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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:35:42 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:35:42 -0700 |
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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/10968-0.txt b/10968-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6c8850f --- /dev/null +++ b/10968-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6819 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10968 *** + +[Transcriber's note: The spelling inconsistencies of the original are +preserved in this etext.] + + + + +A CENTURY OF NEGRO MIGRATION + +Carter G. Woodson + + + + +TO MY FATHER + +JAMES WOODSON + +WHO MADE IT POSSIBLE FOR ME TO ENTER THE LITERARY WORLD + + + + +A CENTURY OF NEGRO MIGRATION + + + + +PREFACE + + +In treating this movement of the Negroes, the writer does not presume to +say the last word on the subject. The exodus of the Negroes from the South +has just begun. The blacks have recently realized that they have freedom +of body and they will now proceed to exercise that right. To presume, +therefore, to exhaust the treatment of this movement in its incipiency is +far from the intention of the writer. The aim here is rather to direct +attention to this new phase of Negro American life which will doubtless +prove to be the most significant event in our local history since the +Civil War. + +Many of the facts herein set forth have seen light before. The effort here +is directed toward an original treatment of facts, many of which have +already periodically appeared in some form. As these works, however, are +too numerous to be consulted by the layman, the writer has endeavored to +present in succinct form the leading facts as to how the Negroes in the +United States have struggled under adverse circumstances to flee from +bondage and oppression in quest of a land offering asylum to the oppressed +and opportunity to the unfortunate. How they have often been deceived has +been carefully noted. + +With the hope that this volume may interest another worker to the extent +of publishing many other facts in this field, it is respectfully submitted +to the public. + +CARTER G. WOODSON. + +Washington, D.C., March 31, 1918. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +I.--Finding a Place of Refuge + +II.--A Transplantation to the North + +III.--Fighting it out on Free Soil + +IV.--Colonization as a Remedy for Migration + +V.--The Successful Migrant + +VI.--Confusing Movements + +VII.--The Exodus to the West + +VIII.--The Migration of the Talented Tenth + +IX.--The Exodus during the World War + +BIBLIOGRAPHY + +INDEX + + + +MAPS AND DIAGRAMS + + +Map Showing the Per Cent of Negroes in Total Population, by States: 1910 + +Diagram Showing the Negro Population of Northern and Western Cities in +1900 and 1910 + +Maps Showing Counties in Southern States in which Negroes Formed 50 Per +Cent of the Total Population + + + + +CHAPTER I + +FINDING A PLACE OF REFUGE + + +The migration of the blacks from the Southern States to those offering +them better opportunities is nothing new. The objective here, therefore, +will be not merely to present the causes and results of the recent +movement of the Negroes to the North but to connect this event with the +periodical movements of the blacks to that section, from about the year +1815 to the present day. That this movement should date from that period +indicates that the policy of the commonwealths towards the Negro must have +then begun decidedly to differ so as to make one section of the country +more congenial to the despised blacks than the other. As a matter of fact, +to justify this conclusion, we need but give passing mention here to +developments too well known to be discussed in detail. Slavery in the +original thirteen States was the normal condition of the Negroes. When, +however, James Otis, Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson began to discuss +the natural rights of the colonists, then said to be oppressed by Great +Britain, some of the patriots of the Revolution carried their reasoning to +its logical conclusion, contending that the Negro slaves should be freed +on the same grounds, as their rights were also founded in the laws of +nature.[1] And so it was soon done in most Northern commonwealths. + +Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts exterminated the institution by +constitutional provision and Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, New +York and Pennsylvania by gradual emancipation acts.[2] And it was thought +that the institution would soon thereafter pass away even in all southern +commonwealths except South Carolina and Georgia, where it had seemingly +become profitable. There came later the industrial revolution following +the invention of Watt's steam engine and mechanical appliances like +Whitney's cotton gin, all which changed the economic aspect of the modern +world, making slavery an institution offering means of exploitation to +those engaged in the production of cotton. This revolution rendered +necessary a large supply of cheap labor for cotton culture, out of which +the plantation system grew. The Negro slaves, therefore, lost all hope of +ever winning their freedom in South Carolina and Georgia; and in Maryland, +Virginia, and North Carolina, where the sentiment in favor of abolition +had been favorable, there was a decided reaction which soon blighted their +hopes.[3] In the Northern commonwealths, however, the sentiment in behalf +of universal freedom, though at times dormant, was ever apparent despite +the attachment to the South of the trading classes of northern cities, +which profited by the slave trade and their commerce with the slaveholding +States. The Northern States maintaining this liberal attitude developed, +therefore, into an asylum for the Negroes who were oppressed in the South. + +The Negroes, however, were not generally welcomed in the North. Many of +the northerners who sympathized with the oppressed blacks in the South +never dreamt of having them as their neighbors. There were, consequently, +always two classes of anti-slavery people, those who advocated the +abolition of slavery to elevate the blacks to the dignity of citizenship, +and those who merely hoped to exterminate the institution because it was +an economic evil.[4] The latter generally believed that the blacks +constituted an inferior class that could not discharge the duties of +citizenship, and when the proposal to incorporate the blacks into the body +politic was clearly presented to these agitators their anti-slavery ardor +was decidedly dampened. Unwilling, however, to take the position that a +race should be doomed because of personal objections, many of the early +anti-slavery group looked toward colonization for a solution of this +problem.[5] Some thought of Africa, but since the deportation of a large +number of persons who had been brought under the influence of modern +civilization seemed cruel, the most popular colonization scheme at first +seemed to be that of settling the Negroes on the public lands in the West. +As this region had been lately ceded, however, and no one could determine +what use could be made of it by white men, no such policy was generally +accepted. + +When this territory was ceded to the United States an effort to provide +for the government of it finally culminated in the proposed Ordinance of +1784 carrying the provision that slavery should not exist in the Northwest +Territory after the year 1800.[6] This measure finally failed to pass and +fortunately too, thought some, because, had slavery been given sixteen +years of growth on that soil, it might not have been abolished there until +the Civil War or it might have caused such a preponderance of slave +commonwealths as to make the rebellion successful. The Ordinance of 1784 +was antecedent to the more important Ordinance of 1787, which carried the +famous sixth article that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude except +as a punishment for crime should exist in that territory. At first, it was +generally deemed feasible to establish Negro colonies on that domain. Yet +despite the assurance of the Ordinance of 1787 conditions were such that +one could not determine exactly whether the Northwest Territory would be +slave or free.[7] + +What then was the situation in this partly unoccupied territory? Slavery +existed in what is now the Northwest Territory from the time of the early +exploration and settlement of that region by the French. The first slaves +of white men were Indians. Though it is true that the red men usually +chose death rather than slavery, there were some of them that bowed to the +yoke. So many Pawnee Indians became bondsmen that the word _Pani_ +became synonymous with slave in the West.[8] Western Indians themselves, +following the custom of white men, enslaved their captives in war rather +than choose the alternative of putting them to death. In this way they +were known to hold a number of blacks and whites. + +The enslavement of the black man by the whites in this section dates from +the early part of the eighteenth century. Being a part of the Louisiana +Territory which under France extended over the whole Mississippi Valley as +far as the Allegheny mountains, it was governed by the same colonial +regulations.[9] Slavery, therefore, had legal standing in this territory. +When Antoine Crozat, upon being placed in control of Louisiana, was +authorized to begin a traffic in slaves, Crozat himself did nothing to +carry out his plan. But in 1717 when the control of the colony was +transferred to the _Compagnie de l'Occident_ steps were taken toward +the importation of slaves. In 1719, when 500 Guinea Negroes were brought +over to serve in Lower Louisiana, Philip Francis Renault imported 500 +other bondsmen into Upper Louisiana or what was later included in the +Northwest Territory. Slavery then became more and more extensive until by +1750 there were along the Mississippi five settlements of slaves, +Kaskaskia, Kaokia, Fort Chartres, St. Phillipe and Prairie du Rocher.[10] +In 1763 Negroes were relatively numerous in the Northwest Territory but +when this section that year was transferred to the British the number was +diminished by the action of those Frenchmen who, unwilling to become +subjects of Great Britain, moved from the territory.[11] There was no +material increase in the slave population thereafter until the end of the +eighteenth century when some Negroes came from the original thirteen. + +The Ordinance of 1787 did not disturb the relation of slave and master. +Some pioneers thought that the sixth article exterminated slavery there; +others contended that it did not. The latter believed that such +expressions in the Ordinance of 1787 as the "free inhabitants" and the +"free male inhabitants of full size" implied the continuance of slavery +and others found ground for its perpetuation in that clause of the +Ordinance which allowed the people of the territory to adopt the +constitution and laws of any one of the thirteen States. Students of law +saw protection for slavery in Jay's treaty which guaranteed to the +settlers their property of all kinds.[12] When, therefore, the slave +question came up in the Northwest Territory about the close of the +eighteenth century, there were three classes of slaves: first, those who +were in servitude to French owners previous to the cession of the +Territory to England and were still claimed as property in the possession +of which the owners were protected under the treaty of 1763; second, those +who were held by British owners at the time of Jay's treaty and claimed +afterward as property under its protection; and third, those who, since +the Territory had been controlled by the United States, had been brought +from the commonwealths in which slavery was allowed.[13] Freedom, however, +was recognized as the ultimate status of the Negro in that territory. + +This question having been seemingly settled, Anthony Benezet, who for +years advocated the abolition of slavery and devoted his time and means to +the preparation of the Negroes for living as freedmen, was practical +enough to recommend to the Congress of the Confederation a plan of +colonizing the emancipated blacks on the western lands.[14] Jefferson +incorporated into his scheme for a modern system of public schools the +training of the slaves in industrial and agricultural branches to equip +them for a higher station in life. He believed, however, that the blacks +not being equal to the white race should not be assimilated and should +they be free, they should, by all means, be colonized afar off.[15] +Thinking that the western lands might be so used, he said in writing to +James Monroe in 1801: "A very great extent of country north of the Ohio +has been laid off in townships, and is now at market, according to the +provisions of the act of Congress.... There is nothing," said he, "which +would restrain the State of Virginia either in the purchase or the +application of these lands."[16] Yet he raised the question as to whether +the establishment of such a colony within our limits and to become a part +of the Union would be desirable. He thought then of procuring a place +beyond the limits of the United States on our northern boundary, by +purchasing the Indian lands with the consent of Great Britain. He then +doubted that the black race would live in such a rigorous climate. + +This plan did not easily pass from the minds of the friends of the slaves, +for in 1805 Thomas Brannagan asserted in his _Serious Remonstrances_ +that the government should appropriate a few thousand acres of land at +some distant part of the national domains for the Negroes' accommodation +and support. He believed that the new State might be established upwards +of 2,000 miles from our frontier.[17] A copy of the pamphlet containing +this proposition was sent to Thomas Jefferson, who was impressed thereby, +but not having the courage to brave the torture of being branded as a +friend of the slave, he failed to give it his support.[18] The same +question was brought prominently before the public again in 1816 when +there was presented to the House of Representatives a memorial from the +Kentucky Abolition Society praying that the free people of color be +colonized on the public lands. The committee to whom the memorial was +referred for consideration reported that it was expedient to refuse the +request on the ground that, as such lands were not granted to free white +men, they saw no reason for granting them to others.[19] + +Some Negro slaves unwilling to wait to be carried or invited to the +Northwest Territory escaped to that section even when it was controlled by +the French prior to the American Revolution. Slaves who reached the West +by this route caused trouble between the French and the British colonists. +Advertising in 1746 for James Wenyam, a slave, Richard Colgate, his +master, said that he swore to a Negro whom he endeavored to induce to go +with him, that he had often been in the backwoods with his master and that +he would go to the French and Indians and fight for them.[20] In an +advertisement for a mulatto slave in 1755 Thomas Ringold, his master, +expressed fear that he had escaped by the same route to the French. He, +therefore, said: "It seems to be the interest, at least, of every +gentleman that has slaves, to be active in the beginning of these +attempts, for whilst we have the French such near neighbors, we shall not +have the least security in that kind of property."[21] + +The good treatment which these slaves received among the French, and +especially at Pittsburgh the gateway to the Northwest Territory, tended to +make that city an asylum for those slaves who had sufficient spirit of +adventure to brave the wilderness through which they had to go. Negroes +even then had the idea that there was in this country a place of more +privilege than those they enjoyed in the seaboard colonies. Knowing of the +likelihood of the Negroes to rise during the French and Indian War, +Governor Dinwiddie wrote Fox one of the Secretaries of State in 1756: "We +dare not venture to part with any of our white men any distance, as we +must have a watchful eye over our Negro slaves, who are upward of one +hundred thousand."[22] Brissot de Warville mentions in his _Travels of +1788_ several examples of marriages of white and blacks in Pittsburgh. +He noted the case of a Negro who married an indentured French servant +woman. Out of this union came a desirable mulatto girl who married a +surgeon of Nantes then stationed at Pittsburgh. His family was considered +one of the most respectable of the city. The Negro referred to was doing a +creditable business and his wife took it upon herself to welcome +foreigners, especially the French, who came that way. Along the Ohio also +there were several cases of women of color living with unmarried white men; +but this was looked upon by the Negroes as detestable as was evidenced by +the fact that, if black women had a quarrel with a mulatto woman, the +former would reproach the latter for being of ignoble blood.[23] + +These tendencies, however, could not assure the Negro that the Northwest +Territory was to be an asylum for freedom when in 1763 it passed into the +hands of the British, the promoters of the slave trade, and later to the +independent colonies, two of which had no desire to exterminate slavery. +Furthermore, when the Ordinance of 1787 with its famous sixth article +against slavery was proclaimed, it was soon discovered that this document +was not necessarily emancipatory. As the right to hold slaves was +guaranteed to those who owned them prior to the passage of the Ordinance +of 1787, it was to be expected that those attached to that institution +would not indifferently see it pass away. Various petitions, therefore, +were sent to the territorial legislature and to Congress praying that the +sixth article of the Ordinance of 1787 be abrogated.[24] No formal action +to this effect was taken, but the practice of slavery was continued even +at the winking of the government. Some slaves came from the Canadians who, +in accordance with the slave trade laws of the British Empire, were +supplied with bondsmen. It was the Canadians themselves who provided by +act of parliament in 1793 for prohibiting the importation of slaves and +for gradual emancipation. When it seemed later that the cause of freedom +would eventually triumph the proslavery element undertook to perpetuate +slavery through a system of indentured servant labor. + +In the formation of the States of Indiana and Illinois the question as to +what should be done to harmonize with the new constitution the system of +indenture to which the territorial legislatures had been committed, caused +heated debate and at times almost conflict. Both Indiana[25] and +Illinois[26] finally incorporated into their constitutions compromise +provisions for a nominal prohibition of slavery modified by clauses for +the continuation of the system of indentured labor of the Negroes held to +service. The proslavery party persistently struggled for some years to +secure by the interpretation of the laws, by legislation and even by +amending the constitution so to change the fundamental law as to provide +for actual slavery. These States, however, gradually worked toward freedom +in keeping with the spirit of the majority who framed the constitution, +despite the fact that the indenture system in southern Illinois and +especially in Indiana was at times tantamount to slavery as it was +practiced in parts of the South. + +It must be borne in mind here, however, that the North at this time was +far from becoming a place of refuge for Negroes. In the first place, the +industrial revolution had not then had time to reduce the Negroes to the +plane of beasts in the cotton kingdom. The rigorous climate and the +industries of the northern people, moreover, were not inviting to the +blacks and the development of the carrying trade and the rise of +manufacturing there did not make that section more attractive to unskilled +labor. Furthermore, when we consider the fact that there were many +thousands of Negroes in the Southern States the presence of a few in the +North must be regarded as insignificant. This paucity of blacks then +obtained especially in the Northwest Territory, for its French inhabitants +instead of being an exploiting people were pioneering, having little use +for slaves in carrying out their policy of merely holding the country for +France. Moreover, like certain gentlemen from Virginia, who after the +American Revolution were afraid to bring their slaves with them to occupy +their bounty lands in Ohio, few enterprising settlers from the slave +States had invaded the territory with their Negroes, not knowing whether +or not they would be secure in the possession of such property. When we +consider that in 1810 there were only 102,137 Negroes in the North and no +more than 3,454 in the Northwest Territory, we must look to the second +decade of the nineteenth century for the beginning of the migration of the +Negroes in the United States. + + +[Footnote 1: Locke, _Anti-Slavery_, pp. 19, 20, 23; _Works of John +Woolman_, pp. 58, 73; and Moore, _Notes on Slavery in Massachusetts_, +p. 71.] + +[Footnote 2: Bassett, _Federalist System_, chap. xii. Hart, +_Slavery and Abolition_, pp. 153, 154.] + +[Footnote 3: Turner, _The Rise of the New West_, pp. 45, 46, 47, 48, +49; Hammond, _Cotton Industry_, chaps. i and ii; Scherer, _Cotton +as a World Power_, pp. 168, 175.] + +[Footnote 4: Locke, _Anti-Slavery_, chaps. i and ii.] + +[Footnote 5: Jay, _An Inquiry_, p. 30.] + +[Footnote 6: Ford edition, _Jefferson's Writings_, III, p. 432.] + +[Footnote 7: For the passage of this ordinance three reasons have been +given: Slavery then prior to the invention of the cotton gin was +considered a necessary evil in the South. The expected monopoly of the +tobacco and indigo cultivation in the South would be promoted by excluding +Negroes from the Northwest Territory and thus preventing its cultivation +there. Dr. Cutler's influence aided by Mr. Grayson of Virginia was of much +assistance. The philanthropic idea was not so prominent as men have +thought.--Dunn, _Indiana_, p. 212.] + +[Footnote 8: _Ibid_., p. 254.] + +[Footnote 9: _Code Noir_.] + +[Footnote 10: Speaking of these settlements in 1750, M. Viner, a Jesuit +Missionary to the Indians, said: "We have here Whites, Negroes, and +Indians, to say nothing of cross-breeds--There are five French villages +and three villages of the natives within a space of twenty-one leagues--In +the five French villages there are perhaps eleven hundred whites, three +hundred blacks, and some sixty red slaves or savages." Unlike the +condition of the slaves in Lower Louisiana where the rigid enforcement of +the Slave Code made their lives almost intolerable, the slaves of the +Northwest Territory were for many reasons much more fortunate. In the +first place, subject to the control of a mayor-commandant appointed by the +Governor of New Orleans, the early dwellers in this territory managed +their plantations about as they pleased. Moreover, as there were few +planters who owned as many as three or four Negroes, slavery in the +Northwest Territory did not get far beyond the patriarchal stage. Slaves +were usually well fed. The relations between master and slave were +friendly. The bondsmen were allowed special privileges on Sundays and +holidays and their children were taught the catechism according to the +ordinance of Louis XIV in 1724, which provided that all masters should +educate their slaves in the Apostolic Catholic religion and have them +baptized. Male slaves were worked side by side in the fields with their +masters and the female slaves in neat attire went with their mistresses to +matins and vespers. Slaves freely mingled in practically all festive +enjoyments.--See _Jesuit Relations_, LXIX, p. 144; Hutchins, _An +Historical Narrative_, 1784; and _Code Noir_.] + +[Footnote 11: Mention was thereafter made of slaves as in the case of +Captain Philip Pittman who in 1770 wrote of one Mr. Beauvais, "who owned +240 orpens of cultivated land and eighty slaves; and such a case as that +of a Captain of a militia at St. Philips, possessing twenty blacks; and +the case of Mr. Bales, a very rich man of St. Genevieve, Illinois, owning +a hundred Negroes, beside having white people constantly employed."--See +Captain Pittman's _The Present State of the European Settlements in the +Mississippi_, 1770.] + +[Footnote 12: Dunn, _Indiana_, chap. vi.] + +[Footnote 13: Hinsdale, _Old Northwest_, p. 350.] + +[Footnote 14: _Tyrannical Libertymen_, pp. 10, 11; Locke, +_Anti-Slavery_, pp. 31, 32; Brannagan, _Serious Remonstrance_, +p. 18.] + +[Footnote 15: Washington edition of _Jefferson's Writings_, chap. vi, +p. 456, and chap. viii, p. 380.] + +[Footnote 16: Ford edition of _Jefferson's Writings_, III, p. 244; +IX, p. 303; X, pp. 76, 290.] + +[Footnote 17: Brannagan, _Serious Remonstrances_, p. 18.] + +[Footnote 18: Library edition of _Jefferson's Writings_, X, pp. 295, +296.] + +[Footnote 19: Adams, _Neglected Period of Anti-Slavery_, pp. 129, +130.] + +[Footnote 20: _The Pennsylvania Gazette_, July 31, 1746.] + +[Footnote 21: _The Maryland Gazette_, March 20, 1755.] + +[Footnote 22: _Washington's Writings_, II, p. 134.] + +[Footnote 23: Brissot de Warville, _New Travels_, II, pp. 33-34.] + +[Footnote 24: Harris, _Slavery in Illinois_, chaps. iii, iv, and v; +Dunn, _Indiana_, pp. 218-260; Hinsdale, _Old Northwest_, pp. +351-358.] + +[Footnote 25: This code provided that all male Negroes under fifteen, +years of age either owned or acquired must remain in servitude until they +reached the age of thirty-five and female slaves until thirty-two. The +male children of such persons held to service could be bound out for +thirty years and the female children for twenty-eight. Slaves brought into +the territory had to comply with contracts for terms of service when their +master registered them within thirty days from the time he brought them +into the territory. Indentured black servants were not exactly sold, but +the law permitted the transfer from one owner to another when the slave +acquiesced in the transfer before a notary, but it was often done without +regard to the slave. They were even bequeathed and sold as personal +property at auction. Notices for sale were frequent. There were rewards +for runaway slaves. Negroes whose terms had almost expired were kidnapped +and sold to New Orleans. The legislature imposed a penalty for such, but +it was not generally enforced. They were taxable property valued according +to the length of service. Negroes served as laborers on farms, house +servants, and in salt mines, the latter being an excuse for holding them +as slaves. Persons of color could purchase servants of their own race. The +law provided that the Justice of the County could on complaint from the +master order that a lazy servant be whipped. In this frontier section, +therefore, where men often took the law in their own hands, slaves were +often punished and abused just as they were in the Southern States. The +law dealing with fugitives was somewhat harsh. When apprehended, fugitives +had to serve two days extra for each day they lost from their master's +service. The harboring of a runaway slave was punishable by a fine of one +day for each the slave might be concealed. Consistently too with the +provision of the laws in most slave States, slaves could retain all goods +or money lawfully acquired during their servitude provided their master +gave his consent. Upon the demonstration of proof to the county court that +they had served their term they could obtain from that tribunal +certificates of freedom. See _The Laws of Indiana_.] + +[Footnote 26: Masters had to provide adequate food, and clothing and good +lodging for the slave, but the penalty for failing to comply with this law +was not clear and even if so, it happened that many masters never observed +it. There was also an effort to prevent cruelty to slaves, but it was +difficult to establish the guilt of masters when the slave could not bear +witness against his owner and it was not likely that the neighbor equally +guilty or indifferent to the complaints of the blacks would take their +petitions to court. + +Under this system a large number of slaves were brought into the Territory +especially after 1807. There were 135 in 1800. This increase came from +Kentucky and Tennessee. As those brought were largely boys and girls with +a long period of service, this form of slavery was assured for some years. +The children of these blacks were often registered for thirty-five instead +of thirty years of service on the ground that they were not born in +Illinois. No one thought of persecuting a master for holding servants +unlawfully and Negroes themselves could be easily deceived. Very few +settlers brought their slaves there to free them. There were only 749 in +1820. If one considers the proportion of this to the number brought there +for manumission this seems hardly true. It is better to say that during +these first two decades of the nineteenth century some settlers came for +both purposes, some to hold slaves, some, as Edward Coles, to free them. +It was not only practiced in the southern part along the Mississippi and +Ohio but as far north in Illinois as Sangamon County, were found servants +known as "yellow boys" and "colored girls."--See the _Laws of +Illinois_.] + + + +CHAPTER II + +A TRANSPLANTATION TO THE NORTH + + +Just after the settlement of the question of holding the western posts by +the British and the adjustment of the trouble arising from their capture +of slaves during our second war with England, there started a movement of +the blacks to this frontier territory. But, as there were few towns or +cities in the Northwest during the first decades of the new republic, the +flight of the Negro into that territory was like that of a fugitive taking +his chances in the wilderness. Having lost their pioneering spirit in +passing through the ordeal of slavery, not many of the bondmen took flight +in that direction and few free Negroes ventured to seek their fortunes in +those wilds during the period of the frontier conditions, especially when +the country had not then undergone a thorough reaction against the Negro. + +The migration of the Negroes, however, received an impetus early in the +nineteenth century. This came from the Quakers, who by the middle of the +eighteenth century had taken the position that all members of their sect +should free their slaves.[1] The Quakers of North Carolina and Virginia +had as early as 1740 taken up the serious question of humanely treating +their Negroes. The North Carolina Quakers advised Friends to emancipate +their slaves, later prohibited traffic in them, forbade their members from +even hiring the blacks out in 1780 and by 1818 had exterminated the +institution among their communicants.[2] After healing themselves of the +sin, they had before the close of the eighteenth century militantly +addressed themselves to the task of abolishing slavery and the slave trade +throughout the world. Differing in their scheme from that of most +anti-slavery leaders, they were advocating the establishment of the +freedmen in society as good citizens and to that end had provided for the +religious and mental instruction of their slaves prior to emancipating +them.[3] + +Despite the fact that the Quakers were not free to extend their operations +throughout the colonies, they did much to enable the Negroes to reach free +soil. As the Quakers believed in the freedom of the will, human +brotherhood, and equality before God, they did not, like the Puritans, +find difficulties in solving the problem of elevating the Negroes. Whereas +certain Puritans were afraid that conversion might lead to the destruction +of caste and the incorporation of undesirable persons into the "Body +Politick," the Quakers proceeded on the principle that all men are +brethren and, being equal before God, should be considered equal before +the law. On account of unduly emphasizing the relation of man to God, the +Puritans "atrophied their social humanitarian instinct" and developed into +a race of self-conscious saints. Believing in human nature and laying +stress upon the relation between man and man, the Quakers became the +friends of all humanity.[4] + +In 1693 George Keith, a leading Quaker of his day, came forward as a +promoter of the religious training of the slaves as a preparation for +emancipation. William Penn advocated the emancipation of slaves, that they +might have every opportunity for improvement. In 1695 the Quakers while +protesting against the slave trade denounced also the policy of neglecting +their moral and spiritual welfare.[5] The growing interest of this sect in +the Negroes was shown later by the development in 1713 of a definite +scheme for freeing and returning them to Africa after having been educated +and trained to serve as missionaries on that continent. + +When the manumission of the slaves was checked by the reaction against +that class and it became more of a problem to establish them in a hostile +environment, certain Quakers of North Carolina and Virginia adopted the +scheme of settling them in Northern States.[6] At first, they sent such +freedmen to Pennsylvania. But for various reasons this did not prove to be +the best asylum. In the first place, Pennsylvania bordered on the slave +States, Maryland and Virginia, from which agents came to kidnap free +Negroes. Furthermore, too many Negroes were already rushing to that +commonwealth as the Negroes' heaven and there was the chance that the +Negroes might be settled elsewhere in the North, where they might have +better economic opportunities.[7] A committee of forty was accordingly +appointed by North Carolina Quakers in 1822 to examine the laws of other +free States with a view to determining what section would be most suitable +for colonizing these blacks. This committee recommended in its report that +the blacks be colonized in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. + +The yearly meeting, therefore, ordered the removal of such Negroes as fast +as they were willing or as might be consistent with the profession of +their sect, and instructed the agents effecting the removal to draw on the +treasury for any sum not exceeding two hundred dollars to defray expenses. +An increasing number reached these States every year but, owing to the +inducements offered by the American Colonization Society, some of them +went to Liberia. When Liberia, however, developed into every thing but a +haven of rest, the number sent to the settlements in the Northwest greatly +increased. + +The quarterly meeting succeeded in sending to the West 133 Negroes, +including 23 free blacks and slaves given up because they were connected +by marriage with those to be transplanted.[8] The Negro colonists seemed +to prefer Indiana.[9] They went in three companies and with suitable young +Friends to whom were executed powers of attorney to manumit, set free, +settle and bind them out.[10] Thirteen carts and wagons were bought for +these three companies; $1,250 was furnished for their traveling expenses +and clothing, the whole cost amounting to $2,490. It was planned to send +forty or fifty to Long Island and twenty to the interior of Pennsylvania, +but they failed to prosper and reports concerning them stamped them as +destitute and deplorably ignorant. Those who went to Ohio and Indiana, +however, did well.[11] + +Later we receive another interesting account of this exodus. David White +led a company of fifty-three into the West, thirty-eight of whom belonged +to Friends, five to a member who had ordered that they be taken West at +his expense. Six of these slaves belonged to Samuel Lawrence, a Negro +slaveholder, who had purchased himself and family. White pathetically +reports the case of four of the women who had married slave husbands and +had twenty children for the possession of whom the Friends had to stand a +lawsuit in the courts. The women had decided to leave their husbands +behind but the thought of separation so tormented them that they made an +effort to secure their liberty. Upon appealing to their masters for terms +the owners, somewhat moved by compassion, sold them for one half of their +value. White then went West and left four in Chillicothe, twenty-three in +Leesburg and twenty-six in Wayne County, Indiana, without encountering any +material difficulty.[12] + +Others had thought of this plan but the Quakers actually carried it out on +a small scale. Here we see again not only their desire to have the Negroes +emancipated but the vital interest of the Quakers in success of the +blacks, for members of this sect not only liberated their slaves but sold +out their own holdings in the South and moved with these freedmen into the +North. Quakers who then lived in free States offered fugitives material +assistance by open and clandestine methods.[13] The most prominent leader +developed by the movement was Levi Coffin, whose daring deeds in behalf of +the fugitives made him the reputed President of the Underground Railroad. +Most of the Quaker settlements of Negroes with which he was connected were +made in what is now Hamilton, Howard, Wayne, Randolph, Vigo, Gibson, +Grant, Rush, and Tipton Counties, Indiana, and Darke County, Ohio. + +The promotion of this movement by the Quakers was well on its way by 1815 +and was not materially checked until the fifties when the operations of +the drastic fugitive slave law interfered, and even then the movement had +gained such momentum and the execution of that mischievous measure had +produced in the North so much reaction like that expressed in the personal +liberty laws, that it could not be stopped. The Negroes found homes in +Western New York, Western Pennsylvania and throughout the Northwest +Territory. The Negro population of York, Harrisburg and Philadelphia +rapidly increased. A settlement of Negroes developed at Sandy Lake in +Northwestern Pennsylvania[14] and there was another near Berlin Cross +Roads in Ohio.[15] A group of Negroes migrating to this same State found +homes in the Van Buren Township of Shelby County.[16] A more significant +settlement in the State was made by Samuel Gist, an Englishman possessing +extensive plantations in Hanover, Amherst, and Henrico Counties, Virginia. +He provided in his will that his slaves should be freed and sent to the +North. He further provided that the revenue from his plantation the last +year of his life be applied in building schoolhouses and churches for +their accommodation, and "that all money coming to him in Virginia be set +aside for the employment of ministers and teachers to instruct them." In +1818, Wickham, the executor of his estate, purchased land and established +these Negroes in what was called the Upper and Lower Camps of Brown +County.[17] + +Augustus Wattles, a Quaker from Connecticut, made a settlement in Mercer +County, Ohio, early in the nineteenth century. In the winter of 1833-4, he +providentially became acquainted with the colored people of Cincinnati, +finding there about "4,000 totally ignorant of every thing calculated to +make good citizens." As most of them had been slaves, excluded from every +avenue of moral and mental improvement, he established for them a school +which he maintained for two years. He then proposed to these Negroes to go +into the country and purchase land to remove them "from those +contaminating influences which had so long crushed them in our cities and +villages."[18] They consented on the condition that he would accompany +them and teach school. He travelled through Canada, Michigan and Indiana, +looking for a suitable location, and finally selected for settlement a +place in Mercer County, Ohio. In 1835, he made the first purchase of land +there for this purpose and before 1838 Negroes had bought there about +30,000 acres, at the earnest appeal of this benefactor, who had travelled +into almost every neighborhood of the blacks in the State, and laid before +them the benefits of a permanent home for themselves and of education for +their children.[19] + +This settlement was further increased in 1858 by the manumitted slaves of +John Harper of North Carolina.[20] John Randolph of Roanoke endeavored to +establish his slaves as freemen in this county but the Germans who had +settled in that community a little ahead of them started such a +disturbance that Randolph's executor could not carry out his plan, +although he had purchased a large tract of land there.[21] It was +necessary to send these freemen to Miami County. Theodoric H. Gregg of +Dinwiddie County, Virginia, liberated his slaves in 1854 and sent them to +Ohio.[22] Nearer to the Civil War, when public opinion was proscribing the +uplift of Negroes in Kentucky, Noah Spears secured near Xenia, Greene +County, Ohio, a small parcel of land for sixteen of his former bondsmen in +1856.[23] Other freedmen found their way to this community in later years +and it became so prosperous that it was selected as the site of +Wilberforce University. + +This transplantation extended into Michigan. With the help of persons +philanthropically inclined there sprang up a flourishing group of Negroes +in Detroit. Early in the nineteenth century they began to acquire property +and to provide for the education of their children. Their record was such +as to merit the encomiums of their fellow white citizens. In later years +this group in Detroit was increased by the operation of laws hostile to +free Negroes in the South in that life for this class not only became +intolerable but necessitated their expatriation. Because of the Virginia +drastic laws and especially that of 1838 prohibiting the return to that +State of such Negro students as had been accustomed to go North to attend +school, after they were denied this privilege at home, the father of +Richard DeBaptiste and Marie Louis More, the mother of Fannie M. Richards, +led a colony of free Negroes from Fredericksburg to Detroit.[24] And for +about similar reasons the father of Robert A. Pelham conducted others from +Petersburg, Virginia, in 1859.[25] One Saunders, a planter of Cabell +County, West Virginia, liberated his slaves some years later and furnished +them homes among the Negroes settled in Cass County, Michigan, about +ninety miles east of Chicago, and ninety-five miles west of Detroit. + +This settlement had become attractive to fugitive slaves and freedmen +because the Quakers settled there welcomed them on their way to freedom +and in some cases encouraged them to remain among them. When the increase +of fugitives was rendered impossible during the fifties when the Fugitive +Slave Law was being enforced, there was still a steady growth due to the +manumission of slaves by sympathetic and benevolent masters in the +South.[26] Most of these Negroes settled in Calvin Township, in that +county, so that of the 1,376 residing there in 1860, 795 were established +in this district, there being only 580 whites dispersed among them. The +Negro settlers did not then obtain control of the government but they +early purchased land to the extent of several thousand acres and developed +into successful small farmers. Being a little more prosperous than the +average Negro community in the North, the Cass County settlement not only +attracted Negroes fleeing from hardships in the South but also those who +had for some years unsuccessfully endeavored to establish themselves in +other communities on free soil.[27] + +These settlements were duplicated a little farther west in Illinois. +Edward Coles, a Virginian, who in 1818 emigrated to Illinois, of which he +later served as Governor and as liberator from slavery, settled his slaves +in that commonwealth. He brought them to Edwardsville, where they +constituted a community known as "Coles' Negroes."[28] There was another +community of Negroes in Illinois in what is now called Brooklyn situated +north of East St. Louis. This town was a center of some consequence in the +thirties. It became a station of the Underground Railroad on the route to +Alton and to Canada. As all of the Negroes who emerged from the South did +not go farther into the North, the black population of the town gradually +grew despite the fact that slave hunters captured and reenslaved many of +the Negroes who settled there.[29] + +These settlements together with favorable communities of sympathetic +whites promoted the migration of the free Negroes and fugitives from the +South by serving as centers offering assistance to those fleeing to the +free States and to Canada. The fugitives usually found friends in +Philadelphia, Columbia, Pittsburgh, Elmira, Rochester, Buffalo, +Gallipolis, Portsmouth, Akron, Cincinnati, and Detroit. They passed on the +way to freedom through Columbia, Philadelphia, Elizabethtown and by way of +sea to New York and Boston, from which they proceeded to permanent +settlements in the North.[30] + +In the West, the migration of the blacks was further facilitated by the +peculiar geographic condition in that the Appalachian highland, extending +like a peninsula into the South, had a natural endowment which produced a +class of white citizens hostile to the institution of slavery. These +mountaineers coming later to the colonies had to go to the hills and +mountains because the first comers from Europe had taken up the land near +the sea. Being of the German and Scotch-Irish Presbyterian stock, they had +ideals differing widely from those of the seaboard slaveholders.[31] The +mountaineers believed in "civil liberty in fee simple, and an open road to +civil honors, secured to the poorest and feeblest members of society." The +eastern element had for their ideal a government of interests for the +people. They believed in liberty but that of kings, lords, and commons, +not of all the people.[32] + +Settled along the Appalachian highland, these new stocks continued to +differ from those dwelling near the sea, especially on the slavery +question.[33] The natural endowment of the mountainous section made +slavery there unprofitable and the mountaineers bore it grievously that +they were attached to commonwealths dominated by the radical pro-slavery +element of the South, who sacrificed all other interests to safeguard +those of the peculiar institution. There developed a number of clashes in +all of the legislatures and constitutional conventions of the Southern +States along the Atlantic, but in every case the defenders of the +interests of slavery won. When, therefore, slaves with the assistance of +anti-slavery mountaineers began to escape to the free States, they had +little difficulty in making their way through the Appalachian region, +where the love of freedom had so set the people against slavery that +although some of them yielded to the inevitable sin, they never made any +systematic effort to protect it.[34] + +The development of the movement in these mountains was more than +interesting. During the first quarter of the nineteenth century there were +many ardent anti-slavery leaders in the mountains. These were not +particularly interested in the Negro but were determined to keep that soil +for freedom that the settlers might there realize the ideals for which +they had left their homes in Europe. When the industrial revolution with +the attendant rise of the plantation cotton culture made abolition in the +South improbable, some of them became colonizationists, hoping to destroy +the institution through deportation, which would remove the objection of +certain masters who would free their slaves provided they were not left in +the States to become a public charge.[35] Some of this sentiment continued +in the mountains even until the Civil War. The highlanders, therefore, +found themselves involved in a continuous embroglio because they were not +moved by reactionary influences which were unifying the South for its bold +effort to make slavery a national institution.[36] The other members of +the mountaineer anti-slavery group became attached to the Underground +Railroad system, endeavoring by secret methods to place on free soil a +sufficiently large number of fugitives to show a decided diminution in the +South.[37] John Brown, who communicated with the South through these +mountains, thought that his work would be a success, if he could change +the situation in one county in each of these States. + +The lines along which these Underground Railroad operators moved connected +naturally with the Quaker settlements established in free States and the +favorable sections in the Appalachian region. Many of these workers were +Quakers who had already established settlements of slaves on estates which +they had purchased in the Northwest Territory. Among these were John +Rankin, James Gilliland, Jesse Lockehart, Robert Dobbins, Samuel Crothers, +Hugh L. Fullerton, and William Dickey. Thus they connected the heart of +the South with the avenues to freedom in the North.[38] There were routes +extending from this section into Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Pennsylvania. +Over the Ohio and Kentucky route culminating chiefly in Cleveland, +Sandusky and Detroit, however, more fugitives made their way to freedom +than through any other avenue,[39] partly too because they found the +limestone caves very helpful for hiding by day. These operations extended +even through Tennessee into northern Georgia and Alabama. Dillingham, +Josiah Henson and Harriet Tubman used these routes to deliver many a Negro +from slavery. + +The opportunity thus offered to help the oppressed brought forward a class +of anti-slavery men, who went beyond the limit of merely expressing their +horror of the evil. They believed that something should be done "to +deliver the poor that cry and to direct the wanderer in the right +way."[40] Translating into action what had long been restricted to +academic discussion, these philanthropic workers ushered in a new era in +the uplift of the blacks, making abolition more of a reality. The +abolition element of the North then could no longer be considered an +insignificant minority advocating a hopeless cause but a factor in drawing +from the South a part of its slave population and at the same time +offering asylum to the free Negroes whom the southerners considered +undesirable.[4l] Prominent among those who aided this migration in various +ways were Benjamin Lundy of Tennessee and James G. Birney, a former +slaveholder of Huntsville, Alabama, who manumitted his slaves and +apprenticed and educated some of them in Ohio. + +This exodus of the Negroes to the free States promoted the migration of +others of their race to Canada, a more congenial part beyond the borders +of the United States. The movement from the free States into Canada, +moreover, was contemporary with that from the South to the free States as +will be evidenced by the fact that 15,000 of the 60,000 Negroes in Canada +in 1860 were free born. As Detroit was the chief gateway for them to +Canada, most of these refugees settled in towns of Southern Ontario not +far from that city. These were Dawn, Colchester, Elgin, Dresden, Windsor, +Sandwich, Bush, Wilberforce, Hamilton, St. Catherines, Chatham, Riley, +Anderton, London, Malden and Gonfield.[42] And their coming to Canada was +not checked even by request from their enemies that they be turned away +from that country as undesirables, for some of the white people there +welcomed and assisted them. Canadians later experienced a change in their +attitude toward these refugees but these British Americans never made the +life of the Negro there so intolerable as was the case in some of the free +States. + +It should be observed here that this movement, unlike the exodus of the +Negroes of today, affected an unequal distribution of the enlightened +Negroes.[43] Those who are fleeing from the South today are largely +laborers seeking economic opportunities. The motive at work in the mind of +the antebellum refugee was higher. In 1840 there were more intelligent +blacks in the South than in the North but not so after 1850, despite the +vigorous execution of the Fugitive Slave Law in some parts of the North. +While the free Negro population of the slave States increased only 23,736 +from 1850 to 1860, that of the free States increased 29,839. In the South, +only Delaware, Maryland and North Carolina showed a noticeable increase in +the number of free persons of color during the decade immediately +preceding the Civil War. This element of the population had only slightly +increased in Alabama, Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee, Virginia, Louisiana, +South Carolina and the District of Columbia. The number of free Negroes of +Florida remained constant. Those of Arkansas, Mississippi and Texas +diminished. In the North, of course, the migration had caused the tendency +to be in the other direction. With the exception of Maine, New Hampshire, +Vermont and New York which had about the same free colored population in +1860 as they had in 1850 there was a general increase in the number of +Negroes in the free States. Ohio led in this respect, having had during +this period an increase of 11,394.[44] A glance at the table on the +accompanying page will show in detail the results of this migration. + + +STATISTICS OF THE FREE COLORED POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES + +State Population + 1850 1860 +---------------------------------------------------- +Alabama.................... 2,265 2,690 +Arkansas................... 608 144 +California................. 962 4,086 +Connecticut................ 7,693 8,627 +Delaware................... 18,073 19,829 +Florida...................... 932 932 +Georgia...................... 2,931 3,500 +Illinois..................... 5,436 7,628 +Indiana...................... 11,262 11,428 +Iowa......................... 333 1,069 +Kentucky..................... 10,011 10,684 +Louisiana.................... 17,462 18,647 +Maine........................ 1,356 1,327 +Kansas....................... 625 +Maryland..................... 74,723 83,942 +Massachusetts................ 9,064 9,602 +Michigan..................... 2,583 6,797 +Minnesota.................... 259 +Mississippi.................. 930 773 +Missouri..................... 2,618 3,572 +New Hampshire................ 520 494 +New Jersey................... 23,810 25,318 +New York..................... 49,069 49,005 +North Carolina............... 27,463 30,463 +Ohio......................... 25,279 36,673 +Oregon....................... 128 +Pennsylvania................. 53,626 56,949 +Rhode Island................. 3,670 3,952 +South Carolina............... 8,960 9,914 +Tennessee.................... 6,422 7,300 +Texas........................ 397 355 +Vermont...................... 718 709 +Virginia..................... 54,333 58,042 +Wisconsin.................... 635 1,171 +Territories: + Colorado................... 46 + Dakota..................... 0 + District of Columbia....... 10,059 11,131 + Minnesota.................. 39 + Nebraska................... 67 + Nevada..................... 45 + New Mexico................. 207 85 + Oregon..................... 24 + Utah....................... 22 30 + Washington................. 30 + _______ _______ +Total .....................434,495 488,070 + + +[Footnote 1: Moore, _Anti-Slavery_, p. 79; and _Special Report of +the United States Commissioner of Education_, 1871, p. 376; Weeks, +_Southern Quakers_, pp. 215, 216, 231, 230, 242.] + +[Footnote 2: _The Southern Workman_, xxvii, p. 161.] + +[Footnote 3: Rhodes, _History of the United States_, chap. i, p. 6; +Bancroft, _History of the United States_, chap. ii, p. 401; and +Locke, _Anti-Slavery_, p. 32.] + +[Footnote 4: _A Brief Statement of the Rise and Progress of the +Testimony of the Quakers_, passim; Woodson, _The Education of the +Negro Prior to 1861_, p. 43.] + +[Footnote 5: Woodson, _The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861_, p. +44; and Locke, _Anti-Slavery_, p. 32.] + +[Footnote 6: _The Southern Workman_, xxxvii, pp. 158-169.] + +[Footnote 7: Turner, _The Negro in Pennsylvania_, pp. 144, 145, 151, +155.] + +[Footnote 8: _Southern Workman_, xxxvii, p. 157.] + +[Footnote 9: Levi Coffin, _Reminiscences_, chaps, i and ii.] + +[Footnote 10: _Southern Workman_, xxxvii, pp. 161-163.] + +[Footnote 11: Coffin, _Reminiscences_, p. 109; and Howe's +_Historical Collections_, p. 356.] + +[Footnote 12: _Southern Workman_, xxxvii, pp. 162, 163.] + +[Footnote 13: Levi Coffin, _Reminiscences_, pp. 108-111.] + +[Footnote 14: Siebert, _The Underground Railroad_, p. 249.] + +[Footnote 15: Langston, _From the Virginia Plantation to the National +Capitol_, p. 35.] + +[Footnote 16: Howe, _Historical Collections_, p. 465.] + +[Footnote 17: _History of Brown County, Ohio_, p. 313.] + +[Footnote 18: Wattles said: he purchased for himself 190 acres of land, to +establish a manual labor school for colored boys. He had maintained a +school on it, at his own expense, till the eleventh of November, 1842. +While in Philadelphia the winter before, he became acquainted with the +trustees of the late Samuel Emlen, a Friend of New Jersey. He left by his +will $20,000 for the "support and education in school learning and the +mechanic arts and agriculture, boys, of African and Indian descent, whose +parents would give them up to the school. They united their means and +purchased Wattles farm, and appointed him the superintendent of the +establishment, which they called the Emlen Institute."--See Howe's +_Historical Collections_, p. 356.] + +[Footnote 19: Howe's _Historical Collections_, p. 355.] + +[Footnote 20: _Manuscripts_ in the possession of J.E. Moorland.] + +[Footnote 21: _The African Repository_, xxii, pp. 322, 333.] + +[Footnote 22: Simmons, _Men of Mark_, p. 723.] + +[Footnote 23: _Southern Workman_, xxxvii, p. 158.] + +[Footnote 24: _The Journal of Negro History_, I, pp. 23-33.] + +[Footnote 25: _Ibid_., I, p. 26.] + +[Footnote 26: _The African Repository_, passim.] + +[Footnote 27: Although constituting a majority of the population even +before the Civil War the Negroes of this township did not get recognition +in the local government until 1875 when John Allen, a Negro, was elected +township treasurer. From that time until about 1890 the Negroes always +shared the honors of office with their white citizens and since that time +they have usually had entire control of the local government in that +township, holding such offices as supervisor, clerk, treasurer, road +commissioner, and school director. Their record has been that of +efficiency. Boss rule among them is not known. The best man for an office +is generally sought; for this is a community of independent farmers. In +1907 one hundred and eleven different farmers in this community had +holdings of 10,439 acres. Their township usually has very few delinquent +taxpayers and it promptly makes its returns to the county.--See the +_Southern Workman_, xxxvii, pp. 486-489.] + +[Footnote 28: Davidson and Stowe, _A Complete History of Illinois_, +pp. 321, 322; and Washburn, _Edward Coles_, pp. 44 and 53.] + +[Footnote 29: The Negro population of this town so rapidly increased after +the war that it has become a Negro town and unfortunately a bad one. Much +improvement has been made in recent years.--See _Southern Workman_, +xxxvii, pp. 489-494.] + +[Footnote 30: Still, _Underground Railroad_, passim; Siebert, +_Underground Railroad_, pp. 34, 35, 40, 42, 43, 48, 56, 59, 62, 64, +70, 145, 147; Drew, _Refugee_, pp. 72, 97, 114, 152, 335 and 373.] + +[Footnote 31: _The Journal of Negro History_, I, pp. 132-162.] + +[Footnote 32: _Ibid_., I, 138.] + +[Footnote 33: Olmsted, _Back Country_, p. 134.] + +[Footnote 34: In the Appalachian mountains, however, the settlers were +loath to follow the fortunes of the ardent pro-slavery element. Actual +abolition, for example, was never popular in western Virginia, but the +love of the people of that section for freedom kept them estranged from +the slaveholding districts of the State, which by 1850 had completely +committed themselves to the pro-slavery propaganda. In the Convention of +1829-30 Upshur said there existed in a great portion of the West (of +Virginia) a rooted antipathy to the slave. John Randolph was alarmed at +the fanatical spirit on the subject of slavery, which was growing in +Virginia,--See the _Journal of Negro History_, I, p. 142.] + +[Footnote 35: Adams, _Neglected Period of Anti-Slavery_.] + +[Footnote 36: _The Journal of Negro History_, I, pp. 132-160.] + +[Footnote 37: Siebert, _Underground Railroad_, p. 166.] + +[Footnote 38: Adams, _Neglected Period of Anti-Slavery_.] + +[Footnote 39: Siebert, _Underground Railroad_, chaps. v and vi.] + +[Footnote 40: _An Address to the People of North Carolina on the Evils +of Slavery._] + +[Footnote 41: Washington, _Story of the Negro_, I, chaps. xii, xiii +and xiv. ] + +[Footnote 42: _Father Henson's Story of his own Life_, p. 209; +Coffin, _Reminiscences_, pp. 247-256; Howe, _The Refugees from +Slavery_, p. 77; Haviland, _A Woman's Work_, pp. 192, 193, 196.] + +[Footnote 43: Woodson, _The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861_, +pp. 236-240.] + +[Footnote 44: _The United States Censuses of 1850 and 1860._] + + + +CHAPTER III + +FIGHTING IT OUT ON FREE SOIL + + +How, then, was this increasing influx of refugees from the South to be +received in the free States? In the older Northern States where there +could be no danger of an Africanization of a large district, the coming of +the Negroes did not cause general excitement, though at times the feeling +in certain localities was sufficient to make one think so.[1] Fearing that +the immigration of the Negroes into the North might so increase their +numbers as to make them constitute a rather important part in the +community, however, some free States enacted laws to restrict the +privileges of the blacks. + +Free Negroes had voted in all the colonies except Georgia and South +Carolina, if they had the property qualification; but after the sentiment +attendant upon the struggle for the rights of man had passed away there +set in a reaction.[2] Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and Kentucky +disfranchised all Negroes not long after the Revolution. They voted in +North Carolina until 1835, when the State, feeling that this privilege of +one class of Negroes might affect the enslavement of the other, prohibited +it. The Northern States, following in their wake, set up the same barriers +against the blacks. They were disfranchised in New Jersey in 1807, in +Connecticut in 1814, and in Pennsylvania in 1838. In 1811 New York passed +an act requiring the production of certificates of freedom from blacks or +mulattoes offering to vote. The second constitution, adopted in 1823, +provided that no man of color, unless he had been for three years a +citizen of that State and for one year next preceding any election, should +be seized and possessed of a freehold estate, should be allowed to vote, +although this qualification was not required of the whites. An act of 1824 +relating to the government of the Stockbridge Indians provided that no +Negro or mulatto should vote in their councils.[3] + +That increasing prejudice was to a great extent the result of the +immigration into the North of Negroes in the rough, was nowhere better +illustrated than in Pennsylvania. Prior to 1800, and especially after +1780, when the State provided for gradual emancipation, there was little +race prejudice in Pennsylvania.[4] When the reactionary legislation of the +South made life intolerable for the Negroes, debasing them to the plane of +beasts, many of the free people of color from Virginia, Maryland and +Delaware moved or escaped into Pennsylvania like a steady stream during +the next sixty years. As these Negroes tended to concentrate in towns and +cities, they caused the supply of labor to exceed the demand, lowering the +wages of some and driving out of employment a number of others who became +paupers and consequently criminals. There set in too an intense struggle +between the black and white laborers,[5] immensely accelerating the growth +of race prejudice, especially when the abolitionists and Quakers were +giving Negroes industrial training. + +The first exhibition of this prejudice was seen among the lower classes of +white people, largely Irish and Germans, who, devoted to menial labor, +competed directly with the Negroes. It did not require a long time, +however, for this feeling to react on the higher classes of whites where +Negroes settled in large groups. A strong protest arose from the menace of +Negro paupers. An attempt was made in 1804 to compel free Negroes to +maintain those that might become a public charge.[6] In 1813 the mayor, +aldermen and citizens of Philadelphia asked that free Negroes be taxed to +support their poor.[7] Two Philadelphia representatives in the +Pennsylvania Legislature had a committee appointed in 1815 to consider the +advisability of preventing the immigration of Negroes.[8] One of the +causes then at work there was that the black population had recently +increased to four thousand in Philadelphia and more than four thousand +others had come into the city since the previous registration. + +They were arriving much faster than they could be assimilated. The State +of Pennsylvania had about exterminated slavery by 1840, having only 40 +slaves that year and only a few hundred at any time after 1810. Many of +these, of course, had not had time to make their way in life as freedmen. +To show how much the rapid migration to that city aggravated the situation +under these circumstances one needs but note the statistics of the +increase of the free people of color in that State. There were only 22,492 +such persons in Pennsylvania in 1810, but in 1820 there were 30,202, and +in 1830 as many as 37,930. This number increased to 47,854 by 1840, to +53,626 by 1850, and to 56,949 by 1860. The undesirable aspect of the +situation was that most of the migrating blacks came in crude form.[9] "On +arriving," therefore, says a contemporary, "they abandoned themselves to +all manner of debauchery and dissipation to the great annoyance of many +citizens."[10] + +Thereafter followed a number of clashes developing finally into a series +of riots of a grave nature. Innocent Negroes, attacked at first for +purposes of sport and later for sinister designs, were often badly beaten +in the streets or even cut with knives. The offenders were not punished +and if the Negroes defended themselves they were usually severely +penalized. In 1819 three white women stoned a woman of color to death.[11] +A few youths entered a Negro church in Philadelphia in 1825 and by +throwing pepper to give rise to suffocating fumes caused a panic which +resulted in the death of several Negroes.[12] When the citizens of New +Haven, Connecticut, arrayed themselves in 1831 against the plan to +establish in that city a Negro manual labor college, there was held in +Philadelphia a meeting which passed resolutions enthusiastically endorsing +this effort to rid the community of the evil of the immigration of free +Negroes. There arose also the custom of driving Negroes away from +Independence Square on the Fourth of July because they were neither +considered nor desired as a part of the body politic.[13] + +It was thought that in the state of feeling of the thirties that the Negro +would be annihilated. De Tocqueville also observed that the Negroes were +more detested in the free States than in those where they were held as +slaves.[14] There had been such a reaction since 1800 that no positions of +consequence were open to Negroes, however well educated they might be, and +the education of the blacks which was once vigorously prosecuted there +became unpopular.[15] This was especially true of Harrisburg and +Philadelphia but by no means confined to large cities. The Philadelphia +press said nothing in behalf of the race. It was generally thought that +freedom had not been an advantage to the Negro and that instead of making +progress they had filled jails and almshouses and multiplied pest holes to +afflict the cities with disease and crime. + +The Negroes of York carefully worked out in 1803 a plan to burn the city. +Incendiaries set on fire a number of houses, eleven of which were +destroyed, whereas there were other attempts at a general destruction of +the city. The authorities arrested a number of Negroes but ran the risk of +having the jail broken open by their sympathizing fellowmen. After a reign +of terror for half a week, order was restored and twenty of the accused +were convicted of arson. + +In 1820 there occurred so many conflagrations that a vigilance committee +was organized.[16] Whether or not the Negroes were guilty of the crime is +not known but numbers of them left either on account of the fear of +punishment or because of the indignities to which they were subjected. +Numerous petitions, therefore, came before the legislature to stop the +immigration of Negroes. It was proposed in 1840 to tax all free Negroes to +assist them in getting out of the State for colonization.[17] The citizens +of Lehigh County asked the authorities in 1830 to expel all Negroes and +persons of color found in the State.[18] Another petition prayed that they +be deprived of the freedom of movement. Bills embodying these ideas were +frequently considered but they were never passed. + +Stronger opposition than this, however, was manifested in the form of +actual outbreaks on a large scale in Philadelphia. The immediate cause of +this first real clash was the abolition agitation in the city in 1834 +following the exciting news of other such disturbances a few months prior +to this date in several northern cities. A group of boys started the riot +by destroying a Negro resort. A mob then proceeded to the Negro district, +where white and colored men engaged in a fight with clubs and stones. + +The next day the mob ruined the African Presbyterian Church and attacked +some Negroes, destroying their property and beating them mercilessly. This +riot continued for three days. A committee appointed to inquire into the +causes of the riot reported that the aim of the rioters had been to make +the Negroes go away because it was believed that their labor was depriving +them of work and because the blacks had shielded criminals and had made +such noise and disorder in their churches as to make them a nuisance. It +seemed that the most intelligent and well-to-do people of Philadelphia +keenly felt it that the city had thus been disgraced, but the mob spirit +continued.[19] + +The very next year was marked by the same sort of disorder. Because a +half-witted Negro attempted to murder a white man, a large mob stirred up +the city again. There was a repetition of the beating of Negroes and of +the destruction of property while the police, as the year before, were so +inactive as to give rise to the charge that they were accessories to the +riot.[20] In 1838 there occurred another outbreak which developed into an +anti-abolition riot, as the public mind had been much exercised by the +discussions of abolitionists and by their close social contact with the +Negroes. The clash came on the seventeenth of May when Pennsylvania Hall, +the center of abolition agitation, was burned. Fighting between the blacks +and whites ensued the following night when the Colored Orphan Asylum was +attacked and a Negro church burned. Order was finally restored for the +good of all concerned, but that a majority of the people sympathized with +the rioters was evidenced by the fact that the committee charged with +investigating the disturbance reported that the mob was composed of +strangers who could not be recognized.[21] It is well to note here that +this riot occurred the year the Negroes in Pennsylvania were +disfranchised. + +Following the example of Philadelphia, Pittsburgh had a riot in 1839 +resulting in the maltreatment of a number of Negroes and the demolishing +of some of their houses. When the Negroes of Philadelphia paraded the city +in 1842, celebrating the abolition of slavery in the West Indies, there +ensued a battle led by the whites who undertook to break up the +procession. Along with the beating and killing of the usual number went +also the destruction of the New African Hall and the Negro Presbyterian +church. The grand jury charged with the inquiry into the causes reported +that the procession was to be blamed. For several years thereafter the +city remained quiet until 1849 when there occurred a raid on the blacks by +the _Killers of Moyamensing_, using firearms with which many were +wounded. This disturbance was finally quelled by aid of the militia.[22] + +These clashes sometimes reached farther north than the free States +bordering on the slave commonwealths. Mobs broke up abolition meetings in +the city of New York in 1834 when there were sent to Congress numerous +petitions for the abolition of slavery. This mob even assailed such +eminent citizens as Arthur and Lewis Tappan, mainly on account of their +friendly attitude toward the Negroes.[23] On October 21, 1834, the same +feeling developed in Utica, where was to be held an anti-slavery meeting +according to previous notice. The six hundred delegates who assembled +there were warned to disband. A mob then organized itself and drove the +delegates from the town. That same month the people of Palmyra, New York, +held a meeting at which they adopted resolutions to the effect that owners +of houses or tenements in that town occupied by blacks of the character +complained of be requested to use all their rightful means to clear their +premises of such occupants at the earliest possible period; and that it be +recommended that such proprietors refuse to rent the same thereafter to +any person of color whatever.[24] In New York Negroes were excluded from +places of amusement and public conveyances and segregated in places of +worship. In the draft riots which occurred there in 1863, one of the aims +of the mobs was to assassinate Negroes and to destroy their property. They +burned the Colored Orphan Asylum of that city and hanged Negroes to +lamp-posts. + +The situation in parts of New England was not much better. For fear of the +evils of an increasing population of free persons of color the people of +Canaan, New Hampshire, broke up the Noyes Academy because it decided to +admit Negro students, thinking that many of the race might thereby be +encouraged to come to that State.[25] When Prudence Crandall established +in Canterbury, Connecticut, an academy to which she decided to admit +Negroes, the mayor, selectmen and citizens of the city protested, and when +their protests failed to deter this heroine, they induced the legislature +to enact a special law covering the case and invoked the measure to have +Prudence Crandall imprisoned because she would not desist.[26] This very +law and the arguments upholding it justified the drastic measure on the +ground that an increase in the colored population would be an injury to +the people of that State. + +In the new commonwealths formed out of western territory, there was the +same fear as to Negro domination and consequently there followed the wave +of legislation intended in some cases not only to withhold from the Negro +settlers the exercise of the rights of citizenship but to discourage and +even to prevent them from coming into their territory.[27] The question as +to what should be done with the Negro was early an issue in Ohio. It came +up in the constitutional convention of 1803, and provoked some discussion, +but that body considered it sufficient to settle the matter for the time +being by merely leaving the Negroes, Indians and foreigners out of the +pale of the newly organized body politic by conveniently incorporating the +word white throughout the constitution.[28] It was soon evident, however, +that the matter had not been settled, and the legislature of 1804 had to +give serious consideration to the immigration of Negroes into that State. +It was, therefore, enacted that no Negro or mulatto should remain there +permanently, unless he could furnish a certificate of freedom issued by +some court, that all Negroes in that commonwealth should be registered +before the following June, and that no man should employ a Negro who +failed to comply with these conditions. Should one be detected in hiring, +harboring or hindering the capture of a fugitive black, he was liable to a +fine of $50 and his master could recover pay for the service of his slave +to the amount of fifty cents a day.[29] + +As this legislature did not meet the demands of those who desired further +to discourage Negro immigration, the Legislature of 1807 was induced to +enact a law to the effect that no Negro should be permitted to settle in +Ohio, unless he could within 20 days give a bond to the amount of $500 for +his good behavior and assurance that he would not become a public charge. +This measure provided also for raising the fine for concealing a fugitive +from $50 to $100, one half of which should go to the person upon the +testimony of whom the conviction should be secured.[30] Negro evidence in +a case to which a white was a party was declared illegal. In 1830 Negroes +were excluded from service in the State militia, in 1831 they were +deprived of the privilege of serving on juries, and in 1838 they were +denied the right of having their children educated at the expense of the +State.[31] + +In Indiana the situation was worse than in Ohio. We have already noted +above how the settlers in the southern part endeavored to make that a +slave State. When that had, after all but being successful, seemed +impossible the State enacted laws to prevent or discourage the influx of +free Negroes and to restrict the privileges of those already there. In +1824 a stringent law for the return of fugitives was passed.[32] The +expulsion of free Negroes was a matter of concern and in 1831 it was +provided that unless they could give bond for their behavior and support +they could be removed. Otherwise the county overseers could hire out such +Negroes to the highest bidder.[33] Negroes were not allowed to attend +schools maintained at the public expense, might not give evidence against +a white man and could not intermarry with white persons. They might, +however, serve as witnesses against Negroes.[34] + +In the same way the free Negroes met discouragement in Illinois. They +suffered from all the disabilities imposed on their class in Ohio and +Indiana and were denied the right to sue for their liberty in the courts. +When there arose many abolitionists who encouraged the coming of the +fugitives from labor in the South, one element of the citizens of Illinois +unwilling to accept this unusual influx of members of another race passed +the drastic law of 1853 prohibiting the immigration. It provided for the +prosecution of any person bringing a Negro into the State and also for +arresting and fining any Negro $50, should he appear there and remain +longer than ten days. If he proved to be unable to pay the fine, he could +be sold to any person who could pay the cost of the trial.[35] + +In Michigan the situation was a little better but, with the waves of +hostile legislation then sweeping over the new[36] commonwealths, Michigan +was not allowed to constitute altogether an exception. Some of this +intense feeling found expression in the form of a law hostile to the +Negro, this being the act of 1827, which provided for the registration of +all free persons of color and for the exclusion from the territory of all +blacks who could not produce a certificate to the effect that they were +free. Free persons of color were also required to file bonds with one or +more freehold sureties in the penal sum of $500 for their good behavior, +and the bondsmen were expected to provide for their maintenance, if they +failed to support themselves. Failure to comply with this law meant +expulsion from the territory.[37] + +The opposition to the Negroes immigrating into the new West was not +restricted to the enactment of laws which in some cases were never +enforced. Several communities took the law into their own hands. During +these years when the Negroes were seeking freedom in the Northwest +Territory and when free blacks were being established there by +philanthropists, it seemed to the southern uplanders fleeing from slavery +in the border States and foreigners seeking fortunes in the new world that +they might possibly be crowded out of this new territory by the Negroes. +Frequent clashes, therefore, followed after they had passed through a +period of toleration and dependence on the execution of the hostile laws. +The clashes of the greatest consequences occurred in the Northwest +Territory where a larger number of uplanders from the South had gone, some +to escape the ill effects of slavery, and others to hold slaves if +possible, and when that seemed impossible, to exclude the blacks +altogether.[38] This persecution of the Negroes received also the hearty +cooperation of the foreign element, who, being an undeveloped class, had +to do menial labor in competition with the blacks. The feeling of the +foreigners was especially mischievous for the reasons that they were, like +the Negroes, at first settled in large numbers in urban communities. + +Generally speaking, the feeling was like that exhibited by the Germans in +Mercer County, Ohio. The citizens of this frontier community, in +registering their protest against the settling of Negroes there, adopted +the following resolutions: + +_Resolved_, That we will not live among Negroes, as we have settled +here first, we have fully determined that we will resist the settlement of +blacks and mulattoes in this county to the full extent of our means, the +bayonet not excepted. + +_Resolved_, That the blacks of this county be, and they are hereby +respectfully requested to leave the county on or before the first day of +March, 1847; and in the case of their neglect or refusal to comply with +this request, we pledge ourselves to _remove them, peacefully if we can, +forcibly if we must._ + +_Resolved_, That we who are here assembled, pledge ourselves not to +employ or trade with any black or mulatto person, in any manner whatever, +or permit them to have any grinding done at our mills, after the first day +of January next.[39] + +In 1827 there arose a storm of protest on the occasion of the settling of +seventy freedmen in Lawrence County, Ohio, by a philanthropic master of +Pittsylvania County, Virginia.[40] On _Black Friday_, January 1, +1830, eighty Negroes were driven out of Portsmouth, Ohio, at the request +of one or two hundred white citizens set forth in an urgent memorial.[41] +So many Negroes during these years concentrated at Cincinnati that the +laboring element forced the execution of the almost dead law requiring +free Negroes to produce certificates and give bonds for their behavior and +support.[42] A mob attacked the homes of the blacks, killed a number of +them, and forced twelve hundred others to leave for Canada West, where +they established the settlement known as Wilberforce. + +In 1836 another mob attacked and destroyed there the press of James G. +Birney, the editor of the _Philanthropist_, because of the +encouragement his abolitionist organ gave to the immigrating Negroes.[43] +But in 1841 came a decidedly systematic effort on the part of foreigners +and proslavery sympathizers to kill off and drive out the Negroes who were +becoming too well established in that city and who were giving offense to +white men who desired to deal with them as Negroes were treated in the +South. The city continued in this excited state for about a week. There +were brought into play in the upheaval the police of the city and the +State militia before the shooting of the Negroes and burning of their +homes could be checked. So far as is known, no white men were punished, +although a few of them were arrested. Some Negroes were committed to +prison during the fray. They were thereafter either discharged upon +producing certificates of nativity or giving bond or were indefinitely +held.[44] + +In southern Indiana and Illinois the same condition obtained. Observing +the situation in Indiana, a contributor of _Niles Register_ remarked, +in 1818, upon the arrival there of sixty or seventy liberated Negroes sent +by the society of Friends of North Carolina, that they were a species of +population that was not acceptable to the people of that State, "nor +indeed to any other, whether free or slaveholding, for they cannot rise +and become like other men, unless in countries where their own color +predominates, but must always remain a degraded and inferior class of +persons without the hope of much bettering their condition."[45] + +The _Indiana Farmer_, voicing the sentiment of that same community, +regretted the increase of this population that seemed to be enlarging the +number sent to that territory. The editor insisted that the community +which enjoys the benefits of the blacks' labor should also suffer all the +consequences. Since the people of Indiana derived no advantage from +slavery, he begged that they be excused from its inconveniences. Most of +the blacks that migrated there, moreover, possessed, thought he, "feelings +quite unprepared to make good citizens. A sense of inferiority early +impressed on their minds, destitute of every thing but bodily power and +having no character to lose, and no prospect of acquiring one, even did +they know its value, they are prepared for the commission of any act, when +the prospect of evading punishment is favorable."[46] + +With the exception of such centers as Eden, Upper Alton, Bellville and +Chicago, this antagonistic attitude was general also in the State of +Illinois. The Negroes were despised, abused and maltreated as persons who +had no rights that the white man should respect. Even in Detroit, +Michigan, in 1833 a fracas was started by an attack on Negroes. Because a +courageous group of them had effected the rescue and escape of one +Thornton Blackburn and his wife who had been arrested by the sheriff as +alleged fugitives from Kentucky, the citizens invoked the law of 1827, to +require free Negroes to produce a certificate and furnish bonds for their +behavior and support.[47] The anti-slavery sentiment there, however, was +so strong that the law was not long rigidly enforced.[48] And so it was in +several other parts of the West which, however, were exceptional.[49] + + +[Footnote 1: _The New York Daily Advertiser,_ Sept. 22, 1800; _The +New York Journal of Commerce,_ July 12, 1834; and _The New York +Commercial Advertiser,_ July 12, 1834.] + +[Footnote 2: Hart, _Slavery and Abolition,_ pp. 53, 82.] + +[Footnote 3: Goodell, _American Slave Code,_ Part III, chap. i; Hurd, +_The Law of Freedom and Bondage,_ I, pp. 51, 61, 67, 81, 89, 101, 111; +Woodson, _The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861,_ pp. 151-178.] + +[Footnote 4: Benezet, _Short Observations,_ p. 12.] + +[Footnote 5: Turner, _The Negro in Pennsylvania_, pp. 143-145.] + +[Footnote 6: _Journal of House_, 1823-24, p. 824.] + +[Footnote 7: _Journal of House,_ 1812-1813, pp. 481, 482.] + +[Footnote 8: _Ibid._, 1814-1815, p. 101.] + +[Footnote 9: _United States Censuses_, 1790-1860.] + +[Footnote 10: Brannagan, _Serious Remonstrances_, p. 68.] + +[Footnote 11: Turner, _The Negro in Pennsylvania_, p. 145; _The +Philadelphia Gazette_, June 30, 1819.] + +[Footnote 12: _Democratic Press, Philadelphia Gazette_, Nov. 21, +1825.] + +[Footnote 13: Turner, _The Negro in Pennsylvania_, p. 146.] + +[Footnote 14: De Tocqueville, _Democracy in America_, II, pp. 292, +294.] + +[Footnote 15: Turner, _The Negro in Pennsylvania_, p. 148.] + +[Footnote 16: Turner, _The Negro in Pennsylvania_, pp. 152, 153.] + +[Footnote 17: _African Repository,_ VIII, pp. 125, 283; _Journal of +House_, 1840, I, pp. 347, 508, 614, 622, 623, 680.] + +[Footnote 18: _Journal of Senate_, 1850, I, pp. 454, 479.] + +[Footnote 19: This is well narrated in Turner's _Negro in +Pennsylvania_, p. 160, and in DuBois's _The Philadelphia Negro_, +p. 27.] + +[Footnote 20: Turner, _The Negro in Pennsylvania_, pp. 161, 162.] + +[Footnote 21: Turner, _The Negro in Pennsylvania_, pp. 162, 163.] + +[Footnote 22: Turner, _The Negro in Pennsylvania_, p. 163; and _The +Liberator_, July 4, 1835.] + +[Footnote 23: _The Liberator_, Oct. 24, 1834.] + +[Footnote 24: _Ibid._, October 24, 1834.] + +[Footnote 25: Jay, _An Inquiry,_ pp. 28-29.] + +[Footnote 26: _An Act in Addition to an Act for the Admission and +Settlement of Inhabitants of Towns._ + +1. Whereas attempts have been made to establish literary institutions in +this State for the instruction of colored people belonging to other States +and countries, which would tend to the great increase of the colored +population of the State, and thereby to the injury of the people, +therefore; + +Be it resolved that no person shall set up or establish in this State, +any school, academy, or literary institution for the instruction or +education of colored persons, who are not inhabitants of this State, nor +instruct or teach in any school, academy, or other literary institution +whatever in this State, or harbor or board for the purpose of attending or +being taught or instructed in any such school, academy, or other literary +institution, any person who is not an inhabitant of any town in this +State, without the consent in writing, first obtained of a majority of the +civil authority, and also of the selectmen, of the town in which such +schools, academy, or literary institution is situated; and each and every +person who shall knowingly do any act forbidden as aforesaid, or shall be +aiding or assisting therein, shall for the first offense forfeit and pay +to the treasurer of this State a fine of one hundred dollars and for the +second offense shall forfeit and pay a fine of two hundred dollars, and so +double for every offense of which he or she shall be convicted. And all +informing officers are required to make due presentment of all breaches of +this act. Provided that nothing in this act shall extend to any district +school established in any school society under the laws of this State or +to any incorporated school for instruction in this State. + +3. Any colored person not an inhabitant of this State who shall reside in +any town therein for the purpose of being instructed as aforesaid, may be +removed in the manner prescribed in the sixth and seventh sections of the +act to which this is an addition. + +3. Any person not an inhabitant of this State who shall reside in any town +therein for the purpose of being instructed as aforesaid, shall be an +admissible witness in all prosecutions under the first section of this +act, and may be compelled to give testimony therein, notwithstanding +anything in this act, or in the act last aforesaid. + +4. That so much of the seventh section of this act to which this is an +addition as may provide for the infliction of corporal punishment, be and +the same is hereby repealed.--See Hurd's _Law of Freedom and +Bondage_, II, pp. 45-46.] + +[Footnote 27: So many Negroes working on the rivers between the slave and +free States helped fugitives to escape that there arose a clamor for the +discourage of colored employees.] + +[Transcriber's Note: The above should probably be "discouragement of +colored employees."] + +[Footnote 28: _Constitution of Ohio_, article I, sections 2, 6. +_The Journal of Negro History_, I, p. 2.] + +[Footnote 29: _Laws of Ohio_, II, p. 53.] + +[Footnote 30: _Laws of Ohio_, V, p. 53.] + +[Footnote 31: Hitchcock, _The Negro in Ohio_, II, pp. 41, 42.] + +[Footnote 32: _Revised Laws of Indiana_, 1831, p. 278.] + +[Footnote 33: Perkins, _A Digest of the Declaration of the Supreme Court +of Indiana_, p. 590. _Laws of 1853_, p. 60.] + +[Footnote 34: Gavin and Hord, _Indiana Revised Statutes_, 1862, p. +452.] + +[Footnote 35: _Illinois Statutes_, 1853, sections 1-4, p. 8.] + +[Footnote 36: In 1760 there were both African and Pawnee slaves in +Detroit, 96 of them in 1773 and 175 in 1782. The usual effort to have +slavery legalized was made in 1773. There were seventeen slaves in Detroit +in 1810 held by virtue of the exceptions made under the British rule prior +to the ratification of Jay's treaty. Advertisements of runaway slaves +appeared in Detroit papers as late as 1827. Furthermore, there were +thirty-two slaves in Michigan in 1830 but by 1836 all had died or had been +manumitted.--See Farmer, _History of Detroit and Michigan_, I, p. +344.] + +[Footnote 37: _Laws of Michigan_, 1827; and Campbell, _Political +History of Michigan_, p. 246.] + +[Footnote 38: _Proceedings of the Ohio Anti-Slavery Convention_, +1835, p. 19.] + +[Footnote 39: _African Repository_, XXIII, p. 70.] + +[Footnote 40: _Ohio State Journal_, May 3, 1837.] + +[Footnote 41: Evans, _A History of Scioto County, Ohio_, p. 643.] + +[Footnote 42: _African Repository_, V, p. 185.] + +[Footnote 43: Howe, _Historical Collections_, pp. 225-226.] + +[Footnote 44: _Ibid_., p. 226, and _The Cincinnati Daily +Gazette_, Sept. 14, 1841.] + +[Footnote 45: _Niles Register_, XXX, 416.] + +[Footnote 46: _Niles Register_, XXX, 416; _African Repository_, +III, p. 25.] + +[Footnote 47: Farmer, _History of Detroit and Michigan_, I, chap. +48.] + +[Footnote 48: There was the usual effort to have slavery legalized in +Michigan. At the time of the fire in 1805 there were six colored men and +nine colored women in the town of Detroit. In 1807 there were so many of +them that Governor Hull organized a company of colored militia. Joseph +Campan owned ten at one time. The importation of slaves was discontinued +after September 17, 1792, by act of the Canadian Parliament which provided +also that all born thereafter should be free at the age of twenty-five. +The Ordinance of 1787 had by its sixth article prohibited it.] + +[Footnote 49: In 1836 a colored man traveling in the West to Cleveland +said: + +"I have met with good treatment at every place on my journey, even better +than what I expected under present circumstances. I will relate an +incident that took place on board the steamboat, which will give an idea +of the kind treatment with which I have met. When I took the boat at Erie, +it being rainy and somewhat disagreeable, I took a cabin passage, to which +the captain had not the least objection. When dinner was announced, I +intended not to go to the first table but the mate came and urged me to +take a seat. I accordingly did and was called upon to carve a large saddle +of beef which was before me. This I performed accordingly to the best of +my ability. No one of the company manifested any objection or seemed +anyways disturbed by my presence."--Extract of a letter from a colored +gentleman traveling to the West, Cleveland, Ohio, August 11, 1836.--See +_The Philanthropist_, Oct. 21, 1836.] + + + +CHAPTER IV + +COLONIZATION AS A REMEDY FOR MIGRATION + + +Because of these untoward circumstances consequent to the immigration of +free Negroes and fugitives into the North, their enemies, and in some +cases their well-intentioned friends, advocated the diversion of these +elements to foreign soil. Benezet and Brannagan had the idea of settling +the Negroes on the public lands in the West largely to relieve the +situation in the North.[1] Certain anti-slavery men of Kentucky, as we +have observed, recommended the same. But this was hardly advocated at all +by the farseeing white men after the close of the first quarter of the +nineteenth century. It was by that time very clear that white men would +want to occupy all lands within the present limits of the United States. +Few statesmen dared to encourage migration to Canada because the large +number of fugitives who had already escaped there had attached to that +region the stigma of being an asylum for fugitives from the slave States. + +The most influential people who gave thought to this question finally +decided that the colonization of the Negro in Africa was the only solution +of the problem. The plan of African colonization appealed more generally +to the people of both North and South than the other efforts, which, at +best, could do no more than to offer local or temporary relief. The +African colonizationists proceeded on the basis that the Negroes had no +chance for racial development in this country. They could secure no kind +of honorable employment, could not associate with congenial white friends +whose minds and pursuits might operate as a stimulus upon their industry +and could not rise to the level of the successful professional or business +men found around them. In short, they must ever be hewers of wood and +drawers of water.[2] + +To emphasize further the necessity of emigration to Africa the advocates +of deportation to foreign soil generally referred to the condition of the +migrating Negroes as a case in evidence. "So long," said one, "as you must +sit, stand, walk, ride, dwell, eat and sleep _here_ and the Negro +_there_, he cannot be free in any part of the country."[3] This idea +working through the minds of northern men, who had for years thought +merely of the injustice of slavery, began to change their attitude toward +the abolitionists who had never undertaken to solve the problem of the +blacks who were seeking refuge in the North. Many thinkers controlling +public opinion then gave audience to the colonizationists and circles once +closed to them were thereafter opened.[4] + +There was, therefore, a tendency toward a more systematic effort than had +hitherto characterized the endeavors of the colonizationists. The objects +of their philanthropy were not to be stolen away and hurried off to an +uncongenial land for the oppressed. They were in accordance with the +exigencies of their new situation to be prepared by instruction in +mechanic arts, agriculture, science and Biblical literature that some +might lead in the higher pursuits and others might skilfully serve their +fellows.[5] Private enterprise was at first depended on to carry out the +schemes but it soon became evident that a better method was necessary. +Finally out of the proposals of various thinkers and out of the actual +colonization feats of Paul Cuffé, a Negro, came a national meeting for +this purpose, held in Washington, December, 1816, and the organization of +the American Colonization Society. This meeting was attended by some of +the most prominent men in the United States, among whom were Henry Clay, +Francis S. Key, Bishop William Meade, John Randolph and Judge Bushrod +Washington. + +The American Colonization Society, however, failed to facilitate the +movement of the free Negro from the South and did not promote the general +welfare of the race. The reasons for these failures are many. In the first +place, the society was all things to all men. To the anti-slavery man +whose ardor had been dampened by the meagre results obtained by his +agitation, the scheme was the next best thing to remove the objections of +slaveholders who had said they would emancipate their bondsmen, if they +could be assured of their being deported to foreign soil. To the radical +proslavery man and to the northerner hating the Negro it was well adapted +to rid the country of the free persons of color whom they regarded as the +pariahs of society.[6] Furthermore, although the Colonization Society +became seemingly popular and the various States organized branches of it +and raised money to promote the movement, the slaveholders as a majority +never reached the position of parting with their slaves and the country +would not take such radical action as to compel free Negroes to undergo +expatriation when militant abolitionists were fearlessly denouncing the +scheme.[7] + +The free people of color themselves were not only not anxious to go but +bore it grievously that any one should even suggest that they should be +driven from the country in which they were born and for the independence +of which their fathers had died. They held indignation meetings throughout +the North to denounce the scheme as a selfish policy inimical to the +interests of the people of color.[8] Branded thus as the inveterate foe of +the blacks both slave and free, the American Colonization Society effected +the deportation of only such Negroes as southern masters felt disposed to +emancipate from time to time and a few others induced to go. As the +industrial revolution early changed the aspect of the economic situation +in the South so as to make slavery seemingly profitable, few masters ever +thought of liberating their slaves. + +Scarcely any intelligent Negroes except those who, for economic or +religious reasons were interested, availed themselves of this opportunity +to go to the land of their ancestors. From the reports of the Colonization +Society we learn that from 1820 to 1833 only 2,885 Negroes were sent to +Africa by the Society. Furthermore, more than 2,700 of this number were +taken from the slave States, and about two thirds of these were slaves +manumitted on the condition that they would emigrate.[9] Later statistics +show the same tendency. By 1852, 7,836 had been deported from the United +States to Liberia. 2,720 of these were born free, 204 purchased their +freedom, 3,868 were emancipated in view of their going to Liberia and +1,044 were liberated Africans returned by the United States +Government.[10] Considering the fact that there were 434,495 free persons +of color in this country in 1850 and 488,070 in 1860, the colonizationists +saw that the very element of the population which the movement was +intended to send out of the country had increased rather than decreased. +It is clear, then, that the American Colonization Society, though regarded +as a factor to play an important part in promoting the exodus of the free +Negroes to foreign soil, was an inglorious failure. + +Colonization in other quarters, however, was not abandoned. A colony of +Negroes in Texas was contemplated in 1833 prior to the time when the +republic became independent of Mexico, as slavery was not at first assured +in that State. The _New York Commercial Advertiser_ had no objection +to the enterprise but felt that there were natural obstacles such as a +more expensive conveyance than that to Monrovia, the high price of land in +that country, the Catholic religion to which Negroes were not accustomed +to conform, and their lack of knowledge of the Spanish language. The +editor observed that some who had emigrated to Hayti a few years before +became discontented because they did not know the language. Louisiana, a +slave State, moreover, would not suffer near its borders a free Negro +republic to serve as an asylum for refugees.[11] The Richmond Whig saw the +actual situation in dubbing the scheme as chimerical for the reason that a +more unsuitable country for the blacks did not exist. Socially and +politically it would never suit the Negroes. Already a great number of +adventurers from the United States had gone to Texas and fugitives from +justice from Mexico, a fierce, lawless and turbulent class, would give the +Negroes little chance there, as the Negroes could not contend with the +Spaniard and the Creole. The editor believed that an inferior race could +never exist in safety surrounded by a superior one despising them. +Colonization in Africa was then urged and the efforts of the blacks to go +elsewhere were characterized as doing mischief at every turn to defeat the +"enlightened plan" for the amelioration of the Negroes.[12] + +It was still thought possible to induce the Negroes to go to some +congenial foreign land, although few of them would agree to emigrate to +Africa. Not a few Negroes began during the two decades immediately +preceding the Civil War to think more favorably of African colonization +and a still larger number, in view of the increasing disabilities fixed +upon their class, thought of migrating to some country nearer to the +United States. Much was said about Central America, but British Guiana and +the West Indies proved to be the most inviting fields to the latter-day +Negro colonizationists. This idea was by no means new, for Jefferson in +his foresight had, in a letter to Governor Edward Coles, of Illinois, in +1814, shown the possibilities of colonization in the West Indies. He felt +that because Santo Domingo had become an independent Negro republic it +would offer a solution of the problem as to where the Negroes should be +colonized. In this way these islands would become a sort of safety valve +for the United States. He became more and more convinced that all the West +Indies would remain in the hands of the people of color, and a total +expulsion of the whites sooner or later would take place. It was high +time, he thought, that Americans should foresee the bloody scenes which +their children certainly, and possibly they themselves, would have to wade +through. [13] + +The movement to the West Indies was accelerated by other factors. After +the emancipation in those islands in the thirties, there had for some +years been a dearth of labor. Desiring to enjoy their freedom and living +in a climate where there was not much struggle for life, the freedmen +either refused to work regularly or wandered about purposely from year to +year. The islands in which sugar had once played a conspicuous part as the +foundation of their industry declined and something had to be done to meet +this exigency. In the forties and fifties, therefore, there came to the +United States a number of labor agents whose aim was to set forth the +inviting aspect of the situation in the West Indies so as to induce free +Negroes to try their fortunes there. To this end meetings were held in +Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York and Boston and even in some of the +cities of the South, where these agents appealed to the free Negroes to +emigrate.[l4] + +Thus before the American Colonization Society had got well on its way +toward accomplishing its purpose of deporting the Negroes to Africa the +West Indies and British Guiana claimed the attention of free people of +color in offering there unusual opportunities. After the consummation of +British emancipation in those islands in 1838, the English nation came to +he regarded by the Negroes of the United States as the exclusive friend of +the race. The Negro press and church vied with each other in praising +British emancipation as an act of philanthropy and pointed to the English +dominions as an asylum for the oppressed. So disturbed were the whites by +this growing feeling that riots broke out in northern cities on occasions +of Negro celebrations of the anniversary of emancipation in the West +Indies.[l5] + +In view of these facts, the colonizationists had to redouble their efforts +to defend their cause. They found it a little difficult to make a good +case for Liberia, a land far away in an unhealthy climate so much unlike +that of the West Indies and British Guiana, where Negroes had been +declared citizens entitled to all privileges afforded by the government. +The colonizationists could do no more than to express doubt that the +Negroes would have there the opportunities for mental, moral and social +betterment which were offered in Liberia. The promoters of the enterprise +in Africa did not believe that the West Indian planters who had had +emancipation forced upon them would accept blacks from the United States +as their equals, nor that they, far from receiving the consideration of +freedmen, would be there any more than menials. When told of the +establishment of schools and churches for the improvement of the freedmen, +the colonizationists replied that schools might be provided, but the +planters could have no interest in encouraging education as they did not +want an elevated class of people but bone and muscle. As an evidence of +the truth of this statement it was asserted that newspapers of the country +were filled with disastrous accounts of the falling off of crops and the +scarcity of labor but had little to say about those forces instrumental in +the uplift of the people.[16] + +An effort was made also to show that there would be no economic advantage +in going to the British dominions. It was thought that as soon as the +first demand for labor was supplied wages would be reduced, for no new +plantations could be opened there as in a growing country like Liberia. It +would be impossible, therefore, for the Negroes immigrating there to take +up land and develop a class of small farmers as they were doing in Africa. +Under such circumstances, they contended, the Negroes in the West Indies +could not feel any of the "elevating influences of nationality of +character," as the white men would limit the influence of the Negroes by +retaining practically all of the wealth of the islands. The inducements, +therefore, offered the free Negroes in the United States were merely +intended to use them in supplying in the British dominions the need of men +to do drudgery scarcely more elevating than the toil of slaves.[l7] + +Determined to interest a larger number of persons in diverting the +attention of the free Negroes from the West Indies, the colonizationists +took higher ground. They asserted that the interests of the millions of +white men in this country were then at stake, and even if it would be +better for the three million Negroes of the country gradually to emigrate +to the British dominions, it would eventually prove prejudicial to the +interests of the United States. They showed how the Negroes immigrating +into the West Indies would be made to believe that the refusal to extend +to them here social and political equality was cruel oppression and the +immigrants, therefore, would carry with them no good will to this country. +When they arrived in the West Indies their circumstances would increase +this hostility, alienate their affections and estrange them wholly from +the United States. Taught to regard the British as the exclusive friends +of their race, devoted to its elevation, they would become British in +spirit. As such, these Negroes would be controlled by British influence +and would increase the wealth and commerce of the British and as soldiers +would greatly strengthen British power.[l8] + +It was better, therefore, they argued, to direct the Negroes to Liberia, +for those who went there with a feeling of hostility against the white +people were placed in circumstances operating to remove that feeling, in +that the kind solicitude for their welfare would be extended them in their +new home so as to overcome their prejudices, win their confidence, and +secure their attachment. Looking to this country as their fatherland and +the home of their benefactors, the Liberians would develop a nation, +taking the religion, customs and laws of this country as their models, +marketing their produce in this country and purchasing our manufactures. +In spite of its independence, therefore, Liberia would be American in +feeling, language and interests, affording a means to get rid of a class +undesirable here but desirable to us there in their power to extend +American influence, trade and commerce.[l9] + +Negroes migrated to the West Indies in spite of this warning and protest. +Hayti, at first looked upon with fear of having a free Negro government +near slaveholding States, became fixed in the minds of some as a desirable +place for the colonization of free persons of color.[20] This was due to +the apparent natural advantages in soil, climate and the situation of the +country over other places in consideration. It was thought that the island +would support fourteen millions of people and that, once opened to +immigration from the United States, it would in a few years fill up by +natural increase. It was remembered that it was formerly the emporium of +the Western World and that it supplied both hemispheres with sugar and +coffee. It had rapidly recovered from the disaster of the French +Revolution and lacked only capital and education which the United States +under these circumstances could furnish. Furthermore, it was argued that +something in this direction should be immediately done, as European +nations then seeking to establish friendly relations with the islands, +would secure there commercial advantages which the United States should +have and could establish by sending to that island free Negroes especially +devoted to agriculture. + +In 1836, Z. Kingsley, a Florida planter,[2l] actually undertook to carry +out such a plan on a small scale. He established on the northeast side of +Hayti, near Port Plate, his son, George Kingsley, a well-educated colored +man of industrious habits and uncorrupted morals, together with six "prime +African men," slaves liberated for that express purpose. There he +purchased for them 35,000 acres of land upon which they engaged in the +production of crops indigenous to that soil. + +Hayti, however, was not to be the only island to get consideration. In +1834 two hundred colored emigrants went from New York alone to Trinidad, +under the superintendence and at the expense of planters of that island. +It was later reported that every one of them found employment on the day +of arrival and in one or two instances the most intelligent were placed as +overseers at the salary of $500 per annum. No one received less than $1.00 +a day and most of them earned $1.50. The Trinidad press welcomed these +immigrants and spoke in the highest terms of the valuable services they +rendered the country.[22] Others followed from year to year. One of these +Negroes appreciated so much this new field of opportunity that he returned +and induced twenty intelligent free persons of color living in Annapolis, +Maryland, also to emigrate to Trinidad.[23] + +_The New York Sun_ reported in 1840 that 160 colored persons left +Philadelphia for Trinidad. They had been hired by an eminent planter to +labor on that island and they were encouraged to expect that they should +have privileges which would make their residence desirable. The editor +wished a few dozen Trinidad planters would come to that city on the same +business and on a much larger scale.[24] N.W. Pollard, agent of the +Government of Trinidad, came to Baltimore in 1851 to make his appeal for +emigrants, offering to pay all expenses.[25] At a meeting held in +Baltimore, in 1852, the parents of Mr. Stanbury Boyce, now a retired +merchant in Washington, District of Columbia, were also induced to go. +They found there opportunities which they had never had before and well +established themselves in their new home. The account which Mr. Boyce +gives in a letter to the writer corroborates the newspaper reports as to +the success of the enterprise.[26] + +The _New York Journal of Commerce_ reported in 1841 that, according +to advices received at New Orleans from Jamaica, there had arrived in that +island fourteen Negro emigrants from the United States, being the first +fruits of Mr. Barclay's mission to this country. A much larger number of +Negroes were expected and various applications for their services had been +received from respectable parties.[27] The products of soil were reported +as much reduced from former years and to meet its demand for labor some +freedmen from Sierra Leone were induced to emigrate to that island in +1842.[28] One Mr. Anderson, an agent of the government of Jamaica, +contemplated visiting New York in 1851 to secure a number of laborers, +tradesmen and agricultural settlers.[29] + +In the course of time, emigration to foreign lands interested a larger +number of representative Negroes. At a national council called in 1853 to +promote more effectively the amelioration of the colored people, the +question of emigration and that only was taken up for serious +consideration. But those who desired to introduce the question of Liberian +colonization or who were especially interested in that scheme were not +invited. Among the persons who promoted the calling of this council were +William Webb, Martin R. Delaney, J. Gould Bias, Franklin Turner, Augustus +Greene, James M. Whitfield, William Lambert, Henry Bibb, James T. Holly +and Henry M. Collins. + +There developed in this assembly three groups, one believing with Martin +R. Delaney that it was best to go to the Niger Valley in Africa, another +following the counsel of James M. Whitfield then interested in emigration +to Central America, and a third supporting James T. Holly who insisted +that Hayti offered the best opportunities for free persons of color +desiring to leave the United States. Delaney was commissioned to proceed +to Africa, where he succeeded in concluding treaties with eight African +kings who offered American Negroes inducements to settle in their +respective countries. James Redpath, already interested in the scheme of +colonization in Hayti, had preceded Holly there and with the latter as his +coworker succeeded in sending to that country as many as two thousand +emigrants, the first of whom sailed from this country in 1861.[30] Owing +to the lack of equipment adequate to the establishment of the settlement +and the unfavorable climate, not more than one third of the emigrants +remained. Some attention was directed to California and Central America +just as in the case of Africa but nothing in that direction took tangible +form immediately, and the Civil War following soon thereafter did not give +some of these schemes a chance to materialize. + + +[Footnote 1: _The African Repository_, XVI, p. 22.] + +[Footnote 2: _The African Repository_, XVI, p. 23; Alexander, _A +History of Colonization_, p. 347.] + +[Footnote 3: _Ibid_., XVI, p. 113.] + +[Footnote 4: Jay, _An Inquiry_, pp. 25, 29; Hodgkin, _An +Inquiry_, p. 31.] + +[Footnote 5: _The African Repository_, IV, p. 276; Griffin, _A Plea +for Africa_, p. 65.] + +[Footnote 6: Jay, _An Inquiry_, passim; _The Journal of Negro +History_, I, pp. 276-301; and Stebbins, _Facts and Opinions_, pp. +200-201.] + +[Footnote 7: Hart, _Slavery and Abolition_, p. 237.] + +[Footnote 8: _The Journal of Negro History_, I, pp. 284-296; +Garrison, _Thoughts on Colonization_, p. 204.] + +[Footnote 9: _The African Repository_, XXXIII, p. 117.] + +[Footnote 10: _The African Repository_, XXIII, p. 117.] + +[Footnote 11: _The African Repository_, IX, pp. 86-88.] + +[Footnote 12: _Ibid._, IX, p. 88.] + +[Footnote 13: "If something is not done, and soon done," said he, "we +shall be the murderers of our own children. The '_murmura venturos nautis +prudentia ventos_' has already reached us (from Santo Domingo); the +revolutionary storm, now sweeping the globe will be upon us, and happy if +we make timely provision to give it an easy passage over our land. From +the present state of things in Europe and America, the day which begins +our combustion must be near at hand; and only a single spark is wanting +to make that day to-morrow. If we had begun sooner, we might probably have +been allowed a lengthier operation to clear ourselves, but every day's +delay lessens the time we may take for emancipation." + +As to the mode of emancipation, he was satisfied that that must be a +matter of compromise between the passions, the prejudices, and the real +difficulties which would each have its weight in that operation. He +believed that the first chapter of this history, which was begun in St. +Domingo, and the next succeeding ones, would recount how all the whites +were driven from all the other islands. This, he thought, would prepare +their minds for a peaceable accommodation between justice and policy; and +furnish an answer to the difficult question, as to where the colored +emigrants should go. He urged that the country put some plan under way, +and the sooner it did so the greater would be the hope that it might be +permitted to proceed peaceably toward consummation.--See Ford edition of +_Jefferson's Writings_, VI, p. 349, VII, pp. 167, 168.] + +[Footnote 14: _Letter of Mr. Stanbury Boyce;_ and _The African +Repository._] + +[Footnote 15: _Philadelphia Gazette,_ Aug. 2, 3, 4, 8, 1842; +_United States Gazette,_ Aug. 2-5, 1842; and the _Pennsylvanian,_ +Aug. 2, 3, 4, 8, 1842.] + +[Footnote 16: _The African Repository_, XVI, pp. 113-115.] + +[Footnote 17: _The African Repository,_ XXI, p. 114.] + +[Footnote 18: _The African Repository,_ XVI, p. 116.] + +[Footnote 19: _The African Repository,_ XVI, p. 115.] + +[Footnote 20: _Ibid.,_ XVI, p. 116.] + +[Footnote 21: Speaking of this colony Kingsley said: "About eighteen +months ago, I carried my son George Kingsley, a healthy colored man of +uncorrupted morals, about thirty years of age, tolerably well educated, of +very industrious habits, and a native of Florida, together with six prime +African men, my own slaves, liberated for that express purpose, to the +northeast side of the Island of Hayti, near Porte Plate, where we arrived +in the month of October, 1836, and after application to the local +authorities, from whom I rented some good land near the sea, and thickly +timbered with lofty woods, I set them to work cutting down trees, about +the middle of November, and returned to my home in Florida. My son wrote +to us frequently, giving an account of his progress. Some of the fallen +timber was dry enough to burn in January, 1837, when it was cleared up, +and eight acres of corn planted, and as soon as circumstances would allow, +sweet potatoes, yams, cassava, rice, beans, peas, plantains, oranges, and +all sorts of fruit trees, were planted in succession. In the month of +October, 1837, I again set off for Hayti, in a coppered brig of 150 tons, +bought for the purpose and in five days and a half, from St. Mary's in +Georgia, landed my son's wife and children, at Porte Plate, together with +the wives and children of his servants, now working for him under an +indenture of nine years; also two additional families of my slaves, all +liberated for the express purpose of transportation to Hayti, where they +were all to have as much good land in fee, as they could cultivate, say +ten acres for each family, and all its proceeds, together with one-fourth +part of the net proceeds of their labor, on my son's farm, for themselves; +also victuals, clothes, medical attendance, etc., gratis, besides +Saturdays and Sundays, as days of labor for themselves, or of rest, just +at their option." + +"On my arrival at my son's place, called Cabaret (twenty-seven miles east +of Porte Plate) in November, 1837, as before stated, I found everything in +the most flattering and prosperous condition. They had all enjoyed good +health, were overflowing with the most delicious variety and abundance of +fruits and provisions, and were overjoyed at again meeting their wives and +children; whom they could introduce into good comfortable log houses, all +nicely whitewashed, and in the midst of a profuse abundance of good +provisions, as they had generally cleared five or six acres of their land +each, which being very rich, and planted with every variety to eat or to +sell on their own account, and had already laid up thirty or forty dollars +apiece. My son's farm was upon a larger scale, and furnished with more +commodious dwelling houses, also with store and out houses. In nine months +he had made and housed three crops of corn, of twenty-five bushels to the +acre, each, or one crop every three months. His highland rice, which was +equal to any in Carolina, so ripe and heavy as some of it to be couched or +leaned down, and no bird had ever troubled it, nor had any of his fields +ever been hoed, or required hoeing, there being as yet no appearance of +grass. His cotton was of an excellent staple. In seven months it had +attained the height of thirteen feet; the stalks were ten inches in +circumference, and had upwards of five hundred large boles on each stalk +(not a worm nor red bug as yet to be seen). His yams, cassava, and sweet +potatoes, were incredibly large, and plentifully thick in the ground; one +kind of sweet potato, lately introduced from Taheita (formerly Otaheita) +Island in the Pacific, was of peculiar excellence; tasted like new flour +and grew to an ordinary size in one month. Those I ate at my son's place +had been planted five weeks, and were as big as our full grown Florida +potatoes. His sweet orange trees budded upon wild stalks cut off (which +every where abound), about six months before had large tops, and the buds +were swelling as if preparing to flower. My son reported that his people +had all enjoyed good health and had labored just as steadily as they +formerly did in Florida and were well satisfied with their situation and +the advantageous exchange of circumstances they had made. They all enjoyed +the friendship of the neighboring inhabitants and the entire confidence of +the Haytian Government." + +"I remained with my son all January, 1838 and assisted him in making +improvements of different kinds, amongst which was a new two-story house, +and then left him to go to Port au Prince, where I obtained a favorable +answer from the President of Hayti, to his petition, asking for leave to +hold in fee simple, the same tract of land upon which he then lived as a +tenant, paying rent to the Haytian Government, containing about +thirty-five thousand acres, which was ordered to be surveyed to him, and +valued, and not expected to exceed the sum of three thousand dollars, or +about ten cents an acre. After obtaining this land in fee for my son, I +returned to Florida in February, in 1838."--See _The African +Repository_, XIV, pp. 215-216.] + +[Footnote 22: _Niles Register_, LXVI, pp. 165, 386.] + +[Footnote 23: _Niles Register_, LXVII, p. 180.] + +[Footnote 24: _The African Repository_, XVI, p. 28.] + +[Footnote 25: _Ibid._, p. 29.] + +[Footnote 26: _Letter of Mr. Stanbury Boyce._] + +[Footnote 27: St. Lucia and Trinidad were then considered unfavorable to +the working of the new system.--See _The African Repository_, XXVII, +p. 196.] + +[Footnote 28: _Niles Register_, LXIII, p. 65.] + +[Footnote 29: _Ibid._, LXIII, p. 65.] + +[Footnote 30: Cromwell, _The Negro in American History_, pp. 43-44.] + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE SUCCESSFUL MIGRANT + + +The reader will naturally be interested in learning exactly what these +thousands of Negroes did on free soil. To estimate these achievements the +casual reader of contemporary testimony would now, as such persons did +then, find it decidedly easy. He would say that in spite of the unfailing +aid which philanthropists gave the blacks, they seldom kept themselves +above want and, therefore, became a public charge, afflicting their +communities with so much poverty, disease and crime that they were +considered the lepers of society. The student of history, however, must +look beyond these comments for the whole truth. One must take into +consideration the fact that in most cases these Negroes escaped as +fugitives without sufficient food and clothing to comfort them until they +could reach free soil, lacking the small fund with which the pioneer +usually provided himself in going to establish a home in the wilderness, +and lacking, above all, initiative of which slavery had deprived them. +Furthermore, these refugees with few exceptions had to go to places where +they were not wanted and in some cases to points from which they were +driven as undesirables, although preparation for their coming had +sometimes gone to the extent of purchasing homes and making provision for +employment upon arrival.[1] Several well-established Negro settlements in +the North, moreover, were broken up by the slave hunters after the passing +of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850.