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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf 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..453d125 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #66398 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/66398) diff --git a/old/66398-0.txt b/old/66398-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index aefb46c..0000000 --- a/old/66398-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,9346 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Gift of Black Folk, by William Edward -Burghardt Du Bois - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: The Gift of Black Folk - The Negroes in the Making of America - -Author: William Edward Burghardt Du Bois - -Contributor: Edward F. McSweeney - -Release Date: September 27, 2021 [eBook #66398] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -Produced by: Nick Wall and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at - https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images - generously made available by The Internet Archive) - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GIFT OF BLACK FOLK *** - - - - - - THE - GIFT _of_ BLACK FOLK - - _The Negroes in the - Making of America_ - - by - W. E. BURGHARDT DUBOIS - PH. D. (HARV.) - Author of “The Souls of Black Folk,” “Darkwater,” etc. - Editor of _The Crisis_ - - _Introduction by_ - EDWARD F. McSWEENEY, LL. D. - - [Illustration] - - 1924 - THE STRATFORD CO., _Publishers_ - BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS - - Copyright, 1924 - By THE KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS - - Printed in the United States of America - - - - -CONTENTS - - - Chapter Page - - Foreword i - - Prescript 33 - - I The Black Explorers 35 - - II Black Labor 52 - - III Black Soldiers 80 - - IV The Emancipation of Democracy 135 - - V The Reconstruction of Freedom 184 - - VI The Freedom of Womanhood 259 - - VII The American Folk Song 274 - - VIII Negro Art and Literature 287 - - IX The Gift of the Spirit 320 - - - - -FOREWORD - - -It is not uncommon for casual thinkers to assume that the United States -of America is practically a continuation of English nationality. -Our speech is English and the English played so large a part in our -beginnings that it is easy to fall more or less consciously into the -thought that the history of this nation has been but a continuation and -development of these beginnings. A little reflection, however, quickly -convinces us that at least there was present French influence in the -Mississippi Valley and Spanish influence in the southeast and southwest. -Everything else however that has been added to the American nationality -is often looked upon as a sort of dilution of more or less doubtful -value: peoples that had to be assimilated as far as possible and made -over to the original and basic type. Thus we continually speak of Germans -and Scandinavians, of Irish and Jews, Poles, Austrians and Hungarians; -and, with few exceptions, we regard the coming of the Negroes as an -unmitigated error and a national liability. - -It is high time that this course of our thinking should be changed. -America is conglomerate. This is at once her problem and her -glory—perhaps indeed her sole and greatest reason for being. Her physical -foundation is not English and while it is primarily it is not entirely -European. It represents peculiarly a coming together of the peoples of -the world. American institutions have been borrowed from England and -France in the main, but with contributions from many and widely scattered -groups. American history has no prototype and has been developed -from the various racial elements. Despite the fact that our mother -tongue is called English we have developed an American speech with its -idiosyncrasies and idioms, a speech whose purity is not to be measured -by its conformity to the speech of the British Isles. And finally the -American spirit is a new and interesting result of divers threads of -thought and feeling coming not only from America but from Europe and Asia -and indeed from Africa. - -This essay is an attempt to set forth more clearly than has hitherto -been done the effect which the Negro has had upon American life. Its -thesis is that despite slavery, war and caste, and despite our present -Negro problem, the American Negro is and has been a distinct asset to -this country and has brought a contribution without which America could -not have been; and that perhaps the essence of our so-called Negro -problem is the failure to recognize this fact and to continue to act as -though the Negro was what we once imagined and wanted to imagine him—a -representative of a subhuman species fitted only for subordination. - -A moment’s thought will easily convince open minded persons that the -contribution of the Negro to American nationality as slave, freedman -and citizen was far from negligible. No element in American life has -so subtly and yet clearly woven itself into the warp and woof of our -thinking and acting as the American Negro. He came with the first -explorers and helped in exploration. His labor was from the first the -foundation of the American prosperity and the cause of the rapid growth -of the new world in economic and social importance. Modern democracy -rests not simply on the striving white men in Europe and America but also -on the persistent struggle of the black men in America for two centuries. -The military defense of this land has depended upon Negro soldiers from -the time of the Colonial wars down to the struggle of the World War. Not -only does the Negro appear, reappear and persist in American literature -but a Negro American literature has arisen of deep significance, and -Negro folk lore and music are among the choicest heritages of this land. - -Finally the Negro had played a peculiar spiritual rôle in America as a -sort of living, breathing test of our ideals and an example of the faith, -hope and tolerance of our religion. - - - - -THE RACIAL CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE UNITED STATES - -By EDW. F. MCSWEENEY, LL. D. - - -In a general way, the Racial Contribution Series in the Knights of -Columbus historical program is intended as a much needed and important -contribution to national solidarity. The various studies are treated by -able writers, citizens of the United States, each being in full sympathy -with the achievements in this country of the racial group of whom he -treats. The standard of the writers is the only one that will justify -historical writing;—the truth. No censorship has been exercised. - -No subject now actively before the people of the United States has been -more written on, and less understood, than alien immigration. Until -1819, there were no official statistics of immigration of any sort; the -so-called census of 1790 was simply a report of the several states of -their male white population under and over 16 years of age, all white -females, slaves, and others. Statements as to the country of origin of -the inhabitants of this country were, in the main, guesswork, with the -result that, while the great bulk of such estimates was honestly and -patriotically done, some of the most quoted during the present day were -inspired, obviously to prove a predetermined case, rather than to recite -the ascertained fact. - -From the beginning the dominant groups in control in the United -States have regarded each group of newer arrivals as more or less -the “enemy” to be feared, and, if possible, controlled. A study of -various cross-sections of the country will show dominant alien groups -who formerly had to fight for their very existence. With increased -numerical strength and prosperity they frequently attempted to do to -the later aliens, frequently even of their own group, what had formerly -been done to them:—decry and stifle their achievements, and deny them -opportunity,—the one thing that may justly be demanded in a Democracy,—by -putting them in a position of inferiority. - -To attempt, in this country, to set up a “caste” control, based on the -accident of birth, wealth, or privilege, is a travesty of Democracy. When -Washington and his compatriots, a group comprising the most efficiently -prepared men in the history of the world, who had set themselves -definitely to form a democratic civilization, dreamed of and even planned -by Plato, but held back by slavery and paganism, they found their sure -foundations in the precepts of Christianity, and gave them expression -in the Declaration of Independence. The liberty they sought, based on -obedience to the law of God as well as of man, was actually established, -but from the beginning it has met a constant effort to substitute -some form of absolutism tending to break down or replace democratic -institutions. - -What may be called, for want of a better term, the colonial spirit, which -is the essence of hyphenism, has persisted in this country to hamper -national progress and national unity. Wherever this colonial spirit shows -itself it is a menace to be fought, whether the secret or acknowledged -attachment binds to England, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Greece or -any other nation. - -Jefferson pointed out that we have on this soil evolved a new race of -men who may inexactly be called “Americans”. This term, as a monopoly of -the United States, is properly objected to by our neighbors, North and -South—yet it has a definite meaning for the world. - -During the Great War one aspect of war duty was to direct the labor -activities growing out of the war, to divert labor from “non-essential” -to “essential” industry and to arbitrate and mediate on wage matters. -It was found necessary to study and to analyze the greatly feared, but -infrequently discovered “enemy alien”; and as a preparation for this -duty, with the assistance of several hundred local agents, the population -of Massachusetts was separated into naturally allied groups based on -birth, racial descent, religious, social and industrial affiliations. -The astonishing result was that, counting as “native Americans” only -the actual descendants of all those living in Massachusetts in 1840, -of whatever racial stock prior to that time, only two-sevenths, even -with the most liberal classification, came within the group of colonial -descent, while the remaining five-sevenths were found in the various -racial groups coming later than 1840. More than this: While the -“Colonial” group had increased in numbers for three decades after 1840, -in 1918 they were found actually to be fewer in number than in 1840, a -diminution due to excess of deaths over births, proceeding in increasing -ratio. - -Membership in the Society of Mayflower descendants is eagerly sought as -the hallmark of American ancestry. In anticipation of the tercentenary -of the Mayflower-coming in 1620, about a dozen years ago a questionnaire -was sent to every known eligible for Mayflower ancestry, and the replies -were submitted to the experts in one of the national universities for -review and report. When this report was presented later, it contained the -statement that, considering the prevailing number of marriages in this -group, and children per family,—when the six-hundredth celebration of the -Pilgrims’ Landing is held in 2220, three hundred years hence, a ship the -size of the original Mayflower will be sufficient to carry back to Europe -all the then living Mayflower descendants. - -The future of America is in the keeping of the 80 per cent. of the -population, separate in blood and race from the colonial descent group. -Love of native land is one of the strongest and noblest passions of which -a man is capable. Family life, religion, the soil which holds the dust -of our fathers, sentiment for ancestral property, and many other bonds, -make the ties of home so strong and enduring, and unite a man’s life so -closely with its native environment, that grave and powerful reasons must -exist before a change of residence is contemplated. Escape from religious -persecution and political tyranny were unquestionably the chief reasons -which induced the early comers to America to brave the dangers of an -unknown world. Yet that very intolerance against which this was a protest -soon began to be exercised against all those unwilling to accept in their -new homes the religious leadership of those in control. - -It is not necessary to go into the persecutions due to religious bigotry -of the colonial period. While the spirit of liberty was in the free air -of the colonies and would finally have secured national independence, it -is not possible to underestimate the support brought to the revolting -colonials because of the attitude of Great Britain in allowing religious -freedom to Canada after it had been taken from the French. After the -victory of New Orleans, a spirit of national consciousness on a -democratic basis was built up and the narrow spirit of colonialism and -of religious intolerance was to a great degree repudiated by the people, -when they had become inspired with the American spirit,—only to be -revived later on. - -The continued manifestation of intolerance has been the most persistent -effort in our national life. It has done incalculable harm. It is -apparently deep-rooted, an active force in almost every generation. -Present in the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s, stopped temporarily for two decades -by the Civil War, it has recurred subsequently again and again; revived -since the Armistice, it is unfortunately shown today in as great a -virulence and power of destructiveness as at any time during the last -hundred years. - -After the 70’s, as the aliens became numerically powerful and began to -demand political representation, movements based on religious prejudice -were started from time to time, some of which came to temporary -prominence, later to die an inglorious death; but all these movements -which attempted to deprive aliens of their right of freedom to worship -were calculated to bring economic discontent and to add to the measure of -national disunion and unhappiness. - -Sixty years ago[1] the bigoted slogan was “_No Irish need apply_.” During -the World War, the principal attack was on the German-American citizens -of this country, whose fathers had come here seeking a new land as a -protest against tyranny. Today the current attempt is to deprive the -Jews[2] of the right to educational equality. In short, while there have -been spasmodic manifestations of movements based on intolerance in many -countries, the United States has the unenviable record for continuous -effort to keep alive a bogey based on an increasing fear of something -which never existed, and cannot ever exist in this country. - -For a hundred years the potent cause which has poured millions of human -beings into the United States has been its marvellous opportunities, -and unprecedented economic urge. Ever since 1830 a graphic chart of the -variations in immigration from year to year will reflect the industrial -situation in the United States for the same period. In 1837, the total -immigration was 79,430.[3] After the panic of that year it decreased in -1838 to 38,914.[4] In 1842, it increased to 104,565,[5] but a business -depression in 1844 caused it to shrink to 78,615.[6] Thus the influx of -aliens increased or decreased according to the industrial conditions -prevalent here. The business prosperity of the United States was not only -the urge to entice immigrants hither, but it made their coming possible -as they were helped by the savings of relatives and friends already here. - -The English were not immigrants, but colonists, merely going from one -part of national territory to another. With few exceptions, the majority -of the early colonists came from England. The first English settlement -was made in Virginia under the London Company in 1607. It took twelve -years of hard struggling to establish this colony on a permanent basis. - -The New England region was settled by a different class of colonists. -Plymouth was the first settlement, in 1620, followed in 1630 by the -Massachusetts Bay Colony, which later absorbed the Plymouth settlement. -Population, after the first ten years, increased rapidly by natural -growth, and soon colonies in Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Connecticut -resulted from the overflow in the original settlements. - -While this English settlement was going on North and South, the Dutch, -under the Dutch West India Company, took possession of the region -between, and founded New Netherlands and New Amsterdam, later New York -City. Intervening, as it did, between their Northern and Southern -colonies, New Netherlands, which the English considered a menace, was -seized by the English during a war with Holland, and became New York and -New Jersey. - -Early in the seventeenth century there was a substantial French -immigration to the Dutch colonies. There was a constant stream of French -immigration to the English colonies in New England and in Virginia by -many of the Huguenots who had originally emigrated to the West Indies. - -In 1681, Penn settled Pennsylvania under a royal charter and thus the -whole Atlantic coast from Canada to Florida became subject to England. -During the colonial period, England contributed to the population of the -colonies. But, by the middle of the seventeenth century, the coming of -the English to New England was practically over. From 1628 to 1641 about -20,000 came from England to New England, but for the next century and a -half more persons went back to Old England than came from there to New -England.[7] Due to the relaxing of religious persecution of dissenting -Protestants in England, the great formerly impelling force to seek a new -home across the ocean in America had ceased. - -In 1653 an Irish immigration to New England, much larger in numbers -than the original Plymouth Colony, was proposed. Bristol merchants, -who realized the necessity of populating the colonies to make them -prosperous, treated with the government for men, women and girls to be -sent to the West Indies and to New England.[8] At the very fountain head -of American life we find, therefore, men and women of pure Celtic blood -from the South of Ireland, infused into the primal stock of America. -But these apparently were only a drop in this early tide of Irish -immigration.[9] - -No complete memorial has been transmitted of the emigrations that took -place from Europe to America, but (from the few illustrative facts -actually preserved) they seem to have been amazingly copious. In the -years 1771-72, the number of emigrants to America from the North of -Ireland alone amounted to 17,350. Almost all of these emigrated at their -own charge; a great majority of them were persons employed in the linen -manufacture, or farmers possessed of some property which they converted -into money and carried with them. Within the first fortnight of August, -1773, there arrived at Philadelphia 3,500 emigrants from Ireland, and -from the same document which has recorded this circumstance it appears -that vessels were arriving every month freighted with emigrants from -Holland, Germany, and especially from Ireland and the Highlands of -Scotland.[10] - -That many Irish settled in Maryland is shown by the fact that in 1699 and -again a few years later an act was passed to prevent too great a number -of Irish Papists being imported into the province.[11] Shipmasters were -required to pay two shillings per poll for such. “Shipping records of -the colonial period show that boatload after boatload left the southern -and eastern shores of Ireland for the New World. Undoubtedly thousands -of their passengers were Irish of the native stock.”[12] So besides the -so-called Scotch-Irish from the North of Ireland, the distinction always -being Protestantism, not race, it is indisputable that thousands, Celtic -in race and Catholic in religion, came to the colonies. These newcomers -made their homes principally in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, -the Carolinas and the frontiers of the New England colonies. Later -they pushed on westward and founded Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee. An -interesting essay by the well-known writer, Irvin S. Cobb, on _The Lost -Irish Tribes in the South_ is an important contribution to this subject. - -The Germans were the next most important element of the early population -of America. A number of the artisans and carpenters in the first -Jamestown colony were of German descent. In 1710, a body of 3,000 Germans -came to New York—the largest number of immigrants supposed to have -arrived at one time during the colonial period.[13] Most of the early -German immigrants settled in New Jersey, the Carolinas, and Pennsylvania. -It has been estimated that at the end of the colonial period the number -of Germans was fully two hundred thousand. - -Though the Irish and the Germans contributed most largely to colonial -immigration, as distinguished from the English, who are classed as the -Colonials, there were other races who came even thus early to our shores. -The Huguenots came from France to escape religious persecution. The -Jews, then as ever, engaged in their age-old struggle for religious and -economic toleration, came from England, France, Spain and Portugal. The -Dutch Government of New Amsterdam, fearing their commercial competition, -ordered a group of Portuguese Jews to leave the colony, but this decision -was appealed to the home Government at Holland and reversed, so that -they were allowed to remain. On the whole, their freedom to live and to -trade in the colonies was so much greater than in their former homes that -there were soon flourishing colonies of Jewish merchants in Newport, -Philadelphia and Charleston. - -In 1626 a company of Swedish merchants organized, under the patronage of -the Great King Gustavus Adolphus, to promote immigration to America. The -King contributed four hundred thousand dollars to the capital raised, but -did not live to see the fruition of his plans. In 1637, the first company -of Swedes and Finns left Stockholm for America. They reached Delaware -Bay and called the country New Sweden. The Dutch claimed, by right of -priority, this same territory and in 1655 the flag of Holland replaced -that of Sweden. The small Swedish colony in Delaware came under Penn’s -rule and became, like Pennsylvania, cosmopolitan in character. - -The Dutch in New York preserved their racial characteristics for more -than a hundred years after the English conquest of 1664. At the end of -the colonial period, over one-half of the 170,000 inhabitants of New York -were descendants of the original Dutch. - -Many of the immigrants who came here in the early days paid their -own passage. However, the actual number of such is only a matter of -conjecture. From the shipping records of the period we do know positively -that thousands came who were unable to pay. Shipowners and others who -had the means furnished the passage money to those too poor to pay for -themselves, and in return received from these persons a promise or bond. -This bond provided that the person named in it should work for a certain -number of years to repay the money advanced. Such persons were called -“indentured servants” and they were found throughout the colonies, -working in the fields, the shops and the homes of the colonists. The -term of service was from five to seven years. Many found it impossible -to meet their obligations and their servitude dragged on for years. -Others, on the contrary, became free and prosperous. In Pennsylvania -often there were as many as fifty bond servants on estates. The condition -of indentured servants in Virginia “was little better than that of -slaves. Loose indentures and harsh laws put them at the mercy of their -masters.”[14] This seems to have been their fate in all the colonies, as -their treatment depended upon the character of their masters. - -Besides these indentured servants who came here voluntarily, a large -number of early settlers were forced to come here. The Irish before -mentioned are one example. In order to secure settlers, men, women and -children were kidnapped from the cities and towns and “spirited away” to -America by the companies and proprietors who had colonies here. In 1680 -it was officially computed that 10,000 were sent thus to American shores. -In 1627, about 1,500 children were shipped to Virginia, probably orphans -and dependents whom their relatives were unwilling to support.[15] -Another class sent here were convicts, the scourings of English centers -like Bristol and Liverpool. The colonists protested vehemently against -this practise, but it was continued up to the very end of the colonial -period, when this convict tide was diverted to “Botany Bay.” - -In 1619, another race was brought here against their will and sold into -slavery. This was the Negro, forced to leave his home near the African -equator that he might contribute to the material wealth of shipmasters -and planters. Slowly but surely chattel slavery took firm root in the -South and at last became the leading source of the labor supply. The -slave traders found it very easy to seize Negroes in Africa and make -great profits by selling them in Southern ports. The English Royal -African Company sent to America annually between 1713 and 1743 from -5,000 to 10,000 slaves.[16] After a time, when the Negroes were so -numerous that whole sections were overrun, the Southern colonies tried -ineffectually to curb the trade. Virginia in 1710 placed a duty of five -pounds on each slave but the Royal Governor vetoed the bill. Bills of -like import were passed in other colonies from time to time, but the -English crown disapproved in every instance and the trade, so lucrative -to British shipowners, went on. At the time of the Revolution, there were -almost half a million slaves in the colonies.[17] The exact proportions -of the slave trade to America can be but approximately determined. From -1680 to 1688 the African Company sent 249 ships to Africa, shipped there -60,783 Negro slaves, and after losing 14,387 on the middle passage, -delivered 46,396 in America. The trade increased early in the eighteenth -century, 104 ships clearing for Africa in 1701; it then dwindled until -the signing of the Assiento, standing at 74 clearances in 1724. The -final dissolution of the monopoly in 1750 led—excepting in the years -1754-57, when the closing of Spanish marts sensibly affected the trade—to -an extraordinary development, 192 clearances being made in 1771. The -Revolutionary War nearly stopped the traffic, but by 1786 the clearances -had risen again to 146. - -To these figures must be added the unregistered trade of Americans and -foreigners. It is probable that about 25,000 slaves were brought to -America each year between 1698 and 1707. The importation then dwindled -but after the Assiento rose to perhaps 30,000. The proportion of these -slaves carried to the continent now began to increase. Of about 20,000 -whom the English annually imported from 1733 to 1766, South Carolina -alone received some 3,000. Before the Revolution the total exportation to -America is variously estimated as between 40,000 and 100,000 each year. -Bancroft places the total slave population of the continental colonies -at 59,000 in 1714; 78,000 in 1727; and 293,000 in 1754. The census of -1790 showed 697,897 slaves in the United States. Not all the Negroes who -came to America were slaves and not all remained slaves. There were the -following free Negroes in the decades between 1790 and 1860: - - 1790 59,557 - 1800 108,435 - 1810 186,446 - 1820 233,634 - 1830 319,599 - 1840 386,293 - 1850 434,495 - 1860 488,070 - -Immigration of Negroes is still taking place, especially from the West -Indies. It has been estimated that there are the following foreign-born -Negroes in the United States: - - 1890 19,979 - 1900 20,336 - 1910 40,339 - 1920 75,000 - -In 1790, Negroes were one-fifth of the total population; in 1860 they -were one-seventh; in 1900 one-ninth;[18] today they are approximately -one-tenth. - -With the beginning of the national era—1783—all peoples subsequently -coming to the United States must be classed as immigrants. During the -first years of our national life, no accurate statistics of immigration -were kept. The Federal Government took no control of the matter and the -State records are incomplete and unreliable. A pamphlet published by the -Bureau of Statistics in 1903, _Immigration into the United States_, says, -“The best estimates of the total immigration into the United States prior -to the official count puts the total number of arrivals at not to exceed -250,000 in the entire period between 1776 and 1820.” - -From 1806 to 1816, the unfriendly relations which existed between the -United States and England and France precluded any extensive immigration -to this country. England maintained and for a time successfully enforced -the doctrine that “a man once a subject was always a subject.” The -American Merchant Service, because of the pay and good treatment given, -was very attractive to English sailors and a very great enticement to -them to come to America and enter the American service. However, the -fear of impressment deterred many from so doing. The Blockade Decrees -of England against France in 1806 and the retaliation decrees of France -against England in that same year were other influences which retarded -immigration. These decrees were succeeded by the British Orders in -Council, the Milan Decree of Napoleon, and the United States law of 1809 -prohibiting intercourse with both Great Britain and France. - -In 1810, the French decrees were annulled and American commerce began -again with France, only to have the vessels fall into the hands of the -British. Then came the War of 1812. The German immigration suffered -greatly from this condition of affairs, as the Germans sailed principally -from the ports of Liverpool and Havre. At these points ships were more -numerous and expenses less heavy. In December, 1814, a few days before -the Battle of New Orleans, a treaty of peace was concluded between the -United States and England and after a few months immigration was resumed -once more. - -In 1817, about 22,240 persons arrived at ports of the United States from -foreign countries. This number included American citizens returning from -abroad. In no previous year had so many immigrants come to our shores. - -In 1819 a law was passed by Congress and approved by the President -“regulating passenger ships and vessels.” In 1820, the official history -of immigration began. The Port Collectors then began to keep records -which included numbers, sexes, ages, and occupations of all incoming -persons. However, up to 1856, no distinction was made between travellers -and immigrants. - -Immigration increased from 8,358 in 1820—of which 6,024 came from Great -Britain and Ireland—to 22,633 in 1831.[19] The decade of the twenties -was a time of great industrial activity in the United States. The Erie -Canal was built, other canals were projected, the railroads were started, -business increased by leaps and bounds. As a consequence, the demand -for labor was imperative and Europe responded. During the entire period -of our early national life, the United States encouraged the coming of -foreign artisans and laborers as the necessity for strength, skill and -courage in the upbuilding of our country began to be realized. - -From 1831 the number of immigrants steadily increased until from -September 30, 1849, to September 30, 1850, they totaled 315,334[20] The -largest increases during those years were from 1845 to 1848, when the -famine in Ireland and the revolution in Germany drove thousands to the -shores of free America. These causes continued to increase the number of -arrivals until in 1854 the crest was attained with 460,474[21]—a figure -not again reached for nearly twenty years. - -From September 30, 1819, when the official count of immigrants began to -be taken, to December 31, 1855, a total of 4,212,624 persons of foreign -birth arrived in the United States.[22] Of these Bromwell, who wrote -in 1856 a work compiled entirely from official data, estimates that -1,747,930 were Irish.[23] Next comes Germany,[24] with 1,206,087; England -third with 207,492; France fourth with 188,725. - -The exodus of the Irish during those famine years furnishes one of the -many examples recorded in history of a subject race driven from its home -by the economic injustice of a dominant race. Later, we see the same -thing true in Austria-Hungary where the Slavs were tyrannized by the -Magyars; again we find it in Russia where the Jew sought freedom from the -Slav; and once again in Armenia and Syria where the native people fled -from the Turk. - -After 1855, the tide of immigration began to decrease steadily. During -the first two years of the Civil War, it was less than 100,000.[25] In -1863, an increase was noticeable again and 395,922[26] immigrants are -recorded in 1869. - -During all these years up to 1870, the great part of the immigration was -from Northern Europe. The largest racial groups were composed of Irish, -Germans, Scandinavians and French. About the middle of the nineteenth -century French-speaking Canadians were attracted by the opportunities for -employment in the mills and factories of New England. - -The number of Irish coming here steadily decreased after 1880 until -it has fallen far below that of other European peoples. Altogether, -the total Irish immigration from 1820 to 1906 is placed at something -over 4,000,000, thus giving the Irish second place as contributors to -the foreign-born population of the United States. The Revolution of -1848 was the contributing cause of a large influx of Germans, many of -whom were professional men and artisans. From 1873 to 1879 there was -great industrial depression in Germany and consequently another large -immigration to America took place. Since 1882, there has also been a -noticeable decline in German immigrants. From 1820 to 1903, a total of -over 5,000,000 Germans was recorded as coming to the United States.[27] - -In the period from 1880 to 1910 immigration from Italy totaled 4,018,404. -It will be remembered that the law requiring the registration of outgoing -aliens was not passed until 1908, and it may, therefore, be estimated -that 3,000,000 represents the total number of arrivals from Italy, who -remained here permanently. - -After 1903, up to the outbreak of the Great War, the number of alien -arrivals steadily increased. In 1905, it was more than 1,000,000; in -1906, it passed the 1,100,000 mark and in 1907 the 1,200,000 mark; in -1913 and 1914, the total number for each year exceeded 1,400,000.[28] - -During the ten years from 1905 to 1915, nearly 12,000,000 aliens landed -in the United States, a yearly average of 1,200,000 arrivals. These -alone form more than 37 per cent. of all recorded immigration since 1820 -and make up about 88 out of every 100 of our present total foreign-born -population.[29] Until interrupted by the European War, the immigration -to the United States was the greatest movement of the largest number -of peoples that the world has ever known. Of course, there have been -economic upheavals from time to time which have noticeably affected -this movement. The Civil War, as before noted, and financial panics and -industrial depressions in our country interrupted the incoming tide -repeatedly. The Great War with its social and economic upheaval had a -tremendous effect on our immigration. The twelve months following the -declaration of war shows the smallest number of alien arrivals since -1899. The number was slightly over 325,000. The statistics compiled by -the Federal Bureau of Immigration show that by far the greater part of -the immigrants who come to the United States are from Europe. Of the -1,403,000 alien immigrants who came here in 1914, about 1,114,000 were -from Europe; about 35,000 came from Asia; the remainder, about 254,000, -came from all other countries combined, principally Canada, the West -Indies, and Mexico. Eighty out of every 100, therefore, came from Europe. -As many as sixty of that eighty came from the three countries of Italy, -Austria-Hungary and Russia. Italy sent 294,689; Austria-Hungary was -second with 286,059; Russia contributed 262,409. From all of England, -Ireland, Scotland and Wales came only 88,000 or about 6 out of every 100; -and from Norway, Sweden and Denmark came about 31,000 or 2 out of every -100. - -Greece, France, Portugal, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Spain, Turkey, the -Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, and Roumania contributed virtually all -the remainder of our 1914 immigrants from Europe, given in the order of -importance. - -However, we should bear in mind always that the country of origin or -nationality or jurisdiction (as determined by political boundaries) is -not always identical with race. Immigration statistics have followed -national or political boundaries. Take the immigrants from Russia. The -statistics say that 262,000 arrived from that country in 1914. But of -this number, less than 5 out of every 100 are Russians; the rest or 95 -out of every 100, are Hebrews, Poles, Lithuanians, Finns and Germans. - -Austria-Hungary was another country made of a medley of races. The -Germanic Austrians who ruled Austria and the Hungarian Magyars who ruled -Hungary were less than one-half of the total population of the one time -Austria-Hungary. - -The record of alien arrivals from Poland is not accurate because it is -divided into three national statistical divisions—Russia, Germany and -Austria-Hungary. The best estimate is that the total Polish arrivals to -the United States since 1820 approximates 2,500,000. - -The Slav, the Magyar, the German, the Latin, and the Jew were all in -Austria-Hungary and moreover, these were all numerously subdivided. The -most numerous of the Slavs are the Czechs and Slovaks. These gave the -United States in 1914 a combined immigration of 37,000. Poles, Ruthenians -and Roumanians also came here from northern Austria, and from the -vicinity of the Black Sea came Roumanians more Latin than Slavic. Besides -these, the one time dual kingdom sent Jews, Greeks and Turks. - -Although the most important Slavic country of Europe is Russia, yet it -was from Austria-Hungary that we received most of our Slavic immigrants. -In 1914, as many as 23 out of every 100 of our total immigration were -Slavic, and the larger part of this racial group which reached 319,000 -that year, came from Austria-Hungary. - -That mere recording of country or origin does not give accurate racial -information is illustrated in the case of the many Greeks under Turkish -rule, and the large number of Armenians found in almost all large Turkish -towns. The Armenians are probably the most numerous of the immigrants -from Asia. In 1914, the total immigration from Turkey was about 20,000, -but the actual Turkish immigration was only 3,000. The remaining 27,000 -were Greeks, Bulgarians, Serbians, Montenegrins, Syrians, Armenians and -Hebrews.[30] - -The “country of origin” tells us almost nothing about the large Hebrew -immigration which comes to the United States. The Jew comes from many -countries. The greater part of all our recent Jewish immigration comes -from Russia, from what is called the “Jewish Pale of Settlement” in the -western part of that country. Other Jews come from Austria, Roumania, -Germany and Turkey. In 1914, the Jews were the fourth largest in numbers -among our immigrants, nearly 143,000.[31] - -We must also bear in mind that all of these millions who came to America -do not remain with us. There is a constant emigration going on, a -departure of aliens back to their native land either for a time, or for -all time. Up to 1908, the Bureau of Immigration kept no record of the -“ebb of the tide” but since that time vessels taking aliens out of the -United States, are obliged by law to make a list containing name, age, -sex, nationality, residence in the United States, occupation, and time -of last arrival of each alien passenger, which must be filed with the -Federal Collector of Customs. - -The first year of this record, 1908, followed the financial panic of -October, 1907, and due to the economic conditions prevalent in the United -States a very large emigration to Europe was disclosed. - -The records show also that the volume of emigration, like that of -immigration, varies from year to year. Just as prosperity here increases -immigration, “bad” times increase emigration from our shores. - -There was a time when emigration was so slight that it was of little -importance, but since the early nineties it has assumed large -proportions. After the panic of 1907, for months a larger number left the -country than came into it, and thousands and thousands swarmed the ports -of departure awaiting a chance to return home. In the earlier years, -the immigrant sometimes spent months making the journey here. Besides -the difficulty of the trip, ocean transportation was more expensive. -Therefore, the earlier immigrants came to remain, to make homes here -for themselves and their children. The Irish, the Germans, the early -Bohemians, the Scandinavians, and in fact all the early comers brought -their families and their “household goods”, ready to settle down for all -time and to become citizens of their adopted country. - -A large number of the alien arrivals of recent years come here initially -with only a vague intention of remaining permanently, and these make up -the large emigration streaming constantly from our ports. However, it -is only fair to say that eventually many of these people come back to -America and become permanent residents. Anyone who has had experience at -our ports of entry can substantiate the statement that during a period of -years the same faces are seen incoming again and again. - -Although immigrants have come by millions into the United States, -and have been the main contributing cause of its wonderful national -expansion, yet opposition to their coming has manifested itself strongly -at different times. - -In the colonial period the people objected, and rightly, to the maternal -solicitude which England evidenced by making the colonies the dumping -ground for criminals and undesirables. However, these objections were -disregarded and convicts and criminals continued to come while the -colonies remained under British rule. - -After the national era, immigration was practically unrestricted down -to 1875. At different periods there were manifestations of a strong -desire to restrict immigration, but Congress never responded with -exclusion laws. The alien and sedition laws of 1798 had for their -object the removal of foreigners already residents in the United -States. The naturalization laws passed that same year, lengthening the -time of residence necessary for citizenship to fourteen years, were -another severe measure against resident aliens. The native American -and the Know-nothing uprisings were still other indications of that -same spirit of antagonism to the alien based on religious grounds. This -religious antagonism in many of the States took the form of opposition -to immigration itself and a demand for restrictions. But this all -proved futile, for the National Government recognized the necessity of -settling the limitless West. Then, too, another subject loomed large and -threatening at this time, and engrossed the attention of the people away -from the dire evils which the Irish and the Catholics would precipitate -upon “our free and happy people”. This was the State Rights and Slavery -question; and soon the country forgot immigration in the throes of the -Civil War. - -By an act of March 3, 1875, the National Government made its first -attempt to restrict immigration; this act prohibited the bringing in -of alien convicts and of women for immoral purposes. On May 6, 1882, -Congress passed and the President approved another act “to regulate -immigration”, by which the coming of Chinese laborers was forbidden -for ten years. The story which led up to this Act of Congress is a -long one, and the details cannot be given here. Briefly, conditions in -California following the Burlingame treaty of 1868, owing to the influx -of Chinese labor, resulted in the organization of a workingman’s party -headed by Dennis Kearney, and forced the Chinese question as one of the -dominant issues of State politics. Resolutions embodying the feelings of -the people on Chinese immigration were presented to the Constitutional -Convention of 1879. The State Legislature enacted laws against this -immigration. Subsequently pressure was brought to bear on the National -Government, a new treaty with China was negotiated, and finally the law -of 1882 was passed by Congress, restricting for ten years the admission -of Chinese laborers, both skilled and unskilled, and of mine workers also. - -Ever since the passage of this law, the Federal Government has pursued -a more restrictive and exclusive immigration policy. The next law was -passed in August, 1882, prohibiting the immigration of “any convict, -lunatic, idiot, or any person unable to take care of himself or herself -without becoming a public charge.” Then, in 1885, came another act -known as the “Alien Contract Labor Law”, forbidding the importation -and immigration of foreigners and aliens under contract or agreement -to perform labor in the United States. In 1891 came the law called the -“Geary Act” which amended “the various acts relative to immigration and -the importation of aliens under contract or agreement to perform labor”. -This act extended Chinese exclusion for another ten years, and required -the Chinese in the country to register and submit to the Bertillon test -as a means of identification. In 1893 two acts were passed; one which -gave the quarantine service greater powers and placed additional duties -upon the Public Health Service, and another which properly enforced -the existing immigration and contract labor laws. In 1902 the law -of exclusion was made permanent against Chinese laborers. So, since -1875, the United States has passed laws excluding Chinese entirely and -virtually excluding the Japanese, and both these races are ineligible to -citizenship. In 1907, an act was passed “to regulate the immigration of -Aliens into the United States”, which excluded imbeciles, epileptics, -those so defective either physically or mentally that they might become -public charges; children under sixteen not with a parent, etc. - -A far more restrictive measure known as the “literacy” or “educational” -test has been before Congress at different times and has, on three -different occasions, failed to become a law. President Cleveland vetoed -it in 1897, Taft in 1913, and Wilson in 1915. All three Presidents -objected to this bill principally on the ground that it was such “a -radical departure” from all previous national policy in regard to -immigration. President Wilson’s veto of 1917 was overcome and the bill -became a law by a two-thirds majority vote of both houses. This law -requires that entering aliens must be able to read the English language -or some other language or dialect. The one thing which the literacy test -was designed to accomplish—to decrease the volume of immigration—was -brought about suddenly and unexpectedly by the European War. From the -opening of the war, the number of immigrants steadily decreased until, -for the year ending June 30, 1916, it was only 298,826[32] and for the -year ending June 30, 1917, only 110,618.[33] Then it began again to -increase steadily until for the year ending June 30, 1920, it reached a -total of 430,001.[34] - -On June 3, 1921, an emergency measure known as the three per cent. -law was passed. This act provided that the number of aliens of any -nationality who could be admitted to the United States in any one year -should be limited to three per cent. of the number of foreign-born -persons of such nationality resident in the United States as determined -by the census of 1910. Certain ones were not counted, such as foreign -government officials and their families and employees, aliens in -transit through the United States, tourists, aliens from countries -having immigration treaties with the United States, aliens who have -lived for one year previous to their admission in Canada, Newfoundland, -Mexico, Central America, or South America, and aliens under eighteen -who have parents who are American citizens. More than twenty per cent. -of a country’s full quota could not be admitted in one month except in -the case of actors, artists, lecturers, singers, nurses, clergymen, -professors, members of the learned professions or domestic servants who -could always come in even though the month’s or the year’s quota had been -used. - -A well organized effort is under way in the Congress which began its -session in December 1923, to reduce the quota to two per cent. of the -immigrants recorded as coming to the United States in 1890. This bill, -which will probably be passed, is being opposed vigorously, by the -Jews and Italians who are immediately the particular racial groups -to be affected, but since neither the Jews nor Italians, separately -or collectively, have political strength to be a voting factor to be -considered, except in a half dozen of the industrial states, the passage -of the bill seems to be inevitable. - -The recent immigration restriction laws make a decided break with past -national history and tradition. There is little doubt that these laws -are in part the fruit of an organized movement which, especially since -the war, is attempting to classify all aliens, except those of one -special group, as “hyphenates” and “mongrels”. These laws are haphazard, -unscientific, based on unworthy prejudice and likely, ultimately, to be -disastrous in their economic consequences. The present three per cent. -immigration law is not based on any fundamental standard of fitness. Once -the percentage of maximum admissions is reached, in any given month, the -next alien applying for entrance may be a potential Washington, Lincoln -or Edison to whom the unyielding process of the law must deny admission. -Such laws, worked out under the hysteria of “after war psychology”, seem -to be one of the instances, so frequent in history, where Democracy must -take time to work out its own mistakes. - -Under the circumstances, there is all the more reason that the priceless -heritage of racial achievement by the descendants of various racial -groups in the United States be told. - -The United States has departed a long way from the policy which was -recorded in 1795 by the series of coins known as the “Liberty and -Security” coins, on which appeared the words “A Refuge for the Oppressed -of all Nations”. - - ARRIVALS OF ALIEN PASSENGERS AND IMMIGRANTS IN THE UNITED - STATES FROM 1820 TO 1892 - - Prepared by the Bureau of Statistics and published in 1893 by - the Government Printing Office. - - ===================================================================== - - - 1821 to 1831 to 1841 to - Countries Whence Arrived 1830 1840 1850 - --------------------------------------------------------------------- - Austria-Hungary - Belgium 27 22 5,074 - Denmark 169 1,063 539 - France 3,497 45,575 77,262 - Germany 6,761 152,454 434,626 - Italy 408 2,253 1,870 - Netherlands 1,078 1,412 8,251 - Norway and Sweden 91 1,201 13,903 - Russia and Poland 91 646 656 - Spain and Portugal 2,622 2,954 2,759 - Switzerland 3,226 4,821 4,644 - ========= ========= ========= - United Kingdom - England(a) 22,167 73,143 263,332 - Scotland 2,912 2,667 3,712 - Ireland 50,724 207,381 780,719 - Total United Kingdom 75,803 283,191 1,047,763 - ========= ========= ========= - All other countries of Europe 43 96 165 - --------- --------- --------- - Total Europe 98,816 495,688 1,597,502 - ========= ========= ========= - British North American Possessions 2,277 13,624 41,723 - Mexico 4,817 6,599 3,271 - Central America 105 44 368 - South America 531 856 3,579 - West Indies 3,834 12,301 13,528 - --------- --------- --------- - Total America 11,564 33,424 62,469 - ===================================================================== - - ===================================================================== - 1851 Jan. 1 Fiscal - to 1861 Years - Dec. 31, to June 1871 to - Countries Whence Arrived 1860 30, 1870 1880 - --------------------------------------------------------------------- - Austria-Hungary 7,800 72,969 - Belgium 4,738 6,734 7,221 - Denmark 3,749 17,094 31,771 - France 76,358 35,984 72,206 - Germany 951,667 787,468 718,182 - Italy 9,231 11,728 55,759 - Netherlands 10,789 9,102 16,541 - Norway and Sweden 20,931 109,298 211,245 - Russia and Poland 1,621 4,536 52,254 - Spain and Portugal 10,353 8,493 9,893 - Switzerland 25,011 23,286 28,293 - ========= ========= ========= - United Kingdom - England(a) 385,643 568,128 460,479 - Scotland 38,331 38,768 87,564 - Ireland 914,119 435,778 436,871 - Total United Kingdom 1,338,093 1,042,674 984,914 - ========= ========= ========= - All other countries of Europe 116 210 656 - --------- --------- --------- - Total Europe 2,452,657 2,064,407 2,261,904 - ========= ========= ========= - British North American Possessions 59,309 153,871 383,269 - Mexico 3,078 2,191 5,362 - Central America 449 96 210 - South America 1,224 1,396 928 - West Indies 10,660 9,043 13,957 - --------- --------- --------- - Total America 74,720 166,597 403,726 - ===================================================================== - - ===================================================================== - Fiscal Fiscal - Years Years - 1881 to 1891 and - Countries Whence Arrived 1890 1892 Total - --------------------------------------------------------------------- - Austria-Hungary 353,719 151,178 585,666 - Belgium 20,177 7,340 51,333 - Denmark 88,132 21,252 163,769 - France 50,464 13,291 379,637 - Germany 1,452,970 244,312 4,748,440 - Italy 307,309 138,191 526,749 - Netherlands 53,701 12,466 113,340 - Norway and Sweden 568,362 107,157 1,032,188 - Russia and Poland 265,088 192,615 517,507 - Spain and Portugal 6,535 5,657 49,266 - Switzerland 81,988 14,219 185,488 - ========= ========= ========= - United Kingdom - England(a) 657,488 104,575 2,534,955 - Scotland 149,869 24,077 347,900 - Ireland 655,482 111,173 3,592,247 - Total United Kingdom 1,462,839 239,825 6,475,102 - ========= ========= ========= - All other countries of Europe 10,318 4,954 16,548 - --------- --------- --------- - Total Europe 4,721,602 (b)1,152,457 14,845,038 - ========= ========= ========= - British North American Possessions 392,802 (c) 1,046,875 - Mexico 1,913 (c) 27,231 - Central America 462 576 2,310 - South America 2,304 1,344 12,162 - West Indies 29,042 5,673 98,038 - --------- --------- --------- - Total America 426,523 7,593 1,186,616 - ===================================================================== - - Alien Passengers from October 1, 1820, to December 31, 1867, and - Immigrants from January 1, 1868, to June 30, 1892. - -(a) Includes Wales and Great Britain not specified. According to William -J. Bromwell’s _History of Emigration to the United States_, published in -1856 by Redfield of New York, 1,000,000 of this number were from Ireland, -which is probably accurate. During and after the Irish famine large -numbers of Irish who could not find money for the passage to the United -States did find it possible to go to England to work in coal mines, -factories, and in seasonal agricultural employment; the money secured -from which enabled them to embark for the United States from various -English ports, which explains Bromwell’s estimate. - -(b) Includes 777 from Azores and 5 from Greenland. - -(c) Immigrants from British North American Possessions and Mexico are not -included since July 1, 1885. - -Author’s Note: Official statistics of immigration to the United States -began in 1819, so that statements as to the number of aliens arriving -prior to that time are largely guesswork. - -The “panic” of 1893 had the effect to turn the alien tide the other -way—back to Europe. Official statistics as to aliens returning from the -United States were not required by law until 1908. - -The quarter of a century which has passed since the character of alien -arrivals to the United States beginning in the forties, changed so -markedly in the decade of 1880 to 1890, is not long enough for accurate -analysis of the economic, political and social influence on the United -States of the coming of these newer races, so that the statistical -records here given do not extend beyond 1892. - - - - -THE GIFT OF BLACK FOLK - - - - -PRESCRIPT - - -Who made America? Who made this land that swings its empire from the -Atlantic to the Sea of Peace and from Snow to Fire—this realm of New -Freedom, with Opportunity and Ideal unlimited? - -Now that its foundations are laid, deep but bare, there are those as -always who would forget the humble builders, toiling wan mornings and -blazing noons, and picture America as the last reasoned blossom of mighty -ancestors; of those great and glorious world builders and rulers who know -and see and do all things forever and ever, amen! How singular and blind! -For the glory of the world is the possibilities of the commonplace and -America is America even because it shows, as never before, the power of -the common, ordinary, unlovely man. This is real democracy and not that -vain and eternal striving to regard the world as the abiding place of -exceptional genius with great black wastes of hereditary idiots. - -We who know may not forget but must forever spread the splendid sordid -truth that out of the most lowly and persecuted of men, Man made America. -And that what Man has here begun with all its want and imperfection, with -all its magnificent promise and grotesque failure will some day blossom -in the souls of the Lowly. - - - - -CHAPTER I - -THE BLACK EXPLORERS - - How the Negro helped in the discovery of America and gave his - ancient customs to the land. - - -Garcia de Montalvo published in 1510 a Spanish romance which said: -“Know ye that on the right hand of the Indies there is an island called -California very near the Terrestrial Paradise which is peopled with black -women without any men among them, because they were accustomed to live -after the fashion of the Amazons. They were of strong and hardy bodies, -of ardent courage and of great force.”[35] - -The legend that the Negro race had touched America even before the -day of Columbus rests upon a certain basis of fact: First, the Negro -countenance, clear and unmistakable, occurs repeatedly in Indian -carvings, among the relics of the Mound Builders and in Mexican -temples.[36] Secondly, there are evidences of Negro customs among the -Indians in their religious worship; in their methods of building defenses -such as the mounds probably were; and particularly in customs of trade. -Columbus said that he had been told of a land southwest of the Cape Verde -Islands where the black folk had been trading and had used in their trade -the well known African alloy of gold called guanin.[37] - -“There can be no question whatever as to the reality of the statement in -regard to the presence in America of the African pombeiros[38] previous -to Columbus because the guani is a Mandingo word and the very alloy is -of African origin. In 1501 a law was passed forbidding persons to sell -guanin to the Indians of Hispaniola.”[39] - -Wiener thinks “The presence of Negroes with their trading masters in -America before Columbus is proved by the representation of Negroes in -American sculpture and design, by the occurrence of a black nation at -Darien early in the 16th century, but more specifically by Columbus’ -emphatic reference to Negro traders from Guinea, who trafficked in a gold -alloy, guanin, of precisely the same composition and bearing the same -name, as frequently referred to by early writers in Africa.”[40] - -And thirdly, many of the productions of America which have hitherto been -considered as indigenous and brought into use especially by the Indians, -may easily have been African in origin, as for instance, tobacco, cotton, -sweet potatoes and peanuts. It is quite possible that many if not all -of these came through the African Negro, being in some cases indigenous -to Negro Africa and in other cases transmitted from the Arabs by the -Negroes. Tobacco particularly was known in Africa and is mentioned in -early America continually in connection with the Negroes. All of these -things were spread in America along the same routes starting with the -mingling of Negroes and Indians in the West Indies and coming up through -Florida and on to Canada. The Arawak Indians, who especially show the -effects of contact with Negroes, and fugitive Negroes, together with -Negroid Caribs, migrated northward and it was they who led Ponce de Leon -to search for the Fountain Bimini where old men became young.[41] - -Oviedo says that the sweet potato “came with that evil lot of Negroes and -it has taken very well and it is profitable and good sustenance for the -Negroes of whom there is a greater number than is necessary on account of -their rebellions.”[42] In the same way maize and sugar cane may have been -imported from Africa. - -Further than this the raising of bread roots, manioc, yam and sweet -potatoes may have come to America from Guinea by way of Brazil. From -Brazil the culture of these crops spread and many of the words referring -to them are of undoubted African origin. - -Negroes probably reached the eastern part of South America from the West -Indies while others from the same source went north along the roads -marked by the Mound Builders as far as Canada. - -“The chief cultural influence of the Negro in America was exerted by a -Negro colony in Mexico, most likely from Teotihuacan and Tuxtla, who may -have been instrumental in establishing the city of Mexico. From here -their influence pervaded the neighboring tribes and ultimately, directly -or indirectly, reached Peru.”[43] - -The mounds of the “Mound Builders” were probably replicas of Negro forts -in Africa. “That this tendency to build forts and stockades proceeded -from the Antilles, whence the Arawaks had come in the beginning of the -sixteenth century, is proved by the presence of similar works in Cuba. -These are found in the most abandoned and least-explored part of the -island and there can be little doubt that they were locations of fugitive -Negro and Indian stockades, precisely such as were in use in Africa. -It is not possible to prove the direct participation of the Negroes in -the fortifications of the North American Indians, but as the civilizing -influence on the Indians to a great extent proceeded from Cuba over -Florida towards the Huron Country in the north, the solution of the -question of the Mound Builders is to be looked for in the perpetuation of -Arawak or Carib methods, acquired from the Negroes, as well attested by -Ovando’s complaint in 1503 that the Negroes spoiled the manners of the -Indians; and transferred to the white traders, who not only adopted the -methods of the Indians, but frequently lived among the Indians as part of -them, especially in Brazil where we have ample documentary evidence of -the fact.”[44] - -All this is prehistoric and in part conjectural and yet it seems -reasonable to suppose that much in custom, trade and religion which has -been regarded as characteristic of the American Indian arose from strong -Negro influences of the pre-Columbian period. - -After the discovery of America by Columbus many Negroes came with the -early explorers. Many of these early black men were civilized Christians -and sprung from the large numbers of Negroes imported into Spain and -Portugal during the fifteenth century, where they replaced as laborers -the expelled Moors. Afterward came the mass of slaves brought by the -direct African slave trade. - -From the beginning of the fifteenth century mention of the Negro in -America becomes frequent. In 1501 they were permitted to enter the -colonies; in 1503 the Governor of Hispaniola sought to prohibit their -transportation to America because they fled to the Indians and taught -them bad manners. By 1506 they were coming again because the work of one -Negro was worth more than that of four Indians. In 1518 the new sugar -culture in Spain and the Canary Islands began to be transferred to the -West Indies and Negroes were required as laborers. In 1521 Negroes were -not to be used on errands because they incited Indians to rebellion and -the following year they rose in rebellion on Diego Columbus’ mill. In -1540, in Quivera, Mexico, there was a Negro priest and in 1542 there were -at Guamango, Mexico, three Brotherhoods of the True Cross of Spaniards, -one of which was of Negroes and one of Indians. - -Thus the Negro is seen not only entering as a laborer but becoming a -part of the civilization of the New World. Helps says: “Very early in -the history of the American Continent there are circumstances to show -that Negroes were gradually entering into that part of the New World. -They constantly appear at remarkable points in the narrative. When the -Marquis Pizarro had been slain by the conspirators, his body was dragged -to the Cathedral by two Negroes. The murdered Factor, Illan Suarez, was -buried by Negroes and Indians. After the battle of Anaquito, the head of -the unfortunate Viceroy, Blasco Nunez Vela, was cut off by a Negro. On -the outbreak of the great earthquake at Guatemala, the most remarkable -figure in that night’s terrors was a gigantic Negro, who was seen in -many parts of the city, and who assisted no one, however much he was -implored. In the narrative of the return of Las Casas to his diocese, it -has been seen that he was attended by a Negro. And many other instances -might be adduced, showing that, in the decade from 1535 to 1545, Negroes -had come to form part of the household of the wealthier colonists. At the -same time, in the West Indian Islands which had borne the first shock -of the conquest, and where the Indians had been more swiftly destroyed, -the Negroes were beginning to form the bulk of the population; and the -licenses for importation were steadily increasing in number.”[45] - -Continually they appear with the explorers. Nuflo de Olana, a Negro, -was with Balboa when he discovered the Pacific Ocean,[46] and afterward -thirty Negroes helped Balboa direct the work of over 500 Indians in -transporting the material for his ships across the mountains to the South -Sea.[47] - -Cortes carried Negroes and Indians with him from Cuba to Mexico and one -of these Negroes was the first to sow and reap grain in Mexico. There -were two Negroes with Velas in 1520 and 200 black slaves with Alvarado -on his desperate expedition to Quito. Almagro and Valdivia in 1525 were -saved from death by Negroes.[48] - -As early as 1528 there were about 10,000 Negroes in the New World. We -hear of one sent as an agent of the Spanish to burn a native village in -Honduras. In 1539 they accompanied De Soto and one of them stayed among -the Indians in Alabama and became the first settler from the old world. -In 1555 in Santiago de Chile a free Negro owns land in the town. Menendez -had a company of trained Negro artisans and agriculturalists when he -founded St. Augustine in 1565 and in 1570 Negroes founded the town of -Santiago del Principe. - -In most of these cases probably leadership and initiative on the part -of the early Negro pioneers in America was only spasmodic or a matter -of accident. But this was not always true and there is one well-known -case which, despite the propaganda of 400 years, survives as a clear -and important instance of Negro leadership in exploration. This is -the romantic story of Stephen Dorantes or as he is usually called, -Estevanico, who sailed from Spain in 1527 with the expedition of -Panfilo de Narvaez.[49] This fleet of five vessels and 600 colonists -and soldiers started from Cuba and landed in Tampa Bay in 1582. But -disaster followed disaster until at last there were but four survivors -of whom one was Estevanico “an Arab Negro from Azamor on the Atlantic -coast of Morocco”; he is elsewhere described as “black” and a “person of -intelligence.” Besides him there was his master Dorantes and two other -Spaniards, de Vaca and Maldonado.[50] For six years these men maintained -themselves by practicing medicine among the Indians, and were the first -to reach Mexico from Florida by the overland route. - -Estevanico and de Vaca went forward to meet the outposts of the Spaniards -established in Mexico. Estevanico returned with an escort and brought on -the other two men. The four then went west to the present Mexican cities, -Chihuahua and Sonora and reached Culiacan, the capital of the state of -Sinaloa, in April, 1536. - -Coronado was governor of Sinaloa and on hearing the story of the -wanderers, he immediately hastened with them to the viceroy, Mendoza, -in the city of Mexico. They told the viceroy not only of their own -adventures but what they had heard of the rich lands toward the North and -of the cities with houses four and five stories high which were really -the Pueblos of New Mexican Indians. Mendoza was eager to explore these -lands. He had already heard something about them and he and Cortes had -planned to make the exploration together but could not agree upon terms. -Cortes therefore hurried to fit out a small fleet in 1537. He took 400 -Spaniards and 300 Negroes, sailed up the Gulf of California and called -the country “California”. He then returned to Spain for the last time. - -Meantime, de Vaca and Maldonado after several unsuccessful attempts -also went to Spain leaving Dorantes and Estevanico. Dorantes refused to -take part in the proposed expedition to the North but sold his slave -Estevanico to Mendoza. Certain Franciscan Monks joined the expedition and -Fray Marcos de Niza became the leader, having already had some experience -in exploration in Peru. Estevanico, because of his knowledge of the -Indian language and especially of the sign language, was the guide, and -the party started North for what the viceroy dreamed were the Seven -Cities of Cibola. They left March 7th, 1539, and arrived at Vacapa in -central Sinaloa on the 21st. Fray Marcos, probably from timidity, sent -Estevanico on ahead with an escort of Indians whom he could send back -as messengers.[51] The Negro marked his journey by large wooden crosses -and in this way with Estevanico far ahead they traveled for two weeks -until suddenly Fray Marcos was met by a fleeing band of badly frightened -Indians who told him that Estevanico had reached Cibola and had been -killed. Fray Marcos named the country “El Nuevo Reyno de San Francisco” -but being himself scared, distributed among the Indians everything which -his party had in their packs, except the vestments for saying Mass, and -traveling by double marches, returned to Mexico. - -Meantime let us follow the adventure of Estevanico: Knowing how much -depended upon appearance in that unknown and savage land, Estevanico -traveled in magnificence, decorated with bells and feathers and carrying -a symbolic gourd which was recognized among the Indian tribes thereabouts -as a symbol of authority. When he reached the Pueblos, the Indian chiefs -were in a quandary. First of all they recognized in Estevanico’s retinue, -numbers of their ancient Indian enemies. Secondly, they were frightened -because Estevanico informed them “that two white men were coming behind -him who had been sent by a great Lord and knew about the things in the -sky and that they were coming to instruct them in divine matters.” They -had good reason to fear that this meant the onslaught of some powerful -enemy. And, moreover, they were puzzled because this black man came -as a representative of white men: “The Lord of Cibola, inquiring of -him whether he had other brethren, he answered that he had an infinite -number and that they had a great store of weapons with them and that they -were not very far thence. When they heard this, many of the chief men -consulted together and resolved to kill him that he might not give news -unto these brethren where they dwelt[52] and that for this cause they -slew him and cut him into many pieces, which were divided among all the -chief Lords that they might know assuredly that he was dead....” - -This climax is still told in a legend current among the Zuni Indians -today: “It is to be believed that a long time ago, when roofs lay over -the walls of Kya-ki-me, when smoke hung over the housetops, and the -ladder rounds were still unbroken in Kya-ki-me, then the black Mexicans -came from their abodes in Everlasting Summer-land. One day, unexpectedly, -out of Hemlock Canon they came, and descended to Kya-ki-me. But when -they said they would enter the covered way, it seems that our ancients -looked not gently at them; for with these black Mexicans came many -Indians of So-no-li, as they call it now, ... who were enemies of our -ancients. Therefore, these our ancients, being always bad-tempered, and -quick to anger, made fools of themselves after their fashion, rushing -into their town and out of their town, shouting, skipping and shooting -with their sling-stones and arrows and tossing their war-clubs. Then the -Indians of So-no-li set up a great howl, and thus they and our ancients -did much ill to one another. Then and thus was killed by our ancients, -right where the stone stands down by the arroyo of Kya-ki-me, one of the -black Mexicans, a large man with chilli lips [i. e., lips swollen from -eating chilli peppers] and some of the Indians they killed, catching -others. Then the rest ran away, chased by our grandfathers, and went back -toward their country in the Land of Everlasting Summer....”[53] - -The village reached by Estevanico was Hawi-kih as it was called by the -Indians and Grenada as the Spaniards named it. It is fifteen miles -southwest of the present village of Zuni and is thus within New Mexico -and east of the boundary between New Mexico and Arizona. Thus Estevanico -was the first European to discover Arizona and New Mexico. Fray Marcos -returned with Coronado and came as far as the village in 1540 while -Mendoza sent others to pursue explorations that same year within the -present confines of Arizona and they brought back various stories of the -death of Estevanico. - -After that for 40 years explorations rested until 1582 when again the -Spaniards entered the territory. With all the Spanish explorers in -Florida, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and Kansas, there were Negro slaves -and helpers but none with the initiative, perseverance and success of -Estevanico. - -In the after pioneering that took place in later days in the great -western wilderness, the Negro was often present. There was a black man -with Lewis and Clark in 1804; Jacob Dodson, a free Negro of Washington, -volunteered to accompany Fremont in his California expedition of 1843. -He was among the 25 persons selected by Fremont to accompany him in -the discovery of Clamath Lake and also in his ride from Los Angeles to -Monterey. Among the early settlers of California coming up from Mexico -were many Negroes and mulattoes.[54] - -William Alexander Leidsdroff was the most distinguished Negro pioneer of -California and at one time lived in the largest house in San Francisco. -He owned the first steamship sailing in San Francisco Bay, and was a -prominent business man, a member of the City Council and treasurer -and member of the school committee. H. H. Bancroft says: “William -Alexander Leidsdroff, a native of Danish West Indies, son of a Dane by a -mulattress, who came to the United States as a boy and became a master of -vessels sailing between New York and New Orleans, came to California as -manager of the ‘Julia Ann,’ on which he made later trips to the Islands, -down to 1845.” His correspondence from 1845, when he became United States -Vice-Consul is a valuable source of historical information. Many Negroes -came in the rush of the “forty-niners” as pioneers and miners as well as -slaves. - -The Negro’s work as a pioneer extends down until our day. The late -Commodore Peary who discovered the North Pole said: “Matthew A. Henson, -my Negro assistant, has been with me in one capacity or another since my -second trip to Nicaragua in 1887. I have taken him on each and all of my -expeditions, except the first, and also without exception on each of my -farthest sledge trips. This position I have given him primarily because -of his adaptability and fitness for the work, and secondly on account of -his loyalty. He is a better dog driver and can handle a sledge better -than any man living, except some of the best Esquimo hunters themselves.” -This leaves Henson today as the only living human being who has stood at -the North Pole. - - - - -CHAPTER II - -BLACK LABOR - - How the Negro gave his brawn and brain to fell the forests, - till the soil and make America a rich and prosperous land. - - -The primary reason for the presence of the black man in America was, of -course, his labor and much has been written of the influence of slavery -as established by the Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch and English. Most -writers have written of slavery as a moral and economic evil or of the -worker, white and black, as a victim of this system. In this chapter, -however, let us think of the slave as a laborer, as one who furnished -the original great labor force of the new world and differed from modern -labor only in the wages received, the political and civil rights enjoyed, -and the cultural surroundings from which he was taken. - -Negro labor has played a peculiar and important part in the history of -the modern world. The black man was the pioneer in the hard physical work -which began the reduction of the American wilderness and which not only -hastened the economic development of America directly but indirectly -released for other employment, thousands of white men and thus enabled -America to grow economically and spiritually at a rate previously -unparalleled anywhere in history. It was black labor that established -the modern world commerce which began first as a commerce in the bodies -of the slaves themselves and was the primary cause of the prosperity of -the first great commercial cities of our day. Then black labor was thrown -into the production of four great crops—tobacco, sugar, rice and cotton. -These crops were not new but their production on a large cheap scale was -new and had a special significance because they catered to the demands of -the masses of men and thus made possible an interchange of goods such as -the luxury trade of the Middle Ages catering to the rich could not build. -Black labor, therefore, beneath these crops became an important part of -the Industrial Revolution of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. - -Moreover the black slave brought into common labor certain new spiritual -values not yet fully realized. As a tropical product with a sensuous -receptivity to the beauty of the world he was not as easily reduced to be -the mechanical draft-horse which the northern European laborer became. -He was not easily brought to recognize any ethical sanctions in work as -such but tended to work as the results pleased him and refused to work -or sought to refuse when he did not find the spiritual returns adequate; -thus he was easily accused of laziness and driven as a slave when in -truth he brought to modern manual labor a renewed valuation of life. - -The Negro worked as farm hand and peasant proprietor, as laborer, artisan -and inventor and as servant in the house, and without him, America as we -know it, would have been impossible. - -The numerical growth of the Negro population in America indicates his -economic importance. The exact number of slaves exported to America -will never be known. Probably 25,000 Negroes a year arrived in America -between 1698 and 1707. After 1713 this rose to 30,000 and by 1775 to -over 40,000 a year. The American Revolution stopped the trade, but it -was revived afterward and reached enormous proportions. One estimate is -that a million Negroes came in the sixteenth century, three million in -the seventeenth, seven million in the eighteenth and four million in the -nineteenth or fifteen million in all. Certainly at least ten million came -and this meant sixty million killed and stolen in Africa because of the -methods of capture and the horror of the middle passage. This, with the -Asiatic trade, cost black Africa a hundred million souls.[55] Bancroft -places the total slave population of the continental colonies at 59,000 -in 1714, 78,000 in 1727, and 293,000 in 1754. - -In the West Indies the whole laboring population early became Negro or -Negro with an infiltration of Indian and white blood. In the United -States at the beginning of our independent national existence, Negroes -formed a fifth of the population of the whole nation. The exact figures -are:[56] - - PERCENTAGE NEGRO IN THE POPULATION - - United States South - - 1920 9.9 26.1 - 1910 10.7 29.8 - 1900 11.6 32.3 - 1890 11.9 33.8 - 1880 13.1 36.0 - 1870 12.7 36.0 - 1860 14.1 36.8 - 1850 15.7 37.3 - 1840 16.8 38.0 - 1830 18.1 37.9 - 1820 18.4 37.2 - 1810 19.0 36.7 - 1800 18.9 35.0 - 1790 19.3 35.2 - -If we consider the number of Negroes for each 1,000 whites, we have: - - United States South - - 1920 110 369 - 1910 120 426 - 1900 132 480 - 1890 136 512 - 1880 152 564 - 1870 145 562 - 1860 165 582 - 1850 186 595 - 1840 203 613 - 1830 221 610 - 1820 225 592 - 1810 235 579 - 1800 233 539 - 1790 239 543 - -The proportion of Negroes in the North was small, falling from 3.4% in -1790 to 1.8% in 1910. Nevertheless even here the indirect influence of -the Negro worker was large. The trading colonies, New England and New -York, built up a lucrative commerce based largely on the results of his -toil in the South and in the West Indies, and this commerce supported -local agriculture and manufacture. I have said in my _Suppression of the -Slave Trade_: “Vessels from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, -and, to a less extent from New Hampshire, were early and largely -engaged in the carrying slave-trade. ‘We know,’ said Thomas Pemberton -in 1795, ‘that a large trade to Guinea was carried on for many years by -the citizens of Massachusetts Colony, who were the proprietors of the -vessels and their cargoes, out and home. Some of the slaves purchased in -Guinea, and I suppose the greatest part of them, were sold in the West -Indies.’ Dr. John Eliot asserted that ‘it made a considerable branch -of our commerce.... It declined very little until the Revolution.’ Yet -the trade of this colony was said not to equal that of Rhode Island. -Newport was the mart for slaves offered for sale in the North, and a -point of reshipment for all slaves. It was principally this trade that -raised Newport to her commercial importance in the eighteenth century. -Connecticut, too, was an important slave-trader, sending large numbers -of horses and other commodities to the West Indies in exchange for -slaves, and selling the slaves in other colonies. - -“This trade formed a perfect circle. Owners of slavers carried slaves to -South Carolina, and brought home naval stores for their ship-building; or -to the West Indies and brought home molasses; or to other colonies, and -brought home hogsheads. The molasses was made into the highly prized New -England rum, and shipped in these hogsheads to Africa for more slaves. -Thus the rum-distilling industry indicated to some extent the activity of -New England in the slave-trade. In May, 1752, one Captain Freeman found -so many slavers fitting out that, in spite of the large importations of -molasses, he could get no rum for his vessel. In Newport alone twenty-two -stills were at one time running continuously; and Massachusetts annually -distilled 15,000 hogsheads of molasses into this ‘chief manufacture.’”[57] - -In New York and New Jersey Negroes formed between 7 and 8% of the total -population in 1790, which meant that they were probably 25% of the labor -force of those colonies, especially on the farms. - -The growth of the great slave crops shows the increasing economic value -of Negro labor. In 1619, 20,000 pounds of tobacco went from Virginia to -England. Just before the Revolutionary War, 100 million pounds a year -were being sent, and at the beginning of the twentieth century, 800 -millions were raised in the United States alone. Sugar was a luxury for -the rich and physicians until the eighteenth century, when it began to -pour out of the West Indies. By the middle of the nineteenth century a -million tons of cane sugar were raised each year and this had increased -to nearly 3 millions in 1900. The cotton crop rose correspondingly. -England, the chief customer at first, consumed 13,000 bales in 1781, -572,000 in 1820, 871,000 in 1830 and 3,366,000 in 1860. The United States -raised 6 million bales in 1880, and at the beginning of the twentieth -century raised 11 million bales annually. - -This tremendous increase in crops which formed a large part of modern -commerce was due primarily to black labor. At first most of this labor -was brute toil of the lowest sort. Our estimate of the value of this work -and what it has done for America depends largely upon our estimate of -the value of such toil. It must be confessed that, measured in wages and -in public esteem, such work stands low in America and in the civilized -world. On the other hand the fact that it does stand so low constitutes -one of the greatest problems of social advance. Hard manual labor, and -much of it of a disagreeable sort, must for a long time lie at the -basis of civilized life. We are continually transmitting some of it to -machines, but the residuum remains large. In an ideal society it would -be highly-paid work because of its unpleasantness and necessity; and -even today, no matter what we may say of the individual worker or of the -laboring class, we know that the foundation of America is built on the -backs of the manual laborer. - -This was particularly true in the earlier centuries. The problem of -America in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries was the problem of -manual labor. It was settled by importing white bond servants from -Europe, and black servants from Africa, and compelling the American -Indians to work. Indian slavery failed to play any great part because the -comparatively small number of Indians in the West Indies were rapidly -killed off by the unaccustomed toil or mingled their blood and pooled -their destinies with the Negroes. On the continent, on the other hand, -the Indians were too powerful, both in numbers and organization, to be -successfully enslaved. The white bond servants and the Negroes therefore -became the main laboring force of the new world and with their toil the -economic development of the continent began. - -There arose a series of special laws to determine the status of laborers -which became the basis of the great slave codes. As the free European -white artisans poured in, these labor codes gradually came to distinguish -between slavery based on race and free labor. The slave codes greatly -weakened the family ties and largely destroyed the family as a center -of government or of economic organization. They made the plantation -the center of economic life and left more or less religious autonomy. -They provided punishment by physical torture, death or sale, but they -always left some minimum of incentive by which the slave could have the -beginnings of private possession. - -In this way the economic organization was provided by which the middle -classes of the world were supplied with a cheap sweetening material -derived from sugar cane; a cheap luxury, tobacco; larger quantities -of rice; and finally, and above all, a cheap and universal material -for clothing, cotton. These were things that all men wanted who had -anything to offer in labor or materials for the satisfaction of their -wants. The cost of raising them was a labor cost almost entirely because -land in America was at that time endless in fertility and extent. The -old world trade therefore which sought luxuries in clothing, precious -metal and stones, spices, etc., for the rich, transformed itself to a -world-wide trade in necessities incomparably richer and bigger than its -medieval predecessor because of its enormous basis of demand. Its first -appearance was in the slave trade where the demand for the new American -crops showed itself in a demand for the labor necessary to raise them; -thus the slave trade itself was at the bottom of the rise of great -commerce, and the beginning of modern international commerce. This trade -stimulated invention and was stimulated by it. The wellbeing of European -workers increased and their minds were stimulated. Economic and political -revolution followed, to which America fell heir. New immigrants poured -in. New conceptions of religion, government and work arose and at the -bottom of it all and one of its efficient causes was the toil of the -increasing millions of black slaves. - -As the nation developed this slave labor became confined more and more -to the raising of cotton, although sugar continued to be the chief crop -in the West Indies and Louisiana, and rice on the southeast coast and -tobacco in Virginia. This world importance of cotton brought an economic -crisis: Rich land in America, adapted to slave methods of culture, was -becoming limited, and must either be increased or slavery would die an -economic death. On the other hand, beside the plantation hands, there -had grown up a large class of Negro servants and laborers who were -distributed both north and south. These laborers in particular came into -competition with the white laborer and especially the new immigrants. -This and other economic causes led to riots in Philadelphia, New York and -Cincinnati and a growing conviction on the part of a newly enfranchised -white workingmen that one great obstacle in America was slave labor, -together with the necessarily low status of the freedmen. These economic -reasons overthrew slavery.[58] - -After the legal disappearance of slavery its natural results remained in -the mass of freedmen who had been trained in the necessary ignorance and -inefficiency of slave labor. On such a foundation it was easy to build -and emphasize race prejudice. On the other hand, however, there was still -plenty of work for even the ignorant and careless working man, so that -the Negro continued to raise cotton and the other great crops and to do -throughout the country the work of the unskilled laborer and the servant. -He continued to be the main laboring force of the South in industrial -lines and began to invade the North. - -His full power as a labor reservoir was not seen until the transformation -of the World War. In a few short months 500,000 black laborers came -North to fill the void made by the stoppage of immigration and the -rush of white working men into the munitions industry. This was simply -a foretaste of what will continue to happen. The Negro still is the -mightiest single group of labor force in the United States. As this labor -grows more intelligent, self-conscious and efficient, it will turn to -higher and higher grades of work and it will reinforce the workingman’s -point of view.[59] - -It must not be assumed, however, that the labor of the Negro has been -simply the muscle-straining unintelligent work of the lowest grade. On -the contrary he has appeared both as personal servant, skilled laborer -and inventor. That the Negroes of colonial times were not all ignorant -savages is shown by the advertisements concerning them. Continually -runaway slaves are described as speaking very good English; sometimes -as speaking not only English but Dutch and French. Some could read and -write and play musical instruments. Others were blacksmiths, limeburners, -bricklayers and cobblers. Others were noted as having considerable -sums of money.[60] In the early days in the South the whole conduct of -the house was in the hands of the Negro house servant; as butler, cook, -nurse, valet and maid, the Negro conducted family life. - -Thus by social contact and mingling of blood the Negro house servant -became closely identified with the civilization of the South and -contributed to it in many ways. For a long time before emancipation the -house servant had been pushing steadily upward; in many cases he had -learned to read and write despite the law. Sometimes he had entered the -skilled trades and was enabled by hiring his time to earn money of his -own and in rare cases to buy his own freedom. Sometimes he was freed and -sent North and given money and land; but even when he was in the South -and in the family and an ambitious menial, he influenced the language and -the imagination of his masters; the children were nursed at the breast -of black women, and in daily intercourse the master was thrown in the -company of Negroes more often than in the company of white people. - -From this servile work there went a natural development. The private -cook became the public cook in boarding houses, and restaurant keeper. -The butler became the caterer; the “Black Mammy” became the nurse, and -the work of all these in their various lines was of great influence. The -cooks and caterers led and developed the art of good-eating throughout -the South and particularly in cities like New Orleans and Charleston; -and in northern cities like Philadelphia and New York their methods of -cooking chicken and terrapin, their invention of ice cream and their -general good taste set a standard which has seldom been surpassed in the -world. Moreover, it gave economic independence to numbers of Negroes. It -enabled them to educate their children and it furnished to the abolition -movement a class of educated colored people with some money who were -able to help. After emancipation these descendants of the house servant -became the leading class of American Negroes. Notwithstanding the social -stigma connected with menial service and still lingering there, partially -because slaves and freedmen were so closely connected with it, it is -without doubt one of the most important of the Negro’s gifts to America. - -During the existence of slavery all credit for inventions was denied the -Negro slave as a slave could not take out a patent. Nevertheless Negroes -did most of the mechanical work in the South before the Civil War and -more than one suggestion came from them for improving machinery. We are -told that in Virginia: “The county records of the seventeenth century -reveal the presence of many Negro mechanics in the colony during that -period, this being especially the case with carpenters and coopers.”[61] - -As example of slave mechanics it is stated that among the slaves of -the first Robert Beverly was a carpenter valued at £30, and that Ralph -Wormeley, of Middlesex county, owned a cooper and a carpenter each valued -at £35. Colonel William Byrd mentions the use of Negroes in iron mining -in 1732. In New Jersey slaves were employed as miners, ironworkers, -sawmill hands, house and ship carpenters, wheelwrights, coopers, tanners, -shoemakers, millers and bakers, among other employments, before the -Revolutionary War. As early as 1708 there were enough slave mechanics -in Pennsylvania to make the freemen feel their competition severely. In -Massachusetts and other states we hear of an occasional artisan.[62] - -During the early part of the nineteenth century the Negro artisans -increased. The Spanish Governor Salcedo, early in the nineteenth century, -in trying to keep the province of Louisiana loyal to Spain, made the -militia officers swear allegiance and among them were two companies of -colored men from New Orleans “who composed all the mechanics which the -city possessed.”[63] - -Later, black refugees from San Domingo saved Louisiana from economic -ruin. Formerly, Louisiana had had prosperous sugar-makers; but these -industries had been dead for nearly twenty-five years when the attempt -to market sugar was revived. Two Spaniards erected near New Orleans, a -distillery and a battery of sugar kettles and began to manufacture rum -and syrup. They had little success until Etienne de Boré, a colored San -Dominican, appeared. “Face to face with ruin because of the failure -of the indigo crop, he staked his all on the granulation of sugar. He -enlisted the services of these successful San Dominicans and went to -work. In all American history there can be fewer scenes more dramatic -than the one described by careful historians of Louisiana, the day when -the final test was made and the electrical word was passed around, ‘It -granulates!’” - -De Boré sold $12,000 worth of sugar that year. Agriculture in the Delta -began to flourish and seven years later New Orleans was selling 2,000,000 -gallons of rum, 250,000 gallons of molasses and 5,000,000 pounds of -sugar. It was the beginning of the commercial reign of one of the great -commercial cities of America and it started with the black refugees from -San Domingo.[64] - -In the District of Columbia many “were superior mechanics.” Olmsted, in -his journeys through the slave states just before the Civil War, found -slave artisans in all the states. In Virginia they worked in tobacco -factories, ran steamboats, made barrels, etc. On a South Carolina -plantation he was told by the master that the Negro mechanic “exercised -as much skill and ingenuity as the ordinary mechanics that he was used -to employ in New England.” In Charleston and some other places they were -employed in cotton factories. In Alabama he saw a black carpenter—careful -and accurate calculator and excellent workman; he was bought for $2,000. -In Louisiana he was told that master mechanics often bought up slave -mechanics and acted as contractors. In Kentucky the slaves worked in -factories for hemp-bagging, and in iron work on the Cumberland river, and -also in tobacco factories. In the newspapers advertisements for runaway -mechanics were often seen, as, for instance a blacksmith in Texas, “very -smart”; a mason in Virginia, etc. In Mobile an advertisement read “good -blacksmiths and horseshoers for sale on reasonable terms.”[65] - -Such men naturally showed inventive genius, here and there. There is a -strong claim that the real credit for the invention of the cotton gin is -due to a Negro on the plantation where Eli Whitney worked. Negroes early -invented devices for handling sails, corn harvesters, and an evaporating -pan for refining sugar. In the United States patent office there is a -record of 1500 inventions made by Negroes and this is only a part of -those that should be credited to Negroes as the race of the inventor is -not usually recorded. - -In 1846 Norbert Rillieux, a colored man of Louisiana, invented and -patented a Vacuum pan which revolutionized the method of refining sugar. -He was a machinist and engineer of fine reputation, and devised a system -of sewerage for New Orleans which the city refused to accept because of -his color. - -Sydney W. Winslow, president of the United Shoe Machinery Company, laid -the foundation of his great organization by the purchase of an invention -by a native of Dutch Guiana named Jan E. Matzeliger. Matzeliger was the -son of a Negro woman and her husband, a Dutch engineer. He came to -America as a young man and worked as a cobbler in Philadelphia and Lynn. -He died in 1889 before he had realized the value of his invention. - -Matzeliger invented a machine for lasting shoes. It held the shoe on -the last, gripped and pulled the leather down around the sole and heel, -guided and drove the nails into place and released a completed shoe from -the machine. This patent was bought by Mr. Winslow and on it was built -the great United Shoe Machinery Company, which now has a capital stock -of more than twenty million dollars, and employs over 5,000 operatives -in factories covering 20 acres of ground. This business enterprise is -one of the largest in our country’s industrial development. Since the -formation of this company in 1890, the product of American shoe factories -has increased from $200,000,000 to $552,631,000, and the exportation of -American shoes from $1,000,000 to $11,000,000. This development is due to -the superiority of the shoes produced by machines founded on the original -Matzeliger type.[66] The cost of shoes has been cut in half, the quality -greatly improved, the wages of workers increased, the hours of labor -diminished, and all these factors have made “the Americans the best shod -people in the world.” - -After Matzeliger’s death his Negro blood was naturally often denied, but -in the shoe-making districts the Matzeliger type of machine is still -referred to as the “Nigger machine”; or the “Niggerhead” machine; and -“A certified copy of the death certificate of Matzeliger, which was -furnished the writer by William J. Connery, Mayor of Lynn, on October -23rd, 1912, states that Matzeliger was a mulatto.”[67] - -Elijah McCoy is the pioneer inventor of automatic lubricators for -machinery. He completed and patented his first lubricating cup in -1872 and since then has made some fifty different inventions relating -principally to the automatic lubrication of machinery. He is regarded -as the pioneer in the art of steadily supplying oil to machinery in -intermittent drops from a cup so as to avoid the necessity for stopping -the machine to oil it. His lubricating cup was in use for years on -stationary and locomotive machinery in the West including the great -railway locomotives, the boiler engines of the steamers on the Great -Lakes, on transatlantic steamships, and in many of our leading factories. -“McCoy’s lubricating cups were famous thirty years ago as a necessary -equipment in all up-to-date machinery, and it would be rather interesting -to know how many of the thousands of machinists who used them daily had -any idea then that they were the invention of a colored man.”[68] - -Another great Negro inventor was Granville T. Woods who patented more -than fifty devices relating to electricity. Many of his patents were -assigned to the General Electric Company of New York, the Westinghouse -Company of Pennsylvania, the American Bell Telephone Company of Boston -and the American Engineering Company of New York. His work and that of -his brother Liates Wood has been favorably mentioned in technical and -scientific journals. - -J. H. Dickinson and his son S. L. Dickinson of New Jersey have been -granted more than 12 patents for devices connected with player pianos. W. -B. Purvis of Philadelphia was an early inventor of machinery for making -paper bags. Many of his patents were sold to the Union Paper Bag Company -of New York. - -Today the Negro is an economic factor in the United States to a degree -realized by few. His occupations were thus grouped in 1920:[69] - -The men were employed as follows: - - in agriculture 1,566,627 - in extraction of minerals 72,892 - in manufacturing and mechanical industries 781,827 - in transportation 308,896 - in trade 129,309 - in public service 49,586 - in professional service 41,056 - in domestic and personal service 273,959 - in clerical occupations 28,710 - -The women were employed as follows: - - in agriculture 612,261 - in manufacturing and mechanical industries 104,983 - in trade 11,158 - in professional service 39,127 - in domestic and personal service 790,631 - in clerical occupations 8,301 - -A list of occupations in which at least 10,000 Negroes were engaged in -1920 is impressive: - - MALES - - Farmers 845,299 - Farm laborers 664,567 - Garden laborers 15,246 - Lumber men 25,400 - Coal miners 54,432 - Masons 10,606 - Carpenters 34,217 - Firemen (not locomotive) 23,152 - Laborers 127,860 - Laborers in chemical industries 17,201 - Laborers in cigar and tobacco factories 12,951 - Laborers in clay, glass and stone industries 18,130 - Laborers in food industries 24,638 - Laborers in iron and steel industries 104,518 - Laborers in lumber and furniture industries 103,154 - Laborers in cotton mills 10,182 - Laborers in other industries 80,583 - Machinists 10,286 - Semi-skilled operatives in food industries 11,160 - Semi-skilled operatives in iron and steel industries 22,916 - Semi-skilled operatives in other industries 14,745 - Longshoremen 27,206 - Chauffeurs 38,460 - Draymen 56,556 - Street laborers 35,673 - Railway laborers 99,967 - Delivery men 24,352 - Laborers in coal yards, warehouses, etc. 27,197 - Laborers, etc., in stores 39,446 - Retail dealers 20,390 - Laborers in public service 29,591 - Soldiers, sailors 12,511 - Clergymen 19,343 - Barbers, etc. 18,692 - Janitors 38,662 - Porters not in stores 59,197 - Servants 80,209 - Waiters 31,681 - Clerks except in stores 14,014 - Messengers 12,587 - - FEMALES - - Farmers 79,893 - Farm laborers 527,937 - Dressmakers and seamstresses 26,961 - Semi-skilled operatives in cigar and tobacco factories 13,446 - Teachers 29,244 - Hairdressers and manicurists 12,660 - Housekeepers and stewards 13,250 - Laundresses not in laundries 283,557 - Laundry operatives 21,084 - Midwives and nurses (not trained) 13,888 - Servants 401,381 - Waiters 14,155 - -This has been the gift of labor, one of the greatest that the Negro has -made to American nationality. It was in part involuntary, but whether -given willingly or not, it was given and America profited by the gift. -This labor was always of the highest economic and even spiritual -importance. During the World War for instance, the most important single -thing that America could do for the Allies was to furnish them with -materials. The actual fighting of American troops, while important, was -not nearly as important as American food and munitions; but this material -must not only be supplied, it must be transported, handled and delivered -in America and in France; and it was here that the Negro stevedore troops -behind the battle line—men who received no medals and little mention and -were in fact despised as all manual workers have always been despised,—it -was these men that made the victory of the Allies certain by their -desperately difficult but splendid work. The first colored stevedores -went over in June, 1917, and were followed by about 50,000 volunteers. To -these were added later nearly 200,000 drafted men. - -To all this we must add the peculiar spiritual contribution which the -Negro made to Labor. Always physical fact has its spiritual complement, -but in this case the gift is apt to be forgotten or slurred over. This -gift is the thing that is usually known as “laziness”. Again and again -men speak of the laziness of Negro labor and some suppose that slavery of -Negroes was necessary on that account; and that even in freedom Negroes -must be “driven”. On the other hand and in contradiction to this is the -fact that Negroes do work and work efficiently. In South Africa and in -Nigeria, in the Sudan and in Brazil, in the West Indies and all over -the United States Negro labor has accomplished tremendous tasks. One -of its latest and greatest tasks has been the building of the Panama -Canal. These two sets of facts, therefore, would seem to be mutually -contradictory, and many a northern manager has seen the contradiction -when, facing the apparent laziness of Negro hands, he has attempted to -drive them and found out that he could not and at the same time has -afterward seen someone used to Negro labor get a tremendous amount -of work out of the same gangs. The explanation of all this is clear -and simple: The Negro laborer has not been trained in modern organized -industry but rather in quite a different school. - -The European workman works long hours and every day in the week because -it is only in this way that he can support himself and family. With -the present organization of industry and methods of distributing the -results of industry any failure of the European workingman to toil hard -and steadily would mean either starvation or social disgrace through -the lowering of his standard of living. The Negro workingman on the -other hand came out of an organization of industry which was communistic -and did not call for unlimited toil on the part of the workers. There -was work and hard work to do, for even in the fertile tropical lands -the task of fighting weeds, floods, animals, insects and germs was no -easy thing. But on the other hand the distribution of products was much -simpler and fairer and the wants of the people were less developed. The -black tropical worker therefore looked upon work as a necessary evil -and maintained his right to balance the relative allurements of leisure -and satisfaction at any particular day, hour or season. Moreover in the -simple work-organization of tropical or semi-tropical life individual -desires of this sort did not usually disarrange the whole economic -process or machine.[70] - -The white laborer therefore brought to America the habit of regular, -continuous toil which he regarded as a great moral duty. The black -laborer brought the idea of toil as a necessary evil ministering to the -pleasure of life. While the gift of the white laborer made America rich, -or at least made many Americans rich, it will take the psychology of -the black man to make it happy. New and better organization of industry -and a clearer conception of the value of effort and a wider knowledge -of the process of production must come in, so as to increase the wage -of the worker and decrease rent, interest, and profit; and then the -black laborer’s subconscious contribution to current economics will be -recognized as of tremendous and increasing importance. - - - - -CHAPTER III - -BLACK SOLDIERS - - How the Negro fought in every American war for a cause that was - not his and to gain for others a freedom which was not his own. - - -1. COLONIAL WARS - -The day is past when historians glory in war. Rather, with all thoughtful -men, they deplore the barbarism of mankind which has made war so large a -part of human history. As long, however, as there are powerful men who -are determined to have their way by brute force, and as long as these -men can compel or persuade enough of their group, nation or race to -support them even to the limit of destruction, rape, theft and murder, -just so long these men will and must be opposed by force—moral force if -possible, physical force in the extreme. The world has undoubtedly come -to the place where it defends reluctantly such defensive war, but has no -words of excuse for offensive war, for the initiation of the program of -physical force. - -There is, however, one further consideration: the man in the ranks -has usually little chance to decide whether the war is defensive or -offensive, righteous or wrong. He is called upon to put life and limb -in jeopardy. He responds, sometimes willingly with uplifted soul and -high resolve, persuaded that he is under Divine command; sometimes by -compulsion and by the iron of discipline. In all cases he has by every -nation been given credit; and certainly the man who voluntarily lays -down his life for a cause which he has been led to believe is righteous -deserves public esteem, although the world may weep at his ignorance and -blindness. - -From the beginning America was involved in war because it was born in -a day of war. First, there were wars, mostly of aggression but partly -of self-defense, against the Indians. Then there was a series of wars -which were but colonial echoes of European brawls. Next the United States -fought to make itself independent of the economic suzerainty of England. -After that came the conquest of Mexico and the war for the Union which -resolved itself in a war against slavery, and finally the Spanish War and -the great World War. - -In all these wars the Negro has taken part. He cannot be blamed for -them so far as they were unrighteous wars (and some of them were -unrighteous), because he was not a leader: he was for the most part a -common soldier in the ranks and did what he was told. Yet in the majority -of cases he was not compelled to fight. He used his own judgment and he -fought because he believed that by fighting for America he would gain -the respect of the land and personal and spiritual freedom. His problem -as a soldier was always peculiar: no matter for what America fought and -no matter for what her enemies fought, the American Negro always fought -for his own freedom and for the self-respect of his race. Whatever the -cause of war, therefore, his cause was peculiarly just. He appears, -therefore, in American wars always with double motive,—the desire to -oppose the so-called enemy of his country along with his fellow white -citizens, and before that, the motive of deserving well of those citizens -and securing justice for his folk. In this way he appears in the earliest -times fighting with the whites against the Indians as well as with the -Indians against the whites, and throughout the history of the West Indies -and Central America as well as the Southern United States we find here -and there groups of Negroes fighting with the whites. For instance: in -Louisiana early in the eighteenth century when Governor Perier took -office, the colony was very much afraid of a combination between the -Choctaw Indians and the fierce Banbara Negroes who had begun to make -common cause with them. To offset this, Perier armed a band of slaves in -1729 and sent them against the Indians. He says: “The Negroes executed -their mission with as much promptitude as secrecy.” Later, in 1730, the -Governor sent twenty white men and six Negroes to carry ammunition to the -Illinois settlement up the Mississippi River. Perier says fifteen Negroes -“in whose hands we had put weapons performed prodigies of valor. If the -blacks did not cost so much and if their labor was not so necessary to -the colony it would be better to turn them into soldiers and to dismiss -those we have who are so bad and so cowardly that they seem to have -been manufactured purposely for this colony.” But this policy of using -the Negroes against the Indians led the Indians to retaliate and seek -alliance with the blacks and in August 1730, the Natchez Indians and the -Chickshaws conspired with the Negroes to revolt. The head of the revolt, -Samba, with eight of his confederates was executed before the conspiracy -came to a head. In 1733, when Governor Bienville returned to power, he -had an army consisting of 544 white men and 45 Negroes, the latter with -free black officers.[71] - -In the colonial wars which distracted America during the seventeenth and -early part of the eighteenth centuries the Negro took comparatively small -part because the institution of slavery was becoming more settled and -the masters were afraid to let their slaves fight. Notwithstanding this, -there were black freedmen who voted and were enrolled in the militia -and went to war, while some masters sent their slaves as laborers and -servants. As early as 1652 a law of Massachusetts as to the militia -required “Negro, Scotchmen and Indians” to enroll in the militia. -Afterward the policy was changed and Negroes and Indians were excluded -but Negroes often acted as sentinels at meeting-house doors. At other -times slaves ran away and enlisted as soldiers or as sailors, thus often -gaining their liberty. The New York _Gazette_ in 1760 advertises for a -slave who is suspected of having enlisted “in the provincial service.” In -1763 the Boston _Evening Post_ was looking for a Negro who “was a soldier -last summer.” One mulatto in 1746 is advertised for in the Pennsylvania -_Gazette_. He had threatened to go to the French and Indians and fight -for them. And in the Maryland _Gazette_, 1755, gentlemen are warned that -their slaves may run away to the French and Indians.[72] - - -2. THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR - -The estimates of the Negro soldiers who fought on the American side of -the Revolutionary War vary from four to six thousand, or one out of every -50 or 60 of the colonial troops. - -On August 24, 1778, the following report was made of Negroes in the -Revolutionary Army:[73] - - Sick On - Brigades Present Absent Command Total - - North Carolina 42 10 6 58 - Woodford 36 3 1 40 - Muhlenburg 64 26 8 98 - Smallwood 20 3 1 24 - 2nd Maryland 43 15 2 60 - Wayne 2 .. .. 2 - 2nd Pennsylvania 33 1 1 35 - Clinton 33 2 4 62 - Parsons 117 12 19 148 - Huntington 56 2 4 62 - Nixon 26 .. 1 27 - Paterson 64 13 12 89 - Late Learned 34 4 8 46 - Poor 16 7 4 27 - ---- ---- ---- ---- - Total 586 98 71 755 - - Alex. Scammell, _Adj. Gen._ - -This report does not include Negro soldiers enlisted in Rhode Island, -Connecticut, New York, New Hampshire and other States not mentioned nor -does it include those who were in the army at both earlier and later -dates. Other records prove that Negroes served in as many as 18 brigades. - -It was a Negro who in a sense began the actual fighting. In 1750 William -Brown of Framingham, Mass., advertised three times for “A Molatto Fellow -about 27 Years of Age, named _Crispas_, 6 Feet 2 Inches high, short -Curl’d Hair.” This runaway slave was the same Crispus Attucks who in -1779 led a mob on the 5th of March against the British soldiers in the -celebrated “Boston Massacre.” - -Much has been said about the importance and lack of importance of this -so-called “Boston Massacre.” Whatever the verdict of history may be, -there is no doubt that the incident loomed large in the eyes of the -colonists. Distinguished men were orators on the 5th of March for years -after, until that date was succeeded by the 4th of July. Daniel Webster -in his great Bunker Hill oration said: “From that moment we may date the -severance of the British Empire.” - -Possibly these men exaggerated the actual importance of a street brawl -between citizens and soldiers, led by a runaway slave; but there is no -doubt that the colonists, who fought for independence from England, -thought this occasion of tremendous importance and were nerved to great -effort because of it. - -Livermore says: “The presence of the British soldiers in King Street -excited the patriotic indignation of the people. The whole community was -stirred, and sage counsellors were deliberating and writing and talking -about the public grievances. But it was not for the ‘wise and prudent’ to -be first to act against the encroachments of arbitrary power. ‘A motley -rabble of saucy boys, Negroes and mulattoes, Irish Teagues and outlandish -Jack tars,’ (as John Adams described them in his plea in defense of the -soldiers) could not restrain their emotion or stop to enquire if what -they _must do_ was according to the letter of the law. Led by Crispus -Attucks, the mulatto slave, and shouting, ‘The way to get rid of these -soldiers is to attack the main guard; strike at the root; this is the -nest’; with more valor than discretion they rushed to King Street and -were fired upon by Captain Preston’s company. Crispus Attucks was the -first to fall; he and Samuel Gray and Jonas Caldwell were killed on -the spot. Samuel Maverick and Patrick Carr were mortally wounded. The -excitement which followed was intense. The bells of the town were rung. -An impromptu town meeting was held and an immense assembly gathered. -Three days after, on the 8th, a public funeral of the Martyrs took place. -The shops in Boston were closed and all the bells of Boston and the -neighboring towns were rung. It is said that a greater number of persons -assembled on this occasion than ever before gathered on this continent -for a similar purpose. The body of Crispus Attucks, the mulatto, had been -placed in Faneuil Hall with that of Caldwell, both being strangers in the -city. Maverick was buried from his mother’s house in Union Street, and -Gray from his brother’s in Royal Exchange Lane. The four hearses formed -a junction in King Street and then the procession marched in columns six -deep, with a long file of coaches belonging to the most distinguished -citizens, to the Middle Burying Ground, where the four victims were -deposited in one grave over which a stone was placed with the inscription: - - ‘Long as in Freedom’s cause the wise contend, - Dear to your country shall your fame extend; - While to the world the lettered stone shall tell - Where Caldwell, Attucks, Gray and Maverick fell.’ - - “The anniversary of this event was publicly commemorated in - Boston by an oration and other exercises every year until our - National Independence was achieved, when the Fourth of July - was substituted for the Fifth of March as the more proper day - for a general celebration. Not only was the event commemorated - but the martyrs who then gave up their lives were remembered - and honored.”[74] - -The relation of the Negro to the Revolutionary War was peculiar. If his -services were used by the Colonists this would be an excuse for the -English to use the Indians and to emancipate the slaves. If he were not -used not only was this source of strength to the small loyal armies -neglected but there still remained the danger that the English would bid -for the services of Negroes. At first then the free Negro went quite -naturally into the army as he had for the most part been recognized as -liable to military service. Then Congress hesitated and ordered that -no Negroes be enlisted. Immediately there appeared the determination -of the Negroes, whether deliberately arrived at or by the more or less -unconscious development of thought under the circumstances, to give their -services to the side which promised them freedom and decent treatment. -When therefore Governor Dunmore of Virginia and English generals like -Cornwallis and Clinton made a bid for the services of Negroes, coupled -with promises of freedom, they got considerable numbers and in the case -of Dunmore one Negro unit fought a pitched battle against the Colonists. - -The Continental Congress took up the question of Negroes in the Army -in September, 1775. A committee consisting of Lynch, Lee and Adams -reported a letter which they had drafted to Washington. Rutledge of South -Carolina moved that Washington be instructed to discharge all Negroes -whether slave or free from the army, but this was defeated. October 8th -Washington and other generals in council of war, agreed unanimously -that slaves should be rejected and a large majority declared that they -refuse free Negroes. October 18th, the question came up again before the -committee consisting of Benjamin Franklin, General Washington, certain -deputies, governors and others. This council agreed that Negroes should -be rejected and Washington issued orders to this effect November 12th, -1775. Meantime, however, Dunmore’s proclamation came and his later -success in raising a black regiment which greatly disturbed Washington. -In July, 1776, the British had 200 Negro soldiers on Long Island and -later two regiments of Negroes were raised by the British in North -Carolina. The South lost thousands of Negroes through the British. In -Georgia a corps of fugitives calling themselves the “King of England -Soldiers” kept attacking on both sides of the Savannah River even after -the Revolution and many feared a general insurrection of slaves. - -The colonists soon began to change their attitude. Late in 1775, -Washington reversed his decision and ordered his recruiting officers -to accept free Negroes who had already served in the army and laid the -matter before the Continental Congress. The Committee recommended that -these Negroes be reenlisted but no others. Various leaders advised that -it would be better to enlist the slaves, among them Samuel Hopkins, -Alexander Hamilton, General Greene, James Madison. Even John Laurens of -South Carolina tried to make the South accept the proposition.[75] - -Thus Negroes again were received into the American army and from that -time on they played important rôles. They had already distinguished -themselves in individual cases at Bunker Hill. For instance, fourteen -white officers sent the following statement to the Massachusetts -Legislature on December 5, 1775: “The subscribers beg leave to report to -your Honorable House (which we do in justice to the character of so brave -a man) that under our own observation we declare that a Negro man named -Salem Poor, of Colonel Frye’s regiment, Captain Ames’ company, in the -late battle at Charlestown, behaved like an experienced officer as well -as an excellent soldier. To set forth particulars of his conduct would -be tedious. We only beg leave to say, in the person of this said Negro, -centers a brave and gallant soldier. The reward due to so great and -distinguished a character we submit to the Congress.”[76] - -They afterward fought desperately in Long Island and at the battle of -Monmouth. Foreign travellers continually note the presence of Negroes in -the American army. - -Less known however is the help which the black republic of Haiti offered -to the struggling Colonists. In December 1778 Savannah was captured -by the British, and Americans were in despair until the French fleet -appeared on the coast of Georgia in September 1779. The fleet offered to -help recapture Savannah. It had on board 1900 French troops of whom 800 -were black Haitian volunteers. Among these volunteers were Christophe, -afterward king of Haiti, Rigaud, André, Lambert and others. They were a -significant and faithful band which began by helping freedom in America, -then turned and through the French revolution freed Haiti and finally -helped in the emancipation of South America. The French troops landed -below the city with the Americans at their right and together they made -an attack. American and French flags were planted on the British outposts -but their bearers were killed and a general retreat was finally ordered. -Seven hundred and sixty Frenchmen and 312 Americans were killed and -wounded. As the army began to retreat the British general attacked the -rear, determined to annihilate the Americans. It was then that the black -and mulatto freedmen from Haiti under the command of Viscount de Fontages -made the charge on the English and saved the retreating Americans. They -returned to Haiti to prepare eventually to make that country the second -one in America which threw off the domination of Europe.[77] - -Some idea of the number of Negro soldiers can be had by reference to -documents mentioning the action of the States. Rhode Island raised -a regiment of slaves, and Governor Cooke said that it was generally -thought that at least 300 would enlist. Four companies were finally -formed there at a cost of over £10,000. Most of the 629 slaves in New -Hampshire enlisted and many of the 15,000 slaves in New York. Connecticut -had Negroes in her regiments and also a regiment of colored soldiers. -Maryland sought in 1781 to raise 750 Negro troops. Massachusetts had -colored troops in her various units from 72 towns in that State. “In view -of these numerous facts it is safe to conclude that there were at least -4,000 Negro soldiers scattered throughout the Continental Army.”[78] - -In a debate in Congress in 1820 two men, one from the North and one -from the South, gave the verdict of that time on the value of the Negro -in the Revolutionary War. William Eustis of Massachusetts said: “The -war over and peace restored, these men returned to their respective -States, and who could have said to them on their return to civil life -after having shed their blood in common with the whites in the defense -of the liberties of the country, ‘You are not to participate in the -rights secured by the struggle or in the liberty for which you have been -fighting?’ Certainly no white man in Massachusetts.” - -Charles Pinckney of South Carolina said: that the Negroes, “then were, as -they still are, as valuable a part of our population to the Union as any -other equal number of inhabitants. They were in numerous instances the -pioneers and, in all, the laborers of your armies. To their hands were -owing the erection of the greatest part of the fortifications raised for -the protection of our country; some of which, particularly Fort Moultrie, -gave at that early period of the inexperience and untried valor of our -citizens, immortality to American arms: and, in the Northern States -numerous bodies of them were enrolled into and fought by the sides of the -whites, the battles of the Revolution.”[79] - -In 1779 in the war between Spain and Great Britain, the Spanish Governor -of Louisiana, Galvez, had in his army which he led against the British, -numbers of blacks and mulattoes who he said “behaved on all occasions -with as much valor and generosity as the whites.”[80] - - -3. THE WAR OF 1812 - -In the War of 1812 the Negro appeared not only as soldier but -particularly as sailor and in the dispute concerning the impressment -of American sailors which was one of the causes of the war, Negro -sailors repeatedly figured as seized by England and claimed as American -citizens by America for whose rights the nation was apparently ready to -go to war. For instance, on the Chesapeake were three Negro sailors -whom the British claimed but whom the Americans declared were American -citizens,—Ware, Martin and Strachen. As Bryant says: “The citizenship -of Negroes was sought and defended by England and America at this time -but a little later it was denied by the United States Supreme Court that -Negroes could be citizens.” On demand two of these Negroes were returned -to America by the British government; the other one died in England. - -Negroes fought under Perry and Macdonough. On the high seas Negroes were -fighting. Nathaniel Shaler, captain of a privateer, wrote to his agent in -New York in 1813: - -“Before I could get our light sails on and almost before I could -turn around, I was under the guns, not of a transport but of a large -frigate! And not more than a quarter of a mile from her.... Her first -broadside killed two men and wounded six others.... My officers conducted -themselves in a way that would have done honor to a more permanent -service.... The name of one of my poor fellows who was killed ought to be -registered in the book of fame, and remembered with reverence as long as -bravery is considered a virtue. He was a black man by the name of John -Johnson.... When America has such tars, she has little to fear from the -tyrants of the ocean.”[81] - -A few Negroes were in the northern armies. A Congressman said in 1828: “I -myself saw a battalion of them—as fine martial looking men as I ever saw -attached to the northern army in the last war (1812) on its march from -Plattsburg to Sacketts Harbor where they did service for the country with -credit to New York and honor to themselves.”[82] - -But it was in the South that they furnished the most spectacular instance -of participation in this war. Governor Claiborne appealed to General -Jackson to use colored soldiers. “These men, Sir, for the most part, -sustain good characters. Many of them have extensive connections and much -property to defend, and all seem attached to arms. The mode of acting -toward them at the present crisis, is an inquiry of importance. If we -give them not our confidence, the enemy will be encouraged to intrigue -and corrupt them.”[83] - -September 21, 1814, Jackson issued a spirited appeal to the free Negroes -of Louisiana: “Through a mistaken policy, you have heretofore been -deprived of a participation in the glorious struggle for national rights -in which our country is engaged. This no longer shall exist. - -“As sons of freedom, you are now called upon to defend our most -inestimable blessing. As Americans, your country looks with confidence to -her adopted children for a valorous support as a faithful return for the -advantages enjoyed under her mild and equitable government. As fathers, -husbands and brothers, you are summoned to rally around the standard of -the Eagle, to defend all which is dear in existence.... In the sincerity -of a soldier and the language of truth I address you.”