of the First Universal Race Congress.
The writer traces the development of contact with the natives by means
of trade which, supplying them with what they want rather than with
what they need, often demoralizes them. Then along with the problem of
trade comes that of labor, giving rise to labor contracts or forced
labor, and this with another problem of preventing the native
population from too far exceeding that of the whites. Then comes the
consideration of the liquor question, the opium trade, education and
self-government, and inter-racial marriage, with the merits and
demerits of the methods of those who have attacked these problems.
Caution is given in the assertion that Christianity must be the
life-principle. "Imperialism," says the author, "is a matter of
religion." The extension of the empire, therefore, is an extension of
religion. The success of an imperial policy then depends upon the
degree of attention paid religion, which lies deeper than
statesmanship, deeper than civilization, which is, indeed, the
inspiration of both. Administrators, therefore, must not neglect
Christianity, as they are only imperialists so long as they remember
that they are in spite of themselves religious men. "Translated into
practical terms," says he, "the theory means that if the black and
white races are unequal in intelligence and social capacity they are
equal on the basis of common Christianity. The old doctrine of the
'solidarity of humanity' needs to be revived and to be applied over a
wider area. The Empire can only be extended securely by the extension
of its religion, but that means that settler, trader and administrator
must realize in the black man a capacity to receive Christianity." The
Church, too, must cease to regard the propagation of the gospel as its
own task and missionaries must no longer retard the extension of the
empire by carrying on their work as members of an independent
organization.
Taking up inter-racial marriage, the author raises many questions. He
does not seem to fear race fusion, as there is evidence "to prove that
the crossing of the different races does produce definite physical and
mental results in succeeding generations." He contends that the white
man's objection to connection with women of colored races and to the
children who spring from those unions has no scientific justification.
The exclusive attitude of the white man is accounted for by the
difference in degree of civilization, the so-called superiority of the
white race. Although he does not show how science has uprooted the
idea of racial superiority, the author does raise the question as to
whether the integrity of the dominant races has been maintained. As
evidence of this he cites the facts that the Pelasgii of Greece were,
according to Professor Sturgis, of African origin, that Sir Harry
Johnston traced Negro blood across India and the Malay States to
Polynesia, that a negroid race penetrated Italy and France, according
to recent discoveries, leaving traces at the present day in the
physiognomy of the people of Southern Italy, Sicily, Sardinia, and
Western France, and even in parts of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, and that even to-day there are some examples of
Keltiberian peoples of western Scotland and western Wales and southern
and western Ireland of distinctly negroid type.
W. R. WARD.
NOTES
The following letter was addressed to the _New Orleans Daily States_
by Mr. W. O. Hart:
LOUISIANA GOVERNORS.
NEW ORLEANS, LA., April 19, 1917.
EDITOR _Daily States_.
_Dear Sir_:--Recently your paper published a very interesting
account of many governors of Louisiana at one time being in the
Cosmopolitan Hotel, but in giving the names of the ex-governors
you omitted three, William P. Kellogg, P. B. S. Pinchback and
General Joseph R. Brooke.
Kellogg while never elected was inaugurated in January, 1873, and
served a full term of four years, having been upheld in office by
President Grant.
Pinchback, who was elected President of the Senate when Oscar J.
Dunn, elected lieutenant governor, died, in 1868, became acting
governor on December 10, 1872, when Governor H. C. Warmoth was
impeached and served until the inauguration of Kellogg, January
13, 1873.
There are now on the statute books ten laws passed at this extra
session and which bear the approval of Pinchback; they will be
found bound with the Acts of 1873, pages 37 to 50.
Pinchback's title as acting governor was upheld by the Supreme
Court of Louisiana, in the case of Morgan vs. Kennard, decided in
March, 1873, and reported in the 25th An. Reports, page 238,
which was a contest over the office of Justice of the Supreme
Court between John Kennard, appointed by Warmoth, and P. H.
Morgan, appointed by Pinchback, and the judgment was affirmed by
the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of Kennard vs.
Morgan, reported in 92d U. S. 480. The opinion was rendered by
Chief Justice Ludeling and concurred in by Justices Taliaferro
and Howell, and Justice Wyly dissented. The case was tried in the
Superior District Court before Judge Jacob Hawkins who decided in
favor of Morgan and this judgment was affirmed by the Supreme
Court.
Judge Kennard was appointed to the Court on December 3, 1872,
vice W. W. Howe resigned; Morgan was appointed on January 4,
1873, and at the end of the litigation took his seat as a member
of the Court on February 1st, serving until the Manning Court
went into office on January 9, 1877.
After the eventful fourteenth of September, 1874, when General
Emory took charge, he appointed Colonel (now Brigadier General
retired) Joseph R. Brooke, military governor of Louisiana, but he
only served one day, because President Grant disapproved of the
appointment and ordered General Emory to reinstate Governor
Kellogg.
W. O. HART.
* * * * *
In the January number of the _South Atlantic Quarterly_ Gilbert T.
Stephenson, Judge of the Municipal Court of Winston-Salem, North
Carolina, writes on the subject, "_Education and Crime among
Negroes_." Although he accepts as facts certain unreliable statistics
concerning the criminality of Negroes, he nevertheless presents the
subject in a liberal manner. His following conclusion is interesting.
"All the available statistics and the unanimous opinion of men in
a position to know the facts would seem to be proof that
education--elementary or advanced, industrial or
literary--diminishes crime among Negroes. The alarming high rate
of Negro criminality is as much a condemnation of the community
in which it exists as of the offending Negroes themselves. Having
discovered that the Negro school is, at least, one institution
which successfully combats crime, the community cannot afford to
withhold its active interest in and generous support of its Negro
school. The more money spent in making such schools responsive to
the special needs of the race, the less will have to be spent on
crime, and if it comes to a question of cost, it is cheaper in
the long run to maintain and equip schools--Negro schools,
even--than police departments, courts, jails, penitentiaries, and
reformatories; for the school, properly conducted, makes the
Negro a greater asset, while the court finds him a liability, and
nearly always leaves him a greater liability to the community."
* * * * *
Some interesting articles in various publications are: "Problems of
Race Assimilation," by Arthur C. Parker, in the January number of _The
American Indian Magazine_; The Cavalry Fight at Carrizal, by Louis S.
Morey, in _The Journal of the United States Cavalry_ _Association_;
The Present Labor Situation, in the January number of _The Annals of
the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences_; Physic Factors
in the New American Race Situation, in _The Journal of Race
Development_, by George W. Ellis; and La Independencia de Tejas y la
Esclavitud, by Senor V. Salado Alvarez, in the Cuban journal _La
Reforma Social_.
Other such articles in this field are: Germany's Ambition in Central
Africa, by Emile Cammaerts, in the October number of _The National
Review_; The Present System of Education in Uganda, in the July number
of _Uganda Notes_; The Gold Coast: Some Consideration of its
Structures, People, and Natural History, by A. E. Kitson, in the July
number of the _Geographic Journal_.
* * * * *
The arrangements for the biennial meeting of the Association for the
Study of Negro Life and History have been almost completed. A majority
of the members of the Executive Council desire that it be held on
Wednesday, the twenty-ninth of August, and have so ordered it. The
program has not yet been made up, but several persons of prominence
have promised to attend and speak. Among these are Mrs. Mary Church
Terrell, Dean Kelly Miller, Professor George E. Haynes, Dr. R. R.
Wright, Jr., Mr. Monroe N. Work, and Dr. Thomas J. Jones. Two of the
important topics will be _Some Values of Negro History_ and _The Negro
in the World War_.
THE AFRICAN ORIGIN OF THE GRECIAN CIVILIZATION[401]
I imagine, ladies and gentlemen, that when you first read the subject
of the address to be delivered before this society to-day, you were a
bit surprised, and, I trust, a bit interested. To claim an African
origin for the Grecian civilization is hardly in keeping with the
historical traditions inherited from our school days. It savors of a
sort of heresy and passes far beyond the limits of popular opinion.
There is a peculiar unanimity among all historians to state without
reservation that the greatest civilization the world has ever known
was pre-eminently Aryan, but historians are not always to be relied
upon. They write for their own race and times and are careful to give
as little credit as possible to races and events which fall within the
pale of their prejudices. I question, however, if there is to be
gained any ultimate good by subverting truth and popularizing error.
Indeed, I believe that if to-day our historians, authors, press and
pulpit would give the public the truth as far as it is possible to
attain it, to-morrow would find us filled with a new vigor and a fresh
determination to conquer the wrongs and inconsistencies of human life.
The old idea of the Grecian civilization was that it sprung, like
Minerva, full armed from the brow of Zeus. It seemed to have no
tangible beginning. The fabled kings and heroes of the Homeric Age,
with their palaces and strongholds, were said to have been humanized
sun-myths; their deeds but songs woven by wandering minstrels to win
their meed of bread. Yet there has always been a suspicion among
scholars that this view was wrong. The more we study the moral aspects
of humanity the more we become convinced that the flower and fruit of
civilization are evolved according to laws as immutable as those laws
governing the manifestations of physical life. Historians have written
that Greece was invaded by Aryans about 1400 B.C., and that henceforth
arose the wonderful civilization; but the student knows that such was
an impossibility and that some vital factor has been left out of the
equation. When the Aryans invaded Greece they were savages from
Neolithic Europe and could not possibly have possessed the high
artistic capacities and rich culture necessary for the unfolding of
Ægean civilization. "Of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a
bramble bush gather they grapes."
Speaking of the two foremost Grecian states, Herodotus writes as
follows: "These are the Lacedæmonians and Athenians, the former of
Doric, the latter of Ionic blood. And, indeed, these two nations had
held from very early times the most distinguished place in Greece, the
one being Pelasgic, the other a Hellenic people, and the one having
never quitted its original seas, while the other had been excessively
migratory." "The Hellenes," wrote Professor Boughton in the _Arena_
some years ago, "were the Aryans first to be brought into contact with
these sunburnt Hamites, who, let it be remembered, though classed as
whites, were probably as strongly Nigritic as are the Afro-Americans."
"Greek art is not [Greek: autochthonus]," said Thiersch some fifty
years ago, "but we derived from the Pelasgians, who, being blood
relations of the Egyptians, undoubtedly brought the knowledge from
Egypt." "The aptitude for art among all nations of antiquity,"
remarked Count de Gobineau a few years later, "was derived from an
amalgamation with black races. The Egyptians, Assyrians and Etruscans
were nothing but half-breeds, mulattoes." In the year 1884 Alexander
Winchell, the famous American geologist, upset Americans with an
article appearing in the _North American Review_. From it I quote the
following: "The Pelasgic empire was at its meridian as early as 2500
B.C. This people came from the islands of the Ægean, and more remotely
from Asia Minor. They were originally a branch of the sunburnt Hamitic
stock that laid the basis of civilization in Canaan and Mesopotamia,
destined later to be Semitized. Danaus and his daughters--that is, the
fugitive 'shepherds' from Egypt--sought refuge among their Hamitic
kindred in the Peloponnesus about 1700 B.C. Three hundred years before
this these Pelasgians had learned the art of weaving from Aryan
immigrants. In time they occupied the whole of Greece and Thessaly.
Before 200 B.C. they established themselves in Italy. Thus do we get a
conception of a vast Hamitic empire existing in prehistoric times,
whose several nationalities were centered in Mesopotamia, Canaan,
Egypt, Northwestern Africa, Iberia, Greece, Italy, Sicily, Sardinia
and Central Europe--an intellectual ethnic family, the first of the
Adamites to emerge into historic light, but with the records of its
achievements buried in gloom almost as dense as that which covers the
ruder populations that the Hamites everywhere displaced. To this
family, chiefly, are to be traced the dark complexions of the nations
and tribes still dwelling around the shores of the Mediterranean."
It was to be expected that such statements as the foregoing would
throw the scholastic world into a ferment. There was a scramble to
bolster up the cause of Aryanism and to preserve this one
civilization, at least, to the credit of the Caucasian race. Homer was
scanned with a patience unknown to college students and the classic
myths were refined in the alembics of master minds. Yet there were
some who cared for truth more than for racial glory and among them was
Dr. Schlieman. Armed with a spade he went to the classic lands and
brought to light a real Troy; at Tiryns and Mycenæ he laid to view the
palaces and tombs and treasures of Homeric kings. His message back to
scholars who waited tensely for his verdict was, "It looks to me like
the civilization of an African people." A new world opened to
archeologists and the Ægean became the Mecca of the world. Traces of
this prehistoric civilization began to make their appearance far
beyond the limits of Greece itself. From Cyprus and Palestine to
Sicily and Southern Italy, and even to the coasts of Spain, the
colonial and industrial enterprise of the Myceneans has left its mark
throughout the Mediterranean basin. The heretics were vindicated.
"Whether they like it or not," declared Sir Arthur Evans before the
London Hellenic Society a short time ago, "classical students must
consider origins. The Grecians whom we discern in the new dawn were
not the pale-skinned northerners, but essentially the dark-haired,
brown-complexioned race." Perhaps Sir Arthur's words will carry weight
with you when I remark that his wonderful discoveries in classical
lands have brought him the honor of election last year as president of
the British Association, the most notable assemblage of scholars in
the world. I might further mention that Professor Sergi, of the
University of Rome, has founded a new study of the origin of European
civilization upon the remarkable archeological finds, entitled "The
Mediterranean Race." From this masterly work I choose the following:
"Until recent years the Greeks and Romans were regarded as Aryans, and
then as Aryanized peoples; the great discoveries in the Mediterranean
have overturned all these views. To-day, although a few belated
supporters of Aryanism still remain, it is becoming clear that the
most ancient civilization of the Mediterranean is not of Aryan
origin. The Aryans were savages when they invaded Europe; they
destroyed in part the superior civilization of the Neolithic
populations, and could not have created the Græco-Latin civilization.
The primitive populations of Europe originated in Africa and the basin
of the Mediterranean was the chief center of movement when the African
migrations reached the center and north of Europe."
What, then, are some of those discoveries which have so completely
destroyed the ethnic fetish of the Caucasian race? The greatest and
most conclusive of them all was the discovery of the palace of Minos
by Sir Arthur Evans. In 1894 this scientist undertook a series of
exploration campaigns in central and eastern Crete; it has so happened
that some years previous he had been hunting out ancient engraved
stones at Athens and came upon some three or four-sided seals showing
on each of their faces groups of hieroglyphics and linear signs
distinct from the Egyptian and Hittite, but evidently representing
some form of script. Upon inquiry Sir Arthur learned that these seals
had been found in Crete, and to Crete he went. The legends of the
famous labyrinth and palace of Minos came back to him and were
refreshed by the gossipy peasants, who repeated the tales that had
come down as ancestral memories. In wandering around the site of his
proposed labors Sir Arthur noticed some ruined walls, the great gypsum
blocks of which were engraved with curious symbolic characters,
crowning the southern slope of a hill known as Kephala, overlooking
the ancient site of Knossos, the city of Minos. It was the prelude to
the discovery of the ruins of a palace, the most wonderful
archeological find of modern times.
Who was Minos? In the myths that have come down to us he was a sort of
an Abraham, a friend of God, and often appears as almost identical
with his native Zeus. He was the founder and ruler of the royal city
of Knossos, the Cretan Moses, who every nine years repaired to the
famous cave of Zeus whether on the Cretan Ida or on Dicta, and
received from the god of the mountain the laws for his people. He was
powerful and great and extended his dominions far and wide over the
Ægean Isles and coast lands, and even Athens paid to him its tribute
of men and maidens. To him is attributed the founding of the great
Minoan civilization.
I will not have time today to review the mass of archeological data
which the discoveries of this civilization have produced. They
consist of cyclopean ruins of cities and strongholds, tombs, vases,
statues, votive bronzes, and exquisitely engraved gems and intaglios.
That which is most valuable in establishing the claim of the African
origin of the Grecian civilization is the discovery of the frescoes on
the palace walls. These opened up a new epoch in painting and are of
the utmost interest to the world. The colors are almost as brilliant
as when laid down more than three thousand years ago. Among these
frescoes are numerous representations of the race whose civilization
they represent. It was a race neither Aryan nor Semitic, but African.
The portraitures follow the Egyptian precedent and for the first time
the mysterious Minoan and Mycenean people rise before us. The tint of
the flesh is of a deep reddish brown and the limbs finely moulded. The
profile of the face is pure and almost classically Greek. The hair is
black and curling and the lips somewhat full, giving the entire
physiognomy a distinct African cast. In the women's quarters the
frescoes show them to be much fairer, the difference in complexion
being due, probably, to the seclusion of harem life. But in their
countenances, too, remain those distinguishable features which link
with the African race.
You will pardon me, I trust, if occasion is taken here to impress upon
you the value of genuine archeological evidence. Historians may write
anything to reflect their vanity or their prejudices, but when the
remains of ancient civilizations rise out of the dust and sands and
give the lie to their assertions there is nothing more to be said.
Egypt, Mesopotamia, Phoenecia, Greece, and Rome, have all been claimed
for the Aryan, but the spade has unearthed stone that bears sentient
witness to the fact that Africa has been the pioneer in the field of
civilization. We wonder, then, why the historians continue to ignore
these remains and persist in continuing falsehood. There can be but
one answer and that is racial vanity prefers falsehood to truth and
prejudice demands suppression rather than expression.
Yet these frescoes of Crete need not be such a surprise to scholars
and public after all. The very classics themselves have more than
hinted of the great part played by Africa in the development of
Grecian civilization. Let us revert to the myths and trace the descent
of Minos and his progeny. You will recollect that the ancient heroes
of Greece were divided into the older and younger branches, the former
belonging to the house of Inachus, distinctly Hamitic, while the
latter belonged to the race of Japotus, distinctly a mixture.
The Pelasgic races of the south traced their descent from Inachus, the
river god and son of Oceanus. The son of Inachus, Phoroneus, lived in
the Peloponnesus and founded the town of Argos. He was succeeded by
his son, Pelasgus, from whom the aforementioned races of the south
derived their name. Io, the divine sister of Phoroneus, had the good
fortune, or perhaps misfortune, to attract the attention of the
all-loving Zeus and as a consequence incurred the enmity of Hera. She
is transformed into a beautiful heifer by Zeus, but a gadfly sent by
Hera torments her until she is driven mad and starts upon those famous
wanderings which became the subject of many of the most celebrated
stories of antiquity. Æschylus reviews her roamings in his great
tragedy, "Prometheus Bound," and makes Io to arrive at Mount Caucasus
to which the fire-bringer is chained. It is here that Prometheus
delivers to her the oracle given him by his mother, Themis,
Titan-born. He directs her to Canobos, a city on the Nile, and tells
her that there Zeus will restore her mind.
"and thou shalt bear a child
Of Zeus begotten, Epaphos, 'Touchborn,'
Swarthy of hue."
Aryan parents do not usually bear black children and to show that
Æschylus was thoroughly cognizant of the ethnical relationship here
implied, permit me to quote from "The Suppliants," another of his
tragedies. The Suppliants were the fifty daughters of Danaus, the
Shepherds of Egypt, and they described themselves as, "We, of swart
sunburnt race," "our race that sprang from Epaphos," and when they
appear before the Argive king, claiming his country as their ancestral
home, their color causes him to question their claims in the following
words:
"Nay, stranger, what ye tell is past belief
For me to hear, that ye from Argos spring;
For ye to Libyan women are most like,
And nowise to our native maidens here.
Such race might Neilos breed, and Kyprian mould,
Like yours, is stamped by skilled artificers
On women's features; and I hear that those
Of India travel upon camels borne,
Swift as the horse, yet trained as sumpter-mules,
E'en those who as the Æthiops' neighbors dwell.
And had ye borne the bow, I should have guessed,
Undoubting, ye were of the Amazon tribe."
No, Æschylus made no mistake. He meant just what he wrote and the
discoveries of the wonderful Minoan civilization have proven that the
swarthy touch-born son of Zeus and Io was the incarnation of the
African element that raised Greece to the very pinnacle of
civilization. Minos is in direct descent from Epaphos and from the
latter's prolific progeny we note such names as Agenor, Cadmus,
Europa, Ægyptus, Danaus, Perseus, Menelaus, husband of the famous
Helen, Hercules, and Agamemnon, chosen by the Greeks to lead them
against Troy.
If I should conclude at this point my thesis would be complete and
conclusive, but there are other subjects which demand some attention.
I cannot pass in silence the supposed testimony to the presence of the
fair type in Greece, and to its superiority over the darker
population, furnished by the Homeric poems. This supposed testimony
has precipitated wordy wars as terrible, though perhaps less
sanguinary, as those which were engaged in by the gods and heroes
themselves. The fault, however, lies with the translators rather than
with the epics. From the work of these industrious authors we get the
idea that golden hair and blue eyes were so common that there was
little chance of any other sort of people lingering around. The truth
of the matter is that these translators, like historians, have
permitted their prejudices to warp their accuracy. There is not in the
entire writings of Homer an adjective or description applying to any
of the principals that even suggests a single one of them having blue
eyes and golden hair. Indeed, it is quite the reverse. Athena is
[Greek: glaukôpis]; [Greek: glaukos] means blue like the sea and the
unclouded sky; the olive is [Greek: glaukos] also, and Athena is
guardian of the olive. [Greek: Glaukôpis] means that her eyes are
brilliant and terrible. Apollo in Homer is [Greek: chrusaoros], that
is to say, bearing a golden sword; while [Greek: xanthos], which has
been mistranslated to mean fair, means reddish brown and brown,
Artemis is [Greek: chruseê], golden, that is to say, brilliant, but
never fair. Neptune is [Greek: kuanochaitês], that is to say, bluish,
blackish, like the dark and deep waves of the ocean. Eos, the dawn, is
[Greek: chrusothronos, rododaktulos, krokopeplos], because the color
of the dawn is golden, rosy and red. Neither Hera nor Kalypsos is fair
from the descriptive adjectives. Achilles is [Greek: xanthos] which,
as was said before, means reddish brown and brown. Agamemnon is also
[Greek: xanthos] and remember, if you please, that he is in direct
descent from Epaphos, the swarthy ancestor of the Pelasgic houses.
So you see that even our translators are not to be trusted. Professor
Sergi made an extensive investigation of the supposed testimony to the
presence of the fair type in Greece and his conclusions are as
follows: "In Homer none of the individuals are fair in the
ethnographic sense of the word. I could bring forth a wealth of facts
to show that what I have just stated regarding the anthropological
characters of the Homeric gods and heroes may also be said, and with
more reason, of the types of Greek and Roman statuary which, though in
the case of the divinities they may be conventionalized, do not in the
slightest degree recall the features of a northern race." Hence the
blue-eyed and golden-haired gods and goddesses who grace the canvases
of our art galleries and theater curtains are but pigmentary creations
from the minds of artists who visualize the peculiarities of their own
race just as the Jewish Madonna is depicted as a Spanish, Dutch,
German, English, Italian, Russian, Scandinavian, and even as an
African mother by the different nationalities in turn.
Another idea which seems to be rapidly taking hold upon the scholastic
mind is that the Iliad and Odyssey are in reality Minoan epics made
over, if you please, to fit the later Grecian epochs. While the Homer
we know professedly commemorates the deeds of Achaean heroes,
everything about them is non-Hellenic. The whole picture of the
civilization, including home life, dress, religious worship, and
architecture, is Minoan and Mycenean. Warriors' weapons are of bronze
when the age to which we attribute Homer was an iron age. The
combatants use huge body shields when, as a matter of fact, such
shields had been obsolete long previous to 1200 B.C. The form of
worship, hymns and invocations to deities, and the use of certain
sacrificial forms were all adaptations from the Mycenean ritual. The
arrangements of the palaces and courts as narrated in the epics were
counterparts of the Minoan and Mycenean palaces and had long since
passed out of existence. Among the discoveries in Crete have been
found pictorial scenes exactly as described in Homer, and the artistic
representations upon the shield of Achilles and upon the shield of
Hercules, as described by Hesiod, have been duplicated among the ruins
of Crete. Upon intaglios recovered we find combatants striking at each
other's throats and you will recollect that Achilles does just this
thing in his fight with Hector. I might continue these coincidences
indefinitely, but I believe that the point I desire to make is
sufficiently clear to merit your attention. The great Grecian epics
are epics of an African people and Helen, the cause of the Trojan
war, must henceforth be conceived as a beautiful brown skin girl.
In the press and periodicals of our country we read that the classics
are doomed and about to pass out of our lives, but the classics can
never die. I sometimes dream of a magical time when the sun and moon
will be larger than now and the sky more blue and nearer to the world.
The days will be longer than these days and when labor is over and
there falls the great flood of light before moonrise, minds now dulled
with harsh labor and commercialism will listen to those who love them
as they tell stories of ages past, stories that will make them tingle
with pleasure and joy. Nor will these story tellers forget the
classics. They will hear the surge of the ocean in Homer and march
with his heroes to the plains of Troy; they will wander with Ulysses
and help him slay the suitors who betrayed the hospitality of the
faithful Penelope; they will escape from Priam's burning city with
Æneas, weep over Dido's love, and help him to found a nation beside
the Tiber. And the translators who shall again bring into life the
dead tongues will not let prejudice cloud their brains or truth make
bitter their tongues. The heroes of Homer shall, like the Prince of
Morocco, wear the livery of the burnished sun and be knit by binding
ties to the blood of Afric's clime from whence civilization took its
primal rise.
Permit me now, ladies and gentlemen, to show definitely the debt which
Greece owes to the Minoan and Mycenean civilizations. Crete, as I have
said before, appears to be the center from which the Mediterranean
culture radiated. It is the "Mid-Sea Land," a kind of half-way house
between three continents, and its geographical position makes it the
logical cradle of European civilization. It is near the mainland of
Greece, opposite the mouths of the Nile and in easy communication with
Asia Minor, with which it was actually connected in late geological
times. As I mentioned before, the civilization expanded in every
direction and at the time of the conquest it had firm hold upon
Greece, appearing at Mycenæ, Tiryns, Thebes, Orochomenos, and other
places. That some vanguard of Aryan immigrants came into contact with
this culture at its climax is plain from the evidence furnished by
Homer. That they mingled with the inhabitants is certain. The later
onrush about 1200 B.C. destroyed in part the civilization found there,
but fortunately there was not utter destruction. These rude people
realized the difference between their savagery and their enemies'
culture. They, too, merged with the inhabitants and formed the Grecian
people of historic times. This amalgamation is clearly apparent in the
Greeks to-day and because of it Count de Gobineau has called their
ancestors half-breeds and mulattoes. Note, also, if you will, that
Greek genius burned brightest in those parts of Greece where the
Minoan elements were most thoroughly planted.