[2] + +The increasing intensity of the hatred of the Negroes must be understood +too both as a cause and result of their intolerable condition. Prior to +1800 the Negroes of the North were in fair circumstances. Until that time +it was generally believed that the whites and the blacks would soon reach +the advanced stage of living together on a basis of absolute equality.[3] +The Negroes had not at that time exceeded the number that could be +assimilated by the sympathizing communities in that section. The +intolerable legislation of the South, however, forced so many free Negroes +in the rough to crowd northern cities during the first four decades of the +nineteenth century that they could not be easily readjusted. The number +seeking employment far exceeded the demand for labor and thus multiplied +the number of vagrants and paupers, many of whom had already been forced +to this condition by the Irish and Germans then immigrating into northern +cities. At one time, as in the case of Philadelphia, the Negroes +constituting a small fraction of the population furnished one half of the +criminals.[4] A radical opposition to the Negro followed, therefore, +arousing first the laboring classes and finally alienating the support of +the well-to-do people and the press. This condition obtained until 1840 in +most northern communities and until 1850 in some places where the Negro +population was considerable. + +We must also take into account the critical labor situation during these +years. The northern people were divided as to the way the Negroes should +be encouraged. The mechanics of the North raised no objection to having +the Negroes freed and enlightened but did not welcome them to that section +as competitors in the struggle of life. When, therefore, the blacks, +converted to the doctrine of training the hand to work with skill, began +to appear in northern industrial centers there arose a formidable +prejudice against them.[5] Negro and white mechanics had once worked +together but during the second quarter of the nineteenth century, when +labor became more dignified and a larger number of white persons devoted +themselves to skilled labor, they adopted the policy of eliminating the +blacks. This opposition, to be sure, was not a mere harmless sentiment. It +tended to give rise to the organization of labor groups and finally to +that of trades unions, the beginnings of those controlling this country +today. Carrying the fight against the Negro still further, these laboring +classes used their influence to obtain legislation against the employment +of Negroes in certain pursuits. Maryland and Georgia passed laws +restricting the privileges of Negro mechanics, and Pennsylvania followed +their example.[6] + +Even in those cases when the Negroes were not disturbed in their new homes +on free soil, it was, with the exception of the Quaker and a few other +communities, merely an act of toleration.[7] It must not be concluded, +however, that the Negroes then migrating to the North did not receive +considerable aid. The fact to be noted here is that because they were not +well received sometimes by the people of their new environment, the help +which they obtained from friends afar off did not suffice to make up for +the deficiency of community cooperation. This, of course, was an unusual +handicap to the Negro, as his life as a slave tended to make him a +dependent rather than a pioneer. + +It is evident, however, from accessible statistics that wherever the Negro +was adequately encouraged he succeeded. When the urban Negroes in northern +communities had emerged from their crude state they easily learned from +the white men their method of solving the problems of life. This tendency +was apparent after 1840 and striking results of their efforts were noted +long before the Civil War. They showed an inclination to work when +positions could be found, purchased homes, acquired other property, built +churches and established schools. Going even further than this, some of +them, taking advantage of their opportunities in the business world, +accumulated considerable fortunes, just as had been done in certain +centers in the South where Negroes had been given a chance.[8] + +In cities far north like Boston not so much difference as to the result of +this migration was noted. Some economic progress among the Negroes had +early been observed there as a result of the long residence of Negroes in +that city as in the case of Lewis Hayden who established a successful +clothing business.[9] In New York such evidences were more apparent. There +were in that city not so many Negroes as frequented some other northern +communities of this time but enough to make for that city a decidedly +perplexing problem. It was the usual situation of ignorant, helpless +fugitives and free Negroes going, they knew not where, to find a better +country. The situation at times became so grave that it not only caused +prejudice but gave rise to intense opposition against those who defended +the cause of the blacks as in the case of the abolition riots which +occurred at several places in the State in 1834.[10] + +To relieve this situation, Gerrit Smith, an unusually philanthropic +gentleman, came forward with an interesting plan. Having large tracts of +land in the southeastern counties of New York, he proposed to settle on +small farms a large number of those Negroes huddled together in the +congested districts of New York City. Desiring to obtain only the best +class, he requested that the Negroes to be thus colonized be recommended +by Reverend Charles B. Ray, Reverend Theodore S. Wright and Dr. J. McCune +Smith, three Negroes of New York City, known to be representative of the +best of the race. Upon their recommendations he deeded unconditionally to +black men in 1846 three hundred small farms in Franklin, Essex, Hamilton, +Fulton, Oneida, Delaware, Madison and Ulster counties, giving to each +settler beside $10.00 to enable him to visit his farm.[11] With these +holdings the blacks would not only have a basis for economic independence +but would have sufficient property to meet the special qualifications +which New York by the law of 1823 required of Negroes offering to vote. + +This experiment, however, was a failure. It was not successful because of +the intractability of the land, the harshness of the climate, and, in a +great measure, the inefficiency of the settlers. They had none of the +qualities of farmers. Furthermore, having been disabled by infirmities and +vices they could not as beneficiaries answer the call of the benefactor. +Peterboro, the town opened to Negroes in this section, did maintain a +school and served as a station of the Underground Railroad but the +agricultural results expected of the enterprise never materialized. The +main difficulty in this case was the impossibility of substituting +something foreign for individual enterprise.[12] + +Progressive Negroes did appear, however, in other parts of the State. In +Penyan, Western New York, William Platt and Joseph C. Cassey were +successful lumber merchants.[13] Mr. W.H. Topp of Albany was for several +years one of the leading merchant tailors of that city.[14] Henry Scott, +of New York City, developed a successful pickling business, supplying most +of the vessels entering that port.[15] Thomas Downing for thirty years ran +a creditable restaurant in the midst of the Wall Street banks, where he +made a fortune.[16] Edward V. Clark conducted a thriving business, +handling jewelry and silverware.[17] The Negroes as a whole, moreover, had +shown progress. Aided by the Government and philanthropic white people, +they had before the Civil War a school system with primary, intermediate +and grammar schools and a normal department. They then had considerable +property, several churches and some benevolent institutions. + +In Southern Pennsylvania, nearer to the border between the slave and free +States, the effects of the achievements of these Negroes were more +apparent for the reason that in these urban centers there were sufficient +Negroes for one to be helpful to the other. Philadelphia presented then +the most striking example of the remaking of these people. Here the +handicap of the foreign element was greatest, especially after 1830. The +Philadelphia Negro, moreover, was further impeded in his progress by the +presence of southerners who made Philadelphia their home, and still more +by the prejudice of those Philadelphia merchants who, sustaining such +close relations to the South, hated the Negro and the abolitionists who +antagonized their customers. + +In spite of these untoward circumstances, however, the Negroes of +Philadelphia achieved success. Negroes who had formerly been able to toil +upward were still restricted but they had learned to make opportunities. +In 1832 the Philadelphia blacks had $350,000 of taxable property, $359,626 +in 1837 and $400,000 in 1847. These Negroes had 16 churches and 100 +benevolent societies in 1837 and 19 churches and 106 benevolent societies +in 1847. Philadelphia then had more successful Negro schools than any +other city in the country. There were also about 500 Negro mechanics in +spite of the opposition of organized labor.[18] Some of these Negroes, of +course, were natives of that city. + +Chief among those who had accumulated considerable property was Mr. James +Forten, the proprietor of one of the leading sail manufactories, +constantly employing a large number of men, black and white. Joseph Casey, +a broker of considerable acumen, also accumulated desirable property, +worth probably $75,000.[19] Crowded out of the higher pursuits of labor, +certain other enterprising business men of this group organized the Guild +of Caterers. This was composed of such men as Bogle, Prosser, Dorsey, +Jones and Minton. The aim was to elevate the Negro waiter and cook from +the plane of menials to that of progressive business men. Then came +Stephen Smith who amassed a large fortune as a lumber merchant and with +him Whipper, Vidal and Purnell. Still and Bowers were reliable coal +merchants, Adger a success in handling furniture, Bowser a well-known +painter, and William H. Riley the intelligent boot-maker.[20] + +There were a few such successful Negroes in other communities in the +State. Mr. William Goodrich, of York, acquired considerable interest in +the branch of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad extending to Lancaster.[21] +Benjamin Richards, of Pittsburgh, amassed a large fortune running a +butchering business, buying by contract droves of cattle to supply the +various military posts of the United States.[22] Mr. Henry M. Collins, who +started life as a boatman, left this position for speculation in real +estate in Pittsburgh where he established himself as an asset of the +community and accumulated considerable wealth.[23] Owen A. Barrett, of the +same city, made his way by discovering the remedy known as _B.A. +Fahnestock's Celebrated Vermifuge_, for which he was retained in the +employ of the proprietor, who exploited the remedy.[24] Mr. John Julius +made himself indispensable to Pittsburgh by running the Concert Hall Cafe +where he served President William Henry Harrison in 1840.[25] + +The field of greatest achievement, however, was not in the conservative +East where the people had well established their going toward an +enlightened and sympathetic aristocracy of talent and wealth. It was in +the West where men were in position to establish themselves anew and make +of life what they would. These crude communities, to be sure, often +objected to the presence of the Negroes and sometimes drove them out. But, +on the other hand, not a few of those centers in the making were in the +hands of the Quakers and other philanthropic persons who gave the Negroes +a chance to grow up with the community, when they exhibited a capacity +which justified philanthropic efforts in their behalf. + +These favorable conditions obtained especially in the towns along the Ohio +river, where so many fugitives and free persons of color stopped on their +way from slavery to freedom. In Steubenville a number of Negroes had by +their industry and good deportment made themselves helpful to the +community. Stephen Mulber who had been in that town for thirty years was +in 1835 the leader of a group of thrifty free persons of color. He had a +brick dwelling, in which he lived, and other property in the city. He made +his living as a master mechanic employing a force of workmen to meet the +increasing demand for his labor.[26] In Gallipolis, there was another +group of this class of Negroes, who had permanently attached themselves to +the town by the acquisition of property. They were then able not only to +provide for their families but were maintaining also a school and a +church.[27] In Portsmouth, Ohio, despite the "Black Friday" upheaval of +1831, the Negroes settled down to the solution of the problems of their +new environment and later showed in the accumulation of property evidences +of actual progress. Among the successful Negroes in Columbus was David +Jenkins who acquired considerable property as a painter, glazier and paper +hanger.[28] One Mr. Hill, of Chillicothe, was for several years its +leading tanner and currier.[29] + +It was in Cincinnati, however, that the Negroes made most progress in the +West. The migratory blacks came there at times in such large numbers, as +we have observed, that they provoked the hostile classes of whites to +employ rash measures to exterminate them. But the Negroes, accustomed to +adversity, struggled on, endeavoring through schools and churches to +embrace every opportunity to rise. By 1840 there were 2,255 Negroes in +that city. They had, exclusive of personal effects and $19,000 worth of +church property, accumulated $209,000 worth of real estate. A number of +their progressive men had established a real estate firm known as the +"Iron Chest" company which built houses for Negroes. One man, who had once +thought it unwise to accumulate wealth from which he might be driven, had, +by 1840, changed his mind and purchased $6,000 worth of real estate. + +Another Negro paid $5,000 for himself and family and bought a home worth +$800 or $1,000. A freedman, who was a slave until he was twenty-four years +of age, then had two lots worth $10,000, paid a tax of $40 and had 320 +acres of land in Mercer County. Another, who was worth only $3,000 in +1836, had seven houses in 1840, 400 acres of land in Indiana, and another +tract in Mercer County, Ohio. He was worth altogether about $12,000 or +$15,000. A woman who was a slave until she was thirty was then worth +$2,000. She had also come into potential possession of two houses on which +a white lawyer had given her a mortgage to secure the payment of $2,000 +borrowed from this thrifty woman. Another Negro, who was on the auction +block in 1832, had spent $2,600 purchasing himself and family and had +bought two brick houses worth $6,000 and 560 acres of land in Mercer +County, Ohio, said to be worth $2,500.[30] + +The Negroes of Cincinnati had as early as 1820 established schools which +developed during the forties into something like a modern system with +Gilmore's High School as a capstone. By that time they had also not only +several churches but had given time and means to the organization and +promotion of such as the _Sabbath School Youth's Society_, the +_Total Abstinence Temperance Society_ and the _Anti-Slavery +Society_. The worthy example set by the Negroes of this city was a +stimulus to noble endeavor and significant achievements of Negroes +throughout the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys. Disarming their enemies of +the weapon that they would continue a public charge, they secured the +cooperation of a larger number of white people who at first had treated +them with contempt.[31] + +This unusual progress in the Ohio valley had been promoted by two forces, +the development of the steamboat as a factor in transportation and the +rise of the Negro mechanic. Negroes employed on vessels as servants to the +travelling public amassed large sums received in the form of tips. +Furthermore, the fortunate few, constituting the stewards of these +vessels, could by placing contracts for supplies and using business +methods realize handsome incomes. Many Negroes thus enriched purchased +real estate and went into business in towns along the Ohio. + +The other force, the rise of the Negro mechanic, was made possible by +overcoming much of the prejudice which had at first been encountered. A +great change in this respect had taken place in Cincinnati by 1840.[32] +Many Negroes who had been forced to work as menial laborers then had the +opportunity to show their usefulness to their families and to the +community. Negro mechanics were then getting as much skilled labor as they +could do. It was not uncommon for white artisans to solicit employment of +colored men because they had the reputation of being better paymasters +than master workmen of the favored race. White mechanics not only worked +with the blacks but often associated with them, patronized the same barber +shop, and went to the same places of amusement.[33] + +Out of this group came some very useful Negroes, among whom may be +mentioned Robert Harlan, the horseman; A.V. Thompson, the tailor; J. +Presley and Thomas Ball, contractors, and Samuel T. Wilcox, the merchant, +who was worth $60,000 in 1859.[34] There were among them two other +successful Negroes, Henry Boyd and Robert Gordon. Boyd was a Kentucky +freedman who helped to overcome the prejudice in Cincinnati against Negro +mechanics by inventing and exploiting a corded bed, the demand for which +was extensive throughout the Ohio and Mississippi valleys. He had a +creditable manufacturing business in which he employed twenty-five +men.[35] + +Robert Gordon was a much more interesting man. He was born a slave in +Richmond, Virginia. He ingratiated himself into the favor of his master +who placed him in charge of a large coal yard with the privilege of +selling the slake for his own benefit. In the course of time, he +accumulated in this position thousands of dollars with which he finally +purchased himself and moved away to free soil. After observing the +situation in several of the northern centers, he finally decided to settle +in Cincinnati, where he arrived with $15,000. Knowing the coal business, +he well established himself there after some discouragement and +opposition. He accumulated much wealth which he invested in United States +bonds during the Civil War and in real estate on Walnut Hills when the +bonds were later redeemed.[36] + +The ultimately favorable attitude of the people of Detroit toward +immigrating Negroes had been reflected by the position the people of that +section had taken from the time of the earliest settlements. Generally +speaking, Detroit adhered to this position.[37] In this congenial +community prospered many a Negro family. There were the Williams' most of +whom confined themselves to their trade of bricklaying and amassed +considerable wealth. Then there were the Cooks, descending from Lomax B. +Cook, a broker of no little business ability. Will Marion Cook, the +musician, belongs to this family. The De Baptistes, too, were among the +first to succeed in this new home, as they prospered materially from their +experience and knowledge previously acquired in Fredericksburg, Virginia, +as contractors. From this group came Richard De Baptiste, who in his day +was the most useful Negro Baptist preacher in the Northwest.[38] The +Pelhams were no less successful in establishing themselves in the economic +world. Having an excellent reputation in the community, they easily +secured the cooperation of the influential white people in the city. Out +of this family came Robert A. Pelham, for years editor of a weekly in +Detroit, and from 1901 to the present time an employee of the Federal +Government in Washington. + +The children of the Richards, another old family, were in no sense +inferior to the descendants of the others. The most prominent and the most +useful to emerge from this group was the daughter, Fannie M. Richards. She +was born in Fredericksburg, Virginia, October 1, 1841. Having left that +State with her parents when she was quite young, she did not see so much +of the antebellum conditions obtaining there. Desiring to have better +training than what was then given to persons of color in Detroit, she went +to Toronto where she studied English, history, drawing and needlework. In +later years she attended the Teachers' Training School in Detroit. She +became a public-school teacher there in 1863 and after fifty years of +creditable service in this work she was retired on a pension in 1913.[39] + +The Negroes in the North had not only shown their ability to rise in the +economic world when properly encouraged but had begun to exhibit power of +all kinds. There were Negro inventors, a few lawyers, a number of +physicians and dentists, many teachers, a score of intelligent preachers, +some scholars of note, and even successful blacks in the finer arts. Some +of these, with Frederick Douglass as the most influential, were also doing +creditable work in journalism with about thirty newspapers which had +developed among the Negroes as weapons of defense.[40] + +This progress of the Negroes in the North was much more marked after the +middle of the nineteenth century. The migration of Negroes to northern +communities was at first checked by the reaction in those places during +the thirties and forties. Thus relieved of the large influx which once +constituted a menace, those communities gave the Negroes already on hand +better economic opportunities. It was fortunate too that prior to the +check in the infiltration of the blacks they had come into certain +districts in sufficiently large numbers to become a more potential +factor.[41] They were strong enough in some cases to make common cause +against foes and could by cooperation solve many problems with which the +blacks in dispersed condition could not think of grappling. + +Their endeavors along these lines proceeded in many cases from +well-organized efforts like those culminating in the numerous national +conventions which began meeting first in Philadelphia in 1830 and after +some years of deliberation in this city extended to others in the +North.[42] These bodies aimed not only to promote education, religion and +morals, but, taking up the work which the Quakers began, they put forth +efforts to secure to the free blacks opportunities to be trained in the +mechanic arts to equip themselves for participation in the industries then +springing up throughout the North. This movement, however, did not succeed +in the proportion to the efforts put forth because of the increasing power +of the trades unions. + +After the middle of the nineteenth century too the Negroes found +conditions a little more favorable to their progress than the generation +before. The aggressive South had by that time so shaped the policy of the +nation as not only to force the free States to cease aiding the escape of +fugitives but to undertake to impress the northerner into the service of +assisting in their recapture as provided in the Fugitive Slave Law. This +repressive measure set a larger number of the people thinking of the Negro +as a national problem rather than a local one. The attitude of the North +was then reflected in the personal liberty laws as an answer to this +measure and in the increasing sympathy for the Negroes. During this +decade, therefore, more was done in the North to secure to the Negroes +better treatment and to give them opportunities for improvement. + + +[Footnote 1: _Cincinnati Morning Herald_, July 17, 1846.] + +[Footnote 2: Woodson, _The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861_, p. +242.] + +[Footnote 3: Turner, _The Negro in Pennsylvania_, p. 143; +_Correspondence of Dr. Benjamin Bush_, XXXIX, p. 41.] + +[Footnote 4: DuBois, _The Philadelphia Negro_, pp. 26-27.] + +[Footnote 5: _The Journal of Negro History_, I, p. 5; and +_Proceedings of the American Convention of Abolition Societies_.] + +[Footnote 6: DuBois and Dill, _The Negro American Artisan_, p. 36.] + +[Footnote 7: Jay, _An Inquiry_, pp. 34, 108, 109, 114.] + +[Footnote 8: _The Journal of Negro History_, I, pp. 20-22.] + +[Footnote 9: Delany, _Condition of the Colored People_, p. 106.] + +[Footnote 10: _The Liberator_, July 9, 1835.] + +[Footnote 11: Hammond, _Gerrit Smith_, pp. 26-27.] + +[Footnote 12: Frothingham, _Gerrit Smith_, p. 73.] + +[Footnote 13: Delany, _Condition of the Colored People_, pp. +107-108.] + +[Footnote 14: _Ibid._, p. 102.] + +[Footnote 15: _Ibid._, p. 102.] + +[Footnote 16: _Ibid._, pp. 103-104.] + +[Footnote 17: Delany, _Condition of the Colored People_, pp. +106-107.] + +[Footnote 18: DuBois, _The Philadelphia Negro_, p. 31; _Report of +the Condition of the Free People of Color_, 1838; _ibid._, 1849; +and Bacon, _Statistics of the Colored People of Philadelphia_, 1859.] + +[Footnote 19: Delany, _Condition of the Colored People_, p. 95.] + +[Footnote 20: DuBois, _The Philadelphia Negro_, pp. 31-36.] + +[Footnote 21: Delany, _Condition of the Colored People_, p. 109.] + +[Footnote 22: _Ibid._, p. 101.] + +[Footnote 23: _Ibid._, p. 104.] + +[Footnote 24: _Ibid._, p. 105.] + +[Footnote 25: _Ibid._, p. 107.] + +[Footnote 26: _The Journal of Negro History_, I, p. 22.] + +[Footnote 27: Hickok, _The Negro in Ohio_, p. 88.] + +[Footnote 28: Delany, _Condition of the Colored People_, p. 99.] + +[Footnote 29: _Ibid._, p. 101.] + +[Footnote 30: _The Philanthropist_, July 21, 1840, gives these +statistics in detail.] + +[Footnote 31: _The Philanthropist_, July 21, 1840.] + +[Footnote 32: _The Cincinnati Daily Gazette_, Sept. 14, 1841.] + +[Footnote 33: Barber's _Report on Colored People in Ohio_.] + +[Footnote 34: Delany, _Condition of the Colored People_, pp. 97, 98.] + +[Footnote 35: Delany, _Condition of the Colored People_, p. 98.] + +[Footnote 36: These facts were obtained from his children and from +Cincinnati city directories.] + +[Footnote 37: _Niles Register_, LXIX, p. 357.] + +[Footnote 38: Letters received from Miss Fannie M. Richards of Detroit.] + +[Footnote 39: These facts were obtained from clippings taken from Detroit +newspapers and from letters bearing on Miss Richard's career.] + +[Footnote 40: _The A.M.E. Church Review_, IV, p. 309; and XX, p. +137.] + +[Footnote 41: _Censuses of the United States_; and Clark, _Present +Condition of Colored People_.] + +[Footnote 42: _Minutes and Proceedings_ of the Annual Convention of +the People of Color.] + + + +CHAPTER VI + +CONFUSING MOVEMENTS + + +The Civil War waged largely in the South started the most exciting +movement of the Negroes hitherto known. The invading Union forces drove +the masters before them, leaving the slaves and sometimes poor whites to +escape where they would or to remain in helpless condition to constitute a +problem for the northern army.[1] Many poor whites of the border States +went with the Confederacy, not always because they wanted to enter the +war, but to choose what they considered the lesser of two evils. The +slaves soon realized a community of interests with the Union forces sent, +as they thought, to deliver them from thralldom. At first, it was +difficult to determine a fixed policy for dealing with these fugitives. To +drive them away was an easy matter, but this did not solve the problem. +General Butler's action at Fortress Monroe in 1861, however, anticipated +the policy finally adopted by the Union forces.[2] Hearing that three +fugitive slaves who were received into his lines were to have been +employed in building fortifications for the Confederate army, he declared +them seized as contraband of war rather than declare them actually free as +did General Fremont[3] and General Hunter.[4] He then gave them employment +for wages and rations and appropriated to the support of the unemployed a +portion of the earnings of the laborers. This policy was followed by +General Wood, Butler's successor, and by General Banks in New Orleans. + +An elaborate plan for handling such fugitives was carried out by E.S. +Pierce and General Rufus Saxton at Port Royal, South Carolina. Seeing the +situation in another light, however, General Halleck in charge in the West +excluded slaves from the Union lines, at first, as did General Dix in +Virginia. But Halleck, in his instructions to General McCullum, February, +1862, ordered him to put contrabands to work to pay for food and +clothing.[5] Other commanders, like General McCook and General Johnson, +permitted the slave hunters to enter their lines and take their slaves +upon identification,[6] ignoring the confiscation act of August, 1861, +which was construed by some as justifying the retention of such refugees. +Officers of a different attitude, however, soon began to protest against +the returning of fugitive slaves. General Grant, also, while admitting the +binding force of General Halleck's order, refused to grant permits to +those in search of fugitives seeking asylum within his lines and at the +capture of Fort Donelson ordered the retention of all blacks who had been +used by the Confederates in building fortifications.[7] + +Lincoln finally urged the necessity for withholding fugitive slaves from +the enemy, believing that there could be in it no danger of servile +insurrection and that the Confederacy would thereby be weakened.[8] As +this opinion soon developed into a conviction that official action was +necessary, Congress, by Act of March 13, 1862, provided that slaves be +protected against the claims of their pursuers. Continuing further in this +direction, the Federal Government gradually reached the position of +withdrawing Negro labor from the Confederate territory. Finally the United +States Government adopted the policy of withholding from the Confederates, +slaves received with the understanding that their masters were in +rebellion against the United States. With this as a settled policy then, +the United States Government had to work out some scheme for the remaking +of these fugitives coming into its camps. + +In some of these cases the fugitives found themselves among men more +hostile to them than their masters were, for many of the Union soldiers of +the border States were slaveholders themselves and northern soldiers did +not understand that they were fighting to free Negroes. The condition in +which they were on arriving, moreover, was a new problem for the army. +Some came naked, some in decrepitude, some afflicted with disease, and +some wounded in their efforts to escape.[9] There were "women in travail, +the helplessness of childhood and of old age, the horrors of sickness and +of frequent deaths."[10] In their crude state few of them had any +conception of the significance of liberty, thinking that it meant idleness +and freedom from restraint. In consequence of this ignorance there +developed such undesirable habits as deceit, theft and licentiousness to +aggravate the afflictions of nakedness, famine and disease.[11] + +In the East large numbers of these refugees were concentrated at +Washington, Alexandria, Fortress Monroe, Hampton, Craney Island and Fort +Norfolk. There were smaller groups of them at Yorktown, Suffolk and +Portsmouth.[12] + +[Illustration: MAP SHOWING THE PER CENT OF NEGROES IN TOTAL POPULATION, BY +STATES: 1910. + +(Map 2, Bulletin 129, The United States Bureau of the Census.)] + +Some of them were conducted from these camps into York, Columbia, +Harrisburg, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, and by water to New York and +Boston, from which they went to various parts seeking labor. Some +collected in groups as in the case of those at Five Points in New +York.[13] Large numbers of them from Virginia assembled in Washington in +1862 in Duff Green's Row on Capitol Hill where they were organized as a +camp, out of which came a contraband school, after being moved to the +McClellan Barracks.[14] Then there was in the District of Columbia another +group known as Freedmen's village on Arlington Heights. It was said that, +in 1864, 30,000 to 40,000 Negroes had come from the plantations to the +District of Columbia.[15] It happened here too as in most cases of this +migration that the Negroes were on hand before the officials grappling +with many other problems could determine exactly what could or should be +done with them. The camps near Washington fortunately became centers for +the employment of contrabands in the city. Those repairing to Fortress +Monroe were distributed as laborers among the farmers of that +vicinity.[16] + +[Illustration: DIAGRAM SHOWING THE NEGRO POPULATION OF NORTHERN AND +WESTERN CITIES IN 1900 AND THE EXTENT TO WHICH IT INCREASED BY 1910. + +COUNTIES IN THE SOUTHERN STATES HAVING AT LEAST 50 PER CENT OF THEIR +POPULATION NEGRO. + +(Maps 3 and 4, Bulletin 129, U.S. Bureau of the Census.) + +(Maps 5 and 6, Bulletin 129, U.S. Bureau of the Census.)] + +In some of these camps, and especially in those of the West, the refugees +were finally sent out to other sections in need of labor, as in the cases +of the contrabands assembled with the Union army at first at Grand +Junction and later at Memphis.[17] + +There were three types of these camp communities which attracted attention +as places for free labor experimentation. These were at Port Royal, on the +Mississippi in the neighborhood of Vicksburg, and in Lower Louisiana and +Virginia. The first trial of free labor of blacks on a large scale in a +slave State was made in Port Royal.[18] The experiment was generally +successful. By industry, thrift and orderly conduct the Negroes showed +their appreciation for their new opportunities. In the Mississippi section +invaded by the northern army, General Thomas opened what he called +_Infirmary Farms_ which he leased to Negroes on certain terms which +they usually met successfully. The same plan, however, was not so +successful in the Lower Mississippi section.[19] The failure in this +section was doubtless due to the inferior type of blacks in the lower +cotton belt where Negroes had been more brutalized by slavery. + +In some cases, these refugees experienced many hardships. It was charged +that they were worked hard, badly treated and deprived of all their wages +except what was given them for rations and a scanty pittance, wholly +insufficient to purchase necessary clothing and provide for their +families.[20] Not a few of the refugees for these reasons applied for +permission to return to their masters and sometimes such permission was +granted; for, although under military authority, they were by order of +Congress to be considered as freemen. These voluntary slaves, of course, +were few and the authorities were not thereby impressed with the thought +that Negroes would prefer to be slaves, should they be treated as freemen +rather than as brutes.[21] + +It became increasingly difficult, however, to handle this problem. In the +first place, it was not an easy matter to find soldiers well disposed to +serve the Negroes in any manner whatever and the officers of the army had +no desire to force them to render such services since those thus engaged +suffered a sort of social ostracism. The same condition obtained in the +case of caring for those afflicted with disease, until there was issued a +specific regulation placing the contraband sick in charge of the army +surgeons.[22] What the situation in the Mississippi Valley was during +these months has been well described by an observer, saying: "I hope I may +never be called on again to witness the horrible scenes I saw in those +first days of history of the freedmen in the Mississippi Valley. +Assistants were hard to find, especially the kind that would do any good +in the camps. A detailed soldier in each camp of a thousand people was the +best that could be done and his duties were so onerous that he ended by +doing nothing. In reviewing the condition of the people at that time, I am +not surprised at the marvelous stories told by visitors who caught an +occasional glimpse of the misery and wretchedness in these camps. Our +efforts to do anything for these people, as they herded together in +masses, when founded on any expectation that they would help themselves, +often failed; they had become so completely broken down in spirit, through +suffering, that it was almost impossible to arouse them."[23] + +A few sympathetic officers and especially the chaplains undertook to +relieve the urgent cases of distress. They could do little, however, to +handle all the problems of the unusual situation until they engaged the +attention of the higher officers of the army and the federal functionaries +in Washington. After some delay this was finally done and special officers +were detailed to take charge of the contrabands. The Negroes were +assembled in camps and employed according to instructions from the +Secretary of War as teamsters, laborers and the like on forts and +railroads. Some were put to picking, ginning, baling and removing cotton +on plantations abandoned by their masters. General Grant, as early as +1862, was making further use of them as fatigue men in the department of +the surgeon-general, the quartermaster and the commissary. He believed +then that such Negroes as did well in these more humble positions should +be made citizens and soldiers.[24] As a matter of fact out of this very +suggestion came the policy of arming the Negroes, the first regiment of +whom was recruited under orders issued by General Hunter at Port Royal, +South Carolina in 1862. As the arming of the slave to participate in this +war did not generally please the white people who considered the struggle +a war between civilized groups, this policy could not offer general relief +to the congested contraband camps.[25] + +A better system of handling the fugitives was finally worked out, however, +with a general superintendent at the head of each department, supported by +a number of competent assistants. More explicit instructions were given as +to the manner of dealing with the situation. It was to be the duty of the +superintendent of contrabands, says the order, to organize them into +working parties in saving the cotton, as pioneers on railroads and +steamboats, and in any way where their services could be made available. +Where labor was performed for private individuals they were charged in +accordance with the orders of the commander of the department. In case +they were directed to save abandoned crops of cotton for the benefit of +the United States Government, the officer selling such crops would turn +over to the superintendent of contrabands the proceeds of the sale, which +together with other earnings were used for clothing and feeding the +Negroes. Clothing sent by philanthropic persons to these camps was +received and distributed by the superintendent. In no case, however, were +Negroes to be forced into the service of the United States Government or +to be enticed away from their homes except when it became a military +necessity.[26] + +Some order out of the chaos eventually developed, for as John Eaton, one +of the workers in the West, reported: "There was no promiscuous +intermingling. Families were established by themselves. Every man took +care of his own wife and children." "One of the most touching features of +our Work," says he, "was the eagerness with which colored men and women +availed themselves of the opportunities offered them to legalize unions +already formed, some of which had been in existence for a long time."[27] +"Chaplain A.S. Fiske on one occasion married in about an hour one hundred +and nineteen couples at one service, chiefly those who had long lived +together." Letters from the Virginia camps and from those of Port Royal +indicate that this favorable condition generally obtained.[28] + +This unusual problem in spite of additional effort, however, would not +readily admit of solution. Benevolent workers of the North, therefore, +began to minister to the needs of these unfortunate blacks. They sent +considerable sums of money, increasing quantities of clothing and even +some of their most devoted men and women to toil among them as social +workers and teachers.[29] These efforts also took organized form in +various parts of the North under the direction of _The Pennsylvania +Freedmen's Relief Association, The Tract Society, The American Missionary +Association, Pennsylvania Friends Freedmen's Relief Association, Old +School Presbyterian Mission, The Reformed Presbyterian Mission, The New +England Freedmen's Aid Committee, The New England Freedmen's Aid Society, +The New England Freedmen's Mission, The Washington Christian Union, The +Universalists of Maine, The New York Freedmen's Relief Association, The +Hartford Relief Society, The National Freedmen's Relief Association of the +District of Columbia_, and finally the _Freedmen's Bureau_.[30] + +As an outlet to the congested grouping of Negroes and poor whites in the +war camps it was arranged to send a number of them to the loyal States as +fast as there presented themselves opportunities for finding homes and +employment. Cairo, Illinois, in the West, became the center of such +activities extending its ramifications into all parts of the invaded +southern territory. Some of the refugees permanently settled in the North, +taking up the work abandoned by the northern soldiers who went to war.[31] +It was soon found necessary to appoint a superintendent of such affairs at +Cairo, for there were those who, desiring to lead a straggling life, had +to be restrained from crime by military surveillance and regulations +requiring labor for self-support. Exactly how many whites and blacks were +thus aided to reach northern communities cannot be determined but in view +of the frequent mention of their movements by travellers the number must +have been considerable. In some cases, as in Lawrence, Kansas, there were +assembled enough freedmen to constitute a distinct group.[32] Speaking of +this settlement the editor of the _Alton Telegraph_ said in 1862 that +although they amounted to many hundreds not one, that he could learn of, +had been a public charge. They readily found employment at fair wages, and +soon made themselves comfortable.[33] + +There was a little apprehension that the North would be overrun by such +blacks. Some had no such fear, however, for the reason that the census did +not indicate such a movement. Many slaves were freed in the North prior to +1860, yet with all the emigration from the slave States to the North there +were then in all the Northern States but 226,152 free blacks, while there +were in the slave States 261,918, an excess of 35,766 in the slave States. +Frederick Starr believed that during the Civil War there might be an +influx for a few months but it would not continue.[34] They would return +when sure that they would be free. Starr thought that, if necessary, these +refugees might be used in building the much desired Pacific Railroad to +divert them from the North. + +There was little ground for this apprehension, in fact, if their +readjustment and development in the contraband camps could be considered +an indication of what the Negroes would eventually do. Taking all things +into consideration, most unbiased observers felt that blacks in the camps +deserved well of their benefactors.[36] According to Levi Coffin, these +contrabands were, in 1864, disposed of as follows: "In military services +as soldiers, laundresses, cooks, officers' servants and laborers in the +various staff departments, 41,150; in cities, on plantations and in +freedmen's villages and cared for, 72,500. Of these 62,300 were entirely +self-supporting, just as any industrial class anywhere else, as planters, +mechanics, barbers, hackmen and draymen, conducting enterprises on their +own responsibility or working as hired laborers." The remaining 10,200 +received subsistence from the government. 3,000 of these were members of +families whose heads were carrying on plantations, and had undertaken +cultivation of 4,000 acres of cotton, pledging themselves to pay the +government for their subsistence from the first income of the crop. The +other 7,200 included the paupers, that is, all Negroes over and under the +self-supporting age, the crippled and sick in hospitals. This class, +however, instead of being unproductive, had then under cultivation 500 +acres of corn, 790 acres of vegetables, and 1,500 acres of cotton, besides +working at wood chopping and other industries. There were reported in the +aggregate over 100,000 acres of cotton under cultivation, 7,000 acres of +which were leased and cultivated by blacks. Some Negroes were managing as +many as 300 or 400 acres each.[37] Statistics showing exactly how much the +numbers of contrabands in the various branches of the service increased +are wanting, but in view of the fact that the few thousand soldiers here +given increased to about 200,000 before the close of the Civil War, the +other numbers must have been considerable, if they all grew the least +proportionately. + +Much industry was shown among these refugees. Under this new system they +acquired the idea of ownership, and of the security of wages and learned +to see the fundamental difference between freedom and slavery. Some +Yankees, however, seeing that they did less work than did laborers in the +North, considered them lazy, but the lack of industry was customary in the +South and a river should not be expected to rise higher than its source. +One of their superintendents said that they worked well without being +urged, that there was among them a public opinion against idleness, which +answered for discipline, and that those put to work with soldiers labored +longer and did the nicer parts. "In natural tact and the faculty of +getting a livelihood," says the same writer, "the contrabands are inferior +to the Yankees, but quite equal to the mass of southern population."[38] +The Negroes also showed capacity to organize labor and use capital in the +promotion of enterprises. Many of them purchased land and cultivated it to +great profit both to the community and to themselves. Others entered the +service of the government as mechanics and contractors, from the +employment of which some of them realized handsome incomes. + +The more important development, however, was that of manhood. This was +best observed in their growing consciousness of rights, and their +readiness to defend them, even when encroached upon by members of the +white race. They quickly learned to appreciate freedom and exhibited +evidences of manhood in their desire for the comforts and conveniences of +life. They readily purchased articles of furniture within their means, +bringing their home equipment up to the standard of that of persons +similarly circumstanced. The indisposition to labor was overcome "in a +healthy nature by instinct and motives of superior forces, such as love of +life, the desire to be clothed and fed, the sense of security derived from +provision for the future, the feeling of self-respect, the love of family +and children and the convictions of duty."[39] + +These enterprises, begun in doubt, soon ceased to be a bare hope or +possibility. They became during the war a fruition and a consummation, in +that they produced Negroes "who would work for a living and fight for +freedom." They were, therefore, considered "adapted to civil society." +They had "shown capacity for knowledge, for free industry, for +subordination to law and discipline, for soldierly fortitude, for social +and family relations, for religious culture and aspiration. These +qualities," said the observer, "when stirred, and sustained by the +incitements and rewards of a just society, and combining with the currents +of our continental civilization, will, under the guidance of a benevolent +Providence which forgets neither them nor us, make them a constantly +progressive race; and secure them ever after from the calamity of another +enslavement, and ourselves from the worst calamity of being their +oppressors."[40] + +It is clear that these smaller numbers of Negroes under favorable +conditions could be easily adjusted to a new environment. When, however, +all Negroes were declared free there set in a confused migration which was +much more of a problem. The first thing the Negro did after realizing that +he was free was to roam over the country to put his freedom to a test. To +do this, according to many writers, he frequently changed his name, +residence, employment and wife, sometimes carrying with him from the +plantation the fruits of his own labor. Many of them easily acquired a dog +and a gun and were disposed to devote their time to the chase until the +assistance in the form of mules and land expected from the government +materialized. Their emancipation, therefore, was interpreted not only as +freedom from slavery but from responsibility.[41] Where they were going +they did not know but the towns and cities became very attractive to them. + +Speaking of this upheaval in Virginia, Eckenrode says that many of them +roamed over the country without restraint.[42] "Released from their +accustomed bonds," says Hall, "and filled with a pleasing, if not vague, +sense of uncontrolled freedom, they flocked to the cities with little hope +of obtaining remunerative work. Wagon loads of them were brought in from +the country by the soldiers and dumped down to shift for themselves."[43] +Referring to the proclamation of freedom, in Georgia, Thompson asserts +that their most general and universal response was to pick up and leave +the home place to go somewhere else, preferably to a town. "The lure of the +city was strong to the blacks, appealing to their social natures, to their +inherent love for a crowd."[44] Davis maintains that thousands of the +70,000 Negroes in Florida crowded into the Federal military camps and into +towns upon realizing that they were free.[45] According to Ficklen, the +exodus of the slaves from the neighboring plantations of Louisiana into +Baton Rouge, Carrollton and New Orleans was so great as to strain the +resources of the Federal authorities to support them. Ten thousand poured +into New Orleans alone.[46] Fleming records that upon leaving their homes +the blacks collected in gangs at the cross roads, in the villages and +towns, especially near the military posts. The towns were filled with +crowds of blacks who left their homes with absolutely nothing, "thinking +that the government would care for them, or more probably, not thinking at +all."[47] + +The portrayal of these writers of this phase of Reconstruction history +contains a general truth, but in some cases the picture is overdrawn. The +student of history must bear in mind that practically all of our histories +of that period are based altogether on the testimony of prejudiced whites +and are written from their point of view. Some of these writers have aimed +to exaggerate the vagrancy of the blacks to justify the radical procedure +of the whites in dealing with it. The Negroes did wander about +thoughtlessly, believing that this was the most effective way to enjoy +their freedom. But nothing else could be expected from a class who had +never felt anything but the heel of oppression. History shows that such +vagrancy has always followed the immediate emancipation of a large number +of slaves. Many Negroes who flocked to the towns and army camps, moreover, +had like their masters and poor whites seen their homes broken up or +destroyed by the invading Union armies. Whites who had never learned to +work were also roaming and in some cases constituted marauding bands.[48] + +There was, moreover, an actual drain of laborers to the lower and more +productive lands in Mississippi and Louisiana.[49] This developed later +into a more considerable movement toward the Southwest just after the +Civil War, the exodus being from South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and +Mississippi to Louisiana, Arkansas and Texas. Here was the pioneering +spirit, a going to the land of more economic opportunities. This slow +movement continued from about 1865 to 1875, when the development of the +numerous railway systems gave rise to land speculators who induced whites +and blacks to go west and southwest. It was a migration of individuals, +but it was reported that as many as 35,000 Negroes were then persuaded to +leave South Carolina and Georgia for Arkansas and Texas.[50] + +The usual charge that the Negro is naturally migratory is not true. This +impression is often received by persons who hear of the thousands of +Negroes who move from one place to another from year to year because of +the desire to improve their unhappy condition. In this there is no +tendency to migrate but an urgent need to escape undesirable conditions. +In fact, one of the American Negroes' greatest shortcomings is that they +are not sufficiently pioneering. Statistics show that the whites have more +inclination to move from State to State than the Negro. To prove this +assertion,[51] Professor William O. Scroggs has shown that, in 1910, 16.6 +per cent of the Negroes had moved to some other State than that in which +they were born, while during the same period 22.4 per cent of the whites +had done the same.[52] + +The South, however, was not disposed to look at the vagrancy of the +ex-slaves so philosophically. That section had been devastated by war and +to rebuild these waste places reliable labor was necessary. Legislatures +of the slave States, therefore, immediately after the close of the war, +granted the Negro nominal freedom but enacted measures of vagrancy and +labor so as to reduce the Negro again almost to the status of a slave. +White magistrates were given wide discretion in adjudging Negroes +vagrants.[53] Negroes had to sign contracts to work. If without what was +considered a just cause the Negro left the employ of a planter, the former +could be arrested and forced to work and in some sections with ball and +chain. If the employer did not care to take him back he could be hired out +by the county or confined in jail. Mississippi, Louisiana and South +Carolina had further drastic features. By local ordinance in Louisiana +every Negro had to be in the service of some white person, and by special +laws of South Carolina and Mississippi the Negro became subject to a +master almost in the same sense in which he was prior to emancipation.[54] +These laws, of course, convinced the government of the United States that +the South had not yet decided to let slavery go and for that reason +military rule and Congressional Reconstruction followed. In this respect +the South did itself a great injury, for many of the provisions of the +black codes, especially the vagrancy laws, were unnecessary. Most Negroes +soon realized that freedom did not mean relief from responsibility and +they quickly settled down to work after a rather protracted and exciting +holiday.[55] + +During the last year of and immediately after the Civil War there set in +another movement, not of a large number of Negroes but of the intelligent +class who had during years of residence in the North enjoyed such +advantages of contact and education as to make them desirable and useful +as leaders in the Reconstruction of the South and the remaking of the +race. In their tirades against the Carpet-bag politicians who handled the +Reconstruction situation so much to the dissatisfaction of the southern +whites, historians often forget to mention also that a large number of the +Negro leaders who participated in that drama were also natives or +residents of Northern States. + +Three motives impelled these blacks to go South. Some had found northern +communities so hostile as to impede their progress, many wanted to rejoin +relatives from whom they had been separated by their flight from the land +of slavery, and others were moved by the spirit of adventure to enter a +new field ripe with all sorts of opportunities. This movement, together +with that of migration to large urban communities, largely accounts for +the depopulation and the consequent decline of certain colored communities +in the North after 1865. + +Some of the Negroes who returned to the South became men of national +prominence. William J. Simmons, who prior to the Civil War was carried +from South Carolina to Pennsylvania, returned to do religious and +educational work in Kentucky. Bishop James W. Hood, of the African +Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, went from Connecticut to North Carolina +to engage in similar work. Honorable R.T. Greener, the first Negro +graduate of Harvard, went from Philadelphia to teach in the District of +Columbia and later to be a professor in the University of South Carolina. +F.L. Cardoza, educated at the University of Edinburgh, returned to South +Carolina and became State Treasurer. R.B. Elliot, born in Boston and +educated in England, settled in South Carolina from which he was sent to +Congress. + +John M. Langston was taken to Ohio and educated but came back to Virginia +his native State from which he was elected to Congress. J.T. White left +Indiana to enter politics in Arkansas, becoming State Senator and later +commissioner of public works and internal improvements. Judge Mifflin +Wister Gibbs, a native of Philadelphia, purposely settled in Arkansas +where he served as city judge and Register of United States Land Office. +T. Morris Chester, of Pittsburgh, finally made his way to Louisiana where +he served with distinction as a lawyer and held the position of +Brigadier-General in charge of the Louisiana State Guards under the +Kellogg government. Joseph Carter Corbin, who was taken from Virginia to +be educated at Chillicothe, Ohio, went later to Arkansas where he served +as chief clerk in the post office at Little Rock and later as State +Superintendent of Schools. Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback, who moved +north for education and opportunity, returned to enter politics in +Louisiana, which honored him with several important positions among which +was that of Acting Governor. + + +[Footnote 1: This is well treated in John Eaton's _Grant, Lincoln and +the Freedmen_. See also Coffin's _Boys of '61_.] + +[Footnote 2: Williams, _History of the Negro Troops in the War of the +Rebellion_, p. 70.] + +[Footnote 3: Greely, _American Conflict_, I, p. 585.] + +[Footnote 4: _Ibid_., II, p. 246.] + +[Footnote 5: _Official Records of the Rebellion_, VIII, p. 628.] + +[Footnote 6: Williams, _Negro Troops_, p. 66 et seq.] + +[Footnote 7: _Official Records of the Rebellion_, VIII, p. 370; +Williams, _Negro Troops_, p. 75.] + +[Footnote 8: Eaton, _Grant, Lincoln and the Freedmen_, pp. 87, 92.] + +[Footnote 9: Pierce, _Freedmen of Port Royal, South Carolina_, passim; +Botume, _First Days Among the Contrabands_, pp. 10-22; and Pearson, +_Letters from Port Royal_, passim.] + +[Footnote 10: Eaton, _Grant, Lincoln and the Freedmen_, p. 92.] + +[Footnote 11: _Ibid._, pp. 2, 3.] + +[Footnote 12: Report of the _Committee of Representatives of the New +York Yearly Meeting of Friends_ upon the _Condition and Wants of the +Colored Refugees_, 1862, p. 1 et seq.] + +[Footnote 13: _Report of the Committee of Representatives, etc_., p. +3.] + +[Footnote 14: At an entertainment of this school, Senator Pomeroy of +Kansas, voicing the sentiment of Lincoln, spoke in favor of a scheme to +colonize Negroes in Central America.] + +[Footnote 15: _Special Report_ of the United States Commission of +Education on the Schools of the District of Columbia, p. 215.] + +[Footnote 16: _Christian Examiner_, LXXVI, p. 349.] + +[Footnote 17: Eaton, _Lincoln, Grant and the Freedmen_, pp. 18, 30.] + +[Footnote 18: Pierce, _The Freedmen of Port Royal, South Carolina, +Official Reports_; and Pearson, _Letters from Port Royal written at +the Time of the Civil War_.] + +[Footnote 19: _Christian Examiner_, LXXVI, p. 354.] + +[Footnote 20: _Continental Monthly_, II, p. 193.] + +[Footnote 21: _Report_ of the Committee of Representatives of the New +York Yearly Meeting of Friends, p. 12.] + +[Footnote 23: Eaton, _Lincoln, Grant and the Freedmen_, p. 2.] + +[Footnote 23: Eaton, _Lincoln, Grant and the Freedmen_, p. 19. See +also Botume's _First Days Amongst the Contrabands_. This work vividly +portrays conditions among the refugees assembled at points in South +Carolina.] + +[Footnote 24: Eaton, _Grant, Lincoln and the Freedmen_, p. 15.] + +[Footnote 25: Williams, _Negro in the Rebellion_, pp. 90-98.] + +[Footnote 26: _Official Records of the War of the Rebellion_, VII, +pp. 503, 510, 560, 595, 628, 668, 698, 699, 711, 723, 739, 741, 757, 769, +787, 801, 802, 811, 818, 842, 923, 934; VIII, pp. 444, 445, 451, 464, 555, +556, 564, 584, 637, 642, 686, 690, 693, 825.] + +[Footnote 27: Eaton, _Grant, Lincoln and the Freedmen_, pp. 34-35.] + +[Footnote 28: Ames, _From a New England Woman's Diary_, passim; and +Pearson, _Letters from Port Royal_, passim.] + +[Footnote 29: Ames, _From a New England Woman's Diary in 1865_, +passim.] + +[Footnote 30: _Special Report_ of the United States Commissioner of +Education on the Schools of the District of Columbia, p. 217.] + +[Footnote 31: Eaton, _Grant, Lincoln and the Freedmen_, p. 37.] + +[Footnote 32: Eaton, _Grant, Lincoln and the Freedmen_, p. 38.] + +[Footnote 33: _Ibid._, p. 39.] + +[Footnote 34: Starr, _What shall be done with the People of Color in the +United States_, p. 25; Ward, _Contrabands_, pp. 3, 4.] + +[Footnote 35: It is said that Lincoln suggested colonizing the contrabands +in South America.] + +[Footnote 36: _Atlantic Monthly_, XII, p. 308.] + +[Footnote 37: Levi Coffin, _Reminiscences_, p. 671.] + +[Footnote 38: _Atlantic Monthly_, XII, p. 309.] + +[Footnote 39: _Ibid._, XII, pp. 310-311.] + +[Footnote 40: _Ibid_., p. 311.] + +[Footnote 41: Hamilton, _Reconstruction in North Carolina_, pp. 156, +157.] + +[Footnote 42: Eckenrode, _Political History of Virginia during the +Reconstruction_, p. 43.] + +[Footnote 43: Hall, _Andrew Johnson_, p. 258.] + +[Footnote 44: Thompson, _Reconstruction in Georgia_, p. 44.] + +[Footnote 45: Davis, _Reconstruction in Florida_, p. 341.] + +[Footnote 46: Ficklen, _History of Reconstruction in Louisiana_, p. +118.] + +[Footnote 47: Fleming, _The Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama_, +p. 271.] + +[Footnote 48: Thompson, _Reconstruction in Georgia_, p. 69.] + +[Footnote 49: _Ibid._, p. 69.] + +[Footnote 50: This exodus became considerable again in 1888 and 1889 and +the Negro population has continued in this direction of plentitude of land +including not only Arkansas and Texas but Louisiana and Oklahoma, all +which received in this way by 1900 about 200,000 Negroes.] + +[Footnote 51: _American Journal of Political Economy_, XXII, pp. 10, +40.] + +[Footnote 52: _Ibid._, XXV, p. 1038.] + +[Footnote 53: Mecklin, _Black Codes_.] + +[Footnote 54: Dunning, _Reconstruction_, pp. 54, 59, 110.] + +[Footnote 55: DuBois, _Freedmen's Bureau_.] + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE EXODUS TO THE WEST + + +Having come through the halcyon days of the Reconstruction only to find +themselves reduced almost to the status of slaves, many Negroes deserted +the South for the promising west to grow up with the country. The +immediate causes were doubtless political. _Bulldozing_, a rather +vague term, covering all such crimes as political injustice and +persecution, was the source of most complaint. The abridgment of the +Negroes' rights had affected them as a great calamity. They had learned +that voting is one of the highest privileges to be obtained in this life +and they wanted to go where they might still exercise that privilege. That +persecution was the main cause was disputed, however, as there were cases +of Negroes migrating from parts where no such conditions obtained. Yet +some of the whites giving their version of the situation admitted that +violent methods had been used so to intimidate the Negroes as to compel +them to vote according to the dictation of the whites. It was also learned +that the _bulldozers_ concerned in dethroning the non-taxpaying +blacks were an impecunious and irresponsible group themselves, led by men +of the wealthy class.[1] + +Coming to the defense of the whites, some said that much of the +persecution with which the blacks were afflicted was due to the fear of +Negro uprisings, the terror of the days of slavery. The whites, however, +did practically nothing to remove the underlying causes. They did not +encourage education and made no efforts to cure the Negroes of faults for +which slavery itself was to be blamed and consequently could not get the +confidence of the blacks. The races tended rather to drift apart. The +Negroes lived in fear of reenslavement while the whites believed that the +war between the North and South would soon be renewed. Some Negroes +thinking likewise sought to go to the North to be among friends. The +blacks, of course, had come so to regard southern whites as their enemies +as to render impossible a voluntary division in politics. + +Among the worst of all faults of the whites was their unwillingness to +labor and their tendency to do mischief.[2] As there were so many to live +on the labor of the Negroes they were reduced to a state a little better +than that of bondage. The master class was generally unfair to the blacks. +No longer responsible for them as slaves, the planters endeavored after +the war to get their labor for nothing. The Negroes themselves had no +land, no mules, no presses nor cotton gins, and they could not acquire +sufficient capital to obtain these things. They were made victims of fraud +in signing contracts which they could not understand and had to suffer the +consequent privations and want aggravated by robbery and murder by the Ku +Klux Klan.[3] + +The murder of Negroes was common throughout the South and especially in +Louisiana. In 1875, General Sheridan said that as many as 3,500 persons +had been killed and wounded in that State, the great majority of whom +being Negroes; that 1,884 were killed and wounded in 1868, and probably +1,200 between 1868 and 1875. Frightful massacres occurred in the parishes +of Bossier, Catahoula, Saint Bernard, Grant and Orleans. As most of these +murders were for political reasons, the offenders were regarded by their +communities as heroes rather than as criminals. A massacre of Negroes +began in the parish of St. Landry on the 28th of September and continued +for three days, resulting in the death of from 300 to 400. Thirteen +captives were taken from the jail and shot and as many as twenty-five dead +bodies were found burned in the woods. There broke out in the parish of +Bossier another three-day riot during which two hundred Negroes were +massacred. More than forty blacks were killed in the parish of Caddo +during the following month. In fact, the number of murders, maimings and +whippings during these months aggregated over one thousand.[4] The result +was that the intelligent Negroes were either intimidated or killed so that +the illiterate masses of Negro voters might be ordered to refrain from +voting the Republican ticket to strengthen the Democrats or be subjected +to starvation through the operation of the mischievous land tenure and +credit system. What was not done in 1868 to overthrow the Republican +regime was accomplished by a renewed and extended use of such drastic +measures throughout the South in 1876. + +Certain whites maintained, however, that the unrest was due to the work of +radical politicians at the North, who had sent their emissaries south to +delude the Negroes into a fever of migration. Some said it was a scheme to +force the nomination of a certain Republican candidate for President in +1880. Others laid it to the charge of the defeated white and black +Republicans who had been thrown from power by the whites upon regaining +control of the reconstructed States.[5] A few insisted that a speech +delivered by Senator Windom in 1879 had given stimulus to the +migration.[6] Many southerners said that speculators in Kansas had adopted +this plan to increase the value of their land. Then there were other +theories as to the fundamental causes, each consisting of a charge of one +political faction that some other had given rise to the movement, varying +according as they were Bourbons, conservatives, native white Republicans, +carpet-bag Republicans, or black Republicans. + +Impartial observers, however, were satisfied that the movement was +spontaneous to the extent that the blacks were ready and willing to go. +Probably no more inducement was offered them than to other citizens among +whom land companies sent agents to distribute literature. But the +fundamental causes of the unrest were economic, for since the Civil War +race troubles have never been sufficient to set in motion a large number +of Negroes. The discontent resulted from the land-tenure and credit +systems, which had restored slavery in a modified form.[7] + +After the Civil War a few Negroes in those parts, where such opportunities +were possible, invested in real estate offered for sale by the +impoverished and ruined planters of the conquered commonwealths. When, +however, the Negroes lost their political power, their property was seized +on the plea for delinquent taxes and they were forced into the ghetto of +towns and cities, as it became a crime punishable by social proscription +to sell Negroes desirable residences. The aim was to debase all Negroes to +the status of menial labor in conformity with the usual contention of the +South that slavery is the normal condition of the blacks.[8] + +Most of the land of the South, however, always remained as large tracts +held by the planters of cotton, who never thought of alienating it to the +Negroes to make them a race of small farmers. In fact, they had not the +means to make extensive purchases of land, even if the planters had been +disposed to transfer it. Still subject to the experimentation of white +men, the Negroes accepted the plan of paying them wages; but this failed +in all parts except in the sugar district, where the blacks remained +contented save when disturbed by political movements. They then tried all +systems of working on shares in the cotton districts; but this was finally +abandoned because the planters in some cases were not able to advance the +Negro tenant supplies, pending the growth of the crop, and some found the +Negro too indifferent and lazy to make the partnership desirable. Then +came the renting system which during the Reconstruction period was general +in the cotton districts. This system threw the tenant on his own +responsibility and frequently made him the victim of his own ignorance and +the rapacity of the white man. As exorbitant prices were charged for rent, +usually six to ten dollars an acre for land worth fifteen to thirty +dollars an acre, the Negro tenant not only did not accumulate anything but +had reason to rejoice at the end of the year, if he found himself out of +debt.[9] + +Along with this went the credit system which furnished the capstone of the +economic structure so harmful to the Negro tenant. This system made the +Negroes dependent for their living on an advance of supplies of food, +clothing or tools during the year, secured by a lien on the crop when +harvested. As the Negroes had no chance to learn business methods during +the days of slavery, they fell a prey to a class of loan sharks, harpies +and vampires, who established stores everywhere to extort from these +ignorant tenants by the mischievous credit system their whole income +before their crops could be gathered.[10] Some planters who sympathized +with the Negroes brought forward the scheme of protecting them by +advancing certain necessities at more reasonable prices. As the planter +himself, however, was subject to usury, the scheme did not give much +relief. The Negroes' crop, therefore, when gathered went either to the +merchant or to the planter to pay the rent; for the merchant's supplies +were secured by a mortgage on the tenant's personal property and a pledge +of the growing crop. This often prevented Negro laborers in the employ of +black tenants from getting their wages at the end of the year, for, +although the laborer had also a lien on the growing crop, the merchant and +the planter usually had theirs recorded first and secured thereby the +support of the law to force the payment of their claims. The Negro tenant +then began the year with three mortgages, covering all he owned, his labor +for the coming year and all he expected to acquire during that +twelvemonth. He paid "one-third of his product for the use of the land, he +paid an exorbitant fee for recording the contract by which he paid his +pound of flesh; he was charged two or three times as much as he ought to +pay for ginning his cotton; and, finally, he turned over his crop to be +eaten up in commissions, if any was still left to him."[11] + +The worst of all results from this iniquitous system was its effect on the +Negroes themselves. It made the Negroes extravagant and unscrupulous. +Convinced that no share of their crop would come to them when harvested, +they did not exert themselves to produce what they could. They often +abandoned their crops before harvest, knowing that they had already spent +them. In cases, however, where the Negro tenants had acquired mules, +horses or tools upon which the speculator had a mortgage, the blacks were +actually bound to their landlords to secure the property. It was soon +evident that in the end the white man himself was the loser by this evil +system. There appeared waste places in the country. Improvements were +wanting, land lay idle for lack of sufficient labor, and that which was +cultivated yielded a diminishing return on account of the ignorance and +improvidence of those tilling it. These Negroes as a rule had lost the +ambition to become landowners, preferring to invest their surplus money in +personal effects; and in the few cases where the Negroes were induced to +undertake the buying of land, they often tired of the responsibility and +gave it up.[12] + +There began in the spring of 1879, therefore, an emigration of the Negroes +from Louisiana and Mississippi to Kansas. For some time there was a +stampede from several river parishes in Louisiana and from counties just +opposite them in Mississippi. It was estimated that from five to ten +thousand left their homes before the movement could be checked. Persons of +influence soon busied themselves in showing the blacks the necessity for +remaining in the South and those who had not then gone or prepared to go +were persuaded to return to the plantations. This lull in the excitement, +however, was merely temporary, for many Negroes had merely returned home +to make more extensive preparations for leaving the following spring. The +movement was accelerated by the work of two Negro leaders of some note, +Moses Singleton, of Tennessee, the self-styled Moses of the Exodus; and +Henry Adams, of Louisiana, who credited himself with having organized for +this purpose as many as 98,000 blacks. + +Taking this movement seriously a convention of the leading whites and +blacks was held at Vicksburg, Mississippi, on the sixth of May, 1879. This +body was controlled mainly by unsympathetic but diplomatic whites. General +N.R. Miles, of Yazoo County, Mississippi, was elected president and A.W. +Crandall, of Louisiana, secretary. After making some meaningless but +eloquent speeches the convention appointed a committee on credentials and +adjourned until the following day. On reassembling Colonel W.L. Nugent, +chairman of the committee, presented a certain preamble and +resolutions citing causes of the exodus and suggesting remedies. Among the +causes, thought he, were: "the low price of cotton and the partial failure +of the crop, the irrational system of planting adopted in some sections +whereby labor was deprived of intelligence to direct it and the presence +of economy to make it profitable, the vicious system of credit fostered by +laws permitting laborers and tenants to mortgage crops before they were +grown or even planted; the apprehension on the part of many colored people +produced by insidious reports circulated among them that their civil and +political rights were endangered or were likely to be; the hurtful and +false rumors diligently disseminated, that by emigrating to Kansas the +Negroes would obtain lands, mules and money from the government without +cost to themselves, and become independent forever."[13] + +Referring to the grievances and proposing a redress, the committee +admitted that errors had been committed by the whites and blacks alike, as +each in turn had controlled the government of the States there +represented. The committee believed that the interests of planters and +laborers, landlords and tenants were identical; that they must prosper or +suffer together; and that it was the duty of the planters and landlords of +the State there represented to devise and adopt some contract by which +both parties would receive the full benefit of labor governed by +intelligence and economy. The convention affirmed that the Negro race had +been placed by the constitution of the United States and the States there +represented, and the laws thereof, on a plane of absolute equality with +the white race; and declared that the Negro race should be accorded the +practical enjoyment of all civil and political rights guaranteed by the +said constitutions and laws. The convention pledged itself to use whatever +of power and influence it possessed to protect the Negro race against all +dangers in respect to the fair expression of their wills at the polls, +which they apprehended might result from fraud, intimidation or +_bulldozing_ on the part of the whites. And as there could be no +liberty of action without freedom of thought, they demanded that all +elections should be fair and free and that no repressive measures should +be employed by the Negroes "to deprive their own race in part of the +fullest freedom in the exercise of the highest right of citizenship."[14] + +The committee then recommended the abolition of the mischievous credit +system, called upon the Negroes to contradict false reports as to crimes +of the whites against them and, after considering the Negroes' right to +emigrate, urged that they proceed about it with reason. Ex-Governor Foote, +of Mississippi, submitted a plan to establish in every county a committee, +composed of men who had the confidence of both whites and blacks, to be +auxiliary to the public authorities, to listen to complaints and +arbitrate, advise, conciliate or prosecute, as each case should demand. +But unwilling to do more than make temporary concessions, the majority +rejected Foote's plan.[15] + +The whites thought also to stop the exodus by inducing the steamboat lines +not to furnish the emigrants' transportation. Negroes were also +detained by writs obtained by preferring against them false charges. Some, +who were willing to let the Negroes go, thought of importing white and +Chinese labor to take their places. Hearing of the movement and thinking +that he could offer a remedy, Senator D.W. Voorhees, of Indiana, +introduced a resolution in the United States Senate authorizing an inquiry +into the causes of the exodus.[16] The movement, however, could not be +stopped and it became so widespread that the people in general were forced +to give it serious thought. Men in favor of it declared their views, +organized migration societies and appointed agents to promote the +enterprise of removing the freedmen from the South. + +Becoming a national measure, therefore, the migration evoked expressions +from Frederick Douglass and Richard T. Greener, two of the most prominent +Negroes in the United States. Douglass believed that the exodus was +ill-timed. He saw in it the abandonment of the great principle of +protection to persons and property in every State of the Union. He felt +that if the Negroes could not be protected in every State, the Federal +Government was shorn of its rightful dignity and power, the late rebellion +had triumphed, the sovereign of the nation was an empty vessel, and the +power and authority in individual States were supreme. He thought, +therefore, that it was better for the Negroes to stay in the South than to +go North, as the South was a better market for the black man's labor. +Douglass believed that the Negroes should be warned against a nomadic +life. He did not see any more benefit in the migration to Kansas than he +had years before in the emigration to Africa. The Negroes had a monopoly +of labor at the South and they would be too insignificant in numbers to +have such an advantage in the North. The blacks were then potentially able +to elect members of Congress in the South but could not hope to exercise +such power in other parts. Douglass believed, moreover, that this exodus +did not conform to the "laws of civilizing migration," as the carrying of +a language, literature and the like of a superior race to an inferior; and +it did not conform to the geographic laws assuring healthy migration from +east to west in the same latitude, as this was from south to north, far +away from the climate in which the migrants were born.[17] + +The exodus of the Negroes, however, was heartily endorsed by Richard T. +Greener. He did not consider it the best remedy for the lawlessness of the +South but felt that it was a salutary one. He did not expect the United +States to give the oppressed blacks in the South the protection they +needed, as there is no abstract limit to the right of a State to do +anything. He would not encourage the Negro to lead a wandering life but in +that instance such advice was gratuitous. Greener failed to find any +analogy between African colonization and migration to the West as the +former was promoted by slaveholders to remove the free Negro from the +country and the other sprang spontaneously from the class considering +itself aggrieved. "One led out of the country to a comparative wilderness; +the other directed to a better land and larger opportunities." He did not +see how the migration to the North would diminish the potentiality of the +Negro in politics, for Massachusetts first elected Negroes to her General +Court, Ohio had nominated a Negro representative and Illinois another. He +showed also that Mr. Douglass's objection on the grounds of migrating from +south to north rather than from east to west was not historical. He +thought little of the advice to the Negroes to stick and fight it out, for +he had evidence that the return of the unreconstructed Confederates to +power in the South would for generations doom the blacks to political +oppression unknown in the annals of a free country. + +Greener showed foresight here in urging the Negroes to take up desirable +western land before it would be preempted by foreigners. As the Swedes, +Norwegians, Irish, Hebrews and others were organizing societies and +raising funds to promote the migration of their needy to these lands, why +should the Negroes be debarred? Greener had no apprehension as to the +treatment the Negroes would receive in the West. He connected the movement +too with the general welfare of the blacks, considering it a promising +sign that they had learned to run from persecution. Having passed their +first stage, that of appealing to philanthropists, the Negroes were then +appealing to themselves.[18] + +Feeling very much as Greener did, these Negroes rushed into Kansas and +neighboring States in 1879. So many came that some systematic relief had +to be offered. Mrs. Comstock, a Quaker lady, organized for this purpose +the Kansas Freedmen's Relief Association, to raise funds and secure for +them food and clothing. In this work she had the support of Governor J.P. +Saint John. There was much suffering upon arriving in Kansas but relief +came from various sources. During this year $40,000 and 500,000 pounds of +clothing, bedding and the like were used. England contributed 50,000 +pounds of goods and $8,000. In 1879, the refugees took up 20,000 acres of +land and brought 3,000 under cultivation. The Relief Association at first +furnished them with supplies, teams and seed, which they profitably used +in the production of large crops. Desiring to establish homes, they built +300 cabins and saved $30,000 the first year. In April, 1,300 refugees had +gathered around Wyandotte alone. Up to that date 60,000 had come to +Kansas, nearly 40,000 of whom arrived in destitute condition. About 30,000 +settled in the country, some on rented lands and others on farms as +laborers, leaving about 25,000 in cities, where on account of crowded +conditions and the hard weather many greatly suffered. Upon finding +employment, however, they all did well, most of them becoming +self-supporting within one year after their arrival, and few of them +coming back to the Relief Association for aid the second time.[19] This +was especially true of those in Topeka, Parsons and Kansas City. + +The people of Kansas did not encourage the blacks to come. They even sent +messengers to the South to advise the Negroes not to migrate and, if they +did come anyway, to provide themselves with equipment. When they did +arrive, however, they welcomed and assisted them as human beings. Under +such conditions the blacks established five or six important colonies in +Kansas alone between 1879 and 1880. Chief among these were Baxter Springs, +Nicodemus, Morton City and Singleton. Governor Saint John, of Kansas, +reported that they seemed to be honest and of good habits, were certainly +industrious and anxious to work, and so far as they had been tried had +proved to be faithful and excellent laborers. Giving his observations +there, Sir George Campbell bore testimony to the same report.[20] Out of +these communities have come some most progressive black citizens. In +consideration of their desirability their white neighbors have given them +their cooperation, secured to them the advantages of democratic education, +and honored a few of them with some of the most important positions in the +State. + +Although the greater number of these blacks went to Kansas, about 5,000 of +them sought refuge in other Western States. During these years, Negroes +gradually invaded Indian Territory and increased the number already +infiltrated into and assimilated by the Indian nations. When assured of +their friendly attitude toward the Indians, the Negroes were accepted by +them as equals, even during the days of slavery when the blacks on account +of the cruelties of their masters escaped to the wilderness.[21] Here we +are at sea as to the extent to which this invasion and subsequent +miscegenation of the black and red races extended for the reason that +neither the Indians nor these migrating Negroes kept records and the +United States Government has been disposed to classify all mixed breeds in +tribes as Indians. Having equal opportunity among the red men, the Negroes +easily succeeded. A traveler in Indian Territory in 1880 found their +condition unusually favorable. The cosy homes and promising fields of +these freedmen attracted his attention as striking evidences of their +thrift. He saw new fences, additions to cabins, new barns, churches and +school-houses indicating prosperity. Given every privilege which the +Indians themselves enjoyed, the Negroes could not be other than +contented.[22] + +It was very unfortunate, however, that in 1889, when by proclamation of +President Harrison the Oklahoma Territory was thrown open, the intense +race prejudice of the white immigrants and the rule of the mob prevented a +larger number of Negroes from settling in that promising commonwealth. +Long since extensively advertised as valuable, the land of Oklahoma had +become a coveted prize for the adventurous squatters invading the +territory in defiance of the law before it was declared open for +settlement. The rush came with all the excitement of pioneer days +redoubled. Stakes were set, parcels of land were claimed, cabins were +constructed in an hour and towns grew up in a day.[23] Then came +conflicting claims as to titles and rights of preemption culminating in +fighting and bloodshed. And worst of all, with this disorderly group there +developed the fixed policy of eliminating the Negroes entirely. + +The Negro, however, was not entirely excluded. Some had already come into +the territory and others in spite of the barriers set up continued to +come.[24] With the cooperation of the Indians, with whom they easily +amalgamated they readjusted themselves and acquired sufficient wealth to +rise in the economic world. Although not generally fortunate, a number of +them have coal and oil lands from which they obtain handsome incomes and a +few, like Sara Rector, have actually become rich. Dishonest white men with +the assistance of unprincipled officials have defrauded and are still +endeavoring to defraud these Negroes of their property, lending them money +secured by mortgages and obtaining for themselves through the courts +appointments as the Negroes' guardians. They turn out to be the robbers of +the Negroes, in case they do not live in a community where an enlightened +public opinion frowns down upon this crime. + +During the later eighties and the early nineties there were some other +interstate movements worthy of notice here. The mineral wealth of the +Appalachian mountains was being exploited. Foreigners, at first, were +coming into this country in sufficiently large numbers to meet the demand; +but when this supply became inadequate, labor agents appealed to the +blacks in the South. Negroes then flocked to the mining districts of +Birmingham, Alabama, and to East Tennessee. A large number also migrated +from North Carolina and Virginia to West Virginia and some few of the same +group to Southern Ohio to take the places of those unreasonable strikers +who often demanded larger increases in wages than the income of their +employers could permit. Many of these Negroes came to West Virginia as is +evidenced by the increase in Negro population of that State. West Virginia +had a Negro population of 17,980 in 1870; 25,886 in 1880; 32,690 in 1890; +43,499 in 1900; and 64,173 in 1910.[25] + + +[Footnote 1: _Atlantic Monthly_, LXIV, p. 222; _Nation_, XXVIII, +pp. 242, 386.] + +[Footnote 2: Thompson, _Reconstruction in Georgia_, p. 69.] + +[Footnote 3: Williams, _History of the Negro Race_, II, p. 375.] + +[Footnote 4: Williams, _History of the Negro Race_, II, p. 374.] + +[Footnote 5: American _Journal of Social Science_, XI, p. 34.] + +[Footnote 6: _Ibid._, XI, p. 33.] + +[Footnote 7: _Nation_, XXVIII, pp. 242, 386.] + +[Footnote 8: Williams, _History of the Negro Race_, II, p. 378.] + +[Footnote 9: _Atlantic Monthly_, LXIV, p. 225.] + +[Footnote 10: _Ibid._, LXIV, p. 226.] + +[Footnote 11: _Atlantic Monthly_, LXIV, p. 224.] + +[Footnote 12: _The Atlantic Monthly_, XLIV, p. 223.] + +[Footnote 13: _The Vicksburg Daily Commercial_, May 6, 1879.] + +[Footnote 14: _The Vicksburg Daily Commercial_, May 6, 1879.] + +[Footnote 15: _Ibid._, May 6, 1879.] + +[Footnote 16: _Congressional Record_, 46th Congress, 2d Session, Vol. +X, p. 104.] + +[Footnote 17: For a detailed statement of Douglass's views, see the +_American Journal of Social Science_, XI, pp. 1-21.] + +[Footnote 18: _American Journal of Social Science_, XI, pp. 22-35.] + +[Footnote 19: Williams, _History of the Negro_, II, p. 379.] + +[Footnote 20: "In Kansas City," said Sir George Campbell, "and still more +in the suburbs of Kansas proper the Negroes are much more numerous than I +have yet seen. On the Kansas side they form quite a large proportion of +the population. They are certainly subject to no indignity or ill usage. +There the Negroes seem to have quite taken to work at trades." He saw them +doing building work, both alone and assisting white men, and also painting +and other tradesmen's work. On the Kansas side, he found a Negro +blacksmith, with an establishment of his own. He had come from Tennessee +after emancipation. He had not been back there and did not want to go. He +also saw black women keeping apple stalls and engaged in other such +occupations so as to leave him under the impression that in the States, +which he called intermediate between black and white countries the blacks +evidently had no difficulty.--See _American Journal of Social +Science_, XI, pp. 32, 33.] + +[Footnote 21: _American Journal of Social Science_, XI, p. 33.] + +[Footnote 22: _Ibid._, XI, p. 33.] + +[Footnote 23: _Spectator_, LXVII, p. 571; _Dublin Review_, CV, +p. 187; _Cosmopolitan_, VII, p. 460; _Nation_, LXVIII, p. 279.] + +[Footnote 24: According to the _United States Census, of 1910_, there +are 137,612 Negroes in Oklahoma.] + +[Footnote 25: See _Censuses_ of the United States.] + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE MIGRATION OF THE TALENTED TENTH + + +In spite of these interstate movements, the Negro still continued as a +perplexing problem, for the country was unprepared to grant the race +political and civil rights. Nominal equality was forced on the South at +the point of the sword and the North reluctantly removed most of its +barriers against the blacks. Some, still thinking, however, that the two +races could not live together as equals, advocated ceding the blacks the +region on the Gulf of Mexico.[1] This was branded as chimerical on the +ground that, deprived of the guidance of the whites, these States would +soon sink to African level and the end of the experiment would be a +reconquest and a military regime fatal to the true development of American +institutions.[2] Another plan proposed was the revival of the old +colonization idea of sending Negroes to Africa, but this exhibited still +less wisdom than the first in that it was based on the hypothesis of +deporting a nation, an expense which no government would be willing to +incur. There were then no physical means of transporting six or seven +millions of people, moreover, as there would be a new born for every one +the agents of colonization could deport.[3] + +With the deportation scheme still kept before the people by the American +Colonization Society, the idea of emigration to Africa did not easily die. +Some Negroes continued to emigrate to Liberia from year to year. This +policy was also favored by radicals like Senator Morgan, of Alabama, who, +after movements like the Ku Klux Klan had done their work of intimidating +Negroes into submission to the domination of the whites, concluded that +most of the race believed that there was no future for the blacks in the +United States and that they were willing to emigrate. These radicals +advocated the deportation of the blacks to prevent the recurrence of +"Negro domination." This plan was acceptable to the whites in general +also, for, unlike the consensus of opinion of today, it was then thought +that the South could get along without the Negro.[4] Even newspapers like +the _Charleston News and Courier_, which denounced the persecution of +the Negroes, urged them to emigrate to Africa as they could not be +permitted to rule over the white people. The _Minneapolis Times_ +wished the scheme success and Godspeed and believed that the sooner it was +carried out the better it would be for the Negroes. + +Most of the influential newspapers of the country, however, urged the +contrary. Citing the progress of the Negroes since emancipation to show +that the blacks were doing their full share toward developing the wealth +of the South, the _Indianapolis Journal_ characterized as barbarism +the suggestion that the government should furnish them transportation to +Africa. "The ancestors of most of the Negroes now in this country," said +the editor, "have doubtless been here as long as those of Senator Morgan, +and their descendants are as thoroughly acclimated and have as good a +right here as the Senator himself."[5] This was the opinion of all useful +Negroes except Bishop H.M. Turner, who endorsed Morgan's plan by +advocating the emigration of one fourth of the blacks to Africa. The +editor of the _Chicago Record-Herald_ entreated Turner to temper his +enthusiasm with discretion before he involved in unspeakable disaster any +more of his trustful compatriots. + +Speaking more plainly to the point, the editor of the _Philadelphia +North American_ said that the true interest of the South was to +accommodate itself to changed conditions and that the duty of the freedmen +lies in making themselves worth more in the development of the South than +they were as chattels. Although recognizing the disabilities and hardships +of the South both to the whites and the blacks, he could not believe that +the elimination of the Negroes would, if practicable, give relief.[6] The +_Boston Herald_ inquired whether it was worth while to send away a +laboring population in the absence of whites to take its place and +referred to the misfortunes of Spain which undertook to carry out such a +scheme. Speaking the real truth, _The Milwaukee Journal_ said that no +one needed to expect any appreciable decrease in the black population +through any possible emigration, no matter how successful it might be. +"The Negro," said the editor, "is here to stay and our institutions must +be adapted to comprehend him and develop his possibilities." _The +Colored American_, then the leading Negro organ of thought in the +United States, believed that the Negroes should be thankful to Senator +Morgan for his attitude on emigration, because he might succeed in +deporting to Africa those Negroes who affect to believe that this is not +their home and the more quickly we get rid of such foolhardy people the +better it will be for the stalwart of the race.[7] + +A number of Negroes, however, under the inspiration of leaders[8] like +Bishop H.M. Turner, did not feel that the race had a fair chance in the +United States. A few of them emigrated to Wapimo, Mexico; but, becoming +dissatisfied with the situation there, they returned to their homes in +Georgia and Alabama in 1895. The coming of the Negroes into Mexico caused +suspicion and excitement. A newspaper, _El Tiempo_, which had been +denouncing lynching in the United States, changed front when these Negroes +arrived in that country. + +Going in quest of new opportunities and desiring to reenforce the +civilization of Liberia, 197 other Negroes sailed from Savannah, Georgia, +for Liberia, March 19, 1895. Commending this step, the _Macon +Telegraph_ referred to their action as a rebellion against the social +laws which govern all people of this country. This organ further said that +it was the outcome of a feeling which has grown stronger and stronger year +by year among the Negroes of the Southern States and which will continue +to grow with the increase of education and intelligence among them. The +editor conceded that they had an opportunity to better their material +condition and acquire wealth here but contended that they had no chance to +rise out of the peasant class. The _Memphis Commercial Appeal_ urged +the building of a large Negro nation in Africa as practicable and +desirable, for it was "more and more apparent that the Negro in this +country must remain an alien and a disturber," because there was "not and +can never be a future for him in this country." The _Florida Times +Union_ felt that this colonization scheme, like all others, was a +fraud. It referred to the Negro's being carried to the land of plenty only +to find out that there, as everywhere else in the world, an existence must +be earned by toil and that his own old sunny southern home is vastly the +better place.[9] + +Only a few intelligent Negroes, however, had reached the position of being +contented in the South. The Negroes eliminated from politics could not +easily bring themselves around to thinking that they should remain there +in a state of recognized inferiority, especially when during the eighties +and nineties there were many evidences that economic as well as political +conditions would become worse. The exodus treated in the previous chapter +was productive of better treatment for the Negroes and an increase in +their wages in certain parts of the South but the migration, contrary to +the expectations of many, did not become general. Actual prosperity was +impossible even if the whites had been willing to give the Negro peasants +a fair chance. The South had passed through a disastrous war, the effects +of which so blighted the hopes of its citizens in the economic world that +their land seemed to pass, so to speak, through a dark age. There was then +little to give the man far down when the one to whom he of necessity +looked for employment was in his turn bled by the merchant or the banker +of the larger cities, to whom he had to go for extensive credits.[10] + +Southern planters as a class, however, had not much sympathy for the +blacks who had once been their property and the tendency to cheat them +continued, despite the fact that many farmers in the course of time +extricated themselves from the clutches of the loan sharks. There were a +few Negroes who, thanks to the honesty of certain southern gentlemen, +succeeded in acquiring considerable property in spite of their +handicaps.[11] They yielded to the white man's control in politics, when +it seemed that it meant either to abandon that field or die, and devoted +themselves to the accumulation of wealth and the acquisition of education. + +This concession, however, did not satisfy the radical whites, as they +thought that the Negro might some day return to power. Unfortunately, +therefore, after the restoration of the control of the State governments +to the master class, there swept over these commonwealths a wave of +hostile legislation demanded by the poor white uplanders determined to +debase the blacks to the status of the free Negroes prior to the Civil +War.[12] The Negroes have, therefore, been disfranchised in most +reconstructed States, deprived of the privilege of serving in the State +militia, segregated in public conveyances, and excluded from public places +of entertainment. They have, moreover, been branded by public opinion as +pariahs of society to be used for exploitation but not to be encouraged to +expect that their status can ever be changed so as to destroy the barriers +between the races in their social and political relations. + +This period has been marked also by an effort to establish in the South a +system of peonage not unlike that of Mexico, a sort of involuntary +servitude in that one is considered legally bound to serve his master +until a debt contracted is paid. Such laws have been enacted in Florida, +Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina and South Carolina. No such +distinction in law has been able to stand the constitutional test of the +United States courts as was evidenced by the decision of the Supreme Court +in 1911 declaring the Alabama law unconstitutional.[13] But the planters +of the South, still a law unto themselves, have maintained actual slavery +in sequestered; districts where public opinion against peonage is too weak +to support federal authorities in exterminating it.[14] The Negroes +themselves dare not protest under penalty of persecution and the peon +concerned usually accepts his lot like that of a slave. Some years ago it +was commonly reported that in trying to escape, the persons undertaking it +often fail and suffer death at the hands of the planter or of murderous +mobs, giving as their excuse, if any be required, that the Negro is a +desperado or some other sort of criminal. + +Unfortunately this reaction extended also to education. Appropriations to +public schools for Negroes diminished from year to year and when there +appeared practical leaders with, their sane plan for industrial education +the South ignorantly accepted this scheme as a desirable subterfuge for +seeming to support Negro education and at the same time directing the +development of the blacks in such a way that they would never become the +competitors of the white people. This was not these educators' idea but +the South so understood it and in effecting the readjustment, practically +left the Negroes out of the pale of the public school systems. +Consequently, there has been added to the Negroes' misfortunes, in the +South, that of being unable to obtain liberal education at public expense, +although they themselves, as the largest consumers in some parts, pay most +of the taxes appropriated to the support of schools for the youth of the +other race.[15] + +The South, moreover, has adopted the policy of a more general intimidation +of the Negroes to keep them down. The lynching of the blacks, at first for +assaults on white women and later for almost any offense, has rapidly +developed as an institution. Within the past fifty years [16] there have +been lynched in the South about 4,000 Negroes, many of whom have been +publicly burned in the daytime to attract crowds that usually enjoy such +feats as the tourney of the Middle Ages. Negroes who have the courage to +protest against this barbarism have too often been subjected to +indignities and in some cases forced to leave their communities or suffer +the fate of those in behalf of whom they speak. These crimes of white men +were at first kept secret but during the last two generations the culprits +have become known as heroes, so popular has it been to murder Negroes. It +has often been discovered also that the officers of these communities take +part in these crimes and the worst of all is that politicians like +Tillman, Blease and Vardaman glory in recounting the noble deeds of those +who deserve so well of their countrymen for making the soil red with the +Negroes' blood rather than permit the much feared Africanization of +southern institutions.[17] + +In this harassing situation the Negro has hoped that the North would +interfere in his behalf, but, with the reactionary Supreme Court of the +United States interpreting this hostile legislation as constitutional in +conformity with the demands of prejudiced public opinion, and with the +leaders of the North inclined to take the view that after all the factions +in the South must be left alone to fight it out, there has been nothing to +be expected from without. Matters too have been rendered much worse +because the leaders of the very party recently abandoning the freedmen to +their fate, aggravated the critical situation by first setting the Negroes +against their former masters, whom they were taught to regard as their +worst enemies whether they were or not. + +The last humiliation the Negroes have been forced to submit to is that of +segregation. Here the effort has been to establish a ghetto in cities and +to assign certain parts of the country to Negroes engaged in farming. It +always happens, of course, that the best portion goes to the whites and +the least desirable to the blacks, although the promoters of the +segregation maintain that both races are to be treated equally. The +ultimate aim is to prevent the Negroes of means from figuring +conspicuously in aristocratic districts where they may be brought into +rather close contact with the whites. Negroes see in segregation a settled +policy to keep them down, no matter what they do to elevate themselves. +The southern white man, eternally dreading the miscegenation of the races, +makes the life, liberty and happiness of individuals second to measures +considered necessary to prevent this so-called evil that this enviable +civilization, distinctly American, may not be destroyed. The United States +Supreme Court in the decision of the Louisville segregation case recently +declared these segregation measures unconstitutional.[18] + +These restrictions have made the progress of the Negroes more of a problem +in that directed toward social distinction, the Negroes have been denied +the helpful contact of the sympathetic whites. The increasing race +prejudice forces the whites to restrict their open dealing with the blacks +to matters of service and business, maintaining even then the bearing of +one in a sphere which the Negroes must not penetrate. The whites, +therefore, never seeing the blacks as they are, and the blacks never being +able to learn what the whites know, are thrown back on their own +initiative, which their life as slaves could not have permitted to +develop. It makes little difference that the Negroes have been free a few +decades. Such freedom has in some parts been tantamount to slavery, and so +far as contact with the superior class is concerned, no better than that +condition; for under the old regime certain slaves did learn much by close +association with their masters.[19] + +For these reasons there has been since the exodus to the West a steady +migration of Negroes from the South to points in the North. But this +migration, mainly due to political changes, has never assumed such large +proportions as in the case of the more significant movements due to +economic causes, for, as the accompanying map shows, most Negroes are +still in the South. When we consider the various classes migrating, +however, it will be apparent that to understand the exodus of the Negroes +to the North, this longer drawn out and smaller movement must be carefully +studied in all its ramifications. It should be noted that unlike some of +the other migrations it has not been directed to any particular State. It +has been from almost all Southern States to various parts of the North and +especially to the largest cities.[20] + +What classes then have migrated? In the first place, the Negro +politicians, who, after the restoration of Bourbon rule in the South, +found themselves thrown out of office and often humiliated and +impoverished, had to find some way out of the difficulty. Some few have +been relieved by sympathetic leaders of the Republican party, who secured +for them federal appointments in Washington. These appointments when +sometimes paying lucrative salaries have been given as a reward to those +Negroes who, although dethroned in the South, remain in touch with the +remnant of the Republican party there and control the delegates to the +national conventions nominating candidates for President. Many Negroes of +this class have settled in Washington.[21] In some cases, the observer +witnesses the pitiable scene of a man once a prominent public functionary +in the South now serving in Washington as a messenger or a clerk. + +The well-established blacks, however, have not been so easily induced to +go. The Negroes in business in the South have usually been loath to leave +their people among whom they can acquire property, whereas, if they go to +the North, they have merely political freedom with no assurance of an +opportunity in the economic world. But not a few of these have given +themselves up to unrelenting toil with a view to accumulating sufficient +wealth to move North and live thereafter on the income from their +investments. Many of this class now spend some of their time in the North +to educate their children. But they do not like to have these children who +have been under refining influences return to the South to suffer the +humiliation which during the last generation has been growing more and +more aggravating. Endeavoring to carry out their policy of keeping the +Negro down, southerners too often carefully plan to humiliate the +progressive and intelligent blacks and in some cases form mobs to drive +them out, as they are bad examples for that class of Negroes whom they +desire to keep as menials.[22] + +There are also the migrating educated Negroes. They have studied history, +law and economics and well understand what it is to get the rights +guaranteed them by the constitution. The more they know the more +discontented they become. They cannot speak out for what they want. No one +is likely to second such a protest, not even the Negroes themselves, so +generally have they been intimidated. The more outspoken they become, +moreover, the more necessary is it for them to leave, for they thereby +destroy their chances to earn a livelihood. White men in control of the +public schools of the South see to it that the subserviency of the Negro +teachers employed be certified beforehand. They dare not complain too much +about equipment and salaries even if the per capita appropriation for the +education of the Negroes be one fourth of that for the whites.[23] + +In the higher institutions of learning, especially the State schools, it +is exceptional to find a principal who has the confidence of the Negroes. +The Negroes will openly assert that he is in the pay of the reactionary +whites, whose purpose is to keep the Negro down; and the incumbent himself +will tell his board of regents how much he is opposed by the Negroes +because he labors for the interests of the white race. Out of such +sycophancy it is easily explained why our State schools have been so +ineffective as to necessitate the sending of the Negro youth to private +institutions maintained by northern philanthropy. Yet if an outspoken +Negro happens to be an instructor in a private school conducted by +educators from the North, he has to be careful about contending for a +square deal; for, if the head of his institution does not suggest to him +to proceed conservatively, the mob will dispose of the complainant.[24] +Physicians, lawyers and preachers, who are not so economically dependent +as teachers can exercise no more freedom of speech in the midst of this +triumphant rule of the lawless. + +A large number of educated Negroes, therefore, have on account of these +conditions been compelled to leave the South. Finding in the North, +however, practically nothing in their line to do, because of the +proscription by race prejudice and trades unions, many of them lead the +life of menials, serving as waiters, porters, butlers and chauffeurs. +While in Chicago, not long ago, the writer was in the office of a graduate +of a colored southern college, who was showing his former teacher the +picture of his class. In accounting for his classmates in the various +walks of life, he reported that more than one third of them were settled +to the occupation of Pullman porters. + +The largest number of Negroes who have gone North during this period, +however, belong to the intelligent laboring class. Some of them have +become discontented for the very same reasons that the higher classes have +tired of oppression in the South, but the larger number of them have gone +North to improve their economic condition. Most of these have migrated to +the large cities in the East and Northwest, such as Philadelphia, New +York, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Columbus, Detroit and Chicago. +To understand this problem in its urban aspects the accompanying diagram +showing the increase in the Negro population of northern cities during the +first decade of this century will be helpful. + +Some of these Negroes have migrated after careful consideration; others +have just happened to go north as wanderers; and a still larger number on +the many excursions to the cities conducted by railroads during the summer +months. Sometimes one excursion brings to Chicago two or three thousand +Negroes, two thirds of whom never go back. They do not often follow the +higher pursuits of labor in the North but they earn more money than they +have been accustomed to earn in the South. They are attracted also by the +liberal attitude of some whites, which, although not that of social +equality, gives the Negroes a liberty in northern centers which leads them +to think that they are citizens of the country.[25] + +This shifting in the population has had an unusually significant effect on +the black belt. Frederick Douglass advised the Negroes in 1879 to remain +in the South where they would be in sufficiently large numbers to have +political power,[26] but they have gradually scattered from the black belt +so as to diminish greatly their chances ever to become the political force +they formerly were in this country. The Negroes once had this possibility +in South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana and, had +the process of Africanization prior to the Civil War had a few decades +longer to do its work, there would not have been any doubt as to the +ultimate preponderance of the Negroes in those commonwealths. The +tendencies of the black population according to the censuses of the United +States and especially that of 1910, however, show that the chances for the +control of these State governments by Negroes no longer exist except in +South Carolina and Mississippi.[27] It has been predicted, therefore, +that, if the same tendencies continue for the next fifty years, there will +be even few counties in which the Negroes will be in a majority. All of +the Southern States except Arkansas showed a proportionate increase of the +white population over that of the black between 1900 and 1910, while West +Virginia and Oklahoma with relatively small numbers of blacks showed, for +reasons stated elsewhere, an increase in the Negro population. Thus we see +coming to pass something like the proposed plan of Jefferson and other +statesmen who a hundred years ago advocated the expansion of slavery to +lessen the evil of the institution by distributing its burdens.[28] + +The migration of intelligent blacks, however, has been attended with +several handicaps to the race. The large part of the black population is +in the South and there it will stay for decades to come. The southern +Negroes, therefore, have been robbed of their due part of the talented +tenth. The educated blacks have had no constituency in the North and, +consequently, have been unable to realize their sweetest dreams of the +land of the free. In their new home the enlightened Negro must live with +his light under a bushel. Those left behind in the South soon despair of +seeing a brighter day and yield to the yoke. In the places of the leaders +who were wont to speak for their people, the whites have raised up Negroes +who accept favors offered them on the condition that their lips be sealed +up forever on the rights of the Negro. + +This emigration too has left the Negro subject to other evils. There are +many first-class Negro business men in the South, but although there were +once progressive men of color, who endeavored to protect the blacks from +being plundered by white sharks and harpies there have arisen numerous +unscrupulous Negroes who have for a part of the proceeds from such jobbery +associated themselves with ill-designing white men to dupe illiterate +Negroes. This trickery is brought into play in marketing their crops, +selling them supplies, or purchasing their property. To carry out this +iniquitous plan the persons concerned have the protection of the law, for +while Negroes in general are imposed upon, those engaged in robbing them +have no cause to fear. + + +[Footnote 1: Pike, _The Prostrate State_, pp. 3, 4.] + +[Footnote 2: _Spectator_, LXVI, p. 113.] + +[Footnote 3: Frederick Douglass pointed out this difficulty prior to the +Civil War.--See John Lobb's _Life and Times of Frederick Douglass_, +p. 250.] + +[Footnote 4: Labor was then cheap in the South because of its abundance +and the foreign laborer had not then been tried.] + +[Footnote 5: During these years Senator Morgan of Alabama was endeavoring +to arouse the people of the country so as to make this a matter of +national concern.] + +[Footnote 6: _Public Opinion_, XVIII, p. 371.] + +[Footnote 7: _Ibid._, XVIII, p. 371.] + +[Footnote 8: Simmons, _Men of Mark_, p. 817.] + +[Footnote 9: _Public Opinion_, XVIII, pp. 370-371.] + +[Footnote 10: Because of these conditions the last fifty years has been +considered by some writers as a "dark age," for the South.] + +[Footnote 11: The Negroes are now said to be worth more than a billion +dollars. Most of this property is in the hands of southern Negroes.] + +[Footnote 12: _American Law Review_, XL, pp. 29, 52, 205, 227, 354, +381, 547, 590, 695, 758, 865, 905.] + +[Footnote 13: No. 300.--Original, October Term, 1910.] + +[Footnote 14: Hershaw, _Peonage_, pp. 10-11.] + +[Footnote 15: These facts are well brought out by Dr. Thomas Jesse Jones' +recent report on Negro Education.] + +[Footnote 16: This is based on reports published annually in the +_Chicago Tribune_.] + +[Footnote 17: This is the boast of southern men of this type when speaking +to their constituents or in Congress.] + +[Footnote 18: _Report_, October Term, 1917.] + +[Footnote 19: This danger has been often referred to when the Negroes were +first emancipated.--See _Spectator_, LXVI, p. 113.] + +[Footnote 20: Compare the Negro population of Northern States as given in +the census of 1800 with the same in 1900.] + +[Footnote 21: Hart, _Southern South_, pp. 171, 172.] + +[Footnote 22: This is based on the experience of the writer and others +whom he has interviewed.] + +[Footnote 23: In his report on Negro education Dr. Thomas Jesse Jones has +shown this to be an actual fact.] + +[Footnote 24: Negroes applying for positions in the South have the +situation set before them so as to know what to expect.] + +[Footnote 25: The _American Journal of Political Economy_, XXV, p. +1040.] + +[Footnote 26: The _Journal of Social Science_, XI, p. 16.] + +[Footnote 27: _American Economic Review_, IV, pp. 281-292.] + +[Footnote 28: Ford edition of _Jefferson's Writings_, X, p. 231.] + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE EXODUS DURING THE WORLD WAR + + +Within the last two years there has been a steady stream of Negroes into +the North in such large numbers as to overshadow in its results all other +movements of the kind in the United States. These Negroes have come +largely from Alabama, Tennessee, Florida, Georgia, Virginia, North +Carolina, Kentucky, South Carolina, Arkansas and Mississippi. The given +causes of this migration are numerous and complicated. Some untruths +centering around this exodus have not been unlike those of other +migrations. Again we hear that the Negroes are being brought North to +fight organized labor,[1] and to carry doubtful States for the +Republicans.[2] These numerous explanations themselves, however, give rise +to doubt as to the fundamental cause. + +Why then should the Negroes leave the South? It has often been spoken of +as the best place for them. There, it is said, they have made unusual +strides forward. The progress of the Negroes in the South, however, has in +no sense been general, although the land owned by Negroes in the country +and the property of thrifty persons of their race in urban communities may +be extensive. In most parts of the South the Negroes are still unable to +become landowners or successful business men. Conditions and customs have +reserved these spheres for the whites. Generally speaking, the Negroes are +still dependent on the white people for food and shelter. Although not +exactly slaves, they are yet attached to the white people as tenants, +servants or dependents. Accepting this as their lot, they have been +content to wear their lord's cast-off clothing, and live in his +ramshackled barn or cellar. In this unhappy state so many have settled +down, losing all ambition to attain a higher station. The world has gone +on but in their sequestered sphere progress has passed them by. + +What then is the cause? There have been _bulldozing_, terrorism, +maltreatment and what not of persecution; but the Negroes have not in +large numbers wandered away from the land of their birth. What the +migrants themselves think about it, goes to the very heart of the trouble. +Some say that they left the South on account of injustice in the courts, +unrest, lack of privileges, denial of the right to vote, bad treatment, +oppression, segregation or lynching. Others say that they left to find +employment, to secure better wages, better school facilities, and better +opportunities to toil upward.[3] Southern white newspapers unaccustomed to +give the Negroes any mention but that of criminals have said that the +Negroes are going North because they have not had a fair chance in the +South and that if they are to be retained there, the attitude of the +whites toward them must be changed. Professor William O. Scroggs, of +Louisiana State University, considers as causes of this exodus "the +relatively low wages paid farm labor, an unsatisfactory tenant or +crop-sharing system, the boll weevil, the crop failure of 1916, lynching, +disfranchisement, segregation, poor schools, and the monotony, isolation +and drudgery of farm life." Professor Scroggs, however, is wrong in +thinking that the persecution of the blacks has little to do with the +migration for the reason that during these years when the treatment of the +Negroes is decidedly better they are leaving the South. This does not mean +that they would not have left before, if they had had economic +opportunities in the North. It is highly probable that the Negroes would +not be leaving the South today, if they were treated as men, although +there might be numerous opportunities for economic improvement in the +North.[4] + +The immediate cause of this movement was the suffering due to the floods +aggravated by the depredations of the boll weevil. Although generally +mindful of our welfare, the United States Government has not been as ready +to build levees against a natural enemy to property as it has been to +provide fortifications for warfare. It has been necessary for local +communities and State governments to tax themselves to maintain them. The +national government, however, has appropriated to the purpose of +facilitating inland navigation certain sums which have been used in doing +this work, especially in the Mississippi Valley. There are now 1,538 miles +of levees on both sides of the Mississippi from Cape Girardeau to the +passes. These levees, of course, are still inadequate to the security of +the planters against these inundations. Carrying 406 million tons of mud a +year, the river becomes a dangerous stream subject to change, abandoning +its old bed to cut for itself a new channel, transferring property from +one State to another, isolating cities and leaving once useful levees +marooned in the landscape like old Indian mounds or overgrown +intrenchments.[5] + +This valley has, therefore, been frequently visited with disasters which +have often set the population in motion. The first disastrous floods came +in 1858 and 1859, breaking many of the levees, the destruction of which +was practically completed by the floods of 1865 and 1869. There is an +annual rise in the stream, but since 1874 this river system has fourteen +times devastated large areas of this section with destructive floods. The +property in this district depreciated in value to the extent of about 400 +millions in ten years. Farmers from this section, therefore, have at times +moved west with foreigners to take up public lands. + +The other disturbing factor in this situation was the boll weevil, an +interloper from Mexico in 1892. The boll weevil is an insect about one +fourth of an inch in length, varying from one eighth to one third of an +inch with a breadth of about one third of the length. When it first +emerges it is yellowish, then becomes grayish brown and finally assumes a +black shade. It breeds on no other plant than cotton and feeds on the +boll. This little animal, at first attacked the cotton crop in Texas. It +was not thought that it would extend its work into the heart of the South +so as to become of national consequence, but it has, at the rate of forty +to one hundred sixty miles annually, invaded all of the cotton district +except that of the Carolinas and Virginia. The damage it does, varies +according to the rainfall and the harshness of the winter, increasing with +the former and decreasing with the latter. At times the damage has been to +the extent of a loss of 50 per cent. of the crop, estimated at 400,000 +bales of cotton annually, about 4,500,000 bales since the invasion or +$250,000,000 worth of cotton.