[84] - -He promised them the same bounty as whites and they were to have colored -non-commissioned officers. There was some attempt to have Jackson tone -down this appeal and say less of “equality,” but he refused to change his -first draft. - -The news of this proclamation created great surprise in the North but not -much criticism. Indeed, things were going too badly for the Americans. -The Capitol at Washington had been burned, the State of Maine was in -British hands, enlistment had stopped and Northern States like New York -were already arming Negroes. The Louisiana legislature, a month after -Jackson’s proclamation, passed an act authorizing two regiments of “men -of color” by voluntary enlistment. Slaves were allowed to enlist and were -publicly manumitted for their services. There were 3200 white and 430 -colored soldiers in the battle of New Orleans. The first battalion of 280 -Negroes was commanded by a white planter, La Coste; a second battalion -of 150 was raised by Captain J. B. Savary, a colored man, from the San -Dominican refugees, and commanded by Major Daquin who was probably a -quadroon. - -Besides these soldiers slaves were used in throwing up the famous cotton -bale ramparts, which saved the city, and this was the idea of a black -slave from Africa, who had seen the same thing done at home. Colored men -were used to reconnoitre, and the slave trader Lafitte brought a mixed -band of white and black fighters to help. Curiously enough there were -also Negroes on the other side, Great Britain having imported a regiment -from the West Indies which was at the head of the attacking column moving -against Jackson’s right, together with an Irish regiment. Conceive this -astounding anomaly! - -The American Negro soldiers were stationed very near Jackson and his -staff. Jackson himself in an address to the soldiers after the battle, -complimenting the “embodied militia,” said: - -“To the Men of Color.—Soldiers! From the shores of Mobile I collected -you to arms,—I invited you to share in the perils and to divide the -glory of your white countrymen. I expected much from you; for I was not -uninformed of those qualities which must render you so formidable to an -invading foe. I knew that you could endure hunger and thirst and all the -hardships of war. I knew that you loved the land of your nativity and -that, like ourselves, you had to defend all that is most dear to man. But -you surpass my hopes. I have found in you, united to these qualities, -that noble enthusiasm which impels to great deeds.”[85] - -In the celebration of the victory which followed in the great public -square, the Place d’Armes, now Jackson Square, the colored troops shared -the glory and the wounded prisoners were met by colored nurses.[86] - - -4. THE CIVIL WAR - -There were a few Negroes in the Mexican War but they went mostly as -body servants to white officers and there were probably no soldiers and -certainly no distinct Negro organizations. The Negro, therefore, shares -little of the blood guilt of that unhallowed raid for slave soil. - -At the time of the Civil War when the call came for volunteers free -Negroes everywhere offered their services to the Northern States and -everywhere their services were declined. Indeed, it was almost looked -upon as insolence that they should offer to fight in this “white man’s -war.” Not only was the war to be fought by white men but desperate effort -was made to cling to the technical fact that this was a war to save the -Union and not a war against slavery. Federal officials and northern -army officers made effort to reassure the South that they were not -abolitionists and that they were not going to touch slavery.[87] - -Meantime there began to crystallize the demand that the real object of -the war be made the abolition of slavery and that the slaves and colored -men in general be allowed to fight for freedom. - -This met bitter opposition. The New York _Herald_ voiced this August -5, 1862. “The efforts of those who love the Negro more than the Union -to induce the President to swerve from his established policy are -unavailing. He will neither be persuaded by promises nor intimidated -by threats. Today he was called upon by two United States Senators -and rather peremptorily requested to accept the services of two Negro -regiments. They were flatly and unequivocally rejected. The President -did not appreciate the necessity of employing the Negroes to fight the -battles of the country and take the positions which the white men of -the nation, the voters, and sons of patriotic sires, should be proud to -occupy; there were employments in which the Negroes of rebel masters -might well be engaged, but he was not willing to place them upon an -equality with our volunteers who had left home and family and lucrative -occupations to defend the Union and the Constitution while there were -volunteers or militia enough in the loyal States to maintain the -Government without resort to this expedient. If the loyal people were not -satisfied with the policy he had adopted, he was willing to leave the -administration to other hands. One of the Senators was impudent enough to -tell the President he wished to God he would resign.” - -In the spring of 1862 General Hunter was sent into South Carolina -with less than 11,000 men and charged with the duty of holding the -whole seacoast of Georgia, South Carolina and Florida. He asked for -re-enforcement but was told frankly from Washington, “Not a man from the -North can be spared.” The only way to guard the position was to keep -long lines of entrenchment thrown up against the enemy. General Hunter -calmly announced his intention of forming a Negro regiment to help him. -They were to be paid as laborers by the quartermaster but he expected -eventually to have them recognized as soldiers by the government. At -first he could find no officers. They were shocked at being asked to -command “niggers.” Even non-commissioned officers were difficult to find. -But eventually the regiment was formed and became an object of great -curiosity when on parade. Reports of the first South Carolina infantry -were sent to Washington but there was no reply. Then suddenly the matter -came up in Congress and Hunter was ordered to explain whether he had -enlisted fugitive slaves and upon what authority. Hunter immediately sent -a sharp reply: - -“To the first question, therefore, I reply: That no regiment of ‘fugitive -slaves’ has been, or is being, organized in this department. There is, -however, a fine regiment of loyal persons whose late masters are fugitive -rebels—men who everywhere fly before the appearance of the National flag, -leaving their loyal and unhappy servants behind them, to shift as best -they can for themselves. So far, indeed, are the loyal persons composing -the regiment from seeking to evade the presence of their late owners, -that they are now one and all endeavoring with commendable zeal to -acquire the drill and discipline requisite to place them in a position -to go in full and effective pursuit of their fugacious and traitorous -proprietors. - -“The experiment of arming the blacks, so far as I have made it, has been -a complete and even marvellous success. They are sober, docile, attentive -and enthusiastic, displaying great natural capacities in acquiring the -duties of the soldier. They are now eager beyond all things to take the -field and be led into action; and it is the unanimous opinion of the -officers who have had charge of them, that in the peculiarities of this -climate and country, they will prove invaluable auxiliaries, fully equal -to the similar regiments so long and so successfully used by the British -authorities in the West India Islands. - -“In conclusion, I would say, it is my hope—there appearing no possibility -of other reinforcements, owing to the exigencies of the campaign in -the peninsula—to have organized by the end of next fall and to be able -to present to the government from 48,000 to 50,000 of these hardy and -devoted soldiers.”[88] - -The reply was read in Congress amid laughter despite the indignation of -the Kentucky Congressman who instituted the inquiry. - -Protests now came from the South but no answer was forthcoming and -despite all the agitation the regiment remained until at last Hunter was -officially ordered to raise 50,000 black laborers of whom 5,000 might be -armed and dressed as soldiers. - -Horace Greeley stated the case clearly August 20, 1862 in his “Prayer of -Twenty Million”:[89] - -“On the face of this wide earth, Mr. President, there is not one -disinterested, determined, intelligent champion of the Union cause who -does not feel that all attempts to put down the rebellion and at the -same time uphold its inciting cause are preposterous and futile—that -the rebellion if crushed out tomorrow would be renewed within a year if -slavery were left in full vigor—that army officers who remain to this day -devoted to slavery can at best be but half-way loyal to the Union—and -that every hour of deference to slavery is an hour of added and deepened -peril to the Union.... - -“I close as I began, with the statement that what an immense majority -of the loyal millions of your countrymen require of you is a frank, -declared, unqualified, ungrudging execution of the laws of the land, more -especially of the Confiscation Act. That Act gives freedom to the slaves -of rebels coming within our lines or whom those lines may at any time -enclose,—we ask you to render it due obedience by publicly requiring all -your subordinates to recognize and obey it. The rebels are everywhere -using the late anti-Negro riots in the North—as they have long used your -officers’ treatment of Negroes in the South—to convince the slaves that -they have nothing to hope from a Union success—that we mean in that case -to sell them into bitter bondage to defray the cost of the war. Let them -impress this as a truth on the great mass of their ignorant and credulous -bondsmen, and the Union will never be restored—never. We cannot conquer -ten millions of people united in solid phalanx against us, powerfully -aided by northern sympathizers and European allies. We must have scouts, -guides, spies, cooks, teamsters, diggers and choppers from the blacks of -the South—whether we allow them to fight for us or not—or we shall be -baffled and repelled.” - -A month later, September 22, Abraham Lincoln issued the preliminary -Emancipation Proclamation. He had considered this step before and his -final decision was caused, first, by a growing realization of the immense -task that lay before the Union armies and, secondly, by the fear that -Europe was going to recognize the Confederacy, since she saw as between -North and South little difference in attitude toward slavery. - -The effect of the step was undoubtedly decisive for ultimate victory, -although at first it spread dismay. Six of the Northern States went -Democratic in the fall elections and elsewhere the Republicans lost -heavily. In the army some officers resigned and others threatened to -because “The war for the Union was changed into a war for the Negro.” - -In the South men like Beauregard urged the raising of the “Black Flag” -while Jefferson Davis in his third annual message wrote: “We may well -leave it to the instincts of that common humanity which a beneficent -Creator has implanted in the breasts of our fellowmen of all countries to -pass judgment on a measure by which several millions of human beings of -an inferior race, peaceful and contented laborers in their sphere, are -doomed to extermination.”[90] - -With emancipation foreshadowed the full recognition of the Negro soldier -was inevitable. In September 1862 came a black Infantry Regiment from -Louisiana and later a regiment of heavy artillery and by the end of -1862 four Negro regiments had enlisted. Immediately after the signing -of the Emancipation Proclamation came the Kansas Colored volunteers and -the famous 54th Massachusetts Regiment. A Bureau was established in -Washington to handle the colored enlistments and before the end of the -war 178,975 Negroes had enlisted. - -“In the Department [of War] the actual number of Negroes enlisted was -never known, from the fact that a practice prevailed of putting a live -Negro in a dead one’s place. For instance, if a company on picket or -scouting lost ten men, the officer would immediately put ten new men in -their places and have them answer to the dead men’s names. I learn from -very reliable sources that this was done in Virginia, also in Missouri -and Tennessee. If the exact number of men could be ascertained, instead -of 180,000 it would doubtless be in the neighborhood of 220,000 who -entered the ranks of the army.”[91] - -General orders covering the enlistment of Negro troops were sent out from -the War Department October 13, 1863. The Union League in New York city -raised 2,000 black soldiers in 45 days, although no bounty was offered -them and no protection promised their families. The regiment had a -triumphal march through the city and a daily paper stated: “In the month -of July last the homes of these people were burned and pillaged by an -infuriated political mob; they and their families were hunted down and -murdered in the public streets of this city; and the force and majesty -of the law were powerless to protect them. Seven brief months have passed -and a thousand of these despised and persecuted men marched through the -city in the garb of the United States soldiers, in vindication of their -own manhood and with the approval of a countless multitude—in effect -saving from inevitable and distasteful conscription the same number of -those who hunted their persons and destroyed their homes during those -days of humiliation and disgrace. This is noble vengeance—a vengeance -taught by Him who commanded, ‘Love them that hate you; do good to them -that persecute you.’” - -The enlistment of Negroes caused difficulty and friction among the -white troops. In South Carolina General Gilmore had to forbid the white -troops using Negro troops for menial service in cleaning up the camps. -Black soldiers in uniform often had their uniforms stripped off by white -soldiers. - -“I attempted to pass Jackson Square in New Orleans one day in my uniform -when I was met by two white soldiers of the 24th Conn. They halted me and -then ordered me to undress. I refused, when they seized me and began to -tear my coat off. I resisted, but to no good purpose; a half dozen others -came up and began to assist. I recognized a sergeant in the crowd, an -old shipmate on board of a New Bedford, Mass., whaler; he came to my -rescue, my clothing was restored and I was let go. It was nothing strange -to see a black soldier _à la_ Adam come into the barracks out of the -streets.”[92] This conduct led to the killing of a portion of a boat’s -crew of the U. S. Gunboat Jackson, at Ship Island, Miss., by members of a -Negro regiment stationed there. - -Then, too, there was contemptible discrimination in pay. While white -soldiers received $13 a month and clothing, Negro soldiers, by act of -Congress, were given $10 a month with $3 deducted for clothing, leaving -only $7 a month as actual pay. This was only remedied when the 54th -Massachusetts Infantry refused all pay for a year until it should be -treated as other regiments. The State of Massachusetts made up the -difference between the $7 and $13 to disabled soldiers until June 16, -1864, when the government finally made the Negroes’ pay equal to that of -the whites. - -On the Confederate side there was a movement to use Negro soldiers -fostered by Judah Benjamin, General Lee and others. In 1861 a Negro -company from Nashville offered its services to the Confederate states and -free Negroes of Memphis were authorized by the Committee of Safety to -organize a volunteer company. Companies of free Negroes were raised in -New Orleans,—“Very well drilled and comfortably uniformed.” In Richmond -colored troops were also raised in the last days. Few if any of these -saw actual service. Plantation hands from Alabama built the redoubts -at Charleston, and Negroes worked as teamsters and helpers throughout -the South. In February, 1864, the Confederate congress provided for the -impressment of 20,000 slaves for menial service, and President Davis -suggested that the number be doubled and that they be emancipated at -the end of their service. Before the war started local authorities -had in many cases enrolled free Negroes as soldiers and some of these -remained in the service of the Confederacy. The adjutant general of -the Louisiana militia issued an order which said “the Governor and the -Commander-in-Chief, relying implicitly upon the loyalty of the free -colored population of the city and State, for the protection of their -homes, their property and for southern rights, from the population of -a ruthless invader, and believing that the military organization which -existed prior to February 15, 1862, and elicited praise and respect for -the patriotic motives which prompted it, should exist for and during the -war, calls upon them to maintain their organization and hold themselves -prepared for such orders as may be transmitted to them.” These native -guards did not leave the city when the Confederates did and explained to -General Butler that they dared not refuse to work with the Confederates -and that they hoped by their service to gain greater equality with -the whites and that they would be glad now to join the Union forces. -Two weeks after the fall of Sumter colored volunteers passed through -Georgia on their way to Virginia. There were 16 or more companies. In -November, 1861, a regiment of 1,400 free colored men were in the line of -march at New Orleans. The idea of calling the Negroes grew as the power -of the Confederacy waned and the idea of emancipation as compensation -spread. President Davis said “Should the alternative ever be presented -of subjugation or of the employment of slaves as soldiers there seems no -reason to doubt what should be our decision.” - -There was, of course, much difference of opinion. General Cobb said “If -slaves make good soldiers our whole theory of slavery is wrong,” while -a Georgian replied “Some say that Negroes will not fight, I say they -will fight. They fought at Ocean Pond, Honey Hill and other places.” -General Lee, in January ’64, gave as his opinion that they should employ -them without delay. “I believe with proper regulations they may be made -efficient soldiers.” He continued, “Our chief aim should be to secure -their fidelity. There have been formidable armies composed of men having -no interest in the cause for which they fought beyond their pay or the -hope of plunder. But it is certain that the surest foundation upon which -the fidelity of an army can rest, especially in a service which imposes -hardships and privations, is the personal interest of the soldier in the -issue of the contest. Such an interest we can give our Negroes by giving -immediate freedom to all who enlist, and freedom at the end of the war to -the families of those who discharge their duties faithfully (whether they -survive or not), together with the privilege of residing at the South. To -this might be added a bounty for faithful service.” - -Finally, March 13, 1865, it was directed that slaves be enrolled in the -Confederate army, each state to furnish its quota of 300,000. Recruiting -officers were appointed, but before the plan could be carried out Lee and -Johnson surrendered.[93] - -The central fact which we forget in these days is that the real question -in the minds of most white people in the United States in 1863 was -whether or not the Negro really would fight. The generation then living -had never heard of the Negro in the Revolution and in the War of 1812, -much less of his struggles and insurrections before. From 1820 down to -the time of the war a determined and far-reaching propaganda had led most -men to believe in the natural inferiority, cowardice and degradation of -the Negro race. We have already seen Abraham Lincoln suggest that if arms -were put into the hands of the Negro soldier it might be simply a method -of arming the rebels. The New York _Times_ discussed the matter soberly, -defending the right to employ Negroes but suggesting four grounds which -might make it inexpedient; that Negroes would not fight, that prejudice -was so strong that whites would not fight with them, that no free Negroes -would volunteer and that slaves could not be gotten hold of and that the -use of Negroes would exasperate the South. “The very best thing that can -be done under existing circumstances, in our judgment, is to possess our -souls in patience while the experiment is being tried. The problem will -probably speedily solve itself—much more speedily than heated discussion -or harsh criminations can solve it.” - -This was in February 16, 1863. It was not long before the results of -using Negro troops began to be reported and we find the _Times_ saying -editorially on the 31st of July: “Negro soldiers have now been in -battle at Port Hudson and at Milliken’s Bend in Louisiana; at Helena -in Arkansas, at Morris Island in South Carolina, and at or near Fort -Gibson in the Indian Territory. In two of these instances they assaulted -fortified positions and led the assault; in two they fought on the -defensive, and in one they attacked rebel infantry. In all of them -they acted in conjunction with white troops and under command of white -officers. In some instances they acted with distinguished bravery, and in -all they acted as well as could be expected of raw troops.” - -On the 11th of February, 1863, the news columns of the _Times_ were still -more enthusiastic. “It will not need many such reports as this—and there -have been several before it—to shake our inveterate Saxon prejudice -against the capacity and courage of Negro troops. Everybody knows -that they were used in the Revolution, and in the last war with Great -Britain fought side by side with white troops, and won equal praises -from Washington and Jackson. It is shown also that black sailors are on -equal terms with their white comrades. If on the sea, why not on the -land? No officer who has commanded black troops has yet reported against -them. They are tried in the most unfavorable and difficult circumstances, -but never fail. When shall we learn to use the full strength of the -formidable ally who is only waiting for a summons to rally under the flag -of the Union? Colonel Higginson says: ‘No officer in this regiment now -doubts that the successful prosecution of this war lies in the unlimited -employment of black troops.’ The remark is true in a military sense, and -it has a still deeper political significance. - -“When General Hunter has scattered 50,000 muskets among the Negroes of -the Carolinas, and General Butler has organized the 100,000 or 200,000 -blacks for whom he may perhaps shortly carry arms to New Orleans, the -possibility of restoring the Union as it was, with slavery again its -dormant power, will be seen to have finally passed away. The Negro is -indeed the key to success.” - -The Negroes began to fight and fight hard; but their own and peculiar -characteristics stood out even in the blood of war. A Pennsylvania -Major wrote home: “I find that these colored men learn everything that -pertains to the duties of a soldier much faster than any white soldiers -I have ever seen.... They are willing, obedient, and cheerful; move with -agility, and are full of music.”[94] - -Certain battles, carnivals of blood, stand out and despite their horror -must not be forgotten. One of the earliest encounters was the terrible -massacre at Fort Pillow, April 18, 1863. The fort was held with a -garrison of 557 men, of whom 262 were colored soldiers of the 6th United -States Heavy Artillery. The Union commander refused to surrender. - -“Upon receiving the refusal of Major Booth to capitulate, Forrest gave -a signal and his troops made a frantic charge upon the fort. It was -received gallantly and resisted stubbornly, but there was no use of -fighting. In ten minutes the enemy, assaulting the fort in the centre, -and striking it on the flanks, swept in. The Federal troops surrendered; -but an indiscriminate massacre followed. Men were shot down in their -tracks; pinioned to the ground with bayonet and sabre. Some were clubbed -to death while dying of wounds; others were made to get down upon their -knees, in which condition they were shot to death. Some were burned -alive, having been fastened into the buildings, while still others were -nailed against the houses, tortured and then burned to a crisp.”[95] - -May 27, 1863, came the battle of Port Hudson. “Hearing the firing -apparently more fierce and continuous to the right than anywhere else, -I turned in that direction, past the sugar house of Colonel Chambers, -where I had slept, and advanced to near the pontoon bridge across the Big -Sandy Bayou, which the Negro regiments had erected, and where they were -fighting most desperately. I had seen these brave and hitherto despised -fellows the day before as I rode along the lines, and I had seen General -Banks acknowledge their respectful salute as he would have done that of -any white troops; but still the question was—with too many—‘Will they -fight?’ - -“General Dwight, at least, must have had the idea, not only that they -were men, but something more than men, from the terrific test to which -he put their valor. Before any impression had been made upon the -earthworks of the enemy, and in full face of the batteries belching forth -their 62-pounders, these devoted people rushed forward to encounter -grape, canister, shell, and musketry, with no artillery but two small -howitzers—that seemed mere popguns to their adversaries—and no reserve -whatever. - -“Their force consisted of the 1st Louisiana Native Guards (with colored -field officers) under Lieutenant-Colonel Bassett, and the 3d Louisiana -Native Guards, Colonel Nelson (with white field officers), the whole -under command of the latter officer. - -“On going into action they were 1,080 strong, and formed into four lines, -Lieutenant-Colonel Bassett, 1st Louisiana, forming the first line, and -Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Finnegas the second. When ordered to charge up -the works, they did so with the skill and nerve of old veterans (black -people, be it remembered who had never been in action before). Oh, but -the fire from the rebel guns was so terrible upon the unprotected masses, -that the first few shots mowed them down like grass and so continued. - -“Colonel Bassett being driven back, Colonel Finnegas took his place, -and his men being similarly cut to pieces, Lieutenant-Colonel Bassett -reformed and recommenced; and thus these brave people went in from -morning until 3:30 P.M., under the most hideous carnage that men ever -had to withstand, and that very few white ones would have had nerve to -encounter, even if ordered to. - -“During this time, they rallied, and were ordered to make six distinct -charges, losing 37 killed, and 155 wounded, and 116 missing,—the -majority, if not all, of these being, in all probability, now lying dead -on the gory field, and without the rites of sepulture; for when, by flag -of truce, our forces in other directions were permitted to reclaim their -dead, the benefit, through some neglect, was not extended to these black -regiments. - -“The deeds of heroism performed by these colored men were such as the -proudest white men might emulate. Their colors are torn to pieces by -shot and literally bespattered by blood and brains. The color-sergeant -of the 1st Louisiana, on being mortally wounded, hugged the colors to -his breast, when a struggle ensued between the two color-corporals on -each side of him, as to who should have the honor of bearing the sacred -standard, and during this generous contention one was seriously wounded. -One black lieutenant actually mounted the enemy’s works three or four -times, and in one charge the assaulting party came within fifty paces of -them. Indeed, if only ordinarily supported by artillery and reserve, no -one can convince us that they would not have opened a passage through the -enemy’s works. - -“Captain Callioux of the 1st Louisiana, a man so black that he actually -prided himself upon his blackness, died the death of a hero, leading on -his men in the thickest of the fight.”[96] - -In July 13, 1863, came the draft riot in New York when the daily papers -told the people that they were called upon to fight the battles of -“niggers and abolitionists,” when the governor did nothing but “request” -the rioters to await the report of his demand that the President suspend -the draft. Meantime the city was given over to rapine and murder, -property destroyed, Negroes killed and the colored orphans’ asylum burned -to the ground and property robbed and pillaged. - -At that very time in South Carolina black soldiers were preparing to take -Fort Wagner, their greatest battle. It will be noted that continually -Negroes were called upon to rescue lost causes, many times as a sort of -deliberate test of their courage. Fort Wagner was a case in point. The -story may be told from two points of view, that of the white Unionist and -that of the Confederate. The Union account says: - -“The signal given, our forces advanced rapidly towards the fort, while -our mortars in the rear tossed their bombs over their heads. The 54th -Massachusetts (a Negro Regiment) led the attack, supported by the 6th -Connecticut, 48th New York, 3rd New Hampshire, 76th Pennsylvania, and -the 9th Maine Regiments.... The silent and shattered walls of Wagner -all at once burst forth into a blinding sheet of vivid light, as though -they had suddenly been transformed by some magic power into the living, -seething crater of a volcano! Down came the whirlwind of destruction -along the beach with the swiftness of lightning! How fearfully the -hissing shot, the shrieking bombs, the whistling bars of iron, and the -whispering bullet struck and crushed through the dense masses of our -brave men! I never shall forget the terrible sound of that awful blast of -death, which swept down, shattered or dead, a thousand of our men. Not -a shot had missed its aim. Every bolt of steel, every globe of iron and -lead, tasted of human blood.... - -“In a moment the column recovered itself, like a gallant ship at sea when -buried for an instant under the immense wave. - -“The ditch is reached; a thousand men leap into it, clamber up the -shattered ramparts, and grapple with the foe, which yields and falls back -to the rear of the fort. Our men swarm over the walls, bayoneting the -desperate rebel cannoneers. Hurrah! the fort is ours! - -“But now came another blinding blast from concealed guns in the rear of -the fort, and our men went down by scores.... The struggle is terrific. -Our supports hurry up to the aid of their comrades, but as they reach the -ramparts they fire a volley which strikes down many of our men. Fatal -mistake! Our men rally once more; but, in spite of an heroic resistance, -they are forced back again to the edge of the ditch. Here the brave Shaw, -with scores of his black warriors, went down, fighting desperately.” - -When asking for the body of Colonel Shaw, a confederate major said: “We -have buried him with his niggers.” - -The Confederate account is equally eloquent. - -“The carnage was frightful. It is believed the Federals lost more men on -that eventful night than twice the entire strength of the Confederate -garrison.... According to the statement of Chaplain Dennison the -assaulting columns, in two brigades, commanded by General Strong and -Colonel Putnam (the division under General Seymour), consisted of the -54th Massachusetts, 3rd and 7th New Hampshire, 6th Connecticut and 100th -New York, with a reserve brigade commanded by General Stephenson. One of -the assaulting regiments was composed of Negroes (the 54th Massachusetts) -and to it was assigned the honor of leading the white columns to the -charge. It was a dearly purchased compliment. Their Colonel (Shaw) was -killed upon the parapet and the regiment almost annihilated, although -the Confederates in the darkness could not tell the color of their -assailants.”[97] - -At last it was seen that Negro troops could do more than useless or -helpless or impossible tasks, and in the siege of Petersburg they were -put to important work. When the general attack was ordered on the 16th of -June, 1864, a division of black troops was used. The Secretary of War, -Stanton himself, saw them and said: - -“The hardest fighting was done by the black troops. The forts they -stormed were the worst of all. After the affair was over General Smith -went to thank them, and tell them he was proud of their courage and dash. -He says they cannot be exceeded as soldiers, and that hereafter he will -send them in a difficult place as readily as the best white troops.”[98] - -It was planned to send the colored troops under Burnside against the -enemy after the great mine was exploded. Inspecting officers reported to -Burnside that the black division was fitted for this perilous work. The -white division which was sent made a fiasco of it. Then, after all had -been lost Burnside was ready to send in his black division and though -they charged again and again they were repulsed and the Union lost over -4,000 men killed, wounded and captured. - -All the officers of the colored troops in the Civil War were not white. -From the first there were many colored non-commissioned officers, and -the Louisiana regiments raised under Butler had 66 colored officers, -including one Major and 27 Captains, besides the full quota of -non-commissioned colored officers. In the Massachusetts colored troops -there were 10 commissioned Negro officers and 3 among the Kansas troop. -Among these officers was a Lieutenant-Colonel Reed of North Carolina, -who was killed in battle. In Kansas there was Captain H. F. Douglas, and -in other United States’ volunteer regiments were Major M. H. Delaney -and Captain O. S. B. Wall; Dr. A. T. Augusta, surgeon, was brevetted -Lieutenant-Colonel. The losses of Negro troops in the Civil War, killed, -wounded and missing has been placed at 68,178. - -Such was the service of the Negro in the Civil War. Men say that the -nation gave them freedom, but the verdict of history is written on the -Shaw monument at the head of Boston Common: - - THE WHITE OFFICERS - - Taking Life and Honor in their Hands—Cast their lot with - Men of a Despised Race Unproved in War—and Risked Death as - Inciters of a Servile Insurrection if Taken Prisoners, Besides - Encountering all the Common Perils of Camp, March, and Battle. - - THE BLACK RANK AND FILE - - Volunteered when Disaster Clouded the Union Cause—Served - without Pay for Eighteen Months till Given that of White - Troops—Faced Threatened Enslavement if Captured—Were Brave in - Action—Patient under Dangerous and Heavy Labors and Cheerful - amid Hardships and Privations. - - TOGETHER - - They Gave to the Nation Undying Proof that Americans of African - Descent Possess the Pride, Courage, and Devotion of the Patriot - Soldier—One Hundred and Eighty Thousand Such Americans Enlisted - Under the Union Flag in MDCCCLXIII-MDCCCLXV. - - -5. THE WAR IN CUBA - -In the Spanish-American War four Negro regiments were among the first -to be ordered to the front. They were the regular army regiments, 24th -and 25th Infantry, and the 9th and 10th Cavalry. President McKinley -recommended that new regiments of regular army troops be formed among -Negroes but Congress took no action. Colored troops with colored officers -were formed as follows: The 3rd North Carolina, the 8th Illinois, the 9th -Battalion, Ohio and the 23rd Kansas. Regiments known as the Immunes, -being immune to Yellow fever, were formed with colored lieutenants and -white captains and field officers, and called the 7th, 8th, 9th and -10th United States Volunteers. In addition to those there were the -6th Virginia with colored lieutenants and the 3rd Alabama with white -officers. Indiana had two companies attached to the 8th Immunes. None -of the Negro volunteer companies reached the front in time to take part -in battle. The 8th Illinois formed a part of the Army of Occupation and -was noted for its policing and cleaning up of Santiago. Colonel John R. -Marshall, commanding the 8th Illinois, and Major Charles Young, a regular -army commander, both colored, were in charge of the battalion. - -The colored regular army regiments took a brilliant part in the war. -The first regiment ordered to the front was the 24th Infantry. Negro -soldiers were in the battles around Santiago. The Tenth Cavalry made an -effective attack at Las Quasimas and at El Caney on July 1 they saved -Roosevelt’s Rough Riders from annihilation. The 24th Infantry volunteered -in the Yellow fever epidemic and cleaned the camp in one day. _Review of -Reviews_ says: “One of the most gratifying incidents of the Spanish War -has been the enthusiasm that the colored regiments of the regular army -have aroused throughout the whole country. Their fighting at Santiago -was magnificent. The Negro soldiers showed excellent discipline, the -highest qualities of personal bravery, very superior physical endurance, -unfailing good temper, and the most generous disposition toward all -comrades-in-arms, whether white or black. Roosevelt’s Rough Riders have -come back singing the praises of the colored troops. There is not a -dissenting voice in the chorus of praise.... Men who can fight for their -country as did these colored troops ought to have their full share of -gratitude and honor.” - - -6. CARRIZAL - -In 1916 the United States sent a punitive expedition under General -Pershing into Mexico in pursuit of the Villa forces which had raided -Columbus, New Mexico. Two Negro regiments, the 10th Cavalry and the 24th -Infantry, were a part of his expedition. On June 21, Troop C and K of -the 10th Cavalry were ambushed at Carrizal by some 700 Mexican soldiers. -Although outnumbered almost ten to one, these black soldiers dismounted -in the face of a withering machine-gun fire, deployed, charged the -Mexicans and killed their commander. - -This handful of men fought on until, of the three officers commanding -them, two were killed and one was badly wounded. Seventeen of the men -were killed and twenty-three were made prisoners. One of the many -outstanding heroes of this memorable engagement was Peter Bigstaff, who -fought to the last beside his commander, Lieutenant Adair. A Southern -white man, with no love for blacks, wrote: - -“The black trooper might have faltered and fled a dozen times, saving -his own life and leaving Adair to fight alone. But it never seemed to -occur to him. He was a comrade to the last blow. When Adair’s broken -revolver fell from his hand the black trooper pressed another into it, -and together, shouting in defiance, they thinned the swooping circle of -overwhelming odds before them. - -“The black man fought in the deadly shambles side by side with the white -man, following always, fighting always as his lieutenant fought. - -“And finally, when Adair, literally shot to pieces, fell in his tracks, -his last command to his black trooper was to leave him and save his life. -Even then the heroic Negro paused in the midst of that Hell of carnage -for a final service to his officer. Bearing a charmed life, he had -fought his way out. He saw that Adair had fallen with his head in the -water. With superb loyalty the black trooper turned and went back to the -maelstrom of death, lifted the head of his superior, leaned him against a -tree and left him there dead with dignity when it was impossible to serve -any more. - -“There is not a finer piece of soldierly devotion and heroic comradeship -in the history of modern warfare than that of Henry Adair and the black -trooper who fought by him at Carrizal.”[99] - - -7. THE WORLD WAR - -Finally we come to the World War the history of which is not yet written. -At first and until the United States entered the war the Negro figured -as a laborer and a great exodus took place from the South as we have -already noted. Some effort was made to keep the Negro from the draft but -finally he was called and although constituting less than a tenth of the -population he furnished 13% of the soldiers called to the colors. The -registry for the draft had insulting color discriminations and determined -effort was made to confine Negroes to stevedore and labor regiments under -white officers. Most of the Negro draftees were thus sent to the Service -of Supplies where they were largely under illiterate whites and suffered -greatly. Finally a camp for training Negro officers was established and -nearly 700 Negroes commissioned, none of them, however, above the rank of -captain; Charles Young, the highest ranking Negro graduate of West Point -and one of the best officers in the army was kept from the front, because -being already a colonel with a distinguished record he would surely have -become a general if sent to France. - -Two Negro divisions were planned, the 92nd and the 93rd. The 93rd was to -be composed of the Negro National Guard regiments all of whom had some -and one all Negro officers. The latter division was never organized as -a complete division but four of its regiments were sent to France and -encountered bitter discrimination from the Americans on account of their -Negro officers. They were eventually brigaded with the French and saw -some of the hardest fighting of the war in the final drive toward Sedan. -They were cited in General Orders as follows by General Goybet:[100] - - “In transmitting to you with legitimate pride the thanks and - congratulations of the General Garnier Duplessis, allow me, my - dear friends of all ranks, Americans and French, to thank you - from the bottom of my heart as a chief and a soldier for the - expression of gratitude for the glory which you have lent our - good 157th Division. I had full confidence in you but you have - surpassed my hopes. - - “During these nine days of hard fighting you have progressed - nine kilometers through powerful organized defenses, taken - nearly 600 prisoners, 15 guns of different calibers, 20 - minnewerfers, and nearly 150 machine guns, secured an enormous - amount of engineering material, an important supply of - artillery ammunition, brought down by your fire three enemy - aeroplanes. - - “Your troops have been admirable in their attack. You must be - proud of the courage of your officers and men; and I consider - it an honor to have them under my command. - - “The bravery and dash of your regiment won the admiration of - the 2nd Moroccan Division who are themselves versed in warfare. - Thanks to you, during those hard days, the Division was at all - times in advance of all other divisions of the Army Corps. I am - sending you all my thanks and beg you to transmit them to your - subordinates. - - “I called on your wounded. Their morale is higher than any - praise. - - GOYBET.” - -The 92nd Division encountered difficulties in organization and was never -assembled as a Division until it arrived in France. There it was finally -gotten in shape and took a small part in the Argonne offensive and in the -fight just preceding the armistice. Their Commanding General said:[101] - -“Five months ago today the 92nd Division landed in France. - -“After seven weeks of training, it took over a sector in the front line, -and since that time some portion of the Division has been practically -continuously under fire. - -“It participated in the last battle of the war with creditable success, -continuously pressing the attack against highly organized defensive -works. It advanced successfully on the first day of the battle, -attaining its objectives and capturing prisoners. This in the face of -determined opposition by an alert enemy, and against rifle, machine-gun -and artillery fire. The issue of the second day’s battle was rendered -indecisive by the order to cease firing at eleven A.M.—when the armistice -became effective.” - -With the small chance thus afforded Negro troops nevertheless made a -splendid record and especially those under Negro officers. If they had -had larger opportunity and less organized prejudice they would have -done much more. Perhaps their greatest credit is from the fact that -they withstood so bravely and uncomplainingly the barrage of hatred -and offensive prejudice aimed against them. The young Negro officers -especially made a splendid record as to thinking, guiding leaders of an -oppressed group. - -Thus has the black man defended America from the beginning to the World -War. To him our independence from Europe and slavery is in no small -degree due. - - - - -CHAPTER IV - -THE EMANCIPATION OF DEMOCRACY - - How the black slave by his incessant struggle to be free has - broadened the basis of democracy in America and in the world. - - -Help in exploration, labor unskilled and to some extent skilled, and -fighting, have been the three gifts which so far we have considered as -having been contributed by black folk to America. We now turn to a matter -more indefinite and yet perhaps of greater importance. - -Without the active participation of the Negro in the Civil War, the -Union could not have been saved nor slavery destroyed in the nineteenth -century.[102] Without the help of black soldiers, the independence of -the United States could not have been gained in the eighteenth century. -But the Negro’s contribution to America was at once more subtle and -important than these things. Dramatically the Negro is the central thread -of American history. The whole story turns on him whether we think of -the dark and flying slave ship in the sixteenth century, the expanding -plantations of the seventeenth, the swelling commerce of the eighteenth, -or the fight for freedom in the nineteenth. It was the black man that -raised a vision of democracy in America such as neither Americans nor -Europeans conceived in the eighteenth century and such as they have not -even accepted in the twentieth century; and yet a conception which every -clear sighted man knows is true and inevitable. - - -1. DEMOCRACY - -Democracy was not planted full grown in America. It was a slow growth -beginning in Europe and developing further and more quickly in America. -It did not envisage at first the man farthest down as a participant in -democratic privilege or even as a possible participant. This was not -simply because of the inability of the ignorant and degraded to express -themselves and act intelligently and efficiently, but it was a failure -to recognize that the mass of men had any rights which the better class -were bound to respect. Thus democracy to the world first meant simply -the transfer of privilege and opportunity from waning to waxing power, -from the well-born to the rich, from the nobility to the merchants. -Divine Right of birth yielded the Divine Right of wealth. Growing -industry, business and commerce were putting economic and social power -into the hands of what we call the middle class. Political opportunity -to correspond with this power was the demand of the eighteenth century -and this was what the eighteenth century called Democracy. On the -other hand, both in Europe and in America, there were classes, and -large classes, without power and without consideration whose place in -democracy was inconceivable both to Europeans and Americans. Among -these were the agricultural serfs and industrial laborers of Europe and -the indentured servants and black slaves of America. The white serfs, -as they were transplanted in America, began a slow, but in the end, -effective agitation for recognition in American democracy. And through -them has risen the modern American labor movement. But this movement -almost from the first looked for its triumph along the ancient paths of -aristocracy and sought to raise the white servant and laborer on the -backs of the black servant and slave. If now the black man had been -inert, unintelligent, submissive, democracy would have continued to mean -in America what it means so widely still in Europe, the admission of the -powerful to participation in government and privilege in so far and only -in so far as their power becomes irresistible. It would not have meant a -recognition of human beings as such and the giving of economic and social -power to the powerless. - -It is usually assumed in reading American history that whatever the -Negro has done for America has been passive and unintelligent, that he -accompanied the explorers as a beast of burden and accomplished whatever -he did by sheer accident; that he labored because he was driven to -labor and fought because he was made to fight. This is not true. On the -contrary, it was the rise and growth among the slaves of a determination -to be free and an active part of American democracy that forced American -democracy continually to look into the depths; that held the faces of -American thought to the inescapable fact that as long as there was a -slave in America, America could not be a free republic; and more than -that: as long as there were people in America, slave or nominally free, -who could not participate in government and industry and society as -free, intelligent human beings, our democracy had failed of its greatest -mission. - -This great vision of the black man was, of course, at first the vision -of the few, as visions always are, but it was always there; it grew -continuously and it developed quickly from wish to active determination. -One cannot think then of democracy in America or in the modern world -without reference to the American Negro. The democracy established in -America in the eighteenth century was not, and was not designed to be, a -democracy of the masses of men and it was thus singularly easy for people -to fail to see the incongruity of democracy and slavery. It was the -Negro himself who forced the consideration of this incongruity, who made -emancipation inevitable and made the modern world at least consider if -not wholly accept the idea of a democracy including men of all races and -colors. - - -2. INFLUENCE ON WHITE THOUGHT - -Naturally, at first, it was the passive presence of the Negro with his -pitiable suffering and sporadic expression of unrest that bothered -the American colonists. Massachusetts and Connecticut early in the -seventeenth century tried to compromise with their consciences by -declaring that there should be no slavery except of persons “willingly -selling themselves” or “sold to us.” And these were to have “All the -liberties and Christian usages which the law of God established in -Israel.” Massachusetts even took a strong stand against proven “man -stealing”; but it was left to a little band of Germans in Pennsylvania, -in 1688, to make the first clear statement the moment they looked upon -a black slave: “Now, though they are black, we cannot conceive there is -more liberty to have them slaves than it is to have other white ones. -There is a saying that we shall do to all men like as we will be done to -ourselves, making no difference of what generation, descent or color they -are. Here is liberty of conscience which is right and reasonable. Here -ought also to be liberty of the body.”[103] - -In the eighteenth century, Sewall of Massachusetts attacked slavery. -From that time down until 1863 man after man and prophet after prophet -spoke against slavery and they spoke not so much as theorists but as -people facing extremely uncomfortable facts. Oglethorpe would keep -slavery out of Georgia because he saw how the strength of South Carolina -went to defending themselves against possible slave insurrection rather -than to defending the English colonies against the Spanish. The matter -of baptizing the heathen whom slavery was supposed to convert brought -tremendous heart searchings and argument and disputations and explanatory -laws throughout the colonies. Contradictory benevolences were evident as -when the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel sought to convert the -Negroes and American legislatures sought to make the perpetual slavery of -the converts sure. - -The religious conscience, especially as it began to look upon America -as a place of freedom and refuge, was torn by the presence of slavery. -Late in the eighteenth and early in the nineteenth centuries pressure -began to be felt from the more theoretical philanthropists of Europe -and the position of American philanthropists was made correspondingly -uncomfortable. Benjamin Franklin pointed out some of the evils of -slavery; James Otis inveighing against England’s economic tyranny -acknowledged the rights of black men. Patrick Henry said that slavery -was “repugnant to the first impression of right and wrong” and George -Washington hoped slavery might be abolished. Thomas Jefferson made the -celebrated statement: “Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect -that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever; that considering -numbers, nature, and natural means only, a revolution of the wheel of -fortune, an exchange of situation, is among possible events; that it -may become probable by supernatural interference! The Almighty has no -attribute which can take side with us in such a contest.”[104] - -Henry Laurens said to his son: “You know, my dear son, I abhor slavery. -I was born in a country where slavery had been established by British -kings and parliaments, as well as by the laws of that country ages before -my existence. I found the Christian religion and slavery growing under -the same authority and cultivation. I nevertheless disliked it. In former -days there was no combating the prejudices of men supported by interest; -the day I hope is approaching when, from principles of gratitude as well -as justice, every man will strive to be foremost in showing his readiness -to comply with the golden rule.”[105] - -The first draft of the Declaration of Independence harangued King George -III of Britain for the presence of slavery in the United States: - -“He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most -sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who -never offended him; captivating and carrying them into slavery in another -hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. -This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of Infidel powers, is the warfare -of the Christian king of Great Britain. Determined to keep open market -where men should be bought and sold, he has prostituted his negative for -suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this -execrable commerce. And, that this assemblage of horrors might want no -fact of distinguished die, he is now exciting those very people to rise -in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of which he has deprived -them, by murdering the people on whom we also obtruded them; thus paying -off former crimes committed against the liberties of one people with -crimes which he urges them to commit against the lives of another.”[106] - -The final draft of the Declaration said: “We hold these truths to be -self-evident:—that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by -their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, -liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, -governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the -consent of the governed.” - -It was afterward argued that Negroes were not included in this general -statement and Judge Taney in his celebrated decision said in 1857: - -“They had for more than a century before been regarded as beings of -an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white -race, either in social or political relations; and so far inferior that -they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect; and that -the Negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his -benefit....”[107] - -This _obiter dictum_ was disputed by equally learned justices. Justice -McLean said in his opinion: - -“Our independence was a great epoch in the history of freedom; and while -I admit the Government was not made especially for the colored race, -yet many of them were citizens of the New England States, and exercised -the rights of suffrage when the Constitution was adopted; and it was -not doubted by any intelligent person that its tendencies would greatly -ameliorate their condition.”[108] - -Justice Curtis also said: - -“It has been often asserted, that the Constitution was made exclusively -by and for the white race. It has already been shown that in five of the -thirteen original States, colored persons then possessed the elective -franchise and were among those by whom the Constitution was ordained -and established. If so, it is not true, in point of fact, that the -Constitution was made exclusively by the white race. And that it was made -exclusively for the white race is, in my opinion, not only an assumption -not warranted by anything in the Constitution, but contradicted by its -opening declaration, that it was ordained and established by the people -of the United States, for themselves and their posterity. And, as free -colored persons were then citizens of at least five States, they were -among those for whom and whose posterity the Constitution was ordained -and established.”[109] - -After the Revolution came the series of State acts abolishing slavery, -beginning with Vermont in 1777; and then came the pause and retrogression -followed by the slow but determined rise of the Cotton Kingdom. But even -in that day the prophets protested. Hezekiah Niles said in 1819: “We are -ashamed of the thing we practice; ... there is no attribute of Heaven -that takes part with us, and we know it. And in the contest that must -come, and will come, there will be a heap of sorrows such as the world -has rarely seen.”[110] While the wild preacher, Lorenzo Dow, raised his -cry from the wilderness even in Alabama and Mississippi, saying: “In -the rest of the Southern States the influence of these Foreigners will -be known and felt in its time, and the seeds from the HORY ALLIANCE -and the DECAPIGANDI, who have a hand in those grades of Generals, from -the Inquisitor to the Vicar General and down.... The STRUGGLE will be -DREADFUL! The CUP will be BITTER! and when the agony is over, those who -survive may see better days! FAREWELL!”[111] Finally came William Lloyd -Garrison and John Brown. - - -3. INSURRECTION - -It may be said, and it usually has been said, that all this showed -the natural conscience and humanity of white Americans protesting and -eventually triumphing over political and economic temptations. But to -this must be added the inescapable fact that the attitude, thought and -action of the Negro himself was in the largest measure back of this heart -searching, discomfort and warning; and first of all was the physical -force which the Negro again and again and practically without ceasing -from the first days of the slave trade down to the war of emancipation, -used to effect his own freedom. - -We must remember that the slave trade itself was war; that from -surreptitious kidnapping of the unsuspecting it was finally organized so -as to set African tribes warring against tribes, giving the conquerors -the actual aid of European or Arabian soldiers and the tremendous -incentive of high prices for results of successful wars through the -selling of captives. The captives themselves fought to the last ditch. -It is estimated that every single slave finally landed upon a slave -ship meant five corpses either left behind in Africa or lost through -rebellion, suicide, sickness, and murder on the high seas. This which is -so often looked upon as passive calamity was one of the most terrible and -vindictive and unceasing struggles against misfortune that a group of -human beings ever put forth. It cost Negro Africa perhaps sixty million -souls to land ten million slaves in America. - -The first influence of the Negro on American Democracy was naturally -force to oppose force—revolt, murder, assassination coupled with running -away. It was the primitive, ancient effort to avenge blood with blood, -to bring good out of evil by opposing evil with evil. Whether right or -wrong, effective or abortive, it is the human answer to oppression which -the world has tried for thousands of years. - -Two facts stand out in American history with regard to slave -insurrections: on the one hand, there is no doubt of the continuous -and abiding fear of them. The slave legislation of the Southern States -is filled with ferocious efforts to guard against this. Masters were -everywhere given peremptory and unquestioned power to kill a slave or -even a white servant who should “resist his master.” The Virginia law of -1680 said: “If any Negro or other slave shall absent himself from his -master’s service and lie, hide and lurk in obscure places, committing -injuries to the inhabitants, and shall resist any person or persons that -shall by lawful authority be employed to apprehend and take the said -Negro, that then, in case of such resistance, it shall be lawful for -such person or persons to kill the said Negro or slave so lying out and -resisting.”[112] - -In 1691 and in 1748, there were Virginia acts to punish conspiracies and -insurrections of slaves. In 1708 and in 1712 New York had laws against -conspiracies and insurrections of Negroes. North Carolina passed such -a law in 1741, and South Carolina in 1743 was legislating “against the -insurrection and other wicked attempts of Negroes and other slaves.” The -Mississippi code of 1839 provides for slave insurrections “with arms in -the intent to regain their liberty by force.” Virginia in 1797 decreed -death for any one exciting slaves to insurrection. In 1830 North Carolina -made it a felony to incite insurrection among slaves. The penal code of -Texas, passed in 1857, had a severe section against insurrection.[113] - -Such legislation, common in every slave state, could not have been based -on mere idle fear, and when we follow newspaper comment, debates and -arguments and the history of insurrections and attempted insurrections -among slaves, we easily see the reason. No sooner had the Negroes landed -in America than resistance to slavery began. - -As early as 1503 the Governor of Hispaniola stopped the transportation -of Negroes “because they fled to the Indians and taught them bad manners -and they could never be apprehended.” In 1518 in the sugar mills of Haiti -the Negroes “quit working and fled whenever they could in squads and -started rebellions and committed murders.” In 1522 there was a rebellion -on the sugar plantations. Twenty Negroes from Diego Columbus’ mill fled -and killed several Spaniards. They joined with other rebellious Negroes -on neighboring plantations. In 1523 many Negro slaves “fled to the -Zapoteca and walked rebelliously through the country.” In 1527 there was -an uprising of Indians and Negroes in Florida. In 1532 the Wolofs and -other rebellious Negroes caused insurrection among the Carib Indians. -These Wolofs were declared to be “haughty, disobedient, rebellious and -incorrigible.” In 1548 there was a rebellion in Honduras and the Viceroy -Mendoza in Mexico writes of an uprising among the slaves and Indians -in 1537.[114] One of the most remarkable cases of resistance was the -establishment and defense of Palmares in Brazil where 40 determined -Negroes in 1560 established a city state which lived for nearly a half -century growing to a population of 20,000 and only overthrown when 7,000 -soldiers with artillery were sent against it. The Chiefs committed -suicide rather than surrender.[115] - -Early in the sixteenth century and from that time down until the -nineteenth the black rebels whom the Spanish called “Cimarrones” and whom -we know as “Maroons” were infesting the mountains and forests of the -West Indies and South America. Gage says between 1520 and 1530: “What -the Spaniards fear most until they get out of these mountains are two -or three hundred Negroes, Cimarrones, who for the bad treatment they -received have fled from masters in order to resort to these woods; there -they live with their wives and children and increase in numbers every -year, so that the entire force of Guatemala (City) and its environments -is not capable to subdue them.” Gage himself was captured by a mulatto -corsair who was sweeping the seas in his own ship.[116] - -The history of these Maroons reads like romance.[117] When England took -Jamaica, in 1565, they found the mountains infested with Maroons whom -they fought for ten years and finally, in 1663, acknowledged their -freedom, gave them land and made their leader, Juan de Bolas, a colonel -in the militia. He was killed, however, in the following year and from -1664 to 1778 some 3,000 black Maroons were in open rebellion against -the British Empire. The English fought them with soldiers, Indians, and -dogs and finally again, in 1738, made a formal treaty of peace with -them, recognizing their freedom and granting them 25,000 acres of land. -The war again broke out in 1795 and blood-hounds were again imported. -The legislature wished to deport them but as they could not get their -consent, peace was finally made on condition that the Maroons surrender -their arms and settle down. No sooner, however, had they done this -than the whites treacherously seized 600 of them and sent them to Nova -Scotia. The Legislature voted a sword to the English general, who made -the treaty; but he indignantly refused to accept it. Eventually these -Maroons were removed to Sierra Leone where they saved that colony to the -British by helping them put down an insurrection. - -In the United States insurrection and attempts at insurrection among -the slaves extended from Colonial times down to the Civil War. For the -most part they were unsuccessful. In many cases the conspiracies were -insignificant in themselves but exaggerated by fear of the owners. And -yet a record of the attempts at revolt large and small is striking. - -In Virginia there was a conspiracy in 1710 in Surrey County. In 1712 the -City of New York was threatened with burning by slaves. In 1720 whites -were attacked in the homes and on the streets in Charleston, S. C. In -1730 both in South Carolina and Virginia, slaves were armed to kill the -white people and they planned to burn the City of Boston in 1723. In -1730 there was an insurrection in Williamsburg, Va., and five counties -furnished armed men. In 1730 and 1731 homes were burned by slaves in -Massachusetts and in Rhode Island and in 1731 and 1732 three ships crews -were murdered by slaves. In 1729 the Governor of Louisiana reported that -in an expedition sent against the Indians, fifteen Negroes had “performed -prodigies of valor.” But the very next year the Indians, led by a -desperate Negro named Samba, were trying to exterminate the whites.[118] -In 1741 an insurrection of slaves was planned in New York City, for which -thirteen slaves were burned, eighteen hanged and eighty transported. In -1754 and 1755 slaves burned and poisoned certain masters in Charleston, -S. C.[119] - - -4. HAITI AND AFTER - -On the night of August 23, 1791, the great Haitian rebellion took -place. It had been preceded by a small rebellion of the mulattoes who -were bitterly disappointed at the refusal of the planters to assent to -what the free Negroes thought were the basic principles of the French -Revolution. When 450,000 slaves joined them, they began a murderous -civil war seldom paralleled in history. French, English and Spaniards -participated. Toussaint, the first great black leader, was deceived, -imprisoned and died perhaps by poisoning. Twenty-five thousand French -soldiers were sent over by Napoleon Bonaparte to subdue the Negroes and -begin the extension of his American empire through the West Indies and up -the Mississippi valley. Despite all this, the Negroes were triumphant, -established an independent state, made Napoleon give up his dream -of American empire and sell Louisiana for a song:[120] “Thus, all of -Indian Territory, all of Kansas and Nebraska and Iowa and Wyoming and -Montana and the Dakotas, and most of Colorado and Minnesota, and all -of Washington and Oregon states, came to us as the indirect work of a -despised Negro. Praise if you will, the work of Robert Livingston or a -Jefferson, but today let us not forget our debt to Toussaint L’Ouverture -who was indirectly the means of America’s expansion by the Louisiana -Purchase of 1803.”[121] - -The Haitian revolution immediately had its effect upon both North and -South America. We have read how Haitian volunteers helped in the American -revolution. They returned to fight for their own freedom. Afterward when -Bolivar, the founder of five free republics in South America, undertook -his great rebellion in 1811 he at first failed. He took refuge in -Jamaica and implored the help of England but was unsuccessful. Later in -despair he visited Haiti. The black republic was itself at that time in -a precarious position and had to act with great caution. Nevertheless -President Pétion furnished Bolivar, soldiers, arms and money. Bolivar -embarked secretly and again sought to free South America. Again he -failed and a second time returned to Haiti. Money and reinforcements -were a second time furnished him and with the help of these achieved the -liberation of Mexico and Central America. - -Thus black Haiti not only freed itself but helped to kindle liberty -all through America. Refugees from Haiti and San Domingo poured into -the United States both colored and white and had great influence in -Maryland and Louisiana.[122] Moreover the news of the black revolt -filtered through to the slaves in the United States. Here the chains of -slavery were stronger and the number of whites much larger. As I have -said in another place: “A long, awful process of selection chose out the -listless, ignorant, sly and humble and sent to heaven the proud, the -vengeful and the daring. The old African warrior spirit died away of -violence and a broken heart.”[123] - -Nevertheless a series of attempted rebellions took place which can be -traced to the influence of Haiti. In 1800 came the Prosser conspiracy -in Virginia which planned a force of 11,000 Negroes to march in three -columns in the city and seize the arsenal. A terrific storm thwarted -these men and thirty-six were executed for the attempt. In 1791 Negroes -of Louisiana sought to imitate Toussaint leading to the execution of -twenty-three slaves. Other smaller attempts were made in South Carolina -in 1816 and in Georgia in 1819. In 1822 came the celebrated attempt of -Denmark Vesey, an educated freedman who through his trade as carpenter -accumulated considerable wealth. He spoke French and English and was -familiar with the Haitian revolution, the African Colonization scheme -and the agitation attending the Missouri compromise. He openly discussed -slavery and ridiculed the slaves for their cowardice and submission; he -worked through the church and planned the total annihilation of the men, -women and children of Charleston. Thousands of slaves were enrolled but -one betrayed him and this led to the arrest of 137 blacks of whom 35 were -hanged and 37 banished. A white South Carolinian writing after this plot -said: “We regard our Negroes as the Jacobins of the country, against whom -we should always be upon our guard and who although we fear no permanent -effects from any insurrectionary movements on their part, should be -watched with an eye of steady and unremitted observation.”[124] - -Less than ten years elapsed before another insurrection was planned and -partially carried through. Its leader was Nat Turner, a slave born in -Virginia in 1800. He was precocious and considered as “marked” by the -Negroes. He had experimented in making paper, gun powder and pottery; -never swore, never drank and never stole. For the most part he was a -sort of religious devotee, fasting and praying and reading the Bible. -Once he ran away but was commanded by spirit voices to return. By 1825 -he was conscious of a great mission and on May 12, 1831, “a great voice -said unto him that the serpent was loosed, that Christ had laid down -the yoke.” He believed that he, Nat Turner, was to lead the movement -and that “the first should be last and the last first.” An eclipse of -the sun in February, 1831 was a further sign to him. He worked quickly. -Gathering six friends together August 21, they made their plans and then -started the insurrection by killing Nat’s master and the family. About -forty Negroes were gathered in all and they killed sixty-one white men, -women and children. They were headed toward town when finally the whites -began to arm in opposition. It was not, however, until two months later, -October 30, that Turner himself was captured. He was tried November 5 and -sentenced to be hanged. When asked if he believed in the righteousness -of his mission he replied “Was not Christ crucified?” He made no -confession.[125] - -T. R. Grey—Turner’s attorney—said “As to his ignorance, he certainly -had not the advantages of education, but he can read and write and for -natural intelligence and quickness of apprehension is surpassed by -few men I have ever seen. Further the calm, deliberate composure with -which he spoke of his late deeds and intentions, the expression of his -fiend-like face when excited by enthusiasm; still bearing the stains of -the blood of helpless innocence about him; clothed with rags and covered -with chains, yet daring to raise his manacled hands to heaven; with a -spirit soaring above the attributes of man, I looked on him and my blood -curdled in my veins.”[126] - -Panic seized the whole of Virginia and the South. Military companies -were mobilized, both whites and Negroes fled to the swamps, slaves were -imprisoned and even as far down as Macon, Ga., the white women and -children were guarded in a building against supposed insurrections. -New slave codes were adopted, new disabilities put upon freedmen, the -carrying of fire arms was especially forbidden. The Negro churches in -the South were almost stopped from functioning and the Negro preachers -from preaching. Traveling and meeting of slaves was stopped, learning to -read and write was forbidden and incendiary pamphlets hunted down. Free -Negroes were especially hounded, sold into slavery or driven out and a -period of the worst oppression of the Negro in the land followed. - -In 1839 and 1841 two cases of mutiny of slaves on the high seas caused -much commotion in America. In 1839 a schooner, the Amistad, started -from Havana for another West Indian port with 53 slaves. Led by a black -man, Cinque, the slaves rose, killed the captain and some of the crew, -allowed the rest of the crew to escape and put the two owners in irons. -The Negroes then tried to escape to Africa, but after about two months -they landed in Connecticut and a celebrated law case arose over the -disposition of the black mutineers which went to the Supreme Court of -the United States. John Quincy Adams defended them and won his case. -Eventually money was raised and the Negroes returned to Africa. While -this case was in the court the brig Creole in 1841 sailed from Richmond -to New Orleans with 130 slaves. Nineteen of the slaves mutinied and -led by Madison Washington took command of the vessel and sailed to the -British West Indies. Daniel Webster demanded the return of the slaves -but the British authorities refused. - -During these years, rebellion and agitation among Negroes, and agitation -among white friends in Europe, was rapidly freeing the Negroes of the -West Indies and beginning their incorporation into the body politic—a -process not yet finished but which means possibly the eventual -development of a free black and mulatto republic in the isles of the -Caribbean. - -It may be said that in most of these cases the attempts of the Negro to -rebel were abortive, and this is true. Yet it must be remembered that in -a few cases they had horrible success; in others nothing but accident or -the actions of favorite slaves saved similar catastrophe, and more and -more the white South had the feeling that it was sitting upon a volcano -and that nothing but the sternest sort of repression would keep the Negro -“in his place.” The appeal of the Negro to force invited reaction and -retaliation not only in the South, as we have noted, but also in the -North. Here the common white workingman and particularly the new English, -Scotch and Irish immigrants entirely misconceived the writhing of the -black man. These white laborers, themselves so near slavery, did not -recognize the struggle of the black slave as part of their own struggle; -rather they felt the sting of economic rivalry and underbidding for home -and job; they easily absorbed hatred and contempt for Negroes as their -first American lesson and were flattered by the white capitalists, slave -owners and sympathizers with slavery into lynching and clubbing their -dark fellow victims back into the pit whence they sought to crawl. It was -a scene for angels’ tears. - -In 1826 Negroes were attacked in Cincinnati and also in 1836 and 1841. At -Portsmouth, Ohio, nearly one-half of the Negroes were driven out of the -city in 1830 while mobs drove away free Negroes from Mercer County, Ohio. -In Philadelphia, Negroes were attacked in 1820, 1830 and 1834, having -their churches and property burned and ruined. In 1838 there was another -anti-Negro riot and in 1842, when the blacks attempted to celebrate -abolition in the West Indies. Pittsburg had a riot in 1839 and New York -in 1843 and 1863.[127] - -Thus we can see that the fear and heart searchings and mental upheaval of -those who saw the anomaly of slavery in the United States was based not -only upon theoretical democracy but on force and fear of force as used -by the degraded blacks, and on the reaction of that appeal on southern -legislatures and northern mobs. - - -5. THE APPEAL TO REASON - -The appeal of the Negro to democracy, however, was not entirely or -perhaps even principally an appeal of force. There was continually the -appeal to reason and justice. Take the significant case of Paul Cuffee of -Massachusetts, born in 1759, of a Negro father and Indian mother. When -the selectmen of the town of Dartmouth refused to admit colored children -to the public schools, or even to make separate provision for them, he -refused to pay his school taxes. He was duly imprisoned, but when freed -he built at his own expense a school house and opened it to all without -race discrimination. His white neighbors were glad to avail themselves of -this school as it was more convenient and just as good as the school in -town. The result was that the colored children were soon admitted to all -schools. Cuffee was a ship owner and trader, and afterward took a colony -to Liberia at his own expense.[128] Again Prince Hall, the Negro founder -of the African Lodge of Masons which the English set up in 1775, aroused -by the revolution in Haiti and a race riot in Boston said in 1797: - -“Patience, I say, for were we not possessed of a great measure of it you -could not bear up under the daily insults you meet with in the streets -of Boston; much more on public days of recreation, how are you shamefully -abused, and that at such a degree that you may truly be said to carry -your lives in your own hands.... - -“My brethren, let us not be cast down under these and many other abuses -we at present labor under; for the darkest hour is before the break of -day. My brethren, let us remember what a dark day it was with our African -brethren six years ago, in the French West Indies.... But blessed be to -God, the scene is changed, they now confess that God hath no respect of -persons, and therefore receive them as their friends and treat them as -brothers. Thus doth Ethiopia begin to stretch forth her hand from a sink -of slavery to freedom and equality.”[129] - -A more subtle appeal was made by seven Massachusetts Negroes on -taxation without representation. In a petition to the General Court -of Massachusetts in 1780 they said: “We being chiefly of the African -extract, and by reason of long bondage and hard slavery, we have been -deprived of enjoying the profits of our labor or the advantage of -inheriting estates from our parents, as our neighbors the white people -do, having some of us not long enjoyed our own freedom; yet of late, -contrary to the invariable custom and practice of the country, we have -been, and now are, taxed both in our polls and that small pittance of -estate which, through much hard labor and industry, we have got together -to sustain ourselves and families withall. We apprehend it therefore, to -be hard usage, and will doubtless (if continued) reduce us to a state -of beggary, whereby we shall become a burden to others, if not timely -prevented by the interposition of your justice and power. - -“Your petitioners further show, that we apprehend ourselves to be -aggrieved, in that, while we are not allowed the privilege of free men -of the State, having no vote or influence in the election of those that -tax us, yet many of our color (as is well known) have cheerfully entered -the field of battle in the defence of the common cause, and that (as we -conceive) against similar exertion of power (in regard to taxation) too -well known to need a recital in this place.”[130] - -Perhaps though the most startling appeal and challenge came from David -Walker, a free Negro, born of a free mother and slave father in North -Carolina in 1785. He had some education, had traveled widely and -conducted a second-hand clothing store in Boston in 1827. He spoke to -various audiences of Negroes in 1828 and the following year published -the celebrated “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.” It was a thin volume of 76 -octavol pages, but it was frank and startlingly clear: - -“Can our condition be any worse? Can it be more mean and abject? If there -are any changes, will they not be for the better though they may appear -for the worst at first? Can they get us any lower? Where can they get -us? They cannot treat us worse; for they well know the day they do it -they are gone. But against all accusations which may or can be preferred -against me, I appeal to heaven for my motive in writing—who knows that my -object is if possible to awaken in the breasts of my afflicted, degraded -and slumbering brethren a spirit of enquiry and investigation respecting -our miseries and wretchedness in this Republican land of Liberty!!!! - -“My beloved brethren:—The Indians of North and South America—the -Greeks—the Irish, subjected under the King of Great Britain—the Jews, -that ancient people of the Lord—the inhabitants of the Islands of the -Sea—in fine, all the inhabitants of the Earth, (except, however, the sons -of Africa) are called men and of course are and ought to be free.—But -we, (colored people) and our children are brutes and of course are and -ought to be slaves to the American people and their children forever—to -dig their mines and work their farms; and thus go on enriching them from -one generation to another with our blood and our tears!!!! - -“I saw a paragraph, a few years since, in a South Carolina paper, which, -speaking of the barbarity of the Turks, it said: ‘The Turks are the most -barbarous people in the world—they treat the Greeks more like brutes than -human beings.’ And in the same paper was an advertisement which said: -‘Eight well built Virginia and Maryland Negro fellows and four wenches -will positively be sold this day to the highest bidder!’ - -“Beloved brethren—here let me tell you, and believe it, that the Lord our -God as true as He sits on His throne in heaven and as true as our Saviour -died to redeem the world, will give you a Hannibal, and when the Lord -shall have raised him up and given him to you for your possession, Oh! -my suffering brethren, remember the divisions and consequent sufferings -of Carthage and of Haiti. Read the history particularly of Haiti and -see how they were butchered by the whites and do you take warning. The -person whom God shall give you, give him your support and let him go -his length and behold in him the salvation of your God. God will indeed -deliver you through him from your deplorable and wretched condition under -the Christians of America. I charge you this day before my God to lay -no obstacle in his way, but let him go.... What the American preachers -can think of us, I aver this day before my God I have never been able to -define. They have newspapers and monthly periodicals which they receive -in continual succession but on the pages of which you will scarcely ever -find a paragraph respecting slavery which is ten thousand times more -injurious to this country than all the other evils put together; and -which will be the final overthrow of its government unless something is -very speedily done; for their cup is nearly full.—Perhaps they will laugh -at or make light of this; but I tell you, Americans! that unless you -speedily alter your course, you and your Country are gone! - -“Do you understand your own language? Hear your language proclaimed to -the world, July 4, 1776—‘We hold these truths to be self evident—that -ALL men are created EQUAL!! That they are endowed by their Creator with -certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the -pursuit of happiness!!! Compare your own language above, extracted -from your Declaration of Independence, with your cruelties and murders -inflicted by your cruel and unmerciful fathers and yourselves on our -fathers and on us—men who have never given your fathers or you the least -provocation!!! - -“Now Americans! I ask you candidly, was your suffering under Great -Britain one hundredth part as cruel and tyrannical as you have rendered -ours under you? Some of you, no doubt, believe that we will never throw -off your murderous government and provide new guards for our future -‘security’. If Satan has made you believe it, will he not deceive you?” - -The book had a remarkable career. It appeared in September, was in a -third edition by the following March and aroused the South to fury. -Special laws were passed and demands made that Walker be punished. He -died in 1830, possibly by foul play. - - -6. THE FUGITIVE SLAVE - -Beside force and the appeal to reason there was a third method which -practically was more effective and decisive for eventual abolition, and -that was the escape from slavery through running away. On the islands -this meant escape to the mountains and existence as brigands. In South -America it meant escape to the almost impenetrable forest. - -As I have said elsewhere:[131] - -“One thing saved the South from the blood sacrifice of Haiti—not, to be -sure, from so successful a revolt, for the disproportion of races was -less, but from a desperate and bloody effort—and that was the escape of -the fugitive. - -“Along the Great Black Way stretched swamps and rivers and the forests -and crests of the Alleghanies. A widening, hurrying stream of fugitives -swept to the havens of refuge, taking the restless, the criminal and the -unconquered—the natural leaders of the more timid mass. These men saved -slavery and killed it. They saved it by leaving it to a false seductive -dream of peace and the eternal subjugation of the laboring class. They -destroyed it by presenting themselves before the eyes of the North and -the world as living specimens of the real meaning of slavery.” - -“Three paths were opened to the slaves: to submit, to fight or to run -away. Most of them submitted, as do most people everywhere, to force and -fate. To fight singly meant death and to fight together meant plot and -insurrection—a difficult thing, but one often tried. Easiest of all was -to run away, for the land was wide and bare and the slaves were many. -At first they ran to the swamps and mountains and starved and died. Then -they ran to the Indians and in Florida founded a nation, to overthrow -which cost the United States $20,000,000 and more in slave raids known as -the Seminole ‘wars.’ Then gradually, after the War of 1812 had used so -many black sailors to fight for free trade that the Negroes learned of -the North and Canada as cities of refuge, they fled northward.” - -From the sixteenth century Florida Indians had Negro blood, but from -early part of the nineteenth century the Seminoles gained a large new -infiltration of Negro blood from the numbers of slaves who fled to them -and with whom they intermarried. The first Seminole war, therefore, -in 1818 was not simply a defense of the frontiers against the Indians -and a successful raid to drive Spain from Florida, it was also a slave -raid by Georgia owners determined to have back their property. By 1815 -Negroes from Georgia among the Creeks and Seminoles numbered not less -than 11,000 and were settled along the Appalachicola river, many of them -with good farms and with a so-called Negro “fort” for protection. The war -was disastrous to Negroes and Indians but not fatal and in 1822 some 800 -Negroes were counted among the Indians who inhabited the new territory -seized from Spain. Pressure to secure alleged fugitives and Negroes from -the Indians was kept up for the next three years and the second Seminole -war broke out because the whites treacherously seized the mulatto wife of -the Indian chief Osceola. The war broke out in 1837 and its real nature, -as a New Orleans paper said in 1839, was to subdue the Seminoles and -decrease the danger of uprisings “among the serviles.” Finally after a -total cost of twenty million dollars the Indians were subdued and moved -to the West and a part of the Negroes driven back into slavery, but not -all.[132] - -Through the organization which came to be known as the Underground -Railroad, thousands of slaves escaped through Kentucky and into the -Middle West and thence into Canada and also by way of the Appalachian -Mountains into Pennsylvania and the East. Not only were they helped by -white abolitionists but they were guided by black men and women like -Joshua Henson and Harriet Tubman. - -Beside this there came the effort for emigration to Africa which was very -early suggested. Two colored men sailed from New York for Africa in 1774 -but the Revolutionary War stopped the effort thus begun. The Virginia -legislature in secret session after Gabriel’s insurrection in 1800, -tried to suggest the buying of some land for the colonization of free -Negroes, following the proposal of Thomas Jefferson made in 1781. Paul -Cuffee, mentioned above, started the actual migration in 1815 carrying -nine colored families, thirty-eight persons in all, to Sierra Leone at -an expense of $4,000 which he paid himself. Finally came the American -Colonization Society in 1817 but it was immediately turned from a real -effort to abolish slavery gradually into an effort to get rid of free -Negroes and obstreperous slaves. Even the South saw it and Robert Y. -Hayne said in Congress: “While this process is going on, the colored -classes are gradually diffusing themselves throughout the country and are -making steady advances in intelligence and refinement and if half the -zeal were displayed in bettering their condition that is now wasted in -the vain and fruitless effort of sending them abroad, their intellectual -and moral improvement would be steady and rapid.” - - -7. BARGAINING - -The Negro early learned a lesson which he may yet teach the modern world -and which may prove his crowning gift to America and the world: Force -begets force and you cannot in the end run away successfully from the -world’s problems. The Negro early developed the shrewd foresight of -recognizing the fact that as a minority of black folk in a growing white -country, he could not win his battle by force. Moreover, for the mass of -Negroes it was impracticable to run away and find refuge in some other -land. - -Even the appeal to reason had its limitations in an unreasoning land. It -could not unfortunately base itself on justice and right in the midst -of the selfish, breathless battle to earn a living. There was however a -chance to prove that justice and self interest sometimes go hand in hand. -Force and flight might sometimes help but there was still the important -method of co-operating with the best forces of the nation in order to -help them to win and in order to prove that the Negro was a valuable -asset, not simply as a laborer but as a worker for social uplift, as an -American. Sometimes this co-operation was in simple and humble ways and -nevertheless striking. There was, for instance, the yellow fever epidemic -in Philadelphia in 1793. The blacks were not suffering from it or at -least not supposed to suffer from it as much as the whites. The papers -appealed to them to come forward and help with the sick. Led by Jones, -Gray and Allen, Negroes volunteered their services and worked with the -sick and in burying the dead, even spending some of their own funds in -the gruesome duty. The same thing happened much later in New Orleans, -Memphis and Cuba. - -In larger ways it must be remembered that the Abolition crusade itself -could not have been successful without the co-operation of Negroes. -Black folk like Remond, Frederick Douglass, and Sojourner Truth, were -not simply advocates for freedom but were themselves living refutations -of the whole doctrine of slavery. Their appeal was tremendous in its -efficiency and besides, the free Negroes helped by work and money to -spread the Abolition campaign.[133] - -In addition to this there was much deliberate bargaining,—careful -calculation on the part of the Negro that if the whites would aid them, -they in turn would aid the whites at critical times and that otherwise -they would not. Much of this went on at the time of the Revolution and -was clearly recognized by the whites. - -Alexander Hamilton (himself probably of Negro descent) said in 1779: -“The contempt we have been taught to entertain for the blacks makes us -fancy many things that are founded neither in reason nor experience; -and an unwillingness to part with property of so valuable a kind will -furnish a thousand arguments to show the impracticability or pernicious -tendency of a scheme which requires such a sacrifice. But it should be -considered that if we do not make use of them in this way, the enemy -probably will; and that the best way to counteract the temptations they -will hold out will be to offer them ourselves. An essential part of the -plan is to give them their freedom with their muskets. This will secure -their fidelity, animate their courage, and, I believe, will have a good -influence upon those who remain by opening a door to their emancipation. -This circumstance, I confess, has no small weight in inducing me to wish -the success of the project; for the dictates of humanity and true policy -equally interest me in favor of this unfortunate class of men.”[134] - -Dr. Hopkins wrote in 1776: “God is so ordering it in His providence that -it seems absolutely necessary something should speedily be done with -respect to the slaves among us in order to our safety and to prevent -their turning against us in our present struggle in order to get their -liberty. Our oppressors have planned to gain the blacks and induce them -to take up arms against us by promising them liberty on this condition; -and this plan they are prosecuting to the utmost of their power.... The -only way pointed out to prevent this threatening evil is to set the -blacks at liberty ourselves by some public acts and laws; and then give -them proper encouragement to labor or take arms in the defense of the -American cause, as they shall choose. This would at once be doing them -some degree of justice and defeating our enemies in the scheme they are -prosecuting.”[135] - -When Dunmore appealed to the slaves of Virginia at the beginning of the -Revolution, the slave owners issued an almost plaintive counter appeal: - -“Can it, then, be supposed that the Negroes will be better used by the -English who have always encouraged and upheld this slavery than by their -present masters who pity their condition; who wish, in general, to make -it easy and comfortable as possible; and who would, were it in their -power, or were they permitted, not only prevent any more Negroes from -losing their freedom but restore it to such as have already unhappily -lost it?”[136] - -In the South, where Negroes for the most part were not received as -soldiers, the losses of the slaveholders by defection among the slaves -was tremendous. John Adams says that the Georgia delegates gave him “a -melancholy account of the State of Georgia and South Carolina. They said -if one thousand regular troops should land in Georgia and their commander -be provided with arms and clothes enough and proclaim freedom to all -the Negroes who would join his camp, twenty thousand Negroes would join -it from the two provinces in a fortnight. The Negroes have a wonderful -art of communicating intelligence among themselves; it will run several -hundreds of miles in a week or fortnight. They said their only security -was this,—that all the King’s friends and tools of Government have large -plantations and property in Negroes, so that the slaves of the Tories -would be lost as well as those of the Whigs.”[137] - -Great Britain, after Cornwallis surrendered, even dreamed of reconquering -America with Negroes. A Tory wrote to Lord Dunmore in 1782: - -“If, my Lord, this scheme is adopted, arranged and ready for being put -in execution, the moment the troops penetrate into the country after the -arrival of the promised re-enforcements, America is to be conquered with -its own force (I mean the Provincial troops and the black troops to be -raised), and the British and Hessian army could be spared to attack the -French where they are most vulnerable....” - -“‘What! Arm the slaves? We shudder at the very idea, so repugnant to -humanity, so barbarous and shocking to human nature,’ etc. One very -simple answer is, in my mind, to be given: Whether it is better to -make this vast continent become an acquisition of power, strength and -consequence to Great Britain again, or tamely give it up to France who -will reap the fruits of American independence to the utter ruin of -Britain? ... experience will, I doubt not, justify the assertion that -by embodying the most hardy, intrepid and determined blacks, they would -not only keep the rest in good order but by being disciplined and under -command be prevented from raising cabals, tumults, and even rebellion, -what I think might be expected soon after a peace; but so far from -making even our lukewarm friends and secret foes greater enemies by this -measure, I will, by taking their slaves, engage to make them better -friends.”[138] - -On the other hand, the Colonial General Greene wrote to the Governor of -South Carolina the same year: - -“The natural strength of the country in point of numbers appears to me -to consist much more in the blacks than in the whites. Could they be -incorporated and employed for its defence, it would afford you double -security. That they would make good soldiers, I have not the least doubt; -and I am persuaded the State has it not in its power to give sufficient -re-enforcements without incorporating them either to secure the country -if the enemy mean to act vigorously upon an offensive plan or furnish a -force sufficient to dispossess them of Charleston should it be defensive.” - -This spirit of bargaining, more or less carefully carried out, can be -seen in every time of stress and war. During the Civil War certain groups -of Negroes sought repeatedly to make terms with the Confederacy. Judah -Benjamin said at a public meeting in Richmond in 1865: - -“We have 680,000 blacks capable of bearing arms and who ought now to -be in the field. Let us now say to every Negro who wishes to go into -the ranks on condition of being free, go and fight—you are free. My -own Negroes have been to me and said, ‘Master, set us free and we’ll -fight for you.’ You must make up your minds to try this or see your -army withdrawn from before your town. I know not where white men can be -found.”[139] - -Robert E. Lee said: “We should not expect slaves to fight for prospective -freedom when they can secure it at once by going to the enemy in whose -service they will incur no greater risk than in ours. The reasons that -induce me to recommend the employment of Negro troops at all render the -effect of the measures I have suggested upon slavery immaterial and in -my opinion the best means of securing the efficiency and fidelity of the -auxiliary force would be to accompany the measure with a well-digested -plan of gradual and general emancipation. As that will be the result of -the continuance of the war and will certainly occur if the enemy succeed, -it seems to me most advisable to adopt it at once and thereby obtain all -the benefits that will accrue to our cause. - -“The employment of Negro troops under regulations similar to those -indicated would, in my opinion, greatly increase our military strength -and enable us to relieve our white population to some extent. I think we -could dispense with the reserve forces except in cases of emergency. It -would disappoint the hopes which our enemies have upon our exhaustion, -deprive them in a great measure of the aid they now derive from black -troops and thus throw the burden of the war upon their own people. In -addition to the great political advantages that would result to our -cause from the adoption of a system of emancipation, it would exercise a -salutary influence upon our Negro population by rendering more secure the -fidelity of those who become soldiers and diminishing inducements to the -rest to abscond.”[140] - -At the time of the World War there was a distinct attitude on the part of -the Negro population that unless they were recognized in the draft and -had Negro officers and were not forced to become simply laborers, they -would not fight and while expression of this determination was not always -made openly it was recognized even by an administration dominated by -Southerners. Especially were there widespread rumors of German intrigue -among Negroes, which had some basis of fact. - -Within the Negro group every effort for organization and uplift was -naturally an effort toward the development of American democracy. -The motive force of democracy has nearly always been the push from -below rather than the aristocratic pull from above; the effort of the -privileged classes to outstrip the surging forward of the bourgeoisie has -made groups and nations rise; the determination of the “poor whites” in -the South not to be outdone by the “nigger” has been caused by the black -man’s frantic efforts to rise rather than by any innate ambition on the -part of the lower class of whites. It was a push from below and it made -the necessity of recognizing the white laborer even more apparent. The -great democratic movement which took place during the reign of Andrew -Jackson from 1829-1837 was caused in no small degree by the persistent -striving of the Negroes. They began their meeting together in conventions -in 1830, they organized migration to Canada.[141] In the trouble with -Canada in 1837 and 1838 Negro refugees from America helped to defend -the frontiers. Bishop Loguen says: “The colored population of Canada at -that time was small compared to what it now is; nevertheless, it was -sufficiently large to attract the attention of the government. They were -almost to a man fugitives from the States. They could not, therefore, -be passive when the success of the invaders would break the only arm -interposed for their security, and destroy the only asylum for African -freedom in North America. The promptness with which several companies -of blacks were organized and equipped, and the desperate valor they -displayed in this brief conflict, are an earnest of what may be expected -from the welling thousands of colored fugitives collecting there, in the -event of a war between the two countries.”[142] - -In America during this time they sought to establish a manual training -college, they established their first weekly newspaper and they made -a desperate fight for admission to the schools. They helped thus -immeasurably the movement for universal popular education, joined the -anti-slavery societies and organized churches and beneficial societies; -bought land and continued to appeal. Wealthy free Negroes began to appear -even in the South, as in the case of Jehu Jones, proprietor of a popular -hotel in Charleston, and later Thomé Lafon of New Orleans who accumulated -nearly a half million dollars and eventually left it to Negro charities -which still exist. In the North there were tailors and lumber merchants -and the guild of the caterers; taxable property slowly but surely -increased. - -All this in a peculiar way forced a more all-embracing democracy upon -America, and it blossomed to fuller efficiency after the Civil War. - - - - -CHAPTER V - -THE RECONSTRUCTION OF FREEDOM - - How the black fugitive, soldier and freedman after the Civil - War helped to restore the Union, establish public schools, - enfranchise the poor white and initiate industrial democracy in - America. - - -There have been four great steps toward democracy taken in America: -The refusal to be taxed by the English Parliament; the escape from -European imperialism; the discarding of New England aristocracy; and the -enfranchisement of the Negro slave. - -What did the Emancipation of the slave really mean? It meant such -property rights as would give him a share in the income of southern -industry large enough to support him as a modern free laborer; and such -a legal status as would enable him by education and experience to bear -his responsibility as a worker and citizen. This was an enormous task -and meant the transformation of a slave holding oligarchy into a modern -industrial democracy. - -Who could do this? Some thought it done by the Emancipation Proclamation -and the 13th amendment and Garrison with naive faith in bare law abruptly -stopped the issue of the _Liberator_ when the slave was declared “free.” -The Negro was not freed by edict or sentiment but by the Abolitionists -backed by the persistent action of the slave himself as fugitive, soldier -and voter. - -Slavery was the cause of the war. There might have been other questions -large enough and important enough to have led to a disruption of the -Union but none have successfully done so except slavery. But the North -fought for union and not against slavery and for a long time it refused -to recognize that the Civil War was essentially a war against Negro -slavery. Abraham Lincoln said to Horace Greeley as late as August, 1862, -“If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the -same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object -is to save the Union and not either to save or destroy slavery.” - -Despite this attitude it was evident very soon that the Nation was -fighting against the symptom of disease and not against the cause. If we -look at the action of the North taken by itself, we find these singular -contradictions: They fought for the Union; they suddenly emancipated the -slave; they enfranchised the Freedmen; they abandoned the Freedmen. If -now this had been the deliberate action of the North it would have been a -crazy program; but it was not. The action of the American Negro himself -forced the nation into many of these various contradictions; and the -motives of the Negro were primarily economic. He was trying to achieve -economic emancipation. And it is this fact that makes Reconstruction one -of the greatest attempts to spread democracy which the modern world has -seen. - -There were in the South in 1860, 3,838,765 Negro slaves and 258,346 -free Negroes. The question of land and fugitive slaves had precipitated -the war: that is, if slavery was to survive it had to have more slave -territory, and this the North refused. Moreover if slavery was to survive -the drain of fugitive slaves must stop or the slave trade be reopened. -The North refused to consider the reopening of the slave trade and only -half-heartedly enforced the fugitive slave laws. - -No sooner then did the war open in April, 1861, than two contradictory -things happened: Fugitive slaves began to come into the lines of the -Union armies at the very time that Union Generals were assuring the South -that slavery would not be interfered with. In Virginia, Colonel Tyler -said “The relation of master and servant as recognized in your state -shall be respected.” At Port Royal, General T. W. Sherman declared that -he would not interfere with “Your social and local institution.” Dix in -Virginia refused to admit fugitive slaves within his lines and Halleck in -Missouri excluded them. Later, both Buell at Nashville and Hooker on the -upper Potomac allowed their camps to be searched by masters for fugitive -slaves.[143] - -Against this attitude, however, there appeared, even in the first year -of the War, some unanswerable considerations. For instance three slaves -escaped into General Butler’s lines at Fortress Monroe just as they were -about to be sent to North Carolina to work on Confederate fortifications. -Butler immediately said “These men are contraband of war, set them at -work.” Butler’s action was sustained.[144] But when Fremont, in August -freed the slaves of Missouri under martial law, declaring it an act -of war, Lincoln hastened to repudiate his action;[145] and the same -thing happened the next year when Hunter at Hilton Head, S. C. declared -“Slavery and martial law in a free country ... incompatible.”[146] -Nevertheless here loomed difficulty and the continued coming of the -fugitive slaves increased the difficulty and forced action. - -The year 1862 saw the fugitive slave recognized as a worker and helper -within the Union lines and eventually as a soldier bearing arms. -Thousands of black men during that year, of all ages and both sexes, -clad in rags and with their bundles on their backs, gathered wherever -the Union Army gained foothold—at Norfolk, Hampton, at Alexandria and -Nashville and along the border towards the West. There was sickness and -hunger and some crime but everywhere there was desire for employment. -It was in vain that Burnside was insisting that slavery was not to be -touched and that McClellan repeated this on his Peninsular Campaign. - -A change of official attitude began to appear as indeed it had to. When -for instance General Saxton, with headquarters at Beauford, S. C., took -military control of that district, he began to establish market houses -for the sale of produce from the plantations and to put the Negroes to -work as wage laborers. When, in the West, Grant’s army occupied Grand -Junction, Mississippi and a swarm of fugitives appeared, naked and -hungry, some were employed as teamsters, servants and cooks and finally -Grant appointed a “Chief of Negro affairs” for the entire district -under his jurisdiction. Crops were harvested, wages paid, wood cutters -swarmed in forests to furnish fuel for the Federal gun-boats, cabins were -erected and a regular “Freedmen’s Bureau” came gradually into operation. -The Negroes thus employed as regular helpers and laborers in the army, -swelled to more than 200,000 before the end of the war; and if we count -transient workers and spies who helped with information, the number -probably reached a half million. - -If now the Negro could work for the Union Army why could he not also -fight? We have seen in the last chapter how the nation hesitated and then -yielded in 1862. The critical Battle of Antietam took place September -17th and the confederate avalanche was checked. Five days later, Abraham -Lincoln proclaimed that he was going to recommend an appropriation -by Congress for encouraging the gradual abolition of slavery through -payment for the slaves; and that on the following January 1st, in all the -territory which was still at war with the United States, he proposed to -declare the slaves free as a military measure.[147] Thus the year 1862 -saw the Negro as an active worker in the army and as a soldier. - -This fact together with the Emancipation Proclamation of January 1st, -made the year 1863 a significant year. Not only were most of the -slaves legally freed by military edict but by the very fact of their -emancipation the stream of fugitives became a vast flood. The Army had to -organize departments and appoint officials for the succor and guidance of -these fugitives in their work; relief on a large scale began to appear -from the North and the demand of the Negro for education began to be felt -in the starting of schools here and there. - -“The fugitives poured into the lines and gradually were used as laborers -and helpers. Immediately teaching began and gradually schools sprang up. -When at last the Emancipation Proclamation was issued and Negro soldiers -called for, it was necessary to provide more systematically for Negroes. -Various systems and experiments grew up here and there. The Freedmen -were massed in large numbers at Fortress Monroe, Va., Washington, D. C., -Beaufort and Port Royal, S. C., New Orleans, La., Vicksburg and Corinth, -Miss., Columbus, Ky., Cairo, Ill., and elsewhere. In such places schools -immediately sprang up under the army officers and chaplains. The most -elaborate system, perhaps, was that under General Banks in Louisiana. -It was established in 1863 and soon had a regular Board of Education, -which laid and collected taxes and supported eventually nearly a hundred -schools with ten thousand pupils, under 162 teachers. At Port Royal, -S. C., were gathered Edward L. Pierce’s ‘Ten Thousand Clients’.... In -the west, General Grant appointed Colonel John Eaton, afterwards United -States Commissioner of Education to be Superintendent of Freedmen -in 1862. He sought to consolidate and regulate the schools already -established and succeeded in organizing a large system.”[148] - -The Treasury Department of the Government, solicitous for the cotton -crop, took charge of certain plantations in order to encourage the -workers and preserve the crop. Thus during the Spring of 1863, there were -groups of Freedmen and refugees in long broken lines between the two -armies reaching from Maryland to the Kansas border and down the coast -from Norfolk to New Orleans. - -In 1864 a significant action took place: the petty and insulting -discrimination in the pay of white and colored soldiers was stopped. -The Negro began to be a free man and the center of the problem -of Emancipation became land and organized industry. Eaton, the -Superintendent of Freedmen reports, July 15, for his particular district: - -“These Freedmen are now disposed of as follows: In military service 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 are entirely -self-supporting—the same as any individual class anywhere else—as -planters, mechanics, barbers, hackmen, draymen, etc., conducting on -their own responsibility or working as hired laborers. The remaining -10,200 receive subsistence from the government. Three thousand of them -are members of families whose heads are carrying on plantations and have -under cultivation 4,000 acres of cotton. They are to pay the government -for their subsistence from the first income of the crop. The other 7,200 -include the paupers, that is to say, all Negroes over and under the -self-supporting age, the crippled and sick in hospitals, of the 113,650, -and those engaged in their care. Instead of being unproductive this class -has now under cultivation 500 acres of corn, 970 acres of vegetables -and 1,500 acres of cotton besides working at wood-chopping and other -industries. There are reported in the aggregate over 100,000 acres of -cotton under cultivation. Of these about 7,000 acres are leased and -cultivated by blacks. Some Negroes are managing as high as 300 or 400 -acres....”[149] - -The experiment at Davis Bend, Mississippi, was of especial interest: -“Late in the season—in November and December, 1864,—the Freedmen’s -Department was restored to full control over the camps and plantations -on President’s Island and Palmyra or Davis Bend. Both these points had -been originally occupied at the suggestion of General Grant and were -among the most successful of our enterprises for the Negroes. With -the expansion of the lessee system, private interests were allowed to -displace the interest of the Negroes whom we had established there under -the protection of the government, but orders issued by General N. J. T. -Dana, upon whose sympathetic and intelligent co-operation my officers -could always rely, restored to us the full control of these lands. The -efforts of the freedmen on Davis Bend were particularly encouraging, and -this property under Colonel Thomas’ able direction, became in reality the -“Negro Paradise” that General Grant had urged us to make of it.”[150] - -The United States Treasury went further in overseeing Freedmen and -abandoned lands and appointed special agents over “Freedmen’s home -colonies.” Down the Mississippi Valley, General Thomas issued a -lengthy series of instructions covering industry. He appointed three -Commissioners to lease plantations and care for the employees; fixed the -rate of wages and taxed cotton. At Newbern, N. C., there were several -thousand refugees to whom land was assigned and about 800 houses rented. -After Sherman’s triumphant March to the Sea, Secretary Stanton himself -went to Savannah to investigate the condition of the Negroes. - -It was significant that even this early Abraham Lincoln himself was -suggesting limited Negro suffrage. Already he was thinking of the -reconstruction of the states; Louisiana had been in Union hands for two -years and Lincoln wrote to Governor Hahn, March 13th, 1864: “Now you are -about to have a convention, which, ... will probably define the elective -franchise. I barely suggest, for your private consideration, whether -some of the colored people may not be let in, as, for instance, the very -intelligent, and especially those who have fought gallantly in our ranks. -They would probably help, in some trying time to come, to keep the jewel -of liberty within the family of freedom. But this is only a suggestion, -not to the public, but to you alone.”[151] - -Here again the development had been logical. The Negroes were voting -in many Northern states. At least one-half million of them were taking -part in the war, nearly 200,000 as armed soldiers. They were beginning -to be reorganized in industry by the army officials as free laborers. -Naturally the question must come sooner or later: Could they be expected -to maintain their freedom, either political or economic, unless they had -a vote? And Lincoln with rare foresight saw this several months before -the end of the war. - -The year 1865 brought fully to the front the question of Negro suffrage -and Negro free labor. They were recognized January 16th, when Sherman -settled large numbers of Negroes on the Sea Islands. His order said: - -“The Islands from Charleston, south, the abandoned rice fields along the -rivers for thirty miles from the sea, and the country bordering the St. -John’s river, Florida, are reserved and set apart for the settlement of -the Negroes now made free by the acts of war and the proclamation of the -President of the United States. - -“At Beaufort, Hilton Head, Savannah, Fernandina, St. Augustine, and -Jacksonville, the blacks may remain in their chosen or accustomed -vocations but on the islands, and in the settlements hereafter to be -established, no white person whatever, unless military officers and -soldiers detailed for duty, will be permitted to reside; and the sole -and exclusive management of affairs will be left to the freed people -themselves, subject only to the United States military authority and -the acts of Congress. By the laws of war and orders of the President of -the United States the Negro is free, and must be dealt with as such. -He cannot be subjected to conscription or forced military service, -save by the written orders of the highest military authority of the -department, under such regulations as the President or Congress may -prescribe. Domestic servants, blacksmiths, carpenters, and other -mechanics, will be free to select their own work and residence, but the -young and able-bodied Negroes must be encouraged to enlist as soldiers -in the service of the United States, to contribute their share towards -maintaining their own freedom, and securing their rights as citizens of -the United States. - -“Whenever three respectable Negroes, heads of families shall desire to -settle on lands, and shall have selected for that purpose an island -or a locality clearly defined, within the limits above designated, -the Inspector of Settlements and Plantations will himself, or by such -subordinate officer as he may appoint, give them a license to settle -such island or district, and afford them such assistance as he can to -enable them to establish a peaceful agricultural settlement. The three -parties named will subdivide the land, under the supervision of the -Inspector, among themselves and such others as may choose to settle near -them, so that each family shall have a plot of not more than forty (40) -acres of tillable ground, and when it borders on some water channel, -with not more than 800 feet water front, in the possession of which land -the military authorities will afford them protection until such time -as they can protect themselves, or until Congress shall regulate their -title.”[152] - -On March 3, 1865 the Nation came to the parting of the ways. Two measures -passed Congress on this momentous date. First, a Freedmen’s Bank was -incorporated at Washington “to receive on deposit therefore, by or on -behalf of persons heretofore held in slavery in the United States or -their descendants, and investing the same in the stocks, bonds, Treasury -notes, or other securities of the United States.”[153] The first year it -had $300,000 of deposits and the deposits increased regularly until in -1871 there were nearly $20,000,000. Also on March 3rd, the Freedmen’s -Bureau Act was passed. The war was over. Sometime the South must have -restored home rule. When that came what would happen to the freedmen? - -These paths were before the nation: - -1. They might abandon the freedman to the mercy of his former masters. - -2. They might for a generation or more make the freedmen the wards of -the nation—protecting them, encouraging them, educating their children, -giving them land and a minimum of capital and thus inducting them into -real economic and political freedom. - -3. They might force a grant of Negro suffrage, support the Negro voters -for a brief period and then with hands off let them sink or swim. - -The second path was the path of wisdom and statesmanship. But the country -would not listen to such a comprehensive plan. If the form of this Bureau -had been worked out by Charles Sumner today instead of sixty years ago, -it would have been regarded as a proposal far less revolutionary than -the modern labor legislation of America and Europe. A half-century ago, -however, and in a country which gave the _laisser-faire_ economics -their extremest trial the Freedmen’s Bureau struck the whole nation as -unthinkable save as a very temporary expedient and to relieve the more -pointed forms of distress following war. Yet the proposals of the Bureau -as actually established by the laws of 1865 and 1866 were both simple and -sensible: - -1. To oversee the making and enforcement of wage contracts. - -2. To appear in the courts as the freedmen’s best friend. - -3. To furnish the freedmen with a minimum of land and of capital. - -4. To establish schools. - -5. To furnish such institutions of relief as hospitals, outdoor stations, -etc. - -How a sensible people could expect really to conduct a slave into freedom -with less than this is hard to see. Of course even with such tutelage -extending over a period of two or three decades the ultimate end had to -be enfranchisement and political and social freedom for those freedmen -who attained a certain set standard. Otherwise the whole training had -neither object nor guarantee. - -Naturally the Bureau was no sooner established than it faced implacable -enemies. The white South naturally opposed to a man because it -practically abolished private profit in the exploitation of labor. To -step from slave to free labor was economic catastrophe in the opinion of -the white South: but to step further to free labor organized primarily -for the laborers’ benefit, this not only was unthinkable for the white -South but it even touched the economic sensibilities of the white -North. Already the nation owed a staggering debt. It would not face any -large increase for such a purpose. Moreover, who could conduct such an -enterprise? It would have taxed in ordinary times the ability and self -sacrifice of the nation to have found men in sufficient quantity who -could and would have conducted honestly and efficiently such a tremendous -experiment in human uplift. And these were not ordinary times. - -Nevertheless a bureau had to be established at least temporarily as a -clearing house for the numberless departments of the armies dealing with -freedmen and holding land and property in their name. - -As General Howard, the head of the Bureau said, this Bureau was really a -government and partially ruled the South from the close of the war until -1870. “It made laws, executed them and interpreted them. It laid and -collected taxes, defined and punished crime, maintained and used military -force and dictated such measures as it thought necessary and proper for -the accomplishment of its varied ends.” Its establishment was a herculean -task both physically and socially, and it accomplished a great work -before it was repudiated. Carl Schurz in 1864 felt warranted in saying, -“Not half of the labor that has been done in the South this year, or will -be done there next year, would have been or would be done but for the -exertions of the Freedmen’s Bureau.... No other agency, except one placed -there by the national government, could have wielded the moral power -whose interposition was so necessary to prevent the Southern society -from falling at once into the chaos of a general collision between its -different elements.”[154] - -The nation knew, however, that the Freedmen’s Bureau was temporary. What -should follow it? The attitude of the South was not reassuring. Carl -Schurz reported that: “Some planters held back their former slaves on -their plantations by brute force. Armed bands of white men patrolled the -country roads to drive back the Negroes wandering about. Dead bodies -of murdered Negroes were found on and near the highways and by-paths. -Gruesome reports came from the hospitals—reports of colored men and women -whose ears had been cut off, whose skulls had been broken by blows, whose -bodies had been slashed by knives or lacerated by scourges. A number of -such cases I had occasion to examine myself. A veritable reign of terror -prevailed in many parts of the South. The Negro found scant justice in -the local courts against the white man. He could look for protection only -to the military forces of the United States still garrisoning the ‘states -lately in rebellion’ and to the Freedmen’s Bureau.” - -The determination to reconstruct the South without recognizing the Negro -as a voter was manifest. The provisional governments set up by Lincoln -and Johnson were based on white male suffrage. In Louisiana for instance, -where free Negroes had wealth and prestige and had furnished thousands of -soldiers under the proposed reconstruction and despite Lincoln’s tactful -suggestion—“Not one Negro was allowed to vote, though at that very time -the wealthy, intelligent free colored people of the State paid taxes -on property assessed at $15,000,000 and many of them were well known -for their patriotic zeal and love for the Union. Thousands of colored -men whose homes were in Louisiana served bravely in the national army -and navy and many of the so-called Negroes in New Orleans could not be -distinguished by the most intelligent strangers from the best class of -white gentlemen either by color or manner, dress or language; still, as -it was known by tradition and common fame that they were not of pure -Caucasian descent, they could not vote.”[155] - -Johnson feared this Southern program and like Lincoln suggested limited -Negro suffrage. August 15th, 1865, he wrote to Governor Sharkey of -Mississippi: “If you could extend the elective franchise to all persons -of color who can read the Constitution of the United States in English -and write their names, and to all persons of color who own real estate -valued at not less than two hundred and fifty dollars, and pay taxes -thereon, you would completely disarm the adversary and set an example -the other states will follow. This you can do with perfect safety and -you thus place the Southern States, in reference to free persons of -color, upon the same basis with the free States. I hope and trust your -convention will do this.”[156] - -The answer of the South to all such suggestions was the celebrated “Black -Codes”: “Alabama declared ‘stubborn or refractory servants’ or ‘those -who loiter away their time’ to be ‘vagrants’ who could be hired out at -compulsory service by law, while all Negro minors, far from being sent -to school, were to be ‘apprenticed’ preferably to their father’s former -‘masters and mistresses.’ In Florida it was decreed that no Negro could -‘own, use or keep any bowie-knife, dirk, sword, firearms or ammunition of -any kind’ without a license from the Judge of Probate. In South Carolina -the Legislature declared that ‘no person of color shall pursue the -practice of art, trade or business of an artisan, mechanic or shopkeeper -or any other trade or employment besides that of husbandry or that of -servant under contract for labor until he shall have obtained a license -from the Judge of the District Court.’ Mississippi required that ‘if a -laborer shall quit the service of the employer before the expiration of -his term of service without just cause, he shall forfeit his wages for -that year.’ Louisiana said that ‘every adult freed man or woman shall -furnish themselves with a comfortable home and visible means of support -within twenty days after the passage of this act’ and that any failing to -do so should ‘be immediately arrested’, delivered to the court and ‘hired -out’ by public advertisement, to some citizen, being the highest bidder, -for the remainder year.”[157] - -These Codes were not reassuring to the friends of freedom. To be sure it -was not a time to expect calm, cool, thoughtful action on the part of the -South. Its economic condition was pitiable. Property in slaves to the -extent perhaps of two thousand million dollars had suddenly disappeared. -One thousand five hundred more millions representing the Confederate war -debt, had largely disappeared. Large amounts of real estate and other -property had been destroyed, industry had been disorganized, 250,000 men -had been killed and many more maimed. With this went the moral effect of -an unsuccessful war with all its letting down of social standards and -quickening of hatred and discouragement—a situation which would make it -difficult under any circumstances to reconstruct a new government and -a new civilization. Moreover any human being of any color “doomed in -his own person and his posterity to live without knowledge and without -capacity to make anything his own and to toil that another may reap the -fruits,” is bound on sudden emancipation to loom like a great dread on -the horizon. - -The fear of Negro freedom in the South was increased by its own -consciousness of guilt, yet it was reasonable to expect from it something -more than mere repression and reaction toward slavery. To some small -extent this expectation was fulfilled: the abolition of slavery was -recognized and the civil rights of owning property and appearing as a -witness in cases in which he was a party were generally granted the -Negro; yet with these went such harsh regulations as largely neutralized -the concessions and gave ground for the assumption that once free from -Northern control the South would virtually re-enslave the Negro. The -colored people themselves naturally feared this and protested, as in -Mississippi, “against the reactionary policy prevailing and expressing -the fear that the Legislature will pass such proscriptive laws as will -drive the freedmen from the State or practically re-enslave them.”