If you should inquire the source of the Minoan civilization I would
first call your attention to the fact that Herodotus attributed much
of the Grecian civilization to Egypt, and secondly to the opinion
expressed by Sir Arthur Evans in his presidential address before the
British Association last fall. "My own recent investigations," said
he, "have more and more brought home to me the all pervading community
between Minoan Crete and the land of Pharaohs. When we realize the
great indebtedness of the succeeding classical culture of Greece to
its Minoan predecessor the full significance of this conclusion will
be understood. Ancient Egypt itself can no longer be regarded as
something apart from general human history. Its influences are seen to
lie about the very cradle of our civilization. The first quickening
impulse came to Crete from the Egyptian and not from the Oriental
side." Herodotus has been called the father of lies, but at this late
date we again see him vindicated in a conclusion reached by the
greatest living authority upon classical archeology.
Before closing I wish again to enforce the fact that the ferment
creating the wonderful Grecian civilization was preeminently the
ferment of African blood. Take all the archeological facts of the last
fifty years and read them up or down, across or diagonally, inside and
out, and this fact rises into your mind like a Banquo that will not
down. Historians may distort truth and rob the African race of its
historical position, but facts are everywhere throwing open the secret
closets of nations and exposing ethnic skeletons that laugh and jest
at our racial vanities. The Aryan savages of Europe came down upon
Greece, found there a great civilization, merged with the inhabitants
and builded a greater. The all but savage European of the Dark Ages
knew nothing of culture save what had been taught him by the Roman
legions, the heirs of the Mediterranean civilization. This little was
almost forgotten until religious fanaticism started the Crusades and
brought them into contact with the civilized refinement of the
Arabians, Moors and Saracens, likewise peoples in whose veins flowed
the fiery ferment of African blood. If, as Sir Arthur Evans declares,
classical students must consider origins and admit the ancient
Grecians of African descent, so must they go a bit further and admit
the Renaissance to have sprung because of contact between feudal
Europe and African Mohammedanism. Again we must admit, no matter how
bitter the taste, that the mixed race has always been the great
race--the pure race always the stagnant race. One potent reason for
the possible downfall of European civilization to-day is the fact that
the Aryan element has proven incapable of the mighty trust. It has
forgotten the everlasting lesson of history that mergence of distinct
types means the perpetuation of nationalism. The sole tenet of Europe
has been the domination of the world by the Caucasian and suddenly it
discovers that the term Caucasian is too narrow to include both Saxon
and Teuton. Hence a war for the extermination of both.
The end of the world is not near and the dream of a millennium is
equidistant. The sum of all that is past is but a prelude of that
which is to come. It has taken the brute a myriad of years for his
gaze to reach beyond them. Civilization is a mixture of dictions and
contradictions and none of us to-day is sure that we know just what it
means. Through all there yet remain:
"Those first affections,
Those shadowy recollections,
Which, be they what they may,
Are yet the fountain light of all our day,--
Are yet the master-light of all our seeing,--
Upholds us, cherish and have powers to make
Our noisy years seem moments in the being
Of Eternal Silence."
I close with the hope of a time when earthly values will be measured
with a justice now deemed divine. It is then that Africa and her
sun-browned children will be saluted. In that day men will gladly
listen with open minds when she tells how in the deep and dark
pre-historic night she made a stairway of the stars so that she might
climb and light her torch from the altar fires of heaven, and how she
has held its blaze aloft in the hall of ages to brighten the wavering
footsteps of earthly nations.
FOOTNOTES:
[401] This address was delivered before the Omaha Philosophical
Society, April 1, 1917.
THE JOURNAL
OF
NEGRO HISTORY
VOL. II--OCTOBER, 1917--NO. 4
SOME HISTORICAL ERRORS OF JAMES FORD RHODES
While on a visit to Cleveland, Ohio, some time ago, the guest of my
good friend George A. Myers, my attention was called to Rhodes'
History of the United States. This was due, no doubt, to the fact that
Mr. Myers had been in correspondence with Mr. Rhodes relative to
certain points in the career of the late M. A. Hanna, brought out by
Mr. Rhodes, which, in the opinion of Mr. Myers, were not accurate. In
glancing over one of the volumes, I came across the chapters giving
information about what took place in the State of Mississippi during
the period of Reconstruction. I detected so many statements and
representations which to my own knowledge were absolutely groundless
that I decided to read carefully the entire work. I regret to say
that, so far as the Reconstruction period is concerned, it is not only
inaccurate and unreliable but it is the most biased, partisan and
prejudiced historical work I have ever read. In his preface to volume
six, the author was frank enough to use the following language:
"Nineteen years' almost exclusive devotion to the study of one period
of American history has had the tendency to narrow my field of
vision." Without doing the slightest violence to the truth, he could
have appropriately added these words: "And since the sources of my
information touching the Reconstruction period were partial, partisan
and prejudiced, my field of vision has not only been narrowed, but my
mind has been poisoned, my judgment has been warped, my decisions and
deductions have been biased and my opinions have been so influenced
that my alleged facts have not only been exaggerated, but my comments,
arguments, inferences and deductions based upon them, can have very
little if any value for historical purposes."
Many of his alleged facts were so magnified and others so minimized as
to make them harmonize with what the author thought the facts should
be rather than what they actually were. In the first place, the very
name of his work is a misnomer: "History of the United States from the
Compromise of 1850 _to the Final Restoration of Home Rule at the South
in 1877_." I have emphasized the words "to the final restoration of
home rule at the South in 1877" because those are the words that
constitute the misnomer. If home rule were finally restored to the
South in 1877, the natural and necessary inference to be drawn is that
prior to that time those States were subjected to some other kind of
rule, presumably that of foreigners and strangers, an inference which
is wholly at variance with the truth. Another inference to be drawn is
that those States had enjoyed home rule until the same was
revolutionized or set aside by the Reconstruction Acts of Congress and
that it was finally restored in 1877. If this is the inference which
the writer meant to have the reader make, it is conclusive evidence of
the fact that he was unpardonably and inexcusably ignorant of the
subject matter about which he wrote. As that term is usually and
generally understood, there never was a time when those States did not
have home rule, unless we except the brief period when they were under
military control, and even then the military commanders utilized home
material in making appointments to office. Since the officers,
however, were not elected by the people, it may be plausibly claimed
that they did not have home rule. But the State governments that were
organized and brought into existence under the Reconstruction Acts of
Congress were the first and only governments that were genuinely
republican in form. The form of government which existed in
ante-bellum days was that of an aristocracy. That which has existed
since what Mr. Rhodes is pleased to term the restoration of home rule
is simply that of a local despotic oligarchy. The former _was_ not,
and the present _is_ not, based upon the will and choice of the
masses; but the former was by far the better of the two, for whatever
may be truthfully said in condemnation and in derogation of the
southern aristocracy of ante-bellum days, it can not be denied that
they represented the wealth, the intelligence, the decency and the
respectability of their respective States. While the State governments
that were dominated by the aristocrats were not based upon the will of
the people, as a whole, yet from an administrative point of view they
were not necessarily bad. Such can not be said of those who are now
the representatives of what Mr. Rhodes is pleased to term home rule.
On page 171 of his seventh volume, Mr. Rhodes says: "Some Southern men
at first acted with the Republican party, but they gradually slipped
away from it as the color line was drawn and reckless and corrupt
financial legislation inaugurated." That thousands of white men in the
South, who identified themselves with the Republican party between
1868 and 1876, subsequently left it, will not be denied, but the
reasons for their action are not those given by Mr. Rhodes. In fact,
there is no truth in the allegation about the drawing of the color
line and very little in the one about corrupt or questionable
financial legislation. The true reason why so many white men at the
South left the Republican party may be stated under three heads:
first, the Democratic victories of 1874 which were accepted by
southern Democrats as a national repudiation of the congressional plan
of Reconstruction; second, the closeness of the Presidential election
of 1876 together with the supposed bargain entered into between the
Hayes managers and southern Democratic members of Congress, by which
the South was to be turned over to the Democrats of that section in
consideration of which the said southern Democrats gave their consent
to the peaceable inauguration of Hayes; third, the decisions of the
Supreme Court of the United States by which the doctrine of States'
Rights was given new life and strength.
It is true there are some men whose party affiliations are based upon
principle and convictions regardless of consequences personal to
themselves. Occasionally there are found some who are even willing to
be martyrs, but they are exceptions to the general rule. The average
man is politically ambitious. He desires political distinction and
official recognition. In determining his party affiliations,
therefore, he is more than apt to cast his lot with the party through
which he believes that ambition may be gratified. After the
consummation of the events above referred to, the conviction became
settled in the minds of white men at the South that the Democratic
party in that section would be, for a generation, at least, the only
channel through which it would be possible for any one to have his
political ambition realized. Hence, thousands of those who had
previously joined the Republican party returned to the Democratic
since that party presented the only hope of their future political
salvation.
Mr. Rhodes would lead one to infer that the southern white men who
came into the Republican party in the South between 1868 and 1876 were
not among the most intelligent, cultivated, refined and representative
men of that section. As a rule, they were men who belonged to, and
were identified with, what was known as the "Southern aristocracy."
Such men, for instance, as Ex-Governors Orr of South Carolina, Parsons
of Alabama, Reynolds of Texas, and Brown of Georgia. Also such men as
Mosby, Wickham, and subsequently Mahone, Massey, Paul, Fulkerson and
Riddleberger, of Virginia. General R. E. Lee was known to have
leanings in the same direction, but since he was not politically
ambitious, his views were not made a matter of public discussion. In
addition to Ex-Governor Brown of Georgia, they included such men as
General Longstreet, Joshua Hill, Bullock and many others of like
caliber. Even Ben Hill was suspected by some and accused by others of
leaning in the same direction. In Louisiana, not less than 25 per
cent. of the best and most substantial white men of that State became
identified with the Republican party under the leadership of such men
as Ex-Governor Hahn and the Honorable Mr. Hunt (who was appointed
Secretary of the Navy by President Garfield), Wells, Anderson and many
others. General Beauregard was known, or at any rate believed, to be
in sympathy with these men and the cause they represented, although he
took no active part in politics. But it was in my own State of
Mississippi, where I had an intimate knowledge of, and acquaintance
with, the solid and substantial white men who identified themselves
with the Republican party and whose leadership the newly enfranchised
blacks faithfully followed. They included such men as James L. Alcorn,
who was elected Governor of the State by the Republicans in 1869 and
to the United States Senate by the legislature that was elected at the
same time. Alcorn was one of the aristocrats of the past. He served
with Mr. Lamar in the secession convention of 1861 and was a general
in the Confederate Army.
Mr. Rhodes failed to inform his readers of the fact that the
Democratic candidate for Governor against Alcorn, Judge Louis Dent,
belonged to that much abused class called "carpet baggers," but who,
like thousands of others of that class, both Democrats and
Republicans, was a man of honor and integrity. The same was true of
Tarbell, Powers, Pierce, McKee, Jeffords, Speed and others of the same
type in both parties. In addition to Alcorn, there was Col. R. W.
Flournoy, who also served with Mr. Lamar as a member of the secession
convention and who was the Republican candidate for Congress against
Mr. Lamar in 1872, also Judge Jason Niles, who served as a member of
the State legislature, Judge of the Circuit Court and member of
Congress. His able and brilliant son, Judge Henry Clay Niles, is now
the United States District Judge for that State, having been appointed
by President Harrison. He has the reputation of being one of the best
and finest Judges on the Federal Bench. The State never had before
and has not had since, a finer judiciary than it had under the
administrations of Alcorn, Powers and Ames, the three Republican
Governors. In referring to the three justices of the State Supreme
Court, Mr. Rhodes made the statement that eligible material in the
Republican party was so scarce that, in order to get three competent
judges the Governor was obliged to select a Democrat. This is not
true. Chief Justice E. G. Peyton and Associate Justice H. F. Simrall
were both southern Republicans. Justice Tarbell, though a so-called
"carpet bagger," was also a Republican and an able judge, who enjoyed
the confidence and respect of the bench and bar. When he retired from
the bench he was made Second Comptroller of the United States
Treasury.
In addition to these able and brilliant men, I feel justified in
naming a few others, such as R. W. Millsaps, in whose honor one of the
educational institutions at Jackson was named; W. M. Compton; T. W.
Hunt; J. B. Deason; W. H. Vasser; Luke Lea, who was at one time United
States District Attorney; his son, A. M. Lea, who subsequently held
the same office; J. L. Morphis, who was one of the first Republicans
elected to Congress; Judge Hiram Cassidy, who was the recognized
leader of the bar in the southern part of the State; his able and
brilliant son, Hiram Cassidy, Jr.; and his law partner, Hon. J. F.
Sessions. Among the circuit and chancery court judges there were such
jurists as Messrs. Chandler, Davis, Hancock, Walton, Smyley,
Henderson, Hill, Osgood, Walker, Millsaps, McMillan, and Drane.
Moreover, there were thousands of others, such as J. N. Carpenter and
James Surget, men of character, wealth and intelligence, who had no
ambition for official recognition or political distinction, but who
were actuated by what they honestly believed to be conducive to the
best interests of their country, their State and their section. In
fact, the southern white men that came into the Republican party were
typical representatives of the best blood and the finest manhood of
the South, than whom no better men ever lived. And yet to read what
Mr. Rhodes has written, one would naturally assume that the opposite
of this was true, that the Republican party in that section was under
the domination of northern "carpet baggers," a few worthless southern
whites and a number of dishonest and incompetent colored men. This, no
doubt, is the false, deceptive and misleading picture which had been
painted from the vividness of his partial, mistaken, prejudiced and
diseased imagination.
That many mistakes were made during the progress of Reconstruction
cannot and will not be denied. No friend and supporter of the
congressional plan of Reconstruction will maintain that every thing
was perfect. On the contrary, it is frankly admitted that quite a
number of grave blunders were made; but they were not confined to any
one party. Neither Republicans nor Democrats can justly lay claim to
all that was good or truthfully charge the other with all that was
bad. Of those who were selected as representatives of the two parties,
the Democrats had, in point of experience and intelligence, a slight
advantage over the Republicans; but in point of honesty and integrity
the impartial historian will record the fact that the advantage was
with the Republicans. How could either escape error? The Civil War had
just come to a close; sectional animosity was bitter and intense. The
Republican party was looked upon as the party of the North and,
therefore, the bitter enemy of the South. The southern white men who
joined the Republican party were accused of being traitors to their
section and false to their own race and blood; they were called
Scalawags. Through a process of intimidation, chiefly by means of
social ostracism, independent thought and action on the part of
southern whites, during the early period of Reconstruction, were
pretty effectually prevented. Through such methods, they were quite
successfully held under the subjection and control of those whose
leadership they had been accustomed to follow.
Under such circumstances, the reader may ask the question, why was it
and how was it that so many of the best white men of that section
joined the Republican party? The answer is that, prior to the election
of General Grant to the presidency in 1868, very few of them did so.
It was never a question of men. It was always a question of party.
Under such circumstances, thousands of white men were obliged to vote
for certain Democratic candidates who were otherwise objectionable as
against certain Republicans who were otherwise acceptable. In like
manner, thousands of colored men were obliged to vote for certain
Republican candidates who were otherwise objectionable as against
certain Democrats who were otherwise acceptable. The wonder,
therefore, is, not that so many, but that so few mistakes were made;
not that so many, but that so few objectionable persons were elected
to important and responsible positions.
After the election of Grant, however, in 1868 the feeling of
intolerance somewhat subsided, resulting in a large number of
accessions to the Republican party from the ranks of the best and most
substantial white men of that section. But it was not until the
reelection of Grant in 1872 that the feeling of political
proscription, social ostracism and intolerance among the whites
seemingly disappeared. It was then that white men came into, took
charge of and assumed the leadership of the Republican party, in large
numbers. They then had nothing to fear and nothing to lose by being
identified with the Republican party when social distinctions growing
out of politics ceased to be effective. The South then entered upon a
new era which was destined to bring to that section wealth and
prosperity with happiness and contentment among its people of both
races, all living under local governments successfully controlled by
the better element of native whites with the cooperation and
participation to some extent of the newly enfranchised blacks.
The writer of this article has always believed it to be a misfortune
to his race and to the country, if conditions be such as to make it
necessary for any race or group, of which our citizenship is composed,
to act in a solid body with any one political party. The writer timely
called attention to this in a speech which he delivered on the floor
of the House of Representatives over thirty years ago. He then made
an appeal to the Democrats to change the attitude of their party
towards the colored Americans. While the colored people, he said, were
grateful to the Republican party for their physical emancipation, they
would be equally grateful to the Democratic party for their political
emancipation. While he was a Republican from choice, he personally
knew of many members of his race who were Republicans, not from choice
but from necessity, and that the Democratic party was responsible for
the existence of that necessity. Upon economic questions there are
differences of opinion among colored as well as white persons. It is
an injustice to the colored race and a misfortune to the country, if
they can not vote in accordance with their convictions upon such
questions. No race or group can be true and independent American
citizens, as all should be, when they are made to feel that the
exercise and enjoyment by them of their civil and political rights are
contingent upon the result of an election. It must be said to the
credit of the late Grover Cleveland that he did all in his power both
as Governor of New York and as President of the United States to bring
about this necessary change and reform in his party. That his efforts
were not crowned with success, was through no fault of his.
The newly enfranchised blacks at the South, as I have endeavored to
show, had no other alternative than to act with the Republican party.
That some objectionable persons should have been elected by them under
such conditions, could not very well have been prevented. But the
reader of Mr. Rhodes's history cannot fail to see that he believed it
was a grave mistake to have given the colored men at the South the
right to vote, and in order to make the alleged historical facts
harmonize with his own views upon this point, he took particular pains
to magnify the virtues and minimize the faults of the Democrats and to
magnify the faults and minimize the virtues of the Republicans, the
colored men especially. On page 97 of his fifth volume, for instance,
Mr. Rhodes says: "But few Negroes were competent to perform the
duties; for instance, it was said that the colored man, who for four
years was Sheriff of DeSoto County, could neither read nor write. The
Negro incumbent generally farmed out his office to a white deputy for
a share of the revenue."
The foregoing is one of the most barefaced and glaring
misrepresentations that can possibly be made. The reader will notice
that the allegation is based upon "it has been said." But if Mr.
Rhodes had been anxious to record only what was accurate and true, he
should have, as he easily could have done, found out just what the
facts were, as I have done. The facts were these. When Tate County was
created the greater part of the territory composing the new county had
been taken from the county of DeSoto. The then sheriff of DeSoto
County lived in that section which was made a part of the new county
of Tate. It thus became necessary for a new sheriff to be appointed by
the Governor for DeSoto County to hold office until the election of a
sheriff at the next regular election. Rev. J. J. Evans, a colored
Baptist minister and a Union soldier, was thereupon appointed. Since
this took place in 1873, the appointment must have been made by
Governor R. C. Powers, who had been elected Lieutenant Governor on the
ticket with Alcorn in 1869 and had become Governor when Alcorn went to
the United States Senate in 1871. Although he was one of those who
belonged to that class called "carpet baggers," Governor Powers was
known to be an honest and an upright man and one who exercised great
care in all of his appointments. Governor Powers never could have been
induced to appoint as sheriff of any county a man who could neither
read nor write.
Mr. Evans discharged the duties of his position with such entire
satisfaction that he was nominated by the Republicans and elected to
succeed himself at the regular election in November, 1873, for the
full term of two years. In 1875 he was renominated by his party to
succeed himself. Mr. Evans's administration had been so satisfactory
that when the Democratic county convention met to nominate a local
ticket, no nomination was made for the office of sheriff. But between
the nomination and election the Democratic organization in the State
saw a new light. It was decided that the State must be "_redeemed_,"
and that nearly all of the counties must be included in that
redemption. The Democratic executive committee of DeSoto County was,
therefore, directed to meet and complete the local ticket by
nominating a candidate for sheriff. This was done, and the ticket as
thus completed was, of course, declared elected and DeSoto County
"_redeemed_."
It is a fact of which Mr. Rhodes may not be aware, that the county
sheriff in Mississippi is also the county tax collector, and as such
he is required to give a heavy bond. These bonds are usually given by
property owners of the county, nearly all of whom are white men and
Democrats. Had Mr. Evans been the man described by Mr. Rhodes, he
never could have qualified for the office. It is also a fact of which
Mr. Rhodes may not be aware, that the county sheriff in Mississippi as
the chief executive and administrative officer of his county, is
necessarily obliged, regardless of his own qualifications and fitness,
to employ a number of assistants and deputies to aid him in running
the office. The number of persons, with the salary or compensation of
each, is fixed by law or the court and they are paid according to law
out of money appropriated for that purpose. In making these
appointments, it is both reasonable and natural that the appointing
power would favorably consider a suggestion or recommendation from any
one of the sureties. At any rate, Mr. Evans had the good sense to
surround himself with honest, efficient and capable assistants. He is
still living at Hernando, DeSoto County, Mississippi. As I write these
lines, an autograph letter from him is before me. While it is clear
that he is not a college graduate, his letter effectually disproves
the allegation that he can neither read nor write. Moreover, even if
his education is limited, this cannot be considered exceptional, for
the sheriffs of many counties in the South today are illiterate and
mentally undeveloped. I judge from the contents of Mr. Evans's letter
that there is no truth in the allegation that he divided any part of
his own compensation with any one or more of his assistants. He left
the office with a spotless record, every dollar of the public funds
that passed through his hands, and for which he was liable, having
been honestly and faithfully accounted for.
But even if Mr. Evans had been the man described by Mr. Rhodes, it
would have been manifestly unfair and unjust to the colored voters of
Mississippi to select him as a typical representative of those who
were elected to important and responsible positions by the votes of
colored men. Out of seventy-two counties of which the State was then
composed, not more than twelve ever had colored sheriffs at any time,
and they did not all hold office at the same time. Of those who were
thus honored, the writer of these lines was personally acquainted with
not less than ten. Mr. Evans was one of the few whom he did not then
know personally. If Mr. Rhodes had desired to be fair and impartial,
he would have taken all of them into consideration and would have
drawn an average. But this would not have answered his purpose. It
would have shown that in point of intelligence, capacity, and honesty
the colored sheriffs would have favorably compared with the whites.
Take, for instance, the county of Adams-Natchez, my own home, where
two colored men at different times held the office of sheriff. The
first of the two was Wm. McCary, who was elected in 1873. He belonged
to that small class known as free persons of color during the days of
slavery. His father was the leading barber of Natchez for white
business men and a private school teacher. He taught the children of
those who were identified with his own class, of which there were
quite a number, having privileges and advantages which were denied to
the children of slaves. His own children, of course, were not
neglected. Wm. McCary, therefore, had a good English education. He was
also a property owner and a taxpayer. He was one of the two colored
men who qualified as a surety on the bond of the writer of these lines
when he was appointed a Justice of the Peace in 1869. Mr. McCary was
held in high esteem by the people of the city of Natchez and the
county of Adams, both white and colored. Prior to his election to the
office of sheriff he had served as a member of the board of aldermen
for the city of Natchez and also as treasurer of the county of Adams,
and subsequently as postmaster of Natchez, the duties of all of which
he discharged with credit to himself and satisfaction to the public.
In 1875 he was succeeded as sheriff by another colored man, Robert H.
Wood, who in all important particulars was about on a par with McCary.
Wood had previously served as mayor of Natchez, to which position he
was elected by popular vote in December, 1870. He was serving the
people of Natchez as their postmaster when he was elected to the
office of sheriff.
These men not only gave satisfaction to the people whom they served,
but they reflected credit upon themselves, their race, their party and
the community that was so fortunate as to have the benefit of their
services. What was true of these two men was also true in a large
measure of Harney of Hinds, Scott of Issaquena, Sumner of Holmes, and
several others. But, if Mr. Rhodes had desired to be impartial and
preferred to select but one man as a typical representative of those
who were elected to such positions by the votes of colored men, he
would have selected B. K. Bruce, who was sheriff of Bolivar County
when he was elected to the United States Senate. Mr. Bruce needs no
introduction to intelligent and reading Americans. He developed into a
national character. He reflected credit not only upon himself, his
race and his party but his country as well. And yet he typified in a
most remarkable degree the colored men who were elected to important
and responsible positions chiefly by the votes of members of that
race. But the reader of Rhodes's history will look in vain for
anything that will give him accurate information along these lines.
His history, therefore, is remarkable, not only for what it says, but
for what it leaves unsaid. In fact, it is plain to the intelligent
reader that he started out with preconceived notions as to what the
facts were or should have been, and that he took particular pains to
select such data and so to color the same as to make them harmonize
with his opinions. He thus passed over in silence all facts which
could not be so distorted as to make them thus harmonize. He could
find nothing that was creditable or meritorious in the career of any
colored member of either house of Congress, notwithstanding the
favorable impression made and the important and dignified service
rendered by Revels and Bruce in the Senate and by Rainey, Rapier,
Elliott, Smalls, Cain, Langston, Miller, Ohara, Cheatham, White and
others in the House.[403]
But, to return to Mississippi, let us take up another error of Mr.
Rhodes. Referring to the political and sanguinary revolution which
took place in Mississippi in 1875, Mr. Rhodes makes use of these
words: "Whilst regretting some of the means employed, all lovers of
good government must rejoice at the redemption of Mississippi....
Since 1876 Mississippi has increased in population and in wealth; her
bonded indebtedness and taxation are low."[404] It is difficult to
conceive how an intelligent man, claiming to be an impartial recorder
of historical events, could be induced to make such glaring statements
as the above, when he ought to have known that just the opposite of
what he affirms is true, except as to increase in population and in
wealth. "All lovers of good government must rejoice at the
_redemption_ of Mississippi." _Redemption_ from what? The reader is
led to believe that the "_redemption_" is from bad to good government,
from high to low taxes, from increased to decreased bonded
indebtedness, from incompetent, inefficient and dishonest
administration to one that was competent, efficient and honest.
Now let us see just what the facts were and are. In 1875 there was
just one State officer to be elected, that of State treasurer, to
fill the vacancy caused by the death of George H. Holland, who was
elected on the ticket with Ames in 1873. The Democrats nominated Hon.