[6] The output of the South being thus cut +off, the planter has less income to provide supplies for his black tenants +and, the prospects for future production being dark, merchants accustomed +to give them credit have to refuse. This, of course, means financial +depression, for the South is a borrowing section and any limitation to +credit there blocks the wheels of industry. It was fortunate for the Negro +laborers in this district that there was then a demand for labor in the +North when this condition began to obtain. + +This demand was made possible by the cutting off of European immigration +by the World War, which thereby rendered this hitherto uncongenial section +an inviting field for the Negro. The Negroes have made some progress in +the North during the last fifty years, but despite their achievements they +have been so handicapped by race prejudice and proscribed by trades unions +that the uplift of the race by economic methods has been impossible. The +European immigrants have hitherto excluded the Negroes even from the +menial positions. In the midst of the drudgery left for them, the blacks +have often heretofore been debased to the status of dependents and +paupers. Scattered through the North too in such small numbers, they have +been unable to unite for social betterment and mutual improvement and +naturally too weak to force the community to respect their wishes as could +be done by a large group with some political or economic power. At +present, however, Negro laborers, who once went from city to city, seeking +such employment as trades unions left to them, can work even as skilled +laborers throughout the North.[7] Women of color formerly excluded from +domestic service by foreign maids are now in demand. Many mills and +factories which Negroes were prohibited from entering a few years ago are +now bidding for their labor. Railroads cannot find help to keep their +property in repair, contractors fall short of their plans for failure to +hold mechanics drawn into the industrial boom and the United States +Government has had to advertise for men to hasten the preparation for war. + +Men from afar went south to tell the Negroes of a way of escape to a more +congenial place. Blacks long since unaccustomed to venture a few miles +from home, at once had visions of a promised land just a few hundred miles +away. Some were told of the chance to amass fabulous riches, some of the +opportunities for education and some of the hospitality of the places of +amusement and recreation in the North. The migrants then were soon on the +way. Railway stations became conspicuous with the presence of Negro +tourists, the trains were crowded to full capacity and the streets of +northern cities were soon congested with black laborers seeking to realize +their dreams in the land of unusual opportunity. + +Employment agencies, recently multiplied to meet the demand for labor, +find themselves unable to cope with the situation and agents sent into the +South to induce the blacks by offers of free transportation and high wages +to go north, have found it impossible to supply the demand in centers +where once toiled the Poles, Italians and the Greeks formerly preferred to +the Negroes.[8] In other words, the present migration differs from others +in that the Negro has opportunity awaiting him in the North whereas +formerly it was necessary for him to make a place for himself upon +arriving among enemies. The proportion of those returning to the South, +therefore, will be inconsiderable. + +Becoming alarmed at the immensity of this movement the South has +undertaken to check it. To frighten Negroes from the North southern +newspapers are carefully circulating reports that many of them are +returning to their native land because of unexpected hardships.[9] But +having failed in this, southerners have compelled employment agents to +cease operations there, arrested suspected employers and, to prevent the +departure of the Negroes, imprisoned on false charges those who appear at +stations to leave for the North. This procedure could not long be +effective, for by the more legal and clandestine methods of railway +passenger agents the work has gone forward. Some southern communities +have, therefore, advocated drastic legislation against labor agents, as +was suggested in Louisiana in 1914, when by operation of the Underwood +Tariff Law the Negroes thrown out of employment in the sugar district +migrated to the cotton plantations.[10] + +One should not, however, get the impression that the majority of the +Negroes are leaving the South. Eager as these Negroes seem to go, there is +no unanimity of opinion as to whether migration is the best policy. The +sycophant, toady class of Negroes naturally advise the blacks to remain in +the South to serve their white neighbors. The radical protagonists of the +equal-rights-for-all element urge them to come North by all means. Then +there are the thinking Negroes, who are still further divided. Both +divisions of this element have the interests of the race at heart, but +they are unable to agree as to exactly what the blacks should now do. +Thinking that the present war will soon be over and that consequently the +immigration of foreigners into this country will again set in and force +out of employment thousands of Negroes who have migrated to the North, +some of the most representative Negroes are advising their fellows to +remain where they are. The most serious objection to this transplantation +is that it means for the Negroes a loss of land, the rapid acquisition of +which has long been pointed to as the best evidence of the ability of the +blacks to rise in the economic world. So many Negroes who have by dint of +energy purchased small farms yielding an increasing income from year to +year, are now disposing of them at nominal prices to come north to work +for wages. Looking beyond the war, however, and thinking too that the +depopulation of Europe during this upheaval will render immigration from +that quarter for some years an impossibility, other thinkers urge the +Negroes to continue the migration to the North, where the race may be +found in sufficiently large numbers to wield economic and political power. + +Great as is the dearth of labor in the South, moreover, the Negro exodus +has not as yet caused such a depression as to unite the whites in inducing +the blacks to remain in that section. In the first place, the South has +not yet felt the worst effects of this economic upheaval as that part of +the country has been unusually aided by the millions which the United +States Government is daily spending there. Furthermore, the poor whites +are anxious to see the exodus of their competitors in the field of labor. +This leaves the capitalists at their mercy, and in keeping with their +domineering attitude, they will be able to handle the labor situation as +they desire. As an evidence of this fact we need but note the continuation +of mob rule and lynching in the South despite the preachings against it of +the organs of thought which heretofore winked at it. This terrorism has +gone to an unexpected extent. Negro farmers have been threatened with +bodily injury, unless they leave certain parts. + +The southerner of aristocratic bearing will say that only the shiftless +poor whites terrorize the Negroes. This may be so, but the truth offers +little consolation when we observe that most white people in the South are +of this class; and the tendency of this element to put their children to +work before they secure much education does not indicate that the South +will soon experience that general enlightenment necessary to exterminate +these survivals of barbarism. Unless the upper classes of the whites can +bring the mob around to their way of thinking that the persecution of the +Negro is prejudicial to the interests of all, it is not likely that mob +rule will soon cease and the migration to this extent will be promoted +rather than retarded. + +It is unfortunate for the South that the growing consciousness of the +Negroes has culminated at the very time they are most needed. Finally +heeding the advice of agricultural experts to reconstruct its agricultural +system, the South has learned in the school of bitter experience to depart +from the plan of producing the single cotton crop. It is now raising +food-stuffs to make that section self-supporting without reducing the +usual output of cotton. With the increasing production in the South, +therefore, more labor is needed just at the very time it is being drawn to +centers in the North. The North being an industrial and commercial section +has usually attracted the immigrants, who will never fit into the economic +situation in the South because they will not accept the treatment given +Negroes. The South, therefore, is now losing the only labor which it can +ever use under present conditions. + +Where these Negroes are going is still more interesting. The exodus to the +west was mainly directed to Kansas and neighboring States, the migration +to the Southwest centered in Oklahoma and Texas, pioneering Negro laborers +drifted into the industrial district of the Appalachian highland during +the eighties and nineties and the infiltration of the discontented +talented tenth affected largely the cities of the North. But now we are +told that at the very time the mining districts of the North and West are +being filled with blacks the western planters are supplying their farms +with them and that into some cities have gone sufficient skilled and +unskilled Negro workers to increase the black population more than one +hundred per cent. Places in the North, where the black population has not +only not increased but even decreased in recent years, are now receiving a +steady influx of Negroes. In fact, this is a nation-wide migration +affecting all parts and all conditions. + +Students of social problems are now wondering whether the Negro can be +adjusted in the North. Many perplexing problems must arise. This movement +will produce results not unlike those already mentioned in the discussion +of other migrations, some of which we have evidence of today. There will +be an increase in race prejudice leading in some communities to actual +outbreaks as in Chester and Youngstown and probably to massacres like that +of East St. Louis, in which participated not only well-known citizens but +the local officers and the State militia. The Negroes in the North are in +competition with white men who consider them not only strike breakers but +a sort of inferior individuals unworthy of the consideration which white +men deserve. And this condition obtains even where Negroes have been +admitted to the trades unions. + +Negroes in seeking new homes in the North, moreover, invade residential +districts hitherto exclusively white. There they encounter prejudice and +persecution until most whites thus disturbed move out determined to do +whatever they can to prevent their race from suffering from further +depreciation of property and the disturbance of their community life. +Lawlessness has followed, showing that violence may under certain +conditions develop among some classes anywhere rather than reserve itself +for vigilance committees of primitive communities. It has brought out too +another aspect of lawlessness in that it breaks out in the North where the +numbers of Negroes are still too small to serve as an excuse for the +terrorism and lynching considered necessary in the South to keep the +Negroes down. + +The maltreatment of the Negroes will be nationalized by this exodus. The +poor whites of both sections will strike at this race long stigmatized by +servitude but now demanding economic equality. Race prejudice, the fatal +weakness of the Americans, will not so soon abate although there will be +advocates of fraternity, equality and liberty required to reconstruct our +government and rebuild our civilization in conformity with the demands of +modern efficiency by placing every man regardless of his color wherever he +may do the greatest good for the greatest number. + +The Negroes, however, are doubtless going to the North in sufficiently +large numbers to make themselves felt. If this migration falls short of +establishing in that section Negro colonies large enough to wield economic +and political power, their state in the end will not be any better than +that of the Negroes already there. It is to these large numbers alone that +we must look for an agent to counteract the development of race feeling +into riots. In large numbers the blacks will be able to strike for better +wages or concessions due a rising laboring class and they will have enough +votes to defeat for reelection those officers who wink at mob violence or +treat Negroes as persons beyond the pale of the law. + +The Negroes in the North, however, will get little out of the harvest if, +like the blacks of Reconstruction days, they unwisely concentrate their +efforts on solving all of their problems by electing men of their race as +local officers or by sending a few members even to Congress as is likely +in New York, Philadelphia and Chicago within the next generation. The +Negroes have had representatives in Congress before but they were put out +because their constituency was uneconomic and politically impossible. +There was nothing but the mere letter of the law behind the Reconstruction +Negro officeholder and the thus forced political recognition against +public opinion could not last any longer than natural forces for some time +thrown out of gear by unnatural causes could resume the usual line of +procedure. + +It would be of no advantage to the Negro race today to send to Congress +forty Negro Representatives on the pro rata basis of numbers, especially +if they happened not to be exceptionally well qualified. They would remain +in Congress only so long as the American white people could devise some +plan for eliminating them as they did during the Reconstruction period. +Near as the world has approached real democracy, history gives no record +of a permanent government conducted on this basis. Interests have always +been stronger than numbers. The Negroes in the North, therefore, should +not on the eve of the economic revolution follow the advice of their +misguided and misleading race leaders who are diverting their attention +from their actual welfare to a specialization in politics. To concentrate +their efforts on electing a few Negroes to office wherever the blacks are +found in the majority, would exhibit the narrowness of their oppressors. +It would be as unwise as the policy of the Republican party of setting +aside a few insignificant positions like that of Recorder of Deeds, +Register of the Treasury and Auditor of the Navy as segregated jobs for +Negroes. Such positions have furnished a nucleus for the large, worthless, +office-seeking class of Negroes in Washington, who have established the +going of the people of the city toward pretence and sham. + +The Negroes should support representative men of any color or party, if +they stand for a square deal and equal rights for all. The new Negroes in +the North, therefore, will, as so many of their race in New York, +Philadelphia and Chicago are now doing, ally themselves with those men who +are fairminded and considerate of the man far down, and seek to embrace +their many opportunities for economic progress, a foundation for political +recognition, upon which the race must learn to build. Every race in the +universe must aspire to becoming a factor in politics; but history shows +that there is no short route to such success. Like other despised races +beset with the prejudice and militant opposition of self-styled superiors, +the Negroes must increase their industrial efficiency, improve their +opportunities to make a living, develop the home, church and school, and +contribute to art, literature, science and philosophy to clear the way to +that political freedom of which they cannot be deprived. + +The entire country will be benefited by this upheaval. It will be helpful +even to the South. The decrease in the black population in those +communities where the Negroes outnumber the whites will remove the fear of +_Negro domination_, one of the causes of the backwardness of the +South and its peculiar civilization. Many of the expensive precautions +which the southern people have taken to keep the Negroes down, much of the +terrorism incited to restrain the blacks from self-assertion will no +longer be considered necessary; for, having the excess in numbers on their +side, the whites will finally rest assured that the Negroes may be +encouraged without any apprehension that they may develop enough power to +subjugate or embarrass their former masters. + +The Negroes too are very much in demand in the South and the intelligent +whites will gladly give them larger opportunities to attach them to that +section, knowing that the blacks, once conscious of their power to move +freely throughout the country wherever they may improve their condition, +will never endure hardships like those formerly inflicted upon the race. +The South is already learning that the Negro is the most desirable laborer +for that section, that the persecution of Negroes not only drives them out +but makes the employment of labor such a problem that the South will not +be an attractive section for capital. It will, therefore, be considered +the duty of business men to secure protection to the Negroes lest their +ill-treatment force them to migrate to the extent of bringing about a +stagnation of their business. + +The exodus has driven home the truth that the prosperity of the South is +at the mercy of the Negro. Dependent on cheap labor, which the bulldozing +whites will not readily furnish, the wealthy southerners must finally +reach the position of regarding themselves and the Negroes as having a +community of interests which each must promote. "Nature itself in those +States," Douglass said, "came to the rescue of the Negro. He had labor, +the South wanted it, and must have it or perish. Since he was free he +could then give it, or withhold it; use it where he was, or take it +elsewhere, as he pleased. His labor made him a slave and his labor could, +if he would, make him free, comfortable and independent. It is more to him +than either fire, sword, ballot boxes or bayonets. It touches the heart of +the South through its pocket."[11] Knowing that the Negro has this silent +weapon to be used against his employer or the community, the South is +already giving the race better educational facilities, better railway +accommodations, and will eventually, if the advocacy of certain southern +newspapers be heeded, grant them political privileges. Wages in the South, +therefore, have risen even in the extreme southwestern States, where there +is an opportunity to import Mexican labor. Reduced to this extremity, the +southern aristocrats have begun to lose some of their race prejudice, +which has not hitherto yielded to reason or philanthropy. + +Southern men are telling their neighbors that their section must abandon +the policy of treating the Negroes as a problem and construct a program +for recognition rather than for repression. Meetings are, therefore, being +held to find out what the Negro wants and what may be done to keep them +contented. They are told that the Negro must be elevated not exploited, +that to make the South what it must needs be, the cooperation of all is +needed to train and equip the men of all races for efficiency. The aim of +all then must be to reform or get rid of the unfair proprietors who do not +give their tenants a fair division of the returns from their labor. To +this end the best whites and blacks are urged to come together to find a +working basis for a systematic effort in the interest of all. + +To say that either the North or the South can easily become adjusted to +this change is entirely too sanguine. The North will have a problem. The +Negroes in the northern city will have much more to contend with than when +settled in the rural districts or small urban centers. Forced by +restrictions of real estate men into congested districts, there has +appeared the tendency toward further segregation. They are denied social +contact, are sagaciously separated from the whites in public places of +amusement and are clandestinely segregated in public schools in spite of +the law to the contrary. As a consequence the Negro migrant often finds +himself with less friends than he formerly had. The northern man who once +denounced the South on account of its maltreatment of the blacks gradually +grows silent when a Negro is brought next door. There comes with the +movement, therefore, the difficult problem of housing. + +Where then must the migrants go? They are not wanted by the whites and are +treated with contempt by the native blacks of the northern cities, who +consider their brethren from the South too criminal and too vicious to be +tolerated. In the average progressive city there has heretofore been a +certain increase in the number of houses through natural growth, but owing +to the high cost of materials, high wages, increasing taxation and the +inclination to invest money in enterprises growing out of the war, fewer +houses are now being built, although Negroes are pouring into these +centers as a steady stream. The usual Negro quarters in northern centers +of this sort have been filled up and the overflow of the black population +scattered throughout the city among white people. Old warehouses, store +rooms, churches, railroad cars and tents have been used to meet these +demands. + +A large per cent of these Negroes are located in rooming houses or +tenements for several families. The majority of them cannot find +individual rooms. Many are crowded into the same room, therefore, and too +many into the same bed. Sometimes as many as four and five sleep in one +bed, and that may be placed in the basement, dining-room or kitchen where +there is neither adequate light nor air. In some cases men who work during +the night sleep by day in beds used by others during the night. Some of +their houses have no water inside and have toilets on the outside without +sewerage connections. The cooking is often done by coal or wood stoves or +kerosene lamps. Yet the rent runs high although the houses are generally +out of repair and in some cases have been condemned by the municipality. +The unsanitary conditions in which many of the blacks are compelled to +live are in violation of municipal ordinances. + +Furthermore, because of the indiscriminate employment by labor agents and +the dearth of labor requiring the acceptance of almost all sorts of men, +some disorderly and worthless Negroes have been brought into the North. On +the whole, however, these migrants are not lazy, shiftless and desperate +as some predicted that they would be. They generally attend church, save +their money and send a part of their savings regularly to their families. +They do not belong to the class going North in quest of whiskey. Mr. +Abraham Epstein, who has written a valuable pamphlet setting forth his +researches in Pittsburgh, states that the migrants of that city do not +generally imbibe and most of those who do, take beer only.[12] Out of four +hundred and seventy persons to whom he propounded this question, two +hundred and ten or forty-four per cent of them were total abstainers. +Seventy per cent of those having families do not drink at all. + +With this congestion, however, have come serious difficulties. Crowded +conditions give rise to vice, crime and disease. The prevalence of vice +has not been the rule but tendencies, which better conditions in the South +restrained from developing, have under these undesirable conditions been +given an opportunity to grow. There is, therefore, a tendency toward the +crowding of dives, assembling on the corners of streets and the commission +of petty offences which crowd them into the police courts. One finds also +sometimes a congestion in houses of dissipation and the carrying of +concealed weapons. Law abiding on the whole, however, they have not +experienced a wave of crime. The chief offences are those resulting from +the saloons and denizens of vice, which are furnished by the community +itself. + +Disease has been one of their worst enemies, but reports on their health +have been exaggerated. On account of this sudden change of the Negroes +from one climate to another and the hardships of more unrelenting toil, +many of them have been unable to resist pneumonia, bronchitis and +tuberculosis. Churches, rescue missions and the National League on Urban +Conditions Among Negroes have offered relief in some of these cases. The +last-named organization is serving in large cities as a sort of clearing +house for such activities and as means of interpreting one race to the +other. It has now eighteen branches in cities to which this migration has +been directed. Through a local worker these migrants are approached, +properly placed and supervised until they can adjust themselves to the +community without apparent embarrassment to either race. The League has +been able to handle the migrants arriving by extending the work so as to +know their movements beforehand. + +The occupations in which these people engage will throw further light on +their situation. About ninety per cent of them do unskilled labor. Only +ten per cent of them do semi-skilled or skilled labor. They serve as +common laborers, puddlers, mold-setters, painters, carpenters, +bricklayers, cement workers and machinists. What the Negroes need then is +that sort of freedom which carries with it industrial opportunity and +social justice. This they cannot attain until they be permitted to enter +the higher pursuits of labor. Two reasons are given for failure to enter +these: first, that Negro labor is unstable and inefficient; and second, +that white men will protest. Organized labor, however, has done nothing to +help the blacks. Yet it is a fact that accustomed to the easy-going toil +of the plantation, the blacks have not shown the same efficiency as that +of the whites. Some employers report, however, that they are glad to have +them because they are more individualistic and do not like to group. But +it is not true that colored labor cannot be organized. The blacks have +merely been neglected by organized labor. Wherever they have had the +opportunity to do so, they have organized and stood for their rights like +men. The trouble is that the trades unions are generally antagonistic to +Negroes although they are now accepting the blacks in self-defense. The +policy of excluding Negroes from these bodies is made effective by an +evasive procedure, despite the fact that the constitutions of many of them +specifically provide that there shall be no discrimination on account of +race or color. + +Because of this tendency some of the representatives of trades unions have +asked why Negroes do not organize unions of their own. This the Negroes +have generally failed to do, thinking that they would not be recognized by +the American Federation of Labor, and knowing too that what their union +would have to contend with in the economic world would be diametrically +opposed to the wishes of the men from whom they would have to seek +recognition. Organized labor, moreover, is opposed to the powerful +capitalists, the only real friends the Negroes have in the North to +furnish them food and shelter while their lives are often being sought by +union members. Steps toward organizing Negro labor have been made in +various Northern cities during 1917 and 1918.[18] The objective of this +movement for the present, however, is largely that of employment. + +Eventually the Negro migrants will, no doubt, without much difficulty +establish themselves among law-abiding and industrious people of the North +where they will receive assistance. Many persons now see in this shifting +of the Negro population the dawn of a new day, not in making the Negro +numerically dominant anywhere to obtain political power, but to secure for +him freedom of movement from section to section as a competitor in the +industrial world. They also observe that while there may be an increase of +race prejudice in the North the same will in that proportion decrease in +the South, thus balancing the equation while giving the Negro his best +chance in the economic world out of which he must emerge a real man with +power to secure his rights as an American citizen. + + +[Footnote 1: _New York Times_, Sept. 5, 9, 28, 1916.] + +[Footnote 2: _Ibid_., Oct. 18, 28; Nov. 5, 7, 12, 15; Dec. 4, 9, +1916.] + +[Footnote 3: _The Crisis_, July, 1917.] + +[Footnote 4: _American Journal of Political Economy_, XXX, p. 1040.] + +[Footnote 5: _The World's Work_, XX, p. 271.] + +[Footnote 6: _The World's Work_, XX, p. 272.] + +[Footnote 7: _New York Times_, March 29, April 7, 9, May 30 and 31, +1917.] + +[Footnote 8: _Survey_, XXXVII, pp. 569-571 and XXXVIII, pp. 27, 226, +331, 428; _Forum_, LVII, p. 181; _The World's Work_, XXXIV, pp. +135, 314-319; _Outlook_, CXVI, pp. 520-521; _Independent_, XCI, +pp. 53-54.] + +[Footnote 9: _The Crisis_, 1917.] + +[Footnote 10: _The New Orleans Times Picayune_, March 26, 1914.] + +[Footnote 11: _American Journal of Social Science_, XI, p. 4.] + +[Footnote 12: Epstein, _The Negro Migrant in Pittsburgh_.] + +[Footnote 13: Epstein, _The Negro Migrant in Pittsburgh_.] + + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY + + +As the public has not as yet paid very much attention to Negro History, +and has not seen a volume dealing primarily with the migration of the race +in America, one could hardly expect that there has been compiled a +bibliography in this special field. With the exception of what appears in +Still's and Siebert's works on the _Underground Railroad_ and the +records of the meetings of the Quakers promoting this movement, there is +little helpful material to be found in single volumes bearing on the +antebellum period. Since the Civil War, however, more has been said and +written concerning the movements of the Negro population. E.H. Botume's +_First Days Among the Contrabands_ and John Eaton's _Grant, Lincoln +and the Freedmen_ cover very well the period of rebellion. This is +supplemented by J.C. Knowlton's _Contrabands_ in the _University +Quarterly_, Volume XXI, page 307, and by Edward L. Pierce's _The +Freedmen at Port Royal_ in the _Atlantic Monthly_, Volume XII, +page 291. The exodus of 1879 is treated by J.B. Runnion in the _Atlantic +Monthly_, Volume XLIV, page 222; by Frederick Douglass and Richard T. +Greener in the _American Journal of Social Science_, Volume XI, page +1; by F.R. Guernsey in the _International Review_, Volume VII, page +373; by E.L. Godkin in the _Nation_, Volume XXVIII, pages 242 and 386; +and by J.C. Hartzell in the _Methodist Quarterly_, Volume XXXIX, +page 722. The second volume of George W. Williams's _History of the +Negro Race_ also contains a short chapter on the exodus of 1879. In +Volume XVIII, page 370, of _Public Opinion_ there is a discussion of +_Negro Emigration and Deportation_ as advocated by Bishop H.M. Turner +and Senator Morgan of Alabama during the nineties. Professor William O. +Scroggs of Louisiana University has in the _Journal of Political +Economy_, Volume XXV, page 1034, an article entitled _Interstate +Migration of Negro Population_. Mr. Epstein has published a helpful +pamphlet, _The Negro Migrant in Pittsburgh_. Most of the material for +this work, however, was collected from the various sources mentioned +below. + + + +BOOKS OF TRAVEL + + +Brissot de Warville, J. P. _New Travels in the United States of America: +including the Commerce of America with Europe, particularly with Great +Britain and France_. Two volumes. (London, 1794.) Gives general +impressions, few details. + +Buckingham, J.S. _America, Historical, Statistical, and Descriptive_. +Two volumes. (New York, 1841.)--_Eastern and Western States of +America_. Three volumes. (London and Paris, 1842.) Contains useful +information. + +Olmsted, Frederick Law. _A Journey in the Seaboard Slave States, with +Remarks on their Economy_. (New York, 1859.)--_A Journey in the Back +Country_. (London, 1860.) + +--_Journeys and Explorations in the Cotton Kingdom_. (London, 1861.) +Olmsted was a New York farmer. He recorded a few important facts about the +Negroes immediately before the Civil War. + +Woolman, John. _Journal of John Woolman, with an Introduction by John G. +Whittier_. (Boston, 1873.) Woolman traveled so extensively in the +colonies that he probably knew more about the Negroes than any other +Quaker of his time. + + + +LETTERS + + +Boyce, Stanbury. _Letters on the Emigration of the Negroes to +Trinidad_. + +Jefferson, Thomas. _Letters of Thomas Jefferson to Abbé Grégoire, M.A. +Julien, and Benjamin Banneker. In Jefferson's Works, Memorial Edition_, +xii and xv. He comments on Negroes' talents. + +Madison, James. _Letters to Frances Wright_. In _Madison's +Works_, vol. iii, p. 396. The emancipation of Negroes is discussed. + +May, Samuel Joseph. _The Right of the Colored People to Education_. +(Brooklyn, 1883.) A collection of public letters addressed to Andrew T. +Judson, remonstrating on the unjust procedure relative to Miss Prudence +Crandall. + +McDonogh, John. "_A Letter of John McDonogh on African Colonization +addressed to the Editor of the New Orleans Commercial Bulletin_." +McDonogh was interested in the betterment of the colored people and did +much to promote their mental development. + + + +BIOGRAPHIES + + +Birney, William. _James G. Birney and His Times_. (New York, 1890.) A +sketch of an advocate of Negro uplift. + +Bowen, Clarence W. _Arthur and Lewis Tappan_. A paper read at the +fiftieth anniversary of the New York Anti-Slavery Society, at the Broadway +Tabernacle, New York City, October 2, 1883. An honorable mention of two +friends of the Negro. + +Drew, Benjamin. _A North-side View of Slavery. The Refugee: or the +Narratives of Fugitive Slaves in Canada. Related by themselves, with an +Account of the History and Condition of the Colored Population of Upper +Canada_. (New York and Boston, 1856.) + +Frothingham, O.B. _Gerritt Smith: A Biography_. (New York, 1878.) + +Garrison, Francis and Wendell P. _William Lloyd Garrison, 1805-1879. The +Story of his Life told by his Children_. Four volumes. (Boston and New +York, 1894.) Includes a brief account of what he did for the colored +people. + +Hammond, C.A. _Gerritt Smith, The Story of a Noble Man's Life_. +(Geneva, 1900.) + +Johnson, Oliver. _William Lloyd Garrison and his Times_. (Boston, +1880. New edition, revised and enlarged, Boston, 1881.) + +Mott, A. _Biographical Sketches and Interesting Anecdotes of Persons of +Color; with a Selection of Pieces of Poetry_. (New York, 1826.) Some of +these sketches show how ambitious Negroes succeeded in spite of +opposition. + +Simmons, W.J. _Men of Mark; Eminent, Progressive, and Rising, with an +Introductory Sketch of the Author by Reverend Henry M. Turner_. +(Cleveland, Ohio, 1891.) Accounts for the adverse circumstances under +which many antebellum Negroes made progress. + + + +AUTOBIOGRAPHIES + + +Coffin, Levi. _Reminiscences of Levi Coffin, reputed President of the +Underground Railroad_. Second edition. (Cincinnati, 1880.) Contains +many facts concerning Negroes. + +Douglass, Frederick. _Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, as an +American Slave_. Written by himself. (Boston, 1845.) Gives several +cases of secret Negro movements for their own good. + +--_The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass from 1817 to 1882_. +(London, 1882.) Written by himself. With an Introduction by the Eight +Honorable John Bright, M.P. Edited by John Loeb, F.R.G.S., of the +_Christian Age_. Editor of _Uncle Tom's Story of his Life_. + + + +HISTORIES + + +Bancroft, George. _History of the United States_. Ten volumes. +(Boston, 1857-1864.) + +Brackett, Jeffrey R. _The Negro in Maryland_. Johns Hopkins +University Studies. (Baltimore, 1889.) + +Collins, Lewis. _Historical Sketches of Kentucky_. (Maysville, Ky., +and Cincinnati, Ohio, 1847.) + +Dunn, J.P. _Indiana; A redemption from Slavery_. (In the American +Commonwealths, vols. XII, Boston and New York, 1888.) + +Evans, W.E. _A History of Scioto County together with a Pioneer Record +of Southern Ohio_. (Portsmouth, 1903.) + +Farmer, Silas. _The History of Detroit and Michigan or the Metropolis +Illustrated_. A chronological encyclopedia of the past and the present +including a full record of territorial days in Michigan and the annals of +Wayne County. Two volumes. (Detroit, 1899.) + +Harris, N.D. _The History of Negro Servitude in Illinois and of the +Slavery Agitation in that State, 1719-1864,_. (Chicago, 1904.) + +Hart, A.B. _The American Nation; A History, etc_. Twenty-seven +volumes. (New York, 1904-1908.) The volumes which have a bearing on the +subject treated in this monograph are W.A. Dunning's _Reconstruction_, +F.J. Turner's _Rise of the New West_, and A.B. Hart's _Slavery and +Abolition_. + +Hinsdale, B.A. _The Old Northwest; with a view of the thirteen colonies +as constituted by the royal charters_. (New York, 1888.) + +Howe, Henry. _Historical Collections of Ohio_. Contains a collection +of the most interesting facts, traditions, biographical sketches, +anecdotes, etc., relating to its general and local history with +descriptions of its counties, principal towns and villages. (Cincinnati, +1847.) + +Jones, Charles Colcook, Jr. _History of Georgia_. (Boston, 1883.) + +McMaster, John B. _History of the United States_. Six volumes. (New +York, 1900.) + +Rhodes, J.F. _History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850 +to the Final Restoration of Home Rule in the South_. (New York and +London, Macmillan & Company, 1892-1906.) + +Steiner, B.C. _History of Slavery in Connecticut_. (Johns Hopkins +University Studies, 1893.) + +Stuve, Bernard, and Alexander Davidson. _A Complete History of Illinois +from 1673 to 1783_. (Springfield, 1874.) + +Tremain, Mary M.A. _Slavery in the District of Columbia_. (University +of Nebraska Seminary Papers, April, 1892.) + +_History of Brown County, Ohio_. (Chicago, 1883.) + + + +ADDRESSES + + +Garrison, William Lloyd. _An Address Delivered before the Free People of +Color in Philadelphia, New York and other Cities during the Month of June, +1831_. (Boston, 1831.) + +Griffin, Edward Dore. _A Plea for Africa,_. (New York, 1817.) A Sermon +preached October 26, 1817, in the First Presbyterian Church in the City of +New York before the Synod of New York and New Jersey at the Request of the +Board of Directors of the African School established by the Synod. The aim +was to arouse interest in colonization. + + + +REPORTS AND STATISTICS + + +_Special Report of the Commissioner of Education on the Improvement of +Public Schools in the District of Columbia_, containing M. B. Goodwin's +"History of Schools for the Colored Population in the District of +Columbia." (Washington, 1871.) + +_Report of the Committee of Representatives of the New York Yearly +Meeting of Friends upon the condition and wants of the Colored +Refugees_, 1862. + +Clarke, J. F. _Present Condition of the Free Colored People of the +United States_. (New York and Boston, the American Antislavery Society, +1859.) Published also in the March number of the _Christian +Examiner_. + +_Condition of the Free People of Color in Ohio. With interesting +anecdotes_. (Boston, 1839.) + +_Institute for Colored Youth_. (Philadelphia, 1860-1865.) Contains a +list of the officers and students. + +Jones, Thomas Jesse. _Negro Education: A study of the private and higher +schools for colored people in the United States. Prepared in cooperation +with the Phelps-Stokes Fund_. In two volumes. (Bureau of Education, +Washington, 1917.) + +_Official Records of the War of Rebellion_. + +_Report of the Condition of the Colored People of Cincinnati_, 1835. +(Cincinnati, 1835.) + +_Report of a Committee of the Pennsylvania Society of Abolition on +Present Condition of the Colored People, etc_., 1838. (Philadelphia, +1838.) + +_Statistical Inquiry into the Condition of the People of Color of the +City and Districts of Philadelphia_. (Philadelphia, 1849.) + +_Statistics of the Colored People of Philadelphia in 1859_, compiled +by Benj. C. Bacon. (Philadelphia, 1859.) + +_Statistical Abstract of the United States_, 1898. Prepared by the +Bureau of Statistics. (Washington, D. C., 1899.) + +_Statistical View of the Population of the United States, A_ +1790-1830. (Published by the Department of State in 1835.) + +_Trades of the Colored People_. (Philadelphia, 1838.) + +_United States Censuses_. + +_A Brief Statement of the Rise and Progress of the Testimony of Friends +against Slavery and the Slave Trade_. Published by direction of the +Yearly Meeting held in Philadelphia in the Fourth Month, 1843. Shows the +action taken by various Friends to elevate the Negroes. + +_A Collection of the Acts, Deliverances and Testimonies of the Supreme +Judicatory of the Presbyterian Church, from its Origin in America to the +Present Time_. By Samuel J. Baird. (Philadelphia, 1856.) + +American Convention of Abolition Societies. _Minutes of the Proceedings +of a Convention of Delegates from the Abolition Societies established in +different Parts of the United States_. From 1794-1828. + +_The Annual Reports of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Societies, +presented at New York, May 6, 1847, with the Addresses and +Resolutions_. From 1847-1851. + +_The Annual Reports of the American Anti-Slavery Society_. From 1834 +to 1860. + +_The Third Annual Report of the Managers of the New England Anti-Slavery +Society presented June 2, 1835_. (Boston, 1835.) + +_Annual Reports of the Massachusetts (or New England) Anti-Slavery +Society, 1831-end_. + +_Reports of the National Anti-Slavery Convention, 1833-end_. + +_Reports of the American Colonisation Society_, 1818-1832. + +_Report of the New York Colonisation Society_, October 1, 1823. (New +York, 1823.) + +_The Seventh Annual Report of the Colonization Society of the City of +New York_. (New York, 1839.) + +_Proceedings of the New York State Colonization Society_, 1831. +(Albany, 1831.) + +_The Eighteenth Annual Report of the Colonization Society of the State +of New York_. (New York, 1850.) + +_Minutes and Proceedings of the First Annual Convention of the People of +Color. Held by Adjournment in the City of Philadelphia, from the sixth to +the eleventh of June, inclusive_, 1831. (Philadelphia, 1831.) + +_Minutes and Proceedings of the Second Annual Convention for the +Improvement of the Free People of Color in these United States. Held by +Adjournments in the City of Philadelphia, from the 4th to the 13th of +June, inclusive_, 1832. (Philadelphia, 1832.) + +_Minutes and Proceedings of the Third Annual Convention for the +Improvement of the Free People of Color in these United States. Held by +Adjournments in the City of_ _Philadelphia, in 1833_. (New York, +1833.) These proceedings were published also in the _New York Commercial +Advertiser_, April 27, 1833. + +_Minutes and Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Convention for the +Improvement of the Free People of Color in the United States. Held by +Adjournments in the Asbury Church, New York, from the 2nd to the 12th of +June, 1834_. (New York, 1834.) + +_Proceedings of the Convention of the Colored Freedmen of Ohio at +Cincinnati, January 14, 1852_. (Cincinnati, Ohio, 1852.) + + + +MISCELLANEOUS BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS + + +Adams, Alice Dana. _The Neglected Period of Anti-Slavery in America_. +Radcliffe College Monographs No. 14._ (Boston and London, 1908) Contains +some valuable facts about the Negroes during the first three decades of +the nineteenth century. + +Agricola (pseudonym). _An Impartial View of the Real State of the Black +Population in the United States_. (Philadelphia, 1824.) + +Alexander, A. _A History of Colonisation on the Western Continent of +Africa_. (Philadelphia, 1846.) + +Ames, Mary. _From a New England Woman's Diary in 1865_, (Springfield, +1906.) + +_An Address to the People of North Carolina on the Evils of Slavery, by +the Friends of Liberty and Equality, 1830_. (Greensborough, 1830.) + +_An Address to the Presbyterians of Kentucky proposing a Plan for the +Instruction and Emancipation of their Slaves by a Committee of the Synod +of Kentucky_. (Newburyport, 1836.) + +Baldwin, Ebenezer. _Observations on the Physical and Moral Qualities of +our Colored Population with Remarks on the Subject of Emancipation and +Colonization_. (New Haven, 1834.) + +Bassett, J. S. _Slavery and Servitude in the Colony of North +Carolina_. (Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and +Political Science. Fourteenth Series, iv-v. Baltimore, 1896.) + +------_Slavery in the State of North Carolina_. (Johns Hopkins +University Studies in Historical and Political Science. Series XVII., Nos. +7-8. Baltimore, 1899.) + +------_Anti-Slavery Leaders of North Carolina_. (Johns Hopkins +University Studies in Historical and Political Science. Series XVI., No. +6. Baltimore, 1898.) + +Benezet, Anthony. _A Caution to Great Britain and Her Colonies in a +Short Representation of the calamitous State of the enslaved Negro in the +British Dominions_. (Philadelphia, 1784.) + +------_The Case of our Fellow-Creatures, the oppressed Africans, +respectfully recommended to the serious Consideration of the Legislature +of Great Britain, by the People called Quakers_. (London, 1783.) + +------_Observations on the enslaving, Importing and Purchasing of +Negroes; with some Advice thereon, extracted from the Epistle of the +Yearly-Meeting of the People called Quakers, held at London in the Year +1748_. (Germantown, 1760.) + +------_The Potent Enemies of America laid open: being some Account of +the baneful Effects attending the Use of distilled spirituous Liquors, and +the Slavery of the Negroes_. (Philadelphia.) + +------_A Short Account of that Part of Africa, inhabited by the Negroes. +With respect to the Fertility of the Country; the good Disposition of many +of the Natives, and the Manner by which the Slave Trade is carried on_. +(Philadelphia, 1792) + +------_Short Observations on Slavery, introductory to Some Extracts from +the Writings of the Abbé Raynal, on the Important Subject_. + +------_Some Historical Account of Guinea, its Situation, Produce, and +the General Disposition of its Inhabitants. With an Inquiry into the Rise +and Progress of the Slave Trade, its Nature and Lamentable Effects_. +(London, 1788.) + +Birney, James G. _The American Churches, the Bulwarks of American +Slavery, by an American_. (Newburyport, 1842.) + +Birney, William. _James G. Birney and his Times. The Genesis of the +Republican Party, with Some Account of the Abolition Movements in the +South before 1828_. (New York, 1890.) + +Brackett, Jeffery B. _The Negro in Maryland. A Study of the Institution +of Slavery_. (Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University, 1889.) + +Brannagan, Thomas. _A Preliminary Essay on the Oppression of the Exiled +Sons of Africa, Consisting of Animadversions on the Impolicy and Barbarity +of the Deleterious Commerce and Subsequent Slavery of the Human +Species_. (Philadelphia: Printed for the Author by John W. Scott, +1804.) + +Brannagan, T. _Serious Remonstrances Addressed to the Citizens of the +Northern States and their Representatives, being an Appeal to their +Natural Feelings and Common Sense; Consisting of Speculations and +Animadversions, on the Recent Revival of the Slave Trade in the American +Republic_. (Philadelphia, 1805.) + +Campbell, J. V. _Political History of Michigan_. (Detroit, 1876.) + +_Code Noir ou Recueil d'edits, declarations et arrêts concernant la +Discipline et le commerce des esclaves Nègres des isles francaises de +l'Amérique (in Recueils de réglemens, edits, declarations et arrêts, +concernant le commerce, l'administration de la justice et la police des +colonies francaises de l'Amérique, et les engages avec le Code Noir, et +l'addition audit code)_. (Paris, 1745.) + +Coffin, Joshua. _An Account of Some of the principal Slave Insurrections +and others which have occurred or been attempted in the United States and +elsewhere during the last two Centuries. With various Remarks. Collected +from various Sources_. (New York, 1860.) + +Columbia University _Studies in History, Economics and Public Law_. +Edited by the faculty of political science. The useful volumes of this +series for this field are: + +W.L. Fleming's _Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama_, 1905. + +W.W. Davis's _The Civil War and Reconstruction in Florida_, 1913. + +Clara Mildred Thompson's _Reconstruction in Georgia, Economic, Social, +Political_, 1915. + +J.G. de R. Hamilton's _Reconstruction in North Carolina_, 1914. + +C.W. Ramsdell. _Reconstruction in Texas_, 1910. + +_Connecticut, Public Acts passed by the General Assembly of_. + +Cromwell, J.W. _The Negro in American History: Men and Women Eminent in +the Evolution of the American of African Descent_. (Washington, 1914.) + +Davidson, A., and Stowe, B. _A Complete History of Illinois from 1673 to +1873_. (Springfield, 1874.) It embraces the physical features of the +country, its early explorations, aboriginal inhabitants, the French and +British occupation, the conquest of Virginia, territorial condition and +subsequent events. + +Delany, M.R. _The Condition, Elevation, Emigration and Destiny of the +Colored People of the United States: politically considered_. +(Philadelphia, 1852.) + +DuBois, W.E.B. _The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study. Together with a +special report on domestic service by Isabel Eaton_. (Philadelphia, +1899.) + +------Atlanta University Publications, _The Negro Common School_. +(Atlanta, 1901.) + +------_The Negro Church_. (Atlanta, 1903.) + +------and Dill, A.G. _The College-Bred Negro American_. (Atlanta, +1910.) + +------_The Negro American Artisan_. (Atlanta, 1912.) + +De Toqueville, Alexis Charles Henri Maurice Clerel De. _Democracy in +America_. Translated by Henry Reeve. Four volumes. (London, 1835, +1840.) + +Eaton, John. _Grant, Lincoln and the Freedmen: reminiscences of the +Civil War with special reference to the work for the Contrabands, and the +Freedmen of the Mississippi Valley_. (New York, 1907.) + +Epstein. _The Negro Migrant in Pittsburgh_. (Pittsburgh, 1917.) + +_Exposition of the Object and Plan of the American Union for the Belief +and Improvement of the Colored Race_. (Boston, 1835.) + +Fee, John G. _Anti-Slavery Manual_. (Maysville, 1848.) + +Fertig, James Walter. _The Secession and Reconstruction of +Tennessee_. (Chicago, 1898.) + +Frost, W.G. "Appalachian America." (In vol. i of _The Americana_.) +(New York, 1912.) + +Garnett, H.H. _The Past and Present Condition and the Destiny of the +Colored Race_. (Troy, 1848.) + +Greely, Horace. _The American Conflict_. A history of the great +rebellion in the United States of America, 1860-64, its causes, incidents +and results: intended to exhibit especially its moral and political +phases, with the drift of progress of American opinion respecting human +slavery from 1776 to the close of the war for its union. (Chicago, 1864.) + +Hammond, M.B. _The Cotton Industry: an Essay in American Economic +History_. It deals with the cotton culture and the cotton Trade. (New +York, 1897.) + +Hart, A.B. _The Southern South_. (New York, 1906.) + +Henson, Josiah. _The Life of Josiah Henson_. (Boston, 1849.) + +Hershaw, L.M. _Peonage in the United States_. This is one of the +American Negro Academy Papers. (Washington, 1912.) + +Hickok, Charles Thomas. _The Negro in Ohio, 1802-1870_. (Cleveland, +1896.) + +Hodgkin, Thomas A. _Inquiry into the Merits of the American Colonization +Society and Reply to the Charges brought against it with an Account of the +British African Colonization Society_. (London, 1833.) + +Howe, Samuel G. _The Refugees from Slavery in Canada West. Report to the +Freedmen's Inquiry Committee_. (Boston, 1864.) + +Hutchins, Thomas. _An Historical Narrative and Topographical Description +of Louisiana and West Florida, comprehending the river Mississippi with +its principal Branches and Settlements and the Rivers Pearl and +Pescagoula_. (Philadelphia, 1784.) + +_Illinois, Laws of, passed by the General Assembly of_. + +_Indiana, Laws passed by the State of_. + +Jay, John. _The Correspondence and Public Papers of John Jay. First +Chief Justice of the United States and President of the Continental +Congress, Member of the Commission to negotiate the Treaty of +Independence, Envoy to Great Britain, Governor of New York, etc., +1782-1793. (New York and London, 1801.) Edited by Henry P. Johnson, +Professor of History in the College of the City of New York. + +Jay, William. _An Inquiry into the Character and Tendencies of the +American Colonisation and American Anti-Slavery Societies_. Second +edition. (New York, 1835.) + +Jefferson, Thomas. _The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Memorial Edition. +Autobiography, Notes on Virginia, Parliamentary Mannual, Official Papers, +Messages and Addresses, and other writings Official and Private, etc._ +(Washington, 1903.) + +_Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political +Science_. H.B. Adams, Editor. (Baltimore, Johns Hopkins Press.) Among +the useful volumes of this series are: J.R. Ficklen's _History of +Reconstruction in Louisiana_, 1910. + +H.J. Eckenrode's _The Political History of Virginia during +Reconstruction_, 1904. + +Langston, John M. _From the Virginia Plantation to the National Capital; +or, The First and Only Negro Representative in Congress from The Old +Dominion_. (Hartford, 1894.) + +Locke, M.S. _Anti-Slavery in America from the Introduction of African +Slaves to the Prohibition of the Slave Trade, 1619-1808_. Radcliffe +College Monographs, No. ii. (Boston, 1901.) A valuable work. + +Lynch, John R. _The Facts of Reconstruction_. (New York, 1913.) + +Madison, James. _Letters and Other Writings of James Madison Published +by Order of Congress_. Four volumes. (Philadelphia, 1865.) + +May, S.J. _Some Recollections of our Anti-Slavery Conflict_. + +Monroe, James. _The Writings of James Monroe, including a Collection of +his public and private Papers and Correspondence now for the first time +printed_. Edited by S. M. Hamilton. (Boston, 1900.) + +Moore, George H. _Notes on the History of Slavery in Massachusetts_. +(New York, 1866.) + +Needles, Edward. _Ten Years' Progress or a Comparison of the State and +Condition of the Colored People in the City of and County of Philadelphia +from 1837 to 1847_. (Philadelphia, 1849.) + +_New Jersey, Acts of the General Assembly of_. + +_Ohio, Laws of the General Assembly of_. + +Ovington, M.W. _Half-a-Man_. (New York, 1911.) Treats of the Negro in +the State of New York. A few pages are devoted to the progress of the +colored people. + +Parrish, John. _Remarks on the Slavery of the Black People; Addressed to +the Citizens of the United States, particularly to those who are in +legislative or executive Stations, particularly in the General or State +Governments; and also to such Individuals as hold them in Bondage_. +(Philadelphia, 1806.) + +Pearson, E.W. _Letters from Port Royal, written at the Time of the Civil +War_. (Boston, 1916.) + +Pearson, C.C. _The Readjuster Movement in Virginia_. (New Haven, +1917.) + +_Pennsylvania, Laws of the General Assembly of the State of_. + +Pierce, E.L. _The Freedmen of Port Royal, South Carolina, Official +Reports_. (New York, 1863.) + +Pike, James S. _The Prostrate State: South Carolina under Negro +Government_. (New York, 1874.) + +Pittman, Philip. _The Present State of European Settlements on the +Mississippi with a geographic description of that river_. (London, +1770.) + +Quillen, Frank U. _The Color Line in Ohio_. A History of Race +Prejudice in a typical northern State. (Ann Arbor, Mich., 1913.) + +Reynolds, J.S. _Reconstruction in South Carolina_. (Columbia, 1905.) + +_Rhode Island, Acts and Resolves of_. + +Rice, David. _Slavery inconsistent with Justice and Good Policy: proved +by a Speech delivered in the Convention held at Danville, Kentucky_. +(Philadelphia, 1792, and London, 1793.) + +Scherer, J.A.B. _Cotton as a World Power_. (New York, 1916.) This is +a study in the economic interpretation of History. The contents of this +book are a revision of a series of lectures at Oxford and Cambridge +universities in the Spring of 1914 with the caption on Economic Causes in +the American Civil War. + +Siebert, Wilbur H. _The Underground Railroad from Slavery_ _to +Freedom_, by W.H. Siebert, Associate Professor of History in the Ohio +State University, with an Introduction by A.B. Hart. (New York, 1898.) + +Starr, Frederick. _What shall be done with the people of color in the +United States?_ (Albany, 1862.) A discourse delivered in the First +Presbyterian Church of Penn Yan, New York, November 2, 1862. + +Still, William. _The Underground Railroad_. (Philadelphia, 1872.) +This is a record of facts, authentic narratives, letters and the like, +giving the hardships, hair-breadth escapes and death struggles of the +slaves in their efforts for freedom as related by themselves and others or +witnessed by the author. + +_The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, Travels and Explorations of +the Jesuit Missionaries in New France, 1619-1791. The Original French, +Latin, and Italian Texts with English Translations and Notes illustrated +by Portraits, Maps, and Facsimiles_. Edited by Reuben Gold Thwaites, +Secretary of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. (Cleveland, 1896.) + +Thompson, George. _Speech at the Meeting for the Extension of Negro +Apprenticeship_. (London, 1838.) + +------_The Free Church Alliance with Manstealers. Send back the Money. +Great Anti-Slavery Meeting in the City Hall, Glasgow, containing the +Speeches delivered by Messrs. Wright, Douglass, and Buffum from America, +and by George Thompson of London, with a Summary Account of a Series of +Meetings held in Edinburgh by the above named Gentlemen._ (Glasgow, +1846.) + +Torrey, Jesse, 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 Color, +including Memoirs of Facts on the Interior Traffic in Slaves and on +Kidnapping, Illustrated with Engravings by Jesse Torrey, Jr., Physician, +Author of a Series of Essays on Morals and the Diffusion of Knowledge_. +(Philadelphia, 1817.) + +------_American Internal Slave Trade; with Reflections on the project +for forming a Colony of Blacks in Africa_. (London, 1822.) + +Turner, E.R. _The Negro in Pennsylvania_. (Washington, 1911.) + +_Tyrannical Libertymen: a Discourse upon Negro Slavery in the United +States, composed at ------ in New Hampshire: on the Late Federal +Thanksgiving Day_. (Hanover, N. H., 1795.) + +Walker, David. _Walker's Appeal in Four Articles, together with a +Preamble to the Colored Citizens of the World, but in particular and very +expressly to those of the United States of America, Written in Boston, +State of Massachusetts, September 28, 1829_. Second edition. (Boston, +1830.) Walker was a Negro who hoped to arouse his race to self-assertion. + +Ward, Charles. _Contrabands_. (Salem, 1866.) This suggests an +apprenticeship, under the auspices of the government, to build the Pacific +Railroad. + +Washington, B.T. _The Story of the Negro_. Two volumes. (New York, +1909.) + +Washington, George. _The Writings of George Washington, being his +Correspondence, Addresses, Messages, and other papers, official and +private, selected and published from the original Manuscripts with the +Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations, by Jared Sparks_. (Boston, +1835.) + +Weeks, Stephen B. _Southern Quakers and Slavery. A Study in +Institutional History_. (Baltimore, The Johns Hopkins Press, 1896.) + +------_The Anti-Slavery Sentiment in the South; with Unpublished Letters +from John Stuart Mill and Mrs. Stowe_. (Southern History Association +Publications, Volume ii, No. 2, Washington, D.C., April, 1898.) + +Williams, G.W. _A History of the Negro Troops in the War of the +Rebellion, 1861-1865, preceded by a Review of the military Services of +Negroes in ancient and modern Times_. (New York, 1888.) + +------_History of the Negro Race in the United States from 1619-1880. +Negroes as Slaves, as Soldiers, and as Citizens: together with a +preliminary Consideration of the Unity of the Human Family, an historical +Sketch of Africa and an Account of the Negro Governments of Sierra Leone +and Liberia_. (New York, 1883.) + +Woodson, C.G. _The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861_. (New York +and London, 1915.) This is a history of the Education of the Colored +People of the United States from the beginning of slavery to the Civil +War. + +Woolman, John. _The Works of John Woolman. In two Parts, Part I: A +Journal of the Life, Gospel-Labors, and Christian Experiences of that +faithful Minister of Christ, John Woolman, late of Mount Holly in the +Province of New Jersey_. (London, 1775.) + +------_Same, Part Second. Containing his last Epistle and other +Writings_. (London, 1775.) + +------_Some Considerations on the Keeping of Negroes. Recommended to the +Professors of Christianity of every Denomination_. (Philadelphia, +1754.) + +------_Considerations on Keeping Negroes; Recommended to the Professors +of Christianity of every Denomination. Part the Second_. (Philadelphia, +1762.) + +Wright, R.R., Jr. _The Negro in Pennsylvania_. (Philadelphia, 1912.) + + + +MAGAZINES + + +_The African Methodist Episcopal Church Review_. The following articles: + + _The Negro as an Inventor_. By R. R. Wright, vol. ii, p. 397. + + _Negro Poets_, vol. iv, p. 236. + + _The Negro in Journalism_, vols. vi, p. 309, and xx, p. 137. + +_The African Repository_; Published by the American Colonization +Society from 1826 to 1832. A very good source for Negro history both in +this country and Liberia. Some of its most valuable articles are: + + _Learn Trades or Starve_, by Frederick Douglass, vol. xxix, + p. 137. Taken from Frederick Douglass's Paper. + + _Education of the Colored People_, by a highly respectable + gentleman of the South, vol. xxx, pp. 194, 195 and 196. + + _Elevation of the Colored Race_, a memorial circulated in + North Carolina, vol. xxxi, pp. 117 and 118. + + _A lawyer for Liberia_, a sketch of Garrison Draper, vol. + xxxiv, pp. 26 and 27. + +_The American Economic Review_. + +_The American Journal of Social Science_. + +_The American Journal of Political Economy_. + +_The American Law Review_. + +_The American Journal of Sociology_. + +_The Atlantic Monthly_. + +_The Colonizationist and Journal of Freedom_. The author has been +able to find only the volume which contains the numbers for the year 1834. + +_The Christian Examiner_. + +_The Cosmopolitan_. + +_The Crisis_. A record of the darker races published by the National +Association for the Advancement of Colored People. + +_Dublin Review_. + +_The Forum_. + +_The Independent_. + +_The Journal of Negro History_. + +_The Maryland Journal of Colonization_. Published as the official +organ of the Maryland Colonization Society. Among its important articles +are: _The Capacities of the Negro Race_, vol. iii, p. 367; and _The +Educational Facilities of Liberia_, vol. vii, p. 223. + +_The Nation_. + +_The Non-Slaveholder_. Two volumes of this publication are now found +in the Library of Congress. + +_The Outlook_. + +_Public Opinion_. + +_The Southern Workman_. Volume xxxvii contains Dr. R. R. Wright's +valuable dissertation on _Negro Rural Communities in India_. + +_The Spectator_. + +_The Survey_. + +_The World's Work_. + + + +NEWSPAPERS + + +District of Columbia. + _The Daily National Intelligencer_. + +Louisiana. + _The New Orleans Commercial Bulletin_. + _The New Orleans Times-Picayune_. + +Maryland. + _The Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advertiser_. + _The Maryland Gazette_. + _Dunlop's Maryland Gazette or The Baltimore Advertiser_. + +Massachusetts. + _The Liberator_. + +Mississippi. + _The Vicksburg Daily Commercial_. + +New York. + _The New York Daily Advertiser_. + _The New York Tribune_. + _The New York Times_. + + + +INDEX + + +Adams, Henry, + leader of the exodus to Kansas, + +Akron, + friends of fugitives in, + +Alton Telegraph, + comment of, + +Anderson, + promoter of settling of Negroes in Jamaica, + +Anti-slavery, + leaders of the movement, became more helpful to the refugees, + +Anti-slavery sentiment, + of two kinds, + +American Federation of Labor, + attitude of, toward Negro labor, + +Appalachian highland, + settlers of, aided fugitives; + exodus of Negroes to, + +Arkansas, + drain of laborers to, + + +Ball, J.P., + a contractor, + +Ball, Thomas, + a contractor, + +Barclay, + interest of, in the sending of Negroes to Jamaica, + +Barrett, Owen A., + discoverer of a remedy, + +Bates, + owner of slaves at St. Genevieve, + +Beauvais, + owner of slaves, Upper Louisiana, + +Benezet, Anthony, + plan of, to colonize Negroes in West; + interest of, in settling Negroes in the West, + +Berlin Cross Roads, + Negroes of, + +Bibb, Henry, + interest of, in colonization, + +Birney, James G., + promoter of the migration of the Negroes; + press of, destroyed by mob in Cincinnati, + +Black Friday, + riot of, in Portsmouth, + +Blackburn, Thornton, + a fugitive claimed in Detroit, + +Boll weevil, + a cause of migration, + +Boston, + friends of fugitives in, + +Boyce, Stanbury, + went with his father to Trinidad in the fifties, + +Boyd, Henry, + a successful mechanic in Cincinnati, + +Brannagan, Thomas, + advocate of colonizing the Negroes in the West; + interest of, in settling Negroes in the West, + +Brissot de Warville, + observations of, on Negroes in the West, + +British Guiana, + attractive to free Negroes, + +Brooklyn, Illinois, + a Negro community, + +Brown, John, + in the Appalachian highland, + +Brown County, Ohio, + Negroes in, + +Buffalo, + friends of fugitives in, + +Butler, General, + holds Negroes as contraband; + policy of, followed by General Wood and General Banks, + + +Cairo, Illinois, + an outlet for the refugees + +Calvin Township, Cass County, Michigan, + a Negro community; + note on progress of + +Campbell, Sir George, + comment on condition of Negroes in Kansas City + +Canaan, New Hampshire, + break-up of school of, admitting Negroes, + +Canada, + the migration of Negroes to; + settlements in, + +Canadians, + supply of slaves of; + prohibited the importation of slaves, + +Canterbury, people of, + imprison Prudence Crandall because she taught Negroes, + +Cardoza, F.L., + return of from Edinburgh to South Carolina, + +Cassey, Joseph C., + a lumber merchant, + +Cassey, Joseph, + a broker in Philadelphia, + +Chester, T. Morris, + went from Pittsburgh to settle in Louisiana, + +Cincinnati, + friends of fugitives in; + mobs; + successful Negroes of, + +Clark, Edward V., + a jeweler, + +Clay, Henry, + a colonizationist, + +Code for indentured servants in West, + note, + +Coffin, Levi, + comment on the condition of the refugees, + +Coles, Edward, + moved to Illinois to free his slaves; + correspondence with Jefferson on slavery, + +Colgate, Richard, + master of James Wenyam who escaped to the West, + +Collins, Henry M., + interest of, in colonization; + a real estate man in Pittsburgh, + +Corbin, J.C., + return of, from Chillicothe to Arkansas, + +Colonization proposed as a remedy for migration, + in the West; + organization of society of; + failure to remove free Negroes; + opposed by free people of color; + meetings of, in the interest of the West Indies; + impeded by the exodus to the West Indies; + a remedy for migration, + +Colonization Society, + organization of; + renewed efforts of, + +Colonizationists, + opposition of, to the migration to the West Indies, + +Columbia, Pa., + friends of fugitives in, + +Compagnie de l'Occident in control of Louisiana, + +Condition of fugitives in contraband camps, + +Congested districts in the North, + +Connecticut, + exterminated slavery; + law of; + against teaching Negroes, + +Conventions of Negroes, + +Cook, Forman B., + a broker, + +Crandall, A.W., + interest in checking the exodus to Kansas, + +Crandall, Prudence, + imprisoned because she taught Negroes, + +Credit system, + a cause of unrest, + +Crozat, Antoine, + as Governor of Louisiana, + +Cuffé, Paul, + an actual colonizationist, + + +Davis, + comment on freedmen's vagrancy, + +De Baptiste, Richard, + father of, in Detroit, + +Debasement of the blacks after Reconstruction, + +Delany, Martin R., + interest of, in colonization, + +De Tocqueville, + observation of, on the condition of free Negroes in the North, + +Delaware, + disfranchisement of Negroes in, + +Detroit, + Negroes in; + friends of fugitives in; + a gateway to Canada; + the Negro question in; + mob of, rises against Negroes; + successful Negroes of, + +Dinwiddie, Governor, + Fears of, as to servile insurrection, + +Diseases of Negroes in the North, + +Distribution of intelligent blacks, + +Douglass, Frederick, + the leading Negro journalist; + advice of, on staying in the South to retain political power; + comment of, on exodus to Kansas, + +Downing, Thomas, + owner of a restaurant, + +Drain of laborers to Mississippi and Louisiana; + to Arkansas and Texas, + + +Eaton, John, + work of, among the refugees, + +Economic opportunities for the Negro in the North; + economic opportunities for Negroes in the South, + +Educational facilities, + the lack of, + +Elizabethtown, + friends of fugitives in, + +Elliot, E.B., + return of, from Boston to South Carolina, + +Elmira, + friends of fugitives in, + +Emancipation of the Negroes in the West Indies, + the effect of, + +Epstein, Abraham, + an authority on the Negro migrant in Pittsburgh, + +Exodus, the, + during the World War; + causes; + efforts of the South to check it; + Negroes divided on it; + whites divided on it; + unfortunate for the South; + probable results; + will increase political power of Negro; + exodus of the Negroes to Kansas, + + +Fear of Negro domination to cease, + +Ficklen, + comment on freedmen's vagrancy, + +Fiske, A.S., + work of, among the contrabands, + +Fleming, + comment of, on freedmen's vagrancy, + +Floods of the Mississippi, + a cause of migration, + +Foote, Ex-Governor of Mississippi, + liberal measure of, presented to Vicksburg convention, + +Fort Chartres, + slaves of, + +Forten, James, + a wealthy Negro, + +Freedman's relief societies, + aid of, + +Free Negroes, + opposed to American Colonization Society; + interested in African colonization; + National Council of, + +French, + departure of, from West to keep slaves; + welcome of, to fugitive slaves of the English colonies; + good treatment of, + +Friends of fugitives, + +Fugitive Slave Law, + a destroyer of Negro settlements, + +Fugitives coming to Pennsylvania, + + +Gallipolis, + friends of fugitives in, + +Georgia, + laws of, against Negro mechanics; + slavery considered profitable in, + +Germans antagonistic to Negroes; + favorable to fugitives in mountains; + opposed Negro settlement in Mercer County, Ohio; + their hatred of Negroes, + +Gibbs, Judge M.W., + went from Philadelphia to Arkansas, + +Gilmore's High School, + work of, in Cincinnati, + +Gist, Samuel, + settled his Negroes in Ohio, + +Goodrich, William, + owner of railroad stock, + +Gordon, Robert, + a successful coal dealer in Cincinnati, + +Grant, General U.S., + protected refugees in his camp; + retained them at Fort Donelson; + his use of the refugees, + +Greener, R.T., + comment of, on the exodus to Kansas; + went from Philadelphia to South Carolina, + +Gregg, Theodore H., + sent his manumitted slaves to Ohio, + +Gulf States, + proposed Negro commonwealths of, + +Guild of Caterers, + in Philadelphia, + + +Halleck, General, + excluded slaves from his lines, + +Harlan, Robert, + a horseman, + +Harper, John, + sent his slaves to Mercer County, Ohio, + +Hamsburg, + Negroes in; + reaction against Negroes in, + +Harrison, President William H., + accommodated at the café of John Julius, a Negro, + +Hayden, + a successful clothier, + +Hayti, + the exodus of Negroes to, + +Henry, Patrick, + on natural rights, + +Hill of Chillicothe, + a tanner and currier, + +Holly, James T., + interest of, in colonization, + +Hood, James W., + went from Connecticut to North Carolina, + +Hunter, General, + dealing with the refugees in South Carolina + + +Illinois, + the attitude of, toward the Negro; + race prejudice in; + slavery question in the organization of; + effort to make the constitution proslavery, + +Immigration of foreigners, + cessation of, a cause of the Negro migration, + +Indian Territory, + exodus of Negroes to, + +Indiana, + the attitude of, toward the Negro; + counties of, receiving Negroes from slave states; + slavery question in the organization of; + effort to make constitution of pro-slavery; + race prejudice in; + protest against the settlement of Negroes there, + +Indians, + attitude of, toward the Negroes, + +Infirmary Farms, + for refugees, + +Intimidation, + a cause of migration, + +Irish, + antagonistic to Negroes; + their hatred of Negroes, + +Jamaica, + Negroes of the United States settled in, + +Jay's Treaty, + +Jefferson, Thomas, + his plan for general education including the slaves; + plan to colonize Negroes in the West; + natural rights theory of; + an advocate of the colonization of the Negroes in the West Indies, + +Jenkins, David, + a paper hanger and glazier, + +Johnson, General, + permitted slave hunters to seek their slaves in his lines, + +Julius, John, + proprietor of a cafe in which he entertained President William H. +Harrison, + + +_Kansas Freedmen's Relief Association_, + the work of, + +Kansas refugees, + condition of; + treatment of, + +Kaokia, + slaves of, + +Kaskaskia, + slaves of, + +Keith, George, + interested in the Negroes, + +Kentucky, + disfranchisement of Negroes in; + abolition society of, advocated the colonization of the blacks in +the West, + +Key, Francis S., + a colonizationist, + +Kingsley, Z., + a master, settled his son of color in Hayti, + +Ku Klux Klan, + the work of, + +Labor agents promoting the migration of Negroes, + +Lambert, William, + interest of, in the colonization of Negroes, + +Land tenure, + a cause of unrest; + after Reconstruction, + +Langston, John M., + returned from Ohio to Virginia, + +Lawrence County, Ohio, + Negroes immigrated into, + +Liberia, + freedmen sent to, + +Lincoln, Abraham, + urged withholding slaves, + +Louis XIV, + slave regulations of, + +Louisiana, + drain of laborers to; + exodus from; + refugees in, + +Lower Camps, Brown County, + Negroes of, + +Lower Louisiana, + conditions of; + conditions of slaves in, + +Lundy, Benjamin, + promoter of the migration of Negroes, + +Lynching, + a cause of migration; + number of Negroes lynched, + + +McCook, General, + permitted slave hunters to seek their Negroes in his lines, + +Maryland, + disfranchisement of Negroes in; + passed laws against Negro mechanics; + reaction in, + +Massachusetts, + exterminated slavery, + +Meade, Bishop William, + a colonizationist, + +Mercer County, Ohio, + successful Negroes of; + resolutions of citizens against Negroes, + +Miami County, + Randolph's Negroes sent to, + +Michigan, + Negroes transplanted to; + attitude of, toward the Negro, + +Migration, the, + of the talented tenth; + handicaps of; + of politicians to Washington; + of educated Negroes; + of the intelligent laboring class; + effect of Negroes' prospective political power; + to northern cities, + +Miles, N.E., + interest in stopping the exodus to Kansas, + +Mississippi, + drain of laborers to; + exodus from; + refugees in; + slaves along, + +Morgan, Senator, + of Alabama, interested in sending the Negroes to Africa, + +Movement of the blacks to the western territory; + promoted by Quakers, + +Movements of Negroes during the Civil War; + of poor whites, + +Mulber, Stephen, + a contractor, + +Murder of Negroes in the South, + + +Natural rights, + the effect of; + the discussion of, on the condition of the Negro, + +Negro journalists, + the number of + +Negroes, + condition of, after Reconstruction; + escaped to the West; + those having wealth tend to remain in the South; + migration of, to Mexico; + exodus of, to Liberia; + no freedom of speech of; + not migratory; + leaders of Reconstruction, largely from the North; + mechanics in Cincinnati; + servants on Ohio river vessels, + +New Hampshire, + exterminated slavery, + +New Jersey, + abolished slavery + +New York, + abolition of slavery in; + friends of fugitives in; + mobs of, attack Negroes; + Negro suffrage in; + restrictions of, on Negroes, + +North Carolina, + Negro suffrage in; + Quakers of, promoting the migration of the Negroes; + reaction in, + +North, + change in attitude of, toward the Negro; + divided in its sentiment as to method of helping the Negro; + favorable sentiment of; + trade of, with the South; + fugitives not generally welcomed; + its Negro problem; + housing the Negro in; + criminal class of Negroes in, + loss of interest of, in the Negro; + not a place of refuge for Negroes; + +Northwest, + few Negroes in, at first; + hesitation to go there because of the ordinance of 1787, + +Noyes Academy, + broken up because it admitted Negroes, + +Nugent, Colonel W.L., + interest in stopping the exodus to Kansas, + +Occupations of Negroes in the North, + +Ohio, + Negro question in constitutional convention of; + in the legislature of 1804; + black laws of; + protest against Negroes, + +Oklahoma, + Negroes in; + discouraged by early settlers of, + +Ordinance of 1784 rejected, + +Ordinance of 1787, + passed; + meaning of sixth article of; + reasons for the passage of; + did not at first disturb slavery; + construction of, + +Otis, James, + on natural rights, + +Pacific Railroad, + proposal to build, with refugee labor, + +Palmyra, + race prejudice of, + +Pelham, Robert A., + father of, moved to Detroit, + +Penn, William, + advocate of emancipation, + +Pennsylvania, + effort in, to force free Negroes to support their dependents; + effort to prevent immigration of Negroes; + increase in the population of free Negroes of; + petitions to rid the State of Negroes by colonization; + era of good feeling in; + exterminated slavery; + the migration of freedmen from North Carolina to; + Negro suffrage in; + passed laws against Negro mechanics; + successful Negroes of, + +Peonage, + a cause of migration, + +Philadelphia, + Negroes rush to; + race friction of; + woman of color stoned to death; + Negro church disturbed; + reaction against Negroes; + riots in; + successful Negroes of; + property owned by Negroes, + +Pierce, E.S., + plan for handling refugees in South Carolina, + +Pinchback, P.B.S., + return of, from Ohio to Louisiana to enter politics, + +Pittman, Philip, + account of West, of, + +Pittsburgh, + friends of fugitives in; + Negro of, married to French woman; + kind treatment of refugees; + respectable mulatto woman married to a surgeon of Nantes; + riot in, + +Platt, William, + a lumber merchant, + +Political power, + not to be the only aim of the migrants; + the mistakes of such a policy, + +Polities, + a cause of unrest, + +Pollard, N.W., + agent of the Government of Trinidad, sought Negroes in the United +States, + +Portsmouth, + friends of fugitives of, + +Portsmouth, Ohio, + mob of, drives Negroes out; + progressive Negroes of, + +Prairie du Rocher, + slaves of, + +Press comments on sending Negroes to Africa, + +Puritans, + not much interested in the Negro, + + +Quakers, + promoted the movement of the blacks to Western territory; + in the mountains assisted fugitives, + + +Race prejudice, + the effects of; + among laboring classes, + +Randolph, John, + a colonizationist; + sought to settle his slaves in Mercer County, Ohio, + +Reaction against the Negro, + +Reconstruction, + promoted to an extent by Negro natives of North, + +Redpath, James, + interest of, in colonization, + +Refugees assembled in camps; + in West; + in Washington; + in South; + exodus of, to the North; + fear that they would overrun the North; + development of; + vagrancy at close of war, + +Renault, Philip Francis, + imported slaves, + +Resolutions of the Vicksburg Convention bearing on the exodus to +Kansas, + +Rhode Island, + exterminated slavery, + +Richards, Benjamin, + a wealthy Negro of Pittsburgh, + +Richard, Fannie M., + a successful teacher in Detroit, + +Riley, William H., + a well-to-do bootmaker, + +Ringold, Thomas, + advertisement of, for a slave in the West, + +Rochester, + friends of fugitives in, + + +Saint John, Governor, + aid of, to the Negroes in Kansas, + +Sandy Lake, + Negro settlement in, + +Saunders of Cabell County, Virginia, + sent manumitted slaves to Cass County, Michigan, + +Saxton, General Rufus, + plan for handling refugees in South Carolina, + +Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, + favorable to fugitives, + +Scott, Henry, + owner of a pickling business, + +Scroggs, Wm. O., + referred to as authority on interstate migration, + +Segregation, + a cause of migration, + +Shelby County, Ohio, + Negroes in, + +Sierra Leone, + Negroes of, settled in Jamaica, + +Simmons, W.J., + returned from Pennsylvania to Kentucky, + +Singleton, Moses, + leader of the exodus from Kansas, + +Sixth Article of Ordinance of 1787, + +Slave Code in Louisiana, + +Slavery in the Northwest; + slavery in Indiana; + slavery of whites, + +Slaves, + mingled freely with their masters in early West, + +Smith, Gerrit, + effort to colonize Negroes in New York, + +Smith, Stephen, + a lumber merchant, + +South Carolina, + slavery considered profitable there, + +South, + change of attitude of, toward the Negro; + drastic laws against vagrancy, + +Southern States divided on the Negro, + +Spears, Noah, + sent his manumitted slaves to Greene County, Ohio, + +Starr, Frederick, + comment of, on the refugees, + +Steubenville, + successful Negroes of, + +Still, William, + a coal merchant, + +St. Philippe, + slaves of, + +Success of Negro migrants, + +Suffrage of the Negroes in the colonies, + + +Tappan, Arthur, + attacked by New York mob, + +Tappan, Lewis, + attacked by New York mob, + +Terrorism, + a cause of migration, + +Texas, + drain of laborers to; + proposed colony of Negroes there, + +Thomas, General, + opened farms for refugees, + +Thompson, A.V., + a tailor, + +Thompson, C.M., + comment on freedmen's vagrancy, + +Topp, W.H., + a merchant tailor, + +Trades unions, + attitude of, toward Negro labor, + +Trinidad, + the exodus of Negroes to; + Negroes from Philadelphia settled there, + +Turner, Bishop H.M., + interested in sending Negroes to Africa, + + +Upper and Lower Camps of Brown County, Ohio, + Negroes of, + +Upper Louisiana, + conditions of; + conditions of slaves in, + +Unrest of the Negroes in the South after Reconstruction; + causes of; + credit system a cause; + land system a cause; + further unrest of intelligent Negroes, + +Utica, + mob of, attacked anti-slavery leaders, + + +Vagrancy of Negroes after emancipation; + drastic legislation against, + +Vermont, + exterminated slavery, + +Vicksburg, + Convention of, to stop the Exodus, + +Viner, M., + mentioned slave settlements in West, + +Virginia, + disfranchisement of Negroes in; + Quakers of, promoting the migration of the Negroes; + reaction in; + refugees in, + +Vorhees, Senator D.W., + offered a resolution in Senate inquiring into the exodus to Kansas, + + +Washington, Judge Bushrod, + a colonizationist, + +Washington, D.C., + refugees in; + the migration of Negro politicians to, + +Wattles, Augustus, + settled with Negroes in Mercer County, Ohio, + +Watts, + steam engine and the industrial revolution, + +Wayne County, Indiana, + freedmen settled in, + +Webb, William, + interest of, in colonization, + +Wenyam, James, + ran away to the West, + +West Indies, + attractive to free Negroes, + +West Virginia, + exodus of Negroes to, + +White, David, + led a company of Negroes to the Northwest, + +White, J.T., + left Indiana to enter politics in Arkansas, + +Whites of South refused to work, + +Whitfield, James M., + interest of, in colonization, + +Whitney's cotton gin and the industrial revolution, + +Wickham, + executor of Samuel Gist, settled Gist's Negroes in Ohio, + +Wilberforce University established at a slave settlement, + +Wilcox, Samuel T., + a merchant of Cincinnati, + +Yankees, + comment of, on Negro labor, + +York, + Negroes of; + trouble with the Negroes of, + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's A Century of Negro Migration, by Carter G. Woodson + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10968 *** diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..96c2381 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #10968 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10968) diff --git a/old/10968-8.txt b/old/10968-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..61cedef --- /dev/null +++ b/old/10968-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7237 @@ +Project Gutenberg's A Century of Negro Migration, by Carter G. Woodson + +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: A Century of Negro Migration + +Author: Carter G. Woodson + +Release Date: February 6, 2004 [EBook #10968] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A CENTURY OF NEGRO MIGRATION *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Andy Schmitt and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + +[Transcriber's note: The spelling inconsistencies of the original are +preserved in this etext.] + + + + +A CENTURY OF NEGRO MIGRATION + +Carter G. Woodson + + + + +TO MY FATHER + +JAMES WOODSON + +WHO MADE IT POSSIBLE FOR ME TO ENTER THE LITERARY WORLD + + + + +A CENTURY OF NEGRO MIGRATION + + + + +PREFACE + + +In treating this movement of the Negroes, the writer does not presume to +say the last word on the subject. The exodus of the Negroes from the South +has just begun. The blacks have recently realized that they have freedom +of body and they will now proceed to exercise that right. To presume, +therefore, to exhaust the treatment of this movement in its incipiency is +far from the intention of the writer. The aim here is rather to direct +attention to this new phase of Negro American life which will doubtless +prove to be the most significant event in our local history since the +Civil War. + +Many of the facts herein set forth have seen light before. The effort here +is directed toward an original treatment of facts, many of which have +already periodically appeared in some form. As these works, however, are +too numerous to be consulted by the layman, the writer has endeavored to +present in succinct form the leading facts as to how the Negroes in the +United States have struggled under adverse circumstances to flee from +bondage and oppression in quest of a land offering asylum to the oppressed +and opportunity to the unfortunate. How they have often been deceived has +been carefully noted. + +With the hope that this volume may interest another worker to the extent +of publishing many other facts in this field, it is respectfully submitted +to the public. + +CARTER G. WOODSON. + +Washington, D.C., March 31, 1918. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +I.--Finding a Place of Refuge + +II.--A Transplantation to the North + +III.--Fighting it out on Free Soil + +IV.--Colonization as a Remedy for Migration + +V.--The Successful Migrant + +VI.--Confusing Movements + +VII.--The Exodus to the West + +VIII.--The Migration of the Talented Tenth + +IX.--The Exodus during the World War + +BIBLIOGRAPHY + +INDEX + + + +MAPS AND DIAGRAMS + + +Map Showing the Per Cent of Negroes in Total Population, by States: 1910 + +Diagram Showing the Negro Population of Northern and Western Cities in +1900 and 1910 + +Maps Showing Counties in Southern States in which Negroes Formed 50 Per +Cent of the Total Population + + + + +CHAPTER I + +FINDING A PLACE OF REFUGE + + +The migration of the blacks from the Southern States to those offering +them better opportunities is nothing new. The objective here, therefore, +will be not merely to present the causes and results of the recent +movement of the Negroes to the North but to connect this event with the +periodical movements of the blacks to that section, from about the year +1815 to the present day. That this movement should date from that period +indicates that the policy of the commonwealths towards the Negro must have +then begun decidedly to differ so as to make one section of the country +more congenial to the despised blacks than the other. As a matter of fact, +to justify this conclusion, we need but give passing mention here to +developments too well known to be discussed in detail. Slavery in the +original thirteen States was the normal condition of the Negroes. When, +however, James Otis, Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson began to discuss +the natural rights of the colonists, then said to be oppressed by Great +Britain, some of the patriots of the Revolution carried their reasoning to +its logical conclusion, contending that the Negro slaves should be freed +on the same grounds, as their rights were also founded in the laws of +nature.[1] And so it was soon done in most Northern commonwealths. + +Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts exterminated the institution by +constitutional provision and Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, New +York and Pennsylvania by gradual emancipation acts.[2] And it was thought +that the institution would soon thereafter pass away even in all southern +commonwealths except South Carolina and Georgia, where it had seemingly +become profitable. There came later the industrial revolution following +the invention of Watt's steam engine and mechanical appliances like +Whitney's cotton gin, all which changed the economic aspect of the modern +world, making slavery an institution offering means of exploitation to +those engaged in the production of cotton. This revolution rendered +necessary a large supply of cheap labor for cotton culture, out of which +the plantation system grew. The Negro slaves, therefore, lost all hope of +ever winning their freedom in South Carolina and Georgia; and in Maryland, +Virginia, and North Carolina, where the sentiment in favor of abolition +had been favorable, there was a decided reaction which soon blighted their +hopes.[3] In the Northern commonwealths, however, the sentiment in behalf +of universal freedom, though at times dormant, was ever apparent despite +the attachment to the South of the trading classes of northern cities, +which profited by the slave trade and their commerce with the slaveholding +States. The Northern States maintaining this liberal attitude developed, +therefore, into an asylum for the Negroes who were oppressed in the South. + +The Negroes, however, were not generally welcomed in the North. Many of +the northerners who sympathized with the oppressed blacks in the South +never dreamt of having them as their neighbors. There were, consequently, +always two classes of anti-slavery people, those who advocated the +abolition of slavery to elevate the blacks to the dignity of citizenship, +and those who merely hoped to exterminate the institution because it was +an economic evil.[4] The latter generally believed that the blacks +constituted an inferior class that could not discharge the duties of +citizenship, and when the proposal to incorporate the blacks into the body +politic was clearly presented to these agitators their anti-slavery ardor +was decidedly dampened. Unwilling, however, to take the position that a +race should be doomed because of personal objections, many of the early +anti-slavery group looked toward colonization for a solution of this +problem.[5] Some thought of Africa, but since the deportation of a large +number of persons who had been brought under the influence of modern +civilization seemed cruel, the most popular colonization scheme at first +seemed to be that of settling the Negroes on the public lands in the West. +As this region had been lately ceded, however, and no one could determine +what use could be made of it by white men, no such policy was generally +accepted. + +When this territory was ceded to the United States an effort to provide +for the government of it finally culminated in the proposed Ordinance of +1784 carrying the provision that slavery should not exist in the Northwest +Territory after the year 1800.[6] This measure finally failed to pass and +fortunately too, thought some, because, had slavery been given sixteen +years of growth on that soil, it might not have been abolished there until +the Civil War or it might have caused such a preponderance of slave +commonwealths as to make the rebellion successful. The Ordinance of 1784 +was antecedent to the more important Ordinance of 1787, which carried the +famous sixth article that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude except +as a punishment for crime should exist in that territory. At first, it was +generally deemed feasible to establish Negro colonies on that domain. Yet +despite the assurance of the Ordinance of 1787 conditions were such that +one could not determine exactly whether the Northwest Territory would be +slave or free.[7] + +What then was the situation in this partly unoccupied territory? Slavery +existed in what is now the Northwest Territory from the time of the early +exploration and settlement of that region by the French. The first slaves +of white men were Indians. Though it is true that the red men usually +chose death rather than slavery, there were some of them that bowed to the +yoke. So many Pawnee Indians became bondsmen that the word _Pani_ +became synonymous with slave in the West.[8] Western Indians themselves, +following the custom of white men, enslaved their captives in war rather +than choose the alternative of putting them to death. In this way they +were known to hold a number of blacks and whites. + +The enslavement of the black man by the whites in this section dates from +the early part of the eighteenth century. Being a part of the Louisiana +Territory which under France extended over the whole Mississippi Valley as +far as the Allegheny mountains, it was governed by the same colonial +regulations.[9] Slavery, therefore, had legal standing in this territory. +When Antoine Crozat, upon being placed in control of Louisiana, was +authorized to begin a traffic in slaves, Crozat himself did nothing to +carry out his plan. But in 1717 when the control of the colony was +transferred to the _Compagnie de l'Occident_ steps were taken toward +the importation of slaves. In 1719, when 500 Guinea Negroes were brought +over to serve in Lower Louisiana, Philip Francis Renault imported 500 +other bondsmen into Upper Louisiana or what was later included in the +Northwest Territory. Slavery then became more and more extensive until by +1750 there were along the Mississippi five settlements of slaves, +Kaskaskia, Kaokia, Fort Chartres, St. Phillipe and Prairie du Rocher.[10] +In 1763 Negroes were relatively numerous in the Northwest Territory but +when this section that year was transferred to the British the number was +diminished by the action of those Frenchmen who, unwilling to become +subjects of Great Britain, moved from the territory.[11] There was no +material increase in the slave population thereafter until the end of the +eighteenth century when some Negroes came from the original thirteen. + +The Ordinance of 1787 did not disturb the relation of slave and master. +Some pioneers thought that the sixth article exterminated slavery there; +others contended that it did not. The latter believed that such +expressions in the Ordinance of 1787 as the "free inhabitants" and the +"free male inhabitants of full size" implied the continuance of slavery +and others found ground for its perpetuation in that clause of the +Ordinance which allowed the people of the territory to adopt the +constitution and laws of any one of the thirteen States. Students of law +saw protection for slavery in Jay's treaty which guaranteed to the +settlers their property of all kinds.[12] When, therefore, the slave +question came up in the Northwest Territory about the close of the +eighteenth century, there were three classes of slaves: first, those who +were in servitude to French owners previous to the cession of the +Territory to England and were still claimed as property in the possession +of which the owners were protected under the treaty of 1763; second, those +who were held by British owners at the time of Jay's treaty and claimed +afterward as property under its protection; and third, those who, since +the Territory had been controlled by the United States, had been brought +from the commonwealths in which slavery was allowed.[13] Freedom, however, +was recognized as the ultimate status of the Negro in that territory. + +This question having been seemingly settled, Anthony Benezet, who for +years advocated the abolition of slavery and devoted his time and means to +the preparation of the Negroes for living as freedmen, was practical +enough to recommend to the Congress of the Confederation a plan of +colonizing the emancipated blacks on the western lands.[14] Jefferson +incorporated into his scheme for a modern system of public schools the +training of the slaves in industrial and agricultural branches to equip +them for a higher station in life. He believed, however, that the blacks +not being equal to the white race should not be assimilated and should +they be free, they should, by all means, be colonized afar off.[15] +Thinking that the western lands might be so used, he said in writing to +James Monroe in 1801: "A very great extent of country north of the Ohio +has been laid off in townships, and is now at market, according to the +provisions of the act of Congress.... There is nothing," said he, "which +would restrain the State of Virginia either in the purchase or the +application of these lands."[16] Yet he raised the question as to whether +the establishment of such a colony within our limits and to become a part +of the Union would be desirable. He thought then of procuring a place +beyond the limits of the United States on our northern boundary, by +purchasing the Indian lands with the consent of Great Britain. He then +doubted that the black race would live in such a rigorous climate. + +This plan did not easily pass from the minds of the friends of the slaves, +for in 1805 Thomas Brannagan asserted in his _Serious Remonstrances_ +that the government should appropriate a few thousand acres of land at +some distant part of the national domains for the Negroes' accommodation +and support. He believed that the new State might be established upwards +of 2,000 miles from our frontier.[17] A copy of the pamphlet containing +this proposition was sent to Thomas Jefferson, who was impressed thereby, +but not having the courage to brave the torture of being branded as a +friend of the slave, he failed to give it his support.[18] The same +question was brought prominently before the public again in 1816 when +there was presented to the House of Representatives a memorial from the +Kentucky Abolition Society praying that the free people of color be +colonized on the public lands. The committee to whom the memorial was +referred for consideration reported that it was expedient to refuse the +request on the ground that, as such lands were not granted to free white +men, they saw no reason for granting them to others.[19] + +Some Negro slaves unwilling to wait to be carried or invited to the +Northwest Territory escaped to that section even when it was controlled by +the French prior to the American Revolution. Slaves who reached the West +by this route caused trouble between the French and the British colonists. +Advertising in 1746 for James Wenyam, a slave, Richard Colgate, his +master, said that he swore to a Negro whom he endeavored to induce to go +with him, that he had often been in the backwoods with his master and that +he would go to the French and Indians and fight for them.[20] In an +advertisement for a mulatto slave in 1755 Thomas Ringold, his master, +expressed fear that he had escaped by the same route to the French. He, +therefore, said: "It seems to be the interest, at least, of every +gentleman that has slaves, to be active in the beginning of these +attempts, for whilst we have the French such near neighbors, we shall not +have the least security in that kind of property."[21] + +The good treatment which these slaves received among the French, and +especially at Pittsburgh the gateway to the Northwest Territory, tended to +make that city an asylum for those slaves who had sufficient spirit of +adventure to brave the wilderness through which they had to go. Negroes +even then had the idea that there was in this country a place of more +privilege than those they enjoyed in the seaboard colonies. Knowing of the +likelihood of the Negroes to rise during the French and Indian War, +Governor Dinwiddie wrote Fox one of the Secretaries of State in 1756: "We +dare not venture to part with any of our white men any distance, as we +must have a watchful eye over our Negro slaves, who are upward of one +hundred thousand."[22] Brissot de Warville mentions in his _Travels of +1788_ several examples of marriages of white and blacks in Pittsburgh. +He noted the case of a Negro who married an indentured French servant +woman. Out of this union came a desirable mulatto girl who married a +surgeon of Nantes then stationed at Pittsburgh. His family was considered +one of the most respectable of the city. The Negro referred to was doing a +creditable business and his wife took it upon herself to welcome +foreigners, especially the French, who came that way. Along the Ohio also +there were several cases of women of color living with unmarried white men; +but this was looked upon by the Negroes as detestable as was evidenced by +the fact that, if black women had a quarrel with a mulatto woman, the +former would reproach the latter for being of ignoble blood.[23] + +These tendencies, however, could not assure the Negro that the Northwest +Territory was to be an asylum for freedom when in 1763 it passed into the +hands of the British, the promoters of the slave trade, and later to the +independent colonies, two of which had no desire to exterminate slavery. +Furthermore, when the Ordinance of 1787 with its famous sixth article +against slavery was proclaimed, it was soon discovered that this document +was not necessarily emancipatory. As the right to hold slaves was +guaranteed to those who owned them prior to the passage of the Ordinance +of 1787, it was to be expected that those attached to that institution +would not indifferently see it pass away. Various petitions, therefore, +were sent to the territorial legislature and to Congress praying that the +sixth article of the Ordinance of 1787 be abrogated.[24] No formal action +to this effect was taken, but the practice of slavery was continued even +at the winking of the government. Some slaves came from the Canadians who, +in accordance with the slave trade laws of the British Empire, were +supplied with bondsmen. It was the Canadians themselves who provided by +act of parliament in 1793 for prohibiting the importation of slaves and +for gradual emancipation. When it seemed later that the cause of freedom +would eventually triumph the proslavery element undertook to perpetuate +slavery through a system of indentured servant labor. + +In the formation of the States of Indiana and Illinois the question as to +what should be done to harmonize with the new constitution the system of +indenture to which the territorial legislatures had been committed, caused +heated debate and at times almost conflict. Both Indiana[25] and +Illinois[26] finally incorporated into their constitutions compromise +provisions for a nominal prohibition of slavery modified by clauses for +the continuation of the system of indentured labor of the Negroes held to +service. The proslavery party persistently struggled for some years to +secure by the interpretation of the laws, by legislation and even by +amending the constitution so to change the fundamental law as to provide +for actual slavery. These States, however, gradually worked toward freedom +in keeping with the spirit of the majority who framed the constitution, +despite the fact that the indenture system in southern Illinois and +especially in Indiana was at times tantamount to slavery as it was +practiced in parts of the South. + +It must be borne in mind here, however, that the North at this time was +far from becoming a place of refuge for Negroes. In the first place, the +industrial revolution had not then had time to reduce the Negroes to the +plane of beasts in the cotton kingdom. The rigorous climate and the +industries of the northern people, moreover, were not inviting to the +blacks and the development of the carrying trade and the rise of +manufacturing there did not make that section more attractive to unskilled +labor. Furthermore, when we consider the fact that there were many +thousands of Negroes in the Southern States the presence of a few in the +North must be regarded as insignificant. This paucity of blacks then +obtained especially in the Northwest Territory, for its French inhabitants +instead of being an exploiting people were pioneering, having little use +for slaves in carrying out their policy of merely holding the country for +France. Moreover, like certain gentlemen from Virginia, who after the +American Revolution were afraid to bring their slaves with them to occupy +their bounty lands in Ohio, few enterprising settlers from the slave +States had invaded the territory with their Negroes, not knowing whether +or not they would be secure in the possession of such property. When we +consider that in 1810 there were only 102,137 Negroes in the North and no +more than 3,454 in the Northwest Territory, we must look to the second +decade of the nineteenth century for the beginning of the migration of the +Negroes in the United States. + + +[Footnote 1: Locke, _Anti-Slavery_, pp. 19, 20, 23; _Works of John +Woolman_, pp. 58, 73; and Moore, _Notes on Slavery in Massachusetts_, +p. 71.] + +[Footnote 2: Bassett, _Federalist System_, chap. xii. Hart, +_Slavery and Abolition_, pp. 153, 154.] + +[Footnote 3: Turner, _The Rise of the New West_, pp. 45, 46, 47, 48, +49; Hammond, _Cotton Industry_, chaps. i and ii; Scherer, _Cotton +as a World Power_, pp. 168, 175.] + +[Footnote 4: Locke, _Anti-Slavery_, chaps. i and ii.] + +[Footnote 5: Jay, _An Inquiry_, p. 30.] + +[Footnote 6: Ford edition, _Jefferson's Writings_, III, p. 432.] + +[Footnote 7: For the passage of this ordinance three reasons have been +given: Slavery then prior to the invention of the cotton gin was +considered a necessary evil in the South. The expected monopoly of the +tobacco and indigo cultivation in the South would be promoted by excluding +Negroes from the Northwest Territory and thus preventing its cultivation +there. Dr. Cutler's influence aided by Mr. Grayson of Virginia was of much +assistance. The philanthropic idea was not so prominent as men have +thought.--Dunn, _Indiana_, p. 212.] + +[Footnote 8: _Ibid_., p. 254.] + +[Footnote 9: _Code Noir_.] + +[Footnote 10: Speaking of these settlements in 1750, M. Viner, a Jesuit +Missionary to the Indians, said: "We have here Whites, Negroes, and +Indians, to say nothing of cross-breeds--There are five French villages +and three villages of the natives within a space of twenty-one leagues--In +the five French villages there are perhaps eleven hundred whites, three +hundred blacks, and some sixty red slaves or savages." Unlike the +condition of the slaves in Lower Louisiana where the rigid enforcement of +the Slave Code made their lives almost intolerable, the slaves of the +Northwest Territory were for many reasons much more fortunate. In the +first place, subject to the control of a mayor-commandant appointed by the +Governor of New Orleans, the early dwellers in this territory managed +their plantations about as they pleased. Moreover, as there were few +planters who owned as many as three or four Negroes, slavery in the +Northwest Territory did not get far beyond the patriarchal stage. Slaves +were usually well fed. The relations between master and slave were +friendly. The bondsmen were allowed special privileges on Sundays and +holidays and their children were taught the catechism according to the +ordinance of Louis XIV in 1724, which provided that all masters should +educate their slaves in the Apostolic Catholic religion and have them +baptized. Male slaves were worked side by side in the fields with their +masters and the female slaves in neat attire went with their mistresses to +matins and vespers. Slaves freely mingled in practically all festive +enjoyments.--See _Jesuit Relations_, LXIX, p. 144; Hutchins, _An +Historical Narrative_, 1784; and _Code Noir_.] + +[Footnote 11: Mention was thereafter made of slaves as in the case of +Captain Philip Pittman who in 1770 wrote of one Mr. Beauvais, "who owned +240 orpens of cultivated land and eighty slaves; and such a case as that +of a Captain of a militia at St. Philips, possessing twenty blacks; and +the case of Mr. Bales, a very rich man of St. Genevieve, Illinois, owning +a hundred Negroes, beside having white people constantly employed."--See +Captain Pittman's _The Present State of the European Settlements in the +Mississippi_, 1770.] + +[Footnote 12: Dunn, _Indiana_, chap. vi.] + +[Footnote 13: Hinsdale, _Old Northwest_, p. 350.] + +[Footnote 14: _Tyrannical Libertymen_, pp. 10, 11; Locke, +_Anti-Slavery_, pp. 31, 32; Brannagan, _Serious Remonstrance_, +p. 18.] + +[Footnote 15: Washington edition of _Jefferson's Writings_, chap. vi, +p. 456, and chap. viii, p. 380.] + +[Footnote 16: Ford edition of _Jefferson's Writings_, III, p. 244; +IX, p. 303; X, pp. 76, 290.] + +[Footnote 17: Brannagan, _Serious Remonstrances_, p. 18.] + +[Footnote 18: Library edition of _Jefferson's Writings_, X, pp. 295, +296.] + +[Footnote 19: Adams, _Neglected Period of Anti-Slavery_, pp. 129, +130.] + +[Footnote 20: _The Pennsylvania Gazette_, July 31, 1746.] + +[Footnote 21: _The Maryland Gazette_, March 20, 1755.] + +[Footnote 22: _Washington's Writings_, II, p. 134.] + +[Footnote 23: Brissot de Warville, _New Travels_, II, pp. 33-34.] + +[Footnote 24: Harris, _Slavery in Illinois_, chaps. iii, iv, and v; +Dunn, _Indiana_, pp. 218-260; Hinsdale, _Old Northwest_, pp. +351-358.] + +[Footnote 25: This code provided that all male Negroes under fifteen, +years of age either owned or acquired must remain in servitude until they +reached the age of thirty-five and female slaves until thirty-two. The +male children of such persons held to service could be bound out for +thirty years and the female children for twenty-eight. Slaves brought into +the territory had to comply with contracts for terms of service when their +master registered them within thirty days from the time he brought them +into the territory. Indentured black servants were not exactly sold, but +the law permitted the transfer from one owner to another when the slave +acquiesced in the transfer before a notary, but it was often done without +regard to the slave. They were even bequeathed and sold as personal +property at auction. Notices for sale were frequent. There were rewards +for runaway slaves. Negroes whose terms had almost expired were kidnapped +and sold to New Orleans. The legislature imposed a penalty for such, but +it was not generally enforced. They were taxable property valued according +to the length of service. Negroes served as laborers on farms, house +servants, and in salt mines, the latter being an excuse for holding them +as slaves. Persons of color could purchase servants of their own race. The +law provided that the Justice of the County could on complaint from the +master order that a lazy servant be whipped. In this frontier section, +therefore, where men often took the law in their own hands, slaves were +often punished and abused just as they were in the Southern States. The +law dealing with fugitives was somewhat harsh. When apprehended, fugitives +had to serve two days extra for each day they lost from their master's +service. The harboring of a runaway slave was punishable by a fine of one +day for each the slave might be concealed. Consistently too with the +provision of the laws in most slave States, slaves could retain all goods +or money lawfully acquired during their servitude provided their master +gave his consent. Upon the demonstration of proof to the county court that +they had served their term they could obtain from that tribunal +certificates of freedom. See _The Laws of Indiana_.] + +[Footnote 26: Masters had to provide adequate food, and clothing and good +lodging for the slave, but the penalty for failing to comply with this law +was not clear and even if so, it happened that many masters never observed +it. There was also an effort to prevent cruelty to slaves, but it was +difficult to establish the guilt of masters when the slave could not bear +witness against his owner and it was not likely that the neighbor equally +guilty or indifferent to the complaints of the blacks would take their +petitions to court. + +Under this system a large number of slaves were brought into the Territory +especially after 1807. There were 135 in 1800. This increase came from +Kentucky and Tennessee. As those brought were largely boys and girls with +a long period of service, this form of slavery was assured for some years. +The children of these blacks were often registered for thirty-five instead +of thirty years of service on the ground that they were not born in +Illinois. No one thought of persecuting a master for holding servants +unlawfully and Negroes themselves could be easily deceived. Very few +settlers brought their slaves there to free them. There were only 749 in +1820. If one considers the proportion of this to the number brought there +for manumission this seems hardly true. It is better to say that during +these first two decades of the nineteenth century some settlers came for +both purposes, some to hold slaves, some, as Edward Coles, to free them. +It was not only practiced in the southern part along the Mississippi and +Ohio but as far north in Illinois as Sangamon County, were found servants +known as "yellow boys" and "colored girls."--See the _Laws of +Illinois_.] + + + +CHAPTER II + +A TRANSPLANTATION TO THE NORTH + + +Just after the settlement of the question of holding the western posts by +the British and the adjustment of the trouble arising from their capture +of slaves during our second war with England, there started a movement of +the blacks to this frontier territory. But, as there were few towns or +cities in the Northwest during the first decades of the new republic, the +flight of the Negro into that territory was like that of a fugitive taking +his chances in the wilderness. Having lost their pioneering spirit in +passing through the ordeal of slavery, not many of the bondmen took flight +in that direction and few free Negroes ventured to seek their fortunes in +those wilds during the period of the frontier conditions, especially when +the country had not then undergone a thorough reaction against the Negro. + +The migration of the Negroes, however, received an impetus early in the +nineteenth century. This came from the Quakers, who by the middle of the +eighteenth century had taken the position that all members of their sect +should free their slaves.[1] The Quakers of North Carolina and Virginia +had as early as 1740 taken up the serious question of humanely treating +their Negroes. The North Carolina Quakers advised Friends to emancipate +their slaves, later prohibited traffic in them, forbade their members from +even hiring the blacks out in 1780 and by 1818 had exterminated the +institution among their communicants.[2] After healing themselves of the +sin, they had before the close of the eighteenth century militantly +addressed themselves to the task of abolishing slavery and the slave trade +throughout the world. Differing in their scheme from that of most +anti-slavery leaders, they were advocating the establishment of the +freedmen in society as good citizens and to that end had provided for the +religious and mental instruction of their slaves prior to emancipating +them.[3] + +Despite the fact that the Quakers were not free to extend their operations +throughout the colonies, they did much to enable the Negroes to reach free +soil. As the Quakers believed in the freedom of the will, human +brotherhood, and equality before God, they did not, like the Puritans, +find difficulties in solving the problem of elevating the Negroes. Whereas +certain Puritans were afraid that conversion might lead to the destruction +of caste and the incorporation of undesirable persons into the "Body +Politick," the Quakers proceeded on the principle that all men are +brethren and, being equal before God, should be considered equal before +the law. On account of unduly emphasizing the relation of man to God, the +Puritans "atrophied their social humanitarian instinct" and developed into +a race of self-conscious saints. Believing in human nature and laying +stress upon the relation between man and man, the Quakers became the +friends of all humanity.[4] + +In 1693 George Keith, a leading Quaker of his day, came forward as a +promoter of the religious training of the slaves as a preparation for +emancipation. William Penn advocated the emancipation of slaves, that they +might have every opportunity for improvement. In 1695 the Quakers while +protesting against the slave trade denounced also the policy of neglecting +their moral and spiritual welfare.[5] The growing interest of this sect in +the Negroes was shown later by the development in 1713 of a definite +scheme for freeing and returning them to Africa after having been educated +and trained to serve as missionaries on that continent. + +When the manumission of the slaves was checked by the reaction against +that class and it became more of a problem to establish them in a hostile +environment, certain Quakers of North Carolina and Virginia adopted the +scheme of settling them in Northern States.[6] At first, they sent such +freedmen to Pennsylvania. But for various reasons this did not prove to be +the best asylum. In the first place, Pennsylvania bordered on the slave +States, Maryland and Virginia, from which agents came to kidnap free +Negroes. Furthermore, too many Negroes were already rushing to that +commonwealth as the Negroes' heaven and there was the chance that the +Negroes might be settled elsewhere in the North, where they might have +better economic opportunities.[7] A committee of forty was accordingly +appointed by North Carolina Quakers in 1822 to examine the laws of other +free States with a view to determining what section would be most suitable +for colonizing these blacks. This committee recommended in its report that +the blacks be colonized in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. + +The yearly meeting, therefore, ordered the removal of such Negroes as fast +as they were willing or as might be consistent with the profession of +their sect, and instructed the agents effecting the removal to draw on the +treasury for any sum not exceeding two hundred dollars to defray expenses. +An increasing number reached these States every year but, owing to the +inducements offered by the American Colonization Society, some of them +went to Liberia. When Liberia, however, developed into every thing but a +haven of rest, the number sent to the settlements in the Northwest greatly +increased. + +The quarterly meeting succeeded in sending to the West 133 Negroes, +including 23 free blacks and slaves given up because they were connected +by marriage with those to be transplanted.[8] The Negro colonists seemed +to prefer Indiana.[9] They went in three companies and with suitable young +Friends to whom were executed powers of attorney to manumit, set free, +settle and bind them out.[10] Thirteen carts and wagons were bought for +these three companies; $1,250 was furnished for their traveling expenses +and clothing, the whole cost amounting to $2,490. It was planned to send +forty or fifty to Long Island and twenty to the interior of Pennsylvania, +but they failed to prosper and reports concerning them stamped them as +destitute and deplorably ignorant. Those who went to Ohio and Indiana, +however, did well.[11] + +Later we receive another interesting account of this exodus. David White +led a company of fifty-three into the West, thirty-eight of whom belonged +to Friends, five to a member who had ordered that they be taken West at +his expense. Six of these slaves belonged to Samuel Lawrence, a Negro +slaveholder, who had purchased himself and family. White pathetically +reports the case of four of the women who had married slave husbands and +had twenty children for the possession of whom the Friends had to stand a +lawsuit in the courts. The women had decided to leave their husbands +behind but the thought of separation so tormented them that they made an +effort to secure their liberty. Upon appealing to their masters for terms +the owners, somewhat moved by compassion, sold them for one half of their +value. White then went West and left four in Chillicothe, twenty-three in +Leesburg and twenty-six in Wayne County, Indiana, without encountering any +material difficulty.[12] + +Others had thought of this plan but the Quakers actually carried it out on +a small scale. Here we see again not only their desire to have the Negroes +emancipated but the vital interest of the Quakers in success of the +blacks, for members of this sect not only liberated their slaves but sold +out their own holdings in the South and moved with these freedmen into the +North. Quakers who then lived in free States offered fugitives material +assistance by open and clandestine methods.[13] The most prominent leader +developed by the movement was Levi Coffin, whose daring deeds in behalf of +the fugitives made him the reputed President of the Underground Railroad. +Most of the Quaker settlements of Negroes with which he was connected were +made in what is now Hamilton, Howard, Wayne, Randolph, Vigo, Gibson, +Grant, Rush, and Tipton Counties, Indiana, and Darke County, Ohio. + +The promotion of this movement by the Quakers was well on its way by 1815 +and was not materially checked until the fifties when the operations of +the drastic fugitive slave law interfered, and even then the movement had +gained such momentum and the execution of that mischievous measure had +produced in the North so much reaction like that expressed in the personal +liberty laws, that it could not be stopped. The Negroes found homes in +Western New York, Western Pennsylvania and throughout the Northwest +Territory. The Negro population of York, Harrisburg and Philadelphia +rapidly increased. A settlement of Negroes developed at Sandy Lake in +Northwestern Pennsylvania[14] and there was another near Berlin Cross +Roads in Ohio.[15] A group of Negroes migrating to this same State found +homes in the Van Buren Township of Shelby County.[16] A more significant +settlement in the State was made by Samuel Gist, an Englishman possessing +extensive plantations in Hanover, Amherst, and Henrico Counties, Virginia. +He provided in his will that his slaves should be freed and sent to the +North. He further provided that the revenue from his plantation the last +year of his life be applied in building schoolhouses and churches for +their accommodation, and "that all money coming to him in Virginia be set +aside for the employment of ministers and teachers to instruct them." In +1818, Wickham, the executor of his estate, purchased land and established +these Negroes in what was called the Upper and Lower Camps of Brown +County.[17] + +Augustus Wattles, a Quaker from Connecticut, made a settlement in Mercer +County, Ohio, early in the nineteenth century. In the winter of 1833-4, he +providentially became acquainted with the colored people of Cincinnati, +finding there about "4,000 totally ignorant of every thing calculated to +make good citizens." As most of them had been slaves, excluded from every +avenue of moral and mental improvement, he established for them a school +which he maintained for two years. He then proposed to these Negroes to go +into the country and purchase land to remove them "from those +contaminating influences which had so long crushed them in our cities and +villages."[18] They consented on the condition that he would accompany +them and teach school. He travelled through Canada, Michigan and Indiana, +looking for a suitable location, and finally selected for settlement a +place in Mercer County, Ohio. In 1835, he made the first purchase of land +there for this purpose and before 1838 Negroes had bought there about +30,000 acres, at the earnest appeal of this benefactor, who had travelled +into almost every neighborhood of the blacks in the State, and laid before +them the benefits of a permanent home for themselves and of education for +their children.[19] + +This settlement was further increased in 1858 by the manumitted slaves of +John Harper of North Carolina.[20] John Randolph of Roanoke endeavored to +establish his slaves as freemen in this county but the Germans who had +settled in that community a little ahead of them started such a +disturbance that Randolph's executor could not carry out his plan, +although he had purchased a large tract of land there.[21] It was +necessary to send these freemen to Miami County. Theodoric H. Gregg of +Dinwiddie County, Virginia, liberated his slaves in 1854 and sent them to +Ohio.[22] Nearer to the Civil War, when public opinion was proscribing the +uplift of Negroes in Kentucky, Noah Spears secured near Xenia, Greene +County, Ohio, a small parcel of land for sixteen of his former bondsmen in +1856.[23] Other freedmen found their way to this community in later years +and it became so prosperous that it was selected as the site of +Wilberforce University. + +This transplantation extended into Michigan. With the help of persons +philanthropically inclined there sprang up a flourishing group of Negroes +in Detroit. Early in the nineteenth century they began to acquire property +and to provide for the education of their children. Their record was such +as to merit the encomiums of their fellow white citizens. In later years +this group in Detroit was increased by the operation of laws hostile to +free Negroes in the South in that life for this class not only became +intolerable but necessitated their expatriation. Because of the Virginia +drastic laws and especially that of 1838 prohibiting the return to that +State of such Negro students as had been accustomed to go North to attend +school, after they were denied this privilege at home, the father of +Richard DeBaptiste and Marie Louis More, the mother of Fannie M. Richards, +led a colony of free Negroes from Fredericksburg to Detroit.[24] And for +about similar reasons the father of Robert A. Pelham conducted others from +Petersburg, Virginia, in 1859.[25] One Saunders, a planter of Cabell +County, West Virginia, liberated his slaves some years later and furnished +them homes among the Negroes settled in Cass County, Michigan, about +ninety miles east of Chicago, and ninety-five miles west of Detroit. + +This settlement had become attractive to fugitive slaves and freedmen +because the Quakers settled there welcomed them on their way to freedom +and in some cases encouraged them to remain among them. When the increase +of fugitives was rendered impossible during the fifties when the Fugitive +Slave Law was being enforced, there was still a steady growth due to the +manumission of slaves by sympathetic and benevolent masters in the +South.