[158] - -As Professor Burgess (whom no one accuses of being Negrophile) says: -“Almost every act, word or gesture of the Negro not consonant with -good taste and good manners as well as good morals was made a crime or -misdemeanor, for which he could first be fined by the magistrates and -then be consigned to a condition of almost slavery for an indefinite time -if he could not pay the bill.” - -All things considered, it seems probable that if the South had been -permitted to have its way in 1865 the harshness of Negro slavery would -have been mitigated so as to make slave trading difficult and to make it -possible for a Negro to hold property if he got any and to appear in some -cases in court; but that in most other respects the blacks would have -remained in slavery. And no small number of whites even in the North -were quite willing to contemplate such a solution. - -In October, the democratic platform of Louisiana said “This is a -government of white people,” and although Johnson reported in December -that Reconstruction was complete in North and South Carolina, Georgia, -Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas and Tennessee, yet everyone -knew that the real problems of Reconstruction had just begun. The war -caused by slavery could be stopped only by a real abolition of slavery. - -It was as though the Germans invading France had found flocking to their -camps the laboring forces of the invaded land, poor and destitute, but -willing to work and willing to fight. What would have been the attitude -of the successful invader when the war was ended? Gratitude alone -counseled help for the Freedmen; wisdom counseled a real abolition of -slavery; so far slavery had not been abolished in spite of the fact that -the 13th Amendment proposed in February had been proclaimed in December. -Freedom and citizenship were primarily a matter of state legislation; -and emancipation from slavery was an economic problem—a question of work -and wages, of land and capital—all these things were matters of state -legislation. Unless then something was done to insure a proper legal -status and legal protection for the Freedmen, the so-called abolition -of slavery would be but a name. Furthermore there were grave political -difficulties: According to the celebrated compromise in the Constitution, -three-fifths of the slaves were counted in the Southern states as a basis -of representation and this gave the white South as compared with the -North a large political advantage. This advantage was now to be increased -because, as freemen, the whole Negro population was to be counted and -still the voting was confined to whites. The North, therefore, found -themselves faced by the fact that the very people whom they had overcome -in a costly and bloody war were now coming back with increased political -power, with determination to keep just as much of slavery as they could -and with freedom to act toward the nation that they had nearly destroyed, -in whatever way the deep hatreds of a hurt and conquered people tempted -them to act. All this was sinister and dangerous. Assume as large minded -and forgiving an attitude as one could, either the abolition of slavery -must be made real or the war was fought in vain. - -The Negroes themselves naturally began to insist that without political -power it was impossible to accomplish their economic freedom. Frederick -Douglass said to President Johnson: “Your noble and humane predecessor -placed in our hands the sword to assist in saving the nation and we do -hope that you, his able successor, will favorably regard the placing in -our hands the ballot with which to save ourselves.” And when Johnson -demurred on account of the hostility between blacks and poor whites, a -committee of prominent colored men replied: - -“Even if it were true, as you allege, that the hostility of the blacks -toward the poor whites must necessarily project itself into a state of -freedom, and that this enmity between the two races is even more intense -in a state of freedom than in a state of slavery, in the name of heaven, -we reverently ask, how can you, in view of your professed desire to -promote the welfare of the black man, deprive him of all means of defense -and clothe him, whom you regard as his enemy, in the panoply of political -power?”[159] - -Again as the Negro fugitive slave was already in camp before the nation -was ready to receive him and was even trying to drive him back to his -master; just as the Negro was already bearing arms before he was legally -recognized as a soldier; so too he was voting before Negro suffrage was -contemplated; to cite one instance at Davis Bend, Mississippi. “Early in -1865 a system was adopted for their government in which the freedmen -took a considerable part. The Bend was divided into districts, each -having a sheriff and judge appointed from among the more reliable and -intelligent colored men. A general oversight of the proceedings was -maintained by our officers in charge, who confirmed or modified the -findings of the court. The shrewdness of the colored judges was very -remarkable, though it was sometimes necessary to decrease the severity of -the punishment they proposed. Fines and penal service on the Home Farm -were the usual sentences they imposed. Petty theft and idleness were the -most frequent causes of trouble, but my officers were able to report -that exposed property was as safe on Davis Bend as it would be anywhere. -The community distinctly demonstrated the capacity of the Negro to take -care of himself and exercised under honest and competent direction the -functions of self-government.”[160] - -Carl Schurz said in his celebrated report: “The emancipation of the -slaves is submitted to only in so far as chattel slavery in the old form -could not be kept up. But although the freedman is no longer considered -the property of the individual master, he is considered the slave of -society and all independent State legislation will share the tendency to -make him such. - -“The solution of the problem would be very much facilitated by enabling -all the loyal and free labor elements in the South to exercise a healthy -influence upon legislation. It will hardly be possible to secure the -freedman against oppressive class legislation and private persecution -unless he be endowed with a certain measure of political power.” - -To the argument of ignorance Schurz replied: “The effect of the extension -of the franchise to the colored people upon the development of free labor -and upon the security of human rights in the South being the principal -object in view, the objections raised on the ground of the ignorance of -the freedmen become unimportant. Practical liberty is a good school.... -It is idle to say that it will be time to speak of Negro suffrage when -the whole colored race will be educated, for the ballot may be necessary -to him to secure his education.”[161] - -Thus Negro suffrage was forced to the front, not as a method of -humiliating the South; not as a theoretical and dangerous gift to the -Freedmen; not according to any preconcerted plan but simply because of -the grim necessities of the situation. The North must either give up -the fruits of war, keep a Freedmen’s Bureau for a generation or use -the Negro vote to reconstruct the Southern states and to insure such -legislation as would at least begin the economic emancipation of the -slave. - -_In other words the North being unable to free the slave, let him try to -free himself. And he did, and this was his greatest gift to this nation._ - -Let us return to the steps by which the Negro accomplished this task. - -In 1866, the joint committee of Congress on Reconstruction said that in -the South: “A large proportion of the population had become, instead -of mere chattels, free men and citizens. Through all the past struggle -these had remained true and loyal and had, in large numbers, fought on -the side of the Union. It was impossible to abandon them without securing -them their rights as free men and citizens. The whole civilized world -would have cried out against such base ingratitude and the bare idea is -offensive to all right thinking men. Hence it became important to inquire -what could be done to secure their rights, civil and political.” - -The report then proceeded to emphasize the increased political power of -the South and recommended the Fourteenth Amendment, since: “It appeared -to your committee that the rights of these persons by whom the basis -of representation had been thus increased should be recognized by the -General Government. While slaves, they were not considered as having any -rights, civil or political. It did not seem just or proper that all the -political advantages derived from their becoming free should be confined -to their former masters who had fought against the Union and withheld -from themselves who had always been loyal.”[162] - -Nor did there seem to be any hope that the South would voluntarily change -its attitude within any reasonable time. As Carl Schurz wrote: “I deem it -proper, however, to offer a few remarks on the assertion frequently put -forth, that the franchise is likely to be extended to the colored man by -the voluntary action of the southern whites themselves. My observation -leads me to a contrary opinion. Aside from a very few enlightened men, -I found but one class of people in favor of the enfranchisement of the -blacks: it was the class of Unionists who found themselves politically -ostracised and looked upon the enfranchisement of the loyal Negroes as -the salvation of the whole loyal element.... The masses are strongly -opposed to colored suffrage; anybody that dares to advocate it is -stigmatized as a dangerous fanatic. - -“The only manner in which, in my opinion, the southern people can be -induced to grant to the freedmen some measure of self-protecting power -in the form of suffrage, is to make it a consideration precedent to -‘readmission’.”[163] - -During 1866, the Freedmen’s Bureau received over a million dollars mostly -from the Freedmen’s fund, sales of crop, rent of lands and buildings -and school taxes. The chief expenditure was in wages, rent and schools. -It was evident that the Negro was demanding education. Schools arose -immediately among the refugees and Negro soldiers. They were helped by -voluntary taxation of the Negroes and then by the activity of Northern -religious bodies. Seldom in the history of the world has an almost -totally illiterate population been given the means of self-education in -so short a time. The movement started with the Negroes themselves and -they continued to form the dynamic force behind it. “This great multitude -arose up simultaneously and asked for intelligence.” There can be no -doubt that these schools were a great conservative steadying force to -which the South owes much. It must not be forgotten that among the agents -of the Freedmen’s Bureau were not only soldiers and politicians but -school teachers and educational leaders like Ware and Cravath. - -In 1866, nearly 100,000 Negroes were in the schools under 1300 teachers -and schools for Negroes had been opened in nearly all the southern -states. A second Freedmen’s Bureau act was passed extending the work of -the Bureau, and the Freedmen’s Bank which had been started in 1865 and -had by 1866 twenty branches and $300,000 in savings. - -Congress came to blows with President Johnson. His plan of reconstruction -with white male suffrage was repudiated and the 14th Amendment was -proposed by Congress which was designed to force the South to accept -Negro suffrage on penalty of losing a proportionate amount of their -representation in Congress. The 14th Amendment was long delayed and did -not in fact become a law until July, 1868. Meantime, Congress adopted -more drastic measures. By the Reconstruction Acts, the first of which -passed March 2nd, the South was divided into five military districts, -Negro suffrage was established for the constitutional conventions and the -14th Amendment made a prerequisite for readmission of states to the Union. - -What was the result? No language has been spared to describe the results -of Negro suffrage as the worst imaginable. Every effort of historical -and social science and propaganda have supported this view; and its -acceptance has been well nigh universal, because it was so clearly to the -interests of the chief parties involved to forget their own shortcomings -and put the blame on the Negro. As a colored man put it, they closed -the “bloody chasm” but closed up the Negro inside. Yet, without Negro -suffrage, slavery could not have been abolished in the United States -and while there were bad results arising from the enfranchisement of -the slaves as there necessarily had to be, the main results were not -bad. Let us not forget that the white South believed it to be of vital -interest to its welfare that the experiment of Negro suffrage should -fail ignominiously and that almost to a man the whites were willing to -insure this failure either by active force or passive resistance; that -beside this there were, as might be expected in a day of social upheaval, -men, white and black, Northern and Southern, only too eager to take -advantage of such a situation for feathering their own nests. The results -in such case had to be evil but to charge the evil to Negro suffrage is -unfair. It may be charged to anger, poverty, venality and ignorance, but -the anger and poverty were the almost inevitable aftermath of war; the -venality was much more reprehensible as exhibited among whites than among -Negroes, and while ignorance was the curse of the Negroes, the fault was -not theirs and they took the initiative to correct it. - -Negro suffrage was without doubt a tremendous experiment but with all -its manifest failure it succeeded to an astounding degree; it made the -immediate re-establishment of the old slavery impossible and it was -probably the only quick method of doing this; it gave the Freedmen’s sons -a chance to begin their education. It diverted the energy of the white -South from economic development to the recovery of political power and -in this interval—small as it was—the Negro took his first steps toward -economic freedom. It was the greatest and most important step toward -world democracy of all men of all races ever taken in the modern world. - -Let us see just what happened when the Negroes gained the right to vote, -first in the conventions which reconstructed the form of government and -afterward in the regular state governments. The continual charge is made -that the South was put under Negro government—that ignorant ex-slaves -ruled the land. This is untrue. Negroes did not dominate southern -legislatures, and in only two states did they have a majority of the -legislature at any time. In Alabama in the years of 1868-69 there were -106 whites and 27 Negroes in the legislature; in the year 1876 there were -104 whites and 29 Negroes. In Arkansas, 1868-69 there were 8 Negroes -and 96 whites. In Georgia there were 186 whites and 33 Negroes. In -Mississippi, 1870-1, there were 106 whites and 34 Negroes and in 1876, -132 whites and 21 Negroes. In North Carolina, 149 whites and 21 Negroes; -in South Carolina 1868-69, 72 whites and 85 Negroes and in 1876, 70 -whites and 54 Negroes. In Texas, 1870-71 there were 110 whites and 10 -Negroes. In Virginia, 1868-69, 119 whites and 18 Negroes and in 1876, 112 -whites and 13 Negroes.[164] - -“Statistics show, however, that with the exception of South Carolina and -Mississippi, no state and not even any department of a state government -was ever dominated altogether by Negroes. The Negroes never wanted and -never had complete control in the Southern states. The most important -offices were generally held by white men. Only two Negroes ever served -in the United States Senate, Hiram R. Revells and B. K. Bruce; and only -twenty ever became representatives in the House and all these did not -serve at the same time, although some of them were elected for more than -one term.”[165] - -The Negroes who held office, held for the most part minor offices and -most of them were ignorant men. Some of them were venal and vicious but -this was not true in all cases. Indeed the Freedmen were pathetic too in -their attempt to choose the best persons but they were singularly limited -in their choice. Their former white masters were either disfranchised or -bitterly hostile or ready to deceive them. The “carpet-baggers” often -cheated them; their own ranks had few men of experience and training. Yet -some of the colored men who served them well deserve special mention: - -Samuel J. Lee, a member of the South Carolina legislature, was considered -by the whites as one of the best criminal lawyers of the state. When -he died local courts were adjourned and the whole city mourned. Bishop -Isaac Clinton who served as Treasurer of Orangeburg, S. C. for eight -years was held in highest esteem by his white neighbors and upon the -occasion of his death business was suspended as a mark of respect. In -certain communities Negroes were retained in office for years after -the restoration of Democratic party control as, for example Mr. George -Harriot in Georgetown, S. C. who was Superintendent of Education for the -county. Beaufort, South Carolina, retained Negroes as sheriffs and school -officials. - -J. T. White who was Commissioner of Public Works and Internal -Improvements in Arkansas; M. W. Gibbs who was Municipal Judge in Little -Rock, and J. C. Corbin, who was State Superintendent of Schools in -Arkansas, had creditable records.[166] John R. Lynch, when speaker of -Mississippi House of Representatives, was given a public testimonial by -Republicans and Democrats and the leading Democratic paper said: “His -bearing in office had been so proper and his rulings in such marked -contrast to the partisan conduct of the ignoble whites of his party -who have aspired to be leaders of the blacks, that the conservatives -cheerfully joined in the testimonial.”[167] - -Of the colored treasurer of South Carolina, Governor Chamberlain said: -“I have never heard one word or seen one act of Mr. Cardoza’s which did -not confirm my confidence in his personal integrity and his political -honor and zeal for the honest administration of the State Government. On -every occasion and under all circumstances he has been against fraud and -jobbery and in favor of good measures and good men.”[168] - -Jonathan C. Gibbs, a colored man and the first State Superintendent of -Instructions in Florida, was a graduate of Dartmouth. He established -the system and brought it to success, dying in harness in 1874. The -first Negro graduate of Harvard College served in South Carolina, before -he became chief executive officer of the association that erected the -Grant’s Tomb in New York. - -In Louisiana we may mention Acting-Governor Pinchback, and -Lieutenant-Governor Dunn, and Treasurer Dubuclet who was investigated -by United States officials. E. P. White, afterward Chief Justice of the -United States, reported that his funds had been honestly handled. Such -men—and there were others—ought not to be forgotten or confounded with -other types of colored and white Reconstruction leaders. - -Between 1871 and 1901, twenty-two Negroes sat in Congress—two as senators -and twenty as representatives; three or four others were undoubtedly -elected but were not seated. Ten of these twenty-two Negroes were college -bred: Cain of South Carolina was trained at Wilberforce and afterward -became bishop of the African Methodist Church; Revels was educated at -Knox College, Illinois, or at a Quaker Seminary, in Indiana; Cheatham -was a graduate of Shaw; Murray was trained at the University of South -Carolina; Langston was a graduate of Oberlin; five others were lawyers of -whom the most brilliant was Robert Brown Elliott; he was a graduate of -Eton College, England; Rapier was educated in Canada and O’Hara studied -at Howard University; Miller graduated from Lincoln and White from Howard -University. The other twelve men were self-taught: one was a thriving -merchant tailor, one a barber, three were farmers, one a photographer, -one a pilot and one a merchant.[169] - -Of those who served in the Senate, one served an unexpired term and the -other six years. In the House, one representative served one term from -Virginia. From North Carolina one served one term and two, two terms. -Georgia was represented by a Negro for one term and Mississippi for two -terms. South Carolina had eight representatives, two of them served five -terms, three two terms, and the rest one term. Beside these there were -other Negro office holders who were fully the peers of white men; and -those without formal training in the schools were in many cases men of -unusual force and native ability. - -James G. Blaine who served with nearly all these men approved of sending -them to Congress: “If it is to be viewed simply as an experiment, it was -triumphantly successful. The colored men who took seats in both Senate -and House did not appear ignorant or helpless. They were as a rule -studious, earnest, ambitious men whose public conduct—as illustrated by -Mr. Revels and Mr. Bruce in the Senate and by Mr. Rapier, Mr. Lynch and -Mr. Rainey in the House would be honorable to any race. Coals of fire -were heaped on the heads of all their enemies when the colored men in -Congress heartily joined in removing the disabilities of those who had -before been their oppressors, and who, with deep regret be it said, have -continued to treat them with injustice and ignominy.”[170] - -He cites the magnanimity of Senator Rainey: “When the Amnesty Bill -came before the House for consideration, Mr. Rainey of South Carolina, -speaking for the colored race whom he represented said: ‘It is not the -disposition of my constituents that these disabilities should longer -be retained. We are desirous of being magnanimous; it may be that we -are so to a fault. Nevertheless we have open and frank hearts towards -those who were our oppressors and taskmasters. We foster no enmity now, -and we desire to foster none, for their acts in the past to us or to -the Government we love so well. But while we are willing to accord them -their enfranchisement and here today give our votes that they may be -amnestied, while we declare our hearts open and free from any vindictive -feelings toward them, we would say to those gentlemen on the other side -that there is another class of citizens in the country who have certain -rights and immunities which they would like you, sirs, to remember and -respect.... We invoke you gentlemen, to show the same kindly feeling -towards us, a race long oppressed, and in demonstration of this humane -and just feeling, I implore you, give support to the Civil Rights Bill, -which we have been asking at your hands, lo! these many days.”[171] - -The chief charge against Negro governments has to do with property. These -governments are charged with attacking property and the charge is true. -This, although not perhaps sensed at the time, was their real reason -for being. The ex-slaves must have land and capital or they would fall -back into slavery. The masters had both; there must be a transfer. It -was at first proposed that land be confiscated in the South and given to -the Freedmen. “Forty Acres and a Mule” was the widespread promise made -several times with official sanction. This was perhaps the least that -the United States Government could have done to insure emancipation, but -such a program would have cost money. In the early anger of the war, it -seemed to many fair to confiscate land for this purpose without payment -and some land was thus sequestered. But manifestly with all the losses -of war and with the loss of the slaves it was unfair to take the land of -the South without some compensation. The North was unwilling to add to -its tremendous debt anything further to insure the economic independence -of the Freedmen. The Freedmen therefore themselves with their political -power and with such economic advantage as the war gave them, tried to get -hold of land. - -The Negro party platform of 1876, in one state, advocated “division of -lands of the state as far as practical into small farms in order that -the masses of our people may be enabled to become landholders.” In the -Constitutional Convention of South Carolina, a colored man said: “One -of the greatest of slavery bulwarks was the infernal plantation system, -one man owning his thousand, another his twenty, another fifty thousands -acres of land. This is the only way by which we will break up that -system, and I maintain that our freedom will be of no effect if we allow -it to continue. What is the main cause of the prosperity of the North. -It is because every man has his own farm and is free and independent. -Let the lands of the South be similarly divided. I would not say for one -moment they should be confiscated but if sold to maintain the war, now -that slavery is destroyed, let the plantation system go with it. We -will never have true freedom until we abolish the system of agriculture -which existed in the Southern States. It is useless to have any schools -while we maintain the stronghold of slavery as the agricultural system -of the country.”[172] This question kept coming up in the South Carolina -convention and elsewhere. Such arguments led in South Carolina to a -scheme to buy land and distribute it and some $800,000 was appropriated -for this purpose. - -In the second place, property was attacked through the tax system. The -South had been terribly impoverished and was saddled with new social -burdens. Many of the things which had been done well or indifferently by -the plantations—like the punishment of crime and the care of the sick -and the insane, and such schooling as there was, with most other matters -of social uplift were, after the war, transferred to the control of the -state. Moreover the few and comparatively indifferent public buildings -of slavery days had been ruined either by actual warfare or by neglect. -Thus a new and tremendous burden of social taxation was put upon the -reconstructed states. - -As a southern writer says of the state of Mississippi: “The work -of restoration which the government was obliged to undertake, made -increased expenses necessary. During the period of the war, and for -several years thereafter, public buildings and state institutions were -permitted to fall into decay. The state house and grounds, the executive -mansion, the penitentiary, the insane asylum, and the buildings for the -blind, deaf and dumb, were in a dilapidated condition and had to be -extended and repaired. A new building for the blind was purchased and -fitted up. The reconstructionists established a public school system -and spent money to maintain and support it, perhaps too freely, in view -of the impoverishment of the people. When they took hold, warrants -were worth but sixty or seventy cents on the dollar, a fact which -made the price of building materials used in the work of construction -correspondingly higher.”[173] - -In addition to all this there was fraud and stealing. There were white -men who cheated and secured large sums. Most of $800,000 appropriated for -land in South Carolina was wasted in graft. Bills for wine and furniture -in South Carolina were enormous; the printing bill of Mississippi was -ridiculously extravagant. Colored men shared in this loot but they at -least had some excuse. We may not forget that among slaves stealing -is not the crime that it becomes in free industry. The slave is victim -of a theft so hateful that nothing he can steal can ever match it. The -freedmen of 1868 still shared the slave psychology. The larger part of -the stealing was done by white men—Northerners and Southerners—and we -must remember that it was not the first time that there had been stealing -and corruption in the South and that the whole moral tone of the nation -had been ruined by war. For instance: - -In 1839 it was reported in Mississippi that ninety per cent of the -fines collected by sheriffs and clerks were unaccounted for. In 1841 -the State Treasurer acknowledged himself “at a loss to determine the -precise liabilities of the state and her means of paying the same.” And -in 1839 the auditor’s books had not been posted for eighteen months, -no entries made for a year, and no vouchers examined for three years. -Congress gave Jefferson College, Natchez, more than 46,000 acres of land; -before the war this whole property had “disappeared” and the college -was closed. Congress gave to Mississippi among other states, the “16th -section” of the public lands for schools. In thirty years the proceeds -of this land in Mississippi were embezzled to the amount of at least one -and a half millions of dollars. In Columbus, Mississippi a receiver of -public monies stole $100,000 and resigned. His successor stole $55,000 -and a treasury agent wrote: “Another receiver would probably follow in -the footsteps of the two. You will not be surprised if I recommend him -being retained in preference to another appointment.” From 1830 to 1860 -southern men in federal offices alone embezzled more than a million -dollars—a far greater sum then than now. - -There might have been less stealing in the South during Reconstruction -without Negro suffrage but it is certainly highly instructive to remember -that the mark of the thief which dragged its slime across nearly every -great Northern State and almost up to the presidential chair could not -certainly in those cases be charged against the vote of black men. This -was the day when a national Secretary of War was caught stealing, a vice -president presumably took bribes, a private secretary of the president, -a chief clerk of the Treasury, and eighty-six government officials stole -millions in the Whiskey frauds; while the “Credit Mobilier” filched -millions and bribed the government to an extent never fully revealed; not -to mention less distinguished thieves like Tweed. - -Is it surprising that in such an atmosphere a new race learning the a-b-c -of government should have become the tools of thieves? And when they -did, was the stealing their fault or was it justly chargeable to their -enfranchisement? Then too, a careful examination of the alleged stealing -in the South reveals much: First, there is repeated exaggeration. For -instance, it is said that the taxation in Mississippi was fourteen times -as great in 1874 as in 1869. This sounds staggering until we learn that -the State taxation in 1869 was only ten cents on one hundred dollars -and that the expenses of government in 1874 were only twice as great as -in 1860 and that too with a depreciated currency. It could certainly -be argued that the State government in Mississippi was doing enough -additional work in 1874 to warrant greatly increased cost. The character -of much of the stealing shows who were the thieves. The frauds through -the manipulation of State and railway bonds and of bank notes must have -inured chiefly to the benefit of experienced white men and this must -have been largely the case in the furnishing and printing frauds. It was -chiefly in the extravagance for “sundries and incidentals” and direct -money payments for votes that the Negroes received their share. The -character of the real thieving shows that white men must have been the -chief beneficiaries and that as a former South Carolina slaveholder said: - -“The legislature, ignorant as it is, could not have been bribed without -money; that must have been furnished from some source that it is our -duty to discover. A legislature composed chiefly of our former slaves -has been bribed. One prominent feature of this transaction is the part -which native Carolinians have played in it, some of our own household men -whom the State, in the past, has delighted to honor, appealing to their -cupidity and avarice make them the instruments to effect the robbery of -their impoverished white brethren. Our former slaves have been bribed by -these men to give them the privilege by law of plundering the property -holders of the state.”[174] - -Even those who mocked and sneered at Negro legislators brought now and -then words of praise: “But beneath all this shocking burlesque upon -Legislative proceedings we must not forget that there is something very -real to this uncouth and untutored multitude. It is not all shame, not -all burlesque. They have a genuine interest and a genuine earnestness -in the business of the assembly which we are bound to recognize and -respect.... They have an earnest purpose, born of conviction that their -conditions are not fully assured, which lends a sort of dignity to their -proceedings. The barbarous, animated jargon in which they so often -indulge is on occasion seen to be so transparently sincere and weighty -in their own minds that sympathy supplants disgust. The whole thing is -a wonderful novelty to them as well as to observers. Seven years ago -these men were raising corn and cotton under the whip of the overseer. -Today they are raising points of order and questions of privilege. They -find they can raise one as well as the other. They prefer the latter. It -is easier and better paid. Then, it is the evidence of an accomplished -result. It means escape and defence from old oppressors. It means -liberty. It means the destruction of prison walls only too real to them. -It is the sunshine of their lives. It is their day of jubilee. It is -their long promised vision of the Lord God Almighty.”[175] - -But with the memory of the Freedmen’s Bank before it, America should -utter no sound as to Negro dishonesty during reconstruction. Here from -the entrenched philanthropy of America with some of the greatest names -of the day like Peter Cooper, William Cullen Bryant, Simon P. Chase, A. -A. Low, Gerritt Smith, John Jay, A. S. Barnes, S. G. Howe, George L. -Stearns, Edward Atkinson, Levi Coffin and others, a splendid scheme was -launched to help the Freedmen save their pittance and encourage thrift -and hope. On the covers of the pass books is said: “This is a benevolent -institution and profits go to the depositors or to educational purposes -for the Freedmen and their descendants. The whole institution is under -the charter of Congress and receives the commendation of the President, -Abraham Lincoln.” With blare of trumpet it was chartered March 3rd, 1865; -it collapsed in hopeless bankruptcy in 1873. It had received fifty-six -millions of dollars in deposits and failed owing over three millions -most of which was never repaid. A committee of Congress composed of both -Democrats and Republicans said in 1876: - -“The law lent no efficacy to the moral obligations assumed by the -trustees, officers, and agents and the whole concern inevitably became -as a ‘whited sepulchre’.... The inspectors ... were of little or no -value, either through the connivance and ignorance of the inspectors or -the indifference of the trustees to their reports.... The committee of -examination ... were still more careless and inefficient, while the board -of trustees, as a supervising and administrative body, intrusted with -the fullest power of general control over the management, proved utterly -faithless to the trust reposed in them.... - -“The depositors were of small account now compared with the personal -interest of the political jobbers, real estate pools, and fancy-stock -speculators, who were organizing a raid upon the Freedmen’s money -and resorted to ... amendment of the charter to facilitate their -operations.... This mass of putridity, the District government, now -abhorred of all men, and abandoned and repudiated even by the political -authors of its being, was represented in the bank by no less than five -of its high officers ... all of whom were in one way or other concerned -in speculations involving a free use of the funds of the Freedmen’s -Bank. They were high in power, too, with the dominant influence in -Congress, as the legislation they asked or sanctioned and obtained, fully -demonstrated. Thus it was that without consulting the wishes or regarding -the interests of those most concerned—the depositors—the vaults of the -bank were literally thrown open to unscrupulous greed and rapacity. -The toilsome savings of the poor Negroes hoarded and laid by for a -rainy day, through the carelessness and dishonest connivance of their -self-constituted guardians, melted away....”[176] - -Even in bankruptcy the institution was not allowed to come under the -operation of the ordinary laws but was liquidated and protected by a -special law, the liquidators picking its corpse and the helpless victims -being finally robbed not only of their money but of much of their faith -in white folk. - -Let us laugh hilariously if we must over the golden spittoons of South -Carolina but let us also remember that at most the freedmen filched bits -from those who had all and not all from those who had nothing; and that -the black man had at least the saving grace to hide his petty theft by -enshrining the nasty American habit of spitting in the sheen of sunshine. - -With all these difficulties and failings, what did the Freedmen in -politics during the critical years of their first investment with the -suffrage accomplish? We may recognize three things which Negro rule gave -to the South: - -1. Democratic government. - -2. Free public schools. - -3. New social legislation. - -Two states will illustrate conditions of government in the South before -and after Negro rule. In South Carolina there was before the war a -property qualification for office holders, and in part, for voters. -The Constitution of 1868, on the other hand, was a modern democratic -document starting (in marked contrast to the old constitution) with a -declaration that “We, the People,”[177] framed it and preceded by a -broad Declaration of Rights which did away with property qualifications -and based representation directly on population instead of property. -It especially took up new subjects of social legislation, declaring -navigable rivers free public highways, instituting homestead exemptions, -establishing boards of county commissioners, providing for a new -penal code of laws, establishing universal manhood suffrage “without -distinction of race or color,” devoting six sections to charitable and -penal institutions and six to corporations, providing separate property -for married women, etc. Above all, eleven sections of the Tenth Article -were devoted to the establishment of a complete public school system. - -So satisfactory was the constitution thus adopted by Negro suffrage -and by a convention composed of a majority of blacks that the States -lived twenty-seven years under it without essential change and when the -constitution was revised in 1895, the revision was practically nothing -more than an amplification of the Constitution of 1868. No essential -advance step of the former document was changed except the suffrage -article to disfranchise Negroes. - -In Mississippi the Constitution of 1868 was, as compared with that before -the war, more democratic. It not only forbade distinctions on account -of color but abolished all property qualifications for jury service and -property and educational qualifications for suffrage; it required less -rigorous qualifications for office; it prohibited the lending of the -credit of the State for private corporations—an abuse dating back as far -as 1830. It increased the powers of the governor, raised the low State -salaries, and increased the number of state officials. New ideas like -the public school system and the immigration bureau were introduced and -in general the activity of the State greatly and necessarily enlarged. -Finally that was the only constitution of the State ever submitted to -popular approval at the polls. This constitution remained in force -twenty-two years. - -In general the words of Judge Albion W. Tourgee, “a carpet-bagger,” are -true when he says of the Negro governments: “They obeyed the Constitution -of the United States and annulled the bonds of states, counties and -cities which had been issued to carry on the war of rebellion and -maintain armies in the field against the Union. They instituted a public -school system in a realm where public schools had been unknown. They -opened the ballot box and jury box to thousands of white men who had -been debarred from them by a lack of earthly possessions. They introduced -home rule in the South. They abolished the whipping post, the branding -iron, the stocks and other barbarous forms of punishment which had up to -that time prevailed. They reduced capital felonies from about twenty to -two or three. In an age of extravagance they were extravagant in the sums -appropriated for public works. In all of that time no man’s rights of -person were invaded under the forms of law. Every Democrat’s life, home, -fireside and business were safe. No man obstructed any white man’s way to -the ballot box, interfered with his freedom of speech or boycotted him, -on account of his political faith.”[178] - -A thorough study of the legislation accompanying these constitutions and -its changes since would, of course, be necessary before a full picture -of the situation could be given. This has not been done but so far as my -studies have gone I have been surprised at the comparatively small amount -of change in law and government which the overthrow of Negro rule brought -about. There were sharp and often hurtful economies introduced, marking -the return of property to power, there was a sweeping change in officials -but the main body of Reconstruction legislation stood. - -There is no doubt but that the thirst of the black man for knowledge—a -thirst which has been too persistent and durable to be mere curiosity -or whim—gave birth to the public free school system of the South. It -was the question upon which the black voters and legislators insisted -more than anything else and while it is possible to find some vestiges -of free schools in some of the Southern States before the war yet a -universal, well established system dates from the day that the black -man got political power. Common school instruction in the South, in the -modern sense of the term, was begun for Negroes by the Freedmen’s Bureau -and missionary societies, and the State public school systems for all -children were formed mainly by Negro Reconstruction governments. - -The earlier state constitutions of Mississippi “from 1817 to 1864 -contained a declaration that ‘Religion, morality and knowledge being -necessary to good government, the preservation of liberty and the -happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever -be encouraged.’ It was not, however, until 1868 that encouragement -was given to any general system of public schools meant to embrace -the whole youthful population.” The Constitution of 1868 makes it the -duty of the legislature to establish “a uniform system of free public -schools by taxation or otherwise for all children between the ages of -five and twenty-one years.” In Alabama the Reconstruction Constitution -of 1868 provided that “It shall be the duty of the Board of Education -to establish throughout the State in each township or other school -district which it may have created, one or more schools at which all -children of the state between the ages of five and twenty-one years may -attend free of charge.” Arkansas in 1868, Florida in 1869, Virginia -in 1870, established school systems. The Constitution of 1868 in -Louisiana required the general assembly to establish “at least one free -public school in every parish,” and that these schools should make no -“distinction of race, color or previous condition.” Georgia’s system was -not fully established until 1873. - -We are apt to forget that in all human probability the granting of Negro -manhood suffrage was decisive in rendering permanent the foundation -of the Negro common school. Even after the overthrow of the Negro -governments, if the Negroes had been left a servile caste, personally -free but politically powerless, it is not reasonable to think that -a system of common schools would have been provided for them by the -Southern states. Serfdom and education have ever proven contradictory -terms. But when Congress, backed by the nation, determined to make the -Negroes full-fledged voting citizens, the South had a hard dilemma before -her; either to keep the Negroes under as an ignorant proletariat and -stand the chance of being ruled eventually from the slums and jails, or -to join in helping to raise these wards of the nation to a position of -intelligence and thrift by means of a public school system.[179] - -The “carpet-bag” governments hastened the decision of the South and -although there was a period of hesitation and retrogression after the -overthrow of Negro rule in the early seventies, yet the South saw that -to abolish Negro schools in addition to nullifying the Negro vote would -invite Northern interference; and thus eventually every Southern state -confirmed the work of the Negro legislators and maintained the Negro -public schools along with the white. - -Finally, in legislation covering property the wider functions of the -State, the punishment of crime and the like, it is sufficient to say that -the laws on these points established by Reconstruction legislatures were -not only different and even revolutionary to the laws of the older South, -but they were so wise and so well suited to the needs of the new South -that in spite of a retrogressive movement following the overthrow of the -Negro governments, the mass of this legislation with elaboration and -development still stands on the statute books of the South. - -Reconstruction constitutions, practically unaltered, were kept in - - Florida, 1868-1885 17 years - Virginia, 1870-1902 32 years - South Carolina, 1868-1895 27 years - Mississippi, 1868-1890 22 years - -Even in the case of states like Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina and -Louisiana, which adopted new constitutions to signify the overthrow -of Negro rule, the new constitutions are nearer the model of the -Reconstruction document than they are to the previous constitutions. They -differ from the Negro constitutions in minor details but very little in -general conception. - -Here then on the whole was a much more favorable result of a great -experiment in democracy than the world had a right to await. But -even on its more sinister side and in the matter of the ignorance of -inexperience and venality of the colored voters there came signs of -better things. The theory of democratic government is not that the will -of the people is always right, but rather that normal human beings of -average intelligence will, if given a chance, learn the right and best -course by bitter experience. This is precisely what the Negro voters -showed indubitable signs of doing. First, they strove for schools to -abolish their ignorance, and second, a large and growing number of them -revolted against the carnival of extravagance and stealing that marred -the beginning of Reconstruction and joined with the best elements to -institute reform; and the greatest stigma on the white South is not -that it opposed Negro suffrage and resented theft and incompetence, but -that when it saw the reform movement growing and even in some cases -triumphing, and a larger and larger number of black voters learning to -vote for honesty and ability, it still preferred a Reign of Terror to -a campaign of education and disfranchised Negroes instead of punishing -rascals. - -No one has expressed this more convincingly than a Negro who was himself -a member of the Reconstruction legislature of South Carolina and who -spoke at the convention which disfranchised him, against one of the -onslaughts of Tillman: - -“The gentleman from Edgefield (Mr. Tillman) speaks of the piling up of -the State debt; of jobbery and speculation during the period between -1869 and 1873 in South Carolina, but he has not found voice eloquent -enough nor pen exact enough to mention those imperishable gifts bestowed -upon South Carolina between 1873 and 1876 by Negro legislators—the laws -relative to finance, the building of penal and charitable institutions -and, greatest of all, the establishment of the public school system. -Starting as infants in legislation in 1869, many wise measures were not -thought of, many injudicious acts were passed. But in the administration -of affairs for the next four years, having learned by experience the -result of bad acts, we immediately passed reformatory laws touching -every department of state, county, municipal and town governments. These -enactments are today upon the statute books of South Carolina. They stand -as living witnesses of the Negro’s fitness to vote and legislate upon the -rights of mankind. - -“When we came into power, town governments could lend the credit of -their respective towns to secure funds at any rate of interest that the -council saw fit to pay. Some of the towns paid as high as twenty percent. -We passed an act prohibiting town governments from pledging the credit -of their hamlets for money bearing a greater rate of interest than five -percent. - -“Up to 1874, inclusive, the State Treasurer had the power to pay out -State funds as he pleased. He could elect whether he would pay out the -funds on appropriations that would place the money in the hands of the -speculators, or would apply them to appropriations that were honest and -necessary. We saw the evil of this and passed an act making specific -levies and collections of taxes for specific appropriations. - -“Another source of profligacy in the expenditure of funds was the law -that provided for and empowered the levying and collecting of special -taxes by school districts, in the name of the schools. We saw its evil -and by a Constitutional amendment provided that there should only be -levied and collected annually a tax of two mills for school purposes, -and took away from the school districts the power to levy and to collect -taxes of any kind. By this act we cured the evils that had been inflicted -upon us in the name of the schools, settled the public school question -for all time to come and established the system upon an honest financial -basis. - -“Next, we learned during the period from 1869 to 1874 inclusive, that -what was denominated the floating indebtedness, covering the printing -schemes and other indefinite expenditures, amounted to nearly $2,000,000. -A conference was called of the leading Negro representatives in the -two Houses together with the State Treasurer, also a Negro. After this -conference we passed an act for the purpose of ascertaining the bona fide -floating debt and found that it did not amount to more than $250,000 for -the four years; we created a commission to sift that indebtedness and to -scale it. Hence when the Democratic party came into power they found the -floating debt covering the legislative and all other expenditures, fixed -at the certain sum of $250,000. This same class of Negro legislators, -led by the State Treasurer, Mr. F. L. Cardoza, knowing that there were -millions of fraudulent bonds charged against the credit of the State, -passed another act to ascertain the true bonded indebtedness and to -provide for its settlement. Under this law, at one sweep, those entrusted -with the power to do so, through Negro legislators, stamped six millions -of bonds, denominated as conversion bonds, ‘fraudulent.’ The commission -did not finish its work before 1876. In that year when the Hampton -government came into power, there were still to be examined into and -settled under the terms of the act passed by us and providing for the -legitimate bonded indebtedness of the State, a little over two and a half -million dollars worth of bonds and coupons which had not been passed upon. - -“Governor Hampton, General Hagood, Judge Simonton, Judge Wallace and -in fact, all of the conservative thinking Democrats aligned themselves -under the provision enacted by us for the certain and final settlement -of the bonded indebtedness and appealed to their Democratic legislators -to stand by the Republican legislation on the subject and to confirm it. -A faction in the Democratic party obtained a majority of the Democrats -in the legislature against settling the question and they endeavored to -open up anew the whole subject of the State debt. We had a little over -thirty members in the House and enough Republican senators to sustain the -Hampton conservative faction and to stand up for honest finance, or by -our votes to place the debt question of the old State into the hands of -the plunderers and speculators. We were appealed to by General Hagood, -through me, and my answer to him was in these words: ‘General, our people -have learned the difference between profligate and honest legislation. -We have passed acts of financial reform, and with the assistance of God, -when the vote shall have been taken, you will be able to record for the -thirty-odd Negroes, slandered though they have been through the press, -that they voted solidly with you all for the honest legislation and the -preservation of the credit of the State.’ The thirty-odd Negroes in -the legislature and their senators by their votes did settle the debt -question and saved the State $13,000,000. - -“We were eight years in power. We had built school houses, established -charitable institutions, built and maintained the penitentiary system, -provided for the education of the deaf and dumb, rebuilt the jails -and court houses, rebuilt the bridges and re-established the ferries. -In short, we had reconstructed the State and placed it upon the road -to prosperity and, at the same time, by our acts of financial reform, -transmitted to the Hampton government an indebtedness not greater by more -than $2,500,000 than was the bonded debt of the State in 1868, before the -Republican Negroes and their white allies came into power.”[180] - -So too in Louisiana in 1872 and in Mississippi later the better element -of the Republicans triumphed at the polls and joining with the Democrats -instituted reforms, repudiated the worst extravagances and started toward -better things. But unfortunately there was one thing that the white South -feared more than Negro dishonesty, ignorance and incompetency, and that -was Negro honesty, knowledge and efficiency. - -Paint the “carpet-bag” governments and Negro rule as black as may be, the -fact remains that the essence of the revolution which the overturning -of the Negro governments made was to put these black men and their -friends out of power. Outside the curtailing of expenses and stopping -of extravagance, not only did their successors make few changes in the -work which these legislatures and conventions had done, but they largely -carried out their plans, followed their suggestions and strengthened -their institutions. Practically the whole new growth of the South has -been accomplished under laws which black men helped to frame thirty years -ago. I know of no greater compliment to Negro suffrage, and no greater -contribution to real American democracy.[181] - -The counter revolution came but it was too late. The Negro had stepped -so far into new economic freedom that he could never be put back into -slavery; and he had widened democracy to include not only a goodly and -increasing number of his own group but the mass of the poor white South. -The economic results of Negro suffrage were so great during the years -from 1865 to 1876 that they have never been overthrown. The Freedmen’s -Bureau came virtually to an end in 1869. General Howard’s report of -that year said: “In spite of all disorders that have prevailed and the -misfortunes that have fallen upon many parts of the South, a good degree -of prosperity and success has already been attained. To the oft-repeated -slander that the Negroes will not work and are incapable of taking care -of themselves, it is a sufficient answer that their voluntary labor has -produced nearly all the food that supported the whole people, besides -a large amount of rice, sugar and tobacco for export, and two millions -of bales of cotton each year, on which was paid into the United States -Treasury during the years 1866 to 1867 a tax of more than forty millions -of dollars ($40,000,000). It is not claimed that this result was wholly -due to the care and oversight of this Bureau but it is safe to say as it -has been said repeatedly by intelligent Southern white men, that without -the Bureau or some similar agency, the material interests of the country -would have greatly suffered and the government would have lost a far -greater amount than has been expended in its maintenance.... - -“Of the nearly eight hundred thousand (800,000) acres of farming land -and about five thousand (5,000) pieces of town property transferred to -this Bureau by military and treasury officers, or taken up by assistant -commissioners, enough was leased to produce a revenue of nearly four -hundred thousand dollars ($400,000). Some farms were set apart in -each state as homes for the destitute and helpless and a portion was -cultivated by freedmen prior to its restoration.... - -“Notice the appropriations by Congress: - - For the year ending July 1st, 1867 $6,940,450.00 - For the year ending July 1st, 1868 3,936,300.00 - For the relief of the destitute citizens in - District of Columbia 40,000.00 - For relief of destitute freedmen in the same 15,000.00 - For expenses of paying bounties in 1869 214,000.00 - For expenses for famine in Southern states and - transportation 1,865,645.00 - For support of hospitals 50,000.00 - Making a total received from all sources of $12,961,395.00 - -“Our expenditures from the beginning (including assumed accounts of the -‘Department of Negro Affairs’ from January 1st, 1865, to August 31, -1869) have been eleven million two hundred and forty-nine thousand and -twenty-eight dollars and ten cents ($11,249,028.10). In addition to -this cash expenditure the subsistence, medical supplies, quartermasters -stores, issued to the refugees and freedmen prior to July 1st, 1866, were -furnished by the commissary, medical and quartermasters department, and -accounted for in the current expenses of those departments; they were -not charged to nor paid for by my officers. They amounted to two million -three hundred and thirty thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight dollars -and seventy-two cents ($2,330,788.72) in original cost; but a large -portion of these stores being damaged and condemned as unfit for issue -to troops, their real value to the Government was probably less than one -million dollars ($1,000,000). Adding their original cost to the amount -expended from appropriations and other sources, the total expenses of -our Government for refugees and freedmen to August 31, 1869, have been -thirteen million five hundred and seventy-nine thousand eight hundred -and sixteen dollars and eighty-two cents ($13,579,816.82). And deducting -fifty thousand dollars ($50,000) set apart as a special relief fund for -all classes of destitute people in the Southern states, the real cost -has been thirteen million twenty-nine thousand eight hundred and sixteen -dollars and eighty-two cents ($13,029,816.82).”[182] - -By 1875, Negroes owned not less than 2,000,000 and perhaps as much as -4,000,000 acres of land and by 1880 this had increased to 6,000,000. - -Notwithstanding the great step forward that the Negro had made this -sinister fact faced him and his friends: he formed a minority of the -population of the South. If that population was solidly arrayed against -him his legal status was in danger and his economic progress was going -to be difficult. It has been repeatedly charged that the action of the -Negro solidified Southern opposition; and that the Negro refusing to -listen to and make fair terms with his white neighbors, sought solely -Northern alliance and the protection of Northern bayonets. This is not -true and is turning facts hindside before. The ones who did the choosing -were the Southern master class. When they got practically their full -political rights in 1872 they had a chance to choose, if they would, the -best of the Negroes as their allies and to work with them as against the -most ruthless elements of the white South. Gradually there could have -been built up a political party or even parties of the best of the black -and white South. The Negroes would have been more than modest in their -demands so long as they saw a chance to keep moving toward real freedom. -But the master class did not choose this, although some like Wade Hampton -of South Carolina, made steps toward it. On the whole, the masters -settled definitely upon a purely racial line, recognizing as theirs -everything that had a white skin and putting without the pale of sympathy -and alliance, everything of Negro descent. By bitter and unyielding -social pressure they pounded the whites into a solid phalanx, but in -order to do this they had to give up much. - -In the first place the leadership of the South passed from the hands of -the old slave owners into the hands of the newer town capitalists who -were largely merchants and the coming industrial leaders. Some of them -represented the older dominant class and some of them the newer poor -whites. They were welded, however, into a new economic mastership, less -cultivated, more ruthless and more keen in recognizing the possibilities -of Negro labor if “controlled” as they proposed to control it. This new -leadership, however, did not simply solidify the South, it proceeded to -make alliance in the North and to make alliance of the most effective -kind, namely economic alliance. The sentimentalism of the war period had -in the North changed to the recognition of the grim fact of destroyed -capital, dead workers and high prices. The South was a field which could -be exploited if peaceful conditions could be reached and the laboring -class made sufficiently content and submissive. It was the business then -of the “New” South to show to the northern capitalists that by uniting -the economic interests of both, they could exploit the Negro laborer and -the white laborer—pitting the two classes against each other, keeping -out labor unions and building a new industrial South which would pay -tremendous returns. This was the program which began with the withdrawal -of Northern troops in 1876 and was carried on up to 1890 when it gained -political sanction by open laws disfranchising the Negro. - -But the experiment was carried on at a terrific cost. First, the Negro -could not be cowed and beaten back from his new-found freedom without a -mass of force, fraud and actual savagery such as strained the moral fibre -of the white South to the utmost. It will be a century before the South -recovers from this _débacle_ and this explains why this great stretch of -land has today so meager an output of science, literature and art and can -discuss practically nothing but the “Negro” problem. It explains why the -South is the one region in the civilized world where sometimes men are -publicly burned alive at the stake. - -On the other hand, even this display of force and hatred did not keep -the Negro from advancing and the reason for this was that he was in -competition with a white laboring class which, despite all efforts and -advantages could not outstrip the Negroes and put them wholly under -their feet. By judiciously using this rivalry, the Negro gained economic -advantage after advantage, and foothold after foothold until today -while by no means free and still largely deprived of political rights, -we have a mass of 10,000,000 people whose economic condition may be -thus described: If we roughly conceive of something like a tenth of the -white population as below the line of decent free economic existence, we -may guess that a third of the black American population of 12 millions -is still in economic serfdom, comparable to condition of the submerged -tenth in cities, and held in debt and crime peonage in the sugar, rice -and cotton belts. Six other millions are emerging and fighting, in -competition with white laborers, a fairly successful battle for rising -wages and better conditions. In the last ten years a million of these -have been willing and able to move physically from Southern serfdom to -the freer air of the North. - -The other three millions are as free as the better class of white -laborers; and are pushing and carrying the white laborer with them in -their grim determination to hold advantages gained and gain others. -The Negro’s agitation for the right to vote has made any step toward -disfranchising the poor white unthinkable, for the white vote is needed -to help disfranchise the blacks; the black man is pounding open the doors -of exclusive trade guilds; for how can unions exclude whites when Negro -competition can break a steel strike? The Negro is making America and -the world acknowledge democracy as feasible and desirable for all white -folk, for only in this way do they see any possibility of defending their -world wide fear of yellow, brown and black folk. - -In a peculiar way, then, the Negro in the United States has emancipated -democracy, reconstructed the threatened edifice of Freedom and been a -sort of eternal test of the sincerity of our democratic ideals. As a -Negro minister, J. W. C. Pennington, said in London and Glasgow before -the Civil war: “The colored population of the United States has no -destiny separate from that of the nation in which they form an integral -part. Our destiny is bound up with that of America. Her ship is ours; her -pilot is ours; her storms are ours; her calms are ours. If she breaks -upon a rock, we break with her. If we, born in America, cannot live upon -the same soil upon terms of equality with the descendants of Scotchmen, -Englishmen, Irishmen, Frenchmen, Germans, Hungarians, Greeks and Poles, -then the fundamental theory of America fails and falls to the ground.” - -This is still true and it puts the American Negro in a peculiar strategic -position with regard to the race problems of the whole world. What do -we mean by democracy? Do we mean democracy of the white races and the -subjection of the colored races? Or do we mean the gradual working -forward to a time when all men will have a voice in government and -industry and will be intelligent enough to express the voice? - -It is this latter thesis for which the American Negro stands and has -stood, and more than any other element in the modern world it has slowly -but continuously forced America toward that point and is still forcing. -It must be remembered that it was the late Booker T. Washington who -planned the beginning of an industrial democracy in the South, based -on education, and that in our day the National Association for the -Advancement of Colored People, nine-tenths of whose members are Negroes, -is the one persistent agency in the United States which is voicing a -demand for democracy unlimited by race, sex or religion. American Negroes -have even crossed the waters and held three Pan-African Congresses -to arouse black men through the world to work for modern democratic -development. Thus the emancipation of the Negro slave in America becomes -through his own determined effort simply one step toward the emancipation -of all men. - - - - -CHAPTER VI - -THE FREEDOM OF WOMANHOOD - - How the black woman from her low estate not only united two - great human races but helped lift herself and all women to - economic independence and self-expression. - - -The emancipation of woman is, of course, but one phase of the growth -of democracy. It deserves perhaps separate treatment because it is an -interesting example of the way in which the Negro has helped American -democracy. - -In the United States in 1920 there were 5,253,695 women of Negro descent; -over twelve hundred thousand of these were children, another twelve -hundred thousand were girls and young women under twenty, and two and a -half million were adults. As a mass these women have but the beginnings -of education,—twelve percent of those from sixteen to twenty years of -age were unable to write, and twenty-eight percent of those twenty-one -years of age and over. These women are passing through, not only a moral, -but an economic revolution. Their grandmothers married at twelve and -fifteen, but in 1910 twenty-seven percent of these women who had passed -fifteen were still single. - -Yet these black women toil and toil hard. There were in 1910 two and a -half million Negro homes in the United States. Out of these homes walked -daily to work two million women and girls over ten years of age,—one -half of the colored female population as against a fifth in the case of -white women. These, then, are a group of workers, fighting for their -daily bread like men; independent and approaching economic freedom! They -furnished a million farm laborers, 80,000 farmers, 22,000 teachers, -600,000 servants and washerwomen, and 50,000 in trades and merchandizing. -In 1920, 38.9% of colored women were at work as contrasted with 17.2% -of native white women. Of the colored women 39% were farming and 50% in -service. - -The family group, however, which is the ideal of the culture into which -these folk have been born, is not based on the idea of an economically -independent working mother. Rather its ideal harks back to the sheltered -harem with the mother emerging at first as nurse and homemaker, while the -man remains the sole breadwinner. Thus the Negro woman more than the -women of any other group in America is the protagonist in the fight for -an economically independent womanhood in modern countries. Her fight has -not been willing or for the most part conscious but it has, nevertheless, -been curiously effective in its influence on the working world. - -This matter of economic independence is, of course, the central fact in -the struggle of women for equality. In the earlier days the slave woman -was found to be economically as efficient as the man. Moreover, because -of her production of children she became in many ways more valuable; -but because she was a field hand the slave family differed from the -free family. The children were brought up very largely in common on the -plantation, there was comparatively small parental control or real family -life and the chief function of the woman was working and not making a -home. We can see here pre-figured a type of social development toward -which the world is working again for similar and larger reasons. In -our modern industrial organization the work of women is being found as -valuable as that of men. They are consequently being taken from the home -and put into industry and the rapidity by which this process is going on -is only kept back by the problem of the child; and more and more the -community is taking charge of the education of children for this reason. - -In America the work of Negro women has not only pre-figured this -development but it has had a direct influence upon it. The Negro woman as -laborer, as seamstress, as servant and cook, has come into competition -with the white male laborer and with the white woman worker. The fact -that she could and did replace the white man as laborer, artisan and -servant, showed the possibility of the white woman doing the same thing, -and led to it. Moreover, the usual sentimental arguments against women -at work were not brought forward in the case of Negro womanhood. Nothing -illustrates this so well as the speech of Sojourner Truth before the -second National Woman Suffrage Convention, in 1852. - -Sojourner Truth came from the lowest of the low, a slave whose children -had been sold away from her, a hard, ignorant worker without even a name, -who came to this meeting of white women and crouched in a corner against -the wall. “Don’t let her speak,” was repeatedly said to the presiding -officer. “Don’t get our cause mixed up with abolition and ‘niggers’.” -The discussion became warm, resolutions were presented and argued. Much -was said of the superiority of man’s intellect, the general helplessness -of women and their need for courtesy, the sin of Eve, etc. Most of the -white women, being “perfect ladies,” according to the ideals of the time, -were not used to speaking in public and finally to their dismay the black -woman arose from the corner. The audience became silent. - -Sojourner Truth was an Amazon nearly six feet high, black, erect and with -piercing eyes, and her speech in reply was to the point: - -“Dat man ober dar say dat women needs to be helped into carriages, and -lifted ober ditches, and to have the best places every whar. Nobody eber -help me into carriages, or ober mud puddles, or gives me any best place” -(and raising herself to her full height and her voice to a pitch like -rolling thunder, she asked), “and ai’n’t I a woman? Look at me! Look -at my arm!” (And she bared her right arm to the shoulder, showing her -tremendous muscular power.) “I have plowed, and planted, and gathered -into barns, and no man could head me—and ai’n’t I a woman? I could work -as much and eat as much as a man (when I could get it), and bear de lash -as well—and ai’n’t I a woman? I have borne thirteen chilern and seen ’em -mos’ all sold off into slavery, and when I cried out with a mother’s -grief, none but Jesus heard—and ai’n’t I a woman? Den dey talks ’bout -dis ting in de head—what dis dey call it?” (“Intellect,” whispered some -one near.) “Dat’s it honey. What’s dat got to do with women’s rights or -niggers’ rights? If my cup won’t hold but a pint and yourn holds a quart, -wouldn’t ye be mean not to let me have my little half-measure full?” ... -She ended by asserting that “If de fust woman God ever made was strong -enough to turn the world upside down, all ’lone, dese togedder” (and she -glanced her eye over us,) “ought to be able to turn it back and get it -right side up again, and now dey is asking to do it, de men better let -’em....” - -“Amid roars of applause, she turned to her corner, leaving more than one -of us with streaming eyes and hearts beating with gratitude. She had -taken us up in her strong arms and carried us safely over the slough -of difficulty, turning the whole tide in our favor. I have never in my -life seen anything like the magical influence that subdued the mobbish -spirit of the day and turned the jibes and sneers of an excited crowd -into notes of respect and admiration. Hundreds rushed up to shake hands, -and congratulate the glorious old mother and bid her God speed on her -mission of ‘testifying again concerning the wickedness of this ’ere -people’.”[183] - -Again and in more concrete ways the Negro woman has influenced America -and that is by her personal contact with the family—its men, women and -children. As housekeeper, maid and nurse—as confidante, adviser and -friend, she was often an integral part of the white family life of the -South, and transmitted her dialect, her mannerisms, her quaint philosophy -and her boundless sympathy. - -Beyond this she became the concubine. It is a subject scarcely to be -mentioned today with our conventional morals and with the bitter racial -memories swirling about this institution of slavery. Yet the fact remains -stark, ugly, painful, beautiful. - -Let us regard it dispassionately, remembering that the concubine is as -old as the world and that birth is a biological fact. It is usual to -speak of the Negro as being the great example of the unassimiliated -group in American life. This, of course, is flatly untrue; probably of -the strains of blood longest present in America since the discovery by -Columbus, the Negro has been less liable to absorption than other groups; -but this does not mean that he has not been absorbed and that his blood -has not been spread throughout the length and breadth of the land. - -“We southern ladies are complimented with the names of wives; but we are -only the mistresses of seraglios,” said a sister of President Madison; -and a Connecticut minister who lived 14 years in Carolina said: “As it -relates to amalgamation, I can say, that I have been in respectable -families (so-called), where I could distinguish the family resemblance in -the slaves who waited upon the table. I once hired a slave who belonged -to his own uncle. It is so common for the female slaves to have white -children, that little is ever said about it. Very few inquiries are made -as to who the father is.”[184] - -One has only to remember the early histories of cities like Charleston -and New Orleans to see what the Negro concubine meant and how she -transfigured America. Paul Alliot said in his reflections of Louisiana in -1803: “The population of that city counting the people of all colors is -only twelve thousand souls. Mulattoes and Negroes are openly protected by -the Government. He who strikes one of those persons, even though he had -run away from him, would be severely punished. Also twenty whites could -be counted in the prisons of New Orleans against one man of color. The -wives and daughters of the latter are much sought after by the white men, -and white women at times esteem well-built men of color.”[185] The same -writer tells us that few white men marry, preferring to live with their -slaves or with women of color. - -A generation later the situation was much the same in spite of reaction. -In 1818, a traveler says of New Orleans: “Here may be seen in the same -crowds, Quadroons, Mulattoes, Samboes, Mustizos, Indians and Negroes; and -there are other commixtures which are not yet classified.”[186] - -“The minor distinctions of complexion and race so fiercely adhered to -by the Creoles of the old regime were at their height at this time. The -glory and shame of the city were her quadroons and octoroons, apparently -constituting two aristocratic circles of society, the one as elegant -as the other, the complexions the same, the men the same, the women -different in race, but not in color, nor in dress nor in jewels. Writers -on fire with the romance of this continental city love to speak of the -splendors of the French Opera House, the first place in the country where -grand opera was heard, and tell of the tiers of beautiful women with -their jewels and airs and graces. Above the orchestra circle were four -tiers; the first filled with the beautiful dames of the city; the second -filled with a second array of beautiful women, attired like those of -the first, with no apparent difference; yet these were the octoroons and -quadroons, whose beauty and wealth were all the passports needed. The -third was for the _hoi polloi_ of the white race, and the fourth for the -people of color whose color was more evident. It was a veritable sandwich -of races.”[187] - -Whatever judgment we may pass upon all this and however we may like or -dislike it, the fact remains that the colored slave women became the -medium through which two great races were united in America. Moreover -it is the fashion to assume that all this was merely infiltration -of white blood into the black; but we must remember it was just as -surely infiltration of black blood into white America and not even an -extraordinary drawing of the color line against all visible Negro blood -has ever been able to trace its true limits. - -There is scarcely an American, certainly none of the South and no Negro -American, who does not know in his personal experience of Americans -of Negro descent who either do not know or do not acknowledge their -African ancestry. This is their right, if they do know, and a matter -of but passing importance if they do not. But without doubt the -spiritual legacy of Africa has been spread through this mingling of -blood. First, of course, we may think of those more celebrated cases -where the mixed blood is fairly well known but nevertheless the man has -worked and passed as a white man. One of the earliest examples was that -of Alexander Hamilton. Alexander Hamilton was a case in point of the -much disputed “Creole” blood. Theoretically the Creole was a person of -European descent on both sides born in the West Indies or America; but -as there were naturally few such persons in earlier times because of the -small number of European women who came to America, those descendants of -European fathers and mulatto mothers were in practice called “Creole” -and consequently it soon began to be _prima facie_ evidence, in the -West Indies, that an illegitimate child of a white father was of Negro -descent. Alexander Hamilton was such an illegitimate child. He had -colored relatives whose descendants still live in America and he was -currently reported to be colored in the island of Nevis. Further than -this, of course, proof is impossible. But to those who have given careful -attention to the subject, little further proof is needed. - -To this can be added a long list of American notables,—bishops, generals -and members of Congress. Many writers and artists have found hidden -inspiration in their Negro blood and from the first importation in the -fifteenth century down to today there has been a continual mingling -of white and Negro blood in the United States both within and without -the bonds of wedlock that neither law nor slavery nor cruel insult and -contempt has been able to stop. - -Besides these influences in economics and the home there has come the -work of Negro women in revolt which cannot be forgotten. We mention two -cases. - -Harriet Tubman was a woman absolutely illiterate, who, from 1849 down to -the Civil War, spent her time journeying backward and forward between -the free and slave states and leading hundreds of black fugitives into -freedom. Thousands of dollars were put upon her head as rewards for her -capture; and she was continually sought by northern abolitionists and -was a confidant of John Brown. During the War, she acted as a spy, guide -and nurse and in all these days, worked without pay or reward. William -H. Seward said: “A nobler, higher spirit or truer, seldom dwells in the -human form,” and Wendell Phillips added: “In my opinion there are few -captains, perhaps few colonels who have done more for the loyal cause -since the War began and few men who did before that time more for the -colored race than our fearless and most sagacious friend, Harriet.” -Abraham Lincoln gave her ready audience.[188] - -Quite a different kind of woman and yet strangely effective and -influential was Mammy Pleasants of California. Here was a colored -woman who became one of the shrewdest business minds of the State. She -anticipated the development in oil; she was the trusted confidant of many -of the California pioneers like Ralston, Mills and Booth and for years -was a power in San Francisco affairs. Yet, she held her memories, her -hatreds, her deep designs and throughout a life that was perhaps more -than unconventional, she treasured a bitter hatred for slavery and a -certain contempt for white people. - -As a field hand in Georgia she had attracted the attention of a planter -by her intelligence and was bought and sent to Boston for training. Here -she was made a household drudge and eventually married Alexander Smith -who was associated with Garrison and the abolitionists. With $50,000 -from his estate, she came to California and made a fortune. The epitaph -which she wanted on her tombstone was, “She was a friend of John Brown.” -When she first heard of the projects of Brown she determined to help -him and April 5, 1858, when John Brown was captured at Harper’s Ferry, -they found upon him a letter reading: “The ax is laid at the foot of the -tree; when the first blow is struck there will be more money to help.” -This was signed by three initials which the authorities thought were -“W. E. P.”—in fact they were “M. E. P.” and stood for Mammy Pleasants. -She had come East the spring before with a $30,000 United States draft -which she changed into coin and meeting John Brown in Chatham or Windsor, -Canada, had turned this money over to him. It was agreed, however, that -he was not to strike his blow until she had helped to arouse the slaves. -Disguised as a jockey, she went South and while there heard of Brown’s -raid and capture at Harper’s Ferry. She fled to New York and finally -reached California on a ship that came around Cape Horn, sailing in the -steerage under an assumed name. - -Mammy Pleasants “always wore a poke bonnet and a plaid shawl,” and she -was “very black with thin lips” and “she handled more money during -pioneers days in California than any other colored person.”[189] - -Here then, we have the types of colored women who rose out of the black -mass of slaves not only to guide their own folk but to influence the -nation. - -We have noted then the Negro woman in America as a worker tending to -emancipate all women workers; as a mother nursing the white race and -uniting the black and white race; as a conspirator urging forward -emancipation in various sorts of ways; and we have finally only to -remember that today the women of America who are doing humble but on the -whole the most effective work in the social uplift of the lowly, not so -much by money as by personal contact, are the colored women. Little is -said or known about it but in thousands of churches and social clubs, -in missionary societies and fraternal organizations, in unions like the -National Association of Colored Women, these workers are founding and -sustaining orphanages and old folk homes; distributing personal charity -and relief; visiting prisoners; helping hospitals; teaching children; -and ministering to all sorts of needs. Their work, as it comes now and -then in special cases to the attention of individuals of the white world, -forms a splendid bond of encouragement and sympathy, and helps more than -most realize in minimizing racial difficulties and encouraging human -sympathy.[190] - - - - -CHAPTER VII - -THE AMERICAN FOLK SONG - - How black folk sang their sorrow songs in the land of their - bondage and made this music the only American folk music. - - -“Little of beauty has America given the world save the rude grandeur God -himself stamped on her bosom; the human spirit in this new world has -expressed itself in vigor and ingenuity rather than in beauty. And so by -fateful chance the Negro folk-song—the rhythmic cry of the slave—stands -today not simply as the sole American music, but as the most beautiful -expression of human experience born this side the seas. It has been -neglected, it has been persistently mistaken and misunderstood; but -notwithstanding, it still remains as the singular spiritual heritage of -the nation and the greatest gift of the Negro people.”[191] - -Around the Negro folk-song there has arisen much of controversy and of -misunderstanding. For a long time they were utterly neglected; then every -once in a while and here and there they forced themselves upon popular -attention. In the thirties, they emerged and in tunes like “Near the lake -where droop the willow” and passed into current song or were caricatured -by the minstrels. Then came Stephen Foster who accompanied a mulatto maid -often to the Negro church and heard the black folk sing; he struck a new -note in songs like “Old Kentucky Home,” “Old Folks at Home” and “Nellie -was a Lady.” But it was left to war and emancipation to discover the real -primitive beauty of this music to the world. - -When northern men and women who knew music, met the slaves at Port Royal -after its capture by Federal troops, they set down these songs in their -original form for the first time so that the world might hear and sing -them. The sea islands of the Carolinas where these meetings took place -“with no third witness” were filled with primitive black folk, uncouth -in appearance, and queer in language, but their singing was marvellous. -Thomas Wentworth Higginson and Miss McKim and others collected these -songs in 1867, making the first serious study of Negro American music. -The preface said: - -“The musical capacity of the Negro race has been recognized for so many -years that it is hard to explain why no systematic effort has hitherto -been made to collect and preserve their melodies. More than thirty -years ago those plantation songs made their appearance which were so -extraordinarily popular for a while; and if ‘Coal-black Rose,’ ‘Zip -Coon’ and ‘Ole Virginny nebber tire’ have been succeeded by spurious -imitations, manufactured to suit the somewhat sentimental taste of our -community, the fact that these were called ‘Negro melodies’ was itself a -tribute to the musical genius of the race. - -“The public had well-nigh forgotten these genuine slave songs, and with -them the creative power from which they sprung, when a fresh interest -was excited through the educational mission to the Port Royal Islands in -1861.”[192] - -Still the world listened only half credulously until the Fisk Jubilee -Singers sang the slave songs “so deeply into the world’s heart that -it can never wholly forget them again.” The story of the Fisk Jubilee -singers is romantic. In abandoned barracks at Nashville hundreds of -colored children were being taught and the dream of a Negro University -had risen in the minds of the white teachers. But even the lavish -contribution for missionary work, which followed the war, had by 1870 -begun to fall off. It happened that the treasurer of Fisk, George L. -White, loved music. He began to instruct the Fisk students in singing -and he used the folk-songs. He met all sorts of difficulties. The white -people of the nation and especially the conventional church folk who were -sending missionary money, were not interested in “minstrel ditties.” The -colored people looked upon these songs as hateful relics of slavery. -Nevertheless, Mr. White persisted, gathered a pioneer band of singers and -in 1871 started north. - -“It was the sixth day of October in the year of our Lord, one thousand -eight hundred and seventy-one, when George L. White started out from -Fisk School with his eleven students to raise money, that Fisk might -live. Professor Adam K. Spence, who was principal of the school, gave -Mr. White all the money in his possession save one dollar, which he -held back, that the treasury might not be empty. While friends and -parents wept, waved, and feared, the train puffed out of the station. -All sorts of difficulties, obstacles, oppositions and failures faced -them until through wonderful persistence, they arrived at Oberlin, Ohio. -Here the National Council of Congregational Churches was in session. -After repeated efforts, Mr. White gained permission for his singers to -render one song. Many of the members of the Council objected vigorously -to having such singers. During the time of the session the weather -had been dark and cloudy. The sun had not shone one moment, it had not -cast one ray upon the village. The singers went into the gallery of the -church, unobserved by all save the moderator and a few who were on the -rostrum. At a lull in the proceeding, there floated sweetly to the ears -of the audience the measures of ‘Steal Away to Jesus.’ Suddenly the sun -broke through the clouds, shone through the windows upon the singers, -and verily they were a heavenly choir. For a time the Council forgot its -business and called for more and more. It was at this point that Henry -Ward Beecher almost demanded of Mr. White that he cancel all engagements -and come straight to his church in Brooklyn....” - -The New York papers ridiculed and sneered at Beecher’s “nigger -minstrels.” But Beecher stuck to his plan and it was only a matter of -hearing them once when audiences went into ecstasies. - -“When the Metropolitan newspapers called the company ‘Nigger Minstrels,’ -Mr. White was face to face with a situation as serious as it was -awkward. His company had no appropriate name, and the odium of the title -attributed by the New York newspapers pained him intensely. If they were -to be known as ‘Nigger Minstrels,’ they could never realize his vision; -they were both handicapped and checkmated, and their career was dead.... -The suggestiveness of the Hebrew Jubilee had been borne in upon his mind -and with joy of a deep conviction he exclaimed, ‘Children, you are the -Jubilee Singers’.”[193] - -For seven years the career of this company of Jubilee Singers was a -continual triumph. They crowded the concert halls of New England; they -began to send money back to Fisk; they went to Great Britain and sang -before Queen Victoria, Lord Shaftesbury and Mr. Gladstone. Gladstone -cried: “It’s wonderful!” Queen Victoria wept. Moody, the evangelist, -brought them again and again to his London meetings, and the singers -were loaded with gifts. Then they went to Germany, and again Kings and -peasants listened to them. In seven years they were able to pay not -only all of their own expenses but to send $150,000 in cash to Fisk -University, and out of this money was built Jubilee Hall, on the spot -that was once a slave market. “There it stands, lifting up its grateful -head to God in His heaven.” - -For a long time after some people continued to sneer at Negro music. They -declared it was a “mere imitation,” that it had little intrinsic value, -that it was not the music of Negroes at all. Gradually, however, this -attitude has completely passed and today critics vie with each other in -giving tribute to this wonderful gift of the black man to America. - -Damrosch says: “The Negro’s music isn’t ours, it is the Negro’s. It -has become a popular form of musical expression and is interesting, -but it is not ours. Nothing more characteristic of a race exists, but -it is characteristic of the Negro, not the American race. Through it a -primitive people poured out its emotions with wonderful expressiveness. -It no more expresses our emotions than the Indian music does.” - -Recently, numbers of serious studies of the Negro folk-song have been -made. James Weldon Johnson says: “In the ‘spirituals,’ or slave songs, -the Negro has given America not only its only folk-songs, but a mass of -noble music. I never think of this music but that I am struck by the -wonder, the miracle of its production. How did the men who originated -these songs manage to do it? The sentiments are easily accounted for; -they are, for the most part, taken from the Bible. But the melodies, -where did they come from? Some of them so weirdly sweet, and others so -wonderfully strong. Take, for instance, ‘Go Down, Moses’; I doubt that -there is a stronger theme in the whole musical literature of the world. - -“It is to be noted that whereas the chief characteristic of Ragtime is -rhythm, the chief characteristic of the ‘spirituals’ is melody. The -melodies of ‘Steal Away to Jesus,’ ‘Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,’ ‘Nobody -Knows de Trouble I See,’ ‘I couldn’t hear Nobody Pray,’ ‘Deep River,’ -‘O, Freedom Over Me,’ and many others of these songs possess a beauty -that is—what shall I say? Poignant. In the riotous rhythms of Ragtime -the Negro expressed his irrepressible buoyancy, his keen response to the -sheer joy of living; in the ‘spirituals’ he voiced his sense of beauty -and his deep religious feeling.”[194] - -H. E. Krehbiel says: “There was sunshine as well as gloom in the life -of the black slaves in the Southern colonies and States, and so we have -songs which are gay as well as grave; but as a rule the finest songs are -the fruits of suffering undergone and the hope of the deliverance from -bondage which was to come with translation to heaven after death. The -oldest of them are the most beautiful, and many of the most striking -have never yet been collected, partly because they contained elements, -melodic as well as rhythmical, which baffled the ingenuity of the early -collectors. Unfortunately, trained musicians have never entered upon the -field, and it is to be feared that it is now too late. The peculiarities -which the collaborators on ‘Slave Songs of the United States’ -recognized, but could not imprison on the written page, were elements -which would have been of especial interest to the student of art. - -“Is it not the merest quibble to say that these songs are not American? -They were created in America under American influences and by people who -are Americans in the same sense that any other element of our population -is American—every element except the aboriginal.... Is it only an African -who can sojourn here without becoming an American and producing American -things; is it a matter of length of stay in the country? Scarcely that; -or some Negroes would have at least as good a claim on the title as the -descendants of the Puritans and Pilgrims. Negroes figure in the accounts -of his voyages to America made by Columbus.... A year before the English -colonists landed on Plymouth Rock Negroes were sold into servitude in -Virginia.”[195] - -The most gifted and sympathetic student of the folk-song in Africa and -America was Natalie Curtis, and it is scarcely necessary to add to what -she has so carefully and sympathetically written. She has traced the -connection between African and Afro-American music which has always been -assumed but never carefully proven. The African rhythm, through the use -of the drum as a leading instrument, produced musical emphasis which we -call syncopation. Primitive music usually shows rhythm and melody of the -voice sung in unison. But in Africa, part singing was developed long -before it appeared in Europe. The great difference between the music of -Africa and the music of Europe lies in rhythm; in Europe the music is -accented on the regular beats of the music while in Africa the accents -fall often on the unstressed beats. It is this that coming down through -the Negro folk-song in America has produced what is known as ragtime. - -Mrs. Curtis Burlin shows that the folk-song of the African in America -can be traced direct to Africa: “As a creator of beauty the black man is -capable of contributing to the great art of the world. - -“The Negro’s pronounced gift for music is today widely recognized. That -gift, brought to America in slave-ships, was nurtured by that mother of -woe, human slavery, till out of suffering and toil there sprang a music -which speaks to the heart of mankind—the prayer-song of the American -Negro. In Africa is rooted the parent stem of that out-flowering of Negro -folk-song in other lands. - -“Through the Negro this country is vocal with a folk-music intimate, -complete and beautiful. It is the Negro music with its by-product of -‘ragtime’ that today most widely influences the popular song-life of -America, and Negro rhythms have indeed captivated the world at large. Nor -may we foretell the impress that the voice of the slave will leave upon -the art of the country—a poetic justice, this! For the Negro everywhere -discriminated against, segregated and shunned, mobbed and murdered—he -it is whose melodies are on all our lips, and whose rhythms impel our -marching feet in a ‘war for democracy.’ The irresistible music that wells -up from this sunny and unresentful people is hummed and whistled, danced -to and marched to, laughed over and wept over, by high and low and rich -and poor throughout the land. The downtrodden black man whose patient -religious faith has kept his heart still unembittered, is fast becoming -the singing voice of all America. And in his song we hear a prophecy of -the dignity and worth of Negro genius.”[196] - -The Negro folk-song entered the Church and became the prayer song and -the sorrow song, still with its haunting melody but surrounded by the -inhibitions of a cheap theology and a conventional morality. But the -musical soul of a race unleashed itself violently from these bonds and -in the saloons and brothels of the Mississippi bottoms and gulf coast -flared to that crimson license of expression known as “ragtime,” “jazz” -and the more singular “blues” retaining with all their impossible words -the glamour of rhythm and wild joy. White composers hastily followed with -songs like “A Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight,” and numerous successors -in popular favor. - -Out of ragtime grew a further development through both white and black -composers. The “blues,” a curious and intriguing variety of love song -from the levees of the Mississippi, became popular and was spread by the -first colored man who was able to set it down, W. C. Handy of Memphis. -Other men, white and colored, from Stephen Foster to our day, have -taken another side of Negro music and developed its haunting themes -and rippling melody into popular songs and into high and fine forms of -modern music, until today the influence of the Negro reaches every part -of American music, of many foreign masters like Dvorak; and certainly no -program of concert music could be given in America without voicing Negro -composers and Negro themes. - -We can best end this chapter with the word of a colored man: “But there -is something deeper than the sensuousness of beauty that makes for the -possibilities of the Negro in the realm of the arts, and that is the soul -of the race. The wail of the old melodies and the plaintive quality that -is ever present in the Negro voice are but the reflection of a background -of tragedy. No race can rise to the greatest heights of art until it has -yearned and suffered. The Russians are a case in point. Such has been -their background in oppression and striving that their literature and -art are today marked by an unmistakable note of power. The same future -beckons to the American Negro. There is something very elemental about -the heart of the race, something that finds its origin in the African -forest, in the sighing of the night wind, and in the falling of the -stars. There is something grim and stern about it all, too, something -that speaks of the lash, of the child torn from its mother’s bosom, of -the dead body riddled with bullets and swinging all night from a limb by -the roadside.”[197] - - - - -CHAPTER VIII - -NEGRO ART AND LITERATURE - - How the tragic story of the black slave has become a central - theme of the story of America and has inspired literature and - created art. - - -The Negro is primarily an artist. The usual way of putting this is to -speak disdainfully of his “sensuous” nature. This means that the only -race which has held at bay the life destroying forces of the tropics, -has gained therefrom in some slight compensation a sense of beauty, -particularly for sound and color, which characterizes the race. The Negro -blood which flowed in the veins of many of the mightiest of the Pharaohs -accounts for much of Egyptian art, and indeed Egyptian civilization owes -much in its origin to the development of the large strain of Negro blood -which manifested itself in every grade of Egyptian society. - -Semitic civilization also had its Negroid influences, and these -continually turn toward art as in the case of black Nosseyeb, one of the -five great poets of Damascus under the Ommiades, and the black Arabian -hero, Antar. It was therefore not to be wondered at that in modern days -one of the greatest of modern literatures, the Russian, should have been -founded by Pushkin, the grandson of a full blooded Negro, and that among -the painters of Spain was the mulatto slave, Gomez. Back of all this -development by way of contact, come the artistic sense of the indigenous -Negro as shown in the stone figures of Sherbro, the bronzes of Benin, -the marvelous hand work in iron and other metals which has characterized -the Negro race so long that archaeologists today, with less and less -hesitation, are ascribing the discovery of the welding of iron to the -Negro race. - -Beyond the specific ways in which the Negro has contributed to American -art stands undoubtedly his spirit of gayety and the exotic charm which -his presence has loaned the parts of America which were spiritually free -enough to enjoy it. In New Orleans, for instance, after the war of 1812 -and among the free people of color there was a beautiful blossoming of -artistic life which the sordid background of slavery had to work hard -to kill. The “people of color” grew in number and waxed wealthy. Famous -streets even today bear testimony of their old importance. Congo Square -in the old Creole quarter where Negroes danced the weird “Bamboula” long -before colored Coleridge-Taylor made it immortal and Gottschalk wrote -his Negro dance. Camp street and Julia street took their names from -the old Negro field and from the woman who owned land along the Canal. -Americans and Spanish both tried to get the support and sympathy of the -free Negroes. The followers of Aaron Burr courted them. - -“Writers describing the New Orleans of this period agree in presenting a -picture of a continental city, most picturesque, most un-American, and as -varied in color as a street of Cairo. There they saw French, Spaniards, -English, Bohemians, Negroes, mulattoes, varied clothes, picturesque white -dresses of the fairer women, brilliant cottons of the darker ones. The -streets, banquettes, we should say, were bright with color, the nights -filled with song and laughter. Through the scene, the people of color add -the spice of color; in the life, they add the zest of romance.”[198] - -Music is always back of this gay Negro spirit and the folk song which the -Negro brought to America was developed not simply by white men but by the -Negro himself. Musicians and artists sprung from the Louisiana group. -There was Eugene Warburg who distinguished himself as a sculptor in -Italy. There was Victor Sejour who became a poet and composer in France, -Dubuclet became a musician in Bordeaux and the seven Lamberts taught -and composed in America, France and Brazil. One of the brothers Sydney -was decorated for his work by the King of Portugal. Edmund Dèdè became a -director of a leading orchestra in France.[199] - -Among other early colored composers of music are J. Hemmenway who lived -in Philadelphia in the twenties; A. J. Conner of Philadelphia between -1846-57 published numbers of compositions; in the seventies Justin -Holland was well known as a composer in Cleveland, Ohio; Samuel Milady, -known by his stage name as Sam Lucas, was born in 1846 and died in 1916. -He wrote many popular ballads, among them “Grandfather’s Clock Was Too -Tall For The Shelf.” George Melbourne, a Negro street minstrel, composed -“Listen to the Mocking-Bird,” although a white man got the credit. James -Bland wrote “Carry me Back to Ole Virginny”; Gussie L. Davis composed -popular music at Cincinnati.[200] - -Coming to our day we remember that the Anglo-African Samuel -Coleridge-Taylor received much of his inspiration from his visits to -the American Negro group; then comes Harry T. Burleigh, perhaps the -greatest living song writer in America. Among his works are “Five Songs” -by Laurence Hope; “The Young Warrior,” which became one of the greatest -of the war songs; “The Grey Wolf” and “Ethiopia Saluting the Colors.” His -adaptations of Negro folk-songs are widely known and he assisted Dvorak -in his “New World Symphony.” R. Nathaniel Dett has written “Listen to -the Lambs,” a carol widely known, and “The Magnolia Suite.” Rosamond -Johnson wrote “Under the Bamboo Tree” and a dozen popular favorites -beside choruses and marches. Clarence Cameron White has composed and -adapted and Maud Cuney Hare has revived and explained Creole music. -Edmund T. Jenkins has won medals at the Royal Academy in London. Among -the colored performers on the piano are R. Augustus Lawson, who has often -been soloist at the concerts of the Hartford Philharmonic Orchestra; -Hazel Harrison, a pupil of Busoni; and Helen Hagen who took the Sanford -scholarship at Yale. Carl Diton is a pianist who has transcribed many -Negro melodies. Melville Charlton has done excellent work on the organ. - -Then we must remember the Negro singers, the “Black Swan” of the early -19th century whose voice compared with Jenny Lind’s; the Hyer sisters, -Flora Batson, Florence Cole Talbert, and Roland W. Hayes, the tenor -whose fine voice has charmed London, Paris and Vienna and who is now one -of the leading soloists of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. - -The Negro has been one of the greatest originators of dancing in the -United States and in the world. He created the “cake walk” and most of -the steps in the “clog” dance which has so enthralled theatre audiences. -The modern dances which have swept over the world like the “Tango” and -“Turkey Trot” originated among the Negroes of the West Indies. The Vernon -Castles always told their audiences that their dances were of Negro -origin.[201] - -We turn now to other forms of art and more particularly literature. Here -the subject naturally divides itself into three parts: _first_, the -influence which the Negro has had on American literature,—and _secondly_, -the development of a literature for and by Negroes. And lastly the number -of Negroes who have gained a place in National American literature. - -From the earliest times the presence of the black man in America has -inspired American writers. Among the early Colonial writers the Negro was -a subject as, for instance, in Samuel Sewall’s “Selling of Joseph,” the -first American anti-slavery tract published in 1700. But we especially -see in the influence of the Negro’s condition in the work of the masters -of the 19th century, like Ralph Waldo Emerson, John Greenleaf Whittier, -James Russell Lowell, Walt Whitman, Julia Ward Howe, Harriet Beecher -Stowe and Lydia Maria Child. With these must be named the orators Wendell -Phillips, Charles Sumner, John C. Calhoun, Henry Ward Beecher. In our own -day, we have had the writers of fiction, George U. Cable, Thomas Nelson -Page, Thomas Dixson, Ruth McEnery Stewart, William Dean Howells, Thomas -Wentworth Higginson. - -It may be said that the influence of the Negro here is a passive -influence and yet one must remember that it would be inconceivable to -have an American literature, even that written by white men, and not have -the Negro as a subject. He has been the lay figure, but after all, the -figure has been alive, it has moved, it has talked, felt and influenced. - -In the minds of these and other writers how has the Negro been portrayed? -It is a fascinating subject which I can but barely touch: in the days -of Shakespeare and Southerne the black man of fiction was a man, a -brave, fine, if withal over-trustful and impulsive, hero. In science he -was different but equal, cunning in unusual but mighty possibilities. -Then with the slave trade he suddenly became a clown and dropped -from sight. He emerged slowly beginning about 1830 as a dull stupid -but contented slave, capable of doglike devotion, superstitious and -incapable of education. Then, in the abolition controversy he became a -victim, a man of sorrows, a fugitive chased by blood-hounds, a beautiful -raped octoroon, a crucified Uncle Tom, but a lay figure, objectively -pitiable but seldom subjectively conceived. Suddenly a change came after -Reconstruction. The black man was either a faithful old “Befoh de wah” -darky worshipping lordly white folk, or a frolicking ape, or a villain, -a sullen scoundrel, a violator of womanhood, a low thief and misbirthed -monster. He was sub-normal and congenitally incapable. He was represented -as an unfit survival of Darwinian natural selection. Philanthropy and -religion stood powerless before his pigmy brain and undeveloped morals. -In a “thousands years”? Perhaps. But at present, an upper beast. Out of -this today he is slowly but tentatively, almost apologetically rising—a -somewhat deserving, often poignant, but hopeless figure; a man whose -only proper end is dramatic suicide physically or morally. His trouble -is natural and inborn inferiority, slight by scientific measurement -but sufficient to make absolute limits to his possibilities, save in -exceptional cases. - -And here we stand today. As a normal human being reacting humanly to -human problems the Negro has never appeared in the fiction or the science -of white writers, with a bare half dozen exceptions; while to the white -southerner who “knows him best” he is always an idiot or a monster, -and he sees him as such, no matter what is before his very eyes. And -yet, with all this, the Negro has held the stage. In the South he is -everything. You cannot discuss religion, morals, politics, social life, -science, earth or sky, God or devil without touching the Negro. It is -a perennial and continuous and continual subject of books, editorials, -sermons, lectures and smoking car confabs. In the north and west while -seldom in the center, the Negro is always in the wings waiting to appear -or screaming shrill lines off stage. What would intellectual America do -if she woke some fine morning to find no “Negro” Problem? - -Coming now to the slowly swelling stream of a distinct group literature, -by and primarily for the Negro, we enter a realm only partially known -to white Americans. First, there come the rich mass of Negro folk lore -transplanted from Africa and developed in America. A white writer, Joel -Chandler Harris, first popularized “Uncle Remus” and “Brer Rabbit” for -white America; but he was simply the deft and singularly successful -translator—the material was Negroid and appears repeatedly among the -black peasants and in various forms and versions. Take for instance the -versions of the celebrated tar-baby story of Joel Chandler Harris. C. -C. Jones took down a striking version apparently direct from Negro lips -early in the 19th century: - -“‘Do Buh Wolf, bun me: broke me neck, but don’t trow me in de brier -patch. Lemme dead one time. Don’t tarrify me no mo.’ Buh Wolf yet bin -know wuh Buh Rabbit up teh. Eh tink eh bin guine tare Bur Rabbit hide -off. So, wuh eh do? Eh loose Buh Rabbit from de spakleberry bush, an eh -tek um by de hine leg, an eh swing um roun’, en eh trow um way in de tick -brier patch fuh tare eh hide and cratch eh yeye out. De minnit Buh Rabbit -drap in de brier patch, eh cock up eh tail, eh jump, an holler back to -Buh Wolf: ‘Good bye, Budder! Dis de place me mammy fotch me up,—dis de -place me mammy fotch me up.’ An eh gone before Buh Wolf kin ketch um. Buh -Rabbit too scheemy.” - -The Harris version shows the literary touch added by the white man. But -the Negro version told by Jones has all the meat of the primitive tale. - -Next we note the folk rhymes and poetry of Negroes, sometimes -accompanying their music and sometimes not. A white instructor in English -literature at the University of Virginia says: - -“Of all the builders of the nation the Negro alone has created a species -of lyric verse that all the world may recognize as a distinctly American -production.” - -T. W. Talley, a Negro, has recently published an exhaustive collection of -these rhymes. They form an interesting collection of poetry often crude -and commonplace but with here and there touches of real poetry and quaint -humor.[202] - -The literary expression of Negroes themselves has had continuous -development in America since the eighteenth century.[203] It may however -be looked upon from two different points of view: We may think of the -writing of Negroes as self-expression and as principally for themselves. -Here we have a continuous line of writers. Only a few of these, however -would we think of as contributing to American literature as such and -yet this inner, smaller stream of Negro literature overflows faintly at -first and now evidently more and more into the wider stream of American -literature; on the other hand there have been figures in American -literature who happen to be of Negro descent and who are but vaguely to -be identified with the group stream as such. Both these points of view -are interesting but let us first take up the succession of authors who -form a group literature by and for Negroes. - -As early as the eighteenth century, and even before the Revolutionary -War the first voices of Negro authors were heard in the United States. -Phyllis Wheatley, the black poetess, was easily the pioneer, her first -poems appearing in 1773, and other editions in 1774 and 1793. Her -earliest poem was in memory of George Whitefield. She was honored by -Washington and leading Englishmen and was as a writer above the level of -her American white contemporaries. - -She was followed by Richard Allen, first Bishop of the African Methodist -Church whose autobiography, published in 1793 was the beginning of -that long series of personal appears and narratives of which Booker -T. Washington’s “Up From Slavery” was the latest. Benjamin Banneker’s -almanacs represented the first scientific work of American Negroes, and -began to be issued in 1792. - -Coming now to the first decades of the nineteenth century we find some -essays on freedom by the African Society of Boston, and an apology for -the new Negro church formed in Philadelphia. Paul Cuffe, disgusted with -America, wrote an early account of Sierra Leone, while the celebrated -Lemuel Haynes, ignoring the race question, dipped deeply into the New -England theological controversy about 1815. In 1829 came the first -full-voiced, almost hysterical, protest against slavery and the color -line in David Walker’s Appeal which aroused Southern legislatures to -action. This was followed by the earliest Negro conventions which issued -interesting minutes; two appeals against disfranchisement in Pennsylvania -appeared in this decade, one written by Robert Purvis, who also wrote a -biography of his father-in-law, Mr. James Forten, and the other appeal -written by John Bowers and others. The life of Gustavus Vassa, also known -by his African name of Olaudah Equiana, was published in America in 1837 -continuing the interesting personal narratives. - -In 1840 some strong writers began to appear. Henry Highland Garnet and -J. W. C. Pennington preached powerful sermons and gave some attention -to Negro history in their pamphlets: R. B. Lewis made a more elaborate -attempt at Negro history. Whitfield’s poems appeared in 1846, and William -Wells Brown began a career of writing which lasted from 1847 until after -the Civil War. He began his literary career by the publication of his -“Narrative of a Fugitive Slave” in 1847. This was followed by a novel in -1853, “Sketches” from abroad in 1855, a play in 1858, “The Black Man” in -1863, “The Negro in the American Rebellion” in 1867, and “The Rising Son” -in 1874. The Colored Convention in Cincinnati and Cleveland published -reports in this decade and Bishop Loguen wrote his life history. In -1845 Douglass’ autobiography made its first appearance, destined to run -through endless editions until the last in 1893. Moreover it was in 1841 -that the first Negro magazine appeared in America, edited by George -Hogarth and published by the A. M. E. Church. - -In the fifties James Whitfield published further poems, and a new poet -arose in the person of Frances E. W. Harper, a woman of no little ability -who died lately; Martin R. Delaney and William Cooper Nell wrote further -of Negro history, Nell especially making valuable contributions of the -history of the Negro soldiers. Three interesting biographies were added -in this decade to the growing number; Josiah Henson, Samuel C. Ward and -Samuel Northrop; while Catto, leaving general history came down to the -better known history of the Negro church. - -In the sixties slave narratives multiplied, like that of Linda Brent, -while two studies of Africa based on actual visits were made by Robert -Campbell and Dr. Alexander Crummell; William Douglass and Bishop Daniel -Payne continued the history of the Negro church, and William Wells Brown -carried forward his work in general Negro history. In this decade, too, -Bishop Tanner began his work in Negro theology. - -Most of the Negro talent in the seventies was taken up in politics; -the older men like Bishop Wayman wrote of their experiences; Sojourner -Truth added her story to the slave narratives. A new poet arose in the -person of A. A. Whitman, while James Monroe Trotter was the first to take -literary note of the musical ability of his race. Robert Brown Elliott -stirred the nation by his eloquence in Congress. The Fisk edition of the -Songs of the Jubilee Singers appeared. - -In the eighties there are signs of unrest and conflicting streams of -thought. On the one hand the rapid growth of the Negro church is shown -by the writers on church subjects like Moore and Wayman. The historical -spirit was especially strong. Still wrote of the Underground Railroad; -Simmons issued his interesting biographical dictionary, and the greatest -historian of the race appeared when George W. Williams issued his -two-volume history of the Negro Race in America. The political turmoil -was reflected in Langston’s Freedom and Citizenship, Fortune’s Black and -White, and Straker’s New South, and found its bitterest arraignment in -Turner’s pamphlets; but with all this went other new thought: Scarborough -published “First Greek Lessons”; Bishop Payne issued his Treatise on -Domestic Education, and Stewart studied Liberia. - -In the nineties came histories, essays, novels and poems, together with -biographies and social studies. The history was represented by Payne’s -History of the A. M. E. Church, Hood’s One Hundred Years of the A. M. -E. Zion Church, Anderson’s sketch of Negro Presbyterianism and Hagood’s -Colored Man in the M. E. Church; general history of the older type -was represented by R. L. Perry’s Cushite and of the newer type in E. -A. Johnson’s histories, while one of the secret societies found their -historian in Brooks; Crogman’s essays appeared and Archibald Grimke’s -biographies. The race question was discussed in Frank Grimke’s published -sermons, social studies were made by Penn, Wright, Mossell, Crummell, -Majors and others. Most notable, however, was the rise of the Negro -novelist and poet with national recognition: Frances Harper was still -writing and Griggs began his racial novels, but both of these spoke -primarily to the Negro race; on the other hand, Chesnutt’s six novels -and Dunbar’s inimitable works spoke of the whole nation. J. T. Wilson’s -“Black Phalanx,” the most complete study of the Negro soldier, came in -these years. - -Booker T. Washington’s work began with his address at Atlanta in 1895, -“Up From Slavery” in 1901, “Working with the Hands” in 1904, and “The Man -Farthest Down” in 1912. The American Negro Academy, a small group, began -the publication of occasional papers in 1897 and has published a dozen -or more numbers including a “Symposium on the Negro and the Elective -Franchise” in 1905, a “Comparative Study of the Negro Problem” in 1899, -Love’s “Disfranchisement of the Negro” in 1899, Grimke’s Study of Denmark -Vesey in 1901 and Steward’s “Black St. Domingo Legion” in 1899. Since -1900 the stream of Negro writing has continued. Dunbar has found a -successor in the critic and compiler of anthologies, W. S. Braithwaite; -Booker T. Washington has given us his biography and Story of the Negro; -Kelly Miller’s trenchant essays have appeared in book form and he has -issued numbers of critical monographs on the Negro problem with wide -circulation. Scientific historians have appeared in Benjamin Brawley and -Carter Woodson and George W. Mitchell. Sinclair’s Aftermath of Slavery -has attracted attention, as have the studies made by Atlanta University. -The Negro in American Sculpture has been studied by H. F. M. Murray. - -The development in poetry has been significant, beginning with Phyllis -Wheatley.[204] Jupiter Hammon came in the 18th century, George M. Horton -in the early part of the 19th century followed by Frances Harper who -began publishing in 1854 and A. A. Whitman whose first attempts at epic -poetry were published in the seventies. In 1890 came the first thin -volume of Paul Lawrence Dunbar, the undoubted laureate of the race, who -published poems and one or two novels up until the beginning of the 20th -century. He was succeeded by William Stanley Braithwaite whose fame rests -chiefly upon his poetic criticism and his anthologies, and finally by -James Weldon Johnson, Claud McKay who came out of the West Indies with a -new and sincere gift, Fenton Johnson, Georgia Johnson and Jessie Fauset. -Joseph S. Cotter, Jr., Langston Hughes, Roscoe C. Jamison and Countée -Cullen have done notable work in verse. Campbell, Davis and others have -continued the poetic tradition of Negro dialect. - -On the whole, the literary output of the American Negro has been both -large and creditable, although, of course, comparatively little known; -few great names have appeared and only here and there work that could be -called first class, but this is not a peculiarity of Negro literature. - -The time has not yet come for the great development of American Negro -literature. The economic stress is too great and the racial persecution -too bitter to allow the leisure and the poise for which literature calls. -“The Negro in the United States is consuming all his intellectual energy -in this gruelling race-struggle.” And the same statement may be made -in a general way about the white South. Why does not the white South -produce literature and art? The white South, too, is consuming all of its -intellectual energy in this lamentable conflict. Nearly all of the mental -efforts of the white South run through one narrow channel. The life of -every southern white man and all of his activities are impassably limited -by the ever present Negro problem. And that is why, as Mr. H. L. Mencken -puts it, in all that vast region, with its thirty or forty million people -and its territory as large as half a dozen Frances or Germanys, “there is -not a single poet, not a serious historian, not a creditable composer, -not a critic good or bad, not a dramatist dead or alive.” - -On the other hand, never in the world has a richer mass of material been -accumulated by a people than that which the Negroes possess today and are -becoming increasingly conscious of. Slowly but surely they are developing -artists of technic who will be able to use this material. The nation -does not notice this for everything touching the Negro has hitherto been -banned by magazines and publishers unless it took the form of caricature -or bitter attack, or was so thoroughly innocuous as to have no literary -flavor. This attitude shows signs of change at last. - -Most of the names in this considerable list except those toward the last -would be unknown to the student of American literature. Nevertheless they -form a fairly continuous tradition and a most valuable group expression. -From them several have arisen, as I have said, to become figures in the -main stream of American literature. Phyllis Wheatley was an American -writer of Negro descent just as Dumas was a French writer of Negro -descent. She was the peer of her best American contemporaries but she -represented no conscious Negro group. Lemuel Haynes wrote for Americans -rather than for Negroes. - -Dunbar occupies a unique place in American literature. He raised a -dialect and a theme from the minstrel stage to literature and became -and remains a national figure. Charles W. Chesnutt followed him as a -novelist, and many white people read in form of fiction a subject which -they did not want to read or hearken to. He gained his way unaided and -by sheer merit and is a recognized American novelist. Braithwaite is a -critic whose Negro descent is not generally known and has but slightly -influenced his work. His place in American literature is due more to his -work as a critic and anthologist than to his work as a poet. “There is -still another rôle he has played, that of friend of poetry and poets. It -is a recognized fact that in the work which preceded the present revival -of poetry in the United States, no one rendered more unremitting and -valuable service than Mr. Braithwaite. And it can be said that no future -study of American poetry of this age can be made without reference to -Braithwaite.” - -Of McKay’s poems, Max Eastman writes that it “should be illuminating to -observe that while these poems are characteristic of that race as we most -admire it—they are gentle, simple, candid, brave and friendly, quick of -laughter and of tears—yet they are still more characteristic of what is -deep and universal in mankind. There is no special or exotic kind of -merit in them, no quality that demands a transmutation of our own natures -to perceive. Just as the sculptures and wood and ivory carvings of the -vast forgotten African Empires of Ife and Benin, although so wistful in -their tranquility, are tranquil in the possession of the qualities of all -classic and great art, so these poems, the purest of them, move with a -sovereignty that is never new to the lovers of the high music of human -utterance.”