Wm. L. Hemingway, of Carroll County, whose nomination was favorably
received. He had the reputation of being a capable, an honest and
upright man. In addition to this, he was identified with that wing of
his party which was known to be progressive, liberal and fair. In the
early days of Reconstruction, the Democratic party in the State was
sharply divided into two factions. One, the major faction, adopted
what they termed a policy of "masterly inactivity," which meant that
the white Democrats should take no part in the organization of a State
government under the Reconstruction Acts of Congress, with a view of
making the work of Reconstruction as odious, as objectionable and as
unpopular as possible. The other faction believed it to be the duty of
the white Democrats to take an active part in the formation of a State
government, elect as many Democrats to the State Constitutional
Convention of 1868 as possible with a view of framing a new
constitution that would have very few if any objectionable clauses.
Wm. L. Hemingway was one of that number, and as such he was elected to
the convention from Carroll County. The nomination of Hemingway for
State treasurer by the Democratic State Convention in 1875 was looked
upon as a concession to that element of the party.
The Republicans did not fail to see that in order to carry the State
they must nominate their strongest and best man, even if the election
should be fair and honest, which they hoped would be the case, but
which hope they had good reasons to apprehend would not be fully
realized. Capt. George M. Buchanan, of Marshal County, was nominated.
Buchanan had been a brave and gallant Confederate soldier. He had
served as sheriff of Marshal County for a number of years. He was
strong, able and popular. He was known to be the best fitted and best
qualified man for the office of State treasurer. With a half-way
decent election his triumph, even over so popular a man as Wm. L.
Hemingway, was an assured fact. The Democrats, however, had decided
that the time had come for the State to be "_redeemed_," peaceably and
fairly if possible, violently and unfairly if necessary. With George
M. Buchanan as the Republican candidate, it was necessary to employ
means which Mr. Rhodes so much regretted, but which he justifies
because, as he understands it, they were employed in the interest of
good government.
Was that true? Let us see. Buchanan, of course, was declared defeated
and Hemingway declared elected. Mississippi was thus "_redeemed_, for
which all lovers of good government must rejoice," but Mr. Rhodes
failed to record the fact that this man who was the representative of
the _redemption_ of the State had been in office a comparatively brief
period when the discovery was made that he was a defaulter to the
amount of $315,612.19.[405] It would be a reflection upon Mr. Rhodes's
intelligence to assume that he was ignorant of this important fact.
Oh, no! he must have known about it, but to make any allusion to it
would be out of harmony with the purposes he evidently had in view. It
is safe to assume that, if the will of a majority of the legal voters
of the State had not been violently suppressed in the interest of
_good_ and _honest_ government, which would have resulted in the
election of honest George M. Buchanan, while the State would not have
been _redeemed_, it would have been saved from the loss of
$315,612.19. The writer of these lines has never believed that
Hemingway was the personal beneficiary of this money or any part
thereof, but that he was the instrument in the hands of others. Still
he was the official representative of the _redemption_ of the State
for which "all lovers of good government must rejoice."
That there was a material increase in the population and in the wealth
of the State will not be denied. These results would have followed,
even if the State had never been _redeemed_. They were not due to
_redemption_ but in spite of it. In fact, there was a marked increase
in population and in wealth before as well as subsequent to the
_redemption_. But when the author states that the bonded indebtedness
and taxation are low, the impression necessarily made, and intended to
be made upon the mind of the reader, is that after the _redemption_
took place and as a result thereof, the _rate_ of taxation was
reduced, the volume of money paid into the State treasury annually for
the support of the government was less than it had been before, and
that there had been a material reduction in the bonded debt of the
State, neither of which is true.[406] If Mr. Rhodes had been disposed
to record the truth and nothing but the truth, which is presumed to be
the aim of an impartial historian, he could have easily obtained the
facts, because they are matters of record. To give the reader an idea
of what the facts were and are, I will take, for purposes of
comparison, one year prior and one subsequent to the _redemption_ of
the State. In 1875, the year that the _redemption_ took place, the
assessed value of taxable property was $119,313,834. The receipts from
all sources that year amounted to $1,801,129.12. Disbursements for the
same year, $1,430,192.83. In 1907 the assessed value of taxable
property was reported to be $373,584,960. Receipts from all sources,
same year, $3,391,127.15. Disbursements, same year, $3,730,343.29. The
above figures speak for themselves. They are from the official
records, the accuracy of which cannot be questioned.[407] The records
show too that during the administration of Governor Ames, which was
about half over when the _redemption_ took place, the rate of taxation
had been reduced from seven mills to four mills and that a material
reduction had been made in the bonded debt of the State and that after
the _redemption_ took place the tax rate was increased from four mills
to six mills and that by 1907 $732,890.74 had been added to the bonded
debt of the State. And yet in the opinion of Mr. Rhodes, these are
conditions for the deliverance from which the employment of
regrettable means was necessary, at which, however, "all lovers of
good government should rejoice," since their employment resulted in
the _redemption_ of the State.
But another evidence of Mr. Rhodes's careless and reckless manner of
stating alleged historical facts will be found in a paragraph on page
132 of his seventh volume. In speaking of Governor Ames's unsuccessful
efforts to have troops sent to the State to assist in maintaining
order and insuring a fair and peaceable election, he says: "A number
of the white Republicans of Mississippi who had quarrelled or differed
with Ames, among whom were both the United States senators, used their
influence against the sending of federal troops to Mississippi and
none were sent." The two United States Senators at that time were J.L.
Alcorn and B.K. Bruce. Bruce was a strong friend and loyal supporter
of Ames and did all in his power to have Ames's request granted. This
statement is based upon my own knowledge. Senator Alcorn was one of
the few white Republicans who had quarrelled with Ames. In fact, he
ran as an Independent for governor against Ames in 1873. But he was a
Republican United States Senator and as such he had no sympathy with
the Democratic party. My relations with both senators were cordial. If
Alcorn had used his influence to prevent having federal troops sent to
the State, I am sure I would have known it. If he raised his voice or
used his pen for such purpose, that fact was never brought to my
notice and I am satisfied it was never done. My own opinion is that he
remained reticent and refused to take sides. The true reason why
troops were not sent in compliance with the request of Governor Ames
was that, although the President once directed that the requisition be
complied with, he later rescinded the order when informed by
Republicans from Ohio that such interference would cause the loss of
Ohio to the Republicans at the October election and would not save
Mississippi.[408]
Referring to the Reconstruction policy, Mr. Rhodes says: "Stevens'
Reconstruction Acts, ostensibly in the interest of freedom, were an
attack on civilization.[409] In my judgment Sumner did not show wise
constructive statesmanship in forcing unqualified Negro Suffrage on
the South."[410] The truth is that Stevens and Sumner were wiser than
their day and generation. They were not favorable to an immediate
restoration of the States lately in rebellion upon any conditions.
They knew that after the cessation of hostilities, the flower of the
Confederate Army, an army which it took the entire North with all of
its numbers, immense wealth and almost limitless resources four years
to conquer, would be at the South and that upon the completion of
Reconstruction and the withdrawal of the federal troops, that army
could be utilized to bring about practically the same conditions that
existed before the war. They, therefore, opposed immediate
restoration. This is what Mr. Rhodes characterizes as an attack on
civilization. To what civilization does he refer? He surely could not
have had in mind the civilization which believed in the divine right
of slavery and which recognized and sanctioned the right of one man to
hold another as his property; and yet this was the only civilization
upon which the rebuilding of the rebellious governments was an attack.
But for the adoption of the Congressional plan of Reconstruction and
the subsequent legislation of the nation along the same line, the
abolition of slavery through the ratification of the 13th Amendment
would have been in name only, a legal and constitutional myth. This is
the civilization, however, an attack upon which Mr. Rhodes so deeply
deplores. It is fortunate for the country that a majority of Mr.
Rhodes's fellow citizens did not and do not agree with him along these
lines.
Since Stevens and Sumner could not secure the adoption of the plan
advocated by them, they proceeded to secure the adoption of the best
one that it was possible to obtain under conditions as they then
existed. Hence they insisted, successfully, as was then believed, that
the legislation, including the 14th Amendment, should be so framed as
not only to create national citizenship, as distinguished from State
citizenship, but that it should be made the duty of the Federal
Government to protect its own citizens, when necessary, against
domestic violence, to protect its citizens at home as well as when
they are abroad. The closing clause of the 14th Amendment, therefore,
declares that Congress shall have power to enforce the provisions of
the amendment by appropriate legislation.
But Mr. Rhodes says the Congressional plan of Reconstruction was a
failure. The defeat of the Republican party at the North, especially
in 1874, he believes "was due to the failure of the Southern policy of
the Republican party." In speaking of the action of President Hayes,
he says: "Indeed it was the final admission of the Republican party
that their policy of forcing Negro suffrage upon the South was a
failure." Is it true that Reconstruction was a failure? That depends
upon the view one takes of it. Admitting that some of the things
expected of it by many of its friends and supporters were not fully
realized, its failure even to that extent was, in a large measure, one
of the _results_ but not one of the contributory _causes_ of the
Democratic national victory of 1874. On the contrary, that policy was
a grand and brilliant success.
In the first place, when the split between Congress and President
Johnson took place, there was soon developed the fact that the
enfranchisement of the blacks was the only plan which could be adopted
and by which the one advocated by the President could be defeated. It
had been seen and frankly admitted that the war for the preservation
of the Union could not have been brought to a successful conclusion
without putting the musket in the hands of the loyal blacks. The fact
was now made plain that the fruits of the victory that had been won on
the battlefield could not be preserved without putting the ballot in
their hands. Hence, it was done.
Was this a mistake? Mr. Rhodes says it was; but the results prove that
it was not. But for the enfranchisement of the blacks at the South at
the time and in the way it was done the 14th and subsequently the 15th
Amendment to the Federal Constitution never could have been ratified.
The ratification of these two measures alone vindicated the wisdom of
that legislation. The 14th Amendment, among other things, made the
colored people American citizens. It was, in effect, a recall of the
famous Dred Scott decision. The 15th Amendment gave the colored
American access to the ballot box, in every State in the Union. The
fundamental principles that were carried into effect through the
Reconstruction acts of Congress were embodied in these two amendments.
After the ratification of these measures, what had previously been
local to the South became national. No State north, south, east or
west can now legally and constitutionally make or enforce any law
making race or color the basis of discrimination in the exercise and
enjoyment of civil and public rights and privileges, nor can it make
race or color the basis of discrimination in prescribing the
qualification of electors. By the ratification of those amendments the
right of an American citizen to the exercise and enjoyment of civil
and political rights and the right to vote ceased to be local and
became national. But it is claimed by some that because the 15th
Amendment has been successfully evaded in certain States, it is, for
that reason, a failure. I will state here in passing, however, that
there has never been made nor can be made any law or constitution that
can not at certain times and in some places be successfully evaded.
But this does not necessarily prove that the law or constitution in
question was a mistake and should, for that reason, be repealed. To
this extent and for the reasons and purposes above stated, the wisdom
of the Reconstruction Acts of Congress has been more than vindicated.
The failure of the Reconstruction legislation was not due so much to
the change of sentiment in the North as to an unwise interpretation of
these laws. This started with two unfortunate decisions rendered by
the United States Supreme Court, the result of two unwise appointments
to seats on the bench made by President Grant. The Judges referred to
are Waite of Ohio, and Bradley of New Jersey. Both were supposed to be
Republicans and believed to be in accord with the other leaders and
constitutional lawyers in the Republican party in their construction
of the War Amendments to the Federal Constitution. But they proved to
be strong States' Rights men and, therefore, strict constructionists.
Those two, with the other States' Rights men already on the bench,
constituted a majority of that tribunal. The result was that the court
declared unconstitutional and void, not only the national civil rights
act, but also the principal sections of the different enforcement acts
which provided for the protection of individual citizens by the
Federal Government against domestic violence. National citizenship had
been created by the 14th Amendment and the Federal Government had been
clothed with power to enforce the provisions of that amendment.
Legislation for that purpose had been placed upon the statute books
and they were being enforced whenever and wherever necessary, as in
the case of the lawless and criminal organization called the Ku Klux
Klan. But the Supreme Court, very much to the surprise of every one,
stepped in and tied the hands of the national administration and
prevented any further prosecutions for violence upon the person of a
citizen of the United States, if committed within the limits of any
one of the States of the Union. In other words, if the State in which
a citizen of the United States may reside can not, does not or will
not protect him in the exercise and enjoyment of his personal, civil
and political rights, he is without a remedy. The result is that the
Federal Government is placed in the awkward and anomalous position of
exacting support and allegiance from its citizens, to whom it can not
in return afford protection, unless they should be outside the
boundaries of their own country. By those unfortunate and fatal
decisions the vicious and mischievous doctrine of States' Rights,
called by some State sovereignty, by others local self government,
which was believed to have perished upon the battlefields of the
country, was given new life, strength and audacity, and fostered by
the preaching of the fear of "Negro domination." The decision
declaring the Civil Rights Law unconstitutional was rendered by Mr.
Justice Bradley, and nearly all of those by which the principal
sections of the different enforcement laws were nullified, were
rendered by Chief Justice Waite.
If in every southern State today no attempt were made to violate or
evade the 15th Amendment and colored men were allowed free and
unrestricted access to the ballot boxes and their votes were fairly
and honestly counted, there would be no more danger of "Negro
domination" in any one of these States than there is of female
domination in States where women have the right to vote. All that
colored men have ever insisted upon, was not to dominate but to
participate, not to rule but to have a voice in the selection of those
who are to rule. In view of their numerical strength the probabilities
are that more of them would be officially recognized than in other
sections of the country, but never out of proportion to their fitness
and capacity, unless there should be a repetition of conditions that
existed in the early days of Reconstruction, which is improbable. The
dominant element in the Democratic party in that section at that time
adopted, as stated above, the policy of "masterly inactivity" which
was intended to prevent white men, through intimidation, from taking
any part in the organization and reconstruction of the State
governments, with a view of making the governments thus organized as
odious and as objectionable as possible, in other words, to make them
as far as possible "Negro governments." This policy proved to be
somewhat effective in many localities. The result was the colored men
found much difficulty in finding desirable white men outside of the
Democratic party for the different local positions to be filled. This
made it necessary in some instances for colored men to be selected to
fill certain positions for which white men would have been chosen. But
under the present order of things, a repetition of any thing of this
sort would be wholly out of the question.
I can not close this article without giving expression to the hope
that a fair, just and impartial historian will, some day, write a
history covering the Reconstruction period, in which an accurate
account based upon actual facts of what took place at that time will
be given, instead of a compilation and condensation of untrue,
unreliable and grossly exaggerated statements taken from political
campaign literature.
JOHN R. LYNCH,
Author of "The Facts of Reconstruction."
4352 FORRESTVILLE AVENUE,
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
FOOTNOTES:
[402] Lynch, "The Facts of Reconstruction," Chapter XI.
[403] The speech of R. B. Elliott in reply to A. H. Stephens in the
debate on the Civil Rights Bill was admitted to be one of the most
eloquent and scholarly speeches ever delivered in Congress. But Mr.
Rhodes's preconceived opinions and prejudices were so firmly fixed
that he was incapable of detecting anything in the acts or utterances
of any colored member of either branch of Congress that deserved to be
commended or favorably noticed.
[404] Rhodes, "History of United States," VII, 141.
[405] See Chapter 16 of Lynch, "The Facts of Reconstruction."
[406] See Chapter 8 of Lynch, "The Facts of Reconstruction."
[407] _Ibid._
[408] Lynch, "Facts of Reconstruction," pp. 150-151.
[409] Rhodes, "History of the United States," VI, 35.
[410] Rhodes, "History of the United States," VI, 40.
THE STRUGGLE FOR THE RECOGNITION OF HAITI AND LIBERIA AS INDEPENDENT
REPUBLICS
The doctrine of recognition as a principle of International law
appeared in definite form at the close of the American Revolution. New
states had arisen and successful revolutions had given birth to new
governments.[411] In Washington's Neutrality Proclamation of 1793, the
French Republic was recognized and the neutral position of America was
announced.[412] These principles, developed later by Adams and
Jefferson through application to the South American colonies which had
declared their independence of Spain, marked the beginning of the
well-defined international principle of recognition.[413]
Between 1810 and 1825, the Spanish colonies of Mexico, New Granada
(Columbia), Venezuela, Peru, Buenos Ayres, Chile, Ecuador and Upper
Peru (Bolivia) had revolted and rejected Spanish dominion.[414] In
1824, England recognized the independence of Buenos Ayres, Mexico and
Columbia, and gave no heed to the assertion that this "tended to
encourage the revolutionary spirit which it had been found so
difficult to restrain in Europe."[415]
But before the Spanish colonies had gained their independence, and the
spirit of democracy had begun to diffuse its light, movements were on
foot to secure the recognition of Haiti. After its discovery by
Columbus in 1492, Haitian soil was drenched with the blood of the
Spaniard and the native. Civil wars were begun and bloody scenes were
enacted.[416] In 1533, peace came between the natives and the
Spaniards. Soon thereafter, other Europeans began to arrive. The
French and the English were attracted by the stories of riches and
their chances for gain. The bloody struggles between these nations and
the natives fill many pages of Haitian history.[417] The inhabitants
took now the one side, now the other.
Led by Toussaint L'Ouverture, the cause of the French was championed.
Finding the French yoke as heavy as the Spanish yoke, Toussaint struck
for absolute liberty.[418] He was not, in a real sense, the liberator
of the Haitians, as commonly supposed, but he was the precursor of
their liberty.[419] His deportation aroused them to struggle with new
vigor. Under Dessalines, one of the generals in the army of Toussaint
L'Ouverture, the rebellion grew more successful, and on January 1,
1804, the army swore to abjure their allegiance to France forever, and
thereupon declared the independence of Haiti.[420] Dessalines was
chosen Governor-General and upon abolishing the name "Santo Domingo,"
the aboriginal name "Haiti" was reestablished.
The history of Haiti after 1804 is concerned with internal
dissensions, and contentions with foreign powers. Haiti was not
immediately recognized nor was she welcomed into the family of
nations. Retaliatory measures were taken by her government to compel
the powers to see the advantage in this recognition. Christophe, a
contender for power with Pétion, one of the founders of the republic,
issued in 1816 the proclamation that no negotiation would be entered
upon with France unless the independence of the kingdom of Haiti,[421]
political as well as commercial, be previously recognized.[422]
In 1823, the independence of Mexico, Columbia, and others was
recognized by Great Britain, but Haiti after nineteen years of
independence was not given this consideration.[423] As a result the
British trade privileges were abolished and the import tax of 12 per
cent. was levied on the products of all nations.[424]
Early indications of American commercial relations with Haiti and of
an unsatisfactory condition may be discerned in the following
resolutions, the first of which was submitted in the Senate, January
11, 1819:
"_Resolved:_ that the President of the United States be requested
to communicate to the Senate any information in his possession
and which, in his opinion, the public interest may permit to
disclose, relating to the seizure and detention of the property
of American citizens by the government of Haiti, and the state of
any negotiations to procure restitution."[425]
On December 31, 1822, the following resolution was submitted in the
House:
"_Resolved:_ that the committee on commerce be instructed to
inquire into the present state of the trade and intercourse
between the United States and the Island of Haiti, and report
what measures would be necessary to improve the commerce between
the two countries."[426]
As a matter of fact, the trade with Haiti was very important during
this period. By the report of the Register's Office, 1825, Haiti
ranked twenty-ninth in the list of countries trading with the United
States.[427]
The actual presentation of the question to the country as a whole grew
out of an invitation to attend the Panama Congress. In 1825, General
Bolivar, leader of the South American revolutionists, invited the
states north and south of the Isthmus to send delegates to a congress
which would assemble at Panama. Formal invitations to attend the
congress were received from Mexico, Guatemala and Columbia and others.
The following suggestions were made as to questions to be considered:
the interference of European powers in America, the recognition of
Haiti, the slave trade and the formation of an American league.[428]
That the recognition of Haiti was one of the objects of consideration
is so stated among the lists of subjects in the _Official Gazette_ of
Columbia. The congress was to determine on what footing should be
placed the political and commercial relations of those portions of our
hemisphere, which had obtained their independence, but whose
independence had not been recognized by any American or European
power, as was for many years the case with Haiti.[429] Other evidence
is found in a letter of the Columbian minister, Salazar: "On what
basis the relations of Haiti, and of other parts of our Hemisphere
that shall hereafter be in like circumstances, are to be placed," said
he, "is a question simple at first view, but attended with serious
difficulties when closely examined. These arise from the different
manner of regarding Africans, and from their different rights in
Haiti, the United States and in other American states. This question
will be determined at the Isthmus, and if possible, an uniform rule
of conduct adopted in regard to it, or those modifications that may be
demanded by circumstances."[430]
A special message was sent to Congress by President Adams on December
26, naming the delegates to this congress, and asking for an
appropriation for expenses. Both Clay, then Secretary of State, and
President Adams wished to extend the commercial power of the United
States over the Americas, and they welcomed this opportunity. They
disclaimed any desire to enter any league, but left poorly defined the
objects which would be considered.[431]
The southern point of view, as expressed in the debates on this
question, was that disaster awaited the Southern States, if the United
States should send delegates to a congress in which Haitian
representatives would sit, and which would consider the separation of
Cuba and Porto Rico from Spain and the cessation of slavery. This
viewpoint was expressed by Benton of Missouri, saying: "We buy coffee
from her, and pay for it; but we interchange no consuls or ministers.
We receive no mulatto consuls or black ambassadors. And why? Because
the peace of eleven states in this Union will not permit the fruits of
a successful Negro insurrection to be exhibited among them.... Who are
to advise and sit in judgment upon it? Five nations who have already
put the black man upon an equality with the white, not only in their
constitutions but in real life; five nations who have at this moment
(at least some of them) black generals in their armies and mulatto
Senators in their Congresses."[432]
The same attitude was expressed by Hayne of South Carolina. "With
nothing connected with slavery," said he, "can we consent to treat
with other nations, and least of all, ought we to touch the question
of the independence of Haiti, in conjunction with revolutionary
governments.... You find men of color at the head of their armies, in
their legislative halls, and in their executive departments. They are
looking to Hayti, even now, with feelings of the strongest fraternity
and show, by the very documents before us, that they acknowledge her
to be independent."[433] So far as the mission itself was concerned,
these arguments were farfetched and served rather to delay the time of
departure than to hinder it. The Senate confirmed the nomination and
the House voted the expenses. The delegates arrived after the close of
the sessions of the congress. Another session was to be held at
Tacubaya, but because of dissensions this congress did not assemble.
Therefore, the Panama Congress served only to excite debate on the
slavery issue and the recognition question, and this last became a
rallying cry for the opponents of the administration.
During the intervening years between 1825 and 1860, many memorials,
petitions and recommendations were made to Congress respecting the
recognition of Haiti. In June, 1838, a petition was received by the
Senate from "certain citizens of the United States praying that a
diplomatic representative be sent and commercial regulations be
entered into with the Republic."[434] This, as others, was laid on the
table. While this session continued, petitions were repeatedly
presented. John Quincy Adams was the champion of this cause, as of
that against the Gag Resolutions, and, again and again, it was through
him that the memorials were presented.
Objections were frequently made to the presentation of these
memorials. On December 19, Legaré of South Carolina said: "As sure as
you live, Sir, if this course is permitted to go on, the sun of this
Union will go down--it will go down in blood and go down to rise no
more. I will vote unhesitatingly against nefarious designs like
these. They are treason."[435] In 1839, while the House was
considering an outfit for a chargé d'affaires to Holland, Slade of
Vermont began a speech in favor of appointing a diplomatic agent to
Haiti. He spoke until the House refused to hear the continuation of
his remarks.[436] A resolution was offered later to appoint a
commercial agent to Haiti, but it was ruled out of order.[437] In the
same year, the Committee on Foreign Affairs asked to be discharged
from the "further consideration of sundry memorials asking for the
opening of international relations with Haiti."[438] In spite of this
request, the next year, 1840, petitions urging the recognition were
continued.[439] That Garrison was active in this agitation of the
abolition period is shown by the statement of Wise, of Virginia: "it
is but part and parcel of the English scheme set on foot by Garrison,
and to bring abolition as near as possible...."[440]
In 1844, the Committee on Foreign Affairs made a report on the subject
of commercial intercourse with the republic of Haiti. Ten thousand
copies were ordered to be printed.[441] As a result of this report,
and the agitation of years back, a commission was appointed to Haiti
in 1844 and again in 1851.[442] In the latter year, an invitation was
made to the United States Government to join France and England in an
offensive interference in Haiti.[443] The correspondence and the
reports of one of the American Commissioners, Robert Walsh, was made
public in 1852, and they were widely discussed.[444] The reports were
unjust and unfair estimations even of the Haitian commercial
situation. A reliable estimate of the trade of Haiti with the United
States, at this time, places the trade as equal to the total trade of
Venezuela, Bolivia, Argentina, the Cisalpine Republics and Peru with
the United States. Mexico, with more than sixteen times as large a
population as Haiti, exported from the United States in 1851, $330,000
less than Haiti and used for the purpose 26,000 tons less of
shipping.[445] And yet these countries were recognized as independent
republics, while Haiti was denied that right.
European countries were not as slow as the United States in granting
recognition to Haiti. England formally acknowledged the Republic in
1825, and sent a Consul-General.[446] An imperfect recognition was
granted by Charles X of France, by sending Baron Mackau as his
representative.[447] Its independence was recognized fully in 1838,
after thirty-four years of independence. Two treaties were negotiated,
one of them political, by which the independence of the republic was
recognized; the other financial, by which the claims of the French
colonists were reduced to sixty million francs.[448] This debt made
Haiti almost a dependency of France for over sixty years.[39] Before
1860, all important countries had representatives in Haiti. Great
Britain, Spain, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, Portugal, Sweden, Hanover
and Austria were all duly chronicled in the Almanach de Gotha.[449] In
the language of Frederick Douglass: "After Haiti had shaken off the
fetters of bondage, and long after her freedom and independence had
been recognized by all other civilized nations, we continued to
refuse to acknowledge the fact and treated her as outside the
sisterhood of nations."
By act of Congress in 1819, the colony of Liberia was established.