[26] Most of these Negroes settled in Calvin Township, in that +county, so that of the 1,376 residing there in 1860, 795 were established +in this district, there being only 580 whites dispersed among them. The +Negro settlers did not then obtain control of the government but they +early purchased land to the extent of several thousand acres and developed +into successful small farmers. Being a little more prosperous than the +average Negro community in the North, the Cass County settlement not only +attracted Negroes fleeing from hardships in the South but also those who +had for some years unsuccessfully endeavored to establish themselves in +other communities on free soil.[27] + +These settlements were duplicated a little farther west in Illinois. +Edward Coles, a Virginian, who in 1818 emigrated to Illinois, of which he +later served as Governor and as liberator from slavery, settled his slaves +in that commonwealth. He brought them to Edwardsville, where they +constituted a community known as "Coles' Negroes."[28] There was another +community of Negroes in Illinois in what is now called Brooklyn situated +north of East St. Louis. This town was a center of some consequence in the +thirties. It became a station of the Underground Railroad on the route to +Alton and to Canada. As all of the Negroes who emerged from the South did +not go farther into the North, the black population of the town gradually +grew despite the fact that slave hunters captured and reenslaved many of +the Negroes who settled there.[29] + +These settlements together with favorable communities of sympathetic +whites promoted the migration of the free Negroes and fugitives from the +South by serving as centers offering assistance to those fleeing to the +free States and to Canada. The fugitives usually found friends in +Philadelphia, Columbia, Pittsburgh, Elmira, Rochester, Buffalo, +Gallipolis, Portsmouth, Akron, Cincinnati, and Detroit. They passed on the +way to freedom through Columbia, Philadelphia, Elizabethtown and by way of +sea to New York and Boston, from which they proceeded to permanent +settlements in the North.[30] + +In the West, the migration of the blacks was further facilitated by the +peculiar geographic condition in that the Appalachian highland, extending +like a peninsula into the South, had a natural endowment which produced a +class of white citizens hostile to the institution of slavery. These +mountaineers coming later to the colonies had to go to the hills and +mountains because the first comers from Europe had taken up the land near +the sea. Being of the German and Scotch-Irish Presbyterian stock, they had +ideals differing widely from those of the seaboard slaveholders.[31] The +mountaineers believed in "civil liberty in fee simple, and an open road to +civil honors, secured to the poorest and feeblest members of society." The +eastern element had for their ideal a government of interests for the +people. They believed in liberty but that of kings, lords, and commons, +not of all the people.[32] + +Settled along the Appalachian highland, these new stocks continued to +differ from those dwelling near the sea, especially on the slavery +question.[33] The natural endowment of the mountainous section made +slavery there unprofitable and the mountaineers bore it grievously that +they were attached to commonwealths dominated by the radical pro-slavery +element of the South, who sacrificed all other interests to safeguard +those of the peculiar institution. There developed a number of clashes in +all of the legislatures and constitutional conventions of the Southern +States along the Atlantic, but in every case the defenders of the +interests of slavery won. When, therefore, slaves with the assistance of +anti-slavery mountaineers began to escape to the free States, they had +little difficulty in making their way through the Appalachian region, +where the love of freedom had so set the people against slavery that +although some of them yielded to the inevitable sin, they never made any +systematic effort to protect it.[34] + +The development of the movement in these mountains was more than +interesting. During the first quarter of the nineteenth century there were +many ardent anti-slavery leaders in the mountains. These were not +particularly interested in the Negro but were determined to keep that soil +for freedom that the settlers might there realize the ideals for which +they had left their homes in Europe. When the industrial revolution with +the attendant rise of the plantation cotton culture made abolition in the +South improbable, some of them became colonizationists, hoping to destroy +the institution through deportation, which would remove the objection of +certain masters who would free their slaves provided they were not left in +the States to become a public charge.[35] Some of this sentiment continued +in the mountains even until the Civil War. The highlanders, therefore, +found themselves involved in a continuous embroglio because they were not +moved by reactionary influences which were unifying the South for its bold +effort to make slavery a national institution.[36] The other members of +the mountaineer anti-slavery group became attached to the Underground +Railroad system, endeavoring by secret methods to place on free soil a +sufficiently large number of fugitives to show a decided diminution in the +South.[37] John Brown, who communicated with the South through these +mountains, thought that his work would be a success, if he could change +the situation in one county in each of these States. + +The lines along which these Underground Railroad operators moved connected +naturally with the Quaker settlements established in free States and the +favorable sections in the Appalachian region. Many of these workers were +Quakers who had already established settlements of slaves on estates which +they had purchased in the Northwest Territory. Among these were John +Rankin, James Gilliland, Jesse Lockehart, Robert Dobbins, Samuel Crothers, +Hugh L. Fullerton, and William Dickey. Thus they connected the heart of +the South with the avenues to freedom in the North.[38] There were routes +extending from this section into Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Pennsylvania. +Over the Ohio and Kentucky route culminating chiefly in Cleveland, +Sandusky and Detroit, however, more fugitives made their way to freedom +than through any other avenue,[39] partly too because they found the +limestone caves very helpful for hiding by day. These operations extended +even through Tennessee into northern Georgia and Alabama. Dillingham, +Josiah Henson and Harriet Tubman used these routes to deliver many a Negro +from slavery. + +The opportunity thus offered to help the oppressed brought forward a class +of anti-slavery men, who went beyond the limit of merely expressing their +horror of the evil. They believed that something should be done "to +deliver the poor that cry and to direct the wanderer in the right +way."[40] Translating into action what had long been restricted to +academic discussion, these philanthropic workers ushered in a new era in +the uplift of the blacks, making abolition more of a reality. The +abolition element of the North then could no longer be considered an +insignificant minority advocating a hopeless cause but a factor in drawing +from the South a part of its slave population and at the same time +offering asylum to the free Negroes whom the southerners considered +undesirable.[4l] Prominent among those who aided this migration in various +ways were Benjamin Lundy of Tennessee and James G. Birney, a former +slaveholder of Huntsville, Alabama, who manumitted his slaves and +apprenticed and educated some of them in Ohio. + +This exodus of the Negroes to the free States promoted the migration of +others of their race to Canada, a more congenial part beyond the borders +of the United States. The movement from the free States into Canada, +moreover, was contemporary with that from the South to the free States as +will be evidenced by the fact that 15,000 of the 60,000 Negroes in Canada +in 1860 were free born. As Detroit was the chief gateway for them to +Canada, most of these refugees settled in towns of Southern Ontario not +far from that city. These were Dawn, Colchester, Elgin, Dresden, Windsor, +Sandwich, Bush, Wilberforce, Hamilton, St. Catherines, Chatham, Riley, +Anderton, London, Malden and Gonfield.[42] And their coming to Canada was +not checked even by request from their enemies that they be turned away +from that country as undesirables, for some of the white people there +welcomed and assisted them. Canadians later experienced a change in their +attitude toward these refugees but these British Americans never made the +life of the Negro there so intolerable as was the case in some of the free +States. + +It should be observed here that this movement, unlike the exodus of the +Negroes of today, affected an unequal distribution of the enlightened +Negroes.[43] Those who are fleeing from the South today are largely +laborers seeking economic opportunities. The motive at work in the mind of +the antebellum refugee was higher. In 1840 there were more intelligent +blacks in the South than in the North but not so after 1850, despite the +vigorous execution of the Fugitive Slave Law in some parts of the North. +While the free Negro population of the slave States increased only 23,736 +from 1850 to 1860, that of the free States increased 29,839. In the South, +only Delaware, Maryland and North Carolina showed a noticeable increase in +the number of free persons of color during the decade immediately +preceding the Civil War. This element of the population had only slightly +increased in Alabama, Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee, Virginia, Louisiana, +South Carolina and the District of Columbia. The number of free Negroes of +Florida remained constant. Those of Arkansas, Mississippi and Texas +diminished. In the North, of course, the migration had caused the tendency +to be in the other direction. With the exception of Maine, New Hampshire, +Vermont and New York which had about the same free colored population in +1860 as they had in 1850 there was a general increase in the number of +Negroes in the free States. Ohio led in this respect, having had during +this period an increase of 11,394.[44] A glance at the table on the +accompanying page will show in detail the results of this migration. + + +STATISTICS OF THE FREE COLORED POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES + +State Population + 1850 1860 +---------------------------------------------------- +Alabama.................... 2,265 2,690 +Arkansas................... 608 144 +California................. 962 4,086 +Connecticut................ 7,693 8,627 +Delaware................... 18,073 19,829 +Florida...................... 932 932 +Georgia...................... 2,931 3,500 +Illinois..................... 5,436 7,628 +Indiana...................... 11,262 11,428 +Iowa......................... 333 1,069 +Kentucky..................... 10,011 10,684 +Louisiana.................... 17,462 18,647 +Maine........................ 1,356 1,327 +Kansas....................... 625 +Maryland..................... 74,723 83,942 +Massachusetts................ 9,064 9,602 +Michigan..................... 2,583 6,797 +Minnesota.................... 259 +Mississippi.................. 930 773 +Missouri..................... 2,618 3,572 +New Hampshire................ 520 494 +New Jersey................... 23,810 25,318 +New York..................... 49,069 49,005 +North Carolina............... 27,463 30,463 +Ohio......................... 25,279 36,673 +Oregon....................... 128 +Pennsylvania................. 53,626 56,949 +Rhode Island................. 3,670 3,952 +South Carolina............... 8,960 9,914 +Tennessee.................... 6,422 7,300 +Texas........................ 397 355 +Vermont...................... 718 709 +Virginia..................... 54,333 58,042 +Wisconsin.................... 635 1,171 +Territories: + Colorado................... 46 + Dakota..................... 0 + District of Columbia....... 10,059 11,131 + Minnesota.................. 39 + Nebraska................... 67 + Nevada..................... 45 + New Mexico................. 207 85 + Oregon..................... 24 + Utah....................... 22 30 + Washington................. 30 + _______ _______ +Total .....................434,495 488,070 + + +[Footnote 1: Moore, _Anti-Slavery_, p. 79; and _Special Report of +the United States Commissioner of Education_, 1871, p. 376; Weeks, +_Southern Quakers_, pp. 215, 216, 231, 230, 242.] + +[Footnote 2: _The Southern Workman_, xxvii, p. 161.] + +[Footnote 3: Rhodes, _History of the United States_, chap. i, p. 6; +Bancroft, _History of the United States_, chap. ii, p. 401; and +Locke, _Anti-Slavery_, p. 32.] + +[Footnote 4: _A Brief Statement of the Rise and Progress of the +Testimony of the Quakers_, passim; Woodson, _The Education of the +Negro Prior to 1861_, p. 43.] + +[Footnote 5: Woodson, _The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861_, p. +44; and Locke, _Anti-Slavery_, p. 32.] + +[Footnote 6: _The Southern Workman_, xxxvii, pp. 158-169.] + +[Footnote 7: Turner, _The Negro in Pennsylvania_, pp. 144, 145, 151, +155.] + +[Footnote 8: _Southern Workman_, xxxvii, p. 157.] + +[Footnote 9: Levi Coffin, _Reminiscences_, chaps, i and ii.] + +[Footnote 10: _Southern Workman_, xxxvii, pp. 161-163.] + +[Footnote 11: Coffin, _Reminiscences_, p. 109; and Howe's +_Historical Collections_, p. 356.] + +[Footnote 12: _Southern Workman_, xxxvii, pp. 162, 163.] + +[Footnote 13: Levi Coffin, _Reminiscences_, pp. 108-111.] + +[Footnote 14: Siebert, _The Underground Railroad_, p. 249.] + +[Footnote 15: Langston, _From the Virginia Plantation to the National +Capitol_, p. 35.] + +[Footnote 16: Howe, _Historical Collections_, p. 465.] + +[Footnote 17: _History of Brown County, Ohio_, p. 313.] + +[Footnote 18: Wattles said: he purchased for himself 190 acres of land, to +establish a manual labor school for colored boys. He had maintained a +school on it, at his own expense, till the eleventh of November, 1842. +While in Philadelphia the winter before, he became acquainted with the +trustees of the late Samuel Emlen, a Friend of New Jersey. He left by his +will $20,000 for the "support and education in school learning and the +mechanic arts and agriculture, boys, of African and Indian descent, whose +parents would give them up to the school. They united their means and +purchased Wattles farm, and appointed him the superintendent of the +establishment, which they called the Emlen Institute."--See Howe's +_Historical Collections_, p. 356.] + +[Footnote 19: Howe's _Historical Collections_, p. 355.] + +[Footnote 20: _Manuscripts_ in the possession of J.E. Moorland.] + +[Footnote 21: _The African Repository_, xxii, pp. 322, 333.] + +[Footnote 22: Simmons, _Men of Mark_, p. 723.] + +[Footnote 23: _Southern Workman_, xxxvii, p. 158.] + +[Footnote 24: _The Journal of Negro History_, I, pp. 23-33.] + +[Footnote 25: _Ibid_., I, p. 26.] + +[Footnote 26: _The African Repository_, passim.] + +[Footnote 27: Although constituting a majority of the population even +before the Civil War the Negroes of this township did not get recognition +in the local government until 1875 when John Allen, a Negro, was elected +township treasurer. From that time until about 1890 the Negroes always +shared the honors of office with their white citizens and since that time +they have usually had entire control of the local government in that +township, holding such offices as supervisor, clerk, treasurer, road +commissioner, and school director. Their record has been that of +efficiency. Boss rule among them is not known. The best man for an office +is generally sought; for this is a community of independent farmers. In +1907 one hundred and eleven different farmers in this community had +holdings of 10,439 acres. Their township usually has very few delinquent +taxpayers and it promptly makes its returns to the county.--See the +_Southern Workman_, xxxvii, pp. 486-489.] + +[Footnote 28: Davidson and Stowe, _A Complete History of Illinois_, +pp. 321, 322; and Washburn, _Edward Coles_, pp. 44 and 53.] + +[Footnote 29: The Negro population of this town so rapidly increased after +the war that it has become a Negro town and unfortunately a bad one. Much +improvement has been made in recent years.--See _Southern Workman_, +xxxvii, pp. 489-494.] + +[Footnote 30: Still, _Underground Railroad_, passim; Siebert, +_Underground Railroad_, pp. 34, 35, 40, 42, 43, 48, 56, 59, 62, 64, +70, 145, 147; Drew, _Refugee_, pp. 72, 97, 114, 152, 335 and 373.] + +[Footnote 31: _The Journal of Negro History_, I, pp. 132-162.] + +[Footnote 32: _Ibid_., I, 138.] + +[Footnote 33: Olmsted, _Back Country_, p. 134.] + +[Footnote 34: In the Appalachian mountains, however, the settlers were +loath to follow the fortunes of the ardent pro-slavery element. Actual +abolition, for example, was never popular in western Virginia, but the +love of the people of that section for freedom kept them estranged from +the slaveholding districts of the State, which by 1850 had completely +committed themselves to the pro-slavery propaganda. In the Convention of +1829-30 Upshur said there existed in a great portion of the West (of +Virginia) a rooted antipathy to the slave. John Randolph was alarmed at +the fanatical spirit on the subject of slavery, which was growing in +Virginia,--See the _Journal of Negro History_, I, p. 142.] + +[Footnote 35: Adams, _Neglected Period of Anti-Slavery_.] + +[Footnote 36: _The Journal of Negro History_, I, pp. 132-160.] + +[Footnote 37: Siebert, _Underground Railroad_, p. 166.] + +[Footnote 38: Adams, _Neglected Period of Anti-Slavery_.] + +[Footnote 39: Siebert, _Underground Railroad_, chaps. v and vi.] + +[Footnote 40: _An Address to the People of North Carolina on the Evils +of Slavery._] + +[Footnote 41: Washington, _Story of the Negro_, I, chaps. xii, xiii +and xiv. ] + +[Footnote 42: _Father Henson's Story of his own Life_, p. 209; +Coffin, _Reminiscences_, pp. 247-256; Howe, _The Refugees from +Slavery_, p. 77; Haviland, _A Woman's Work_, pp. 192, 193, 196.] + +[Footnote 43: Woodson, _The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861_, +pp. 236-240.] + +[Footnote 44: _The United States Censuses of 1850 and 1860._] + + + +CHAPTER III + +FIGHTING IT OUT ON FREE SOIL + + +How, then, was this increasing influx of refugees from the South to be +received in the free States? In the older Northern States where there +could be no danger of an Africanization of a large district, the coming of +the Negroes did not cause general excitement, though at times the feeling +in certain localities was sufficient to make one think so.[1] Fearing that +the immigration of the Negroes into the North might so increase their +numbers as to make them constitute a rather important part in the +community, however, some free States enacted laws to restrict the +privileges of the blacks. + +Free Negroes had voted in all the colonies except Georgia and South +Carolina, if they had the property qualification; but after the sentiment +attendant upon the struggle for the rights of man had passed away there +set in a reaction.[2] Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and Kentucky +disfranchised all Negroes not long after the Revolution. They voted in +North Carolina until 1835, when the State, feeling that this privilege of +one class of Negroes might affect the enslavement of the other, prohibited +it. The Northern States, following in their wake, set up the same barriers +against the blacks. They were disfranchised in New Jersey in 1807, in +Connecticut in 1814, and in Pennsylvania in 1838. In 1811 New York passed +an act requiring the production of certificates of freedom from blacks or +mulattoes offering to vote. The second constitution, adopted in 1823, +provided that no man of color, unless he had been for three years a +citizen of that State and for one year next preceding any election, should +be seized and possessed of a freehold estate, should be allowed to vote, +although this qualification was not required of the whites. An act of 1824 +relating to the government of the Stockbridge Indians provided that no +Negro or mulatto should vote in their councils.[3] + +That increasing prejudice was to a great extent the result of the +immigration into the North of Negroes in the rough, was nowhere better +illustrated than in Pennsylvania. Prior to 1800, and especially after +1780, when the State provided for gradual emancipation, there was little +race prejudice in Pennsylvania.[4] When the reactionary legislation of the +South made life intolerable for the Negroes, debasing them to the plane of +beasts, many of the free people of color from Virginia, Maryland and +Delaware moved or escaped into Pennsylvania like a steady stream during +the next sixty years. As these Negroes tended to concentrate in towns and +cities, they caused the supply of labor to exceed the demand, lowering the +wages of some and driving out of employment a number of others who became +paupers and consequently criminals. There set in too an intense struggle +between the black and white laborers,[5] immensely accelerating the growth +of race prejudice, especially when the abolitionists and Quakers were +giving Negroes industrial training. + +The first exhibition of this prejudice was seen among the lower classes of +white people, largely Irish and Germans, who, devoted to menial labor, +competed directly with the Negroes. It did not require a long time, +however, for this feeling to react on the higher classes of whites where +Negroes settled in large groups. A strong protest arose from the menace of +Negro paupers. An attempt was made in 1804 to compel free Negroes to +maintain those that might become a public charge.[6] In 1813 the mayor, +aldermen and citizens of Philadelphia asked that free Negroes be taxed to +support their poor.[7] Two Philadelphia representatives in the +Pennsylvania Legislature had a committee appointed in 1815 to consider the +advisability of preventing the immigration of Negroes.[8] One of the +causes then at work there was that the black population had recently +increased to four thousand in Philadelphia and more than four thousand +others had come into the city since the previous registration. + +They were arriving much faster than they could be assimilated. The State +of Pennsylvania had about exterminated slavery by 1840, having only 40 +slaves that year and only a few hundred at any time after 1810. Many of +these, of course, had not had time to make their way in life as freedmen. +To show how much the rapid migration to that city aggravated the situation +under these circumstances one needs but note the statistics of the +increase of the free people of color in that State. There were only 22,492 +such persons in Pennsylvania in 1810, but in 1820 there were 30,202, and +in 1830 as many as 37,930. This number increased to 47,854 by 1840, to +53,626 by 1850, and to 56,949 by 1860. The undesirable aspect of the +situation was that most of the migrating blacks came in crude form.[9] "On +arriving," therefore, says a contemporary, "they abandoned themselves to +all manner of debauchery and dissipation to the great annoyance of many +citizens."[10] + +Thereafter followed a number of clashes developing finally into a series +of riots of a grave nature. Innocent Negroes, attacked at first for +purposes of sport and later for sinister designs, were often badly beaten +in the streets or even cut with knives. The offenders were not punished +and if the Negroes defended themselves they were usually severely +penalized. In 1819 three white women stoned a woman of color to death.[11] +A few youths entered a Negro church in Philadelphia in 1825 and by +throwing pepper to give rise to suffocating fumes caused a panic which +resulted in the death of several Negroes.[12] When the citizens of New +Haven, Connecticut, arrayed themselves in 1831 against the plan to +establish in that city a Negro manual labor college, there was held in +Philadelphia a meeting which passed resolutions enthusiastically endorsing +this effort to rid the community of the evil of the immigration of free +Negroes. There arose also the custom of driving Negroes away from +Independence Square on the Fourth of July because they were neither +considered nor desired as a part of the body politic.[13] + +It was thought that in the state of feeling of the thirties that the Negro +would be annihilated. De Tocqueville also observed that the Negroes were +more detested in the free States than in those where they were held as +slaves.[14] There had been such a reaction since 1800 that no positions of +consequence were open to Negroes, however well educated they might be, and +the education of the blacks which was once vigorously prosecuted there +became unpopular.[15] This was especially true of Harrisburg and +Philadelphia but by no means confined to large cities. The Philadelphia +press said nothing in behalf of the race. It was generally thought that +freedom had not been an advantage to the Negro and that instead of making +progress they had filled jails and almshouses and multiplied pest holes to +afflict the cities with disease and crime. + +The Negroes of York carefully worked out in 1803 a plan to burn the city. +Incendiaries set on fire a number of houses, eleven of which were +destroyed, whereas there were other attempts at a general destruction of +the city. The authorities arrested a number of Negroes but ran the risk of +having the jail broken open by their sympathizing fellowmen. After a reign +of terror for half a week, order was restored and twenty of the accused +were convicted of arson. + +In 1820 there occurred so many conflagrations that a vigilance committee +was organized.[16] Whether or not the Negroes were guilty of the crime is +not known but numbers of them left either on account of the fear of +punishment or because of the indignities to which they were subjected. +Numerous petitions, therefore, came before the legislature to stop the +immigration of Negroes. It was proposed in 1840 to tax all free Negroes to +assist them in getting out of the State for colonization.[17] The citizens +of Lehigh County asked the authorities in 1830 to expel all Negroes and +persons of color found in the State.[18] Another petition prayed that they +be deprived of the freedom of movement. Bills embodying these ideas were +frequently considered but they were never passed. + +Stronger opposition than this, however, was manifested in the form of +actual outbreaks on a large scale in Philadelphia. The immediate cause of +this first real clash was the abolition agitation in the city in 1834 +following the exciting news of other such disturbances a few months prior +to this date in several northern cities. A group of boys started the riot +by destroying a Negro resort. A mob then proceeded to the Negro district, +where white and colored men engaged in a fight with clubs and stones. + +The next day the mob ruined the African Presbyterian Church and attacked +some Negroes, destroying their property and beating them mercilessly. This +riot continued for three days. A committee appointed to inquire into the +causes of the riot reported that the aim of the rioters had been to make +the Negroes go away because it was believed that their labor was depriving +them of work and because the blacks had shielded criminals and had made +such noise and disorder in their churches as to make them a nuisance. It +seemed that the most intelligent and well-to-do people of Philadelphia +keenly felt it that the city had thus been disgraced, but the mob spirit +continued.[19] + +The very next year was marked by the same sort of disorder. Because a +half-witted Negro attempted to murder a white man, a large mob stirred up +the city again. There was a repetition of the beating of Negroes and of +the destruction of property while the police, as the year before, were so +inactive as to give rise to the charge that they were accessories to the +riot.[20] In 1838 there occurred another outbreak which developed into an +anti-abolition riot, as the public mind had been much exercised by the +discussions of abolitionists and by their close social contact with the +Negroes. The clash came on the seventeenth of May when Pennsylvania Hall, +the center of abolition agitation, was burned. Fighting between the blacks +and whites ensued the following night when the Colored Orphan Asylum was +attacked and a Negro church burned. Order was finally restored for the +good of all concerned, but that a majority of the people sympathized with +the rioters was evidenced by the fact that the committee charged with +investigating the disturbance reported that the mob was composed of +strangers who could not be recognized.[21] It is well to note here that +this riot occurred the year the Negroes in Pennsylvania were +disfranchised. + +Following the example of Philadelphia, Pittsburgh had a riot in 1839 +resulting in the maltreatment of a number of Negroes and the demolishing +of some of their houses. When the Negroes of Philadelphia paraded the city +in 1842, celebrating the abolition of slavery in the West Indies, there +ensued a battle led by the whites who undertook to break up the +procession. Along with the beating and killing of the usual number went +also the destruction of the New African Hall and the Negro Presbyterian +church. The grand jury charged with the inquiry into the causes reported +that the procession was to be blamed. For several years thereafter the +city remained quiet until 1849 when there occurred a raid on the blacks by +the _Killers of Moyamensing_, using firearms with which many were +wounded. This disturbance was finally quelled by aid of the militia.[22] + +These clashes sometimes reached farther north than the free States +bordering on the slave commonwealths. Mobs broke up abolition meetings in +the city of New York in 1834 when there were sent to Congress numerous +petitions for the abolition of slavery. This mob even assailed such +eminent citizens as Arthur and Lewis Tappan, mainly on account of their +friendly attitude toward the Negroes.[23] On October 21, 1834, the same +feeling developed in Utica, where was to be held an anti-slavery meeting +according to previous notice. The six hundred delegates who assembled +there were warned to disband. A mob then organized itself and drove the +delegates from the town. That same month the people of Palmyra, New York, +held a meeting at which they adopted resolutions to the effect that owners +of houses or tenements in that town occupied by blacks of the character +complained of be requested to use all their rightful means to clear their +premises of such occupants at the earliest possible period; and that it be +recommended that such proprietors refuse to rent the same thereafter to +any person of color whatever.[24] In New York Negroes were excluded from +places of amusement and public conveyances and segregated in places of +worship. In the draft riots which occurred there in 1863, one of the aims +of the mobs was to assassinate Negroes and to destroy their property. They +burned the Colored Orphan Asylum of that city and hanged Negroes to +lamp-posts. + +The situation in parts of New England was not much better. For fear of the +evils of an increasing population of free persons of color the people of +Canaan, New Hampshire, broke up the Noyes Academy because it decided to +admit Negro students, thinking that many of the race might thereby be +encouraged to come to that State.[25] When Prudence Crandall established +in Canterbury, Connecticut, an academy to which she decided to admit +Negroes, the mayor, selectmen and citizens of the city protested, and when +their protests failed to deter this heroine, they induced the legislature +to enact a special law covering the case and invoked the measure to have +Prudence Crandall imprisoned because she would not desist.[26] This very +law and the arguments upholding it justified the drastic measure on the +ground that an increase in the colored population would be an injury to +the people of that State. + +In the new commonwealths formed out of western territory, there was the +same fear as to Negro domination and consequently there followed the wave +of legislation intended in some cases not only to withhold from the Negro +settlers the exercise of the rights of citizenship but to discourage and +even to prevent them from coming into their territory.[27] The question as +to what should be done with the Negro was early an issue in Ohio. It came +up in the constitutional convention of 1803, and provoked some discussion, +but that body considered it sufficient to settle the matter for the time +being by merely leaving the Negroes, Indians and foreigners out of the +pale of the newly organized body politic by conveniently incorporating the +word white throughout the constitution.[28] It was soon evident, however, +that the matter had not been settled, and the legislature of 1804 had to +give serious consideration to the immigration of Negroes into that State. +It was, therefore, enacted that no Negro or mulatto should remain there +permanently, unless he could furnish a certificate of freedom issued by +some court, that all Negroes in that commonwealth should be registered +before the following June, and that no man should employ a Negro who +failed to comply with these conditions. Should one be detected in hiring, +harboring or hindering the capture of a fugitive black, he was liable to a +fine of $50 and his master could recover pay for the service of his slave +to the amount of fifty cents a day.[29] + +As this legislature did not meet the demands of those who desired further +to discourage Negro immigration, the Legislature of 1807 was induced to +enact a law to the effect that no Negro should be permitted to settle in +Ohio, unless he could within 20 days give a bond to the amount of $500 for +his good behavior and assurance that he would not become a public charge. +This measure provided also for raising the fine for concealing a fugitive +from $50 to $100, one half of which should go to the person upon the +testimony of whom the conviction should be secured.[30] Negro evidence in +a case to which a white was a party was declared illegal. In 1830 Negroes +were excluded from service in the State militia, in 1831 they were +deprived of the privilege of serving on juries, and in 1838 they were +denied the right of having their children educated at the expense of the +State.[31] + +In Indiana the situation was worse than in Ohio. We have already noted +above how the settlers in the southern part endeavored to make that a +slave State. When that had, after all but being successful, seemed +impossible the State enacted laws to prevent or discourage the influx of +free Negroes and to restrict the privileges of those already there. In +1824 a stringent law for the return of fugitives was passed.[32] The +expulsion of free Negroes was a matter of concern and in 1831 it was +provided that unless they could give bond for their behavior and support +they could be removed. Otherwise the county overseers could hire out such +Negroes to the highest bidder.[33] Negroes were not allowed to attend +schools maintained at the public expense, might not give evidence against +a white man and could not intermarry with white persons. They might, +however, serve as witnesses against Negroes.[34] + +In the same way the free Negroes met discouragement in Illinois. They +suffered from all the disabilities imposed on their class in Ohio and +Indiana and were denied the right to sue for their liberty in the courts. +When there arose many abolitionists who encouraged the coming of the +fugitives from labor in the South, one element of the citizens of Illinois +unwilling to accept this unusual influx of members of another race passed +the drastic law of 1853 prohibiting the immigration. It provided for the +prosecution of any person bringing a Negro into the State and also for +arresting and fining any Negro $50, should he appear there and remain +longer than ten days. If he proved to be unable to pay the fine, he could +be sold to any person who could pay the cost of the trial.[35] + +In Michigan the situation was a little better but, with the waves of +hostile legislation then sweeping over the new[36] commonwealths, Michigan +was not allowed to constitute altogether an exception. Some of this +intense feeling found expression in the form of a law hostile to the +Negro, this being the act of 1827, which provided for the registration of +all free persons of color and for the exclusion from the territory of all +blacks who could not produce a certificate to the effect that they were +free. Free persons of color were also required to file bonds with one or +more freehold sureties in the penal sum of $500 for their good behavior, +and the bondsmen were expected to provide for their maintenance, if they +failed to support themselves. Failure to comply with this law meant +expulsion from the territory.[37] + +The opposition to the Negroes immigrating into the new West was not +restricted to the enactment of laws which in some cases were never +enforced. Several communities took the law into their own hands. During +these years when the Negroes were seeking freedom in the Northwest +Territory and when free blacks were being established there by +philanthropists, it seemed to the southern uplanders fleeing from slavery +in the border States and foreigners seeking fortunes in the new world that +they might possibly be crowded out of this new territory by the Negroes. +Frequent clashes, therefore, followed after they had passed through a +period of toleration and dependence on the execution of the hostile laws. +The clashes of the greatest consequences occurred in the Northwest +Territory where a larger number of uplanders from the South had gone, some +to escape the ill effects of slavery, and others to hold slaves if +possible, and when that seemed impossible, to exclude the blacks +altogether.[38] This persecution of the Negroes received also the hearty +cooperation of the foreign element, who, being an undeveloped class, had +to do menial labor in competition with the blacks. The feeling of the +foreigners was especially mischievous for the reasons that they were, like +the Negroes, at first settled in large numbers in urban communities. + +Generally speaking, the feeling was like that exhibited by the Germans in +Mercer County, Ohio. The citizens of this frontier community, in +registering their protest against the settling of Negroes there, adopted +the following resolutions: + +_Resolved_, That we will not live among Negroes, as we have settled +here first, we have fully determined that we will resist the settlement of +blacks and mulattoes in this county to the full extent of our means, the +bayonet not excepted. + +_Resolved_, That the blacks of this county be, and they are hereby +respectfully requested to leave the county on or before the first day of +March, 1847; and in the case of their neglect or refusal to comply with +this request, we pledge ourselves to _remove them, peacefully if we can, +forcibly if we must._ + +_Resolved_, That we who are here assembled, pledge ourselves not to +employ or trade with any black or mulatto person, in any manner whatever, +or permit them to have any grinding done at our mills, after the first day +of January next.[39] + +In 1827 there arose a storm of protest on the occasion of the settling of +seventy freedmen in Lawrence County, Ohio, by a philanthropic master of +Pittsylvania County, Virginia.[40] On _Black Friday_, January 1, +1830, eighty Negroes were driven out of Portsmouth, Ohio, at the request +of one or two hundred white citizens set forth in an urgent memorial.[41] +So many Negroes during these years concentrated at Cincinnati that the +laboring element forced the execution of the almost dead law requiring +free Negroes to produce certificates and give bonds for their behavior and +support.[42] A mob attacked the homes of the blacks, killed a number of +them, and forced twelve hundred others to leave for Canada West, where +they established the settlement known as Wilberforce. + +In 1836 another mob attacked and destroyed there the press of James G. +Birney, the editor of the _Philanthropist_, because of the +encouragement his abolitionist organ gave to the immigrating Negroes.[43] +But in 1841 came a decidedly systematic effort on the part of foreigners +and proslavery sympathizers to kill off and drive out the Negroes who were +becoming too well established in that city and who were giving offense to +white men who desired to deal with them as Negroes were treated in the +South. The city continued in this excited state for about a week. There +were brought into play in the upheaval the police of the city and the +State militia before the shooting of the Negroes and burning of their +homes could be checked. So far as is known, no white men were punished, +although a few of them were arrested. Some Negroes were committed to +prison during the fray. They were thereafter either discharged upon +producing certificates of nativity or giving bond or were indefinitely +held.[44] + +In southern Indiana and Illinois the same condition obtained. Observing +the situation in Indiana, a contributor of _Niles Register_ remarked, +in 1818, upon the arrival there of sixty or seventy liberated Negroes sent +by the society of Friends of North Carolina, that they were a species of +population that was not acceptable to the people of that State, "nor +indeed to any other, whether free or slaveholding, for they cannot rise +and become like other men, unless in countries where their own color +predominates, but must always remain a degraded and inferior class of +persons without the hope of much bettering their condition."[45] + +The _Indiana Farmer_, voicing the sentiment of that same community, +regretted the increase of this population that seemed to be enlarging the +number sent to that territory. The editor insisted that the community +which enjoys the benefits of the blacks' labor should also suffer all the +consequences. Since the people of Indiana derived no advantage from +slavery, he begged that they be excused from its inconveniences. Most of +the blacks that migrated there, moreover, possessed, thought he, "feelings +quite unprepared to make good citizens. A sense of inferiority early +impressed on their minds, destitute of every thing but bodily power and +having no character to lose, and no prospect of acquiring one, even did +they know its value, they are prepared for the commission of any act, when +the prospect of evading punishment is favorable."[46] + +With the exception of such centers as Eden, Upper Alton, Bellville and +Chicago, this antagonistic attitude was general also in the State of +Illinois. The Negroes were despised, abused and maltreated as persons who +had no rights that the white man should respect. Even in Detroit, +Michigan, in 1833 a fracas was started by an attack on Negroes. Because a +courageous group of them had effected the rescue and escape of one +Thornton Blackburn and his wife who had been arrested by the sheriff as +alleged fugitives from Kentucky, the citizens invoked the law of 1827, to +require free Negroes to produce a certificate and furnish bonds for their +behavior and support.[47] The anti-slavery sentiment there, however, was +so strong that the law was not long rigidly enforced.[48] And so it was in +several other parts of the West which, however, were exceptional.[49] + + +[Footnote 1: _The New York Daily Advertiser,_ Sept. 22, 1800; _The +New York Journal of Commerce,_ July 12, 1834; and _The New York +Commercial Advertiser,_ July 12, 1834.] + +[Footnote 2: Hart, _Slavery and Abolition,_ pp. 53, 82.] + +[Footnote 3: Goodell, _American Slave Code,_ Part III, chap. i; Hurd, +_The Law of Freedom and Bondage,_ I, pp. 51, 61, 67, 81, 89, 101, 111; +Woodson, _The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861,_ pp. 151-178.] + +[Footnote 4: Benezet, _Short Observations,_ p. 12.] + +[Footnote 5: Turner, _The Negro in Pennsylvania_, pp. 143-145.] + +[Footnote 6: _Journal of House_, 1823-24, p. 824.] + +[Footnote 7: _Journal of House,_ 1812-1813, pp. 481, 482.] + +[Footnote 8: _Ibid._, 1814-1815, p. 101.] + +[Footnote 9: _United States Censuses_, 1790-1860.] + +[Footnote 10: Brannagan, _Serious Remonstrances_, p. 68.] + +[Footnote 11: Turner, _The Negro in Pennsylvania_, p. 145; _The +Philadelphia Gazette_, June 30, 1819.] + +[Footnote 12: _Democratic Press, Philadelphia Gazette_, Nov. 21, +1825.] + +[Footnote 13: Turner, _The Negro in Pennsylvania_, p. 146.] + +[Footnote 14: De Tocqueville, _Democracy in America_, II, pp. 292, +294.] + +[Footnote 15: Turner, _The Negro in Pennsylvania_, p. 148.] + +[Footnote 16: Turner, _The Negro in Pennsylvania_, pp. 152, 153.] + +[Footnote 17: _African Repository,_ VIII, pp. 125, 283; _Journal of +House_, 1840, I, pp. 347, 508, 614, 622, 623, 680.] + +[Footnote 18: _Journal of Senate_, 1850, I, pp. 454, 479.] + +[Footnote 19: This is well narrated in Turner's _Negro in +Pennsylvania_, p. 160, and in DuBois's _The Philadelphia Negro_, +p. 27.] + +[Footnote 20: Turner, _The Negro in Pennsylvania_, pp. 161, 162.] + +[Footnote 21: Turner, _The Negro in Pennsylvania_, pp. 162, 163.] + +[Footnote 22: Turner, _The Negro in Pennsylvania_, p. 163; and _The +Liberator_, July 4, 1835.] + +[Footnote 23: _The Liberator_, Oct. 24, 1834.] + +[Footnote 24: _Ibid._, October 24, 1834.] + +[Footnote 25: Jay, _An Inquiry,_ pp. 28-29.] + +[Footnote 26: _An Act in Addition to an Act for the Admission and +Settlement of Inhabitants of Towns._ + +1. Whereas attempts have been made to establish literary institutions in +this State for the instruction of colored people belonging to other States +and countries, which would tend to the great increase of the colored +population of the State, and thereby to the injury of the people, +therefore; + +Be it resolved that no person shall set up or establish in this State, +any school, academy, or literary institution for the instruction or +education of colored persons, who are not inhabitants of this State, nor +instruct or teach in any school, academy, or other literary institution +whatever in this State, or harbor or board for the purpose of attending or +being taught or instructed in any such school, academy, or other literary +institution, any person who is not an inhabitant of any town in this +State, without the consent in writing, first obtained of a majority of the +civil authority, and also of the selectmen, of the town in which such +schools, academy, or literary institution is situated; and each and every +person who shall knowingly do any act forbidden as aforesaid, or shall be +aiding or assisting therein, shall for the first offense forfeit and pay +to the treasurer of this State a fine of one hundred dollars and for the +second offense shall forfeit and pay a fine of two hundred dollars, and so +double for every offense of which he or she shall be convicted. And all +informing officers are required to make due presentment of all breaches of +this act. Provided that nothing in this act shall extend to any district +school established in any school society under the laws of this State or +to any incorporated school for instruction in this State. + +3. Any colored person not an inhabitant of this State who shall reside in +any town therein for the purpose of being instructed as aforesaid, may be +removed in the manner prescribed in the sixth and seventh sections of the +act to which this is an addition. + +3. Any person not an inhabitant of this State who shall reside in any town +therein for the purpose of being instructed as aforesaid, shall be an +admissible witness in all prosecutions under the first section of this +act, and may be compelled to give testimony therein, notwithstanding +anything in this act, or in the act last aforesaid. + +4. That so much of the seventh section of this act to which this is an +addition as may provide for the infliction of corporal punishment, be and +the same is hereby repealed.--See Hurd's _Law of Freedom and +Bondage_, II, pp. 45-46.] + +[Footnote 27: So many Negroes working on the rivers between the slave and +free States helped fugitives to escape that there arose a clamor for the +discourage of colored employees.] + +[Transcriber's Note: The above should probably be "discouragement of +colored employees."] + +[Footnote 28: _Constitution of Ohio_, article I, sections 2, 6. +_The Journal of Negro History_, I, p. 2.] + +[Footnote 29: _Laws of Ohio_, II, p. 53.] + +[Footnote 30: _Laws of Ohio_, V, p. 53.] + +[Footnote 31: Hitchcock, _The Negro in Ohio_, II, pp. 41, 42.] + +[Footnote 32: _Revised Laws of Indiana_, 1831, p. 278.] + +[Footnote 33: Perkins, _A Digest of the Declaration of the Supreme Court +of Indiana_, p. 590. _Laws of 1853_, p. 60.] + +[Footnote 34: Gavin and Hord, _Indiana Revised Statutes_, 1862, p. +452.] + +[Footnote 35: _Illinois Statutes_, 1853, sections 1-4, p. 8.] + +[Footnote 36: In 1760 there were both African and Pawnee slaves in +Detroit, 96 of them in 1773 and 175 in 1782. The usual effort to have +slavery legalized was made in 1773. There were seventeen slaves in Detroit +in 1810 held by virtue of the exceptions made under the British rule prior +to the ratification of Jay's treaty. Advertisements of runaway slaves +appeared in Detroit papers as late as 1827. Furthermore, there were +thirty-two slaves in Michigan in 1830 but by 1836 all had died or had been +manumitted.--See Farmer, _History of Detroit and Michigan_, I, p. +344.] + +[Footnote 37: _Laws of Michigan_, 1827; and Campbell, _Political +History of Michigan_, p. 246.] + +[Footnote 38: _Proceedings of the Ohio Anti-Slavery Convention_, +1835, p. 19.] + +[Footnote 39: _African Repository_, XXIII, p. 70.] + +[Footnote 40: _Ohio State Journal_, May 3, 1837.] + +[Footnote 41: Evans, _A History of Scioto County, Ohio_, p. 643.] + +[Footnote 42: _African Repository_, V, p. 185.] + +[Footnote 43: Howe, _Historical Collections_, pp. 225-226.] + +[Footnote 44: _Ibid_., p. 226, and _The Cincinnati Daily +Gazette_, Sept. 14, 1841.] + +[Footnote 45: _Niles Register_, XXX, 416.] + +[Footnote 46: _Niles Register_, XXX, 416; _African Repository_, +III, p. 25.] + +[Footnote 47: Farmer, _History of Detroit and Michigan_, I, chap. +48.] + +[Footnote 48: There was the usual effort to have slavery legalized in +Michigan. At the time of the fire in 1805 there were six colored men and +nine colored women in the town of Detroit. In 1807 there were so many of +them that Governor Hull organized a company of colored militia. Joseph +Campan owned ten at one time. The importation of slaves was discontinued +after September 17, 1792, by act of the Canadian Parliament which provided +also that all born thereafter should be free at the age of twenty-five. +The Ordinance of 1787 had by its sixth article prohibited it.] + +[Footnote 49: In 1836 a colored man traveling in the West to Cleveland +said: + +"I have met with good treatment at every place on my journey, even better +than what I expected under present circumstances. I will relate an +incident that took place on board the steamboat, which will give an idea +of the kind treatment with which I have met. When I took the boat at Erie, +it being rainy and somewhat disagreeable, I took a cabin passage, to which +the captain had not the least objection. When dinner was announced, I +intended not to go to the first table but the mate came and urged me to +take a seat. I accordingly did and was called upon to carve a large saddle +of beef which was before me. This I performed accordingly to the best of +my ability. No one of the company manifested any objection or seemed +anyways disturbed by my presence."--Extract of a letter from a colored +gentleman traveling to the West, Cleveland, Ohio, August 11, 1836.--See +_The Philanthropist_, Oct. 21, 1836.] + + + +CHAPTER IV + +COLONIZATION AS A REMEDY FOR MIGRATION + + +Because of these untoward circumstances consequent to the immigration of +free Negroes and fugitives into the North, their enemies, and in some +cases their well-intentioned friends, advocated the diversion of these +elements to foreign soil. Benezet and Brannagan had the idea of settling +the Negroes on the public lands in the West largely to relieve the +situation in the North.[1] Certain anti-slavery men of Kentucky, as we +have observed, recommended the same. But this was hardly advocated at all +by the farseeing white men after the close of the first quarter of the +nineteenth century. It was by that time very clear that white men would +want to occupy all lands within the present limits of the United States. +Few statesmen dared to encourage migration to Canada because the large +number of fugitives who had already escaped there had attached to that +region the stigma of being an asylum for fugitives from the slave States. + +The most influential people who gave thought to this question finally +decided that the colonization of the Negro in Africa was the only solution +of the problem. The plan of African colonization appealed more generally +to the people of both North and South than the other efforts, which, at +best, could do no more than to offer local or temporary relief. The +African colonizationists proceeded on the basis that the Negroes had no +chance for racial development in this country. They could secure no kind +of honorable employment, could not associate with congenial white friends +whose minds and pursuits might operate as a stimulus upon their industry +and could not rise to the level of the successful professional or business +men found around them. In short, they must ever be hewers of wood and +drawers of water.[2] + +To emphasize further the necessity of emigration to Africa the advocates +of deportation to foreign soil generally referred to the condition of the +migrating Negroes as a case in evidence. "So long," said one, "as you must +sit, stand, walk, ride, dwell, eat and sleep _here_ and the Negro +_there_, he cannot be free in any part of the country."[3] This idea +working through the minds of northern men, who had for years thought +merely of the injustice of slavery, began to change their attitude toward +the abolitionists who had never undertaken to solve the problem of the +blacks who were seeking refuge in the North. Many thinkers controlling +public opinion then gave audience to the colonizationists and circles once +closed to them were thereafter opened.[4] + +There was, therefore, a tendency toward a more systematic effort than had +hitherto characterized the endeavors of the colonizationists. The objects +of their philanthropy were not to be stolen away and hurried off to an +uncongenial land for the oppressed. They were in accordance with the +exigencies of their new situation to be prepared by instruction in +mechanic arts, agriculture, science and Biblical literature that some +might lead in the higher pursuits and others might skilfully serve their +fellows.[5] Private enterprise was at first depended on to carry out the +schemes but it soon became evident that a better method was necessary. +Finally out of the proposals of various thinkers and out of the actual +colonization feats of Paul Cuffé, a Negro, came a national meeting for +this purpose, held in Washington, December, 1816, and the organization of +the American Colonization Society. This meeting was attended by some of +the most prominent men in the United States, among whom were Henry Clay, +Francis S. Key, Bishop William Meade, John Randolph and Judge Bushrod +Washington. + +The American Colonization Society, however, failed to facilitate the +movement of the free Negro from the South and did not promote the general +welfare of the race. The reasons for these failures are many. In the first +place, the society was all things to all men. To the anti-slavery man +whose ardor had been dampened by the meagre results obtained by his +agitation, the scheme was the next best thing to remove the objections of +slaveholders who had said they would emancipate their bondsmen, if they +could be assured of their being deported to foreign soil. To the radical +proslavery man and to the northerner hating the Negro it was well adapted +to rid the country of the free persons of color whom they regarded as the +pariahs of society.[6] Furthermore, although the Colonization Society +became seemingly popular and the various States organized branches of it +and raised money to promote the movement, the slaveholders as a majority +never reached the position of parting with their slaves and the country +would not take such radical action as to compel free Negroes to undergo +expatriation when militant abolitionists were fearlessly denouncing the +scheme.[7] + +The free people of color themselves were not only not anxious to go but +bore it grievously that any one should even suggest that they should be +driven from the country in which they were born and for the independence +of which their fathers had died. They held indignation meetings throughout +the North to denounce the scheme as a selfish policy inimical to the +interests of the people of color.[8] Branded thus as the inveterate foe of +the blacks both slave and free, the American Colonization Society effected +the deportation of only such Negroes as southern masters felt disposed to +emancipate from time to time and a few others induced to go. As the +industrial revolution early changed the aspect of the economic situation +in the South so as to make slavery seemingly profitable, few masters ever +thought of liberating their slaves. + +Scarcely any intelligent Negroes except those who, for economic or +religious reasons were interested, availed themselves of this opportunity +to go to the land of their ancestors. From the reports of the Colonization +Society we learn that from 1820 to 1833 only 2,885 Negroes were sent to +Africa by the Society. Furthermore, more than 2,700 of this number were +taken from the slave States, and about two thirds of these were slaves +manumitted on the condition that they would emigrate.[9] Later statistics +show the same tendency. By 1852, 7,836 had been deported from the United +States to Liberia. 2,720 of these were born free, 204 purchased their +freedom, 3,868 were emancipated in view of their going to Liberia and +1,044 were liberated Africans returned by the United States +Government.[10] Considering the fact that there were 434,495 free persons +of color in this country in 1850 and 488,070 in 1860, the colonizationists +saw that the very element of the population which the movement was +intended to send out of the country had increased rather than decreased. +It is clear, then, that the American Colonization Society, though regarded +as a factor to play an important part in promoting the exodus of the free +Negroes to foreign soil, was an inglorious failure. + +Colonization in other quarters, however, was not abandoned. A colony of +Negroes in Texas was contemplated in 1833 prior to the time when the +republic became independent of Mexico, as slavery was not at first assured +in that State. The _New York Commercial Advertiser_ had no objection +to the enterprise but felt that there were natural obstacles such as a +more expensive conveyance than that to Monrovia, the high price of land in +that country, the Catholic religion to which Negroes were not accustomed +to conform, and their lack of knowledge of the Spanish language. The +editor observed that some who had emigrated to Hayti a few years before +became discontented because they did not know the language. Louisiana, a +slave State, moreover, would not suffer near its borders a free Negro +republic to serve as an asylum for refugees.[11] The Richmond Whig saw the +actual situation in dubbing the scheme as chimerical for the reason that a +more unsuitable country for the blacks did not exist. Socially and +politically it would never suit the Negroes. Already a great number of +adventurers from the United States had gone to Texas and fugitives from +justice from Mexico, a fierce, lawless and turbulent class, would give the +Negroes little chance there, as the Negroes could not contend with the +Spaniard and the Creole. The editor believed that an inferior race could +never exist in safety surrounded by a superior one despising them. +Colonization in Africa was then urged and the efforts of the blacks to go +elsewhere were characterized as doing mischief at every turn to defeat the +"enlightened plan" for the amelioration of the Negroes.[12] + +It was still thought possible to induce the Negroes to go to some +congenial foreign land, although few of them would agree to emigrate to +Africa. Not a few Negroes began during the two decades immediately +preceding the Civil War to think more favorably of African colonization +and a still larger number, in view of the increasing disabilities fixed +upon their class, thought of migrating to some country nearer to the +United States. Much was said about Central America, but British Guiana and +the West Indies proved to be the most inviting fields to the latter-day +Negro colonizationists. This idea was by no means new, for Jefferson in +his foresight had, in a letter to Governor Edward Coles, of Illinois, in +1814, shown the possibilities of colonization in the West Indies. He felt +that because Santo Domingo had become an independent Negro republic it +would offer a solution of the problem as to where the Negroes should be +colonized. In this way these islands would become a sort of safety valve +for the United States. He became more and more convinced that all the West +Indies would remain in the hands of the people of color, and a total +expulsion of the whites sooner or later would take place. It was high +time, he thought, that Americans should foresee the bloody scenes which +their children certainly, and possibly they themselves, would have to wade +through. [13] + +The movement to the West Indies was accelerated by other factors. After +the emancipation in those islands in the thirties, there had for some +years been a dearth of labor. Desiring to enjoy their freedom and living +in a climate where there was not much struggle for life, the freedmen +either refused to work regularly or wandered about purposely from year to +year. The islands in which sugar had once played a conspicuous part as the +foundation of their industry declined and something had to be done to meet +this exigency. In the forties and fifties, therefore, there came to the +United States a number of labor agents whose aim was to set forth the +inviting aspect of the situation in the West Indies so as to induce free +Negroes to try their fortunes there. To this end meetings were held in +Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York and Boston and even in some of the +cities of the South, where these agents appealed to the free Negroes to +emigrate.[l4] + +Thus before the American Colonization Society had got well on its way +toward accomplishing its purpose of deporting the Negroes to Africa the +West Indies and British Guiana claimed the attention of free people of +color in offering there unusual opportunities. After the consummation of +British emancipation in those islands in 1838, the English nation came to +he regarded by the Negroes of the United States as the exclusive friend of +the race. The Negro press and church vied with each other in praising +British emancipation as an act of philanthropy and pointed to the English +dominions as an asylum for the oppressed. So disturbed were the whites by +this growing feeling that riots broke out in northern cities on occasions +of Negro celebrations of the anniversary of emancipation in the West +Indies.[l5] + +In view of these facts, the colonizationists had to redouble their efforts +to defend their cause. They found it a little difficult to make a good +case for Liberia, a land far away in an unhealthy climate so much unlike +that of the West Indies and British Guiana, where Negroes had been +declared citizens entitled to all privileges afforded by the government. +The colonizationists could do no more than to express doubt that the +Negroes would have there the opportunities for mental, moral and social +betterment which were offered in Liberia. The promoters of the enterprise +in Africa did not believe that the West Indian planters who had had +emancipation forced upon them would accept blacks from the United States +as their equals, nor that they, far from receiving the consideration of +freedmen, would be there any more than menials. When told of the +establishment of schools and churches for the improvement of the freedmen, +the colonizationists replied that schools might be provided, but the +planters could have no interest in encouraging education as they did not +want an elevated class of people but bone and muscle. As an evidence of +the truth of this statement it was asserted that newspapers of the country +were filled with disastrous accounts of the falling off of crops and the +scarcity of labor but had little to say about those forces instrumental in +the uplift of the people.[16] + +An effort was made also to show that there would be no economic advantage +in going to the British dominions. It was thought that as soon as the +first demand for labor was supplied wages would be reduced, for no new +plantations could be opened there as in a growing country like Liberia. It +would be impossible, therefore, for the Negroes immigrating there to take +up land and develop a class of small farmers as they were doing in Africa. +Under such circumstances, they contended, the Negroes in the West Indies +could not feel any of the "elevating influences of nationality of +character," as the white men would limit the influence of the Negroes by +retaining practically all of the wealth of the islands. The inducements, +therefore, offered the free Negroes in the United States were merely +intended to use them in supplying in the British dominions the need of men +to do drudgery scarcely more elevating than the toil of slaves.[l7] + +Determined to interest a larger number of persons in diverting the +attention of the free Negroes from the West Indies, the colonizationists +took higher ground. They asserted that the interests of the millions of +white men in this country were then at stake, and even if it would be +better for the three million Negroes of the country gradually to emigrate +to the British dominions, it would eventually prove prejudicial to the +interests of the United States. They showed how the Negroes immigrating +into the West Indies would be made to believe that the refusal to extend +to them here social and political equality was cruel oppression and the +immigrants, therefore, would carry with them no good will to this country. +When they arrived in the West Indies their circumstances would increase +this hostility, alienate their affections and estrange them wholly from +the United States. Taught to regard the British as the exclusive friends +of their race, devoted to its elevation, they would become British in +spirit. As such, these Negroes would be controlled by British influence +and would increase the wealth and commerce of the British and as soldiers +would greatly strengthen British power.[l8] + +It was better, therefore, they argued, to direct the Negroes to Liberia, +for those who went there with a feeling of hostility against the white +people were placed in circumstances operating to remove that feeling, in +that the kind solicitude for their welfare would be extended them in their +new home so as to overcome their prejudices, win their confidence, and +secure their attachment. Looking to this country as their fatherland and +the home of their benefactors, the Liberians would develop a nation, +taking the religion, customs and laws of this country as their models, +marketing their produce in this country and purchasing our manufactures. +In spite of its independence, therefore, Liberia would be American in +feeling, language and interests, affording a means to get rid of a class +undesirable here but desirable to us there in their power to extend +American influence, trade and commerce.[l9] + +Negroes migrated to the West Indies in spite of this warning and protest. +Hayti, at first looked upon with fear of having a free Negro government +near slaveholding States, became fixed in the minds of some as a desirable +place for the colonization of free persons of color.[20] This was due to +the apparent natural advantages in soil, climate and the situation of the +country over other places in consideration. It was thought that the island +would support fourteen millions of people and that, once opened to +immigration from the United States, it would in a few years fill up by +natural increase. It was remembered that it was formerly the emporium of +the Western World and that it supplied both hemispheres with sugar and +coffee. It had rapidly recovered from the disaster of the French +Revolution and lacked only capital and education which the United States +under these circumstances could furnish. Furthermore, it was argued that +something in this direction should be immediately done, as European +nations then seeking to establish friendly relations with the islands, +would secure there commercial advantages which the United States should +have and could establish by sending to that island free Negroes especially +devoted to agriculture. + +In 1836, Z. Kingsley, a Florida planter,[2l] actually undertook to carry +out such a plan on a small scale. He established on the northeast side of +Hayti, near Port Plate, his son, George Kingsley, a well-educated colored +man of industrious habits and uncorrupted morals, together with six "prime +African men," slaves liberated for that express purpose. There he +purchased for them 35,000 acres of land upon which they engaged in the +production of crops indigenous to that soil. + +Hayti, however, was not to be the only island to get consideration. In +1834 two hundred colored emigrants went from New York alone to Trinidad, +under the superintendence and at the expense of planters of that island. +It was later reported that every one of them found employment on the day +of arrival and in one or two instances the most intelligent were placed as +overseers at the salary of $500 per annum. No one received less than $1.00 +a day and most of them earned $1.50. The Trinidad press welcomed these +immigrants and spoke in the highest terms of the valuable services they +rendered the country.[22] Others followed from year to year. One of these +Negroes appreciated so much this new field of opportunity that he returned +and induced twenty intelligent free persons of color living in Annapolis, +Maryland, also to emigrate to Trinidad.[23] + +_The New York Sun_ reported in 1840 that 160 colored persons left +Philadelphia for Trinidad. They had been hired by an eminent planter to +labor on that island and they were encouraged to expect that they should +have privileges which would make their residence desirable. The editor +wished a few dozen Trinidad planters would come to that city on the same +business and on a much larger scale.[24] N.W. Pollard, agent of the +Government of Trinidad, came to Baltimore in 1851 to make his appeal for +emigrants, offering to pay all expenses.[25] At a meeting held in +Baltimore, in 1852, the parents of Mr. Stanbury Boyce, now a retired +merchant in Washington, District of Columbia, were also induced to go. +They found there opportunities which they had never had before and well +established themselves in their new home. The account which Mr. Boyce +gives in a letter to the writer corroborates the newspaper reports as to +the success of the enterprise.[26] + +The _New York Journal of Commerce_ reported in 1841 that, according +to advices received at New Orleans from Jamaica, there had arrived in that +island fourteen Negro emigrants from the United States, being the first +fruits of Mr. Barclay's mission to this country. A much larger number of +Negroes were expected and various applications for their services had been +received from respectable parties.[27] The products of soil were reported +as much reduced from former years and to meet its demand for labor some +freedmen from Sierra Leone were induced to emigrate to that island in +1842.[28] One Mr. Anderson, an agent of the government of Jamaica, +contemplated visiting New York in 1851 to secure a number of laborers, +tradesmen and agricultural settlers.[29] + +In the course of time, emigration to foreign lands interested a larger +number of representative Negroes. At a national council called in 1853 to +promote more effectively the amelioration of the colored people, the +question of emigration and that only was taken up for serious +consideration. But those who desired to introduce the question of Liberian +colonization or who were especially interested in that scheme were not +invited. Among the persons who promoted the calling of this council were +William Webb, Martin R. Delaney, J. Gould Bias, Franklin Turner, Augustus +Greene, James M. Whitfield, William Lambert, Henry Bibb, James T. Holly +and Henry M. Collins. + +There developed in this assembly three groups, one believing with Martin +R. Delaney that it was best to go to the Niger Valley in Africa, another +following the counsel of James M. Whitfield then interested in emigration +to Central America, and a third supporting James T. Holly who insisted +that Hayti offered the best opportunities for free persons of color +desiring to leave the United States. Delaney was commissioned to proceed +to Africa, where he succeeded in concluding treaties with eight African +kings who offered American Negroes inducements to settle in their +respective countries. James Redpath, already interested in the scheme of +colonization in Hayti, had preceded Holly there and with the latter as his +coworker succeeded in sending to that country as many as two thousand +emigrants, the first of whom sailed from this country in 1861.[30] Owing +to the lack of equipment adequate to the establishment of the settlement +and the unfavorable climate, not more than one third of the emigrants +remained. Some attention was directed to California and Central America +just as in the case of Africa but nothing in that direction took tangible +form immediately, and the Civil War following soon thereafter did not give +some of these schemes a chance to materialize. + + +[Footnote 1: _The African Repository_, XVI, p. 22.] + +[Footnote 2: _The African Repository_, XVI, p. 23; Alexander, _A +History of Colonization_, p. 347.] + +[Footnote 3: _Ibid_., XVI, p. 113.] + +[Footnote 4: Jay, _An Inquiry_, pp. 25, 29; Hodgkin, _An +Inquiry_, p. 31.] + +[Footnote 5: _The African Repository_, IV, p. 276; Griffin, _A Plea +for Africa_, p. 65.] + +[Footnote 6: Jay, _An Inquiry_, passim; _The Journal of Negro +History_, I, pp. 276-301; and Stebbins, _Facts and Opinions_, pp. +200-201.] + +[Footnote 7: Hart, _Slavery and Abolition_, p. 237.] + +[Footnote 8: _The Journal of Negro History_, I, pp. 284-296; +Garrison, _Thoughts on Colonization_, p. 204.] + +[Footnote 9: _The African Repository_, XXXIII, p. 117.] + +[Footnote 10: _The African Repository_, XXIII, p. 117.] + +[Footnote 11: _The African Repository_, IX, pp. 86-88.] + +[Footnote 12: _Ibid._, IX, p. 88.] + +[Footnote 13: "If something is not done, and soon done," said he, "we +shall be the murderers of our own children. The '_murmura venturos nautis +prudentia ventos_' has already reached us (from Santo Domingo); the +revolutionary storm, now sweeping the globe will be upon us, and happy if +we make timely provision to give it an easy passage over our land. From +the present state of things in Europe and America, the day which begins +our combustion must be near at hand; and only a single spark is wanting +to make that day to-morrow. If we had begun sooner, we might probably have +been allowed a lengthier operation to clear ourselves, but every day's +delay lessens the time we may take for emancipation." + +As to the mode of emancipation, he was satisfied that that must be a +matter of compromise between the passions, the prejudices, and the real +difficulties which would each have its weight in that operation. He +believed that the first chapter of this history, which was begun in St. +Domingo, and the next succeeding ones, would recount how all the whites +were driven from all the other islands. This, he thought, would prepare +their minds for a peaceable accommodation between justice and policy; and +furnish an answer to the difficult question, as to where the colored +emigrants should go. He urged that the country put some plan under way, +and the sooner it did so the greater would be the hope that it might be +permitted to proceed peaceably toward consummation.--See Ford edition of +_Jefferson's Writings_, VI, p. 349, VII, pp. 167, 168.] + +[Footnote 14: _Letter of Mr. Stanbury Boyce;_ and _The African +Repository._] + +[Footnote 15: _Philadelphia Gazette,_ Aug. 2, 3, 4, 8, 1842; +_United States Gazette,_ Aug. 2-5, 1842; and the _Pennsylvanian,_ +Aug. 2, 3, 4, 8, 1842.] + +[Footnote 16: _The African Repository_, XVI, pp. 113-115.] + +[Footnote 17: _The African Repository,_ XXI, p. 114.] + +[Footnote 18: _The African Repository,_ XVI, p. 116.] + +[Footnote 19: _The African Repository,_ XVI, p. 115.] + +[Footnote 20: _Ibid.,_ XVI, p. 116.] + +[Footnote 21: Speaking of this colony Kingsley said: "About eighteen +months ago, I carried my son George Kingsley, a healthy colored man of +uncorrupted morals, about thirty years of age, tolerably well educated, of +very industrious habits, and a native of Florida, together with six prime +African men, my own slaves, liberated for that express purpose, to the +northeast side of the Island of Hayti, near Porte Plate, where we arrived +in the month of October, 1836, and after application to the local +authorities, from whom I rented some good land near the sea, and thickly +timbered with lofty woods, I set them to work cutting down trees, about +the middle of November, and returned to my home in Florida. My son wrote +to us frequently, giving an account of his progress. Some of the fallen +timber was dry enough to burn in January, 1837, when it was cleared up, +and eight acres of corn planted, and as soon as circumstances would allow, +sweet potatoes, yams, cassava, rice, beans, peas, plantains, oranges, and +all sorts of fruit trees, were planted in succession. In the month of +October, 1837, I again set off for Hayti, in a coppered brig of 150 tons, +bought for the purpose and in five days and a half, from St. Mary's in +Georgia, landed my son's wife and children, at Porte Plate, together with +the wives and children of his servants, now working for him under an +indenture of nine years; also two additional families of my slaves, all +liberated for the express purpose of transportation to Hayti, where they +were all to have as much good land in fee, as they could cultivate, say +ten acres for each family, and all its proceeds, together with one-fourth +part of the net proceeds of their labor, on my son's farm, for themselves; +also victuals, clothes, medical attendance, etc., gratis, besides +Saturdays and Sundays, as days of labor for themselves, or of rest, just +at their option." + +"On my arrival at my son's place, called Cabaret (twenty-seven miles east +of Porte Plate) in November, 1837, as before stated, I found everything in +the most flattering and prosperous condition. They had all enjoyed good +health, were overflowing with the most delicious variety and abundance of +fruits and provisions, and were overjoyed at again meeting their wives and +children; whom they could introduce into good comfortable log houses, all +nicely whitewashed, and in the midst of a profuse abundance of good +provisions, as they had generally cleared five or six acres of their land +each, which being very rich, and planted with every variety to eat or to +sell on their own account, and had already laid up thirty or forty dollars +apiece. My son's farm was upon a larger scale, and furnished with more +commodious dwelling houses, also with store and out houses. In nine months +he had made and housed three crops of corn, of twenty-five bushels to the +acre, each, or one crop every three months. His highland rice, which was +equal to any in Carolina, so ripe and heavy as some of it to be couched or +leaned down, and no bird had ever troubled it, nor had any of his fields +ever been hoed, or required hoeing, there being as yet no appearance of +grass. His cotton was of an excellent staple. In seven months it had +attained the height of thirteen feet; the stalks were ten inches in +circumference, and had upwards of five hundred large boles on each stalk +(not a worm nor red bug as yet to be seen). His yams, cassava, and sweet +potatoes, were incredibly large, and plentifully thick in the ground; one +kind of sweet potato, lately introduced from Taheita (formerly Otaheita) +Island in the Pacific, was of peculiar excellence; tasted like new flour +and grew to an ordinary size in one month. Those I ate at my son's place +had been planted five weeks, and were as big as our full grown Florida +potatoes. His sweet orange trees budded upon wild stalks cut off (which +every where abound), about six months before had large tops, and the buds +were swelling as if preparing to flower. My son reported that his people +had all enjoyed good health and had labored just as steadily as they +formerly did in Florida and were well satisfied with their situation and +the advantageous exchange of circumstances they had made. They all enjoyed +the friendship of the neighboring inhabitants and the entire confidence of +the Haytian Government." + +"I remained with my son all January, 1838 and assisted him in making +improvements of different kinds, amongst which was a new two-story house, +and then left him to go to Port au Prince, where I obtained a favorable +answer from the President of Hayti, to his petition, asking for leave to +hold in fee simple, the same tract of land upon which he then lived as a +tenant, paying rent to the Haytian Government, containing about +thirty-five thousand acres, which was ordered to be surveyed to him, and +valued, and not expected to exceed the sum of three thousand dollars, or +about ten cents an acre. After obtaining this land in fee for my son, I +returned to Florida in February, in 1838."--See _The African +Repository_, XIV, pp. 215-216.] + +[Footnote 22: _Niles Register_, LXVI, pp. 165, 386.] + +[Footnote 23: _Niles Register_, LXVII, p. 180.] + +[Footnote 24: _The African Repository_, XVI, p. 28.] + +[Footnote 25: _Ibid._, p. 29.] + +[Footnote 26: _Letter of Mr. Stanbury Boyce._] + +[Footnote 27: St. Lucia and Trinidad were then considered unfavorable to +the working of the new system.--See _The African Repository_, XXVII, +p. 196.] + +[Footnote 28: _Niles Register_, LXIII, p. 65.] + +[Footnote 29: _Ibid._, LXIII, p. 65.] + +[Footnote 30: Cromwell, _The Negro in American History_, pp. 43-44.] + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE SUCCESSFUL MIGRANT + + +The reader will naturally be interested in learning exactly what these +thousands of Negroes did on free soil. To estimate these achievements the +casual reader of contemporary testimony would now, as such persons did +then, find it decidedly easy. He would say that in spite of the unfailing +aid which philanthropists gave the blacks, they seldom kept themselves +above want and, therefore, became a public charge, afflicting their +communities with so much poverty, disease and crime that they were +considered the lepers of society. The student of history, however, must +look beyond these comments for the whole truth. One must take into +consideration the fact that in most cases these Negroes escaped as +fugitives without sufficient food and clothing to comfort them until they +could reach free soil, lacking the small fund with which the pioneer +usually provided himself in going to establish a home in the wilderness, +and lacking, above all, initiative of which slavery had deprived them. +Furthermore, these refugees with few exceptions had to go to places where +they were not wanted and in some cases to points from which they were +driven as undesirables, although preparation for their coming had +sometimes gone to the extent of purchasing homes and making provision for +employment upon arrival.[1] Several well-established Negro settlements in +the North, moreover, were broken up by the slave hunters after the passing +of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850.[2] + +The increasing intensity of the hatred of the Negroes must be understood +too both as a cause and result of their intolerable condition. Prior to +1800 the Negroes of the North were in fair circumstances. Until that time +it was generally believed that the whites and the blacks would soon reach +the advanced stage of living together on a basis of absolute equality.[3] +The Negroes had not at that time exceeded the number that could be +assimilated by the sympathizing communities in that section. The +intolerable legislation of the South, however, forced so many free Negroes +in the rough to crowd northern cities during the first four decades of the +nineteenth century that they could not be easily readjusted. The number +seeking employment far exceeded the demand for labor and thus multiplied +the number of vagrants and paupers, many of whom had already been forced +to this condition by the Irish and Germans then immigrating into northern +cities. At one time, as in the case of Philadelphia, the Negroes +constituting a small fraction of the population furnished one half of the +criminals.[4] A radical opposition to the Negro followed, therefore, +arousing first the laboring classes and finally alienating the support of +the well-to-do people and the press. This condition obtained until 1840 in +most northern communities and until 1850 in some places where the Negro +population was considerable. + +We must also take into account the critical labor situation during these +years. The northern people were divided as to the way the Negroes should +be encouraged. The mechanics of the North raised no objection to having +the Negroes freed and enlightened but did not welcome them to that section +as competitors in the struggle of life. When, therefore, the blacks, +converted to the doctrine of training the hand to work with skill, began +to appear in northern industrial centers there arose a formidable +prejudice against them.[5] Negro and white mechanics had once worked +together but during the second quarter of the nineteenth century, when +labor became more dignified and a larger number of white persons devoted +themselves to skilled labor, they adopted the policy of eliminating the +blacks. This opposition, to be sure, was not a mere harmless sentiment. It +tended to give rise to the organization of labor groups and finally to +that of trades unions, the beginnings of those controlling this country +today. Carrying the fight against the Negro still further, these laboring +classes used their influence to obtain legislation against the employment +of Negroes in certain pursuits. Maryland and Georgia passed laws +restricting the privileges of Negro mechanics, and Pennsylvania followed +their example.[6] + +Even in those cases when the Negroes were not disturbed in their new homes +on free soil, it was, with the exception of the Quaker and a few other +communities, merely an act of toleration.[7] It must not be concluded, +however, that the Negroes then migrating to the North did not receive +considerable aid. The fact to be noted here is that because they were not +well received sometimes by the people of their new environment, the help +which they obtained from friends afar off did not suffice to make up for +the deficiency of community cooperation. This, of course, was an unusual +handicap to the Negro, as his life as a slave tended to make him a +dependent rather than a pioneer. + +It is evident, however, from accessible statistics that wherever the Negro +was adequately encouraged he succeeded. When the urban Negroes in northern +communities had emerged from their crude state they easily learned from +the white men their method of solving the problems of life. This tendency +was apparent after 1840 and striking results of their efforts were noted +long before the Civil War. They showed an inclination to work when +positions could be found, purchased homes, acquired other property, built +churches and established schools. Going even further than this, some of +them, taking advantage of their opportunities in the business world, +accumulated considerable fortunes, just as had been done in certain +centers in the South where Negroes had been given a chance.[8] + +In cities far north like Boston not so much difference as to the result of +this migration was noted. Some economic progress among the Negroes had +early been observed there as a result of the long residence of Negroes in +that city as in the case of Lewis Hayden who established a successful +clothing business.[9] In New York such evidences were more apparent. There +were in that city not so many Negroes as frequented some other northern +communities of this time but enough to make for that city a decidedly +perplexing problem. It was the usual situation of ignorant, helpless +fugitives and free Negroes going, they knew not where, to find a better +country. The situation at times became so grave that it not only caused +prejudice but gave rise to intense opposition against those who defended +the cause of the blacks as in the case of the abolition riots which +occurred at several places in the State in 1834.[10] + +To relieve this situation, Gerrit Smith, an unusually philanthropic +gentleman, came forward with an interesting plan. Having large tracts of +land in the southeastern counties of New York, he proposed to settle on +small farms a large number of those Negroes huddled together in the +congested districts of New York City. Desiring to obtain only the best +class, he requested that the Negroes to be thus colonized be recommended +by Reverend Charles B. Ray, Reverend Theodore S. Wright and Dr. J. McCune +Smith, three Negroes of New York City, known to be representative of the +best of the race. Upon their recommendations he deeded unconditionally to +black men in 1846 three hundred small farms in Franklin, Essex, Hamilton, +Fulton, Oneida, Delaware, Madison and Ulster counties, giving to each +settler beside $10.00 to enable him to visit his farm.[11] With these +holdings the blacks would not only have a basis for economic independence +but would have sufficient property to meet the special qualifications +which New York by the law of 1823 required of Negroes offering to vote. + +This experiment, however, was a failure. It was not successful because of +the intractability of the land, the harshness of the climate, and, in a +great measure, the inefficiency of the settlers. They had none of the +qualities of farmers. Furthermore, having been disabled by infirmities and +vices they could not as beneficiaries answer the call of the benefactor. +Peterboro, the town opened to Negroes in this section, did maintain a +school and served as a station of the Underground Railroad but the +agricultural results expected of the enterprise never materialized. The +main difficulty in this case was the impossibility of substituting +something foreign for individual enterprise.[12] + +Progressive Negroes did appear, however, in other parts of the State. In +Penyan, Western New York, William Platt and Joseph C. Cassey were +successful lumber merchants.[13] Mr. W.H. Topp of Albany was for several +years one of the leading merchant tailors of that city.[14] Henry Scott, +of New York City, developed a successful pickling business, supplying most +of the vessels entering that port.[15] Thomas Downing for thirty years ran +a creditable restaurant in the midst of the Wall Street banks, where he +made a fortune.[16] Edward V. Clark conducted a thriving business, +handling jewelry and silverware.[17] The Negroes as a whole, moreover, had +shown progress. Aided by the Government and philanthropic white people, +they had before the Civil War a school system with primary, intermediate +and grammar schools and a normal department. They then had considerable +property, several churches and some benevolent institutions. + +In Southern Pennsylvania, nearer to the border between the slave and free +States, the effects of the achievements of these Negroes were more +apparent for the reason that in these urban centers there were sufficient +Negroes for one to be helpful to the other. Philadelphia presented then +the most striking example of the remaking of these people. Here the +handicap of the foreign element was greatest, especially after 1830. The +Philadelphia Negro, moreover, was further impeded in his progress by the +presence of southerners who made Philadelphia their home, and still more +by the prejudice of those Philadelphia merchants who, sustaining such +close relations to the South, hated the Negro and the abolitionists who +antagonized their customers. + +In spite of these untoward circumstances, however, the Negroes of +Philadelphia achieved success. Negroes who had formerly been able to toil +upward were still restricted but they had learned to make opportunities. +In 1832 the Philadelphia blacks had $350,000 of taxable property, $359,626 +in 1837 and $400,000 in 1847. These Negroes had 16 churches and 100 +benevolent societies in 1837 and 19 churches and 106 benevolent societies +in 1847. Philadelphia then had more successful Negro schools than any +other city in the country. There were also about 500 Negro mechanics in +spite of the opposition of organized labor.[18] Some of these Negroes, of +course, were natives of that city. + +Chief among those who had accumulated considerable property was Mr. James +Forten, the proprietor of one of the leading sail manufactories, +constantly employing a large number of men, black and white. Joseph Casey, +a broker of considerable acumen, also accumulated desirable property, +worth probably $75,000.[19] Crowded out of the higher pursuits of labor, +certain other enterprising business men of this group organized the Guild +of Caterers. This was composed of such men as Bogle, Prosser, Dorsey, +Jones and Minton. The aim was to elevate the Negro waiter and cook from +the plane of menials to that of progressive business men. Then came +Stephen Smith who amassed a large fortune as a lumber merchant and with +him Whipper, Vidal and Purnell. Still and Bowers were reliable coal +merchants, Adger a success in handling furniture, Bowser a well-known +painter, and William H. Riley the intelligent boot-maker.[20] + +There were a few such successful Negroes in other communities in the +State. Mr. William Goodrich, of York, acquired considerable interest in +the branch of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad extending to Lancaster.[21] +Benjamin Richards, of Pittsburgh, amassed a large fortune running a +butchering business, buying by contract droves of cattle to supply the +various military posts of the United States.[22] Mr. Henry M. Collins, who +started life as a boatman, left this position for speculation in real +estate in Pittsburgh where he established himself as an asset of the +community and accumulated considerable wealth.[23] Owen A. Barrett, of the +same city, made his way by discovering the remedy known as _B.A. +Fahnestock's Celebrated Vermifuge_, for which he was retained in the +employ of the proprietor, who exploited the remedy.[24] Mr. John Julius +made himself indispensable to Pittsburgh by running the Concert Hall Cafe +where he served President William Henry Harrison in 1840.[25] + +The field of greatest achievement, however, was not in the conservative +East where the people had well established their going toward an +enlightened and sympathetic aristocracy of talent and wealth. It was in +the West where men were in position to establish themselves anew and make +of life what they would. These crude communities, to be sure, often +objected to the presence of the Negroes and sometimes drove them out. But, +on the other hand, not a few of those centers in the making were in the +hands of the Quakers and other philanthropic persons who gave the Negroes +a chance to grow up with the community, when they exhibited a capacity +which justified philanthropic efforts in their behalf. + +These favorable conditions obtained especially in the towns along the Ohio +river, where so many fugitives and free persons of color stopped on their +way from slavery to freedom. In Steubenville a number of Negroes had by +their industry and good deportment made themselves helpful to the +community. Stephen Mulber who had been in that town for thirty years was +in 1835 the leader of a group of thrifty free persons of color. He had a +brick dwelling, in which he lived, and other property in the city. He made +his living as a master mechanic employing a force of workmen to meet the +increasing demand for his labor.[26] In Gallipolis, there was another +group of this class of Negroes, who had permanently attached themselves to +the town by the acquisition of property. They were then able not only to +provide for their families but were maintaining also a school and a +church.[27] In Portsmouth, Ohio, despite the "Black Friday" upheaval of +1831, the Negroes settled down to the solution of the problems of their +new environment and later showed in the accumulation of property evidences +of actual progress. Among the successful Negroes in Columbus was David +Jenkins who acquired considerable property as a painter, glazier and paper +hanger.[28] One Mr. Hill, of Chillicothe, was for several years its +leading tanner and currier.[29] + +It was in Cincinnati, however, that the Negroes made most progress in the +West. The migratory blacks came there at times in such large numbers, as +we have observed, that they provoked the hostile classes of whites to +employ rash measures to exterminate them. But the Negroes, accustomed to +adversity, struggled on, endeavoring through schools and churches to +embrace every opportunity to rise. By 1840 there were 2,255 Negroes in +that city. They had, exclusive of personal effects and $19,000 worth of +church property, accumulated $209,000 worth of real estate. A number of +their progressive men had established a real estate firm known as the +"Iron Chest" company which built houses for Negroes. One man, who had once +thought it unwise to accumulate wealth from which he might be driven, had, +by 1840, changed his mind and purchased $6,000 worth of real estate. + +Another Negro paid $5,000 for himself and family and bought a home worth +$800 or $1,000. A freedman, who was a slave until he was twenty-four years +of age, then had two lots worth $10,000, paid a tax of $40 and had 320 +acres of land in Mercer County. Another, who was worth only $3,000 in +1836, had seven houses in 1840, 400 acres of land in Indiana, and another +tract in Mercer County, Ohio. He was worth altogether about $12,000 or +$15,000. A woman who was a slave until she was thirty was then worth +$2,000. She had also come into potential possession of two houses on which +a white lawyer had given her a mortgage to secure the payment of $2,000 +borrowed from this thrifty woman. Another Negro, who was on the auction +block in 1832, had spent $2,600 purchasing himself and family and had +bought two brick houses worth $6,000 and 560 acres of land in Mercer +County, Ohio, said to be worth $2,500.[30] + +The Negroes of Cincinnati had as early as 1820 established schools which +developed during the forties into something like a modern system with +Gilmore's High School as a capstone. By that time they had also not only +several churches but had given time and means to the organization and +promotion of such as the _Sabbath School Youth's Society_, the +_Total Abstinence Temperance Society_ and the _Anti-Slavery +Society_. The worthy example set by the Negroes of this city was a +stimulus to noble endeavor and significant achievements of Negroes +throughout the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys. Disarming their enemies of +the weapon that they would continue a public charge, they secured the +cooperation of a larger number of white people who at first had treated +them with contempt.[31] + +This unusual progress in the Ohio valley had been promoted by two forces, +the development of the steamboat as a factor in transportation and the +rise of the Negro mechanic. Negroes employed on vessels as servants to the +travelling public amassed large sums received in the form of tips. +Furthermore, the fortunate few, constituting the stewards of these +vessels, could by placing contracts for supplies and using business +methods realize handsome incomes. Many Negroes thus enriched purchased +real estate and went into business in towns along the Ohio. + +The other force, the rise of the Negro mechanic, was made possible by +overcoming much of the prejudice which had at first been encountered. A +great change in this respect had taken place in Cincinnati by 1840.[32] +Many Negroes who had been forced to work as menial laborers then had the +opportunity to show their usefulness to their families and to the +community. Negro mechanics were then getting as much skilled labor as they +could do. It was not uncommon for white artisans to solicit employment of +colored men because they had the reputation of being better paymasters +than master workmen of the favored race. White mechanics not only worked +with the blacks but often associated with them, patronized the same barber +shop, and went to the same places of amusement.[33] + +Out of this group came some very useful Negroes, among whom may be +mentioned Robert Harlan, the horseman; A.V. Thompson, the tailor; J. +Presley and Thomas Ball, contractors, and Samuel T. Wilcox, the merchant, +who was worth $60,000 in 1859.[34] There were among them two other +successful Negroes, Henry Boyd and Robert Gordon. Boyd was a Kentucky +freedman who helped to overcome the prejudice in Cincinnati against Negro +mechanics by inventing and exploiting a corded bed, the demand for which +was extensive throughout the Ohio and Mississippi valleys. He had a +creditable manufacturing business in which he employed twenty-five +men.[35] + +Robert Gordon was a much more interesting man. He was born a slave in +Richmond, Virginia. He ingratiated himself into the favor of his master +who placed him in charge of a large coal yard with the privilege of +selling the slake for his own benefit. In the course of time, he +accumulated in this position thousands of dollars with which he finally +purchased himself and moved away to free soil. After observing the +situation in several of the northern centers, he finally decided to settle +in Cincinnati, where he arrived with $15,000. Knowing the coal business, +he well established himself there after some discouragement and +opposition. He accumulated much wealth which he invested in United States +bonds during the Civil War and in real estate on Walnut Hills when the +bonds were later redeemed.[36] + +The ultimately favorable attitude of the people of Detroit toward +immigrating Negroes had been reflected by the position the people of that +section had taken from the time of the earliest settlements. Generally +speaking, Detroit adhered to this position.[37] In this congenial +community prospered many a Negro family. There were the Williams' most of +whom confined themselves to their trade of bricklaying and amassed +considerable wealth. Then there were the Cooks, descending from Lomax B. +Cook, a broker of no little business ability. Will Marion Cook, the +musician, belongs to this family. The De Baptistes, too, were among the +first to succeed in this new home, as they prospered materially from their +experience and knowledge previously acquired in Fredericksburg, Virginia, +as contractors. From this group came Richard De Baptiste, who in his day +was the most useful Negro Baptist preacher in the Northwest.[38] The +Pelhams were no less successful in establishing themselves in the economic +world. Having an excellent reputation in the community, they easily +secured the cooperation of the influential white people in the city. Out +of this family came Robert A. Pelham, for years editor of a weekly in +Detroit, and from 1901 to the present time an employee of the Federal +Government in Washington. + +The children of the Richards, another old family, were in no sense +inferior to the descendants of the others. The most prominent and the most +useful to emerge from this group was the daughter, Fannie M. Richards. She +was born in Fredericksburg, Virginia, October 1, 1841. Having left that +State with her parents when she was quite young, she did not see so much +of the antebellum conditions obtaining there. Desiring to have better +training than what was then given to persons of color in Detroit, she went +to Toronto where she studied English, history, drawing and needlework. In +later years she attended the Teachers' Training School in Detroit. She +became a public-school teacher there in 1863 and after fifty years of +creditable service in this work she was retired on a pension in 1913.[39] + +The Negroes in the North had not only shown their ability to rise in the +economic world when properly encouraged but had begun to exhibit power of +all kinds. There were Negro inventors, a few lawyers, a number of +physicians and dentists, many teachers, a score of intelligent preachers, +some scholars of note, and even successful blacks in the finer arts. Some +of these, with Frederick Douglass as the most influential, were also doing +creditable work in journalism with about thirty newspapers which had +developed among the Negroes as weapons of defense.[40] + +This progress of the Negroes in the North was much more marked after the +middle of the nineteenth century. The migration of Negroes to northern +communities was at first checked by the reaction in those places during +the thirties and forties. Thus relieved of the large influx which once +constituted a menace, those communities gave the Negroes already on hand +better economic opportunities. It was fortunate too that prior to the +check in the infiltration of the blacks they had come into certain +districts in sufficiently large numbers to become a more potential +factor.[41] They were strong enough in some cases to make common cause +against foes and could by cooperation solve many problems with which the +blacks in dispersed condition could not think of grappling. + +Their endeavors along these lines proceeded in many cases from +well-organized efforts like those culminating in the numerous national +conventions which began meeting first in Philadelphia in 1830 and after +some years of deliberation in this city extended to others in the +North.[42] These bodies aimed not only to promote education, religion and +morals, but, taking up the work which the Quakers began, they put forth +efforts to secure to the free blacks opportunities to be trained in the +mechanic arts to equip themselves for participation in the industries then +springing up throughout the North. This movement, however, did not succeed +in the proportion to the efforts put forth because of the increasing power +of the trades unions. + +After the middle of the nineteenth century too the Negroes found +conditions a little more favorable to their progress than the generation +before. The aggressive South had by that time so shaped the policy of the +nation as not only to force the free States to cease aiding the escape of +fugitives but to undertake to impress the northerner into the service of +assisting in their recapture as provided in the Fugitive Slave Law. This +repressive measure set a larger number of the people thinking of the Negro +as a national problem rather than a local one. The attitude of the North +was then reflected in the personal liberty laws as an answer to this +measure and in the increasing sympathy for the Negroes. During this +decade, therefore, more was done in the North to secure to the Negroes +better treatment and to give them opportunities for improvement. + + +[Footnote 1: _Cincinnati Morning Herald_, July 17, 1846.] + +[Footnote 2: Woodson, _The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861_, p. +242.] + +[Footnote 3: Turner, _The Negro in Pennsylvania_, p. 143; +_Correspondence of Dr. Benjamin Bush_, XXXIX, p. 41.] + +[Footnote 4: DuBois, _The Philadelphia Negro_, pp. 26-27.] + +[Footnote 5: _The Journal of Negro History_, I, p. 5; and +_Proceedings of the American Convention of Abolition Societies_.] + +[Footnote 6: DuBois and Dill, _The Negro American Artisan_, p. 36.] + +[Footnote 7: Jay, _An Inquiry_, pp. 34, 108, 109, 114.] + +[Footnote 8: _The Journal of Negro History_, I, pp. 20-22.] + +[Footnote 9: Delany, _Condition of the Colored People_, p. 106.] + +[Footnote 10: _The Liberator_, July 9, 1835.] + +[Footnote 11: Hammond, _Gerrit Smith_, pp. 26-27.] + +[Footnote 12: Frothingham, _Gerrit Smith_, p. 73.] + +[Footnote 13: Delany, _Condition of the Colored People_, pp. +107-108.] + +[Footnote 14: _Ibid._, p. 102.] + +[Footnote 15: _Ibid._, p. 102.] + +[Footnote 16: _Ibid._, pp. 103-104.] + +[Footnote 17: Delany, _Condition of the Colored People_, pp. +106-107.] + +[Footnote 18: DuBois, _The Philadelphia Negro_, p. 31; _Report of +the Condition of the Free People of Color_, 1838; _ibid._, 1849; +and Bacon, _Statistics of the Colored People of Philadelphia_, 1859.] + +[Footnote 19: Delany, _Condition of the Colored People_, p. 95.] + +[Footnote 20: DuBois, _The Philadelphia Negro_, pp. 31-36.] + +[Footnote 21: Delany, _Condition of the Colored People_, p. 109.] + +[Footnote 22: _Ibid._, p. 101.] + +[Footnote 23: _Ibid._, p. 104.] + +[Footnote 24: _Ibid._, p. 105.] + +[Footnote 25: _Ibid._, p. 107.] + +[Footnote 26: _The Journal of Negro History_, I, p. 22.] + +[Footnote 27: Hickok, _The Negro in Ohio_, p. 88.] + +[Footnote 28: Delany, _Condition of the Colored People_, p. 99.] + +[Footnote 29: _Ibid._, p. 101.] + +[Footnote 30: _The Philanthropist_, July 21, 1840, gives these +statistics in detail.] + +[Footnote 31: _The Philanthropist_, July 21, 1840.] + +[Footnote 32: _The Cincinnati Daily Gazette_, Sept. 14, 1841.] + +[Footnote 33: Barber's _Report on Colored People in Ohio_.] + +[Footnote 34: Delany, _Condition of the Colored People_, pp. 97, 98.] + +[Footnote 35: Delany, _Condition of the Colored People_, p. 98.] + +[Footnote 36: These facts were obtained from his children and from +Cincinnati city directories.] + +[Footnote 37: _Niles Register_, LXIX, p. 357.] + +[Footnote 38: Letters received from Miss Fannie M. Richards of Detroit.] + +[Footnote 39: These facts were obtained from clippings taken from Detroit +newspapers and from letters bearing on Miss Richard's career.] + +[Footnote 40: _The A.M.E. Church Review_, IV, p. 309; and XX, p. +137.] + +[Footnote 41: _Censuses of the United States_; and Clark, _Present +Condition of Colored People_.] + +[Footnote 42: _Minutes and Proceedings_ of the Annual Convention of +the People of Color.] + + + +CHAPTER VI + +CONFUSING MOVEMENTS + + +The Civil War waged largely in the South started the most exciting +movement of the Negroes hitherto known. The invading Union forces drove +the masters before them, leaving the slaves and sometimes poor whites to +escape where they would or to remain in helpless condition to constitute a +problem for the northern army.[1] Many poor whites of the border States +went with the Confederacy, not always because they wanted to enter the +war, but to choose what they considered the lesser of two evils. The +slaves soon realized a community of interests with the Union forces sent, +as they thought, to deliver them from thralldom. At first, it was +difficult to determine a fixed policy for dealing with these fugitives. To +drive them away was an easy matter, but this did not solve the problem. +General Butler's action at Fortress Monroe in 1861, however, anticipated +the policy finally adopted by the Union forces.[2] Hearing that three +fugitive slaves who were received into his lines were to have been +employed in building fortifications for the Confederate army, he declared +them seized as contraband of war rather than declare them actually free as +did General Fremont[3] and General Hunter.[4] He then gave them employment +for wages and rations and appropriated to the support of the unemployed a +portion of the earnings of the laborers. This policy was followed by +General Wood, Butler's successor, and by General Banks in New Orleans. + +An elaborate plan for handling such fugitives was carried out by E.S. +Pierce and General Rufus Saxton at Port Royal, South Carolina. Seeing the +situation in another light, however, General Halleck in charge in the West +excluded slaves from the Union lines, at first, as did General Dix in +Virginia. But Halleck, in his instructions to General McCullum, February, +1862, ordered him to put contrabands to work to pay for food and +clothing.[5] Other commanders, like General McCook and General Johnson, +permitted the slave hunters to enter their lines and take their slaves +upon identification,[6] ignoring the confiscation act of August, 1861, +which was construed by some as justifying the retention of such refugees. +Officers of a different attitude, however, soon began to protest against +the returning of fugitive slaves. General Grant, also, while admitting the +binding force of General Halleck's order, refused to grant permits to +those in search of fugitives seeking asylum within his lines and at the +capture of Fort Donelson ordered the retention of all blacks who had been +used by the Confederates in building fortifications.[7] + +Lincoln finally urged the necessity for withholding fugitive slaves from +the enemy, believing that there could be in it no danger of servile +insurrection and that the Confederacy would thereby be weakened.[8] As +this opinion soon developed into a conviction that official action was +necessary, Congress, by Act of March 13, 1862, provided that slaves be +protected against the claims of their pursuers. Continuing further in this +direction, the Federal Government gradually reached the position of +withdrawing Negro labor from the Confederate territory. Finally the United +States Government adopted the policy of withholding from the Confederates, +slaves received with the understanding that their masters were in +rebellion against the United States. With this as a settled policy then, +the United States Government had to work out some scheme for the remaking +of these fugitives coming into its camps. + +In some of these cases the fugitives found themselves among men more +hostile to them than their masters were, for many of the Union soldiers of +the border States were slaveholders themselves and northern soldiers did +not understand that they were fighting to free Negroes. The condition in +which they were on arriving, moreover, was a new problem for the army. +Some came naked, some in decrepitude, some afflicted with disease, and +some wounded in their efforts to escape.[9] There were "women in travail, +the helplessness of childhood and of old age, the horrors of sickness and +of frequent deaths."[10] In their crude state few of them had any +conception of the significance of liberty, thinking that it meant idleness +and freedom from restraint. In consequence of this ignorance there +developed such undesirable habits as deceit, theft and licentiousness to +aggravate the afflictions of nakedness, famine and disease.[11] + +In the East large numbers of these refugees were concentrated at +Washington, Alexandria, Fortress Monroe, Hampton, Craney Island and Fort +Norfolk. There were smaller groups of them at Yorktown, Suffolk and +Portsmouth.[12] + +[Illustration: MAP SHOWING THE PER CENT OF NEGROES IN TOTAL POPULATION, BY +STATES: 1910. + +(Map 2, Bulletin 129, The United States Bureau of the Census.)] + +Some of them were conducted from these camps into York, Columbia, +Harrisburg, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, and by water to New York and +Boston, from which they went to various parts seeking labor. Some +collected in groups as in the case of those at Five Points in New +York.[13] Large numbers of them from Virginia assembled in Washington in +1862 in Duff Green's Row on Capitol Hill where they were organized as a +camp, out of which came a contraband school, after being moved to the +McClellan Barracks.[14] Then there was in the District of Columbia another +group known as Freedmen's village on Arlington Heights. It was said that, +in 1864, 30,000 to 40,000 Negroes had come from the plantations to the +District of Columbia.[15] It happened here too as in most cases of this +migration that the Negroes were on hand before the officials grappling +with many other problems could determine exactly what could or should be +done with them. The camps near Washington fortunately became centers for +the employment of contrabands in the city. Those repairing to Fortress +Monroe were distributed as laborers among the farmers of that +vicinity.[16] + +[Illustration: DIAGRAM SHOWING THE NEGRO POPULATION OF NORTHERN AND +WESTERN CITIES IN 1900 AND THE EXTENT TO WHICH IT INCREASED BY 1910. + +COUNTIES IN THE SOUTHERN STATES HAVING AT LEAST 50 PER CENT OF THEIR +POPULATION NEGRO. + +(Maps 3 and 4, Bulletin 129, U.S. Bureau of the Census.) + +(Maps 5 and 6, Bulletin 129, U.S. Bureau of the Census.)] + +In some of these camps, and especially in those of the West, the refugees +were finally sent out to other sections in need of labor, as in the cases +of the contrabands assembled with the Union army at first at Grand +Junction and later at Memphis.[17] + +There were three types of these camp communities which attracted attention +as places for free labor experimentation. These were at Port Royal, on the +Mississippi in the neighborhood of Vicksburg, and in Lower Louisiana and +Virginia. The first trial of free labor of blacks on a large scale in a +slave State was made in Port Royal.[18] The experiment was generally +successful. By industry, thrift and orderly conduct the Negroes showed +their appreciation for their new opportunities. In the Mississippi section +invaded by the northern army, General Thomas opened what he called +_Infirmary Farms_ which he leased to Negroes on certain terms which +they usually met successfully. The same plan, however, was not so +successful in the Lower Mississippi section.[19] The failure in this +section was doubtless due to the inferior type of blacks in the lower +cotton belt where Negroes had been more brutalized by slavery. + +In some cases, these refugees experienced many hardships. It was charged +that they were worked hard, badly treated and deprived of all their wages +except what was given them for rations and a scanty pittance, wholly +insufficient to purchase necessary clothing and provide for their +families.[20] Not a few of the refugees for these reasons applied for +permission to return to their masters and sometimes such permission was +granted; for, although under military authority, they were by order of +Congress to be considered as freemen. These voluntary slaves, of course, +were few and the authorities were not thereby impressed with the thought +that Negroes would prefer to be slaves, should they be treated as freemen +rather than as brutes.[21] + +It became increasingly difficult, however, to handle this problem. In the +first place, it was not an easy matter to find soldiers well disposed to +serve the Negroes in any manner whatever and the officers of the army had +no desire to force them to render such services since those thus engaged +suffered a sort of social ostracism. The same condition obtained in the +case of caring for those afflicted with disease, until there was issued a +specific regulation placing the contraband sick in charge of the army +surgeons.[22] What the situation in the Mississippi Valley was during +these months has been well described by an observer, saying: "I hope I may +never be called on again to witness the horrible scenes I saw in those +first days of history of the freedmen in the Mississippi Valley. +Assistants were hard to find, especially the kind that would do any good +in the camps. A detailed soldier in each camp of a thousand people was the +best that could be done and his duties were so onerous that he ended by +doing nothing. In reviewing the condition of the people at that time, I am +not surprised at the marvelous stories told by visitors who caught an +occasional glimpse of the misery and wretchedness in these camps. Our +efforts to do anything for these people, as they herded together in +masses, when founded on any expectation that they would help themselves, +often failed; they had become so completely broken down in spirit, through +suffering, that it was almost impossible to arouse them."[23] + +A few sympathetic officers and especially the chaplains undertook to +relieve the urgent cases of distress. They could do little, however, to +handle all the problems of the unusual situation until they engaged the +attention of the higher officers of the army and the federal functionaries +in Washington. After some delay this was finally done and special officers +were detailed to take charge of the contrabands. The Negroes were +assembled in camps and employed according to instructions from the +Secretary of War as teamsters, laborers and the like on forts and +railroads. Some were put to picking, ginning, baling and removing cotton +on plantations abandoned by their masters. General Grant, as early as +1862, was making further use of them as fatigue men in the department of +the surgeon-general, the quartermaster and the commissary. He believed +then that such Negroes as did well in these more humble positions should +be made citizens and soldiers.[24] As a matter of fact out of this very +suggestion came the policy of arming the Negroes, the first regiment of +whom was recruited under orders issued by General Hunter at Port Royal, +South Carolina in 1862. As the arming of the slave to participate in this +war did not generally please the white people who considered the struggle +a war between civilized groups, this policy could not offer general relief +to the congested contraband camps.[25] + +A better system of handling the fugitives was finally worked out, however, +with a general superintendent at the head of each department, supported by +a number of competent assistants. More explicit instructions were given as +to the manner of dealing with the situation. It was to be the duty of the +superintendent of contrabands, says the order, to organize them into +working parties in saving the cotton, as pioneers on railroads and +steamboats, and in any way where their services could be made available. +Where labor was performed for private individuals they were charged in +accordance with the orders of the commander of the department. In case +they were directed to save abandoned crops of cotton for the benefit of +the United States Government, the officer selling such crops would turn +over to the superintendent of contrabands the proceeds of the sale, which +together with other earnings were used for clothing and feeding the +Negroes. Clothing sent by philanthropic persons to these camps was +received and distributed by the superintendent. In no case, however, were +Negroes to be forced into the service of the United States Government or +to be enticed away from their homes except when it became a military +necessity.[26] + +Some order out of the chaos eventually developed, for as John Eaton, one +of the workers in the West, reported: "There was no promiscuous +intermingling. Families were established by themselves. Every man took +care of his own wife and children." "One of the most touching features of +our Work," says he, "was the eagerness with which colored men and women +availed themselves of the opportunities offered them to legalize unions +already formed, some of which had been in existence for a long time."[27] +"Chaplain A.S. Fiske on one occasion married in about an hour one hundred +and nineteen couples at one service, chiefly those who had long lived +together." Letters from the Virginia camps and from those of Port Royal +indicate that this favorable condition generally obtained.[28] + +This unusual problem in spite of additional effort, however, would not +readily admit of solution. Benevolent workers of the North, therefore, +began to minister to the needs of these unfortunate blacks. They sent +considerable sums of money, increasing quantities of clothing and even +some of their most devoted men and women to toil among them as social +workers and teachers.[29] These efforts also took organized form in +various parts of the North under the direction of _The Pennsylvania +Freedmen's Relief Association, The Tract Society, The American Missionary +Association, Pennsylvania Friends Freedmen's Relief Association, Old +School Presbyterian Mission, The Reformed Presbyterian Mission, The New +England Freedmen's Aid Committee, The New England Freedmen's Aid Society, +The New England Freedmen's Mission, The Washington Christian Union, The +Universalists of Maine, The New York Freedmen's Relief Association, The +Hartford Relief Society, The National Freedmen's Relief Association of the +District of Columbia_, and finally the _Freedmen's Bureau_.[30] + +As an outlet to the congested grouping of Negroes and poor whites in the +war camps it was arranged to send a number of them to the loyal States as +fast as there presented themselves opportunities for finding homes and +employment. Cairo, Illinois, in the West, became the center of such +activities extending its ramifications into all parts of the invaded +southern territory. Some of the refugees permanently settled in the North, +taking up the work abandoned by the northern soldiers who went to war.[31] +It was soon found necessary to appoint a superintendent of such affairs at +Cairo, for there were those who, desiring to lead a straggling life, had +to be restrained from crime by military surveillance and regulations +requiring labor for self-support. Exactly how many whites and blacks were +thus aided to reach northern communities cannot be determined but in view +of the frequent mention of their movements by travellers the number must +have been considerable. In some cases, as in Lawrence, Kansas, there were +assembled enough freedmen to constitute a distinct group.[32] Speaking of +this settlement the editor of the _Alton Telegraph_ said in 1862 that +although they amounted to many hundreds not one, that he could learn of, +had been a public charge. They readily found employment at fair wages, and +soon made themselves comfortable.[33] + +There was a little apprehension that the North would be overrun by such +blacks. Some had no such fear, however, for the reason that the census did +not indicate such a movement. Many slaves were freed in the North prior to +1860, yet with all the emigration from the slave States to the North there +were then in all the Northern States but 226,152 free blacks, while there +were in the slave States 261,918, an excess of 35,766 in the slave States. +Frederick Starr believed that during the Civil War there might be an +influx for a few months but it would not continue.