[205] - -The later writers like Jean Toomer, Claud McKay, Jessie Fauset and others -have come on the stage when the stream of Negro literature has grown to -be of such importance and gained so much of technique and merit that -it tends to merge into the broad flood of American literature and any -notable Negro writer became _ipso facto_ a national writer. - -One must not forget the Negro orator. While in the white world the human -voice as a vehicle of information and persuasion has waned in importance -until the average man is somewhat suspicious of “eloquence,” in the Negro -world the spoken word is still dominant and Negro orators have wielded -great influence upon both white and black from the time of Frederick -Douglass and Samuel Ward down to the day of J. C. Price and Booker T. -Washington. There is here, undoubtedly, something of unusual gift and -personal magnetism. - -One must note in this connection the rise and spread of a Negro -press—magazines and weeklies which are voicing to the world with -increasing power the thought of American Negroes. The influence of this -new force in America is being recognized and the circulation of these -papers aggregate more than a million copies. - -On the stage the Negro has naturally had a most difficult chance to be -recognized. He has been portrayed by white dramatists and actors, and for -a time it seemed but natural for a character like Othello to be drawn, or -for Southerne’s Oroonoko to be presented in 1696 in England with a black -Angola prince as its hero. Beginning, however, with the latter part of -the 18th century the stage began to make fun of the Negro and the drunken -character Mungo was introduced at Drury Lane. - -In the United States this tradition was continued by the “Negro -Minstrels” which began with Thomas D. Rice’s imitation of a Negro -cripple, Jim Crow. Rice began his work in Louisville in 1828 and had -great success. Minstrel companies imitating Negro songs and dances -and blackening their faces gained a great vogue until long after the -Civil War. Negroes themselves began to appear as principals in minstrel -companies after a time and indeed as early as 1820 there was an -“African company” playing in New York. No sooner had the Negro become -the principal in the minstrel shows than he began to develop and uplift -the art. This took a long time but eventually there appeared Cole and -Johnson, Ernest Hogan and Williams and Walker. Their development of a new -light comedy marked an epoch and Bert Williams was at his recent death -without doubt the leading comedian on the American stage. - -In the legitimate drama there was at first no chance for the Negro in the -United States. Ira Aldridge, born in Maryland, had to go to Europe for -opportunity. There he became associated with leading actors like Edmund -Keene and was regarded in the fifties as one of the two or three greatest -actors in the world. He was honored and decorated by the King of Sweden, -the King of Prussia, the Emperor of Austria and the Czar of Russia. He -had practically no successor until Charles Gilpin triumphed in “The -Emperor Jones” in New York during the season 1920-21. - -Efforts to develop a new distinctly racial drama and portray the dramatic -struggle of the Negro in America and elsewhere have rapidly been made. -Mrs. Emily Hapgood made determined effort to initiate a Negro theatre. -She chose the plays of Ridgeley Torrence, a white playwright, who wrote -for the Negro players “Granny Maumee” and “The Rider of Dreams,” pieces -singularly true to Negro genius. The plays were given with unusual merit -and gained the highest praise. - -This movement, interrupted by the war, has been started again by the -Ethiopian Players of Chicago and especially by the workers at Howard -University where a Negro drama with Negro instructors, Negro themes and -Negro players is being developed. One of the most interesting pageants -given in America was written, staged and performed by Negroes in New -York, Philadelphia and Washington. - -Charles Gilpin had been trained with Williams and Walker and other -colored companies. He got his first chance on the legitimate stage by -playing the part of Curtis in Drinkwater’s “Abraham Lincoln.” Then he -became the principal in O’Neill’s wonderful play and was nominated by the -Drama League in 1921 as one of the ten persons who had contributed most -to the American theatre during the year. Paul Robeson and Evelyn Preer -are following Gilpin’s footsteps. - -There is no doubt of the Negro’s dramatic genius. Stephen Graham writes: - -“I visited one evening a Negro theatre where a musical comedy was going -on—words and music both by Negroes. It opened with the usual singing and -dancing chorus of Negro girls. They were clad in yellow and crimson and -mauve combinations with white tapes on one side from the lace edge of the -knicker to their dusky arms. They danced from the thigh rather than from -the knee, moving waist and bosom in unrestrained undulation, girls with -large, startled seeming eyes and uncontrollable masses of dark hair.... A -dance of physical joy and abandon, with no restraint in the toes or the -knees, no veiling of the eyes, no half shutting of the lips, no holding -in of the hair. Accustomed to the very aesthetic presentment of the -Bacchanalia in the Russian ballet, it might be difficult to call one of -those Negro dancers a Bacchante, and yet there was one whom I remarked -again and again, a Queen of Sheba in her looks, a face like starry night, -and she was clad slightly in mauve, and went into such ecstacies during -the many encores that her hair fell down about her bare shoulders, and -her cheeks and knees, glistening with perspiration, outshone her eyes.... -I had seen nothing so pretty or so amusing, so bewilderingly full of life -and color, since Sanine’s production of the ‘Fair of Sorochinsky’ in -Moscow.” - -Turning now to painting, we note a young African painter contemporary -with Phyllis Wheatley who had gained some little renown. Then a half -century ago came E. M. Banister, the center of a group of artists forming -the Rhode Island Art Club, and one of whose pictures took a medal at the -Centennial Exposition in 1876. - -William A. Harper died in 1910. His “Avenue of Poplars” took a prize of -$100 at the Chicago Art Institute. William Edward Scott studied in Paris -under Tanner. His picture “La Pauvre Voisine” was hung in the salon in -1910 and bought by the government of the Argentine Republic. Another -picture was hung in Paris and took first prize at the Indiana State Fair, -and a third picture was exhibited in the Royal Academy in London. Lately -Mr. Scott has specialized in mural painting. His work is found in ten -public schools in Chicago, in four in Indianapolis and in the latter city -he decorated two units in the City Hospital with 300 life sized pictures. -In many of these pictures he has especially emphasized the Negro type. - -Richard Brown, Edwin Harleston, Albert A. Smith, Laura Wheeler and a -number of rising young painters have shown the ability of the Negro in -this line of art; but their dean is, of course, Henry Ossawa Tanner. -Tanner is today one of the leading painters of the world and universally -is so recognized. He was born an American Negro in Pittsburgh in 1859, -the son of an African Methodist minister; he studied at the Academy of -Fine Arts in Philadelphia and became a photographer in Atlanta. Afterward -he taught at Clark University in Atlanta. In all this time he had sold -less than $200 worth of pictures; but finally he got to Paris and was -encouraged by Benjamin Constant. He soon turned toward his greatest -forte, religious pictures. His “Daniel in the Lion’s Den” was hung in -the salon in 1896 and the next year the “Raising of Lazarus” was bought -by the French government and hung in the Luxembourg. Since then he has -won medals in all the greatest expositions, and his works are sought by -connoisseurs. He has recently received knighthood in the French Legion of -Honor. - -In sculpture we may again think of two points of view,—first, there is -the way in which the Negro type has figured in American sculpture as, for -instance, the libyan Sybil of W. A. Story, Bissell’s Emancipation group -in Scotland, the Negro woman on the military monument in Detroit, Ball’s -Negro in the various emancipation groups, Ward’s colored woman on the -Beecher monument, the panel on the Cleveland monument of Scofield, Africa -in D. C. French’s group in front of the Custom’s House in New York City, -Calder’s black boy in the Nations of the West group in the Panama-Pacific -exhibition and, of course, the celebrated Shaw monument in Boston.[206] -On the other hand, there have been a few Negro sculptors, three of whom -merit mention: Edmonia Lewis, who worked during the Civil War, Meta -Warrick Fuller, a pupil of Rodin, and May Howard Jackson, who has done -some wonderful work in the portraying of the mulatto type. - -To appraise rightly this body of art one must remember that it represents -mainly the work of those artists whom accident set free; if the artist -had a white face his Negro blood did not militate against him in the -fight for recognition; if his Negro blood was visible white relatives may -have helped him; in a few cases ability was united to indomitable will. -But the shrinking, modest, black artist without special encouragement had -little or no chance in a world determined to make him a menial. Today the -situation is changing. The Negro world is demanding expression in art and -beginning to pay for it. The white world is able to see dimly beyond the -color line. This sum of accomplishment then is but a beginning and an -imperfect indication of what the Negro race is capable of in America and -in the world. - -Science, worse luck, has in these drab days little commerce with art -and yet for lack of better place a word may drop here of the American -Negro’s contribution. Science today is a matter chiefly for endowed -fellowships and college chairs. Negroes have small chance here because -of race exclusion and yet no scientist in the world can today write -of insects and ignore the work of C. H. Turner of St. Louis; or of -insanity and forget Dr. S. C. Fuller of Massachusetts. Ernest Just’s -investigations of the origin of life make him stand among the highest -two or three modern scientists in that line and the greatest American -interpreter of Wasserman reactions is a colored man; Dr. Julien H. Lewis -of the University of Chicago, is building a reputation in serology. There -are also a number of deft Negro surgeons including Dr. Dan Williams who -first sewed up a wounded human heart. The great precursors of all these -colored men of science were Thomas Derham and Benjamin Banneker. - -Derham was a curiosity more than a great scientist measuring by absolute -standards, and yet in the 18th century and at the age of twenty-six he -was regarded as one of the most eminent physicians in New Orleans. Dr. -Rush of Philadelphia testified to his learning and ability. - -Benjamin Banneker was a leading American scientist. He was the grandson -of an English woman and her black slave. Their daughter married a Negro -and Benjamin was their only son. Born in 1731 in Maryland he was educated -in a private school with whites and spent his life on his father’s farm. -He had taste for mathematics and early constructed an ingenious clock. -He became expert in the solution of difficult mathematical problems, -corresponding with interested persons of leisure. - -Thomas Jefferson wrote to the Marquis de Condorcet: “We now have in the -United States a Negro, the son of a black man born in Africa and a black -woman born in the United States, who is a very respectable mathematician. -I procured him to be employed under one of our chief directors in laying -out the new Federal City on the Potomac and in the intervals of his -leisure, while on that work, he made an almanac for the next year, which -he sent me in his own handwriting and which I enclose to you. I have -seen very elegant solutions of geometrical problems by him. Add to this -that he is a very worthy and respectable member of society. He is a -free man. I shall be delighted to see these instances of moral eminence -so multiplied as to prove that the want of talents observed in them, -is merely the effect of their degraded condition, and not proceeding -from any difference in the structure of the parts on which intellect -depends.”[207] - -Banneker became greatly interested in astronomy. He made a number of -calculations and finally completed an almanac covering the year 1792. A -member of John Adams’ cabinet had this almanac published in Baltimore. -This patron, James McHenry, said that the almanac was begun and finished -without outside assistance except the loan of books “so that whatever -merit is attached to his present performance, is exclusively and -peculiarly his own.” The publishers declared that the almanac met the -approbation of several of the most distinguished astronomers of America. -The almanac was published yearly until 1802. When the City of Washington -was laid out in 1793 under Major Pierre Charles L’Enfant, President -Washington at the suggestion of Thomas Jefferson appointed Banneker as -one of the six commissioners. He performed a most important part of the -mathematical calculations of the survey and sat in conference with the -other commissioners. Later he wrote essays on bees and studied methods -to promote peace, suggesting a Secretary of Peace in the president’s -cabinet. He “was a brave looking pleasant man with something very noble -in his appearance.” His color was not jet black but decided Negroid. He -died in 1806, with both an American and European reputation and was among -the most learned men of his day in America. - - - - -CHAPTER IX - -THE GIFT OF THE SPIRIT - - How the fine sweet spirit of black folk, despite superstition - and passion has breathed the soul of humility and forgiveness - into the formalism and cant of American religion. - - -Above and beyond all that we have mentioned, perhaps least tangible but -just as true, is the peculiar spiritual quality which the Negro has -injected into American life and civilization. It is hard to define or -characterize it—a certain spiritual joyousness; a sensuous, tropical love -of life, in vivid contrast to the cool and cautious New England reason; a -slow and dreamful conception of the universe, a drawling and slurring of -speech, an intense sensitiveness to spiritual values—all these things and -others like to them, tell of the imprint of Africa on Europe in America. -There is no gainsaying or explaining away this tremendous influence of -the contact of the north and south, of black and white, of Anglo Saxon -and Negro. - -One way this influence has been brought to bear is through the actual -mingling of blood. But this is the smaller cause of Negro influence. -Heredity is always stronger through the influence of acts and deeds and -imitations than through actual blood descent; and the presence of the -Negro in the United States quite apart from the mingling of blood has -always strongly influenced the land. We have spoken of its influence in -politics, literature and art, but we have yet to speak of that potent -influence in another sphere of the world’s spiritual activities: religion. - -America early became a refuge for religion—a place of mighty spaces and -glorious physical and mental freedom where silent men might sit and -think quietly of God and his world. Hither out of the blood and dust of -war-wrecked Europe with its jealousies, blows, persecutions and fear -of words and thought, came Puritans, Anabaptists, Catholics, Quakers, -Moravians, Methodists—all sorts of men and “isms” and sects searching for -God and Truth in the lonely bitter wilderness. - -Hither too came the Negro. From the first he was the concrete test of -that search for Truth, of the strife toward a God, of that body of belief -which is the essence of true religion. His presence rent and tore and -tried the souls of men. “Away with the slave!” some cried—but where away -and why? Was not his body there for work and his soul—what of his soul? -Bring hither the slaves of all Africa and let us convert their souls, -this is God’s good reason for slavery. But convert them to what? to -freedom? to emancipation? to being white men? Impossible. Convert them, -yes. But let them still be slaves for their own good and ours. This was -quibbling and good men felt it, but at least here was a practical path, -follow it. - -Thus arose the great mission movements to the blacks. The Catholic Church -began it and not only were there Negro proselytes but black priests and -an order of black monks in Spanish America early in the 16th century. -In the middle of the 17th century a Negro freedman and charcoal burner -lived to see his son, Francisco Xavier de Luna Victoria, raised to head -the Bishopric of Panama where he reigned eight years as the first native -Catholic Bishop in America. - -In Spanish America and in French America the history of Negro religion is -bound up with the history of the Catholic Church. On the other hand in -the present territory of the United States with the exception of Maryland -and Louisiana organized religion was practically and almost exclusively -Protestant and Catholics indeed were often bracketed with Negroes for -persecution. They could not marry Protestants at one time in colonial -South Carolina; Catholics and Negroes could not appear in court as -witnesses in Virginia by the law of 1705; Negroes and Catholics were held -to be the cause of the “Negro plot” in New York in 1741. - -The work then of the Catholic Church among Negroes began in the United -States well into the 19th century and by Negroes themselves. In -Baltimore, for instance, in 1829, colored refugees from the French West -Indies established a sisterhood and academy and gave an initial endowment -of furniture, real estate and some $50,000 in money. In 1842 in New -Orleans, four free Negro women gave their wealth to form the Sisters of -the Holy Family and this work expanded and grew especially after 1893 -when a mulatto, Thomy Lafon, endowed the work with over three quarters -of a million dollars, his life savings. Later, in 1896, a colored man, -Colonel John McKee of Philadelphia, left a million dollars in real estate -to the Catholic Church for colored and white orphans. - -Outside of these colored sisterhoods and colored philanthropists, the -church hesitated long before it began any systematic proselyting among -Negroes. This was because of the comparative weakness of the church in -early days and later when the Irish migration strengthened it the new -Catholics were thrown into violent economic competition with slaves and -free Negroes, and their fight to escape slave competition easily resolved -itself into a serious anti-Negro hatred which was back of much of the -rioting in Cincinnati, Philadelphia and New York. It was not then until -the 20th century that the church began active work by establishing a -special mission for Negroes and engaging in it nearly two hundred white -priests. This new impetus was caused by the benevolence of Katherine -Drexel and the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament. Notwithstanding all this -and since the beginning of the 18th century only six Negroes have been -ordained to the Catholic priesthood. - -The main question of the conversion of the Negro to Christianity in the -United States was therefore the task of the Protestant Church and it -was, if the truth must be told, a task which it did not at all relish. -The whole situation was fraught with perplexing contradictions; Could -Christians be slaves? Could slaves be Christians? Was the object of -slavery the Christianizing of the black man, and when the black man was -Christianized was the mission of slavery done and ended? Was it possible -to make modern Christians of these persons whom the new slavery began -to paint as brutes? The English Episcopal Church finally began the -work in 1701 through the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. -It had notable officials, the Archbishop of Canterbury being its first -president; it worked in America 82 years, accomplishing something but -after all not very much, on account of the persistent objection of the -masters. The Moravians were more eager and sent missionaries to the -Negroes, converting large numbers in the West Indies and some in the -United States in the 18th century. Into the new Methodist Church which -came to America in 1766, large numbers of Negroes poured from the first, -and finally the Baptists in the 18th century had at least one fourth of -their membership composed of Negroes, so that in 1800 there were 14,000 -black Methodists and some 20,000 black Baptists.[208] - -It must not be assumed that this missionary work acted on raw material. -Rather it reacted and was itself influenced by a very definite and -important body of thought and belief on the part of the Negroes. -Religion in the United States was not simply brought to the Negro by -the missionaries. To treat it in that way is to miss the essence of the -Negro action and reaction upon American religion. We must think of the -transplanting of the Negro as transplanting to the United States a -certain spiritual entity, and an unbreakable set of world-old beliefs, -manners, morals, superstitions and religious observances. The religion -of Africa is the universal animism or fetishism of primitive peoples, -rising to polytheism and approaching monotheism chiefly, but not wholly, -as a result of Christian and Islamic missions. Of fetishism there is much -misapprehension. It is not mere senseless degradation. It is a philosophy -of life. Among primitive Negroes there can be, as Miss Kingsley reminds -us, no such divorce of religion from practical life as is common in -civilized lands. Religion is life, and fetish an expression of the -practical recognition of dominant forces in which the Negro lives. To him -all the world is spirit. Miss Kingsley says: “It is this power of being -able logically to account for everything that is, I believe, at the back -of the tremendous permanency of fetish in Africa, and the cause of many -of the relapses into it by Africans converted to other religions; it is -also the explanation of the fact that white men who live in the districts -where death and danger are everyday affairs, under a grim pall of -boredom, are liable to believe in fetish, though ashamed of so doing. For -the African, whose mind has been soaked in fetish during his early and -most impressionable years, the voice of fetish is almost irresistible -when affliction comes to him.”[209] - -At first sight it would seem that slavery completely destroyed every -vestige of spontaneous social movement among the Negroes; the home had -deteriorated; political authority and economic initiative was in the -hands of the masters; property, as a social institution, did not exist -on the plantation; and, indeed, it is usually assumed by historians and -sociologists that every vestige of internal development disappeared, -leaving the slaves no means of expression for their common life, thought, -and striving. This is not strictly true; the vast power of the priest -in the African state still survived; his realm alone—the province of -religion and medicine—remained largely unaffected by the plantation -system in many important particulars. The Negro priest, therefore, early -became an important figure on the plantation and found his function as -the interpreter of the supernatural, the comforter of the sorrowing, and -as the one who expressed, rudely, but picturesquely, the longing and -disappointment and resentment of a stolen people. From such beginnings -arose and spread with marvellous rapidity the Negro church, the first -distinctively Negro American social institution. It was not at first -by any means a Christian Church, but a mere adaptation of those -heathen rites which we roughly designate by the term Obe Worship or -“Voodooism.” Association and missionary effort soon gave these rites a -veneer of Christianity, and gradually, after two centuries, the Church -became Christian, with a simple Calvinistic creed, but with many of -the old customs still clinging to the services. It is this historic -fact that the Negro Church today bases itself upon the sole surviving -social institution of the African fatherland, that accounts for its -extraordinary growth and vitality. We easily forget that in the United -States today there is a Church organization for every sixty Negro -families. This institution, therefore, naturally assumed many functions -which the other harshly suppressed social organs had to surrender; the -Church became the center of amusements, of what little spontaneous -economic activity remained, of education, and of all social intercourse, -of music and art.[210] - -For these reasons the tendency of the Negro worshippers from the very -first was to integrate into their own organizations. As early as 1775 -distinct Negro congregations with Negro ministers began to appear here -and there in the United States. They multiplied, were swept away, -effort was made to absorb them in the white church, but they kept on -growing until they established national bodies with Episcopal control or -democratic federation and these organizations today form the strongest, -most inclusive and most vital of the Negro organizations. They count in -the United States four million members and their churches seat these four -million and six million other guests. They are houses in 40,000 centers, -worth $60,000,000 and have some 200,000 leaders. - -On the part of the white church this tendency among the Negroes met with -alternate encouragement and objection: encouragement because they did not -want Negroes in their churches even when they occupied the back seats or -in the gallery; objection when the church became, as it so often did, a -center of intelligent Negro life and even of plotting against slavery. -There arose out of the church the first leaders of the Negro group; and -in the first rank among these stands Richard Allen.[211] - -Richard Allen was born in 1760 as a slave in Philadelphia and was -licensed to preach in 1782. He was ordained deacon by Bishop Asbury -and he led the Negroes in their secession from St. George’s Church in -Philadelphia when they tried to stop black folk from praying on the main -floor. He formed first the Free African Society and finally established -Bethel Church. - -As this church grew and multiplied it became the African Methodist -Episcopal Church which now boasts three quarters of a million members. -Allen was its first bishop. With Allen was associated Absalom Jones, born -a slave in Delaware in 1746. He became the first Negro priest in the -Episcopal Church. John Gloucester became the pioneer Negro minister among -colored Presbyterians and gave that church his four sons as ministers. -George Leile became a missionary of the American Negroes to the Negroes -of Jamaica and began missionary work on that island while Lott Carey -in a similar way became a missionary to Africa. Then came Nat Turner, -the preacher revolutionist. James Varick, a free negro of New York who -was the first bishop of the black Zion Methodist revolt, and afterward -there followed the stream of Negro leaders who have built and led the -organization of colored churches. But this is only part of the story. - -It will be seen that the development of the Negro church was not separate -from the white. Black preachers led white congregations, white preachers -addressed blacks. In many other ways Negroes influenced white religion -continuously and tremendously. There was the “Shout,” combining the -trance and demoniac possession as old as the world, and revivified and -made widespread by the Negro religious devotees in America. Methodist and -Baptist ways of worship, songs and religious dances absorbed much from -the Negroes and whatever there is in American religion today of stirring -and wild enthusiasm, of loud conversions and every day belief in an -anthropomorphic God owes its origin in a no small measure to the black -man. - -Of course most of the influence of the Negro preachers was thrown into -their own churches and to their own people and it was from the Negro -church as an organization that Negro religious influence spread most -widely to white people. Many would say that this influence had little -that was uplifting and was a detriment rather than an advantage in that -it held back and holds back the South particularly in its religious -development. There is no doubt that influences of a primitive sort and -customs that belong to the unlettered childhood of the race rather than -to the thinking adult life of civilization crept in with the religious -influence of the slave. Much of superstition, even going so far as -witchcraft, conjury and blood sacrifice for a long time marked Negro -religion here and there in the swamps and islands. But on the other hand -it is just as true that the cold formalism of upper class England and -New England needed the wilder spiritual emotionalism of the black man to -weld out of both a rational human religion based on kindliness and social -uplift; and whether the influence of Negro religion was on the whole good -or bad, the fact remains that it was potent in the white South and still -is. - -Several black leaders of white churches are worth remembering.[212] -Lemuel Hayes was born in Connecticut in 1753 of a black father and white -mother. He received his Master of Arts from Middlebury College in 1804, -was a soldier in the Revolution and pastored various churches in New -England. “He was the embodiment of piety and honesty.” Harry Hosier, the -black servant and companion of Bishop Asbury, was called by Dr. Benjamin -Rush, the greatest orator in America. He travelled north and south and -preached to white and black between 1784 and his death in 1810. - -John Chavis was a full-blooded Negro, born in Granville county, N. C., -near Oxford, in 1753. He was born free and was sent to Princeton, and -studied privately under Dr. Witherspoon, where he did well. He went to -Virginia to preach to Negroes. In 1802, in the county court, his freedom -and character were certified to and it was declared that he had passed -“through a regular course of academic studies” at what is now Washington -and Lee University. In 1805 he returned to North Carolina, where he, in -1809 was made a licentiate in the Presbyterian Church and preached. His -English was remarkably pure, his manner impressive, his explanations -clear and concise. For a long time he taught school and had the best -whites as pupils—a United States senator, the sons of a chief justice -of North Carolina, a governor of the state and many others. Some of his -pupils boarded in his family, and his school was regarded as the best in -the State. “All accounts agree that John Chavis was a gentleman” and he -was received socially among the best whites and asked to table. In 1830 -he was stopped from preaching by the law. Afterward he taught school for -free Negroes in Raleigh. - -Henry Evans was a full-blooded Virginia free Negro, and was the pioneer -of Methodism in Fayetteville, N. C. He found the Negroes there, about -1800, without religious instruction. He began preaching and the town -council ordered him away; he continued and whites came to hear him. -Finally the white auditors outnumbered the black, and sheds were erected -for Negroes at the side of the church. The gathering became a regular -Methodist Church, with a white and Negro membership, but Evans continued -to preach. He exhibited “rare self-control before the most wretched of -castes! Henry Evans did much good, but he would have done more good had -his spirit been untrammelled by this sense of inferiority.”[213] - -His dying words uttered as he stood, aged and bent beside his pulpit, are -of singular pathos: - -“I have come to say my last word to you. It is this: None but Christ. -Three times I have had my life in jeopardy for preaching the gospel to -you. Three times I have broken ice on the edge of the water and swam -across the Cape Fear to preach the gospel to you; and, if in my last -hour I could trust to that, or anything but Christ crucified, for my -salvation, all should be lost and my soul perish forever.” - -Early in the nineteenth century, Ralph Freeman was a slave in Anson -county, N. C. He was a full-blooded Negro, and was ordained and became an -able Baptist preacher. He baptised and administered communion, and was -greatly respected. When the Baptists split on the question of missions he -sided with the anti-mission side. Finally the law forbade him to preach. - -The story of Jack of Virginia is best told in the words of a Southern -writer: - -“Probably the most interesting case in the whole South is that of an -African preacher of Nottoway county, popularly known as ‘Uncle Jack,’ -whose services to white and black were so valuable that a distinguished -minister of the Southern Presbyterian Church felt called upon to memorize -his work in a biography. - -“Kidnapped from his idolatrous parents in Africa, he was brought over -in one of the last cargoes of slaves admitted to Virginia and sold -to a remote and obscure planter in Nottoway county, a region at that -time in the backwoods and destitute particularly as to religious life -and instruction. He was converted under the occasional preaching of -Rev. Dr. John Blair Smith, President of Hampden-Sidney College, and of -Dr. William Hill and Dr. Archibald Alexander of Princeton, then young -theologues, and by hearing the scriptures read. Taught by his master’s -children to read, he became so full of the spirit and knowledge of the -Bible that he was recognized among the whites as a powerful expounder of -Christian doctrine, was licensed to preach by the Baptist Church, and -preached from plantation to plantation within a radius of thirty miles, -as he was invited by overseers or masters. His freedom was purchased by -a subscription of whites, and he was given a home and a tract of land -for his support. He organized a large and orderly Negro church, and -exercised such a wonderful controlling influence over the private morals -of his flock that masters, instead of punishing their slaves, often -referred them to the discipline of their pastor, which they dreaded far -more. - -“He stopped a heresy among the Negro Christians of Southern Virginia, -defeating in open argument a famous fanatical Negro preacher named -Campbell, who advocated noise and ‘the spirit’ against the Bible, winning -over Campbell’s adherents in a body. For over forty years and until he -was nearly a hundred years of age, he labored successfully in public and -private among black and whites, voluntarily giving up his preaching in -obedience to the law of 1832, the result of ‘Old Nat’s war.’... - -“The most refined and aristocratic people paid tribute to him, and he -was instrumental in the conversion of many whites. Says his biographer, -Rev. Dr. William S. White: ‘He was invited into their houses, sat with -their families, took part in their social worship, sometimes leading the -prayer at the family altar. Many of the most intelligent people attended -upon his ministry and listened to his sermons with great delight. Indeed, -previous to the year 1825, he was considered by the best judges to be the -best preacher in that county. His opinions were respected, his advice -followed, and yet he never betrayed the least symptoms of arrogance or -self-conceit. His dwelling was a rude log cabin, his apparel of the -plainest and coarsest materials.’ This was because he wished to be fully -identified with his class. He refused gifts of better clothing saying -‘These clothes are a great deal better than are generally worn by people -of my color, and besides if I wear them I find shall be obliged to think -about them even at meeting’.” - -All this has to do with organized religion. - -But back of all this and behind the half childish theology of formal -religion there has run in the heart of black folk the greatest of human -achievements, love and sympathy, even for their enemies, for those -who despised them and hurt them and did them nameless ill. They have -nursed the sick and closed the staring eyes of the dead. They have given -friendship to the friendless, they have shared the pittance of their -poverty with the outcast and nameless; they have been good and true and -pitiful to the bad and false and pitiless and in this lies the real -grandeur of their simple religion, the mightiest gift of black to white -America. - -Above all looms the figure of the Black Mammy, one of the most pitiful -of the world’s Christs. Whether drab and dirty drudge or dark and -gentle lady she played her part in the uplift of the South. She was an -embodied Sorrow, an anomaly crucified on the cross of her own neglected -children for the sake of the children of masters who bought and sold -her as they bought and sold cattle. Whatever she had of slovenliness or -neatness, of degradation or of education she surrendered it to those who -lived to lynch her sons and ravish her daughters. From her great full -breast walked forth governors and judges, ladies of wealth and fashion, -merchants and scoundrels who lead the South. And the rest gave her memory -the reverence of silence. But a few snobs have lately sought to advertise -her sacrifice and degradation and enhance their own cheap success by -building on the blood of her riven heart a load of stone miscalled a -monument. - -In religion as in democracy, the Negro has been a peculiar test of white -profession. The American church, both Catholic and Protestant, has been -kept from any temptation to over-righteousness and empty formalism by -the fact that just as Democracy in America was tested by the Negro, so -American religion has always been tested by slavery and color prejudice. -It has kept before America’s truer souls the spirit of meekness and self -abasement, it has compelled American religion again and again to search -its heart and cry “I have sinned;” and until the day comes when color -caste falls before reason and economic opportunity the black American -will stand as the last and terrible test of the ethics of Jesus Christ. - -Beyond this the black man has brought to America a sense of meekness -and humility which America never has recognized and perhaps never will. -If there is anybody in this land who thoroughly believes that the meek -shall inherit the earth they have not often let their presence be known. -On the other hand it has become almost characteristic of America to look -upon position, self assertion, determination to go forward at all odds, -as typifying the American spirit. This is natural. It is at once the -rebound from European oppression and the encouragement which America -offers physically, economically and socially to the human spirit. But -on the other hand, it is in many of its aspects a dangerous and awful -thing. It hardens and hurts our souls, it contradicts our philanthropy -and religion; and here it is that the honesty of the black race, its -hesitancy and heart searching, its submission to authority and its deep -sympathy with the wishes of the other man comes forward as a tremendous, -even though despised corrective. It is not always going to remain; even -now we see signs of its disappearance before contempt, lawlessness and -lynching. But it is still here, it still works and one of the most -magnificent anomalies in modern human history is the labor and fighting -of a half-million black men and two million whites for the freedom of -four million slaves and these same slaves, dumbly but faithfully and not -wholly unconsciously, protecting the mothers, wives and children of the -very white men who fought to make their slavery perpetual. - -This then is the Gift of Black Folk to the new world. Thus in singular -and fine sense the slave became master, the bond servant became free and -the meek not only inherited the earth but made that heritage a thing of -questing for eternal youth, of fruitful labor, of joy and music, of the -free spirit and of the ministering hand, of wide and poignant sympathy -with men in their struggle to live and love which is, after all, the end -of being. - - - - -POSTSCRIPT - - -Listen to the Winds, O God the Reader, that wail across the whip-cords -stretched taut on broken human hearts; listen to the Bones, the bare -bleached bones of slaves, that line the lanes of Seven Seas and beat -eternal tom-toms in the forests of the laboring deep; listen to the -Blood, the cold thick blood that spills its filth across the fields and -flowers of the Free; listen to the Souls that wing and thrill and weep -and scream and sob and sing above it all. What shall these things mean, O -God the Reader? You know. You know. - - - - -FOOTNOTES - - -[1] In the fifties it was customary for the merchants, etc., to have -posted at their door a list of help wanted. Many of these help wanted -signs were accompanied by another which read “No Irish need apply.” -During the Civil War there was an Anti-Draft song with a refrain to the -effect that when it came to drafting they did not practice “No Irish need -apply.” - -[2] “Americans only” in a real estate advertisement today usually means -“No Jews need apply.” It sometimes means Irish (i. e., Catholic) also. - -[3] Wm. J. Bromwell, _History of Immigration to United States_, p. 96. - -[4] _Ibid._, p. 100. - -[5] _Ibid._, p. 116. - -[6] _Ibid._, p. 124. - -[7] _Commercial Relations of the United States_, 1885-1886, Appendix III, -p. 1967. - -[8] “The Commissioners for Ireland gave them orders upon the governors -of garrisons, to deliver to them prisoners of war; upon the keepers of -gaols, for offenders in custody; upon masters of workhouses, for the -destitute in their care ‘who were of an age to labor, or if women were -marriageable and not past breeding’; and gave directions to all in -authority to seize those who had no visible means of livelihood, and -deliver them to these agents of the Bristol sugar merchants, in execution -of which latter direction Ireland must have exhibited scenes in every -part like the slave hunts in Africa. How many girls of gentle birth have -been caught and hurried to the private prisons of these man-catchers none -can tell. Messrs. Sellick and Leader, Mr. Robert Yeomans, Mr. Joseph -Lawrence, and others, all of Bristol, were active agents. As one instance -out of many: Captain John Vernon was employed by the Commissioners for -Ireland, into England, and contracted in their behalf with Mr. David -Sellick and Mr. Leader under his hand, bearing date the 14th September, -1653, to supply them with two hundred and fifty women of the Irish -nation above twelve years, and under the age of forty-five, also three -hundred men above twelve years of age, and under fifty, to be found in -the country within twenty miles of Cork, Youghal, and Kinsale, Waterford -and Wexford, to transport them into New England.” J. P. Prendergast, _The -Cromwellian Settlement of Ireland_, London, 1865. 2d. ed., pp. 89-90. - -[9] “It is calculated that in four years (1653-1657) English firms of -slave-dealers shipped 6,400 Irish men and women, boys and maidens, to the -British colonies of North America.” A. J. Thebaud, _The Irish Race in the -Past and Present_, N. Y., 1893, p. 385. - -[10] Rev. T. A. Spencer, _History of the United States_, Vol. I, p. 305. - -[11] Henry Pratt Fairchild, _Immigration: A world movement, and its -American significance_, N. Y., 1913, p. 47. See also _Archives of -Maryland_, Vol. 22, p. 497. - -[12] Charles A. and Mary R. Beard, _History of the United States_, N. Y., -1921, p. 11. - -[13] Fairchild, p. 35. - -[14] Henry Cabot Lodge, _A Short History of the English Colonies in -America_, N. Y., 1881, p. 70. - -[15] Beard, p. 15. - -[16] Beard, p. 16. - -[17] W. E. Burghardt DuBois, _Suppression of the Slave Trade_, Harvard -Historical Studies, No. 1, p. 5. - -[18] John R. Commons, _Races and Immigrants in America_, N. Y., 1907, p. -53. - -[19] Adam Seybert, _Statistical Annals of the United States_, Phila., -1818, p. 29. - -[20] Young, _Special Report on Immigration_, Phila., 1871, p. 5. - -[21] Bromwell, p. 145. - -[22] _Ibid._, p. 16. - -[23] _Ibid._, p. 18. - -[24] _Ibid._, pp. 16-17. - -[25] Young, p. 6. - -[26] _Ibid._, p. 6. - -[27] _Special Consular Reports_, Vol. 30, p. 8. - -[28] _Immigration and Emigration_, Bureau of Labor Statistics, -Washington, 1915, p. 1099. - -[29] _Ibid._ - -[30] _Reports of Department of Labor_, Washington, 1915. - -[31] _Ibid._ - -[32] _Reports of Department of Labor_, Washington, 1918, p. 208. - -[33] _Reports of Department of Labor_, Washington, 1920, p. 400. - -[34] _Reports of Department of Labor_, Washington, 1921, p. 365. - -[35] From a Spanish Romance called _La Sergas de Espladian_, by Garcia -de Montalvo, published in 1510; translated in Beasley’s _The Negro Trail -Blazers of California_, p. 18. - -[36] Cf. Wiener, _Africa and the Discovery of America_, Vol. 1, pp. -169-70, 172, 174-5; Vol. 3, p. 322; Thurston, _Antiquities of Tennessee_, -etc., 1890, p. 105; De Charnay, _Ancient Cities of the New World_ (trans. -by Gonino and Conant, 1887), pp. 132ff.; Kabell, _America för Columbus_, -1892, p. 235. - -[37] J. B. Thacher, _Christopher Columbus_, 1903, Vol. 2, pp. 379-80; -_Raccolta di documenti e studi publicati dalla R. Commissione Colombiana -pel quarto centenario dalla scoperta dell’ America_, parte I, Rome, 1892, -Vol. 1, p. 96. - -[38] i. e., Negro Traders. - -[39] Thacher, Vol. 2, pp. 379, 380; Wiener, Vol. 2, pp. 116-17. - -[40] Wiener, Vol. 3, p. 365. - -[41] _Memoir of Hernando de Essalante Fontanedo, respecting Florida_, -translated from the Spanish by Buckingham Smith, Washington, 1854. - -[42] Oviedo y Valdes, _Historia general_, etc., Vol. 1, p. 286. - -[43] Wiener, Vol. 3, p. 365. - -[44] Wiener, Vol. 1, p. 190. - -[45] Helps, _Spanish Conquest in America_, Vol. 4, p. 401. - -[46] J. F. Rippy in _Journal of Negro History_, Vol. 6, p. 183. - -[47] Helps, Vol. 1, p. 421. - -[48] Rippy, _loc. cit._ - -[49] The following narrative is based on: H. O. Flipper, _Did a Negro -discover Arizona and New Mexico_ (contains a translation of parts of the -narrative of Pedro de Castaneda de Majera); Pedro de Castaneda, “Account -of the Expedition to Cibola which took place in the year 1540....” -translated in _Spanish Explorers in the Southern United States_ (J. -F. Jameson Ed.); Beasley, _Trail Blazers of California_, Chapter 2; -Rippy, in _Journal of Negro History_, Vol. 6, pp. 183ff.; _American -Anthropologist_, Vol. 4. - -[50] A fifth survivor, a Spaniard, stayed with the Indians and was -afterward found by DeSoto. - -[51] Another story is that Estevanico and the Monks did not get on well -together. - -[52] The story that Estevanico was killed because of his greed is -evidently apocryphal. - -[53] Legends of the Zuni Pueblos of New Mexico quoted in Lowery _Spanish -Settlements in the United States, 1513-1561_, pp. 281-82. - -[54] Cf. Beasley, Chapter 10. - -[55] Cf. Du Bois, _Suppression of the Slave Trade_; Du Bois, _The Negro_ -(Home University Library). - -[56] United States Census, _Negro Population 1790-1915_; Fourteenth -Census, Vol. 3. - -[57] Du Bois, _Suppression of the Slave Trade_, Chapter 4. - -[58] Cf. Du Bois, _The Philadelphia Negro_, Chapter 4. - -[59] Cf. Woodson, _A Century of Negro Migration_; E. J. Scott: _Negro -Migration During the War_. - -[60] _Journal of Negro History_, Vol. 1, p. 163. - -[61] Bruce, _Economic History of Virginia_, Vol. 2, pp. 405-6. - -[62] Atlanta University Publications: Cf. _The Negro Artisan_, 1902-1912, -and _Economic Cooperation among Negro Americans_, 1907. - -[63] Alice Dunbar Nelson in _Journal of Negro History_, Vol. 2, p. 52. - -[64] Alice Dunbar Nelson, in the _Journal of Negro History_, Vol. 1, p. -375. - -[65] Olmsted, _A Journey in the Seaboard Slave States, Journey through -Texas_, and _Journey in the Back Country_. - -[66] Prior to the Matzeliger machine the McKay machine was patented, -designed for making the heaviest and cheapest kind of men’s shoes. The -Matzeliger machine was designed for light work, women’s shoes, etc., and -was the most important invention necessary to the formation of the United -Shoe Machinery Company. - -[67] H. E. Baker, in _Journal of Negro History_, Vol. 2, pp. 21ff. - -[68] Baker: _The Colored Inventor_, p. 7. - -[69] U. S. Census of 1920. Wilcox-Du Bois, _Negroes in the United States_ -(U. S. Census bulletin No. 8, 1904). - -[70] Olivier, _White Capital and Coloured Labor_, Chapter 8, London, 1906. - -[71] Alice Dunbar Nelson, _Journal of Negro History_, Vol. 1, pp. 369, -370, 371. - -[72] Cf. Livermore, _Opinion of the Founders of the Republic_, etc., part -2; _Journal of Negro History_, Vol. 1, p. 198ff. - -[73] G. H. Moore, _Historical Notes_, etc., N. Y., 1862. - -[74] Livermore, pp. 115-16. - -[75] Cf. Livermore and Moore as above; also _Journal of Negro History_, -Vol. 1, pp. 114-20. - -[76] Livermore, p. 122. See also the account of Peter Salem, _do._, pp. -118-21. - -[77] T. G. Steward, in _Publications American Negro Academy_, No. 5, p. -12. - -[78] W. B. Hartgrove, _Journal of Negro History_, Vol. 1, pp. 125-9. - -[79] Wilson, _Black Phalanx_, p. 71. - -[80] _Journal of Negro History_, Vol. 1, pp. 373-4; Gayarre’s _History of -Louisiana_, Vol. 3, p. 108. - -[81] Niles’ _Register_, Feb. 26, 1814. - -[82] Wilson, _Black Phalanx_, p. 88. - -[83] Alice Dunbar-Nelson in _Journal of Negro History_, Vol. 2, p. 58. - -[84] Niles’ Register, Vol. 7, p. 205. - -[85] Niles’ Register, Vol. 7, pp. 345-6. - -[86] Dunbar-Nelson in _Journal of Negro History_, Vol. 2, pp. 59-60. - -[87] Williams, _Negro Race in America_, Vol. 2, pp. 244ff. - -[88] Williams, _Negro Race in America_, Vol. 2, pp. 280-82. - -[89] New York _Tribune_, Aug. 19, 1862. - -[90] Williams, Vol. 2, p. 271. - -[91] Wilson, p. 123. - -[92] Wilson, p. 132. - -[93] Wesley, in _Journal of Negro History_, Vol. 4, pp. 239ff. - -[94] New York _Tribune_, Nov. 14, 1863; Williams, Vol. 2, p. 347. - -[95] Williams, Vol. 2, p. 360. - -[96] New York _Times_, June 13, 1863. - -[97] Wilson, pp. 250-54. - -[98] Williams, Vol. 2, p. 338. - -[99] John Temple Graves in _Review of Reviews_. - -[100] MS. Copies of orders. - -[101] MS. Copies of orders. - -[102] At least this was the opinion of Abraham Lincoln—cf. Wilson’s -_Black Phalanx_, p. 108. - -[103] Thomas, _Attitude of Friends toward Slavery_, p. 267 and Appendix. - -[104] Jefferson’s Writings, Vol. 8, pp. 403-4. - -[105] George Livermore, _Opinions of the Founders of the Republic on -Negroes as Slaves, as Citizens, and as Soldiers_, Boston, 1862, p. 61. - -[106] Jefferson’s Works, Vol. 1, pp. 23-4. - -[107] Howard’s Reports, Vol. 19. - -[108] Howard’s Reports, pp. 536-8. - -[109] Howard’s Reports, pp. 572-3, 582. - -[110] Niles’ Register, Vol. 16, May 22, 1819. - -[111] Benjamin Brawley, _A Social History of the American Negro_, New -York, 1921, p. 90. - -[112] Hening’s Statutes. - -[113] John C. Hurd, _The Law of Freedom and Bondage_, Boston, 1858-1862. - -[114] Wiener, _Africa and the Discovery of America_, Vol. 1, pp. 155-8. - -[115] C. E. Chapman in _Journal of Negro History_, Vol. 3, p. 29. - -[116] J. Kunst, _Negroes in Guatemala_, _Journal of Negro History_, Vol. -1, pp. 392-8. - -[117] Cf. Bryan Edward’s _West Indies_, 4th Edition, Vol. 1, pp. 337-98. - -[118] Gayarre, _History of Louisiana_, Vol. 1, pp. 435, 440. - -[119] Du Bois’ _Slave Trade_, pp. 6, 10, 22, 206; J. Coppin, _Slave -Insurrections_, 1860; Brawley, _Social History_, pp. 39, 86, 132. - -[120] Cf. T. G. Steward, _The Haitian Revolution_. - -[121] DeWitt Talmadge in the _Christian Herald_, Nov. 28, 1906; Du Bois’ -_Slave Trade_, Chapter 7. - -[122] Cf. Dunbar-Nelson in the _Journal of Negro History_, Vol. 1. - -[123] Du Bois, _John Brown_, p. 81. - -[124] A. H. Grimke, _Right on the Scaffold in Occasional Papers_, No. 7, -American Negro Academy. - -[125] Brawley, p. 140; T. W. Higginson, _Atlantic Monthly_, Vol. 8, p. -173. - -[126] I. W. Cromwell, in _Journal of Negro History_, Vol. 5, pp. 208ff. - -[127] Cf. Du Bois’ _Philadelphia Negro_, Chapter 4; Woodson’s _Negro in -our History_, pp. 140-1. - -[128] Brawley, pp. 123-4; _Journal of Negro History_, Vol. 2, pp. 209-28. - -[129] Brawley, p. 71. - -[130] Williams’ _Negro Race_, Vol. 2, p. 126. - -[131] Du Bois’ _John Brown_, pp. 82ff. - -[132] Cf. Joshua R. Giddings, _Exiles of Florida_, Columbus, Ohio, 1858. - -[133] Among the first subscribers to Garrison’s _Liberator_ were free -Negroes and one report is that the very first paid subscriber was a -colored Philadelphia caterer. - -[134] Livermore, p. 170. - -[135] Livermore, pp. 125-6. - -[136] Force’s Archives, 4th series, Vol. 3, p. 1387. - -[137] Works of John Adams, Vol. 2, p. 428. - -[138] Livermore, pp. 183, 184. - -[139] Wilson, pp. 491-92. - -[140] J. T. Wilson, _The History of the Black Phalanx_, Hartford, 1897, -p. 490. - -[141] Cf. Cromwell, _Negro In American History_, Chapter 2. - -[142] J. W. Loguen, _As a Slave and as a Freeman_, p. 344. - -[143] George W. Williams, _History of the Negro Race in America_, New -York, 1882, Vol. 1, Chapter 15. - -[144] Williams, Vol. 1, pp. 250-1. - -[145] Williams, Vol. 2, pp. 255-7. - -[146] Williams, Vol. 1, pp. 257-9. - -[147] Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, Sept. 22, 1862. - -[148] Atlanta University Publications, Atlanta, Ga., 1906, No. 8, p. 23. - -[149] John Eaton, _Grant, Lincoln and the Freedmen_, New York, 1907, p. -134. - -[150] Eaton, 165. - -[151] Walter L. Fleming, _Documentary History of Reconstruction_, -Cleveland, Ohio, 1907, Vol. 1, p. 112. - -[152] Fleming, Vol. 1, pp. 350-1. - -[153] Fleming, Vol. 2, p. 382. - -[154] Report of Carl Schurz to President Johnson, in Senate Exec. Doc. -No. 2, 39th Cong., 1st Sess. - -[155] Brewster, _Sketches of Southern Mystery, Treason and Murder_, p. -116. - -[156] McPherson, _Reconstruction_, p. 19. - -[157] Atlanta University Publications, Atlanta, Ga., 1901, No. 6, p. 36. - -[158] October 7, 1865. - -[159] McPherson, pp. 52, 56. - -[160] A. U. Publications, No. 12, p. 38; Cf. also Fleming, Vol. 1, P. 355. - -[161] Schurz’ Report. - -[162] House Reports, No. 30, 39th Congress, 1st Session. - -[163] Schurz’ Report. - -[164] _Journal of Negro History_, Vol. 5, p. 238. - -[165] _Journal of Negro History_, Vol. 7, pp. 127ff. - -[166] _Journal of Negro History_, Vol. 7, p. 424. - -[167] Jackson, Miss., _Clarion_, April 24, 1873. - -[168] Walter Allen, _Governor Chamberlain’s Administration in South -Carolina_, New York, 1888, p. 82. - -[169] _Journal of Negro History_, Vol. 7, pp. 127ff. - -[170] Blaine, _Twenty Years in Congress_, Vol. 2, p. 515. - -[171] Blaine, _Twenty Years in Congress_, pp. 513-14. - -[172] Fleming, Vol. 1, pp. 450-1. - -[173] J. W. Garner, _Reconstruction in Mississippi_, New York, 1901, p. -322. - -[174] Warley in _Brewster’s Sketches_, p. 150. - -[175] A Liberal Republican’s description of the S. C. Legislature in -1871, Fleming, Vol. 2, pp. 53-4. - -[176] Fleming, Vol. 1, pp. 382ff. - -[177] Some of the Reconstruction Constitutions preceding Negro Suffrage -showed tendencies toward democratization among the whites. - -[178] Chicago Weekly _Inter-Ocean_, Dec. 26, 1890. - -[179] Cf. Atlanta University Pub. No. 6 and No. 16. - -[180] This speech was made in the South Carolina Constitutional -Convention of 1890 which disfranchised the Negro, by the Hon. Thomas -E. Miller, ex-congressman and one of the six Negro members of the -Convention. The Convention did not have the courage to publish it in -their proceedings but it may be found in the Occasional Papers of the -American Negro Academy No. 6, pp. 11-13. - -[181] Cf. W. E. B. Du Bois, _Reconstruction_ (American Historical Review, -XV, No. 4, p. 871). - -W. E. B. Du Bois, _Economics of Negro Emancipation_ (Sociological Review, -Oct., 1911, p. 303). - -[182] O. O. Howard, _Autobiography_, New York, 1907, Vol. 2, pp. 361-7, -371-2. - -[183] Testimony of the presiding officer, Mrs. Frances D. Gage, in -“_Narrative of Sojourner Truth_,” 1884, pp. 134-5. - -[184] Goodell, _Slave Code_, p. 111. - -[185] Robertson, _Louisiana under the Rule of Spain_, Vol. 1, pp. 67, -103, 111; Dunbar-Nelson, in _Journal of Negro History_, Vol. 2, p. 56. - -[186] Dunbar-Nelson, _loc. cit._ - -[187] Dunbar-Nelson, _op. cit._, p. 62; Martineau, _Society in America_, -p. 326ff. - -[188] Brownie’s Book, March, 1921. - -[189] Beasley, _Negro Trail Blazers_, pp. 95-7. - -[190] Cf. Annual Reports National Association of Colored Women; Atlanta -University Publications, No. 14. - -[191] Du Bois, _Souls of Black Folk_, Chapter No. 14. - -[192] W. F. Allen and others, _Slave Songs of the United States_, New -York, 1867. - -[193] G. D. Pike, _The Jubilee Singers_, New York, 1873. - -[194] James Weldon Johnson, _Book of American Negro Poetry_, New York, -1922. - -[195] H. E. Krehbiel, _Afro-American Folksongs_, New York, 1914; cf. also -John W. Work, _Folksong of the American Negro_, Nashville, Tenn., 1915. - -[196] Natalie Curtis-Burlin, _Negro Folksongs_, 4 books, 1918-19; _Songs -and Tales from the Dark Continent_, 1920. - -[197] Benjamin Brawley, _Negro in Literature and Art_. - -[198] Alice Dunbar-Nelson in _Journal of Negro History_, Vol. 2, p. 55. - -[199] Washington, _Story of the Negro_, Vol. 2, pp. 276-7. - -[200] Cf. Benjamin Brawley, _The Negro in Literature and Art_, New York, -1921. - -[201] Cf. Preface to James Weldon Johnson’s _The Book of American Negro -Poetry_, New York, 1922. - -[202] T. W. Talley, _Negro Folk Rhymes_. - -[203] Cf. W. E. B. Du Bois, _The Negro in Literature and Art_ (Annals -American Academy, Sept., 1913). - -[204] A. A. Schomberg, _A Bibliographical Checklist of American Negro -Poetry_, New York, 1916. - -[205] Preface to Claud McKay’s _Harlem Shadows_. - -[206] Cf. Freeman H. M. Murray, _Emancipation and the Freed in American -Sculpture_, Washington, D. C., 1916. - -[207] _Journal of Negro History_, Vol. 3, p. 99ff. Later, Jefferson -writing to an American thought Banneker had “a mind of very common -stature indeed”. - -[208] Charles C. Jones, _Religious Instruction of the Negroes_, Savannah, -1842. - -[209] M. H. Kingsley, _West African Studies_. - -[210] Atlanta University Publications, _The Negro Church_, 1903. - -[211] Richard Allen, _Life, Experience and Gospel Labors_, Philadelphia, -1880. - -[212] Cf. Carter G. Woodson, _The History of the Negro Church_, -Washington, D. C., 1921; Atlanta University Publications, _The Negro -Church_; and J. E. Bassett, _Slavery in North Carolina_. - -[213] Bassett, pp. 58-9. - - - - -INDEX - - - Adair, Lieut., 129, 130 - - Adams, John, 87, 90, 159, 176, 177, 317 - - Adolphus, King Gustavus, 11 - - Aldridge, Ira, 310 - - Alexander, Dr. Archibald, 335 - - Allen, 173, 298, 329, 330 - - Allen, Walter, 220, 276 - - Alliot, Paul, 266 - - Almagro, 42 - - Alvarado, 42 - - Ames, Capt., 92 - - Anderson, 302 - - André, 92 - - Antar, 288 - - Atkinson, Edward, 232 - - Attucks, Crispus, 86, 87, 88 - - Augusta, Dr. A. T., 125 - - - Baker, H. E., 72, 73 - - Balboa, 42 - - Ball, 314 - - Bancroft, H. H., 50, 55 - - Banister, E. M., 313 - - Banks, General, 118 - - Banneker, Benjamin, 298, 316, 317, 318 - - Bassett, Lieut.-Col., 119, 332, 334 - - Batson, Flora, 291 - - Beard, Charles A. & Mary R., 9, 12, 16 - - Beasley, 43, 49, 272 - - Beauregard, 137 - - Beecher, Henry Ward, 278, 293 - - Benjamin, Judah, 179 - - Beverly, Robert, 67 - - Bienville, Governor, 83 - - Bigstaff, Peter, 129 - - Bissell, 314 - - Blaine, James G., 222, 223, 224 - - Bland, James, 290 - - Bolas, Juan de, 151 - - Bolivar, 154, 155 - - Bonaparte, Napoleon, 153, 154 - - Booth, Major, 117, 271 - - Boré, Etienne de, 68 - - Bowers, John, 299 - - Braithwaite, W. S., 303, 304, 307 - - Brawley, Benjamin, 146, 153, 158, 162, 163, 285, 290, 303 - - Brent, Linda, 301 - - Brewster, 203 - - Bromwell, 17 - - Brooks, 302 - - Brown, John, 146, 270, 271, 272 - - Brown, Richard, 313 - - Brown, William, 86, 301, 299 - - Browne, 271 - - Bruce, B. K., 67, 218, 223 - - Bryant, William Cullen, 232 - - Buell, 187 - - Burgess, Prof., 206 - - Burleigh, Harry T., 290, 291 - - Burlin, Mrs. Curtis, 283, 284 - - Burnside, 124 - - Burr, Aaron, 289 - - Butler, General, 112, 116, 187 - - Byrd, Col., 67 - - - Cable, George U., 293 - - Cain, 221 - - Calder, 314 - - Caldwell, Jonas, 87, 88 - - Calhoun, John C., 293 - - Callioux, Capt., 120 - - Campbell, Robert, 301, 304, 336 - - Carey, Lott, 330 - - Carr, Patrick, 87 - - Castaneda, Pedro de, 43 - - Castle, Vernon, 292 - - Catto, 300 - - Chamberlain, Governor, 220 - - Chambers, Colonel, 118 - - Chapman, C. E., 150 - - Charlton, Melville, 291 - - Chase, Simon P., 232 - - Chavis, John, 332, 333 - - Cheatham, 221 - - Chesnutt, Charles W., 303, 307 - - Child, Lydia Marcia, 293 - - Christophe, 92 - - Church, A. M. E., 300 - - Cinque, 159 - - Claiborne, Governor, 97 - - Clark, 49 - - Cleveland, 26 - - Clinton, Bishop Isaac, 89, 219 - - Cobb, General, 112 - - Cobb, Irvin S., 10 - - Coffin, Levi, 232 - - Cole, 310 - - Coleridge-Taylor, Samuel, 289, 290 - - Columbus, 35, 36, 37, 40, 265, 282 - - Commons, John R., 15 - - Conant, 36 - - Conner, A. J., 290 - - Connery, William J., 72 - - Constant, Benjamin, 314 - - Cooke, Governor, 93 - - Cooper, Peter, 232 - - Coppin, J., 153 - - Corbin, J. C., 220 - - Cardoza, F. L., 220-246 - - Cornwallis, 89, 177 - - Coronado, 44, 49 - - Cortes, 42, 45 - - Cotter, Joseph C. Jr., 304 - - Cravath, 214 - - Crogman, 302 - - Cromwell, J. W., 158, 182 - - Crummell, Dr. Alexander, 301, 302 - - Cuffee, Paul, 162, 172, 299 - - Cullen, Countée, 304 - - Curtis, Justice, 144 - - Curtis, Natalie, 282 - - Cushite, R. L. Perry, 302 - - - Damrosch, 280 - - Dana, Gen. N. J. T., 193 - - Daquin, Major, 99 - - Davis, 304 - - Davis, Pres., 111, 112 - - Davis, Gussie L., 290 - - Davis, Jefferson, 107 - - De Charnay, 36 - - Dèdè, Edmund, 290 - - Delaney, Major M. H., 125 - - Delaney, Martin R., 300 - - Dennison, Chaplain, 123 - - Derham, Thomas, 316 - - De Soto, 43, 44 - - Dett, R. Nathaniel, 291 - - Dickinson, J. H., 73 - - Dickinson, S. L., 73 - - Diton, Carl, 291 - - Dix, 187 - - Dixon, Thomas, 293 - - Dodson, Jacob, 49 - - Dorantes, Stephen, 43, 44, 45 - - Douglas, Captain H. F., 125 - - Douglass, Frederick, 174, 208, 300, 301, 308 - - Dow, Lorenzo, 145 - - Drexel, Katherine, 324 - - Drinkwater, 311 - - DuBois, W. E. B., 13, 55, 58, 63, 153, 155, 161, 169, 249, 274, 297 - - DuBois, Wilcox, 73 - - Dubuclet, 221, 290 - - Dumas, 306 - - Dunbar, Paul Lawrence, 303, 304, 306 - - Dunmore, Governor, 89, 90, 176, 177 - - Dunn, Lieut.-Gov., 221 - - Duplessis, General Garnier, 131 - - Dvorak, 285, 291 - - Dwight, General, 118 - - - Eaton, Col. John, 191, 193 - - Eastman, Max, 307 - - Edison, 28 - - Edward, Bryan, 151 - - Eliot, Dr. John, 57 - - Elliott, Robert Brown, 221, 301 - - Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 293 - - Equiana, Olaudah (See Gustavus Vassa) - - Estevanico, 43, 44, 45, 46, 48, 49 - - Eustis, William, 94 - - Evans, Henry, 333, 334 - - - Fairchild, Henry Pratt, 9 - - Fauset, Jessie, 304, 308 - - Finnegas, Lieut.-Col. Henry, 119 - - Fleming, Walter L., 194, 197, 226, 232, 234 - - Flipper, H. O., 43 - - Fontages, Viscount de, 93 - - Force, 176 - - Forrest, 117 - - Foster, Stephen, 275, 285 - - Forten, James, 299 - - Franklin, Benjamin, 90, 141 - - Freeman, Captain, 58 - - Freeman, Ralph, 334 - - Fremont, 49 - - French, D. C., 314 - - Frye, Colonel, 92 - - Fuller, Meta Warrick, 315 - - - Gabriel, 172 - - Gage, Mrs. Frances D., 151, 264 - - Galvez, 95 - - Garner, J. W., 227 - - Garnet, Henry Highland, 299 - - Garrison, 174, 271 - - Garrison, William Lloyd, 146, 185 - - Gayarre, 95, 153 - - Geary, 25 - - Gibbs, Jonathan C., 220 - - Gibbs, M. W., 220 - - Giddings, Joshua R., 171 - - Gilmore, General, 109 - - Gilpin, Charles, 310, 311 - - Gladstone, 279 - - Gloucester, John, 330 - - Gomez, 288 - - Gonino, 36 - - Goodell, 266 - - Gottschalk, 289 - - Goybet, General, 131, 132 - - Graham, Stephen, 311 - - Grant, General, 188, 191, 193 - - Graves, John Temple, 130 - - Gray, Samuel, 87, 88, 173 - - Greeley, Horace, 105, 185 - - Greene, General, 91, 178 - - Grey, T. R., 158 - - Griggs, 302 - - Grimke, A. H., 156, 302 - - Grimke, Frank, 302, 303 - - - Hagen, Helen, 291 - - Hagood, General, 246, 247, 302 - - Hahn, Governor, 194 - - Hall, Prince, 162 - - Halleck, 187 - - Hamilton, Alexander, 91, 174, 269 - - Hammon, Jupiter, 304 - - Hampton, Governor, 246 - - Hampton, Wade, 283 - - Handy, W. C., 285 - - Hapgood, Mrs. Emily, 310 - - Hare, Maude-Cuney, 291 - - Harleston, Edwin, 313 - - Harper, Frances E. W., 300, 302, 304 - - Harper, William A., 313 - - Harriot, George, 29, 94 - - Harris, Joel Chandler, 295, 296 - - Harrison, Hazel, 291 - - Hartgrove, W. B., 94 - - Hayes, Roland W., 292 - - Hayne, Robert Y., 172 - - Haynes, Lemuel, 299, 306, 332 - - Helps, 42 - - Hemmenway, J., 290 - - Hening, 148 - - Henry, Patrick, 141 - - Henson, Joshua, 171, 300 - - Henson, Matthew A., 50, 51 - - Higginson, Colonel, 116, 158, 275, 293 - - Hill, Dr. William, 335 - - Hogarth, George, 300 - - Hogan, Ernest, 310 - - Holland, Justin, 290 - - Hood, 302 - - Hooker, 187 - - Hope, Lawrence, 291 - - Hopkins, Samuel, 91, 175 - - Horton, George M., 304 - - Hosier, Harry, 332 - - Howard, General, 144, 145, 200, 249, 252 - - Howe, Julia Ward, 293 - - Howells, William Dean, 293 - - Hughes, Langston, 304 - - Hunter, General, 102, 103, 105, 116, 187 - - Hurd, John C., 148 - - Hyer, Sisters, 291 - - - Jackson, General, 97, 99, 115, 182, 220 - - Jackson, M. Howard, 315 - - Jamison, J. F., 43 - - Jamison, Roscoe C., 304 - - Jay, John, 232 - - Jefferson, Thomas, 3, 141, 143, 154, 172, 317 - - Jenkins, Edmund T., 291 - - Johnson, E. A., 302 - - Johnson, Fenton, 304 - - Johnson, Georgia, 304 - - Johnson, James Weldon, 280, 292, 314 - - Johnson, John, 96, 113 - - Johnson, President, 201, 202, 203, 207, 208, 209, 214, 281 - - Johnson, Rosamond, 291 - - Jones, 173, 183, 330 - - Jones, C. C., 296, 325 - - Just, Ernest, 316 - - - Kabell, 36 - - Keene, Edmund, 310 - - King George, 3rd of Britain, 142 - - Kingsley, Miss, 326, 327 - - Krehbiel, H. E., 281, 282 - - Kunst, J., 151 - - - La Coste, 99 - - Lafitte, 99 - - Lafon, Thomé, 183, 323 - - Lambert, 92, 291 - - Langston, 22, 302 - - Las Casas, 42 - - Laurens, Henry, 141 - - Laurens, John, 91 - - Lawrence, Joseph, 8 - - Lawson, A. Augustus, 291 - - Leader, 8 - - Lee, Samuel J., 219 - - Leile, George, 330 - - Leon, Ponce de, 38 - - L’Enfant, Major Pierre, 318 - - Lewis, 49 - - Lewis, Edmonia, 315 - - Lewis, Julien H., 316 - - Lewis, R. B., 299 - - Lind, Jenny, 291 - - Lincoln, Abraham, 28, 106, 114, 135, 185, 187, 189, 195, 202, 203, - 233, 271 - - Livermore, 84, 87, 89, 91, 92, 142, 175, 176, 178, 194 - - Livingston, Robert, 154 - - Lodge, Henry Cabot, 12 - - Loguen, Bishop, 182, 300 - - Low, A. A., 232 - - Lowell, James Russell, 293 - - Lucas, Sam (See Samuel Milady) - - Lynch, 90 - - Lynch, John R., 220, 223 - - - Macdonough, 96 - - Madison, James, 91 - - Majors, 302 - - Maldonado, 44, 45 - - Marcos, Fray, 45, 46, 49 - - Marquis de Condorcet, 317 - - Marshall, Colonel John R., 127 - - Martin, 96 - - Martineau, 268 - - Matzeliger, Jan E., 70, 71, 72 - - Maverick, Samuel, 87, 88 - - McCoy, Elijah, 72 - - McHenry, James, 318 - - McKay, 71, 304, 307 - - McKay, Claud, 308 - - McKee, Colonel John, 323 - - McKim, Miss, 275 - - McKinley, President, 126 - - McLean, Justice, 144 - - McClellan, 188 - - McPherson, 203, 209 - - McSweeney, Edw. F., Introduction to series - - Melbourne, George, 290 - - Mencken, H. L., 305 - - Mendoza, 44, 45, 49, 150 - - Menendez, 43 - - Milady, Samuel, 290 (See Sam Lucas also) - - Miller, Kelly, 303 - - Miller, Hon. Thomas E., 248 - - Mills, 271 - - Mitchell, George W., 303 - - Montalvo, Garcia de, 35 - - Moody, 279 - - Moore, G. H., 85, 91 - - Mossell, 302 - - Murray, 221 - - Murray, Freeman H. M., 304, 315 - - - Narvaez, Panfilo de, 43 - - Nell, William Cooper, 300 - - Nelson, Alice Dunbar, 68, 69, 83, 97, 100, 145, 155, 267, 268, 289 - - Nelson, Colonel, 119 - - Niles, 97, 98, 100, 145 - - Northrop, Samuel, 300 - - Nosseyeb, 287 - - - Oglethorpe, 140 - - O’Hara, 222 - - Olana, Nuflo de, 42 - - Olivier, 79 - - Olmsted, 69, 70 - - O’Neill, 311 - - Osceola, 171 - - Otis, James, 141 - - Ouverture, Toussaint le, 154, 156 - - Ovando, 39 - - Oviedo, 38 - - - Page, Thomas Nelson, 293 - - Payne, Bishop Daniel, 301, 302 - - Peary, Commodore, 50 - - Pemberton, Thomas, 57 - - Penn, 7, 302 - - Pennington, J. W. C., 257, 299 - - Perier, Governor, 82, 83 - - Perry, 96 - - Pétion, President, 154 - - Phillips, Wendell, 270, 293 - - Pierce, Edward L., 191 - - Pike, G. D., 279 - - Pinchback, 221 - - Pinckney, Charles, 94 - - Pizarro, Marquis, 41 - - Plato, 2 - - Pleasants, Mammy, 271, 272 - - Poor, Salem, 92 - - Portugal, King of, 290 - - Preer, Evelyn, 311 - - Prendergast, J. P., 8 - - Preston, Captain, 87 - - Price, J. C., 308 - - Purvis, Robert, 299 - - Purvis, W. L., 73 - - Pushkin, 288 - - Putnam, Colonel, 123 - - - Rainey, 223 - - Ralston, 271 - - Rapier, 221, 223 - - Redmond, 174 - - Reed, Lieut.-Col., 125 - - Revels, 221, 223 - - Revells, Hiram R., 218 - - Rice, Thomas D., 309 - - Rigaud, 92 - - Rillieux, Robert, 70 - - Rippy, J. F., 42, 43 - - Robertson, 267 - - Robeson, Paul, 311 - - Rodin, 315 - - Rush, Dr. Benjamin, 316, 332 - - Rutledge, 90 - - - Salcedo, Governor, 67 - - Samba, 83 - - Sanine, 312 - - Savary, J. B. Capt., 99 - - Saxton, General, 188 - - Scammell, Alexander, 85 - - Scarborough, 302 - - Schomberg, A. A., 304 - - Schurz, Carl, 201, 210, 211, 213, 214 - - Scofield, 314 - - Scott, William Edward, 313 - - Sejour, Victor, 289 - - Sellick, 8 - - Sewall, 140 - - Seward, William H., 140 - - Seybert, Adam, 16 - - Seymour, General, 123 - - Shaftesbury, Lord, 279 - - Shakespeare, 293 - - Shaler, Governor, 203 - - Sharkey, Governor, 203 - - Sherman, General T. W., 187, 194 - - Shaw, Colonel, 123, 315 - - Simmons, 301 - - Simonton, Judge, 246 - - Sinclair, 303 - - Smith, Albert A., 313 - - Smith, Alexander, 271 - - Smith, Buckingham, 38 - - Smith, General, 124 - - Smith, Gerritt, 232 - - Smith, Rev. John Blair, 335 - - Southerne, 293, 309 - - Spence, Adam K., 277 - - Spencer, Rev. T. A., 9 - - Stanton, 124, 194 - - Stearns, George L., 232 - - Stephenson, General, 123 - - Steward, 93, 154, 303 - - Stewart, Ruth M., 293, 302 - - Story, W. A., 314 - - Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 293 - - Strachen, 96 - - Straker, 302 - - Strong, Gen., 123 - - Suarez, Illan, 41 - - Sumner, Charles, 198, 293 - - - Talbert, Cole, 291 - - Talley, T. W., 297 - - Talmadge, DeWitt, 154 - - Taney, Judge, 143 - - Tanner, Bishop, 301, 313 - - Thacher, J. C., 36 - - Thebaud, A. J., 8 - - Thomas, General, 140, 193, 194 - - Thurston, 36 - - Tillman, 243 - - Toomer, Jean, 308 - - Tourgee, Judge Albion W., 237 - - Trotter, James Monroe, 301 - - Truth, Sojourner, 174 - - Tubman, Harriet, 171, 270, 271 - - Turner, C. H., 316 - - Turner, Nat., 157, 158, 302, 330 - - Tyler, Col., 186 - - - Vaca de, 44, 45 - - Valdivia, 42 - - Vassa, Gustavus, 279 (See Olaudah Equiana) - - Varick, James, 330 - - Vela, Blasco Nunez, 41, 42 - - Vernon, Capt. John, 8 - - Vesey, Denmark, 156 - - Victoria, Francisco Xavier de, 322 - - Victoria, Queen, 279 - - - Walker, David, 164, 168, 299, 310, 311 - - Wall, Capt. O. S. B., 125 - - Wallace, Judge, 246 - - Warburg, Eugene, 289 - - Ward, Samuel C., 300, 308, 314 - - Ware, 214 - - Work, John W., 282 - - Warley, 231 - - Washington, 2, 38, 89, 102, 103, 115, 141, 298, 318 - - Washington, Booker T., 258, 298, 303, 308 - - Washington, Madison, 159 - - Wayman, Bishop, 301 - - Webster, Daniel, 86, 160 - - Wiener, 36, 37, 38, 40, 150 - - Wesley, 113 - - Wheatley, Phyllis, 298, 304, 306, 312 - - Wheeler, Laura, 313 - - White, Clarence Cameron, 291 - - White, E. P., 221 - - White, George L., 276, 277, 278 - - White, J. L., 219 - - White, Dr. William S., 336 - - Whitfield, James, 299, 300 - - Whitefield, George, 298 - - Whittier, John Greenleaf, 293 - - Whitman, A. A., 301, 304 - - Whitman, Walt, 293 - - Whitney, Eli, 70 - - Williams, 101, 104, 107, 117, 118, 124, 164, 187, 301, 310, 311 - - Williams, Bert, 310 - - Williams, Dr. Dan, 316 - - Wilson, 26, 95, 97, 108, 110, 124, 135, 179, 181, 303 - - Winslow, Sydney W., 70, 71 - - Witherspoon, D., 332 - - Wood, Liates, 73 - - Woods, Granville T., 73 - - Woodson, Carter, 64, 161, 303, 332 - - Wormeley, Ralph, 67 - - Wright, 302 - - - Yeomans, Robert, 8 - - Young, Major Charles, 17, 18, 127, 131 - - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GIFT OF BLACK FOLK *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the -United States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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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 <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you -are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this eBook. -</div> - -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: The Gift of Black Folk</p> -<p style='display:block; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:0;'>The Negroes in the Making of America</p> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: William Edward Burghardt Du Bois</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Contributor: Edward F. McSweeney</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: September 27, 2021 [eBook #66398]</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Nick Wall and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)</div> - -<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GIFT OF BLACK FOLK ***</div> - -<p class="titlepage larger"><span class="smaller">THE</span><br /> -GIFT <i>of</i> BLACK FOLK</p> - -<p class="center"><i>The Negroes in the<br /> -Making of America</i></p> - -<p class="titlepage"><span class="smaller">by</span><br /> -<span class="smcap">W. E. Burghardt DuBois</span><br /> -<span class="smcap smaller">Ph. D. (Harv.)</span></p> - -<p class="center"><span class="smaller">Author of “The Souls of Black Folk,” “Darkwater,” etc.<br /> -Editor of <i>The Crisis</i></span></p> - -<p class="titlepage"><i>Introduction by</i><br /> -EDWARD F. McSWEENEY, LL. D.</p> - -<div class="figcenter titlepage" style="width: 100px;"> -<img src="images/stratford.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="titlepage">1924<br /> -THE STRATFORD CO., <i>Publishers</i><br /> -<span class="smcap">Boston, Massachusetts</span></p> - -<p class="titlepage smaller">Copyright, 1924<br /> -By THE KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS</p> - -<p class="titlepage smaller">Printed in the United States of America</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2 class="nobreak">CONTENTS</h2> - -</div> - -<table summary="Contents"> - <tr> - <td class="tdr smaller">Chapter</td> - <td></td> - <td class="tdpg smaller">Page</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr"></td> - <td>Foreword</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#FOREWORD">i</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr"></td> - <td>Prescript</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PRESCRIPT">33</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr">I</td> - <td>The Black Explorers</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">35</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr">II</td> - <td>Black Labor</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">52</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr">III</td> - <td>Black Soldiers</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">80</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr">IV</td> - <td>The Emancipation of Democracy</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">135</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr">V</td> - <td>The Reconstruction of Freedom</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">184</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr">VI</td> - <td>The Freedom of Womanhood</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">259</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr">VII</td> - <td>The American Folk Song</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">274</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr">VIII</td> - <td>Negro Art and Literature</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">287</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr">IX</td> - <td>The Gift of the Spirit</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">320</a></td> - </tr> -</table> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_i"></a>[i]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="FOREWORD">FOREWORD</h2> - -</div> - -<p>It is not uncommon for casual thinkers to assume -that the United States of America is practically a -continuation of English nationality. Our speech -is English and the English played so large a part -in our beginnings that it is easy to fall more or -less consciously into the thought that the history -of this nation has been but a continuation and development -of these beginnings. A little reflection, -however, quickly convinces us that at least there -was present French influence in the Mississippi -Valley and Spanish influence in the southeast and -southwest. Everything else however that has been -added to the American nationality is often looked -upon as a sort of dilution of more or less doubtful -value: peoples that had to be assimilated as far -as possible and made over to the original and -basic type. Thus we continually speak of Germans -and Scandinavians, of Irish and Jews, Poles, -Austrians and Hungarians; and, with few exceptions, -we regard the coming of the Negroes as an -unmitigated error and a national liability.</p> - -<p>It is high time that this course of our thinking -should be changed. America is conglomerate.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_ii"></a>[ii]</span> -This is at once her problem and her glory—perhaps -indeed her sole and greatest reason for being. -Her physical foundation is not English and -while it is primarily it is not entirely European. -It represents peculiarly a coming together of the -peoples of the world. American institutions have -been borrowed from England and France in the -main, but with contributions from many and widely -scattered groups. American history has no prototype -and has been developed from the various -racial elements. Despite the fact that our mother -tongue is called English we have developed an -American speech with its idiosyncrasies and -idioms, a speech whose purity is not to be measured -by its conformity to the speech of the British -Isles. And finally the American spirit is a new -and interesting result of divers threads of thought -and feeling coming not only from America but -from Europe and Asia and indeed from Africa.</p> - -<p>This essay is an attempt to set forth more -clearly than has hitherto been done the effect -which the Negro has had upon American life. Its -thesis is that despite slavery, war and caste, and -despite our present Negro problem, the American -Negro is and has been a distinct asset to this country -and has brought a contribution without which -America could not have been; and that perhaps -the essence of our so-called Negro problem is the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_iii"></a>[iii]</span> -failure to recognize this fact and to continue to -act as though the Negro was what we once imagined -and wanted to imagine him—a representative -of a subhuman species fitted only for subordination.</p> - -<p>A moment’s thought will easily convince open -minded persons that the contribution of the Negro -to American nationality as slave, freedman -and citizen was far from negligible. No element -in American life has so subtly and yet clearly -woven itself into the warp and woof of our thinking -and acting as the American Negro. He came -with the first explorers and helped in exploration. -His labor was from the first the foundation of -the American prosperity and the cause of the -rapid growth of the new world in economic and -social importance. Modern democracy rests not -simply on the striving white men in Europe and -America but also on the persistent struggle of the -black men in America for two centuries. The -military defense of this land has depended upon -Negro soldiers from the time of the Colonial -wars down to the struggle of the World War. -Not only does the Negro appear, reappear and -persist in American literature but a Negro American -literature has arisen of deep significance, and -Negro folk lore and music are among the choicest -heritages of this land.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_iv"></a>[iv]</span></p> - -<p>Finally the Negro had played a peculiar -spiritual rôle in America as a sort of living, -breathing test of our ideals and an example of -the faith, hope and tolerance of our religion.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_1"></a>[1]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="INTRODUCTION">THE RACIAL CONTRIBUTIONS -TO THE UNITED STATES</h2> - -<p class="center">By <span class="smcap">Edw. F. McSweeney</span>, LL. D.</p> - -</div> - -<p>In a general way, the Racial Contribution Series in the -Knights of Columbus historical program is intended as a -much needed and important contribution to national -solidarity. The various studies are treated by able writers, -citizens of the United States, each being in full -sympathy with the achievements in this country of the -racial group of whom he treats. The standard of the -writers is the only one that will justify historical writing;—the -truth. No censorship has been exercised.</p> - -<p>No subject now actively before the people of the United -States has been more written on, and less understood, than -alien immigration. Until 1819, there were no official statistics -of immigration of any sort; the so-called census of -1790 was simply a report of the several states of their male -white population under and over 16 years of age, all -white females, slaves, and others. Statements as to the -country of origin of the inhabitants of this country were, -in the main, guesswork, with the result that, while the -great bulk of such estimates was honestly and patriotically -done, some of the most quoted during the present day -were inspired, obviously to prove a predetermined case, -rather than to recite the ascertained fact.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_2"></a>[2]</span></p> - -<p>From the beginning the dominant groups in control in -the United States have regarded each group of newer -arrivals as more or less the “enemy” to be feared, and, if -possible, controlled. A study of various cross-sections of -the country will show dominant alien groups who formerly -had to fight for their very existence. With increased -numerical strength and prosperity they frequently attempted -to do to the later aliens, frequently even of their -own group, what had formerly been done to them:—decry -and stifle their achievements, and deny them opportunity,—the -one thing that may justly be demanded in a -Democracy,—by putting them in a position of inferiority.</p> - -<p>To attempt, in this country, to set up a “caste” control, -based on the accident of birth, wealth, or privilege, is a -travesty of Democracy. When Washington and his compatriots, -a group comprising the most efficiently prepared -men in the history of the world, who had set themselves -definitely to form a democratic civilization, dreamed of -and even planned by Plato, but held back by slavery and -paganism, they found their sure foundations in the precepts -of Christianity, and gave them expression in the Declaration -of Independence. The liberty they sought, based on -obedience to the law of God as well as of man, was actually -established, but from the beginning it has met a -constant effort to substitute some form of absolutism tending -to break down or replace democratic institutions.</p> - -<p>What may be called, for want of a better term, the -colonial spirit, which is the essence of hyphenism, has -persisted in this country to hamper national progress and -national unity. Wherever this colonial spirit shows itself -it is a menace to be fought, whether the secret or acknowledged -attachment binds to England, Ireland, France, -Germany, Italy, Greece or any other nation.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_3"></a>[3]</span></p> - -<p>Jefferson pointed out that we have on this soil evolved -a new race of men who may inexactly be called “Americans”. -This term, as a monopoly of the United States, -is properly objected to by our neighbors, North and South—yet -it has a definite meaning for the world.</p> - -<p>During the Great War one aspect of war duty was to -direct the labor activities growing out of the war, to divert -labor from “non-essential” to “essential” industry and to -arbitrate and mediate on wage matters. It was found -necessary to study and to analyze the greatly feared, but -infrequently discovered “enemy alien”; and as a preparation -for this duty, with the assistance of several hundred -local agents, the population of Massachusetts was separated -into naturally allied groups based on birth, racial -descent, religious, social and industrial affiliations. The -astonishing result was that, counting as “native Americans” -only the actual descendants of all those living in -Massachusetts in 1840, of whatever racial stock prior to -that time, only two-sevenths, even with the most liberal -classification, came within the group of colonial descent, -while the remaining five-sevenths were found in the various -racial groups coming later than 1840. More than -this: While the “Colonial” group had increased in numbers -for three decades after 1840, in 1918 they were found -actually to be fewer in number than in 1840, a diminution -due to excess of deaths over births, proceeding in increasing -ratio.</p> - -<p>Membership in the Society of Mayflower descendants is -eagerly sought as the hallmark of American ancestry. In -anticipation of the tercentenary of the Mayflower-coming -in 1620, about a dozen years ago a questionnaire was sent -to every known eligible for Mayflower ancestry, and the -replies were submitted to the experts in one of the national<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_4"></a>[4]</span> -universities for review and report. When this report was -presented later, it contained the statement that, considering -the prevailing number of marriages in this group, and -children per family,—when the six-hundredth celebration -of the Pilgrims’ Landing is held in 2220, three hundred -years hence, a ship the size of the original Mayflower -will be sufficient to carry back to Europe all the then -living Mayflower descendants.</p> - -<p>The future of America is in the keeping of the 80 per -cent. of the population, separate in blood and race from -the colonial descent group. Love of native land is one of -the strongest and noblest passions of which a man is -capable. Family life, religion, the soil which holds the -dust of our fathers, sentiment for ancestral property, and -many other bonds, make the ties of home so strong and -enduring, and unite a man’s life so closely with its native -environment, that grave and powerful reasons must exist -before a change of residence is contemplated. Escape from -religious persecution and political tyranny were unquestionably -the chief reasons which induced the early comers -to America to brave the dangers of an unknown world. -Yet that very intolerance against which this was a protest -soon began to be exercised against all those unwilling to -accept in their new homes the religious leadership of those -in control.</p> - -<p>It is not necessary to go into the persecutions due to -religious bigotry of the colonial period. While the spirit -of liberty was in the free air of the colonies and would -finally have secured national independence, it is not possible -to underestimate the support brought to the revolting -colonials because of the attitude of Great Britain in allowing -religious freedom to Canada after it had been taken -from the French. After the victory of New Orleans, a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_5"></a>[5]</span> -spirit of national consciousness on a democratic basis was -built up and the narrow spirit of colonialism and of religious -intolerance was to a great degree repudiated by the -people, when they had become inspired with the American -spirit,—only to be revived later on.</p> - -<p>The continued manifestation of intolerance has been -the most persistent effort in our national life. It has -done incalculable harm. It is apparently deep-rooted, an -active force in almost every generation. Present in the -30’s, 40’s and 50’s, stopped temporarily for two decades -by the Civil War, it has recurred subsequently again and -again; revived since the Armistice, it is unfortunately -shown today in as great a virulence and power of -destructiveness as at any time during the last hundred -years.</p> - -<p>After the 70’s, as the aliens became numerically powerful -and began to demand political representation, movements -based on religious prejudice were started from time -to time, some of which came to temporary prominence, -later to die an inglorious death; but all these movements -which attempted to deprive aliens of their right of freedom -to worship were calculated to bring economic discontent -and to add to the measure of national disunion -and unhappiness.</p> - -<p>Sixty years ago<a id="FNanchor_1" href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> the bigoted slogan was “<i>No Irish need -apply</i>.” During the World War, the principal attack -was on the German-American citizens of this country, -whose fathers had come here seeking a new land as a -protest against tyranny. Today the current attempt is<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_6"></a>[6]</span> -to deprive the Jews<a id="FNanchor_2" href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> of the right to educational equality. -In short, while there have been spasmodic manifestations -of movements based on intolerance in many countries, the -United States has the unenviable record for continuous -effort to keep alive a bogey based on an increasing fear of -something which never existed, and cannot ever exist in -this country.</p> - -<p>For a hundred years the potent cause which has poured -millions of human beings into the United States has been -its marvellous opportunities, and unprecedented economic -urge. Ever since 1830 a graphic chart of the variations -in immigration from year to year will reflect the industrial -situation in the United States for the same period. In -1837, the total immigration was 79,430.<a id="FNanchor_3" href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> After the panic -of that year it decreased in 1838 to 38,914.<a id="FNanchor_4" href="#Footnote_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> In 1842, it -increased to 104,565,<a id="FNanchor_5" href="#Footnote_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> but a business depression in 1844 -caused it to shrink to 78,615.<a id="FNanchor_6" href="#Footnote_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> Thus the influx of aliens -increased or decreased according to the industrial conditions -prevalent here. The business prosperity of the -United States was not only the urge to entice immigrants -hither, but it made their coming possible as they were -helped by the savings of relatives and friends already here.</p> - -<p>The English were not immigrants, but colonists, -merely going from one part of national territory to another. -With few exceptions, the majority of the early -colonists came from England. The first English settlement -was made in Virginia under the London Company<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_7"></a>[7]</span> -in 1607. It took twelve years of hard struggling to -establish this colony on a permanent basis.</p> - -<p>The New England region was settled by a different -class of colonists. Plymouth was the first settlement, in -1620, followed in 1630 by the Massachusetts Bay Colony, -which later absorbed the Plymouth settlement. Population, -after the first ten years, increased rapidly by natural -growth, and soon colonies in Rhode Island, New Hampshire -and Connecticut resulted from the overflow in the -original settlements.</p> - -<p>While this English settlement was going on North and -South, the Dutch, under the Dutch West India Company, -took possession of the region between, and founded New -Netherlands and New Amsterdam, later New York City. -Intervening, as it did, between their Northern and Southern -colonies, New Netherlands, which the English considered -a menace, was seized by the English during a war -with Holland, and became New York and New Jersey.</p> - -<p>Early in the seventeenth century there was a substantial -French immigration to the Dutch colonies. There was -a constant stream of French immigration to the English -colonies in New England and in Virginia by many of the -Huguenots who had originally emigrated to the West -Indies.</p> - -<p>In 1681, Penn settled Pennsylvania under a royal -charter and thus the whole Atlantic coast from Canada to -Florida became subject to England. During the colonial -period, England contributed to the population of the -colonies. But, by the middle of the seventeenth century, -the coming of the English to New England was practically -over. From 1628 to 1641 about 20,000 came from -England to New England, but for the next century and -a half more persons went back to Old England than came<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_8"></a>[8]</span> -from there to New England.<a id="FNanchor_7" href="#Footnote_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> Due to the relaxing of -religious persecution of dissenting Protestants in England, -the great formerly impelling force to seek a new home -across the ocean in America had ceased.</p> - -<p>In 1653 an Irish immigration to New England, much -larger in numbers than the original Plymouth Colony, was -proposed. Bristol merchants, who realized the necessity -of populating the colonies to make them prosperous, -treated with the government for men, women and girls -to be sent to the West Indies and to New England.<a id="FNanchor_8" href="#Footnote_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> At -the very fountain head of American life we find, therefore, -men and women of pure Celtic blood from the South of -Ireland, infused into the primal stock of America. But -these apparently were only a drop in this early tide of -Irish immigration.<a id="FNanchor_9" href="#Footnote_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_9"></a>[9]</span></p> - -<p>No complete memorial has been transmitted of the -emigrations that took place from Europe to America, but -(from the few illustrative facts actually preserved) they -seem to have been amazingly copious. In the years 1771-72, -the number of emigrants to America from the North -of Ireland alone amounted to 17,350. Almost all of these -emigrated at their own charge; a great majority of them -were persons employed in the linen manufacture, or -farmers possessed of some property which they converted -into money and carried with them. Within the first fortnight -of August, 1773, there arrived at Philadelphia -3,500 emigrants from Ireland, and from the same document -which has recorded this circumstance it appears that -vessels were arriving every month freighted with emigrants -from Holland, Germany, and especially from Ireland -and the Highlands of Scotland.<a id="FNanchor_10" href="#Footnote_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></p> - -<p>That many Irish settled in Maryland is shown by the -fact that in 1699 and again a few years later an act was -passed to prevent too great a number of Irish Papists -being imported into the province.<a id="FNanchor_11" href="#Footnote_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> Shipmasters were -required to pay two shillings per poll for such. “Shipping -records of the colonial period show that boatload after -boatload left the southern and eastern shores of Ireland -for the New World. Undoubtedly thousands of their -passengers were Irish of the native stock.”<a id="FNanchor_12" href="#Footnote_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> So besides -the so-called Scotch-Irish from the North of Ireland, the -distinction always being Protestantism, not race, it is indisputable -that thousands, Celtic in race and Catholic in -religion, came to the colonies. These newcomers made<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_10"></a>[10]</span> -their homes principally in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, -the Carolinas and the frontiers of the New England -colonies. Later they pushed on westward and founded -Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee. An interesting essay -by the well-known writer, Irvin S. Cobb, on <i>The Lost -Irish Tribes in the South</i> is an important contribution to -this subject.</p> - -<p>The Germans were the next most important element of -the early population of America. A number of the artisans -and carpenters in the first Jamestown colony were of -German descent. In 1710, a body of 3,000 Germans -came to New York—the largest number of immigrants -supposed to have arrived at one time during the colonial -period.<a id="FNanchor_13" href="#Footnote_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> Most of the early German immigrants settled -in New Jersey, the Carolinas, and Pennsylvania. It has -been estimated that at the end of the colonial period the -number of Germans was fully two hundred thousand.</p> - -<p>Though the Irish and the Germans contributed most -largely to colonial immigration, as distinguished from the -English, who are classed as the Colonials, there were -other races who came even thus early to our shores. The -Huguenots came from France to escape religious persecution. -The Jews, then as ever, engaged in their age-old -struggle for religious and economic toleration, came from -England, France, Spain and Portugal. The Dutch Government -of New Amsterdam, fearing their commercial -competition, ordered a group of Portuguese Jews to leave -the colony, but this decision was appealed to the home -Government at Holland and reversed, so that they were -allowed to remain. On the whole, their freedom to live -and to trade in the colonies was so much greater than in -their former homes that there were soon flourishing<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_11"></a>[11]</span> -colonies of Jewish merchants in Newport, Philadelphia -and Charleston.</p> - -<p>In 1626 a company of Swedish merchants organized, -under the patronage of the Great King Gustavus Adolphus, -to promote immigration to America. The King -contributed four hundred thousand dollars to the capital -raised, but did not live to see the fruition of his plans. -In 1637, the first company of Swedes and Finns left -Stockholm for America. They reached Delaware Bay -and called the country New Sweden. The Dutch claimed, -by right of priority, this same territory and in 1655 the -flag of Holland replaced that of Sweden. The small -Swedish colony in Delaware came under Penn’s rule and -became, like Pennsylvania, cosmopolitan in character.</p> - -<p>The Dutch in New York preserved their racial characteristics -for more than a hundred years after the English -conquest of 1664. At the end of the colonial period, over -one-half of the 170,000 inhabitants of New York were -descendants of the original Dutch.</p> - -<p>Many of the immigrants who came here in the early -days paid their own passage. However, the actual number -of such is only a matter of conjecture. From the -shipping records of the period we do know positively that -thousands came who were unable to pay. Shipowners and -others who had the means furnished the passage money -to those too poor to pay for themselves, and in return received -from these persons a promise or bond. This bond -provided that the person named in it should work for a -certain number of years to repay the money advanced. -Such persons were called “indentured servants” and they -were found throughout the colonies, working in the fields, -the shops and the homes of the colonists. The term of -service was from five to seven years. Many found it<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_12"></a>[12]</span> -impossible to meet their obligations and their servitude -dragged on for years. Others, on the contrary, became -free and prosperous. In Pennsylvania often there were -as many as fifty bond servants on estates. The condition -of indentured servants in Virginia “was little better than -that of slaves. Loose indentures and harsh laws put them -at the mercy of their masters.”<a id="FNanchor_14" href="#Footnote_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> This seems to have been -their fate in all the colonies, as their treatment depended -upon the character of their masters.</p> - -<p>Besides these indentured servants who came here voluntarily, -a large number of early settlers were forced to -come here. The Irish before mentioned are one example. -In order to secure settlers, men, women and children were -kidnapped from the cities and towns and “spirited away” -to America by the companies and proprietors who had -colonies here. In 1680 it was officially computed that -10,000 were sent thus to American shores. In 1627, -about 1,500 children were shipped to Virginia, probably -orphans and dependents whom their relatives were unwilling -to support.<a id="FNanchor_15" href="#Footnote_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> Another class sent here were convicts, -the scourings of English centers like Bristol and -Liverpool. The colonists protested vehemently against this -practise, but it was continued up to the very end of the -colonial period, when this convict tide was diverted to -“Botany Bay.”</p> - -<p>In 1619, another race was brought here against their -will and sold into slavery. This was the Negro, forced to -leave his home near the African equator that he might -contribute to the material wealth of shipmasters and -planters. Slowly but surely chattel slavery took firm root -in the South and at last became the leading source of the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_13"></a>[13]</span> -labor supply. The slave traders found it very easy to -seize Negroes in Africa and make great profits by selling -them in Southern ports. The English Royal African -Company sent to America annually between 1713 and -1743 from 5,000 to 10,000 slaves.<a id="FNanchor_16" href="#Footnote_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> After a time, when -the Negroes were so numerous that whole sections were -overrun, the Southern colonies tried ineffectually to curb -the trade. Virginia in 1710 placed a duty of five pounds -on each slave but the Royal Governor vetoed the bill. -Bills of like import were passed in other colonies from -time to time, but the English crown disapproved in every -instance and the trade, so lucrative to British shipowners, -went on. At the time of the Revolution, there were -almost half a million slaves in the colonies.<a id="FNanchor_17" href="#Footnote_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> The exact -proportions of the slave trade to America can be but -approximately determined. From 1680 to 1688 the -African Company sent 249 ships to Africa, shipped there -60,783 Negro slaves, and after losing 14,387 on the -middle passage, delivered 46,396 in America. The trade -increased early in the eighteenth century, 104 ships clearing -for Africa in 1701; it then dwindled until the signing -of the Assiento, standing at 74 clearances in 1724. -The final dissolution of the monopoly in 1750 led—excepting -in the years 1754-57, when the closing of Spanish -marts sensibly affected the trade—to an extraordinary -development, 192 clearances being made in 1771. The -Revolutionary War nearly stopped the traffic, but by -1786 the clearances had risen again to 146.</p> - -<p>To these figures must be added the unregistered trade -of Americans and foreigners. It is probable that about -25,000 slaves were brought to America each year between<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_14"></a>[14]</span> -1698 and 1707. The importation then dwindled but after -the Assiento rose to perhaps 30,000. The proportion -of these slaves carried to the continent now began to -increase. Of about 20,000 whom the English annually -imported from 1733 to 1766, South Carolina alone received -some 3,000. Before the Revolution the total exportation -to America is variously estimated as between -40,000 and 100,000 each year. Bancroft places the total -slave population of the continental colonies at 59,000 in -1714; 78,000 in 1727; and 293,000 in 1754. The census -of 1790 showed 697,897 slaves in the United States. Not -all the Negroes who came to America were slaves and -not all remained slaves. There were the following free -Negroes in the decades between 1790 and 1860:</p> - -<table summary="Numbers of free Negroes in each decade"> - <tr> - <td>1790</td> - <td class="tdr">59,557</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>1800</td> - <td class="tdr">108,435</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>1810</td> - <td class="tdr">186,446</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>1820</td> - <td class="tdr">233,634</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>1830</td> - <td class="tdr">319,599</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>1840</td> - <td class="tdr">386,293</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>1850</td> - <td class="tdr">434,495</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>1860</td> - <td class="tdr">488,070</td> - </tr> -</table> - -<p>Immigration of Negroes is still taking place, especially -from the West Indies. It has been estimated that there -are the following foreign-born Negroes in the United -States:</p> - -<table summary="Numbers of foreign-born Negroes in each decade"> - <tr> - <td>1890</td> - <td class="tdr">19,979</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>1900</td> - <td class="tdr">20,336</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>1910</td> - <td class="tdr">40,339</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>1920</td> - <td class="tdr">75,000</td> - </tr> -</table> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_15"></a>[15]</span></p> - -<p>In 1790, Negroes were one-fifth of the total population; -in 1860 they were one-seventh; in 1900 one-ninth;<a id="FNanchor_18" href="#Footnote_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> -today they are approximately one-tenth.</p> - -<p>With the beginning of the national era—1783—all -peoples subsequently coming to the United States must be -classed as immigrants. During the first years of our -national life, no accurate statistics of immigration were -kept. The Federal Government took no control of the -matter and the State records are incomplete and unreliable. -A pamphlet published by the Bureau of Statistics in -1903, <i>Immigration into the United States</i>, says, “The -best estimates of the total immigration into the United -States prior to the official count puts the total number of -arrivals at not to exceed 250,000 in the entire period -between 1776 and 1820.”</p> - -<p>From 1806 to 1816, the unfriendly relations which -existed between the United States and England and -France precluded any extensive immigration to this country. -England maintained and for a time successfully enforced -the doctrine that “a man once a subject was always -a subject.” The American Merchant Service, because of -the pay and good treatment given, was very attractive to -English sailors and a very great enticement to them to -come to America and enter the American service. However, -the fear of impressment deterred many from so -doing. The Blockade Decrees of England against France -in 1806 and the retaliation decrees of France against -England in that same year were other influences which retarded -immigration. These decrees were succeeded by -the British Orders in Council, the Milan Decree of -Napoleon, and the United States law of 1809 prohibiting -intercourse with both Great Britain and France.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_16"></a>[16]</span></p> - -<p>In 1810, the French decrees were annulled and American -commerce began again with France, only to have the -vessels fall into the hands of the British. Then came the -War of 1812. The German immigration suffered greatly -from this condition of affairs, as the Germans sailed -principally from the ports of Liverpool and Havre. At -these points ships were more numerous and expenses less -heavy. In December, 1814, a few days before the Battle -of New Orleans, a treaty of peace was concluded between -the United States and England and after a few months -immigration was resumed once more.</p> - -<p>In 1817, about 22,240 persons arrived at ports of the -United States from foreign countries. This number included -American citizens returning from abroad. In no -previous year had so many immigrants come to our -shores.</p> - -<p>In 1819 a law was passed by Congress and approved -by the President “regulating passenger ships and vessels.” -In 1820, the official history of immigration began. The -Port Collectors then began to keep records which included -numbers, sexes, ages, and occupations of all incoming -persons. However, up to 1856, no distinction was made -between travellers and immigrants.</p> - -<p>Immigration increased from 8,358 in 1820—of which -6,024 came from Great Britain and Ireland—to 22,633 -in 1831.<a id="FNanchor_19" href="#Footnote_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> The decade of the twenties was a time of -great industrial activity in the United States. The Erie -Canal was built, other canals were projected, the railroads -were started, business increased by leaps and bounds. -As a consequence, the demand for labor was imperative -and Europe responded. During the entire period of our<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_17"></a>[17]</span> -early national life, the United States encouraged the -coming of foreign artisans and laborers as the necessity for -strength, skill and courage in the upbuilding of our country -began to be realized.</p> - -<p>From 1831 the number of immigrants steadily increased -until from September 30, 1849, to September 30, -1850, they totaled 315,334<a id="FNanchor_20" href="#Footnote_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> The largest increases during -those years were from 1845 to 1848, when the famine -in Ireland and the revolution in Germany drove thousands -to the shores of free America. These causes continued -to increase the number of arrivals until in 1854 -the crest was attained with 460,474<a id="FNanchor_21" href="#Footnote_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a>—a figure not again -reached for nearly twenty years.</p> - -<p>From September 30, 1819, when the official count of -immigrants began to be taken, to December 31, 1855, a -total of 4,212,624 persons of foreign birth arrived in the -United States.<a id="FNanchor_22" href="#Footnote_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> Of these Bromwell, who wrote in 1856 -a work compiled entirely from official data, estimates that -1,747,930 were Irish.<a id="FNanchor_23" href="#Footnote_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> Next comes Germany,<a id="FNanchor_24" href="#Footnote_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> with -1,206,087; England third with 207,492; France fourth -with 188,725.</p> - -<p>The exodus of the Irish during those famine years furnishes -one of the many examples recorded in history of a -subject race driven from its home by the economic injustice -of a dominant race. Later, we see the same thing -true in Austria-Hungary where the Slavs were tyrannized -by the Magyars; again we find it in Russia where the -Jew sought freedom from the Slav; and once again in -Armenia and Syria where the native people fled from the -Turk.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_18"></a>[18]</span></p> - -<p>After 1855, the tide of immigration began to decrease -steadily. During the first two years of the Civil War, -it was less than 100,000.<a id="FNanchor_25" href="#Footnote_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> In 1863, an increase was -noticeable again and 395,922<a id="FNanchor_26" href="#Footnote_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> immigrants are recorded -in 1869.</p> - -<p>During all these years up to 1870, the great part of the -immigration was from Northern Europe. The largest -racial groups were composed of Irish, Germans, Scandinavians -and French. About the middle of the nineteenth -century French-speaking Canadians were attracted by the -opportunities for employment in the mills and factories of -New England.</p> - -<p>The number of Irish coming here steadily decreased -after 1880 until it has fallen far below that of other -European peoples. Altogether, the total Irish immigration -from 1820 to 1906 is placed at something over -4,000,000, thus giving the Irish second place as contributors -to the foreign-born population of the United States. -The Revolution of 1848 was the contributing cause of a -large influx of Germans, many of whom were professional -men and artisans. From 1873 to 1879 there was great -industrial depression in Germany and consequently another -large immigration to America took place. Since -1882, there has also been a noticeable decline in German -immigrants. From 1820 to 1903, a total of over 5,000,000 -Germans was recorded as coming to the United -States.<a id="FNanchor_27" href="#Footnote_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a></p> - -<p>In the period from 1880 to 1910 immigration from -Italy totaled 4,018,404. It will be remembered that the -law requiring the registration of outgoing aliens was not -passed until 1908, and it may, therefore, be estimated that<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_19"></a>[19]</span> -3,000,000 represents the total number of arrivals from -Italy, who remained here permanently.</p> - -<p>After 1903, up to the outbreak of the Great War, the -number of alien arrivals steadily increased. In 1905, it -was more than 1,000,000; in 1906, it passed the 1,100,000 -mark and in 1907 the 1,200,000 mark; in 1913 and 1914, -the total number for each year exceeded 1,400,000.<a id="FNanchor_28" href="#Footnote_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a></p> - -<p>During the ten years from 1905 to 1915, nearly 12,000,000 -aliens landed in the United States, a yearly average -of 1,200,000 arrivals. These alone form more than -37 per cent. of all recorded immigration since 1820 and -make up about 88 out of every 100 of our present total -foreign-born population.<a id="FNanchor_29" href="#Footnote_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a> Until interrupted by the -European War, the immigration to the United States was -the greatest movement of the largest number of peoples -that the world has ever known. Of course, there have -been economic upheavals from time to time which have -noticeably affected this movement. The Civil War, as -before noted, and financial panics and industrial depressions -in our country interrupted the incoming tide repeatedly. -The Great War with its social and economic -upheaval had a tremendous effect on our immigration. -The twelve months following the declaration of war -shows the smallest number of alien arrivals since 1899. -The number was slightly over 325,000. The statistics -compiled by the Federal Bureau of Immigration show -that by far the greater part of the immigrants who come -to the United States are from Europe. Of the 1,403,000 -alien immigrants who came here in 1914, about 1,114,000 -were from Europe; about 35,000 came from Asia; the -remainder, about 254,000, came from all other countries<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_20"></a>[20]</span> -combined, principally Canada, the West Indies, and -Mexico. Eighty out of every 100, therefore, came from -Europe. As many as sixty of that eighty came from the -three countries of Italy, Austria-Hungary and Russia. -Italy sent 294,689; Austria-Hungary was second with -286,059; Russia contributed 262,409. From all of England, -Ireland, Scotland and Wales came only 88,000 or -about 6 out of every 100; and from Norway, Sweden and -Denmark came about 31,000 or 2 out of every 100.</p> - -<p>Greece, France, Portugal, Bulgaria, Montenegro, -Spain, Turkey, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, -and Roumania contributed virtually all the remainder of -our 1914 immigrants from Europe, given in the order of -importance.</p> - -<p>However, we should bear in mind always that the -country of origin or nationality or jurisdiction (as determined -by political boundaries) is not always identical with -race. Immigration statistics have followed national or -political boundaries. Take the immigrants from Russia. -The statistics say that 262,000 arrived from that country -in 1914. But of this number, less than 5 out of every 100 -are Russians; the rest or 95 out of every 100, are Hebrews, -Poles, Lithuanians, Finns and Germans.</p> - -<p>Austria-Hungary was another country made of a medley -of races. The Germanic Austrians who ruled Austria -and the Hungarian Magyars who ruled Hungary were -less than one-half of the total population of the one -time Austria-Hungary.</p> - -<p>The record of alien arrivals from Poland is not accurate -because it is divided into three national statistical -divisions—Russia, Germany and Austria-Hungary. -The best estimate is that the total Polish arrivals to the -United States since 1820 approximates 2,500,000.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_21"></a>[21]</span></p> - -<p>The Slav, the Magyar, the German, the Latin, and the -Jew were all in Austria-Hungary and moreover, these -were all numerously subdivided. The most numerous of -the Slavs are the Czechs and Slovaks. These gave the -United States in 1914 a combined immigration of 37,000. -Poles, Ruthenians and Roumanians also came here from -northern Austria, and from the vicinity of the Black Sea -came Roumanians more Latin than Slavic. Besides these, -the one time dual kingdom sent Jews, Greeks and Turks.</p> - -<p>Although the most important Slavic country of Europe -is Russia, yet it was from Austria-Hungary that we received -most of our Slavic immigrants. In 1914, as many -as 23 out of every 100 of our total immigration were -Slavic, and the larger part of this racial group which -reached 319,000 that year, came from Austria-Hungary.</p> - -<p>That mere recording of country or origin does not give -accurate racial information is illustrated in the case of the -many Greeks under Turkish rule, and the large number -of Armenians found in almost all large Turkish towns. -The Armenians are probably the most numerous of the -immigrants from Asia. In 1914, the total immigration -from Turkey was about 20,000, but the actual Turkish -immigration was only 3,000. The remaining 27,000 were -Greeks, Bulgarians, Serbians, Montenegrins, Syrians, -Armenians and Hebrews.<a id="FNanchor_30" href="#Footnote_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a></p> - -<p>The “country of origin” tells us almost nothing about -the large Hebrew immigration which comes to the United -States. The Jew comes from many countries. The -greater part of all our recent Jewish immigration comes -from Russia, from what is called the “Jewish Pale of -Settlement” in the western part of that country. Other -Jews come from Austria, Roumania, Germany and Turkey.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_22"></a>[22]</span> -In 1914, the Jews were the fourth largest in numbers -among our immigrants, nearly 143,000.<a id="FNanchor_31" href="#Footnote_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a></p> - -<p>We must also bear in mind that all of these millions -who came to America do not remain with us. There is a -constant emigration going on, a departure of aliens back -to their native land either for a time, or for all time. Up -to 1908, the Bureau of Immigration kept no record of the -“ebb of the tide” but since that time vessels taking aliens -out of the United States, are obliged by law to make a list -containing name, age, sex, nationality, residence in the -United States, occupation, and time of last arrival of each -alien passenger, which must be filed with the Federal -Collector of Customs.</p> - -<p>The first year of this record, 1908, followed the financial -panic of October, 1907, and due to the economic -conditions prevalent in the United States a very large -emigration to Europe was disclosed.</p> - -<p>The records show also that the volume of emigration, -like that of immigration, varies from year to year. Just -as prosperity here increases immigration, “bad” times increase -emigration from our shores.</p> - -<p>There was a time when emigration was so slight that it -was of little importance, but since the early nineties it -has assumed large proportions. After the panic of 1907, -for months a larger number left the country than came -into it, and thousands and thousands swarmed the ports -of departure awaiting a chance to return home. In the -earlier years, the immigrant sometimes spent months making -the journey here. Besides the difficulty of the trip, -ocean transportation was more expensive. Therefore, the -earlier immigrants came to remain, to make homes here -for themselves and their children. The Irish, the Germans,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_23"></a>[23]</span> -the early Bohemians, the Scandinavians, and in fact -all the early comers brought their families and their -“household goods”, ready to settle down for all time and -to become citizens of their adopted country.</p> - -<p>A large number of the alien arrivals of recent years -come here initially with only a vague intention of remaining -permanently, and these make up the large emigration -streaming constantly from our ports. However, it is -only fair to say that eventually many of these people come -back to America and become permanent residents. Anyone -who has had experience at our ports of entry can substantiate -the statement that during a period of years the -same faces are seen incoming again and again.</p> - -<p>Although immigrants have come by millions into the -United States, and have been the main contributing cause -of its wonderful national expansion, yet opposition to -their coming has manifested itself strongly at different -times.</p> - -<p>In the colonial period the people objected, and rightly, -to the maternal solicitude which England evidenced by -making the colonies the dumping ground for criminals -and undesirables. However, these objections were disregarded -and convicts and criminals continued to come -while the colonies remained under British rule.</p> - -<p>After the national era, immigration was practically -unrestricted down to 1875. At different periods there -were manifestations of a strong desire to restrict immigration, -but Congress never responded with exclusion laws. -The alien and sedition laws of 1798 had for their object -the removal of foreigners already residents in the United -States. The naturalization laws passed that same year, -lengthening the time of residence necessary for citizenship -to fourteen years, were another severe measure against<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_24"></a>[24]</span> -resident aliens. The native American and the Know-nothing -uprisings were still other indications of that same -spirit of antagonism to the alien based on religious -grounds. This religious antagonism in many of the States -took the form of opposition to immigration itself and a -demand for restrictions. But this all proved futile, for -the National Government recognized the necessity of -settling the limitless West. Then, too, another subject -loomed large and threatening at this time, and engrossed -the attention of the people away from the dire evils which -the Irish and the Catholics would precipitate upon “our -free and happy people”. This was the State Rights and -Slavery question; and soon the country forgot immigration -in the throes of the Civil War.</p> - -<p>By an act of March 3, 1875, the National Government -made its first attempt to restrict immigration; this act -prohibited the bringing in of alien convicts and of women -for immoral purposes. On May 6, 1882, Congress passed -and the President approved another act “to regulate -immigration”, by which the coming of Chinese laborers -was forbidden for ten years. The story which led up to -this Act of Congress is a long one, and the details cannot -be given here. Briefly, conditions in California following -the Burlingame treaty of 1868, owing to the influx of -Chinese labor, resulted in the organization of a workingman’s -party headed by Dennis Kearney, and forced the -Chinese question as one of the dominant issues of State -politics. Resolutions embodying the feelings of the people -on Chinese immigration were presented to the Constitutional -Convention of 1879. The State Legislature enacted -laws against this immigration. Subsequently pressure -was brought to bear on the National Government, a -new treaty with China was negotiated, and finally the law<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_25"></a>[25]</span> -of 1882 was passed by Congress, restricting for ten years -the admission of Chinese laborers, both skilled and unskilled, -and of mine workers also.</p> - -<p>Ever since the passage of this law, the Federal Government -has pursued a more restrictive and exclusive immigration -policy. The next law was passed in August, 1882, -prohibiting the immigration of “any convict, lunatic, idiot, -or any person unable to take care of himself or herself -without becoming a public charge.” Then, in 1885, came -another act known as the “Alien Contract Labor Law”, -forbidding the importation and immigration of foreigners -and aliens under contract or agreement to perform labor -in the United States. In 1891 came the law called the -“Geary Act” which amended “the various acts relative to -immigration and the importation of aliens under contract -or agreement to perform labor”. This act extended -Chinese exclusion for another ten years, and required the -Chinese in the country to register and submit to the -Bertillon test as a means of identification. In 1893 two -acts were passed; one which gave the quarantine service -greater powers and placed additional duties upon the -Public Health Service, and another which properly enforced -the existing immigration and contract labor laws. -In 1902 the law of exclusion was made permanent against -Chinese laborers. So, since 1875, the United States has -passed laws excluding Chinese entirely and virtually excluding -the Japanese, and both these races are ineligible -to citizenship. In 1907, an act was passed “to regulate -the immigration of Aliens into the United States”, which -excluded imbeciles, epileptics, those so defective either -physically or mentally that they might become public -charges; children under sixteen not with a parent, etc.</p> - -<p>A far more restrictive measure known as the “literacy”<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_26"></a>[26]</span> -or “educational” test has been before Congress at different -times and has, on three different occasions, failed to become -a law. President Cleveland vetoed it in 1897, Taft -in 1913, and Wilson in 1915. All three Presidents objected -to this bill principally on the ground that it was -such “a radical departure” from all previous national -policy in regard to immigration. President Wilson’s veto -of 1917 was overcome and the bill became a law by a -two-thirds majority vote of both houses. This law requires -that entering aliens must be able to read the English -language or some other language or dialect. The one -thing which the literacy test was designed to accomplish—to -decrease the volume of immigration—was brought -about suddenly and unexpectedly by the European War. -From the opening of the war, the number of immigrants -steadily decreased until, for the year ending June 30, -1916, it was only 298,826<a id="FNanchor_32" href="#Footnote_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> and for the year ending June -30, 1917, only 110,618.<a id="FNanchor_33" href="#Footnote_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a> Then it began again to increase -steadily until for the year ending June 30, 1920, -it reached a total of 430,001.<a id="FNanchor_34" href="#Footnote_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a></p> - -<p>On June 3, 1921, an emergency measure known as the -three per cent. law was passed. This act provided that -the number of aliens of any nationality who could be -admitted to the United States in any one year should be -limited to three per cent. of the number of foreign-born -persons of such nationality resident in the United States -as determined by the census of 1910. Certain ones were -not counted, such as foreign government officials and their -families and employees, aliens in transit through the -United States, tourists, aliens from countries having immigration -treaties with the United States, aliens who<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_27"></a>[27]</span> -have lived for one year previous to their admission in -Canada, Newfoundland, Mexico, Central America, or -South America, and aliens under eighteen who have parents -who are American citizens. More than twenty per -cent. of a country’s full quota could not be admitted in -one month except in the case of actors, artists, lecturers, -singers, nurses, clergymen, professors, members of the -learned professions or domestic servants who could always -come in even though the month’s or the year’s quota had -been used.</p> - -<p>A well organized effort is under way in the Congress -which began its session in December 1923, to reduce the -quota to two per cent. of the immigrants recorded as -coming to the United States in 1890. This bill, which -will probably be passed, is being opposed vigorously, by -the Jews and Italians who are immediately the particular -racial groups to be affected, but since neither the Jews -nor Italians, separately or collectively, have political -strength to be a voting factor to be considered, except in -a half dozen of the industrial states, the passage of the -bill seems to be inevitable.</p> - -<p>The recent immigration restriction laws make a decided -break with past national history and tradition. -There is little doubt that these laws are in part the fruit -of an organized movement which, especially since the war, -is attempting to classify all aliens, except those of one -special group, as “hyphenates” and “mongrels”. These -laws are haphazard, unscientific, based on unworthy prejudice -and likely, ultimately, to be disastrous in their economic -consequences. The present three per cent. immigration -law is not based on any fundamental standard of -fitness. Once the percentage of maximum admissions is -reached, in any given month, the next alien applying for<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_28"></a>[28]</span> -entrance may be a potential Washington, Lincoln or -Edison to whom the unyielding process of the law must -deny admission. Such laws, worked out under the hysteria -of “after war psychology”, seem to be one of the instances, -so frequent in history, where Democracy must take time -to work out its own mistakes.</p> - -<p>Under the circumstances, there is all the more reason -that the priceless heritage of racial achievement by the -descendants of various racial groups in the United States -be told.</p> - -<p>The United States has departed a long way from the -policy which was recorded in 1795 by the series of coins -known as the “Liberty and Security” coins, on which -appeared the words “A Refuge for the Oppressed of all -Nations”.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_29"></a>[29]</span></p> - -<p class="center">ARRIVALS OF ALIEN PASSENGERS AND IMMIGRANTS IN THE UNITED STATES FROM 1820 TO 1892</p> - -<p class="center">Prepared by the Bureau of Statistics and published in 1893 by the Government Printing Office.