During the years following, groups of colonists left America for this
shore.[450] The decade after 1832 was marked by the action of the
independent State colonization societies. In 1847, the people of
Liberia undertook self-government, which was adopted by popular vote.
A later convention drew up a declaration of independence, and a new
constitution modeled on that of the United States was adopted, July
26, 1847. In September, it was ratified by the people, and President
Roberts took office, January 3, 1848.[451]
President Roberts set out on a voyage to the foreign countries with
the intention of seeking favor for his country. In many countries, he
was welcomed and his efforts were successful. In England, for example,
not only was recognition secured, but also an armed vessel of small
tonnage and a few guns were given him.[452] In the United States, not
even the formal recognition of Liberia was obtained. This was due, in
some measure, to the slavery question and the contention which was
always aroused when any subject even remotely related thereto was
presented.[453]
When Liberia declared its independence in 1848, the second Negro
republic entered its demand for the recognition of its sovereignty by
the United States. Henry Clay, one of the early officers of the
American Colonization Society, wrote in a letter dated Ashland,
October 18, 1851: "I have thought for years that the independence of
Liberia ought to be recognized by our government, and I have
frequently urged it upon persons connected with the administration
and I shall continue to do so if I have suitable opportunity."
England recognized the independence of Liberia in 1848 and France in
1852.[454] In 1855 treaties were formed with the Hanseatic Republics,
Lubeck, Bremen and Hamburg, with Belgium in 1858, with Denmark in
1861, with Italy and the Netherlands in 1862, with Holland, Sweden,
Norway and Haiti in 1864, with Portugal and Denmark in 1865 and
Austria in 1867.[455] For a period of years the United States had
maintained a commercial agent at Monrovia and at Gaboon.[456] It was
evident to those acquainted with the commercial situation that
recognition was desirable, for both of these Republics.[457]
In 1859, the leading northern newspapers carried advertisements from
the Haitian government, offering homes with land and free passage to
those unable to provide the same. A reply was published in the
_Tribune_ addressed especially to the free people of color of Missouri
and the North. A significant clause in this reply said: "Remember that
when you pass beyond the limits of the United States, the government
and laws of this country cease to protect you."[458] A circular was
sent out in 1860, addressed to the "Blacks, Men of color, and Indians
in the United States and British North American Provinces," and after
calling attention to the prosperous condition of the country, added
"that our relations with the powers represented in Haiti are on a
footing of perfect harmony."[459]
The triumph of the Republican party in 1860 foreshadowed the exclusion
of slavery from the territories, and the ultimate ruin of the
institution. Six weeks after Lincoln's election, South Carolina had
adopted the Ordinance of Secession, and the Gulf States soon followed.
There were only four slave-holding States with representatives in
Congress, Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri. At the opening of
the 37th Congress, 1861, the President's message contained the
following: "If any good reason exists why we should persevere longer
in withholding our recognition of the independence and sovereignty of
Haiti and Liberia, I am unable to discern it. Unwilling, however, to
inaugurate a novel policy in regard to them without the approbation of
Congress, I submit to your consideration the expediency of an
appropriation for maintaining a Chargé d'Affaires near each of these
states. It does not admit of doubt that important commercial
advantages might be secured by favorable treaties with them."[460]
Commenting on Lincoln's message, Garrison terms it "feeble and
rambling" and he "could find nothing in it to praise except the
recommendation that Congress should recognize the independence and
sovereignty of Haiti and Liberia."[461]
The 45th annual report, January 21, 1862, of the American Colonization
Society contained a section calling attention to the message.[462] The
board of managers of the Pennsylvania Colonization Society took note
of the same, May, 1862.[463] Newspapers and magazines took up the
agitation. The _Philadelphia North American_ said: "It is high time
that Congress should recognize Liberia as an independent,
self-sustaining government. Such a measure would be perfectly
comformable to the principles, policy and direct interests of our
country."[464]
On February 4, 1862, Charles Sumner from the Committee on Foreign
Relations, introduced a bill "authorizing the President to appoint
Diplomatic Representatives to the Republics of Haiti and Liberia
respectively. Each Representative so appointed is to be accredited as
Commissioner and Consul-General and is to receive, out of any money in
the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the compensation of
commissioners provided for by Act of Congress, approved August 18,
1856; but the compensation of the Representative at Liberia is not to
exceed $4,000."[465] With the introduction of the bill, Sumner spoke
at some length, favoring the passage of the bill.[466] Following the
speech of Sumner, the opposition arose. Davis, of Kentucky, said: "If
after such a measure should take effect, the Republic of Haiti and the
Republic of Liberia were to send their Ministers Plenipotentiary or
their Chargé d'Affaires to our government, they would have to be
received by the President and by all the functionaries of the
government upon the same terms of equality with similar
representatives from other powers. If a full-blooded Negro were sent
in that capacity from either of the two countries, by the laws of
nations he could demand that he be received precisely on the same
terms of equality with the white representative from the powers on the
earth composed of white people."[467] This sentiment of the
opposition, however, was expressed in harsher terms in some instances.
Through Saulsbury, of Maryland, this sentiment again was: "How fine it
will look, after emancipating the slaves in this District, to welcome
here at the White House an African, full-blooded, all gilded and
belaced, dressed in court style, with wig and sword and tights and
shoe-buckles and ribbons and spangles and many other adornments which
African vanity will suggest;" and "If this bill should pass the Houses
of Congress and become a law, I predict that in twelve months, some
Negro will walk upon the floor of the Senate and carry his family into
that which is apart for foreign Ministers. If that is agreeable to the
tastes and feelings of the people of this country, it is not to
mine...."[468]
To these attacks, Sumner replied: "I content myself with a single
remark. I have more than once had the opportunity of meeting citizens
of those republics and I say nothing more than truth when I add that I
have found them so refined, and so full of self-respect that I am led
to believe no one of them charged with a mission from his government
will seek any society where he will not be entirely welcome."[469] A
letter from the Commercial Agent at Port au Prince was read, urging
immediate recognition in order to counteract "the schemes of foreign
powers"; adding further that "the Haitians believed that when the
present administration came into power in the United States, our
former coldness and neglect would cease; and they feel and do not
hesitate to express a bitter disappointment that nothing has yet been
done."[470] The bill was passed by the Senate, by a vote of 32 yeas to
7 nays. In the House, it was championed by Gooch of Massachusetts and
passed by a vote of 86 yeas to 37 nays, and with the President's
signature became a law. In November, 1864, a treaty of friendship,
commerce and navigation was signed between the United States and
Haiti.[471] A similar treaty was signed with Liberia.[472]
Both of the Republics have felt deeply indebted to Charles Sumner for
the passage of this bill. The Liberian Commissioners, Alexander
Crummell, Edward Blyden, and J. D. Johnson, expressed thanks for his
discretion in securing its passage.[473] The republic of Haiti as late
as 1871 manifested its gratitude for his continued interest in its
welfare by presenting him with a medal and by an order that his
portrait be placed in its capitol.[474] The A. M. E. Church,
representing thousands of Negroes in the United States, expressed the
sentiment of this people in a resolution adopted in August, 1862, to
the effect "that, in the noble act of the United States Senate in
passing a law recognizing the independence of Haiti and Liberia, we
see the hand of God in a movement which we regard as ominous of good
for the race."[475]
Thus after Haiti had been an independent power for sixty years and
Liberia for fifteen years, the government of the United States granted
recognition to them as independent republics, on the eve of the death
of the slave system. Under the average circumstances, prompt
recognition may have come as the result of the efforts of the nations
themselves, as in the case of the republic of Texas.[476] But because
of the unusual circumstance which the adoption of recognition for
Negro republics would produce--holding some as slaves and recognizing
others as equals--these republics were forced to ally themselves with
the opponents of slavery and to encourage the presentation of their
case through the champions of anti-slavery in the legislative halls.
Without regard to their more recent internal politics and modern
difficulties, the recognition of these republics as independent powers
forms one of the great landmarks in the Negro's progress toward
democracy, and justice.
CHARLES H. WESLEY
FOOTNOTES:
[411] Paxson, "Independence of South American Republics," pp. 17-18.
[412] Foster, "A Century of American Diplomacy," p. 154.
[413] Reddaway, "The Monroe Doctrine," p. 15.
[414] Robinson and Beard, "The Development of Modern Europe," Vol. 2,
p. 22.
[415] _Ibid._, p. 27.
[416] Leger, "Haiti, Her History and Distractors," p. 22.
[417] Madiou (fils) describes the mutual cruelties of the French and
natives. "l'Histoire d'Haiti."
[418] Leger, "Haiti," p. 125.
[419] In this struggle 50,000 Frenchmen were lost. Gastonnet des
Fosses. "La Perte d'une Colonie," p. 34.
[420] Bird, "The Black Man or Haytian Independence (1869)," p. 60.
[421] Christophe assumed the title of king of Haiti in 1811.
[422] Leger, "Haiti," p. 168.
[423] During the presidency of Boyer (1818-1848) several invitations
were sent to the free colored people of the United States to migrate
to Haiti. Agents were sent and plans to cooperate with colonization
groups in America were encouraged. The constitution of 1843 abolished
the presidency for life, which was held by Boyer, and instituted a
service for four years. The Republic is still governed by the
stipulations of this constitution. Leger, p. 179.
[424] Seger, Haiti, p. 179.
America was subjected to these taxes as shown by: "While the citizens
of France are scarcely affected in their importations to Haiti, the
Americans here import and our merchants at home export scarcely any
article that is free."--"Commercial Relations," Vol. 1, p. 560.
[425] Annals of Congress, 15th Congress, 2d Session, p. 113. This
resolution was agreed to and the Committee was appointed.
[426] Annals of Congress, 17th Congress, 2d Session, p. 477. Agreed to
without debate.
[427] Report of Register, Treasury Department, _Gale and Seaton's
Register of Debates_, appendix, 18th Congress, 2d Session.
[428] Bassett, "History of United States," p. 383.
[429] _Official Gazette_ of Columbia, February, 1826. Quoted by Hayne,
19th Cong., 1st Session, _Gale and Seaton's Register_, p. 156.
[430] _Gale and Seaton's Register_, 19th Cong., 1st Session, p. 329.
General Bolivar, himself, was kindly disposed to Haiti, as disclosed
by the correspondence which passed between President Pétion and the
General, just previous to the revolution in Venezuela. 4,000
rifles, provisions and ammunition were given by Haiti to the
expedition.--"Expedition de Bolivar par le Senateur Marion aine," pp.
41-43, 1849.
[431] Cf. "Messages and Papers of the Presidents," Richardson,
1789-1897, Vol. 2, p. 320.
[432] _Gale and Seaton's Register_, 1825-1826, p. 330.
[433] _Gale and Seaton's Register_, 1825-1826, p. 166.
[434] _Congressional Globe_, 25th Congress, 2d Session, p. 457.
[435] _National Intelligencer_, December 19, 21, 1838.
[436] _Congressional Globe_, 25th Congress, 3d Session, p. 219.
[437] _Ibid._, p. 220.
[438] _Ibid._, p. 241, March 4, 1839.
[439] _Ibid._, 26th Congress, 1st Session, p. 164.
[440] Garrison and Garrison, "Life of Garrison," Vol. 2, p. 248.
_Liberator_, 9:3.
[441] _Congressional Globe_, 28th Congress, 1st Session, p. 504.
[442] Clark, "United States Intervention in Hayti (1852)," p. 4.
[443] _Ibid._, p. 21. In 1844, San Domingo seceded and became the
Dominican Republic. Frequent quarrels ensued between the two parts of
the Island. Therefore the reason for this suggestion for interference.
Cf. "San Domingo and the United States," John Bassett Moore, _Review
of Reviews_, March, 1905, p. 298.
[444] Clark, p. 30. _Congress. Globe_, 32d Cong., 1st Session, p.
1769.
[445] Clark, p. 28.
[446] Sir Spencer St. John, "Hayti or The Black Republic," p. 86.
[447] _Ibid._, p. 380.
[448] Leger, "Recueil des traités et Conventions de la Republique
d'Haiti," 23.
[449] _Congress. Globe_, 37th Congress, 2d Session, p. 1775. Speeches
of Chas. Sumner, published variously, Washington, April 23, 1862, p.
6. Cf. "Contre la Reconnoissance de la Republique Haitienne (1825)"
par M. Coustelin. La Norman père Librairie, Paris.
[450] Cf. Kennedy's "Colonization Report."
[451] McPherson, "History of Liberia," Johns Hopkins University
Studies, 9th Series, X, p. 34.
[452] _Ibid._, p. 39.
[453] _Ibid._, p. 38. "But the delicacy with which the dissension on
the slavery question made it necessary to handle every subject
remotely bearing on that bone of contention, prevented him (Roberts)
from obtaining even the formal recognition of Liberia."
[454] _Congress. Globe_, 37th Cong., 2d Session, p. 2500.
[455] "Treaties and Conventions concluded between the Republic of
Liberia and Foreign Powers, 1848-1892," pp. 9, 17, 23, 30, published
by the Department of State, Monrovia, Liberia.
[456] _Congress. Globe_, 37th Cong., 2d Session, p. 2501.
[457] This is quite evident from the fact that in 1860, out of 60
countries trading with the United States, Haiti stood 27th and Liberia
29th. (Statistical View of Commerce of United States, exhibiting the
value of exports to and imports from foreign countries, and the number
and tonnage of American and foreign vessels arriving from and
departing to each foreign country during the fiscal year ending June
30, 1860, Treasury Department, Register's Office, April 21, 1862.)
John L. Wilson, commercial agent at Cape Haytien, wrote, June 5, 1854:
"By a recognition of the Independence of Hayti, our commerce would be
likely to advance still more. Our citizens trading there would enjoy
more privileges, besides standing on a better footing. Many decided
advantages might be obtained through treaty and our own government
would exercise a wholesome influence over theirs, of which it stands
much in need."--"Commercial Relations," Vol. 4, p. 509.
Seth Webb, commercial agent at Port au Prince, wrote, December 12,
1861: "I must say with frankness to the Department, that I find my
position much embarrassed by the failure of our government to take any
steps toward acknowledging the nationality of Haiti, or entering into
the usual relations of country, which exist between neighboring
peoples."--To Hon. Wm. H. Seward, Sec. of State, U. S. Commercial
Agency, Port au Prince.
[458] April 18, 1850. Quoted in _N.Y. Tribune_, November 9, 1860.
[459] _Ibid._, November 9, 1860.
[460] "Messages and Papers of the Presidents," Vol. 4, p. 47.
[461] Garrison and Garrison-Garrison, Vol. 4, p. 33. Liberator, 31:
194.
[462] _African Repository_, February, 1862, p. 41.
"The Executive Committee of the American Colonization Society observe
with deep interest that the President of the United States has in his
late message recommended that the Republic of Liberia should be
acknowledged as independent. They also notice his recommendation of
some plan of colonization for free people of color in some clime
congenial to them."
[463] _Ibid._, May, 1862, p. 157.
[464] _Ibid._, April, 1862, p. 111.
[465] _Congress. Globe_, 37th Cong., 2d Session, February 4, 1862.
[466] _Congress. Globe_, 37th Cong., 2d Session, February 4, 1862.
[467] _Globe_, 37th Congress, 2d Session, p. 1806.
[468] _Ibid._, pp. 2501-2506.
[469] _Ibid._, p. 1807.
[470] Seth Webb to Seward, Sec. of State, December 12, 1861.
[471] La Republique d'Haiti et les Etats-Unis de l'Amérique, désirant
rendre durables et solides l'amitié et la bonne entente, qui règnent
heureusement entre les deux nations liberales, ont resolu de fixer
d'une manière claire, nette et positive les règles qui devront être, à
l'avenir, religieusement suivies entre l'une et l'autre, au moyen d'un
traité d'amitié, de commerce et de navigation, ainsi que d'extradition
de criminels fugitifs.--Leger, "Recueil des Traites," etc., p. 84.
[472] "Treaties and Conventions concluded between the Republic of
Liberia and Foreign Powers, 1848-1892."
[473] Grimké, "Chas. Sumner," p. 343.
[474] Chas. Sumner's Works, Vol. XIV, pp. 306-309, XV, pp. 270-272.
Memoirs and Letters of Chas. Sumner, E. L. Pierce, pp. 68-69.
[475] _The African Repository_, August, 1862, p. 255. This was passed
after thanking the Liberian Commissioners, who had addressed them.
[476] Resolution of the Senate: _Resolved_, that the independence of
Texas ought to be acknowledged by the United States whenever
satisfactory information shall be received that it has in successful
operation a civil government capable of performing the duties and
fulfilling the obligations of an independent power.--_Journal of the
Senate_, July 1, 1836.
THREE NEGRO POETS: HORTON, MRS. HARPER, AND WHITMAN[477]
With the exception of a few noteworthy individuals, conscious literary
effort on the part of the Negro in America is, of course, a matter of
comparatively recent years. Decades before Emancipation, however,
there were those who yearned toward poetry as a means of artistic
expression, and sought in this form to give vent to their groping,
their striving, and their sorrow. Handicapped as they were, scores of
these black bards must forever remain unknown. Even after the Civil
War those who had gifts were frequently held back by insufficient
education or the lack of other advantages of culture. At least three
persons, however, in the long period between Phillis Wheatley and Paul
Dunbar, deserve not wholly to pass unnoticed. These were George Moses
Horton, Mrs. Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, and Albery A. Whitman. Each
one of these poets had faults and even severe limitations as an
artist. Each one had also, however, a spark of the divine fire that
occasionally even kindled a flame.
George M. Horton was born a slave in Chatham County, North Carolina,
in 1797. Later he became the property of one Hall Horton, son of
James, who, from all accounts, was a very hard master. George,
however, was permitted to hire his time out at Chapel Hill, the seat
of the University of North Carolina, where by some accounts he
received twenty-five cents a day for his labor, by others fifty cents.
He was very ambitious. He was fond of the melodies and hymns sung at
campmeetings, and learned to read largely by matching the words he
knew in the hymnal to those in a spelling-book. Many people of
distinction became interested in his abilities; several legends exist
as to his instructors; and Dr. Caldwell, president of the University,
was for some years a special patron. George's earliest poetical
compositions, however, had to be written down for him by other people.
His work was infused with his desire for freedom, and much of it was
suggested by the common evangelical hymns, as were the following
lines:
Alas! and am I born for this,
To wear this slavish chain?
Deprived of all created bliss,
Through hardship, toil, and pain?
How long have I in bondage lain,
And languished to be free!
Alas! and must I still complain,
Deprived of liberty?
* * * * *
Come, Liberty, thou cheerful sound,
Roll through my ravished ears;
Come, let my grief in joys be drowned,
And drive away my fears.
Some of Horton's friends undertook to help him publish a volume of his
poems so that from the sale of these he might purchase his freedom and
go to the new colony of Liberia. The young man now became fired with
ambition and inspiration. Thrilled by the new hope he wrote
'Twas like the salutation of the dove,
Borne on the zephyr through some lonesome grove,
When spring returns, and winter's chill is past,
And vegetation smiles above the blast.
Horton's master, however, demanded for him an exorbitant price, and
when the booklet, _The Hope of Liberty_, appeared in 1829 it had
nothing of the sale that was hoped for. He lived for years as a
janitor at the University, executed small commissions for verse from
the students, who treated him kindly, and in later years even went to
Philadelphia; but his old dreams had faded. Several reprintings of his
poems were made, however, and one of these was bound with the 1838
edition of Phillis Wheatley's poems. He died in 1880 (by other
accounts 1883). A scholarly article about him was written for the
_Southern Workman_ of October, 1914, by Mr. Stephen B. Weeks, who in
turn owed much to the researches of Prof. George S. Wills.
Horton's work showed readily the influence of his models. He used
especially the meter of the common evangelical hymns, and cultivated
the vague personification of the poets of the eighteenth century. He
himself, however, was essentially a romantic poet, as was evinced by
his fondness for Byron and Marlowe. His common style is represented by
the following lines from his poem entitled _On the Evening and
Morning_:
When Evening bids the Sun to rest retire,
Unwearied Ether sets her lamps on fire;
Lit by one torch, each is supplied in turn,
Till all the candles in the concave burn.
* * * * *
At length the silver queen begins to rise,
And spread her glowing mantle in the skies,
And from the smiling chambers of the east,
Invites the eye to her resplendent feast.
The passion in the heart of this man, his undoubted gifts as a poet,
and the bitter disappointment of his yearnings have all but added one
more to the long list of those who died with their ambitions blasted
and their most ardent hopes defeated.
In 1854 appeared the first edition of _Poems on Miscellaneous
Subjects_, by Frances Ellen Watkins, commonly known as Mrs. Frances E.
W. Harper, who was for many years before the public and who is even
now remembered by many friends. Mrs. Harper was a woman of strong
personality and could read her poems to advantage. Her verse was very
popular, not less than ten thousand copies of her booklets being sold.
It was decidedly lacking in technique, however, and much in the style
of Mrs. Hemans. _The Death of the Old Sea King_, for instance, is in
the ballad style cultivated by this poet and Longfellow; but it is not
a well-sustained effort. Mrs. Harper was best when most simple, as
when in writing of children she said:
I almost think the angels
Who tend life's garden fair,
Drop down the sweet white blossoms
That bloom around us here.
The secret of her popularity is to be seen in such lines as the
following from _Bury me in a Free Land_:
Make me a grave where'er you will,
In a lowly plain or a lofty hill;
Make it among earth's humblest graves,
But not in a land where men are slaves.
I could not rest if around my grave
I heard the steps of a trembling slave:
His shadow above my silent tomb
Would make it a place of fearful gloom.
* * * * *
I ask no monument, proud and high,
To arrest the gaze of the passers-by;
All that my yearning spirit craves
Is bury me not in a land of slaves.
Of the Emancipation Proclamation she wrote:
It shall flash through coming ages,
It shall light the distant years;
And eyes now dim with sorrow
Shall be brighter through their tears.
While Mrs. Harper was still prominently before the public appeared
Albery A. Whitman, a Methodist minister, whose important collection,
_Not a Man and Yet a Man_, appeared in 1877, and whose long and
ambitious poem, _Twasinta's Seminoles_, or _The Rape of Florida_ (the
latter title being the one most used), was issued in 1884. This writer
had great love for his work. In the preface to his second volume he
wrote of poetry as follows: "I do not believe poetry is on the
decline. I do not believe that human advancement extinguishes the
torch of sentiment. I can not think that money-getting is the whole
business of man. Rather am I convinced that the world is approaching a
poetical revolution. The subtle evolution of thought must yet be
expressed in song. Poetry is the language of universal sentiment.
Torch of the unresting mind, she kindles in advance of all progress.
Her waitings are on the threshold of the infinite, where, beckoning
man to listen, she interprets the leaves of immortality. Her voice is
the voice of Eternity dwelling in all great souls. Her aims are the
inducements of heaven, and her triumphs the survival of the Beautiful,
the True, and the Good. In her language there is no mistaking of that
liberal thought which is the health of mind. A secret interpreter, she
waits not for data, phenomena, and manifestations, but anticipates and
spells the wishes of Heaven."
The work of Whitman himself is exceedingly baffling. It is to his
credit that something about his work at once commands judgment by the
highest standards. If we consider it on this basis, we find that it is
diffuse, exhibits many lapses in taste, is faulty metrically, as if
done in haste, and shows imitation on every hand. It imitates
Whittier, Longfellow and Tennyson; Scott, Byron and Moore. _The Old
Sac Village_ and _Nanawawa's Suitors_ are very evidently _Hiawatha_
over again, and _Custer's Last Ride_ is simply another version of _The
Charge of the Light Brigade_. And yet, whenever one has about decided
that Whitman is not worthy of consideration, the poet insists on a
revision of judgment; and he certainly could not have imitated so many
writers so readily, if he had not had some solid basis in
appreciation. The fact is that he shows a decided faculty for brisk,
though not sustained, narration. This may be seen in _The House of the
Aylors_. He has, moreover, a romantic lavishness of description that
in spite of all technical faults still has some degree of merit. The
following quotations, taken respectively from _The Mowers_ and _The
Flight of Leeona_, with all their extravagance, will exemplify both
his weakness and his strength in description:
The tall forests swim in a crimson sea,
Out of whose bright depths rising silently,
Great golden spires shoot into the skies,
Among the isles of cloudland high, that rise,
Float, scatter, burst, drift off, and slowly fade,
Deep in the twilight, shade succeeding shade.
* * * * *
And now she turns upon a mossy seat,
Where sings a fern-bound stream beneath her feet,
And breathes the orange in the swooning air;
Where in her queenly pride the rose blooms fair,
And sweet geranium waves her scented hair;
There, gazing in the bright face of the stream,
Her thoughts swim onward in a gentle dream.
In _A Dream of Glory_ occur the lines,
The fairest blooms are born of humble weeds,
That faint and perish in the pathless wood;
And out of bitter life grow noble deeds
To pass unnoticed in the multitude.
_The Bards of England_ discusses many poets. The following is the
passage on Byron:
To Missolonghi's chief of singers too,
Unhappy Byron, is a tribute due--
A wounded spirit, mournful and yet mad,
A genius proud, defiant, gentle, sad;
'Twas he whose Harold won his Nation's heart,
And whose Reviewers made her fair cheeks smart;
Whose uncurbed Juan hung her head for shame,
And whose Mazeppa won unrivaled fame.
Earth had no bound for him. Where'er he strode
His restless genius found no fit abode.
Whitman's shortcomings become readily apparent when he attempts
sustained work. _The Rape of Florida_ is the longest poem yet written
by a Negro in America, and also the only attempt by a member of the
race to use the elaborate Spenserian stanza throughout a long piece of
work. The story is concerned with the capture of the Seminoles in
Florida through perfidy and the taking of them away to their new home
in the West. It centers around three characters, Palmecho, an old
chief, Ewald, his daughter, and Atlassa, a young Seminole who is
Ewald's lover. The poem is decidedly diffuse; there is too much
subjective description, too little strong characterization. Palmecho,
instead of being a stout warrior, is a "chief of peace and kindly
deeds." Stanzas of merit, however, occasionally strike the eye. The
boat-song forces recognition as genuine poetry:
"Come now, my love, the moon is on the lake;
Upon the waters is my light canoe;
Come with me, love, and gladsome oars shall make
A music on the parting wave for you,--
Come o'er the waters deep and dark and blue:
Come where the lilies in the marge have sprung,
Come with me, love, for Oh, my love is true!"