[34] They would return +when sure that they would be free. Starr thought that, if necessary, these +refugees might be used in building the much desired Pacific Railroad to +divert them from the North. + +There was little ground for this apprehension, in fact, if their +readjustment and development in the contraband camps could be considered +an indication of what the Negroes would eventually do. Taking all things +into consideration, most unbiased observers felt that blacks in the camps +deserved well of their benefactors.[36] According to Levi Coffin, these +contrabands were, in 1864, disposed of as follows: "In military services +as soldiers, laundresses, cooks, officers' servants and laborers in the +various staff departments, 41,150; in cities, on plantations and in +freedmen's villages and cared for, 72,500. Of these 62,300 were entirely +self-supporting, just as any industrial class anywhere else, as planters, +mechanics, barbers, hackmen and draymen, conducting enterprises on their +own responsibility or working as hired laborers." The remaining 10,200 +received subsistence from the government. 3,000 of these were members of +families whose heads were carrying on plantations, and had undertaken +cultivation of 4,000 acres of cotton, pledging themselves to pay the +government for their subsistence from the first income of the crop. The +other 7,200 included the paupers, that is, all Negroes over and under the +self-supporting age, the crippled and sick in hospitals. This class, +however, instead of being unproductive, had then under cultivation 500 +acres of corn, 790 acres of vegetables, and 1,500 acres of cotton, besides +working at wood chopping and other industries. There were reported in the +aggregate over 100,000 acres of cotton under cultivation, 7,000 acres of +which were leased and cultivated by blacks. Some Negroes were managing as +many as 300 or 400 acres each.[37] Statistics showing exactly how much the +numbers of contrabands in the various branches of the service increased +are wanting, but in view of the fact that the few thousand soldiers here +given increased to about 200,000 before the close of the Civil War, the +other numbers must have been considerable, if they all grew the least +proportionately. + +Much industry was shown among these refugees. Under this new system they +acquired the idea of ownership, and of the security of wages and learned +to see the fundamental difference between freedom and slavery. Some +Yankees, however, seeing that they did less work than did laborers in the +North, considered them lazy, but the lack of industry was customary in the +South and a river should not be expected to rise higher than its source. +One of their superintendents said that they worked well without being +urged, that there was among them a public opinion against idleness, which +answered for discipline, and that those put to work with soldiers labored +longer and did the nicer parts. "In natural tact and the faculty of +getting a livelihood," says the same writer, "the contrabands are inferior +to the Yankees, but quite equal to the mass of southern population."[38] +The Negroes also showed capacity to organize labor and use capital in the +promotion of enterprises. Many of them purchased land and cultivated it to +great profit both to the community and to themselves. Others entered the +service of the government as mechanics and contractors, from the +employment of which some of them realized handsome incomes. + +The more important development, however, was that of manhood. This was +best observed in their growing consciousness of rights, and their +readiness to defend them, even when encroached upon by members of the +white race. They quickly learned to appreciate freedom and exhibited +evidences of manhood in their desire for the comforts and conveniences of +life. They readily purchased articles of furniture within their means, +bringing their home equipment up to the standard of that of persons +similarly circumstanced. The indisposition to labor was overcome "in a +healthy nature by instinct and motives of superior forces, such as love of +life, the desire to be clothed and fed, the sense of security derived from +provision for the future, the feeling of self-respect, the love of family +and children and the convictions of duty."[39] + +These enterprises, begun in doubt, soon ceased to be a bare hope or +possibility. They became during the war a fruition and a consummation, in +that they produced Negroes "who would work for a living and fight for +freedom." They were, therefore, considered "adapted to civil society." +They had "shown capacity for knowledge, for free industry, for +subordination to law and discipline, for soldierly fortitude, for social +and family relations, for religious culture and aspiration. These +qualities," said the observer, "when stirred, and sustained by the +incitements and rewards of a just society, and combining with the currents +of our continental civilization, will, under the guidance of a benevolent +Providence which forgets neither them nor us, make them a constantly +progressive race; and secure them ever after from the calamity of another +enslavement, and ourselves from the worst calamity of being their +oppressors."[40] + +It is clear that these smaller numbers of Negroes under favorable +conditions could be easily adjusted to a new environment. When, however, +all Negroes were declared free there set in a confused migration which was +much more of a problem. The first thing the Negro did after realizing that +he was free was to roam over the country to put his freedom to a test. To +do this, according to many writers, he frequently changed his name, +residence, employment and wife, sometimes carrying with him from the +plantation the fruits of his own labor. Many of them easily acquired a dog +and a gun and were disposed to devote their time to the chase until the +assistance in the form of mules and land expected from the government +materialized. Their emancipation, therefore, was interpreted not only as +freedom from slavery but from responsibility.[41] Where they were going +they did not know but the towns and cities became very attractive to them. + +Speaking of this upheaval in Virginia, Eckenrode says that many of them +roamed over the country without restraint.[42] "Released from their +accustomed bonds," says Hall, "and filled with a pleasing, if not vague, +sense of uncontrolled freedom, they flocked to the cities with little hope +of obtaining remunerative work. Wagon loads of them were brought in from +the country by the soldiers and dumped down to shift for themselves."[43] +Referring to the proclamation of freedom, in Georgia, Thompson asserts +that their most general and universal response was to pick up and leave +the home place to go somewhere else, preferably to a town. "The lure of the +city was strong to the blacks, appealing to their social natures, to their +inherent love for a crowd."[44] Davis maintains that thousands of the +70,000 Negroes in Florida crowded into the Federal military camps and into +towns upon realizing that they were free.[45] According to Ficklen, the +exodus of the slaves from the neighboring plantations of Louisiana into +Baton Rouge, Carrollton and New Orleans was so great as to strain the +resources of the Federal authorities to support them. Ten thousand poured +into New Orleans alone.[46] Fleming records that upon leaving their homes +the blacks collected in gangs at the cross roads, in the villages and +towns, especially near the military posts. The towns were filled with +crowds of blacks who left their homes with absolutely nothing, "thinking +that the government would care for them, or more probably, not thinking at +all."[47] + +The portrayal of these writers of this phase of Reconstruction history +contains a general truth, but in some cases the picture is overdrawn. The +student of history must bear in mind that practically all of our histories +of that period are based altogether on the testimony of prejudiced whites +and are written from their point of view. Some of these writers have aimed +to exaggerate the vagrancy of the blacks to justify the radical procedure +of the whites in dealing with it. The Negroes did wander about +thoughtlessly, believing that this was the most effective way to enjoy +their freedom. But nothing else could be expected from a class who had +never felt anything but the heel of oppression. History shows that such +vagrancy has always followed the immediate emancipation of a large number +of slaves. Many Negroes who flocked to the towns and army camps, moreover, +had like their masters and poor whites seen their homes broken up or +destroyed by the invading Union armies. Whites who had never learned to +work were also roaming and in some cases constituted marauding bands.[48] + +There was, moreover, an actual drain of laborers to the lower and more +productive lands in Mississippi and Louisiana.[49] This developed later +into a more considerable movement toward the Southwest just after the +Civil War, the exodus being from South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and +Mississippi to Louisiana, Arkansas and Texas. Here was the pioneering +spirit, a going to the land of more economic opportunities. This slow +movement continued from about 1865 to 1875, when the development of the +numerous railway systems gave rise to land speculators who induced whites +and blacks to go west and southwest. It was a migration of individuals, +but it was reported that as many as 35,000 Negroes were then persuaded to +leave South Carolina and Georgia for Arkansas and Texas.[50] + +The usual charge that the Negro is naturally migratory is not true. This +impression is often received by persons who hear of the thousands of +Negroes who move from one place to another from year to year because of +the desire to improve their unhappy condition. In this there is no +tendency to migrate but an urgent need to escape undesirable conditions. +In fact, one of the American Negroes' greatest shortcomings is that they +are not sufficiently pioneering. Statistics show that the whites have more +inclination to move from State to State than the Negro. To prove this +assertion,[51] Professor William O. Scroggs has shown that, in 1910, 16.6 +per cent of the Negroes had moved to some other State than that in which +they were born, while during the same period 22.4 per cent of the whites +had done the same.[52] + +The South, however, was not disposed to look at the vagrancy of the +ex-slaves so philosophically. That section had been devastated by war and +to rebuild these waste places reliable labor was necessary. Legislatures +of the slave States, therefore, immediately after the close of the war, +granted the Negro nominal freedom but enacted measures of vagrancy and +labor so as to reduce the Negro again almost to the status of a slave. +White magistrates were given wide discretion in adjudging Negroes +vagrants.[53] Negroes had to sign contracts to work. If without what was +considered a just cause the Negro left the employ of a planter, the former +could be arrested and forced to work and in some sections with ball and +chain. If the employer did not care to take him back he could be hired out +by the county or confined in jail. Mississippi, Louisiana and South +Carolina had further drastic features. By local ordinance in Louisiana +every Negro had to be in the service of some white person, and by special +laws of South Carolina and Mississippi the Negro became subject to a +master almost in the same sense in which he was prior to emancipation.[54] +These laws, of course, convinced the government of the United States that +the South had not yet decided to let slavery go and for that reason +military rule and Congressional Reconstruction followed. In this respect +the South did itself a great injury, for many of the provisions of the +black codes, especially the vagrancy laws, were unnecessary. Most Negroes +soon realized that freedom did not mean relief from responsibility and +they quickly settled down to work after a rather protracted and exciting +holiday.[55] + +During the last year of and immediately after the Civil War there set in +another movement, not of a large number of Negroes but of the intelligent +class who had during years of residence in the North enjoyed such +advantages of contact and education as to make them desirable and useful +as leaders in the Reconstruction of the South and the remaking of the +race. In their tirades against the Carpet-bag politicians who handled the +Reconstruction situation so much to the dissatisfaction of the southern +whites, historians often forget to mention also that a large number of the +Negro leaders who participated in that drama were also natives or +residents of Northern States. + +Three motives impelled these blacks to go South. Some had found northern +communities so hostile as to impede their progress, many wanted to rejoin +relatives from whom they had been separated by their flight from the land +of slavery, and others were moved by the spirit of adventure to enter a +new field ripe with all sorts of opportunities. This movement, together +with that of migration to large urban communities, largely accounts for +the depopulation and the consequent decline of certain colored communities +in the North after 1865. + +Some of the Negroes who returned to the South became men of national +prominence. William J. Simmons, who prior to the Civil War was carried +from South Carolina to Pennsylvania, returned to do religious and +educational work in Kentucky. Bishop James W. Hood, of the African +Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, went from Connecticut to North Carolina +to engage in similar work. Honorable R.T. Greener, the first Negro +graduate of Harvard, went from Philadelphia to teach in the District of +Columbia and later to be a professor in the University of South Carolina. +F.L. Cardoza, educated at the University of Edinburgh, returned to South +Carolina and became State Treasurer. R.B. Elliot, born in Boston and +educated in England, settled in South Carolina from which he was sent to +Congress. + +John M. Langston was taken to Ohio and educated but came back to Virginia +his native State from which he was elected to Congress. J.T. White left +Indiana to enter politics in Arkansas, becoming State Senator and later +commissioner of public works and internal improvements. Judge Mifflin +Wister Gibbs, a native of Philadelphia, purposely settled in Arkansas +where he served as city judge and Register of United States Land Office. +T. Morris Chester, of Pittsburgh, finally made his way to Louisiana where +he served with distinction as a lawyer and held the position of +Brigadier-General in charge of the Louisiana State Guards under the +Kellogg government. Joseph Carter Corbin, who was taken from Virginia to +be educated at Chillicothe, Ohio, went later to Arkansas where he served +as chief clerk in the post office at Little Rock and later as State +Superintendent of Schools. Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback, who moved +north for education and opportunity, returned to enter politics in +Louisiana, which honored him with several important positions among which +was that of Acting Governor. + + +[Footnote 1: This is well treated in John Eaton's _Grant, Lincoln and +the Freedmen_. See also Coffin's _Boys of '61_.] + +[Footnote 2: Williams, _History of the Negro Troops in the War of the +Rebellion_, p. 70.] + +[Footnote 3: Greely, _American Conflict_, I, p. 585.] + +[Footnote 4: _Ibid_., II, p. 246.] + +[Footnote 5: _Official Records of the Rebellion_, VIII, p. 628.] + +[Footnote 6: Williams, _Negro Troops_, p. 66 et seq.] + +[Footnote 7: _Official Records of the Rebellion_, VIII, p. 370; +Williams, _Negro Troops_, p. 75.] + +[Footnote 8: Eaton, _Grant, Lincoln and the Freedmen_, pp. 87, 92.] + +[Footnote 9: Pierce, _Freedmen of Port Royal, South Carolina_, passim; +Botume, _First Days Among the Contrabands_, pp. 10-22; and Pearson, +_Letters from Port Royal_, passim.] + +[Footnote 10: Eaton, _Grant, Lincoln and the Freedmen_, p. 92.] + +[Footnote 11: _Ibid._, pp. 2, 3.] + +[Footnote 12: Report of the _Committee of Representatives of the New +York Yearly Meeting of Friends_ upon the _Condition and Wants of the +Colored Refugees_, 1862, p. 1 et seq.] + +[Footnote 13: _Report of the Committee of Representatives, etc_., p. +3.] + +[Footnote 14: At an entertainment of this school, Senator Pomeroy of +Kansas, voicing the sentiment of Lincoln, spoke in favor of a scheme to +colonize Negroes in Central America.] + +[Footnote 15: _Special Report_ of the United States Commission of +Education on the Schools of the District of Columbia, p. 215.] + +[Footnote 16: _Christian Examiner_, LXXVI, p. 349.] + +[Footnote 17: Eaton, _Lincoln, Grant and the Freedmen_, pp. 18, 30.] + +[Footnote 18: Pierce, _The Freedmen of Port Royal, South Carolina, +Official Reports_; and Pearson, _Letters from Port Royal written at +the Time of the Civil War_.] + +[Footnote 19: _Christian Examiner_, LXXVI, p. 354.] + +[Footnote 20: _Continental Monthly_, II, p. 193.] + +[Footnote 21: _Report_ of the Committee of Representatives of the New +York Yearly Meeting of Friends, p. 12.] + +[Footnote 23: Eaton, _Lincoln, Grant and the Freedmen_, p. 2.] + +[Footnote 23: Eaton, _Lincoln, Grant and the Freedmen_, p. 19. See +also Botume's _First Days Amongst the Contrabands_. This work vividly +portrays conditions among the refugees assembled at points in South +Carolina.] + +[Footnote 24: Eaton, _Grant, Lincoln and the Freedmen_, p. 15.] + +[Footnote 25: Williams, _Negro in the Rebellion_, pp. 90-98.] + +[Footnote 26: _Official Records of the War of the Rebellion_, VII, +pp. 503, 510, 560, 595, 628, 668, 698, 699, 711, 723, 739, 741, 757, 769, +787, 801, 802, 811, 818, 842, 923, 934; VIII, pp. 444, 445, 451, 464, 555, +556, 564, 584, 637, 642, 686, 690, 693, 825.] + +[Footnote 27: Eaton, _Grant, Lincoln and the Freedmen_, pp. 34-35.] + +[Footnote 28: Ames, _From a New England Woman's Diary_, passim; and +Pearson, _Letters from Port Royal_, passim.] + +[Footnote 29: Ames, _From a New England Woman's Diary in 1865_, +passim.] + +[Footnote 30: _Special Report_ of the United States Commissioner of +Education on the Schools of the District of Columbia, p. 217.] + +[Footnote 31: Eaton, _Grant, Lincoln and the Freedmen_, p. 37.] + +[Footnote 32: Eaton, _Grant, Lincoln and the Freedmen_, p. 38.] + +[Footnote 33: _Ibid._, p. 39.] + +[Footnote 34: Starr, _What shall be done with the People of Color in the +United States_, p. 25; Ward, _Contrabands_, pp. 3, 4.] + +[Footnote 35: It is said that Lincoln suggested colonizing the contrabands +in South America.] + +[Footnote 36: _Atlantic Monthly_, XII, p. 308.] + +[Footnote 37: Levi Coffin, _Reminiscences_, p. 671.] + +[Footnote 38: _Atlantic Monthly_, XII, p. 309.] + +[Footnote 39: _Ibid._, XII, pp. 310-311.] + +[Footnote 40: _Ibid_., p. 311.] + +[Footnote 41: Hamilton, _Reconstruction in North Carolina_, pp. 156, +157.] + +[Footnote 42: Eckenrode, _Political History of Virginia during the +Reconstruction_, p. 43.] + +[Footnote 43: Hall, _Andrew Johnson_, p. 258.] + +[Footnote 44: Thompson, _Reconstruction in Georgia_, p. 44.] + +[Footnote 45: Davis, _Reconstruction in Florida_, p. 341.] + +[Footnote 46: Ficklen, _History of Reconstruction in Louisiana_, p. +118.] + +[Footnote 47: Fleming, _The Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama_, +p. 271.] + +[Footnote 48: Thompson, _Reconstruction in Georgia_, p. 69.] + +[Footnote 49: _Ibid._, p. 69.] + +[Footnote 50: This exodus became considerable again in 1888 and 1889 and +the Negro population has continued in this direction of plentitude of land +including not only Arkansas and Texas but Louisiana and Oklahoma, all +which received in this way by 1900 about 200,000 Negroes.] + +[Footnote 51: _American Journal of Political Economy_, XXII, pp. 10, +40.] + +[Footnote 52: _Ibid._, XXV, p. 1038.] + +[Footnote 53: Mecklin, _Black Codes_.] + +[Footnote 54: Dunning, _Reconstruction_, pp. 54, 59, 110.] + +[Footnote 55: DuBois, _Freedmen's Bureau_.] + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE EXODUS TO THE WEST + + +Having come through the halcyon days of the Reconstruction only to find +themselves reduced almost to the status of slaves, many Negroes deserted +the South for the promising west to grow up with the country. The +immediate causes were doubtless political. _Bulldozing_, a rather +vague term, covering all such crimes as political injustice and +persecution, was the source of most complaint. The abridgment of the +Negroes' rights had affected them as a great calamity. They had learned +that voting is one of the highest privileges to be obtained in this life +and they wanted to go where they might still exercise that privilege. That +persecution was the main cause was disputed, however, as there were cases +of Negroes migrating from parts where no such conditions obtained. Yet +some of the whites giving their version of the situation admitted that +violent methods had been used so to intimidate the Negroes as to compel +them to vote according to the dictation of the whites. It was also learned +that the _bulldozers_ concerned in dethroning the non-taxpaying +blacks were an impecunious and irresponsible group themselves, led by men +of the wealthy class.[1] + +Coming to the defense of the whites, some said that much of the +persecution with which the blacks were afflicted was due to the fear of +Negro uprisings, the terror of the days of slavery. The whites, however, +did practically nothing to remove the underlying causes. They did not +encourage education and made no efforts to cure the Negroes of faults for +which slavery itself was to be blamed and consequently could not get the +confidence of the blacks. The races tended rather to drift apart. The +Negroes lived in fear of reenslavement while the whites believed that the +war between the North and South would soon be renewed. Some Negroes +thinking likewise sought to go to the North to be among friends. The +blacks, of course, had come so to regard southern whites as their enemies +as to render impossible a voluntary division in politics. + +Among the worst of all faults of the whites was their unwillingness to +labor and their tendency to do mischief.[2] As there were so many to live +on the labor of the Negroes they were reduced to a state a little better +than that of bondage. The master class was generally unfair to the blacks. +No longer responsible for them as slaves, the planters endeavored after +the war to get their labor for nothing. The Negroes themselves had no +land, no mules, no presses nor cotton gins, and they could not acquire +sufficient capital to obtain these things. They were made victims of fraud +in signing contracts which they could not understand and had to suffer the +consequent privations and want aggravated by robbery and murder by the Ku +Klux Klan.[3] + +The murder of Negroes was common throughout the South and especially in +Louisiana. In 1875, General Sheridan said that as many as 3,500 persons +had been killed and wounded in that State, the great majority of whom +being Negroes; that 1,884 were killed and wounded in 1868, and probably +1,200 between 1868 and 1875. Frightful massacres occurred in the parishes +of Bossier, Catahoula, Saint Bernard, Grant and Orleans. As most of these +murders were for political reasons, the offenders were regarded by their +communities as heroes rather than as criminals. A massacre of Negroes +began in the parish of St. Landry on the 28th of September and continued +for three days, resulting in the death of from 300 to 400. Thirteen +captives were taken from the jail and shot and as many as twenty-five dead +bodies were found burned in the woods. There broke out in the parish of +Bossier another three-day riot during which two hundred Negroes were +massacred. More than forty blacks were killed in the parish of Caddo +during the following month. In fact, the number of murders, maimings and +whippings during these months aggregated over one thousand.[4] The result +was that the intelligent Negroes were either intimidated or killed so that +the illiterate masses of Negro voters might be ordered to refrain from +voting the Republican ticket to strengthen the Democrats or be subjected +to starvation through the operation of the mischievous land tenure and +credit system. What was not done in 1868 to overthrow the Republican +regime was accomplished by a renewed and extended use of such drastic +measures throughout the South in 1876. + +Certain whites maintained, however, that the unrest was due to the work of +radical politicians at the North, who had sent their emissaries south to +delude the Negroes into a fever of migration. Some said it was a scheme to +force the nomination of a certain Republican candidate for President in +1880. Others laid it to the charge of the defeated white and black +Republicans who had been thrown from power by the whites upon regaining +control of the reconstructed States.[5] A few insisted that a speech +delivered by Senator Windom in 1879 had given stimulus to the +migration.[6] Many southerners said that speculators in Kansas had adopted +this plan to increase the value of their land. Then there were other +theories as to the fundamental causes, each consisting of a charge of one +political faction that some other had given rise to the movement, varying +according as they were Bourbons, conservatives, native white Republicans, +carpet-bag Republicans, or black Republicans. + +Impartial observers, however, were satisfied that the movement was +spontaneous to the extent that the blacks were ready and willing to go. +Probably no more inducement was offered them than to other citizens among +whom land companies sent agents to distribute literature. But the +fundamental causes of the unrest were economic, for since the Civil War +race troubles have never been sufficient to set in motion a large number +of Negroes. The discontent resulted from the land-tenure and credit +systems, which had restored slavery in a modified form.[7] + +After the Civil War a few Negroes in those parts, where such opportunities +were possible, invested in real estate offered for sale by the +impoverished and ruined planters of the conquered commonwealths. When, +however, the Negroes lost their political power, their property was seized +on the plea for delinquent taxes and they were forced into the ghetto of +towns and cities, as it became a crime punishable by social proscription +to sell Negroes desirable residences. The aim was to debase all Negroes to +the status of menial labor in conformity with the usual contention of the +South that slavery is the normal condition of the blacks.[8] + +Most of the land of the South, however, always remained as large tracts +held by the planters of cotton, who never thought of alienating it to the +Negroes to make them a race of small farmers. In fact, they had not the +means to make extensive purchases of land, even if the planters had been +disposed to transfer it. Still subject to the experimentation of white +men, the Negroes accepted the plan of paying them wages; but this failed +in all parts except in the sugar district, where the blacks remained +contented save when disturbed by political movements. They then tried all +systems of working on shares in the cotton districts; but this was finally +abandoned because the planters in some cases were not able to advance the +Negro tenant supplies, pending the growth of the crop, and some found the +Negro too indifferent and lazy to make the partnership desirable. Then +came the renting system which during the Reconstruction period was general +in the cotton districts. This system threw the tenant on his own +responsibility and frequently made him the victim of his own ignorance and +the rapacity of the white man. As exorbitant prices were charged for rent, +usually six to ten dollars an acre for land worth fifteen to thirty +dollars an acre, the Negro tenant not only did not accumulate anything but +had reason to rejoice at the end of the year, if he found himself out of +debt.[9] + +Along with this went the credit system which furnished the capstone of the +economic structure so harmful to the Negro tenant. This system made the +Negroes dependent for their living on an advance of supplies of food, +clothing or tools during the year, secured by a lien on the crop when +harvested. As the Negroes had no chance to learn business methods during +the days of slavery, they fell a prey to a class of loan sharks, harpies +and vampires, who established stores everywhere to extort from these +ignorant tenants by the mischievous credit system their whole income +before their crops could be gathered.[10] Some planters who sympathized +with the Negroes brought forward the scheme of protecting them by +advancing certain necessities at more reasonable prices. As the planter +himself, however, was subject to usury, the scheme did not give much +relief. The Negroes' crop, therefore, when gathered went either to the +merchant or to the planter to pay the rent; for the merchant's supplies +were secured by a mortgage on the tenant's personal property and a pledge +of the growing crop. This often prevented Negro laborers in the employ of +black tenants from getting their wages at the end of the year, for, +although the laborer had also a lien on the growing crop, the merchant and +the planter usually had theirs recorded first and secured thereby the +support of the law to force the payment of their claims. The Negro tenant +then began the year with three mortgages, covering all he owned, his labor +for the coming year and all he expected to acquire during that +twelvemonth. He paid "one-third of his product for the use of the land, he +paid an exorbitant fee for recording the contract by which he paid his +pound of flesh; he was charged two or three times as much as he ought to +pay for ginning his cotton; and, finally, he turned over his crop to be +eaten up in commissions, if any was still left to him."[11] + +The worst of all results from this iniquitous system was its effect on the +Negroes themselves. It made the Negroes extravagant and unscrupulous. +Convinced that no share of their crop would come to them when harvested, +they did not exert themselves to produce what they could. They often +abandoned their crops before harvest, knowing that they had already spent +them. In cases, however, where the Negro tenants had acquired mules, +horses or tools upon which the speculator had a mortgage, the blacks were +actually bound to their landlords to secure the property. It was soon +evident that in the end the white man himself was the loser by this evil +system. There appeared waste places in the country. Improvements were +wanting, land lay idle for lack of sufficient labor, and that which was +cultivated yielded a diminishing return on account of the ignorance and +improvidence of those tilling it. These Negroes as a rule had lost the +ambition to become landowners, preferring to invest their surplus money in +personal effects; and in the few cases where the Negroes were induced to +undertake the buying of land, they often tired of the responsibility and +gave it up.[12] + +There began in the spring of 1879, therefore, an emigration of the Negroes +from Louisiana and Mississippi to Kansas. For some time there was a +stampede from several river parishes in Louisiana and from counties just +opposite them in Mississippi. It was estimated that from five to ten +thousand left their homes before the movement could be checked. Persons of +influence soon busied themselves in showing the blacks the necessity for +remaining in the South and those who had not then gone or prepared to go +were persuaded to return to the plantations. This lull in the excitement, +however, was merely temporary, for many Negroes had merely returned home +to make more extensive preparations for leaving the following spring. The +movement was accelerated by the work of two Negro leaders of some note, +Moses Singleton, of Tennessee, the self-styled Moses of the Exodus; and +Henry Adams, of Louisiana, who credited himself with having organized for +this purpose as many as 98,000 blacks. + +Taking this movement seriously a convention of the leading whites and +blacks was held at Vicksburg, Mississippi, on the sixth of May, 1879. This +body was controlled mainly by unsympathetic but diplomatic whites. General +N.R. Miles, of Yazoo County, Mississippi, was elected president and A.W. +Crandall, of Louisiana, secretary. After making some meaningless but +eloquent speeches the convention appointed a committee on credentials and +adjourned until the following day. On reassembling Colonel W.L. Nugent, +chairman of the committee, presented a certain preamble and +resolutions citing causes of the exodus and suggesting remedies. Among the +causes, thought he, were: "the low price of cotton and the partial failure +of the crop, the irrational system of planting adopted in some sections +whereby labor was deprived of intelligence to direct it and the presence +of economy to make it profitable, the vicious system of credit fostered by +laws permitting laborers and tenants to mortgage crops before they were +grown or even planted; the apprehension on the part of many colored people +produced by insidious reports circulated among them that their civil and +political rights were endangered or were likely to be; the hurtful and +false rumors diligently disseminated, that by emigrating to Kansas the +Negroes would obtain lands, mules and money from the government without +cost to themselves, and become independent forever."[13] + +Referring to the grievances and proposing a redress, the committee +admitted that errors had been committed by the whites and blacks alike, as +each in turn had controlled the government of the States there +represented. The committee believed that the interests of planters and +laborers, landlords and tenants were identical; that they must prosper or +suffer together; and that it was the duty of the planters and landlords of +the State there represented to devise and adopt some contract by which +both parties would receive the full benefit of labor governed by +intelligence and economy. The convention affirmed that the Negro race had +been placed by the constitution of the United States and the States there +represented, and the laws thereof, on a plane of absolute equality with +the white race; and declared that the Negro race should be accorded the +practical enjoyment of all civil and political rights guaranteed by the +said constitutions and laws. The convention pledged itself to use whatever +of power and influence it possessed to protect the Negro race against all +dangers in respect to the fair expression of their wills at the polls, +which they apprehended might result from fraud, intimidation or +_bulldozing_ on the part of the whites. And as there could be no +liberty of action without freedom of thought, they demanded that all +elections should be fair and free and that no repressive measures should +be employed by the Negroes "to deprive their own race in part of the +fullest freedom in the exercise of the highest right of citizenship."[14] + +The committee then recommended the abolition of the mischievous credit +system, called upon the Negroes to contradict false reports as to crimes +of the whites against them and, after considering the Negroes' right to +emigrate, urged that they proceed about it with reason. Ex-Governor Foote, +of Mississippi, submitted a plan to establish in every county a committee, +composed of men who had the confidence of both whites and blacks, to be +auxiliary to the public authorities, to listen to complaints and +arbitrate, advise, conciliate or prosecute, as each case should demand. +But unwilling to do more than make temporary concessions, the majority +rejected Foote's plan.[15] + +The whites thought also to stop the exodus by inducing the steamboat lines +not to furnish the emigrants' transportation. Negroes were also +detained by writs obtained by preferring against them false charges. Some, +who were willing to let the Negroes go, thought of importing white and +Chinese labor to take their places. Hearing of the movement and thinking +that he could offer a remedy, Senator D.W. Voorhees, of Indiana, +introduced a resolution in the United States Senate authorizing an inquiry +into the causes of the exodus.[16] The movement, however, could not be +stopped and it became so widespread that the people in general were forced +to give it serious thought. Men in favor of it declared their views, +organized migration societies and appointed agents to promote the +enterprise of removing the freedmen from the South. + +Becoming a national measure, therefore, the migration evoked expressions +from Frederick Douglass and Richard T. Greener, two of the most prominent +Negroes in the United States. Douglass believed that the exodus was +ill-timed. He saw in it the abandonment of the great principle of +protection to persons and property in every State of the Union. He felt +that if the Negroes could not be protected in every State, the Federal +Government was shorn of its rightful dignity and power, the late rebellion +had triumphed, the sovereign of the nation was an empty vessel, and the +power and authority in individual States were supreme. He thought, +therefore, that it was better for the Negroes to stay in the South than to +go North, as the South was a better market for the black man's labor. +Douglass believed that the Negroes should be warned against a nomadic +life. He did not see any more benefit in the migration to Kansas than he +had years before in the emigration to Africa. The Negroes had a monopoly +of labor at the South and they would be too insignificant in numbers to +have such an advantage in the North. The blacks were then potentially able +to elect members of Congress in the South but could not hope to exercise +such power in other parts. Douglass believed, moreover, that this exodus +did not conform to the "laws of civilizing migration," as the carrying of +a language, literature and the like of a superior race to an inferior; and +it did not conform to the geographic laws assuring healthy migration from +east to west in the same latitude, as this was from south to north, far +away from the climate in which the migrants were born.[17] + +The exodus of the Negroes, however, was heartily endorsed by Richard T. +Greener. He did not consider it the best remedy for the lawlessness of the +South but felt that it was a salutary one. He did not expect the United +States to give the oppressed blacks in the South the protection they +needed, as there is no abstract limit to the right of a State to do +anything. He would not encourage the Negro to lead a wandering life but in +that instance such advice was gratuitous. Greener failed to find any +analogy between African colonization and migration to the West as the +former was promoted by slaveholders to remove the free Negro from the +country and the other sprang spontaneously from the class considering +itself aggrieved. "One led out of the country to a comparative wilderness; +the other directed to a better land and larger opportunities." He did not +see how the migration to the North would diminish the potentiality of the +Negro in politics, for Massachusetts first elected Negroes to her General +Court, Ohio had nominated a Negro representative and Illinois another. He +showed also that Mr. Douglass's objection on the grounds of migrating from +south to north rather than from east to west was not historical. He +thought little of the advice to the Negroes to stick and fight it out, for +he had evidence that the return of the unreconstructed Confederates to +power in the South would for generations doom the blacks to political +oppression unknown in the annals of a free country. + +Greener showed foresight here in urging the Negroes to take up desirable +western land before it would be preempted by foreigners. As the Swedes, +Norwegians, Irish, Hebrews and others were organizing societies and +raising funds to promote the migration of their needy to these lands, why +should the Negroes be debarred? Greener had no apprehension as to the +treatment the Negroes would receive in the West. He connected the movement +too with the general welfare of the blacks, considering it a promising +sign that they had learned to run from persecution. Having passed their +first stage, that of appealing to philanthropists, the Negroes were then +appealing to themselves.[18] + +Feeling very much as Greener did, these Negroes rushed into Kansas and +neighboring States in 1879. So many came that some systematic relief had +to be offered. Mrs. Comstock, a Quaker lady, organized for this purpose +the Kansas Freedmen's Relief Association, to raise funds and secure for +them food and clothing. In this work she had the support of Governor J.P. +Saint John. There was much suffering upon arriving in Kansas but relief +came from various sources. During this year $40,000 and 500,000 pounds of +clothing, bedding and the like were used. England contributed 50,000 +pounds of goods and $8,000. In 1879, the refugees took up 20,000 acres of +land and brought 3,000 under cultivation. The Relief Association at first +furnished them with supplies, teams and seed, which they profitably used +in the production of large crops. Desiring to establish homes, they built +300 cabins and saved $30,000 the first year. In April, 1,300 refugees had +gathered around Wyandotte alone. Up to that date 60,000 had come to +Kansas, nearly 40,000 of whom arrived in destitute condition. About 30,000 +settled in the country, some on rented lands and others on farms as +laborers, leaving about 25,000 in cities, where on account of crowded +conditions and the hard weather many greatly suffered. Upon finding +employment, however, they all did well, most of them becoming +self-supporting within one year after their arrival, and few of them +coming back to the Relief Association for aid the second time.[19] This +was especially true of those in Topeka, Parsons and Kansas City. + +The people of Kansas did not encourage the blacks to come. They even sent +messengers to the South to advise the Negroes not to migrate and, if they +did come anyway, to provide themselves with equipment. When they did +arrive, however, they welcomed and assisted them as human beings. Under +such conditions the blacks established five or six important colonies in +Kansas alone between 1879 and 1880. Chief among these were Baxter Springs, +Nicodemus, Morton City and Singleton. Governor Saint John, of Kansas, +reported that they seemed to be honest and of good habits, were certainly +industrious and anxious to work, and so far as they had been tried had +proved to be faithful and excellent laborers. Giving his observations +there, Sir George Campbell bore testimony to the same report.[20] Out of +these communities have come some most progressive black citizens. In +consideration of their desirability their white neighbors have given them +their cooperation, secured to them the advantages of democratic education, +and honored a few of them with some of the most important positions in the +State. + +Although the greater number of these blacks went to Kansas, about 5,000 of +them sought refuge in other Western States. During these years, Negroes +gradually invaded Indian Territory and increased the number already +infiltrated into and assimilated by the Indian nations. When assured of +their friendly attitude toward the Indians, the Negroes were accepted by +them as equals, even during the days of slavery when the blacks on account +of the cruelties of their masters escaped to the wilderness.[21] Here we +are at sea as to the extent to which this invasion and subsequent +miscegenation of the black and red races extended for the reason that +neither the Indians nor these migrating Negroes kept records and the +United States Government has been disposed to classify all mixed breeds in +tribes as Indians. Having equal opportunity among the red men, the Negroes +easily succeeded. A traveler in Indian Territory in 1880 found their +condition unusually favorable. The cosy homes and promising fields of +these freedmen attracted his attention as striking evidences of their +thrift. He saw new fences, additions to cabins, new barns, churches and +school-houses indicating prosperity. Given every privilege which the +Indians themselves enjoyed, the Negroes could not be other than +contented.[22] + +It was very unfortunate, however, that in 1889, when by proclamation of +President Harrison the Oklahoma Territory was thrown open, the intense +race prejudice of the white immigrants and the rule of the mob prevented a +larger number of Negroes from settling in that promising commonwealth. +Long since extensively advertised as valuable, the land of Oklahoma had +become a coveted prize for the adventurous squatters invading the +territory in defiance of the law before it was declared open for +settlement. The rush came with all the excitement of pioneer days +redoubled. Stakes were set, parcels of land were claimed, cabins were +constructed in an hour and towns grew up in a day.[23] Then came +conflicting claims as to titles and rights of preemption culminating in +fighting and bloodshed. And worst of all, with this disorderly group there +developed the fixed policy of eliminating the Negroes entirely. + +The Negro, however, was not entirely excluded. Some had already come into +the territory and others in spite of the barriers set up continued to +come.[24] With the cooperation of the Indians, with whom they easily +amalgamated they readjusted themselves and acquired sufficient wealth to +rise in the economic world. Although not generally fortunate, a number of +them have coal and oil lands from which they obtain handsome incomes and a +few, like Sara Rector, have actually become rich. Dishonest white men with +the assistance of unprincipled officials have defrauded and are still +endeavoring to defraud these Negroes of their property, lending them money +secured by mortgages and obtaining for themselves through the courts +appointments as the Negroes' guardians. They turn out to be the robbers of +the Negroes, in case they do not live in a community where an enlightened +public opinion frowns down upon this crime. + +During the later eighties and the early nineties there were some other +interstate movements worthy of notice here. The mineral wealth of the +Appalachian mountains was being exploited. Foreigners, at first, were +coming into this country in sufficiently large numbers to meet the demand; +but when this supply became inadequate, labor agents appealed to the +blacks in the South. Negroes then flocked to the mining districts of +Birmingham, Alabama, and to East Tennessee. A large number also migrated +from North Carolina and Virginia to West Virginia and some few of the same +group to Southern Ohio to take the places of those unreasonable strikers +who often demanded larger increases in wages than the income of their +employers could permit. Many of these Negroes came to West Virginia as is +evidenced by the increase in Negro population of that State. West Virginia +had a Negro population of 17,980 in 1870; 25,886 in 1880; 32,690 in 1890; +43,499 in 1900; and 64,173 in 1910.[25] + + +[Footnote 1: _Atlantic Monthly_, LXIV, p. 222; _Nation_, XXVIII, +pp. 242, 386.] + +[Footnote 2: Thompson, _Reconstruction in Georgia_, p. 69.] + +[Footnote 3: Williams, _History of the Negro Race_, II, p. 375.] + +[Footnote 4: Williams, _History of the Negro Race_, II, p. 374.] + +[Footnote 5: American _Journal of Social Science_, XI, p. 34.] + +[Footnote 6: _Ibid._, XI, p. 33.] + +[Footnote 7: _Nation_, XXVIII, pp. 242, 386.] + +[Footnote 8: Williams, _History of the Negro Race_, II, p. 378.] + +[Footnote 9: _Atlantic Monthly_, LXIV, p. 225.] + +[Footnote 10: _Ibid._, LXIV, p. 226.] + +[Footnote 11: _Atlantic Monthly_, LXIV, p. 224.] + +[Footnote 12: _The Atlantic Monthly_, XLIV, p. 223.] + +[Footnote 13: _The Vicksburg Daily Commercial_, May 6, 1879.] + +[Footnote 14: _The Vicksburg Daily Commercial_, May 6, 1879.] + +[Footnote 15: _Ibid._, May 6, 1879.] + +[Footnote 16: _Congressional Record_, 46th Congress, 2d Session, Vol. +X, p. 104.] + +[Footnote 17: For a detailed statement of Douglass's views, see the +_American Journal of Social Science_, XI, pp. 1-21.] + +[Footnote 18: _American Journal of Social Science_, XI, pp. 22-35.] + +[Footnote 19: Williams, _History of the Negro_, II, p. 379.] + +[Footnote 20: "In Kansas City," said Sir George Campbell, "and still more +in the suburbs of Kansas proper the Negroes are much more numerous than I +have yet seen. On the Kansas side they form quite a large proportion of +the population. They are certainly subject to no indignity or ill usage. +There the Negroes seem to have quite taken to work at trades." He saw them +doing building work, both alone and assisting white men, and also painting +and other tradesmen's work. On the Kansas side, he found a Negro +blacksmith, with an establishment of his own. He had come from Tennessee +after emancipation. He had not been back there and did not want to go. He +also saw black women keeping apple stalls and engaged in other such +occupations so as to leave him under the impression that in the States, +which he called intermediate between black and white countries the blacks +evidently had no difficulty.--See _American Journal of Social +Science_, XI, pp. 32, 33.] + +[Footnote 21: _American Journal of Social Science_, XI, p. 33.] + +[Footnote 22: _Ibid._, XI, p. 33.] + +[Footnote 23: _Spectator_, LXVII, p. 571; _Dublin Review_, CV, +p. 187; _Cosmopolitan_, VII, p. 460; _Nation_, LXVIII, p. 279.] + +[Footnote 24: According to the _United States Census, of 1910_, there +are 137,612 Negroes in Oklahoma.] + +[Footnote 25: See _Censuses_ of the United States.] + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE MIGRATION OF THE TALENTED TENTH + + +In spite of these interstate movements, the Negro still continued as a +perplexing problem, for the country was unprepared to grant the race +political and civil rights. Nominal equality was forced on the South at +the point of the sword and the North reluctantly removed most of its +barriers against the blacks. Some, still thinking, however, that the two +races could not live together as equals, advocated ceding the blacks the +region on the Gulf of Mexico.[1] This was branded as chimerical on the +ground that, deprived of the guidance of the whites, these States would +soon sink to African level and the end of the experiment would be a +reconquest and a military regime fatal to the true development of American +institutions.[2] Another plan proposed was the revival of the old +colonization idea of sending Negroes to Africa, but this exhibited still +less wisdom than the first in that it was based on the hypothesis of +deporting a nation, an expense which no government would be willing to +incur. There were then no physical means of transporting six or seven +millions of people, moreover, as there would be a new born for every one +the agents of colonization could deport.[3] + +With the deportation scheme still kept before the people by the American +Colonization Society, the idea of emigration to Africa did not easily die. +Some Negroes continued to emigrate to Liberia from year to year. This +policy was also favored by radicals like Senator Morgan, of Alabama, who, +after movements like the Ku Klux Klan had done their work of intimidating +Negroes into submission to the domination of the whites, concluded that +most of the race believed that there was no future for the blacks in the +United States and that they were willing to emigrate. These radicals +advocated the deportation of the blacks to prevent the recurrence of +"Negro domination." This plan was acceptable to the whites in general +also, for, unlike the consensus of opinion of today, it was then thought +that the South could get along without the Negro.[4] Even newspapers like +the _Charleston News and Courier_, which denounced the persecution of +the Negroes, urged them to emigrate to Africa as they could not be +permitted to rule over the white people. The _Minneapolis Times_ +wished the scheme success and Godspeed and believed that the sooner it was +carried out the better it would be for the Negroes. + +Most of the influential newspapers of the country, however, urged the +contrary. Citing the progress of the Negroes since emancipation to show +that the blacks were doing their full share toward developing the wealth +of the South, the _Indianapolis Journal_ characterized as barbarism +the suggestion that the government should furnish them transportation to +Africa. "The ancestors of most of the Negroes now in this country," said +the editor, "have doubtless been here as long as those of Senator Morgan, +and their descendants are as thoroughly acclimated and have as good a +right here as the Senator himself."[5] This was the opinion of all useful +Negroes except Bishop H.M. Turner, who endorsed Morgan's plan by +advocating the emigration of one fourth of the blacks to Africa. The +editor of the _Chicago Record-Herald_ entreated Turner to temper his +enthusiasm with discretion before he involved in unspeakable disaster any +more of his trustful compatriots. + +Speaking more plainly to the point, the editor of the _Philadelphia +North American_ said that the true interest of the South was to +accommodate itself to changed conditions and that the duty of the freedmen +lies in making themselves worth more in the development of the South than +they were as chattels. Although recognizing the disabilities and hardships +of the South both to the whites and the blacks, he could not believe that +the elimination of the Negroes would, if practicable, give relief.[6] The +_Boston Herald_ inquired whether it was worth while to send away a +laboring population in the absence of whites to take its place and +referred to the misfortunes of Spain which undertook to carry out such a +scheme. Speaking the real truth, _The Milwaukee Journal_ said that no +one needed to expect any appreciable decrease in the black population +through any possible emigration, no matter how successful it might be. +"The Negro," said the editor, "is here to stay and our institutions must +be adapted to comprehend him and develop his possibilities." _The +Colored American_, then the leading Negro organ of thought in the +United States, believed that the Negroes should be thankful to Senator +Morgan for his attitude on emigration, because he might succeed in +deporting to Africa those Negroes who affect to believe that this is not +their home and the more quickly we get rid of such foolhardy people the +better it will be for the stalwart of the race.[7] + +A number of Negroes, however, under the inspiration of leaders[8] like +Bishop H.M. Turner, did not feel that the race had a fair chance in the +United States. A few of them emigrated to Wapimo, Mexico; but, becoming +dissatisfied with the situation there, they returned to their homes in +Georgia and Alabama in 1895. The coming of the Negroes into Mexico caused +suspicion and excitement. A newspaper, _El Tiempo_, which had been +denouncing lynching in the United States, changed front when these Negroes +arrived in that country. + +Going in quest of new opportunities and desiring to reenforce the +civilization of Liberia, 197 other Negroes sailed from Savannah, Georgia, +for Liberia, March 19, 1895. Commending this step, the _Macon +Telegraph_ referred to their action as a rebellion against the social +laws which govern all people of this country. This organ further said that +it was the outcome of a feeling which has grown stronger and stronger year +by year among the Negroes of the Southern States and which will continue +to grow with the increase of education and intelligence among them. The +editor conceded that they had an opportunity to better their material +condition and acquire wealth here but contended that they had no chance to +rise out of the peasant class. The _Memphis Commercial Appeal_ urged +the building of a large Negro nation in Africa as practicable and +desirable, for it was "more and more apparent that the Negro in this +country must remain an alien and a disturber," because there was "not and +can never be a future for him in this country." The _Florida Times +Union_ felt that this colonization scheme, like all others, was a +fraud. It referred to the Negro's being carried to the land of plenty only +to find out that there, as everywhere else in the world, an existence must +be earned by toil and that his own old sunny southern home is vastly the +better place.[9] + +Only a few intelligent Negroes, however, had reached the position of being +contented in the South. The Negroes eliminated from politics could not +easily bring themselves around to thinking that they should remain there +in a state of recognized inferiority, especially when during the eighties +and nineties there were many evidences that economic as well as political +conditions would become worse. The exodus treated in the previous chapter +was productive of better treatment for the Negroes and an increase in +their wages in certain parts of the South but the migration, contrary to +the expectations of many, did not become general. Actual prosperity was +impossible even if the whites had been willing to give the Negro peasants +a fair chance. The South had passed through a disastrous war, the effects +of which so blighted the hopes of its citizens in the economic world that +their land seemed to pass, so to speak, through a dark age. There was then +little to give the man far down when the one to whom he of necessity +looked for employment was in his turn bled by the merchant or the banker +of the larger cities, to whom he had to go for extensive credits.[10] + +Southern planters as a class, however, had not much sympathy for the +blacks who had once been their property and the tendency to cheat them +continued, despite the fact that many farmers in the course of time +extricated themselves from the clutches of the loan sharks. There were a +few Negroes who, thanks to the honesty of certain southern gentlemen, +succeeded in acquiring considerable property in spite of their +handicaps.[11] They yielded to the white man's control in politics, when +it seemed that it meant either to abandon that field or die, and devoted +themselves to the accumulation of wealth and the acquisition of education. + +This concession, however, did not satisfy the radical whites, as they +thought that the Negro might some day return to power. Unfortunately, +therefore, after the restoration of the control of the State governments +to the master class, there swept over these commonwealths a wave of +hostile legislation demanded by the poor white uplanders determined to +debase the blacks to the status of the free Negroes prior to the Civil +War.[12] The Negroes have, therefore, been disfranchised in most +reconstructed States, deprived of the privilege of serving in the State +militia, segregated in public conveyances, and excluded from public places +of entertainment. They have, moreover, been branded by public opinion as +pariahs of society to be used for exploitation but not to be encouraged to +expect that their status can ever be changed so as to destroy the barriers +between the races in their social and political relations. + +This period has been marked also by an effort to establish in the South a +system of peonage not unlike that of Mexico, a sort of involuntary +servitude in that one is considered legally bound to serve his master +until a debt contracted is paid. Such laws have been enacted in Florida, +Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina and South Carolina. No such +distinction in law has been able to stand the constitutional test of the +United States courts as was evidenced by the decision of the Supreme Court +in 1911 declaring the Alabama law unconstitutional.[13] But the planters +of the South, still a law unto themselves, have maintained actual slavery +in sequestered; districts where public opinion against peonage is too weak +to support federal authorities in exterminating it.[14] The Negroes +themselves dare not protest under penalty of persecution and the peon +concerned usually accepts his lot like that of a slave. Some years ago it +was commonly reported that in trying to escape, the persons undertaking it +often fail and suffer death at the hands of the planter or of murderous +mobs, giving as their excuse, if any be required, that the Negro is a +desperado or some other sort of criminal. + +Unfortunately this reaction extended also to education. Appropriations to +public schools for Negroes diminished from year to year and when there +appeared practical leaders with, their sane plan for industrial education +the South ignorantly accepted this scheme as a desirable subterfuge for +seeming to support Negro education and at the same time directing the +development of the blacks in such a way that they would never become the +competitors of the white people. This was not these educators' idea but +the South so understood it and in effecting the readjustment, practically +left the Negroes out of the pale of the public school systems. +Consequently, there has been added to the Negroes' misfortunes, in the +South, that of being unable to obtain liberal education at public expense, +although they themselves, as the largest consumers in some parts, pay most +of the taxes appropriated to the support of schools for the youth of the +other race.[15] + +The South, moreover, has adopted the policy of a more general intimidation +of the Negroes to keep them down. The lynching of the blacks, at first for +assaults on white women and later for almost any offense, has rapidly +developed as an institution. Within the past fifty years [16] there have +been lynched in the South about 4,000 Negroes, many of whom have been +publicly burned in the daytime to attract crowds that usually enjoy such +feats as the tourney of the Middle Ages. Negroes who have the courage to +protest against this barbarism have too often been subjected to +indignities and in some cases forced to leave their communities or suffer +the fate of those in behalf of whom they speak. These crimes of white men +were at first kept secret but during the last two generations the culprits +have become known as heroes, so popular has it been to murder Negroes. It +has often been discovered also that the officers of these communities take +part in these crimes and the worst of all is that politicians like +Tillman, Blease and Vardaman glory in recounting the noble deeds of those +who deserve so well of their countrymen for making the soil red with the +Negroes' blood rather than permit the much feared Africanization of +southern institutions.[17] + +In this harassing situation the Negro has hoped that the North would +interfere in his behalf, but, with the reactionary Supreme Court of the +United States interpreting this hostile legislation as constitutional in +conformity with the demands of prejudiced public opinion, and with the +leaders of the North inclined to take the view that after all the factions +in the South must be left alone to fight it out, there has been nothing to +be expected from without. Matters too have been rendered much worse +because the leaders of the very party recently abandoning the freedmen to +their fate, aggravated the critical situation by first setting the Negroes +against their former masters, whom they were taught to regard as their +worst enemies whether they were or not. + +The last humiliation the Negroes have been forced to submit to is that of +segregation. Here the effort has been to establish a ghetto in cities and +to assign certain parts of the country to Negroes engaged in farming. It +always happens, of course, that the best portion goes to the whites and +the least desirable to the blacks, although the promoters of the +segregation maintain that both races are to be treated equally. The +ultimate aim is to prevent the Negroes of means from figuring +conspicuously in aristocratic districts where they may be brought into +rather close contact with the whites. Negroes see in segregation a settled +policy to keep them down, no matter what they do to elevate themselves. +The southern white man, eternally dreading the miscegenation of the races, +makes the life, liberty and happiness of individuals second to measures +considered necessary to prevent this so-called evil that this enviable +civilization, distinctly American, may not be destroyed. The United States +Supreme Court in the decision of the Louisville segregation case recently +declared these segregation measures unconstitutional.[18] + +These restrictions have made the progress of the Negroes more of a problem +in that directed toward social distinction, the Negroes have been denied +the helpful contact of the sympathetic whites. The increasing race +prejudice forces the whites to restrict their open dealing with the blacks +to matters of service and business, maintaining even then the bearing of +one in a sphere which the Negroes must not penetrate. The whites, +therefore, never seeing the blacks as they are, and the blacks never being +able to learn what the whites know, are thrown back on their own +initiative, which their life as slaves could not have permitted to +develop. It makes little difference that the Negroes have been free a few +decades. Such freedom has in some parts been tantamount to slavery, and so +far as contact with the superior class is concerned, no better than that +condition; for under the old regime certain slaves did learn much by close +association with their masters.[19] + +For these reasons there has been since the exodus to the West a steady +migration of Negroes from the South to points in the North. But this +migration, mainly due to political changes, has never assumed such large +proportions as in the case of the more significant movements due to +economic causes, for, as the accompanying map shows, most Negroes are +still in the South. When we consider the various classes migrating, +however, it will be apparent that to understand the exodus of the Negroes +to the North, this longer drawn out and smaller movement must be carefully +studied in all its ramifications. It should be noted that unlike some of +the other migrations it has not been directed to any particular State. It +has been from almost all Southern States to various parts of the North and +especially to the largest cities.[20] + +What classes then have migrated? In the first place, the Negro +politicians, who, after the restoration of Bourbon rule in the South, +found themselves thrown out of office and often humiliated and +impoverished, had to find some way out of the difficulty. Some few have +been relieved by sympathetic leaders of the Republican party, who secured +for them federal appointments in Washington. These appointments when +sometimes paying lucrative salaries have been given as a reward to those +Negroes who, although dethroned in the South, remain in touch with the +remnant of the Republican party there and control the delegates to the +national conventions nominating candidates for President. Many Negroes of +this class have settled in Washington.[21] In some cases, the observer +witnesses the pitiable scene of a man once a prominent public functionary +in the South now serving in Washington as a messenger or a clerk. + +The well-established blacks, however, have not been so easily induced to +go. The Negroes in business in the South have usually been loath to leave +their people among whom they can acquire property, whereas, if they go to +the North, they have merely political freedom with no assurance of an +opportunity in the economic world. But not a few of these have given +themselves up to unrelenting toil with a view to accumulating sufficient +wealth to move North and live thereafter on the income from their +investments. Many of this class now spend some of their time in the North +to educate their children. But they do not like to have these children who +have been under refining influences return to the South to suffer the +humiliation which during the last generation has been growing more and +more aggravating. Endeavoring to carry out their policy of keeping the +Negro down, southerners too often carefully plan to humiliate the +progressive and intelligent blacks and in some cases form mobs to drive +them out, as they are bad examples for that class of Negroes whom they +desire to keep as menials.[22] + +There are also the migrating educated Negroes. They have studied history, +law and economics and well understand what it is to get the rights +guaranteed them by the constitution. The more they know the more +discontented they become. They cannot speak out for what they want. No one +is likely to second such a protest, not even the Negroes themselves, so +generally have they been intimidated. The more outspoken they become, +moreover, the more necessary is it for them to leave, for they thereby +destroy their chances to earn a livelihood. White men in control of the +public schools of the South see to it that the subserviency of the Negro +teachers employed be certified beforehand. They dare not complain too much +about equipment and salaries even if the per capita appropriation for the +education of the Negroes be one fourth of that for the whites.[23] + +In the higher institutions of learning, especially the State schools, it +is exceptional to find a principal who has the confidence of the Negroes. +The Negroes will openly assert that he is in the pay of the reactionary +whites, whose purpose is to keep the Negro down; and the incumbent himself +will tell his board of regents how much he is opposed by the Negroes +because he labors for the interests of the white race. Out of such +sycophancy it is easily explained why our State schools have been so +ineffective as to necessitate the sending of the Negro youth to private +institutions maintained by northern philanthropy. Yet if an outspoken +Negro happens to be an instructor in a private school conducted by +educators from the North, he has to be careful about contending for a +square deal; for, if the head of his institution does not suggest to him +to proceed conservatively, the mob will dispose of the complainant.[24] +Physicians, lawyers and preachers, who are not so economically dependent +as teachers can exercise no more freedom of speech in the midst of this +triumphant rule of the lawless. + +A large number of educated Negroes, therefore, have on account of these +conditions been compelled to leave the South. Finding in the North, +however, practically nothing in their line to do, because of the +proscription by race prejudice and trades unions, many of them lead the +life of menials, serving as waiters, porters, butlers and chauffeurs. +While in Chicago, not long ago, the writer was in the office of a graduate +of a colored southern college, who was showing his former teacher the +picture of his class. In accounting for his classmates in the various +walks of life, he reported that more than one third of them were settled +to the occupation of Pullman porters. + +The largest number of Negroes who have gone North during this period, +however, belong to the intelligent laboring class. Some of them have +become discontented for the very same reasons that the higher classes have +tired of oppression in the South, but the larger number of them have gone +North to improve their economic condition. Most of these have migrated to +the large cities in the East and Northwest, such as Philadelphia, New +York, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Columbus, Detroit and Chicago. +To understand this problem in its urban aspects the accompanying diagram +showing the increase in the Negro population of northern cities during the +first decade of this century will be helpful. + +Some of these Negroes have migrated after careful consideration; others +have just happened to go north as wanderers; and a still larger number on +the many excursions to the cities conducted by railroads during the summer +months. Sometimes one excursion brings to Chicago two or three thousand +Negroes, two thirds of whom never go back. They do not often follow the +higher pursuits of labor in the North but they earn more money than they +have been accustomed to earn in the South. They are attracted also by the +liberal attitude of some whites, which, although not that of social +equality, gives the Negroes a liberty in northern centers which leads them +to think that they are citizens of the country.[25] + +This shifting in the population has had an unusually significant effect on +the black belt. Frederick Douglass advised the Negroes in 1879 to remain +in the South where they would be in sufficiently large numbers to have +political power,[26] but they have gradually scattered from the black belt +so as to diminish greatly their chances ever to become the political force +they formerly were in this country. The Negroes once had this possibility +in South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana and, had +the process of Africanization prior to the Civil War had a few decades +longer to do its work, there would not have been any doubt as to the +ultimate preponderance of the Negroes in those commonwealths. The +tendencies of the black population according to the censuses of the United +States and especially that of 1910, however, show that the chances for the +control of these State governments by Negroes no longer exist except in +South Carolina and Mississippi.[27] It has been predicted, therefore, +that, if the same tendencies continue for the next fifty years, there will +be even few counties in which the Negroes will be in a majority. All of +the Southern States except Arkansas showed a proportionate increase of the +white population over that of the black between 1900 and 1910, while West +Virginia and Oklahoma with relatively small numbers of blacks showed, for +reasons stated elsewhere, an increase in the Negro population. Thus we see +coming to pass something like the proposed plan of Jefferson and other +statesmen who a hundred years ago advocated the expansion of slavery to +lessen the evil of the institution by distributing its burdens.[28] + +The migration of intelligent blacks, however, has been attended with +several handicaps to the race. The large part of the black population is +in the South and there it will stay for decades to come. The southern +Negroes, therefore, have been robbed of their due part of the talented +tenth. The educated blacks have had no constituency in the North and, +consequently, have been unable to realize their sweetest dreams of the +land of the free. In their new home the enlightened Negro must live with +his light under a bushel. Those left behind in the South soon despair of +seeing a brighter day and yield to the yoke. In the places of the leaders +who were wont to speak for their people, the whites have raised up Negroes +who accept favors offered them on the condition that their lips be sealed +up forever on the rights of the Negro. + +This emigration too has left the Negro subject to other evils. There are +many first-class Negro business men in the South, but although there were +once progressive men of color, who endeavored to protect the blacks from +being plundered by white sharks and harpies there have arisen numerous +unscrupulous Negroes who have for a part of the proceeds from such jobbery +associated themselves with ill-designing white men to dupe illiterate +Negroes. This trickery is brought into play in marketing their crops, +selling them supplies, or purchasing their property. To carry out this +iniquitous plan the persons concerned have the protection of the law, for +while Negroes in general are imposed upon, those engaged in robbing them +have no cause to fear. + + +[Footnote 1: Pike, _The Prostrate State_, pp. 3, 4.] + +[Footnote 2: _Spectator_, LXVI, p. 113.] + +[Footnote 3: Frederick Douglass pointed out this difficulty prior to the +Civil War.--See John Lobb's _Life and Times of Frederick Douglass_, +p. 250.] + +[Footnote 4: Labor was then cheap in the South because of its abundance +and the foreign laborer had not then been tried.] + +[Footnote 5: During these years Senator Morgan of Alabama was endeavoring +to arouse the people of the country so as to make this a matter of +national concern.] + +[Footnote 6: _Public Opinion_, XVIII, p. 371.] + +[Footnote 7: _Ibid._, XVIII, p. 371.] + +[Footnote 8: Simmons, _Men of Mark_, p. 817.] + +[Footnote 9: _Public Opinion_, XVIII, pp. 370-371.] + +[Footnote 10: Because of these conditions the last fifty years has been +considered by some writers as a "dark age," for the South.] + +[Footnote 11: The Negroes are now said to be worth more than a billion +dollars. Most of this property is in the hands of southern Negroes.] + +[Footnote 12: _American Law Review_, XL, pp. 29, 52, 205, 227, 354, +381, 547, 590, 695, 758, 865, 905.] + +[Footnote 13: No. 300.--Original, October Term, 1910.] + +[Footnote 14: Hershaw, _Peonage_, pp. 10-11.] + +[Footnote 15: These facts are well brought out by Dr. Thomas Jesse Jones' +recent report on Negro Education.] + +[Footnote 16: This is based on reports published annually in the +_Chicago Tribune_.] + +[Footnote 17: This is the boast of southern men of this type when speaking +to their constituents or in Congress.] + +[Footnote 18: _Report_, October Term, 1917.] + +[Footnote 19: This danger has been often referred to when the Negroes were +first emancipated.--See _Spectator_, LXVI, p. 113.] + +[Footnote 20: Compare the Negro population of Northern States as given in +the census of 1800 with the same in 1900.] + +[Footnote 21: Hart, _Southern South_, pp. 171, 172.] + +[Footnote 22: This is based on the experience of the writer and others +whom he has interviewed.] + +[Footnote 23: In his report on Negro education Dr. Thomas Jesse Jones has +shown this to be an actual fact.] + +[Footnote 24: Negroes applying for positions in the South have the +situation set before them so as to know what to expect.] + +[Footnote 25: The _American Journal of Political Economy_, XXV, p. +1040.] + +[Footnote 26: The _Journal of Social Science_, XI, p. 16.] + +[Footnote 27: _American Economic Review_, IV, pp. 281-292.] + +[Footnote 28: Ford edition of _Jefferson's Writings_, X, p. 231.] + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE EXODUS DURING THE WORLD WAR + + +Within the last two years there has been a steady stream of Negroes into +the North in such large numbers as to overshadow in its results all other +movements of the kind in the United States. These Negroes have come +largely from Alabama, Tennessee, Florida, Georgia, Virginia, North +Carolina, Kentucky, South Carolina, Arkansas and Mississippi. The given +causes of this migration are numerous and complicated. Some untruths +centering around this exodus have not been unlike those of other +migrations. Again we hear that the Negroes are being brought North to +fight organized labor,[1] and to carry doubtful States for the +Republicans.[2] These numerous explanations themselves, however, give rise +to doubt as to the fundamental cause. + +Why then should the Negroes leave the South? It has often been spoken of +as the best place for them. There, it is said, they have made unusual +strides forward. The progress of the Negroes in the South, however, has in +no sense been general, although the land owned by Negroes in the country +and the property of thrifty persons of their race in urban communities may +be extensive. In most parts of the South the Negroes are still unable to +become landowners or successful business men. Conditions and customs have +reserved these spheres for the whites. Generally speaking, the Negroes are +still dependent on the white people for food and shelter. Although not +exactly slaves, they are yet attached to the white people as tenants, +servants or dependents. Accepting this as their lot, they have been +content to wear their lord's cast-off clothing, and live in his +ramshackled barn or cellar. In this unhappy state so many have settled +down, losing all ambition to attain a higher station. The world has gone +on but in their sequestered sphere progress has passed them by. + +What then is the cause? There have been _bulldozing_, terrorism, +maltreatment and what not of persecution; but the Negroes have not in +large numbers wandered away from the land of their birth. What the +migrants themselves think about it, goes to the very heart of the trouble. +Some say that they left the South on account of injustice in the courts, +unrest, lack of privileges, denial of the right to vote, bad treatment, +oppression, segregation or lynching. Others say that they left to find +employment, to secure better wages, better school facilities, and better +opportunities to toil upward.[3] Southern white newspapers unaccustomed to +give the Negroes any mention but that of criminals have said that the +Negroes are going North because they have not had a fair chance in the +South and that if they are to be retained there, the attitude of the +whites toward them must be changed. Professor William O. Scroggs, of +Louisiana State University, considers as causes of this exodus "the +relatively low wages paid farm labor, an unsatisfactory tenant or +crop-sharing system, the boll weevil, the crop failure of 1916, lynching, +disfranchisement, segregation, poor schools, and the monotony, isolation +and drudgery of farm life." Professor Scroggs, however, is wrong in +thinking that the persecution of the blacks has little to do with the +migration for the reason that during these years when the treatment of the +Negroes is decidedly better they are leaving the South. This does not mean +that they would not have left before, if they had had economic +opportunities in the North. It is highly probable that the Negroes would +not be leaving the South today, if they were treated as men, although +there might be numerous opportunities for economic improvement in the +North.[4] + +The immediate cause of this movement was the suffering due to the floods +aggravated by the depredations of the boll weevil. Although generally +mindful of our welfare, the United States Government has not been as ready +to build levees against a natural enemy to property as it has been to +provide fortifications for warfare. It has been necessary for local +communities and State governments to tax themselves to maintain them. The +national government, however, has appropriated to the purpose of +facilitating inland navigation certain sums which have been used in doing +this work, especially in the Mississippi Valley. There are now 1,538 miles +of levees on both sides of the Mississippi from Cape Girardeau to the +passes. These levees, of course, are still inadequate to the security of +the planters against these inundations. Carrying 406 million tons of mud a +year, the river becomes a dangerous stream subject to change, abandoning +its old bed to cut for itself a new channel, transferring property from +one State to another, isolating cities and leaving once useful levees +marooned in the landscape like old Indian mounds or overgrown +intrenchments.[5] + +This valley has, therefore, been frequently visited with disasters which +have often set the population in motion. The first disastrous floods came +in 1858 and 1859, breaking many of the levees, the destruction of which +was practically completed by the floods of 1865 and 1869. There is an +annual rise in the stream, but since 1874 this river system has fourteen +times devastated large areas of this section with destructive floods. The +property in this district depreciated in value to the extent of about 400 +millions in ten years. Farmers from this section, therefore, have at times +moved west with foreigners to take up public lands. + +The other disturbing factor in this situation was the boll weevil, an +interloper from Mexico in 1892. The boll weevil is an insect about one +fourth of an inch in length, varying from one eighth to one third of an +inch with a breadth of about one third of the length. When it first +emerges it is yellowish, then becomes grayish brown and finally assumes a +black shade. It breeds on no other plant than cotton and feeds on the +boll. This little animal, at first attacked the cotton crop in Texas. It +was not thought that it would extend its work into the heart of the South +so as to become of national consequence, but it has, at the rate of forty +to one hundred sixty miles annually, invaded all of the cotton district +except that of the Carolinas and Virginia. The damage it does, varies +according to the rainfall and the harshness of the winter, increasing with +the former and decreasing with the latter. At times the damage has been to +the extent of a loss of 50 per cent. of the crop, estimated at 400,000 +bales of cotton annually, about 4,500,000 bales since the invasion or +$250,000,000 worth of cotton.[6] The output of the South being thus cut +off, the planter has less income to provide supplies for his black tenants +and, the prospects for future production being dark, merchants accustomed +to give them credit have to refuse. This, of course, means financial +depression, for the South is a borrowing section and any limitation to +credit there blocks the wheels of industry. It was fortunate for the Negro +laborers in this district that there was then a demand for labor in the +North when this condition began to obtain. + +This demand was made possible by the cutting off of European immigration +by the World War, which thereby rendered this hitherto uncongenial section +an inviting field for the Negro. The Negroes have made some progress in +the North during the last fifty years, but despite their achievements they +have been so handicapped by race prejudice and proscribed by trades unions +that the uplift of the race by economic methods has been impossible. The +European immigrants have hitherto excluded the Negroes even from the +menial positions. In the midst of the drudgery left for them, the blacks +have often heretofore been debased to the status of dependents and +paupers. Scattered through the North too in such small numbers, they have +been unable to unite for social betterment and mutual improvement and +naturally too weak to force the community to respect their wishes as could +be done by a large group with some political or economic power. At +present, however, Negro laborers, who once went from city to city, seeking +such employment as trades unions left to them, can work even as skilled +laborers throughout the North.[7] Women of color formerly excluded from +domestic service by foreign maids are now in demand. Many mills and +factories which Negroes were prohibited from entering a few years ago are +now bidding for their labor. Railroads cannot find help to keep their +property in repair, contractors fall short of their plans for failure to +hold mechanics drawn into the industrial boom and the United States +Government has had to advertise for men to hasten the preparation for war. + +Men from afar went south to tell the Negroes of a way of escape to a more +congenial place. Blacks long since unaccustomed to venture a few miles +from home, at once had visions of a promised land just a few hundred miles +away. Some were told of the chance to amass fabulous riches, some of the +opportunities for education and some of the hospitality of the places of +amusement and recreation in the North. The migrants then were soon on the +way. Railway stations became conspicuous with the presence of Negro +tourists, the trains were crowded to full capacity and the streets of +northern cities were soon congested with black laborers seeking to realize +their dreams in the land of unusual opportunity. + +Employment agencies, recently multiplied to meet the demand for labor, +find themselves unable to cope with the situation and agents sent into the +South to induce the blacks by offers of free transportation and high wages +to go north, have found it impossible to supply the demand in centers +where once toiled the Poles, Italians and the Greeks formerly preferred to +the Negroes.[8] In other words, the present migration differs from others +in that the Negro has opportunity awaiting him in the North whereas +formerly it was necessary for him to make a place for himself upon +arriving among enemies. The proportion of those returning to the South, +therefore, will be inconsiderable. + +Becoming alarmed at the immensity of this movement the South has +undertaken to check it. To frighten Negroes from the North southern +newspapers are carefully circulating reports that many of them are +returning to their native land because of unexpected hardships.[9] But +having failed in this, southerners have compelled employment agents to +cease operations there, arrested suspected employers and, to prevent the +departure of the Negroes, imprisoned on false charges those who appear at +stations to leave for the North. This procedure could not long be +effective, for by the more legal and clandestine methods of railway +passenger agents the work has gone forward. Some southern communities +have, therefore, advocated drastic legislation against labor agents, as +was suggested in Louisiana in 1914, when by operation of the Underwood +Tariff Law the Negroes thrown out of employment in the sugar district +migrated to the cotton plantations.[10] + +One should not, however, get the impression that the majority of the +Negroes are leaving the South. Eager as these Negroes seem to go, there is +no unanimity of opinion as to whether migration is the best policy. The +sycophant, toady class of Negroes naturally advise the blacks to remain in +the South to serve their white neighbors. The radical protagonists of the +equal-rights-for-all element urge them to come North by all means. Then +there are the thinking Negroes, who are still further divided. Both +divisions of this element have the interests of the race at heart, but +they are unable to agree as to exactly what the blacks should now do. +Thinking that the present war will soon be over and that consequently the +immigration of foreigners into this country will again set in and force +out of employment thousands of Negroes who have migrated to the North, +some of the most representative Negroes are advising their fellows to +remain where they are. The most serious objection to this transplantation +is that it means for the Negroes a loss of land, the rapid acquisition of +which has long been pointed to as the best evidence of the ability of the +blacks to rise in the economic world. So many Negroes who have by dint of +energy purchased small farms yielding an increasing income from year to +year, are now disposing of them at nominal prices to come north to work +for wages. Looking beyond the war, however, and thinking too that the +depopulation of Europe during this upheaval will render immigration from +that quarter for some years an impossibility, other thinkers urge the +Negroes to continue the migration to the North, where the race may be +found in sufficiently large numbers to wield economic and political power. + +Great as is the dearth of labor in the South, moreover, the Negro exodus +has not as yet caused such a depression as to unite the whites in inducing +the blacks to remain in that section. In the first place, the South has +not yet felt the worst effects of this economic upheaval as that part of +the country has been unusually aided by the millions which the United +States Government is daily spending there. Furthermore, the poor whites +are anxious to see the exodus of their competitors in the field of labor. +This leaves the capitalists at their mercy, and in keeping with their +domineering attitude, they will be able to handle the labor situation as +they desire. As an evidence of this fact we need but note the continuation +of mob rule and lynching in the South despite the preachings against it of +the organs of thought which heretofore winked at it. This terrorism has +gone to an unexpected extent. Negro farmers have been threatened with +bodily injury, unless they leave certain parts. + +The southerner of aristocratic bearing will say that only the shiftless +poor whites terrorize the Negroes. This may be so, but the truth offers +little consolation when we observe that most white people in the South are +of this class; and the tendency of this element to put their children to +work before they secure much education does not indicate that the South +will soon experience that general enlightenment necessary to exterminate +these survivals of barbarism. Unless the upper classes of the whites can +bring the mob around to their way of thinking that the persecution of the +Negro is prejudicial to the interests of all, it is not likely that mob +rule will soon cease and the migration to this extent will be promoted +rather than retarded. + +It is unfortunate for the South that the growing consciousness of the +Negroes has culminated at the very time they are most needed. Finally +heeding the advice of agricultural experts to reconstruct its agricultural +system, the South has learned in the school of bitter experience to depart +from the plan of producing the single cotton crop. It is now raising +food-stuffs to make that section self-supporting without reducing the +usual output of cotton. With the increasing production in the South, +therefore, more labor is needed just at the very time it is being drawn to +centers in the North. The North being an industrial and commercial section +has usually attracted the immigrants, who will never fit into the economic +situation in the South because they will not accept the treatment given +Negroes. The South, therefore, is now losing the only labor which it can +ever use under present conditions. + +Where these Negroes are going is still more interesting. The exodus to the +west was mainly directed to Kansas and neighboring States, the migration +to the Southwest centered in Oklahoma and Texas, pioneering Negro laborers +drifted into the industrial district of the Appalachian highland during +the eighties and nineties and the infiltration of the discontented +talented tenth affected largely the cities of the North. But now we are +told that at the very time the mining districts of the North and West are +being filled with blacks the western planters are supplying their farms +with them and that into some cities have gone sufficient skilled and +unskilled Negro workers to increase the black population more than one +hundred per cent. Places in the North, where the black population has not +only not increased but even decreased in recent years, are now receiving a +steady influx of Negroes. In fact, this is a nation-wide migration +affecting all parts and all conditions. + +Students of social problems are now wondering whether the Negro can be +adjusted in the North. Many perplexing problems must arise. This movement +will produce results not unlike those already mentioned in the discussion +of other migrations, some of which we have evidence of today. There will +be an increase in race prejudice leading in some communities to actual +outbreaks as in Chester and Youngstown and probably to massacres like that +of East St. Louis, in which participated not only well-known citizens but +the local officers and the State militia. The Negroes in the North are in +competition with white men who consider them not only strike breakers but +a sort of inferior individuals unworthy of the consideration which white +men deserve. And this condition obtains even where Negroes have been +admitted to the trades unions. + +Negroes in seeking new homes in the North, moreover, invade residential +districts hitherto exclusively white. There they encounter prejudice and +persecution until most whites thus disturbed move out determined to do +whatever they can to prevent their race from suffering from further +depreciation of property and the disturbance of their community life. +Lawlessness has followed, showing that violence may under certain +conditions develop among some classes anywhere rather than reserve itself +for vigilance committees of primitive communities. It has brought out too +another aspect of lawlessness in that it breaks out in the North where the +numbers of Negroes are still too small to serve as an excuse for the +terrorism and lynching considered necessary in the South to keep the +Negroes down. + +The maltreatment of the Negroes will be nationalized by this exodus. The +poor whites of both sections will strike at this race long stigmatized by +servitude but now demanding economic equality. Race prejudice, the fatal +weakness of the Americans, will not so soon abate although there will be +advocates of fraternity, equality and liberty required to reconstruct our +government and rebuild our civilization in conformity with the demands of +modern efficiency by placing every man regardless of his color wherever he +may do the greatest good for the greatest number. + +The Negroes, however, are doubtless going to the North in sufficiently +large numbers to make themselves felt. If this migration falls short of +establishing in that section Negro colonies large enough to wield economic +and political power, their state in the end will not be any better than +that of the Negroes already there. It is to these large numbers alone that +we must look for an agent to counteract the development of race feeling +into riots. In large numbers the blacks will be able to strike for better +wages or concessions due a rising laboring class and they will have enough +votes to defeat for reelection those officers who wink at mob violence or +treat Negroes as persons beyond the pale of the law. + +The Negroes in the North, however, will get little out of the harvest if, +like the blacks of Reconstruction days, they unwisely concentrate their +efforts on solving all of their problems by electing men of their race as +local officers or by sending a few members even to Congress as is likely +in New York, Philadelphia and Chicago within the next generation. The +Negroes have had representatives in Congress before but they were put out +because their constituency was uneconomic and politically impossible. +There was nothing but the mere letter of the law behind the Reconstruction +Negro officeholder and the thus forced political recognition against +public opinion could not last any longer than natural forces for some time +thrown out of gear by unnatural causes could resume the usual line of +procedure. + +It would be of no advantage to the Negro race today to send to Congress +forty Negro Representatives on the pro rata basis of numbers, especially +if they happened not to be exceptionally well qualified. They would remain +in Congress only so long as the American white people could devise some +plan for eliminating them as they did during the Reconstruction period. +Near as the world has approached real democracy, history gives no record +of a permanent government conducted on this basis. Interests have always +been stronger than numbers. The Negroes in the North, therefore, should +not on the eve of the economic revolution follow the advice of their +misguided and misleading race leaders who are diverting their attention +from their actual welfare to a specialization in politics. To concentrate +their efforts on electing a few Negroes to office wherever the blacks are +found in the majority, would exhibit the narrowness of their oppressors. +It would be as unwise as the policy of the Republican party of setting +aside a few insignificant positions like that of Recorder of Deeds, +Register of the Treasury and Auditor of the Navy as segregated jobs for +Negroes. Such positions have furnished a nucleus for the large, worthless, +office-seeking class of Negroes in Washington, who have established the +going of the people of the city toward pretence and sham. + +The Negroes should support representative men of any color or party, if +they stand for a square deal and equal rights for all. The new Negroes in +the North, therefore, will, as so many of their race in New York, +Philadelphia and Chicago are now doing, ally themselves with those men who +are fairminded and considerate of the man far down, and seek to embrace +their many opportunities for economic progress, a foundation for political +recognition, upon which the race must learn to build. Every race in the +universe must aspire to becoming a factor in politics; but history shows +that there is no short route to such success. Like other despised races +beset with the prejudice and militant opposition of self-styled superiors, +the Negroes must increase their industrial efficiency, improve their +opportunities to make a living, develop the home, church and school, and +contribute to art, literature, science and philosophy to clear the way to +that political freedom of which they cannot be deprived. + +The entire country will be benefited by this upheaval. It will be helpful +even to the South. The decrease in the black population in those +communities where the Negroes outnumber the whites will remove the fear of +_Negro domination_, one of the causes of the backwardness of the +South and its peculiar civilization. Many of the expensive precautions +which the southern people have taken to keep the Negroes down, much of the +terrorism incited to restrain the blacks from self-assertion will no +longer be considered necessary; for, having the excess in numbers on their +side, the whites will finally rest assured that the Negroes may be +encouraged without any apprehension that they may develop enough power to +subjugate or embarrass their former masters. + +The Negroes too are very much in demand in the South and the intelligent +whites will gladly give them larger opportunities to attach them to that +section, knowing that the blacks, once conscious of their power to move +freely throughout the country wherever they may improve their condition, +will never endure hardships like those formerly inflicted upon the race. +The South is already learning that the Negro is the most desirable laborer +for that section, that the persecution of Negroes not only drives them out +but makes the employment of labor such a problem that the South will not +be an attractive section for capital. It will, therefore, be considered +the duty of business men to secure protection to the Negroes lest their +ill-treatment force them to migrate to the extent of bringing about a +stagnation of their business. + +The exodus has driven home the truth that the prosperity of the South is +at the mercy of the Negro. Dependent on cheap labor, which the bulldozing +whites will not readily furnish, the wealthy southerners must finally +reach the position of regarding themselves and the Negroes as having a +community of interests which each must promote. "Nature itself in those +States," Douglass said, "came to the rescue of the Negro. He had labor, +the South wanted it, and must have it or perish. Since he was free he +could then give it, or withhold it; use it where he was, or take it +elsewhere, as he pleased. His labor made him a slave and his labor could, +if he would, make him free, comfortable and independent. It is more to him +than either fire, sword, ballot boxes or bayonets. It touches the heart of +the South through its pocket."[11] Knowing that the Negro has this silent +weapon to be used against his employer or the community, the South is +already giving the race better educational facilities, better railway +accommodations, and will eventually, if the advocacy of certain southern +newspapers be heeded, grant them political privileges. Wages in the South, +therefore, have risen even in the extreme southwestern States, where there +is an opportunity to import Mexican labor. Reduced to this extremity, the +southern aristocrats have begun to lose some of their race prejudice, +which has not hitherto yielded to reason or philanthropy. + +Southern men are telling their neighbors that their section must abandon +the policy of treating the Negroes as a problem and construct a program +for recognition rather than for repression. Meetings are, therefore, being +held to find out what the Negro wants and what may be done to keep them +contented. They are told that the Negro must be elevated not exploited, +that to make the South what it must needs be, the cooperation of all is +needed to train and equip the men of all races for efficiency. The aim of +all then must be to reform or get rid of the unfair proprietors who do not +give their tenants a fair division of the returns from their labor. To +this end the best whites and blacks are urged to come together to find a +working basis for a systematic effort in the interest of all. + +To say that either the North or the South can easily become adjusted to +this change is entirely too sanguine. The North will have a problem. The +Negroes in the northern city will have much more to contend with than when +settled in the rural districts or small urban centers. Forced by +restrictions of real estate men into congested districts, there has +appeared the tendency toward further segregation. They are denied social +contact, are sagaciously separated from the whites in public places of +amusement and are clandestinely segregated in public schools in spite of +the law to the contrary. As a consequence the Negro migrant often finds +himself with less friends than he formerly had. The northern man who once +denounced the South on account of its maltreatment of the blacks gradually +grows silent when a Negro is brought next door. There comes with the +movement, therefore, the difficult problem of housing. + +Where then must the migrants go? They are not wanted by the whites and are +treated with contempt by the native blacks of the northern cities, who +consider their brethren from the South too criminal and too vicious to be +tolerated. In the average progressive city there has heretofore been a +certain increase in the number of houses through natural growth, but owing +to the high cost of materials, high wages, increasing taxation and the +inclination to invest money in enterprises growing out of the war, fewer +houses are now being built, although Negroes are pouring into these +centers as a steady stream. The usual Negro quarters in northern centers +of this sort have been filled up and the overflow of the black population +scattered throughout the city among white people. Old warehouses, store +rooms, churches, railroad cars and tents have been used to meet these +demands. + +A large per cent of these Negroes are located in rooming houses or +tenements for several families. The majority of them cannot find +individual rooms. Many are crowded into the same room, therefore, and too +many into the same bed. Sometimes as many as four and five sleep in one +bed, and that may be placed in the basement, dining-room or kitchen where +there is neither adequate light nor air. In some cases men who work during +the night sleep by day in beds used by others during the night. Some of +their houses have no water inside and have toilets on the outside without +sewerage connections. The cooking is often done by coal or wood stoves or +kerosene lamps. Yet the rent runs high although the houses are generally +out of repair and in some cases have been condemned by the municipality. +The unsanitary conditions in which many of the blacks are compelled to +live are in violation of municipal ordinances. + +Furthermore, because of the indiscriminate employment by labor agents and +the dearth of labor requiring the acceptance of almost all sorts of men, +some disorderly and worthless Negroes have been brought into the North. On +the whole, however, these migrants are not lazy, shiftless and desperate +as some predicted that they would be. They generally attend church, save +their money and send a part of their savings regularly to their families. +They do not belong to the class going North in quest of whiskey. Mr. +Abraham Epstein, who has written a valuable pamphlet setting forth his +researches in Pittsburgh, states that the migrants of that city do not +generally imbibe and most of those who do, take beer only.[12] Out of four +hundred and seventy persons to whom he propounded this question, two +hundred and ten or forty-four per cent of them were total abstainers. +Seventy per cent of those having families do not drink at all. + +With this congestion, however, have come serious difficulties. Crowded +conditions give rise to vice, crime and disease. The prevalence of vice +has not been the rule but tendencies, which better conditions in the South +restrained from developing, have under these undesirable conditions been +given an opportunity to grow. There is, therefore, a tendency toward the +crowding of dives, assembling on the corners of streets and the commission +of petty offences which crowd them into the police courts. One finds also +sometimes a congestion in houses of dissipation and the carrying of +concealed weapons. Law abiding on the whole, however, they have not +experienced a wave of crime. The chief offences are those resulting from +the saloons and denizens of vice, which are furnished by the community +itself. + +Disease has been one of their worst enemies, but reports on their health +have been exaggerated. On account of this sudden change of the Negroes +from one climate to another and the hardships of more unrelenting toil, +many of them have been unable to resist pneumonia, bronchitis and +tuberculosis. Churches, rescue missions and the National League on Urban +Conditions Among Negroes have offered relief in some of these cases. The +last-named organization is serving in large cities as a sort of clearing +house for such activities and as means of interpreting one race to the +other. It has now eighteen branches in cities to which this migration has +been directed. Through a local worker these migrants are approached, +properly placed and supervised until they can adjust themselves to the +community without apparent embarrassment to either race. The League has +been able to handle the migrants arriving by extending the work so as to +know their movements beforehand. + +The occupations in which these people engage will throw further light on +their situation. About ninety per cent of them do unskilled labor. Only +ten per cent of them do semi-skilled or skilled labor. They serve as +common laborers, puddlers, mold-setters, painters, carpenters, +bricklayers, cement workers and machinists. What the Negroes need then is +that sort of freedom which carries with it industrial opportunity and +social justice. This they cannot attain until they be permitted to enter +the higher pursuits of labor. Two reasons are given for failure to enter +these: first, that Negro labor is unstable and inefficient; and second, +that white men will protest. Organized labor, however, has done nothing to +help the blacks. Yet it is a fact that accustomed to the easy-going toil +of the plantation, the blacks have not shown the same efficiency as that +of the whites. Some employers report, however, that they are glad to have +them because they are more individualistic and do not like to group. But +it is not true that colored labor cannot be organized. The blacks have +merely been neglected by organized labor. Wherever they have had the +opportunity to do so, they have organized and stood for their rights like +men. The trouble is that the trades unions are generally antagonistic to +Negroes although they are now accepting the blacks in self-defense. The +policy of excluding Negroes from these bodies is made effective by an +evasive procedure, despite the fact that the constitutions of many of them +specifically provide that there shall be no discrimination on account of +race or color. + +Because of this tendency some of the representatives of trades unions have +asked why Negroes do not organize unions of their own. This the Negroes +have generally failed to do, thinking that they would not be recognized by +the American Federation of Labor, and knowing too that what their union +would have to contend with in the economic world would be diametrically +opposed to the wishes of the men from whom they would have to seek +recognition. Organized labor, moreover, is opposed to the powerful +capitalists, the only real friends the Negroes have in the North to +furnish them food and shelter while their lives are often being sought by +union members. Steps toward organizing Negro labor have been made in +various Northern cities during 1917 and 1918.[18] The objective of this +movement for the present, however, is largely that of employment. + +Eventually the Negro migrants will, no doubt, without much difficulty +establish themselves among law-abiding and industrious people of the North +where they will receive assistance. Many persons now see in this shifting +of the Negro population the dawn of a new day, not in making the Negro +numerically dominant anywhere to obtain political power, but to secure for +him freedom of movement from section to section as a competitor in the +industrial world. They also observe that while there may be an increase of +race prejudice in the North the same will in that proportion decrease in +the South, thus balancing the equation while giving the Negro his best +chance in the economic world out of which he must emerge a real man with +power to secure his rights as an American citizen. + + +[Footnote 1: _New York Times_, Sept. 5, 9, 28, 1916.] + +[Footnote 2: _Ibid_., Oct. 18, 28; Nov. 5, 7, 12, 15; Dec. 4, 9, +1916.] + +[Footnote 3: _The Crisis_, July, 1917.] + +[Footnote 4: _American Journal of Political Economy_, XXX, p. 1040.] + +[Footnote 5: _The World's Work_, XX, p. 271.] + +[Footnote 6: _The World's Work_, XX, p. 272.] + +[Footnote 7: _New York Times_, March 29, April 7, 9, May 30 and 31, +1917.] + +[Footnote 8: _Survey_, XXXVII, pp. 569-571 and XXXVIII, pp. 27, 226, +331, 428; _Forum_, LVII, p. 181; _The World's Work_, XXXIV, pp. +135, 314-319; _Outlook_, CXVI, pp. 520-521; _Independent_, XCI, +pp. 53-54.] + +[Footnote 9: _The Crisis_, 1917.] + +[Footnote 10: _The New Orleans Times Picayune_, March 26, 1914.] + +[Footnote 11: _American Journal of Social Science_, XI, p. 4.] + +[Footnote 12: Epstein, _The Negro Migrant in Pittsburgh_.] + +[Footnote 13: Epstein, _The Negro Migrant in Pittsburgh_.] + + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY + + +As the public has not as yet paid very much attention to Negro History, +and has not seen a volume dealing primarily with the migration of the race +in America, one could hardly expect that there has been compiled a +bibliography in this special field. With the exception of what appears in +Still's and Siebert's works on the _Underground Railroad_ and the +records of the meetings of the Quakers promoting this movement, there is +little helpful material to be found in single volumes bearing on the +antebellum period. Since the Civil War, however, more has been said and +written concerning the movements of the Negro population. E.H. Botume's +_First Days Among the Contrabands_ and John Eaton's _Grant, Lincoln +and the Freedmen_ cover very well the period of rebellion. This is +supplemented by J.C. Knowlton's _Contrabands_ in the _University +Quarterly_, Volume XXI, page 307, and by Edward L. Pierce's _The +Freedmen at Port Royal_ in the _Atlantic Monthly_, Volume XII, +page 291. The exodus of 1879 is treated by J.B. Runnion in the _Atlantic +Monthly_, Volume XLIV, page 222; by Frederick Douglass and Richard T. +Greener in the _American Journal of Social Science_, Volume XI, page +1; by F.R. Guernsey in the _International Review_, Volume VII, page +373; by E.L. Godkin in the _Nation_, Volume XXVIII, pages 242 and 386; +and by J.C. Hartzell in the _Methodist Quarterly_, Volume XXXIX, +page 722. The second volume of George W. Williams's _History of the +Negro Race_ also contains a short chapter on the exodus of 1879. In +Volume XVIII, page 370, of _Public Opinion_ there is a discussion of +_Negro Emigration and Deportation_ as advocated by Bishop H.M. Turner +and Senator Morgan of Alabama during the nineties. Professor William O. +Scroggs of Louisiana University has in the _Journal of Political +Economy_, Volume XXV, page 1034, an article entitled _Interstate +Migration of Negro Population_. Mr. Epstein has published a helpful +pamphlet, _The Negro Migrant in Pittsburgh_. Most of the material for +this work, however, was collected from the various sources mentioned +below. + + + +BOOKS OF TRAVEL + + +Brissot de Warville, J. P. _New Travels in the United States of America: +including the Commerce of America with Europe, particularly with Great +Britain and France_. Two volumes. (London, 1794.) Gives general +impressions, few details. + +Buckingham, J.S. _America, Historical, Statistical, and Descriptive_. +Two volumes. (New York, 1841.)--_Eastern and Western States of +America_. Three volumes. (London and Paris, 1842.) Contains useful +information. + +Olmsted, Frederick Law. _A Journey in the Seaboard Slave States, with +Remarks on their Economy_. (New York, 1859.)