</p> - -<table summary="" class="big"> - <tr> - <th>Countries Whence Arrived</th> - <th>1821 to<br />1830</th> - <th>1831 to<br />1840</th> - <th>1841 to<br />1850</th> - <th>1851<br />to<br />Dec. 31,<br />1860</th> - <th>Jan. 1<br />1861<br />to June<br />30, 1870</th> - <th>Fiscal<br />Years<br />1871 to<br />1880</th> - <th>Fiscal<br />Years<br />1881 to<br />1890</th> - <th>Fiscal<br />Years<br />1891 and<br />1892</th> - <th>Total</th> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="bt">Austria-Hungary</td> - <td class="tdr bt"></td> - <td class="tdr bt"></td> - <td class="tdr bt"></td> - <td class="tdr bt"></td> - <td class="tdr bt">7,800</td> - <td class="tdr bt">72,969</td> - <td class="tdr bt">353,719</td> - <td class="tdr bt">151,178</td> - <td class="tdr bt">585,666</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Belgium</td> - <td class="tdr">27</td> - <td class="tdr">22</td> - <td class="tdr">5,074</td> - <td class="tdr">4,738</td> - <td class="tdr">6,734</td> - <td class="tdr">7,221</td> - <td class="tdr">20,177</td> - <td class="tdr">7,340</td> - <td class="tdr">51,333</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Denmark</td> - <td class="tdr">169</td> - <td class="tdr">1,063</td> - <td class="tdr">539</td> - <td class="tdr">3,749</td> - <td class="tdr">17,094</td> - <td class="tdr">31,771</td> - <td class="tdr">88,132</td> - <td class="tdr">21,252</td> - <td class="tdr">163,769</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>France</td> - <td class="tdr">3,497</td> - <td class="tdr">45,575</td> - <td class="tdr">77,262</td> - <td class="tdr">76,358</td> - <td class="tdr">35,984</td> - <td class="tdr">72,206</td> - <td class="tdr">50,464</td> - <td class="tdr">13,291</td> - <td class="tdr">379,637</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Germany</td> - <td class="tdr">6,761</td> - <td class="tdr">152,454</td> - <td class="tdr">434,626</td> - <td class="tdr">951,667</td> - <td class="tdr">787,468</td> - <td class="tdr">718,182</td> - <td class="tdr">1,452,970</td> - <td class="tdr">244,312</td> - <td class="tdr">4,748,440</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Italy</td> - <td class="tdr">408</td> - <td class="tdr">2,253</td> - <td class="tdr">1,870</td> - <td class="tdr">9,231</td> - <td class="tdr">11,728</td> - <td class="tdr">55,759</td> - <td class="tdr">307,309</td> - <td class="tdr">138,191</td> - <td class="tdr">526,749</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Netherlands</td> - <td class="tdr">1,078</td> - <td class="tdr">1,412</td> - <td class="tdr">8,251</td> - <td class="tdr">10,789</td> - <td class="tdr">9,102</td> - <td class="tdr">16,541</td> - <td class="tdr">53,701</td> - <td class="tdr">12,466</td> - <td class="tdr">113,340</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Norway and Sweden</td> - <td class="tdr">91</td> - <td class="tdr">1,201</td> - <td class="tdr">13,903</td> - <td class="tdr">20,931</td> - <td class="tdr">109,298</td> - <td class="tdr">211,245</td> - <td class="tdr">568,362</td> - <td class="tdr">107,157</td> - <td class="tdr">1,032,188</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Russia and Poland</td> - <td class="tdr">91</td> - <td class="tdr">646</td> - <td class="tdr">656</td> - <td class="tdr">1,621</td> - <td class="tdr">4,536</td> - <td class="tdr">52,254</td> - <td class="tdr">265,088</td> - <td class="tdr">192,615</td> - <td class="tdr">517,507</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Spain and Portugal</td> - <td class="tdr">2,622</td> - <td class="tdr">2,954</td> - <td class="tdr">2,759</td> - <td class="tdr">10,353</td> - <td class="tdr">8,493</td> - <td class="tdr">9,893</td> - <td class="tdr">6,535</td> - <td class="tdr">5,657</td> - <td class="tdr">49,266</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Switzerland</td> - <td class="tdr bb">3,226</td> - <td class="tdr bb">4,821</td> - <td class="tdr bb">4,644</td> - <td class="tdr bb">25,011</td> - <td class="tdr bb">23,286</td> - <td class="tdr bb">28,293</td> - <td class="tdr bb">81,988</td> - <td class="tdr bb">14,219</td> - <td class="tdr bb">185,488</td> - </tr> - <tr class="top-pad"> - <td>United Kingdom</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>England<a href="#Footnote_a" id="FNanchor_a">(a)</a></td> - <td class="tdr">22,167</td> - <td class="tdr">73,143</td> - <td class="tdr">263,332</td> - <td class="tdr">385,643</td> - <td class="tdr">568,128</td> - <td class="tdr">460,479</td> - <td class="tdr">657,488</td> - <td class="tdr">104,575</td> - <td class="tdr">2,534,955</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Scotland</td> - <td class="tdr">2,912</td> - <td class="tdr">2,667</td> - <td class="tdr">3,712</td> - <td class="tdr">38,331</td> - <td class="tdr">38,768</td> - <td class="tdr">87,564</td> - <td class="tdr">149,869</td> - <td class="tdr">24,077</td> - <td class="tdr">347,900</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Ireland</td> - <td class="tdr">50,724</td> - <td class="tdr">207,381</td> - <td class="tdr">780,719</td> - <td class="tdr">914,119</td> - <td class="tdr">435,778</td> - <td class="tdr">436,871</td> - <td class="tdr">655,482</td> - <td class="tdr">111,173</td> - <td class="tdr">3,592,247</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Total United Kingdom</td> - <td class="tdr bt bb">75,803</td> - <td class="tdr bt bb">283,191</td> - <td class="tdr bt bb">1,047,763</td> - <td class="tdr bt bb">1,338,093</td> - <td class="tdr bt bb">1,042,674</td> - <td class="tdr bt bb">984,914</td> - <td class="tdr bt bb">1,462,839</td> - <td class="tdr bt bb">239,825</td> - <td class="tdr bt bb">6,475,102</td> - </tr> - <tr class="top-pad"> - <td>All other countries of Europe</td> - <td class="tdr">43</td> - <td class="tdr">96</td> - <td class="tdr">165</td> - <td class="tdr">116</td> - <td class="tdr">210</td> - <td class="tdr">656</td> - <td class="tdr">10,318</td> - <td class="tdr">4,954</td> - <td class="tdr">16,548</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Total Europe</td> - <td class="tdr bt bb">98,816</td> - <td class="tdr bt bb">495,688</td> - <td class="tdr bt bb">1,597,502</td> - <td class="tdr bt bb">2,452,657</td> - <td class="tdr bt bb">2,064,407</td> - <td class="tdr bt bb">2,261,904</td> - <td class="tdr bt bb">4,721,602</td> - <td class="tdr bt bb"><a href="#Footnote_b" id="FNanchor_b">(b)</a>1,152,457</td> - <td class="tdr bt bb">14,845,038</td> - </tr> - <tr class="top-pad"> - <td>British North American Possessions</td> - <td class="tdr">2,277</td> - <td class="tdr">13,624</td> - <td class="tdr">41,723</td> - <td class="tdr">59,309</td> - <td class="tdr">153,871</td> - <td class="tdr">383,269</td> - <td class="tdr">392,802</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Footnote_c" id="FNanchor_c">(c)</a></td> - <td class="tdr">1,046,875</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Mexico</td> - <td class="tdr">4,817</td> - <td class="tdr">6,599</td> - <td class="tdr">3,271</td> - <td class="tdr">3,078</td> - <td class="tdr">2,191</td> - <td class="tdr">5,362</td> - <td class="tdr">1,913</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Footnote_c">(c)</a></td> - <td class="tdr">27,231</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Central America</td> - <td class="tdr">105</td> - <td class="tdr">44</td> - <td class="tdr">368</td> - <td class="tdr">449</td> - <td class="tdr">96</td> - <td class="tdr">210</td> - <td class="tdr">462</td> - <td class="tdr">576</td> - <td class="tdr">2,310</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>South America</td> - <td class="tdr">531</td> - <td class="tdr">856</td> - <td class="tdr">3,579</td> - <td class="tdr">1,224</td> - <td class="tdr">1,396</td> - <td class="tdr">928</td> - <td class="tdr">2,304</td> - <td class="tdr">1,344</td> - <td class="tdr">12,162</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>West Indies</td> - <td class="tdr">3,834</td> - <td class="tdr">12,301</td> - <td class="tdr">13,528</td> - <td class="tdr">10,660</td> - <td class="tdr">9,043</td> - <td class="tdr">13,957</td> - <td class="tdr">29,042</td> - <td class="tdr">5,673</td> - <td class="tdr">98,038</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Total America</td> - <td class="tdr bt">11,564</td> - <td class="tdr bt">33,424</td> - <td class="tdr bt">62,469</td> - <td class="tdr bt">74,720</td> - <td class="tdr bt">166,597</td> - <td class="tdr bt">403,726</td> - <td class="tdr bt">426,523</td> - <td class="tdr bt">7,593</td> - <td class="tdr bt">1,186,616</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="10" class="center">Alien Passengers from October 1, 1820, to - December 31, 1867, and Immigrants from January 1, 1868, to June 30, 1892.</td> - </tr> -</table> - -<div class="smaller"> - -<p id="Footnote_a"><a href="#FNanchor_a">(a)</a> Includes Wales and Great Britain not specified. According to William J. Bromwell’s <i>History of Emigration to the United States</i>, published in 1856 by Redfield -of New York, 1,000,000 of this number were from Ireland, which is probably accurate. During and after the Irish famine large numbers of Irish who could not find money -for the passage to the United States did find it possible to go to England to work in coal mines, factories, and in seasonal agricultural employment; the money secured from -which enabled them to embark for the United States from various English ports, which explains Bromwell’s estimate.</p> - -<p id="Footnote_b"><a href="#FNanchor_b">(b)</a> Includes 777 from Azores and 5 from Greenland.</p> - -<p id="Footnote_c"><a href="#FNanchor_c">(c)</a> Immigrants from British North American Possessions and Mexico are not included since July 1, 1885.</p> - -<p>Author’s Note: Official statistics of immigration to the United States began in 1819, so that statements as to the number of aliens arriving prior to that time are largely -guesswork.</p> - -<p>The “panic” of 1893 had the effect to turn the alien tide the other way—back to Europe. Official statistics as to aliens returning from the United States were not required -by law until 1908.</p> - -<p>The quarter of a century which has passed since the character of alien arrivals to the United States beginning in the forties, changed so markedly in the decade of 1880 -to 1890, is not long enough for accurate analysis of the economic, political and social influence on the United States of the coming of these newer races, so that the statistical -records here given do not extend beyond 1892.</p> - -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_30"></a>[30]</span></p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_31"></a>[31]</span></p> - -<h1>THE GIFT OF BLACK FOLK</h1> - -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_32"></a>[32]</span></p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_33"></a>[33]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="PRESCRIPT">PRESCRIPT</h2> - -</div> - -<p>Who made America? Who made this land that swings -its empire from the Atlantic to the Sea of Peace and from -Snow to Fire—this realm of New Freedom, with Opportunity -and Ideal unlimited?</p> - -<p>Now that its foundations are laid, deep but bare, there -are those as always who would forget the humble builders, -toiling wan mornings and blazing noons, and picture -America as the last reasoned blossom of mighty ancestors; -of those great and glorious world builders and rulers who -know and see and do all things forever and ever, amen! -How singular and blind! For the glory of the world is -the possibilities of the commonplace and America is -America even because it shows, as never before, the power -of the common, ordinary, unlovely man. This is real -democracy and not that vain and eternal striving to regard -the world as the abiding place of exceptional genius with -great black wastes of hereditary idiots.</p> - -<p>We who know may not forget but must forever spread -the splendid sordid truth that out of the most lowly and -persecuted of men, Man made America. And that what -Man has here begun with all its want and imperfection, -with all its magnificent promise and grotesque failure will -some day blossom in the souls of the Lowly.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_34"></a>[34]</span></p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_35"></a>[35]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I<br /> -<span class="smaller">THE BLACK EXPLORERS</span></h2> - -<p>How the Negro helped in the discovery of -America and gave his ancient customs to the -land.</p> - -</div> - -<p>Garcia de Montalvo published in 1510 a Spanish -romance which said: “Know ye that on the -right hand of the Indies there is an island called -California very near the Terrestrial Paradise -which is peopled with black women without any -men among them, because they were accustomed to -live after the fashion of the Amazons. They -were of strong and hardy bodies, of ardent courage -and of great force.”<a id="FNanchor_35" href="#Footnote_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a></p> - -<p>The legend that the Negro race had touched -America even before the day of Columbus rests -upon a certain basis of fact: First, the Negro -countenance, clear and unmistakable, occurs repeatedly -in Indian carvings, among the relics of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_36"></a>[36]</span> -the Mound Builders and in Mexican temples.<a id="FNanchor_36" href="#Footnote_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a> -Secondly, there are evidences of Negro customs -among the Indians in their religious worship; in -their methods of building defenses such as the -mounds probably were; and particularly in customs -of trade. Columbus said that he had been -told of a land southwest of the Cape Verde -Islands where the black folk had been trading and -had used in their trade the well known African -alloy of gold called guanin.<a id="FNanchor_37" href="#Footnote_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a></p> - -<p>“There can be no question whatever as to the -reality of the statement in regard to the presence -in America of the African pombeiros<a id="FNanchor_38" href="#Footnote_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a> previous to -Columbus because the guani is a Mandingo -word and the very alloy is of African origin. In -1501 a law was passed forbidding persons to sell -guanin to the Indians of Hispaniola.”<a id="FNanchor_39" href="#Footnote_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a></p> - -<p>Wiener thinks “The presence of Negroes with -their trading masters in America before Columbus -is proved by the representation of Negroes in<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_37"></a>[37]</span> -American sculpture and design, by the occurrence -of a black nation at Darien early in the 16th century, -but more specifically by Columbus’ emphatic -reference to Negro traders from Guinea, who -trafficked in a gold alloy, guanin, of precisely the -same composition and bearing the same name, as -frequently referred to by early writers in Africa.”<a id="FNanchor_40" href="#Footnote_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a></p> - -<p>And thirdly, many of the productions of America -which have hitherto been considered as indigenous -and brought into use especially by the Indians, may -easily have been African in origin, as for instance, -tobacco, cotton, sweet potatoes and peanuts. It -is quite possible that many if not all of these came -through the African Negro, being in some cases -indigenous to Negro Africa and in other cases -transmitted from the Arabs by the Negroes. Tobacco -particularly was known in Africa and is mentioned -in early America continually in connection -with the Negroes. All of these things were spread -in America along the same routes starting with -the mingling of Negroes and Indians in the West -Indies and coming up through Florida and on to -Canada. The Arawak Indians, who especially -show the effects of contact with Negroes, and -fugitive Negroes, together with Negroid Caribs, -migrated northward and it was they who led<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_38"></a>[38]</span> -Ponce de Leon to search for the Fountain Bimini -where old men became young.<a id="FNanchor_41" href="#Footnote_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a></p> - -<p>Oviedo says that the sweet potato “came with -that evil lot of Negroes and it has taken very well -and it is profitable and good sustenance for the -Negroes of whom there is a greater number than -is necessary on account of their rebellions.”<a id="FNanchor_42" href="#Footnote_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a> In -the same way maize and sugar cane may have been -imported from Africa.</p> - -<p>Further than this the raising of bread roots, -manioc, yam and sweet potatoes may have come -to America from Guinea by way of Brazil. From -Brazil the culture of these crops spread and many -of the words referring to them are of undoubted -African origin.</p> - -<p>Negroes probably reached the eastern part of -South America from the West Indies while others -from the same source went north along the roads -marked by the Mound Builders as far as Canada.</p> - -<p>“The chief cultural influence of the Negro in -America was exerted by a Negro colony in Mexico, -most likely from Teotihuacan and Tuxtla, who -may have been instrumental in establishing the city -of Mexico. From here their influence pervaded<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_39"></a>[39]</span> -the neighboring tribes and ultimately, directly or -indirectly, reached Peru.”<a id="FNanchor_43" href="#Footnote_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a></p> - -<p>The mounds of the “Mound Builders” were -probably replicas of Negro forts in Africa. “That -this tendency to build forts and stockades proceeded -from the Antilles, whence the Arawaks had -come in the beginning of the sixteenth century, is -proved by the presence of similar works in Cuba. -These are found in the most abandoned and least-explored -part of the island and there can be little -doubt that they were locations of fugitive Negro -and Indian stockades, precisely such as were in use -in Africa. It is not possible to prove the direct -participation of the Negroes in the fortifications -of the North American Indians, but as the civilizing -influence on the Indians to a great extent proceeded -from Cuba over Florida towards the -Huron Country in the north, the solution of the -question of the Mound Builders is to be looked for -in the perpetuation of Arawak or Carib methods, -acquired from the Negroes, as well attested by -Ovando’s complaint in 1503 that the Negroes -spoiled the manners of the Indians; and transferred -to the white traders, who not only adopted -the methods of the Indians, but frequently lived -among the Indians as part of them, especially in<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_40"></a>[40]</span> -Brazil where we have ample documentary evidence -of the fact.”<a id="FNanchor_44" href="#Footnote_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a></p> - -<p>All this is prehistoric and in part conjectural -and yet it seems reasonable to suppose that much -in custom, trade and religion which has been regarded -as characteristic of the American Indian -arose from strong Negro influences of the pre-Columbian -period.</p> - -<p>After the discovery of America by Columbus -many Negroes came with the early explorers. -Many of these early black men were civilized -Christians and sprung from the large numbers of -Negroes imported into Spain and Portugal during -the fifteenth century, where they replaced as -laborers the expelled Moors. Afterward came -the mass of slaves brought by the direct African -slave trade.</p> - -<p>From the beginning of the fifteenth century -mention of the Negro in America becomes frequent. -In 1501 they were permitted to enter the -colonies; in 1503 the Governor of Hispaniola -sought to prohibit their transportation to America -because they fled to the Indians and taught them -bad manners. By 1506 they were coming again -because the work of one Negro was worth more -than that of four Indians. In 1518 the new sugar -culture in Spain and the Canary Islands began<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_41"></a>[41]</span> -to be transferred to the West Indies and Negroes -were required as laborers. In 1521 Negroes were -not to be used on errands because they incited -Indians to rebellion and the following year they -rose in rebellion on Diego Columbus’ mill. In -1540, in Quivera, Mexico, there was a Negro -priest and in 1542 there were at Guamango, -Mexico, three Brotherhoods of the True Cross of -Spaniards, one of which was of Negroes and one -of Indians.</p> - -<p>Thus the Negro is seen not only entering as a -laborer but becoming a part of the civilization of -the New World. Helps says: “Very early in the -history of the American Continent there are circumstances -to show that Negroes were gradually -entering into that part of the New World. They -constantly appear at remarkable points in the -narrative. When the Marquis Pizarro had been -slain by the conspirators, his body was dragged -to the Cathedral by two Negroes. The murdered -Factor, Illan Suarez, was buried by Negroes and -Indians. After the battle of Anaquito, the head -of the unfortunate Viceroy, Blasco Nunez Vela, -was cut off by a Negro. On the outbreak of the -great earthquake at Guatemala, the most remarkable -figure in that night’s terrors was a gigantic -Negro, who was seen in many parts of the city, -and who assisted no one, however much he was<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_42"></a>[42]</span> -implored. In the narrative of the return of Las -Casas to his diocese, it has been seen that he was -attended by a Negro. And many other instances -might be adduced, showing that, in the decade -from 1535 to 1545, Negroes had come to form -part of the household of the wealthier colonists. -At the same time, in the West Indian Islands -which had borne the first shock of the conquest, -and where the Indians had been more swiftly destroyed, -the Negroes were beginning to form the -bulk of the population; and the licenses for importation -were steadily increasing in number.”<a id="FNanchor_45" href="#Footnote_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a></p> - -<p>Continually they appear with the explorers. -Nuflo de Olana, a Negro, was with Balboa when -he discovered the Pacific Ocean,<a id="FNanchor_46" href="#Footnote_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a> and afterward -thirty Negroes helped Balboa direct the work of -over 500 Indians in transporting the material for -his ships across the mountains to the South Sea.<a id="FNanchor_47" href="#Footnote_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a></p> - -<p>Cortes carried Negroes and Indians with him -from Cuba to Mexico and one of these Negroes -was the first to sow and reap grain in Mexico. -There were two Negroes with Velas in 1520 and -200 black slaves with Alvarado on his desperate -expedition to Quito. Almagro and Valdivia in -1525 were saved from death by Negroes.<a id="FNanchor_48" href="#Footnote_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_43"></a>[43]</span></p> - -<p>As early as 1528 there were about 10,000 Negroes -in the New World. We hear of one sent as -an agent of the Spanish to burn a native village in -Honduras. In 1539 they accompanied De Soto -and one of them stayed among the Indians in Alabama -and became the first settler from the old -world. In 1555 in Santiago de Chile a free Negro -owns land in the town. Menendez had a company -of trained Negro artisans and agriculturalists -when he founded St. Augustine in 1565 and in -1570 Negroes founded the town of Santiago del -Principe.</p> - -<p>In most of these cases probably leadership and -initiative on the part of the early Negro pioneers -in America was only spasmodic or a matter of -accident. But this was not always true and there -is one well-known case which, despite the propaganda -of 400 years, survives as a clear and important -instance of Negro leadership in exploration. -This is the romantic story of Stephen -Dorantes or as he is usually called, Estevanico, -who sailed from Spain in 1527 with the expedition -of Panfilo de Narvaez.<a id="FNanchor_49" href="#Footnote_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a> This fleet of five<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_44"></a>[44]</span> -vessels and 600 colonists and soldiers started from -Cuba and landed in Tampa Bay in 1582. But disaster -followed disaster until at last there were but -four survivors of whom one was Estevanico “an -Arab Negro from Azamor on the Atlantic coast -of Morocco”; he is elsewhere described as “black” -and a “person of intelligence.” Besides him there -was his master Dorantes and two other Spaniards, -de Vaca and Maldonado.<a id="FNanchor_50" href="#Footnote_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a> For six years these -men maintained themselves by practicing medicine -among the Indians, and were the first to reach -Mexico from Florida by the overland route.</p> - -<p>Estevanico and de Vaca went forward to meet -the outposts of the Spaniards established in -Mexico. Estevanico returned with an escort and -brought on the other two men. The four then -went west to the present Mexican cities, Chihuahua -and Sonora and reached Culiacan, the capital -of the state of Sinaloa, in April, 1536.</p> - -<p>Coronado was governor of Sinaloa and on -hearing the story of the wanderers, he immediately -hastened with them to the viceroy, Mendoza, -in the city of Mexico. They told the viceroy not -only of their own adventures but what they had -heard of the rich lands toward the North and of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_45"></a>[45]</span> -the cities with houses four and five stories high -which were really the Pueblos of New Mexican -Indians. Mendoza was eager to explore these -lands. He had already heard something about -them and he and Cortes had planned to make the -exploration together but could not agree upon -terms. Cortes therefore hurried to fit out a small -fleet in 1537. He took 400 Spaniards and 300 -Negroes, sailed up the Gulf of California and -called the country “California”. He then returned -to Spain for the last time.</p> - -<p>Meantime, de Vaca and Maldonado after several -unsuccessful attempts also went to Spain -leaving Dorantes and Estevanico. Dorantes refused -to take part in the proposed expedition to the -North but sold his slave Estevanico to Mendoza. -Certain Franciscan Monks joined the expedition -and Fray Marcos de Niza became the leader, -having already had some experience in exploration -in Peru. Estevanico, because of his knowledge of -the Indian language and especially of the sign language, -was the guide, and the party started North -for what the viceroy dreamed were the Seven -Cities of Cibola. They left March 7th, 1539, -and arrived at Vacapa in central Sinaloa on the 21st. -Fray Marcos, probably from timidity, sent Estevanico -on ahead with an escort of Indians whom<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_46"></a>[46]</span> -he could send back as messengers.<a id="FNanchor_51" href="#Footnote_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a> The Negro -marked his journey by large wooden crosses and in -this way with Estevanico far ahead they traveled -for two weeks until suddenly Fray Marcos was -met by a fleeing band of badly frightened Indians -who told him that Estevanico had reached Cibola -and had been killed. Fray Marcos named the -country “El Nuevo Reyno de San Francisco” but -being himself scared, distributed among the Indians -everything which his party had in their -packs, except the vestments for saying Mass, and -traveling by double marches, returned to Mexico.</p> - -<p>Meantime let us follow the adventure of Estevanico: -Knowing how much depended upon -appearance in that unknown and savage land, -Estevanico traveled in magnificence, decorated -with bells and feathers and carrying a symbolic -gourd which was recognized among the Indian -tribes thereabouts as a symbol of authority. When -he reached the Pueblos, the Indian chiefs were in a -quandary. First of all they recognized in Estevanico’s -retinue, numbers of their ancient Indian -enemies. Secondly, they were frightened because -Estevanico informed them “that two white men -were coming behind him who had been sent by a -great Lord and knew about the things in the sky<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_47"></a>[47]</span> -and that they were coming to instruct them in -divine matters.” They had good reason to fear -that this meant the onslaught of some powerful -enemy. And, moreover, they were puzzled because -this black man came as a representative of -white men: “The Lord of Cibola, inquiring of him -whether he had other brethren, he answered that -he had an infinite number and that they had a great -store of weapons with them and that they were -not very far thence. When they heard this, many -of the chief men consulted together and resolved -to kill him that he might not give news unto -these brethren where they dwelt<a id="FNanchor_52" href="#Footnote_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a> and that for -this cause they slew him and cut him into many -pieces, which were divided among all the chief -Lords that they might know assuredly that he was -dead....”</p> - -<p>This climax is still told in a legend current -among the Zuni Indians today: “It is to be believed -that a long time ago, when roofs lay over -the walls of Kya-ki-me, when smoke hung over the -housetops, and the ladder rounds were still unbroken -in Kya-ki-me, then the black Mexicans -came from their abodes in Everlasting Summer-land. -One day, unexpectedly, out of Hemlock -Canon they came, and descended to Kya-ki-me.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_48"></a>[48]</span> -But when they said they would enter the covered -way, it seems that our ancients looked not gently -at them; for with these black Mexicans came -many Indians of So-no-li, as they call it now, ... -who were enemies of our ancients. Therefore, -these our ancients, being always bad-tempered, and -quick to anger, made fools of themselves after -their fashion, rushing into their town and out of -their town, shouting, skipping and shooting with -their sling-stones and arrows and tossing their -war-clubs. Then the Indians of So-no-li set up a -great howl, and thus they and our ancients did -much ill to one another. Then and thus was killed -by our ancients, right where the stone stands down -by the arroyo of Kya-ki-me, one of the black -Mexicans, a large man with chilli lips [i. e., lips -swollen from eating chilli peppers] and some of -the Indians they killed, catching others. Then -the rest ran away, chased by our grandfathers, -and went back toward their country in the Land -of Everlasting Summer....”<a id="FNanchor_53" href="#Footnote_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a></p> - -<p>The village reached by Estevanico was Hawi-kih -as it was called by the Indians and Grenada -as the Spaniards named it. It is fifteen miles -southwest of the present village of Zuni and is -thus within New Mexico and east of the boundary<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_49"></a>[49]</span> -between New Mexico and Arizona. Thus Estevanico -was the first European to discover Arizona -and New Mexico. Fray Marcos returned with -Coronado and came as far as the village in 1540 -while Mendoza sent others to pursue explorations -that same year within the present confines of -Arizona and they brought back various stories of -the death of Estevanico.</p> - -<p>After that for 40 years explorations rested -until 1582 when again the Spaniards entered the -territory. With all the Spanish explorers in -Florida, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and Kansas, -there were Negro slaves and helpers but none -with the initiative, perseverance and success of -Estevanico.</p> - -<p>In the after pioneering that took place in later -days in the great western wilderness, the Negro -was often present. There was a black man with -Lewis and Clark in 1804; Jacob Dodson, a free -Negro of Washington, volunteered to accompany -Fremont in his California expedition of 1843. -He was among the 25 persons selected by Fremont -to accompany him in the discovery of Clamath -Lake and also in his ride from Los Angeles to -Monterey. Among the early settlers of California -coming up from Mexico were many Negroes -and mulattoes.<a id="FNanchor_54" href="#Footnote_54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_50"></a>[50]</span></p> - -<p>William Alexander Leidsdroff was the most -distinguished Negro pioneer of California and at -one time lived in the largest house in San Francisco. -He owned the first steamship sailing in -San Francisco Bay, and was a prominent business -man, a member of the City Council and treasurer -and member of the school committee. H. H. -Bancroft says: “William Alexander Leidsdroff, a -native of Danish West Indies, son of a Dane by a -mulattress, who came to the United States as a -boy and became a master of vessels sailing between -New York and New Orleans, came to California -as manager of the ‘Julia Ann,’ on which he -made later trips to the Islands, down to 1845.” -His correspondence from 1845, when he became -United States Vice-Consul is a valuable source of -historical information. Many Negroes came in -the rush of the “forty-niners” as pioneers and -miners as well as slaves.</p> - -<p>The Negro’s work as a pioneer extends down -until our day. The late Commodore Peary who -discovered the North Pole said: “Matthew A. -Henson, my Negro assistant, has been with me in -one capacity or another since my second trip to -Nicaragua in 1887. I have taken him on each and -all of my expeditions, except the first, and also -without exception on each of my farthest sledge -trips. This position I have given him primarily<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_51"></a>[51]</span> -because of his adaptability and fitness for the -work, and secondly on account of his loyalty. He -is a better dog driver and can handle a sledge -better than any man living, except some of the -best Esquimo hunters themselves.” This leaves -Henson today as the only living human being who -has stood at the North Pole.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_52"></a>[52]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II<br /> -<span class="smaller">BLACK LABOR</span></h2> - -<p>How the Negro gave his brawn and brain to -fell the forests, till the soil and make America a -rich and prosperous land.</p> - -</div> - -<p>The primary reason for the presence of the -black man in America was, of course, his labor -and much has been written of the influence of -slavery as established by the Portuguese, Spanish, -Dutch and English. Most writers have written -of slavery as a moral and economic evil or of the -worker, white and black, as a victim of this system. -In this chapter, however, let us think of the -slave as a laborer, as one who furnished the -original great labor force of the new world and -differed from modern labor only in the wages received, -the political and civil rights enjoyed, and -the cultural surroundings from which he was -taken.</p> - -<p>Negro labor has played a peculiar and important -part in the history of the modern world. -The black man was the pioneer in the hard physical -work which began the reduction of the American<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_53"></a>[53]</span> -wilderness and which not only hastened the -economic development of America directly but -indirectly released for other employment, thousands -of white men and thus enabled America to -grow economically and spiritually at a rate previously -unparalleled anywhere in history. It was -black labor that established the modern world -commerce which began first as a commerce in the -bodies of the slaves themselves and was the primary -cause of the prosperity of the first great -commercial cities of our day. Then black labor -was thrown into the production of four great -crops—tobacco, sugar, rice and cotton. These -crops were not new but their production on a -large cheap scale was new and had a special significance -because they catered to the demands of -the masses of men and thus made possible an -interchange of goods such as the luxury trade of -the Middle Ages catering to the rich could not -build. Black labor, therefore, beneath these crops -became an important part of the Industrial Revolution -of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.</p> - -<p>Moreover the black slave brought into common -labor certain new spiritual values not yet -fully realized. As a tropical product with a sensuous -receptivity to the beauty of the world he -was not as easily reduced to be the mechanical -draft-horse which the northern European laborer<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_54"></a>[54]</span> -became. He was not easily brought to recognize -any ethical sanctions in work as such but tended -to work as the results pleased him and refused to -work or sought to refuse when he did not find -the spiritual returns adequate; thus he was easily -accused of laziness and driven as a slave when -in truth he brought to modern manual labor a renewed -valuation of life.</p> - -<p>The Negro worked as farm hand and peasant -proprietor, as laborer, artisan and inventor and -as servant in the house, and without him, America -as we know it, would have been impossible.</p> - -<p>The numerical growth of the Negro population -in America indicates his economic importance. -The exact number of slaves exported to -America will never be known. Probably 25,000 -Negroes a year arrived in America between 1698 -and 1707. After 1713 this rose to 30,000 and -by 1775 to over 40,000 a year. The American -Revolution stopped the trade, but it was revived -afterward and reached enormous proportions. -One estimate is that a million Negroes came in -the sixteenth century, three million in the seventeenth, -seven million in the eighteenth and four -million in the nineteenth or fifteen million in all. -Certainly at least ten million came and this meant -sixty million killed and stolen in Africa because -of the methods of capture and the horror of the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_55"></a>[55]</span> -middle passage. This, with the Asiatic trade, -cost black Africa a hundred million souls.<a id="FNanchor_55" href="#Footnote_55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a> Bancroft -places the total slave population of the continental -colonies at 59,000 in 1714, 78,000 in -1727, and 293,000 in 1754.</p> - -<p>In the West Indies the whole laboring population -early became Negro or Negro with an infiltration -of Indian and white blood. In the -United States at the beginning of our independent -national existence, Negroes formed a fifth of -the population of the whole nation. The exact -figures are:<a id="FNanchor_56" href="#Footnote_56" class="fnanchor">[56]</a></p> - -<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Percentage Negro in the Population</span></p> - -<table summary="Percentage Negro in the population in each decade"> - <tr> - <th></th> - <th>United States</th> - <th>South</th> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>1920</td> - <td class="tdr">9.9</td> - <td class="tdr">26.1</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>1910</td> - <td class="tdr">10.7</td> - <td class="tdr">29.8</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>1900</td> - <td class="tdr">11.6</td> - <td class="tdr">32.3</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>1890</td> - <td class="tdr">11.9</td> - <td class="tdr">33.8</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>1880</td> - <td class="tdr">13.1</td> - <td class="tdr">36.0</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>1870</td> - <td class="tdr">12.7</td> - <td class="tdr">36.0</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>1860</td> - <td class="tdr">14.1</td> - <td class="tdr">36.8</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>1850</td> - <td class="tdr">15.7</td> - <td class="tdr">37.3</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>1840</td> - <td class="tdr">16.8</td> - <td class="tdr">38.0</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>1830</td> - <td class="tdr">18.1</td> - <td class="tdr">37.9<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_56"></a>[56]</span></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>1820</td> - <td class="tdr">18.4</td> - <td class="tdr">37.2</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>1810</td> - <td class="tdr">19.0</td> - <td class="tdr">36.7</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>1800</td> - <td class="tdr">18.9</td> - <td class="tdr">35.0</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>1790</td> - <td class="tdr">19.3</td> - <td class="tdr">35.2</td> - </tr> -</table> - -<p>If we consider the number of Negroes for each -1,000 whites, we have:</p> - -<table summary="Number of Negroes per 1,000 whites in each decade"> - <tr> - <th></th> - <th>United States</th> - <th>South</th> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>1920</td> - <td class="tdr">110</td> - <td class="tdr">369</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>1910</td> - <td class="tdr">120</td> - <td class="tdr">426</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>1900</td> - <td class="tdr">132</td> - <td class="tdr">480</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>1890</td> - <td class="tdr">136</td> - <td class="tdr">512</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>1880</td> - <td class="tdr">152</td> - <td class="tdr">564</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>1870</td> - <td class="tdr">145</td> - <td class="tdr">562</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>1860</td> - <td class="tdr">165</td> - <td class="tdr">582</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>1850</td> - <td class="tdr">186</td> - <td class="tdr">595</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>1840</td> - <td class="tdr">203</td> - <td class="tdr">613</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>1830</td> - <td class="tdr">221</td> - <td class="tdr">610</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>1820</td> - <td class="tdr">225</td> - <td class="tdr">592</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>1810</td> - <td class="tdr">235</td> - <td class="tdr">579</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>1800</td> - <td class="tdr">233</td> - <td class="tdr">539</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>1790</td> - <td class="tdr">239</td> - <td class="tdr">543</td> - </tr> -</table> - -<p>The proportion of Negroes in the North was -small, falling from 3.4% in 1790 to 1.8% in -1910. Nevertheless even here the indirect influence<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_57"></a>[57]</span> -of the Negro worker was large. The -trading colonies, New England and New York, -built up a lucrative commerce based largely on -the results of his toil in the South and in the -West Indies, and this commerce supported local -agriculture and manufacture. I have said in my -<i>Suppression of the Slave Trade</i>: “Vessels from -Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and, -to a less extent from New Hampshire, were early -and largely engaged in the carrying slave-trade. -‘We know,’ said Thomas Pemberton in 1795, -‘that a large trade to Guinea was carried on for -many years by the citizens of Massachusetts -Colony, who were the proprietors of the vessels -and their cargoes, out and home. Some of the -slaves purchased in Guinea, and I suppose the -greatest part of them, were sold in the West -Indies.’ Dr. John Eliot asserted that ‘it made -a considerable branch of our commerce.... -It declined very little until the Revolution.’ Yet -the trade of this colony was said not to equal -that of Rhode Island. Newport was the mart -for slaves offered for sale in the North, and a -point of reshipment for all slaves. It was principally -this trade that raised Newport to her -commercial importance in the eighteenth century. -Connecticut, too, was an important slave-trader,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_58"></a>[58]</span> -sending large numbers of horses and other commodities -to the West Indies in exchange for slaves, -and selling the slaves in other colonies.</p> - -<p>“This trade formed a perfect circle. Owners -of slavers carried slaves to South Carolina, and -brought home naval stores for their ship-building; -or to the West Indies and brought home -molasses; or to other colonies, and brought home -hogsheads. The molasses was made into the -highly prized New England rum, and shipped in -these hogsheads to Africa for more slaves. Thus -the rum-distilling industry indicated to some extent -the activity of New England in the slave-trade. -In May, 1752, one Captain Freeman -found so many slavers fitting out that, in spite -of the large importations of molasses, he could -get no rum for his vessel. In Newport alone -twenty-two stills were at one time running continuously; -and Massachusetts annually distilled -15,000 hogsheads of molasses into this ‘chief -manufacture.’”<a id="FNanchor_57" href="#Footnote_57" class="fnanchor">[57]</a></p> - -<p>In New York and New Jersey Negroes formed -between 7 and 8% of the total population in 1790, -which meant that they were probably 25% of the -labor force of those colonies, especially on the -farms.</p> - -<p>The growth of the great slave crops shows the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_59"></a>[59]</span> -increasing economic value of Negro labor. In -1619, 20,000 pounds of tobacco went from Virginia -to England. Just before the Revolutionary -War, 100 million pounds a year were being sent, -and at the beginning of the twentieth century, 800 -millions were raised in the United States alone. -Sugar was a luxury for the rich and physicians -until the eighteenth century, when it began to pour -out of the West Indies. By the middle of the -nineteenth century a million tons of cane sugar -were raised each year and this had increased to -nearly 3 millions in 1900. The cotton crop rose -correspondingly. England, the chief customer at -first, consumed 13,000 bales in 1781, 572,000 in -1820, 871,000 in 1830 and 3,366,000 in 1860. -The United States raised 6 million bales in 1880, -and at the beginning of the twentieth century -raised 11 million bales annually.</p> - -<p>This tremendous increase in crops which formed -a large part of modern commerce was due primarily -to black labor. At first most of this labor -was brute toil of the lowest sort. Our estimate -of the value of this work and what it has done -for America depends largely upon our estimate -of the value of such toil. It must be confessed -that, measured in wages and in public esteem, -such work stands low in America and in the civilized -world. On the other hand the fact that it<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_60"></a>[60]</span> -does stand so low constitutes one of the greatest -problems of social advance. Hard manual labor, -and much of it of a disagreeable sort, must for -a long time lie at the basis of civilized life. We -are continually transmitting some of it to machines, -but the residuum remains large. In an -ideal society it would be highly-paid work because -of its unpleasantness and necessity; and even today, -no matter what we may say of the individual -worker or of the laboring class, we know that the -foundation of America is built on the backs of -the manual laborer.</p> - -<p>This was particularly true in the earlier centuries. -The problem of America in the fifteenth -and sixteenth centuries was the problem of manual -labor. It was settled by importing white bond -servants from Europe, and black servants from -Africa, and compelling the American Indians to -work. Indian slavery failed to play any great -part because the comparatively small number of -Indians in the West Indies were rapidly killed -off by the unaccustomed toil or mingled their blood -and pooled their destinies with the Negroes. On -the continent, on the other hand, the Indians were -too powerful, both in numbers and organization, -to be successfully enslaved. The white bond -servants and the Negroes therefore became the -main laboring force of the new world and with<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_61"></a>[61]</span> -their toil the economic development of the continent -began.</p> - -<p>There arose a series of special laws to determine -the status of laborers which became the basis -of the great slave codes. As the free European -white artisans poured in, these labor codes gradually -came to distinguish between slavery based -on race and free labor. The slave codes greatly -weakened the family ties and largely destroyed -the family as a center of government or of economic -organization. They made the plantation -the center of economic life and left more or less -religious autonomy. They provided punishment -by physical torture, death or sale, but they always -left some minimum of incentive by which the slave -could have the beginnings of private possession.</p> - -<p>In this way the economic organization was provided -by which the middle classes of the world -were supplied with a cheap sweetening material -derived from sugar cane; a cheap luxury, tobacco; -larger quantities of rice; and finally, and above -all, a cheap and universal material for clothing, -cotton. These were things that all men wanted -who had anything to offer in labor or materials -for the satisfaction of their wants. The cost of -raising them was a labor cost almost entirely because -land in America was at that time endless in -fertility and extent. The old world trade therefore<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_62"></a>[62]</span> -which sought luxuries in clothing, precious -metal and stones, spices, etc., for the rich, transformed -itself to a world-wide trade in necessities -incomparably richer and bigger than its medieval -predecessor because of its enormous basis of demand. -Its first appearance was in the slave trade -where the demand for the new American crops -showed itself in a demand for the labor necessary -to raise them; thus the slave trade itself was at -the bottom of the rise of great commerce, and -the beginning of modern international commerce. -This trade stimulated invention and was stimulated -by it. The wellbeing of European workers -increased and their minds were stimulated. Economic -and political revolution followed, to which -America fell heir. New immigrants poured in. -New conceptions of religion, government and -work arose and at the bottom of it all and one of -its efficient causes was the toil of the increasing -millions of black slaves.</p> - -<p>As the nation developed this slave labor became -confined more and more to the raising of -cotton, although sugar continued to be the chief -crop in the West Indies and Louisiana, and rice -on the southeast coast and tobacco in Virginia. -This world importance of cotton brought an economic -crisis: Rich land in America, adapted to -slave methods of culture, was becoming limited,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_63"></a>[63]</span> -and must either be increased or slavery would die -an economic death. On the other hand, beside -the plantation hands, there had grown up a large -class of Negro servants and laborers who were -distributed both north and south. These laborers -in particular came into competition with the white -laborer and especially the new immigrants. This -and other economic causes led to riots in Philadelphia, -New York and Cincinnati and a growing -conviction on the part of a newly enfranchised -white workingmen that one great obstacle in -America was slave labor, together with the necessarily -low status of the freedmen. These economic -reasons overthrew slavery.<a id="FNanchor_58" href="#Footnote_58" class="fnanchor">[58]</a></p> - -<p>After the legal disappearance of slavery its -natural results remained in the mass of freedmen -who had been trained in the necessary ignorance -and inefficiency of slave labor. On such a foundation -it was easy to build and emphasize race -prejudice. On the other hand, however, there was -still plenty of work for even the ignorant and careless -working man, so that the Negro continued to -raise cotton and the other great crops and to do -throughout the country the work of the unskilled -laborer and the servant. He continued to be the -main laboring force of the South in industrial -lines and began to invade the North.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_64"></a>[64]</span></p> - -<p>His full power as a labor reservoir was not -seen until the transformation of the World War. -In a few short months 500,000 black laborers -came North to fill the void made by the stoppage -of immigration and the rush of white working -men into the munitions industry. This was simply -a foretaste of what will continue to happen. -The Negro still is the mightiest single group of -labor force in the United States. As this labor -grows more intelligent, self-conscious and efficient, -it will turn to higher and higher grades of work -and it will reinforce the workingman’s point of -view.<a id="FNanchor_59" href="#Footnote_59" class="fnanchor">[59]</a></p> - -<p>It must not be assumed, however, that the labor -of the Negro has been simply the muscle-straining -unintelligent work of the lowest grade. On -the contrary he has appeared both as personal -servant, skilled laborer and inventor. That the -Negroes of colonial times were not all ignorant -savages is shown by the advertisements concerning -them. Continually runaway slaves are described -as speaking very good English; sometimes -as speaking not only English but Dutch and -French. Some could read and write and play -musical instruments. Others were blacksmiths, -limeburners, bricklayers and cobblers. Others<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_65"></a>[65]</span> -were noted as having considerable sums of -money.<a id="FNanchor_60" href="#Footnote_60" class="fnanchor">[60]</a> In the early days in the South the whole -conduct of the house was in the hands of the -Negro house servant; as butler, cook, nurse, -valet and maid, the Negro conducted family life.</p> - -<p>Thus by social contact and mingling of blood -the Negro house servant became closely identified -with the civilization of the South and contributed -to it in many ways. For a long time -before emancipation the house servant had been -pushing steadily upward; in many cases he had -learned to read and write despite the law. Sometimes -he had entered the skilled trades and was -enabled by hiring his time to earn money of his -own and in rare cases to buy his own freedom. -Sometimes he was freed and sent North and given -money and land; but even when he was in the -South and in the family and an ambitious menial, -he influenced the language and the imagination -of his masters; the children were nursed at the -breast of black women, and in daily intercourse -the master was thrown in the company of Negroes -more often than in the company of white people.</p> - -<p>From this servile work there went a natural -development. The private cook became the public -cook in boarding houses, and restaurant keeper. -The butler became the caterer; the “Black Mammy”<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_66"></a>[66]</span> -became the nurse, and the work of all these -in their various lines was of great influence. The -cooks and caterers led and developed the art of -good-eating throughout the South and particularly -in cities like New Orleans and Charleston; -and in northern cities like Philadelphia and New -York their methods of cooking chicken and terrapin, -their invention of ice cream and their general -good taste set a standard which has seldom been -surpassed in the world. Moreover, it gave economic -independence to numbers of Negroes. It -enabled them to educate their children and it furnished -to the abolition movement a class of educated -colored people with some money who were -able to help. After emancipation these descendants -of the house servant became the leading class -of American Negroes. Notwithstanding the social -stigma connected with menial service and still -lingering there, partially because slaves and freedmen -were so closely connected with it, it is without -doubt one of the most important of the Negro’s -gifts to America.</p> - -<p>During the existence of slavery all credit for -inventions was denied the Negro slave as a -slave could not take out a patent. Nevertheless -Negroes did most of the mechanical work in the -South before the Civil War and more than one -suggestion came from them for improving machinery.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_67"></a>[67]</span> -We are told that in Virginia: “The -county records of the seventeenth century reveal -the presence of many Negro mechanics in the -colony during that period, this being especially -the case with carpenters and coopers.”<a id="FNanchor_61" href="#Footnote_61" class="fnanchor">[61]</a></p> - -<p>As example of slave mechanics it is stated that -among the slaves of the first Robert Beverly was -a carpenter valued at £30, and that Ralph Wormeley, -of Middlesex county, owned a cooper and a -carpenter each valued at £35. Colonel William -Byrd mentions the use of Negroes in iron mining -in 1732. In New Jersey slaves were employed -as miners, ironworkers, sawmill hands, house and -ship carpenters, wheelwrights, coopers, tanners, -shoemakers, millers and bakers, among other employments, -before the Revolutionary War. As -early as 1708 there were enough slave mechanics -in Pennsylvania to make the freemen feel their -competition severely. In Massachusetts and other -states we hear of an occasional artisan.<a id="FNanchor_62" href="#Footnote_62" class="fnanchor">[62]</a></p> - -<p>During the early part of the nineteenth century -the Negro artisans increased. The Spanish Governor -Salcedo, early in the nineteenth century, in -trying to keep the province of Louisiana loyal to -Spain, made the militia officers swear allegiance -and among them were two companies of colored<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_68"></a>[68]</span> -men from New Orleans “who composed all the -mechanics which the city possessed.”<a id="FNanchor_63" href="#Footnote_63" class="fnanchor">[63]</a></p> - -<p>Later, black refugees from San Domingo saved -Louisiana from economic ruin. Formerly, Louisiana -had had prosperous sugar-makers; but these -industries had been dead for nearly twenty-five -years when the attempt to market sugar was revived. -Two Spaniards erected near New Orleans, -a distillery and a battery of sugar kettles -and began to manufacture rum and syrup. They -had little success until Etienne de Boré, a colored -San Dominican, appeared. “Face to face with ruin -because of the failure of the indigo crop, he staked -his all on the granulation of sugar. He enlisted -the services of these successful San Dominicans -and went to work. In all American history there -can be fewer scenes more dramatic than the one -described by careful historians of Louisiana, the -day when the final test was made and the electrical -word was passed around, ‘It granulates!’”</p> - -<p>De Boré sold $12,000 worth of sugar that year. -Agriculture in the Delta began to flourish and -seven years later New Orleans was selling 2,000,000 -gallons of rum, 250,000 gallons of molasses -and 5,000,000 pounds of sugar. It was the beginning -of the commercial reign of one of the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_69"></a>[69]</span> -great commercial cities of America and it started -with the black refugees from San Domingo.<a id="FNanchor_64" href="#Footnote_64" class="fnanchor">[64]</a></p> - -<p>In the District of Columbia many “were superior -mechanics.” Olmsted, in his journeys -through the slave states just before the Civil War, -found slave artisans in all the states. In Virginia -they worked in tobacco factories, ran steamboats, -made barrels, etc. On a South Carolina plantation -he was told by the master that the Negro -mechanic “exercised as much skill and ingenuity -as the ordinary mechanics that he was used to -employ in New England.” In Charleston and -some other places they were employed in cotton -factories. In Alabama he saw a black carpenter—careful -and accurate calculator and excellent -workman; he was bought for $2,000. In Louisiana -he was told that master mechanics often -bought up slave mechanics and acted as contractors. -In Kentucky the slaves worked in factories -for hemp-bagging, and in iron work on the Cumberland -river, and also in tobacco factories. In -the newspapers advertisements for runaway mechanics -were often seen, as, for instance a blacksmith -in Texas, “very smart”; a mason in Virginia, -etc. In Mobile an advertisement read<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_70"></a>[70]</span> -“good blacksmiths and horseshoers for sale on -reasonable terms.”<a id="FNanchor_65" href="#Footnote_65" class="fnanchor">[65]</a></p> - -<p>Such men naturally showed inventive genius, -here and there. There is a strong claim that the -real credit for the invention of the cotton gin -is due to a Negro on the plantation where Eli -Whitney worked. Negroes early invented devices -for handling sails, corn harvesters, and an evaporating -pan for refining sugar. In the United States -patent office there is a record of 1500 inventions -made by Negroes and this is only a part of those -that should be credited to Negroes as the race of -the inventor is not usually recorded.</p> - -<p>In 1846 Norbert Rillieux, a colored man of -Louisiana, invented and patented a Vacuum pan -which revolutionized the method of refining sugar. -He was a machinist and engineer of fine reputation, -and devised a system of sewerage for New -Orleans which the city refused to accept because -of his color.</p> - -<p>Sydney W. Winslow, president of the United -Shoe Machinery Company, laid the foundation of -his great organization by the purchase of an invention -by a native of Dutch Guiana named Jan E. -Matzeliger. Matzeliger was the son of a Negro -woman and her husband, a Dutch engineer. He<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_71"></a>[71]</span> -came to America as a young man and worked as -a cobbler in Philadelphia and Lynn. He died in -1889 before he had realized the value of his -invention.</p> - -<p>Matzeliger invented a machine for lasting -shoes. It held the shoe on the last, gripped and -pulled the leather down around the sole and heel, -guided and drove the nails into place and released -a completed shoe from the machine. This patent -was bought by Mr. Winslow and on it was built -the great United Shoe Machinery Company, which -now has a capital stock of more than twenty -million dollars, and employs over 5,000 operatives -in factories covering 20 acres of ground. This -business enterprise is one of the largest in our -country’s industrial development. Since the formation -of this company in 1890, the product of -American shoe factories has increased from -$200,000,000 to $552,631,000, and the exportation -of American shoes from $1,000,000 to -$11,000,000. This development is due to the -superiority of the shoes produced by machines -founded on the original Matzeliger type.<a id="FNanchor_66" href="#Footnote_66" class="fnanchor">[66]</a> The -cost of shoes has been cut in half, the quality -greatly improved, the wages of workers increased,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_72"></a>[72]</span> -the hours of labor diminished, and all these factors -have made “the Americans the best shod -people in the world.”</p> - -<p>After Matzeliger’s death his Negro blood was -naturally often denied, but in the shoe-making districts -the Matzeliger type of machine is still referred -to as the “Nigger machine”; or the -“Niggerhead” machine; and “A certified copy of -the death certificate of Matzeliger, which was -furnished the writer by William J. Connery, -Mayor of Lynn, on October 23rd, 1912, states -that Matzeliger was a mulatto.”<a id="FNanchor_67" href="#Footnote_67" class="fnanchor">[67]</a></p> - -<p>Elijah McCoy is the pioneer inventor of automatic -lubricators for machinery. He completed -and patented his first lubricating cup in 1872 and -since then has made some fifty different inventions -relating principally to the automatic lubrication -of machinery. He is regarded as the pioneer in -the art of steadily supplying oil to machinery in -intermittent drops from a cup so as to avoid the -necessity for stopping the machine to oil it. His -lubricating cup was in use for years on stationary -and locomotive machinery in the West including -the great railway locomotives, the boiler engines -of the steamers on the Great Lakes, on transatlantic -steamships, and in many of our leading -factories. “McCoy’s lubricating cups were famous<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_73"></a>[73]</span> -thirty years ago as a necessary equipment in -all up-to-date machinery, and it would be rather -interesting to know how many of the thousands of -machinists who used them daily had any idea then -that they were the invention of a colored man.”<a id="FNanchor_68" href="#Footnote_68" class="fnanchor">[68]</a></p> - -<p>Another great Negro inventor was Granville -T. Woods who patented more than fifty devices -relating to electricity. Many of his patents were -assigned to the General Electric Company of New -York, the Westinghouse Company of Pennsylvania, -the American Bell Telephone Company of -Boston and the American Engineering Company -of New York. His work and that of his brother -Liates Wood has been favorably mentioned in -technical and scientific journals.</p> - -<p>J. H. Dickinson and his son S. L. Dickinson of -New Jersey have been granted more than 12 -patents for devices connected with player pianos. -W. B. Purvis of Philadelphia was an early inventor -of machinery for making paper bags. -Many of his patents were sold to the Union Paper -Bag Company of New York.</p> - -<p>Today the Negro is an economic factor in the -United States to a degree realized by few. His -occupations were thus grouped in 1920:<a id="FNanchor_69" href="#Footnote_69" class="fnanchor">[69]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_74"></a>[74]</span></p> - -<p>The men were employed as follows:</p> - -<table summary="Number of Negro men employed in each industry"> - <tr> - <td>in agriculture</td> - <td class="tdr">1,566,627</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>in extraction of minerals</td> - <td class="tdr">72,892</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>in manufacturing and mechanical industries</td> - <td class="tdr">781,827</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>in transportation</td> - <td class="tdr">308,896</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>in trade</td> - <td class="tdr">129,309</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>in public service</td> - <td class="tdr">49,586</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>in professional service</td> - <td class="tdr">41,056</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>in domestic and personal service</td> - <td class="tdr">273,959</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>in clerical occupations</td> - <td class="tdr">28,710</td> - </tr> -</table> - -<p>The women were employed as follows:</p> - -<table summary="Number of Negro women employed in each industry"> - <tr> - <td> -in agriculture</td> - <td class="tdr">612,261</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>in manufacturing and mechanical industries</td> - <td class="tdr">104,983</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>in trade</td> - <td class="tdr">11,158</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>in professional service</td> - <td class="tdr">39,127</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>in domestic and personal service</td> - <td class="tdr">790,631</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>in clerical occupations</td> - <td class="tdr">8,301</td> - </tr> -</table> - -<p>A list of occupations in which at least 10,000 -Negroes were engaged in 1920 is impressive:</p> - -<table summary="Occupations in 1920 with at least 10,000 Negroes"> - <tr> - <th colspan="2" class="tdc"><span class="smcap">Males</span></th> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Farmers</td> - <td class="tdr">845,299</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Farm laborers</td> - <td class="tdr">664,567</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Garden laborers</td> - <td class="tdr">15,246</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Lumber men</td> - <td class="tdr">25,400</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Coal miners</td> - <td class="tdr">54,432</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Masons</td> - <td class="tdr">10,606</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Carpenters</td> - <td class="tdr">34,217</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Firemen (not locomotive)</td> - <td class="tdr">23,152</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Laborers</td> - <td class="tdr">127,860</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Laborers in chemical industries</td> - <td class="tdr">17,201</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Laborers in cigar and tobacco factories</td> - <td class="tdr">12,951</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Laborers in clay, glass and stone industries</td> - <td class="tdr">18,130<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_75"></a>[75]</span></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Laborers in food industries</td> - <td class="tdr">24,638</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Laborers in iron and steel industries</td> - <td class="tdr">104,518</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Laborers in lumber and furniture industries</td> - <td class="tdr">103,154</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Laborers in cotton mills</td> - <td class="tdr">10,182</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Laborers in other industries</td> - <td class="tdr">80,583</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Machinists</td> - <td class="tdr">10,286</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Semi-skilled operatives in food industries</td> - <td class="tdr">11,160</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Semi-skilled operatives in iron and steel industries</td> - <td class="tdr">22,916</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Semi-skilled operatives in other industries</td> - <td class="tdr">14,745</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Longshoremen</td> - <td class="tdr">27,206</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Chauffeurs</td> - <td class="tdr">38,460</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Draymen</td> - <td class="tdr">56,556</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Street laborers</td> - <td class="tdr">35,673</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Railway laborers</td> - <td class="tdr">99,967</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Delivery men</td> - <td class="tdr">24,352</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Laborers in coal yards, warehouses, etc.</td> - <td class="tdr">27,197</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Laborers, etc., in stores</td> - <td class="tdr">39,446</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Retail dealers</td> - <td class="tdr">20,390</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Laborers in public service</td> - <td class="tdr">29,591</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Soldiers, sailors</td> - <td class="tdr">12,511</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Clergymen</td> - <td class="tdr">19,343</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Barbers, etc.</td> - <td class="tdr">18,692</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Janitors</td> - <td class="tdr">38,662</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Porters not in stores</td> - <td class="tdr">59,197</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Servants</td> - <td class="tdr">80,209</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Waiters</td> - <td class="tdr">31,681</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Clerks except in stores</td> - <td class="tdr">14,014</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Messengers</td> - <td class="tdr">12,587</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <th colspan="2" class="tdc"><span class="smcap">Females</span></th> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Farmers</td> - <td class="tdr">79,893</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Farm laborers</td> - <td class="tdr">527,937</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Dressmakers and seamstresses</td> - <td class="tdr">26,961</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Semi-skilled operatives in cigar and tobacco factories</td> - <td class="tdr">13,446<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_76"></a>[76]</span></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Teachers</td> - <td class="tdr">29,244</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Hairdressers and manicurists</td> - <td class="tdr">12,660</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Housekeepers and stewards</td> - <td class="tdr">13,250</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Laundresses not in laundries</td> - <td class="tdr">283,557</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Laundry operatives</td> - <td class="tdr">21,084</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Midwives and nurses (not trained)</td> - <td class="tdr">13,888</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Servants</td> - <td class="tdr">401,381</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Waiters</td> - <td class="tdr">14,155</td> - </tr> -</table> - -<p>This has been the gift of labor, one of the -greatest that the Negro has made to American -nationality. It was in part involuntary, but -whether given willingly or not, it was given and -America profited by the gift. This labor was -always of the highest economic and even spiritual -importance. During the World War for instance, -the most important single thing that America -could do for the Allies was to furnish them with -materials. The actual fighting of American -troops, while important, was not nearly as important -as American food and munitions; but this -material must not only be supplied, it must be -transported, handled and delivered in America -and in France; and it was here that the Negro -stevedore troops behind the battle line—men -who received no medals and little mention and -were in fact despised as all manual workers have -always been despised,—it was these men that -made the victory of the Allies certain by their<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_77"></a>[77]</span> -desperately difficult but splendid work. The first -colored stevedores went over in June, 1917, and -were followed by about 50,000 volunteers. To -these were added later nearly 200,000 drafted -men.</p> - -<p>To all this we must add the peculiar spiritual -contribution which the Negro made to Labor. -Always physical fact has its spiritual complement, -but in this case the gift is apt to be forgotten or -slurred over. This gift is the thing that is usually -known as “laziness”. Again and again men speak -of the laziness of Negro labor and some suppose -that slavery of Negroes was necessary on that -account; and that even in freedom Negroes must -be “driven”. On the other hand and in contradiction -to this is the fact that Negroes do work -and work efficiently. In South Africa and in -Nigeria, in the Sudan and in Brazil, in the West -Indies and all over the United States Negro labor -has accomplished tremendous tasks. One of -its latest and greatest tasks has been the building -of the Panama Canal. These two sets of facts, -therefore, would seem to be mutually contradictory, -and many a northern manager has seen the -contradiction when, facing the apparent laziness -of Negro hands, he has attempted to drive them -and found out that he could not and at the same -time has afterward seen someone used to Negro<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_78"></a>[78]</span> -labor get a tremendous amount of work out of -the same gangs. The explanation of all this is -clear and simple: The Negro laborer has not -been trained in modern organized industry but -rather in quite a different school.</p> - -<p>The European workman works long hours and -every day in the week because it is only in this -way that he can support himself and family. With -the present organization of industry and methods -of distributing the results of industry any failure -of the European workingman to toil hard and -steadily would mean either starvation or social -disgrace through the lowering of his standard of -living. The Negro workingman on the other -hand came out of an organization of industry -which was communistic and did not call for unlimited -toil on the part of the workers. There -was work and hard work to do, for even in the -fertile tropical lands the task of fighting weeds, -floods, animals, insects and germs was no easy -thing. But on the other hand the distribution of -products was much simpler and fairer and the -wants of the people were less developed. The -black tropical worker therefore looked upon work -as a necessary evil and maintained his right to -balance the relative allurements of leisure and -satisfaction at any particular day, hour or season. -Moreover in the simple work-organization of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_79"></a>[79]</span> -tropical or semi-tropical life individual desires of -this sort did not usually disarrange the whole -economic process or machine.<a id="FNanchor_70" href="#Footnote_70" class="fnanchor">[70]</a></p> - -<p>The white laborer therefore brought to America -the habit of regular, continuous toil which he -regarded as a great moral duty. The black laborer -brought the idea of toil as a necessary evil -ministering to the pleasure of life. While the -gift of the white laborer made America rich, or -at least made many Americans rich, it will take -the psychology of the black man to make it happy. -New and better organization of industry and a -clearer conception of the value of effort and a -wider knowledge of the process of production -must come in, so as to increase the wage of the -worker and decrease rent, interest, and profit; -and then the black laborer’s subconscious contribution -to current economics will be recognized as -of tremendous and increasing importance.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_80"></a>[80]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III<br /> -<span class="smaller">BLACK SOLDIERS</span></h2> - -<p>How the Negro fought in every American war -for a cause that was not his and to gain for -others a freedom which was not his own.</p> - -</div> - -<h3>1. <span class="smcap">Colonial Wars</span></h3> - -<p>The day is past when historians glory in war. -Rather, with all thoughtful men, they deplore the -barbarism of mankind which has made war so -large a part of human history. As long, however, -as there are powerful men who are determined -to have their way by brute force, and as -long as these men can compel or persuade enough -of their group, nation or race to support them -even to the limit of destruction, rape, theft and -murder, just so long these men will and must be -opposed by force—moral force if possible, physical -force in the extreme. The world has undoubtedly -come to the place where it defends reluctantly -such defensive war, but has no words of -excuse for offensive war, for the initiation of the -program of physical force.</p> - -<p>There is, however, one further consideration:<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_81"></a>[81]</span> -the man in the ranks has usually little chance to -decide whether the war is defensive or offensive, -righteous or wrong. He is called upon to put life -and limb in jeopardy. He responds, sometimes -willingly with uplifted soul and high resolve, persuaded -that he is under Divine command; sometimes -by compulsion and by the iron of discipline. -In all cases he has by every nation been given -credit; and certainly the man who voluntarily lays -down his life for a cause which he has been led to -believe is righteous deserves public esteem, although -the world may weep at his ignorance and -blindness.</p> - -<p>From the beginning America was involved in -war because it was born in a day of war. First, -there were wars, mostly of aggression but partly -of self-defense, against the Indians. Then there -was a series of wars which were but colonial -echoes of European brawls. Next the United -States fought to make itself independent of the -economic suzerainty of England. After that came -the conquest of Mexico and the war for the Union -which resolved itself in a war against slavery, and -finally the Spanish War and the great World -War.</p> - -<p>In all these wars the Negro has taken part. He -cannot be blamed for them so far as they were -unrighteous wars (and some of them were<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_82"></a>[82]</span> -unrighteous), because he was not a leader: he was -for the most part a common soldier in the ranks -and did what he was told. Yet in the majority of -cases he was not compelled to fight. He used his -own judgment and he fought because he believed -that by fighting for America he would gain the -respect of the land and personal and spiritual -freedom. His problem as a soldier was always -peculiar: no matter for what America fought and -no matter for what her enemies fought, the -American Negro always fought for his own freedom -and for the self-respect of his race. Whatever -the cause of war, therefore, his cause was -peculiarly just. He appears, therefore, in American -wars always with double motive,—the desire -to oppose the so-called enemy of his country along -with his fellow white citizens, and before that, the -motive of deserving well of those citizens and -securing justice for his folk. In this way he -appears in the earliest times fighting with the -whites against the Indians as well as with the -Indians against the whites, and throughout the -history of the West Indies and Central America -as well as the Southern United States we find here -and there groups of Negroes fighting with the -whites. For instance: in Louisiana early in the -eighteenth century when Governor Perier took -office, the colony was very much afraid of a combination<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_83"></a>[83]</span> -between the Choctaw Indians and the -fierce Banbara Negroes who had begun to make -common cause with them. To offset this, Perier -armed a band of slaves in 1729 and sent them -against the Indians. He says: “The Negroes executed -their mission with as much promptitude as -secrecy.” Later, in 1730, the Governor sent -twenty white men and six Negroes to carry ammunition -to the Illinois settlement up the Mississippi -River. Perier says fifteen Negroes “in whose -hands we had put weapons performed prodigies -of valor. If the blacks did not cost so much and -if their labor was not so necessary to the colony -it would be better to turn them into soldiers and -to dismiss those we have who are so bad and so -cowardly that they seem to have been manufactured -purposely for this colony.” But this policy -of using the Negroes against the Indians led the -Indians to retaliate and seek alliance with the -blacks and in August 1730, the Natchez Indians -and the Chickshaws conspired with the Negroes -to revolt. The head of the revolt, Samba, with -eight of his confederates was executed before the -conspiracy came to a head. In 1733, when Governor -Bienville returned to power, he had an -army consisting of 544 white men and 45 Negroes, -the latter with free black officers.<a id="FNanchor_71" href="#Footnote_71" class="fnanchor">[71]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_84"></a>[84]</span></p> - -<p>In the colonial wars which distracted America -during the seventeenth and early part of the eighteenth -centuries the Negro took comparatively -small part because the institution of slavery was -becoming more settled and the masters were -afraid to let their slaves fight. Notwithstanding -this, there were black freedmen who voted and -were enrolled in the militia and went to war, while -some masters sent their slaves as laborers and -servants. As early as 1652 a law of Massachusetts -as to the militia required “Negro, Scotchmen -and Indians” to enroll in the militia. Afterward -the policy was changed and Negroes and -Indians were excluded but Negroes often acted as -sentinels at meeting-house doors. At other times -slaves ran away and enlisted as soldiers or as -sailors, thus often gaining their liberty. The -New York <i>Gazette</i> in 1760 advertises for a slave -who is suspected of having enlisted “in the provincial -service.” In 1763 the Boston <i>Evening -Post</i> was looking for a Negro who “was a soldier -last summer.” One mulatto in 1746 is advertised -for in the Pennsylvania <i>Gazette</i>. He had threatened -to go to the French and Indians and fight -for them. And in the Maryland <i>Gazette</i>, 1755, -gentlemen are warned that their slaves may run -away to the French and Indians.<a id="FNanchor_72" href="#Footnote_72" class="fnanchor">[72]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_85"></a>[85]</span></p> - -<h3>2. <span class="smcap">The Revolutionary War</span></h3> - -<p>The estimates of the Negro soldiers who -fought on the American side of the Revolutionary -War vary from four to six thousand, or one out -of every 50 or 60 of the colonial troops.</p> - -<p>On August 24, 1778, the following report was -made of Negroes in the Revolutionary Army:<a id="FNanchor_73" href="#Footnote_73" class="fnanchor">[73]</a></p> - -<table summary="Number of Negroes in the Revolutionary Army"> - <tr> - <th>Brigades</th> - <th>Present</th> - <th>Sick<br />Absent</th> - <th>On<br />Command</th> - <th>Total</th> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>North Carolina</td> - <td class="tdr">42</td> - <td class="tdr">10</td> - <td class="tdr">6</td> - <td class="tdr">58</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Woodford</td> - <td class="tdr">36</td> - <td class="tdr">3</td> - <td class="tdr">1</td> - <td class="tdr">40</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Muhlenburg</td> - <td class="tdr">64</td> - <td class="tdr">26</td> - <td class="tdr">8</td> - <td class="tdr">98</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Smallwood</td> - <td class="tdr">20</td> - <td class="tdr">3</td> - <td class="tdr">1</td> - <td class="tdr">24</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>2nd Maryland</td> - <td class="tdr">43</td> - <td class="tdr">15</td> - <td class="tdr">2</td> - <td class="tdr">60</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Wayne</td> - <td class="tdr">2</td> - <td class="tdr">..</td> - <td class="tdr">..</td> - <td class="tdr">2</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>2nd Pennsylvania</td> - <td class="tdr">33</td> - <td class="tdr">1</td> - <td class="tdr">1</td> - <td class="tdr">35</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Clinton</td> - <td class="tdr">33</td> - <td class="tdr">2</td> - <td class="tdr">4</td> - <td class="tdr">62</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Parsons</td> - <td class="tdr">117</td> - <td class="tdr">12</td> - <td class="tdr">19</td> - <td class="tdr">148</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Huntington</td> - <td class="tdr">56</td> - <td class="tdr">2</td> - <td class="tdr">4</td> - <td class="tdr">62</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Nixon</td> - <td class="tdr">26</td> - <td class="tdr">..</td> - <td class="tdr">1</td> - <td class="tdr">27</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Paterson</td> - <td class="tdr">64</td> - <td class="tdr">13</td> - <td class="tdr">12</td> - <td class="tdr">89</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Late Learned</td> - <td class="tdr">34</td> - <td class="tdr">4</td> - <td class="tdr">8</td> - <td class="tdr">46</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Poor</td> - <td class="tdr">16</td> - <td class="tdr">7</td> - <td class="tdr">4</td> - <td class="tdr">27</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr">Total</td> - <td class="tdr bt">586</td> - <td class="tdr bt">98</td> - <td class="tdr bt">71</td> - <td class="tdr bt">755</td> - </tr> -</table> - -<p class="right">Alex. Scammell, <i>Adj. Gen.</i></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_86"></a>[86]</span></p> - -<p>This report does not include Negro soldiers enlisted -in Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, -New Hampshire and other States not mentioned -nor does it include those who were in the army at -both earlier and later dates. Other records prove -that Negroes served in as many as 18 brigades.</p> - -<p>It was a Negro who in a sense began the actual -fighting. In 1750 William Brown of Framingham, -Mass., advertised three times for “A Molatto -Fellow about 27 Years of Age, named -<i>Crispas</i>, 6 Feet 2 Inches high, short Curl’d Hair.” -This runaway slave was the same Crispus Attucks -who in 1779 led a mob on the 5th of March -against the British soldiers in the celebrated “Boston -Massacre.”</p> - -<p>Much has been said about the importance and -lack of importance of this so-called “Boston Massacre.” -Whatever the verdict of history may be, -there is no doubt that the incident loomed large -in the eyes of the colonists. Distinguished men -were orators on the 5th of March for years after, -until that date was succeeded by the 4th of July. -Daniel Webster in his great Bunker Hill oration -said: “From that moment we may date the severance -of the British Empire.”</p> - -<p>Possibly these men exaggerated the actual importance -of a street brawl between citizens and -soldiers, led by a runaway slave; but there is no<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_87"></a>[87]</span> -doubt that the colonists, who fought for independence -from England, thought this occasion of tremendous -importance and were nerved to great -effort because of it.</p> - -<p>Livermore says: “The presence of the British -soldiers in King Street excited the patriotic indignation -of the people. The whole community was -stirred, and sage counsellors were deliberating -and writing and talking about the public grievances. -But it was not for the ‘wise and prudent’ -to be first to act against the encroachments of -arbitrary power. ‘A motley rabble of saucy boys, -Negroes and mulattoes, Irish Teagues and outlandish -Jack tars,’ (as John Adams described -them in his plea in defense of the soldiers) could -not restrain their emotion or stop to enquire if -what they <i>must do</i> was according to the letter of -the law. Led by Crispus Attucks, the mulatto -slave, and shouting, ‘The way to get rid of these -soldiers is to attack the main guard; strike at the -root; this is the nest’; with more valor than discretion -they rushed to King Street and were fired -upon by Captain Preston’s company. Crispus -Attucks was the first to fall; he and Samuel Gray -and Jonas Caldwell were killed on the spot. -Samuel Maverick and Patrick Carr were mortally -wounded. The excitement which followed -was intense. The bells of the town were rung.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_88"></a>[88]</span> -An impromptu town meeting was held and an immense -assembly gathered. Three days after, on -the 8th, a public funeral of the Martyrs took -place. The shops in Boston were closed and all -the bells of Boston and the neighboring towns -were rung. It is said that a greater number of -persons assembled on this occasion than ever before -gathered on this continent for a similar purpose. -The body of Crispus Attucks, the mulatto, -had been placed in Faneuil Hall with that of -Caldwell, both being strangers in the city. Maverick -was buried from his mother’s house in Union -Street, and Gray from his brother’s in Royal -Exchange Lane. The four hearses formed a -junction in King Street and then the procession -marched in columns six deep, with a long file of -coaches belonging to the most distinguished citizens, -to the Middle Burying Ground, where the -four victims were deposited in one grave over -which a stone was placed with the inscription:</p> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘Long as in Freedom’s cause the wise contend,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Dear to your country shall your fame extend;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">While to the world the lettered stone shall tell</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Where Caldwell, Attucks, Gray and Maverick fell.’</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>“The anniversary of this event was publicly -commemorated in Boston by an oration and other -exercises every year until our National Independence<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_89"></a>[89]</span> -was achieved, when the Fourth of July was -substituted for the Fifth of March as the more -proper day for a general celebration. Not only -was the event commemorated but the martyrs who -then gave up their lives were remembered and -honored.”<a id="FNanchor_74" href="#Footnote_74" class="fnanchor">[74]</a></p> - -</div> - -<p>The relation of the Negro to the Revolutionary -War was peculiar. If his services were used by -the Colonists this would be an excuse for the -English to use the Indians and to emancipate the -slaves. If he were not used not only was this -source of strength to the small loyal armies neglected -but there still remained the danger that the -English would bid for the services of Negroes. -At first then the free Negro went quite naturally -into the army as he had for the most part been -recognized as liable to military service. Then -Congress hesitated and ordered that no Negroes -be enlisted. Immediately there appeared the determination -of the Negroes, whether deliberately -arrived at or by the more or less unconscious development -of thought under the circumstances, to -give their services to the side which promised -them freedom and decent treatment. When therefore -Governor Dunmore of Virginia and English -generals like Cornwallis and Clinton made a bid -for the services of Negroes, coupled with promises<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_90"></a>[90]</span> -of freedom, they got considerable numbers -and in the case of Dunmore one Negro unit -fought a pitched battle against the Colonists.</p> - -<p>The Continental Congress took up the question -of Negroes in the Army in September, 1775. A -committee consisting of Lynch, Lee and Adams -reported a letter which they had drafted to Washington. -Rutledge of South Carolina moved that -Washington be instructed to discharge all Negroes -whether slave or free from the army, but -this was defeated. October 8th Washington and -other generals in council of war, agreed unanimously -that slaves should be rejected and a large -majority declared that they refuse free Negroes. -October 18th, the question came up again before -the committee consisting of Benjamin Franklin, -General Washington, certain deputies, governors -and others. This council agreed that Negroes -should be rejected and Washington issued orders -to this effect November 12th, 1775. Meantime, -however, Dunmore’s proclamation came and his -later success in raising a black regiment which -greatly disturbed Washington. In July, 1776, the -British had 200 Negro soldiers on Long Island -and later two regiments of Negroes were raised -by the British in North Carolina. The South -lost thousands of Negroes through the British. -In Georgia a corps of fugitives calling themselves<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_91"></a>[91]</span> -the “King of England Soldiers” kept attacking on -both sides of the Savannah River even after the -Revolution and many feared a general insurrection -of slaves.</p> - -<p>The colonists soon began to change their attitude. -Late in 1775, Washington reversed his -decision and ordered his recruiting officers to accept -free Negroes who had already served in the -army and laid the matter before the Continental -Congress. The Committee recommended that -these Negroes be reenlisted but no others. Various -leaders advised that it would be better to -enlist the slaves, among them Samuel Hopkins, -Alexander Hamilton, General Greene, James -Madison. Even John Laurens of South Carolina -tried to make the South accept the proposition.<a id="FNanchor_75" href="#Footnote_75" class="fnanchor">[75]</a></p> - -<p>Thus Negroes again were received into the -American army and from that time on they played -important rôles. They had already distinguished -themselves in individual cases at Bunker Hill. -For instance, fourteen white officers sent the following -statement to the Massachusetts Legislature -on December 5, 1775: “The subscribers beg -leave to report to your Honorable House (which -we do in justice to the character of so brave a -man) that under our own observation we declare<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_92"></a>[92]</span> -that a Negro man named Salem Poor, of Colonel -Frye’s regiment, Captain Ames’ company, in the -late battle at Charlestown, behaved like an experienced -officer as well as an excellent soldier. To -set forth particulars of his conduct would be -tedious. We only beg leave to say, in the person -of this said Negro, centers a brave and gallant -soldier. The reward due to so great and distinguished -a character we submit to the Congress.”<a id="FNanchor_76" href="#Footnote_76" class="fnanchor">[76]</a></p> - -<p>They afterward fought desperately in Long -Island and at the battle of Monmouth. Foreign -travellers continually note the presence of Negroes -in the American army.</p> - -<p>Less known however is the help which the black -republic of Haiti offered to the struggling Colonists. -In December 1778 Savannah was captured -by the British, and Americans were in despair until -the French fleet appeared on the coast of Georgia -in September 1779. The fleet offered to help recapture -Savannah. It had on board 1900 French -troops of whom 800 were black Haitian volunteers. -Among these volunteers were Christophe, -afterward king of Haiti, Rigaud, André, Lambert -and others. They were a significant and -faithful band which began by helping freedom in -America, then turned and through the French revolution<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_93"></a>[93]</span> -freed Haiti and finally helped in the emancipation -of South America. The French troops -landed below the city with the Americans at their -right and together they made an attack. American -and French flags were planted on the British -outposts but their bearers were killed and a general -retreat was finally ordered. Seven hundred -and sixty Frenchmen and 312 Americans were -killed and wounded. As the army began to retreat -the British general attacked the rear, determined -to annihilate the Americans. It was then that the -black and mulatto freedmen from Haiti under the -command of Viscount de Fontages made the charge -on the English and saved the retreating Americans. -They returned to Haiti to prepare eventually to -make that country the second one in America -which threw off the domination of Europe.<a id="FNanchor_77" href="#Footnote_77" class="fnanchor">[77]</a></p> - -<p>Some idea of the number of Negro soldiers can -be had by reference to documents mentioning the -action of the States. Rhode Island raised a regiment -of slaves, and Governor Cooke said that it -was generally thought that at least 300 would -enlist. Four companies were finally formed there -at a cost of over £10,000. Most of the 629 slaves -in New Hampshire enlisted and many of the -15,000 slaves in New York. Connecticut had -Negroes in her regiments and also a regiment of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_94"></a>[94]</span> -colored soldiers. Maryland sought in 1781 to -raise 750 Negro troops. Massachusetts had colored -troops in her various units from 72 towns in -that State. “In view of these numerous facts it -is safe to conclude that there were at least 4,000 -Negro soldiers scattered throughout the Continental -Army.”<a id="FNanchor_78" href="#Footnote_78" class="fnanchor">[78]</a></p> - -<p>In a debate in Congress in 1820 two men, one -from the North and one from the South, gave the -verdict of that time on the value of the Negro in -the Revolutionary War. William Eustis of Massachusetts -said: “The war over and peace restored, -these men returned to their respective -States, and who could have said to them on their -return to civil life after having shed their blood -in common with the whites in the defense of the -liberties of the country, ‘You are not to participate -in the rights secured by the struggle or in the -liberty for which you have been fighting?’ Certainly -no white man in Massachusetts.”</p> - -<p>Charles Pinckney of South Carolina said: that -the Negroes, “then were, as they still are, as valuable -a part of our population to the Union as any -other equal number of inhabitants. They were -in numerous instances the pioneers and, in all, the -laborers of your armies. To their hands were<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_95"></a>[95]</span> -owing the erection of the greatest part of the -fortifications raised for the protection of our -country; some of which, particularly Fort -Moultrie, gave at that early period of the inexperience -and untried valor of our citizens, immortality -to American arms: and, in the Northern -States numerous bodies of them were enrolled -into and fought by the sides of the whites, the -battles of the Revolution.”<a id="FNanchor_79" href="#Footnote_79" class="fnanchor">[79]</a></p> - -<p>In 1779 in the war between Spain and Great -Britain, the Spanish Governor of Louisiana, -Galvez, had in his army which he led against the -British, numbers of blacks and mulattoes who he -said “behaved on all occasions with as much valor -and generosity as the whites.”<a id="FNanchor_80" href="#Footnote_80" class="fnanchor">[80]</a></p> - -<h3>3. <span class="smcap">The War of 1812</span></h3> - -<p>In the War of 1812 the Negro appeared not -only as soldier but particularly as sailor and in -the dispute concerning the impressment of American -sailors which was one of the causes of the -war, Negro sailors repeatedly figured as seized -by England and claimed as American citizens by -America for whose rights the nation was apparently -ready to go to war. For instance, on the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_96"></a>[96]</span> -Chesapeake were three Negro sailors whom the -British claimed but whom the Americans declared -were American citizens,—Ware, Martin and -Strachen. As Bryant says: “The citizenship of -Negroes was sought and defended by England and -America at this time but a little later it was -denied by the United States Supreme Court that -Negroes could be citizens.” On demand two of -these Negroes were returned to America by the -British government; the other one died in England.</p> - -<p>Negroes fought under Perry and Macdonough. -On the high seas Negroes were fighting. Nathaniel -Shaler, captain of a privateer, wrote to his -agent in New York in 1813:</p> - -<p>“Before I could get our light sails on and almost -before I could turn around, I was under the -guns, not of a transport but of a large frigate! -And not more than a quarter of a mile from her.... -Her first broadside killed two men and -wounded six others.... My officers conducted -themselves in a way that would have done honor -to a more permanent service.... The name -of one of my poor fellows who was killed ought -to be registered in the book of fame, and remembered -with reverence as long as bravery is considered -a virtue. He was a black man by the -name of John Johnson.... When America<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_97"></a>[97]</span> -has such tars, she has little to fear from the tyrants -of the ocean.”<a id="FNanchor_81" href="#Footnote_81" class="fnanchor">[81]</a></p> - -<p>A few Negroes were in the northern armies. A -Congressman said in 1828: “I myself saw a battalion -of them—as fine martial looking men as I -ever saw attached to the northern army in the last -war (1812) on its march from Plattsburg to -Sacketts Harbor where they did service for the -country with credit to New York and honor to -themselves.”<a id="FNanchor_82" href="#Footnote_82" class="fnanchor">[82]</a></p> - -<p>But it was in the South that they furnished the -most spectacular instance of participation in this -war. Governor Claiborne appealed to General -Jackson to use colored soldiers. “These men, Sir, -for the most part, sustain good characters. Many -of them have extensive connections and much -property to defend, and all seem attached to arms. -The mode of acting toward them at the present -crisis, is an inquiry of importance. If we give -them not our confidence, the enemy will be encouraged -to intrigue and corrupt them.”<a id="FNanchor_83" href="#Footnote_83" class="fnanchor">[83]</a></p> - -<p>September 21, 1814, Jackson issued a spirited -appeal to the free Negroes of Louisiana: -“Through a mistaken policy, you have heretofore -been deprived of a participation in the glorious<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_98"></a>[98]</span> -struggle for national rights in which our country -is engaged. This no longer shall exist.</p> - -<p>“As sons of freedom, you are now called upon -to defend our most inestimable blessing. As -Americans, your country looks with confidence to -her adopted children for a valorous support as a -faithful return for the advantages enjoyed under -her mild and equitable government. As fathers, -husbands and brothers, you are summoned to rally -around the standard of the Eagle, to defend all -which is dear in existence.... In the sincerity -of a soldier and the language of truth I address -you.”<a id="FNanchor_84" href="#Footnote_84" class="fnanchor">[84]</a></p> - -<p>He promised them the same bounty as whites -and they were to have colored non-commissioned -officers. There was some attempt to have Jackson -tone down this appeal and say less of “equality,” -but he refused to change his first draft.</p> - -<p>The news of this proclamation created great -surprise in the North but not much criticism. Indeed, -things were going too badly for the Americans. -The Capitol at Washington had been burned, -the State of Maine was in British hands, enlistment -had stopped and Northern States like New -York were already arming Negroes. The Louisiana -legislature, a month after Jackson’s proclamation, -passed an act authorizing two regiments of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_99"></a>[99]</span> -“men of color” by voluntary enlistment. Slaves -were allowed to enlist and were publicly manumitted -for their services. There were 3200 -white and 430 colored soldiers in the battle of -New Orleans. The first battalion of 280 Negroes -was commanded by a white planter, La Coste; a -second battalion of 150 was raised by Captain -J. B. Savary, a colored man, from the San Dominican -refugees, and commanded by Major -Daquin who was probably a quadroon.</p> - -<p>Besides these soldiers slaves were used in -throwing up the famous cotton bale ramparts, -which saved the city, and this was the idea of a -black slave from Africa, who had seen the same -thing done at home. Colored men were used to -reconnoitre, and the slave trader Lafitte brought a -mixed band of white and black fighters to help. -Curiously enough there were also Negroes on the -other side, Great Britain having imported a regiment -from the West Indies which was at the head -of the attacking column moving against Jackson’s -right, together with an Irish regiment. Conceive -this astounding anomaly!</p> - -<p>The American Negro soldiers were stationed -very near Jackson and his staff. Jackson himself -in an address to the soldiers after the battle, complimenting -the “embodied militia,” said:</p> - -<p>“To the Men of Color.—Soldiers! From the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_100"></a>[100]</span> -shores of Mobile I collected you to arms,—I invited -you to share in the perils and to divide the -glory of your white countrymen. I expected much -from you; for I was not uninformed of those -qualities which must render you so formidable to -an invading foe. I knew that you could endure -hunger and thirst and all the hardships of war. -I knew that you loved the land of your nativity -and that, like ourselves, you had to defend all -that is most dear to man. But you surpass my -hopes. I have found in you, united to these -qualities, that noble enthusiasm which impels to -great deeds.”<a id="FNanchor_85" href="#Footnote_85" class="fnanchor">[85]</a></p> - -<p>In the celebration of the victory which followed -in the great public square, the Place d’Armes, now -Jackson Square, the colored troops shared the -glory and the wounded prisoners were met by -colored nurses.<a id="FNanchor_86" href="#Footnote_86" class="fnanchor">[86]</a></p> - -<h3>4. <span class="smcap">The Civil War</span></h3> - -<p>There were a few Negroes in the Mexican War -but they went mostly as body servants to white -officers and there were probably no soldiers and -certainly no distinct Negro organizations. The -Negro, therefore, shares little of the blood guilt -of that unhallowed raid for slave soil.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_101"></a>[101]</span></p> - -<p>At the time of the Civil War when the call -came for volunteers free Negroes everywhere offered -their services to the Northern States and -everywhere their services were declined. Indeed, -it was almost looked upon as insolence that they -should offer to fight in this “white man’s war.” -Not only was the war to be fought by white men -but desperate effort was made to cling to the -technical fact that this was a war to save the -Union and not a war against slavery. Federal -officials and northern army officers made effort to -reassure the South that they were not abolitionists -and that they were not going to touch slavery.<a id="FNanchor_87" href="#Footnote_87" class="fnanchor">[87]</a></p> - -<p>Meantime there began to crystallize the demand -that the real object of the war be made the abolition -of slavery and that the slaves and colored -men in general be allowed to fight for freedom.</p> - -<p>This met bitter opposition. The New York -<i>Herald</i> voiced this August 5, 1862. “The efforts -of those who love the Negro more than the -Union to induce the President to swerve from his -established policy are unavailing. He will neither -be persuaded by promises nor intimidated by -threats. Today he was called upon by two United -States Senators and rather peremptorily requested -to accept the services of two Negro regiments. -They were flatly and unequivocally rejected. The<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_102"></a>[102]</span> -President did not appreciate the necessity of employing -the Negroes to fight the battles of the -country and take the positions which the white -men of the nation, the voters, and sons of patriotic -sires, should be proud to occupy; there were -employments in which the Negroes of rebel masters -might well be engaged, but he was not willing -to place them upon an equality with our volunteers -who had left home and family and lucrative -occupations to defend the Union and the Constitution -while there were volunteers or militia -enough in the loyal States to maintain the Government -without resort to this expedient. If the loyal -people were not satisfied with the policy he had -adopted, he was willing to leave the administration -to other hands. One of the Senators was -impudent enough to tell the President he wished -to God he would resign.”</p> - -<p>In the spring of 1862 General Hunter was sent -into South Carolina with less than 11,000 men -and charged with the duty of holding the whole -seacoast of Georgia, South Carolina and Florida. -He asked for re-enforcement but was told frankly -from Washington, “Not a man from the North -can be spared.” The only way to guard the position -was to keep long lines of entrenchment -thrown up against the enemy. General Hunter -calmly announced his intention of forming a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_103"></a>[103]</span> -Negro regiment to help him. They were to be -paid as laborers by the quartermaster but he expected -eventually to have them recognized as -soldiers by the government. At first he could find -no officers. They were shocked at being asked to -command “niggers.” Even non-commissioned -officers were difficult to find. But eventually the -regiment was formed and became an object of -great curiosity when on parade. Reports of the -first South Carolina infantry were sent to Washington -but there was no reply. Then suddenly -the matter came up in Congress and Hunter was -ordered to explain whether he had enlisted fugitive -slaves and upon what authority. Hunter immediately -sent a sharp reply:</p> - -<p>“To the first question, therefore, I reply: That -no regiment of ‘fugitive slaves’ has been, or is -being, organized in this department. There is, -however, a fine regiment of loyal persons whose -late masters are fugitive rebels—men who everywhere -fly before the appearance of the National -flag, leaving their loyal and unhappy servants behind -them, to shift as best they can for themselves. -So far, indeed, are the loyal persons composing -the regiment from seeking to evade the -presence of their late owners, that they are now -one and all endeavoring with commendable zeal -to acquire the drill and discipline requisite to place<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_104"></a>[104]</span> -them in a position to go in full and effective pursuit -of their fugacious and traitorous proprietors.</p> - -<p>“The experiment of arming the blacks, so far -as I have made it, has been a complete and even -marvellous success. They are sober, docile, attentive -and enthusiastic, displaying great natural -capacities in acquiring the duties of the soldier. -They are now eager beyond all things to take the -field and be led into action; and it is the unanimous -opinion of the officers who have had charge -of them, that in the peculiarities of this climate -and country, they will prove invaluable auxiliaries, -fully equal to the similar regiments so long and so -successfully used by the British authorities in the -West India Islands.</p> - -<p>“In conclusion, I would say, it is my hope—there -appearing no possibility of other reinforcements, -owing to the exigencies of the campaign in -the peninsula—to have organized by the end of -next fall and to be able to present to the government -from 48,000 to 50,000 of these hardy and -devoted soldiers.”<a id="FNanchor_88" href="#Footnote_88" class="fnanchor">[88]</a></p> - -<p>The reply was read in Congress amid laughter -despite the indignation of the Kentucky Congressman -who instituted the inquiry.</p> - -<p>Protests now came from the South but no answer -was forthcoming and despite all the agitation<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_105"></a>[105]</span> -the regiment remained until at last Hunter -was officially ordered to raise 50,000 black laborers -of whom 5,000 might be armed and dressed as -soldiers.</p> - -<p>Horace Greeley stated the case clearly August -20, 1862 in his “Prayer of Twenty Million”:<a id="FNanchor_89" href="#Footnote_89" class="fnanchor">[89]</a></p> - -<p>“On the face of this wide earth, Mr. President, -there is not one disinterested, determined, intelligent -champion of the Union cause who does not -feel that all attempts to put down the rebellion -and at the same time uphold its inciting cause are -preposterous and futile—that the rebellion if -crushed out tomorrow would be renewed within a -year if slavery were left in full vigor—that army -officers who remain to this day devoted to slavery -can at best be but half-way loyal to the Union—and -that every hour of deference to slavery is -an hour of added and deepened peril to the -Union....</p> - -<p>“I close as I began, with the statement that -what an immense majority of the loyal millions of -your countrymen require of you is a frank, declared, -unqualified, ungrudging execution of the -laws of the land, more especially of the Confiscation -Act. That Act gives freedom to the slaves -of rebels coming within our lines or whom those -lines may at any time enclose,—we ask you to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_106"></a>[106]</span> -render it due obedience by publicly requiring all -your subordinates to recognize and obey it. The -rebels are everywhere using the late anti-Negro -riots in the North—as they have long used your -officers’ treatment of Negroes in the South—to -convince the slaves that they have nothing to hope -from a Union success—that we mean in that case -to sell them into bitter bondage to defray the cost -of the war. Let them impress this as a truth on -the great mass of their ignorant and credulous -bondsmen, and the Union will never be restored—never. -We cannot conquer ten millions of -people united in solid phalanx against us, powerfully -aided by northern sympathizers and European -allies. We must have scouts, guides, spies, -cooks, teamsters, diggers and choppers from the -blacks of the South—whether we allow them to -fight for us or not—or we shall be baffled and -repelled.”</p> - -<p>A month later, September 22, Abraham Lincoln -issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. -He had considered this step before and his -final decision was caused, first, by a growing realization -of the immense task that lay before the -Union armies and, secondly, by the fear that -Europe was going to recognize the Confederacy, -since she saw as between North and South little -difference in attitude toward slavery.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_107"></a>[107]</span></p> - -<p>The effect of the step was undoubtedly decisive -for ultimate victory, although at first it spread -dismay. Six of the Northern States went Democratic -in the fall elections and elsewhere the Republicans -lost heavily. In the army some officers -resigned and others threatened to because “The -war for the Union was changed into a war for -the Negro.”</p> - -<p>In the South men like Beauregard urged the -raising of the “Black Flag” while Jefferson Davis -in his third annual message wrote: “We may well -leave it to the instincts of that common humanity -which a beneficent Creator has implanted in the -breasts of our fellowmen of all countries to pass -judgment on a measure by which several millions -of human beings of an inferior race, peaceful and -contented laborers in their sphere, are doomed to -extermination.”<a id="FNanchor_90" href="#Footnote_90" class="fnanchor">[90]</a></p> - -<p>With emancipation foreshadowed the full recognition -of the Negro soldier was inevitable. In -September 1862 came a black Infantry Regiment -from Louisiana and later a regiment of heavy -artillery and by the end of 1862 four Negro regiments -had enlisted. Immediately after the signing -of the Emancipation Proclamation came the -Kansas Colored volunteers and the famous 54th -Massachusetts Regiment. A Bureau was established<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_108"></a>[108]</span> -in Washington to handle the colored enlistments -and before the end of the war 178,975 -Negroes had enlisted.</p> - -<p>“In the Department [of War] the actual number -of Negroes enlisted was never known, from -the fact that a practice prevailed of putting a live -Negro in a dead one’s place. For instance, if a -company on picket or scouting lost ten men, the -officer would immediately put ten new men in their -places and have them answer to the dead men’s -names. I learn from very reliable sources that -this was done in Virginia, also in Missouri and -Tennessee. If the exact number of men could be -ascertained, instead of 180,000 it would doubtless -be in the neighborhood of 220,000 who entered -the ranks of the army.”<a id="FNanchor_91" href="#Footnote_91" class="fnanchor">[91]</a></p> - -<p>General orders covering the enlistment of Negro -troops were sent out from the War Department -October 13, 1863. The Union League in -New York city raised 2,000 black soldiers in 45 -days, although no bounty was offered them and -no protection promised their families. The regiment -had a triumphal march through the city and -a daily paper stated: “In the month of July last -the homes of these people were burned and pillaged -by an infuriated political mob; they and -their families were hunted down and murdered<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_109"></a>[109]</span> -in the public streets of this city; and the force -and majesty of the law were powerless to protect -them. Seven brief months have passed and a -thousand of these despised and persecuted men -marched through the city in the garb of the -United States soldiers, in vindication of their own -manhood and with the approval of a countless -multitude—in effect saving from inevitable and -distasteful conscription the same number of those -who hunted their persons and destroyed their -homes during those days of humiliation and disgrace. -This is noble vengeance—a vengeance -taught by Him who commanded, ‘Love them that -hate you; do good to them that persecute you.’”</p> - -<p>The enlistment of Negroes caused difficulty and -friction among the white troops. In South Carolina -General Gilmore had to forbid the white -troops using Negro troops for menial service in -cleaning up the camps. Black soldiers in uniform -often had their uniforms stripped off by white -soldiers.</p> - -<p>“I attempted to pass Jackson Square in New -Orleans one day in my uniform when I was met -by two white soldiers of the 24th Conn. They -halted me and then ordered me to undress. I -refused, when they seized me and began to tear -my coat off. I resisted, but to no good purpose; -a half dozen others came up and began to assist.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_110"></a>[110]</span> -I recognized a sergeant in the crowd, an old shipmate -on board of a New Bedford, Mass., whaler; -he came to my rescue, my clothing was restored -and I was let go. It was nothing strange to see a -black soldier <i>à la</i> Adam come into the barracks -out of the streets.”<a id="FNanchor_92" href="#Footnote_92" class="fnanchor">[92]</a> This conduct led to the -killing of a portion of a boat’s crew of the U. S. -Gunboat Jackson, at Ship Island, Miss., by members -of a Negro regiment stationed there.</p> - -<p>Then, too, there was contemptible discrimination -in pay. While white soldiers received $13 -a month and clothing, Negro soldiers, by act of -Congress, were given $10 a month with $3 deducted -for clothing, leaving only $7 a month as -actual pay. This was only remedied when the -54th Massachusetts Infantry refused all pay for -a year until it should be treated as other regiments. -The State of Massachusetts made up the -difference between the $7 and $13 to disabled -soldiers until June 16, 1864, when the government -finally made the Negroes’ pay equal to that -of the whites.</p> - -<p>On the Confederate side there was a movement -to use Negro soldiers fostered by Judah -Benjamin, General Lee and others. In 1861 a -Negro company from Nashville offered its services -to the Confederate states and free Negroes<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_111"></a>[111]</span> -of Memphis were authorized by the Committee -of Safety to organize a volunteer company. Companies -of free Negroes were raised in New Orleans,—“Very -well drilled and comfortably uniformed.” -In Richmond colored troops were also -raised in the last days. Few if any of these saw -actual service. Plantation hands from Alabama -built the redoubts at Charleston, and Negroes -worked as teamsters and helpers throughout the -South. In February, 1864, the Confederate congress -provided for the impressment of 20,000 -slaves for menial service, and President Davis -suggested that the number be doubled and that -they be emancipated at the end of their service. -Before the war started local authorities had in -many cases enrolled free Negroes as soldiers and -some of these remained in the service of the Confederacy. -The adjutant general of the Louisiana -militia issued an order which said “the Governor -and the Commander-in-Chief, relying implicitly -upon the loyalty of the free colored population -of the city and State, for the protection of their -homes, their property and for southern rights, -from the population of a ruthless invader, and -believing that the military organization which -existed prior to February 15, 1862, and elicited -praise and respect for the patriotic motives which -prompted it, should exist for and during the war,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_112"></a>[112]</span> -calls upon them to maintain their organization -and hold themselves prepared for such orders as -may be transmitted to them.” These native -guards did not leave the city when the Confederates -did and explained to General Butler that -they dared not refuse to work with the Confederates -and that they hoped by their service to -gain greater equality with the whites and that -they would be glad now to join the Union forces. -Two weeks after the fall of Sumter colored -volunteers passed through Georgia on their way -to Virginia. There were 16 or more companies. -In November, 1861, a regiment of 1,400 -free colored men were in the line of march at -New Orleans. The idea of calling the Negroes -grew as the power of the Confederacy waned and -the idea of emancipation as compensation spread. -President Davis said “Should the alternative ever -be presented of subjugation or of the employment -of slaves as soldiers there seems no reason to -doubt what should be our decision.”</p> - -<p>There was, of course, much difference of opinion. -General Cobb said “If slaves make good -soldiers our whole theory of slavery is wrong,” -while a Georgian replied “Some say that Negroes -will not fight, I say they will fight. They fought -at Ocean Pond, Honey Hill and other places.” -General Lee, in January ’64, gave as his opinion<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_113"></a>[113]</span> -that they should employ them without delay. “I -believe with proper regulations they may be made -efficient soldiers.” He continued, “Our chief aim -should be to secure their fidelity. There have -been formidable armies composed of men having -no interest in the cause for which they fought -beyond their pay or the hope of plunder. But it -is certain that the surest foundation upon which -the fidelity of an army can rest, especially in a -service which imposes hardships and privations, is -the personal interest of the soldier in the issue of -the contest. Such an interest we can give our -Negroes by giving immediate freedom to all who -enlist, and freedom at the end of the war to the -families of those who discharge their duties faithfully -(whether they survive or not), together -with the privilege of residing at the South. To -this might be added a bounty for faithful service.”</p> - -<p>Finally, March 13, 1865, it was directed that -slaves be enrolled in the Confederate army, each -state to furnish its quota of 300,000. Recruiting -officers were appointed, but before the plan -could be carried out Lee and Johnson surrendered.<a id="FNanchor_93" href="#Footnote_93" class="fnanchor">[93]</a></p> - -<p>The central fact which we forget in these days -is that the real question in the minds of most<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_114"></a>[114]</span> -white people in the United States in 1863 was -whether or not the Negro really would fight. The -generation then living had never heard of the -Negro in the Revolution and in the War of 1812, -much less of his struggles and insurrections before. -From 1820 down to the time of the war -a determined and far-reaching propaganda had -led most men to believe in the natural inferiority, -cowardice and degradation of the Negro race. -We have already seen Abraham Lincoln suggest -that if arms were put into the hands of the Negro -soldier it might be simply a method of arming -the rebels. The New York <i>Times</i> discussed the -matter soberly, defending the right to employ -Negroes but suggesting four grounds which might -make it inexpedient; that Negroes would not fight, -that prejudice was so strong that whites would -not fight with them, that no free Negroes would -volunteer and that slaves could not be gotten hold -of and that the use of Negroes would exasperate -the South. “The very best thing that can be done -under existing circumstances, in our judgment, is -to possess our souls in patience while the experiment -is being tried. The problem will probably -speedily solve itself—much more speedily than -heated discussion or harsh criminations can solve -it.”</p> - -<p>This was in February 16, 1863. It was not<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_115"></a>[115]</span> -long before the results of using Negro troops -began to be reported and we find the <i>Times</i> saying -editorially on the 31st of July: “Negro soldiers -have now been in battle at Port Hudson -and at Milliken’s Bend in Louisiana; at Helena -in Arkansas, at Morris Island in South Carolina, -and at or near Fort Gibson in the Indian -Territory. In two of these instances they -assaulted fortified positions and led the assault; -in two they fought on the defensive, and in one -they attacked rebel infantry. In all of them they -acted in conjunction with white troops and under -command of white officers. In some instances -they acted with distinguished bravery, and in all -they acted as well as could be expected of raw -troops.”</p> - -<p>On the 11th of February, 1863, the news columns -of the <i>Times</i> were still more enthusiastic. -“It will not need many such reports as this—and -there have been several before it—to shake -our inveterate Saxon prejudice against the capacity -and courage of Negro troops. Everybody -knows that they were used in the Revolution, and -in the last war with Great Britain fought side by -side with white troops, and won equal praises -from Washington and Jackson. It is shown also -that black sailors are on equal terms with their -white comrades. If on the sea, why not on the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_116"></a>[116]</span> -land? No officer who has commanded black -troops has yet reported against them. They are -tried in the most unfavorable and difficult circumstances, -but never fail. When shall we learn -to use the full strength of the formidable ally -who is only waiting for a summons to rally under -the flag of the Union? Colonel Higginson says: -‘No officer in this regiment now doubts that the -successful prosecution of this war lies in the unlimited -employment of black troops.’ The remark -is true in a military sense, and it has a still -deeper political significance.</p> - -<p>“When General Hunter has scattered 50,000 -muskets among the Negroes of the Carolinas, -and General Butler has organized the 100,000 -or 200,000 blacks for whom he may perhaps -shortly carry arms to New Orleans, the possibility -of restoring the Union as it was, with slavery -again its dormant power, will be seen to have -finally passed away. The Negro is indeed the -key to success.”</p> - -<p>The Negroes began to fight and fight hard; -but their own and peculiar characteristics stood -out even in the blood of war. A Pennsylvania -Major wrote home: “I find that these colored -men learn everything that pertains to the duties -of a soldier much faster than any white soldiers<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_117"></a>[117]</span> -I have ever seen.... They are willing, obedient, -and cheerful; move with agility, and are -full of music.”<a id="FNanchor_94" href="#Footnote_94" class="fnanchor">[94]</a></p> - -<p>Certain battles, carnivals of blood, stand out -and despite their horror must not be forgotten. -One of the earliest encounters was the terrible -massacre at Fort Pillow, April 18, 1863. The -fort was held with a garrison of 557 men, of -whom 262 were colored soldiers of the 6th United -States Heavy Artillery. The Union commander -refused to surrender.</p> - -<p>“Upon receiving the refusal of Major Booth -to capitulate, Forrest gave a signal and his troops -made a frantic charge upon the fort. It was -received gallantly and resisted stubbornly, but -there was no use of fighting. In ten minutes the -enemy, assaulting the fort in the centre, and -striking it on the flanks, swept in. The Federal -troops surrendered; but an indiscriminate massacre -followed. Men were shot down in their -tracks; pinioned to the ground with bayonet and -sabre. Some were clubbed to death while dying -of wounds; others were made to get down upon -their knees, in which condition they were shot to -death. Some were burned alive, having been -fastened into the buildings, while still others<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_118"></a>[118]</span> -were nailed against the houses, tortured and then -burned to a crisp.”<a id="FNanchor_95" href="#Footnote_95" class="fnanchor">[95]</a></p> - -<p>May 27, 1863, came the battle of Port Hudson. -“Hearing the firing apparently more fierce -and continuous to the right than anywhere else, -I turned in that direction, past the sugar house -of Colonel Chambers, where I had slept, and advanced -to near the pontoon bridge across the Big -Sandy Bayou, which the Negro regiments had -erected, and where they were fighting most desperately. -I had seen these brave and hitherto -despised fellows the day before as I rode along -the lines, and I had seen General Banks acknowledge -their respectful salute as he would have done -that of any white troops; but still the question -was—with too many—‘Will they fight?’