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diff --git a/20752.txt b/20752.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8cbc8e4 --- /dev/null +++ b/20752.txt @@ -0,0 +1,18654 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Journal of Negro History, Volume 2, 1917, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Journal of Negro History, Volume 2, 1917 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: March 6, 2007 [EBook #20752] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NEGRO HISTORY *** + + + + +Produced by Curtis Weyant, Richard J. Shiffer and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +[Transcriber's Note: Every effort has been made to replicate this +text as faithfully as possible, including obsolete and variant +spellings and other inconsistencies. Text that has been changed to +correct an obvious error is noted at the end of this ebook. Also, the +transcriber added the Table of Contents.] + + + + +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 E 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 Jenne 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 Nupe 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 Nupe. 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 Ewe 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, Francois 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 Abbe 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 Decres, +"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 Gayarre 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 Negres 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 Barres +also achieved unusual fame. + +Natives of New Orleans remember now how some years ago Edmond Dede +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] Gayarre, III, p. 595. + +[53] _Ibid._, IV, p. 218. + +[54] _Ibid._, p. 219. + +[55] Gayarre, 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] Gayarre, IV, p. 127. + +[59] _Ibid._, p. 127. + +[60] Gayarre, 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] Gayerre, IV, p. 335. + +[67] Gayerre, 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] Gayarre, IV, p. 406. + +[71] He was probably regarded as a quadroon who had been accepted by +the white race. See Gayarre, IV, 406. + +[72] Gayarre, 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] Gayarre, 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. Andre 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 role 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 Abbe 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 abbe 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. + +"_Maliki 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 Sidi Khalil_" 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 E SOUDAN + + +The sixteenth century was the golden age of science and literature in +Timbuctoo. Her scholars with the University of Sankore 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 Felix DuBois, "the greatest work of all literature of the Sudan +was produced in the first days of its twilight, namely, that Tarik e +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. Felix +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. Felix 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, Felix 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 Sankore 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 e 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 e 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 e 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 e 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] + +Felix DuBois refers to it as serving him as his "charming and +picturesque guide through the Soudan." "The _Tarik e 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 Felix 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 _naivete_, 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] Felix 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] Felix DuBois, "Timbuctoo the Mysterious," 312. + +[198] Felix DuBois, "Timbuctoo the Mysterious," 313-314. + +[199] Felix 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] Felix DuBois, "Timbuctoo the Mysterious," 119-120. + +[203] Lady Lugard, "A Tropical Dependency," 283-284. + +[204] Felix DuBois, "Timbuctoo the Mysterious," 314. + +[205] Lady Lugard, "A Tropical Dependency," 154. + +[206] _Ibid._, 154-155. + +[207] Felix DuBois, "Timbuctoo the Mysterious," 313. + +[208] Felix 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 protege 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, + Insulae Jamaicensis Gubernatori; + Cui, omnes morum, virtutumque dotes billicarum, + In cumulum accesserunt, + CARMEN.[226] + + DENIQUE venturum fatis volventibus annum (_e_) + Cuncta per extensum laeta videnda diem, + Excussis adsunt curis, sub inagine (_f_) clara + Felices populi, terraque lege virens. + (_g_) Te duce, (_h_) quae fuerant malesuada mente peracta + Irrita, conspectu non reditura tuo. + Ergo omnis populus, nee non plebecula cernet + (_h_) Haesurum collo te (_i_) _relegasse_ jugum, + Et mala, quae 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 diruta 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 _AEthiopi_ bella sonare ducum. + Concilio, caneret te _Buchananus_ et armis, + Carmine _Peleidae_ scriberet ille parem. + Ille poeta, decus patriae, 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 + _Caesaris 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, patriae_ 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 laetentur ut omnia Saeclo. 