--_A Journey in the Back +Country_. (London, 1860.) + +--_Journeys and Explorations in the Cotton Kingdom_. (London, 1861.) +Olmsted was a New York farmer. He recorded a few important facts about the +Negroes immediately before the Civil War. + +Woolman, John. _Journal of John Woolman, with an Introduction by John G. +Whittier_. (Boston, 1873.) Woolman traveled so extensively in the +colonies that he probably knew more about the Negroes than any other +Quaker of his time. + + + +LETTERS + + +Boyce, Stanbury. _Letters on the Emigration of the Negroes to +Trinidad_. + +Jefferson, Thomas. _Letters of Thomas Jefferson to Abbé Grégoire, M.A. +Julien, and Benjamin Banneker. In Jefferson's Works, Memorial Edition_, +xii and xv. He comments on Negroes' talents. + +Madison, James. _Letters to Frances Wright_. In _Madison's +Works_, vol. iii, p. 396. The emancipation of Negroes is discussed. + +May, Samuel Joseph. _The Right of the Colored People to Education_. +(Brooklyn, 1883.) A collection of public letters addressed to Andrew T. +Judson, remonstrating on the unjust procedure relative to Miss Prudence +Crandall. + +McDonogh, John. "_A Letter of John McDonogh on African Colonization +addressed to the Editor of the New Orleans Commercial Bulletin_." +McDonogh was interested in the betterment of the colored people and did +much to promote their mental development. + + + +BIOGRAPHIES + + +Birney, William. _James G. Birney and His Times_. (New York, 1890.) A +sketch of an advocate of Negro uplift. + +Bowen, Clarence W. _Arthur and Lewis Tappan_. A paper read at the +fiftieth anniversary of the New York Anti-Slavery Society, at the Broadway +Tabernacle, New York City, October 2, 1883. An honorable mention of two +friends of the Negro. + +Drew, Benjamin. _A North-side View of Slavery. The Refugee: or the +Narratives of Fugitive Slaves in Canada. Related by themselves, with an +Account of the History and Condition of the Colored Population of Upper +Canada_. (New York and Boston, 1856.) + +Frothingham, O.B. _Gerritt Smith: A Biography_. (New York, 1878.) + +Garrison, Francis and Wendell P. _William Lloyd Garrison, 1805-1879. The +Story of his Life told by his Children_. Four volumes. (Boston and New +York, 1894.) Includes a brief account of what he did for the colored +people. + +Hammond, C.A. _Gerritt Smith, The Story of a Noble Man's Life_. +(Geneva, 1900.) + +Johnson, Oliver. _William Lloyd Garrison and his Times_. (Boston, +1880. New edition, revised and enlarged, Boston, 1881.) + +Mott, A. _Biographical Sketches and Interesting Anecdotes of Persons of +Color; with a Selection of Pieces of Poetry_. (New York, 1826.) Some of +these sketches show how ambitious Negroes succeeded in spite of +opposition. + +Simmons, W.J. _Men of Mark; Eminent, Progressive, and Rising, with an +Introductory Sketch of the Author by Reverend Henry M. Turner_. +(Cleveland, Ohio, 1891.) Accounts for the adverse circumstances under +which many antebellum Negroes made progress. + + + +AUTOBIOGRAPHIES + + +Coffin, Levi. _Reminiscences of Levi Coffin, reputed President of the +Underground Railroad_. Second edition. (Cincinnati, 1880.) Contains +many facts concerning Negroes. + +Douglass, Frederick. _Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, as an +American Slave_. Written by himself. (Boston, 1845.) Gives several +cases of secret Negro movements for their own good. + +--_The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass from 1817 to 1882_. +(London, 1882.) Written by himself. With an Introduction by the Eight +Honorable John Bright, M.P. Edited by John Loeb, F.R.G.S., of the +_Christian Age_. Editor of _Uncle Tom's Story of his Life_. + + + +HISTORIES + + +Bancroft, George. _History of the United States_. Ten volumes. +(Boston, 1857-1864.) + +Brackett, Jeffrey R. _The Negro in Maryland_. Johns Hopkins +University Studies. (Baltimore, 1889.) + +Collins, Lewis. _Historical Sketches of Kentucky_. (Maysville, Ky., +and Cincinnati, Ohio, 1847.) + +Dunn, J.P. _Indiana; A redemption from Slavery_. (In the American +Commonwealths, vols. XII, Boston and New York, 1888.) + +Evans, W.E. _A History of Scioto County together with a Pioneer Record +of Southern Ohio_. (Portsmouth, 1903.) + +Farmer, Silas. _The History of Detroit and Michigan or the Metropolis +Illustrated_. A chronological encyclopedia of the past and the present +including a full record of territorial days in Michigan and the annals of +Wayne County. Two volumes. (Detroit, 1899.) + +Harris, N.D. _The History of Negro Servitude in Illinois and of the +Slavery Agitation in that State, 1719-1864,_. (Chicago, 1904.) + +Hart, A.B. _The American Nation; A History, etc_. Twenty-seven +volumes. (New York, 1904-1908.) The volumes which have a bearing on the +subject treated in this monograph are W.A. Dunning's _Reconstruction_, +F.J. Turner's _Rise of the New West_, and A.B. Hart's _Slavery and +Abolition_. + +Hinsdale, B.A. _The Old Northwest; with a view of the thirteen colonies +as constituted by the royal charters_. (New York, 1888.) + +Howe, Henry. _Historical Collections of Ohio_. Contains a collection +of the most interesting facts, traditions, biographical sketches, +anecdotes, etc., relating to its general and local history with +descriptions of its counties, principal towns and villages. (Cincinnati, +1847.) + +Jones, Charles Colcook, Jr. _History of Georgia_. (Boston, 1883.) + +McMaster, John B. _History of the United States_. Six volumes. (New +York, 1900.) + +Rhodes, J.F. _History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850 +to the Final Restoration of Home Rule in the South_. (New York and +London, Macmillan & Company, 1892-1906.) + +Steiner, B.C. _History of Slavery in Connecticut_. (Johns Hopkins +University Studies, 1893.) + +Stuve, Bernard, and Alexander Davidson. _A Complete History of Illinois +from 1673 to 1783_. (Springfield, 1874.) + +Tremain, Mary M.A. _Slavery in the District of Columbia_. (University +of Nebraska Seminary Papers, April, 1892.) + +_History of Brown County, Ohio_. (Chicago, 1883.) + + + +ADDRESSES + + +Garrison, William Lloyd. _An Address Delivered before the Free People of +Color in Philadelphia, New York and other Cities during the Month of June, +1831_. (Boston, 1831.) + +Griffin, Edward Dore. _A Plea for Africa,_. (New York, 1817.) A Sermon +preached October 26, 1817, in the First Presbyterian Church in the City of +New York before the Synod of New York and New Jersey at the Request of the +Board of Directors of the African School established by the Synod. The aim +was to arouse interest in colonization. + + + +REPORTS AND STATISTICS + + +_Special Report of the Commissioner of Education on the Improvement of +Public Schools in the District of Columbia_, containing M. B. Goodwin's +"History of Schools for the Colored Population in the District of +Columbia." (Washington, 1871.) + +_Report of the Committee of Representatives of the New York Yearly +Meeting of Friends upon the condition and wants of the Colored +Refugees_, 1862. + +Clarke, J. F. _Present Condition of the Free Colored People of the +United States_. (New York and Boston, the American Antislavery Society, +1859.) Published also in the March number of the _Christian +Examiner_. + +_Condition of the Free People of Color in Ohio. With interesting +anecdotes_. (Boston, 1839.) + +_Institute for Colored Youth_. (Philadelphia, 1860-1865.) Contains a +list of the officers and students. + +Jones, Thomas Jesse. _Negro Education: A study of the private and higher +schools for colored people in the United States. Prepared in cooperation +with the Phelps-Stokes Fund_. In two volumes. (Bureau of Education, +Washington, 1917.) + +_Official Records of the War of Rebellion_. + +_Report of the Condition of the Colored People of Cincinnati_, 1835. +(Cincinnati, 1835.) + +_Report of a Committee of the Pennsylvania Society of Abolition on +Present Condition of the Colored People, etc_., 1838. (Philadelphia, +1838.) + +_Statistical Inquiry into the Condition of the People of Color of the +City and Districts of Philadelphia_. (Philadelphia, 1849.) + +_Statistics of the Colored People of Philadelphia in 1859_, compiled +by Benj. C. Bacon. (Philadelphia, 1859.) + +_Statistical Abstract of the United States_, 1898. Prepared by the +Bureau of Statistics. (Washington, D. C., 1899.) + +_Statistical View of the Population of the United States, A_ +1790-1830. (Published by the Department of State in 1835.) + +_Trades of the Colored People_. (Philadelphia, 1838.) + +_United States Censuses_. + +_A Brief Statement of the Rise and Progress of the Testimony of Friends +against Slavery and the Slave Trade_. Published by direction of the +Yearly Meeting held in Philadelphia in the Fourth Month, 1843. Shows the +action taken by various Friends to elevate the Negroes. + +_A Collection of the Acts, Deliverances and Testimonies of the Supreme +Judicatory of the Presbyterian Church, from its Origin in America to the +Present Time_. By Samuel J. Baird. (Philadelphia, 1856.) + +American Convention of Abolition Societies. _Minutes of the Proceedings +of a Convention of Delegates from the Abolition Societies established in +different Parts of the United States_. From 1794-1828. + +_The Annual Reports of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Societies, +presented at New York, May 6, 1847, with the Addresses and +Resolutions_. From 1847-1851. + +_The Annual Reports of the American Anti-Slavery Society_. From 1834 +to 1860. + +_The Third Annual Report of the Managers of the New England Anti-Slavery +Society presented June 2, 1835_. (Boston, 1835.) + +_Annual Reports of the Massachusetts (or New England) Anti-Slavery +Society, 1831-end_. + +_Reports of the National Anti-Slavery Convention, 1833-end_. + +_Reports of the American Colonisation Society_, 1818-1832. + +_Report of the New York Colonisation Society_, October 1, 1823. (New +York, 1823.) + +_The Seventh Annual Report of the Colonization Society of the City of +New York_. (New York, 1839.) + +_Proceedings of the New York State Colonization Society_, 1831. +(Albany, 1831.) + +_The Eighteenth Annual Report of the Colonization Society of the State +of New York_. (New York, 1850.) + +_Minutes and Proceedings of the First Annual Convention of the People of +Color. Held by Adjournment in the City of Philadelphia, from the sixth to +the eleventh of June, inclusive_, 1831. (Philadelphia, 1831.) + +_Minutes and Proceedings of the Second Annual Convention for the +Improvement of the Free People of Color in these United States. Held by +Adjournments in the City of Philadelphia, from the 4th to the 13th of +June, inclusive_, 1832. (Philadelphia, 1832.) + +_Minutes and Proceedings of the Third Annual Convention for the +Improvement of the Free People of Color in these United States. Held by +Adjournments in the City of_ _Philadelphia, in 1833_. (New York, +1833.) These proceedings were published also in the _New York Commercial +Advertiser_, April 27, 1833. + +_Minutes and Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Convention for the +Improvement of the Free People of Color in the United States. Held by +Adjournments in the Asbury Church, New York, from the 2nd to the 12th of +June, 1834_. (New York, 1834.) + +_Proceedings of the Convention of the Colored Freedmen of Ohio at +Cincinnati, January 14, 1852_. (Cincinnati, Ohio, 1852.) + + + +MISCELLANEOUS BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS + + +Adams, Alice Dana. _The Neglected Period of Anti-Slavery in America_. +Radcliffe College Monographs No. 14._ (Boston and London, 1908) Contains +some valuable facts about the Negroes during the first three decades of +the nineteenth century. + +Agricola (pseudonym). _An Impartial View of the Real State of the Black +Population in the United States_. (Philadelphia, 1824.) + +Alexander, A. _A History of Colonisation on the Western Continent of +Africa_. (Philadelphia, 1846.) + +Ames, Mary. _From a New England Woman's Diary in 1865_, (Springfield, +1906.) + +_An Address to the People of North Carolina on the Evils of Slavery, by +the Friends of Liberty and Equality, 1830_. (Greensborough, 1830.) + +_An Address to the Presbyterians of Kentucky proposing a Plan for the +Instruction and Emancipation of their Slaves by a Committee of the Synod +of Kentucky_. (Newburyport, 1836.) + +Baldwin, Ebenezer. _Observations on the Physical and Moral Qualities of +our Colored Population with Remarks on the Subject of Emancipation and +Colonization_. (New Haven, 1834.) + +Bassett, J. S. _Slavery and Servitude in the Colony of North +Carolina_. (Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and +Political Science. Fourteenth Series, iv-v. Baltimore, 1896.) + +------_Slavery in the State of North Carolina_. (Johns Hopkins +University Studies in Historical and Political Science. Series XVII., Nos. +7-8. Baltimore, 1899.) + +------_Anti-Slavery Leaders of North Carolina_. (Johns Hopkins +University Studies in Historical and Political Science. Series XVI., No. +6. Baltimore, 1898.) + +Benezet, Anthony. _A Caution to Great Britain and Her Colonies in a +Short Representation of the calamitous State of the enslaved Negro in the +British Dominions_. (Philadelphia, 1784.) + +------_The Case of our Fellow-Creatures, the oppressed Africans, +respectfully recommended to the serious Consideration of the Legislature +of Great Britain, by the People called Quakers_. (London, 1783.) + +------_Observations on the enslaving, Importing and Purchasing of +Negroes; with some Advice thereon, extracted from the Epistle of the +Yearly-Meeting of the People called Quakers, held at London in the Year +1748_. (Germantown, 1760.) + +------_The Potent Enemies of America laid open: being some Account of +the baneful Effects attending the Use of distilled spirituous Liquors, and +the Slavery of the Negroes_. (Philadelphia.) + +------_A Short Account of that Part of Africa, inhabited by the Negroes. +With respect to the Fertility of the Country; the good Disposition of many +of the Natives, and the Manner by which the Slave Trade is carried on_. +(Philadelphia, 1792) + +------_Short Observations on Slavery, introductory to Some Extracts from +the Writings of the Abbé Raynal, on the Important Subject_. + +------_Some Historical Account of Guinea, its Situation, Produce, and +the General Disposition of its Inhabitants. With an Inquiry into the Rise +and Progress of the Slave Trade, its Nature and Lamentable Effects_. +(London, 1788.) + +Birney, James G. _The American Churches, the Bulwarks of American +Slavery, by an American_. (Newburyport, 1842.) + +Birney, William. _James G. Birney and his Times. The Genesis of the +Republican Party, with Some Account of the Abolition Movements in the +South before 1828_. (New York, 1890.) + +Brackett, Jeffery B. _The Negro in Maryland. A Study of the Institution +of Slavery_. (Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University, 1889.) + +Brannagan, Thomas. _A Preliminary Essay on the Oppression of the Exiled +Sons of Africa, Consisting of Animadversions on the Impolicy and Barbarity +of the Deleterious Commerce and Subsequent Slavery of the Human +Species_. (Philadelphia: Printed for the Author by John W. Scott, +1804.) + +Brannagan, T. _Serious Remonstrances Addressed to the Citizens of the +Northern States and their Representatives, being an Appeal to their +Natural Feelings and Common Sense; Consisting of Speculations and +Animadversions, on the Recent Revival of the Slave Trade in the American +Republic_. (Philadelphia, 1805.) + +Campbell, J. V. _Political History of Michigan_. (Detroit, 1876.) + +_Code Noir ou Recueil d'edits, declarations et arrêts concernant la +Discipline et le commerce des esclaves Nègres des isles francaises de +l'Amérique (in Recueils de réglemens, edits, declarations et arrêts, +concernant le commerce, l'administration de la justice et la police des +colonies francaises de l'Amérique, et les engages avec le Code Noir, et +l'addition audit code)_. (Paris, 1745.) + +Coffin, Joshua. _An Account of Some of the principal Slave Insurrections +and others which have occurred or been attempted in the United States and +elsewhere during the last two Centuries. With various Remarks. Collected +from various Sources_. (New York, 1860.) + +Columbia University _Studies in History, Economics and Public Law_. +Edited by the faculty of political science. The useful volumes of this +series for this field are: + +W.L. Fleming's _Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama_, 1905. + +W.W. Davis's _The Civil War and Reconstruction in Florida_, 1913. + +Clara Mildred Thompson's _Reconstruction in Georgia, Economic, Social, +Political_, 1915. + +J.G. de R. Hamilton's _Reconstruction in North Carolina_, 1914. + +C.W. Ramsdell. _Reconstruction in Texas_, 1910. + +_Connecticut, Public Acts passed by the General Assembly of_. + +Cromwell, J.W. _The Negro in American History: Men and Women Eminent in +the Evolution of the American of African Descent_. (Washington, 1914.) + +Davidson, A., and Stowe, B. _A Complete History of Illinois from 1673 to +1873_. (Springfield, 1874.) It embraces the physical features of the +country, its early explorations, aboriginal inhabitants, the French and +British occupation, the conquest of Virginia, territorial condition and +subsequent events. + +Delany, M.R. _The Condition, Elevation, Emigration and Destiny of the +Colored People of the United States: politically considered_. +(Philadelphia, 1852.) + +DuBois, W.E.B. _The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study. Together with a +special report on domestic service by Isabel Eaton_. (Philadelphia, +1899.) + +------Atlanta University Publications, _The Negro Common School_. +(Atlanta, 1901.) + +------_The Negro Church_. (Atlanta, 1903.) + +------and Dill, A.G. _The College-Bred Negro American_. (Atlanta, +1910.) + +------_The Negro American Artisan_. (Atlanta, 1912.) + +De Toqueville, Alexis Charles Henri Maurice Clerel De. _Democracy in +America_. Translated by Henry Reeve. Four volumes. (London, 1835, +1840.) + +Eaton, John. _Grant, Lincoln and the Freedmen: reminiscences of the +Civil War with special reference to the work for the Contrabands, and the +Freedmen of the Mississippi Valley_. (New York, 1907.) + +Epstein. _The Negro Migrant in Pittsburgh_. (Pittsburgh, 1917.) + +_Exposition of the Object and Plan of the American Union for the Belief +and Improvement of the Colored Race_. (Boston, 1835.) + +Fee, John G. _Anti-Slavery Manual_. (Maysville, 1848.) + +Fertig, James Walter. _The Secession and Reconstruction of +Tennessee_. (Chicago, 1898.) + +Frost, W.G. "Appalachian America." (In vol. i of _The Americana_.) +(New York, 1912.) + +Garnett, H.H. _The Past and Present Condition and the Destiny of the +Colored Race_. (Troy, 1848.) + +Greely, Horace. _The American Conflict_. A history of the great +rebellion in the United States of America, 1860-64, its causes, incidents +and results: intended to exhibit especially its moral and political +phases, with the drift of progress of American opinion respecting human +slavery from 1776 to the close of the war for its union. (Chicago, 1864.) + +Hammond, M.B. _The Cotton Industry: an Essay in American Economic +History_. It deals with the cotton culture and the cotton Trade. (New +York, 1897.) + +Hart, A.B. _The Southern South_. (New York, 1906.) + +Henson, Josiah. _The Life of Josiah Henson_. (Boston, 1849.) + +Hershaw, L.M. _Peonage in the United States_. This is one of the +American Negro Academy Papers. (Washington, 1912.) + +Hickok, Charles Thomas. _The Negro in Ohio, 1802-1870_. (Cleveland, +1896.) + +Hodgkin, Thomas A. _Inquiry into the Merits of the American Colonization +Society and Reply to the Charges brought against it with an Account of the +British African Colonization Society_. (London, 1833.) + +Howe, Samuel G. _The Refugees from Slavery in Canada West. Report to the +Freedmen's Inquiry Committee_. (Boston, 1864.) + +Hutchins, Thomas. _An Historical Narrative and Topographical Description +of Louisiana and West Florida, comprehending the river Mississippi with +its principal Branches and Settlements and the Rivers Pearl and +Pescagoula_. (Philadelphia, 1784.) + +_Illinois, Laws of, passed by the General Assembly of_. + +_Indiana, Laws passed by the State of_. + +Jay, John. _The Correspondence and Public Papers of John Jay. First +Chief Justice of the United States and President of the Continental +Congress, Member of the Commission to negotiate the Treaty of +Independence, Envoy to Great Britain, Governor of New York, etc., +1782-1793. (New York and London, 1801.) Edited by Henry P. Johnson, +Professor of History in the College of the City of New York. + +Jay, William. _An Inquiry into the Character and Tendencies of the +American Colonisation and American Anti-Slavery Societies_. Second +edition. (New York, 1835.) + +Jefferson, Thomas. _The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Memorial Edition. +Autobiography, Notes on Virginia, Parliamentary Mannual, Official Papers, +Messages and Addresses, and other writings Official and Private, etc._ +(Washington, 1903.) + +_Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political +Science_. H.B. Adams, Editor. (Baltimore, Johns Hopkins Press.) Among +the useful volumes of this series are: J.R. Ficklen's _History of +Reconstruction in Louisiana_, 1910. + +H.J. Eckenrode's _The Political History of Virginia during +Reconstruction_, 1904. + +Langston, John M. _From the Virginia Plantation to the National Capital; +or, The First and Only Negro Representative in Congress from The Old +Dominion_. (Hartford, 1894.) + +Locke, M.S. _Anti-Slavery in America from the Introduction of African +Slaves to the Prohibition of the Slave Trade, 1619-1808_. Radcliffe +College Monographs, No. ii. (Boston, 1901.) A valuable work. + +Lynch, John R. _The Facts of Reconstruction_. (New York, 1913.) + +Madison, James. _Letters and Other Writings of James Madison Published +by Order of Congress_. Four volumes. (Philadelphia, 1865.) + +May, S.J. _Some Recollections of our Anti-Slavery Conflict_. + +Monroe, James. _The Writings of James Monroe, including a Collection of +his public and private Papers and Correspondence now for the first time +printed_. Edited by S. M. Hamilton. (Boston, 1900.) + +Moore, George H. _Notes on the History of Slavery in Massachusetts_. +(New York, 1866.) + +Needles, Edward. _Ten Years' Progress or a Comparison of the State and +Condition of the Colored People in the City of and County of Philadelphia +from 1837 to 1847_. (Philadelphia, 1849.) + +_New Jersey, Acts of the General Assembly of_. + +_Ohio, Laws of the General Assembly of_. + +Ovington, M.W. _Half-a-Man_. (New York, 1911.) Treats of the Negro in +the State of New York. A few pages are devoted to the progress of the +colored people. + +Parrish, John. _Remarks on the Slavery of the Black People; Addressed to +the Citizens of the United States, particularly to those who are in +legislative or executive Stations, particularly in the General or State +Governments; and also to such Individuals as hold them in Bondage_. +(Philadelphia, 1806.) + +Pearson, E.W. _Letters from Port Royal, written at the Time of the Civil +War_. (Boston, 1916.) + +Pearson, C.C. _The Readjuster Movement in Virginia_. (New Haven, +1917.) + +_Pennsylvania, Laws of the General Assembly of the State of_. + +Pierce, E.L. _The Freedmen of Port Royal, South Carolina, Official +Reports_. (New York, 1863.) + +Pike, James S. _The Prostrate State: South Carolina under Negro +Government_. (New York, 1874.) + +Pittman, Philip. _The Present State of European Settlements on the +Mississippi with a geographic description of that river_. (London, +1770.) + +Quillen, Frank U. _The Color Line in Ohio_. A History of Race +Prejudice in a typical northern State. (Ann Arbor, Mich., 1913.) + +Reynolds, J.S. _Reconstruction in South Carolina_. (Columbia, 1905.) + +_Rhode Island, Acts and Resolves of_. + +Rice, David. _Slavery inconsistent with Justice and Good Policy: proved +by a Speech delivered in the Convention held at Danville, Kentucky_. +(Philadelphia, 1792, and London, 1793.) + +Scherer, J.A.B. _Cotton as a World Power_. (New York, 1916.) This is +a study in the economic interpretation of History. The contents of this +book are a revision of a series of lectures at Oxford and Cambridge +universities in the Spring of 1914 with the caption on Economic Causes in +the American Civil War. + +Siebert, Wilbur H. _The Underground Railroad from Slavery_ _to +Freedom_, by W.H. Siebert, Associate Professor of History in the Ohio +State University, with an Introduction by A.B. Hart. (New York, 1898.) + +Starr, Frederick. _What shall be done with the people of color in the +United States?_ (Albany, 1862.) A discourse delivered in the First +Presbyterian Church of Penn Yan, New York, November 2, 1862. + +Still, William. _The Underground Railroad_. (Philadelphia, 1872.) +This is a record of facts, authentic narratives, letters and the like, +giving the hardships, hair-breadth escapes and death struggles of the +slaves in their efforts for freedom as related by themselves and others or +witnessed by the author. + +_The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, Travels and Explorations of +the Jesuit Missionaries in New France, 1619-1791. The Original French, +Latin, and Italian Texts with English Translations and Notes illustrated +by Portraits, Maps, and Facsimiles_. Edited by Reuben Gold Thwaites, +Secretary of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. (Cleveland, 1896.) + +Thompson, George. _Speech at the Meeting for the Extension of Negro +Apprenticeship_. (London, 1838.) + +------_The Free Church Alliance with Manstealers. Send back the Money. +Great Anti-Slavery Meeting in the City Hall, Glasgow, containing the +Speeches delivered by Messrs. Wright, Douglass, and Buffum from America, +and by George Thompson of London, with a Summary Account of a Series of +Meetings held in Edinburgh by the above named Gentlemen._ (Glasgow, +1846.) + +Torrey, Jesse, 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 Color, +including Memoirs of Facts on the Interior Traffic in Slaves and on +Kidnapping, Illustrated with Engravings by Jesse Torrey, Jr., Physician, +Author of a Series of Essays on Morals and the Diffusion of Knowledge_. +(Philadelphia, 1817.) + +------_American Internal Slave Trade; with Reflections on the project +for forming a Colony of Blacks in Africa_. (London, 1822.) + +Turner, E.R. _The Negro in Pennsylvania_. (Washington, 1911.) + +_Tyrannical Libertymen: a Discourse upon Negro Slavery in the United +States, composed at ------ in New Hampshire: on the Late Federal +Thanksgiving Day_. (Hanover, N. H., 1795.) + +Walker, David. _Walker's Appeal in Four Articles, together with a +Preamble to the Colored Citizens of the World, but in particular and very +expressly to those of the United States of America, Written in Boston, +State of Massachusetts, September 28, 1829_. Second edition. (Boston, +1830.) Walker was a Negro who hoped to arouse his race to self-assertion. + +Ward, Charles. _Contrabands_. (Salem, 1866.) This suggests an +apprenticeship, under the auspices of the government, to build the Pacific +Railroad. + +Washington, B.T. _The Story of the Negro_. Two volumes. (New York, +1909.) + +Washington, George. _The Writings of George Washington, being his +Correspondence, Addresses, Messages, and other papers, official and +private, selected and published from the original Manuscripts with the +Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations, by Jared Sparks_. (Boston, +1835.) + +Weeks, Stephen B. _Southern Quakers and Slavery. A Study in +Institutional History_. (Baltimore, The Johns Hopkins Press, 1896.) + +------_The Anti-Slavery Sentiment in the South; with Unpublished Letters +from John Stuart Mill and Mrs. Stowe_. (Southern History Association +Publications, Volume ii, No. 2, Washington, D.C., April, 1898.) + +Williams, G.W. _A History of the Negro Troops in the War of the +Rebellion, 1861-1865, preceded by a Review of the military Services of +Negroes in ancient and modern Times_. (New York, 1888.) + +------_History of the Negro Race in the United States from 1619-1880. +Negroes as Slaves, as Soldiers, and as Citizens: together with a +preliminary Consideration of the Unity of the Human Family, an historical +Sketch of Africa and an Account of the Negro Governments of Sierra Leone +and Liberia_. (New York, 1883.) + +Woodson, C.G. _The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861_. (New York +and London, 1915.) This is a history of the Education of the Colored +People of the United States from the beginning of slavery to the Civil +War. + +Woolman, John. _The Works of John Woolman. In two Parts, Part I: A +Journal of the Life, Gospel-Labors, and Christian Experiences of that +faithful Minister of Christ, John Woolman, late of Mount Holly in the +Province of New Jersey_. (London, 1775.) + +------_Same, Part Second. Containing his last Epistle and other +Writings_. (London, 1775.) + +------_Some Considerations on the Keeping of Negroes. Recommended to the +Professors of Christianity of every Denomination_. (Philadelphia, +1754.) + +------_Considerations on Keeping Negroes; Recommended to the Professors +of Christianity of every Denomination. Part the Second_. (Philadelphia, +1762.) + +Wright, R.R., Jr. _The Negro in Pennsylvania_. (Philadelphia, 1912.) + + + +MAGAZINES + + +_The African Methodist Episcopal Church Review_. The following articles: + + _The Negro as an Inventor_. By R. R. Wright, vol. ii, p. 397. + + _Negro Poets_, vol. iv, p. 236. + + _The Negro in Journalism_, vols. vi, p. 309, and xx, p. 137. + +_The African Repository_; Published by the American Colonization +Society from 1826 to 1832. A very good source for Negro history both in +this country and Liberia. Some of its most valuable articles are: + + _Learn Trades or Starve_, by Frederick Douglass, vol. xxix, + p. 137. Taken from Frederick Douglass's Paper. + + _Education of the Colored People_, by a highly respectable + gentleman of the South, vol. xxx, pp. 194, 195 and 196. + + _Elevation of the Colored Race_, a memorial circulated in + North Carolina, vol. xxxi, pp. 117 and 118. + + _A lawyer for Liberia_, a sketch of Garrison Draper, vol. + xxxiv, pp. 26 and 27. + +_The American Economic Review_. + +_The American Journal of Social Science_. + +_The American Journal of Political Economy_. + +_The American Law Review_. + +_The American Journal of Sociology_. + +_The Atlantic Monthly_. + +_The Colonizationist and Journal of Freedom_. The author has been +able to find only the volume which contains the numbers for the year 1834. + +_The Christian Examiner_. + +_The Cosmopolitan_. + +_The Crisis_. A record of the darker races published by the National +Association for the Advancement of Colored People. + +_Dublin Review_. + +_The Forum_. + +_The Independent_. + +_The Journal of Negro History_. + +_The Maryland Journal of Colonization_. Published as the official +organ of the Maryland Colonization Society. Among its important articles +are: _The Capacities of the Negro Race_, vol. iii, p. 367; and _The +Educational Facilities of Liberia_, vol. vii, p. 223. + +_The Nation_. + +_The Non-Slaveholder_. Two volumes of this publication are now found +in the Library of Congress. + +_The Outlook_. + +_Public Opinion_. + +_The Southern Workman_. Volume xxxvii contains Dr. R. R. Wright's +valuable dissertation on _Negro Rural Communities in India_. + +_The Spectator_. + +_The Survey_. + +_The World's Work_. + + + +NEWSPAPERS + + +District of Columbia. + _The Daily National Intelligencer_. + +Louisiana. + _The New Orleans Commercial Bulletin_. + _The New Orleans Times-Picayune_. + +Maryland. + _The Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advertiser_. + _The Maryland Gazette_. + _Dunlop's Maryland Gazette or The Baltimore Advertiser_. + +Massachusetts. + _The Liberator_. + +Mississippi. + _The Vicksburg Daily Commercial_. + +New York. + _The New York Daily Advertiser_. + _The New York Tribune_. + _The New York Times_. + + + +INDEX + + +Adams, Henry, + leader of the exodus to Kansas, + +Akron, + friends of fugitives in, + +Alton Telegraph, + comment of, + +Anderson, + promoter of settling of Negroes in Jamaica, + +Anti-slavery, + leaders of the movement, became more helpful to the refugees, + +Anti-slavery sentiment, + of two kinds, + +American Federation of Labor, + attitude of, toward Negro labor, + +Appalachian highland, + settlers of, aided fugitives; + exodus of Negroes to, + +Arkansas, + drain of laborers to, + + +Ball, J.P., + a contractor, + +Ball, Thomas, + a contractor, + +Barclay, + interest of, in the sending of Negroes to Jamaica, + +Barrett, Owen A., + discoverer of a remedy, + +Bates, + owner of slaves at St. Genevieve, + +Beauvais, + owner of slaves, Upper Louisiana, + +Benezet, Anthony, + plan of, to colonize Negroes in West; + interest of, in settling Negroes in the West, + +Berlin Cross Roads, + Negroes of, + +Bibb, Henry, + interest of, in colonization, + +Birney, James G., + promoter of the migration of the Negroes; + press of, destroyed by mob in Cincinnati, + +Black Friday, + riot of, in Portsmouth, + +Blackburn, Thornton, + a fugitive claimed in Detroit, + +Boll weevil, + a cause of migration, + +Boston, + friends of fugitives in, + +Boyce, Stanbury, + went with his father to Trinidad in the fifties, + +Boyd, Henry, + a successful mechanic in Cincinnati, + +Brannagan, Thomas, + advocate of colonizing the Negroes in the West; + interest of, in settling Negroes in the West, + +Brissot de Warville, + observations of, on Negroes in the West, + +British Guiana, + attractive to free Negroes, + +Brooklyn, Illinois, + a Negro community, + +Brown, John, + in the Appalachian highland, + +Brown County, Ohio, + Negroes in, + +Buffalo, + friends of fugitives in, + +Butler, General, + holds Negroes as contraband; + policy of, followed by General Wood and General Banks, + + +Cairo, Illinois, + an outlet for the refugees + +Calvin Township, Cass County, Michigan, + a Negro community; + note on progress of + +Campbell, Sir George, + comment on condition of Negroes in Kansas City + +Canaan, New Hampshire, + break-up of school of, admitting Negroes, + +Canada, + the migration of Negroes to; + settlements in, + +Canadians, + supply of slaves of; + prohibited the importation of slaves, + +Canterbury, people of, + imprison Prudence Crandall because she taught Negroes, + +Cardoza, F.L., + return of from Edinburgh to South Carolina, + +Cassey, Joseph C., + a lumber merchant, + +Cassey, Joseph, + a broker in Philadelphia, + +Chester, T. Morris, + went from Pittsburgh to settle in Louisiana, + +Cincinnati, + friends of fugitives in; + mobs; + successful Negroes of, + +Clark, Edward V., + a jeweler, + +Clay, Henry, + a colonizationist, + +Code for indentured servants in West, + note, + +Coffin, Levi, + comment on the condition of the refugees, + +Coles, Edward, + moved to Illinois to free his slaves; + correspondence with Jefferson on slavery, + +Colgate, Richard, + master of James Wenyam who escaped to the West, + +Collins, Henry M., + interest of, in colonization; + a real estate man in Pittsburgh, + +Corbin, J.C., + return of, from Chillicothe to Arkansas, + +Colonization proposed as a remedy for migration, + in the West; + organization of society of; + failure to remove free Negroes; + opposed by free people of color; + meetings of, in the interest of the West Indies; + impeded by the exodus to the West Indies; + a remedy for migration, + +Colonization Society, + organization of; + renewed efforts of, + +Colonizationists, + opposition of, to the migration to the West Indies, + +Columbia, Pa., + friends of fugitives in, + +Compagnie de l'Occident in control of Louisiana, + +Condition of fugitives in contraband camps, + +Congested districts in the North, + +Connecticut, + exterminated slavery; + law of; + against teaching Negroes, + +Conventions of Negroes, + +Cook, Forman B., + a broker, + +Crandall, A.W., + interest in checking the exodus to Kansas, + +Crandall, Prudence, + imprisoned because she taught Negroes, + +Credit system, + a cause of unrest, + +Crozat, Antoine, + as Governor of Louisiana, + +Cuffé, Paul, + an actual colonizationist, + + +Davis, + comment on freedmen's vagrancy, + +De Baptiste, Richard, + father of, in Detroit, + +Debasement of the blacks after Reconstruction, + +Delany, Martin R., + interest of, in colonization, + +De Tocqueville, + observation of, on the condition of free Negroes in the North, + +Delaware, + disfranchisement of Negroes in, + +Detroit, + Negroes in; + friends of fugitives in; + a gateway to Canada; + the Negro question in; + mob of, rises against Negroes; + successful Negroes of, + +Dinwiddie, Governor, + Fears of, as to servile insurrection, + +Diseases of Negroes in the North, + +Distribution of intelligent blacks, + +Douglass, Frederick, + the leading Negro journalist; + advice of, on staying in the South to retain political power; + comment of, on exodus to Kansas, + +Downing, Thomas, + owner of a restaurant, + +Drain of laborers to Mississippi and Louisiana; + to Arkansas and Texas, + + +Eaton, John, + work of, among the refugees, + +Economic opportunities for the Negro in the North; + economic opportunities for Negroes in the South, + +Educational facilities, + the lack of, + +Elizabethtown, + friends of fugitives in, + +Elliot, E.B., + return of, from Boston to South Carolina, + +Elmira, + friends of fugitives in, + +Emancipation of the Negroes in the West Indies, + the effect of, + +Epstein, Abraham, + an authority on the Negro migrant in Pittsburgh, + +Exodus, the, + during the World War; + causes; + efforts of the South to check it; + Negroes divided on it; + whites divided on it; + unfortunate for the South; + probable results; + will increase political power of Negro; + exodus of the Negroes to Kansas, + + +Fear of Negro domination to cease, + +Ficklen, + comment on freedmen's vagrancy, + +Fiske, A.S., + work of, among the contrabands, + +Fleming, + comment of, on freedmen's vagrancy, + +Floods of the Mississippi, + a cause of migration, + +Foote, Ex-Governor of Mississippi, + liberal measure of, presented to Vicksburg convention, + +Fort Chartres, + slaves of, + +Forten, James, + a wealthy Negro, + +Freedman's relief societies, + aid of, + +Free Negroes, + opposed to American Colonization Society; + interested in African colonization; + National Council of, + +French, + departure of, from West to keep slaves; + welcome of, to fugitive slaves of the English colonies; + good treatment of, + +Friends of fugitives, + +Fugitive Slave Law, + a destroyer of Negro settlements, + +Fugitives coming to Pennsylvania, + + +Gallipolis, + friends of fugitives in, + +Georgia, + laws of, against Negro mechanics; + slavery considered profitable in, + +Germans antagonistic to Negroes; + favorable to fugitives in mountains; + opposed Negro settlement in Mercer County, Ohio; + their hatred of Negroes, + +Gibbs, Judge M.W., + went from Philadelphia to Arkansas, + +Gilmore's High School, + work of, in Cincinnati, + +Gist, Samuel, + settled his Negroes in Ohio, + +Goodrich, William, + owner of railroad stock, + +Gordon, Robert, + a successful coal dealer in Cincinnati, + +Grant, General U.S., + protected refugees in his camp; + retained them at Fort Donelson; + his use of the refugees, + +Greener, R.T., + comment of, on the exodus to Kansas; + went from Philadelphia to South Carolina, + +Gregg, Theodore H., + sent his manumitted slaves to Ohio, + +Gulf States, + proposed Negro commonwealths of, + +Guild of Caterers, + in Philadelphia, + + +Halleck, General, + excluded slaves from his lines, + +Harlan, Robert, + a horseman, + +Harper, John, + sent his slaves to Mercer County, Ohio, + +Hamsburg, + Negroes in; + reaction against Negroes in, + +Harrison, President William H., + accommodated at the café of John Julius, a Negro, + +Hayden, + a successful clothier, + +Hayti, + the exodus of Negroes to, + +Henry, Patrick, + on natural rights, + +Hill of Chillicothe, + a tanner and currier, + +Holly, James T., + interest of, in colonization, + +Hood, James W., + went from Connecticut to North Carolina, + +Hunter, General, + dealing with the refugees in South Carolina + + +Illinois, + the attitude of, toward the Negro; + race prejudice in; + slavery question in the organization of; + effort to make the constitution proslavery, + +Immigration of foreigners, + cessation of, a cause of the Negro migration, + +Indian Territory, + exodus of Negroes to, + +Indiana, + the attitude of, toward the Negro; + counties of, receiving Negroes from slave states; + slavery question in the organization of; + effort to make constitution of pro-slavery; + race prejudice in; + protest against the settlement of Negroes there, + +Indians, + attitude of, toward the Negroes, + +Infirmary Farms, + for refugees, + +Intimidation, + a cause of migration, + +Irish, + antagonistic to Negroes; + their hatred of Negroes, + +Jamaica, + Negroes of the United States settled in, + +Jay's Treaty, + +Jefferson, Thomas, + his plan for general education including the slaves; + plan to colonize Negroes in the West; + natural rights theory of; + an advocate of the colonization of the Negroes in the West Indies, + +Jenkins, David, + a paper hanger and glazier, + +Johnson, General, + permitted slave hunters to seek their slaves in his lines, + +Julius, John, + proprietor of a cafe in which he entertained President William H. +Harrison, + + +_Kansas Freedmen's Relief Association_, + the work of, + +Kansas refugees, + condition of; + treatment of, + +Kaokia, + slaves of, + +Kaskaskia, + slaves of, + +Keith, George, + interested in the Negroes, + +Kentucky, + disfranchisement of Negroes in; + abolition society of, advocated the colonization of the blacks in +the West, + +Key, Francis S., + a colonizationist, + +Kingsley, Z., + a master, settled his son of color in Hayti, + +Ku Klux Klan, + the work of, + +Labor agents promoting the migration of Negroes, + +Lambert, William, + interest of, in the colonization of Negroes, + +Land tenure, + a cause of unrest; + after Reconstruction, + +Langston, John M., + returned from Ohio to Virginia, + +Lawrence County, Ohio, + Negroes immigrated into, + +Liberia, + freedmen sent to, + +Lincoln, Abraham, + urged withholding slaves, + +Louis XIV, + slave regulations of, + +Louisiana, + drain of laborers to; + exodus from; + refugees in, + +Lower Camps, Brown County, + Negroes of, + +Lower Louisiana, + conditions of; + conditions of slaves in, + +Lundy, Benjamin, + promoter of the migration of Negroes, + +Lynching, + a cause of migration; + number of Negroes lynched, + + +McCook, General, + permitted slave hunters to seek their Negroes in his lines, + +Maryland, + disfranchisement of Negroes in; + passed laws against Negro mechanics; + reaction in, + +Massachusetts, + exterminated slavery, + +Meade, Bishop William, + a colonizationist, + +Mercer County, Ohio, + successful Negroes of; + resolutions of citizens against Negroes, + +Miami County, + Randolph's Negroes sent to, + +Michigan, + Negroes transplanted to; + attitude of, toward the Negro, + +Migration, the, + of the talented tenth; + handicaps of; + of politicians to Washington; + of educated Negroes; + of the intelligent laboring class; + effect of Negroes' prospective political power; + to northern cities, + +Miles, N.E., + interest in stopping the exodus to Kansas, + +Mississippi, + drain of laborers to; + exodus from; + refugees in; + slaves along, + +Morgan, Senator, + of Alabama, interested in sending the Negroes to Africa, + +Movement of the blacks to the western territory; + promoted by Quakers, + +Movements of Negroes during the Civil War; + of poor whites, + +Mulber, Stephen, + a contractor, + +Murder of Negroes in the South, + + +Natural rights, + the effect of; + the discussion of, on the condition of the Negro, + +Negro journalists, + the number of + +Negroes, + condition of, after Reconstruction; + escaped to the West; + those having wealth tend to remain in the South; + migration of, to Mexico; + exodus of, to Liberia; + no freedom of speech of; + not migratory; + leaders of Reconstruction, largely from the North; + mechanics in Cincinnati; + servants on Ohio river vessels, + +New Hampshire, + exterminated slavery, + +New Jersey, + abolished slavery + +New York, + abolition of slavery in; + friends of fugitives in; + mobs of, attack Negroes; + Negro suffrage in; + restrictions of, on Negroes, + +North Carolina, + Negro suffrage in; + Quakers of, promoting the migration of the Negroes; + reaction in, + +North, + change in attitude of, toward the Negro; + divided in its sentiment as to method of helping the Negro; + favorable sentiment of; + trade of, with the South; + fugitives not generally welcomed; + its Negro problem; + housing the Negro in; + criminal class of Negroes in, + loss of interest of, in the Negro; + not a place of refuge for Negroes; + +Northwest, + few Negroes in, at first; + hesitation to go there because of the ordinance of 1787, + +Noyes Academy, + broken up because it admitted Negroes, + +Nugent, Colonel W.L., + interest in stopping the exodus to Kansas, + +Occupations of Negroes in the North, + +Ohio, + Negro question in constitutional convention of; + in the legislature of 1804; + black laws of; + protest against Negroes, + +Oklahoma, + Negroes in; + discouraged by early settlers of, + +Ordinance of 1784 rejected, + +Ordinance of 1787, + passed; + meaning of sixth article of; + reasons for the passage of; + did not at first disturb slavery; + construction of, + +Otis, James, + on natural rights, + +Pacific Railroad, + proposal to build, with refugee labor, + +Palmyra, + race prejudice of, + +Pelham, Robert A., + father of, moved to Detroit, + +Penn, William, + advocate of emancipation, + +Pennsylvania, + effort in, to force free Negroes to support their dependents; + effort to prevent immigration of Negroes; + increase in the population of free Negroes of; + petitions to rid the State of Negroes by colonization; + era of good feeling in; + exterminated slavery; + the migration of freedmen from North Carolina to; + Negro suffrage in; + passed laws against Negro mechanics; + successful Negroes of, + +Peonage, + a cause of migration, + +Philadelphia, + Negroes rush to; + race friction of; + woman of color stoned to death; + Negro church disturbed; + reaction against Negroes; + riots in; + successful Negroes of; + property owned by Negroes, + +Pierce, E.S., + plan for handling refugees in South Carolina, + +Pinchback, P.B.S., + return of, from Ohio to Louisiana to enter politics, + +Pittman, Philip, + account of West, of, + +Pittsburgh, + friends of fugitives in; + Negro of, married to French woman; + kind treatment of refugees; + respectable mulatto woman married to a surgeon of Nantes; + riot in, + +Platt, William, + a lumber merchant, + +Political power, + not to be the only aim of the migrants; + the mistakes of such a policy, + +Polities, + a cause of unrest, + +Pollard, N.W., + agent of the Government of Trinidad, sought Negroes in the United +States, + +Portsmouth, + friends of fugitives of, + +Portsmouth, Ohio, + mob of, drives Negroes out; + progressive Negroes of, + +Prairie du Rocher, + slaves of, + +Press comments on sending Negroes to Africa, + +Puritans, + not much interested in the Negro, + + +Quakers, + promoted the movement of the blacks to Western territory; + in the mountains assisted fugitives, + + +Race prejudice, + the effects of; + among laboring classes, + +Randolph, John, + a colonizationist; + sought to settle his slaves in Mercer County, Ohio, + +Reaction against the Negro, + +Reconstruction, + promoted to an extent by Negro natives of North, + +Redpath, James, + interest of, in colonization, + +Refugees assembled in camps; + in West; + in Washington; + in South; + exodus of, to the North; + fear that they would overrun the North; + development of; + vagrancy at close of war, + +Renault, Philip Francis, + imported slaves, + +Resolutions of the Vicksburg Convention bearing on the exodus to +Kansas, + +Rhode Island, + exterminated slavery, + +Richards, Benjamin, + a wealthy Negro of Pittsburgh, + +Richard, Fannie M., + a successful teacher in Detroit, + +Riley, William H., + a well-to-do bootmaker, + +Ringold, Thomas, + advertisement of, for a slave in the West, + +Rochester, + friends of fugitives in, + + +Saint John, Governor, + aid of, to the Negroes in Kansas, + +Sandy Lake, + Negro settlement in, + +Saunders of Cabell County, Virginia, + sent manumitted slaves to Cass County, Michigan, + +Saxton, General Rufus, + plan for handling refugees in South Carolina, + +Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, + favorable to fugitives, + +Scott, Henry, + owner of a pickling business, + +Scroggs, Wm. O., + referred to as authority on interstate migration, + +Segregation, + a cause of migration, + +Shelby County, Ohio, + Negroes in, + +Sierra Leone, + Negroes of, settled in Jamaica, + +Simmons, W.J., + returned from Pennsylvania to Kentucky, + +Singleton, Moses, + leader of the exodus from Kansas, + +Sixth Article of Ordinance of 1787, + +Slave Code in Louisiana, + +Slavery in the Northwest; + slavery in Indiana; + slavery of whites, + +Slaves, + mingled freely with their masters in early West, + +Smith, Gerrit, + effort to colonize Negroes in New York, + +Smith, Stephen, + a lumber merchant, + +South Carolina, + slavery considered profitable there, + +South, + change of attitude of, toward the Negro; + drastic laws against vagrancy, + +Southern States divided on the Negro, + +Spears, Noah, + sent his manumitted slaves to Greene County, Ohio, + +Starr, Frederick, + comment of, on the refugees, + +Steubenville, + successful Negroes of, + +Still, William, + a coal merchant, + +St. Philippe, + slaves of, + +Success of Negro migrants, + +Suffrage of the Negroes in the colonies, + + +Tappan, Arthur, + attacked by New York mob, + +Tappan, Lewis, + attacked by New York mob, + +Terrorism, + a cause of migration, + +Texas, + drain of laborers to; + proposed colony of Negroes there, + +Thomas, General, + opened farms for refugees, + +Thompson, A.V., + a tailor, + +Thompson, C.M., + comment on freedmen's vagrancy, + +Topp, W.H., + a merchant tailor, + +Trades unions, + attitude of, toward Negro labor, + +Trinidad, + the exodus of Negroes to; + Negroes from Philadelphia settled there, + +Turner, Bishop H.M., + interested in sending Negroes to Africa, + + +Upper and Lower Camps of Brown County, Ohio, + Negroes of, + +Upper Louisiana, + conditions of; + conditions of slaves in, + +Unrest of the Negroes in the South after Reconstruction; + causes of; + credit system a cause; + land system a cause; + further unrest of intelligent Negroes, + +Utica, + mob of, attacked anti-slavery leaders, + + +Vagrancy of Negroes after emancipation; + drastic legislation against, + +Vermont, + exterminated slavery, + +Vicksburg, + Convention of, to stop the Exodus, + +Viner, M., + mentioned slave settlements in West, + +Virginia, + disfranchisement of Negroes in; + Quakers of, promoting the migration of the Negroes; + reaction in; + refugees in, + +Vorhees, Senator D.W., + offered a resolution in Senate inquiring into the exodus to Kansas, + + +Washington, Judge Bushrod, + a colonizationist, + +Washington, D.C., + refugees in; + the migration of Negro politicians to, + +Wattles, Augustus, + settled with Negroes in Mercer County, Ohio, + +Watts, + steam engine and the industrial revolution, + +Wayne County, Indiana, + freedmen settled in, + +Webb, William, + interest of, in colonization, + +Wenyam, James, + ran away to the West, + +West Indies, + attractive to free Negroes, + +West Virginia, + exodus of Negroes to, + +White, David, + led a company of Negroes to the Northwest, + +White, J.T., + left Indiana to enter politics in Arkansas, + +Whites of South refused to work, + +Whitfield, James M., + interest of, in colonization, + +Whitney's cotton gin and the industrial revolution, + +Wickham, + executor of Samuel Gist, settled Gist's Negroes in Ohio, + +Wilberforce University established at a slave settlement, + +Wilcox, Samuel T., + a merchant of Cincinnati, + +Yankees, + comment of, on Negro labor, + +York, + Negroes of; + trouble with the Negroes of, + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's A Century of Negro Migration, by Carter G. 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For +example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at: + + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/2/3/10234 + +or filename 24689 would be found at: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/8/24689 + +An alternative method of locating eBooks: + https://www.gutenberg.org/GUTINDEX.ALL + + diff --git a/old/10968-8.zip b/old/10968-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6318b28 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/10968-8.zip diff --git a/old/10968.txt b/old/10968.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0ceb35a --- /dev/null +++ b/old/10968.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7237 @@ +Project Gutenberg's A Century of Negro Migration, by Carter G. Woodson + +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: A Century of Negro Migration + +Author: Carter G. Woodson + +Release Date: February 6, 2004 [EBook #10968] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A CENTURY OF NEGRO MIGRATION *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Andy Schmitt and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + +[Transcriber's note: The spelling inconsistencies of the original are +preserved in this etext.] + + + + +A CENTURY OF NEGRO MIGRATION + +Carter G. Woodson + + + + +TO MY FATHER + +JAMES WOODSON + +WHO MADE IT POSSIBLE FOR ME TO ENTER THE LITERARY WORLD + + + + +A CENTURY OF NEGRO MIGRATION + + + + +PREFACE + + +In treating this movement of the Negroes, the writer does not presume to +say the last word on the subject. The exodus of the Negroes from the South +has just begun. The blacks have recently realized that they have freedom +of body and they will now proceed to exercise that right. To presume, +therefore, to exhaust the treatment of this movement in its incipiency is +far from the intention of the writer. The aim here is rather to direct +attention to this new phase of Negro American life which will doubtless +prove to be the most significant event in our local history since the +Civil War. + +Many of the facts herein set forth have seen light before. The effort here +is directed toward an original treatment of facts, many of which have +already periodically appeared in some form. As these works, however, are +too numerous to be consulted by the layman, the writer has endeavored to +present in succinct form the leading facts as to how the Negroes in the +United States have struggled under adverse circumstances to flee from +bondage and oppression in quest of a land offering asylum to the oppressed +and opportunity to the unfortunate. How they have often been deceived has +been carefully noted. + +With the hope that this volume may interest another worker to the extent +of publishing many other facts in this field, it is respectfully submitted +to the public. + +CARTER G. WOODSON. + +Washington, D.C., March 31, 1918. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +I.--Finding a Place of Refuge + +II.--A Transplantation to the North + +III.--Fighting it out on Free Soil + +IV.--Colonization as a Remedy for Migration + +V.--The Successful Migrant + +VI.--Confusing Movements + +VII.--The Exodus to the West + +VIII.--The Migration of the Talented Tenth + +IX.--The Exodus during the World War + +BIBLIOGRAPHY + +INDEX + + + +MAPS AND DIAGRAMS + + +Map Showing the Per Cent of Negroes in Total Population, by States: 1910 + +Diagram Showing the Negro Population of Northern and Western Cities in +1900 and 1910 + +Maps Showing Counties in Southern States in which Negroes Formed 50 Per +Cent of the Total Population + + + + +CHAPTER I + +FINDING A PLACE OF REFUGE + + +The migration of the blacks from the Southern States to those offering +them better opportunities is nothing new. The objective here, therefore, +will be not merely to present the causes and results of the recent +movement of the Negroes to the North but to connect this event with the +periodical movements of the blacks to that section, from about the year +1815 to the present day. That this movement should date from that period +indicates that the policy of the commonwealths towards the Negro must have +then begun decidedly to differ so as to make one section of the country +more congenial to the despised blacks than the other. As a matter of fact, +to justify this conclusion, we need but give passing mention here to +developments too well known to be discussed in detail. Slavery in the +original thirteen States was the normal condition of the Negroes. When, +however, James Otis, Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson began to discuss +the natural rights of the colonists, then said to be oppressed by Great +Britain, some of the patriots of the Revolution carried their reasoning to +its logical conclusion, contending that the Negro slaves should be freed +on the same grounds, as their rights were also founded in the laws of +nature.[1] And so it was soon done in most Northern commonwealths. + +Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts exterminated the institution by +constitutional provision and Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, New +York and Pennsylvania by gradual emancipation acts.[2] And it was thought +that the institution would soon thereafter pass away even in all southern +commonwealths except South Carolina and Georgia, where it had seemingly +become profitable. There came later the industrial revolution following +the invention of Watt's steam engine and mechanical appliances like +Whitney's cotton gin, all which changed the economic aspect of the modern +world, making slavery an institution offering means of exploitation to +those engaged in the production of cotton. This revolution rendered +necessary a large supply of cheap labor for cotton culture, out of which +the plantation system grew. The Negro slaves, therefore, lost all hope of +ever winning their freedom in South Carolina and Georgia; and in Maryland, +Virginia, and North Carolina, where the sentiment in favor of abolition +had been favorable, there was a decided reaction which soon blighted their +hopes.[3] In the Northern commonwealths, however, the sentiment in behalf +of universal freedom, though at times dormant, was ever apparent despite +the attachment to the South of the trading classes of northern cities, +which profited by the slave trade and their commerce with the slaveholding +States. The Northern States maintaining this liberal attitude developed, +therefore, into an asylum for the Negroes who were oppressed in the South. + +The Negroes, however, were not generally welcomed in the North. Many of +the northerners who sympathized with the oppressed blacks in the South +never dreamt of having them as their neighbors. There were, consequently, +always two classes of anti-slavery people, those who advocated the +abolition of slavery to elevate the blacks to the dignity of citizenship, +and those who merely hoped to exterminate the institution because it was +an economic evil.[4] The latter generally believed that the blacks +constituted an inferior class that could not discharge the duties of +citizenship, and when the proposal to incorporate the blacks into the body +politic was clearly presented to these agitators their anti-slavery ardor +was decidedly dampened. Unwilling, however, to take the position that a +race should be doomed because of personal objections, many of the early +anti-slavery group looked toward colonization for a solution of this +problem.[5] Some thought of Africa, but since the deportation of a large +number of persons who had been brought under the influence of modern +civilization seemed cruel, the most popular colonization scheme at first +seemed to be that of settling the Negroes on the public lands in the West. +As this region had been lately ceded, however, and no one could determine +what use could be made of it by white men, no such policy was generally +accepted. + +When this territory was ceded to the United States an effort to provide +for the government of it finally culminated in the proposed Ordinance of +1784 carrying the provision that slavery should not exist in the Northwest +Territory after the year 1800.[6] This measure finally failed to pass and +fortunately too, thought some, because, had slavery been given sixteen +years of growth on that soil, it might not have been abolished there until +the Civil War or it might have caused such a preponderance of slave +commonwealths as to make the rebellion successful. The Ordinance of 1784 +was antecedent to the more important Ordinance of 1787, which carried the +famous sixth article that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude except +as a punishment for crime should exist in that territory. At first, it was +generally deemed feasible to establish Negro colonies on that domain. Yet +despite the assurance of the Ordinance of 1787 conditions were such that +one could not determine exactly whether the Northwest Territory would be +slave or free.[7] + +What then was the situation in this partly unoccupied territory? Slavery +existed in what is now the Northwest Territory from the time of the early +exploration and settlement of that region by the French. The first slaves +of white men were Indians. Though it is true that the red men usually +chose death rather than slavery, there were some of them that bowed to the +yoke. So many Pawnee Indians became bondsmen that the word _Pani_ +became synonymous with slave in the West.[8] Western Indians themselves, +following the custom of white men, enslaved their captives in war rather +than choose the alternative of putting them to death. In this way they +were known to hold a number of blacks and whites. + +The enslavement of the black man by the whites in this section dates from +the early part of the eighteenth century. Being a part of the Louisiana +Territory which under France extended over the whole Mississippi Valley as +far as the Allegheny mountains, it was governed by the same colonial +regulations.[9] Slavery, therefore, had legal standing in this territory. +When Antoine Crozat, upon being placed in control of Louisiana, was +authorized to begin a traffic in slaves, Crozat himself did nothing to +carry out his plan. But in 1717 when the control of the colony was +transferred to the _Compagnie de l'Occident_ steps were taken toward +the importation of slaves. In 1719, when 500 Guinea Negroes were brought +over to serve in Lower Louisiana, Philip Francis Renault imported 500 +other bondsmen into Upper Louisiana or what was later included in the +Northwest Territory. Slavery then became more and more extensive until by +1750 there were along the Mississippi five settlements of slaves, +Kaskaskia, Kaokia, Fort Chartres, St. Phillipe and Prairie du Rocher.[10] +In 1763 Negroes were relatively numerous in the Northwest Territory but +when this section that year was transferred to the British the number was +diminished by the action of those Frenchmen who, unwilling to become +subjects of Great Britain, moved from the territory.[11] There was no +material increase in the slave population thereafter until the end of the +eighteenth century when some Negroes came from the original thirteen. + +The Ordinance of 1787 did not disturb the relation of slave and master. +Some pioneers thought that the sixth article exterminated slavery there; +others contended that it did not. The latter believed that such +expressions in the Ordinance of 1787 as the "free inhabitants" and the +"free male inhabitants of full size" implied the continuance of slavery +and others found ground for its perpetuation in that clause of the +Ordinance which allowed the people of the territory to adopt the +constitution and laws of any one of the thirteen States. Students of law +saw protection for slavery in Jay's treaty which guaranteed to the +settlers their property of all kinds.[12] When, therefore, the slave +question came up in the Northwest Territory about the close of the +eighteenth century, there were three classes of slaves: first, those who +were in servitude to French owners previous to the cession of the +Territory to England and were still claimed as property in the possession +of which the owners were protected under the treaty of 1763; second, those +who were held by British owners at the time of Jay's treaty and claimed +afterward as property under its protection; and third, those who, since +the Territory had been controlled by the United States, had been brought +from the commonwealths in which slavery was allowed.[13] Freedom, however, +was recognized as the ultimate status of the Negro in that territory. + +This question having been seemingly settled, Anthony Benezet, who for +years advocated the abolition of slavery and devoted his time and means to +the preparation of the Negroes for living as freedmen, was practical +enough to recommend to the Congress of the Confederation a plan of +colonizing the emancipated blacks on the western lands.[14] Jefferson +incorporated into his scheme for a modern system of public schools the +training of the slaves in industrial and agricultural branches to equip +them for a higher station in life. He believed, however, that the blacks +not being equal to the white race should not be assimilated and should +they be free, they should, by all means, be colonized afar off.[15] +Thinking that the western lands might be so used, he said in writing to +James Monroe in 1801: "A very great extent of country north of the Ohio +has been laid off in townships, and is now at market, according to the +provisions of the act of Congress.... There is nothing," said he, "which +would restrain the State of Virginia either in the purchase or the +application of these lands."[16] Yet he raised the question as to whether +the establishment of such a colony within our limits and to become a part +of the Union would be desirable. He thought then of procuring a place +beyond the limits of the United States on our northern boundary, by +purchasing the Indian lands with the consent of Great Britain. He then +doubted that the black race would live in such a rigorous climate. + +This plan did not easily pass from the minds of the friends of the slaves, +for in 1805 Thomas Brannagan asserted in his _Serious Remonstrances_ +that the government should appropriate a few thousand acres of land at +some distant part of the national domains for the Negroes' accommodation +and support. He believed that the new State might be established upwards +of 2,000 miles from our frontier.[17] A copy of the pamphlet containing +this proposition was sent to Thomas Jefferson, who was impressed thereby, +but not having the courage to brave the torture of being branded as a +friend of the slave, he failed to give it his support.[18] The same +question was brought prominently before the public again in 1816 when +there was presented to the House of Representatives a memorial from the +Kentucky Abolition Society praying that the free people of color be +colonized on the public lands. The committee to whom the memorial was +referred for consideration reported that it was expedient to refuse the +request on the ground that, as such lands were not granted to free white +men, they saw no reason for granting them to others.[19] + +Some Negro slaves unwilling to wait to be carried or invited to the +Northwest Territory escaped to that section even when it was controlled by +the French prior to the American Revolution. Slaves who reached the West +by this route caused trouble between the French and the British colonists. +Advertising in 1746 for James Wenyam, a slave, Richard Colgate, his +master, said that he swore to a Negro whom he endeavored to induce to go +with him, that he had often been in the backwoods with his master and that +he would go to the French and Indians and fight for them.[20] In an +advertisement for a mulatto slave in 1755 Thomas Ringold, his master, +expressed fear that he had escaped by the same route to the French. He, +therefore, said: "It seems to be the interest, at least, of every +gentleman that has slaves, to be active in the beginning of these +attempts, for whilst we have the French such near neighbors, we shall not +have the least security in that kind of property."[21] + +The good treatment which these slaves received among the French, and +especially at Pittsburgh the gateway to the Northwest Territory, tended to +make that city an asylum for those slaves who had sufficient spirit of +adventure to brave the wilderness through which they had to go. Negroes +even then had the idea that there was in this country a place of more +privilege than those they enjoyed in the seaboard colonies. Knowing of the +likelihood of the Negroes to rise during the French and Indian War, +Governor Dinwiddie wrote Fox one of the Secretaries of State in 1756: "We +dare not venture to part with any of our white men any distance, as we +must have a watchful eye over our Negro slaves, who are upward of one +hundred thousand."[22] Brissot de Warville mentions in his _Travels of +1788_ several examples of marriages of white and blacks in Pittsburgh. +He noted the case of a Negro who married an indentured French servant +woman. Out of this union came a desirable mulatto girl who married a +surgeon of Nantes then stationed at Pittsburgh. His family was considered +one of the most respectable of the city. The Negro referred to was doing a +creditable business and his wife took it upon herself to welcome +foreigners, especially the French, who came that way. Along the Ohio also +there were several cases of women of color living with unmarried white men; +but this was looked upon by the Negroes as detestable as was evidenced by +the fact that, if black women had a quarrel with a mulatto woman, the +former would reproach the latter for being of ignoble blood.[23] + +These tendencies, however, could not assure the Negro that the Northwest +Territory was to be an asylum for freedom when in 1763 it passed into the +hands of the British, the promoters of the slave trade, and later to the +independent colonies, two of which had no desire to exterminate slavery. +Furthermore, when the Ordinance of 1787 with its famous sixth article +against slavery was proclaimed, it was soon discovered that this document +was not necessarily emancipatory. As the right to hold slaves was +guaranteed to those who owned them prior to the passage of the Ordinance +of 1787, it was to be expected that those attached to that institution +would not indifferently see it pass away. Various petitions, therefore, +were sent to the territorial legislature and to Congress praying that the +sixth article of the Ordinance of 1787 be abrogated.[24] No formal action +to this effect was taken, but the practice of slavery was continued even +at the winking of the government. Some slaves came from the Canadians who, +in accordance with the slave trade laws of the British Empire, were +supplied with bondsmen. It was the Canadians themselves who provided by +act of parliament in 1793 for prohibiting the importation of slaves and +for gradual emancipation. When it seemed later that the cause of freedom +would eventually triumph the proslavery element undertook to perpetuate +slavery through a system of indentured servant labor. + +In the formation of the States of Indiana and Illinois the question as to +what should be done to harmonize with the new constitution the system of +indenture to which the territorial legislatures had been committed, caused +heated debate and at times almost conflict. Both Indiana[25] and +Illinois[26] finally incorporated into their constitutions compromise +provisions for a nominal prohibition of slavery modified by clauses for +the continuation of the system of indentured labor of the Negroes held to +service. The proslavery party persistently struggled for some years to +secure by the interpretation of the laws, by legislation and even by +amending the constitution so to change the fundamental law as to provide +for actual slavery. These States, however, gradually worked toward freedom +in keeping with the spirit of the majority who framed the constitution, +despite the fact that the indenture system in southern Illinois and +especially in Indiana was at times tantamount to slavery as it was +practiced in parts of the South. + +It must be borne in mind here, however, that the North at this time was +far from becoming a place of refuge for Negroes. In the first place, the +industrial revolution had not then had time to reduce the Negroes to the +plane of beasts in the cotton kingdom. The rigorous climate and the +industries of the northern people, moreover, were not inviting to the +blacks and the development of the carrying trade and the rise of +manufacturing there did not make that section more attractive to unskilled +labor. Furthermore, when we consider the fact that there were many +thousands of Negroes in the Southern States the presence of a few in the +North must be regarded as insignificant. This paucity of blacks then +obtained especially in the Northwest Territory, for its French inhabitants +instead of being an exploiting people were pioneering, having little use +for slaves in carrying out their policy of merely holding the country for +France. Moreover, like certain gentlemen from Virginia, who after the +American Revolution were afraid to bring their slaves with them to occupy +their bounty lands in Ohio, few enterprising settlers from the slave +States had invaded the territory with their Negroes, not knowing whether +or not they would be secure in the possession of such property. When we +consider that in 1810 there were only 102,137 Negroes in the North and no +more than 3,454 in the Northwest Territory, we must look to the second +decade of the nineteenth century for the beginning of the migration of the +Negroes in the United States. + + +[Footnote 1: Locke, _Anti-Slavery_, pp. 19, 20, 23; _Works of John +Woolman_, pp. 58, 73; and Moore, _Notes on Slavery in Massachusetts_, +p. 71.] + +[Footnote 2: Bassett, _Federalist System_, chap. xii. Hart, +_Slavery and Abolition_, pp. 153, 154.] + +[Footnote 3: Turner, _The Rise of the New West_, pp. 45, 46, 47, 48, +49; Hammond, _Cotton Industry_, chaps. i and ii; Scherer, _Cotton +as a World Power_, pp. 168, 175.] + +[Footnote 4: Locke, _Anti-Slavery_, chaps. i and ii.] + +[Footnote 5: Jay, _An Inquiry_, p. 30.] + +[Footnote 6: Ford edition, _Jefferson's Writings_, III, p. 432.] + +[Footnote 7: For the passage of this ordinance three reasons have been +given: Slavery then prior to the invention of the cotton gin was +considered a necessary evil in the South. The expected monopoly of the +tobacco and indigo cultivation in the South would be promoted by excluding +Negroes from the Northwest Territory and thus preventing its cultivation +there. Dr. Cutler's influence aided by Mr. Grayson of Virginia was of much +assistance. The philanthropic idea was not so prominent as men have +thought.--Dunn, _Indiana_, p. 212.] + +[Footnote 8: _Ibid_., p. 254.] + +[Footnote 9: _Code Noir_.] + +[Footnote 10: Speaking of these settlements in 1750, M. Viner, a Jesuit +Missionary to the Indians, said: "We have here Whites, Negroes, and +Indians, to say nothing of cross-breeds--There are five French villages +and three villages of the natives within a space of twenty-one leagues--In +the five French villages there are perhaps eleven hundred whites, three +hundred blacks, and some sixty red slaves or savages." Unlike the +condition of the slaves in Lower Louisiana where the rigid enforcement of +the Slave Code made their lives almost intolerable, the slaves of the +Northwest Territory were for many reasons much more fortunate. In the +first place, subject to the control of a mayor-commandant appointed by the +Governor of New Orleans, the early dwellers in this territory managed +their plantations about as they pleased. Moreover, as there were few +planters who owned as many as three or four Negroes, slavery in the +Northwest Territory did not get far beyond the patriarchal stage. Slaves +were usually well fed. The relations between master and slave were +friendly. The bondsmen were allowed special privileges on Sundays and +holidays and their children were taught the catechism according to the +ordinance of Louis XIV in 1724, which provided that all masters should +educate their slaves in the Apostolic Catholic religion and have them +baptized. Male slaves were worked side by side in the fields with their +masters and the female slaves in neat attire went with their mistresses to +matins and vespers. Slaves freely mingled in practically all festive +enjoyments.--See _Jesuit Relations_, LXIX, p. 144; Hutchins, _An +Historical Narrative_, 1784; and _Code Noir_.] + +[Footnote 11: Mention was thereafter made of slaves as in the case of +Captain Philip Pittman who in 1770 wrote of one Mr. Beauvais, "who owned +240 orpens of cultivated land and eighty slaves; and such a case as that +of a Captain of a militia at St. Philips, possessing twenty blacks; and +the case of Mr. Bales, a very rich man of St. Genevieve, Illinois, owning +a hundred Negroes, beside having white people constantly employed."--See +Captain Pittman's _The Present State of the European Settlements in the +Mississippi_, 1770.] + +[Footnote 12: Dunn, _Indiana_, chap. vi.] + +[Footnote 13: Hinsdale, _Old Northwest_, p. 350.] + +[Footnote 14: _Tyrannical Libertymen_, pp. 10, 11; Locke, +_Anti-Slavery_, pp. 31, 32; Brannagan, _Serious Remonstrance_, +p. 18.] + +[Footnote 15: Washington edition of _Jefferson's Writings_, chap. vi, +p. 456, and chap. viii, p. 380.] + +[Footnote 16: Ford edition of _Jefferson's Writings_, III, p. 244; +IX, p. 303; X, pp. 76, 290.] + +[Footnote 17: Brannagan, _Serious Remonstrances_, p. 18.] + +[Footnote 18: Library edition of _Jefferson's Writings_, X, pp. 295, +296.] + +[Footnote 19: Adams, _Neglected Period of Anti-Slavery_, pp. 129, +130.] + +[Footnote 20: _The Pennsylvania Gazette_, July 31, 1746.] + +[Footnote 21: _The Maryland Gazette_, March 20, 1755.] + +[Footnote 22: _Washington's Writings_, II, p. 134.] + +[Footnote 23: Brissot de Warville, _New Travels_, II, pp. 33-34.] + +[Footnote 24: Harris, _Slavery in Illinois_, chaps. iii, iv, and v; +Dunn, _Indiana_, pp. 218-260; Hinsdale, _Old Northwest_, pp. +351-358.] + +[Footnote 25: This code provided that all male Negroes under fifteen, +years of age either owned or acquired must remain in servitude until they +reached the age of thirty-five and female slaves until thirty-two. The +male children of such persons held to service could be bound out for +thirty years and the female children for twenty-eight. Slaves brought into +the territory had to comply with contracts for terms of service when their +master registered them within thirty days from the time he brought them +into the territory. Indentured black servants were not exactly sold, but +the law permitted the transfer from one owner to another when the slave +acquiesced in the transfer before a notary, but it was often done without +regard to the slave. They were even bequeathed and sold as personal +property at auction. Notices for sale were frequent. There were rewards +for runaway slaves. Negroes whose terms had almost expired were kidnapped +and sold to New Orleans. The legislature imposed a penalty for such, but +it was not generally enforced. They were taxable property valued according +to the length of service. Negroes served as laborers on farms, house +servants, and in salt mines, the latter being an excuse for holding them +as slaves. Persons of color could purchase servants of their own race. The +law provided that the Justice of the County could on complaint from the +master order that a lazy servant be whipped. In this frontier section, +therefore, where men often took the law in their own hands, slaves were +often punished and abused just as they were in the Southern States. The +law dealing with fugitives was somewhat harsh. When apprehended, fugitives +had to serve two days extra for each day they lost from their master's +service. The harboring of a runaway slave was punishable by a fine of one +day for each the slave might be concealed. Consistently too with the +provision of the laws in most slave States, slaves could retain all goods +or money lawfully acquired during their servitude provided their master +gave his consent. Upon the demonstration of proof to the county court that +they had served their term they could obtain from that tribunal +certificates of freedom. See _The Laws of Indiana_.] + +[Footnote 26: Masters had to provide adequate food, and clothing and good +lodging for the slave, but the penalty for failing to comply with this law +was not clear and even if so, it happened that many masters never observed +it. There was also an effort to prevent cruelty to slaves, but it was +difficult to establish the guilt of masters when the slave could not bear +witness against his owner and it was not likely that the neighbor equally +guilty or indifferent to the complaints of the blacks would take their +petitions to court. + +Under this system a large number of slaves were brought into the Territory +especially after 1807. There were 135 in 1800. This increase came from +Kentucky and Tennessee. As those brought were largely boys and girls with +a long period of service, this form of slavery was assured for some years. +The children of these blacks were often registered for thirty-five instead +of thirty years of service on the ground that they were not born in +Illinois. No one thought of persecuting a master for holding servants +unlawfully and Negroes themselves could be easily deceived. Very few +settlers brought their slaves there to free them. There were only 749 in +1820. If one considers the proportion of this to the number brought there +for manumission this seems hardly true. It is better to say that during +these first two decades of the nineteenth century some settlers came for +both purposes, some to hold slaves, some, as Edward Coles, to free them. +It was not only practiced in the southern part along the Mississippi and +Ohio but as far north in Illinois as Sangamon County, were found servants +known as "yellow boys" and "colored girls."--See the _Laws of +Illinois_.] + + + +CHAPTER II + +A TRANSPLANTATION TO THE NORTH + + +Just after the settlement of the question of holding the western posts by +the British and the adjustment of the trouble arising from their capture +of slaves during our second war with England, there started a movement of +the blacks to this frontier territory. But, as there were few towns or +cities in the Northwest during the first decades of the new republic, the +flight of the Negro into that territory was like that of a fugitive taking +his chances in the wilderness. Having lost their pioneering spirit in +passing through the ordeal of slavery, not many of the bondmen took flight +in that direction and few free Negroes ventured to seek their fortunes in +those wilds during the period of the frontier conditions, especially when +the country had not then undergone a thorough reaction against the Negro. + +The migration of the Negroes, however, received an impetus early in the +nineteenth century. This came from the Quakers, who by the middle of the +eighteenth century had taken the position that all members of their sect +should free their slaves.[1] The Quakers of North Carolina and Virginia +had as early as 1740 taken up the serious question of humanely treating +their Negroes. The North Carolina Quakers advised Friends to emancipate +their slaves, later prohibited traffic in them, forbade their members from +even hiring the blacks out in 1780 and by 1818 had exterminated the +institution among their communicants.[2] After healing themselves of the +sin, they had before the close of the eighteenth century militantly +addressed themselves to the task of abolishing slavery and the slave trade +throughout the world. Differing in their scheme from that of most +anti-slavery leaders, they were advocating the establishment of the +freedmen in society as good citizens and to that end had provided for the +religious and mental instruction of their slaves prior to emancipating +them.[3] + +Despite the fact that the Quakers were not free to extend their operations +throughout the colonies, they did much to enable the Negroes to reach free +soil. As the Quakers believed in the freedom of the will, human +brotherhood, and equality before God, they did not, like the Puritans, +find difficulties in solving the problem of elevating the Negroes. Whereas +certain Puritans were afraid that conversion might lead to the destruction +of caste and the incorporation of undesirable persons into the "Body +Politick," the Quakers proceeded on the principle that all men are +brethren and, being equal before God, should be considered equal before +the law. On account of unduly emphasizing the relation of man to God, the +Puritans "atrophied their social humanitarian instinct" and developed into +a race of self-conscious saints. Believing in human nature and laying +stress upon the relation between man and man, the Quakers became the +friends of all humanity.[4] + +In 1693 George Keith, a leading Quaker of his day, came forward as a +promoter of the religious training of the slaves as a preparation for +emancipation. William Penn advocated the emancipation of slaves, that they +might have every opportunity for improvement. In 1695 the Quakers while +protesting against the slave trade denounced also the policy of neglecting +their moral and spiritual welfare.[5] The growing interest of this sect in +the Negroes was shown later by the development in 1713 of a definite +scheme for freeing and returning them to Africa after having been educated +and trained to serve as missionaries on that continent. + +When the manumission of the slaves was checked by the reaction against +that class and it became more of a problem to establish them in a hostile +environment, certain Quakers of North Carolina and Virginia adopted the +scheme of settling them in Northern States.[6] At first, they sent such +freedmen to Pennsylvania. But for various reasons this did not prove to be +the best asylum. In the first place, Pennsylvania bordered on the slave +States, Maryland and Virginia, from which agents came to kidnap free +Negroes. Furthermore, too many Negroes were already rushing to that +commonwealth as the Negroes' heaven and there was the chance that the +Negroes might be settled elsewhere in the North, where they might have +better economic opportunities.[7] A committee of forty was accordingly +appointed by North Carolina Quakers in 1822 to examine the laws of other +free States with a view to determining what section would be most suitable +for colonizing these blacks. This committee recommended in its report that +the blacks be colonized in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. + +The yearly meeting, therefore, ordered the removal of such Negroes as fast +as they were willing or as might be consistent with the profession of +their sect, and instructed the agents effecting the removal to draw on the +treasury for any sum not exceeding two hundred dollars to defray expenses. +An increasing number reached these States every year but, owing to the +inducements offered by the American Colonization Society, some of them +went to Liberia. When Liberia, however, developed into every thing but a +haven of rest, the number sent to the settlements in the Northwest greatly +increased. + +The quarterly meeting succeeded in sending to the West 133 Negroes, +including 23 free blacks and slaves given up because they were connected +by marriage with those to be transplanted.[8] The Negro colonists seemed +to prefer Indiana.[9] They went in three companies and with suitable young +Friends to whom were executed powers of attorney to manumit, set free, +settle and bind them out.[10] Thirteen carts and wagons were bought for +these three companies; $1,250 was furnished for their traveling expenses +and clothing, the whole cost amounting to $2,490. It was planned to send +forty or fifty to Long Island and twenty to the interior of Pennsylvania, +but they failed to prosper and reports concerning them stamped them as +destitute and deplorably ignorant. Those who went to Ohio and Indiana, +however, did well.[11] + +Later we receive another interesting account of this exodus. David White +led a company of fifty-three into the West, thirty-eight of whom belonged +to Friends, five to a member who had ordered that they be taken West at +his expense. Six of these slaves belonged to Samuel Lawrence, a Negro +slaveholder, who had purchased himself and family. White pathetically +reports the case of four of the women who had married slave husbands and +had twenty children for the possession of whom the Friends had to stand a +lawsuit in the courts. The women had decided to leave their husbands +behind but the thought of separation so tormented them that they made an +effort to secure their liberty. Upon appealing to their masters for terms +the owners, somewhat moved by compassion, sold them for one half of their +value. White then went West and left four in Chillicothe, twenty-three in +Leesburg and twenty-six in Wayne County, Indiana, without encountering any +material difficulty.[12] + +Others had thought of this plan but the Quakers actually carried it out on +a small scale. Here we see again not only their desire to have the Negroes +emancipated but the vital interest of the Quakers in success of the +blacks, for members of this sect not only liberated their slaves but sold +out their own holdings in the South and moved with these freedmen into the +North. Quakers who then lived in free States offered fugitives material +assistance by open and clandestine methods.[13] The most prominent leader +developed by the movement was Levi Coffin, whose daring deeds in behalf of +the fugitives made him the reputed President of the Underground Railroad. +Most of the Quaker settlements of Negroes with which he was connected were +made in what is now Hamilton, Howard, Wayne, Randolph, Vigo, Gibson, +Grant, Rush, and Tipton Counties, Indiana, and Darke County, Ohio. + +The promotion of this movement by the Quakers was well on its way by 1815 +and was not materially checked until the fifties when the operations of +the drastic fugitive slave law interfered, and even then the movement had +gained such momentum and the execution of that mischievous measure had +produced in the North so much reaction like that expressed in the personal +liberty laws, that it could not be stopped. The Negroes found homes in +Western New York, Western Pennsylvania and throughout the Northwest +Territory. The Negro population of York, Harrisburg and Philadelphia +rapidly increased. A settlement of Negroes developed at Sandy Lake in +Northwestern Pennsylvania[14] and there was another near Berlin Cross +Roads in Ohio.[15] A group of Negroes migrating to this same State found +homes in the Van Buren Township of Shelby County.[16] A more significant +settlement in the State was made by Samuel Gist, an Englishman possessing +extensive plantations in Hanover, Amherst, and Henrico Counties, Virginia. +He provided in his will that his slaves should be freed and sent to the +North. He further provided that the revenue from his plantation the last +year of his life be applied in building schoolhouses and churches for +their accommodation, and "that all money coming to him in Virginia be set +aside for the employment of ministers and teachers to instruct them." In +1818, Wickham, the executor of his estate, purchased land and established +these Negroes in what was called the Upper and Lower Camps of Brown +County.[17] + +Augustus Wattles, a Quaker from Connecticut, made a settlement in Mercer +County, Ohio, early in the nineteenth century. In the winter of 1833-4, he +providentially became acquainted with the colored people of Cincinnati, +finding there about "4,000 totally ignorant of every thing calculated to +make good citizens." As most of them had been slaves, excluded from every +avenue of moral and mental improvement, he established for them a school +which he maintained for two years. He then proposed to these Negroes to go +into the country and purchase land to remove them "from those +contaminating influences which had so long crushed them in our cities and +villages."[18] They consented on the condition that he would accompany +them and teach school. He travelled through Canada, Michigan and Indiana, +looking for a suitable location, and finally selected for settlement a +place in Mercer County, Ohio. In 1835, he made the first purchase of land +there for this purpose and before 1838 Negroes had bought there about +30,000 acres, at the earnest appeal of this benefactor, who had travelled +into almost every neighborhood of the blacks in the State, and laid before +them the benefits of a permanent home for themselves and of education for +their children.[19] + +This settlement was further increased in 1858 by the manumitted slaves of +John Harper of North Carolina.[20] John Randolph of Roanoke endeavored to +establish his slaves as freemen in this county but the Germans who had +settled in that community a little ahead of them started such a +disturbance that Randolph's executor could not carry out his plan, +although he had purchased a large tract of land there.[21] It was +necessary to send these freemen to Miami County. Theodoric H. Gregg of +Dinwiddie County, Virginia, liberated his slaves in 1854 and sent them to +Ohio.[22] Nearer to the Civil War, when public opinion was proscribing the +uplift of Negroes in Kentucky, Noah Spears secured near Xenia, Greene +County, Ohio, a small parcel of land for sixteen of his former bondsmen in +1856.[23] Other freedmen found their way to this community in later years +and it became so prosperous that it was selected as the site of +Wilberforce University. + +This transplantation extended into Michigan. With the help of persons +philanthropically inclined there sprang up a flourishing group of Negroes +in Detroit. Early in the nineteenth century they began to acquire property +and to provide for the education of their children. Their record was such +as to merit the encomiums of their fellow white citizens. In later years +this group in Detroit was increased by the operation of laws hostile to +free Negroes in the South in that life for this class not only became +intolerable but necessitated their expatriation. Because of the Virginia +drastic laws and especially that of 1838 prohibiting the return to that +State of such Negro students as had been accustomed to go North to attend +school, after they were denied this privilege at home, the father of +Richard DeBaptiste and Marie Louis More, the mother of Fannie M. Richards, +led a colony of free Negroes from Fredericksburg to Detroit.[24] And for +about similar reasons the father of Robert A. Pelham conducted others from +Petersburg, Virginia, in 1859.[25] One Saunders, a planter of Cabell +County, West Virginia, liberated his slaves some years later and furnished +them homes among the Negroes settled in Cass County, Michigan, about +ninety miles east of Chicago, and ninety-five miles west of Detroit. + +This settlement had become attractive to fugitive slaves and freedmen +because the Quakers settled there welcomed them on their way to freedom +and in some cases encouraged them to remain among them. When the increase +of fugitives was rendered impossible during the fifties when the Fugitive +Slave Law was being enforced, there was still a steady growth due to the +manumission of slaves by sympathetic and benevolent masters in the +South.[26] Most of these Negroes settled in Calvin Township, in that +county, so that of the 1,376 residing there in 1860, 795 were established +in this district, there being only 580 whites dispersed among them. The +Negro settlers did not then obtain control of the government but they +early purchased land to the extent of several thousand acres and developed +into successful small farmers. Being a little more prosperous than the +average Negro community in the North, the Cass County settlement not only +attracted Negroes fleeing from hardships in the South but also those who +had for some years unsuccessfully endeavored to establish themselves in +other communities on free soil.[27] + +These settlements were duplicated a little farther west in Illinois. +Edward Coles, a Virginian, who in 1818 emigrated to Illinois, of which he +later served as Governor and as liberator from slavery, settled his slaves +in that commonwealth. He brought them to Edwardsville, where they +constituted a community known as "Coles' Negroes."[28] There was another +community of Negroes in Illinois in what is now called Brooklyn situated +north of East St. Louis. This town was a center of some consequence in the +thirties. It became a station of the Underground Railroad on the route to +Alton and to Canada. As all of the Negroes who emerged from the South did +not go farther into the North, the black population of the town gradually +grew despite the fact that slave hunters captured and reenslaved many of +the Negroes who settled there.[29] + +These settlements together with favorable communities of sympathetic +whites promoted the migration of the free Negroes and fugitives from the +South by serving as centers offering assistance to those fleeing to the +free States and to Canada. The fugitives usually found friends in +Philadelphia, Columbia, Pittsburgh, Elmira, Rochester, Buffalo, +Gallipolis, Portsmouth, Akron, Cincinnati, and Detroit. They passed on the +way to freedom through Columbia, Philadelphia, Elizabethtown and by way of +sea to New York and Boston, from which they proceeded to permanent +settlements in the North.[30] + +In the West, the migration of the blacks was further facilitated by the +peculiar geographic condition in that the Appalachian highland, extending +like a peninsula into the South, had a natural endowment which produced a +class of white citizens hostile to the institution of slavery. These +mountaineers coming later to the colonies had to go to the hills and +mountains because the first comers from Europe had taken up the land near +the sea. Being of the German and Scotch-Irish Presbyterian stock, they had +ideals differing widely from those of the seaboard slaveholders.[31] The +mountaineers believed in "civil liberty in fee simple, and an open road to +civil honors, secured to the poorest and feeblest members of society." The +eastern element had for their ideal a government of interests for the +people. They believed in liberty but that of kings, lords, and commons, +not of all the people.[32] + +Settled along the Appalachian highland, these new stocks continued to +differ from those dwelling near the sea, especially on the slavery +question.[33] The natural endowment of the mountainous section made +slavery there unprofitable and the mountaineers bore it grievously that +they were attached to commonwealths dominated by the radical pro-slavery +element of the South, who sacrificed all other interests to safeguard +those of the peculiar institution. There developed a number of clashes in +all of the legislatures and constitutional conventions of the Southern +States along the Atlantic, but in every case the defenders of the +interests of slavery won. When, therefore, slaves with the assistance of +anti-slavery mountaineers began to escape to the free States, they had +little difficulty in making their way through the Appalachian region, +where the love of freedom had so set the people against slavery that +although some of them yielded to the inevitable sin, they never made any +systematic effort to protect it.[34] + +The development of the movement in these mountains was more than +interesting. During the first quarter of the nineteenth century there were +many ardent anti-slavery leaders in the mountains. These were not +particularly interested in the Negro but were determined to keep that soil +for freedom that the settlers might there realize the ideals for which +they had left their homes in Europe. When the industrial revolution with +the attendant rise of the plantation cotton culture made abolition in the +South improbable, some of them became colonizationists, hoping to destroy +the institution through deportation, which would remove the objection of +certain masters who would free their slaves provided they were not left in +the States to become a public charge.[35] Some of this sentiment continued +in the mountains even until the Civil War. The highlanders, therefore, +found themselves involved in a continuous embroglio because they were not +moved by reactionary influences which were unifying the South for its bold +effort to make slavery a national institution.[36] The other members of +the mountaineer anti-slavery group became attached to the Underground +Railroad system, endeavoring by secret methods to place on free soil a +sufficiently large number of fugitives to show a decided diminution in the +South.[37] John Brown, who communicated with the South through these +mountains, thought that his work would be a success, if he could change +the situation in one county in each of these States. + +The lines along which these Underground Railroad operators moved connected +naturally with the Quaker settlements established in free States and the +favorable sections in the Appalachian region. Many of these workers were +Quakers who had already established settlements of slaves on estates which +they had purchased in the Northwest Territory. Among these were John +Rankin, James Gilliland, Jesse Lockehart, Robert Dobbins, Samuel Crothers, +Hugh L. Fullerton, and William Dickey. Thus they connected the heart of +the South with the avenues to freedom in the North.[38] There were routes +extending from this section into Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Pennsylvania. +Over the Ohio and Kentucky route culminating chiefly in Cleveland, +Sandusky and Detroit, however, more fugitives made their way to freedom +than through any other avenue,[39] partly too because they found the +limestone caves very helpful for hiding by day. These operations extended +even through Tennessee into northern Georgia and Alabama. Dillingham, +Josiah Henson and Harriet Tubman used these routes to deliver many a Negro +from slavery. + +The opportunity thus offered to help the oppressed brought forward a class +of anti-slavery men, who went beyond the limit of merely expressing their +horror of the evil. They believed that something should be done "to +deliver the poor that cry and to direct the wanderer in the right +way."[40] Translating into action what had long been restricted to +academic discussion, these philanthropic workers ushered in a new era in +the uplift of the blacks, making abolition more of a reality. The +abolition element of the North then could no longer be considered an +insignificant minority advocating a hopeless cause but a factor in drawing +from the South a part of its slave population and at the same time +offering asylum to the free Negroes whom the southerners considered +undesirable.[4l] Prominent among those who aided this migration in various +ways were Benjamin Lundy of Tennessee and James G. Birney, a former +slaveholder of Huntsville, Alabama, who manumitted his slaves and +apprenticed and educated some of them in Ohio. + +This exodus of the Negroes to the free States promoted the migration of +others of their race to Canada, a more congenial part beyond the borders +of the United States. The movement from the free States into Canada, +moreover, was contemporary with that from the South to the free States as +will be evidenced by the fact that 15,000 of the 60,000 Negroes in Canada +in 1860 were free born. As Detroit was the chief gateway for them to +Canada, most of these refugees settled in towns of Southern Ontario not +far from that city. These were Dawn, Colchester, Elgin, Dresden, Windsor, +Sandwich, Bush, Wilberforce, Hamilton, St. Catherines, Chatham, Riley, +Anderton, London, Malden and Gonfield.[42] And their coming to Canada was +not checked even by request from their enemies that they be turned away +from that country as undesirables, for some of the white people there +welcomed and assisted them. Canadians later experienced a change in their +attitude toward these refugees but these British Americans never made the +life of the Negro there so intolerable as was the case in some of the free +States. + +It should be observed here that this movement, unlike the exodus of the +Negroes of today, affected an unequal distribution of the enlightened +Negroes.[43] Those who are fleeing from the South today are largely +laborers seeking economic opportunities. The motive at work in the mind of +the antebellum refugee was higher. In 1840 there were more intelligent +blacks in the South than in the North but not so after 1850, despite the +vigorous execution of the Fugitive Slave Law in some parts of the North. +While the free Negro population of the slave States increased only 23,736 +from 1850 to 1860, that of the free States increased 29,839. In the South, +only Delaware, Maryland and North Carolina showed a noticeable increase in +the number of free persons of color during the decade immediately +preceding the Civil War. This element of the population had only slightly +increased in Alabama, Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee, Virginia, Louisiana, +South Carolina and the District of Columbia. The number of free Negroes of +Florida remained constant. Those of Arkansas, Mississippi and Texas +diminished. In the North, of course, the migration had caused the tendency +to be in the other direction. With the exception of Maine, New Hampshire, +Vermont and New York which had about the same free colored population in +1860 as they had in 1850 there was a general increase in the number of +Negroes in the free States. Ohio led in this respect, having had during +this period an increase of 11,394.[44] A glance at the table on the +accompanying page will show in detail the results of this migration. + + +STATISTICS OF THE FREE COLORED POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES + +State Population + 1850 1860 +---------------------------------------------------- +Alabama.................... 2,265 2,690 +Arkansas................... 608 144 +California................. 962 4,086 +Connecticut................ 7,693 8,627 +Delaware................... 18,073 19,829 +Florida...................... 932 932 +Georgia...................... 2,931 3,500 +Illinois..................... 5,436 7,628 +Indiana...................... 11,262 11,428 +Iowa......................... 333 1,069 +Kentucky..................... 10,011 10,684 +Louisiana.................... 17,462 18,647 +Maine........................ 1,356 1,327 +Kansas....................... 625 +Maryland..................... 74,723 83,942 +Massachusetts................ 9,064 9,602 +Michigan..................... 2,583 6,797 +Minnesota.................... 259 +Mississippi.................. 930 773 +Missouri..................... 2,618 3,572 +New Hampshire................ 520 494 +New Jersey................... 23,810 25,318 +New York..................... 49,069 49,005 +North Carolina............... 27,463 30,463 +Ohio......................... 25,279 36,673 +Oregon....................... 128 +Pennsylvania................. 53,626 56,949 +Rhode Island................. 3,670 3,952 +South Carolina............... 8,960 9,914 +Tennessee.................... 6,422 7,300 +Texas........................ 397 355 +Vermont...................... 718 709 +Virginia..................... 54,333 58,042 +Wisconsin.................... 635 1,171 +Territories: + Colorado................... 46 + Dakota..................... 0 + District of Columbia....... 10,059 11,131 + Minnesota.................. 39 + Nebraska................... 67 + Nevada..................... 45 + New Mexico................. 207 85 + Oregon..................... 24 + Utah....................... 22 30 + Washington................. 30 + _______ _______ +Total .....................434,495 488,070 + + +[Footnote 1: Moore, _Anti-Slavery_, p. 79; and _Special Report of +the United States Commissioner of Education_, 1871, p. 376; Weeks, +_Southern Quakers_, pp. 215, 216, 231, 230, 242.] + +[Footnote 2: _The Southern Workman_, xxvii, p. 161.] + +[Footnote 3: Rhodes, _History of the United States_, chap. i, p. 6; +Bancroft, _History of the United States_, chap. ii, p. 401; and +Locke, _Anti-Slavery_, p. 32.] + +[Footnote 4: _A Brief Statement of the Rise and Progress of the +Testimony of the Quakers_, passim; Woodson, _The Education of the +Negro Prior to 1861_, p. 43.] + +[Footnote 5: Woodson, _The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861_, p. +44; and Locke, _Anti-Slavery_, p. 32.] + +[Footnote 6: _The Southern Workman_, xxxvii, pp. 158-169.] + +[Footnote 7: Turner, _The Negro in Pennsylvania_, pp. 144, 145, 151, +155.] + +[Footnote 8: _Southern Workman_, xxxvii, p. 157.] + +[Footnote 9: Levi Coffin, _Reminiscences_, chaps, i and ii.] + +[Footnote 10: _Southern Workman_, xxxvii, pp. 161-163.] + +[Footnote 11: Coffin, _Reminiscences_, p. 109; and Howe's +_Historical Collections_, p. 356.] + +[Footnote 12: _Southern Workman_, xxxvii, pp. 162, 163.] + +[Footnote 13: Levi Coffin, _Reminiscences_, pp. 108-111.] + +[Footnote 14: Siebert, _The Underground Railroad_, p. 249.] + +[Footnote 15: Langston, _From the Virginia Plantation to the National +Capitol_, p. 35.] + +[Footnote 16: Howe, _Historical Collections_, p. 465.] + +[Footnote 17: _History of Brown County, Ohio_, p. 313.] + +[Footnote 18: Wattles said: he purchased for himself 190 acres of land, to +establish a manual labor school for colored boys. He had maintained a +school on it, at his own expense, till the eleventh of November, 1842. +While in Philadelphia the winter before, he became acquainted with the +trustees of the late Samuel Emlen, a Friend of New Jersey. He left by his +will $20,000 for the "support and education in school learning and the +mechanic arts and agriculture, boys, of African and Indian descent, whose +parents would give them up to the school. They united their means and +purchased Wattles farm, and appointed him the superintendent of the +establishment, which they called the Emlen Institute."--See Howe's +_Historical Collections_, p. 356.] + +[Footnote 19: Howe's _Historical Collections_, p. 355.] + +[Footnote 20: _Manuscripts_ in the possession of J.E. Moorland.] + +[Footnote 21: _The African Repository_, xxii, pp. 322, 333.] + +[Footnote 22: Simmons, _Men of Mark_, p. 723.] + +[Footnote 23: _Southern Workman_, xxxvii, p. 158.] + +[Footnote 24: _The Journal of Negro History_, I, pp. 23-33.] + +[Footnote 25: _Ibid_., I, p. 26.] + +[Footnote 26: _The African Repository_, passim.] + +[Footnote 27: Although constituting a majority of the population even +before the Civil War the Negroes of this township did not get recognition +in the local government until 1875 when John Allen, a Negro, was elected +township treasurer. From that time until about 1890 the Negroes always +shared the honors of office with their white citizens and since that time +they have usually had entire control of the local government in that +township, holding such offices as supervisor, clerk, treasurer, road +commissioner, and school director. Their record has been that of +efficiency. Boss rule among them is not known. The best man for an office +is generally sought; for this is a community of independent farmers. In +1907 one hundred and eleven different farmers in this community had +holdings of 10,439 acres. Their township usually has very few delinquent +taxpayers and it promptly makes its returns to the county.--See the +_Southern Workman_, xxxvii, pp. 486-489.] + +[Footnote 28: Davidson and Stowe, _A Complete History of Illinois_, +pp. 321, 322; and Washburn, _Edward Coles_, pp. 44 and 53.] + +[Footnote 29: The Negro population of this town so rapidly increased after +the war that it has become a Negro town and unfortunately a bad one. Much +improvement has been made in recent years.--See _Southern Workman_, +xxxvii, pp. 489-494.] + +[Footnote 30: Still, _Underground Railroad_, passim; Siebert, +_Underground Railroad_, pp. 34, 35, 40, 42, 43, 48, 56, 59, 62, 64, +70, 145, 147; Drew, _Refugee_, pp. 72, 97, 114, 152, 335 and 373.] + +[Footnote 31: _The Journal of Negro History_, I, pp. 132-162.] + +[Footnote 32: _Ibid_., I, 138.] + +[Footnote 33: Olmsted, _Back Country_, p. 134.] + +[Footnote 34: In the Appalachian mountains, however, the settlers were +loath to follow the fortunes of the ardent pro-slavery element. Actual +abolition, for example, was never popular in western Virginia, but the +love of the people of that section for freedom kept them estranged from +the slaveholding districts of the State, which by 1850 had completely +committed themselves to the pro-slavery propaganda. In the Convention of +1829-30 Upshur said there existed in a great portion of the West (of +Virginia) a rooted antipathy to the slave. John Randolph was alarmed at +the fanatical spirit on the subject of slavery, which was growing in +Virginia,--See the _Journal of Negro History_, I, p. 142.] + +[Footnote 35: Adams, _Neglected Period of Anti-Slavery_.] + +[Footnote 36: _The Journal of Negro History_, I, pp. 132-160.] + +[Footnote 37: Siebert, _Underground Railroad_, p. 166.] + +[Footnote 38: Adams, _Neglected Period of Anti-Slavery_.] + +[Footnote 39: Siebert, _Underground Railroad_, chaps. v and vi.] + +[Footnote 40: _An Address to the People of North Carolina on the Evils +of Slavery._] + +[Footnote 41: Washington, _Story of the Negro_, I, chaps. xii, xiii +and xiv. ] + +[Footnote 42: _Father Henson's Story of his own Life_, p. 209; +Coffin, _Reminiscences_, pp. 247-256; Howe, _The Refugees from +Slavery_, p. 77; Haviland, _A Woman's Work_, pp. 192, 193, 196.] + +[Footnote 43: Woodson, _The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861_, +pp. 236-240.] + +[Footnote 44: _The United States Censuses of 1850 and 1860._] + + + +CHAPTER III + +FIGHTING IT OUT ON FREE SOIL + + +How, then, was this increasing influx of refugees from the South to be +received in the free States? In the older Northern States where there +could be no danger of an Africanization of a large district, the coming of +the Negroes did not cause general excitement, though at times the feeling +in certain localities was sufficient to make one think so.[1] Fearing that +the immigration of the Negroes into the North might so increase their +numbers as to make them constitute a rather important part in the +community, however, some free States enacted laws to restrict the +privileges of the blacks. + +Free Negroes had voted in all the colonies except Georgia and South +Carolina, if they had the property qualification; but after the sentiment +attendant upon the struggle for the rights of man had passed away there +set in a reaction.[2] Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and Kentucky +disfranchised all Negroes not long after the Revolution. They voted in +North Carolina until 1835, when the State, feeling that this privilege of +one class of Negroes might affect the enslavement of the other, prohibited +it. The Northern States, following in their wake, set up the same barriers +against the blacks. They were disfranchised in New Jersey in 1807, in +Connecticut in 1814, and in Pennsylvania in 1838. In 1811 New York passed +an act requiring the production of certificates of freedom from blacks or +mulattoes offering to vote. The second constitution, adopted in 1823, +provided that no man of color, unless he had been for three years a +citizen of that State and for one year next preceding any election, should +be seized and possessed of a freehold estate, should be allowed to vote, +although this qualification was not required of the whites. An act of 1824 +relating to the government of the Stockbridge Indians provided that no +Negro or mulatto should vote in their councils.[3] + +That increasing prejudice was to a great extent the result of the +immigration into the North of Negroes in the rough, was nowhere better +illustrated than in Pennsylvania. Prior to 1800, and especially after +1780, when the State provided for gradual emancipation, there was little +race prejudice in Pennsylvania.[4] When the reactionary legislation of the +South made life intolerable for the Negroes, debasing them to the plane of +beasts, many of the free people of color from Virginia, Maryland and +Delaware moved or escaped into Pennsylvania like a steady stream during +the next sixty years. As these Negroes tended to concentrate in towns and +cities, they caused the supply of labor to exceed the demand, lowering the +wages of some and driving out of employment a number of others who became +paupers and consequently criminals. There set in too an intense struggle +between the black and white laborers,[5] immensely accelerating the growth +of race prejudice, especially when the abolitionists and Quakers were +giving Negroes industrial training. + +The first exhibition of this prejudice was seen among the lower classes of +white people, largely Irish and Germans, who, devoted to menial labor, +competed directly with the Negroes. It did not require a long time, +however, for this feeling to react on the higher classes of whites where +Negroes settled in large groups. A strong protest arose from the menace of +Negro paupers. An attempt was made in 1804 to compel free Negroes to +maintain those that might become a public charge.[6] In 1813 the mayor, +aldermen and citizens of Philadelphia asked that free Negroes be taxed to +support their poor.[7] Two Philadelphia representatives in the +Pennsylvania Legislature had a committee appointed in 1815 to consider the +advisability of preventing the immigration of Negroes.[8] One of the +causes then at work there was that the black population had recently +increased to four thousand in Philadelphia and more than four thousand +others had come into the city since the previous registration. + +They were arriving much faster than they could be assimilated. The State +of Pennsylvania had about exterminated slavery by 1840, having only 40 +slaves that year and only a few hundred at any time after 1810. Many of +these, of course, had not had time to make their way in life as freedmen. +To show how much the rapid migration to that city aggravated the situation +under these circumstances one needs but note the statistics of the +increase of the free people of color in that State. There were only 22,492 +such persons in Pennsylvania in 1810, but in 1820 there were 30,202, and +in 1830 as many as 37,930. This number increased to 47,854 by 1840, to +53,626 by 1850, and to 56,949 by 1860. The undesirable aspect of the +situation was that most of the migrating blacks came in crude form.[9] "On +arriving," therefore, says a contemporary, "they abandoned themselves to +all manner of debauchery and dissipation to the great annoyance of many +citizens."[10] + +Thereafter followed a number of clashes developing finally into a series +of riots of a grave nature. Innocent Negroes, attacked at first for +purposes of sport and later for sinister designs, were often badly beaten +in the streets or even cut with knives. The offenders were not punished +and if the Negroes defended themselves they were usually severely +penalized. In 1819 three white women stoned a woman of color to death.[11] +A few youths entered a Negro church in Philadelphia in 1825 and by +throwing pepper to give rise to suffocating fumes caused a panic which +resulted in the death of several Negroes.[12] When the citizens of New +Haven, Connecticut, arrayed themselves in 1831 against the plan to +establish in that city a Negro manual labor college, there was held in +Philadelphia a meeting which passed resolutions enthusiastically endorsing +this effort to rid the community of the evil of the immigration of free +Negroes. There arose also the custom of driving Negroes away from +Independence Square on the Fourth of July because they were neither +considered nor desired as a part of the body politic.[13] + +It was thought that in the state of feeling of the thirties that the Negro +would be annihilated. De Tocqueville also observed that the Negroes were +more detested in the free States than in those where they were held as +slaves.[14] There had been such a reaction since 1800 that no positions of +consequence were open to Negroes, however well educated they might be, and +the education of the blacks which was once vigorously prosecuted there +became unpopular.[15] This was especially true of Harrisburg and +Philadelphia but by no means confined to large cities. The Philadelphia +press said nothing in behalf of the race. It was generally thought that +freedom had not been an advantage to the Negro and that instead of making +progress they had filled jails and almshouses and multiplied pest holes to +afflict the cities with disease and crime. + +The Negroes of York carefully worked out in 1803 a plan to burn the city. +Incendiaries set on fire a number of houses, eleven of which were +destroyed, whereas there were other attempts at a general destruction of +the city. The authorities arrested a number of Negroes but ran the risk of +having the jail broken open by their sympathizing fellowmen. After a reign +of terror for half a week, order was restored and twenty of the accused +were convicted of arson. + +In 1820 there occurred so many conflagrations that a vigilance committee +was organized.[16] Whether or not the Negroes were guilty of the crime is +not known but numbers of them left either on account of the fear of +punishment or because of the indignities to which they were subjected. +Numerous petitions, therefore, came before the legislature to stop the +immigration of Negroes. It was proposed in 1840 to tax all free Negroes to +assist them in getting out of the State for colonization.[17] The citizens +of Lehigh County asked the authorities in 1830 to expel all Negroes and +persons of color found in the State.[18] Another petition prayed that they +be deprived of the freedom of movement. Bills embodying these ideas were +frequently considered but they were never passed. + +Stronger opposition than this, however, was manifested in the form of +actual outbreaks on a large scale in Philadelphia. The immediate cause of +this first real clash was the abolition agitation in the city in 1834 +following the exciting news of other such disturbances a few months prior +to this date in several northern cities. A group of boys started the riot +by destroying a Negro resort. A mob then proceeded to the Negro district, +where white and colored men engaged in a fight with clubs and stones. + +The next day the mob ruined the African Presbyterian Church and attacked +some Negroes, destroying their property and beating them mercilessly. This +riot continued for three days. A committee appointed to inquire into the +causes of the riot reported that the aim of the rioters had been to make +the Negroes go away because it was believed that their labor was depriving +them of work and because the blacks had shielded criminals and had made +such noise and disorder in their churches as to make them a nuisance. It +seemed that the most intelligent and well-to-do people of Philadelphia +keenly felt it that the city had thus been disgraced, but the mob spirit +continued.[19] + +The very next year was marked by the same sort of disorder. Because a +half-witted Negro attempted to murder a white man, a large mob stirred up +the city again. There was a repetition of the beating of Negroes and of +the destruction of property while the police, as the year before, were so +inactive as to give rise to the charge that they were accessories to the +riot.[20] In 1838 there occurred another outbreak which developed into an +anti-abolition riot, as the public mind had been much exercised by the +discussions of abolitionists and by their close social contact with the +Negroes. The clash came on the seventeenth of May when Pennsylvania Hall, +the center of abolition agitation, was burned. Fighting between the blacks +and whites ensued the following night when the Colored Orphan Asylum was +attacked and a Negro church burned. Order was finally restored for the +good of all concerned, but that a majority of the people sympathized with +the rioters was evidenced by the fact that the committee charged with +investigating the disturbance reported that the mob was composed of +strangers who could not be recognized.[21] It is well to note here that +this riot occurred the year the Negroes in Pennsylvania were +disfranchised. + +Following the example of Philadelphia, Pittsburgh had a riot in 1839 +resulting in the maltreatment of a number of Negroes and the demolishing +of some of their houses. When the Negroes of Philadelphia paraded the city +in 1842, celebrating the abolition of slavery in the West Indies, there +ensued a battle led by the whites who undertook to break up the +procession. Along with the beating and killing of the usual number went +also the destruction of the New African Hall and the Negro Presbyterian +church. The grand jury charged with the inquiry into the causes reported +that the procession was to be blamed. For several years thereafter the +city remained quiet until 1849 when there occurred a raid on the blacks by +the _Killers of Moyamensing_, using firearms with which many were +wounded. This disturbance was finally quelled by aid of the militia.[22] + +These clashes sometimes reached farther north than the free States +bordering on the slave commonwealths. Mobs broke up abolition meetings in +the city of New York in 1834 when there were sent to Congress numerous +petitions for the abolition of slavery. This mob even assailed such +eminent citizens as Arthur and Lewis Tappan, mainly on account of their +friendly attitude toward the Negroes.[23] On October 21, 1834, the same +feeling developed in Utica, where was to be held an anti-slavery meeting +according to previous notice. The six hundred delegates who assembled +there were warned to disband. A mob then organized itself and drove the +delegates from the town. That same month the people of Palmyra, New York, +held a meeting at which they adopted resolutions to the effect that owners +of houses or tenements in that town occupied by blacks of the character +complained of be requested to use all their rightful means to clear their +premises of such occupants at the earliest possible period; and that it be +recommended that such proprietors refuse to rent the same thereafter to +any person of color whatever.[24] In New York Negroes were excluded from +places of amusement and public conveyances and segregated in places of +worship. In the draft riots which occurred there in 1863, one of the aims +of the mobs was to assassinate Negroes and to destroy their property. They +burned the Colored Orphan Asylum of that city and hanged Negroes to +lamp-posts. + +The situation in parts of New England was not much better. For fear of the +evils of an increasing population of free persons of color the people of +Canaan, New Hampshire, broke up the Noyes Academy because it decided to +admit Negro students, thinking that many of the race might thereby be +encouraged to come to that State.[25] When Prudence Crandall established +in Canterbury, Connecticut, an academy to which she decided to admit +Negroes, the mayor, selectmen and citizens of the city protested, and when +their protests failed to deter this heroine, they induced the legislature +to enact a special law covering the case and invoked the measure to have +Prudence Crandall imprisoned because she would not desist.[26] This very +law and the arguments upholding it justified the drastic measure on the +ground that an increase in the colored population would be an injury to +the people of that State. + +In the new commonwealths formed out of western territory, there was the +same fear as to Negro domination and consequently there followed the wave +of legislation intended in some cases not only to withhold from the Negro +settlers the exercise of the rights of citizenship but to discourage and +even to prevent them from coming into their territory.[27] The question as +to what should be done with the Negro was early an issue in Ohio. It came +up in the constitutional convention of 1803, and provoked some discussion, +but that body considered it sufficient to settle the matter for the time +being by merely leaving the Negroes, Indians and foreigners out of the +pale of the newly organized body politic by conveniently incorporating the +word white throughout the constitution.[28] It was soon evident, however, +that the matter had not been settled, and the legislature of 1804 had to +give serious consideration to the immigration of Negroes into that State. +It was, therefore, enacted that no Negro or mulatto should remain there +permanently, unless he could furnish a certificate of freedom issued by +some court, that all Negroes in that commonwealth should be registered +before the following June, and that no man should employ a Negro who +failed to comply with these conditions. Should one be detected in hiring, +harboring or hindering the capture of a fugitive black, he was liable to a +fine of $50 and his master could recover pay for the service of his slave +to the amount of fifty cents a day.[29] + +As this legislature did not meet the demands of those who desired further +to discourage Negro immigration, the Legislature of 1807 was induced to +enact a law to the effect that no Negro should be permitted to settle in +Ohio, unless he could within 20 days give a bond to the amount of $500 for +his good behavior and assurance that he would not become a public charge. +This measure provided also for raising the fine for concealing a fugitive +from $50 to $100, one half of which should go to the person upon the +testimony of whom the conviction should be secured.[30] Negro evidence in +a case to which a white was a party was declared illegal. In 1830 Negroes +were excluded from service in the State militia, in 1831 they were +deprived of the privilege of serving on juries, and in 1838 they were +denied the right of having their children educated at the expense of the +State.[31] + +In Indiana the situation was worse than in Ohio. We have already noted +above how the settlers in the southern part endeavored to make that a +slave State. When that had, after all but being successful, seemed +impossible the State enacted laws to prevent or discourage the influx of +free Negroes and to restrict the privileges of those already there. In +1824 a stringent law for the return of fugitives was passed.[32] The +expulsion of free Negroes was a matter of concern and in 1831 it was +provided that unless they could give bond for their behavior and support +they could be removed. Otherwise the county overseers could hire out such +Negroes to the highest bidder.[33] Negroes were not allowed to attend +schools maintained at the public expense, might not give evidence against +a white man and could not intermarry with white persons. They might, +however, serve as witnesses against Negroes.[34] + +In the same way the free Negroes met discouragement in Illinois. They +suffered from all the disabilities imposed on their class in Ohio and +Indiana and were denied the right to sue for their liberty in the courts. +When there arose many abolitionists who encouraged the coming of the +fugitives from labor in the South, one element of the citizens of Illinois +unwilling to accept this unusual influx of members of another race passed +the drastic law of 1853 prohibiting the immigration. It provided for the +prosecution of any person bringing a Negro into the State and also for +arresting and fining any Negro $50, should he appear there and remain +longer than ten days. If he proved to be unable to pay the fine, he could +be sold to any person who could pay the cost of the trial.[35] + +In Michigan the situation was a little better but, with the waves of +hostile legislation then sweeping over the new[36] commonwealths, Michigan +was not allowed to constitute altogether an exception. Some of this +intense feeling found expression in the form of a law hostile to the +Negro, this being the act of 1827, which provided for the registration of +all free persons of color and for the exclusion from the territory of all +blacks who could not produce a certificate to the effect that they were +free. Free persons of color were also required to file bonds with one or +more freehold sureties in the penal sum of $500 for their good behavior, +and the bondsmen were expected to provide for their maintenance, if they +failed to support themselves. Failure to comply with this law meant +expulsion from the territory.[37] + +The opposition to the Negroes immigrating into the new West was not +restricted to the enactment of laws which in some cases were never +enforced. Several communities took the law into their own hands. During +these years when the Negroes were seeking freedom in the Northwest +Territory and when free blacks were being established there by +philanthropists, it seemed to the southern uplanders fleeing from slavery +in the border States and foreigners seeking fortunes in the new world that +they might possibly be crowded out of this new territory by the Negroes. +Frequent clashes, therefore, followed after they had passed through a +period of toleration and dependence on the execution of the hostile laws. +The clashes of the greatest consequences occurred in the Northwest +Territory where a larger number of uplanders from the South had gone, some +to escape the ill effects of slavery, and others to hold slaves if +possible, and when that seemed impossible, to exclude the blacks +altogether.[38] This persecution of the Negroes received also the hearty +cooperation of the foreign element, who, being an undeveloped class, had +to do menial labor in competition with the blacks. The feeling of the +foreigners was especially mischievous for the reasons that they were, like +the Negroes, at first settled in large numbers in urban communities. + +Generally speaking, the feeling was like that exhibited by the Germans in +Mercer County, Ohio. The citizens of this frontier community, in +registering their protest against the settling of Negroes there, adopted +the following resolutions: + +_Resolved_, That we will not live among Negroes, as we have settled +here first, we have fully determined that we will resist the settlement of +blacks and mulattoes in this county to the full extent of our means, the +bayonet not excepted. + +_Resolved_, That the blacks of this county be, and they are hereby +respectfully requested to leave the county on or before the first day of +March, 1847; and in the case of their neglect or refusal to comply with +this request, we pledge ourselves to _remove them, peacefully if we can, +forcibly if we must._ + +_Resolved_, That we who are here assembled, pledge ourselves not to +employ or trade with any black or mulatto person, in any manner whatever, +or permit them to have any grinding done at our mills, after the first day +of January next.[39] + +In 1827 there arose a storm of protest on the occasion of the settling of +seventy freedmen in Lawrence County, Ohio, by a philanthropic master of +Pittsylvania County, Virginia.[40] On _Black Friday_, January 1, +1830, eighty Negroes were driven out of Portsmouth, Ohio, at the request +of one or two hundred white citizens set forth in an urgent memorial.[41] +So many Negroes during these years concentrated at Cincinnati that the +laboring element forced the execution of the almost dead law requiring +free Negroes to produce certificates and give bonds for their behavior and +support.[42] A mob attacked the homes of the blacks, killed a number of +them, and forced twelve hundred others to leave for Canada West, where +they established the settlement known as Wilberforce. + +In 1836 another mob attacked and destroyed there the press of James G. +Birney, the editor of the _Philanthropist_, because of the +encouragement his abolitionist organ gave to the immigrating Negroes.[43] +But in 1841 came a decidedly systematic effort on the part of foreigners +and proslavery sympathizers to kill off and drive out the Negroes who were +becoming too well established in that city and who were giving offense to +white men who desired to deal with them as Negroes were treated in the +South. The city continued in this excited state for about a week. There +were brought into play in the upheaval the police of the city and the +State militia before the shooting of the Negroes and burning of their +homes could be checked. So far as is known, no white men were punished, +although a few of them were arrested. Some Negroes were committed to +prison during the fray. They were thereafter either discharged upon +producing certificates of nativity or giving bond or were indefinitely +held.[44] + +In southern Indiana and Illinois the same condition obtained. Observing +the situation in Indiana, a contributor of _Niles Register_ remarked, +in 1818, upon the arrival there of sixty or seventy liberated Negroes sent +by the society of Friends of North Carolina, that they were a species of +population that was not acceptable to the people of that State, "nor +indeed to any other, whether free or slaveholding, for they cannot rise +and become like other men, unless in countries where their own color +predominates, but must always remain a degraded and inferior class of +persons without the hope of much bettering their condition."