</p> - -<p>“General Dwight, at least, must have had the -idea, not only that they were men, but something -more than men, from the terrific test to which he -put their valor. Before any impression had been -made upon the earthworks of the enemy, and in -full face of the batteries belching forth their 62-pounders, -these devoted people rushed forward -to encounter grape, canister, shell, and musketry, -with no artillery but two small howitzers—that -seemed mere popguns to their adversaries—and -no reserve whatever.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_119"></a>[119]</span></p> - -<p>“Their force consisted of the 1st Louisiana -Native Guards (with colored field officers) under -Lieutenant-Colonel Bassett, and the 3d Louisiana -Native Guards, Colonel Nelson (with white field -officers), the whole under command of the latter -officer.</p> - -<p>“On going into action they were 1,080 strong, -and formed into four lines, Lieutenant-Colonel -Bassett, 1st Louisiana, forming the first line, and -Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Finnegas the second. -When ordered to charge up the works, they did -so with the skill and nerve of old veterans (black -people, be it remembered who had never been in -action before). Oh, but the fire from the rebel -guns was so terrible upon the unprotected masses, -that the first few shots mowed them down like -grass and so continued.</p> - -<p>“Colonel Bassett being driven back, Colonel -Finnegas took his place, and his men being similarly -cut to pieces, Lieutenant-Colonel Bassett reformed -and recommenced; and thus these brave -people went in from morning until 3:30 <span class="allsmcap">P.M.</span>, -under the most hideous carnage that men ever -had to withstand, and that very few white ones -would have had nerve to encounter, even if -ordered to.</p> - -<p>“During this time, they rallied, and were -ordered to make six distinct charges, losing 37<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_120"></a>[120]</span> -killed, and 155 wounded, and 116 missing,—the -majority, if not all, of these being, in all probability, -now lying dead on the gory field, and -without the rites of sepulture; for when, by flag -of truce, our forces in other directions were permitted -to reclaim their dead, the benefit, through -some neglect, was not extended to these black -regiments.</p> - -<p>“The deeds of heroism performed by these -colored men were such as the proudest white men -might emulate. Their colors are torn to pieces -by shot and literally bespattered by blood and -brains. The color-sergeant of the 1st Louisiana, -on being mortally wounded, hugged the colors to -his breast, when a struggle ensued between the -two color-corporals on each side of him, as to -who should have the honor of bearing the sacred -standard, and during this generous contention one -was seriously wounded. One black lieutenant -actually mounted the enemy’s works three or four -times, and in one charge the assaulting party came -within fifty paces of them. Indeed, if only ordinarily -supported by artillery and reserve, no one -can convince us that they would not have opened -a passage through the enemy’s works.</p> - -<p>“Captain Callioux of the 1st Louisiana, a man -so black that he actually prided himself upon his<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_121"></a>[121]</span> -blackness, died the death of a hero, leading on -his men in the thickest of the fight.”<a id="FNanchor_96" href="#Footnote_96" class="fnanchor">[96]</a></p> - -<p>In July 13, 1863, came the draft riot in New -York when the daily papers told the people that -they were called upon to fight the battles of “niggers -and abolitionists,” when the governor did -nothing but “request” the rioters to await the -report of his demand that the President suspend -the draft. Meantime the city was given over to -rapine and murder, property destroyed, Negroes -killed and the colored orphans’ asylum burned to -the ground and property robbed and pillaged.</p> - -<p>At that very time in South Carolina black -soldiers were preparing to take Fort Wagner, -their greatest battle. It will be noted that continually -Negroes were called upon to rescue lost -causes, many times as a sort of deliberate test of -their courage. Fort Wagner was a case in point. -The story may be told from two points of view, -that of the white Unionist and that of the Confederate. -The Union account says:</p> - -<p>“The signal given, our forces advanced rapidly -towards the fort, while our mortars in the rear -tossed their bombs over their heads. The 54th -Massachusetts (a Negro Regiment) led the attack, -supported by the 6th Connecticut, 48th New -York, 3rd New Hampshire, 76th Pennsylvania,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_122"></a>[122]</span> -and the 9th Maine Regiments.... The silent -and shattered walls of Wagner all at once burst -forth into a blinding sheet of vivid light, as -though they had suddenly been transformed by -some magic power into the living, seething crater -of a volcano! Down came the whirlwind of destruction -along the beach with the swiftness of -lightning! How fearfully the hissing shot, the -shrieking bombs, the whistling bars of iron, and -the whispering bullet struck and crushed through -the dense masses of our brave men! I never -shall forget the terrible sound of that awful blast -of death, which swept down, shattered or dead, -a thousand of our men. Not a shot had missed -its aim. Every bolt of steel, every globe of iron -and lead, tasted of human blood....</p> - -<p>“In a moment the column recovered itself, like -a gallant ship at sea when buried for an instant -under the immense wave.</p> - -<p>“The ditch is reached; a thousand men leap -into it, clamber up the shattered ramparts, and -grapple with the foe, which yields and falls back -to the rear of the fort. Our men swarm over the -walls, bayoneting the desperate rebel cannoneers. -Hurrah! the fort is ours!</p> - -<p>“But now came another blinding blast from -concealed guns in the rear of the fort, and our -men went down by scores.... The struggle<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_123"></a>[123]</span> -is terrific. Our supports hurry up to the aid of -their comrades, but as they reach the ramparts -they fire a volley which strikes down many of our -men. Fatal mistake! Our men rally once more; -but, in spite of an heroic resistance, they are -forced back again to the edge of the ditch. Here -the brave Shaw, with scores of his black warriors, -went down, fighting desperately.”</p> - -<p>When asking for the body of Colonel Shaw, a -confederate major said: “We have buried him -with his niggers.”</p> - -<p>The Confederate account is equally eloquent.</p> - -<p>“The carnage was frightful. It is believed the -Federals lost more men on that eventful night -than twice the entire strength of the Confederate -garrison.... According to the statement of -Chaplain Dennison the assaulting columns, in two -brigades, commanded by General Strong and -Colonel Putnam (the division under General Seymour), -consisted of the 54th Massachusetts, 3rd -and 7th New Hampshire, 6th Connecticut and -100th New York, with a reserve brigade commanded -by General Stephenson. One of the -assaulting regiments was composed of Negroes -(the 54th Massachusetts) and to it was assigned -the honor of leading the white columns to the -charge. It was a dearly purchased compliment. -Their Colonel (Shaw) was killed upon the parapet<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_124"></a>[124]</span> -and the regiment almost annihilated, although -the Confederates in the darkness could not tell -the color of their assailants.”<a id="FNanchor_97" href="#Footnote_97" class="fnanchor">[97]</a></p> - -<p>At last it was seen that Negro troops could do -more than useless or helpless or impossible tasks, -and in the siege of Petersburg they were put to -important work. When the general attack was -ordered on the 16th of June, 1864, a division of -black troops was used. The Secretary of War, -Stanton himself, saw them and said:</p> - -<p>“The hardest fighting was done by the black -troops. The forts they stormed were the worst -of all. After the affair was over General Smith -went to thank them, and tell them he was proud -of their courage and dash. He says they cannot -be exceeded as soldiers, and that hereafter he -will send them in a difficult place as readily as the -best white troops.”<a id="FNanchor_98" href="#Footnote_98" class="fnanchor">[98]</a></p> - -<p>It was planned to send the colored troops under -Burnside against the enemy after the great mine -was exploded. Inspecting officers reported to -Burnside that the black division was fitted for this -perilous work. The white division which was sent -made a fiasco of it. Then, after all had been -lost Burnside was ready to send in his black division -and though they charged again and again<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_125"></a>[125]</span> -they were repulsed and the Union lost over 4,000 -men killed, wounded and captured.</p> - -<p>All the officers of the colored troops in the -Civil War were not white. From the first there -were many colored non-commissioned officers, and -the Louisiana regiments raised under Butler had -66 colored officers, including one Major and 27 -Captains, besides the full quota of non-commissioned -colored officers. In the Massachusetts -colored troops there were 10 commissioned Negro -officers and 3 among the Kansas troop. Among -these officers was a Lieutenant-Colonel Reed of -North Carolina, who was killed in battle. In -Kansas there was Captain H. F. Douglas, and in -other United States’ volunteer regiments were -Major M. H. Delaney and Captain O. S. B. -Wall; Dr. A. T. Augusta, surgeon, was brevetted -Lieutenant-Colonel. The losses of Negro troops -in the Civil War, killed, wounded and missing has -been placed at 68,178.</p> - -<p>Such was the service of the Negro in the Civil -War. Men say that the nation gave them freedom, -but the verdict of history is written on the -Shaw monument at the head of Boston Common:</p> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p class="center"><span class="smcap">The White Officers</span></p> - -<p>Taking Life and Honor in their Hands—Cast their -lot with Men of a Despised Race Unproved in War—and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_126"></a>[126]</span> -Risked Death as Inciters of a Servile Insurrection if -Taken Prisoners, Besides Encountering all the Common -Perils of Camp, March, and Battle.</p> - -<p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Black Rank and File</span></p> - -<p>Volunteered when Disaster Clouded the Union Cause—Served -without Pay for Eighteen Months till Given -that of White Troops—Faced Threatened Enslavement -if Captured—Were Brave in Action—Patient under -Dangerous and Heavy Labors and Cheerful amid Hardships -and Privations.</p> - -<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Together</span></p> - -<p>They Gave to the Nation Undying Proof that Americans -of African Descent Possess the Pride, Courage, and -Devotion of the Patriot Soldier—One Hundred and -Eighty Thousand Such Americans Enlisted Under the -Union Flag in MDCCCLXIII-MDCCCLXV.</p> - -</div> - -<h3>5. <span class="smcap">The War in Cuba</span></h3> - -<p>In the Spanish-American War four Negro regiments -were among the first to be ordered to the -front. They were the regular army regiments, -24th and 25th Infantry, and the 9th and 10th -Cavalry. President McKinley recommended that -new regiments of regular army troops be formed -among Negroes but Congress took no action. -Colored troops with colored officers were formed -as follows: The 3rd North Carolina, the 8th -Illinois, the 9th Battalion, Ohio and the 23rd<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_127"></a>[127]</span> -Kansas. Regiments known as the Immunes, being -immune to Yellow fever, were formed with -colored lieutenants and white captains and field -officers, and called the 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th -United States Volunteers. In addition to those -there were the 6th Virginia with colored lieutenants -and the 3rd Alabama with white officers. Indiana -had two companies attached to the 8th -Immunes. None of the Negro volunteer companies -reached the front in time to take part in -battle. The 8th Illinois formed a part of the -Army of Occupation and was noted for its policing -and cleaning up of Santiago. Colonel John -R. Marshall, commanding the 8th Illinois, and -Major Charles Young, a regular army commander, -both colored, were in charge of the battalion.</p> - -<p>The colored regular army regiments took a -brilliant part in the war. The first regiment -ordered to the front was the 24th Infantry. Negro -soldiers were in the battles around Santiago. -The Tenth Cavalry made an effective attack at -Las Quasimas and at El Caney on July 1 they -saved Roosevelt’s Rough Riders from annihilation. -The 24th Infantry volunteered in the Yellow -fever epidemic and cleaned the camp in one day. -<i>Review of Reviews</i> says: “One of the most gratifying -incidents of the Spanish War has been the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_128"></a>[128]</span> -enthusiasm that the colored regiments of the -regular army have aroused throughout the whole -country. Their fighting at Santiago was magnificent. -The Negro soldiers showed excellent discipline, -the highest qualities of personal bravery, -very superior physical endurance, unfailing good -temper, and the most generous disposition toward -all comrades-in-arms, whether white or black. -Roosevelt’s Rough Riders have come back singing -the praises of the colored troops. There is -not a dissenting voice in the chorus of praise.... -Men who can fight for their country as -did these colored troops ought to have their full -share of gratitude and honor.”</p> - -<h3>6. <span class="smcap">Carrizal</span></h3> - -<p>In 1916 the United States sent a punitive expedition -under General Pershing into Mexico in -pursuit of the Villa forces which had raided Columbus, -New Mexico. Two Negro regiments, -the 10th Cavalry and the 24th Infantry, were a -part of his expedition. On June 21, Troop C -and K of the 10th Cavalry were ambushed at -Carrizal by some 700 Mexican soldiers. Although -outnumbered almost ten to one, these -black soldiers dismounted in the face of a withering -machine-gun fire, deployed, charged the Mexicans -and killed their commander.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_129"></a>[129]</span></p> - -<p>This handful of men fought on until, of the -three officers commanding them, two were killed -and one was badly wounded. Seventeen of the -men were killed and twenty-three were made -prisoners. One of the many outstanding heroes -of this memorable engagement was Peter Bigstaff, -who fought to the last beside his commander, -Lieutenant Adair. A Southern white -man, with no love for blacks, wrote:</p> - -<p>“The black trooper might have faltered and -fled a dozen times, saving his own life and leaving -Adair to fight alone. But it never seemed to -occur to him. He was a comrade to the last blow. -When Adair’s broken revolver fell from his hand -the black trooper pressed another into it, and together, -shouting in defiance, they thinned the -swooping circle of overwhelming odds before -them.</p> - -<p>“The black man fought in the deadly shambles -side by side with the white man, following always, -fighting always as his lieutenant fought.</p> - -<p>“And finally, when Adair, literally shot to -pieces, fell in his tracks, his last command to his -black trooper was to leave him and save his life. -Even then the heroic Negro paused in the midst -of that Hell of carnage for a final service to his -officer. Bearing a charmed life, he had fought -his way out. He saw that Adair had fallen with<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_130"></a>[130]</span> -his head in the water. With superb loyalty the -black trooper turned and went back to the maelstrom -of death, lifted the head of his superior, -leaned him against a tree and left him there dead -with dignity when it was impossible to serve any -more.</p> - -<p>“There is not a finer piece of soldierly devotion -and heroic comradeship in the history of -modern warfare than that of Henry Adair and -the black trooper who fought by him at Carrizal.”<a id="FNanchor_99" href="#Footnote_99" class="fnanchor">[99]</a></p> - -<h3>7. <span class="smcap">The World War</span></h3> - -<p>Finally we come to the World War the history -of which is not yet written. At first and until the -United States entered the war the Negro figured -as a laborer and a great exodus took place from -the South as we have already noted. Some effort -was made to keep the Negro from the draft but -finally he was called and although constituting -less than a tenth of the population he furnished -13% of the soldiers called to the colors. The registry -for the draft had insulting color discriminations -and determined effort was made to confine -Negroes to stevedore and labor regiments under -white officers. Most of the Negro draftees were -thus sent to the Service of Supplies where they<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_131"></a>[131]</span> -were largely under illiterate whites and suffered -greatly. Finally a camp for training Negro officers -was established and nearly 700 Negroes commissioned, -none of them, however, above the rank -of captain; Charles Young, the highest ranking -Negro graduate of West Point and one of the best -officers in the army was kept from the front, because -being already a colonel with a distinguished -record he would surely have become a general if -sent to France.</p> - -<p>Two Negro divisions were planned, the 92nd -and the 93rd. The 93rd was to be composed of -the Negro National Guard regiments all of whom -had some and one all Negro officers. The latter -division was never organized as a complete division -but four of its regiments were sent to France -and encountered bitter discrimination from the -Americans on account of their Negro officers. -They were eventually brigaded with the French -and saw some of the hardest fighting of the war -in the final drive toward Sedan. They were cited -in General Orders as follows by General Goybet:<a id="FNanchor_100" href="#Footnote_100" class="fnanchor">[100]</a></p> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>“In transmitting to you with legitimate pride the thanks -and congratulations of the General Garnier Duplessis, -allow me, my dear friends of all ranks, Americans and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_132"></a>[132]</span> -French, to thank you from the bottom of my heart as a -chief and a soldier for the expression of gratitude for the -glory which you have lent our good 157th Division. I -had full confidence in you but you have surpassed my -hopes.</p> - -<p>“During these nine days of hard fighting you have -progressed nine kilometers through powerful organized -defenses, taken nearly 600 prisoners, 15 guns of different -calibers, 20 minnewerfers, and nearly 150 machine guns, -secured an enormous amount of engineering material, an -important supply of artillery ammunition, brought down -by your fire three enemy aeroplanes.</p> - -<p>“Your troops have been admirable in their attack. -You must be proud of the courage of your officers and -men; and I consider it an honor to have them under my -command.</p> - -<p>“The bravery and dash of your regiment won the -admiration of the 2nd Moroccan Division who are themselves -versed in warfare. Thanks to you, during those -hard days, the Division was at all times in advance of all -other divisions of the Army Corps. I am sending you -all my thanks and beg you to transmit them to your -subordinates.</p> - -<p>“I called on your wounded. Their morale is higher -than any praise.</p> - -<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Goybet.</span>”</p> - -</div> - -<p>The 92nd Division encountered difficulties in -organization and was never assembled as a Division -until it arrived in France. There it was -finally gotten in shape and took a small part in -the Argonne offensive and in the fight just preceding<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_133"></a>[133]</span> -the armistice. Their Commanding General -said:<a id="FNanchor_101" href="#Footnote_101" class="fnanchor">[101]</a></p> - -<p>“Five months ago today the 92nd Division -landed in France.</p> - -<p>“After seven weeks of training, it took over a -sector in the front line, and since that time some -portion of the Division has been practically continuously -under fire.</p> - -<p>“It participated in the last battle of the war -with creditable success, continuously pressing the -attack against highly organized defensive works. -It advanced successfully on the first day of the -battle, attaining its objectives and capturing prisoners. -This in the face of determined opposition -by an alert enemy, and against rifle, machine-gun -and artillery fire. The issue of the second day’s -battle was rendered indecisive by the order to -cease firing at eleven <span class="allsmcap">A.M.</span>—when the armistice -became effective.”</p> - -<p>With the small chance thus afforded Negro -troops nevertheless made a splendid record and -especially those under Negro officers. If they had -had larger opportunity and less organized prejudice -they would have done much more. Perhaps -their greatest credit is from the fact that they -withstood so bravely and uncomplainingly the barrage -of hatred and offensive prejudice aimed<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_134"></a>[134]</span> -against them. The young Negro officers especially -made a splendid record as to thinking, guiding -leaders of an oppressed group.</p> - -<p>Thus has the black man defended America from -the beginning to the World War. To him our independence -from Europe and slavery is in no small -degree due.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_135"></a>[135]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV<br /> -<span class="smaller">THE EMANCIPATION OF DEMOCRACY</span></h2> - -<p>How the black slave by his incessant struggle to -be free has broadened the basis of democracy -in America and in the world.</p> - -</div> - -<p>Help in exploration, labor unskilled and to -some extent skilled, and fighting, have been the -three gifts which so far we have considered as -having been contributed by black folk to America. -We now turn to a matter more indefinite and yet -perhaps of greater importance.</p> - -<p>Without the active participation of the Negro -in the Civil War, the Union could not have been -saved nor slavery destroyed in the nineteenth century.<a id="FNanchor_102" href="#Footnote_102" class="fnanchor">[102]</a> -Without the help of black soldiers, the -independence of the United States could not have -been gained in the eighteenth century. But the -Negro’s contribution to America was at once more -subtle and important than these things. Dramatically -the Negro is the central thread of American -history. The whole story turns on him whether<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_136"></a>[136]</span> -we think of the dark and flying slave ship in the -sixteenth century, the expanding plantations of the -seventeenth, the swelling commerce of the eighteenth, -or the fight for freedom in the nineteenth. -It was the black man that raised a vision of democracy -in America such as neither Americans nor -Europeans conceived in the eighteenth century and -such as they have not even accepted in the -twentieth century; and yet a conception which -every clear sighted man knows is true and inevitable.</p> - -<h3>1. <span class="smcap">Democracy</span></h3> - -<p>Democracy was not planted full grown in -America. It was a slow growth beginning in -Europe and developing further and more quickly -in America. It did not envisage at first the man -farthest down as a participant in democratic -privilege or even as a possible participant. This -was not simply because of the inability of the -ignorant and degraded to express themselves and -act intelligently and efficiently, but it was a failure -to recognize that the mass of men had any rights -which the better class were bound to respect. Thus -democracy to the world first meant simply the -transfer of privilege and opportunity from waning -to waxing power, from the well-born to the -rich, from the nobility to the merchants. Divine<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_137"></a>[137]</span> -Right of birth yielded the Divine Right of wealth. -Growing industry, business and commerce were -putting economic and social power into the hands -of what we call the middle class. Political opportunity -to correspond with this power was the demand -of the eighteenth century and this was what -the eighteenth century called Democracy. On the -other hand, both in Europe and in America, there -were classes, and large classes, without power and -without consideration whose place in democracy -was inconceivable both to Europeans and Americans. -Among these were the agricultural serfs -and industrial laborers of Europe and the indentured -servants and black slaves of America. -The white serfs, as they were transplanted in -America, began a slow, but in the end, effective -agitation for recognition in American democracy. -And through them has risen the modern American -labor movement. But this movement almost -from the first looked for its triumph along the -ancient paths of aristocracy and sought to raise -the white servant and laborer on the backs of the -black servant and slave. If now the black man -had been inert, unintelligent, submissive, democracy -would have continued to mean in America what it -means so widely still in Europe, the admission of -the powerful to participation in government and -privilege in so far and only in so far as their<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_138"></a>[138]</span> -power becomes irresistible. It would not have -meant a recognition of human beings as such and -the giving of economic and social power to the -powerless.</p> - -<p>It is usually assumed in reading American history -that whatever the Negro has done for -America has been passive and unintelligent, that -he accompanied the explorers as a beast of burden -and accomplished whatever he did by sheer accident; -that he labored because he was driven to -labor and fought because he was made to fight. -This is not true. On the contrary, it was the rise -and growth among the slaves of a determination -to be free and an active part of American democracy -that forced American democracy continually -to look into the depths; that held the faces of -American thought to the inescapable fact that as -long as there was a slave in America, America -could not be a free republic; and more than that: -as long as there were people in America, slave or -nominally free, who could not participate in government -and industry and society as free, intelligent -human beings, our democracy had failed of -its greatest mission.</p> - -<p>This great vision of the black man was, of -course, at first the vision of the few, as visions -always are, but it was always there; it grew continuously -and it developed quickly from wish to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_139"></a>[139]</span> -active determination. One cannot think then of -democracy in America or in the modern world -without reference to the American Negro. The -democracy established in America in the eighteenth -century was not, and was not designed to be, -a democracy of the masses of men and it was thus -singularly easy for people to fail to see the incongruity -of democracy and slavery. It was the -Negro himself who forced the consideration of -this incongruity, who made emancipation inevitable -and made the modern world at least consider -if not wholly accept the idea of a democracy including -men of all races and colors.</p> - -<h3>2. <span class="smcap">Influence on White Thought</span></h3> - -<p>Naturally, at first, it was the passive presence -of the Negro with his pitiable suffering and -sporadic expression of unrest that bothered the -American colonists. Massachusetts and Connecticut -early in the seventeenth century tried to -compromise with their consciences by declaring -that there should be no slavery except of persons -“willingly selling themselves” or “sold to us.” -And these were to have “All the liberties and -Christian usages which the law of God established -in Israel.” Massachusetts even took a strong -stand against proven “man stealing”; but it was -left to a little band of Germans in Pennsylvania,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_140"></a>[140]</span> -in 1688, to make the first clear statement the -moment they looked upon a black slave: “Now, -though they are black, we cannot conceive there is -more liberty to have them slaves than it is to have -other white ones. There is a saying that we shall -do to all men like as we will be done to ourselves, -making no difference of what generation, descent -or color they are. Here is liberty of conscience -which is right and reasonable. Here ought also -to be liberty of the body.”<a id="FNanchor_103" href="#Footnote_103" class="fnanchor">[103]</a></p> - -<p>In the eighteenth century, Sewall of Massachusetts -attacked slavery. From that time down until -1863 man after man and prophet after prophet -spoke against slavery and they spoke not so -much as theorists but as people facing extremely -uncomfortable facts. Oglethorpe would keep -slavery out of Georgia because he saw how the -strength of South Carolina went to defending -themselves against possible slave insurrection -rather than to defending the English colonies -against the Spanish. The matter of baptizing the -heathen whom slavery was supposed to convert -brought tremendous heart searchings and argument -and disputations and explanatory laws -throughout the colonies. Contradictory benevolences -were evident as when the Society for the -Propagation of the Gospel sought to convert the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_141"></a>[141]</span> -Negroes and American legislatures sought to -make the perpetual slavery of the converts sure.</p> - -<p>The religious conscience, especially as it began -to look upon America as a place of freedom and -refuge, was torn by the presence of slavery. Late -in the eighteenth and early in the nineteenth centuries -pressure began to be felt from the more -theoretical philanthropists of Europe and the position -of American philanthropists was made correspondingly -uncomfortable. Benjamin Franklin -pointed out some of the evils of slavery; James -Otis inveighing against England’s economic tyranny -acknowledged the rights of black men. -Patrick Henry said that slavery was “repugnant -to the first impression of right and wrong” and -George Washington hoped slavery might be abolished. -Thomas Jefferson made the celebrated -statement: “Indeed I tremble for my country when -I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot -sleep forever; that considering numbers, nature, -and natural means only, a revolution of the wheel -of fortune, an exchange of situation, is among -possible events; that it may become probable by -supernatural interference! The Almighty has no -attribute which can take side with us in such a -contest.”<a id="FNanchor_104" href="#Footnote_104" class="fnanchor">[104]</a></p> - -<p>Henry Laurens said to his son: “You know, my<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_142"></a>[142]</span> -dear son, I abhor slavery. I was born in a country -where slavery had been established by British -kings and parliaments, as well as by the laws of -that country ages before my existence. I found -the Christian religion and slavery growing under -the same authority and cultivation. I nevertheless -disliked it. In former days there was no combating -the prejudices of men supported by interest; -the day I hope is approaching when, from -principles of gratitude as well as justice, every man -will strive to be foremost in showing his readiness -to comply with the golden rule.”<a id="FNanchor_105" href="#Footnote_105" class="fnanchor">[105]</a></p> - -<p>The first draft of the Declaration of Independence -harangued King George III of Britain for -the presence of slavery in the United States:</p> - -<p>“He has waged cruel war against human nature -itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and -liberty in the persons of a distant people who -never offended him; captivating and carrying -them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to -incur miserable death in their transportation -thither. This piratical warfare, the opprobrium -of Infidel powers, is the warfare of the Christian -king of Great Britain. Determined to keep open -market where men should be bought and sold, he -has prostituted his negative for suppressing every<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_143"></a>[143]</span> -legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this -execrable commerce. And, that this assemblage -of horrors might want no fact of distinguished die, -he is now exciting those very people to rise in arms -among us, and to purchase that liberty of which -he has deprived them, by murdering the people on -whom we also obtruded them; thus paying off -former crimes committed against the liberties of -one people with crimes which he urges them to -commit against the lives of another.”<a id="FNanchor_106" href="#Footnote_106" class="fnanchor">[106]</a></p> - -<p>The final draft of the Declaration said: “We -hold these truths to be self-evident:—that all men -are created equal, that they are endowed by their -Creator with certain inalienable rights; that -among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of -happiness. That to secure these rights, governments -are instituted among men, deriving their -just powers from the consent of the governed.”</p> - -<p>It was afterward argued that Negroes were not -included in this general statement and Judge -Taney in his celebrated decision said in 1857:</p> - -<p>“They had for more than a century before been -regarded as beings of an inferior order, and altogether -unfit to associate with the white race, either -in social or political relations; and so far inferior -that they had no rights which the white man was -bound to respect; and that the Negro might justly<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_144"></a>[144]</span> -and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his benefit....”<a id="FNanchor_107" href="#Footnote_107" class="fnanchor">[107]</a></p> - -<p>This <i>obiter dictum</i> was disputed by equally -learned justices. Justice McLean said in his -opinion:</p> - -<p>“Our independence was a great epoch in the -history of freedom; and while I admit the Government -was not made especially for the colored -race, yet many of them were citizens of the New -England States, and exercised the rights of suffrage -when the Constitution was adopted; and it -was not doubted by any intelligent person that its -tendencies would greatly ameliorate their condition.”<a id="FNanchor_108" href="#Footnote_108" class="fnanchor">[108]</a></p> - -<p>Justice Curtis also said:</p> - -<p>“It has been often asserted, that the Constitution -was made exclusively by and for the white -race. It has already been shown that in five of the -thirteen original States, colored persons then possessed -the elective franchise and were among those -by whom the Constitution was ordained and established. -If so, it is not true, in point of fact, that -the Constitution was made exclusively by the -white race. And that it was made exclusively for -the white race is, in my opinion, not only an -assumption not warranted by anything in the Constitution,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_145"></a>[145]</span> -but contradicted by its opening declaration, -that it was ordained and established by the -people of the United States, for themselves and -their posterity. And, as free colored persons were -then citizens of at least five States, they were -among those for whom and whose posterity the -Constitution was ordained and established.”<a id="FNanchor_109" href="#Footnote_109" class="fnanchor">[109]</a></p> - -<p>After the Revolution came the series of State -acts abolishing slavery, beginning with Vermont -in 1777; and then came the pause and retrogression -followed by the slow but determined rise of -the Cotton Kingdom. But even in that day the -prophets protested. Hezekiah Niles said in 1819: -“We are ashamed of the thing we practice; ... -there is no attribute of Heaven that takes part -with us, and we know it. And in the contest that -must come, and will come, there will be a heap of -sorrows such as the world has rarely seen.”<a id="FNanchor_110" href="#Footnote_110" class="fnanchor">[110]</a> -While the wild preacher, Lorenzo Dow, raised -his cry from the wilderness even in Alabama and -Mississippi, saying: “In the rest of the Southern -States the influence of these Foreigners will be -known and felt in its time, and the seeds from the -HORY ALLIANCE and the DECAPIGANDI, -who have a hand in those grades of Generals, -from the Inquisitor to the Vicar General and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_146"></a>[146]</span> -down.... The STRUGGLE will be DREADFUL! -The CUP will be BITTER! and when the -agony is over, those who survive may see better -days! FAREWELL!”<a id="FNanchor_111" href="#Footnote_111" class="fnanchor">[111]</a> Finally came William -Lloyd Garrison and John Brown.</p> - -<h3>3. <span class="smcap">Insurrection</span></h3> - -<p>It may be said, and it usually has been said, that -all this showed the natural conscience and humanity -of white Americans protesting and eventually -triumphing over political and economic temptations. -But to this must be added the inescapable -fact that the attitude, thought and action of -the Negro himself was in the largest measure back -of this heart searching, discomfort and warning; -and first of all was the physical force which the -Negro again and again and practically without -ceasing from the first days of the slave trade down -to the war of emancipation, used to effect his own -freedom.</p> - -<p>We must remember that the slave trade itself -was war; that from surreptitious kidnapping of the -unsuspecting it was finally organized so as to set -African tribes warring against tribes, giving the -conquerors the actual aid of European or Arabian -soldiers and the tremendous incentive of high<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_147"></a>[147]</span> -prices for results of successful wars through the -selling of captives. The captives themselves -fought to the last ditch. It is estimated that every -single slave finally landed upon a slave ship meant -five corpses either left behind in Africa or lost -through rebellion, suicide, sickness, and murder on -the high seas. This which is so often looked upon -as passive calamity was one of the most terrible -and vindictive and unceasing struggles against misfortune -that a group of human beings ever put -forth. It cost Negro Africa perhaps sixty million -souls to land ten million slaves in America.</p> - -<p>The first influence of the Negro on American -Democracy was naturally force to oppose force—revolt, -murder, assassination coupled with running -away. It was the primitive, ancient effort to -avenge blood with blood, to bring good out of -evil by opposing evil with evil. Whether right or -wrong, effective or abortive, it is the human answer -to oppression which the world has tried for -thousands of years.</p> - -<p>Two facts stand out in American history with -regard to slave insurrections: on the one hand, -there is no doubt of the continuous and abiding -fear of them. The slave legislation of the Southern -States is filled with ferocious efforts to guard -against this. Masters were everywhere given peremptory -and unquestioned power to kill a slave or<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_148"></a>[148]</span> -even a white servant who should “resist his -master.” The Virginia law of 1680 said: “If any -Negro or other slave shall absent himself from -his master’s service and lie, hide and lurk in obscure -places, committing injuries to the inhabitants, -and shall resist any person or persons that -shall by lawful authority be employed to apprehend -and take the said Negro, that then, in case -of such resistance, it shall be lawful for such person -or persons to kill the said Negro or slave so -lying out and resisting.”<a id="FNanchor_112" href="#Footnote_112" class="fnanchor">[112]</a></p> - -<p>In 1691 and in 1748, there were Virginia acts -to punish conspiracies and insurrections of slaves. -In 1708 and in 1712 New York had laws against -conspiracies and insurrections of Negroes. North -Carolina passed such a law in 1741, and South -Carolina in 1743 was legislating “against the insurrection -and other wicked attempts of Negroes -and other slaves.” The Mississippi code of 1839 -provides for slave insurrections “with arms in the -intent to regain their liberty by force.” Virginia in -1797 decreed death for any one exciting slaves to -insurrection. In 1830 North Carolina made it a -felony to incite insurrection among slaves. The -penal code of Texas, passed in 1857, had a severe -section against insurrection.<a id="FNanchor_113" href="#Footnote_113" class="fnanchor">[113]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_149"></a>[149]</span></p> - -<p>Such legislation, common in every slave state, -could not have been based on mere idle fear, -and when we follow newspaper comment, debates -and arguments and the history of insurrections -and attempted insurrections among slaves, we -easily see the reason. No sooner had the Negroes -landed in America than resistance to slavery began.</p> - -<p>As early as 1503 the Governor of Hispaniola -stopped the transportation of Negroes “because -they fled to the Indians and taught them bad manners -and they could never be apprehended.” In -1518 in the sugar mills of Haiti the Negroes “quit -working and fled whenever they could in squads -and started rebellions and committed murders.” -In 1522 there was a rebellion on the sugar plantations. -Twenty Negroes from Diego Columbus’ -mill fled and killed several Spaniards. They -joined with other rebellious Negroes on neighboring -plantations. In 1523 many Negro slaves “fled -to the Zapoteca and walked rebelliously through -the country.” In 1527 there was an uprising of -Indians and Negroes in Florida. In 1532 the -Wolofs and other rebellious Negroes caused insurrection -among the Carib Indians. These Wolofs -were declared to be “haughty, disobedient, rebellious -and incorrigible.” In 1548 there was a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_150"></a>[150]</span> -rebellion in Honduras and the Viceroy Mendoza -in Mexico writes of an uprising among the slaves -and Indians in 1537.<a id="FNanchor_114" href="#Footnote_114" class="fnanchor">[114]</a> One of the most remarkable -cases of resistance was the establishment and -defense of Palmares in Brazil where 40 determined -Negroes in 1560 established a city state -which lived for nearly a half century growing to a -population of 20,000 and only overthrown when -7,000 soldiers with artillery were sent against it. -The Chiefs committed suicide rather than surrender.<a id="FNanchor_115" href="#Footnote_115" class="fnanchor">[115]</a></p> - -<p>Early in the sixteenth century and from that -time down until the nineteenth the black rebels -whom the Spanish called “Cimarrones” and whom -we know as “Maroons” were infesting the mountains -and forests of the West Indies and South -America. Gage says between 1520 and 1530: -“What the Spaniards fear most until they get out of -these mountains are two or three hundred Negroes, -Cimarrones, who for the bad treatment they received -have fled from masters in order to resort -to these woods; there they live with their wives -and children and increase in numbers every year, -so that the entire force of Guatemala (City) and -its environments is not capable to subdue them.”<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_151"></a>[151]</span> -Gage himself was captured by a mulatto corsair -who was sweeping the seas in his own ship.<a id="FNanchor_116" href="#Footnote_116" class="fnanchor">[116]</a></p> - -<p>The history of these Maroons reads like romance.<a id="FNanchor_117" href="#Footnote_117" class="fnanchor">[117]</a> -When England took Jamaica, in 1565, -they found the mountains infested with Maroons -whom they fought for ten years and finally, in -1663, acknowledged their freedom, gave them -land and made their leader, Juan de Bolas, a -colonel in the militia. He was killed, however, in -the following year and from 1664 to 1778 some -3,000 black Maroons were in open rebellion -against the British Empire. The English fought -them with soldiers, Indians, and dogs and finally -again, in 1738, made a formal treaty of peace with -them, recognizing their freedom and granting -them 25,000 acres of land. The war again broke -out in 1795 and blood-hounds were again imported. -The legislature wished to deport them -but as they could not get their consent, peace was -finally made on condition that the Maroons surrender -their arms and settle down. No sooner, -however, had they done this than the whites -treacherously seized 600 of them and sent them to -Nova Scotia. The Legislature voted a sword to -the English general, who made the treaty; but he -indignantly refused to accept it. Eventually these<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_152"></a>[152]</span> -Maroons were removed to Sierra Leone where -they saved that colony to the British by helping -them put down an insurrection.</p> - -<p>In the United States insurrection and attempts -at insurrection among the slaves extended from -Colonial times down to the Civil War. For the -most part they were unsuccessful. In many cases -the conspiracies were insignificant in themselves -but exaggerated by fear of the owners. And yet -a record of the attempts at revolt large and small -is striking.</p> - -<p>In Virginia there was a conspiracy in 1710 in -Surrey County. In 1712 the City of New York -was threatened with burning by slaves. In 1720 -whites were attacked in the homes and on the -streets in Charleston, S. C. In 1730 both in South -Carolina and Virginia, slaves were armed to kill -the white people and they planned to burn the City -of Boston in 1723. In 1730 there was an insurrection -in Williamsburg, Va., and five counties furnished -armed men. In 1730 and 1731 homes were -burned by slaves in Massachusetts and in Rhode -Island and in 1731 and 1732 three ships crews -were murdered by slaves. In 1729 the Governor -of Louisiana reported that in an expedition sent -against the Indians, fifteen Negroes had “performed -prodigies of valor.” But the very next -year the Indians, led by a desperate Negro named<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_153"></a>[153]</span> -Samba, were trying to exterminate the whites.<a id="FNanchor_118" href="#Footnote_118" class="fnanchor">[118]</a> -In 1741 an insurrection of slaves was planned in -New York City, for which thirteen slaves were -burned, eighteen hanged and eighty transported. -In 1754 and 1755 slaves burned and poisoned certain -masters in Charleston, S. C.<a id="FNanchor_119" href="#Footnote_119" class="fnanchor">[119]</a></p> - -<h3>4. <span class="smcap">Haiti and After</span></h3> - -<p>On the night of August 23, 1791, the great -Haitian rebellion took place. It had been preceded -by a small rebellion of the mulattoes who -were bitterly disappointed at the refusal of the -planters to assent to what the free Negroes -thought were the basic principles of the French -Revolution. When 450,000 slaves joined them, -they began a murderous civil war seldom paralleled -in history. French, English and Spaniards -participated. Toussaint, the first great black -leader, was deceived, imprisoned and died perhaps -by poisoning. Twenty-five thousand French soldiers -were sent over by Napoleon Bonaparte to -subdue the Negroes and begin the extension of his -American empire through the West Indies and up -the Mississippi valley. Despite all this, the -Negroes were triumphant, established an independent<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_154"></a>[154]</span> -state, made Napoleon give up his dream -of American empire and sell Louisiana for a -song:<a id="FNanchor_120" href="#Footnote_120" class="fnanchor">[120]</a> “Thus, all of Indian Territory, all of -Kansas and Nebraska and Iowa and Wyoming and -Montana and the Dakotas, and most of Colorado -and Minnesota, and all of Washington and Oregon -states, came to us as the indirect work of a -despised Negro. Praise if you will, the work of -Robert Livingston or a Jefferson, but today let -us not forget our debt to Toussaint L’Ouverture -who was indirectly the means of America’s expansion -by the Louisiana Purchase of 1803.”<a id="FNanchor_121" href="#Footnote_121" class="fnanchor">[121]</a></p> - -<p>The Haitian revolution immediately had its -effect upon both North and South America. We -have read how Haitian volunteers helped in the -American revolution. They returned to fight for -their own freedom. Afterward when Bolivar, the -founder of five free republics in South America, -undertook his great rebellion in 1811 he at first -failed. He took refuge in Jamaica and implored -the help of England but was unsuccessful. Later -in despair he visited Haiti. The black republic -was itself at that time in a precarious position and -had to act with great caution. Nevertheless President -Pétion furnished Bolivar, soldiers, arms and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_155"></a>[155]</span> -money. Bolivar embarked secretly and again -sought to free South America. Again he failed -and a second time returned to Haiti. Money and -reinforcements were a second time furnished him -and with the help of these achieved the liberation -of Mexico and Central America.</p> - -<p>Thus black Haiti not only freed itself but -helped to kindle liberty all through America. -Refugees from Haiti and San Domingo poured -into the United States both colored and white and -had great influence in Maryland and Louisiana.<a id="FNanchor_122" href="#Footnote_122" class="fnanchor">[122]</a> -Moreover the news of the black revolt filtered -through to the slaves in the United States. Here -the chains of slavery were stronger and the number -of whites much larger. As I have said in -another place: “A long, awful process of selection -chose out the listless, ignorant, sly and humble and -sent to heaven the proud, the vengeful and the -daring. The old African warrior spirit died away -of violence and a broken heart.”<a id="FNanchor_123" href="#Footnote_123" class="fnanchor">[123]</a></p> - -<p>Nevertheless a series of attempted rebellions -took place which can be traced to the influence of -Haiti. In 1800 came the Prosser conspiracy in -Virginia which planned a force of 11,000 Negroes -to march in three columns in the city and seize the -arsenal. A terrific storm thwarted these men and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_156"></a>[156]</span> -thirty-six were executed for the attempt. In 1791 -Negroes of Louisiana sought to imitate Toussaint -leading to the execution of twenty-three slaves. -Other smaller attempts were made in South Carolina -in 1816 and in Georgia in 1819. In 1822 -came the celebrated attempt of Denmark Vesey, -an educated freedman who through his trade as -carpenter accumulated considerable wealth. He -spoke French and English and was familiar with -the Haitian revolution, the African Colonization -scheme and the agitation attending the Missouri -compromise. He openly discussed slavery and -ridiculed the slaves for their cowardice and submission; -he worked through the church and -planned the total annihilation of the men, women -and children of Charleston. Thousands of slaves -were enrolled but one betrayed him and this led -to the arrest of 137 blacks of whom 35 were -hanged and 37 banished. A white South Carolinian -writing after this plot said: “We regard our -Negroes as the Jacobins of the country, against -whom we should always be upon our guard and -who although we fear no permanent effects from -any insurrectionary movements on their part, -should be watched with an eye of steady and unremitted -observation.”<a id="FNanchor_124" href="#Footnote_124" class="fnanchor">[124]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_157"></a>[157]</span></p> - -<p>Less than ten years elapsed before another insurrection -was planned and partially carried -through. Its leader was Nat Turner, a slave born -in Virginia in 1800. He was precocious and considered -as “marked” by the Negroes. He had -experimented in making paper, gun powder and -pottery; never swore, never drank and never stole. -For the most part he was a sort of religious devotee, -fasting and praying and reading the Bible. -Once he ran away but was commanded by spirit -voices to return. By 1825 he was conscious of a -great mission and on May 12, 1831, “a great -voice said unto him that the serpent was loosed, -that Christ had laid down the yoke.” He believed -that he, Nat Turner, was to lead the movement -and that “the first should be last and the last first.” -An eclipse of the sun in February, 1831 was a further -sign to him. He worked quickly. Gathering -six friends together August 21, they made their -plans and then started the insurrection by killing -Nat’s master and the family. About forty Negroes -were gathered in all and they killed sixty-one -white men, women and children. They were -headed toward town when finally the whites began -to arm in opposition. It was not, however, -until two months later, October 30, that Turner -himself was captured. He was tried November 5 -and sentenced to be hanged. When asked if he<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_158"></a>[158]</span> -believed in the righteousness of his mission he -replied “Was not Christ crucified?” He made no -confession.<a id="FNanchor_125" href="#Footnote_125" class="fnanchor">[125]</a></p> - -<p>T. R. Grey—Turner’s attorney—said “As to -his ignorance, he certainly had not the advantages -of education, but he can read and write and for -natural intelligence and quickness of apprehension -is surpassed by few men I have ever seen. Further -the calm, deliberate composure with which he -spoke of his late deeds and intentions, the expression -of his fiend-like face when excited by enthusiasm; -still bearing the stains of the blood of helpless -innocence about him; clothed with rags and -covered with chains, yet daring to raise his manacled -hands to heaven; with a spirit soaring above -the attributes of man, I looked on him and my -blood curdled in my veins.”<a id="FNanchor_126" href="#Footnote_126" class="fnanchor">[126]</a></p> - -<p>Panic seized the whole of Virginia and the -South. Military companies were mobilized, both -whites and Negroes fled to the swamps, slaves -were imprisoned and even as far down as Macon, -Ga., the white women and children were guarded -in a building against supposed insurrections. New -slave codes were adopted, new disabilities put -upon freedmen, the carrying of fire arms was especially -forbidden. The Negro churches in the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_159"></a>[159]</span> -South were almost stopped from functioning and -the Negro preachers from preaching. Traveling -and meeting of slaves was stopped, learning to -read and write was forbidden and incendiary -pamphlets hunted down. Free Negroes were -especially hounded, sold into slavery or driven out -and a period of the worst oppression of the Negro -in the land followed.</p> - -<p>In 1839 and 1841 two cases of mutiny of slaves -on the high seas caused much commotion in -America. In 1839 a schooner, the Amistad, -started from Havana for another West Indian -port with 53 slaves. Led by a black man, Cinque, -the slaves rose, killed the captain and some of the -crew, allowed the rest of the crew to escape and -put the two owners in irons. The Negroes then -tried to escape to Africa, but after about two -months they landed in Connecticut and a celebrated -law case arose over the disposition of the -black mutineers which went to the Supreme Court -of the United States. John Quincy Adams defended -them and won his case. Eventually money -was raised and the Negroes returned to Africa. -While this case was in the court the brig Creole -in 1841 sailed from Richmond to New Orleans -with 130 slaves. Nineteen of the slaves mutinied -and led by Madison Washington took command -of the vessel and sailed to the British West Indies.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_160"></a>[160]</span> -Daniel Webster demanded the return of the -slaves but the British authorities refused.</p> - -<p>During these years, rebellion and agitation -among Negroes, and agitation among white -friends in Europe, was rapidly freeing the Negroes -of the West Indies and beginning their incorporation -into the body politic—a process not -yet finished but which means possibly the eventual -development of a free black and mulatto republic -in the isles of the Caribbean.</p> - -<p>It may be said that in most of these cases the -attempts of the Negro to rebel were abortive, and -this is true. Yet it must be remembered that in a -few cases they had horrible success; in others -nothing but accident or the actions of favorite -slaves saved similar catastrophe, and more and -more the white South had the feeling that it was -sitting upon a volcano and that nothing but the -sternest sort of repression would keep the Negro -“in his place.” The appeal of the Negro to force -invited reaction and retaliation not only in the -South, as we have noted, but also in the North. -Here the common white workingman and particularly -the new English, Scotch and Irish immigrants -entirely misconceived the writhing of the black -man. These white laborers, themselves so near -slavery, did not recognize the struggle of the -black slave as part of their own struggle; rather<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_161"></a>[161]</span> -they felt the sting of economic rivalry and underbidding -for home and job; they easily absorbed -hatred and contempt for Negroes as their first -American lesson and were flattered by the white -capitalists, slave owners and sympathizers with -slavery into lynching and clubbing their dark fellow -victims back into the pit whence they sought -to crawl. It was a scene for angels’ tears.</p> - -<p>In 1826 Negroes were attacked in Cincinnati -and also in 1836 and 1841. At Portsmouth, Ohio, -nearly one-half of the Negroes were driven -out of the city in 1830 while mobs drove -away free Negroes from Mercer County, Ohio. -In Philadelphia, Negroes were attacked in 1820, -1830 and 1834, having their churches and property -burned and ruined. In 1838 there was -another anti-Negro riot and in 1842, when the -blacks attempted to celebrate abolition in the -West Indies. Pittsburg had a riot in 1839 and -New York in 1843 and 1863.<a id="FNanchor_127" href="#Footnote_127" class="fnanchor">[127]</a></p> - -<p>Thus we can see that the fear and heart searchings -and mental upheaval of those who saw the -anomaly of slavery in the United States was based -not only upon theoretical democracy but on force -and fear of force as used by the degraded blacks, -and on the reaction of that appeal on southern -legislatures and northern mobs.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_162"></a>[162]</span></p> - -<h3>5. <span class="smcap">The Appeal to Reason</span></h3> - -<p>The appeal of the Negro to democracy, however, -was not entirely or perhaps even principally -an appeal of force. There was continually the -appeal to reason and justice. Take the significant -case of Paul Cuffee of Massachusetts, born in -1759, of a Negro father and Indian mother. -When the selectmen of the town of Dartmouth -refused to admit colored children to the public -schools, or even to make separate provision for -them, he refused to pay his school taxes. He was -duly imprisoned, but when freed he built at his -own expense a school house and opened it to all -without race discrimination. His white neighbors -were glad to avail themselves of this school as it -was more convenient and just as good as the school -in town. The result was that the colored children -were soon admitted to all schools. Cuffee was a -ship owner and trader, and afterward took a -colony to Liberia at his own expense.<a id="FNanchor_128" href="#Footnote_128" class="fnanchor">[128]</a> Again -Prince Hall, the Negro founder of the African -Lodge of Masons which the English set up in -1775, aroused by the revolution in Haiti and a -race riot in Boston said in 1797:</p> - -<p>“Patience, I say, for were we not possessed of a -great measure of it you could not bear up under<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_163"></a>[163]</span> -the daily insults you meet with in the streets of -Boston; much more on public days of recreation, -how are you shamefully abused, and that at such a -degree that you may truly be said to carry your -lives in your own hands....</p> - -<p>“My brethren, let us not be cast down under -these and many other abuses we at present labor -under; for the darkest hour is before the break of -day. My brethren, let us remember what a dark -day it was with our African brethren six years ago, -in the French West Indies.... But blessed be -to God, the scene is changed, they now confess -that God hath no respect of persons, and therefore -receive them as their friends and treat them -as brothers. Thus doth Ethiopia begin to -stretch forth her hand from a sink of slavery to -freedom and equality.”<a id="FNanchor_129" href="#Footnote_129" class="fnanchor">[129]</a></p> - -<p>A more subtle appeal was made by seven -Massachusetts Negroes on taxation without representation. -In a petition to the General Court of -Massachusetts in 1780 they said: “We being -chiefly of the African extract, and by reason of -long bondage and hard slavery, we have been -deprived of enjoying the profits of our labor or -the advantage of inheriting estates from our parents, -as our neighbors the white people do, having<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_164"></a>[164]</span> -some of us not long enjoyed our own freedom; -yet of late, contrary to the invariable custom and -practice of the country, we have been, and now -are, taxed both in our polls and that small pittance -of estate which, through much hard labor -and industry, we have got together to sustain ourselves -and families withall. We apprehend it -therefore, to be hard usage, and will doubtless (if -continued) reduce us to a state of beggary, -whereby we shall become a burden to others, if not -timely prevented by the interposition of your -justice and power.</p> - -<p>“Your petitioners further show, that we apprehend -ourselves to be aggrieved, in that, while we -are not allowed the privilege of free men of the -State, having no vote or influence in the election -of those that tax us, yet many of our color (as is -well known) have cheerfully entered the field of -battle in the defence of the common cause, and -that (as we conceive) against similar exertion of -power (in regard to taxation) too well known to -need a recital in this place.”<a id="FNanchor_130" href="#Footnote_130" class="fnanchor">[130]</a></p> - -<p>Perhaps though the most startling appeal and -challenge came from David Walker, a free Negro, -born of a free mother and slave father in North -Carolina in 1785. He had some education, had -traveled widely and conducted a second-hand<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_165"></a>[165]</span> -clothing store in Boston in 1827. He spoke to -various audiences of Negroes in 1828 and the -following year published the celebrated “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.” It was a thin volume of 76 octavol -pages, but it was frank and startlingly clear:</p> - -<p>“Can our condition be any worse? Can it be -more mean and abject? If there are any changes, -will they not be for the better though they may -appear for the worst at first? Can they get us any -lower? Where can they get us? They cannot -treat us worse; for they well know the day they do -it they are gone. But against all accusations which -may or can be preferred against me, I appeal to -heaven for my motive in writing—who knows that -my object is if possible to awaken in the breasts -of my afflicted, degraded and slumbering brethren -a spirit of enquiry and investigation respecting our -miseries and wretchedness in this Republican land -of Liberty!!!!</p> - -<p>“My beloved brethren:—The Indians of North -and South America—the Greeks—the Irish, subjected -under the King of Great Britain—the Jews, -that ancient people of the Lord—the inhabitants -of the Islands of the Sea—in fine, all the inhabitants -of the Earth, (except, however, the sons of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_166"></a>[166]</span> -Africa) are called men and of course are and -ought to be free.—But we, (colored people) and -our children are brutes and of course are and -ought to be slaves to the American people and -their children forever—to dig their mines and -work their farms; and thus go on enriching them -from one generation to another with our blood -and our tears!!!!</p> - -<p>“I saw a paragraph, a few years since, in a -South Carolina paper, which, speaking of the barbarity -of the Turks, it said: ‘The Turks are the -most barbarous people in the world—they treat -the Greeks more like brutes than human beings.’ -And in the same paper was an advertisement -which said: ‘Eight well built Virginia and Maryland -Negro fellows and four wenches will positively -be sold this day to the highest bidder!’</p> - -<p>“Beloved brethren—here let me tell you, and -believe it, that the Lord our God as true as He -sits on His throne in heaven and as true as our -Saviour died to redeem the world, will give you a -Hannibal, and when the Lord shall have raised -him up and given him to you for your possession, -Oh! my suffering brethren, remember the divisions -and consequent sufferings of Carthage and of -Haiti. Read the history particularly of Haiti and -see how they were butchered by the whites and -do you take warning. The person whom God<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_167"></a>[167]</span> -shall give you, give him your support and let him -go his length and behold in him the salvation of -your God. God will indeed deliver you through -him from your deplorable and wretched condition -under the Christians of America. I charge you -this day before my God to lay no obstacle in his -way, but let him go.... What the American -preachers can think of us, I aver this day before -my God I have never been able to define. They -have newspapers and monthly periodicals which -they receive in continual succession but on the -pages of which you will scarcely ever find a paragraph -respecting slavery which is ten thousand -times more injurious to this country than all the -other evils put together; and which will be the -final overthrow of its government unless something -is very speedily done; for their cup is nearly -full.—Perhaps they will laugh at or make light -of this; but I tell you, Americans! that unless you -speedily alter your course, you and your Country -are gone!</p> - -<p>“Do you understand your own language? Hear -your language proclaimed to the world, July 4, -1776—‘We hold these truths to be self evident—that -ALL men are created EQUAL!! That they -are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable -rights; that among these are life, liberty -and the pursuit of happiness!!! Compare your<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_168"></a>[168]</span> -own language above, extracted from your Declaration -of Independence, with your cruelties and murders -inflicted by your cruel and unmerciful fathers -and yourselves on our fathers and on us—men -who have never given your fathers or you the -least provocation!!!</p> - -<p>“Now Americans! I ask you candidly, was -your suffering under Great Britain one hundredth -part as cruel and tyrannical as you have rendered -ours under you? Some of you, no doubt, believe -that we will never throw off your murderous government -and provide new guards for our future -‘security’. If Satan has made you believe it, will -he not deceive you?”</p> - -<p>The book had a remarkable career. It -appeared in September, was in a third edition by -the following March and aroused the South to -fury. Special laws were passed and demands made -that Walker be punished. He died in 1830, possibly -by foul play.</p> - -<h3>6. <span class="smcap">The Fugitive Slave</span></h3> - -<p>Beside force and the appeal to reason there was -a third method which practically was more effective -and decisive for eventual abolition, and that -was the escape from slavery through running -away. On the islands this meant escape to the -mountains and existence as brigands. In South<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_169"></a>[169]</span> -America it meant escape to the almost impenetrable -forest.</p> - -<p>As I have said elsewhere:<a id="FNanchor_131" href="#Footnote_131" class="fnanchor">[131]</a></p> - -<p>“One thing saved the South from the blood -sacrifice of Haiti—not, to be sure, from so successful -a revolt, for the disproportion of races was -less, but from a desperate and bloody effort—and -that was the escape of the fugitive.</p> - -<p>“Along the Great Black Way stretched swamps -and rivers and the forests and crests of the Alleghanies. -A widening, hurrying stream of fugitives -swept to the havens of refuge, taking the restless, -the criminal and the unconquered—the natural -leaders of the more timid mass. These men saved -slavery and killed it. They saved it by leaving it -to a false seductive dream of peace and the eternal -subjugation of the laboring class. They destroyed -it by presenting themselves before the -eyes of the North and the world as living specimens -of the real meaning of slavery.”</p> - -<p>“Three paths were opened to the slaves: to -submit, to fight or to run away. Most of them -submitted, as do most people everywhere, to force -and fate. To fight singly meant death and to -fight together meant plot and insurrection—a -difficult thing, but one often tried. Easiest of all -was to run away, for the land was wide and bare<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_170"></a>[170]</span> -and the slaves were many. At first they ran to -the swamps and mountains and starved and died. -Then they ran to the Indians and in Florida -founded a nation, to overthrow which cost the -United States $20,000,000 and more in slave raids -known as the Seminole ‘wars.’ Then gradually, -after the War of 1812 had used so many black -sailors to fight for free trade that the Negroes -learned of the North and Canada as cities of -refuge, they fled northward.”</p> - -<p>From the sixteenth century Florida Indians had -Negro blood, but from early part of the nineteenth -century the Seminoles gained a large new -infiltration of Negro blood from the numbers of -slaves who fled to them and with whom they intermarried. -The first Seminole war, therefore, in -1818 was not simply a defense of the frontiers -against the Indians and a successful raid to drive -Spain from Florida, it was also a slave raid by -Georgia owners determined to have back their -property. By 1815 Negroes from Georgia among -the Creeks and Seminoles numbered not less than -11,000 and were settled along the Appalachicola -river, many of them with good farms and with -a so-called Negro “fort” for protection. The -war was disastrous to Negroes and Indians but not -fatal and in 1822 some 800 Negroes were counted -among the Indians who inhabited the new territory<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_171"></a>[171]</span> -seized from Spain. Pressure to secure alleged -fugitives and Negroes from the Indians was kept -up for the next three years and the second Seminole -war broke out because the whites treacherously -seized the mulatto wife of the Indian chief -Osceola. The war broke out in 1837 and its real -nature, as a New Orleans paper said in 1839, was -to subdue the Seminoles and decrease the danger -of uprisings “among the serviles.” Finally after -a total cost of twenty million dollars the Indians -were subdued and moved to the West and a part -of the Negroes driven back into slavery, but not -all.<a id="FNanchor_132" href="#Footnote_132" class="fnanchor">[132]</a></p> - -<p>Through the organization which came to be -known as the Underground Railroad, thousands -of slaves escaped through Kentucky and into the -Middle West and thence into Canada and also by -way of the Appalachian Mountains into Pennsylvania -and the East. Not only were they helped -by white abolitionists but they were guided by -black men and women like Joshua Henson and -Harriet Tubman.</p> - -<p>Beside this there came the effort for emigration -to Africa which was very early suggested. Two -colored men sailed from New York for Africa in -1774 but the Revolutionary War stopped the -effort thus begun. The Virginia legislature in<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_172"></a>[172]</span> -secret session after Gabriel’s insurrection in 1800, -tried to suggest the buying of some land for the -colonization of free Negroes, following the proposal -of Thomas Jefferson made in 1781. Paul -Cuffee, mentioned above, started the actual migration -in 1815 carrying nine colored families, thirty-eight -persons in all, to Sierra Leone at an expense -of $4,000 which he paid himself. Finally came -the American Colonization Society in 1817 but it -was immediately turned from a real effort to abolish -slavery gradually into an effort to get rid of free -Negroes and obstreperous slaves. Even the South -saw it and Robert Y. Hayne said in Congress: -“While this process is going on, the colored classes -are gradually diffusing themselves throughout the -country and are making steady advances in intelligence -and refinement and if half the zeal were displayed -in bettering their condition that is now -wasted in the vain and fruitless effort of sending -them abroad, their intellectual and moral improvement -would be steady and rapid.”</p> - -<h3>7. <span class="smcap">Bargaining</span></h3> - -<p>The Negro early learned a lesson which he may -yet teach the modern world and which may prove -his crowning gift to America and the world: Force -begets force and you cannot in the end run away -successfully from the world’s problems. The<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_173"></a>[173]</span> -Negro early developed the shrewd foresight of -recognizing the fact that as a minority of black -folk in a growing white country, he could not win -his battle by force. Moreover, for the mass of -Negroes it was impracticable to run away and find -refuge in some other land.</p> - -<p>Even the appeal to reason had its limitations in -an unreasoning land. It could not unfortunately -base itself on justice and right in the midst of the -selfish, breathless battle to earn a living. There -was however a chance to prove that justice and -self interest sometimes go hand in hand. Force -and flight might sometimes help but there was still -the important method of co-operating with the -best forces of the nation in order to help them to -win and in order to prove that the Negro was a -valuable asset, not simply as a laborer but as a -worker for social uplift, as an American. Sometimes -this co-operation was in simple and humble -ways and nevertheless striking. There was, for -instance, the yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia -in 1793. The blacks were not suffering from it or -at least not supposed to suffer from it as much as -the whites. The papers appealed to them to come -forward and help with the sick. Led by Jones, -Gray and Allen, Negroes volunteered their services -and worked with the sick and in burying the -dead, even spending some of their own funds in<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_174"></a>[174]</span> -the gruesome duty. The same thing happened -much later in New Orleans, Memphis and Cuba.</p> - -<p>In larger ways it must be remembered that the -Abolition crusade itself could not have been successful -without the co-operation of Negroes. -Black folk like Remond, Frederick Douglass, and -Sojourner Truth, were not simply advocates for -freedom but were themselves living refutations of -the whole doctrine of slavery. Their appeal was -tremendous in its efficiency and besides, the free -Negroes helped by work and money to spread the -Abolition campaign.<a id="FNanchor_133" href="#Footnote_133" class="fnanchor">[133]</a></p> - -<p>In addition to this there was much deliberate -bargaining,—careful calculation on the part of the -Negro that if the whites would aid them, they in -turn would aid the whites at critical times and -that otherwise they would not. Much of this -went on at the time of the Revolution and was -clearly recognized by the whites.</p> - -<p>Alexander Hamilton (himself probably of -Negro descent) said in 1779: “The contempt we -have been taught to entertain for the blacks makes -us fancy many things that are founded neither in -reason nor experience; and an unwillingness to -part with property of so valuable a kind will furnish -a thousand arguments to show the impracticability<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_175"></a>[175]</span> -or pernicious tendency of a scheme which -requires such a sacrifice. But it should be considered -that if we do not make use of them in this -way, the enemy probably will; and that the best -way to counteract the temptations they will hold -out will be to offer them ourselves. An essential -part of the plan is to give them their freedom -with their muskets. This will secure their fidelity, -animate their courage, and, I believe, will have a -good influence upon those who remain by opening -a door to their emancipation. This circumstance, -I confess, has no small weight in inducing me to -wish the success of the project; for the dictates of -humanity and true policy equally interest me in -favor of this unfortunate class of men.”<a id="FNanchor_134" href="#Footnote_134" class="fnanchor">[134]</a></p> - -<p>Dr. Hopkins wrote in 1776: “God is so ordering -it in His providence that it seems absolutely necessary -something should speedily be done with respect -to the slaves among us in order to our safety -and to prevent their turning against us in our -present struggle in order to get their liberty. Our -oppressors have planned to gain the blacks and -induce them to take up arms against us by promising -them liberty on this condition; and this plan -they are prosecuting to the utmost of their power.... -The only way pointed out to prevent this -threatening evil is to set the blacks at liberty ourselves<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_176"></a>[176]</span> -by some public acts and laws; and then give -them proper encouragement to labor or take arms -in the defense of the American cause, as they shall -choose. This would at once be doing them some -degree of justice and defeating our enemies in the -scheme they are prosecuting.”<a id="FNanchor_135" href="#Footnote_135" class="fnanchor">[135]</a></p> - -<p>When Dunmore appealed to the slaves of Virginia -at the beginning of the Revolution, the -slave owners issued an almost plaintive counter -appeal:</p> - -<p>“Can it, then, be supposed that the Negroes will -be better used by the English who have always -encouraged and upheld this slavery than by their -present masters who pity their condition; who -wish, in general, to make it easy and comfortable -as possible; and who would, were it in their power, -or were they permitted, not only prevent any -more Negroes from losing their freedom but restore -it to such as have already unhappily lost -it?”<a id="FNanchor_136" href="#Footnote_136" class="fnanchor">[136]</a></p> - -<p>In the South, where Negroes for the most part -were not received as soldiers, the losses of the -slaveholders by defection among the slaves was -tremendous. John Adams says that the Georgia -delegates gave him “a melancholy account of the -State of Georgia and South Carolina. They said<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_177"></a>[177]</span> -if one thousand regular troops should land in -Georgia and their commander be provided with -arms and clothes enough and proclaim freedom to -all the Negroes who would join his camp, twenty -thousand Negroes would join it from the two -provinces in a fortnight. The Negroes have a -wonderful art of communicating intelligence -among themselves; it will run several hundreds of -miles in a week or fortnight. They said their only -security was this,—that all the King’s friends and -tools of Government have large plantations and -property in Negroes, so that the slaves of the -Tories would be lost as well as those of the -Whigs.”<a id="FNanchor_137" href="#Footnote_137" class="fnanchor">[137]</a></p> - -<p>Great Britain, after Cornwallis surrendered, -even dreamed of reconquering America with -Negroes. A Tory wrote to Lord Dunmore in -1782:</p> - -<p>“If, my Lord, this scheme is adopted, arranged -and ready for being put in execution, the moment -the troops penetrate into the country after the -arrival of the promised re-enforcements, America -is to be conquered with its own force (I mean the -Provincial troops and the black troops to be -raised), and the British and Hessian army could -be spared to attack the French where they are -most vulnerable....”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_178"></a>[178]</span></p> - -<p>“‘What! Arm the slaves? We shudder at -the very idea, so repugnant to humanity, so barbarous -and shocking to human nature,’ etc. One -very simple answer is, in my mind, to be given: -Whether it is better to make this vast continent -become an acquisition of power, strength and consequence -to Great Britain again, or tamely give it -up to France who will reap the fruits of American -independence to the utter ruin of Britain? ... experience -will, I doubt not, justify the assertion -that by embodying the most hardy, intrepid and -determined blacks, they would not only keep the -rest in good order but by being disciplined and -under command be prevented from raising cabals, -tumults, and even rebellion, what I think might -be expected soon after a peace; but so far from -making even our lukewarm friends and secret foes -greater enemies by this measure, I will, by taking -their slaves, engage to make them better -friends.”<a id="FNanchor_138" href="#Footnote_138" class="fnanchor">[138]</a></p> - -<p>On the other hand, the Colonial General -Greene wrote to the Governor of South Carolina -the same year:</p> - -<p>“The natural strength of the country in point -of numbers appears to me to consist much more in -the blacks than in the whites. Could they be incorporated -and employed for its defence, it would<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_179"></a>[179]</span> -afford you double security. That they would make -good soldiers, I have not the least doubt; and I -am persuaded the State has it not in its power to -give sufficient re-enforcements without incorporating -them either to secure the country if the enemy -mean to act vigorously upon an offensive plan or -furnish a force sufficient to dispossess them of -Charleston should it be defensive.”</p> - -<p>This spirit of bargaining, more or less carefully -carried out, can be seen in every time of stress and -war. During the Civil War certain groups of Negroes -sought repeatedly to make terms with the -Confederacy. Judah Benjamin said at a public -meeting in Richmond in 1865:</p> - -<p>“We have 680,000 blacks capable of bearing -arms and who ought now to be in the field. Let -us now say to every Negro who wishes to go into -the ranks on condition of being free, go and fight—you -are free. My own Negroes have been to -me and said, ‘Master, set us free and we’ll fight -for you.’ You must make up your minds to try -this or see your army withdrawn from before -your town. I know not where white men can be -found.”<a id="FNanchor_139" href="#Footnote_139" class="fnanchor">[139]</a></p> - -<p>Robert E. Lee said: “We should not expect -slaves to fight for prospective freedom when they -can secure it at once by going to the enemy in<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_180"></a>[180]</span> -whose service they will incur no greater risk than -in ours. The reasons that induce me to recommend -the employment of Negro troops at all render -the effect of the measures I have suggested -upon slavery immaterial and in my opinion the -best means of securing the efficiency and fidelity of -the auxiliary force would be to accompany the -measure with a well-digested plan of gradual and -general emancipation. As that will be the result -of the continuance of the war and will certainly -occur if the enemy succeed, it seems to me most -advisable to adopt it at once and thereby obtain -all the benefits that will accrue to our cause.</p> - -<p>“The employment of Negro troops under regulations -similar to those indicated would, in my -opinion, greatly increase our military strength and -enable us to relieve our white population to some -extent. I think we could dispense with the reserve -forces except in cases of emergency. It -would disappoint the hopes which our enemies -have upon our exhaustion, deprive them in a great -measure of the aid they now derive from black -troops and thus throw the burden of the war upon -their own people. In addition to the great political -advantages that would result to our cause from -the adoption of a system of emancipation, it -would exercise a salutary influence upon our Negro -population by rendering more secure the fidelity<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_181"></a>[181]</span> -of those who become soldiers and diminishing inducements -to the rest to abscond.”<a id="FNanchor_140" href="#Footnote_140" class="fnanchor">[140]</a></p> - -<p>At the time of the World War there was a distinct -attitude on the part of the Negro population -that unless they were recognized in the draft and -had Negro officers and were not forced to become -simply laborers, they would not fight and while -expression of this determination was not always -made openly it was recognized even by an administration -dominated by Southerners. Especially -were there widespread rumors of German intrigue -among Negroes, which had some basis of -fact.</p> - -<p>Within the Negro group every effort for organization -and uplift was naturally an effort toward -the development of American democracy. The -motive force of democracy has nearly always been -the push from below rather than the aristocratic -pull from above; the effort of the privileged -classes to outstrip the surging forward of the -bourgeoisie has made groups and nations rise; the -determination of the “poor whites” in the South -not to be outdone by the “nigger” has been -caused by the black man’s frantic efforts to rise -rather than by any innate ambition on the part of -the lower class of whites. It was a push from below<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_182"></a>[182]</span> -and it made the necessity of recognizing the -white laborer even more apparent. The great -democratic movement which took place during the -reign of Andrew Jackson from 1829-1837 was -caused in no small degree by the persistent striving -of the Negroes. They began their meeting together -in conventions in 1830, they organized migration -to Canada.<a id="FNanchor_141" href="#Footnote_141" class="fnanchor">[141]</a> In the trouble with Canada -in 1837 and 1838 Negro refugees from America -helped to defend the frontiers. Bishop Loguen -says: “The colored population of Canada at that -time was small compared to what it now is; nevertheless, -it was sufficiently large to attract the -attention of the government. They were almost -to a man fugitives from the States. They could -not, therefore, be passive when the success of the -invaders would break the only arm interposed for -their security, and destroy the only asylum for -African freedom in North America. The promptness -with which several companies of blacks were -organized and equipped, and the desperate valor -they displayed in this brief conflict, are an earnest -of what may be expected from the welling thousands -of colored fugitives collecting there, in the -event of a war between the two countries.”<a id="FNanchor_142" href="#Footnote_142" class="fnanchor">[142]</a></p> - -<p>In America during this time they sought to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_183"></a>[183]</span> -establish a manual training college, they established -their first weekly newspaper and they made -a desperate fight for admission to the schools. -They helped thus immeasurably the movement for -universal popular education, joined the anti-slavery -societies and organized churches and beneficial -societies; bought land and continued to appeal. -Wealthy free Negroes began to appear -even in the South, as in the case of Jehu Jones, -proprietor of a popular hotel in Charleston, and -later Thomé Lafon of New Orleans who accumulated -nearly a half million dollars and eventually -left it to Negro charities which still exist. In the -North there were tailors and lumber merchants -and the guild of the caterers; taxable property -slowly but surely increased.</p> - -<p>All this in a peculiar way forced a more all-embracing -democracy upon America, and it blossomed -to fuller efficiency after the Civil War.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_184"></a>[184]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V<br /> -<span class="smaller">THE RECONSTRUCTION OF FREEDOM</span></h2> - -<p>How the black fugitive, soldier and freedman -after the Civil War helped to restore the Union, -establish public schools, enfranchise the poor -white and initiate industrial democracy in -America.</p> - -</div> - -<p>There have been four great steps toward -democracy taken in America: The refusal to be -taxed by the English Parliament; the escape from -European imperialism; the discarding of New -England aristocracy; and the enfranchisement of -the Negro slave.</p> - -<p>What did the Emancipation of the slave really -mean? It meant such property rights as would -give him a share in the income of southern -industry large enough to support him as a -modern free laborer; and such a legal status as -would enable him by education and experience to -bear his responsibility as a worker and citizen. -This was an enormous task and meant the transformation -of a slave holding oligarchy into a -modern industrial democracy.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_185"></a>[185]</span></p> - -<p>Who could do this? Some thought it done -by the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th -amendment and Garrison with naive faith in bare -law abruptly stopped the issue of the <i>Liberator</i> -when the slave was declared “free.” The Negro -was not freed by edict or sentiment but by the -Abolitionists backed by the persistent action of -the slave himself as fugitive, soldier and voter.</p> - -<p>Slavery was the cause of the war. There might -have been other questions large enough and important -enough to have led to a disruption of the -Union but none have successfully done so except -slavery. But the North fought for union and not -against slavery and for a long time it refused to -recognize that the Civil War was essentially a -war against Negro slavery. Abraham Lincoln -said to Horace Greeley as late as August, 1862, -“If there be those who would not save the Union -unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, -I do not agree with them. My paramount object -is to save the Union and not either to save or -destroy slavery.”</p> - -<p>Despite this attitude it was evident very soon -that the Nation was fighting against the symptom -of disease and not against the cause. If we look -at the action of the North taken by itself, we find -these singular contradictions: They fought for the -Union; they suddenly emancipated the slave; they<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_186"></a>[186]</span> -enfranchised the Freedmen; they abandoned the -Freedmen. If now this had been the deliberate -action of the North it would have been a crazy -program; but it was not. The action of the American -Negro himself forced the nation into many of -these various contradictions; and the motives of -the Negro were primarily economic. He was trying -to achieve economic emancipation. And it is -this fact that makes Reconstruction one of the -greatest attempts to spread democracy which the -modern world has seen.</p> - -<p>There were in the South in 1860, 3,838,765 -Negro slaves and 258,346 free Negroes. The -question of land and fugitive slaves had precipitated -the war: that is, if slavery was to survive it -had to have more slave territory, and this the -North refused. Moreover if slavery was to survive -the drain of fugitive slaves must stop or the -slave trade be reopened. The North refused to -consider the reopening of the slave trade and only -half-heartedly enforced the fugitive slave laws.</p> - -<p>No sooner then did the war open in April, -1861, than two contradictory things happened: -Fugitive slaves began to come into the lines of -the Union armies at the very time that Union -Generals were assuring the South that slavery -would not be interfered with. In Virginia, Colonel -Tyler said “The relation of master and servant<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_187"></a>[187]</span> -as recognized in your state shall be respected.” -At Port Royal, General T. W. Sherman -declared that he would not interfere with -“Your social and local institution.” Dix in Virginia -refused to admit fugitive slaves within his -lines and Halleck in Missouri excluded them. -Later, both Buell at Nashville and Hooker on the -upper Potomac allowed their camps to be searched -by masters for fugitive slaves.<a id="FNanchor_143" href="#Footnote_143" class="fnanchor">[143]</a></p> - -<p>Against this attitude, however, there appeared, -even in the first year of the War, some unanswerable -considerations. For instance three slaves -escaped into General Butler’s lines at Fortress -Monroe just as they were about to be sent to -North Carolina to work on Confederate fortifications. -Butler immediately said “These men are -contraband of war, set them at work.” Butler’s -action was sustained.<a id="FNanchor_144" href="#Footnote_144" class="fnanchor">[144]</a> But when Fremont, in -August freed the slaves of Missouri under martial -law, declaring it an act of war, Lincoln hastened -to repudiate his action;<a id="FNanchor_145" href="#Footnote_145" class="fnanchor">[145]</a> and the same thing happened -the next year when Hunter at Hilton -Head, S. C. declared “Slavery and martial law in -a free country ... incompatible.”<a id="FNanchor_146" href="#Footnote_146" class="fnanchor">[146]</a> Nevertheless<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_188"></a>[188]</span> -here loomed difficulty and the continued coming -of the fugitive slaves increased the difficulty -and forced action.</p> - -<p>The year 1862 saw the fugitive slave recognized -as a worker and helper within the Union -lines and eventually as a soldier bearing arms. -Thousands of black men during that year, of all -ages and both sexes, clad in rags and with their -bundles on their backs, gathered wherever the -Union Army gained foothold—at Norfolk, -Hampton, at Alexandria and Nashville and along -the border towards the West. There was sickness -and hunger and some crime but everywhere -there was desire for employment. It was in vain -that Burnside was insisting that slavery was not -to be touched and that McClellan repeated this on -his Peninsular Campaign.</p> - -<p>A change of official attitude began to appear as -indeed it had to. When for instance General -Saxton, with headquarters at Beauford, S. C., -took military control of that district, he began to -establish market houses for the sale of produce -from the plantations and to put the Negroes to -work as wage laborers. When, in the West, -Grant’s army occupied Grand Junction, Mississippi -and a swarm of fugitives appeared, naked and -hungry, some were employed as teamsters, servants -and cooks and finally Grant appointed a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_189"></a>[189]</span> -“Chief of Negro affairs” for the entire district -under his jurisdiction. Crops were harvested, -wages paid, wood cutters swarmed in forests to -furnish fuel for the Federal gun-boats, cabins were -erected and a regular “Freedmen’s Bureau” came -gradually into operation. The Negroes thus employed -as regular helpers and laborers in the -army, swelled to more than 200,000 before the -end of the war; and if we count transient workers -and spies who helped with information, the number -probably reached a half million.</p> - -<p>If now the Negro could work for the Union -Army why could he not also fight? We have -seen in the last chapter how the nation hesitated -and then yielded in 1862. The critical Battle of -Antietam took place September 17th and the confederate -avalanche was checked. Five days later, -Abraham Lincoln proclaimed that he was going to -recommend an appropriation by Congress for encouraging -the gradual abolition of slavery through -payment for the slaves; and that on the following -January 1st, in all the territory which was still -at war with the United States, he proposed to -declare the slaves free as a military measure.<a id="FNanchor_147" href="#Footnote_147" class="fnanchor">[147]</a> -Thus the year 1862 saw the Negro as an active -worker in the army and as a soldier.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_190"></a>[190]</span></p> - -<p>This fact together with the Emancipation -Proclamation of January 1st, made the year 1863 -a significant year. Not only were most of the -slaves legally freed by military edict but by the -very fact of their emancipation the stream of fugitives -became a vast flood. The Army had to -organize departments and appoint officials for the -succor and guidance of these fugitives in their -work; relief on a large scale began to appear from -the North and the demand of the Negro for education -began to be felt in the starting of schools -here and there.</p> - -<p>“The fugitives poured into the lines and gradually -were used as laborers and helpers. Immediately -teaching began and gradually schools sprang -up. When at last the Emancipation Proclamation -was issued and Negro soldiers called for, it was -necessary to provide more systematically for -Negroes. Various systems and experiments grew -up here and there. The Freedmen were massed -in large numbers at Fortress Monroe, Va., Washington, -D. C., Beaufort and Port Royal, S. C., -New Orleans, La., Vicksburg and Corinth, Miss., -Columbus, Ky., Cairo, Ill., and elsewhere. In -such places schools immediately sprang up under -the army officers and chaplains. The most elaborate -system, perhaps, was that under General -Banks in Louisiana. It was established in 1863<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_191"></a>[191]</span> -and soon had a regular Board of Education, which -laid and collected taxes and supported eventually -nearly a hundred schools with ten thousand -pupils, under 162 teachers. At Port Royal, S. C., -were gathered Edward L. Pierce’s ‘Ten Thousand -Clients’.... In the west, General Grant appointed -Colonel John Eaton, afterwards United -States Commissioner of Education to be Superintendent -of Freedmen in 1862. He sought to consolidate -and regulate the schools already established -and succeeded in organizing a large system.”<a id="FNanchor_148" href="#Footnote_148" class="fnanchor">[148]</a></p> - -<p>The Treasury Department of the Government, -solicitous for the cotton crop, took charge of certain -plantations in order to encourage the workers -and preserve the crop. Thus during the Spring of -1863, there were groups of Freedmen and refugees in -long broken lines between the two armies -reaching from Maryland to the Kansas border and -down the coast from Norfolk to New Orleans.</p> - -<p>In 1864 a significant action took place: the -petty and insulting discrimination in the pay of -white and colored soldiers was stopped. The -Negro began to be a free man and the center of -the problem of Emancipation became land and -organized industry. Eaton, the Superintendent of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_192"></a>[192]</span> -Freedmen reports, July 15, for his particular district:</p> - -<p>“These Freedmen are now disposed of as follows: -In military service 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 are entirely self-supporting—the -same as any individual class anywhere else—as -planters, mechanics, barbers, hackmen, draymen, -etc., conducting on their own responsibility or -working as hired laborers. The remaining 10,200 -receive subsistence from the government. Three -thousand of them are members of families whose -heads are carrying on plantations and have under -cultivation 4,000 acres of cotton. They are to -pay the government for their subsistence from the -first income of the crop. The other 7,200 include -the paupers, that is to say, all Negroes over and -under the self-supporting age, the crippled and -sick in hospitals, of the 113,650, and those engaged -in their care. Instead of being unproductive -this class has now under cultivation 500 acres -of corn, 970 acres of vegetables and 1,500 acres -of cotton besides working at wood-chopping and -other industries. There are reported in the aggregate -over 100,000 acres of cotton under cultivation. -Of these about 7,000 acres are leased and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_193"></a>[193]</span> -cultivated by blacks. Some Negroes are managing -as high as 300 or 400 acres....”<a id="FNanchor_149" href="#Footnote_149" class="fnanchor">[149]</a></p> - -<p>The experiment at Davis Bend, Mississippi, was -of especial interest: “Late in the season—in -November and December, 1864,—the Freedmen’s -Department was restored to full control over the -camps and plantations on President’s Island and -Palmyra or Davis Bend. Both these points had -been originally occupied at the suggestion of General -Grant and were among the most successful of -our enterprises for the Negroes. With the expansion -of the lessee system, private interests were -allowed to displace the interest of the Negroes -whom we had established there under the protection -of the government, but orders issued by -General N. J. T. Dana, upon whose sympathetic -and intelligent co-operation my officers could always -rely, restored to us the full control of these -lands. The efforts of the freedmen on Davis Bend -were particularly encouraging, and this property -under Colonel Thomas’ able direction, became in -reality the “Negro Paradise” that General Grant -had urged us to make of it.”<a id="FNanchor_150" href="#Footnote_150" class="fnanchor">[150]</a></p> - -<p>The United States Treasury went further in -overseeing Freedmen and abandoned lands and -appointed special agents over “Freedmen’s home<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_194"></a>[194]</span> -colonies.” Down the Mississippi Valley, General -Thomas issued a lengthy series of instructions covering -industry. He appointed three Commissioners -to lease plantations and care for the employees; -fixed the rate of wages and taxed cotton. -At Newbern, N. C., there were several thousand -refugees to whom land was assigned and about -800 houses rented. After Sherman’s triumphant -March to the Sea, Secretary Stanton himself went -to Savannah to investigate the condition of the -Negroes.</p> - -<p>It was significant that even this early Abraham -Lincoln himself was suggesting limited Negro -suffrage. Already he was thinking of the reconstruction -of the states; Louisiana had been in -Union hands for two years and Lincoln wrote to -Governor Hahn, March 13th, 1864: “Now you -are about to have a convention, which, ... will -probably define the elective franchise. I barely -suggest, for your private consideration, whether -some of the colored people may not be let in, as, -for instance, the very intelligent, and especially -those who have fought gallantly in our ranks. -They would probably help, in some trying time to -come, to keep the jewel of liberty within the family -of freedom. But this is only a suggestion, not to -the public, but to you alone.”<a id="FNanchor_151" href="#Footnote_151" class="fnanchor">[151]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_195"></a>[195]</span></p> - -<p>Here again the development had been logical. -The Negroes were voting in many Northern -states. At least one-half million of them were taking -part in the war, nearly 200,000 as armed soldiers. -They were beginning to be reorganized in -industry by the army officials as free laborers. -Naturally the question must come sooner or later: -Could they be expected to maintain their freedom, -either political or economic, unless they had -a vote? And Lincoln with rare foresight saw -this several months before the end of the war.</p> - -<p>The year 1865 brought fully to the front the -question of Negro suffrage and Negro free labor. -They were recognized January 16th, when Sherman -settled large numbers of Negroes on the Sea -Islands. His order said:</p> - -<p>“The Islands from Charleston, south, the -abandoned rice fields along the rivers for thirty -miles from the sea, and the country bordering the -St. John’s river, Florida, are reserved and set -apart for the settlement of the Negroes now made -free by the acts of war and the proclamation of the -President of the United States.</p> - -<p>“At Beaufort, Hilton Head, Savannah, Fernandina, -St. Augustine, and Jacksonville, the blacks -may remain in their chosen or accustomed vocations -but on the islands, and in the settlements hereafter -to be established, no white person whatever,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_196"></a>[196]</span> -unless military officers and soldiers detailed for -duty, will be permitted to reside; and the sole and -exclusive management of affairs will be left to the -freed people themselves, subject only to the -United States military authority and the acts -of Congress. By the laws of war and orders -of the President of the United States the -Negro is free, and must be dealt with as -such. He cannot be subjected to conscription -or forced military service, save by the written -orders of the highest military authority of the -department, under such regulations as the President -or Congress may prescribe. Domestic -servants, blacksmiths, carpenters, and other -mechanics, will be free to select their own work -and residence, but the young and able-bodied -Negroes must be encouraged to enlist as soldiers -in the service of the United States, to contribute -their share towards maintaining their own freedom, -and securing their rights as citizens of the -United States.</p> - -<p>“Whenever three respectable Negroes, heads of -families shall desire to settle on lands, and shall -have selected for that purpose an island or a -locality clearly defined, within the limits above -designated, the Inspector of Settlements and -Plantations will himself, or by such subordinate -officer as he may appoint, give them a license to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_197"></a>[197]</span> -settle such island or district, and afford them such -assistance as he can to enable them to establish a -peaceful agricultural settlement. The three parties -named will subdivide the land, under the -supervision of the Inspector, among themselves -and such others as may choose to settle near them, -so that each family shall have a plot of not more -than forty (40) acres of tillable ground, and when -it borders on some water channel, with not more -than 800 feet water front, in the possession of -which land the military authorities will afford -them protection until such time as they can protect -themselves, or until Congress shall regulate -their title.”<a id="FNanchor_152" href="#Footnote_152" class="fnanchor">[152]</a></p> - -<p>On March 3, 1865 the Nation came to the parting -of the ways. Two measures passed Congress -on this momentous date. First, a Freedmen’s -Bank was incorporated at Washington “to -receive on deposit therefore, by or on behalf of -persons heretofore held in slavery in the United -States or their descendants, and investing the same -in the stocks, bonds, Treasury notes, or other -securities of the United States.”<a id="FNanchor_153" href="#Footnote_153" class="fnanchor">[153]</a> The first year -it had $300,000 of deposits and the deposits increased -regularly until in 1871 there were nearly -$20,000,000. Also on March 3rd, the Freedmen’s<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_198"></a>[198]</span> -Bureau Act was passed. The war was over. -Sometime the South must have restored home rule. -When that came what would happen to the freedmen?</p> - -<p>These paths were before the nation:</p> - -<p>1. They might abandon the freedman to the -mercy of his former masters.</p> - -<p>2. They might for a generation or more make -the freedmen the wards of the nation—protecting -them, encouraging them, educating their children, -giving them land and a minimum of capital and -thus inducting them into real economic and political -freedom.</p> - -<p>3. They might force a grant of Negro suffrage, -support the Negro voters for a brief period and -then with hands off let them sink or swim.</p> - -<p>The second path was the path of wisdom and -statesmanship. But the country would not listen -to such a comprehensive plan. If the form of this -Bureau had been worked out by Charles Sumner -today instead of sixty years ago, it would have -been regarded as a proposal far less revolutionary -than the modern labor legislation of America and -Europe. A half-century ago, however, and in a -country which gave the <i>laisser-faire</i> economics -their extremest trial the Freedmen’s Bureau struck -the whole nation as unthinkable save as a very -temporary expedient and to relieve the more<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_199"></a>[199]</span> -pointed forms of distress following war. Yet the -proposals of the Bureau as actually established -by the laws of 1865 and 1866 were both simple -and sensible:</p> - -<p>1. To oversee the making and enforcement of -wage contracts.</p> - -<p>2. To appear in the courts as the freedmen’s -best friend.</p> - -<p>3. To furnish the freedmen with a minimum of -land and of capital.</p> - -<p>4. To establish schools.</p> - -<p>5. To furnish such institutions of relief as hospitals, -outdoor stations, etc.</p> - -<p>How a sensible people could expect really to -conduct a slave into freedom with less than this is -hard to see. Of course even with such tutelage -extending over a period of two or three decades -the ultimate end had to be enfranchisement and -political and social freedom for those freedmen -who attained a certain set standard. Otherwise -the whole training had neither object nor guarantee.</p> - -<p>Naturally the Bureau was no sooner established -than it faced implacable enemies. The white -South naturally opposed to a man because it practically -abolished private profit in the exploitation -of labor. To step from slave to free labor was -economic catastrophe in the opinion of the white<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_200"></a>[200]</span> -South: but to step further to free labor organized -primarily for the laborers’ benefit, this not only -was unthinkable for the white South but it even -touched the economic sensibilities of the white -North. Already the nation owed a staggering -debt. It would not face any large increase for -such a purpose. Moreover, who could conduct -such an enterprise? It would have taxed in ordinary -times the ability and self sacrifice of the -nation to have found men in sufficient quantity who -could and would have conducted honestly and -efficiently such a tremendous experiment in human -uplift. And these were not ordinary times.</p> - -<p>Nevertheless a bureau had to be established at -least temporarily as a clearing house for the numberless -departments of the armies dealing with -freedmen and holding land and property in their -name.</p> - -<p>As General Howard, the head of the Bureau -said, this Bureau was really a government and -partially ruled the South from the close of the -war until 1870. “It made laws, executed them -and interpreted them. It laid and collected taxes, -defined and punished crime, maintained and used -military force and dictated such measures as it -thought necessary and proper for the accomplishment -of its varied ends.” Its establishment was a -herculean task both physically and socially, and it<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_201"></a>[201]</span> -accomplished a great work before it was repudiated. -Carl Schurz in 1864 felt warranted in saying, -“Not half of the labor that has been done in -the South this year, or will be done there next -year, would have been or would be done but for -the exertions of the Freedmen’s Bureau.... No -other agency, except one placed there by the national -government, could have wielded the moral -power whose interposition was so necessary to prevent -the Southern society from falling at once into -the chaos of a general collision between its different -elements.”<a id="FNanchor_154" href="#Footnote_154" class="fnanchor">[154]</a></p> - -<p>The nation knew, however, that the Freedmen’s -Bureau was temporary. What should follow it? -The attitude of the South was not reassuring. -Carl Schurz reported that: “Some planters held -back their former slaves on their plantations -by brute force. Armed bands of white men patrolled -the country roads to drive back the Negroes -wandering about. Dead bodies of murdered -Negroes were found on and near the highways -and by-paths. Gruesome reports came from the -hospitals—reports of colored men and women -whose ears had been cut off, whose skulls had -been broken by blows, whose bodies had been -slashed by knives or lacerated by scourges. A<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_202"></a>[202]</span> -number of such cases I had occasion to examine -myself. A veritable reign of terror prevailed in -many parts of the South. The Negro found scant -justice in the local courts against the white man. -He could look for protection only to the military -forces of the United States still garrisoning the -‘states lately in rebellion’ and to the Freedmen’s -Bureau.”</p> - -<p>The determination to reconstruct the South -without recognizing the Negro as a voter was -manifest. The provisional governments set up by -Lincoln and Johnson were based on white male -suffrage. In Louisiana for instance, where free -Negroes had wealth and prestige and had furnished -thousands of soldiers under the proposed -reconstruction and despite Lincoln’s tactful suggestion—“Not -one Negro was allowed to vote, -though at that very time the wealthy, intelligent -free colored people of the State paid taxes on -property assessed at $15,000,000 and many of -them were well known for their patriotic zeal and -love for the Union. Thousands of colored men -whose homes were in Louisiana served bravely in -the national army and navy and many of the so-called -Negroes in New Orleans could not be distinguished -by the most intelligent strangers from -the best class of white gentlemen either by color -or manner, dress or language; still, as it was<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_203"></a>[203]</span> -known by tradition and common fame that they -were not of pure Caucasian descent, they could -not vote.”<a id="FNanchor_155" href="#Footnote_155" class="fnanchor">[155]</a></p> - -<p>Johnson feared this Southern program and like -Lincoln suggested limited Negro suffrage. August -15th, 1865, he wrote to Governor Sharkey of -Mississippi: “If you could extend the elective franchise -to all persons of color who can read the -Constitution of the United States in English and -write their names, and to all persons of color -who own real estate valued at not less than two -hundred and fifty dollars, and pay taxes thereon, -you would completely disarm the adversary and -set an example the other states will follow. This -you can do with perfect safety and you thus place -the Southern States, in reference to free persons of -color, upon the same basis with the free States. I -hope and trust your convention will do this.”<a id="FNanchor_156" href="#Footnote_156" class="fnanchor">[156]</a></p> - -<p>The answer of the South to all such suggestions -was the celebrated “Black Codes”: “Alabama -declared ‘stubborn or refractory servants’ or -‘those who loiter away their time’ to be ‘vagrants’ -who could be hired out at compulsory service by -law, while all Negro minors, far from being sent -to school, were to be ‘apprenticed’ preferably to -their father’s former ‘masters and mistresses.’ In<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_204"></a>[204]</span> -Florida it was decreed that no Negro could ‘own, -use or keep any bowie-knife, dirk, sword, firearms -or ammunition of any kind’ without a license -from the Judge of Probate. In South Carolina -the Legislature declared that ‘no person of color -shall pursue the practice of art, trade or business -of an artisan, mechanic or shopkeeper or any other -trade or employment besides that of husbandry or -that of servant under contract for labor until he -shall have obtained a license from the Judge of the -District Court.’ Mississippi required that ‘if a -laborer shall quit the service of the employer before -the expiration of his term of service without -just cause, he shall forfeit his wages for that year.’ -Louisiana said that ‘every adult freed man or -woman shall furnish themselves with a comfortable -home and visible means of support within -twenty days after the passage of this act’ and that -any failing to do so should ‘be immediately -arrested’, delivered to the court and ‘hired out’ by -public advertisement, to some citizen, being the -highest bidder, for the remainder year.”<a id="FNanchor_157" href="#Footnote_157" class="fnanchor">[157]</a></p> - -<p>These Codes were not reassuring to the friends -of freedom. To be sure it was not a time to expect -calm, cool, thoughtful action on the part of -the South. Its economic condition was pitiable. -Property in slaves to the extent perhaps of two<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_205"></a>[205]</span> -thousand million dollars had suddenly disappeared. -One thousand five hundred more -millions representing the Confederate war debt, -had largely disappeared. Large amounts of real -estate and other property had been destroyed, industry -had been disorganized, 250,000 men had -been killed and many more maimed. With this -went the moral effect of an unsuccessful war with -all its letting down of social standards and quickening -of hatred and discouragement—a situation -which would make it difficult under any circumstances -to reconstruct a new government and a -new civilization. Moreover any human being of -any color “doomed in his own person and his posterity -to live without knowledge and without capacity -to make anything his own and to toil that -another may reap the fruits,” is bound on sudden -emancipation to loom like a great dread on the -horizon.</p> - -<p>The fear of Negro freedom in the South was -increased by its own consciousness of guilt, yet it -was reasonable to expect from it something -more than mere repression and reaction toward -slavery. To some small extent this expectation -was fulfilled: the abolition of slavery was recognized -and the civil rights of owning property and -appearing as a witness in cases in which he was a -party were generally granted the Negro; yet with<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_206"></a>[206]</span> -these went such harsh regulations as largely neutralized -the concessions and gave ground for the -assumption that once free from Northern control -the South would virtually re-enslave the Negro. -The colored people themselves naturally feared -this and protested, as in Mississippi, “against the -reactionary policy prevailing and expressing the -fear that the Legislature will pass such proscriptive -laws as will drive the freedmen from the State -or practically re-enslave them.”<a id="FNanchor_158" href="#Footnote_158" class="fnanchor">[158]</a></p> - -<p>As Professor Burgess (whom no one accuses of -being Negrophile) says: “Almost every act, word -or gesture of the Negro not consonant with good -taste and good manners as well as good morals -was made a crime or misdemeanor, for which he -could first be fined by the magistrates and then be -consigned to a condition of almost slavery for an -indefinite time if he could not pay the bill.”</p> - -<p>All things considered, it seems probable that if -the South had been permitted to have its way in -1865 the harshness of Negro slavery would have -been mitigated so as to make slave trading difficult -and to make it possible for a Negro to hold property -if he got any and to appear in some cases in -court; but that in most other respects the blacks -would have remained in slavery. And no small<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_207"></a>[207]</span> -number of whites even in the North were quite -willing to contemplate such a solution.</p> - -<p>In October, the democratic platform of Louisiana -said “This is a government of white people,” -and although Johnson reported in December that -Reconstruction was complete in North and South -Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, -Arkansas and Tennessee, yet everyone knew -that the real problems of Reconstruction had just -begun. The war caused by slavery could be -stopped only by a real abolition of slavery.</p> - -<p>It was as though the Germans invading France -had found flocking to their camps the laboring -forces of the invaded land, poor and destitute, but -willing to work and willing to fight. What would -have been the attitude of the successful invader -when the war was ended? Gratitude alone counseled -help for the Freedmen; wisdom counseled a -real abolition of slavery; so far slavery had not -been abolished in spite of the fact that the 13th -Amendment proposed in February had been proclaimed -in December. Freedom and citizenship -were primarily a matter of state legislation; and -emancipation from slavery was an economic problem—a -question of work and wages, of land and -capital—all these things were matters of state -legislation. Unless then something was done to -insure a proper legal status and legal protection<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_208"></a>[208]</span> -for the Freedmen, the so-called abolition of -slavery would be but a name. Furthermore there -were grave political difficulties: According to the -celebrated compromise in the Constitution, three-fifths -of the slaves were counted in the Southern -states as a basis of representation and this gave -the white South as compared with the North a -large political advantage. This advantage was -now to be increased because, as freemen, the -whole Negro population was to be counted and -still the voting was confined to whites. The North, -therefore, found themselves faced by the fact that -the very people whom they had overcome in a -costly and bloody war were now coming back with -increased political power, with determination to -keep just as much of slavery as they could and -with freedom to act toward the nation that they -had nearly destroyed, in whatever way the deep -hatreds of a hurt and conquered people tempted -them to act. All this was sinister and dangerous. -Assume as large minded and forgiving an attitude -as one could, either the abolition of slavery must -be made real or the war was fought in vain.</p> - -<p>The Negroes themselves naturally began to insist -that without political power it was impossible -to accomplish their economic freedom. Frederick -Douglass said to President Johnson: “Your noble -and humane predecessor placed in our hands the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_209"></a>[209]</span> -sword to assist in saving the nation and we do -hope that you, his able successor, will favorably -regard the placing in our hands the ballot with -which to save ourselves.” And when Johnson -demurred on account of the hostility between -blacks and poor whites, a committee of prominent -colored men replied:</p> - -<p>“Even if it were true, as you allege, that the -hostility of the blacks toward the poor whites must -necessarily project itself into a state of freedom, -and that this enmity between the two races is even -more intense in a state of freedom than in a state -of slavery, in the name of heaven, we reverently -ask, how can you, in view of your professed desire -to promote the welfare of the black man, deprive -him of all means of defense and clothe him, whom -you regard as his enemy, in the panoply of political -power?”<a id="FNanchor_159" href="#Footnote_159" class="fnanchor">[159]</a></p> - -<p>Again as the Negro fugitive slave was already -in camp before the nation was ready to receive -him and was even trying to drive him back to his -master; just as the Negro was already bearing -arms before he was legally recognized as a soldier; -so too he was voting before Negro suffrage -was contemplated; to cite one instance at Davis -Bend, Mississippi. “Early in 1865 a system was<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_210"></a>[210]</span> -adopted for their government in which the freedmen -took a considerable part. The Bend was divided -into districts, each having a sheriff and -judge appointed from among the more reliable -and intelligent colored men. A general oversight -of the proceedings was maintained by our officers -in charge, who confirmed or modified the findings -of the court. The shrewdness of the colored -judges was very remarkable, though it was sometimes -necessary to decrease the severity of the -punishment they proposed. Fines and penal service -on the Home Farm were the usual sentences -they imposed. Petty theft and idleness were the -most frequent causes of trouble, but my officers -were able to report that exposed property was as -safe on Davis Bend as it would be anywhere. The -community distinctly demonstrated the capacity of -the Negro to take care of himself and exercised -under honest and competent direction the functions -of self-government.”<a id="FNanchor_160" href="#Footnote_160" class="fnanchor">[160]</a></p> - -<p>Carl Schurz said in his celebrated report: “The -emancipation of the slaves is submitted to only in -so far as chattel slavery in the old form could not -be kept up. But although the freedman is no -longer considered the property of the individual -master, he is considered the slave of society and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_211"></a>[211]</span> -all independent State legislation will share the -tendency to make him such.</p> - -<p>“The solution of the problem would be very -much facilitated by enabling all the loyal and free -labor elements in the South to exercise a healthy -influence upon legislation. It will hardly be possible -to secure the freedman against oppressive -class legislation and private persecution unless he -be endowed with a certain measure of political -power.”</p> - -<p>To the argument of ignorance Schurz replied: -“The effect of the extension of the franchise to -the colored people upon the development of free -labor and upon the security of human rights in the -South being the principal object in view, the objections -raised on the ground of the ignorance of the -freedmen become unimportant. Practical liberty -is a good school.... It is idle to say that it will -be time to speak of Negro suffrage when the whole -colored race will be educated, for the ballot may -be necessary to him to secure his education.”<a id="FNanchor_161" href="#Footnote_161" class="fnanchor">[161]</a></p> - -<p>Thus Negro suffrage was forced to the front, -not as a method of humiliating the South; not as a -theoretical and dangerous gift to the Freedmen; -not according to any preconcerted plan but simply -because of the grim necessities of the situation. -The North must either give up the fruits of war,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_212"></a>[212]</span> -keep a Freedmen’s Bureau for a generation or use -the Negro vote to reconstruct the Southern states -and to insure such legislation as would at least -begin the economic emancipation of the slave.</p> - -<p><i>In other words the North being unable to free -the slave, let him try to free himself. And he did, -and this was his greatest gift to this nation.</i></p> - -<p>Let us return to the steps by which the Negro -accomplished this task.</p> - -<p>In 1866, the joint committee of Congress on -Reconstruction said that in the South: “A large -proportion of the population had become, instead -of mere chattels, free men and citizens. Through -all the past struggle these had remained true and -loyal and had, in large numbers, fought on the -side of the Union. It was impossible to abandon -them without securing them their rights as free -men and citizens. The whole civilized world -would have cried out against such base ingratitude -and the bare idea is offensive to all right thinking -men. Hence it became important to inquire what -could be done to secure their rights, civil and -political.”</p> - -<p>The report then proceeded to emphasize the -increased political power of the South and recommended -the Fourteenth Amendment, since: “It -appeared to your committee that the rights of -these persons by whom the basis of representation<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_213"></a>[213]</span> -had been thus increased should be recognized by -the General Government. While slaves, they were -not considered as having any rights, civil or political. -It did not seem just or proper that all the -political advantages derived from their becoming -free should be confined to their former masters -who had fought against the Union and withheld -from themselves who had always been loyal.”<a id="FNanchor_162" href="#Footnote_162" class="fnanchor">[162]</a></p> - -<p>Nor did there seem to be any hope that the -South would voluntarily change its attitude within -any reasonable time. As Carl Schurz wrote: “I -deem it proper, however, to offer a few remarks -on the assertion frequently put forth, that the -franchise is likely to be extended to the colored -man by the voluntary action of the southern whites -themselves. My observation leads me to a contrary -opinion. Aside from a very few enlightened -men, I found but one class of people in favor of -the enfranchisement of the blacks: it was the class -of Unionists who found themselves politically -ostracised and looked upon the enfranchisement of -the loyal Negroes as the salvation of the whole -loyal element.... The masses are strongly opposed -to colored suffrage; anybody that dares to -advocate it is stigmatized as a dangerous fanatic.</p> - -<p>“The only manner in which, in my opinion, the -southern people can be induced to grant to the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_214"></a>[214]</span> -freedmen some measure of self-protecting power -in the form of suffrage, is to make it a consideration -precedent to ‘readmission’.”