This is the song that on the lake was sung,
The boatman sang it over when his heart was young.
It is important to note in a consideration of Whitman's method that
while he is writing a story about Indians he frequently leaves this to
tell how he feels as a Negro. The following stanzas, however, are
pertinent to present-day discussion:
'Tis hard to judge if hatred of one's race,
By those who deem themselves superior-born,
Be worse than that quiescence in disgrace,
Which only merits--and _should_ only--scorn!
Oh! let me see the Negro, night and morn,
_Pressing_ and fighting in, for place and power!
If he a proud escutcheon would adorn,
All earth is place--all time th' auspicious hour,
While heaven leans forth to see, oh! can he quail or cower?
Ah! I abhor his protest and complaint!
His pious looks and patience I despise!
He can't evade the test, disguised as saint,
The manly voice of freedom bids him rise,
And shake himself before Philistine eyes!
And, like a lion roused, no sooner than
A foe dare come, play all his energies,
And court the fray with fury if he can!
For hell itself respects a fearless manly man.
In 1890 Whitman brought out an edition of _Not a Man and Yet a Man_
and _The Rape of Florida_, adding to these a collection of
miscellaneous poems, _Drifted Leaves_, and in 1901 he published _An
Idyl of the South_, an epic poem in two parts. It is to be regretted
that he did not have the training that comes from the best university
education. He had the taste and the talent to benefit from such
culture in the greatest degree.
This brief review of the work of three earnest members of the race
prompts a few reflections on the whole art of poetry as this is
cultivated by the Negro in America. If we may make any reasonable
deduction from the work of the poets studied, if we may arrive at any
conclusion from the work of Paul Laurence Dunbar and the younger
writers of the day, we should say that the genius of the race is
subjective and romantic rather than objective and classic. In poetry,
least of all arts, does the Negro conceal his individuality. This is
his great gift, but also in another way the spur to further
achievement. The race should in course of time produce many brilliant
lyric poets. Dunbar was a lyric poet; so was Pushkin. The drama and
the epic obviously call for more extended information, a more
objective point of view, and a broader basis in general culture than
many members of the race have so far had the time or the talent or the
inclination to give to them.
Again, has one ever asked himself why it is that so much of the poetry
of the Negro fails to reach the ultimate standards of art? It
certainly is not because of lack of imagination, for God has been
generous in the imagery with which he has endowed the race. First of
all, last of all, is it not the matter of technique? Many booklets of
verse that have been issued show that the writers had not mastered
even the ordinary fundamentals of English grammar. For one to think of
rivalling Tennyson with his classical tradition when he can not make a
clearcut English sentence is out of the question. Further, and this is
the most important point, the work of those in question almost never
exhibits imagination expressed in intense, condensed, vivid, and
suggestive phrase--such phrasing, for instance, as one will find in
"The Eve of St. Agnes," which I am not alone in considering the most
lavishly brilliant and successful brief effort in poetry in the
language. To all of this might be added a refining of taste,
something all too frequently lacking and something that can come only
from the most arduous and diligent culture. When we further secure
such things as these the race may indeed possess not only a Horton, a
Harper, or a Whitman, but a Tennyson, a Keats, and even a Shakespeare.
BENJAMIN BRAWLEY
FOOTNOTES:
[477] This paper was read at the biennial meeting of the Association
held in Washington, D. C., on August 29, 1917.
CATHOLICS AND THE NEGRO
In order to understand and to gain an adequate idea of what Catholics
and their ancient Church have done for the American Negro, it is
necessary to take into account the facts and testimony of impartial
history in regard to human slavery among the nations, and the
influence which the Roman Catholic Church brought to bear on that
institution. We must study and remember the conditions and customs in
pre-Christian times in regard to slaves, and we should also note the
gradual transition from the state of things existing in the heathen
world to that prevailing in our modern Christian civilization.
The student of history observes that ideas and principles take their
rise and, growing, permeate society, bringing about a change in the
morals and manners of a nation. These changes, which may be for good
or evil, do not come of a sudden. Even during the Christian ages the
principles of the gospel do not always prevail in their fulness and
beauty. At times, through the passions of men, non-Christian and pagan
ideas gain ground and for a time predominate. It is only by dealing
tactfully with human nature and by persistent efforts that the Church
has been enabled to make Christian ideals prevail.
At the dawn of Christianity, slavery was an established institution in
all countries.[478] Some pagan philosophers, like Seneca, maintained
that all men are by nature free and equal, still by the law of nations
slavery was upheld in all lands; and it was an axiom among the ruling
classes, that "the human race exists for the sake of the few."
Aristotle held that no perfect household could exist without slaves
and freemen and that the natural law, as well as the law of nations,
makes a distinction between bond and free.[479] Plato avowed that
every slave's soul was fundamentally corrupt and should not be
trusted.[480] The proportion of slaves to freemen varied in different
countries, though usually the former were largely in excess of the
free population. In Rome for a long time, according to the testimony
of Blair, the slaves were three to one. At one time they became so
formidable there that the Senate, fearing that if conscious of their
own numbers the public safety might be endangered, forbade them a
distinctive dress. Atrocious laws regulated the relations of master
and slaves. The head of the family was absolute master of his slaves,
having over them the power of life and death. Moral and social
degradation was the common lot of slaves. Their wretched condition in
pagan times was often rendered more intolerable by aggravating
circumstances. Many of them had once enjoyed the blessings of freedom,
but had been reduced to bondage by the calamities of war. Unlike the
Negro slaves of America, they were usually of the same color as their
masters; and in some instances, better educated, more refined, and of
more delicate frame, than those whom they served. Epictetus, one of
the ablest of the Stoic philosophers, was a slave. Horace and Juvenal
were the sons of freedmen.[481]
There is something of the ruthlessness of the ancient pagans in the
atrocities practiced in later times, and even in our day, by the
Mohammedans in Africa. Livingstone, Cameron, and still more recently
Cardinal Lavigerie, Archbishop of Carthage, who was furnished with
information by his missionaries, declare that at least 400,000 Negroes
are annually carried into bondage in Africa by Mussulman traders, and
that fully five times that number perish either by being massacred in
the slave hunt, or from hunger and hardship on the journey. Thus the
lives or liberty of an immense number of the human race are each year
sacrificed on the altars of lust and mammon. No pagan government of
antiquity ever framed any law aiming at the immediate or gradual
extinction of slavery. The same is true of modern nations outside the
pale of Christianity.[482]
With the life and teaching of Christ and the preaching of his gospel
by his Apostles, began a new era in the history of slavery. The
Apostles and their successors pursued a policy that without injustice,
violence or revolution, led to the gradual emancipation of the slaves.
The labors and influence of the Roman Catholic Church, which have been
that of organized Christianity, make a long story, reaching through
all the Christian ages. The early Church mitigated the condition of
the slave, by teaching him the consoling doctrines of Christ. She
taught the slave and master reciprocal duties, prescribing laws that
exercised a salutary restraint on the authority of the one, and
sanctified the obedience of the other; she contributed to the moral
elevation of the slave by leveling all distinctions between bond and
free in her temples and religious assemblies.[483] Masters were
encouraged to emancipate their slaves by a public ceremony of
manumission celebrated in the church on festival days. The dignity and
duty of labor for all is inculcated by St. Paul and the early
Christian teachers in opposition to the pagan practice, which scorned
labor as being only fit for slaves. The absolute religious equality
proclaimed in the Church was the negation of slavery as practiced by
pagan society. The Church made no account of the social condition of
the faithful. Bond and free received the same sacraments. Clerics of
servile origin were numerous. The very Chair of St. Peter was occupied
by men who had been slaves--Pius in the second century and Callistus
in the third.[484] The names of slaves are numbered among the martyrs
of the Christian faith and they are inscribed on the calendar of
saints honored by the Church.
In giving them a place in religious society, the Church restored to
slaves the family and marriage. In Roman law, neither legitimate
marriage nor regular paternity, nor even any impediment to the most
unnatural unions had existed for the slave. In upholding the moral
dignity and prerogatives of the slave, the Church was striking a blow
for his civil freedom. Though she was not charged with the framing of
the civil laws, she moved the hearts of the slaveowners by moral
suasion, and she moulded the conscience of legislators by an appeal to
the innate rights of men. In the early Fathers of the Church, like St.
Gregory of Nyssa and St. John Chrysostom, the most energetic
reprobation of slavery may be found.
The redemption of captives was another work which engaged the pious
solicitude of the Church. From the fourth to the fourteenth century
Europe was periodically a prey to northern invaders. The usual fate of
the vanquished was death or slavery. They who escaped were carried
into bondage. A more wretched fate awaited the female sex, for they
were reserved to gratify the caprices of their conquerors. Religious
orders were founded to succor and redeem them.[485] "Closely connected
with the influence of the Church," says Mr. Lecky, "in destroying
hereditary slavery, was its influence in redeeming captives from
servitude. In no other form of charity was its beneficial character
more continually and more splendidly displayed."[486]
Among the forces enlisted in the cause of freedom the most potent came
from the Papacy. In every age the voice of the Popes resounded clearly
throughout the world in the interests of human freedom. They either
commended the slaves to the humanity of their masters, or advocated
their manumission, and also condemned the slave trade with all its
abuses. Pope Gregory the Great, who occupied the chair of Peter from
590 to 604, wrote: "Since our Blessed Redeemer, the Author of all
life, in His goodness assumed our human flesh, in order that by
breaking the bond of servitude in which we were held, the grace of His
divinity might restore us to our original liberty, it is a wholesome
deed by the benefits of emancipation to restore the freedom in which
they were born, to men whom nature, in the beginning brought forth
free, and whom the law of nations has subjected to the yoke of
slavery."[487]
On October 7, 1462, Pope Pius II issued a letter in which he reproved
and condemned the slave trade then carried on. Again, a short time
later Leo X denounced slavery in 1537. Paul III forbade the
enslavement of the Indians. In the later centuries on the revival of
slavery by some of the nations, especially among those coming under
the power of Mohammedanism in Persia, Arabia, Turkey and Africa, as
also on account of the enslavement of Negroes and Indians in the
Americas, other Popes proclaimed the Christian law in regard to the
cruelties of the slave trade. Again Urban VIII, in 1639, and Benedict
XIV, in 1741, were defenders of the liberty of the Indians and blacks
even though they were not as yet instructed in the Christian
faith.[488] In 1815, Pius VII demanded of the Congress of Vienna the
suppression of the slave trade. In the Bull of Canonization of St.
Peter Claver, one of the most illustrious adversaries of slavery, Pius
IX speaks of the "supreme villainy" of the slave-traders. Gregory XVI,
in 1839, published a memorable encyclical in which the following
strong language occurs:
"By virtue of our Apostolic office, we warn and admonish in the
Lord all Christians of whatever conditions they may be, and
enjoin upon them that for the future, no one shall venture
unjustly to oppress the Indians, Negroes or other men whoever
they may be, to strip them of their property, or reduce them into
servitude, or give aid or support to those who commit such
excesses or carry on that infamous traffic by which the blacks,
as if they were not men, but mere impure animals reduced like
them into servitude, contrary to the laws of justice and
humanity, are bought, sold and devoted to endure the hardest
labor. Wherefore, by virtue of our Apostolic authority, we
condemn all these things as absolutely unworthy of the Christian
name."[489]
Probably the most memorable statement of the history and Catholic
position on slavery is the beautiful letter which Pope Leo XIII, in
1888, addressed to the Brazilian Bishops, exhorting them to banish
from their country the remnants of slavery--a letter to which the
Bishops responded with their most energetic efforts. Some generous
slave-owners freed their slaves in a body, as in the first ages of the
Church. Catholic Brazil emancipated its slaves without war or
bloodshed. The following are some extracts from the Pope's letter:
"The condition of slavery, in which a considerable part of the
human family has been sunk in squalor and affliction now for many
centuries, is deeply to be deplored; for the system is one wholly
opposed to that which was originally ordained by God and by
nature. The Supreme Author of all things so decreed that man
should exercise a sort of royal dominion over beasts and cattle
and fish and fowl, but never that man should exercise a like
dominion over his fellow-man. * * * * * * * * * Monuments, laws,
institutions, through a continuous series of ages, teach and
splendidly demonstrate the great love of the Church towards
slaves, whom in their miserable condition, she never left
destitute of protection, and always to the best of her power
alleviated. Therefore, praise and thanks are due to the Catholic
Church, since she has merited it in the prosperity of nations,
by the very great beneficence of Christ, our Redeemer and
banisher of slavery, and cause of true liberty, fraternity and
equality among men. Toward the end of the fifteenth century, when
the base stain of slavery was almost blotted out from among
Christian nations, the Catholic Church took the greatest care
that the evil germs of such depravity should nowhere revive.
Therefore, she directed her provident vigilance to the
newly-discovered regions of Africa, Asia and America, for a
report had reached her that the leaders of the expeditions,
Christians though they were, were wickedly making use of their
arms and ingenuity to establish and impose slavery on those
innocent nations. Indeed, since the crude nature of the soil
which they had to overcome, nor less the wealth of metals which
had to be extracted by mining, required very hard work, unjust
and inhuman plans were entered into; for a new traffic was begun,
slaves being transported for that purpose from Ethiopia, which at
that time, under the name of the _slave trade_, too much occupied
those colonies."[490]
The fact that the Catholic Church has been a leader of mankind to
light and Christian liberty is attested by leading non-Catholic
scholars and historians. The historian Lecky, who holds no brief for
Catholicism, says: "The Catholic Church was the very heart of
Christendom and the spirit that radiated from her penetrated into all
the relations of life. Catholicism laid the very foundations of modern
civilization. Herself the most admirable of all organizations,
there was formed beneath her influence, a vast network of
organizations--political, municipal and social--which supplied a large
proportion of the materials of almost every modern structure. In the
transition from slavery to serfdom, and in the transition from serfdom
to liberty, she was the most zealous, the most unwearied and the most
efficient agent."[491] The French Protestant Guizot says: "There can
be no doubt that the Catholic Church struggled resolutely against the
great vices of the social state--against slavery, for instance. These
facts are so well known that it is needless for me to enter into
details."[492]
Speaking of the development of the colored race under Catholic
influence, Dr. Blyden, a noted Negro scholar, wrote in _Frazer's
Magazine_ for May, 1870, the following words, which he afterwards
incorporated into his _Christianity, Islam, and the Negro Race_:
"The thoughtful and cultivated Protestant Negro, though he may,
_ex animo_, subscribe to the tenets of the particular
denomination to which he belongs, as approaching nearest to the
teaching of God's word, yet he cannot read history without
feeling a deep debt of gratitude to the Roman Catholic Church.
The only Christian Negroes who have had the power to successfully
throw off oppression and maintain their position as freemen were
Roman Catholic Negroes--the Haitiens; and the greatest Negro the
Christian world has yet produced was a Roman Catholic--Toussaint
L'Ouverture. In the ecclesiastical system of modern, as was the
case in the military system of ancient Rome, there seems to be a
place for all races and colors. At Rome the names of Negroes,
males as well as females, who have been distinguished for piety
and good works, are found in the calendar under the designation
of saints."[493]
Coming to America, we find that from the beginning of our history, the
Christian forces, which in the past strove to civilize and
Christianize the old world, have exerted themselves in behalf of the
oppressed in the New World. Catholic missionaries have always felt
constrained to carry out the injunction of the Divine Savior to his
apostles, "Go ye into the whole world and preach the Gospel to every
creature."[494] Their object was not to gain gold or worldly fortune,
but to bring the light of Christian truth to the minds of savage
aborigines; to win souls to Christ. To those missionaries, as the
Church teaches, the souls of the children of all races are equally
precious in the sight of God, whatever may be their individual or
racial character. It is for this that they left in young manhood,
their relatives and comfortable homes, with a probability of never
returning. In early ages, they brought Christianity and civilization
to peoples and nations of the lands of the Eastern Hemisphere. After
the discovery of the New World by Columbus, they were with the
explorers of North and South America. From about 1615 we find them
laboring among the Indian tribes from Quebec in Canada to California
in the West. Intrepid apostles like Marquette, Breheuf, Menard,
Millet, Lallemant, Jogues, Le Moyne, Dablon, Garnier, and a host of
others like them blazed the way through the wilderness to labor and
suffer and die for the salvation of the Indians. They made records in
the service of Christ among the Hurons, Algonquins, Iroquois and
Mohawks. To the South, in Florida, Spanish Franciscans fell victims to
the treachery of Creeks and Seminoles. In the middle of the last
century, before the coming of the settlers, Father De Smet spent
nearly forty years among the tribes of the great Western plains and in
the Rocky Mountain region. Other missionaries in Western Canada
penetrated the North as far as the Arctic Circle. In the seventies and
eighties of the nineteenth century, a frail and slender man, in the
person of the learned and saintly Archbishop Charles J. Seghers,
journeyed thousands of miles, to bring the message of the Master to
the red men in the vast territory of distant Alaska. In California,
Arizona and Texas, the traveler meets with many evidences and
monuments of the work of early Spanish Catholic missionaries among the
Indians. The records show that in some instances, the missionaries
were accompanied by Negroes. Probably the first Negro whose name is
recorded in North American history is that of Estevan, or Stephen, who
accompanied Father Marcos de Niza, in 1536, on a missionary
expedition into the territory of the present States of Arizona and New
Mexico.[495]
It is at a later period, however, than that of these early
missionaries, that the coming of the Negro as a notable part of the
population of the American Colonies begins. This growth takes its rise
with the revival of the slave trade in America after the first
importation of slaves brought to Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619. There
was long a demand for laborers, and thus an increasing number of
slaves were brought from Africa to the various colonies on the
Atlantic seaboard, from Massachusetts to Louisiana. British ships at
that time supplied not only English colonies with slave labor, but
also those of France and Spain.[496] Catholic colonists were confined
to Maryland and Louisiana. They also had slaves in their homes and on
their plantations, but it is known that they provided for their
religious needs and were obliged by their religion to regard their
slaves as human beings and not as mere chattels. Under Lord
Baltimore's government in the English Colony of Maryland, the Catholic
Proprietary himself tells us in his answer to the Lords in 1676,
concerning the law that had been enacted "to encourage the baptizing
and the instructing of those kinds of servants in the faith of
Christ."[497] There had been remissness towards the slaves in this
respect among other sections of the population, but such denominations
were spurred to action by the example of Catholics. The work of
Spanish and French missionaries, as Dr. Woodson points out, influenced
the education of the Negro throughout America.[498] The freedom and
welfare of the unhappy slaves were especially promoted in the famous
"Code Noir," the most humane legislation in their behalf which had
been devised before the repeal of slavery. In 1724, M. de Bienville
drew up the "Code Noir," containing all the legislation applicable to
slaves in Louisiana, which remained in force until 1803. This code,
signed in the name of the King, and inspired by Catholic teaching and
practice, was probably based on a similar code, which was promulgated
in 1685, in Santo Domingo, by Louis XIV, King of France. The Edict
ordained that all slaves be instructed and that they be admitted to
the sacraments and rites of the Roman Catholic Church. It allowed the
slave time for instruction, worship and rest, not only every Sunday,
but every festival usually observed by the Church. It prohibited under
severe penalties all masters and managers from corrupting their female
slaves, and provided for the Christian marriage of the slave. It did
not allow the Negro, husband, wife or infant children, to be sold
separately. It forbade the use of torture or immoderate and inhuman
punishments. It obliged the owners to maintain their old and decrepit
slaves. If the Negroes were not fed or clothed as the law prescribed,
or if they were in any way cruelly treated, they might apply to the
procurer, who was obliged by his office to protect them. A somewhat
similar edict, known as the Spanish Code, was promulgated in the
Spanish West Indies in 1789.
At the time of the Revolutionary War such Catholic patriots as Charles
Carroll, of Carrollton, the Polish General Kosciuszko, and General
Lafayette, of France, gave evidence of their interest in the
improvement of the Negro. Kosciuszko provided in his will that the
property which he acquired in America should be used for the purchase
of slaves to be educated for higher service and citizenship.[499]
Lafayette persistently urged that the blacks be educated and
emancipated.[500]
The impression seems to prevail in some quarters that the Catholic
Church in the United States has been indifferent to the welfare of the
Negro. Sir Harry H. Johnston in his work, _The Negro in the New
World_, rather unjustly asserts that the Church maintains "nothing in
the way of Negro education and has never at any time shown particular
sympathy or desire to help the Negro slave." At the same time he
acknowledges that the Roman Catholic Church in the West Indies and
South America has been the great opponent of slavery. Johnston states
"that the infractions of the Code Noir," and the increased
mal-treatment of slaves and free mulattoes did not take place until
the Catholic order of Jesuits had been expelled from Saint Dominique
about 1766. Here, as in Brazil, and Paraguay, they had exasperated the
white colonists by standing up for the natives or the Negro slaves;
and in Hispaniola they had endeavored to exact from the local
government a full application of the various slave-protecting edicts.
Whatever faults and mistakes they may have been guilty of in the
nineteenth century, the Jesuits played, for two hundred years, a noble
part in acting as a buffer between the Caucasian on the one hand, and
the backward peoples on the other.[501]
Before the emancipation of the slaves in the United States, great
difficulties prevented the Catholic Church from benefiting the slaves,
especially in those parts where the Church had no adherents and no
freedom to act. The Church had but a limited number of clergy and
small means. The most of the South was predominantly Protestant and in
some sections, penal laws were in force against Catholics. In many
States laws were enacted against the instruction of slaves in any
manner whatever.
Notwithstanding these obstacles, we find Catholic schools in
Washington and Baltimore educating Negro children as early as
1829.[502] The Rt. Rev. John England, the first Catholic Bishop of
Charleston, South Carolina, who held his office from 1820 until his
death in 1842, cared much for the poor friendless slaves. He began to
teach them, founding a school for males under the care of a priest,
and a school for girls under the care of the Sisters of Mercy. He was
compelled to suspend the slave schools by the passage of a law making
it criminal to teach a slave to read and write, but he continued the
schools for emancipated blacks.[503] After the Civil War, the
authorities of the Church were better enabled to take an active part
in meeting the religious needs of the Negro. The Plenary Councils of
Baltimore invite the colored people of our country to enter the
Catholic Church. To her pastors the Negro is a man with an immortal
soul to save. Rome, writing to the Bishops of the United States, on
January 31, 1866, in preparation for the Second Plenary Council of
Baltimore, declares: "It is the mind of the Church that the Bishops of
the United States, because of the duty weighing upon them of feeding
the Lord's flock, should take council together, in order to bring
about in a steady way the salvation and the Christian education of the
lately emancipated negroes." When assembled in Council the Bishops of
the United States cordially seconded the wishes of Rome by quoting the
very words in an entire chapter devoted to the question of the
salvation of the colored race. The Council declares: "This is true
charity, if not only temporal prosperity of men be increased, but if
they are sharers in the highest and inestimable benefits, namely, of
that true liberty by which we are called and are sons of God, which
Christ, dying on a cross and smiting the enemy of the human race,
obtains for all men without any exceptions whatsoever."[504] Eighteen
years later, in 1884, the Third Plenary Council, in the same city,
renewed the exhortations of the preceding council. Among other things
it states: "Out of six millions of colored people there is a very
large multitude who stand sorely in need of Christian instruction and
missionary labor; and it is evident that in the poor dioceses, in
which they are mostly found, it is most difficult to bestow on them
the care they need without the generous cooperation of our Catholic
people in more prosperous localities.... Since the greatest part of
the Negroes are as yet outside the fold of Christ, it is a matter of
necessity to seek workmen inflamed with zeal for souls, who will be
sent into this part of the Lord's harvest."[505]
With the encouragement of the higher authorities of the Church, who
sought the spiritual welfare and progress of the race, religious
orders and missionary associations took up the work for the Negro. The
first of these was the Fathers of the Society of St. Joseph, founded
by Cardinal Vaughan, of England. They are known as the Josephites and
now have priests and missionaries in nearly all Southern States and
dioceses. There are also laboring in this field Fathers of the Holy
Ghost, as also members of the Society of the African Missions, and the
Society of the Divine Word. Furthermore, there are a number of colored
and white Sisterhoods conducting orphanages, academies and Christian
Schools for colored children.
In the Second and Third Plenary Councils, the Bishops of the Catholic
Church in the United States as a body took up the cause of the Negro
race. The Bishops have when occasion offered, by word and deed, shown
their friendship and zeal in behalf of the Negro. They have
individually raised their voices for humanity and the black man.
Cardinal Gibbons, who has long been the leading prelate among the
American Bishops, has not only often spoken a good word for the Negro,
when the occasion called for it, but has proved by actions his
Christian spirit and heroic charity. Among the many instances of his
zeal and self-sacrifice, it is related that when he was a young priest
in charge of the parish of Elk Ridge, near Baltimore, smallpox broke
out in the village, and a general exodus at once followed. One old
Negro man, lying at the point of death, had been abandoned by his
family and was left alone in his cabin, without food or medicine.
Father Gibbons, hearing of the case, hastened to the old man's relief;
he procured everything necessary for him, and stood by and tended him
until he died. He then procured a coffin and having placed the corpse
in it, carried it to the graveyard and buried it with his own
hands.[506] A similar incident is told of Rev. J. A. Cunnane, of Upper
Marlboro, Maryland, now a pastor in Baltimore. When stationed in
Charles County he attended an old colored man during an epidemic of
smallpox, "took the body to the grave on a wheelbarrow, and with his
own hands buried it."[507]
Cardinal Gibbons, some years ago, wrote a letter in which occur the
following sentiments:
"What then is the first need of the colored people? A sound
religious education; an education that will bring them to a
practical knowledge of God, that will teach them their origin and
the sublime destiny that awaits them in a better world; an
education that will develop their superior being, that will
inspire them with the love of wisdom and hatred for sin, that
will make them honest, moral and God-fearing men. Such an
education will elevate and ennoble them and place them on a
religious footing with the white man.
"And secondly, it is a matter of observation that few colored
people are mechanics. Now, to be a factor in their country's
prosperity, to make their presence felt and to give any influence
whatever to their attempts to better their status, it is
absolutely necessary that, besides a sound religious training
they should be taught to be useful citizens; they should be
brought up from childhood to habits of industry. They should be
taught that to labor is honorable, and that the idler is a menace
to the commonwealth. Institutions should be founded wherein the
young men may learn the trades best suited to their inclinations.