[45] + +The _Indiana Farmer_, voicing the sentiment of that same community, +regretted the increase of this population that seemed to be enlarging the +number sent to that territory. The editor insisted that the community +which enjoys the benefits of the blacks' labor should also suffer all the +consequences. Since the people of Indiana derived no advantage from +slavery, he begged that they be excused from its inconveniences. Most of +the blacks that migrated there, moreover, possessed, thought he, "feelings +quite unprepared to make good citizens. A sense of inferiority early +impressed on their minds, destitute of every thing but bodily power and +having no character to lose, and no prospect of acquiring one, even did +they know its value, they are prepared for the commission of any act, when +the prospect of evading punishment is favorable."[46] + +With the exception of such centers as Eden, Upper Alton, Bellville and +Chicago, this antagonistic attitude was general also in the State of +Illinois. The Negroes were despised, abused and maltreated as persons who +had no rights that the white man should respect. Even in Detroit, +Michigan, in 1833 a fracas was started by an attack on Negroes. Because a +courageous group of them had effected the rescue and escape of one +Thornton Blackburn and his wife who had been arrested by the sheriff as +alleged fugitives from Kentucky, the citizens invoked the law of 1827, to +require free Negroes to produce a certificate and furnish bonds for their +behavior and support.[47] The anti-slavery sentiment there, however, was +so strong that the law was not long rigidly enforced.[48] And so it was in +several other parts of the West which, however, were exceptional.[49] + + +[Footnote 1: _The New York Daily Advertiser,_ Sept. 22, 1800; _The +New York Journal of Commerce,_ July 12, 1834; and _The New York +Commercial Advertiser,_ July 12, 1834.] + +[Footnote 2: Hart, _Slavery and Abolition,_ pp. 53, 82.] + +[Footnote 3: Goodell, _American Slave Code,_ Part III, chap. i; Hurd, +_The Law of Freedom and Bondage,_ I, pp. 51, 61, 67, 81, 89, 101, 111; +Woodson, _The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861,_ pp. 151-178.] + +[Footnote 4: Benezet, _Short Observations,_ p. 12.] + +[Footnote 5: Turner, _The Negro in Pennsylvania_, pp. 143-145.] + +[Footnote 6: _Journal of House_, 1823-24, p. 824.] + +[Footnote 7: _Journal of House,_ 1812-1813, pp. 481, 482.] + +[Footnote 8: _Ibid._, 1814-1815, p. 101.] + +[Footnote 9: _United States Censuses_, 1790-1860.] + +[Footnote 10: Brannagan, _Serious Remonstrances_, p. 68.] + +[Footnote 11: Turner, _The Negro in Pennsylvania_, p. 145; _The +Philadelphia Gazette_, June 30, 1819.] + +[Footnote 12: _Democratic Press, Philadelphia Gazette_, Nov. 21, +1825.] + +[Footnote 13: Turner, _The Negro in Pennsylvania_, p. 146.] + +[Footnote 14: De Tocqueville, _Democracy in America_, II, pp. 292, +294.] + +[Footnote 15: Turner, _The Negro in Pennsylvania_, p. 148.] + +[Footnote 16: Turner, _The Negro in Pennsylvania_, pp. 152, 153.] + +[Footnote 17: _African Repository,_ VIII, pp. 125, 283; _Journal of +House_, 1840, I, pp. 347, 508, 614, 622, 623, 680.] + +[Footnote 18: _Journal of Senate_, 1850, I, pp. 454, 479.] + +[Footnote 19: This is well narrated in Turner's _Negro in +Pennsylvania_, p. 160, and in DuBois's _The Philadelphia Negro_, +p. 27.] + +[Footnote 20: Turner, _The Negro in Pennsylvania_, pp. 161, 162.] + +[Footnote 21: Turner, _The Negro in Pennsylvania_, pp. 162, 163.] + +[Footnote 22: Turner, _The Negro in Pennsylvania_, p. 163; and _The +Liberator_, July 4, 1835.] + +[Footnote 23: _The Liberator_, Oct. 24, 1834.] + +[Footnote 24: _Ibid._, October 24, 1834.] + +[Footnote 25: Jay, _An Inquiry,_ pp. 28-29.] + +[Footnote 26: _An Act in Addition to an Act for the Admission and +Settlement of Inhabitants of Towns._ + +1. Whereas attempts have been made to establish literary institutions in +this State for the instruction of colored people belonging to other States +and countries, which would tend to the great increase of the colored +population of the State, and thereby to the injury of the people, +therefore; + +Be it resolved that no person shall set up or establish in this State, +any school, academy, or literary institution for the instruction or +education of colored persons, who are not inhabitants of this State, nor +instruct or teach in any school, academy, or other literary institution +whatever in this State, or harbor or board for the purpose of attending or +being taught or instructed in any such school, academy, or other literary +institution, any person who is not an inhabitant of any town in this +State, without the consent in writing, first obtained of a majority of the +civil authority, and also of the selectmen, of the town in which such +schools, academy, or literary institution is situated; and each and every +person who shall knowingly do any act forbidden as aforesaid, or shall be +aiding or assisting therein, shall for the first offense forfeit and pay +to the treasurer of this State a fine of one hundred dollars and for the +second offense shall forfeit and pay a fine of two hundred dollars, and so +double for every offense of which he or she shall be convicted. And all +informing officers are required to make due presentment of all breaches of +this act. Provided that nothing in this act shall extend to any district +school established in any school society under the laws of this State or +to any incorporated school for instruction in this State. + +3. Any colored person not an inhabitant of this State who shall reside in +any town therein for the purpose of being instructed as aforesaid, may be +removed in the manner prescribed in the sixth and seventh sections of the +act to which this is an addition. + +3. Any person not an inhabitant of this State who shall reside in any town +therein for the purpose of being instructed as aforesaid, shall be an +admissible witness in all prosecutions under the first section of this +act, and may be compelled to give testimony therein, notwithstanding +anything in this act, or in the act last aforesaid. + +4. That so much of the seventh section of this act to which this is an +addition as may provide for the infliction of corporal punishment, be and +the same is hereby repealed.--See Hurd's _Law of Freedom and +Bondage_, II, pp. 45-46.] + +[Footnote 27: So many Negroes working on the rivers between the slave and +free States helped fugitives to escape that there arose a clamor for the +discourage of colored employees.] + +[Transcriber's Note: The above should probably be "discouragement of +colored employees."] + +[Footnote 28: _Constitution of Ohio_, article I, sections 2, 6. +_The Journal of Negro History_, I, p. 2.] + +[Footnote 29: _Laws of Ohio_, II, p. 53.] + +[Footnote 30: _Laws of Ohio_, V, p. 53.] + +[Footnote 31: Hitchcock, _The Negro in Ohio_, II, pp. 41, 42.] + +[Footnote 32: _Revised Laws of Indiana_, 1831, p. 278.] + +[Footnote 33: Perkins, _A Digest of the Declaration of the Supreme Court +of Indiana_, p. 590. _Laws of 1853_, p. 60.] + +[Footnote 34: Gavin and Hord, _Indiana Revised Statutes_, 1862, p. +452.] + +[Footnote 35: _Illinois Statutes_, 1853, sections 1-4, p. 8.] + +[Footnote 36: In 1760 there were both African and Pawnee slaves in +Detroit, 96 of them in 1773 and 175 in 1782. The usual effort to have +slavery legalized was made in 1773. There were seventeen slaves in Detroit +in 1810 held by virtue of the exceptions made under the British rule prior +to the ratification of Jay's treaty. Advertisements of runaway slaves +appeared in Detroit papers as late as 1827. Furthermore, there were +thirty-two slaves in Michigan in 1830 but by 1836 all had died or had been +manumitted.--See Farmer, _History of Detroit and Michigan_, I, p. +344.] + +[Footnote 37: _Laws of Michigan_, 1827; and Campbell, _Political +History of Michigan_, p. 246.] + +[Footnote 38: _Proceedings of the Ohio Anti-Slavery Convention_, +1835, p. 19.] + +[Footnote 39: _African Repository_, XXIII, p. 70.] + +[Footnote 40: _Ohio State Journal_, May 3, 1837.] + +[Footnote 41: Evans, _A History of Scioto County, Ohio_, p. 643.] + +[Footnote 42: _African Repository_, V, p. 185.] + +[Footnote 43: Howe, _Historical Collections_, pp. 225-226.] + +[Footnote 44: _Ibid_., p. 226, and _The Cincinnati Daily +Gazette_, Sept. 14, 1841.] + +[Footnote 45: _Niles Register_, XXX, 416.] + +[Footnote 46: _Niles Register_, XXX, 416; _African Repository_, +III, p. 25.] + +[Footnote 47: Farmer, _History of Detroit and Michigan_, I, chap. +48.] + +[Footnote 48: There was the usual effort to have slavery legalized in +Michigan. At the time of the fire in 1805 there were six colored men and +nine colored women in the town of Detroit. In 1807 there were so many of +them that Governor Hull organized a company of colored militia. Joseph +Campan owned ten at one time. The importation of slaves was discontinued +after September 17, 1792, by act of the Canadian Parliament which provided +also that all born thereafter should be free at the age of twenty-five. +The Ordinance of 1787 had by its sixth article prohibited it.] + +[Footnote 49: In 1836 a colored man traveling in the West to Cleveland +said: + +"I have met with good treatment at every place on my journey, even better +than what I expected under present circumstances. I will relate an +incident that took place on board the steamboat, which will give an idea +of the kind treatment with which I have met. When I took the boat at Erie, +it being rainy and somewhat disagreeable, I took a cabin passage, to which +the captain had not the least objection. When dinner was announced, I +intended not to go to the first table but the mate came and urged me to +take a seat. I accordingly did and was called upon to carve a large saddle +of beef which was before me. This I performed accordingly to the best of +my ability. No one of the company manifested any objection or seemed +anyways disturbed by my presence."--Extract of a letter from a colored +gentleman traveling to the West, Cleveland, Ohio, August 11, 1836.--See +_The Philanthropist_, Oct. 21, 1836.] + + + +CHAPTER IV + +COLONIZATION AS A REMEDY FOR MIGRATION + + +Because of these untoward circumstances consequent to the immigration of +free Negroes and fugitives into the North, their enemies, and in some +cases their well-intentioned friends, advocated the diversion of these +elements to foreign soil. Benezet and Brannagan had the idea of settling +the Negroes on the public lands in the West largely to relieve the +situation in the North.[1] Certain anti-slavery men of Kentucky, as we +have observed, recommended the same. But this was hardly advocated at all +by the farseeing white men after the close of the first quarter of the +nineteenth century. It was by that time very clear that white men would +want to occupy all lands within the present limits of the United States. +Few statesmen dared to encourage migration to Canada because the large +number of fugitives who had already escaped there had attached to that +region the stigma of being an asylum for fugitives from the slave States. + +The most influential people who gave thought to this question finally +decided that the colonization of the Negro in Africa was the only solution +of the problem. The plan of African colonization appealed more generally +to the people of both North and South than the other efforts, which, at +best, could do no more than to offer local or temporary relief. The +African colonizationists proceeded on the basis that the Negroes had no +chance for racial development in this country. They could secure no kind +of honorable employment, could not associate with congenial white friends +whose minds and pursuits might operate as a stimulus upon their industry +and could not rise to the level of the successful professional or business +men found around them. In short, they must ever be hewers of wood and +drawers of water.[2] + +To emphasize further the necessity of emigration to Africa the advocates +of deportation to foreign soil generally referred to the condition of the +migrating Negroes as a case in evidence. "So long," said one, "as you must +sit, stand, walk, ride, dwell, eat and sleep _here_ and the Negro +_there_, he cannot be free in any part of the country."[3] This idea +working through the minds of northern men, who had for years thought +merely of the injustice of slavery, began to change their attitude toward +the abolitionists who had never undertaken to solve the problem of the +blacks who were seeking refuge in the North. Many thinkers controlling +public opinion then gave audience to the colonizationists and circles once +closed to them were thereafter opened.[4] + +There was, therefore, a tendency toward a more systematic effort than had +hitherto characterized the endeavors of the colonizationists. The objects +of their philanthropy were not to be stolen away and hurried off to an +uncongenial land for the oppressed. They were in accordance with the +exigencies of their new situation to be prepared by instruction in +mechanic arts, agriculture, science and Biblical literature that some +might lead in the higher pursuits and others might skilfully serve their +fellows.[5] Private enterprise was at first depended on to carry out the +schemes but it soon became evident that a better method was necessary. +Finally out of the proposals of various thinkers and out of the actual +colonization feats of Paul Cuffe, a Negro, came a national meeting for +this purpose, held in Washington, December, 1816, and the organization of +the American Colonization Society. This meeting was attended by some of +the most prominent men in the United States, among whom were Henry Clay, +Francis S. Key, Bishop William Meade, John Randolph and Judge Bushrod +Washington. + +The American Colonization Society, however, failed to facilitate the +movement of the free Negro from the South and did not promote the general +welfare of the race. The reasons for these failures are many. In the first +place, the society was all things to all men. To the anti-slavery man +whose ardor had been dampened by the meagre results obtained by his +agitation, the scheme was the next best thing to remove the objections of +slaveholders who had said they would emancipate their bondsmen, if they +could be assured of their being deported to foreign soil. To the radical +proslavery man and to the northerner hating the Negro it was well adapted +to rid the country of the free persons of color whom they regarded as the +pariahs of society.[6] Furthermore, although the Colonization Society +became seemingly popular and the various States organized branches of it +and raised money to promote the movement, the slaveholders as a majority +never reached the position of parting with their slaves and the country +would not take such radical action as to compel free Negroes to undergo +expatriation when militant abolitionists were fearlessly denouncing the +scheme.[7] + +The free people of color themselves were not only not anxious to go but +bore it grievously that any one should even suggest that they should be +driven from the country in which they were born and for the independence +of which their fathers had died. They held indignation meetings throughout +the North to denounce the scheme as a selfish policy inimical to the +interests of the people of color.[8] Branded thus as the inveterate foe of +the blacks both slave and free, the American Colonization Society effected +the deportation of only such Negroes as southern masters felt disposed to +emancipate from time to time and a few others induced to go. As the +industrial revolution early changed the aspect of the economic situation +in the South so as to make slavery seemingly profitable, few masters ever +thought of liberating their slaves. + +Scarcely any intelligent Negroes except those who, for economic or +religious reasons were interested, availed themselves of this opportunity +to go to the land of their ancestors. From the reports of the Colonization +Society we learn that from 1820 to 1833 only 2,885 Negroes were sent to +Africa by the Society. Furthermore, more than 2,700 of this number were +taken from the slave States, and about two thirds of these were slaves +manumitted on the condition that they would emigrate.[9] Later statistics +show the same tendency. By 1852, 7,836 had been deported from the United +States to Liberia. 2,720 of these were born free, 204 purchased their +freedom, 3,868 were emancipated in view of their going to Liberia and +1,044 were liberated Africans returned by the United States +Government.[10] Considering the fact that there were 434,495 free persons +of color in this country in 1850 and 488,070 in 1860, the colonizationists +saw that the very element of the population which the movement was +intended to send out of the country had increased rather than decreased. +It is clear, then, that the American Colonization Society, though regarded +as a factor to play an important part in promoting the exodus of the free +Negroes to foreign soil, was an inglorious failure. + +Colonization in other quarters, however, was not abandoned. A colony of +Negroes in Texas was contemplated in 1833 prior to the time when the +republic became independent of Mexico, as slavery was not at first assured +in that State. The _New York Commercial Advertiser_ had no objection +to the enterprise but felt that there were natural obstacles such as a +more expensive conveyance than that to Monrovia, the high price of land in +that country, the Catholic religion to which Negroes were not accustomed +to conform, and their lack of knowledge of the Spanish language. The +editor observed that some who had emigrated to Hayti a few years before +became discontented because they did not know the language. Louisiana, a +slave State, moreover, would not suffer near its borders a free Negro +republic to serve as an asylum for refugees.[11] The Richmond Whig saw the +actual situation in dubbing the scheme as chimerical for the reason that a +more unsuitable country for the blacks did not exist. Socially and +politically it would never suit the Negroes. Already a great number of +adventurers from the United States had gone to Texas and fugitives from +justice from Mexico, a fierce, lawless and turbulent class, would give the +Negroes little chance there, as the Negroes could not contend with the +Spaniard and the Creole. The editor believed that an inferior race could +never exist in safety surrounded by a superior one despising them. +Colonization in Africa was then urged and the efforts of the blacks to go +elsewhere were characterized as doing mischief at every turn to defeat the +"enlightened plan" for the amelioration of the Negroes.[12] + +It was still thought possible to induce the Negroes to go to some +congenial foreign land, although few of them would agree to emigrate to +Africa. Not a few Negroes began during the two decades immediately +preceding the Civil War to think more favorably of African colonization +and a still larger number, in view of the increasing disabilities fixed +upon their class, thought of migrating to some country nearer to the +United States. Much was said about Central America, but British Guiana and +the West Indies proved to be the most inviting fields to the latter-day +Negro colonizationists. This idea was by no means new, for Jefferson in +his foresight had, in a letter to Governor Edward Coles, of Illinois, in +1814, shown the possibilities of colonization in the West Indies. He felt +that because Santo Domingo had become an independent Negro republic it +would offer a solution of the problem as to where the Negroes should be +colonized. In this way these islands would become a sort of safety valve +for the United States. He became more and more convinced that all the West +Indies would remain in the hands of the people of color, and a total +expulsion of the whites sooner or later would take place. It was high +time, he thought, that Americans should foresee the bloody scenes which +their children certainly, and possibly they themselves, would have to wade +through. [13] + +The movement to the West Indies was accelerated by other factors. After +the emancipation in those islands in the thirties, there had for some +years been a dearth of labor. Desiring to enjoy their freedom and living +in a climate where there was not much struggle for life, the freedmen +either refused to work regularly or wandered about purposely from year to +year. The islands in which sugar had once played a conspicuous part as the +foundation of their industry declined and something had to be done to meet +this exigency. In the forties and fifties, therefore, there came to the +United States a number of labor agents whose aim was to set forth the +inviting aspect of the situation in the West Indies so as to induce free +Negroes to try their fortunes there. To this end meetings were held in +Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York and Boston and even in some of the +cities of the South, where these agents appealed to the free Negroes to +emigrate.[l4] + +Thus before the American Colonization Society had got well on its way +toward accomplishing its purpose of deporting the Negroes to Africa the +West Indies and British Guiana claimed the attention of free people of +color in offering there unusual opportunities. After the consummation of +British emancipation in those islands in 1838, the English nation came to +he regarded by the Negroes of the United States as the exclusive friend of +the race. The Negro press and church vied with each other in praising +British emancipation as an act of philanthropy and pointed to the English +dominions as an asylum for the oppressed. So disturbed were the whites by +this growing feeling that riots broke out in northern cities on occasions +of Negro celebrations of the anniversary of emancipation in the West +Indies.[l5] + +In view of these facts, the colonizationists had to redouble their efforts +to defend their cause. They found it a little difficult to make a good +case for Liberia, a land far away in an unhealthy climate so much unlike +that of the West Indies and British Guiana, where Negroes had been +declared citizens entitled to all privileges afforded by the government. +The colonizationists could do no more than to express doubt that the +Negroes would have there the opportunities for mental, moral and social +betterment which were offered in Liberia. The promoters of the enterprise +in Africa did not believe that the West Indian planters who had had +emancipation forced upon them would accept blacks from the United States +as their equals, nor that they, far from receiving the consideration of +freedmen, would be there any more than menials. When told of the +establishment of schools and churches for the improvement of the freedmen, +the colonizationists replied that schools might be provided, but the +planters could have no interest in encouraging education as they did not +want an elevated class of people but bone and muscle. As an evidence of +the truth of this statement it was asserted that newspapers of the country +were filled with disastrous accounts of the falling off of crops and the +scarcity of labor but had little to say about those forces instrumental in +the uplift of the people.[16] + +An effort was made also to show that there would be no economic advantage +in going to the British dominions. It was thought that as soon as the +first demand for labor was supplied wages would be reduced, for no new +plantations could be opened there as in a growing country like Liberia. It +would be impossible, therefore, for the Negroes immigrating there to take +up land and develop a class of small farmers as they were doing in Africa. +Under such circumstances, they contended, the Negroes in the West Indies +could not feel any of the "elevating influences of nationality of +character," as the white men would limit the influence of the Negroes by +retaining practically all of the wealth of the islands. The inducements, +therefore, offered the free Negroes in the United States were merely +intended to use them in supplying in the British dominions the need of men +to do drudgery scarcely more elevating than the toil of slaves.[l7] + +Determined to interest a larger number of persons in diverting the +attention of the free Negroes from the West Indies, the colonizationists +took higher ground. They asserted that the interests of the millions of +white men in this country were then at stake, and even if it would be +better for the three million Negroes of the country gradually to emigrate +to the British dominions, it would eventually prove prejudicial to the +interests of the United States. They showed how the Negroes immigrating +into the West Indies would be made to believe that the refusal to extend +to them here social and political equality was cruel oppression and the +immigrants, therefore, would carry with them no good will to this country. +When they arrived in the West Indies their circumstances would increase +this hostility, alienate their affections and estrange them wholly from +the United States. Taught to regard the British as the exclusive friends +of their race, devoted to its elevation, they would become British in +spirit. As such, these Negroes would be controlled by British influence +and would increase the wealth and commerce of the British and as soldiers +would greatly strengthen British power.[l8] + +It was better, therefore, they argued, to direct the Negroes to Liberia, +for those who went there with a feeling of hostility against the white +people were placed in circumstances operating to remove that feeling, in +that the kind solicitude for their welfare would be extended them in their +new home so as to overcome their prejudices, win their confidence, and +secure their attachment. Looking to this country as their fatherland and +the home of their benefactors, the Liberians would develop a nation, +taking the religion, customs and laws of this country as their models, +marketing their produce in this country and purchasing our manufactures. +In spite of its independence, therefore, Liberia would be American in +feeling, language and interests, affording a means to get rid of a class +undesirable here but desirable to us there in their power to extend +American influence, trade and commerce.[l9] + +Negroes migrated to the West Indies in spite of this warning and protest. +Hayti, at first looked upon with fear of having a free Negro government +near slaveholding States, became fixed in the minds of some as a desirable +place for the colonization of free persons of color.[20] This was due to +the apparent natural advantages in soil, climate and the situation of the +country over other places in consideration. It was thought that the island +would support fourteen millions of people and that, once opened to +immigration from the United States, it would in a few years fill up by +natural increase. It was remembered that it was formerly the emporium of +the Western World and that it supplied both hemispheres with sugar and +coffee. It had rapidly recovered from the disaster of the French +Revolution and lacked only capital and education which the United States +under these circumstances could furnish. Furthermore, it was argued that +something in this direction should be immediately done, as European +nations then seeking to establish friendly relations with the islands, +would secure there commercial advantages which the United States should +have and could establish by sending to that island free Negroes especially +devoted to agriculture. + +In 1836, Z. Kingsley, a Florida planter,[2l] actually undertook to carry +out such a plan on a small scale. He established on the northeast side of +Hayti, near Port Plate, his son, George Kingsley, a well-educated colored +man of industrious habits and uncorrupted morals, together with six "prime +African men," slaves liberated for that express purpose. There he +purchased for them 35,000 acres of land upon which they engaged in the +production of crops indigenous to that soil. + +Hayti, however, was not to be the only island to get consideration. In +1834 two hundred colored emigrants went from New York alone to Trinidad, +under the superintendence and at the expense of planters of that island. +It was later reported that every one of them found employment on the day +of arrival and in one or two instances the most intelligent were placed as +overseers at the salary of $500 per annum. No one received less than $1.00 +a day and most of them earned $1.50. The Trinidad press welcomed these +immigrants and spoke in the highest terms of the valuable services they +rendered the country.[22] Others followed from year to year. One of these +Negroes appreciated so much this new field of opportunity that he returned +and induced twenty intelligent free persons of color living in Annapolis, +Maryland, also to emigrate to Trinidad.[23] + +_The New York Sun_ reported in 1840 that 160 colored persons left +Philadelphia for Trinidad. They had been hired by an eminent planter to +labor on that island and they were encouraged to expect that they should +have privileges which would make their residence desirable. The editor +wished a few dozen Trinidad planters would come to that city on the same +business and on a much larger scale.[24] N.W. Pollard, agent of the +Government of Trinidad, came to Baltimore in 1851 to make his appeal for +emigrants, offering to pay all expenses.[25] At a meeting held in +Baltimore, in 1852, the parents of Mr. Stanbury Boyce, now a retired +merchant in Washington, District of Columbia, were also induced to go. +They found there opportunities which they had never had before and well +established themselves in their new home. The account which Mr. Boyce +gives in a letter to the writer corroborates the newspaper reports as to +the success of the enterprise.[26] + +The _New York Journal of Commerce_ reported in 1841 that, according +to advices received at New Orleans from Jamaica, there had arrived in that +island fourteen Negro emigrants from the United States, being the first +fruits of Mr. Barclay's mission to this country. A much larger number of +Negroes were expected and various applications for their services had been +received from respectable parties.[27] The products of soil were reported +as much reduced from former years and to meet its demand for labor some +freedmen from Sierra Leone were induced to emigrate to that island in +1842.[28] One Mr. Anderson, an agent of the government of Jamaica, +contemplated visiting New York in 1851 to secure a number of laborers, +tradesmen and agricultural settlers.[29] + +In the course of time, emigration to foreign lands interested a larger +number of representative Negroes. At a national council called in 1853 to +promote more effectively the amelioration of the colored people, the +question of emigration and that only was taken up for serious +consideration. But those who desired to introduce the question of Liberian +colonization or who were especially interested in that scheme were not +invited. Among the persons who promoted the calling of this council were +William Webb, Martin R. Delaney, J. Gould Bias, Franklin Turner, Augustus +Greene, James M. Whitfield, William Lambert, Henry Bibb, James T. Holly +and Henry M. Collins. + +There developed in this assembly three groups, one believing with Martin +R. Delaney that it was best to go to the Niger Valley in Africa, another +following the counsel of James M. Whitfield then interested in emigration +to Central America, and a third supporting James T. Holly who insisted +that Hayti offered the best opportunities for free persons of color +desiring to leave the United States. Delaney was commissioned to proceed +to Africa, where he succeeded in concluding treaties with eight African +kings who offered American Negroes inducements to settle in their +respective countries. James Redpath, already interested in the scheme of +colonization in Hayti, had preceded Holly there and with the latter as his +coworker succeeded in sending to that country as many as two thousand +emigrants, the first of whom sailed from this country in 1861.[30] Owing +to the lack of equipment adequate to the establishment of the settlement +and the unfavorable climate, not more than one third of the emigrants +remained. Some attention was directed to California and Central America +just as in the case of Africa but nothing in that direction took tangible +form immediately, and the Civil War following soon thereafter did not give +some of these schemes a chance to materialize. + + +[Footnote 1: _The African Repository_, XVI, p. 22.] + +[Footnote 2: _The African Repository_, XVI, p. 23; Alexander, _A +History of Colonization_, p. 347.] + +[Footnote 3: _Ibid_., XVI, p. 113.] + +[Footnote 4: Jay, _An Inquiry_, pp. 25, 29; Hodgkin, _An +Inquiry_, p. 31.] + +[Footnote 5: _The African Repository_, IV, p. 276; Griffin, _A Plea +for Africa_, p. 65.] + +[Footnote 6: Jay, _An Inquiry_, passim; _The Journal of Negro +History_, I, pp. 276-301; and Stebbins, _Facts and Opinions_, pp. +200-201.] + +[Footnote 7: Hart, _Slavery and Abolition_, p. 237.] + +[Footnote 8: _The Journal of Negro History_, I, pp. 284-296; +Garrison, _Thoughts on Colonization_, p. 204.] + +[Footnote 9: _The African Repository_, XXXIII, p. 117.] + +[Footnote 10: _The African Repository_, XXIII, p. 117.] + +[Footnote 11: _The African Repository_, IX, pp. 86-88.] + +[Footnote 12: _Ibid._, IX, p. 88.] + +[Footnote 13: "If something is not done, and soon done," said he, "we +shall be the murderers of our own children. The '_murmura venturos nautis +prudentia ventos_' has already reached us (from Santo Domingo); the +revolutionary storm, now sweeping the globe will be upon us, and happy if +we make timely provision to give it an easy passage over our land. From +the present state of things in Europe and America, the day which begins +our combustion must be near at hand; and only a single spark is wanting +to make that day to-morrow. If we had begun sooner, we might probably have +been allowed a lengthier operation to clear ourselves, but every day's +delay lessens the time we may take for emancipation." + +As to the mode of emancipation, he was satisfied that that must be a +matter of compromise between the passions, the prejudices, and the real +difficulties which would each have its weight in that operation. He +believed that the first chapter of this history, which was begun in St. +Domingo, and the next succeeding ones, would recount how all the whites +were driven from all the other islands. This, he thought, would prepare +their minds for a peaceable accommodation between justice and policy; and +furnish an answer to the difficult question, as to where the colored +emigrants should go. He urged that the country put some plan under way, +and the sooner it did so the greater would be the hope that it might be +permitted to proceed peaceably toward consummation.--See Ford edition of +_Jefferson's Writings_, VI, p. 349, VII, pp. 167, 168.] + +[Footnote 14: _Letter of Mr. Stanbury Boyce;_ and _The African +Repository._] + +[Footnote 15: _Philadelphia Gazette,_ Aug. 2, 3, 4, 8, 1842; +_United States Gazette,_ Aug. 2-5, 1842; and the _Pennsylvanian,_ +Aug. 2, 3, 4, 8, 1842.] + +[Footnote 16: _The African Repository_, XVI, pp. 113-115.] + +[Footnote 17: _The African Repository,_ XXI, p. 114.] + +[Footnote 18: _The African Repository,_ XVI, p. 116.] + +[Footnote 19: _The African Repository,_ XVI, p. 115.] + +[Footnote 20: _Ibid.,_ XVI, p. 116.] + +[Footnote 21: Speaking of this colony Kingsley said: "About eighteen +months ago, I carried my son George Kingsley, a healthy colored man of +uncorrupted morals, about thirty years of age, tolerably well educated, of +very industrious habits, and a native of Florida, together with six prime +African men, my own slaves, liberated for that express purpose, to the +northeast side of the Island of Hayti, near Porte Plate, where we arrived +in the month of October, 1836, and after application to the local +authorities, from whom I rented some good land near the sea, and thickly +timbered with lofty woods, I set them to work cutting down trees, about +the middle of November, and returned to my home in Florida. My son wrote +to us frequently, giving an account of his progress. Some of the fallen +timber was dry enough to burn in January, 1837, when it was cleared up, +and eight acres of corn planted, and as soon as circumstances would allow, +sweet potatoes, yams, cassava, rice, beans, peas, plantains, oranges, and +all sorts of fruit trees, were planted in succession. In the month of +October, 1837, I again set off for Hayti, in a coppered brig of 150 tons, +bought for the purpose and in five days and a half, from St. Mary's in +Georgia, landed my son's wife and children, at Porte Plate, together with +the wives and children of his servants, now working for him under an +indenture of nine years; also two additional families of my slaves, all +liberated for the express purpose of transportation to Hayti, where they +were all to have as much good land in fee, as they could cultivate, say +ten acres for each family, and all its proceeds, together with one-fourth +part of the net proceeds of their labor, on my son's farm, for themselves; +also victuals, clothes, medical attendance, etc., gratis, besides +Saturdays and Sundays, as days of labor for themselves, or of rest, just +at their option." + +"On my arrival at my son's place, called Cabaret (twenty-seven miles east +of Porte Plate) in November, 1837, as before stated, I found everything in +the most flattering and prosperous condition. They had all enjoyed good +health, were overflowing with the most delicious variety and abundance of +fruits and provisions, and were overjoyed at again meeting their wives and +children; whom they could introduce into good comfortable log houses, all +nicely whitewashed, and in the midst of a profuse abundance of good +provisions, as they had generally cleared five or six acres of their land +each, which being very rich, and planted with every variety to eat or to +sell on their own account, and had already laid up thirty or forty dollars +apiece. My son's farm was upon a larger scale, and furnished with more +commodious dwelling houses, also with store and out houses. In nine months +he had made and housed three crops of corn, of twenty-five bushels to the +acre, each, or one crop every three months. His highland rice, which was +equal to any in Carolina, so ripe and heavy as some of it to be couched or +leaned down, and no bird had ever troubled it, nor had any of his fields +ever been hoed, or required hoeing, there being as yet no appearance of +grass. His cotton was of an excellent staple. In seven months it had +attained the height of thirteen feet; the stalks were ten inches in +circumference, and had upwards of five hundred large boles on each stalk +(not a worm nor red bug as yet to be seen). His yams, cassava, and sweet +potatoes, were incredibly large, and plentifully thick in the ground; one +kind of sweet potato, lately introduced from Taheita (formerly Otaheita) +Island in the Pacific, was of peculiar excellence; tasted like new flour +and grew to an ordinary size in one month. Those I ate at my son's place +had been planted five weeks, and were as big as our full grown Florida +potatoes. His sweet orange trees budded upon wild stalks cut off (which +every where abound), about six months before had large tops, and the buds +were swelling as if preparing to flower. My son reported that his people +had all enjoyed good health and had labored just as steadily as they +formerly did in Florida and were well satisfied with their situation and +the advantageous exchange of circumstances they had made. They all enjoyed +the friendship of the neighboring inhabitants and the entire confidence of +the Haytian Government." + +"I remained with my son all January, 1838 and assisted him in making +improvements of different kinds, amongst which was a new two-story house, +and then left him to go to Port au Prince, where I obtained a favorable +answer from the President of Hayti, to his petition, asking for leave to +hold in fee simple, the same tract of land upon which he then lived as a +tenant, paying rent to the Haytian Government, containing about +thirty-five thousand acres, which was ordered to be surveyed to him, and +valued, and not expected to exceed the sum of three thousand dollars, or +about ten cents an acre. After obtaining this land in fee for my son, I +returned to Florida in February, in 1838."--See _The African +Repository_, XIV, pp. 215-216.] + +[Footnote 22: _Niles Register_, LXVI, pp. 165, 386.] + +[Footnote 23: _Niles Register_, LXVII, p. 180.] + +[Footnote 24: _The African Repository_, XVI, p. 28.] + +[Footnote 25: _Ibid._, p. 29.] + +[Footnote 26: _Letter of Mr. Stanbury Boyce._] + +[Footnote 27: St. Lucia and Trinidad were then considered unfavorable to +the working of the new system.--See _The African Repository_, XXVII, +p. 196.] + +[Footnote 28: _Niles Register_, LXIII, p. 65.] + +[Footnote 29: _Ibid._, LXIII, p. 65.] + +[Footnote 30: Cromwell, _The Negro in American History_, pp. 43-44.] + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE SUCCESSFUL MIGRANT + + +The reader will naturally be interested in learning exactly what these +thousands of Negroes did on free soil. To estimate these achievements the +casual reader of contemporary testimony would now, as such persons did +then, find it decidedly easy. He would say that in spite of the unfailing +aid which philanthropists gave the blacks, they seldom kept themselves +above want and, therefore, became a public charge, afflicting their +communities with so much poverty, disease and crime that they were +considered the lepers of society. The student of history, however, must +look beyond these comments for the whole truth. One must take into +consideration the fact that in most cases these Negroes escaped as +fugitives without sufficient food and clothing to comfort them until they +could reach free soil, lacking the small fund with which the pioneer +usually provided himself in going to establish a home in the wilderness, +and lacking, above all, initiative of which slavery had deprived them. +Furthermore, these refugees with few exceptions had to go to places where +they were not wanted and in some cases to points from which they were +driven as undesirables, although preparation for their coming had +sometimes gone to the extent of purchasing homes and making provision for +employment upon arrival.[1] Several well-established Negro settlements in +the North, moreover, were broken up by the slave hunters after the passing +of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850.[2] + +The increasing intensity of the hatred of the Negroes must be understood +too both as a cause and result of their intolerable condition. Prior to +1800 the Negroes of the North were in fair circumstances. Until that time +it was generally believed that the whites and the blacks would soon reach +the advanced stage of living together on a basis of absolute equality.[3] +The Negroes had not at that time exceeded the number that could be +assimilated by the sympathizing communities in that section. The +intolerable legislation of the South, however, forced so many free Negroes +in the rough to crowd northern cities during the first four decades of the +nineteenth century that they could not be easily readjusted. The number +seeking employment far exceeded the demand for labor and thus multiplied +the number of vagrants and paupers, many of whom had already been forced +to this condition by the Irish and Germans then immigrating into northern +cities. At one time, as in the case of Philadelphia, the Negroes +constituting a small fraction of the population furnished one half of the +criminals.[4] A radical opposition to the Negro followed, therefore, +arousing first the laboring classes and finally alienating the support of +the well-to-do people and the press. This condition obtained until 1840 in +most northern communities and until 1850 in some places where the Negro +population was considerable. + +We must also take into account the critical labor situation during these +years. The northern people were divided as to the way the Negroes should +be encouraged. The mechanics of the North raised no objection to having +the Negroes freed and enlightened but did not welcome them to that section +as competitors in the struggle of life. When, therefore, the blacks, +converted to the doctrine of training the hand to work with skill, began +to appear in northern industrial centers there arose a formidable +prejudice against them.[5] Negro and white mechanics had once worked +together but during the second quarter of the nineteenth century, when +labor became more dignified and a larger number of white persons devoted +themselves to skilled labor, they adopted the policy of eliminating the +blacks. This opposition, to be sure, was not a mere harmless sentiment. It +tended to give rise to the organization of labor groups and finally to +that of trades unions, the beginnings of those controlling this country +today. Carrying the fight against the Negro still further, these laboring +classes used their influence to obtain legislation against the employment +of Negroes in certain pursuits. Maryland and Georgia passed laws +restricting the privileges of Negro mechanics, and Pennsylvania followed +their example.[6] + +Even in those cases when the Negroes were not disturbed in their new homes +on free soil, it was, with the exception of the Quaker and a few other +communities, merely an act of toleration.[7] It must not be concluded, +however, that the Negroes then migrating to the North did not receive +considerable aid. The fact to be noted here is that because they were not +well received sometimes by the people of their new environment, the help +which they obtained from friends afar off did not suffice to make up for +the deficiency of community cooperation. This, of course, was an unusual +handicap to the Negro, as his life as a slave tended to make him a +dependent rather than a pioneer. + +It is evident, however, from accessible statistics that wherever the Negro +was adequately encouraged he succeeded. When the urban Negroes in northern +communities had emerged from their crude state they easily learned from +the white men their method of solving the problems of life. This tendency +was apparent after 1840 and striking results of their efforts were noted +long before the Civil War. They showed an inclination to work when +positions could be found, purchased homes, acquired other property, built +churches and established schools. Going even further than this, some of +them, taking advantage of their opportunities in the business world, +accumulated considerable fortunes, just as had been done in certain +centers in the South where Negroes had been given a chance.[8] + +In cities far north like Boston not so much difference as to the result of +this migration was noted. Some economic progress among the Negroes had +early been observed there as a result of the long residence of Negroes in +that city as in the case of Lewis Hayden who established a successful +clothing business.[9] In New York such evidences were more apparent. There +were in that city not so many Negroes as frequented some other northern +communities of this time but enough to make for that city a decidedly +perplexing problem. It was the usual situation of ignorant, helpless +fugitives and free Negroes going, they knew not where, to find a better +country. The situation at times became so grave that it not only caused +prejudice but gave rise to intense opposition against those who defended +the cause of the blacks as in the case of the abolition riots which +occurred at several places in the State in 1834.[10] + +To relieve this situation, Gerrit Smith, an unusually philanthropic +gentleman, came forward with an interesting plan. Having large tracts of +land in the southeastern counties of New York, he proposed to settle on +small farms a large number of those Negroes huddled together in the +congested districts of New York City. Desiring to obtain only the best +class, he requested that the Negroes to be thus colonized be recommended +by Reverend Charles B. Ray, Reverend Theodore S. Wright and Dr. J. McCune +Smith, three Negroes of New York City, known to be representative of the +best of the race. Upon their recommendations he deeded unconditionally to +black men in 1846 three hundred small farms in Franklin, Essex, Hamilton, +Fulton, Oneida, Delaware, Madison and Ulster counties, giving to each +settler beside $10.00 to enable him to visit his farm.[11] With these +holdings the blacks would not only have a basis for economic independence +but would have sufficient property to meet the special qualifications +which New York by the law of 1823 required of Negroes offering to vote. + +This experiment, however, was a failure. It was not successful because of +the intractability of the land, the harshness of the climate, and, in a +great measure, the inefficiency of the settlers. They had none of the +qualities of farmers. Furthermore, having been disabled by infirmities and +vices they could not as beneficiaries answer the call of the benefactor. +Peterboro, the town opened to Negroes in this section, did maintain a +school and served as a station of the Underground Railroad but the +agricultural results expected of the enterprise never materialized. The +main difficulty in this case was the impossibility of substituting +something foreign for individual enterprise.[12] + +Progressive Negroes did appear, however, in other parts of the State. In +Penyan, Western New York, William Platt and Joseph C. Cassey were +successful lumber merchants.[13] Mr. W.H. Topp of Albany was for several +years one of the leading merchant tailors of that city.[14] Henry Scott, +of New York City, developed a successful pickling business, supplying most +of the vessels entering that port.[15] Thomas Downing for thirty years ran +a creditable restaurant in the midst of the Wall Street banks, where he +made a fortune.[16] Edward V. Clark conducted a thriving business, +handling jewelry and silverware.[17] The Negroes as a whole, moreover, had +shown progress. Aided by the Government and philanthropic white people, +they had before the Civil War a school system with primary, intermediate +and grammar schools and a normal department. They then had considerable +property, several churches and some benevolent institutions. + +In Southern Pennsylvania, nearer to the border between the slave and free +States, the effects of the achievements of these Negroes were more +apparent for the reason that in these urban centers there were sufficient +Negroes for one to be helpful to the other. Philadelphia presented then +the most striking example of the remaking of these people. Here the +handicap of the foreign element was greatest, especially after 1830. The +Philadelphia Negro, moreover, was further impeded in his progress by the +presence of southerners who made Philadelphia their home, and still more +by the prejudice of those Philadelphia merchants who, sustaining such +close relations to the South, hated the Negro and the abolitionists who +antagonized their customers. + +In spite of these untoward circumstances, however, the Negroes of +Philadelphia achieved success. Negroes who had formerly been able to toil +upward were still restricted but they had learned to make opportunities. +In 1832 the Philadelphia blacks had $350,000 of taxable property, $359,626 +in 1837 and $400,000 in 1847. These Negroes had 16 churches and 100 +benevolent societies in 1837 and 19 churches and 106 benevolent societies +in 1847. Philadelphia then had more successful Negro schools than any +other city in the country. There were also about 500 Negro mechanics in +spite of the opposition of organized labor.[18] Some of these Negroes, of +course, were natives of that city. + +Chief among those who had accumulated considerable property was Mr. James +Forten, the proprietor of one of the leading sail manufactories, +constantly employing a large number of men, black and white. Joseph Casey, +a broker of considerable acumen, also accumulated desirable property, +worth probably $75,000.[19] Crowded out of the higher pursuits of labor, +certain other enterprising business men of this group organized the Guild +of Caterers. This was composed of such men as Bogle, Prosser, Dorsey, +Jones and Minton. The aim was to elevate the Negro waiter and cook from +the plane of menials to that of progressive business men. Then came +Stephen Smith who amassed a large fortune as a lumber merchant and with +him Whipper, Vidal and Purnell. Still and Bowers were reliable coal +merchants, Adger a success in handling furniture, Bowser a well-known +painter, and William H. Riley the intelligent boot-maker.[20] + +There were a few such successful Negroes in other communities in the +State. Mr. William Goodrich, of York, acquired considerable interest in +the branch of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad extending to Lancaster.[21] +Benjamin Richards, of Pittsburgh, amassed a large fortune running a +butchering business, buying by contract droves of cattle to supply the +various military posts of the United States.[22] Mr. Henry M. Collins, who +started life as a boatman, left this position for speculation in real +estate in Pittsburgh where he established himself as an asset of the +community and accumulated considerable wealth.[23] Owen A. Barrett, of the +same city, made his way by discovering the remedy known as _B.A. +Fahnestock's Celebrated Vermifuge_, for which he was retained in the +employ of the proprietor, who exploited the remedy.[24] Mr. John Julius +made himself indispensable to Pittsburgh by running the Concert Hall Cafe +where he served President William Henry Harrison in 1840.[25] + +The field of greatest achievement, however, was not in the conservative +East where the people had well established their going toward an +enlightened and sympathetic aristocracy of talent and wealth. It was in +the West where men were in position to establish themselves anew and make +of life what they would. These crude communities, to be sure, often +objected to the presence of the Negroes and sometimes drove them out. But, +on the other hand, not a few of those centers in the making were in the +hands of the Quakers and other philanthropic persons who gave the Negroes +a chance to grow up with the community, when they exhibited a capacity +which justified philanthropic efforts in their behalf. + +These favorable conditions obtained especially in the towns along the Ohio +river, where so many fugitives and free persons of color stopped on their +way from slavery to freedom. In Steubenville a number of Negroes had by +their industry and good deportment made themselves helpful to the +community. Stephen Mulber who had been in that town for thirty years was +in 1835 the leader of a group of thrifty free persons of color. He had a +brick dwelling, in which he lived, and other property in the city. He made +his living as a master mechanic employing a force of workmen to meet the +increasing demand for his labor.[26] In Gallipolis, there was another +group of this class of Negroes, who had permanently attached themselves to +the town by the acquisition of property. They were then able not only to +provide for their families but were maintaining also a school and a +church.[27] In Portsmouth, Ohio, despite the "Black Friday" upheaval of +1831, the Negroes settled down to the solution of the problems of their +new environment and later showed in the accumulation of property evidences +of actual progress. Among the successful Negroes in Columbus was David +Jenkins who acquired considerable property as a painter, glazier and paper +hanger.[28] One Mr. Hill, of Chillicothe, was for several years its +leading tanner and currier.[29] + +It was in Cincinnati, however, that the Negroes made most progress in the +West. The migratory blacks came there at times in such large numbers, as +we have observed, that they provoked the hostile classes of whites to +employ rash measures to exterminate them. But the Negroes, accustomed to +adversity, struggled on, endeavoring through schools and churches to +embrace every opportunity to rise. By 1840 there were 2,255 Negroes in +that city. They had, exclusive of personal effects and $19,000 worth of +church property, accumulated $209,000 worth of real estate. A number of +their progressive men had established a real estate firm known as the +"Iron Chest" company which built houses for Negroes. One man, who had once +thought it unwise to accumulate wealth from which he might be driven, had, +by 1840, changed his mind and purchased $6,000 worth of real estate. + +Another Negro paid $5,000 for himself and family and bought a home worth +$800 or $1,000. A freedman, who was a slave until he was twenty-four years +of age, then had two lots worth $10,000, paid a tax of $40 and had 320 +acres of land in Mercer County. Another, who was worth only $3,000 in +1836, had seven houses in 1840, 400 acres of land in Indiana, and another +tract in Mercer County, Ohio. He was worth altogether about $12,000 or +$15,000. A woman who was a slave until she was thirty was then worth +$2,000. She had also come into potential possession of two houses on which +a white lawyer had given her a mortgage to secure the payment of $2,000 +borrowed from this thrifty woman. Another Negro, who was on the auction +block in 1832, had spent $2,600 purchasing himself and family and had +bought two brick houses worth $6,000 and 560 acres of land in Mercer +County, Ohio, said to be worth $2,500.[30] + +The Negroes of Cincinnati had as early as 1820 established schools which +developed during the forties into something like a modern system with +Gilmore's High School as a capstone. By that time they had also not only +several churches but had given time and means to the organization and +promotion of such as the _Sabbath School Youth's Society_, the +_Total Abstinence Temperance Society_ and the _Anti-Slavery +Society_. The worthy example set by the Negroes of this city was a +stimulus to noble endeavor and significant achievements of Negroes +throughout the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys. Disarming their enemies of +the weapon that they would continue a public charge, they secured the +cooperation of a larger number of white people who at first had treated +them with contempt.[31] + +This unusual progress in the Ohio valley had been promoted by two forces, +the development of the steamboat as a factor in transportation and the +rise of the Negro mechanic. Negroes employed on vessels as servants to the +travelling public amassed large sums received in the form of tips. +Furthermore, the fortunate few, constituting the stewards of these +vessels, could by placing contracts for supplies and using business +methods realize handsome incomes. Many Negroes thus enriched purchased +real estate and went into business in towns along the Ohio. + +The other force, the rise of the Negro mechanic, was made possible by +overcoming much of the prejudice which had at first been encountered. A +great change in this respect had taken place in Cincinnati by 1840.[32] +Many Negroes who had been forced to work as menial laborers then had the +opportunity to show their usefulness to their families and to the +community. Negro mechanics were then getting as much skilled labor as they +could do. It was not uncommon for white artisans to solicit employment of +colored men because they had the reputation of being better paymasters +than master workmen of the favored race. White mechanics not only worked +with the blacks but often associated with them, patronized the same barber +shop, and went to the same places of amusement.[33] + +Out of this group came some very useful Negroes, among whom may be +mentioned Robert Harlan, the horseman; A.V. Thompson, the tailor; J. +Presley and Thomas Ball, contractors, and Samuel T. Wilcox, the merchant, +who was worth $60,000 in 1859.[34] There were among them two other +successful Negroes, Henry Boyd and Robert Gordon. Boyd was a Kentucky +freedman who helped to overcome the prejudice in Cincinnati against Negro +mechanics by inventing and exploiting a corded bed, the demand for which +was extensive throughout the Ohio and Mississippi valleys. He had a +creditable manufacturing business in which he employed twenty-five +men.[35] + +Robert Gordon was a much more interesting man. He was born a slave in +Richmond, Virginia. He ingratiated himself into the favor of his master +who placed him in charge of a large coal yard with the privilege of +selling the slake for his own benefit. In the course of time, he +accumulated in this position thousands of dollars with which he finally +purchased himself and moved away to free soil. After observing the +situation in several of the northern centers, he finally decided to settle +in Cincinnati, where he arrived with $15,000. Knowing the coal business, +he well established himself there after some discouragement and +opposition. He accumulated much wealth which he invested in United States +bonds during the Civil War and in real estate on Walnut Hills when the +bonds were later redeemed.[36] + +The ultimately favorable attitude of the people of Detroit toward +immigrating Negroes had been reflected by the position the people of that +section had taken from the time of the earliest settlements. Generally +speaking, Detroit adhered to this position.[37] In this congenial +community prospered many a Negro family. There were the Williams' most of +whom confined themselves to their trade of bricklaying and amassed +considerable wealth. Then there were the Cooks, descending from Lomax B. +Cook, a broker of no little business ability. Will Marion Cook, the +musician, belongs to this family. The De Baptistes, too, were among the +first to succeed in this new home, as they prospered materially from their +experience and knowledge previously acquired in Fredericksburg, Virginia, +as contractors. From this group came Richard De Baptiste, who in his day +was the most useful Negro Baptist preacher in the Northwest.[38] The +Pelhams were no less successful in establishing themselves in the economic +world. Having an excellent reputation in the community, they easily +secured the cooperation of the influential white people in the city. Out +of this family came Robert A. Pelham, for years editor of a weekly in +Detroit, and from 1901 to the present time an employee of the Federal +Government in Washington. + +The children of the Richards, another old family, were in no sense +inferior to the descendants of the others. The most prominent and the most +useful to emerge from this group was the daughter, Fannie M. Richards. She +was born in Fredericksburg, Virginia, October 1, 1841. Having left that +State with her parents when she was quite young, she did not see so much +of the antebellum conditions obtaining there. Desiring to have better +training than what was then given to persons of color in Detroit, she went +to Toronto where she studied English, history, drawing and needlework. In +later years she attended the Teachers' Training School in Detroit. She +became a public-school teacher there in 1863 and after fifty years of +creditable service in this work she was retired on a pension in 1913.[39] + +The Negroes in the North had not only shown their ability to rise in the +economic world when properly encouraged but had begun to exhibit power of +all kinds. There were Negro inventors, a few lawyers, a number of +physicians and dentists, many teachers, a score of intelligent preachers, +some scholars of note, and even successful blacks in the finer arts. Some +of these, with Frederick Douglass as the most influential, were also doing +creditable work in journalism with about thirty newspapers which had +developed among the Negroes as weapons of defense.[40] + +This progress of the Negroes in the North was much more marked after the +middle of the nineteenth century. The migration of Negroes to northern +communities was at first checked by the reaction in those places during +the thirties and forties. Thus relieved of the large influx which once +constituted a menace, those communities gave the Negroes already on hand +better economic opportunities. It was fortunate too that prior to the +check in the infiltration of the blacks they had come into certain +districts in sufficiently large numbers to become a more potential +factor.[41] They were strong enough in some cases to make common cause +against foes and could by cooperation solve many problems with which the +blacks in dispersed condition could not think of grappling. + +Their endeavors along these lines proceeded in many cases from +well-organized efforts like those culminating in the numerous national +conventions which began meeting first in Philadelphia in 1830 and after +some years of deliberation in this city extended to others in the +North.[42] These bodies aimed not only to promote education, religion and +morals, but, taking up the work which the Quakers began, they put forth +efforts to secure to the free blacks opportunities to be trained in the +mechanic arts to equip themselves for participation in the industries then +springing up throughout the North. This movement, however, did not succeed +in the proportion to the efforts put forth because of the increasing power +of the trades unions. + +After the middle of the nineteenth century too the Negroes found +conditions a little more favorable to their progress than the generation +before. The aggressive South had by that time so shaped the policy of the +nation as not only to force the free States to cease aiding the escape of +fugitives but to undertake to impress the northerner into the service of +assisting in their recapture as provided in the Fugitive Slave Law. This +repressive measure set a larger number of the people thinking of the Negro +as a national problem rather than a local one. The attitude of the North +was then reflected in the personal liberty laws as an answer to this +measure and in the increasing sympathy for the Negroes. During this +decade, therefore, more was done in the North to secure to the Negroes +better treatment and to give them opportunities for improvement. + + +[Footnote 1: _Cincinnati Morning Herald_, July 17, 1846.] + +[Footnote 2: Woodson, _The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861_, p. +242.] + +[Footnote 3: Turner, _The Negro in Pennsylvania_, p. 143; +_Correspondence of Dr. Benjamin Bush_, XXXIX, p. 41.] + +[Footnote 4: DuBois, _The Philadelphia Negro_, pp. 26-27.] + +[Footnote 5: _The Journal of Negro History_, I, p. 5; and +_Proceedings of the American Convention of Abolition Societies_.] + +[Footnote 6: DuBois and Dill, _The Negro American Artisan_, p. 36.] + +[Footnote 7: Jay, _An Inquiry_, pp. 34, 108, 109, 114.] + +[Footnote 8: _The Journal of Negro History_, I, pp. 20-22.] + +[Footnote 9: Delany, _Condition of the Colored People_, p. 106.] + +[Footnote 10: _The Liberator_, July 9, 1835.] + +[Footnote 11: Hammond, _Gerrit Smith_, pp. 26-27.] + +[Footnote 12: Frothingham, _Gerrit Smith_, p. 73.] + +[Footnote 13: Delany, _Condition of the Colored People_, pp. +107-108.] + +[Footnote 14: _Ibid._, p. 102.] + +[Footnote 15: _Ibid._, p. 102.] + +[Footnote 16: _Ibid._, pp. 103-104.] + +[Footnote 17: Delany, _Condition of the Colored People_, pp. +106-107.] + +[Footnote 18: DuBois, _The Philadelphia Negro_, p. 31; _Report of +the Condition of the Free People of Color_, 1838; _ibid._, 1849; +and Bacon, _Statistics of the Colored People of Philadelphia_, 1859.] + +[Footnote 19: Delany, _Condition of the Colored People_, p. 95.] + +[Footnote 20: DuBois, _The Philadelphia Negro_, pp. 31-36.] + +[Footnote 21: Delany, _Condition of the Colored People_, p. 109.] + +[Footnote 22: _Ibid._, p. 101.] + +[Footnote 23: _Ibid._, p. 104.] + +[Footnote 24: _Ibid._, p. 105.] + +[Footnote 25: _Ibid._, p. 107.] + +[Footnote 26: _The Journal of Negro History_, I, p. 22.] + +[Footnote 27: Hickok, _The Negro in Ohio_, p. 88.] + +[Footnote 28: Delany, _Condition of the Colored People_, p. 99.] + +[Footnote 29: _Ibid._, p. 101.] + +[Footnote 30: _The Philanthropist_, July 21, 1840, gives these +statistics in detail.] + +[Footnote 31: _The Philanthropist_, July 21, 1840.] + +[Footnote 32: _The Cincinnati Daily Gazette_, Sept. 14, 1841.] + +[Footnote 33: Barber's _Report on Colored People in Ohio_.] + +[Footnote 34: Delany, _Condition of the Colored People_, pp. 97, 98.] + +[Footnote 35: Delany, _Condition of the Colored People_, p. 98.] + +[Footnote 36: These facts were obtained from his children and from +Cincinnati city directories.] + +[Footnote 37: _Niles Register_, LXIX, p. 357.] + +[Footnote 38: Letters received from Miss Fannie M. Richards of Detroit.] + +[Footnote 39: These facts were obtained from clippings taken from Detroit +newspapers and from letters bearing on Miss Richard's career.] + +[Footnote 40: _The A.M.E. Church Review_, IV, p. 309; and XX, p. +137.] + +[Footnote 41: _Censuses of the United States_; and Clark, _Present +Condition of Colored People_.] + +[Footnote 42: _Minutes and Proceedings_ of the Annual Convention of +the People of Color.] + + + +CHAPTER VI + +CONFUSING MOVEMENTS + + +The Civil War waged largely in the South started the most exciting +movement of the Negroes hitherto known. The invading Union forces drove +the masters before them, leaving the slaves and sometimes poor whites to +escape where they would or to remain in helpless condition to constitute a +problem for the northern army.[1] Many poor whites of the border States +went with the Confederacy, not always because they wanted to enter the +war, but to choose what they considered the lesser of two evils. The +slaves soon realized a community of interests with the Union forces sent, +as they thought, to deliver them from thralldom. At first, it was +difficult to determine a fixed policy for dealing with these fugitives. To +drive them away was an easy matter, but this did not solve the problem. +General Butler's action at Fortress Monroe in 1861, however, anticipated +the policy finally adopted by the Union forces.[2] Hearing that three +fugitive slaves who were received into his lines were to have been +employed in building fortifications for the Confederate army, he declared +them seized as contraband of war rather than declare them actually free as +did General Fremont[3] and General Hunter.[4] He then gave them employment +for wages and rations and appropriated to the support of the unemployed a +portion of the earnings of the laborers. This policy was followed by +General Wood, Butler's successor, and by General Banks in New Orleans. + +An elaborate plan for handling such fugitives was carried out by E.S. +Pierce and General Rufus Saxton at Port Royal, South Carolina. Seeing the +situation in another light, however, General Halleck in charge in the West +excluded slaves from the Union lines, at first, as did General Dix in +Virginia. But Halleck, in his instructions to General McCullum, February, +1862, ordered him to put contrabands to work to pay for food and +clothing.[5] Other commanders, like General McCook and General Johnson, +permitted the slave hunters to enter their lines and take their slaves +upon identification,[6] ignoring the confiscation act of August, 1861, +which was construed by some as justifying the retention of such refugees. +Officers of a different attitude, however, soon began to protest against +the returning of fugitive slaves. General Grant, also, while admitting the +binding force of General Halleck's order, refused to grant permits to +those in search of fugitives seeking asylum within his lines and at the +capture of Fort Donelson ordered the retention of all blacks who had been +used by the Confederates in building fortifications.[7] + +Lincoln finally urged the necessity for withholding fugitive slaves from +the enemy, believing that there could be in it no danger of servile +insurrection and that the Confederacy would thereby be weakened.[8] As +this opinion soon developed into a conviction that official action was +necessary, Congress, by Act of March 13, 1862, provided that slaves be +protected against the claims of their pursuers. Continuing further in this +direction, the Federal Government gradually reached the position of +withdrawing Negro labor from the Confederate territory. Finally the United +States Government adopted the policy of withholding from the Confederates, +slaves received with the understanding that their masters were in +rebellion against the United States. With this as a settled policy then, +the United States Government had to work out some scheme for the remaking +of these fugitives coming into its camps. + +In some of these cases the fugitives found themselves among men more +hostile to them than their masters were, for many of the Union soldiers of +the border States were slaveholders themselves and northern soldiers did +not understand that they were fighting to free Negroes. The condition in +which they were on arriving, moreover, was a new problem for the army. +Some came naked, some in decrepitude, some afflicted with disease, and +some wounded in their efforts to escape.[9] There were "women in travail, +the helplessness of childhood and of old age, the horrors of sickness and +of frequent deaths."[10] In their crude state few of them had any +conception of the significance of liberty, thinking that it meant idleness +and freedom from restraint. In consequence of this ignorance there +developed such undesirable habits as deceit, theft and licentiousness to +aggravate the afflictions of nakedness, famine and disease.[11] + +In the East large numbers of these refugees were concentrated at +Washington, Alexandria, Fortress Monroe, Hampton, Craney Island and Fort +Norfolk. There were smaller groups of them at Yorktown, Suffolk and +Portsmouth.[12] + +[Illustration: MAP SHOWING THE PER CENT OF NEGROES IN TOTAL POPULATION, BY +STATES: 1910. + +(Map 2, Bulletin 129, The United States Bureau of the Census.)] + +Some of them were conducted from these camps into York, Columbia, +Harrisburg, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, and by water to New York and +Boston, from which they went to various parts seeking labor. Some +collected in groups as in the case of those at Five Points in New +York.[13] Large numbers of them from Virginia assembled in Washington in +1862 in Duff Green's Row on Capitol Hill where they were organized as a +camp, out of which came a contraband school, after being moved to the +McClellan Barracks.[14] Then there was in the District of Columbia another +group known as Freedmen's village on Arlington Heights. It was said that, +in 1864, 30,000 to 40,000 Negroes had come from the plantations to the +District of Columbia.[15] It happened here too as in most cases of this +migration that the Negroes were on hand before the officials grappling +with many other problems could determine exactly what could or should be +done with them. The camps near Washington fortunately became centers for +the employment of contrabands in the city. Those repairing to Fortress +Monroe were distributed as laborers among the farmers of that +vicinity.[16] + +[Illustration: DIAGRAM SHOWING THE NEGRO POPULATION OF NORTHERN AND +WESTERN CITIES IN 1900 AND THE EXTENT TO WHICH IT INCREASED BY 1910. + +COUNTIES IN THE SOUTHERN STATES HAVING AT LEAST 50 PER CENT OF THEIR +POPULATION NEGRO. + +(Maps 3 and 4, Bulletin 129, U.S. Bureau of the Census.) + +(Maps 5 and 6, Bulletin 129, U.S. Bureau of the Census.)] + +In some of these camps, and especially in those of the West, the refugees +were finally sent out to other sections in need of labor, as in the cases +of the contrabands assembled with the Union army at first at Grand +Junction and later at Memphis.[17] + +There were three types of these camp communities which attracted attention +as places for free labor experimentation. These were at Port Royal, on the +Mississippi in the neighborhood of Vicksburg, and in Lower Louisiana and +Virginia. The first trial of free labor of blacks on a large scale in a +slave State was made in Port Royal.[18] The experiment was generally +successful. By industry, thrift and orderly conduct the Negroes showed +their appreciation for their new opportunities. In the Mississippi section +invaded by the northern army, General Thomas opened what he called +_Infirmary Farms_ which he leased to Negroes on certain terms which +they usually met successfully. The same plan, however, was not so +successful in the Lower Mississippi section.[19] The failure in this +section was doubtless due to the inferior type of blacks in the lower +cotton belt where Negroes had been more brutalized by slavery. + +In some cases, these refugees experienced many hardships. It was charged +that they were worked hard, badly treated and deprived of all their wages +except what was given them for rations and a scanty pittance, wholly +insufficient to purchase necessary clothing and provide for their +families.[20] Not a few of the refugees for these reasons applied for +permission to return to their masters and sometimes such permission was +granted; for, although under military authority, they were by order of +Congress to be considered as freemen. These voluntary slaves, of course, +were few and the authorities were not thereby impressed with the thought +that Negroes would prefer to be slaves, should they be treated as freemen +rather than as brutes.[21] + +It became increasingly difficult, however, to handle this problem. In the +first place, it was not an easy matter to find soldiers well disposed to +serve the Negroes in any manner whatever and the officers of the army had +no desire to force them to render such services since those thus engaged +suffered a sort of social ostracism. The same condition obtained in the +case of caring for those afflicted with disease, until there was issued a +specific regulation placing the contraband sick in charge of the army +surgeons.[22] What the situation in the Mississippi Valley was during +these months has been well described by an observer, saying: "I hope I may +never be called on again to witness the horrible scenes I saw in those +first days of history of the freedmen in the Mississippi Valley. +Assistants were hard to find, especially the kind that would do any good +in the camps. A detailed soldier in each camp of a thousand people was the +best that could be done and his duties were so onerous that he ended by +doing nothing. In reviewing the condition of the people at that time, I am +not surprised at the marvelous stories told by visitors who caught an +occasional glimpse of the misery and wretchedness in these camps. Our +efforts to do anything for these people, as they herded together in +masses, when founded on any expectation that they would help themselves, +often failed; they had become so completely broken down in spirit, through +suffering, that it was almost impossible to arouse them."[23] + +A few sympathetic officers and especially the chaplains undertook to +relieve the urgent cases of distress. They could do little, however, to +handle all the problems of the unusual situation until they engaged the +attention of the higher officers of the army and the federal functionaries +in Washington. After some delay this was finally done and special officers +were detailed to take charge of the contrabands. The Negroes were +assembled in camps and employed according to instructions from the +Secretary of War as teamsters, laborers and the like on forts and +railroads. Some were put to picking, ginning, baling and removing cotton +on plantations abandoned by their masters. General Grant, as early as +1862, was making further use of them as fatigue men in the department of +the surgeon-general, the quartermaster and the commissary. He believed +then that such Negroes as did well in these more humble positions should +be made citizens and soldiers.[24] As a matter of fact out of this very +suggestion came the policy of arming the Negroes, the first regiment of +whom was recruited under orders issued by General Hunter at Port Royal, +South Carolina in 1862. As the arming of the slave to participate in this +war did not generally please the white people who considered the struggle +a war between civilized groups, this policy could not offer general relief +to the congested contraband camps.[25] + +A better system of handling the fugitives was finally worked out, however, +with a general superintendent at the head of each department, supported by +a number of competent assistants. More explicit instructions were given as +to the manner of dealing with the situation. It was to be the duty of the +superintendent of contrabands, says the order, to organize them into +working parties in saving the cotton, as pioneers on railroads and +steamboats, and in any way where their services could be made available. +Where labor was performed for private individuals they were charged in +accordance with the orders of the commander of the department. In case +they were directed to save abandoned crops of cotton for the benefit of +the United States Government, the officer selling such crops would turn +over to the superintendent of contrabands the proceeds of the sale, which +together with other earnings were used for clothing and feeding the +Negroes. Clothing sent by philanthropic persons to these camps was +received and distributed by the superintendent. In no case, however, were +Negroes to be forced into the service of the United States Government or +to be enticed away from their homes except when it became a military +necessity.[26] + +Some order out of the chaos eventually developed, for as John Eaton, one +of the workers in the West, reported: "There was no promiscuous +intermingling. Families were established by themselves. Every man took +care of his own wife and children." "One of the most touching features of +our Work," says he, "was the eagerness with which colored men and women +availed themselves of the opportunities offered them to legalize unions +already formed, some of which had been in existence for a long time."[27] +"Chaplain A.S. Fiske on one occasion married in about an hour one hundred +and nineteen couples at one service, chiefly those who had long lived +together." Letters from the Virginia camps and from those of Port Royal +indicate that this favorable condition generally obtained.[28] + +This unusual problem in spite of additional effort, however, would not +readily admit of solution. Benevolent workers of the North, therefore, +began to minister to the needs of these unfortunate blacks. They sent +considerable sums of money, increasing quantities of clothing and even +some of their most devoted men and women to toil among them as social +workers and teachers.[29] These efforts also took organized form in +various parts of the North under the direction of _The Pennsylvania +Freedmen's Relief Association, The Tract Society, The American Missionary +Association, Pennsylvania Friends Freedmen's Relief Association, Old +School Presbyterian Mission, The Reformed Presbyterian Mission, The New +England Freedmen's Aid Committee, The New England Freedmen's Aid Society, +The New England Freedmen's Mission, The Washington Christian Union, The +Universalists of Maine, The New York Freedmen's Relief Association, The +Hartford Relief Society, The National Freedmen's Relief Association of the +District of Columbia_, and finally the _Freedmen's Bureau_.[30] + +As an outlet to the congested grouping of Negroes and poor whites in the +war camps it was arranged to send a number of them to the loyal States as +fast as there presented themselves opportunities for finding homes and +employment. Cairo, Illinois, in the West, became the center of such +activities extending its ramifications into all parts of the invaded +southern territory. Some of the refugees permanently settled in the North, +taking up the work abandoned by the northern soldiers who went to war.[31] +It was soon found necessary to appoint a superintendent of such affairs at +Cairo, for there were those who, desiring to lead a straggling life, had +to be restrained from crime by military surveillance and regulations +requiring labor for self-support. Exactly how many whites and blacks were +thus aided to reach northern communities cannot be determined but in view +of the frequent mention of their movements by travellers the number must +have been considerable. In some cases, as in Lawrence, Kansas, there were +assembled enough freedmen to constitute a distinct group.[32] Speaking of +this settlement the editor of the _Alton Telegraph_ said in 1862 that +although they amounted to many hundreds not one, that he could learn of, +had been a public charge. They readily found employment at fair wages, and +soon made themselves comfortable.[33] + +There was a little apprehension that the North would be overrun by such +blacks. Some had no such fear, however, for the reason that the census did +not indicate such a movement. Many slaves were freed in the North prior to +1860, yet with all the emigration from the slave States to the North there +were then in all the Northern States but 226,152 free blacks, while there +were in the slave States 261,918, an excess of 35,766 in the slave States. +Frederick Starr believed that during the Civil War there might be an +influx for a few months but it would not continue.[34] They would return +when sure that they would be free. Starr thought that, if necessary, these +refugees might be used in building the much desired Pacific Railroad to +divert them from the North. + +There was little ground for this apprehension, in fact, if their +readjustment and development in the contraband camps could be considered +an indication of what the Negroes would eventually do. Taking all things +into consideration, most unbiased observers felt that blacks in the camps +deserved well of their benefactors.[36] According to Levi Coffin, these +contrabands were, in 1864, disposed of as follows: "In military services +as soldiers, laundresses, cooks, officers' servants and laborers in the +various staff departments, 41,150; in cities, on plantations and in +freedmen's villages and cared for, 72,500. Of these 62,300 were entirely +self-supporting, just as any industrial class anywhere else, as planters, +mechanics, barbers, hackmen and draymen, conducting enterprises on their +own responsibility or working as hired laborers." The remaining 10,200 +received subsistence from the government. 3,000 of these were members of +families whose heads were carrying on plantations, and had undertaken +cultivation of 4,000 acres of cotton, pledging themselves to pay the +government for their subsistence from the first income of the crop. The +other 7,200 included the paupers, that is, all Negroes over and under the +self-supporting age, the crippled and sick in hospitals. This class, +however, instead of being unproductive, had then under cultivation 500 +acres of corn, 790 acres of vegetables, and 1,500 acres of cotton, besides +working at wood chopping and other industries. There were reported in the +aggregate over 100,000 acres of cotton under cultivation, 7,000 acres of +which were leased and cultivated by blacks. Some Negroes were managing as +many as 300 or 400 acres each.[37] Statistics showing exactly how much the +numbers of contrabands in the various branches of the service increased +are wanting, but in view of the fact that the few thousand soldiers here +given increased to about 200,000 before the close of the Civil War, the +other numbers must have been considerable, if they all grew the least +proportionately. + +Much industry was shown among these refugees. Under this new system they +acquired the idea of ownership, and of the security of wages and learned +to see the fundamental difference between freedom and slavery. Some +Yankees, however, seeing that they did less work than did laborers in the +North, considered them lazy, but the lack of industry was customary in the +South and a river should not be expected to rise higher than its source. +One of their superintendents said that they worked well without being +urged, that there was among them a public opinion against idleness, which +answered for discipline, and that those put to work with soldiers labored +longer and did the nicer parts. "In natural tact and the faculty of +getting a livelihood," says the same writer, "the contrabands are inferior +to the Yankees, but quite equal to the mass of southern population."[38] +The Negroes also showed capacity to organize labor and use capital in the +promotion of enterprises. Many of them purchased land and cultivated it to +great profit both to the community and to themselves. Others entered the +service of the government as mechanics and contractors, from the +employment of which some of them realized handsome incomes. + +The more important development, however, was that of manhood. This was +best observed in their growing consciousness of rights, and their +readiness to defend them, even when encroached upon by members of the +white race. They quickly learned to appreciate freedom and exhibited +evidences of manhood in their desire for the comforts and conveniences of +life. They readily purchased articles of furniture within their means, +bringing their home equipment up to the standard of that of persons +similarly circumstanced. The indisposition to labor was overcome "in a +healthy nature by instinct and motives of superior forces, such as love of +life, the desire to be clothed and fed, the sense of security derived from +provision for the future, the feeling of self-respect, the love of family +and children and the convictions of duty."[39] + +These enterprises, begun in doubt, soon ceased to be a bare hope or +possibility. They became during the war a fruition and a consummation, in +that they produced Negroes "who would work for a living and fight for +freedom." They were, therefore, considered "adapted to civil society." +They had "shown capacity for knowledge, for free industry, for +subordination to law and discipline, for soldierly fortitude, for social +and family relations, for religious culture and aspiration. These +qualities," said the observer, "when stirred, and sustained by the +incitements and rewards of a just society, and combining with the currents +of our continental civilization, will, under the guidance of a benevolent +Providence which forgets neither them nor us, make them a constantly +progressive race; and secure them ever after from the calamity of another +enslavement, and ourselves from the worst calamity of being their +oppressors."[40] + +It is clear that these smaller numbers of Negroes under favorable +conditions could be easily adjusted to a new environment. When, however, +all Negroes were declared free there set in a confused migration which was +much more of a problem. The first thing the Negro did after realizing that +he was free was to roam over the country to put his freedom to a test. To +do this, according to many writers, he frequently changed his name, +residence, employment and wife, sometimes carrying with him from the +plantation the fruits of his own labor. Many of them easily acquired a dog +and a gun and were disposed to devote their time to the chase until the +assistance in the form of mules and land expected from the government +materialized. Their emancipation, therefore, was interpreted not only as +freedom from slavery but from responsibility.[41] Where they were going +they did not know but the towns and cities became very attractive to them. + +Speaking of this upheaval in Virginia, Eckenrode says that many of them +roamed over the country without restraint.[42] "Released from their +accustomed bonds," says Hall, "and filled with a pleasing, if not vague, +sense of uncontrolled freedom, they flocked to the cities with little hope +of obtaining remunerative work. Wagon loads of them were brought in from +the country by the soldiers and dumped down to shift for themselves."[43] +Referring to the proclamation of freedom, in Georgia, Thompson asserts +that their most general and universal response was to pick up and leave +the home place to go somewhere else, preferably to a town. "The lure of the +city was strong to the blacks, appealing to their social natures, to their +inherent love for a crowd."[44] Davis maintains that thousands of the +70,000 Negroes in Florida crowded into the Federal military camps and into +towns upon realizing that they were free.[45] According to Ficklen, the +exodus of the slaves from the neighboring plantations of Louisiana into +Baton Rouge, Carrollton and New Orleans was so great as to strain the +resources of the Federal authorities to support them. Ten thousand poured +into New Orleans alone.[46] Fleming records that upon leaving their homes +the blacks collected in gangs at the cross roads, in the villages and +towns, especially near the military posts. The towns were filled with +crowds of blacks who left their homes with absolutely nothing, "thinking +that the government would care for them, or more probably, not thinking at +all."[47] + +The portrayal of these writers of this phase of Reconstruction history +contains a general truth, but in some cases the picture is overdrawn. The +student of history must bear in mind that practically all of our histories +of that period are based altogether on the testimony of prejudiced whites +and are written from their point of view. Some of these writers have aimed +to exaggerate the vagrancy of the blacks to justify the radical procedure +of the whites in dealing with it. The Negroes did wander about +thoughtlessly, believing that this was the most effective way to enjoy +their freedom. But nothing else could be expected from a class who had +never felt anything but the heel of oppression. History shows that such +vagrancy has always followed the immediate emancipation of a large number +of slaves. Many Negroes who flocked to the towns and army camps, moreover, +had like their masters and poor whites seen their homes broken up or +destroyed by the invading Union armies. Whites who had never learned to +work were also roaming and in some cases constituted marauding bands.[48] + +There was, moreover, an actual drain of laborers to the lower and more +productive lands in Mississippi and Louisiana.[49] This developed later +into a more considerable movement toward the Southwest just after the +Civil War, the exodus being from South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and +Mississippi to Louisiana, Arkansas and Texas. Here was the pioneering +spirit, a going to the land of more economic opportunities. This slow +movement continued from about 1865 to 1875, when the development of the +numerous railway systems gave rise to land speculators who induced whites +and blacks to go west and southwest. It was a migration of individuals, +but it was reported that as many as 35,000 Negroes were then persuaded to +leave South Carolina and Georgia for Arkansas and Texas.[50] + +The usual charge that the Negro is naturally migratory is not true. This +impression is often received by persons who hear of the thousands of +Negroes who move from one place to another from year to year because of +the desire to improve their unhappy condition. In this there is no +tendency to migrate but an urgent need to escape undesirable conditions. +In fact, one of the American Negroes' greatest shortcomings is that they +are not sufficiently pioneering. Statistics show that the whites have more +inclination to move from State to State than the Negro. To prove this +assertion,[51] Professor William O. Scroggs has shown that, in 1910, 16.6 +per cent of the Negroes had moved to some other State than that in which +they were born, while during the same period 22.4 per cent of the whites +had done the same.[52] + +The South, however, was not disposed to look at the vagrancy of the +ex-slaves so philosophically. That section had been devastated by war and +to rebuild these waste places reliable labor was necessary. Legislatures +of the slave States, therefore, immediately after the close of the war, +granted the Negro nominal freedom but enacted measures of vagrancy and +labor so as to reduce the Negro again almost to the status of a slave. +White magistrates were given wide discretion in adjudging Negroes +vagrants.[53] Negroes had to sign contracts to work. If without what was +considered a just cause the Negro left the employ of a planter, the former +could be arrested and forced to work and in some sections with ball and +chain. If the employer did not care to take him back he could be hired out +by the county or confined in jail. Mississippi, Louisiana and South +Carolina had further drastic features. By local ordinance in Louisiana +every Negro had to be in the service of some white person, and by special +laws of South Carolina and Mississippi the Negro became subject to a +master almost in the same sense in which he was prior to emancipation.[54] +These laws, of course, convinced the government of the United States that +the South had not yet decided to let slavery go and for that reason +military rule and Congressional Reconstruction followed. In this respect +the South did itself a great injury, for many of the provisions of the +black codes, especially the vagrancy laws, were unnecessary. Most Negroes +soon realized that freedom did not mean relief from responsibility and +they quickly settled down to work after a rather protracted and exciting +holiday.[55] + +During the last year of and immediately after the Civil War there set in +another movement, not of a large number of Negroes but of the intelligent +class who had during years of residence in the North enjoyed such +advantages of contact and education as to make them desirable and useful +as leaders in the Reconstruction of the South and the remaking of the +race. In their tirades against the Carpet-bag politicians who handled the +Reconstruction situation so much to the dissatisfaction of the southern +whites, historians often forget to mention also that a large number of the +Negro leaders who participated in that drama were also natives or +residents of Northern States. + +Three motives impelled these blacks to go South. Some had found northern +communities so hostile as to impede their progress, many wanted to rejoin +relatives from whom they had been separated by their flight from the land +of slavery, and others were moved by the spirit of adventure to enter a +new field ripe with all sorts of opportunities. This movement, together +with that of migration to large urban communities, largely accounts for +the depopulation and the consequent decline of certain colored communities +in the North after 1865. + +Some of the Negroes who returned to the South became men of national +prominence. William J. Simmons, who prior to the Civil War was carried +from South Carolina to Pennsylvania, returned to do religious and +educational work in Kentucky. Bishop James W. Hood, of the African +Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, went from Connecticut to North Carolina +to engage in similar work. Honorable R.T. Greener, the first Negro +graduate of Harvard, went from Philadelphia to teach in the District of +Columbia and later to be a professor in the University of South Carolina. +F.L. Cardoza, educated at the University of Edinburgh, returned to South +Carolina and became State Treasurer. R.B. Elliot, born in Boston and +educated in England, settled in South Carolina from which he was sent to +Congress. + +John M. Langston was taken to Ohio and educated but came back to Virginia +his native State from which he was elected to Congress. J.T. White left +Indiana to enter politics in Arkansas, becoming State Senator and later +commissioner of public works and internal improvements. Judge Mifflin +Wister Gibbs, a native of Philadelphia, purposely settled in Arkansas +where he served as city judge and Register of United States Land Office. +T. Morris Chester, of Pittsburgh, finally made his way to Louisiana where +he served with distinction as a lawyer and held the position of +Brigadier-General in charge of the Louisiana State Guards under the +Kellogg government. Joseph Carter Corbin, who was taken from Virginia to +be educated at Chillicothe, Ohio, went later to Arkansas where he served +as chief clerk in the post office at Little Rock and later as State +Superintendent of Schools. Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback, who moved +north for education and opportunity, returned to enter politics in +Louisiana, which honored him with several important positions among which +was that of Acting Governor. + + +[Footnote 1: This is well treated in John Eaton's _Grant, Lincoln and +the Freedmen_. See also Coffin's _Boys of '61_.] + +[Footnote 2: Williams, _History of the Negro Troops in the War of the +Rebellion_, p. 70.] + +[Footnote 3: Greely, _American Conflict_, I, p. 585.] + +[Footnote 4: _Ibid_., II, p. 246.] + +[Footnote 5: _Official Records of the Rebellion_, VIII, p. 628.] + +[Footnote 6: Williams, _Negro Troops_, p. 66 et seq.] + +[Footnote 7: _Official Records of the Rebellion_, VIII, p. 370; +Williams, _Negro Troops_, p. 75.] + +[Footnote 8: Eaton, _Grant, Lincoln and the Freedmen_, pp. 87, 92.] + +[Footnote 9: Pierce, _Freedmen of Port Royal, South Carolina_, passim; +Botume, _First Days Among the Contrabands_, pp. 10-22; and Pearson, +_Letters from Port Royal_, passim.] + +[Footnote 10: Eaton, _Grant, Lincoln and the Freedmen_, p. 92.] + +[Footnote 11: _Ibid._, pp. 2, 3.] + +[Footnote 12: Report of the _Committee of Representatives of the New +York Yearly Meeting of Friends_ upon the _Condition and Wants of the +Colored Refugees_, 1862, p. 1 et seq.] + +[Footnote 13: _Report of the Committee of Representatives, etc_., p. +3.] + +[Footnote 14: At an entertainment of this school, Senator Pomeroy of +Kansas, voicing the sentiment of Lincoln, spoke in favor of a scheme to +colonize Negroes in Central America.] + +[Footnote 15: _Special Report_ of the United States Commission of +Education on the Schools of the District of Columbia, p. 215.] + +[Footnote 16: _Christian Examiner_, LXXVI, p. 349.] + +[Footnote 17: Eaton, _Lincoln, Grant and the Freedmen_, pp. 18, 30.] + +[Footnote 18: Pierce, _The Freedmen of Port Royal, South Carolina, +Official Reports_; and Pearson, _Letters from Port Royal written at +the Time of the Civil War_.] + +[Footnote 19: _Christian Examiner_, LXXVI, p. 354.] + +[Footnote 20: _Continental Monthly_, II, p. 193.] + +[Footnote 21: _Report_ of the Committee of Representatives of the New +York Yearly Meeting of Friends, p. 12.] + +[Footnote 23: Eaton, _Lincoln, Grant and the Freedmen_, p. 2.] + +[Footnote 23: Eaton, _Lincoln, Grant and the Freedmen_, p. 19. See +also Botume's _First Days Amongst the Contrabands_. This work vividly +portrays conditions among the refugees assembled at points in South +Carolina.] + +[Footnote 24: Eaton, _Grant, Lincoln and the Freedmen_, p. 15.] + +[Footnote 25: Williams, _Negro in the Rebellion_, pp. 90-98.] + +[Footnote 26: _Official Records of the War of the Rebellion_, VII, +pp. 503, 510, 560, 595, 628, 668, 698, 699, 711, 723, 739, 741, 757, 769, +787, 801, 802, 811, 818, 842, 923, 934; VIII, pp. 444, 445, 451, 464, 555, +556, 564, 584, 637, 642, 686, 690, 693, 825.] + +[Footnote 27: Eaton, _Grant, Lincoln and the Freedmen_, pp. 34-35.] + +[Footnote 28: Ames, _From a New England Woman's Diary_, passim; and +Pearson, _Letters from Port Royal_, passim.] + +[Footnote 29: Ames, _From a New England Woman's Diary in 1865_, +passim.] + +[Footnote 30: _Special Report_ of the United States Commissioner of +Education on the Schools of the District of Columbia, p. 217.] + +[Footnote 31: Eaton, _Grant, Lincoln and the Freedmen_, p. 37.] + +[Footnote 32: Eaton, _Grant, Lincoln and the Freedmen_, p. 38.] + +[Footnote 33: _Ibid._, p. 39.] + +[Footnote 34: Starr, _What shall be done with the People of Color in the +United States_, p. 25; Ward, _Contrabands_, pp. 3, 4.] + +[Footnote 35: It is said that Lincoln suggested colonizing the contrabands +in South America.] + +[Footnote 36: _Atlantic Monthly_, XII, p. 308.] + +[Footnote 37: Levi Coffin, _Reminiscences_, p. 671.] + +[Footnote 38: _Atlantic Monthly_, XII, p. 309.] + +[Footnote 39: _Ibid._, XII, pp. 310-311.] + +[Footnote 40: _Ibid_., p. 311.] + +[Footnote 41: Hamilton, _Reconstruction in North Carolina_, pp. 156, +157.] + +[Footnote 42: Eckenrode, _Political History of Virginia during the +Reconstruction_, p. 43.] + +[Footnote 43: Hall, _Andrew Johnson_, p. 258.] + +[Footnote 44: Thompson, _Reconstruction in Georgia_, p. 44.] + +[Footnote 45: Davis, _Reconstruction in Florida_, p. 341.] + +[Footnote 46: Ficklen, _History of Reconstruction in Louisiana_, p. +118.] + +[Footnote 47: Fleming, _The Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama_, +p. 271.] + +[Footnote 48: Thompson, _Reconstruction in Georgia_, p. 69.] + +[Footnote 49: _Ibid._, p. 69.] + +[Footnote 50: This exodus became considerable again in 1888 and 1889 and +the Negro population has continued in this direction of plentitude of land +including not only Arkansas and Texas but Louisiana and Oklahoma, all +which received in this way by 1900 about 200,000 Negroes.] + +[Footnote 51: _American Journal of Political Economy_, XXII, pp. 10, +40.] + +[Footnote 52: _Ibid._, XXV, p. 1038.] + +[Footnote 53: Mecklin, _Black Codes_.] + +[Footnote 54: Dunning, _Reconstruction_, pp. 54, 59, 110.] + +[Footnote 55: DuBois, _Freedmen's Bureau_.] + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE EXODUS TO THE WEST + + +Having come through the halcyon days of the Reconstruction only to find +themselves reduced almost to the status of slaves, many Negroes deserted +the South for the promising west to grow up with the country. The +immediate causes were doubtless political. _Bulldozing_, a rather +vague term, covering all such crimes as political injustice and +persecution, was the source of most complaint. The abridgment of the +Negroes' rights had affected them as a great calamity. They had learned +that voting is one of the highest privileges to be obtained in this life +and they wanted to go where they might still exercise that privilege. That +persecution was the main cause was disputed, however, as there were cases +of Negroes migrating from parts where no such conditions obtained. Yet +some of the whites giving their version of the situation admitted that +violent methods had been used so to intimidate the Negroes as to compel +them to vote according to the dictation of the whites. It was also learned +that the _bulldozers_ concerned in dethroning the non-taxpaying +blacks were an impecunious and irresponsible group themselves, led by men +of the wealthy class.[1] + +Coming to the defense of the whites, some said that much of the +persecution with which the blacks were afflicted was due to the fear of +Negro uprisings, the terror of the days of slavery. The whites, however, +did practically nothing to remove the underlying causes. They did not +encourage education and made no efforts to cure the Negroes of faults for +which slavery itself was to be blamed and consequently could not get the +confidence of the blacks. The races tended rather to drift apart. The +Negroes lived in fear of reenslavement while the whites believed that the +war between the North and South would soon be renewed. Some Negroes +thinking likewise sought to go to the North to be among friends. The +blacks, of course, had come so to regard southern whites as their enemies +as to render impossible a voluntary division in politics. + +Among the worst of all faults of the whites was their unwillingness to +labor and their tendency to do mischief.[2] As there were so many to live +on the labor of the Negroes they were reduced to a state a little better +than that of bondage. The master class was generally unfair to the blacks. +No longer responsible for them as slaves, the planters endeavored after +the war to get their labor for nothing. The Negroes themselves had no +land, no mules, no presses nor cotton gins, and they could not acquire +sufficient capital to obtain these things. They were made victims of fraud +in signing contracts which they could not understand and had to suffer the +consequent privations and want aggravated by robbery and murder by the Ku +Klux Klan.[3] + +The murder of Negroes was common throughout the South and especially in +Louisiana. In 1875, General Sheridan said that as many as 3,500 persons +had been killed and wounded in that State, the great majority of whom +being Negroes; that 1,884 were killed and wounded in 1868, and probably +1,200 between 1868 and 1875. Frightful massacres occurred in the parishes +of Bossier, Catahoula, Saint Bernard, Grant and Orleans. As most of these +murders were for political reasons, the offenders were regarded by their +communities as heroes rather than as criminals. A massacre of Negroes +began in the parish of St. Landry on the 28th of September and continued +for three days, resulting in the death of from 300 to 400. Thirteen +captives were taken from the jail and shot and as many as twenty-five dead +bodies were found burned in the woods. There broke out in the parish of +Bossier another three-day riot during which two hundred Negroes were +massacred. More than forty blacks were killed in the parish of Caddo +during the following month. In fact, the number of murders, maimings and +whippings during these months aggregated over one thousand.[4] The result +was that the intelligent Negroes were either intimidated or killed so that +the illiterate masses of Negro voters might be ordered to refrain from +voting the Republican ticket to strengthen the Democrats or be subjected +to starvation through the operation of the mischievous land tenure and +credit system. What was not done in 1868 to overthrow the Republican +regime was accomplished by a renewed and extended use of such drastic +measures throughout the South in 1876. + +Certain whites maintained, however, that the unrest was due to the work of +radical politicians at the North, who had sent their emissaries south to +delude the Negroes into a fever of migration. Some said it was a scheme to +force the nomination of a certain Republican candidate for President in +1880. Others laid it to the charge of the defeated white and black +Republicans who had been thrown from power by the whites upon regaining +control of the reconstructed States.[5] A few insisted that a speech +delivered by Senator Windom in 1879 had given stimulus to the +migration.[6] Many southerners said that speculators in Kansas had adopted +this plan to increase the value of their land. Then there were other +theories as to the fundamental causes, each consisting of a charge of one +political faction that some other had given rise to the movement, varying +according as they were Bourbons, conservatives, native white Republicans, +carpet-bag Republicans, or black Republicans. + +Impartial observers, however, were satisfied that the movement was +spontaneous to the extent that the blacks were ready and willing to go. +Probably no more inducement was offered them than to other citizens among +whom land companies sent agents to distribute literature. But the +fundamental causes of the unrest were economic, for since the Civil War +race troubles have never been sufficient to set in motion a large number +of Negroes. The discontent resulted from the land-tenure and credit +systems, which had restored slavery in a modified form.[7] + +After the Civil War a few Negroes in those parts, where such opportunities +were possible, invested in real estate offered for sale by the +impoverished and ruined planters of the conquered commonwealths. When, +however, the Negroes lost their political power, their property was seized +on the plea for delinquent taxes and they were forced into the ghetto of +towns and cities, as it became a crime punishable by social proscription +to sell Negroes desirable residences. The aim was to debase all Negroes to +the status of menial labor in conformity with the usual contention of the +South that slavery is the normal condition of the blacks.[8] + +Most of the land of the South, however, always remained as large tracts +held by the planters of cotton, who never thought of alienating it to the +Negroes to make them a race of small farmers. In fact, they had not the +means to make extensive purchases of land, even if the planters had been +disposed to transfer it. Still subject to the experimentation of white +men, the Negroes accepted the plan of paying them wages; but this failed +in all parts except in the sugar district, where the blacks remained +contented save when disturbed by political movements. They then tried all +systems of working on shares in the cotton districts; but this was finally +abandoned because the planters in some cases were not able to advance the +Negro tenant supplies, pending the growth of the crop, and some found the +Negro too indifferent and lazy to make the partnership desirable. Then +came the renting system which during the Reconstruction period was general +in the cotton districts. This system threw the tenant on his own +responsibility and frequently made him the victim of his own ignorance and +the rapacity of the white man. As exorbitant prices were charged for rent, +usually six to ten dollars an acre for land worth fifteen to thirty +dollars an acre, the Negro tenant not only did not accumulate anything but +had reason to rejoice at the end of the year, if he found himself out of +debt.[9] + +Along with this went the credit system which furnished the capstone of the +economic structure so harmful to the Negro tenant. This system made the +Negroes dependent for their living on an advance of supplies of food, +clothing or tools during the year, secured by a lien on the crop when +harvested. As the Negroes had no chance to learn business methods during +the days of slavery, they fell a prey to a class of loan sharks, harpies +and vampires, who established stores everywhere to extort from these +ignorant tenants by the mischievous credit system their whole income +before their crops could be gathered.[10] Some planters who sympathized +with the Negroes brought forward the scheme of protecting them by +advancing certain necessities at more reasonable prices. As the planter +himself, however, was subject to usury, the scheme did not give much +relief. The Negroes' crop, therefore, when gathered went either to the +merchant or to the planter to pay the rent; for the merchant's supplies +were secured by a mortgage on the tenant's personal property and a pledge +of the growing crop. This often prevented Negro laborers in the employ of +black tenants from getting their wages at the end of the year, for, +although the laborer had also a lien on the growing crop, the merchant and +the planter usually had theirs recorded first and secured thereby the +support of the law to force the payment of their claims. The Negro tenant +then began the year with three mortgages, covering all he owned, his labor +for the coming year and all he expected to acquire during that +twelvemonth. He paid "one-third of his product for the use of the land, he +paid an exorbitant fee for recording the contract by which he paid his +pound of flesh; he was charged two or three times as much as he ought to +pay for ginning his cotton; and, finally, he turned over his crop to be +eaten up in commissions, if any was still left to him."[11] + +The worst of all results from this iniquitous system was its effect on the +Negroes themselves. It made the Negroes extravagant and unscrupulous. +Convinced that no share of their crop would come to them when harvested, +they did not exert themselves to produce what they could. They often +abandoned their crops before harvest, knowing that they had already spent +them. In cases, however, where the Negro tenants had acquired mules, +horses or tools upon which the speculator had a mortgage, the blacks were +actually bound to their landlords to secure the property. It was soon +evident that in the end the white man himself was the loser by this evil +system. There appeared waste places in the country. Improvements were +wanting, land lay idle for lack of sufficient labor, and that which was +cultivated yielded a diminishing return on account of the ignorance and +improvidence of those tilling it. These Negroes as a rule had lost the +ambition to become landowners, preferring to invest their surplus money in +personal effects; and in the few cases where the Negroes were induced to +undertake the buying of land, they often tired of the responsibility and +gave it up.[12] + +There began in the spring of 1879, therefore, an emigration of the Negroes +from Louisiana and Mississippi to Kansas. For some time there was a +stampede from several river parishes in Louisiana and from counties just +opposite them in Mississippi. It was estimated that from five to ten +thousand left their homes before the movement could be checked. Persons of +influence soon busied themselves in showing the blacks the necessity for +remaining in the South and those who had not then gone or prepared to go +were persuaded to return to the plantations. This lull in the excitement, +however, was merely temporary, for many Negroes had merely returned home +to make more extensive preparations for leaving the following spring. The +movement was accelerated by the work of two Negro leaders of some note, +Moses Singleton, of Tennessee, the self-styled Moses of the Exodus; and +Henry Adams, of Louisiana, who credited himself with having organized for +this purpose as many as 98,000 blacks. + +Taking this movement seriously a convention of the leading whites and +blacks was held at Vicksburg, Mississippi, on the sixth of May, 1879. This +body was controlled mainly by unsympathetic but diplomatic whites. General +N.R. Miles, of Yazoo County, Mississippi, was elected president and A.W. +Crandall, of Louisiana, secretary. After making some meaningless but +eloquent speeches the convention appointed a committee on credentials and +adjourned until the following day. On reassembling Colonel W.L. Nugent, +chairman of the committee, presented a certain preamble and +resolutions citing causes of the exodus and suggesting remedies. Among the +causes, thought he, were: "the low price of cotton and the partial failure +of the crop, the irrational system of planting adopted in some sections +whereby labor was deprived of intelligence to direct it and the presence +of economy to make it profitable, the vicious system of credit fostered by +laws permitting laborers and tenants to mortgage crops before they were +grown or even planted; the apprehension on the part of many colored people +produced by insidious reports circulated among them that their civil and +political rights were endangered or were likely to be; the hurtful and +false rumors diligently disseminated, that by emigrating to Kansas the +Negroes would obtain lands, mules and money from the government without +cost to themselves, and become independent forever."[13] + +Referring to the grievances and proposing a redress, the committee +admitted that errors had been committed by the whites and blacks alike, as +each in turn had controlled the government of the States there +represented. The committee believed that the interests of planters and +laborers, landlords and tenants were identical; that they must prosper or +suffer together; and that it was the duty of the planters and landlords of +the State there represented to devise and adopt some contract by which +both parties would receive the full benefit of labor governed by +intelligence and economy. The convention affirmed that the Negro race had +been placed by the constitution of the United States and the States there +represented, and the laws thereof, on a plane of absolute equality with +the white race; and declared that the Negro race should be accorded the +practical enjoyment of all civil and political rights guaranteed by the +said constitutions and laws. The convention pledged itself to use whatever +of power and influence it possessed to protect the Negro race against all +dangers in respect to the fair expression of their wills at the polls, +which they apprehended might result from fraud, intimidation or +_bulldozing_ on the part of the whites. And as there could be no +liberty of action without freedom of thought, they demanded that all +elections should be fair and free and that no repressive measures should +be employed by the Negroes "to deprive their own race in part of the +fullest freedom in the exercise of the highest right of citizenship."[14] + +The committee then recommended the abolition of the mischievous credit +system, called upon the Negroes to contradict false reports as to crimes +of the whites against them and, after considering the Negroes' right to +emigrate, urged that they proceed about it with reason. Ex-Governor Foote, +of Mississippi, submitted a plan to establish in every county a committee, +composed of men who had the confidence of both whites and blacks, to be +auxiliary to the public authorities, to listen to complaints and +arbitrate, advise, conciliate or prosecute, as each case should demand. +But unwilling to do more than make temporary concessions, the majority +rejected Foote's plan.[15] + +The whites thought also to stop the exodus by inducing the steamboat lines +not to furnish the emigrants' transportation. Negroes were also +detained by writs obtained by preferring against them false charges. Some, +who were willing to let the Negroes go, thought of importing white and +Chinese labor to take their places. Hearing of the movement and thinking +that he could offer a remedy, Senator D.W. Voorhees, of Indiana, +introduced a resolution in the United States Senate authorizing an inquiry +into the causes of the exodus.[16] The movement, however, could not be +stopped and it became so widespread that the people in general were forced +to give it serious thought. Men in favor of it declared their views, +organized migration societies and appointed agents to promote the +enterprise of removing the freedmen from the South. + +Becoming a national measure, therefore, the migration evoked expressions +from Frederick Douglass and Richard T. Greener, two of the most prominent +Negroes in the United States. Douglass believed that the exodus was +ill-timed. He saw in it the abandonment of the great principle of +protection to persons and property in every State of the Union. He felt +that if the Negroes could not be protected in every State, the Federal +Government was shorn of its rightful dignity and power, the late rebellion +had triumphed, the sovereign of the nation was an empty vessel, and the +power and authority in individual States were supreme. He thought, +therefore, that it was better for the Negroes to stay in the South than to +go North, as the South was a better market for the black man's labor. +Douglass believed that the Negroes should be warned against a nomadic +life. He did not see any more benefit in the migration to Kansas than he +had years before in the emigration to Africa. The Negroes had a monopoly +of labor at the South and they would be too insignificant in numbers to +have such an advantage in the North. The blacks were then potentially able +to elect members of Congress in the South but could not hope to exercise +such power in other parts. Douglass believed, moreover, that this exodus +did not conform to the "laws of civilizing migration," as the carrying of +a language, literature and the like of a superior race to an inferior; and +it did not conform to the geographic laws assuring healthy migration from +east to west in the same latitude, as this was from south to north, far +away from the climate in which the migrants were born.[17] + +The exodus of the Negroes, however, was heartily endorsed by Richard T. +Greener. He did not consider it the best remedy for the lawlessness of the +South but felt that it was a salutary one. He did not expect the United +States to give the oppressed blacks in the South the protection they +needed, as there is no abstract limit to the right of a State to do +anything. He would not encourage the Negro to lead a wandering life but in +that instance such advice was gratuitous. Greener failed to find any +analogy between African colonization and migration to the West as the +former was promoted by slaveholders to remove the free Negro from the +country and the other sprang spontaneously from the class considering +itself aggrieved. "One led out of the country to a comparative wilderness; +the other directed to a better land and larger opportunities." He did not +see how the migration to the North would diminish the potentiality of the +Negro in politics, for Massachusetts first elected Negroes to her General +Court, Ohio had nominated a Negro representative and Illinois another. He +showed also that Mr. Douglass's objection on the grounds of migrating from +south to north rather than from east to west was not historical. He +thought little of the advice to the Negroes to stick and fight it out, for +he had evidence that the return of the unreconstructed Confederates to +power in the South would for generations doom the blacks to political +oppression unknown in the annals of a free country. + +Greener showed foresight here in urging the Negroes to take up desirable +western land before it would be preempted by foreigners. As the Swedes, +Norwegians, Irish, Hebrews and others were organizing societies and +raising funds to promote the migration of their needy to these lands, why +should the Negroes be debarred? Greener had no apprehension as to the +treatment the Negroes would receive in the West. He connected the movement +too with the general welfare of the blacks, considering it a promising +sign that they had learned to run from persecution. Having passed their +first stage, that of appealing to philanthropists, the Negroes were then +appealing to themselves.[18] + +Feeling very much as Greener did, these Negroes rushed into Kansas and +neighboring States in 1879. So many came that some systematic relief had +to be offered. Mrs. Comstock, a Quaker lady, organized for this purpose +the Kansas Freedmen's Relief Association, to raise funds and secure for +them food and clothing. In this work she had the support of Governor J.P. +Saint John. There was much suffering upon arriving in Kansas but relief +came from various sources. During this year $40,000 and 500,000 pounds of +clothing, bedding and the like were used. England contributed 50,000 +pounds of goods and $8,000. In 1879, the refugees took up 20,000 acres of +land and brought 3,000 under cultivation. The Relief Association at first +furnished them with supplies, teams and seed, which they profitably used +in the production of large crops. Desiring to establish homes, they built +300 cabins and saved $30,000 the first year. In April, 1,300 refugees had +gathered around Wyandotte alone. Up to that date 60,000 had come to +Kansas, nearly 40,000 of whom arrived in destitute condition. About 30,000 +settled in the country, some on rented lands and others on farms as +laborers, leaving about 25,000 in cities, where on account of crowded +conditions and the hard weather many greatly suffered. Upon finding +employment, however, they all did well, most of them becoming +self-supporting within one year after their arrival, and few of them +coming back to the Relief Association for aid the second time.