<a id="FNanchor_163" href="#Footnote_163" class="fnanchor">[163]</a></p> - -<p>During 1866, the Freedmen’s Bureau received -over a million dollars mostly from the Freedmen’s -fund, sales of crop, rent of lands and buildings -and school taxes. The chief expenditure was in -wages, rent and schools. It was evident that the -Negro was demanding education. Schools arose -immediately among the refugees and Negro soldiers. -They were helped by voluntary taxation of -the Negroes and then by the activity of Northern -religious bodies. Seldom in the history of the -world has an almost totally illiterate population -been given the means of self-education in so short -a time. The movement started with the Negroes -themselves and they continued to form the dynamic -force behind it. “This great multitude arose -up simultaneously and asked for intelligence.” -There can be no doubt that these schools were a -great conservative steadying force to which the -South owes much. It must not be forgotten that -among the agents of the Freedmen’s Bureau were -not only soldiers and politicians but school -teachers and educational leaders like Ware and -Cravath.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_215"></a>[215]</span></p> - -<p>In 1866, nearly 100,000 Negroes were in the -schools under 1300 teachers and schools for Negroes -had been opened in nearly all the southern -states. A second Freedmen’s Bureau act was -passed extending the work of the Bureau, and the -Freedmen’s Bank which had been started in 1865 -and had by 1866 twenty branches and $300,000 in -savings.</p> - -<p>Congress came to blows with President Johnson. -His plan of reconstruction with white male -suffrage was repudiated and the 14th Amendment -was proposed by Congress which was designed to -force the South to accept Negro suffrage on penalty -of losing a proportionate amount of their -representation in Congress. The 14th Amendment -was long delayed and did not in fact become -a law until July, 1868. Meantime, Congress -adopted more drastic measures. By the Reconstruction -Acts, the first of which passed March 2nd, -the South was divided into five military districts, -Negro suffrage was established for the constitutional -conventions and the 14th Amendment made -a prerequisite for readmission of states to the -Union.</p> - -<p>What was the result? No language has been -spared to describe the results of Negro suffrage as -the worst imaginable. Every effort of historical -and social science and propaganda have supported<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_216"></a>[216]</span> -this view; and its acceptance has been well nigh -universal, because it was so clearly to the interests -of the chief parties involved to forget their own -shortcomings and put the blame on the Negro. -As a colored man put it, they closed the “bloody -chasm” but closed up the Negro inside. Yet, -without Negro suffrage, slavery could not have -been abolished in the United States and while -there were bad results arising from the enfranchisement -of the slaves as there necessarily had to -be, the main results were not bad. Let us not forget -that the white South believed it to be of vital -interest to its welfare that the experiment of Negro -suffrage should fail ignominiously and that almost -to a man the whites were willing to insure this -failure either by active force or passive resistance; -that beside this there were, as might be expected -in a day of social upheaval, men, white and -black, Northern and Southern, only too eager to -take advantage of such a situation for feathering -their own nests. The results in such case had to be -evil but to charge the evil to Negro suffrage is unfair. -It may be charged to anger, poverty, venality -and ignorance, but the anger and poverty -were the almost inevitable aftermath of war; the -venality was much more reprehensible as exhibited -among whites than among Negroes, and while -ignorance was the curse of the Negroes, the fault<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_217"></a>[217]</span> -was not theirs and they took the initiative to correct -it.</p> - -<p>Negro suffrage was without doubt a tremendous -experiment but with all its manifest failure it succeeded -to an astounding degree; it made the immediate -re-establishment of the old slavery impossible -and it was probably the only quick method -of doing this; it gave the Freedmen’s sons a -chance to begin their education. It diverted the -energy of the white South from economic development -to the recovery of political power and in this -interval—small as it was—the Negro took his first -steps toward economic freedom. It was the -greatest and most important step toward world -democracy of all men of all races ever taken in -the modern world.</p> - -<p>Let us see just what happened when the Negroes -gained the right to vote, first in the conventions -which reconstructed the form of government -and afterward in the regular state governments. -The continual charge is made that the South was -put under Negro government—that ignorant ex-slaves -ruled the land. This is untrue. Negroes -did not dominate southern legislatures, and in only -two states did they have a majority of the legislature -at any time. In Alabama in the years of -1868-69 there were 106 whites and 27 Negroes in -the legislature; in the year 1876 there were 104<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_218"></a>[218]</span> -whites and 29 Negroes. In Arkansas, 1868-69 -there were 8 Negroes and 96 whites. In Georgia -there were 186 whites and 33 Negroes. In Mississippi, -1870-1, there were 106 whites and 34 -Negroes and in 1876, 132 whites and 21 Negroes. -In North Carolina, 149 whites and 21 Negroes; in -South Carolina 1868-69, 72 whites and 85 Negroes -and in 1876, 70 whites and 54 Negroes. In -Texas, 1870-71 there were 110 whites and 10 Negroes. -In Virginia, 1868-69, 119 whites and 18 -Negroes and in 1876, 112 whites and 13 -Negroes.<a id="FNanchor_164" href="#Footnote_164" class="fnanchor">[164]</a></p> - -<p>“Statistics show, however, that with the exception -of South Carolina and Mississippi, no state -and not even any department of a state government -was ever dominated altogether by Negroes. -The Negroes never wanted and never had complete -control in the Southern states. The most -important offices were generally held by white -men. Only two Negroes ever served in the United -States Senate, Hiram R. Revells and B. K. Bruce; -and only twenty ever became representatives in the -House and all these did not serve at the same -time, although some of them were elected for -more than one term.”<a id="FNanchor_165" href="#Footnote_165" class="fnanchor">[165]</a></p> - -<p>The Negroes who held office, held for the most<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_219"></a>[219]</span> -part minor offices and most of them were ignorant -men. Some of them were venal and vicious but -this was not true in all cases. Indeed the Freedmen -were pathetic too in their attempt to choose -the best persons but they were singularly limited -in their choice. Their former white masters were -either disfranchised or bitterly hostile or ready to -deceive them. The “carpet-baggers” often cheated -them; their own ranks had few men of experience -and training. Yet some of the colored men who -served them well deserve special mention:</p> - -<p>Samuel J. Lee, a member of the South Carolina -legislature, was considered by the whites as one -of the best criminal lawyers of the state. When -he died local courts were adjourned and the whole -city mourned. Bishop Isaac Clinton who served -as Treasurer of Orangeburg, S. C. for eight years -was held in highest esteem by his white neighbors -and upon the occasion of his death business was -suspended as a mark of respect. In certain communities -Negroes were retained in office for years -after the restoration of Democratic party control -as, for example Mr. George Harriot in Georgetown, -S. C. who was Superintendent of Education -for the county. Beaufort, South Carolina, retained -Negroes as sheriffs and school officials.</p> - -<p>J. T. White who was Commissioner of Public -Works and Internal Improvements in Arkansas;<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_220"></a>[220]</span> -M. W. Gibbs who was Municipal Judge in Little -Rock, and J. C. Corbin, who was State Superintendent -of Schools in Arkansas, had creditable -records.<a id="FNanchor_166" href="#Footnote_166" class="fnanchor">[166]</a> John R. Lynch, when speaker of Mississippi -House of Representatives, was given a -public testimonial by Republicans and Democrats -and the leading Democratic paper said: “His bearing -in office had been so proper and his rulings in -such marked contrast to the partisan conduct of -the ignoble whites of his party who have aspired -to be leaders of the blacks, that the conservatives -cheerfully joined in the testimonial.”<a id="FNanchor_167" href="#Footnote_167" class="fnanchor">[167]</a></p> - -<p>Of the colored treasurer of South Carolina, -Governor Chamberlain said: “I have never heard -one word or seen one act of Mr. Cardoza’s which -did not confirm my confidence in his personal integrity -and his political honor and zeal for the -honest administration of the State Government. -On every occasion and under all circumstances he -has been against fraud and jobbery and in favor -of good measures and good men.”<a id="FNanchor_168" href="#Footnote_168" class="fnanchor">[168]</a></p> - -<p>Jonathan C. Gibbs, a colored man and the first -State Superintendent of Instructions in Florida, -was a graduate of Dartmouth. He established -the system and brought it to success, dying in harness<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_221"></a>[221]</span> -in 1874. The first Negro graduate of Harvard -College served in South Carolina, before he -became chief executive officer of the association -that erected the Grant’s Tomb in New York.</p> - -<p>In Louisiana we may mention Acting-Governor -Pinchback, and Lieutenant-Governor Dunn, and -Treasurer Dubuclet who was investigated by -United States officials. E. P. White, afterward -Chief Justice of the United States, reported that -his funds had been honestly handled. Such men—and -there were others—ought not to be forgotten -or confounded with other types of colored -and white Reconstruction leaders.</p> - -<p>Between 1871 and 1901, twenty-two Negroes -sat in Congress—two as senators and twenty as -representatives; three or four others were undoubtedly -elected but were not seated. Ten of -these twenty-two Negroes were college bred: Cain -of South Carolina was trained at Wilberforce -and afterward became bishop of the African -Methodist Church; Revels was educated at Knox -College, Illinois, or at a Quaker Seminary, in -Indiana; Cheatham was a graduate of Shaw; -Murray was trained at the University of South -Carolina; Langston was a graduate of Oberlin; -five others were lawyers of whom the most brilliant -was Robert Brown Elliott; he was a graduate -of Eton College, England; Rapier was educated<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_222"></a>[222]</span> -in Canada and O’Hara studied at Howard -University; Miller graduated from Lincoln and -White from Howard University. The other -twelve men were self-taught: one was a thriving -merchant tailor, one a barber, three were farmers, -one a photographer, one a pilot and one a merchant.<a id="FNanchor_169" href="#Footnote_169" class="fnanchor">[169]</a></p> - -<p>Of those who served in the Senate, one served -an unexpired term and the other six years. In the -House, one representative served one term from -Virginia. From North Carolina one served one -term and two, two terms. Georgia was represented -by a Negro for one term and Mississippi -for two terms. South Carolina had eight representatives, -two of them served five terms, three -two terms, and the rest one term. Beside these -there were other Negro office holders who were -fully the peers of white men; and those without -formal training in the schools were in many cases -men of unusual force and native ability.</p> - -<p>James G. Blaine who served with nearly all -these men approved of sending them to Congress: -“If it is to be viewed simply as an experiment, it -was triumphantly successful. The colored men -who took seats in both Senate and House did not -appear ignorant or helpless. They were as a -rule studious, earnest, ambitious men whose public<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_223"></a>[223]</span> -conduct—as illustrated by Mr. Revels and Mr. -Bruce in the Senate and by Mr. Rapier, Mr. Lynch -and Mr. Rainey in the House would be honorable -to any race. Coals of fire were heaped on the -heads of all their enemies when the colored men -in Congress heartily joined in removing the disabilities -of those who had before been their oppressors, -and who, with deep regret be it said, -have continued to treat them with injustice and -ignominy.”<a id="FNanchor_170" href="#Footnote_170" class="fnanchor">[170]</a></p> - -<p>He cites the magnanimity of Senator Rainey: -“When the Amnesty Bill came before the House -for consideration, Mr. Rainey of South Carolina, -speaking for the colored race whom he represented -said: ‘It is not the disposition of my constituents -that these disabilities should longer be -retained. We are desirous of being magnanimous; -it may be that we are so to a fault. Nevertheless -we have open and frank hearts towards those who -were our oppressors and taskmasters. We foster -no enmity now, and we desire to foster none, for -their acts in the past to us or to the Government we -love so well. But while we are willing to accord -them their enfranchisement and here today give -our votes that they may be amnestied, while we declare -our hearts open and free from any vindictive -feelings toward them, we would say to those gentlemen<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_224"></a>[224]</span> -on the other side that there is another -class of citizens in the country who have certain -rights and immunities which they would like you, -sirs, to remember and respect.... We invoke -you gentlemen, to show the same kindly feeling -towards us, a race long oppressed, and in demonstration -of this humane and just feeling, I implore -you, give support to the Civil Rights Bill, which -we have been asking at your hands, lo! these many -days.”<a id="FNanchor_171" href="#Footnote_171" class="fnanchor">[171]</a></p> - -<p>The chief charge against Negro governments -has to do with property. These governments are -charged with attacking property and the charge is -true. This, although not perhaps sensed at the -time, was their real reason for being. The ex-slaves -must have land and capital or they would -fall back into slavery. The masters had both; -there must be a transfer. It was at first proposed -that land be confiscated in the South and given to -the Freedmen. “Forty Acres and a Mule” was the -widespread promise made several times with official -sanction. This was perhaps the least that the -United States Government could have done to insure -emancipation, but such a program would have -cost money. In the early anger of the war, it -seemed to many fair to confiscate land for this -purpose without payment and some land was thus<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_225"></a>[225]</span> -sequestered. But manifestly with all the losses of -war and with the loss of the slaves it was unfair -to take the land of the South without some compensation. -The North was unwilling to add to its -tremendous debt anything further to insure the -economic independence of the Freedmen. The -Freedmen therefore themselves with their political -power and with such economic advantage as -the war gave them, tried to get hold of land.</p> - -<p>The Negro party platform of 1876, in one state, -advocated “division of lands of the state as far as -practical into small farms in order that the masses -of our people may be enabled to become landholders.” -In the Constitutional Convention of -South Carolina, a colored man said: “One of the -greatest of slavery bulwarks was the infernal plantation -system, one man owning his thousand, -another his twenty, another fifty thousands acres -of land. This is the only way by which we will -break up that system, and I maintain that our -freedom will be of no effect if we allow it to -continue. What is the main cause of the prosperity -of the North. It is because every man has -his own farm and is free and independent. Let -the lands of the South be similarly divided. I -would not say for one moment they should be -confiscated but if sold to maintain the war, now -that slavery is destroyed, let the plantation system<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_226"></a>[226]</span> -go with it. We will never have true freedom -until we abolish the system of agriculture which -existed in the Southern States. It is useless to -have any schools while we maintain the stronghold -of slavery as the agricultural system of the -country.”<a id="FNanchor_172" href="#Footnote_172" class="fnanchor">[172]</a> This question kept coming up in the -South Carolina convention and elsewhere. Such -arguments led in South Carolina to a scheme to -buy land and distribute it and some $800,000 was -appropriated for this purpose.</p> - -<p>In the second place, property was attacked -through the tax system. The South had been -terribly impoverished and was saddled with new -social burdens. Many of the things which had -been done well or indifferently by the plantations—like -the punishment of crime and the care of -the sick and the insane, and such schooling as there -was, with most other matters of social uplift were, -after the war, transferred to the control of the -state. Moreover the few and comparatively indifferent -public buildings of slavery days had been -ruined either by actual warfare or by neglect. -Thus a new and tremendous burden of social taxation -was put upon the reconstructed states.</p> - -<p>As a southern writer says of the state of -Mississippi: “The work of restoration which the -government was obliged to undertake, made increased<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_227"></a>[227]</span> -expenses necessary. During the period of -the war, and for several years thereafter, public -buildings and state institutions were permitted to -fall into decay. The state house and grounds, the -executive mansion, the penitentiary, the insane -asylum, and the buildings for the blind, deaf and -dumb, were in a dilapidated condition and had to -be extended and repaired. A new building for the -blind was purchased and fitted up. The reconstructionists -established a public school system and -spent money to maintain and support it, perhaps -too freely, in view of the impoverishment of the -people. When they took hold, warrants were -worth but sixty or seventy cents on the dollar, a -fact which made the price of building materials -used in the work of construction correspondingly -higher.”<a id="FNanchor_173" href="#Footnote_173" class="fnanchor">[173]</a></p> - -<p>In addition to all this there was fraud and -stealing. There were white men who cheated and -secured large sums. Most of $800,000 appropriated -for land in South Carolina was wasted in -graft. Bills for wine and furniture in South -Carolina were enormous; the printing bill of -Mississippi was ridiculously extravagant. Colored -men shared in this loot but they at least had -some excuse. We may not forget that among slaves<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_228"></a>[228]</span> -stealing is not the crime that it becomes in free -industry. The slave is victim of a theft so hateful -that nothing he can steal can ever match it. -The freedmen of 1868 still shared the slave -psychology. The larger part of the stealing was -done by white men—Northerners and Southerners—and -we must remember that it was not the first -time that there had been stealing and corruption -in the South and that the whole moral tone of -the nation had been ruined by war. For instance:</p> - -<p>In 1839 it was reported in Mississippi that -ninety per cent of the fines collected by sheriffs -and clerks were unaccounted for. In 1841 the -State Treasurer acknowledged himself “at a loss -to determine the precise liabilities of the state and -her means of paying the same.” And in 1839 the -auditor’s books had not been posted for eighteen -months, no entries made for a year, and no -vouchers examined for three years. Congress -gave Jefferson College, Natchez, more than -46,000 acres of land; before the war this whole -property had “disappeared” and the college was -closed. Congress gave to Mississippi among -other states, the “16th section” of the public lands -for schools. In thirty years the proceeds of this -land in Mississippi were embezzled to the amount -of at least one and a half millions of dollars. In -Columbus, Mississippi a receiver of public monies<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_229"></a>[229]</span> -stole $100,000 and resigned. His successor stole -$55,000 and a treasury agent wrote: “Another -receiver would probably follow in the footsteps of -the two. You will not be surprised if I recommend -him being retained in preference to another appointment.” -From 1830 to 1860 southern men -in federal offices alone embezzled more than a -million dollars—a far greater sum then than now.</p> - -<p>There might have been less stealing in the -South during Reconstruction without Negro suffrage -but it is certainly highly instructive to remember -that the mark of the thief which dragged -its slime across nearly every great Northern State -and almost up to the presidential chair could not -certainly in those cases be charged against the -vote of black men. This was the day when a -national Secretary of War was caught stealing, a -vice president presumably took bribes, a private -secretary of the president, a chief clerk of the -Treasury, and eighty-six government officials stole -millions in the Whiskey frauds; while the “Credit -Mobilier” filched millions and bribed the government -to an extent never fully revealed; not to -mention less distinguished thieves like Tweed.</p> - -<p>Is it surprising that in such an atmosphere a -new race learning the a-b-c of government should -have become the tools of thieves? And when they -did, was the stealing their fault or was it justly<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_230"></a>[230]</span> -chargeable to their enfranchisement? Then too, -a careful examination of the alleged stealing in -the South reveals much: First, there is repeated -exaggeration. For instance, it is said that the -taxation in Mississippi was fourteen times as great -in 1874 as in 1869. This sounds staggering until -we learn that the State taxation in 1869 was only -ten cents on one hundred dollars and that the expenses -of government in 1874 were only twice as -great as in 1860 and that too with a depreciated -currency. It could certainly be argued that the -State government in Mississippi was doing enough -additional work in 1874 to warrant greatly increased -cost. The character of much of the stealing -shows who were the thieves. The frauds -through the manipulation of State and railway -bonds and of bank notes must have inured chiefly -to the benefit of experienced white men and this -must have been largely the case in the furnishing -and printing frauds. It was chiefly in the extravagance -for “sundries and incidentals” and direct -money payments for votes that the Negroes received -their share. The character of the real -thieving shows that white men must have been the -chief beneficiaries and that as a former South -Carolina slaveholder said:</p> - -<p>“The legislature, ignorant as it is, could not -have been bribed without money; that must have<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_231"></a>[231]</span> -been furnished from some source that it is our duty -to discover. A legislature composed chiefly of our -former slaves has been bribed. One prominent -feature of this transaction is the part which native -Carolinians have played in it, some of our own -household men whom the State, in the past, has -delighted to honor, appealing to their cupidity and -avarice make them the instruments to effect the -robbery of their impoverished white brethren. -Our former slaves have been bribed by these men -to give them the privilege by law of plundering -the property holders of the state.”<a id="FNanchor_174" href="#Footnote_174" class="fnanchor">[174]</a></p> - -<p>Even those who mocked and sneered at Negro -legislators brought now and then words of praise: -“But beneath all this shocking burlesque upon -Legislative proceedings we must not forget that -there is something very real to this uncouth and -untutored multitude. It is not all shame, not all -burlesque. They have a genuine interest and a -genuine earnestness in the business of the assembly -which we are bound to recognize and respect.... -They have an earnest purpose, born of conviction -that their conditions are not fully assured, which -lends a sort of dignity to their proceedings. The -barbarous, animated jargon in which they so often -indulge is on occasion seen to be so transparently -sincere and weighty in their own minds that sympathy<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_232"></a>[232]</span> -supplants disgust. The whole thing is a -wonderful novelty to them as well as to observers. -Seven years ago these men were raising corn and -cotton under the whip of the overseer. Today -they are raising points of order and questions of -privilege. They find they can raise one as well as -the other. They prefer the latter. It is easier -and better paid. Then, it is the evidence of an -accomplished result. It means escape and defence -from old oppressors. It means liberty. It means -the destruction of prison walls only too real to -them. It is the sunshine of their lives. It is their -day of jubilee. It is their long promised vision of -the Lord God Almighty.”<a id="FNanchor_175" href="#Footnote_175" class="fnanchor">[175]</a></p> - -<p>But with the memory of the Freedmen’s Bank -before it, America should utter no sound as to -Negro dishonesty during reconstruction. Here -from the entrenched philanthropy of America with -some of the greatest names of the day like Peter -Cooper, William Cullen Bryant, Simon P. Chase, -A. A. Low, Gerritt Smith, John Jay, A. S. Barnes, -S. G. Howe, George L. Stearns, Edward Atkinson, -Levi Coffin and others, a splendid scheme was -launched to help the Freedmen save their pittance -and encourage thrift and hope. On the covers of -the pass books is said: “This is a benevolent institution<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_233"></a>[233]</span> -and profits go to the depositors or to educational -purposes for the Freedmen and their descendants. -The whole institution is under the -charter of Congress and receives the commendation -of the President, Abraham Lincoln.” With -blare of trumpet it was chartered March 3rd, -1865; it collapsed in hopeless bankruptcy in 1873. -It had received fifty-six millions of dollars in deposits -and failed owing over three millions most -of which was never repaid. A committee of Congress -composed of both Democrats and Republicans -said in 1876:</p> - -<p>“The law lent no efficacy to the moral obligations -assumed by the trustees, officers, and agents -and the whole concern inevitably became as a -‘whited sepulchre’.... The inspectors ... -were of little or no value, either through the connivance -and ignorance of the inspectors or the indifference -of the trustees to their reports.... -The committee of examination ... were still -more careless and inefficient, while the board of -trustees, as a supervising and administrative body, -intrusted with the fullest power of general control -over the management, proved utterly faithless to -the trust reposed in them....</p> - -<p>“The depositors were of small account now -compared with the personal interest of the political -jobbers, real estate pools, and fancy-stock<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_234"></a>[234]</span> -speculators, who were organizing a raid upon the -Freedmen’s money and resorted to ... amendment -of the charter to facilitate their operations.... -This mass of putridity, the District government, -now abhorred of all men, and abandoned and -repudiated even by the political authors of its -being, was represented in the bank by no less than -five of its high officers ... all of whom were in -one way or other concerned in speculations involving -a free use of the funds of the Freedmen’s -Bank. They were high in power, too, with the -dominant influence in Congress, as the legislation -they asked or sanctioned and obtained, fully -demonstrated. Thus it was that without consulting -the wishes or regarding the interests of those -most concerned—the depositors—the vaults of -the bank were literally thrown open to unscrupulous -greed and rapacity. The toilsome savings of -the poor Negroes hoarded and laid by for a rainy -day, through the carelessness and dishonest connivance -of their self-constituted guardians, melted -away....”<a id="FNanchor_176" href="#Footnote_176" class="fnanchor">[176]</a></p> - -<p>Even in bankruptcy the institution was not -allowed to come under the operation of the ordinary -laws but was liquidated and protected by a -special law, the liquidators picking its corpse and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_235"></a>[235]</span> -the helpless victims being finally robbed not only -of their money but of much of their faith in white -folk.</p> - -<p>Let us laugh hilariously if we must over the -golden spittoons of South Carolina but let us also -remember that at most the freedmen filched bits -from those who had all and not all from those -who had nothing; and that the black man had at -least the saving grace to hide his petty theft by -enshrining the nasty American habit of spitting in -the sheen of sunshine.</p> - -<p>With all these difficulties and failings, what did -the Freedmen in politics during the critical years -of their first investment with the suffrage accomplish? -We may recognize three things which -Negro rule gave to the South:</p> - -<p>1. Democratic government.</p> - -<p>2. Free public schools.</p> - -<p>3. New social legislation.</p> - -<p>Two states will illustrate conditions of government -in the South before and after Negro rule. -In South Carolina there was before the war a -property qualification for office holders, and in -part, for voters. The Constitution of 1868, on -the other hand, was a modern democratic document -starting (in marked contrast to the old constitution) -with a declaration that “We, the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_236"></a>[236]</span> -People,”<a id="FNanchor_177" href="#Footnote_177" class="fnanchor">[177]</a> framed it and preceded by a broad -Declaration of Rights which did away with property -qualifications and based representation directly -on population instead of property. It especially -took up new subjects of social legislation, -declaring navigable rivers free public highways, -instituting homestead exemptions, establishing -boards of county commissioners, providing for a -new penal code of laws, establishing universal -manhood suffrage “without distinction of race or -color,” devoting six sections to charitable and -penal institutions and six to corporations, providing -separate property for married women, etc. -Above all, eleven sections of the Tenth Article -were devoted to the establishment of a complete -public school system.</p> - -<p>So satisfactory was the constitution thus -adopted by Negro suffrage and by a convention -composed of a majority of blacks that the States -lived twenty-seven years under it without essential -change and when the constitution was revised in -1895, the revision was practically nothing more -than an amplification of the Constitution of 1868. -No essential advance step of the former document -was changed except the suffrage article to disfranchise -Negroes.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_237"></a>[237]</span></p> - -<p>In Mississippi the Constitution of 1868 was, -as compared with that before the war, more democratic. -It not only forbade distinctions on account -of color but abolished all property qualifications -for jury service and property and educational -qualifications for suffrage; it required less rigorous -qualifications for office; it prohibited the lending -of the credit of the State for private corporations—an -abuse dating back as far as 1830. It increased -the powers of the governor, raised the -low State salaries, and increased the number of -state officials. New ideas like the public school -system and the immigration bureau were introduced -and in general the activity of the State -greatly and necessarily enlarged. Finally that was -the only constitution of the State ever submitted -to popular approval at the polls. This constitution -remained in force twenty-two years.</p> - -<p>In general the words of Judge Albion W. Tourgee, -“a carpet-bagger,” are true when he says of -the Negro governments: “They obeyed the Constitution -of the United States and annulled the -bonds of states, counties and cities which had been -issued to carry on the war of rebellion and maintain -armies in the field against the Union. They -instituted a public school system in a realm where -public schools had been unknown. They opened -the ballot box and jury box to thousands of white<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_238"></a>[238]</span> -men who had been debarred from them by a lack -of earthly possessions. They introduced home -rule in the South. They abolished the whipping -post, the branding iron, the stocks and other barbarous -forms of punishment which had up to that -time prevailed. They reduced capital felonies -from about twenty to two or three. In an age of -extravagance they were extravagant in the sums -appropriated for public works. In all of that -time no man’s rights of person were invaded under -the forms of law. Every Democrat’s life, home, -fireside and business were safe. No man obstructed -any white man’s way to the ballot box, -interfered with his freedom of speech or boycotted -him, on account of his political faith.”<a id="FNanchor_178" href="#Footnote_178" class="fnanchor">[178]</a></p> - -<p>A thorough study of the legislation accompanying -these constitutions and its changes since would, -of course, be necessary before a full picture of the -situation could be given. This has not been done -but so far as my studies have gone I have been -surprised at the comparatively small amount of -change in law and government which the overthrow -of Negro rule brought about. There were -sharp and often hurtful economies introduced, -marking the return of property to power, there -was a sweeping change in officials but the main -body of Reconstruction legislation stood.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_239"></a>[239]</span></p> - -<p>There is no doubt but that the thirst of the -black man for knowledge—a thirst which has been -too persistent and durable to be mere curiosity or -whim—gave birth to the public free school system -of the South. It was the question upon which -the black voters and legislators insisted more than -anything else and while it is possible to find some -vestiges of free schools in some of the Southern -States before the war yet a universal, well established -system dates from the day that the black -man got political power. Common school instruction -in the South, in the modern sense of the term, -was begun for Negroes by the Freedmen’s Bureau -and missionary societies, and the State public -school systems for all children were formed mainly -by Negro Reconstruction governments.</p> - -<p>The earlier state constitutions of Mississippi -“from 1817 to 1864 contained a declaration that -‘Religion, morality and knowledge being necessary -to good government, the preservation of liberty -and the happiness of mankind, schools and the -means of education shall forever be encouraged.’ -It was not, however, until 1868 that encouragement -was given to any general system of public -schools meant to embrace the whole youthful -population.” The Constitution of 1868 makes it -the duty of the legislature to establish “a uniform -system of free public schools by taxation or otherwise<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_240"></a>[240]</span> -for all children between the ages of five and -twenty-one years.” In Alabama the Reconstruction -Constitution of 1868 provided that “It shall be -the duty of the Board of Education to establish -throughout the State in each township or other -school district which it may have created, one -or more schools at which all children of the state -between the ages of five and twenty-one years -may attend free of charge.” Arkansas in 1868, -Florida in 1869, Virginia in 1870, established -school systems. The Constitution of 1868 in -Louisiana required the general assembly to establish -“at least one free public school in every -parish,” and that these schools should make no -“distinction of race, color or previous condition.” -Georgia’s system was not fully established until -1873.</p> - -<p>We are apt to forget that in all human probability -the granting of Negro manhood suffrage -was decisive in rendering permanent the foundation -of the Negro common school. Even after -the overthrow of the Negro governments, if the -Negroes had been left a servile caste, personally -free but politically powerless, it is not reasonable -to think that a system of common schools would -have been provided for them by the Southern -states. Serfdom and education have ever proven -contradictory terms. But when Congress, backed<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_241"></a>[241]</span> -by the nation, determined to make the Negroes -full-fledged voting citizens, the South had a hard -dilemma before her; either to keep the Negroes -under as an ignorant proletariat and stand the -chance of being ruled eventually from the slums -and jails, or to join in helping to raise these wards -of the nation to a position of intelligence and -thrift by means of a public school system.<a id="FNanchor_179" href="#Footnote_179" class="fnanchor">[179]</a></p> - -<p>The “carpet-bag” governments hastened the -decision of the South and although there was a -period of hesitation and retrogression after the -overthrow of Negro rule in the early seventies, -yet the South saw that to abolish Negro schools -in addition to nullifying the Negro vote would -invite Northern interference; and thus eventually -every Southern state confirmed the work of the -Negro legislators and maintained the Negro -public schools along with the white.</p> - -<p>Finally, in legislation covering property the -wider functions of the State, the punishment of -crime and the like, it is sufficient to say that the -laws on these points established by Reconstruction -legislatures were not only different and even revolutionary -to the laws of the older South, but they -were so wise and so well suited to the needs of the -new South that in spite of a retrogressive movement -following the overthrow of the Negro<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_242"></a>[242]</span> -governments, the mass of this legislation with -elaboration and development still stands on the -statute books of the South.</p> - -<p>Reconstruction constitutions, practically unaltered, -were kept in</p> - -<table summary="States with reconstruction constitutions"> - <tr> - <td>Florida, 1868-1885</td> - <td>17 years</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Virginia, 1870-1902</td> - <td>32 years</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>South Carolina, 1868-1895</td> - <td>27 years</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Mississippi, 1868-1890</td> - <td>22 years</td> - </tr> -</table> - -<p>Even in the case of states like Alabama, -Georgia, North Carolina and Louisiana, which -adopted new constitutions to signify the overthrow -of Negro rule, the new constitutions are -nearer the model of the Reconstruction document -than they are to the previous constitutions. They -differ from the Negro constitutions in minor details -but very little in general conception.</p> - -<p>Here then on the whole was a much more -favorable result of a great experiment in democracy -than the world had a right to await. But -even on its more sinister side and in the matter of -the ignorance of inexperience and venality of the -colored voters there came signs of better things. -The theory of democratic government is not that -the will of the people is always right, but rather -that normal human beings of average intelligence -will, if given a chance, learn the right and best -course by bitter experience. This is precisely<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_243"></a>[243]</span> -what the Negro voters showed indubitable signs -of doing. First, they strove for schools to abolish -their ignorance, and second, a large and growing -number of them revolted against the carnival of -extravagance and stealing that marred the beginning -of Reconstruction and joined with the best -elements to institute reform; and the greatest -stigma on the white South is not that it opposed -Negro suffrage and resented theft and incompetence, -but that when it saw the reform movement -growing and even in some cases triumphing, and -a larger and larger number of black voters learning -to vote for honesty and ability, it still preferred -a Reign of Terror to a campaign of education -and disfranchised Negroes instead of punishing -rascals.</p> - -<p>No one has expressed this more convincingly -than a Negro who was himself a member of the -Reconstruction legislature of South Carolina and -who spoke at the convention which disfranchised -him, against one of the onslaughts of Tillman:</p> - -<p>“The gentleman from Edgefield (Mr. Tillman) -speaks of the piling up of the State debt; of -jobbery and speculation during the period between -1869 and 1873 in South Carolina, but he has not -found voice eloquent enough nor pen exact enough -to mention those imperishable gifts bestowed upon -South Carolina between 1873 and 1876 by Negro<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_244"></a>[244]</span> -legislators—the laws relative to finance, the -building of penal and charitable institutions and, -greatest of all, the establishment of the public -school system. Starting as infants in legislation -in 1869, many wise measures were not thought -of, many injudicious acts were passed. But in the -administration of affairs for the next four years, -having learned by experience the result of bad -acts, we immediately passed reformatory laws -touching every department of state, county, municipal -and town governments. These enactments -are today upon the statute books of South Carolina. -They stand as living witnesses of the -Negro’s fitness to vote and legislate upon the -rights of mankind.</p> - -<p>“When we came into power, town governments -could lend the credit of their respective towns to -secure funds at any rate of interest that the council -saw fit to pay. Some of the towns paid as high -as twenty percent. We passed an act prohibiting -town governments from pledging the credit of -their hamlets for money bearing a greater rate of -interest than five percent.</p> - -<p>“Up to 1874, inclusive, the State Treasurer -had the power to pay out State funds as he -pleased. He could elect whether he would pay -out the funds on appropriations that would place -the money in the hands of the speculators, or<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_245"></a>[245]</span> -would apply them to appropriations that were -honest and necessary. We saw the evil of this -and passed an act making specific levies and collections -of taxes for specific appropriations.</p> - -<p>“Another source of profligacy in the expenditure -of funds was the law that provided for and -empowered the levying and collecting of special -taxes by school districts, in the name of the -schools. We saw its evil and by a Constitutional -amendment provided that there should only be -levied and collected annually a tax of two mills -for school purposes, and took away from the -school districts the power to levy and to collect -taxes of any kind. By this act we cured the evils -that had been inflicted upon us in the name of the -schools, settled the public school question for all -time to come and established the system upon an -honest financial basis.</p> - -<p>“Next, we learned during the period from -1869 to 1874 inclusive, that what was denominated -the floating indebtedness, covering the -printing schemes and other indefinite expenditures, -amounted to nearly $2,000,000. A conference -was called of the leading Negro representatives -in the two Houses together with the State -Treasurer, also a Negro. After this conference -we passed an act for the purpose of ascertaining -the bona fide floating debt and found that it did<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_246"></a>[246]</span> -not amount to more than $250,000 for the four -years; we created a commission to sift that indebtedness -and to scale it. Hence when the Democratic -party came into power they found the -floating debt covering the legislative and all other -expenditures, fixed at the certain sum of $250,000. -This same class of Negro legislators, led by the -State Treasurer, Mr. F. L. Cardoza, knowing -that there were millions of fraudulent bonds -charged against the credit of the State, passed -another act to ascertain the true bonded indebtedness -and to provide for its settlement. Under -this law, at one sweep, those entrusted with the -power to do so, through Negro legislators, -stamped six millions of bonds, denominated as -conversion bonds, ‘fraudulent.’ The commission -did not finish its work before 1876. In that year -when the Hampton government came into power, -there were still to be examined into and settled -under the terms of the act passed by us and providing -for the legitimate bonded indebtedness of -the State, a little over two and a half million -dollars worth of bonds and coupons which had not -been passed upon.</p> - -<p>“Governor Hampton, General Hagood, Judge -Simonton, Judge Wallace and in fact, all of the -conservative thinking Democrats aligned themselves -under the provision enacted by us for the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_247"></a>[247]</span> -certain and final settlement of the bonded indebtedness -and appealed to their Democratic legislators -to stand by the Republican legislation on the -subject and to confirm it. A faction in the Democratic -party obtained a majority of the Democrats -in the legislature against settling the question and -they endeavored to open up anew the whole subject -of the State debt. We had a little over thirty -members in the House and enough Republican -senators to sustain the Hampton conservative -faction and to stand up for honest finance, or by -our votes to place the debt question of the old -State into the hands of the plunderers and speculators. -We were appealed to by General Hagood, -through me, and my answer to him was in these -words: ‘General, our people have learned the difference -between profligate and honest legislation. -We have passed acts of financial reform, and with -the assistance of God, when the vote shall have -been taken, you will be able to record for the -thirty-odd Negroes, slandered though they have -been through the press, that they voted solidly -with you all for the honest legislation and the -preservation of the credit of the State.’ The -thirty-odd Negroes in the legislature and their -senators by their votes did settle the debt question -and saved the State $13,000,000.</p> - -<p>“We were eight years in power. We had built<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_248"></a>[248]</span> -school houses, established charitable institutions, -built and maintained the penitentiary system, provided -for the education of the deaf and dumb, -rebuilt the jails and court houses, rebuilt the -bridges and re-established the ferries. In short, -we had reconstructed the State and placed it upon -the road to prosperity and, at the same time, by -our acts of financial reform, transmitted to the -Hampton government an indebtedness not greater -by more than $2,500,000 than was the bonded -debt of the State in 1868, before the Republican -Negroes and their white allies came into power.”<a id="FNanchor_180" href="#Footnote_180" class="fnanchor">[180]</a></p> - -<p>So too in Louisiana in 1872 and in Mississippi -later the better element of the Republicans triumphed -at the polls and joining with the Democrats -instituted reforms, repudiated the worst -extravagances and started toward better things. -But unfortunately there was one thing that the -white South feared more than Negro dishonesty, -ignorance and incompetency, and that was Negro -honesty, knowledge and efficiency.</p> - -<p>Paint the “carpet-bag” governments and Negro -rule as black as may be, the fact remains that the -essence of the revolution which the overturning<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_249"></a>[249]</span> -of the Negro governments made was to put these -black men and their friends out of power. Outside -the curtailing of expenses and stopping of -extravagance, not only did their successors make -few changes in the work which these legislatures -and conventions had done, but they largely carried -out their plans, followed their suggestions -and strengthened their institutions. Practically -the whole new growth of the South has been accomplished -under laws which black men helped to -frame thirty years ago. I know of no greater -compliment to Negro suffrage, and no greater -contribution to real American democracy.<a id="FNanchor_181" href="#Footnote_181" class="fnanchor">[181]</a></p> - -<p>The counter revolution came but it was too -late. The Negro had stepped so far into new -economic freedom that he could never be put back -into slavery; and he had widened democracy to -include not only a goodly and increasing number -of his own group but the mass of the poor white -South. The economic results of Negro suffrage -were so great during the years from 1865 to -1876 that they have never been overthrown. The -Freedmen’s Bureau came virtually to an end in -1869. General Howard’s report of that year -said: “In spite of all disorders that have prevailed<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_250"></a>[250]</span> -and the misfortunes that have fallen upon -many parts of the South, a good degree of prosperity -and success has already been attained. To -the oft-repeated slander that the Negroes will not -work and are incapable of taking care of themselves, -it is a sufficient answer that their voluntary -labor has produced nearly all the food that supported -the whole people, besides a large amount -of rice, sugar and tobacco for export, and two -millions of bales of cotton each year, on which -was paid into the United States Treasury during -the years 1866 to 1867 a tax of more than forty -millions of dollars ($40,000,000). It is not -claimed that this result was wholly due to the care -and oversight of this Bureau but it is safe to say -as it has been said repeatedly by intelligent Southern -white men, that without the Bureau or some -similar agency, the material interests of the country -would have greatly suffered and the government -would have lost a far greater amount than -has been expended in its maintenance....</p> - -<p>“Of the nearly eight hundred thousand -(800,000) acres of farming land and about five -thousand (5,000) pieces of town property transferred -to this Bureau by military and treasury officers, -or taken up by assistant commissioners, -enough was leased to produce a revenue of nearly -four hundred thousand dollars ($400,000).<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_251"></a>[251]</span> -Some farms were set apart in each state as homes -for the destitute and helpless and a portion was -cultivated by freedmen prior to its restoration....</p> - -<p>“Notice the appropriations by Congress:</p> - -<table summary="Sums appropriated by Congress"> - <tr> - <td>For the year ending July 1st, 1867</td> - <td class="tdr">$6,940,450.00</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>For the year ending July 1st, 1868</td> - <td class="tdr">3,936,300.00</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>For the relief of the destitute citizens in District of Columbia</td> - <td class="tdr">40,000.00</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>For relief of destitute freedmen in the same</td> - <td class="tdr">15,000.00</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>For expenses of paying bounties in 1869</td> - <td class="tdr">214,000.00</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>For expenses for famine in Southern states and transportation</td> - <td class="tdr">1,865,645.00</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>For support of hospitals</td> - <td class="tdr">50,000.00</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Making a total received from all sources of</td> - <td class="tdr bt">$12,961,395.00</td> - </tr> -</table> - -<p>“Our expenditures from the beginning (including -assumed accounts of the ‘Department of -Negro Affairs’ from January 1st, 1865, to August -31, 1869) have been eleven million two hundred -and forty-nine thousand and twenty-eight dollars -and ten cents ($11,249,028.10). In addition to -this cash expenditure the subsistence, medical supplies, -quartermasters stores, issued to the refugees -and freedmen prior to July 1st, 1866, were furnished -by the commissary, medical and quartermasters -department, and accounted for in the current -expenses of those departments; they were -not charged to nor paid for by my officers. They -amounted to two million three hundred and thirty<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_252"></a>[252]</span> -thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight dollars -and seventy-two cents ($2,330,788.72) in original -cost; but a large portion of these stores being -damaged and condemned as unfit for issue to -troops, their real value to the Government was -probably less than one million dollars ($1,000,000). -Adding their original cost to the amount -expended from appropriations and other sources, -the total expenses of our Government for refugees -and freedmen to August 31, 1869, have been -thirteen million five hundred and seventy-nine -thousand eight hundred and sixteen dollars and -eighty-two cents ($13,579,816.82). And deducting -fifty thousand dollars ($50,000) set apart as -a special relief fund for all classes of destitute -people in the Southern states, the real cost has -been thirteen million twenty-nine thousand eight -hundred and sixteen dollars and eighty-two cents -($13,029,816.82).”<a id="FNanchor_182" href="#Footnote_182" class="fnanchor">[182]</a></p> - -<p>By 1875, Negroes owned not less than 2,000,000 -and perhaps as much as 4,000,000 acres of -land and by 1880 this had increased to 6,000,000.</p> - -<p>Notwithstanding the great step forward that -the Negro had made this sinister fact faced him -and his friends: he formed a minority of the -population of the South. If that population was<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_253"></a>[253]</span> -solidly arrayed against him his legal status was -in danger and his economic progress was going to -be difficult. It has been repeatedly charged that -the action of the Negro solidified Southern opposition; -and that the Negro refusing to listen to and -make fair terms with his white neighbors, sought -solely Northern alliance and the protection of -Northern bayonets. This is not true and is turning -facts hindside before. The ones who did the -choosing were the Southern master class. When -they got practically their full political rights in -1872 they had a chance to choose, if they would, -the best of the Negroes as their allies and to work -with them as against the most ruthless elements -of the white South. Gradually there could have -been built up a political party or even parties of -the best of the black and white South. The -Negroes would have been more than modest in -their demands so long as they saw a chance to -keep moving toward real freedom. But the -master class did not choose this, although some -like Wade Hampton of South Carolina, made -steps toward it. On the whole, the masters settled -definitely upon a purely racial line, recognizing -as theirs everything that had a white skin and -putting without the pale of sympathy and alliance, -everything of Negro descent. By bitter and unyielding -social pressure they pounded the whites<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_254"></a>[254]</span> -into a solid phalanx, but in order to do this they -had to give up much.</p> - -<p>In the first place the leadership of the South -passed from the hands of the old slave owners -into the hands of the newer town capitalists who -were largely merchants and the coming industrial -leaders. Some of them represented the older -dominant class and some of them the newer poor -whites. They were welded, however, into a new -economic mastership, less cultivated, more ruthless -and more keen in recognizing the possibilities -of Negro labor if “controlled” as they proposed -to control it. This new leadership, however, did -not simply solidify the South, it proceeded to -make alliance in the North and to make alliance -of the most effective kind, namely economic alliance. -The sentimentalism of the war period had -in the North changed to the recognition of the -grim fact of destroyed capital, dead workers and -high prices. The South was a field which could -be exploited if peaceful conditions could be -reached and the laboring class made sufficiently -content and submissive. It was the business then -of the “New” South to show to the northern -capitalists that by uniting the economic interests -of both, they could exploit the Negro laborer and -the white laborer—pitting the two classes against -each other, keeping out labor unions and building<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_255"></a>[255]</span> -a new industrial South which would pay tremendous -returns. This was the program which began -with the withdrawal of Northern troops in 1876 -and was carried on up to 1890 when it gained -political sanction by open laws disfranchising the -Negro.</p> - -<p>But the experiment was carried on at a terrific -cost. First, the Negro could not be cowed and -beaten back from his new-found freedom without -a mass of force, fraud and actual savagery such -as strained the moral fibre of the white South to -the utmost. It will be a century before the South -recovers from this <i>débacle</i> and this explains why -this great stretch of land has today so meager an -output of science, literature and art and can discuss -practically nothing but the “Negro” problem. -It explains why the South is the one region -in the civilized world where sometimes men are -publicly burned alive at the stake.</p> - -<p>On the other hand, even this display of force -and hatred did not keep the Negro from advancing -and the reason for this was that he was in -competition with a white laboring class which, -despite all efforts and advantages could not outstrip -the Negroes and put them wholly under -their feet. By judiciously using this rivalry, the -Negro gained economic advantage after advantage, -and foothold after foothold until today<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_256"></a>[256]</span> -while by no means free and still largely deprived -of political rights, we have a mass of 10,000,000 -people whose economic condition may be thus -described: If we roughly conceive of something -like a tenth of the white population as below the -line of decent free economic existence, we may -guess that a third of the black American population -of 12 millions is still in economic serfdom, -comparable to condition of the submerged tenth -in cities, and held in debt and crime peonage in -the sugar, rice and cotton belts. Six other millions -are emerging and fighting, in competition with -white laborers, a fairly successful battle for rising -wages and better conditions. In the last ten years -a million of these have been willing and able to -move physically from Southern serfdom to the -freer air of the North.</p> - -<p>The other three millions are as free as the -better class of white laborers; and are pushing -and carrying the white laborer with them in their -grim determination to hold advantages gained -and gain others. The Negro’s agitation for the -right to vote has made any step toward disfranchising -the poor white unthinkable, for the white -vote is needed to help disfranchise the blacks; the -black man is pounding open the doors of exclusive -trade guilds; for how can unions exclude whites -when Negro competition can break a steel strike?<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_257"></a>[257]</span> -The Negro is making America and the world -acknowledge democracy as feasible and desirable -for all white folk, for only in this way do they see -any possibility of defending their world wide fear -of yellow, brown and black folk.</p> - -<p>In a peculiar way, then, the Negro in the United -States has emancipated democracy, reconstructed -the threatened edifice of Freedom and been a sort -of eternal test of the sincerity of our democratic -ideals. As a Negro minister, J. W. C. Pennington, -said in London and Glasgow before the Civil -war: “The colored population of the United -States has no destiny separate from that of the -nation in which they form an integral part. Our -destiny is bound up with that of America. Her -ship is ours; her pilot is ours; her storms are ours; -her calms are ours. If she breaks upon a rock, -we break with her. If we, born in America, cannot -live upon the same soil upon terms of equality -with the descendants of Scotchmen, Englishmen, -Irishmen, Frenchmen, Germans, Hungarians, -Greeks and Poles, then the fundamental theory of -America fails and falls to the ground.”</p> - -<p>This is still true and it puts the American Negro -in a peculiar strategic position with regard to the -race problems of the whole world. What do we -mean by democracy? Do we mean democracy of -the white races and the subjection of the colored<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_258"></a>[258]</span> -races? Or do we mean the gradual working forward -to a time when all men will have a voice in -government and industry and will be intelligent -enough to express the voice?</p> - -<p>It is this latter thesis for which the American -Negro stands and has stood, and more than any -other element in the modern world it has slowly -but continuously forced America toward that -point and is still forcing. It must be remembered -that it was the late Booker T. Washington who -planned the beginning of an industrial democracy -in the South, based on education, and that in our -day the National Association for the Advancement -of Colored People, nine-tenths of whose -members are Negroes, is the one persistent agency -in the United States which is voicing a demand -for democracy unlimited by race, sex or religion. -American Negroes have even crossed the waters -and held three Pan-African Congresses to arouse -black men through the world to work for modern -democratic development. Thus the emancipation -of the Negro slave in America becomes through -his own determined effort simply one step toward -the emancipation of all men.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_259"></a>[259]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI<br /> -<span class="smaller">THE FREEDOM OF WOMANHOOD</span></h2> - -<p>How the black woman from her low estate not -only united two great human races but helped -lift herself and all women to economic independence -and self-expression.</p> - -</div> - -<p>The emancipation of woman is, of course, but -one phase of the growth of democracy. It deserves -perhaps separate treatment because it is -an interesting example of the way in which the -Negro has helped American democracy.</p> - -<p>In the United States in 1920 there were 5,253,695 -women of Negro descent; over twelve hundred -thousand of these were children, another -twelve hundred thousand were girls and young -women under twenty, and two and a half million -were adults. As a mass these women have but -the beginnings of education,—twelve percent of -those from sixteen to twenty years of age were -unable to write, and twenty-eight percent of those -twenty-one years of age and over. These women -are passing through, not only a moral, but an<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_260"></a>[260]</span> -economic revolution. Their grandmothers married -at twelve and fifteen, but in 1910 twenty-seven -percent of these women who had passed fifteen -were still single.</p> - -<p>Yet these black women toil and toil hard. -There were in 1910 two and a half million Negro -homes in the United States. Out of these homes -walked daily to work two million women and girls -over ten years of age,—one half of the colored -female population as against a fifth in the case of -white women. These, then, are a group of workers, -fighting for their daily bread like men; independent -and approaching economic freedom! -They furnished a million farm laborers, 80,000 -farmers, 22,000 teachers, 600,000 servants and -washerwomen, and 50,000 in trades and merchandizing. -In 1920, 38.9% of colored women were -at work as contrasted with 17.2% of native white -women. Of the colored women 39% were farming -and 50% in service.</p> - -<p>The family group, however, which is the ideal -of the culture into which these folk have been -born, is not based on the idea of an economically -independent working mother. Rather its ideal -harks back to the sheltered harem with the mother -emerging at first as nurse and homemaker, while -the man remains the sole breadwinner. Thus the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_261"></a>[261]</span> -Negro woman more than the women of any other -group in America is the protagonist in the fight -for an economically independent womanhood in -modern countries. Her fight has not been willing -or for the most part conscious but it has, nevertheless, -been curiously effective in its influence on -the working world.</p> - -<p>This matter of economic independence is, of -course, the central fact in the struggle of women -for equality. In the earlier days the slave woman -was found to be economically as efficient as the -man. Moreover, because of her production of -children she became in many ways more valuable; -but because she was a field hand the slave family -differed from the free family. The children were -brought up very largely in common on the plantation, -there was comparatively small parental control -or real family life and the chief function of -the woman was working and not making a home. -We can see here pre-figured a type of social -development toward which the world is working -again for similar and larger reasons. In our -modern industrial organization the work of women -is being found as valuable as that of men. -They are consequently being taken from the home -and put into industry and the rapidity by which -this process is going on is only kept back by the -problem of the child; and more and more the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_262"></a>[262]</span> -community is taking charge of the education of -children for this reason.</p> - -<p>In America the work of Negro women has not -only pre-figured this development but it has had -a direct influence upon it. The Negro woman as -laborer, as seamstress, as servant and cook, has -come into competition with the white male laborer -and with the white woman worker. The fact that -she could and did replace the white man as laborer, -artisan and servant, showed the possibility -of the white woman doing the same thing, and -led to it. Moreover, the usual sentimental arguments -against women at work were not brought -forward in the case of Negro womanhood. -Nothing illustrates this so well as the speech of -Sojourner Truth before the second National Woman -Suffrage Convention, in 1852.</p> - -<p>Sojourner Truth came from the lowest of the -low, a slave whose children had been sold away -from her, a hard, ignorant worker without even -a name, who came to this meeting of white women -and crouched in a corner against the wall. “Don’t -let her speak,” was repeatedly said to the presiding -officer. “Don’t get our cause mixed up with -abolition and ‘niggers’.” The discussion became -warm, resolutions were presented and argued. -Much was said of the superiority of man’s intellect, -the general helplessness of women and their<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_263"></a>[263]</span> -need for courtesy, the sin of Eve, etc. Most of -the white women, being “perfect ladies,” according -to the ideals of the time, were not used to -speaking in public and finally to their dismay the -black woman arose from the corner. The audience -became silent.</p> - -<p>Sojourner Truth was an Amazon nearly six -feet high, black, erect and with piercing eyes, and -her speech in reply was to the point:</p> - -<p>“Dat man ober dar say dat women needs to be -helped into carriages, and lifted ober ditches, and -to have the best places every whar. Nobody eber -help me into carriages, or ober mud puddles, or -gives me any best place” (and raising herself to -her full height and her voice to a pitch like rolling -thunder, she asked), “and ai’n’t I a woman? -Look at me! Look at my arm!” (And she bared -her right arm to the shoulder, showing her tremendous -muscular power.) “I have plowed, and -planted, and gathered into barns, and no man -could head me—and ai’n’t I a woman? I could -work as much and eat as much as a man (when I -could get it), and bear de lash as well—and -ai’n’t I a woman? I have borne thirteen chilern -and seen ’em mos’ all sold off into slavery, and -when I cried out with a mother’s grief, none but -Jesus heard—and ai’n’t I a woman? Den dey -talks ’bout dis ting in de head—what dis dey<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_264"></a>[264]</span> -call it?” (“Intellect,” whispered some one near.) -“Dat’s it honey. What’s dat got to do with women’s -rights or niggers’ rights? If my cup won’t -hold but a pint and yourn holds a quart, wouldn’t -ye be mean not to let me have my little half-measure -full?” ... She ended by asserting that -“If de fust woman God ever made was strong -enough to turn the world upside down, all ’lone, -dese togedder” (and she glanced her eye over us,) -“ought to be able to turn it back and get it right -side up again, and now dey is asking to do it, de -men better let ’em....”</p> - -<p>“Amid roars of applause, she turned to her -corner, leaving more than one of us with streaming -eyes and hearts beating with gratitude. She -had taken us up in her strong arms and carried us -safely over the slough of difficulty, turning the -whole tide in our favor. I have never in my life -seen anything like the magical influence that subdued -the mobbish spirit of the day and turned the -jibes and sneers of an excited crowd into notes of -respect and admiration. Hundreds rushed up to -shake hands, and congratulate the glorious old -mother and bid her God speed on her mission of -‘testifying again concerning the wickedness of this -’ere people’.”<a id="FNanchor_183" href="#Footnote_183" class="fnanchor">[183]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_265"></a>[265]</span></p> - -<p>Again and in more concrete ways the Negro -woman has influenced America and that is by her -personal contact with the family—its men, women -and children. As housekeeper, maid and -nurse—as confidante, adviser and friend, she was -often an integral part of the white family life of -the South, and transmitted her dialect, her mannerisms, -her quaint philosophy and her boundless -sympathy.</p> - -<p>Beyond this she became the concubine. It is a -subject scarcely to be mentioned today with our -conventional morals and with the bitter racial -memories swirling about this institution of slavery. -Yet the fact remains stark, ugly, painful, -beautiful.</p> - -<p>Let us regard it dispassionately, remembering -that the concubine is as old as the world and that -birth is a biological fact. It is usual to speak of -the Negro as being the great example of the -unassimiliated group in American life. This, of -course, is flatly untrue; probably of the strains of -blood longest present in America since the discovery -by Columbus, the Negro has been less -liable to absorption than other groups; but this -does not mean that he has not been absorbed and -that his blood has not been spread throughout the -length and breadth of the land.</p> - -<p>“We southern ladies are complimented with the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_266"></a>[266]</span> -names of wives; but we are only the mistresses of -seraglios,” said a sister of President Madison; -and a Connecticut minister who lived 14 years in -Carolina said: “As it relates to amalgamation, I -can say, that I have been in respectable families -(so-called), where I could distinguish the family -resemblance in the slaves who waited upon the -table. I once hired a slave who belonged to his own -uncle. It is so common for the female slaves to -have white children, that little is ever said about -it. Very few inquiries are made as to who the -father is.”<a id="FNanchor_184" href="#Footnote_184" class="fnanchor">[184]</a></p> - -<p>One has only to remember the early histories of -cities like Charleston and New Orleans to see -what the Negro concubine meant and how she -transfigured America. Paul Alliot said in his reflections -of Louisiana in 1803: “The population -of that city counting the people of all colors is -only twelve thousand souls. Mulattoes and Negroes -are openly protected by the Government. -He who strikes one of those persons, even though -he had run away from him, would be severely -punished. Also twenty whites could be counted in -the prisons of New Orleans against one man of -color. The wives and daughters of the latter are -much sought after by the white men, and white<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_267"></a>[267]</span> -women at times esteem well-built men of color.”<a id="FNanchor_185" href="#Footnote_185" class="fnanchor">[185]</a> -The same writer tells us that few white men -marry, preferring to live with their slaves or with -women of color.</p> - -<p>A generation later the situation was much the -same in spite of reaction. In 1818, a traveler says -of New Orleans: “Here may be seen in the same -crowds, Quadroons, Mulattoes, Samboes, Mustizos, -Indians and Negroes; and there are other -commixtures which are not yet classified.”<a id="FNanchor_186" href="#Footnote_186" class="fnanchor">[186]</a></p> - -<p>“The minor distinctions of complexion and race -so fiercely adhered to by the Creoles of the old -regime were at their height at this time. The -glory and shame of the city were her quadroons -and octoroons, apparently constituting two aristocratic -circles of society, the one as elegant as the -other, the complexions the same, the men the -same, the women different in race, but not in color, -nor in dress nor in jewels. Writers on fire with -the romance of this continental city love to speak -of the splendors of the French Opera House, the -first place in the country where grand opera was -heard, and tell of the tiers of beautiful women -with their jewels and airs and graces. Above the -orchestra circle were four tiers; the first filled with -the beautiful dames of the city; the second filled<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_268"></a>[268]</span> -with a second array of beautiful women, attired -like those of the first, with no apparent difference; -yet these were the octoroons and quadroons, -whose beauty and wealth were all the passports -needed. The third was for the <i>hoi polloi</i> of the -white race, and the fourth for the people of color -whose color was more evident. It was a veritable -sandwich of races.”<a id="FNanchor_187" href="#Footnote_187" class="fnanchor">[187]</a></p> - -<p>Whatever judgment we may pass upon all -this and however we may like or dislike it, the -fact remains that the colored slave women became -the medium through which two great races were -united in America. Moreover it is the fashion to -assume that all this was merely infiltration of white -blood into the black; but we must remember it -was just as surely infiltration of black blood into -white America and not even an extraordinary -drawing of the color line against all visible Negro -blood has ever been able to trace its true limits.</p> - -<p>There is scarcely an American, certainly none -of the South and no Negro American, who does -not know in his personal experience of Americans -of Negro descent who either do not know or -do not acknowledge their African ancestry. This -is their right, if they do know, and a matter of but -passing importance if they do not. But without<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_269"></a>[269]</span> -doubt the spiritual legacy of Africa has been -spread through this mingling of blood. First, of -course, we may think of those more celebrated -cases where the mixed blood is fairly well known -but nevertheless the man has worked and passed -as a white man. One of the earliest examples -was that of Alexander Hamilton. Alexander -Hamilton was a case in point of the much disputed -“Creole” blood. Theoretically the Creole was a -person of European descent on both sides born in -the West Indies or America; but as there were -naturally few such persons in earlier times because -of the small number of European women who -came to America, those descendants of European -fathers and mulatto mothers were in practice -called “Creole” and consequently it soon began to -be <i>prima facie</i> evidence, in the West Indies, that -an illegitimate child of a white father was of -Negro descent. Alexander Hamilton was such an -illegitimate child. He had colored relatives whose -descendants still live in America and he was currently -reported to be colored in the island of -Nevis. Further than this, of course, proof is impossible. -But to those who have given careful -attention to the subject, little further proof is -needed.</p> - -<p>To this can be added a long list of American -notables,—bishops, generals and members of Congress.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_270"></a>[270]</span> -Many writers and artists have found -hidden inspiration in their Negro blood and from -the first importation in the fifteenth century down -to today there has been a continual mingling of -white and Negro blood in the United States both -within and without the bonds of wedlock that -neither law nor slavery nor cruel insult and contempt -has been able to stop.</p> - -<p>Besides these influences in economics and the -home there has come the work of Negro women -in revolt which cannot be forgotten. We mention -two cases.</p> - -<p>Harriet Tubman was a woman absolutely illiterate, -who, from 1849 down to the Civil War, -spent her time journeying backward and forward -between the free and slave states and leading -hundreds of black fugitives into freedom. Thousands -of dollars were put upon her head as rewards -for her capture; and she was continually sought -by northern abolitionists and was a confidant of -John Brown. During the War, she acted as a spy, -guide and nurse and in all these days, worked -without pay or reward. William H. Seward said: -“A nobler, higher spirit or truer, seldom dwells -in the human form,” and Wendell Phillips added: -“In my opinion there are few captains, perhaps -few colonels who have done more for the loyal -cause since the War began and few men who did<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_271"></a>[271]</span> -before that time more for the colored race than -our fearless and most sagacious friend, Harriet.” -Abraham Lincoln gave her ready audience.<a id="FNanchor_188" href="#Footnote_188" class="fnanchor">[188]</a></p> - -<p>Quite a different kind of woman and yet -strangely effective and influential was Mammy -Pleasants of California. Here was a colored -woman who became one of the shrewdest business -minds of the State. She anticipated the development -in oil; she was the trusted confidant of -many of the California pioneers like Ralston, -Mills and Booth and for years was a power in -San Francisco affairs. Yet, she held her memories, -her hatreds, her deep designs and throughout a -life that was perhaps more than unconventional, -she treasured a bitter hatred for slavery and a -certain contempt for white people.</p> - -<p>As a field hand in Georgia she had attracted -the attention of a planter by her intelligence and -was bought and sent to Boston for training. Here -she was made a household drudge and eventually -married Alexander Smith who was associated with -Garrison and the abolitionists. With $50,000 -from his estate, she came to California and made -a fortune. The epitaph which she wanted on her -tombstone was, “She was a friend of John -Brown.” When she first heard of the projects of -Brown she determined to help him and April 5,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_272"></a>[272]</span> -1858, when John Brown was captured at Harper’s -Ferry, they found upon him a letter reading: “The -ax is laid at the foot of the tree; when the first -blow is struck there will be more money to help.” -This was signed by three initials which the authorities -thought were “W. E. P.”—in fact they were -“M. E. P.” and stood for Mammy Pleasants. -She had come East the spring before with a -$30,000 United States draft which she changed -into coin and meeting John Brown in Chatham or -Windsor, Canada, had turned this money over to -him. It was agreed, however, that he was not to -strike his blow until she had helped to arouse the -slaves. Disguised as a jockey, she went South -and while there heard of Brown’s raid and capture -at Harper’s Ferry. She fled to New York -and finally reached California on a ship that came -around Cape Horn, sailing in the steerage under -an assumed name.</p> - -<p>Mammy Pleasants “always wore a poke bonnet -and a plaid shawl,” and she was “very black with -thin lips” and “she handled more money during -pioneers days in California than any other colored -person.”<a id="FNanchor_189" href="#Footnote_189" class="fnanchor">[189]</a></p> - -<p>Here then, we have the types of colored women -who rose out of the black mass of slaves not only -to guide their own folk but to influence the nation.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_273"></a>[273]</span></p> - -<p>We have noted then the Negro woman in -America as a worker tending to emancipate all -women workers; as a mother nursing the white -race and uniting the black and white race; as a -conspirator urging forward emancipation in various -sorts of ways; and we have finally only to -remember that today the women of America who -are doing humble but on the whole the most effective -work in the social uplift of the lowly, not so -much by money as by personal contact, are the -colored women. Little is said or known about it -but in thousands of churches and social clubs, in -missionary societies and fraternal organizations, -in unions like the National Association of Colored -Women, these workers are founding and sustaining -orphanages and old folk homes; distributing -personal charity and relief; visiting prisoners; -helping hospitals; teaching children; and ministering -to all sorts of needs. Their work, as it comes -now and then in special cases to the attention of -individuals of the white world, forms a splendid -bond of encouragement and sympathy, and helps -more than most realize in minimizing racial difficulties -and encouraging human sympathy.<a id="FNanchor_190" href="#Footnote_190" class="fnanchor">[190]</a></p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_274"></a>[274]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII<br /> -<span class="smaller">THE AMERICAN FOLK SONG</span></h2> - -<p>How black folk sang their sorrow songs in the -land of their bondage and made this music the -only American folk music.</p> - -</div> - -<p>“Little of beauty has America given the world -save the rude grandeur God himself stamped on -her bosom; the human spirit in this new world has -expressed itself in vigor and ingenuity rather than -in beauty. And so by fateful chance the Negro -folk-song—the rhythmic cry of the slave—stands -today not simply as the sole American -music, but as the most beautiful expression of -human experience born this side the seas. It has -been neglected, it has been persistently mistaken -and misunderstood; but notwithstanding, it still -remains as the singular spiritual heritage of the -nation and the greatest gift of the Negro people.”<a id="FNanchor_191" href="#Footnote_191" class="fnanchor">[191]</a></p> - -<p>Around the Negro folk-song there has arisen -much of controversy and of misunderstanding. -For a long time they were utterly neglected; then -every once in a while and here and there they<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_275"></a>[275]</span> -forced themselves upon popular attention. In the -thirties, they emerged and in tunes like “Near the -lake where droop the willow” and passed into -current song or were caricatured by the minstrels. -Then came Stephen Foster who accompanied a -mulatto maid often to the Negro church and heard -the black folk sing; he struck a new note in songs -like “Old Kentucky Home,” “Old Folks at Home” -and “Nellie was a Lady.” But it was left to war -and emancipation to discover the real primitive -beauty of this music to the world.</p> - -<p>When northern men and women who knew -music, met the slaves at Port Royal after its capture -by Federal troops, they set down these songs -in their original form for the first time so that -the world might hear and sing them. The sea -islands of the Carolinas where these meetings -took place “with no third witness” were filled with -primitive black folk, uncouth in appearance, and -queer in language, but their singing was marvellous. -Thomas Wentworth Higginson and Miss -McKim and others collected these songs in 1867, -making the first serious study of Negro American -music. The preface said:</p> - -<p>“The musical capacity of the Negro race has -been recognized for so many years that it is hard -to explain why no systematic effort has hitherto -been made to collect and preserve their melodies.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_276"></a>[276]</span> -More than thirty years ago those plantation songs -made their appearance which were so extraordinarily -popular for a while; and if ‘Coal-black Rose,’ -‘Zip Coon’ and ‘Ole Virginny nebber tire’ have -been succeeded by spurious imitations, manufactured -to suit the somewhat sentimental taste of -our community, the fact that these were called -‘Negro melodies’ was itself a tribute to the musical -genius of the race.</p> - -<p>“The public had well-nigh forgotten these genuine -slave songs, and with them the creative power -from which they sprung, when a fresh interest was -excited through the educational mission to the -Port Royal Islands in 1861.”<a id="FNanchor_192" href="#Footnote_192" class="fnanchor">[192]</a></p> - -<p>Still the world listened only half credulously -until the Fisk Jubilee Singers sang the slave songs -“so deeply into the world’s heart that it can never -wholly forget them again.” The story of the Fisk -Jubilee singers is romantic. In abandoned barracks -at Nashville hundreds of colored children -were being taught and the dream of a Negro -University had risen in the minds of the white -teachers. But even the lavish contribution for -missionary work, which followed the war, had by -1870 begun to fall off. It happened that the -treasurer of Fisk, George L. White, loved music.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_277"></a>[277]</span> -He began to instruct the Fisk students in singing -and he used the folk-songs. He met all sorts of -difficulties. The white people of the nation and -especially the conventional church folk who were -sending missionary money, were not interested in -“minstrel ditties.” The colored people looked -upon these songs as hateful relics of slavery. -Nevertheless, Mr. White persisted, gathered a -pioneer band of singers and in 1871 started north.</p> - -<p>“It was the sixth day of October in the year of -our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, -when George L. White started out from -Fisk School with his eleven students to raise -money, that Fisk might live. Professor Adam K. -Spence, who was principal of the school, gave Mr. -White all the money in his possession save one -dollar, which he held back, that the treasury might -not be empty. While friends and parents wept, -waved, and feared, the train puffed out of the -station. All sorts of difficulties, obstacles, oppositions -and failures faced them until through wonderful -persistence, they arrived at Oberlin, Ohio. -Here the National Council of Congregational -Churches was in session. After repeated efforts, -Mr. White gained permission for his singers to -render one song. Many of the members of the -Council objected vigorously to having such singers. -During the time of the session the weather<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_278"></a>[278]</span> -had been dark and cloudy. The sun had not -shone one moment, it had not cast one ray upon -the village. The singers went into the gallery of -the church, unobserved by all save the moderator -and a few who were on the rostrum. At a lull in -the proceeding, there floated sweetly to the ears -of the audience the measures of ‘Steal Away to -Jesus.’ Suddenly the sun broke through the -clouds, shone through the windows upon the singers, -and verily they were a heavenly choir. For -a time the Council forgot its business and called -for more and more. It was at this point that -Henry Ward Beecher almost demanded of Mr. -White that he cancel all engagements and come -straight to his church in Brooklyn....”</p> - -<p>The New York papers ridiculed and sneered at -Beecher’s “nigger minstrels.” But Beecher stuck -to his plan and it was only a matter of hearing -them once when audiences went into ecstasies.</p> - -<p>“When the Metropolitan newspapers called the -company ‘Nigger Minstrels,’ Mr. White was face -to face with a situation as serious as it was awkward. -His company had no appropriate name, -and the odium of the title attributed by the New -York newspapers pained him intensely. If they -were to be known as ‘Nigger Minstrels,’ they -could never realize his vision; they were both -handicapped and checkmated, and their career was<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_279"></a>[279]</span> -dead.... The suggestiveness of the Hebrew -Jubilee had been borne in upon his mind and with -joy of a deep conviction he exclaimed, ‘Children, -you are the Jubilee Singers’.”<a id="FNanchor_193" href="#Footnote_193" class="fnanchor">[193]</a></p> - -<p>For seven years the career of this company of -Jubilee Singers was a continual triumph. They -crowded the concert halls of New England; they -began to send money back to Fisk; they went to -Great Britain and sang before Queen Victoria, -Lord Shaftesbury and Mr. Gladstone. Gladstone -cried: “It’s wonderful!” Queen Victoria -wept. Moody, the evangelist, brought them -again and again to his London meetings, and the -singers were loaded with gifts. Then they went -to Germany, and again Kings and peasants listened -to them. In seven years they were able to -pay not only all of their own expenses but to send -$150,000 in cash to Fisk University, and out of -this money was built Jubilee Hall, on the spot that -was once a slave market. “There it stands, lifting -up its grateful head to God in His heaven.”</p> - -<p>For a long time after some people continued -to sneer at Negro music. They declared it was a -“mere imitation,” that it had little intrinsic value, -that it was not the music of Negroes at all. -Gradually, however, this attitude has completely -passed and today critics vie with each other in<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_280"></a>[280]</span> -giving tribute to this wonderful gift of the black -man to America.</p> - -<p>Damrosch says: “The Negro’s music isn’t ours, -it is the Negro’s. It has become a popular form -of musical expression and is interesting, but it is -not ours. Nothing more characteristic of a race -exists, but it is characteristic of the Negro, not -the American race. Through it a primitive people -poured out its emotions with wonderful expressiveness. -It no more expresses our emotions than -the Indian music does.”</p> - -<p>Recently, numbers of serious studies of the -Negro folk-song have been made. James Weldon -Johnson says: “In the ‘spirituals,’ or slave songs, -the Negro has given America not only its only -folk-songs, but a mass of noble music. I never -think of this music but that I am struck by the -wonder, the miracle of its production. How did -the men who originated these songs manage to do -it? The sentiments are easily accounted for; they -are, for the most part, taken from the Bible. But -the melodies, where did they come from? Some -of them so weirdly sweet, and others so wonderfully -strong. Take, for instance, ‘Go Down, -Moses’; I doubt that there is a stronger theme in -the whole musical literature of the world.</p> - -<p>“It is to be noted that whereas the chief characteristic -of Ragtime is rhythm, the chief characteristic<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_281"></a>[281]</span> -of the ‘spirituals’ is melody. The melodies -of ‘Steal Away to Jesus,’ ‘Swing Low, Sweet -Chariot,’ ‘Nobody Knows de Trouble I See,’ ‘I -couldn’t hear Nobody Pray,’ ‘Deep River,’ ‘O, -Freedom Over Me,’ and many others of these -songs possess a beauty that is—what shall I say? -Poignant. In the riotous rhythms of Ragtime -the Negro expressed his irrepressible buoyancy, -his keen response to the sheer joy of living; in the -‘spirituals’ he voiced his sense of beauty and his -deep religious feeling.”<a id="FNanchor_194" href="#Footnote_194" class="fnanchor">[194]</a></p> - -<p>H. E. Krehbiel says: “There was sunshine as -well as gloom in the life of the black slaves in the -Southern colonies and States, and so we have -songs which are gay as well as grave; but as a -rule the finest songs are the fruits of suffering -undergone and the hope of the deliverance from -bondage which was to come with translation to -heaven after death. The oldest of them are the -most beautiful, and many of the most striking have -never yet been collected, partly because they contained -elements, melodic as well as rhythmical, -which baffled the ingenuity of the early collectors. -Unfortunately, trained musicians have never entered -upon the field, and it is to be feared that it -is now too late. The peculiarities which the collaborators<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_282"></a>[282]</span> -on ‘Slave Songs of the United States’ -recognized, but could not imprison on the written -page, were elements which would have been of -especial interest to the student of art.</p> - -<p>“Is it not the merest quibble to say that these -songs are not American? They were created in -America under American influences and by people -who are Americans in the same sense that any -other element of our population is American—every -element except the aboriginal.... Is it -only an African who can sojourn here without -becoming an American and producing American -things; is it a matter of length of stay in the -country? Scarcely that; or some Negroes would -have at least as good a claim on the title as the -descendants of the Puritans and Pilgrims. Negroes -figure in the accounts of his voyages to -America made by Columbus.... A year before -the English colonists landed on Plymouth Rock -Negroes were sold into servitude in Virginia.”<a id="FNanchor_195" href="#Footnote_195" class="fnanchor">[195]</a></p> - -<p>The most gifted and sympathetic student of the -folk-song in Africa and America was Natalie -Curtis, and it is scarcely necessary to add to what -she has so carefully and sympathetically written. -She has traced the connection between African -and Afro-American music which has always been<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_283"></a>[283]</span> -assumed but never carefully proven. The African -rhythm, through the use of the drum as a leading -instrument, produced musical emphasis which we -call syncopation. Primitive music usually shows -rhythm and melody of the voice sung in unison. -But in Africa, part singing was developed long -before it appeared in Europe. The great difference -between the music of Africa and the music of -Europe lies in rhythm; in Europe the music is -accented on the regular beats of the music while -in Africa the accents fall often on the unstressed -beats. It is this that coming down through the -Negro folk-song in America has produced what is -known as ragtime.</p> - -<p>Mrs. Curtis Burlin shows that the folk-song of -the African in America can be traced direct to -Africa: “As a creator of beauty the black man is -capable of contributing to the great art of the -world.</p> - -<p>“The Negro’s pronounced gift for music is today -widely recognized. That gift, brought to -America in slave-ships, was nurtured by that -mother of woe, human slavery, till out of suffering -and toil there sprang a music which speaks to the -heart of mankind—the prayer-song of the American -Negro. In Africa is rooted the parent stem -of that out-flowering of Negro folk-song in other -lands.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_284"></a>[284]</span></p> - -<p>“Through the Negro this country is vocal with -a folk-music intimate, complete and beautiful. It -is the Negro music with its by-product of ‘ragtime’ -that today most widely influences the popular -song-life of America, and Negro rhythms have -indeed captivated the world at large. Nor may -we foretell the impress that the voice of the slave -will leave upon the art of the country—a poetic -justice, this! For the Negro everywhere discriminated -against, segregated and shunned, mobbed -and murdered—he it is whose melodies are on -all our lips, and whose rhythms impel our marching -feet in a ‘war for democracy.’ The irresistible -music that wells up from this sunny and unresentful -people is hummed and whistled, danced to and -marched to, laughed over and wept over, by high -and low and rich and poor throughout the land. -The downtrodden black man whose patient religious -faith has kept his heart still unembittered, -is fast becoming the singing voice of all America. -And in his song we hear a prophecy of the dignity -and worth of Negro genius.”<a id="FNanchor_196" href="#Footnote_196" class="fnanchor">[196]</a></p> - -<p>The Negro folk-song entered the Church and -became the prayer song and the sorrow song, still -with its haunting melody but surrounded by the -inhibitions of a cheap theology and a conventional<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_285"></a>[285]</span> -morality. But the musical soul of a race unleashed -itself violently from these bonds and in -the saloons and brothels of the Mississippi bottoms -and gulf coast flared to that crimson license -of expression known as “ragtime,” “jazz” and -the more singular “blues” retaining with all their -impossible words the glamour of rhythm and wild -joy. White composers hastily followed with songs -like “A Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight,” -and numerous successors in popular favor.</p> - -<p>Out of ragtime grew a further development -through both white and black composers. The -“blues,” a curious and intriguing variety of love -song from the levees of the Mississippi, became -popular and was spread by the first colored man -who was able to set it down, W. C. Handy of -Memphis. Other men, white and colored, from -Stephen Foster to our day, have taken another -side of Negro music and developed its haunting -themes and rippling melody into popular songs -and into high and fine forms of modern music, -until today the influence of the Negro reaches -every part of American music, of many foreign -masters like Dvorak; and certainly no program of -concert music could be given in America without -voicing Negro composers and Negro themes.</p> - -<p>We can best end this chapter with the word of -a colored man: “But there is something deeper<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_286"></a>[286]</span> -than the sensuousness of beauty that makes for -the possibilities of the Negro in the realm of the -arts, and that is the soul of the race. The wail -of the old melodies and the plaintive quality that -is ever present in the Negro voice are but the -reflection of a background of tragedy. No race -can rise to the greatest heights of art until it has -yearned and suffered. The Russians are a case in -point. Such has been their background in oppression -and striving that their literature and art are -today marked by an unmistakable note of power. -The same future beckons to the American Negro. -There is something very elemental about the heart -of the race, something that finds its origin in the -African forest, in the sighing of the night wind, -and in the falling of the stars. There is something -grim and stern about it all, too, something -that speaks of the lash, of the child torn from its -mother’s bosom, of the dead body riddled with -bullets and swinging all night from a limb by the -roadside.”<a id="FNanchor_197" href="#Footnote_197" class="fnanchor">[197]</a></p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_287"></a>[287]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII<br /> -<span class="smaller">NEGRO ART AND LITERATURE</span></h2> - -<p>How the tragic story of the black slave has become -a central theme of the story of America -and has inspired literature and created art.</p> - -</div> - -<p>The Negro is primarily an artist. The usual -way of putting this is to speak disdainfully of his -“sensuous” nature. This means that the only race -which has held at bay the life destroying forces of -the tropics, has gained therefrom in some slight -compensation a sense of beauty, particularly for -sound and color, which characterizes the race. -The Negro blood which flowed in the veins of -many of the mightiest of the Pharaohs accounts -for much of Egyptian art, and indeed Egyptian -civilization owes much in its origin to the development -of the large strain of Negro blood which -manifested itself in every grade of Egyptian -society.</p> - -<p>Semitic civilization also had its Negroid influences, -and these continually turn toward art as in -the case of black Nosseyeb, one of the five great -poets of Damascus under the Ommiades, and the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_288"></a>[288]</span> -black Arabian hero, Antar. It was therefore not -to be wondered at that in modern days one of -the greatest of modern literatures, the Russian, -should have been founded by Pushkin, the grandson -of a full blooded Negro, and that among the -painters of Spain was the mulatto slave, Gomez. -Back of all this development by way of contact, -come the artistic sense of the indigenous Negro as -shown in the stone figures of Sherbro, the bronzes -of Benin, the marvelous hand work in iron and other -metals which has characterized the Negro race so -long that archaeologists today, with less and less -hesitation, are ascribing the discovery of the -welding of iron to the Negro race.</p> - -<p>Beyond the specific ways in which the Negro -has contributed to American art stands undoubtedly -his spirit of gayety and the exotic charm which -his presence has loaned the parts of America -which were spiritually free enough to enjoy it. In -New Orleans, for instance, after the war of 1812 -and among the free people of color there was a -beautiful blossoming of artistic life which the sordid -background of slavery had to work hard to -kill. The “people of color” grew in number and -waxed wealthy. Famous streets even today bear -testimony of their old importance. Congo Square -in the old Creole quarter where Negroes danced -the weird “Bamboula” long before colored<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_289"></a>[289]</span> -Coleridge-Taylor made it immortal and Gottschalk -wrote his Negro dance. Camp street and Julia -street took their names from the old Negro field -and from the woman who owned land along the -Canal. Americans and Spanish both tried to get -the support and sympathy of the free Negroes. -The followers of Aaron Burr courted them.</p> - -<p>“Writers describing the New Orleans of this -period agree in presenting a picture of a continental -city, most picturesque, most un-American, -and as varied in color as a street of Cairo. There -they saw French, Spaniards, English, Bohemians, -Negroes, mulattoes, varied clothes, picturesque -white dresses of the fairer women, brilliant cottons -of the darker ones. The streets, banquettes, -we should say, were bright with color, the nights -filled with song and laughter. Through the scene, -the people of color add the spice of color; in the -life, they add the zest of romance.”<a id="FNanchor_198" href="#Footnote_198" class="fnanchor">[198]</a></p> - -<p>Music is always back of this gay Negro spirit -and the folk song which the Negro brought to -America was developed not simply by white men -but by the Negro himself. Musicians and artists -sprung from the Louisiana group. There was -Eugene Warburg who distinguished himself as a -sculptor in Italy. There was Victor Sejour who -became a poet and composer in France, Dubuclet<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_290"></a>[290]</span> -became a musician in Bordeaux and the seven -Lamberts taught and composed in America, France -and Brazil. One of the brothers Sydney was -decorated for his work by the King of Portugal. -Edmund Dèdè became a director of a leading -orchestra in France.<a id="FNanchor_199" href="#Footnote_199" class="fnanchor">[199]</a></p> - -<p>Among other early colored composers of music -are J. Hemmenway who lived in Philadelphia -in the twenties; A. J. Conner of Philadelphia between -1846-57 published numbers of compositions; -in the seventies Justin Holland was well -known as a composer in Cleveland, Ohio; Samuel -Milady, known by his stage name as Sam Lucas, -was born in 1846 and died in 1916. He wrote -many popular ballads, among them “Grandfather’s -Clock Was Too Tall For The Shelf.” -George Melbourne, a Negro street minstrel, composed -“Listen to the Mocking-Bird,” although a -white man got the credit. James Bland wrote -“Carry me Back to Ole Virginny”; Gussie L. Davis -composed popular music at Cincinnati.<a id="FNanchor_200" href="#Footnote_200" class="fnanchor">[200]</a></p> - -<p>Coming to our day we remember that the -Anglo-African Samuel Coleridge-Taylor received -much of his inspiration from his visits to the -American Negro group; then comes Harry T.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_291"></a>[291]</span> -Burleigh, perhaps the greatest living song writer -in America. Among his works are “Five Songs” -by Laurence Hope; “The Young Warrior,” which -became one of the greatest of the war songs; -“The Grey Wolf” and “Ethiopia Saluting the -Colors.” His adaptations of Negro folk-songs -are widely known and he assisted Dvorak in his -“New World Symphony.” R. Nathaniel Dett -has written “Listen to the Lambs,” a carol widely -known, and “The Magnolia Suite.” Rosamond -Johnson wrote “Under the Bamboo Tree” and a -dozen popular favorites beside choruses and -marches. Clarence Cameron White has composed -and adapted and Maud Cuney Hare has revived -and explained Creole music. Edmund T. Jenkins -has won medals at the Royal Academy in London. -Among the colored performers on the piano are -R. Augustus Lawson, who has often been soloist -at the concerts of the Hartford Philharmonic -Orchestra; Hazel Harrison, a pupil of Busoni; -and Helen Hagen who took the Sanford scholarship -at Yale. Carl Diton is a pianist who has -transcribed many Negro melodies. Melville -Charlton has done excellent work on the organ.</p> - -<p>Then we must remember the Negro singers, the -“Black Swan” of the early 19th century whose -voice compared with Jenny Lind’s; the Hyer -sisters, Flora Batson, Florence Cole Talbert, and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_292"></a>[292]</span> -Roland W. Hayes, the tenor whose fine voice has -charmed London, Paris and Vienna and who is -now one of the leading soloists of the Boston Symphony -Orchestra.</p> - -<p>The Negro has been one of the greatest originators -of dancing in the United States and in the -world. He created the “cake walk” and most of -the steps in the “clog” dance which has so enthralled -theatre audiences. The modern dances -which have swept over the world like the “Tango” -and “Turkey Trot” originated among the Negroes -of the West Indies. The Vernon Castles -always told their audiences that their dances were -of Negro origin.<a id="FNanchor_201" href="#Footnote_201" class="fnanchor">[201]</a></p> - -<p>We turn now to other forms of art and more -particularly literature. Here the subject naturally -divides itself into three parts: <i>first</i>, the influence -which the Negro has had on American literature,—and -<i>secondly</i>, the development of a literature -for and by Negroes. And lastly the number -of Negroes who have gained a place in National -American literature.</p> - -<p>From the earliest times the presence of the -black man in America has inspired American -writers. Among the early Colonial writers the -Negro was a subject as, for instance, in Samuel<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_293"></a>[293]</span> -Sewall’s “Selling of Joseph,” the first American -anti-slavery tract published in 1700. But we especially -see in the influence of the Negro’s condition -in the work of the masters of the 19th century, -like Ralph Waldo Emerson, John Greenleaf -Whittier, James Russell Lowell, Walt Whitman, -Julia Ward Howe, Harriet Beecher Stowe and -Lydia Maria Child. With these must be named -the orators Wendell Phillips, Charles Sumner, -John C. Calhoun, Henry Ward Beecher. In our -own day, we have had the writers of fiction, -George U. Cable, Thomas Nelson Page, Thomas -Dixson, Ruth McEnery Stewart, William Dean -Howells, Thomas Wentworth Higginson.</p> - -<p>It may be said that the influence of the Negro -here is a passive influence and yet one must remember -that it would be inconceivable to have an -American literature, even that written by white -men, and not have the Negro as a subject. He -has been the lay figure, but after all, the figure -has been alive, it has moved, it has talked, felt -and influenced.</p> - -<p>In the minds of these and other writers how -has the Negro been portrayed? It is a fascinating -subject which I can but barely touch: in the days -of Shakespeare and Southerne the black man of -fiction was a man, a brave, fine, if withal over-trustful -and impulsive, hero. In science he was<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_294"></a>[294]</span> -different but equal, cunning in unusual but mighty -possibilities. Then with the slave trade he suddenly -became a clown and dropped from sight. -He emerged slowly beginning about 1830 as a dull -stupid but contented slave, capable of doglike devotion, -superstitious and incapable of education. -Then, in the abolition controversy he became a -victim, a man of sorrows, a fugitive chased by -blood-hounds, a beautiful raped octoroon, a crucified -Uncle Tom, but a lay figure, objectively pitiable -but seldom subjectively conceived. Suddenly -a change came after Reconstruction. The black -man was either a faithful old “Befoh de wah” -darky worshipping lordly white folk, or a -frolicking ape, or a villain, a sullen scoundrel, a -violator of womanhood, a low thief and misbirthed -monster. He was sub-normal and congenitally -incapable. He was represented as an unfit -survival of Darwinian natural selection. -Philanthropy and religion stood powerless before -his pigmy brain and undeveloped morals. In a -“thousands years”? Perhaps. But at present, an -upper beast. Out of this today he is slowly but -tentatively, almost apologetically rising—a somewhat -deserving, often poignant, but hopeless -figure; a man whose only proper end is dramatic -suicide physically or morally. His trouble is natural -and inborn inferiority, slight by scientific<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_295"></a>[295]</span> -measurement but sufficient to make absolute limits -to his possibilities, save in exceptional cases.</p> - -<p>And here we stand today. As a normal human -being reacting humanly to human problems the -Negro has never appeared in the fiction or the -science of white writers, with a bare half dozen -exceptions; while to the white southerner who -“knows him best” he is always an idiot or a -monster, and he sees him as such, no matter what -is before his very eyes. And yet, with all this, the -Negro has held the stage. In the South he is -everything. You cannot discuss religion, morals, -politics, social life, science, earth or sky, God or -devil without touching the Negro. It is a perennial -and continuous and continual subject of books, -editorials, sermons, lectures and smoking car confabs. -In the north and west while seldom in the -center, the Negro is always in the wings waiting -to appear or screaming shrill lines off stage. What -would intellectual America do if she woke some -fine morning to find no “Negro” Problem?</p> - -<p>Coming now to the slowly swelling stream of a -distinct group literature, by and primarily for the -Negro, we enter a realm only partially known to -white Americans. First, there come the rich mass -of Negro folk lore transplanted from Africa and -developed in America. A white writer, Joel -Chandler Harris, first popularized “Uncle<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_296"></a>[296]</span> -Remus” and “Brer Rabbit” for white America; -but he was simply the deft and singularly successful -translator—the material was Negroid and -appears repeatedly among the black peasants and in -various forms and versions. Take for instance -the versions of the celebrated tar-baby story of -Joel Chandler Harris. C. C. Jones took down a -striking version apparently direct from Negro lips -early in the 19th century:</p> - -<p>“‘Do Buh Wolf, bun me: broke me neck, but -don’t trow me in de brier patch. Lemme dead one -time. Don’t tarrify me no mo.’ Buh Wolf yet bin -know wuh Buh Rabbit up teh. Eh tink eh bin -guine tare Bur Rabbit hide off. So, wuh eh do? -Eh loose Buh Rabbit from de spakleberry bush, -an eh tek um by de hine leg, an eh swing um roun’, -en eh trow um way in de tick brier patch fuh tare -eh hide and cratch eh yeye out. De minnit Buh -Rabbit drap in de brier patch, eh cock up eh tail, -eh jump, an holler back to Buh Wolf: ‘Good bye, -Budder! Dis de place me mammy fotch me up,—dis -de place me mammy fotch me up.’ An eh gone -before Buh Wolf kin ketch um. Buh Rabbit too -scheemy.”</p> - -<p>The Harris version shows the literary touch -added by the white man. But the Negro version -told by Jones has all the meat of the primitive -tale.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_297"></a>[297]</span></p> - -<p>Next we note the folk rhymes and poetry of -Negroes, sometimes accompanying their music and -sometimes not. A white instructor in English -literature at the University of Virginia says:</p> - -<p>“Of all the builders of the nation the Negro -alone has created a species of lyric verse that all -the world may recognize as a distinctly American -production.”</p> - -<p>T. W. Talley, a Negro, has recently published -an exhaustive collection of these rhymes. They -form an interesting collection of poetry often -crude and commonplace but with here and there -touches of real poetry and quaint humor.<a id="FNanchor_202" href="#Footnote_202" class="fnanchor">[202]</a></p> - -<p>The literary expression of Negroes themselves -has had continuous development in America since -the eighteenth century.<a id="FNanchor_203" href="#Footnote_203" class="fnanchor">[203]</a> It may however be looked -upon from two different points of view: We may -think of the writing of Negroes as self-expression -and as principally for themselves. Here we have -a continuous line of writers. Only a few of these, -however would we think of as contributing to -American literature as such and yet this inner, -smaller stream of Negro literature overflows -faintly at first and now evidently more and more -into the wider stream of American literature; on -the other hand there have been figures in American<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_298"></a>[298]</span> -literature who happen to be of Negro descent -and who are but vaguely to be identified with the -group stream as such. Both these points of view -are interesting but let us first take up the succession -of authors who form a group literature by -and for Negroes.</p> - -<p>As early as the eighteenth century, and even before -the Revolutionary War the first voices of -Negro authors were heard in the United States. -Phyllis Wheatley, the black poetess, was easily the -pioneer, her first poems appearing in 1773, and -other editions in 1774 and 1793. Her earliest -poem was in memory of George Whitefield. She -was honored by Washington and leading Englishmen -and was as a writer above the level of her -American white contemporaries.</p> - -<p>She was followed by Richard Allen, first Bishop -of the African Methodist Church whose autobiography, -published in 1793 was the beginning of -that long series of personal appears and narratives -of which Booker T. Washington’s “Up From -Slavery” was the latest. Benjamin Banneker’s -almanacs represented the first scientific work of -American Negroes, and began to be issued in -1792.</p> - -<p>Coming now to the first decades of the nineteenth -century we find some essays on freedom by -the African Society of Boston, and an apology for<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_299"></a>[299]</span> -the new Negro church formed in Philadelphia. -Paul Cuffe, disgusted with America, wrote an early -account of Sierra Leone, while the celebrated -Lemuel Haynes, ignoring the race question, -dipped deeply into the New England theological -controversy about 1815. In 1829 came the first -full-voiced, almost hysterical, protest against -slavery and the color line in David Walker’s -Appeal which aroused Southern legislatures to -action. This was followed by the earliest Negro -conventions which issued interesting minutes; two -appeals against disfranchisement in Pennsylvania -appeared in this decade, one written by Robert -Purvis, who also wrote a biography of his father-in-law, -Mr. James Forten, and the other appeal -written by John Bowers and others. The life of -Gustavus Vassa, also known by his African name -of Olaudah Equiana, was published in America in -1837 continuing the interesting personal narratives.</p> - -<p>In 1840 some strong writers began to appear. -Henry Highland Garnet and J. W. C. Pennington -preached powerful sermons and gave some attention -to Negro history in their pamphlets: R. B. -Lewis made a more elaborate attempt at Negro -history. Whitfield’s poems appeared in 1846, and -William Wells Brown began a career of writing -which lasted from 1847 until after the Civil War.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_300"></a>[300]</span> -He began his literary career by the publication of -his “Narrative of a Fugitive Slave” in 1847. This -was followed by a novel in 1853, “Sketches” from -abroad in 1855, a play in 1858, “The Black Man” -in 1863, “The Negro in the American Rebellion” -in 1867, and “The Rising Son” in 1874. The -Colored Convention in Cincinnati and Cleveland -published reports in this decade and Bishop -Loguen wrote his life history. In 1845 Douglass’ -autobiography made its first appearance, destined -to run through endless editions until the last in -1893. Moreover it was in 1841 that the first -Negro magazine appeared in America, edited by -George Hogarth and published by the A. M. E. -Church.</p> - -<p>In the fifties James Whitfield published further -poems, and a new poet arose in the person of -Frances E. W. Harper, a woman of no little -ability who died lately; Martin R. Delaney and -William Cooper Nell wrote further of Negro history, -Nell especially making valuable contributions -of the history of the Negro soldiers. Three interesting -biographies were added in this decade to -the growing number; Josiah Henson, Samuel C. -Ward and Samuel Northrop; while Catto, leaving -general history came down to the better known -history of the Negro church.</p> - -<p>In the sixties slave narratives multiplied, like<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_301"></a>[301]</span> -that of Linda Brent, while two studies of Africa -based on actual visits were made by Robert Campbell -and Dr. Alexander Crummell; William Douglass -and Bishop Daniel Payne continued the history -of the Negro church, and William Wells -Brown carried forward his work in general Negro -history. In this decade, too, Bishop Tanner began -his work in Negro theology.</p> - -<p>Most of the Negro talent in the seventies was -taken up in politics; the older men like Bishop -Wayman wrote of their experiences; Sojourner -Truth added her story to the slave narratives. A -new poet arose in the person of A. A. Whitman, -while James Monroe Trotter was the first to take -literary note of the musical ability of his race. -Robert Brown Elliott stirred the nation by his -eloquence in Congress. The Fisk edition of the -Songs of the Jubilee Singers appeared.</p> - -<p>In the eighties there are signs of unrest and conflicting -streams of thought. On the one hand the -rapid growth of the Negro church is shown by the -writers on church subjects like Moore and Wayman. -The historical spirit was especially strong. -Still wrote of the Underground Railroad; Simmons -issued his interesting biographical dictionary, -and the greatest historian of the race appeared -when George W. Williams issued his two-volume -history of the Negro Race in America. The<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_302"></a>[302]</span> -political turmoil was reflected in Langston’s Freedom -and Citizenship, Fortune’s Black and White, -and Straker’s New South, and found its bitterest -arraignment in Turner’s pamphlets; but with all -this went other new thought: Scarborough published -“First Greek Lessons”; Bishop Payne -issued his Treatise on Domestic Education, and -Stewart studied Liberia.</p> - -<p>In the nineties came histories, essays, novels and -poems, together with biographies and social -studies. The history was represented by Payne’s -History of the A. M. E. Church, Hood’s One -Hundred Years of the A. M. E. Zion Church, -Anderson’s sketch of Negro Presbyterianism and -Hagood’s Colored Man in the M. E. Church; -general history of the older type was represented -by R. L. Perry’s Cushite and of the newer type in -E. A. Johnson’s histories, while one of the secret -societies found their historian in Brooks; Crogman’s -essays appeared and Archibald Grimke’s -biographies. The race question was discussed in -Frank Grimke’s published sermons, social studies -were made by Penn, Wright, Mossell, Crummell, -Majors and others. Most notable, however, was -the rise of the Negro novelist and poet with national -recognition: Frances Harper was still writing -and Griggs began his racial novels, but both of -these spoke primarily to the Negro race; on the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_303"></a>[303]</span> -other hand, Chesnutt’s six novels and Dunbar’s -inimitable works spoke of the whole nation. J. T. -Wilson’s “Black Phalanx,” the most complete -study of the Negro soldier, came in these years.</p> - -<p>Booker T. Washington’s work began with his -address at Atlanta in 1895, “Up From Slavery” -in 1901, “Working with the Hands” in 1904, and -“The Man Farthest Down” in 1912. The American -Negro Academy, a small group, began the -publication of occasional papers in 1897 and has -published a dozen or more numbers including a -“Symposium on the Negro and the Elective -Franchise” in 1905, a “Comparative Study of the -Negro Problem” in 1899, Love’s “Disfranchisement -of the Negro” in 1899, Grimke’s Study of -Denmark Vesey in 1901 and Steward’s “Black St. -Domingo Legion” in 1899. Since 1900 the stream -of Negro writing has continued. Dunbar has -found a successor in the critic and compiler of -anthologies, W. S. Braithwaite; Booker T. Washington -has given us his biography and Story of the -Negro; Kelly Miller’s trenchant essays have appeared -in book form and he has issued numbers of -critical monographs on the Negro problem with -wide circulation. Scientific historians have appeared -in Benjamin Brawley and Carter Woodson -and George W. Mitchell. Sinclair’s Aftermath of -Slavery has attracted attention, as have the studies<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_304"></a>[304]</span> -made by Atlanta University. The Negro in -American Sculpture has been studied by H. F. M. -Murray.</p> - -<p>The development in poetry has been significant, -beginning with Phyllis Wheatley.<a id="FNanchor_204" href="#Footnote_204" class="fnanchor">[204]</a> Jupiter Hammon -came in the 18th century, George M. Horton -in the early part of the 19th century followed by -Frances Harper who began publishing in 1854 and -A. A. Whitman whose first attempts at epic poetry -were published in the seventies. In 1890 came -the first thin volume of Paul Lawrence Dunbar, -the undoubted laureate of the race, who published -poems and one or two novels up until the beginning -of the 20th century. He was succeeded by -William Stanley Braithwaite whose fame rests -chiefly upon his poetic criticism and his anthologies, -and finally by James Weldon Johnson, Claud -McKay who came out of the West Indies with a -new and sincere gift, Fenton Johnson, Georgia -Johnson and Jessie Fauset. Joseph S. Cotter, Jr., -Langston Hughes, Roscoe C. Jamison and -Countée Cullen have done notable work in verse. -Campbell, Davis and others have continued the -poetic tradition of Negro dialect.</p> - -<p>On the whole, the literary output of the American -Negro has been both large and creditable, although,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_305"></a>[305]</span> -of course, comparatively little known; few -great names have appeared and only here and -there work that could be called first class, but this -is not a peculiarity of Negro literature.</p> - -<p>The time has not yet come for the great development -of American Negro literature. The economic -stress is too great and the racial persecution -too bitter to allow the leisure and the poise for -which literature calls. “The Negro in the United -States is consuming all his intellectual energy in -this gruelling race-struggle.” And the same statement -may be made in a general way about the -white South. Why does not the white South produce -literature and art? The white South, too, is -consuming all of its intellectual energy in this -lamentable conflict. Nearly all of the mental -efforts of the white South run through one narrow -channel. The life of every southern white man -and all of his activities are impassably limited by -the ever present Negro problem. And that is -why, as Mr. H. L. Mencken puts it, in all that -vast region, with its thirty or forty million people -and its territory as large as half a dozen Frances -or Germanys, “there is not a single poet, not a -serious historian, not a creditable composer, not a -critic good or bad, not a dramatist dead or -alive.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_306"></a>[306]</span></p> - -<p>On the other hand, never in the world has a -richer mass of material been accumulated by a -people than that which the Negroes possess today -and are becoming increasingly conscious of. -Slowly but surely they are developing artists of -technic who will be able to use this material. The -nation does not notice this for everything touching -the Negro has hitherto been banned by magazines -and publishers unless it took the form of caricature -or bitter attack, or was so thoroughly innocuous -as to have no literary flavor. This attitude -shows signs of change at last.</p> - -<p>Most of the names in this considerable list except -those toward the last would be unknown to -the student of American literature. Nevertheless -they form a fairly continuous tradition and a most -valuable group expression. From them several -have arisen, as I have said, to become figures in -the main stream of American literature. Phyllis -Wheatley was an American writer of Negro descent -just as Dumas was a French writer of Negro -descent. She was the peer of her best American -contemporaries but she represented no conscious -Negro group. Lemuel Haynes wrote for Americans -rather than for Negroes.</p> - -<p>Dunbar occupies a unique place in American -literature. He raised a dialect and a theme from -the minstrel stage to literature and became and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_307"></a>[307]</span> -remains a national figure. Charles W. Chesnutt -followed him as a novelist, and many white people -read in form of fiction a subject which they did not -want to read or hearken to. He gained his way -unaided and by sheer merit and is a recognized -American novelist. Braithwaite is a critic whose -Negro descent is not generally known and has but -slightly influenced his work. His place in American -literature is due more to his work as a critic -and anthologist than to his work as a poet. -“There is still another rôle he has played, that of -friend of poetry and poets. It is a recognized fact -that in the work which preceded the present revival -of poetry in the United States, no one rendered -more unremitting and valuable service than -Mr. Braithwaite. And it can be said that no future -study of American poetry of this age can be made -without reference to Braithwaite.”</p> - -<p>Of McKay’s poems, Max Eastman writes that -it “should be illuminating to observe that while -these poems are characteristic of that race as we -most admire it—they are gentle, simple, candid, -brave and friendly, quick of laughter and of tears—yet -they are still more characteristic of what is -deep and universal in mankind. There is no -special or exotic kind of merit in them, no quality -that demands a transmutation of our own natures -to perceive. Just as the sculptures and wood and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_308"></a>[308]</span> -ivory carvings of the vast forgotten African Empires -of Ife and Benin, although so wistful in their -tranquility, are tranquil in the possession of the -qualities of all classic and great art, so these -poems, the purest of them, move with a sovereignty -that is never new to the lovers of the high -music of human utterance.”<a id="FNanchor_205" href="#Footnote_205" class="fnanchor">[205]</a></p> - -<p>The later writers like Jean Toomer, Claud -McKay, Jessie Fauset and others have come on -the stage when the stream of Negro literature has -grown to be of such importance and gained so -much of technique and merit that it tends to merge -into the broad flood of American literature and -any notable Negro writer became <i>ipso facto</i> a -national writer.