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 praelia 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 caelo _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 AEthiopissa. + + (_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_ ederae praemia 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_ + _Laetus 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 _AEthiop_ 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 _Caesar_ 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 +archaeology 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; NEGRES LIBRES; MULATRES DE LA +LOUISIANE, 1801 + + L'esclavage, le plus grand de tous les maux necessaires, soit + relativement a ceux qui l'endurent, soit par rapport a ceux qui + sont contraints d'en employer les victimes, existe dans toute + l'etendue des deux Louisianes. Il ne seroit pas facile de + determiner pendant combien d'annees la partie septentrionale en + aura besoin; mais on peut assurer qu'il doit exister bien des + siecles encore dans le Midi si le Gouvernement veut y encourager + l'agriculture, qui est son unique ressource. Les Negres seuls + peuvent se livrer aux travaux dans ces climats brulans: le Blanc + qui y perit jeune malgre toutes sortes de menegemens, ne feroit + qu s'y montrer s'il etoit oblige d'y cultiver son champ de ses + propres mains. Pour tirer parti de cette colonie, l'on doit donc + proteger l'importation des Negres qui y sont en trop petit + nombre; mais il est en meme temps de l'interet du Gouvernement, + de veiller a ce que les habitans n'y abusent pas du pouvoir que + la loi et droit de propriete leur donnent. + + Apres la cruelle experience de Saint-Domingue, qui probablement + aura ouvert les yeux de tous ces philantropes qui ne comptent + pour rien la prosperite des empires, lorsqu'elle semble etre en + contradiction avec ces sentimens d'humanite, dont ils feignent + souvent d'avoir ete doues par la nature; je suis loin d'engager + aucun gouvernement a relacher les liens de l'esclavage: on doit + les laisser subsister dans leur integrite, ou perdre les + colonies. Cependant doivent-ils negliger cette branche + d'administration et s'en rapporter aveuglement aux proprietaires, + qui paroissent avoir un interet direct a menager 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 + vivacite par des reglemens sages; leur interet meme souvent + mal-entendu les aveugle sur leurs propres avantages. L'avarice + crie a l'un que ses esclaves mal vetus et mal nourris, n'en sont + pas moins tenus a lui rendre les services qu'l exige; la colere + conduit l'autre a faire des exemples terribles, sous pretexte + d'effrayer ceux qui seroient tentes de lui manquer; un grand + nombre enfin se croit autorise a s'en servir pour assouvir ses + passions et servir ses passions et servir ses gouts, fussent-ils + meme contraires aux devoirs de la societe et opposes aux + principes religieux. Aux yeux des gouvernans les hommes ne + doivent etre que de grands enfans, dont, en sages precepteurs, + ils dirigent les caprices de maniere a les faire tourner a leur + plus grand bien. + + Dans la basse Louisiane les Negres sont tres mal nourris: chacun + ne recoit pas par mois audela, d'un baril de mais en epis, ce qui + ne fait que le tiers d'un baril en grain;[228] encore beaucoup de + proprietaries prelevent-ils quelque chose sur leur ration. Ils + doivent se procurer le suplus de leur nourriture, ainsi que leurs + vetemens, avec le produit de leur travail du dimanche. S'ils ne + le font pas, ils sont exposes a rester nus pendant la saison + rigoureuse. Ceux qui leur fournissent des vetemens, le + contraignent a employer pour eux les jours de repos, jusqu'a ce + qu'ils aient ete rembourses de leurs avances. Pendant tout l'ete, + les Negres ne sont pas vetus. Les parties naturelles sont + uniquement cachees par une piece d'etoffe, qui s'attache a la + ceinture par devant et par derriere, et qui a conserve dans toute + l'Amerique septentrionale habitee par les Francois, le nom de + _braguet_. L'hiver ils ont generalement une chemise et une + couverture de laine, faite en forme de redingotte. Les enfans + restent souvent nus jusqu'a l'age de huit ans, qu'ils commencent + a rendre quelques services. + + Un maitre ne doit-il pas a son esclave le vetement et une + nourriture substantielle, a proportion du travail qu'il en exige? + Le jour du repos n'appartient-il pas a tous les hommes, et plus + particulierement a ceux qui sont employes aux penibles travaux de + la campagne? Ce sont des questions qui n'en seroient pas, si + l'avarice, plus forte que l'humanite, ne dominoit presque tous + les hommes, mais sur-tout les habitans des colonies. Que + resulte-t-il cependant de cette avarice mal entendue? les Negres + mal nourris et trop fatigues s'epuisent et ne peuplent pas; de + l'epuisement nait la foiblesse, de la foiblesse le decouragement, + la maladie et la mort. Pour augmenter son revenue le + proprietaire perd donc le capital, sans que son experience le + rende ordinairement plus sage. Je n'ignore pas que les Negres + sont loin de ressembler aux autres hommes; qu'ils ne peuvent etre + conduits ni par la douceur, ni par les sentimens; qu'ils se + moquent de ceux qui les traitent avec bonte; qu'ils tiennent par + la morale a la brute, autant qu'a l'homme par leur constitution + physique; mais ayons au moins pour eux soins que nous avons pour + les quadrupedes, dont nous nous servons: nourrissons-les bien + pour qu'ils travaillent bien, et n'exigeons pas au-dela de leurs + facultes ou de leurs forces. + + Les Negres 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 a mordre celui qui le + foule aux pieds; l'esclave doit hair son maitre. Mais ce dontil + est difficile de rendre compte, c'est l'aversion et la brutalite + des Noirs libres pour ceux de leur espece. Parviennent-ils a 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 a la faineantise et a l'ivrognerie, les tient dans + un etat de mediocrite dont ils sortent rarement. + + Quoique les Negres libres perdent tres-peu de leur haine pour les + Blancs, ils sont cependant loin d'etre aussi dangereux que les + Mulatres. Ces hommes qui semblent participer aux vices des deux + especes, comme ils out participe a leurs couleurs, sont mechans, + vindicatifs, traitres et egalement ennemis des Noirs qu'ils + meprisent, et des Blancs qu'ils ont en horreur. Cruels jus qu'a + la barbarie envers les premiers, ils sont toujours prets a saisir + l'occasion de tourner leurs bras contre les seconds. Fruits du + libertinage de leurs peres, dont ils recoivent presque tous la + liberte et une education assez soignee, ils sont loin d'en etre + reconnaissans; ils voudroient en etre traites comme des enfans + legitimes, et la difference que l'on met entr'eux les porte a + detester meme 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 delicats se chargeoient mutuellement + de cette detestable commission. Vas tuer mon pere, 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 liberte l'etre qui tient de nous l'existence. Ces + verites ne peuvent etre contestees; mais une troisieme qui