[19] This +was especially true of those in Topeka, Parsons and Kansas City. + +The people of Kansas did not encourage the blacks to come. They even sent +messengers to the South to advise the Negroes not to migrate and, if they +did come anyway, to provide themselves with equipment. When they did +arrive, however, they welcomed and assisted them as human beings. Under +such conditions the blacks established five or six important colonies in +Kansas alone between 1879 and 1880. Chief among these were Baxter Springs, +Nicodemus, Morton City and Singleton. Governor Saint John, of Kansas, +reported that they seemed to be honest and of good habits, were certainly +industrious and anxious to work, and so far as they had been tried had +proved to be faithful and excellent laborers. Giving his observations +there, Sir George Campbell bore testimony to the same report.[20] Out of +these communities have come some most progressive black citizens. In +consideration of their desirability their white neighbors have given them +their cooperation, secured to them the advantages of democratic education, +and honored a few of them with some of the most important positions in the +State. + +Although the greater number of these blacks went to Kansas, about 5,000 of +them sought refuge in other Western States. During these years, Negroes +gradually invaded Indian Territory and increased the number already +infiltrated into and assimilated by the Indian nations. When assured of +their friendly attitude toward the Indians, the Negroes were accepted by +them as equals, even during the days of slavery when the blacks on account +of the cruelties of their masters escaped to the wilderness.[21] Here we +are at sea as to the extent to which this invasion and subsequent +miscegenation of the black and red races extended for the reason that +neither the Indians nor these migrating Negroes kept records and the +United States Government has been disposed to classify all mixed breeds in +tribes as Indians. Having equal opportunity among the red men, the Negroes +easily succeeded. A traveler in Indian Territory in 1880 found their +condition unusually favorable. The cosy homes and promising fields of +these freedmen attracted his attention as striking evidences of their +thrift. He saw new fences, additions to cabins, new barns, churches and +school-houses indicating prosperity. Given every privilege which the +Indians themselves enjoyed, the Negroes could not be other than +contented.[22] + +It was very unfortunate, however, that in 1889, when by proclamation of +President Harrison the Oklahoma Territory was thrown open, the intense +race prejudice of the white immigrants and the rule of the mob prevented a +larger number of Negroes from settling in that promising commonwealth. +Long since extensively advertised as valuable, the land of Oklahoma had +become a coveted prize for the adventurous squatters invading the +territory in defiance of the law before it was declared open for +settlement. The rush came with all the excitement of pioneer days +redoubled. Stakes were set, parcels of land were claimed, cabins were +constructed in an hour and towns grew up in a day.[23] Then came +conflicting claims as to titles and rights of preemption culminating in +fighting and bloodshed. And worst of all, with this disorderly group there +developed the fixed policy of eliminating the Negroes entirely. + +The Negro, however, was not entirely excluded. Some had already come into +the territory and others in spite of the barriers set up continued to +come.[24] With the cooperation of the Indians, with whom they easily +amalgamated they readjusted themselves and acquired sufficient wealth to +rise in the economic world. Although not generally fortunate, a number of +them have coal and oil lands from which they obtain handsome incomes and a +few, like Sara Rector, have actually become rich. Dishonest white men with +the assistance of unprincipled officials have defrauded and are still +endeavoring to defraud these Negroes of their property, lending them money +secured by mortgages and obtaining for themselves through the courts +appointments as the Negroes' guardians. They turn out to be the robbers of +the Negroes, in case they do not live in a community where an enlightened +public opinion frowns down upon this crime. + +During the later eighties and the early nineties there were some other +interstate movements worthy of notice here. The mineral wealth of the +Appalachian mountains was being exploited. Foreigners, at first, were +coming into this country in sufficiently large numbers to meet the demand; +but when this supply became inadequate, labor agents appealed to the +blacks in the South. Negroes then flocked to the mining districts of +Birmingham, Alabama, and to East Tennessee. A large number also migrated +from North Carolina and Virginia to West Virginia and some few of the same +group to Southern Ohio to take the places of those unreasonable strikers +who often demanded larger increases in wages than the income of their +employers could permit. Many of these Negroes came to West Virginia as is +evidenced by the increase in Negro population of that State. West Virginia +had a Negro population of 17,980 in 1870; 25,886 in 1880; 32,690 in 1890; +43,499 in 1900; and 64,173 in 1910.[25] + + +[Footnote 1: _Atlantic Monthly_, LXIV, p. 222; _Nation_, XXVIII, +pp. 242, 386.] + +[Footnote 2: Thompson, _Reconstruction in Georgia_, p. 69.] + +[Footnote 3: Williams, _History of the Negro Race_, II, p. 375.] + +[Footnote 4: Williams, _History of the Negro Race_, II, p. 374.] + +[Footnote 5: American _Journal of Social Science_, XI, p. 34.] + +[Footnote 6: _Ibid._, XI, p. 33.] + +[Footnote 7: _Nation_, XXVIII, pp. 242, 386.] + +[Footnote 8: Williams, _History of the Negro Race_, II, p. 378.] + +[Footnote 9: _Atlantic Monthly_, LXIV, p. 225.] + +[Footnote 10: _Ibid._, LXIV, p. 226.] + +[Footnote 11: _Atlantic Monthly_, LXIV, p. 224.] + +[Footnote 12: _The Atlantic Monthly_, XLIV, p. 223.] + +[Footnote 13: _The Vicksburg Daily Commercial_, May 6, 1879.] + +[Footnote 14: _The Vicksburg Daily Commercial_, May 6, 1879.] + +[Footnote 15: _Ibid._, May 6, 1879.] + +[Footnote 16: _Congressional Record_, 46th Congress, 2d Session, Vol. +X, p. 104.] + +[Footnote 17: For a detailed statement of Douglass's views, see the +_American Journal of Social Science_, XI, pp. 1-21.] + +[Footnote 18: _American Journal of Social Science_, XI, pp. 22-35.] + +[Footnote 19: Williams, _History of the Negro_, II, p. 379.] + +[Footnote 20: "In Kansas City," said Sir George Campbell, "and still more +in the suburbs of Kansas proper the Negroes are much more numerous than I +have yet seen. On the Kansas side they form quite a large proportion of +the population. They are certainly subject to no indignity or ill usage. +There the Negroes seem to have quite taken to work at trades." He saw them +doing building work, both alone and assisting white men, and also painting +and other tradesmen's work. On the Kansas side, he found a Negro +blacksmith, with an establishment of his own. He had come from Tennessee +after emancipation. He had not been back there and did not want to go. He +also saw black women keeping apple stalls and engaged in other such +occupations so as to leave him under the impression that in the States, +which he called intermediate between black and white countries the blacks +evidently had no difficulty.--See _American Journal of Social +Science_, XI, pp. 32, 33.] + +[Footnote 21: _American Journal of Social Science_, XI, p. 33.] + +[Footnote 22: _Ibid._, XI, p. 33.] + +[Footnote 23: _Spectator_, LXVII, p. 571; _Dublin Review_, CV, +p. 187; _Cosmopolitan_, VII, p. 460; _Nation_, LXVIII, p. 279.] + +[Footnote 24: According to the _United States Census, of 1910_, there +are 137,612 Negroes in Oklahoma.] + +[Footnote 25: See _Censuses_ of the United States.] + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE MIGRATION OF THE TALENTED TENTH + + +In spite of these interstate movements, the Negro still continued as a +perplexing problem, for the country was unprepared to grant the race +political and civil rights. Nominal equality was forced on the South at +the point of the sword and the North reluctantly removed most of its +barriers against the blacks. Some, still thinking, however, that the two +races could not live together as equals, advocated ceding the blacks the +region on the Gulf of Mexico.[1] This was branded as chimerical on the +ground that, deprived of the guidance of the whites, these States would +soon sink to African level and the end of the experiment would be a +reconquest and a military regime fatal to the true development of American +institutions.[2] Another plan proposed was the revival of the old +colonization idea of sending Negroes to Africa, but this exhibited still +less wisdom than the first in that it was based on the hypothesis of +deporting a nation, an expense which no government would be willing to +incur. There were then no physical means of transporting six or seven +millions of people, moreover, as there would be a new born for every one +the agents of colonization could deport.[3] + +With the deportation scheme still kept before the people by the American +Colonization Society, the idea of emigration to Africa did not easily die. +Some Negroes continued to emigrate to Liberia from year to year. This +policy was also favored by radicals like Senator Morgan, of Alabama, who, +after movements like the Ku Klux Klan had done their work of intimidating +Negroes into submission to the domination of the whites, concluded that +most of the race believed that there was no future for the blacks in the +United States and that they were willing to emigrate. These radicals +advocated the deportation of the blacks to prevent the recurrence of +"Negro domination." This plan was acceptable to the whites in general +also, for, unlike the consensus of opinion of today, it was then thought +that the South could get along without the Negro.[4] Even newspapers like +the _Charleston News and Courier_, which denounced the persecution of +the Negroes, urged them to emigrate to Africa as they could not be +permitted to rule over the white people. The _Minneapolis Times_ +wished the scheme success and Godspeed and believed that the sooner it was +carried out the better it would be for the Negroes. + +Most of the influential newspapers of the country, however, urged the +contrary. Citing the progress of the Negroes since emancipation to show +that the blacks were doing their full share toward developing the wealth +of the South, the _Indianapolis Journal_ characterized as barbarism +the suggestion that the government should furnish them transportation to +Africa. "The ancestors of most of the Negroes now in this country," said +the editor, "have doubtless been here as long as those of Senator Morgan, +and their descendants are as thoroughly acclimated and have as good a +right here as the Senator himself."[5] This was the opinion of all useful +Negroes except Bishop H.M. Turner, who endorsed Morgan's plan by +advocating the emigration of one fourth of the blacks to Africa. The +editor of the _Chicago Record-Herald_ entreated Turner to temper his +enthusiasm with discretion before he involved in unspeakable disaster any +more of his trustful compatriots. + +Speaking more plainly to the point, the editor of the _Philadelphia +North American_ said that the true interest of the South was to +accommodate itself to changed conditions and that the duty of the freedmen +lies in making themselves worth more in the development of the South than +they were as chattels. Although recognizing the disabilities and hardships +of the South both to the whites and the blacks, he could not believe that +the elimination of the Negroes would, if practicable, give relief.[6] The +_Boston Herald_ inquired whether it was worth while to send away a +laboring population in the absence of whites to take its place and +referred to the misfortunes of Spain which undertook to carry out such a +scheme. Speaking the real truth, _The Milwaukee Journal_ said that no +one needed to expect any appreciable decrease in the black population +through any possible emigration, no matter how successful it might be. +"The Negro," said the editor, "is here to stay and our institutions must +be adapted to comprehend him and develop his possibilities." _The +Colored American_, then the leading Negro organ of thought in the +United States, believed that the Negroes should be thankful to Senator +Morgan for his attitude on emigration, because he might succeed in +deporting to Africa those Negroes who affect to believe that this is not +their home and the more quickly we get rid of such foolhardy people the +better it will be for the stalwart of the race.[7] + +A number of Negroes, however, under the inspiration of leaders[8] like +Bishop H.M. Turner, did not feel that the race had a fair chance in the +United States. A few of them emigrated to Wapimo, Mexico; but, becoming +dissatisfied with the situation there, they returned to their homes in +Georgia and Alabama in 1895. The coming of the Negroes into Mexico caused +suspicion and excitement. A newspaper, _El Tiempo_, which had been +denouncing lynching in the United States, changed front when these Negroes +arrived in that country. + +Going in quest of new opportunities and desiring to reenforce the +civilization of Liberia, 197 other Negroes sailed from Savannah, Georgia, +for Liberia, March 19, 1895. Commending this step, the _Macon +Telegraph_ referred to their action as a rebellion against the social +laws which govern all people of this country. This organ further said that +it was the outcome of a feeling which has grown stronger and stronger year +by year among the Negroes of the Southern States and which will continue +to grow with the increase of education and intelligence among them. The +editor conceded that they had an opportunity to better their material +condition and acquire wealth here but contended that they had no chance to +rise out of the peasant class. The _Memphis Commercial Appeal_ urged +the building of a large Negro nation in Africa as practicable and +desirable, for it was "more and more apparent that the Negro in this +country must remain an alien and a disturber," because there was "not and +can never be a future for him in this country." The _Florida Times +Union_ felt that this colonization scheme, like all others, was a +fraud. It referred to the Negro's being carried to the land of plenty only +to find out that there, as everywhere else in the world, an existence must +be earned by toil and that his own old sunny southern home is vastly the +better place.[9] + +Only a few intelligent Negroes, however, had reached the position of being +contented in the South. The Negroes eliminated from politics could not +easily bring themselves around to thinking that they should remain there +in a state of recognized inferiority, especially when during the eighties +and nineties there were many evidences that economic as well as political +conditions would become worse. The exodus treated in the previous chapter +was productive of better treatment for the Negroes and an increase in +their wages in certain parts of the South but the migration, contrary to +the expectations of many, did not become general. Actual prosperity was +impossible even if the whites had been willing to give the Negro peasants +a fair chance. The South had passed through a disastrous war, the effects +of which so blighted the hopes of its citizens in the economic world that +their land seemed to pass, so to speak, through a dark age. There was then +little to give the man far down when the one to whom he of necessity +looked for employment was in his turn bled by the merchant or the banker +of the larger cities, to whom he had to go for extensive credits.[10] + +Southern planters as a class, however, had not much sympathy for the +blacks who had once been their property and the tendency to cheat them +continued, despite the fact that many farmers in the course of time +extricated themselves from the clutches of the loan sharks. There were a +few Negroes who, thanks to the honesty of certain southern gentlemen, +succeeded in acquiring considerable property in spite of their +handicaps.[11] They yielded to the white man's control in politics, when +it seemed that it meant either to abandon that field or die, and devoted +themselves to the accumulation of wealth and the acquisition of education. + +This concession, however, did not satisfy the radical whites, as they +thought that the Negro might some day return to power. Unfortunately, +therefore, after the restoration of the control of the State governments +to the master class, there swept over these commonwealths a wave of +hostile legislation demanded by the poor white uplanders determined to +debase the blacks to the status of the free Negroes prior to the Civil +War.[12] The Negroes have, therefore, been disfranchised in most +reconstructed States, deprived of the privilege of serving in the State +militia, segregated in public conveyances, and excluded from public places +of entertainment. They have, moreover, been branded by public opinion as +pariahs of society to be used for exploitation but not to be encouraged to +expect that their status can ever be changed so as to destroy the barriers +between the races in their social and political relations. + +This period has been marked also by an effort to establish in the South a +system of peonage not unlike that of Mexico, a sort of involuntary +servitude in that one is considered legally bound to serve his master +until a debt contracted is paid. Such laws have been enacted in Florida, +Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina and South Carolina. No such +distinction in law has been able to stand the constitutional test of the +United States courts as was evidenced by the decision of the Supreme Court +in 1911 declaring the Alabama law unconstitutional.[13] But the planters +of the South, still a law unto themselves, have maintained actual slavery +in sequestered; districts where public opinion against peonage is too weak +to support federal authorities in exterminating it.[14] The Negroes +themselves dare not protest under penalty of persecution and the peon +concerned usually accepts his lot like that of a slave. Some years ago it +was commonly reported that in trying to escape, the persons undertaking it +often fail and suffer death at the hands of the planter or of murderous +mobs, giving as their excuse, if any be required, that the Negro is a +desperado or some other sort of criminal. + +Unfortunately this reaction extended also to education. Appropriations to +public schools for Negroes diminished from year to year and when there +appeared practical leaders with, their sane plan for industrial education +the South ignorantly accepted this scheme as a desirable subterfuge for +seeming to support Negro education and at the same time directing the +development of the blacks in such a way that they would never become the +competitors of the white people. This was not these educators' idea but +the South so understood it and in effecting the readjustment, practically +left the Negroes out of the pale of the public school systems. +Consequently, there has been added to the Negroes' misfortunes, in the +South, that of being unable to obtain liberal education at public expense, +although they themselves, as the largest consumers in some parts, pay most +of the taxes appropriated to the support of schools for the youth of the +other race.[15] + +The South, moreover, has adopted the policy of a more general intimidation +of the Negroes to keep them down. The lynching of the blacks, at first for +assaults on white women and later for almost any offense, has rapidly +developed as an institution. Within the past fifty years [16] there have +been lynched in the South about 4,000 Negroes, many of whom have been +publicly burned in the daytime to attract crowds that usually enjoy such +feats as the tourney of the Middle Ages. Negroes who have the courage to +protest against this barbarism have too often been subjected to +indignities and in some cases forced to leave their communities or suffer +the fate of those in behalf of whom they speak. These crimes of white men +were at first kept secret but during the last two generations the culprits +have become known as heroes, so popular has it been to murder Negroes. It +has often been discovered also that the officers of these communities take +part in these crimes and the worst of all is that politicians like +Tillman, Blease and Vardaman glory in recounting the noble deeds of those +who deserve so well of their countrymen for making the soil red with the +Negroes' blood rather than permit the much feared Africanization of +southern institutions.[17] + +In this harassing situation the Negro has hoped that the North would +interfere in his behalf, but, with the reactionary Supreme Court of the +United States interpreting this hostile legislation as constitutional in +conformity with the demands of prejudiced public opinion, and with the +leaders of the North inclined to take the view that after all the factions +in the South must be left alone to fight it out, there has been nothing to +be expected from without. Matters too have been rendered much worse +because the leaders of the very party recently abandoning the freedmen to +their fate, aggravated the critical situation by first setting the Negroes +against their former masters, whom they were taught to regard as their +worst enemies whether they were or not. + +The last humiliation the Negroes have been forced to submit to is that of +segregation. Here the effort has been to establish a ghetto in cities and +to assign certain parts of the country to Negroes engaged in farming. It +always happens, of course, that the best portion goes to the whites and +the least desirable to the blacks, although the promoters of the +segregation maintain that both races are to be treated equally. The +ultimate aim is to prevent the Negroes of means from figuring +conspicuously in aristocratic districts where they may be brought into +rather close contact with the whites. Negroes see in segregation a settled +policy to keep them down, no matter what they do to elevate themselves. +The southern white man, eternally dreading the miscegenation of the races, +makes the life, liberty and happiness of individuals second to measures +considered necessary to prevent this so-called evil that this enviable +civilization, distinctly American, may not be destroyed. The United States +Supreme Court in the decision of the Louisville segregation case recently +declared these segregation measures unconstitutional.[18] + +These restrictions have made the progress of the Negroes more of a problem +in that directed toward social distinction, the Negroes have been denied +the helpful contact of the sympathetic whites. The increasing race +prejudice forces the whites to restrict their open dealing with the blacks +to matters of service and business, maintaining even then the bearing of +one in a sphere which the Negroes must not penetrate. The whites, +therefore, never seeing the blacks as they are, and the blacks never being +able to learn what the whites know, are thrown back on their own +initiative, which their life as slaves could not have permitted to +develop. It makes little difference that the Negroes have been free a few +decades. Such freedom has in some parts been tantamount to slavery, and so +far as contact with the superior class is concerned, no better than that +condition; for under the old regime certain slaves did learn much by close +association with their masters.[19] + +For these reasons there has been since the exodus to the West a steady +migration of Negroes from the South to points in the North. But this +migration, mainly due to political changes, has never assumed such large +proportions as in the case of the more significant movements due to +economic causes, for, as the accompanying map shows, most Negroes are +still in the South. When we consider the various classes migrating, +however, it will be apparent that to understand the exodus of the Negroes +to the North, this longer drawn out and smaller movement must be carefully +studied in all its ramifications. It should be noted that unlike some of +the other migrations it has not been directed to any particular State. It +has been from almost all Southern States to various parts of the North and +especially to the largest cities.[20] + +What classes then have migrated? In the first place, the Negro +politicians, who, after the restoration of Bourbon rule in the South, +found themselves thrown out of office and often humiliated and +impoverished, had to find some way out of the difficulty. Some few have +been relieved by sympathetic leaders of the Republican party, who secured +for them federal appointments in Washington. These appointments when +sometimes paying lucrative salaries have been given as a reward to those +Negroes who, although dethroned in the South, remain in touch with the +remnant of the Republican party there and control the delegates to the +national conventions nominating candidates for President. Many Negroes of +this class have settled in Washington.[21] In some cases, the observer +witnesses the pitiable scene of a man once a prominent public functionary +in the South now serving in Washington as a messenger or a clerk. + +The well-established blacks, however, have not been so easily induced to +go. The Negroes in business in the South have usually been loath to leave +their people among whom they can acquire property, whereas, if they go to +the North, they have merely political freedom with no assurance of an +opportunity in the economic world. But not a few of these have given +themselves up to unrelenting toil with a view to accumulating sufficient +wealth to move North and live thereafter on the income from their +investments. Many of this class now spend some of their time in the North +to educate their children. But they do not like to have these children who +have been under refining influences return to the South to suffer the +humiliation which during the last generation has been growing more and +more aggravating. Endeavoring to carry out their policy of keeping the +Negro down, southerners too often carefully plan to humiliate the +progressive and intelligent blacks and in some cases form mobs to drive +them out, as they are bad examples for that class of Negroes whom they +desire to keep as menials.[22] + +There are also the migrating educated Negroes. They have studied history, +law and economics and well understand what it is to get the rights +guaranteed them by the constitution. The more they know the more +discontented they become. They cannot speak out for what they want. No one +is likely to second such a protest, not even the Negroes themselves, so +generally have they been intimidated. The more outspoken they become, +moreover, the more necessary is it for them to leave, for they thereby +destroy their chances to earn a livelihood. White men in control of the +public schools of the South see to it that the subserviency of the Negro +teachers employed be certified beforehand. They dare not complain too much +about equipment and salaries even if the per capita appropriation for the +education of the Negroes be one fourth of that for the whites.[23] + +In the higher institutions of learning, especially the State schools, it +is exceptional to find a principal who has the confidence of the Negroes. +The Negroes will openly assert that he is in the pay of the reactionary +whites, whose purpose is to keep the Negro down; and the incumbent himself +will tell his board of regents how much he is opposed by the Negroes +because he labors for the interests of the white race. Out of such +sycophancy it is easily explained why our State schools have been so +ineffective as to necessitate the sending of the Negro youth to private +institutions maintained by northern philanthropy. Yet if an outspoken +Negro happens to be an instructor in a private school conducted by +educators from the North, he has to be careful about contending for a +square deal; for, if the head of his institution does not suggest to him +to proceed conservatively, the mob will dispose of the complainant.[24] +Physicians, lawyers and preachers, who are not so economically dependent +as teachers can exercise no more freedom of speech in the midst of this +triumphant rule of the lawless. + +A large number of educated Negroes, therefore, have on account of these +conditions been compelled to leave the South. Finding in the North, +however, practically nothing in their line to do, because of the +proscription by race prejudice and trades unions, many of them lead the +life of menials, serving as waiters, porters, butlers and chauffeurs. +While in Chicago, not long ago, the writer was in the office of a graduate +of a colored southern college, who was showing his former teacher the +picture of his class. In accounting for his classmates in the various +walks of life, he reported that more than one third of them were settled +to the occupation of Pullman porters. + +The largest number of Negroes who have gone North during this period, +however, belong to the intelligent laboring class. Some of them have +become discontented for the very same reasons that the higher classes have +tired of oppression in the South, but the larger number of them have gone +North to improve their economic condition. Most of these have migrated to +the large cities in the East and Northwest, such as Philadelphia, New +York, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Columbus, Detroit and Chicago. +To understand this problem in its urban aspects the accompanying diagram +showing the increase in the Negro population of northern cities during the +first decade of this century will be helpful. + +Some of these Negroes have migrated after careful consideration; others +have just happened to go north as wanderers; and a still larger number on +the many excursions to the cities conducted by railroads during the summer +months. Sometimes one excursion brings to Chicago two or three thousand +Negroes, two thirds of whom never go back. They do not often follow the +higher pursuits of labor in the North but they earn more money than they +have been accustomed to earn in the South. They are attracted also by the +liberal attitude of some whites, which, although not that of social +equality, gives the Negroes a liberty in northern centers which leads them +to think that they are citizens of the country.[25] + +This shifting in the population has had an unusually significant effect on +the black belt. Frederick Douglass advised the Negroes in 1879 to remain +in the South where they would be in sufficiently large numbers to have +political power,[26] but they have gradually scattered from the black belt +so as to diminish greatly their chances ever to become the political force +they formerly were in this country. The Negroes once had this possibility +in South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana and, had +the process of Africanization prior to the Civil War had a few decades +longer to do its work, there would not have been any doubt as to the +ultimate preponderance of the Negroes in those commonwealths. The +tendencies of the black population according to the censuses of the United +States and especially that of 1910, however, show that the chances for the +control of these State governments by Negroes no longer exist except in +South Carolina and Mississippi.[27] It has been predicted, therefore, +that, if the same tendencies continue for the next fifty years, there will +be even few counties in which the Negroes will be in a majority. All of +the Southern States except Arkansas showed a proportionate increase of the +white population over that of the black between 1900 and 1910, while West +Virginia and Oklahoma with relatively small numbers of blacks showed, for +reasons stated elsewhere, an increase in the Negro population. Thus we see +coming to pass something like the proposed plan of Jefferson and other +statesmen who a hundred years ago advocated the expansion of slavery to +lessen the evil of the institution by distributing its burdens.[28] + +The migration of intelligent blacks, however, has been attended with +several handicaps to the race. The large part of the black population is +in the South and there it will stay for decades to come. The southern +Negroes, therefore, have been robbed of their due part of the talented +tenth. The educated blacks have had no constituency in the North and, +consequently, have been unable to realize their sweetest dreams of the +land of the free. In their new home the enlightened Negro must live with +his light under a bushel. Those left behind in the South soon despair of +seeing a brighter day and yield to the yoke. In the places of the leaders +who were wont to speak for their people, the whites have raised up Negroes +who accept favors offered them on the condition that their lips be sealed +up forever on the rights of the Negro. + +This emigration too has left the Negro subject to other evils. There are +many first-class Negro business men in the South, but although there were +once progressive men of color, who endeavored to protect the blacks from +being plundered by white sharks and harpies there have arisen numerous +unscrupulous Negroes who have for a part of the proceeds from such jobbery +associated themselves with ill-designing white men to dupe illiterate +Negroes. This trickery is brought into play in marketing their crops, +selling them supplies, or purchasing their property. To carry out this +iniquitous plan the persons concerned have the protection of the law, for +while Negroes in general are imposed upon, those engaged in robbing them +have no cause to fear. + + +[Footnote 1: Pike, _The Prostrate State_, pp. 3, 4.] + +[Footnote 2: _Spectator_, LXVI, p. 113.] + +[Footnote 3: Frederick Douglass pointed out this difficulty prior to the +Civil War.--See John Lobb's _Life and Times of Frederick Douglass_, +p. 250.] + +[Footnote 4: Labor was then cheap in the South because of its abundance +and the foreign laborer had not then been tried.] + +[Footnote 5: During these years Senator Morgan of Alabama was endeavoring +to arouse the people of the country so as to make this a matter of +national concern.] + +[Footnote 6: _Public Opinion_, XVIII, p. 371.] + +[Footnote 7: _Ibid._, XVIII, p. 371.] + +[Footnote 8: Simmons, _Men of Mark_, p. 817.] + +[Footnote 9: _Public Opinion_, XVIII, pp. 370-371.] + +[Footnote 10: Because of these conditions the last fifty years has been +considered by some writers as a "dark age," for the South.] + +[Footnote 11: The Negroes are now said to be worth more than a billion +dollars. Most of this property is in the hands of southern Negroes.] + +[Footnote 12: _American Law Review_, XL, pp. 29, 52, 205, 227, 354, +381, 547, 590, 695, 758, 865, 905.] + +[Footnote 13: No. 300.--Original, October Term, 1910.] + +[Footnote 14: Hershaw, _Peonage_, pp. 10-11.] + +[Footnote 15: These facts are well brought out by Dr. Thomas Jesse Jones' +recent report on Negro Education.] + +[Footnote 16: This is based on reports published annually in the +_Chicago Tribune_.] + +[Footnote 17: This is the boast of southern men of this type when speaking +to their constituents or in Congress.] + +[Footnote 18: _Report_, October Term, 1917.] + +[Footnote 19: This danger has been often referred to when the Negroes were +first emancipated.--See _Spectator_, LXVI, p. 113.] + +[Footnote 20: Compare the Negro population of Northern States as given in +the census of 1800 with the same in 1900.] + +[Footnote 21: Hart, _Southern South_, pp. 171, 172.] + +[Footnote 22: This is based on the experience of the writer and others +whom he has interviewed.] + +[Footnote 23: In his report on Negro education Dr. Thomas Jesse Jones has +shown this to be an actual fact.] + +[Footnote 24: Negroes applying for positions in the South have the +situation set before them so as to know what to expect.] + +[Footnote 25: The _American Journal of Political Economy_, XXV, p. +1040.] + +[Footnote 26: The _Journal of Social Science_, XI, p. 16.] + +[Footnote 27: _American Economic Review_, IV, pp. 281-292.] + +[Footnote 28: Ford edition of _Jefferson's Writings_, X, p. 231.] + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE EXODUS DURING THE WORLD WAR + + +Within the last two years there has been a steady stream of Negroes into +the North in such large numbers as to overshadow in its results all other +movements of the kind in the United States. These Negroes have come +largely from Alabama, Tennessee, Florida, Georgia, Virginia, North +Carolina, Kentucky, South Carolina, Arkansas and Mississippi. The given +causes of this migration are numerous and complicated. Some untruths +centering around this exodus have not been unlike those of other +migrations. Again we hear that the Negroes are being brought North to +fight organized labor,[1] and to carry doubtful States for the +Republicans.[2] These numerous explanations themselves, however, give rise +to doubt as to the fundamental cause. + +Why then should the Negroes leave the South? It has often been spoken of +as the best place for them. There, it is said, they have made unusual +strides forward. The progress of the Negroes in the South, however, has in +no sense been general, although the land owned by Negroes in the country +and the property of thrifty persons of their race in urban communities may +be extensive. In most parts of the South the Negroes are still unable to +become landowners or successful business men. Conditions and customs have +reserved these spheres for the whites. Generally speaking, the Negroes are +still dependent on the white people for food and shelter. Although not +exactly slaves, they are yet attached to the white people as tenants, +servants or dependents. Accepting this as their lot, they have been +content to wear their lord's cast-off clothing, and live in his +ramshackled barn or cellar. In this unhappy state so many have settled +down, losing all ambition to attain a higher station. The world has gone +on but in their sequestered sphere progress has passed them by. + +What then is the cause? There have been _bulldozing_, terrorism, +maltreatment and what not of persecution; but the Negroes have not in +large numbers wandered away from the land of their birth. What the +migrants themselves think about it, goes to the very heart of the trouble. +Some say that they left the South on account of injustice in the courts, +unrest, lack of privileges, denial of the right to vote, bad treatment, +oppression, segregation or lynching. Others say that they left to find +employment, to secure better wages, better school facilities, and better +opportunities to toil upward.[3] Southern white newspapers unaccustomed to +give the Negroes any mention but that of criminals have said that the +Negroes are going North because they have not had a fair chance in the +South and that if they are to be retained there, the attitude of the +whites toward them must be changed. Professor William O. Scroggs, of +Louisiana State University, considers as causes of this exodus "the +relatively low wages paid farm labor, an unsatisfactory tenant or +crop-sharing system, the boll weevil, the crop failure of 1916, lynching, +disfranchisement, segregation, poor schools, and the monotony, isolation +and drudgery of farm life." Professor Scroggs, however, is wrong in +thinking that the persecution of the blacks has little to do with the +migration for the reason that during these years when the treatment of the +Negroes is decidedly better they are leaving the South. This does not mean +that they would not have left before, if they had had economic +opportunities in the North. It is highly probable that the Negroes would +not be leaving the South today, if they were treated as men, although +there might be numerous opportunities for economic improvement in the +North.[4] + +The immediate cause of this movement was the suffering due to the floods +aggravated by the depredations of the boll weevil. Although generally +mindful of our welfare, the United States Government has not been as ready +to build levees against a natural enemy to property as it has been to +provide fortifications for warfare. It has been necessary for local +communities and State governments to tax themselves to maintain them. The +national government, however, has appropriated to the purpose of +facilitating inland navigation certain sums which have been used in doing +this work, especially in the Mississippi Valley. There are now 1,538 miles +of levees on both sides of the Mississippi from Cape Girardeau to the +passes. These levees, of course, are still inadequate to the security of +the planters against these inundations. Carrying 406 million tons of mud a +year, the river becomes a dangerous stream subject to change, abandoning +its old bed to cut for itself a new channel, transferring property from +one State to another, isolating cities and leaving once useful levees +marooned in the landscape like old Indian mounds or overgrown +intrenchments.[5] + +This valley has, therefore, been frequently visited with disasters which +have often set the population in motion. The first disastrous floods came +in 1858 and 1859, breaking many of the levees, the destruction of which +was practically completed by the floods of 1865 and 1869. There is an +annual rise in the stream, but since 1874 this river system has fourteen +times devastated large areas of this section with destructive floods. The +property in this district depreciated in value to the extent of about 400 +millions in ten years. Farmers from this section, therefore, have at times +moved west with foreigners to take up public lands. + +The other disturbing factor in this situation was the boll weevil, an +interloper from Mexico in 1892. The boll weevil is an insect about one +fourth of an inch in length, varying from one eighth to one third of an +inch with a breadth of about one third of the length. When it first +emerges it is yellowish, then becomes grayish brown and finally assumes a +black shade. It breeds on no other plant than cotton and feeds on the +boll. This little animal, at first attacked the cotton crop in Texas. It +was not thought that it would extend its work into the heart of the South +so as to become of national consequence, but it has, at the rate of forty +to one hundred sixty miles annually, invaded all of the cotton district +except that of the Carolinas and Virginia. The damage it does, varies +according to the rainfall and the harshness of the winter, increasing with +the former and decreasing with the latter. At times the damage has been to +the extent of a loss of 50 per cent. of the crop, estimated at 400,000 +bales of cotton annually, about 4,500,000 bales since the invasion or +$250,000,000 worth of cotton.[6] The output of the South being thus cut +off, the planter has less income to provide supplies for his black tenants +and, the prospects for future production being dark, merchants accustomed +to give them credit have to refuse. This, of course, means financial +depression, for the South is a borrowing section and any limitation to +credit there blocks the wheels of industry. It was fortunate for the Negro +laborers in this district that there was then a demand for labor in the +North when this condition began to obtain. + +This demand was made possible by the cutting off of European immigration +by the World War, which thereby rendered this hitherto uncongenial section +an inviting field for the Negro. The Negroes have made some progress in +the North during the last fifty years, but despite their achievements they +have been so handicapped by race prejudice and proscribed by trades unions +that the uplift of the race by economic methods has been impossible. The +European immigrants have hitherto excluded the Negroes even from the +menial positions. In the midst of the drudgery left for them, the blacks +have often heretofore been debased to the status of dependents and +paupers. Scattered through the North too in such small numbers, they have +been unable to unite for social betterment and mutual improvement and +naturally too weak to force the community to respect their wishes as could +be done by a large group with some political or economic power. At +present, however, Negro laborers, who once went from city to city, seeking +such employment as trades unions left to them, can work even as skilled +laborers throughout the North.[7] Women of color formerly excluded from +domestic service by foreign maids are now in demand. Many mills and +factories which Negroes were prohibited from entering a few years ago are +now bidding for their labor. Railroads cannot find help to keep their +property in repair, contractors fall short of their plans for failure to +hold mechanics drawn into the industrial boom and the United States +Government has had to advertise for men to hasten the preparation for war. + +Men from afar went south to tell the Negroes of a way of escape to a more +congenial place. Blacks long since unaccustomed to venture a few miles +from home, at once had visions of a promised land just a few hundred miles +away. Some were told of the chance to amass fabulous riches, some of the +opportunities for education and some of the hospitality of the places of +amusement and recreation in the North. The migrants then were soon on the +way. Railway stations became conspicuous with the presence of Negro +tourists, the trains were crowded to full capacity and the streets of +northern cities were soon congested with black laborers seeking to realize +their dreams in the land of unusual opportunity. + +Employment agencies, recently multiplied to meet the demand for labor, +find themselves unable to cope with the situation and agents sent into the +South to induce the blacks by offers of free transportation and high wages +to go north, have found it impossible to supply the demand in centers +where once toiled the Poles, Italians and the Greeks formerly preferred to +the Negroes.[8] In other words, the present migration differs from others +in that the Negro has opportunity awaiting him in the North whereas +formerly it was necessary for him to make a place for himself upon +arriving among enemies. The proportion of those returning to the South, +therefore, will be inconsiderable. + +Becoming alarmed at the immensity of this movement the South has +undertaken to check it. To frighten Negroes from the North southern +newspapers are carefully circulating reports that many of them are +returning to their native land because of unexpected hardships.[9] But +having failed in this, southerners have compelled employment agents to +cease operations there, arrested suspected employers and, to prevent the +departure of the Negroes, imprisoned on false charges those who appear at +stations to leave for the North. This procedure could not long be +effective, for by the more legal and clandestine methods of railway +passenger agents the work has gone forward. Some southern communities +have, therefore, advocated drastic legislation against labor agents, as +was suggested in Louisiana in 1914, when by operation of the Underwood +Tariff Law the Negroes thrown out of employment in the sugar district +migrated to the cotton plantations.[10] + +One should not, however, get the impression that the majority of the +Negroes are leaving the South. Eager as these Negroes seem to go, there is +no unanimity of opinion as to whether migration is the best policy. The +sycophant, toady class of Negroes naturally advise the blacks to remain in +the South to serve their white neighbors. The radical protagonists of the +equal-rights-for-all element urge them to come North by all means. Then +there are the thinking Negroes, who are still further divided. Both +divisions of this element have the interests of the race at heart, but +they are unable to agree as to exactly what the blacks should now do. +Thinking that the present war will soon be over and that consequently the +immigration of foreigners into this country will again set in and force +out of employment thousands of Negroes who have migrated to the North, +some of the most representative Negroes are advising their fellows to +remain where they are. The most serious objection to this transplantation +is that it means for the Negroes a loss of land, the rapid acquisition of +which has long been pointed to as the best evidence of the ability of the +blacks to rise in the economic world. So many Negroes who have by dint of +energy purchased small farms yielding an increasing income from year to +year, are now disposing of them at nominal prices to come north to work +for wages. Looking beyond the war, however, and thinking too that the +depopulation of Europe during this upheaval will render immigration from +that quarter for some years an impossibility, other thinkers urge the +Negroes to continue the migration to the North, where the race may be +found in sufficiently large numbers to wield economic and political power. + +Great as is the dearth of labor in the South, moreover, the Negro exodus +has not as yet caused such a depression as to unite the whites in inducing +the blacks to remain in that section. In the first place, the South has +not yet felt the worst effects of this economic upheaval as that part of +the country has been unusually aided by the millions which the United +States Government is daily spending there. Furthermore, the poor whites +are anxious to see the exodus of their competitors in the field of labor. +This leaves the capitalists at their mercy, and in keeping with their +domineering attitude, they will be able to handle the labor situation as +they desire. As an evidence of this fact we need but note the continuation +of mob rule and lynching in the South despite the preachings against it of +the organs of thought which heretofore winked at it. This terrorism has +gone to an unexpected extent. Negro farmers have been threatened with +bodily injury, unless they leave certain parts. + +The southerner of aristocratic bearing will say that only the shiftless +poor whites terrorize the Negroes. This may be so, but the truth offers +little consolation when we observe that most white people in the South are +of this class; and the tendency of this element to put their children to +work before they secure much education does not indicate that the South +will soon experience that general enlightenment necessary to exterminate +these survivals of barbarism. Unless the upper classes of the whites can +bring the mob around to their way of thinking that the persecution of the +Negro is prejudicial to the interests of all, it is not likely that mob +rule will soon cease and the migration to this extent will be promoted +rather than retarded. + +It is unfortunate for the South that the growing consciousness of the +Negroes has culminated at the very time they are most needed. Finally +heeding the advice of agricultural experts to reconstruct its agricultural +system, the South has learned in the school of bitter experience to depart +from the plan of producing the single cotton crop. It is now raising +food-stuffs to make that section self-supporting without reducing the +usual output of cotton. With the increasing production in the South, +therefore, more labor is needed just at the very time it is being drawn to +centers in the North. The North being an industrial and commercial section +has usually attracted the immigrants, who will never fit into the economic +situation in the South because they will not accept the treatment given +Negroes. The South, therefore, is now losing the only labor which it can +ever use under present conditions. + +Where these Negroes are going is still more interesting. The exodus to the +west was mainly directed to Kansas and neighboring States, the migration +to the Southwest centered in Oklahoma and Texas, pioneering Negro laborers +drifted into the industrial district of the Appalachian highland during +the eighties and nineties and the infiltration of the discontented +talented tenth affected largely the cities of the North. But now we are +told that at the very time the mining districts of the North and West are +being filled with blacks the western planters are supplying their farms +with them and that into some cities have gone sufficient skilled and +unskilled Negro workers to increase the black population more than one +hundred per cent. Places in the North, where the black population has not +only not increased but even decreased in recent years, are now receiving a +steady influx of Negroes. In fact, this is a nation-wide migration +affecting all parts and all conditions. + +Students of social problems are now wondering whether the Negro can be +adjusted in the North. Many perplexing problems must arise. This movement +will produce results not unlike those already mentioned in the discussion +of other migrations, some of which we have evidence of today. There will +be an increase in race prejudice leading in some communities to actual +outbreaks as in Chester and Youngstown and probably to massacres like that +of East St. Louis, in which participated not only well-known citizens but +the local officers and the State militia. The Negroes in the North are in +competition with white men who consider them not only strike breakers but +a sort of inferior individuals unworthy of the consideration which white +men deserve. And this condition obtains even where Negroes have been +admitted to the trades unions. + +Negroes in seeking new homes in the North, moreover, invade residential +districts hitherto exclusively white. There they encounter prejudice and +persecution until most whites thus disturbed move out determined to do +whatever they can to prevent their race from suffering from further +depreciation of property and the disturbance of their community life. +Lawlessness has followed, showing that violence may under certain +conditions develop among some classes anywhere rather than reserve itself +for vigilance committees of primitive communities. It has brought out too +another aspect of lawlessness in that it breaks out in the North where the +numbers of Negroes are still too small to serve as an excuse for the +terrorism and lynching considered necessary in the South to keep the +Negroes down. + +The maltreatment of the Negroes will be nationalized by this exodus. The +poor whites of both sections will strike at this race long stigmatized by +servitude but now demanding economic equality. Race prejudice, the fatal +weakness of the Americans, will not so soon abate although there will be +advocates of fraternity, equality and liberty required to reconstruct our +government and rebuild our civilization in conformity with the demands of +modern efficiency by placing every man regardless of his color wherever he +may do the greatest good for the greatest number. + +The Negroes, however, are doubtless going to the North in sufficiently +large numbers to make themselves felt. If this migration falls short of +establishing in that section Negro colonies large enough to wield economic +and political power, their state in the end will not be any better than +that of the Negroes already there. It is to these large numbers alone that +we must look for an agent to counteract the development of race feeling +into riots. In large numbers the blacks will be able to strike for better +wages or concessions due a rising laboring class and they will have enough +votes to defeat for reelection those officers who wink at mob violence or +treat Negroes as persons beyond the pale of the law. + +The Negroes in the North, however, will get little out of the harvest if, +like the blacks of Reconstruction days, they unwisely concentrate their +efforts on solving all of their problems by electing men of their race as +local officers or by sending a few members even to Congress as is likely +in New York, Philadelphia and Chicago within the next generation. The +Negroes have had representatives in Congress before but they were put out +because their constituency was uneconomic and politically impossible. +There was nothing but the mere letter of the law behind the Reconstruction +Negro officeholder and the thus forced political recognition against +public opinion could not last any longer than natural forces for some time +thrown out of gear by unnatural causes could resume the usual line of +procedure. + +It would be of no advantage to the Negro race today to send to Congress +forty Negro Representatives on the pro rata basis of numbers, especially +if they happened not to be exceptionally well qualified. They would remain +in Congress only so long as the American white people could devise some +plan for eliminating them as they did during the Reconstruction period. +Near as the world has approached real democracy, history gives no record +of a permanent government conducted on this basis. Interests have always +been stronger than numbers. The Negroes in the North, therefore, should +not on the eve of the economic revolution follow the advice of their +misguided and misleading race leaders who are diverting their attention +from their actual welfare to a specialization in politics. To concentrate +their efforts on electing a few Negroes to office wherever the blacks are +found in the majority, would exhibit the narrowness of their oppressors. +It would be as unwise as the policy of the Republican party of setting +aside a few insignificant positions like that of Recorder of Deeds, +Register of the Treasury and Auditor of the Navy as segregated jobs for +Negroes. Such positions have furnished a nucleus for the large, worthless, +office-seeking class of Negroes in Washington, who have established the +going of the people of the city toward pretence and sham. + +The Negroes should support representative men of any color or party, if +they stand for a square deal and equal rights for all. The new Negroes in +the North, therefore, will, as so many of their race in New York, +Philadelphia and Chicago are now doing, ally themselves with those men who +are fairminded and considerate of the man far down, and seek to embrace +their many opportunities for economic progress, a foundation for political +recognition, upon which the race must learn to build. Every race in the +universe must aspire to becoming a factor in politics; but history shows +that there is no short route to such success. Like other despised races +beset with the prejudice and militant opposition of self-styled superiors, +the Negroes must increase their industrial efficiency, improve their +opportunities to make a living, develop the home, church and school, and +contribute to art, literature, science and philosophy to clear the way to +that political freedom of which they cannot be deprived. + +The entire country will be benefited by this upheaval. It will be helpful +even to the South. The decrease in the black population in those +communities where the Negroes outnumber the whites will remove the fear of +_Negro domination_, one of the causes of the backwardness of the +South and its peculiar civilization. Many of the expensive precautions +which the southern people have taken to keep the Negroes down, much of the +terrorism incited to restrain the blacks from self-assertion will no +longer be considered necessary; for, having the excess in numbers on their +side, the whites will finally rest assured that the Negroes may be +encouraged without any apprehension that they may develop enough power to +subjugate or embarrass their former masters. + +The Negroes too are very much in demand in the South and the intelligent +whites will gladly give them larger opportunities to attach them to that +section, knowing that the blacks, once conscious of their power to move +freely throughout the country wherever they may improve their condition, +will never endure hardships like those formerly inflicted upon the race. +The South is already learning that the Negro is the most desirable laborer +for that section, that the persecution of Negroes not only drives them out +but makes the employment of labor such a problem that the South will not +be an attractive section for capital. It will, therefore, be considered +the duty of business men to secure protection to the Negroes lest their +ill-treatment force them to migrate to the extent of bringing about a +stagnation of their business. + +The exodus has driven home the truth that the prosperity of the South is +at the mercy of the Negro. Dependent on cheap labor, which the bulldozing +whites will not readily furnish, the wealthy southerners must finally +reach the position of regarding themselves and the Negroes as having a +community of interests which each must promote. "Nature itself in those +States," Douglass said, "came to the rescue of the Negro. He had labor, +the South wanted it, and must have it or perish. Since he was free he +could then give it, or withhold it; use it where he was, or take it +elsewhere, as he pleased. His labor made him a slave and his labor could, +if he would, make him free, comfortable and independent. It is more to him +than either fire, sword, ballot boxes or bayonets. It touches the heart of +the South through its pocket."[11] Knowing that the Negro has this silent +weapon to be used against his employer or the community, the South is +already giving the race better educational facilities, better railway +accommodations, and will eventually, if the advocacy of certain southern +newspapers be heeded, grant them political privileges. Wages in the South, +therefore, have risen even in the extreme southwestern States, where there +is an opportunity to import Mexican labor. Reduced to this extremity, the +southern aristocrats have begun to lose some of their race prejudice, +which has not hitherto yielded to reason or philanthropy. + +Southern men are telling their neighbors that their section must abandon +the policy of treating the Negroes as a problem and construct a program +for recognition rather than for repression. Meetings are, therefore, being +held to find out what the Negro wants and what may be done to keep them +contented. They are told that the Negro must be elevated not exploited, +that to make the South what it must needs be, the cooperation of all is +needed to train and equip the men of all races for efficiency. The aim of +all then must be to reform or get rid of the unfair proprietors who do not +give their tenants a fair division of the returns from their labor. To +this end the best whites and blacks are urged to come together to find a +working basis for a systematic effort in the interest of all. + +To say that either the North or the South can easily become adjusted to +this change is entirely too sanguine. The North will have a problem. The +Negroes in the northern city will have much more to contend with than when +settled in the rural districts or small urban centers. Forced by +restrictions of real estate men into congested districts, there has +appeared the tendency toward further segregation. They are denied social +contact, are sagaciously separated from the whites in public places of +amusement and are clandestinely segregated in public schools in spite of +the law to the contrary. As a consequence the Negro migrant often finds +himself with less friends than he formerly had. The northern man who once +denounced the South on account of its maltreatment of the blacks gradually +grows silent when a Negro is brought next door. There comes with the +movement, therefore, the difficult problem of housing. + +Where then must the migrants go? They are not wanted by the whites and are +treated with contempt by the native blacks of the northern cities, who +consider their brethren from the South too criminal and too vicious to be +tolerated. In the average progressive city there has heretofore been a +certain increase in the number of houses through natural growth, but owing +to the high cost of materials, high wages, increasing taxation and the +inclination to invest money in enterprises growing out of the war, fewer +houses are now being built, although Negroes are pouring into these +centers as a steady stream. The usual Negro quarters in northern centers +of this sort have been filled up and the overflow of the black population +scattered throughout the city among white people. Old warehouses, store +rooms, churches, railroad cars and tents have been used to meet these +demands. + +A large per cent of these Negroes are located in rooming houses or +tenements for several families. The majority of them cannot find +individual rooms. Many are crowded into the same room, therefore, and too +many into the same bed. Sometimes as many as four and five sleep in one +bed, and that may be placed in the basement, dining-room or kitchen where +there is neither adequate light nor air. In some cases men who work during +the night sleep by day in beds used by others during the night. Some of +their houses have no water inside and have toilets on the outside without +sewerage connections. The cooking is often done by coal or wood stoves or +kerosene lamps. Yet the rent runs high although the houses are generally +out of repair and in some cases have been condemned by the municipality. +The unsanitary conditions in which many of the blacks are compelled to +live are in violation of municipal ordinances. + +Furthermore, because of the indiscriminate employment by labor agents and +the dearth of labor requiring the acceptance of almost all sorts of men, +some disorderly and worthless Negroes have been brought into the North. On +the whole, however, these migrants are not lazy, shiftless and desperate +as some predicted that they would be. They generally attend church, save +their money and send a part of their savings regularly to their families. +They do not belong to the class going North in quest of whiskey. Mr. +Abraham Epstein, who has written a valuable pamphlet setting forth his +researches in Pittsburgh, states that the migrants of that city do not +generally imbibe and most of those who do, take beer only.[12] Out of four +hundred and seventy persons to whom he propounded this question, two +hundred and ten or forty-four per cent of them were total abstainers. +Seventy per cent of those having families do not drink at all. + +With this congestion, however, have come serious difficulties. Crowded +conditions give rise to vice, crime and disease. The prevalence of vice +has not been the rule but tendencies, which better conditions in the South +restrained from developing, have under these undesirable conditions been +given an opportunity to grow. There is, therefore, a tendency toward the +crowding of dives, assembling on the corners of streets and the commission +of petty offences which crowd them into the police courts. One finds also +sometimes a congestion in houses of dissipation and the carrying of +concealed weapons. Law abiding on the whole, however, they have not +experienced a wave of crime. The chief offences are those resulting from +the saloons and denizens of vice, which are furnished by the community +itself. + +Disease has been one of their worst enemies, but reports on their health +have been exaggerated. On account of this sudden change of the Negroes +from one climate to another and the hardships of more unrelenting toil, +many of them have been unable to resist pneumonia, bronchitis and +tuberculosis. Churches, rescue missions and the National League on Urban +Conditions Among Negroes have offered relief in some of these cases. The +last-named organization is serving in large cities as a sort of clearing +house for such activities and as means of interpreting one race to the +other. It has now eighteen branches in cities to which this migration has +been directed. Through a local worker these migrants are approached, +properly placed and supervised until they can adjust themselves to the +community without apparent embarrassment to either race. The League has +been able to handle the migrants arriving by extending the work so as to +know their movements beforehand. + +The occupations in which these people engage will throw further light on +their situation. About ninety per cent of them do unskilled labor. Only +ten per cent of them do semi-skilled or skilled labor. They serve as +common laborers, puddlers, mold-setters, painters, carpenters, +bricklayers, cement workers and machinists. What the Negroes need then is +that sort of freedom which carries with it industrial opportunity and +social justice. This they cannot attain until they be permitted to enter +the higher pursuits of labor. Two reasons are given for failure to enter +these: first, that Negro labor is unstable and inefficient; and second, +that white men will protest. Organized labor, however, has done nothing to +help the blacks. Yet it is a fact that accustomed to the easy-going toil +of the plantation, the blacks have not shown the same efficiency as that +of the whites. Some employers report, however, that they are glad to have +them because they are more individualistic and do not like to group. But +it is not true that colored labor cannot be organized. The blacks have +merely been neglected by organized labor. Wherever they have had the +opportunity to do so, they have organized and stood for their rights like +men. The trouble is that the trades unions are generally antagonistic to +Negroes although they are now accepting the blacks in self-defense. The +policy of excluding Negroes from these bodies is made effective by an +evasive procedure, despite the fact that the constitutions of many of them +specifically provide that there shall be no discrimination on account of +race or color. + +Because of this tendency some of the representatives of trades unions have +asked why Negroes do not organize unions of their own. This the Negroes +have generally failed to do, thinking that they would not be recognized by +the American Federation of Labor, and knowing too that what their union +would have to contend with in the economic world would be diametrically +opposed to the wishes of the men from whom they would have to seek +recognition. Organized labor, moreover, is opposed to the powerful +capitalists, the only real friends the Negroes have in the North to +furnish them food and shelter while their lives are often being sought by +union members. Steps toward organizing Negro labor have been made in +various Northern cities during 1917 and 1918.[18] The objective of this +movement for the present, however, is largely that of employment. + +Eventually the Negro migrants will, no doubt, without much difficulty +establish themselves among law-abiding and industrious people of the North +where they will receive assistance. Many persons now see in this shifting +of the Negro population the dawn of a new day, not in making the Negro +numerically dominant anywhere to obtain political power, but to secure for +him freedom of movement from section to section as a competitor in the +industrial world. They also observe that while there may be an increase of +race prejudice in the North the same will in that proportion decrease in +the South, thus balancing the equation while giving the Negro his best +chance in the economic world out of which he must emerge a real man with +power to secure his rights as an American citizen. + + +[Footnote 1: _New York Times_, Sept. 5, 9, 28, 1916.] + +[Footnote 2: _Ibid_., Oct. 18, 28; Nov. 5, 7, 12, 15; Dec. 4, 9, +1916.] + +[Footnote 3: _The Crisis_, July, 1917.] + +[Footnote 4: _American Journal of Political Economy_, XXX, p. 1040.] + +[Footnote 5: _The World's Work_, XX, p. 271.] + +[Footnote 6: _The World's Work_, XX, p. 272.] + +[Footnote 7: _New York Times_, March 29, April 7, 9, May 30 and 31, +1917.] + +[Footnote 8: _Survey_, XXXVII, pp. 569-571 and XXXVIII, pp. 27, 226, +331, 428; _Forum_, LVII, p. 181; _The World's Work_, XXXIV, pp. +135, 314-319; _Outlook_, CXVI, pp. 520-521; _Independent_, XCI, +pp. 53-54.] + +[Footnote 9: _The Crisis_, 1917.] + +[Footnote 10: _The New Orleans Times Picayune_, March 26, 1914.] + +[Footnote 11: _American Journal of Social Science_, XI, p. 4.] + +[Footnote 12: Epstein, _The Negro Migrant in Pittsburgh_.] + +[Footnote 13: Epstein, _The Negro Migrant in Pittsburgh_.] + + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY + + +As the public has not as yet paid very much attention to Negro History, +and has not seen a volume dealing primarily with the migration of the race +in America, one could hardly expect that there has been compiled a +bibliography in this special field. With the exception of what appears in +Still's and Siebert's works on the _Underground Railroad_ and the +records of the meetings of the Quakers promoting this movement, there is +little helpful material to be found in single volumes bearing on the +antebellum period. Since the Civil War, however, more has been said and +written concerning the movements of the Negro population. E.H. Botume's +_First Days Among the Contrabands_ and John Eaton's _Grant, Lincoln +and the Freedmen_ cover very well the period of rebellion. This is +supplemented by J.C. Knowlton's _Contrabands_ in the _University +Quarterly_, Volume XXI, page 307, and by Edward L. Pierce's _The +Freedmen at Port Royal_ in the _Atlantic Monthly_, Volume XII, +page 291. The exodus of 1879 is treated by J.B. Runnion in the _Atlantic +Monthly_, Volume XLIV, page 222; by Frederick Douglass and Richard T. +Greener in the _American Journal of Social Science_, Volume XI, page +1; by F.R. Guernsey in the _International Review_, Volume VII, page +373; by E.L. Godkin in the _Nation_, Volume XXVIII, pages 242 and 386; +and by J.C. Hartzell in the _Methodist Quarterly_, Volume XXXIX, +page 722. The second volume of George W. Williams's _History of the +Negro Race_ also contains a short chapter on the exodus of 1879. In +Volume XVIII, page 370, of _Public Opinion_ there is a discussion of +_Negro Emigration and Deportation_ as advocated by Bishop H.M. Turner +and Senator Morgan of Alabama during the nineties. Professor William O. +Scroggs of Louisiana University has in the _Journal of Political +Economy_, Volume XXV, page 1034, an article entitled _Interstate +Migration of Negro Population_. Mr. Epstein has published a helpful +pamphlet, _The Negro Migrant in Pittsburgh_. Most of the material for +this work, however, was collected from the various sources mentioned +below. + + + +BOOKS OF TRAVEL + + +Brissot de Warville, J. P. _New Travels in the United States of America: +including the Commerce of America with Europe, particularly with Great +Britain and France_. Two volumes. (London, 1794.) Gives general +impressions, few details. + +Buckingham, J.S. _America, Historical, Statistical, and Descriptive_. +Two volumes. (New York, 1841.)--_Eastern and Western States of +America_. Three volumes. (London and Paris, 1842.) Contains useful +information. + +Olmsted, Frederick Law. _A Journey in the Seaboard Slave States, with +Remarks on their Economy_. (New York, 1859.)--_A Journey in the Back +Country_. (London, 1860.) + +--_Journeys and Explorations in the Cotton Kingdom_. (London, 1861.) +Olmsted was a New York farmer. He recorded a few important facts about the +Negroes immediately before the Civil War. + +Woolman, John. _Journal of John Woolman, with an Introduction by John G. +Whittier_. (Boston, 1873.) Woolman traveled so extensively in the +colonies that he probably knew more about the Negroes than any other +Quaker of his time. + + + +LETTERS + + +Boyce, Stanbury. _Letters on the Emigration of the Negroes to +Trinidad_. + +Jefferson, Thomas. _Letters of Thomas Jefferson to Abbe Gregoire, M.A. +Julien, and Benjamin Banneker. In Jefferson's Works, Memorial Edition_, +xii and xv. He comments on Negroes' talents. + +Madison, James. _Letters to Frances Wright_. In _Madison's +Works_, vol. iii, p. 396. The emancipation of Negroes is discussed. + +May, Samuel Joseph. _The Right of the Colored People to Education_. +(Brooklyn, 1883.) A collection of public letters addressed to Andrew T. +Judson, remonstrating on the unjust procedure relative to Miss Prudence +Crandall. + +McDonogh, John. "_A Letter of John McDonogh on African Colonization +addressed to the Editor of the New Orleans Commercial Bulletin_." +McDonogh was interested in the betterment of the colored people and did +much to promote their mental development. + + + +BIOGRAPHIES + + +Birney, William. _James G. Birney and His Times_. (New York, 1890.) A +sketch of an advocate of Negro uplift. + +Bowen, Clarence W. _Arthur and Lewis Tappan_. A paper read at the +fiftieth anniversary of the New York Anti-Slavery Society, at the Broadway +Tabernacle, New York City, October 2, 1883. An honorable mention of two +friends of the Negro. + +Drew, Benjamin. _A North-side View of Slavery. The Refugee: or the +Narratives of Fugitive Slaves in Canada. Related by themselves, with an +Account of the History and Condition of the Colored Population of Upper +Canada_. (New York and Boston, 1856.) + +Frothingham, O.B. _Gerritt Smith: A Biography_. (New York, 1878.) + +Garrison, Francis and Wendell P. _William Lloyd Garrison, 1805-1879. The +Story of his Life told by his Children_. Four volumes. (Boston and New +York, 1894.) Includes a brief account of what he did for the colored +people. + +Hammond, C.A. _Gerritt Smith, The Story of a Noble Man's Life_. +(Geneva, 1900.) + +Johnson, Oliver. _William Lloyd Garrison and his Times_. (Boston, +1880. New edition, revised and enlarged, Boston, 1881.) + +Mott, A. _Biographical Sketches and Interesting Anecdotes of Persons of +Color; with a Selection of Pieces of Poetry_. (New York, 1826.) Some of +these sketches show how ambitious Negroes succeeded in spite of +opposition. + +Simmons, W.J. _Men of Mark; Eminent, Progressive, and Rising, with an +Introductory Sketch of the Author by Reverend Henry M. Turner_. +(Cleveland, Ohio, 1891.) Accounts for the adverse circumstances under +which many antebellum Negroes made progress. + + + +AUTOBIOGRAPHIES + + +Coffin, Levi. _Reminiscences of Levi Coffin, reputed President of the +Underground Railroad_. Second edition. (Cincinnati, 1880.) Contains +many facts concerning Negroes. + +Douglass, Frederick. _Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, as an +American Slave_. Written by himself. (Boston, 1845.) Gives several +cases of secret Negro movements for their own good. + +--_The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass from 1817 to 1882_. +(London, 1882.) Written by himself. With an Introduction by the Eight +Honorable John Bright, M.P. Edited by John Loeb, F.R.G.S., of the +_Christian Age_. Editor of _Uncle Tom's Story of his Life_. + + + +HISTORIES + + +Bancroft, George. _History of the United States_. Ten volumes. +(Boston, 1857-1864.) + +Brackett, Jeffrey R. _The Negro in Maryland_. Johns Hopkins +University Studies. (Baltimore, 1889.) + +Collins, Lewis. _Historical Sketches of Kentucky_. (Maysville, Ky., +and Cincinnati, Ohio, 1847.) + +Dunn, J.P. _Indiana; A redemption from Slavery_. (In the American +Commonwealths, vols. XII, Boston and New York, 1888.) + +Evans, W.E. _A History of Scioto County together with a Pioneer Record +of Southern Ohio_. (Portsmouth, 1903.) + +Farmer, Silas. _The History of Detroit and Michigan or the Metropolis +Illustrated_. A chronological encyclopedia of the past and the present +including a full record of territorial days in Michigan and the annals of +Wayne County. Two volumes. (Detroit, 1899.) + +Harris, N.D. _The History of Negro Servitude in Illinois and of the +Slavery Agitation in that State, 1719-1864,_. (Chicago, 1904.) + +Hart, A.B. _The American Nation; A History, etc_. Twenty-seven +volumes. (New York, 1904-1908.) The volumes which have a bearing on the +subject treated in this monograph are W.A. Dunning's _Reconstruction_, +F.J. Turner's _Rise of the New West_, and A.B. Hart's _Slavery and +Abolition_. + +Hinsdale, B.A. _The Old Northwest; with a view of the thirteen colonies +as constituted by the royal charters_. (New York, 1888.) + +Howe, Henry. _Historical Collections of Ohio_. Contains a collection +of the most interesting facts, traditions, biographical sketches, +anecdotes, etc., relating to its general and local history with +descriptions of its counties, principal towns and villages. (Cincinnati, +1847.) + +Jones, Charles Colcook, Jr. _History of Georgia_. (Boston, 1883.) + +McMaster, John B. _History of the United States_. Six volumes. (New +York, 1900.) + +Rhodes, J.F. _History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850 +to the Final Restoration of Home Rule in the South_. (New York and +London, Macmillan & Company, 1892-1906.) + +Steiner, B.C. _History of Slavery in Connecticut_. (Johns Hopkins +University Studies, 1893.) + +Stuve, Bernard, and Alexander Davidson. _A Complete History of Illinois +from 1673 to 1783_. (Springfield, 1874.) + +Tremain, Mary M.A. _Slavery in the District of Columbia_. (University +of Nebraska Seminary Papers, April, 1892.) + +_History of Brown County, Ohio_. (Chicago, 1883.) + + + +ADDRESSES + + +Garrison, William Lloyd. _An Address Delivered before the Free People of +Color in Philadelphia, New York and other Cities during the Month of June, +1831_. (Boston, 1831.) + +Griffin, Edward Dore. _A Plea for Africa,_. (New York, 1817.) A Sermon +preached October 26, 1817, in the First Presbyterian Church in the City of +New York before the Synod of New York and New Jersey at the Request of the +Board of Directors of the African School established by the Synod. The aim +was to arouse interest in colonization. + + + +REPORTS AND STATISTICS + + +_Special Report of the Commissioner of Education on the Improvement of +Public Schools in the District of Columbia_, containing M. B. Goodwin's +"History of Schools for the Colored Population in the District of +Columbia." (Washington, 1871.) + +_Report of the Committee of Representatives of the New York Yearly +Meeting of Friends upon the condition and wants of the Colored +Refugees_, 1862. + +Clarke, J. F. _Present Condition of the Free Colored People of the +United States_. (New York and Boston, the American Antislavery Society, +1859.) Published also in the March number of the _Christian +Examiner_. + +_Condition of the Free People of Color in Ohio. With interesting +anecdotes_. (Boston, 1839.) + +_Institute for Colored Youth_. (Philadelphia, 1860-1865.) Contains a +list of the officers and students. + +Jones, Thomas Jesse. _Negro Education: A study of the private and higher +schools for colored people in the United States. Prepared in cooperation +with the Phelps-Stokes Fund_. In two volumes. (Bureau of Education, +Washington, 1917.) + +_Official Records of the War of Rebellion_. + +_Report of the Condition of the Colored People of Cincinnati_, 1835. +(Cincinnati, 1835.) + +_Report of a Committee of the Pennsylvania Society of Abolition on +Present Condition of the Colored People, etc_., 1838. (Philadelphia, +1838.) + +_Statistical Inquiry into the Condition of the People of Color of the +City and Districts of Philadelphia_. (Philadelphia, 1849.) + +_Statistics of the Colored People of Philadelphia in 1859_, compiled +by Benj. C. Bacon. (Philadelphia, 1859.) + +_Statistical Abstract of the United States_, 1898. Prepared by the +Bureau of Statistics. (Washington, D. C., 1899.) + +_Statistical View of the Population of the United States, A_ +1790-1830. (Published by the Department of State in 1835.) + +_Trades of the Colored People_. (Philadelphia, 1838.) + +_United States Censuses_. + +_A Brief Statement of the Rise and Progress of the Testimony of Friends +against Slavery and the Slave Trade_. Published by direction of the +Yearly Meeting held in Philadelphia in the Fourth Month, 1843. Shows the +action taken by various Friends to elevate the Negroes. + +_A Collection of the Acts, Deliverances and Testimonies of the Supreme +Judicatory of the Presbyterian Church, from its Origin in America to the +Present Time_. By Samuel J. Baird. (Philadelphia, 1856.) + +American Convention of Abolition Societies. _Minutes of the Proceedings +of a Convention of Delegates from the Abolition Societies established in +different Parts of the United States_. From 1794-1828. + +_The Annual Reports of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Societies, +presented at New York, May 6, 1847, with the Addresses and +Resolutions_. From 1847-1851. + +_The Annual Reports of the American Anti-Slavery Society_. From 1834 +to 1860. + +_The Third Annual Report of the Managers of the New England Anti-Slavery +Society presented June 2, 1835_. (Boston, 1835.) + +_Annual Reports of the Massachusetts (or New England) Anti-Slavery +Society, 1831-end_. + +_Reports of the National Anti-Slavery Convention, 1833-end_. + +_Reports of the American Colonisation Society_, 1818-1832. + +_Report of the New York Colonisation Society_, October 1, 1823. (New +York, 1823.) + +_The Seventh Annual Report of the Colonization Society of the City of +New York_. (New York, 1839.) + +_Proceedings of the New York State Colonization Society_, 1831. +(Albany, 1831.) + +_The Eighteenth Annual Report of the Colonization Society of the State +of New York_. (New York, 1850.) + +_Minutes and Proceedings of the First Annual Convention of the People of +Color. Held by Adjournment in the City of Philadelphia, from the sixth to +the eleventh of June, inclusive_, 1831. (Philadelphia, 1831.) + +_Minutes and Proceedings of the Second Annual Convention for the +Improvement of the Free People of Color in these United States. Held by +Adjournments in the City of Philadelphia, from the 4th to the 13th of +June, inclusive_, 1832. (Philadelphia, 1832.) + +_Minutes and Proceedings of the Third Annual Convention for the +Improvement of the Free People of Color in these United States. Held by +Adjournments in the City of_ _Philadelphia, in 1833_. (New York, +1833.) These proceedings were published also in the _New York Commercial +Advertiser_, April 27, 1833. + +_Minutes and Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Convention for the +Improvement of the Free People of Color in the United States. Held by +Adjournments in the Asbury Church, New York, from the 2nd to the 12th of +June, 1834_. (New York, 1834.) + +_Proceedings of the Convention of the Colored Freedmen of Ohio at +Cincinnati, January 14, 1852_. (Cincinnati, Ohio, 1852.) + + + +MISCELLANEOUS BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS + + +Adams, Alice Dana. _The Neglected Period of Anti-Slavery in America_. +Radcliffe College Monographs No. 14._ (Boston and London, 1908) Contains +some valuable facts about the Negroes during the first three decades of +the nineteenth century. + +Agricola (pseudonym). _An Impartial View of the Real State of the Black +Population in the United States_. (Philadelphia, 1824.) + +Alexander, A. _A History of Colonisation on the Western Continent of +Africa_. (Philadelphia, 1846.) + +Ames, Mary. _From a New England Woman's Diary in 1865_, (Springfield, +1906.) + +_An Address to the People of North Carolina on the Evils of Slavery, by +the Friends of Liberty and Equality, 1830_. (Greensborough, 1830.) + +_An Address to the Presbyterians of Kentucky proposing a Plan for the +Instruction and Emancipation of their Slaves by a Committee of the Synod +of Kentucky_. (Newburyport, 1836.) + +Baldwin, Ebenezer. _Observations on the Physical and Moral Qualities of +our Colored Population with Remarks on the Subject of Emancipation and +Colonization_. (New Haven, 1834.) + +Bassett, J. S. _Slavery and Servitude in the Colony of North +Carolina_. (Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and +Political Science. Fourteenth Series, iv-v. Baltimore, 1896.) + +------_Slavery in the State of North Carolina_. (Johns Hopkins +University Studies in Historical and Political Science. Series XVII., Nos. +7-8. Baltimore, 1899.) + +------_Anti-Slavery Leaders of North Carolina_. (Johns Hopkins +University Studies in Historical and Political Science. Series XVI., No. +6. Baltimore, 1898.) + +Benezet, Anthony. _A Caution to Great Britain and Her Colonies in a +Short Representation of the calamitous State of the enslaved Negro in the +British Dominions_. (Philadelphia, 1784.) + +------_The Case of our Fellow-Creatures, the oppressed Africans, +respectfully recommended to the serious Consideration of the Legislature +of Great Britain, by the People called Quakers_. (London, 1783.) + +------_Observations on the enslaving, Importing and Purchasing of +Negroes; with some Advice thereon, extracted from the Epistle of the +Yearly-Meeting of the People called Quakers, held at London in the Year +1748_. (Germantown, 1760.) + +------_The Potent Enemies of America laid open: being some Account of +the baneful Effects attending the Use of distilled spirituous Liquors, and +the Slavery of the Negroes_. (Philadelphia.) + +------_A Short Account of that Part of Africa, inhabited by the Negroes. +With respect to the Fertility of the Country; the good Disposition of many +of the Natives, and the Manner by which the Slave Trade is carried on_. +(Philadelphia, 1792) + +------_Short Observations on Slavery, introductory to Some Extracts from +the Writings of the Abbe Raynal, on the Important Subject_. + +------_Some Historical Account of Guinea, its Situation, Produce, and +the General Disposition of its Inhabitants. With an Inquiry into the Rise +and Progress of the Slave Trade, its Nature and Lamentable Effects_. +(London, 1788.) + +Birney, James G. _The American Churches, the Bulwarks of American +Slavery, by an American_. (Newburyport, 1842.) + +Birney, William. _James G. Birney and his Times. The Genesis of the +Republican Party, with Some Account of the Abolition Movements in the +South before 1828_. (New York, 1890.) + +Brackett, Jeffery B. _The Negro in Maryland. A Study of the Institution +of Slavery_. (Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University, 1889.) + +Brannagan, Thomas. _A Preliminary Essay on the Oppression of the Exiled +Sons of Africa, Consisting of Animadversions on the Impolicy and Barbarity +of the Deleterious Commerce and Subsequent Slavery of the Human +Species_. (Philadelphia: Printed for the Author by John W. Scott, +1804.) + +Brannagan, T. _Serious Remonstrances Addressed to the Citizens of the +Northern States and their Representatives, being an Appeal to their +Natural Feelings and Common Sense; Consisting of Speculations and +Animadversions, on the Recent Revival of the Slave Trade in the American +Republic_. (Philadelphia, 1805.) + +Campbell, J. V. _Political History of Michigan_. (Detroit, 1876.) + +_Code Noir ou Recueil d'edits, declarations et arrets concernant la +Discipline et le commerce des esclaves Negres des isles francaises de +l'Amerique (in Recueils de reglemens, edits, declarations et arrets, +concernant le commerce, l'administration de la justice et la police des +colonies francaises de l'Amerique, et les engages avec le Code Noir, et +l'addition audit code)_. (Paris, 1745.) + +Coffin, Joshua. _An Account of Some of the principal Slave Insurrections +and others which have occurred or been attempted in the United States and +elsewhere during the last two Centuries. With various Remarks. Collected +from various Sources_. (New York, 1860.) + +Columbia University _Studies in History, Economics and Public Law_. +Edited by the faculty of political science. The useful volumes of this +series for this field are: + +W.L. Fleming's _Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama_, 1905. + +W.W. Davis's _The Civil War and Reconstruction in Florida_, 1913. + +Clara Mildred Thompson's _Reconstruction in Georgia, Economic, Social, +Political_, 1915. + +J.G. de R. Hamilton's _Reconstruction in North Carolina_, 1914. + +C.W. Ramsdell. _Reconstruction in Texas_, 1910. + +_Connecticut, Public Acts passed by the General Assembly of_. + +Cromwell, J.W. _The Negro in American History: Men and Women Eminent in +the Evolution of the American of African Descent_. (Washington, 1914.) + +Davidson, A., and Stowe, B. _A Complete History of Illinois from 1673 to +1873_. (Springfield, 1874.) It embraces the physical features of the +country, its early explorations, aboriginal inhabitants, the French and +British occupation, the conquest of Virginia, territorial condition and +subsequent events. + +Delany, M.R. _The Condition, Elevation, Emigration and Destiny of the +Colored People of the United States: politically considered_. +(Philadelphia, 1852.) + +DuBois, W.E.B. _The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study. Together with a +special report on domestic service by Isabel Eaton_. (Philadelphia, +1899.) + +------Atlanta University Publications, _The Negro Common School_. +(Atlanta, 1901.) + +------_The Negro Church_. (Atlanta, 1903.) + +------and Dill, A.G. _The College-Bred Negro American_. (Atlanta, +1910.) + +------_The Negro American Artisan_. (Atlanta, 1912.) + +De Toqueville, Alexis Charles Henri Maurice Clerel De. _Democracy in +America_. Translated by Henry Reeve. Four volumes. (London, 1835, +1840.) + +Eaton, John. _Grant, Lincoln and the Freedmen: reminiscences of the +Civil War with special reference to the work for the Contrabands, and the +Freedmen of the Mississippi Valley_. (New York, 1907.) + +Epstein. _The Negro Migrant in Pittsburgh_. (Pittsburgh, 1917.) + +_Exposition of the Object and Plan of the American Union for the Belief +and Improvement of the Colored Race_. (Boston, 1835.) + +Fee, John G. _Anti-Slavery Manual_. (Maysville, 1848.) + +Fertig, James Walter. _The Secession and Reconstruction of +Tennessee_. (Chicago, 1898.) + +Frost, W.G. "Appalachian America." (In vol. i of _The Americana_.) +(New York, 1912.) + +Garnett, H.H. _The Past and Present Condition and the Destiny of the +Colored Race_. (Troy, 1848.) + +Greely, Horace. _The American Conflict_. A history of the great +rebellion in the United States of America, 1860-64, its causes, incidents +and results: intended to exhibit especially its moral and political +phases, with the drift of progress of American opinion respecting human +slavery from 1776 to the close of the war for its union. (Chicago, 1864.) + +Hammond, M.B. _The Cotton Industry: an Essay in American Economic +History_. It deals with the cotton culture and the cotton Trade. (New +York, 1897.) + +Hart, A.B. _The Southern South_. (New York, 1906.) + +Henson, Josiah. _The Life of Josiah Henson_. (Boston, 1849.) + +Hershaw, L.M. _Peonage in the United States_. This is one of the +American Negro Academy Papers. (Washington, 1912.) + +Hickok, Charles Thomas. _The Negro in Ohio, 1802-1870_. (Cleveland, +1896.) + +Hodgkin, Thomas A. _Inquiry into the Merits of the American Colonization +Society and Reply to the Charges brought against it with an Account of the +British African Colonization Society_. (London, 1833.) + +Howe, Samuel G. _The Refugees from Slavery in Canada West. Report to the +Freedmen's Inquiry Committee_. (Boston, 1864.) + +Hutchins, Thomas. _An Historical Narrative and Topographical Description +of Louisiana and West Florida, comprehending the river Mississippi with +its principal Branches and Settlements and the Rivers Pearl and +Pescagoula_. (Philadelphia, 1784.) + +_Illinois, Laws of, passed by the General Assembly of_. + +_Indiana, Laws passed by the State of_. + +Jay, John. _The Correspondence and Public Papers of John Jay. First +Chief Justice of the United States and President of the Continental +Congress, Member of the Commission to negotiate the Treaty of +Independence, Envoy to Great Britain, Governor of New York, etc., +1782-1793. (New York and London, 1801.) Edited by Henry P. Johnson, +Professor of History in the College of the City of New York. + +Jay, William. _An Inquiry into the Character and Tendencies of the +American Colonisation and American Anti-Slavery Societies_. Second +edition. (New York, 1835.) + +Jefferson, Thomas. _The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Memorial Edition. +Autobiography, Notes on Virginia, Parliamentary Mannual, Official Papers, +Messages and Addresses, and other writings Official and Private, etc._ +(Washington, 1903.) + +_Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political +Science_. H.B. Adams, Editor. (Baltimore, Johns Hopkins Press.) Among +the useful volumes of this series are: J.R. Ficklen's _History of +Reconstruction in Louisiana_, 1910. + +H.J. Eckenrode's _The Political History of Virginia during +Reconstruction_, 1904. + +Langston, John M. _From the Virginia Plantation to the National Capital; +or, The First and Only Negro Representative in Congress from The Old +Dominion_. (Hartford, 1894.) + +Locke, M.S. _Anti-Slavery in America from the Introduction of African +Slaves to the Prohibition of the Slave Trade, 1619-1808_. Radcliffe +College Monographs, No. ii. (Boston, 1901.) A valuable work. + +Lynch, John R. _The Facts of Reconstruction_. (New York, 1913.) + +Madison, James. _Letters and Other Writings of James Madison Published +by Order of Congress_. Four volumes. (Philadelphia, 1865.) + +May, S.J. _Some Recollections of our Anti-Slavery Conflict_. + +Monroe, James. _The Writings of James Monroe, including a Collection of +his public and private Papers and Correspondence now for the first time +printed_. Edited by S. M. Hamilton. (Boston, 1900.) + +Moore, George H. _Notes on the History of Slavery in Massachusetts_. +(New York, 1866.) + +Needles, Edward. _Ten Years' Progress or a Comparison of the State and +Condition of the Colored People in the City of and County of Philadelphia +from 1837 to 1847_. (Philadelphia, 1849.) + +_New Jersey, Acts of the General Assembly of_. + +_Ohio, Laws of the General Assembly of_. + +Ovington, M.W. _Half-a-Man_. (New York, 1911.) Treats of the Negro in +the State of New York. A few pages are devoted to the progress of the +colored people. + +Parrish, John. _Remarks on the Slavery of the Black People; Addressed to +the Citizens of the United States, particularly to those who are in +legislative or executive Stations, particularly in the General or State +Governments; and also to such Individuals as hold them in Bondage_. +(Philadelphia, 1806.) + +Pearson, E.W. _Letters from Port Royal, written at the Time of the Civil +War_. (Boston, 1916.) + +Pearson, C.C. _The Readjuster Movement in Virginia_. (New Haven, +1917.) + +_Pennsylvania, Laws of the General Assembly of the State of_. + +Pierce, E.L. _The Freedmen of Port Royal, South Carolina, Official +Reports_. (New York, 1863.) + +Pike, James S. _The Prostrate State: South Carolina under Negro +Government_. (New York, 1874.) + +Pittman, Philip. _The Present State of European Settlements on the +Mississippi with a geographic description of that river_. (London, +1770.) + +Quillen, Frank U. _The Color Line in Ohio_. A History of Race +Prejudice in a typical northern State. (Ann Arbor, Mich., 1913.) + +Reynolds, J.S. _Reconstruction in South Carolina_. (Columbia, 1905.) + +_Rhode Island, Acts and Resolves of_. + +Rice, David. _Slavery inconsistent with Justice and Good Policy: proved +by a Speech delivered in the Convention held at Danville, Kentucky_. +(Philadelphia, 1792, and London, 1793.) + +Scherer, J.A.B. _Cotton as a World Power_. (New York, 1916.) This is +a study in the economic interpretation of History. The contents of this +book are a revision of a series of lectures at Oxford and Cambridge +universities in the Spring of 1914 with the caption on Economic Causes in +the American Civil War. + +Siebert, Wilbur H. _The Underground Railroad from Slavery_ _to +Freedom_, by W.H. Siebert, Associate Professor of History in the Ohio +State University, with an Introduction by A.B. Hart. (New York, 1898.) + +Starr, Frederick. _What shall be done with the people of color in the +United States?_ (Albany, 1862.) A discourse delivered in the First +Presbyterian Church of Penn Yan, New York, November 2, 1862. + +Still, William. _The Underground Railroad_. (Philadelphia, 1872.) +This is a record of facts, authentic narratives, letters and the like, +giving the hardships, hair-breadth escapes and death struggles of the +slaves in their efforts for freedom as related by themselves and others or +witnessed by the author. + +_The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, Travels and Explorations of +the Jesuit Missionaries in New France, 1619-1791. The Original French, +Latin, and Italian Texts with English Translations and Notes illustrated +by Portraits, Maps, and Facsimiles_. Edited by Reuben Gold Thwaites, +Secretary of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. (Cleveland, 1896.) + +Thompson, George. _Speech at the Meeting for the Extension of Negro +Apprenticeship_. (London, 1838.) + +------_The Free Church Alliance with Manstealers. Send back the Money. +Great Anti-Slavery Meeting in the City Hall, Glasgow, containing the +Speeches delivered by Messrs. Wright, Douglass, and Buffum from America, +and by George Thompson of London, with a Summary Account of a Series of +Meetings held in Edinburgh by the above named Gentlemen._ (Glasgow, +1846.) + +Torrey, Jesse, 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 Color, +including Memoirs of Facts on the Interior Traffic in Slaves and on +Kidnapping, Illustrated with Engravings by Jesse Torrey, Jr., Physician, +Author of a Series of Essays on Morals and the Diffusion of Knowledge_. +(Philadelphia, 1817.) + +------_American Internal Slave Trade; with Reflections on the project +for forming a Colony of Blacks in Africa_. (London, 1822.) + +Turner, E.R. _The Negro in Pennsylvania_. (Washington, 1911.) + +_Tyrannical Libertymen: a Discourse upon Negro Slavery in the United +States, composed at ------ in New Hampshire: on the Late Federal +Thanksgiving Day_. (Hanover, N. H., 1795.) + +Walker, David. _Walker's Appeal in Four Articles, together with a +Preamble to the Colored Citizens of the World, but in particular and very +expressly to those of the United States of America, Written in Boston, +State of Massachusetts, September 28, 1829_. Second edition. (Boston, +1830.) Walker was a Negro who hoped to arouse his race to self-assertion. + +Ward, Charles. _Contrabands_. (Salem, 1866.) This suggests an +apprenticeship, under the auspices of the government, to build the Pacific +Railroad. + +Washington, B.T. _The Story of the Negro_. Two volumes. (New York, +1909.) + +Washington, George. _The Writings of George Washington, being his +Correspondence, Addresses, Messages, and other papers, official and +private, selected and published from the original Manuscripts with the +Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations, by Jared Sparks_. (Boston, +1835.) + +Weeks, Stephen B. _Southern Quakers and Slavery. A Study in +Institutional History_. (Baltimore, The Johns Hopkins Press, 1896.) + +------_The Anti-Slavery Sentiment in the South; with Unpublished Letters +from John Stuart Mill and Mrs. Stowe_. (Southern History Association +Publications, Volume ii, No. 2, Washington, D.C., April, 1898.) + +Williams, G.W. _A History of the Negro Troops in the War of the +Rebellion, 1861-1865, preceded by a Review of the military Services of +Negroes in ancient and modern Times_. (New York, 1888.) + +------_History of the Negro Race in the United States from 1619-1880. +Negroes as Slaves, as Soldiers, and as Citizens: together with a +preliminary Consideration of the Unity of the Human Family, an historical +Sketch of Africa and an Account of the Negro Governments of Sierra Leone +and Liberia_. (New York, 1883.) + +Woodson, C.G. _The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861_. (New York +and London, 1915.) This is a history of the Education of the Colored +People of the United States from the beginning of slavery to the Civil +War. + +Woolman, John. _The Works of John Woolman. In two Parts, Part I: A +Journal of the Life, Gospel-Labors, and Christian Experiences of that +faithful Minister of Christ, John Woolman, late of Mount Holly in the +Province of New Jersey_. (London, 1775.) + +------_Same, Part Second. Containing his last Epistle and other +Writings_. (London, 1775.) + +------_Some Considerations on the Keeping of Negroes. Recommended to the +Professors of Christianity of every Denomination_. (Philadelphia, +1754.) + +------_Considerations on Keeping Negroes; Recommended to the Professors +of Christianity of every Denomination. Part the Second_. (Philadelphia, +1762.) + +Wright, R.R., Jr. _The Negro in Pennsylvania_. (Philadelphia, 1912.) + + + +MAGAZINES + + +_The African Methodist Episcopal Church Review_. The following articles: + + _The Negro as an Inventor_. By R. R. Wright, vol. ii, p. 397. + + _Negro Poets_, vol. iv, p. 236. + + _The Negro in Journalism_, vols. vi, p. 309, and xx, p. 137. + +_The African Repository_; Published by the American Colonization +Society from 1826 to 1832. A very good source for Negro history both in +this country and Liberia. Some of its most valuable articles are: + + _Learn Trades or Starve_, by Frederick Douglass, vol. xxix, + p. 137. Taken from Frederick Douglass's Paper. + + _Education of the Colored People_, by a highly respectable + gentleman of the South, vol. xxx, pp. 194, 195 and 196. + + _Elevation of the Colored Race_, a memorial circulated in + North Carolina, vol. xxxi, pp. 117 and 118. + + _A lawyer for Liberia_, a sketch of Garrison Draper, vol. + xxxiv, pp. 26 and 27. + +_The American Economic Review_. + +_The American Journal of Social Science_. + +_The American Journal of Political Economy_. + +_The American Law Review_. + +_The American Journal of Sociology_. + +_The Atlantic Monthly_. + +_The Colonizationist and Journal of Freedom_. The author has been +able to find only the volume which contains the numbers for the year 1834. + +_The Christian Examiner_. + +_The Cosmopolitan_. + +_The Crisis_. A record of the darker races published by the National +Association for the Advancement of Colored People. + +_Dublin Review_. + +_The Forum_. + +_The Independent_. + +_The Journal of Negro History_. + +_The Maryland Journal of Colonization_. Published as the official +organ of the Maryland Colonization Society. Among its important articles +are: _The Capacities of the Negro Race_, vol. iii, p. 367; and _The +Educational Facilities of Liberia_, vol. vii, p. 223. + +_The Nation_. + +_The Non-Slaveholder_. Two volumes of this publication are now found +in the Library of Congress. + +_The Outlook_. + +_Public Opinion_. + +_The Southern Workman_. Volume xxxvii contains Dr. R. R. Wright's +valuable dissertation on _Negro Rural Communities in India_. + +_The Spectator_. + +_The Survey_. + +_The World's Work_. + + + +NEWSPAPERS + + +District of Columbia. + _The Daily National Intelligencer_. + +Louisiana. + _The New Orleans Commercial Bulletin_. + _The New Orleans Times-Picayune_. + +Maryland. + _The Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advertiser_. + _The Maryland Gazette_. + _Dunlop's Maryland Gazette or The Baltimore Advertiser_. + +Massachusetts. + _The Liberator_. + +Mississippi. + _The Vicksburg Daily Commercial_. + +New York. + _The New York Daily Advertiser_. + _The New York Tribune_. + _The New York Times_. + + + +INDEX + + +Adams, Henry, + leader of the exodus to Kansas, + +Akron, + friends of fugitives in, + +Alton Telegraph, + comment of, + +Anderson, + promoter of settling of Negroes in Jamaica, + +Anti-slavery, + leaders of the movement, became more helpful to the refugees, + +Anti-slavery sentiment, + of two kinds, + +American Federation of Labor, + attitude of, toward Negro labor, + +Appalachian highland, + settlers of, aided fugitives; + exodus of Negroes to, + +Arkansas, + drain of laborers to, + + +Ball, J.P., + a contractor, + +Ball, Thomas, + a contractor, + +Barclay, + interest of, in the sending of Negroes to Jamaica, + +Barrett, Owen A., + discoverer of a remedy, + +Bates, + owner of slaves at St. Genevieve, + +Beauvais, + owner of slaves, Upper Louisiana, + +Benezet, Anthony, + plan of, to colonize Negroes in West; + interest of, in settling Negroes in the West, + +Berlin Cross Roads, + Negroes of, + +Bibb, Henry, + interest of, in colonization, + +Birney, James G., + promoter of the migration of the Negroes; + press of, destroyed by mob in Cincinnati, + +Black Friday, + riot of, in Portsmouth, + +Blackburn, Thornton, + a fugitive claimed in Detroit, + +Boll weevil, + a cause of migration, + +Boston, + friends of fugitives in, + +Boyce, Stanbury, + went with his father to Trinidad in the fifties, + +Boyd, Henry, + a successful mechanic in Cincinnati, + +Brannagan, Thomas, + advocate of colonizing the Negroes in the West; + interest of, in settling Negroes in the West, + +Brissot de Warville, + observations of, on Negroes in the West, + +British Guiana, + attractive to free Negroes, + +Brooklyn, Illinois, + a Negro community, + +Brown, John, + in the Appalachian highland, + +Brown County, Ohio, + Negroes in, + +Buffalo, + friends of fugitives in, + +Butler, General, + holds Negroes as contraband; + policy of, followed by General Wood and General Banks, + + +Cairo, Illinois, + an outlet for the refugees + +Calvin Township, Cass County, Michigan, + a Negro community; + note on progress of + +Campbell, Sir George, + comment on condition of Negroes in Kansas City + +Canaan, New Hampshire, + break-up of school of, admitting Negroes, + +Canada, + the migration of Negroes to; + settlements in, + +Canadians, + supply of slaves of; + prohibited the importation of slaves, + +Canterbury, people of, + imprison Prudence Crandall because she taught Negroes, + +Cardoza, F.L., + return of from Edinburgh to South Carolina, + +Cassey, Joseph C., + a lumber merchant, + +Cassey, Joseph, + a broker in Philadelphia, + +Chester, T. Morris, + went from Pittsburgh to settle in Louisiana, + +Cincinnati, + friends of fugitives in; + mobs; + successful Negroes of, + +Clark, Edward V., + a jeweler, + +Clay, Henry, + a colonizationist, + +Code for indentured servants in West, + note, + +Coffin, Levi, + comment on the condition of the refugees, + +Coles, Edward, + moved to Illinois to free his slaves; + correspondence with Jefferson on slavery, + +Colgate, Richard, + master of James Wenyam who escaped to the West, + +Collins, Henry M., + interest of, in colonization; + a real estate man in Pittsburgh, + +Corbin, J.C., + return of, from Chillicothe to Arkansas, + +Colonization proposed as a remedy for migration, + in the West; + organization of society of; + failure to remove free Negroes; + opposed by free people of color; + meetings of, in the interest of the West Indies; + impeded by the exodus to the West Indies; + a remedy for migration, + +Colonization Society, + organization of; + renewed efforts of, + +Colonizationists, + opposition of, to the migration to the West Indies, + +Columbia, Pa., + friends of fugitives in, + +Compagnie de l'Occident in control of Louisiana, + +Condition of fugitives in contraband camps, + +Congested districts in the North, + +Connecticut, + exterminated slavery; + law of; + against teaching Negroes, + +Conventions of Negroes, + +Cook, Forman B., + a broker, + +Crandall, A.W., + interest in checking the exodus to Kansas, + +Crandall, Prudence, + imprisoned because she taught Negroes, + +Credit system, + a cause of unrest, + +Crozat, Antoine, + as Governor of Louisiana, + +Cuffe, Paul, + an actual colonizationist, + + +Davis, + comment on freedmen's vagrancy, + +De Baptiste, Richard, + father of, in Detroit, + +Debasement of the blacks after Reconstruction, + +Delany, Martin R., + interest of, in colonization, + +De Tocqueville, + observation of, on the condition of free Negroes in the North, + +Delaware, + disfranchisement of Negroes in, + +Detroit, + Negroes in; + friends of fugitives in; + a gateway to Canada; + the Negro question in; + mob of, rises against Negroes; + successful Negroes of, + +Dinwiddie, Governor, + Fears of, as to servile insurrection, + +Diseases of Negroes in the North, + +Distribution of intelligent blacks, + +Douglass, Frederick, + the leading Negro journalist; + advice of, on staying in the South to retain political power; + comment of, on exodus to Kansas, + +Downing, Thomas, + owner of a restaurant, + +Drain of laborers to Mississippi and Louisiana; + to Arkansas and Texas, + + +Eaton, John, + work of, among the refugees, + +Economic opportunities for the Negro in the North; + economic opportunities for Negroes in the South, + +Educational facilities, + the lack of, + +Elizabethtown, + friends of fugitives in, + +Elliot, E.B., + return of, from Boston to South Carolina, + +Elmira, + friends of fugitives in, + +Emancipation of the Negroes in the West Indies, + the effect of, + +Epstein, Abraham, + an authority on the Negro migrant in Pittsburgh, + +Exodus, the, + during the World War; + causes; + efforts of the South to check it; + Negroes divided on it; + whites divided on it; + unfortunate for the South; + probable results; + will increase political power of Negro; + exodus of the Negroes to Kansas, + + +Fear of Negro domination to cease, + +Ficklen, + comment on freedmen's vagrancy, + +Fiske, A.S., + work of, among the contrabands, + +Fleming, + comment of, on freedmen's vagrancy, + +Floods of the Mississippi, + a cause of migration, + +Foote, Ex-Governor of Mississippi, + liberal measure of, presented to Vicksburg convention, + +Fort Chartres, + slaves of, + +Forten, James, + a wealthy Negro, + +Freedman's relief societies, + aid of, + +Free Negroes, + opposed to American Colonization Society; + interested in African colonization; + National Council of, + +French, + departure of, from West to keep slaves; + welcome of, to fugitive slaves of the English colonies; + good treatment of, + +Friends of fugitives, + +Fugitive Slave Law, + a destroyer of Negro settlements, + +Fugitives coming to Pennsylvania, + + +Gallipolis, + friends of fugitives in, + +Georgia, + laws of, against Negro mechanics; + slavery considered profitable in, + +Germans antagonistic to Negroes; + favorable to fugitives in mountains; + opposed Negro settlement in Mercer County, Ohio; + their hatred of Negroes, + +Gibbs, Judge M.W., + went from Philadelphia to Arkansas, + +Gilmore's High School, + work of, in Cincinnati, + +Gist, Samuel, + settled his Negroes in Ohio, + +Goodrich, William, + owner of railroad stock, + +Gordon, Robert, + a successful coal dealer in Cincinnati, + +Grant, General U.S., + protected refugees in his camp; + retained them at Fort Donelson; + his use of the refugees, + +Greener, R.T., + comment of, on the exodus to Kansas; + went from Philadelphia to South Carolina, + +Gregg, Theodore H., + sent his manumitted slaves to Ohio, + +Gulf States, + proposed Negro commonwealths of, + +Guild of Caterers, + in Philadelphia, + + +Halleck, General, + excluded slaves from his lines, + +Harlan, Robert, + a horseman, + +Harper, John, + sent his slaves to Mercer County, Ohio, + +Hamsburg, + Negroes in; + reaction against Negroes in, + +Harrison, President William H., + accommodated at the cafe of John Julius, a Negro, + +Hayden, + a successful clothier, + +Hayti, + the exodus of Negroes to, + +Henry, Patrick, + on natural rights, + +Hill of Chillicothe, + a tanner and currier, + +Holly, James T., + interest of, in colonization, + +Hood, James W., + went from Connecticut to North Carolina, + +Hunter, General, + dealing with the refugees in South Carolina + + +Illinois, + the attitude of, toward the Negro; + race prejudice in; + slavery question in the organization of; + effort to make the constitution proslavery, + +Immigration of foreigners, + cessation of, a cause of the Negro migration, + +Indian Territory, + exodus of Negroes to, + +Indiana, + the attitude of, toward the Negro; + counties of, receiving Negroes from slave states; + slavery question in the organization of; + effort to make constitution of pro-slavery; + race prejudice in; + protest against the settlement of Negroes there, + +Indians, + attitude of, toward the Negroes, + +Infirmary Farms, + for refugees, + +Intimidation, + a cause of migration, + +Irish, + antagonistic to Negroes; + their hatred of Negroes, + +Jamaica, + Negroes of the United States settled in, + +Jay's Treaty, + +Jefferson, Thomas, + his plan for general education including the slaves; + plan to colonize Negroes in the West; + natural rights theory of; + an advocate of the colonization of the Negroes in the West Indies, + +Jenkins, David, + a paper hanger and glazier, + +Johnson, General, + permitted slave hunters to seek their slaves in his lines, + +Julius, John, + proprietor of a cafe in which he entertained President William H. +Harrison, + + +_Kansas Freedmen's Relief Association_, + the work of, + +Kansas refugees, + condition of; + treatment of, + +Kaokia, + slaves of, + +Kaskaskia, + slaves of, + +Keith, George, + interested in the Negroes, + +Kentucky, + disfranchisement of Negroes in; + abolition society of, advocated the colonization of the blacks in +the West, + +Key, Francis S., + a colonizationist, + +Kingsley, Z., + a master, settled his son of color in Hayti, + +Ku Klux Klan, + the work of, + +Labor agents promoting the migration of Negroes, + +Lambert, William, + interest of, in the colonization of Negroes, + +Land tenure, + a cause of unrest; + after Reconstruction, + +Langston, John M., + returned from Ohio to Virginia, + +Lawrence County, Ohio, + Negroes immigrated into, + +Liberia, + freedmen sent to, + +Lincoln, Abraham, + urged withholding slaves, + +Louis XIV, + slave regulations of, + +Louisiana, + drain of laborers to; + exodus from; + refugees in, + +Lower Camps, Brown County, + Negroes of, + +Lower Louisiana, + conditions of; + conditions of slaves in, + +Lundy, Benjamin, + promoter of the migration of Negroes, + +Lynching, + a cause of migration; + number of Negroes lynched, + + +McCook, General, + permitted slave hunters to seek their Negroes in his lines, + +Maryland, + disfranchisement of Negroes in; + passed laws against Negro mechanics; + reaction in, + +Massachusetts, + exterminated slavery, + +Meade, Bishop William, + a colonizationist, + +Mercer County, Ohio, + successful Negroes of; + resolutions of citizens against Negroes, + +Miami County, + Randolph's Negroes sent to, + +Michigan, + Negroes transplanted to; + attitude of, toward the Negro, + +Migration, the, + of the talented tenth; + handicaps of; + of politicians to Washington; + of educated Negroes; + of the intelligent laboring class; + effect of Negroes' prospective political power; + to northern cities, + +Miles, N.E., + interest in stopping the exodus to Kansas, + +Mississippi, + drain of laborers to; + exodus from; + refugees in; + slaves along, + +Morgan, Senator, + of Alabama, interested in sending the Negroes to Africa, + +Movement of the blacks to the western territory; + promoted by Quakers, + +Movements of Negroes during the Civil War; + of poor whites, + +Mulber, Stephen, + a contractor, + +Murder of Negroes in the South, + + +Natural rights, + the effect of; + the discussion of, on the condition of the Negro, + +Negro journalists, + the number of + +Negroes, + condition of, after Reconstruction; + escaped to the West; + those having wealth tend to remain in the South; + migration of, to Mexico; + exodus of, to Liberia; + no freedom of speech of; + not migratory; + leaders of Reconstruction, largely from the North; + mechanics in Cincinnati; + servants on Ohio river vessels, + +New Hampshire, + exterminated slavery, + +New Jersey, + abolished slavery + +New York, + abolition of slavery in; + friends of fugitives in; + mobs of, attack Negroes; + Negro suffrage in; + restrictions of, on Negroes, + +North Carolina, + Negro suffrage in; + Quakers of, promoting the migration of the Negroes; + reaction in, + +North, + change in attitude of, toward the Negro; + divided in its sentiment as to method of helping the Negro; + favorable sentiment of; + trade of, with the South; + fugitives not generally welcomed; + its Negro problem; + housing the Negro in; + criminal class of Negroes in, + loss of interest of, in the Negro; + not a place of refuge for Negroes; + +Northwest, + few Negroes in, at first; + hesitation to go there because of the ordinance of 1787, + +Noyes Academy, + broken up because it admitted Negroes, + +Nugent, Colonel W.L., + interest in stopping the exodus to Kansas, + +Occupations of Negroes in the North, + +Ohio, + Negro question in constitutional convention of; + in the legislature of 1804; + black laws of; + protest against Negroes, + +Oklahoma, + Negroes in; + discouraged by early settlers of, + +Ordinance of 1784 rejected, + +Ordinance of 1787, + passed; + meaning of sixth article of; + reasons for the passage of; + did not at first disturb slavery; + construction of, + +Otis, James, + on natural rights, + +Pacific Railroad, + proposal to build, with refugee labor, + +Palmyra, + race prejudice of, + +Pelham, Robert A., + father of, moved to Detroit, + +Penn, William, + advocate of emancipation, + +Pennsylvania, + effort in, to force free Negroes to support their dependents; + effort to prevent immigration of Negroes; + increase in the population of free Negroes of; + petitions to rid the State of Negroes by colonization; + era of good feeling in; + exterminated slavery; + the migration of freedmen from North Carolina to; + Negro suffrage in; + passed laws against Negro mechanics; + successful Negroes of, + +Peonage, + a cause of migration, + +Philadelphia, + Negroes rush to; + race friction of; + woman of color stoned to death; + Negro church disturbed; + reaction against Negroes; + riots in; + successful Negroes of; + property owned by Negroes, + +Pierce, E.S., + plan for handling refugees in South Carolina, + +Pinchback, P.B.S., + return of, from Ohio to Louisiana to enter politics, + +Pittman, Philip, + account of West, of, + +Pittsburgh, + friends of fugitives in; + Negro of, married to French woman; + kind treatment of refugees; + respectable mulatto woman married to a surgeon of Nantes; + riot in, + +Platt, William, + a lumber merchant, + +Political power, + not to be the only aim of the migrants; + the mistakes of such a policy, + +Polities, + a cause of unrest, + +Pollard, N.W., + agent of the Government of Trinidad, sought Negroes in the United +States, + +Portsmouth, + friends of fugitives of, + +Portsmouth, Ohio, + mob of, drives Negroes out; + progressive Negroes of, + +Prairie du Rocher, + slaves of, + +Press comments on sending Negroes to Africa, + +Puritans, + not much interested in the Negro, + + +Quakers, + promoted the movement of the blacks to Western territory; + in the mountains assisted fugitives, + + +Race prejudice, + the effects of; + among laboring classes, + +Randolph, John, + a colonizationist; + sought to settle his slaves in Mercer County, Ohio, + +Reaction against the Negro, + +Reconstruction, + promoted to an extent by Negro natives of North, + +Redpath, James, + interest of, in colonization, + +Refugees assembled in camps; + in West; + in Washington; + in South; + exodus of, to the North; + fear that they would overrun the North; + development of; + vagrancy at close of war, + +Renault, Philip Francis, + imported slaves, + +Resolutions of the Vicksburg Convention bearing on the exodus to +Kansas, + +Rhode Island, + exterminated slavery, + +Richards, Benjamin, + a wealthy Negro of Pittsburgh, + +Richard, Fannie M., + a successful teacher in Detroit, + +Riley, William H., + a well-to-do bootmaker, + +Ringold, Thomas, + advertisement of, for a slave in the West, + +Rochester, + friends of fugitives in, + + +Saint John, Governor, + aid of, to the Negroes in Kansas, + +Sandy Lake, + Negro settlement in, + +Saunders of Cabell County, Virginia, + sent manumitted slaves to Cass County, Michigan, + +Saxton, General Rufus, + plan for handling refugees in South Carolina, + +Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, + favorable to fugitives, + +Scott, Henry, + owner of a pickling business, + +Scroggs, Wm. O., + referred to as authority on interstate migration, + +Segregation, + a cause of migration, + +Shelby County, Ohio, + Negroes in, + +Sierra Leone, + Negroes of, settled in Jamaica, + +Simmons, W.J., + returned from Pennsylvania to Kentucky, + +Singleton, Moses, + leader of the exodus from Kansas, + +Sixth Article of Ordinance of 1787, + +Slave Code in Louisiana, + +Slavery in the Northwest; + slavery in Indiana; + slavery of whites, + +Slaves, + mingled freely with their masters in early West, + +Smith, Gerrit, + effort to colonize Negroes in New York, + +Smith, Stephen, + a lumber merchant, + +South Carolina, + slavery considered profitable there, + +South, + change of attitude of, toward the Negro; + drastic laws against vagrancy, + +Southern States divided on the Negro, + +Spears, Noah, + sent his manumitted slaves to Greene County, Ohio, + +Starr, Frederick, + comment of, on the refugees, + +Steubenville, + successful Negroes of, + +Still, William, + a coal merchant, + +St. Philippe, + slaves of, + +Success of Negro migrants, + +Suffrage of the Negroes in the colonies, + + +Tappan, Arthur, + attacked by New York mob, + +Tappan, Lewis, + attacked by New York mob, + +Terrorism, + a cause of migration, + +Texas, + drain of laborers to; + proposed colony of Negroes there, + +Thomas, General, + opened farms for refugees, + +Thompson, A.V., + a tailor, + +Thompson, C.M., + comment on freedmen's vagrancy, + +Topp, W.H., + a merchant tailor, + +Trades unions, + attitude of, toward Negro labor, + +Trinidad, + the exodus of Negroes to; + Negroes from Philadelphia settled there, + +Turner, Bishop H.M., + interested in sending Negroes to Africa, + + +Upper and Lower Camps of Brown County, Ohio, + Negroes of, + +Upper Louisiana, + conditions of; + conditions of slaves in, + +Unrest of the Negroes in the South after Reconstruction; + causes of; + credit system a cause; + land system a cause; + further unrest of intelligent Negroes, + +Utica, + mob of, attacked anti-slavery leaders, + + +Vagrancy of Negroes after emancipation; + drastic legislation against, + +Vermont, + exterminated slavery, + +Vicksburg, + Convention of, to stop the Exodus, + +Viner, M., + mentioned slave settlements in West, + +Virginia, + disfranchisement of Negroes in; + Quakers of, promoting the migration of the Negroes; + reaction in; + refugees in, + +Vorhees, Senator D.W., + offered a resolution in Senate inquiring into the exodus to Kansas, + + +Washington, Judge Bushrod, + a colonizationist, + +Washington, D.C., + refugees in; + the migration of Negro politicians to, + +Wattles, Augustus, + settled with Negroes in Mercer County, Ohio, + +Watts, + steam engine and the industrial revolution, + +Wayne County, Indiana, + freedmen settled in, + +Webb, William, + interest of, in colonization, + +Wenyam, James, + ran away to the West, + +West Indies, + attractive to free Negroes, + +West Virginia, + exodus of Negroes to, + +White, David, + led a company of Negroes to the Northwest, + +White, J.T., + left Indiana to enter politics in Arkansas, + +Whites of South refused to work, + +Whitfield, James M., + interest of, in colonization, + +Whitney's cotton gin and the industrial revolution, + +Wickham, + executor of Samuel Gist, settled Gist's Negroes in Ohio, + +Wilberforce University established at a slave settlement, + +Wilcox, Samuel T., + a merchant of Cincinnati, + +Yankees, + comment of, on Negro labor, + +York, + Negroes of; + trouble with the Negroes of, + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's A Century of Negro Migration, by Carter G. Woodson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A CENTURY OF NEGRO MIGRATION *** + +***** This file should be named 10968.txt or 10968.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/9/6/10968/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Andy Schmitt and PG Distributed Proofreaders + +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. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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