Thus equipped--on the one hand well-instructed Christians, on the
other skilled workmen--our colored people may look forward
hopefully to the future. I am happy to bear testimony from
personal observation to the many virtues exhibited among so many
of the colored people of Maryland, especially their deep sense of
religion, their gratitude for favors shown, and their
affectionate disposition."[508]
The Cardinal used his great influence against the lynching evil and
in an article in the _North American Review_ for October, 1905,
pronounced lynching "a blot on our American civilization."[509] It
should be stated too that in Catholic countries of Central and South
America we rarely ever hear of lynching nor of unnatural crimes which
provoke it. In an address announcing "Colorphobia" as a "malignantly
unchristian disease," Mr. John C. Minkins, a journalist, not long ago
told a Baptist Ministers' Conference of Providence, Rhode Island, that
the lynchings in the United States are nearly all in States where
there are scarcely any Catholics. He based his statements on figures
from the Research Bureau of the Negro Industrial Institute at
Tuskegee, Alabama.[510]
In March, 1904, Cardinal Gibbons wrote the following letter to the
Rev. George F. Bragg, of Baltimore:
"In reply to your letter of yesterday, I hasten to say that the
introduction of the 'Jim Crow' bill into the Maryland Legislature
is very distressing to me. Such a measure must of necessity
engender very bitter feelings in the colored people against the
whites. Peace and harmony can never exist where there is unjust
discrimination, and where the members of every community must
constantly strive for its peace, especially now in the hour of
our affliction. While calamity and disaster are frowning upon our
city, mutual helpfulness should be the common endeavor and no
action should be lightly taken which would precipitate enmities,
strife and acrimonious feelings. The duty of every man is to
lighten the burdens that weigh heavily upon his neighbor to the
full extent of his power. It is equally the duty of every member
of a community to avoid any action which is calculated to make
hard and bitter the lot of a less fortunate race. Furthermore, it
would be most injudicious to make the whole race suffer for the
delinquencies of a few individuals, to visit upon thousands who
are innocent that punishment and chastisement which should be
meted out to the guilty alone."
Hostile legislation to the colored people was opposed by a noted
Catholic layman of Maryland, the Hon. Charles J. Bonaparte, Attorney
General of the United States, under President Roosevelt. Mr.
Bonaparte rendered service and wrote sympathetic words to Mr. Bragg,
in 1904, concerning the proposed restriction of the elective
franchise. He said: "Whatever the restrictions imposed, they should be
the same for all citizens; there should not be one law for white men
and another law for black men, one law for Americans of two
generations and another for Americans of three."[511]
The distinguished Archbishop of St. Paul, Minnesota, John Ireland, a
man of wide influence, on May 5, 1890, spoke on the race problem in a
sermon delivered at St. Augustine's Church, Washington, D. C.
Secretary Windom, Recorder Bruce, the whole Minnesota delegation to
Congress and many Senators and others prominent in public life were
among the congregation. The bold and outspoken stand of the Archbishop
on this occasion created somewhat of a sensation throughout America.
Among other things he said:
"It make me ashamed as a man, as a citizen, as a Christian, to
see the prejudice that is acted against the colored citizens of
America because of his color. As to the substance, the colored
man is equal to the white man; he has a like intellect, the same
blood courses in their veins; they are both equally the children
of a common Father, who is in heaven. A man shows a narrowness of
mind and becomes unworthy of his humanity by refusing any
privilege to his fellowman because he is colored. Every prejudice
entertained, every breach of justice and charity against a
fellow-citizen because of color is a stain flung upon the banner
of our liberty that floats over us. No church is a fit temple of
God where a man, because of his color, is excluded or made to
occupy a corner. Religion teaches that we cannot be pleasing to
God unless we look upon all mankind as children of our Father in
heaven. And they who order and compel a man because he is colored
to betake himself to a corner marked off for his race,
practically contradict the principles of justice and of equal
rights established by the God of Mercy, who lives on the altar.
Let Christians act out their religion, and there is no more race
problem. Equality for the colored man is coming. The colored
people are showing themselves worthy of it. Let the colored be
industrious, purchase homes, respect law and order, educate
themselves and their children, and keep insisting on their
rights. The color line must go; the line will be drawn at
personal merit."[512]
There may be cited other instances of the friendly interest of leading
prelates and Bishops of the Church in the welfare of the Negro and of
care for their spiritual interests. They have ever been anxious that
justice be done to the race. The late Pope Pius X, sometime before his
death, wrote a letter through his secretary to the Rt. Rev. Thomas S.
Byrne, Bishop of Nashville, Tennessee, saying that he "most earnestly
wishes that the work of the Apostolate to the colored people, worthy
of being encouraged and applauded beyond any other undertaking of
Christian civilization, may find numerous and generous contributors."
JOSEPH BUTSCH
ST. JOSEPH'S SEMINARY,
BALTIMORE, MD.
FOOTNOTES:
[478] Dollinger, "The Gentile and the Jew," II, p. 265.
[479] Aristotle, "Politics," I, 3-4.
[480] Plato, "The Laws," VI, p. 233.
[481] Cardinal Gibbons, "Our Christian Heritage," pp. 416-420.
[482] Cardinal Gibbons, "Our Christian Heritage," p. 432.
[483] Cardinal Gibbons, "Our Christian Heritage," pp. 429-430.
[484] P. Allard, "Les Esclaves Chretiens," p. 215.
[485] Cardinal Gibbons, _op. cit._, p. 436.
[486] Lecky, "History of European Morals," Vol. II, p. 76.
[487] St. Gregory I, "Letter VI."
[488] In treating of an early period of Spanish American history,
undue importance seems to be given by some writers and historians,
such as Bancroft, Robertson and Blyden, to the fact that Bartholomew
de Las Casas, Bishop of Chiapa, when before the Court of Charles V of
Spain, in 1517, counseled that Negro slaves take the place of Indians,
as he considered the Negroes a hardier race. Other reliable
authorities, such as Fiske and MacNutt, claim that Las Casas merely
tolerated for a time, what already existed and what he could not
prevent. All agree that Las Casas in later life bitterly regretted
having approved of slavery under any form or condition whatever. John
Fiske, in his "The Discovery of America," Vol. II, p. 458, says, "that
the life work of Las Casas did much to diminish the volume of Negro
slavery and the spiritual corruption attendant upon it." This
non-Catholic writer furthermore declares that "when the work of Las
Casas is deeply considered, we cannot make him anything else but an
antagonist of human slavery in all its forms, and the mightiest and
most effective antagonist, withal, that has ever lived." F. A. MacNutt
in his work "Bartholomew De Las Casas," page 98, speaks of him in like
manner. In connection with Negro slavery in the West Indies it should
be said that the famous Cardinal Ximenes, of Spain, had protested
already in 1516 against the recruiting of Negro slaves in Africa as
then carried on for the West Indies.
[489] Cardinal Gibbons, _op. cit._, p. 434.
[490] Leo XIII to the Bishops of Brazil in a Letter dated Rome, May 5,
1888. Among the strong opponents of slavery before and during the
Civil War in America was the noted Catholic philosopher and publicist,
Orestes A. Brownson. His views on slavery and allied questions are
found in his "Works," Vol. XVII, edited by his son, Henry F. Brownson.
[491] Lecky, "History of Rationalism," Vol. II, pp. 31-32.
[492] Guizot, "History of Civilization," Lect. VI.
[493] Blyden, "Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race," p. 46. A
recent work entitled "Slavery in Germanic Society During the Middle
Ages," by Dr. Agnes Wergeland, late professor of history in the
University of Wyoming, throws light on the work of the Church in
behalf of the oppressed and enslaved. In the preface of this book
Prof. J. F. Jameson, of the Carnegie Institution of Washington,
declares that "we cannot hope to attain a true understanding of
American slavery in some of its essential aspects unless we are
somehow made mindful of the history of slavery as a whole."
[494] Mark, 16-15.
[495] Details of this expedition are found in "The Franciscans in
Arizona," by Fr. Zephyrim Englehardt, O.F.M.
[496] French "Historical Collections of Louisiana," Vol. III, p. 89.
[497] Russell, "Maryland, The Land of Sanctuary," p. 268.
[498] Woodson, "The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861," pp. 23-42.
[499] _African Repository_, XI, 294-295.
[500] Woodson, "The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861," pp. 99,
121.
[501] Johnston, "The Negro in the New World," pp. 142-401.
[502] Woodson, "The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861," p. 139,
quoting Special Report of U. S. Com. of Ed., 1871, pp. 205-206.
[503] McElrone, Memoir to "Bishop England's Works," Vol. I, XIV.
[504] Acts and Decrees of the Second Plenary Council of Baltimore, p.
xxviii; also No. 484, p. 244.
[505] Acts and Decrees of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore, No.
239, p. 134.
[506] This brings to mind the fact that, in one burial lot in Calvary
Cemetery, Memphis, Tennessee, lie the bodies of twenty-one priests and
some fifty Catholic Sisters who fell victims of yellow fever, while
nursing the sick during the great epidemics which raged in that city
during 1873 and 1878.
[507] Reilly, "Life and Times of Cardinal Gibbons," Vol. II, p. 47.
[508] Riley, "Passing Events in the Life of Cardinal Gibbons," App. X.
[509] Will, "Life of Cardinal Gibbons," p. 361.
[510] Judge Thomas Lee, in "America," p. 495, New York, March, 1917.
[511] Bragg, "Men of Maryland," p. 131.
[512] Riley, "Passing Events in the Life of Cardinal Gibbons," p. 365.
DOCUMENTS
LETTERS OF GEORGE WASHINGTON BEARING ON THE NEGRO
In bringing together here the important expressions of George
Washington reflecting his attitude toward the Negro, no claim to the
discovery of something new is made. Our aim is rather to publish these
extracts in succinct form for the convenience of those who may be
interested in this field. While it is to be regretted that we have not
here a large collection of such materials, these are adequate to give
one a better conception of what Washington thought about the Negro
than can be usually obtained from secondary works.
Complying with the custom of transporting troublesome blacks to the
West Indies,[513] Washington addressed Captain John Thompson the
following July 2, 1766:
"_Sir:_
"With this letter comes a Negro (Tom), which I beg the favour of
you to sell, in any of the Islands you may go to, for whatever he
will fetch and bring me in return for him.
"One hhd of best molasses
One ditto of best rum
One barrell of lymes if good and cheap
One pot of tamarinds containing about 10 Ibs.
Two small ditto of mixed sweetmeats about 5 lbs. each.
"And the residue, much or little, in good old spirits. That this
fellow is both a rogue and a runaway (tho' he was by no means
remarkable for the former, and never practiced the latter till of
late) I shall not pretend to deny--But he is exceeding healthy,
strong, and good at the hoe the whole neighbourhood can testifie
and particularly M. Johnson and his son, who have both had him
under them as foreman of the gang; which gives me reason to hope
he may, with your good management, sell well, if kept clean and
trim'd up a little when offered for sale.
"I shall cherfully allow you the customary commissions on this
affair, and must beg the favour of you (least he shoud attempt
his escape) to keep him handcuffd till you get to sea--or in the
bay--after which I doubt not but you may make him very useful to
you.
"I wish you a pleasant and prosperous passage, and a safe and
speedy return, being Sir
"Yr Yery Hble. Servt.
"Go. WASHINGTON."[514]
The question as to whether Washington wanted Negroes in the army has
often been raised. Addressing a Committee of Congress January 28,
1778, Washington said in part:
"_Gentlemen_,
"The difficulty of getting waggoners and the enormous wages given
them would tempt one to try any expedient to answer the end of
easier and cheaper terms. Among others it has occurred to me
whether it would not be eligible to hire negroes in Carolina,
Virginia and Maryland for the purpose. They ought however to be
freemen, for slaves could not be sufficiently depended on. It is
to be apprehended they would too frequently desert to the enemy
to obtain their liberty, and for the profit of it, or to
conciliate a more favorable reception would carry off their wagon
horses with them."[515]
The student finds it difficult to determine exactly what was
Washington's attitude toward the enlistment of Negro soldiers. When
that question was extensively agitated Laurens wrote Washington:
"Had we arms for three thousand such black men as I could select
in Carolina, I should have no doubt of success in driving the
British out of Georgia, and subduing East Florida before the end
of July."
To this Washington replied:
"The policy of our arming slaves is in my opinion a moot point,
unless the enemy set the example. For, should we begin to form
Battalions of them, I have not the smallest doubt, if the war is
to be prosecuted, of their following us in it, and justifying the
measure upon our own ground. The contest then must be who can arm
fastest, and where are our arms? Besides I am not clear that a
discrimination will not render slavery more irksome to those who
remain in it. Most of the good and evil things in this life are
judged by comparison; and I fear a comparison in this case will
be productive of much discontent in those, who are held in
servitude. But, as this is a subject that has never employed much
of my thoughts, these are no more than the first crude Ideas that
have struck me upon ye occasion."[516]
Writing to Lieutenant Colonel John Laurens, July 10, 1782, concerning
his plan to arm Negroes to defend the South, he said:
"_My Dear Sir_:
"The last post brought me your letter of the 19th of May. I must
confess that I am not at all astonished at the failure of your
plan. That spirit of freedom, which at the commencement of this
contest would have gladly sacrificed every thing to the
attainment of its object, has long since subsided, and every
selfish passion has taken its place. It is not the public but
private interest, which influences the generality of mankind, nor
can the Americans any longer boast an exception. Under these
circumstances, it would rather have been surprising if you had
succeeded nor will you I fear succeed better in Georgia."[517]
From his headquarters October 24, 1781, Washington wrote David Ross
the following concerning Negroes who had been recaptured during the
Revolutionary War:
"_Sir_:
"In answer to your Queries of Yesterday, the Negroes that have
been retaken, from whatever State, whose owners do not appear,
should all be treated in the same manner, and sent into the
Country to work for their Victuals and Cloathes, and advertised
in the States they came from. Those from N. York, are most
probably the property of Inhabitants of that State and N. Jersey,
and should be there Advertised. If any officers, knowing who the
owners are, will undertake to send them home, they may be
delivered to them. The other steps taken by you, are proper and
Expedient. The Negroes may be furnished with two days' Provisions
to carry them to Williamsburg, where there is a State Commissary.
"I am etc.,"[518]
In a letter to Colonel Bland in 1783 Washington took up one of the
important questions arising at the close of the Revolution. This was
the return of the slaves carried off by the British:
"_Sir_,
"HEAD QUARTERS 31st March, 1783.
"The Article in the provisional Treaty respecting Negroes, which
you mention to Sir Guy Carleton, had escaped my Notice, but upon
a recurrence to the Treaty, I find it as you have stated. I have
therefore tho't it may not be amiss to send in your Letter to Sir
Guy, and have accordingly done it.
"Altho I have Servants in like predicament with yours, I have not
yet made any attempt for their recovery.
"Sir Guy Carleton's reply to you will decide upon the propriety
or expediency of any pursuit to obtain them. If that reply should
not be transmitted thro my Hands, I will thank you for a
Communication of it.
"With much Regard, I am &c."[519]
Writing to Sir Guy Carleton about the same question on May 6, 1783,
Washington said:
"Respecting the other point of discussion, in addition to what I
mentioned in my communication of the 21st ultimo, I took occasion
in our conference to inform your Excellency, that, in consequence
of your letter of the 14th of April to Robert R. Livingston,
Esquire, Congress had been pleased to make a further reference to
me of that letter, and had directed me to take such measures as
should be found necessary for carrying into effect the several
matters mentioned by you therein.[520] In the course of our
conversation on this point, I was surprised to hear you mention,
that an embarkation had already taken place, in which a large
number of negroes had been carried away. Whether this conduct is,
consonant to, or how far it may be deemed an infraction of the
treaty, is not for me to decide. I cannot, however, conceal from
you, that my private opinion is, that the measure is totally
different from the letter and spirit of the treaty. But, waving
the discussion of the point, and leaving its decision to our
respective sovereigns, I find it my duty to signify my readiness,
in conjunction with your Excellency, to enter into any agreement,
or to take any measures, which may be deemed expedient, to
prevent the future carrying away of any negroes, or other
property of the American inhabitants. I beg the favor of your
Excellency's reply, and have the honor to be, &c."[521]
In the substance of the conference between Gen. Washington and Sir Guy
Carleton, at an interview at Orangetown, 6th May, 1783, one gets a
still better idea of the attitude of Washington on this question:
"General Washington opened the Conference by observing that he
heretofore had transmitted to Sir Guy Carleton the resolutions of
Congress of the 15th ulto, that he conceived a personal
Conference would be the most speedy & satisfactory mode of
discussing and settling the Business; and that therefore he had
requested the Interview--That the resolutions of Congress
related to three distinct matters, namely, the setting at Liberty
the prisoners, the receiving possession of the posts occupied by
the British Troops, and the obtaing. the Delivery of all Negroes
& other property of the Inhabitants of these States in the
possession of the Forces or subjects of, or adherents to his
Britannic Majesty.--That with respect to the Liberation of the
prisoners, he had, as far as the Business rested with him, put it
in Train, by meetg. & conferring with the Secretary of War, &
concertg. with him the proper measures for collecting prisoners &
forwarding them to N. York, and that it was to be optional with
Sir Guy, whether the prisoners should march by land, or whether
he would send Transports to convey them by Water--and that the
Secty. of War was to communicate with Sir Guy Carleton on the
subject & obtain his Determination.
"With respect to the other two Matters which were the Objects of
the Resolutions, General Washington requested the Sentiments of
General Carleton.
"Sir: Guy then observed that his Expectations of a peace had been
such that he had anticipated the Event by very early commencing
his preparations to withdraw the British Troops from this
Country--and that every preparation which his situation &
circumstances would permit was still continued--That an
additional Number of Transports, and which were expected, were
necessary to remove the Troops & Stores--and as it was impossible
to ascertain the Time when the Transports would arrive, their
passage depending on the casualties of the Seas, he was there
unable to fix a determinate period within which the British
forces would be withdrawn from the City of New York--But that it
was his desire to exceed even our own Wishes in this Respect, &
That he was using every means in his power to effect with all
possible despatch an Evacuation of that & every other post within
the United States, occupied by the British Troops, under his
Direction--That he considered as included in the preparations for
the final Departure of the B. Troops, the previously sending away
those persons, who supposed that, from the part they had taken in
the present War, it would be most eligible for them to leave the
Country--and that upwards of 6,000 persons of this Character had
embarked & sailed--and that in this Embarkation a Number of
Negroes were comprised--General Washington therefore express his
Surprize, that after what appeared to him an express Stipulation
to the contrary in the Treaty, Negroes the property of the
Inhabitants of these States should be sent off.
"To which Sir: Guy Carleton replied, that he wished to be
considered as giving no construction of the Treaty--That by
Property in the Treaty might only be intended Property at the
Time, the Negroes were sent off--That there was a difference in
the Mode of Expression in the Treaty; Archives, Papers, &c., &c.,
were to be restored--Negroes & other property were only not to be
destroyed or carried away. But he principally insisted that he
conceived it could not have been the Intention of the B.
Government by the Treaty of Peace, to reduce themselves to the
necessity of violating their faith to the Negroes who came into
the British Lines under the proclamation of his Predecessors in
Command--That he forebore to express his sentiments on the
propriety of those proclamations, but that delivering up the
Negroes to their former Masters would be delivering then up some
possible to Execution, and others to severe punishments, which in
his Opinion would be a dishonorable violation of the public
Faith, pledged to the Negroes in the proclamations--That if the
sending off the Negroes should hereafter be declared in
Infraction of the Treaty, Compensation must be made by the Crown
of G. Britain to the Owners--that he had taken measures to
provide for this, by directing a Register to be kept of all the
Negroes who were sent off, specifying the Name, Age & Occupation
of the person, and the Name, & Place of Residence of his former
Master. Genl. Washington again observed that he conceived this
Conduct on the part of Genl. Carleton, a Departure from both the
Letter and Spirit of the Articles of Peace;--and particularly
mentioned a difficulty that would arise in compensating the
proprietors of Negroes, admitting this infraction of the Treaty
can be satisfied by such a compensation as Sir Guy had alluded
to, as it was impossible to ascertain the Value of the Slaves
from any Fact or Circumstance which may appear in the
Register,--the Value of a Slave consisting chiefly in his
Industry and Sobriety--& Genl. Washington mentioned a further
Difficulty which would attend Identifying the Slave, supposing
him to have changed his own and to have given a wrong Name of his
Master--In answer to which Sir Guy Carleton said, that as the
Negroe was free & secured against his Master, he could have no
inducement to conceal his own true Name or that of His
Master--Sir Guy Carleton then observed that by the Treaty he was
not held to deliver up any property but was only restricted from
carrying it way--and therefore admitting the interpretation of
the Treaty as given by Genl. Washington to be just, he was
notwithstanding pursuing a Measure which would operate most for
the security of the proprietors. For if the Negroes were left to
themselves without Care of Controul from him, numbers of them
would very probably go off, and not return to the parts of the
Country from whence they came, or clandestinely get on Board the
Transports in such a manner as would not be in his Power to
prevent--in either of which Cases an inevitable Loss would ensue
to the proprietors--But as the Business was now conducted they
had at least a Chance for Compensation--Sir Guy concluded the
Conversation on this subject by saying that he Imagined that the
mode of Compensating as well as the Amount and other points with
respect to which there was no provision made in the Treaty, must
be adjusted by the Commissioners to be hereafter appointed by the
two Nations."[522]
Washington admitted that slavery was wrong but he never did much to
curb its growing power, contenting himself with a deprecation much
like this expressed in the letter to Lafayette, April 5, 1783.
"The scheme, my dear Marqs., which you propose as a precedent to
encourage the emancipation of the black people of this Country
from that state of Bondage in wch. they are held, is a striking
evidence of the benevolence of your Heart. I shall be happy to
join in so laudable a work; but will defer going into a detail of
the business, till I have had the pleasure of seeing you."[523]
In 1786 Washington wrote the Marquis:
"The benevolence of your heart, my dear Marquis, is so
conspicuous on all occasions, that I never wonder at any fresh
proofs of it; but your late purchase of an estate in the colony
of Cayenne, with a view of emancipating the slaves on it, is a
generous and noble proof of your humanity. Would to God a like
spirit might diffuse itself generally, into the minds of the
people of this country. But I despair of seeing it. Some
petitions were presented to the Assembly at its last session, for
the abolition of slavery, but they could scarcely obtain a
reading. To set the slave afloat at once would, I really believe,
be productive of much inconvenience and mischief, but by degrees
it certainly might and assuredly ought to be effected; and that
too by legislative authority."[524]
Addressing Robert Morris in 1786, Washington said:
"I hope that it will not be conceived, from these observations,
that it is my wish to hold the unhappy people who are the subject
of this letter, in slavery. I can only say that there is not a
man living who wishes more sincerely than I do, to see a plan
adopted for the abolition of it; but there is only one proper and
effectual mode by which it can be accomplished, and that is by
legislative authority; and this, as far as my suffrage will go,
shall never be wanting."[525]
Although not an active abolitionist Washington did not believe in the
slave traffic, as this part of his letter to John Mercer in 1786 will
show:
"I never mean, unless some particular circumstance should compel
me to it, to possess another slave by purchase, it being among my
first wishes to see some plan adopted, by which slavery in the
country may be abolished by law."[526]
In 1799 he wrote Robert Lewis:
"It is demonstratively clear, that on this Estate (Mount Vernon)
I have more working negroes by a full moiety, than can be
employed to any adventage in the farming system, and I shall
never turn Planter thereon.
"To sell the overplus I cannot, because I am principled against
this kind of traffic in the human species. To hire them out, is
almost as bad, because they could not be disposed of in families
to any advantage, and to disperse the families I have an
aversion. What then is to be done? Something must or I shall be
ruined; for all the money (in addition to what I raise by crops,
and rents) that have been received for Lands, sold within the
last four years, to the amount of Fifty thousand dollars, has
scarcely been able to keep me afloat.
"Under these circumstances and a thorough conviction that half
the workers I keep on this Estate would render me a greater nett
profit than I now derive from the whole, has made me resolve if
it can be accomplished, to settle Plantations on some of my
other Lands. But where? without going to the Western Country, I
am unable, as yet to decide; as the best, if not all the Land I
have on the East side of the Aleghanies are under Leases, or some
kind of incumbrance or another. But as you can give me the
correct information relative to this matter, I now early apply
for it."[527]
The best evidence as to what Washington thought of the Negro may be
obtained from his treatment of his slaves, as brought out by the
following clauses from his will.
"_Item_--Upon the decease of my wife it is my will and desire,
that all the slaves which I hold in _my own right_ shall receive
their freedom--To emancipate them during her life, would tho
earnestly wished by me, be attended with such insuperable
difficulties, on account of their intermixture by marriages with
the Dower negroes as to excite the most painful sensations--if
not disagreeable consequences from the latter while both
descriptions are in the occupancy of the same proprietor, it not
being in my power under tenure by which the dower Negroes are
held to manumit them--And whereas among those who will receive
freedom according to this devise there may be some who from old
age, or bodily infirmities & others who on account of their
infancy, that will be unable to support themselves, it is my will
and desire that all who come under the first and second
description shall be comfortably clothed and fed by my heirs
while they live and (3) that such of the latter description as
have no parents living, or if living are unable, or unwilling to
provide for them, shall be bound by the Court until they shall
arrive at the age of twenty five years, and in cases where no
record can be produced whereby their ages can be ascertained, the
Judgment of the Court upon it's own view of the subject shall be
adequate and final--The negroes thus bound are (by their masters
and mistresses) to be taught to read and write and to be brought
up to some useful occupation, agreeable to the laws of the
commonwealth of Virginia, providing for the support of orphans
and other poor children--and I do hereby expressly forbid the
sale or transportation out of the said Commonwealth of any Slave
I may die possessed of, under any pretence, whatsoever--and I do
moreover most positively, and solemnly enjoin it upon my
Executors hereafter named, or the survivors of them to see that
this clause respecting slaves and every part thereof be
religiously fulfilled at the Epoch at which it is directed to
take place without evasion neglect or delay after the crops
which may then be on the ground are harvested, particularly as it
respects (4) the aged and infirm, seeing that a regular and
permanent fund be established for their support so long as there
are subjects requiring it, not trusting to the uncertain
provisions to be made by individuals.--And to my mulatto man,
William (calling himself William Lee) I give immediate freedom or
if he should prefer it (on account of the accidents which have
befallen him and which have rendered him incapable of walking or
of any active employment)[528] to remain in the situation he now
is, it shall be optional in him to do so--In either case however
I allow him an annuity of thirty dollars during his natural life
which shall be independent of the victuals and cloaths he has
been accustomed to receive; if he chuses the last alternative,
but in full with his freedom, if he prefers the first, and this I
give him as a testimony of my sense of his attachment to me and
for his services during the Revolutionary War.[529]
"_Item_--The balance due to me from the Estate of Bartholomew
Dandridge deceased, (my wife's brother) and which amounted on the
first day of October, 1795, to Four hundred and twenty-five
pounds (as will appear by an account rendered by his deceased son
John Dandridge, who was the Executor of his father's will) I
release and acquit from the payment thereof,--And the _negros_
(then thirty three in number) formerly belonging to the said
Estate who were taken in Execution,--sold--and purchased in, on
my account in the year (1795?) and ever since have remained in
the possession and to the use of Mary, widow of the said
Bartholomew Dandridge with their increase, it is my will and
desire shall continue and be in her possession, without paying
hire or making (13) compensation for the same for the time past
or to come during her natural life, at the expiration of which, I
direct that all of them who are forty years old and upwards shall
receive their freedom, all under that age and above sixteen shall
serve seven years and no longer, and all under sixteen years
shall serve until they are twenty-five years of age and then be
free.--And to avoid disputes respecting the ages of any of these
_negros_ they are to be taken to the Court of the County in which
they reside and the judgment thereof in this relation shall be
final and a record thereof made, which may be adduced as evidence
at any time thereafter if disputes should arise concerning the
same.--And I further direct that the heirs of the said
Bartholomew Dandridge shall equally share the benefits arising
from the services of the said _negros_ according to the tenor of
this devise upon the decease of their mother."