n'est + pas moins evidente, c'est qu'il est du devoir d'un bon + gouvernement d'assurer par toutes sortes de moyens la vie et la + propriete des peuples qui vivent sous sa domination: or, par-tout + ou il y aura des Negres libres ou des Mulatres, l'une et l'autre + seront chaque jour exposees au plus imminent danger. Un esclave + fuit-il son maitre? c'est chez un Negre libre qu'il va se + refugier. Un vol a-t-il ete commis? si le Negre libre n'en est + point l'auteur, il en est au moins le receleur. Lorsque par la + suite de son travail ou de son economie un esclave peut racheter + sa liberte, 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 ou l'on souffrira des Negres libres, sera le + repaire du brigandage et des crimes. + + Quant aux hommes de couleur, plus dangereux encore, il seroit + probablement tres-avantageux d'en former des colonies dans + quelques parties inhabitees du continent: cette mesure auroit une + suite doublement utile; elle priveroit les colonies de ces etres + par lesquels elles seront tot ou tard aneanties, et elle + diminueroit ce gout crapuleux des Blancs pour leurs esclaves, qui + est la ruine de la societe et la cause premiere 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, Rapide, 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 "bredouille." 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 GAYARRE'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 _elite_, 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 L34 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 Archaeological 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 _debacle_ +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 entree 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. Joergen 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 Hoest 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 Curacao 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 Suedpolar-Laender," Bd. I, +Abth. 4, Daenische Besitzungen, pp. 2106-2115; A. Von Dewitz, "In +Daenisch-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 Hoest, +"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 iles de l'Amerique," I, 73, 74, 78 and II, 12, +196, 197, 285-292; A. P. Ledru, "Voyage aux iles de Teneriffe, la +Trinite, Saint-Thomas, Sainte-Croix et Porto Rico," pp. 160-188; G. +Van Lennep Coster, "Aanterkeningen, gehonden gedurende mijn Verblijf +in de West-Indien in de jaren 1837-1840"; W. C. Morris, "The History +of Colonization," II, 284-286; C. G. A. Oldendorp, "Geschichte der +Mission der Evangelischen Brueder auf den Caribischen Inseln St. +Thomas, St. Croix, und St. Jan," _passim_; P. L. Oxholm, "De Danske +Vestindiske Oeers 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. Elisee, "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. Luelken, "Bidrag til det Vestindiske Oeriges og namligen til +de Dansk-Vestindiske Oeers Herpetologie," pp. 153-291; J. P. B. Von +Rohr, "Anmerkungen ueber den Cattunbau," Part I; Karl von Scherzer, +"Die Westindischen Inseln St. Thomas, Haiti, Porto Rico und Cuba," II, +467-495; Damian Schuetz-Holzhausen und R. Springer, "Cuba und die +uebrigen 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 +"Beytraege 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 iles +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 deg.. 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 deg.. north lat. and in + 65 deg.. 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.--ABBE 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 deg. 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 Soeboetker, 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 Buelowsminde, 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 +AEgean 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 Lacedaemonians 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 AEgean, 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 Mycenae 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 AEgean 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 Graeco-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 +AEgean 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. AEschylus 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 +AEschylus 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 AEthiops' neighbors dwell. + And had ye borne the bow, I should have guessed, + Undoubting, ye were of the Amazon tribe." + +No, AEschylus 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, AEgyptus, 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: glaukopis]; [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: Glaukopis] 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: chrusee], golden, that is to say, brilliant, but +never fair. Neptune is [Greek: kuanochaites], 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 +AEneas, 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 Mycenae, 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 Petion, 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, Legare 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 charge 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 Charge 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 Charge 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 Petion 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 traites 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 pere 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'Amerique, desirant +rendre durables et solides l'amitie et la bonne entente, qui regnent +heureusement entre les deux nations liberales, ont resolu de fixer +d'une maniere claire, nette et positive les regles qui devront etre, a +l'avenir, religieusement suivies entre l'une et l'autre, au moyen d'un +traite d'amitie, 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] Grimke, "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 L 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 +Pre 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 + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NEGRO HISTORY *** + +***** This file should be named 20752.txt or 20752.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/0/7/5/20752/ + +Produced by Curtis Weyant, Richard J. Shiffer and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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