</p> - -<p>One must not forget the Negro orator. While -in the white world the human voice as a vehicle of -information and persuasion has waned in importance -until the average man is somewhat suspicious -of “eloquence,” in the Negro world the -spoken word is still dominant and Negro orators -have wielded great influence upon both white and -black from the time of Frederick Douglass and -Samuel Ward down to the day of J. C. Price and -Booker T. Washington. There is here, undoubtedly, -something of unusual gift and personal magnetism.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_309"></a>[309]</span></p> - -<p>One must note in this connection the rise and -spread of a Negro press—magazines and weeklies -which are voicing to the world with increasing -power the thought of American Negroes. The -influence of this new force in America is being -recognized and the circulation of these papers -aggregate more than a million copies.</p> - -<p>On the stage the Negro has naturally had a -most difficult chance to be recognized. He has -been portrayed by white dramatists and actors, -and for a time it seemed but natural for a character -like Othello to be drawn, or for Southerne’s -Oroonoko to be presented in 1696 in England -with a black Angola prince as its hero. Beginning, -however, with the latter part of the 18th -century the stage began to make fun of the Negro -and the drunken character Mungo was introduced -at Drury Lane.</p> - -<p>In the United States this tradition was continued -by the “Negro Minstrels” which began with -Thomas D. Rice’s imitation of a Negro cripple, -Jim Crow. Rice began his work in Louisville in -1828 and had great success. Minstrel companies -imitating Negro songs and dances and blackening -their faces gained a great vogue until long after -the Civil War. Negroes themselves began to -appear as principals in minstrel companies after a -time and indeed as early as 1820 there was an<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_310"></a>[310]</span> -“African company” playing in New York. No -sooner had the Negro become the principal in the -minstrel shows than he began to develop and -uplift the art. This took a long time but eventually -there appeared Cole and Johnson, Ernest -Hogan and Williams and Walker. Their development -of a new light comedy marked an epoch -and Bert Williams was at his recent death without -doubt the leading comedian on the American -stage.</p> - -<p>In the legitimate drama there was at first no -chance for the Negro in the United States. Ira -Aldridge, born in Maryland, had to go to Europe -for opportunity. There he became associated -with leading actors like Edmund Keene and was -regarded in the fifties as one of the two or three -greatest actors in the world. He was honored -and decorated by the King of Sweden, the King -of Prussia, the Emperor of Austria and the Czar -of Russia. He had practically no successor until -Charles Gilpin triumphed in “The Emperor -Jones” in New York during the season 1920-21.</p> - -<p>Efforts to develop a new distinctly racial drama -and portray the dramatic struggle of the Negro -in America and elsewhere have rapidly been made. -Mrs. Emily Hapgood made determined effort to -initiate a Negro theatre. She chose the plays of -Ridgeley Torrence, a white playwright, who wrote<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_311"></a>[311]</span> -for the Negro players “Granny Maumee” and -“The Rider of Dreams,” pieces singularly true to -Negro genius. The plays were given with unusual -merit and gained the highest praise.</p> - -<p>This movement, interrupted by the war, has -been started again by the Ethiopian Players of -Chicago and especially by the workers at Howard -University where a Negro drama with Negro instructors, -Negro themes and Negro players is -being developed. One of the most interesting -pageants given in America was written, staged -and performed by Negroes in New York, Philadelphia -and Washington.</p> - -<p>Charles Gilpin had been trained with Williams -and Walker and other colored companies. He -got his first chance on the legitimate stage by playing -the part of Curtis in Drinkwater’s “Abraham -Lincoln.” Then he became the principal in -O’Neill’s wonderful play and was nominated by -the Drama League in 1921 as one of the ten -persons who had contributed most to the American -theatre during the year. Paul Robeson and -Evelyn Preer are following Gilpin’s footsteps.</p> - -<p>There is no doubt of the Negro’s dramatic -genius. Stephen Graham writes:</p> - -<p>“I visited one evening a Negro theatre where -a musical comedy was going on—words and -music both by Negroes. It opened with the usual<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_312"></a>[312]</span> -singing and dancing chorus of Negro girls. They -were clad in yellow and crimson and mauve combinations -with white tapes on one side from the -lace edge of the knicker to their dusky arms. -They danced from the thigh rather than from the -knee, moving waist and bosom in unrestrained -undulation, girls with large, startled seeming eyes -and uncontrollable masses of dark hair.... A dance -of physical joy and abandon, with no restraint -in the toes or the knees, no veiling of the eyes, no -half shutting of the lips, no holding in of the -hair. Accustomed to the very aesthetic presentment -of the Bacchanalia in the Russian ballet, it -might be difficult to call one of those Negro dancers -a Bacchante, and yet there was one whom I -remarked again and again, a Queen of Sheba in -her looks, a face like starry night, and she was -clad slightly in mauve, and went into such ecstacies -during the many encores that her hair fell down -about her bare shoulders, and her cheeks and -knees, glistening with perspiration, outshone her -eyes.... I had seen nothing so pretty or so -amusing, so bewilderingly full of life and color, -since Sanine’s production of the ‘Fair of Sorochinsky’ -in Moscow.”</p> - -<p>Turning now to painting, we note a young -African painter contemporary with Phyllis -Wheatley who had gained some little renown.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_313"></a>[313]</span> -Then a half century ago came E. M. Banister, -the center of a group of artists forming the Rhode -Island Art Club, and one of whose pictures took -a medal at the Centennial Exposition in 1876.</p> - -<p>William A. Harper died in 1910. His “Avenue -of Poplars” took a prize of $100 at the Chicago -Art Institute. William Edward Scott studied in -Paris under Tanner. His picture “La Pauvre -Voisine” was hung in the salon in 1910 and bought -by the government of the Argentine Republic. -Another picture was hung in Paris and took first -prize at the Indiana State Fair, and a third picture -was exhibited in the Royal Academy in London. -Lately Mr. Scott has specialized in mural painting. -His work is found in ten public schools in -Chicago, in four in Indianapolis and in the latter -city he decorated two units in the City Hospital -with 300 life sized pictures. In many of these -pictures he has especially emphasized the Negro -type.</p> - -<p>Richard Brown, Edwin Harleston, Albert A. -Smith, Laura Wheeler and a number of rising -young painters have shown the ability of the -Negro in this line of art; but their dean is, of -course, Henry Ossawa Tanner. Tanner is today -one of the leading painters of the world and -universally is so recognized. He was born an -American Negro in Pittsburgh in 1859, the son of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_314"></a>[314]</span> -an African Methodist minister; he studied at the -Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia and became -a photographer in Atlanta. Afterward he -taught at Clark University in Atlanta. In all this -time he had sold less than $200 worth of pictures; -but finally he got to Paris and was encouraged by -Benjamin Constant. He soon turned toward his -greatest forte, religious pictures. His “Daniel in -the Lion’s Den” was hung in the salon in 1896 -and the next year the “Raising of Lazarus” -was bought by the French government and hung -in the Luxembourg. Since then he has won medals -in all the greatest expositions, and his works are -sought by connoisseurs. He has recently received -knighthood in the French Legion of Honor.</p> - -<p>In sculpture we may again think of two points -of view,—first, there is the way in which the -Negro type has figured in American sculpture as, -for instance, the libyan Sybil of W. A. Story, -Bissell’s Emancipation group in Scotland, the -Negro woman on the military monument in Detroit, -Ball’s Negro in the various emancipation -groups, Ward’s colored woman on the Beecher -monument, the panel on the Cleveland monument -of Scofield, Africa in D. C. French’s group in -front of the Custom’s House in New York City, -Calder’s black boy in the Nations of the West -group in the Panama-Pacific exhibition and, of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_315"></a>[315]</span> -course, the celebrated Shaw monument in Boston.<a id="FNanchor_206" href="#Footnote_206" class="fnanchor">[206]</a> -On the other hand, there have been a few Negro -sculptors, three of whom merit mention: Edmonia -Lewis, who worked during the Civil War, Meta -Warrick Fuller, a pupil of Rodin, and May -Howard Jackson, who has done some wonderful -work in the portraying of the mulatto type.</p> - -<p>To appraise rightly this body of art one must -remember that it represents mainly the work of -those artists whom accident set free; if the artist -had a white face his Negro blood did not militate -against him in the fight for recognition; if his -Negro blood was visible white relatives may have -helped him; in a few cases ability was united to -indomitable will. But the shrinking, modest, -black artist without special encouragement had -little or no chance in a world determined to make -him a menial. Today the situation is changing. -The Negro world is demanding expression in art -and beginning to pay for it. The white world is -able to see dimly beyond the color line. This sum -of accomplishment then is but a beginning and an -imperfect indication of what the Negro race is -capable of in America and in the world.</p> - -<p>Science, worse luck, has in these drab days little -commerce with art and yet for lack of better place<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_316"></a>[316]</span> -a word may drop here of the American Negro’s -contribution. Science today is a matter chiefly -for endowed fellowships and college chairs. Negroes -have small chance here because of race exclusion -and yet no scientist in the world can today -write of insects and ignore the work of C. H. -Turner of St. Louis; or of insanity and forget Dr. -S. C. Fuller of Massachusetts. Ernest Just’s investigations -of the origin of life make him stand -among the highest two or three modern scientists -in that line and the greatest American interpreter -of Wasserman reactions is a colored man; Dr. -Julien H. Lewis of the University of Chicago, is -building a reputation in serology. There are also -a number of deft Negro surgeons including Dr. -Dan Williams who first sewed up a wounded human -heart. The great precursors of all these -colored men of science were Thomas Derham and -Benjamin Banneker.</p> - -<p>Derham was a curiosity more than a great -scientist measuring by absolute standards, and yet -in the 18th century and at the age of twenty-six -he was regarded as one of the most eminent physicians -in New Orleans. Dr. Rush of Philadelphia -testified to his learning and ability.</p> - -<p>Benjamin Banneker was a leading American -scientist. He was the grandson of an English<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_317"></a>[317]</span> -woman and her black slave. Their daughter married -a Negro and Benjamin was their only son. -Born in 1731 in Maryland he was educated in a -private school with whites and spent his life on -his father’s farm. He had taste for mathematics -and early constructed an ingenious clock. He -became expert in the solution of difficult mathematical -problems, corresponding with interested -persons of leisure.</p> - -<p>Thomas Jefferson wrote to the Marquis de -Condorcet: “We now have in the United States a -Negro, the son of a black man born in Africa and -a black woman born in the United States, who is a -very respectable mathematician. I procured him -to be employed under one of our chief directors in -laying out the new Federal City on the Potomac -and in the intervals of his leisure, while on that -work, he made an almanac for the next year, which -he sent me in his own handwriting and which I -enclose to you. I have seen very elegant solutions -of geometrical problems by him. Add to this that -he is a very worthy and respectable member of -society. He is a free man. I shall be delighted to -see these instances of moral eminence so multiplied -as to prove that the want of talents observed in -them, is merely the effect of their degraded condition, -and not proceeding from any difference in<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_318"></a>[318]</span> -the structure of the parts on which intellect depends.”<a id="FNanchor_207" href="#Footnote_207" class="fnanchor">[207]</a></p> - -<p>Banneker became greatly interested in astronomy. -He made a number of calculations and -finally completed an almanac covering the year -1792. A member of John Adams’ cabinet had -this almanac published in Baltimore. This patron, -James McHenry, said that the almanac was begun -and finished without outside assistance except the -loan of books “so that whatever merit is attached -to his present performance, is exclusively and -peculiarly his own.” The publishers declared that -the almanac met the approbation of several of -the most distinguished astronomers of America. -The almanac was published yearly until 1802. -When the City of Washington was laid out in -1793 under Major Pierre Charles L’Enfant, -President Washington at the suggestion of -Thomas Jefferson appointed Banneker as one of -the six commissioners. He performed a most -important part of the mathematical calculations -of the survey and sat in conference with the other -commissioners. Later he wrote essays on bees and -studied methods to promote peace, suggesting a -Secretary of Peace in the president’s cabinet. He -“was a brave looking pleasant man with something<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_319"></a>[319]</span> -very noble in his appearance.” His color -was not jet black but decided Negroid. He died -in 1806, with both an American and European -reputation and was among the most learned men -of his day in America.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_320"></a>[320]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX<br /> -<span class="smaller">THE GIFT OF THE SPIRIT</span></h2> - -<p>How the fine sweet spirit of black folk, despite -superstition and passion has breathed the soul of -humility and forgiveness into the formalism and -cant of American religion.</p> - -</div> - -<p>Above and beyond all that we have mentioned, -perhaps least tangible but just as true, is the -peculiar spiritual quality which the Negro has -injected into American life and civilization. It is -hard to define or characterize it—a certain -spiritual joyousness; a sensuous, tropical love of -life, in vivid contrast to the cool and cautious -New England reason; a slow and dreamful conception -of the universe, a drawling and slurring of -speech, an intense sensitiveness to spiritual values—all -these things and others like to them, tell -of the imprint of Africa on Europe in America. -There is no gainsaying or explaining away this -tremendous influence of the contact of the north -and south, of black and white, of Anglo Saxon -and Negro.</p> - -<p>One way this influence has been brought to bear<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_321"></a>[321]</span> -is through the actual mingling of blood. But this -is the smaller cause of Negro influence. Heredity -is always stronger through the influence of acts -and deeds and imitations than through actual -blood descent; and the presence of the Negro in -the United States quite apart from the mingling -of blood has always strongly influenced the land. -We have spoken of its influence in politics, literature -and art, but we have yet to speak of that -potent influence in another sphere of the world’s -spiritual activities: religion.</p> - -<p>America early became a refuge for religion—a -place of mighty spaces and glorious physical and -mental freedom where silent men might sit and -think quietly of God and his world. Hither out -of the blood and dust of war-wrecked Europe -with its jealousies, blows, persecutions and fear of -words and thought, came Puritans, Anabaptists, -Catholics, Quakers, Moravians, Methodists—all -sorts of men and “isms” and sects searching -for God and Truth in the lonely bitter wilderness.</p> - -<p>Hither too came the Negro. From the first he -was the concrete test of that search for Truth, of -the strife toward a God, of that body of belief -which is the essence of true religion. His presence -rent and tore and tried the souls of men. -“Away with the slave!” some cried—but where -away and why? Was not his body there for work<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_322"></a>[322]</span> -and his soul—what of his soul? Bring hither -the slaves of all Africa and let us convert their -souls, this is God’s good reason for slavery. But -convert them to what? to freedom? to emancipation? -to being white men? Impossible. Convert -them, yes. But let them still be slaves for their -own good and ours. This was quibbling and good -men felt it, but at least here was a practical path, -follow it.</p> - -<p>Thus arose the great mission movements to the -blacks. The Catholic Church began it and not -only were there Negro proselytes but black priests -and an order of black monks in Spanish America -early in the 16th century. In the middle of the -17th century a Negro freedman and charcoal -burner lived to see his son, Francisco Xavier de -Luna Victoria, raised to head the Bishopric of -Panama where he reigned eight years as the first -native Catholic Bishop in America.</p> - -<p>In Spanish America and in French America the -history of Negro religion is bound up with the -history of the Catholic Church. On the other -hand in the present territory of the United States -with the exception of Maryland and Louisiana -organized religion was practically and almost exclusively -Protestant and Catholics indeed were -often bracketed with Negroes for persecution. -They could not marry Protestants at one time in<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_323"></a>[323]</span> -colonial South Carolina; Catholics and Negroes -could not appear in court as witnesses in Virginia -by the law of 1705; Negroes and Catholics were -held to be the cause of the “Negro plot” in New -York in 1741.</p> - -<p>The work then of the Catholic Church among -Negroes began in the United States well into the -19th century and by Negroes themselves. In -Baltimore, for instance, in 1829, colored refugees -from the French West Indies established a sisterhood -and academy and gave an initial endowment -of furniture, real estate and some $50,000 in -money. In 1842 in New Orleans, four free Negro -women gave their wealth to form the Sisters -of the Holy Family and this work expanded and -grew especially after 1893 when a mulatto, -Thomy Lafon, endowed the work with over three -quarters of a million dollars, his life savings. -Later, in 1896, a colored man, Colonel John -McKee of Philadelphia, left a million dollars in -real estate to the Catholic Church for colored and -white orphans.</p> - -<p>Outside of these colored sisterhoods and colored -philanthropists, the church hesitated long -before it began any systematic proselyting among -Negroes. This was because of the comparative -weakness of the church in early days and later -when the Irish migration strengthened it the new<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_324"></a>[324]</span> -Catholics were thrown into violent economic competition -with slaves and free Negroes, and their -fight to escape slave competition easily resolved -itself into a serious anti-Negro hatred which was -back of much of the rioting in Cincinnati, Philadelphia -and New York. It was not then until the -20th century that the church began active work by -establishing a special mission for Negroes and -engaging in it nearly two hundred white priests. -This new impetus was caused by the benevolence -of Katherine Drexel and the Sisters of the Blessed -Sacrament. Notwithstanding all this and since -the beginning of the 18th century only six Negroes -have been ordained to the Catholic priesthood.</p> - -<p>The main question of the conversion of the -Negro to Christianity in the United States was -therefore the task of the Protestant Church and -it was, if the truth must be told, a task which it -did not at all relish. The whole situation was -fraught with perplexing contradictions; Could -Christians be slaves? Could slaves be Christians? -Was the object of slavery the Christianizing of -the black man, and when the black man was -Christianized was the mission of slavery done and -ended? Was it possible to make modern Christians -of these persons whom the new slavery began -to paint as brutes? The English Episcopal -Church finally began the work in 1701 through<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_325"></a>[325]</span> -the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. It -had notable officials, the Archbishop of Canterbury -being its first president; it worked in America -82 years, accomplishing something but after all -not very much, on account of the persistent objection -of the masters. The Moravians were more -eager and sent missionaries to the Negroes, converting -large numbers in the West Indies and -some in the United States in the 18th century. -Into the new Methodist Church which came to -America in 1766, large numbers of Negroes -poured from the first, and finally the Baptists in -the 18th century had at least one fourth of their -membership composed of Negroes, so that in 1800 -there were 14,000 black Methodists and some -20,000 black Baptists.<a id="FNanchor_208" href="#Footnote_208" class="fnanchor">[208]</a></p> - -<p>It must not be assumed that this missionary -work acted on raw material. Rather it reacted -and was itself influenced by a very definite and -important body of thought and belief on the part -of the Negroes. Religion in the United States -was not simply brought to the Negro by the missionaries. -To treat it in that way is to miss the -essence of the Negro action and reaction upon -American religion. We must think of the transplanting -of the Negro as transplanting to the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_326"></a>[326]</span> -United States a certain spiritual entity, and an unbreakable -set of world-old beliefs, manners, -morals, superstitions and religious observances. -The religion of Africa is the universal animism or -fetishism of primitive peoples, rising to polytheism -and approaching monotheism chiefly, but not -wholly, as a result of Christian and Islamic missions. -Of fetishism there is much misapprehension. -It is not mere senseless degradation. It is -a philosophy of life. Among primitive Negroes -there can be, as Miss Kingsley reminds us, no such -divorce of religion from practical life as is common -in civilized lands. Religion is life, and fetish -an expression of the practical recognition of -dominant forces in which the Negro lives. To -him all the world is spirit. Miss Kingsley says: -“It is this power of being able logically to account -for everything that is, I believe, at the back of -the tremendous permanency of fetish in Africa, -and the cause of many of the relapses into it by -Africans converted to other religions; it is also -the explanation of the fact that white men who -live in the districts where death and danger are -everyday affairs, under a grim pall of boredom, -are liable to believe in fetish, though ashamed of -so doing. For the African, whose mind has been -soaked in fetish during his early and most impressionable<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_327"></a>[327]</span> -years, the voice of fetish is almost irresistible -when affliction comes to him.”<a id="FNanchor_209" href="#Footnote_209" class="fnanchor">[209]</a></p> - -<p>At first sight it would seem that slavery completely -destroyed every vestige of spontaneous -social movement among the Negroes; the home -had deteriorated; political authority and economic -initiative was in the hands of the masters; property, -as a social institution, did not exist on the -plantation; and, indeed, it is usually assumed by -historians and sociologists that every vestige of -internal development disappeared, leaving the -slaves no means of expression for their common -life, thought, and striving. This is not strictly -true; the vast power of the priest in the African -state still survived; his realm alone—the province -of religion and medicine—remained largely -unaffected by the plantation system in many important -particulars. The Negro priest, therefore, -early became an important figure on the plantation -and found his function as the interpreter of -the supernatural, the comforter of the sorrowing, -and as the one who expressed, rudely, but picturesquely, -the longing and disappointment and resentment -of a stolen people. From such beginnings -arose and spread with marvellous rapidity -the Negro church, the first distinctively Negro -American social institution. It was not at first by<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_328"></a>[328]</span> -any means a Christian Church, but a mere adaptation -of those heathen rites which we roughly -designate by the term Obe Worship or “Voodooism.” -Association and missionary effort soon -gave these rites a veneer of Christianity, and -gradually, after two centuries, the Church became -Christian, with a simple Calvinistic creed, but -with many of the old customs still clinging to the -services. It is this historic fact that the Negro -Church today bases itself upon the sole surviving -social institution of the African fatherland, that -accounts for its extraordinary growth and vitality. -We easily forget that in the United States today -there is a Church organization for every sixty -Negro families. This institution, therefore, -naturally assumed many functions which the other -harshly suppressed social organs had to surrender; -the Church became the center of amusements, -of what little spontaneous economic activity remained, -of education, and of all social intercourse, -of music and art.<a id="FNanchor_210" href="#Footnote_210" class="fnanchor">[210]</a></p> - -<p>For these reasons the tendency of the Negro -worshippers from the very first was to integrate -into their own organizations. As early as 1775 -distinct Negro congregations with Negro ministers -began to appear here and there in the United -States. They multiplied, were swept away, effort<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_329"></a>[329]</span> -was made to absorb them in the white church, but -they kept on growing until they established national -bodies with Episcopal control or democratic -federation and these organizations today form -the strongest, most inclusive and most vital of the -Negro organizations. They count in the United -States four million members and their churches -seat these four million and six million other guests. -They are houses in 40,000 centers, worth $60,000,000 -and have some 200,000 leaders.</p> - -<p>On the part of the white church this tendency -among the Negroes met with alternate encouragement -and objection: encouragement because they -did not want Negroes in their churches even when -they occupied the back seats or in the gallery; objection -when the church became, as it so often did, -a center of intelligent Negro life and even of -plotting against slavery. There arose out of the -church the first leaders of the Negro group; and -in the first rank among these stands Richard -Allen.<a id="FNanchor_211" href="#Footnote_211" class="fnanchor">[211]</a></p> - -<p>Richard Allen was born in 1760 as a slave in -Philadelphia and was licensed to preach in 1782. -He was ordained deacon by Bishop Asbury and -he led the Negroes in their secession from St. -George’s Church in Philadelphia when they tried -to stop black folk from praying on the main floor.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_330"></a>[330]</span> -He formed first the Free African Society and -finally established Bethel Church.</p> - -<p>As this church grew and multiplied it became -the African Methodist Episcopal Church which -now boasts three quarters of a million members. -Allen was its first bishop. With Allen was associated -Absalom Jones, born a slave in Delaware -in 1746. He became the first Negro priest in the -Episcopal Church. John Gloucester became the -pioneer Negro minister among colored Presbyterians -and gave that church his four sons as -ministers. George Leile became a missionary of -the American Negroes to the Negroes of Jamaica -and began missionary work on that island while -Lott Carey in a similar way became a missionary -to Africa. Then came Nat Turner, the preacher -revolutionist. James Varick, a free negro of -New York who was the first bishop of the black -Zion Methodist revolt, and afterward there followed -the stream of Negro leaders who have -built and led the organization of colored churches. -But this is only part of the story.</p> - -<p>It will be seen that the development of the -Negro church was not separate from the white. -Black preachers led white congregations, white -preachers addressed blacks. In many other ways -Negroes influenced white religion continuously -and tremendously. There was the “Shout,” combining<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_331"></a>[331]</span> -the trance and demoniac possession as old -as the world, and revivified and made widespread -by the Negro religious devotees in America. -Methodist and Baptist ways of worship, songs -and religious dances absorbed much from the -Negroes and whatever there is in American religion -today of stirring and wild enthusiasm, of -loud conversions and every day belief in an anthropomorphic -God owes its origin in a no small -measure to the black man.</p> - -<p>Of course most of the influence of the Negro -preachers was thrown into their own churches and -to their own people and it was from the Negro -church as an organization that Negro religious influence -spread most widely to white people. Many -would say that this influence had little that was -uplifting and was a detriment rather than an advantage -in that it held back and holds back the -South particularly in its religious development. -There is no doubt that influences of a primitive -sort and customs that belong to the unlettered -childhood of the race rather than to the thinking -adult life of civilization crept in with the religious -influence of the slave. Much of superstition, even -going so far as witchcraft, conjury and blood -sacrifice for a long time marked Negro religion -here and there in the swamps and islands. But -on the other hand it is just as true that the cold<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_332"></a>[332]</span> -formalism of upper class England and New England -needed the wilder spiritual emotionalism of -the black man to weld out of both a rational -human religion based on kindliness and social uplift; -and whether the influence of Negro religion -was on the whole good or bad, the fact remains -that it was potent in the white South and still is.</p> - -<p>Several black leaders of white churches are -worth remembering.<a id="FNanchor_212" href="#Footnote_212" class="fnanchor">[212]</a> Lemuel Hayes was born -in Connecticut in 1753 of a black father and white -mother. He received his Master of Arts from -Middlebury College in 1804, was a soldier in the -Revolution and pastored various churches in New -England. “He was the embodiment of piety and -honesty.” Harry Hosier, the black servant and -companion of Bishop Asbury, was called by Dr. -Benjamin Rush, the greatest orator in America. -He travelled north and south and preached to -white and black between 1784 and his death in -1810.</p> - -<p>John Chavis was a full-blooded Negro, born in -Granville county, N. C., near Oxford, in 1753. -He was born free and was sent to Princeton, and -studied privately under Dr. Witherspoon, where -he did well. He went to Virginia to preach to Negroes. -In 1802, in the county court, his freedom<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_333"></a>[333]</span> -and character were certified to and it was declared -that he had passed “through a regular course of -academic studies” at what is now Washington and -Lee University. In 1805 he returned to North -Carolina, where he, in 1809 was made a licentiate -in the Presbyterian Church and preached. His -English was remarkably pure, his manner impressive, -his explanations clear and concise. For a -long time he taught school and had the best whites -as pupils—a United States senator, the sons of -a chief justice of North Carolina, a governor of -the state and many others. Some of his pupils -boarded in his family, and his school was regarded -as the best in the State. “All accounts agree that -John Chavis was a gentleman” and he was received -socially among the best whites and asked to -table. In 1830 he was stopped from preaching -by the law. Afterward he taught school for free -Negroes in Raleigh.</p> - -<p>Henry Evans was a full-blooded Virginia free -Negro, and was the pioneer of Methodism in Fayetteville, -N. C. He found the Negroes there, -about 1800, without religious instruction. He began -preaching and the town council ordered him -away; he continued and whites came to hear him. -Finally the white auditors outnumbered the black, -and sheds were erected for Negroes at the side of -the church. The gathering became a regular<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_334"></a>[334]</span> -Methodist Church, with a white and Negro membership, -but Evans continued to preach. He exhibited -“rare self-control before the most -wretched of castes! Henry Evans did much good, -but he would have done more good had his spirit -been untrammelled by this sense of inferiority.”<a id="FNanchor_213" href="#Footnote_213" class="fnanchor">[213]</a></p> - -<p>His dying words uttered as he stood, aged and -bent beside his pulpit, are of singular pathos:</p> - -<p>“I have come to say my last word to you. It is -this: None but Christ. Three times I have had -my life in jeopardy for preaching the gospel to -you. Three times I have broken ice on the edge -of the water and swam across the Cape Fear to -preach the gospel to you; and, if in my last hour I -could trust to that, or anything but Christ crucified, -for my salvation, all should be lost and my -soul perish forever.”</p> - -<p>Early in the nineteenth century, Ralph Freeman -was a slave in Anson county, N. C. He was a full-blooded -Negro, and was ordained and became an -able Baptist preacher. He baptised and administered -communion, and was greatly respected. -When the Baptists split on the question of missions -he sided with the anti-mission side. Finally -the law forbade him to preach.</p> - -<p>The story of Jack of Virginia is best told in the -words of a Southern writer:</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_335"></a>[335]</span></p> - -<p>“Probably the most interesting case in the whole -South is that of an African preacher of Nottoway -county, popularly known as ‘Uncle Jack,’ whose -services to white and black were so valuable that a -distinguished minister of the Southern Presbyterian -Church felt called upon to memorize his -work in a biography.</p> - -<p>“Kidnapped from his idolatrous parents in -Africa, he was brought over in one of the last -cargoes of slaves admitted to Virginia and sold to -a remote and obscure planter in Nottoway county, -a region at that time in the backwoods and destitute -particularly as to religious life and instruction. -He was converted under the occasional -preaching of Rev. Dr. John Blair Smith, President -of Hampden-Sidney College, and of Dr. William -Hill and Dr. Archibald Alexander of Princeton, -then young theologues, and by hearing the scriptures -read. Taught by his master’s children to -read, he became so full of the spirit and knowledge -of the Bible that he was recognized among -the whites as a powerful expounder of Christian -doctrine, was licensed to preach by the Baptist -Church, and preached from plantation to plantation -within a radius of thirty miles, as he was invited -by overseers or masters. His freedom was -purchased by a subscription of whites, and he was -given a home and a tract of land for his support.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_336"></a>[336]</span> -He organized a large and orderly Negro church, -and exercised such a wonderful controlling influence -over the private morals of his flock that masters, -instead of punishing their slaves, often referred -them to the discipline of their pastor, which -they dreaded far more.</p> - -<p>“He stopped a heresy among the Negro Christians -of Southern Virginia, defeating in open argument -a famous fanatical Negro preacher named -Campbell, who advocated noise and ‘the spirit’ -against the Bible, winning over Campbell’s adherents -in a body. For over forty years and until -he was nearly a hundred years of age, he labored -successfully in public and private among black and -whites, voluntarily giving up his preaching in -obedience to the law of 1832, the result of ‘Old -Nat’s war.’...</p> - -<p>“The most refined and aristocratic people paid -tribute to him, and he was instrumental in the conversion -of many whites. Says his biographer, -Rev. Dr. William S. White: ‘He was invited into -their houses, sat with their families, took part in -their social worship, sometimes leading the prayer -at the family altar. Many of the most intelligent -people attended upon his ministry and listened to -his sermons with great delight. Indeed, previous -to the year 1825, he was considered by the best -judges to be the best preacher in that county. His<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_337"></a>[337]</span> -opinions were respected, his advice followed, and -yet he never betrayed the least symptoms of arrogance -or self-conceit. His dwelling was a rude log -cabin, his apparel of the plainest and coarsest materials.’ -This was because he wished to be fully -identified with his class. He refused gifts of -better clothing saying ‘These clothes are a great -deal better than are generally worn by people of -my color, and besides if I wear them I find shall -be obliged to think about them even at meeting’.”</p> - -<p>All this has to do with organized religion.</p> - -<p>But back of all this and behind the half childish -theology of formal religion there has run in the -heart of black folk the greatest of human achievements, -love and sympathy, even for their enemies, -for those who despised them and hurt them and -did them nameless ill. They have nursed the sick -and closed the staring eyes of the dead. They -have given friendship to the friendless, they have -shared the pittance of their poverty with the outcast -and nameless; they have been good and true -and pitiful to the bad and false and pitiless and in -this lies the real grandeur of their simple religion, -the mightiest gift of black to white America.</p> - -<p>Above all looms the figure of the Black -Mammy, one of the most pitiful of the world’s -Christs. Whether drab and dirty drudge or dark -and gentle lady she played her part in the uplift<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_338"></a>[338]</span> -of the South. She was an embodied Sorrow, an -anomaly crucified on the cross of her own neglected -children for the sake of the children of -masters who bought and sold her as they bought -and sold cattle. Whatever she had of slovenliness -or neatness, of degradation or of education she -surrendered it to those who lived to lynch her -sons and ravish her daughters. From her great -full breast walked forth governors and judges, -ladies of wealth and fashion, merchants and -scoundrels who lead the South. And the rest gave -her memory the reverence of silence. But a few -snobs have lately sought to advertise her sacrifice -and degradation and enhance their own cheap success -by building on the blood of her riven heart a -load of stone miscalled a monument.</p> - -<p>In religion as in democracy, the Negro has -been a peculiar test of white profession. The -American church, both Catholic and Protestant, -has been kept from any temptation to over-righteousness -and empty formalism by the fact that -just as Democracy in America was tested by the -Negro, so American religion has always been -tested by slavery and color prejudice. It has kept -before America’s truer souls the spirit of meekness -and self abasement, it has compelled American -religion again and again to search its heart -and cry “I have sinned;” and until the day comes<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_339"></a>[339]</span> -when color caste falls before reason and economic -opportunity the black American will stand as the -last and terrible test of the ethics of Jesus Christ.</p> - -<p>Beyond this the black man has brought to -America a sense of meekness and humility which -America never has recognized and perhaps never -will. If there is anybody in this land who thoroughly -believes that the meek shall inherit the -earth they have not often let their presence be -known. On the other hand it has become almost -characteristic of America to look upon position, -self assertion, determination to go forward at all -odds, as typifying the American spirit. This is -natural. It is at once the rebound from European -oppression and the encouragement which -America offers physically, economically and -socially to the human spirit. But on the other -hand, it is in many of its aspects a dangerous and -awful thing. It hardens and hurts our souls, it -contradicts our philanthropy and religion; and -here it is that the honesty of the black race, its -hesitancy and heart searching, its submission to -authority and its deep sympathy with the wishes of -the other man comes forward as a tremendous, -even though despised corrective. It is not always -going to remain; even now we see signs of its disappearance -before contempt, lawlessness and -lynching. But it is still here, it still works and one<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_340"></a>[340]</span> -of the most magnificent anomalies in modern human -history is the labor and fighting of a half-million -black men and two million whites for the -freedom of four million slaves and these same -slaves, dumbly but faithfully and not wholly unconsciously, -protecting the mothers, wives and -children of the very white men who fought to -make their slavery perpetual.</p> - -<p>This then is the Gift of Black Folk to the new -world. Thus in singular and fine sense the slave -became master, the bond servant became free and -the meek not only inherited the earth but made -that heritage a thing of questing for eternal youth, -of fruitful labor, of joy and music, of the free -spirit and of the ministering hand, of wide and -poignant sympathy with men in their struggle to -live and love which is, after all, the end of being.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_341"></a>[341]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="POSTSCRIPT">POSTSCRIPT</h2> - -</div> - -<p>Listen to the Winds, O God the Reader, that wail -across the whip-cords stretched taut on broken human -hearts; listen to the Bones, the bare bleached bones of -slaves, that line the lanes of Seven Seas and beat eternal -tom-toms in the forests of the laboring deep; listen to the -Blood, the cold thick blood that spills its filth across the -fields and flowers of the Free; listen to the Souls that -wing and thrill and weep and scream and sob and sing -above it all. What shall these things mean, O God the -Reader? You know. You know.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="footnotes"> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_342"></a>[342]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="FOOTNOTES">FOOTNOTES</h2> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_1" href="#FNanchor_1" class="label">[1]</a> In the fifties it was customary for the merchants, etc., to have posted -at their door a list of help wanted. Many of these help wanted signs -were accompanied by another which read “No Irish need apply.” During -the Civil War there was an Anti-Draft song with a refrain to the -effect that when it came to drafting they did not practice “No Irish need -apply.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_2" href="#FNanchor_2" class="label">[2]</a> “Americans only” in a real estate advertisement today usually -means “No Jews need apply.” It sometimes means Irish (i. e., Catholic) -also.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_3" href="#FNanchor_3" class="label">[3]</a> Wm. J. Bromwell, <i>History of Immigration to United States</i>, p. 96.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_4" href="#FNanchor_4" class="label">[4]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 100.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_5" href="#FNanchor_5" class="label">[5]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 116.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_6" href="#FNanchor_6" class="label">[6]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 124.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_7" href="#FNanchor_7" class="label">[7]</a> <i>Commercial Relations of the United States</i>, 1885-1886, Appendix -III, p. 1967.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_8" href="#FNanchor_8" class="label">[8]</a> “The Commissioners for Ireland gave them orders upon the governors -of garrisons, to deliver to them prisoners of war; upon the keepers -of gaols, for offenders in custody; upon masters of workhouses, for -the destitute in their care ‘who were of an age to labor, or if women -were marriageable and not past breeding’; and gave directions to all in -authority to seize those who had no visible means of livelihood, and -deliver them to these agents of the Bristol sugar merchants, in execution -of which latter direction Ireland must have exhibited scenes in every -part like the slave hunts in Africa. How many girls of gentle birth -have been caught and hurried to the private prisons of these man-catchers -none can tell. Messrs. Sellick and Leader, Mr. Robert -Yeomans, Mr. Joseph Lawrence, and others, all of Bristol, were active -agents. As one instance out of many: Captain John Vernon was employed -by the Commissioners for Ireland, into England, and contracted in -their behalf with Mr. David Sellick and Mr. Leader under his hand, -bearing date the 14th September, 1653, to supply them with two hundred -and fifty women of the Irish nation above twelve years, and under the -age of forty-five, also three hundred men above twelve years of age, and -under fifty, to be found in the country within twenty miles of Cork, -Youghal, and Kinsale, Waterford and Wexford, to transport them into -New England.” J. P. Prendergast, <i>The Cromwellian Settlement of -Ireland</i>, London, 1865. 2d. ed., pp. 89-90.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_9" href="#FNanchor_9" class="label">[9]</a> “It is calculated that in four years (1653-1657) English firms of -slave-dealers shipped 6,400 Irish men and women, boys and maidens, to -the British colonies of North America.” A. J. Thebaud, <i>The Irish Race -in the Past and Present</i>, N. Y., 1893, p. 385.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_10" href="#FNanchor_10" class="label">[10]</a> Rev. T. A. Spencer, <i>History of the United States</i>, Vol. I, p. 305.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_11" href="#FNanchor_11" class="label">[11]</a> Henry Pratt Fairchild, <i>Immigration: A world movement, and its -American significance</i>, N. Y., 1913, p. 47. See also <i>Archives of Maryland</i>, -Vol. 22, p. 497.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_12" href="#FNanchor_12" class="label">[12]</a> Charles A. and Mary R. Beard, <i>History of the United States</i>, -N. Y., 1921, p. 11.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_13" href="#FNanchor_13" class="label">[13]</a> Fairchild, p. 35.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_14" href="#FNanchor_14" class="label">[14]</a> Henry Cabot Lodge, <i>A Short History of the English Colonies in -America</i>, N. Y., 1881, p. 70.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_15" href="#FNanchor_15" class="label">[15]</a> Beard, p. 15.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_16" href="#FNanchor_16" class="label">[16]</a> Beard, p. 16.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_17" href="#FNanchor_17" class="label">[17]</a> W. E. Burghardt DuBois, <i>Suppression of the Slave Trade</i>, Harvard -Historical Studies, No. 1, p. 5.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_18" href="#FNanchor_18" class="label">[18]</a> John R. Commons, <i>Races and Immigrants in America</i>, N. Y., 1907, -p. 53.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_19" href="#FNanchor_19" class="label">[19]</a> Adam Seybert, <i>Statistical Annals of the United States</i>, Phila., 1818, -p. 29.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_20" href="#FNanchor_20" class="label">[20]</a> Young, <i>Special Report on Immigration</i>, Phila., 1871, p. 5.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_21" href="#FNanchor_21" class="label">[21]</a> Bromwell, p. 145.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_22" href="#FNanchor_22" class="label">[22]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 16.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_23" href="#FNanchor_23" class="label">[23]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 18.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_24" href="#FNanchor_24" class="label">[24]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, pp. 16-17.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_25" href="#FNanchor_25" class="label">[25]</a> Young, p. 6.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_26" href="#FNanchor_26" class="label">[26]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 6.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_27" href="#FNanchor_27" class="label">[27]</a> <i>Special Consular Reports</i>, Vol. 30, p. 8.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_28" href="#FNanchor_28" class="label">[28]</a> <i>Immigration and Emigration</i>, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Washington, -1915, p. 1099.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_29" href="#FNanchor_29" class="label">[29]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_30" href="#FNanchor_30" class="label">[30]</a> <i>Reports of Department of Labor</i>, Washington, 1915.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_31" href="#FNanchor_31" class="label">[31]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_32" href="#FNanchor_32" class="label">[32]</a> <i>Reports of Department of Labor</i>, Washington, 1918, p. 208.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_33" href="#FNanchor_33" class="label">[33]</a> <i>Reports of Department of Labor</i>, Washington, 1920, p. 400.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_34" href="#FNanchor_34" class="label">[34]</a> <i>Reports of Department of Labor</i>, Washington, 1921, p. 365.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_35" href="#FNanchor_35" class="label">[35]</a> From a Spanish Romance called <i>La Sergas de Espladian</i>, by Garcia -de Montalvo, published in 1510; translated in Beasley’s <i>The Negro -Trail Blazers of California</i>, p. 18.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_36" href="#FNanchor_36" class="label">[36]</a> Cf. Wiener, <i>Africa and the Discovery of America</i>, Vol. 1, pp. 169-70, -172, 174-5; Vol. 3, p. 322; Thurston, <i>Antiquities of Tennessee</i>, etc., -1890, p. 105; De Charnay, <i>Ancient Cities of the New World</i> (trans. by -Gonino and Conant, 1887), pp. 132ff.; Kabell, <i>America för Columbus</i>, -1892, p. 235.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_37" href="#FNanchor_37" class="label">[37]</a> J. B. Thacher, <i>Christopher Columbus</i>, 1903, Vol. 2, pp. 379-80; -<i>Raccolta di documenti e studi publicati dalla R. Commissione Colombiana -pel quarto centenario dalla scoperta dell’ America</i>, parte I, Rome, 1892, -Vol. 1, p. 96.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_38" href="#FNanchor_38" class="label">[38]</a> i. e., Negro Traders.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_39" href="#FNanchor_39" class="label">[39]</a> Thacher, Vol. 2, pp. 379, 380; Wiener, Vol. 2, pp. 116-17.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_40" href="#FNanchor_40" class="label">[40]</a> Wiener, Vol. 3, p. 365.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_41" href="#FNanchor_41" class="label">[41]</a> <i>Memoir of Hernando de Essalante Fontanedo, respecting Florida</i>, -translated from the Spanish by Buckingham Smith, Washington, 1854.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_42" href="#FNanchor_42" class="label">[42]</a> Oviedo y Valdes, <i>Historia general</i>, etc., Vol. 1, p. 286.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_43" href="#FNanchor_43" class="label">[43]</a> Wiener, Vol. 3, p. 365.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_44" href="#FNanchor_44" class="label">[44]</a> Wiener, Vol. 1, p. 190.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_45" href="#FNanchor_45" class="label">[45]</a> Helps, <i>Spanish Conquest in America</i>, Vol. 4, p. 401.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_46" href="#FNanchor_46" class="label">[46]</a> J. F. Rippy in <i>Journal of Negro History</i>, Vol. 6, p. 183.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_47" href="#FNanchor_47" class="label">[47]</a> Helps, Vol. 1, p. 421.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_48" href="#FNanchor_48" class="label">[48]</a> Rippy, <i>loc. cit.</i></p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_49" href="#FNanchor_49" class="label">[49]</a> The following narrative is based on: H. O. Flipper, <i>Did a Negro -discover Arizona and New Mexico</i> (contains a translation of parts of -the narrative of Pedro de Castaneda de Majera); Pedro de Castaneda, -“Account of the Expedition to Cibola which took place in the year 1540....” -translated in <i>Spanish Explorers in the Southern United States</i> -(J. F. Jameson Ed.); Beasley, <i>Trail Blazers of California</i>, Chapter 2; -Rippy, in <i>Journal of Negro History</i>, Vol. 6, pp. 183ff.; <i>American Anthropologist</i>, -Vol. 4.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_50" href="#FNanchor_50" class="label">[50]</a> A fifth survivor, a Spaniard, stayed with the Indians and was -afterward found by DeSoto.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_51" href="#FNanchor_51" class="label">[51]</a> Another story is that Estevanico and the Monks did not get on -well together.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_52" href="#FNanchor_52" class="label">[52]</a> The story that Estevanico was killed because of his greed is evidently -apocryphal.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_53" href="#FNanchor_53" class="label">[53]</a> Legends of the Zuni Pueblos of New Mexico quoted in Lowery -<i>Spanish Settlements in the United States, 1513-1561</i>, pp. 281-82.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_54" href="#FNanchor_54" class="label">[54]</a> Cf. Beasley, Chapter 10.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_55" href="#FNanchor_55" class="label">[55]</a> Cf. Du Bois, <i>Suppression of the Slave Trade</i>; Du Bois, <i>The Negro</i> -(Home University Library).</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_56" href="#FNanchor_56" class="label">[56]</a> United States Census, <i>Negro Population 1790-1915</i>; Fourteenth -Census, Vol. 3.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_57" href="#FNanchor_57" class="label">[57]</a> Du Bois, <i>Suppression of the Slave Trade</i>, Chapter 4.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_58" href="#FNanchor_58" class="label">[58]</a> Cf. Du Bois, <i>The Philadelphia Negro</i>, Chapter 4.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_59" href="#FNanchor_59" class="label">[59]</a> Cf. Woodson, <i>A Century of Negro Migration</i>; E. J. Scott: <i>Negro -Migration During the War</i>.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_60" href="#FNanchor_60" class="label">[60]</a> <i>Journal of Negro History</i>, Vol. 1, p. 163.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_61" href="#FNanchor_61" class="label">[61]</a> Bruce, <i>Economic History of Virginia</i>, Vol. 2, pp. 405-6.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_62" href="#FNanchor_62" class="label">[62]</a> Atlanta University Publications: Cf. <i>The Negro Artisan</i>, 1902-1912, -and <i>Economic Cooperation among Negro Americans</i>, 1907.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_63" href="#FNanchor_63" class="label">[63]</a> Alice Dunbar Nelson in <i>Journal of Negro History</i>, Vol. 2, p. 52.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_64" href="#FNanchor_64" class="label">[64]</a> Alice Dunbar Nelson, in the <i>Journal of Negro History</i>, Vol. 1, -p. 375.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_65" href="#FNanchor_65" class="label">[65]</a> Olmsted, <i>A Journey in the Seaboard Slave States, Journey through -Texas</i>, and <i>Journey in the Back Country</i>.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_66" href="#FNanchor_66" class="label">[66]</a> Prior to the Matzeliger machine the McKay machine was patented, -designed for making the heaviest and cheapest kind of men’s shoes. -The Matzeliger machine was designed for light work, women’s shoes, -etc., and was the most important invention necessary to the formation -of the United Shoe Machinery Company.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_67" href="#FNanchor_67" class="label">[67]</a> H. E. Baker, in <i>Journal of Negro History</i>, Vol. 2, pp. 21ff.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_68" href="#FNanchor_68" class="label">[68]</a> Baker: <i>The Colored Inventor</i>, p. 7.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_69" href="#FNanchor_69" class="label">[69]</a> U. S. Census of 1920. Wilcox-Du Bois, <i>Negroes in the United -States</i> (U. S. Census bulletin No. 8, 1904).</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_70" href="#FNanchor_70" class="label">[70]</a> Olivier, <i>White Capital and Coloured Labor</i>, Chapter 8, London, -1906.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_71" href="#FNanchor_71" class="label">[71]</a> Alice Dunbar Nelson, <i>Journal of Negro History</i>, Vol. 1, pp. 369, -370, 371.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_72" href="#FNanchor_72" class="label">[72]</a> Cf. Livermore, <i>Opinion of the Founders of the Republic</i>, etc., part 2; -<i>Journal of Negro History</i>, Vol. 1, p. 198ff.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_73" href="#FNanchor_73" class="label">[73]</a> G. H. Moore, <i>Historical Notes</i>, etc., N. Y., 1862.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_74" href="#FNanchor_74" class="label">[74]</a> Livermore, pp. 115-16.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_75" href="#FNanchor_75" class="label">[75]</a> Cf. Livermore and Moore as above; also <i>Journal of Negro History</i>, -Vol. 1, pp. 114-20.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_76" href="#FNanchor_76" class="label">[76]</a> Livermore, p. 122. See also the account of Peter Salem, <i>do.</i>, pp. -118-21.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_77" href="#FNanchor_77" class="label">[77]</a> T. G. Steward, in <i>Publications American Negro Academy</i>, No. 5, -p. 12.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_78" href="#FNanchor_78" class="label">[78]</a> W. B. Hartgrove, <i>Journal of Negro History</i>, Vol. 1, pp. 125-9.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_79" href="#FNanchor_79" class="label">[79]</a> Wilson, <i>Black Phalanx</i>, p. 71.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_80" href="#FNanchor_80" class="label">[80]</a> <i>Journal of Negro History</i>, Vol. 1, pp. 373-4; Gayarre’s <i>History of -Louisiana</i>, Vol. 3, p. 108.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_81" href="#FNanchor_81" class="label">[81]</a> Niles’ <i>Register</i>, Feb. 26, 1814.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_82" href="#FNanchor_82" class="label">[82]</a> Wilson, <i>Black Phalanx</i>, p. 88.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_83" href="#FNanchor_83" class="label">[83]</a> Alice Dunbar-Nelson in <i>Journal of Negro History</i>, Vol. 2, p. 58.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_84" href="#FNanchor_84" class="label">[84]</a> Niles’ Register, Vol. 7, p. 205.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_85" href="#FNanchor_85" class="label">[85]</a> Niles’ Register, Vol. 7, pp. 345-6.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_86" href="#FNanchor_86" class="label">[86]</a> Dunbar-Nelson in <i>Journal of Negro History</i>, Vol. 2, pp. 59-60.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_87" href="#FNanchor_87" class="label">[87]</a> Williams, <i>Negro Race in America</i>, Vol. 2, pp. 244ff.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_88" href="#FNanchor_88" class="label">[88]</a> Williams, <i>Negro Race in America</i>, Vol. 2, pp. 280-82.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_89" href="#FNanchor_89" class="label">[89]</a> New York <i>Tribune</i>, Aug. 19, 1862.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_90" href="#FNanchor_90" class="label">[90]</a> Williams, Vol. 2, p. 271.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_91" href="#FNanchor_91" class="label">[91]</a> Wilson, p. 123.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_92" href="#FNanchor_92" class="label">[92]</a> Wilson, p. 132.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_93" href="#FNanchor_93" class="label">[93]</a> Wesley, in <i>Journal of Negro History</i>, Vol. 4, pp. 239ff.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_94" href="#FNanchor_94" class="label">[94]</a> New York <i>Tribune</i>, Nov. 14, 1863; Williams, Vol. 2, p. 347.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_95" href="#FNanchor_95" class="label">[95]</a> Williams, Vol. 2, p. 360.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_96" href="#FNanchor_96" class="label">[96]</a> New York <i>Times</i>, June 13, 1863.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_97" href="#FNanchor_97" class="label">[97]</a> Wilson, pp. 250-54.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_98" href="#FNanchor_98" class="label">[98]</a> Williams, Vol. 2, p. 338.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_99" href="#FNanchor_99" class="label">[99]</a> John Temple Graves in <i>Review of Reviews</i>.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_100" href="#FNanchor_100" class="label">[100]</a> MS. Copies of orders.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_101" href="#FNanchor_101" class="label">[101]</a> MS. Copies of orders.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_102" href="#FNanchor_102" class="label">[102]</a> At least this was the opinion of Abraham Lincoln—cf. Wilson’s -<i>Black Phalanx</i>, p. 108.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_103" href="#FNanchor_103" class="label">[103]</a> Thomas, <i>Attitude of Friends toward Slavery</i>, p. 267 and Appendix.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_104" href="#FNanchor_104" class="label">[104]</a> Jefferson’s Writings, Vol. 8, pp. 403-4.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_105" href="#FNanchor_105" class="label">[105]</a> George Livermore, <i>Opinions of the Founders of the Republic on -Negroes as Slaves, as Citizens, and as Soldiers</i>, Boston, 1862, p. 61.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_106" href="#FNanchor_106" class="label">[106]</a> Jefferson’s Works, Vol. 1, pp. 23-4.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_107" href="#FNanchor_107" class="label">[107]</a> Howard’s Reports, Vol. 19.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_108" href="#FNanchor_108" class="label">[108]</a> Howard’s Reports, pp. 536-8.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_109" href="#FNanchor_109" class="label">[109]</a> Howard’s Reports, pp. 572-3, 582.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_110" href="#FNanchor_110" class="label">[110]</a> Niles’ Register, Vol. 16, May 22, 1819.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_111" href="#FNanchor_111" class="label">[111]</a> Benjamin Brawley, <i>A Social History of the American Negro</i>, New -York, 1921, p. 90.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_112" href="#FNanchor_112" class="label">[112]</a> Hening’s Statutes.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_113" href="#FNanchor_113" class="label">[113]</a> John C. Hurd, <i>The Law of Freedom and Bondage</i>, Boston, 1858-1862.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_114" href="#FNanchor_114" class="label">[114]</a> Wiener, <i>Africa and the Discovery of America</i>, Vol. 1, pp. 155-8.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_115" href="#FNanchor_115" class="label">[115]</a> C. E. Chapman in <i>Journal of Negro History</i>, Vol. 3, p. 29.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_116" href="#FNanchor_116" class="label">[116]</a> J. Kunst, <i>Negroes in Guatemala</i>, <i>Journal of Negro History</i>, Vol. 1, -pp. 392-8.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_117" href="#FNanchor_117" class="label">[117]</a> Cf. Bryan Edward’s <i>West Indies</i>, 4th Edition, Vol. 1, pp. 337-98.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_118" href="#FNanchor_118" class="label">[118]</a> Gayarre, <i>History of Louisiana</i>, Vol. 1, pp. 435, 440.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_119" href="#FNanchor_119" class="label">[119]</a> Du Bois’ <i>Slave Trade</i>, pp. 6, 10, 22, 206; J. Coppin, <i>Slave Insurrections</i>, -1860; Brawley, <i>Social History</i>, pp. 39, 86, 132.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_120" href="#FNanchor_120" class="label">[120]</a> Cf. T. G. Steward, <i>The Haitian Revolution</i>.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_121" href="#FNanchor_121" class="label">[121]</a> DeWitt Talmadge in the <i>Christian Herald</i>, Nov. 28, 1906; Du -Bois’ <i>Slave Trade</i>, Chapter 7.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_122" href="#FNanchor_122" class="label">[122]</a> Cf. Dunbar-Nelson in the <i>Journal of Negro History</i>, Vol. 1.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_123" href="#FNanchor_123" class="label">[123]</a> Du Bois, <i>John Brown</i>, p. 81.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_124" href="#FNanchor_124" class="label">[124]</a> A. H. Grimke, <i>Right on the Scaffold in Occasional Papers</i>, No. 7, -American Negro Academy.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_125" href="#FNanchor_125" class="label">[125]</a> Brawley, p. 140; T. W. Higginson, <i>Atlantic Monthly</i>, Vol. 8, -p. 173.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_126" href="#FNanchor_126" class="label">[126]</a> I. W. Cromwell, in <i>Journal of Negro History</i>, Vol. 5, pp. 208ff.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_127" href="#FNanchor_127" class="label">[127]</a> Cf. Du Bois’ <i>Philadelphia Negro</i>, Chapter 4; Woodson’s <i>Negro in -our History</i>, pp. 140-1.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_128" href="#FNanchor_128" class="label">[128]</a> Brawley, pp. 123-4; <i>Journal of Negro History</i>, Vol. 2, pp. 209-28.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_129" href="#FNanchor_129" class="label">[129]</a> Brawley, p. 71.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_130" href="#FNanchor_130" class="label">[130]</a> Williams’ <i>Negro Race</i>, Vol. 2, p. 126.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_131" href="#FNanchor_131" class="label">[131]</a> Du Bois’ <i>John Brown</i>, pp. 82ff.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_132" href="#FNanchor_132" class="label">[132]</a> Cf. Joshua R. Giddings, <i>Exiles of Florida</i>, Columbus, Ohio, 1858.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_133" href="#FNanchor_133" class="label">[133]</a> Among the first subscribers to Garrison’s <i>Liberator</i> were free -Negroes and one report is that the very first paid subscriber was a -colored Philadelphia caterer.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_134" href="#FNanchor_134" class="label">[134]</a> Livermore, p. 170.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_135" href="#FNanchor_135" class="label">[135]</a> Livermore, pp. 125-6.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_136" href="#FNanchor_136" class="label">[136]</a> Force’s Archives, 4th series, Vol. 3, p. 1387.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_137" href="#FNanchor_137" class="label">[137]</a> Works of John Adams, Vol. 2, p. 428.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_138" href="#FNanchor_138" class="label">[138]</a> Livermore, pp. 183, 184.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_139" href="#FNanchor_139" class="label">[139]</a> Wilson, pp. 491-92.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_140" href="#FNanchor_140" class="label">[140]</a> J. T. Wilson, <i>The History of the Black Phalanx</i>, Hartford, 1897, -p. 490.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_141" href="#FNanchor_141" class="label">[141]</a> Cf. Cromwell, <i>Negro In American History</i>, Chapter 2.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_142" href="#FNanchor_142" class="label">[142]</a> J. W. Loguen, <i>As a Slave and as a Freeman</i>, p. 344.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_143" href="#FNanchor_143" class="label">[143]</a> George W. Williams, <i>History of the Negro Race in America</i>, New -York, 1882, Vol. 1, Chapter 15.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_144" href="#FNanchor_144" class="label">[144]</a> Williams, Vol. 1, pp. 250-1.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_145" href="#FNanchor_145" class="label">[145]</a> Williams, Vol. 2, pp. 255-7.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_146" href="#FNanchor_146" class="label">[146]</a> Williams, Vol. 1, pp. 257-9.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_147" href="#FNanchor_147" class="label">[147]</a> Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, Sept. 22, 1862.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_148" href="#FNanchor_148" class="label">[148]</a> Atlanta University Publications, Atlanta, Ga., 1906, No. 8, p. 23.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_149" href="#FNanchor_149" class="label">[149]</a> John Eaton, <i>Grant, Lincoln and the Freedmen</i>, New York, 1907, -p. 134.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_150" href="#FNanchor_150" class="label">[150]</a> Eaton, 165.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_151" href="#FNanchor_151" class="label">[151]</a> Walter L. Fleming, <i>Documentary History of Reconstruction</i>, Cleveland, -Ohio, 1907, Vol. 1, p. 112.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_152" href="#FNanchor_152" class="label">[152]</a> Fleming, Vol. 1, pp. 350-1.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_153" href="#FNanchor_153" class="label">[153]</a> Fleming, Vol. 2, p. 382.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_154" href="#FNanchor_154" class="label">[154]</a> Report of Carl Schurz to President Johnson, in Senate Exec. Doc. -No. 2, 39th Cong., 1st Sess.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_155" href="#FNanchor_155" class="label">[155]</a> Brewster, <i>Sketches of Southern Mystery, Treason and Murder</i>, -p. 116.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_156" href="#FNanchor_156" class="label">[156]</a> McPherson, <i>Reconstruction</i>, p. 19.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_157" href="#FNanchor_157" class="label">[157]</a> Atlanta University Publications, Atlanta, Ga., 1901, No. 6, p. 36.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_158" href="#FNanchor_158" class="label">[158]</a> October 7, 1865.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_159" href="#FNanchor_159" class="label">[159]</a> McPherson, pp. 52, 56.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_160" href="#FNanchor_160" class="label">[160]</a> A. U. Publications, No. 12, p. 38; Cf. also Fleming, Vol. 1, -P. 355.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_161" href="#FNanchor_161" class="label">[161]</a> Schurz’ Report.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_162" href="#FNanchor_162" class="label">[162]</a> House Reports, No. 30, 39th Congress, 1st Session.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_163" href="#FNanchor_163" class="label">[163]</a> Schurz’ Report.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_164" href="#FNanchor_164" class="label">[164]</a> <i>Journal of Negro History</i>, Vol. 5, p. 238.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_165" href="#FNanchor_165" class="label">[165]</a> <i>Journal of Negro History</i>, Vol. 7, pp. 127ff.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_166" href="#FNanchor_166" class="label">[166]</a> <i>Journal of Negro History</i>, Vol. 7, p. 424.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_167" href="#FNanchor_167" class="label">[167]</a> Jackson, Miss., <i>Clarion</i>, April 24, 1873.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_168" href="#FNanchor_168" class="label">[168]</a> Walter Allen, <i>Governor Chamberlain’s Administration in South -Carolina</i>, New York, 1888, p. 82.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_169" href="#FNanchor_169" class="label">[169]</a> <i>Journal of Negro History</i>, Vol. 7, pp. 127ff.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_170" href="#FNanchor_170" class="label">[170]</a> Blaine, <i>Twenty Years in Congress</i>, Vol. 2, p. 515.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_171" href="#FNanchor_171" class="label">[171]</a> Blaine, <i>Twenty Years in Congress</i>, pp. 513-14.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_172" href="#FNanchor_172" class="label">[172]</a> Fleming, Vol. 1, pp. 450-1.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_173" href="#FNanchor_173" class="label">[173]</a> J. W. Garner, <i>Reconstruction in Mississippi</i>, New York, 1901, -p. 322.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_174" href="#FNanchor_174" class="label">[174]</a> Warley in <i>Brewster’s Sketches</i>, p. 150.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_175" href="#FNanchor_175" class="label">[175]</a> A Liberal Republican’s description of the S. C. Legislature in 1871, -Fleming, Vol. 2, pp. 53-4.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_176" href="#FNanchor_176" class="label">[176]</a> Fleming, Vol. 1, pp. 382ff.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_177" href="#FNanchor_177" class="label">[177]</a> Some of the Reconstruction Constitutions preceding Negro Suffrage -showed tendencies toward democratization among the whites.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_178" href="#FNanchor_178" class="label">[178]</a> Chicago Weekly <i>Inter-Ocean</i>, Dec. 26, 1890.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_179" href="#FNanchor_179" class="label">[179]</a> Cf. Atlanta University Pub. No. 6 and No. 16.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_180" href="#FNanchor_180" class="label">[180]</a> This speech was made in the South Carolina Constitutional Convention -of 1890 which disfranchised the Negro, by the Hon. Thomas E. -Miller, ex-congressman and one of the six Negro members of the Convention. -The Convention did not have the courage to publish it in -their proceedings but it may be found in the Occasional Papers of the -American Negro Academy No. 6, pp. 11-13.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_181" href="#FNanchor_181" class="label">[181]</a> Cf. W. E. B. Du Bois, <i>Reconstruction</i> (American Historical Review, -XV, No. 4, p. 871).</p> - -<p>W. E. B. Du Bois, <i>Economics of Negro Emancipation</i> (Sociological -Review, Oct., 1911, p. 303).</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_182" href="#FNanchor_182" class="label">[182]</a> O. O. Howard, <i>Autobiography</i>, New York, 1907, Vol. 2, pp. 361-7, -371-2.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_183" href="#FNanchor_183" class="label">[183]</a> Testimony of the presiding officer, Mrs. Frances D. Gage, in “<i>Narrative -of Sojourner Truth</i>,” 1884, pp. 134-5.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_184" href="#FNanchor_184" class="label">[184]</a> Goodell, <i>Slave Code</i>, p. 111.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_185" href="#FNanchor_185" class="label">[185]</a> Robertson, <i>Louisiana under the Rule of Spain</i>, Vol. 1, pp. 67, 103, -111; Dunbar-Nelson, in <i>Journal of Negro History</i>, Vol. 2, p. 56.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_186" href="#FNanchor_186" class="label">[186]</a> Dunbar-Nelson, <i>loc. cit.</i></p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_187" href="#FNanchor_187" class="label">[187]</a> Dunbar-Nelson, <i>op. cit.</i>, p. 62; Martineau, <i>Society in America</i>, -p. 326ff.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_188" href="#FNanchor_188" class="label">[188]</a> Brownie’s Book, March, 1921.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_189" href="#FNanchor_189" class="label">[189]</a> Beasley, <i>Negro Trail Blazers</i>, pp. 95-7.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_190" href="#FNanchor_190" class="label">[190]</a> Cf. Annual Reports National Association of Colored Women; -Atlanta University Publications, No. 14.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_191" href="#FNanchor_191" class="label">[191]</a> Du Bois, <i>Souls of Black Folk</i>, Chapter No. 14.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_192" href="#FNanchor_192" class="label">[192]</a> W. F. Allen and others, <i>Slave Songs of the United States</i>, New -York, 1867.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_193" href="#FNanchor_193" class="label">[193]</a> G. D. Pike, <i>The Jubilee Singers</i>, New York, 1873.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_194" href="#FNanchor_194" class="label">[194]</a> James Weldon Johnson, <i>Book of American Negro Poetry</i>, New York, -1922.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_195" href="#FNanchor_195" class="label">[195]</a> H. E. Krehbiel, <i>Afro-American Folksongs</i>, New York, 1914; cf. -also John W. Work, <i>Folksong of the American Negro</i>, Nashville, Tenn., -1915.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_196" href="#FNanchor_196" class="label">[196]</a> Natalie Curtis-Burlin, <i>Negro Folksongs</i>, 4 books, 1918-19; <i>Songs -and Tales from the Dark Continent</i>, 1920.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_197" href="#FNanchor_197" class="label">[197]</a> Benjamin Brawley, <i>Negro in Literature and Art</i>.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_198" href="#FNanchor_198" class="label">[198]</a> Alice Dunbar-Nelson in <i>Journal of Negro History</i>, Vol. 2, p. 55.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_199" href="#FNanchor_199" class="label">[199]</a> Washington, <i>Story of the Negro</i>, Vol. 2, pp. 276-7.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_200" href="#FNanchor_200" class="label">[200]</a> Cf. Benjamin Brawley, <i>The Negro in Literature and Art</i>, New -York, 1921.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_201" href="#FNanchor_201" class="label">[201]</a> Cf. Preface to James Weldon Johnson’s <i>The Book of American -Negro Poetry</i>, New York, 1922.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_202" href="#FNanchor_202" class="label">[202]</a> T. W. Talley, <i>Negro Folk Rhymes</i>.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_203" href="#FNanchor_203" class="label">[203]</a> Cf. W. E. B. Du Bois, <i>The Negro in Literature and Art</i> (Annals -American Academy, Sept., 1913).</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_204" href="#FNanchor_204" class="label">[204]</a> A. A. Schomberg, <i>A Bibliographical Checklist of American Negro -Poetry</i>, New York, 1916.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_205" href="#FNanchor_205" class="label">[205]</a> Preface to Claud McKay’s <i>Harlem Shadows</i>.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_206" href="#FNanchor_206" class="label">[206]</a> Cf. Freeman H. M. Murray, <i>Emancipation and the Freed in -American Sculpture</i>, Washington, D. C., 1916.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_207" href="#FNanchor_207" class="label">[207]</a> <i>Journal of Negro History</i>, Vol. 3, p. 99ff. Later, Jefferson writing -to an American thought Banneker had “a mind of very common stature -indeed”.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_208" href="#FNanchor_208" class="label">[208]</a> Charles C. Jones, <i>Religious Instruction of the Negroes</i>, Savannah, -1842.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_209" href="#FNanchor_209" class="label">[209]</a> M. H. Kingsley, <i>West African Studies</i>.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_210" href="#FNanchor_210" class="label">[210]</a> Atlanta University Publications, <i>The Negro Church</i>, 1903.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_211" href="#FNanchor_211" class="label">[211]</a> Richard Allen, <i>Life, Experience and Gospel Labors</i>, Philadelphia, -1880.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_212" href="#FNanchor_212" class="label">[212]</a> Cf. Carter G. Woodson, <i>The History of the Negro Church</i>, Washington, -D. C., 1921; Atlanta University Publications, <i>The Negro -Church</i>; and J. E. Bassett, <i>Slavery in North Carolina</i>.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_213" href="#FNanchor_213" class="label">[213]</a> Bassett, pp. 58-9.</p> - -</div> - -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_343"></a>[343]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="INDEX">INDEX</h2> - -</div> - -<ul> - -<li class="ifrst">Adair, Lieut., <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Adams, John, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_317">317</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Adolphus, King Gustavus, <a href="#Page_11">11</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Aldridge, Ira, <a href="#Page_310">310</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Alexander, Dr. Archibald, <a href="#Page_335">335</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Allen, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Allen, Walter, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Alliot, Paul, <a href="#Page_266">266</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Almagro, <a href="#Page_42">42</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Alvarado, <a href="#Page_42">42</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Ames, Capt., <a href="#Page_92">92</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Anderson, <a href="#Page_302">302</a></li> - -<li class="indx">André, <a href="#Page_92">92</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Antar, <a href="#Page_288">288</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Atkinson, Edward, <a href="#Page_232">232</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Attucks, Crispus, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Augusta, Dr. A. T., <a href="#Page_125">125</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">Baker, H. E., <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Balboa, <a href="#Page_42">42</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Ball, <a href="#Page_314">314</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Bancroft, H. H., <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Banister, E. M., <a href="#Page_313">313</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Banks, General, <a href="#Page_118">118</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Banneker, Benjamin, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>, <a href="#Page_318">318</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Bassett, Lieut.-Col., <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_332">332</a>, <a href="#Page_334">334</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Batson, Flora, <a href="#Page_291">291</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Beard, Charles A. & Mary R., <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Beasley, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_272">272</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Beauregard, <a href="#Page_137">137</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Beecher, Henry Ward, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>, <a href="#Page_293">293</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Benjamin, Judah, <a href="#Page_179">179</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Beverly, Robert, <a href="#Page_67">67</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Bienville, Governor, <a href="#Page_83">83</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Bigstaff, Peter, <a href="#Page_129">129</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Bissell, <a href="#Page_314">314</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Blaine, James G., <a href="#Page_222">222</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Bland, James, <a href="#Page_290">290</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Bolas, Juan de, <a href="#Page_151">151</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Bolivar, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Bonaparte, Napoleon, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Booth, Major, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_271">271</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Boré, Etienne de, <a href="#Page_68">68</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Bowers, John, <a href="#Page_299">299</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Braithwaite, W. S., <a href="#Page_303">303</a>, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>, <a href="#Page_307">307</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Brawley, Benjamin, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>, <a href="#Page_303">303</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Brent, Linda, <a href="#Page_301">301</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Brewster, <a href="#Page_203">203</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Bromwell, <a href="#Page_17">17</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Brooks, <a href="#Page_302">302</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Brown, John, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>, <a href="#Page_272">272</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Brown, Richard, <a href="#Page_313">313</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Brown, William, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>, <a href="#Page_299">299</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Browne, <a href="#Page_271">271</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Bruce, B. K., <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Bryant, William Cullen, <a href="#Page_232">232</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Buell, <a href="#Page_187">187</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Burgess, Prof., <a href="#Page_206">206</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Burleigh, Harry T., <a href="#Page_290">290</a>, <a href="#Page_291">291</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Burlin, Mrs. Curtis, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>, <a href="#Page_284">284</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Burnside, <a href="#Page_124">124</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Burr, Aaron, <a href="#Page_289">289</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Butler, General, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Byrd, Col., <a href="#Page_67">67</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">Cable, George U., <a href="#Page_293">293</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Cain, <a href="#Page_221">221</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Calder, <a href="#Page_314">314</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Caldwell, Jonas, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Calhoun, John C., <a href="#Page_293">293</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Callioux, Capt., <a href="#Page_120">120</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Campbell, Robert, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>, <a href="#Page_336">336</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Carey, Lott, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Carr, Patrick, <a href="#Page_87">87</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Castaneda, Pedro de, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Castle, Vernon, <a href="#Page_292">292</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Catto, <a href="#Page_300">300</a></li> - -<li class="indx"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_344"></a>[344]</span>Chamberlain, Governor, <a href="#Page_220">220</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Chambers, Colonel, <a href="#Page_118">118</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Chapman, C. E., <a href="#Page_150">150</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Charlton, Melville, <a href="#Page_291">291</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Chase, Simon P., <a href="#Page_232">232</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Chavis, John, <a href="#Page_332">332</a>, <a href="#Page_333">333</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Cheatham, <a href="#Page_221">221</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Chesnutt, Charles W., <a href="#Page_303">303</a>, <a href="#Page_307">307</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Child, Lydia Marcia, <a href="#Page_293">293</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Christophe, <a href="#Page_92">92</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Church, A. M. E., <a href="#Page_300">300</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Cinque, <a href="#Page_159">159</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Claiborne, Governor, <a href="#Page_97">97</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Clark, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Cleveland, <a href="#Page_26">26</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Clinton, Bishop Isaac, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Cobb, General, <a href="#Page_112">112</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Cobb, Irvin S., <a href="#Page_10">10</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Coffin, Levi, <a href="#Page_232">232</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Cole, <a href="#Page_310">310</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Coleridge-Taylor, Samuel, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>, <a href="#Page_290">290</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Columbus, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>, <a href="#Page_282">282</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Commons, John R., <a href="#Page_15">15</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Conant, <a href="#Page_36">36</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Conner, A. J., <a href="#Page_290">290</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Connery, William J., <a href="#Page_72">72</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Constant, Benjamin, <a href="#Page_314">314</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Cooke, Governor, <a href="#Page_93">93</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Cooper, Peter, <a href="#Page_232">232</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Coppin, J., <a href="#Page_153">153</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Corbin, J. C., <a href="#Page_220">220</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Cardoza, F. L., <a href="#Page_220">220-246</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Cornwallis, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Coronado, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Cortes, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Cotter, Joseph C. Jr., <a href="#Page_304">304</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Cravath, <a href="#Page_214">214</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Crogman, <a href="#Page_302">302</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Cromwell, J. W., <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Crummell, Dr. Alexander, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>, <a href="#Page_302">302</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Cuffee, Paul, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_299">299</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Cullen, Countée, <a href="#Page_304">304</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Curtis, Justice, <a href="#Page_144">144</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Curtis, Natalie, <a href="#Page_282">282</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Cushite, R. L. Perry, <a href="#Page_302">302</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">Damrosch, <a href="#Page_280">280</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Dana, Gen. N. J. T., <a href="#Page_193">193</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Daquin, Major, <a href="#Page_99">99</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Davis, <a href="#Page_304">304</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Davis, Pres., <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Davis, Gussie L., <a href="#Page_290">290</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Davis, Jefferson, <a href="#Page_107">107</a></li> - -<li class="indx">De Charnay, <a href="#Page_36">36</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Dèdè, Edmund, <a href="#Page_290">290</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Delaney, Major M. H., <a href="#Page_125">125</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Delaney, Martin R., <a href="#Page_300">300</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Dennison, Chaplain, <a href="#Page_123">123</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Derham, Thomas, <a href="#Page_316">316</a></li> - -<li class="indx">De Soto, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Dett, R. Nathaniel, <a href="#Page_291">291</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Dickinson, J. H., <a href="#Page_73">73</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Dickinson, S. L., <a href="#Page_73">73</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Diton, Carl, <a href="#Page_291">291</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Dix, <a href="#Page_187">187</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Dixon, Thomas, <a href="#Page_293">293</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Dodson, Jacob, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Dorantes, Stephen, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Douglas, Captain H. F., <a href="#Page_125">125</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Douglass, Frederick, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Dow, Lorenzo, <a href="#Page_145">145</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Drexel, Katherine, <a href="#Page_324">324</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Drinkwater, <a href="#Page_311">311</a></li> - -<li class="indx">DuBois, W. E. B., <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>, <a href="#Page_297">297</a></li> - -<li class="indx">DuBois, Wilcox, <a href="#Page_73">73</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Dubuclet, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_290">290</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Dumas, <a href="#Page_306">306</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Dunbar, Paul Lawrence, <a href="#Page_303">303</a>, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>, <a href="#Page_306">306</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Dunmore, Governor, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Dunn, Lieut.-Gov., <a href="#Page_221">221</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Duplessis, General Garnier, <a href="#Page_131">131</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Dvorak, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>, <a href="#Page_291">291</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Dwight, General, <a href="#Page_118">118</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_345"></a>[345]</span>Eaton, Col. John, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>, <a href="#Page_193">193</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Eastman, Max, <a href="#Page_307">307</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Edison, <a href="#Page_28">28</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Edward, Bryan, <a href="#Page_151">151</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Eliot, Dr. John, <a href="#Page_57">57</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Elliott, Robert Brown, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_301">301</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Emerson, Ralph Waldo, <a href="#Page_293">293</a></li> - -<li class="indx" id="Equiana">Equiana, Olaudah (See <a href="#Vassa">Gustavus Vassa</a>)</li> - -<li class="indx">Estevanico, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Eustis, William, <a href="#Page_94">94</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Evans, Henry, <a href="#Page_333">333</a>, <a href="#Page_334">334</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">Fairchild, Henry Pratt, <a href="#Page_9">9</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Fauset, Jessie, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Finnegas, Lieut.-Col. Henry, <a href="#Page_119">119</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Fleming, Walter L., <a href="#Page_194">194</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Flipper, H. O., <a href="#Page_43">43</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Fontages, Viscount de, <a href="#Page_93">93</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Force, <a href="#Page_176">176</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Forrest, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Foster, Stephen, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>, <a href="#Page_285">285</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Forten, James, <a href="#Page_299">299</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Franklin, Benjamin, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Freeman, Captain, <a href="#Page_58">58</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Freeman, Ralph, <a href="#Page_334">334</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Fremont, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></li> - -<li class="indx">French, D. C., <a href="#Page_314">314</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Frye, Colonel, <a href="#Page_92">92</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Fuller, Meta Warrick, <a href="#Page_315">315</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">Gabriel, <a href="#Page_172">172</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Gage, Mrs. Frances D., <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_264">264</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Galvez, <a href="#Page_95">95</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Garner, J. W., <a href="#Page_227">227</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Garnet, Henry Highland, <a href="#Page_299">299</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Garrison, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_271">271</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Garrison, William Lloyd, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_185">185</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Gayarre, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Geary, <a href="#Page_25">25</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Gibbs, Jonathan C., <a href="#Page_220">220</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Gibbs, M. W., <a href="#Page_220">220</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Giddings, Joshua R., <a href="#Page_171">171</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Gilmore, General, <a href="#Page_109">109</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Gilpin, Charles, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>, <a href="#Page_311">311</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Gladstone, <a href="#Page_279">279</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Gloucester, John, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Gomez, <a href="#Page_288">288</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Gonino, <a href="#Page_36">36</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Goodell, <a href="#Page_266">266</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Gottschalk, <a href="#Page_289">289</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Goybet, General, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Graham, Stephen, <a href="#Page_311">311</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Grant, General, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>, <a href="#Page_193">193</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Graves, John Temple, <a href="#Page_130">130</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Gray, Samuel, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Greeley, Horace, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_185">185</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Greene, General, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Grey, T. R., <a href="#Page_158">158</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Griggs, <a href="#Page_302">302</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Grimke, A. H., <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a href="#Page_302">302</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Grimke, Frank, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>, <a href="#Page_303">303</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">Hagen, Helen, <a href="#Page_291">291</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Hagood, General, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a href="#Page_302">302</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Hahn, Governor, <a href="#Page_194">194</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Hall, Prince, <a href="#Page_162">162</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Halleck, <a href="#Page_187">187</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Hamilton, Alexander, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Hammon, Jupiter, <a href="#Page_304">304</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Hampton, Governor, <a href="#Page_246">246</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Hampton, Wade, <a href="#Page_283">283</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Handy, W. C., <a href="#Page_285">285</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Hapgood, Mrs. Emily, <a href="#Page_310">310</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Hare, Maude-Cuney, <a href="#Page_291">291</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Harleston, Edwin, <a href="#Page_313">313</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Harper, Frances E. W., <a href="#Page_300">300</a>, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>, <a href="#Page_304">304</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Harper, William A., <a href="#Page_313">313</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Harriot, George, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Harris, Joel Chandler, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>, <a href="#Page_296">296</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Harrison, Hazel, <a href="#Page_291">291</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Hartgrove, W. B., <a href="#Page_94">94</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Hayes, Roland W., <a href="#Page_292">292</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Hayne, Robert Y., <a href="#Page_172">172</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Haynes, Lemuel, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>, <a href="#Page_332">332</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Helps, <a href="#Page_42">42</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Hemmenway, J., <a href="#Page_290">290</a></li> - -<li class="indx"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_346"></a>[346]</span>Hening, <a href="#Page_148">148</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Henry, Patrick, <a href="#Page_141">141</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Henson, Joshua, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href="#Page_300">300</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Henson, Matthew A., <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_51">51</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Higginson, Colonel, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>, <a href="#Page_293">293</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Hill, Dr. William, <a href="#Page_335">335</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Hogarth, George, <a href="#Page_300">300</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Hogan, Ernest, <a href="#Page_310">310</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Holland, Justin, <a href="#Page_290">290</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Hood, <a href="#Page_302">302</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Hooker, <a href="#Page_187">187</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Hope, Lawrence, <a href="#Page_291">291</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Hopkins, Samuel, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Horton, George M., <a href="#Page_304">304</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Hosier, Harry, <a href="#Page_332">332</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Howard, General, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>, <a href="#Page_252">252</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Howe, Julia Ward, <a href="#Page_293">293</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Howells, William Dean, <a href="#Page_293">293</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Hughes, Langston, <a href="#Page_304">304</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Hunter, General, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Hurd, John C., <a href="#Page_148">148</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Hyer, Sisters, <a href="#Page_291">291</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">Jackson, General, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Jackson, M. Howard, <a href="#Page_315">315</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Jamison, J. F., <a href="#Page_43">43</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Jamison, Roscoe C., <a href="#Page_304">304</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Jay, John, <a href="#Page_232">232</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Jefferson, Thomas, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_317">317</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Jenkins, Edmund T., <a href="#Page_291">291</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Johnson, E. A., <a href="#Page_302">302</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Johnson, Fenton, <a href="#Page_304">304</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Johnson, Georgia, <a href="#Page_304">304</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Johnson, James Weldon, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>, <a href="#Page_314">314</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Johnson, John, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Johnson, President, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>, <a href="#Page_281">281</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Johnson, Rosamond, <a href="#Page_291">291</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Jones, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Jones, C. C., <a href="#Page_296">296</a>, <a href="#Page_325">325</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Just, Ernest, <a href="#Page_316">316</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">Kabell, <a href="#Page_36">36</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Keene, Edmund, <a href="#Page_310">310</a></li> - -<li class="indx">King George, 3rd of Britain, <a href="#Page_142">142</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Kingsley, Miss, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>, <a href="#Page_327">327</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Krehbiel, H. E., <a href="#Page_281">281</a>, <a href="#Page_282">282</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Kunst, J., <a href="#Page_151">151</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">La Coste, <a href="#Page_99">99</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Lafitte, <a href="#Page_99">99</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Lafon, Thomé, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_323">323</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Lambert, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_291">291</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Langston, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_302">302</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Las Casas, <a href="#Page_42">42</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Laurens, Henry, <a href="#Page_141">141</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Laurens, John, <a href="#Page_91">91</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Lawrence, Joseph, <a href="#Page_8">8</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Lawson, A. Augustus, <a href="#Page_291">291</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Leader, <a href="#Page_8">8</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Lee, Samuel J., <a href="#Page_219">219</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Leile, George, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Leon, Ponce de, <a href="#Page_38">38</a></li> - -<li class="indx">L’Enfant, Major Pierre, <a href="#Page_318">318</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Lewis, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Lewis, Edmonia, <a href="#Page_315">315</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Lewis, Julien H., <a href="#Page_316">316</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Lewis, R. B., <a href="#Page_299">299</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Lind, Jenny, <a href="#Page_291">291</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Lincoln, Abraham, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>, <a href="#Page_271">271</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Livermore, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Livingston, Robert, <a href="#Page_154">154</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Lodge, Henry Cabot, <a href="#Page_12">12</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Loguen, Bishop, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_300">300</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Low, A. A., <a href="#Page_232">232</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Lowell, James Russell, <a href="#Page_293">293</a></li> - -<li class="indx" id="Lucas">Lucas, Sam (See <a href="#Milady">Samuel Milady</a>)</li> - -<li class="indx">Lynch, <a href="#Page_90">90</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Lynch, John R., <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">Macdonough, <a href="#Page_96">96</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Madison, James, <a href="#Page_91">91</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Majors, <a href="#Page_302">302</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Maldonado, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a></li> - -<li class="indx"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_347"></a>[347]</span>Marcos, Fray, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Marquis de Condorcet, <a href="#Page_317">317</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Marshall, Colonel John R., <a href="#Page_127">127</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Martin, <a href="#Page_96">96</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Martineau, <a href="#Page_268">268</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Matzeliger, Jan E., <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Maverick, Samuel, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a></li> - -<li class="indx">McCoy, Elijah, <a href="#Page_72">72</a></li> - -<li class="indx">McHenry, James, <a href="#Page_318">318</a></li> - -<li class="indx">McKay, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>, <a href="#Page_307">307</a></li> - -<li class="indx">McKay, Claud, <a href="#Page_308">308</a></li> - -<li class="indx">McKee, Colonel John, <a href="#Page_323">323</a></li> - -<li class="indx">McKim, Miss, <a href="#Page_275">275</a></li> - -<li class="indx">McKinley, President, <a href="#Page_126">126</a></li> - -<li class="indx">McLean, Justice, <a href="#Page_144">144</a></li> - -<li class="indx">McClellan, <a href="#Page_188">188</a></li> - -<li class="indx">McPherson, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a></li> - -<li class="indx">McSweeney, Edw. F., <a href="#INTRODUCTION">Introduction to series</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Melbourne, George, <a href="#Page_290">290</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Mencken, H. L., <a href="#Page_305">305</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Mendoza, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Menendez, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></li> - -<li class="indx" id="Milady">Milady, Samuel, <a href="#Page_290">290</a> (See <a href="#Lucas">Sam Lucas</a> also)</li> - -<li class="indx">Miller, Kelly, <a href="#Page_303">303</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Miller, Hon. Thomas E., <a href="#Page_248">248</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Mills, <a href="#Page_271">271</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Mitchell, George W., <a href="#Page_303">303</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Montalvo, Garcia de, <a href="#Page_35">35</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Moody, <a href="#Page_279">279</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Moore, G. H., <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Mossell, <a href="#Page_302">302</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Murray, <a href="#Page_221">221</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Murray, Freeman H. M., <a href="#Page_304">304</a>, <a href="#Page_315">315</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">Narvaez, Panfilo de, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Nell, William Cooper, <a href="#Page_300">300</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Nelson, Alice Dunbar, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>, <a href="#Page_289">289</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Nelson, Colonel, <a href="#Page_119">119</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Niles, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Northrop, Samuel, <a href="#Page_300">300</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Nosseyeb, <a href="#Page_287">287</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">Oglethorpe, <a href="#Page_140">140</a></li> - -<li class="indx">O’Hara, <a href="#Page_222">222</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Olana, Nuflo de, <a href="#Page_42">42</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Olivier, <a href="#Page_79">79</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Olmsted, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a></li> - -<li class="indx">O’Neill, <a href="#Page_311">311</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Osceola, <a href="#Page_171">171</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Otis, James, <a href="#Page_141">141</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Ouverture, Toussaint le, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Ovando, <a href="#Page_39">39</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Oviedo, <a href="#Page_38">38</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">Page, Thomas Nelson, <a href="#Page_293">293</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Payne, Bishop Daniel, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>, <a href="#Page_302">302</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Peary, Commodore, <a href="#Page_50">50</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Pemberton, Thomas, <a href="#Page_57">57</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Penn, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_302">302</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Pennington, J. W. C., <a href="#Page_257">257</a>, <a href="#Page_299">299</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Perier, Governor, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Perry, <a href="#Page_96">96</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Pétion, President, <a href="#Page_154">154</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Phillips, Wendell, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>, <a href="#Page_293">293</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Pierce, Edward L., <a href="#Page_191">191</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Pike, G. D., <a href="#Page_279">279</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Pinchback, <a href="#Page_221">221</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Pinckney, Charles, <a href="#Page_94">94</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Pizarro, Marquis, <a href="#Page_41">41</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Plato, <a href="#Page_2">2</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Pleasants, Mammy, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>, <a href="#Page_272">272</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Poor, Salem, <a href="#Page_92">92</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Portugal, King of, <a href="#Page_290">290</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Preer, Evelyn, <a href="#Page_311">311</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Prendergast, J. P., <a href="#Page_8">8</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Preston, Captain, <a href="#Page_87">87</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Price, J. C., <a href="#Page_308">308</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Purvis, Robert, <a href="#Page_299">299</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Purvis, W. L., <a href="#Page_73">73</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Pushkin, <a href="#Page_288">288</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Putnam, Colonel, <a href="#Page_123">123</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">Rainey, <a href="#Page_223">223</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Ralston, <a href="#Page_271">271</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Rapier, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Redmond, <a href="#Page_174">174</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Reed, Lieut.-Col., <a href="#Page_125">125</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Revels, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Revells, Hiram R., <a href="#Page_218">218</a></li> - -<li class="indx"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_348"></a>[348]</span>Rice, Thomas D., <a href="#Page_309">309</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Rigaud, <a href="#Page_92">92</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Rillieux, Robert, <a href="#Page_70">70</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Rippy, J. F., <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Robertson, <a href="#Page_267">267</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Robeson, Paul, <a href="#Page_311">311</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Rodin, <a href="#Page_315">315</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Rush, Dr. Benjamin, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>, <a href="#Page_332">332</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Rutledge, <a href="#Page_90">90</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">Salcedo, Governor, <a href="#Page_67">67</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Samba, <a href="#Page_83">83</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Sanine, <a href="#Page_312">312</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Savary, J. B. Capt., <a href="#Page_99">99</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Saxton, General, <a href="#Page_188">188</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Scammell, Alexander, <a href="#Page_85">85</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Scarborough, <a href="#Page_302">302</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Schomberg, A. A., <a href="#Page_304">304</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Schurz, Carl, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Scofield, <a href="#Page_314">314</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Scott, William Edward, <a href="#Page_313">313</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Sejour, Victor, <a href="#Page_289">289</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Sellick, <a href="#Page_8">8</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Sewall, <a href="#Page_140">140</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Seward, William H., <a href="#Page_140">140</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Seybert, Adam, <a href="#Page_16">16</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Seymour, General, <a href="#Page_123">123</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Shaftesbury, Lord, <a href="#Page_279">279</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Shakespeare, <a href="#Page_293">293</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Shaler, Governor, <a href="#Page_203">203</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Sharkey, Governor, <a href="#Page_203">203</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Sherman, General T. W., <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Shaw, Colonel, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_315">315</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Simmons, <a href="#Page_301">301</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Simonton, Judge, <a href="#Page_246">246</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Sinclair, <a href="#Page_303">303</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Smith, Albert A., <a href="#Page_313">313</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Smith, Alexander, <a href="#Page_271">271</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Smith, Buckingham, <a href="#Page_38">38</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Smith, General, <a href="#Page_124">124</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Smith, Gerritt, <a href="#Page_232">232</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Smith, Rev. John Blair, <a href="#Page_335">335</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Southerne, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Spence, Adam K., <a href="#Page_277">277</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Spencer, Rev. T. A., <a href="#Page_9">9</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Stanton, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Stearns, George L., <a href="#Page_232">232</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Stephenson, General, <a href="#Page_123">123</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Steward, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_303">303</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Stewart, Ruth M., <a href="#Page_293">293</a>, <a href="#Page_302">302</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Story, W. A., <a href="#Page_314">314</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Stowe, Harriet Beecher, <a href="#Page_293">293</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Strachen, <a href="#Page_96">96</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Straker, <a href="#Page_302">302</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Strong, Gen., <a href="#Page_123">123</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Suarez, Illan, <a href="#Page_41">41</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Sumner, Charles, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_293">293</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">Talbert, Cole, <a href="#Page_291">291</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Talley, T. W., <a href="#Page_297">297</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Talmadge, DeWitt, <a href="#Page_154">154</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Taney, Judge, <a href="#Page_143">143</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Tanner, Bishop, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>, <a href="#Page_313">313</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Thacher, J. C., <a href="#Page_36">36</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Thebaud, A. J., <a href="#Page_8">8</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Thomas, General, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Thurston, <a href="#Page_36">36</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Tillman, <a href="#Page_243">243</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Toomer, Jean, <a href="#Page_308">308</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Tourgee, Judge Albion W., <a href="#Page_237">237</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Trotter, James Monroe, <a href="#Page_301">301</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Truth, Sojourner, <a href="#Page_174">174</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Tubman, Harriet, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>, <a href="#Page_271">271</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Turner, C. H., <a href="#Page_316">316</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Turner, Nat., <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Tyler, Col., <a href="#Page_186">186</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">Vaca de, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Valdivia, <a href="#Page_42">42</a></li> - -<li class="indx" id="Vassa">Vassa, Gustavus, <a href="#Page_279">279</a> (See <a href="#Equiana">Olaudah Equiana</a>)</li> - -<li class="indx">Varick, James, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Vela, Blasco Nunez, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Vernon, Capt. John, <a href="#Page_8">8</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Vesey, Denmark, <a href="#Page_156">156</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Victoria, Francisco Xavier de, <a href="#Page_322">322</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Victoria, Queen, <a href="#Page_279">279</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">Walker, David, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>, <a href="#Page_311">311</a></li> - -<li class="indx"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_349"></a>[349]</span>Wall, Capt. O. S. B., <a href="#Page_125">125</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Wallace, Judge, <a href="#Page_246">246</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Warburg, Eugene, <a href="#Page_289">289</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Ward, Samuel C., <a href="#Page_300">300</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>, <a href="#Page_314">314</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Ware, <a href="#Page_214">214</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Work, John W., <a href="#Page_282">282</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Warley, <a href="#Page_231">231</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Washington, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>, <a href="#Page_318">318</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Washington, Booker T., <a href="#Page_258">258</a>, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>, <a href="#Page_303">303</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Washington, Madison, <a href="#Page_159">159</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Wayman, Bishop, <a href="#Page_301">301</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Webster, Daniel, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Wiener, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Wesley, <a href="#Page_113">113</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Wheatley, Phyllis, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>, <a href="#Page_312">312</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Wheeler, Laura, <a href="#Page_313">313</a></li> - -<li class="indx">White, Clarence Cameron, <a href="#Page_291">291</a></li> - -<li class="indx">White, E. P., <a href="#Page_221">221</a></li> - -<li class="indx">White, George L., <a href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_278">278</a></li> - -<li class="indx">White, J. L., <a href="#Page_219">219</a></li> - -<li class="indx">White, Dr. William S., <a href="#Page_336">336</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Whitfield, James, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>, <a href="#Page_300">300</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Whitefield, George, <a href="#Page_298">298</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Whittier, John Greenleaf, <a href="#Page_293">293</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Whitman, A. 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