PETITION FOR COMPENSATION FOR THE LOSS OF SLAVES BY EMANCIPATION IN
THE DANISH WEST INDIES[530]
We, the undersigned, inhabitants of the West India Islands St.
Thomas and St. John, beg leave most respectfully to present to
the Rigsdag of Denmark, this Petition, praying that just and
equitable compensation may be granted us for the loss we have
sustained in our property, in consequence of the ordinance of the
Governor General, bearing date 3d July, 1848, by which he took
upon himself to abolish Negro Slavery in the Danish Colonies, and
which act received the Royal sanction on the 22d September of the
same year.
If, notwithstanding the heavy loss thus sustained, we have
hitherto been silent, it should be attributed to the hope we had
entertained, that the government, without being called upon to do
so, would have taken steps to obtain compensation for us; and to
the sentiments of sympathy with which we beheld the struggle of
the mother country in the trying situation in which the revolt of
the Duchies, and war with many powerful enemies had placed her, a
struggle which required all her resources, both intellectual and
material, of which she could dispose; and thus it would have been
inopportune had we at that time obtruded ourselves on the notice
of the government. But now, that the clouds which obscured the
political horizon have been dissipated, now, that a glorious war
is concluded, and peace sheds its blessings over Denmark, we can
no longer defer our just demand for compensation, lest our
silence should be construed into acquiescence with the act, by
which we have been despoiled of our property, or interpreted as
an abandonment of our claims. We had as good a title of property
to our negroes, as to our land, houses, or any other property we
possess; this right was established not only by law, but the
government had moreover ever encouraged the subjects to acquire
such property as being advantageous to the state. For this
purpose the government granted loans to the colonists upon
reduced interest from the so dominated "negro loan." The
government bought and sold such property, took it in mortgage,
levied duties upon their importation, and imposed a yearly
capitation tax, consequently not a shadow of doubt could exist of
the legality of such property; and if it was a fault to become
possessors of such property, it must be laid to the charge of the
government which had fostered and encouraged it. The highest
tribunal of the land, the King's High Court, acknowledged this
right in its fullest sense, so that a negro slave, even on the
free soil of Denmark, continued to be the property of his master
so thoroughly, that the latter in direct opposition to the
slave's will, could oblige him to return to the West Indies. That
the negro's ability to work, and personal qualities, enhanced his
value, is a fact too palpable to stand in need of proof; the
numberless legal appraisements upon oath, the sales which took
place daily between man and man, as well as the normal value,
which according to the Ordinance of the first of May, 1840, was
determined every year by the government, after a previous hearing
of the Burgher Council, and the respective authorities, render
this matter incontestable.
This ordinance admits the owner's right to full compensation, for
only on condition of paying the full value of the services which
the master could have from the slave, had the slave the right to
demand his freedom; but without such remuneration, his master
could not be deprived of him.
The forementioned ordinance, the common law, and in particular
the eighty-seventh section of the constitution, lay down as an
invariable rule, that no subject can be compelled to cede his
property, unless the general good of the commonwealth requires
it, and then only on receiving full compensation.
Those civilized nations in whose colonies slavery has been
abolished, have neither raised any question nor doubt as to the
legality of the principle of compensation. Thus England, France
and Sweden have granted compensation. The first £ 25 12 2
sterling at an average per head; the second 490 francs per head,
which is, however, considered but part of the whole sum; and the
third in the following manner: first class, under fifteen years,
$80 per head, second class, from fifteen to sixty years, $240 per
head; third class, over sixty years, $40 per head.
With regard to emancipation without compensation, the following
language was held to the King of Sweden: "Your most gracious
Majesty, in your high wisdom, will never allow such violation of
justice as emancipation without compensation would be; such a
thing has never anywhere occurred."
The Dutch government has declared that it will not abolish
slavery without indemnifying the owners, and for this reason it
has not given any formal sanction to the liberty which the Dutch
governor of St. Martin's (with the consent of the planters) found
himself compelled to concede to the negroes, when emancipation
was proclaimed in the French part of the same island, but left
matters in _statu quo_. Once, however, there existed an instance
of emancipation without compensation. The National Convention of
France, in the year 1793, did, disregarding the sacred rights of
property, proclaim the abolition of slavery; but ten years
afterwards, on the 28th of May, 1802, that act was declared by
the corps legislatif, to be an act of spoliation, and as such
illegal; consequently slavery was re-established by decree of the
First Consul, and continued for half a century, and would in all
probability be still in full vigor, at least for some time, had
it not been for the revolution of February. For us, we have the
most implicit reliance on the honor of the Danish Government, and
the Danish people, and we feel persuaded that they will not
follow the example of the National Convention. In Denmark, love
of justice and respect for the sacredness of the rights of
property are too deeply implanted in the soil to be easily rooted
out. The proverbial honesty of Denmark is as firm as the courage,
loyalty, and gallantry of which her sons have so lately given
such signal proof.
The Rigsdag of Denmark will not on account of the burden, shrink
from the demands of justice; it will not allow it to be said that
it refused to satisfy a claim, the justness of which has never
been doubted by any civilized nation, nor will it suffer a number
of its fellow citizens to be illegally bereft of their property
without compensation. The Rigsdag of Denmark will not leave it in
the power of the world to say, that it was liberal at the expense
of others, or that it denied compensation to the weak, because
they had only the right, but not the power to enforce it. In
reviewing the means that present themselves, the burden will not
be so considerable or so heavy, when we take into consideration
that the state possesses many plantations, in respect of which to
their former complement of slaves, there will of course be no
question of compensation, and that it also holds mortgages on
many properties, where the compensation can be written off,
without any real loss in many cases; on the other hand, the
realm, by fulfilling its duty in settling a lawful claim, will
gain by the disbursement of the compensation, which will as may
reasonably be expected, not alone increase the prosperity of the
colonies, but their inhabitants will attach themselves more
closely to Denmark.
We do not entertain any doubt but that the Rigsdag will grant us
the compensation to which we have the most incontestable right,
and which cannot be controverted by such futile arguments, as,
that the owners have lost nothing by the government depriving
them of their property, as the stock of labor is the same, and to
be had for an equitable hire. If it even in reality were the
case, that the expenses were not greater, and the work not less
than before the emancipation, while, alas! the contrary is the
case, it would, nevertheless, be a species of argument in itself
contrary to common sense, in a degree, that it would scarcely
require any refutation at the bar of the enlightened Rigsdag, as
it might with just as much reason be said, that all the rest of
the property of people could be taken away whenever the
government managed matters in such a way, that the properties
could be rented at so moderate a rate, that the expenses did not
exceed, what those of the keeping of the property yearly had
amounted to. It will be clearly evident that the owner
notwithstanding, loses his essential rights, for the property
would no longer be at his disposal, or under his control, he
would be dependent upon others not only as to renting of that
kind of property of which he had formerly been possessed, but he
would not be able to sell, mortgage, or dispose of it in any
manner whatever, either in favor of himself, his children, or
other heirs; in short, property would to him, entirely lose its
money value, and the capital vested in it would be sunk as is now
the case with us. Many a slave owner derived his living from the
yearly income which the hire of his slaves produced, but now the
state has bereft him of his property, and hurled him, widows and
orphans into the most abject poverty and misery, while that act,
as yet without compensation, has more or less generally affected
those who possessed that class of property, and in numberless
instances produced pecuniary embarrassment; while the slave
owners who are proprietors of plantations have not alone lost the
capital invested in their slaves, but the subversion of the
ancient normal order in the colonies, but in addition thereto,
they are exposed to the imminent risk of seeing their estates,
buildings, and fabrics eventually reduced to no value whatever.
Most assuredly the circumstances which precede the emancipation,
cannot be brought forward in support of the necessity thereof.
Such a delusion cannot hold good. It is notorious that the so
called insurrection which was begun in the jurisdiction of
Fredericksted, at St. Croix on the 3d of July, 1848, would have
been put down, if the forces, although reduced as they had been,
had been called out and made use of by the government of that
island. This is borne out by the sentence of 5th of February, in
this year, rendered against the governor-general by the
commission, which sentence expressly states that the declaration
of emancipation partly originated in a desire to procure the
treasury an exemption from compensation, or what is the same
thing, it was intended to serve as a means to deprive the
proprietors of their lawful rights. Furthermore, it is quite
evident, that even the most trifling commotion would not have
occurred, if the Captain-General of Puerto Rico's offer of
assistance on perceiving the impending dangers had been accepted.
Neither is it less certain that the normal order could have been
re-established subsequently. His Majesty's government by
presenting to royal assent the emancipation of the negro slaves,
which the governor-general had taken upon himself to grant, has
adopted the act as its own. It has also from the very beginning
been considered that the insurrection could not be viewed as
sufficient foundation for the act. This is clearly to be seen
from the wording of the royal mandate on which the emancipation
is made a concession "to the lively" wishes of the negroes. That
his late Majesty King Christian VIII., of glorious and blessed
memory, had by rescript of 28th July 1847, given freedom to all
children born of slaves in the Danish West India possessions, and
at the same time ordained that slavery should finally cease in
twelve years, cannot be pleaded as a reason that proprietors of
slaves are to sustain loss and receive no compensation, for the
question remained open, and had been only glanced at by said
rescript. It is much to be lamented that the emancipation in the
manner it took place, and with the circumstances with which it
was accompanied, induced the slave population, although
erroneously, to believe that they had overawed the government,
and to receive the emancipation not as boon, but rather as a
trophy. The bad impression which such a management of matters has
caused, will ever remain, and render the march of administration
difficult, for defiance has taken the place which only should
have been ceded to gratitude. It ought here to be observed that a
succession of ordinances had gradually loosed the ties which
existed between the master and the slave. What heretofore had
been esteemed as a favor on the master's part, was by law
converted into an obligation, and the slave was not only
rendered more and more independent of his master, but his
sentiments of attachment to him were destroyed. Thus the law made
it obligatory on the master to cede a negro his freedom when he
could pay his full value; a favor which hardly any one had
thought of refusing; thus the law bound the master to give his
slaves certain little extras for Christmas, a favor which no one
had thought of denying, and thus the law compelled the planter to
give his negroes the Saturday free; a boon, which hitherto
frequently had been granted as a recompense for diligent work
during the week. But from the moment that the law converted into
an obligation, that which hitherto had been received as a favor,
indifference usurped the place of gratitude. Thus, by consecutive
innovations, the state of things became precarious, the relations
insecure, impatience sprung up, and the seeds of the tumultuous
scenes which ensued and served as a pretext for emancipation,
were sown. Here we must observe, that though it were admitted
that the pretended insurrection at St. Croix rendered
emancipation an act of necessity, it cannot, at all events, in
any manner be cited with regard to St. Thomas or St. John, where
no kind of disturbance existed among the slave population, Thus,
entertaining the intimate conviction that our right to
compensation is as conformable to reason, as it ought to be
sacred and inviolable, and in solemnly protesting against our
being bereft of our property without full compensation, we submit
this our representation to the Rigsdag of Denmark, with the most
unlimited confidence in its justice. We have the consoling hope
and encouraging persuasion that the representatives of a people
who, by the bill of indemnity of 30th June, 1850, have gone ahead
of, and set a brilliant example to other nations, by the
acknowledgment of the principle of equity, that "all citizens
ought equally to share the losses which the scourge of war had
brought upon individuals," will not deny a principle of justice,
which every European nation has hitherto not neglected to comply
with towards its colonies.
ST. THOMAS AND ST. JOHN, June, 1851.
To the Rigsdag of Denmark.
AN EXTRACT FROM THE WILL OF ROBERT PLEASANTS DATED FEBRUARY 6, 1800,
AND ADMITTED TO PROBATE IN HENRICO COUNTY, VIRGINIA, APRIL 6, 1801
"From a full conviction that slavery is an evil of great
magnitude and no less repugnant to the Divine command of doing to
others as we would they should do unto us that it is inconsistent
with the true interest and prosperity of my country, I did
confirm freedom to all the Negroes that by law, I had property in
by a Deed of Emancipation bearing date the first of the 8th
month, 1782, duly acknowledged and admitted to record in the
Clerk's office of Henrico County, three boys excepted names
Moses, Nat and James, who at that time lived with their mothers
in Goochland County and were forgotten but have since been
emancipated, but as it is still necessary that those who are
ancient and incapable of getting a living (being over forty-five
years of age at the time of emancipation) should be supported, I
now desire and direct it to be done and that the young ones may
have learning sufficient to enable them to transact the common
affairs of life for that purpose I have had a Schoolhouse put on
my land called Gravely hills tract containing by estimation 350
acres the use and profits whereof I give for that purpose
forever, or so long as the Monthly Meeting of Friends in this
County may think it necessary for the benefit of the children and
descendants of those who have been emancipated by me, or other
black children whom they may think proper to admit; reserving
only to my heirs hereafter named the priviledge of cutting timber
occasionally for building, of which there appears to be more than
perhaps may ever be necessary for the use of the School and the
Tenants who are now on it, or hereafter may settle thereon and
reserving also a privilege for my old servant Philip and his Wife
Dilcy to settle on and occupy such part thereof as they may
choose (not interfering with the school) during their natural
lives, they not committing Waste or taking others to work the
land under colour of this gift except it should be necessary for
their support reserving also to the women Effee, Sarah, Dilcy and
Elcy to continue or live on rent free during their natural lives
on the same conditions or restrictions expressed in my grant to
Philip and Dilcy and I further direct that in case those of my
heirs who may claim a right to the service of the young blacks
under this will should neglect or refuse to give them learning
either at the above mentioned School or by some other way or
means, I hereby declare them free one year before their time of
servitude expires and to be sent to school at the expense of my
estate for that time. And Whereas a suit was instituted several
years ago in my name as the Heir at Law of my Father and only
acting executor to him and my Brother Jonathan Pleasants for the
relief of a number of Negroes by them directed to be free at a
certain age, but wrongfully held in Bondage which suit was lately
determined in their favor, but considering that many of them have
been brought up in ignorance and may need the care, advice and
perhaps assistance too of friends I do request my beloved friends
to be nominated Executors by this _Will_ to extend such care
towards them as the nature of the case may call for or require."
PROCEEDINGS OF A RECONSTRUCTION MEETING[531]
On April 19, 1867, a general meeting of the citizens of Mobile
was held relative to the new measures of reconstruction. Among
the vice-presidents were men of all classes and color--as civil
judges, bishops, clergy, physicians, citizens, etc., etc., of
whom five were colored men. The only colored speaker on the
occasion said:
"_Fellow-Citizens_: I feel my incapacity to-night to speak, after
hearing the eloquence of those preceding me. I received an
invitation from the white citizens of Mobile to speak for the
purpose of reconciling our races--the black to the white--to
extend the hand of fellowship. You have heard the resolutions.
You are with us, and I believe are sincere in what they promise.
It is my duty to accept the offer of reconstruction when it is
extended in behalf of peace to our common country. Let us remove
the past from our bosoms, and reconcile ourselves and positions
together. I am certain that my race cannot be satisfied unless
granted all the rights allowed by the law and by that flag. The
resolutions read to you to-night guarantee every thing. Can you
expect any more? If you do, I would like to know where you are
going to get it. I am delighted in placing myself upon this
platform, and in doing this I am doing my duty to my God and my
country. We want to do what is right. We believe white men will
also do what is right."
The next speaker was a late Confederate officer during the war.
He said:
"It is the first time for seven long years that we sit--and at
first we sat with diffidence--under the 'old flag' and I connot
deny that my feelings are rather of a strange nature. Looking
back to the past, I remembered the day (the 10th day of January,
1861) when I hauled down that flag from its proud staff in Fort
St. Philip, and thought then that another flag would soon spread
its ample folds over the Southern soil.
"But that flag is no more. It has gone down in a cloud of
glory--no more to float even over the deserted graves of our
departed heroes--one more of the bright constellations in the
broad canopy of that firmament where great warriors are made
demigods.
"But I did not come here to-night to tell you, men of Alabama,
that my heart was with you--for you well know that as far as that
heart can go, it never will cease beating for what is held dear
and sacred to you. But I came here to speak to those of our new
fellow-citizens, who are not seeking the light of truth.
"It is said that two races now stand in open antagonism to each
other--that the colored man is the natural enemy of the white
man, and, hereafter, no communion of interests, feelings and past
associations, can fill the gulf which divides them.
"But who is it that says so? Is it the Federal soldier who fought
for the freedom of that race? Is it even the political leader
whose eloquence stirred up the North and West to the rescue of
that race? No; it is none of these. It is not even the
intelligent and educated men of that class, for I now stand on
the very spot where one of them, Mr. Trenier, disclaimed those
disorganizing principles, and eloquently vindicated the cause of
truth and reason.
"Why, then, should there be any strife between us? Why should not
our gods be their gods--our happiness be their happiness? Has
anything happened which should break up concert of action,
harmony, and concord in the great--the main objects of life--the
pursuit of happiness?
"Where can that happiness spring from? Is it from the midst of a
community divided against itself, or from one blessed with peace
and harmony?
"In what particular have our relations changed? In what case have
our interests in the general welfare been divided? Is not today
the colored man as essential to our prosperity as he was before?
"Is not our soil calling for the energetic efforts of his sinewy
arms? Can we, in fact, live without him? But while we want his
labor he wants our lands, our capital, our industry, our
influence in the commerce and finances of the world.
"And if, coming down from those higher functions in society, we
descend to our domestic relations, where do we find that those
relations are changed?
"Does not the intelligent freedman know that neither he nor we
are accountable to God for the condition in which we were
respectively born?
"Does he not know that, for generations past, the institution of
slavery had been forced upon us by the avarice, the love of power
of the North? Does he not know that to-day we have in him the
same implicit faith and reliance we had before?"[532]
FOOTNOTES:
[513] _Boston Evening Post_, Aug. 3, 1761. This issue carries an
advertisement for such Negroes.
[514] Ford, "Washington's Writing," II, 211.
[515] _Ibid._, VI, 349.
[516] Ford, "Washington's Writings," VII, 371.
[517] _Ibid._, X, 48.
[518] Ford, "Washington's Writings," IX, 392-393.
[519] _Ibid._, X, 200.
[520] In the letter here mentioned, Sir Guy Carleton had requested
that Congress would empower some person or persons to go into New
York, and assist such persons as he should appoint to inspect and
superintend the embarkation of persons and property, in fulfilment of
the seventh article of the provisional treaty, and "that they would be
pleased to represent to him every infraction of the letter of spirit
of the treaty, that redress might be immediately ordered." _Diplomatic
Correspondence_, Vol. XI, p. 335. The commissioners appointed by
General Washington for this purpose were Egbert Benson, William S.
Smith, and Daniel Parker. Their instructions were dated the 8th of
May.
[521] This gives further light on the subject: "The breach of that
(article) which stipulated a restoration of negroes, will be made the
subject of a pointed remonstrance from our minister in Europe to the
British Court, with a demand of reparation; and in the meantime Genl.
Washington is to insist on a more faithful observance of that
stipulation at New York."--Virginia Delegates in Congress to the
Governor of Virginia, 27 May, 1783.
"Some of my own slaves, and those of Mr. Lund Washington who lives at
my house, may probably be in New York, but I am unable to give you
their description--their names being so easily changed, will be
fruitless to give. If by chance you should come at the knowledge of
any of them, I will be much oblige by your securing them, so that I am
obtain them again."--_Washington to Daniel Parker_, 28 April, 1783.
Ford, "Washington's Writings," X, 246-247.
[522] Ford, "Washington's Writings," X, 241-243.
[523] _Ibid._, X, 220.
[524] _The Philanthropist_, March 4, 1836.
[525] _The Philanthropist_, March 4, 1836.
[526] _The Philanthropist_, March 4, 1836.
[527] Ford, "Washington's Writings," XIV, 196-197.
[528] "On 22d April 1785, when acting as chain bearer, while
Washington was surveying a tract of land on Four Mile Run, William
fell, and broke his knee pan; 'which put a stop to my surveying; and
with much difficulty I was able to get jim to abingdon, being obliged
to get a sled to carry him on, as he could neither walk, stand or
ride.'"--_Washington's Diary_. _See Spurious Letters Attributed to
Washington_, 8.
[529] "The mulatto fellow, William, who has been with me all the war,
is attached (married he says) to one of his own color, a free woman,
who during the war, was also of my family. She has been in an infirm
condition for some time, and I had conceived that the connextion
between them had ceased; but I am mistaken it seems; they are both
applying to get her here, and tho' I never wished to see her more, I
cannot refuse his request (if it can be complied with on reasonable
terms) as he has served me faithfully for many years.
"After premising this much, I have to beg the favor to procure her
passage to Alexandria, either by Sea, in the Stage, or in the passage
of boat from the head of the Elk, as you shall think cheapest and
best, and her situation will admit; the cost of either I will pay. Her
name is Margaret Thomas allias Lee (the name by which _he_ calls
himself). She lives in Philada. with Isaac and Hannah Sile--black
people, who are oftern employ'd by families in the city as
cooks."--_Washington to to Clement Biddle_, 28 July, 1784.
"The President would thank you to propose to Will to return to Mount
Vernon when he can be removed for he cannot be of any service here,
and perhaps will require a person to attend upon him constantly. If he
should be incline to return to Mount Vernon, you will be so kind as to
have him sent in the first Vessel that sails for Alexandria after he
can be removed with safety--but if he is still anxious to come on here
the President would gratify him Altho' he will be troublesome--He has
been an old faithful Servant, this is enough for the President to
gratify him in every reasonable wish."--_Lear to Biddle_, 3 March,
1789. Ford, "Washington's Writings," XIV, 272-274.
[530] Knox, "An Historical Account of St. Thomas, West Indies," pp.
255-261.
[531] This document and the Will of Robert Pleasants were collected by
Mr. M. N. Work.
[532] Annual Cyclopedia, 1867, pp. 19, 20.
REVIEWS OF BOOKS
_History of South Africa from 1795 to 1872._ By GEORGE MCCALL THEAL,
Litt.D., LL.D. George Allen and Unwin, Ltd., London.
This work is intended to be a general history of South Africa in
detail. It is to be completed as a revised edition in five volumes,
three of which have already appeared. Each volume contains about 500
pages, is neatly printed and substantially bound. The work is well
supplied with maps and charts reflecting the growth and development of
the country.
The author of this history has lived in South Africa and has served as
keeper of the archives of the Cape Colony. The preparation of this
history has occupied his almost undivided attention during the last
fifty years. He says that he has made the closest possible research
among official documents of all kinds. Apparently he has had little
use for secondary material, but his large collection of books on South
Africa has served him as a guide. The author asserts that to the
utmost of human ability he has striven to write without fear, favor or
prejudice, to do equal justice to all with whom he had to deal. For
this reason, he offers his work to the public as "not alone the only
detailed history of South Africa yet prepared, but as a true and
absolutely unbiased narrative." The work shows, however, that it is
written in the attitude of arrogating to himself the privileges of the
superior group, exhibiting occasionally a bit of sympathy for the
inferior, who had to be exterminated to make room for those chosen of
God.
The first volume of the work deals largely with the conquest of the
colony. It is mainly a narrative of the deeds of the conquering
leaders of the colonists, closing with an account of the destruction
of the Bantu tribes. In succession, we read here about the exploits of
James Henry Craig, Earl McCartney, Major General Dundas, Sir George
Younge, Jacob Abraham De Mist, J.W. Janssens, General David Baird, Du
Pré Alexander, Lord Charles Somerset, Sir Rufane Shaw, and General
Richard Bourke.
The second volume adheres in the beginning to the same sort of style,
making the history of the whole colony center largely around the life
of a single man, mentioning such characters as Sir Lowry Cole, Sir
Benjamin D'Urban, Sir George Napier, and Sir Peregrine Maitland. In
the 32d chapter, however, the work becomes more nearly historical in
taking up the emigration from Cape Colony, and the abandonment of that
country by many thousands of substantial burghers, who were intent
upon seeking homes in the wilderness. This movement is further
illuminated by a treatment of the emigrant farmers in Natal, the
republic of Natal, its overthrow, its transitory state, and movements
north of the Orange.
The third volume maintains the standard of the last part of the second
in dealing with the Kaffir Wars, and sketching the conditions leading
up to the grant of a liberal constitution. It returns to the District
of Natal from 1845 to 1857, discusses the creation of the Orange River
Sovereignty, the abandonment of the Sovereignty, and the events north
of the Vaal, in the South African Republic and Orange Free State from
1854 to 1857. In these last chapters the author brings out more
prominently than elsewhere the conflict between the whites and the
blacks, the correlated problems arising therefrom, and measures
brought forward to solve them. The reader easily learns that the
handling of the question in South Africa has not been very different
from the method of attack in the United States. The South African
method has, in some respects, been more cruel than that of the United
States.
J. O. BURKE.
* * * * *
_Native Life in South Africa, before and since the European War and
the Boer Rebellion._ By SOLOMON T. PLAATJE. P.S. King and Son, Ltd.,
London, 1916. Pp. 352.
Mr. Plaatje is a South African native, educated near Barkly West at a
mission school. He later studied languages and served as an
interpreter for important officials such as Duke of Connaught and Mr.
Chamberlain. He later rose to a position of some importance in the
Department of Native Affairs. He once edited a paper called _Koranta
ea Becoana_. He is now the editor of the _Tsala ea Batho_ (the
People's Friend). Although treating of questions concerning the
oppression of his people, his writings have been marked by moderation
and common sense. He is not an agitator, not a firebrand, and can,
therefore, be read with profit. Rather resenting the power of the
uneducated chiefs who rule by virtue of their birth alone, Mr. Plaatje
belongs to a new school of thought. He is making a new appeal for the
native.
Mr. Plaatje modestly disclaims any pretension to literary merit. He is
merely giving a "sincere narrative of a melancholy situation, in
which, with all its shortcomings," he "has endeavored to describe the
difficulties of South African natives under a very strange law, so as
most readily to be understood by the sympathetic reader." The author
had access to sources from which he obtained the facts presented. He
has made personal observations in the Transvaal, Orange Free State and
the Province of the Cape of Good Hope. He used other facts collected
by Attorney Msimang of Johannesburg. Organizing these facts, Mr.
Plaatje shows how the native has been maltreated and debased so as to
be considered a pariah of society in his own native land. In the
struggle between right and wrong, the latter has triumphed,
culminating in such an evil as the Native Land Act, an effort at class
legislation, the worst sort of discrimination and segregation in land
tenure.
One would have difficulty in believing that such barbarities could be
practiced within the British Empire, were it not for the fact that Mr.
Plaatje not only quotes from the act _in extenso_ but quotes also from
the debates in the Colonial Parliament to show that the intention of
the legislators was to restrict the native to their reservations or to
servitude among the white population to placate the extreme Dutch
Party in South Africa. In other words, the Colonial Parliament took
the position of Mr. J.G. Keyter, the member for Ficksburg, who said:
"They should tell the native, as the Free State told him, that it was
white man's country, that he was not going to be allowed to buy land
there or hire land there, and that if he wanted to be there, he must
be in service." The author is thankful for the assistance given the
natives by the British, but contends that the fortunes of the former
should not have been committed to the hands of the Dutch Republicans
without adequate safeguards.
The work will doubtless be successful as an appeal to the court of
public opinion, as it is intended. The case is ably and seriously put
and is supported by adequate evidence to warrant the author's
conclusions as to the enormity of the crimes against the natives. In
making this bold agitation for economic equality, this book may
materially influence future events in South Africa and in England. It
will doubtless lead British statesmen to conclude that the imperial
power cannot dissociate itself from the responsibility for native
affairs. The writer will attract attention too because of the novelty
in that this work is the product of the brains of an intelligent
native, who can think and express himself well on public questions. It
will be surprising to those Englishmen who have hitherto treated the
natives altogether as an uneducated mass incapable of thinking and
will certainly excite sympathy among those who believe in the
principles of liberty and justice.
* * * * *
_The Danish West Indies under Company Rule, 1671-1754._ With a
Supplementary Chapter, 1755-1917. By WALDEMAR WESTERGAARD, Assistant
Professor of History at Pomona College. Introduction by H. MORSE
STEPHENS. Macmillan Company, New York, 1917. Pp. 359.
This work is the history of a company of Danish merchants desiring to
avail themselves of the commercial opportunities of the New World. The
work was undertaken prior to the recent negotiations of the United
States for the purchase of the islands. It is the result of an attempt
to "identify and appraise" a number of official and other papers found
in the Bancroft Collection at the University of California. The study
of these documents led to further research in the Danish libraries and
archives, especially the archives of the Danish West India and Guinea
Company. The work then becomes a treatise on the rise and fall of a
great corporation with business as its objective rather than the
sketch of a mere colony. It has a number of helpful maps and
illustrations.
In writing this work, the author easily realized that treated as an
isolated subject it would be worthless. It is, therefore, dealt with
as a part of European history, that phase commonly characterized as
commercial expansion. He, therefore, in accounting for the Danish
interest in colonization and in estimating the part that nation
actually played, finds that the experiences of the Danes were fairly
typical of those of the Dutch, the French, the English and the
Spanish. The narrative then is a succession of accounts of
speculation, competition, prosperity and depression. There are
sketches of adventurers, buccaneers and pirates all brought forward in
such a way as to tell their own story.
The author directs attention to the West Indies as the great theater
in which was played the drama of history in the New World during the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Sugar is presented as king. The
author is chiefly concerned with the crucial test to which the company
was subjected, the establishment of the Brandenburgers at St. Thomas,
the leasing of Guinea and St. Thomas, the governorship of John
Lorentz, the plantation colonies of St. Thomas and St. John, the
introduction of slavery, the slave trade, the relations of the planter
and the company, the acquisition of St. Croix, and the career of the
company under a new charter. In the appendix there is such valuable
information as the list of governors in the West Indies and the
Guinea, the directors and board of shareholders in Copenhagen, the
first charter of the Danish West India and Guinea Company, the charter
of 1697, important letters of officials and the report of the board of
police and trade to King Frederick IV in 1716. One finds also the list
of slave cargoes arriving in the Danish West Indies, the list of
prices on St. Thomas from 1687 to 1751, West Indian sugar exported
from Copenhagen, the company's receipts and debts at St. John and St.
Croix, the capital invested in St. Thomas in 1747, the company's
business in cotton, returns on the company's capital, and other
statistics.
The supplementary chapter is an effort to connect as far as possible
the sketch set forth in the preceding part of the book with the events
leading up to the recent purchase of the group by the United States.
The work throughout necessarily deals with the contact of the Negro
with the European, as the African slaves constituted the class of
population to be exploited and, of course, were the factor essential
to the rise and growth of the company.
A. H. CLEMMONS.
* * * * *
_The Taxation of Negroes in Virginia._ By TOPTON RAY SNAVELY,
Phelps-Stokes Fellow at the University of Virginia, 1915-1917.
Publication of the University of Virginia Phelps-Stokes Papers. Pp.
97.
This work is the result of the establishment at the University of
Virginia of a fellowship through a gift from the trustees of the
Phelps-Stokes Fund. The holder of this fellowship must "stimulate and
conduct investigations and encourage a wider general interest among
students concerning the character, condition and possibilities of the
Negroes in the Southern States." Carrying out this plan the incumbents
have organized classes for study and conducted special investigations,
assigning related topics for study, bringing the results before
classes for discussion and sometimes securing distinguished men for
lectures in this field.
In this dissertation the author has undertaken something new. No one
had so far treated the taxation of the Negroes in any State. As
taxation is an important concern of the commonwealth, it was believed
that the way in which the State determined how this burden should fall
on the Negro race would do much in bringing out an understanding as to
the attitude of the whites to the blacks. The author claims to have
adhered strictly to the facts to give an unbiased interpretation of
this phase of history. The work is well done in parts. It should have
been amplified. The most valuable part of it is that which treats of
the problem of taxation since the Civil War. In treating the
antebellum period, the author shows a lack of breadth in that he does
not connect the question of the taxation of Negroes with the struggle
between Eastern and Western Virginia, which finally resulted in the
disruption of the State. He does not show that the West wanted the
increase in taxes, necessitated by the construction of internal
improvements, obtained from a tax on slaves, as the mountaineers did
not have many, while the East was anxious to tax more heavily cattle
and the like which flourished beyond the Alleghanies.
During the colonial period and, at times, after the Revolution,
Negroes paid a capitation tax. It is remarkable that the State of
Virginia in 1814 collected $8,322 from 5,547 free Negroes. The same
class of Negroes paid $11,554 in 1863 at the rate of $2 a head.
Provision was made for the capitation tax in the Constitution of
1867-68. In 1870 the prepayment was required of voters but because of
corruption at the ballot box it was repealed. Delinquency followed and
to counteract this the tax was made a lien on real estate. The
Constitution of 1901-02 made the poll-tax a political measure in
providing that the payment of it six months in advance of election day
should be a prerequisite for voting with a registration clause as
another requirement. These provisions, it seems, have not been
enforced and for that reason many Negroes are returned as delinquent.
In 1914 the whites showed a delinquency of thirty per cent, and the
Negroes sixty per cent.
Taking up real estate, which is the principal source of all taxes paid
by Negroes, the author confines himself to the period since the War.
The Negroes of Virginia had $12,464,377 subject to taxation in 1900
and $28,775,199 in 1914. The tax levy in 1910 was $48,173 and $93,245
in 1914, having almost doubled during the intervening years. The
delinquency in real estate taxes too is much less than that in the
case of capitation taxes.
In answer to the question as to whether the Negroes of the State are
sharing its burden of taxation in proportion to their ability the
author brings out some interesting facts. He finds it difficult to
answer this question accurately. He shows, however, that Negroes
composing 32.6 per cent. of the population pay only a small part of
the $7,757,532 in taxes of all kinds. The real estate, capitation,
personal property and income taxes paid by Negroes in 1914 aggregated
$318,381, or 5 per cent. of the real estate taxes, 3.8 per cent. of
the personal property taxes, 28.1 per cent. of the capitation taxes,
and .000006 per cent. of the income taxes. In all the Negroes pay
about 4.1 per cent. of the revenue of the State. This estimate is
doubtless too low.
NOTES
Mr. A. E. Martin, of the Pennsylvania State College, will soon publish
through the Filson Club _The Anti-Slavery Movement in Kentucky to
1850_. Mr. Martin plans to bring this study down to 1870.
The New York Missionary Education Movement of the United States and
Canada has published _The Lure of Africa_ by C. H. Patton.
W. M. Ramsay's _The Intermixture of Races in Asia Minor_ has come from
the Oxford University Press.
The Harvard University Press has published _Ephod and Ark_, by W. R.
Arnold.
July number of _The Journal of Race Development_ contains two
interesting articles: _On the Culture of White Folk_, by Dr. W. E. B.
DuBois, and _Psychic Factors in the New American Race Situation_, by
George W. Elliss, K.C., F.R.G.S.
The July number of the _American Journal of Sociology_ contains a
rather misinforming article on _The Superiority of the Mulatto_, by
Mr. E. B. Reuter, and another on _Class and Caste_, by Edward Alsworth
Ross.
In the July number of the _South Atlantic Quarterly_ appears _The
Black Codes_, by Prof. John M. Mecklin, of the University of
Pittsburgh.
Prof. Benjamin Brawley will soon publish a work to be known as _The
Genius of the Negro_.
_La Revista Bimestre Cubana_ has published Los _Negros Esclavos_, a
study in sociology and public law by Fernando Ortiz, professor in the
University of Havana.
The United States Bureau of Education in cooperation with the
Phelps-Stokes Fund has published in two volumes a report entitled
_Negro Education, a Study of the Private and Higher Schools for
Colored People in the United States_. This report was prepared under
the direction of Dr. Thomas Jesse Jones, specialist in the education
of racial groups. This work was undertaken to comply with that
provision of the will of Miss Caroline Phelps-Stokes directing that
some portion of the income from a fund originally amounting to about
$900,000 be used for the education of Negroes and for research and
publication. In 1912 it was decided to prepare a report on Negro
education to furnish the public with valuable information as to
existing conditions throughout the South. The Bureau of Education
agreed to cooperate with the trustees of the Phelps-Stokes Fund,
bringing the work under the general supervision of the United States
Commissioner of Education. This report is the result of their
efficient cooperation.
On the thirtieth of August, there assembled at the request of the
United States Commissioner of Education a conference to discuss this
report. For two days practically all of the active white and colored
educators in Negro schools discussed the various phases of education
as brought out by this report and undertook to find a working basis
for a more extensive cooperation of all agencies in the uplift of the
Negro. The frank statements of several of the State Superintendents,
like that of Mr. Harris of Louisiana, showed how much good a report of
this kind may do in arousing the best white people of the South to a
realization that it pays to educate all citizens of the state whether
they be white or black. No definite decision was reached but the
conference was a success in leading men to study more seriously the
problems of Negro education.
THE FIRST BIENNIAL MEETING OF THE ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF NEGRO
LIFE AND HISTORY AT WASHINGTON
There is no fixed rule to determine exactly where the meetings of the
Association shall be held. The constitution grants this power to the
Executive Council. Washington, however, naturally proved attractive
for the reasons that it is located mid-way between the North and the
South, the Association is incorporated under laws of the District of
Columbia, and several of its officers reside there. The extensive
advertising given the meeting and the occurrence of the conference in
Washington on the education of the Negro the following day brought to
the meeting probably the largest number of useful and scholarly
Negroes ever assembled at the national capital. Among these were:
President Nathan B. Young, Mr. W. T. B. Williams, President Byrd
Prillerman, Dr. C. V. Roman, Prof. George E. Haynes, Mr. Monroe N.
Work, President W. J. Hale, Dean Benjamin G. Brawley, Bishop I. N.
Ross, Prof. J. R. Hawkins, Mr. R. P. Hamlin, Mr. C. H. Tobias, and Mr.
A. L. Jackson. The meeting was further honored with the presence of
some of the most useful and distinguished white persons in the
country, namely: Mrs. Louis F. Post, the wife of the Assistant
Secretary of Labor; Dr. Thomas Jesse Jones, Educational Expert of the
United States Bureau of Education; Dr. James H. Dillard, Director of
the John F. Slater Fund; Mr. George Foster Peabody, the New York
banker; and Mr. Julius Rosenwald, the well-known philanthropist.
The morning session proved to be the most interesting of all. The
introductory address was delivered by Dr. J. E. Moorland, the
Secretary-Treasurer, who, in the absence of the President, presided
throughout the meeting. In his remarks Dr. Moorland gave a brief
account of what the Association had undertaken and endeavored to show
how important the work is and how successfully it is being prosecuted
under tremendous difficulties. He paid a high tribute to the Director
of Research and Editor as the one who has done most of the work and
contributed most of the money to finance the movement.
Mr. Monroe N. Work then read a very carefully prepared and
illuminating paper on "The Negro and the World War." Taking a
world-wide view of the great struggle, Mr. Work discussed the social,
economic and political roots of the war as it concerns the black race
and explained how the interests of these people connect with the
upheaval in all its ramifications. As Dr. R. R. Wright, Jr., was
unavoidably absent, all the time allowed for the discussion of the
paper was given to Prof. George E. Haynes. Basing his remarks on the
actual facts of the migration of the Negroes to the North, Professor
Haynes spoke of the war as a rejuvenating and regenerating factor in
enabling the Negro to know his possibilities and to come into his own.
Dr. C. G. Woodson followed Mr. Work, making a clear statement as to
the meaning of the movement to study Negro life and history and
setting forth the plans to save the records of the black race that the
Negro may not, like the Indian, leave no written account of his
thoughts, feelings, aspirations, and achievements. Dr. Woodson went
into detail to explain how necessary it is to have trained
investigators to undertake this work immediately, before it is too
late, as many valuable documents bearing on the Negro are being
destroyed for the reason that persons now possessing them do not know
their value and the facilities for collection of such materials now
afforded are inadequate. This topic was further discussed by Dr. C. V.
Roman and Dr. Thomas Jesse Jones. Dr. Roman restricted his remarks
largely to a definition of civilization to determine whether or not
the Negro has made any contribution to it. After speaking of certain
achievements of the Negro he deplored the fact that not only the white
people but the Negroes themselves know very little about what their
race has contributed to the progress of mankind. Dr. Jones spoke of
how important it is for a race to know and write its own history, for
because of race prejudice, a man of one race cannot easily tell the
truth about one of another. He then expressed his deep interest in the
work and lauded the enterprise of those who are prosecuting it.
Probably the most interesting features of the morning session,
however, were the brief addresses of Mr. George Foster Peabody, Mr.
Julius Rosenwald, and Mr. James H. Dillard. Mr. Peabody expressed his
delight at seeing such an important work undertaken and urged
cooperation as the only successful way of carrying it on. He took
occasion, also, to speak of his general interest in the Negro and his
belief in his ultimate success. Mr. Julius Rosenwald referred to the
time when he received a copy of the first issue of the JOURNAL OF
NEGRO HISTORY and how it so impressed him that he decided to
contribute one hundred dollars to its support every quarter. He
believes that this magazine of standard scientific stamp, published in
the interest of the propagation of the truth concerning the Negro,
will be another means of helping him onward and upward. Dr. James H.
Dillard spoke of the importance of studying Africa, mentioning several
books which are so informing to him that the far-off continent seems
to be an unexplored land of wonders. He maintained that largely
through the study of the history of one's race one can have high
ideals, without which there can be no actual progress.
The business session was looked forward to as an important one, as
interested members were anxious to know what the Association had done
during the first two years of its history. As there was no unfinished
business, new business was in order. The chairman appointed Professor
Kelly Miller, Dean Benjamin G. Brawley and Mr. M. N. Work as the
committee on nominations and Mr. A. L. Jackson, Prof. George E. Haynes
and Dr. Thomas J. Jones as an auditing committee. The most important
business was amending the constitution, the changes of which having
been previously sanctioned by a majority of the members of the
Executive Council, they were duly ratified by the Association. This
constitution follows.
THE CONSTITUTION OF THE ASSOCIATION FOR
THE STUDY OF NEGRO LIFE AND HISTORY
I
The name of this body shall be the Association for the Study of
Negro Life and History.
II
Its object shall be the collection of sociological and historical
documents and the promotion of studies bearing on the Negro.
III
Any person approved by the Executive Council may become a member
by paying $1.00 and after the first year may continue a member by
paying an annual fee of one dollar. Persons paying $2.00 annually
become both active members of the Association and subscribers to
the JOURNAL OF NEGRO HISTORY. On the payment of $30.00, any
person may become a life member, exempt from assessments. Persons
not resident in the United States may be elected honorary members
and shall be exempt from payment of assessments. Members
organized as clubs for the study of the Negro shall gratuitously
receive from the Director such instruction in this field as may
be given by mail.
IV
The Officers of this Association shall be a President, a
Secretary-Treasurer, a Director of Research and Editor, and an
Executive Council, consisting of the three foregoing officers and
twelve others elected by the Association. The Association shall
elect three members of the Executive Council as trustees. It
shall also appoint a business committee to certify bills and to
advise the Director in matters of administrative nature. These
officers shall be elected by ballot through the mail or at each
biennial meeting of the Association.
V
The President and Secretary-Treasurer shall perform the duties
usually devolving on such officers. The Director of Research and
Editor shall devise plans for the collection of documents, direct
the studies of members and determine what matter shall be
published in the JOURNAL. The Executive Council shall have charge
of the general interests of the Association, including the
election of members, the calling of meetings, the collection and
disposition of funds.
VI
This CONSTITUTION may be amended at any biennial meeting, notice
of such amendment having been given at the previous biennial
meeting or the proposed amendment having received the approval of
the Executive Council.
Then the Director followed by the Secretary-Treasurer, with a
financial statement, made this report:
The Association was organized in Chicago, September 9, 1915, by
five persons who felt that something effective should be done to
direct attention to the long-neglected work of saving the records
of the Negro race. At first, it was thought best to call a
national meeting to form an organization. This plan was
abandoned, however, for the reason that it was not believed that
a large number of persons would pay any attention to the movement
until an actual demonstration as to the possibilities of the
field had been made. The Director, therefore, had these few
persons join him in organizing, so to speak, in a corner and
proceeded at once to bring out the JOURNAL OF NEGRO HISTORY. How
it was received by the public is now a matter of history.
The growth of the JOURNAL has been more than was expected. The
first edition was 1,500, the second 1,300, the third 1,000, the
fourth 2,000. At the end of 1916 the demand for back numbers so
increased that it soon became evident that the editions were not
large enough and that the back numbers would have to be
reprinted. One thousand copies of volume I, and some extra
numbers of it were accordingly reprinted and the current edition
was increased to 4,000. The total circulation of the JOURNAL is
2,830. The subscription list shows 1,430 subscribers, about 400
copies are sold at newstands, 1,000 copies are used for
promotion, and about 1,000 copies are kept on hand for future
subscribers.
These achievements, however, have been due to sacrifice both of
time and means. The Director has had to work under tremendous
difficulties, but he has never lost faith in his coworkers and
believes in the ultimate triumph of the cause. The problem has
been threefold, that of research, that of editing and that of
promotion.
As the Association has not had adequate funds to provide the
Director with an office force or sufficient stenographic
assistance, he has too often found himself in the position of
having to do all things at one time. But in spite of these
handicaps there was a gradual increase in the number of
subscribers and contributors until unfortunately the income from
these sources was greatly diminished by the war. A few
substantial friends, however, have helped us when seemingly at
our extremity. Among the more important contributions obtained
are: $75 from Dr. R. E. Park, $100 from the Phelps-Stokes Fund,
$100 from Mr. Jacob H. Schiff, $200 from Mr. Harold H. Swift,
$500 from Mr. Julius Rosenwald and $1,000 from Dr. C. G. Woodson.
We have, therefore, been able to come to the end of the first two
years of our history free from debt and with a considerable
balance on the right side of the ledger as is attested by the
following financial statement of the Secretary-Treasurer:
STATEMENT OF RECEIPTS AND EXPENDITURES OF THE ASSOCIATION FOR THE
STUDY OF NEGRO LIFE AND HISTORY, FROM OCTOBER 14, 1915, TO
SEPTEMBER 9, 1917, INCLUSIVE
_Receipts_
Bound Volumes and Subscriptions $1,216.39
Life and Active Memberships 512.75
Contributions and Advertising 1,800.05
News Agents 222.84
Loans 296.50
---------
Total Receipts $4,048.53
_Expenditures_
Printing and Stationery $2,993.32
Petty Cash 603.59
Stenographic Services 254.16
Rent and Light 81.00
Bond 10.00
---------
Total Expenses $3,942.07
Balance on hand 106.46
---------
$4,048.53
Respectfully submitted,
J. E. MOORLAND,
_Secretary-Treasurer._
When the time came for the election of officers, Professor Kelly
Miller, the chairman of the committee on nominations, reported a list
of names for the various positions. The name of Dr. G. C. Hall,
President of the Association, was, at his request, omitted. Thereupon,
Dr. C. G. Woodson and Dr. J. E. Moorland expressed regret that Dr.
Hall desired to retire and paid him high tributes as a coworker
without whom the work could not have been made so successful. The
Association then voted that the Secretary-Treasurer be instructed to
cast its unanimous ballot for the persons nominated. These officers
are: R. E. Park, President; J. E. Moorland, Secretary-Treasurer; C. G.
Woodson, Director of Research and Editor, and, with the foregoing
officers, Julius Rosenwald, Chicago, Illinois; George Foster Peabody,
Saratoga Springs, New York; James H. Dillard, Charlottesville,
Virginia; John R. Hawkins, Washington, D.C.; R. E. Jones, New Orleans,
Louisiana; Thomas Jesse Jones, Washington, D. C.; A. L. Jackson,
Chicago, Illinois; Sir Edmund Walker, Toronto, Canada; Moorefield
Storey, Boston, Massachusetts; and J. G. Phelps Stokes, New York City,
as members of the Executive Council. R. E. Park, J. E. Moorland and C.
G. Woodson were appointed trustees and Thomas Jesse Jones, L.
Hollingsworth Wood and J. E. Moorland as the business committee. Mr.
A. L. Jackson, the chairman of the auditing committee, read the report
certifying that the books of the Secretary-Treasurer had been properly
kept and all moneys accounted for. Mr. Jackson took occasion, also, to
point out the fact that in addition to taking upon himself the burden
of editing the JOURNAL OF NEGRO HISTORY, Dr. Woodson gives more than
half of the amount received as contributions to maintain it.
Several suggestions were offered for the good of the cause. Professor
Kelly Miller spoke in a commendatory manner concerning the work and
urged the people to direct their attention to the study of their
traditions. Mr. R. C. Edmonson suggested that the Association pay more
attention to the collection of statistics concerning the race. Mr.
John W. Davis asked members to volunteer to secure a larger number of
subscribers. He himself submitted a pledge to obtain 25 subscribers
during the year.
At the evening session, Dean Benjamin G. Brawley, of Morehouse
College, read an excellent paper on _Three Negro Poets: Horton, Mrs.
Harper and Whitman_, giving his audience startling information about
these literary workers in the days when opportunities were meager. In
this way, Dean Brawley successfully bridged the gap between Phyllis
Wheatley and Paul Lawrence Dunbar. Professor Kelly Miller then
delivered an instructive address on _The Place of Negro History in our
Schools_. Professor Miller's discourse was well received and seemed to
arouse interest in the study of Negro history. Dr. C. G. Woodson made
some remarks concerning the plans of the Association and Dr. J. E.
Moorland appealed to the people for their support. Many new members
were added. The Association then adjourned.
* * * * *
[Transcriber's Notes:
Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as
possible, including obsolete and variant spellings and other
inconsistencies. The transcriber made the following changes to the
text to correct obvious errors:
1. p. 49, No footnote marker for footnote #45 in original text.
2. p. 63, No footnote marker for footnote #79 in original text.
3. p. 69, No footnote marker for footnote #96 in original text.
4. p. 120, Footnote #153, "pp. 263 ff" changed to "pp. 263 ff."
5. p. 130, Footnote #178, "Woolmans'" changed to "Woolman's"
6. p. 186, "kinds of graots" changed to "kinds of groats"
7. p. 213, No footnote marker for footnote #244.
8. p. 216, Footnote #255, "XXXV, 126" changed to "XXXV, 126."
9. p. 226, Footnote #286, "December 26, 1916", left unchanged
10. p. 259, "Like Miss Patterson" changed to "Like Miss Patterson,"
11. p. 349, No footnote marker for footnote #402.
12. p. 380, Footnote #465 and 466 were referenced with the
same footnote marker number in the original text.
13. p. 419, Footnote #524, 525, 526 were all referenced with the
same footnote marker number in the original text.
14. All The footnotes have been re-numbered.
End of Transcriber's Notes]
End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Journal of Negro History, Volume
2, 1917, by Various
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